Author's Note: Thanks to all the reviewers! xXx
Disclaimer: All characters are the brain children of Kazuki Takahashi, they do not belong to me.
Warnings: Swearing.
Summary: Seto is coaxed into accompanying his brother and Yuugi's gang on a camping trip. How will he cope with socialising around open fires, toileting in a field, skinny-dipping in the river and most nauseatingly of all, sharing a tent with a mutt?
Chapter Three
Rutting Bucks and Spindly Chairs
Katsuya hunched over the wooden kitchen table, glaring, his good wrist wrapped protectively around his bowl of sugary cereal. A pair of steely eyes framed by feathery black hair glared right back at him, just as wary. He tentatively reached for his tall glass of juice, and likewise the woman opposite took a small sip from her tea, suspicious eyes never leaving him. At that moment Ralph strolled through the large kitchen.
'Good morning, Ma'am,' he said courteously to the black haired woman, his head bowing respectfully as he passed her and stationed himself by the coffee machine.
'Morning, Ralph,' she replied. As she drained the last of her tea and leant back into her chair there came the sound of thundering footfalls from the stairs. A moment later and an unbelievably energetic Mokuba bowled into the kitchen. He bounced up to the table, hair flying wildly and face beaming brightly, as though the row between him and his brother the previous night had only been a bad dream.
'Hey Jou-kun! I'm surprised you're up in time!' His pealing laughter made Katsuya wince. He grumbled into his cereal, still staring moodily at the strange woman sat opposite him.
'Morning Auntie Mu!' Mokuba launched himself at the woman and went to peck her on the cheek, which she leant into, a serene smile on her dark lips. 'So you've met Jou-kun?'
'Hmm,' she mused. 'So that's who he is.' Her voice was smooth and elegantly deep. Her silver eyes slid to his face again, a thin black eyebrow arched. More footfalls sounded and Seto slouched into the kitchen wearing black jog pants, a white, long-sleeved t-shirt and the worst mop of ruffled hair that was easily on par with Katsuya's morning hair. Immediately, without having to be told, Ralph began to brew a large, double-shot cappuccino. He was well tuned into his master's needs. By the time Seto had made it to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair beside the Aunt, Ralph was walking over with a large, steaming mug, setting it down neatly in front of him. Then seemingly out of nowhere he produced a small plate filled with two warm croissants, complete with a ramekin of butter, an embroidered napkin and a silver knife.
'Enjoy, Master Kaiba.'
'Thanks, Ralph.'
Katsuya's eyebrows had disappeared towards his hairline. He was taken aback by what he was witnessing. He stared as Seto rubbed the morning blur from his eyes with the back of his hand, yawned widely then loomed over his cappuccino, his horrifyingly long, pale fingers curling slowly around the mug. As he lifted it to his lips his gaze wandered up. He caught sight of Katsuya, who he had sat down opposite.
'Argh!'
He startled and spat a mouthful of hot coffee over the table, spilling the rest of the mug over his thigh.
'F-fucking- fuck!'
Katsuya gasped, Mokuba and the aunt yelped whilst Ralph rushed to remedy the situation; retrieving a bag of frozen peas and pressing it firmly to Seto's burning thigh.
'Fuck!'
'Calm down, sir –'
'But Ralph!'
Seto flopped back into his chair, grinding his teeth in pain. Ralph continued to press the frozen peas against his thigh, quite calm about the whole ordeal. Katsuya wondered how many times the tall, courteous butler had to deal with these sorts of mishaps. Mokuba stood beside Seto. His hand wavered in front of him, but he seemed almost frightened to reach out and place it on his brother's shoulder. Katsuya caught sight of a fleeting splinter of grief in his grey eyes, before his hand fell to his side once more.
'Is it bad, Ralph?' Mokuba asked quietly, flicking a lock of black hair from his face.
