Chapter 2
Kaiba stared at the paper as he sat outside the address that was written on it. This was the second address that he was about to try as the one that had been on Mai's letter turned out to be her old address. Luckily the old man living in her former apartment still had her forwarding details and passed them on to him. He stared up towards the house with a long pathway leading to it and wondered if all this effort was really worth it.
Taking a deep breath, he got out of his car and approached the house were he rang the doorbell and waited for an answer. The door was opened by Mai who was surprised by Kaiba standing there. "Hello Mai." He smiled and said as politely as he could.
"Where did you get this address!" Mai hissed before she turned her attention to her right shoulder which was just out of Kaiba's vision.
"The old man in your old apartment gave it to me." Kaiba told her and continued to talk otherwise he knew that what he had to say was likely to stay unsaid otherwise. "I was hoping that we could catch up on old times…" he trailed off as Mai's shoulder came into view where he saw a tiny baby learned over as Mai patted its back. "…but I guess that you've moved on with your life."
"That's what people do." Mai said still patting her daughter's back which brought up some of her last feed. "Nobody stays the same forever."
"Whatever." Kaiba mumbled under his breath as a young boy appeared next to Mai and tugged at her arm.
"Mommy, Nathan's not playing fair." The boy complained.
"Of course he isn't sweetie." Mai spoke softly to her son. "He's too young to understand the game's rules."
The boy noticed Kaiba and smiled up at him with big blue eyes. "Hello mister." He said happily.
"Hello." Kaiba forced a smile back. Now after seeing that Mai hadn't thought anymore about him after all, he felt really uncomfortable about being there.
"Inside now." Mai urged the boy back away into the house. "Mommy has to speak to an old friend."
"But I wanna go to the park!" the boy moaned and refused to go away.
"Later sweetie, mommy's busy right now." Mai tried to push him back again.
Kaiba watched as the mother and son argued with each other and thoughts began to enter his mind. The boy seemed to be around six years old and he had the same eyes as himself. Could it be possible that the boy was the result of their one time together? Surely not, but upon doing the maths Kaiba figured that it could be true and would even explain as to why Mai had kept trying to contact him. "Is he?" was all that he could manage to say as he fought back the urge to laugh hysterically.
An almost horrified look appeared on Mai's face as there came a loud crash from within the house. "Nathaniel!" She shouted back to her other son. Turning back to Kaiba she said: "I'll be back in a moment." Before she quickly disappeared pulling the door to behind her.
"He's always causing trouble." The boy sighed as he slowly pushed the door back open.
Kaiba stared at the boy in disbelief. The look that he had seen on Mai's face did indicate that this boy was indeed his son. For a moment he was angry with himself for ignoring the messages that Mai had left him all those years back. Thanks to himself he had missed out on one of the things that he would have loved to do most, raise his own children.
No, it wasn't his fault he told himself. Mai still had the past six years to inform him of this and she hadn't. His anger turned towards Mai and he thought about snatching the boy away from her. "Your mother seems quite busy with your brother and sister, so how about I take you to the park?" Kaiba suggested to the boy.
"Really!" the boy replied excitedly.
"Yes, just take my hand." He held his large hand out for the boy to grab hold of which after a slight hesitation he did. Snatching his son looked like it would be a lot easier that what he had thought.
Together they walked hand in hand back down the path to his car. They were almost at the end of the path when Mai's panicking voice could be heard calling out for her son, Jay. Kaiba looked back over his shoulder before he quickened his pace, and then without warning something hit him that sent him falling backwards.
"Get your hands off my son!" he heard a threatening voice and looked up to see Joey stood over him.
"Daddy, this mister is a friend of mommy's and he was just going to take me to the park." Jay tried to explain to his father who seemed really mad.
"Jay!" Mai came running down the path carrying both her other children. "Come here sweetie." Obeying his mother Jay returned to her side.
"Take them back inside." Joey told Mai as he still held eye contact with Kaiba. "I have a few things that I want to say to our old friend."
Mai turned Jay to the direction of the house and started to follow him back there. She stopped and turned back to the two men. "Please don't do anything stupid." She pleaded with Joey who nodded to assure her that all would be okay.
Once Mai and the children were out of sight Joey turned back to Kaiba who had made it back onto his feet. "Why are you here?"
"Just thought I'd swing by." Kaiba brushed himself down. "Catch up on old times since I haven't seen her in all these years. And now knowing that I have a son, I just have to take him to where he truly belongs."
"He may be your blood, but he's my son." Joey told Kaiba the way it was. "You had your chance to be part of his life but clearly weren't interested so now he'll never be your son."
Kaiba thought back the anger that was building up inside him and just acted surprised at the fact that Joey had known the boy he had been raising wasn't his own. "I'm quite surprised that she told you about us." He knew that what he would say next would really get to Joey. "I would have thought that it would have remained a secret, but then again with a hoar like her, it's only natural that she'd want to brag about seducing someone like me."
"That's my wife you're insulting!" Joey roared as he punched Kaiba who was sent stumbling backwards.
"She's only your wife because nobody else wanted her." Kaiba felt himself hit by Joey again and this time ended up on the floor supporting himself with one knee knelt on the ground. "You two losers are just right for each other."
Joey took a deep breath knowing that Kaiba was trying to wind him up, and he did promise Mai that he wouldn't do anything stupid. Did punching Kaiba a couple of times count as stupid? Maybe he had better not mention that to her. He looked down at Kaiba. "The only loser that I can see is kneeling right before me."
Kaiba growled at the insult but remained were he was as Joey continued. "You may have your company and all of your money, but I have something far better than you. I have a family. A wife and three kids who rely on me and give me all the love that I could ever need." He crouched down so that he was level with Kaiba. "That's the kind of happiness which you can't buy and makes life worth living. That's the kind of happiness which you'll never experience."
Joey got back to his feet and turned away from Kaiba and towards his home. "Now get out of my sight before I do, do something stupid."
Kaiba glared as Joey moved away and pushed himself up. "I'll show you just what happiness my money can buy." The fight for his son wasn't over that easily.