The first thing Seto noticed was the scent of antiseptic. He let out a groan of partial annoyance and partial pain. He slowly opened his eyes to be met with a bright light above him. He shut his eyes again to avoid straining them against the light. He let out a low growl as he laid there. He didn't understand why his own medical staff couldn't take care of him instead of leaving him in a hospital. He hated the environment.

"Seto?" a voice asked from beside him.

The brunet turned his head and opened his sapphire eyes to see a young teenager at his bedside. "Mokuba?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm here."

"Where's-?"

Mokuba raised his hand to stop him and turned to the green curtain behind him. He pushed it back to reveal Sakura lying on a hospital bed of her own. Seto's stare hardened when he saw that her eyes were closed and her breathing was slow. "It's alright, Seto." Mokuba said. "She's just resting. She first woke up a couple hours ago."

Seto sighed and let his head fall back onto his pillow. His eyes looked around him in disgust as he stared at the IV drip and heart monitor beside him. He could feel his younger brother's eyes looking him over carefully. Before he could look in that direction, there was already a pair of arms wrapped around him in a tight hug.

"I was so worried about you Seto." The ebony-haired teen said into his brother's chest. "If I hadn't called the police, who knows what could have happened to you!"

"I'm fine." The brunet responded.

Mokuba pulled away from his brother and sat back down in his chair. "You could have died though if I hadn't done anything!"

"It's not like I planned for this to happen."

"I know, but you have to be more cautious about this, Seto! You have to increase the security at Kaiba Corp. I know that it's already very high, but you've got to make it top notch. People always want you dead and you can't just wait for one of them to succeed!"

"I can take care of myself."

"Why do you always say that? We're a team, I can help you!"

"I'm not going to disregard your safety, Mokuba."

"But, you'll disregard yours?"

"Whatever."

"No, you're not ignoring this. I haven't seen you look this beaten up since Gozaburo!"

"So what? That's all in the past."

"It still happened though!"

Seto went to retort to his sibling, but stopped when he heard Sakura begin to stir. She rolled over and blinked a couple of times at the duo. "You're awake." She simply stated looking at the brunet. She glanced to the siblings and noticed the slight tension between them. "Is something wrong?"

"No, we were just talking." Mokuba said.

"Do you want to finish? Because I can go into the hallway."

"No, its fine."

Sakura nodded and slowly swung her legs over to the edge of the bed. She cautiously stood up and Seto noticed a slight wince from her. She strode over and sat down on the chair next to Mokuba. "How are you feeling?" she asked the brunet.

"I've been in better moods."

"You're right, sorry." There was a long pause in the room.

"You look unstable." Seto suddenly said.

"Oh, well when I got tasered, it ended up burning my back. It's only minor though."

Seto nodded.

Sakura sighed and looked at him carefully. She eyed over the visibly bruises on him with guilt and disgust. "I'm sorry for this. It's my fault that you were hurt. I should have done something albeit my panicking at the time. I'm so sorry."

"If you're sorry, then stop apologizing."

"You just didn't deserve to be tortured like that again what with…" Sakura stopped when she noticed Seto's stare harden at the mention of his stepfather. She shamefully looked to the ground. "I'm sorry."

"Don't waste my time with apologies. It's in the past."

Sakura slowly nodded. She reached to him and gently touched his hand. She felt his muscles suddenly tense before slowly relaxing again. "I'm just glad you're alright."

X.X.X

The next afternoon, the trio still sat in the hospital room. Mokuba and Sakura sat on her hospital bed engaged in a game of checkers. The ebony-haired teen looked over his set of black checkers which were quickly cornering Sakura's red checkers. It soon dwindled to her only having one checker left. The young teen took his chance and jumped the last piece.

"Looks like I win this round." Mokuba grinned.

"Yep. Congratulations." Sakura said.

Mokuba's grin broadened.

Sakura looked over to Seto to see him with his arms folded in front of his chest and his hard stare glaring at the wall on the other side of the room. "Seto, don't you want to join us? You look like you're in a pretty bad mood."

"Obviously. And I don't need to engage in such childish games."

Sakura sighed. "Is this because of your computer?"

Seto grunted.

"Seto, I'm not going to let you work on your company right now." Mokuba said. "The doctors say you need to rest."

"I could care less about what they think."

"Well, I agree with them. I'm not going to get your laptop for you from the mansion."

Seto growled making sure it was audible enough for the duo to hear him.

