Quick Recap: Seto surprises Sephy with her sweet, romantic date in front of the fireplace in the library. They have a nice dinner, mouth-watering dessert, and top the night off with a make-out session. Seto also feels a little bit better after Sephy explains that she is on the same page as Seto with how fast they should move, but doesn't tell him that she secretly does wish they had a little bit more to their relationship than they do. The date is cut short when Mokuba walks in on the pair while they're in the process of making out, and informs them that Yugi and Joey are headed over, and that he has plans with Chou the next day. Seto decides he's had enough of their date, and the two of them snuggle up on the couch to do some reading in front of the fireplace.
Disclaimer: We do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! nor do we own the items or settings where this story takes place. All we own is the idea for this nifty little story and our original characters. Please don't sue, as all you will get from us is a can of tuna and a plastic fork.
Title: Clarity
Chapter: Down and Out
Chapter Written By: Peggi
Edited By: Dante
Dedicated to: Duelist Amy from Quotev
Mokuba waited for Joey and Yugi to show up, and the moment he saw them walking down the driveway, he ran outside to greet them. Being held up in the house was starting to make him feel a little closed in, so he was grateful that his friends at least didn't mind showing up and spending some time with him.
"Hey, Mokuba!" Yugi was the first to greet him, "how are things going with that stalker? Joey filled me in on everything. Did Kaiba ever figure out who was doing it?"
"Nah, he's still looking into it but he's taking a little break right now. He'll figure it out though. I just hate being all cooped up at home. I'm hoping in a couple weeks when the tournament happens, I can still go. I really don't want to miss out on it, you know?"
Joey just rolled his eyes as they walked inside, "he shouldn't make you miss out on something like that just because of some creep. It's not like you haven't had problems like this before. Just tell him you'll stick with us and bring one of those fancy bodyguards. No one will mess with you if you've got a big guy with a gun following you around."
The tree sat down in front of a video game and Mokuba handed out controllers to his guests, "yeah, that's what I said. After everything that's happened I get why he's worried, but I'm practically a grown-up now. I haven't had something bad happen to me in forever and I know how to take care of myself."
"Well," Yugi thought for a minute as the game started up "maybe he could go with you and then he'd feel better about it. He'd at least know for a fact that you're safe."
"He doesn't want to be out in the public eye like that. I just hope we catch this jerk by then."
Seto could hear Mokuba's friends come in, and he sighed heavily at knowing that Joey was in the house again. At least Mokuba was happy, though, so that's what mattered the most. He could deal with his dislike of him for his brother. He could hear them talking about the tournament as they headed up the stairs, and he felt a little bit guilty about his thoughts on the matter. He knew that his brother really wanted to attend, but if he didn't figure out who was after them by that time, he didn't really think it was the best idea to let him go. He knew he was probably just being paranoid, but with the track record they had already, he knew that keeping him out of it would be best.
"Sephy?" he closed his book, holding his place with his finger.
"Yeah?" she did the same, a smile on her face.
"What do you think about this whole tournament business? Mokuba really wants to go, but I don't think it's safe for him to attend. I could easily send a bodyguard with him to watch over him, but I don't know that he'd actually keep himself in plain sight. He has a habit of slipping security every chance he gets. You talk to him, probably more than I do, so do you think I'm just being overprotective?" he usually wouldn't ask anybody at all for help with Mokuba, but what he said was true. Sephy and Mokuba did talk an awful lot, and so if she felt that he would stick to the plan and stay with security, it was something he'd at least think about over the next week or so.
"Well, he definitely hates to be followed around, but he really wants to go to this tournament. I think you should let him go. Just turn on the GPS on his phone, send someone from your security team to watch him up close, and maybe another one to follow him that he doesn't know about. If it would make you feel better, I could go too and keep an eye on him. I know he wouldn't go off and hide from me."
"You do realize that you'll most likely be harassed by reporters, don't you? I don't know if you've kept up with the papers, but reporters are still interested in finding out who you are, and you being seen at the tournament with Mokuba will just give them all the more reason to follow you around."
