Seto carried Mokuba downstairs and spotted a butler.

"James, hold up a moment."

"Yes, my king."

"Stand up a minute Mokuba."

Mokuba moved and found himself standing on a chair. Seto took off Mokuba's jacket and handed it to the butler.

"Here dispose of that."

"Sir? It's a good jacket."

"Mokuba's got others, we made sure to get more than one. He's not going to wear that anymore, it's torn."

"But sir…"

"Look, if you want it for some reason, you can have it. Just get it out of here." Seto said.

"Thank you sir." The butler said and left with the jacket.

Mokuba felt this would be as good a time as any to put the spell on Seto's necklace since he could reach him. He leaned up and put the two necklaces together.

Seto noticed the glow surrounding them then disappeared. "What was that?"

"It w-was a p-p-prot-tection spell Yugi put on. I-if I p-put it on yours your s-safe too." Mokuba said not wanting to try to say protection again.

"You can't avoid big words forever kiddo. I'll talk to Talana about helping you more with big words. Now why did Yugi have to put a new spell on your necklace and what did it do to mine?"

"Y-Yugi said the old one b-broke. T-that's why I g-got hurt."

"I forgot about the protection spell on your necklace. But why did you connect it to mine?"

"I w-want you to be safe too, big brother. I d-did this t-the first time Yugi p-placed the spell."

"You did? I don't remember that."

Mokuba giggled. "W-well you w-were as-sleep at the t-time."

"Well you know Yami's right, I think it'd just be better to wait to change your bandages. Unless it's bothering you."

Mokuba shook his head no.

"All right then." Seto said and put the boy on the floor, then sighed. "You have to know kiddo I'm doing what I can to keep Ryo happy here."

Mokuba cocked his head and frowned, not understanding.

"I…it's not important…you just run along and play. Maybe Ryo will play a game with you." Seto said but as he turned to leave Mokuba grabbed his hand.

Mokuba suddenly realized what Seto had meant by Ryo. True, he didn't want to have to choose between Seto and Yami or Ryo. He liked having both worlds together. "W-will you play with me, big brother?"

Seto smiled and sat down, Mokuba climbed into his lap.

"You really want me to play a game with you."

Mokuba looked down. "Unl-less you have to do more work."

"I'm sorry I don't spend more time with you. But I promise Yami and I will do our best to make more time for you. Do you know what a fair is?"

"S-Samantha s-said it m-means w-when someone p-plays b-by the rules."

Seto gave an internal laugh. "Well there's more than one meaning of the word kiddo. The kind of fair I was referring to is like rides and games and stuff."

At that Mokuba brightened up but at the same time was confused. "W-wait What's the d-difference?"

"Difference between what Mokuba?"

Mokuba suddenly realized Seto didn't know about the carnival Ryo took him to and was a bit reluctant to tell him. So, he just shook his head no.

Seto sighed. "I see, you don't trust me enough to ask." He was slightly hurt by it. "Go ask Ryo, I'm sure he knows." But as he tried to push Mokuba off to get up, Mokuba wrapped his arms tightly around Seto's chest.

Mokuba realized he'd hurt Seto's feelings by not wanting to ask him, he hadn't meant to hurt him. So, he sat up and wiped away his tears. "I'm s-sorry Seto. I j-just…"

"Just what?" Seto asked softly.

"I j-just d-didn't w-want to h-hurt your f-feelings. B-but I d-did any w-way."

"It's all right, Mokuba. I guess I'm a little jealous of the fact you're closer to Ryo than to me."

"B-but I s-still love you Seto."

"I love you too, kiddo. I don't say that enough."

"Y-yes, you do." Mokuba said and hugged him tight.

Seto squeezed the child tight. "Does this mean you'll ask me your question?"

Mokuba decided he should, besides if they had the same ride as last time he'd have to explain then why he liked that ride. "W-What's t-the d-difference b-between a c-carn-nival a-and a f-fair?"

"You know what a carnival is?" Seto asked, a bit surprised by it.

