Happy Wednesday to everyone!

I'm so glad that you all have liked this story so far! I'm having a lot of fun writing it, so I'm happy that you all get to share in it with me.

Welcome to all new readers. I want to thank my reviewers, shadow-fox313, Aqua Girl 007, and my two guests! I'll reply to some of you guys' questions at the end of the chapter, since some of them bring up some good points, and I want to get those cleared up for other readers who are confused about them as well.

There's lots of fun in this chapter, so I hope you guys like it!

I only own Erin and Miri.

Chapter 4

"So, did you find someone that doesn't annoy you today?" I asked as I pulled out of the parking lot of the middle school.

Miri didn't answer right away. I snuck a glance at her, and found that she was blushing.

My lips turned into a sly smile. "Is it a boy?"

Miri gasped and covered her face. "Erin, no." She squeaked.

I giggled like a little kid. "You met a boy today."

"Did not!"

"Miri," I said, my voice veering into know-it-all mother territory, "that is the same look I had on my face when I met my first crush. What's his name?"

My little sister knew that there was no use arguing with me. After all, her determination hadn't just sprung from years of following in Mom's footsteps. She sighed. "His name is Mokuba. And he's not my crush. He's just a friend."

"Uh-huh."

"Erin!"

I laughed. "Fine." A short silence followed, in which Miri turned back to staring out the window. I sighed dramatically. She didn't look back at me. I couldn't stop myself – as a big sister, it was my job to embarrass my kid sister. "Is he cute?"

Miri banged her head against the back of the seat. "I swear to god, Erin, if you don't change the subject right now –"

"Okay, okay." I said between chuckles. "I give."

It wasn't long after that I parked the car in front of a cute little ice cream shop on a corner called Salty and Sweet. I had looked up the directions to it on my phone while I was at home waiting for Miri's school to get out. The reviews were few and far between, so I guessed it was a newer establishment.

As we were walking in, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I checked it to find a text from Tea, who was currently at the game shop with the boys. 'We need more female friends.' Tea had said that to me multiple times during lunch, eliciting fits of knowing laughter from me. It was true – before me, all Tea had was Serenity. And even then, Serenity was only a freshman, and we were juniors. There were only so many things you could talk about with someone with much less experience than you.

I snorted. 'What are Joey and Tristan doing now?'I replied.

"Who's Tea?" Miri had read the text over my shoulder. "And Joey and Tristan?"

"My new friends." I said, emphasizing that to show that it really wasn't that hard to make friends in new places if you tried.

Well, technically, Tea had approached me, but Miri didn't need to know that.

My phone buzzed again. 'A manliness contest. To see who can eat more chili peppers without taking a drink. The testosterone in the room is stifling.'

'Lol. I'll be there in a bit. Just got to the ice cream place.'

Miri and I approached the front counter, where they had ten deep buckets of hand-made ice cream, all in flavors that neither of us had tried before. Miri settled for a chocolate-covered pretzel soft serve, and I decided to channel my inner child and ordered the gummy bear delight, which was creamy fruit-flavored ice cream filled with my favorite childhood candy. The stuff was delicious, by the way.

"So," Miri asked after swallowing a bite of her dessert, "it's my turn. Tell me, oh great and all-knowing big sister: do you like these boys by the name of Joey and Tristan?"

I almost choked on a gummy bear. "What?"

Miri laughed at my distress. "So you like them."

"No, no, god no." I said, trying to hold back my own laughter. The thought of dating either of the hilariously-immature boys had never crossed my mind. "They're just Joey and Tristan. Besides, I haven't known them long enough." At Miri's wiggling eyebrows, I added, "But I don't think I would ever like either of them like that anyway."

"Keep telling yourself that, sis." Miri took one final bite of her ice cream. "Are you done? I have homework to do."

I nodded. "Yup."

"Oh, thank god you're here." Tea said, pulling me up the stairs at the back of the game shop. I assumed that was the entrance to the apartment above it, which Yugi and his grandfather lived in. The two of us emerged into a hallway, at the end of which was a living room that sported two well-used couches and an average TV, on which a dueling tournament was being broadcast. She led me through a doorway across the room and into the kitchen. I doubled over in laughter at the sight that awaited me in that room.

Joey and Tristan had doused themselves in water, and were still chugging the stuff. Joey was sprawled across the dining table, and Tristan the floor. Both boys were breathing heavily, as if they had just run a marathon.

