And now I'm told that this is life

That pain is just a simple compromise

So we can get what we want out of it

Would someone care to classify?

Our broken hearts and twisted minds

So I can find someone to rely on

And run to them, to them

Full speed ahead

Oh, you are not useless

We are just

Paramore – Misguided Ghosts

Reiko woke up in bed beside a bouncing little boy. Kazuhiro had been tucked in by his uncle the night before and Reiko had felt terrible that she had broken her routine of brushing his teeth, putting on his pj's and reading him his favorite story (The Lorax). She also didn't have a bed to sleep in anymore.

Her eyes felt puffy and sore as Kazuhiro poked at her face, trying to wake her up. She opened her eyes when she felt him lick her cheek.

She shot him a very un-motherly look, to which he replied by barking and yapping. "I'm a puppy mommy!"

He was looking at her with her own brown eyes and her own crooked smile and she couldn't resist him. He was everything to her. "Well, good morning there puppy, but I think that puppies belong outside. This is my son's bed."

"Moooom."

"Yes?"

"Why are you sleeping in here anyways?"

She grimaced. "Because I missed your bed time, silly."

"What about daddy?"

Reiko grabbed her son and pulled up his shirt to tickle his belly. "Why are you asking so many questions today? Hm?"

The almost five year-old giggled and squirmed. "I don't know, just am."

"Come on, let's get you dressed. Did Mokuba help you with your bath last night?"

"Uh-huh, but he's really bad at it. He got his shirt all wet and there was soap on his hair, it was funny."

She picked out an outfit for him and helped him brush his teeth. He insisted on buttoning his own shirt and pulling on his own socks. Reiko sat next to him, patiently waiting for him to finish and observing him with longing eyes. She was going to miss these mornings. It was all she had known since he was born. For the past five years, she'd been a hands-on mother. He had a determined expression on his little face. He looked just like Seto, right down to the haircut and the lanky build.

He skipped down the hall behind her as she tentatively opened the door to her bedroom. At this time, Seto was usually at work and the room was free for her to use. Today, it was occupied by two maids who were folding her clothes into a variety of boxes. She stopped in the doorway and turned to her son. "Hey Kaz, would you mind going downstairs and getting your crayons out? I think we should do some drawing today."

The little boy nodded and scurried off before Reiko allowed herself to enter her bedroom. The maids looked up, but otherwise didn't say anything as she picked up some clean underwear and went into the bathroom to take a quick shower. She had managed to find some jeans and a t-shirt still in her closet and tugged the clothes on. She quickly applied some makeup and hurried downstairs to find her son.

She walked down the steps two at a time, she passed Seto's study on her way to the play room. That was when she heard what she had feared.

"Oh Seto, he's absolutely adorable." The woman paused to laugh at something. "So much cuter in person than in the pictures I've seen. And he looks so much like you."

Reiko threw the door to the study the rest of the way open, making Kazuhiro and the other woman jump. Seto looked mildly annoyed, giving her a look that said he expected more of her. She was too angry to care. She was still holding onto Kazuhiro's hand.

"Oh mommy, come meet this nice lady. Daddy said that she is his friend." Kazuhiro skipped over to his mother and hugged her leg. Reiko picked him up and hugged him tightly; he rested his head on her shoulder as she walked toward Seto and what's-her-name.

The woman was immaculately dressed in designer clothes from head to toe. She had amazingly clear grey-blue eyes and unnaturally light brown hair. Reiko felt inferior with her fitted jeans, slightly baggy v-neck t-shirt, brown eyes and dark brown hair. She didn't even love Kaiba and she was burning up with envy.

"You must be Reiko; it's very nice to meet you." The still nameless woman reached out her hand in order to greet her properly. Reiko stared at her hand and turned to Seto.

"It looks like someone forgot the order of operations."

He narrowed his ocean blue eyes at her and she deepened her frown. "Reiko, don't be impolite."

