It was nearly ten AM when Kaiba's cell phone rang; he knew who would be on the other end, knew exactly what he was in for when he picked it up...
"You were supposed to wake me up!" Mokuba shouted. Kaiba cringed at the volume of his younger brother's voice, but wasn't surprised; he hadn't expected anything less.
"I tried, but you refused to wake up," Kaiba chided. "It's Friday; aren't there a hundred different things a kid like you would rather do than sit around in my office?"
"But we could have spent time together," Mokuba pouted. Amazing; he seemed to transform from an adult to a child in an instant. Kaiba clicked his tongue softly.
"We have all day tomorrow. I'm probably going to be working late tonight, so you should go out and have some fun."
"You're such a hypocrite, telling me to go out and do something when you hardly leave the office," Mokuba said darkly. "Can we at least have lunch together?"
Kaiba didn't hesitate to answer: "Of course. What time?"
"I'll come by at noon. But this doesn't mean I'm not upset with you."
Ouch. Kaiba sighed. "All day tomorrow, Mokuba."
"Yea, I've heard THAT before. Noon." Mokuba hung up, and Kaiba did likewise, tossing the cell phone onto the desk. It was ironic that Mokuba had spent the previous day all but ignoring Kaiba, and then got upset when Kaiba didn't wake him up for work. If he hadn't turned out so perfectly normal Kaiba might have been angry. Luckily for Mokuba there was something comforting about that normalcy, even when he was being a normal pain in the ass. After all, what else was a brother for?
Kaiba kept himself so busy that he almost didn't notice when it neared noon; if Wheeler hadn't suddenly barged into his office he wouldn't have marked the time at all. "What?" he snapped - sure, it had reminded him of the time, but that didn't mean he appreciated being interrupted while he was working.
"Sorry," Wheeler said weakly. "I thought Mokuba was here. He wanted to meet Alex, and he told me…"
"He slept in," Kaiba interrupted. "Did you bring your kid to work again?" It hadn't happened often, but everyone once in a while Kaiba had gone into Wheeler's office to find the toddler sitting on the floor, coloring or eating. He pitied the janitors on those days.
"No," Wheeler answered defensively. "Serenity brought him over for lunch." As if on cue the kid peeked in from behind Wheeler's legs and waved at Kaiba.
"I'll let Mokuba know you dropped by," Kaiba commented. "And stop bringing him; this isn't a kid-friendly environment, and the more often you bring him the higher the chances that he's going to get hurt." With that he began typing, returning to his work.
"That's the second time in a month."
"What are you babbling about, Wheeler?" Kaiba had figured his last statement had been a pretty good attempt at a covert dismissal, especially considering how blatantly Kaiba was trying to ignore him.
"Joey. And I'm talking about you: that's the second time since you've come back that I've seen you act concerned about someone else."
Kaiba snorted in disbelief. "You're surprised by this?"
"Well, you used to act heartless, and you can still be a real…" Wheeler paused and looked down at Alex. "You hungry, kid?"
Abrupt subject change; Kaiba smirked. Wheeler had been on the verge of saying something that could have started a fight. Pity he hadn't finished the sentence.
"Yea!" Alex replied. "We go to the park!"
"Sure." Wheeler looked back to Kaiba. "Tell Mokuba I said hi."
"Fine." Wheeler left, and Kaiba shook his head. "I'm not heartless," he grumbled, glaring at his computer screen without really seeing it.
"Of course not," Mokuba assured him. Kaiba looked up to see Mokuba enter the room. "Stubborn, but not heartless."
"Wheeler says hi," Kaiba said, partially to get it out of the way and partially to change the topic.
"I know; I just passed him." Mokuba dropped onto the small couch that adorned Kaiba's office and yawned.
"So," Kaiba asked, standing. "Where do you want to go?"
"Let's order something; I don't feel like going out. Hmm… Pizza?" Mokuba eyes lit up, and he looked hopeful. "Is that one place still in business?"
Kaiba nodded. "Pizza is fine; what topping?" He didn't particularly like pizza, but it was bearable in small amounts.
"Pepperoni and black olive!" Mokuba answered immediately, grinning from ear to ear. Kaiba rolled his eyes; Mokuba's taste in food hadn't changed at all.
"Anything else?"
"Hmm… breadsticks? Ooh, coke!"
Kaiba nodded and went to the phone on his desk, ordering the food and making sure someone was sent to pick it up. When that was all done he settled on the couch beside Mokuba.
"Does the TV work in here?" Mokuba asked, juggling the remote from hand to hand.
"Yes. I watched the news the other night; you were on."
Mokuba crinkled his nose. "I didn't want to be, but everyone thought I was the best person to 'raise awareness' about our cause."
"Well, if the face sells, the product will do."
"I'm not trying to sell anything," Mokuba protested. "I'm just trying to help kids." With that Mokuba turned on the TV, an obvious sign that he was done with the topic. Probably a wise move on his part; Kaiba could argue marketability much longer than Mokuba could ever dream of. Mokuba must have spent five minutes flipping through channels before he finally decided on the Weather Channel. Kaiba raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.
"Slightly cloudy, with a forty-five percent change of snow…"
"I don't understand weather prediction," Mokuba commented. "What makes the weatherman any different from the astrologist?"
"Science," Kaiba answered firmly. "Satellites take pictures, and the meteorologist reads what will happen."
