Yo!

So here is the newest chapter! The plot is slowly moving ever so slowly but it's still moving. Alright, just to clarify, this fic might be based off two movies but I'm taking some freedoms here and changing things or altering moments. So if you are like: "I don't remember this happening the movie" That's why.

I also want to give a shout out to my faithful reviewer itsallguchicauseyolo you are just epic with the following/favouring/reviewing! Please keep reviewing my fic! It makes me feel great. I also want to give another shout out to LoveAllie who favourited this story. I hope to hear more from you in the future. The rest of you, please read and have fun!

On with the fic~!

Chapter Two: It Turned Into A Hope

By the time Atem had reached the house, he knew exactly where to find Mana. She was going to be in the kitchen and judging by the time of day, Dartz and his two sons were up and probably having breakfast. Figuring, they weren't going to want to see him just yet, he entered the house through the kitchen's back door. Mana was busy trying to make the eggs the way her master liked them that she didn't notice her dear friend walk in the door and creep up behind her. Lucky for her, he waited until she plated the food before he pulled her in an embrace and scared her.

"Atem!" She squealed in shock.

He smiled at her, "You will never guess what I have with me~!"

"Unless it's not the apples I asked you to bring, I don't care," Mana scoffed.

Still with the bright smile, he pulled out the bag of gold coins and emptied it on a counter that was secluded from the others. Not that he didn't care if the other servants saw it or not, he trusted all of them, he simply wanted to share this with Mana first as he knew his best friend was going to appreciate it more than anyone else. Atem's smile got wider as the girl looked at the coins and gasped lightly. That was more than enough...

"Where did you get this?" She asked in a quiet whisper.

He replied, "It was given to me, by a merciful stranger. But it's enough! If I sneak over to court today, I can get him out. Mana, we can get Mahado back."

Dartz had been squandering the family fortune and now owed people here and there. So in order for him to pay someone off, the man decided to sell one of his servants. Mana, Atem and Mahado were sure that he was going to try to separate them three and instead of going for the obvious choice, Atem, he decided to sell of Mahado. Mana was devastated at the loss, still hadn't recovered from losing him and seeing her like that made Atem wish that Dartz had gotten rid of him instead. But now all of that was going to change. They had the money to free their other friend and bring him home thanks to the gold coins they now had. For the first time since all of this happened, the girl next to him smiled brighter than any ray of the sun in recent days. Then, as suddenly as the smile was on her face, she turned to her friend and sized him up.

"If you are going to court, then you are going to have to look the part of some lord. If not, they are going to assume you stole the money," She said then after thinking more she blinked, "Oh I know what'll fit! We just need to alter it but…"

She looked over at the trays of food she had prepared only to see one of the older servants taking them with her. The older woman smiled at her and winked at them. Taking that as sign for them to sneak off and know that someone was going to watch their backs, they took off. Knowing where she was going, Mana practically dragged the male to the basement of the mansion. Not many people, Dartz included, had no idea this place existed. The former Mistress had placed all of her first husband's things in there when he had passed on.

Once they entered the basement, the girl ran to a trunk and began pulling things out of it until she reached a box and pulled it out to reveal some nice looking clothing. Instantly knowing what she was going to do with those clothes, Atem shook his head while he headed for the door. He didn't make it too far as she managed to grab his wrist and pull him close to her.

He kept shaking his head, "I am not wearing my father's clothes!"

"Oh come on! Do you want to free Mahado or not?! Besides, it will look so great on you and they need to be worn, only if it's one day…" She replied as she looked at him with wide eyes.

He couldn't resist that look, "Fine but this better work…"

It was a shock to everyone in school when the writing teacher was no longer working there. For those who liked her, it was a terrible loss for the school and the student body and she was going to be missed. For everyone else, it was a blessing in disguise. None of the students in her classes were fond of her, she had a tendency to pick on a certain student for their entire school life. The woman had the unfortune to pick on Seto Kaiba and when you mess with the young man, you find yourself out of a job fast. Of course, no one knew that Seto was responsible for that happening and that was just how he wanted it. All that was left was for people to wonder just who was going to take over the writing classes. So far there was a substitute and that man didn't know much but one day, the man was gone and in his place was a beautiful blonde woman.

"Hello students! I'm your new teacher Mai Kujaku but if you call me Ms. Kujaku, I start looking for my mother. So please, call me Mai," She said as she surveyed her class.

