Hello there!

I was just wondering how you all were doing today? I was kind of running late on this deadline as I saw Thor: The Dark World last night. Such a great movie you all need to watch it. Seriously. Anyway, I hope that this is to your liking. I kind of cut it a little shorter than I wanted to but I have a good reason for that and you will see it in the next chapter.

I want to thank itsallguchicauseyolo for her epic review as always. I hope to hear from you on this chapter! I also want to thank quickwolf and Enchanting Knights for favouring this fic. I hope to hear from you all soon.

Without further adieu, on with the fic~

Chapter Four: Putting My Defenses Up

Dartz stormed around his house and so far the search for Atem led nowhere. It wasn't that the man was in any need of his stepson, on the contrary he didn't need a thing, he simply hadn't seen the boy in a few hours and was concerned. No, he wasn't concerned for the boy's safety or anything of the sort, if that was what anyone was wondering. He knew that searching for Atem was always difficult as he knew exactly how to make himself scarce. It was a blessing in disguise most of the time, but today Dartz had the strangest of feelings that he didn't seem to shake off. Wondering to himself for a moment, he checked his dead wife's knitting room…no Atem. This was making Dartz panic ever so slightly with another sort of worry. As much as his oldest son chose to ignore this small fact, Atem was blossoming into a handsome young man. Of course, he knew this sort of thing was bound to happen from the very first moment that Dartz laid eyes on the small Atem. All the man had wished was that he could postpone it somehow yet nothing worked. The clothes, as huge as they were, did nothing to hide the slim yet firm body underneath. Trying to keep the boy inside did nothing to prevent that sunkissed skin to lose its tan. Dartz could have poured dirt on Atem yet his strange hair would have shown its tri colours and blindfolding him to keep those eyes of his from being seen was ridiculous. All of his hard work in hiding him was withering away and there wasn't a thing he could have done about it. Dartz cursed, the moment he found that insolent child… Oh, there was Mana, she always knew where his stepson was. He made sure the look on his face indicated to her that she wasn't able to escape him somehow. Mana stayed in place knowing it was pointless to leave, he was bound to follow.

"Master Dartz, is there anything you need?" She asked with a simple curtsey.

He replied swiftly, "I have been searching for Atem everywhere and alas it's as if he magically vanished. Is there any hope of you knowing where he is or did he finally learn how to fly?"

Mana knew that Dartz was going to look for Atem and sure enough, she was being asked. It was a good thing that she was prepared for something like this and she had made sure that Atem had taken with him the necessary things to make this lie believable. All that need to happen now was that Atem had to remember to bring the things back with him and Mahado. Yet before she was able to answer Master Dartz, Young Master Leon appeared asking about food, she tried to hide her smile at this. Yet again before she could answer, Young Master Siegfried came out wondering if the alterations to his clothes had been done yet. Master Dartz had managed to silence them both before gesturing to Mana to continue.

"To answer your question Master Dartz, no Atem has yet to master flight. I sent him to fetch me more apples for the apple pies we were going to be selling for farmers market tomorrow. In the meantime, is there anything I can do for you?" She asked.

He shook his head, "Well, I would ask you to fetch Leon a light snack and Siegfried his clothing but I suppose you have no idea who is doing that as you and Atem are in charge of the pies..."

"Well if Young Master Leon wants an apple I can get him one…as for Young Master Siegfried, you might need to ask another servant about his clothes. I have no idea who's in charge of that..."

Siegfried made a huffing noise and was about to turn around to go to his room when he stopped in his tracks. He stared outside for a moment and smirked brightly before turning back around again.

He then said before skipping off to his room, "Father I've found your little vagabond…and he's not alone. You aren't going to like this at all."

