(SYH pokes head from behind corner and looks around, sees that coast is clear, slowly comes from around corner; is instantly surrounded by very angry and rabid readers)

SYH: H-hello guys, so how have you been doing?

(Readers beat the living crap out of SYH)

SYH: It wasn't my fault; something kept happening to the loading process on for the last few weeks, no matter what I did, I couldn't up load the story!

(Readers aren't listening; they are all trying to rip the chapter from SYH's hands)

SYH: PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!

(Readers take chapter and run off before cops come. SYH is left alone, and starts talking)

SYH: To all of you readers who witnessed that, I'm sorry for updating so late!

(SYH takes a deep breath and gets back onto track)

SYH: Thank you to those who reviewed.

Thank You to:

An Angel Flying with Broken Wings: I wonder what else my character and your father have in common! It's already odd that they have so much in common!

Clumsykitty: It's going to be a while before the child comes into the picture of course, but waiting will be worth it.

Sleeping Inoncense: I updated!

Paranoidcharlotte: Thank you for wishing me happy birthday, and sorry it took so long for the update. Seto will realize what's going on soon, so will Joey, don't worry.

FuturePast: Thank you for the birthday wish! So, exactly how blue are you now? Are you even alive?

Slushie Blu: Yeah, it was cool what she did. Despite the fact that I do hate her at times, she is one of my favorite YGO characters.

Takuya: Well, you don't have to wait for an update for this chapter anymore; you'll just have to wait for the next one; which hopefully won't take so long!

Setosgirl: Seto pain, it's the greatest form of YGO stories, isn't it?

Shadowofmyself435: That was a wonderful love triangle; hard to believe I didn't realize that until you mentioned it.

SilverCrescentX: Well, that was explained through the e-mail I finally was able to send to you. Why haven't you e-mailed me back is a mystery to me.

Kanamelover suzanne0306: Glad you like the story!

JESSY: Don't worry, Joey will find out soon; if you read this chapter, you'll find out just how soon.

Smoondigiboy: Yeah, it was. More sweetness coming your way!

Silver4HENTAI: Glad you like my stories. Hey, if you happen to read this story before SCX, tell her to e-mail me. If you want to send me an e-mail, ask her for my e-mail address.

Yumi of the flames: Glad you loved it.

Well, that's everyone who reviewed me last time! Thank you! And thank you to all of those who read my story, I have almost 2,000 readers to my story!

Well, anyway, finally, on with the story!

Chapter 4

Flashback (Joey's POV)

I just walked into the house as Mai went home; I replayed the whole conversation in my mind as I walked over to the guest bedroom. It took me a few more moments to come to the fact that Mai was right and that I was in fact falling for Seto. I knew I was falling for Seto, and at that time after Mai broke up with me, I had no longer had any reason to deny it. As I sat down on the bed of the guest bedroom, I came to a decision; I needed to tell Seto that night, I had a bad feeling that something bad was going to happen if I didn't.

Running over to my duffle bag, I pulled out a pair of jeans and a shirt; quickly throwing them on myself. I grabbed my shoes and ran out of the room, stumbling down the hallway as I attempted to put on my shoes as I moved. As I ran and put my shoes on, I was stomping, which caught the attention of Grandpa.

"Joey, what's the hurry?" Grandpa said.

"I'll be out for awhile." I said. "I need to speak to somebody."

"Well, don't try to stay out too late." Grandpa said. "It's already late, try to make your visit short."

"I will…" I said; I rushed over to the door and ran out towards the Kaiba mansion.

When I arrived, the gates automatically opened; obviously Seto was hoping for me to come sometime soon. I rushed up the road towards the house and ran up the steps to the doorbell to push it; before I could, William opened the door. At that time I just barely knew William and thought that he was just a creepy dude; obviously he was protective about Seto because of the glares that I always received from him when I arrived. When I was looking up at him when I was at the door, he was staring down at me and his lips were in a thin line.

"Seto would be happy to see you." He said in a mono tone voice; he stepped out of the way and let me in.

I quickly rushed past the strict butler in fear that he would hit me when I had my back to him and rushed to the stairs, I already knew where Seto's room was. In a couple of minutes I was at Seto's room and I just barged in, the door slammed against the wall with a loud bang.

When I did that, a loud yelp was heard and I saw Seto jump up in bed; the light was turned on and I saw that Seto was asleep, but was wide awake from the way I just barged in. I didn't even think when I just walked over to the bed and stood in front of Seto; Seto looked up at me a little startled. I just bent down so that we were face to face.

"Do you love me Seto?" I asked.

Seto's eyes widened, but he slowly nodded.

That was all I wanted to know, I moved in and kissed him softly on his lips, immediately he kissed back. I pulled back when I felt something wet at my lips, something salty; looking at his face, I saw that he was crying.

"Do you love me Joey?" He asked.

I smiled and nodded.

"With all of my heart." I said. "I'm sorry I didn't notice sooner, I'm sorry I hurt you."

