Hello, everyone. I never thought I'd be the type to write these holiday/season relevant fics, but Christmas just decided to have its way with me, and I wanted to write some fluff for Seto Kaiba anyway.
Note: This story was originally published on December 18, 2010, under my Z. Quill pen name, but I decided it didn't really fit there (too fluffy and romantic), so it's been moved here.
Just a mild back-story: Seto and Kisara are already familiar with each other, and have been for a little over a year (during which Seto has mellowed out a bit), and they're at a stage where they're just one nudge away from falling for each other and becoming a couple. This is somewhat the future after my fic The One Friend of Seto Kaiba, though there are no explicit references to it, and they could easily have absolutely nothing to do with each other. I only bring it up because my portrayals of Seto and Kisara are very similar in this fic as in that one while they are a bit different in others.
Please enjoy Mistletoe Midnight!
December 18, 2010. 10: 36 p.m.
"Home, sir?" The Kaiba chauffer inquired form the front seat.
"Where else would we be going?" Seto growled back.
"Yes, sir." The chauffer pulled the limo into traffic from the Kaiba Corp. lot, in the direction of the Kaiba mansion, headlights glancing off happy Christmas shoppers enjoying the downtown nightlife. Domino may not be known for a lot, but two things it had going for it were Duel Monsters and its world-renowned nocturnal bustle. Many of the shops downtown didn't even close for the night.
Seto rubbed his forehead, trying to make the imminent headache caused by his day wait until he had access to some aspirin. The holiday season was always difficult, but it seemed to get worse and worse every year. Frankly, Seto was surprised he was able to leave Kaiba Corp. as soon as he did.
Sighing, Seto lifted his head from his hand, looking out the window of the moving limo. A light snow was starting up, continuing to blanket everything once again in a layer of white after the true bucketing had been taken care of earlier in the week, canceling the schools and starting Winter Break up several days prematurely.
Domino City officials had put up the seasonal decorations: Strings of lights were strung along and across the streets, the occasional tree or streetlight was draped in tinsel, giant ornaments hung from the power lines, and various other sorts of holiday extravagances spiced up the normally fairly drab façade of inner Domino.
Mokuba had mentioned something about the city park this year being especially well done up, but Seto hadn't had the time to go check it out himself.
As the headlights had shown, the light snow and temptation of holiday goodies had brought out a throng of shoppers, partygoers, and people who just plain wanted to enjoy the winter dusting.
Seto hadn't really experienced the Christmas Spirit since he'd taken over his adoptive father's company, and even before that, Gozaburo hadn't exactly been the type to encourage the warmth and love the Christmas was supposed to bring, blah, blah, blah.
But, even Seto started to feel a tickle of Yuletide cheer as he slipped through the lit-up avenues and caught glimpses of the purchases people were making for friends and loved-ones…
And, it continued until he came across a store that sold Kaiba Corp. products that had a sign in its window saying that it was sold-out of almost everything that KC had supplied them with.
The progress of the headache sped up ten-fold as the implications of a store this close to Kaiba Corp. headquarters already being out of stock a week from Christmas meant for the company world-wide.
Seto contemplated telling the driver to turn around so that he could get a jump on this problem before it got the jump on him, but he decided against it. So far, this one little store was the only one that Seto knew of having supply difficulties, and even Seto wasn't enough of a workaholic to not see the ease with which he could put it off until tomorrow.
Seto closed his eyes again and brought both hands up to massage his temple. 'Merry Christmas' my ass.
December 18, 2010. 11:04 p.m.
Seto headed straight for the kitchen and the aspirin bottle once he was home. On his way, he didn't bother turning on any lights, knowing the route to the kitchen step-by-step even in the dark.
He went about the room without a thought, the routine being so familiar that his actions needed no direction. He ended up standing in front of one of the kitchen windows, staring out onto the back lawn as he drank the familiar capsules down.
He almost choked when he saw a figure moving around in the dark, and if it weren't for the figure's diminutive height, Seto would have thought it was some sort of intruder.
As it was, the only person Seto knew who was 4' 8" was Mokuba, who should have been up in his room, not gallivanting around in the dark, all alone.
What's he doing out there?
