Best of Times

[Royal Vizier Kris]

(It was the best of times...It was the worst of times...It was time for pie XP *is dead* I am so done!)

"Seya get away from there,"
Shining blue eyes turned their attention toward the white haired boy, and although he looked pretty happy, his voice had been stern. Slowly, the little five-year-old backed away from the stand that held the vase and turned back toward Ryou, "I'm sorry..." she muttered.
Ryou smiled slightly, picking up the girl, "It's okay." he said softly, almost apologetically. "Now, why don't you go get your jacket on and we'll go walk around for a little bit before I take you back to Kris," he suggested, walking Seya back into the living room and setting her down.
The five-year-old grinned and nodded, running across the room, she grabbed her jacket and was in the middle of putting it on when she looked up at Ryou, back to the jacket, then back to Ryou again.
"Want some help?"
There was a moment of silence before Seya shook her head, putting on hand through the sleeve. "I can do it," she said sweetly.
Patiently, Ryou leaned against the wall, his arms folded across his chest, watching the mild amusement as she finally slipped her other arm into the other sleeve. She paused though, only after realizing she had it on backward.
"Help?" she finally asked.
Ryou smiled, walking over to her. "Okay," he said.

--

It had taken surprisingly longer to get out of the house, and it was only because of the fact that Seya had to stop once they got around the block just to say she had to go to the bathroom, so they had to go back to the house, and it was only then that the phone went off and wouldn't stop. That took a whole three minutes, and by the time they were ready again, it took them a few more minutes to get her jacket back on by the time they could leave the house.
Roaming around the Domino City Square, Seya had to stop at almost every window to look inside, claiming she wanted the toy that she found in the window. Ot took her a few minutes before she lost interest and looked through another window.
"Seya we've looked at that one already," Ryou said, and although his patience was wearing thin with the girl, Ryou couldn't help but smile. She was just too cute. "Come on," he turned away from the window, taking her hand and leading her across the window street. "I want you to meet someone."
"Who?" Seya asked.
"Just a friend..." Ryou commented, leading her across another street, toward a big building.

--

It was only when they got into the large building before Seya's curiosity took off again. She pulled away from Ryou and ran off toward one of the huge desks where a secretary lady sat. She peered down at Seya and the five-year-old grinned, one of her mischievous grins.
"No Seya," Ryou said taking the girls hand again. "That's not for you." he turned back to the lady, apologizing before walking to a nearby elevator.
"I wanna do it!" Seya snapped.
"Okay, okay..." he held her up and let her push the button, and when the doors opened the two of them got in. Here, Seya got to push the up button.
They were now out of the elevator when Seya turned around, watching the doors shut, "Elevator go down the hoooolllleee" she said.
Ryou chuckled and nodded before leading her to a nearby door that was shut. The name on the front of it read Seto Kaiba (Duh!) He knocked and waiting for an answer. But when he stopped knocking, Seya continued knocking, though not knowing if this would make the person behind the door mad.

[High Priest Ali]

"I'm afraid to ask," Seto said.
He and Ryou watched Seya play with Mokuba across the room, Ryou was watching, Seto wasn't paying that much attention.
Ryou was glad not to have to keep his eye on the girl every second. Mokuba was doing a good job entertaining her. It just felt better to be around someone his own age for a change.
"What is she? Your...niece? No, wait, you're only child. Cousin?" Seto asked. "She's cute."

[Royal Vizier Kris]

"Say what?" Ryou looked away from Seya and Mokuba to stare at Kaiba, his eyes going wide with surprise. Since when did a CEO think a little girl was cute? This comment seemed to surprise him, but he shook hies head. "Actually, she's Kris' cousin. She went out of town this week so I got stuck baby-sitting all week. She's goning home later tonight though."

A wave of relief seemed to wash over him at this thought. He turned back to see what Seya and Mokuba had been doing, but Seya wasn't there. Looking around, it was only a moment later that Ryou had noticed Seya walk around Kaiba's desk. She reached up to grab something shiny from the desk.

"Seya!" Ryou said.

The girl wasn't listening. She stood on her tip-toes, grabbing at the silver instrument on the desk.

