Chapter Summary: Mokuba goes downstairs at one in the morning to get a midnight snack. What could possibly go wrong?
Author's Notes: yesterday i was up watching the orichalcos arc until FOUR IN THE MORNING i thought i was GOING TO DIE
Mokuba Kaiba's Unremarkable Collection of Mundane Moments
Chapter 4: Mokuba Kaiba has a Snacktime Struggle
Mokuba lay awake in his bedroom at half past midnight, staring at the ceiling with only one thing in mind: the last chocolate chip cookie. It was alone in a tin, nestled in some wax paper, at the very back of the fridge downstairs in the kitchen. It was the last of its kind, the only remaining cookie from the batch he'd made today with some of his friends.
A smile spread across his face as he recalled the day's events, remembering when Anzu placed the dark blue tin in his hands before gently dusting some flour off of his face. That had been a good day. An excellent day, even. They'd–he was unable to stifle a giggle–they'd all gone to Otogi's house, armed to the teeth with cookie-making ingredients. The recipe that Yuugi had chosen only accounted for about two dozen cookies, which was not quite enough to sustain a pack of seven very hungry teenagers (and one preteen).
To make a long story short, Ryou had suggested that they just double all of the ingredients in the recipe, a seemingly foolproof plan, but–Mokuba laughed alone in the darkness of his room–but somehow, somehow, Honda had messed up the math and they'd ended up with not four, not five, not even six or seven batches of cookies, but eight.
After the uproar died down–"Ninety-six cookies," Otogi had wheezed, laughing so hard he was doubled over in pain, leaning heavily on Jounouchi (who was also laughing, tears pouring down his face) to keep himself standing, "Ninety-six goddamn cookies!"–Shizuka pointed out that maybe this was for the best: this way, everyone would be able to take some cookies home!
...And that's how he'd ended up with an entire tin of chocolate chip cookies all to himself.
The first thing he'd done when he'd gotten home, of course, was share them with his older brother. Seto was as stubborn as ever, narrowing his eyes when Mokuba explained where the cookies came from, but agreed to take one from the tin when he learned that Mokuba had a hand in making them. As Mokuba expected, Seto showed no outward reaction upon trying one, but judging by how fast the number of cookies plummeted afterwards, it was safe to assume that he liked them. Just thinking about it brought a soft smile to Mokuba's face. Small victories.
Anyway, he thought to himself, blinking once to rearrange his thoughts, when he turned in for the night, there had only been a single cookie left, and now, at quarter to one in the morning, it was calling out to him. And he intended to heed its call.
He tiptoed out of his room and down the hall, the floor freezing cold beneath his bare feet. The house was completely silent, eerily so. Mokuba couldn't even hear the familiar tapping sound of his brother typing on his computer, and when he passed by Seto's study, the lights were off. Odd, thought Mokuba, normally his brother was still awake at this time. He shrugged it off, assuming (hoping...?) that Seto had just gone to sleep early for once. Good. He needed it.
Nodding to himself, Mokuba picked up the pace, turning the corner to go down the stairs. He paused, foot hovering over the second to last step–it would creak loudly under his weight–before soundlessly hopping over it to the floor. Grinning, he crossed through the living room to go into the kitchen with a spring in his step. He would be in and out in two seconds flat and back upstairs in his room without making a sound, that last delicious cookie clamped between his teeth. Mokuba had to admit, he was pretty darn good at sneaking around so quietly, and he dared say that there wasn't a single person on earth better at it than himse–
Mokuba froze mid-step, his inner monologue coming to an abrupt end. He peered around the doorframe, squinting at the sight of a dim light coming from the kitchen. The fridge light, he realized, eyes widening, his cookie…!
Sure enough, the familiar clank of the lid coming off the cookie tin rang out, echoing loudly throughout the room. He heard the wax paper rustle inside the tin, someone was going to steal his cookie this is just NOT going to happen–!
Mokuba was not sure who exactly he expected to see when he marched into the kitchen, frown on his face and hands curled into fists at his sides, but it was certainly not his older brother.
In hindsight, there was really no one else it could have been, but with his cookie in mortal peril, Mokuba hadn't really given it much thought. So when his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the kitchen, his mouth fell open in surprise. There he was, Seto Kaiba, in all of his grandeur, standing in front of the open fridge, literally and proverbially caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
He was wearing those awful pajamas, Mokuba noticed, the super-old faded blue ones that he'd long since outgrown but was too busy to remember to replace. He looked so silly in them, mostly because the bottom hem of the legs were a good three or four inches higher than they should've been. Mokuba remembered when Seto had been shorter and the excess fabric would drag on the ground, but now it was way above his ankles. At least he didn't have that horrible button-up shirt that went with it anymore, god, it barely even cl–
–wait. Cookie. Priorities, Mokuba.
"Nii-sama, hello," he said in a soft, sweet voice, calling forth the fakest angelic smile he could muster, "Whatcha got there?"
Seto remained expressionless, gaze shifting from the cookie to his younger brother. He said nothing.
"Is that, maybe," Mokuba paused, taking one step closer, "I dunno, my cookie?"
For a while, Seto was quiet, watching carefully as Mokuba approached him, waiting until he was less than an arm's length away to respond.
"It's mine, now."
His words were so faint that the younger Kaiba scarcely heard them, but the moment he did, Mokuba let out an indignant sound somewhere between a gasp and a shriek and lunged forward, only to be met with thin air as Seto raised his arm way above Mokuba's head, that's not fair, nii-sama, you're way taller…!
Mokuba stuck his lip out in a pout, shoulders slouched in defeat, and yes, it worked, Seto smirked at him and relaxed, arm lowering just enough to–
"Gotcha!"
Mokuba jumped and grabbed his brother's hand, his weight dragging Seto's arm down–and the cookie with it. He knew he could never wrestle it out of his brother's grip, Seto was too strong, but it was within his reach... so he did the only thing he could think of to turn the situation around, and leaned forward and licked the cookie.
Mokuba returned Seto's disgruntled, mildly disdainful look with a devilish grin, releasing his hold on his brother's arm and stepping back, leaning against the fridge.
"I claimed it," he said proudly, tilting his chin up, "I licked it, so it's mine."
Seto glared down at him, cookie still in his hand. Mokuba waited for his older brother to scoff and look away before reluctantly giving up the cookie, but…
A tiny smile tugged at the corner of Seto's lips. He gave Mokuba an indifferent shrug, and instead of reaching down to hand the cookie over to his younger brother–
Mokuba's jaw dropped.
–he ate it himself.
"EWWWWWWWWWWW–!"
Seto turned away from Mokuba, his younger brother's disgusted screeching drowning out the muffled, almost inaudible laugh he let out as he left the room.
Author's Notes: important company owner or not, seto kaiba is still a gross teenage boy who is undeterred by little brother germs :') better luck next time, mokuba!
even though it was only a few paragraphs, it was super refreshing to write about mokuba interacting with people who arent kaiba. dont get me wrong, their relationship is one of my favorites ever but it's nice to see mokuba socializing with other people too. im sort of tempted to write the entire cookie-making disaster as its own fic but idk, we'll see
anyway, before i can even think about doing that, i have to work on the next chapter for this. i have a few more ideas for chapters but i somehow ended up writing a super long fic about insector haga and dinosaur ryuzaki, so lately i've been working on that instead. i really like how it's turning out though, so i hope you'll give it a chance when i do get around to posting it.
one last thing! shoutout to my anonymous/guest reviewer for leaving a super sweet review on chapter 3! i appreciate it! i'd reply privately but, yknow, anon stuff, so yeah! thank you!
thanks for reading!
–fearowkenya