More tears came to Seto's eyes and he moved in to kiss me this time; that kiss was a little harder, it had more meaning. I kissed back, that kiss for both of us held so much promise.

Little did we know; our relationship would have so many bumpy turns. We loved each other and still do, but at times, we couldn't stand each other so much, we broke up. The good thing, our break ups were always temporary; we only broke up because we needed to blow off a little steam. Heck, they weren't even break ups as far as I was concerned, they were just time-outs.

Flashback Ends

Normal POV

And the thought of the current 'time-out' was what caused Joey to wake up again. How long was it going to be before Seto calmed down enough so he could speak to him again? Joey didn't know how; but he knew that Seto was sick and he wanted to know if Seto was okay.

"I'll just have to speak to him at school." Joey mumbled to himself as he sat up in bed. He knew as well as everyone else that that semester Seto needed to attend school everyday, or he was going to have some trouble with the school board.

Monday Morning…

At the Kaiba Mansion…

Seto felt awful, but he wasn't going to show that to Mokuba and William; he needed to get to school, so he was going to fake it and get through the day. As he slowly walked down the stairs, his world started spinning slightly. Too stubborn to turn back and go back to bed, he made it to the bottom of the stairs and walked to the kitchen.

'Hopefully I'll get to ride the elevators and not have to walk up any stairs at school today.' Seto thought. 'The stairs here are the last thing I need also; I should have used the elevator.'

The moment he stepped foot into the kitchen, he was greeted by the squawking of his little brother.

"Seto, what in the world are you doing out of bed!" Mokuba yelled. "Go back to your room; you can't go the school today!"

All weekend, Mokuba watched helplessly as his brother went through the many phases of whatever sickness cursed his body. Seto threw up, had headaches and awful cramps to the point he actually cried, and passed out a couple of times out of the blue. Mokuba called Leo the other night; but Leo said that he would come in the afternoon; Mokuba at that moment knew that Leo knew that Seto was going to school.

"I'm fine Mokie…" Seto said as he walked over to the table, he slowly sat himself down at a chair.

William walked over and sat down a plate of crackers and a cup of tea in front of Seto; as William found that weekend, the crackers and tea were basically the only things Seto was able to hold down without vomiting.

"Thank you William…" Seto said as he started eating and drinking.

Mokuba glared at his brother as he ate. Seto sighed and stared back at Mokuba.

"Mokuba, I'm fine…" Seto said. "I'll be fine; you don't have to worry…"

Mokuba's glare faltered, but Seto could still tell that Mokuba was still worried for him; in truth, Seto was worried for himself also, he could only hope that he would hold out for the whole school day and that Joey would skip school that day. Seto swore that if Joey said anything to him, he would just crack and tell him everything, he missed him more than ever.

The honking of a horn caught the brothers' attention; William was gone from the kitchen, meaning that he went to go fetch the limo to drive the brothers to school.

"Let's go Mokuba." Seto said. "We don't want to be late." Seto quickly ate the rest of his crackers and drank the rest of his tea; Mokuba stuffed his face full of the food he was eating the rushed out the door with Seto following.

It took only about ten minutes before the limo pulled up the Mokuba's school, Domino Middle.

"Bye Seto, bye William!" Mokuba said as he rushed out of the limo.

"Bye!" Seto and William said.

William started driving again the moment he saw that Mokuba walked through the school's doors. He looked in the rearview mirror at Seto.

"Are you sure you want to go to school Seto?" William asked.

Seto rolled his eyes and looked at the mirror into William's eyes glaring.

"Yes, I'm sure." Seto said; he kept looking into William's eyes and his glare fell. "If something goes wrong I'll be sure to contact you. Anyway, after school I have and appointment with Leo, so we'll find out what's wrong later."

"I guess you're right." William said as he started driving again.

About ten minutes later, the limo pulled up to the school.

"Be careful Seto…" William said.

"I will…" Seto said as he opened the door. "Bye…" He stepped out and closed the door behind him.

William watched as Seto walked up to the school and walked through the doors, then he drove off. After a few moments, he mumbled something.

"Gozaburo, you're lucky you're dead…" William said; he just knew that Seto's sickness had to so with something Gozaburo done to him.

When Seto walked into school, he was immediately greeted by Yugi and Ryou.

"Hey Seto." The pair said.

Seto smiled and nodded hello to them; Ryou immediately noticed something was wrong.

"Seto, are you okay?" Ryou asked.

Seto started to worry; he didn't want his friends to worry about him. He knew Ryou would be an obstacle for his day, but he didn't think it would happen so early.

"I'm fine Ryou." Seto said. "Why do you ask?"

Ryou's eyes narrowed slightly into a little glare.

"Don't 'I'm fine' me…" Ryou said. "I know when I see a sick friend and you're sick, what are you doing here anyway?"

"I'm not sick." Seto said, then he started walking. Much to his displeasure, Yugi and Ryou were right at his heels.

