So I'm just really disillusioned about the election. Sick of this horse race between bad and worse, Jill Stein here I come. Seriously, vote third party. Election Day's tomorrow. Let's show them that we don't accept either horrible candidate.

Short author's note this time, which I'm sure you guys are glad about. Life Lesson: When life hands you lemons, make a fanfic. (Maybe even a lemon fanfic like mine.)

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh is owned by not me by the admission of everyone including my own mind.

Chapter 12: The Strange Woman and the Horrible Woman

Rebecca opened the unlocked the door to the studio with a yawn and walked inside slowly. She was accompanied with only Mokuba on this day. After Iris's departure the day prior the mood had been totally destroyed. As a result, Mokuba didn't record the vocals to the needed to and they ended the session early in order to give everyone time to cool off. So Rebecca was tasked with bringing Mokuba to the studio early in the morning and recording vocals so that they wouldn't be off schedule.

It was 5:00 AM, which wouldn't be so bad if Rebecca hadn't stayed up the majority of the night doing paperwork. Of course she understood the joy of pulling an all-nighter when it came to studying plant life or mastering a string piece, but not when it came to the inner workings of managing stars. She used to glance at her TV every once in a while and roll her eyes at the drama of glamorous people. Maybe it was because she had schooled with them, and in fact her elite education had been a fast-track into the industry, but she found them to be quite vapid and thought entertainment celebrities to be such frivolous people. Most of them didn't go anywhere without heavy amounts of makeup, spent money as if it were water, and despite having the best money could buy the majority of entertainers were unconcerned about having the conversational skills of a baked potato. It all seemed like a walking vanity project in unchecked narcissism.

But she had gained a newfound respect for managers and for the industry in general as she learned that a lot of hard work goes into producing those celebrities. Last night she hardly had a moment to rest. She was exchanging emails with Sugita all night, trying to balance the band budget as well as promotional operations. She had sent out tens of correspondence to the label arguing for better deals and talking up the band. But the most time consuming part of her night was working out the scheduling issues Mokuba created by giving the band an unceasing amount of work. Because of this, Rebecca came to the conclusion that Mokuba only had that morning to record what was left of the remix album and the new album before it was sent to the label for publishing. Of course Mokuba could have come himself, but Sugita was interested in knowing what Rebecca's comments on the band's sound would be given her background in classical music. And so 3 minutes or so after she had put her head on the pillow, she was forced to accompany Mokuba to the studio.

She gave Mokuba a momentary look as he entered the recording booth and then scoffed. Even when Mokuba rolls out of bed the guy was still pretty good-looking. Rebecca had looked like a truck hit her while Mokuba having pulled back his shaggy black locks into a high loose ponytail and sporting a form fitting white jeans and a loose black and white striped sweater, it was pretty clear to Rebecca that Mokuba made no effort to look attractive, he was just naturally so. Rebecca never had a problem with his looks in the first place; it was his rotten player personality she despised.

Mokuba rubbed the side of his neck before placing himself in front of the mic, there was a slight feedback noise and all of a sudden Mokuba caught a feeling that he hadn't felt in a long time. Nervousness? Mokuba had been famous for practically all his life. Ever since he was adopted the cameras had always zoomed in on him. He had sung in front of all sorts of people but this was the first time he was singing in front of Rebecca and for some reason it had left him slightly nervous… yet excited.

Rebecca sighed at the scene. "You don't ever change, do you Mokuba?" she asked him rhetorically looking at him with a particular brand of disgust Mokuba had never seen before.

Mokuba shook his head hearing remembering her words. He didn't want to let that get to him. This was his chance to show off and mend her bad view of him. "Hey, I'm going to start with a couple of the vocals from the new album."

"Whatever, Mokuba." Rebecca yawned, disinterestedly. "So what, that's track 3?" Rebecca pressed the button and a ballad intro sprung to life through the speakers inside the booth. She was very surprised by the melody. She thought that all Mokuba knew how to do was make noise music but it would appear that wasn't the case. It was a subdued mixture of rock elements accompanied with a piano and flute.

Close To My Heart

How many years has it been since I last saw you

You were like a light amongst the shadows

You held me but for an instant but I knew

I knew I'd be yours

What was I waiting for all this time?

Perhaps I was looking for the green light

But if you don't come within my reach, that's alright

Just stand still and I'll come to you instead.

Rebecca dropped her pen and her mouth hung agape. Her eyes widened and she could feel her heart swell at his vocals. Mokuba's voice was… unbelievable. By the time he finished the first verse she had to re-convince herself that it was actually Mokuba she was listening to. Mokuba's voice was a beautiful sultry tenor tone, and coupled behind the soft slow-paced instrumental the lyrics were almost heartbreaking, almost as if he were singing to a past lover but not quite. Rebecca could feel herself tear up. She could feel his emotions, and it felt like a mix of pain and longing.

Hold me, hold me until I break

Hold me, hold me until I wake

When I wake up from this sleep

I want to be in your arms

Fall into my arms though we're still far apart

Come find my voice and be close to my heart

Be close to my heart…

There was a short instrumental break. Mokuba shot a look at Rebecca and smiled only to find that Rebecca was looking down and away from him.

I never wanted anything else of you

I just wanted you to stay by my side

I know nothing of the sadness you bear

That causes you to hide from me

The world does not yet know your story

But I know your wounds are deep

And if it's for the sake of leading you back to me

I'll put it all in a song and give it you

Love me, love me until I break

Love me, love me until I wake

Because deep in my sleep

I still feel your kindness

Fall into my reach so we won't be apart

I know you'll find my voice cause you're close my heart.

You're close to my heart…

There was a long instrumental break here coupled with a winding double guitar solo. Mokuba watched Rebecca put the head phones down in which she had been listening to him through and she leaned back in the chair. He had no idea what she was thinking. Was it a bad take?

