NOTE!: Sorry for the confusion but there is an important note. Last week's preview was set in stone until the story went a completely different direction than I intended. Noah and Mokuba will still be here, but this chapter is going to be a wrap-up of all the side stories that were going on. That way I can focus on my three main couples. Well, my two main, thief and death, and prideshipping will still be idling in the background. I realized that these subplots were distracting too much from the main story and so they had to go. So, this entire chapter has been entirely redone, which is why the preview is all wrong and updates are slow. Don't worry though, for those few stepshippers out there, that subplot is getting its own story eventually, so just hang in there. I think I have everything straight now, it's just a matter of getting it typed up, and with finals looming in the distance idk how fast these updates are going to come. Though I do have spring break soon so I should be able to get several chapters ahead again I hope. ANYWAYS. If you read that then thank you and I apologize for the lameness of this chapter, but it had to be done. Don't worry, I will throw a bone to the prideshippers with a special scene in the end. Thanks for hanging with me and do enjoy!

Chapter 24

Close

Serenity's Pov

"So what do you think?"

I smiled and turned to look at my now fiancé, modeling for him the dress of choice.

We had sped up the whole process of getting married as soon as I found out I was pregnant, first getting engaged and then beginning to plan the wedding, starting with picking out the dress.

Duke was sprawled out in front of me, lounging across two chairs alongside my brother and mother.

"I think its smokin' baby."

Joey gave a low growl deep in his throat and gave Duke a dangerous glare, "That's what he's said for every dress you've tried on!"

"I think its lovely dear." My mother spoke up, her eyes shining in happiness, "I think it is the best one yet."

I nodded and turned back to the mirror, spinning around once to give the dress another once over while my brother and Duke went at it again.

"Why is he even here?" My brother gestured wildly to my fiancé, "Isn't it like, bad luck for the guy to see the dress before the wedding day?"

I sighed and shook my head slightly, "Silly superstition brother, that's all that is." I smiled at him in the mirror and turned back around, giggling when Duke blew me a kiss.

"And what happens when you get bigger? You know, from the baby and stuff?"

I gently rested my hands on my stomach and let the assistant help me down from the stand, "We're having it tailored to anticipate the small weight gain, because it won't be all that much since the wedding isn't far off at all."

I walked back into the changing room and quickly got back into my normal clothes, thanking the sales clerk and telling her that that was the dress I had selected.

Coming back out into the main room, I was greeted with the sight of Joey in a headlock and Duke grinning madly.

I rolled my eyes and walked over to the two boys; grabbing Duke's earing and tugging hard, "Alright you two, that's enough. I'm ready to go now."

Duke grinned and let my brother go, opting to instead to pull me into his embrace, "Alright then, let's go."

I nodded and smiled at my mother, who returned the gesture and stood up, "I think we should all go out and have some tea. What do you guys think?"

I gave a light smile and headed towards the door, "Sounds like an excellent suggestion mother, now let's go. I know the perfect place."

With that, I walked out the door of the salon, one hand holding my mother's and the other clutching Duke's, ready to face whatever lay before me.

Yugi's POV

I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, running my fingers through my hair, not believing the news.

Odion and Ishizu had been in a car wreck, and right after visiting Marik and Ryou's place no less.

There was no way that had been coincidence, and I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that it had to do with Marik's darkness.

I slowly got out of bed and stretched, tired of lying down, it was really beginning to get old.

"Yugi you shouldn't be out of bed."

I groaned and turned to look at Rebecca as she came walking through the door holding a tray with soup and juice on it.

"I'm fine Rebecca, really. I just need to move around a little is all."

She frowned slightly but didn't fight me as she set the tray down on my bedside table, "Alright Yugi, just don't do anything too strenuous."

I rolled my eyes and laughed and she couldn't help but smile back as well.

"I'm serious Yugi!"

"I know, I know." I took her hand and pulled her onto the bed with me, laughing at her expression, "I was just thinking is all. You know, about Ishizu and Odion."