Yugi was leaning against the cabinets, calmly drinking a glass of soda, obviously used to their shenanigans. Atem was nowhere to be seen.

"So, who won?" I asked after my giggles subsided.

Tea shook her head. "Neither. Both only ate one."

I snorted and looked down at the guys. "You two collapsed after one chili pepper? Come on, I could do better than that!"

Tristan's head lifted so he could give me a mischievous smile. "Is that a challenge I heard, Stephenson?"

"Not again." Tea muttered, facepalming.

Yugi grinned. "Something tells me that you three will get along just fine."

I walked over to the bowl of peppers, still half-full. "Are you going to get off the floor or not?"

Even in their condition, the boys weren't the type to back down from a challenge. Both shot to their feet and positioned themselves on the other side of the bowl. "You're on." Joey said, already cocky.

"If either of you want to back out now," I said, a sly grin on my face, "I won't judge you for doing so."

"Please," Tristan scoffed. "You're going down, new girl."

"Ditto." Joey said, reaching in the bowl. Tristan and I mimicked him, each pulling out our own peppers.

I put mine in front of my mouth. "Go!"

My eyes watered after the first bite, but my determination was stronger. Tristan already had tears streaming down his face, and Joey was panting like a lion on the savannah. I finished my first pepper and reached for another one.

"That's one for me." I said, my mouth burning.

"Me too!" Tristan grabbed another, giving me what might have been a determined stare if he hadn't looked like he was crying at that moment.

"Me three!" Joey was the last to begin on his second pepper, but to my surprise, he finished his before I finished mine. "Two down!" He shouted, his words slightly contorted due to the fact that his speaking organ was on fire.

I clenched my teeth against the burning and started in on my third. Tristan didn't do the same. He backed towards the sink and ducked under the faucet, showering himself and his tongue in cold water.

By the time Joey and I finished our third peppers, we both looked like idiots, with our tongues hanging out of our mouths and taking short, fast breaths. It was reluctantly that the two of us reached for our fourth contenders. However, the look in Joey's eyes told me he wasn't going to give up so easily. I screwed my eyes shut and threw my pepper in my mouth.

"You guys are going to kill all of your taste buds." Tea said around fits of laughter. Our faces were probably hilarious at that point.

"Who needs 'em?" Joey's words were hardly comprehensible, but we all knew what he said.

I licked my lips in an attempt to stop the burning. It didn't help – it turns out, when your tongue is covered in the same spicy juice as your lips, licking them just makes it about a million times worse. "Holy crap." I breathed.

Joey laughed maniacally. "Number five!"

I nodded and stuffed another whole pepper in my mouth. After all the abuse they had been put through, my taste buds seemed to be going numb. I hardly felt anything when I started in on number six.

A loud thump on the floor signaled Joey's surrender. I opened my eyes to find him rolling on the floor, his breaths wheezing in and out. "Can't...feel...tongue..." He panted. Yugi set a water bottle on the floor next to him, which his friend immediately opened and began pouring on his face, his tongue hanging out like a dog's to catch the waterfall.

I finished chewing the pepper in my mouth and swallowed. Tea handed me a freshly-poured glass of ice water, and I wasted no time in gulping the entire thing down. Though it slightly helped the pain in my mouth, the cold water also stung my lips. I spent the next two minutes sucking on the ice cubes like hard candy to ease the burning.

"Looks like Erin wins." Yugi said.

I wiped some tears from my face. "At a price." I managed to say clearly, chuckling. I looked down at Joey. "Geez, you got me to eat seven freaking chili peppers! I'll be lucky if I can taste any food for the rest of my life!"

Joey laughed along. "Tea, is there such a thing as a taste bud transplant? 'Cause I think I might need one."

Tea rolled her eyes. "No, Joey. I don't even think that's possible."

"Food isn't good without its taste!" Joey wailed. We all giggled at his mock-agony.

"I guess I'll just have to enjoy all of your food for you." Tristan said.

If one thing got Joey reeling, it was the idea of someone else eating his food. He jumped to his feet. "Not if I can help it!"

Tristan was ready for the initial impact, but Joey still managed to knock him over. Just like they had in the storeroom yesterday, they rolled all over the floor, kicking and wrestling and shouting meaningless insults at each other.

"We need more female friends." Tea murmured to me, more jokingly than seriously.

I snorted and nodded.

