Chapter 2

'I think I wanna collect dice,' Catilin's legs were kicking gently behind her as she lay on her stomach building small towers out of the little plastic cubes in front of her.

'You mean you want to play Dungeon Dice Monsters?' Duke frowned.

'No,' she shook her head, 'I just wanna collect dice.'

'Do you always have to be so weird?' A small smirk pulled at his lips.

'You think I'm weird?' Catilin's eyes lifted to meet with his.

'I think you're about the weirdest person I know,' he laughed, 'but in a good way.'

'So you think it's good to be weird?'

'Not for everybody, but for some people a little bit of weirdness is a good thing.'

'Okay,' she smiled at him, 'so do you always spend your time when you're not at Veronie's here?'

'Not all of it, but a lot of it. Companies don't run themselves you know.'

'Is it normal for teenagers to have their own companies?' Catilin rolled onto her back.

'Not really, no.'

'So I guess that makes you and Kaiba a little bit weird, huh?'

'Yeah, I guess it does,' he laughed. 'Although if I were you I'd reframe from pointing that out to Kaiba, I don't think he'd be as okay with it as I am.'

'How come, everything Kaiba seems to do is a little bit weird,' Catilin turned herself round into a sitting position, 'when he's not being scary and angry I mean. I've seen the way he acts when he thinks no one else can see him, it's very weird. But then they all are in that house.'

'Wait, you mean you've been spying on the Kaibas?' Duke stared at her.

'Uh-huh,' her expression was calm and unashamed.

'You know spying on people is wrong, right?'

'But... hiet braysta was doing it back when Crovell was really tiny,' Catilin tilted her head in confusion, 'why would he do something that was wrong?'

'Because sometimes he's an idiot,' Duke rolled his eyes. 'Come on Cat, it's not like you don't know the difference between right and wrong most of the time, what made you think spying on people was okay? And don't say it was just because of Joey, you know better than that.'

'Sometimes I do things because they feel like I should do them,' she lowered her gaze. 'Something was telling me I needed to and I always listen to that feeling even if I'm not sure if what its asking me to do is a good thing or not. It's what it means to be a Calicaccu; you have to trust those instincts.'

'And have they told you anything you don't already know yet?' Duke studied her carefully.

'It told me Kaibas and Tristan are all pretty weird sometimes, but I'm still not sure I understand why.'

'I don't think people are meant to understand other peoples' weirdness,' he shrugged, 'not unless they really want to.'

'Does that mean you want to understand my weirdness then?' Catilin's deep brown eyes blinked up at him.

'I think I'm already starting to understand it really well,' he smiled at her, 'that's why I think it's time I did this properly.'

'Did what properly?' Catilin looked confused.

'Asked you out on a date,' he laughed. 'I mean, if you're interested, would you like to go on a date with me?'

With his eyes half closed, Joey lazily rested his head against her stomach and listened.

'I can hear her heartbeat.'

'You cannot,' Mai rolled her eyes, 'your hearing's not that good.'

'I'm insulted,' he shot her an indignant look, 'wolves have excellent hearing you know.'

'Yeah, but I still don't think it's that good,' she yawned. 'So much for spending the day asleep.'

'Maybe I should leave you on your own for a few hours,' his face filled with an apologetic look, 'after all; I'm the one keeping you up.'

'Do you mind?'

'Of course not,' leaning over her, he gently kissed her forehead, 'there are always thing I could be getting on with, you know that.'

Leaving her with her eyes closed, Joey left the room and began making his way towards the garden. Winter was well and truly over now, but with everything that had been going on the last few months he'd been neglecting his gardening work more than a little. It made him feel strangely bad, like he was letting his Khine down or something. After all, Simüte was fabled to have been an even better gardener than Makay. The very notion of the word fabled made a strange little smirk pull at Joey's lips. Life as a Lutoni shouldn't be this complicated and yet he was somehow glad it was.

He paused for a moment in the doorway which led out into the main section of the garden and took a deep breath in. Everything felt strangely calm, refreshing and invigorating all at the same time. As he exhaled he spotted a young woman stood in the shade of one of the trees. She was too far away for him to make out how old she was and it didn't help that half of her face was obscured by a bob of ash blonde hair. He made his way towards her and as he did he was able to make out the details of her outfit; a black leather waistcoat, laced up at the front with what appeared to be black ribbon, a short black skirt and a black pair of over the knee healed boots.

As he continued to move towards her, she began to move her fingers and arms in an alluringly come hither manner which made something in Joey stir. Then without warning, the second he was less than a meter away from her, she disappeared into nothing. The disappointment he felt was unbelievable; there had been something so invitingly familiar about her it was as though he'd known her his whole life. A spiky feeling shot through his stomach, quickly followed by a surge of guilt. He wasn't sure quite why he was feeling this way, but it was enough to make him forget about what he was supposed to be doing and head back inside.

