"You shoulda seen 'im!" Joey exclaimed that afternoon as they took turns narrating the events of Death-T to Ryou, Marik, Mokuba, and Amane. "His brain is like a computer!"

"I like to think that the human mind is actually more advanced and complex than any computer could ever be," Seto commented quietly to no one in particular.

"I may be good at puzzles, but Seto was faster than me this time around," Yugi conceded with a smile. Then he turned to Seto and said, "I look forward to our next real duel, Champion."

"I do as well," Seto answered with a smile.

"Does this mean that you're famous?" Mokuba asked, his eyes round.

"I sure hope not," Seto said, looking uncertain. "I guess we'll find out, though."

"You seemed to know Kaiba pretty well," Joey commented, looking suspicious as he remembered the way the two had interacted.

"I've run into him a few times in the past," Seto answered evasively. Mrs. Bakura glanced over at the teens from where she was preparing dinner in the kitchen. She was listening to the whole conversation, whether they realized it or not.

"But how?" Anzu asked. "He's not the kind of person you just see on the streets."

"Yeah, how did you challenge him to that chess game a few months back?" Yugi asked. Seto felt trapped, but he tried not to show it, so he started to reset the chess board that had been left on the coffee table, focusing on it to keep him calm.

"I was at KaibaCorp to ask about their hiring policies and see if they needed any computer nerds for their IT department," he said calmly, slowly, hoping that he sounded convincing. "I ran into him there, and he was incredibly rude, which I didn't take very kindly to. One insult led to another, and we decided to settle the matter with our wits instead of our fists. I happened to have heard rumors that he was one of the owners of the Blue-Eyes, so when he acted so confident that he would win, I challenged him to put it up as a bet. If I won, I got the card, and if he won, then I could never be employed at KaibaCorp. Those were the terms we agreed upon." It was partly true, and he felt bad for lying, but the alternative was unbearable.

"That's kinda risky, don't ya' think?" Joey observed.

"I won, didn't I?" Seto pointed out with a smile.

"True," Yugi murmured thoughtfully. Seto rotated the chess board another 180' so that the white pieces were on his side. He moved his pawn to D3. He look up at the others and smiled a little, saying, "Anyone up for chess?"

"Sure, I'll play you, Seto," Ryou said, speaking up for the first time in a while. He settled himself across the board from Seto with a smile. "Let's see if I can't give you a run for your money."

As they played chess, the others talked about more mundane things. Since it was summer and they didn't see each other as often as during the school year, they had some catching up to do. Anzu asked Marik if he planned on attending Domino High in the fall, and he answered that if he could make more progress with learning to read Japanese, he would be. Ryou asked Anzu if she'd found a dance studio where she could take lessons yet, which she answered with a regretful negative.

"Dance lessons are just too expensive," she sighed. "And now I suppose I ought to find a new job, since working at KaibaLand turned out to be a nightmare." She made a face as she recalled the repulsive location.

"I'm sure there are other things you could do there that don't involve a sadistic attraction that could potentially kill its participants," Seto said cheekily, glancing up at her as she threw him an annoyed look.

"No thanks. I think I'm done with KaibaCorp, at least as soon as I find another place to work," she retorted. "I don't understand how you can still work there after all of this."

"It's quite simple, actually," Seto answered, moving his knight to corner Ryou's pawn. In his mind, though, his knight was Critias from the Shadow Game. "It pays well and I'm doing something that I not only enjoy, but something I'm good at."

"What are you working on?" Joey asked curiously. "I keep forgetting to ask."

Seto froze while in the process of moving his bishop. Dare he tell them? Noah Kaiba was catatonic, functionally brain-dead. Besides, if he swore them all to secrecy, it would never get back to Noah that he'd told.

"Seto?" Marik asked, looking worried.

"It's a secret, so you have to promise not to tell anybody, okay?" He looked around at all of them and received nods around the circle, accompanied by confused expressions. He moved his bishop, Priest Seth, across the board.

"You know Duke Devlin, right?" he asked.

"I know of him, and I've seen him around school, but I don't know him that well," Yugi answered.

"Well, he and I invented the Duel Arena," Seto said quietly. "We'd been working on it since school let out, and we finished beta testing it earlier this month."

"But on the news they said that Noah creep invented it," Joey protested suspiciously. Seto just shrugged.

"It's a publicity stunt. We signed contracts agreeing to give him the rights to claim being its creator, but we still get the monetary compensation that's due us." That was a lie, but if it helped them keep their mouths shut about it, then he didn't feel that bad about it. "Just don't tell anyone, because if word of it gets out, that would hurt the company's image, which could put me out of a job."

