"Seto, if I had wanted either woken up, I would have done it myself." Yami said.

"Big deal the kid's already asleep again." Seto said, starting to carry Mokuba upstairs. "Besides, I wasn't the one who gave such a boring story that it managed to put both kids to sleep."

"How do you know if the story was boring or not?" Yami asked, walking beside Seto carrying Maura.

"I've heard some of your lectures and I've even wanted to go to sleep."

"This wasn't a lecture."

"It doesn't matter, obviously it had to be bad otherwise how did you end up putting both down?"

"Okay so I guess I need to work on how I tell my stories."

After getting both kids to bed, Seto met up with Yami in the family room.

"Seto, did you ever imagine our lives like this?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean after your father died, it was just us and our search for Mokie. It was all we had; our search was what kept us going. Now we not only no longer have to search but have two kids to raise."

"Yeah, I know, I was scared to death when I first brought Mokuba home."

"You were?" Yami asked surprised.

"What, I can't be scared? Yami, what do we know about raising kids?"

"Well I've often heard that few people do when they become parents."

"Well taking care of him and looking after him when we were in the basement was one thing but bringing him home and caring for him full time was another story."

"Yes, I still have the same fears about Maura."

"Wait, how do you know some parents don't know how? Have you been going around telling other people our business?"

"Well not exactly."

"What exactly?" Seto demanded to know.

"I was concerned about Maura. So I asked around for some advice about raising her."

"What was the general consensus?"

"Most said give her up and send her home, she'd be better off."

"And the other half?"

"They said we should give her to Mai, Isis or someone else to raise."

"In that case I know exactly what we are going to do with her." Seto said getting up to go look out the window.

Yami was afraid of this. He feared Seto would reject Maura and now he'd just given him two ideas on what to do with her. He got up, walked over and sadly leaned against the wall. "What are you planning?"

"I thought we'd clear everything for the weekend."

"Why do we need the schedule to be clear?"

"How else can we take the kid's to the fair?"

"The fair? But Seto, that's only on the outskirts of town and half a day's ride from here and did you just say kid's as in both of them?"

"Yami you of all people know how much I detest being told what to do. If the consensus is we shouldn't keep her then…"

Yami smiled, "Then you'll keep her in spite of that."

"Yes, you know I don't like being told what to do. They don't think we're competent enough to raise her, we'll prove them wrong. But I'm counting on you to watch over Mokuba more. I know you like this girl because she's smart and a lot like you, plus you want to help her fit in. But in doing so you're driving Mokuba deeper into a depression. You may not be able to see it…but I can. He's withdrawing a lot more. He has high times where he's not depressed but for the most part ever since Maura came, he's withdrawing. Even Ryo told me that he's noticed it."

"Did you notice it or did your girlfriend?"

"Look, I've stopped seeing both for the time being. This was because ever since you returned and more importantly returned with her. I've been wanting to be there as much as I can for Mokuba."

"I guess we've both overlooked him a little since she came. Why do I have to watch him more, what about you?"

"I can only do so much. There are lots of times when you have more time than I do."

"Fine, I don't want to argue with you."

"Good, then let's get to work."

They decided to work on something non-work related and had gotten letters and Christmas cards from the town's people. They were going through them because they always felt they should give a little something back to people who sent cards or letters. Christmas cards had a whole staff that would fix up a bunch and send them out with a general Merry Christmas/Happy New Year on it. Letters the staff collects and a crew hired to go through them and divide them into three piles. Hate mail, general good wishes and ones that either had gifts sent with or they felt like a reply of some kind should be sent. The ones that had gifts or the crew felt that Seto and Yami either needed to reply or should look at were sent to them to deal with.

Most of the things they received they knew that within the days following Christmas they'd have to do royal court to deal with these people. They'd tried to just send the items out through the guards but they'd gotten several complaints during a grievance session that although they received the cards, the gifts the card told them about never came! So since they couldn't punish the guards as they didn't know who was supposed to deliver what to whom they just punished them all and made a special royal court session just for those people. Sadly grievances were also going to have to be scheduled in the very near future. They'd been getting reports that there'd been a lot of trouble in town recently and that they'd also been flooded not just with the normal cards, letters and usual gifts, but with requests to drop off gifts and well wishes for the season, for not only them but Mokuba as well. Maura had not been with them long enough for everyone to know who she was and that she was staying with them. After Christmas was the earliest they were willing and able to schedule it in. Before Mokuba and now Maura they might have considered doing it sooner. But now with them, they'd be damned if they were going to throw away any more time than they had to till after Christmas to spend with the kids.

