Disclaimer: The chapter title is a lyric from Switchfoot's "Adding to the Noise".

Authoress notes: Here we go with another chapter of 'This Is Your Life'! It shows Raphie deciding to go find Valon and Amelda in this one. n.n So, yes, next will be a one-shot about Valon. And I'm talking too much... So I'll just shut up and you can read the story. (wink)

...On an unrelated note, how is your 2005 going? Mine has had problems. (nods flatly)

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The other airport patrons did not know what to think of the three strangely-dressed men sitting at a table in the food court, discussing something serious. But the three weren't bothering anyone, so those at the airport didn't bother them.

The airport was the same one that Amelda had landed at the morning before. He was still in his home country, but now Raphael and Valon were with him. The three of them were sitting in the food court trying to determine their next course of action.

"...Well, we can't stay here," Amelda was saying. "There's nothing here for us."

"Um... What about California again?" Valon suggested.

Raphael shook his head. "There are too many things there that are better off forgotten."

"Besides," Amelda added, "it's too hot there."

They lapsed into silence, thinking. "I've got one..." Raphael said slowly. "What about Domino?" The other two looked at him.

"That's where..." Amelda trailed off. Raphael nodded.

"All the way to Japan?" Valon asked skeptically.

Raphael shrugged in reply. "We have the money. I don't know... I just picked Domino because it's the only place where we might actually know some people..."

"Who probably hate us," Valon jumped in.

Raphael shook his head. "I don't think so..." He was thinking of his last duel against the pharaoh. The two had dueled atop a skyscraper, and then the duel ended the building began to collapse. All they'd been able to think about was getting the other to safety.

Valon shrugged. "Maybe I could see Mai again," he grinned.

The other two rolled their eyes, but inwardly Raphael was relieved that Valon was acting like his normal self. He reluctantly remembered the circumstances under which he'd been reunited with the brunette, and how shaken he had been...

"What about you, Amelda?" Valon said suddenly, jerking Raphael from his reverie. "You hate Kaiba, and he lives in Domino."

Amelda sighed and drummed his fingers against the table. "I'm done hating him," he said tiredly. "It wasn't even him... It was all Dartz." He bit back the phrase, "And myself." He knew they'd both tell him it wasn't true, that it wasn't his fault Miruko or his mother had died...

"Besides," Amelda continued. "Kaiba, he... I don't think he's all bad. Of course, he's arrogant and rude, but he's got some good in him. I think everyone is essentially good, deep down. Just... Maybe not everyone was raised in such a way that that goodness could grow."

The other two were staring at him. "...That was stupid," Amelda glowered.

"That was deep, man," Valon shook his head. And it was that brief glimpse into the mind of the skinny redhead that made things okay for the other two. Valon was easing himself back into the protective presences of the other two, and Raphael was convinced that he'd made the right choice in going after them.

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The plane took off, the engine roaring. Amelda shook his head, trying to block out the mechanical growl that reminded him of the sounds of explosions and gunfire. "So," he began, moving onto a different subject and turning to the two sitting to his right. "I'm curious as to how the two of you met up."

Valon had turned away from the window when he'd heard Amelda speak up, but as soon as Amelda finished his question, the brunette turned back and gazed out the tiny window, scooting close to the wall. Amelda looked at him curiously.

"Well, I went to France as soon as Doma disbanded," Raphael began, noting Valon's discomfort.

"Yeah..." Amelda said slowly. He would find out what was wrong with Valon later.

"The first thing I did," Raphael continued, "was go looking for my old house."

Flashback

"Yes, it's still standing," the woman said, looking curiously from the piece of paper Raphael was holding to Raphael himself. "But I don't know why you'd want to go to that run-down house... No one's lived in it for years."

Raphael nodded and was about to continue walking when the woman's voice interrupted him. "It's going down pretty soon, I've heard."

Raphael paused. "...What?"

"The house. They're demolishing it pretty soon. In two weeks, I think."

Raphael nodded slowly. "I see... Thanks." He began trudging forward, almost with a grim resignation, leaving the woman to draw her own conclusions.

'He was polite enough,' she thought. 'But I don't know what on earth it is that he's after... He seemed familiar.' She too began going her own way. 'Where could I know him from...?'

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Raphael found the door unlocked, it's stained glass windows broken in. It was true, what the woman had said. The place was in complete disrepair, broken into by countless plunderers. As he wandered through the house, Raphael took note of the things missing – Julien's model train set, Sonia's favorite china doll, his mother's pearls, his father's golden pocket watch.

He was not, by nature, aloof like Amelda, wild like Valon, or cruel like Dartz. He had joined Doma to make the world a better place. Every day Raphael spent under Dartz's wing, soaking up his crooked schemes, another piece of his true self disappeared, exactly like the pieces of his old life, stolen and gone forever.

His old life... He thought about Amelda, struggling to keep his brother safe when he himself didn't know they would live to see tomorrow. He thought about Valon, rejected time and time again by foster family after foster family. Raphael thought about his own childhood – loved, protected, sheltered.

Until that fateful night... the waves crashing over him, pulling him this way and that, ripping him away from everything he'd known.

They were all alone, the three of them.

Raphael entered the parlor, and a smile spread across his face for the first time in quite a while.

