I stared blankly through the airplane window at the growing skyline of Domino City. It's been an entire year since I was here last. A lot of things have changed in the time I've been in Egypt. My hand unconsciously moved to pat the side of my waist where my Millennium Dagger was clipped to my jeans. Above my head the seat belt light flickered to life and I buckled mine across my lap.

The plane began its descent towards the airport and I stared at my hands. What if I see him again? Nervous butterflies danced around in my stomach as the plane was brought to a halt in front of the terminal. I unbuckled my seatbelt and reached above me to grab my small black duffle bag from the overhead compartment. I followed the long line of travel weary passengers off the plane and to the baggage claim.

My eyes scanned the crowd looking for any sign of my brother. When I didn't see him I sighed and sat down on a bench to wait. He must be late again. I pulled out my phone to check for any messages. None, something must have happened. He promised me he would be here waiting for me when my plane landed. I leaned my head back and shut my eyes.

"Ash?" A deep voice asked as a hand prodded my shoulder. I opened my eyes slowly see a familiar pair of dark brown eyes.

"About time you showed up," I smirked as I stood up and hugged my younger brother, Tristan. We're only one year apart in age, but he's a few centimeters taller than me. Not to mention his hair adds an extra five or six centimeters to his height.

"Well, there was traffic," he said and rubbed the back of his head. "So how have you been?"

"Good," I smiled. "Egypt was amazing! The pyramids were breathtaking and the people were so nice."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," he smiled back and ruffled my long hair. "Did you make any friends there?"

"Yeah," I said turning away to hide the slight blush that crossed my cheeks thinking about him.

"That's good," he said just as his phone rang.

"You should take that," I said. He nodded and checked the caller id before putting it to his ear.

"Hey Tea… Yugi's grandpa's what? … Who? … That jerk! … Yeah I'll be right there." He pressed the end call button on his phone and shoved it in his pocket.

"Something wrong?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Do you mind if we take a detour before I drop you at the hotel?"

"Not at all," I said and he grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the airport. He quickly threw a helmet at me and put on his own before climbing onto his motorcycle. I put on my helmet and quickly secured my duffle bag over my shoulder. As soon as my hands were wrapped around his waist Tristan took off down the street.

He steered us in the direction of downtown Domino City, weaving in and out of traffic. "Where are we going?" I shouted over the wind rushing by us. He either didn't hear me or decided to just ignore me because he didn't answer, he just sped up. "Tristan! If you don't slow down you're going to get us killed!"

The bike slowed and came to an abrupt halt. "Sorry," he apologized. "It's an emergency, but on the bright side we're here." I looked up at the tall skyscraper in front of us and immediately froze. No. Why did we have to come here? Why couldn't have been somewhere else? My heartbeat sped up as I stared up at the large black building.

"Tristan!" A girly voice shouted and I looked up as a group of three teens ran towards us. "Where have you been?"

"Sorry guys," my brother said. "I had to pick my sister up from the airport."

"Eh? Sister?" A guy with a Brooklyn accent said. "You never told me ya had a sister!"

"That doesn't matter right now!" The girl exclaimed. "Yugi's grandpa is in trouble!"

"Yeah, right." Brooklyn said and charged into the building. I was about to say that I'd stay there, but before I could utter one syllable my brother was dragging me inside. We entered the building and rushed into an elevator, a short kid with tri-colored spiky hair pressed the button for some floor and the elevator shot up.

"So well we're waiting," Tristan said. "Guys this is my older sister, Ash."

"Nice to meet you all," I smiled and bowed my head a bit. The blonde with the accent just stood there and stared at me while the brunette grabbed my hand.

"Hi, I'm Tea Gardener." She gushed. "It's so nice to meet you, I can just tell that we're going to be great friends." I seriously doubt it, she's way to peppy for my taste.

"I'm Yugi Muto," the short kid said and held out his hand. I shook it and smiled.

"Anyone going to introduce the blonde?" I joked. "Or should I just call him Brooklyn?" The blonde seemed to break out of his trance at that moment and smirked at me.

"The name's Joey Wheeler and I'm the number one duelist in the world!" He shouted.

"Please," I scoffed. "You're obviously just a novice. There's no way you could compete with a top notch duelist like me."

