Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Faith In You ❯ Circumstances ( Chapter 1 )

Welcome readers! I guess the title or the summary must have caught your attention, ne? Anyway, here is the first chapter, I hope you enjoy it!

Circumstances
==================

Mokuba began to cough his lungs out. "Damn! That's some strong shit you got there!"

"I know, how do you feel?" Yami Bakura asked.

"I feel great! This is awesome!" Mokuba cried, seeing swirly colours. He began to giggle for no apparent reason.

"What are you going to do if your brother finds out? He won't be a happy chappie if he knows we do this sort of thing, Mokuba." The white-haired fiend asked.

Mokuba laughed, almost breathlessly. "I dunno!" He laughed. "Who cares?"

Bakura furrowed his brow and took another toke of the joint. "This is almost as good as the stuff I used to smoke in Egypt…"

~*~

Kaiba slammed a fist down on his desk in his office at his mansion. His day was not going very well, and it was only 6 o'clock in the evening. Mokuba should be home from Yugi's soon. Or at least Seto thought he was at Yugi's place. Seto had noticed Mokuba acting differently over the last couple of months, but since his fifteenth birthday, that was to be expected. Seto had to accept that Mokuba was growing up now - he wasn't the same little eleven year old kid anymore like he used to be.

Seto himself was nearly 20, too. In fact, his birthday was just over a month away. He was dreading it. Parties and presents were just not his thing, at all. Nevertheless, Mokuba would want to do something special regardless. Well, he always used to, at least. Seto wasn't so sure about now.

Since Kaiba's computer kept freezing he turned the damned thing off and went downstairs to the kitchen to fix himself a sandwich. He hadn't had time for breakfast or lunch at all that day, since he slept in until ten o'clock, had to rush Mokuba to school, was late for an extremely important meeting and was snowed under with paperwork. Having a cranky young teenager around the house didn't ease his mood either.

~*~

Mokuba left Bakura and Ryou's house at about quarter to six and walked home. The cold, clean November air cleared his head a little. That dope that he was smoking with Bakura (Ryou was out at the time) was the strongest he had ever had before, and boy did it give him a hit. He knew it was wrong, and he hated lying to his brother like this, but it was the only way to fit in with his peers. He hoped to the dear heavens that the smell of the burning drug hadn't absorbed in his clothes by the time he got home.

He reached the gates of the Kaiba Estate and pressed the buzzer of the voice box at the gate.

"Who is it?" A stern, sharp man's voice asked from the receiving end.

"It's me… lemme in…" Mokuba said in a slightly slurred tone. The four-metre-high barred gates opened and Mokuba dragged himself up the driveway, kicking the snow out of his way as he went.

He opened the door and entered the foyer, making his way through to the kitchen. He saw his brother buttering some pieces of bread and elegantly placing some lettuce and cheese in between them. He took off his winter clothing and sat himself up at the dining table, resting his head on his arms. Seto merely stared at him while continuing to make his sandwich.

"Are you hungry?" He asked.

Mokuba nodded. Having the munchies was a common side effect when you were wasted, as Mokuba was now experiencing. He kept his head buried in his arms, so as not to let Seto see his eyes - they were probably puffy and ridiculously bloodshot.

Seto put his sandwich on a plate and put it in front of Mokuba on the table, returning to the kitchen to make another one for himself. When he was done he came and sat across the table from Mokuba.

"Mokuba… what happened to your eyes? They're so red."

Mokuba shrugged and began to wolf down his sandwich. "The cold air outside I guess."

Seto nodded and put his reading glasses on, submerging into the evening newspaper. He kept on tucking into his sandwich, and then smelt something familiar. "Mokuba… do you smell that?"

Mokuba became alert and simultaneously anxious. "Smell what?"

Seto creased his brow. "The smell oddly reminds me of Yami Bakura…"

Mokuba avoided his brother's gaze and finished down the last of his sandwich. "I'm going to my room." Seconds later, he was out of sight.

Seto sighed and went up three flights of stairs to his own room to continue on the paperwork he was busy doing before his computer froze up. He closed the curtains and sat down behind his desk and began to go over them again… one at a time…

~*~

It was far past twelve by the time Seto had finished; in fact, it was nearly one in the morning. Seto slapped his laptop shut, frustrated at it, even though it wasn't frozen. He hated computers… okay that was a lie - he only hated them when they didn't cooperate with him.

The blue-eyed brunet walked into his walk-in wardrobe and fished around for some dark navy boxers and his matching silk robe. As he discarded his clothes and was about to step into his boxers, he heard a piercing laugh come from down the hallway, startling him. He thought Mokuba would be asleep by now. He tangled his ankles up in his boxers and landed on the floor with a thud.

"Grrr…" Seto growled as he picked himself up and slipped his robe on and stormed out of his room down the hallway. He slammed open Mokuba's bedroom door to find him upside-down on his bed with his legs vertically up the wall, twisting the phone cord around his fingers, giggling.

"Oh shit…" Mokuba said quietly as he noticed a furious Seto standing in his doorway.

"Get off the phone and get into bed, Mokuba." The elder Kaiba said sternly.

"Five minutes, Seto?" Mokuba pleaded.

Seto looked at his wristwatch. "Mokuba, I have to get up in five hours for work as do you for school. It's five past one in the morning. Now get off of that wretched thing and get some sleep."

Mokuba whined.

"Don't make me repeat myself. I'll cut you off if you don't get off right now!"

Mokuba grunted and said his goodbyes to whoever was on the receiving end. Seto switched out the light and closed the door, making his way back to his own bedroom.

