SUMMARY
Mokuba disappears, and Kaiba's world starts to fall apart. He falls into a state of depression and his company begins to fail. Eventually, he loses everything except a tiny house his biological father built in the country. Suddenly he becomes an outcast to the world. Can an already hidden soul help him find his own? Or, will he push her away like everyone else?

CHAPTER 1

Six months…Six months I have been looking, without even the smallest clue of where he went. My head is spinning with questions. Is he dead or alive? Is he hurt? Will I ever find him? If I do will he be the same?

My secretary came in with the financial statements. She being a rational woman said, "Mr. Kaiba, it is in my professional opinion that you shut down Kaiba Corp. If you don't, you will lose everything. Hasn't losing your mansion been enough? Don't lose the only shelter you have left." I sighed in defeat. There was no use. I signed the papers to finalize it and handed it back to her. She looked on sadly and replied, "It has been a pleasure working for you Mr. Kaiba. I hope you find your brother and your happiness."

I waved her off and took my official last limo ride to my biological father's home. It was a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom home with lots of land, meant for farming and cattle raising. A few animals currently lived there, I used to have a farmhand taking care of the place. I now silently wondered if this would be my new future. I ran my fingers through my hair and thought to myself, 'Well at least it will be peaceful without all the reporters following me."

Tea Gardener picked up a discarded newspaper off of a table, while spending time with her friends at the burger joint. The front page read, "Kaiba Corp Declares Bankruptcy!" As if reading her thoughts, Yugi said, "Isn't it sad. He fought every day to get to the top in life and seemed to lose everything that meant anything to him overnight."

Tea nodded but was startled when someone ripped the newspaper from her hand. Joey scoffed, "good for old Money Bags, maybe if he would have cared more, Mokuba wouldn't have disappeared."

"JOEY!" Tea scolded, "You know as well as I do, Kaiba would give up his own life if it meant to protect Mokuba. He has proven that on several occasions. DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT KAIBA DIDN'T LOVE THAT CHILD!" The group stared at her with wide eyes and she continued in a much softer tone, "Chances are, the reason he lost everything was he was putting all of his resources he had into finding Mokuba. What would you do, if the same thing were to happen to Serenity?"

Joey became quiet and then nodded. With a look of defeat he replied, "I would likely do the same."

Tristan then said, "It is just hard to look at him in a different light after all the things he has done. That is all Joey meant. He didn't mean that he wanted it to happen to him."

Tea answered, "I realize that, but Joey should really think about what he says. No one deserves to go through what Kaiba is going through now."

…

A few days later, Tea decided to drive down to Kaiba's new home to check up on him. Despite her past attempts, the two were never even close to being friends. However, she still felt like it was her duty to lookout for him. Especially at a time like this…

She pulled into the driveway and knocked on the door. When no one answered, she was about to head back home until she heard a loud, MOOOOOO coming from the barn. The distressed cow sound peaked her curiosity and made her walk to the barn.

She saw Kaiba sitting on a stool by a cow fuming. "Is there a problem?" she asked curiously.

He turned around and saw Tea set her purse down and walk up to the cow. She started to pet the cow gently. "What are you doing here?" He asked irritably.

"I initially came here to see how you were doing, but now I can see that you're taking your frustrations out on this poor cow." She said as she knelt next to him, "You need to warm your hands before you milk a cow. The more comfortable the cow is, the more milk she will produce." She started to rub her hands together and show him the proper technique.

Kaiba stood up and rubbed fodder off his pants,"How do you know how to do this?" he asked.

"When I was a child, my mom and dad used to have a summer home. It had a barn with different animals in it. I liked to play with the animals, so I learned how to care for them. I could help you if you would like." She looked up and saw he wasn't looking at her. He was staring out the barn window and seemed to be contemplating what she had just said.

He certainly needed the help, but he didn't want her to think he was ignorant. Lord knows the whole world deemed him 'a waste of space,' since he lost the company. But, if he didn't accept, he was uncertain if he would be able to learn how to run this farm on his own. He asked, "You do realize I can't compensate you for your trouble?"

She smiled and answered, "You do realize I didn't ask to be compensated? I simply want to help." She wiped her hands off on a towel and handed it to Kaiba to do the same. She then handed Kaiba the pail of milk and said, "Come on, I am going to show you how to pasteurize this before you accidentally make yourself sick."

Kaiba frowned, but followed her out the barn to the house. As they walked towards the house, Tea smelled something funny. She stopped and sniffed the air… "Kaiba, are you cooking something?" she inquired.

His eyes grew wide and he dropped the milk pail spilling its contents. He then ran as fast as he could to the house. She quickly followed after him and watched him open the oven door. Black smoke rose up engulfing the room. Kaiba used the fire extinguisher to put out the fire that had once been dinner. Tea started to open the windows to let the smoke escape the home.

"What did you do?" she asked, as she used a notebook to fan the fire alarm that was screeching like a banshee.

"I tried to make a TV dinner. I must have left it in the oven for too long or something," he answered irritably. Suddenly she stopped fanning the alarm and started to giggle. He looked over to her incredulously and asked, "What?"

She then dug the box to the dinner out of the garbage and turned it over to read it. She then explained, "TV dinners haven't been cooked in the oven since the 1950s. The instructions said to heat it in the microwave-oven which is not the same thing as a stove top convection oven."

He pulled the now thoroughly melted TV dinner out of the oven and frowned when he saw the mess it had made. He ran his hand through his hair and let out huff. He was certain she thought he was an imbecile now.

Although he didn't outwardly show it, Tea sensed his embarrassment and disappointment. She bit her lip, suddenly feeling guilty about laughing. "I will be right back," she said as she walked out the front door, "Don't try to cook anything else while I am gone."

He crossed his arms and grunted in response. She smiled and drove off.

Uncertain of what to do now, he started to scrape the melted plastic off of the bottom of the oven. He started to think back to his 15th birthday, he had come home from work and found Mokuba crying. Worried, he asked, 'Mokuba, what's wrong?' Mokuba lifted a cake pan with a charcoal black cake inside the pan. Kaiba realized Mokuba tried to make him a cake for his birthday. He smiled down at the small boy and ruffled his hair, 'it's okay Mokuba. Why don't we go down to the bakery and you can pick a cake out for me instead.' Mokuba smiled weakly and nodded. They made a day out of his mistake.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when Tea yelled, "I am back." He saw her walking in with 2 boxes of Chinese takeout. "I hope you like Beef with Broccoli," she said as she placed the food on the table, "We can work on teaching you the basics of cooking tomorrow." She looked up at him and saw that he wasn't moving, he just watched her silently looking mildly confused. "I am not going to bite you, you know? Come eat," she said as she sat at the table. She flipped open one of the boxes and grabbed a pair of chopsticks to find he was still staring at her. She took a bite of food and in a most unladylike manner asked, "What?"

He asked, "Why are you doing this?"

She raised an eyebrow at him and asked, "Doing what, eating?"

He shook his head, "No, why are you helping me?"

She shrugged her shoulders and replied, "We may not always have been on the best terms Kaiba, but I always considered you a friend. Even if you never see me as a friend, I do this because this is what friends do."

He was silent, but he did go over to the table and join her. He didn't say much, but he did listen to Gardener as she talked about school.

After dinner, she agreed to come over, after school tomorrow to help him learn how to cook. As her car pulled out the driveway, he noticed how quiet and empty feeling the house became. He shut the door and wondered where Mokuba was now. Was he safe? Was he hungry? Was he even alive? The feelings of dread and worry resurfaced, leading to another restless night.