Disclaimer: As attached to these boys as I've become, they ain't mine.

"All journeys eventually end in the same place: home."

~Chris Geiger

Chapter 26

The next morning Seto awoke only to add a stiff neck to his growing list of ailments. He noticed that at some point in the night Alistair had put his arm around him. Normally Seto wasn't one for physical contact, but he found the touch pleasant. Despite wanting to get out of this hellhole as soon as possible, he allowed himself a few minutes wake up first.

He'd done it. For once he'd actually managed to save someone he cared about without Yugi's help. The thought lifted his spirits considerably, that and that he got to return to civilization. He decided that the first thing he was going to do when he got back, after drinking a cup of coffee, was take a long shower.

"Alistair, wake up," he said, jostling the other man's forearm. Alistair stretched and slowly opened his eyes before closing them again and pressing his face firmly against Seto's shoulder.

"Ten more minutes," he mumbled. Seto rolled his eyes.

"Do you want to get out of here or not?"

"Yeah, in ten more minutes."

"I never believed in the snooze button," Seto said, getting up and dragging an unwilling Alistair with him.

"I hate you," Alistair snapped, shivering in the chilly air.

"I'll live."

Once they had brushed their teeth (and in Seto's case, taken a few caffeine tablets) and packed up Alistair's meager belongings including his jacket which he was able to retrieve (Seto winced when he saw the state of his thick winter coat and told Alistair to just leave it there), the pair split up, Seto heading towards the kitchen, Alistair to Kam's office.

Think of it as a transaction, Seto thought, steeling himself to bargain with Maude for some extra food for the trip.

"Oh," Maude exclaimed when she saw him. "Good morning. Kaiba, right?" As though she could possibly forget.

"I wanted to tell you that that soup you made yesterday was really delicious given that you don't have much to work with here," Seto lied. He could be charming when he needed to be.

"Don't mention it." She waved the compliment away, looking pleased. "It was just a little something I whipped up on the spot."

"You seem grossly underappreciated," Seto added, turning it up a notch. "I bet they don't even thank you."

"No, never," she agreed. "They don't even acknowledge how much work it is, you know?"

"I do. I can't cook, so if there wasn't anyone to do it for me I'd probably starve."

"It's not hard," she said. "Come, I'll show you." Seto reluctantly followed her, in no way interested in seeing anything she might have to show him.

"Let me make sure that I understand this correctly," Kam said, crossing his arms. "You blow in here half a year ago, complain about the job I gave you, endanger everyone when I let you do what you wanted, and now you want to leave, just like that? This isn't a vacation for us here; we don't just get to be whisked back to a life of luxury whenever the going gets tough."

I understand that," Alistair replied, trying his best not to lose his temper. "I'm not leaving because I can't handle it."

"Then why?"

"I wanted to make a difference," he explained. "But I haven't been able to accomplish that here. As you said: I put everyone's lives in danger, but that was because I couldn't watch an innocent child being murdered. If we can't see eye to eye on that judgment call, then that's reason enough in and of itself for me to go in my opinion."

"I should have known better than to allow you to come here in the first place. You foreigners are all the same, talking your big talk about wanting to 'make a difference' but running at the first signs of discomfort: you're despicable."

"The first signs of discomfort?" Alistair shouted incredulously. "I have endured the exact same things as everyone else here and I haven't complained once! Were you aware that at least thirty of the men here are constantly following me around trying to force me to have sex with them? No, you didn't know that, and do you want to know why? Because I sucked it up because I know that there are people out there who have it worse, so don't you dare tell me that I'm not strong enough to handle being here! Why I'm leaving has nothing to do with that!"

The memory of Seto's smile when Alistair agreed to leave with him flashed through his mind. "I'm leaving because there are people back in Domino that need me and I can do more there than I can here." He thought of Sewell and how he'd gained her trust, Mokuba and how he'd helped raised the kid's confidence, Seto and how he'd earned his...love? Kam snorted derisively and turned his back on Alistair.