Before Leon got a chance to look outside, the door opened to reveal Atem along with Mahado. Both of them paused for a moment when they saw Mana and Dartz staring at them. Leon had taken the chance to leave to his room as fast as he could, forgetting the apple he was promised. Mana smiled brightly and made her way to Mahado and pulled him into a light hug. She noted that Atem bring back the basket full of apples that hid the clothing he had worn at court. Dartz also noticed the basket and assumed that Mana was saying the truth but that sure as hell didn't explain Mahado.

"M'lord," Mahado said as he cleared his throat, "I was released as I worked off your-my debt. They told me I was free to leave. So I did and I ran into Atem collecting apples, I am still welcomed here right?"

Atem, Mana and the other servants around stared at Dartz intently. They all could see the wheels turning in his head. Even Siegfried and Leon snuck out of their rooms to take a look at their father as he was contemplating these things. There really wasn't much that Dartz could say that would surprise them all but the servants were praying that he wasn't going to try to sell Mahado back.

Dartz cleared his throat, "As long as the debt is paid off, this is your home. Now go do something useful like…fetch a chicken. Atem, fetch an apple and go take it to Leon then go with Mana. Mana, finish those pies and will someone find my son's clothes? He needs the alterations done today. He has to go see Prince Seth play a game of chess tomorrow…"

As soon as the master of the house left the room, all of the servants sighed in relief. Then they all went to go greet Mahado. While that was going on, Atem went to take two apples to Leon. The younger boy smiled at him when he entered the room.

"So, how did Mahado really get freed?" Leon asked, fully knowing how these things worked.

Atem pressed a finger to his lips, "Those that need to know, already do."

Leon didn't press the subject any longer but he was positive that Atem had something to do with it, he just wasn't sure how. It wasn't like he was going to tell his father anything, they both knew that he wouldn't have spoken a single word but Atem wanted to make sure that someone didn't hear him. Heaven knows who is listening in nowadays.

Once Atem re-entered the kitchen, he heard Mahado scolding Mana on her actions. She fought back while whispering that if it wasn't for her coming up with the ruse, that he wouldn't have been freed. In Atem's mind it made since but he was sure that Mahado wasn't really caring at the moment. Finally the arguing stopped and the girl huffed and focused on her pies with the help of Atem under the watchful eye of Mahado who was working on getting the chicken de-feathered.

By the end of the day, all of the servants knew the real story of how Mahado was freed and they were all extremely grateful to Atem and Mana. In honour of the older man's freedom and the bravery/recklessness of the younger two, a small party was thrown in one of the sheds on the property. The servants who set it up had made sure that it was far enough that Dartz wasn't going to hear them. They had some music which meant most of the younger ones were dancing which included Mahado's two little rebels, as he was affectionately calling them.

The wise youthful looking man was rather happy that the two he had looked after so carefully did have the gall to do what they did. Yet he also didn't want to encourage them to keep on doing it. It was dangerous, illegal and if caught, Atem could be in prison for the rest of his life or killed. Either option wasn't a good choice for the young man. He didn't want to fail on the promise he had made with his Mistress before she had passed concerning that son of hers. Yet at this moment, watching that overgrown child dancing with Mana and seeing the wide smiles, he wasn't as worried as he would have been. Everyone was rather content yet the wheels of change were turning, even if it was going extremely slow.

The next day, Seth was disappointed that Akai had failed to make an appearance to the chess match. He frowned ever so slightly but he still beat the man he was going against. Not many people were surprised, not even Siegfried. Everyone who had placed a bet knew that Seth was going to win as the prince always won the matches he played. As he was leaving the courtyard with Kisara, he bumped into Siegfried. The Prince was always a bit uneasy with the other man but he never showed this uneasiness.

"I was wondering if you and the talented artist Kisara wanted to tour the Farmers market with myself and my family," Siegfried said with a smile that seemed a little too perfect.

Kisara, curious about the Farmers marked and Seth, wondering if he was going to bump into Akai there said yes.