Hold me, hold me until I break (hold me…)

Hold me, hold me until I wake

When I wake up from this sleep (near to me…)

I want to be in your arms

Fall into my arms though we're still far apart

Come find my voice and be close to my heart

Love me, love me until I break (love me…)

Love me, love me until I wake

Because deep in my sleep (in this dream…)

I still feel your kindness

Fall into my reach so we won't be apart

I know you'll find my voice cause you're close my heart.

"When I wake… from this sleep I know you'll find my voice." Mokuba belted before the music started to fade. "Come into my life and be close to my heart, fall into my reach cause you're…" Mokuba paused dramatically, "close to my heart." He finished softly. Mokuba looked at Rebecca questioningly after the music ended. "Well? How was it? Do I need to re-record it?"

I didn't know that you could sing like that, Mokuba, she thought to herself. Rebecca was silent for what seemed to be an eternity. And then she looked up at him. Mokuba could see her tears falling as she wiped them away with the back of her hand before pressing the speaker button that would allow Mokuba to hear her voice within the sound booth. "That was… beautiful. It's perfect. Don't do anything to it." He had given her goose bumps.

Mokuba blushed and looked away nervously. He had wanted to impress her but he didn't know he would make her cry. "Hmph, now you know. You can stop looking down on me now and admit that I'm good at what I do."

"Mhm" She said with a nod with a smile which startled Mokuba with how quickly she agreed with him. He was expecting some kind of snarky reply from her but there was none. "Now let's do the next one." he heard her say.

"For god's sake, Seto!" Ayame yelled, startled to see the man sitting in her patient chair when she opened her office door that morning. "Don't you even know how to knock anymore?" In fact, she was pretty sure that breaking and entering was still an offense.

"You're 10 minutes late." He said curtly.

"What?" Ayame did a double take. "Did you even schedule an appointment with me? Maybe if you had, and didn't just drop by unannounced I would have been on time. Also, did you ever consider the fact that whenever you stop by you close the whole street down creating the unnecessary traffic that delays me in the first place?"

Seto crossed his arms and shook his head. "A professional prepares for unforeseen circumstances, no matter what."

"Your whole life is an unforeseen circumstance." she replied in annoyance. "And what ever happened to never coming back here? To what do I owe the pleasure, did you forget something the last time you were here?"

Seto cleared his throat. "Well, I've decided to give you the opportunity to finish what you started."

"Oh how generous of you." Ayame rolled her eyes and contained her laughter. "So how should I welcome you back," she asked getting uncomfortably close to his face so that Seto couldn't avoid her gaze "to my 'con artist joke operation?'"

Damn it, did all doctors require the level of memory that would cause this woman to quote him word for word? Seto glared at her down. "Well, you haven't proved that you're not, have you? Like I said, I'm wonderfully big-hearted enough to give you this opportunity to do just that."

"You really are something else. Most people in this situation would apologize for their appalling behavior before asking for anything else."

"Hmph!" Seto looked away from her defiantly.

Ayame didn't know why she bothered to be surprised at this point. "Lucky for you, I'm not interested in holding grudges." The translation of that statement to Seto was that she was more interested in laughing at his problems. Which was true, she was much more curious as to why he was back in her office more than anything else. "So I assume that you are requesting a session with me? What's your malfunction this time? Any updates to your sexless situation?"

"I broke up with my girlfriend a few days ago." Seto admitted looking down to the floor. He couldn't stand to look at her knowing gaze. It's as if she knew this would happen all along and was just itching to say 'I told you so.'

But on the contrary, Ayame picked up her notepad and began writing. "And what brought this on? The last time you were in here, you were telling me how much you wanted to be with her. It's hard to believe you changed your mind this quickly."

"Well I did." Kaiba replied quickly. "What? I'm not allowed?"

Ayame laughed subtly. "I didn't say that, but surely there was a catalyst of some sort. Are you telling me that my words got through to you all on their own?" Ayame looked at him skeptically.

But his feelings for Joey… were feelings that he couldn't forsake even after seven years. He didn't know if it was love or not but he remembered that what he truly wanted to cherish back then, even if his words and actions did otherwise, was that person's smile. So he finally had to admit that those feelings were there, that they were still there.

"Seto, you are so in love with someone else that it burns with passion inside you. But you deny, and you repress, and you reject those feelings with everything that you are and I have absolutely no idea why. And now you, the great Seto Kaiba, are running away so that you may never find out."

"Let's break up."

"Seto?" Ayame looked at her patient curiously as he appeared to be in a bit of a daze. She placed her hand on his shoulder. "Seto?"

"What?" Seto asked, snapping out of his absentmindedness.

Ayame scribbled something down on her pad. "I was asking if you had any reason to break up with her."

Seto looked away from her again. "Saeko she… I wasn't in love with her, and she deserved better than that so I broke up with her."

"Ah. Interesting." Ayame said much to Seto's irritation. "And what makes you admit that now when you were so unwilling to nine days ago?"

Seto decided in that moment that the two very things he hated the most about their meetings. One was watching Ayame write down notes as if he were a science project that needed to be studied. This was second to being told to breathe deeply, of course. And he didn't know enough about psychiatry to know whether this type of constant note-taking was a necessity or whether if it was the sheer magnitude of Seto's problems that required it.

Seto cleared his throat once more. "You know, I didn't come here to inform you of my love life. I actually need something and it was too cumbersome to find another doctor to discuss this with."

"More like you couldn't find anyone else who would sign their life away on a 30-page gag order, the majority of which is comprised with irrational threats to their safety should it get out that you're seeking treatment." Ayame didn't even bother to look up from what she was doing. She had grown used to his verbal three-dimensional chess.

"32 pages." Seto felt like he was always correcting her on that.

Ayame paused writing. Well, it wouldn't be Seto if he didn't have some sort of sarcastic reply. "So what is it that you need from me this time?"

"…"

Ayame raised an eyebrow at Seto's dramatic pause. "Don't tell me you're ready to try the Viagra I offered you."