'No,' was the serene reply. 'I'd even be so bold as to suggest that your brother is… overreacting, just a tad…'
Katsuya was stunned by the butler's gall and Seto snarled at Ralph, but said nothing. He groused and contented himself with glaring at the edge of the table, lips pursed and almost pouting in the most childish of silent tantrums. Katsuya fought a smirk. The silence was Seto's own acknowledgement of the truth in Ralph's words. He turned back to his bowl of cereal but it had gone soggy during the commotion. With a vague look of disappointment he pushed it away with his good hand before reclining in his chair. A jolt ran through his chest when he saw the Aunt staring at him intently once more. He stared back at her, before turning to address Seto, who was still pouting at the table. Ralph and the frozen peas were gone.
'Kaiba, I didn't know you had an aunt?'
Seto frowned.
'Neither did I, not until about half a year ago.' Katsuya's silent, confused face asked him to continue. 'She found us. We met. Now she lives with us.'*
The aunt turned to Seto with catlike reserve and spoke in a bored, foreign drawl.
'You're making the whole incident sound entirely uneventful, Seto.' She looked over to Katsuya from where she stood beside her nephew. 'It was tremendously emotional, and this one bawled like a baby,' she ran a hand through Seto's morning hairdo. 'And then he fell asleep in my lap–'
At these words Seto growled and lurched away from his aunt's hand as she stroked his hair. He glared at her hard for a moment, a strange mixture of fury and hurt bending his bright red face, before he turned and marched huffily out of the kitchen as best he could with a burnt thigh and with as much dignity as possible in nothing but baggy jog pants, passing Roland who had arrived in the threshold to take Mokuba to school. They each flinched as he stomped noisily up the stairs and then slammed every door he passed through on the upper floor.
Roland lifted his shades and gazed at the small gathering around the kitchen table, utterly bewildered. Mokuba looked dejected, the aunt quite smug and Katsuya as if he were about to explode, either from laughter or a mindfuck. He looked at the aunt.
'I didn't catch your name?'
She leant over the table and shook Katsuya's good hand, smirking.
'I am Muhoshi, you may call me Mu.'
'Your Auntie Mu sure likes to tease your brother!'
Mokuba was silent. He had been silent since they got into the limousine quarter of an hour ago and Katsuya knew something was bothering him. He frowned, picking at the corner of his sling, looking though his hair at the boy.
'You still down from your argument with your brother? You seemed okay when you came in the kitchen in this morning, before he got all burnt and grouchy.'
Mokuba shifted in his seat and twisted his head to hide his face behind the great curtain of black hair that fell from his shoulders.
'Mokuba, have you asked him if you can still come camping with us?'
He sagged over, gripping the edge of his seat tightly. Katsuya unbuckled his seatbelt and hoisted himself over to sit beside Mokuba and wrapped his good arm around him. He gave the boy a slight, reassuring squeeze.
'Did he say you couldn't come?'
'I don't know…' Mokuba's voice was small and hurt; he was on the verge of tears. 'I couldn't hear him last night when he was shouting at me, I was too scared of him; I just didn't hear any of the words.'
Katsuya's face was grim. He held Mokuba close to his side.
'Don't worry kiddo. I'm bunking off school today because of my arm, so I won't see your brother again today, but I'll ring him tonight and give him a good earful.'
Mokuba looked up at him. He seemed quite frightened.
'Please don't tell him!' he begged.
'Tell him what?'
'That he scared me, and that I'm still upset about it! He'll get really angry with himself, and then he'll get all awkward with me and avoid me…'
Katsuya frowned, but nodded.
'Okay, I'll only talk to him about letting you on the camping trip with me and the gang.'
He topped his words off with a mighty grin and a one-armed hug. Mokuba hugged him back tightly. The limousine came to halt outside Mokuba's school. He grabbed his bag and hopped out of the door, but before he closed it he leant in and smiled at Katsuya.
'It really shows that you're someone's big brother, Jou-kun!'
Katsuya smiled back, blushing with the lightest shade of pink.
'Where the frickin' fuck were you last night, boy?'