Seto set the glass of water he'd been drinking from down on the counter and headed back into the hallway that led to the kitchen, and down to the side door that led to the outside.
He stepped out onto a miniature, covered porch, noticing the door was already unlocked when it normally was secured.
Seto, closing the door only partially behind him, keeping a finger on the switch for the porch light inside, looked around the yard, squinting, having lost sight of what had to be Mokuba wandering around.
"Wow," a voice said just in front of him, their tone on the verge of sarcastic. "You're home by eleven. That must be a record for the two weeks before Christmas, wouldn't you say?"
Seto turned the porch light on with a flick of his wrist to find his little brother standing there, hands on his hips, and face turned off to the side with a smug twist to his lips and eyebrows.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Seto asked Mokuba, taking in his little brother's now-lit bundled-up appearance, from the snow boots and waterproof mittens, all the way up to the cheeks red from the cold and snowcap complete with fuzzy pompom.
Mokuba pouted. "There's not even school tomorrow," he argued. "Anyway, I've been being productive, Scrooge." The smug look was back again.
"Doing what?" Seto was suspicious, but he was also a little amused. Whenever something like this went on with his little brother, there was usually something pretty interesting going on in the background.
"Decorating." Seto raised his eyebrow.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Inside, outside, all-around."
"I thought we hired people for that."
Mokuba snorted, never having liked that pathetic Christmas practice that had been going on in the Kaiba family even before they'd arrived. "Yeah, well, we only do that because one of us alone wouldn't be able to do much, even though if just one other person helped out, everything would get done in just a couple of days." Mokuba gave Seto a pointed look that had Seto making a face, as if he'd tasted something rotten. He didn't exactly feel guilty about not helping with the Christmas trimming and garnishing, or whatever, but he did feel guilty about leaving Mokuba alone to do it all.
"But, I decided to try anyway this year. Plug that in," Mokuba commanded, pointing at an electrical cord that was resting just a few feet from Seto. "And, turn off the porch light!" Mokuba was suddenly running away from the porch, becoming impossible to tell apart from the darkness once Seto turned the light off.
Letting his eyes adjust to the darkness, Seto knelt down to cautiously pick up the cord. He wasn't exactly mistrustful of Mokuba, but he never liked plugging or pressing something when he wasn't sure exactly what he'd be causing by doing so. Nevertheless, Seto plugged in the cord.
All of a sudden, several trees in the backyard of the Kaiba house lit up, each a different color and one with a ladder still leaning against it.
"Ta da!" Mokuba shouted from the middle of the yard, no longer indistinguishable from the darkness with the trees blazing around him.
Seto didn't know whether to be proud of his brother for getting so much done, and done well, on his own, or to strangle him for getting up on a ladder with no one around to make sure he didn't fall or to call an ambulance when he did.
Moving to the very edge of the porch, Seto dangerously asked in silky tones, "And, how exactly were you able to accomplish all of this?" Whatever answer Mokuba gave, he was going to be so dead and so grounded. But, as it was, Mokuba wasn't the one who gave the answer.
"He had help," was all the warning Seto got before the ice-cold ball of snow smacked right into the side of his head.
A crow of delighted laughter slipped from Mokuba's lips before he quickly slammed his mittenned hands over his mouth.
Slowly, slowly Seto turned around to face his assailant.
"Kisara. I'm surprised I didn't see you," Seto gritted out, feeling drips of melting snow trickling under his coat and shirt, down his neck and then spine.
"Well, I do blend in pretty well this time of year," she teased, tossing her fair hair over her shoulder. It was true, and the fact that she was almost entirely dressed in white didn't help a bit. Great camouflage for winter sneak attacks.
"Stop giving me that look, Seto. It was just a snowball, and if you don't stop glaring, I'm going to throw another one," she mock-warned.
"Let me have some fun too, Kisara," Mokuba spoke up. Seto gave his little brother his own look. "Uh, I'll just go make sure that snowman hasn't melted yet." He scurried further away from the porch, deeper into the winter wonderland.
"Snowman?" Seto asked, looking back at Kisara, now coming to stand beside him.
