A/N:
Willowwind: Hey, people! Guess what day it is!
Lieh: IT'S MY PRECIOUS SETO-KUN'S BIRTHDAY!!!
Willowwind: Everybody ready?
Everybody: Yup!
Willowwind: One, two, THREE!
Everybody: Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy BIRTHDAY dear Seto! Happy birthday to yoooouuuu!!!
Seto: Get. Me. Out. Of. Here.
Mokuba: ::giggles:: ::runs up and hugs Seto:: Happy birthday, big brother!
Seto: Mmph.
Willowwind and Lieh: ::squeal:: KAWAII!!
::streamers and confetti fly down onto Seto::
Willowwind: ::giggle:: He looks like a pile of tinkertape.
Escurcae: That's enough torturing Seto. Could somebody do the disclaimer?
::Seto breaks free and runs away, everybody chases him but Mokuba::
Mokuba: ::blink:: Er, they don't own Yugioh! or Haiiro and Ih'kauren, but they own everyone else. And the warnings have not changed. Now excuse me, I have a brother to catch. Roll fic! ::Mokuba runs out:: Seto, wait for meeeeee!!!
--Finding Home
-Chapter Four – Pancakes and Other Stuff
Willowwind opened her eyes, and looked around at the room she was in. Yes, room. Mokuba's puppy eyes had done the trick again, and now all of the company were sleeping inside the house. And not a moment too soon, either. The telepathic elf slowly rose from her bed, and walked over to the window. She looked out, grinning, at the puddles of rainwater on the ground outside.
There was a knock on the door, and, a moment later, it opened to reveal a maid.
Willowwind stared. "I didn't know that Seto had servants...." She remarked questioningly.
"He doesn't have very many, and we don't do too much. We do most of the cleaning, and a few odd jobs, and that's about it."
"Oh. Well, what did you want?"
"Breakfast will be soon. I was just sent to let you know."
"Thank you. But why didn't Seto or Mokuba come to tell us that?"
"Mr. Kaiba and his little brother are making breakfast. I would hurry up and get ready, if I were you." The maid exited.
Fifteen minutes later, Willowwind descended a flight of stairs, and made her way through several hallways into the dining room. Most of the company were already there. Willowwind made her way over to Lieh and Yousei, an sat between them.
A moment later, Seto burst out of the kitchens, holding a plate of pancakes. There was a glob of batter stuck in his hair. He set the plate down on the table and disappeared back into the kitchens.
The sound of Mokuba's giggle came from behind the closed door, and then something splatted against it. Seto said something, another splatting noise came, and Mokuba giggled again.
Lieh glanced at Willowwind, who shook her head slightly. The first hikari pouted. Sighing, she rested her chin on one had and fiddled with her fork, throwing resentful sideways glances at Willowwind every so often. Willowwind rolled her eyes. "Lieh...."
Lieh stuck her tongue out at her friend but remained silent, forehead creased in thought.
Willowwind thought of something. "Yousei," she asked, turning her head the other way toward the faerie, "isn't the school year supposed to start soon?"
"Yes. It starts two days from now. Mokuba said something about Seto taking us to sign up at Domino High later today.
"Oh. O.K." Willowwind turned back to Lieh, and froze. Lieh wasn't there. The elf scanned around frantically, and saw her friend sneaking towards the doors of the kitchen. "LIEH!!!"
Just then, the kitchen doors banged open, and Seto fell out with semi-congealed pancake batter plastered onto his body in random places. He landed right in front of Lieh, and she froze. She stared at Seto's wrist, which was uncovered from the sleeve being pulled up and facing upwards. She blinked, and then whirled around to face her yami. "NACHZES!"
"Wha-" Nachzes' question was cut short as she saw Seto's wrist. He was getting up and staring at Lieh curiously.
"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"
"Lieh, I didn't know it would happen if I wrote it! I didn't think it would mean anything! Lieh, wait!"
