Seto walked and thought Yami was still in his room but then saw the light on in the upstairs living room. He walked in and saw Yami with his legs stretched out and resting on the table reading.

"I thought I said no work and no magic."

Without looking up, Yami replied, "Yes, but you said nothing about just plain reading. I found this book on that shelf over there and realized I hadn't read it before. Are you checking up on me?"

"Do I need to?"

"I'm a big boy, Seto. I can look after myself."

"Can you look after someone else too?"

At that Yami looked up to see Seto carrying Mokuba. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure, but I have a bad feeling Noah had his way with Mokuba again."

At that the boy whimpered and clutched Seto even tighter than before. Confirming Seto's suspicions. When Ryo had said a bad run-in and the boy's demeanor pretty much told him what happened.

"What?! How?! I thought he was with Ryo!"

"Apparently somehow Ryo screwed up."

"What happened?"

"I don't know yet. I'm about to go find out."

Yami narrowed his eyes at Seto. "It's not like you to not get all the facts upfront."

"I tried, but Ryo and Bakura both made good arguments, so I relented to learning more after I dropped Mokuba off here."

"What kind of arguments?"

"Ryo suggested talking in private to avoid people learning more than they should or only hearing parts making up the rest and spreading more vicious rumors. I didn't like it, but after he mentioned it, I noticed a lot of people staring at us. So I reluctantly agreed. Then I have a feeling that somehow their parents were involved with what happened to Mokuba."

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"It was just Ryo and Bakura's whole attitude towards them. It was just strange. Plus Bakura had specifically said he didn't want their parents watching him and wanted them to be part of the discussion of what happened."

"Mmm…yes, that is strange."

"I thought that since you were feeling better, you'd watch him. His clothes are still a touch damp, so you'll need to change his clothes."

"We'll be fine. You go on and find out what happened." Yami said.

Seto sat down on the arm of the couch and tried to set the boy down, but he'd have none of it. He was in Seto's arms and he was safe and secure and he wasn't letting go.

"Come on kiddo, I need to go talk to Ryo." But as he tried to pry the boy's hands off they only tightened and a whimper could be heard.

Seto sighed, "It's alright. I understand. You want to stay where you feel safe and with someone you trust. But don't you trust and feel safe with Yami too?"

Mokuba whimpered. He did feel safe with Yami and even though he really wanted Seto's safety he feared Yami would think he didn't love him or feel safe with him if he didn't agree to stay. At the moment he still didn't feel like speaking to express this so with a reluctant sigh he let go of Seto. Seto was surprised that it worked. He thought for sure he'd have to take the boy over and get Yami to pry him free. Mokuba walked over to Yami and patted his legs. Yami smiled and sat up putting his legs on the floor. He took a piece of paper to mark the page he was reading in his book and set it on the table, before pulling the boy into his lap. Mokuba snuggled close and was happy that Yami put his arms tightly around him. He still had his cat toy in his hand as he held Yami's shirt tightly.

It was then that Seto noticed it. "Mokuba, where's your baby dragon? I've never seen you carry anything else."

Yami looked down also noticing his cat toy and knew how much the boy treasured his baby dragon since the day he had given it to the boy.

Mokuba however, being reminded of his baby dragon's fate burst into tears once again.

"Okay, touchy subject I guess."

"Apparently. You go ahead, I'll take care of him. Maybe Ryo knows what happened to it."

Seto was a bit reluctant, but said, "Okay call if you need me."

After Seto left he continued to hold the boy close. But he had a feeling the boy wouldn't walk on his own. Now normally he didn't need help but even though he was strong enough to move around. He didn't think he had the strength to carry this heavy 10-year-old. So he reached over and picked up the phone and called downstairs.

"Hello, Melissa speaking. How may I direct your call?"

"Yes, this is Yami, I need you to send Varon to the upstairs family room."

"Yes, sir, Master Atemu, I'll get right to it."

After he hung up the phone he sighed. Hopefully Mokuba will be able to bounce back from this like he did the last time without too much damage being done. He was definitely going to have to talk to Yugi about the protection spell he'd seen in one of his visions. See if it was humanly possible for them to do it.

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

When Seto left Yami, he was still slightly worried about Mokuba when he thought he heard a noise coming from the rec room down the hall from the family room. He opened it and knew he'd heard something that time. Then his eyes narrowed as he saw it was only Maura. But curiosity got the best of him, as she was not known for crying. Between her and Mokuba she was usually the strong one. So he decided to find out what the problem was.

