Categories > Anime/Manga > Yu-Gi-Oh! > Sixteen
Chapter One: Change
1 reviewMokuba is now a teen ager, and a bit of a rebel at that. Kaiba has a plan to change that. :)
0Unrated
Sixteen
By Kari Izumi
Chapter one: Change
Summary: Mokuba is now a teenager, growing up and trying to discover his own identity that's separate from his beloved older brother's. He doesn't always do it very well, but he's getting there.
I do not own Yuugioh-that is property of Kazuki Takahashi. The only thing I own in full is the idea (Although if Mr. Takahashi wants to borrow it for a manga after he's done with G/X, I wouldn't object ;) ).
NOTE: All monetary units in this fic are in yen, not dollars. One dollar is roughly 115 yen; for example, 5 million yen is somewhere around 60,000 dollars (not a whole lot, comparatively speaking).
----
Yuugi Mutou sat down behind the counter after he had finished sweeping the floors for the day in the Kame Game shop. Summer vacation had just started, and he was happy to be home for the first time in months. His only regret was that he wouldn't see much of his grandfather, who was on another expedition, this time visiting a tribal land in America. He certainly hope he'd still up to exploring at his age; but having seen had more adventure in the past few years than most saw in their entire lives, Yuugi was just as glad to be home, spending his free time watching his grandfather's game shop than saving the world.
Seven o'clock P.M. was finally here, and with that, Yuugi unceremoniously replaced the "Open" sign with "Closed" in the window. Perhaps Yuugi had been away from home too long, because he found everything to be way too slow-paced as far as the store went today. But at least he had gotten a call from Ryou Bakura earlier in the day and the two made plans to catch a meal tomorrow evening.
Yuugi was happy to meet a familiar face; going to college in Tokyo meant he had to plan accordingly. Having been on the news many times for his various Duel Monsters victories, Yuugi had plenty of friends at school. But still, he missed the times he spent with his closest friends--Anzu, Honda, Jounouchi... there were even times the Duel Monsters champion even longed for the rivalry between him and Seto Kaiba (however one-side it was on Kaiba's end). The two had barely spoken to each other since he and Atemu separated, but knowing how Kaiba kept to himself except his kid brother Mokuba, it wasn't at all surprising. Everyone was so scattered these days, it was hard to keep up.
/How things change/...he thought wistfully.
Wallet in hand, Yuugi stepped outside to grab a bite to eat at Burger World. As he closed the door, something caught the corner of his eye and Yuugi turned to look at the mailbox; He saw a magazine made of flimsy, thin paper sticking out the top corner. He pulled it out and discovered it was one of those ten yen a dozen celebrity gossip rags, with his grandfather's name on the corner.
"Jii-chan..." Yuugi laughed. "When did you become so interested in stuff like this...EH?"
The title of one article featured on the center of the front page got his attention at once, written in large, bolded font: Kaiba Gone Wild! Page 42!
Yuugi stared at the title for a moment. Then his sides began to ache as he tried not to double up in laughter at the thought of his formal rival going "wild"-or doing anything fun that wasn't Duel Monsters related, for that matter. Kaiba lived at his company-not so much because he enjoyed it (which he did) as much as it helped him to give Mokuba the normal upbringing he had missed out on--as normal as a kid whose brother is of one of the most powerful people in the world can have, at least.
For the most part, Kaiba had succeeded with flying colors there; Yuugi remembered the younger Kaiba brother being a very energetic and happy kid, and his intelligence was, if not a natural-born prodigy like Seto, very much outstanding. At the age of eleven, Mokuba already knew how to fly a helicopter and was Kaiba Corp's Vice President. To most of the world, he was known as Seto Kaiba's adorably cute kid brother, his most famous feature being his strikingly long, unruly black hair.
/Come to think of it, Mokuba wouldn't be much of a kid anymore, would he? /That was even harder to imagine than Kaiba turning into a party animal. Yuugi knew the boy would be in high school now, but he just couldn't see him as being any older than eleven years old.
