IMPORTANT: There will be a HUGE flashback on this chap, that'll be written in italic, Ok? ;)

murtagh1, Seto won't be able to restrain himself from Yami for too long so things'll get even more exciting! x'D. (You'll see...). Yep, poor Isono! xD. Seto'll find a way! ;). And you'll see in this chap! (Well, at least part of it, haha!)

Howl3, You again! :D :D :D . (It's a shame that you aren't felling better :c . Hope that you'll be soon though!) Tehehe, it makes me happy as a writter as well! xD. Sadly, I'll have to cover other important things so their relationship will have to wait a bit until next chap! ;-; (Probably). I'm so glad that you liked these scenes, since they're also some of my favorites, haha! I'm still putting Yugi's story together, so I'm not sure. But I DO know that he'll be very linked to Yami's story ^..^ . Sadly, these things will have to wait a little more~~ this chap might look like a filler, but it's very important for the future of the fic, so be patient, please! ;).

The rest of the day was unsurprisingly stressful. Yugi basically interrogated Seto the second he stepped back on the room. The CEO had a hard time trying to trick the teen into thinking that his Puzzle was fake.

"I've made this thing about two years ago." He lied. "I really liked your Puzzle, and I tried to recreate it with steel and some gold plating. I don't think I succeeded though, this one was way too easy to put together."

At least he wasn't completely lying. He did like the Puzzle and he did make some copies of it... but it was mostly to experiment with Yami and see if he could walk further away from the original Puzzle if many copies were laying around... It didn't work.

"Oh..." The purple eyed boy muttered. Kaiba had the unconfortable feeling that Yugi didn't believe him, even though he had asked Isono to bring him one of the many Puzzle copies so he could hide the true one while wearing the fake. He doubted that the short teen was able to tell the difference between steel and real gold, but still... he saw distrust in the other's eyes, as if Yugi was able to tell the real thing from the custom one somehow.

Thankfully, the last class was going to be over soon. Seto didn't learn anything new here, his entire day was basically wasted and now he has all this weird weight on his shoulders. He felt like he did something really, really wrong, but couldn't put his finger on it. He decided to simply pack his things and get out of the room.

As he left, Yami quivered softly around his neck. Seto imediately hold him in place and looked worriedly at him. The spirit... was about to wake up. Kaiba walked faster when he noticed that. How... weird. Yami usually didn't move until he took him off. What could be bothering his ghost so much?

When he arrived at his limousine, Yami unfolded himself and opened his huge, bright yellow eyes. Returning his body to a monster-like, familiar shape, he looked around as if about to slay someone... and then did it again curiously as he realized that no one was there to be slaughtered. His eyes fell on Seto as he turned his head to the side curiously.

"Did... did you call out for me?" He whispered.

The ghost's voice was filled with confusion and concern.

"N...No...?" Seto muttered, worried with what may be happening to his dark spirit. Yami simply shook his head and looked from side to side again.

"But I... I was so sure that..."

"Sure that...?"

"That... that you were in danger."

Seto blinked in surprise.

"Why...?"

"I... I don't know. I just felt like... as if you were calling me through our link. As if you were in danger, in pain and... scared."

The ghost mumbled softly when his aibou held his huge chin and stroked his hair, pressing his head against the teenager's chest. Seto pushed Yami closer, fervously hoping that it wasn't what he's thinking.

"Yami. You aren't coming to school with me anymore."

The CEO practically felt Yami's eyes widening against his chest. Raising up his head, the ghost looked at his aibou with a agape, shocked look.

"W-Why...? Did I do something wrong? I promise that I won't do it again aibou! I promise!"

"No, no, it wasn't you. I want you to do this for your own safety."

"My... safety? But aibou! I'M the one supposed to protect you! I won't let you go to this dangerous place alone!"

"I'm not asking."

"Aibou!"

"Yami. Don't make this harder than it needs to be. If you insist I'll be forced to let the Puzzle inside the safe box while I go to school for now on."

"Aibou..."

"You don't want to make company to my Blue-Eyes, do you?"

"..."

The drive back home was pretty unsettling. Yami wasn't saying anything, since his mind was littered with frustration, sadness and confusion. What did he do wrong? What did he do wrong? He just obeyed everything Seto said. He slept all the time just as Seto said. He pretended to be a simple cloth just as Seto said. So why. Why he was being treated like this?