The baby grand piano was still there. Most likely, the thieves found the instrument too bulky and troublesome to steal. He stalked over to it and sat down at it, idly tapping the keys. It was terribly out-of-tune, but it still played.

He paused, drumming his fingers against his knee, ransacking his brain for any of the old songs he'd learned to play as a child.

Finally one came to him, and he began to play, the notes halting. The longer he played, however, the more his confidence came back, and the parlor was filled with the music. Raphael stared down at the keys, and suddenly he could hear the steady 'tick-tick-tick' of the metronome. His piano teacher stood behind him, occasionally coughing into the linen handkerchief he kept perpetually tucked in his coat pocket. Raphael was probably his least favorite charge. It had nothing to do with Raphael himself – the boy was a fast learner and didn't mind all the practice involved. It was the two terrors that he didn't like.

Raphael could almost hear their excited voices behind him. "Wow, big brother... You're getting really, really good!" Sonia appraised.

"Hey, hey, big brother! Play my song, would you? Please, big brother?" Julien pleaded. His favorite song was "Chopsticks".

And then Madame Giry, the nanny, would come in, ushering the children out to leave Raphael to his lessons.

Heavy footfalls rudely pulled Raphael from his reverie, and he turned to face two men dressed entirely in black. His eyes narrowed and he gave them a stony glare, rage rapidly building up.

The two men stared at him in shock, and then turned to each other. "G-g...It's a GHOST!" they screamed in panic, turning and tearing out of the house.

Raphael stood sharply, the piano bench toppling in the process. He seized a book resting on top of the piano and hurled it sharply to the floor. It skidded across the floor, and everything was silent again.

Raphael sighed. He never used to have a temper. More effects of Doma's poison. Except... Maybe it wasn't all Doma.

His thoughts unwillingly turned a certain quarrelsome brunette, and the redhead with whom he'd often ended up quarreling.

Those thieves... They'd just tried to rob more from his old life. But no more. No more of that.

He clenched his fists. Julien, Sonia, his parents, his persona... They had all been taken from him, and he had done nothing but sit back and watch it happen. But never again.

And so Raphael knew what he had to do – he had to track down Amelda and Valon. Because they were his friends. They were the only people he could trust, the only people he was close to. And he was not going to sit back and lose them forever.

"Do you hear me!?" he demanded out loud, unsure of who he was trying to speak to. "I'm never making the same mistake again!"

The words echoed through the room and bounced back to him.

That was how, with an almost inhuman determination, Raphael began his search.

End flashback

Midmorning the next day found the three in another airport. They were going to board a connecting flight to Tokyo soon. The three were stretching their cramped muscles. Amelda had found himself unable to get comfortable on the plane, and had slept very little. He was slumped over at a food court table, sipping a large cup of coffee. "When we get to Domino," Valon vowed, "I'm never sitting down again."

"Okay," Amelda shrugged, too tired to wryly and characteristically point out the absurdity of the statement.

Raphael bit back the smile tugging at his lips. It was so wonderful to be around the other two again, even if they were all sore, tired, and currently stuck at an airport.

Amelda seemed to be doing all right, after his breakdown at the cemetery the day before. Valon as well seemed to be recovering from what had happened in Sydney.

Raphael just hoped nothing else would happen that would scare the brunette like that again.

"All passengers boarding Flight 1987 to Tokyo, Japan, may board the plane at Gate A7."

The three looked at each other as the disembodied voice repeated the announcement.

"Crap," Valon gasped, and Amelda stood. The three turned and bolted for the gate, Amelda's coffee cup forgotten the table.

It was time to go home.

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(In groveling position) ....TT Gomengomengomen! I take forever to update, and all you get is this crapfest!

...Well, okay, so maybe 'crapfest' is a little strong... But still, I don't like how this one came out. (sighs)

(By the by, it's currently one a.m., so if anything comes out a bit screwy it's 'cause I'm sleepy.)

Now then, time for my excuses for taking too long. I kept finding myself in moods not suited for writing this... v.v I dunno about you, but it's been the weirdest of Januarys over here... Midterms loom on the horizon, so we've been getting lots of work. Which sucks.

And the other thing that's been distracting me... Maki Murakami's 'Gravitation' has wholly and utterly hijacked my brain. v.v A fellow otaku in my social studies class awesomely lent me the entire four-disc box set of the anime. Not to mention I've been gorging myself on Gravi fanfictions. I'm gonna get a terrible cavity from all this fluff, I tell ya.

(sighs) But I love my boysex... XD No, that's not right. Gravitation is not fanservice for all the hentai-yaoi-fangirls out there. It's a great series about a relationship between a novelist who never wants to love again and the pink-haired whirlwind who won't leave him alone, and they both happen to be guys. (wink)

Anyway... I'm done now. v.v

There is a Phantom of the Opera reference in here. Cheesecake to you if you caught it. Next up will be the Valon-chapter, and you'll find out about this mysterious Sydney-incident. Duhduhduhduuun... Yeah, I'm really excited about the Valon-chapter. (bounces) Ish gonna be pretty good, I think. Much better than this chapter. (half-hearted sleepy glare)

Okay, I ramble. Good night, minna-san.