"Just go."

Alistair returned to the kitchen to collect Seto who he hoped had managed to sweet talk some food out of Maude.

He didn't see them in the kitchen though he could hear their voices, so he made his way to the pantry only to see Seto sprawled out on the floor with Maude on top of him, evidently angling for a kiss. Seto had his hands out to keep her at bay.

"Get off of me you stupid woman!" he snapped angrily.

"Just one kiss," she said, straining to get closer to his face. "And then you'll beg me for more, you'll see!" Alistair cleared his throat and the two looked over. "Go away," Maude hissed at him. "This doesn't concern you!"

"If you take your claws out of him for just a minute, I could prove to you that it does." She looked confused. It was the break Seto needed. He flung her off of him, quickly got to his feet and started to dust himself off. She burst into tears.

"It's not fair," she wept. "Did anyone ever stop to consider that I might want a nice man on my arm too?"

"Pull yourself together," Seto said gruffly. "I'm not some show horse so you were never going to have me on your arm anyway. I don't belong to anybody." With that, he swept from the room. "Come on Alistair."

"I'm not Mokuba," Alistair called to him. "I'm not just going to follow you around, and you didn't get us any food." Ignoring Maude who was still lying where Seto'd left her and crying into her hands, Alistair went about making two sandwiches with a few scraps he found around the pantry. His task accomplished, he turned to the distraught woman on the floor.

"Here, let me help you up." He offered her his hand and after a moment she took it. "Don't mind Seto: he's like that to everyone, don't take it personally."

"Why are you being nice to me all of a sudden?" she demanded, dabbing her face with a filthy rag she pulled out of the pocket of her even filthier jumper.

"I try to be nice to everyone."

"Is that why you would let all the men around here have their way with you? To be 'nice?'"

"I never did, they just followed me out-wait a second. You told them I hung out out back, didn't you?"

"Better you than me," she sniffed. "I want a real man, not a brute. I saw the way they looked at you and just thought I'd give them a little push." It paid testament to Alistair's self control that he didn't hit her.

"Burn in hell," he said finally, grabbing the food he'd made and stalking out of the pantry for the last time.

"Let's go home," he said to Seto upon rejoining him in the sleeping room where Seto was trying vainly to wipe the mud off his boots with the shirt Alistair had been wearing the day before.

"That's the best idea I've heard all day," he replied, tossing the ruined shirt to the floor and looking distastefully at the state of his fingernails. "Just don't forget your pilot's license; it's your ticket to getting over the border." Alistair blanched.

"That was in the helicopter the day of our mission," he whispered in dismay.

"You're not serious...And you were planning on telling me this when exactly?"

"I didn't think about it."

"How did you think you were going to get back?"

"I don't know."

"Of course not. Let me think..." It only took Seto thirty seconds to find a solution. "Lucky for you Alistair, there's nothing I can't buy. Now go get me my briefcase and then let's get out of here. I've had enough of this place."

When they arrived at the Domino airport a little under nine hours later at five in the afternoon local time to file their customs forms, Seto snapped easily back into his role as Seto Kaiba, CEO, champion duelist, and bossy, condescending bastard.

"I want three things," Seto said coolly to the first airport security officer he saw. "I want a black coffee, a phone, and whoever's in charge of checking passports, in that order. Now," he barked when the startled man didn't immediately carry out his wishes.

While they waited for him to return, Seto and Alistair sat on the hard chairs in the terminal.

"Why can't you use your cell phone?" Alistair asked curiously.

"The battery's dead." A girl scurried up to them holding a steaming cup of coffee.

"This is for you Mr. Kaiba," she squeaked nervously as he took it from her. "If you follow me you can use the phone in my boss's office, he'll be with you shortly." Seto nodded and got up to follow her, accompanied by Alistair. After letting them into the small office, the girl couldn't help but linger a moment to stare at the famous duelist who always looked so put together on TV but up close looked dirty and disheveled.

