.
Chapter 2: Enter Stage Left
..
"How long do you think you'll be, Seto?"
Mokuba Kaiba's voice filled his brother's private dressing room easily, warm and lively though also animated by an uncharacteristic note of reluctance. There was no hint of unease in his posture though, as he'd spent enough time lounging around this room over the years to have long since gotten over the rigorous personal space boundaries Seto was always setting up for other people.
Seto Kaiba, crown prince of Domino, shrugged on a white dress shirt with ease.
"No more than three days. I intend to make sure Leichter understands his place, and then when he's appropriately cowed I'll be back on the first flight I can catch."
Long, elegant fingers deftly pressed buttons into their proper places as unreadable blue eyes regarded themselves absently in the mirror. Seto Kaiba was not especially vain, but he understood the power and the politics of appearance better than most and he was never above exploiting anything that could give him the edge on an opponent.
Mokuba simply sighed loudly, dropping rather melodramatically into a handy plush chair. He twisted his mouth into a crooked line that made an admirable attempt at being a cross between a pout and a glare.
"I don't see why you have to go. Isn't that what the ambassador is for? Besides, if anyone is going to go in person it should be dad."
Seto, as usual, made no reaction to his younger brother's rather heavy-handed remarks. Instead he merely adjusted his collar before reaching for the navy blazer lying neatly folded on the desk to his right. After a moment of silence had passed he glanced toward his brother's reflection.
"This is a very particular situation. As you know." The rebuke was subtle but felt nonetheless, and Mokuba huffed a little with a dirty look to his brother before sprawling back on the chair even more ridiculously. It wasn't that he didn't understand, just that he didn't like it.
"I know, but I worry about you, big brother. I hate it when you have to go there. Can't I at least come with you?"
"No."
Of course. Typical Seto answer. Mokuba rolled his eyes while his brother carefully donned the blazer, quickly smoothing the crisp lines.
"Fine. I had other plans anyway."
Seto didn't so much as blink in curiosity, much to Mokuba's irritation. He loved his brother more than anyone in the world and he understood Seto better than anyone too, but that didn't mean that his brother didn't occasionally drive him mad.
"Aren't you at least going to ask who I'm spending my time with? Make sure I'm not consorting with bandits and ruffians?"
"No," Seto simply answered again, his cold eyes quickly turning to Mokuba's own as he pivoted away from the mirror. "You're old enough to make your own decisions, and to accept the consequences."
"Fine, I guess I'm going out for beers tonight then," Mokuba retorted back, not able to smother the smile that tugged its way up to his lips. He was dreadfully bad at staying angry at anyone, and Seto most of all.
His brother snorted (his version of an irritated laugh) and shook his head slightly. Mokuba had to admit that with the tall, sharp figure his brother cut, he could probably intimidate ninety percent of people into the ground with only a simple stare. Too bad his brother was flying to Mikenno to meet with one of the craziest people on this side of the Atlantic. Mokuba sighed again and pushed himself rather haphazardly out of the chair so that he could stand too.
"I get it, Seto. Just don't let any of the Big Five push you around, okay? Not that you ever do," he amended quickly. His brother simply nodded. "Alright, alright, I'll let you go. But just so you know, I'm going to have a picnic with a new friend I met and some of his friends. It should be awesome. I'm pretty sure he's a convicted murderer."
Mokuba winked floridly as he moved to the door, only giving his brother time to roll his eyes.
"Have a good trip, big brother. I'll see you when you get back!" And with that he was gone, leaving Seto Kaiba standing in the sudden stillness, contemplating just how much trouble his brother could get himself into in three days' time. The answer was undoubtedly a lot. It wasn't that he didn't trust Mokuba, but simply that he trusted almost no one else. Despite his brother's many exhortations on the subject he was almost inevitably proved right.
Moving silently to the narrow oak desk in the corner of the room, Seto picked up his personal blackberry lying on the table surface. In less than two seconds the phone was at his ear, and the line ringing.
A beat, and then –
"Your Highness."
"I've told you not to call me that, Roland."
"Yes sir, precisely 93 times."
"Oh good. Maybe when I reach one hundred you'll finally listen to me."
"Maybe, sir. I suppose the world does work in mysterious ways."
The prince inhaled and fought the urge to rub the bridge of his nose.
