Daisy
When Yugi went upstairs, he found that neither Seto nor Mokuba were in their rooms. He frowned, and started searching through the mansion for them. Although he wasn't too concerned about the brothers at the moment, he was a little anxious over what had been found in the video, and how the brunet would react. In fact, Yugi had absolutely no idea how he'd take it, since he didn't have the slightest clue who the blonde woman was. Finally, he reached the other end of the mansion, where he heard conversing voices wafting from a large, bright room filled with books and beautifully polished furniture. One voice was weak and slightly congested, while the other was gentle and affectionately amused.
"I think you're wrong, ice cream would be great right now."
"It would make you feel worse."
"How could ice cream possibly make anyone feel bad?"
"Lactose intolerance."
"I'm not lactose intolerant!"
"No, but you have pneumonia, kid. Dairy will mess with your mucus production and you'll get even more stuffed up."
"You're stuffed up."
"I disagree."
Yugi couldn't help but to smile, and he hung back for a second, letting the two have another moment of just them. It wasn't like they'd had a whole lot of family time lately. Seto and Mokuba were lounging on a couch facing a giant window that took up the entire wall. Mokuba was lying on his back, his upper body spread out on his brother's lap while his head rested on a cushion against the arm of the sofa. The elder Kaiba was sitting with his legs stretched on the couch alongside Mokuba, with one arm draped across the child's stomach and a very thick book dangling in his hand, which he had probably been reading before bantering with his little brother. He was looking down at the raven-haired kid with a benevolent expression, while Mokuba openly smiled back up at him.
"Oh, Seto, you don't even know what's cool." With a wide yawn, Mokuba stretched lazily and glanced over to where Yugi was standing, his smile breaking into a wide grin as he waved at him. "Hey, Yugi, what's up?"
"How are you feeling this afternoon?" Yugi asked with a smile of his own, momentarily ignoring the unreadable stare the elder brother was giving him.
"I'm okay, I think...I've only been awake for an hour or so." Mokuba rolled over and curled up on his side, and Yugi noticed that Seto's arm reflexively gripped the kid at his movement; apparently, Mokuba didn't miss it either, as he rolled his eyes and pulled the arm more tightly around him like a blanket.
"I'm not going anywhere, Seto. Calm down."
Seto shot a quick scowl down at the kid before turning back to Yugi. "You have the laptop. I'm assuming you found something?"
"Yeah, actually..." Yugi said, and walked over to hand the laptop to Kaiba. "Do you know who this blonde woman is?"
The brunet frowned, and watched the exchange for a few seconds. "That's Roland's wife...she works in the legal offices. What the-wait, is that a gun?"
"Yeah..." Yugi whispered, shaking his head. "Obviously, she didn't kill him, but did he say where he got hurt?"
"His shoulder was gashed open," Seto muttered, narrowing his eyes. He gently pushed Mokuba safely to the side before storming away, obviously on a mission.
"Wait, Kaiba, what are you doing?" Yugi called, frantically glancing from Seto to Mokuba. The elder Kaiba threw a glare over his shoulder, but didn't respond and kept on continuing somewhere else. Yugi hesitated before chasing out after him, following him into his bedroom, where Seto pulled a file off his dresser and sat down on the bed to read it.
"Roland's complaint says that I pushed him, causing him to hit his arm against a sharp edge of something and cut it open. If it was a bullet grazing his arm, then his credibility is shot and I'm off the hook, and all this madness can end. I just need to find a way to force him to admit what really happened, so-"
"Joey's already out working on that," Yugi interjected, wincing as Seto turned another sharp glare at him, feeling the anger filling the room.
"Wheeler is working this out? Do you two have any idea how badly he's going to screw this up for me? He's impulsive and that temper of his will only serve to make everything worse. This is ridiculous, how the hell does anybody expect me to fix all of this when everybody keeps ruining things at every turn?"
He slammed the folder onto his mattress, but Yugi refused to let the anger scare him away. He slowly made his way over to Seto, watching him intently. The blue eyes never stopped flashing, but he didn't make any move to back away or rant anymore.
"I trust Joey. I know he can be brash, but I honestly think that he can do this for you. I also know that you're going to have a tough time accepting this, but even if you don't think of me as a friend, you know you can trust me. I promise you that this will work out just fine," Yugi said, trying to keep his voice both soothing and firm at the same time. He reached out and placed his hand on Seto's arm, and even though the brunet obviously tensed up at the touch, he didn't shake him off or pull away.
Joey had gone back to Lia's place to have her look up where Roland lived, and in return the blonde had stopped by a taco place, bought a box of fifty tacos, and taken the girl along to stake out the man's house with him. The two of them sat in Joey's truck, scarfing down the food and gossiping about what was going on with who at the university.
"Okay, yeah, the idea of your friend taking shots of tequila out of graduated cylinders is hilarious, but where did those things come from in the first place? What kind of nerd just has random science lab shit just sitting around?" Joey demanded, shoving another chicken taco into his mouth. Lia giggled, took a sip of her water, and scrunched up a wrapper before answering.