The trio's attention was soon averted when the phone on the wall began to ring. Seto went to reach for it, but Mokuba grabbed it first. "Hello?" he said.

"This is Mister Kaiba's room, correct?" the woman on the other end asked.

"Yes."

"Alright, this is the front desk speaking. There's a Mister Mutou and friends here to see him."

"Oh, yeah, send them up."

"Okay, have a good day."

Mokuba hung up the phone and looked back to his sibling. Seto stared back to him. "What did they want?" he questioned.

"Yugi and the others are here to see you. I said they could come and visit."

"What?" Seto immediately hissed.

Sakura looked between the duo in confusion. "Who are they?" she asked.

"They're a herd of geeks that can't take a hint that I'm not their friend. I'm surprised that I avoided them for a few years until now."

"Nearly three years ago, Seto and I went to Egypt with them." Mokuba said. He noticed Sakura's look of puzzlement. "It's a long story, I'll tell you later."

Sakura nodded. "Why do you hate them though? If they're your friends-"

"They're not my friends." Seto interrupted.

"Well, they care about you since they came to see you. I'd like to meet them."

Seto grunted. "Then do it some other time."

Sakura rolled her eyes and waited in anticipation for the group of people to arrive. After a matter of minutes, there was a knock at the door. Seto groaned in annoyance. A group of four people soon entered the room. The first person Sakura noticed was the short, tri-colored male in front. He looked young for his age, but still had a maturity to him. She then noticed the two other males behind him, who stood much taller. One had shagging blond hair, while the other had brown hair that stuck up in a point. There was a brunette standing behind them, but Sakura couldn't see her face very well.

"Hey Kaiba!" The tri-colored male said.

Seto glared to them and grunted.

"Come on, don't be such a sourpuss." The blond male said. "Ya really haven't changed at all, have ya?"

"Shut it, you amateur." Seto spat back.

The blond glared to him, but tried to keep his cool.

"So, what're you guys doing here?" Mokuba asked.

"We were watching the news a few days ago and we noticed that Kaiba Corp was being held hostage." The tri-colored male chimed in. "And we heard Kaiba was injured."

"Yep, so Yugi here called us up and suggested we visit him." The blond said. "I wasn't very happy about it, but we're here." He looked over to the other hospital bed in the room and caught sight of Sakura. "Who's the chick?"

"Oh, this is Sakura." Mokuba said. "She's Seto's girlfriend."

Seto shot a glare to his brother at the sudden title of affection.

"Man, who knew Kaiba would start settling down?" the spiked brunet said.

"Yeah, so Sakura," Mokuba said to her. "This is Yugi." He pointed to the shorter male. "Jounouchi," he looked to the blond male. "Honda," the spiked brunet waved. "And finally-"

"Wait, I know you." Sakura interrupted looking to the short-haired brunette. "I've met you before. You're Anzu."

"Oh my God! And you're Sakura!" Anzu said gleefully.

"Ya guys know each other?" Jounouchi asked.

"Oh, yeah, I met her in town one day a long time ago. At the time, she was having some 'boy trouble' so I helped her out."

Sakura smiled as her cheeks tinted pink. She stared awkwardly towards the floor. After a minute, she looked back up to the gang. "So, how do you know Seto?" she asked them.

"Yugi here always kicked his butt in dueling." Jounouchi smirked. Seto was glaring hard at the blond. "Even in Kaiba's own tournament, Rich Boy would get whooped."

"Hmph, says the loser who can't even beat me." Seto smirked.

"What'd you just say to me?" Jounouchi yelled.

"I didn't know you were deaf too."

"Oh, then how about we go right now, Money Bags! Come at me!"

"Hm, I'd have more of a challenge fighting a cat."

"That's it!" Jounouchi went to step closer to the brunet with his hand balled into a fist, however, Honda and Yugi held him back.

"Stop, Jounouchi!" Yugi cried. "You can't pick a fight here!"

Anzu smiled and strolled over to Sakura as she watched the boy's antics. "Do they always fight like this?" Sakura asked her.

"Yeah." Anzu nodded. "Kaiba and Jounouchi have hated each other since the moment they met. Although, Jounouchi's not very good at keeping up with Kaiba's wits, he's too impulsive."

"Oh."

