The day Seto and Mokuba returned. It was the day before Thanksgiving. Seto couldn't believe it'd been almost two months since Yami left. Seto did his best to deal with the loss; he would either throw himself into his work more or spend more time with Mokuba. He felt it would be good to teach him more of what he did. It would give them time together and Mokuba of course was thrilled to get to spend more time with his big brother and learn what he did.

Seto couldn't believe it was Thanksgiving already. I'd be the first one without Yami. Of course the upside was that it was his first with Mokuba. He walked towards the dining room and was stopped by Arthur.

"My king Seto, there are three candidates for a new teacher for Master Mokuba."

"Have them here Monday and I'll talk to them."

"Yes, my king."

Seto continued into the dinning room for breakfast and smiled seeing Mokuba sitting there quietly with his baby dragon in his lap. He walked over and took it and looked at it.

"Is s-something w-wrong big brother?"

"What? Oh no, kiddo, it's nothing." Seto said, placing the dragon on the table.

"W-what's w-wrong? I k-know it's s-something."

Seto smiled and shook his head. "No it's nothing kiddo; I just miss Yami is all. It's the first Thanksgiving I've ever had without him."

Mokuba got up and walked over to him and hugged him. "I'm s-sorry Seto."

Seto hugged him back. "It's not your fault kiddo. Yami chose to leave on his own. It has nothing to do with you. He chose to do this, it's what he wants. Now after breakfast I need you to play quietly in your room or the playroom. I have a long boring day of royal court that I have to do."

"C-can't I s-stay with you?" Mokuba asked, sitting up.

"No, you'd just be bored."

Mokuba sighed and nodded. Then sat back down in his chair without another word. He didn't want to talk back. Though Seto was teaching him to be more independent and not go by all his old rules he just had a hard time adjusting to being able to do things like talk back without fear of punishment.

After breakfast Mokuba left quietly to the playroom while Seto was busy with his paper. In his rush to leave he'd forgotten his baby dragon on the table. He realized this once he got to the playroom but decided against going back for it.

Seto looked up from his paper and sighed. He didn't mean to upset the kid into running off. He smiled sadly at the baby dragon. He wasn't sure why he took it with him. The only reason he could think of was it was a connection to both his brothers.

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Yami was having the same problem. He was just sitting outside on a rock staring off into space.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Krystyn asked.

"What?" Yami asked, being knocked out of his thoughts.

"It's Thanksgiving, you should be a little happier."

Yami sighed. "It's my first major holiday away from home. Not to mention Mokuba's first."

"Didn't they ever treat the poor kid right?"

"Not that I've been able to tell."

"Well my cooking may not be as good as what you're used to but grandfather's never complained."

"How can I complain, when you're doing the cooking? If I complain you may start forcing me to help out with the cooking." Dartz said walking outside.

"Are you saying my cooking isn't that good?" Krystyn demanded to know.

"Of course not my dear. I'd never say that."

Krystyn glared at him not believing a word. Then she stormed off.

Yami looked over at Dartz who just shrugged.

"She'll get over it."

Yami wasn't so sure though. He knew at home if you upset the cook he'd either refuse to cook or you'd wish he had. He and Seto learned that when Gozaburo started to yell and scream at a cook once because he wasn't happy with the food. The cook just quit. The chef that works for them now was his apprentice and was instantly promoted. There came a new recipe the cook tried and Seto hated it. Seto complained it was too bland. So the cook put hot peppers in the next dish.

"Now shall we resume our training?" Dartz asked.

Yami sighed and nodded. Then followed Dartz back inside.

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

Seto meanwhile was about ready to fall asleep. It was almost the same every year, the same old people bringing in the same old things. With Mazaki taking notes on who brought what to send thank you cards to.

He usually avoids doing it at Christmas but usually has to do it sometime in that month. He sometimes does it when he has trouble sleeping. This always puts him to sleep.

Mazaki, who was sitting in Yami's chair taking notes, glared at him for practically sleeping through the whole thing. "My king!" Mazaki yelled in a loud whisper.

Seto blinked and shook his head trying to wake up.

"My king you need to stay awake and why do you have that toy?"

Seto said nothing but put the baby dragon down further behind him.

Then much to his surprise someone brought in a live turkey.

'I should show that to Mokuba. I bet the kid's never seen a live turkey before.' Then another thought hit him and he wrinkled his nose. 'Then again maybe I'll wait. If I show him that then at dinner tonight, when they serve turkey he might start asking questions on the names. No, I don't think it'd be a good idea to have the kid see one alive then have to explain that night that the turkey we were about to eat were the same thing. Though I'm sure the kid has seen a cooked turkey before, I really don't like the idea of his seeing a live one then a cooked one. Maybe Saturday I can deal with it. I hope.'

"My king? What should they do with it? Perhaps have a feast?" Mazaki asked.

Seto shook his head. "That's fine if you wish to arrange one for the staff, the guards and the knights. But I want to keep that one alive."

Mazaki looked at him confused. "Might I ask why, sir?"

With a smile Seto said, "I want to show it to Mokuba. If the kid gets attached to it he might want to keep it as a pet. The last thing I want is for the kid to find out its dinner!"

Mazaki didn't like it. He of course was not the only one. A lot of people didn't like some of the new rules that Seto had put into place to protect Mokuba. Of course no one said a word out loud. He nodded to a guard and he took it and pinned it up.

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Needless to say the minute the knights learned there was a live turkey they were ready to kill it and cook it!

"Hey man, why are you pinning that thing up instead of getting someone to prepare it?" Honda asked.