Seto shot her an angry look, balled his fists, and gritted his teeth for a moment before unclenching and breathing in what Ayame perceived to be a sigh of defeat.

Ayame wasn't expecting that. What could've gotten into him? She thought putting down her pen and coming a bit closer sitting in her chair next to the patient. Perhaps his situation was more serious than she thought.

"Actually…" Seto started. "I was hoping that you could give me something that does the opposite."

"WHAT?!" Ayame was ambushed by the question and in total shock. "YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?!"

Seto narrowed his eyes. "This is precisely the reason why I always make sure no one is within a one kilometer radius of the building when I have these meetings with you."

"It's because I have faith in your thoroughness that I can say WHAT?!"

"You heard me."

"Are you insane?" Ayame got up, walked to her desk, and rubbed her temples. "So let me get this straight. You came to me for a prescription that would actually prevent you from having an erection?"

Seto questioned her question. "Why would that be so bad?"

Ayame sat back down beside Seto with a heavy sigh. "Okay, Seto. You need to rewind because I'm struggling understand why you would want me to prescribe you something reserved only for extreme perverts, sexual predators, and pedophiles."

Seto paled at the statement. All of a sudden her gaze felt like a condemnation. "Surely you know I am no such thing."

"Just… tell me why. Tell me why you think you would need such a thing." Ayame didn't believe Seto to be a person suffering from extreme hypersexuality but she just wanted to make sure.

Seto was incredibly reluctant to share. "I'm having… a house guest for a little while." He said after a while. He swallowed hard, blinking a few times before continuing. "And this person makes me feel strange all the time. I just want to make sure nothing unnecessary happens."

Ah, now Ayame was starting to get it. "This house guest… is the same person we discussed last time, isn't he?"

Seto was silence spoke volumes.

Ayame nodded subtly and then looked down at her notepad. "Explain to me why he's staying with you. I thought you couldn't care less about him."

"What's that got to do with anything?" Seto quickly rebutted.

"What doesn't that have to do with everything?" Ayame returned the rebuttal with a rebuttal of her own. "Haven't you noticed it, already? That whenever you think of that guy you end up right back here?"

"He commissioned me to find someone for him. And in the middle of that he didn't have anywhere else to go. Once I find this person he's looking for so desperately, I can push him onto someone else and move on."

Ayame started to smell bullshit and quickly capitalized on it. Her powers of deduction were nearly world class. "I don't know you to be a bleeding heart, Seto." Then again, this was the guy who spent six months trying to love a woman he patently couldn't love.

"You don't know me at all." Seto replied.

"To start with, why would you go out of your way to help locate someone you don't give a damn about? The answer could only be one of two reasons."

Seto looked at her curiously. "Really?"

"The first is that you feel a natural inclination to help those who might be in trouble for the greater good of society." Ayame supposed as she began pacing very slowly around the office.

Seto snorted with a rebuking stare.

"But with your contemptuous response, to a person like you who is self-centered, has a strong subjective consciousness, and pride that is three times greater than the average person, this is not possible." Ayame explained. Therefore I can only conclude that you're doing it for the second reason, which is that you feel like you owe it to him."

Seto's eyes widened slightly. He felt like he was being punched by Ayame's pinpoint precision.

"Now why might that be the case?" Ayame asked rhetorically? It's not like she expected Seto to be forthcoming about it. "It's got to be one of two reasons."

Seto's heart began to beat faster. He didn't even realize how much he had been trying to hide it until Ayame threatened to expose him.

"The first is that he has something over you that you wish to keep a secret. But for a person like you, what you are unwilling to do even with a knife to your neck you'd still never do it. So I can only conclude that it's the second reason.

"Then may I ask Ms. Ayame Koroda, what is it you perceive the second reason to be?" Seto inquired indignantly. He could already feel himself starting to sweat.

Ayame smiled at him. "Something must've happened between you two. And I suspect it's something psychical since-"

Seto got up abruptly. "What kind of nonsense are you spouting?!" Seto denied the notion immediately. "How could I possibly…"

"You think I don't know you, Seto?" Ayame objected quietly. "You think it takes years and years for me to tell what kind of person you are, for me to tell how scared you are?"

"Scared…" Seto was amazed at the description as he repeated the accusation in stoic bewilderment.

"No, it doesn't take me very long at all to figure you out, because I find the most complex puzzles the easiest to identify and you, my friend, are the mother lode of complex puzzles. So you know what I figured out about you through these two meetings? You know what my analysis is?"

"Oh here we go." Seto prepared himself to hear another fable about his life.

"Your behavior towards me and probably society in general is a very get-them-before-they-get-me type of mentality. There's this seemingly insurmountable wall between you and the world. You're always on guard, you're always on edge, and you're extremely angry over the most minor things."

"The world is a stupid and cruel place. It would be irrational to smile over that."

"It's like you think that if you walk around like that then you can't get hurt because you're always prepared to hurt them first. You think if you don't care, you can't get hurt, if you don't admit that you care, you don't have to admit to being hurt. Anger and hostility is just a way for you to hide hurt, fear, and frustration."

Seto could feel himself becoming incensed. "Are you done?"

"Anger is a very protective emotion." Clearly she wasn't. "If you're angry then you don't ever get rejected because you reject everyone else first, that way you don't ever get hurt. You're afraid of that rejection and you don't have the self-confidence to believe that people would actually want to accept you for who you are. But there is someone you hold so dear to your heart that you're just as afraid of bringing him close as you are pushing him away. If you push him away, you may never see him again and if you bring him close he may see your true colors and reject you. So you're stuck between this parallel and your body is reacting to it, sending your life full of intricate interpersonal relationships into a tailspin. That's the reason why you're here."

"I ASKED YOU IF YOU WERE DONE!" He just came for some pills. He didn't come for her to probe his mind and lecture him.

"I'm not… your enemy, Seto." Ayame said softly before standing before him and looking him straight in his cerulean eyes. "Do you know what I truly think of you? You're a nuisance when you talk, with an arrogant attitude and a face that looks as if the whole world belongs to you… But I know those are just walls you've built from the pain you've suffered in the past. And it was a deep, horrendous pain, like your very soul was being shattered."