"I figured as much. It's fine. They won't get anything out of me, and I know there will be lots of reporters at the tournament anyway. That doesn't matter to me, as long as I know Mokuba is safe."
"That would make me feel a lot more comfortable, knowing that he's there with you."
As if right on cue, Seto's phone rang, and as soon as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, he felt anxious. It was the same caller, and Sephy picked up on it right away.
"Let me answer," she offered, holding her hand out.
"No, this is my problem," Seto hesitated for a moment before answering, but before he could say anything, Sephy grabbed the phone from him.
"Who are you?" Seto was angry with her for grabbing his phone from him, and even more annoyed with the fact that he couldn't hear what was going on on both ends of the line.
"Yes, this is Sephy, and I don't like you hacking into phones and computers and treating people I care about like shit. So tell me, who is this? What do you want?"
Seto tried to take the phone from her, but she stood up and held her hand out, creating distance between them even when he stood and tried to grab the phone back.
"No, I'm not afraid of you. Why should I be? Do you really think a few creepy-ass phone calls are going to freak me out?"
"Sephy, stop!" Seto wasn't much for begging, but he really didn't want this to be made worse.
"Well, if you have so many connections, why are you wasting your time making phone calls? Why don't you just meet me somewhere and be an adult about this? I'm not worried about your threats, because if you really wanted to hurt any of us, you'd be doing something other than - hey!" Seto cut her off by grabbing her wrist and pulling her towards him, grabbing the phone away.
"Stop calling this number. I'm going to have my number changed, and I expect to never hear from you again. Is that understood? If I find out who you are, I'll have you thrown in jail for the rest of your life!" he threatened.
"Keep your little pet on a leash, Seto Kaiba. I won't allow your bitch to disrespect me, and she will regret those words. You all will."
With that, the caller hung up, and Seto was left with chills. He gave Sephy a dirty look and sat back down, staring at his phone. He was so furious with her that he couldn't even think of what to say to her.
"Stop playing his stupid little game, Kaiba! Don't let him feel like he's winning! All he's done so far is get real fancy with the technology. If he could hurt you for real, he'd be doing something else with his time. He's just trying to psych you out by making you think that he-"
"Are you insane?! I've had people after me for most of my life, and this isn't some little game you can toy around with! Sephy, you could get hurt! Mokuba and I could get hurt! Do you not realize what you've just done?!"
"Hopefully, pissed him off way more than it pissed you off. Think about it. You have your security guys following me around, right? So if he's mad enough, maybe he will try something in person. He'll get mad and screw up and get himself caught."
"I can't protect you if you're being reckless, Sephy. What did he say to you?"
"He just asked if I was me, and then he said he wants to make you and everyone you care about suffer for 'what you've done', whatever the hell that means. He said he was supposedly going to use his connections and my family was going to pay for me disrespecting him. Whatever. My family? I only have Joey and his parents and his sister here, everyone else is out of the country. Joey can take care of himself and I don't see what he could possibly do to anyone else. Joey's dad is about to go to rehab and that's out of Domino, so good luck to him on that."
"Rehab?" that somehow stuck out to Seto.
"Well, yeah. That's why I'm here. I'm in Japan to try and help Joey get his dad in rehab for his drinking. He's a mean drunk, and it's getting worse off for him, so Joey asked me to come back here to try and help him get his dad put in rehab for it. Why did you think I was here?"
"It never really occurred to me to ask. You said it was for some family problems, and I didn't think it was my place to ask questions."
"It's not," Joey had been listening from the doorway.
"Eavesdropping on our conversations, Wheeler?" Seto asked him with a cold tone.
"I wanted to talk to my cousin, and I walk in to hear my name in your mouths. Real nice, telling my personal business to this jerk, Seph."
Sephy just rolled her eyes, "he's an important part of my life now, Joey. He gets to know some of the basics. It's not like I'm big on secret-keeping, anyway. So, what did you need to talk to me about?"
