Once Upon a Dream

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh no matter how much I would like to.

Authors note: I promise this will be longer, if it's not then you can give me as much flames as you think necessary. I am also sorry that this is taking so long. I am currently in the middle of chapter five and you can say I have hit a brick wall so it's taking a while, sorry! I'll try and get it done as soon as I can.

Story Description: AU Serenity and Joey have always told each other everything? Right? Everything, except for one secret that happened after they were separated. And what happens when this "secret" comes back into Serenity's life after all of these years? SetoXSerenity.

Chapter Four:

Monsters and Angels

Serenity walked up the sidewalk to her door in a brief daze. What had even possessed Seto to do that was beyond her. She hadn't helped him with anything, so what was he referring to?

Serenity slowly turned her doorknob and walked inside to yells and shouts, most of them were sent from Joey: "Where the hell were you!"

She moved past Joey, to tired to argue, and headed to her room until a strong arm blocked her way. She focused her weary eyes on Tristan in all of his fury. She had never seen him like this.

"I fought so hard for you to have me in your heart, and I just want it to last."

She remembered him say that earlier, no one could take his place why would he think that?

"I'll talk to her Joey, you go to bed." Tristan responded to Joey's angry muffles

Tristan walked her down the hall and into her bedroom stone-faced and seemingly calm, on the outside at least. She was being pulled and she had no control over where she was going. She hit her leg on the kitchen's island and an arm on a wall. He dragged her into her room, slamming her door shut and pushed her over to the bed to sit down. Her wrist was swollen from his grip and she was nursing it as he stared at her with angry, narrow eyes.

Visions of her father were in her head, when she was late to lunch or just anytime he felt like it he would beat her. Whenever her mother was gone or Joey was gone he would beat her. She would always dread days that he could visit her and take her somewhere. As she got older she became immune to the beatings, cold, not to show any emotion on the outside.

Tristan reminded her of her father, his loving gentle side. Now in the bedroom she saw that he was no different from her father. They were on in the same, the same abusive monster.

"What the hell do you think you were doing just now!" A fire was burning in his eyes, the same fire she remembered being in her father's angry, merciless eyes.

"What are you talking about?" She asked, she had no idea what was going on, what was going to happen.

"What are you talking about? You know very damn well what I mean. I saw it, all from the window. Who is he? I'm going to kill the bastard!"

Serenity breathed in sharply. He had seen Seto kiss her, she had to get out of here, and she knew that when Tristan got angry he meant every word he was saying.

"How could you!" He screamed slapping her on the face

She was knocked down on the bed and her face sung so much to just talk. She tried to get up, to run away from Tristan but he shoved her back down with a "Where do you think you're going?"

It was storming out now, the thunder was rolling and rain was coming down in sheets at a time. Serenity vainly attempted to get up again but Tristan just shoved her down causing her to cut her face on a worn piece of wood. The cut was on her cheek and it even her to cry.

She cried because it hurt and she hurt because she cried, it was an endless cycle of pain.

"Tristan please stop it." She forced out

He slapped her again asking, "Who was he!"

"Tristan stop it!" She screamed through blood and tears.

The door flew open and Joey stopped dumbstruck in the doorway. His sisters whole left side was covered in a mixture of blood and tears. Her wrist was black, blue, and purple and Tristan had just hit her.

"What the hell are you doing! You said you would talk to her not beat her to death! Out! You get out now! You're no better than our drunkard father!" Joey was red with rage and had Tristan pinned to the wall.

Serenity couldn't take the yelling. Yelling was what split her family up before and it's happening again. She ran out of the room and through the halls. She ran out the front door and into the rain.

She just had to keep running, the pain in her leg was killing her but the pain was better than Tristan and the all of the painful yelling. She had no idea where she was going; she just wanted to get away.

She had reached her limit, she couldn't run any longer. She collapsed on the ground in a wet heap. She couldn't tell where she was through the heavy rain so she slowly inched herself near a street lamp to lean on while she caught her breath. Her adrenaline was pumping and her heart was about to break through her chest because it was pounding so hard.

"…why…" Serenity sobbed. She tried to get up but her weak leg wouldn't let her and she collapsed into a puddle in the street and started to cry.

Yugi slept quietly in his room obliviously to all noise. Yami however was sitting lightly on the desk brushing up on his Egyptian and hieroglyphics while trying to decipher a picture of a stone tablet for the museum.

Everything was quiet in the house except for Yami's constant mumblings, "Those mean…and that says…so this reads…"Off in the distance Yami could hear something but tried to ignore it. He passed it as an animal until he heard some kind of mumbling. He jumped off of the desk and looked out the window and he saw what it was.

It was a girl and she was just lying in a puddle, the light was shining on her head and he could barely make out her features.

"No it can be, he would never…" He started to say, she tilted her head up and he saw the familiar face of Serenity Wheeler.

