Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, I just like torturing, that is to say, borrowing the characters from time to time.

"Son, brother, father, lover, friend.

There is room in the heart for all the affections,

as there is room in heaven for all the stars."

Victor Hugo, Funk and Wagnalls

Chapter 5

After the Kaiba brothers' return from Cairo, Alistair noticed a shift in Mokuba's attitude towards him. Though he couldn't quite pinpoint an example, he had the distinct impression that Mokuba had come to resent him, probably because he felt that Alistair was stealing his sibling from him, which the redhead could completely understand, but he wished that Mokuba didn't feel that way.

In an attempt to get back into the teen's good graces, he'd taken to going out of his way to hang out with him and help him win several battles against Seto that had involved Mokuba wanting to stay over at a friend's house or go somewhere with Hilary.

"Hey Mokuba," he said, sitting next to him at the table for lunch one sunny day in mid-July.

"Hey." Mokuba forced a smile before returning to looking at his phone. After Trudy had served each of them what Alistair considered to be a ridiculous amount of sandwiches alongside a customary pot of tea, he tried a second time to make conversation with Seto's younger brother.

"I was thinking earlier about a game some friends taught me and Mikey a really long time ago. Have you ever played poker?" Alistair didn't usually talk about his brother, so the reference to Mikey was enough to get Mokuba's grudging attention. He looked up from writing a text to Hilary and said:

"I know what it is, but not how to play."

"I could teach you if you want. Maybe you, Seto, and I could all play together." Mokuba thought it over. It wouldn't give him any time alone with his brother, but then at least he'd get to see him.

"What kind of cards do you need to play?" Alistair was relieved that Mokuba was open to the idea.

"Just a regular deck of playing cards. The whole game is essentially about not letting anyone know how good or bad your hand is."

"Don't people who play poker usually use it to gamble?"

"Yeah. But you don't have to."

"Ok, I'll try it. But oh," he paused. "I'm not sure that we have a deck of regular cards…Seto and I used to, but Gozaburo got rid of it along with almost all our stuff and I don't think we bothered to replace it… "

"It's still early; I could go buy one. I wanted to go out today anyway."

"If you don't mind."

"No, it's not a problem." Mokuba pulled out his wallet to get Alistair some money, but the redhead stopped him. "I have my own money now, you know. I can pay for a deck of cards." Embarrassed, Mokuba shoved his wallet back into his pocket. "So I'll see you when I get back?"

"Um, yeah." The black-haired teen had become distracted by his latest text. "I'll see you later."

It was only once he got into the city that Alistair realized he didn't know where to look to buy a deck of playing cards and ended up popping into the library to ask if any of his coworkers had any ideas. One of the younger employees who worked in the library's cafe suggested he try the local game shop called Kame and gave him some quick directions. He thanked him and left.

After getting turned around several times, Alistair finally managed to find the shop. As he entered, a cheerful-sounding bell chimed overhead.

"I'll be with you in a moment," an older man's voice called from a back room. Alistair took the moment to look around. The shop was packed to overflowing with games and game-related merchandise including action figures, posters, and T-shirts. Duel Monsters however, seemed to be the stores' specialty. There was a huge display case of cards and booster packs as well as a display version of the newest Kaiba Corporation Duel Disk.

"Sorry, I was moving some boxes which at my age can take a while," the shop owner, a short squat man with spiky gray hair said, emerging into the main part of the store. He looked familiar but Alistair couldn't quite place where he'd seen the man before.

"If there are more boxes I could help you with them," he offered, still puzzling over where he knew the shop owner from.

"That's very kind of you young man, but my grandson will be home soon and truthfully, it's his job. Now, what can I help you with?" The mention of a grandson rang a bell.

"I was looking for a pack of cards."

"Duel Monsters cards?"

"Actually, no. Just regular playing cards."

"Really? I'll have to dust them off first. Almost no one plays with regular cards anymore."

