Of course, Joey wasn't happy to see Seto, when he came to pick up Serenity. In fact, the blonde looked murderous.
'What are you doing here, Rich-boy?' he growled.
'Joey, don't talk like that with my Seto!' Serenity said appearing behind him.
She went to Seto and gave him a small hug and a quick kiss on the lips. Seto felt the urge to deepen it, but quickly stopped himself. It wasn't a very good idea, since Joey was standing close-by.
'Are you ready to go?' he asked Serenity.
She nodded and went upstairs to get her stuff. Seto was left alone with Joey. An awkward silence fell between them.
'Break up with my sister!' Joey spoke suddenly.
'What?' Seto asked.
'Break up with Serenity. You're not good for her. I'd rather she date Duke than you.' he spat.
'I will not break up with Serenity!' Seto said angrily.
Joey lunged at him with a raised fist. Seto didn't expect it and he couldn't move completely out of the way, so the blonde brushed the side of his face. Angry, Seto grabbed his arm, twisted it behind the back and pushed Joey to the wall. Joey growled and leapt towards the CEO again, causing both of them to fall on the ground. Each of them was hitting the other everywhere he could reach, knowing perfectly well if he stopped, the other would hit even harder.
'Stop it!' Serenity yelled.
She had come back, carrying a backpack, and saw what was going on. The two boys stopped fighting immediately after they heard her. Seto's lip was bleeding, and his head and back hurt like hell. Joey had a bloody wound above his left eyebrow, and he was rubbing his ribs. Worried, Serenity went to Seto and asked him if he was ok. However, she paid no attention to her older brother. Seto was both happy and sad about this. He was glad that Serenity chose him over Joey, and was worried for him, but he also realized how Joey must feel at that moment, seeing his little sister ignore him.
'Joey, how could you? I know you started the fight!' Serenity scolded her brother. She then turned to Seto. 'Come on; let's go before he does something else.'
She took his hand and he led her to his car. The drive to the mansion was silent. Seto was afraid that Serenity might be mad at him. He had gone pretty far fighting her brother, but Joey made him really mad by asking him to break up with Serenity. How could he break up with the only girl he would ever love!
'Here we are.' he spoke.
He heard Serenity's gasp. Seto always wondered why people found mansions marvelous. They were too big and hollow for his taste. And everywhere he stepped there was at least one servant and he felt his private life, as much as he had one, was being exposed. He lived here only because Mokuba liked the mansion. If it was up to him, he would burn the place down and build himself a simple suburban house with a small garden.
'I should give you a tour; it's easy to get lost on here if you don't know the building.' he told Serenity.
She nodded, seemingly excited, but Seto noticed her thoughts were somewhere else. He had a hunch she was thinking about the fight, but he didn't dare ask. So he just led her around the mansion, showing her every room. He noticed Serenity liked the garden the most. The tour took almost two hours and in the end Serenity and Seto were tired.
'I guess we should end the tour and show you your room.' he said.
'Yeah.' Serenity nodded. 'Where will I be sleeping?' she asked.
'Well …' Seto looked away and blushed lightly. 'I thought it would be best if you slept in … my room. That way no one will suspect a thing.'
Serenity thought about that. Yes, that sounded logical. After all, Mokuba also thought they were a couple and he really might suspect something if they didn't sleep in the same room. Besides, Joey might gather his friends and raid the mansion to take her home. If he did that, it would be good to see her and Seto in the same bed – that would surely piss him off.
'But is it ok with you?' she asked.
'It's for our cause.' he smiled.
Serenity giggled.
'Ok then.' she said.
They went to Seto's bedroom. Serenity had already realized Seto had not shown her his own bedroom. They had passed by the door and he had told her it was his room behind it, but they didn't enter. As Seto opened the door, the girl wondered what his room may look like. To her disappointment, his room wasn't anything special. In fact, it didn't look like anyone was using the room – everything was spotlessly clean and there were no personal possessions that could hint something about the occupant. There were no posters, messy clothes, plants, old toys, music CDs, photos or books. There was just a double bed, a desk with a computer and a chair and two nightstands on both sides of the bed. There were also two doors – apparently one leading to the bathroom, and the other to Seto's closet. Serenity observed the room carefully, feeling a little sad for Seto. She had never imagined his life was so … empty. Was Kaiba Corp. really the only thing in his life?
'You don't look like you like my room.' Seto said.
Serenity flinched. She had caught a hint of sadness or bitterness in his voice.
'Well, to be honest, it doesn't look like anyone's room.' she said.
He smiled sadly.
'I know.' he said quietly then turned to leave. 'I'll leave you some time to take a bath and change, ok? Dinner will be ready in a hour.' he said, not looking at her.
'Ok.' Serenity whispered, surprised by his behavior.