Of all the possible teachers, someone young and pretty as Mai wasn't expected. Jou was glad that he sat up front so he could look at her. He smiled sheepishly and sighed contently as she walked around the aisles. Yami and Ryou, who could see Jou's lovesick face, snickered as quietly as humanly possible. They didn't want to get in trouble with the new teacher but they also wanted to enjoy the fact that the blonde male was simply taken with the woman. Seto noticed the two laughing but didn't seem to care. He checked his phone, he had sent his 'friend' a message but he had yet to hear anything back. Not that he was surprised, the other seldom sent him a text during classes, which normally was a miracle for him. He hated to be bothered while he was in school.

"To celebrate me being your teacher, I am going to partner you all up and you are going to write me either a short story, poem or haiku to be turned in at the end of the class," Mai explained before she began putting people together.

By the end of her fun, Anzu was with Ryuji. Ryou and Yugi were partners while Jou was working with some girl named Miho. Yami and Seto ended up being partnered up mostly because Mai wanted to see what the two best students in this class could do together. Neither of them were too enthusiastic about it but what could they do about it? If the teacher wanted to see the best they both count offer, then why would they deny her that privilege? The only issue they had was that they were going to have to work together.

Seto sighed, "I'll do the writing if you come up with what we should do."

"Or, we could both write it and come up with what we should write. It's an option that I think works for the both of us. Not that you have to listen to me but it could just work," Yami replied sarcastically.

The brunette rolled his eyes, "Fine. What do you think then? I was thinking a poem. It's fast and then we don't have to deal with each other once it's done."

"As frightening as it is, I seem to find myself agreeing with you. We'll do a poem," He said.

After a bit more of back and forth, they had decided to have one person write a line and then the other add to it and so on. Then came the next argument: who was going to start them off? Seto, claiming he had the knowledge of poems, wanted to begin first while Yami, said he was more creative needed to start first. After a coin flip, Yami had won so after thinking about it for a moment, wrote something down and handed it to Seto.

'The red strings of fate are surrounding me'

Seto knew that Yami was making this a challenge on purpose. The line he had was going to put the poem in any direction. It could be a love poem, making the allusion to the red string that binds a person to another. It would be the obvious way to look at it but Seto wasn't a hopeless romantic. He never believed in things like true love or any of that fairy tale bullshit he would read to Mokuba at night. He was sure that Yami was a realist like that but now he was wondering. He wrote something back and gave the paper back.

'Are binding me tightly then shoving me into my prison'

Of all the things the young man could have written, this one struck a chord with the crimson eyed teen. Naturally he began to wonder what would have inspired the other into writing that. He didn't know Gozaburo Kaiba and he probably never would. But what he did know was that, thanks to Pegasus' so called love, he was in a prison of his own. He bit his lip for a moment as he came up with the next line.

'I watch as a passenger as they run my life'

What Yami replied with was rather intriguing. The brunette also had known that feeling thanks to his adoptive father. It brought back some dark memories that he had tried to suppress but then he shook his head, this wasn't a time to think about that. He had already fought those demons and he wasn't about to fight them again. Sighing, he thought of the new line and wrote it down.

'They strip me bare and force me to see illusions'

When did a damn poem become so therapeutic? Yami was tempted to write that down but he knew that Seto would have killed him for messing with the flow, also he didn't want to mess with the flow. He liked how this was going, as dark as it was, it did have a sort of charm to it. He wasn't a romantic and he sure as hell wasn't waiting for some prince charming to come and rescue him from his sad life. He knew that if he wanted to leave he was going to have to do it on his own.

'The things I did for them'

Now things were going somewhere, Seto thought as he looked at the new line. This was beginning to feel like a game to him. It was as if they were both trying to outdo each other with each line. He frowned a bit and remembered the things that were done to him when he was smaller by Gozaburo. Of course, the teen had risen to the challenge but he was also glad that the bastard was dead. He pursed his lips for a brief moment, glancing at the other with an eyebrow lifted up as he moved his pen across the paper.

'Was it out of love, kindness or attention?'

That was a good question, Yami thought sarcastically. He wanted to please Pegasus at first but now he didn't know why. Was it because he wanted attention and thought that was the best way to get it? He blinked a bit, this was easily becoming the hardest poem he was going to have to write. He noticed that Seto was looking at him but he ignored the other. There was a few things he could do with this but he kind of wanted to end it already. It seemed as if this poem was making them both suffer for some odd reason.

