Chapter 19

'So... if Mai's no longer pregnant, does that mean that Tristan is?' Mokuba frowned.

'You know, I never even thought of that,' SK pressed his lips together, 'it is a good point though.'

'No, no it's not,' Mai gave a strange half laugh and shook her head. 'Tristan can't be pregnant; not unless I've truly lost my baby and I have not lost my baby. I will get her back.'

'Yeah, when she's born.'

'No, not when she's born,' her eyes brimmed with angry tears, 'because that means I'm not giving birth to her and I will give birth to her.'

'But what if it doesn't work out like that?'

'It will work out like that. You'll see.'

'Okay, okay,' SK held up his hands in defeat, 'you'll get your baby back and be the one to give birth to her. Just don't blame me if you don't.'

'Is it me or is it starting to get dark awfully quickly?' Covo tilted his head up towards the sky.

Almost as soon as he did, large drops of rain began splashing down around them. Edgily the four of them exchanged a look.

'Shelter anyone?'

For the second day in a row Ahna found herself sheltered under part of the blue stone henge. It was increasingly depressing, but at least she wasn't on her own this time.

'It'll pass soon,' she sighed as she leant back against the stone behind her, 'but we'll probably get it on and off all night again, like I did before. I think it rain's to stop us from moving around too much at certain times.'

'Why would it do that?' Catilin's head twitched slightly as she watched the rain.

'Maybe bad things come out at certain times,' Jay shrugged, 'things which could hurt us if we don't stay put.'

'That's a scary idea,' her lip trembled as she turned towards him. 'You don't really think there are bad things out there, do you Jay?'

'I don't think so,' Ahna answered before Jay could make the situation worse. 'I think the rain is to slow our movements down.'

'Huh?'

'Well think about it, if you can't move very far for certain a length of time then it's going to take you a while to get anywhere.'

'If you're going to think about it that way then why not call this whole situation a game,' Jay licked his lips, 'and the point is to locate the missing baby.'

'Don't make my son a prize,' Ahna glared at him.

'Why not?' Jay shrugged. 'I mean, assuming the others made it here too, we're all looking for the exact same thing, aren't we? So what if whoever's brought us here has made that the point of some twisted little game.'

'I don't like twisted games,' Catilin pulled a face, 'even if they can be fun sometimes. And, and, and who would make baby Crovell a prize anyway?'

'Well, if you ask me, a few baby brother hating gods kinda spring to mind,' Jay's tongue skated across his lips as he lowered his head slightly.

'But they wanted to kill him, not auction him off to the highest bidder,' Ahna folded her arms.

'Well maybe they're just trying to keep us occupied,' he licked his lips again. 'You know, distract us whilst they go after the real prize.'

'What do you mean?' Ahna and Catilin exchanged worried glances.

'I mean, what if this isn't about Crovell for once. What if this is about Jo?'

Tristan barely had time to get over the shock of Kaiba throwing himself into his arms, when the heavens had opened and the rain started pounding down around them. He and Duke exchanged glances, before the three of them ran full pelt back towards the pink stone structure. The look of amusement on Joey's face when they arrived was enough to make several uncomfortable feelings move through Tristan's stomach. For half a second he just thought it was anger, but he quickly realised it was a little more disconcerting than that; not that he had time to really figure out why.

'I thought you were going to pick up firewood,' Joey smirked, 'not guys.'

'Shut up,' Tristan glared at him.

'So where exactly did you find rich boy?'

'We didn't,' Duke shook his head, 'he found us.'

'And is there any reason why he's holding onto Tristan like some frightened little kid?'

'Or why he's being so quiet?' Yugi frowned.

'I'm not sure,' Tristan glanced down at his friend. 'I mean, he's almost acting like I do when…' his heart stopped dead. 'Do you…?' He gave a nervous cough. 'Do you have any idea who you are?'

Kaiba shook his head.

'What about anyone else here?'

'I know who you are,' his voice was childish and small.

'And what about the others?'

He shook his head again.

'Besides me, do you remember anything?'

'But I only need to know who you are. You're my important person.'

Everything in Tristan fell into a deep state of disbelief. Those words... those words were his words. They didn't sound right coming from Kaiba. But again it was more than that; somewhere buried within the disbelief at hearing Kaiba talking like this was guilt. Deep seeded, deep rooted, pulling, tugging, biting, consuming guilt. It didn't make any sense; hearing Kaiba admit he was important to him should have filled Tristan with joy, not guilt.

'You know I'm not sure I really like the idea of your ridicules man-crush on Kaiba being a two way thing,' the amused tones of Joey's voice attempted to cut through the tension. 'I don't care how rich he is, you could definitely do better.'

'Shut up Joey,' Tristan glared at him, 'now's not the time for your stupidity.'

'Who's being stupid here?' Joey smirked. 'I don't mind if you're gay Tristan, but there's no need for you to settle for the first guy who insults you, you know.'

'You're lucky you're pregnant right now or I swear I'd hit you for that,' Tristan felt his whole body go tense, but not for the reasons he was expecting.

'There's no need for you to get so tetchy about this,' Joey rolled his eyes, 'we both know rich boy would totally rip on me for being pregnant right now, if he could remember. This is probably the only time I can seriously put him down without any repercussions, do you really think I'd walk away from that?'

'You could try being the better man for once Joey,' Tristan gritted his teeth, 'I mean, shouldn't you be setting a good example for your daughter or something?'

'You mean my unborn child?' He shook his head. 'It's not like she understands.'

'This coming from the guy whose eldest son is a frigging seven month old genius?'

'Good point,' he stared down at his bulging stomach. 'Sorry Jo, Daddy didn't mean to be so insensitive to Tristan's man-crush; even though we both know he'd be mean to Daddy for carrying you.'

'Its official,' Tristan rolled his eyes, 'you're an idiot.'

'Looks like the rains stopped,' Duke cut into their conversation.

'Guess its time to look for firewood again then,' Tristan sighed. 'Though I'm guessing most of it's probably soaked by now,' he threw a wary glance towards Joey. 'If I leave him here with you, you won't take advantage, will you?'

'Exactly what do you mean by take advantage?' Joey cocked an eyebrow.

'I mean, you won't make fun of him or anything.'

'Of course not, what do you take me for? I would never make fun of someone with amnesia of any variety.'

'But you just were.'

'No, I was making fun of you; there's a difference.'

'Whatever,' Tristan rolled his eyes again, before turning his attention towards Kaiba. 'You mind if I leave you here with Joey and Yugi for a while?'

'I want to go with you,' his voice was small.

'I'm not going to be gone long, I promise. And you're much better off staying here with them.'

'But I don't know them,' his eyes became large and pleading, 'I know you.'

'I understand, but they're not bad people, honest,' Tristan forced a sympathetic smile across his face, 'because you know I wouldn't leave you with bad people, right?'