CHAPTER FIVE: INTERFERENCE

AN:
Crappy chapter. All Kaiba/Isis fans will be utterly disappointed. This is more Kaiba/Duke than anything else, but I do not approve or like Kaiba/Duke. This story will not head in the direction of Kaiba/Duke. Period. Hope I didn't lose too many readers (not reviewers, because hey, I have like 1) because this is a pretty crappy chapter. Displays Kaiba's feelings well, which is nice, since the other chapters focused more on Ischizu than him. Happy reading!

"Sure, Ischizu! See you later!" Mokuba tugged on his brother's arm, and Kaiba gave her a last look as he left.

She smiled gently, her fingers begging to be lifted and waved, but they stood stiffly at her right.

Outside, Mokuba pulled Kaiba until he dropped Kaiba's arm unexpectedly. With a gasp and a laugh, he ran down the steps.

"Duke!" He hopped into Duke's arms that hugged him and ruffled his hair. Duke Devlin, CEO of D3 Corp, stared over the boy's head into the CEO of Kaiba Corp.

"Hey, Kaiba. Long time no see." It was a lazy, drawled response. To say the least, Seto was slightly surprised at his appearance here. In reply to his greeting, Kaiba gave him a glare.

Mokuba stepped back to admire Duke, who was sprawled, lean legged against his blue sports car. Kaiba was not amused. Clad in a blue button down shirt and dark pants, Duke looked ready to go to a formal meeting.

"What business do you have in Egypt, Duke?" Mokuba happily beamed up at him.

"Promote D3 worldwide; so far it's going great. I got something for you, kiddo." he said, as he looked at Mokuba, who grinned.

"Lemme see!" He hopped from on leg to another, the anticipation bothering him. Duke slid a rectangular shaped box into Mokuba's small hands. Kaiba looked with disinterest; the man was clearly buying his brother's trust.

"You can't buy people's trust," Kaiba said darkly, and then added quietly, "and I don't assume you believed you would."

"Lighten up, Kaiba. I just got through some preliminary meetings with my associates. Maybe you want to come with me for a drink?" Duke's smirk mirrored that of Kaiba's when he was clearly annihilating the opponent in Duel Monsters.

"I don't drink," Seto said blandly, and with this, he snatched his brother back by holding his hand.

Mokuba, whom had opened the rectangular shaped box, was clearly surprised. His eyes lit up in happiness, and Duke smiled. The kid was easy to impress, but Duke wasn't manipulating his feelings. He genuinely liked the boy.

"Well then, I guess we could just go for ice cream. Sound fun?" He directed this question to Mokuba, who nodded and did a small victory twirl.

"Mokuba, I've got research to do. We don't have time to waste." Seto said this as he looked ready to rebel. Mokuba sighed.

"Quit being so uptight; I've got some matters to discuss with you, as well." Duke emphasized the 'you' part and looked at Seto this time. Crossing his arms, Seto shrugged.

"Whatever it is, leave it with my secretary." Seto gave a smug look as he said this.

"You're here now, and you can't protest." Duke smiled at the amount of power he had over Kaiba's younger brother. With a tug, Mokuba hopped over the convertible door into the backseat.

"C'mon, brother. It's only for a little while. Plus I want ice cream." Mokuba did this intentionally. Stiffly, he walked over to the car.

Sliding into the front seat, Duke smiled at him sideways. Seto uncomfortably rested his elbow on the car window.

"Let's go." And it was with that statement that they rushed forward, zig-zagged through traffic and braked into a parking position outside of an ice cream shoppe.

"Nice driving, Duke. You drive just like my brother." With this bubbly comment, Mokuba unbuckled his seatbelt and skipped into the shoppe ahead of them. Seto began unbuckling his when Duke spoke.

"I lied for you," he said, darkly, shifting back into the seat, raising a hand to his forehead. Seto had probably never seen Duke as serious as this in a long time. Perhaps it was their friendship, or "friendship" that had been forged out of numerous business deals that made them close, but not-

"Don't expect gratitude." Seto stopped fumbling with the seatbelt. He looked embarrassing always trying to unbuckle the seatbelt in foreign cars. Suddenly, Duke snapped, a thin, worrisome thread that had hung in the air had snapped in half.

