Mokuba looked back at his brother, standing just inside the doorway of the party shop, looking around as though he was in some sort of medieval torture chamber. "Niisama, feel free to come in here and help me pick out some stuff for the party," he teased, gesturing for his brother to come closer.
"Like I know what you need for a party," Seto murmured, but moved to stand beside Mokuba anyway. For a while, the brothers just stood there, looking over the racks of streamers and balloons – if Mokuba knew Seto, though, the elder wasn't thinking about balloons and streamers. That was okay; neither was he. He was thinking about the one big flaw in his birthday plans: how to tell Seto about Yuugi. Mokuba supposed he could have just explained it to his brother after the fact, but he hadn't even tried to tell Seto that he liked boys at all. It had been one of those things that had been slipping his mind… for three years.
Okay, so he had kept quiet at first because he was young, and he was a little worried that Seto would be able to talk him out of it; Seto could convince the gods that the sky was magenta, should he have gotten the chance. Then, after a while, it really had just slipped his mind, and then it simply hadn't seemed important. But finally, with the deadline approaching, Mokuba knew he had to say something… anything.
"Well?" Seto prompted. "See anything that interests you?"
"Am I too old for balloons?" Mokuba asked, looking at some black ones that said happy birthday. He wasn't any surer than his brother; the last birthday party he had been at was when he was nine, and he didn't want to celebrate like a nine year old.
"Probably. Do you want balloons?"
Mokuba bit his lip and looked them over. He could just get solid colored ones; that didn't seem too young. "Yeah, just a little bit."
"Then get some balloons and stop worrying about it."
With a grin Mokuba nodded and moved the basket in his hand, putting one pack of black balloons and one pack of blue ones. "What else…?" he mused out loud, putting a finger to his lips in thought. They didn't really need games; there were video games set up in the room they were having the party in, and people would be talking, undoubtedly. Not to mention most of the people he knew always found ways to entertain themselves, even if it ended up with Jounouchi and Honda seeing who would catch more food in their mouths – Mokuba had always found that amusing.
To Mokuba's surprise, Seto added: "Candles for a cake, and maybe some of those," Seto gestured towards the paper streamers, "to make the living room look more festive." Mokuba nodded, and Seto ended up putting both items in the basket. "Anything else you can think of?"
"I'm sure there's something…" Mokuba looked around. Somehow, when he was younger, the idea of a birthday party had been a lot more fun than actually trying to plan one. "We don't really need decorations for one day, though."
"Do you want them?"
"Not really," he replied, shaking his head. "I think this'll be enough."
"Then lets go," Seto said, and they went to the cashier. "What do you want me to have the kitchen make?" Seto asked as they waited, and Mokuba bit his lip.
"I dunno – you don't need to be so serious," he said, but Seto just shrugged. They made it to the car, and took off without saying anything.
Seto's seriousness was one of the biggest worries for Mokuba; he was afraid that Seto would take something like a kiss too seriously – like if Yuugi kissed him, then Seto would demand that Yuugi stay with him forever. Mokuba was infatuated with Yuugi, yes, but he didn't know if he was going to spend forever with him, or any time at all – maybe they would kiss, and nothing would happen.
Then again, that had Mokuba just as worried, and he found himself reviewing every what-if in his head during the ride home.
"Are you okay?" Seto asked as he pulled into the garage, and Mokuba looked up. "For something you've been bugging me about for almost half a year, you're very subdued."
"Huh… Oh! I'm fine," Mokuba answered dismissively. "I was just thinking, that's all. Hey…" He licked his lips, taking a deep breath. "Um, we need to talk." Of course, the second the words were out of his mouth, Mokuba wished they had never left – Seto looked at him like he expected Mokuba to report the end of the world. Then again, in Seto's world, maybe he was…
"About what?" Seto asked calmly, switching off the car and stepping out. Mokuba grinned at him sheepishly and hopped out of the car.