"How did you produce it that fast?" Anzu asked in awe.

"When you put two geniuses together, great things happen," Seto said a little smugly, causing Joey to grin and spring out of his chair.

"That's my pal!" he boasted, throwing a careless arm around Seto affectionately just as he went to move his queen, Kisara. The gesture had been a surprise to the brunette, though, prompting him to lash out without thinking. It wasn't violent and he didn't hit him that hard, but it was enough to start another playful wrestling match between the two of them.

"Wait, hold on a moment," he told Joey, causing the blond to pause so that Seto could move his queen.

"Checkmate," he said, causing Ryou to blink in surprise. "Good game," he said, shaking hands with Ryou briefly before Joey pulled him back to the bout.

Yugi started chuckling as he looked on at his two pugnacious friends. "Can you believe how far we've all come?" he asked, turning to Anzu with a happy light in his eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, look at us." He spread his arms as he gestured to the six of them: Joey and Seto wrestling on the floor, Ryou sitting cross-legged in front of the coffee-table as he tried to decipher how he'd lost in less than ten turns, Marik sitting curled up on the chair, himself and Anzu side by side on the couch. "We've all gotten so close in the last several months. Isn't it great?" He seemed so excited that Joey and Seto released each other to look up at him curiously. "Like you two," Yugi said, gesturing to the two tallest teens in the group. "You used to hate each other. Joey used to be a bully and a rebel, but now he's our friend, and he doesn't break so many rules anymore." Joey blushed with embarrassment as Yugi grinned at him proudly. "And Seto, you used to be antisocial—"

"Asocial, not antisocial," Seto corrected uncomfortably, the distinction important to him. "I was never a sociopath."

"Well, you know what I mean," Yugi continued, unbothered by Seto's interruption. "We never saw you anywhere but school because you were always too busy working, even at lunch-time. We couldn't get you to talk about yourself at all, but now we're good friends, and you two have been close ever since you stood up to Coach Trudge together."

Joey and Seto exchanged an awkward glance. Right, that was why they were friends now. No other reason, no other reason at all. And they weren't close as anything other than friends, never had been. Nope. Definitely not. Yet, they both recalled what had happened a week after Joey first discovered Seto's secret, when Joey could still act like a jerk if he wasn't careful and Seto was still bitter about his secret being discovered.

~(*)~

"So, your clients…" Joey was disturbingly curious about Seto's profession.

"What about them?" Seto asked, irked, as he put his textbooks in his backpack.

"Are they just women?" Seto clearly wasn't going to offer any information, so Joey decided to be direct.

"Nope."

Joey thought about that for a few moments, then asked, "What does it feel like to—"

"To kiss a man?" Seto finished his question easily and let out a cold laugh. He was sick of these perverted, insensitive questions, and he decided that he was done talking about it. He left his backpack on the bed and turned around, grabbing Joey by the hair and yanking him into a fierce kiss that made the blond moan. Perhaps Seto held it for too long, perhaps he made it too good, perhaps he shouldn't have used his tongue. But then, perhaps Joey hadn't realized how much he'd enjoy it.

"That's what it feels like," Seto declared, releasing Joey and turning around to pick up his backpack. Joey began to grin slyly.

"Actually, I was going to ask, what's it feel like to fuck a man?"

Seto turned around and smacked him, hard. "Go fuck one yourself, Wheeler." Then he marched out of the motel room. Joey just lay there for a few moments, stunned.

"Wow," he breathed out, feeling more than a little starstruck.

The following Monday, Joey apologized to Seto before class in as subtle a way as he possibly could.

"I'm sorry about what happened on Friday," he said in a low voice. "I was way outta line, and it won't happen again. Honest, it won't."

Seto breathed deeply, then nodded without looking up from his book. "Don't mention it," he muttered, and they both dropped the subject. It never came up between them again.

~(*)~

"And Marik," Yugi resumed, smiling at the surprised Egyptian who hadn't really expected to be mentioned. "I know you haven't been here very long, and we're still getting to know you better, but I want you to know that we're all happy you're here." Yugi beamed, and Marik's face softened into a hopeful smile. "And I hope you consider us all your friends as much as we consider you one of ours. Friends support each other no matter what, so if you're ever in trouble, I hope you never hesitate to ask us for help."

"Thank you, Yugi," Marik replied warmly as Ryou shifted away from the coffee-table and leaned his back against the couch while staying seated on the floor, now sitting right by Marik. "That's very kind of you to say."

