The ride from the orphanage to Seto and Mokuba's new home was a long one. At least, to him. It was spent fretting over his younger brother and wondering how in the world he managed to get them adopted- by Gozaburo Kaiba, no less! Sure, Seto had practically forced him into it, but the man had been looking for a child to adopt anyways. Technically this arrangement was in the best interest for both parties.
"Big brother, look! That house is huge!" Mokuba said and pointed excitedly out the window. Seto looked out to find that they were pulling into the driveway of the European style mansion his younger brother was showing him. Gozaburo really must be rich! He could see a yard larger than the entire property of the orphanage, a number of fountains, and even some hedges. It really was a huge house, and it was almost to the point of being overwhelming, but Seto forced himself to keep his cool.
"Yes it is, Mokie. This is where we get to live now, remember?" Seto gently reminded his brother, "C'mon and put your backpack back on, we're going to get out soon."
He quickly helped Mokuba put his bag on before slipping on his own right as the car stopped. The door was opened for them and the brothers stepped out, while the younger of the two was holding on tightly to the elder brother's hand. Gozaburo was already waiting for them, and he stood with his hands folded behind his back, and to Seto he looked quite intimidating. His stare was piercing, almost challenging. They had only met properly once before: when Seto made the bet with him. Good to know that his now adopted father was always like this.
"It's like he's staring into my soul," Seto thought, repressing the shiver that crawled down his spine. Mokuba held on tighter to his arm in a vice-like grip. Gozaburo gave a quick order to follow him inside, and the children did so with only a moment's hesitation. Seto wondered if Gozaburo was just going to humour him for a few months, then pawn them off to some other orphanage or foster care. He didn't seem like he was happy about having them, and besides, that would technically fulfill his promise of adopting them. By then, he would have adopted them for a time, after all.
Seto was quickly distracted from these thoughts when they entered the mansion, and it was even more extravagant than he thought it would be! Not that he had the highest expectations, since living in an orphanage killed any expectations of high quality things that he couldn't even imagine obtaining in his dreams. The house was spacious, with a staircase leading to the upper floors of the mansion.
There were high quality paintings of what Seto could assume were commissioned portraits of Gozaburo on the walls. However something intrigued him about one particular portrait hanging in the hallway. It was of a mint haired boy, not much older than Seto himself, and he wondered if Gozaburo might have had a was just something about the way that the picture was hung that made the young boy interesting. A white cloth hung over the picture, in a manner that seemed like there was something about the picture that one might want to forget… but nevertheless Seto's thoughts were disrupted as he was ushered into the other parts of the house. Where there were beautiful chandeliers dangling from the ceiling, and decor of fine quality that was seen in the rest of the house like in the rooms before. Seto just hoped that he nor Mokuba ended up breaking anything.
Mokuba made his amazement obvious with a cry as they walked, "It's so pretty! Seto look!" to which Seto agreed that yes, it was pretty, then Gozaburo stopped and turned to face them. After a second of inspecting the two, he finally spoke.
"A maid will show you around and take you to your rooms. You will get yourself settled and come down to the dining room when you are ready. If there are any problems with your rooms, wait until after lunch to bring them up," He instructed. His voice held a high authority, stating this as if there was no other possible thing they might do. Seto disliked it, and could tell it scared Mokuba. He set his face and gave a curt nod, then wrapped the arm Mokuba was clinging to around his brother.
Satisfied, Gozaburo turned and left, leaving the boys to be approached by a nearby maid who silently beckoned them to follow. Seto was almost glad that his adopted father- no, his… stepfather? Yeah, his stepfather didn't bother giving them the tour. It would have been awkward and he would have to deal with that feeling of dread he got when the man stared at him. Plus, Gozaburo scared Mokuba half to death!
They were shown where the kitchen, dining room, bathrooms, and any other rooms were. Seto made mental notes of all of them so he could help Mokuba around later. The mansion was large and confusing, not the type of place he would be able to navigate yet.
The final place shown was their own bedrooms, which Seto was happy to note were across from each other. He would have hated it if Gozaburo tried to keep their rooms apart! Not to mention that he knew that Mokuba would end up having nightmares and would seek out comfort from his brother, so it wouldn't be good if their rooms were separate. After all, Mokuba could easily get lost. He also noted that they were never shown where his stepfather's room was during the tour.
The maid spoke up, "I can help Mokuba set up in his room, Master Seto-"
"-No, I can help him. I'll set up mine afterwards, you can leave." Seto didn't trust anyone here yet. The maid nodded before walking away. Not a moment later Mokuba decided he would barge into his new room and throw himself on the bed, then yelled at Seto to come sit on the bed.
"It's so soft! I love my bed, it's perfect!" Mokuba cried out with a joyus grin painted on his face. Seto laughed and sat on the bed beside Mokuba.