Kazuhiro, who had been quietly playing with the droplets of water that were dripping from his mother's hair, turned around in her arms and blinked at his father. Seto's eyes softened when he noticed his son looking at him expectantly; he was clearly wondering what his mother was doing wrong.

"Mama, what's wrong?"

He was as perceptive as ever. Reiko kissed his cheek and ruffled his hair, "Nothing baby, everything's wonderful." He didn't look convinced, so Reiko changed the topic. "Now I thought I sent you down here to get some crayons. Why are you bothering your daddy in his office?"

"Uncle Mokuba and I were coloring in here last night," he admitted sheepishly. Reiko smiled at him genuinely and the little boy smiled and cuddled against her. "I don't wanna leave right now."

"Kazuhiro, your mother and I have things to talk about."

"But daaaddy –" the little boy stopped himself when he realized that he was whining – and in front of a guest, too.

Reiko kissed his forehead. "Why don't you run off and find Mokuba? You two should have some breakfast. By the time you're done eating, your father and I should be done."

He looked reluctant as his mother set him down, but he scampered off nonetheless. She turned back to Seto and motioned to the set of four high-back chairs that were in a half circle around a coffee table facing an enormous window that looked into the gardens. Reiko slumped into one of the chairs closer to the window and brushed the blue velvet with her fingers nervously.

"I'm sorry for being impolite, I just didn't expect to be evicted from my home so quickly." She looked up to make eye contact with Seto and then the nameless woman. The pair had chosen to leave one seat open between themselves and Reiko. Seto sat directly across from her and the woman sat to his right. For the first time in years, he looked like a celebrity, like someone who didn't belong to her; especially with his girlfriend and lover by his side.

The emptiness of the chair beside her haunted her and she could almost see the outline of someone she longed for filling it in; she felt tears in her eyes.

"Reiko, this is Katsumi. I asked her to come here today, but I didn't intend for Kazuhiro to see her just yet." He was in full-on business mode as he spoke. Reiko wondered if that would get to Katsumi.

"I'd like to say it's nice to meet you, Katsumi, but I think you understand."

The beautiful woman nodded, her perfectly symmetrical face showing empathy. Reiko wanted to claw her eyes out.

"Well, you said that you wanted to meet her. So, here she is." Seto paused, as if to check his own mental itinerary. "She met Kazuhiro, and if you'd have shown up five seconds earlier, she would have met him in your presence, as you requested."

Katsumi took that as a cue to speak. "Reiko, I have no intention of replacing you as Kazuhiro's mother. I could never fill your shoes." Reiko noted that her tone had changed and now she sounded rehearsed – like a business woman. No wonder she and Kaiba got along. "You've obviously done a wonderful job of raising him. It seems like he really loves you."

Reiko nodded her head, playing with her diamond ring. It was suddenly cold on her finger. Or maybe it was her hands that were cold.

"I've done a lot to make sure that this family did not suffer from public humiliation. I have denied my past, covered up scandal after scandal of a cheating husband, demolished rumors of our split before they could hit the big media. This might have been a loveless marriage, but I do love my family. I would do anything for them. Seto, Mokuba, my parents, and above all Kazuhiro." She paused to gather her thoughts and give them each meaningful looks. "I expect that you both are planning on having children. I only hope that you would keep up the tradition of making sure to save this family from ridicule."

The pair nodded, and Seto looked about ready to speak, but Reiko wasn't done quite yet.

"Now, just because I am stepping down from my position at KC and leaving this home, I expect that you both understand that I will be no less of a presence in my son's life. He's been everything to me for the past five years."

Katsumi nodded. There was a flash of annoyance in her eyes, but she had no choice but to agree. Seto and Reiko had already signed a contract.

Seto looked particularly touched by Reiko's statement; he reached across the coffee table and held her hand. She stared down at his fingers as they engulfed her own. "Rei, I have to apologize for the crappy job I did of being your husband."

She looked up at him and saw the man that she had dated, the man who had helped her put herself back together. "I did love you. I was just never in love with you. I never allowed myself to feel that much with you."