At the same moment that Alistair noticed a framed Blue Eyes White Dragon card that looked like it had been torn in half before being taped back together and realized who the old man was, the door opened again, admitting a second short, spiky haired individual into the shop, though the newcomer was much younger. Alistair's eyes widened and he quickly turned his back on Yugi, lest the champion duelist recognize him.

"You're late," Solomon Motou chastised his grandson. "I had to move those boxes of Duel Disks by myself!"

"I'm sorry!" an out of breath Yugi apologized. "I was dueling Joey and lost track of time."

"Did you win at least?"

"Yeah, but he's gotten a lot better, especially with the help of the new cards he got from you."

"Well of course; with my advice no one can ever go wrong! Oh!" He turned his attention back to Alistair. "Sorry. Let me get…No. Yugi, can you show this young man where the playing cards are?"

"Playing cards? I didn't even know we had those."

"You would if you had stayed with me to do inventory like you promised instead of playing Duel Monsters with your friends. For future reference, they're right next to the dice. The regular dice."

"Ok, ok, I'll do inventory next time! Here, let me see…" He scanned the wall of jumbled games. "Ah! There they are! Is this what you were looking for?" The question was aimed at him directly so he couldn't not turn to face Yugi. He silently prayed that Yugi wouldn't recognize him.

With his eyes still lowered, Alistair took the standard poker deck and mumbled that he was sure they would do.

"Will that be all?"

"Yes." He set the cards on the counter and reached into his trench coats' inner pocket for his wallet. In the meantime Yugi had taken his place behind the register as his grandfather watched on. He rung up the deck which turned out to cost more than Alistair really wanted to pay but he handed over the money, wanting nothing more than to get out of there.

"Don't I know you?" Yugi had been trying to figure out from the moment he'd walked into the shop where he recognized the redhead from. Alistair froze.

"I…don't think so…I mean, I know who you are, but…" Yugi continued to stare at him intently.

"Doma," he said slowly. "You worked for Dartz, right?"

"Uh…"

"I didn't know that any of you were still hanging around Domino."

"Um... I'm only passing through." Yugi sensed Alistair's discomfort but falsely interpreted it.

"Oh, that's all water under the dam. I know that none of you were bad people; it was just the Orichalcos controlling you." Alistair gave a noncommittal shrug.

"I have to go…"

"Wait a sec! Is Raphael still around too?"

"I don't know. I don't think so," Alistair replied quickly. "I don't talk to either of them anymore."

"Oh, that's too bad. I always wondered what happened to him…Well, here are your cards. Do you want a receipt?"

"No, that's ok." If Seto found out that he'd gone to the game store where Yugi worked…

"Are you alright?" Yugi asked in concern. "You seem really jumpy."

"I'm just in a hurry." He took the bag that Yugi handed him and took off before Yugi could even give him his change.

He didn't slow down until he was halfway up the street. It was just his luck to walk into that particular store…If only he'd recognized Yugi's grandfather sooner. He hoped the visit wouldn't come back to haunt him. But honestly, what did it matter? There was absolutely no way that Yugi could have figured out based on their brief conversation that he was living with Seto. No, he would just write the situation off as a strange blip in his day and forget about it-at least that's what Alistair hoped.

"You're telling me that that was one of Dartz's Orichalcos warriors?" Solomon Mouto asked in disbelief. "He was so nice. He offered to help me move the boxes…" Yugi nodded.

"I didn't really have anything to do with him; I just know that he dueled and lost to Kaiba."

"Do you suppose that's why he's back in Domino? Unfinished business?"

"I don't know. I'm not even really sure why he was after Kaiba in particular in the first place, but the way Kaiba acted about it made it seem like it was personal. Do you think I should call him to warn him?"

"Do you think he'd listen to you?"

"I don't know, but he's my friend so I owe it to him to try."

Seto was just packing up his briefcase when Valarie paged him.

"What is it?"

"There's a Mr. Motou on the line for you sir." Yugi? What did he want?

