Breakfast and introductions to Basil ;) I'm actually a super nerd when it comes to prehistoric creatures, so some of that shines through in this chapter. All info was checked by google and confirmed. So by the end of this, you'll have learned something about prehistoric whales. Enjoy.
-BB
Kaiba woke up alone. His phone was missing, but clothes had been stacked neatly on the other side of the bed with a scrap of paper on top.
Seto,
Took your phone to charge in the kitchen, and went to put your clothes in the wash. Here's some spare shorts you can use until they're done. Stuff in the bathroom if you want a shower. I'll be downstairs. I heard Dad get up a while ago, which means breakfast.
❤️ Flynn.
He showered and changed into the clothes she'd left him, a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt that read: My life is in ruins- I'm an archaeologist with a picture of a rubbled building.
'What a dork.' He thought, though it was unclear if it was at her for owning such a shirt or for him for wearing it.
There was a hair brush and other items he helped himself too. He didn't use her toothbrush, but he stole some of her mouthwash with a mental note to get some supplies to use should he stay over again. Feeling better, he headed for the stairs. There was music coming from the kitchen.
Kaiba came in to see Flynn well deep into a string of dances the brunet recognized from Fortnite. Her father was in an Union Jack apron with a spatula in hand, an amused smile on his face while he watched his daughter.
"Come on Daddy! You never dance with me!" She whined.
"Well of course not dear I'm not even wearing my…" The man sashayed his hips. "Leotard."
"You're a bloody leotard." They laughed. Kaiba did too, it was a bit contagious. Flynn perked immediately.
"Good morning, gorgeous! Didn't wake you did we?"
"No, on my own, which I'll admit is pleasant."
She gave him a smile as she approached for a kiss. "Good. You want tea? I just made a pot."
"Well, when in London."
She giggled. "Hungry?"
"Not yet, but after some tea, I might be." He pressed a kiss to her hair and moved to sit at the barstools along the island.
"You want a tea, Daddy?" Asked Flynn as she pulled out a few cups to use.
"Well sure, you know how I like it."
The woman poured in a splash of milk into a cup, with a bit of sugar before pouring in the tea and stirring.
She offered it to her father before moving to the island to sit with her lover.
"Always better when someone else makes it." Said the Professor as he took a sip, only to gag and give a sour expression at his daughter.
"That is nasty."
Flynn curled her face back. "You're fucking welcome!"
"Did you put the milk in first?! That's disgusting!" Said the man as he threw the tea in the sink.
"What? No!" But her glance at the brunet said differently.
"And you call yourself English." He teased her.
"Quite right!" Said Mike with a firm look. "I need at least three lines from 'God Save the Queen' immediately, young lady."
"Do what?" Scoffed Flynn, but Mike just pressed his hands to his hips expectantly. "UGH!"
The woman rolled her eyes and mumbled a few words before speaking up at her father's expectant motion.
"...Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen..."
"Bien joué, chéri." Said the Father with a chuckle. Flynn scoffed and rolled her eyes, sipping her tea.
"Okay… so. What's the agenda?" She leaned back to read the fridge.
"The pool is getting done today. Once they arrive they're going to close off the back yard." Said the brunet.
"How long will they be here?" Asked the woman.
"They're due at 10, and they'll probably be a few days. They'll clean and treat the pool when they're done to prep it for the season." Said the CEO.
"Wonderful, thank you darling. Then we still have all the unpacking to do from the delivery yesterday… and the pod. I know one of those crates is going to need that dolly. I should see when Ryou will be over…"
"They'll be over for breakfast, all of them. Should be along any moment." Said Mike dismissively.
"All of them?" Asked Flynn slowly.
"Well yes, Ryou, Tito, and Bakura." Said the Professor.
Flynn looked to the brunet, who shrugged. "I'll behave if he does."
"Come now darling, you know he won't. Please?" Begged Flynn.
"Why do we tolerate him again?" Replied Kaiba dryly.
"For Ryou and Tito's sake." Said the woman.
"Not a fan?" Asked Mike, looking at the blue eyed man.
Kaiba had only to look up to see her father shared the same sentiment. "You could say that." He replied.
