Chapter 2
Another restless night. Another couch night.
For Seto.
The teen had refused to sleep in he room again and gave it to the girls. They had accepted it hesitantly, since Seto still had his head injury.
His body was now lying back down on the couch. He needed technology; something to take apart and put back together again or something to fix. Anything to get him to sleep.
He looked around and saw the kitchen. It was a good looking kitchen. The walls had a yellow wallpaper with flower lining and the counters were all white and a type of rock. The cabinets were wood and the sink was large, he floor was just wood.
He looked at his surroundings. The living room was plain somewhat, but had wood tiled walls and two blue big couches and a blue recliner. A plant was placed on a side table between the couches. There was a wooden coffee table in the middle or the couches and a cup of water sat atop it. The rooms were to his right with three doors to give access to them. The exit was at his left. The way to the kitchen was to his front and a bathroom was in the back.
He entered the kitchen and looked into the fridge. Everything was working fine. He sighed. It may have been about three in the morning, but he was not tired. And he did not want to get use to sleeping for when he got back to his world. Walking away from the fridge made his stomach growl, but he ignored it.
So it growled again. He was hungry.
'These people live in a desert. Water and food needs to be preserved here and I have to make sure Mokuba is in good hands.' he thought selflessly, ignoring the food.
He walked outside, just to clear his mind with a walk or something. But then he saw it. One of the most complex pieces of machinery.
The Anglica II: Wolfwood's bike. In all its broken, rundown, messed up glory. The tools lay scattered around the bike, and Seto almost smiled with relief. He set to work.
Yugi had never gotten a better sleep. Even when in Japan on the futons he didn't get a good sleep.
His 'darker half' smiled curtly in his transparent form and put a hand on his light's shoulder. "Sleep well hikari?"
"I slept perfect!" Yugi exclaimed. He looked around and noticed Jou was still sleeping. He raised from his bed soundlessly and remembered he had received pajamas from Wolfwood and Jou from Vash. Meryl had given Mokuba her shirt. Mokuba kept his boxers on though. Seto had just taken off his trenchcoat and slept in his black shirt and pants. Though he did take off his buckles, mind you.
Yugi got dressed again into his clothes and opened the door silently as to not wake up Jou and Mokuba or Seto. He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, one again silent.
He looked at the couch and was surprised when he saw that Seto wasn't there. It was then that Yugi smelled the most delicious aroma coming from the kitchen. He walked in, glanced at the clock, which only read '7:24', then noticed Seto at the stove, making pancakes from what had gotten from the fridge and pantry.
"Good morning." Seto said quietly. Yugi snapped to attention, forgetting the smell. "Good morning to you as well Kaiba!" he walked to the older teen. "Need help?"
"Seto the table. The plates are in the low left cabinet, the cups are in the low middle cabinet." Seto instructed.
Yugi nodded as he began to get the plates. "So, how did you sleep last night? I slept like a log." he chuckled.
Usually Seto wasn't one for conversation, but he was so bored of having nothing to do all night. He wanted to talk to somebody.
"I didn't sleep at all. I read over some files until Meryl came in. I gave them that room, so that way Vash and Wolfwood could sleep in a bed. That was around ten, after you and the mutt went to bed." Seto paused, trying to remember. "I then got on the couch and counted how many cracks were in the ceiling. I believe there was about…what was it, 19, 304? I got a drink of water and then I counted a lot of other things too. Around three I went out and fixed Wolfwood's bike. That took about three hours. I rested for an hour and began making breakfast soon after." he explained carelessly.
"Um…wow." Yugi put the plates on the table that was on the other side of the kitchen.
"WELL! Doesn't this smell good!" a voice exclaimed.
"You really didn't have to make breakfast. I'm really appreciative, really I am, but you didn't have to do this." Meryl walked in, quickly glancing at Milly who was now behind her.
"…" was Seto's reply. He did not seem to care.
"Meryl, that smell is the most heavenly thing you're…" Vash trailed off as he saw that Meryl was being ushered to the table by Milly who was taking Yugi's word to sit at the table. He looked towards the stove and saw Seto raise the pan and somewhat thrust it forwards up, making the pancake jump from the pain and flip over to the uncooked part so that it would start to cook. The older teen seemed unfazed by all the commotion in the kitchen a the time.
