**Well… I don't think people really like this story so far according to the first chapter… but this one might brighten their spirits. It's a bit of an odd couple really oh and for all of those out there who adore Kiaba/Serenity don't be fooled by who's in Kaiba's place… (that's my hint saying that eventually they are going to get paired up… I think… that's the general idea for the story but I really like who she's with now… oh well…) review and tell me what you think, this chapter is a bit shorter… I really ought to have put another scene in but I just couldn't think of anything… I guess I could have talked about Kaiba's disturbed thoughts… but I'm assuming you'll understand that and if you don't then read the bottom part because I'll explain it just in case. Well, read and enjoy and please review… I know I'm gonna keep writing it anyway but eventually I'll get bored with a story no one else wants to read either and just won't finish it…**

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The Kaiba Brothers

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"Joey Wheeler," Joey told the man at the registration desk.

"Are you sure, this is for top duelists," the receptionist said.

"What do you mean top duelists? I am a top duelist!" Joey shouted. "I got second place in Duelist kingdom and I made it to the finals in Battle City!"

"Very well sir, you'll be paired up with Mai Valentine for the beginning hunt."

"The what?" Joey asked.

"Before the tournament begins all the duelist are paired and you have to search the city for your duel disks and 6 chips each person. As soon as you find that you'll be able to begin dueling."

"Sounds like fun," Yugi stated.

"You'll want to find mainly star chips, but you can't have anymore than three of those. Only 15 are placed all over the city which means in the end only 5 duelists will make it to the finals. Along with three star chips you'll need 2 moon chips, 2 square chips, 2 diamond chips and 1 heart chip. Hearts are the most common, start chips the least common. Good luck Joey Wheeler. Next."

"Yugi Moto," Yugi said stepping up to the desk.

"Ah yes, Mr. Moto, you'll be paired with a Mako Tsunami."

Yugi nodded and Serenity stepped shyly up to the desk. "Serenity Wheeler," she mumbled.

"A new duelist I see," the receptionist said, typing into his computer. "Okay, you'll be paired with Mokuba Kaiba."

"No way!" Joey yelled. "Give her someone else!" he demanded.

"I'm sorry sir, but I can't."

"Then un-enter her!" Joey insisted.

"No!" Serenity shrieked. She'd worked hard on her deck and Duke had paid a lot of money for it. She wanted to duel and neither a Kiaba nor her own big brother was going to stop her. "I'll partner with Mokuba, I am going to duel in this tournament whether you approve or not!"

Joey sighed, and slammed his head against the counter. "When are you going to figure it out?!" He demanded. "Mokuba is bad news! He's shaping up to be just like his brother. He'll screw you 10 times over, you're life will be hell if he decides he doesn't like you, it's best just to stay away from him!"

"You don't know if he'll decide he doesn't like me though. Just let me do this Joey, let me try," Serenity persisted.

Joey looked into his baby sisters pleading eyes and after a few moments nodded. "But if you lays one finger on you, I want to know, got it?" Joey demanded.

Serenity nodded, throwing her arms around her brother. "Thank you so much Joey. I really want to do this, I really want to try and duel."

They walked out of the registration room together.

*~*~*~*~*

Mai slept peacefully on Joey's somewhat ratty couch. Her long blond hair was flung up. Joey watched her as she slept, making a few lame attempts to see up her skirt, or at least down her shirt. For years the two they had been playing some weird game with each other. One minute they were fine, happy as can be friends of an odd sort and the next they hated each other and didn't talk for months. Lately things seemed to be getting better though. Joey could pull some stupid stunt and instead of flipping Mai would maybe laugh or even join in.

Maybe it comes with age… Joey thought to himself. It was true; Mai was indeed 2 years older then him but still looked pretty hot for a 23-year-old. She was still as thin as ever, and loved to strut around. She knew she was hot in her tiny tank tops and mini skirts. Joey looked her over from top to bottom. His eyes zoomed in on the band she kept around her right leg. He was feeling very mischievous right at the moment.