~*~

"What time are you home today Mokuba?" Seto asked as he idled outside the school gates at about eight the next morning.

Mokuba shrugged. "Home in time for dinner I guess." He opened the car door, about to get out.

Kaiba scowled at him.

"What?" Mokuba asked in his moody, mid-teen manner.

"You were home at six last night, Mokuba. Be home before dark tonight, please."

Mokuba frowned. "But it gets dark at like five during the winter, Seto!"

"I know." Seto smirked. "And I'm your guardian for the next five years so you do as I say. Now go on or you'll be late."

Mokuba muttered something before hopping out of Seto's car. He went to greet his girlfriends at the gate who were in a daze, staring at Seto inside the car. Mokuba closed the door and Seto floored it down the road, into the city to KaibaCorp.

~*~

Seto signed his last contract for the day. It was 2 o'clock on the dot. A short working day for him. But hell, he was the boss of his company, he could do what he liked. Seto put his head on the desk and sighed. A vibrating feeling came close to his crotch in his pocket which made him jump. He took out his cell phone and flipped it open. He didn't even bother to look at the number.

"Kaiba here, what do you want?"

"Mr. Kaiba, this is Mr. Jochaki from Domino High School. I'm afraid something happened today involving young Mokuba."

Seto frowned. "What happened?"

"He was involved in a fight with another student, Mr. Kaiba. He is in the sick bay at the moment, he wishes for you to come and pick him up. He has a few minor head injuries."

Seto's eyes widened. "Shouldn't he be in the hospital then?"

"Like I said, they are only minor. A few cuts and bruises. Please come and collect him as soon as you can." He hung up.

Seto sighed and packed his things away into his briefcase, going downstairs to tell his secretary that he was out for the day. He made his way into the parking lot and started up the car.

~*~

Mokuba looked like death warmed up when Seto walked into the nurses' area of the school a little later that afternoon. His left eye was hardly visible, it was so swollen and purple. A middle aged woman sat at the end of the bed that Mokuba was lying on. She stood up once she noticed Seto Kaiba standing in the doorway.

"Mr. Kaiba… hi. I'm Mokuba's home room teacher Mrs. Yuriko." She came and took Seto's free hand. His other was holding his briefcase.

Seto nodded. "Come on Mokuba. Let's get you home." Mokuba rose up from the bed and limped over to Seto and grabbed a hold of his arm.

"Before you go, Mr. Kaiba, I'd like to discuss Mokuba's grades with you some other time, if that is alright?"

Mokuba groaned and mumbled something.

"Name your time."

"How about next Tuesday, four o'clock?" She suggested.

Seto nodded. "Alright, Tuesday it is."

~*~

"Oww! Seto!" Mokuba shrieked.

"Hold still. I can't help you if you keep squirming like this." Seto grunted, trying to keep his lack of patience from emerging to the surface.

Mokuba held an ice pack to his swollen eye as Seto was busy working on the other side of his face, where a large bloody graze was gradually scabbing over. He was trying to put some antiseptic on it.

"Where else are you bleeding, Mokuba?" Seto asked.

"I ripped holes in my pants when I got pushed to the ground. I think my knees are skinned. My chest hurts too…" The raven haired boy replied.

Seto shook his head. "How did this happen Mokuba?"

Mokuba winced as more iodine was applied to his cheek, stinging like the high heavens. "I had a game of Duel Monsters at school against this faggot and-"

"Watch your language." Seto snapped.

"Sorry." Mokuba continued. "Anyway, he said that if I won, I got to take his rarest card, and vice versa. Well, I won, but he took my card and ran off. I wasn't going to give up without a fight you know!"

Kaiba nodded. "True. But he must have been a lot bigger than you to do this much damage, Mokuba." He put the iodine away. "Sit up." He took Mokuba's shirt off and examined his chest carefully. A few bruises.

Mokuba sat up higher against the bedhead of his bed. There was an immense throbbing pain on the inside of his right thigh.

"Do you want me to clean up your knees, too?" Seto asked.

Mokuba nodded and undid his pants. Seto slipped them down off of his legs and his eyes widened at what he saw on the inside of Mokuba's thigh. "Jesus… how did that happen?"

Mokuba looked down to see a big fleshy gash in his thigh. He wrinkled his nose. "I guess I … must have fallen on something sharp…"

Seto sighed. "It's a good thing you've got two school uniforms. There's blood on your boxers too. Here, put these on." Seto said, chucking him a pair of clean boxers from his drawer. He turned around and waited until Mokuba was done.

"Seto… do I have to go to school tomorrow?"

"No Mokuba. You can stay home and recover tomorrow if you want."

"Thanks."

Thanks. A word that Seto hadn't heard for a while - at least not from Mokuba. Seto felt rather sad that Mokuba was becoming less dependant on him. He had enjoyed reading Mokuba bedtime stories and watching late-night movies with him when he was a few years younger…

Seto cleaned up the inside of Mokuba's leg and put his dirty uniform in the wash basket for the maid to pick up the next morning. He tucked Mokuba into the bed on all sides and sat on the edge of the bed. He brushed his raven bangs aside, noticing his good eye getting heavy. He kissed his forehead, eliciting a surprised look from Mokuba.

"Get a good sleep Mokuba." Seto turned out the light.

"…I love you Seto…" Mokuba moaned sleepily.

A glitch caught in Seto's throat. He cleared it. "You too Mokuba. Goodnight."

~*~*~*~