"Erin," Yugi said over the noises of his friends' brawl, "Do you want to learn a little about Duel Monsters while you're here?"

I smiled. I had almost forgotten the reason I had gone over to the game shop the day before. "Sure. Where do we start?"

The three of us left Joey and Tristan to their wrestling match and proceeded to the living room. Not wanting to exclude me by sitting on the two-person couch, Yugi and Tea instead elected to sit on the floor around the coffee table. I joined them. The duel that had been on TV was over, and an ad for the newest model of duel disks was playing. The logo for KaibaCorp, the company that made them, flashed on the screen.

Wait. Why did the name Kaiba sound so familiar?

"That's right!" I said to myself.

"What's right?" Yugi asked, confused at my vague exclamation.

I remembered that I wasn't alone. "That one guy that I pissed off today is named Kaiba, right?"

Tea scoffed. "Seto Kaiba. Biggest dickweed on this side of the Pacific."

"Tea," Yugi scolded, seemingly the type to not hate on other people, much like Atem, "He's not that bad anymore."

"Yugi, he still acts like he hates us with all of his hate. You shouldn't be defending him."

Yugi's passive-aggressiveness was much more prominent than Atem's was. "Kaiba's just misunderstood is all."

A look I didn't understand passed between the two, and then Tea sighed. She must know that arguing with one of the gentlest people on the planet was pointless. "Anyway, why do you ask, Erin?"

I shrugged. "He's in my Lit class." Based on their reactions, I decided not to press the subject further. "So, what are the basics of the game?"

Yugi relaxed, returning to a topic he was comfortable with. "Well, do you have your cards with you again?"

I nodded and reached into the cross-body bag I had almost forgotten I was wearing. I pulled out the Crystal Beast he had given me, Ruby Carbuncle. "Here." I laid it on the table.

"Okay. So do you see these numbers here?" He asked, pointing to the series of numbers on the bottom right side of the card. "The first ones are the monster's attack points. So, you could attack another monster with less attack points. And the numbers after the slash are the defense points, which means that when he's in defense mode, he can only be attacked by monsters whose attack points are higher than his defense points. But either way, you don't lose life points if your defensive monsters are destroyed."

"And if the monsters that are attacking me have the same points as mine, the attack is canceled out, right?"

He nodded. "Both monsters would be destroyed, but neither of you would lose life points."

"Okay."

Yugi excused himself to his room, then returned a few moments later with a game board that replicated the makeshift one Joey and Tristan had been using. He laid it out on the table. "The horizontal rectangles are for defense, and the vertical ones are offense." He glanced up at the hallway he had just come from, which was behind me. "Oh, hey, Atem."

I sat up a little straighter and turned to see Yugi's brother striding into the living room. "Hello."

"We're teaching Erin about Duel Monsters." Yugi explained as Atem took a seat on the floor between Yugi and me.

"How much have you covered?" Atem asked.

Tea shook her head. "Not much. Just the basics."

"Well, since Erin doesn't have a full deck yet, that's really all we can teach her. It's kind of a learn-as-you-go game." Yugi added.

Atem nodded in agreement. "But there are still some details for her to learn. Erin, do you know what spell cards do?"

For the first time, I was glad that I had at least paid attention to one of Landon's lectures about his cards. "Yeah, I think. There are magic cards, which can either help your monsters or hurt your opponent's, and trap cards that usually just hurt your enemy's monsters."

Atem smiled, seeming relieved that I knew something. "Exactly. Some spell cards are continuous, which means that they will work for every turn after you play them unless they're destroyed. Others can only be activated for one turn."

We went further into depth about spell cards and when they were appropriate to use in the game. Yugi used the three I had already to explain how they could be used. Once spell cards were covered, we moved on to monster cards, talking about how, even though a monster's attack and defense points could be low, they could have a special ability that made up for it. Joey and Tristan joined us eventually, Joey's taste buds seeming to be working again after they had sampled some chocolate from Yugi's pantry.

My favorite part about all of it was seeing Yugi and Atem's faces as they showed me everything they knew, Yugi eventually bringing out his deck and using his cards to show me some strategies he had used in the past. Their eyes were animated when they taught me the special abilities of some of the monsters in Yugi's deck. It was almost as if they had both used it before, and were both intimately familiar with it. Sometimes, one of them would begin saying something about a strategy, and the other would recount it like they had used it as many times as the first. I assumed that since they were brothers, they had probably been forced to share the cards for a while, and that was why they both knew so much about it.

