Chapter nine: Give it a try.

The next day was the same as always, boring, lots of people keep complaining that school is boring and a lost of time, him the first but right now he would give almost anything to go to school; he was literally dying of boredom, it had been a month now that he stayed alone in the game shop all day with nothing to do.

Seto stood up; he had enough and decided to do something before he became a permanent part of the couch.

"And where exactly are you going like that young man?" gramps asked when Seto entered the game shop to go outside.

"I'm going outside." He said without even looking at the old man.

"Be back before dinner."

Of course Seto didn't hear him, he was already outside. A few minutes later he arrived at his destination; the arcade. He didn't had any money on him but he didn't came here to play videogames. Seto made his way to the back of the arcade: the duelling field, again people were duelling. Seto made himself comfortable and watched them, he could stay there and watch all day and never getting bored.

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A few days later Joey and Tristan got out of another detention, all of them went to the game shop.

"You know you should be more careful, at this rate you'll never do all your detention." Yugi said when Joey and Tristan entered the shop.

"It's hopeless Tea, those two must hold the record of the most detention of the school." Tea said.

"Hey it's not our fault the teachers hate us."

"Maybe if you were in time at class they wouldn't hate you that much." Tea said.

Sensing an argument Yugi decided to step in. "Come on, let just forget about school for now."

"Yugi's right, lets do something fun like kicking Tristan's but at duel monster."

"Hey I'm not that bad."

"Come on, even Tea beats you every time."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Tea asked.

Joey was about to answer when Mokuba came in. "Hey guys!"

"Hi Mokuba." Joey looked everywhere around him. "Hey, where's your brother?"

Mokuba looked around too. "I dunno, he wasn't here when I came back from school."

"Oh well, it's not like we are going to miss him." Joey sat down on the couch.

"You know, you could at least be nice to him, he's just a kid." Tea said

"Kid of not he's Kaiba, all Kaiba's are jerk."

"Hey!" Mokuba kicked him

"Sorry! I forgot about you."

"Hey Joey, since I'm so bad I'll make you a deal, if I beat you, you have to be nice to Kaiba." Tristan said.

"No way."

"What's wrong, scare you're gonna lose?"

"What! It's a deal"

"You know guys I don't think it's a good idea." Yugi said.

"Well I think it's a bad idea, my brother doesn't need someone to be nice to him because of a stupid bet." Mokuba had a bad feeling about this, it took a month for him to convince his brother to consider giving them a chance, now they were going to ruin everything.

"Don't worry, what he doesn't know can't hurt him." Tristan said.

"Anyway I'm not going to lose this one."

(A little bit later)

"I don't believe it." Joey said.

Tristan laughed. "Now you have to be nice to Kaiba like you said."

"And you said they were different." Everyone turned around to see Seto in the doorway. "You know what? I don't care, have fun with your friend." With that Seto went to his room.

Mokuba turned back toward Joey and Tristan. "Thanks guys, that was sweet." He said with sarcasm all over his voice before following Seto.

"Hey what did we do?"

"You should have listened to him and Yugi, how would you react if being nice to you was the consequence for loosing a game?" Everyone turned around to see Yugi's grandfather.

"Come on, it's Kaiba we are talking about, he doesn't care about anything."

"When he was 16 maybe, but now he's 12 years old, I told you before, he really was a good kid when he was younger and he loved to play, however he was a genius, that made him different from other kids so he never had any friends."

"So what, he's the one who keep saying he doesn't want any friends."

"Like I say Joey, he's not the Kaiba you know."

Everyone went silent, that's when Yugi thought about something. "Now that I think about it, where was he anyway, he's been out all days for the past week."

"I have no idea, he just leave and came back for dinner, he never told me where he was going." The old man said before leaving them alone.

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"Seto?" Mokuba entered the door, Seto was just staring at the ceiling. "Seto, I'm sorry about what happened."

"Sure you are, you are always sorry about everything even when it's not your fault." Seto said a little bit too harsh. "I'm sorry." He said when he realised how loud he had been.

"You can't really blame them you know, you'd never been good to them before you turned into a kid, especially not to Joey."

"But I don't have anything to do with that person, he's me in 4 years and I don't remember anything about it."

"I know but Joey's not really the brightest person ever you know." A smile appeared on Seto's face. "He's really simpleminded when it came to you, he just doesn't know you like I do."