Kaiba blinked at the words and he could feel his anger dissipating. In its place was an odd feeling that came in waves and stung the back of his eyes. Why did he feel like crying?

Ayame slowly placed a hand over his. "I honestly just want to help you, because you have to start making your way in this world and trying to get happy. I know this is hard for you, because trusting people is something you're nowhere near accustomed to. But please… be honest with me and put your faith in me. Please, just trust me even if it's only a little bit. I won't reject you, no matter what. I will work with you, to help you gain a little peace in your life. I won't let you down."

A long silence persisted until Seto put his hand over his eyes rubbing them slightly. "We slept together." he finally admitted quietly.

Mokuba and Rebecca left the recording around 12 o'clock and parted ways. She had a ton of things to do and told Mokuba that he had the rest of the day of since she had to rework the schedule based off of the response to the calls she made the night before. So now here Mokuba was with his accidental day off, wondering what he should do. He knew the band would feel very happy about this. All of them had been working nonstop for weeks. Mokuba was feeling really guilty over it. Just because HE was willing to run himself ragged didn't mean the guys were, as evident of what happened yesterday. An accidental day off was just what they needed to refresh and re-energize themselves. So he decided he would let go of all negative feelings, go buy yakiniku, and cook barbeque for the guys tonight.

But when he got to his car a surprise was standing there waiting for him. A certain red-haired beauty had waited for him to return. Mokuba turned back looking for Rebecca before remembering that Rebecca had been picked up by Sugita so there was no need to worry about Iris annoying her. He breathed a small sigh of relief before turning back to face her.

"Hello there." She said causally with hand up in a small wave. Today she was adorned in tight blue jeans and a red halter top with a matching jeans jacket over it.

Mokuba narrowed his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"I was hoping we could talk, are you busy?" She asked.

Mokuba crossed his arms. "I'm always busy."

"I wanted to apologize for yesterday. Are you sure you can't give me 5 minutes of your time?" Iris was very uneasy. It was very hard for to sleep last night knowing Mokuba was mad at her.

All of a sudden an onlooker passed by and pointed. "Hey isn't that Mokuba Kaiba? And who is that? Are they fighting?"

The whispers around them steadily grew by the second. Mokuba sighed, mentally beating himself up for forgetting his sunglasses in his hotel room. He opened reached for the passenger side door and opened it. "Get in." He told her, which she did gleefully before Mokuba walked to the driver side got in and drove away.

Upon reaching his hotel room Mokuba was still pretty angry at her and was even angry with himself for bringing her there but other than that he couldn't think of any other place they could have a private conversation.

Iris racked her brain on what to say and Mokuba saw her do it. If there was one thing that needed to be known about Iris, it was that Iris was a very calculating woman. In fact, Mokuba would venture to say that 90% of her day was spent calculating the many different ways and scenarios she could get what she wanted. It's not like Mokuba didn't know that about her, perhaps that was even the reason he was attracted to her in the first place. He had wanted something different, so he didn't mind her flaws at first. Her manipulations didn't bother him that much since she was so open and honest about them and he found it refreshing. It's not that Iris had Mokuba wrapped around her finger it only appeared that way because he let her. But because of that she went too far yesterday, even to the point of disrupting their work and he couldn't have that.

"I know… you're still angry with me." Iris started.

"Of course I am." Mokuba gave her a quick reply. "Why would you do that? Why would you show up to the studio and antagonize everyone?"

"I didn't. Not everyone. Michi just hates me for no reason." She defended.

Mokuba scoffed. "I thought you cared about Thermo."

"I do!"

"The reason we even got together was because you were so invested in the band's music."

"I am! I still am!"

"Are you?" Mokuba questioned. "Then why did I have to spend all morning recording the songs we should've finished yesterday? Do you not realize that while you were having your petty little arguments with Michi, you were affecting Thermo's musical process? The one you claim to care so much about?"

"I'm sorry, okay?!" Iris yelled raising a hand to her forehead before turning away from Mokuba. "I do care. You know how much I love Thermo. Thermo's music saved my life."

Mokuba furrowed his brows. That was the first he had ever heard of that. And then he heard soft sobs. He resisted rolling his eyes, however upon forcing her to look at him they didn't appear to be fake tears. It appeared to him that she had let her walls down and was throwing herself at his mercy. "It's just that, I was so worried about you forgetting me. You think I'm this groupie that just wanted to snag a rock star for kicks. That's why you don't think it's important whether we're together or not. I'll admit it. In the beginning, that's what it was. But each time we were together my feelings grew and I started to hope that I'd be just as important to you as you are to me."

"You don't think you're important to me?" Mokuba asked. "For what reason did I give up all other girls just to be with you? And besides, that doesn't give you the right to antagonize my friends and get away with it."

"You didn't call, you didn't text, and you ignored me for weeks. I thought you were bored with me. I was angry and jealous of the amount of time and attention your friends get, that's why I did something so foolish."

Mokuba was silent, watching her cry over him. Unlike his older brother, it wasn't like he was made of stone.

She gripped his hand tightly. "Mokuba, I'm in love with you. So please forgive me, please don't throw me away. Please give me a chance… I will definitely make you happy more than anyone else ever had."

Mokuba could feel his anger fading. He couldn't stand it when a pretty woman cried in front of him but he could stand it even less when it was because of him. 'I'm in love with you…' It's not like they weren't words he hadn't heard before. Many women had told him that they loved him, but none of them made him feel this pang in his heart the way Iris had. Maybe it was because even a woman as damaged and selfish as Iris could still look so vulnerable when they bear their heart to him. Maybe he just had a thing for twisted women.

