A/N: i toned down this chapter slightly and made it lighter. less emotion and more practicality, as everyone gets set to help Kaiba out. okay, maybe slightly more humorous this time round.
enjoy this chapter, yea (:
For you my love
I'll be there when you're needing me
No matter how badly my day goes
You'll always be the sunshine in my heart
- Suria Hatiku (Sunshine in my Heart) by Taufik Batisah
Tea had gone home for the night, leaving the boys behind to look after Mokuba. Tristan was somewhere in the hospital, possibly hunting for a late night snack. Joey had, for some weird reason, brought along his sleeping bag, and was now propped in a corner of the room fast asleep. Yugi was the only one awake in the room, once in a while humoured by Joey's random babbling in his sleep. He had been toying with the idea of contacting the Ishtars for hours now. And just like when he first started out, he was unsure whether to go ahead with it.
Tristan crept back into the room with an armful of potato chips and a few cans of Coke. From his jeans pocket he withdrew a few bars of Snickers. Yugi shook his head in amusement. Did Tristan rob the entire snack vending machine with what spare change he had? He caught a packet of chips, a can of Coke and a Snicker bar that Tristan slid over to him. All these junk food in a hospital. Kaiba must really not been paying attention to health food to be served in his hospital, Yugi thought wryly.
The silent supper the duo was enjoying was unwittingly interrupted when Joey woke up and hissed loudly, "You're eating chips, Snickers and Coke without me? That ain't fair! Toss some over to me!"
Tristan obliged as he snickered, "Gee, Joey. You wake up at the smell of food. Next time I'll bring in canned fruits."
Joey paused in the midst of stuffing his face with the chips. "Do that and you have the courtesy of finishing it up. On your own." He somehow seemed to realize that they were having a pig-out session on the floor of a hospital ward. He turned to Yugi, "Hey Yug. Any idea on how to help richboy?"
"Well, I sort of had an idea," Yugi swallowed the bolus in his mouth before continuing. "If maybe Ishizu or Marik can help us contact the Spirit World, then maybe we can lead Mokuba's soul back into his body."
"Uhh, y'know Yug, I'm used to all these mystical stuffs. But when you're talking about the Spirit World so casually, it sounds sort of freaky."
"Oh, you mean like this?" Tristan interjected, shining his handphone's flashlight from beneath his chin such that it created dark shadows on his face. He leered towards Joey as he spoke and cackled in a bid to sound like a lost demon. "Woo… I am Tristan's ghost, and I came here to haunt you, Joey Wheeler. Because you haven't paid your seventy dollars to me."
Joey gave him an incredulous look. "I haven't heard such a bad line since Kaiba's dark half pretended to be Kaiba's ghost. And that seventy dollars was ancient history, man. I forgot all about it, so you should too."
"Guys, let's not stray from the topic!" Yugi said loudly to prevent another friendly brawl between his two friends. "Tris, can I borrow your hp?"
"Sure thing," Tristan switched off the flashlight function and passed the phone to Yugi. "Who you calling? Ishizu?"
Yugi nodded as he pressed in the numbers. It was fairly easy to remember; most of the numbers just repeat themselves. For a while he wondered about the time difference in Egypt, but he decided to risk it, anyway.
The other end rang for a few moments more before a groggy voice spoke into it, "Yes?"
"Marik? It's me, Yugi!" the little blond boy almost yelled into the phone.
"Yugi?" the Egyptian boy suddenly sounded awake. There was a rustling in the background before his voice came back onto the line. "Yugi! What a surprise!"
"Hello Yugi." Yugi recognized the cool voice of Ishizu.
"Hello Ishizu!" Yugi beamed as he spoke. He glanced over at his friends and put the conversation on speakerphone mode. "Joey and Tristan's here too!"
They all exchanged greetings, and questioned each other mundane stuffs like the weather before Yugi launched into a short summary of what had happened. The Ishtars registered gasps and murmurs of "Oh my God" at all the right places. Joey and Tristan carried on with their pigging out session, interjecting once in a while with details that Yugi might have left out. By the time Yugi finished explaining his idea, the Ishtars were quiet.
Yugi wondered if maybe they had dozed off. "Uhh… hello?"
"We're still here, Yugi," Ishizu reassured him. "About contacting the Spirit World, as you know, Yugi…"
"Yeah, I know," Yugi sighed. None of them were in possession of any Millennium Items anymore.
"But I know somebody who might be skilled in doing this," Ishizu offered. "I'll try asking her if she could help out. I can't promise, Yugi, but I'll definitely try."
The trio in the hospital ward cheered up instantly. "Thanks, Ishizu!"
"Oh yeah, how come it's only the three of you? Where's Kaiba?" Marik interjected.
In the background, Joey and Tristan snorted. Yugi just sighed. "Somewhere. His office, maybe. But not at the hospital. He has that custody case coming up."