Mokuba smiled and nodded his head. "I-it's lots of f-fun. T-there's o-one ride, I had t-to beg Ryo to let me go on. B-but he s-said he w-was scared the entire t-time I was on there and w-wont l-let me d-do it again."

"You weren't scared?"

Mokuba shook his head no. "I t-thought it w-was fun."

"Well the answer to your question kiddo, is there's not really a difference. They're basically the same, for the most part."

"W-will you explain it t-to me?"

"How about we go to the playroom and you pick out a game and I'll tell you while we play."

Mokuba liked that idea; he quickly grabbed Seto's hand and started to drag him down the hall.

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

Upstairs Yami and Maura were playing cards.

"Yami why doesn't Mokuba talk much?"

"We're not sure really, we think he's self conscious about his stuttering. He's better at talking now that he once was. He doesn't stutter as much so he's gaining more confidence to speak."

Maura then remembered Yami's saying Mokuba had been mistreated. Well she may have only been here a week but it was more than enough time to tell her that it wasn't Seto or Yami who did it. She could tell they'd rather kill themselves than harm him.

"Why doesn't Seto like me?"

"I wish I knew. I know he's afraid that Mokuba's going to run away again. My only theory is that he's afraid if he spends any time with you it'll drive Mokuba away. I've heard he's forced Bakura to watch over Ryo more to keep him here which he hopes will also keep Mokuba here."

"Why is Mokuba more attached to Ryo? I mean I know he's attached to Seto, there's no denying that one, but I have noticed he seems closer to Ryo."

"What's the sudden interest in Mokuba?"

"Well at the moment he seems to be a mystery and I love mysteries. I just never thought I'd be a part of a family who felt I didn't deserve to know the answer to the mystery."

"Maura look, I like you a lot. I'm sure over time we will all grow to love each other as much as if we were really family. But for now, I want you to just look after and care for Mokuba as he is. If I tell you anything more, you will either hate him or pity him. I don't want you to do either."

"I won't hate him. What could he have done so horrible that you'd think I'd hate him?"

"It's not what he did, it was what was done to him. I'm afraid you'd hate him for not fighting back."

"I won't, I promise. Besides I never fought back when my stepmother beat me."

"Your stepmother beat you?" Yami asked, shocked.

"Yeah, she didn't do it too often for fear of my father finding out. She knew papa wouldn't like it."

"Did you ever tell?"

"No, she swore the next beating would be even more severe if we ever told."

"WE?" Yami questioned.

"My sisters. My older sister Diana often got the worse of the beatings."

"I see well you are basically defenseless."

"I am not!"

"You're not?"

Maura sighed. "Fine, I've never told anyone because it was meant to stay a secret."

"What was?"

"My father was really into judo and took lessons everyday. Well Tuesday and Thursday I got out of princess lessons early. So, one day I was watching and I was impressed so much that I asked the teacher to teach me."

"And he agreed just like that?"

"I wish. No, it took me a month to convince him by going on my two days off and begging and pleading with him to teach me; a month and a half later he caved. He said we'd start slow with only a few minutes a day. Soon those few minutes turned into half an hour. Only a butler I knew, who'd been around since my mother was little knew. He found out and I begged him not to tell. He agreed and was even able to keep my stepmother from finding out or hopefully blowing her stack if she ever did. He said I had a lot of potential. I had to stop going either all together or more than once a week when papa died. It was too risky of my stepmother finding out."

"I see, well then I'd say Mokuba has a very powerful new protector."

"Really?"

Yami nodded and decided he'd look into getting her more lessons seeing as she seemed to enjoy it so well from the way she talked. He might, if he could convince Seto, allow Mokuba to go. Perhaps it might help bring him out of his shell a bit more or at least help him gain more confidence in himself if he were to ever come across Noah or anyone else that might want to hurt him. The main problem… convincing Seto to allow it, Maura, he knew would be no problem. It seemed obvious that when it came to her he had free rein. But Mokuba, he knew if he tried to do it behind his back it'd cause an uproar similar to the one they had over his schooling only this time he had a feeling it'd be a lot worse.