Yay! Next chapter done! Not really much to say about it, so I'll just post it :p. Mer.

Chapter 3

Another week passed by without incident; every day Seto and the employees worked tirelessly, every night he returned late, tired as the past few months continued barraging him with how little rest he had given himself when he first started work on VirtuVenture. Mokuba would sometimes sit up and wait for him, but most of the time Seto would find him asleep on the living room couch with his little green blanket wrapped around him. His little brother did catch him one night, however.

As the CEO opened up the door to the mansion, he heard the small voice from the kitchen. "Seto? Is that you?"

"Mokuba?" he called out, tucking the key away in his pocket and shutting the door behind him.

The black-haired boy slowly emerged from the room, looking somewhat awake, but not fully enough to walk without rubbing an eye. "I ate some ice cream at 10," he said, grinning slightly at his brother's confused expression. "I hardly ever see you anymore, niisama. Can't I come to work with you some more?"

"You have to stay in school, Mokuba," Seto said gently, leading him over to the couch in the vast family room.

"School stinks. Why don't you have to go to school?" he whined, looking up at Seto once they were settled on the soft cushions.

"Because I don't need to."

"Why not?"

"Because I graduated early on. I don't need to learn anything else."

"I don't need to know anything else!" Mokuba proclaimed, still with an annoyed edge to his voice. "All the 'gifted' kids in my class can't even keep up with me. My teacher goes too slow."

"You've skipped too many grades already. You'll just need to stay in for a few more years." He ruffled his little brother's hair.

"That's not the point, Seto," the little one mumbled, stifling a yawn. "Ever since you stopped school and started working, we don't do anything anymore…"

Not knowing quite how to respond, Seto remained silent. It was true; he could hardly even remember the last time they had gone out and done something that had nothing to do with school or work. Mokuba closed his eyes and rested his head against his brother's chest, reaching around and taking a hold of his trench coat.

"I miss you, niisama."

Seto reached his arms around Mokuba, pulling him onto his lap, reclining slightly into the back of the couch with a soft sigh. His little brother's grip did not loosen on his coat for a while, and it was only when Seto heard quiet, deep breaths that he knew Mokuba had fallen asleep. He sat for a while longer with Mokuba clinging to him, staring out at the wall across from him, thinking about the fact that it was a family room in which they were sitting. How empty it was. It was even emptier when he wasn't there with his little brother.

Looking down at his brother's quiet form, he held him a little closer, the wind from his sigh ruffling his black hair. Maybe it's about time I took a break… It went against everything he had learned about business. To slack off before a deadline was suicide for the company and the stockholders. A small grunt emanated from Mokuba's lips.

…for Mokuba.

The next day they were in the nearby park; it became very crowded around midday as families with picnics and dogs showed up to lounge. Seto mainly sat on a bench and watched Mokuba ride his bike around, occasionally checking his cell phone in case there was any news concerning the project; his laptop was in a briefcase at his side should an emergency happen while they were out. Everything seemed fine at the moment, so the CEO settled into the hard wooden bench, finding it a nice change from his cushioned business chair.

Sitting down for a long time was especially nice.

"Niisama!" Mokuba called, riding up and coming to a halt before him, leaving a few skid marks on the ground. "Can we go get ice cream?"

"Ice cream?" Seto asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Aw, come on, Seto, please?"

"I'd have thought that you would want a lunch of pizza before eating anything sweet," he said with a slight smirk.

Mokuba blinked, only confused for a second before making the connection and jumping into the air. "Yes! Pizza!"

The elder chuckled quietly to himself as he got up from the bench and picked up his briefcase, his brother speeding around on his bike with a wide smile. They made their way down the stony path that ran through the park, Mokuba waving at the various people they passed. Seto felt so relaxed that he didn't even feel like glaring at everyone he saw like he usually did.

That didn't necessarily mean that he smiled; he just didn't glare.

In the pizza place, he let Mokuba order a small pizza and a Dr. Pibb, getting a tall glass of water for himself. Mokuba began questioning Seto about work and how it was coming along, Seto answering without hesitation and even with some enthusiasm. And, of course, that meant that the question of the name was once again presented to the CEO.

"Seto," Mokuba said, taking a noisy slurp from his drink. "Why won't you tell me what the game is called?"

"Call it a possession issue, Mokuba."

"But I won't tell anyone! Honest!"

"I won't tell anyone until the release date. You know you can't change my mind." He smiled softly as he drank down the glass of water.

