I had to talk to her.
I'd tried to get Niisama to talk about Shizuka all through breakfast – even part of the ride to school – but he eluded me every time. I finally stopped asking questions when he replied, "Is there something wrong with me dating Shizuka?"
"No." I didn't bring it up after that; if it was keeping Niisama happy, there was absolutely nothing wrong… I just wanted to know why. If it had been any other girl, I wouldn't have been so concerned. However, it wasn't some random girl; it was Shizuka. My boyfriend's sister.
That was pushing the limits of a coincidence.
I had to see if there was something about her that I was missing, something that Seto saw and liked. I had to see for myself what had pulled my brother into something as typical as dating, because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that nothing Niisama did was typical.
It was tough to just approach her, though. I'd met her once – twice, tops – and barely more than a 'hello' had passed between us. But she was about three feet in front of me in the hallway, talking with her friends. Damn, I hated approaching girls; I'd never met one who hadn't gushed… except Anzu, but it didn't look like she was about to jump out of the rafters and save me. Before I lost my nerve, I walked forward and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to look at me, and her friends followed suit. If the Emperor had to greet an alien race, even he wouldn't feel as awkward as I did, with them all looking me over like they were searching for something.
"Hi," she said brightly. She had a pretty smile, and wasn't looking at me like I was a foreign creature – so far, so good. She tucked a pen behind her ear and held a notebook against her chest. "Mokuba, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah," I looked at her, trying not to blush. Maybe Seto's thing with her wasn't so odd after all; once I got a good look at her, she was really pretty. She didn't look much like Jou, though. "Can I talk to you?"
One girl leaned in to another and I heard her whisper, "I hope he doesn't like her!"
"She's taken," the other girl said quietly, and then added pitifully, "How tragic…"
I wanted to retort that as the boyfriend of HER brother, I was taken too. However, Shizuka replied with a smile, "Sure. Right now?"
"Uh, sure – privately?" I gestured down the hall, trying to indicate that we should walk away from her gaggle, who erupted into little whispers and giggles the second the words were out of my mouth.
"Wait, isn't he Kaiba's little brother?" one of them was saying.
"Oh, its like a romance novel – two brother's battling for one girl's heart!" giggled another.
Shizuka's voice rose above their whispers again: "That's fine; lead the way." She handed her notebook to a friend, and I started walking; within seconds she fell into step beside me. People were slowly started to filter off, heading to their respective classes. I'd have to make it snappy.
"You're Shizuka, right?" I asked, shoving my hands in my pockets and staring at the ground as I walked. I didn't want to look her in the face and tell her that I thought something was wrong with Niisama – I wouldn't want someone to do it to me.
"Yup – is something wrong?" She sounded really nice, and I looked up to see her smiling. Maybe Seto was just growing up, finally catching up with girls – and he had picked one hell of a one to play catch up with! It was a nice thought, and not completely unlikely…
I took a deep breath. "So you and my brother are dating?"
"Uh-huh. He's really a sweet guy," she said, smiling dreamily. I almost laughed; I had never thought I'd hear another human being say that. She was actually cute when she said that, and I wondered if, for once, there was another person who got it. Someone who really liked Niisama, not just Kaiba.
"He can be. So was that day at school like your first date or something?"
"At school… Oh! No, we had just met, really."
"What?" I crinkled my brow, watching my feet as I walked and thought. I knew she'd been around during Niisama's tournament a few years back – I had just assumed they'd met then, and from there… "You mean that was the first time he had approached you?"
"Yes."
"He'd never come onto you before?"
"Nope. He invited me out that afternoon. It was nice; I never had a boy who was nice about…" She blushed and cleared her throat. "But you didn't hunt me down to listen to me gush about Seto, right?"
"Kinda," I laughed nervously. Well, that kind of put a hole in my catch-up theory – everything she was telling me sounded wrong. If he was really so sweet and impromptu with her, he wouldn't have hidden it from me. I nodded absently, trying to come up with something to say without sounding mean. I took another deep breath, setting my shoulders as though I was getting ready to face some great foe. "It's just… Well, I thought since you're dating my brother, and I'm with Jou, that we should put our heads together and figure out why."
I had taken six full steps before I realized that she stopped in her tracks. Her eyes were wide, and she was staring at me in surprise. "What do you mean 'why'?" she asked. She sounded hesitant. "I like your brother, he likes me, you like Katsuya, and he likes you – what more is there to it?"
"Katsu… Oh, yeah, Jou. Well… Yeah, but nothing about my brother is that simple. The way he's been acting since he started seeing you has been really different for him." Maybe I should have said it nicer – I remembered hearing the phrase 'hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn', and she was starting too look just a little indignant. I could see her similarities to Jou then; the way her eyes narrowed and her jaw set, the slight twitching of her clenched fists… She was definitely Jou's sister. Maybe she had a temper like him, too; his temper could be pretty damn nasty.
"But it doesn't have to mean something bad," I rushed, "I just mean that it can't be a coincidence." She looked at me, blinking in surprise. I held in a sigh of relief and continued, "He usually isn't so sudden with things this big. But who knows, maybe Seto figured that if I was dating, he could do – and the first person he turned to was you. Maybe he remembered you from the tournament – you guys met then, right?"
