Wrote this in one day, more on the way hell yeah. good feelings.
Also, Yugioh literally has so many plot variations that I might fluctuate between some when writing the rest
"Children!"
Miss Rui calls, trying to get the attention of the rowdy class. She's one of the orphanage workers, a separate job from the teachers who are mostly volunteers, so it was unusual that she came into the classroom today.
I roll a pencil between my fingers, wondering if I should try and shade in my bad sketch of Masaoka Shiki. We were learning haikus today...well, we had been learning about haikus.
It takes a brief second for everyone to settle down, but eventually, they give her their attention.
Rui clears her throat before continuing, "Today, Mr. Kaiba will be paying us a visit-'' Kaiba? I briefly tuned her out as deja-vu hits me.
Kaiba...It was familiar for some reason. Why couldn't I remember….
"-So be sure to behave!" She finished up with a smile and chatter erupted around us. As Rui left, the teacher closed off class and let us out early due to the circumstances.
I quickly closed my cute strawberry-print notebook and took it with me as I followed the trail of kids out the door. It only took a minute to get to Mokuba's class, where Seto was already waiting.
"Hey Seto!" I greet as I slide up next to him, leaning against the wall on his other side as we watch Mokuba finish packing up his things.
Seto just gives me a tilt of his head, chin tilted down and eyes focused out the window. He's in one of his thinking moods again, so I let him ruminate in whatever goes on in that big brained head and give a quick side-hug to Mokuba as he runs out of his class.
"Risa-nee! Seto-nii!" He calls, and briefly gives Seto a hug on the leg as well.
Mokuba's so sweet… I squeal in my head. I really got blessed with the best brothers. Well, if only one would stop brooding.
"Did you hear about Mr. Kaiba?" Mokuba asks as we start walking to our rooms. I nod my head, already anticipating his question.
Mokuba looks around before turning back to me and whispering, "Who is he?"
I try to remember what Miss Rui had said to our class, along with what the gossip was in the halls, drawing out my words as the memories return, "I'm not sure...I think he's some sort of billionaire that donates to this orphanage."
"What's a billionaire?" Mokuba asks, still at the age of constantly questioning everything.
"A really, really rich person." I answer.
Mokuba makes a small noise of revelation. "Like you and Seto!"
I hold back a laugh while Mokie stares at us with glittering eyes."I wish, but it's even more than that. For example…" I take a quick glance around for ideas, "Mr. Kaiba could buy this entire place. That kind of rich."
Mokuba's eyes widen, and he falls quiet, looking around in deep thought. I look at Seto, but he's still quiet, staring a hole into the ground. He almost misses the entrance of our room, and I have to grab his arm as he walks right by.
"Geez, what has you in such deep thought?" I question as we enter the room. Mokuba's already running over to our lunch stash, usually filled with random things bought from the store or, in the case of today, tuna onigiri that I made the night before.
Japan, surprisingly, didn't have a lot(if any) peanut butter in their stores, so I've had to resort to mainly Japanese dishes. Which is why we mainly bought prepackaged meals from the store.
Food from the orphanage's dining hall wasn't bad, but it was typically just the same thing every day-a bowl of rice and whatever leftover vegetables they had from the day before. Meat usually only came once a week, but it wasn't exactly cooked the best either.
Besides, we just got along with each other better than with the other children. The last time we went to 'attend' dinner, some kid tried to pick on Mokuba and it ended up with a giant food fight that had cabbage sticking on the ceiling, nine cups of spilled apple juice, and a screaming matron.
I obviously had nothing to do with it, but we still were put to bedtime extra early that night.
Yup. Nothing to do with me at all….
"Mr. Kaiba," I snap out of my thoughts as Seto finally speaks, "He's going to come here today for an event."
I nod slowly, "Yes?" The orphanage was invested in by quite a few random individuals, although few and far between ever visited. It was definitely a rare event, but orphanages were one of the best, if not overdone, publicity stunts sure to win the people's hearts. Although if they really had hearts, they would come here and adopt one of us themselves.