Yuugi was tempted to throw the magazine away without peeking at it. But a mix of boredom and curiosity got the better of him so he sat down on the porch step and flipped over to page 42 to see a picture of a tall and slender boy riding on a motorcycle. And to Yuugi's surprise, it wasn't Seto at the helm:
The story of the Seto Kaiba is considered by most to be something out of a fairy tale, /the article began/. He and his brother were orphaned and penniless but as luck had it, the powerful CEO of the original Kaiba Corp Gozaburo /(Kaiba would cringe at this glorification of his evil adoptive father) /adopted him after losing and trained the older Kaiba to run his company. The Kaiba Corp of today is far more successful than Gozaburo could have ever dreamed it would be, and Seto is still as steadfast and level headed as ever.
His brother Mokuba doesn't seem to have followed his brother's sense of responsibility. It has been rumored that the young Kaiba has been seen around town with several different young ladies in the past few months. No surprise, given how cute and rich he is.
"Gee, bias much?" Yuugi rolled his eyes and continued.
According to a reliable source, young Kaiba loves fast cars. Despite only having his drivers' license for a few months, he's already had two speeding tickets in addition to the fender bender he got into just a few days ago.
Yuugi blinked. No way in the world could this be true. Mokuba adored and respected his older brother. It was difficult to imagine why he'd go and do something like that and potentially disgrace Kaiba. And as much as Kaiba loved Mokuba (the only human being in the world he loved, as far as anyone knew), Yuugi didn't doubt that he'd hesitate to knock some sense into him and end that really quickly.
Assuming any of this was remotely true.
"Well, that was a bunch of bull," Yuugi commented to the air without bothering to read the rest of the article and folded it up again to take inside. "Really, Jii-chan, you shouldn't read this..."
At that very moment, he heard a load screeching sound as a red sports car made a slight swerve before it pulled up to the curb in front of the shop. From how fast it had been moving, Yuugi feared the car would crash into the lamppost that was less than a meter from the front bumper. Yuugi recognized the model of car from a magazine he'd read a few months ago, a cherry-red roadster with doors that opened up like wings instead of from the side. It was hard to forget a car that started at a price of around 10 million yen, and this one looked like it was brand new off the lot.
The driver stepped out and looked directly at Yuugi, whose eyes widened a bit. From the distance he was sitting at and the glare from the setting sun, he could have sworn it was Kaiba that had stepped out the car. It wasn't that crazy; he was the only person Yuugi knew who could afford something that expensive, and he was the only person he knew to be that tall.
At a second glance, he realized it wasn't him, but a tall, gray-eyed teenager, whose nearly waist-length black hair has held in place with a rubber band. But still, he couldn't help but feel he knew him...
"Hey, Yuugi-kun!" Even that voice sounded familiar...a bit like Kaiba's but it was far too chipper to be him, and he never used honorifics when addressing anyone.
The kid came running up to him. "It's been a while since I've seen you, eh? I've been wondering when Nii-sama would ever get to dueling you again and take your title as the King of Games." He smiled.
The Duel Monsters locket around the boy's neck instantly reminded Yuugi of who he was...it was none other than...
"Mokuba-kun!"
Yuugi looked in awe, as the boy in front of him, who at one time was the same height at eleven as he was at sixteen, stood very much taller than he did, and the black leather jacket he was wearing making him look very lean. The wide eyes Yuugi remembered looked a little bit smaller, and with his long hair being so neatly held in place, he could almost see a family resemblance to Seto.
"Wow...umm, you're...um..."
"Very tall," he added with a smile.
"And so...grown up!" Yuugi exclaimed. "I barely recognized you."
Mokuba removed the hair band from his locks and shook his head a bit. His hair went in many different directions. "More familiar?" After a nod, Yuugi escorted him inside the shop.
"So, how're you doing lately?" Yuugi asked. "I know you're a first year high schooler, aren't you?"
