Hello everybody, yes, it is I, and I am still alive. Seren147. Sorry it's been almost two months since I last updated (!) and I can honestly say that I would have updated like a month ago except my (old) laptop totally crashed on me and took with it everything I had written for chapter 15. The good news is I have a brand spankin new laptop now, so now all I had to do was rewrite ch. 15! This was a pain since I had already written it! Well anyway, that doesn't really matter right now, what matters is that I am doing an update finally! So here it is and I hope that you enjoy it. I'm doing it all for you guys! Enjoy!

P.S. I don't own YGO or any of its characters so don't ask.

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15. Mystery & Confusion

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"I'm sorry."

Those were the first words that escaped from Seto Kaiba's mouth as he pulled away from the kiss that he had placed so gently on Serenity's lips.

'Where did that come from?' Kaiba thought, turning away from the girl who sat next to him on the bench. He hadn't apologized to anyone in years. There had never been any need to.

"Seto?"

He felt a hand close around his arm in concern. Shaking her off, he quickly stood up and tried to regain his cold composure. "Let's go." he said harshly, not waiting for her to respond but simply grabbing his trenchcoat and walking off without her. Pushing the thoughts of why he had kissed her, how he let himself get so weak in that moment, to the back of his mind for now, he simply focused on keeping the brisk pace that he had set for them. He heard Serenity call out to him a few times, but didn't slow. He smirked slightly when he heard her running behind him, trying to keep up with his pace for the second time that day.

'I don't know what's wrong with him...' Serenity thought, following Kaiba back the way they had come earlier that day. 'I thought, for a moment...that he...did I do something wrong?'

Neither talked until they had reached the block where the hospital was located. Stopping abruptly outside the hospital grounds, Kaiba felt Serenity run into his back. Stepping and turning around quickly, he decided to make a short and clean break with her. The last thing he needed was for her to think that that kiss had meant something. Then she would never leave him alone.

"Seto?" she questioned him, as he stood before her with his arms crossed, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Look," he started, "I apologize for what happened back there. For a brief moment I lost my head. That shouldn't have happened."

"Seto..." Serenity began, but Kaiba quickly cut her off.

"It's Kaiba." He interrupted, "And if you don't mind, I'm going to make this short and sweet right now because I don't have time to stand around here and chat with someone who has the wrong ideas about me. I won't ever have time to just stand around and chat with you, and I would like it if from now on you would just leave me alone. I don't care if you feel guilty, I don't care if you think I'm a hero, what I do care about is that after I get released from here tomorrow, I don't have to worry about you following me around like you expect something. I have my own life to get back to as I'm sure you do as well. I have Mokuba, I have my company, and I'm going to have enough stress without you hanging around like you owe me something. You don't owe me a damn thing, so get it through your head already! We're not friends, we're not going to be friends, and if that...kiss...threw you off, then I'm setting you straight. We're nothing."

Serenity stood there in front of Kaiba, waiting for him to finish. She could feel tears in her eyes but refused to let them drop. No, he had already caused her enough pain. For good. Whatever she thought she had seen in him had obviously been wrong.

"Fine." She answered quietly, after he had finished saying all that he was going to say. "If that's how you want it."

"I do." He answered.

"Then I won't bother you anymore." She turned quickly and walked away so that he wouldn't see the tears that had finally escaped her eyes. She wanted to look strong in front of him, not weak. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of proving everything he said right. She shook her head. 'I'm such a fool...' She hoped she never saw Seto Kaiba again in her life.

Watching her walk away, Kaiba took an involuntary step forward. 'Maybe I was...too harsh...' he thought, before trying to shake the thoughts out of his own head.

"No," he said aloud, "I did the right thing." Turning quickly on his heels, he made his way back towards the hospital, trenchcoat flapping in the wind behind him.

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The figure that had been watching while Seto and Serenity had been sitting on the pier slowly got over his shock. Shaking his head and trying to make sense out of everything that he had seen, he slowly walked away over the sandy beach.

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"Ahhh..." Joey sighed, flopping himself down onto the couch. Mai had just left and he was in a daze. Placing his hand on his head, he asked himself what she was doing to him. He had never imagined that by the time she had left they would be "official". He smiled wildly to himself. It had been a great day.

