Shopping For Seto
A/N: Ever wondered what you'd get Seto for Christmas? I know I have! Well, this will give you no answers whatsoever! But I'd like to dedicate this one to my friend, Scooby2408, or whatever she's calling herself now, to thank her for ideas and generally not falling asleep when I'm rabbiting on about various things. As such, I wrote this fic especially for her, so it's designed to appeal to her sense of humour. Weather or not it will is another matter entirely. This is also an apology to her brother, for the whole cheese grater thing. He knows what I mean. And so, Merry Christmas to both of them, and on with the show!
Disclaimer: I own NOTHING in this fic. Not even the letters used to type it our mine. But, I have written to Santa, so here's hoping…
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Mokuba looked up at the imposing building towering above them. It seemed to go on for miles, the brash white walls gleaming in the early morning sun. Somehow, the glint didn't seem friendly like the sun reflecting off a clear ocean or a glass window to some beautiful world, but rather an evil glint that story books always tell you you can see in a villain's eye. Mokuba swallowed- he'd driven past it before, of course, dozens of times. But on those occasions, he'd been one of the cars, with his mind on anything but this place. Never before had he stood in front of it, not ignoring it, but intending to go right into the belly of the beast. But he had to go, his future relationship with his brother depended on it, and this was one task with which Seto was not able to help him with.
Still, at least he wasn't completely alone.
"Hey, are we going to go in, or just stand here all day?" Joey asked impatiently "What are you all staring at?"
"What's eating you?" Tristan responded "There's no hurry, is there?"
"I just have this feeling there was something really important I was meant to do today…"
"He's right though." Mokuba said, feeling ridiculous about being nervous "We should get moving."
"Alright!!" Téa cheered "Then let's go!" and dragging Mokuba with one arm, and Yugi with the other, -Either because were they the closest to her, or because they were the smallest- she pulled them forcibly toward the large double doors of the shopping centre.
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"Look at all the people…" Yugi groaned, and Mokuba couldn't help agreeing with him. The centre was packed; people were teeming everywhere, with little or no elbow room. A burly old man shoved past a woman, scattering her packages to the floor.
Tempers were running high.
"What's the problem?" Joey cried cheerily, thumping his diminutive friend playfully on the shoulder. "We'll just push our way through!"
"Easy for you to say…" Yugi muttered "You're not liable to get stepped on." Téa rolled her eyes.
"Anyone would think you hadn't been here before!" she sighed.
"I haven't."
All eyes turned to Mokuba, making him feel slightly self-conscious. They all looked so… surprised. He was just beginning to wish he hadn't said anything when Tristan spoke up.
"You've never been here before? But it's only just down the street from you!" Then Téa chimed in, sounding horrified.
"Yeah," She agreed "Where do you shop?!"
"Internet!" Mokuba replied indcredously- surely it couldn't only be him and Seto that saw internet shopping made a lot more sense then going round one of those noisy, crowded, overbearing places?
Well, evidently they were, seeing as not only was he standing in one of those noisy, crowded, overbearing places, but they must be popular to be crowded in the first place.
Why couldn't his brain figure these things out before he spouted a load of rubbish?
"Internet shopping?" Joey whispered to Tristan "Great, this kid knows more about it then we do…"
"What do you expect?" Tristan replied "Look at his brother." Then he noticed Mokuba looking suspiciously at them, and hastily decided to rejoin the main conversation.
"So, kiddo, why didn't you use the net this time?" He asked innocently. Mokuba shuffled guiltily.
"Seto has banned me from using it for…the foreseeable future." Mokuba sighed.
"Why? What did you do?" Seto must've been really mad…
"Well…um…See, I was downloading some stuff…" He stammered "And… um… Well…"
He noticed, with some discomfort, the others shocked faces, and finally cottoned on to what they were thinking.
"HECK NO!!" He shouted loudly, causing all the shoppers to look at him and hurry their children away. "I mean, no. I was just downloading some music." The teenagers gave a visible sigh of relief.
"What was the problem, then?" Joey asked once they had recovered.
"Well, it had a virus on it that crashed Seto's mainframe and he… had to start from scratch, so… he wasn't too pleased."
"Wait a minute! Don't you have all that fancy software stuff that's meant to stop that kind of thing from happening?"
"Well, yes, but…" Mokuba seemed reluctant to go on, but realising that there was no escape, he sighed and continued in a voice that seemed almost bored. "We've never had this problem before, and when I pointed out that it must therefore be a problem with the program, or that it just generally sucked, Seto told me that he'd… that he'd replaced it with one that he'd written. And obviously, it didn't work."
Joey laughed till a security guard came and told them that if he didn't shut up they'd be kicked out, and would they please move away from the doors as they now constituted a fire hazard.
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An hour later, they still hadn't had any luck.
"Do you have any idea what to get him?" Téa asked despairingly. As Mokuba answered in the negative, she was practically tearing her hair out. "C'mon, there must be something he wants! What kind of thing do you usually get him?"