The speculation sounded more like a bad movie script or story plot, and I didn't really believe it, but if it made her stop looking so mad, then it was worth it. However, while I might have calmed her temper, I obviously wasn't convincing her any better than I was convincing myself; she rolled her eyes and frowned. "That was two years ago, and I talked to him for all of two seconds." She sighed. "No. Maybe…" She paused again, confusion painted across her features. "I just don't know. Oniichan told me that he was seeing you, and… It really is too weird to be coincidence."
I paused. Well, now that we agreed on that… Jeez, she didn't have to look so crestfallen about it. "Maybe we could just talk to Seto," I suggested, giving her my best hopeful smile.
"Really?" The smile had its desired effect; she looked relieved. That look was definitely worth the trouble it was going to be to get Niisama to actually talk about it.
The bell rang, and I nearly jumped; I had forgotten we were even in school. Weird. "Yeah – I tell you what," I hurried, "Give me your number, and I'll talk to Niisama. I probably won't get a chance to call you tonight, but sometime tomorrow, okay?"
She nodded, pulling the pen from behind her ear, taking my hand, and writing her number on it. "There. I'm going to class now." I nodded and turned away from her.
I was late to class, but that didn't bug me. It was just that no one had ever warned me that it would be so hard to concentrate with a girl's phone number on my hand.
Kaiba
"I like her, you know," Mokuba blurted from his seat in the corner of my office. We had a pretty good after-school routine. He came to Kaiba Corp after school and did his homework while I worked; that way we got to spend a little more time together, and we usually made it home at the same time. As an added bonus, we'd perfected the art of having entire conversations without ever making eye contact. It was an increasingly useful skill; there were some topics that were just easier to stomach if I didn't have to watch Mokuba talking about them.
Namely, Jounouchi.
"Like who?" I replied, continuing on my work.
"Shizuka. She's really nice – I'm glad that you're finally doing something more than work, and with such a good person."
"Good." That was a blatant lie; it wasn't good at all. The last thing I wanted was my ruse of a girlfriend and my brother getting chummy – it was an unnecessary risk in an otherwise immaculate plan. I could imagine how ticked off Mokuba would be if (or when, depending on how Jounouchi intended to play his cards) he found out what my actual intentions were. I would never hear the end of it.
"I can't figure out why you wouldn't talk about her," Mokuba went on. "It's not like I don't approve. She's pretty, and nice, and she's not an idiot…"
"Sounds like you should be dating her," I said without thinking.
He let out a little disbelieving laugh. "That's funny – I never knew you were a joker, Niisama," he teased, waving his pencil at me dramatically. "But she'd make a good friend."
At one point, I distinctly remembered him telling me all about what a great friend Jounouchi was. "Yeah?"
"Yeah." There was a short pause – if we hadn't been in the confines of my office, I might have gotten worried and looked up to check on him. "So, you think you'll keep her around for a while? It could be cool for us all to hang out."
"Hm," I said simply. I was thinking about Shizuka – or more importantly, exactly how close she and Mokuba could be. She was my girlfriend – that was guaranteed to give them some time together. If he liked her then maybe this whole game could take a new twist. Still… the title "my girlfriend" stuck with me, in a weird way; it made me feel like I should have been protecting her virtues, or laying claim to them myself, not wondering who else could come along and do such for me. I had no interest in her beyond my own plans, but I hadn't realized that she'd come with a sense of duty attached to her. If all boyfriends had that issue… well, maybe Jounouchi wasn't so bad.
Not fucking likely – I couldn't forgive that he was 18 years old, and the first thing I'd seen was him all over Mokuba. Besides, the idea of Mokuba dating still didn't sit right with me. In a way I was happy that Mokuba was just like every other budding teenager, eager to explore and experiment and do all those things I simply didn't care about. I just wished he wasn't so… "eager" with Jounouchi. I knew exactly how bad it could be if he grew up too soon. "Mokuba," I said; he looked up, and his eyes met mine. "I'm glad you like her."
He smiled and nodded. "Me too." His gaze shifted up to the wall, and he squinted at the clock for a second before saying, "Damn it, I've gotta go – I'm going to go watch movies with Jounouchi. I'll be back before curfew." He started packing up his school supplies, jamming them haphazardly into his bag, and I glared at my computer screen.
Even without being there, Jounouchi could ruin a good moment. "Eight o'clock," I reminded him.
He shook his head, holding up a finger and smiling, much in a way I'd seen Jounouchi do. It didn't help my suddenly foul disposition. "Ten," he amended. "No school tomorrow."
That gave them – I looked at the clock – four hours. A lot could happen between two boys in four hours, but setting up that damn curfew had been such a big thing. We'd made a deal that I'd stop having guards follow him if he started adhering to "normal" rules. I didn't like it, but he was thrilled when we made the change. I wasn't going to ruin that. "Be good," I resigned.
"Always. See you later!"
I watched him go. Whatever was going to happen – Jounouchi crumbling, or a sudden romance between my brother and Shizuka – it had to happen soon.
I was worried about what might happen in the mean time.
notes
I had this impression that Mokuba would be one of those people who would WANT to be tactful, but either by lack of know-how or simply because of his age, he wouldn't quite succeed – and I'm not sure how well I caught that here.
So as I did my final run-through of this, I realized that both Kaiba & Mokuba use the phrase "It's a nice thought…" I thought it'd be cute to leave it, but I decided maybe it wasn't quite right to be so repetitive.