"Woah…um…" Vash took a seat a the table and watched as Seto slid the done batch onto a plate that held many other pancakes as well. He turned the plate around once, examining the weight and selection of each pancake.
"Niisama! You made pancakes!" a young voice asked hopefully. Mokuba bounded into the kitchen and hugged his brother as best he could, since Seto was so tall.
Seto somewhat smiled at his little brother but continued to poor the batter into the pan. "Go take these to the table." Seto instructed to his brother, setting down his cooking utensils and handed the huge plate of already made pancakes to Mokuba. The young boy took the plate and carefully put it on the table before running back to his brother.
Vash and the others began to take pancakes and placed them on their plates. Mokuba, who was whispered to by his brother, went to the fridge and then grabbed the syrup and butter. He placed them on the table then sat down himself. His brother brought the next batch of pancakes on the table and he too sat down, just as Jou came into the kitchen.
"Wow! Who made these?!" he sat down also, since the table was rather large. He watched as the pancakes were passed to him, then he gobbled some that he placed on his plate. "Good!" he smiled after he swallowed.
Yugi sweatdropped. "Um…Jou?" he asked, but Jou did not listen.
"Hey, mutt. Shutup and stop eating. We're all hungry here." Seto said firmly. Jou stopped, his fork mid-air and glared at Seto. "Eh. Shut it Kaiba." he warned.
Seto glared back, which made Jou reluctantly slow down to eat his food properly. Then the older teen turned his head to Mokuba. "Now, given the circumstances, Noah will be your tutor, so you have to listen to him. I cannot have you skip schooling just because we aren't home."
Mokuba groaned. "Niisama…" he was about to continue when Jou laughed. "You have to get tutored!"
Seto cut in. "You and Yugi are also going to be schooled. Noah is searching the internet for all sorts of studies that we will acquire once we are taught."
Jou stopped laughing and propped his head on one arm. "Damn."
Everyone (sans Seto, who didn't find it all that funny) laughed.
"Priest man." Vash called to his friend, who was busy overlooking his bike. He was going to ask him why Wolfwood wasn't there at breakfast.
"Not now Vash. Someone messed with my bike! I'm trying to see what they did!" Wolfwood interrupted Vash rolled his eyes. "So, it was probably Kaiba."
"And damn, did he do a good job! My entire bike is working properly. And he even replaced those gears with something else!" the traveling priest said excitingly. "Now I can ride it!"
Vash rolled his eyes again. "Seriously, though. I…don't think its safe having these kids around. With those…people…it will be hard to protect everyone. We have all these dangerous people running around…"
"Just teach them how to use a gun. It should be simple enough." Wolfwood cut in. He stood up and made his way inside the house.
Vash shrugged to himself mentally. 'It couldn't hurt, I suppose…but with Knives running around and Legato…would it be safe?'
"No, no! You're aiming it wrong!" Vash sighed, walking up to Jou. "You have to stand like such for a real stalling shot. And don't get so tense next time!" he positioned Jou.
Jou eye's narrowed, mad to have made a mistake he couldn't fix without experience. "Shoot! This is just like that Death-T thing Kaiba made. All those stupid assassins and shit. Too bad Honda ain't here."
"Death-T? Assassins? Kaiba?" Vash's face twisted with confusion. 'That…sounds real bad.'
"Yeah. Kaiba made some sort of amusement park--KaibaLand--that was for little kids. But then he was mad at Yugi for beating him at Magic and Wizards, so he set up Death-T for all of us. The first game was a shooter game. It was suppose to be just a laser tag thing, but the opponents were real assassins who had electric shock waves gun things. We could've died at least 5 times on that Death-T thing!" Jou explained, trying one again to shoot.
"Bullshit." came Seto's voice.
"Darn." Yugi mumbled, taking the pile. Mokuba giggled, "So much for King of Games." Yugi laughed as well. "I'm not letting Mou Hitori no Boku play.
"I lay three queens." Seto placed the cards down, starting a new pile. Mokuba examined Seto. The older teen was winning was a high lead. That was because Seto could read people but people couldn't read him.
