Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Arubaito ❯ Reflection ( Chapter 8 )

Ch 8 (Reflection)

 

A/N: Review Replies:

 

Aknkkskd: Thanks for the happy birthday! …What does your name mean? O.o (Did I get enough k's in there?) And thanks for the review too!! :D

 

Dragonlady222: You are awesome coz you review on both sites. I mean, it takes effort to do that! Go you! Therefore you get two review replies. Yay! …Yes, in a very twisted but very fan service kind of way, it was Kaiba's third good thing.

 

JoeysGal: You know that you rock totally. Yeah… you do. Don't deny it. Thanks for the happy birthday as well! I'm glad you thought it was even the slightest bit believable XD Though I do hope no one actually ever finds themselves in a such a sticky situation in RL.

 

Passing Reader: You get a cookie for originality of name creation. -hands cookie- Hmmm… I don't know about the reception .. eh heh.. Knowing Kaiba he probably has some sort of super ultra high tech mobile phone with uber reception .. even underwater! Even on a mountain! Even in the remotest part of a desert! Thanks for the review!

 

Disclaimer: Characters, worlds, people, games, and everything else is owned by and copyrighted Kazuki Takahashi. This is a non-for-profit fan work with no particular personal gain in mind. I own the writing and nothing else.

 

***

 

“What's going on?”

“I'm not sure, sir. There seems to be large group of people standing in front of your house.”

“Yes I can see that. Do you happen to have any idea why?”

“No, sorry.”

He sighed.

“Ah… They seem to have spotted us sir.”

“Dang. I don't suppose you could… uh… drive around the block or something?”

“Would look a bit like running away now that we're parked, sir.”

“Probably.” He hadn't even noticed the car stop.

“I suspect they may be tourists,” The driver continued.

“What makes you say that?” He watched them as one by one they began to notice the limousine.

“They do not appear to be Japanese.”

“Ah, you're right.” Mass excitement was ensuing; many of the gathered audience were of European background, so it was easy to guess the tourist guise, some of the females had begun to literally jump up and down.

He had probably stalled enough.

“Thanks for the ride!”

“No problem, Master Kaiba.” The driver replied, although naturally this was his job; “And good luck.” He smiled back through the rear view mirror with a mixture of sympathy and amusement. It was amazing how many other people throughout the world knew about the owners of Kaiba Corporation, even though their market wasn't as big outside of Japan. This was just one of the things their CEO was working on improving.

“Piece of cake.” Mokuba flashed the man a determined grin and promptly exited the vehicle. The action was met with a shout of excitement from the crowd of tourists. He could see over their heads a few of his security guards (there were normally a number of them stationed at the Kaiba residence) trying to push through the throng of people towards him from the opposite side. He donned a cheery smile and gazed around at the people gathered. He hadn't even managed to properly close the car door before a woman jumped forward and shook his hand. He tried to end the greeting quickly and press past her to get into his house. Someone tugged on his backpack and someone else grabbed his other hand. They were mostly all yelling and trying to get his attention, however he couldn't help but feel that some of the young women were slightly disappointed that he hadn't been his brother.

He journeyed on past two boys who must have been in middle school, both of whom were wearing variations of a t-shirt with the Blues Eyes White Dragon printed on it. He had just been ambushed into a hug when his security guards reached him and extracted his throat from choking arms. The rest of the trip to the gate was relatively pain free. They ushered him away quickly but he continued to smile and even waved when people greeted him. He knew his older brother usually ignored crowds of screaming fan girls or reporters, but Mokuba was the `nicer' one of the two and personally felt it was just polite to give them some sort of recognition. They did take the time and effort to personally bombard him at his private home, after all.

It was important for plot purposes to note that it was around this time, ironically whilst Mokuba was thinking of how his brother might act in this situation, that he missed Seto's phone call. Who, unbeknownst to the younger Kaiba, was passed out in an unlit storage room with his most annoying rival sprawled out alongside him. Naturally, he could not hear the ringing tone above the screaming declarations of the greeting party.

Coming home from club practice was not normally this confronting. A few rabid Japanese fans occasionally accosted his house, however the occurrence was infrequent. Like other cultures, most Japanese had a sense of personal space. That is, it was perfectly fine for media crews to confront Seto when he left his office, but very few of them would try to snag him at his own place of residence. Even these people gathered would probably leave once they saw Mokuba enter his house and were sure he wasn't about to come out again anytime soon.

A side gate, just to the left of their main entrance, was opened and Mokuba ushered inside. He turned and flashed one last smile to the crowd then entered the safe confines of his own property. He had to resist the urge to over-do his sigh of relief as he trekked up the perfectly bricked path to his front door. Forgetting his house keys had never been an issue, 97% of the time there was someone else inside to let him in. They had hired a housekeeper after the unfortunate events surrounding their last butler's term with them. Mokuba, with his new found morals, had decided to hire someone distinctly “not evil” to run their household from then on. Seto hadn't exactly been in a state to contest this at the time. The Kaiba residence, afterwards, saw a considerable lack in cleaners who looked like they had been previously occupied as hit men, plots of murder against certain young duelists with multi-coloured hair, and discarded axe's still fresh with a strange red unidentifiable liquid. Mokuba had hand-picked a mature older woman in her mid fifties who came along with considerable credentials. Things, under her influence, became a lot smoother. The siblings' sudden departures over the years had never fazed her, and Mokuba remembered being distinctly surprised that the house was still in one piece once he returned from Duelist Kingdom (since at that time she had only been a recent acquisition). This had also been what convinced Seto that she was perhaps worth keeping on.