"Put him through." He picked up the video call. Sure enough, Yugi Mouto's boyish face appeared on-screen. "What do you want Yugi? And talk quickly; I'm busy."

"Has anything weird happened recently?" Yugi asked cryptically.

"Define weird."

"Like, has anyone tried to hack into your system or bought up a lot of stocks?" Seto narrowed his eyes.

"No, why? And if you're trying to get me to go on another world saving crusade with you and the rest of your little pep-squad the answer is no."

"Nothing like that." Yugi hesitated.

"Spit it out!"

"One of Dartz's old henchmen came into the shop today; the one you dueled on your plane." Seto's pulse quickened. "I thought you'd want to know that." Had Alistair actually been stupid enough to walk straight into Yugi's house?

"I already know that," he answered blandly, his face blank. "Anything else?" Yugi was taken aback by Kaiba's air of indifference.

"Aren't you worried that he might try to finish what he started with or without the Orichalcos?"

"No. And frankly, it's none of your business." He hung up and swept the pencil holder off his desk out of irritation, causing pens to scatter across the floor. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and angrily speed-dialed Alistair.

"Yes?" came Alistair's wary voice from the other end of the line.

"Do I even need to tell you what this is regarding?" Seto asked coldly.

Alistair blanched and stopped walking. How could Seto know about that already? He couldn't. This had to be about something else.

"What's the matter? You sound upset."

"Really?" Seto snapped sarcastically. "And why might that be? It couldn't possibly be because you decided to pay Yugi a little visit today, could it?"

"How do you-?"

"He just called to warn me that you're back in town."

"He what?"

"Why did you go there?"

"I told Mokuba I'd teach him how to play poker, but neither of us could find any playing cards in the house so I offered to go buy some. I didn't know that Yugi worked there, I swear! I didn't even know that it was his grandfather's shop. Why would I go there on purpose?" Seto admittedly couldn't think of a reason. "What did you tell him anyway?"

"I told him that I knew you were in Domino already and that he should mind his own business!" Alistair quirked an eyebrow. Telling Yugi to mind his own business was probably not what Seto should have said if he wanted the other man to forget about it.

"I don't think it matters. He connected me to you but not at all in the way you're afraid of, so just calm down."

"Don't tell me what to do," Seto replied sourly. "Where are you anyway?" He could hear the occasional car in the background. "Don't tell me you're still lurking around that store!"

"Of course not!" Alistair snapped. "I'm not an idiot! I ran out of there as fast as I could! Not that I think Yugi was sitting there and on the verge of realizing that I'm-," he realized how loudly he was talking and lowered his voice. "That I'm sleeping with you. He just probably assumed that I'm back to exact my revenge on you."

"It doesn't matter what he's thinking; the point is that he's thinking about it at all." Truthfully, Seto was most afraid that Yugi would mention the incident to his friends who had all borne witness to his reaction to Wheeler making a joke about him having a boyfriend. He didn't in any way think that Wheeler or Taylor would be smart enough to make the connection, or even that Yugi would be; it was the girl he was worried about. She'd always seemed just a little more clever than the rest of the dorks.

"You're thinking too hard about this," Alistair said, snapping Seto out of his reverie. "And no matter what you do any potential damage has already been done."

"Yeah, because you were careless…"

"I didn't know!"

"Alright, fine. Maybe I am being paranoid, but can you just try to make sure you don't go walking into something like that again? For my sanity?"

"Ugh! Fine! But for the record: I think you're being ridiculous!" He kicked a pebble lying on the sidewalk and watched as it skittered across the pavement, coming to rest under a light gray car parked at the curb on the other side of the street.

"I appreciate your input. Are you on your way home?"

"Maybe, I don't know. I haven't just walked around downtown in a while; I might stay out for a bit, why?"

"I was about to leave work."

"Really? That's early."

"I don't have any meetings today, so I thought I could work from home."

"Mokuba will be happy. You should do something with him since you'll be home all day."

"Why do you say that? It's not like I never see him."