The guard Merrick shook his head. "Sorry, king's orders."

"What kind of orders?" Bakura asked.

"He said he wants to keep it around." Merrick said, rolling his eyes.

"Just what would he want with a live turkey?" Joey asked.

"The king said something about his kid and a pet." Merrick said.

"What! You mean the kings going to let a perfectly good turkey go to waste just to let that kid have it as a pet?" Joey asked.

"This is outrageous! First we have to have patrols in the maze and 24 hour guards at the doors as well as the front gates! Come on. I mean the front gate yeah I mean that's always been the case. But just cause this stupid little punk and his family have threatened the kid we have to suffer!" Honda said.

Merrick glared at him. "What's this we stuff? I've never known a knight to lift a single finger to help in guard duty without direct orders from the king."

At that they all shut up.

Merrick turned to leave. "I'm giving fair warning now. If that turkey leaves before the king has shown it to the kid there will be hell to pay and I don't think you want to incur his wrath right now. You should all know what happens to the king when Master Atemu is away from home. He gets moody and irritable. That kid is the only thing keeping him from snapping everyone's heads off! So, if I were you, I'd make sure that kid stays happy. When that kid is happy, the king is happy and with Master Atemu gone if the king's temper gets out of control…"

"Yeah, we know." Honda said then turned to Bakura. "We went through that once, I don't want to go through it again."

"Why are you looking at me?" Bakura asked irritably.

"Simple it was your fault!" Honda said.

"How was the king's temper my fault?!" Bakura demanded to know.

"Was it not you who ran Ryo off?"

"Ryo has nothing to do with this!"

"He has everything. You ran him off and subsequently he took the king's kid with him!"

Bakura didn't back down just glared but inside he was gulping and shrinking back. Yeah okay so he had run Ryo off. But hell how was he supposed to know that running Ryo off would mean Mokuba'd go with him. He knew the two were close but even he couldn't have predicted that Mokuba would run away with Ryo.

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

Thirty more minutes went by and finally Seto couldn't take anymore.

"Varon."

"Yes, my king."

"Would you bring Mokuba here?"

Varon smiled. "Certainly my king."

Varon walked into the playroom and smiled seeing the kid asleep at the desk. Varon recognized the book he'd been reading. His niece Sami had quite a few. They were a series called 'Now I Can Read' books. Varon figured since there were three books to one side that either the kid got through them or was waiting to go through them. The book he was sleeping on had 30 pages and he was on page 5.

Varon lightly shook him. "Master Mokuba, come on time to get up. The king wants to see you."

When the kid sat up rubbing his eyes but made no effort to move Varon figured the kid was half asleep and didn't understand what he said.

"Come on kid, you have to wake up now. Your brother wants to see you."

That got Mokuba's attention, just as Varon thought it would.

"R-really?"

Varon smiled and nodded and held out his hand. Mokuba quickly grabbed it.

Mokuba was surprised that Seto wanted to see him after the way he talked at breakfast. After they entered the throne room Mokuba was a little reluctant to go over to Seto. So, Varon pushed him forward, encouraging him to go forward. Mokuba did notice that Seto looked like he was bored out of his skull and couldn't help but giggle a little at the expression on his face.

Seto turned and glared at the kid, making him hush right away. Of course Seto wasn't angry with him, he thought someone was laughing at him and he wasn't going to have it. But then when he noticed it was Mokuba his expression softened. If the kid laughed at him he wasn't going to say a word. The kid barely laughed as it was. "Hey kid, come here."

Mokuba walked over to him.

"Oh, here." Seto said, pulling out Mokuba's baby dragon and handing it to him. "That's yours I believe."

Mokuba giggled at the way Seto had said it with a funny voice.

"I'm sorry about this morning kiddo. I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm assuming that's why you left your baby dragon behind. You were upset or scared of me because of the way I snapped. I didn't mean to."

"I-it's okay big brother."

"You'll forgive me then?"

Mokuba leaned over and kissed his cheek then hugged him. Seto smiled and squeezed the kid tight and pulled him into his lap.

"So kid, you want to stay here and watch?"

At that Mokuba brightened up. "R-Really I c-can stay?"

Seto smiled seeing how happy the kid was, realizing he wouldn't have been so bored if he'd done this, this morning. "Of course you can."

Mokuba smiled and snuggled into his brother's lap more.

Seto was in for a surprise from one of the people coming to pay tribute which he never asks for. He does charge taxes to pay the knights and guards and keep everyone in food and clothes. Beyond that he doesn't demand the people give him anything. They do it to show their appreciation.

The man worked in a shoe store. "My king, I had heard rumors of your little one there and I had seen him in town and he looked about the same size as my own son, so I made him these shoes."

Needless to say, Seto was surprised. "Hop down Mokuba and go try them on."

Mokuba nodded and did as he was told and returned to Seto.

"Well how do they fit?"

"T-they fit great; m-my old shoes f-fit r-really good. B-But t-these f-feel d-different."

Seto wasn't sure what the kid meant by different and checked them and was greatly surprised. They were a very snug fit almost like they'd been measured to fit. "Perhaps you could make him some more, maybe some small low to no heel boots. You would be paid very well."

The man bowed, happy to have pleased the king. "It would be a pleasure, my king."

"You do as good a job on the others as you did these I'll sign you on as the royal shoemaker. You could make shoes for the entire castle, if you want the job that is."

Then man's eyes went wide, never did he ever dream or even imagine such a thing. "Yes, of course it'd be an honor sire." 'A job here would keep me in work for years to come!'