"Seto, they delivered the Christmas tree this morning. I'm going to have the servants put in here tomorrow. I'm surprised you didn't already have one up."

"I didn't really think about it. With all the trouble and everything. Plus you know how hard it is to keep those things from shedding all over the place. Not to mention the year we got it extra early and then had to get rid of it the day after Christmas cause it started to smoke and you were afraid it'd catch on fire."

"It did catch on fire once it was outside. If you hadn't stayed inside when the servants took it out you'd have known that!"

"All the more reason to wait to get it done. This way we won't have to throw it out quite so soon or fast."

"That's true. So are you going to help me decorate or are you going to let me do some and the servants do the rest like most years?"

"Actually neither one."

"What?"

"We're going to teach Mokuba and most likely Maura what it means to decorate a tree."

"Seto you haven't decorated a tree in years!"

"You know the reasons for that too! The year after my mother died, I accidentally dropped and broke one of her favorite ornaments. Father dragged me into the west wing family room, got out a paddle he kept there and beat me with it good! After that I was forbidden to even touch the tree if we even had one again. Even after the bastard's death I just couldn't find any heart in doing it. I felt bad when you yelled at me to help but it wasn't easy to just get over it! Even when you convinced me to help I just felt empty, I wanted us to share this with Mokuba and it hurt not being able to. But some years I really tried for you! Cause I knew you liked to do it and I wanted to do it for you."

"I'm sorry, I forgot." Yami said, then smiled. "But this year will be different! We'll have 2 kids to play with and teach how! You're probably right, Maura probably never or rarely got the chance to decorate."

"Then let's get through as many of these blasted things as we can and get to bed so we can be awake enough to do it!"

Yami sighed, "All right, you're right, where were we..."

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

A little later that night Maura woke up, went downstairs and got some milk. On her way back to her room, she thought she heard a noise from Mokuba's room. She walked over and knocked lightly. "Mokuba?" When no answer came, she looked around and saw the light on in the family room. She debated upon whether or not to go tell them or go in. This time she heard the noise again and realized it was whimpering. She lightly opened the door and figured if there was someone in there she could run for help. But what she saw was Mokuba tossing and turning. She opened the door, set her milk on the table and walked over to him. She reached out and shook him. "Mokuba, come on, wake up."

Mokuba shot up in bed scaring Maura a little but she moved in and touched his shoulder scaring him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Are you all right?"

"F-fine."

"Are you sure?"

Mokuba nodded.

Maura sat on the edge of his bed. "I'm not used to being the oldest, I've always been the youngest. But I know what my father did whenever I had a nightmare. He usually wants me to talk about it, to help me feel better. So, what was your dream about?"

Mokuba shuddered and shook his head no.

"Come on then let's go talk to Seto and Yami."

Mokuba nodded, he liked that idea.

Maura almost forgot her milk but remembered and grabbed it.

They looked into the family room to see Seto and Yami working.

"M-maybe we s-shouldn't d-dist-turb them."

"Don't be silly, I'm sure they'll be happy to see us." Maura said, walking in, leaving Mokuba standing just on the edge of the door. "Seto, Yami."

They looked up and were surprised to see both kids standing there.

"Come in, here." Seto said.

Maura walked over and sat down next to Yami, while Mokuba walked over and sat down next to Seto.

"What are you two doing up?" Yami asked.

"I couldn't sleep so I went to get some milk and when I came back I heard noises from Mokuba's room and found him in a nightmare. But he wouldn't tell me what it was about."

Mokuba didn't say anything he just snuggled into Seto.

"It's all right, he doesn't like to talk about them much." Seto said, squeezing the boy tight.

"Well Seto seems to think my story telling puts people to sleep, but would you guys like me to tell you a story?"

"W-will you, big brother?" Mokuba asked.

"Please Yami, tell us." Maura said.

"Alright." Yami said.

After a brief discussion of what to tell, Yami started to tell a story and he again put both kids to sleep.

x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x

In a cabin not far from the castle, two women were talking.

"Malka, I've heard we have a new assignment."

"Yes, Ita we do. It was originally to take out one little girl, but the men we were told to contact refused to help without taking out a boy that's there too."

"Well if we could get the two brats together it shouldn't be too hard. What are they paying us to do the boy?"

"Nothing yet."

"What? I do not do this for free."

"They refuse to pay us. They've already tried by paying two hit men to do the job and they failed."

"Well then in that case I can understand why they refused to pay just yet. I wouldn't want to pay us either, if I hired two others and they failed."

"Yes, they said they'll contact us when the perfect time comes. Unless you see a better opportunity."

"Good, I'll keep watch."