Yami raced outside in nothing but his pajama pants and kneeled down to look at Serenity in the eyes. He placed his hand under her chin and lifted it up to look at her cut and bruised face. Yami grabbed Serenity and carried her into the Game Shop and to his room.

"Yami?" She wheezed out of her parched throat

"Who did this to you? What happened?" He said giving her a blanket while searching for a T-shirt and extra pajama pants.

Serenity tried to talk but all that came out was a squeak, screaming and running for that long had fried her vocal chords. She inched over to the white board in the room and scribbled Tristan on the board in her neat hand and pulled the blanket around her even tighter.

Yami looked over at Serenity and asked "Did you say something?" He watched her point at the board and he read her scrawl. "Why would Tristan do this? He basically worships the ground you walk on."

Serenity started to pick up the marker again but Yami stopped her. He stared at her with his intense violet eyes and firmly said "Change out of your wet uniform and into these." He handed her the wadded up clothes and a towel and guided her into the bathroom making sure she wouldn't fall.

"Then we need to talk," Yami shut the door behind him and went downstairs to throw the uniform in the dryer and start a fire in the living room.

"Here this should help your throat." Yami handed the now dry clothed Serenity a glass of slightly diluted lemon juice.

Serenity sipped down the bitter juice and coughed at the sourness. She was able to talk now but only slightly and very softly. "Thank you" she coughed

"So why did Tristan, of all people, do this to you?"

"Well Tristan and I have been seeing each other secretly for about a month now…"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Yami interrupted

"Well, you can say that Tristan got really jealous." Serenity continued "Well there were these Romeo and Juliet auditions and I got the lead female part. So Seto, who got the lead male part, and I went to dinner to celebrate…"

"You and Kaiba went out on a date!" Yami interrupted for the second time.

"No, Seto and I did not go on a date we went out for a celebratory dinner." She emphasized the word Seto very strongly. "Neither of us was smart enough to think of taking his car so we walked and were freezing even after we had finished eating. That's when we went back to his house and, reviewed the script,

"We stayed at his house pretty late and so he offered to take me home. And when he pulled into my drive way Tristan must have seen Seto kiss me goodnight." Serenity looked over at Yami after finishing her story and the look on his face was priceless.

"Wait did you just say Kai- I mean Seto kissed you!" Yami exclaimed

"Yes I did, what's wrong with that!"

"U-u-u-uh nothing. So, that still doesn't explain how this happened." Yami was indicating her cuts and bruises with his hand.

"Isn't it obvious? I went in the house and they were both furious, Tristan offered to talk to me, but he, beat me, instead. Joey came in and saw and they started yelling and fighting and so I ran out the door. I kept running until I collapsed from exhaustion as well as the pain in my leg, and that's when you found me." Serenity explained

"So what do you think we should do?"

"I can handle Joey. I don't know about Tristan though, he threatened to kill Seto, if he ever finds out it was Seto, I'm scared Yami." She said clasping onto him

He gave her a gentle hug and finally said "You can sleep on the couch, I can probably get Tea to talk to Tristan. Just stay away from him; I don't want you to get hurt again, because next time it will probably be worse." Yami said in his fatherly tone

"Thank you so much!" Serenity gave him a tight squeeze and fell into a soft sleep as soon as she hit the pillow. Yami put one more log into the fire and grabbed a blanket, covering Serenity up before returning to his own bed.

Serenity was used to waking up to the crunching of Joey eating his breakfast of cereal and over cooked toast, but today she woke up to the smells of sausage, eggs, and toast that wasn't black for once.

She stretched her back and looked into the kitchen to see who was there and saw the familiar face of Yami at the stove. He had always been like a father to her and she appreciated the effort he put in to make her feel safe. One Father's Day she even gave him a present and told him it was a joke even though he knew it wasn't.

Her leg was better, she was still left with a limp but she could walk around fine. Serenity picked up her neatly folded uniform and she limped into the bathroom and changed into it. She searched her pockets for the stick of cover-up that she always leaves in her coat pocket and managed to cover up most of the small bruises and scrapes. She would just have to live with the questions about the six-inch long bruise down her shin.

"I would hurry up and eat, we need to get to school soon." Yami said without even looking at her.

Serenity looked around and asked "Then shouldn't Yugi be up?"

Yami handed her a plate of food and said, "Once he smells food he'll come down. Plus," Yami said with a slight grin "Yugi only takes a grand total of two minutes to get ready anyway. It would be half a minute if he wasn't so disoriented after he wakes up."

Serenity jumped out of her seat at a large crash coming from up the steps.

"Yugi's up," Yami said with a monotone

As if being cued Yugi suddenly appeared on the steps. He was hopping down them on one foot while trying to get his socks on.

"Hello Serenity," Yugi said with a yawn

Serenity was sure that he was complete out of it. She knew Yugi better than to just pass something with out questioning it.

