Summary:
While Mokuba's first visit to the Mutou residence was full of drama - (Seto really needed more trustworthy corporate executives and perhaps VR tech that couldn't keep a person logged in until they died, just a suggestion there) - Joey's glad that Mokuba's second visit is going much more smoothly. He's missed this kid.
(He's missed Seto, too, but Joey knows getting anywhere with that Kaiba brother is going to take time and lots of patience. Which Joey's still kinda bad at.)
Notes: For the Flufftober prompt - Secret Family Recipe
Part of the "Joey Mutou" Series, along with "Good Luck Charm"
The (Not So) Secret Family Recipe
Mokuba's first venture over to the Mutou residence really could have gone a lot better. He was barely there for more than a few minutes, after all. The poor kid had been soaking wet from the rain, terrified that the Big Five were going to kill his brother, and rambling on about VR tech.
Which... Joey was very much looking forward to that VR pod stuff showing up at Kaiba-land.
In the end it all turned out okay. Yugi and Seto saved the day. Joey got to reconnect with Mai, who was proving to be a surprisingly good friend despite their rocky start. And Seto actually said he was glad Joey survived after all. Which was... progress? Probably.
Today was a bright, sunny day. So it was already a better ambiance for Mokuba to visit the Mutou household. Mokuba's arrival had been scheduled ahead of time and received Seto's approval. And Seto had even personally driven his brother over, which had led to a hilarious glare-off between Seto and Gramps that had ended when Yugi dragged their Grandpa off to go grocery shopping and Mokuba kicked his big brother out himself.
It was, without a doubt, the funniest thing Joey'd seen all week.
After grabbing some sodas, Joey and Mokuba had settled down to play video games. Mostly Mario Kart and Smash Bros, which Joey held his own on. Mostly. He could admit that Mokuba was the better racer. And the two of them enjoyed trash talking each other a bit while playing Smash Bros.
They also talked about what life had been like for the two of them since they'd last seen each other at the orphanage.
"Gozaburo," Mokuba had said, his eyes going a little dull, "was horrible. He tried to pit Seto and me against each other. And the way he treated Seto was... I hated him. When he ran away and disappeared after Seto took control of Kaiba Corp from him... I was glad. I hope we never hear from him again." And that was pretty much the end of that topic, though Mokuba talked freely about how good things had been since Seto had basically taken custody of him. He was in middle school now, though he'd be entering high school early.
"Seto would be in college now, probably, but he's had to balance school work with running the company personally. I think he's attending the same school as you specifically because they agreed make his grades largely dependent on final exams for his courses and not attendance or, like, pop quizzes or that kind of thing."
Joey nodded. "Makes sense. He always does his make up work when he's out, but I do notice him being out a lot. I figured there had to be some kind of agreement in place - certainly our school is benefiting from being able to boast being attended by the Seto Kaiba. Lots of funding from people wanting to kiss up to your brother and now we have really nice gym facilities."
"So how have things been for you, Joey? I mean, obviously you got adopted by a family that cares for you. I'm really glad." Mokuba beamed as he said that, not a trace of resentment over the type of family that adopted him.
And, well, Joey loved the kid for that. He'd kind of thought of Mokie as being his little brother too when suddenly Seto and Mokuba were adopted away. He hoped they'd find their way back to that closeness in time.
(Joey hoped to find his way back to being close with Seto again one day too, but he wasn't going to hold out hope of that happening any time soon. Seto had always been the sort of person who tried Joey's patience and the nearly adult version was no different. If a bit less prone to smiling and a bit more prone to smirking.)
"Well, a few months after you and Seto left the orphanage, Yugi showed up. There was a... a mix up after his parents died. He was supposed to go into Gramps custody, but Gramps was out of the country. He was an archaeologist, until he retired to run the game shop and raise Yugi and me." Joey remembered fondly how tiny Yugi had been. He was still really short, but... not tiny the way he'd seemed all those years ago. Put all of Joey's protective instincts on high alert the moment he saw that kid standing alone and wide eyed in Joey's dormitory. "Instead of letting Yugi stay with family friends until Gramps came back, he was taken to the orphanage. Which never should have happened, but... I was lucky it did.
