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Seto and Joey were halfway down the main stair case when they heard the door open, both looked up from Joey's feet, which Seto had been helping guide down the stairs. A man with long black hair, wearing a suit, had walked in carrying a box; Seto quickly stood in front of Joey, effectively hiding the smaller boy behind him, before Mokuba looked up from closing the door.
"Mokuba what are you doing home so early?" he asked from his place on the stairs knowing Joey would most likely fall if he tried to follow him. Mokuba looked up to see Seto,
"Work was a pain in the neck today and nothing was going on, so I came home early, and brought pizza so you wouldn't have to cook tonight," he said raising the box in his hands and heading off towards the kitchen; before turning around and staring at Seto.
"Well, aren't you coming?"
"Oh, I'll be there in a second," he said waving him off. Mokuba walked off with a shrug. When he was gone Seto quickly turned around to face Joey, who had been hanging onto his shirttail slightly.
"Who was that Seto?" he asked curiously looking towards the door the stranger had left by.
"That was my little brother, Mokuba, he lives here with me," Seto replied smiling a little as Joey's eyes widened in understanding.
"I want you to meet him since you're part of the family," he said starting to lead Joey down the stairway again but the little one didn't move; Seto looked down at him Joey had the same look in his eyes as the first time he had seen Seto, fear.
"What's wrong?" he asked concerned Joey shook his head in a 'no' fashion shuffling back a little as if he wanted to run away.
"Joey?"
"He's going to hate me I know he will," Joey muttered, scared,
"No he won't Mokuba could never hate you. Why would you think that?" Seto asked picking Joey up.
"Because I'm not like you or him," Joey replied looking over his shoulder at his black wings.
"Yes, that may be true but you are still family, no matter what you look like," Seto said walking down the stairs with Joey in his arms; he stepped in to the kitchen where he saw Mokuba getting himself a couple slices of the pizza he'd brought.
"Mokuba," he started out calmly.
"I have someone here for you to meet," Mokuba looked over his shoulder at his brother before turning around completely and seeing Joey his eye's widened and his mouth came open slightly; he completely forgot about dinner and walked up to the two of them. Joey was trying his best to hide behind Seto when Mokuba started to come closer.
"It's okay Joey he won't hurt you," Seto said stepping back behind him so he didn't have anywhere to go he still tried to shrink into Seto though looking up at Mokuba with scared brown eyes.
"Where did you find him Seto?" Mokuba asked, awed by the small, cute, blond trying to stand against his big brother.
"at the ruins of that burnt building on the news last night the station sent me down to investigate," he said trying to keep Joey from falling, he still couldn't stand on his own. Mokuba looked up at Seto,
"Wouldn't that mean you have to take him to the station?" he asked arching an eyebrow,
"Mokuba, he got sick on the way over, I couldn't just take him to the station they'd just put him to the side and treat him like an object," Seto replied. Joey had stopped trying to hide and was staring curiously at Mokuba
"Hello," Joey said reaching out with his free hand and tugging on Mokuba's jacket sleeve the owner of which looked down at him with a smile.
"I'm Joey," he continued
"Nice to meet you, Joey, I guess you're hungry?" he said hearing Joey's stomach growl loudly. Joey nodded hurriedly licking his lips he wanted to finally get a taste of real food instead of the liquid stuff fed into him through those tubes. Mokuba smiled,
"Well then let's get you something to eat," he said ruffling the little one's hair and turning around to get a couple plates of pizza for him and Seto. They all ended up sitting in the living room to eat. Mokuba sat down and turned the T.V. on, that was one of the few new things in the house that Joey hadn't been scared by; Seto and Joey sat down on the couch, Joey curled up next to Seto, he looked down at his pizza confused as to what to do with it, this food item hadn't been loaded into his memory. He finally just settled for trying to mimic what Seto was doing only he had a slight draw back, as soon as he bit into it he was greeted with pain as his pointed teeth sunk into it Joey immediately spat out the food with a small
"Owww," Seto looked down at him as the child opened his mouth and felt with his thumb.
"What's wrong?" he asked
"This stuff makes my teeth hurt." he said looking resentfully down at the offending 'stuff'
"here let me take a look," Seto said opening Joey's mouth he'd really never seen this child's teeth before and he was quite astounded by what he saw, all of Joey's teeth were slightly pointed and his canines were a little longer than the rest. He felt the tip of one with his thumb the point sunk into his thumb a little, easily, but in the meantime Joey uttered a small squeaking sound from the back of his throat. He let Joey go
"Have you ever eaten before?" he asked knowing Joey's teeth shouldn't be that tender the said winged child shook his head.
"Through tubes," he said pointing to a couple of spots where there were marks from feeding tubes.
"Oh," Seto said thinking how horrible that must have felt suddenly he found Joey clinging to him
"I'm going to starve!" he cried
"Papa shouldn't have taken me out of that machine!" he said almost bursting into tears.
