Kaiba was surprised - both pleasantly and unpleasantly - that Wheeler survived the first week. From what Kaiba saw, Wheeler actually seemed to enjoy his job; not something he had expected.
"You chose the new lawyer well," his secretary told him Friday night. "A nice change from Daniels." She set some files onto his desk, and Kaiba looked through them before answering.
"Daniels was reliable."
"Not if he quit," she pointed out. She looked proud of herself for that one.
Kaiba shrugged. "Whatever. Didn't you go off the clock an hour ago?"
"Yup."
"Then why are you still here?"
"Wasn't done with my work."
Studious as always; Kaiba definitely liked his secretary. "Glad to hear someone around here has some work ethics."
"It's not just me," she protested. "There are lots of good workers - Bob, Claire, Stevens… and Joey works. I bet you two would have gotten along as kids."
Kaiba resisted it for as long as he could… He lasted 10 seconds before he burst into fits of laughter, letting his head fall onto his desk. It was unusual for him to laugh so openly, but the irony of her words was probably the funniest thing Kaiba had heard in months. Besides, what did he have to lose? Nothing: not a damn thing. Not anymore. When he looked up he wasn't surprised to see that she had backed away a few steps and was looking at him as though he had spouted a second head.
"What did I say?" she asked bewilderedly.
Kaiba shook with silent laughter. "Wheeler and I went to school together for a short period of time. We hated each other. He was a nuisance and an idiot; he was always making an ass of himself."
"You're harsh, boss."
Kaiba shook his head, laughter ebbing. Some things were funny, but Wheeler's idiocy wasn't one of them. "It's not harsh, it's honest. I bet even his friends would agree with me. I was surprised that he had a job at all, let alone one that would qualify him to work in Kaiba Corp. If we were still 16, I wouldn't trust him with a mop."
"Nice to hear," Wheeler said from the doorway. The blond was leaning casually against the frame. Kaiba stared at him, searching for some sign of annoyance, but there was nothing to be seen. Wheeler looked… calm.
"Need something?" Kaiba was surprised that Wheeler wasn't upset, or yelling, or ranting. In fact, the blond even looked slightly amused. That bothered Kaiba. As much as a dumb ass as Wheeler had been, there was something cathartic about their ceaseless bickering, something that made Kaiba feel more in control. Without the constant tension… well, Wheeler was dull. When Wheeler wasn't quick to reply, Kaiba goaded, "What, so scathing remarks to defend your honor?"
Wheeler shrugged. "It's generally not a good idea to insult your boss."
Ah. That was it; preservation of his job, survival of the fittest. "Amazing," Kaiba said. "The day that I watch Wheeler fall below me willingly..."
Wheeler shrugged. Damn it, he was supposed to get angry! Kaiba was in the mood for a good fight; it was the closest thing to nostalgia he could think of. "Well, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. Anyway, I'm here on Yugi's request: he wanted me to invite you over tonight. Wants to catch up or something. If you're interested, come over." Kaiba was going to retort when Wheeler threw over his shoulder, "Goodnight, Mr. Kaiba." With that Wheeler left, humming under his breath. Once he was gone the secretary - forgotten during Kaiba's jibes - spoke.
"You should go."
"And what makes you say that?"
She shrugged, turning to leave just as Wheeler had. "It'll get you out of the office." She stopped just before she reached the door. She smiled back at him. "I remember your brother used to make you leave; maybe you need someone to give you a push in the right direction. I'd go insane if I never left the office."
"It's peaceful."
"Like a tomb." She was gone.
Interesting. Was she calling Kaiba Corp. a tomb because it was sealed off from the world… or was there a deeper meaning to what she said? Was she capable of that sort of depth? Kaiba rifled through the papers she had brought in, glancing over them with half-hearted interest. There was nothing there that he couldn't put off until tomorrow; as it was he was getting more done daily than necessary… all because he had nothing better to do.
Maybe Kaiba Corp. was like a tomb. His tomb: enclosing him inside to rot for eternity. How depressing. Fitting for him, though; if he had to rot, he'd prefer to go while doing something useful. Working until the very last second, to his last breath...
If Mokuba heard him say that, he'd hit him, or yell at him - probably both. Mokuba could be quite a fearsome creature. Speaking of Mokuba… Kaiba shuffled papers on the desk, finding the latest letter from his younger brother.
'Hi big brother!
'I'm glad to hear you made it safely to Domino. What's the old house like? I'd love to see it again; we used to have a lot of fun there.