Katsuya flopped into his spindly chair by the kitchen table, calling back over his shoulder towards the half open bathroom door, where his father was in the tub.
'I stayed around someone else's house.'
'Why didn't you call?'
'I got hurt, look –' Katsuya left the chair and entered the bathroom, holding his sling up as best he could, looking proud as though he was showing off a medal of honour. 'It got sprained after I fell down some stairs at work. My boss took me to his private doctor, so I got free meds!'
'Your boss?' Katsuya's father leaned forward in the bath tub, the vast amount of bubbles shifting and squelching. 'You mean Kaiba Seto? Do you mean you stayed around his house last night? His fucking manor?'
'Yeah, it was awesome!' Katsuya paused. 'There was a phone in the room I was put in, but Kaiba was really grumpy and was probably looking for any excuse to get me out of his home, so I didn't dare use it…'
His father nodded, lathering up his arms with a soapy flannel.
'Still can't get over the fact that he's going on your merry little arsewipe of a camping trip next week, I mean, can you imagine the Kaiba Seto in a tent? Haha, shitting in a field like a gypsy!'
'Dad!' Katsuya cried in exasperation from where he had seated himself on the toilet lid. He tutted and shook his head. 'Anyway, I don't think he's going. Or Mokuba for that matter. Turns out Mokuba did a sneaky and just pretended that Kaiba was letting him come and that Kaiba was gonna come too. I don't quite know what the kid thought was gonna happen when the time came to actually leave for the trip but oh well, I opened my damn mouth and blew it all. They had a massive row about it last night when the doc was sorting me out. Mokuba was still kinda torn up this morning…'
Katsuya looked thoughtful for a moment. His father splurged a great handful of shampoo into his hand and worked it into his scant amount of hair. Jounouchi stared.
'Dad! I'm the one with hair in this place, what the Hell are you using so much frickin' shampoo for?'
His father looked at him, clueless. He shrugged and continued to rub shampoo over his large bald patch.
'Urgh! Whatever Dad. I gotta call Kaiba and speak to him about the trip anyway, I promised Mokuba I'd do my best to persuade him from the decision he made last night. I guess it might have helped if I had asked Mokuba for his brother's personal number –'
At that moment the phone rang, it's shrill, half-tuned shriek disturbing the otherwise peaceful flat.
'Get the phone, boy. And if it's for me, I'm out.'
Katsuya nodded and shifted from the bathroom to answer the phone. Entering the kitchen once more he returned to the old spindly chair and picked up the receiver from its cradle beside the salt and pepper cellars, which Katsuya had cannily stolen from the K.C. cafeteria.
'Yeah.'
'Jounouchi residence?'
'Kaiba?'
'I'm on my way to your place to speak to you about Mokuba's… incident.'
Katsuya snarled into the receiver, his short fuse now fractured. 'You mean the trip? And why the Hell do you have to come to my flat, why can't we just speak on the phone about it?'
'Because having me in your flat will intimidate you, which means I'll probably get my own way.'
Katsuya's father padded into the kitchen with a towel around his waist, dripping wet and looking curious about the conversation. Katsuya waved an absent hand at him to keep the silence.
'Get your own way about what? I figured you didn't really want to go camping last night when you freaked out at your brother!'
Seto remained silent on the other end of the line. Katsuya growled.
'Gah! When the fuck are you getting here, anyway?'
Ding dong.
Katsuya froze. Seto's end of the line had gone dead and he would bet his last tattered leaf of cash that it was him on the other side of the door, pressing the doorbell relentlessly.
Ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong…
Katsuya rounded on his half naked father, wild panic in his eyes, crushing the receiver back into place.
'Dad!' he hissed. 'Go and get dressed for fuck's sake! And don't come out of your bedroom until the fucker leaves!'
His father nodded, a similar panic in his eyes, before scurrying down the corridor and disappearing through a door on the left, nearly losing his towel on the way.
