Chapter 2: Self Defense
Seto sighed heavily with frustration as his eyes scanned the room. Seto despised attending banquets—the loud chatter and fake smiles in business suits were enough to make him sick. Business dinners, however, were a must when it came to the game industry, particularly since the president of Industrial Illusions, Maximillion Pegasus, himself invited Seto to come. Seto swirled the wine in his glass, continuing to search the room until his eyes finally pinpointed the person he was looking for. His feet moved quickly through the crowds as he reached his target.
"Mokuba, there you are. You know I hate being stranded at these things," Seto said, placing a firm hand on Mokuba's shoulder. The boy turned around and Seto took a few steps when he saw the boy's face.
"Leon von Schroeder?" The hazel-eyed, dark-haired boy laughed to ease the tension of the situation. Seto hadn't remembered Leon's hair being that dark nor seen him that tall. The boy was either the same age as Mokuba or close to it. The height between the two was almost identical.
"Seto Kaiba, it's been a while. How have you been?" Leon held out his hand to Seto. Seto hesitated upon shaking his hand, considering Leon's older brother was one of Kaiba Corp.'s main competitors, but for the sake of saving time, he decided to shake the hand of the boy he had mistaken as his brother moments earlier.
"I'm fine. I take it your brother is too? He certainly seems to be busy these days, considering all of that money he's spent on marketing recently," Seto said with a huff. "Your brother does realize that we run gaming companies, right? Not political campaigns? All of that bad publicity that your brother puts out there can't possibly be worth the money he spends on it." Leon rolled his eyes. He had no interest in discussing his older brother's constant obsession with releasing bad press about Kaiba Corp. Leon's only hope for the night was to get through it.
"Speaking of brothers, where's yours? Didn't you just mistake me for him?" Leon asked, changing the subject. Seto's head shot up and looked around as he was reminded of what initially brought him to Leon. There were very few teenagers that were in attendance of the banquet that evening, considering it was an invite-only and exclusive to company executives. Mokuba being the vice president of Kaiba Corp. granted him access to the dinner, but Seto wasn't sure how Leon had gotten an invitation.
"Nii-sama, there you are. I'm sorry I'm late." Seto felt a familiar tug on his suit and turned to his side. Relief washed over Seto's face. Mokuba certainly was late—the banquet started an hour ago and Mokuba hadn't texted Seto about his tardiness. Seto decided against scolding Mokuba in front of Leon for the time being.
"Good to see you, Mokuba. You look well," Leon said with a friendly smile, holding out his hand to Mokuba as he had to Seto. Mokuba smiled back.
"Thanks, so do you, Leon," Mokuba said, shaking Leon's hand. "How's school going?"
"It's going well. I just graduated from high school top of my class last month," Leon said with pride.
"Congrats! That's awesome! Have you figured out what college you want to go to yet?" Seto shook his head, overwhelmingly bored with the conversation already. His eyes went back to scanning the room—if he was able to find Pegasus and shake his hand, he'd be able to leave the party. Seto had learned early on in his business career that these sorts of dinners were more about showing up than they were about sticking around. If Seto could show his face to Pegasus, he and Mokuba could leave sooner.
"He's not going to college. He'll be busy learning about the family business." Seto thought he couldn't be any more annoyed until he saw Zigfried von Schroeder, Leon's older brother and president of Schroder Corp., show up. Seto made no attempt to hide his disgust as he saw Zigfried slither his way in from the shadows of the men that surrounded them, his notable purple suit donned with a bright pink rose pinned to his chest. The rose perfectly matched Zigfried's hair which Seto had never figured out whether his hair was dyed that way or if he was born with it looking like that. Seto didn't care enough to find out which was the case.
"Zigfried, it's good to see you still… exist," Seto said, realizing mid-sentence that he had nothing witty or sarcastic to say to Zigfried. Seto turned to his brother and placed a hand on Mokuba's shoulder, "How about we try and find Pegasus and say our hellos? I'm sure he's been searching the crowds for us."
"Mokuba, what do you plan to do now that you're out of high school? Are you going to be fully immersing yourself into the role of vice president of Kaiba Corp. now that you won't have school getting in your way?" Zigfried asked, outright ignoring Seto's attempt to get Mokuba to leave. Mokuba hadn't moved from where he stood.