'I damn the red strings of fate and enter my mind'

Of course, the blue eyed teen was glad that the poem was going to end with him. He knew exactly how to end it as well. He did want to pretend that he was putting an effort and gazed down at the paper acting as if he was deep in thought. He wanted to make some sort of suspense if only for his own entertainment of watching the other wonder what he was going to write down. After a while, he wrote his bit down.

'Completely and utterly alone'

Both of them took their own individual time in looking it over before deeming it worthy to hand it over to Mai. As much as they bickered and thought about each line, they were the first ones to finish. Mai looked over their work and smiled. It wasn't a light or fluffy poem and she wasn't expecting them to come up with something like that as neither of them looked the part. They both had demons and it didn't take long to notice that. The only visible difference between them both was that Seto, due to his demons, chose to be a sort of lone wolf only depending on his own strength rather than on others. Yami was more open with things though he was guarded he still let himself be surrounded by people that seemed to make things bearable for him. It was simply fascinating to the blonde teacher and she wanted to see more.

After school was over, everyone went to the game shop. But Ryuji didn't stay long as he had a curfew and he still needed to take Ryou home. Once they were gone, Anzu remembered it was her turn to do the chores today and ran home to get those done before Pegasus noticed that the chores weren't done yet. In the end, it was only Yugi's grandfather and the three boys in the game shop. Since it was the shop's down time, they decided to clean the shop and talk about things. Then the subject of the Ms. Mai's class came up and that is when all of the fun happened.

"Ryou and I worked on a love poem," Yugi admitted, "The both of us are lovey-dovey so it worked out wonderfully. Mai told us that she liked our poem a lot. It felt kind of nice to have the teacher compliment us on it."

Jou and Yami couldn't help but smile at that. Everyone knew that there was something going on between Yugi and Ryou and they were the only ones who didn't see it. Even right now, Yugi was texting Ryou and neither boy was thinking anything of it. Yami and Jou couldn't help but think how adorable the entire situation was. They also had a bet on which one of them would top in their relationship. Jou thought that it would have to be Yugi while Yami thought that the both of them would switch positions. So far, neither of them had won yet but the bet was still on and the pot was getting bigger and bigger.

"So what did you both work on?" Yugi asked.

Jou shrugged, "Miho and I don't really have much in common so we decided to write a haiku about money. I know that Anzu and Ryuji wrote a short story. From what Ryuji told me, it was a pretty cool story. When we get the papers back, I want to read theirs… speaking of that, I want to read yours too, Yami. What the hell were you and Kaiba working on so intently?"

"I noticed that too. You both were very focused weren't you?" Yugi said as he sent the other a look.

The other teen didn't answer them for a moment. He wasn't too sure what to tell his two close friends. For a moment there, it felt as if there was some sort of connection he had with Seto in the moment. It was like a competition but it was also some mutual agreement that neither of them had ever voiced. It was the strangest thing he had ever gone though. As soon as they were done with the poem it was as if that connection was gone.

He replied, "It was a dark themed poem I guess. I don't think we can categorize it. We were both going off what the other wrote to come up with the next line. It was a challenge but an interesting one. I learned a bit about Kaiba, I guess."

"How is that so?" Yugi asked rather intruded that they actually worked together.

Jou scoffed, "Who the hell wants to learn more about that guy? But I will say, you disserve some sort of metal for putting up with him for that long and not killing him in the process. If I had to work with him, I would have shot myself or him, whichever came first really…"

Yugi laughed while Yami only shook his head. He was sure that Jou would have done that if given the opportunity. But, before he could come up with something to retort with, he received a text message from his texting buddy as he liked to call the other.

{So how is work going?}

'Actually, it's going rather well. My friend and my brother are gossiping with each other,' He wrote back before the other two managed to see what he was writing.

Yami, Jou and Anzu liked to call each other brother or sister when they were talking to other people. As they were foster siblings and rather close, calling each other siblings only felt right. They were like their own little family after all.

{Gossiping? What are they emotional teenage girls? Do you even listen to them or does it go in one ear and out the other?}

'Something like the latter but it's not that I mind. It's funny when they gossip. It makes me knowledgeable about our school's hierarchy,' Yami typed up in some sort of explanation.