I'm pretty sure the orphanage was funneling the money anyway, due to their ties with the local yakuza.
Seto watched me patiently. "He's a renowned chess player, and claims that no one can beat him."
I pause in the middle of sitting down on my bed, let that statement run through my mind again, and stare at him. This better not be what I thought it was. "How do you know that?"
"He was on television one of the nights that you were away," Seto explained, following to sit next to me, "The money he gave to the orphanage came from his chess championship."
Oh...no.
"That wouldn't happen to be the same week you suddenly wanted to buy those playbooks, would it?" I asked, although the drop in my stomach told me I was right.
It had only been a few months after we had moved into the orphanage, shortly after I started gambling at a smaller area and a while before I moved to the 'Gold Pot'. During the time I was gone, I knew that Seto and Mokuba had taken to playing chess together in the classrooms. They had a few game sets like that for the children to use, and Seto took to it like fish to water.
Of course, Mokuba loved anything that Seto liked, so they liked to play together. I wasn't bad at chess myself, and for a few days I thoroughly wiped the floor with both of them, leaving them mopey and determined to 'train' with each other.
The memory of them vigorously playing chess into the night and not letting me watch still makes me laugh. But it was nice at the time that they had something to occupy themselves with while I was gone.
After a few weeks though, Seto had me beat. I went from one-sided victory to drawn out games and deadlocked draws. Finally, the vast majority of my games with Seto turned to losses. What can I say, Seto has always been a genius for his age.
Then, Seto started getting adamant on buying playbooks. I had a good amount saved up by then, and we would frequently go to the local bookstore and buy discounted chess books, which Seto would tear through in a week.
For a good half a year, it was all that Seto did in his free time. After our first year at the orphanage, Seto was already playing in local competitions and quickly moving up. Now, another year later, he was undoubtedly the best chess player in the entire area, although he had kept it pretty discreet and turned down offers for interviews or to join bigger competitions.
And he still liked to play against Mokuba and I, despite our difference in skill. Even if he would never admit it, Seto was always the happiest spending time with us, especially whenever it resulted in Mokuba looking at him like he hung the stars in the sky itself.
I can't lie though, Mokuba is extraordinarily adorable-even if I'm biased-and I would do anything to protect that. I don't doubt that Seto is the same way.
I raise an eyebrow, returning from my nostalgia to confront the current ridiculous situation. "So you're going to play a chess game against him? And what, make him adopt us?"
Seto just smiled, something sweet that briefly made me forget how absurd this whole thing was. He really should smile more, even with his whole 'tough unemotional bastard' act.
"You read my mind, Risa, as usual." He says, satisfied.
Mokuba comes over to give us some onigiri, and I take one with appreciation as Seto continued, "He came here for publicity, but it wouldn't be strange if he did walk out with some children as well. At the least, it could help his reputation."
Mokuba squeezes himself in between us, and I scoot over to make room before looking back at Seto, exasperated.
It was true, objectively. I was sure Seto wasn't the only one with this idea. On my way out of the hall, all that the children could talk about was how anyone that landed with Kaiba would get a first-class ticket out of here to live the good life. That of a young master or mistress, like the movies on tv.
I doubted it, but I also knew that if anyone would be able to accomplish it, it would be Seto.
I sighed.
"Do whatever you want," I said, unwrapping my cold lunch, "I'll support you anyway."
I hesitate for a second, but the words spill out quieter than usual. "I just wish you would tell me these things a little earlier."
It's true that I wasn't entitled to any of Seto's thoughts, but it hurt slightly that he didn't think to tell me about this earlier, especially since he had been planning it for so long. We grew up together, we raised Mokuba together, we went through hell and back together, but it seemed like Seto still didn't trust me enough to tell me this.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Seto freeze, like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I take a bite of the onigiri, trying to suppress the growing lump in my chest. He looks at me, and I can read the subtle panic behind his blank face.
"Risa...I didn't mean…" He floundered for a second, his eyes wide and gestures wild. Despite my own mood, the out of character scene makes me crack a smile-although I hide it by taking another bite of my food.