"Nevermind. I need you to keep a particularly sharp watch on my brother while I'm away."
"Of course, sir. Is there anything specific I should be vigilant for?"
"He's spending time with new company. One individual in particular… he's been to see him or her three times this week already. Probably a girlfriend. I expect a full background report on everyone concerned waiting on my desk by the time I return."
"Certainly, sir. I'll take care of it personally."
"Thank you, Roland. Have a pleasant weekend."
"You too, sir."
The line went dead, and Seto Kaiba quickly moved to end the call as well. There wasn't much time left and still many things to do before he would be on his way. In six hours he would be on the ground in Mikenno once again, and before that he still had several things to see to, as well as a final briefing with his father. That was of less importance, however.
First he had his own plans to make.
Strolling along the side of Karim Park, Joey Wheeler was pretty damn certain that this was just about the best goddamn time of year. As the gold August sun baked down from above, an easy breeze came up from the south, stirring the grass and lightening the air. Joey grinned to himself and broke into a whistle.
The unfortunately-almost-as-tall-as-him royal squirt meandering along beside him started to laugh before running his fingers through a tangle in his unruly black hair.
"Joey, you suck at whistling. Isn't that the song that never ends?"
"An' it goes on and on my friends?" Joey shot back, chipper as ever. His large grin and infectious good humour were the two things Mokuba liked best about him, and between the two of them nothing ever managed to stay serious for a period of time longer than approximately thirty seconds.
"Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was," Mokuba informed Joey with the most mournful solemnity that he could possibly manage. "And, tragically, they'll continue singing it forever just because…"
For a moment they stared at each other in a contest of melancholy faces until, of course, the two of them cracked up almost simultaneously. Joey promptly whacked Mokuba in the shoulder with unnecessary cheer.
"Aren't you too young to know what that shit is?"
"Duh, Youtube," Mokuba answered with a grandiose shrug. The two of them continued to snicker as they walked under the fringe of trees that bordered this part of the park.
"So where are your friends meeting us?" Mokuba brought himself around to asking, his curiosity getting the better of him. "You already told me all about Yugi, but what are the rest of them like? I mean, just in case you're friends with a bunch of convicted felons or something. I don't want Special Services showing up, it's been almost a week since my last bloodbath and I want to beat my record," he joked with amusement swimming in his eyes.
"Pretty sure I'm the most disreputable of the bunch," Joey informed him with a smirk. "Unless Tristan's made another pass at my sister, in which case I can GUARANTEE you I'm the most disreputable an' bloodthirsty."
"Oh, so that's how it is?"
"Nah, but seriously, they're all really good guys. I already told you about Yug', he's a real good friend of mine and I bet you'll love him. Téa's his girfrien- shit, sorry, fiancé, and she's kinda bossy but y'know, women." Joey shrugged as if to express the weight of the world on his shoulders. "An' Tristan, well, he's been my best bud since we were little kids, and even though I'm probably gonna kill him I love that dude.
"Ryou and Duke are the other two. Ryou's real quiet but he's fun when you get him going, and Duke…" Here Joey made a face, eliciting a snort of laughter from his younger friend. "Duke is Duke, and also probably on my hit list. Lucky for him Yugi likes 'im enough for both of us."
"Sounds colourful. You sure they won't mind me crashing your picnic?"
"Not a bit!" Joey replied with a huge smile. "Speak a' the devils, I think that's Yug' an' Téa now... Hey, Yug', over here!"
"Joey, hey! Over this way, Téa!" came the resulting yelp of greeting, and Mokuba watched with crossed arms and an expectant grin as two figures came into view.
One of them was another man, probably about the same age as Joey (21, he'd learned, although neither Joey nor this new guy really looked it) although much shorter than both of them. He had wild, spiked hair in multiple colours, and as he jogged closer – tugging the second figure, his fiancé along – Mokuba quickly noted his open expression and easy laughter. Téa, the woman, was taller than Yugi by half a head, and she was smiling at both Yugi and Joey with genuine warmth as she allowed herself to be towed along.
"Hey you two," Joey greeted them with a grin. Yugi, who'd been carrying a rather large cooler, dropped it on the ground with a pleased smile as he came to a stop in front of his waiting friend. He quickly turned to include Mokuba in his greeting as well.