"Chemical engineering majors..." she told him, laughing. "I'm not entirely sure what that means, but with all the equipment that was lying around, I can't imagine he's too different from a mad scientist. Except for maybe that he's a mad scientist with an affinity for booze." Lia pulled her red hair over one shoulder and looked at the blonde. "Have you ever considered going back to school? Or does working at the campus coffee shop scare you off?"
Joey grinned and sat back in his seat, watching the house. "I just graduated high school last year. I mean, I'm thinking about it, but I've got other things to work out first, you know? Like, where would I live, and how would I pay for it?" He sighed and reached for another taco. "Or how am I supposed to save Kaiba's ass when the jerk who screwed him over apparently doesn't want to show up at any point today…"
"You know, it's really sweet of you to help him out like this. You guys must be good friends."
The blonde choked on a piece of tortilla, and then proceeded to free it with a large amount of soda. "We aren't exactly friends. Kaiba and I have never been able to stand each other."
"Then why are you doing so much for him?" Lia asked, raising an eyebrow as she studied the guy sitting in the driver's seat.
"Well...my buddy Yugi is pretty intent on helping him, and I'm not letting him do this alone. Plus Kaiba's got a little brother who's all mixed up in this, and the kid's pretty cool..." He heaved a sigh. "I don't know. I guess in a weird, twisted, stupid way, he's family. It's complicated and makes my head hurt when I think about it."
Lia giggled softly, but immediately fell silent as a sleek white car pulled up into the driveway. "Hey, I think we've got something." The two watched until Roland stepped out of the car and started to his front door.
"That's our guy." Joey tore off his seatbelt and turned to the redhead. "Okay, I'm going to talk to him. Stay right here and if anything happens-"
"He's unlocking the door. You might want to stop talking now and hurry."
The blonde jumped out hastily, and shouted out at him before Roland could fully open his door. The man turned around and fixed a blank, serious look on Joey, but otherwise made no indication that he even saw him.
"Hey! You and I have some talking to do!"
Roland frowned. "I would doubt that. I no longer work for Mr. Kaiba, and there are some...issues we need to sort out."
"Yeah, I have an issue with you falsely accusing Kaiba of beating the crap out of you."
Roland stiffened and crossed his arms. "Excuse me? If memory serves me correctly-and I know it does-you and Mr. Kaiba aren't even capable of being in the same room as each other for longer than five minutes without an altercation breaking out, so forgive me if I question your allegations..."
"Joke's on you, my record on being around Kaiba without getting in an argument is over fifteen hours."
"I'm assuming this was when he was drugged and therefore, asleep."
"Anyhow..." Joey pressed on casually, deciding against an attempt at confirming or denying that statement as Roland had started to turn away, "I was just wondering, who was that blonde chick who pulled that pistol on you in the basement at Kaiba Corp? And why didn't she kill you?"
The older man froze for a moment, then snapped around to fix his eyes on the blonde, who was glaring determinedly right back at him.
"How do you know about that?"
"Dude. You worked for Kaiba for how long? The guy's so paranoid he's got cameras in every nook and cranny of that place." Joey paused and observed Roland's reaction for a moment, then shoved his hands in his pockets and softened his voice. "Look, we also know that you've got one sick kid and another kid trying to get through school. Even Kaiba said if you'd just discussed this with him, he would've helped you out. So let's start again: blonde woman. Who the hell is she?"
Roland stared for a few more moments, sizing Joey up.
"She's my wife...or ex-wife, I should say."
"Why did she shove a gun in your face?" Joey asked.
"...My younger son's health is about as bad as it could be. Without being able to afford treatment, he won't live much longer. She's scared and worried for him, and resorted to threatening me. I did what I had to do for all of us."
"So you lied about Kaiba assaulting you? Mokuba saw the whole thing, and according to him, you guys struggled, but he didn't lay a finger on you..." Joey trailed off and thought for a few moments. "Let's make a deal."
"What could you possibly do?"
Joey snorted and shook his head. "Hey, don't sell me short. I've got connections. But here's the idea...if Kaiba pays your son's medical bills, will you drop all charges against him?"
"Mr. Kaiba doesn't forgive that easily-" Roland started, gaping at the blonde as if he was insane. But Joey merely grinned and leaned back against the house's siding.
"Nah, I wouldn't expect him to. But thanks your little lawsuit and the charges against him, some people are thinking that Kaiba can't take care of Mokuba. Now, you've worked for him for a long time, so I'm guessing you know him pretty well. What do you think would happen if Kaiba lost his little brother?"
"He...can't..." Roland trailed off, eyeing Joey suspiciously. "What are you saying?"
"If you drop the charges and admit that you lied about what happened, Moneybags will pay your son's medical bills. I can't guarantee anything about the college thing, but I think giving the other kid a fighting chance is good enough, don't you?" Joey was watching him expectantly, waiting for him to take the bait.
And Roland did. "If Mr. Kaiba will do this, then I will drop all charges. But I highly doubt that you will be able to convince him of this."
Joey laughed and took a few steps back, intending to leave. "I highly think that I can...after all, you've got something he wants too."
"I hope you know that Mr. Kaiba will be furious."
"Oh, yeah," Joey agreed nonchalantly as he started down the driveway. "He's probably going to kill me. But he really doesn't have a choice, just like you."