Joey gently un-did it and slid it off slowly. He laughed quietly, but loud enough to wake her up. Mai's eyes fluttered open so see a smiling Joey, holding her leg strap. She grabbed for it but Joey was faster. He jumped up and dashed out the front door of his apartment.

"Joey Wheeler you rotten little munk! Give it back!" Mai shouted, running after him. They passed Serenity who quickly pressed herself against the wall. She laughed as the two-wannabe teenagers rushed past her, Joey with only a slight lead.

Joey ran all the way to the small mall located only two blocks from his ratty apartment, with Mai close on his trail. Joey stuck it in his pocket as he saw Tristan, Tea and Yugi all buying Pizza.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Joey asked casually.

"Hey Joey," Tea answered, "why is Mai running after you?"

"Couldn't tell you," Joey lied.

"Joseph Wheeler, you give that back right now," Mai said marching up to him.

"What do I get out of that deal?" Joey asked mischievously.

"What do you want?" Mai asked, flashing her gorgeous eyes and her most catching smile.

"Well that was nice but… how about a date?" Joey suggested.

Mai frowned, Joey hadn't ever call their outings together a date. More of just something to do. Her look was skeptical, but she agreed.

"I'll give it to you at the end," Joey said.

"That's not fair, how do I know you'll give it back?" Mai demanded.

"What use have I for it?" Joey asked.

Mai shrugged and agreed, trusting Joey not to fool around with her deck. Why was beyond her.

"Now go home and make yourself pretty Mai, I expect you to look mega hot in two hours," Joey said, shoving her out the door.

"Are you ditching me?" Mai demanded.

"Think of it as if you're ditching us," Tristan suggested.

Mai nodded and headed to her apartment to do just as she had been told, make herself look mega hot.

Joey's breath caught in his throat as Mai opened the door to her apartment to let him in. Mai laughed, apparently she had done her job. She could tell by the way Joey's eyes kept moving up and down and because he had generally stopped breathing.

"Wow," he finally breathed.

"Thank-you," Mai said, strutting out of her apartment.

"Are you sure you don't wanna just stay here?" Joey asked, raising his eyebrows a few times.

"Have you checked me out Joey, I look way to hot to be staying home," Mai said.

"Oh yes, I've definitely check you out, that was quite the view I got while you were sleeping," Joey smile evilly.

"Where are you taking me?" Mai asked, ignoring his remark.

"Any where you wanna go," Joey said.

Joey and Mai actually got along their entire date. First they went out for a supper, Mai was being considerate and didn't pick the very most expensive one in the entire city. After a half decent meal they went and sat on the beach. Mai wasn't so sure she wanted to get her new skirt dirty so Joey, who for some reason, was insistent on impressing his beautiful date put his jacket down for her and sat down in the sand.

"Can I have it ba-?" Mai started saying when Joey kissed her. She was a little surprised at first, but went with it, she didn't mind all that much. She jumped a little when she felt Joey's cold hands on her leg as he strapped the thing back on her. His hand caressed her thigh as they kissed passionately in the sand. Mai was totally into this, she hadn't really noticed before but she really wanted Joey, he was a fun good-looking guy. She wouldn't mind putting up with a relationship with him.

Joey stopped long enough to look at her. She stared back into his honey colored eyes, not showing any sign of fear, or hurt. Joey smiled and started kissing her again, his hand was now under her shirt. Mai began to squirm, when Joey backed off a bit she started laughing. Joey raised one eyebrow, not sure what was going on.

"That tickled," she mumbled, pulling Joey back into the sand where they stayed for several hours to come.

*~*~*~*~*

During the two weeks before the tournament actually started Serenity spent most of her time learning her cards, and what they did. She came up with several good strategies that could help her out if she was having that problem. She asked Joey several times to duel her, so she could get a bit of experience with her own cards but he kept blowing her off for Mai. Joey and Mai had finally decided to quit playing whatever game it was they had been playing and hooked up officially. Joey had been infatuated with Mai for years so when she finally gave into him he wasn't going to chance hanging out with Serenity when he could be with Mai.