Mokuba nodded. "It's really great. I'm in the Domino High music club. We collect lots of the new J-pop artist songs and listen to them. And I've been helping a few people learn guitar."
"Wow, that's great!" Yuugi was somewhat surprised at this. With Kaiba Corp being a gaming company, he would have thought Mokuba's interests would have been more towards electronics. He knew the technology to that place inside and out when he was in grade school.
"So, you plan on going to college?" he asked Mokuba. It was a redundant question; of course he would go to college. Kaiba would make sure of that, whether he wanted to or not.
Yuugi's worry was misguided, from Mokuba's enthusiastic nod. "I'll have to ask Nii-sama if I can go to school in Tokyo. Again."
"Why there?" he asked. Not that Yuugi wouldn't be glad to have a familiar (kind of!) face while at school, but the Mokuba he remembered used to always stayed very close with Kaiba. They did just about everything together. "There are a few colleges that are closer to home."
"Exactly," Mokuba replied. "Tokyo has a lot more fun places to visit at night. Speaking of that, I heard you go to school there."
"Yeah, I do."
"Have you been to the Shinjuku district?"
"Once or twice."
"What's it like?" The smile on his face was a very mischievous one. "I mean, the clubs...I know you've been to a few...right?"
Yuugi sweat-dropped as he felt his stomach sinking slightly. "I don't think I really should be telling to that..."
"Aw, you're no fun, Yuugi..." Mokuba faked a pout.
Yuugi looked away. "I can't tell you that sort of stuff! Your brother would kill me!"
Mokuba shook his head. "Aw, you just don't want to tell me 'cause you think I'm a kid and it'll give me ideas. It's not like Nii-sama will ever let me go on a trip by myself." A flash of resentment passed on his face for a brief second. Being more concerned about what Mokuba's idea of fun was, this went unnoticed by Yuugi.
Not wanting this very uncomfortable discussion to continue, he cleared his throat and changed the subject. "So, anything in particular you were looking for?"
"You didn't happen to have that new version of Duel Dice Monsters, did you?"
"It's pretty popular, so I'm not sure..." Yuugi squatted down and opened up a cabinet on his left side, digging around for a few moments before producing the desired object. "Ah, here it is, the last one. I didn't think you were into these types of games."
"I'm not, but this girl I'm seeing tonight is."
Yuugi looked up and grinned, amused. "You're into girls now, huh?" It shouldn't have surprised Yuugi as much as it did; Jounouchi and he were swapping porn videos with each other at that age. /And Anzu was scolding us for it whenever she found out/, Yuugi thought with amusement.
Mokuba turned a little red and laughed. Then his eyes got a little bit serious.
"By the way...you don't happen to have 'Twister' here...do you?"
"Why would you want that game?" Yuugi asked. "I haven't played that since I was a kid."
The taller boy grew very interested in his feet. Another flash of implied knowledge went through Yuugi's head that he would just as soon rather forget.
"Um...we just sold the last one yesterday," he lied; there were plenty of boxes left, but Yuugi would just as soon not be on the receiving end of Kaiba's wrath, if he found out. With unusually quickness, he pulled the DDM game up to the counter and rang it up. "That'll be 3500 yen."
Mokuba reached for his wallet to draw out a 5000-yen note and for a moment was surprised to find it was empty. "Huh....oh, right."
"You don't have any cash on you?" Yuugi asked, noting in his mind the irony of the wealthiest teenager in the world being short on cash. Perhaps he hadn't gotten out to an ATM recently.
"I'm all out." Mokuba's face looked a little guilty. "I had to take Nii-sama's Benz into the shop today before he came home and found out about the fender bender."
"Ehh...!" was Yuugi's response. "I read about that today and I thought that was made up. You really shouldn't hide something like that. Kaiba-kun will know you didn't mean to do it."
"If I didn't have two speeding tickets already," Mokuba responded quietly.
Yuugi was rendered a little speechless. "How do you have two speeding tickets? You're barely sixteen!"
