"... And did you see how that car just exploded?!" Tristan enthused to Yugi as he pushed open the door to the ice cream parlor and held it open for the rest of their friends. Téa rolled her eyes as she passed him.
"Which car?" she retorted. "That entire movie was nothing but cars and explosions!"
"I thought the movie was pretty good," Yugi contributed with a gracious smile. "What did you think, Mokuba?"
"I liked it!" The youngest Kaiba's grin was wide, everything about him upbeat and cheerful. "Thanks again for taking me to the movies with you guys. I don't normally get to do this kind of thing."
"Sure thing! You can tag along with us any time." Yugi smiled warmly at Mokuba as their group approached the counter to look at the colorful ice cream flavors behind the glass. "You too, Serenity." Yugi turned to smile at Joey's quiet sister, who looked pleased at being included. "You're our friend in your own right, you know." Mokuba's phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out to look at the notification.
"Thanks. I really like hanging out with you guys," she said sweetly.
"It's nice that I'm not the only girl here anymore," Téa contributed, putting a friendly arm around Serenity's shoulders just as Tristan was about to reach for her hand. "After a while, you just get too used to these knuckleheads."
"It's just too bad that Joey and Duke couldn't be here too," Serenity murmured in her usual demure manner as Tristan clenched his fist at his side in frustration.
"What can I get for you kids?" the man behind the counter asked as he approached, pulling on a fresh pair of cellophane gloves.
"I'll have mint chocolate chip on a waffle cone, please!" Yugi ordered politely.
"Coming right up!"
"I thought—" Mokuba stopped short and bit his bottom lip as he frowned at his phone, drawing Yugi's attention first. A few moments later, Mokuba gasped, slapping his hand over his mouth as his eyes widened in shock.
"What's wrong, Mokuba?" Téa asked, looking worried.
"Um..." Mokuba's eyes skimmed over the others' expressions of concern, then gave a small sigh. "So, I have a Google alert set up for KaibaCorp and my brother's name," he explained, deciding to start from the beginning. "So that every time something new about either of them appears on the internet, I get an email. I just got one of those, and... it's not good."
"Here you go." The man behind the counter handed Yugi's ice cream cone to him over the counter. Téa took it and handed it to her friend, knowing that he wouldn't be able to reach it, then asked for lemon sorbet in a small cup.
"So what happened?" Tristan asked, still trying to figure out what had Mokuba so concerned.
"Well, the gaming convention that Duke is speaking at this week had also invited my brother several months ago. He turned them down, but apparently he still went, and..." Mokuba gave another small sigh and decided to just show them. He reset the video to the beginning, turned up the volume, tapped the play button, then turned it around to show the others. Téa, Yugi, Tristan, and Serenity all leaned in as they watched the video. It had been taken by someone who was in the middle of the audience and who'd used the camera on their phone. It was shaky at first, and the audio was unclear. The video zoomed in on Kaiba and Zigfried, who were sitting next to each other on the left side of the table. The echo of the microphones obscured their voices, but they were arguing with each other, speaking over each other as their voices got louder. Kaiba waved one hand at the German in a dismissive gesture, and Zigfried forcefully grabbed Kaiba's arm in anger. A split second later, Kaiba's fist connected with Zigfried's face, and chaos broke out. A few security guards could be seen on the edge of the screen approaching the stage, clearly intending to take both of them away. Kaiba was already standing from the table and walking away, looking furious. Meanwhile, Zigfried was covering his injury with his hand, so they couldn't actually see what damage had been caused. At this point, Duke—who'd simply been looking uncomfortable as he and Pegasus looked on until now—shot out of his chair and grabbed his microphone from its stand on the table. As this happened, the camera was aimed at Duke, so they couldn't see where Kaiba went. "Who wants me to take my shirt off?" Duke shouted, throwing his free hand high in the air. "Cheer as loud as you can!"
"It keeps going, but it's all about Duke after that." Mokuba said, having paused the video at this point. Serenity was blushing, Téa was on the verge of a facepalm, Tristan had rolled his eyes and scoffed at Kaiba's behavior. Only Yugi seemed concerned on Mokuba's behalf. Shaking his head in disapproval, Mokuba added, "I don't know who thought it was a good idea to put those two next to each other."
"I think I saw Joey in that video," Serenity piped up. "If you go back a bit, I can show you." Serenity and Mokuba stood close together as they tried to find the place where she thought she saw her brother. They did manage to find him: just after the punch, when people started reacting, they could see his mess of blond hair just at the edge of the screen, jogging past people as he tried to reach Kaiba before the security people did. He was only on screen for half a second, and you couldn't see his face, but his friends recognized him nonetheless.
"I need to tell our marketing and PR manager about this." Mokuba stepped away a little from the group as he went to his contacts and began to scroll for the number he was looking for. "I have to see if I can get this video taken down." He tapped the call button and put his phone to his ear, stepping further away from the group as he waited for the KaibaCorp employee to answer. And then I need to call Seto and talk to him about it. Mokuba was both angry and disappointed with his brother. This was going to be a PR mess for both of them.
"You're phone's ringing," Joey said as he walked back into the kitchenette of their hotel room from the bedroom. Seto was sitting on a stool with his right hand buried in a wide bowl of ice.
"Put it on silent."