"Ash," Tristan scolds. "Be nice." It's strange that in our relationship he always took the roll of the responsible older sibling while I was the one who always needed to be scolded. It should be the other way around.

"Sorry," I mumbled as the elevator doors opened.

"Grandpa!" Yugi shouted and ran over to a groaning old man on the ground. Tea let out a gasp and even Tristan and Joey mirrored the look of shock on my face. "Are you okay?"

"Yugi, I've failed," the old man said, pain clear in his voice. "I wanted to teach that boy Kaiba a lesson about the heart of the cards, but I lost." The man let out another groan and slumped on the ground. How could Seto do such a thing?

"How's the old man feeling, hm?" a cold voice void of any emotion asked.

"Seto," I barely whispered as I stared at the silhouette of the boy I used to, and maybe still did, love. Butterflies began to dance around in my stomach and I felt like I was going to have a heart attack.

"Kaiba, you sleaze! What have you done to him?" Joey shouted as him, Tea, and Tristan rushed forward. I stayed back near the elevator, stock still as my heart began to race. I had hoped that a year away from him would have eased the pain, but it still feels like a million tiny needles are being shoved into my heart.

"We had a duel that's all," Seto said coolly and stepped out of the light. His once kind eyes were empty of emotion and he gazed at my brother and his friends with a cold indifference. "With each of us putting up our most valuable card as the prize, but I guess playing against a champion like myself was just to much stimulation for the old fool." There was a hint of amusement in his tone as he shrugged his shoulders. Oh Seto, what happened to you?

"Kaiba!" Tea shouted point a finger in his direction. "You should be ashamed of yourself!"

Said boy just shrugged. "It was fair, and look," he smirked pulling a card from his pocket. "At the sweet prize I won." He held up a Blue Eyes White Dragon card and ripped it down the middle. Everyone's eyes widened and a quiet gasp escaped my lips.

"Grandpa's most treasured card!" Yugi exclaimed.

"Yes," Kaiba continued throwing the two torn pieces to the floor. "The Blue Eyes White Dragon is a rare and powerful card, and this one will never be used against me."

"Ah, my Blue Eyes White Dragon! M-My treasure!" Yugi's grandpa said in a weak voice, a trembling hand reached out towards the destroyed card. A groan of pain escaped his lips and Yugi looked down at him in worry.

"Grandpa hold on!" Yugi said to him before looking up at Kaiba, anger contorting his face. "How could you do such a thing?"

"Yugi here," his grandfather said and held out a duel monsters deck. Sweat poured down his face just from the effort of trying to stay conscious. "Take this."

"Huh? Grandpa?" Yugi asked his voice sounding like he was on the brink of tears.

"I built this deck, I put my soul in these cards and I taught you everything I know Yugi. Take them, take my cards and teach him respect! Teach Kaiba respect for the heart of the cards Yugi."

"But grandpa, you need help! I need to get you to a doctor," Yugi cried.

"Sounds like an excuse, your friends can care for your grandfather while you and I duel… Unless you're afraid." Seto taunted.

"Take him Yugi!" Joey shouted balling his hands into fists. "We can take care of your grandpa while you take care of creepy Kaiba. Teach that rich spoiled brat what a real duel's all about!"

"For your grandpa, Yugi." Tea added.

"I-I don't know."

"Trust me," Joey said. "You're like the best player I've ever seen and you've got the Millennium Puzzle. You can do this Yugi, I know you can!" Did he just say Millennium Puzzle? So Yugi has a Millennium item too. I wonder what it does. I know my dagger is pretty powerful when it comes to increasing speed and strength, but it also helps control my emotions when I duel.

"We all do," Tea said. A look of determination crossed Yugi's face and he nodded.

"Okay grandpa, I'll do it," he said taking the deck from the old man.

"I know you will my boy," Mr. Muto said back.

"Everyone put your hands together," Tea said and pulled out a pen. All four of them put their hands in and Tea drew a strange symbol on them. "And I'll mark us with a special sign."

"Huh?" Joey and Tristan said their eyes widening in confusion. It's nice to see that some things never change; Tristan is still as clueless as ever.

"What gives Tea?" Joey asked examining his hand.

"It's a symbol of our friendship," she explained. "So when Yugi's dueling, no matter how tough it gets he'll know he's not alone. We're all right there with him!"