Her family name was Nakamura, although Mokuba had taken to calling her Obaa-san whenever they crossed paths. He really had changed from all those years ago, and hated remembering how cruelly he had used to treat people. Although retaining at least some of his self-important nature was practically a requirement of bearing the Kaiba name. In most people's eyes he was still a little boy, gazing up at his older brother with adoration and respect. Which, granted, he still did. But Mokuba, like everyone else, had grown up. He was still in high school, still loved games, still begged his brother to let him stay up late… But he couldn't have gone through all he had and come out immature.

He and his housekeeper were on such casual terms that she didn't even properly greet him as she rushed past from one room that adjoined the entrance hall, to the next which eventually followed on to the kitchen. She said a customary greeting of `welcome home' before speeding away. She was terribly efficient. Always busy with something, Mokuba realized he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her actually sitting down. He smiled almost fondly, bending down to take off his shoes.

She bustled back through just as quickly, although giving the young Kaiba enough time to notice a lack of other pairs of footwear.

“Is Nii-sama not home yet?” He didn't look up but knew she was nearby.

She, in turn, did not cease her activities to reply to him; “No, he called a little while ago and said he would be working late tonight.”

“Okay.” She swept out again, and he stretched his back, reaching his arms up above his head. He yawned. Clubs on Saturdays were all fine, but after a whole weeks worth of study and extra curricular activities he felt worn out and sleepy. He was glad they invented Sundays; he needed it just to recuperate.

A devious grin spread across his face; if Seto wasn't home yet, that meant there was no one to tell him to complete his homework before doing something more relaxing, which meant he was free to do whatever he wanted until his brother finished work.

Thrilled, Mokuba wasted no time in dumping his bag right there in the hall and racing off to play his latest video game. He was still a teenager after all, and expected to not bother with putting things away.

Naturally, his phone was in his backpack.

 

***

 

After the event was all taken care of, Katsuya was able to reflect properly on the proceedings, rather than only being able to concentrate on the moment. Because once Mokuba had called back the evening progressed rather quickly.

The fact that no more than fifteen minutes later the door had been opened once again reminded Katsuya of Kaiba's vast wealth and connections. If he'd been stuck himself, and somehow been able to contact someone he knew, he doubted they would have been able to arrange anything more than: “the locksmith will come in the morning”. Mokuba, apparently, had those kinds of people on speed dial.

Luckily by the time rescue did arrive Katsuya's foot was feeling slightly better, and in a great act of determination had vowed not to be found lying on top of Kaiba. So when Mokuba burst in looking pale and worried and apologizing for not answering immediately (the first of probably fifty times that night), both Kaiba and Katsuya were sitting as far away from each other as possible, on opposite sides of the closet. If smaller brother had thought anything of the fact that he was there too, he didn't voice it.

Although in the most undesirable of circumstances, it had been good to see Mokuba again. And to discover that he was still a lot nicer than Kaiba was. Mokuba had been the one to insist they drive Katsuya home, rather than forcing him to take two trains with a busted leg. This was after Katsuya had outright refused to be taken to the hospital. That would be way over-doing it; if it had been a fracture it would have hurt more than it was, and if it had been broken he would have been screaming. (In a very manly and distinctly un-girly kind of way of course).

Kaiba was less inclined to lend his car to the blonde again but relented not only at the demand of his favourite sibling, but also possibly because this time he could keep an eye on the `mutt' and make sure he didn't break anything. Although, Katsuya had noted, if this was the case the CEO had had a hard time doing it. Once seated comfortably in his car, Kaiba had really looked about ready to fall asleep. His head kept nodding and his eyes keeping falling shut for a few seconds before he snapped them open in surprise.

That was another thing. Katsuya was stealing glances at the other man just to check he was okay. He was sure he shouldn't have cared, but he couldn't help it. He didn't want Kaiba to get a brain injury or anything, so when they had reached his house and Mokuba had gotten out to of the car to let him out he had pulled the younger boy over and whispered to him; “Hey, make sure your brother is okay. I think he hit his head pretty bad, and he blacked out a few times. You might wanna take him to the hospital, you know?”

Mokuba had glanced back to the car with a worried expression, “Yeah, I thought he was acting kinda odd. Thanks Jonouchi! …For looking out for my brother. I'll make sure he see's one of our doctors.”

Before Katsuya could argue the fact that he was looking out for Kaiba, Mokuba had turned back to the car and ducked inside, giving Jou a little wave before closing the door. He had probably been eager to get his brother looked at.

Katsuya, on the other hand, had been eager to lie down properly in his bed and go to sleep. This he had done with all haste, and slept for a good twelve hours before waking up the next day with his foot throbbing again.

He'd loaded himself with painkillers, constructed an ice pack, and lay back down on his couch. That evening he had considered trying to find out whether Kaiba was doing okay. He wasn't quite sure how he would have gone about it, seeing as the only number he knew to contact him on was his main office and not only did he not work on a Sunday but Katsuya figured even he wasn't crazy enough to attempt paperwork with a concussion.

He soon gave up on that idea. His next had been to call one of his friends - suddenly realizing why women talked about their experiences so much. He wanted to tell someone about it, to complain and have someone care, at least at face value. Plus, it would be funny in retrospect. Hopefully.

But he had felt exhausted and really couldn't be bothered. He called Yugi and Honda the next day to get them to apologize to his university tutors as he didn't think he'd be able to walk without wincing just yet.

Being the caring friends they were, they came around Monday evening to see if he was okay. This led to his retelling of `the story', which in turn led to his later contemplation of the events up until this moment.

In his reenactment he had been a little hazy around the details of where he and Kaiba had fallen. In this case `hazy' meant something like: “then I pushed Kaiba who hit his head on a shelf and we sort of fell down sitting across from each other.”