"Hi Joey, I'm sorry we're late. You must be Mokuba." Yugi offered a hand, and Mokuba took it without hesitation. He instantly liked the firm handshake and the confident way Yugi stood, somehow managing to seem taller than his height. There was a sharpness and a joyfulness about his eyes that was almost magnetic.
"Yugi, right? It's nice to meet you," Mokuba replied honestly. "And you too, Téa." He reached over and shook her hand as well, which she received with a warm hand of her own and a little blush accompanying her smile.
"Your Highness," she replied back, a little twinkle of mirth in her eyes as she said it. Oh yes, he was going to like these people just fine. Then again he probably should have known; Joey Wheeler definitely wasn't the type to keep people around who weren't totally awesome.
Groaning and scrunching his nose to make a face, Mokuba glared at his friend.
"Joey, you told me they wouldn't call me that."
"Yep, I lied," Joey replied cheerfully, moving over to give Yugi a quick half hug, and then a similar one to Téa. Yugi just laughed, with Téa quickly chiming in.
"Sorry about that, it's just hard to get over the fact that Joeyis friends with a prince."
"Hey, what's that supposed ta' mean?" Joey demanded, trying to look offended and failing miserably.
"Well, you're just not very… royal," Téa pronounced, suppressed laughter animating her face. "But it's okay, Joey, we love you anyway."
"Hmph." Joey mimicked Mokuba's earlier stance and folded his arms, also adopting a forced pout. "Some friends you guys turn out to be, makin' fun a' me in front of my new pal here,"
"You'd think you'd be used to it by now," interrupted a new voice from somewhere to the right. Everyone's heads quickly turned to look. "Seeing as how you can't keep from making a fool out of yourself every two minutes without our help."
The brunet standing about ten feet away with his hands on his hips and a challenging smirk was flanked by two others, one a shorter man with black hair and vivid green eyes (that he was currently in the process of rolling), and the other a very soft looking young man with shockingly white hair and a regretfully amused look on his face.
"Tristan! Why I oughtta…"
Before Mokuba could blink Joey had taken off towards the brunet (Tristan, he assumed) and was bee-lining for him with a loud growl. Tristan apparently had anticipated this reaction, because almost as soon as Joey had started running for him he'd turned to make a getaway. It was obvious which one was the faster of the two though because Tristan only made it a few steps before Joey was on top of him – literally. He'd jumped onto the back of his fleeing friend and was doing his best to punch him in the shoulder as they both toppled towards the ground amidst helpless laughter from everyone watching.
Yugi, who didn't even bother to keep the smiling affection off of his face, glanced over to Mokuba.
"You'll have to forgive them. They've been friends since they were six and their favourite way of showing it is by hurting each other."
Mokuba's answering laugh was both surprised and real.
"I don't understand even a little bit, but I think I like it."
"That's good," Téa told him archly, "because I don't think they plan to stop anytime soon."
There was a muffled yelp from the heap that was Joey and Tristan as one of them seemed to have grabbed the other by the hair.
"I say we ignore them and get this picnic started. C'mon! You have to come and meet Duke and Ryou."
Yugi grabbed his over-sized cooler again and the three of them trudged down the incline towards where the other two newcomers were standing, watching the pitched battle with an arched eyebrow (Duke) and a slowly shaking head (Ryou).
"Hi guys!" Yugi greeted, finally averting his eyes from his battling friends. "It's good to see you. Especially you, Duke, I haven't seen you in a while."
"Yeah, well, you know. Keeping busy," Duke replied breezily, using one hand to effortlessly brush dark hair behind his ear. "You should come by once in a while and then it wouldn't be so long."
"You know he can't." Téa playfully smacked him in the arm and received a glower for her trouble. "You're the one who put those stupid conflict of interest rules in place, so don't start getting on Yugi's case."
"Obviously he should just come and work for me," was Duke's easy answer, although he ducked his head slightly and winked almost too fast to catch in Yugi's direction as he did so. "Then – problem solved."
"Oh get over it, Duke," Yugi told him with a grin. "I'm too good for you anyway. Now stop being rude and say hello to Mokuba, Joey's friend."
Striking green eyes blinked once in Mokuba's direction from a suddenly blank face.