"I lay two Kings." Mokuba placed down his cards. Seto smirked. "Peanut-butter." Mokuba groaned. His brother had lied!
Vash smiled and went back to Jou. "I don't think I could imagine anyone holding a grudge against Yugi."
"Yeah, but impossible happens." Jou said, finally shooting off a shot at the bottle which destroyed them. Jou held up the gun proudly and smirked as he received an applause.
"We have a winner!" Wolfwood called out. "NEXT!"
Seto nodded and gave his cards to Mokuba, adding only a very few to the young boy's hands. He smiled. "Good luck Niisama!" the brunette nodded again and grabbed the gun and examined it. "Ok." he said. "Let's begin."
"First, steady yourself and never aim a loaded gun to your head." Vash instructed. Seto looked at him strangely.
Suddenly, it all came back to him.
The bottles broke.
Everyone gasped.
The gun fell from Seto's hand and he stumbled back. 'Oh dammit.' he thought, 'Please tell me I did not shoot.'
"Niisama!" Mokuba ran to his brother's shaking side. Vash also ran towards him. "Are you OK?! Why didn't you tell me you knew how to use a gun?!"
Seto took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. "I'm fine Mokuba," he said, looking at his brother. Then he looked to the Humanoid Typhoon. "And I've…never held a gun or shot one off before in my life." he lied.
"Oh…maybe you were made for shooting?" Vash suggested. He could tell Seto was lying, but he didn't want to make a big deal of it.
"Sure." was all Seto said in reply.
"Next." Seto sat down and grabbed Yugi's cards and Yugi walked over to the gun. He picked it up from the ground and looked at Vash. He suddenly became very doubtful.
/Mou Hitori no Boku, I don't want to do this!/ he told his dark.
# Would you like me to try? # Yami asked. Yugi sighed in relief as he traded places with his Yami.
"Okay, steady yourself don't go tense." Vash explained. Yami relaxed but kept his aim. "Like this?" he asked.
Vash nodded, "Now, shoot!"
The gun from his hand after it shot the bottles. "Never in all my life as pharaoh!" he mumble, shocked.
"Man, you all are talented!" Vash exclaimed.
"I know!" Jou bragged.
"Shut it Mutt." Seto snapped.
"You first, Princess!" Jou replied smartly.
"Go jump off a cliff."
"You."
"You should go to the pound."
"Knock it off! I'm warning you!"
"I'd say go to Hell, but all dogs go to Heaven."
"That's it!" Jou lunged himself at Seto and Seto, his face showing some surprise, just stood up quickly and moved out of the way. When Jou realized this, he was sailing past Seto when the older teen put his hand flat sideways and threw it into Jou's back.
Jou flew to the ground, making some of the cars in the BS pile fly upwards and land face-up.
The pile showed two aces and one queen. Mokuba looked at his brother, who wasn't really paying attention. "BS!" he said gleefully.
Seto looked at his little brother and leaned down, picking up the pile. "Darn." he said. Mokuba smiled and laughed.
That evening, right before it was to turn into dusk, everyone was sitting at the table. Jou and Yugi were engaged in a duel, Yugi taking the lead as usual. Mokuba sat at the table on Yugi's side, cheering the teen on. Seto was sitting with his laptop, ignoring everything and everyone. Vash and Wolfwood were watching the duel, very interested in everything that was going on. Meryl and Milly talk amongst themselves.
"And I attack your Red Eyes with my Dark Magician, taking all of your life points. I win." Yugi smiled. "Good duel though Jou."
Suddenly, a sound came from Seto's computer. Seto's eyes narrowed. "Noah…what the hell is that?" he asked. Mokuba walked to his brother's side and when seeing what was on the screen, began laughing. "It's Weird Al Yankovic! The American singer who's father was practically the Polka King!" he explained.
Seto shook his head. "Of all the things…" he rubbed his temples. "If anything, at least listen to something more mature."
"But I was never able to really listen to all of these musicians. I wasn't alive. But now that I can, it is so funny to hear!" Noah laughed. Seto sighed once more. "Well, don't listen to it while I'm around. It is very distracting."