"And I mean it, too," Yugi insisted, hoping that Marik understood that his words were entirely sincere. Ryou glanced up at Marik, smiling reassuringly as Marik returned his gaze fondly, both of them remembering how uncomfortable and lonely Marik had felt when he'd first come to Domino.

~(*)~

Marik sat huddled on the bathroom floor as he tried to smother the sounds of his tears. He felt so alone, and he didn't know what to do about it. He was a stranger in a strange land, and this was a whole new world for him. Even though it was frightening and different, he still wanted to be a part of it. He just didn't know how.

"Marik? Are you alright?" Ryou's quiet, concerned voice spoke hesitant Egyptian Arabic into the darkness as he pushed the bathroom door open and poked his head in. It was after ten at night and he'd gotten out of bed to go downstairs and get a drink of water, but on his way back, he'd heard Marik's crying as he passed the bathroom.

"I'm not alright, Ryou," Marik answered dismally, the other teen appreciating his honesty. Ryou stepped in and plucked a few tissues from the box of Kleenex, handing them to the other boy as he sat beside him.

"Do you want to tell me what's wrong?" he asked softly after Marik blew his nose and dried his cheeks and eyes.

"I'm scared." His voice broke, and he swallowed hard before continuing. "I feel so alone here, and everything is so different. I miss my brother and sister. I miss my homeland. Even though I wasn't always happy there, at least I understood it. At least it made sense. I don't… I don't understand this place at all." He pressed a clean tissue to his eyes again as they started tearing up once more. Ryou pulled Marik into a warm hug, sympathy swelling his chest as he pushed down the urge to cry on Marik's behalf.

"You'll see them again, I promise," he whispered, trying to comfort him. He continued in Arabic, interspersing it with Japanese when he needed to, simply because he lacked the Arabic vocabulary to express everything he needed to say. "It's not goodbye forever, just goodbye for a little while. My father says that once they get everything figured out back in Egypt, they'll be able to join you here, and my father wouldn't just say that to make you feel better. He means it."

"Your father is a good man," Marik said softly, smiling a little as tears slipped down his cheeks. Ryou handed him a few more tissues before continuing.

"In the meantime, we can call them on the phone every week and you can talk to them so that you don't feel so sad while you're apart. It's okay to miss them, but I still hope you learn to like it here." He paused, then asked, "Does that make sense?" He was still unsure about some of his Arabic.

Marik looked up at him with a somewhat puzzled expression, but nodded. "I think I understood most of that," he said carefully, and Ryou smiled a bit, pleased to hear it.

"Do you feel better now?" Ryou asked hopefully.

"Only a little," Marik admitted. "I'm grateful to your father and the others for saving us and for taking me here so that I could be healed"—Marik was still on the mend from a severe respiratory infection, for which he'd been treated at the hospital in Tokyo when he first arrived in Japan—"But being here is still… overwhelming."

"Then we'll take it one step at a time, okay?" Ryou said with a smile, taking Marik's hand in his own. "You don't have to feel alone, because I'll be your friend. My friends will be your friends too, when the time comes for you to meet them. They're all really nice, and I think you'll like them."

"Will they like me?" Marik asked nervously. He'd never had to worry about what other people thought of him before, and he was unaccustomed to feeling insecure.

"I'm sure they will," Ryou said with a confident smile. He pulled Marik close again, the two embracing for a long while until the Egyptian felt that he had recovered himself and that the urge to cry was past. When they finally parted, Ryou stood and helped his guest to stand as well. Before he could leave, though, Marik spoke up.

"Ryou, back home, I'm used to sleeping with my siblings," he said suddenly. "It's still strange sleeping all alone in a big bed, and I'm not used to it. May I... sleep with you tonight?"

Ryou found his innocent request touching. How could he possibly say no to him? "Of course you can, Marik," Ryou answered with a smile, taking him by the hand and leading him to bed. "As long as you don't mind that I have to get up early to go to school."

"I don't mind."

~(*)~

"Anzu," Yugi said, turning to her who sat beside him, "You told us about your dream of being a dancer in America. You'd never trusted anybody with that secret before, but now that you've told us, we can help you achieve it!" Yugi's cheeks looked a little pink as he gazed up at his best friend, and Seto didn't miss the significance of it. He exchanged a knowing look with Ryou, who seemed pleased to finally see some kind of requital for Anzu's advances. The pale-haired teen looked up, though, as Yugi called on him next.

"Ryou, you showed us the diorama you've been working on for so long."