"Yes. It's a good one, too. The both of us were able to lift the middle ball completely intact onto the bottom one and not have to go through that mangling procedure of chopping it up and rebuilding it piece by piece, then having to pack it all together and turning it into some deformed thing that needs to be remade again… You look really confused, Seto," she finally commented, stopping her blabbering and the gesturing she'd been making to go along with her descriptions.
"I can't even remember the last time I made a snowman," Seto confessed.
"Mokuba couldn't remember the last time you had, either," Kisara stated in consternation.
"So sorry for my lack of time," Seto snipped.
"You have time now," she pointed out. "And, there's plenty of snow left," she said, gesturing to the expansive back property of the Kaiba estate.
"At eleven at night?"
"Yes, Seto. Mokuba says you stay up later doing boring paperwork. You can spend an hour, at least, frolicking in the snow with Mokuba and me. And, besides," she spoke as she backed off of the porch and onto the snowy lawn, a wicked smile curving her lips, "I'd bet you're just dying to pay me back for that snowball to the head."
He watched her take several more steps back and pause about eight feet away before shaking his head in disbelief at his own actions and taking his own step forward into the gleaming snow.
"You'd better run, snowgirl," Seto warned before swooping down and snatching up a handful of snow.
Letting out a delighted laugh, Kisara turned and tore across the lawn, yelling, "Run, Mokuba!"
He shouted back, "I told you this was a bad idea!" before making his own dash past the vibrantly colored trees in the yard, unable to keep his laughter in.
Seto's first snowball hit Kisara square in the middle of her back, causing her to spin and duck to make her own ammunition.
Suddenly, Seto changed his course, ducking behind a tree shrouded in minute cobalt blue lights, and waiting to tell which direction she was coming from. He should have been paying more attention to where Mokuba was.
Another snowball smacked Seto just off-center of his chest, and he looked up to see Mokuba darting behind a tower of mandarin orange lights.
Making use of the perfectly compactable snow, Seto made two quick snowballs, and first dealt with Kisara who'd just come around the side of the tree, hitting her leg while she missed him by a mile, and then making off after Mokuba.
Another of Kisara's snowballs grazed his arm, encouraging him to pick up the pace. As he rounded the tree, he barely escaped a face full of flying snow courtesy of Mokuba's aim, but got him back by diving forward and snatching the hat of his little brother's head and replacing it with the wad of snow he'd had in-hand.
"Ah, Seto! Why not just white-wash me?" Mokuba griped sarcastically, backing out of his brother's grip and shaking his hair out.
"Now, that's a good idea." Seto chuckled lowly, taking a step forward.
"NO!" Mokuba squealed in false fear.
He scrambled to get away from his big brother, but both were distracted when their forgotten guest successively hit them each in the face and neck respectively.
"You seem to specialize in headshots," Seto muttered darkly at the thrower, wiping the snow off his cheek.
"Indeed. Be forewarned. Don't ignore me just because I'm not a terrifying, tyrant of a Kaiba," Kisara declared stridently. Mokuba caught her chin with a close range snowball, and, after a pause, Kisara dove for him, tackling him to the ground into a mass of squeal and giggles, kicking up flurries of snow as they rolled around.
Seto took the time to dodge around an emerald-lighted tree, knowing they' be in hot pursuit once they realized he'd vanished.
Sure enough, their squabbling stopped, and Seto heard Mokuba shout, "After him!"
Seto actually had to hold in a laugh. God, when was the last time he'd done something like this? Something just for fun? Just like with the snowman, Seto couldn't remember.
At least, his headache was gone.
December 18, 2010. 11:57 p.m.
Seto crouched behind a tree glittering in tones of purplish-blue, waiting for his prey to walk by.
It would probably be one of the last skirmishes of the night. All three of the combatants were out of breath and soaked through with the melted snow. The last time Seto had seen Mokuba, the thirteen-year-old had begun shivering unstoppably, but had rushed back off into the night before Seto could comment on it.
Now, whoever came around the corner would be ambushed, and then commissioned into helping find the final player in the game so that they could all go inside and warm up before Seto sent Mokuba to bed and Kisara…
I should offer to let her stay here for the night.
After all, it was late, his driver had gone home, and there weren't any taxis in this upper class, isolated part of Domino. He could drive her home himself, but he also was getting tired and was not unaware of the statistics showing drowsy driving being as dangerous as drunken.
