Seto and Yami walked in and Mai greeted them.

"Welcome home, I'm sorry about your brother."

"Thank you, Mai." Yami said.

"Where was Ryo going and who's watching Mokuba?" Seto asked.

"Well it seems Master Ryo and Sir Bakura had a major falling out. Sir Ryo left, he didn't say where he was going, only that he was leaving. He told me that Master Mokuba was in his room upset over his leaving and not to disturb him." Mai said.

"Poor kid, he really loved Ryo. We've been so wrapped up looking for our brother he probably feels ignored. We'd better check on him." Seto said.

"Yeah, we need to spend some time with him to make it up to him." Yami said.

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

Seto and Yami walked upstairs and Seto knocked on the door. After knocking, a couple of more times Seto became concerned and opened the door. Then he peaked in.

"Mokuba?" Seto called looking in the room. He frowned not seeing him and opened the door all the way. Then he just walked in. "Mokuba?" Seto called again.

Yami walked in also looking around confused. "Where is he?"

"Check the closet." Seto said checking the side and underneath the bed. "I don't get it, where is he?"

As Yami scanned the room his eyes went wide when he saw all three of Mokuba's toys sitting on the desk. He was confused till he saw Mokuba's baby dragon necklace around the neck of the blue-eyes white dragon. "Um, Seto, I think we have a problem." Yami said, walking over and picking up the blue-eyes white dragon.

"B-but he never goes anywhere without at least one of them." Seto said then he walked over and picked up the baby dragon necklace around the blue-eye's neck. "Why-why would he just leave this here and where is he?"

"Seto I have a bad feeling about this."

Seto looked around and then saw a note lying on the desk. He picked it up and started to read it.

{Dear Seto and Yami,

I know you're probably mad at me for leaving. Please don't I don't want you to be mad; I couldn't stand it if you were mad at me. I want you to be happy. I hope you find your brother. He's the luckiest kid around, I know cause I've lived his life the past few weeks. He has the best big brothers anyone could ever ask for. I will miss you both very much. I always hoped to be able to make you proud of me, to make you happy and maybe even someday know what it felt like for you to truly love me.

Your brother doesn't know how lucky he is, he's got the best big brothers in the world. I was told that I've taken your brother's place. That everything I have rightfully belongs to him. You don't need or want me anymore; you'll always want your real brother. I can't stay there because there's no room for me now. I'll just be in the way. I left my necklace because I feel it connects us as a family. Your brother should have it, not me. I love you both; don't look for me, I'm not worth it or worthy of you. I wonder if I ever was.

Love your ex-little brother Mokuba}

"I-I don't understand it. I thought I understood him, I thought he was happy here. Why-why would he run away?"

"He was happy here, Seto, you can't blame yourself."

"Why not! It's my fault! One little letter saying our brother's been found and I just abandoned the poor kid! When I first saw him abused and neglected in need of a loving caring home, my first thoughts were we might never find our brother. I was thinking that it didn't matter to me anymore if we found our brother, as nice as that might have been, this kid needed us. I wanted to focus on loving and caring for him! One stupid letter and I buy into it! I didn't just send someone to check it out like I have in the past when someone reports a possibility of finding our brother."

"Don't be so hard on yourself Seto, you can't compare this time with the last times. The last times were just maybe nothing solid. It was always just from some person who had heard from the search party what we were looking for and a time or two it was from members of the search teams. Those were all unsubstantiated reports. That's why when it came to the search parties you had the search leader check it out. This time was different; it was the first time it had ever come from a reliable source."

"I know but we still should have just sent someone to check it out and just sent someone to claim him instead of leaving Mokuba's party. Oh god, Yami, maybe that's why he ran away! He thinks we didn't love him! He heard us talking about moving him to the new wing but we never thought to tell him we changed our minds and had no intention of moving him. He thinks we didn't care about him! You were right, he probably thought all those presents were for our brother and we never got the chance to prove him wrong. It's our fault he ran away. We never told him how we felt about him. The poor kid was so mistreated in his old home then finding love here. Then he felt like that was all ripped away by one letter. Being here less than two weeks before we abandoned him to search for our brother he felt that he wasn't wanted here. But where did he go!"

"Maybe he left with Ryo."

"But he told Mai he was in his room."

"Maybe that was just an excuse not to have to explain why Mokuba wasn't in his room. Maybe he said something to someone about Mokuba. We should check with Bakura to see if he said anything or maybe he might have an idea of where he went."