Ryou blushed a little as he recalled their Monster World Shadow Game in detail. He hated thinking about it, and tried his best not to; thinking about it again now caused him to unconsciously finger the cord that suspended the artifact around his neck, the Millennium Ring lying hidden under his shirt. Only Marik knew that he still wore it; it was a valuable gift from his father, after all, and there was no safer place for it than on Ryou's person. He still regretted that he'd been incapable of stopping the evil spirit from possessing him and trying to hurt his friends, but he was eternally grateful that those same friends had helped him banish it forever while still preserving Ryou's life.

"You saved us by helping us defeat Zorc, and you sacrificed yourself to defeat the Evil Spirit. We can't thank you enough for that," Yugi continued, his broad smile making Ryou feel a little guilty, since he shouldn't have put them in danger in the first place.

"I'm just glad that he's gone for good," Ryou said with a sigh of relief. "I'm not eager to repeat that experience any time soon." Marik's hand went to Ryou's shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze, and Ryou put his own hand over Marik's, caressing it appreciatively before Marik linked their hands.

"And thank you, Seth," Yugi said suddenly, addressing the Spirit of the Millennium Rod as he looked at Seto, making the brunette feel uncomfortable. But there was that look in Yugi's eye that told him that it was Yami, not Yugi, speaking. Besides, the inflection in his voice was different. "Your help was invaluable in that Shadow Game."

"You're most welcome, Pharaoh," Seth answered through Seto, the two ancient spirits recalling their first encounter over the diorama table.

~(*)~

"So can we trust these guys?" Joey asked dubiously.

Seto stared up at his other self uncertainly, and he simply stared back, lifting one eyebrow at him.

"Well, Seto, do you trust me?"

"I don't even know your name."

"Seth." He tilted his head in a gesture that was both proud and archaic. "My name is Seth."

"And what's Big Yugi's name?" Joey asked.

"I have been called many things over the centuries. Some have called me Yu-Gi-Oh, some have called me Pharaoh." Seth looked over at the one seated beside him, a sad curiosity in his gaze for a moment.

"Yes, we can trust them," Yugi said, staring up at his own doppelganger with awe and respect.

~(*)~

In truth, Seth ached to tell his younger cousin his true identity and be reunited with him, but he knew that the time was not yet right. For now, though, being his comrade and friend was enough.

As Mokuba and Amane reentered the house, Seto watched them interact with Ryou's mother, remembering how she and Dr. Bakura had insisted on helping him, even when he was resistant, because they'd known that he needed it. Maybe he disliked that they knew the truth, but he was also immensely grateful for their discretion and their aid in taking care of both him and his little brother. As he also recalled Seth's help when Mokuba had announced that he'd kissed Amane—and his own mortification at the prospect of what followed—he decided that he owed Seth his thanks as well. Besides, Seth had healed him, protected him, guided him. Even when Seto was irritated and upset with him, Seth always remained patient and understanding, knowing that the teen needed to be allowed to express himself to someone, and that he had no discreeter confidante than Seth.

Thank you, Seth.

And thank you, Seto.

For what?

For allowing me to live again, to know you and your brother, to be acquainted with your friends. If you'd chosen to reject me, we would all be in very real danger.

That night, as Seto and Mokuba walked home, Seto realized that today had been one of his best days to date. His haptephobia was less active than it normally was, he'd been happier than he had any right to expect, he'd gotten to defeat Noah Kaiba in a duel—in front of a crowd, no less. It wasn't just a good day; it was a great day, and Seto felt that he could be satisfied with it.

Seth wasn't about to burst his bubble, even as he sensed trouble brewing for them in the near future. Noah Kaiba wasn't gone from their lives, and he wasn't the only person Seto needed to watch out for. If he acquired fame, he'd have to be careful, for fame was a monster in and of itself. Their father was still alcoholic, Seto was still saving up to get a new apartment in a safer part of town, there was still some unknown party out there who'd assaulted Seto and had yet to be brought to justice. They weren't out of the woods yet. In fact, they were just about to encounter an even darker evil than what they'd seen so far.

Author Notes: Yeah, Joey's totally questioning his sexuality now. XD

Well, this is my version of a reminiscent clip-show for the end of Season Zero while simultaneously working in a friendship speech and giving you added "canon" for past events in the story and incorporating my first nod to puppyshipping, since I got so many requests for it. Am I good, or am I good? ;) Is the puppyshipping going to go anywhere? That depends. It might if I can get Seth to stop acting bratty. *rolls eyes* And when he's not being bratty, he's being a troll. I need to work on his characterization; he's not quite turning out the way he should.

Anyways, please review, because more reviews = more chapters! See you all in Season One! ;)