He didn't want to lie to his friends, but sparing them the truth wasn't a bad way of going about it either. It was funny how, when recalling a particularly memorable event, one tended to centre on particular things. In this case, Katsuya wasn't telling the story exactly how it had happened because he was embarrassed that he hadn't moved. Sure, his foot had felt like it had just been run over by a train, and eventually he'd managed to get his whole other leg twisted up inside of Kaiba's jacket… but Katsuya was famous for his determination. If he had wanted to move he damn well would have. So, knowing this, and then remembering the fact that he didn't, made the heat rise to his cheeks.

Why didn't he move away? He might have been able to if he'd just ignored the pain in his foot and persevered into a non-contact sitting position. This one little idea had him embarrassed about the entire situation. He could even disregard the fact that the whole thing had been his fault in the first place.

It plagued his mind.

At the time, he hadn't cared. He'd decided it was no use moving so had settled to be content with what he had. And then he had gotten comfortable so he decided to stay right where he was. And although he didn't want to admit it, that was how he had felt; comfortable. Despite the pain in his leg, despite that it was a totally awkward position and his arms were squashed and his left leg felt suffocated and Kaiba wouldn't stop breathing on his hair… he'd still felt comfortable.

Ahhh… damnit!

Katsuya kicked himself mentally and tried to think about someone else. Wait… something else. Yeah.

Besides, before he knew it this would all blow away, and six months later he and Yugi and the rest of his friends would be laughing about the tale.

He was sure of it.

 

Seto's memory of Saturday night was a bit blurry. With all of his vast medicinal experience, he diagnosed himself with “the type of concussion that left you wondering whether those pink flamingoes had actually been in the storage closet as well at the time.”

He had eventually fallen asleep properly, as unsuitable a bed as the office floor was. So when Mokuba rang he had needed to take a moment to wake up. He had tried to explain the situation as quickly as possible, but he knew his words had sounded a bit disjointed. No matter, as his younger brother had gotten the message and within fifteen minutes had come to the rescue. Seto had been filled with a sense of relief and gratitude which he had made a mental note to impart on Mokuba later, when he was thinking clearly. Also apparently by this stage Jonouchi had moved away somewhere.

Unfortunately for Seto's addled brain, this left him feeling oddly cold and disappointed. Cold he could understand, due to the weather, but disappointed was new to him. For the moment at least, he didn't want to dwell on what this could possibly have meant.

Then Mokuba had insisted they take the blonde boy home, somewhat to Seto's displeasure. As soon as he had gotten into the car his brother had brought, he was overcome with another wave of sleepiness. He felt worn out and his head was still hurting painfully. He wanted nothing more than to make himself numb so he could drift off right there and then, because although he was exhausted, the pain in the back of his head was too great to let him get any real rest.

It was funny how tired you could get from doing seemingly nothing at all.

Jonouchi had kept looking at him throughout the drive back to his apartment when he thought the Kaiba brothers wouldn't notice. Seto didn't quite want to suggest to himself that this was because the other boy was concerned for him. Did anyone even need to be concerned? Would he be able to just take some pain killers and be right as rain tomorrow?

The thinking had, once again, taken it out of him. He had hardly noticed as the car pulled to a stop and the two other passengers stepped out for a moment. Once Mokuba returned, alone, they had sped away again. Only in the presence of his brother, who was possibly the only person in the world he trusted so completely, would Seto let down his mask.

He had explained he thought he needed to see a doctor tomorrow, and then proceeded to flop his head back onto the headrest and let his eyes shut properly; he didn't open them again until they had reached their home.

As soon as he had stood up out of the vehicle, the world started spinning, and he had needed the help of his younger brother just to make it back inside. Mokuba had been extremely worried, and called one of their doctors. Seto didn't do waiting in line at the hospital. A Kaiba didn't wait. So they had a number of on-call doctors. It was lucky they didn't mind coming out at 2am to see how he was doing.

The doctor had checked his head thoroughly and announced, to everyone's satisfaction, that he didn't think any permanent damage had been done. It was best to have a CT scan at the next available time, however, which happened to be the next day. Apart from this he had prescribed some stronger medication and bed rest.

And that was what Seto had been doing since Sunday. The scan had shown everything was fine, he was just a little knocked about. He had seen the doctor wanting to give him one of those: “now you be more careful in the future young man” speeches, so had taken the news and stopped the conversation before it could reach that point.

Mokuba was very doting, Seto realized. On Monday he was sure his brother would have taken time off school if he hadn't gotten annoyed at that point and practically ordered him to go.

Mokuba pouted back at him, eyes boarding on the `puppy dog' look; “But I'm worried about you, Nii-sama.”

Seto smiled at him and said; “Don't worry, I've got `Obaa-san' here help me out, and I'm feeling much better than I did yesterday.”

The younger brother suddenly cracked a huge smile; one which Seto felt was slightly unbefitting to the simple reassuring words he'd just spoken. “What?” He asked, a little confused.

Mokuba's smile didn't fade, “That's the first time you called her Obaa-san…”

Seto blinked. Was it? He had put a little sarcastic emphasis on it because he normally addressed her by her proper name, which Mokuba would have noticed, but the boy seemed to take it as a sign of something.

He was staring at his older brother with a knowing smile which Seto couldn't really comprehend.

You're changing, Nii-sama… I think it's because you don't hate Jonouchi so much anymore, right? …And I don't think he hates you either…

Mokuba didn't say anything, but grabbed his school bag and waved goodbye. Seto was left feeling completely lost; since when could he not read his little brother? He had looked like he was concluding something positive, and Seto wanted to know what it had been.

However in the very back corner of his mind, tucked underneath some files marked `adopted father', inside a cardboard box, sealed with duct tape and postage stamped Nigeria, surrounded by barbed wire and a large sign in front which read “Caution! Mouse Traps!”, he felt he already knew the answer.