"Seya, that breaks...Into...Tiny little pieces..."

[High Priest Ali]

"It's OK." Seto told him, pulling Seya into his lap, "She'll be careful. Won't you Seya?"
The little girl grinned up at Kaiba. "Uh-huh." she mumbled. She stared at the crystal weight, watched the light twinkle in and around it. She giggled quietly.

[Royal Vizier Kris]

"You need a kid, you'd be good with them You've done good enough with Mokuba," Ryou commented, watching with amusement as Seya reached for the crystal weight. "Seya, put it down please." he said.

Seya shook her head, "i'll be careful, promise!" she held the weight in her hands, still watching the light shine through it. She looked up, "Pretty!" she said when she found the light was reflecing on the ceiling.

Ryou smiled, and although he was a little more relaxed, there was a part of him that-

CRASH!

-Oh shit!

Ryou turned back toward Seya. She looked down at the ground where tiny pieces of shattered glass lay. Her hands covered her mouth as if afraid of saying anything.

(Lets break stuff! XP *is dead*)

[High Priest Ali]

"Seya Michelle!" Ryou snapped.
"Saw'ee..." she mumbled.
"It's OK, hon," Seto set her up on the desk. "Don't yell at her, man."
"Yeah, Ryou," Makuba said, getting up and crossing the room, "Hakuna Matata. Come here Seya. Wanna see where me and Seto make the video games?"
"Yeah!" Seya jumped down and ran to Mokuba.
"I'll bring her back," he said.
"Don't break anything else!" Seto called after them in mock anger. He smiled. "She's so cute. How come Kris never told us about her?"

[Royal Vizier Kris]

Ryou smiled slightly, though he still looked bad about the fact that Seya had dropped something. He was silent as he watched Mokuba and Seya leave the room. "I don't know," he admitted, "Wish I did though..."

He trailed off, and almost instantly he had realized that without Seya in the room, it was peaceful. For once there was silence, silence he hadn't heard of in a week. Silence that made everything seem to be okay again.

"I'll ask her when she gets back...That is if she's still talking to me..." (*insert anime sweatdrop*)

[High Priest Ali]

"Why?" Seto leaned down and tossed the broken glass into the trashcan, "What happened?"

[Royal Vizier Kris]

Ryou seemed to be debating, whether he should be able to tell him about the incident. He couldn't think of any reason not to tell him, "Just some disagreement. I don't remember what led to it but I guess she's going to be moving at the end of next month or something, and we're talking then she got all snappy at me for something...I still don't know what she yelled at me about, but she stormed off before I had a time to say anything else. When she brought Seya over last weekend, she wouldn't say a word to me. Just handed me a letter..." he paused, digging through his pockets before finally finding it, this he handed over to Kaiba. "Not much in there...'Cept how she wants to break up, and something about how it's my fault and..." he trailed off, unable to think of anything else to say.

[High Priest Ali]

Seto scanned the letter, reading some parts a couple of times. He finally handed it back and said, "Well, you fucked up, didn't you?"
Ryou didn't answer. Seto laughed at his gloomy look.
"Hey," he said, "That's OK. She'll get over it. You guys won't break up. I know it."

[Royal Vizier Kris]

"Isn't that what everyone kept saying last year?" Ryou asked, remembering the previous Valentine's Day. "We broke up then, at least for two months. And it was only after Tea got the two of us paired up for that stupid Science assignment thing that we got together again." he sighed. "You know, I look at Seya everyday now, and I always find myself wishing it was Kris and me who had her. She's pretty and perfect, in almost everyway possible. I look at her and think there might be hope for us after all, but I don't know...I mean what if we do break up, then these whole four years woyuld have just been a wste of time..."

Ryou trailed off again, staring down at the letter that was now in his hands.

(We COULD be bad and get them drunk XP)

[High Priest Ali]

(You think THAT'S bad...you don't even wanna KNOW what I was thinkin! XD)

"I'm surprised you can put up with her," Seto muttered, "I hate little kids..."
"But you were good with Seya," Ryou said, "She likes you."
"She's cute. So what?" Seto asked. "I been there once. I don't want to do it again."
Ryou smiled and thought of Seto raising his little brother on his own. Ten years old and thrust into parent hood.
"She reminds me a little of Mokuba when he was that age..." Kaiba said thoughtfully. "Why did you get so mad at her?"
"I'm sorry she broke that," Ryou mumbled.
"It's OK. No big deal. You don't have to get mad at her." Seto said, "What? Didn't you ever break anything when you were little?"