"Of course he doesn't, you are my brother."

"Just give him a chance…"

"I dunno, I never had any friends before and it didn't kill me, it's not like not being friends with them will change my life."

"But did you really like it, to be all alone and never had friends?"

Seto thought about it for a second. "I don't know, like I said I never had any friends and quite frankly I never even wanted to have anything to do with all those jerks at school. You don't know how it is when everyone turn their back to you when are near them, doing as if you weren't there or insulting you just because you are different."

Mokuba couldn't say anything to that, he had no idea what it was, sure he had goods grades but he wasn't even near to be a genius like his brother, he always had tons of friends when he was little, and still has a lot. He remembered how his brother would always play with him when he was still a baby, always taking care of him…because he had no one else who accepted him as he was.

"You're right, I have no idea, I really think you should give them a chance but I can't force you, no one can help you if you don't let them, you know."

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"Joey, are you sure it's a good idea?" Yugi asked.

"I'm sure of it." Everyone else looked sceptical. "Come on, it's not like we're doing anything illegal, I'm just curious about where he's going all day."

"And since when do you care about Kaiba?" Tea asked.

"I don't, I'm just curious."

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Seto was watching the duel but his mind was miles away; Mokuba's words were still echoing trough his mind, "no one can help you if you don't let them." And why should I trust them, I've let a lot of people help be and they all only wanted to hurt me, Mokuba's the only one who ever truly care about me, except for our parent but they are gone.

But he's right, I didn't liked it to always be alone, but of course no one ever wanted to be my friend, I never asked to be alone. I really want to have friends but what really tells me they are different from everyone else, even my own family betrayed me so what tells me they won't, after all Mokuba said we never were friends before.

I really don't know what I should do, what if I can't trust them, I don't want to be alone anymore.

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"Come on I swear I saw him coming in there." Joey walked toward the entrance.

"It's just the arcade Joey, he must come here to play because he's bored, that's all." Yugi said.

Of course Joey didn't listened to them and walked in, because the place was so big they agreed to split up and search for him only so Joey would stop bugging them. Of course at the second Joey saw a duel was going on he totally forgot everything about Kaiba and started to watch it until he heard a familiar voice.

"I don't want to be alone anymore…" The voice came out in a whisper but because he knew the voice Joey heard it, he turned to his side to see Kaiba just a meter to his right, the kid was looking at the duel but he looked like he was in another world.

Joey went beside him. "Hey kid."

Seto looked up to see Joey beside him. "What are you doing here?"

"It's a free country kid. What about you?"

"It's a free country."

Joey smiled. "So, came here to watch some duels."

Seto eyed him strangely, what is he up to…but then again what is telling me he's up to something? "Yea…"

"What exactly did you meant when you said you didn't wanted to be alone?" Seto looked at him with surprise but didn't answered, he hadn't realised he had said that out loud.

Seto turned back to the duel. "I don't want your pity so go away."

"Pity?" Joey laughed a bit. "I never pity anyone, I know from fact that pity doesn't take you anywhere, beside you're not the only one here with pride." Seto looked up at him. "I don't want pity either you know." Joey added.

"Why are you really here?"

"Honestly? I followed you here."

"Why?"

"Curiosity I guess. So, I thought you weren't interested in duel monster."

"Of course I am."

"Then why did you always refused to duel with us." Seto didn't answered, he wasn't sure he wanted to, he turned away and tried to leave but Joey was faster and grabbed his arm. "You know, no one can help you if you don't let them."

"Is that some kind of complot to make me open up more or what?"

"No, But I saw what a whole life of solitude did to you, even if we never got along before I don't think you deserved to end up like that. But if you repeat that to anyone I'll deny it."

Seto smiled but sadness was apparent in his face. "When I was little no one wanted to play with me, the only one who did only wanted to hurt me…"

"So you thought we wanted to hurt you?"

"I guess so."

"Well I have one thing to tell you, forget about those jerk, don't let them ruin your life like that."

"It's not that easy."

"Only because you are making it hard, just do what you want and stop worrying over nothing." Seto stayed silent, thinking.

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"Sorry Joey but I won again." Yugi said. Everybody laughed.

"Did you ever actually beat him once?" Seto asked which surprised everyone.

"Yugi? Are you nuts? No one ever beat him without cheating." Joey said

"Never?" This was getting Seto's attention.

"I already lost a few times… but that was long ago." Yugi said.

