I just want to thank you guys for all the support thus far! You guys are awesome with your comments and story adds and favorite author adds and story alerts and...yeah, you guys are awesome! Thanks a lot for all the support!

Chapter 10 – Relatable

As the two entered the orphanage, Tea watched as the flock of kids all turned around in unison, smiled widely, and ran up to greet the two workers. Several waved hello to her, but most immediately turned their attention to Kaiba, who kneeled down on one knee and smiled at all the kids. She noticed how, once again, his complexion seemed to go under a complete transformation. It was as if somebody replaced Kaiba with this new, happier doppelganger. All the stress seemed to evaporate from his tense figure, and the smile on his face made him look like he was the teenager he was supposed to be. His eyes, which were always so cold and demanding towards others, now seemed welcoming and full of compassion. The fact that this change had occurred in a matter of seconds made Tea stand there in awe, not caring whether the kids were completely ignoring her or not.

"Hey you two!" Jade exclaimed, grabbing both teen's attentions. She walked up to the two and said, "Seto, you're here earlier than normal. I take it Tea talked to you?"

"Yeah," he stated, standing up and smiling over at his friend, his voice now matching his eyes: warm and kind. "Where is she?" he asked, scanning the room for the girl.

"Outside on the swings out back. She's been sitting out there all day, and I was going to soon bring her inside just to be around the kids a bit."

"Has she talked to anyone since then?"

"Afraid not. I'm glad you decided to come; otherwise, I don't know what I would do." Kaiba nodded his head in understanding when Luke grabbed his arm.

"Seto, Brethor, Harem, and I all beat that video game you gave us a couple weeks ago!" the boy said, excitement in his voice. "And with no cheats too!"

Kaiba chuckled down at the boy. "The point of the video game is to beat it without cheats, Luke. In fact, does that mean you guys cheat in all the video games I give you?"

"No!" Harem shouted, glaring over at Luke. "We only cheated on a few! But not this one, and you made it really tough for us! We couldn't figure out how to beat that last boss! You gotta make them easier, Big Bro!"

Tea blinked in surprise. "'Big Bro'?"

"He's not our big brother!" Brethor protested.

"Yeah, well he said we could call him that!" Harem argued.

Kaiba laughed at their little spat and shook his head slightly. "It's alright. As long as you don't make Mokuba jealous, I don't see anything wrong in it."

"When is he coming over to visit us?" Lola asked, standing next to her twin brother.

"I'm not sure. He's been busy with school lately, plus he wants to help take over KaibaCorp after school. I'll tell him you all want him to visit sometime soon, okay?"

"I'm going to totally own him in Halo(1)!" Steven shouted, making both Kaiba and Tea blink.

Looking over at Jade, Kaiba asked, "You let them play that?"

Jade shrugged her shoulders. "I told them that, as long as they realized it was only a video game and that they don't use the language in the game, it would be fine. The moment I saw them pretending to kill one another or talking like that, the game would be gone."

Kaiba nodded his head in agreement and looked out at the group. "You hear that kids? This is a big responsibility she's putting on you guys. You need to show us you can handle these mature games at such an age, understand?"

All of them nodded their heads in understanding, and Tea smiled at the sight. "He wouldn't admit it, but he must think of himself as a parent to these kids. He's acting just like one!"

"I'm going to go talk to Lilith," he stated, glancing over at Jade. "You said she was outside?" She nodded her head, and he turned to face Tea. "I want you to come outside with me." Tea followed him through the group of kids through the back door outside and gasped at the view. The entire back area was sand, and she could see several pathways leading downwards sharply onto the beach below. The ocean was a beautiful, dark blue compared to the light blue sky. There were toys in the sand along with a swing set, where Lilith was currently sitting, facing the ocean. Her white hair was pulled back into a simple, long braid, and she was wearing a black blouse with a jean skirt and black shoes. Tea watched as Kaiba walked over to girl and kneeled down in front of her, a small smile on his face. "Hello," he said in a soft voice. "How are you doing?"

"Pretty good," she answered, her voice just as soft as the CEO's.

"Are you enjoying the book I bought you?" She nodded her head, and his smile widened ever so slightly. "Well, I wanted to talk to you about some things that I've heard about recently. Is that okay with you?"

"What do you want to talk about?" she asked, her voice now becoming more audible. Kaiba let out a sigh and walked around to sit in front of the other swing.

"What do you think of the other kids?" he asked bluntly, surprising Tea.

"I…I don't know. They all seem pretty nice."

"Do you like Jade?"

Lilith nodded her head again. "She's really cool. She says she likes my white hair a lot."