"I can never find anything. I usually end up making him choose something." Mokuba answered gloomily "But this year…he said that all he wanted for Christmas was to get away from the idiots that work for him and spend some time with me for once. Why do you think I asked you guys to help?" Mokuba was a little embarrassed. He knew Seto would kill him if he knew he had told anyone he'd said something so sentimental. But then, he doubted if anyone would believe him anyway. He wouldn't have believed it himself, if he hadn't heard it with his own ears.
"That's so sweet…" Téa gushed. The others stared at her. Even Yugi hadn't been able to remain cheerful after an hour in a crowded centre with no luck.
"Sweet, but not very helpful." He sighed.
"This is ridiculous." Joey agreed. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a certain shop, and immediately felt more optimistic. "Hey!" He yelled, pointing "Look! Now, there's a shop where you can find anything for anyone- including that brother of yours! I didn't even know they had one here! C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" He ushered them across the walkway towards the shop; though Joey saw it as the Promised Land, so he could come home and play Soul Caliber.
"There?" Mokuba asked, looking at the display in the window "But it looks so… tacky."
"No worries!" Joey told him "Something for everyone, remember!"
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:- 3 hours later -:
"I can't believe we still haven't found anything…" Joey groaned, face-down into the table.
When their legs had become weary, and their minds became so fed up that they refused to think, Téa had finally relented and let them take a pit-stop in a small café. It was with some relief that the party collapsed into the rickety plastic chairs, and it wasn't until they all had large milkshakes in front of them that conversation began.
"So, where to next?" Téa asked.
"Where else is there to go?" Tristan pointed out. (A/N: Just pretend all the following shops are Japanese, not English/American, okay?) "We've already been to the Card Game shop, Thornton's, Argos, Heck; we even went to the sock shop…"
"Greg's, Peacock's," Yugi added, ticking them off on his fingers "GAME, Woolworth's, Poundland, HMV…"
"The Gadget Shop," Mokuba continued "The Discovery Store, The Software Store, H&M, Marks and Spencer's, WHSmith's, Waterstones…"
"JB Sports." Tristan gave another to the list. "Bacons, Clarks, Nostalgia Comics…"
"Sanity, Forbidden Planet," Joey added despondently from the depths of the table "Smiffy's, The Entertainer, The S-"
"Okay, I get the message!" Téa screamed, opening her mouth to continue when Mokuba interrupted.
"We even went into that shop of Joey's…" He sighed.
"HS Samuel."
"Strawberry Lemonade."
"Novelty Pretzels."
"Clintons."
"Finished?" Téa glowered at her companions. She could do a death glare almost as well as Seto.
"Birthdays." Mokuba added quietly. Hey, he may not very often be on the receiving end of one, but he did live with the king of death glares. Téa glared harder at him. He slurped innocently on his milkshake.
"Anyway," She said eventually "The point is, we can't give up yet." She finished her drink. "We have a mission to complete, and we won't give up till we TRIUMPH!! I just know that the perfect present is out there somewhere, and I promise you, I WILL NOT rest till I find it!!" She banged her fist on the table. Mokuba continued to back away. "Or at least till the centre closes. Now, c'mon! We have a Happy Christmas to bring!" With that, she dived back into the throng of the shops, leaving in her wake a slightly scared Mokuba.
"Guess it was the milkshake…" Yugi murmured, looking a little worried himself. "Maybe we should go after her…?" He suggested tentatively, watching as Téa was lost in the crowd. But they could still hear her.
"Outta the way, people! It's Christmas Eve tomorrow, and I'm a girl on a mission…!"
"Or maybe we should stay here and act like we don't know her." Tristan winced.
"I'm with him!" Mokuba said instantly.
"Me to." Joey added. Yugi said nothing, but couldn't stop himself nodding in agreement.
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A few minutes later, when Mokuba and the others were half way down their second milkshakes, Téa returned and sat with them.
There was an uncomfortable silence, while Téa's eyes gave the wall more holes then Swiss Cheese.
"Any luck…?" Mokuba ventured cautiously. And Téa let loose.
"Any luck?!" She screamed "Any luck?! I've been going around for the best part of five hours looking around desperately for a present for that stinking, rich, snobby, mean, incredibly hot, jerky, vain, ignorant brother of yours; then you let me go wondering round the shops for ten minutes, talking to myself so now everyone thinks I'm crazy, and when I get back, you ask me if I've had any luck?! Well, NO, actually I haven't, no thanks to you!" Although, that, of course, was already pretty clear.
The three guys looked at her blankly. She had been going impossibly fast- they could barely make a word out. Then Joey decided to try and calm her down, and, as usual, not only put his foot in it, but dived in head-first.
"Ah, don't worry Téa," He said lightly. "Everyone thinks you're crazy any-" Yugi gave him a swift elbow in the ribs, but it wasn't quick enough. Téa turned on him with all the gentleness of sulphuric acid down the throat.