"Those drivers cut me off," he replied, a bit irritated.
"Twice?" Yuugi exclaimed. "Really, you have to be more careful! You better not get into any trouble with that girl you're going to see tonight--"
Before Yuugi could say anything else on the matter, Mokuba pulled out a debit card and handed it to Yuugi. "You accept these?"
At which point, Yuugi decided the lecturing was best saved for Kaiba. This was his brother, after all.
Boy, things /have changed/, he thought to himself as he ran the card through the processor. Yuugi couldn't believe that this was the same little boy who he met at Duelist Kingdom that wanted to duel him for Kaiba's honor. He was such a sweet, innocent kid back then.
And now, he wanted to play "Twister" with girls.
Oh dear God, I didn't need that image!
Yuugi's thoughts were broken as he saw the words "Declined" flashing on the machine-which, unlike the rumors in the magazine, was definitely not right. There wasn't anything in the world that the Kaibas couldn't afford. He turned off the card machine for a moment, then turned it back on and ran the card once more, with the same result.
"Hmm...that's odd..."
"What?"
"It keeps saying you're card's been declined."
"I know. I had the card deactivated an hour ago," a third, deeper voice, responded.
Both boys turned their attention to the front door at the stoic figure standing in the doorway. His cobalt eyes dark with suppressed rage and arms folded. The white trench coat blowing in the wind made him look even more intimidating.
Mokuba's eyes went wide with shock at the sight of Kaiba in the doorway.
"Nii-sama!" he yelled. "What are you doing back already!?"
Kaiba didn't respond as he walked over to Mokuba and stopped directly in front of him. He pulled out the same magazine Yuugi had read earlier from his coat and held it up. "How about you explain this first?"
Mokuba stammered while Kaiba's eyes grew narrower with anger. "Well...you see...that is to say..." The younger Kaiba's own gray eyes darted from side to side to the floor as he scratched his head in awkwardness.
"That the tabloids decided to pick on you this week?" Kaiba finished sarcastically.
"Err...yeah?" he let out a nervous laugh. Yuugi looked down at Kaiba's right hand, which looked unusually tense, even for him. "Hey, maybe we can we discuss this later after you've rested? Must be tired from being on a plane for so long--"
"Get the fuck outside," Kaiba ordered through clenched teeth. "NOW!"
Never had Yuugi ever seen Kaiba so utterly mad as to use swear words, let alone in front of Mokuba. Either Kaiba was that ticked at his car being wrecked or that worried about Mokuba's safety. And Kaiba wasn't the type to lash out like that in anger.
Mokuba lowered his head slightly as he walked towards the door. "Yes, Nii-sama. See ya, Yuugi-kun."
"Hold on, you left this." He ran over to the two of them to hand over Mokuba's card, which Kaiba promptly snatched up.
"I'll take that, seeing as how Mokuba will be at home for the next month." Kaiba placed it in his pocket, and then turned to his brother. "Give me your car keys."
Mokuba dropped one set of keys into his brother's hand.
"All of them!"
Two more sets followed.
"The motorcycle counts too, smart ass."
And another one fell. All of them were pocketed. "Let's go." Kaiba turned to Yuugi. "I apologize for you having to see that."
"That's really okay..." he replied, still trying to process the whole last ten minutes. The fact that Seto Kaiba, his former rival and a very proud boy, had apologized to him of all people went unnoticed.
As the two of them headed out towards the limo that waited next to the car Mokuba had driven, Yuugi noticed that Kaiba and Mokuba were nearly the same height; a fact that was confirmed as Kaiba reached into his pocket for a rubber band and tied Mokuba's long locks back again.
"A whole month, Nii-sama?"
"That's being really generous, given your track record lately."
The two of them stepped into the limo and it pulled off, leaving a much bewildered and stunned young man wondering how the hell something so rock solid as the Kaibas' relationship get turned upside down.
Yuugi's boring day just became a bit more interesting.