As soon as she left, Seto lifted a phone off of the desk they were sitting in front of and dialed his brother's cell phone number.

The moment his phone started to vibrate, Mokuba excused himself from his math lesson to pick up though the number was one his phone didn't recognize. His heart pounding, he answered.

"Hello?" he said tentatively.

"Mokuba."

"Seto!" he was so relieved that he felt tears well up in his eyes. "You're alright! I was so worried when I didn't hear from you! Where are you? Did you find Alistair? Is he ok?"

"I'll explain everything when we get home." Mokuba felt a grin spread across his face. Seto had gotten to Alistair in time! "We're at the Domino Airport and we'll be home soon. Have Trudy make something to eat. I have to go."

"See you soon!" The line went dead and Mokuba laughed in relief before poking his head briefly back into his classroom.

"That'll be all for today Mr. Watanabe, thank you." He bounded down to the kitchen where Trudy, followed by Sewell, was putting on a pot of tea and preparing to make Mokuba's lunch.

"Trudy!" he said excitedly. "Seto's on his way back! And guess what? He's got Alistair with him!"

"What?" she gasped.

"That's where he's been the last few days. He thought that something had happened to Alistair so he flew out to rescue him. And now they're both in Domino at the airport!"

"My stars and garters," Trudy breathed, her hand on her heart, trying to process what Mokuba had just told her.

"He said to make something to eat for when they get back," Mokuba continued, already walking back up the stairs.

"Where are you going?"

"To the airport of course. I'll see you when we get back!"

Bob Walker had worked at the Domino Airport for almost fifteen years and had no patience for the cock and bull story that he was expected to swallow.

"Do you know who I am?" Seto demanded, slamming his palm on the desk so hard he almost knocked his empty coffee cup over.

"Look, I don't care who you are," Bob said irritably to Kaiba. "I don't make exceptions when it comes to this kind of thing." Seto glared at him. Bob shifted his gaze to the person in question, Alistair. "Red hair, gray eyes, do you think I don't know where he's from?"

"He is a citizen of this country," Seto said calmly, trying to regain the upper hand. "Just like us. His papers got burned when his helicopter was shot down. I told you all this before and I don't like having to repeat myself!"

"What were you doing there in the first place?" Bob asked Alistair.

"I was volunteering for a relief organization," Alistair repeated wearily. "I got shot down by the army while I was trying to help move some people out of the line of fire. My license, registration, passport, and all my IDs got destroyed. And the reason that it looks like I'm from there is because my parents were. But I grew up here."

"How convenient," Bob said sarcastically. Seto decided it was time to go.

"You want proof of his citizenship?" he asked. "Fine." He whipped his checkbook and pen out of the inside pocket of his jacket, filled out a check, ripped it out of the book, and pushed it across the desk. "I think you'll find that everything's right there." Bob squinted down at the number written on the check.

"Ah, so it is," he said quietly, quickly stashing the paper in his shirt pocket. "My mistake."

"That's what I thought. Now if you'll just show us to the exit I should have a car waiting for me outside." He stood and picked up his briefcase. The three of them left, and just as Seto had predicted, Mokuba was waiting for them in the lobby.

"Seto!" he called. "Alistair!" He ran to hug them both simultaneously. "You're alright!"

"Can we do this once we're in the car?" Seto asked in a low voice, noting all the people openly staring at them.

"Oh," Mokuba noticed too. "Right." They left the airport, Mokuba holding onto one of each of their arms.

"Alistair, welcome back," Alfred said as the trio piled into the limo's spacious back seat.

"Hey Alfred," Alistair greeted the driver.

"What happened?" Mokuba asked the moment they pulled away from the curb. "I mean, no offence or anything, but you guys look awful." He looked over their dirt spattered clothes and at the hollowness of Alistair's cheeks. "Trudy's going to have a fit when she sees you."