"I dunno, is what I say private, or are you going to run to rich boy here and tell him everything I say?" Joey was thoroughly pissed off for something that he didn't tell anyone but his closest friends to be leaked to someone he really hated, and he was feeling very defensive at the moment.
"Joey, cut it out. We can go talk in private if you want. I'm sorry if I made you mad. It's not like I really know to keep that stuff to myself, I mean, I talk about my own parents too. Besides, if you weren't standing there for long, you wouldn't know what brought you and your dad up in the first place. Creepy caller guy called back and I think I ticked him off."
"Yeah, well he's not the only one. Ya know, you used to be such a nice girl and then you started talking to this jackass here, and now you've changed."
Seto had finally had enough of the name-calling, "get out of my library," he stood up to make sure that Joey knew he was serious.
"Or what?" Joey stepped inside, seeing how far he could push him.
"Or I'll remove you myself, and you won't be welcome here anymore," Seto really didn't want to get into any type of confrontation, but he wasn't going to let someone walk all over him in his house.
"Joey, just leave," Sephy sighed, standing up and feeling like she was about to have to pull the guys off of one another.
"Figures you'd take his side," Joey gave her a dirty look to let her know how unhappy he was with the situation.
"It's his house, his rules, and you're being disrespectful. I was the one who said something about your dad, so you shouldn't be taking it out on him."
Joey took a few more steps towards them, not really caring at that point what happened, "yeah, well you wouldn't be acting like this if he hadn't mind controlled you to be this way. He just ruins everyone around him with that crappy attitude. I'm surprised Mokuba is as good a kid as he is, with a brother like that."
Of course, Seto wasn't going to allow Joey to talk about his brother like that, so he started walking heatedly towards him, ready to give him a good ass-kicking, but before he had a chance, Sephy jumped over the back of the couch and caught Joey off-guard, giving him a good punch in the face. Seto was a little caught off-guard too, but he pulled Sephy back, who was ready to go for another swing at the blonde, and he shoved Joey hard towards the doorway.
"Out of my library, out of my house, don't you dare let me catch you back here again! Do you understand me, mutt?"
Joey wiped at the blood that was coming from his nose, and turned around to head out when he saw Mokuba and Yugi just staring at the whole scene with their mouths agape.
"Whatever, at least I don't have to be anywhere near you," he directed at Seto, feeling a little bit embarrassed and wishing he could haul off and hit both Sephy and Seto for it.
Mokuba and Yugi weren't really sure what to do or say, but Mokuba felt a little bit hurt that Joey had made a comment about his big brother like that, but also wasn't really sure how the whole thing had been started. He knew that Joey had a temper, but he knew that his brother did too. Either way, he was on his brother's side, and he took a step inside the library to let Seto know he wasn't angry with him for what he just witnessed.
"Lousy git!" Sephy yelled out in English, hoping that her cousin could hear her as she shook her hand to try and make the pain go away in it.
Seto grabbed Sephy's hand and took a look at it, "clearly, the temper runs in your family."
"Yeah, well you were about to pummel him on your own anyway, I just thought I'd save you the trouble. Besides, I'm pissed off enough today with people messing with you, and what he said about Mokuba..." suddenly, her attention turned towards the younger boy, who still had a hurt look on his face, "oh, kiddo. Don't listen to what he said. He was just being an ass. You turned out just fine, and you have a great big brother. He's done a great job taking good care of you. Joey just doesn't know when to not say things he shouldn't. Don't take it personally."
"I know...so what happened, anyway? Did he tell you his theory?"
"Theory?" Seto and Sephy questioned at the same time.
"Yeah, he came down here because we were talking and he thinks that maybe the person who keeps calling us might work for some company that we didn't sign on with lately. I mean, you remember how much Pegasus had it in for us at Duelist Kingdom, so maybe if you look into all the companies you refused to have meetings with lately you can figure out who is doing this. He said there has to be a reason. He just really wants me to be able to go to the tournament, so everyone is pulling together to figure this whole thing out."