Once inside he made a beeline for the chamber Mai was sleeping in. As quietly as he could he pushed the door open and glanced in at her. She was sound asleep and just as beautiful as any fairytale princess. A content sigh pushed its way out of him as he closed the door again. Almost as soon as he had the silence around him was cut by the shrill sound of ringing. For half a second he wasn't sure what it meant, then he remembered the phone. Without hesitation he made his way towards it and as he answered it he just prayed it hadn't woken Mai.

'Hello?' Joey kept his voice audible but low.

'Hey there big brother.'

'Oh hey Serenity.'

'It's still alright for me to come see you tomorrow, isn't it?'

'Of course, I'm really looking forward to it.'

Out of the corner of his eye, something moved. Turning towards it, Joey spotted the girl again. She was much closer now and he was able to make out the strange smile on the visible half of her face. He held a hand out towards her, indicated she should stay put, but she just shook her head and disappeared again. A strange feeling of unnerve moved through him as he gripped onto the phone table.

'Listen sis, I'm going to have to call you back,' he then hung up without giving her a chance to reply.

With an edgy feeling moving through his stomach, Joey made his way down the hall, back towards Mai's room. She was still fast asleep, although at this point he wasn't sure if he was glad about that or not. He wasn't sure why, but he suddenly needed to be close to her. Tiptoeing his way across the room, he carefully climbed into bed beside her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She was in such a deep state of slumber she didn't even stir at his touch.

Closing his eyes he allowed himself to breathe in the sweet scent of her hair. There was something so brisk and crisp about the familiarity of it which just washed away all the weird feelings he was having. Somehow in that same breath he managed to convince himself he'd just been imagining things; although he knew full well only time would tell whether or not he wasn't.

'You're just doing this to wind me up now, aren't you?' Kaiba glared at him almost as soon as he entered the mansion.

'You know you didn't have to wait up for me, right Seto?' Tristan smirked, as he placed his helmet down on the hall table.

'This is no time for jokes Tristan, what if something had happened?'

'Then I wouldn't be stood talking to you now, would I?' He shrugged. 'I wish you would just relax a little bit.'

'Relax? You want me to relax a little bit,' the seething level of anger which moved through his voice was almost unbearable, 'what if you'd forgotten how to ride in the middle of a busy road somewhere? I've been hiding your keys for a reason.'

'You've been hiding my keys,' Tristan shot him a look, 'seriously?'

'We agreed...'

'I don't remember agreeing to something like that,' he shook his head, 'and I'm not sure I believe I would. You know I'm starting to think sometimes you're just using this situation to your own advantage; you do something I don't like and you can go well you were okay with it when... and you know... you know I can't prove it one way or another.'

'I wouldn't do that,' Kaiba gritted his teeth, 'give me some shred of humanity please.'

'I would love to Seto, but you're making it so damn hard right now. Great,' he gave a strange laugh and shook his head, 'now I remember why I needed to get out of here for a while? If I remembered sooner I wouldn't have come back just yet. I'm supposed to be your friend Seto, not your prisoner.'

'You are my friend,' he shifted his gaze away, 'stop trying to make me feel like the bad guy here, it isn't fair.'

'Because everything else about this situation is just so damn fair, right?' Tristan glared at him.

'Give me your keys Tristan,' Kaiba's voice was low as he held his hand out.

'What?'

'Give me the keys, now.'

'You can't be serious...'

'I am. Give them to me. Please.'

'Fine,' in a burst of anger Tristan threw the keys at him, 'but I'm going to go stay with my parents for a few days.'

'You can't,' Kaiba's voice remained low.

'Why? Because you don't want them to know I'm even more of a head case now than I was? Or because you can't deal with him on your own,' he jabbed a finger in the direction of the stairs.

'You're not a head case,' Kaiba met and held his gaze, 'this little... problem of yours does not make you a head case.'

'Then what does it make me Seto, because I sure as hell feel like I'm losing my mind here. Oh, but lucky me I keep finding it again, don't I? Losing it then finding it then losing it. It's like a never ending cycle. A never ending cycle made worse because I'm not getting enough sleep,' Tristan gave a slightly hysterical laugh as he pressed his hands against his head. 'I'm so tired... I'm so tired I just want to sleep.'

'You can sleep now if you want,' Kaiba took half a step towards him, then hesitated.

'No I can't,' he shook his head, 'and neither can you. Maybe we should consider having him sectioned.'

'We can't; he can't go into a place like that.'

'Why not?' Tristan glared at him again. 'It was good enough for me, wasn't it?'

'Yes, you're right; it was good enough for you. But you weren't likely to use your powers against the staff,' Kaiba shook his head. 'I'm scared of what he's capable of and don't tell me you're not.'

'I'm scared of a lot of things right now Seto,' wearily he rubbed his face with with hands, 'but mostly I just want sleep.'

'Then go sleep,' Kaiba sighed, 'we'll talk about this again in the morning.'