"Did you tell her to make food?" Seto asked, acknowledging for the first time in hours how hungry he was. Mokuba nodded.

"And don't be angry Seto but I told her where you'd gone and why. I was just so happy that you were back that I had to tell someone."

"You're forgiven. And I'd tell you the story, but I hate repeating myself, and you know that Trudy will ask what happened so I'm going to wait until we get home."

"That's fair."

The moment she heard car tires on the driveway, Trudy ran outside to meet them. As soon as she saw Alistair and the state he was in she rushed over and hugged him so tightly he was afraid she'd suffocate him.

"Trudy," he gasped, "I can't breathe."

"I don't care," she said, her face pressed against his chest. "You broke your promise! You said you'd take care of yourself and look at you; you look like you haven't eaten in weeks, you're filthy, and...and..." she started to cry. "I'm just so glad that you're here and that you're ok."

"And you," she turned to Seto, who she'd refrained from addressing unless she had to for the last five months. "You never should have let him leave in the first place." To everyone's surprise, he agreed with her.

"You're right. I'm not stupid enough to think I could have changed his mind," his gaze shifted to Alistair, "but I should have tried." It was the closest thing to an apology he knew he'd get from the sapphire-eyed CEO, and he chose to accept it. Still staring into Seto's eyes he said:

"You're right, you couldn't have changed my mind, but it doesn't matter. I know where I belong now."

"You'd better," Seto snapped. "I spent a lot of money to get you back here. I won't be doing it again. Trudy, Mokuba said you made something to eat?"

"Yes," she replied. "I made sandwiches and tea, but I might be able to whip something else up too," she added, looking at how skinny Alistair had become.

"That sounds great," Alistair said, smiling at her.

They trooped into the house, Trudy demanding that Alistair and Seto take their shoes off at the door lest they track mud all over the floor, and into the dining room. Seto and Alistair set upon the food like 'a pack of starving wolves' as Trudy put it disapprovingly. Seto ate three full roast beef sandwiches while Alistair managed one and a half before he started to feel sick, his body not used to so much food at once.

"I'm taking a shower," Seto announced, pushing his plate aside.

"Give me your coat," Trudy said, holding out her arms for it. "I'll get it sent to the drycleaners."

"Wait, you haven't told us what happened yet!" Mokuba, who'd been waiting patiently said as Seto handed Trudy his trench coat. "You promised!"

"Fine." He sat back down. "Alistair, you start."

Alistair described what he'd been up to while he was away, though he spared some of the details, such as being nicknamed 'Princess.'

"Merciful heaven," Trudy murmured as he described his attempt to rescue the little boy from being shot.

"After that I passed out," he said, looking to Seto to pick up the story.

"I saw that the helicopter I'd sent him with stopped transmitting and I wasn't going to let such an expensive piece of equipment drop off my radar without knowing what happened to it so I left to find out. The helicopter was destroyed, but I never leave empty-handed so I decided to bring back the one responsible. Now if you'll excuse me, I haven't showered in four days."

"What have I missed?" Alistair asked once Seto was gone.

"Not much," Mokuba said, glancing at Trudy. "I mean, we're all set to open the tournament next month, we've had a couple of private groups come to check out Kaiba Land, Yugi agreed to put up the chance to defeat him in a duel for the Grand Championship prize and Seto's been acting like a total jerk throughout."

"I can second that," Trudy agreed, primly sipping a second cup of tea.

"He missed you," Mokuba explained to Alistair. "It was his way of dealing with it. I can only assume that he'll be fine now that you're back."

"That sounds like him. Hey, how's Sewell?"

"She's just fine," Trudy said, "do you want to come see her? She was taking a nap on the rug in the kitchen last I checked."

"Yes!" he replied enthusiastically, getting up. "Can I-?"

"You're excused," she allowed, glad he hadn't forgotten his manners. "And you," she added to Mokuba, "don't you have another lesson starting in ten minutes?"