His one clue was that he didn't feel altogether that angry at Jonouchi for trapping them inside the tiny room, although he should have been. Usually he would have wasted no time in firing the good for nothing dog, and then contemplated taking out a hit on him. But he didn't, he couldn't even bring himself to be more than slightly annoyed. He couldn't understand why; the boy had idiotically not only moved the chair away but then tried to kick the door down which led to his head injury.

However all he was left with was a vague sense of disappointment that the moment, one he had hitherto been absolutely sure he had never wanted to be a part of, hadn't lasted longer.

And unfortunately, now that he was recovering, he couldn't blame the thoughts on the typical delusional fall back from shelving acquaintances. Mokuba couldn't possibly have known this though, so was probably thinking something slightly different. Perhaps he would try to casually ask him about it later.

For now, he simply needed to re-group after the whole ordeal and get back on track with his normal weekly routine. That and, he was pretty sure he remembered saying he would talk to Yahada about his new position on Monday.

 

***

 

Domino City had not had another really rainy day since Saturday. It sprinkled here and there but didn't harass the public too much. The darkened skies refused to clear up, however, their continued residence feeling like a promise of rain still to come. Clearly the water was just biding it's time until it could annoy the greatest amount of people. Citizens carried umbrella's around with them just in case the clouds decided to strike while they were exposed. Employees scanned the skies from behind glass towers with a glazed expression, taking a few moments off work to update themselves on any progress.

Seto found himself doing this every five seconds or so, having to wait on the arrival of another person had never been a task he handled well. Efficiency was a quality he expected from not only his employees and his business, but also himself. That was why he had not postponed Yahada's meeting simply because now he was the invalid. Besides, it was Thursday and he felt nice and healthy once again. Well, healthy enough in any case. He couldn't really have afforded to take much more time off of work anyway, with Niita being sick as well (although had now also returned to work at her kind insistence); calls had backed up his answering machine, reports had spammed his inbox demanding attention, and he seemed to be suddenly inundated with tiny pieces of paper that needed his signature. Above all of this, however, he was determined to start the ball rolling on the `New CEO of Shichi Corporation' project. The sooner he could cease the constant switching between offices his routine would become a whole lot smoother once again. Although he had been enjoying the few breaks he got from Niita's presence as a result of this.

Yahada finally arrived, five minutes late and looking like he'd just been running to get here. He was a young man in his late twenties, but was very bright, as his swift climbing of the corporate ranks indicated. If Seto decided to place him in charge of Shichi, however, this would still be a big leap for him. The man was polite, tolerant, but not entirely timid. He was slightly taller than Seto, and had discernibly fair hair for a Japanese person. Seto could only guess that one of his parents was of Western descent. Perhaps a tall blonde Canadian? …They were all tall and blonde… right? The presumably blonde and black genes had mixed to result in a weird light brown colour that crowned Yahada's head.

“Traffic on this side of town is terrible.” He explained, straightening his jacket and coughing, trying to hide his fast breathing.

Seto realized that a man who only recently had been in a car accident, who had been told it would be best to take time to recover, should probably not have been running to reach his office on time. He felt a pang of sympathy, having been in an `accident' recently himself.

“Uh, why don't you take a seat?” He suggested, seeing that Yahada was slightly out of breath.

“Sorry… take a seat?” He clarified, glancing at one to the left of Seto's desk in the corner. He promptly grabbed it by the back and brought it over, placing in front of the desk and seating himself.

And that, right there, was Yahadas… thing.

Everyone had odd habits, naturally. Nobody was perfect, no matter how much they seemed to be. And Yahada was smart and tall and good looking and smart and potentially a good business person and a quick thinker and a keen tennis player and smart and good at geometry and had a nice nose and was probably going to make lots of money one day and liked softball and enjoyed walking and was smart and witty and good at charades and was fluent in English and owned a nice car and still, remarkably, unmarried… In hindsight all of these qualities really did outweigh a tiny habit that sometimes got on peoples nerves. However it was still worth mentioning it, since one of the people's nerves it reached was Seto's.

The CEO had, in fact, forgotten all about Yahadas twitch-worthy habit. The man, you see, was the kind of person who had a tendency to repeat what you had just said, seemingly to clarify whether they had heard properly. Naturally this normally wasn't that big a deal. Everybody did it from time to time, as from time to time it was simply necessary to make such a statement as to confirm what has been said. Yahada, however, did this quite often. And Seto couldn't help but wonder sometimes whether the constant clarification was really necessary. Take for example the present situation; the older man had asked him whether taking a seat was what he had said, and before receiving an answer proceeded to grab a chair and sit down. What, then, was the point in asking? If one wasn't going to wait for a reply then why ask a question? It seemed redundant. Not to mention pointless. And being forced to listen to a repeat of what you have just phrased was downright annoying. The habit would have reached the level of “I know what I said!!” shouted at the top of his lungs, if Seto hadn't been an entirely reserved person.

He only shouted on special occasions. Christmas was a favourite.

Seto coughed. “Anyway… There is no point in fluffing up the matter; I want you to get used to this job as soon as possible. Because I want you to have it.”

Yahada, although the news wasn't really, well, news (Seto had told him this already, he was just using it in this case to introduce his next sentence) looked modestly surprised regardless.

“As such please use today to get used to this office and building to the best of your ability. I wanted to show you around myself, however in my absence an annoying amount of paper work seems to have backed up…”

Behind Yahada Seto's office door opened and someone entered, then made a weird noise sounding like a single syllable equivalent of “oops sorry I didn't realize there was a meeting on in here.”