Serenity secretly mouthed 'Don't tell him please' to Yami. She really didn't want anybody to know what had happened last night besides Yami and Tea.

But what about Seto. He's in as much danger as I am. I need to tell him. I will tell him, today after play practice, if I don't, I'll never forgive myself if he gets hurt. Serenity thought to herself.

After Serenity finished Yugi scarf down his like Joey would do they walked out the door to head to school. Serenity hopped into Yami's black Jaguar and drove toward the school. Yugi finally came out of his comatose-like state and was surprised to find Serenity in the passenger seat right in front of him.

"Serenity! When did you get here?" Yugi exclaimed

"I have been here since ten o' clock last night. Joey, uh, went out of town and told me to say with you guys." Serenity lied with a nervous laugh

"Okay." Yugi said bluntly with a small shrug

They continued their silent car trip and pulled into the school parking lot and hopped out of the car.

Before going in the school Yami stopped and checked to see that Yugi was gone.

"Serenity, make sure to get a ride home. I don't want you to be walking home and Tristan find you only to take advantage of the privacy. So, just get a ride." Yami whispered to Serenity

"Yes Papa Yami." Serenity grinned as she watched him walk through the wooden doors.

Serenity stood perfectly still, completely alone, and terrified before stringing up enough courage to push through the doors and into the school. She walked through the halls stopping at her Science class, which she happened to share with Tristan, before shoving through the door using up her last bit of courage she had.

The atmosphere in the science room was definitely awkward enough when she walked in. Almost everybody in the room was either staring in pity at her bruise or glaring at Tristan. Tristan was avoiding all of the glares, mostly Serenity's angry one.

Obviously, Serenity realized, word leaked out about what happened last night.

As she sat down the soreness of her muscles made her wince, as if she had a little flag that shot of her head signaling that she was in pain, every girl in the room rushed over to Serenity before casting a synchronized glare back at Tristan.

"So is it true that Tristan beat you up in your own house when Joey wasn't looking?" One of the girls whispered

"No! We were at his house and he was yelling at me so I stormed out of the house and fell a couple of times outside; it was slick out last night!" Serenity hated lying but what other choice was there

"Ok, class, take your seats." The teacher interrupted

"Bye Serenity." They whispered

Serenity was satisfied. They didn't believe her, she knew that, but at least she could avoid them now.

Serenity listened for the final bell to ring. She had already finished her paper on Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven and all she had to do now was to perform it. This was the part she was most nervous about. The Raven was about seven pages long on the computer and she had to memorize it completely. She could use the script but every unnecessary paused counts as half of a point off your total.

The bell rang and she waited in the room until Mr. Thompson was ready to leave. Joey, miraculously, used his brain and asked him to escort her to the auditorium for practice. Mr. Thompson graciously accepted after Joey told him the reason why.

The way towards the auditorium was as silent as a graveyard; they finally reached the doors after an eternity and walked in. Serenity felt like a model on a runway, everybody was staring at her but she ignored them and just stared ahead.

When Serenity reached the stage Seto stared into her beautiful doe eyes as she awkwardly made her way up them. As she turned her head toward him he regained his concentration on the chandelier he was supposed to be putting up.

"Ok Seto that looks just fine," Mr. Thompson said to him

Seto graciously jumped off the ladder and walked over to Serenity who was trying to pull up her stockings to cover up the bruise. Seto watched her hair fall in a gentle auburn cascade till it formed a veil over her face.

Serenity pulled up her socks with a jerk and straightened her self up as she saw a pair of feet slowly approach her. She looked up into the familiar pools of azure and cobalt that belonged to Seto.

"So I'm guessing that the rumors I heard were true." He said glancing at her wrist and leg.

"I don't know, which ones did you hear?" Serenity asked stupidly

"The ones that involve injuries." He said bluntly putting a wisp of her behind her ear

"Yeah I guess so, but don't tell that to anyone else, I sort of made up something else to cover for it."

"Serenity if I…"

"Okay let's proceed with practice people we have a deadline to make." Mr. Thompson interrupted

"Let's start from the top," The Co-director shouted

"Serenity how about I take you to my place, we can study, or practice if you want." Seto offered after rehearsal

"Sure, could we be done by ten o' clock? My brother lowered my curfew by an hour after last night's fiasco."

"Sure that's fine, I'll make sure to get you home by then." Seto said jumping on his motorcycle.

Serenity hopped on behind him and clutched on while he sped off towards the mansion.

Unbeknownst to her, Tristan had been in the auditorium, watching her from the back row, hidden in the shadows. Tristan realized that hurting Serenity last night and planning an attack on him wasn't the best ways to get Serenity back, but he figured if he got rid of the problem he could get his beloved Serenity back again. What Tristan witnessed on the stage, along with seeing her get onto a motorcycle with, him; he knew who it was that he was after.

He was after Seto Kaiba.