Joey decided to butt in. "How come the sudden query about Kaiba? Don't tell me you miss him and all his arrogance, cos I'm willing to trade places with ya. Even when he's not being himself, he's a pain in the ass."
Marik gave a hard laugh. "Are you kidding me? It's better if he's not there with you guys. Otherwise, I can't imagine what he'd say about my sister's suggestion."
Ishizu must have been smiling despite her attempt to defend her suggestion. "I have a feeling he'd probably be too desperate to say anything, Marik. Anyway, it's best if we go now, Yugi, Joey, Tristan. It's a long-distance call, isn't it? We'll get back to you if there's any news."
The three Japanese boys agreed to end the conversation and said their goodbyes. The moment the phone was back in Tristan's hand, they carried on with their abandoned pig-out session. Joey suggested the idea of eating right next to Mokuba. (His reason was that maybe just like him, Mokuba would wake up to the smell of junk food.) Yugi and Tristan duly ignored him.
XO XO XO XO
Tea pulled her jacket closer to her to stave off the chill. The chill came from two sources – the cool evening breeze, and the fact that she was walking on the streets on her own nearing midnight. And the best part was, she was unsure where to head to: straight home or to check on Kaiba. She herself could barely fathom why she was so concerned about the CEO after he had managed to annoy her earlier. Seeing someone in distress could really alter one's senses.
She trudged her way on, and simply gave up on the idea of choosing where to go. She would go wherever her feet led her to. Besides, Kaiba's mansion was not that too far off from her house. Her parents were away on a business trip, so really, it did not matter what time she reached home.
Her mind wandered to what could the three boys possibly be doing in the hospital ward. If she knew them well, they would probably be having the night of their life by finishing up all the available food at the hospital. If there ever was pizza, Joey would be the first to pounce on it. And then Tristan would have a scuffle with him over it, before finally the two clowns decide to share. She shook her head as she smiled. Yups, that was definitely happening.
After what seemed like forever, Tea found herself pausing at the gate of Kaiba's mansion. As usual, he had posted two security men at the entrance of the gate. There was another two more at the porch. Tea sighed. Didn't the guy feel suffocated with all this security around him?
"Can I help you, miss?" one of the well-dressed security guard queried her, startling Tea momentarily.
Tea looked around. "Is Kaiba in?"
"No, Mr Kaiba hasn't returned yet," he replied in that professional voice. "May I know your name, so I can inform Mr Kaiba once he returns?"
Tea shook her head as she turned to walk away. "Tea Gardner. But that's alright, it won't be necessary to tell –"
The rumble of an engine and a blinding burst of yellow light blinded her for a while. She shielded her eyes as she peered to see where it came from, and groaned when she noticed. Seto had his head hanging out from the driver's seat of his convertible, throwing a questioning look at her.
"Gardner, what the hell are you doing on my property in the dead of the night?" Seto demanded. He did not sound annoyed or anything, just exhausted.
Tea moved away so she could see him and not damage her retina by the light. "I just came to check on you."
Seto signaled to the guards to open the gate and let them in before replying Tea, "Gardner, in case you haven't noticed, I am on my way to getting home. So if you don't mind, can you please hurry in and get out of the way?"
Tea scurried inside, keeping herself to the side of the pavement. Even then, she afforded herself a quick admiration of the mansion's compound. The road leading to the mansion was nothing fanciful and straight, made out of gravel and nothing else. The landscape was relatively simple as well, but easy on the eye. There was the customary flowering bushes along the side, and immaculately mown grass. Tea thought she had seen the exact same thing in a landscape magazine before.
Go figure, she remarked to herself. If Kaiba ever could waste his time to plan a proper landscape garden to fit his home, I'll be surprised.
The convertible stopped directly at the front of the porch, and Seto stepped out of it in an almost languid fashion. He spoke a few words to his guards, who then made their way out gleefully out of the mansion. The same went for the guards at the gate. Only then did Seto whirl around and said dryly to Tea to stop dawdling and get inside the mansion before the security system was put on high level mode. Any movements after that could unknowingly trigger off the invisible laser beam detectors and cause a whole set of unneeded chaos.
The interior of the mansion was state-of-the-art, barely something straight out of a magazine like the landscape garden. Suddenly Tea realized that the CEO probably spent more time planning the interior rather than the garden, seeing he spent more time indoors than outdoors. The floor itself was a cause for danger – checkered black-and-white tiles of thick glass. Somehow, it was made to be non-slippery. But the masterpiece of the mansion had to be the grand stairway; it was made of glass and steel.
"It's non-slippery," a voice interrupted her train of thoughts. Seto was standing at the top of the staircase with his arms crossed. He had disposed of his briefcase but not his sour attitude. He cocked his head to a room on the right. "My study."
Despite the reassurance from Seto, Tea still found herself gingerly making her way up the stairway. How could such shiny, polished glass be non-slippery? In the end, she made it to the top and proceeded to enter the study room as directed.
