Chapter Nine: An Apology and Dinner

Serenity shut the apartment door quietly, afraid that Joey might hear, or be disturbed and silently snuck across the living room to her bedroom. Once she was safely inside, she breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment she just stared to the right, out of her medium sized window to see the grey clouds drift overhead. She crossed the room and dumped her little shoulder bag next to her desk before collapsing onto her bed.

After a few minutes of blissful peace and quiet alone, she reluctantly got up and changed into some more comfortable clothes, ones she would need for the task now at hand…

"Pizza… best ever… must make peace with Joey…" Serenity mumbled to herself as she desperately placed the pizza in the oven and set the timer. She hurried to various parts of the kitchen, checking on the homemade ice-cream she had prepared.

The French fries she had carefully prepared so they were nice and thin, just like Joey liked them, were ready to be cooked later when the time came and Serenity cast her eye over the kitchen. Fine, for now.

"Joey better be appreciative," Serenity proclaimed and wondered if Joey would even come back after the fight, making a shiver run down her spine.

'What if he was so angry he went to Tristan's place, or – or… I can't bear to think about it! Oh, but…' she panicked and left the kitchen. She was just about to freak out when she realised she hadn't checked Joey's room.

Quietly, she snuck up to his bedroom door and very carefully opened it before peeking in. To her relief, Joey lay asleep face down on his bed. He mumbled softly and turned over. Serenity could have sworn he had murmured Mai's name and shook her head before gently closing the door and returning to the kitchen.

For the next hour and a half she continued to tirelessly work, preparing dinner and making their tiny dining room table look presentable. And Joey never stirred once. Well, not until the smell of pizza and chip wafted by his bedroom and he awoke to find himself salivating at the scent.

"Mmm!" Joey smacked his lips as he sat up and stretched with a massive yawn. He blinked a few times in his shadowed room and then stood and headed to his door. With a small yawn and rolling his neck so it cracked unappealingly, he opened the door to almost run into Serenity, who had heard him stir.

'He's like clockwork,' she thought with a giggle. Everything was set and the forgiveness, she hoped, would begin. If it didn't, she thought she might break from the strain. Stress wasn't in the least healthy on her delicate frame.

"Joey, you're awake! Are you okay? I prepared your favourite!" she enticed him with the promise of dinner and he perked up considerably. Serenity couldn't ignore the rather unattractive bruise that graced the left side of her brother's jaw, but decided to put this aside in favour of the food. Bruise treatment could probably wait until after dessert.

"Pizza and chips?" Joey asked hopefully and Serenity nodded with a broad, but ever so slightly strained, smile. She ushered him along gently with her small hands pressuring his back so he ambled over to the kitchen, following the smell that was making his stomach growl distinctly.

"Uh-huh. Come on, before it gets cold," Serenity told her brother as she pushed him along and she sat him down at the table, and then hurried off to serve up the food. It looked pretty darn appetising, if she thought so herself. Serenity swiftly cut the pizza up and placed the portions on the plate, ensuring that Joey got the larger amount. He always ate way more than any normal person could consume. The food had turned out really well, and she smiled as she placed it before Joey, who looked ready to gnaw off his own leg.

"Sis… you shouldn't have. Not after the way I behaved," Joey managed to say before he couldn't hold back and stuffed his face with a massive slice of pizza, leaving Serenity to nibble a few chips. They had to talk, Serenity knew, but maybe a conversation over food wasn't such a good idea…

"Joey," she began and Joey kept one eye on her as he demolished his plate, "I understand how you feel, but… you're letting your emotions get the better of you. You should know that it's just a project, not a-a marriage contract or something!" Her voice had become a little strangled at the end as she realised what kind of example she was making and then lowered her head, consigning herself to focus on eating a few more chips.

Joey saw his sister from across the table and realised how sad she looked. And he was the source of it. He paused, the half eaten pizza slice hanging in midair, and opened his mouth. He felt compelled to make her feel better, he knew as her older brother he had to – it was his… duty. Like hers is to do that business project, he grasped and forgiveness flooded his body.

"I know Sis, I jus' didn't wanna believe it. You've gone to all this trouble and I've been an idiot. I'm sorry," he apologised, his eyes sliding from the pizza slice in his hand, begging to be consumed, and Serenity, who looked up. Her eyes were shining again with that cheery sparkle that lit up Joey's life. He felt like he'd made the right decision and though it still pained him to think of the time that rich bastard would be spending with his baby sister, he knew that Serenity wasn't the type to run off with guys. But Kaiba… that's who Joey didn't trust in the least.

