After breakfast, they went outside.
"Mokuba, why don't you take Maura over to the swings and play for a few minutes." Yami said.
"Okay big brother."
The two kids' ran off towards the swings and Mokuba was proud, for once, he got to show someone else how to do something.
Seto and Yami watched while drinking their coffee.
"Seto, what kind of speech teacher did you get? I haven't heard any improvements in how he speaks."
"What do you mean no improvement? I hear a great deal. True he's still stuttering but it's getting better."
"That's what the speech teacher is for?"
"What did you think it was for?"
"I know you said you hadn't hired anything in the royal form but I thought…"
"You thought I'd actually hire a royal speech therapist to teach him how to speak in proper English for royal settings; why? The poor kid can barely speak without a slight stutter most of the time. What good would an official royal speech therapist do for him? All she'd do is yell at him because what was the term the teacher always yelled at me about?"
"I believe it was your pronunciation. She never felt you had what it takes to fit into royal societies."
"Yeah, I hated her. All she could do was criticize while at the same time praised you."
"Seto, I'm serious about Maura. I think it'd be good for Mokuba to have someone his own age to play with."
"He has friends."
"I realize that, Seto. I just think he'd be happier if he had someone his own age to play with all the time."
"Look Yami, I know you want to keep her but you do realize that no matter what we want we have to take her back."
"Seto, I promised her we wouldn't."
"Look, if this girl really is a princess do you wish to start a war with her country, when they learn she's here and we refuse to give her back?"
"I never thought of that. But how would they know she's here?"
"There are a number of ways. If she truly is a royal princess, then someone sometime in all the royal people we have coming in and out of this castle one is bound to recognize her. If they report back that she's here, her stepmother is legally her guardian. Even if she wants nothing to do with the girl, we have to approach her and do the same thing to her that we did to Mokuba's stepmother. Even though she had no legal standing to oppose our taking Mokuba, we did it as a formality to make sure she didn't attempt to get custody before we did."
"But it doesn't matter anymore with him Seto, we know he's our brother by birthright."
"Yes, well I don't like loose ends and I felt he was a loose end."
"What did you do?"
"I filed the adoption papers on him."
"I see."
Seto smiled. "Would you like to see them?"
Yami looked up at him. "Why?"
"I thought you might find them interesting."
"What could be so interesting about adoption papers?"
"You'll see. Mokuba!"
Mokuba got off the swing and ran over. "Yes, Seto?"
"Take Maura, go around to the side and over to where the knights are training and stay close to Ryo and Bakura."
"Okay big brother." Mokuba said.
x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x
He ran back over to Maura, excited. "C-come on Maura let's go."
"Go where?"
"S-Seto said we could go watch the k-knights train."
'Father never allowed me anywhere near the knights!'
"W-what's wrong?"
"Nothing, let's go."
As they got there, Mokuba suddenly froze.
"What, what is it? What's wrong?" Maura asked.
"L-lets just g-go inside." Mokuba said.
Maura was confused. She wondered if it had anything to do with the girl hanging off one of the knights.
Mokuba turned around only to run into someone. He didn't have to look up to know who it was. Bakura had a big gold ring he always wore. "Hi Uncle Bakura."
"Going somewhere, kid?"
"Inside." Mokuba said.
"I thought you'd come to see Ryo." Bakura said.
Mokuba glanced over to Ryo, "I w-was but he's b-busy."
Bakura looked up and glared. 'What's that bitch doing back here? She and Ryo haven't seen each other in weeks due to training. I thought I'd seen the last of her.' He grabbed Mokuba's hand and ignoring Maura, walked over towards Ryo.
Maura was surprised but not wanting to be left alone and curious to know what was happening quickly followed.
"So, Ryo. Is your girlfriend more important than your little brother?" Bakura asked.
Ryo looked up at him and blinked in surprise. "What are you talking about?"
'Brother? I thought the king and Yami were his brothers?' Maura wondered. 'I think this place has a few screws loose!'
Bakura pulled the little boy forward. "He saw Shizuka there and decided you didn't want to see him."
Ryo smiled. "Come here kiddo."
Mokuba walked closer and put his arms around Ryo's neck. Ryo hugged him tight.
"Never be afraid to come to me kiddo." Then he pulled him up to look at him. "I'm still your big brother aren't I?"
Mokuba nodded.
"Then I don't want you to ever feel like you can't come to me, all right?"
Mokuba smiled. "Okay big brother."
"Now that that's been settled, how about you tell us who your new girlfriend here is." Bakura said.
Something about Bakura scared Maura some. She reminded him a little of Mako, the man she was supposed to marry.
"T-this is Maura. All t-they've t-told me is that she's going to be staying for a while. But that's all I k-know."
Maura remembered what Yami scolded her about this morning. Old habits die-hard but she still gave a small curtsy bow. "I'm pleased to meet you."
"Yeah. Whatever." Bakura said. Although now suspicious. 'Normal kids don't curtsy unless it's to the king or sometimes Master Atemu. I don't need the hassle of another kidnapped kid. Obviously in this case a royal one.'
"Don't mind him, he's always a bit of a grouch." Ryo said, getting a giggle out of Mokuba. "Now, why don't you sit here and join us. This is my girlfriend Shizuka."
"Nice to meet you." Maura said.
"Yeah, you too." Shizuka said unhappily. 'Great, it's bad enough with one brat in Ryo's life now there's two!'
Maura smiled and sat down next to Ryo and Mokuba in Ryo's lap, to watch the knights.
"Well I'd better be going then Ryo. It looks like you've got your hands full with two kids now."
"You don't have to go, you can stay here with us."
"No, really it's fine." Shizuka said, kissing him. "Bye Mokuba, nice to meet you Maura."
"Yes, it was nice to meet you too." Maura said.
Shizuka then stormed off, not happy that Ryo's now going to have two kids hanging off of him instead of one.
x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x
Seto pulled out Mokuba's adoption papers and handed them to Yami.
Yami's eyes went wide as he looked it over. "Seto, are you seriously telling me you filed it like this?"
"Did I make a mistake with it?"
"No, it's all correct but I can't believe you actually did this! Why?"
"Why not? I thought you'd be happy."
"I am, I'm just surprised that's all."