Seto was about to start on the pancakes when he noticed Mokuba had finished off his plate of eggs, hash browns, toast, 2 bacon and 2 sausages. He thought he'd at least offer even though he was sure the kid was probably going to bust not use to eating so much.

"So, kiddo you want a couple of my pancakes? I'm not sure I can manage eating all 4."

Mokuba looked at them and remembered seeing the family eat them when his stepmother made them.

"Mokuba?"

"Huh?"

"I asked if you wanted one."

"I-I've s-seen them but…"

"You mean they never let you have any?" Yami asked getting a clearer picture of the poor kid's home life every minute.

Mokuba shook his head no. "T-they'd often put s-stuff all over it. I-it was sticky as c-crazy to g-get off."

Seto and Yami had to laugh a little. Seto cut apiece off without syrup. "It's called syrup, kiddo. Here try a bite without it, then I'll give you a bite with it."

Mokuba took it and the smile on his face told Seto all he needed to know. He cut apiece off with syrup. Mokuba really seemed to like it too.

"Yami hold his plate up here." Seto told him and then he took the bottom two pancakes and put them on the plate. Then he poured a little syrup on them.

"Seto are…"

Seto put his finger to his lips and lightly tapped them. They both knew full well Seto could eat all those pancakes with no problem. However, Seto didn't want Mokuba to know that. He wanted the boy to have them. After all the kid did for him, it was one of the many ways he planned on paying him back.

Seto then put whipped cream and some strawberries on his. "Mokuba you want some strawberries or I've got some huckleberries here too?" Seto held them out to Mokuba and suddenly his nightmare of what happened with Noah came back. He just sat there lightly shaking staring at it.

"Mokuba?" Yami asked concerned. However, the moment he touched the kid's head he jumped and yelped.

Seto and Yami were really confused now.

"Hey what's wrong?" Yami asked.

Mokuba relaxed realizing he was safely between two of three people he trusted.

"Mokuba tell me what we did." Seto asked concerned.

Mokuba shook his head no, and then hugged him. Seto knew they must have trigged something and just wrapped his arm around him and squeezed and rubbed his shoulder gently.

"What could have caused that?" Yami asked.

"I'm assuming it has something to do with that Noah kid." Seto said.

"Why, do you think it's him?"

"Just a feeling." Seto said. "Come on kiddo, now I want you to sit up and eat all right."

Mokuba nodded against Seto's chest, squeezed him tight before sitting up and started eating.

Seto stroked his hair a bit. "We are defiantly going to have to talk about what happened between you two." Seto told him.

'I'd rather not.' Mokuba thought.

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

Outside the castle, Marik was meeting with a guard.

"So did you find it yet?" Marik asked.

"What makes you think I've had time to look for it?"

"Come on Malik you've been a guard in this castle for a year and a half and your still telling me you've found nothing! I can't believe that! The whole reason you took this job was to gain the kings trust and try to be one of his personal guards and find where the real millennium rod was kept!"

"I know where it's kept now, I just couldn't find it before. It's not like I could have gone around asking the other guards or any of the knights. Yeah that'd be real good for our plan. I still don't believe you'll be able to sell it or melt it down."

"Yes, well believe what you want to. I have a buyer who knows all about the millennium rod and will do anything to get it! With the money he's offering us we can rest comfortably for the rest of our lives."

"Next I suppose you're going to tell me you have a couple of girls lined up willing to marry us. Not because they know or like us but because of the money we've supposedly going to get out of this deal?" Malik asked annoyed.

"No, not yet. Give me time." Marik said.

"Time you say isn't that what you told those creeps that hired you to take out the king?"

"You heard about that did you?"

"Yes I did. I also heard that you let the king escape through your fingers."

"How was I supposed to know when he was coming back? What I was supposed to do squirrel away my time just watching day and night to see when or if the king planned to return? I think not! I have better things to do with my time than sit there day in and day out waiting. He couldn't pay me enough to do that!" Marik asked crossing his arms.

"You sure about that?" Malik asked.

"Well not that he can afford anyway. Happy?"

"Extremely. Now you'd better get lost before someone sees you or us together."

"So what, no one but the creep who hired me knows what I did or what I've been paid to do. And I can guarantee he's not talking. Not if he wants to keep his head that is."

"Yes, well regardless of that I can't afford to be seen with you."

"Yeah well I heard from that creep and he did scream at me for allowing the king to get back safely. Its not like there wont ever be another chance. They're too impatient. I know they want that rod for their selves but not if we get to it first." Marik said.

"Yes well those idiots are the reason I can't get to it now." Malik said.

"What why!"

"I heard that one of them tried to steal it the other day. Now the security around the room its being held in has doubled. Unless you want to cut a couple of other people in on your plan, we'll have to wait. There'd be no way I could slip in and out without being noticed."

"We'll have to wait. There's no way I'm sharing with anyone!" Marik said.

"Excuse me?" Malik asked.

"Anyone that's not you of course. You'd beat me down first, like you did when we were kids."

"Speaking of kid's I thought I heard those advisors say they might take out that brat that the king's adopted."

"Yes, the man mentioned that it's a possibility but I think you'd be more up for it. I think it'd be better if it came down to it to be a close range kill. You can handle close range and up close and personal kills and I can't." Marik said.

"I never have figured out why you chose to be a trained assassin and can take out a king and some stranger from a 100 yards away but can't manage to stab one bodyguard in the back then slitting the throat of the other." Malik said.

"That's what you're here for. Besides, if you hadn't done all of that I might not have gotten off the clean shot to kill the king. I hated it that I had to waste a perfectly good bullet on that stranger. He shouldn't have tried to confront the king to begin with and it was just his rotten timing that I fired at the same time. I still wish those creeps had paid me for loosing the bullet."

"Suck it up, learn to live with it. Now get lost."

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

Meanwhile with Ryo and the others were turning to see the new person on the scene.

"Oh hello, I'm Ryo and you are?" Ryo asked.

"The names Duke Ryuuji and you didn't answer my question. Are you the guy that was riding in with that kid this morning?"

"You mean Mokuba, yeah, why?"

"Then you were the one rumored to have been riding side by side with the king."

"You were the guy riding beside the king?" Honda asked.

"Well I-I didn't know he was the king at the time."

"He's stupid, you'll have to excuse him." Bakura said.

"Excuse me, but I've never been in the castle before or should I say never been around the castle. Bakura let me stay here for a week once or twice but I wasn't allowed out of his room or wing. Beyond that I rarely go past the 4 or 5 shops on the edge of town." Ryo said.

"You said you came here to become a knight." Duke asked.

"Yeah so."

"So, you know the king personally there's no way you won't become a knight." Duke said.

"Hate to say it there, Bakura but he's right." Honda said.

Bakura mumbled something and stormed off.

Ryo stayed behind and he and the others started talking more.