"Nope, I'm going to be attending the University of Tokyo. I start in a week, actually. I'm taking summer classes to get myself ready for the fall." Seto shrugged. Mokuba wasn't going to leave now that Zigfried had him talking about college. It was all Mokuba wanted to talk about ever since Mokuba decided to start classes that summer. Seto wanted to be supportive, but he couldn't help the trepidation he felt whenever the subject came up in conversation. Seto hadn't expected Mokuba to be so on top of everything—within about two weeks of his acceptance to college, Mokuba had already set himself up with a dorm, a roommate, his books, and a class schedule. Seto shouldn't have been surprised, considering Mokuba was the most mature 18-year old there was; however, Seto was left to try and process the new stage in Mokuba's life in a very short period of time.
"University, you say? How very interesting that the next in line to the Kaiba throne has no interest in it," Zigfried said with a laugh, all eyes on Seto while he did. Seto kept his face void of any emotion, turning his gaze from Zigfried to Mokuba.
"That's not necessarily true. Just because I'm getting an education doesn't mean I have no interest in the business. I'm considering majoring in business, actually, so that I can get a more well-rounded view of business from the classroom before transitioning back to Kaiba Corp." Before Seto could ask Mokuba a second time for them to leave, a waiter came up to Mokuba and offered him a glass of wine.
"For you, Sir?" the waiter held out the wine and Seto waved it away before Mokuba could answer.
"He's underage, but thanks for not checking." Seto shot a glare at the waiter and the man immediately made himself disappear into the crowd. Another laugh erupted from Zigfried and Mokuba and Leon were left standing, both wishing they could be anywhere other than watching their brothers do this nonsensical, competitive dance with one another.
"Do you have a joke you'd like to share with the class?" Seto said, furrowing his brows. Zigfried smirked and took a sip of his own glass of wine.
"You really think that you can keep your kid brother from drinking alcohol when he's about to attend university in a week? He probably wants to go to school just so he can get—what is the word those crazy college kids use? Wasted?" Zigfried chuckled again before taking another sip and saying, "The kid's potential is the only thing that is going to be wasted at that university." Seto took a step forward and Mokuba made the decision to not be held captive to the argument Zigfried and Seto were about to have. Mokuba slapped Seto's wrist, causing the wine glass in his hand to fall to the floor and shatter on the ground. Seto and Zigfried became silent, both with concern but also confusion.
"Mokuba, what the—"
"Would you look at that? We better let someone know about that broken glass before it ruins the carpet. Come on, Seto… we'll catch you guys later, Leon!" Mokuba said, grabbing Seto by the arm and dragging him away. Seto was too confused to refuse or to do anything other than let himself be dragged by his younger brother through the crowds. When they were halfway across the room, Mokuba stopped and let go of Seto's arm.
"Um… would you mind telling me what that was about? That was very irresponsible," Seto said sternly. Mokuba twisted around to look at Seto face-to-face.
"You think I was irresponsible? You were setting yourself up to get into a fight at a business dinner. Don't even act like you didn't want an excuse to punch Zigfried in the face."
"He was insulting you. Are you telling me I have to apologize for defending your decision to go to college?"
"Nii-sama, I'm not a little kid anymore. I don't need you to defend me. Have you even considered the fact that I don't care what Zigfried or his little brother, or anyone for that matter, think about me and my choice to go to college?" Seto was taken aback and stood silently, looking at his brother and processing what he said. Seto hadn't realized how grown up Mokuba looked—standing at about 5"11 in a white suit, black tie, with his broad shoulders and his hair pulled back into a low ponytail. Seto couldn't remember when Mokuba started looking like such a grown-up. It felt like yesterday he was just a small boy in an orphanage and suddenly, there he was—a teenager, standing before Seto.
"I'm… sorry, Mokuba. You're right. I just—"
"Kaiba boy! Mokuba boy! There you both are!" Pegasus came up from behind Seto, wrapping one arm around Seto's shoulder and waving to Mokuba with another. Seto instantly jerked forward from Pegasus' touch, as if a shiver had gone down his spine upon Pegasus' hand making contact with Seto's shoulder. Seto twisted around to stand opposite to Pegasus, beside Mokuba, his guard up as it always seemed to be around Pegasus. "I was beginning to worry that you hadn't come when I couldn't find you."
