(Well, I'm finally back… can you believe it's been almost a year since I last updated this? I don't know what happened... I took a little break and I ended up neglecting this story for almost a full year! I am so sorry, but now that I'm back, I hope you enjoy chapter seven. I just hope that everyone who kept up with this story will come back, because I miss all of you. 3 kageamira)

A Reason to Live

Chapter 7

Seto's PoV

I took a seat on one of the couches on one side of the table separating them, and tried to get my mind to focus. This was going to be a long, and not to mention awkward "study session". I couldn't believe my actions from earlier. Why had I suddenly been so drawn to the fact that Ryou could watch a movie with my brother and me?

I wondered what might break the ice between me and Ryou. I really had no idea of what he was into.

I acted like I was doing something important to prepare for the upcoming event of algebra; shuffling through my briefcase papers, typing a bit on my computer, while the boy just sat across from me, trying to be perfect.

I cleared me throat, and Ryou looked up. With that I knew I had better start teaching, if I was ever going to.

"So…what is it exactly that you don't understand?" I asked, still looking down at my papers.

"I…I guess…everything…" he replied, a bit of unconfident shaking in his voice.

"Well, is it solving and graphing inequalities, multiplying and factoring polynomials, solving radical equations, solving equations with the quadratic formula…"

I looked up from my resource and saw that Ryou was hunched over in a state that someone might have been in after hearing that their home has just burned to the ground with their family inside; a look of utter torment. He looked up at me with that same expression.

"Ok, well, this might be more difficult than I thought. We'll start working with integers. At the beginning. First off, do you know your order of operations?"

"That's the 'please excuse my dear aunt sally' thing, right?"

"Er… yeah. Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, addition, subtraction. Good…and how are you with these types of problems?"

"Alright, I guess. As long as they are all numbers I'm fine."

"Letters are your problem. I see. Well, what you need to remember is that each variable, the letters, just represent a number. It is that number you are trying to figure out."

"Yeah, I know that," he said with the angry expression of frustration in his voice. "What I don't understand is…forget it. It's no use, I'll never understand!"

This was the first time I had heard this boy speak out like this. I was a little amused; his face was glowing with color.

"You know what? I've got a better idea. Why don't I just do all of the homework for this class, and you can watch and try to understand…I would probably be doing all the work anyways."

"But that's cheating; I can't make you do all the work, that isn't fair to you."

"Look, I can do both sets of homework in the time it would take you to do one problem. The subject is useless anyways. Let's just get a good grade and pass the class. You'll find someway to repay me."

"But what about the tests? I'll still fail those," Ryou said in a worried voice.

"Look, if you're not up to it, then we don't have to do this. I was just thinking it would save us both a lot of trouble. As long as I get an 'A' on my tests, your grade won't matter. The lowest score we could get is a 'C' after combining out scores."

Ryou sat for a minute, considering. "Well, ok. I guess we can try it."

"Right. So, we have algebra every other day, with a test every other Friday. That means I'll have to put in roughly 30 minutes on algebra days for homework. And then I still have that damn waste-of-time physics homework…" I said mostly to myself.

"I'll do your physics homework if you want!" Ryou chimed in as if he just had a brilliant idea. "It's my best subject; I can do it if it will make things easier."

"How can you be good at physics when you're horrible at algebra? You need algebra to do the physics equations. No, I don't think that is a good idea."

"No! Please, I insist. Physics just makes sense to me somehow. Please Kaiba! It's the least I can do. I promise not to let you down."

He looked so determined, how could I have possibly said no.

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Ryou's PoV

"Here's my phone number, call me if you have any questions or concerns or…yeah, if you need anything don't be afraid to call." Kaiba said as he handed me a business card, beautifully embroidered with intricate gold lettering. I felt important just holding it; I made a silent promise to never lose it.

"We'll meet here after school on algebra days so that I can give you the homework and try to explain how to do it, but we won't concentrate on that too much."

I nodded my head and turned to leave, smiling a little bit in Kaiba's direction, before saying "Thank you for trying to help me, Kaiba; I guess I just don't learn things like this very well."

"Erm...Uh, your welcome…and just call me Seto" he stuttered, making me laugh a little in my head. Who would have thought, the Great Seto Kaiba at a loss for words?

I turned and shut the big door behind me with one destination in mind: Malik's house. He was my friend of revenge and tonight Bakura was going to regret tricking me. Malik should be off work by now; it was almost 8:00.

I rang the Ishtar's doorbell, but no one answered. I tried again, but there was no one. I decided to just go inside, like usual, the unlocked door telling me that someone was home. Figuring that Malik was probably just taking a nap, I made my way down the hallway and to his room…quietly opened his door only to find him playing around with one of the girls from my school. Wide-eyed, I muttered a quick "Sorry!" before bolting back down the hallway and out of the house. The girl just giggled at me as I left.

Once outside again, I tried to clear my mind of what I had just seen.

"I guess the only thing to do now is go back home." I said under my breath. "Maybe Bakura managed to cook dinner correctly this time."

Seto's PoV

"Hey Seto, what's for dinner tonight?" asked Mokuba.

I considered this question for a minute, and after thinking of no better response said, "Well, what would you like?" soon regretting that I had given my little brother the choice for our evening meal.

"Spaghetti and Meatballs!"

"Mokuba, we had that last night."

"I know, but it was so good that I want it again!"

"Well ok, you can eat the rest of the left-overs then." I said, and then after seeing the disgusted look on his face I added, "They still taste good, even better I bet, than they did yesterday. Trust me."

"Sigh, oook. I guess I'll just eat the left-overs." He said as he walked to the kitchen trying to conceal his excitement from my eyes.

"As for myself, I don't think I'll be eating." I said quietly to myself as I turned to go upstairs. I found it strange the way I had loosened up so much when Ryou was here. I just started thinking about math, and suddenly it didn't seem so heard for me to speak to him.

"But I'm sure I bored him to death" I thought as I opened the door to my bedroom and flicked on the light. The days were growing shorter, making the light fade earlier. Fall would be coming to an end and before I knew it there would be snow outside once again. More endless days of snow man building and snow ball fighting for Mokuba and me.

"I wonder if Ryou still makes snowmen" I found myself thinking, but then shook my head. "No, he may seem childish sometimes, but I bet he hasn't played in the snow for years." After all, it's not like he has a little brother around.

"I wonder if he's lonely." I thought, and suddenly felt extremely selfish. I'm always thinking how lonely I am, in my big house, with my little brother. When Ryou has no one. If only there was some way I could help. If only I could help him.