Reiko was staring straight into his eyes and she felt a little uncomfortable at his heartfelt confession. There was genuine emotion in his normally flat blue eyes. Reiko could only imagine that Katsumi was seething.

She used the back of her hand to wipe away the tears that she hadn't realized had started to slide down her face. She hated crying. She looked horrible when she cried and she was certain Ms. Perfect was only making her look more hideous in comparison. Seto sighed and gave her hand one last squeeze before letting go.

"I have to thank you, Seto, for giving me this opportunity. For helping put me back together … for giving me the best thing to ever happen to me." Reiko smiled up at him and stood. "It was nice to meet you, Katsumi; I hope that you do your best to maintain the Kaiba name."

Reiko walked slowly until she closed the study door.

Reiko sat down in the formal dining room. Her parents had just arrived and they were seated in front of her. They were both listening to Kazuhiro tell an elaborate story about what he and his uncle had done the day before when his mom had not been able to pick him up like they had planned. Mokuba had invited his girlfriend Suzume over and she greeted Reiko with a warm hug and kiss. Mokuba was very close to proposing to her and, despite her present situation and her own frustrations, she couldn't help but share in the excitement that seemed to radiate from the young couple.

The jovial mood quickly changed when Seto appeared with Katsumi in tow. Reiko's parents shot her inquisitive glances but she ignored them in hopes of saving face. The reprieve was not long lived, however, because after the first course was served, her mother looked at her pointedly and asked why exactly they'd all been invited to dinner at the manor.

The formal dining room suddenly felt much too small and much too hot. Reiko smiled and looked over to her left, purposely looking over Kazuhiro's head, where Seto sat with Katsumi to his left. Seto took a long sip of wine and cleared his throat. "Reiko and I have invited you here so that you wouldn't have to hear about this from the tabloids."

He paused and Reiko felt her appetite disappear. Her stomach churned as she saw him forming the sentence that would officially change her life forever.

"What are you talking about, son?"

Reiko's eyes snapped from her father's to Seto's and she felt Mokuba reach over and squeeze her hand under the table.

"We're getting a divorce."

Every last eye at the table turned to Reiko as she felt herself grow really red and then really pale much too quickly. She was so woozy that she hardly felt her son tugging on her hair to ask her what a "dee-vorz" was. Seto cleared his throat and Reiko suddenly regained her senses, although she continued to studiously ignore her parent's looks.

"Is this true, Seto?" It was Reiko's mother who finally broke the awkward silence that had fallen over the room's inhabitants. Reiko put her arm around Kazuhiro to quiet her four year-old son.

"Yes. It is." He was looking over at Reiko but his hand was firmly in Katsumi's grasp. "Reiko's things have been packed and we've already discussed the details. She's moving out tonight."

Chopsticks clattered to the table at the finality of his statement. A wide grin spread across Katsumi's face as Seto's gaze turned to her. Mokuba whispered something into Suzume's ear and she slapped a hand over her mouth. Reiko's parents stood up. Reiko's father had his hands bunched into fists and her mother was holding him back with a shaking hand. But Reiko could not hear a thing other than her son's sobs as he repeated a heartbreaking phrase like a mantra: "Mommy's leaving?"

She pushed her bangs out of her bleary brown eyes, her fingers trembling as she rubbed them back and forth over the scar on her forehead. Her breathing had finally evened out, but the migraine she'd developed over the course of the last few hours was still pounding her skull.

Seto had a limo take her and a bag of essentials to a five star hotel for the night and, since all expenses were included, she had helped herself to the minibar. She hadn't mixed vodka and whiskey in one night since college, way before she had met Seto and not too long after her white-haired lover had left her. Left her alone in that too small apartment.

The same apartment that she'd be going back to as soon as the sun rose.

Hey everyone! Sorry about the crappy formatting, but this is being published from my iPad because my laptop charger is MIA -_- Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I honestly, ardently ADORE YOU :)

Much Love to CraftyLion, I think you're up?

xx

Red