“…so I will have him show you around instead.” The CEO finished, waving his hand towards the person standing in the doorway.

“Who?”

“Who?”

“Him?”

“Me?”

“Show me around?”

“Do what?”

“Like a tour?”

“Like a what?”

“Wait…”

“Wait!”

“Who is he?”

“Who is this guy!?”

“Okay.”

“Okay. Wait… no.”

“Kaiba-san?”

“Kaiba!?”

It's like watching a freakin' double act… Seto blinked, then shook his head. Okay… that was just weird. They were both staring at him now, and had stopped speaking. Thank God.

“This is one of my assistants, Jonouchi. He will show you around the office and explain things to you.”

“Ah, I see.” Yahada turned to the confused young man standing in the doorway. He smiled politely. The boy stared at him for a few moments before saying a customary `Nice to meet you'. Accepting this Yahada then stood up and made his way to the door, nodding back once at Seto before walking past the assistant and down the hall. He was well aware, being the one of the brighter chickens of the coup, that his employer was really clutching at straws. How hard was it to find your way around an office? The real progress that needed to be made was going over stock reports and expenditure charts and getting him up to speed with the current state of Shichi Corporation. However this was something Kaiba needed to do himself, and Yahada could understand that with this being his first proper day back at work, he still needed time to do some catching up. He was happy to let him. He personally wasn't the kind of man who ran headlong into situations, so the idea of easing more gradually into the role of Chief Executive Officer was very appealing. If he had to spend the afternoon finding out where the break room was, then that was just fine with him.

 

The as yet unnamed man swept past him out the door and then marched straight on down the hall. Presumably another employee of Kaiba's, he didn't seem to care that the shorter assistant wasn't following closely behind. The lack of attention let Katsuya linger in Kaiba's doorway for the time being. Throwing the striding figure one last look he turned back to the CEO, who was looking at him with his eyebrow raised in an expression that clearly stated; “What the hell are you still doing here, didn't I just imply for you to leave?”

Katsuya would have been lying if he'd said that he hadn't spent even a moment considering how Kaiba was getting on. The man had a bad head injury for Christ's sake; he was allowed to be even a little concerned! He looked fine, the blonde observed, but against his better judgment he still felt the need to confirm this.

“Um, so is your head okay?” He asked the carpet, suddenly not wanting to look the CEO in the eye. He was still feeling acutely embarrassed about Saturday. In fact, he had been spending the week unsure of what to expect from Kaiba the next time he saw him. A part of him thought he might be fired on the spot; since it was entirely his fault for getting them into such an absurd situation. Another part expected Kaiba to ridicule him for being an ass and not moving away and letting him breathe.

Instead Kaiba said simply; “I'm fine.” Notably, though, he didn't return the question. Instead there was an awkward pause between them, as if both of them were thinking of something embarrassing and didn't want to voice it.

Finally Kaiba coughed, “So yes, find some way to entertain Yahada this afternoon while I finish the immediate paperwork.”

“Entertain? …Does that mean I can take him to the arcade?”

Kaiba managed a glare, “Don't be stupid, mutt. Now get out so I can get on with things.”

And just like that, their relationship was back to seemingly normal level. Katsuya left without so much as a word of rebuttal, happy to still be alive. The last two lines of back and forth dialogue had let them return to their usual state of affairs. Clearly neither of them had anything further to say about the incident. And that was just fine with Katsuya. He wasn't fired, although he would wonder that this was a little strange wasn't it? He wasn't even being deducted pay over the matter. Well, technically he hadn't received that weeks pay check yet so he supposed that remained to be seen. If Kaiba was angry at him he didn't seem any more angry than usual, and a certain degree of it had been apparent in their relationship since they first met.

All in all, Katsuya felt he'd gotten off extremely lightly. And although the why of this remained behind closed doors, he wasn't in a rush to open them. Hopefully they could just forget about it and move on.

First things first however, he now had to find out where this `Yahada' person had gotten to, and then work out how to entertain him for the rest of the day.

 

***

 

It rained on Friday again, for a little while, and then on Saturday the sun finally peaked out from behind the clouds. Even if the day wasn't hot the sun was very welcome to the city dwellers, sick of being forced home early and shut up inside. Most people regarded, however, that this was probably the last warm day they would see in awhile. It was almost winter which meant endless rain and snow, and a sun that did little else but remind everybody when it was daytime. So people were making the most of this Saturday, and consequently Katsuya grieved that he couldn't have spent it out with his friends. Honda had suggested he ask Kaiba for the afternoon off, but he had assured the brunet that it was about as likely to occur as him spotting a native Japanese Koala.

Being stuck inside at work felt a lot like a flashback to some cheesy children's cartoon in which some poor unfortunate little dimple sits lamentably at their lounge room window, grounded for doing something unspeakable such as throwing water bombs at their sibling or setting off the school fire alarm, and stares mournfully outside where hordes of other young children have taken to playing joyfully within eyesight. Katsuya had started to actually ask people whether they wanted a coffee because he was willing to run down to the store to get them one, yes indeed, if it meant actually stepping out. When he soon found that this was a trick people reserved for when he was busy or it was raining, he decided to take his break quite early and go get himself something to drink. (He had, of course, carefully avoided asking Kaiba whether he wanted anything during this period, his generosity did not extend quite that far). His feet led him on an automatic stroll to a nearby coffee shop, where he usually purchased `pick-me-ups' for the other staff members. Feeling that sugar would aid him for the day ahead he bought a hot chocolate, not really being a coffee person himself anyway, and had only just exited the establishment before a shrill voice sounded just to his left.

“Jonouchi-kun!!” They appeared extremely thrilled at the sight of him. Confused, and a little annoyed at the title, Katsuya turned to find out who was calling him.