Still, it was like the two shared a mind sometimes.

Every once in a while, I would catch Atem watching my reaction while Yugi explained a detail of the game. I didn't mind so much now that I had actually spoken to him, but it still made me think something was lying beneath his indifferent facade.

Or maybe I was just reading too deep.

When I got home from the game shop around six-thirty, Miri was sprawled on the couch, eating ramen noodles and watching a rerun of Supernatural. I mentally kicked myself for not remembering that I had left my little sister home alone. I had figured Mom would be back by then.

"I could've made you dinner." I said, peering down at her over the back of the couch.

"You act like I can't take care of myself." She said before she slurped a noodle, her way of showing that she really didn't care.

I sighed. "I just don't like not having to take care of you, I guess."

She shrugged and took another bite of her home-cooked meal.

I fumbled around in the kitchen for something I could take to my room so I could eat while I did my homework. After a thorough search of the pantry, I settled with a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich, and added an apple so I wouldn't feel so bad about my poor eating choices.

"Hey, I'll be upstairs if you need me, okay?" I told Miri as I carried my food up the steps.

She might have mumbled an "okay" back, but her eyes never left the screen. When Miri was watching her favorite show, it was hard to have any kind of conversation with her. I continued upstairs and shut my door behind me.

Two hours later, I was halfway done with my History homework, already having cleared Algebra and Sociology. The unit was over the Crusades, and I got bored quickly after the first three. I decided to skim over the required reading. It wasn't like I hadn't learned about them in ninth grade.

I had opened the book on top of the worksheet I needed to complete, so I went to lift the book up to retrieve it. However, me being the careless, tired mess that I was, I somehow managed to hit my glass of water with the corner of the textbook, sending it teetering precariously next to my other homework. I abandoned the textbook to catch my water, letting the book fall to the floor with a heavy thud. I murmured a curse under my breath and leaned down to pick up the book. When I saw what page it had opened to, I froze.

A picture of a piece of ancient jewelry stared back at me. The dark blue stones winked at me in the lighting of the photo. A thick gold chain connected the seven pieces of lapis lazuli, the middle of which was much larger than the others, a golden Egyptian ankh hanging from the bottom of it. The article next to the picture described life in ancient Egypt. A feeling of familiarity welled up in my chest. Almost as if I had worn the necklace before, I touched the spot on my collarbone on which the ankh would rest.

I picked up the book gingerly, not wanting to lose the page. Why did I feel like I had seen that jewelry before? The fine print under the image only talked about how the necklace probably belonged to a higher-class citizen, since lapis lazuli was a prized gem, and the color blue represented royalty. Maybe I had seen something similar in a museum? Or maybe it was famous.

Either way, I couldn't shake the eerie sense that I owned that necklace.

"It matches your eyes," a deep voice said. I jumped and looked around my room, immediately fearing that I was about to be murdered. Eyebrows knit together and breaths quick, I scanned my room.

There was no one else there. I was utterly alone, but I felt the color leave my face and my pulse thrum in my ears. I looked back down to the necklace in the picture. So now I was hearing voices.

Wonderful.

I blew out a frustrated breath and shut the textbook with a satisfying slam. What was going on with me today? Having a weird dream about a cute guy in school was one thing; seeing a picture of an ancient artifact in a book and then hearing that same cute guy's voice compliment me in my head was borderline crazy. I didn't have to be a psychologist to know that that wasn't normal.

"Well, I think I'm done with homework for the night." I muttered to myself, making a mental note to try to get the rest of that stupid worksheet done before class tomorrow.

As always , it seemed homework was the root of most of my problems.

Atem wasn't much in the mood for games. His father's persistence in the matter of his choosing a wife had finally gotten to him, and he felt the dead weight bearing down on his shoulders. Atem fully understood his duty to Egypt, and his father was his idol, but he was trying to put off this decision for as long as he could. It wasn't that he was indecisive about who he wanted to marry – it was the fact that the someone he wished to choose wouldn't meet the criteria for a future queen of Egypt.

Once he had climbed to the lap of the giant marble statue of a seatedAnubis in a promenade of the palace, he perched himself on one of the knees and leaned against the wall behind him with a sigh. This was the only place he could think, the only place he could get his thoughts in order. Luckily for him, not another soul knew of his little corner of the kingdom.

