Hey there! Here's a new chapter of Fine Again. Here's my reply to the nice review left by Harry2.

Harry2: (Well, Buffy just met the trio. And they are NOT happy about what this gang was about to do to Buffy. No siree bub. And when Yami gets upset... Well, you do NOT want to be around to see the results. Time for these doofuses to go pay for their crimes! And B has just met her three guardian angels, even if they are vampires.) Thanks. And I hope that, with Yami's, Joey's and Kaiba's help, Buffy will have a new life for herself – one where she won't have to sell her body in order to earn money, and instead earn income in a new and much better way, of course.

Previously...

After turning back to Buffy, he then blew her a kiss, and then turned to Kaiba and Joey. "Joey, Kaiba," he said, a tone of command in his voice, "take Buffy to the mansion. I will deal with this scum myself."

Upon hearing those words, the leader tried to run away just as Buffy had previously tried to do in order to leave him and his comrades behind. However, in the leader's case, he was trying to escape from a guy who looked as though he was able to take down guys like the rival gangs. Plus, thanks to a quick spell cast by Yami, his feet were firmly planted on the ground, which, the leader realized, prevented him from escaping the vampire's clutches. In the meantime, Kaiba and Joey immediately took off, with Buffy between them. Luckily for Buffy, they had managed to retrieve her handbag before taking off for the mansion.

Buffy closed her eyes and then opened them again, wondering if she was really seeing the house that was in her line of vision right now. It turned out that she was, much to her relief.

"Our home sweet home," Kaiba said while smiling at Buffy.

Buffy couldn't help but grin herself. "It's beautiful," she remarked. "I like it already."

Indeed, the mansion was beautiful. It had the very same look and feel that the mansions from the olden days also had. There were towers on the corners, as well as a large front door with a back door on one side.

As soon as they came up to the doors, Buffy blinked as Joey flicked his wrist and the doors opened by themselves. "How'd you do that?" she asked.

Joey smirked. "Well, let me put it this way. It's just one of the perks of being a vampire, of course," he replied.

As soon as they stepped over the threshold, the doors quietly closed by themselves, but Buffy was too busy with looking around and examining all of the mansion's interior design to even hear them anyway. The walls were painted gold, and three feet away from the doors was a staircase. The stairs, which led up to the second floor, were made of black wood and covered by a red carpet with gold trimming. She was impressed.

"This is a fantastic place," she remarked, grinning.

And indeed it was. When Joey snapped his fingers, the living room, which was five feet away from the entrance to the front door, suddenly lit up when the fire in the fireplace sprang to life. Buffy blinked in astonishment.

"Wow" was all she could think of to say for a bit. Then a confused look crossed the lovely features of her face before she spoke the words that she had been wanting to say, but didn't know how to put them in the right order yet.

"There's one thing I want to know, though. Exactly how did you come across this place anyway?" she queried.

At this question, Kaiba and Joey looked at each other and exchanged smiles before turning back to her.

"Well," Kaiba began, "it's like this. A few years ago – before you came to Los Angeles with your dreams of becoming a famous star – Joey, Yami and I had come across this very mansion. However, it already belonged to someone else – a very wealthy man. But this happened to be a stroke of good luck, because he also happened to be a serial killer. We knew this because of looking into his mind and viewing the information and memories about the number of kills he had made, which, altogether, added up to eleven."

"Wait, wait," said Buffy, a confused expression crossing her face. "Hold on a second, please. That's another thing – how did you find out about my wanting to be rich and famous? I know I never mentioned it to you."

Now it was Joey's turn to provide an explanation. "Well, there's only one word to describe that, Buffy. It's called telepathy, or rather, ‛mind reading'. When we rescued you from those guys, Yami looked into your mind first, and saw your childhood, and then your adolescence up until a few days after you turned sixteen." He shook his head as though to will away the memory of what Yami told him had happened after that. "At least your father lived a good life, and was also a good father to you, as well as a good husband to your mother."