Ding dong ding dong ding dong…
'God, that knobhead–'
He rushed to the front door, cursing loudly as he knocked his sprained arm on the doorframe. He flung the door open with his good arm, poised like a sorely provoked bull.
Ding–
'Stop that! Get off the fucking doorbell, Kaiba!'
–dong…
Seto sneered broadly before sweeping uninvited through the door and past Katsuya, making sure to knock into his sprained arm with a bony elbow. He glanced around, assessing his surroundings. He saw a small living room, well enough kept, a cushion littered the floor as well as a crisp packet and some DVD cases, the sofa throws were messed up, but all in all it looked fairly respectable, for a bonkotsu anyway. Further along the corridor to his right there was a long kitchen. He moved into it, glancing around with narrow eyes. There were several dirty plates by the sink, a window let in scarce amounts of light but a small yellow bulb served its purpose well. The cupboards were plain and the fridge was cramped with as many photographs, letters of absence from the school, bills and tacky magnets as possible. Seto raised a thin eyebrow before elegantly seating himself in a spindly, mismatched chair by the kitchen table.
'I see you've recovered from your little burn Kaiba, and your silly temper tantrum.' Silence. 'That's my chair, dickface.'
Seto remained placid and smug, as catlike and aloof as his taunting Auntie Mu, crossing one knee over the other and smoothly spreading an arm wide to rest on the tabletop. He spotted the K.C. cafeteria salt and pepper cellars on the table and cocked his head in a mock desire for an explanation.
Katsuya glowered at the blatant invasion of his territory. He slowly advanced towards Seto, never breaking eye contact. The cold, blank blue deterred him little. He halted before the arrogant intruder, glaring down upon him, knowing that every flex of his muscle, every twitch of his foot, every clench of his jaw and every blink of his eyelid was being analysed meticulously. This was no more than the calm before the rutting of two bucks. Katsuya knew this game well; he played it often with his father. A subtle battle between them ensued every time their eyes met, the fight for alpha leadership over the household never ceasing. Katsuya would not play this round with his new opponent so subtly.
He made a deliberate display of fist and jaw clenching, before pulling himself back and glaring along his shoulder at the floor, as though he had decided a violent cause would not be the best idea, as though he had backed down and silently handed dominance of the immediate situation to Seto. Katsuya saw Seto shift in his chair slightly, sitting straighter, head held a little higher.
His bluff had succeeded.
SMACK!
Katsuya mustered every droplet of strength in his body and through his good arm he landed the force upon the porcelain cheekbone of his adversary with one, almighty backhand. Seto reeled and crashed to the floor, both his own spindly legs and those of the chair jabbing accusingly at the white ceiling. He quickly scrambled to his feet, his face flushed and furious.
'Do you realise that you have just deliberately displayed an act of physical violence upon your superior? Did you forget that I am your employer? That I'm your fucking boss?'
Katsuya stood his ground, but inside his guts churned for all his rising panic. Perhaps it hadn't been a good idea, animalistic instincts and old-time rivalries aside. They stood in silence for a fleeting moment, glaring at each other. They were both breathing heavily like racehorses. Once more the stifling stench of testosterone filled the area, pulsating through the air like a hot, toxic essence.
'I was meant to call you about Mokuba myself,' Katsuya ground from behind gnashing teeth. His tone was acidic. 'I guess you beat me to it.'
Seto's face had set like stone, he remained silent.
'I don't know what you were shouting at him last night. I don't think Mokuba knows what you were saying either, I guess pure terror makes you deaf as well as immobile.'
A ferocious, warning glare greeted him at these words. Seto's face was laced with wholesome loathing and murderous intent. Katsuya's confidence buckled slightly when he saw the crystal blue of Seto's eyes visibly swoop to the dark, stony tint of dead, popping veins. His voice was arctic.
'Elaborate.'
'You scared your little brother shitless, Kaiba.' Spittle flew from Katsuya's mouth and he shouted. 'He was shaking in the car this morning, nearly crying. All he wanted to fucking do was go on holiday with his friends and honourable fucking Nii-sama.'