"He misses hanging out with you."

"What more does he want? The three of us just got back from New York!"

"Yeah, the three of us. I think Mokuba wants some time as just the two of you."

"What difference does it make?" For all his cleverness, there were some things that Seto simply couldn't grasp.

"Because you and I have a life together that he isn't a part of I think he feels like I'm stealing you from him." Seto furrowed his eyebrows. Why would Mokuba think that? His little brother had always been the one rooting for his and Alistair's relationship.

"Did he tell you that?"

"No, it's just the impression that I get from what he does say and how he's been acting around me recently. And to be honest: I don't blame him. He probably feels like we're keeping secrets from him given how often and for how long we lock ourselves in your bedroom."

"What does he want to do, watch?" Seto was quickly losing patience. "If that's really what he thinks he's being childish."

"Maybe if we were just a little more open about our relationship, he wouldn't be so resentful."

"Don't act like this is somehow my fault!" Seto said angrily. "And don't think that I don't know that this isn't about Mokuba; it's about you! You think that we should be more open about our relationship, you always have despite what I told you about how I feel about that!"

"This is so typical of you! This is about your brother missing you; don't turn it into something other than what it is! I am telling you: if you don't talk to him about this he's going to force you to choose between us and then I'll be the one that gets screwed over!" He kicked the base of a wooden utility pole sticking out of the side of the road so hard that for one horrifying moment he was afraid it might fall over.

"And this is so typical of you; always the victim. For all you know Mokuba's just going through the same anti-social phase as every other teenager in the world; did you think of that?"

"You know something? Now I know exactly how Yugi feels every time he tries to open your eyes to what's really going on. You are so insufferably blind!" He aggressively pressed the 'end call' button on his phone and very nearly heaved it at the ground. It was then that he realized that he had an audience: two teenage girls out walking a dog were openly staring at him from across the road. Angry and embarrassed, he flipped the girls off and stomped up the street, pretending that instead of the sidewalk, it was Kaiba's face he was tramping on.

Was taking what he said seriously really too much to ask of the brunette? Then again, Kaiba could in fact at that very moment be on his way to talk to Mokuba and just hadn't wanted Alistair to know he agreed with him. The mere probability of that being the reality was enough to incense Alistair further. He loved Seto but he really loathed Kaiba and was becoming fed up that he was forced to deal with both.

Seto was in fact on his way to speak to Mokuba. He wasn't sure whether to believe what Alistair had alleged or not and wanted to find out for himself. He knocked lightly on his brother's door after arriving home. When Mokuba didn't answer he checked the game room. Bingo.

Mokuba was sitting on the ground in front of one of his many game consoles playing a video game version of Capsule Monsters with pop-rock music playing loudly enough that Seto could hear practically every word of the chorus through the headphones his brother was wearing.

"Mokuba!" he said loudly, hoping to avoid startling him. Mokuba didn't even look up. Seto rolled his eyes, crossed the room, and tapped him on the shoulder. The teen predictably jumped.

"Seto! You scared me!" he exclaimed, pulling the headphones off and laying them aside. "What are you doing home so early?"

"I thought I'd work from home today," Seto explained absently, looking at the screen. "You still play that?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" Seto shrugged.

"You just haven't talked about it in a really long time. Anyway, that's not what I wanted to discuss."

"Is this about me staying over at Hilary's? Cuz I swear: nothing happened! We just watched movies and-."

"No, it's not about that," Seto cut him off. "It's about Alistair."

"Oh." The tone Mokuba used and the slight wrinkle to his nose weren't lost on Seto and were enough to let him know that it wasn't all just in Alistair's head.

"I thought you liked him." Mokuba bit his lip. He'd been hoping that no one would notice his newfound resentment of the redhead.

"I do, but….you spend more time with him than you do with me, and when you do decide to hang out with me it's always the three of us, never the two of us…like it used to be. I've been your brother a lot longer than he's been your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"What would you call him then? A friend with benefits?" Mokuba's voice was uncharacteristically mocking.

