Finding Family

Chapter 32 - Digging Up The Past

Joey woke up in the Kaiba manor. He looked around. Kaiba was asleep, his head was on the bed Joey was sleep on. He sat up, which hurt, and saw Amber standing in the door frame. Kaiba woke up and looked around.

"Puppy," Kaiba smiled at Joey, "I'm glad you're okay. I'll go get you something to eat." Joey smiled back at Kaiba and nodded.

"Thanks." Kaiba left the room. Amber walked in and sat down.

"You know, he stayed up all night waiting for you to wake up." She took Joey's hand, "I'm glad your okay." She hugged him, "You had us all worried. It was hard enough to get Yugi to go home and get some rest. With school cancelled he insisted on staying here but we insisted that he spend some time with his grandfather."

"That was a good idea. Let's hope he's not making him watch another duck movie."

"Yes lets. Mr. Quakers..." Amber laughed happily, "Oh that was a good one."

"Mr. Quakers?"

"Yeah...it was when I was in dream world. After we woke up, you were helping Sakura." Joey placed his hand thoughtfully on his chin and thought about it.

"Oh yeah!" Joey laughed, "I remember now. Wish I could of heard it."

"Yeah...you wish." Amber's voice became serious again, "How are feeling?"

"Better, thanks to you steping in. He could have killed me." Joey smiled and noticed her shoulder covered in bandages since she was wearing a red one shoulder top. "Your shoulder."

"It's nothing," Amber covered her shoulder, "Besides, you're like family. We can't lose you." Joey blushed at her comment, "Besides your like a third older brother. I like the feeling." Amber heard Kaiba coming, "Well...I'll let you two talk. Get better soon." Amber kissed him on the cheek and ran out of the room.

"What did she do?" Kaiba asked a little nervous. He held a tray with three sandwiches, a big glass of juice, and two peices of cake, one for him and one for Joey.

"Nothing. So..." Joey grinned, "You stayed up all night huh?" Kaiba blushed and set the tray down. He nodded and gave the sandwiches to Joey. "Aren't you going to have one?"

"The rest of us ate."

"I see. What did you guys have?" Joey took a huge chunk out of one of the sandwiches.

"Soup. We weren't really that hungry. We were all worried about you. Amber brought me lunch here so I could...stay with you." Kaiba looked up, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I thought you would think I was weak." Joey looked down, "I'm sorry but I've always thought that my home life was just for me to know. I didn't like people knowing, they always treat me like a fragile peice of glass that could break at any moment. I got sick of it. I hate those stares people give me when they know. I didn't know if you guys would do that to me so I never said anything. I'm really sorry, I just...don't like to talk about my home life." Joey scrunched the blankets over him in his hands. "I'm not one to open up in that area."

"I understand."

"You do?"

"Yes. I'm thinking, as a family, that we should talk." Joey nodded in agreement. Kaiba called Amber and Mokuba into the room.

"What's this about Seto?" Amber pulled her hair up into a messy bun.

"Yeah. What she said."

"Pull up a seat, or sit on the bed." Mokuba and Amber chose the bed. Mokuba was cuddled in Ambers lap.

"I would have beat you Mokuba."

"I rule that game."

"We have to talk, about the past." Amber froze the very moment Kaiba uttered those words. "We all have a lot of explaining to do and we're doing that here and now."

"I...I don't want to talk about it."

"Amber, if you want to get if off your chest this is the time. We won't look down on you for it." Amber sifted slightly.

"Thanks Joey but...remembering hurts too much."

"Talk Amber...we won't think less of you. Please?" Mokuba asked, "I want to help, we want to help."

"Okay. Only cause you asked nicely." Amber sighed and pulled her knees up to her chest. "It all started when I was sent to my adoptive father. He was kind at first. Always so kind and generous. After I turned six he started to drink. It got worse and worse. Soon I was doing all the chores. Cooking all the meals, making the money to support us. I had too much to do to have friends. When I went to school I was made fun of. When I got home I usualy got hit or beaten." Amber brushed away some tears. "When he got a girlfriend though I started to get ignored. I started to wish that he would at least hit me. At least I was getting some attention. I started to go and sit by the lake everyday. It was place of peace. When I was old enough I left in search of my family. My search led me here. You know the rest."

Everyone was silent for a long moment.

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Mokuba asked.

"I kept my own home life to myself for fear that people would think I was weak." Amber looked down at her hand.

"What else did he do to you?"

"What do you mean Seto?"