"…Joey wasn't kidding? Whoa, I uh."
An extremely pale hand landed lightly on Duke's shoulder as Ryou, the last one of the group, gave his friend a reproving glance.
"Don't be formal, this is Joey's friend." Stepping forward, Ryou offered his hand to shake, and he smiled as Mokuba accepted and shook it. He came across almost as sweet as he looked, his lightly accented voice pleasant. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mokuba. I'm Ryou Bakura, and this here is Duke Devlin."
"Pleased to meet you," Mokuba informed him jovially. "It's kind of crazy meeting all of these new people at once. I mean I'm pretty used to it, but the people I meet are usually kinda stiff. So it's really nice to meet Joey's friends and I hope you guys don't mind me tagging along on your picnic. Joey said you wouldn't, but if you do…"
"Nah, they don't mind a bit. Knowing Yug', he probably packed enough to feed an extra five people, so don't worry about that."
Joey sauntered back over to the group – while Tristan brushed himself off in the background – and stopped beside Yugi, putting one hand teasingly on top of his friend's head. Yugi just smiled up at him, apparently not deterred in the slightest.
"Of course!" he agreed. "Some of it's still in the car, though, so someone is going to have to go and get the rest of it."
"Someone?" Téa asked with a little smile. "More like all of them. Don't think I didn't see you putting that stuff in the trunk."
"I nominate Tristan!" Joey proclaimed loudly, and promptly had a twig thrown at his head.
"Whatever," Tristan told him with as much condescension as he could manage. "Yougo do the menial work. Thanks to your lunatic ways I haven't gotten to meet our newest best buddy here, so go make yourself useful while I do some schmoozing."
Duke rolled his eyes again in what was apparently his signature expression.
"Both of you losers go open the car. That's what we keep you around for anyway."
"Wrong," Téa said firmly, one hand on her hip. "That's what all three of you are for. Now go make yourselves useful while these three help me set up." She handed the car keys very decisively to Joey and pointed in the direction of the street to the east. "Go."
With a collective sigh and a muttered told ya' she's bossyfrom Joey, the three friends set out to find the car and the rest of the supplies. Téa, in the meantime, slid the small backpack on her back off and moved to unzip it.
"Here guys, help me lay this out." Extracting a very carefully folded sheet from the bag, Téa held it up and began to shake it out. Yugi quickly reached to catch the far end as it tumbled down to the grass, and he and Téa shared a private smile. Ryou, nodding in a friendly way to Mokuba, inclined his head towards the couple.
"I think we should probably help before Téa finds something else for us to do. Don't you agree?"
"And how!" Mokuba replied fervently, hurrying forward to help stretch out the pale blue sheet and lower it down to the warm, dry grass. He couldn't help but watch the others curiously as they carefully straightened the folds.
"What is it you do, Yugi?"
"Oh, I'm a programmer!" Yugi looked up at him, seemingly surprised by the interest. "I work on games, mostly. Nothing very important."
"Oh, you're always so modest," Ryou told his friend. He too looked towards Mokuba. "In fact Yugi is one of the top programmers in the world. He's the one largely responsible for Dragon's Flight V, and Kame Games surging back to the top of the industry."
Mokuba stared for a moment with his mouth slightly open.
"What? Really! That's one of my all-time favourite games!"
"Hey, that wasn't just me-!" Yugi tried to insist, but Téa shushed him quickly with a laugh.
"It was pretty much all him. You wouldn't believe how many nights I had to bring him dinner when he was finishing the character model for Atem."
"Well it was worth it, wasn't it?" Yugi retorted, giving her a pained look. "He's the main character after all. It had to be just right."
Shaking her head fondly, Téa stepped back from the sheet on the ground for a moment to survey the job properly done.
"Whatever you say, Yugi." She turned her smile to Mokuba and Ryou before moving forward again and carefully kneeling down on the soft-looking material. "He's a bit of a work-a-holic, but it could be worse I guess. At least he had the good sense to tell Duke there was no way he'd work on projects for him too."
Following Téa's example, Mokuba cheerfully sat down, putting his hands in the grass behind him and leaning back a little.
"Duke makes games too?"
"Yes," Ryou confirmed, taking a seat close by. "He's actually the head of Black Clown Games. It's a company he started in high school, and although they specialize in table-top gaming, Duke's pushing to try to break into electronic games as well."
