Chapter 5

Mai began chewing her lower lip awkwardly as she stared down as the crisp, white tiled floor. She felt more than a little foolish now and she wasn't completely sure she was going to be able to live this one down.

'I'm sorry I caused so much fuss,' her eyes lifted to meet with a clearly exhausted Joey's.

'Don't worry about it,' he pulled her into a hug. 'You had a bad dream and it upset you. I'm just glad that's all it was.'

'But it... it all seemed so real...'

'Dreams can be like that sometimes,' he kissed the top of her head as he continued to hold her tight. 'Do you feel up for going home now?'

'Yeah...' shakily she nodded her head.

'Then let's go.'

'Are you sure I need to be there?' Covo pulled a face as he watched Ahna dress Crovell.

'Oh no, you are not backing out of this one Macar Covo,' Ahna shot him a look, 'I need you there.'

'But won't it be like really weird for her? I mean, what am I in this situation exactly? Just another face to terrify her with?'

'Yeah, because that's so much worse than being some evil little home wrecker.'

'You're not a home wrecker.'

'Then what am I exactly; the girl who tricked her brother into having a baby? Covo I need you there.'

'But it just feels so socially awkward.'

'It is socially awkward, but please, I need you to do this for me.'

'Alight.'

She smiled at him, before making her way towards the door. They'd only made it a few feet down the corridor when Catilin appeared almost out of nowhere. As she turned to face them, she placed her hands behind her back in a manner which made her whole body look strangely awkward.

'Catilin are you alright?' Ahna frowned as she noted the dark circles under Catilin's eyes.

'Can I talk to you alone please Ahna?'

'Sure,' she passed Crovell over to Covo, 'go on ahead would you, I'll be along in a few minutes.'

'Okay,' his face filled with an uncomfortable smile, 'but please don't take too long, she's going to be here soon.'

'I know,' she kissed him quickly, before sending him on his way.

Once he was gone she focused her attention on Catilin.

'Have you been spying on Kaiba again?'

'Yes, but I won't be anymore,' Catilin averted her gaze, 'Duke said it wasn't a good idea.'

'I said it wasn't a good idea,' Ahna folded her arms, 'doesn't my opinion count for anything anymore?'

'It does, but... you always tell me things.'

'I know I always tell you things; that doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to them,' Ahna shook her head. 'I'm only trying to do what's best for you.'

'I know silly.'

'So are you going to tell me what this is about or not?'

'Ahna I have a date tonight,' Catilin's face took on an expression somewhere halfway between excitement and terror, 'I mean a real date, with plans and doing things and... everything.'

'You have a date?' Ahna wasn't quite sure how she felt about the idea.

'Uh-huh. He asked me yesterday and nobody's ever asked me on a date before and I wanted to go so I said yes, but then I started thinking maybe I'm not ready for this and... Ahna what am I supposed to do?'

'This date of yours, it is with Duke, right?' Ahna studied her for a moment. 'I mean, you're not going to tell me some random guy asked you out and you said yes, right?'

'Why would I wanna go on a date with some random guy,' she shook her head.

'So it is Duke then?'

'Uh-huh.'

'Okay, that's good; he's a good guy even if he is a little... obsessed with my son.'

'Or your son's obsessed with him,' Catilin giggled. 'They have a funny relationship.'

'I'm glad you think so,' Ahna rolled her eyes. 'Look Cat, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't go on this date with him tonight. It's normal to be nervous about it, if anything it just proves all the reasons why you should go on this date with him to begin with. Just do me a favour and keep this between us until you're sure things are going to turn out okay.'

'Why?'

'Because everyone will make a big deal out of it and that will put pressure on both you and Duke to get it right. And that always makes things harder.'

'Okay.'

'But I am happy for you Catilin, I really am.'

'Do you want me to tell you about it afterwards?' Catilin grinned at her. 'That's what girls do, right? They tell each other how their dates went.'

'If you want to Cat,' Ahna laughed, 'but I'll leave that up to you. It's not like I tell you everything which goes on between me and Covo.'

'That's true. How are you and Covo doing anyway? You said things were weird before, are they still weird?'

'Yes and no,' Ahna tilted her head to one side, 'I know that I love him; I mean, I'm much more certain of it now than I was, but... it still doesn't feel the way I expected love to feel. It's not explosive. It's not passionate. Yeah, there are little things he does which makes my heart race and I'm jealous as hell at the thought of anyone being closer to him than I am and that includes his sister, but... when I get right down to it... the love we have is just... still. And I don't mean that in a bad way, it feels solid and ridiculously stable considering we barely know each other. But at the same time... isn't your first real love supposed to be dramatic and heart racing and the living fulfilment of a gothic novel or something? I thought safe stable love was for when you were older.'