"Wow, it really is! Let's get your stuff put away and then we can see if mine is as good as yours!"
"Fine, but mine is better!" Mokuba retorted as he slipped off his bag and dumped the contents on the bed. While he sorted through the things for his favourite toys, Seto took a look around the room to decide where they should put everything. There was a wardrobe and dresser, so they could put the clothing in the dresser and put the really nice things in the wardrobe. The toys would probably go on the dresser until he actually needed to use the chest at the end of the bed for them. Mokuba's few books would go on the bookcase, which Seto noticed had no books on it yet.
Seto quickly got to work while Mokuba was distracted with his action figures. The clothing was folded and put in a lower drawer in the dresser (he decided that he probably would have to ask Gozaburo to get them more clothing). He also set down a few currently unused toys neatly on top of the dresser, and put the books on the shelf well within Mokuba's reach. He decided that the wall color was a bit bland (really, beige was so generic) but would hold off on that until he knew for a fact they were staying for good.
That task finished, he turned to Mokuba and got his attention.
"Hey Mokie, all your stuff is put away. Wanna go test out my bed now?"
Mokuba let out an excited cheer and rushed out of the room, toys forgotten and scattered on the floor, probably being now yet another task for some poor maid to attend to. Seto quickly placed them on the dresser out of courtesy and followed him across the hall to his own room.
He noticed that Mokuba was already bouncing on his bed, and announcing that Seto's bed wasn't as good as his own when he walked in. Seto wondered if anyone else could hear them, and hoped that Mokuba wasn't causing too much of a ruckus. After all, Gozaburo seemed like the type not to really accept and approve of such behaviors from either of them, and Seto really didn't want the man to change his mind about adopting them. Even if there had been a bet, he was sure that he could always go back on his word somehow. Then again, maybe he would really be true to his word.
However, Seto smiled, nodded, and went to go put away his own things. He didn't even know where Gozaburo was, and assumed that the mansion was large enough that Mokuba couldn't be heard. He started with the bookshelf, which he found already contained a number of books. Academic books- no, these were University books. This was a surprise, but he chalked it up to Gozaburo assuming he was naturally that intelligent. Even though he was smart, he hadn't done any college level things. Then again, when would he have ever had the option at the orphanage to? Seto took off his bag and removed the book he had in it, placed it on the shelf, and felt like it was out of place with all those hefty textbooks. It was just a book about some people going on an adventure. Fantasy, not factual.
"Big brother, your books are boring! You can read mine," Mokuba suddenly offered, looking over from the bed. Clearly he saw that they were textbooks and deemed them boring, which was understandable.
"Thanks, Mokuba, but I think I'll let you read yours. What if I'm reading one of them and you want to read it?"
"Then you can read it to me!" Mokuba proposed, a childish grin appearing on his face once more. Seto noted that he seemed to have been having more of a blast at his new home than he was, and maybe it was because he wasn't noticing things that just felt plain off around the house. After all, there were those portraits, then Seto's room having things that weren't exactly his.
But Seto couldn't help but laugh lightly at his brother's enthusiasm. Of course Mokuba would offer! But he did have a point, none of these were actually fun books to read… and neither were they his. Oh well, he would just have to try and get himself more later. But maybe he could at least learn something from these.
Next he had to put away his clothing. He didn't have any toys to bring, so he didn't need to worry about that.
"I'll put my jacket in the wardrobe and just keep everything else in the dresser…" He thought, then opened what should have been an empty wardrobe.
Except it wasn't.
It already had jackets and what looked to be a few uniforms hanging up in it, all of which he would associate with a "prissy rich kid". The type of clothing Seto found stuffy and stupid. Why did he already have clothing, not anything that he would wear, but not Mokuba? Wouldn't it be smarter to get clothing for both of them, or maybe to wait and get them both clothing at the same time?
...Why was his room already set up for him?
Confused, Seto decided to check the dresser to find that it also had clothing. And a quick look in the chest revealed a number of army based toys (which he quickly closed, he didn't want Mokuba to raid it quite yet.)
"It's like I'm using some other kid's room… No, the room of that boy in the painting. Is this his room? What happened to him that I'm using his room? Is this why Gozaburo adopted me, to be a replacement for his son?"
He didn't know how to feel about this. So instead of putting away his clothing, he took off his jacket, put it over his bag, and hid it under the bed.
"Why are you hiding it?" Mokuba questioned, startling Seto who had spaced out enough to forget that Mokuba was still there on his bed.
"I already have clothing, apparently. I'm just putting it there for now. Oh, and don't worry, I bet he's just waiting for you so you can pick out your own," Seto quickly lied. It was suspicious that he would have clothing but not Mokuba, and he knew his brother would ask about it. Mokuba seemed to accept the answer, so Seto kept talking, "Since we finished, we should go down to the dining room. I'm sure it's about lunch time now!"