Or even more than that, maybe it was because they were kind of similar. Mokuba always had his brother to shield him from the ugliness of the cocktail crowd. Therefore, he didn't grow up with the same unwarranted sense of entitlement that the others did. But the cause of that behavior was loneliness. Nothing more than loneliness. Moreover, he wondered in that moment whether or not he would've turned out just like Iris if his brother hadn't been there. Mokuba raised a hand and wiped the tears under her eyes. He felt regret that maybe he shouldn't have ignored such a lonely lady. Even someone as brazenly confident as Iris could get insecure. Learning that about her may have been worth the trouble.

Iris looked up at him surprised at Mokuba's tenderness. Did that mean he had stopped being angry at her?

Mokuba's hand gripped her chin, bringing their faces closer together until Mokuba's lips met hers. To Mokuba, there was nothing more perfect than an imperfect soul.

Iris blinked when their lips parted and blushed when she saw Mokuba smile but soon she sought his lips again. Coincidentally the setting was just right. They were in his hotel room, after all. She gripped his sweater and pulled him closer to her and to her relief Mokuba was responding to her advances. When felt his tongue enter her mouth she moaned softly and put her arms around his neck.

But the biggest thing about Iris's charm was that she was so passionate about passion, and passionate about him. Mokuba had never been with someone as into him as Iris was. Every moment in bed he could feel how much Iris wanted him. And she was undeniably sexy, even when she wasn't trying to be. It felt great having a woman as beautiful as Iris want him this much, to the point of not caring how bad she looked to others. Her shamelessness only made him even more attracted to her.

Iris yelped and then giggled when Mokuba suddenly picked her up by the waist. She kicked off her red wedges before she was thrown onto the bed. Before she could even think of the next move, Mokuba, now shirtless, got on top of her. Their eyes met, her green playful irises met Mokuba's aroused indigo ones and Iris used the moment to cop a feel letting her hands travel down his chest and abs resting right above his nether regions. "I guess this means you forgive me?" She smiled, using her nose to tease another kiss from Mokuba but pulled away right before their lips met. Instead her lips traveled to Mokuba left ear with a subtle whisper. "Although I'm not sure you have, cause my clothes are still on…"

Mokuba blinked once and then again. Once again he realized that Iris was using her body to manipulate him into giving her what she wanted. He was about to lose his mind to a woman. He knew that. He could recognize that. But the thing is he just didn't care.

Ayame took her surprise inward and exhaled sharply. Surprise that the two of them actually went that far but more surprised that Seto actually admitted it to her. She had finally made some sort of breakthrough with him. That small admission meant that they were making progress. That one sentence must've been so hard for him to say. She had finally passed the first test of getting him to open up to her. "You know… we have to talk about that, right?"

Seto was afraid she would say that. "Why? It doesn't matter, it was a mistake."

"Would you be here right now if somewhere deep inside you, you didn't want that mistake to happen again?" Ayame asked. "And why would you need me to prescribe you something to make sure it doesn't? It's as if you know that it will."

Seto didn't reply because he didn't know the answer to that.

"Seto, I want you to lie down right here and close your eyes." Ayame pushed him onto the long chair. After a few moments Seto laid down there and closed his eyes. "Now breathe very fully and deeply and slowly bring yourself back to that night."

Seto made a sound expressing displeasure but eventually he did want he was told. After doing it for a while Seto found himself in some sort of calming trance. The same thing had happened the last time he was here but this time he was more aware of it because it was stronger.

"Now tell me what happened in your own words."

There was something incredibly soothing about the sound of Ayame's voice. The woman had an inexplicable way of making him feel calm and tranquil enough to verbalize the things that made him uncomfortable. After admitting that he had Joey had slept together, it appeared as though a mental dam broke and he was able to say a lot after that. "It was raining that night. I had just broken up with my girlfriend and was feeling a bit lonely." Seto started.

Ayame's ears perked up slightly. "A bit lonely?"

Ayame's voice seemed far away from him as images of that night came trickling into his mind. "Mokuba was gone, and the staff had the night off. I was alone in that big mansion all by myself. Suddenly, the doorbell rings and it's him."

"Him?"

"The one I told you about… Joey Wheeler."

Ayame celebrated internally that she actually got a name this time. "Go on."

"He was… crying. And I couldn't stand it." Seto furrowed his brows. "He was… crying over one of his friends going missing yet, he had been holding something of mine from long ago. And I… couldn't stand that."

Ayame picked up on the peculiar item. "What was that?"

Seto exhaled deeply at this point, trying to control his emotions that were stimulated by the memory. "It was a handkerchief with my initials on it that I had given to him many years ago."

Ayame was amazed that Joey would keep such a thing. She could instantly tell that this Joey character was a good person. Given that small items like that could be lost or thrown away five minutes after they are received, the fact that Joey had kept it for years showed that Seto was talking about a very conscientious and sentimental person. It was no wonder Seto had been smitten with him. "How did seeing that you feel?"

"Angry, stupid, and… strange."

Ayame that was about the second time Seto had said that word when describing this person. Ayame hypothesized that what Seto meant to say was 'happy' but could tell Seto wasn't ready to admit that.

"What made you feel angry and stupid about it?"

Seto's brows furrowed once more. "How dare he? How dare he even think of someone else in that moment? A moment like that was…" Seto couldn't complete the thought without becoming deeply embarrassed.

Ayame couldn't get enough of his candid descriptions. These were very important in shedding insight to the type of emotions Seto divorced himself from on a daily basis. But Ayame didn't feel like she needed to push him at that part. "And what was strange about it?"

"I… don't know…"

"Why don't you take a moment to think about it?" Ayame wasn't going to accept that answer, not when she had delved this far.

Seto sat there for several minutes contemplating the answer to the question he had been just been asked. Just when Ayame thought he wasn't going to answer it, he did. "That guy, came to me in the middle of the night… he ran to me in the pouring rain. Despite all the horrible things I have said and done to him he thought of me, when he was in trouble he found me… when I was alone in that big empty place, he found me….

