No reviews? Is it really that bad that nobody wants to tell me so? :(

Chapter Seven

The CEO couldn't move.

"Seto?"

He was frozen with the shock of what he had just heard. This can't be happening?! Somehow he found the strength to move his thumb and cancel the tone of the already dead line that was sounding out from his cell phone, and then let it drop to crash on the floor.

"Seto, what's wrong?" Jack came hurrying out of the doorway of his office where he had been standing as he watched the final moments of his friend's conversation.

There was a flap of the younger man's mouth but no sound came out, and then suddenly his lips were clamped tightly, along with his eyes and his head sank to fall down to almost between his legs were he sat on the edge of the battered settee. With his elbows resting on his knees, Seto ran the fingers of both his hands through his hair and with frustration, griped at their contents so tightly that it almost brought tears to his eyes. He breathed deeply and replayed the phone conversation in his head……

# "I'm sorry Seto, but I have some bad news."

"Bad news?" His heart flipped. "Did the plane get diverted?"

"No, the plane left and arrived safely, but…" There was an extremely long pause.

"But what?" His heart pounded double time as he waited for more information.

"We weren't on it." Mokuba finally found his voice and then quickly added. "I'm sorry bro; it's all my fault…"

"What happened?!" Seto snapped, his voice filled with colliding anguish and irritation. "Why didn't you me call sooner?!"

"Oh believe me, I wanted to call you but they wouldn't let us." The younger brother assured.

"Us? They? Mokie, you're not making sense, rewind to when you last sent me the message and go from there."

There was another moment of silence before Mokuba began his recall of events. "Our flight got delayed once more, and naturally wanting explanations, I went to interrogate some of the airport staff, things got a little out of hand and…"

"And?" He found it hard to stay calm and growled with frustration at his brother dragging out what he wanted to know.

"Let's just say that because of my actions I was remanded in custody and not allowed to board the flight when it finally left a short while ago. They also didn't allow Becky or Naoko to fly either …"

"Whoa, back up a little! Custody?"

"I couldn't help it, I lost my temper…"

"Oh Mokie." Seto groaned as his head sank into his free hand. He'd very rarely seen his brother lose his temper but knew that he was capable of doing so, and without him there to steer the situation… "How bad was it? Did they press charges against you?" Any thoughts of his wedding had been overridden in favour of his sibling's welfare.

"Bad enough that I'm being sued for assault..."

Another groan from the older brother at the thought of what it would do to the younger's reputation within the following months to come.

"… but they've granted me permission to travel on the next flight over..."

There was a sigh of partial relief at hearing that his brother was allowed to travel despite the unfortunate incident.

"… Our plane is scheduled to leave in several hours, but I doubt that we'll make it in time for the actual ceremony." A pause as Mokuba waited for his brother to say something but nothing came. "I'm sorry Seto."

Still there was nothing from the older Kaiba as he sank into his thoughts. His brother wasn't going to be able to make it for the joyous occasion; another spanner in the works, spoiling his momentous day. Oh why hadn't he just taken his Welsh friend's advice and told UNIT were to 'shove it' from the start?

"Well? Say something! Yell at me if you want to …"

"Why would I yell at you?"

"Because I ruined your big day."

"You didn't ruin it Mokie." Seto reassured. "Shouting about it isn't going to change the situation, and besides, you're my brother. I can't stay mad at you, even if it had been all your fault." The only person he placed blame with right now was himself, hating what he had done previously to cause the delays and dubious about what he was going to do next. "We've come across a hitch here too…"

"That 'hitch' will be solved by the morning!" Jack pointed out from where he stood eavesdropping on the one-sided phone call from the doorway of his office. He sunk further back into the room and out of the conversation after receiving a disapproving glare from those annoyed sapphire eyes.

"… postponing the wedding, - again, - would be the best option. That way in a couple of months time, once we've sorted your assault case…"

"Oh no, don't you go planning this whole thing around me!" Mokuba exclaimed in a curtly manner. "If what I overheard Jack say is true, then you go ahead as planned!"

"I can't, you're my best man…"

"Stop making excuses!"

Seto fell silent knowing that his brother's words were indeed true. He was just making excuses now. Even though they were both adults and he'd been to the exact same point a couple of times, - and once drastically beyond, - over the years, he still couldn't let go of his baby brother. He was still vastly important to him, even with the love of his life finally found and by his side. Would there ever be a time when he wouldn't feel that way about Mokuba?

"You've got your life to lead bro, and I'm not always going to be part of every moment, no matter how much you may want it."

"But…"

"I told you, no excuses!!" The younger brother's words were literally barked down the phone before he gave a frustrated sigh and changed his angle to get his message across. "Tell me what you remember about my wedding Seto."

The older brother froze at being asked to recall his memories from that time. "I wasn't there." He managed to find his voice, it was extremely faint as his mind travelled back to the five months when the two of them had been on non-speaking terms with each other after having fallen out over Mokuba's choice to propose to his long term sweetheart. It was a painful memory to remember as missing out on the eventful occasion was one of the few things that Seto ever regretted in his life.

