Glass
"And again, I'm truly sorry it took a few days longer than expected. But they're here now. Let me know if something doesn't fit."
Seto nodded and tugged on the ends of his sleeves. After almost a year in pajamas, wearing a button-up was confining, and at the same time, one of the best sensations Seto had experienced in a while. Whether mental or actual, Seto didn't care. He had an entire dresser of non-silk clothing.
Pegasus took a step back and gave Seto a quick look head to toe. "It hasn't been that long, but this look is a startling difference."
"A normal haircut, contacts, and casual clothing?"
"It's uncanny how different you look."
Seto shook his head and glanced over to Mokuba's room, waiting for him to come out in one of the new outfits. Pegasus picked out much more casual clothing for Mokuba than he had for Seto, t-shirts and jeans, mostly. Seto had a few pairs of jeans in his stack, but only one t-shirt, and that had sleeves that went down to his wrists. And his eye exam a few days back resulted in a prescription for contacts, which Pegasus had fulfilled without delay. Mokuba just needed glasses to read.
"And you're sure these are the only snack foods he'll want? I can go get more."
"He doesn't need more junk," Seto said. "You brought plenty."
"Let the boy have his holidays. It's the last one for a while."
"I'm letting him have it." Seto tapped his foot on the floor and the taps echoed. He had thought socks were a big step up, but shoes were all the better.
Mokuba came out of his room and held out his hands. "Look, Seto! Normal clothes!"
His t-shirt was striped blue and green, paired with jeans and tennis shoes. Mokuba had pulled his hair back—which he had been doing with a lot more frequency than normal—but other than that, was dressed like he would have been back home.
"And wow, you look weird without the glasses," Mokuba said.
"They're in my room. I'm sure you'll see them tonight."
Mokuba smiled and stared at Seto for a moment. "You look so normal now."
"Did I look that bad before?"
"No, just different. Your face looks all naked."
Seto laughed. "This is how I've looked for your entire life."
"I know," Mokuba said, walking up and putting his hands on either side of Seto's face, which he didn't need to stand on his toes for anymore. "You look normal."
And the way he said it that time more clearly conveyed what he meant. They reached the point of things feeling normal.
The need for visible power plays was gone.
And it only took ten months.
He could only hope that in another ten months, he and Mokuba would be home.
But of course, he thought, leaning out of Mokuba's hands and glancing at Pegasus, if they managed to get out without killing Pegasus, they could never go home. Even if he ended up arrested, he had resources. He could see them locked away until his release, or until their death.
"Everything all right, Seto?" Pegasus asked.
Seto blinked and nodded. "Fine. Have you mentioned a duel to Yugi yet?"
"Not yet. We'll see how tonight goes, how he interacts with Téa and our Ryou. But you two still haven't played. You're supposed to be practicing, Kaiba-boy."
"It hasn't been that long since I've played."
Mokuba's calm faded into a forced, closed-mouth smile. He walked away from the conversation and over to the kitchenette to pour himself a glass of water. They still hadn't played for a reason.
"Even so, you should brush up on your skills. Don't worry about the theatrics. It'll just be a few guards and me watching on the cameras. Although if you want a trenchcoat, I'd be glad to track one down for you."
Seto rolled his eyes and messed with his sleeves again. The shirt felt stiff. Seto doubted that Pegasus had them starched, but compared to the silk outfits, it was restrictive. He would readjust, just like Pegasus planned for him to do for everything else.
It didn't matter at this point. Anything to gain Pegasus's trust.
"Shouldn't you be counting down to the new year?"
Pegasus glanced back to the clock. "I suppose we are getting close to that time. Keeping the others waiting may reflect poorly on me." He headed toward the door and paused to wave to Mokuba. "Goodbye, little frog. I shall see you in the new year!"
The smile Mokuba sent to Pegasus was large and fake. Pegasus didn't seem to mind it, but Seto waited for the door to close and the inevitable, "You should've backed out of this Yugi thing."