"Astrologists look to the stars and read what will happen next in life, just like the meteorologist reads clouds and patterns. So how is trusting a meteorologist any different than trusting an astrologist?"
"It just is. People need science, not fancy superstition. Weather is more accurate than astrology."
Mokuba raised an eyebrow - so much like Kaiba; it made the elder smile. "Is it? Then what's that?" Mokuba pointed to the window, and Kaiba turned to look.
It was snowing. "That's forty-five percent."
"Forty-five percent is less than half; that means unlikely."
"The higher side of unlikely."
"But still unlikely. It was a chance; even astrologists are right some days."
"Where are you going with this?"
"I'm just saying that the weatherman is no more reliable than the fortune-teller; this stuff should be just as much for entertainment as horoscopes. Life isn't about knowing what the future holds; it's about a series of chances. You can take those chances, or you can let them pass. But you can't predict any outcome." Mokuba smiled fondly at Kaiba. "You taught me that. Not in so many words, but…" Mokuba shrugged, and the moment was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Food!" Within minutes the pizza was on the coffee table, and Mokuba was digging in. Kaiba smiled at his brother's antics and took a slice of pizza.
"So we're watching the Weather Channel for entertainment?" Kaiba asked amusedly, making sure he understood. There was something interesting about his brother's logic. Ridiculous, but interesting.
"Yup, and you can't complain because it's all your fault." Mokuba stuck out his tongue quickly before returning to his food. "Seto," he continued, his mouth half full, "I-"
"Swallow first," Kaiba ordered, just like when Mokuba was a kid. Mokuba scowled and obeyed. "There. Now talk."
"For all you've taught me, I want to teach you something."
Kaiba look at Mokuba quizzically. "And what would you teach me?"
Mokuba sat up straight and looked Kaiba in the eye as he said, "The only thing riskier than letting your life be run by predictions is letting the past dictate your future."
"Oh." Kaiba took a bite of his pizza, chewing slowly while he thought about that. Seemed insightful - Mokuba's motives were obvious, but it was potentially deep. "And why would you want to teach me that?"
"Because I think it's the only thing you don't understand," Mokuba explained. Kaiba didn't press the issue, and they fell into silence as they watched TV and ate their lunch.
Kaiba didn't think he was wise. Any "wisdom" he possessed was derived from his mistakes; that knowledge took the luster out of it. Maybe he could be considered worldly, but he would never call himself wise. Mokuba on the other hand was different; his mistakes didn't haunt him, and he derived his ideas from somewhere else, somewhere foreign to Kaiba… and for a minute he considered his brother's advice. It was clever, but that didn't mean it couldn't be taken apart - just like any other advice from any other person. It was ridiculous to rely on fortune telling; Kaiba agreed with that. The past was different though. The past was definite, absolute, and would never change with interpretation. The lessons learned there could save a man, ensure his future. Therefore Mokuba had to be wrong; relying on the past to make one's choices was less dangerous than silly future-prediction.
Kaiba kept that conclusion to himself; he would let Mokuba believe in his wisdom and keep his own philosophy to heart.
"You're so stubborn," Mokuba sighed, but he didn't continue.
Kaiba only nodded. "I know."
- author notes -
I didn't expect to have this posted so soon, but LadyNyoko wanted to look over it and proofread for me, so that definately sped things up, lol. ^^ So thankies to her.
"This was pointless," you may say.
I would disagree.
As pointless as this seems, it will serve a purpose later. Actually, I bet most people caught on to it's purpose and would agree with me that it's predictable. Also, I wanted to show that Mokuba isn't just some ditz (as he seems to have come off in Chapter Four, lol), but that he also has some depth. And I promise that something IS going to happen. We definately make some progress in the next chapter. ^^
Mokuba is weird, haha. I think he's sort of a wild character: he's social in chapter 4, angry in the beginning of this chapter, then deep & nostalgic, and finally ends on a somewhat frustrated note. Such mood swings! But I'm actually amused that Kaiba still seems to treat him like a kid sometimes in this chapter...
That and we got a little more Kaiba & Joey interaction. Which is important, lol.
As far as Mokuba's short rant about being on the news, I could see him getting shoved in front of cameras to sell the cause -- after all, as often as he's been kidnapped, it's pretty obvious people know who he is. I could also see him not wanting to be any spokesman, wanting to do more than be seen, you know?
In all honestly, I dont know where the hell that Weather Channel thing came from -- I was sitting around, it popped into my head, so I wrote it. I actually like where it went; I think it gave a little insight into Kaiba. Or at least, I hope it did. Eek. Actually, I'm a little worried that I talked out my ass some on the meterologist thing. I seem to remember something about reading weather patterns from sixth grade, lol. It sounded right at the time, so I went with it. Sorry if it's horribly inaccurate.
I like the last (big) paragraph -- it was fun to write, but it's only purpose was to contrast how Kaiba looks at Mokuba from himself, and therefore how he sees Mokuba's wisdom... I kinda liked that he tore it apart. I'm not sure why. o.O So I'm not sure if it really served a purpose or not, lol. *nervous*
..::responses to reviewers from chapter four::..
TanyaMaxwell: Kaiba is a fun character -- and thanks; well wishes to you too! :)
Fire Dragon of Darkness, bladegryphon: arigato.
Pestilience: I think Kaiba would put up one helluva a fight, lol.