{I never bothered to care about that crap. I go to school, do my work and then leave for home when it's all done. In the end, once graduation happens, it won't matter who was popular.}

'You do have a point there…Hopefully, I'll be in a University far away from my foster father,' The crimson eyed teen responded.

For some reason, it had been so easy talking to BlueEyes1025 about his predicament than it had been with anyone else, even if it had been in passing. He didn't elaborate how it was but he did mention little things here and there that would have made Pegasus sound strict rather than being mean or anything else. Frowning, he found himself listening to Jou and Yugi talking and found himself laughing at what they were saying. Perhaps, his texting friend was right about these two being 'emotional teenage girls.' Of course, he knew better than to even dare word it out loud. But as all things must come to an end, this one definitely ended with a bang.

It had all started when Pegasus' twin boys, Marik and Malik decided to show up and 'investigate.' Marik was the nice one who tended to get along great with his foster siblings. He even looked the more normal out of the two even if he was wearing some gold jewelry, at least his hair wasn't spiked up as crazy as Malik's was. Malik was just as mean as Pegasus and even then, everyone was convinced that he might just be worse than the man. It was that smile on Malik's face that simply told Yami and Jou that shit was about to hit the fan. That was when Pegasus came in with all of his glory. Why the man was here was something rather shocking. He seldom bothered showing up to the store, mostly trusting Mr. Moto with everything so even the older man was surprised to see him. For a moment, no one said a thing, even when Anzu came in looking rather sheepish.

"Well don't just stand there!" Pegasus said dramatically, "He might be here any minute. I want this place cleaned up and then you two boys out of sight so he doesn't see you!"

The only person who bothered to ask Pegasus what was going on was Mr. Moto. Other than that, the three boys, including Anzu were scrambling about trying to get the place as clean as possible. After a while, they soon got help by Marik who made sure that his father and brother didn't see him. He didn't want to get his three siblings in any sort of trouble for trying to help them but it wasn't fair to demand so much work yet not even bother to lift a finger. After a while, once Mr. Moto, Pegasus and Malik went into the office, they all got rather comfortable around each other to talk once again.

Jou broke the silence, "Alright Marik, what the hell is going on here? Who the hell is coming over that is so important for us to stay hidden for? Where the hell is he going to put us?"

"Well, one of Father's associates is going to visit the store to see if he wants to either buy it or something like that. I didn't catch that particular detail. As for everything else, I'm not sure. I'm sure he's not going to lock you in the office. I think he's going to need that room," Marik answered.

"I guess this mystery person has to be very important if we are cleaning this place from top to bottom," Yugi said as he finished dusting the place he was working on, "The question is who is that person. I mean, if the person wants to buy this place, wouldn't he want to change the staff? Or how does that work? Personally, I'm rather shocked to see Anzu here."

Anzu couldn't help but nod as well, "I was minding my own business, I had just finished the chores when Pegasus just grabbed me and told me to come with them. I do know was that he was on the phone when I had come in but I had no idea who it was. Personally, I still have no clue who that person was."

"I guess when this person enters the store; we are going to have to sneak back in to see just who that person is…" Yami said with a playful smirk.

No one had put it passed Yami to even think about saying that. All of them agreed that they wanted to know who this person was. It was rather interesting to think that someone that even made Pegasus nervous was going to be entering this store. Seeing the man so tense made them all want to meet this person. Hell that dude deserves some sort of trophy for intimidating the business savvy Pegasus.

"So there is no way to get out of this?" Mokuba asked with big eyes.

Seto, used to this sort of thing shook his head, "I'm sorry brother but my hands are tied. I couldn't back out of it this time. Even if I wanted to, I can't."

Mokuba crossed his arms and rolled his eyes, this was the second time that Seto had broken a promise this week. He didn't know just how the other was going to make it up to him but he was expecting the other to figure it out. It wasn't like Seto to break a promise to his little brother and the fact he did it twice in one week was even shocking the younger brother. What also annoyed him was the fact that Seto had even had the gall to bring him with him to whatever this thing was.

"Look, I know I promised that we were going to be spending this time together and I promise we will. I didn't think I was going to have to do this right now…" Seto began in hopes that his brother was going to understand and stop looking so angry with him.