Lieh wasn't paying attention to her dark half. She ran from the room, crying, and calling over her shoulder as she went, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO WRITE IT!"
Nachzes swore under her breath, and then ran after her hikari.
Seto blinked, clearly confused. Mokuba came out to see what all the yelling was about just as Seto went back in to make more pancakes. The younger Kaiba was about to follow his brother when Escurcae stopped him with a question.
"Mokuba?"
"Yes?"
"I know this will seem like kind of an odd question, but...how did your parents die?"
The happy smile died from Mokuba's face, but he still answered the question. "In a car crash."
"And how did Seto get that scar on his wrist?"
"That was when...he was younger."
"Did he try to commit suicide in the back room of some police station by cutting his wrist with a piece of glass from the accident?"
Mokuba's eyes widened, then narrowed very quickly. "HOW DID YOU KNOW, YOU STALKER?!" he yelled. ::A/N: We all know what Mokuba yelling brings....::
The kitchen door smashed open, and Seto ran out. Escurcae laid a hand on her sword hilt, effectively stopping him. It did not stop him talking, though.
"What did you say to Mokuba?" he demanded.
Mokuba answered the question for him. "Big brother, she knows about your scar!"
"What?!" His eyes narrowed farther than anyone would have believed possible. "How?"
"I think I probably know almost as much about you as you do yourself, Seto James Shukumei."
Seto froze.
"I think it's about time you knew some things. Well past time, actually. You see, in our realm, we have things called fanfictions. My hikari and Nachzes both write them. Fanfictions are stories about movies or other stories that are already written by someone else. You're on a TV show in our realm, and Nachzes really likes it. So, naturally, she wrote a – well, several fics about you, most involving your past. She wrote that your parents died in a car crash, and, shortly after, you tried to commit suicide, and Mokuba saved you. I don't think that she knew that writing it would make it real, though, so don't be mad at her. It's not her fault."
---
Meanwhile, back upstairs, Lieh was glaring through her tears at Nachzes, her hands clenched into fists at her sides, her lips trembling slightly, but still set in a relatively firm line. She blinked, and more tears ran down her face. A small, hiccupping sob escaped her, and Nachzes took half a step forwards, but stopped when Lieh's glare intensified.
"Lieh..." she began, but the other cut her off.
"And what about Gozaboro?" she snarled. "What about him? Why don't you go downstairs and ask Seto really nicely if he's still a friggin' VIRGIN!" She was screaming now, and Nachzes flinched at the harshness in her voice. "YOU HAD HIM RAPED, NACHZES! RAPED! AND YOU'RE ACTING LIKE IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT!"
"Lieh," Nachzes interrupted, "We don't know for sure if it all happened! He's not gay, and it doesn't look to me like Mokuba has cancer. And what about all the other fics that others write, why doesn't this happen to them?"
"I don't know!" Lieh wailed. "I just don't know, Nachzes! But why'd it have to be Seto? What did he do to deserve all this?"
Nachzes sighed. "I don't know," she said quietly. "But some of it's not me. I didn't decide most of it. I just used theories of my own to fill in the blanks that the Yugioh! creators left. Like his parents. I didn't kill them, I just used my own ideas on how they died. And as for on, it's kinda hard to see a big, burly, evil stepfather holding a riding crop in front of a ten-year-old boy and not think of physical abuse. And besides, he's always wearing long sleeves, long pants, and high collars. I didn't write that, either."
"Well, no," Lieh admitted, looking down. "But still..." a tear ran down her cheek and she looked back up. "Why Seto?"
"Fate has strange ways of operating, Lieh," the yami said. "My guess is that it was a test." She smiled. "And besides, hasn't his bond with Mokuba strengthened because of it?"
Lieh laughed bitterly. "Yeah, so much that if Mokuba died, Seto'd commit suicide without a second thought."
Nachzes sighed and squeezed her hikari's upper arm. Lieh looked up. "Not if you give him someone else to care for," she whispered. Then she turned Lieh around and began to push her towards the door. "Go get 'im, Tiger," she said, and shut the door behind her light.