"Exactly." Mokuba's words were flat and emotionless as he spoke, knowing that some unpleasantness had been caused by mentioning his wedding. "It was an extremely hard decision to make and go ahead with as I wanted you there. But that wasn't possible because of our dispute, so Noah stepped in and, - without you, - we went ahead with the rest of the wedding plans that had been made. Why? Because it was mine and Becky's big day. And tomorrow is yours and Kisara's. Not mine. Yours."

Mokuba paused to let his brother mull over the fact that the ceremony would continue without his presence there and was then caught by the pleas of help from his wife. "I'm sorry Seto but I have to go now, Becky needs my help with sorting out the twins. Go ahead with the ceremony as planned and we'll see you sometime tomorrow, okay?" The phone-line went dead as the younger brother hung up from the call. #

"Seto?" Jack was still trying to coax the younger man. "Speak to me."

Taking one final deep breath, the CEO calmly reached out for his fallen cell phone and without looking at his friend simply stated, "Mokuba isn't going to make it here in time for the service. I need a new best man."

"Well I can't do it; I'm giving Kisara away …!"

"Sorry to disappoint you Jack, but on this occasion you weren't my first choice of a replacement." He speed dialled his fiancée's number and waited for it to be answered.

"Hello?" Kisara's voice came down the line.

"Yan, I need to ask a huge favour of you." It seemed eerily weird for him to acknowledge the body swap so easily and not to be freaked out by it now.

"Ask away."

"Due to a string of problems with the flights from Domino, Mokuba isn't going to be able to make it and …"

"You'd like me to be your best man?" Ianto foresaw the rest.

"Yes."

There was a pause as the Welshman thought things over in his head. He would be immensely busy staying up all night to make the wedding dress, so how was he going to find the time to prepare the speech that was expected of the best man to perform? But he also couldn't let his friend down by rejecting the request. What was he going to do? Since he'd already taken up the other task first there was no choice, he'd have to explain the time consuming situation he faced and hope that Seto would understand why he wasn't able to do both. "I'd be honoured to, b…"

"Great!" The first few words to leave his friend's mouth caused Seto to unknowingly leap to the wrong conclusion. "You have no idea how much this means to me."

"Yeah, well, you know how much I hate to disappoint." Ianto muttered with a feminine deadpan tone. He now didn't have the heart to continue with his original aim and shatter the other man's excited assumption, so he would simply go ahead and play the part required of him.

"Thanks Yan, I know you've been busy with lots of other arrangements for tomorrow. By the way, how are they going? Smoothly I hope."

"They erm …" He stalled, wondering if it was indeed wise to reveal the role of seamstress he was undertaking. Not to mention the fact that he still had to verify the go ahead with the reception's venue, caterers and band, who had all been fed-up with being cancelled for each of the previous abandoned dates that they refused to confirm their participation until the last possible minute. That was why he still had to phone them, - as part of their agreement, - one last time the day before, to make sure that the deals were closed. "A couple of check-up calls to make and that's it, nothing to worry." He lied.

"Good." Seto stated. "I'll see you at the Millennium Centre in the morning." He hung up.

Ianto was careful to end the call on his, - Kisara's, - cell phone as he removed it from the carefully balanced position on his dainty womanly shoulder. Whilst he'd been conversing he had remained focused on changing the sewing machine's needle which he had been in the process of doing before taking the call. And so, he had carefully replaced the thick spike that was used to mend his lover's greatcoat on many occasions, with a much thinner one that was more ideal for hemming the delicate materials purchased to construct the wedding dress.

Now that the needle and machine was all re-threaded once again, he decided that a quick snack was in order before he set to work on adding to the boringly bland white dress that had been bought to work as the canvas for his creation, and left his living room to head towards the kitchen of his apartment. He was there alone, insisting that he would be okay and that Gwen and Kisara should continue their girly night-in. It had been a struggle to part from the four-year-old who refused to leave his side, - her 'Mommy Kara's' side, - but after the promise of however much ice cream she wanted, had agreed to stay behind in his colleague's home.

Instinctively the small coffee maker was switched on and Ianto rummaged through his cupboards looking for something nice to eat and accompany his hot beverage. He found a gigantic bar of plain chocolate and positioned it next to his mug on the counter as he waiting for the coffee beans to grind and brew. Stop! He told himself as he looked and paid closer attention to the objects on the surface in front of him. I highly doubt that Kisara would approve of those being ingested by her body.

Before they had parted, his friend's fiancée, himself, - that's too weird to even think about! - had taken him to one side and explained about her specific dietary needs. Remembering what he'd been told, he placed away the confectionary back into the cupboard and abandoned the steaming hot, and oh so heavenly smelling, coffee.

A carton of orange juice was taken from the refrigerator and a glass poured before placed back, and the milk taken out to now rest on the counter whilst he reached for the cornflakes and emptied some into a bowl. The milk was added on top of the bowl's contents and returned to the shelf inside the refrigerator's door.

Ianto let no time go to waste as he ran through several ideas for a possible speech outline whilst he ate and drank his snack. He had a long, hard and tiresome night ahead of him; one he knew would pass by a lot quicker than he would usually anticipate. Just where was Jack's doctor and his time machine when you really needed him?

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

A/N: Next chapter, the stag-night begins!

KG