"Well when Ryou asked, he seemed uncertain if he'd come with. Perhaps we'll get lucky." Said Mike with a lift of his brows before returning to face the stove.
"Now! How does everyone like their crepes? My darling daughter shall receive only the finest chocolate, as she demands. What would you like, Seto?"
He was going to answer, but the front door was thrown open and Fynn slouched.
"Papa Mike I'm back!" Called Tito as his tiny feet pounded on the hardwood before sliding across the floor on his knees and grinning up at the cook.
Mike grinned. "Oh good! I missed you! I was just making crepes." He bent and scooped the boy up and held him to one hip. "Have a guess what you'll have on yours?"
"Raspberries." Said the boy in a dramatic growl.
"Raspberries." Mimicked the man before dropping one on the boy's cheek and causing his cackle.
"It's a sound and a fruit!" Said the boy through his giggles.
"That it is! That it is! Come now, you going to help me cook?" Asked Mike to the child as Ryou and Bakura wandered in.
"Don't teach the boy that, it's women's work." Said the spirit before stopping short as he spied the brunet at the bar.
"Well men cook in this house, don't we, love? Come on, you know I saw your apron when I was digging for this." Said Mike dropping the boy to the floor and pulling on the bottom drawer beside the stove. Out came a Green and orange apron with a -T- on the front and a row of pockets at the waist. The boy grinned brightly as Mike put it on.
"Samesies!" Said the boy excitedly as his grandfather stood.
"Samesies." Confirmed Mike before smiling at Ryou who had a barstool for the boy to use. "Perfect! Thank you, Ryou! There's tea there, don't let Flynn make it."
"Oh… did she put the milk in first?" Asked the Light with a look of sympathy.
"Oi! I'll not have this sort of talk in my own Kitchen, thank you very much." Said Flynn.
"Okay, but you did put the milk in first." Said Kaiba with a smirk. Flynn's expression turned betrayed.
"Now what's this? You catch the number of that bus he just threw me under?" Asked the woman with a snort of laughter that quickly multiplied among the group. Kaiba cast a suspicious eye at Bakura, still in the doorway, eyes locked on him.
When their gazes met, Kaiba immediately felt defensive. Bakura was prickly most days, but he looked like he was simmering in his own rage. Flexing his hands in tight fists before releasing them, as if unsure.
Kaiba narrowed his gaze before looking at the boy happily chattering with his grandpa, and back to the spirit. A silent message. Do you really want to ruin this for that boy?
Flynn's hand came to Kaiba's thigh, giving a soft squeeze until his gaze left the spirit to find hers. She gave a soft smile. He gave her a kiss, soft and chaste to her forehead. He had told himself he would not allow Bakura to interfere any more. Flynn was his. Bakura would have to accept it.
"Up late making her praise your new god of choice?" Asked the Yami as he sat down on the other side of the brunet.
Kaiba didn't answer, sipping his tea. He usually preferred coffee in the mornings, but the dark tea was almost as bitter.
"Before I forget, Seto said they're working on the pool today, actually for the next few days. So the back yard is strictly off limits for all, but especially tots." Flynn gave a pointed look to the child.
"Why?" Objected Tito.
"It's dangerous. The yard will be broken open and someone could fall in." Said Kaiba.
"You can watch from my balcony if you're curious, darling." Said Flynn, drawing the boy's wide smile.
"Okay! Thank you uba!" She smiled, staring at the boy for a long moment before ducking her eyes to her tea.
"Alright, well. Today's agenda is unpacking. We've got a bunch of boxes floating around and they all need put away. Basil is still waiting in the pod. We'll literally have to tackle that monster today. Good thing my study's down here. There's no way I'd get him up those stairs." Said Flynn.
"Who's Basil?" Asked the brunet with a quirk of his lips to the woman.
"Basil Fawlty!" Chirped Tito with a wide grin to the blue eyed man. "He's a Bas-Basil- Basilosaurus."
"Wonderful Tito." Praised Ryou, drawing a prideful puff of the boy's chest. Flynn chuckled and nodded in agreement.