Before the chess match was over, Atem, Mana and Mahado had been selling their pies when Lord Akefia Touzoku passed by their stand and looking at the pies. He always bought things from their stand and was also a great friend of Dartz. Mahado wasn't too fond of the man and always told Atem to be wary of that man. Lord Akefia was famous for doing the dirty deeds that none of the noblemen had the guts to do and anyone who was friends with him had to have hands as dirty as the Lord's if not more. This time the scar-faced man, examined the pies and most of the other things they were selling and then took a good look at Atem. He licked his lips lightly, before they formed a sly smile.

"How much will I have to pay for three pies and a barrel of that barley?" He asked in a pleasant tone.

Atem simply replied, "If you could give me one piece of gold, I would be more than satisfied, but I guess than ten pieces of silver would do if you're not feeling that generous."

"I will give you two pieces of gold if you would be so kind as to come with me, Dear Atem," Akefia said showing the gold pieces.

The instant that the words escaped Touzoku's lips, Mahado had pulled Atem away from the Lord's grasp. The action caused Akefia to laugh albeit the laugh had a tinge of wickedness to it that didn't fall deaf to Mahado's ears. He was still looking over at the other man seriously.

"Relax Old man," Akefia said, "I was only kidding that time. I know that Dear Atem is worth more than two pieces of gold. Even you know that."

Mahado rolled his eyes, "It might as well have been a joke but Atem is not for sale nor will he ever be."

"That is where you are wrong. If you have the right amount of money, anyone is for sale. It's all on the price and I promise you, I will obtain Atem one of these days. Just you wait," The man said as he took out the ten pieces of silver and laid them on the counter.

Mahado glared at the man and waited for him to leave before he cursed ever so lightly. Neither Mana nor Atem bothered to say anything at the moment. There really was nothing either of them could say that would even help in this situation. It was true, whatever Lord Akefia wanted, he usually got they were only hoping that he was going to be wrong this time. After a few minutes of silence, Mahado looked up and smirked.

He turned to Atem, "I suggest you go hide or something."

"Why?" The other asked.

The older man replied, "Because I see the prince."

Sure enough, he looked up and there was Prince Seth walking with Siegfried and on their way over to where they were. Cursing silently, the young man gathered his things and ran off so the other didn't see him. He didn't want to get caught and reveled, especially in front of his Step-family.

Yami felt his phone buzzing and he wasn't sure if he wanted to answer it or not. He had just told BlueEyes1025 about the predicament he was in. Well, not the entire thing where he saved Kaiba Mokuba from boxes falling over them, he didn't want to let that out. All he has basically said was that he did something nice for someone else and didn't expect someone to pay him back especially be invited to dinner of all things. All of his friends that heard Kaiba Seto asking him had told him that he should say yes and go. As much as he would have loved to do that, he couldn't find himself saying yes without a proper reason. The phone buzzed again, thinking it would be wise to see what his friend had written him, he unlocked his phone and gazed at the message.

{Well, I can understand why you are a bit hesitant. It seems like you don't know this other person to well. But it's not going to be you and him alone now is it?}

'No it isn't going to be just me and him, he's bringing someone else with him,' Yami wrote back, not bothering to mention it was the little brother but at the moment, that little fact didn't seem to matter.

{Then I don't see why you are worried, I don't think these people are going to try anything but I don't think you are worried about that. its money isn't it?}

Yami sighed, so it seemed that his dear friend did know him pretty well by now, didn't he? He was worried about money, Kaiba Seto was basking in money and he wasn't. If the blue-eyed man wanted to go somewhere fancy, Yami didn't really have the finances to actually have dinner and his nicest clothing wasn't that nice now thinking about it. For some reason, he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of the other teen or his brother. Normally he wouldn't care but why was this different? He tried not to think about it as he wrote back to the other male as quickly as possible so he didn't delete it.

'As lame as it is…I don't want to make a fool out of myself in front of this person and I'm kind of poor,' He had written and sent.

