AmePiper: I'm glad the last chapter wasn't a fail! Seriously, I really felt like you guys were gonna be so disappointed with me after that last chapter and just stop reading altogether, but I'm glad you're still sticking with me! There's definitely more to come now that I'm back from my trip, so do enjoy!

Peach Wookee: Indeed. Thanks for the review!

Mystical Sand: Yay! Everyone has faith in the friends! I feel like I'm not making them important enough in this story, hopefully this chapter will be an improvement of that. I'm also really glad you liked the flashback because I was wondering if it was just going to annoy people or if people were going to think it was just plain useless or, I don't know, bad things. But I'm glad you like it, makes me smile. Thanks for the review!

Afiong Bassey: It's never to late to drop a review! You're just on time anyway since I was on a trip all of last week and couldn't really write much. And I can totally understand where you're coming from with exams and school and what not. It can really get in the way. Thanks for the review!

julia: I'm glad you're liking the story so far! I hope this update was quick enough for you, enjoy!

Chapter 17

By Means of Friendship

When Mokuba awoke the next morning he had almost forgotten everything that had occurred the night before the pain in his face finally came back to him. Mokuba rubbed his cheek and walked to the bathroom. The bruise had become considerably noticeable. He sighed, but had come to the conclusion that nothing could be done about it. So instead, he began to do his daily routine. He started the water for a shower and stripped down naked.

Mokuba looked at himself in the mirror, observing the small and frail body that stood before him. There were bruises all over him, not as noticeable as the one that stood proudly on his cheek, and were not created by the hand of his own brother. Ms. Morgan was the one to blame for this. She had begun to get violent with her actions in the last month or so. Thankfully her marks were in places that could be hidden under clothes, Mokuba was thankful for that. For in the last 3 months, he had sunk into complete denial of what had been happening, pretending it wasn't what it was.

When he was finished showering and got dressed, Mokuba slowly headed down stairs. Fear began to creep up inside him and the thought of seeing his brother again after what had happened last night scared him. But he walked on with his head up high, telling himself to try and remain calm. As he stepped into the dining room he found his brother sitting there, like any other day, with a hang over. Although this wasn't odd for young Mokuba to see his brother like this, these days he would always see Seto in this condition in the morning. It was only this morning that his drinking left a mark that was printed across his face for the entire world to see.

Mokuba pulled out a seat at the other end of the table, making sure to sit as far away from Seto as possible. Seto looked up upon hearing the sound of the chair and stood to his feet. "Mokuba… I…" Mokuba glared at Seto. Seto looked at him with eyes that held total desperation. He wanted to say so many things, but didn't know how to put them into actual words and tell them to his younger brother. Instead, he found himself just standing there, only making the silence more awkward.

"Well, it's good to see you remember his name," Steven sneered as he entered the room and placed Mokuba's breakfast in front of him. Seto's eyes turned to Steven.

"You stay out of this."

"I'm not going to stay out of this. I'm tired of staying out of this. Your drinking is becoming out of control."

"This is none of your business!"

"Your mind has been completely warped since you've started drinking. Look at you. You're a mess. You're beginning to forget everything that mattered to you most, now all you care about is when and how you'll get drunk next."

"That's not true!" Seto looked over at Mokuba as if to ask him to back him up, but Mokuba only stared at him with the eyes of complete disappointment. "Mokuba… I'm sorry about last night…"

"You're always sorry for last night. You're always sorry for not showing up for dinner, you're always sorry for forgetting to help me with my homework, you're always sorry for never seeing me anymore. Well, I'm sorry I even wasted my time. What you did last night was unforgivable," Mokuba now stood to his feet and turned to Steven, "Can you please drive me to school?" Steven nodded. Mokuba left the room and went out the front door without another word to his brother. Steven was about to follow him when Seto called out.

"You better not go. I demand that you don't go."

"I'm sorry, but Mokuba needs to get to school and from what I see, you're in no condition to drive him. Have a great day." Steven left like that. Seto now stood in the house, completely alone. He sunk into his chair.

"How could this have happened?" He looked at his watch; he was going to be late for work if he didn't hurry. But it didn't matter. Seto knew he needed to talk to someone, and he knew just who to talk to. Seto headed upstairs to his office and dialed a number on his house phone.

"Hello?"

"Isono, it's me."

"Mr. Kaiba? Is everything alright? You sound terrible."

"Everything's terrible. Look Isono, I need you here. Have you saved up enough money to fly over here yet?"

"Yes I have! I was just waiting for the call, Mr. Kaiba. I'll book a flight right away."

"Thank god. Things have just gone terribly wrong and now my own butler has turned on me. You have to come and help me straighten things out."

"Of course Mr. Kaiba, you can always count on me. I'll try and get there as soon as possible. Mark my words."

"I will. I hope to see you tonight." Seto hung up the phone. He looked at the phone for a very long time before heading out the door and driving to work. His mind was thinking a million things at once, and although he wanted more than anything than to be there of all places, Seto Kaiba was a man of his duty. And so he went, and he worked.

Mokuba cringed at the sound of the bell. Ms. Morgan's classroom began to empty as it always did, but one student remained in the room besides Mokuba. Jimmy walked over to Mokuba and sat in the chair next to him.

"Hey Mokuba… are we cool? I feel like you don't want to be friends anymore," Jimmy said with a saddened face. Mokuba looked up into his face, but instead of finding only harsh lies, he saw intense emotions that pointed towards love and truthfulness. Mokuba wanted to tear himself apart, he felt so terrible for avoiding him for so long for him to believe that there was something wrong with him that made Mokuba drift away. What a friend he had found, and what a friend he had almost lost; that's what Mokuba felt about it.

