Peggi-Recap time! So, Kaiba obviously isn't having much fun with the life of the money-less. Nick pushes his luck with me and you, the readers, discover that my dueling deck is very important to me because it was one of her mother's possessions that she left to her after she passed away. Kaiba finds out that I have a rare card that he never knew even existed, and he then finds a soul card in my deck.

Kaiba-Yes, yes, now start the fic so the readers will know where you got it!

Eevee-In total randomness, Yah himar in Egyptian means 'you donkey!'

Kaiba-What's that supposed to mean?!

Eevee-(blink) (blink) I just said it means 'you donkey!'!

Kaiba-Not quite what I meant . . .

Peggi-I have a few fangirls waiting in the wings for their appearances, and you will all be mentioned, but it won't be for a few more chapters. I am still taking fangirl requests, which will be needed throughout the story, so if you're interested, its still not to late!

Kaiba-Yes it is!

Marik-Come on I want to know how you got a hold of a soul card!

Peggi-Oh, right. PLEASE LEAVE REVIEWS, AS I LOVE THEM SO VERY MUCH!

CHAPTER THREE

"Well," she began, "during my introduction of myself to you, did anything about my name ring any bells?"

"No. Now can you please answer my question?" he tried very hard not to push her so he would actually get an answer, but he was becoming impatient.

"My last name, dear Kaiba-boy, is Crawford, and I am related to Pegasus James Crawford."

At this point, after being called Kaiba-boy, Seto wasn't sure if he should glare and become angry for the name, or gasp in shock from the realization that his co-worker, the girl standing right in front of him, was related to his worst enemy.

"He is my cousin from my father's side, and when I was born, he was in the room with my parents and I. He thought it would be cute to give me a name similar to his, as no one else in our family showed any interest in my birth. That is how my name came about. Persephone-Sayuri-Hikari was my mother's idea, Peggi for short, and James was taken from my cousin's name. Our family name is Crawford, and thus, you have me!" she explained so happily.

"So Pegasus simply gave you one of those things?!" Seto was now setting into the shock of it all.

"Well, shortly after the Duelist Kingdom tournament, he was in the hospital for quite some time. Eevee and I visited him all of the time, and during one of our visits, he was sleeping a lot, so we got bored. We looked though his things just for something to do, and we came across a bunch of duel monsters cards. I pulled out my deck, and we dueled. Halfway through the duel, Eevee, who had been using his deck, noticed a bunch of these things, and didn't know what they were. When he woke up we asked how to duel with them, and he just laughed. He explained that in ancient Egypt, the game of duel monsters was for high stakes."

Seto already knew where this was going, but he was still interested.

"If you lost a duel, your soul was actually taken from your body using magick, and then it was locked in a stone tablet forever! That's why he made these cards. They just represent the stone tablets. I thought they totally rocked so I asked for one, and he said we could each have one. I just keep it with me because it makes me feel stronger when I duel. Like if I win, I will have more than just the prize of a big ego."

"But you've never stolen a soul have you?" Seto was a bit frightened by this girl.

"Eevee and I have stolen the hearts of many men, Kaiba-boy, but never a soul. Although Pegsi assures me that it is possible to lock souls away in these things," Peggi just laughed, "kinda funny, isn't it! Sometimes I think my cousin just wants to see me make a fool of myself by trying such silly things!"

Seto just faked a chuckle, and then suddenly his face became serious, "Stop calling me Kaiba-boy, or I'll lock your soul away in that card!"

Although he hadn't meant to make some kind of a joke, he had, and Peggi found it very amusing. She grabbed back her card, laughing, and then pulled out the card she had been questing for in the first place. Holding up the card so he could see it, she gave a proud smile for her very rare card.

Seto almost melted at the card's beauty. The amazing artwork, the perfect detail; it was almost as wonderful as the Blue Eyes White Dragons!

"Would you mind if I held it for a few minutes?" he asked, almost drooling over the card.

"Yes, I would. No one is allowed to touch this card. No one is really allowed to touch my deck because it is so important to me. Sorry, but you can only look, you can't touch," she giggled a bit at the way that sentence sounded.

He grumbled a bit, but had no choice but to respect her strange feelings. He suddenly realized that he had put his deck in his pocket that morning because Mokuba kept trying to play with it and he didn't want his younger sibling to lose any of his cards.