'I'm doing just fine here; there are so many kids here, Seto, and all without parents! And I thought that we had it bad… I can't believe how some parents can just discard their children, especially the little girls. There's so many little girls…
'Are you doing okay? You're not working too hard, are you? I bet you need to get out of Kaiba Corp. I bet you were there when the letter arrived, weren't you? And you're still there, right now, I know it. I'm going to ask someone, and start calling at weird hours of the night (your time), just to make you sure you went home… or not even home, just out. Remember, there's more to life than work. True to that, I'm going to come visit soon. I'd like to see Domino again. Does everyone still live there? Have you seen them? If you did or do, tell them all I said hi and not to leave until I get there. I'm not sure when I'll be able to get away, but it'll be soon, okay? I'll definitely be there for Christmas, even if I arrive 2 hours before midnight. I'll make it.
'Love, Mokuba'
Kaiba smiled as he skimmed the letter. He hadn't seen his younger brother since last Christmas. When Mokuba had told him that he wanted to go work with orphaned children, he'd assured Kaiba that he'd be back to see him every Christmas, at least once a year just so they could be together. But it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet; Christmas seemed to be so far off…
"I'm always going to come back and see you, okay Seto? And no matter how far apart we are, I'm always right with you." Kaiba relished in the feeling of his brother's arms around him, hugging him tightly, one more time before he boarded the plane. "Please be okay while I'm gone."
"I'll be fine," Kaiba told him. "I knew you wouldn't stay forever."
"I didn't."
Kaiba sighed, set the letter back down on his desk. The place was starting to feel a little more like a tomb, now that the damn woman had mentioned it. It was deathly silent, like his house. If he visited Wheeler and Yugi there would be noise - irritating and pointless noise, but at least he wouldn't feel like the universe was trying to swallow him.
He must have been having some sort of midlife crisis; silence had never bothered him before. Then again, silence had never been so absolute. With a frustrated grunt Kaiba stood, finding his car keys on his desk. Besides, if Mokuba called while he was in the office, he'd probably get an earful… and that wasn't something that he looked forward to.
"Shh."
What a greeting. Wheeler held his finger to his lips, stepping out of the doorway and letting Kaiba in. After a second Kaiba realized why he was being told to keep quiet: Yugi was on the phone… arguing from the sounds of it.
"You're being irrational; come home." A pause. "No, that's not what I meant, I just… It's been months; can't we just put this behind us?" Whoever was on the other end of the phone was making Yugi beg. He paused again, a long pause. Kaiba took a seat, watching silently. "No, honey, don't hang up. Téa!" Ah, the brunette girl: Kaiba remember now that he heard Yugi say her name. There was another pause. "Téa?" Yugi repeated softly, as though he was afraid of the answer he might receive. The sound was contrasted by a very sudden - very loud - "God damn it!" It made Kaiba jump. If he had never known that Yugi was capable of such explosive behavior, he might have thought twice about messing with him.
Wheeler dropped down onto the loveseat with a coke in hand. He didn't seem at all phased by Yugi's outburst. "Shut up," he said gently. "The kid's asleep."
"She hung up again," Yugi murmured darkly, falling onto the loveseat beside Wheeler.
"I know. You want to me hook you up with a good divorce lawyer? I've got some old classmates on speed dial," Wheeler offered dryly, opening his coke and taking a sip.
"We're not getting divorced. And hi, Kaiba." Yugi didn't sound at all friendly, and the weariness that Kaiba had seen the last time they met had returned ten-fold.
"Bullshit; she's been away for what, four months?"
"Two."
"Oh. That's still a long time."
Kaiba didn't ask what was going on. Strange as it was, he was enjoying trying to put together the pieces by himself, like the lives of two men he had known half a lifetime ago were one big complicated puzzle.
"Do you have anything to drink?" Yugi asked.
"You know I don't."
"I'm going to go get something."
Yugi drank? Kaiba considered this. Maybe Téa was staying away because Yugi had become an alcoholic… Kaiba dismissed the idea with a small shake of his head. No, Yugi wasn't alcoholic material, and Wheeler probably wouldn't have left his kid with a drunkard. As a side-thought he interjected, "Drinking doesn't solve anything." Yugi glared at him, but Wheeler looked at him like he had just met a long-lost friend. It sort of made Kaiba want to back away.
"See?" he said softly, touching Yugi's shoulder. "Even Kaiba agrees with me. If Kaiba and I agree, then it's gotta be important, right?"
