A/N: Please remember that I write fanfics because I enjoy doing so. I don't have to do it, I'm certainly not being paid, and I do not appreciate getting anon reviews complaining about a lack of updates during the rare week that I can't. I have a life outside of the computer that comes first, and a lot of you need to remember that bitching at someone is not the way to get what you want.

The look of abject relief on Nosaka Miho's face when she walked into the kitchen early the next morning and saw Seto sitting there made Jou feel guilty. It was evident from just one glance that the past few weeks had taken a serious toll on Seto's assistant. Her face was pale and haggard, and she'd lost a fair amount of weight. Her clothing still fit perfectly, of course, but it was noticeably tighter than it had been before, and her once vibrant ponytail seemed to have lost a bit of its luster. He stood up to greet her and, even though he wasn't normally a very tactile person outside of his immediate circle of friends, found himself reaching out with his arms open. She stepped easily into his embrace.

"Does he know?" she whispered into his shoulder, the words spoken so quickly and quietly that Jou knew there wouldn't have been a chance for Seto to overhear. His admiration for Miho increased by several bounds. It wasn't easy to put something over on Kaiba Seto. He pressed her tighter, letting her feel the minute shake of his head before he released her and stepped back, glancing automatically at his lover. There was a puzzled look in Seto's eyes as he watched them, but no clarity that indicated he'd understood something was being kept from him.

"As you can see, we're finally back," he said, reaching for Seto's shoulder with a grin. He kept wanting to do that, he noticed. Touching Seto felt like a novelty even after waking up in the man's arms not an hour ago. It hadn't surprised Jou in the least that Seto had wanted to get an early start by calling Miho. In fact, he'd encouraged it under one condition: that he be present. Fortunately Seto hadn't fought him very hard on that fact.

"I can see that, yes," Miho replied, bowing in Seto's direction. "Welcome back, Kaiba-sama. It is good to see that you have returned."

Seto inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement. "The company, Nosaka. How bad is it?"

"Actually, it's not bad at all." She was smiling when Seto glanced up at her in surprise, her eyes twinkling with poorly suppressed amusement. "As soon as we received word that you were unexpectedly called away, I set into motion one of your back up plans. Jou was brought in to advise on the state of the company, and the two of us did our best to make sure that no one was aware that you were..." She paused, as though searching for the best word. "Indisposed. We decided to spin a story that Mokuba-sama had become ill."

"And they accepted this?"

"Some of the shareholders have gotten very restless," Miho allowed, and it was only because Jou knew her so well that he spotted the hidden frustration in her expression. He knew that she had been pushed to her limits by the nosy old bastards, and if it hadn't been for Noah she might not have been able to carry on.

"As expected," Seto muttered, drumming his fingers on the table. "Very well. I have a few things to do here, but I'll be into the office this afternoon. You can call a meeting amongst the board members. They've been allowed to play and hatch plots for too long."

"Yes sir," Miho said with a relieved sigh. "I'll do that right away. And I'll also make a list of clients that you need to contact in order of importance, shall I? You'll find that I've already e-mailed a schedule of deadlines to you. Nothing needs to be taken care of before this afternoon, but it should be enough to brief you on what's been happening."

"I look forward to it," Seto said, clearly distracted by the fact that Yami had just walked into the room. As he stood up to go speak to his cousin, Jou took the opportunity to usher Miho out of the room.

"Thank you for not saying anything," he told her as soon as they were out of earshot. "I really think I should be the one to break the news about Noah to him. I'm just not really sure how to do it yet." How exactly was he supposed to explain that one of Gozaburo's relatives was still around? Especially a relative that had apparently only been recently given a body, and thanks to magic at that. He had no idea how Seto was going to react, considering the stormy relationship that he'd had with his stepfather.

"I understand, and I think that's a good idea. Noah has told already told me that he plans to stay out of sight until you tell him otherwise," Miho said.

Jou raised an eyebrow. He couldn't help noticing that she was calling him Noah without any honorific attached. For a woman like Miho, who was usually super polite to everyone she met because she was almost always representing Kaiba Corp, that was strange. He found himself wondering just what Miho and Noah had got up to while they'd been gone. Under his scrutiny, Miho blushed and fidgeted uncomfortably, and he suddenly felt guilty for making her nervous. She had been good to Seto at a time when most people probably would have tried to take advantage of him, and even with Noah's help Kaiba Corp would have been in a lot of trouble if it weren't for Miho.

"Thank you," he said sincerely, deciding to drop it for the time being. It was really none of his business, and besides he had way more important things to worry about.