"It's a favor for Pegasus."
"It's a favor for yourself. You're being stupid."
Mokuba glanced up at the nearest camera and turned his back on it. There was another one almost across from him, but Seto stood between that camera and Mokuba, so it wouldn't be able to see his face. Seto's face was in clear view. He would need to be more careful with his words.
"Muto needs help," Seto said, forming the words clearly so even a low-definition camera would have a good chance of picking them up. "I can help him."
"What about me, Seto? How are you going to help me?"
"Sounding a little selfish there, kid."
Mokuba's expression darkened. He crossed his arms and lifted his chin to Seto. "You're going to screw this up."
"I'm not."
"You are. He's going to move you back downstairs and I'll never see you again. Is that what you want? For you? For me?"
"Of course not."
"So what are you doing? This is a mistake."
Seto shook his head. "I know what I'm doing."
"You're going to get yourself killed. And then what? What am I supposed to do without you? You're all I've got."
Seto stepped forward but Mokuba stepped back. So he wasn't ready to end the conversation. He wouldn't accept vague comforts to mask the fact that Seto still planned to visit with Yugi whenever Pegasus allowed it.
"Pegasus is going to listen in on us," Seto said. "I'm not going to say anything I shouldn't."
"You do what he wants and he gets jealous. You do what he expects and he gets angry. Has talking to Ryou and Joey proved nothing? Just work on your relationship with him. Get that right first."
Seto shook his head. "How long do you think that would take? How long are you willing for it to take?" How long are you willing to stay here without taking a risk?
"It's better than you dying."
"That won't happen."
"Because you can predict Pegasus so easily?" Mokuba said. Maybe it was the new clothes or the position, but something about the way he stood emphasized how skinny he was. Seto had been equally thin at that age, but the stress of their current situation reflected on Mokuba's form.
"And you think avoiding things is going to help?"
"I want to keep you breathing and out of a dungeon."
Seto turned his head to either side, taking in the general view of the room before returning to his fix on Mokuba. "This is one, a nicer one, but one nonetheless."
He took a step forward and this time, Mokuba didn't move back. "Trust me. I promised you, didn't I?" He put his hands on Mokuba's shoulders. "I'm looking out for you first. The more people who go along with him, the better."
"You just got up here."
"I'm not going anywhere. Trust me."
Mokuba shrugged out of Seto's hold and turned away, facing the camera again. "Do you want to stay up tonight?"
They had about an hour until midnight, which Seto never cared about before. Maybe just for business, marking the beginning of a new quarter, but that was no longer part of his decision making. It might never be a part of it again. Everything would just be based around whether or not Pegasus wanted it to happen.
Seto ran his fingers back through his hair. They had to get out of this before it went any further. How long would it take before Pegasus had them all convinced that there was nothing left? Until technology surpassed Seto's abilities, making it impossible for him to find work once outside?
Mokuba grabbed a bag of chips from the table and carried it over to the couch. He sat where Pegasus usually did, facing away from the television, and Seto stared at him, and then the arrangement of the furniture.
"We should move the couches," Seto said. "So one isn't backed to the television."
"He probably did it this way so we can't watch TV while he's talking."
"We're not going to watch while he's talking, and he has to move when he turns on a movie. Might as well save him the trouble."
"By moving things from the way he set them up?" Mokuba said. He ripped open the bag and popped a chip into his mouth, settling more deeply into the couch as if to answer Seto.
"It means he wouldn't have to squeeze beside you on the couch when you watch a movie."
"If you want to rearrange stuff so badly, why not wait until it's not a holiday? We're getting a holiday alone. A crummy holiday, but still."
"Fine," Seto said, taking the seat across from Mokuba. "You win."
"It's not the only thing I should win on."
Seto shook his head and debated making a pot of coffee. He decided against it since Mokuba would want to go to bed and he couldn't stay up reading with Mokuba in the room. He should have asked for a desk lamp. He would need to remember that one. Or at least a clip-on light for his books.