She quickly took a shower and dressed herself. Then she went out of the room, wondering where Seto might be. She walked around for a few minutes, and then gave up finding him on her own. She decided to ask Mokuba, he may know where his older brother was. She went to his room and knocked on it. She heard Mokuba's cheerful voice, and entered.
'Hi, Serenity!' the boy exclaimed.
'Hi, Mokuba.' she said.
'Seto says you're spending a few days here. Why?' he asked.
'Umm… I can't tell you, it's between your brother and me.' Sereity replied uncomfortably. 'By the way, do you know where he is? I want to talk with him.'
'He said he'll be in the library. Do you want me to show you the way?' Mokuba proposed.
'No, don't worry, I know the way. Seto gave me a tour.' Serenity said.
'And you remember it? It took me a week to memorize the mansion.' he exclaimed wide-eyed.
Serenity chuckled and, after thanking Mokuba, exited his room. She quickly headed to the library. She had realized how little she knew about Seto, and that could become a problem. Her brother may not notice, but Mokuba and the others weren't fools and they would notice Serenity didn't know anything about her 'boyfriend'. She peeked in the library. She expected to see Seto reading a book, but instead she saw him sitting in an armchair next to the window. He had put his arms on the sill and his chin was resting on his fist. He was gazing out of the window, seemingly in deep thought. But when Serenity entered the room, he immediately turned to her. The girl thought his face looked sad, but she wasn't sure since the light was dim. She also noticed he had cleaned the blood from the fight.
'We need to talk.' She said.
'About what?' Seto asked.
'I guess we will continue with the masquerade for some time, so it will be good both of us to know something about each other. Otherwise what kind of a couple would we be?'
Sseto thought about that.
'That's true.' he admitted. 'But we can't talk here. Could you wait after dinner, when we go to my room?' he added.
'Sure.' Serenity smiled.
The dinner was really quiet; Seto and Serenity were too deep in thought to talk. Mokuba made a few attempts to start a conversation, but soon gave up. When they were finished, Seto and Serenity wished Mokuba a good night and went up to Seto's room. The CEO sat on his bed, and gestured Serenity to sit next him.
'What do you want to know about me?' he asked her bluntly.
'Tell me about yourself, about your childhood, your hobbies, what you like, what makes you happy, things like that.' Serenity replied.
He raised an eyebrow.
'My childhood? Didn't you see enough in Noah's virtual world?' he asked bitterly, obviously the memory of it still hurt him.
'That was only from your childhood with Gozaburo.' Serenity said calmly. 'I would like to know about your life before you went to the orphanage.'
Seto looked down.
'I … I don't remember much about it, it was really a long time ago … more than ten years. I don't even remember what my parents looked like. But, whenever I think about it, I get this warm feeling inside me, like I'm thinking about something good. Do you understand?'
'Yes, I do.' Serenity nodded.
'I guess that was one of the little times in my life when I've felt truly happy.' he said then clenched his fists. 'And of course, it couldn't continue like this. Something had to happen to screw everything up!' he added, slightly raising his voice.
Serenity carefully put her hand on his shoulder. She felt he was shivering slightly.
'If it hurts to tell me this, then don't.' she whispered.
'No, it's ok. I think it will be good to take it off my chest.' he said. 'You know what happened after my parents' death. We were sent to the orphanage and a year later Gozaburo adopted us.'
'Why did you have to go to an orphanage? Couldn't you stay by relatives?' Serenity asked.
Seto smirked cruelly and chuckled unhappily.
'Our relatives, our family, took the money we were supposed to inherit and sent me and Mokuba to the orphanage so we wouldn't mess up their lives.' he said quietly.
'What? Really?' Serenity gasped.
Seto nodded.
'And so we went to our new home with Gozaburo. Life there was hell, only for me though; luckily Gozabro paid almost no attention to Mokuba, since he was the younger. So I got sick of it and took over his corporation, transformed it into something good and started rebuilding my life.' He paused. 'So that's it – my childhood.' he added.
'You said that life with your real parents was one of the little times you felt truly happy. When were the others?' Serenity asked.
'One was when I was Duel Monsters Champion. I know it may sound weird, but I really enjoy playing the game and I do have talent, so I was happy that my talent was recognized. But, of course, my joy disappeared when he defeated me.' Seto almost spat out the word 'he'. 'Then, when I received Obelisk before Battle City, I really believed I could win my title back. I felt truly happy during that tournament, even though Marik and his goons tried to ruin it, knowing that I had a chance to win against Yugi.'
Serenity reached out hesitantly and put her other arm around him. She felt Seto was shivering. She wanted to comfort him. Only now she truly realized how important Duel Monsters was in Seto's life. All he had was his company, his brother and the game. She held him tighter, feeling incredibly sorry for him.