After Mahaado had slapped her she just wandered around the castle with no clear destination. Seto and Yami had made it clear that while her family is here that they want her to spend time with them she couldn't bring herself to tell Seto or Yami. After seeing Yami collapse and Seto ordering her away and not allowing her to care for him, she feared that despite what Mahaado said and did, that he and Seto would gang up on Yami while he's weak and force him to relent to let her go and live with them. Yami had explained that Seto's attitude towards her was because he's afraid if he gets too close that somehow it'd hurt Mokuba. She had found this room and it was nice and dark. Sometimes she'd cry other times talk out her problems with the shadows on the wall.

She jumped startled when the light came on. She shielded her eyes. She'd been here for hours in the dark. She feared somehow Mahaado had found her, but was slightly happy that it was only Seto.

Seto walked over to her. "What do you think you're doing here?"

Maura looked away. "I'm sorry, I just wanted a quiet place to be alone for a while."

"Why? You were told to stay with your family while they're here."

Maura looked up in angry tears threatening to fall. "Don't you mean so that you and Mahaado can have more time to discuss how to get rid of me?"

Seto was taken back by this. "What the hell are you talking about? I agreed to let Yami adopt you. What more do you want for nothing!"

"Does that mean that Mahaado can't force me to come live with him?" Maura asked in a deceptively calm voice.

"I never said that. Yami will probably protest if he does decide."

"He has decided. He asked me to go back with them."

"Really?" Seto asked, surprised.

Maura glared up at him. "Don't act so surprised! I'm sure you planned it!"

Seto glared at her. "I didn't. I would have thought he'd talked to one of us first. But what did you tell him?"

"He basically told me what I already knew. I wouldn't be there as the little sister he never had or anything. I'd just be a babysitter for baby David. I mean I wouldn't mind seeing him grow up, but I wouldn't just be watching him grow up. I'd basically be raising him. He also basically said that you and Yami shouldn't treat me and Mokuba so nicely. He thinks we should be in training. He doesn't believe we should be allowed to be kids."

"Well that's his opinion. I was younger than you when my father started to force me to train. I'd have been worked to death if not for my mother. But after she died…. Let's just say I don't think you should be forced to surrender all of your childhood to training. In Mokuba's case, he's never had a childhood. It was stolen from him by both my father and his stepmother. I'm going to do everything I can to give him as much of a childhood as I can."

'Which at the way things are going and he keeps running into Noah that reality will be shattered. Who knows what will become of the poor kid if this keeps up. I shudder to think of what kind of trauma will happen if Noah ever gets his wish of going all the way. We have got to do something to keep that from ever happening.'

Maura decided to tell Seto and see what happened. "Seto, I-I told him that I liked it here and I wanted to stay. I know I shouldn't have but I was angry with him. He never wanted me before when I lived with my stepmother. But now, now that I'm happy he suddenly wants me, as nothing more than a babysitter. Then probably ship me off to the first person who even took a liking to me!"

"I can imagine he wasn't happy with that."

Maura looked down. "No, he wasn't. He was so angry that he…he…"

"He what?"

"He slapped me."

"I see."

"That's it! I knew it! I knew you didn't care about me!"

"Never said I did brat. You're good for Mokuba. That's the real reason I've allowed you to stay."

"Then why do you care if he hit me or not? I'm surprised you haven't."

"I don't believe in hitting children! I'll talk to him he shouldn't have hit you. I'm sure something can be arranged."

"Arranged, as in send me back home or home with Mahaado? Then again maybe you'll find Prince Mako and ask him to reconsider and agree to marry me despite everything that happened. I ran away the day I was supposed to marry him, then refused to marry him then soon after came to live here."

"I think you're way too young to be married. And yes, you should go visit your family. Despite what Mahaado has done he's still part of your family and married to your sister. You say you want nothing to do with them, but you also said you liked your nephew and liked the thought of seeing him grow up. So we'll talk and try to arrange for you to visit."

"But…that's not what he wants. What's to stop him from marrying me at the first chance he gets?"

"As long as you're under 21 Yami will retain guardianship over you till then or till you get married. He must approve or we could sue them or even go to war. Either one I'm sure Mahaado's not ready for."

"You say Yami will decide and be my sole guardian. So it really is true that you hate me!" Maura said and ran off crying.

Seto sighed and shook his head. He was going to need some strong aspirin and a long nap after all this was over. It just seemed to be going from bad to worse. He was afraid to see what else would go wrong. It started out simply enough. Ryo wanted the boy to stay with him. He knew it was a bad idea, but did it for Mokuba's sake. He knew that if he'd given any indication of saying no the boy would be crushed. Ryo was, whether he liked it or not, the boy's brother too. He knew the boy and was closer to him in some ways and without him he probably would have had a harder time trying to gain the boy's trust or been forced to take different measures to have him here now. Though he knows that without him who knows what would have become of the boy. Would he have even saved him? He shook his head of these thoughts. Hopefully he wouldn't ever have to learn the answers to those questions. It was going to be a long night.