"You know the only reason you don't want to listen to it is because it will make you laugh!" Noah grumbled. Then Noah sighed. "But…I guess I can understand. I mean, if I hadn't died, I'd really understand…"
The music shut off and a mini Noah appeared. "We have an intruder!" he exclaimed. A page popped up and it showed who was trying to come into his system.
"Pegasus…" Seto growled. "Can you take him out?"
Noah smirked. "Can I take him out? Of all the people, you should know!" he laughed. "What I have in store for him should be a shock to his system, if you know what I mean!" then the computer shut down. Seto closed it, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Um…Kaiba, what did he mean by a 'shock to his system'?" Vash asked. Seto put the computer on the table. "Exactly what he said. He will be rigging the keyboard with a type of electrocuting unit for that blithesome fool."
"You're not going to kill him, are you?!" Vash cried, standing up and slamming his hands on the table.
"If we kill him, we won't be able to get back home!" Yugi explained.
"I believe Noah knows that, from the look in his eyes. But…the result will be making sure that Pegasus won't try to get into my mainframe again." Seto narrowed his eyes once more.
Suddenly, Wolfwood stood up. "I propose we all take a trip to the saloon!"
Meryl sweatdropped. "All you can ever think about is drinking…"
Even though the Yugi-tachi was under age, they were let into the bar.
When Seto saw all the drinks lined up on the walls, he sighed. "You live in a desert and convert most of the water you have into alcoholic drinks?"
Vash nodded. "Yeah…but, it lasts longer."
"Water is the longest lasting substance of liquid, you know." Mokuba explained.
By combining two tables together, they were all able to sit and talk amongst each other. Then the Yugi-tachi went outside for a moment to talk.
Then a waitress came up. "What'll you have." she asked Wolfwood.
"Two bottles of your cheapest stuff and eight shot glasses!" Wolfwood answered. The waitress left for their orders.
Then the Yugi-tachi came back in. Wolfwood laughed, "Hey! I was wondering where you all went."
"Just discussing some things!" Yugi explained. He took a seat by Vash and Jou while Mokuba and Seto sat by Meryl and Wolfwood.
The drinks then came along with the glasses. The glasses were handed out to everyone, for the waitress hardly even recognized Mokuba as a kid.
Before Wolfwood could pour anything into Mokuba's glass, Seto snatched the glass away. "What the hell are you people thinking about giving him alcohol! He's just a kid!"
Meryl joined in with the scolding. "That's right!" she looked at waitress at the counter. "Can we get a glass of water over here?"
The water was delivered and now everyone had a drink. Mokuba didn't seem too disappointed about having water instead of alcohol though.
Yugi took a sip and his face cringed. "This is pretty strong! It's burning my throat!" he complained. Jou smirked and took a sip as well. He seemed fine with it. "Ah, Yugi, it's just your first drink! You get use to it the more you drink!"
Seto looked at his drink but didn't say anything or take a drink. Vash noticed this. "What's wrong Kaiba? Is it too strong?"
"I don't drink." Seto looked up at Vash, his face emotionless.
Wolfwood put an arm around Seto's neck. "Ah, come on Kaiba! Take a load off! You know you want some!"
Mokuba looked down as Seto explained his reason, "I've had a bad experience with alcohol before," his eyes went darker.
Vash noticed this, and a smile played his lips as he turned to Yugi. "So, what is that thing?" he asked, pointing to Yugi's Millennium Puzzle.
"It's called the Millennium Puzzle. It, uh, is a lucky…uh, a lucky Puzzle." he explained. Jou groaned. "It's sounds like you've got a secret Yugi."
Yugi looked at Jou and smiled and chuckled as he nodded, "Yeah, I guess I do."
"Kaiba." the attention was now focused on the lanky teen. Vash was speaking to him, "Can I speak to you…outside for a moment?"
Seto stood up and walked outside after Vash. Vash turned to Seto, "Let's take a walk."
So Seto and Vash began walking up the streets in the town.
Seto remained silent, and so did Vash, whom was choosing his words carefully. Seto would have asked about what he wanted to talk about, but he did not feel like raising any conversation.
"I…uh, I noticed that you were a little shaky when you dropped the gun. You broke the bottles with just one shot, making the glass from the first bottle ricochet off all the others, breaking them too. You say you have never held a gun before, but I know you were lying." Vash began.