"There are just so many possibilities!" Yugi chimed in as pulled his cooler over and tugged off the cover. "I don't blame him. I just think his team is going to make great games all on their own. They don't need me."
Mokuba whistled slightly and tilted his head to give Yugi a curious stare.
"You guys did all that already? That's crazy! And Joey has his own store, too... Now I feel like the underachiever." He laughed.
"It's true they all worked hard..." Ryou spoke up again. "Joey started that store thanks to the property his dad left him, but he's making it work all on his own. And as for Yugi, well..."
Yugi blushed a little and busied himself with pulling out different things from the cooler. It was hard not to be distracted by the variety of delicious looking things appearing on the blanket, but Mokuba tried to focus on Yugi himself. Téa, smiling, intervened.
"Yugi did his bachelor's degree in programming in two years, and he was hired right out of school. It's enough to make you jealous, right? I'm just an intern at the local paper."
"Téa!" Yugi exclaimed, looking up hurriedly. "You're doing great and you love your job! Why would you be jealous?"
With a laugh Téa leaned forward and threw her arms around Yugi in a quick hug which he returned after a moment, grinning bashfully from ear to ear. Mokuba found that he couldn't help smiling right along with them, despite the fact that he wasn't really directly included. Their happiness was just sort of... contagious. Maybe he should drag Seto along sometime. Which reminded him...
"My brother did his degree in two years too, you know. At the University of Domino. Which is awful, because now I'll never live up to that." Mokuba grimaced at no one in particular.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Your brainiac brother doesn't know lots of things, so I wouldn't worry."
Joey's voice floated over to the seated four, and Mokuba looked up to see the other three trudging in their direction, each laden with a variety of packages and containers.
"Oh gosh, Téa, you weren't kidding," Ryou murmured, though he made absolutely no move to get up and help and instead ventured a teasing grin at Joey, Tristan and Duke. Yugi, on the other hand, immediately jumped up and jogged over to grab a pile of paper plates and cups from Tristan.
"Psh, Seto knows more than you ever will," Mokuba called back playfully. He was rather enjoying the way Joey couldn't quite keep the cutlery balanced on top of the stack of small boxes he was carrying.
"You would say that," was Joey's retort as he concentrated very hard on getting everything over in one piece. Téa, taking pity, got up and went to assist him.
It didn't take long for them to get everything set down and for everyone to find themselves a place to sit. Joey sat down next to Yugi and across from Mokuba who smirked at him while his obviously hungry friend rustled through the various delicacies Yugi had obviously both bought and made.
"Geeze, Yugi, you'd think you were going to feed an army," Tristan proclaimed as he piled a plate high with sandwiches, devilled eggs, salad, fruit, garlic bread and a couple of pastries on top for good measure.
"Between you and Wheeler it's about the same thing, so I guess he got it right," Duke shot back, locating the large container of strawberries and helping himself.
Joey's mouth was too full to retort, but the glare on his face said most of it for him. Mokuba did his best not to snicker too loudly but still managed to earn himself a baleful stare anyway. After a moment when Joey had managed to swallow, he gave everyone his most cheesy smile.
"I bet ya' anything Pri- I mean your brother is probably eatin' at a fancy table and having a ritzy, boring time right now. I totally know better than him."
Mokuba, trying not to think too hard about what his brother was actually doing right now, rolled his eyes.
"He's actually on a diplomatic trip to Mikenno, for your information. So don't say anything bad about him, okay?"
"Oh, none of us would anyway," Téa reassured him gently. "Joey just likes to say dumb things that he thinks will get him attention."
"Yeah, especially if they're about a certain Prince," Tristan added with a sneaky grin in Joey's direction.
"Hey, what!" Joey looked mildly scandalized. "I like to follow politics, alright? What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing, Joey. You just cut out an awful lot of articles is all," Ryou told him.
"I like ta' use scissors! It's what I do! Give me a break, guys. This is real embarrassing." Joey had in fact turned bright red, and Mokuba had to do his best not to laugh at his friend's expense, even if he didn't entirely understand the joke.
"Okay, you like politics. So what do you think about Seto?"
"Wha- what kinda question is that!"
