Hey everyone, time for an update; I know all of you want one! I'm glad my birthday is on Wednesday, because if it was on the weekend, I wouldn't update. My birthday is the main reason why Joey Wheeler is one of my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh characters! Well anyway…

Thank you to:

An Angel Flying with Broken Wings: My butler reminds you of your father, really? I was basing him off of an old teacher I once had in elementary school; when I was writing this story, I didn't notice I based William off him until I proofread the story. I'm glad you like my story, hope you'll keep reading.

Slushie Blu: I'm glad you love my story; hopefully it will get better along the way.

Amyrose300: Glad you like the story, I don't think it will be so sad anymore, I'm not exactly sure yet.

Shadowofmyself435: He'll find out about Seto soon. I'm not sure about fainting though, maybe that will be a possiblility.

Clumsykitty: I don't know about a lemon, I'm not good at writing lemons. I'm trying to get a collaboration with another author, but my dumb e-mail just refuses to work!

Paranoidcharlotte: You're going to have to wait a little longer before Joey finds out about poor Seto. Keep an eye out for other stories of mine; I have more Seto uke stories coming soon.

FuturePast: You asked my question before I could even ask it. Hopefully you're not permanently blue at this moment, because I have the new chapter up. I'm glad you really like my story and hopefully you can wait for a while before the other chapter comes up, which will take like another week.

SilverCrescentX: I like green tea. I've been trying to update you to ask you if you could work with me on my stories so you could write the lemons instead; I like reading lemons, but can't really write them. Since my computer refuses to send e-mails, I decided that I'll at least practice on it; but it will be a long time before I join AFF. I'm sorry, but I have in securities about it for some strange reason. I'll join eventually, but not anytime soon. I'm so sorry, including to all of those who actually want to see a juicy lemon, like clumsykitty! Please SCX, don't hate me for this!

Takuya: I try to make it as dramatic as I can, hopefully you'll continue liking it.

Thank you for reviewing and reading, and thank you to all who are reading.

Now, on with the story.

Chapter 3

Meanwhile with Mai…

Mai had arrived home hours ago, and was sitting in her room when she decided to call Seto. She had been gone for a week, and Seto had already broken up with Joey before she left; and since Joey hadn't spoken to Seto, she decided to call Seto herself, she had a feeling something was going to happen.

As she sat in her bed, she speed dialed Seto; in about three rings, she got Mokuba.

"Hello, Kaiba residence, this is Mokuba speaking." Mokuba said kindly.

"Hey Mokie!" Mai said.

"Mai!" Mokuba said. "How are you doing?"

"Doing fine, and you?" Mai asked.

"Great…" Mokuba said. "Except for Seto…"

Mai knew Mokuba was going to say that somehow.

"What do you mean, except Seto?" Mai asked.

"He's been sick since all day." Mokuba said.

"Sick?" Mai asked. "Seto never gets sick."

"I know that." Mokuba said. "But for some strange reason, he is now."

"How sick has he been?" Mai asked.

"Really, really sick." Mokuba answered.

"What has happened?" Mai asked.

"Well, from what I know of, Seto has been vomiting a lot at first." Mokuba said. "When I woke up, William told me that. Throughout today, Seto has been extremely dizzy, he's passed out about three times, has continued to throw up, he says he has awful headaches and stomach aches, and now, he's just gone to sleep. I think William snuck something into that tea he's been making for Seto."

Mai didn't respond for a moment, she was just overwhelmed about what Mokuba has told her about Seto's sickness, she was wondering what poor Seto looked like at the moment.

"Mai, are you there?" Mokuba asked.

That caught Mai's attention.

"Yeah, I'm here." Mai said. "I have to-" Mai was cut off.

"DON'T TELL JOEY!" Mokuba bellowed into the phone.

Mai out stretched the phone her arm length away when Mokuba yelled, when she sure he quieted down again; she brought it back to her ear.

"Why shouldn't I tell Joey?" Mai asked.

"I want Joey to know as much as you do, but I know that you know for a fact that when Seto isn't together with Joey, Seto doesn't want Joey being included in anything about him or me." Mokuba said. "The last thing Seto needs right now is to be angry about something. I mean, today Yugi and the others finally came home from that debate team thing; when they called to see how Seto was doing, Seto somehow made himself look normal; like he wasn't sick, and told everyone he was fine. He doesn't even want the gang to find out. You're lucky you caught me and not Seto."

"I guess you're right." Mai said. "But what about school?"

"If Seto isn't well by Monday, I'm going to see to it that he doesn't get to school and stays home." Mokuba said.