Kaiba nodded as though in understanding. "I agree. It's too bad, though, that your mother, Joyce, was unable to ask for help when she had to cope with your father's death, and instead chose to turn to the one thing which causes a disease that millions of people have – namely, alcohol."

As Kaiba spoke, he then looked at Buffy as tears fell down her cheeks at the mention of her late father – as well as her still-living mother, too.

Finally, while wiping the tears away with a white silk handkerchief offered to her by Joey, Buffy said, "Yes, you're right." She paused for a bit before adding, "And I just want to say thank you for rescuing me from those guys, too. If you three hadn't come along when you did... well, let's just say that I don't even want to think about it."

The room fell silent then as Buffy wiped some more tears from her eyes. She knew that Kaiba and Joey were right about her father and mother. Kaiba had a point there when he said that Buffy's mother was unable to ask for help when it came to trying to cope with the death of Buffy's father, too.

It was only when she felt Joey's arms around her that she began to feel a little better. "Thanks, Joey," she said.

Joey smiled. "Don't worry about it, Buffy. Besides, Kaiba, Yami and I are family and see each other as such. Also," he added after a moment, "we see you as the sister we've always wanted, but never got."

Hearing those words made Buffy's sadness ease a little bit more. Deep down, though, she was wondering about something – what could've happened if they had met her when she was a kid? Could things have turned out differently for Buffy and her mother back then if these three vampire heroes had come along at the right moment? If only her father had lived to meet Yami, Joey and Kaiba, too. He would've taken a fancy to them, for one thing. Also, he would've asked them to take good care of Buffy and her mother if something happened to him. After all, that was part of who he was. She knew that for sure.

Buffy pulled herself out of her thoughts when Kaiba embraced her in a brotherly manner.

"Don't worry, Buffy," he said. "Yami, Joey and I will make sure you are taken care of very well."

"Thank you, Kaiba," Buffy replied, her emerald eyes glistening with fresh new tears.

Smiling kindly, Kaiba reached up to wipe her tears away. "Please," he said, his voice now holding a trace of gentleness, "call me Seto."

When they stepped into the living room, there was a black leather couch a few feet away from the hearth. Yami soon returned, and told Buffy that he had put a spell on the gang leader. The spell made the leader forget what leading a gang felt like; as a result, the leader – whose name was Marcus – had been put with the servants who worked in the cotton fields during the day.

"Oh, I had forgotten the story of the serial killer of whom this house belonged to," said Yami while smacking his forehead with the palm of his right hand. "Well, to resume."

With that, as soon as Buffy sat down on the couch (thanks to a whispered invitation from Joey and Kaiba that she was welcome to do so) and looked into Yami's eyes, she was instantly lost in them. Holding Buffy's emerald gaze the whole time, Yami told the rest of the story about the serial killer that had owned the house she was in right now, his baritone voice holding her attention. She had to admit that the part of Yami's story she liked the best was of how he used his mind manipulation powers to convince the killer to write his last will and testament bequeathing all his possessions and the money in his bank accounts to Joey, Yami and Kaiba.

Yami did make sure to leave out the parts where he, Joey and Kaiba tortured the killer before draining him of all his blood.

"It wouldn't do for you to wake up screaming every night about us killing you in cold blood, Buffy. After all, we would never do something like that to an innocent person such as yourself," Kaiba explained as he and Joey held her in a brotherly fashion.

Buffy quickly nodded in understanding. "I see," she said, "and I understand that as well."

"Yes. So anyway, we posed as the serial killer's sons in order to get access to his personal bank accounts soon after we gave him a proper burial in the garden outside the mansion," Yami explained. "And that worked very well."

Joey then turned to Buffy and said, "After we accomplished that, we headed back here. The instant we stepped over the threshold, it was as though the mansion was just fine."

