Seto had done something stupid. It took a lot to admit that. It would take even more to fix it.

The brunette could feel himself slowly giving in, slowly accepting that he couldn't do anything to fix what he'd broken, slowly giving up as he sat thinking on the side of his bed. But that was only because he'd never faced this before. He'd never faced anything like this before... He'd never facen anything like Joey before. Never faced anything like the love that was slowly forming between them.

This was different than with Mokuba, after all... Mokuba was his little brother. It was his duty to love and protect him. Joey had been little more than a loathed stranger up until a few days ago when Seto, among the rest of the Domino High School population learned once and for all what the precious blonde had to go through day-in and day-out.

It was that day that Seto felt something change within himself. He felt compassion for the blonde... There was a certain kinship there that there hadn't been before. When the blonde's father was arrested for drug abuse, child abuse, and... other things in front of the whole school, Seto knelt down to help the poor blonde up. He invited him to live with him and Mokuba in his mansion until things settled down and he was able to move out.

The little truce didn't last for too long. It was deep ingrained into Seto that anything imperfect was near useless. He made exceptions to this rule only in the case of his little brother, who was still learning.

He couldn't help but to make small, irritating little comments on how the blonde did things.

This morning Joey had finally snapped back and they had fought. Badly... It didn't tun violent, but Seto had said some horrible things... Things that didn't warrant saying under any circumstances.

That was the first time he could remember having actually made the blonde cry. And it shocked him.

Joey had always responded to his insults full of vigor and energy. But then again, Seto had never attacked him with something so up close and personal again...

And he would never do it again. He hated that look that he put on the blonde's normally so happy and bright face... He wanted him to smile and laugh. To grin and make stupid comments about useless things that he didn't need to know about...

He felt his heart swell for a second, and taking advantage of his momentary courage he stood up from his bed and moved out of his room and to the one down the hall where a certain blonde had been sleeping for the past few days. He knocked on the door lightly, wondering if Joey was asleep, or ignoring him, or even already gone...

He breathed in relief when after a moment a small voice replied. "Come in..." he sounded sad. Broken... Seto had made him sound like that.

The tall, steely eyed teen pushed the door open quietly, slipping into the room and gently closing the door behind him with emphasized effort on the gentle. He turned his gaze towards the bed in the middle of the room, and what he saw there tore at his heart.

He saw a blonde tuft of hair poking out from underneath a thick quilt. He could just see the redness rimming his eyes underneath his bushy bangs... Joey had been crying then?

Seto swallowed hard and walked toward the bed, averting his gaze from the resting blonde, turning to look at everything - anything else. The quilt was one of Seto's own, white with blue trims. With Joey's blonde hair he almost looked like Little Bo Peep surrounded by all this white and blue...

He sat down at the end of the bed, aside of which there wasn't much decoration to the room. On a wooden stand next to the bed there was a lamp and an alarm clock, and in the corner of the room stood a dresser, but there was very little else in the over sized, over empty room.

He felt Joey looking at him, expectantly and heaved a small, reluctant sigh. He didn't know how to do this...

"I'm sorry..." he said lamely, closing his lips tightly. I'm sorry for yelling at you, I'm sorry for insulting you like that for all those years, I'm sorry I didn't notice what was going on with you, I'm sorry I didn't try to notice, I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, I'm sorry I made everything worse... He didn't know what to begin with.

He felt Joey turn over on the bed and heard him sigh. "It's... It's okay, Kaiba. You were jus' bein' you." he replied in a small voice.

Seto gritted his teeth and gripped the edge of the bed angrily. "Who are you to decide who I am?!" he snapped, instantly regretting th harsh way they sentence came out. He paused for a moment and sighed. "I can be better than this. I know I can... I've been better than this, with Mokuba before. With my friends at the orphanage before Gozaburo took me and him in... And I'm sorry I haven't done that. I'm sorry I've been the way I am..." he said, growing quieter with each little apology. It felt like little pieces of weight were... leaving him. It felt good to apologize like this. To let someone know that he could be human.

He looked over at the blonde shock of hair, blinking when he found wide, red-rimmed amber eyes staring back at him in disbelief. Had he done something wrong? Said something strange?

Seto tensed as Joey sat up, pushing the blue-eyes themed quilt away from him. He smiled at Seto, sad, understanding... forgiving, and opened his arms. "Come here..." he said, blushing as he felt a little awkward, offering Seto Kaiba of all people a hug.

Seto moved up, further onto the bed and pulled Joey into his arms, hugging him back and wondering at the warm feeling that seemed to pool in his chest and gut at the simple embrace.

"I forgive ya'."