Alistair made his way down to the kitchen and immediately saw Sewell stretched out in a patch of sun. He knelt down beside her and stroked her head. She meowed and yawned widely, sniffing his outstretched hand. She nuzzled against his palm as a means of showing recognition and he pulled her into his lap, his back resting against a cabinet door. It was starting to sink in that he was really back in Domino, that he never had to see Michael, Samuel, Neakail, Kam, or any of them ever again. No one was going to call him 'Princess' and boss him around anymore...well, except maybe Seto, but he could handle him.

He set Sewell back on the floor and stood up. Seto wasn't the only one who needed a shower. Sewell followed him up to the second floor and all the way back to Goza-his room. He stripped out of his clothes while Sewell settled into a ball on the bed in preparation for a nap.

The warm water washing over his body felt delicious as he attempted to scrub the dirt off of his skin, causing the water rushing towards the drain to run dirty. It had been way too long. His skin satisfactorily clean, he moved on to his overgrown hair which in turn relinquished the dirt and grime it had been accumulating for the last few months. When he emerged from the shower forty-five minutes later he felt like a new man. He lay down on the bed in nothing but a towel, relishing the softness of the sheets.

Eventually he wandered over to the closet. As he'd suspected, all the clothes he'd left behind were still there. He threw on his one remaining black muscle shirt and dark jeans (which now hung on him loosely because of all the weight he'd lost) and a fresh pair of socks, then returned to towel drying his hair while Sewell continued to snooze. Once his hair was mostly dry, Alistair decided to go looking for Seto. He wanted to know if, now that they were back, Seto was going to revert to the way he'd been before and play hot and cold with him.

He knocked on Seto's office door having assumed correctly that Seto would want to touch base with Kaiba Corp as soon as he was clean.

"Come in." Seto was seated at his desk in a fresh set of clothes with a cup of coffee close at hand, obviously checking something on his computer.

"Hey," Alistair said uncertainly, closing the door behind him. This office had been the scene of their last fight.

"How does it feel not to be covered in dirt?" Seto asked, not looking up from his email.

"Nice."

"Good." Seto continued typing.

"Um...Seto," Alistair started.

"Yes, you're welcome, no, you can't tell anyone about this, and yes you can sleep in my room tonight if you want to."

"Just because you came to get me doesn't mean you can just treat me however you want," Alistair snapped, his temper flaring up at once.

"I'm just in the middle of something."

"Yeah, trying to avoid talking to me." Seto looked up from his computer at last.

"What would you have me say?" he asked, annoyed, crossing his arms.

"Anything."

"Ok. You need a haircut." Alistair set his jaw and glared hotly into Seto's cold blue eyes.

"Just stop it!" he yelled, his hands balled into fists. "I don't want to hear your excuses, or your defense tactics. You begged me to come back here with you and I did. So don't act like you suddenly don't care!"

"Do you know how many people I would drop everything for?" Seto asked, his own anger starting to smolder, "how many people I'd risk my life for? The answer is two: Mokuba, and you. I spent some of the most miserable days of my entire life out in the middle of nowhere for you. I just spent more money than you can even comprehend on you. So don't accuse me of not caring. I told you before that I am never going to be the kind of person to say 'I love you,' so if that's what you're looking for I suggest you search elsewhere.

Whatever you decide you are free to live here and I'll look into getting you the documents you'll need to get a job in the city if that's what you want. I still have a promise to keep and I intend to see it through. However, if you do decide to leave here, know that you'll be punishing Mokuba and Trudy too, not just me."

"You would think," Alistair said, "that after all of this I'd be able to get over you, but I can't. I was obsessed with you for years, I don't think you really understand that. You were all I thought about. Defeating you in a duel and taking your soul. I was convinced that would be the ultimate revenge. I've probably seen every scrap of footage of you that exists. I know the blueprints to your house by heart, I memorized your dueling strategies, your business strategies.