TBC
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So, um...yeah. My first fanfic in the YGO fandom, and my first in years (look at the register date, lol:p) Feedback is appreciated.
Betas are also needed. :)
By Kari Izumi
Chapter one: Change
Summary: Mokuba is now a teenager, growing up and trying to discover his own identity that's separate from his beloved older brother's. He doesn't always do it very well, but he's getting there.
I do not own Yuugioh-that is property of Kazuki Takahashi. The only thing I own in full is the idea (Although if Mr. Takahashi wants to borrow it for a manga after he's done with G/X, I wouldn't object ;) ).
NOTE: All monetary units in this fic are in yen, not dollars. One dollar is roughly 115 yen; for example, 5 million yen is somewhere around 60,000 dollars (not a whole lot, comparatively speaking).
----
Yuugi Mutou sat down behind the counter after he had finished sweeping the floors for the day in the Kame Game shop. Summer vacation had just started, and he was happy to be home for the first time in months. His only regret was that he wouldn't see much of his grandfather, who was on another expedition, this time visiting a tribal land in America. He certainly hope he'd still up to exploring at his age; but having seen had more adventure in the past few years than most saw in their entire lives, Yuugi was just as glad to be home, spending his free time watching his grandfather's game shop than saving the world.
Seven o'clock P.M. was finally here, and with that, Yuugi unceremoniously replaced the "Open" sign with "Closed" in the window. Perhaps Yuugi had been away from home too long, because he found everything to be way too slow-paced as far as the store went today. But at least he had gotten a call from Ryou Bakura earlier in the day and the two made plans to catch a meal tomorrow evening.
Yuugi was happy to meet a familiar face; going to college in Tokyo meant he had to plan accordingly. Having been on the news many times for his various Duel Monsters victories, Yuugi had plenty of friends at school. But still, he missed the times he spent with his closest friends--Anzu, Honda, Jounouchi... there were even times the Duel Monsters champion even longed for the rivalry between him and Seto Kaiba (however one-side it was on Kaiba's end). The two had barely spoken to each other since he and Atemu separated, but knowing how Kaiba kept to himself except his kid brother Mokuba, it wasn't at all surprising. Everyone was so scattered these days, it was hard to keep up.
/How things change/...he thought wistfully.
Wallet in hand, Yuugi stepped outside to grab a bite to eat at Burger World. As he closed the door, something caught the corner of his eye and Yuugi turned to look at the mailbox; He saw a magazine made of flimsy, thin paper sticking out the top corner. He pulled it out and discovered it was one of those ten yen a dozen celebrity gossip rags, with his grandfather's name on the corner.
"Jii-chan..." Yuugi laughed. "When did you become so interested in stuff like this...EH?"
The title of one article featured on the center of the front page got his attention at once, written in large, bolded font: Kaiba Gone Wild! Page 42!
Yuugi stared at the title for a moment. Then his sides began to ache as he tried not to double up in laughter at the thought of his formal rival going "wild"-or doing anything fun that wasn't Duel Monsters related, for that matter. Kaiba lived at his company-not so much because he enjoyed it (which he did) as much as it helped him to give Mokuba the normal upbringing he had missed out on--as normal as a kid whose brother is of one of the most powerful people in the world can have, at least.
For the most part, Kaiba had succeeded with flying colors there; Yuugi remembered the younger Kaiba brother being a very energetic and happy kid, and his intelligence was, if not a natural-born prodigy like Seto, very much outstanding. At the age of eleven, Mokuba already knew how to fly a helicopter and was Kaiba Corp's Vice President. To most of the world, he was known as Seto Kaiba's adorably cute kid brother, his most famous feature being his strikingly long, unruly black hair.
/Come to think of it, Mokuba wouldn't be much of a kid anymore, would he? /That was even harder to imagine than Kaiba turning into a party animal. Yuugi knew the boy would be in high school now, but he just couldn't see him as being any older than eleven years old.
