Chapter 2

He felt the air on the back of his neck move as the ball flew across the room for the third time in as many minutes. Knowing they were deliberately trying to wind him up, he kept his eyes focused on the screen in front of him. He wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of acknowledging them. They didn't have to be here; he did. A minute passed, marked by another whirring of air behind him, followed by a quite slap as the ball landed in the recipient's hands.

This wasn't the first time in the last couple of weeks they'd played this game with him. It was as if the pair could only amuse themselves by seeing how long it took for them to wind him up. If it was possible for him to travel back in time and tell his recently passed self the solution to his problems was not to bring the two people he felt bad about neglecting together, then he would have. Since it wasn't possible to do that he either had to learn not to rise to their games or learn to feel less jealous at the notion of the two of them spending increasingly more time together.

In the following five or six minutes the ball travelled through the air several more times. On what must have been the tenth flight he somewhat automatically lifted his hand up to catch the ball. He placed it down on his desk between the keyboard and the screen, uncertain as to whether or not he'd rather the two of them continued to stay. The jangling noise to his right, followed by the sharper whirring of a disk flying through the air was almost enough to make him sigh with impatience. When it crashed into the wall a couple of minutes later he realised he had had just about all he could take of their games.

'No one's forcing either one of you to be here,' his eyes flickered between the two of them, 'I told you I had work to get on with and I wasn't kidding, so no amount of you two hanging around here pissing me off is going to change that.'

Both of them did their best to suppress smirks, which made him want to roll his eyes, groan and tell the two of them they couldn't associate with each other anymore all at the same time. He knew it was stupid and he hated himself for feeling this way, but he was jealous. To make matters worse he wasn't even sure what it was he was jealous of.

The two of them made their way towards the door; just as they reached it he grabbed the ball from the desk and tossed it towards the older of his two would be tormentors.

'Thanks,' the guy caught it effortlessly, before staring down at it for a few moments.

'Whatever, just leave already, would you?'

'Does that mean my dinner invites been knocked back?'

'That depends on whether or not I can catch up on all this work you two were trying so hard to distract me from.'

'We'll see you at eight then,' and with that the pair of them left, finally leaving him alone.


Mokuba knew he shouldn't feel proud about the way they'd just been winding his brother up, but he couldn't help it. There was something too enjoyable about it and from the way Tristan was still smirking to himself, Mokuba was pretty certain he wasn't the only one who thought so.

'It's nice seeing you having fun again,' the words were out of Mokuba's mouth before he could stop them, 'I mean...'

'It's okay,' Tristan shrugged as they entered the car park, 'I feel the same. It's nice not to have the weight of unknown evils pressing me down all the time. It makes it easier to deal with other things.'

'Like the counselling?'

'Can't we go one day without bringing up the C word,' he rolled his eyes. 'It makes it a little hard to remain in a good mood when you're reminding me of my problems every five minutes.'

'I'm sorry it's just...'

'Seto hooked us up so you could keep an eye on me and I could fill in for his brotherly duties,' Tristan detached the two helmets from his Honda CBRF 600 and passed one to Mokuba. 'But, honestly Mokuba, I'm a doing a lot better than I was. Hell even the shrink thinks I could start winding sessions up pretty soon, so I wish you Kaiba boys would stop with the over parenting. Because, trust me, I get enough of it at home.'

'Sorry.'

'Look, its fine. So where do you want to go?'

'Burger World?' Mokuba fastened tightened the helmet strap and waited till Tristan was ready for him to get on the bike.

'I'm guessing that means you're hungry,' Tristan pulled the bike out of the space and waited for Mokuba to get on.

'Yeah, just a bit.'

'Burger World it is then. You ready?'

'Yeah.'

'Then let's go.'


'I thought you didn't call meetings of the Wen without all the Wen present,' Ni's black armour glinted as he entered the chamber. 'But from my count this would be... what... the third of the fourth now?'

'You were invited every single time and failed to show,' Du glared at him, 'that's not a failing on our part.'

'I'm sure you'd love for me to believe that uncle,' Ni folded his arms, 'just like I'm sure you want me to believe you have as much intention on helping them solve our mutual little... problem as much as I do.'

'What are you trying to say?'

'Mov,' his tone was as simple and concise as the word.

'My daughter acts by a will of her own,' Du met Ni's gaze, 'her decisions have nothing to do with me, just like your wife's have nothing to do with you.'

'Yes, but I at least have the decency to punish my wife for her transgression,' he strolled towards his chair and took a seat, 'last I checked Mov received no discipline from you.'

'If all you're going to do is insult me then you can leave right now,' Du rose to his feet and pointed towards the door.

'And let you continue yet another meeting of the Wen without me,' Ni wagged his finger, 'I don't think so uncle. If I do that then we may never solve this little problem of ours. After all, we're running out of time, aren't we?'

Du made a noise of disapproval before sitting himself back down again. For a few moments there was silence.

'So,' Ni's voice was calm, 'what exactly have my elders been plotting in my absence?'

'We have a viable plan,' Sta folded his arms, 'but we only have one shot at pulling it off.'

'And if you fail?'

'Then we fail.'

'If that's your level of determination I don't know why I bothered coming,' Ni rose from his seat again.

'You came because you know you don't have a viable plan of your own,' Sta's voice held Ni in place, 'and you want to sit and watch ours play out.'


They'd only been at the beach for a few minutes when Duke suddenly found himself in a dimly lit little bedchamber. He'd been here enough times before not to need to examine his surroundings because he could have told you the location and position of every single sheep on the deep blue curtains which hung either side of the window seat.

So instead of studying his surroundings he allowed himself to be pulled towards the crib in the centre a couple of feet away from the end of the room's full size bed. He leant over the edge and grinned down at the infant inside, before carefully lifting him out.

'We've really got to stop meeting like this; you're Daddy's starting to believe you like me more than him.'

The baby chirped happily and Duke couldn't help but laugh.

'I guess you're right, if I spent the first few hours of my life with someone I'd be pretty fond of them too.' He gentle jiggled the baby from side to side. 'So little Crovell, why did you bring me here?'

'You know he can't answer you right?'

The sound of his voice made him jump, before filling Duke's entire being with a strange feeling of guilt. With an embarrassed look pulling its way across his face he lifted his eyes to meet with his friend's.

'Joey, I was just…'

'Leaving I hope,' Joey's tone was as tight as his expression.

'Hey look, I know I've been dropping in like this a lot lately, but it's not like I can help it,' he squirmed. 'If you hate it so much, speak to your son about it.'

'That's right Duke, he is my son. Mine, not yours. So stop pretending to be his father and hand him over.'