"Okay, Seto! Let's get lunch!" Mokuba grabbed Seto's hand, and Seto led them to the dining hall. It was annoyingly far, but he could remember how to get there. Go downstairs, turn down that hallway- and there it was! They had passed by it earlier, but now Seto and Mokuba could really take in how huge the table was. It seemed like it could seat every person working in the mansion with room to spare!
Gozaburo was already seated at the end of the table. A lit cigar was in his mouth and even though he was across the room Seto could smell it. He decided to tug Mokuba to the other end of the table, far away from the choking stench. Gozaburo held his gaze on Seto as he sat down.
Great, he felt that feeling of dread again.
The man called over one of the servants and ordered him to bring out their lunch, a request that was fulfilled within the minute.
It turned out that lunch was oden, Seto's least favourite food. Great first impression, Mr. Kaiba. He grimaced as it was placed in front of him. Mokuba however, happily dug in the moment he could. Seto repressed the disgust at the thought of eating it and picked at some of the better parts. His taste buds protested at every bite, but he was hungry and skipped breakfast. He could tell that whoever cooked this was highly skilled, but Seto still hated the taste. He wasn't even going to bother with the egg.
The meal was eaten slowly, and by time he ate almost half, Mokuba and Gozaburo had already finished. Seto decided it wasn't worth it to keep trying to choke down the food and pushed his plate away from him.
Gozaburo raised a brow in a questioning manner, "Don't like it, boy?"
Seto suddenly felt very small under his gaze, "Not really, no. But I can still tell that it was well made."
The man's expression was unreadable, but Seto thought he saw something that was almost disappointment. But that was just ridiculous for the CEO of KaibaCorp to be disappointed over something like a kid disliking a food. He was probably just projecting his own disappointment.
Unless of course, it was connected to that mint-haired boy. But he wouldn't dare ask about him, not yet. Not obviously.
"Anyways," Seto continued, "I noticed that you haven't gotten around to getting new clothing for Mokuba yet, and that my room has a lot of university textbooks. Can you explain that for me?"
"Your brother will receive more clothing and such in three days. As for the textbooks, I have high expectations of your intellect. They are there for you to study," Gozaburo bluntly said.
What, so his step father expected him to be a child genius just because he could win at chess? Yeah, of course he was smart, but he was in grade school. He knew enough advanced things here and there to be seen as highly intelligent, but he didn't have the background knowledge for half those books. And more importantly, why did Mokuba have to wait so long? Seto frowned in thought.
"I need at least some form of high school education before I can learn from those textbooks. But nevermind that, I'm still thinking about Mokuba's lack of clothing. Can't you get him clothing faster? You're rich, you should be able to at least get someone to go get stuff for him no problem-" Seto stopped short at the sudden glare he was receiving.
"You will watch your mouth, Seto! Be grateful I even adopted you. He will get his clothing in three days time and you will not disrespect me!"
"Oh. So that's how it's going to go here. I have to study college junk and he's going to ignore what Mokuba needs." Seto didn't like that thought; he hoped that they would have been at least a little bit spoiled by the rich CEO. At the least, he hoped Mokuba would be, people looking to adopt kids always loved him. Guess Gozaburo was the exception to this, unfortunately.
"Okay, fine, sorry. I won't do that again." More like he wouldn't go asking for anything unless it was absolutely needed. He learned that lesson at the orphanage, and learned that it still applied here. Adults were always picky about whether they would care enough to supply more than the basics.
Suddenly, Mokuba tugged on his arm and whispered, "Can we go play, big brother? Please?" His younger brother looked up at him with wide pleading eyes.
"In a moment, hold on," Seto said, then turned back to Gozaburo, "is there anything else you want to tell us before we go back to our rooms?"
"Yes. First, my room will not be entered by either of you. Second, you will hold respect for me and do as I say. Third, any problem will be brought up to one of the servants. If it requires my attention they will bring it up to me. Fourth, you will be expected to wear the clothing provided," Gozaburo paused, and seemed like he was considering something, "Fifth, you may make a list of which foods you like and dislike for later. You have permission to leave now."
This seemed… Weird. The rules were pretty basic, and Gozaburo wanted Seto to make a list of what foods they liked? Okay then. Maybe he was just getting them to do that so the cook could prepare food that wouldn't be wasted. Whatever, it wasn't that big of a deal.
Seto and Mokuba rose from the table and he led his younger brother back towards their rooms.
"He's scary…" Mokuba said once they were a good distance from the dining room.
Seto nodded, "Yeah, I guess he is. But I'm sure he'll warm up to us."