Seto clutched at his younger brother's shaking hand as they looked up uncertainly at the front doors of the orphanage that was to be their new home.
"Oniisama, I'm scared," Mokuba confessed in a whisper.
"Don't be scared, Mokuba-kun," Seto comforted him, putting on a brave face. In truth, both boys had been nothing but scared for the past several months. First had come the terror when their uncle picked them up from school to tell them that Mama and Papa had been in a car accident. Then, the horror of seeing Mama and Papa, in pine boxes, being lowered into the earth. And most recently, the shock when Uncle told them that now that the money he'd inherited from Mama and Papa had run out, they would not be staying with him and Auntie anymore.
How could they just abandon us to this place?! Seto thought, betrayed. How would they survive here? What if the people who ran the orphanage were mean to them? What if the other orphans bullied them?
"No matter what," Seto vowed, "I'll protect you, ok?"
"Ok," Mokuba nodded, looking up at his brother with such trusting eyes. Seto knew he had to stay strong for him. Taking a deep breath, he led Mokuba through the doors.
"Hello, Seto-san, Mokuba-san," greeted a matronly-looking woman. "We've been expecting you. Did you have a safe ride here?"
"Yes, Uncle brought us here with no problems," Seto mumbled. And then he just drove away. Like leaving a puppy at a farm.
"That's good," the woman smiled. "My name is Yamada Chouko, ok? You can call me Yamada-san. Or Yamada-basan, if you'd like."
"Basan means aunt," Seto snapped. "You're not my aunt." I don't like my real aunt, anyway. She let Uncle dump us here like garbage.
"….Ok," Yamada replied, her smile fading. "Listen, boys. My husband and I run things here at Domino Orphanage. We'd like to make you feel as welcome here as we can, so if there's anything you need, just ask us one of us, alright?"
"I don't need anything from you," Seto glared.
"I'm going to let my husband show you to your rooms," Yamada sighed. "Hiro! Come here, please!"
A skinny, bespectacled man stepped out of the kitchen, which was to the left of the foyer where Yamada and the boys stood.
"Hello!" the man greeted. "My name is Yamada Hiro. I was just getting started on dinner. All the children meet at the mess hall at 6 o'clock every night, so be sure to watch the clock to make sure you're not late!"
"We'll remember," Mokuba said softly. They were his first words since they'd entered the building. Until now, he'd been hiding behind Seto shyly.
"I'll show you boys where you'll be living from now on, alright?" Hiro smiled. "Follow me."
He walked up a winding, rickety staircase, and the boys followed until he stopped at a small door on the left.
"We house the boys under 10 on the second floor," Hiro explained. "So, Mokuba-san, you will be here. Your roommate will be Haru-kun."
"What?" Mokuba gasped, looking like he might cry. "No, I want to room with Seto-oniisama!"
"Sorry, that's not our policy," Hiro insisted. "Boys above the age of ten live on the third floor. Seto-san is twelve, so he can't stay on this floor with you."
"No fair!" Mokuba whined. "Oniisama, tell him I won't live on this floor!"
"You can't separate us!" Seto agreed.
"Listen, boys," Hiro frowned, taking on a disciplinary tone. "You will still be able to see each other at meal times, and when you play outside. But, we have these rules about housing for a reason, and throwing a tantrum isn't going to change them."
"Waaaah, Oniisama!" Mokuba began to cry. "I don't want you to leave me!"
"I won't go to the third floor, Hiro," Seto said stubbornly. "You can't make me."
"That is Hiro-san to you," the man said with an offended look. "Or, actually, most of the children call me Yamada-ojisan…..but, that's not the point! The point is, Yamada-basan and I are in charge here, and as long as you live under this roof, you are going to have to listen to us."
"Or what?" Seto growled, eyes narrowed. "You'll throw us out? Like my real ojisan did?"
Hiro seemed taken aback by this. "Your uncle made the decision that Domino Orphanage was the place where you and your brother would receive the best care," he explained. "It is not my place to question his decision. But, you are here now, Seto-san, and you need to get used to it. If you continue to act defiant, I will have to give you a consequence."
"What kind of consequence?" Seto asked, suddenly nervous. Was Hiro going to spank him, the way Uncle had?
"I may restrict you from going outside during playtime," Hiro explained. "That would give you less time to spend with your brother. That's not what you want, is it?"
"…No," Seto confessed, defeated. He turned to Mokuba, who was wiping tears on his shirt sleeve.
"Listen, Mokuba-kun," he said. "I have to go with Hiro-san now, but I'll be right upstairs if you need me, ok?"