[Royal Vizier Kris]

(We can't type today)

Ryou seemed to think about this question, and truthfully he couldn't remember breaking anything at all. The only thing he remembered was his dad never being around, usually on some sort of archeologist dig or something, which left Ryou alone with some baby-sitter for the most part. And he never did do anything bad to any of the baby-sitters, due only to the fact that they would usually bring their boyfriends over and spend the rest of the night mking out on the couch, forgetting Ryou was there in the first place. "No," he admitted.

"I guess it's one of the reasons I like Seya so much," he said. "My dad was rarely ever around, so I always got stuck with baby-sitters that most of the time forgot I was there. When I get to watch Seya I think of the times I did get to spend with my dad, and how much fun we had. I don't know what it is but I look at Seya as if she were my own, my own to love, play with, watch grow up. You know," Ryou chuckled slightly. "I've thoughtr about adopting Seya myself. Her family...Well, sheonly has one and Kris said her her mom wanted to put her up fotr adoption to begin with."

(There's my iddea)

[High Priest Ali]

(No shit! XP *is dead*)

"Take her if you can." Kaiba said immediately, "Don't let them just...leave her...like mine did..."
Ryou looked at Kaiba then and saw for the first time a shimmer of pain in the deep blue eyes. He also noticed something on the corner of the desk. A picture laying on the top of it. The corners were ragged and the edges were torn but the photo could still be seen.
There was a young man with dark hair and blue eyes, like Kaiba's. He actually looked a lot like Kaiba did now. In his arms he held a pretty young red-haired girl. She too held something: a small babe wrapped in a blanket with a mop of black hair. And in front of them, holding his mother's hand, was a very little Seto.
"That's us," he said softly, "Before..."
Ryou looked up.
"Mom got sick...and they said there was nothing they could do..." Kaiba said, "She died when I was eight. Dad tried to keep us together after that but...he just couldn't do it...he died two years later."
"I'm sorry," Ryou said.
"Then my aunt comes and tells us we've got a new home," Seto muttered angrily, "But I knew she didn't mean with her or anyone else. She'd never take care of us. She never took care of anybody but herself. So she...drives us out of town and dumps us off in some orphanage and says "Good luck." Good luck! To a five year old who lost his parents and ten year old who was...gonna end up doing everything from now on...looking after everybody, including himself...she said she'd visit us, but she never did...they said someone would take us home but no one did...I had to get us out, I started us over, I built us up from nothing..."
Seto stopped then, his eyes gleaming with tears and panting hard. He eventually went on softly, "Because I had no choice...they left us..."
He looked up at Ryou and said, "Don't you let that happen to that little girl, Ryou, don't you dare. She has a chance that I never had. She gets to live her life the way it should be..."
Silence followed.

[Royal Vizier Kris]

(JACK! JACK! *sulks like Kyoshi guy*)

Ryou was silent, listening to Kaiba talk. He didn't dare interrupt, and although he knew most of the story, he couldn't help but listen silently. He felt so bad for Kaiba. No one should have to go through that. NoNo No one at the age of ten should have to grow up so fast and learn how to take care of everything ehsemsleves themselves...It just wasn't right...Nothing was right about it. He couldn't help but feel bad for Kaiba, listening to the things he had to do.

It was at this moment that Seya walked into the room again. She had been in the middle of saying something when she noticed Kaiba had tears in his eyes. Silently, she walked over to him and climbed into his lap. "Seto sad?" she asked sadly.

Ryou turned away from Kaiba, only long enough to see Seya, slowly he nodded his head, being too afraid of hearing his own voice answer.

Seya turned back to Kaiba, "Hug," she said, wrapping her arms around him. She stayed like this for a moment before letting go of him and looking up at him, almost sadly, "What's wrong?" she asked.