"Exactly," Kaiba added. "You see, Buffy, it was as though the spirits of the killer's victims had been there and left a note thanking us for what we did. And we imagined said note saying something along the lines of ‛It's a good thing you showed up at the right moment. Thanks to you three vampire heroes, we can finally rest in peace knowing that the man who killed us is dead himself now'. We thought that to be pretty neat."

Buffy was silent for a moment. "Wow," she remarked. "I had no idea that you did something like that."

Yami nodded. "Indeed."

Joey then spoke up. "So, Buffy... what do you think of this place? I hope that you find it to be – quite pleasing."

Although she was caught off-guard mentally, Buffy let a thoughtful expression cross those lovely features of hers, which soon transformed into a smile. Finally, she replied, "Well, I have to say this – apparently, this place is really very beautiful. It has charm, it has opulence, and above all, it has class. To be precise, it's the kind of place I'd want to live in." She paused for dramatic effect, while looking at them before adding, "Especially if I happened to be very wealthy myself."

Now it was Kaiba's turn to look thoughtful. "So I see, Buffy. So I see," he purred after a moment.

After they showed Buffy around some of the mansion's interior, Yami, Joey and Kaiba showed Buffy to the room that would be hers.

Buffy was instantly impressed; the room was very beautiful with windows that had curtains covering it. The curtains were a deep purple color. The bed itself was quite something as well; it had deep blue silk sheets which were covered by a bedspread the color of red wine. Covering the bedspread was a quilt stitched with roses. Lying on the pillow was a nightgown. It was white in color, and also very modest too.

"It's very lovely," she remarked, turning back to them. "Thanks, you guys. When I see something like this, I think, What more could I ask for? This is a great room to be in."

Yami and Joey nodded as though saying "You're welcome" before they left.

Buffy looked around the room for a bit, liking how it looked. Candy-striped wallpaper covered the walls, and the ceiling was white (similar to the kind Buffy remembered seeing in hospitals when she was a kid).

Besides the walls, the ceiling, the bed and the windows, there was a desk sitting in one corner. She then walked over to check out the desk. It was made of dark brown wood, and, much to Buffy's delight, was smooth to the touch. That was a good thing in itself, since Buffy couldn't stand slivers or splinters of wood.

On the desk was a Toshiba Windows 8 laptop (which was turned off at the moment, although it was plugged into a power strip, which was in turn plugged into the wall outlet).

"You like it?" she heard Kaiba's voice say.

Buffy turned around and smiled at Kaiba. "Like it? I love it, Seto. This is the kind of place I've always wanted to live in." She walked over to the bed and sat on it.

Clearing her throat, Buffy paused briefly before Kaiba sat down next to her. "Seto, I have a confession to make – something I've not told anybody else," she told him.

Kaiba gave her a smile of encouragement. "It's all right, Buffy. You can tell me, as well as Yami and Joey too. And you don't have to worry about your secret getting out; we're very good at keeping secrets."

"That's great, Seto," Buffy smiled, "but I think I'll tell you guys about it tomorrow, since I am feeling a bit tired."

Kaiba did not argue with her there. "Good idea, Buffy."

With that, as soon as Kaiba gave her a kiss goodnight and left the room, Buffy changed into the nightgown. Picking up her toothbrush, she headed to the bathroom, which was one door away, and then brushed her teeth.

When that was done, she then returned to the bedroom, put her toothbrush on the nightstand and then turned off the light.

When Yami, Joey and Kaiba checked in on her a little bit later, they smiled upon seeing her fast asleep in the bed. Deep down, they knew that with a little bit of luck and some help from them, Buffy would be able to leave that life known as prostitution and enter a whole new life with them...

Well, that's the end of this chapter. I hope you liked reading it as much as I did writing it. And I hope you'll be able to give me some ideas for the next chapter as well; after all, new ideas are a good thing for a writer to have.

Anyway, as usual, nice feedback is very much appreciated, of course. :)