"Would you like to see my dragon cards?" he asked her.

"Sure!" she suddenly felt eager to see the cards up close, as she had never actually seen a Blue Eyes White Dragon in person.

Seto pulled out his dueling deck and searched through his deck to find the cards he was looking for. A smirk that was the best smile he could muster crossed his face, and he held up one of his prized cards.

"So, those are the cards that you love so very much," Peggi began, "they're very amazing. One day, we'll have to duel and see which one of our dragons is more powerful."

"Agreed, but just because your monster has more attack and defense points, don't underestimate me!" Seto warned.

"So, are we getting along?" Peggi asked, smiling.

Seto looked around them, and then back at the brunette, "Not a word of this to anyone, okay?"

Peggi just laughed and nodded, "Well, I have to get home. My younger cousin is there, home alone, and I'm afraid he'll get into my candy jar. . .again."

"My little brother is at an after school program right now and he'll be out soon, so I need to leave as well. See you at work tomorrow, Miss Crawford."

Peggi nodded, "Okay, see ya later, Kaiba-boy!" she began walking off.

"I told you not to," Seto was cut off, caught off guard by Peggi's next actions.

The girl turned back around and jumped at him, giving him a big hug around the neck, and then took off, running. Seto was left speechless. Had he just been given one of those 'hug' things that he had never gotten from anyone but his little brother? He was knocked out of his thoughts by a voice.

"So, no deaths yet?"

He instantly knew the question had come from a nosey redheaded girl with big green eyes.

"Eevee, how long have you been standing behind me?" he turned around with a glare on his face.

"I've been watching you two through the window, mostly to make sure there weren't any street-side casualties, but I've been standing behind you since she started running off. Now then, are we all friends yet, or have you two still got your guards up about each other?"

"We are not friends!" he hissed at her.

"Oh, alright then. I guess I need glasses now because my eyes tricked me into seeing a cute little bonding moment between you and my cousin," Eevee stuck her tongue out at Seto.

"That word is disgusting. Never say it again. And no, there wasn't any bonding;" he absolutly spit out the word, "it was just a couple of duelists sharing their prized cards. Nothing more."

Eevee rolled her eyes, letting out a little giggle, "Call it what you want, you're not as tough as you'd like to be, and now that you don't have your money to back up your attitude, you're going to have to lighten up or you'll never make it in the real world."

The redhead walked off, following the direction Peggi had run off to, and turned around the building to where their car was parked. Peggi was already in the car, sitting in the passengers' side. Eevee's eyes lit up and she jumped into the drivers seat.

"I get to drive today?!" the girl was so excited.

"Yup. Now, this time, don't crash into any stop signs. They are meant to tell you to stop, not to cause you to stop."

It took Seto a while to start his car up, and when he did, he was very dismayed to find all of the red lights that could possibly show up on the dash board, did show up. He was used to seeing this in the car every time he would start it, but he had hoped that they would stop lighting up. He didn't know what they were for, really, but he did know that red lights weren't a good sign on a dashboard. Once he had pulled out of the parking lot, he realized he hadn't put on his safety belt, which was very ironic at the moment, because just as it crossed his mind, a car was pulling into the exit lane of the lot, and hit Seto's car, head on.

Neither car had been going over 20 miles per hour, but head on collisions always did twice as much damage than any other kind of collision, and both cars had been crunched up in the front. Seto, while stunned, had not seriously been injured. The other driver got out of her car and ran up to Seto's window. He rolled it down and she strung a long set of apologies together, and began writing down her insurance information and license plate number.

Out of habit, Seto almost told her that it wasn't necessary, but then remembered that he wasn't Mr. Rich anymore, and took the information. The collision had been her fault, and so he was more concerned with how long it would take to fix his car. He tried to start it up again, but no such luck. He had a damaged car that wouldn't run, and a little brother who needed to be picked up soon.

The woman called for a tow truck and offered to try and find him a ride, but it would take a while for someone to get there. Seto was considering taking the offer, but first he would have to somehow contact Mokuba to let him know that he would be later than expected. What wasn't expected was for someone to pull up to the scene, and offer to help out.

"Looks like you could use a ride," Marik pointed out to Seto.

"I'm fine. I don't need your help."

"Okay, then. Have it your way. Hope you're not going anywhere important, because it'll take a while for someone to come pick up your car."