Mokuba pouted and pursed his lips on the straw of his drink, but Seto looked out the window to spare himself the guilt of the puppy face. "Come on, niisama… pleeeeeeease?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

The little Kaiba brother looked like he was about to start shouting, but the pizza had arrived, and he instead forgot about his objective and started into the steaming piece of food. Sighing slightly, the CEO took out his laptop again and turned it on to check on things back at the lab. As the flat piece of machinery began to hum and warm up, he heard another noise—a small beep had emitted from his cell phone.

He pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open to see that he had a new text message. It rather startled him, as he had never had anyone in the lab using that method to get in contact with him. The message was brief:

"I see you're not at the office today. A bit risky to slack off a week before VirtuVenture's release, don't you think?"

Seto's eyes narrowed suddenly as his mind jumped to the only reasonable conclusion. "Hack," he muttered viciously.

"Fhah?" Mokuba got out through a mouthful of pizza, trying at the same time to break a string of cheese that was connected from the bite in his mouth to the pizza slice.

His attention focused entirely on the phone, Seto didn't hear him. Hack had somehow gotten a hold of his cell phone number, and he knew that the only place he had his cell phone in a directory was at KaibaCorp. That means… He shook his head. Hack couldn't be anyone at work; no one at work could possibly have the time to text me. Besides… even my cell phone number is under a secure database to which only my secretaries have access… He jumped a great deal when the phone beeped again. Pressing a button with a slight twinge of apprehension, he stood up with a flourish, nearly knocking his chair over as the message played across the screen.

"And at a pizza parlor! I thought you had better taste than that, if you'll pardon the pun."

Mokuba had flinched at Seto's reaction, coughing slightly as he swallowed his food. "N-niisama, what is it?" he asked.

The CEO's eyes darted towards everyone in the restaurant as they stared at him, some of them muttering to each other. Hack somehow knew that he was out for pizza with his brother—someone was watching him. "We're going Mokuba," he said, his voice on the edge of wavering, his brow creased so much his eyes were reduced to slits.

He grabbed his little brother by the hand, tossing some money carelessly upon the table, bursting from the restaurant like a madman. A few people stopped and stared at him as well as he whipped around, oblivious to Mokuba's attempts to free his hand. As his breathing slowly calmed down, the people on the street sort of shrugged and went on with their lives, some choosing to talk about him in a whisper, others resuming the conversations they were having before the interruption. Seto didn't see anyone that was looking at him still, and his phone did not emit any more noises.

"Niisama," Mokuba pleaded. "You're hurting me!"

He blinked down at his brother for a second before realizing with a start that he had been nearly crushing his hand; he hastily dropped it. "What the heck's wrong, Seto?" the little one asked, shaking his hand slightly to get the feeling back.

Seto decided in an instant not to tell him. "Nothing, Mokuba," he said, sighing slightly. "I was misinformed about something and I thought a system had crashed at work."

"Is that why you said hack? Because you thought someone had hacked into the system and put in a virus or something?"

"Yes," Seto said, hiding his relief that his excuse had matched up so perfectly. "But it was a false alarm. I'm sorry if I scared you."

"It's ok, niisama," he cooed.

"I think we should be getting home."

Knowing that his brother was probably still a bit worked up, Mokuba agreed without question. They started on down the street, and Seto's mood worsened slightly, his urge to get back to work starting to nag him. He knew that at work he'd be able to access all the files he needed to search out whoever the hell "Hack" was. It would have to wait, though, he reminded himself; VirtuVenture needed to be completed by that Friday. He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't even notice anyone around him until he roughly ran into a young boy, knocking him over.

"Watch where you're going," he snapped, not even bothering to look as he continued down the street, brooding. Mokuba stalled a bit to help the blonde-haired boy to his feet with a small murmur of an apology before catching up with his brother again. Throwing caution to the winds again, he didn't try to scold Seto as he normally would have done.

On the way home in the car, Seto was completely silent, thinking hard to himself.

The only people who know my cell phone number are my secretaries at work. If I find out that any one of them has been hacking into the system… I didn't see any of them around the pizza parlor, though, so they couldn't have been out of work. He screwed up his face in concentration as he struggled to come up with a logical explanation.

If this Hack was smart enough to crack through my computer's security measures, that meant he had to have been able to break into KaibaCorp's files, and that's how he got my cell phone number. I didn't see anyone suspicious when I came outside… if he wasn't there, how could he have known where I was?

…If he got into KaibaCorp's files, then he'd have no trouble with my cell phone company's satellite system; he hacked into there and pinpointed my location using the signals my phone gives off.

Mokuba's bicycle was resting on the folded-down seats in the back, and he had taken to idly spinning the front wheel since Seto wasn't speaking or moving at all.

…I have to find Hack. He's come too close.