"You'll need to come inside to find out!" he answered before he shut the car door and made a break for it. If he made it look like he was playing around, maybe Seto would think it was all a big joke, and not follow him. Mokuba went to his room, tossing the bag on his bed and looking around. A part of him wanted to sit at his computer, and maybe feign that he was having some computer issue. No, that wouldn't work – he was capable of fixing those. Maybe he could come up with some embarrassing personal problem…
Then again, his crush on Yuugi was an embarrassing personal problem.
His eyes fell on his open closet door. On the top shelf was a game he had bought last time he and Seto were in the States – they had played it once or twice in the hotel, but it was pretty dull.
LIFE.
It was perfect.
"Well?" Seto said, standing in the doorway. "What is it?"
"One second." Mokuba went into the closet, standing up on his tiptoes to pull the game down. He held it out to Seto and grinned, looking at his brother's forlorn expression. "Let's play."
"I hate that game; what does it have to do with talking?"
"Please?" Mokuba pleaded. "I swear it'll all make sense." With an overdramatic sigh, Seto nodded, and Mokuba went onto his bed, sitting against the pillows and opening the box. He didn't look up as Seto sat down opposite of him. The board was between them, the cars were picked, and everything was in order.
It was still really embarrassing.
"You think you'll ever get married, Seto?" Mokuba asked. The way he saw it, maybe he could ease them into the topic, so that when it finally came up, it wouldn't be so hard.
"In about four or five rounds."
"That's not what I meant," Mokuba said, spinning the spinner. Four of five rounds… "I mean really."
Seto shrugged. "I don't think about it. Why, are you planning to drop out of school and elope?"
"What? No, no! I… never mind."
"Something must be on your mind."
"It is."
They played silently for a while, and Mokuba saw the space coming: the space where he had to "get married." It was the perfect way to say what he felt without actually saying anything – visual representation.
"Mokuba, are you going to say anything anytime soon?"
Mokuba twirled the spinner – and there it was. He stopped the car in the red space and looked up at Seto. "You don't have a lot of thoughts about me getting married, do you?"
Seto raised an eyebrow, and Mokuba could have sworn that he looked slightly worried. "None, why?"
Mokuba reached for the box and picked a little blue piece that matched his own. He paused a second and then put it in the other front seat of the little plastic car. He looked up at Seto, who was looking at the car, his expression unreadable. Say something, Niisama…
"Trying to tell me something?"
"Yeah."
Seto spun. "Okay." While he moved his car, Mokuba stared, mouth agape. He was waiting for a tirade, or a 'but', or something other than 'okay.'
"That's it?" he asked.
There was a pause, and Mokuba was sure that was where Seto was forming his argument. All he said was, "Be careful."
Well, Mokuba wouldn't argue with that. "Am I old enough to date?" That got him some reaction; Seto looked up at him, and their eyes met. The elder blinked.
"I… do your classmates already date?"
Mokuba nodded.
"Then I guess so."
"Great!" Mokuba all but leapt over the board, catching his brother around the shoulders and squeezing him. "You're the best, Niisama."
"Just for that?"
"No, for everything." He moved, looked at the mussed board on his bed. "You know what, I don't really want to play this game. How do you feel about going out for something to eat?" He stood and looked expectantly at his brother, who nodded.
"Sure." Seto stood and strode towards the door. Mokuba was just about to breath a sigh of relief – how easy that had been! – when Seto called over his shoulder, "But over dinner, you're telling me who he is."
Never mind a sigh of relief – Mokuba had a whole new battle to prepare for. He smiled sheepishly to himself and followed his brother out the bedroom door. "Deal."
notes
Ah! Cheesy as hell -- which is about the speed of this entire story: cheesy romance, eh? ;;;;;;;;; I just liked the idea of the life game, and of Kaiba having no clue how to handle all these things Mokuba is coming into (and Mokuba not being much more sure). So hopefully this wasn't too awful.