Chapter 17

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"Serenity, you're drivin me crazy!" Joey threw his hands in the air as he paced around Serenity. She stood in the middle of his living room, head turned down and waited for her brother to finish. Mai lounged on the couch, filing her nails and rolling her eyes at Joey's outbursts.

"Joey'" Serenity started, giving up on waiting for him to stop making incoherent sounds and start forming words. "He's been so incredibly helpful, and nice, and-"

"Nice? He's freaking Kaiba!" Joey attempted to cut her off, but Serenity kept going.

"He saved my life! Twice." Serenity finally rendered him speechless. It was true, and for that he felt like he owed Kaiba, which infuriated him. Kaiba had been such a monster only two years prior, Kidnapping Yugi's grandfather, taking his most prized possession and destroying it in front of him. Torturing and degrading Joey the entire time he's known him. Generally being an ass of epic proportions. Joey was conflicted. He knew he owed the boy, but he refused to have him be a part of Serenity's life any more than he had been. How long would it be until he started treating her just the way he had been treating everyone else?

"Serenity, I don't want you exposed to people like him, and that includes him." Mai rolled her eyes again, but he ignored her. "And now the papers are official, I'm your guardian, at least for the next two months til you turn eighteen-"

"Which Kaiba helped with as well!" Serenity almost screamed.

"Wh-what?" Joey blinked in disbelief.

"Joey, he called one of the people he's been working with to keep guardianship over Mokuba and gave them a character profiling and recommendation for you. He also sped up the process a bit. So I could go to Egypt." Serenity finished. Joey didn't know what to say. The conflict and confusion of his thoughts made his eyes dart around the room, unsure of what to land on.

'What's with Kaiba lately? Being so nice... wait, he's not nice, he's just being nice to Serenity. Well at least he's being nice to her.' out of all the people, Joey would want Kaiba's niceness to go to Serenity, she was his baby sister and didn't deserve bad treatment. 'But Kaiba's NOT nice. To ANYONE. Maybe you just haven't been nice to him? Serenity's nice to everyone. She'd give him no reason- No, it's Kaiba. He's gotta be planning something. That's the only explanation. Is it? Or am I just paranoid?' Joeys thoughts seemed to battle indefinitely.

"Joey," Serenity's voice pierced through Joeys mental arguments. "It's just dinner at his place. We're not running away together." Though, Serenity would be lying if she'd said she didn't want to at that point. Joey took in a deep breath, both sides of his psyche giving up.

"Ask Mai." He said, brushing past her. Mai watched him march down the hallway with an eyebrow raised. Once the door shut, Mai popped up from her previous impassive position and patted the sofa next to her. Serenity wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad one.

"I will let you go." Mai said as Serenity found the seat next to her. Serenity puffed up with happiness and flashed an excited smile. "If-" the smile wavered. "You tell me the truth." Mai gave Serenity a smile of her own.

"What do you mean?" Serenity asked a little confused.

"What's really going on between you and Kaiba?" Mai smirked as Serenity's face turned ghostly.

"Mai... It's just dinner. He's helped me through a rough time and we've just been close." Serenity said as flatly as she could. Mai's smirk became more playful.

"How close. C'mon Serenity. A girl just knows certain things." Mai flipped back a few perfect blonde locks, glancing sideways towards Serenity, who didn't appear at all as comfortable as she did. She watched the red-head play with thoughts and ideas in her head. She waited patiently until Serenity made up her mind. A slight blush crept across Serenity's features.

"He might have kissed me..." Mai's eyes bulged. She knew whatever she got would be good, she just didn't quite expect this.

"On the mouth?" Mai asked. It was like she was suddenly energized.

"Shhhh! Joey can't know!" Serenity whisper-shouted, peering warily at her brothers door.

"Well, of course he can't know, not yet at least. He's too bone headed, but I'm gonna only tell you this once Hun, you're going to have to tell him eventually, and I think you'd better plan for it as soon as possible." Serenity smiled, but it seemed like it was more out of exhaustion than anything else. She seemed drained and as if she were deciding something important and didn't have the energy to hide it.

"Yeah..." She said absentmindedly.

"By the way, I saw what you packed for Egypt, and girl, we need to have a serious talk. Green? You're wearing green to Egypt? And you didn't pack a single blue accessory." Mai grabbed Serenity's hand and dragged her into the bedroom to 'fix' her suitcase while a pouting Joey continued to pout.

"Then Joey said 'I didn't mean it as a good thing!' and Mai stopped and turned to him and said 'So you're saying I have a big mouth?" Yugi laughed.

"Oh no! He's always getting himself into stuff like that. Sometimes I think he should just stop talking." Tea giggled. Yugi and Tea finished laughing, ending with a sigh, then the boy looked up at her.

"Tea... I know the winter dance is coming up, and uh... I was kind of hoping that you'd go with me." Tea speechlessly looked at Yugi. She seemed confused. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, each time making Yugi hope she would give a favorable response. He began to worry.

"Yugi...yes. Yes I'd love to go with you!" Tea smiled brightly.

"Even... Even if Yami isn't there with us?" Yugi asked tentatively.

"Why would Yami be there if he's got his own body?" She asked, making Yami smile as well, though she couldn't see that. He was glad she had such faith in his dream. Tea laughed a bit. "But hey, You both could take me, I could have one of you on either side... of course, that could just confuse everyone at school." Yugi giggled along with her. Then it was settled. Yugi was taking Tea to the dance.