Yuugi was tempted to throw the magazine away without peeking at it. But a mix of boredom and curiosity got the better of him so he sat down on the porch step and flipped over to page 42 to see a picture of a tall and slender boy riding on a motorcycle. And to Yuugi's surprise, it wasn't Seto at the helm:
The story of the Seto Kaiba is considered by most to be something out of a fairy tale, /the article began/. He and his brother were orphaned and penniless but as luck had it, the powerful CEO of the original Kaiba Corp Gozaburo /(Kaiba would cringe at this glorification of his evil adoptive father) /adopted him after losing and trained the older Kaiba to run his company. The Kaiba Corp of today is far more successful than Gozaburo could have ever dreamed it would be, and Seto is still as steadfast and level headed as ever.
His brother Mokuba doesn't seem to have followed his brother's sense of responsibility. It has been rumored that the young Kaiba has been seen around town with several different young ladies in the past few months. No surprise, given how cute and rich he is.
"Gee, bias much?" Yuugi rolled his eyes and continued.
According to a reliable source, young Kaiba loves fast cars. Despite only having his drivers' license for a few months, he's already had two speeding tickets in addition to the fender bender he got into just a few days ago.
Yuugi blinked. No way in the world could this be true. Mokuba adored and respected his older brother. It was difficult to imagine why he'd go and do something like that and potentially disgrace Kaiba. And as much as Kaiba loved Mokuba (the only human being in the world he loved, as far as anyone knew), Yuugi didn't doubt that he'd hesitate to knock some sense into him and end that really quickly.
Assuming any of this was remotely true.
"Well, that was a bunch of bull," Yuugi commented to the air without bothering to read the rest of the article and folded it up again to take inside. "Really, Jii-chan, you shouldn't read this..."
At that very moment, he heard a load screeching sound as a red sports car made a slight swerve before it pulled up to the curb in front of the shop. From how fast it had been moving, Yuugi feared the car would crash into the lamppost that was less than a meter from the front bumper. Yuugi recognized the model of car from a magazine he'd read a few months ago, a cherry-red roadster with doors that opened up like wings instead of from the side. It was hard to forget a car that started at a price of around 10 million yen, and this one looked like it was brand new off the lot.
The driver stepped out and looked directly at Yuugi, whose eyes widened a bit. From the distance he was sitting at and the glare from the setting sun, he could have sworn it was Kaiba that had stepped out the car. It wasn't that crazy; he was the only person Yuugi knew who could afford something that expensive, and he was the only person he knew to be that tall.
At a second glance, he realized it wasn't him, but a tall, gray-eyed teenager, whose nearly waist-length black hair has held in place with a rubber band. But still, he couldn't help but feel he knew him...
"Hey, Yuugi-kun!" Even that voice sounded familiar...a bit like Kaiba's but it was far too chipper to be him, and he never used honorifics when addressing anyone.
The kid came running up to him. "It's been a while since I've seen you, eh? I've been wondering when Nii-sama would ever get to dueling you again and take your title as the King of Games." He smiled.
The Duel Monsters locket around the boy's neck instantly reminded Yuugi of who he was...it was none other than...
"Mokuba-kun!"
Yuugi looked in awe, as the boy in front of him, who at one time was the same height at eleven as he was at sixteen, stood very much taller than he did, and the black leather jacket he was wearing making him look very lean. The wide eyes Yuugi remembered looked a little bit smaller, and with his long hair being so neatly held in place, he could almost see a family resemblance to Seto.
"Wow...umm, you're...um..."
"Very tall," he added with a smile.
"And so...grown up!" Yuugi exclaimed. "I barely recognized you."
Mokuba removed the hair band from his locks and shook his head a bit. His hair went in many different directions. "More familiar?" After a nod, Yuugi escorted him inside the shop.
"So, how're you doing lately?" Yuugi asked. "I know you're a first year high schooler, aren't you?"
Mokuba nodded. "It's really great. I'm in the Domino High music club. We collect lots of the new J-pop artist songs and listen to them. And I've been helping a few people learn guitar."
