Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Watch Over Me ❯ Mr. Kaiba ( Chapter 30 )

CCD: Steven deserved it. He deserved more, actually.

Angelic Mouse Girl: I know it was creepy, but I'm going somewhere with it. That wasn't torture for the sake of it. I'm going to use it later.

Shadow of Light: Actually, his soul goes to the shadow realm, not the underworld.

IYYASHI: The proposal is sweet. I know you'll like it.

Ryou's Mistress: I know that you must have liked that. I hope so, anyway,

Bishojo: *hugs* I'm prompt as usual, sometimes early. it depends on a lot of factors.

Lady Elfskye: Well, I'm trying to balance it all. I already cracked once. I wonder how often this will happen. But, I'm ok.

Dragondreamer: I hope I'm taking care of you well so far…..*falls asleep with naked Ryou plushies*

Keiko: Bakura x Malik are rare for me. Bakura cares about Malik, but it is rare that they express that physically.

Stwawbewwy cotton candy: Steven torture is good…

Mr. Kaiba

Joey painted in the delicate features of Seto's chest, paying close attention to the variations on Seto's skin. Mokuba ran into the room and looked at the picture.

"Joey, where do you plan on putting that?"

Joey dipped the paintbrush in the fleshy color and painted the ridges on Seto's chiseled abdomen. "I haven't decided yet. Why?"

"You did a great job, Joey, but could you not put it in the dining room? I'm not sure if I want to look at my half-naked brother while I'm eating."

Joey turned to Mokuba. "I wouldn't do that to you, kiddo. Nah. I think I'm gonna put this in the study."

"You're a really good artist, Joey," Mokuba said hugging Joey. "Maybe I can learn to do that some day!"

"I'm sure you could, kiddo!"

Mokuba's eyes lit up and he tugged on Joey's shirt. "My big brother wants you to come outside. Hayden's gonna be here any minute!"

Joey jumped up and washed his brushes. He washed his hands and he ran outside with Mokuba. Seto was sitting on the front steps wearing leather pants and a black long-sleeved shirt with gold cuffs. His black boots tapped anxiously on the pavement.

A green car pulled up and the lawyer stepped out of the car. He went around the other side of the car and opened the door. A little boy around five years old crawled out of the car.

Seto widened his eyes when he saw the chibi with red hair and freckles on his cheeks. He was as skinny as Aten and his large blue-green eyes shifted uncomfortably as he saw the people walking around him. The lawyer took the hesitant boy's hand and lead him to Seto.

"Mr. Kaiba, this is Hayden."

Seto sported a tiny grin and reached out his hand. "Hi, Hayden. Welcome to your new home at KaibaCorp."

The chibi lowered his head and stood silently.

"Hayden?"

The chibi averted his eyes away from Kaiba.

Joey tried to calm the nervous chibi. He kneeled down to Hayden. "Hayden, it's ok. This is your home now. We're your new family. This is Seto Kaiba. Heard of him?"

The chibi nodded quietly.

"I'm Joey, your new daddy," Joey said ruffling the chibi's straight, red hair.

The chibi closed his eyes and began to quiver.

Mokuba leaned down to Hayden. "I'm your new brother, Mokuba! Nice to meet ya, Hayden."

The lawyer opened his mouth and Seto shook his head. Mokuba was his uncle, but the last thing Hayden needed was to hear that Mokuba was going to be his new uncle.

Mokuba looked at the small racing car in Hayden's hand. "Wow! You got the red one!

Is it from the 64 series?" Mokuba looked at it closer. "It is! Wow! I have the 64 series black car! Maybe we can race them together tonight or something!"

Hayden opened a blue-green eye and looked at Mokuba.

"Let's get you settled, Hayden," Seto said motioning Hayden to follow him. Seto filled out security information for Hayden at the security desk.

"Hayden gets the same access to restricted areas that Mokuba has. Hayden is our new son now and I expect him to be treated just like Mokuba and given the respect he deserves."

The security guards took Hayden's picture for the files and they escorted Hayden to his room.

