"Look, I just simply don't understand what gave you," Kaiba pointed an accusing finger at the tomb-robber, who was sitting on the couch, bored. "…the right to go ahead with my car, my brother, and my cousin!" He paced back and forth in front of everyone.

"Seto, I already explained the situation." Daphne begged from the loveseat, where she was holding an ice pack against Mokuba's forehead. Though the blood had stopped flowing, Mokuba continued to look dazed.

"No, you should have called me." Seto whirled around. "What did I tell you before I left, Daphne? NEVER open doors to strangers. And what do you go and do? YOU GO AND OPEN THE DOOR TO A STRANGER!" His voice raised and the objects in the room trembled from the vibration.

"Please, Kaiba, calm down. You're scaring Mokuba." Ryou said softly from where he's been sitting, next to his yami.

"And you," Kaiba turned to the gentle European boy. "You just had to appear in the middle of the street, out of nowhere!" Ryou was silent, he knew Kaiba's wild accusations came from the fact of been worried sick and frightened to the pit of his stomach. Obviously, when he stepped into the mansion, seeing that both albino boys were sitting in the living room lazily, with Daphne wiping the blood off Mokuba's forehead, of course he panicked.

But Daphne had no way of knowing all these ridiculous indictments from Kaiba were from concern and her own temper from the Kaiba bloodline flared.

"Seto," she argued, her sweet temper flawed from the indefinite prosecution. "It's not their fault. It wasn't anyone's fault!" Mokuba looked up at her snappish voice. She had turned from a sweet, soft-spoken belle manner to narrow-eyed, flashing a dangerous warning. Mokuba was almost certain he saw his big brother taken back by the change of Daphne's air, but if he was taken back, he didn't show it.

"Daphne, that's enough!" Kaiba's voice was deadly. It had an unforgiving authoritative commanding tone that he'd never used on anyone besides his executives before. Daphne's eyes traveled to Kaiba's eyes. They were dark, dark and forbidden. She felt tears of frustration build up behind her eyelashes. Why doesn't he understand?

She stood up and set Mokuba on the chair where she'd been holding him in her lap. Then she breezed out of the room, before the crystal tears slipped from under her eyelids. Kaiba was about to yell at her to come back, but thought better. He glowered at the two albinos and continued pacing. Foolish girl, he narrowed his eyes. Doesn't she know the danger she was in? Ryou and Bakura glanced at each other, then shrugged and sat back, ready for more lecture to come from Kaiba's direction.

Daphne was walking toward the staircase when the Kaiba Mansion door flew open and Yami walked in. She turned her head and flew up the stairs, wishing that Yami hadn't had a chance to see her, knowing what his tempers were like if anyone ever light his fuse.

"Daphnia?" Too late. Yami's keen eyes had already caught her. Caught her and her tears. Daphne stopped at the top of the staircase, not turning around. He climbed up the stairs to where she was standing. "What's wrong, Daphnia?" He asked, concerned, using his pet name for her. The sympathetic tone in his voice was too much for Daphne to tolerate. She swirled around and buried her face in Yami's clothes.

"Why doesn't he understand, daddy?" Her sob voice was muffled, but Yami could tell that her voice was as vulnerable as a little girl's, especially when she calls him daddy. She only does that on the rarest occasions. He smiled gently and rubbed her back.


"Because he doesn't want to." He told her in his wise, deep voice.

"Well, why doesn't he want to understand?"

"Because he had been in for a scare today. So scared that he's not going to let it off so easily." He pulled back and fumbled in his many pockets for a handkerchief. "Oh, you girls. Always cry like a baby, yet never have a tissue or handkerchief handy." He finally located a large white hankie and gently wiped the tears off her silky skin.

"But why was he so scared?"

"Honestly, Daphnia, if I was in Kaiba's position, I'd be scared too. You running around opening doors to strangers, driving with a maniac like Bakura, and even getting into an accident. I'd be scared out of my wits. And definitely more scared than Kaiba."

"Daphne?!" Kaiba's demanding voice came from below, was edged with concern. "You okay? Who's up there with you!?"

"Just Yami!" She called back.

"Yami?!" Kaiba's tall, stern figure appeared in the foyer. "What are you doing in my house uninvited, you retired old pharaoh?"

"Just checking on your fathering skills." Yami retorted. "I think you still need work." The father and daughter could hear Kaiba's low growl. "What?" Yami walked down the stairs. "Is that a growl I hear?" Ryou and Bakura watched with amusement as the two threw insults back and forth at each other, though they noticed none was really harmful.

"By Ra, the pharaoh had turned into a father once again…" Bakura chuckled darkly and said to Ryou. "Wish I had one of those…that do you call those…? Oh yeah, cameras with me."

"What do you mean, once again?" Ryou asked, a puzzled look on his face. Had his Yami known Daphne and Yami's relationship back in ancient Egypt? Bakura cast his hikari a dirty look and ignored the question.

Meanwhile, Daphne had somehow lugged Mokuba upstairs and put him to bed. It was late when Kaiba finally kicked everyone out of his mansion and headed upstairs, exhausted. He peered into his female cousin's room, ready to apologize for spoken to her the way he had earlier. He poked his head into the room, mouth open and ready to apologize. His midnight blue eyes blinked. She wasn't in her room. Eyes widened in surprise, Kaiba wondered from room to room, checking each one to see if she had been there. At the end of the hallway, he stopped outside of Mokuba's room and peeked in.

Her movements were whisper-soft, and she seemed so caring, so gentle, that a peaceful feeling washed over Kaiba. She brushed back Mokuba's unruly bangs and smiled…a loving, tender smile. Kaiba had never known anyone so full of love and tenderness as Daphne. She melted that everyone's hearts like fire on ice. But that was Daphne. She simply loves you until you had to love her back.

Kaiba silently closed the door. Leave his younger brother to his cousin. Heck, if Mokuba had anything else he needed in this world, it was motherly attention, which was the only thing that Seto Kaiba couldn't get him.