Mokuba laughed loudly and so did most of the rest of the group. Leaning forward in order to hook the bag of fresh bread rolls closer and extract one for himself, Mokuba just busied himself with taking a bite and relaxing in the sunshine. He was quite certain that it was impossible to not love making Joey Wheeler squirm.
"I asked what you think about Seto! It's not that complicated a question, Joey. Or did I use too many big words again?" Mokuba's grin couldn't have been any bigger if he'd tried, and Duke laughed louder at that than he had at anything else. Joey just growled loudly, causing the younger boy to start to laugh again.
"No good royal twerp, don't know why I let ya' hang around."
"Hey now, Joey," Tristan interceded, after polishing off a danish. "Don't go being rude to our new friend here. We'd hate to have to ask you to leave." Snickering, Mokuba nodded.
"Yeah! And anyway it's because I'm adorable," Mokuba informed Joey helpfully. "Now answer the question!"
Yugi watched the exchange with a knowing smile, and said nothing. Téa's hand found his and squeezed it gently while Joey continued to glower at everyone like a thunderhead.
"Geeze, arright already!" Joey held up his hands as though to show his surrender, although he was still glaring in that way he had that meant he was only playacting being annoyed. "What do I think o' your snobby-ass brother? Well…"
"Hey!" Mokuba retorted with a snort.
"Don't ask if you don't want to hear the answer," Joey informed Mokuba airily, making a show of crossing his arms and raising his chin. Since he was currently sporting a dusting of what looked like powdered sugar on his cheek, it didn't add much to his air of credibility. Mokuba, who was fairly certain he de-aged a couple of years for every day he spent around the ridiculous tailor, stuck his tongue out.
"Seto's doing the best job he can. And even though he doesn't care about the critics, he really doesn't need any more."
"That's for sure," Ryou murmured quietly, and Joey nodded grudgingly too after a moment.
"Yeah, I know, trust me. Ya'd think none of the fucking journalists in the damn country ever heard of cuttin' a guy a break."
"Probably because they haven't," Téa agreed wryly. "Take it from me, anything that guy does is instant fodder for the gossip columns. I've had to copy edit three stories about who he mightbe having lunch with in the last week alone."
"Right!" Mokuba agreed quickly, his smile becoming a little bit sad. "It's always either serious news items about how he's doing everything wrong or it's teen gossip magazines talking about how he's the most eligible bachelor on this side of the planet."
Tristan snorted a laugh.
"Right, 'cause I can totally picture your brother shacking up with a girl who got romance advice from Teen Scream."
"Or, ya know, anybody. Are you sure he ain't a robot?" Joey added with a wicked smirk and an eyebrow that definitely didn't know its place.
"Joey!" Ryou exclaimed. Mokuba, however, just began to laugh loudly and then quickly covered his mouth in repentance, tossing a glare in his friend's direction.
"He's not a robot. At least I'm pretty sure. You know, 65%"
Joey laughed again and put his plate down before stretching his hands in the air above his head, allowing his shirt to ride up a little before pulling it back down.
"Speak a' the devil, are you sure your brother's not gonna have some muscle show up here and kill me for kidnapping ya' or something? I mean you've been hanging out a lot lately," Joey asked curiously, trying very hard not to cast a wary eye towards the tree line in the distance.
"He's not gonna do anything," Mokuba replied confidently with a little wave of a hand. "It's kind of a deal we have. Dad worked out that agreement with the media when big brother was going to school, you know, asking that nobody follow him around all the time and stuff while he was trying to just learn. And now it's pretty much the same with me. And Seto and I agreed when I got my bike that I should just live my life as normally as possible while I'm at school, so he doesn't really pry very much."
Apparently unable to help himself, Joey peered at Mokuba curiously and tried to picture a world in which Prince Seto fucking Kaiba wouldn't pry into his little brother's comings and goings. Duke was the one to voice the thought, however.
"Yeah? I always had him pegged as a total control freak."
"Well, duh," Mokuba smirked back at him. "He's probably the biggest control freak alive. But he values his privacy a lot and I think he wants me to be able to have that too."
"Of course," Yugi agreed with a smile. "He obviously trusts you a lot, Mokuba, and I'm sure he knows what he's doing."
