PART 6:
REUNION
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MOKUBA looked over at Sasha's hunched form, feeling that same anger he always did whenever anyone spoke badly of his brother. It wasn't so much that they were angry with him...but that they were indignant about that anger, as if Seto had no right to encroach upon other people's lives because he wasn't good enough. They treated his youth like a curse.
"He's just how I figured he'd be," Sasha muttered. "Arrogant, mean-spirited, and angst-ridden, just like all every teenager I've ever met...he knew we were sleeping in here, but he goes off the hinges and starts screaming about somebody who's probably a good person but—"
"You know, Sasha," Mokuba interjected, "it's really not a good idea to be ridiculing the richest man in the northern hemisphere in the direct company of his family."
Sasha snapped her head to the side. "You know, you aren't exactly a—"
"I don't care what you think of me," Mokuba said, and his voice was dangerously cold, reminding the one he was speaking to not only that he was Seto's brother, but the stepson of Gozaburo Kaiba. "I'm used to people calling me a spoiled, arrogant, ignorant little brat who has no real worth and only got where he was because he has connections. There isn't anything you could call me that I haven't heard before."
He got up, walking away from his bed and toward the door leading out into the main room where his brother was now conspicuously silent. "But you know, Sasha, what I do care about is what you say about my brother. Maybe you're just tired and maybe you're being bitchy because you haven't had your morning coffee," here he glared hotly at Sasha as if daring her to say anything, "but that doesn't excuse you calling Seto arrogant and mean-spirited. He's one of the greatest men on this earth, and don't you dare tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. If there's anything I'm not anymore, it's naïve. I've seen the scum of society, I know what they're like, and I know beyond any doubt that my brother is not among them."
Henry, sitting beside his wife, raised an eyebrow.
"I've put up with your annoyed looks and your snide comments because you're Noa's mother and he loves you, and that affords you some respect. But I'm not going to let you insult Seto."
Henry closed his eyes for a moment. "You're...older than you should be, Mokuba."
Mokuba frowned. "I know. Too well."
Sasha sighed. "Okay...you're right. I'm just in a bad mood. That isn't really Seto's fault...I mean, he is paying for all of this out of his own pocket...it's not fair of me to belittle him."
Mokuba smiled slightly.
He turned and opened the door.
/\
Seto was standing in front of the window, looking down at the pool, hands in his pockets. His broken phone lay in two halves on the table by an empty coffee mug and a folded newspaper.
Mokuba went immediately to his side, and Seto put a hand on the boy's shoulder. He didn't look at the others as he spoke.
"Funerals aren't depressing to me because they remind me someone is dead. I've dealt with death my entire life, and it's something you become numb to after a while. The depressing part is the way everyone seems to forget all the ill a person did throughout his life."
Sasha raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"
"You no doubt heard my...discussion earlier. I was asked to attend the funeral of one of my employees. That's not exactly an unreasonable request, given that he was in a high position. And no doubt I would have gone, had it been someone else. Probably anyone else."
"I was expected to attend Gozaburo's funeral..." Sasha murmured.
Seto smirked. "This...is different."
"How so?"
"I learned valuable lessons from Gozaburo. Not the way I wanted to learn them, but I learned them nonetheless. And while that does not make up for the way he treated my brother and me, it softens the blow somewhat."
"And I take it the man whose funeral you refuse to go to did not give you such an incentive to think better of him?"
"No, he did not."
"What, exactly, did he do?"
Seto's eyes narrowed. "...It's not my place to say. But regardless of this, had I gone to his funeral as requested, there would be no mentioning of his bad qualities, or what he did that would cause anyone to hate, or even remotely dislike, him. There would be sob stories and promises of reunion when Jesus comes back to this earth with rainbows and lollipops for everyone; there would be reminiscences about all the wonderful things he did, about how he was a shining presence in the life of any person who ever looked at him...and if I were to speak, I would not be allowed to shed light on the truth, to bring to bear what he did to earn ire...they would call me a liar and banish me from their lovely little get-together, and everyone would just hate me...like they always do."
Shaking his head, he turned toward the door. "Well...there's no helping it, I guess...I'm going down to the pool."
Mokuba followed him. "I'll come with you, Seto."
They left the room.
/\
Seto hadn't even had time for a single lap before the hotel received a call asking for him. He was told that everything was up and working again and his chopper was waiting for him.
He dried off, re-dressed, and was on the road in ten minutes. He avoided any semblance of conversation except when Mokuba pointed something out, but that was rare because he, too, seemed distracted and unwilling to talk much.
Sasha and Henry were beginning to understand the seriousness of the situation, and after a while just sank into a silence of their own. Kyle, following his parents' example, sat quietly and looked out the window.