"Wow, that's great!" Yuugi was somewhat surprised at this. With Kaiba Corp being a gaming company, he would have thought Mokuba's interests would have been more towards electronics. He knew the technology to that place inside and out when he was in grade school.
"So, you plan on going to college?" he asked Mokuba. It was a redundant question; of course he would go to college. Kaiba would make sure of that, whether he wanted to or not.
Yuugi's worry was misguided, from Mokuba's enthusiastic nod. "I'll have to ask Nii-sama if I can go to school in Tokyo. Again."
"Why there?" he asked. Not that Yuugi wouldn't be glad to have a familiar (kind of!) face while at school, but the Mokuba he remembered used to always stayed very close with Kaiba. They did just about everything together. "There are a few colleges that are closer to home."
"Exactly," Mokuba replied. "Tokyo has a lot more fun places to visit at night. Speaking of that, I heard you go to school there."
"Yeah, I do."
"Have you been to the Shinjuku district?"
"Once or twice."
"What's it like?" The smile on his face was a very mischievous one. "I mean, the clubs...I know you've been to a few...right?"
Yuugi sweat-dropped as he felt his stomach sinking slightly. "I don't think I really should be telling to that..."
"Aw, you're no fun, Yuugi..." Mokuba faked a pout.
Yuugi looked away. "I can't tell you that sort of stuff! Your brother would kill me!"
Mokuba shook his head. "Aw, you just don't want to tell me 'cause you think I'm a kid and it'll give me ideas. It's not like Nii-sama will ever let me go on a trip by myself." A flash of resentment passed on his face for a brief second. Being more concerned about what Mokuba's idea of fun was, this went unnoticed by Yuugi.
Not wanting this very uncomfortable discussion to continue, he cleared his throat and changed the subject. "So, anything in particular you were looking for?"
"You didn't happen to have that new version of Duel Dice Monsters, did you?"
"It's pretty popular, so I'm not sure..." Yuugi squatted down and opened up a cabinet on his left side, digging around for a few moments before producing the desired object. "Ah, here it is, the last one. I didn't think you were into these types of games."
"I'm not, but this girl I'm seeing tonight is."
Yuugi looked up and grinned, amused. "You're into girls now, huh?" It shouldn't have surprised Yuugi as much as it did; Jounouchi and he were swapping porn videos with each other at that age. /And Anzu was scolding us for it whenever she found out/, Yuugi thought with amusement.
Mokuba turned a little red and laughed. Then his eyes got a little bit serious.
"By the way...you don't happen to have 'Twister' here...do you?"
"Why would you want that game?" Yuugi asked. "I haven't played that since I was a kid."
The taller boy grew very interested in his feet. Another flash of implied knowledge went through Yuugi's head that he would just as soon rather forget.
"Um...we just sold the last one yesterday," he lied; there were plenty of boxes left, but Yuugi would just as soon not be on the receiving end of Kaiba's wrath, if he found out. With unusually quickness, he pulled the DDM game up to the counter and rang it up. "That'll be 3500 yen."
Mokuba reached for his wallet to draw out a 5000-yen note and for a moment was surprised to find it was empty. "Huh....oh, right."
"You don't have any cash on you?" Yuugi asked, noting in his mind the irony of the wealthiest teenager in the world being short on cash. Perhaps he hadn't gotten out to an ATM recently.
"I'm all out." Mokuba's face looked a little guilty. "I had to take Nii-sama's Benz into the shop today before he came home and found out about the fender bender."
"Ehh...!" was Yuugi's response. "I read about that today and I thought that was made up. You really shouldn't hide something like that. Kaiba-kun will know you didn't mean to do it."
"If I didn't have two speeding tickets already," Mokuba responded quietly.
Yuugi was rendered a little speechless. "How do you have two speeding tickets? You're barely sixteen!"
"Those drivers cut me off," he replied, a bit irritated.