"He found you?" Ayame reiterated. She found that description astoundingly interesting and it spoke volumes as to what Seto's true feelings were. That to Seto, he was not sought but that he was found made such a huge difference.

"Yeah. That handkerchief reminded me that… that guy always finds me."

"And then what happened?" Ayame quietly grabbed her pad and jotted down some notes.

"I… kissed him. And he kissed me back. And then my mind went blank. I could feel my explosions going off in my chest."

Ayame leaned back in wonder. "It was that potent?" Of course it would be when you couldn't have sex properly for weeks. "Were there any problems with your erection that night?"

"I had no problems physiologically." Seto answered.

It was as Ayame suspected. There was nothing wrong with him physically at all. All his problems were mental. "Describe the act for me a little bit. Ah… I don't need details. What I need to know is how all this made you feel."

"It was… hot… unpredictable… so passionate… like every nerve in my body was on fire. I sought after his heat… and sank in it… I felt myself becoming a different person. Every second I had him in my arms I felt… closer to who I wanted to be."

Ayame smiled. "So why don't you want it to happen again?"

This question too required several moments of self-reflection. "Because… I am not the type of person that should remain by his side. Because I'm not a strong enough person to control my impulses towards him. And because… no matter what, I always make that person unhappy."

Ayame frowned saddened by the answer. It was so typical of him to say that. "Well, these sessions will be about finding out why that is." she said.

Joey had just finished packing his last of his things when he noticed that all of his belongings could be packed into two duffel bags. He would spend the next week and a half gathering mementos of his father and clearing the apartment for the move as well as fixing up the last couple cars for his most recent clientele. He had found a buyer for the shop three days after he spoke to the doctor and delivered the deposit as soon as he got it the next day. So there was no doubt about it. His father would be going to Germany to receive treatment and this shop that Takeshi helped him buy, this shop that was full of his and his father's memories, would be a place he would no longer be able to return to.

Joey knew it shouldn't matter to him. It's not like the two of them had wonderfully painless memories there but he still had an affection for the place. His shop was the first thing he had ever really worked hard for. It was the place where he left his dirty escort lifestyle behind. It was also the place he met Mai and fell in love. It was the place Takeshi would come to hang out. The place he had bragged about to Yugi and the others, the place he had expected they would come visit him, where they could resume and transform their adolescent friendships into adult ones. All the dreams he had for the place were now coming to an end, for it would be the one place he would have to leave behind.

Cars, the smell of sweat and oil, a cluttered garage, all of these things reminded him of the way his dad was before he became mentally ill. It was his comfort zone to remember him in that way but now, it would all be gone. But, if trading this shop could save his father's life and bring him closer to who he used to be, Joey would make the same decision 1000 times, even if it meant he had to live with that monster named Kaiba each time.

Joey shuddered at the thought of the man. Every time he thought of him these days he would get unreasonably angry. He dreaded the prison the Kaiba mansion would become given how Kaiba had essentially forced him to move in. Why did he… do those things to him that night?

His pace quickened, Kaiba began pounding into Joey furiously with long powerful thrusts. Each time Joey let out a stifled moan until he was overcome by Kaiba's intense provocation. He felt Kaiba return to the crook of his neck, nibbling on it hard enough to leave a mark. The deeper he bore, the deeper the titillation.

"Mmph!" Joey let out another unrestrained moan against the mouth when Kaiba's hand left his face and began fondling his organ. He stiffened under the touch, panting against Kaiba's mouth, as the strokes got faster blending with the quick deep motions of Kaiba pounding into him.

Joey shivered at the memory, bringing a hand right up to his neck where a hickey used to be. Thankfully it had healed, but the memory had been indelible, even after Joey had told Kaiba and himself that he would forget all about it. And then after doing all of that, Joey was puzzled as to why Kaiba said those things that day.

"You want me to find Miura, don't you?" Kaiba said abruptly walking up to Joey and getting in his face until they were a breath apart. "Well that's my price so go on, finish that sentence and see if you don't regret it. After all, you said you'd do anything. Was that a lie?"

"Besides, do you really think you'll ever be able to come up with the money if you make me angry?" Kaiba asked.

"You know I can destroy any chance of that ever happening without even blinking an eye." Kaiba said, in case it wasn't clear.

"I'm a businessman. I hardly do anything out of the goodness of my heart. If I do something, most of the time I expect something back. We call this give and take. If I invest my time in finding this Miura you seek, I'm going to need a return on that investment. And that return is you. So you have no other choices and you have no other options." Kaiba's hand couldn't help but graze Joey's blond locks. "All you can do now is come to me."

"Damn him!" Joey banged his fist against the wall. "Damn him to hell! I fucking hate that guy!" Joey was kicking himself for having ever trusted Kaiba. He didn't know what Kaiba wanted, it's not like he could ever understand the way that guy thinks, but it sure wouldn't go the way Kaiba expected it to if he could help it.

Joey stepped outside into the garage where he laid his eyes on Takeshi's Acura Integra. Great. It was just one more thing he was going to have to bring with him to that house of horrors.

"Tell me what I have to do to make this an okay situation."

"Sorry Seto, but I don't think this will ever be what you can call an okay situation…" Ayame said after Seto briefed her on everything that happened between them. This would include how he basically forced Joey to come live with him. "I suppose you could always apologize and ask him to forget about it."

Seto responded by giving her a blank stare.

Ayame forgot that Seto didn't really do apologies. "Well you could always try to get him to actually like you…"

"Impossible," was the curt reply. He dismissed the notion immediately.

"Why not?"

"Have you met me?"

Ayame opened her mouth to protest but not a single retort came to mind. "Good point."

Seto looked down at the floor and buried his hands in his hair. He just needed a moment to recuperate mentally and emotionally. He had divulged many things to Ayame today, things that he hadn't told anyone else before, things that he hadn't even admitted to himself before today. The whole thing had left him a bit exhausted and frustrated. Most of all he felt like he hadn't solved his problem, the problem that led him right back here to begin with.

"What are you thinking about?" Ayame asked softly.