"...Do you have a phone with you?" Seto asked after about ten minutes of complete silence.
Henry fished a cellular phone out of his pocket and handed it to Seto, who nodded, thanked him, and punched in a number. Holding it to his ear, he waited.
"Noa," he said finally, lips curving in a small smirk. "Yes, yes, well...mine broke. Stupidity. Hm? Oh...both, I suppose. Anyway, I just thought I'd call and tell you Mokuba and I are on our way back. Yes, we had some complications, but things are fine now. Oh? Is that right...? Oh, I'll let him say it himself. Yes, I'm sure Mokuba will love the idea. Definitely. All right, then. I'll see—hm? Oh. Well, that you'll just have to wait for. You'll find out soon enough. That won't work on me, Noa. Yes, I'm sure it did, but see, I know your real age. Yes, that does have a lot to do with the potency of whining. Thank you, I am too smart. Fine. Yes, yes, I'll see you soon. I will. Bye."
Flipping the phone closed, Seto handed it back to Henry.
"What idea am I gonna love, Seto?" Mokuba asked, suddenly excited. "What happened? C'mon, big brother, tell me!"
Seto smirked. "Now, now, Mokuba, I can't go ruining the surprise. You'll just have to wait."
Mokuba pouted. "But Seto..." he whimpered, sounding far more pitiful than one would have thought he could. "...I wanna know...pleeeeease?"
Clearing his throat loudly, Seto kept his eyes straight ahead. "Mokuba, that isn't going to work. You'll just have to wait, kiddo."
Pouting, Mokuba turned around to look at Kyle. "I'll get him to tell me," he whispered with a wink. "Just watch. I'm a master at this."
"If you're inviting a challenge, Mokie, you're not going to win. This is a test of wills, and I've a strong one."
Mokuba grinned. "Not against me, you don't."
Seto rolled his eyes. "Fine. Just you try, kid."
Kyle chuckled a little. "I don't know if you can do it."
"Oh-ho!" Mokuba raised an eyebrow. "You don't, huh? Well, then! I'll prove you both wrong!"
"This should be interesting," Henry said.
/\
To say Nathan was smug when Noa finished the Death Note series and started looking online for something else would have been a vast understatement.
"Ha! I've ensnared another victim!" he'd said. "I warned you, Noa. Once you get inside, you never wanna leave."
"Yeah, yeah, so you were right. These are good. But that doesn't mean anything. I have high standards, you know. I'm not going to waste my time with trash."
"Who would? Every respectable manga fan has high standards."
"Yes, well, some people have high standards that actually aren't all that high. Some people...no, most people, I should say, are rather delusional about what the word quality actually means."
"Those aren't the respectable ones. You and I, we're in a special group of people who know quality when they see it. And before you make some sort of snide remark about my work, which I can tell you're thinking of doing, let me remind you that mine was the first series you read, and you seem rather interested in the game Seto made, too. So...that isn't gonna work."
Noa smirked. "Seems you think you know me rather well, eh?"
"I've spent enough time around you guys to understand you, I think. At least on some level. Besides...you've a sarcastic side to you. And if there's one language I know too well, it's sarcasm. I suppose you could blame that on my family."
"Doesn't everyone?"
"Of course! Half the fun of having a family is blaming them for things!"
Noa couldn't argue with that.
After receiving the call from Seto, Noa found himself waiting rather impatiently for his brothers to return. Not only because he was curious about whatever errand they'd been running for the past few days, but because Seto and Mokuba had become an extremely important part of his life, a part he felt decidedly empty without. He thought perhaps he was becoming a complete sap, but also thought that that didn't really matter.
He had a family worth caring about now.
Who cared if he turned soft?
He jumped nearly a foot in the air when the door began to open, and he took a moment to laugh at his own anxiety. He stood up and waited.
The door opened, and his brothers stepped in, followed by a man and blonde boy that Noa didn't recognize. Confusion took the smile from his face, and he raised an eyebrow.
When the woman entered the room...
...Noa actually fainted.
/\
I never expected to add a sixth section to this, but as it turns out...well, it needs to be there. I didn't know, when writing the fifth, that it would go on so long or that tying up loose ends would take so much. I'm not entirely certain where the ending will lie, but it'll likely be in a few chapters...6 or 7, I'd think. But I'm not sure. It might be longer. This project is so much longer than I'd first envisioned, so...you never know.
Also, I'm sorry that this chapter is a little short, but I'm leaving on a camping trip in the morning and need to get packing. I just wanted to update this before I left. So I hope you enjoyed this installment. 'Til next time, take it easy, my lovely readers. And don't forget to leave a review. I love hearing from you guys.