"Twice?" Yuugi exclaimed. "Really, you have to be more careful! You better not get into any trouble with that girl you're going to see tonight--"
Before Yuugi could say anything else on the matter, Mokuba pulled out a debit card and handed it to Yuugi. "You accept these?"
At which point, Yuugi decided the lecturing was best saved for Kaiba. This was his brother, after all.
Boy, things /have changed/, he thought to himself as he ran the card through the processor. Yuugi couldn't believe that this was the same little boy who he met at Duelist Kingdom that wanted to duel him for Kaiba's honor. He was such a sweet, innocent kid back then.
And now, he wanted to play "Twister" with girls.
Oh dear God, I didn't need that image!
Yuugi's thoughts were broken as he saw the words "Declined" flashing on the machine-which, unlike the rumors in the magazine, was definitely not right. There wasn't anything in the world that the Kaibas couldn't afford. He turned off the card machine for a moment, then turned it back on and ran the card once more, with the same result.
"Hmm...that's odd..."
"What?"
"It keeps saying you're card's been declined."
"I know. I had the card deactivated an hour ago," a third, deeper voice, responded.
Both boys turned their attention to the front door at the stoic figure standing in the doorway. His cobalt eyes dark with suppressed rage and arms folded. The white trench coat blowing in the wind made him look even more intimidating.
Mokuba's eyes went wide with shock at the sight of Kaiba in the doorway.
"Nii-sama!" he yelled. "What are you doing back already!?"
Kaiba didn't respond as he walked over to Mokuba and stopped directly in front of him. He pulled out the same magazine Yuugi had read earlier from his coat and held it up. "How about you explain this first?"
Mokuba stammered while Kaiba's eyes grew narrower with anger. "Well...you see...that is to say..." The younger Kaiba's own gray eyes darted from side to side to the floor as he scratched his head in awkwardness.
"That the tabloids decided to pick on you this week?" Kaiba finished sarcastically.
"Err...yeah?" he let out a nervous laugh. Yuugi looked down at Kaiba's right hand, which looked unusually tense, even for him. "Hey, maybe we can we discuss this later after you've rested? Must be tired from being on a plane for so long--"
"Get the fuck outside," Kaiba ordered through clenched teeth. "NOW!"
Never had Yuugi ever seen Kaiba so utterly mad as to use swear words, let alone in front of Mokuba. Either Kaiba was that ticked at his car being wrecked or that worried about Mokuba's safety. And Kaiba wasn't the type to lash out like that in anger.
Mokuba lowered his head slightly as he walked towards the door. "Yes, Nii-sama. See ya, Yuugi-kun."
"Hold on, you left this." He ran over to the two of them to hand over Mokuba's card, which Kaiba promptly snatched up.
"I'll take that, seeing as how Mokuba will be at home for the next month." Kaiba placed it in his pocket, and then turned to his brother. "Give me your car keys."
Mokuba dropped one set of keys into his brother's hand.
"All of them!"
Two more sets followed.
"The motorcycle counts too, smart ass."
And another one fell. All of them were pocketed. "Let's go." Kaiba turned to Yuugi. "I apologize for you having to see that."
"That's really okay..." he replied, still trying to process the whole last ten minutes. The fact that Seto Kaiba, his former rival and a very proud boy, had apologized to him of all people went unnoticed.
As the two of them headed out towards the limo that waited next to the car Mokuba had driven, Yuugi noticed that Kaiba and Mokuba were nearly the same height; a fact that was confirmed as Kaiba reached into his pocket for a rubber band and tied Mokuba's long locks back again.
"A whole month, Nii-sama?"
"That's being really generous, given your track record lately."
The two of them stepped into the limo and it pulled off, leaving a much bewildered and stunned young man wondering how the hell something so rock solid as the Kaibas' relationship get turned upside down.
Yuugi's boring day just became a bit more interesting.
TBC
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So, um...yeah. My first fanfic in the YGO fandom, and my first in years (look at the register date, lol:p) Feedback is appreciated.
Betas are also needed. :)
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