The girls and Mokuba watched as the blond struggled against his pleading friends. Seto smirked at his struggles, clearly getting an ego boost. After much pleading and yelling, the blond finally calmed himself. He shot a glare to the brunet. "You should be glad you're already in a hospital, or I would've made sure you needed one."

"Hmph, I doubt that, seeing that your last attempt was highly unsuccessful."

"Want me to try again?" Jounouchi shouted waving his fist in the air.

"Calm down, Jounouchi!" Yugi pleaded pushing him back. The short male could sense the high tension in the room and he was beyond concerned about it. So, he figured starting a conversation would work. "So Kaiba, do you have any plans for a new Duel Disk?"

"If I did, why would I leak that information to you dorks?" Seto rolled his eyes.

"I was only asking."

Seto grunted.

Yugi then turned towards Sakura. "So, how long have you been dating him?"

"Almost two years." She responded.

"I don't understand how ya can put up with him." Jounouchi stated.

"It's not very hard."

"Well, it's good that Kaiba found someone like you." Anzu smiled.

Sakura couldn't help but blush. "Oh, Thank you."

The group suddenly looked up to see a nurse enter the room. She looked to the visitors standing around the room. "I'm sorry, but I'll have to ask you all to leave. Mister Kaiba and Miss Takahashi need their rest."

Thank God, Seto thought. He wanted the group of friends out of his room by second one.

"Oh, alright." Yugi said. "We'll be going now. It was nice meeting you, Sakura."

"Same here." She smiled.

"See ya."

"Bye."

"We hope you feel better, Kaiba."

With their goodbyes said, the gang left the hospital room. A few seconds after the door shut, Sakura looked at the young CEO. "Why do you hate them so much?" she asked. "I think they're nice."

"Then we obviously have a difference in opinion." Seto stated.

"Seto just doesn't like them because they're always in his way." Mokuba said glancing up from his virtual console. "At least, that's what he's stated before."

"Well, that was in the past though." Sakura said.

"Can we please not discuss the dweeb patrol right now?" Seto hissed. "I'm getting a headache."

Sakura merely nodded.

Mokuba yawned as he closed the console in his hands. He set the device down on the table beside him and curled up on the couch. It was already dark outside. The group sat in silence in the darkening room as the moonlight began to seep in through the window. Seeing that Mokuba was asleep, Sakura turned towards Seto. "Are you feeling alright?" she asked him.

"I'm fine." He replied.

"You'd tell me if you felt abnormal, right?"

"Yes." It was an obvious lie. He didn't need to express his feelings.

"Oh, alright. I just wanted to make sure because of…" She slowly began to trail off.

"We don't need to discuss this."

"I just don't want anything like this to happen again."

"I can take care of myself."

"But you didn't this time!" Sakura quickly looked to the floor. "I'm sorry. I couldn't stand watching you get hurt like that."

"I'm not a child. I had everything under control."

"But, you still got injured."

"Whatever."

"Seto, I just don't want to see it get worse next time. I don't want to lose you."

Seto continued to stare at her. He didn't know it seemed that severe to her. Sakura soon felt a pair of firm hands on her shoulders. She went to look up to the brunet, but then realized she was grasped in a tight embrace. She was pulled closer to him until she was kneeling on his hospital bed next to him. Sakura soon wrapped her own arms around him and buried her face in the crook of his neck. "That won't happen. Have you forgotten who you're speaking to?"

Sakura let out a weak smile. "No."

"Then stop worrying about it."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"Then stop apologizing."

Sakura smiled and looked up to stare at him. She slowly moved her hands up to his face to cup his cheeks. She brought her lips to his in a passionate, but sweet kiss. The brunet moved his hands to her small waist as Sakura smiled against his lips. The couple parted from each other feeling their rapid breath against each other's cheeks. Sakura smiled to him before lying down and nestling up to his thin, but strong form.

"What are you doing?" the brunet asked her.

"Cuddling." She said softly.

Seto sighed before allowing it. Sakura grasped his hand as she laid her cheek against his shoulder. The couple lay there together in silence simply enjoying being with one another.

x.x

And there we go. I decided to just use the gang's Japanese names. I wanted to do English to make things easier, but then I realized I already called Tea Anzu in the previous story, so I just went with that. Also, the whole "Seto, you need to be more careful" thing was a bit repetitive in this chapter and that's the only thing I don't like about it, well, that and the ending. Although, I really don't want to change it, maybe just because I'm tired. Anyhow, tell me what you guys think and I'll talk to you next time!