It was kind of annoying as it was hard to write. He knew his other friends wouldn't have understood him but for some strange reason, he had a feeling that the other male would understand him. It might have been wishful thinking but it worked for him. He sighed once more as he thought that perhaps swallowing his pride wasn't the wisest thing he should have done at the moment. Then his phone buzzed and what he read, he wasn't expecting it the other to say.

{If you can get along with me just fine, I think you can get along with this other person. So, I wouldn't worry about you making a fool out of yourself. As for money, if you were asked, then don't worry about paying. It's a common courtesy when a person invites the other to dinner, that person pays. When I invite other people to dinner with me, I always pay no matter what they order. If I couldn't afford it, I wouldn't have invited in the first place.}

Yami did have to agree, Kaiba did seem like the kind of person who wouldn't have invited anyone if he couldn't afford it. Everyone at school knew that Kaiba could definitely afford the finer things in life for him and his brother and perhaps a thousand people for a few years. Yet he still had that unsettling feeling and it didn't make any since to him. He wasn't worried but why did he feel uneasy? He tried not to think about it too much when he finished his chores and got ready for bed. He still talked to his texting buddy a moment longer before calling it a night. When he fell asleep, he had dreams about parties and food, none of it seemed to make since and the next morning, he ignored it.

Going to class that next day, he had a newfound confidence yet the thought of talking to Kaiba was still strange to him. Again, he couldn't place this feeling as he had seldom felt these sort of things before. He sighed a bit walked up to the other male, who was reading a book, with all of the confidence that he could ever muster in his entire life.

He cleared his throat, "Kaiba?"

"I take it you have made your choice?" The brunette asked.

He nodded, "I'm accepting your offer. You can pick me up at the Game Shop. I would rather be picked up there than the house."

"Alright, I'll send the car for you at thirty minutes past six. Is that alright with you?" Seto inquired in a business-like manner.

Yami agreed, "That works for me. Now is there anything I need to make sure of before I set foot in that limo or not?"

"Just don't be late," He replied before going back to his book.

Well, that had ended wonderfully, Yami thought sarcastically as he sat down at his desk and took out some papers. If he was going to be passing notes to Ryou, he was at least going to be doing it secretly as he possibly could. Ryou did write to him about how happy he was that he managed to say yes to the invite to dinner. But still, Yami was just a bit nervous about Pegasus finding out. He really didn't want to know what the man would say if he found out. So to prevent that, he made sure that Anzu and Jou understood that they weren't allowed to tell Marik or Malik anything about him going to have dinner with Kaiba Seto.

As an added cover, Ryou invited Yami to stay over at his apartment after the date, Ryuji was going to be there so it wasn't going to seem too suspicious. Pegasus, had accepted this and granted him the permission to sleepover at the white haired- boy's apartment. Knowing that this part of the plan had worked did set Yami's mind into some ease but still, there was a slight chance that Pegasus would find out that something was up, even with all of their precautions. It was mostly that part that had made Yami so concerned about the entire thing.

"Is this going to be worth it?" Yami asked as they were on their way back to the house.

Anzu replied, "Of course it is! Everyone is doing their best in making sure that you are going to that dinner with Kaiba. You need to have some sort of faith that everything is going to work out. You are going to have a great time, I just know it."

"How do you even know that?" Jou asked skeptically.

The girl replied, "Woman's intuition."

Friday had come all too soon, according to Yami. The day before, he made sure the clothes he was going to wear were already at the game shop so there wasn't much to worry about on that end of the spectrum. The issue was getting to the game shop and making sure that no one that Pegasus knew was going to spot him at the game shop. Luckily, Yugi and his grandfather had been one step ahead of Yami. They called Pegasus and asked him if Yami and the others could come to the shop to help out with setting up for the upcoming weekend. The weekend was going to be an important day because that's was when they were going to start putting up their holiday prices, sales and decorations. Knowing how important the launch of the holiday shopping was going to be, the man had granted permission for his foster children to go and help out. Pegasus made sure to confirm that Yami was going to Ryou's that night and wouldn't be seen until either Saturday or Sunday. The young teen confirmed it with his foster father and even offered to text Pegasus when he actually got to Ryou's.