"No, Seto-oniisama, don't go," Mokuba sniffled.
"I don't want to go," Seto said sadly. He glared pointedly at Hiro. "He's making me go."
"You will comply with the rules of the house, Seto-san," Hiro glared.
"I'll see you at dinner," Seto told his brother comfortingly, ignoring the frustrated housemaster. With great reluctance, he hugged Mokuba a temporary goodbye and followed Hiro up another flight of stairs.
"Your room is right here at the end of the hall," Hiro showed him. "Your roommate will be Jounouchi-kun. He's the same age as you. Why don't you go introduce yourself to him?"
"…..If it will make you leave me alone, Hiro," Seto grumbled, and entered his new bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him.
Inside the room, he found two, small beds with identical white sheets. Sitting on the bed to the left was a blonde boy in a blue shirt.
"Hi!" the boy greeted with a friendly smile. "I'm Jounouchi Katsuya! What's your name?"
"I'm Seto," Seto introduced. "Seto Ryuta."
"It's nice to meet you, Ryuta-san!" Jounouchi replied.
"You can call me Seto, if you want," Seto shrugged, fwumping down onto the bed on the right. "Since I'm not the only 'Ryuta-san' who lives here."
"Oh, you have a sibling?" Jounouchi guessed. "Is it a sister, or a brother?"
"…..Brother," Seto replied. Ugh. Of course he got saddled with a chatty roommate, when he just wanted to be left alone.
"That's cool," Jounouchi grinned. "I have a sister, myself. Her name is Shizuka-chan. She and I just moved in here a few days ago."
"Did your parents just die?" Seto asked bluntly. His own loss had been months ago. He would have wound up in this place far sooner if Uncle hadn't taken him in. Having to move to the orphanage mere days after the funeral would have been awful. So, to an extent, he supposed he was lucky that Uncle had wanted to drain all their money first.
"They're…not dead," Jounouchi muttered, his smile fading. He looked away from Seto and started fiddling with a toy he kept at the foot of his bed.
"You're not an orphan?" Seto blinked, confused. "What are you doing at an orphanage, then?"
"My daddy, he…..he hurt Shizuka-chan and I," Jounouchi confessed. "So, some lady from Child Protective…whatever it's called decided it was better for us to live here."
"….Oh," Seto said after a moment. Mama and Papa had always been so good to him and Mokuba. He couldn't imagine a parent hurting their own child. And yet…
"My uncle was mean to my brother and I, too," Seto admitted. "He could have raised us, but he made us come here."
"So we both got families that didn't keep us," Jounouchi said, looking up from his toy into Seto's eyes.
"I still have family," Seto considered. "I have Mokuba-kun…..that's my brother…..and I'm not letting him go."
"I won't let go of Shizuka-chan, either," Jounouchi said seriously. "She….she really needs me."
"Mokuba-kun needs me, too," Seto nodded.
"Yeah, but, Shizuka-chan, she misses our mommy," Jounouchi sighed. "She doesn't understand why Mama let the CPS lady take us."
"Did your mommy want you to go?" Seto asked. "Like my aunt and uncle wanted me gone?"
"No," Jounouchi clarified. "She wanted to keep us, but she wouldn't leave Papa, so the mean judge man said we couldn't stay with her."
The mean judge man. So, Jounouchi had had to go to court. Seto remembered court. All the lawyers, representing all his different family members as they squabbled over the contents of Mama and Papa's will. The judge had said Uncle could only have Papa's money if he took care of Seto and Mokuba. That was the only reason Uncle had agreed to take them in. Bastard. Grownups only wanted to help you if there was something in it for them.
"Shizuka-chan is on the fourth floor," Jounouchi continued. "That's where the under-10 girls live."
"Mokuba-kun is with the under-10 boys downstairs," Seto scowled. "I want to see him, but stupid Hiro won't let me."
"Let's sneak down there tonight," Jounouchi suggested with a mischievous look. "I'll get Shizuka-chan, too, and the four of us can make a pillow fort and have a sleepover. The Yamadas won't catch us if we're quiet."
"You'd help me do that?" Seto gasped.
"Yeah!" Jounouchi said certainly. "I want to help you out, because we're friends, Seto-san!"
"…..We are?" Seto asked. He'd never had many friends at school. He always fought with the boys in his class who picked on Mokuba at recess.
"Can we be?" Jounouchi smiled, offering Seto a handshake.
"…Ok," Seto decided, shaking the boisterous blonde's hand. "Let's be friends, Katsuya-san."