Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Dirty Socks and Photographs ❯ One-Shot

And this fic is due to my cat sniffing my dirty socks while I was searching for a fic idea.

Lesson to be learned from this? Never tell me you need something to read.

~The human heart, at whatever age, opens only to the heart that opens in return.~

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"Mokuba! For the last time, get your dirty socks off my desk!" Seto shouted out the door of his office.

Mokuba, sitting in the middle of the hallway about four meters away from the said doorway snickered. "But, Niisama, your office didn't smell enough like me!" He called back.

Seto poked his head out of his office and narrowed his eyes at his brother. "Are you some sort of animal now?"

"All humans are animals, Niisama." Mokuba informed the elder Kaiba matter-of-factly.

"Oh, no. You see, I'm no animal, my dear otouto. I am a respectable god who stands above all you little animals and tells you to get your socks off my desk."

"You have no sense of home decoration. I was helping."

"My sense of home decorating has nothing to do with dirty socks on my desk."

"They're pretty dirty socks."

"They stink."

"I'm insulted." Mokuba pulled a pout. "Niisama doesn't like my gift."

"Your gift belongs in the laundry, Mokuba."

Mokuba turned around, smirking. "I'll move them." He offered.

Seto groaned, he knew that look as well as he knew this daily banter, which always had to do with something Mokuba had left on his desk. "What do you want in exchange, you little fiend?"

"You have to play with me for an hour."

"Mokuba, you know I have a lot of work to do....."

"With stinky, dirty socks."

Seto frowned at the boy. "You know how well we keep track of time when we play."

"I'll set a timer." Mokuba promised.

"Oh, fine...." Seto sighed, giving in. "One hour."

Mokuba bounced to his feet and tackled Seto with a big bear hug, which didn't quite work, what with his still slightly smaller size. "What shall we play?"

"Where's the timer?" Seto inquired stiffly, wanting to make sure he'd actually ba able to get back to his work before he started relaxing.

Mokuba held out a kitchen timer, which he'd already started. "I had to come up with a new way to get you to play, so I brought the timer, just in case." Mokuba offered.

Seto took the timer and placed it on his desk, next to the dirty socks, and out of harms way before smirking at Mokuba. "I have a wonderful game to play. How about chase. I'll give you till go[A/N: five]."

Mokuba gaped at Seto. "Niisama?"

"Ichi....Ni...." Seto started counting.

Mokuba let out a squeal and fled down the hall. "Meanie!" He threw over his shoulder as he turned a corner.

Seto stopped counting and glanced at his desk. A picture of him and Mokuba from last year, cuddling on the couch, sat there, just past the socks. A servant had taken it and it had been a gift to the elder Kaiba. He treasured it dearly. Ever since Noa, he'd been spending more time with Mokuba, playing with him, being less caught up with his work. He was finding that the attraction he'd originally feared was still there, but that Mokuba didn't seem to notice that his oniisama treated him any differently than he had when they were young children and knew of little more than the horrors of an orphanage.

He decided Mokuba had had enough time and took a different route to the kitchen, which is where he'd figured Mokuba would go this time.

~

"Niisama!" Mokuba smiled from a stool. The cook offered her young boss a small smile and went back to making whatever Mokuba had begged off her.

Seto sat on the stool next to his little scamp of a brother. "Guess I got you, huh?"

Mokuba snickered and slid from his seat. He stuck his tongue out at Seto and wagged his hips back and forth. "Come and get me." He offered before sweeping through the doors that led to the dinning room. Seto glimpsed the raven-haired child sweep into the living room through the swinging door before following him at a slow walk. He refused to run through the house like his brother.

Mokuba latched on to Seto's hip as the CEO stepped into the living room. "Mokuba...." Seto started.

Mokuba was way ahead of him. His fingers slid under Seto's arms and started tickling his underarms, grinning.

Try as he might, Seto couldn't keep a straight face for long. His laugh rang through the mansion, joined soon after by Mokuba's as the two wrestled on the floor.

~

The cook came in with some tea and a few cookies, ending their wrestling match. She set the tray on the coffee table and left them to settle on the couch with their drinks and treats.

Mokuba sat himself in Seto's lap and nibbled on a cookie, watching Seto's face as the older boy sipped his tea and looked off into nothingness. Mokuba thought his Niisama looked vulnerable when he gazed off into space like that, and it always made him want to make everything better. He liked having more time to hang out with Seto, he just wished that Seto would talk to him more. The CEO still treated him like he was ten, even though he probably didn't help by acting like it all the time. He told himself it was just easier to be the little innocent kid around Seto, no matter how hard it was for him at school, being from a rich family and not finding a girl he liked, although he knew plenty liked him, it's just, someone else had long had his eye.

Seto glanced down at Mokuba suddenly. Something in Mokuba's eyes startled him. He shook his head. "I should be working...." He mumbled, looking up to his office.

"It hasn't been an hour yet!" Mokuba whined.

"Don't you have homework to do?" Seto inquired, looking anywhere but Mokuba's face.

"I have all night!" Mokuba complained.

"The sooner it gets done the more time you have for play." Seto said automatically.

"What's wrong?!" Mokuba shook Seto's shoulders. "Why are you acting weird all of a sudden?"

Seto met Mokuba's eyes sadly. "When did you grow up so much?" He whispered before pulling away and hurrying up to his office.

Mokuba gaped at his brother's words. "What'd he mean?" He shook his head and ran up to Seto's office, which was closed up tightly. "Niisama!! Let me in!"

"Go do your homework." Seto ordered in a neutral tone.