Seto sees it anyway and huffs. "Don't laugh at me, I'm being serious."
"I'm not." I say, although my tone wobbles dangerously. I quickly shove more onigiri into my mouth to shut myself up.
"I...I just didn't know if it would happen. Next time, I'll tell you. Sorry." He finishes weakly, but it's more than enough for me.
Seto had always been the more quiet, serious one, a trait which had only been exacerbated by our circumstances. I didn't hold it against him to take longer to open up, and I think throughout these two years he's made really good progress in that aspect. I'm glad that he cared enough to apologize.
I raise up my pinky finger, all things forgiven. "Promise?"
Without another word, he loops his pinky with mine. "Promise." He says, and from his tone I knew that he meant it.
We finished our lunch quietly after that. Then one o'clock came and everyone was in the front room, their faces pressed to the windows trying to see Mr Kaiba, trying to catch his attention, trying to be the most appealing choice.
I stood on my tippy toes and tried to see past the other kids from the back. There was no way I was going anywhere near that stampede. I was unsuccessful, but managed to catch a glimpse of an impressive looking white limo pulling up to our street and crowds of reporters crowding the lawn before another body blocked my sight.
Soon, I heard the snapping of various cameras going off and a few minutes later, the door opened to reveal a stern looking man with graying black hair, sideburns, big eyebrows, and a mustache.
Seto, Mokuba, and I watch from the side as he has his workers bring in toys for the children, which distracts them enough to prevent their crowding. He doesn't glance at them at all. It's obvious that the visit is simply for exposure.
Seto and I exchange a look, and I whisper a quick 'good luck' to him before turning around and diving in to fight the kid holding the toy Mokuba keeps eyeing. By the time I finish wrestling the other child, Seto is gone and Mokuba is hugging a plush raccoon with a mix of joy and concern for the grumbling kid I sent slinking off into the crowd.
After another thirty minutes of diddle-dallying in the parlor, Mokuba and I got bored. The kids here weren't really fun anyway, they all had been smashed in different ways and you could see the jagged edges where they tried to heal it back up. As sad as it was, I had my own family to worry about first.
"Let's go look for Seto, Mokie." I exclaimed, standing up. Mokuba looked up at me before doing the same, grabbing onto my hand. We both slinked out of the room, easily disguised by the ruckus of the other children.
"Going to find Se-to, going to find Se-to~." I hum, swinging our linked hands as we looked into different rooms, trying to catch sight of our target. "I wonder-where-he is!"
Maybe watching all those kids shows with Mokuba was rubbing off on me too much…
We picked up two apples from the kitchen on the way and took a quick break in our Seto-less bedroom to eat before continuing our hunt.
About ten minutes later, we finally ran into Seto, walking down one of the halls. And Mr. Kaiba next to him.
Mokie immediately grasped my skirt(because the matrons insisted we dressed in our most proper clothes) to hide behind me, his timidness resurfacing at the tall and intimidating presence of Mr. Kaiba. He peaked out from behind my legs as I let an easy smile grace my face.
Due to the smugness radiating off Seto, it seemed like he was successful. His victorious smirk softened slightly when he caught sight of us.
"Risana. Mokuba. Meet the man who has adopted us."
Darting out from behind my legs, Mokuba ran up to hug our brother, wrapping an arm around his waist and burying his head in Seto's stomach happily. Seto put an arm on Mokie's shoulder while I walked over.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Kaiba. I'm Risana." I say politely, ducking my head in greeting.
"Well, at least one of you brats has manners." The businessman grunts out, an unreadable expression on his face.
Strange, I thought he would've been more upset at losing to a 10-year-old, but there was something hiding beneath the annoyance in his face.
Mr. Kaiba pulls away to talk with the orphanage's owner about finalizing papers, and I grab Seto's hand. It's cold and trembling, the byproduct of leftover adrenaline or something else. I tighten my grip and give him a reassuring smile that he tentatively returns.
With the weight of Mokuba on one side and me on the other, his shaking eases. After all, it's us. It has always been us.
And just like that, our lives shattered.