"Thank you Joey. This means a lot to me – you know that we don't have to fight and not talk about this anymore," she said quietly and Joey nodded and smiled broadly as she began to pick up her appetite and tuck into her single slice of pizza before her.

"That's more like it! But… if I get too out of line over it again – 'cause I might – tell me. Promise?" he asked her and she nodded with a smile. The meal finished on a nice high, Serenity decided as she cleaned the dishes, Joey helping dry up. A small smile crept over her face as he hummed and buffed the dishes up haphazardly. Serenity knew this peace wouldn't last – the Kaiba Incident would probably come at some point, though she desperately that it wouldn't – but she was happy to take it at some kind of temporary forgiveness.

"Oh! The ice-cream! I almost forgot!" she gasped and dashed to the freezer to present the dessert to her brother, who thought he must have died and gone to food heaven.

"Oh man, you can't get any better!" her brother praised and Serenity had wanted to hide as she scooped up the ice-cream into bowls, adding some chocolate sauce to the mix.

She and Joey and spent some time together, watching TV and generally hanging out while pigging out on homemade ice-cream. It was nice to return to that, and Serenity snuggled into the warmth of the sofa, a cushion clutched to her chest. She took a thoughtful spoonful of ice-cream, the bowl resting across the cushion and took a tentative bite, the cold making her wince.

'Just like the old times… before money issues and college and work,' she sighed happily and lost herself in the warm comfortable world she had begun to forget. Serenity remembered when she didn't have her own life to run, or had to get a job. She did like learning at college and working at Julie's, but it could be so hard. And now Kaiba was piling more problems onto her, just to make her life easier.

'Stupid Kaiba. I wish… oh, I don't know what I wish anymore!' she huffed, stirring her melted ice-cream viciously and Joey looked at her questioningly, one blond eyebrow raised and his brown eyes twinkling expectantly, while Serenity looked into space.

"Serenity? You okay?" he asked her and she jerked out of her trance, swinging her head to face her brother. Her mind had been in the stratosphere, rather than on the program about some woman on a journey of some kind. She had no idea what was going on, but tried to mask her thoughts anyway.

"Yes, I was just… hoping," she paused to think of what the character's name was, "Jeannie was alright." Her heart nearly gave out at blatant lying to her brother, but he too seemed lost in his own little world and gave a nod, sinking into his own thoughts. To distract herself, she put down the bowl so she didn't have to look at her brother and then sat back to fidget with her hands.

After several minutes of pondering, while Serenity finally tried to watch the TV and work out what had happened, Joey turned back to Serenity and warily opened mouth.

"Uh, Serenity?" he tentatively asked and she gave him a look, wondering in a flash of panic if she'd been caught out, but relaxed when she saw he didn't look angry. Something else, then.

"What do you think of Mai?" he questioned her with a shining interest that transfixed his face. Serenity momentarily gaped, then shut her mouth and obediently thought about Mai Valentine. She didn't know the older woman particularly well. Tea knew her better than she did, and when they went shopping or to the cinema sometimes Mai would come too. And when she did come with them, she seemed nice enough to Serenity, if a bit harsh with her tongue at times. That girl could bite back with the force of an Alsatian, but she also had a good sense of humour that made Serenity giggle.

"Um… Mai's alright. She makes me laugh when we're shopping. And she's very pretty and can be kind if you're down… why do you ask, Joey?" Serenity answered, and she began to become concerned where this apparent interest in Mai had come from.

Joey tried a noncommittal shrug, but his shoulders sagged, unable to keep up any kind of pretence. Serenity watched on in surprise as it all clicked into place and her mouth dropped open as she saw her brother give a chuckle.

"Well, I gotta confession to make. I kinda like the girl. She – well, she's always hangin' around college an' sometimes I think it might be 'cause of me. Sis? What do you think?" Joey admitted and then looked to his sister to see her reaction. He was surprised to find her look shocked, but it melted away to a smile that widened until it looked strained.

"I like Mai. I wouldn't be surprised if she liked you, Joey. But now you're making these kinds of statements and yet you muscle in on me and accuse me of having a r-relationship with Kaiba of all people and… you butt into my business…" she found herself unable to quite articulate how she felt, her fine brows knitted together with anguish while Joey was startled at her speech.