"Either that or we're going to walk into the store and find Joey's body one of these days," Téa philosophized, pressing her lips together quickly to hide her grin.
"And that day can't come fast enough," Tristan affirmed loudly.
"TRISTAN, SO HELP ME-"
The afternoon dissolved into laughter and sunshine on a blue sheet in a sea of warm grass as the breeze stirred around them, carrying the sounds of friends meeting and coming together again along with it in every direction.
Wind whistled shrilly down a steep embankment as a dark car with tinted windows crawled slowly up a curling road. The procession of similar cars inching ahead and behind it through a brown landscape would have been a sight to see – if there had been anyone about to see it. As it were, the prince Seto Kaiba watched coldly through the shadowed windows, seeing nothing at all but scraggly trees twisting against the wind.
The military encampment two hours outside of Lora was an uncompromising sort of place. Standing at the tip of the arid region stretching north-west through the far parts of the country and up across the border, the base was not just for show. Although it was not positioned to play any part in border defence, it was widely known to be the main training and staging ground for Mikenno's air force as well as a testing ground for technological experimentation.
There was a dry cough from the other man sharing the vehicle.
"We're almost there, Your Highness."
"Very astute, Leichter. It's almost as if you had the ability to look out a window."
"Ha ha, a good jest, Your Highness." The man's laugh was as patently false as his anticipatory smile was real. Seto Kaiba chose not to dignify him with either a reply or a glance, and he continued to watch the burnt landscape roll past as the procession of cars wound its way up and into the sprawling fortress known only as Kédo Two.
The pomp and ceremony of it was dull and completely inefficient, of course. But there was also a reason for it today, and a metallic taste of something close to power lingered in the air.
When Seto Kaiba stepped from the dark car into the cold entrance of Kédo Two, he acknowledged the salutes of the men at arms with only a nod. His security, inscrutable and always professional, exited the vehicles smartly, taking up their places in the background.
Damon Leichter, First Member of the Mikenno Council of Five, was positively gleeful as he was met by Owen Nezbitt, Standing Member of the five and head of the country's military research and development portfolio.
"Ah, Nezbitt! Here we are! Come and greet our honoured guest."
"Of course. Your Highness."
With a particularly unpleasant glint in his eye Nezbitt bowed low to the ground, exaggerating the motion into one that clearly indicated a degree of ridicule. The prince only watched him coldly, making no move to acknowledge the greeting.
Leichter, unfazed, swept forward with his grin only growing larger as the seconds ticked by.
"Come, come! There are many men just waiting to meet Your Highness, and then of course we must tour the facilities." There was no need to add the unspoken the ones that we want you to see. "If our nations are to work together we must of course be open with one another."
Indifferent, the prince moved his eyes slowly from one man to the other. If he found anything worth his time and attention, he gave no such indication.
"I'm already bored, Leichter. I hope you didn't invite me here just so you could play with your toy soldiers."
"On the money as ever, Your Highness! But no, of course you are right. We've invited you to be the guest of honour as we unveil our newest technological developments. That is what friends do, after all. We want to be completely transparent in this."
The condescension almost dripping from his voice would have been lost on most people, but then again no one present could be considered 'most people'.
"Well then," the prince replied with a faint, mocking smile of his own. "Lead the way."
The two older men led the new procession on foot, and the prince Seto Kaiba followed them inward towards one of the many inner hidden places of the base. The security detail, alert as ever, kept their eyes open as they went. Croquet, leading the team from behind dark glasses, had earlier tasked them with remembering their exact route so it could be added to the known blueprints of the structure upon their return to Domino.
The way wasn't simple or straight forward, of course, and the formality of the occasion necessitated frequent stops to greet this particular lieutenant or that particular captain. If any of the men present found these pauses bothersome they gave no indication of that whatsoever. Leichter and Nezbitt made the requisite introductions while the prince greeted everyone he was presented with using a chilly politeness and no expression whatsoever.
It was perhaps a half hour later when they finally reached the field. And a field is exactly what it was – a wide sea of open grassy soil hidden away in one of the many extensions of the base. The prince let his eyes scan across it before silently crossing his arms.
"Here we are, Your Highness," Leichter told him far too jovially. "This is one of our many little test sites where we have our fun testing out new toys."