"Good idea let's go."

Seto and Yami made their way outside by this time the rain had died down to a light drizzle. They found Bakura and a few others talking.

"Bakura." Yami said.

"Yes, sir, what can I do for you?" Bakura asked.

"Did you see Mokuba with Ryo at all today?"

"No, he went to meet with Shizuka and came back and…"

"Yes, yes we heard you two had a falling out." Seto said. "What we want to know is do you think he might have met Mokuba somewhere? Taken him with him?"

"I'm not sure what you mean my king."

"Mokuba's run away and we're wondering or at least partly hoping he's with Ryo." Yami said.

"I'm sorry I never saw the child with him at all today."

"I need you to go to town. Talk to Shizuka and anyone that may have seen Mokuba. We have to find him!" Yami said.

"Yes, sir!" Bakura said.

"Don't worry Seto, we'll find him!"

Seto sighed. "No, we won't."

"Don't talk like that! We will find him! This isn't like our brother Seto, where we can only guess what he looks like. Everyone knows what Mokuba looks like! It won't take long to find him!"

"You don't understand Yami! That kid looked to me for love and support. When he had a nightmare or couldn't sleep, he came to me, not Ryo. If he were scared or frightened, he'd go to you, me or Ryo. But I know he loved us and we let him down! I let him down! When I asked him to come home with me, he told me he'd just be in the way. I assured him he wouldn't be. Then suddenly the way we talked about him made him think he was in the way. Then someone obviously started to tell him he's only in the way now, that he was taking our brother's place." Seto said depressed. Then he looked up to see Johnson standing in the window. "I wonder who would have told him that!" He growled heading for the castle.

Yami looked up to the second floor window where Seto had been looking and saw someone leave but didn't see who it was; he then ran to catch up with Seto.

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

Ryo meanwhile had made it to the cave where he took his horse inside to dry off.

"Hey kiddo glad to see you made it okay. Are you sure you still want this? It's not too late to go back. Before you say anything, I'm not trying to get rid of you. I'm happy for the company but I know how much Seto and Yami meant to you. I just want to be sure this is what you want. I'm not trying to push you away, it's just I want you to be happy and be sure of what you want."

Mokuba smiled and laid his doll down, walked over and hugged Ryo's neck tightly. Ryo smiled and hugged back just as tight! Then he sat up, took off the light half of his change of heart angel necklace and placed it around Ryo's neck.

"What's this?" Ryo asked.

"I-it's for you big brother. I w-want to b-be with you. I d-do miss Seto and Yami but I'm only I-in the way. They w-want their brother. They've g-got a c-closet f-full of present's just f-for him. They don't want me they w-want him." Mokuba said sitting down in Ryo's lap.

"But where's the other one you were wearing?"

"I l-left it behind for w-when they find their r-real brother they can give it t-to him. I w-want us t-to bond m-more. S-so I b-bought t-these necklaces." Mokuba shifted a little in Ryo's lap. "See they c-connect."

"Well if this is really what you want then we'll spend the night here. I dropped by my place and brought extra blankets. We can't go back to my place cause when Seto and Yami learn you're missing they might send Bakura out to look and that will be one place he'll think to look."

"W-what are we going to d-do when we get to w-where we're going?"

"Well I'm going to sign on to try to become a guard and hopefully work my way up to knighthood eventually! As for you, I'm going to start you in school! I can only do so much kiddo, but I'm going to be busy and even then I'm not sure how exactly to teach you to write which you'll need to learn."

"W-what's a school?"

"Oh I would have thought Noah and Asana went to school."

"T-they do b-but I s-still don't know what it is."

"Oh well a school is a place that will be able to really help you to learn to read and hopefully write someday."

"B-but Ryo, how d-do we explain why I c-can't?"

Ryo thought for a moment now that Mokuba mentioned it. That was a very good question. 'How exactly do I explain why he can't read or write, not to mention if anyone sees his back wrapped or the whip marks how exactly do I explain it? I hadn't thought about that. I just thought of going with what Seto said, he said Mokuba's hair style is similar to mine so it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to claim that the kid is my brother.'

"Ryo?"

"What? Oh sorry kiddo, I'll think of something. Now what do you say? Let's eat some sandwiches Mai gave me and then try to get some sleep."

"W-Whatever you s-say big brother."