Seto's eyes popped and he shouted something unintelligible. Swiftly he regained his composure and raked his claws through his hair, pacing to the end of the kitchen and then back, angular like a wild animal that wants nothing more than to pounce on the untouchable, a cat which knows it cannot kill its master's canary. Seto was quite capable of killing a man with a single blow, but he had deducted that someone else was lingering elsewhere in the household. His current object of loathing had too many friends, was too loud and extrovert to simply slip into the missing persons files.
He paused in front of the fridge, gazing blindly at the door's contents. Katsuya watched him, his brow furrowed.
'Shit, Kaiba. Mokuba certainly had the right mind. You need a holiday. You look like a microwaved corpse.'
Seto half looked at him over his shoulder. His entire presence seemed deflated. He spoke in a raspy, tired voice. It was as though an infection had spontaneously leapt into his voice box.
'I actually came to let you know that I have decided to allow Mokuba to accompany you on your camping trip, and that I want all the details, dates, contact numbers… until you decided to go all caveman on me.'
Katsuya was taken aback.
'Uh, well it's Thursday today,' he muttered. 'We leave by train on Sunday… are you coming too?'
Seto turned fully to look at Katsuya.
'What?'
'I meant what I said, Kaiba. You really do look like you need a break from it all. It's fun to punch you, but the guys and I do worry about you… well, sometimes. Occasionally. Y'know, when we see you on the T.V. and stuff –'
Seto stared at him.
'Come on! Camping's great fun! We're going to Honda's dad's farm, down south a little. He's got a river though his land, we're gonna camp by it. It'll be great! Swimming, open fires, booze…'
'Booze?'
Katsuya stuttered. 'Uh…'
'Well in that case I'm definitely coming – there's no way I'd let Mokuba go near that shit without someone to protect him.'
Katsuya wondered why he didn't just change his mind and not let Mokuba go after all. He quelled his curiosity. 'Honourable fucking Nii-sama indeed. Well in that case Mr Rich Knickers I will write down all the details you need to know about train times et cetera on this attractive post-it note here, and then you can kindly get the Hell out of my home before I feel like I have to deck you to the floor again.'
Seto bared his teeth. 'Yeah thanks for that one Dog Breath, now I have a fat bruise on my face.'
He shuffled over and loomed distractingly behind Katsuya as he scribbled down all the details on the small, yellow piece of paper. Seeing that the note was finished he snatched it from under Katsuya's nose and marched out of the kitchen towards the front door. Without a word he briefly glanced back at Katsuya before slipping away, gently clicking the door shut behind him.
Katsuya's father emerged tentatively from his room, donning a suitable outfit and a befuddled face. He approached his son, his eyes asking something along the lines of 'what the fuck just happened?'
Katsuya just shook his head and pushed the thumb and forefinger of his good hand into his aching sinus.
DING DING DING DING DONG!
'KAIBA!'
*Auntie Mu and the events which surround her return into Seto's life are detailed in my first ever Yu-Gi-Oh fic, 'Brown Paper Parcel'. It is dire need of revision but if you want to better understand who she is and where she came from, you make want to read it but I suppose it isn't entirely necessary. All of my Yu-Gi-Oh fics are related to one another and events that occur within them are considered canon within other fics.
Author's Note: Looooool Seto's such a jerkish little kid. He never grew up really… I hope you liked that chapter, it feels like it goes on forever. I'm sorry about how long it took to update, I'm nearing the end of college and everything is so hectic.
So yeah, review or Jou will backhand you, and then Seto will beat you to death with that spindly chair! I generally consider 10 reviews per chapter an indication of a good fiction so, if you have read this please leave your thoughts! It would be nice to have 10 reviews before I upload the next chapter!
Author's Note (6-Feb-11):This chapter has been revised to eliminate spelling/grammar mistakes and general typing errors. Some paragraphs and sentences have been cut-down or extended to improve the flow of the narrative.