"And he wont be alone," I said stepping out of the shadow. "I'll stay to keep an eye on him." I sent a wink my brother's way and they all nodded and the three rushed out of the room, Tristan carrying Yugi's grandpa on his back.

"A-Ash?" I heard Seto whisper. I turned towards him, my eyes set in a glare. He visibly flinched under my harsh stare.

"Seto," I said trying to keep my voice neutral in order to hide the turmoil of emotions going on inside me.

"You two know each other?" Yugi asked staring between the two of us.

"It's a long story, I'll explain it to you later." I said as a thought crossed my mind. "But you can't tell my brother any of it. He'd flip if he knew."

"Ash," Seto said softly emotions flooding his previously vacant eyes. "We need to talk."

"No we don't," I said as if I couldn't care less. I felt as if I wanted to break down and cry or run into his arms and apologize over and over again for leaving him. Tears began to build up in my eyes, but I blinked multiple times in order to get rid of them. Unable to meet his eyes any longer I looked away and glared at the wall behind him. "Don't you two have a duel to start?"

Seto cleared his throat and forced himself to look away from me. Though something tells me that if Yugi weren't here he would have forced me to explain myself. "Yes, if you'll just follow me."

He led Yugi and I to a large arena with two platforms on either side. I recognized it as the virtual simulator he was working on before I left. "Wow," Yugi breathed taking it all in. Seto got onto one of the platforms and gestured for Yugi to get on the other.

"I designed this virtual stadium myself," Seto said. "Impressive, hm? I think you'll agree it adds a bit more life to the game. We each begin with two thousand life points, the first player to zero loses!" The platforms extended and moved out over the stadium. I took a seat on the stands and waited for the match to start. "Are you ready to play, runt?"

"Play time is over Kaiba!" Yugi shouted. Then something strange happened. It was as if Yugi became a completely different person. A few strands of his blonde bangs flipped up to join his spiky black hair and he looked as if he grew a few inches. His once innocent face took on a more serious air and a small smirk adorned his face. "Now Kaiba, prepare yourself because it's time to duel!" Yugi's voice sounded as if it had dropped a few octaves and all of his childlike innocence disappeared.

"The virtual system's ready, so let's begin." Seto smirked and took a card out of his hand. "I attack with the mighty Hitasumi Giant. Brace yourself Yugi, you've never dueled like this before." As soon as those words left his mouth a giant virtual replica of the monster appeared on the field.

"He's brought the monster on the card to life," Yugi exclaimed.

So this is how Seto's virtual system turned out. Not bad, not bad at all. The two exchanged some unimportant words before Yugi summoned the Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress. The large blue dragon appeared on the field just as Joey came running in.

"Huh? Monsters?" He asked in surprise. "Real monsters!"

"Hey Joey!" I said gaining his attention. "Their just virtual replicas created by Seto's arena. Don't worry they aren't real."

"Fireball attack!" Yugi shouted and the two monsters clashed. Yugi's dragon made quick work of Seto's giant dropping his life points down to 1800.

"Alright!" Joey cheered. "Go Yugi!"

"I wouldn't celebrate just yet," I warned Joey. "This duel is a long way from over."
"Well played Yugi, for a beginner. But how will you deal with this?" Seto dropped a card on the field and Saggi the Dark Clown appeared.

"Saggi the Dark Clown," Yugi muttered. "But that card has barely any attack strength."

"True your Winged Dragon's attack is 1400 while my Dark Clown is only 600, but when I combine it with this card," Seto said smugly placing a card down.

"A magic card!" Yugi said in surprise.

"While that's normally how the game's played," I mumbled to myself. "It's like he's never seen a magic card before."

"Exactly, the Negative Energy Generator it multiplies my monster's attack by three." As Seto was saying this, lightning began to spark around Saggi's body and the clown grew in size. "Dark Clown attack with dark light!" An evil looking smile formed on Seto's face as the clown launched a black ball of energy at the dragon, sucking it into a vortex. "As you can see combining cards can be very effective."
Yugi grit his teeth as his life points dropped down to 1600. Yugi placed a card in defense mode and Saggi destroyed it. "Hang in there Yugi!" Joey shouted, banging his fists against the railing in front of him.