Oh.

Bleach blonde hair bobbed towards him, putting his own locks to shame. Anything natural like hair colour always looked better when applied from a packet. “Uh… Niita-san was it?”

She looked positively ecstatic that he'd remembered her name. She nodded enthusiastically, “Just Niita! Or Niita-chan…” She practically winked.

It's like I'm staring at a three year old.

“What brings you here?” He was slightly afraid that she would tackle him at any moment, so refrained from taking a sip of his drink. No harm in letting it cool down anyway. “Oh, well, Kaiba asked me to drop off a few things…” Katsuya thought it was more likely, from what he knew of the woman, that she had decided to drop off a few things, rather than had been specifically asked to do so. “…and also wanted to give him his… oh look!”

Had it been any other person randomly pointing in a direction over his shoulder, he wouldn't have turned around. “Are you pointing to the gashapon machine?”

She threw him a delighted smile. “I haven't seen this one before! It must be a brand new release.”

She bounced over to it, and Katsuya followed somewhat less enthusiastically. To his surprise, however, what she had discovered was merchandise associated with a game he was particularly fond of.

“Don't tell me you like Duel Monsters?” He asked incredulously, for some reason finding it hard to believe that this was the case.

“Oh no, I don't really. Only played it once or twice. But I do like cute things.” She threw him what might have been considered an adorable smile if he didn't know her better. What they were looking at were small phone charms with various monsters from the popular game ready to dangle from the end. They were, in a way, very cute. Katsuya was suddenly reminded of Pegasus' `Toon World' monsters, but the ones before him were not so despicable. Although they were small enough to be charm-sized, they had not been compromised into `chibi' design, so even the most ferocious of warriors would still have been able to keep its dignity.

He turned to see her gazing through the plastic looking entirely overjoyed.

How old is she!? Katsuya thought, bemused. Okay this coming from the man who spends his spare time playing card games…

So he gave in and let himself be a bit more enthusiastic. “Nothing beats the real thing,” He smiled.

She turned to him with a determined look, “Lets get some! You like Duel Monsters, right?”

Was that a rhetorical question? “Yeah but…” He considered his answer, “I don't even have a phone.”

Did she just giggle? “Well, you can put them on other things. Come on, just buy one. I think we should even get one for Kaiba.” She winked at him.

Although he didn't realize it at the time, he began to start thinking that there was maybe more to this woman then what he had given her credit for. She was not a complete ditz, not a bimbo, but not entirely altogether either. She was one of those enigmas of a human being that people generally brushed aside and categorized as `annoying'. Which, granted, she was. What he was realizing though, was that aside from all of this, she did have her moments. And although at all other times he would probably have picked someone else to be spending his morning with, she could be acknowledged for occasionally having an interesting idea.

Katsuya laughed, “He'll just throw it away, but I guess there's no harm in seeing his reaction.”

So, without further ado, she bought three of them. Which was quite kind of her considering it was obvious Katsuya had his own money; his change still jingling in his pockets.

It was impossible to tell which card monster was inside without opening it. This was the point of course, and of the vending machines themselves which delivered the prize at random once you turned the lever. This way you ended up spending more money and exercising the use of swear words when you happened to purchase a duplicate of something you already had.

Clutching them decisively, she flashed him a similar look and pronounced; “Let's go deliver it!”

It was almost impossible to not be effected by so much enthusiasm. He felt himself smiling back, at least a little, and nodding for her to lead the way.

 

Niita blathered on about seemingly meaningless subjects all the way up to the office; making Katsuya almost immediately regret deciding to follow her while she went and spoke to Kaiba. Of course, he was heading in the same direction, so couldn't really have avoided doing so. The conversation would have been quite inevitable:

“You're not coming up?”

“Oh… yes.”

“So you're just going to walk a few metres behind me then?”

“If that's okay.”

Even Katsuya could see that he wouldn't have made it out of that one lightly. So he stood instead by her side and listened to her comment on what might happen if the elevator cable snapped or why didn't this one have windows? They were always nicer with windows, she said. Then you could see how far below you the ground was.

He was suddenly extremely glad this one didn't have windows.

Once they got to their floor and stepped past the reception desk Niita greeted Sasaki pleasantly and gave her a bright wave. Before the other woman could blink back her surprise and ask if the new arrival needed any kind of help (perhaps of the medicinal sort), Niita had bustled on past.

About half way down the hall she suddenly stopped and turned to Katsuya, realizing that she didn't actually know where she was going. He had been waiting for her to pick up on this, so was ready to point her in the right direction before she even finished asking. They eventually made it to Kaiba's temporary office. He ushered her inside first, not wanting to receive the brunt of a verbal assault when the CEO realized that she had arrived.

She knocked and didn't wait for a reply before entering. Katsuya absent mindedly wondered why she bothered to do so at all. He followed behind her somewhat gingerly.

He had been right; her arrival appeared to be unexpected. Kaiba's expression changed from curiosity to find out who had barged on in uncalled for, to shock at the realization of who it was, to extreme annoyance at the realization of who it was.

“Forgive me if it seems a stupid question, but what the hell are you doing here when you should be at my office doing your job?” Kaiba placed the pen he had been holding down, and turned his steely gaze upon her.

She didn't seem very fazed by this, “I came to give you your invitation!” She announced cheerfully.

“My what?”

“Oh and we also came to give you this!” She fished into her purse to produce the gashapon balls with much dramatic emphasis.

“We?” Kaiba turned his cynical eye towards Katsuya, looking like he had only just realized the other boy was there too.

“Uh… hers… really.” Katsuya waved a hand in Niitas direction, trying to shift as much attention away from himself as possible. Into this hand she suddenly thrust one of the small capsules, however.

