Chapter 8

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"Joey . . . what happened to you?" Yugi asked. Joey gave him an angry face. He was wearing a white dress shirt over a black tee, and some black dress pants.

"Mai wont let me wear my own clothes . . .she sprung this getup on me last night!" He said, upset that he wasn't wearing jeans with holes in them. Tristan muffled a laugh.

"I think it looks good!" Tea said, fixing Joey's shirt. He smacked her hand away.

"You would, you're a girl!" He said, messing it up again.

"Excuse me, but isn't it us girls that are the ones you boys are trying to impress?" She huffed. Tristan was still trying to hold in the laughter, but Joey's face was making it difficult.

The pizzeria buzzed with life and excitement. Kids coming in and out, hanging in large groups of friends and just enjoying the up-coming weekend.

"So," Joey started, deperate to change the subject, "you all up for the party on Sunday?" he asked.

"Yea!" They all chimed in.

"It's gonna be fun. We'll all bring something, like last time. Who's gonna bring the paper?" Tea shuffled around in her backpack a bit, pulling out a small package wrapped in cellophane.

"I will, It's my job!" Joey said, taking it and putting it into his own backpack.

"Just like last year?" Tristan laughed, poking him on the back of the head.

"Yea, Joey. Don't forget again, we don't want Serenity to run out in the rain for some like last year!" Yugi said, joining Tristan in the laughter

"Yea, yea, yea, shuddap!"

Kaiba walked down the street. It felt like months since the last time he'd walked around town like this, when in fact it had only been about a week. He decided to push that memory back, seeing as he had been dwelling on it for quite some time this week.

It was a Friday night and most kids his age were off to parties or just to hang out with their friends. He would rather eat chalk, but he was different. He turned down another side street, just enjoying the almost-night air. It was almost dusk, and with that came a certain smell, and feeling. The wind blew somewhat more gently, and smelled of rain and leaves. He wished the neighborhood was a better one to walk in, then he would be able to take Mokuba with him. Unfortunately, the area around him, and most of the world has been turning into streets paved with abandoned, or broken down houses and apartments.

The economy was turning worse and worse, forcing Kaiba to leave his happy genre of gaming technology for more practical cheap computer technology. He'd prefer to stay in just gaming, to avoid companies like Sony bothering him all the time, but he had a duty to his employees to guarantee them job stability. Working on new cheaper computer technology gave his employees that stability.

Kaiba wandered around a bit, not paying much attention to where he was or where he was going. He looked at the houses lining his current street. Pitiful. He almost wanted to hire a bunch of construction crews to fix the street, but he knew it would be impossible for their owners to keep up, or just to sell them.

The cold night air crept up onto him, telling him that he should probably get home now. No sense catching the flu just because he wanted to take a walk. He pulled out his cellphone, pushing the speed dial for his driver.

As the phone rang, Kaiba stopped. He had barely turned a few inches before a group of guys were on him. They pushed him into the alleyway he hadn't realized he stopped in front of, and attempted to jump him there.

Kaiba swung out his arm, knocking one into another, but there were too many. What originally looked like four or five men was in fact almost ten. Kaiba couldn't get a proper count, seeing as they were all over him, moving quickly and beating him. Before he could react, the world began to tip, side to side. The ground beneath him was wet and warm. Everything was sinking into blackness.

"Don't fuck with us no more . . .and," One of them said, grabbing him by his hair and running the tip of a blade down his cheek, making a small trail of red in it's path. "you're lucky Felix told us not ta kill you. I think you owe him, cause I want to soooo bad." He said, dropping Kaiba onto the ground, and running off.

"Serenity! HELP!" Serenity heard the cries, and darted through the rooms. She burst through the doors to find a pile of kids swarming Mokuba. He looked like he was drowning in kids. After her heart started beating again, she let out a loud laugh.

"It's not funny! HELP!" Mokuba said. She could barely see his head, but she caught enough of a glimpse of is face to know he was frowning severely . . . which made her laugh harder.

"Alright, alright! Let Mokuba have some air." The room was filled with echoes of "awwww"'s, and the kids began to get off of him, one by one. Once all the kids had left poor almost dead Mokuba, he was laying flat on his back in the middle of the room.

"You look like a fish out of water." Serenity giggled. Mokuba peeked one eye open.

"Think it's funny do you??? We'll lets see how you like it! EVERYONE PILE ON SERENITY!!!" He yelled, sitting up.

"What? No . . No-ack!" Before she could get to the door, several small children had latched onto her legs. She had just fallen to the ground when someone burst into the room.

"Serenity, we need you right away!" An older woman said. She was rushed and Serenity barely made it to her when she grabbed her arm and pulled her through the door. "Mokuba, stay with the kids." She called back through the closing doors. He did.

"What's the matter?" Serenity asked, tone dropping lower.

"There's a boy, he's in bad shape. I found him in the alley on my way back from lunch." She said, rushing Serenity down the hall, to the infirmary.

"What? A boy?"

"Yes, he's badly injured. Looks like another gang attack. He's still somewhat unconscious." She said, a bit flustered. She stopped in front of the infirmary, holding the doorknob "And . . .I didn't want Mokuba to see him like this."

"What?" a bit of confusion spread across Serenity's features. Before the answer came, the woman opened the door and led Serenity in. Serenity in-took sharply. " . . . Kaiba . . ."

"Serenity, we need to stop the bleeding." the woman said, beginning to take off his jacket.

"We need an ambulance!" Serenity went for the phone.

"No . . ." A weak voice responded. The woman attempted to have Kaiba sit up, but his lack of strength made him fall forward, propping him against her. He made eye contact with Serenity, and she just wanted to cry. His eyes were empty of everything other than shame. She put the phone back down.