Once the three entered their car and headed for the game shop, they all sighed in deep relief. They managed to get Yami over to the shop. The hard part was basically over, now all they were going to have to do was get Yami ready for this dinner and soon he was going to be on his marry way and not having to worry if Pegasus saw him or not. Pegasus liked to have dinner at home with his boys and Kaiba Seto was famous for being discrete in his outings. Unfortunately, once they entered the building, their plan caught a little snag. Examining a game was none other than Bakura, a college of Pegasus'. Bakura was known for his shady ways of doing business and Pegasus liked to say that Bakura did 'dirty deeds' and they were, 'done dirt cheap.' Then the man would laugh at his inside joke that none of teens seemed to understand.

Bakura smiled at them slyly, "Why hello there, children. Don't mind me, I'm looking around for a game. I'm having people over on Sunday and I wanted to have a game ready for my guests to play."

"Sorry Mr. Bakura but we don't sell Quija boards here. We only sell family friendly games," Jou retorted sarcastically and truthfully.

Bakura rolled his eyes, "Just because I'm into the occult, doesn't mean that all of my friends are into the same thing Katsuya. You should really learn how to respect the beliefs of your elders."

"Not when your planning on making a human sacrifice or something," Jou shot back.

Bakura once again found himself rolling his eyes, "I don't do that sort of thing and even if I did, you wouldn't be my first choice."

The man with the strangely shaped bunny ear hairstyle walked around the small store and soon found himself face to face with Yami. Everyone, even Pegasus knew, that Bakura had this strange sort of attraction to Yami even though the latter was a few years the other's junior, in other words, jailbait. But that didn't seem to stop the older man from being straightforward about his attraction. Needless to say, it was too strange for everyone else to be comfortable with. Yami, having the feeling that the other was going to say something he didn't want to hear, handed the man a game.

"It's called twister and the game is self explanatory, you need a good amount of people to play it so with your friends over, it would be a fun game at the least," Yami spoke, "Especially if they all that raunchy since of humour as you do."

For a moment, the teen had thought that maybe he had said way too much but when Bakura began to laugh, he found himself calming down to say the least. Everyone else had been thinking the exact same thing as Yami and even they found relief when the man began to laugh wholeheartedly. His laugh might have been a bit strange but it was better than getting him angry. Yami, Jou and Anzu had once seen Bakura get angry and it wasn't a pretty sight to see.

The man walked up to the counter and paid for the game, "Yami, Yami, Yami, you just have a way with words that I find the most entertaining. Still, I long for the day that you come and live with me, maybe then we can play this game together when no one else is watching us. Think about how fun that would be…"

Chuckling to himself, Bakura left the game shop leaving all of the other occupants heaving sighs of relief. He was always such a strange one and none of the current occupants of the shop ever did like having him hanging about. There had to be some way of being free of him but how? Unless he had something else he thought was worthier of obtaining they were all sure that he would stop at nothing to have Yami in his clutches. Anzu sensing the very gloomy mood among them decided that she was going to change it.

"Alright guys, Kaiba Seto is going to be here soon and we need to get Yami looking presentable," She said, "Even if we can't control his hair, we can at least get him dressed decently enough."

Jou smirked, "Although I'm sure that nothing Yami wears is going to change Kaiba's mind, maybe if we get him smelling nicer…"

"You guys seriously make me sound like I'm some kind of street urchin or something," Yami said rolling his eyes playfully.

Yugi smiled, "Okay, if you guys are going to magically transform Yami, you are going to have to do it now. We only have an hour and thirty minutes thanks to Bakura's interruption."

For some reason, Yami and leather always seemed to look good together and they decided that at least for tonight they were going to change that. In the end, Yami was dressed in black slacks and a deep red button up that brought out his eyes according to Anzu. They couldn't do much to his hair that they hadn't done already but that was alright. It was a little chilly outside so he had a jacket that matched his pants but Yami didn't put it on at the moment.