"Not without my socks!" Mokuba remembered.

Seto didn't reply and there was no moment from within the room, not even the sound of typing or papers being moved around.

"Niisama?"

"Damn your socks. Go do your fucking homework." Seto hissed.

Mokuba gasped. Seto didn't curse around him. He'd even give anyone who did curse around his little brother the death glare, and had been known to punch Jou's arm for such things. On instinct, Mokuba responded as he would in school, with more cursing. "My homework doesn't fuck, although I'm sure I could fuck it quite easily myself, since I don't feel like doing it any other way. Think my bitchy teachers will like that, or do you thing they'll shit their pants?"

The office door swung open and Seto glared at Mokuba. "Do I have to wash out your mouth with soap, Mokuba?" He threatened.

"You started it." Mokuba replied hotly. "Although, I don't think it's just your mouth that needs washing out."

"Oh really?" Seto frowned at the boy. "What else do you think needs washing?"

"Your brain, since you can't seem to act like yourself all of a sudden and your eyes, since you couldn't see that I was actually growing up that whole time you were off in your own little fairy world." Mokuba snorted. "Of course, I suppose I am expecting a lot from a genius who loves his work more than me." Then he spun around and stalked off to his bedroom.

Seto stared after Mokuba, the dirty socks in one hand. "What did I just do?" He asked them, turning back to his office and going back to his desk. He stopped the timer quietly and set the socks down in front of it. His eyes settled on the picture of him and Mokuba and he slumped down in his seat, staring at it quietly.

~

Mokuba peeked his head out into the hallway after almost ten minutes had passed since their fight. He'd kept hoping that Seto would come and order him to come out, or to yell at him some more, but it was now obvious that Seto had returned to his work.

He tiptoed down the hall to Seto's office. Since the door was open, which was rare, he peeked in. His eyes met Seto's, who was staring at the doorway, as if expecting him. "Ho-"

"I heard your door open." Seto looked away. He'd curled up on the couch with the photograph, well away from his work. "Your socks are still on my desk, if you want them."

"What if I don't?" Mokuba inched into the room, voice challenging.

"Please don't start with me again, Mokuba." Seto sighed.

Mokuba paused mid-step. His brother had just sounded so....sad. So...old and tired. He gave the CEO a careful look-over. Tear-stains marked the other's clothing and, as he looked up, he met the blood-shot eyes of a man who'd been doing a lot of crying and thinking in the past ten minutes. "Niisama..." He started towards Seto again, moving quietly, even as the elder cut him off.

"I'm sorry." Seto spoke suddenly. "You're right, I started it. I shouldn't have cursed at you. I shouldn't have lost my temper like that. I don't know what I can do to make it up to you."

"I know something." Mokuba breathed, stopping next to his brother and sitting on the edge of the couch next to him.

Seto's heart sped up as his and Mokuba's eyes locked and held. "What?" He whispered.

"Kiss me."

Seto leaned up, Mokuba leaned down and their lips met smoothly, seeming to fit together perfectly, as if they were made for one another. And the kiss itself sent electricity through the two, making them shiver and want it to go on forever.

There was the sound of a camera and a flash. The two shot back quickly, Mokuba landing on his ass on the floor, Seto slamming his head on the arm of the couch. The servant who'd taken the picture in Seto's hands smiled at them. "I suppose you'd like this one as well, Kaiba-sama?"

Seto took a deep breath and nodded. "Of course. Just, don't do that again."

"Of course, sir." She bowed.

~~*Mokuba's 18th Birthday*~~

The two brother's sat in their new room, on their new bed. The picture of their first kiss hung on the facing wall. Seto smiled at it, hugging Mokuba close. "I guess I owe you a birthday present, don't I?" He inquired.

Mokuba smirked. "I thought you'd never ask."

Seto pressed Mokuba back against the bed. "Happy Birthday, Mokuba-chan." He whispered, kissing him, fingers sliding up inside the new adult's shirt front. Mokuba's hands slid down the back of Seto's pants. This kiss seemed better than their first to Mokuba, if only because it followed before what he'd been awaiting ever since.

If either man heard the click or saw the flash, they didn't show it. The servant closed and locked the door behind herself silently, smiling. Then she walked down the hall, petting her camera. Pity she didn't see Mokuba's dirty sock, which was stuck to the butt of her dress.

Oh well.

All's well that ends well.

Right?

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~Love knows no boundaries, why should we?~

NG: Uhm, yes. And, ya know, I can already see people begging for a sequel. Who'll bet with me on how many?

Seto: I won't bet with you, you tend to win a lot.

Pugio: It's because she always cheats.

NG: I have hot chocolate.

Pugio: *nervous look* Ah....Who said my hikari cheats?! I'll kill `em!

Kam: *snorts* Kill yourself? This ought to be entertaining.

Pugio: Not until after I slug you over the head with a baseball bat.

NG: It's in the basement, I think.

Noa: Oh, the most entertaining thing will be watching him find it.

Mokuba: At least it's not in the "Black Hole" this time.

NG: Would you like to visit my closet, Moku-chan?

Seto: Mokuba-chan, how many times must I tell you not to mention that name around her?

Mokuba: Niisama, I'm horny.

*Pugio, Kam, & Noa all run for their lives*

NG: I'll stay. I have to take notes.

Seto: *slaps forehead* Why me?

Mokuba: YAY! SEX!! *jumps Seto*

NG: Sorry people. No action this fic. Till next time! *closes curtains*

~

KK/NG

PS~I disclaim her. *nods*