Chapter 1: The Woes of a College Student or Screw English Term Papers
Mya sighed forlornly out her bedroom window as the rain pounded away at the rooftop of the Kaiba Estate. Silently she wished she could go and play in the rain as she had when she was little but sadly, being the Co-Owner of Kaiba Corp., her privacy was limited and that sort of thing was, unfortunately, frowned on in public matters. Life had been far simpler in her childhood, granted a lot less easy and laid-back. But simpler. Back then Seto smiled, and Mokuba always had both Seto and Mya to play with and to raise him. On the other hand, when the trio had been younger Mokuba was picked on, Mya got into fights on a regular basis, and Seto was always playing the hero to both of them.
Nowadays Mya still got into fights but they tended to be far enough outside of the public eye that nobody of true importance witnessed them. Occasionally there was the random school student wandering through the red-light district that would recognize Mya but for the most part they could be paid-off or would truthfully promise to keep her secret fights… well, secret. The ones that were compelled to blab often did so directly to Seto or would attempt to use it to pick on Mokuba. The latter didn't particularly work, considering Mokuba was proud to have a Big Sis who could hold her own in a fight against bullies or those stupid enough to challenge her and as such he tended to brag about his "tough-as-nails big sister who could beat the snot out of anybody's big brother". Seto was a whole different kettle-of-fish on the other hand; Mya's fights coming to his attention would result in yelling matches between them that would be preceded by Seto setting up a surprise over-night at a friend's house for Mokuba. Their fights wouldn't last long and were honestly the healthiest outlet for both sibling's pent up stress and annoyance, as well as allowing the two to be able to apologize afterward and allow the both some quiet time away from the insanity of parenting and allow them to be the angst-filled teenagers that they truly were.
Needless to say the elevated place in society was half a welcome change from having to scramble for life in the orphanage of their childhood and half a freaking nuisance that was bound to assist in trying to tear apart any well-meaning family. Between the creeping, ruthless paparazzi and the often, unfortunate ass-hat that believed he/she would be able to get away with kidnapping either Mya or Mokuba, occasionally both (exceedingly stupid on their parts, neh?), for ransom or personal causes. This happened somewhat often and undoubtedly ended unfortunately for the kidnappers.
Mya turned her gaze back to her laptop, whose screen showed her the basest element of evil, and groaned in protest. Her English term paper stared back at her unforgiving hated in its cold and dark text. Oh how she dreaded this one foreign language class. Especially the essays; which were vile enough on their own that the added element of a foreign language was simply and unnecessarily, and disgustingly, evil. She allowed her head to fall back on the pillows supporting her back as she groaned low in annoyance and frustration. She had learned almost every language with minimal to no problems besides Spanish and English. The majority of the problems she'd had with Spanish was the occasional pronunciation or grammatical error and the worst was consistently getting different words confused for one another. English was a completely different battlefield. It made absolutely no sense whatsoever; no matter how easy she'd thought it would be at the beginning the beast managed to screw over her innocent ideas of it! Hell, she'd learned the majority of African, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, and Swedish together in less than a year. This would be her 4th year trying to tame the savage beast known as English. Praise Buddha her brother Seto had learned it far better and faster than her. After this paper she was DONE with the monstrosity and she would be celebrating with a small group of friends at a local Karaoke Bar in town.
That was only if she could finish the god-awful creature on-time and adequately enough to receive a passing grade and finally get out of that class. She shifted her hips farther down the bed to find a more comfortable position, her back cracking softly as she settled down; a soft sigh escaped her lips. Mya was tempted to fall asleep then and there but the light from her laptop called her attention to back to the essay. She reached over to her nightstand and, using the dimmer draped over it, downed the lights until there was only the barest hint of a light source. Sighing quietly she leaned over the side of her bed and picked up the insulated mug of, now cool, Jasmine tea that rested there. She took a gulp and began contemplating how to continue the offending paper. She sat the room temp tea on the nightstand and dropped her arms to her sides and stared at the ceiling for a moment.
The moment passed, Mya lifted her head up to glare at the offending text document and sighed, sitting up she scratched her head. Stretching her arms up over her head as a loud crash of thunder crashed overhead causing her to jump slightly and start mentally cursing her intense dislike of the deep rumbles from the sky. Mokuba, on the other hand, would be terrified. She closed her laptop and prepared to get up to check on the child but stopped as her bedroom door opened to a pajama clad Mokuba, beginning to fuss slightly in his sleep, being carried in by Seto, still in his normal suit for work, looking slightly worn as he stepped into Mya's room. He strode over to her in his usual bold manner the somewhat tired edge in his eyes slowly vanishing as he regained his normal sense of self-preservation and dominantly confident energy. Gently he laid Mokuba on the side of her bed. Silently the two sat on the either side of the small boy, Mya running her fingers through his hair and Seto simply resting his hand on Mokuba's arm reassuringly allowing him to relax in comfort while being snugly surrounded by his stand-in parents. For a while the two sat in silence with their warm little bundle of adorable cuddled safely between them. The oldest Kaiba made a quick glance at his watch and inwardly sighed.
"I need to get back to work."
Without another word Seto stood and strode silently to the door. As he left though, he paused and looked back at his two siblings, one sleeping soundly and one watching him forlornly with her normal, silent goodbye, and his eyes softened from their cold exterior for a fraction of a moment as he looked upon the two most important people in his life. He took a breath and the steel regained its regimented place in his eyes and he quietly closed the bedroom door and walked away. Mya, used to Seto's lack of shown emotions, simply sighed, tucked Mokuba in under the covers next to her, closed her laptop and curled up beside him; quickly falling to sleep's desperate call. Her essay would have to wait until morning…
Seto shook his head to clear his thoughts as the door shut behind him. He turned away after a brief second of hesitation and began the walk to his home office, his arrogant pride returned to his stride after a short moment of regret at leaving Mya to stay the night alone with Mokuba, though she had been used to his busy schedule for a while now. He missed spending time with his two siblings, truly he did, but the company needed running and he wasn't about to let go of the life of comfort the three had fought towards for many years. Mokuba at 10 was old enough to understand that Seto had a job to do and that it kept them in a better place than most. Even Mya, as overly dramatic as she was at 17, simply sighed and went on with whatever it was she had been doing when he would leave a "family bonding moment" suddenly. "Bonding time" simply had become a thing of the past as time had worn on. All three had school, which on top of work and other such responsibilities simply overtook the hours in his day. He was aware that Mya had found time to play mother to Mokuba often, though her grades, social life and time at work had suffered greatly from it. For the most part that knowledge didn't faze him.
But occasionally it did. Sometimes he felt like the worst big brother and father figure in the world for rarely playing, eating or simply spending time with Mokuba and Mya. Sometimes he did unintentionally unreasonably stupid things like forget Mya's birthday or her early high school graduation, which was an especially stupid move. He'd never forgotten Mokuba's events...yet. And quite often, he wished he could be a better brother. For now though, he had no time for those feelings of self-loathing. He had to stay strong and fearless for the other two. He needed to not screw up the life they had. Even if it would be so then one day, one perfect day, he could make their incredibly good life absolutely perfect. One glorious day they would be able to live comfortably and securely, together, really together. Not just in the same house but having meals together, and birthdays, and concerts and recitals and just life in general. They would be a family again, one day.
That day was not today, however. And neither Seto, nor Mya, believed it would be soon, although each hoped, for each other and for Mokuba that it would be.
END CHAPTER ONE