'Maybe, but... we are older. We're the oldest of our kind right now. We may not wanna be grownups but we are. We have responsibilities and stuff, so... maybe we don't get to have passionate heart racing love. Maybe we just get safe, responsible love. Maybe it's not what we thought we would get, but that doesn't mean it's not a good thing Ahna. Love is always a good thing, no matter what shaped box it comes in.'

The first thing Serenity noticed was just how tired Mai and Joey both looked. But whereas Joey was still pretty chirpy and happy, Mai just looked zoned out and not really with it. The second thing she noticed was how all four of them rallied around the baby. The way they acted was as if it was perfectly natural and normal for one kid to have four responsible adults looking after him. They slotted together like some built for purpose unit rather than the most unconventional family Serenity had ever come across.

She and Téa took a seat on the couch, whilst Yugi hovered somewhere in the room behind them. He also looked as though he could do with a few extra hours of sleep, but she was far too polite to say anything. Instead she placed the little teddy bear she'd brought for Crovell that morning down on the table in front of her and waited for someone to break the silence.

'I'm sorry Serenity, you must think we're the rudest people ever,' Ahna smiled nervously.

'It's alright, I understand, Crovell is your first priority after all.'

'Would you like to hold him?'

'Yeah,' Serenity smiled, 'I would love to.'

Ahna moved towards the couch Serenity was sat on and carefully handed her son over. For a few moments the baby's large blue eyes just stared up at Serenity, then he started making happy, chirping sounds.

'He's so cute,' Serenity couldn't help but giggle with delight.

'Well what do you expect when he has me as his father?' Joey folded his arms.

'So he takes after you for looks then?' Serenity couldn't help but smirk at Ahna.

'Now that was uncalled for sis,' Joey shook his head, 'you're supposed to be on my side.'

'Why should she be when nobody else is,' Ahna poked her tongue out at him and laughed.

Joey rolled his eyes and turned his attention towards Yugi.

'You've been pretty quiet today, are you okay?'

'What?' Yugi sounded a little stunned. 'Oh, yeah I'm fine.'

'You sure?'

'Of course, I wouldn't say I was otherwise.'

Joey looked as though he was about to say something else when Duke suddenly appeared out of nowhere. To Serenity's confusion everyone's eyes turned towards the baby.

'You know someone's going to have to break that nasty little habit of yours Crovell,' Joey shook his head, 'because you're not getting away with this forever, that's for sure.'

He hadn't left his room in so long, he'd almost forgotten what the outside world looked like. But it didn't bother him. He was a monster. A danger to other people. He should be left to rot and die in here and never bother anybody ever again. More than once he'd considered just ending it all, then a weird spark of hope flashed somewhere deep inside the darkness of his mind. A memory containing the knowledge he needed to kill the monster and save everybody. There was just one problem; the monster didn't want him knowing what it was, so no matter how hard he tried he just couldn't reach it.

'I am the monster,' his voice was low as he etched something into his already heavily covered walls. 'I am the monster. I know I am the monster. But I don't want to be the monster. I don't have to be the monster. I have to cage the monster. I have to cage it and keep it caged. I'll draw. I'll draw. I'll draw the memories out. I'll draw the monster into its cage. And then... then when it's distracted I'll reach for the memory I need. I have to distract the monster. I have to draw the monster into its cage.'

Behind him, he heard the door gently open and a spike of anger raced through him; when would they learn he just wanted to be left alone?

'Are you hungry?'

'You can't eat if you have no stomach,' he kept his gaze focused on his drawing.

'But you have a stomach; do I really have to go over that again?'

'How do you know what I do and do not have? You can't see inside of me. For all you know I could be empty. An empty shell with nothing there. No stomach. No heart. Not even a soul.'

'You have a stomach and you have to eat. You'll make yourself ill if you don't.'

'I'll make myself ill if I do.'

'I won't let you starve.'

'But I won't starve. I won't starve,' his eyes began to examine what he'd been drawing. 'And if I do, at least I won't hurt anyone. I can't hurt anyone if I'm dead.'

'No, no you are not allowed to die. I told you...'

'What gives you the right to tell me anything,' he flicked an energy ball into his hand, 'your nothing but a skeleton, I'm the monster here. I'm the big bad. And big bads don't listen to anyone or anything. They don't need to. All they need to be is what they are; monsters.'

'Shut up, stop talking like that.'

'If you don't like it, then leave,' he causally threw the energy ball over his shoulder without caring what it connected with, 'I want to be on my own.'

'But...'

'I said leave,' he flicked another energy ball into his hand and glanced round at the person behind him, 'or I will make sure it hurts.'

He could see the fear on their face as they backed away. Within seconds they'd left the room and he was on his own again. Almost as soon as he was a grotesque images filled his head. Fear rose in his stomach like sick and a shrill scream of terror escaped his lips.