"What about you?" Joey asked. "You said you liked duel monster, do you know how to duel?"

Seto looked slightly insulted. "Of course I know."

"Then get your little but over here and let's duel." Joey said.

Seto looked away. "I can't..."

"Why not?" Yugi asked.

"Because I don't have a deck of my own." That surprised everyone: Seto Kaiba not having a deck.

Yugi smiled. "You could always make one." Everyone turned to him with curiosity, Seto was the most interested of course. "I have tons of cards I don't use, you could make a deck with them."

Seto looked away, not sure what to do until he saw his little brother smiling at him in encouragement. "…Ok…"

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"I must say that I'm surprise that you out of everyone don't have a deck." Yugi said once they were alone in his room.

"Why?"

"Didn't anyone told you? You were the world champion."

"Not anymore."

"What is telling you that?"

"Because you hesitated before telling me and you said I was. I saw you are very skilled you are and it seem to be well known around here that you never lost, knowing myself I would have challenged you sooner or later so I bet you are the one who beat me."

Yugi was impressed. "Doesn't that bother you, that I beat you I mean?"

Seto thought for a second. "Of course no one really his happy to lose but everyone lose sometimes."

Yugi finally found his cards but he couldn't believe his eyes, was this really Seto Kaiba. "You know, I'm surprised to hear that coming from you."

"Yea, Mokuba told me I was a jerk."

"I don't think he said that."

"No, but I know him, he would follow me no matter what I'd do, from what he told me I can tell that from any other eyes I'm a jerk."

"Well nothing force you to be one now." Yugi showed him all his cards.

"Wow!"

Yugi laughed. "That's what happen when you play as long as I have and when your grandfather has a game shop. But if you are surprise you should go back to your house, you have at least ten times what I have."

Seto looked through the card and smiled. "I think I have all the cards I need here."

"You seem really sure of yourself, can I know why you don't have a deck."

Seto stopped for a little while. "I had one…but my step father said I was wasting my intelligence with those stupid games and he burned it."

"What a jerk."

"I wanted to kill him that day, it was my father's deck, the only thing I had left from him." Seto turned around with a fake smile, he had said way too much. "Anyway that was a long time ago."

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"What took you so long?" Joey asked when Yugi and Seto came back in the living room."

"Nothing." Yugi said.

"So, ready to lose kid?"

"You shouldn't underestimate me like that, you might regret it."

"You know Joey he's right, that's still Kaiba and I'm sure he didn't became a champion over night." Tristan said.

"Why don't you ever believe I can win?"

"You really want to know?" Tristan said.

"…Just forget it. Kids first."

"You'll regret it." Seto said placing one monster in defence mode and two cards face down.

(An: ok for people who don't know me then let me tell you that I really love watching Yu-gi-oh and I really love watching duels but personally, to me there is almost noting as boring in a fic as to read a duel that's why I don't write any or only put one or two turns if they are important for the story.)

"And there goes the rest of your life points." Seto said with a smile.

"I must be cursed." Joey said.

"And the score is 5450 lp for Seto and 0 for Joey." Tristan said. (And yes it was a 4000 lp duel)

"Are you sure you finished fourth at battle city? 'cause you don't look like a winner." Tristan asked. "Let me show you how professionals play." Tristan pushed Joey out of the way and sat in from of Seto.

"Are you sure you want to try? I've seen you duel and you are far from my level." Seto said.

"You really are arrogant for a kid."

"I beat your friend."

"Yea but Joey never wins when he's not playing in a tournament."

"Hey, at least I can enter tournaments Tristan."

"So what?"

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"You sure are good Tristan, at loosing that is." Joey said. "You did even worst than me, he just have two times more lp then when you started the duel."

"Where in the world did you learn to play like that?" Tea asked.

"My father taught me."

"Was he good?" Joey asked

"I never beat him before."

"Never?" Everyone asked at the same time.

"Never, he wasn't the world champion for nothing."

"So your father was the world champion?" Yugi asked.

Seto nodded. "He was the best."

"Until someone took his title." Joey said.

Seto smiled. "No, no one ever beat him, after my mother's death he ended up alone to raise me and Mokuba so he stopped playing, he couldn't afford to travel around for tournament anymore."

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Here, I know it's a little early today but since there isn't school I can't garanty that I'll have the computer later because I have lots of tv show I'm watching on friday.