Chapter Twelve-How the Other Half Lives
After another two days, Andrew made a complete recovery from his snake bite, and the four younger Robas were assigned to a new foster care home;Seto Kaiba's mansion. Mokuba and Jonathan made it a grand adventure for the littles, while Christien just sulked. It wasn't that he hated the Kaibas. He just wanted his older brother to be closer, and accessible. After the Destiny Shore incident, he had become even more protective and cautious with his younger siblings. His relationship with Jonathan was also suffering, but neither of them would talk out their issues with the other. As a whole, it was not a happy group of Robas that was moved into Kaiba Mansion that Spring day.
"C'mere, Chris! Wait'll you see the size of their new pool!" Jonathan pulled Christien into the Kaibas' back yard. "Isn't it huge?!"
"It's not that big..." Chris muttered bitterly. "Andy,get off of that trampoline!" He raced away from Jonathan, avoiding further conversation, and went to tend to his hyper younger brother. "You know you're not supposed to be up on one of these without Jon or me."
"It fun, Chrisien!" Andrew held out a little hand, as if to help his elder brother up on the elastic contraption.
"Yeah.....okay." Chris gave in with a sigh, and climbed up. Before he knew it, Jonathan, Mokuba and EJ were also with them. "Be careful, EJ!" He made his way slowly to pick EJ up, and hold him.
"Let him alone, Christien. He's three, not one." Jonathan insisted. "What has gotten into you? We're not at home anymore. We can go wild here!" Jonathan had vowed to himself to make the most of the nightmare that kept him away from Espa. As he had pointed out to Espa, it wasn't as if they were with strangers. Being with the Kaibas was pretty much what he thought it would be. Seto hadn't set any rules, or anything. Mokuba had explained that they could all pretty much do what they wanted within reason. It was the exact opposite of the house rules in the Roba house.
"What has gotten into me?!" Christien grabbed Jon's arm in mid bounce, and the two older brothers fell to their knees on the trampoline. "I'll tell you what. We're not even here a day and you seem to have forgotten all about Espa!"
"That's crazy talk!" Jonathan retorted. "I could never forget about Espa!" He looked at Christien. "Chris, I know this is hard for you......"
"And I suppose it's a piece of cake for you! Well, that's nice, Jon. Okay? Just don't forget how upset and sad EJ and Andrew were this morning at the child services place when they were almost ripped out of Espa's arms!" Christien left himself out, but he too, had felt like crying as much as Andrew and EJ had that morning.
"I can't forget that either." Jonathan said hotly. "But dwelling on what's not possible right now isn't going to help either. We have to make the best of everything. Just like we always have. It's what our big brother would have wanted us to do."
"Epa leaved us..." EJ spoke up suddenly, bursting into tears.
"No, Little E." Mokuba picked him up. "He didn't leave you,Buddy. He's right here." He pointed to EJ's heart. "And that's where he'll always be, even when you're apart, like you are right now." He scooted off the trampoline, and got the littles down. "I know what you Robas need." He grinned brightly now, attempting to lighten the mood. "Ice Cream from O'Malley's!"
"I cream!" EJ looked to Jonathan and Christien. "Want tome?"
"I....well..." Christien looked at Jon. Suddenly, he didn't feel so angry anymore. "Sure!"
"Ice cream for dinner?" Andrew asked clearly.
"Yep!" Mokuba grinned. "We do it all the time around here."
"Awesome!" Jonathan joined Mokuba on the grass now, and took Andy's hand. "Can we ride in the limo again? I want to play with the TV."
Mokuba smirked. "Yeah. Hey, we can maybe go see if Randi and Kenny wanna ride down with us!"
"Sounds like a plan. But we can't go out like this. And......ew! EJ needs to be changed." Jonathan added.
"I'll change him." Christien picked EJ up, and they left the backyard to prepare for their excursion.

By the time Kenny Underwood was in the limousine, the mood had changed drastically. Andy kept playing with the ice maker in the back, while EJ was amazed with the divider that separated the driver from the passengers.
"So, you guys are living it up in the high life for a while? That's awesome!" Kenny said excitedly. "Have you decided if you're going to transfer to Mokuba's school or not?"
"Doubtful. We're not going to be away that long. Christien and I are going to stay at our school, and Seto put EJ in pre-pre school. Andrew is still at his kindergarten, which is annexed to our school." Jonathan told her. "As for the soccer team...well, I'm back in, if the coach says so."
"It's too late now. The final game is tomorrow....if we don't make the championship. I really want to do that though." Kenny told him.
"You will." Randi Wilson said around a mouthful of Twinkie. Mokuba kept his personal limo stocked with all kinds of goodies. "I've seen you guys play. I admit that you guys haven't played well since Jonathan left, but you're still pretty good."
"Our defense has really gone down." Kenny pouted.
"Well...maybe I can play in the last game...I am the goalie after all.." Jonathan stared out the window, his mind a million miles from soccer. I hope Espa's doing okay. I miss him so much. Christien wasn't too far off the mark. I just don't want the littles to worry. As far as their concerned, this is one big party. One that Espa doesn't know about....
"You coming, Jon?" Mokuba shook Jonathan from his thoughts. "We're here."
"Oh..right." Jon followed Mokuba out of the limo,and into the ice cream parlor.

"Jonathan, are you awake? Big brother?" There was a voice calling to Jon in his head, or so he thought.
"Go away,voice...." He muttered in his sleep.
"Jon...." Christien's voice became clearer now. "Jon, I want to talk to you..."
"Chris...?" Jon opened his eyes slowly, and sat up, seeing the expression on his younger brother's face. "What's wrong?"
"I'm worried about....stuff." Christien climbed in beside Jon in the big bed. He was so used to having to share a room with Jonathan, nothing was weird about this.
"Worried? About what? We've got everything we ever wanted..." Jon smiled gently. "I know....but that's what's bothering me. What if the court system decides that Kaiba's better for us than Espa? They have that kinda power, you know..."
"That's not going to happen. We saw Espa last night, remember? He said things were getting better. It's only a matter of time...." Jonathan pulled Christien closer to him. "He's not Mom and Dad. He won't leave us in someone else's hands. Even if it is Kaiba."
"I wish Mom and Dad hadn't left us either. Was it our fault?" Christien asked. He hadn't asked this question in a long time.
"No. It couldn't have been. We were still so young...me and you,I mean...and the littles were even younger." Jon sighed deeply. "I wish we knew what had happened back then. Espa never told us."
"Do you think we can ask him next time Mokuba sneaks us over?" Christien asked.
"I don't think we should ask him until we're all together again. I asked Seto how long it would be. He estimated at least another three months." Jon shook his head. "Let's go to sleep now, okay? We're going to Kaibaland tomorrow, and we need to be in top form."
Before either of them could attempt to sleep, they heard crying down the hall in the littles' room. EJ and Andrew still shared a room. Christien sat up. "I'll get him. It's Andy."
"I'll go with you. We can bring them both in here, and sleep together. Like we did the first few nights without Mom and Dad." Jon tousled his younger brother's hair, and they went and got their brothers. In a few minutes, Jon and Christien had made a tent in the bed, and they all slept under it, snuggled together.