Seto's mind was a storm of emotions. He had that terrible feeling that something bad was going to happen soon. Something that would ravage and take everything that he worked so hard for. Something that would end the fragile feelings of belonging and happiness that he, Mokie and Yami finaly gained against all odds. But it was just a feeling... there's no way that something that bad could happen. Yami was there. His company was there, along with all his servants. If something happened, it wasn't like he wouldn't be able to fix it quickly enough. So why he was so... worried?

There's no time to be unsettled for nothing. If Yami is home, he won't have any reason to feel like that anyway. Yami'll be safe, even if that leaves he himself open for attacks. He isn't worried. He knows a respectable diversity of martial arts, and his torture classes are still fresh on his mind. Without Yami his day'll be... weird and empty, but that's for the best.

When they arrived at the mansion, Yami silently followed Seto through the corridors, practically dragging himself behind the other. They never had spend so much time in complete silence... at least not together. Kaiba's face was lacking any sign of emotion, making a heavy weight fall over Yami's shoulders as he pondered once again what he might have done wrong.

As Seto opened a random door, Yami unconsciously followed, still deep in his thoughts.

That's until tons of colors exploded right before his eyes, almost making him jump instantly into monster form. The tiny squares fell all over the room as Yami was still recovering from the sudden scare. He looked around in utter shock.

Three tables covered with sweets and desserts were set near the place's blue walls. The spirit recognized some of his favorite brands of sweets and cookies filling expensive crystal bowls and dishes. There where some other kinds of food too, like meats, salads and soups, but these weren't the only things decorating the table.

Flowers. Every single kind of flower. The colorful, beautiful living beings where set all around the delicious dishes. Their pleasant smell made Yami's senses blur for some wonderful moments.

He loved flowers. Spending time laid in he garden, right next to them was heaven. Such delicate, gorgeous things that smelled so good. Seto must have taken note of how much time he spend there and...

Yami felt tears pilling up in the back of his eyes.

Beside the exotic and magnificent flowers, colorful squares lazily fell to the floor from somewhere in the ceilling... the spirit was too busy looking at everything in pure awe to worry about where these were coming from.

"Mokuba insisted on the confetti..." Seto muttered shyly, looking to the side as a light blush filled his face.

"SURPRISE!" Mokuba jumped happily out of his hiding place behind his brother and ran closer to their ghost, shaking his arms and throwing even more colorful and shiny things to the poor spirit's face. Yami shook his head and sneezed, making the tiny squares float everywhere. Seto made a disgusted sound when some the glittery things attached to his hair.

"Seto... Mokie... w-what... ?"

Kaiba's eyebrow raised bemusedly.

"Your birthday."

Yami gasped when the tiniest Kaiba brother glomped him, just like he did when they first met.

"Happy Birthday!" Mokuba screamed against his dark chest.

Looks like someone has been eating way too many things from the desserts table.

"T-Thank you... little aibou..." Yami muttered, ruffling the little boy's hair. Laughing, Mokuba immediately broke up the hug and ran to the tables to pick up a cube-like object. Yami shrieked when the same item was practically shoved on his face, bliking to the small kid in confusion.

"Open it, Yami! C'mon, do it!" Mokie pushed the box to the amorphous hands.

The spirit lubberly held the pink cube, bringing it closer to his face to examine it. It was... a pink box wrapped with red silk. Curious, he grabbed the ribbon and tried to take it off by pulling it... only to tighten it's grip on the gift... thing.

"No! Here, let me do this for you-"

"Mokuba." Seto warned him with a serious, dark tone. His little brother flinched midway and looked up to him with sorrowful eyes. Both of them knew that Yami hates to be treated like he isn't able to perform things like they do... even if he doesn't actually have much choice. It's just something that he's trying to live with... and failing. Mokie was so excited to see Yami opening his presents that he forgot how sensitive their ghost actually is, and looked down shyly when he realized that he might have ruined the spirit's day.

"There's no need for that, Seto. Mokie just wanted to help." Yami's voice was low, tamed.

Kaiba's eyes softened as he saw his spirit trying to open the present box various times, just to ruin the red ribbon instead. He approached his ghost, held the dark hand on his own and guided Yami through it, teaching him how to open his gift.

The spirit shivered when he felt his aibou holding his hand. Then his yellow eyes widened as he realized how easy opening a gift actually was. His cheeks became warm again... he wanted to run away and hide after this, but he simply didn't have the heart to ruin the small party his aibous arranged to him, so he suppressed the shame as best as he could.

Inside the pink box was... a collar?

Yami's body instantly became stiff and spiky as he tried to back away from the thing.

Seto's arms kept him tightly in place.