Hayden's room was blue and white. A large bed was in the corner covered with a white comforter. In the corner was a toybox filled with balls, racing cars, plastic horses, coloring books, crayons, colored pencils, markers, and doodle pads. A rocking horse was in the other corner by a book case lined with books and a chair to sit in nearby. Hayden's eyes opened wide as he slowly entered the room.

"This is your room, son," Seto said walking into the room.

Hayden stood there gripping his toy car tightly.

"Come into the room, son, this is your room now."

His eyes widened at the bed. It was so big! His eyes darted to the toybox and he cringed. He dropped his car and his bag and ran for the bookshelf.

Hayden picked up a book and ran back to his bed. He lifted the mattress and hid the book.

Hayden sat beside the bed and laid on the carpet yawning.

"Hayden? You can sleep in the bed."

Hayden lifted his head to Mokuba and shook his head. "I'm not allowed in the bed."

"Hayden, you can sleep in the bed. That is your bed," Seto said calmly. "You can go to bed if you are tired."

The chibi gripped the carpet tightly. "If you tell me I am tired, I will go to bed."

"Would you like to see the rest of KaibaCorp?"

The chibi blinked blankly. "Do I want to see the rest of KaibaCorp, Mr. Kaiba?"

"I'm not `Mr. Kaiba,' Hayden. Call me Seto or Dad. You can call us whatever you wish."

"But, do I want to see the rest of KaibaCorp?"

Mokuba shook his head. Hayden must have never made a choice of his own in his life! He doesn't even know if he wanted something.

"Come see the rest of this place!" Mokuba said excitedly.

Hayden slowly rose from the carpet and walked beside Mokuba. Hayden's eyes lit up in the library. His eyes sparkled as he looked at the walls which were lined with books in three different languages that Seto could read: English, German, and Japanese. Every topic was covered and every genre was represented. If Hayden was excited by the rows of books, his body didn't show it. His eyes lit up happily and his fists clenched in excitement.

Seto could tell that the chibi loved books. He made a mental note to subscribe to magazines and book clubs so Hayden could have enough reading material.

Hayden loved the fireplace in the study. He smiled at the fire and once again laid down on the carpet.

Seto glanced at Hayden. `The kid sure likes carpets,' he thought. Seto showed the chibi his office. Hayden looked at the large desk and began to quiver again. He stood on the other end of the room and refused to move.

"Hayden, nothing is going to hurt you here."

The large blue-green eyes lost their luster. Mokuba leaned over to look at Hayden.

"Hayden, nothing in this room is going to hurt you. My brother is a good guy."

"Desk………….cold desk……."

Joey kneeled in front of the red-haired chibi understanding that the desk had triggered some type of painful memory. "Hayden, I know what's going on. The desk scares you. It's ok to be afraid, son. Tell you what, why don't you go with Mokuba and get settled in. We want you to be comfortable here. Seto and I will check up on you in an hour. How does that sound?"

The chibi folded his arms in front of him and buried his chin in his chest. He scurried from the room quickly with Mokuba. Seto sat on the couch.

The CEO rubbed his eyes. "He's not very talkative, is he?"

"Give him some time. It may take time for him to get settled."

Seto ran his fingers through his brown hair. "You know, Aria's gonna be pissed when she finds out about Hayden. We're gonna have to spend some special time with her when she is here."

Joey nodded. "Yeah. We'll have to. Don't worry about Hayden, Seto. He'll be fine."

*************************************

Mokuba lead Hayden to his room. Once again, Hayden waited outside until granted permission to enter his room. He ran for the toybox and grabbed a handful of plastic horses and placed them behind the bookshelf.

"What are you doing?"

Hayden turned to Mokuba with large eyes. "Keeping my stuff safe from everyone."

"I won't touch your stuff, Hayden. I have my own toys to play with."

Hayden grabbed the plastic ball and put it under the bed. "I don't want my stuff to be taken away," Hayden said grabbing more books and putting them under his mattress.

"My brother wouldn't take anything away from you. Neither would Joey."

Hayden turned to Mokuba. "Maybe they take things from you when you aren't looking! I don't want my books to be taken away anymore."