Miho sent him a shy smile. "It's not a problem. Um... I'm not sure if it's my place to tell you this or not, but we did get a letter from a lawyer the other day. Specifically, from Kawai Noriko's lawyer. She's getting the court involved, saying that you and Seto are keeping her from seeing Shizuka."

"Oh my fucking god," Jou muttered, completely disgusted. Somehow this didn't surprise him in the least, but it did piss him off. He knew exactly where Shizuka was: along with Mokuba, she'd returned to the mansion the afternoon before and crawled into bed with him and Seto. He didn't think Shizuka had contacted Noriko yet. Actually, he kind of hoped she hadn't. It would serve the bitch right.

"I haven't done much about it yet because I wasn't sure how you wanted to deal with it," Miho said apologetically, clutching her purse closer. "But I thought that you should know. She seemed to be very determined, and her lawyer made it clear she's not going to go away."

"I'll talk to Seto," Jou said. He was mortified that Miho was getting an idea of how crazy his mother could be, but relieved that she could be trusted to keep it under wraps. "Thank you."

"No problem," Miho said again with another smile. She turned and walked down the hall towards the door, but before she got there she stopped. "Jou, I realize that this may be out of bounds for me to say - but I've spending a lot of time with Noah. He's a really nice guy. I've worked for Kaiba Corp for a long time now, and I have to say that some of his ideas are really fresh and innovative. He understands computers in a way that most people can't. It really would be in Kaiba-sama's best interests to at least hear what he has to say. I know that probably doesn't mean much, but I thought I would let you know. I really don't think he wants to steal the company away."

Jou stared at her for a long moment before he cleared his throat. "To be honest, I don't think he does either," he said. He hadn't gotten that vibe from Noah at all, but it was nice to hear that Miho felt the same way. Miho nodded and left, closing the door gently behind her. For a moment. Jou almost wished that he could go with her. Instead, he turned and went back into the kitchen.

By that point, Yuugi was up too. He was sitting peacefully on Yami's lap, sipping from a cup of tea with half-open eyes while his darker half had an argument with Seto in furiously whispered tones. Jou walked across the room and sat down beside Seto, eyeing Yuugi. Every minute or so Yuugi would lift the cup to his lips, but he barely looked awake enough to drink the contents. Most likely, the only thing that had driven him from the bed was Yami's absence. It was rare for Yuugi to do something as brazen as sit in Yami's lap in public, but Jou could hardly blame him. If it weren't for the fact that he was really too tall for it, he would've been right there in Seto's lap along with him.

"How are you feeling?" he asked quietly, noticing that coffee had been made while he'd been speaking to Miho. He got up and fetched himself a cup. Normally when he drank coffee he took it with a liberal amount of milk and sugar, but today he omitted the milk entirely and just dumped half the contents of the sugar bowl in. He felt like he was going to need a major boost to make it through the day.

"I'm okay." Yuugi muffled a yawn even as he said the words. He smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "Well, I will be okay, I guess I should say. I'm just really tired, that's all. I could have easily slept for another seven or eight hours."

"You could have," Jou pointed out.

"No, I couldn't." Yuugi shot him a significant look, and it only took Jou a minute to understand the meaning. Right, Yami's parents. He'd almost forgotten about the two of them between Kaiba Corp and his mother, but right away he knew that Yuugi was really worried about what was going to happen. In spite of what Yami said, he was more affected by what his parents said and did than he wanted to admit. When the two of them showed up - and it probably wouldn't take that long - there was going to be a major blow out. No wonder Yuugi wanted to be around for it.

"Right," he said, running a hand through his hair and taking a gulp of coffee. It was strong, but it was just what he needed. He could practically feel the sugar and caffeine starting to go to work. He sat up a little straighter and blinked a couple of times. "Where are the others?"

"They're still asleep," said Yami, turning away from Seto for the first time and giving Jou a warm smile. "Well, Mariku and Malik weren't exactly asleep. Or at least I don't think they were. They were still in bed, and the door was shut - but you're welcome to go knock if you want to see if they're still awake."

Jou grimaced. "No thanks. I don't think walking in on those two again is how I want to start my day."

"I feel like I should be insulted by that." Displaying a remarkable sense of timing, Mariku sailed into the room with an arm around Malik. Bakura and Ryou were right behind him, and so were Mokuba and Shizuka. As soon as Shizuka saw her brother, she ran over to him and threw her arms around him. Jou hugged her back so tightly that she squeaked, but he couldn't help it.

"Are you okay?" he asked her anxiously.

She smiled and squeezed his hand. "I'm fine, really. No lasting effects, except I have a weird and strong craving for dates."

"That will pass," Yami said.

"I hope so. I don't even like dates."