"Come on Yugi!" I yelled. "You can do this. Just take a minute to calm down and focus on the task at hand. Seto may claim to be the best, but he isn't unbeatable."

"Ash?" All three of the boys sad in surprise and looked at me.

"Look," I said staring directly at Yugi. "Any friend of my brother is a friend of mine. If Tristan believes in you then so do I. Besides I've beaten Seto plenty of times. All it takes is staying calm and thinking through your strategy."

"Wait. You've beaten Kaiba?" Joey asked in surprise.

"I told you Wheeler," I smirked. "I'm a top notch duelist. I just took a year off from making appearances at tournaments in order to go to Egypt."

"Stay calm and think out a strategy," Yugi muttered. "Right, thanks Ash."

"No problem Yugi," I smiled. "Just watch out for his-"

"Don't you dare tell him about that!" Seto shouted interrupting me. His eyes were filled with rage as he stared me down. I gazed back coolly acting as if his glare didn't hurt me.

"And why shouldn't I?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Because I know you," he said. "You duel with honor and you wouldn't feel right about giving away my dueling secrets."

I opened my mouth to tell him that I wouldn't feel anything, but closed it quickly realizing that he was right. "I hate it when you're right," I mumbled causing him to smirk triumphantly.

"Let's get back to our duel," he said and looked at Yugi.

"Right," Yugi growled and placed another card face down. Saggi once again destroyed it and they repeated the process a couple more times.

"You're not faring any better than the old man, Yugi." Seto laughed. "Your deck is just as weak and feeble as your grandfather."

"My grandpa is a great man and a better duelist than you'll ever be," Yugi glared. "He entrusted me with his cards and put his heart into this deck. I doubt you have that kind of faith in your cards Kaiba!" A shocked look overcomes Seto's face, just like it did back when I told him the same thing.

"Face it Ash," Seto laughed at the concentrated look on my face. "There's just no way you can beat me."

"Hold on," I muttered gazing at my cards, trying to figure out the best strategy.

"Come on, there's no way you have a monster in there that's stronger than my Blue Eyes." My eyes swept over the cards lying on the table. He's wrong, I do have a monster stronger than all three of his Blue Eyes placed on the field, but I don't have any monster cards in my hand that I could place in defense mode to buy some time until I can draw it. The only thing keeping me in this duel is my Attraffic Control magic card, which prevents Seto from attacking because he has three monsters on the field.

"I'm not going to give up," I murmured. "I just have to believe that the heart of the cards will give me what I need."

"The what?" Seto asked, a look of shock crossing his face.

"The heart of the cards," I smiled. "It means that you have to have faith that no matter what your deck will come through for you."

"That's a bunch of nonsense," he snorted. I just smirked at him and held my breath. A smile formed on my face when I saw what card I had drawn.

"You're in for it now," I said and placed two more magic cards on the field.

"How are those magic cards going to help you?" He asked.

"Like this," I grinned. "I send these three magic cards to the graveyard in order to play Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder. His 4000 attack points are more than enough to wipe out your dragons. And I believe that means I've just won."

"You just got lucky," he scoffed and cleaned his cards off the field.

"It wasn't luck," I said and placed my deck in my jacket pocket. "I'm just that good."

"Oh really," he smirked and walked over to my side of the table. "Are you sure I didn't let you win?"

"The great Seto Kaiba let someone else win!" I gasped in shock and stood up in front of him.

"I'm not that obsessed with winning," he grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yes you are," I giggled and stood on my toes to place a quick kiss on his cheek, before running away.

"Hey get back here!" He shouted.

"Ah! Impossible!" Seto's shout pulled me from my reminiscing.

"I've assembled all five special cards, all five pieces of the puzzle," Yugi smirked as a star like structure appeared on the field. Out of the star came the upper body of a large monster. It seemed like an Egyptian pharaoh and towered over Seto's three Blue Eyes. Exodia, the only unstoppable card in Duel Monsters. Yugi's grandpa has a pretty good deck if he has those cards in it. I'm surprised that Yugi was able to draw all of them.

"Exodia, it's not possible." Seto said backing away. This is the first time I've ever seen him look so terrified. "No one's ever been able to call him!"