"You know," She said, trying to lighten him. "Eventually, you're gonna have to drop the tough guy routine. It gets old." Kaiba wanted to laugh, but his body rejected the idea. Serenity took his coat, and placed it in a plastic bag. The woman started on his shirt next, and Serenity began to get materials out of the cabinets. Gauze, antibacterial medicine, hydrogen peroxide, bandages and clean rags.

A quick and almost soundless intake of air from the woman alerted Serenity to something being wrong, and by the time Serenity turned around, she knew what it was. Cuts and bruises lined his back, yes, but there was a distinct pattern of cuts across his shoulder blades. The pattern formed, in large letters, DMP. The name of a large gang in Domino. Serenity didn't know what the letters stood for, just that they represented a gang. Felix's gang.

But that wasn't the worst of it. Large uniform scares trailed across his back mostly in variations of horizontal stripes. There were more scares other than those, but it looked like at one point or another, someone took a cat o nine across him. They didn't stop there. All across his chest, and from his elbow up, scars littered his skin.

Serenity trembled at the sight.

"Seto, I'm so sorry." The woman said, also shaking.

"You didn't know. So stop right now." He replied, avoiding eye contact. She wrapped her arms around his head and his shoulders, where they weren't hurt, and stroked his hair gently. Serenity was a bit confused at this point, but she just brought the supplies over to him, and placed them beside him.

"You could have told me! I would have stopped it. Seto I could have stopped it." She said, taking his face and forcing him to look at her.

"Meg, it's over. There's nothing that anyone can do now, so just drop it." He said, getting as much strength into his voice as he could. Unfortunately that strength he used to power his voice was required to keep him upright. Be began to tip to the side, and the woman, Meg, laid him down on his stomach. Serenity filled a basin with warm water and brought it over, next to the medical supplies.

She began to clean the blood off of him, and treat the cuts with the hydrogen peroxide, then some gauze with the antibacterial medicine rubbed into it, and finally the bandages. It took a bit of time for her to patch him up, but finally she finished.

" S-Seto?" Meg and Serenity's heads whipped to the door. Mokuba stood in the doorway, wide eyed and shocked.

"M-Mokuba . . . You're supposed to be-" Meg started.

"They're in bed . . .It's nine." Meg looked at the clock. It was indeed nine. Mokuba slowly started towards Kaiba.

"Mokuba . . . I'm sorry. We tried to help him all we could . . .we just didn't want you to . . .to see him like this." Serenity stepped towards him. Mokuba traced the edge of the bed until he was in front of his brother.

"Wouldn't be the first time." Mokuba said sadly. He crawled up on the bed and laid next to Kaiba, scooting as close as he could without hurting him. Kaiba's arm shot out, and wrapped around the little boy, hugging him.

"Mind if we spend the night?" Kaiba asked, looking at Meg.

"Wouldn't be the first time." She said, smile on her face. Meg started for the door, and Serenity went to follow her when a hand grabbed her arm. She looked down at Kaiba, who was staring at her with an unfamiliar look in his eyes. Mokuba also turned to look at her.

Memories of her father crept into her mind, making her eyes water at what the two boys in front of her had been through.

"I'm not going to tell anyone. Not a soul." She said. Kaiba's grip loosened, and he let his hand fall limp to his side. Serenity ruffled Mokuba's hair, provoking a smile, then kissed his head. She then paused. Looking over Kaiba one last time, making sure the bandages were tight, but not too tight, then she leaned in, close to his ear. "I wont tell a soul." She said, quietly, and kissed his forehead as well.

Meg closed the door lightly behind them. And turned to Serenity.

"They were so well behaved when they were young." She said, sighing in remembrance. "Weel, for the most part. Mokuba was such a sweetie . . .but Seto . . . what a little troublemaker." Serenity laugher softly.

"Kaiba? A trouble maker? Never!" She said sarcastically. Meg smiled too.

"I didn't know him as Kaiba. They were always just Seto and Mokuba, my boys."

"Serenity, where've ya been?" Joey piped as she walked in the door.

"Sorry, there was something going on at the orphanage and I had to help out again." She said, taking off her jacket. "But I'm here now!" She smiled, heading towards the couch Joey was on, and gave him a big hug.

"Missed ya, ya little twerp!" Joey turned her hug into a headlock and messed up her hair.

"So, you're going to remember the paper this Sunday right?" She said, laughing.

"Yea! You forget once, and everyone jumps on ya till the end of time!" Tea and Tristan started laughing with Serenity while Joey made a pouty face.

"I just want to know, in case I have to pick some up before hand." She replied seriously.

"I'll get some." Joey growled.

"Hey, Joey?" Serenity started. "Can I invite Kaiba and Mokuba?" She asked, quietly, like she was trying to get away with something bad.

" . . . Serenity-"

"I know, you and Kaiba don't really get along, but please Joey??" She begged. She decided to utilize a lesson taught to her by Mokuba and gave her brother the biggest, saddest puppy-dog eyes she could muster.

" . . .aw, all right! . . . but they gotta bring something too!" he said. Serenity jump-hugged him, causing him to release a loud "oof!".

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Soooo . . .this chapter just flew by . . .seriously, it took me like . . . .4 hours to write . . . . but intense huh? Oh! And don't expect every chapter up this quickly! Just remember, the more reviews I get, the more I want to write! I want to know what you think! And how the chapters made you laugh/cry/or get angry and why! (Just wanna make sure I'm doin' it right) Tell me what you think! Read, review, ENJOY!