"Has anyone talked to the others?" Ryou asked as he sat down between Yami and Bakura. "Are Otogi, Honda and Isis still in Egypt? What about Anzu, Mai, Rebecca and your grandfather, Yuugi?"

"Jii-chan is back and fine, and so is Rebecca," Yuugi replied. He didn't sound particularly thrilled about the latter. "He said that he was going to have a long talk with Rebecca's grandfather to make sure that things were okay there, but he didn't foresee any trouble. He said that he and Hawkins-san were close while they were in university." He paused. "Which I'm going to take to mean that Jii-chan told him more about everything that's going on than he originally let me believe."

Malik smirked. "I talked to Nee-san. She, Honda and Otogi are still in Egypt with Aunt Edina. Apparently she was pretty surprised when the three of them appeared out of nowhere." He tilted his head. "You know, it's weird. It seems like everyone else reappeared wherever they were when Hafiz took them. But Yuugi, Jou, Ryou and I were in Egypt with Aunt Edina when we originally cast the spell to be taken into the past. Why didn't we return there?"

"The magic probably sensed your connections and the desire you had to be with your other halfs," said Seto. He took Jou's cup of coffee and drank from it. Jou watched, barely able to contain his glee, as his lover sputtered. It was truly amusing to watch Seto struggle to swallow his mouthful, as the man was far too polite to do something as uncouth as spit it out again. Seto wore a pained expression as his throat moved, and then he thrust the cup back into Jou's hands and rose quickly to fetch his own cup.

"Too sweet?" Jou said innocently.

"Like drinking pure sugar," Seto muttered, hastily pouring himself a fresh cup. He drank about half of it black, looking relieved.

"What about Anzu and Mai?" Yuugi asked, shaking his head in amusement. When no one spoke up, he sighed. "I guess we should get into contact with them, too. Just to make sure they're okay."

"I'll do it," Ryou volunteered.

"First I think we should discuss how we're going to handle things," said Seto, sitting back down at the table with a second cup of coffee.

"I need to talk to you," Jou said to his sister quietly. She shot him a curious look but stood up, and they slipped out of the room and into the back yard. It was a beautifully warm day, the sun shining and hot without a cloud in the sky, and he closed his eyes for a second. If he ignored the sound of bird calls and traffic, he could almost imagine that they were back in Egypt.

"Nii-chan? What's wrong?" Shizuka asked after a couple of minutes, sounding worried.

Jou sighed and turned around to face her, taking in her concerned expression. He really didn't want to worry Shizuka with this so soon. She deserved to have a little time to rest. But it was frankly a miracle that she hadn't heard from Noriko already that morning. She probably hadn't turned her phone on yet, and as soon as she did she was going to have a long list of voice mails to listen to and text messages to read. It wasn't fair to let her face that without any warning.

"About a week after you guys disappeared, Ma showed up," he said quietly. "She said that one of her co-workers hadn't ended up taking the vacation time he'd scheduled, so she was back sooner than we thought she would be. She wanted to take you home, but of course you weren't here."

Shizuka didn't say anything for a moment. Then she took a deep breath. "I'll bet that went over well," she said.

He shot her a strained smile, remembering that conversation better than he wanted to. He'd done his best to push it out of his mind, but he knew he would never be able to forget the way Noriko looked at him or the things she'd said. "It was going great, right up until I threatened to fight her for custody of you."

Her mouth dropped open. "Nii-chan, you didn't!"

"I had to." Jou did not regret making that threat. It had been worth it just to see the look on her face. "Shizuka, I never get to see you and I hate that. You're my little sister, and you're growing up without me." He had to pause to swallow hard. "I know Ma doesn't like me, but it's not fair that she thinks she can keep us apart for no reason. I don't even live with Dad anymore! This is the first real time we've spent together in years and I just... I know that if you go back with her she won't let you visit anymore."

In a couple of steps, Shizuka closed the distance between them and hugged her brother. Jou hugged her back hard, pressing his cheek against her soft hair. He continued in a choked voice. "I know that I had no right to bring this up without asking you first, but..."

"It's okay," Shizuka said quietly, pulling back just far enough so that she could look up into Jou's face. She looked tired, but resigned. "I knew there would be problems over this sooner or later."

"I don't want to take you away from her," he tried to explain.

She smiled sadly. "But it's not you who's doing it, it's her," she said with a shake of her head. "Believe me, I know what she can be like. I've tried to get her to let me visit more, and she always has some excuse about why I can't. Normally I wouldn't push it, but..." She glanced back at the house and sighed. "I'm a guardian. I have to be here to help protect the pharaoh and everyone else. That comes before everything."

"Shizuka, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I want you to do it. I want you to fight for custody of me."

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