"Him. Who else would I be thinking about?" Seto said honestly. "When he's not near me, my mind obsesses over him. He's everywhere and nowhere at the same time. At home, at work, when I sleep at night with a beautiful woman beside me, he taunts me until I'm one step away from thinking that I've lost my mind. And when he is there I get so angry with myself for these inexplicable desires. Somewhere deep inside me I think 'I want to touch him' 'I want to hold him' 'I want to make him mine,' I do everything in my power to hurt him so that he won't let me think that way because becoming capable of having such absurd unreasonable thoughts scares me…"

Ayame looked like she was about to cry. She couldn't believe that Seto had just admitted that to her.

"Yes. You're right. I'm scared of that person and how he changes me, how he affects me, how he makes me so illogical…"

Ayame quickly wrote that down, it was a very poignant breakthrough they were reaching. Seto's feelings were right on the precipice of his conscious awareness.

"Ayame."

Ayame dropped the pen at the sound of her name. It had been the first time ever throughout all of their meetings that Seto had ever called her by her first name. She looked at him as their eyes met.

"You have to help me get rid of these feelings. They are making me stupid and weak. And the more I force him to cater to my will, the more he loathes me. I just want to forget about him so that I can have a normal life."

"You know I can't do that. Because I don't believe you need that."

"THEN YOU'RE USELESS TO ME!"

"I don't think so." Ayame didn't even flinch at his outburst. There is was again. At the drop of a hat Seto would bare his fangs at her the second she got anywhere near close to his emotions. He was breathing hard trying to catch his breath. "You shared a lot with me today. I think your mind was about to break, searching for a person you could talk with about all this. At the very least, I can be your diary and I think you'll find that very useful in the future."

Seto didn't bother disagreeing with her.

"If your heart has begun to flutter, I want you to embrace that. Stop trying to be in control of all your emotions and just let them happen to you. What you're doing is not healthy." Ayame picked up her prescription pad. "I'm going to prescribe you some anti-anxiety medication. Whenever you feel that you are in a high stress situation and you're about to panic or do something you genuinely don't want to do take them." she said, handing Seto the prescription. "I want to see you at least once a week. Here's my cell number in case you have an emergency. And if you use the back entrance I doubt anyone will see you so next time, none of this okay? No closing down the street, no allocating the residents, let's try to be a normal patient for once."

Seto was relieved that Ayame was giving him some sort of medication. He put on his jacket, pulled out a check, and handed it to her.

"Ah. You remembered this time, no metal briefcases full of cash. I'm so proud of you."

"I didn't want a paper trail." Seto rolled his eyes as he offered some loose explanation for what he did last time.

"Well lucky for you and your paranoia…" Ayame promptly ripped up the check. "You already paid me more than enough last time. In fact you covered my fee for like the next year."

Seto watched the pieces of paper fall to the floor and shook his head. "You are such a strange woman."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Especially knowing what the word strange meant to Kaiba.

Yuuki had just gotten back from shopping when he found Michi, Aki, and Tatsuya in his hotel room. He was puzzled as to why they were there.

"Mokuba told us to meet him here." Aki said.

Yuuki rolled his eyes. "Figures that he would do something like that. Why couldn't we meet at his hotel room?"

"I don't know." Tatsuya interjected. "He was being kind of secretive about it."

Michi had his arms crossed as he looked at the view outside the window. "Why is the one who called upon us the last to arrive?"

At that moment there was a knock at the door. Yuuki went to go answer it but it wasn't who he expected on the other side of the door.

It was 8 pm and Rebecca had just finished her errands for the day and had wanted to confirm something with Yuuki before she went home. She was exhausted, having worked for 16 hours straight just to barely stay on schedule. Yuuki opened the door with a smile and ushered her in. She was surprised to see the other band mates there. "What's this? You guys having a meeting without me?"

"Mokuba apparently directed the flow of traffic to my room." Yuuki said.

Before she could say another word there was another knock at the door. "Maybe it's him this time."

Sure enough a few moments later Mokuba emerged with yakiniku barbeque ready to go. "Yo. You guys are hungry, right?"

Michi smiled instantly. It was the first time Rebecca had seen a facial expression of his that wasn't a scowl. But the band members knew that Michi was a gigantic meat lover and could eat it for hours. He especially loved Yakiniku beef which was what Mokuba had brought. And it was already grilled and ready for consumption. "This is awesome!" Michi said taking the first bite off his plate.

Mokuba pulled Rebecca to the side. "Hey can I see your phone?" he asked her.

Rebecca thought nothing of it and handed it over but made a noise of verbal protest when he had used it to dial his own number, meaning he had just gotten her number, something she did not want to give him.

"Hey, I would've invited you all along but I didn't have your number." he said.

"Who says I would've come if YOU invited me." Rebecca asked.

Mokuba responded with a bored sigh. "Look. Regardless of what happened in the past, you and I now have a professional relationship. I think both of our jobs will be a lot easier if we are able to contact each other directly, not just through Sugita, okay? There's nothing else behind it. So stay and eat. Aren't you hungry?"

"No, I'm–" Rebecca was interrupted by her rumbling stomach which was loud enough for both of them to hear. Rebecca had been so busy that she didn't get a chance to eat all day. "Fine. I'll stay a little bit. But only long enough to brief Yuuki on next week's Q&A."

Mokuba smiled as Rebecca took a plate and went to Yuuki. "So diligent…" Mokuba said to himself. He supposed that it was really a blessing that the brightest mind in his school was now using her skills for his band.

Yuuki was sitting on a chair in the corner watching the other four eat and drink in merriment. Yuuki would've joined them if he wasn't so worn out from the day's events, he did spend all day walking the streets of Shibuya in search of new clothes and equipment. It was his final chance to do it before they finally left Tokyo the following day. Aki had given him some tips on the type of clothes look best on him and also told him that Tatsuya broke one of their amplifiers. Yuuki probably looked like the coolest most rebellious member of the group but in actuality he really was just an old man living in a young person's body now all he really wanted to do is eat and sleep. He was able to do half of that at least while he and Rebecca began discussing the questions that had been submitted by fans for the next meet and greet.