On the night before the tournament started Serenity was please to find out that the phone was actually for her. It was Duke, he asked her to come see the new Hikari movie that was out. After making him promise that he wouldn't get her drunk like he did their last date she agreed. He made a few attempts to kiss her throughout the night but she kept coming up with lame excuses. Finally she told him she had forgotten to brush her teeth, a lie yes, but he didn't try it again. By the end of the night she wasn't so sure she was such a big fan of him. He was pushy, and trying to move too fast for her. She was still angry that he took advantage of her at the park several weeks earlier. She was glad when he finally dropped her off at her apartment. She looked over her cards one last time before going to bed. But she couldn't sleep, she was too nervous about the next day, despite the fact she probably wouldn't duel until the day after.

She finally fell asleep around 2 in the morning. It seemed like only moments later Joey burst in her room and shook her awake telling her that they were supposed to be in front of the Kaiba's mansion in a hour and if she didn't hurry she'd be late.

Serenity and her brother rounded the corner, out of breath, just in time to here her name called out.

"Serenity…" the announcer paused. "Wheler," he had pronounced her last name wrong. Serenity sighed, she hadn't thought of that. Kaiba was standing near the stage and would have found out she was Joey sister, which would have been bad. "And Mokuba Kaiba. You two will be paired up for the first part of the tournament. Will you please both come forward."

A boy with black hair, about to his shoulders, bounded up onto the stage. The crowd went wild at the site of the young, handsome Kaiba brother. Serenity heard a few girls talk about how he was such a sweetie and that he was really good looking too. The fact that he was rich helped a lot too. But he only dated once and while, nothing serious.

Serenity quickly pushed her way to the front. She hadn't seen Mokuba in a year and was fairly surprised to see a tall, well built man on the stage in front of her as they called her name again.

Mokuba stared in awe as the beautiful girl walked up onto the stage. She wore a flared pair of blue jeans and a tight pink T-shirt. Her long auburn hair hung loosely down her back.

She blushed as she noticed Mokuba was staring at her, as was the rest of the crowd. She turned an even darker shade of red when a huge group of boys started whistling and shouting. She scouted out her brothers angry face, he was being held back by Tristan. Believe it or not Serenity turned an even brighter shade of red when the girls began booing at her. She quickly took the tracking device they handed her, a small pin, and bounded off the stage. Mokuba followed her quickly. The ackward pair walked silently for a few moments before Mokuba made a lame attempt at some sort of conversation.

"So, do you have a boyfriend?" Mokuba asked.

Serenity blushed, but shrugged, "I hang out with Duke a bit but I wouldn't call him my boyfriend."

"So I have a chance," Mokuba flirted.

Serenity blushed even more, but nodded slightly.

The tall 18-year-old smiled happily. Mokuba quickly pushed a button on his watch and Seto Kaiba's face appeared.

"Location?" Mokuba asked.

"There's one in the alley to your left," Seto told him.

Mokuba nodded and turned into the alley. He kicked a box over, revealing a brand new, still in the package, duel disk. Mokuba quickly ripped open the package.

"A star chip, lucky you," Mokuba said, despite that fact he knew it would be.

"Me?" Serenity asked. "You found it."

"S'kay, my brother designed these things, he knows where all the star ones are located," Mokuba explained, handing her the duel disk and the chip.

Serenity put the star chip in the first slot on her duel disk. All together there were ten slots. 3 for stars, 2 for squares, 2 for moons, 2 for diamonds, and one for her heart. Heart chips where the most common, then Diamonds, then moons, then squares and then stars. Of all the duel disks you could find in the city only 15 of them help star chips. Each person was given 1 star chip to start and would duel to either gain more, or lose the ones they already possessed. People were eliminated because should you lose you had to give all your chips to your opponent and with no chips you couldn't duel. In the end only 5 people would make it to the finals. When you had all 10 chips that were required your duel disk would send out a projection of the location for the finals.

Serenity bent over and picked up the instructions, not having any real idea of how these things worked. Mokuba laughed and took the duel disk from her and instructed her to hold out her arm. Mokuba pushed two buttons, opening the two tube-like things on the bottom. He placed it on her thin arm, adjusted it and pushed another button, fitting it snugly on her arm.