The teen was distracted with other emotions that were flowing through him that he couldn't name. He had never felt this sort of things before and he couldn't understand the concept of them. He bit his lip momentarily as he waited for the car. He knew that Kaiba Seto was prompt for everything and looking at the clock as the minutes were ticking away was causing him to lightly panic. But what for? Why was he panicking so much? Kaiba was something else, that was for sure but surely he couldn't be that interesting to Yami? They had only seen each other at school and he had seen the other play Duel Monsters before but they never even spoke to each other. They were rivals for the perfect grade but was there something else to their rivalry? He shook his head at these thoughts. He was not some blushing school girl who wrote love letters to Kaiba on a daily basis nor would he ever think about doing that. The mere thought of him doing those sorts of things annoyed him. Yet with all of his reasoning, the fact remained when he thought about the other teen his emotions went haywire. Why?

All of his questionings still brought no answers to him and that was when he saw the car pull up. Taking a deep breath as he wondered why he was nervous. It was only dinner, it wasn't like Kaiba was going to take the other to Paris. The thought of that made Yami smile, he was positive that Kaiba had no idea how to be romantic with anyone. Looking back at his friends for encouragement, he left the building and entered the car.

The car was as nice on the inside as it was on the outside but that didn't stop the strange silence. Kaiba was on his phone and Mokuba was playing a game. How could two brothers be in the same car and not even speak to each other? That was strange. When Yami sat down, Mokuba stopped his game and smiled brightly at him.

"I'm so happy you agreed," Mokuba said with a cheerful smile and a hushed tone.

Yami nodded, "Well, I figured it was rude to say no and I kind of wanted to see you again. How are you feeling? Why are we whispering?"

"I'm fine and I've been fine, it was you I was worried about. Thanks for helping me out there. It means a lot to me and my brother, more than he'll ever tell you," Then Mokuba leaned closer, "We're whispering because of brother's call. It's rather important."

Curious he asked, "What's it about?"

"I don't know. I never ask him those sorts of things, even if I did, he wouldn't give me a straight answer," the younger boy answered honestly, "But I think it has something to do with the party…"

Yami made a face, "What party?"

"You two really don't know the meaning of whispering do you?"

The two looked up to see Seto sending them both a look of annoyance. He has just hung up from the conference call only to hear the two in front of him whispering rather loudly about him. Seto crossed his arms and simply looked out the window.

"It's nice to know that you can dress," Seto said, "It's a shame that your hair is a whole other story."

Yami rolled his eyes, "This is how my hair actually is. No matter how much I try to comb it or do anything else to it, it still manages to look the same."

"Oh please, everyone's hair can be controlled," Seto retorted.

Yami shook his head, "I highly doubt that. Yugi and Mr. Moto have the exact same hair as mine, if they can't find anything how can you be so sure that I can find something to control my hair?"

"You guys do realize that you both are arguing about hair right?" Mokuba said as he let out a few chuckles.

The youngest Kaiba noticed the way that his older brother and Yami scoffed and looked away from each other. If this was how they acted in front of each other in the car, he was wondering how they would act around each other during dinner. Mokuba had made all of the plans ahead of time, they were going to be given a private seat so no one would see them. Mostly because Seto didn't like others seeing him dine with his brother but he had other reasons as well. So when the car pulled to a stop, Mokuba was the first out of the car, dragging Yami behind him.

How did you like it? TELL ME!

Thanks to the stats thing on this site, I know there are people reading this so that is a comfort that I'm not just talking to myself. I hope that next week I can get back on the ball and finish the chapter much earlier than I just did. I'm trying to pace myself but that doesn't seem to work out well for me.

I hope you all have a great weekend and next week. I can't believe it's freaking November already. Time seemed to pass doesn't it? But I digress, I'll see you all next week!

With Love,

SanguisRubeus