Seto was a little huffy over Joey trying to stick his nose in their business, especially after what he'd just said, "we've already figured out a way for you to be able to attend the tournament safely, Mokuba. I don't know why he thinks he needs to involve himself in our affairs, but I've already considered that. I have my staff at KaibaCorp looking into the records of every shareholder and company owner we've recently denied, and so far they've come up with nothing."
Yugi hated to get in the middle of something like this, but he felt he needed to stand up for his friend, "it is his business, though, Kaiba. Sephy is his cousin, she's his family, and he has to look out for her. Even if she would rather be on your side when the two of you get into it, they're still family. Just like you watching out for Mokuba to keep him safe, he does the same for her."
"It was my fault the fight got started. I was sharing 'family business' with Kaiba, but Joey overreacted. I wish he'd just let certain things go and stop causing so much conflict. I get that all of you guys aren't friends, but he should at least make more of an effort."
"Well I certainly don't want to be friends with that loser," Seto threw his two-cents in.
Sephy just laughed, "no, but at least you've been holding your temper around him. He could do the same, if he really does care about me like Yugi says he does."
Yugi laughed too, "Joey holding his temper? That would take some real magic!"
Seto just rolled his eyes, "you and your constant talk of magic."
He had finally decided he had enough of this conversation, and just walked past Yugi and Mokuba, and headed upstairs, leaving Sephy to finish the conversation. He was annoyed with the fact that Joey had barged in, caused a scene, upset Sephy, brought up his family, and now he just wanted to be completely alone for a little while.
Peggi: Welp, I've been having some really severe anxiety issues, so I used some inspiration from Duelist Amy for part of this chapter! I did change up the fight between Sephy and Joey a little bit to make it a little less comical than we'd discussed, only because I did need some sort of real conflict to initiate the next chapter, BUT I still included Sephy going off on Joey and her comforting Mokuba a little afterwards, so I hope you liked it! And I hope everyone else enjoyed this chapter too. It gives a little bit of insight into how Sephy reacts to trying to protect Seto, and the next chapter is going to be quite interesting! We won't be finding out who the hacker is for a while, buuuuuut I have some special plans for the next one, to get inside of the hacker's head a little bit! Huuuuge thank you to each and every one of you who has left me your thoughts on the story, who have been reading so far, and as always, if you'd like to see something in the story, just let me know! I aim to please!
miaandB: I do too! It humanizes them a bit, and I really love seeing that other side to Seto. He's still a badass and he still shouldn't be messed with, but it's nice to see him open up and be a little bit more caring towards someone other than Mokuba. It just takes him some time, is all
Guest: So glad you loved it, and I hope you enjoyed this one as well! It's taken some time for him to get comfortable around Sephy, but I think that now that he is, it'll just keep getting better. He's already starting to feel some loyalty and concern for her, and I think his reaction to her talking to the hacker on the phone kinda shows that, too!
ScarletBelle87: I've missed seeing your name in my reviews! I'm so glad I didn't lose you as a reader! I was a bit worried for a little while there! That's definitely how I want people to feel about her, and I want people to question her a bit. It would be possible for her to still be in charge of everything, even if she's not the one making the calls, but it would be possible for it to be any one of the villains from the past, too! I love how inquisitive you are about it, and although I won't give away any spoilers, it's going to be hard to actually pinpoint who it is until the big reveal. I want everyone to question motives for people. Like, could it be Sephy? Is she really too good to be true? Could it be someone like Pegasus or some other seemingly irrelevant villain from the previous seasons? Could it be someone who you'd never think would do something like this, like one of Yugi's group? I really want people to wonder, and Seto to start questioning things too! That's what makes my villain so perfect, is you never really know for sure until I decide to reveal it! We're about to get into some really deep psychological stuff, though, so it should get pretty good!