"It's a prehistoric whale, you'll see, it's teeth are wicked. We found him quite by accident when digging out the tomb. I called a friend of mine at the Museum in Cairo, and they sent a team out to uncover it. I told them I didn't want a finder's fee, but I'd take a cast of the skull, they gave it to me on a mount with a plaque." The woman gave a humored smile and Kaiba chuckled.
"So you named it."
"Well sure! Easier to talk too that way." She chuckled.
"She says as if that's normal." He replied.
"He says as if it's not. You don't know, maybe he's charming."
(~~~~~~~~~~)
"Just look at that smile." Said the brunet as they hefted the lid on Basil's crate.
"Isn't it wicked?" Asked Flynn, pulling the dolly over and shoving the flat plate underneath. "Push on the front of him, just there, so I can rock it back." The brunet gave Basil a push, and Flynn was able to get the crate lifted.
"Perfect darling. Thank you! Let's get this into the study."
The brunet kept a supportive hand on the crate, and they managed to get it through the halls and into the still packed study. The bookshelves were empty, boxes standing open around the floor. "Lovely, darling, you're a peach. Let's get him out, he's a bit top heavy until we get the stand on him, let me get in there."
Flynn crawled into the crate and pulled out a heavy base with a plaque, offering it out before finding a pole. "This just screws on." She explained, waiting for him to do so before setting the base on the floor beside them.
"Alright Basil, wakey, wakey, lovely!" She cooed as she dug around in the hay. The skull revealed was just shy of 5 feet long, with huge teeth the size of railroad spikes. It was resin, so it wasn't as heavy as it would be if it was still trapped in rock, but it still took them both to get the skull out.
"Just over the post- Just like that. Perfect." Under the jaw and in the skull itself was a niche for the post to fall into. "Have a look around Basil, what do you think?" She asked as she spun the skull until it was fixed to the post. "Pretty good, right?" She asked as she bent to inspect it to ensure it wasn't damaged.
"This was a whale?" Asked Kaiba.
"It was! So just after the dinosaurs there's an era called Paleogene, the first mammals were starting to form and fill the niche's left behind. This one, fell into the ocean."
Flynn flashed a smile. "The whole thing was about 20 meters, so it was huge. Fun things about these guys, is they were loners, no melon, which is what modern whales use for their echolocation. There's later whales that developed it, but it's said Basil didn't possess the social tendencies their modern cousins had." Her hand moved up the smooth top of the skull by example.
"So how did they hunt? If they couldn't echolocate? Old fashioned way?" Asked Kaiba with a smirk.
Flynn chuckled before moving between the sharp teeth to touch inside the jaw. "It's rumored they had a fatty bit of tissue in their jaws they used to find food, but until we find one it's conjecture. We know they were thinner than standard whales. Not a large amount of blubber, their skeleton couldn't hold it, but the time it was here, the weather was warm, the seas were probably rich with life so it may not have been required. They're found all over, but there's been quite a few found in Egypt. More conjecture tells us it may have been a breeding ground. I've asked Basil, but he's been rather tight lipped around the whole thing."
The woman chuckled and looked at the skull and gave it an affectionate pat before moving to dig in the crate. "Oh! There it is!" She came out with a small fused set of bones. "See his little leggie?"
Kaiba had to snort as she waved the comically small limb. It was another copy, obviously, but compared to the skull, it was ridiculously small.
"Well it's supposed to be how you use it."
"That's just it, nobody knows how they used it. Few guesses but nothing solid. From what I heard, there's no reason they should have still had it. There's a few transitional forms that had legs, obviously, but there was plenty of time to get rid of it. The best guess I've heard is because of the way their bodies were built, long and eel-like, they used them to hold their tails together during mating. But again, conjecture. I'd be a great paleontologist."
The brunet laughed with her, and offered the tiny limb back. She hung it off a hook on the post.
"Well at least Dinosaurs didn't have religion to argue over."
"Well that certainly makes things a whole lot easier, doesn't it?"
They exited the study to go out and evaluate the empty pod, Flynn returning the dolly. "Well, this is done. I'll call for it to get picked up. Want a cuppa before we go back to try and tackle that study?" The brunet nodded. A few hours of the hands on work had spurred his hunger, and Mike had promised to keep Tito busy baking treats for everyone to snack on.