"Exodia obliterate!" Yugi shouted and the monster rushed forward. I shut my eyes as a flash of light engulfed the arena. The only sound was Seto's screaming. When the light cleared Seto's dragons were no more and his life points dropped down to zero.

"You did it!" Joey shouted. "Yugi you won!"

"Good job Yugi," I yelled to the spiky haired teen.

"You play only for power Kaiba, that is why you lost." Yugi said. "But if you put your heart in the game there's nothing you can't do."

"But-But how? How could I have lost to him," Seto mumbled, looking horribly lost.

"Kaiba, if you truly want to know… open your mind!" Yugi shouted and threw his arm in Seto's direction. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but Seto fell to his knees. It must have had something to do with Yugi's Millennium item. "There Kaiba, maybe now you will begin to see."

"Come on guys," I said to Yugi and Joey. "Let's get out of here."

"Ash?" A young boy's voice said. I turned around to see Mokuba staring at me.

"Hey Mokuba," I said a bit awkwardly. "How's it going?"

"Ash!" He shouted and ran to me wrapping his arms around my waist. "I missed you so much!" Tears flowed down the small boy's tan cheeks as I pulled him closer to me.

"Hey," I said gently. "Don't cry."

"D-Does this mean you and Seto are back together?" He asked. His big eyes stared up at me and I had to look away, so that I wouldn't have to see the disappointment in them when I told him no.

"I'm sorry buddy, but I just… I just don't think that things can be fixed between us," I said and gently stroked his midnight hair. Not to mention I'm with someone else.

"But Seto's been so sad since you left," the boy whispered. This came as a shock to me. Maybe Seto really did… no, I've moved on. It's no use to dwell on the past.

"I'm sorry Mokuba," I mumbled. "But I really should get going." I gently removed the kid's arms from around my waist and turned to face Joey and Yugi. "We should go check on Yugi's grandpa."

"Right," they both nodded and we left the building.

"So how do you know Kaiba?" Yugi asked seemingly back to his normal, innocent self.

"Well," I sighed as we began walking towards the hospital. "Seto and I… we used to date."

"Kaiba actually dated you?" Joey asked in shock. "How the heck did that happen?"

"I'd have to start at the beginning in order to explain that." I said. "After Tristan was born our parents split up. I went with our dad and he went with our mom. When I was about thirteen my dad died in a car crash. I was sent into foster care because my dad burned every record that connected me and him to my mom. I was sent to this really awful home where I was picked on and bullied by the other kids, so after a few months I ran away. I lived out on the streets and was reduced to begging for food."

"That's horrible!" Joey exclaimed

"I know," I said. "One day, when I was starving and close to death, I collapsed near the Kaiba's mansion. Seto and Mokuba had gone for a walk and stumbled across me. Back then Seto wasn't as cruel as he is now. He carried me back to his house and ordered the maids to take care of me. After that I lived at the mansion and Seto and I developed crushes on each other. Two years ago we started dating, but then something happened and I decided to leave and travel to Egypt."

"If you and Tristan were separated then how do you two know about each other now?" Yugi asked.

"My dad burned all of his documents, but he didn't burn his journal. After he died I was reading through it when I came across and entry talking about Tristan. Once I knew about him I tracked him down and we've been close ever since." I explained. "But listen to me, Tristan doesn't know anything about Seto and I, so you can't tell him."

"Why are ya keepin' it a secret?" Joey asked.

"He's way too over protective. If he found out that I was dating Seto, that I was dating anyone, he'd flip out!"

"So why did you leave him?" Yugi asked.

"I... I told him," I bit my lip suddenly feeling very embarrassed. "I told him I loved him… and after that he avoided me."

"That jerk!" Joey exclaimed and wrapped a protective arm around me. "I won't tell Tristan what he did to ya, but if he hurts you again I'm gonna kick his keister!"

"Thanks Joey," I smiled as we arrived at the hospital. "Can you guys tell Tristan that I'm just going to head to the hotel I'm staying at for the night? I'm a bit… emotionally exhausted after seeing Seto."

"No problem," Yugi said.

"Do you want me to walk you there?" Joey asked.

"I'll be fine," I waved him off. "It's only a block away from here."

"Okay," Joey said, still not sure if he should let me go.

"Bye guys!" I waved and headed off in the direction of the hotel. I'm glad my little brother has made such great friends. I've never really been a… friendly person, so I didn't have a lot of friends growing up. Actually, I didn't have any friends until Seto and Mokuba came along.