Slowly, a huge grin split the hikari's face, and Lieh bounced down the stairs, leaving Nachzes laughing quietly to herself behind the closed door.
---
All eyes turned away from Escurcae as the doors which led into the hallways burst open. Lieh, who was grinning like her usual self again, was standing in the doorway. After pausing only a moment, she sprinted five steps across the floor, then launched herself at Seto. The 16-year-old CEO sighed as she latched onto his leg – again.
"Lieh..." Willowwind started, but her friend was muttering something indecipherable to herself, and giggling at odd intervals. Willowwind rolled her eyes and gave up.
"Mokuba," Yousei asked, giving the 11-year-old a meaningful stare, "Don't we have to go and sign up for school? NOW?"
"We were going to do that la-" the younger Kaiba caught Yousei's look and understood immediately. "Oh, I mean, yeah, we were going to do that right now. Right, big brother?" Mokuba turned to Seto.
"That's right. Somebody get Black Rider down here while I go get the car ready." Seto stalked off, dragging Lieh with him, as she still hadn't let go of his leg.
Fifteen minutes later, all fourteen people staying in the Kaiba mansion were crammed into Seto's limo ::A/N: And it's a good thing it was a limo, even if it was a small one. I mean, can you imaging fourteen people crammed into a regular car? And two of them have wings, too....::, on their way to Domino High. Seto was staring angrily straight ahead as Lieh giggled and bounced on his lap. Yes, on his lap. There had only been enough room for half of them to have their own seat, so the other half were sitting on the laps of those with seats. Seto glanced around angrily. Why couldn't Lieh be like Willowwind and sit on her yami's lap? Oh, right, because Nachzes was sitting on Haiiro. Apart from them, Yousei was giggling on Ih'kauren's lap, Brightmoss was on Silverwater, Jes was on Flamechild (who was blushing bright red, might I add), and (much to the annoyance of Seto) Mokuba was sitting on Aaron. Seto sighed. Since when was the drive to school this long?
After what seemed like an eternity (to Seto, nobody else noticed), they arrived. People poured out of the limo. Mokuba glanced around when he got out, and then caught sight of what (or who) he was looking for.
"There's my friends, over there! Come on, Brightmoss!" The two youngsters ran off towards the group of people standing outside the doors of the school, followed closely by everyone else. Except for one obvious exception. Seto sat on a nearby bench and tool out a book. The school would open for registration soon. Then he could drag everyone away from Yugi and his friends. Until then....
Seto's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Mokuba's voice. "Seto, guess what!"
"What is it now?"
"Tea got a new DDR machine, and she wants us to come over and try it out tomorrow!"
"Oh. Wonderful."
"Can we go? Pleeeeease?"
"Fine, if it will make you stop bothering me."
"Thank you!" Mokuba gave his brother a quick hug before running off to join the others.
Seto watched him go, and, for one of the first times in his life, he wished that he could be like the others, laughing and talking together. The CEO sighed and turned back to his book. It was too late. The days when he could have made friends and been like the others were long gone...or so he thought.
----
A/N:
Willowwind: That. Chapter. Sucked. Bad.
Escurcae: It wasn't that bad. The end and a few other places need some work, but it was O.K.
Willowwind: Fine. I will edit this chapter a lot. Later, though. I can't get any ideas yet.
Escurcae: 0.0 You don't mean....
Willowwind: Yes, I am getting writer's block. And I don't know how to stop it.
Nachzes: NOOO!!! YOU MUST WRITE MORE! WRITE!!! ::sticks pen in Willowwind's hand, and then grabs the hand and scribbles on piece of paper with it::
Willowwind: The next chapter might take a while in coming. But I do have lots of good ideas for it, so maybe not...we'll see. Anyways, please review. ::lights blink in the background, saying 'This Means You Nachzes':: It would make me hyper, and hyperness might help stop writer's block...for now. See ya.