Yugi sighed, his whole body seemed to quiver for a moment… and then he was clutching Wheeler tightly, whole body shaking as he leaned against Joey's chest; after a second Kaiba realized that he was crying. Wheeler was rubbing Yugi's back and whispering soothingly. It wasn't a sight that Kaiba hadn't expected. He certainly hadn't left his office to watch a grown man weep like a heartbroken teenaged girl… It felt like a cheap soap opera, and Kaiba was tempted to look around for a camera crew.
He wasn't sure how long they all sat in near-silence, punctuated by Yugi's occasional whimpers and soft moans, or the reassuring murmurs of Wheeler, but eventually Yugi fell silent, curled against Wheeler like a frightened child seeking solace from his mother.
"I shouldn't have said anything about divorce," Wheeler said remorsefully. "It freaks him out." Kaiba waited, expecting Yugi to respond, or to start sniveling again. Then he realized that Yugi was sleeping, cheeks streaked with tears.
Kaiba was done guessing; he wanted a straight answer to the puzzle that had accumulated over the past 15 years. "What was that all about?"
Wheeler stared at him for a moment, head tilted slightly to the side as though he was confused… and then he sighed. "I forgot that you were gone during all this."
Kaiba nodded. He hadn't realized that his presence was so easy to forget; last he checked he'd been an imposing figure in Domino. Now that he thought about it, being so easily forgotten was a bit insulting.
"You want Domino History 101? It's pitifully melodramatic."
Kaiba shrugged nonchalantly. "It's always been like that around here."
Wheeler nodded. "Well, Yugi and Téa got married… a couple years back. Six or something; I'm not sure. I've got a picture over there; the date is somewhere on the back. But…" Wheeler paused. "They were having trouble with kids."
"Too many?"
"None. It had something to do with Téa, I know that, but she wasn't exactly talkative about it. Last January she got pregnant. Helluva way to start a year, you know? They were really excited."
Kaiba did the math in his head. "They should have a baby right now."
Wheeler nodded. "They should. When Téa was eight months pregnant there was an accident - car accident. It wasn't anyone's fault; they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time… She lost the baby. For a while she was just… like dead inside or something, you know?" Wheeler's voice shook, a testament that whatever it had been like, it had been bad for him. Kaiba was torn between curiosity, pity - a very strange feeling for him - and the urge to roll his eyes. The whole thing seemed tragic but horribly clichéd. Then again, it was Domino; it was always curiously overdramatic. Wheeler continued, "She wanted the baby more than anything - she'd never been so happy, not in all the years I've known her. She wanted to be a good mom, the picture-perfect wife… and she felt like that chance was taken from her.
"After a little bit she snapped out of it. We all thought it was going to be okay, that things would go back to normal. One morning she went to a doctor's appointment and didn't come home. Yugi was scared out of his mind… She called later that week. She won't come back, she keeps telling him that she doesn't want to stay in Domino; she wants to go somewhere new, some place where she can let go of everything that happened here, all the bad things." Wheeler bit the inside of his cheek, looking down at Yugi. "It breaks his heart. He loves her."
Kaiba nodded. "Everyone isn't strong. A person can only take so much before they have to flee. Best to go while you're young."
"Even at the risk of those who love you?"
Kaiba shrugged, reminded of Mokuba leaving on the plane that day, almost a year ago. "Sometimes it's what's best. Would Yugi prefer Téa to be miserable the rest of her life? Could his love for her make all her suffering okay?" Kaiba wasn't sure if he was talking about Yugi and Téa or himself and Mokuba… Despite the different circumstances, the situation felt startlingly similar.
"No," Yugi murmured, half-asleep but aware. "It wouldn't," he moaned softly. He curled closer to Wheeler, and Kaiba's heart went out to him. "I just want her back. I'd leave in a heartbeat if I thought it'd mean something."
"I know," Wheeler said. He grinned weakly. "Go wash your face; you look like shit."
Yugi sat up and smiled slightly. "Jackass." He wrapped an arm around Wheeler's shoulders, hugging him quickly before retreating to the bathroom. Once he was gone Wheeler leaned back and ran a hand through his hair. "Thanks, by the way."
"For what?" Kaiba never expected to hear Wheeler thank him… for anything.
"For that 'drinking doesn't solve anything' line. He doesn't usually do stuff like that…" Wheeler seemed overcome with the need to protect Yugi. He had always been like that, and it came as relief to see that some things never changed. "He's stressed. I just wish… I just wish that something would happen, something definite. Even if it's bad, it'll be somewhere to move on from. Right now it's just the same shit over and over again; she calls, they argue, and Yugi ends up more upset than when he started."
"Why does she keep calling? Has anyone tried talking to her?"