"Oh man, Serenity… I'm sorry. I shouldn't bother you with this stuff, not after what I did today. I really wasn't thinkin', was I?" he muttered, lowering his eyes to his knees, as if he were repenting, and Serenity sighed, calming down and shaking her head with a small smile twisted on her delicate face.

"No, I've… had the worst day. I'm glad you've forgiven me, Joey… really. I just remembered I need to finish off some homework. But seriously, I think Mai likes you. Maybe you should go talk to her," Serenity gave her brother a warm smile and he nodded, giving her a hug. She returned it, glad some things had gone right that day.

Content that Joey had at least forgiven her a little, she retired to her bedroom to do some homework. The day had been both terrible, odd and now a little goodness had been added. At that, she gave a private smile and shut her bedroom door with a soft click.

>

Kaiba rested in bed, having departed some hours ago from the living room with a glass of water in his hand. Now he felt pretty fine considering how bad the pain had been, the headache firmly receded into the recesses of his mind where it merely ached occasionally as a reminder of the day.

He had thought. And the answer that had turned up was not one he had been willing to use, but after going through the options, the only one he was left with was this one. Taking it would mean some… changes in himself, but they were small and probably nothing to worry about, he had decided.

A move had to be made before the day ended, or the window of opportunity could be lost forever. Ever calculating, he had come to the conclusion that his actions wouldn't be as well received if they were what could be perceived as late.

Sighing heavily, as if the world was slowly crushing him, he picked up his mobile phone and dialled Mokuba, who he had sent away some time ago to complete his homework and stop fussing over him.

"Yeah?" came the relaxed reply on the other end, Mokuba reclining back in a chair and smiling, knowing his brother was on the other end. Mokuba had the definite feeling Kaiba was going to come crawling to him with an apology – a rarity indeed, even for family – and the smile danced as Mokuba rubbed his hands together, the phone precariously wedged between his head and neck. Kaiba briefly fidgeted, sensing his brother's smugness, before opening his mouth.

"Mokuba… do you have Serenity's number?" he asked, no trace of nervousness in his voice, but inside… the implications of asking this were innumerable. Kaiba knew that Mokuba would not let something like this slide by. Mokuba's eyebrows raised from his room. So, not an apology, but still a very intriguing proposition his brother was making…

"I've got her phone number, but why do you want it?" Mokuba interestedly replied and Kaiba inwardly sighed, knowing that this was going to be an uphill challenge.

"Because I have some things to talk to her about Business," he lamely replied. Kaiba wished he was better at lying; for Mokuba it rolled off his tongue with ease, and the teenager could pick out a lie with ease, to his brother's annoyance.

"Sure you do. Well, I suppose I could give it… but if you say something stupid, or hurtful then I'm going to have to kill you, okay?" Mokuba replied in a surprisingly steely voice that made Kaiba raise his eyebrows.

"Mokuba… are you threatening me?" he replied in a voice of confused disbelief and Mokuba cleared his throat, sitting forward his chair and rubbed the side of his face tiredly.

"Yeah, I am. I got that number from her so I could talk to her and she gave it to me, I assume not so I would in turn give it to you but so I could talk to her, right? So it's not fair if she gets berated down the phone by you, because of me… Just don't hurt her, alright?" Mokuba poured out his feelings and Kaiba's mouth automatically popped open from the emotional honesty of his brother.

"Alright," he said shortly and, Mokuba satisfied, gave out the number. Kaiba had a good memory and kept it in his head after cutting the call and climbed out of bed, crossed the room to his desk and grabbed a piece of paper and a nearby pen. In his small, incredibly neat handwriting he wrote the number down, programmed it into his phone, and dialled.

>

Serenity had been laboriously pouring over her homework for half an hour, losing track of time with ease as she analysed the work Mr. Bamako had issued them only the other day. Occasionally, she would sneakily start writing notes on the business project about creating a gift shop style business, using various trinkets as a mainstay, knowing full well that Kaiba wouldn't approve.

As she searched for her notepad that had hidden itself somewhere amongst the neat piles on her desk, she thought she could hear something and paused to listen.

After a moment, her memory was jogged and she shook her head with a laugh, realising it was her phone. Grabbing the bag she had carried around for most of the day and rummaging in it, she discovered her buried phone, alight and beeping, and checked the number, expecting it to be Tea, or maybe Yugi.