I was so angry that I ignored the good things you did and relished in the bad things you did, using them to fuel my hatred of you. I wasn't lying when I said I know everything about you, but even though I'd had my eye on you all that time I didn't know you.

Then I met you for the first time. I was jealous of Mokuba's loyalty to you and it blinded my judgment. I didn't listen when you and Mokuba repeatedly told me that you agreed that what your step-father had done was wrong; I needed someone to blame for my misery.

Our lifepoints hit zero at the same time and I should have taken that as a sign and stayed away, but I couldn't. Hating you was all I knew how to do and it cost me, didn't it?" Seto said nothing so he continued.

"I couldn't believe that you not only saved my life by not leaving my body on that plane, but that you offered to give me a second chance at a normal life. I started learning more about you as a person so that try as I might I couldn't hate you anymore; quite the opposite. I know who you are Seto Kaiba, and I'm not expecting empty words from you."

"Then what do you expect?" Seto asked.

"For you to be honest. I can't do this if you're going to keep picking me up when it's convenient then tossing me aside and expecting me to always be there to pick back up again. I'm not one of your machines; I'm a real person and you're either with me or you're not." Having offered up his ultimatum all he could do was wait to see what Seto would say.

Seto was at a loss. Though he cared for Alistair more than he'd cared about anyone apart from Mokuba there was still a part of him that was preventing him from completely letting the redhead in. Alistair was right: he was treating him poorly out of his own sense of insecurity. He wished that he could find the root of this anxiety so that he could cure himself of it and become the person that Alistair so desperately wanted him to be but…

"I'm not a good person Alistair," he said finally. "I've done a lot of things that I'm not proud of some of which you know about, some of which you might not. I'm not worthy of what you're offering me and I don't think that I can do what you're asking of me. I'm not…I'm not strong enough." The last words came out as barely more than a whisper.

"Bull." Seto was taken aback.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not letting you use that as an excuse. You're not the only one who's done terrible things before. I've killed people you know, and not just the soldier in the tank. Not all of those people who lost their souls got them back in time to wake up; a lot of them died before that. So don't try using that argument with me. I'm no psychologist, but I think you're just afraid of getting hurt."

"You're right, you're not a psychologist and I don't appreciate you trying to psychoanalyze me," Seto snapped, only serving to prove Alistair's point.

"I get it, people can suck; I'll be the first to say so, but only the people that think like you; the people that treat life like some competition that has to be won and who therefore think that since we're all competitors we can't trust each other. It doesn't have to be like that Seto, that's what I've been trying to show you all along.

I would never stab you in the back. I don't want anything from you but you. Not that I want to own you or control you, or tie you down, and I don't even presume to think that I could. I just want to be with you. And you want to be with me too, I know you do, but you're getting in your own way by choosing not to trust me. I can't guarantee you that we'll be together forever or that our feelings won't change, but nothing ventured nothing gained, right? You're a businessman; risk is something you're familiar with." He looked hopefully into Seto's face.

Seto again saw the honesty in Alistair's clear gray eyes and found himself deciding to take the leap of faith for real this time instead of merely flirting with the idea as he had been. If he didn't, he feared that he wouldn't get another chance; eventually the redhead would give up on him and then where would he be? Alone.

"Don't expect too much of me," Seto said slowly, his eyes not meeting Alistair's.

"You make me angry sometimes and I don't agree with everything that you do or how you do it, you've surprised me, but you've never once disappointed me."

"Nor you me."

Alistair knew that even though Seto was agreeing to be with him now, he would inevitably fall back into his old habit of pushing him aside when he felt threatened, but that was a part of who Seto was, and he had to accept that being with Seto would be no picnic. This was something that they would always struggle with, he could sense it, but the notion didn't intimidate him. Seto was worth it.

They did not kiss or share a loving glance, they just knew that things were different now; a commitment of sorts had been made. They were finally on the same page.

Alistair spent the rest of the day alternately playing with Sewell and lounging around and doing absolutely nothing at all.