"I intend to, sooner or later."
"You do that. I'm going to go home."
"Yea. Sorry this all went badly. Yuugi really does want to, you know, get to know you or something," Wheeler added.
"Whatever." Kaiba stood, glancing in the direction that Yugi had disappeared. It was a shame that he had no condolences to offer. "Take care of him."
Wheeler blinked at him. "Kaiba… did you just give a damn about someone else?"
Kaiba let his shoulders sag a little bit and glared at Wheeler. Stupid Wheeler.
Wheeler winked at him; the motion caught Kaiba off-guard. "Right, Kaiba doesn't care about anyone; I almost forgot." His words seemed almost friendly. "I'll keep it quiet."
Kaiba had the door halfway open when Yugi stopped him. "Wait, Kaiba," he pleaded from the bathroom doorway. "Why don't you join us on Thanksgiving? Everyone is getting together at the Game Shop."
"Why?" It was the first thing Kaiba thought. "We're not exactly friends." True, they were all basically civil to each other, and Yugi had always tried to keep it that way, but the fact remained that they weren't friends. He wasn't going to pretend otherwise.
"But it's been 15 years," Wheeler cut in. As if that changed anything. "If it makes you uncomfortable, don't think of it as invitation of friends… think of it as an polite invitation to make up for how things went tonight." Yugi glared at Wheeler, but the blond shrugged it off. At least he was honest about it... Guilt easily explained why Yugi's invitation. In fact, guilt seemed to explain… everything? No; guilt didn't explain why Kaiba was actually tempted by the offer, interested in seeing how everything was different, how all those people had changed… He sighed. He really must have been going soft. "Fine. What time?"
"Well, we probably won't eat until a little later that evening, but come by around noon; that's when everyone's supposed to show up."
Kaiba nodded. "Thanksgiving. Noon."
Wheeler was smiling. Damn. He didn't ever recall making Wheeler smile… and he was sure that he wasn't too proud that he had.
Yugi was smiling too, but that didn't bother Kaiba nearly as much. "Cool. We'll see you then."
- notes -
I definately have to thank Hannah for helping me with this chapter; I was having some major issues with it.
You might be making a face and saying, "That was so pathetically melodramatic and corny." I would nod and agree.
Our secretary makes for a good way of leading into things. Like Kaiba taking time to actually think about Joey, haha. Or making him feel a little uncomfortable about his own workplace.
So I want to start moving on to develop/introduce the other characters, their melodrama in the past 15 years, and how that's affected/looking to Kaiba -- therefore, I can't think of much to say. Somehow, I had to be melodramatic about how things had gone; the story would probably be boring otherwise, lol.
On Yugi crying... I really got into a fight with myself about that. It seemed to fit well -- given that these characters tend to cry a lot; has anyone else noticed that? -- but at the same time, the idea of a grown man crying... In the end I decided that given the circumstances and all the emotion that the characters seem to show each other, Yugi crying didn't seem too horrible. I hope. *cringe*
Tea has been a fun character; she has a lot of unresolved issues, but for my purposes she's not heartless. It tends to irk me when she's written as some psycho who cares about nothing but her own methods... but you know, it's how things go. That's my biggest concern in writing her for this story; that in trying to make her an imperfect character that it's going to come off as mindless bashing. Which it's not, I promise. Besides, it would be one big domestic playpen if EVERYONE had kids, you know? (Imagines play groups and daycare and all that domestic jazz.) Haha. I also wanted to show that Yugi hasn't had it easy... and that he and Joey are close. And I wanted to show that sometimes people break under pressure. Did I do that?
Actually, there's one very small line I took out of here -- okay, a couple of lines -- in which Yugi actually threw the phone against the wall; later Joey told Kaiba that he had to replace his phone at least three times a week. In my world, that was really funny, but I decided that it didn't work.
Furthermore, I wanted to give Kaiba and Joey some time to talk again. I think a lot of this story is centered around dialogue, only because there's really no other way to learn about the past from only one POV.
Thanksgiving: it may be out of season NOW, but I started writing this not long before Thanksgiving, so it fit THEN, lol. And it's a good reason to get everyone together, you know?
Anyway... right, now much to say. u.u For the record, I keep getting into fights with my own timeline; someone let me know if I obviously mess it up, okay? Thankies. ^^
..::responses to reviewers::..
('cause you guys rule, man. ^^)
Fire Dragon of Darkness: aw, thanks. :) If it's any consolation, I thought it was all kind of obvious too. *scratches head*
dream-chaser668, tanya maxwell, tadashi: arigato. ^^