“One for you,” She declared as she did this, “One for you,” she offered one to Kaiba with her other hand. He didn't even look at it, instead kept staring at her in a way that conveyed his displeasure. She faltered slightly, “Uh… I'll just put it in here.” She placed it into the `In-Tray' on his desk. He didn't pay it any notice.

“And one for me!” She finished happily, clutching the last one to her chest with both hands.

“Is this going somewhere?” Kaiba glared.

She appeared not to have heard him, as she was currently thoroughly occupied with twisting the two halves of the ball to open it up and reveal what was inside. She smiled brightly once this had been achieved.

“Oh! What is this one?” She blinked at it, pulling it out from inside the plastic by the short material string coming off of it, obviously meant to be used to attach it to a phone, or any other sort of device that required ornamental additions. She held it up to her eyes, and being so small Katsuya had trouble seeing what it was from a distance. It looked kind of like…

“The Unhappy Maiden,” She read aloud from the small slip of paper that had come with the toy. “Yay?” She asked the spectators.

Kaiba looked suddenly amused, in that evil sort of way he had going for him. She looked confused by this, and turned to the blonde. Katsuya tried to explain without sounding derogatory; “That's uh… not a very high level card… is all.”

It had an ATK of 0 and DEF of 100.

“It's even more useless than Kuriboh.” Kaiba smirked.

“Than who?”

Katsuya sighed and again tried to explain it to her, “Kuriboh is a little… brown… puffy monster thing. It has more attack power than The Unhappy Maiden however, which has none and renders it, like he said, practically useless in a battle. It has an effect which makes the battle phase end so no more monsters can attack. Which would only be useful if it was face down and your opponents monster happened to attack it first. Also, no self respecting duelist would attack a face down card with a monster that only had 100 attack points, so basically it's always going to be destroyed. Making it a pretty much worthless card that no one would want to hold in their hand, unless they were really struggling to make up 40 cards and didn't have anything else at the time. It would never really be a useful card to play, only one you'd put out if you were desperate enough and had no other monsters at all in your hand under level 4. Or that you had a high level monster in your hand and you had another monster on the field and so you might play it face down in the hopes that your opponent tries to defeat it first so you would still have your other monster to sacrifice next round and thus, kick the ass of the monster you're facing…”

She blinked. “Okay you lost me at `brown puffy thing'”.

“Eh heh… sorry.” He'd gotten a bit carried away. He did love playing Duel Monsters still, after all.

Kaiba was sporting the air of someone who knew all of this already, and didn't have the patience to bother listening to it again. He coughed irritably.

“Oh! Open yours Jonouchi-kun!” Niita said, recovering quickly from the rant she hadn't understood.

“Oh… um…” He withdrew it from his pocket into which it had found its way. He turned it over ponderingly in between his fingers.

Kaiba finally decided that enough was enough, being able to laugh at the all too appropriate association of Niita with one of the most useless monsters in the entire game was entertaining, but he had work to do and she, for example, currently wasn't doing hers.

“Alright, as fun as children's toys are, you both need to get out my office. Now. Niita, go back to work, I need to think about whether I'll still pay you for today.”

She actually looked remorseful for a few moments, “Ah!” She finally seemed to remember something, perhaps the point of coming all this way in the first place. She reached into her bag and extracted some paper. “I needed to give you your invitation!”

She handed him, from what Katsuya could glance, a very colourful and brightly decorated card.

Kaiba took a short look at it before returning his gaze to her.

“I'm sorry, I only read monochrome.” He tried to pass it back but she ignored the gesture completely, and laughed instead, assuming he was joking.

Katsuya tried to cover his amusement at the sarcasm by raising his hand to his mouth to hide his smile. He too thought the immense amount of bright pinks, reds, blues, purples, greens, and most other colours under the rainbow, was more than a little over the top. Just looking at it made you want to put sunglasses on.

“Here's one for you too.” Her hand once again dipped inside her bag and returned with another equally flashy invitation.

“Um, thanks.” He took it from her and squinted at it, trying to dim the bright features enough to actually read what it said.

Apparently, it was her birthday.

“You're having a party?”

“…At my office!?”

“It's an office party!” Niita cried cheerfully, obviously not noting the glare of death Kaiba was sending her. “I realized we haven't had one in a long time so I thought since my birthday is coming up it would be the perfect excuse to hold one!”

“You can't just hold a party in my office without asking!”

“Oh no, I asked the cleaners and the security and they said it would be fine.”

“Niita, I run the company. You need my permission.”

“So can she hold it?” Katsuya grinned, feeling the situation too amusing not to partake in the conversation.

“No she can not.”

“Humph. Well, that's just too bad; I've already given out all of the invitations. You two are the last one's to get them.”

“Well retract them.”

“Kaiba, the party's next week.” Although Niita wasn't his favourite person, Katsuya felt it his duty to claim loyalty to whichever side Kaiba wasn't on.

“So?”

“So people would have bought presents already.”

“And I've already ordered all the alcohol.” Niita added thoughtfully.

“So she has to have a party!”

“I'm surprised you want to go, mutt.”

“Err…” He hadn't actually gotten so far as to think of that. Shit, did this mean he was now actually obliged to come? His expression changed from amusement to worry. Kaiba looked smug with the reaction. Niita didn't notice.

“Of course Jonouchi-kun's coming!” Her face poutingly defiant. Though of what remained to be seen. “And you will be too! It starts at 5 right after work so you have no excuse to leave.”

Katsuya couldn't quite work out why she wanted him there in the first place. He was also impressed at the way she was standing right up to Kaiba. Most people forgot they had spinal chords when in his presence.