"I need to call Tristan and tell him..." Joey spoke aloud, turning his head to look for the phone. He sat up and placed a hand on his stomach. "Now where did I put that phone..." he said, and then noticed something about the front of his shirt. Pulling his hand away, he saw that it was brown...and crusty...

"Oh gross!" he shouted, suddenly remembering the chocolate frosting that Mai had put there earlier. Somehow he had totally forgotten about it.

"First shower, then Tristan." Joey exclaimed, getting up and walking to his bedroom to get some fresh clothes. He glanced at the clock. "Wonder when Serenity's getting' home?"

Shrugging to himself, he walked into the bathroom and shut the door.

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"Joey?" Serenity called, standing outside of the bathroom door in their apartment. She had just arrived and was glad that she wouldn't have to face her brother. She had tried to calm herself down as much as she could before going home, but she knew that if he saw her he would still be able to tell she was upset. "Joey?" she tried again, raising her voice so he could hear her over the water.

"Is that you, sis?" she heard him shout, and smiled slightly to herself. 'Who else would it be?' she thought.

"Yeah, it's me Joey." She said.

"Alright, I'll be out in just a few minutes." Came the reply.

Serenity shook her head. It was better if she just didn't see Joey tonight. She'd probably end up crying and he'd try to be the big brother and then the whole mess would come out...she didn't need that right now.

"It's ok Joey, I think I'm just going to go to bed. I'm really tired tonight."

"Alright," Joey answered, "Musta had a good time then if you're so tired. Anyway, see ya in the mornin sis."

"Yeah ok." Serenity said, and then turned away from the door. "You have no idea..." she muttered.

Making her way to her room, Serenity walked in and threw herself facedown on her bed, clothes and all, and cried herself to sleep.

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Wrapping a towel around his head, Joey came out of the bathroom and spotted the phone lying nearby on a bookcase. "So there's where it went..." he said, picking it up and dialing Tristan's number.

Sitting himself down on the couch again, he waited for Tristan to pick up. As the phone rang he thought about Serenity and decided to go check on her.

"Hello?" a voice answered on the other end as Joey was walking through the kitchen.

"Hey Tristan! It's me, Joey! Man have I got some news for you. You're not gonna believe what happened today! Oh wait, hold up Trist I gotta check on Serenity a minute."

"Oh, you mean she's back already?" Tristan replied, "Well that's good."

"What'd ya mean?" Joey questioned, sticking his head in his sister's room. She was lying on her stomach and it looked like she had already passed out into dreamland. Smiling to himself, he closed her door and started walking back to where he wouldn't disturb her.

"Oh, well...ummm...me and Téa and Yugi saw her earlier today while we were out. In fact, I just got home myself. You're lucky you caught me. Anyway how did your date with Mai go?"

"Huh?" Joey said, trying to get a hold on everything that Tristan had rambled off at him. He decided to ignore most of it. "Oh well that's good. Oh man Tristan you wouldn't believe what happened after Mai came over..."

"Well tell me man, that's what I'm here for."

"Alright, hold on!" Joey sank down on the couch and began to smile. "Now you see Trist, when you've got a smooth talker like me, everything always goes according to plan with the ladies..."

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So that's the end of Chapter 15! Wow, Tristan didn't spill the beans! Who would have thought that? Even I thought he would when I started writing this chapter, so he surprised me too! And if you are wondering about the rest of the conversation that is going on between Joey and Tristan, well, it's just guy stuff and Joey's version of what happened with Mai. I know it was kind of a weird place to end the chapter. That and it wasn't very long this time around but I couldn't remember everything that happened that I wrote before my old laptop crapped out on me. And I think it was better too...at least I felt like all the material I lost went a bit smoother then this that I re-wrote. Sorry about that. Next chapter should be better. I have lots of plans for it! Anyway, I hope that you guys all liked it and again, I'm sorry for the long wait on the update. I'll try never to let that happen again! (huggles her new laptop) Well anyway, thank you everyone and please review!

~Seren147

P.S. Something I found funny, every time I type "kaiba" in lowercase on my computer, it automatically corrects it to "Kaiba". I think he's trying to warn me or something, lol!