"The media will find out sooner or later and it can only mean a bad image for you and less profit for KaibaCorp-!" Duke blurted, angrily. Kaiba narrowed his eyes into thin slits.

"You know nothing of me. Stay out of my way." With that he got up, swiftly unbuckled his seatbelt and slammed the car door. As soon as he had turned around, Duke spoke up.

"You always try to get rid of me, Kaiba. The fact is that you can't. It's not about the business deals. I don't care about your money. I care about y-"

"Shut. Up." Firm, and even, Duke could see the sudden change in Kaiba. Kaiba hadn't seen true friendship in his time. Even Yuugi was treated like dirt for the longest time, and he still stuck around.

"I guess some people don't change," Duke said, a faint sarcastic voice. Duke was obtrusive in every aspect to Kaiba; he represented a milder, kinder version of someone he had known.

The shoppe looked cheery, save for Kaiba's uptight attitude. Several people recognized Duke almost immediately. Mokuba shrugged sheepishly and went to order ice-cream at the front counter. A young girl approached Duke, her slim arm extending a small notepad for him to autograph. With ease and suaveness, he signed his name and smiled at her. A faint rosy blush appeared on her cheeks. Kaiba shook the image out of his head, focusing on more important things at hand.

Mokuba juggled three ice-cream cones, resting them in between his extended fingers. While picking up napkins he noticed the distant look on his brother's face as he watched Duke sign autographs. Several other females noticed his brother as well, giggling and turning their head away. Perhaps they had heard of his brother's attitude towards everyone.

"Ice-cream, Brother?" Mokuba's hand extended to him an ice-cream cone filled to the top with a white, creamy mix, dappled with mint chips.

"No thanks," He said, and his brother licked what was supposed to chocolate ice-cream. Mokuba then went to tug on Duke's arm. Surprised that Mokuba knew his favorite flavor was mint-chip, he smiled. Something ticked Kaiba off about Duke; everyone knew his favorite flavor was mint-chip. Grudgingly he slid into a chair, taking a napkin and pawning a pen off the front counter. From there he began to write out pseudo-code for his newest virtual game-

Duke had sat across from him, raising the ice-cream cone and licking it. Several girls from the other table giggled at the sight. They were brainless and immature to Kaiba, but of couse, almost everyone to him was.

"Hey," was Duke's small greeting. Duke could never be angry for long, because it just wasn't in his demeanor. But it was told that Duke had articulate sense; that's why he excelled at creating and maintaining business relationships. Kaiba had hired someone else for that job; he wasn't exactly the best person to negotiate with. Kaiba ignored the greeting.

Mokuba sat on the table, ignoring the sign near the counter that read, "No sitting on tables," and faced Duke. He swung his legs freely at the end of the table.

"So kid, been anywhere interesting lately?" With this Duke put an arm on Mokuba's leg, almost to contain his hyperactivity.

"We went to the Ishtar's place. You know, Marik and Ischizu Ishtar." Mokuba said, his back still facing his brother. Annoyedly, Kaiba interjected.

"It's none of your business," Was the cutting interjection. Duke slumped against the back of the chair.

"Heh. Ischizu Ishtar? She run's part of the exhibit here in Egypt, and even in Japan she was head of the research for a little while," Duke said matter-of-factly. Kaiba ignored his comment as it was information he already knew.

"You like her?" At first Kaiba thought that the question had been directed at him. But of course not, he had a quick, witty reply to everything. He rooted throughout his mind for a reply-

"Yeah, she's nice. Especially to brother. She calls him by his first name." Kaiba glared at his brother's back. If only he could be a little more obvious with everything!

"That's sweet of her," and as Duke saw Kaiba's icy look, added, "It's probably because she's older." Mokuba nodded at this, and there was finality in the last statement. Kaiba dug through his trenchcoat pocket for his planner. Flipping up to this date, he realized he had nothing major planned for tomorrow, or the day after that. After the third day, he had a board meeting in Japan to review stock values and current quarter interests.

Kaiba watched as Duke haphazardly licked the last of his ice-cream, even a small stream of the mint-chip that had leaked around the ice-cream cone. Mokuba tossed his napkin in the trash, and as soon as he did, a woman at the counter struck up a conversation with him.