Kaiba chuckled. "Does she now?"

"Uh-huh."

"Lilith…how close were you to your parents?"

An awkward silence fell over the two, and Tea leaned up against the side of the orphanage, waiting for somebody to respond. After several minutes passed, Lilith let out a sigh. "I…My mom and I really got along, but my dad was always working, so I didn't see him that often. Mom said that he needed to do so in order for us to keep the large house we had."

"Did you love both of your parents?"

"Yeah."

"Is that why you don't want to talk to the other kids? Are you afraid of losing them?"

Seeing the girl begin to shake, Tea sadly realized that she was crying. Kaiba crawled over to her so that he was in front of her and smiled, wiping her tears away with one hand. "I just…don't want to get close to them."

"Oh, now I don't think that's true," he stated in a playfully scornful manner. "I think you really want to make some friends, and I know that the others are more than willing to add you to their circle of friends."

"But…I don't…"

Sighing, Kaiba fixed himself so that he was sitting criss-cross and smiled sadly up at the girl. "You know, when I first went to this orphanage, I was the same way. All I did was think about my parents, and I didn't want to interact with anybody. Sure I had a little brother to help me out, but other than that, I felt like I was alone and had nobody around. I didn't want to get close to anybody for fear of them leaving me, just like my parents did. After all, I loved them just as much as I'm sure you loved your parents."

"But then I began to think about what my parents would think of my behavior. Would they want me to close myself off from the rest of the world? No, of course not. They would want me to move on, to make new friends and gain new experiences. They would want me to enjoy my life even though theirs sadly ended." Placing his hand on her shoulder, he said, "I think your parents would think the same way. And even though I didn't take that advice, I now regret it to this day, and I don't want you to live with that same regret. Your parents would want the best for you, and I'm sure they want you to enjoy life. So can you do yourself and your parents a favor and begin to move on? Can you try and make some new friends? I promise that, no matter what, your parents will always be with you, and the happier you are, the happier your parents will be."

A few moments passed, and Tea could only watch in absolute admiration as Kaiba comforted the girl. "He's become so personable…so relatable to these kids," she thought. "He doesn't want them to have the horrible experience he obviously had at the orphanage and is trying to help them out. He wants to show them that they're not alone, that others have gone through it, and that they can't just dwell on the past. You can't dwell on the past…one of his personal mottos."

The girl slowly slid off the swing and wrapped her arms around Kaiba's neck, and he smiled at this and returned the embrace. "Are you going to try and make some friends?" he repeated after another moment passed. She nodded her head against his shoulder, and he held her out at arm's length and looked her right in the eyes. "I want you to be happy, and I'm sure your parents want the same. So are you going to try and be happier?"

"Yep!" she exclaimed, her voice now full of life and happiness. "I'll make my parents happy! Just you watch!"

He laughed at this and said, "Now you can't just think of your parents, okay? You should be happy because you want to be happy too."

"Okay. Maybe I'll play that video game with Luke later on. He kept asking me about it…"

"That sounds like a great idea. Why don't you go inside and ask if they have room for one more person?"

"Okay!" She quickly gave him one last hug before rushing inside, smiling and waving at Tea as she went by. Kaiba watched her and chuckled before standing up and brushing himself off. Walking slowly up to Tea, he smirked.

"Maybe this answered one of your questions better than I had previously."

"Which question would that be?" she asked, still in awe at the event.

"Why I do this. I brought you out here so you could see for yourself that I do it to help them out. I don't want them to be miserable here. They need to learn to move on, and if I can help them achieve that, then I would happily visit them and keep them company every so often."

"That…was really something, Kaiba."

"What did I tell you? Call me Seto here. Just call me Kaiba everywhere else."

"Oh, sorry. Seto…but that sure was amazing, what you did."

"Which was…?"

"You comforted her."

Grunting, he said, "You find it amazing that I have a heart? Like I've previously said, I save my heart for people worthy of it."

"Still…I've never seen you like that before."

His smirk widened slightly, and as he began to open the door leading back inside, he said, "Well, if you continue working here, maybe you'll see that side of me more often."

Before she could say anything, he fully opened the door and walked back into the room, the door shutting behind him and leaving her alone in the silence outside. "Kaiba… Seto…you're so complex of a person. But maybe seeing this side will help me understand all your other sides…But wait a minute! Why do I care so much about learning about him? I mean, we're just getting along because of this job, aren't we? Maybe he is…but maybe I'm not. " Sighing, she quickly shook the thought away and followed Seto's path inside the orphanage, smiling as he was dragged over to watch them play a video game.

(1) – I do not own Halo or anything related to Halo.