A/N: WORDS.

I am so close to murder at the moment. My new netbook just deleted four chapters of this, two documents worth of notes and my 35,000 words-so-far of that History essay.

Fuck you too, netbook.

Just a thing, I'm going to participating once again in NANOWRIMO, so this thing's word count will go up by more than 50,000 words over the course of November XD

~Ava

~XxX~

A cave.

We were following a mentally unbalanced, recently betrayed, kidnapping, emotionally-stunted child (who was actually the eldest around) through a dark cave.

"Remind me why I'm friends with you again?" I asked Yami, glancing to my right and raising an eyebrow as he looked back at me, this being the second time I had asked the same question in as many minutes.

"He is our only hope of getting out of this Virtual World and stopping Gozaburo." I was answered in kind, the exact words I had heard two minutes ago.

"I don't trust him, Yami."

"He's our only option, Sophie."

I bit back a scream, glancing over to my left at the Kaiba brothers and glaring at them to back me up. Mokuba's eyes were trained on Noah, I briefly wondered why before turning my attention to Seto...deliberately ignoring both myself and Yami. I felt deflated.

"I hate you all, with love, but just...utter hate."

~XxX~

Noah had tricked us, of course we hadn't know it at the time, but after Joey's indignant yell broke the illusion of freedom, we found out it had just been us reliving our memories. I had been back in the pond, not fun. I glanced around the plaza where the seven of us found ourselves, instantly noting the absence of the two people I-

"That Noah bastard's gone." Duke said, looking around where we were, Monkey!Tristan on his shoulder like the parrot to his pirate.

"And Mokuba!" Teá said, anxiety tinging her voice.

"And Kaiba!" Yugi mirrored Teá's shock. I froze at his words, suddenly feeling...over-exposed...

"I-" My words choked off, what was I going to say? I wanted to find the person who only really showed me contempt and to whom I showed the same? I stepped backwards with a gasp while my friend's voices became a buzz to me. Jesus H Christ, that is what I want. Why? When did I become so attatched to him? To both of them? I only noticed that my friends were on the other side of the plaza and heading into the park when Teá yelled to me if I was planning on coming or not. I shook my head to clear the fog for a moment before nodding and following wordlessly. At least, I tried to follow wordlessly, Teá however, hung back to give us a little privacy before speaking.

"So?" She started, prompting me to stop wallowing in self-serving confusion and pity to actually answer her.

"I want to go and find him." I sighed after speaking, barely taking notice of her understanding nod on my peripheral vision, "But, I don't want to leave you guys, I mean, I'm not some sort of...hapless puppy who needs to follow him everywhere..."

"No." Teá said, pushing me lightly in the shoulder so that I looked over to her, "you're a bored cat." I frowned at her analogy, not following. "When I was younger, we had this cat," Teá smiled at the memory, "She was beautiful, a tortie and she was very...demure." She chuckled slightly and shoved me again as we were walking, "Now, you're not demure-"

"-Hey!"

"-But you're like her. She never followed us around, infact, she slept all the time. But if she wanted to, she'd wander on up to you and demand love and attention." I frowned, not really liking where this could be going...

"Sooo?"

"So." Teá shrugged, "You don't need to follow him. Do you want to?"

And just as I was going to verbally acknowledge my dedication to both of the brothers to my best-friend, we were attacked by Duel Monsters.

~XxX~

"I-I'm sorry..." I said quietly so that only Teá could hear me, she frowned at me.

"You're leaving?"

"Yes."

"You know that they're going to notice."

"Yes."

"And that you're leaving us in a time of need?"

I just about changed my mind then, but saw the sslight smirk she was wearing at the moment.

"Well, you focus on finding Mokuba and Kaiba, we'll find Noah and a way to get back, you round up the stubbon ones and lead them to us." She smiled at me after she spoke and I returned her previous shove in the arm before kissing her on the cheek.

"You're an awesome friend." And I fled in the direction of the KaibaCorp building. It didn't take a genius to figure out where he would go.

~XxX~

There is something, a feeling that only women and girls will ever get, when you are able to take the side streets and back alleys of a city without the fear of being accosted. I was reveling in it for the time being. Well, part of me was, a very small part at the back of my brain, the rest of me was fretting incessently over several things.

Where the bloody hell Seto Kaiba was.

Where the bloody hell Mokuba Kaiba was.

What the flying fuck was I doing, chasing after a guy that I wasn't sure how I felt about rather than staying to help my friends who actually cared.

I spotted him several seconds later, walking down the main streach of road that led to said KaibaCorp building before he stopped and looked up at it, seemingly thinking about something. I decided that now would be the time to play the, "Who-Can-Be-The-Most-Nonchalant" game.

"Y'know, this'll be my first time using the front door." I said, sidling up next to him and not even looking over to see his reaction.

"Hmm. No it won't, Callaghan." Was his, just as coolly delivered answer.

"Why?" I asked, still, neither of us moving our gaze from the top floor of the building.

"I am perfectly capable of doing this on my own, Callaghan. I do not want nor need you with me."

The words stung, but...didn't at the same time.

"Well, I want to be here." I said, remembering Teá's words.

"Callaghan, I'm not an idiot."

"I know."

"Nor am I blind to what you are doing."

"I hadn't expected you to be."

"It isn't going to work."

"I'm not even sure what I'm trying to make work at the moment." I suddenly felt emotionally weary.

"You are not coming with me."

"You are not going in there alone." He scoffed at my words and broke eye contact with the building, looking at me instead.

"I can and have done more than this without you or anyone else tagging along." It was my turn to scoff at his words, returning his glare with equal calmness.

"I know that, but this time, you have a choice and I'm making it for you. You are not going in there alone, regardless of what you think I'm doing or what I'm trying to figure out I'm doing," I hadn't broken eye contact yet and my resolve wasn't waivering, all because of a pep-talk from my best-friend. I'd have to hug her when we got back to the blimp. "Because everytime the two of you bugger off without me, or are kidnapped, or go off to duel a dead man ontop of a virtual building I feel like I'm leaving two good friends to fend for themselves, and I don't like it." We continued the staring game for several more seconds before we both looked away at the same time.

"That's fairly hypocritical, Callaghan. you've left Moto and the rest of them to the dust." He didn't sneer at me this time and I smiled slightly.

"They can look after themselves, you on the other hand..."

~XxX~

A/N: SO, I HAVE WIFI NOW. Which means I can upload this directly after finishing this at one in the morning and then start writing the second one. Yes, I'm always writing XD

~Ava