"Ah." Rebecca got a puzzled expression on her face, "Do you really think it was Marik's crazy dark half?"

"I'm not exactly sure what I believe anymore, but it all looks awfully suspicious to me." I reached over and grabbed the orange juice off the tray, taking a small sip and wincing as it went down.

"It's a scary thought, knowing Bakura's back and all…" She looked at me and leaned back against my pillow, eyes resting on my juice cup, "But of course, the pharaoh is back too. How is he by the way?"

I took another sip of orange juice then set it back on the tray, "He's good. I haven't seen him all too much lately, he's been with Kaiba."

"Kaiba?"

I chuckled and shook my head, "Yeah, don't ask. Just don't."

Rebecca cocked an eyebrow but didn't say anything further.

I pulled her into a hug and we both laid there in bed, letting our thoughts wander to different topics but neither of us speaking on them.

The silence was far too enjoyable.

Mokuba's POV

I gave a light groan and took my glasses off, rubbing the bridge of my nose.

It had definitely been a long day.

I had been working on this secret project of mine ever since Noah showed up and I was finally beginning to make some progress.

I took in a deep breath and spun around in my office chair, propping my feet up on the desk when it slowed to a stop.

"You look drained."

I nearly fell out of my chair in shock as my computer screen went from black to showing Noah's face.

"N…Noah!" I scrambled backwards, trying to cover up the large machine that had become my project.

He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes slightly, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, n…nothing! Why? Does it look like I am trying to do something?" God Mokuba could you be any more obvious?

"It looks to me like you are trying to hide something from me."

"Heh!" I quickly grabbed a large dust cover from the top shelf and threw it over my project, successfully hiding it from Noah's view, "Nope, nothing to hide."

"Then what's with the dust cover?"

"I don't know what you are talking about Noah." I promptly scurried away from the wall and walked back over to the computer screen.

Noah was staring at me with this look on his face that plainly told me he knew I was up to something. I tried not letting it show on my face that he was on to me.

"Mokuba…"

"It's okay Noah," I decided there wasn't too much harm in letting him know a little bit, "It's just a little surprise that I am working on for you."

"For me?" He cocked a single eyebrow, looking absolutely delicious while doing so.

"Yup. Though it's not going to be done for quite a while, so you'll have to wait, but I think it will be worth it." That was if I could pull it off, which I was almost certain that I could.

"Maybe I can help you with it."

I laughed and shook my head at him, "Nice try, but no, I am doing this one on my own so you can be completely and totally surprised!"

Noah's eyes softened and a smile spread across his face, "Thanks Mokuba, that means a lot, and I am sure that whatever it is I will love it."

I smiled widely and touched my hand to the computer screen, to which Noah mirrored the gesture.

If I had any say in it, we would be together sooner than he thought, and not just in the virtual realm either.

It would be here, side by side, in the real world.

Seto's POV

"You know Seto, I didn't come back just so you could ignore me while you did your work."

I looked up into the frowning face of my lover and felt a frown of my own begin to tug at my lips, "I can't completely give up work for you Yami."

He gave an exasperated sigh and crawled up onto my desk, putting his hand on the lid of my laptop and slowly closing it as he crawled closer. He didn't bother correcting me on the use of his old name, it was used as a sort of affectionate term for us now.

I gave him a warning look but didn't bother to reprimand his actions, instead I let him crawl down into my lap and straddle my legs, entangling his fingers in my hair.

"Seto, I think it's time you took a break."

I gave a light sigh but conceded and wrapped my arms around him and rubbed his bottom.

Atem chuckled and kissed my neck, hm'ing in approval.

"Why is it that I have such a hard time resisting you."

Atem chuckled and yanked playfully on my hair, causing me to growl in slight pain, "Three thousand years is a long time to wait to fuck the one you love."

I gave another low warning growl, not wanting to get into the complicated workings of our ancient pasts, "Atem."