Mai started laughing.

"What's so funny!" Mokuba shouted.

"Mokie, I know you mean well, but you're trying to accomplish the impossible." Mai said. "If Seto wants to go to school, he'll go to school. He'll find a way to sneak around both you and William no problem."

"Not this time." Mokuba said.

"You just watch…" Mai said. "Monday morning, your brother's going to be in school. Besides, remember that deal he made with the school board."

"Oh yeah…" Mokuba said, he sounded worried. "He promised since he went to high school that he would go to school for a whole consecutive semester during the school year. That sucks, he has to accomplish this one."

"Yup…" Mai said.

"Well, since he's sick, maybe they'll let him slide by." Mokuba said.

"Maybe…" Mai said. 'Why do I have a strange feeling that that will soon be necessary?' She thought. Ever since that friendship that she gained with Seto, that gut instinct of hers had been stronger than ever, and she was thankful for it. "You know, I'm surprised that your brother hasn't been home schooling himself."

"Yeah, I have a feeling that he's going to do that soon enough." Mokuba said.

Mai heard someone talking to Mokuba in the back round.

"Mai, I have to go now, speak to you later." Mokuba said.

"Alright, bye Mokie…" Mai said.

"Bye…" Mokuba said, then there was the resounding click that signaled that he hung up.

Mai put her own phone back on the hook and got up from the chair the she was sitting in, then walked over to her bed. She sat down on it and thought back to the events that really triggered the break up she had with Joey, and the beginning of Joey's and Seto's relationship.

Flashback (Mai's POV)

About a week ago, Joey had gone to Seto's house for help on his homework, and since that night, those two had been extremely distant. Seto in away seemed depressed, he tried his best to hide it, but I could see it as well as Joey it could feel it. Joey never spoke to Seto and took any chance to get away from him, which added more to Seto's depression. And all that time, I knew that I was somehow in the middle of it, I just didn't know how.

One night, I decided to go see how Seto was doing, when I went to his mansion, I found a very worried Mokuba.

"Oh Mai, I'm so happy you're here!" Mokuba said. "I don't know what's up with Seto." He grabbed my hand and dragged me up the stairs.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Seto has locked himself in his room ever since he came home." Mokuba said. "I wasn't worried at first, but then a few hours later, I heard crying."

'Crying?' I thought.

We arrived at Seto's door a moment later, everything was quiet and still.

"I have a project to do." Mokuba said. "I hope you can deal with him, I can't get through to him."

"I'll do my best." I said.

Mokuba smiled up at me and walked off to that project he spoke about, leaving me alone to deal with his brother. A moment after being left alone, a sudden sob from behind the door quickly caught me attention. I moved closer to the door and pressed my ear against it; what I heard changed everything.

"Why can't I have him?" I heard Seto's voice say. "He's the best friend I had and now I lost him."

'I know he's talking about Joey.' I thought.

"I love him so much." I heard Seto say.

With that, I moved slowly away from the door.

'So that's why Joey has been avoiding Seto, because of me.' I thought. 'Maybe Seto did something to push away Joey, but what?' I wanted to help Seto and I knew I had to confront him about what he was talking about, so I gathered up as much courage as I could at that moment, and twisted the doorknob and let myself into Seto's room.

The moment the door opened, Seto shot up in bed; I immediately saw his tear streaked face and my heart went out to him. I stood at the door for a moment before I closed the door. Slowly, I walked over to him and sat at the edge of the bed. His tears stopped as he looked at me.

"Seto, why isn't Joey talking to you?" I asked; I knew it was direct and that was the last thing that Seto needed at the moment, but if I didn't get a straight answer, I wouldn't be able to help Seto.

We both sat in silence for a few moments; Seto was looking at his lap, refusing to look up at me; I sat there and stared at him, calmly awaiting my answer. I didn't know why, but I was actually willing to sit there the whole night if it took that long to get an answer from him.

"I tried to kiss your lover." Seto said in a whisper; I was surprised I even heard him because he said it so quietly.

"Do you love him?" I asked.

Another session of silence followed before Seto nodded.

"Then why don't you tell him?" I asked.

Seto's head snapped up, he looked at me with wide terrified eyes.

"H-he's yours!" Seto said. "He loves you, not me!"

I looked on as Seto's tears started again, I could tell what he had just said hurt him; I could see it on his face that it was ripping his heart. From that moment, I knew what I had to do. I stood up and leaned towards Seto and gently kissed his forehead, then leaned back to look into his eyes.