Mokuba sat on the bed and watched Hayden hide more of his toys. The chibi saw Mokuba sitting on the bed and gasped. "If the men see you on the bed, they will be angry! Get off before they find you and hit you silly!"

Mokuba shrugged. "My brother never raised a hand to me! Joey wouldn't hurt us either, Hayden. Don't worry about my brother and his puppy."

"There's a dog here?" Hayden crawled under the bed shivering.

Mokuba jumped off the bed and looked under the bed. "No, there's no dogs here. We call Joey `Puppy.' It's his nickname."

The boy uncovered his eyes. "Oh….a nickname?"

"Yeah…you know, instead of calling Joey by his name, we call him `Puppy.' Aten and Aria, our friend Ryou's kids, call Joey `Unkie Puppy.' It's really funny!"

The boy crawled out from under the bed. "Oh….my uncle had a big, mean dog. It bit my lip and I got a scar. See? It really hurt when the dog bit me, but my uncle always laughed at me when the dog attacked me. Once, he locked me in my room with the dog and didn't let him out for three days! My uncle only put dog food in the room for the dog to eat. When the dog was done eating, the dog would continue to try to pounce on me and bite me."

"He locked you in a room for three days with this dog?"

The chibi nodded. "Yes. He didn't even let us out to go to the bathroom. My uncle was so furious when he opened the door on the third day and found that I had gone to the bathroom in the corner."

"That's awful, Hayden! You poor kid…and I thought I had it bad in the orphanage being bullied."

"I'm afraid of dogs. That's why I was afraid there was a dog around."

"Why did he do that to you?"

Hayden shrugged as he sat on the carpet. "He said that I needed some exercise. So, he locked me in the room with the big, mean dog for three days and didn't let me out even to go potty."

Mokuba ran to the other side of the room and opened a door. "Each of our bedrooms has its own personal bathroom. So, you have your own bathroom! Pretty neat, huh?"

The chibi bolted up and ran for the bathroom. "I get my own bathroom?" The bathroom was decorated blue and had a blue shower curtain decorated with fish. Colored fish were stenciled around the walls of the bathroom and blue seashells held the soap.

"Now you don't have to worry about not being able to go potty, Hayden!"

The chibi boy looked up at Mokuba. "I have to go. May I please go to the bathroom?"

"Ok. Go on. I'll shut the door to give you privacy."

"What?"

"Shut the door. I'm shutting it for you so you can have some privacy."

"Aren't you going to watch me?"

Mokuba's nose curled. "No. I would hate to be watched. Were you watched?"

Hayden nodded and his head was cast down. "My uncle used to watch me. He didn't want me to run away from him, so he removed every door of the house except my bedroom and his bedroom. There were no doors. There was no where to hide from him."

Mokuba pitied the poor little chibi. He grabbed the doorknob. "I'll wait out here if you want me to, Hayden."

The boy tried to smile, but the smile was quickly suppressed. Mokuba thought he had a nice smile.

"Can you make sure no one comes in to look at me?"

Mokuba nodded and shut the door. Mokuba ran over to Hayden's bed and sat there. Minutes later, Hayden emerged straightening his shirt. He returned to his carpet and sat down with a sigh.

"What's the matter?"

Hayden looked over at the toybox. "May I look in my toybox?"

"You don't have to ask me everytime you want to do something, Hayden. Just do it. Do whatever you want, just remember one thing: Never mess with Seto's newspaper. He reads it and gives the comics to Aten. If you ask him, I'm sure Aten can share his comics with you. He's a good kid. He's very nice."

Hayden ran over to his toybox and began to pull the toys out and examine them.

"I never had toys of my own before. I better hide these away before he finds them."

"He?"

Hayden grabbed a handful of horses and cars and ran into the study. He found a corner that was secluded and dumped his toys there. A chair hid the corner from view. Hayden returned to his room and grabbed a blanket from off the bed. He dragged it quickly into the corner of the study. Mokuba watched him fold the blanket and put his toys in the secluded corner.

"What are you doing?"

Hayden took a race car and held it to his chest. He curled up in the corner with his knees drawn up to his chin. "I'm making a secret place where I can hide my toys. No one can take my toys from here. Please don't tell any of the grown-ups about this place!"