"It's your brother." Joey put Seto's cell on the counter next to him (without putting it on silent) to let him make the decision. Joey turned around to open the beeping microwave, and as he pulled on the paper tabs to open the bag of fully popped popcorn, Seto answered the phone.
"Hello?"
"I thought we agreed you wouldn't be going to that con." Mokuba launched right into the issue, speaking quietly, but still sounding angry.
"I'm doing well, how are you?" Kaiba replied, but Mokuba was in no mood to put up with his sauciness.
"Cut it out, Seto." His little brother was dead serious. "Do you know how many people saw that?"
"Several hundred, at least." Since Mokuba was acting serious and mature, Seto would respond in kind.
"I asked the manager of the PR department to take down the YouTube video, and she's working on it, but it's been online for less than an hour and it's already got thousands of views."
So that was how Mokuba knew what had happened.
"Isn't this why we agreed you shouldn't go?" Mokuba prompted crossly.
"Yes, that was a consideration," the brunette acknowledged reluctantly.
"That was the whole reason," Mokuba corrected. "So why were you even there?"
"It was a complicated situation." His little brother didn't need to know the details of how Kaiba's jealousy had, in an indirect series of events connected by the domino effect, ultimately caused this bad publicity for him personally and for the company.
"Fine, don't tell me, but you're going to have to work things out with Matsuda-san to fix this. She said she was going to send you an email so you could collaborate on how to spin the story."
Kaiba was impressed; the video had been online for less than an hour, and Mokuba had already seen it, contacted the appropriate person inside their company, and contacted Kaiba himself.
"You should also thank Duke for presenting a distraction at the event," Mokuba continued. "Him going shirtless onstage is still a bigger online story than your fight with Zigfried, at least so far."
Kaiba was feeling even more proud of his little brother the longer this call went, so much so that he'd ceased feeling guilty.
"I will," Kaiba agreed, flexing his cold fingers that were buried in the ice to keep his hand from cramping. "I'm sorry if I worried you."
"I'm more worried about you getting sued by Zigfried!" Mokuba snapped, still angry, but it just amused his brother.
"I can't be charged with assault because it was provoked," Kaiba explained calmly. "The moment he grabbed my arm, he provoked the attack and surrendered his right to sue me or press charges."
"I hope you're right." Mokuba's outright anger was ebbing. "How's your hand?"
"Sore." Kaiba shrugged, not that Mokuba could tell. "Nothing's broken but the skin, so it'll be fine."
"Okay. Good. We'll talk about it more when you get home. Next time you go on vacation, though, try to stay on vacation."
Kaiba chuckled at that; it was entertaining to hear Mokuba trying to reprimand him. "I'll try. And Mokuba?"
"Yeah?"
"It sounds like you've handled the situation well. I'm proud of you."
"Thanks." Mokuba, caught off guard, didn't have any quips on hand to toss back at him.
"I'll see you when I get home. I love you."
"I love you too." Mokuba's vocal volume had dropped, ears turning red in embarrassment solely because he was acutely aware of his—their?—friends standing several feet behind him and listening, and he was unaccustomed to having an audience to his affectionate exchanges with his brother.
"Stay safe."
"You too."
They hung up, and Kaiba let out his breath. He put his phone down and took his right hand out of the ice, wrapping a small towel around it as he tried to dry it without making it hurt more. All the while, Joey had stood there, watching and listening while eating the fresh popcorn straight from the bag.
"Was he mad?"
"As mad as a twelve-year-old can be about his brother punching out a mutual enemy." He shook his head and said, "Next time we go on vacation, we're going to a desert island so this kind of thing can't happen again."
"I can dig it," Joey said after a moment of thought, then moved around the counter to stand next to Seto and drop a kiss on the top of his head. "I'm still mad at you for punching him too, you know."
"Hmm." Kaiba leaned against Joey, resting his head against his arm and closing his eyes.
"But you know what would make me feel more forgiving?"
"What?" Kaiba opened his eyes narrowly, already sensing that he wouldn't like Joey's response.
"Matching tattoos."
"Hell no."
"Come on! It's not fair that only I have one. Besides..." Joey put down his popcorn and put his arms around Seto's shoulders, hugging him close and pressing a small kiss to the sensitive spot behind Kaiba's ear. "Think of it this way: it's my permanent mark that I'm leaving on you so that people know you're mine." Joey had Seto figured out by now. He didn't know everything about him, but he knew how his thought process worked and the kind of logic that effectively persuaded. "Because you are mine, and I'm never going to let you go."
Seto closed his eyes again and nuzzled his head against Joey's, the blond's body firm and warm at Kaiba's back.
"I'll consider it," Seto conceded, giving Joey a sense of triumph. "But I promise nothing."
A/N: You can check out my Deleted Scenes collection if you want to see most of what would have been the last chapter (where s*** was supposed to hit the fan, but I was too ambitious with this story and started writing it before I had a good grasp on the WHOLE plot, which is my fault and I apologize profusely for that).
I am actually really satisfied with this ending, though. I always toyed with the idea of throwing in a scene at the end with Mokuba seeing something online about his brother, and then the others wanting to see it, so I'm glad I could use that in a way that worked.
In order to prevent the next story from just dragging out like this one did, I will post the entirety of the next story in this series ALL AT ONCE. I'm planning on posting it on Valentine's Day (because I obviously have nothing else to do on that day), so you all have that to look forward to now. ^-^