"How long are you going to carry on with this?" Seto asked.
"Until you admit that I'm right."
"You're being ridiculous."
"Am not. I've been up here a lot longer than you have. And he doesn't even trust you."
"The point is to prove he can trust me," Seto said. He went over to the kitchen for something to snack on to tame the craving for a late-night coffee and ended up grabbing a box of crackers. He checked the box for a peanut warning and didn't find one. Pegasus had done well at checking the labels on what came in.
"Do you want this to become our normal?" Seto asked. He thought back to Christmas and to how he didn't even question any of Pegasus's actions because of their simplicity. Pegasus was winning just by making them forget there was a fight to be fought.
Mokuba moved a hand over his mouth and scratched at his nose while he said, "He needs to think everything is normal. You're not helping that."
"I'm trying to get us home," Seto said, turning his face down to one of the pillows on the couch and messing with it while he spoke to keep his face shadowed. At least the glass room only had the one camera. Keeping track of three was as tiring as constantly dealing with Pegasus.
"Me too," Mokuba said. "And I've been doing a better job of it."
Seto sat down, propping a foot on the coffee table. "You've been working with less restrictions. Of course your progress seems better." He paused to look away from the camera. "He initially predicted I'd be there for two years."
"That would've sucked. How 'bout you don't get sent back down there for that long?"
Seto's breath sounded more like a laugh. "I'm not going to. Do you really have that little faith in me?"
"It's just all this," Mokuba said. He ate a couple more chips and stared at the black television. "I'm really scared."
"You know we're going to get out of this."
Mokuba tilted his head. "I guess? It's been so long, Seto. The longer we're here, the less likely it seems. No one is looking for us. No one is coming to help us."
"This won't last forever," Seto said. The words were a poor source of comfort. What did forever really mean to them? Pegasus had already stolen so much of their lives. Escaping with him still alive meant remaining a prisoner, always hiding, always on edge, always wondering if he was around the next corner. And if they killed him, then they would have to live with that, actually being guilty of what Pegasus accused them of.
Seto could handle it. Mokuba couldn't.
This didn't need to be on Mokuba.
"Would it really be so bad?" Mokuba asked. He lifted his gaze to Seto and put down the bag of chips. "Once he trusts us. You wouldn't have to work all the time and no one else would try kidnapping me. We could do stuff. Try being happy."
"We'd be prisoners."
"We could make it work."
"Is this what you want?"
Seto set down the crackers and pulled his knee onto the couch to face Mokuba. The confession had brought fear around the lines of Mokuba's eyes, like he was waiting for Seto to snap at him for even considering staying. How had Pegasus managed to do this to them? To make living as a prisoner seem better than an alternative?
"Maybe you're right," Seto said. "Maybe giving in would be simpler. But I want more for you than this, than he will be able to offer you." Seto leaned in, almost deciding to take Mokuba's hand, but ended up leaving his own still. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise. Unless I know something is a hundred percent, I'm not taking any chances."
"Okay. Be careful?"
"Of course."
"I'm really not kidding, you know. If you get sent back down there, I'm never going to forgive you for it."
Seto counted down from three for Mokuba's follow-up, "Okay, I'd forgive you eventually. But I'd be very angry about it for a long time."
"I know. After this, I'm done asking to see people."
Mokuba picked up the bag of chips again. "After this you'd better be done with all the games for a while. New year, new start and all that."
"Are you making a resolution this year?" Seto asked.
Shaking his head, Mokuba said, "Seems pointless now, like wishes on birthday candles."
"You're too young for that kind of cynicism."
"I'll pretend not to remember you at fourteen then."
"You were six. How much can you really remember?"
Mokuba snorted. "A lot, you grouch-miser."
"Careful, you're starting to sound like our host."
"I know," Mokuba said. He turned back to face the television once again. "That's the idea."
Thanks for reading! You all are amazing as always!
You can expect an update on Wednesday, July 13th.