"Hmm," she looked at the number blankly, without a clue who it was. With a shrug, she accepted the call and carefully put the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" she ventured, wondering who was call at this time of night and the voice on the other end made her blood freeze in complete shock.

"Serenity, it's Kaiba," he cleared his throat, as if he wanted to somehow break the ice, but Serenity was so far beneath the ice she didn't think she could ever surface.

"Uh," she began, but she was lost for words. The events that had transpired with Kaiba that day had left her mind whirling in a pool confusion and her mouth gaped as she tried to think of something to say without having to bring the Kaiba Incident up.

"Um," she tried again and her face began to quickly grow hot with embarrassment. She floundered for another minute and her mind went into overdrive in an attempt to get her mouth to speak.

'Say something!' her mind desperately yelled, but she remained stock-still, unable to function. Instead, while she recovered, she decided to wait for Kaiba to say something, in the hope she would magically be cured of speech problems in the interim.

"Serenity…" he began, but trailed as if also finding the same difficulties she was having with articulating speech, or just managing to talk at all. However, he appeared to recover far quicker and redoubled his efforts.

"… I'm sorry, Serenity. For behaving so… ungraciously at Kaiba Land and then turning up at that park, in a less than fit state, for help. I'm glad you helped me…" he trailed nervously, wondering if she was going to throw it in his face. He had never apologised to anyone outside of the Kaiba family. It was an unpractised event he had no wish to repeat.

"… I… Thank you, Kaiba," Serenity managed to say, still in some unnameable shock at Kaiba actually relenting and apologising. She heard Kaiba's throat grind strangely on the other end, as if he was internally debating something.

"You can call me Seto, if you want," he told her flatly to hide the tumult of emotions that surfaced and she was once more rendered speechless. Did he actually just say that? And mean it? After a minute of stunned silence, she gave herself a kick and her mouth opened.

"Thank you, Seto," she smiled to herself, thoroughly pleased, and she had the feeling that Kaiba somehow knew she was smiling, though he couldn't see her and was probably wishing he had never said it.

"It's alright," he said shortly and cut the call. She shook her head at the last five minutes and put her phone away into her bag with a lingering smile on her face. Seto Kaiba had told her it was okay to call him by his first name. It was some kind of insane honour.

Then all kinds of worries flooded into her mind. Did he just ignore the events that transpired in his mansion, or didn't he remember? Was he that unselfconscious about that kind of stuff? Serenity could barely even entertain the thought without a crimson blush spreading across her face she was so… ashamed, or something similar. Disbelief? She wasn't sure what she was feeling anymore.

Serenity frowned, her mind stirred up and thoroughly disturbed, and decided that she couldn't concentrate on her homework. It could wait until tomorrow. The day getting the best of her, Serenity changed into her pyjamas and climbed into her bed, flicking the lamp off as she pulled the covers over her and firmly shut her eyes.

>

"So, you did it?" Mokuba enquired, his head poking from around the door and Kaiba merely grunted and wandered out of his room, swiftly pursued by his intrusive brother.

Mokuba seemed to be getting more of a pain as he got older, constantly prying into Kaiba's life, at least that's how Kaiba saw it, and annoying him whenever he could with whatever he could get out of Kaiba on a daily basis. The knowledge of Serenity and the business project was proving the worse ammo Mokuba had against Kaiba yet.

"I called someone, yes," Kaiba divulged irritably and Mokuba smirked, knowing exactly who it was. An apology. Mokuba never thought he would see the day Kaiba apologised to someone outside of the family. It was like a miracle, or something to Mokuba and it brought a smile he kept toying with as he followed his brother, who was heading to the kitchen. Eavesdropping, he thought with his chin tipped up proudly, had its benefits.

Kaiba opened the kitchen door and opened the refrigerator, grabbing a bottle of beer and seated himself at the breakfast bar, before looking at his brother expectantly, chestnut eyebrows raised slightly.

"Make yourself useful and get me a bottle opener if you're going to hang around me like this all night," Kaiba sulked and Mokuba felt in an antagonistic mood. He did what he was told, taking the bottle opener from a nearby draw and civilly handing it over to his sibling, but straddled a bar stool and readied his line of attack to gain knowledge of the relationship his brother had with Serenity.