"The hole Nezbitt crawled out of then. It looks exactly like I thought it would." The prince didn't bother to keep the derision out of his voice now, but this only seemed to please Leichter and Nezbitt further.
"How droll. We of course hope it meets your rigorous standards, Your Highness," Nezbitt said with a sideways smirk to his compatriot who returned the look knowingly.
"Of course, we'd be absolutely devastated if we did anything but our best for our friend and ally."
"The feeling is mutual, of course." The prince's answer was terse.
With a short, ugly laugh Nezbitt stepped slightly apart from the others, pausing just briefly to run his eyes over the shadowy figures behind the prince. Apparently finding them not worth his consideration, Nezbitt gave one last self-satisfied glance to Leichter.
"Everything seems in order here. I'll just go get things started, shall I?"
When he received a nod of assent from Leichter, Nezbitt paced away from the group, disappearing into the large concrete building they'd passed through to reach this area. No one spoke, and the sound of the wind filled the emptiness.
They stood in the shadow cast by the building, and when movement finally came from the hangar at the south end of the field no one made any attempt to illuminate their presence. Instead they stood and watched as two rows of men led by Nezbitt tramped through out into the open, wheeling large metallic canisters after them.
There was a brief halt as the men came to a stop and milled briefly about the… whatever they were, seeming to open and unfold them as they worked. The prince's eyes narrowed infinitesimally.
"Lovely."
"Welcome to the future, Your Highness. Please save your applause until the end." Leichter's smile was actually barbed now.
There was some shouting from the men as they arranged the metallic structures into a line, spaced evenly with some six feet between each. After they were finished the majority of them drew back, leaving only one man standing behind each. Silence came again for a moment, and then… at first the barked orders were unintelligible from the watchers' vantage point. The last one, however, was clear to all. To their credit, not a single member of the prince's security so much as twitched.
"Fire!"
With a ripping sound, fire tore out of the mobile cannons and into the sky, roaring as it went. For a moment it seemed the vast area wouldn't even come close to containing the volley of screaming weaponry, but as fast as it had risen it came raining down again, searing everything it touched along the far periphery. The grass would have carried the fire if it hadn't been instantly decimated.
Through the ringing sound in his ears, the prince glanced coolly over to Leichter, who was watching the destruction with a reflection of something horrible in his eyes.
"…is that all?"
"All?" Leichter laughed and his eyes danced unpleasantly when he turned to look back. "Your Highness, surely you understand. These are new generation Magna Cannons capable of launching chimeric missiles from a short range to over five hundred kilometers. …For defense, of course."
"You're a fool, Leichter, and the worst kind." The prince began to laugh, and for the first time Leichter's smile faded, just a little. "We unveiled Magna-Nine firepower this morning with a range of over three thousand kilometers. For defence, of course." Fixing Leichter with an unswerving stare, the prince's lip curled upwards.
"…That's… that's patently impossible, Your Highness. This is the latest Magna technology, and the first prototypes of their kind."
"You should read the news more often, Leichter." Extracting his phone from his pocket, the prince casually thumbed through it before passing an open browser screen with the most recent news headlines over to the man who now merely looked uncertain. When Leichter took the phone and stared, the prince waved one hand magnanimously.
"We would've invited you, of course, but it just didn't seem like a particularly big occasion."
Smirking a smirk that wouldn't have looked out of place on the devil himself, the prince Seto Kaiba turned away from the field and the devastation before glancing just once over his shoulder.
"I believe you said something about a tour of the facility?"
A/N: I'm sorry to each and every person who reviewed, favourited or set an alert for this story for taking so damn long. To be perfectly frank with you guys, I'm struggling with depression and most days it's been hard to do anything non-necessary let alone string together a coherent plot. That said, I'm definitely not giving up! Not on this story and not on anything else. I want to thank everyone for reading and for all of the kind words, and I hope a couple of you are still as interested in finding out where this is going as I am. I promise to do my very best to reply to all reviews going forward, and to not take months and months to update.
I was also thinking it might be nice to have a writing buddy or two, so if you are going through a rough patch too or just like to chat about YGO, send me a private message sometime.
In more story-related news, next chapter is the big one where our protagonists finally meet. I'll also probably include some more information about the world this story is taking place in, so hopefully that will entice you to come back. *waves around puppyshipping and cookies for good measure*