Kaiba opened his mouth to protest but Niita clearly didn't want to hear it. “You wanted us to leave you said? Well, my job here is done so I will head back across town. Goodbye!” And leave she did, before he could say anything else. Katsuya felt it only appropriate to follow suit, not really wanting to be the only body left for Kaiba to take his anger at the new development out on.

With nothing better to do immediately he walked her back out of the office and to the elevators. While they waited for one to arrive she suddenly remembered something,

“Oh! Did you open yours? I think Kaiba might throw his out… but no matter.” She smiled.

“Ah, no, I forgot.” It had gone back into his pocket again by this stage so he brought it out.

He twisted the two halves in opposite directions to reveal the monster inside.

As recognition dawned, so did a frown.

“Huh… well if that isn't the worst case of ironic...”

Niita glanced curiously over at it. “Oooo, that's a pretty one!”

“It's not pretty, it's evil.” Katsuya stated defiantly.

“How can it be evil?”

“Uh… it just is.”

She looked thoughtful for a moment, “You know, it looks kinda like the dragon Kaiba is always using…”

“It is the dragon Kaiba is always using.”

“Aww, that's cute then!”

“No, it's retardedly stupid.”

“Oh, you don't like this Blue-White Dragon thing?”

He corrected her on the name automatically.

“So you do like this dragon?”

“No!”

“So you don't like dragons?”

“No, I like dragons. Just not this one.”

“Hmmm… well, maybe you will like this dragon eventually? Once you get to know it better.”

“Once I get to… Wait, why do I get the feeling we're using a metaphor here?”

“Because we are.”

He blinked, shocked. “What are you…?” He turned to look at her but she was already walking into the lift. She looked as vacant as ever as she waved cheerfully and said goodbye, reminding him that he should attend her party. He didn't say anything else as the doors closed and she disappeared.

He glanced down at the tiny phone charm in his hand. He should throw it away, certainly. But… there wasn't a bin nearby. So he'd have to do it later.

He put the dragon back into his pocket, and out of his mind.

Later never really came around, even when he re-discovered it that night. Instead it was discarded with another bout of thoughtful contemplation, to somewhere in the vicinity of his coffee table.

 

Seto forgot all about his gashapon toy until much later in the day when he could finally start on the new work ahead of him. Upon seeing it he had immediately been overtaken with the instinct to simply throw it out; however curiosity was an equally demanding impulse. Like many people, when presented with a box, Seto could do nothing but be filled with a desire to open it.

So at the end of the day in packing up his things he threw it into his bag for inspection once he was sitting safely inside his car, being driven home. Finally able to relax at the end of the week, he pulled out the small capsule once again and eased open one half of the egg. He was not entirely surprised at what he found.

Two tiny red eyes stared up at him, like a small child fiercely defying its larger parent. He'd always harbored a special dislike of this monster; its association not only with Jonouchi but also with one of his loses to Yugi. Naturally, in its normal form the Red-Eyes Black Dragon couldn't even compare to his Blue-Eyes. Seto viewed it as a monster inferior to his own favored dragon, and frowned down at the tiny plastic form it had now been reduced to. He wondered if the Blue-Eyes looked as pitifully cute with a phone-charm identity. He supposed he'd never find out.

Seto pondered whether or not he should lower his window and simply throw it out at high speed, he certainly wasn't about to actually attach it to his mobile. Especially seeing which Duel Monster card it was. As he took another look at it, thoughts about what had happened a week ago came unbidden to his mind. Eyes widening, he shook his head firmly and shoved the toy back into the darkness of his bag and out of sight.

Out of mind.

He took to staring out the window instead, vowing to throw it out when he got home. However the notion soon flew from his head as he forced himself to concentrate on something else, watching the city landscape blur past, so that once he got home he had completely forgotten about it. He only found it hours later, unpacking his bag. He gave it a few moments of contemplation before sighing resignedly and placing it on his desk, a sign that even if he didn't want to, he knew he was going to have to consider the dragon much more seriously some time in the future.

 

***

 

A/N: Some terms you probably already understood:

Obaa-san = Grandmother, or an old woman. In this case Mokuba isn't actually calling her his literal grandmother, but feels that he is close enough to her to be less formal than using her own name.

Nii-sama = extremely polite way of referring to ones older brother. The honorific `sama' is usually translated into English as `Lord'. So.. “Lord Older Brother”. Yeah. Mokuba is just being exceeding respectful `coz he, you know, respects Seto so much…

Gashapon = I don't know how sucky my description of these things was in the story, but basically they're like a toy vending machine. They vary in cost... from 100 yen to about 600 yen. (Or otherwise, like I said, it depends). You put your money in, turn the handle, and a ball falls out with a toy inside. I don't actually know if they sell YGO Gashapon in Japan, or if they sell any like the ones I invented for the sake of the chapter. If anyone knows if they DO make them, tell me, coz I'd totally love one XD Oh right.. yeah.. so the term also refers to both the machine and the toy itself. They are about as explicitly for little kids as YGO itself is…

Arubaito = Part-time job

 

Crap, my notes keep getting longer and longer. Sorry about this. What I actually wanted to write here…

>>>>>>>>READ FROM UNDER THIS LINE<<<<<<<<<

was that I know you want better S/J stuff to happen, and I'm sorry. Please consider this like a part one of two (that's how I view the next couple of chapters in any case, this chapter being more or less a required chapter to set up the next one) and part two DOES include some PROPER happy go lucky Seto/Jou stuff for you guys. But bear in mind that this is meant to be just a cute/funny story about the couple and how they get together… not about they endless sex they have once they do.

Sorry if that crushes your hopes and dreams, but I felt it needed to be said.

 

Normally around this point I'd offer you muffins, unfortunately I'm a terrible cook. Sorry again.