"So which one's your brother? The one with the pretty hair or the nice eyes?" She propped up her elbow to support her heart-shaped face.

"My brother's Seto, the one with the brown hair," Mokuba said plainly. Reaching over the counter, he spelled out his name for her on the napkin.

"He's cute," she said, wiping her hands on her apron, and headed into the back room of the shoppe. Mokuba wiped his hands on a remaining napkin and noticed an arcade game in the corner. Digging a quarter out of his messy stacks of twenty dollar bills in his pocket, he slid the quarter in. The game began to start up and he was lost in the confusion of collecting small yellow dots on the screen as Pac-Man darted about.

Kaiba tried to look for things to reschedule. With this, he splayed the planner out on the table and began to move things around, crossing out a meeting in March to be rescheduled to February. Good, the more busy he was, the better. The more he had free time, the more he realized how much he-

"I'm sorry about exploding," Duke licked his bottom lip clean of ice-cream. He leaned forward on the table, propping his face up with his hands.

"Whatever." Iciness leaked from him. He gave a glance towards Mokuba who was not yet ready to leave.

"So how's the company been?" Small talk was not Kaiba's forte. It was either business or a waste of time. That had been pasted in his mind ever since Gozaburo had entered his life. His shoulder twitched at how he had remembered that moment.

"Fine." Seto crossed out the last line of the meeting details. He could reschedule that next week; nothing planned on Saturday. Good. Every single block of the month was filled up with something, except the next two days. He could probably fill up the second day, but he needed tomorrow to get back to Japan. He reasoned that on the plane ride he could have most of the blueprint for the virtual game ready by then.

"I guess I know why you took those anti-depressants now," he said, giving a furtive look at Kaiba's planner. It was a serious tone, but Kaiba felt as if he was mocking him.

"I've got work," he said, almost hoarsely. "Unlike you." He clicked the pen, and watched the pen cap roll towards Duke. Duke quickly took hold of the pen cap, and held it between his fingers.

"Kaiba," he said, almost gently, "Why do you have to be like this? What about what Yuugi said? They cared about you," It was almost a desperate plea.

"Yes," he said, in a mocking tone, dropping the pen to the table, "Yuugi took pleasure in beating me. But that's not a problem. It will be fixed as soon as the next time I see him. His worthless friends are nothing but a bunch of-"

Duke had snatched the pen off the table, and clamped on to Kaiba's wrist. The pen scratched against his inner wrist, creating a dark black line, nearly three or four centimeters long. Kaiba looked disgusted.

"Don't talk about them like that. Not after what they had done for you. Not what everyone wanted for you! We were stuck in that virtual game, and I felt what you felt.."

Kaiba jerked his hand back; physical contact had not been a part of his life for a long time. He wanted to get out of here, far away from everything in his life. He rubbed faintly, the pen ink beginning to dilute as soon as he rubbed it with his fingers.

"You don't know me, and don't assume you do. You don't know anything about my past or his," he glanced towards Mokuba, "and it's nothing that concerns you," With that he got up.

The pen remained in Duke's hands as he stood up, slightly frustrated.

"You just keep running away from everything," Duke said, his face twisting into confusion, "and I don't care if you hate me, I'm still a part of your life, and I'm not going anywhere." Mokuba watched distantly from the corner of his game. He had used up all his quarters, deciding to now redirect his attention to his brother who was severely angry with his friend. "Friend." How easy it was to understand it, but for his brother, it wasn't like that at all.

"Brother!" There was a faint squeak that came from him as his brother swept him away, walking out of the café. Several people, still licking their ice-cream, never noticed the tension at all.

"Brother!" It was a faint, tug at Kaiba's heart. Again, and again. He would hear it even at night. His brother's voice filled his mind, screaming sometimes, crying at others. But never really happy. Of course, he could've just as easily replaced his brother's downtrodden image with his own. Sick of this world, and sick of people-

"Kaiba!" Seto could feel something at the back of his eyes, but most would assume it was the wind that was now whipping his hair wildly into other directions. It seemed like a storm was approaching. Mokuba bet his money on it that Seto would have run out if it hadn't been for him.