"Seto, you were pale to begin with…" Yugi started. "And now you're whiter than snow."

Over the weekend, the more sicker Seto grew, he more paler he became, at that moment he was probably at his palest, there was just no possible way for him to get any paler.

The bell rang and Seto silently thanked the school day for starting as early as it did. He heard Ryou sigh and Yugi mumble something; he turned around to them to see if they wanted to say anything else.

"Just be careful today Seto, you hear?" Ryou said.

Seto smiled and nodded.

Ryou and Yugi smiled back before running off to class, leaving Seto to go to his. Seto turned and headed to his homeroom, but not without thinking.

'This is going to be a long day, a very long day…'

Later that afternoon…

It had just turned 1 o'clock and Joey was in his last class of the day. He was in math and he wasn't thinking about anything but Seto. In homeroom that day, two things happened; first, Yami and Bakura came out with their relationship when they were seen making out in the back of the classroom before the bell; then the second, Ryou and Yugi came to him and told him that Seto was sick.

Joey knew Seto was sick, so he wasn't too surprised; but he was shocked to hear about everything else he heard later in the day. He heard from other students that Seto was throwing up in the bathroom during lunch; they said that they saw him run into the stall. Then, Tristan came up to him and told him that Seto nearly passed out during P.E.; luckily he caught him and the coach benched him for the rest of the class hour. Yami said that Seto actually fell asleep during Study Hall and he needed to wake up Seto himself because the CEO didn't hear the bell. Needless to say, during that class hour in math, it wasn't too surprising that the only thing that Joey was able to think about was Seto.

Just then, Joey felt someone tapping him on his shoulder. He looked up at the teacher and saw that he was writing something on the board, then silently turned to look at whoever was tapping him on his shoulder. It was someone who he didn't know, he didn't get a chance to ask what they wanted, because a little folded piece of paper was thrust to his face; Joey quickly took the paper and turned around. He looked up at the teacher one more time to make sure she was still occupied before opening the note. It read:

'I was just in the restroom, I heard someone throwing up, I think its Kaiba.'

It wasn't surprising that this note was passed to him; not only did the gang know about his and Seto's make ups and break ups, so did the whole city. They were on the newspaper at times as well as on the tabloids; it wouldn't be too surprising if Seto's sickness was on the tabloids the very next day.

Joey turned once more and nodded thanks to the student behind him, the student nodded back to him; he turned around again, and raised his hand.

"Miss Royce…?" Joey said as he kept his hand raised.

Miss Royce turned around and looked at Joey sighing.

"Yes Joey?" She asked.

"May I go use the restroom?" Joey asked.

Miss Royce rolled her eyes and stared at Joey.

"Joey, what have I said about using the restroom?" Miss Royce scolded.

"To use it before coming in here..." Joey said as he clenched his legs pretending like he really needed to go. "But I really to go!"

Miss Royce sighed again and waved her hand.

"You better not get caught, because I'm not signing a pass." Miss Royce said.

"Thank you Miss Royce!" Joey said jumping from his seat and running out of the classroom.

Miss Royce turned to the board and paused.

"Where was I?" She asked more to herself than to the class.

Joey was pretty sure that the student who passed him the note was talking about the restroom nearest classroom, otherwise he wouldn't have returned to class so quickly. Briskly walking and looking out for hall monitors, he headed for the restroom; just as he was about to push the door open, he had to jump back because the door was being pushed open already for someone coming out.

And that someone was Seto.

It was the first time that Joey had seen Seto all that time since he first became sick, and Joey hated himself for not being there for Seto, because he looked awful. Seto was just absolutely pale, except for the light flush on his cheeks; his eyes were drooping because he was tired and it definitely showed on his slumped shoulders. Everything else about Joey's love was just as bad.

"Joey…" Seto whispered as he leaned forward.

Joey slowly stepped up to Seto and caught him in his arms, gently holding him and hugging him. Joey was slightly taller than Seto because of his growth spurts; he was exactly an inch and a half taller than Seto. As Seto leaned onto Joey, he leaned his head onto Joey's shoulder and purred at the contact.

"Seto, why didn't you tell me?" Joey whispered into his lover's ear.

"I was angry…" Seto said. "And scared…and now…" He let out a yawn. "I'm so tired…"

Joey smiled and kissed Seto's cheek. Gently he shifted and made Seto stand up for a moment, then lifted Seto into his arms effortlessly; even after a year of them being together, Seto still weighed next to nothing. Joey walked towards the back of the school, where a huge Sakura tree was out at one of the schools main luncheon spots. Joey walked under the shade and sat down with Seto on his lap, placing Seto's head on his shoulder; Joey smiled when he saw that his lover had fallen asleep. Gently, he reached into Seto's pocket and pulled out his cell phone, he needed to call a couple of people.

To be continued…

Miss Royce's my math teacher; she's a nice lady, but very strict.

Well, what will come of all of this?

Please, send me reviews!