"There's a weird chemistry between you two," Mokuba suggested thoughtfully and Kaiba glowered in order to feebly attempt to ward off one of Mokuba's tactless trails of thoughts he liked to be so vocal about when the mood took him. Sometimes Kaiba truly wondered where his brother got this from because no-one Kaiba had ever taken note to remember in Mokuba's life had ever encouraged the boy to express his thoughts to others and annoy them. They would have been fired, surely…

"Like a bomb," Kaiba said sourly to Mokuba with a dangerous expression on his face, but Mokuba discarded his brother's expression with ease. Kaiba refused to meet his brother's eyes and focused on the bottle he was intermittently sipping from, if only to soften the blow of Mokuba's probing. A part of Kaiba scolded him for apparently not learning his lesson from the event's of earlier that day, which Kaiba chose to ignore.

"You two are totally crazy around one another!" Mokuba continued on with relish, using his hands emphatically, while his brother's face slowly reddened. From Mokuba's judgment, it was more from embarrassment than anger and so happily carried on antagonising him, until he confessed.

"We are not!" Kaiba snapped, his eyes perceptibly darkening and then calmed himself so he could continue his argument coherently without looking pathetic in front of his brother. Mokuba waited with an expectant look on his face for Kaiba to explain himself, confess or go into denial mode, shutting himself down emotionally.

"Serenity and I are… explosive, conflictive at best," Kaiba said with exasperation of his brothers relentless talking that never failed to cut close to the bone and dig under Kaiba's skin to how things really were with him. He hated how his brother could do this so expertly and mercilessly. Kaiba guessed some of him and Gozaburo rubbed off on the younger boy.

Mokuba looked incredibly crafty and he opened his mouth, making Kaiba pause in his thoughts, dread washing over him. He could practically see the ace twirling in Mokuba's hands as his brother flashed him a grin that could cut glass it was so sharp. Kaiba scowled and eyed his brother with suspicion.

"Then why did you get Serenity's number from me, ring her and apologise?" he asked smugly and Kaiba knew he was in a tight corner. He had little options left.

"Just leave me alone!" Kaiba lashed out to try and get Mokuba off his case, but the boy persisted, leaning forward so he was now by Kaiba's head.

"Come on, tell me!" he whined in the most pathetic voice he could muster and Kaiba lowered his head, so his cool eyes were obscured.

"I… felt indebted after my behaviour at Kaiba Land," Kaiba eventually said lamely and Mokuba scoffed loudly, firmly shaking his head in dissent. The boy leaned away from his brother, but kept his eyes firmly on his unmoving sibling, which narrowed as the argument rolled off his tongue.

"Hah, you've never felt indebted to anyone, Seto… living that is," he replied, an edge of annoyance touching his voice and Kaiba's eyes narrowed, obscured by his hair. An indecipherable expression flashed across the younger Kaiba's face as he viewed his silent brother, just wishing inside that Kaiba would dredge some of those feelings buried deep within him and just talk to him. The expression faded along with the regretful thoughts, and Mokuba focused on waiting for Kaiba to say something.

"What do you mean by that?" he challenged, finally looking up, and a smile twisted onto Mokuba's lips as he stood from his kitchen stool. Mokuba really had grown up, Kaiba realised with a small start. The boy was nearly as tall as him, but tended to dress what Kaiba liked to think of as like a homeless person, his rumpled clothing of jeans and a shirt with a few missing buttons near the top making Kaiba want to sadly shake his head.

"You know what I mean," was all Mokuba retorted, his blue-grey eyes hardening as they locked with his brothers and then fell away. With those parting words, he breezed coldly past Kaiba out of the room, leaving Kaiba to think, all the while staring into the bottle he held in one hand.

AN: So he apologised. Wonder what Serenity is going to make of it? Well, you're gonna have to wait until the next instalment. I think I may bring Mokuba a little more into the picture – I like the way he is here, all trying to push his brother and Serenity together, but there's also that question of how Mokuba himself views Serenity. Does he like her as Kaiba is/will be finding himself liking her? Ooh, the questions! I can't wait… I mean, I know exactly how this thing is gonna pan out. Trust me, I'm an unreliable layabout! Thanks for the reviewing – one high quality review is worth at least a couple dozen 'OMG! Ned mor soon!' type reviews. Not to offend nobody, but I like it when people actually comment on what took place and how they saw it. Different perspectives rock. Lotsa luv, Cat Alex out.