"No, he doesn't love me…" I said. "He's confused…" With that, I turned around and left Seto's room without another word.

After I left the Kaiba mansion, I walked to the park; I didn't drive to Seto's like I normally did, I actually walked. I went to the park to do some thinking, a lot of thinking. I walked over to the swing sets and sat down on the middle swing.

I thought about the week that everything between Joey and Seto began thinning again. I thought about the way Seto looked anytime Joey ignored him; I thought about the how hard Joey thought to ignore Seto. Those two loved each other, Seto was accepting his love for Joey; but there was an obstacle for Joey that was causing him to ignore his love for Seto, me.

During the week, I easily noticed that me and Joey were slipping away from each other as much as he was slipping away from Seto. Our love for each other as lovers greatly suffered during that single week, but we both refused to think it; and in turn, Seto suffered.

I began to slightly swing slightly on the swing; I continued to think about what I needed to do.

I was looking to both Joey and Seto as brothers; both of them, younger than I am. I loved Joey because of the way he was, his attitude was tough but lovable, he was more tolerable than annoying, and was the only one who could make me laugh. Despite the eight year difference between us, we made our relationship work; I helped Joey as much as I could with his father. But at that time I was on the swing, I realized that there was nowhere else for the relationship I had with Joey to go but down. Joey was falling for Seto hard and he refused to believe it, the only reason was because he was with me; which made me feel guilty.

Before I knew it, I was in full swing on that swing; I didn't want to slow down and step off, I wanted to fly. I counted down from three in the back of my mind and let go of the chains; as soon as I let go, I had made my true decision; as I was flying through the air, I felt that guilt that had washed over me fly off of me. Amazingly, I landed unharmed on the ground; I turned around to the clanking chains of the swing and smiled before walking off again.

I walked over to the Kame Game Shop; I knew that Joey would be there in refuge from his father since I wasn't home. I went through the back way to the house part of the game shop, walked up the porch steps and pushed the doorbell button. The thing I liked most about that game shop was because it was literally half house, half shop. In front, it had the storefront and everything; but when I went to the back, I came to a porch complete with a patio set and a doorbell at the door.

It took only a minute before I saw Yami's face in the window looking to see who it was. He waved to be and I waved back before he turned and hollered.

"Joey, its Mai!" He yelled, then he left the window.

A few seconds went by before the door opened and my lover came into view. He was clad in only pajama bottoms that hung low on his hips.

"Hey Mai…" Joey said seductively

I looked at him and smiled at his tone, then got right to business.

"Not, tonight Joey…" I said. "And never again."

Joey looked at me with wide eyes; I signaled for him to follow me onto the porch. He stepped out of the house and closed the door behind him; we both walked over to the patio set and sat down on the chairs.

Joey tried to say something, I knew that he was going to try to say something to try and save our already disintegrating relationship; but I knew that it wasn't possible and cut to the chase.

"Joey, you love Seto now!" I said. "Go to him before he does something stupid!"

Joey looked at me shocked.

"I don't-" I cut him off.

"Our relationship isn't going to work anymore." I said. "You know it. How long are you going to make the person you truly love suffer for a relationship for another you don't love in that way anymore?"

Joey tried to speak, but I continued before he could.

"I went to Seto." I said. "He's in pain; he needs you so much more than I do. He loves you more than I ever could. What is it going to take for you to notice that!"

Joey looked down at the porch floor; I stood up.

"Joey, please…" I said. "I know at first that this is going to be hard for you; but now, we just don't love each other the way we did before. You're falling for Seto now and you need to go to him, no only for his sake, but yours as well." I turned around, ready to leave Joey behind; I got as far to the porch steps before I heard my name being called.

"Mai…" I heard Joey say.

I turned to him and he looked into my eyes; a smile came to his lips, despite the fact that he had a river of tears running down his cheeks.

"Thank you…" Joey said. "For everything…"

I smiled at him and ran towards him; he jumped up and I hugged him, he wrapped his arms around my waist and hugged me close to him. I looked up to him and kissed his cheek.

"Be good to him…" I said; slowly, I let go of him as he let go of me.

We looked into each other's eyes again before we went our separate ways; Joey walked back into the house wiping away his tears, and I walked down the porch steps and headed home.

Flashback End

Unknown to Mai, across town Joey had fallen asleep again and he was currently having a flashback dream about the events that happened before he and Seto got together.

To be continued…

What's going to happen next?

Oh, I bet you just want me to stop teasing and give you the new chapter; but no, all of you are going to have to wait!

Please send me reviews, they can count as my birthday presents!