"Joey! You won't starve you just need to get use to using your teeth," Seto said trying to calm the poor child quickly.
"we just need to get you some soft food like noodles or something to get your teeth use to being used," he added as Joey looked up at him with big watery eyes his spines were laying flat to his back again indicating he was worried.
"It's okay Joey just don't jump to conclusions next time," he said ruffling his hair lightly he got up and started to walk off towards the kitchen but Joey grabbed onto his sleeve making Mokuba snicker a little.
"I'll be right back Joey just wait here with Mokuba," Joey let go and Seto walked off to the kitchen Joey looked over at Mokuba and then at the floor blushing at the scene he had just made.
"You probably hate me don't you?" Joey mumbled dejectedly wrapping his wings around his body so that he looked like a large bat sitting upright.
"No I don't, you are a really nice kid, you just need to calm down a little; don't be so high strung." Mokuba said smiling at Joey as he heard a large sigh emit from the little one and his wings went back to their normal spot behind him.
"There that feels a lot better when you just relax doesn't it?" Mokuba asked happy he could help make him more comfortable in their home; Joey just nodded looking tired again.
"Are you feeling all right? Seto said you got sick on your way here" Mokuba said getting up from his chair and sitting next to Joey.
"I'm getting cold again," Joey replied,
"I slow down when I'm cold," he added smirking a little bit when he saw Mokuba's confused face, the little one leaned into Mokuba and tried to huddle in close for body heat he was feeling slightly drowsy but not too bad, he just wanted a little heat now.
"So I see you're comfortable with Mokuba," he heard Seto say Joey perked up a little when he saw Seto there with a small bowl in his hands. He walked over and sat down next to the two Joey recognized what Seto was holding and took it from him holding onto the steaming hot bowl of soup as though it was a cool glass of water on a hot summer day. Seto stared at the winged child
"That isn't hot to you?" he asked wondering if the boy knew what he was doing Joey nodded happily up at him.
"It's only warm not even hot but enough to make me feel better, thank you," Joey replied his large wings twitching with the anticipation of possibly eating this soup
"Do you need any help with eating?" Seto asked wondering. Joey experimentally flexed his fingers staring at them intently like he was warming up for a piano recital.
"No, I think I can handle it," he said as he reached down and took hold of the spoon in the soup and tried to steadily bring it to his mouth he succeeded and grinned. Both the Kaiba brothers noticed that Joey hadn't even stopped to blow on the scalding hot liquid before putting it in his mouth.
"this stuff make's me feel a lot better," Joey said giving them a big smile and yet another 'thank you' once he had almost finished the bowl he yawned wide and set the bowl down on the coffee table in front of the couch Joey curled up against Seto one wing acting a blanket. He said another 'thank you' a he dosed off, warm inside and out, Seto looked down at Joey when his breathing evened out, the little one had fallen asleep on him.
"Hey, Seto, look at this." Mokuba whispered so as not to wake Joey; Seto looked where Mokuba was pointing, it was Joey's ankle.
"What about it?" Seto asked not really noticing much,
"Look closer," he said gently touching Joey's ankle where he wanted his older brother to look. Seto stared at the pale ankle for a bit before he noticed something very light around his ankle.
"Mein sohn lebt außerdem" (1) Seto whispered reading the very light words that looked like they were burned into Joey's skin in a band around his ankle.
"What does it mean Seto?" Mokuba asked curious
"its German, it means 'my son lives again'(2) Mokuba," Seto replied brushing his fingers across the words only to have Joey shift and pull it back under his wing.
"What does that mean though?" Mokuba asked again wondering why such a strange phrase was branded on Joey's ankle.
"The nut that made him like this probably did it as a birth mark," Seto said with disgust.
"Joey told me earlier that he is a clone of sorts," Seto said shifting enough so that the little one's head was on his lap instead of crooked sideways.
"Wow! That's horrible no wonder he acts the way he does."
"That's not the worst part I still have to take him to the police station tomorrow," Seto said holding the little shifting ball of leather, scales, and hair that was Joey; worried that Joey would be scared into hiding by the next days events.
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(1 & 2) in the anime original Seto was seen reading a German book and I kinda got this from that; I'm sorry if anyone here can read German because I had to use a English to German internet dictionary to find this small phrase so I don't know if I did it right.
Gruzzee: okay now I'm going to tell you what's up with Seto like I said I would-
Cazi: because my aibou almost always tries to keep her word.
Gruzzee: Cazi shut up, okay, now this story is set a little ways into the future Mokuba is around 19 years old and runs Kaiba corp. in Seto's place and Kaiba just couldn't stay inside and relax so he became a police officer at the Domino city police department. There I think that covers it
Cazi: okay now readers who actually still read this fic R&R and come back for more