Seto glared at Marik, not sure what his response should be, and decided to find out why he was being helped in the first place, "Why are you being so nice to me all of a sudden? In case you haven't watched the news lately, I don't have anything to give you in return."

"Eevee was right. Rich boy needs to let his guard down a little bit. The whole world is out to get you, isn't it?" Marik rolled his eyes, "Look, I just figured I'd be nice and offer you a ride home because Eevee seems to see something good inside of that cold black heart of yours, and I figured it would be nice to get to know you, but if you'd rather walk, then I'm fine with that too."

Seto was about to say something sarcastic and sharp to him, but decided to take the offer instead of waiting for the woman's friend's to show up. Without a word, he walked to the other side of the car and got inside.

"I need to pick my little brother, Mokuba, up from school. He goes to a place called Chesapeake, have you heard of it?" Seto asked.

"Yeah, I know where that is. It's the new middle school right next to the high school."

The drive to the middle school was almost completely silent. Seto didn't want to say anything mostly because he had nothing to say to someone he didn't really like and didn't really want to have anything to do with. Marik didn't say anything because he was blasting the song "So Cold, Remix" on his radio. Had it not been for the radio, Seto might've said more as he stepped out of the car to find out where his brother was waiting for him, but his head was hurting too much for that.

Marik waited for the brothers to arrive at the car, and turned down the radio as they got inside.

"Marik, how come you brought my brother to pick me up?" Mokuba asked, confused.

"Kaiba didn't tell you?" Marik raised an eyebrow at Seto.

"Nooooo. . ." Mokuba was suddenly curious.

"Some moronic woman crashed her car into mine. It wouldn't start, and Marik offered me a ride to come and pick you up," Seto seemed to want to end the explanation as quickly as possible.

"Marik, do you still have the Millennium Rod?" Mokuba asked him.

At first, Marik hesitated, but then replied, slowly and confused as to why the question had been asked, "No, I haven't had the Rod for a very long time. Why do you ask?"

"Well, because my brother let you give him a ride to get me, and I thought you were controlling his mind to, uh, do something bad again!"

Marik laughed, "Nope, I haven't been evil since I tried to kill the two of you that last time."

Seto laughed nervously, not sure whether Marik was really joking, or if he was still harboring a grudge against the two.

"Laugh, Kaiba, laugh!" Marik rolled his eyes, "I'm not out to get you, don't worry. I've got a lot of friends now and I've improved a lot. I wouldn't expect you to know that, since you have been stuck in your stuffy office for so long. My friends and I have been on television a bunch of times for our accomplishments in Duel Monsters and a lot more other reasons too. I haven't really needed to plot evil or cause chaos since I met the group. It wouldn't hurt you to make a few friends too, you know."

Seto still laughed, not really knowing what he should do at the moment, but he was starting to feel a bit safer with the ex-deranged teen.

It didn't take long for Marik to arrive outside of the apartment complex, and Seto turned to face the back seat to talk to his little brother.

"Mokuba, I will meet you inside in just a minute. Do you have your key?" Seto asked his younger brother.

"Are you guys gonna talk about grown-up stuff behind my back?" the younger boy curiously questioned his older sibling.

"Mokuba, just go," Seto was becoming impatient with his younger brother.

Unhappily, Mokuba listened to his brother's orders and climbed out of the car, school books in hand, and made his way up to the apartment that they were staying in.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Marik pulled his keys out of the ignition."

"Ever since I've lost KaibaCorp, people have been trying to be my 'friend', hoping that soon I will win back my company and they will have it easy from that point on. The chances of me winning back my company are, about, one in one-hundred-thousand-billion, and yet, they still have this gold-digger's idea that if they befriend me now, they will have no worries in their future. I began working at Subway just so that Mokuba and I could survive, and the only people who genuinly seem to care are you and your band of friends. My only question is, what's in it for you?"

Marik raised an eyebrow, almost giving an appauled look reguarding the question, "Because my 'band of friends' and I are actually good, decent people, and whether or not you have realized that by now, it does not change the way we feel. None of us have it easy, and none of us regret the hand of cards we were delt. We all get by, day by day, and the only thing that helps is the fact that we have each other. Had it not been for Yugi, I wouldn't have been able to escape my evil Yami, and had it not been for Eevee, Yugi would never have figured out how to make his hair look less electrocuted!!!"