"There, now Seto thinks I took that one which means we have to find another for me," Mokuba said cheerfully, happy to have a half-decent excuse to stay with her longer.

Together the two 18 year olds searched throughout the city, talking about anything from first kill to books to children. Serenity officially decided she found Mokuba Kaiba much more appealing than his brother. He was handsome, kind, honest and fun. Serenity could hardly believe he was related to the cold, harsh Seto Kaiba. They had the same ice blue eyes though, which wasn't horrible either, considering Mokuba used his to do more than glare. What really surprised Serenity was the fact that Mokuba had a dog, and she was apparently his favorite thing in the world. Not computers, not technology and not Duel monsters. A living breathing thing.

As the young pair talked, they hardly noticed the storm clouds rolling in. Serenity wrinkled her nose as a small raindrop hit it. They continued to walk however. They entered a small park and headed for the swing set. As Serenity went to sit down she slipped in the mud. Mokuba quickly went to help her up, but he too fell in the slippery mud.

Serenity giggled at him and in return had half the ground slashed at her. She gasped and returned Mokuba's grin with even more mud, but before he could retaliate she jumped at him. He ducked and she did an ackward summersault over him and landed in a deep puddle. Laughing, Mokuba offered to help her up, as he did this she pulled him down into the puddle too, and stood up quickly. But she wasn't fast enough. Mokuba wrapped his arms around her thin waist and pulled her down on top of him.

Mokuba was now mostly submerged in the puddle, with his head propped up on the edge. Serenity laughed at him from where she lay atop him, only being soaked by the rain. Serenity stopped laughing when she noticed Mokuba staring at her. "What?" she asked.

"You're so beautiful," he said quietly.

Serenity laughed, pulling herself into a sitting position on Mokuba's stomach. She pulled gently at her long hair, noting that it was dirty and greasy. Mokuba laughed as she accidently fell into the puddle beside him with a splash. Mokuba absent mindedly checked his watch for the time, but simply saw an angry Seto's face.

"Do you know how many disgusting bugs have swam past me?" Kaiba snarled.

Mokuba was about to press the hang up button when Kaiba yelled something.

"What?" Mokuba demanded.

"There are tornado warnings, I'm sending a car to pick you up. Where are you?" Kiaba asked.

"We aren't far, we'll walk," Mokuba said.

"We?"

"Me and Serenity," Mokuba replied.

"Why are you still with Wheelers whore?" Kiaba demanded.

With that said, Mokuba hung up on his older brother. "Why does he think you're Joey's whore?" Mokuba asked as they began walking out of the park.

Serenity told him the long story of how Kaiba had mistaken her for Joey's girlfriend and then how he'd seen her with Duke and misunderstood both time. Serenity begged Mokuba not to tell Seto she was Joey's sister, she had promised.

By the time they reached the gate Serenity wasn't having so much fun. She was wet, cold and the odd hail ball would hit her in the head, not improving her mood. Her apartment was over 20 blocks away and the subway ceased running from 12-5AM. She looked up in the sky, as she and Mokuba stood silent near the entrance to the park. She could see three funnel clouds amidst the bright lightening flashes. Serenity was at a loss as to what she ought to do. She couldn't rent a hotel room because she had no money and her chances of surviving the walk home considering the weather were slim.

Serenity shivered, she had completely forgotten Mokuba was still there. A single tear escaped her eye. She was scared, anyone or anything could be lurking in the dark alley's. She could be mugged, or even worse raped, and even worse yet, killed.

As Serenity stood, absorbed in her own thoughts Mokuba was having his own ideas. It was late, the weather was bad and she lived a long way away. She was wet and cold, with no safe place to go. Just invite her Mokuba said to himself. It's not like you don't have spare rooms.

"Hey, ah Serenity, do-" Mokuba started but stopped as a long black car pulled up in front of them.

"Get in the car," Kaiba said, looking from one to the other. "Both of you." No, Kaiba did not like the pretty young girl, well no that wasn't true. He didn't really know her, she didn't seem horrible. Even if he had hated her he would have let her get in the car, even he wasn't heartless enough to let her die, though he wasn't too sure why.