Mokuba wasn't old enough to drink but he did it anyway and Michi, a former athlete, never really liked liquor and opted for juice. Mokuba had his arm around Michi's neck and was telling him silly jokes that were making him burst into laughter.

"Are those two actually laughing together? I thought Michi hated Mokuba. I was starting to wonder how he was even able to join Thermo."

"Hate?" Yuuki laughed. "Oh quite the contrary. The two of them may be like that sometimes but the truth is Michi adores Mokuba, because Mokuba was the first person who recognized his talent and showed him a better life. He gave Michi the courage to believe that he had world class talent. And because of that, he and Michi will always be bonded in some way. Mokuba has a way of making him forget his problems by pissing him off, but at the same time there is no one else who can cure Michi's temper better than him. In a way, there's no one here that understands him better, since Mokuba came from the same humble beginnings as him."

Rebecca quietly observed the two, Michi looked really happy in that moment. Mokuba… he hasn't changed at all… she thought. He was always the ultimate mood-maker. And the guy still had of making people want to follow him.

Rebecca having eaten her fill and staying a few minutes longer than she had wanted to, she left. But ten minutes later there was another knock at the door. Yuuki was gone, knocked out. So there was a mini-debate as to who would answer the door. Mokuba was a little bit more than tipsy and therefore not coordinated enough to do it although he knew who it was. Tatsuya looked ridiculous with one of Yuuki's ties tied around his head and Michi was not friendly towards strangers so Aki stood up and answered the door.

Aki widened his eyes in surprise to see Iris standing there but soon recovered and gave her a polite smile. "Are you here to see, Mokuba? I'll go get him for you."

Iris smiled and did a great job of not being star-struck. This was the first time she had ever been those close to the androgynous Aki and he really was more handsome than anyone could even imagine. "No. There's no need for that, Mokuba is not the person I wanted to see. Is Michi there?"

Aki's brown eyes widened for the second time and it took a while for him to recover from that one. "Do you want to come in?"

"I was kind of hoping I could speak to him privately first, if you don't mind." she said.

"Right. Um, give me a minute." He replied to which she nodded as he went back inside to summon the guy in question.

Iris was in bed with Mokuba resting her head on his chest while he was stroking her hair. "You know, I really can't forgive you until Michi forgives you."

"Huh?" she looked up curiously.

Mokuba smiled but then gave her a serious look. "If Michi doesn't forgive you then I won't either."

It was so unfair being at the mercy of a temperamental teenager who was biased against her for no reason. But she had to do this. She wasn't about to lose Mokuba over this, not over a brat like Michi.

While fuming in her thoughts she hardly noticed that the boy had emerged until she heard…

"What do you want?"

Iris looked up and saw the very tall semi-muscular 17-year-old staring daggers at her.

"Michi may be abrasive and rough around the edges but if you apologize sincerely, I'm sure he'll forgive you. He's actually really soft at heart."

"I wanted to apologize to you for yesterday. I was out of line and I'm sorry."

Michi was surprised to hear an apology from the girl "And what brought this on? I suppose you're doing this because you don't want Mokuba to keep being mad at you? To think you would go this far doesn't suit a woman like you."

"Okay, it's true. I don't want Mokuba to keep being mad at me. But I am sorry. And I'm sorry that you don't like me. I want all the people close to Mokuba to like me."

"Oh that ship has sailed." Michi retorted sarcastically.

"Okay, you don't have to like me," Iris said as she manipulated her big green eyes to look more sincere than they actually were. "But can you forgive me?"

In Michi's heart he had already forgiven her. The gesture of coming there late at night and calling him out despite how much she knew he hated her was enough to assuage his anger and recognize the futility of it. But he wanted to see her squirm some more. "I don't know. I'll have to think about it." he said turning towards the door to head inside

Okay, time for plan B. She wasn't about the leave the future of their entire relationship to Michi's whims. "Wait." Michi halted at the words. "I have something to show you." Iris pulled out a picture and showed it to him.

Michi gave her a strange look and peered with confusion. "What is the meaning of this? Why would you show me a picture like this?"

Iris had a knowing look on her face. "Shall I tell Mokuba? Shall I tell him about your love? I don't know how he feels about homosexual relationships but I can probably guess."

Michi's faced paled at the response. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What? How did you..?"

"You thought I wouldn't notice the way you look at him?" Iris asked rhetorically. "I could tell from the very beginning there was something abnormal about you."

Michi was could feel his heart beating faster, palpitating with anger. He tried so hard to control his breathing. He looked at the picture again and realized that she knew his secret, that there wasn't even any point in denying it.

"I'm not telling you this to threaten you." Iris said. "I'm saying that I can help you. We can both get what we want if you just let me help you. I get to be with Mokuba, and he doesn't ever have to know the deviant that you are and the type of thoughts you have. And who knows, maybe this picture could be your future. So be a good boy and don't make things difficult for me."

Michi's eyes watered as he exhaled sharply. How could Mokuba be with such an evil person? "You really are a horrible woman."

27 pages: Okay so one thing I've been struggling with is whether to make Mokuba gay or not. I'm leaning towards keeping him straight lest the whole background story between him and Rebecca would be rather pointless. But what do you guys think? Does Michi even stand a chance between Iris and Rebecca? Would that be a direction you want to see me go in?

Yeah so Kaiba was full disclosure this chapter which was very interesting for me to write. I mean think about it. Kaiba has been living with these suppressed feelings for such a long time to the point of even hallucinating about Joey. If he didn't open up about it TO SOMEBODY it would be even more unbelievable then him doing so. I mean yeah we say he's a jerk and everything but he's still a human being at the end of the day. When you cut him does not bleed angst?

Yeah, that's it for now. Read and Review, see you next chapter.