"Look: you have no right to interrogate me!" Seto snapped, his eyes narrowing. "Anyway, what do you care about me spending time with you? You've got your little group of friends and a girlfriend last I checked. You wanted me to back off, remember? So what's this about you being jealous of me spending time with him? Especially given that I just took a week off of work to go on vacation with you. That's awfully selfish of you. I thought I taught you better." Seto couldn't believe that Mokuba didn't want him to be happy.

Mokuba looked up at his brother who was standing with his arms crossed, his face a mask of anger to hide the betrayal he felt at having the person he cared about the most force him to feel guilty about his own happiness.

"I'm not trying to be selfish," the teen started, chagrined, avoiding making eye contact. "I guess that I just miss us being well…just us. And I know that that's stupid since I have a girlfriend and other friends and I can't explain it, but I…" He couldn't put into words how it made him feel to know that Alistair knew things about Seto that he didn't, or even simply that he knew things about Seto that until he'd come along had just been between them. "I'm sorry," he finished lamely. To his surprise, Seto lay a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look up.

"You will always be the most important person to me and no one could possibly replace you." He took his hand off his brother's shoulder, resting it on the locket around his neck. He clicked it open. "But he's important to me too." He flipped the locket around so that Mokuba could see that it contained photos of both him and Alistair.

It was enough to make Mokuba realize that perhaps his feelings of jealousy had indeed been unfair and selfish. He stood and hugged his brother around the waist though he knew he was getting a little too old to do so and pressed his face against Seto's upper chest. Seto marveled at how much the kid had grown in the last year without him noticing as he hugged Mokuba back.

Alistair had managed to calm his rage by the time he'd stomped all the way back to his motorcycle; fueling ones anger can be exhausting. He had no idea where Seto found the energy to be so angry all the time. He contemplated what to do with his afternoon, finally deciding to stop by the library to pick up something to read before driving up the mountain to go sit on top of the ruins that he'd found.

On his ride to the library he passed several buildings belonging to the university and felt a rush of excitement at the prospect of being a student in the fall despite Seto's protests. He still didn't understand why the brunette was so against it.

He was interrupted in his browsing through the fiction section a little while later by Zoe.

"Haven't you read them all already?" she asked, giggling. "I don't think I've ever seen you without a book in your hand."

"Just making up for lost time," he answered vaguely with a small smile, finally selecting a book titled The Amulet of Samarkand. "What are you doing here? I didn't know you worked today."

"I don't, but it's the only place I can really study; the university libraries are all either too crowded or too quiet; this is the perfect balance. And also, there's no wifi to distract me."

"I didn't know you were a student. What are you studying?"

"Women's studies," she said. "And psychology." Alistair didn't know what 'women's studies' meant, but the psychology part interested him.

"You're studying psychology?" Seeing that she had his attention at last she sat on the arm of one of the comfy patchwork arm chairs scattered about.

"Yeah, I'm a junior. It's really interesting; I love it. I want to be a counselor at a high school." He wasn't sure he could imagine that, but he was so intrigued that he refrained from saying so.

"What exactly do you do in your classes?"

"Well, I have to take a bunch of classes that are completely unrelated, but for my Psychology major I've taken some science and some theory based classes, but obviously the theory classes are more interesting. Learning about the human brain as a structure and memorizing the different parts and what they do and why is boring, but I like everything else. What's your major? Wait, don't tell me; let me guess: something to do with books."

"Oh, I haven't started yet. My first semester is in the fall." She was taken aback. She'd assumed that she and Alistair were roughly the same age.

"Wait, you're in high school?" she asked incredulously.

"Huh? No."

"Oh, you took a gap year. Gotcha. I thought about doing one of those, but my parents only agreed to pay my tuition if I started right away and I figured it wouldn't be much of a gap year if I had to spend it working. Ironically though, they made me get this job for real world experience after saying no to a gap year in which I would have gotten just what about you? Why'd you decide to take a year off before starting college?"