Serenity hesitated, but only momentarily, before doing as she was told. She sat, rather embarrassed that she was dripping all over his nice, clean limousine, right across from Kaiba. She shivered again, but was not sure whether it was because she was cold or because of Kaiba's icy stare. Her jeans were clinging uncomfortable to her as was her shirt. She looked at Kaiba for a moment and then followed his gaze directly below her head. She frowned and crossed her arm awkwardly, covering her breasts.

Mokuba who had watched the entire scene threw his head back and laughed. Kiaba was quickly snapped back to reality.

"What?" he demanded.

"You'll never change big brother."

Kiaba glared at his younger brother and immediately got out of the vehicle as it stopped.

"Well, there's the bathroom," Mokuba said, handing Serenity a towel. "I couldn't find any clothes for you, so I hope this will do until your clothes are down," he handed her a long baby blue sweater.

Serenity nodded. "Could I use your phone first though? I don't want Joey to go looking for me in this weather."

"Oh, right, sure," Mokuba began digging around in his pockets before pulling out a small blue cell phone and dropping 3, hundred dollar bills while he was at it.

Serenity called her brother and made up a lame lie about how Mokuba had chipped in and rented them each separate hotel rooms. Joey bought it, but insisted to talk to Mokuba. Meanwhile Serenity got in the shower. The bathroom was bigger than her entire apartment and the tub was nearly the size of her room alone. Serenity suddenly felt particularly poor when she thought about the tiny apartment she shared with her brother. He worked constantly, while juggling school and knocking himself out once and while, just to pay for the damn thing. Serenity constantly tried to convince her brother to let her get a job and help pay the rent. He finally said she could get a job if she really wanted one but that he refused to let his little sister pay the rent for his apartment. She argued that she had to lived there but he wouldn't give in.

Serenity got in the warm shower, and stayed in until she couldn't breath that well due to the humidity. She got out and wrapped the towel around her thin body and turned the fan on. She ran her fingers through her now soft, clean hair and smiled to herself. Today had been a good day; Mokuba seemed really cool despite what Joey had said about him. Serenity had the ackward feeling that it was more of a spur of the moment's comment, not all together true. Serenity had never heard her brother say one ill thing about the younger Kaiba brother until that one day. Serenity hoped that she would have the chance to get to know Mokuba better, and who knows, maybe it would work out for the both of them and Mokuba would indeed get his chance.

As Serenity exited the large bathroom she wasn't all that surprised to see that Mokuba was still on the phone with her brother. He was leaning against a wall, his eyes were closed and he was breathing deeply. Every once and while he would mumble a yes, yah or mm-hmm. Serenity smiled and took the phone from the incredibly tired Mokuba.

"Good bye Joey, I love you," She said. Joey started to object, claiming that he could possibly say more but Serenity hung up.

Mokuba however, was now completely awake as he stared at the woman in front of him. She wore his sweater, it only came down to about mid-thigh and was much to big for her small shoulders so it hung limply over one shoulder. Her auburn colored hair, now more of a dark brown because it was wet, hung limply down her back.

Mokuba's wishful thoughts were interrupted when Serenity held up her duel disk. "I think it's broken," she noted as it sparked slightly. "I thought these things were water proof."

"Water resistant, you stupid girl, aren't you in my English class? That means they are meant to be rained on, not swam in," Kiaba said rudely from behind.

"Well if I'd been talking to you-" Serenity started.

"Aren't you in my house?" Kiaba demanded.

"Well yes, but-" Serenity tried to speak again.

"No buts, in my house I am treated with respect. Now Mokuba, it's 2 in the morning. Show her to her room and get some sleep. Tomorrow is the beginning of the tournament. You'll want to be awake. I'll have a new duel disk for her in the morning," he turned to Serenity. "Perhaps you'll take better care of this one."

Mokuba took Serenity to her room, kissed her on the cheek and bade her good night. In the end however, he didn't get much sleep because he was up until four AM thinking about the beautiful girl in the next room.

*~*~*~*~*

Serenity quietly entered Mokuba's room early the next morning. He was still fast asleep, his shoulder length black hair was flung out in all directions. He was wearing a pair of black sweats, but was shirtless. The blanket simply covered on of his long legs and the rest was more or less on the floor.