"Yugi and I spent a lot of time together - you remember what jerks the other kids were." Joey saw Mokuba nodding seriously.
The place had been awful, especially to kids who still thought they might have family come claim them eventually. Joey'd thought, at first, his mom might come for him after his dad died. And she did show up one day. Just to make it clear that she had no legal claim to Joey after the divorce and didn't want one either, dashing all Joey's hopes of being reunited with his sister.
Seto and Mokuba had given Joey hope after that - hope lost when they left and the things Seto left Joey to protect himself with were stolen. He'd needed to fend for himself and did a decent job of it too, but Yugi had inspired Joey's protective side the day he arrived.
"When Gramps came to get Yugi a few days later, Yugi begged him to take me too. And I..." Joey's voice cracked a little, because it was still hard talking about that time. He'd never felt so alone or unloved than he had in that place. "I told Gramps it was fine. I'd be okay. I couldn't expect him to just adopt me because his grandson asked him to, after all. But he told me to pack my things so I could leave with them. Then he went back inside the office. When he came out, he told me he was my foster guardian now. That I had a home with them now. And he went over all the paperwork with me to prove it, showing me his name - Solomon Mutou - every where his signature was required.
"I stayed in Yugi's room that night. His parents had owned the game shop - technically this place is his, but of course Gramps is running it for now - so this place has been home ever since. And about a year later, Gramps formally adopted me and I changed my surname to Mutou. I talked that decision over with Serenity a lot. But since dad was awful and mom didn't want me, Serenity thought it was important I shared the name of the family that took me in. I think when she's older and can move out of mom's place on her own, Gramps is going to ask Serenity if he can adopt her too - he's been reading up on adult adoption lately and that's about the only reason I can think of, anyway."
"Your grandpa is a really nice guy. Just like Yugi," Mokuba said, wiping at his eyes a bit.
Joey opted not to call the kid out on the tears. After all, Joey got a little teared up thinking about how much his new family loved him, and how much he loved them, sometimes too.
"They are really nice," Joey agreed quietly. "Yugi and I have been brothers ever since. We look after each other. And he looks out for Serenity too. When Yugi won the cash prize from Duelist Kingdom, he paid for Serenity's eye operation. She's got some... oh, don't even ask me to pronounce it, but her eyes will go irreversibly blind if she can't get the operation soon. Odd's are she'll still need glasses once her eye sight settles, assuming the surgery goes well."
"Wow. I'd have helped too," Mokuba said, turning shy. "If I'd known."
"I know you would have, Mokie," Joey assured the kid. "You paid for Gramps hospital bills after his heart attack, after all. You didn't even recognize me then."
"What Seto did... he really shouldn't have. But he's not likely to apologize for it either. Sometimes, the things he does... I worry about him." Mokuba fidgeted with the control, the menu screen for Smash Bros squeaking as the character select changed.
"Seto's always struggled with admitting his mistakes," Joey mused. "Maybe he's afraid that admitting to one means admitting to all of them and he'd have to find out if you blame him for everything that happened with Gozaburo."
"What? Why would Seto think that?" Mokuba asked incredulously.
"Well, getting that guy to adopt you two was his idea. You may not blame him, but he does. And that's why he'd be afraid you do too. Losing you would kill him, but he's really bad at communicating. So he pretends it's all fine. That he's fine. Everything was just one big plan that paid off in the end." Joey shrugged. "I don't see him ever willingly getting therapy, but it'd do him a world of good if he'd just let someone help him work through it all."
Mokuba hummed thoughtfully, but any further conversation about his brother was cut off by the door to the three-bedroom game shop apartment popping open. "We're back," Yugi sang out, bringing in two bags of groceries.
"Joey, would you help bring in the rest from the car," Gramps asked as he followed Yugi in.
"I'll help too," Mokuba volunteered.