"From the look in your eyes he must of done something more."

"I...I don't want to talk about it." Amber stood but Kaiba pushed her back down. "Lets drop it. Please?" Amber groaned as Kaiba held her there, "It's..."

"Embarrassing or horrific?" Joey asked.

"Both." Amber sat back down. "Both..."

"Tell me later." Amber nodded to Kaiba. "Can we drop my past please? I just don't want to talk about it." She fell onto the bed and just lay there, her head on the covers.

"Well...I guess it's my turn." Joey spoke, "But I'm not sure how to start."

"Start from the begining." Mokuba suggested.

"I guess. Well, you should know that Serenity lives with mom and I lived with my dad. Well, my dad didn't start drinking until a couple of years after the seperation. I learned to deal with it. Soon things got slowly worse. My father got more and more violent. He was coming home drunk every night. He started to hit me but I delt with it. Until you guys pressed charges that is." Joey looked at all of them. "I'm going to miss him."

"We know you will," Amber gave Joey a reasuring hug. "But you can always visit him."

"Don't you ever miss your foster father?" Mokuba asked Amber. She shook her head no. "You have to sometimes."

"Sometimes...when I'm feeling lonely." Amber wrapped her arms around herself, "The problem is I really don't have a vivid memory of him ever being kind anymore, exact ones I mean."

"I hear you."

"What's yours Seto, Mokuba?"

"Our father was killed in a car crash, our mother died when Mokuba was born." Mokuba looked at Seto and nodded, "We were sent to an orphange to live. No one there really counted as friends to us. I watched a lot of chess matches with Gozoburo in them. I studied his moves to the exact movement."

"What does that have to do with it?" Amber asked.

"Well...I wanted to give Mokuba a better life. So when Gozobura paid a visit to the orphange I challenged him to a chess match and won thanks to me watching all his matches. He took Mokuba and I to his home. There he was brutal in his teachings. He took away all my toys. I betrayed Mokuba at one point, and I wasn't proud of that. But I learned to live with it at some point in my life. Gozoburo had as much respect for us as a person has for their enemy, even less then that."

"Seto was treated really badly by our step father. Be glad that you weren't around then. Anyway, he worked Seto really hard. He had lessons in the middle of the night, all times of the day. When we got older though, Seto became colder but stronger. He fought for his ideas. Soon he was tested. He had to get more shares of Kaiba corp then Gozoburo. He did, but he tricked me into siding with our stepfather but in the end I sided with him. That man disappeared after that. We ended up going to Noah's island for a short time before we actually got to Kaiba corp. Island. We found out that Noah was his real son and that Seto was just there so he could be motivated but Gozoburo ended up controling Noah there. We found out that our stepfather had downloaded his mind to the virtual world also."

"Yes, and he was deleted there to."

"Yeah. But Noah is still trapped there. Noah saved us." Mokuba looked down at the covers sadly. "I wish we could have brought him back with us."

"It would have been nice to meet such a nice kid."

"He wasn't nice at first," Joey complained, "He was just plain anoying."

"The sad part is," Mokuba said, "That we have yet to find a way to bring him back."

"I'm tired, I'm going to go take a short nap." Amber left the room. Kaiba followed.

Before he left he said, "I'll be right back. I want to go talk to Amber." Mokuba and Joey nodded wondering what Amber had meant earlier.

Amber sat on her bed staring out the window. Where do I go from here?

"Amber?" she turned around and looked at Kaiba for a second then she turned back.

"I bet I know what you want." She sighed, "But, I'm afraid to talk about it." Amber was still looking out the window, "I always look out there and see the workers working, or the people walking down the street and wonder."

"Wonder about what?" Kaiba sat down beside her.

"Wonder if they know what I know. Wonder if they have ever gone through that." Amber looked at the sky, "I wonder if they'll ever understand or if they'll ever know, know just what some people go through in life and if they'll ever stop and decide to pay attention."

"We'll never know, all we can do is hope."

"Hope for what?" Amber asked looking at Kaiba.

"A better future."

"I can't see that better future anymore." Kaiba pulled her into a hug.

"You will, no matter how long it takes. You will. The good part of it is that you your family and friends around you. I know I'm sounding like Gardner and I'm not happy about that but it's all the advice I can give."

"Thanks." Amber hugged him.

Night had settled in Domino. A long bright flash of red streaked across the sky sending a shower of sparks down. Little did anyone know in the group of friends that some major changes were to happen.