Serenity kneeled down on the floor, pulling the skirt of her school uniform down. She lightly brushed back his bangs, attempting to wake him the sweet and gentle way. Mokuba simply mumbled something about pizza and rolled over. Serenity giggled and slipped off her shoes. She stepped lightly on the bed and then suddenly began bouncing up and down singing Mr. Sun. Mokuba just rolled over and stuck his head under the pillow. Serenity sat on his butt and began singing the Sailor Moon theme song instead. It was then that Mokuba realized who it was and woke up, turning over causing Serenity to fall of him and her skirt to fly up. She quickly stood up and began bouncing again, singing the Dragon Ball theme song.

"Dragon ball, it's the ultimate battle," She sang unaware that Mokuba was twisting into odd position and peering up her skirt.

"Nice view from down here," he noted smirking.

Serenity squealed and placed one foot on either side of his chest and bent over, whispering in his ear.

"You're a pervert," she whispered and then giggled.

Just then Seto Kaiba walked in the room. His eyes went wide and he walked right back out of the room. Serenity blushed and quickly got off the bed, but not before sending a dirty look at the laughing Mokuba, who was laughing so hard he rolled off the bed. He knocked the wind out of himself but quickly recovered and wrapped his arms around the escaping Serenity.

Mean while Kaiba stood outside the door, feeling a lot like one might call a loser. He had walked in on his younger brother and a girl in Mokuba's room and in his bed none the less. And she just happened to be bending over in a mini-skirt, giving Seto a clear view of her ass. Kaiba took a few breaths and entered the room a second time.

This time Mokuba's arms were wrapped around her waist while he kneeled on the ground and she stood. Despite that fact he still came up to the short girls stomach. She was playing gently with his bangs while they talked, she stopped quickly as Kiaba entered the room again, but Mokuba didn't let go. Serenity just stood awkwardly in Mokuba's arms as he talked to his older brother.

"What's up Seto?" Mokuba asked.

"Here's your… ummm… friends…new duel disk," Kaiba said, throwing it at her. Mokuba reached one muscular arm up, catching it as it flew at her head. Serenity took the opportunity and wiggled out of Mokuba's other arm.

She struggled with the package while Seto and Mokuba argued about the dueling techniques he should use. Serenity hadn't looked up in about 20 minutes. She was still trying to get it open and assuming she was now alone because of the silence she plopped herself down on the floor and sighed heavily. She gasped as a large hand appeared in front on her. She looked up to see the icy eyed Seto Kiaba.

"Give it to me," he instructed.

Serenity did as she was told and handed him the package. He ripped it open with one powerful movement.

"T-thank you," Serenity stuttered.

"Are you any good?" Kaiba demanded.

Serenity shook her head. "I don't duel much, but everyone thought I should enter."

"You'll duel me later, once you're had some experience, to pay for the extra Duel disk," Kaiba told her.

Serenity opened her mouth to object but thought better of it and just nodded.

"Oh, and by the way, do make sure my brother gets his money worth," Kaiba sneered.

Serenity opened her mouth to defend herself when Mokuba entered the room bathed and cleanly shaven. He strapped on his own duel disk and then quickly helped Serenity with her.

"Ready for your first duel?" Mokuba asked.

Serenity nodded and the two 18 year olds left the room, leaving Kaiba alone with his disturbed thoughts.

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** Okay… well there it is… oh and about Kaiba's disturbed thoughts… he's thinking about Serenity… not necessarily good, but not as evil as the thoughts ought to be. Some of those two will come along soon enough… well no maybe not soon enough but they will. I know it's not in the next chapter because that ones if pretty much done…, just a few adjustments. Please let me know if any where my story clashes because I have a weird way of writing. I write all the good scenes first… or as I come up with them and then I write the in between later when I'm not feeling quite as inventive and sometimes idea's change. Well… if you don't like it feel free to let me know and I'll try to make it so you like it too and hmmm well I think I'm done. But PLEASE review or else I'll lose interest too.**