"Calm down. It's not what you think."

The softness in Seto's voice made Yami's breath slowly turn back to normal.

Upon Mokie's confused gaze, the older Kaiba brother grabbed the leather collar and brought it closer to Yami's eyes.

It was a black collar with metallic spikes. Dark blue 'KC' symbols were printed all over the leather, probably the most expensive one in the market, if Yami knew his aibou well. Where the ghost assumed that was the front part was a metallic plaque in the format of a Magic and Wizards card with of course, the 'KC' logo on it as well. Kaiba pressed something on the side of the metallic card and it opened up, revealing-

Yami's breath caught up.

He remembered this day. The day when Mokuba finally convinced Seto to get out of their room and try to live a little. While Yami appreciated how much time the young kid spent on him, he began to worry about the small one's health. Thankfully, Mokie managed to bring his brother to the game room, even though he had to take Yami along as well... Seto was worried about someone finding him before they came back. At the time they finally got to the room, most of the cooler games were taken, and there were just some chess boxes laying around. Seto was ecstatic... while Mokie made a face.

It didn't stop him from trying it though. Surprisingly, he ended up enjoying chess a lot. Yami watched their game over Seto's shoulder, his small tentacles waving around excitedly as the brothers' game turned out to be a bit more dramatic and intense than expected. Mokuba was frightfully good at chess for his age!

When a voice called out for the orphan bros Yami immediately hided in Seto's shirt. A subtle 'click' has heard and then he came back shyly, trying to figure out what just happened. But Mokie and Seto where too much into the game, and didn't bothered to explain whatever the 'click' was to their dark spirit.

Yami only discovered it several days later, after the photos were distributed on Seto's classroom. The blue eyed boy sneaked it in his bag so the ghost could see it. Yami's glowing eyes widened as he saw the small picture of his aibous smiling cheerfully to him. He leaned against Seto's unused notebooks as he admired what he thought that was a really well done work from his aibou. Of course, it felt different and it looked different from Seto's previous robotic and dragon-like works, but it was really good, so it was certainly made by his aibou.

He was a bit disappointed when he found out that it was just a photo, and what exactly a photo was. But Seto became really good with his drawings anyway, so the spirit still was extremely proud of him.

Inside that small metallic plaque was the exact same photo from the orphanage. He carefully accepted the leather collar from Kaiba's hands, looking longingly to the kids' frozen warm smiles.

Surprisingly, they were still enough to make something inside him melt.

But... how? He thought that this photo was... cut in half many years ago...

"Nii-sama? Were are we going?"

Seto arranged some blankets and pillows on Yami's back before looking at his hesitant little brother. The ghost wrapped everything tightly with his tentacles, making sure that everything was safe and in place before blinking at Mokie as well.

"I just want to get out of there, just for one night. We'll come back in the morning, but... I can't stand this place... I can't stand these people anymore."

The blue eyed kid got into several fights during the last weeks. Most of them were over games. Yami sympathized with his aibou, these children simply didn't know what they were talking about. Games are so important, in so many levels.

"Oh..." Mokuba muttered, moving foot to foot shyly. He never liked to go out without his parents before, especially at night.

"C'mon Mokie." Seto ruffled the small kid's hair, smiling calmly to him. "Yami's here. Do you really think that anyone will try to get near us with him there?"

Mokie giggled in agreement. "Yeah." He said, calming a little.

Seto jumped on Yami's back and handed out his hand to his little bro to get up as well. The ghost stumbled slightly under their weight before finding an equilibrium point and shaking his head excitedly to the idea of getting away from this place an seeing the world. He could feel something inside him pond excitedly with the perspective.

When both bros were confortably set, the dark spirit ran through the orphanage's tiny patio before jumping over the fence and dashing through the silent, dusty street.

The orphanage was set in the very end of Domino City. A fairly rural place, with some small markets there and there, one clinic and a tool store a bit further. It wasn't interesting at all, and Seto didn't know what came over him to make him want to get out off bed so late at night. The streets were desert, dark and cold. Yami's claws clicked against the dust filled ground as the ghost ran and jumped excitedly through the night, sniffing the cool wind and shivering with delight. Seto and Mokie giggled as they were swing from side to side thanks to the spirit's excitement. The older kid's blue eyes widened when he realized that Yami never had left their room before.

Patting the ghost's neck to gain his attention, Seto leaned closer to his ear and whispered:

"There's no need to worry about us, you can just hold me and Mokie in place. Have fun."

Needless to say that the jumping and running around intensified a lot after those words.