A bell rang out, echoing the the great hall of the Kaiba mansion. A quiet 'kreeee' sound squeaked as the door slowly opened and a middle aged man dressed in a servants uniform answered the door.

"Ms. Wheeler, I take it?" The man asked rather robotic like. Serenity nodded and stepped in. "Might I take your coat?" He sounded again. Serenity almost thought 'maybe he is a robot' for a second, then mentally scolded herself for being so mean.

"Thank you." She said politely. The mansion was indeed just as big as it looked on the outside. The great room was open and warm. It had two large free standing staircases, bending towards each other until they met in the center of the room on a platform. From there they had another small set of stairs leading up to another platform, and from that two staircases leading in opposite directions, to the left and right. Behind them a huge double story window let in plenty of light from the back yard, or courtyard, Serenity couldn't tell.

In the great hall there were many warm decorations, mostly earthy tones with a few dark oranges and bright reds. On the left wall there were two doors roughly twelve feet apart, and on the right there was one door and a hallway about the same distance as on the left. Serenity couldn't imagine trying to navigate the place by herself. She smiled as she silently questioned how many people it would take to find her in here, even if she was trying to be found.

"This way, Miss." The man outstretched an arm, ushering her to the door on her right. He opened it for her as Serenity approached and she nodded to him in appreciation.

"Serenity!" Mokuba jumped out of his seat and ran up to hug his guest. The older brother, who was in the back of the room standing over a stereo turned to greet her. He petted the younger Kaiba's head and leaned in to brush a kiss on her cheek before leading her to her seat. The dining room was probably one quarter the size of the great room, but it was still large enough to be gigantic. The dining table could fit maybe ten to twelve people comfortably, and there were decorative china cabinets lining one wall and the stereo and a buffet table on the back wall.

Serenity almost drooled the second she caught a whiff of the layout. She could see lobster drenched in butter over a garlic pasta, warm bread rolls with herbs, a spinach salad with berries, nuts and a sweet pomegranate dressing, and a sparkling bottle of what appeared to be home made white grape juice.

"What do you think?" Kaiba said from behind her. Serenity, so lost in the overwhelming sensations, almost didn't answer.

"This is amazing. You didn't have to do all this." She glanced up at him and he smirked.

"Pft, this is nothing." It was like he was trying to brag. Maybe he was. He pulled out her seat for her, then seated himself. The food was ten times better than it smelled.

"So Serenity, Are you all ready for the trip to Egypt?" Mokuba asked. Serenity detected a bitter tone, but decided to just answer the question.

"I thought I was, but Mai told me I packed wrong, so she's making me do it all over." Serenity giggled.

"How... do you pack wrong?" Mokuba asked, dropping all tones other than confusion.

"Remember when you packed for your camp field trip." Kaiba pointed out, waving his fork at Mokuba.

"I'm pretty sure Serenity didn't forget her pants." Mokuba said incredulously. Serenity almost spit out her food.

"She said my clothes were childish." Serenity felt a blush flash across her face. "She's making me pack more... mature clothes." Kaiba raised an eyebrow.

"There's nothing wrong with your clothes." He said dismissively. Serenity beamed a smile to him. Dinner talk mainly revolved around the upcoming trip, then talk of school work when Mokuba became a bit too jealous, then other future events.

"Hey Seto, isn't there a dance coming up?" Mokuba asked, playing matchmaker again. Kaiba stopped, fork buried in pasta and mid twirl. He looked up at Serenity who was also looking at him, both sharing looks of discomfort. Was it too soon for that sort of thing?

"... Serenity... I-"

"I think you should go with someone else." Serenity interrupted him. When he gave her a confused, almost hurt look, she felt the need to continue. "It's not that I don't want to go with you, I do. I think it would be great, but... Joey would blast me into pieces and then bury them, plus if you show up with me... well there are enough rumors that we're going out. If you show up with someone else, it'll look like you've got no real relationship with anyone... Just a girl to hang off your arm while you're in public. That way all your fan girls will still vote for you; their handsome, rich, single dream boy." Serenity pointed out.

"I didn't realize you had such a devious political mind." Kaiba smirked.

"Well, if they're going to vote for the wrong reasons, they might as well vote for you for the wrong reasons. What's the point of them voting against you for the wrong reasons? It's all very pointless, but it's how it is." She said. He could feel himself smiling. He could tell where all the brains went in her family.

"What is taking you so long? A corpse would move faster." A low growl escaped the mans lips.

"I don't see you helping any." Malik returned. He unwrapped the bound item in front of him with great care and dexterity.

"We have one day before the pharaoh arrives, and you're mussing around with last minute details." He grumped. Malik scowled.

"Now you've confused me, do you want me working faster, or do you want me to stop all together?" The rhetoric question bounced off the walls of the musty tomb, the words laced in sarcasm and disdain.

"Why are you bothering, we don't have the puzzle, or the ankh."

"Yet." Malik felt an evil grin play across his lips. "I will be ready when they come... when he comes."

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Hi all! Good news for me, not only have I obtained over 1000 hits in the last 10 days that I've been back, I've also managed to reach my 100th review! I'm so happy and proud of myself for being able to write a story that you all seem to like so much. I'm touched that you all are reading and enjoying this enough to write me and tell me what you think. I am always open to constructive suggestions, critiques and advice, so please continue writing to me. I want to continue to improve for all of you and myself.

Keep reading, reviewing and enjoying. Much love and here's wishing you all a happy 1st of December. Now starts the countdown to the last 31 days of 2011!