He laughed and kissed my lips, keeping his firm grip on my hair, "Yes Seto?"

"Behave. We are not having sex right now." I smacked his ass in reprimand and he gave a light yelp.

"Oh come on Seto I-"

I cut him off my roughly grabbing his hair in my fists and pulling his head back, "No. My incisions are still healing and I can still give you mono. I do not want to hear you bitching and complaining when you get sick." With that I gave him a hard shove and he plopped ungracefully to the floor.

Frowning up at me, he stood and brushed imaginary dirt off of his pants, "If that's the case then you should be in bed Seto, not sitting here at your desk doing work."

I rolled my eyes and re-opened my computer, "And sex is so less strenuous then typing on a computer."

"No but it's less stressful." He made a move to shut my computer lid again and I quickly snatched it out of his way.

"Seto, come on now. Mokuba is going to be pissed."

"Mokuba is busy on his own projects." What those were I had no idea, but I noticed that my little brother had been around less and less frequently as of late and I was beginning to wonder what his little secret project was.

Atem groaned and moved towards me menacingly, threateningly holding out his hands to snatch my computer away.

"Would you knock it off!" I pulled my computer back at the same time he lunged for it, causing him to over extend and fall into me, tipping the desk chair I was in over backwards and sending us both crashing to the floor.

I groaned and checked over my computer, which had luckily stayed in my hands the entire time. "You are very lucky that did not go badly."

Atem blinked big ruby eyes up at me in a sick imitation of Yugi and my heart fluttered a little. Guy knew how to pull off a sad face that was for sure.

"Don't fucking do that. You look like Yugi and it creeps me out a little."

Atem laughed and untangled himself from me, "Oh don't deny that if you had the chance you wouldn't have a three-way with Aibou and I."

I narrowed my eyes and stood up, shaking my head, "Never going to happen."

He gave a devious grin and crossed his arms.

"What?"

"You didn't deny it Seto."

I groaned, "I am not having a conversation about having a threesome with you and Yugi right now."

Atem laughed and hopped up on my desk, "Still not denying it! Oh come on Seto, everyone has their twin fantasy."

I rolled my eyes, "You two hardly look like twins anymore." I gave up on trying to work and closed my laptop once again and put it in my briefcase. "If not for the absolutely ridiculous hair that must run in your crazy family genes, you wouldn't look anything alike. And speaking of that, wouldn't it be incest or something if you two had sex?" I could not believe I was having this conversation. It was like I couldn't stop myself.

"Not any more than it is for us to have sex, cousin."

"Okay, gross." That was it. I grabbed my case and headed for the door and I heard Yami laugh and follow behind me.

"Oh come on Seto."

I glared at him over my shoulder and earned another peel of laughter from the former pharaoh. "Not funny Atem."

He grinned cheekily at me, knowing he was irritating me. I only called him by his name now when he was pissing me off. It was a nice and easy way to tell him to shut the fuck up without all the unnecessary words.

"Alright, Alright, I'm sorry." He sprinted to catch up with me then wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, "Lighten up Seto, you know I like to kid."

I scoffed but allowed a small smile to creep onto my face, "Well maybe a threesome wouldn't be absolutely out of the question.

I absolutely relished the look on Yami's face and wished so hard that I had a camera to capture the moment so I could replay it whenever I wanted. No other expression had ever been so brilliantly funny.

"Damnit Seto!" He put his hands on his hips comically, "Don't tease me like that."

"Oh come now Yami, that's half the fun of this relationship." I gave him a playful smirk and he shook his head and smiled in return.

"I love you, you know that right?"

I scoffed, "Of course." At his playful frown I allowed a small smile to form, "And I love you too king." The nicknames were endless.

Yami gave a satisfied grin and leaned up to kiss my cheek, and we walked back the hall and into my private office bedroom to spend some quality time together.

Who said I didn't know how to take a break?

And now, preview.

I looked up in shock, the small sketchbook nearly slipping from my fingers, "Marik!"

Hehe see you next time!