The huge, white moon gleamed over them as Seto and Mokie tried to find constellations among the insane amount of stars and Yami's insatiable jumps. That was one of the pluses of living in the rural part... the night sky was beautiful. Panting, their ghost looked up with them, his yellow breath slowly disappearing in the darkness. Yami was finally tired from his small exploration and slowed down his pace to look out for the bears the little brothers were talking about.

Seto laid on Yami's back, sighing as the ghost's relaxing movements and the fresh night air rocked him into sleep. The stars shone over him as he slowly closed his eyes...

Mokuba noticed that his brother had fallen sleep and carefully stepped over him to get closer to Yami's neck. They've been walking through this dirt road for almost an hour. It would be awfully dark if Yami's eyes weren't so shiny... they illuminated the path ahead them pretty nicely. Mokie wondered how long Yami would stay awake, and how far he would go while they sleept. Would them be able to get back to the orphanage before someone noticed that they're missing?

His worries started to blur inside his mind as he followed his big bro's example and fell asleep on Yami's back.

It probably was some hours later that they were shaken awaken by their pet ghost. Yami was looking curiously at them and at something else more ahead. Following his look, Mokie gasped when he saw a kneaded box in the middle of the asphalt street...

...asphalt? Yami must have wandered A LOT since they fell asleep!

The box's contents were spilled all over the street. The little boy's curiosity made him shake his brother awake before practically dragging the sleepy boy to the torn object. Yami followed them silently.

Turns out that the box was filled with cards and another products based from a card game called "Magic and Wizards". There wereposters, plushies, cups- that obviously shatered after probably falling from a truck or a car or... something. The game wasn't familiar to Seto, so it must be imported merchandise. What a shame, for the person who ordered these things that is.

A shiny thing caught the blue-eyed boy's attention. Crouching down, he grabbed a small, metallic thing that looked a lot like the cards scattered all over the street. After poking and analyzing it, the kid found out that it was actually a locket. A customized locket apparently.

Cool!

With a big smile on his face, the orphan scoured the box some more until he found another one. As much as he kept looking for more, he just found two. With a small 'aww' he gave up and shoved the two lockets in his pocket. Mokie was drooling over the plushies, particularly over a white one. Yami was sniffing some cards. Seto wanted to join them and get as many things as he could but the sky was already getting brighter... they had to go back as fast as they could, and there's no way that they'd be able to hide so many things, even though Yami was probably strong enough to easily carry them and the box back to the orphanage.

"C'mon you two. Just choose two things and let's go."

Mokie openly showed his deception while grabbing the white, dragon-thing plushie and a deck of cards. Yami turned his head to the side and grabbed a purple plushie along with two cards. Seto raised an eyebrow at him before picking two decks and signalizing Yami to lie down.

They barely got into their rooms before the staff began to wake up their roommates. Yami was able to run surprisingly fast! That left Seto wondering if he was able to fly... that'd be awesome! But wishful thinking aside, he and Mokie decided to fill the lockets with the photo that they got on the another day... not that they had any other anyway. Carefully ripping it apart, they filled the lockets and cherfully teased each other about 'how silly they looked with these goofy smiles on their faces.'

The sound of Yami laying over the bunker's upper bed made Seto realize that there was still one important person that needed to be remembered. The kid felt a strong feeling of guilt pressing his chest, but he honestly didn't have anything like these lockets to give Yami and include him on this. Looking up to the spirit, he noticed that Yami had calmly curled up on the bed and was facing away from them.

Seto silently sat on the bed and looked away, biting his lips as his little brother made a confused sound to Seto's sudden withdrawal.

"We thought that you may like to have one of these as well."

"A-Aibou..." Yami's voice was faltering. "A-A-Aibou..."

Kaiba made a sound shamefully similar to a shriek when his ghost glomped him with maximum strenght. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around the black being's back and hold him closer. A fond smile grew on his face.

Yami was definitely his. And he was definitely where he belonged.

No one was taking Yami away from him. Tightening his embrace around the spirit at the point of making him whimper, he wrapped the expensive collar around his neck, leaned closer to the ghost's ear and whispered the purest form of truth...

"Mine."

I NEED this collar, ok? xD. Seto was pretty tamed in this chapter, but don't expect him to act like that for too long, hahaha.

Again, a HUGE thanks for the support, I love you all! If you found any mistake or a phrase wasn't completely understandable to you, please tell me so I can fix it! (Also, if you liked the fic, comment, please. It REALLY inspires me to make more! :D. )