Kisara was the one to come around the tree, already knowing he was there, arm raised high with snowball ready to be let go. Seto let his own ammo drop to the frozen ground, and to prevent her from getting him, leaped forward and wrapped his arms around her catching her arms in the embrace and pinning them to her sides.
Kisara began laughing and shrieking jovially, letting the wad of snow fall from her grasp as she tried to untangle herself from Seto, winding up with her back pressed against his front and his arms still tightly bound around her.
"Okay, okay, you win," she admitted, still giggling to herself.
"I know," he whispered into her ear. Kisara kept on giggling.
Eventually, she quieted, and they just stood there, Seto's arms around her, his face unintentionally buried in her hair. She relaxed against him and brought her hands up, placing them on his forearms where they crossed over her waist.
It wasn't until Seto felt Kisara begin to shiver that he sighed into her snow white locks and undraped himself off of her, disturbing the peace that had been so easy to cultivate between them.
"We need to go find Mokuba, then head inside before either of you freeze to death," he said as she turned around to face him, still in close quarters.
"Hm," she hummed, agreeing with him, before bringing up a gloved hand to stroke his cheek.
Seto shivered upon contact with the cold glove, getting a smile out of Kisara.
"Mokuba and I aren't the only ones susceptible to the cold, Seto Kaiba," she ribbed.
He chuckled lightly. "I suppose you're right."
They began making their way back to the house, walking close beside each other, winding through the sparkling, multicolored trees.
"Mokuba is so lucky that he had someone helping him with this," Seto growled, catching sight of a tree decked in frosted pink lights, the one with the ladder still leaning against it. "Why did you come by anyway?" he asked.
"I just wanted to see you. And, since you weren't here, I decided to help out Mokuba." She shrugged.
"Hey!" a voice called. Mokuba waved at them from the porch, where the light was now burning brightly.
Kisara and Seto waved back to him.
"I'm going inside!" he informed them before turning back to the door and entering.
"He could have at least waited for us," Seto muttered.
Kisara giggled again.
They made their way back across the yard, over the many tracks they'd made running back and forth, trying to catch or evade each other.
Reaching the porch, Seto tugged on the door. Then, again, he tried when it failed to unlatch. "It's locked," he growled. It was possible that the door had locked on its own after Mokuba went inside, but Seto had the feeling that this was Mokuba's last move in the bitter battle of the blizzard: locking himself and Kisara out
"Sneaky little boy," he heard Kisara mutter under her breath.
"More like a spoiled wretch," Seto corrected, glaring at the unyielding door, giving it a kick.
"That's not quite what I was referring to."
Looking over at her, he saw Kisara looking up at the ceiling sheltering the small porch. Looking upward as well, Seto caught sight of a bunching of plant-life that was no doubt Mokuba's idea of a joke.
Mistletoe.
December 19, 2010. 12:00 a.m.
Seto sighed. Mokuba no doubt had seen them and decided to take matters into his own hands, racing back to the house and digging out some of the mistletoe to put up, and then luring them to the door so that they would have no chance but to stand underneath the holiday plant.
"Personally, I am strongly opposed to breaking any sort of Christmas tradition," Kisara said, glancing over at Seto.
Seto looked her in the eyes, seeing that she was actually serious about this.
"And, I realize that you don't mind ignoring traditions, but maybe you should give this one a chance," she continued, turning to face him, a mischievous gleam in her eyes.
Slowly, a devilish smile came to Seto's lips. "Maybe I could."
Taking a step close to her, Seto wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close to him.
Wrapping her arms around his neck, Kisara giggled. "I never thought I'd ever have a mistletoe kiss," she murmured.
"Me neither."
Gently, Seto used his free hand to tilt Kisara's chin up. And, even more gently, Seto lowered his head, until, finally, his lips touched hers, and they kissed under the mistletoe.
Pulling away, Seto moved his lips to her ear and whispered, "Merry Christmas."
Thanks for reading! I know that the ending's somewhat abrupt, but I couldn't think of where to take it from there. Anyway, I'm going to make this into a Christmas tradition sort of thing, so it'll be updated every year.
I hope that everyone has a happy holiday season, no matter what holiday it is. And, I look forward to seeing you next year for another round!