"Well, here we are and unfortunately, we have to go, so I'll be seeing you at the next one," Seto responded, looking over at Mokuba to see if he was in agreement. Mokuba silently nodded; he felt just as uncomfortable in Pegasus' presence, if not more so than Seto. The brothers were in silent agreement as they made their exit but that was before Pegasus reached out to grab Mokuba's arm and stopped him from leaving. Seto instinctively lunged forward to push Pegasus away, but Mokuba slipped his arm out of Pegasus' grasp and shifted his body to block Seto's path.
"Both of you need to cool it," Mokuba said, annoyed that he had to call both Seto and Pegasus out in front of a bunch of strangers. "Nii-sama, you need to calm down and Pegasus… you shouldn't touch people. It's weird, and also assault, depending on who spins it and how. Just stop doing it." Mokuba looked from Seto and then to Pegasus, glaring at each of them.
"Well, well, well, look at how mature little Mokuba Boy sounds! All grown up, isn't he, Kaiba Boy?" Pegasus replied, standing up straight and regaining his composure. "I meant no harm with the grab, Mokuba Boy. I only wished to grab your attention because one of my waiters found this on the ground. I thought one of you would want it before leaving the party." Pegasus reached into his pocket and held up a small, card-shaped locket that was all too familiar to both Kaiba brothers. Seto cocked his head with surprise as Mokuba reached forward and grabbed it from Pegasus.
"…Thanks for returning it," Mokuba said, putting the necklace on and sliding it under his button-down. Mokuba walked past Seto towards the exit and Seto was more than relieved that they were finally going to leave. Seto took one last passing glance at Pegasus before turning away.
"Mokuba Boy isn't much of a boy now, is he? Perhaps I should call him Mokuba Man." Seto ignored Pegasus' remarks and caught up with Mokuba just as he was exiting the building. The two walked side-by-side in silence all the way until they got to the car. The lights flickered as Seto unlocked the car and the two brothers got in.
"That Pegasus guy is still a total creep, isn't he? It'll be nice to not have to see him for a while," Mokuba said with a sigh, putting on his seatbelt. While Mokuba was away and out of the Kaiba Corp. world, there would be no reason for him and Pegasus to cross paths. Whenever the next event was, Seto was most likely going to have to attend alone. Seto hesitated starting the car… he knew he had to ask the question that was on his mind.
"The locket… you're wearing it again? It's been… years." It had been so long, in fact, that Seto had assumed Mokuba lost it years ago and never bothered finding it. Seto continued to wear his matching card locket, but underneath his clothes for the most part. When Mokuba stopped wearing his, Seto felt embarrassed that he still did… as if he were living in a time or a memory that no longer existed. The lockets used to be a symbol of their bond, but the older they got, Seto wondered if Mokuba saw the lockets an inability to let go of what was no longer felt between the two.
Mokuba gave a short chuckle, pulling out the locket from underneath his shirt and opening it up. The locket revealed the same photo it always had—a young, ten year old Seto with a smile on his face and no place to call home. Mokuba looked up and met with Seto's eyes, giving him a smile.
"I found it while I was packing and started wearing it again. I know any girl that sees a guy wearing a locket with a picture of a small boy would probably choose not to date that person but…" Mokuba placed his hand over his chest, framing the outlines of the locket with his fingers, "I think it's important to remember where you come from before you set forth to where you're supposed to go. I'm a college student now, but I'll always be your brother." Seto closed his eyes, moved with emotion he didn't know how to vocalize. He stretched out his arm and pulled Mokuba into a hug, feeling too overwhelmed to respond.
Mokuba reciprocated the hug, sliding his arms around Seto's waist, burying his head into his older brother's shoulder. Seto closed his eyes, letting the embrace sink in. Seto didn't know how he was going to live his life without his brother, but he was going to try. Seto would try because Mokuba deserved to have a life that Seto didn't and that was all he had ever hoped for his little brother; a chance to live the life that he wanted.
Seto would just have to figure out what life he wanted to live in the meantime.
-YGO-
A/N: Another chapter?! What witchcraft is this?! This is what happens when Rena Redhead inspires me to start writing again so what do I do? I do ALL OF THE WRITING! Seriously, it has been so much fun putting back on my Yu-Gi-Oh pants and writing fanfiction again. I appreciate you guys reading and following my story! And like I said in the last author's note, so far this story seems very similar to stories I've written before but believe me, I'm about to embark on a journey I've never been on before and I'm excited to bring you guys with me. Thanks for reading and have a great rest of your day/night!