Mokuba, meanwhile, was still trying to figure out if he really had heard a compliment in amongst the insults to his brother. Which he was rather insulted about. Shouldn't it be Arrogant? He wondered I think so… rather then ignorant- I think that's what she said. I'm sure it should be arrogant…
But it didn't seem wise to inform her of the fact.
Let her have Joey.
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There didn't seem to be much point in moving from the café table. So instead, they sat there, racking their brains and trying not to incur Téa's wrath.
"Why don't you just get him another trenchcoat?" Joey snickered. It was meant to be a joke, but actually Mokuba didn't find it too bad an idea.
"Good idea…" He replied thoughtfully, but then saw the flaw in the plan. "Only problem is…"
But Joey and Tristan were away, egging each other on.
"A green one," Joey snorted "With yellow flowers."
"And bells!" Tristan laughed "Bells on the elbows!"
"Um, guys…" Mokuba tried.
"And a bunny on the back!"
"Shouldn't that be a Blue-Eyes?"
"Only if a Red-Eyes is stomping it!"
The conversation continued in this idiotic fashion for quite some time, so I will spare you the details.
I'm sure you can imagine.
As the Jackets Joey and Tristan were dreaming up for Seto became steadily more and more ridiculous, Mokuba became more and more frustrated.
"Joey!" He shouted "Tristan! Will you guys listen for ONE SECOND?!"
They looked at him, surprised. But they were listening.
"Well, yeah, sure, that's a great idea." Mokuba said, surprising himself at how much sarcasm was contained in that single sentence. "Expect one itty bitty problem. Fact is, none of us have the slightest idea where Seto gets those coats from!"
And so, everyone secretly listening to the conversation had to resign themselves to never knowing the answer to one of life's greatest mysteries.
"We need a miracle." Mokuba groaned, running his hands through his hair "The shops close in twenty minutes, and I still have no idea what to get Seto!"
"We need a miracle." Téa agreed, exhausted "A bloomin' Christmas Miracle."
And, as they so often do at Christmas, a miracle came.
In the form of Serenity Wheeler.
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"I had no idea shopping for siblings was so hard…" Mokuba groaned "I really, really, hope Seto lets me back online soon… you can find anything online…"
Ignoring Mokuba's belated comments, and Téa's half-hearted suggestions, Yugi scanned the crowd- mainly out of severe bordem. The centre was clearing now, people were going home. There were no new people coming in now, everyone was heading toward the main doors, not away.
With the exception of one girl. One awfully famillar girl.
"Speaking of siblings," Yugi said slowly "Isn't that your sister, Joey?" Joey looked around quizzically, spotted Serenity, went pale, and banged his head off the table.
"Remember that really important thing I forgot?" He asked "I just remembered… Serenity's come for Christmas." As if just saying her name would make her appear, Serenity came and stood beside her older brother, looking slightly peeved.
"There you are…" She said "I've been looking for you guys all day! I can't believe you forgot me, Joey…" She looked so upset, even Mokuba felt guilty.
"I'm really, really sorry…" Joey offered lamely "I guess I just got so sidetracked helping Mokuba…"
"I was desperate…" Mokuba added, and the four of them began to relate the days troubles. Strangly, when they were done, Serenity started to giggle. She just couldn't control it.
"What's so funny?" Joey demanded irritably "We've just had the worst day of our lives, and you're laughing?"
"I'm sorry…" Serenity chuckled "It's just you needn't have gone through all that bother…"
"Huh?" Mokuba asked intelligently.
"Look, all you have to do is stick some pasta and glitter onto some card and call it art." She said, as though it was obvious. "Never fails."
"Would Seto really accept it?" Mokuba asked doubtfully.
"Sure. Works right up till your teens- then you have to start getting real presents. Which means that Joey here…" She punched her brother playfully on the shoulder "Won't get off the hook that easily!" She laughed, but Joey went even paler then when he had first spotted his sister and known he was in it deep, if it was possible. Ten minutes till the shops closed. He set off at a run.
"He forgot again…" Serenity sighed.
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"Do you really like it?" Mokuba asked anxiously, trying his best to look and sound cute.
"Of course." Seto replied, sticking the pasta and glitter creation onto the (Industrail sized) fridge, making Mokuba struggle hard to suppress an embarresed squirm. "I love it." Seto continued "You put a lot of hard work into it, and that's worth more to me then any factory made thing you could buy."
"Good. I'm glad." Mokuba replied, felling relieved. Serenity Wheeler is an angel, he thought. She really saved my butt.
"I'm glad you didn't worry about it." Seto added suddenly, making Mokuba look at him disbelievingly. "Every year you panic about what to get me and trying to find something…I just glad you found something right here, and didn't stress out again. Mokuba? Mokuba, where are you going?"
Seto watched as his brother ran upstairs, screaming in frustration.
Seto felt confused for a moment, then shook his head and resigned himself to never understanding his little brother.
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A/N: Well, what is there to add to that? How about something tradional? Merry Christmas, everyone!