"…" was all the teen could respond.
"Why would you be so hesitant?" Vash asked.
"Mokuba…looks up to me. I don't want him to know that I've held a gun before."
"Understandable. But there is still much to tell me. I know there is more. You were shaking after you pulled the trigger."
"I don't want to talk about it." Seto turned a corner into an alley. Vash followed, not wanting to lose Seto.
"Sometimes its better to talk about your problems!"
"It's not a problem." Seto explained.
"Let me rephrase that: it's better to talk about the situations you have been in." Vash narrowed his eyes.
Seto stopped and turned around. "They say life is but a dream, and sometimes I just want to wake up." he glared at Vash.
"You say that you had a bad experience with alcohol. Mokuba looked down, unhappy like, you know? Why was that?" Vash asked, keeping his spot.
"About a year ago, I walked into my father's bar and took a drink. You know what they say, 'you drink so you don't drown in your sorrows.' An escape is what I wanted. I let myself have one after another. It wasn't that bad, it was actually very relieving." he shut his eyes. "It was about three in the morning. Mokuba came into the room, looking for me. He had had a nightmare, but who could blame him. It was after Duelist Kingdom and we were just getting use to our bodies again. I didn't mean too, but I was so drunk…like how he use to…" his teeth clenched and his closed eyes tightened.
Vash remained silent, understanding what he meant.
"And what is worse is that I was able to see it completely! I couldn't stop it, but I still have the picture playing in my mind!" he shouted, clearly frustrated. "Dammit!" he threw his fist against the wall. Since the wall was stone, he hurt his hand, but he didn't really care.
Vash smiled kindly. "Hey, Kaiba, it's alright. These things happen…you just have to get over them!"
"You just don't get it!" Seto shouted. He collected himself, though still in rage, and walked more down the alley, leaving Vash there. "I'm heading back to the house." he growled.
Vash turned around. 'I got him to tell me some things…but…what about the scars? I never got a chance to ask him. And it seemed like a painful subject for him, talking about Mokuba. They must be very close. But he acts as though he doesn't have anyone but him. But that can't really be true, because he even talked about his father's bar.' he thought.
He walked back to the saloon. Mokuba, seeing him return without his older brother, lowered his head.
Vash just smiled. "Hey guys. Sorry about that."
"You tried to talk to him?" Mokuba asked.
Vash's expression appeared to be a bit surprised, but then thoughtful. "Yeah…I got just a few out from him. Anyone want to help fill me in on it anymore though?"
Yugi held his Puzzle Protectively. "Kaiba doesn't really talk about himself. But we have been by him for the last year. It's been…pretty harsh."
"Pretty harsh?! That man has practically been through it all!" Jou interrupted.
"Care to elaborate?" Wolfwood asked, pouring himself another drink.
All eye went on Mokuba as the young boy began to speak. "I'm sure he doesn't want us to tell."
Wolfwood smiled, "That's fine. By the way, what happened to your moms and dads? They might be worried about you."
Yugi's eyes widened. He groaned. "Ji-chan!" He put his hands to his head. "I hope that Pegasus didn't take him too!"
Jou crossed his arms. Looking up, he closed his eyes and sighed. "I don't think that Yuge. I mean, he took him once, I doubt he'd take him again. Besides, he got what he wanted."
"Yeah, but last time he was doing it to revive his wife. What could his actions be for this time?" Yugi groaned once more. He buried his head in his arms and sighed low fully.
"Yeah, he got those things, but what about KaibaCorp? He could be after that too! We can't have him take that! Niisama worked to hard to make it that way!" Mokuba complained.
"But that is so strange. I mean, I thought Pegasus was on our side. You know, with the whole Dartz thing. He gave us the Three Legendary Dragons and everything. And remember that talk we had inside those little bubbles? He was helping us out!" Yugi mumbled.
"Who can say really?" Wolfwood commented out of the blue. "I mean, I don't know the whole side of it, but I'm sure that his pure intentions have disintegrated and the wickedness of his heart shall rise again."
"Or already has raised…" Mokuba mumbled.
Vash half-way glared at Wolfwood. "Where'd you get all sentimental from?"
Wolfwood gave a cocky flash of a smile.
"It's a gift."