Well, except for – "You know, it's much more fun and fitting to brood where people can't find you."

Atem looked down at Sagira, whose mischievous blue eyes were gazing up at him in amusement. He felt his lips turn up into a smile. Something about having her near him erased the worries of his future, and forced him to focus on the now. And the fact of the now was that Sagira was there, and she was scaling the statue just as he had only minutes ago to reach him.

"You know, since you're up here, I was thinking about getting back down." He teased as she placed herself next to him, a few beads of sweat on her forehead from the sudden exertion in the heat of the afternoon.

Sagira guffawed. "Then you would have had to catch me as I jumped after you."

He chuckled at her counter. "And if I didn't?"

"I would drag you to the afterlife with me."

Atem put his hand over hers, feeling his grin grow wider. Sagira was mirroring his expression, her eyes shining happily. "Then you would be forced to stay with me forever. What if you grew tired of me?"

She leaned closer to him, hmm'ing as she did so. "I could always just feed you to Sobek if you really annoyed me." She turned her hand beneath his so she could grasp it and squeeze. "But I don't think I would ever have a need to do such a thing."

"Because I'm too handsome to murder?" He asked, wiggling his eyebrows and squeezing her hand back.

She snorted and nudged him with her elbow. "No. Because you're the person keeping a roof over my head."

He laughed at her ploy, even if it wasn't true. Sagira was the daughter of a scribe, and had proven her usefulness in the same business of her father early in her life. Her genius with words when it came to prayers and temple ceremonies was unparalleled. Her words pleased the gods. It didn't take long for the king and his priests to take notice. She had been living in the palace in exchange for her services since she was fourteen. And though Atem had nothing to do with her living arrangements, he liked to joke that he did when he was teasing her, since he was the Pharaoh's son, after all.

Sagira's laughter died down. Her playful expression had hardened, turning to one of alarm. She whipped her head to the side, staring out at the Nile, which was visible through the pillars of the promenade.

"Is there something wrong?" Atem asked, looking in the direction she was, trying to see what had made her mood change so quickly. The same view of the river valley that had always greeted him was no different today than it had always been.

"I thought I heard something." She said, her voice low, even though they were the only ones in this part of the palace. They sat in silence for a few moments while he waited for her to confirm that it was nothing. But she didn't.

"Sagira?" He murmured, squeezing her hand to remind her that he was still there and she was worrying him.

Her stiff posture didn't slacken. In fact, her hand tensed in his. She whispered something under her breath.

He tried to turn her face towards him, but she wouldn't budge. "What do you see?" He asked quietly.

"They found me." She repeated, louder so he could hear her.

"Who found you?" Atem encased her hand in both of his. "What's going on?"

She ripped her hand from his. "I have to go! They can't find out about you!"

He stood with her, and struggled to keep up with her feverish movements to climb back down to the floor. "Wait! Where are you going?"

She released her grip on the side of the statue even though she was much too high up. Atem yelled out in fear for her, but she somehow managed to land on her feet and break into a brisk walk. He jumped to the floor as well, wincing at the fire in his ankles that erupted when he landed, and ran to catch up with her. "Sagira, you're scaring me. Who can't find out about me?"

"Xavier," she said, her pace quickening, "he's here."

"Stop." Atem commanded, grabbing Sagira's upper arm and planting his feet on the ground. Though she was determined, he was stronger than she was. She had no choice but to halt her march. He turned her shoulders towards him, and forced her to look into his eyes. "Who's Xavier? Why is he after you?"

Though they were looking directly at him, her dark blue eyes were clouded, far away. Tears rolled down her face. "Because he knows who I am. He knows about us."

Violet eyes narrowed into slits. "Where is he?"

With a cry and a strength he didn't know she had, Sagira pulled herself out of his grip, and sprinted away from him. Her raven hair blew behind her, catching rays from the sunlight that reflected brownish highlights. Atem called after her, hot on her heels. They had come upon a balcony by the time he reached her again. She wasted no time in pulling herself onto the edge and standing there.

Atem felt his eyes widen at her actions, but he couldn't make himself move. She was turned away from him, facing the view of the city, and the fifty-foot drop to the sandstone below. She was going to jump.

She glanced over her shoulder at him. "I need to keep our secret safe." She said softly before turning back to face her fate. One of her feet moved forward, meeting air instead of stone.

