Chapter One
My Heart's Not Broken, But My Fender Is.
Were it any other day, Mr. Kaiba would have glided through the streets in the black Mercedes with much greater ease. The roads wouldn't be clogged with traffic, and he wouldn't be tempted to beat the shit out of the old man in the car ahead of him, who was tapping his brakes nonstop. He kept one hand on the steering wheel, his legs stretched out under. As a headache threatened to deteriorate what was left of his patience, he growled, pressed his fingers to his temples, and threw his fist against the horn. The sound simply blended in with the other cars trying to rush to-and-fro in the Black Friday traffic.
Leave it to Mokuba to get him stuck in this traffic on a work day. His younger brother, becoming a little trouble maker as he entered his fifteenth year, was moving farther from his big brother. It was that time when Seto just wasn't his hero so much. He still loved him, though, and Seto loved Mokuba as well. They still relied on each other, and today was one of those days when Mokuba needed big brother's care. The poor boy had been sick since Tuesday and bedridden through Thanksgiving, even. He had convinced Seto to go to work rather than watching over him, despite the older brother's protests. About an hour ago, however, one of the hired help called Seto to inform him that Mokuba was taken by the limo driver to the hospital. A fever of 103.4 was enough to do that. He left immediately, but the half-hour trip to the hospital was turning into an hour and a half one.
The roads began to clear when he left the retail sector of the city. He could see the ten-story hospital over the low tops of trees and apartments. He changed lanes and sped up to race up the on ramp, but in his haste, he missed the yield sign and the right corner of his car embedded itself into the side of a silver Audi. He hadn't even had the realization that he had hit someone until the Audi had screeched to a sideways halt and his own car was scraping against the barrier. He slammed on the brakes out of reflex. Both cars were stopped, as well as plenty of people in the blocked lanes who were forced to switch to the only open one. Kaiba leaned against his steering wheel, one hand under the other with his forehead on his wrists. He was shaking, one of the first times he'd been really scared for himself. His mind wandered from Mokuba for a moment.
He looked in his rear view mirror as he gained his sense back, and flung the door open, and then stepped out as calmly as he possibly could. He caught a glimpse of the woman he hit, being helped out by the driver of a stopped car. He didn't get a look at her face, her black hair falling in sheets to hide it. He did notice how she shook, but the thought of caring about it didn't cross his mind. Rather, he turned to look at the damage to his own vehicle. The left corner of his car was badly banged up, the hood bent in an upturned fold, but there didn't seem to be any damage that would restrict him from driving to the hospital. He circled around to see a scraped passenger door, accompanied by a multitude of dings and dents. He cursed under his breath.
"Excuse me," The voice came from his left, just beyond his peripheral vision, but he didn't have to turn to know it was the girl he hit - or, as he saw it, who hit him. He was quiet for a moment before turning his head just slightly to acknowledge he heard her. "I'm sure this can be sorted out quite easily, if I can just get your information." She spoke very quietly with kind of controlled fright hidden in her voice, but she was still very eloquent.
Seto fully turned to her with an incredulous look, his nostrils flaring. "I won't give you any of my damn information, this was all your fault."
The woman looked shocked, and took a step back. Her mouth hung open in a mix of anger and surprise, and she struggled to find her words. "Ex-cuse me? I had the right of way, you had a damned yield sign! You were in the wrong, and I was trying to settle this peacefully. I'm not sure why you have an issue with it, but I really have to get on with my day, and I don't have the time to argue." Seto guessed by the nice business attire that she was going in for a job interview, but he placed his need to get to Mokuba's side at a greater level of importance. He stood there for a moment with a clenched jaw and contemplated his choices. If he argued with her, he could at least make her late in the same way she had made him delay his emergency. Though, the more time he spent arguing, the longer it would take to get to Mokuba.
Finally, he made his choice, and opened the car door, leaned in, and found a pen and an old business card. On the back, he wrote the rest of his information, including insurance information, and waited for her to do the same. While she wrote, the police showed up and rolled along into one of the blocked lanes. He spoke to each of them privately for a few minutes, and, upon receiving the lady's information, they promptly parted ways.
Seto's car, though bent and dinged and sad-looking, was able to drive without much issue to the hospital. The off-white and dusty pink building towered over the modest restaurants and companies beside it. This was the retail section of the city and the primary hospital of the Kaiba brothers, so the buildings were not the skyscrapers of Seto's happy little corporate section. He rarely visited this part of the city, but the hospital here was far better than the other.
By the time he had signed in at the nurses station, it had been almost two hours since he first left work. This realization caused his headache to grow tremendously, and he made it a point to hit the wall as he passed by. However, when he caught sight of Mokuba's room, a few floors above ground, he broke out into a jog and scared a nurse trying to pull a cart out of a neighboring room. Before he could make a dramatic, Kaiba-flavored entrance, however, the attending doctor walked out, and he stopped to stare down at the short, older man, and he was trying his best to appear intimidating, but his worry overcame his strong feature. The doctor gave him a smile, a pat on the shoulder, and looked at his clipboard.
"Mr. Kaiba, there's nothing to worry about. It's just a bad flu. I've given him something for the nausea and the chills, so he's feeling better right now. He'll be better in a week, and if not, just bring him back in and we'll take care of him." He flashed Seto another doctor grin and walked off before he had time to ask questions, leaving him a bit confused. After a moment of standing and looking like he'd just been slapped, he recovered and slowly opened the hospital room door. Mokuba was sitting on the hard little cot, lacing up his shoes, oblivious to Seto's appearance. Seto cleared his throat, and Mokuba jumped a bit, startled, and then smiled wide. His face was still flashed, but he didn't look nearly as bad as before, and Seto was thankful for that. Seto gave his little brother a quick smile and held out his hand to beckon him to the door. Mokuba got up, less bouncy than usual, and took his hand, comforted but a little uneasy to be holding his big brother's hand at age 15. Realizing his discomfort, Seto let go of his hand, and instead gave him a quick one-armed hug and led him out, hoping to get home without another wreck.