If the hall of the mansion was classy and cold with glass, the study room was the complete opposite. The walls were mocha-coloured, and the floor was tastefully topped with a thick rug. Most of the furniture in the room was made of wood. The room already felt warm without the need for a heater. Tea recalled that Mokuba had mentioned that his brother had the entire mansion renovated and devoted the most attention to the study room. She understood why.
Seto was seated at his old desk with his back facing the ceiling to floor windows. He pressed a remote and the flat screen plasma TV came to live with its volume down. Tea seated herself on the forest green sofa. From the feel of the spring, it was an old sofa set. But it still felt comfortable, nonetheless. A thick black file landed on the coffee table in front of her. She looked up, shocked.
"If you're planning to help out, you can start by going through that file," Seto said emotionlessly. "I know you have more brains than your friends, so that's why I let you do this."
"What am I supposed to do with this?" Tea held up the file and started flipping through.
"Whatever that can help me in my case, take it out and place them aside," Seto made his way to the door. Before exiting, he announced, "I'll be back."
With Seto gone, Tea sighed. More work when all she wanted to do was to simply check up on him and make sure he was not losing it just yet. She grudgingly flipped through the pages in the file, reading off the headings. Maybe that was a faster way of doing it rather than going through every single line. The file was filled with newspaper articles and various papers, detailing the granting of Mokuba's custody to Seto and the legal announcement of his adult status despite him being fifteen at that time. There was also a photocopied request for Seto to be enrolled into Domino High the moment he was declared an adult in the eyes of the law, meaning that he had to fulfill all the necessary criteria such as compulsory education. Mokuba's was there too.
Tea frowned. How could the court try to revoke Kaiba's rightful guardianship of Mokuba? He had fulfilled all the mandatory requirements, after all. He had a stable income, he had compulsory education (minus the fact that he only attended high school for less than a year technically, seeing he was always exempted and gone on business trips). He even made sure Mokuba had all the rights that was supposed to be granted to him: education, safety, shelter, food.
By the time she had finished going through the file, there was a relatively tall stack of papers on the coffee table, but with majority of it remaining in the file. She stretched and yawned as she caught a glimpse of the clock. It was nearly 3am? She got up and walked out of the study. Where was Kaiba, anyway?
The hallway was dimly lit. For a while, she thought of the laser beam detectors and the possibility of her triggering it. To hell with that, she decided in the end. It's all Kaiba's fault. Where is he, anyway? She carefully made her way past the various rooms, opening each door silently. At one point, she came into Mokuba's room and was immediately cheered by the sight of it. If she was Mokuba, she would be a happy kid to be able to have a room filled with all sorts of cartoons and games. The four-poster bed seemed a bit too much, though.
She reached the end of the wing and came face to face with the last door. Like all the other rooms, the door was made from teak. For a fact, she knew it was Kaiba's room. Would he lock it? She shrugged and decided to just give the knob a try. Surprisingly, it was unlocked. And sprawled on the four-poster bed, still in his shirt and slacks, was the CEO.
Tea shouted as loud as possible, "KAIBA!"
Seto grumbled as he sat up. The moment he saw Tea at the doorway, his eyes went wide. "What are you doing here trespassing my room?"
"YOU LEFT ME TO DO ALL THE WORK WHEN YOU'RE HERE ASLEEP!" Tea seethed.
Seto was indifferent. "So? You were the one so insistent that I get enough rest. And right now, I need more of that. So can you please get out of my bedroom and work on another file?"
"ANOTHER FILE? I'M OUTTA HERE!"
Seto scowled as Tea stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. He yelled out, "Watch that door, Gardner! Do you have any idea how much I paid for that?"
XO XO XO XO
An hour short of sunrise, Seto walked into his study, already decked out in his attire for the day. Upon seeing Tea asleep on the sofa with three settled files lying on the coffee table, he smirked. Half his workload done. He gathered the stacks of papers and neatened them into a pile before sliding them into his silver briefcase. Once he was done, he sat in his chair and switched on the television. This time round, he blasted the volume. Tea fell down from the sofa in shock.
Seto peered at her from where he was seated. "I thought you were outta here. Then I come in and I see all the files settled and you drooling on my sofa set."
Tea glared at him. "Joey's right. You are a creep."
He snorted. "Half of Domino City doesn't like me, so do you think your little threat will work against me? Get up, freshen up. I'll get my driver to drop you off at your house."
Tea smiled sweetly at him. "Thank you, Kaiba. I never knew you were so kind."
Seto smiled back condescendingly at her. "I just don't want people to be destroying my property anymore."
The moment she left, he withdrew his mobile phone and punched in a number. "Take charge of the matters in the office. Any meetings should proceed without me. I have far more important things to take charge of."
"And if there's a need for the office to reach you?"
"I'll call when I feel I need updating. Otherwise, don't bother me."
Seto looked out as the sun shyly crept over the horizon. He smiled a small smile, one hand reaching up to the locket hanging from his neck. Don't worry, Mokie. We'll see the sunrise together again.