Mokuba bit his lip. Hayden was still somewhat shaky as he held onto his toy.

"I won't tell. I'll let you get settled in, Mokuba. Dinner is always at 5."

Mokuba ran to Seto's office to tell him about Hayden's first hour.

****************************

The family had dinner promptly at 5 and it was time to relax. Mokuba curled up beside Seto and read a book with his big brother. Joey was eating a handful of cookies at a time and reading a book on painting techniques. Hayden remained in his corner. Joey and Seto tried to talk Hayden out of the corner, but the chibi refused to move.

Soon, it was bathtime and Joey drew the bath for Hayden. Once again, Hayden was surprised that he was being left alone.

"You aren't going to stay, sir?"

Joey shrugged. "No, unless you want me to stay. I can continue to read my book if you want."

Hayden shifted uncomfortably. "You mean you won't……you know…..do anything to me?"

"No, Hayden, I can sit by the bathtub and read if you want, but I won't put a hand on you, unless you need me to wash your back. But, nope….I won't do anything to you."

Hayden relaxed.

Joey kneeled to the chibi. "My dad did some nasty things to me, too, kid. But you know, it was scary and it did hurt. But Seto, Mokuba, and I…we are your family now. And we will always love you for who you are. We do not hurt each other here. All this is new and scary to you and you will take some time to adjust to all this. We're happy you're here to stay with us, Hayden."

Hayden cracked a smile and nodded. "Maybe I should……bathe alone. I never did that before."

Joey nodded and gave him a clean towel and cloth. Joey left him alone and when Hayden was done his bath, he got a small snack.

The chibi boy took some of the crackers and hid them in the toybox for safe keeping. He never knew when his new parents would take away his food and lock him in the room alone for days without food or water. `At least I have a bathroom,' Hayden thought to himself as he hid some of the crackers.

Seto and Joey tucked Mokuba into bed and then Hayden. The white sheets felt good against his skin, but it was a trial to get him into the bed.

"Hayden, you can sleep on the bed. That is your bed," Seto explained trying to gather up all the patience he had left.

"But I can't sleep in the bed without permission!"

"You can sleep in the bed," Joey said calmly.

Hayden began to whimper. "Everytime I get in a bed, I get hurt! I don't want to sleep in the bed! Please……Mr. Kaiba! Don't let me sleep in the bed!"

Joey stroked the boy's cheek softly. "Hayden, you are permitted to sleep in the bed. Besides, you must sleep in the bed. You'll feel much better after a good night's sleep."

"I can't sleep in a bed. Please??? Don't let me do it until I heal a little more!"

"What?"

"You or Mr. Kaiba are going to take me in the bed! Please let me heal!"

Joey took Hayden's hand. "Seto and I are not going to hurt you, Hayden. We just want you to get some sleep. Today has been a big day for you and tomorrow, Aten and Aria are going to come see you."

"Are they good?"

"They won't hurt you. Promise. Now go to sleep, Hayden."

Seto and Joey gave him quick kisses on the cheek and shut the door. A couple hours later they checked on Hayden.

Hayden was asleep on the carpet by the bed. He was curled up in a fetal position sucking his thumb.

Seto was ready to pick the chibi up when Joey took his arm.

"Don't, Seto."

"But he can't sleep on the floor."

Joey took a pillow and blanket from the bed. "Give the child some time, Seto. It's obvious he isn't comfortable in beds. I hated my bed, too. I slept under it for a time to hide from my father so he wouldn't get to me." Joey put the blanket over Hayden and put the pillow under his head.

"If he really doesn't like the bed, maybe we should put padding under the carpet so at least he is comfortable."

Seto sighed as he looked at the sleeping chibi. "I only hope Aria gets along with him."

Joey bit his lip. "Well, we shall see about that tomorrow, won't we?"

Updates: Tuesday or Wednesday

Update: Well, what can I say? Dragondreamer isn't perfect yet, but we're coming along. This has certainly been an interesting week.. Hopefully, next week we'll see a continued improvement. I think going from 1.5 hours of sleep to 3.5 hours of sleep a day for my wife is a big improvement at this point.