I walked through the crowded streets, weaving in and out of people on the sidewalk. I actually missed this place quite a bit. Egypt was great, but nothing compares to the big city.

When I got to my hotel room there was a bouquet of roses and a note sitting in the bed. I lifted the roses up with a smile and gave them a sniff. The heavenly aroma invaded my nostrils and I removed some fake flowers from a vase in the room and replaced them with the roses. I sat down on the bed with a sigh and read the note.

Miss you already. Hope you have fun in Domino City. I can't wait until you come back.

Love,

M.

The smile on my face grew and I laid back on the bed, hugging the note to my chest. I curled up into a ball and just as I was about to fall asleep, there was a knock at my door. "Seriously?" I growled and rolled off the bed. I walked over to the door and yanked it open. No one was standing there, but lying on the ground was box of chocolates and a letter.

I tentatively picked the box up and set it next to the roses. I opened the envelope and two letters fell out. One of them had the words read first written across it. I just shrugged and opened it.

Ash,

I thought this would be something you'd want to see. Seto wrote you this letter a month after you left, but he never sent it. He'll probably kill me for sending this to you, but you need to read it.

Mokuba

I stared at the letter for a long time. Should I open it? Do I even want to open it? Yes, but… what if it's a hate letter. I don't regret my decision to leave Seto, it had to be done. If I hadn't I would have lived this past year in misery. There's a chance we might have worked things out, but what if we hadn't?

After a moment of hesitation I decided to read it. I opened the page slowly and stared at the tear stained paper.

Ash,

Chances are you'll never see this, but I have to get it out. I'm so sorry, I wish I would have realized sooner how my actions were affecting you. After you told me you loved me, I froze. I had no idea what to do, I was terrified. Terrified that if I admitted how I felt something bad would happen. The only other person I've ever loved is Mokuba and that's because he's my brother.

The new feelings I was getting around you scared me. By the time I had recovered from my shock, you had fallen asleep or so I thought. I thought that if I avoided those feelings things would just go on normally, but every time I saw you they came rushing back. I started to avoid you, hoping that if I didn't see you, touch you, or kiss you for a while I'd be able to control them. I had realized too late that my plan had backfired for you had already left.

The day you left was the day I planned to tell you how I felt. I was anticipating it all day at work. At one point I'd want to rush home and tell you right away and at another I'd want to stay as long as I possibly could and hope you were asleep by the time I got home. When I did get home, I resolved that I would tell you no matter what. I searched the entire house for you before coming to our bedroom. As soon as I saw the letter my heart sank. When I had finished reading I couldn't help, but let out a sob that had Mokuba running to my room.

I couldn't speak so I just handed Mokuba the letter you left for him. I stared at that letter for a long time, hoping it was just a trick of the mind and you would come bounding through the door at any moment and give me a kiss hello, ask me how work was, and tell me that dinner was ready. But that never happened. I couldn't sleep at all that night; I just stayed up staring at that picture we took on my sixteenth birthday. The one where you were wearing your favorite sundress.

The truth is that I love you. I love you so much it hurts and now you're gone, possibly forever, because of my stupidity. Never in my life have I regretted something so much. You're perfect. The way you laugh and smile brightens my day and now I find myself waking up and looking for you beside me, but find nothing. I've cried more in this past month than I have in my entire life. You're the only girl for me Ash and I hope that one day I can make things right between us.

I will love you forever,

Seto

I stared at the page for a long time, crystal tears dripping down my face and further smearing the ink on the page. My heart feels as if it's been stabbed multiple times. A sob escaped my throat and I curled up into a ball on the bed, clutching the letter to me. That's how I spent my first night in Domino City, curled up in a ball unable to stop myself from sobbing.

I think I actually started crying when I was writing Seto's letter... That's what I get for writing this story. I hope you liked this chapter and remember reviews are welcome, I try to respond to every review, so if you have a question or just want to talk feel free to review or PM me :) Also check out my two Naruto fics, Naruto one-shot, and Naruto/Yugioh crossover. Oh and follows are nice too, I really like follows, but I like reviews more. Both is like the ultimate way to make my day, so keep that in mind :p

~Tora