As Mokuba opened his mouth to reply, to tell his true and dearest friend how he felt and wanted more than anything to renew the friendship they once had, Ms. Morgan appeared from behind Jimmy and tapped the boy on the shoulder. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Mokuba and I have a learning session right now." Jimmy looked up at Ms. Morgan, then back down to Mokuba.

"Yes Ms. Morgan," Jimmy replied sorrowfully as he picked up his backpack and slowly skated out of the room and out of site. The door was shut and locked behind him. Ms. Morgan twisted around and looked over at Mokuba, whom now held a gloom face.

"Oh, don't be so down. This is the fun part," She said with an evil smile as she shut the blinds and closed the windows as she always did. Mokuba ignored her comment as he thought deeply about his friend. Never in his life had he actually met someone who was a true friend, who really cared about him and what he thought. How could he have been so stupid as to lose him like that? Mokuba knew he was afraid of Jimmy finding out about Ms. Morgan of him, what Jimmy would think if he ever knew his dreaded secret, but there must've been another way of hiding it. "Get over here," the she devil commanded.

Mokuba walked over to Ms. Morgan without a fight or sign of objection. Ms. Morgan began to strip him down as she kissed him passionately. She stopped once she began to notice that Mokuba was not fighting at all. She broke away from him and stopped what she was doing. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing."

"Then why aren't you fighting?"

"Because I don't care anymore." Ms. Morgan punched him in the shoulder and kicked him to the ground. She placed one of her feet on top of his stomach and looked down at him.

"What do you mean you don't care?"

"I don't care… I've given up trying to fight you… trying to get away… given up the idea of freedom." Ms. Morgan took back her foot and slammed it down on the ground.

"Oh really?" She said angrily. Mokuba stared at her with bewilderment, he hadn't the slightest idea why she was getting so upset. He'd think that she'd be happy at the least of the idea of him finally giving up and him forever being her doll to play with. "Well, we'll most certainly see about that!" She buttoned back up her shirt and pulled him to his feet.

"You may leave." At first, Mokuba just stared at her. He thought maybe she was just playing another one of her sick games, and was actually going to toture him yet again for the next half hour. "Go on now, I told you to leave." Mokuba slowly turned away and walked out the door. Once he had made it out, his heart felt light and filled with joy. It was as if a giant boulder had been lifted off his heart and he was now free to live his life.

Mokuba threw his back pack onto his shoulders and raced down the hallways towards the lunch room. His eyes scanned the room and once they spotted Jimmy, Mokuba made his way towards him and the table he once sat at. "Hey guys." Everyone looked up.

"Mokuba? What a pleasant surprise, where have you been?" Elizabeth asked, giving him a smile.

"Well, Ms. Morgan said I don't need anymore help with my homework, so I can come to lunch now." Marie smiled.

"That's great news, Mokuba. Come on, you can sit with us. You're always welcome." Mokuba gave a great big smile, but before he sat, he turned towards Jimmy.

"Jimmy, can I talk to you for a sec?" Jimmy nodded and got to his feet. Both the boys walked to the other side of the cafeteria. "Hey… I just wanted to tell you, that I still really want to be your friend. And I'm sorry I've been kind of avoiding you for the past few weeks. I swear it's not you, it's just been… my family and what's been going at home, everything's been so weird, so I was kind of cutting myself off from everyone. I hope you can forgive me." Jimmy smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

"Of course, we are friends, aren't we?" Mokuba smiled and nodded his head.

"It's good to have you back."

"Thanks Jimmy, same to you."

Seto stood at the door, pacing back and forth non-stop. Steven was sitting on the floor near him, watching him do this. "…So you're waiting for someone?" Steven asked, finally breaking the silence. Seto glared at him.

"It's really none of your business, but if you must ask, yes." Steven shrugged.

"Is it a girl or something?" Seto stopped and looked at him.

"Are you kidding me?"

"Sure, it was a hard concept for me to believe as well." Seto growled and was about to throw a punch right at Steven's face when the door bell rang. Seto froze. Steven stared at him. "Well… are you gonna get that? Cause I can get it if-"

"I'll get it!" Seto stated, walking over to the door and opening it. His face melted into a smile. But it was not a smile that Steven had seen before. Not a kind of smile that Seto had given to Mokuba. It was a smile that any person would do when they were reunited with something that was meaningful. "It's good to see you again."

Seto embraced Isono in his arms and held him tightly. 'This must be what it's like to have a friend…' Seto thought to himself as the two men were silent, only letting their thoughts flow through their arms and wrap around one another. They broke away quite quickly, but the second they had were meaningful. "I see you have a nice place here, but can it really replace that ghost of a mansion you use to live in?" Isono and Seto both laughed together. Isono noticed Steven standing in the corner. "Who's the kid?"

"Oh…" Seto's smile disappeared, "That's Steven, my new butler." Isono and Steven examined one another, there was a fire between the two already and they barely knew the other person. It was a sense of place; the new butler verses the old. "Steven, this is Isono. Isono, this is Steven."

"Nice to meet you." Neither of them shook the other's hand.

"And I, you," Steven replied intelligently. Seto rolled his eyes.

"Please Isono, do come in. Would you like something to drink? Steven, fetch the man a drink, won't you?" Steven and Isono were glaring at one another.

"Right away, Sir," Steven said, obediently stepping into the kitchen and disappearing from the room.

A/N: Hey guys! Well, I got back from my trip on Sunday and here I am updating Wednesday night. I don't think I did too badly on updating, but I'm sure I'll be able to update a lot more quickly with the next chapter. Believe me, this story is about to get a lot more interesting and I'm so excited for the next few chapters! So keep your eyes peeled for that author alert e-mail and look out for chapter 18!