They returned to the kitchen, and Flynn dropped in immediately into a dance to the music playing. Her knees bobbing wide and her hands moving to the beat.
The executive's hands caught hers and she flashed a wide grin as she moved her dance to sync with his.
He caught her lips and she hummed and fell still to wrap her arms around his shoulders.
"Ewww! They're snoggin'." Said Tito.
"I know, it's just wretched." Replied Mike with a laugh in his tone.
Flynn giggled and pulled back, those bright emerald pools finding the soft blue of the brunet. "I'll be wretched for you, darling, just ask." Kaiba chuckled, pressing another kiss to her temple.
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
Tea and cookies later, they were in the study, unpacking boxes and boxes of books. They found the books she'd been after the day before, and the brunet had offered to take it to her bedroom. As he passed inside, he saw Bakura and Ryou assembling a bed for Tito. Mike, still clad in his apron, trotted up the stairs and nodded at the brunet as he stepped inside the boy's room with a plate of cookies and a pair of cups on a tray.
"Tea, boys. Always important to take a break. Get yourself collected. Flynn said the biscuits came out quite nice." Said the older man cheerily.
"Oh, thank you Professor. Tea sounds lovely." Said Ryou.
"Speaking of, where is the scank? Off taking the ice King up her ass in some dark corner?" Asked Bakura.
The sound of the tray hitting the floor was followed by the spirit's growl of indignation.
"What's the matter with you, you damn fool? You've gotten tea everywhere!"
"Don't speak about my daughter that way." Said Mike firmly.
"You know what she is, She came back to England knocked up-"
There was the sound of a scuffle, before Ryou called out. "Please Professor! He doesn't mean it."
Kaiba chose to intervene. Bakura was obnoxious but to insult someone to their father was yet another level of low Bakura had reached.
Mike had his hand buried in Bakura's hair, with the spirit pinned on his front with the Professor's knee on his back.
"We've had this discussion Bakura." Hissed Mike. "I don't care if you mean it or not. You will not speak like that about my daughter in my presence, do you understand? I tolerate you for my grandson. That is all."
There was a thick silence before Kaiba spoke, drawing their gaze to the door. "Professor… Is Tito alone in the kitchen?"
Mike seemed to think about it, before looking back to Bakura and shoving his face into the floor before standing and brushing off his apron.
"Uh, yes. I suppose I should get back. Bring the tray down when you're finished, lads." He stepped for the door, and Kaiba stepped aside to allow him through. One last dirty look to the recovering spirit and Kaiba moved to follow the older man.
"Are you alright, Professor?" He asked.
"I'm alright." Said Mike smoothly before offering a half smile. "He just gets under my skin. He's a right nutter."
Kaiba chuckled in agreement. "He always has been."
Mike paused and studied him a moment, his eyes unnerved the CEO. Their color changed all the time, it felt hard to read.
"You knew Ryou?"
"I went to school with Ryou when he stayed during the Exchange Program. I… had some interaction with Bakura then."
To anyone else, this conversation would be almost normal, but to them, it wasn't. They both knew Bakura didn't really exist until a few years ago, but now they both knew they knew.
Mike's voice dropped low. "I wanted to kill him when Flynny first came back… but I couldn't. I had to be there for her. Not that it mattered. He caused so much damage-" Mike stopped himself and waved a hand to dismiss the comment.
"You know about Tito?"
Kaiba nodded.
"You shouldn't."
"You can thank Bakura for that too." Said the brunet.
Mike's lips pursed. "Good on you for not raising to the bait."
"I didn't say that… I was very upset when he said it. Had Flynn not been there, I'm afraid I would have been in the same situation you just left."
Mike hummed, his lips curling a bit in a smile.
"Yes, well, if you find Bakura that offensive, you can't be that bad, can you? I should get back. Come find us if you get hungry. Dinner is at 7." Mike jogged down the stairs and rounded the corner to return to the kitchen. "Oh, Hey!" Kaiba paused as he moved to follow, looking back to the older man.
"Flynn said you have a brother. Invite him over, I'll make an extra plate." Said the Professor with a smile his way before vanishing down the hall.
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