After a heavy dinner of steak and potatoes with carrots and peas on the side, Trudy offered to cut his hair for him, an offer to which he agreed. After catching a glimpse of himself in a mirror for the first time in months he'd been appalled by what he'd seen. He was by no means vain, but he wasn't really partial to looking like a complete vagabond.

"I'm so happy that you're back," Trudy said as she carefully snipped Alistair's split ends. "It's been dreadful, more to the point, Seto's been dreadful. He's been touchy for years, but never mean. The last five months though he's been snapping at everyone for the silliest things. Elise quit you know after he berated her for the way she cleaned the carpet in the drawing room, as though he ever even goes in there. It took three cups of tea to calm her down. I tell you: I was at my wits end. I was seriously considering quitting myself if he continued to act like a raving lunatic."

"I'm sorry," Alistair apologized. "I feel like that's my fault."

"Nonsense; Seto is a grown man and is therefore the only one to blame for his own actions, and frankly he should be ashamed of his behavior; it was quite unbecoming. Now how do you want me to cut it? Long in the back, or short? Though I don't suppose it really matters; it'll just stick up anyway, won't it?"

"Pretty much. But long would be better. And if you don't mind cutting my bangs too…"

"You have lovely hair," she commented as she cut. "Such a pretty color."

"It's pretty standard where I come from."

"What was it like being back there if that's not too personal a question." He thought about it.

"It didn't feel like home anymore, if it ever did. I thought I'd get there and fall right back into the life, but I'd been gone too long. Everyone there knew that I was different. I wasn't prepared for that."

"It's like that when I visit in England. It's getting to the point where I don't know why I go back anymore. All of my friends are here, my husband's here, and my boys are here; England is just the place I was born and grew up, it's not my home. Not anymore. 'Home' is such an abstract concept anyway. Is it a house, is it a country, is it family? Who can say? I always just think of it like that kitschy expression: home is where the heart is. There you are." She held up a hand mirror to allow him to admire her handiwork.

"It looks really nice Trudy, thank you."

"No trouble at all." He looked thoughtful. "What is it?"

"I was just thinking about what you said about what a 'home' is. I thought for so long that that was my home because that's where my parents are, and where Mikey is, but that's my only tie to that place, and it certainly didn't feel like where I belong, but I didn't want to abandon them by calling this home…So I think that maybe you're right about home being more to do with your heart, because then I can keep my family with me without feeling guilty about calling this place my home."

"I'm very honored to know that you've come to think of this as your home; and none of us would ever dream of trying to replace your parents or your brother, not that we could even if we wanted to; they'll always be special to you, as well they should be." They smiled at each other. There was a new mellowness to Alistair's personality. Gone was the undercurrent of anger and hurt that had always been a part of him and she was glad for him for that. She hoped that if nothing else he had been able to find peace.

"You look very handsome," she told him as he brushed stray strands of hair off his shoulders. She paused before continuing, unsure how precisely to word her statement. "I'm sure Seto won't be able to keep his eyes off of you." Alistair looked startled and Trudy was afraid that that wasn't something one said to a man or that she had misread the situation entirely and Seto and Alistair still weren't back together. She breathed a sigh of relief as Alistair got over his surprise and smiled slyly.

"Hopefully it won't just be his eyes he can't keep off of me."

"Alistair!" she said, horribly flustered. "That's really not anything I want to—."

"I know," he laughed, suddenly feeling practically euphoric. He was back, really back. "I couldn't resist."

"I swear," she added, her cheeks pink, "between you and Mokuba…"

"I'm only teasing," he assured her. "I'm sorry, I'm usually not the kind of person to do that, but I feel really good all of a sudden." He laughed again and her expression softened.

"I'm glad."

Author's Note: Have no fear: this isn't the sappy ending either; there's still more to come, though we are winding down. And when I say winding I mean that there are a few twists and turns left to go.