"SAGIRA!" He shouted, rushing to grab her arm, her dress, anything to keep her from falling. But he was too late.

He watched in horror as the girl he loved plummeted to her death.

Marriage was the least of his problems now.

Atem shot upright in his bed, breaths quick and sweat plastering his bangs to his forehead. His dark, still bedroom in the Mutos' apartment above the game shop greeted him. Moonlight poured in through the window across the room.

He took much too long to calm down, swinging his legs to the side of the bed so he could rest his elbows on his knees and bury his head in his hands to steady his breathing. He felt his heart pounding against his chest.

The image of Sagira falling had burned itself into his mind, as much as he reminded himself that it hadn't been real. It had only been a nightmare.

He ran a hand through his hair and stood to walk to the window. Staring absentmindedly at the quiet, paved street below him, he tried to collect his thoughts.

Sagira hadn't died like she had in his dream, he knew for certain. She was no fool. There was always another way, she would often remind him all those millennia ago. Dying to escape your problems was not one. In fact, when he contemplated her words, he knew that they had been a driving force when he sacrificed himself to save the world from the Shadow Games. His choice then had been do or die, and with Sagira's presence in his life, one of those hadn't been an option.

A line of the riddle Mahad had given him the day he had been prepared to return to the afterlife echoed in his mind. "For the ultimate sacrifice brought the ultimate pain."

The night he had lost his memories, he remembered weeping for her. He had promised her, sworn to her that he would never do anything rash and self-sacrificing without at least having her there by his side to help him see it through. It had been all he could promise at that time. But he had gone back on his word. He hadn't told her anything about his plans. He didn't want her to be hurt because of his altruistic ways. His sacrifice had been the only way to ensure she would be safe.

But that hadn't prevented his last recognizable thought before fading into the darkness for 3,000 years from being an apology to her.

Atem's fist clenched on the material of the curtains that framed the window. He felt his guilt bubble up inside his chest.

You deserved much better than me, Sagira, he brooded, and I'm going to do whatever it takes to make it up to you.

Ahh, the guilt! I loathe the word!

So you guys got to see a glimpse of the situation from Atem's point of view, and also a peek at what their relationship had been like in ancient Egypt. I did this so you all can kind of understand why he's acting so awkward around her. It's because he's still mad at himself for how he left her.

Plus, I dropped a few hints in there. Did ya catch 'em?

How did you guys feel about the chili pepper contest? Do you think Erin should have won, or are you more Team Joey or Team Tristan? (I personally would've voted for Joey, to be honest XD)

Erin's going to progressively learn about Duel Monsters, so I probably won't be writing more long scenes where the game is explained, since most of you already know how it works anyway. I'm really hoping I got everything right, though.

Okay, answer time!

Aqua Girl 007: Thanks for your detailed reviews! They've given me something to think about whenever I sit down to write.

As for the Kaiba thing, I had trouble trying to figure out how he would handle having to see his rivals every day, even after he knew about Atem's past. After a lot of thinking, I had an epiphany. Kaiba's a very image-dependent person. He cares about what he looks like to those who are watching him. The fact that he hasn't said a kind word to Yugi/Atem in front of anyone ever (with the exception of some scenes, though they are few and far between) is a big playing factor in his attitude toward the two in public. He needs to maintain his image as Yugi/Atem's rival. I also think that he is still slightly pissed that he isn't in first place in what he does best. So that's why he acted the way he did last chapter.

But he does respect them. That will show in later chapters, but I couldn't find a way to show it in that one.

And I'm sorry if Atem came off as bitter towards Kaiba. I didn't mean for him to sound that way at all. I think that he understands the way Kaiba thinks, but he doesn't exactly approve of it. He tries not to antagonize Kaiba as much as he can. But you know Atem – he's very blunt with what he says sometimes.

I hope this sort of justifies their actions in the chapter. I actually think Kaiba is a great character, though he doesn't act like it sometimes...:)

I: I'm glad you like it so far! And don't worry, Kaiba will show up in more chapters, you can count on it :P.

Also, any ideas you want to throw at me would be great! I'm mostly a pantser when it comes to writing, so don't be afraid to speak up if you think there's something I should add. Nothing in this story is set in stone besides the obvious plots.

Again, thank you to shadow-fox313 for reviewing every chapter, and to Vicious Viper, xCheshix, Rusty Spork, and my anonymous reader! You guys are awesome!

See you in a week!

-creativelybored