"Such a nice boy," Gramps said. "Thank you, Mokuba. I appreciate your thoughtfulness."
Joey grinned and set aside his controller, standing up and leading Mokuba outside to the reserved parking spot where Gramps would keep his car. Yugi ran back out to join them after a min and, between the three of them, the car is emptied of groceries and locked up quickly.
"I'm making fish for dinner tonight," Gramps said as the three kids came back inside. "You're welcome to join us, Mokuba."
"You can help me with the secret recipe for the Mutou family's strawberry cake," Joey added, teasingly. But also angling to keep Mokuba from politely objecting.
"I dunno," Gramps put a hand on each of Mokuba's shoulders, peering narrowly at the young boy. "Can we trust you with the secret Mutou family recipes. Passed down from generation to generation and filled with love?"
Mokuba nodded seriously while Yugi grinned at Joey and tried not to giggle. "You can trust me, sir," Mokuba replied earnestly.
"Very well. Joseph, teach Mokuba our family's special strawberry cake recipe. A sacred family tradition," Gramps intoned, putting a hand over his heart for a moment. Then, turning to Yugi, he said, "we can finish putting this away ourselves, right?"
"Right. I can't wait for the cake," Yugi added. "It's a favorite."
"Alright, so first we need an 8 by 8 square inch baking pan," Joey told Mokuba. "They're in the warming drawer under the oven. Unless it's in use for actually keeping food warm, we keep our cookie sheets and baking pans down there."
While Mokuba fetched the pan, Joey retrieved a can of strawberry pie filling from the groceries and a half empty box of red velvet cake mix from the pantry. Also a can of baking spray. Before Joey could ask, Yugi stuck a stick of butter by the rest of the ingredients, bouncing excitedly.
"Putting away, not taking out," Gramps chided Yugi, but with a grin that said he'd have done it himself if Yugi hadn't beat him too it.
"Yes, Grandpa," Yugi sighed, rolling his eyes.
"Okay, what's next?" Mokuba eyed the ingredients on the counter. "Is that all? Is this a dump cake?"
Now Yugi started giggling.
"Yeah, it's a dump cake," Joey told Mokuba. "But it's still a secret family recipe."
"I think I know it already." Mokuba pointed at the pie filling. "Let me guess. That goes in first, spread over the bottom of the pan. Then the cake mix goes on top. Last, the butter is melted and poured on top of the cake mix."
"Simple, but delicious. Red velvet goes really well with the strawberry filling. And we do take it out halfway through baking to give it a good mix, so that the cake mix bakes properly across the whole thing. Though the version with peaches and yellow cake mix is delicious too," Joey mused.
"The Mutou family's secret Peach Cake Recipe?" Mokuba asked, laughing as he popped open the can of pie filling and poured it into the pan.
"That's right," Joey agreed, waiting for Mokuba to finish spreading the pie filling around with a spoon before he started sprinkling in the cake mix.
Then the butter went into the microwave before they poured it on top of the cake. Gramps had started the oven preheating for them, so it was just a matter of waiting for that to finish before popping the whole thing in.
"I'll check on it halfway through while I'm making the fish. You boys go back to your games," Gramps told them.
Mokuba nodded. "I'll need to let Seto know I'm staying for dinner. Thanks so much for inviting me, Mr. Mutou."
"Call me Gramps. Everyone does."
Joey headed back into the living room, letting Mokuba have the privacy of the dining room to call his brother while Gramps started cooking in the kitchen.
"Did you two get enough time alone to catch up?" Yugi asked softly. "I can totally say I've got homework to work on if you want."
"Nah, you should join us. I want you two to be friends too, ya know?"
Yugi smiled warmly. "Thanks, Joey."
"Seto said it's fine for me to stay, but he's gonna be here to pick me up at eight o'clock sharp," Mokuba said, running back in. "Are you going to play too, Yugi?"
"Yeah. I just need to grab another controller."
"Finally, some real competition." Mokuba smirked... and then let out a peal of laughter as Joey decided that the best response to that bit of slander was a tickle attack.