Seto giggled a bit at that last statement, "I noticed his hair wasn't pointy anymore. Why did it do that in the first place?"

"Umm. . .nobody knows. We think it was his shampoo. Besides the point!!! In one way or another, each of us has played our role in helping one another out. The common thread that holds us all together is the one thing that we have in common. We are all seeking friendship and family, looking towards a better tomorrow, and we are all willing to put in a little bit of our own time to help another when they need it. We could help you out when you need it, if only you would give this friendship thing a try!"

"This all sounds like it came from a children's fairy tale book!" Seto exclaimed, "I, for one, never enjoyed stories as a child-"

"You never were a child, Kaiba! From the time you were a kid, you craved nothing but power and control!"

"That's where you're wrong, Marik. I wanted a childhood filled with toys and treats and, and a family! Instead, I lived in an orphanage trying to defend Mokuba and praying that one day a nice family would see the both of us and love us from the start! But that's not how it worked! Gonzoburo found us, and it was the first and only opportunity we would've had to get the both of us out of there, together. He used me for his own agenda, and treated me like shit! I put up with it and lost sleep to study and become what he wanted me to become, not what I wanted to become. All so Mokuba could have a childhood! I didn't want money, I didn't want power, I didn't even want to become a CEO! I was 12! What sane child even knows what that means?! All I ever wanted to do was give Mokuba everything he ever wanted, and I did! How could I give him that and then take all of it away?! I gave up my dream to take care of my little brother, and all I ever wanted to do was become a dancer!"

Seto's hands both flew up to his mouth at the same time to cover it, almost as though he was late at stopping his words from leaving it. Marik's eyes widened in shock, and then a small smile appeared on his face.

"So, you actually wanted to do something normal when you were little?" Marik asked, trying to make a serious face, failing miserably.

"I think I should go. Mokuba is alone and could be getting himself into trouble. Thanks for the ride."

Seto left the car as quickly as he possibly could, leaving Marik to think about what had just happened. He was truly amazed that Seto hadn't planned on becoming the man, er, teen he was today, or at least before he'd lost his company, but was even more shocked by the fact that he had dreamed of becoming something normal. In fact, he had the same dream that their friend Téa had. She, too, had wanted to become a type of dancer; a ballet dancer, to be exact.

Marik decided that since the two of them shared a common link it would now be easier to get him to open up. Marik, himself, did not care one way or the other about what happened to Seto, but other memebers of their tight clique did, including the two that held the group together, Peggi and Eevee.

Marik sighed, and put the key back into the ignition, pulled out of the parking lot, and headed back to his town house.

Seto stood inside of the doorway to his apartment, leaning against the closed door, sighing heavily. He had never told anyone, including Mokuba, his dream of becoming something other than the KaibaCorp CEO that he had become, muchless told them of his real dream! So, why had he spilled his heart out to someone he hardly knew, and at one point, hated? Maybe he could give their little friendship idea a try.

END OF CHAPTER THREE

Peggi-Hooray! My chapter rocked! So, I decided to use Pegsi's Japanese name for this, so that our last names would click, but I'm sure you all knew that his name was different and more Americanized in the Subbed version. After all, he is the only American character in the show! So, my computer decided to do something terrible to me, which is why this chapter didn't come out for so long. MSWord decided that it didn't want to work anymore, and all of my stories and fanfics were totally wiped from my computer. I had to re-write most of this, and it bothers me when I have to re-write something because the second time around is never as great as the first. Hopefully, I pulled through with this chapter!

Eevee-I think we're all just happy that you updated!

Peggi-True. So, next I'll work on that Saint Seiya fanfic, and for this story, I am still taking fangirls to add to the pile I've already collected, so if you're interested, just sign up in a review or email!!!

Kaiba-Hurry and review so that she updates! I want to be rich again!

Peggi-. . .you won't be rich, Kaiba-boy. You lost KaibaCorp and I'm not nice enough to give you back your crappy ego thingy.

Kaiba-DON'T CALL ME- wait. . .if I'm really, really, really super nice to you, will you think about it?

Peggi-(evil smirk). . .sure!

Kaiba-Leave her nice reviews everyone! .

Peggi-(so that Kaiba can't hear her) sucker!!!