The other boy rolled his eyes and replied, "Yeah, yeah…"

Sighing, the teen wished that his brother wasn't making this more difficult as he already did. He tried his best to come up with something that was going to cheer the other up but nothing sounded plausible. Shaking his head, he pulled out his phone. He still hadn't responded to Dark_Magician318 so he figured that his only 'friend' would have some insight on situations like this. For a moment he kept staring at his phone, not wanting to send the dreaded text message he knew he was going to have to send anyway. For him, it was just hard having to swallow his pride and actually go along with this. Biting his lip momentarily while he composed the message in his mind before actually committing to write it down, it was a lot harder than he thought it was.

Finally he had written and sent, 'Alright, what if I said that I kind of angered my little brother by breaking a promise to him not once but twice. How do I go about this?'

It was a good thing that he didn't have to wait as long as he thought was going to have to. In his opinion, it was still longer than normal but he remembered the other male was working tonight as he normally did during the week. So the wait wasn't that bad but it was what he had gotten back that he felt kind of frustrated.

[Well that depends. What did you promise him and what did you do to break that promise? Depending on what happened, depends on what I might say.]

Rolling his eyes, he replied, 'I promised to spend time with him but, twice this week, I've had to cancel for work. I brought him with me this time but I know that he's not too happy with that either. I'm at a complete loss. What do I do?'

He was glad that he was stuck in traffic and he wasn't going to be any closer to his destination for a while. He needed to solve this issue with his brother for many reasons. One of those reasons was that he hated seeing his little brother upset with him. If it was anyone else, he wouldn't have given a shit but his little brother was more to him than any other person which meant that his happiness was something of importance. The other reason that he knew was horrible for him to think was that he didn't want his brother pouting the entire time of the meeting. Again, it was a horrible thing for him to think but with both of them representing the Kaiba name, they had to behave a certain way. Of course, he was more lenient with Mokuba than Gozaburo ever was with him but that little fact was neither here nor there at the moment. And when his phone finally received a message, he silently thanked whatever force caused his friend to reply faster than he did before.

[Oh. Well that is a difficult issue. Okay, how about you give him an incentive or something depending on what he wants. From what you've told me about your brother, he just wants to spend some quality time with you. So how about you give him that and let him pick your activity or something?]

Seto couldn't help but want to glare at his phone for a moment. That seemed simple, perhaps a little too simple. Apart of him felt like scoffing and tell the other to stop fooling around or something like that but something else told him that it was most likely the most reasonable thing he had ever heard all freaking day. But still, he was a little cynical about it for no reason than to simply be cynical. He never believed in anything wholeheartedly unless it had a 0% chance of failure and even then he was doubtful. So for a moment, he took some more time to think of what to respond with that didn't make him sound like a complete ass.

After some difficulty, he wrote, 'How are you so sure that this incentive thing is going to work? Not that I doubt you but I've never had any experience with this sort of thing…'

[I know because when I was a kid, my parents used to use it on me. Plus, my sister and I use it on my brother. It works on him and that's because he's our age. Just trust me on this one will you?]

He sighed a bit, what did he have to lose? Looking up he noticed that they were arriving to their destination. It was now or never and Kaiba Seto never backed down from something he needed to do. He cleared his throat to get his brother's attention and also to get his thoughts in order. If there was any time to get this done, it was going to be now and rather quickly.

"Mokuba, if you can bear with me and act like the polite young man I know you are, as soon as this is over, we can spend time together for the rest of the evening however you want. Is that a deal?" He said as semi-professional manner.

After a few minutes Mokuba smiled brightly and replied, "Anyway I want? Okay then when this is over I want to have dinner with you at that restaurant I like and I want a desert. If you accept those terms, you have a deal."

Seto nodded in response and soon the brothers were out of the car. He managed to send a thank you to his friend but didn't seem to notice that as soon as his phone sent the message, a phone inside the building he was entering made a noise.

So what did you think? PLEASE TELL ME!

Reviews=Love

I know there are people reading this but I do encourage all of you to review this! It means a lot when people review me. But the fact that the stats tell me that there are people reading this makes me feel alright but I would like to know what you think.

So I do have chapter three in the works and it's almost done. I didn't get the five reviewers like I wanted but if you want to see the update early next week, I encourage you to review and give me at least five reviews. Same like last time so no pressure. :D

Well I hope you liked this and there is more where this came from~

With Love,

SanguisRubeus