"To be honest I wasn't sure I would get to go at all," he started. She settled more comfortably into her chair and motioned for him to go on. "I mean, I never even thought about it until really recently. It was the last thing on my mind growing up…" He stopped talking, not particularly wanting to discuss his childhood with her, though she wasn't stupid enough not to notice his exotic looks and therefore put two and two together.

"You're from…oh wow. I'm sorry. Still, it seems like your family's done well." He crinkled his eyebrows.

"What makes you say that?" His confusion took her aback.

"I mean, you always dress really well and wear nice cologne so I just assumed..." He suddenly realized that she thought he was rich and was horribly embarrassed by it yet he couldn't deny it without seeming like a snob.

"We do alright," he said nonchalantly, trying to shrug the moment off and resolving never to let Seto pay for clothes for him ever again.

"So what's in the bag?" she asked him, sensing that her previous statement had made him uncomfortable.

"Nothing anymore; I was going to use it to protect any books I got, but it seems like I'll just stick with this one." She tilted her head to read the logo on the plastic bag.

"Isn't that where Yugi Motou works?" she asked.

"You follow Duel Monsters?" he said in surprise.

"My ex-boyfriend got me into it. I don't play, but I watch all the tournaments and I have a few cards. I even have a duel disk, but I only got it because there was a picture of Seto Kaiba on the box and I have a huge crush on him." She giggled. "So are you a fan?" He blanched.

"Of Seto Kaiba?"

"No." She laughed again. "Of Duel Monsters." She paused and placed her right index finger over her lips thoughtfully. "Or of Seto Kaiba I suppose." He tried to keep his expression impassive as he replied.

"I used to play. It's been a while though…"

"Did you watch the Grand Championship Tournament?"

"Yeah."

"I really wanted to go, but I ended up just watching on TV with a couple of friends. I'm not going to lie though; mostly I think we just watch because of all the cute duelists. I was so happy that Kaiba ended up dueling after all." He smiled weakly.

"Yeah, he's definitely pretty good…"

"Pretty hot you mean."

"Um…I guess…" he answered evasively. She got up from her perch and swatted his arm.

"Oh come on, just because you have a boyfriend doesn't mean you can't look. Or are you telling me that you don't think Seto Kaiba is completely drool-worthy?"

"I…uh…" He hated himself for not being able to hide his emotions without a mask to shield his face. How did Seto do it? "He's ok looking." Alistair was clearly flustered and Zoe was dying to know why. Her curiosity was written all over her face, so before she could probe any further he decided it was time to go; the last thing he needed was for her to somehow figure it out. "I've got to go. Good luck with studying!" He slipped past her before she even had a chance to say goodbye and practically fled, not slowing his pace until he reached the check-out counter.

Seto contemplated calling Alistair to see where he was and when he was coming home, but decided not to for two reasons: one, that would make him seem desperate and clingy and two, after their argument he wasn't sure the redhead would pick up the phone and that would just be pathetic.

Instead, he sat forward in his desk chair and tried to tune back into the data report he was supposed to have been reading. Numbers had always made far more sense to him than people anyway.

Author's Note: Three things:

1. Mokuba. Seto and Mokuba have always been just Seto and Mokuba with other people merely flitting in and out of their lives which had led them to develop an unhealthily co-dependent relationship. Mokuba is going to have to wrestle with the concept of sharing his sibling, just as Seto had to come to terms with Mokuba having a close relationship that wasn't with him-namely with Hilary.

2. Yugi. Despite Seto never acknowledging it, Yugi has long since considered Seto his friend, so of course he's going to want to look out for him. Since he didn't know Alistair, it seems logical that despite what he might say, he'd be wary of his intentions, particularly with Alistair acting so cagey.

3. Zoe. Zoe, like Darren, represents the outside world so to speak. She doesn't know Seto except as a public figure that she finds attractive, something completely out of Alistair's frame of reference since he knows Seto very well.