"Kaiba!" Again. He wouldn't leave. He wouldn't go away. He wanted him gone, forced away in some corner of life he didn't need to experience. He didn't want friendship, his kindness, or his help. He didn't want anything to do with the man named Duke Devlin. Ever.

"Kaiba!" The last one. Kaiba's arm was tugged by Duke who spun him around. Something wet, something soft and wet could be felt inside his body. He didn't want him to be there. Nothing could replace the aloneness in his body, that leaked from every corner.

With that, Duke brought him into his arms, Kaiba's wet cheek, perhaps it was the drizzle falling from the clouds, nestled into his shoulder. Mokuba held his brother's hand which had been drained of color. Duke could feel Kaiba's warm mouth open, the lips parting to touch his skin. Mokuba's small fingers enveloped his brothers soft fingers.

"Let me take it out," Duke said fakely, hoping to deter Mokuba from the fact that his brother was..

Kaiba lifted his head, the trenchcoat was shrugged off his shoulders immediately. It was raining. Duke leaned forward and pretended to remove something from Kaiba's eyes, sweeping his thumb over the edge of his right eye, and then pretending to check to see if it was still there.

"It's out," Kaiba said hoarsely. In the past few years Duke had consoled him, somehow, in the fine, recesses of his mind, he could locate how he could easily wipe away something, just as if it was something that was in his eye.

"Oh," Mokuba said, finally understanding. Somehow he had failed to catch something invisible hanging in the air. Mokuba trotted backwards.

"Let's go pick Ischizu now, Brother," he said, "I just want a rest." Mokuba said this softly, bringing his small hand to his own cheek.

"I'll drive you guys there." Duke offered, and secretively he nudged Kaiba who had turned around and pretended to look at an incoming car to quickly wipe his eyes. Whatever that was in his eye before had come back, and he wiped diligently a few times, and Duke nodded and said, "It's out." As Mokuba walked ahead of them, Duke dug his hands into his pockets.

"I don't like seeing you like this," Duke said, his green eyes darting towards Kaiba who now held his trenchcoat in one arm and looked slightly less icily at the floor.

"I don't give a damn." He gave an icy glare towards him, and Duke smiled forward. They went into the car, and as they drove, Kaiba ran his fingers over the blank, white fabric of his trenchcoat.

They appeared in front of the museum almost immediately. The rain thickened considerably. Mokuba jumped out and rushed towards the museum, leaving Kaiba still unbuckling his seatbelt.

"Here," With ease Duke slid the seatbelt off, looking at him serenely.

"Hn." Was the small understanding by Kaiba. As soon as he had begun to get up, Duke stopped him.

"Wait, hold on," He leaned forward into Kaiba's seat, his mouth parting to softly land a kiss on Kaiba's tender neck. With a shrug and a twitch of the shoulder blade, Kaiba got up immediately.

"Don't." Was all he said, and he turned his back on Duke, sitting handsomely in the car. Of course, Duke had known all along, that Kaiba was in love with Ischizu all along. Duke smiled with ease; being smooth was part of his business after all. Of course, he had not expected, even after claiming Kaiba's trust two years ago, that Kaiba would fall in love with him. For a little while, he was hurt, but as with any problem or obstacle, Duke shrugged it off, awaiting the finer points in life.

Far away, he could hear Mokuba's laughter as they rendezvoused with Ischizu at the top of the steps in front of the museum. At least they were happy. Duke sped away, without a thought in his mind.

AN:
I know. This chapter didn't go in the direction I wanted it to. Plus, I pulled the characters OOC a little. Duke's definitely not that sensitive, but then again, he doesn't play a big part in the show, so the viewer doesn't know a lot about him. I kind of just put whatever I thought would fit him. Mokuba stayed in character, amazingly. Kaiba went OOC near the end, but the inclusion of the "Don't." part pathetically made up for it. Listen, this is not a Duke/Kaiba pairing.

They are friends. I know I made it sound like Duke was desperately in love with him, but it's not the way I first intended to write it. It just kind of happened. Anywho, this is still Kaiba/Isis, and you can tell he isn't as nervous around Duke, which kind of is self-explanatory – he does not like Duke the way he likes Ischizu. Got it? Good. Read and review, kids.