Disclaimer: If I owned it, this would be canon, and not fanfiction.
Joan stared glumly out the window. It was a bright, cheerful afternoon, contrary to the gloom that had settled in both the Kaiba mansion and her heart. A quick glance at the clock revealed that it was 1:49 pm. She sighed, remembering.
As soon as the black limousine had pulled into the long drive of the Kaiba mansion the evening before (she hadn't been able to help gaping at the sheer size and beauty of the house) Seto had swept through the front doors and disappeared somewhere inside. She had tried to follow him, but had been apprehended by Carlson.
"Let him alone, ma'am," the goon has said. In answer to her protests, he had explained, "You don't know Mr. Kaiba like I do. Trust me; he won't be happy if we bug him. Nothin' either of us can do to help, anyway."
And so she had let herself be led to a small sitting room, where she waited until sometime around midnight, when Carlson had showed her to one of the guest rooms. She hadn't gotten much sleep; worry and guilt combined together to make her toss and turn the night long. She had finally drifted off as the sun rose, and had only awoken a short time ago. She had made her way back to the previous night's sitting room, where she sat still, waiting again.
She looked in the direction of the door. Seto was out there somewhere, in an unknown part of the enormous dwelling, searching for the younger brother that he loved so dearly.
Joan bowed her head. She was, understandably, worried. She was terrified that something would happen to her youngest son, before he even knew who she was. Who knew what his kidnappers were doing to him as she sat here, waiting?
She was also beginning to worry about Seto, as well. She looked at the door again. When was the last time he had eaten? It had been shortly before lunchtime when he had come to her apartment, and, to the best of her knowledge, he hadn't consumed anything since then. And had he gotten any sleep last night? She understood that they couldn't afford to take unnecessary breaks, but she didn't think that Seto understood that some breaks were necessary. He was going to make himself sick if he wasn't careful.
She jumped slightly as the door opened. Carlson stood in the doorway, looking tired. The goon had been rotating between keeping her company and seeing to her needs, and staying with Seto, helping in any way he could. Apparently, it was her turn again.
"Any news?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Nothin'. Mr. Kaiba's narrowed down the search a bit, but there's still so many possibilities… Everythin' he's tryin' leads to a dead end."
"What exactly is he doing?" She had a general grasp of technology, but the kind of work that he was doing was beyond her, and no one had bothered to explain the details.
Carlson sat down next to her. "He tried all the basics first. He triedto trackMaster Mokuba's cell phone, but he couldn't get a signal on it. In usual cases, he'd have tracked the chip in his locket, but, well…" Carlson sighed. "Right now he's makin' a list of possible suspects, seein' which one could be guilty, and doin' a bunch of technical stuff that he never bothers to explain to me, not that I mind."
"How's he doing?"
"Mr. Kaiba? As well as he can be, I suppose."
"Has he eaten anything?" she asked, beginning to voice her worries to the kindly goon.
Carlson sighed. "Not since breakfast yesterday. Hasn't slept, either," he said, unknowingly confirming her other fear. "I've tried to get him to take a break, but…" He shook his head in exasperation.
She stood. "Why don't I try?"
He shook his head again, this time in answer to her suggestion. "No."
"But-"
"Trust me, ma'am. Mr. Kaiba won't take kindly to you steppin' in and…" he hesitated, sighing again, and forced himself to continue, "tryin' to be his mother."
She sat down. Carlson's words hurt, even though she knew he didn't mean them to.
Carlson was silent, unused to having to console someone. Neither his boss nor the younger Kaiba had ever needed him to, Seto never letting him know when something was bothering him and Mokuba preferring to go to his older brother.
He cleared his throat. "You okay, ma'am?"
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
He waited a little while longer before deciding that the best thing to do was to leave her alone. He paused at the door, looking back at her. "I'm sorry, ma'am," he said quietly, and left.
"Mr. Kaiba?"
Seto glanced up as Carlson came down the stairs into the basement, then turned his attention back to one of the numerous computer screens that surrounded him. The cellar of the Kaiba mansion was, for the most part, the same as one might find in any other house, save for its enormous size. Cold, dark, and crypt-like, it was filled almost to the bursting with the assorted paraphernalia that had no place in the rest of the mansion.
Unlike most basements, however, this underground cavern – for it was of such a size that no other name suited it – had a small, almost unnoticeable annex that had been added on to the original structure some time before. It had been unused when Seto had first found it, shortly after the death of his stepfather, but he soon changed that. It now served as his personal laboratory within the Kaiba mansion. Computers, monitors, screens, and all manner of technological gadgets lined the walls and filled the space in between. A soft beeping and whirring sound as each machine fulfilled its intended task filled the air, and the glow they produced was visible even from the bottom of the stairs where Carlson now stood, even though he was still some hundred feet away.
"Mr. Kaiba?" the goon called out again, approaching the little room. Seto didn't bother to look up this time, his attention completely occupied by what the screen was telling him, but Willy, lying at his feet, sat up and gave a short bark.
"Hush, pup," he muttered, and the dog lay back down, watching Carlson approach.
Soft footsteps allowed Seto to track his bodyguard's progress without taking his attention away from the statistics that were flashing before his eyes. He sighed. Still nothing.
He said as much when Carlson finally reached the room and came to stand next to him.
The other man gave a sigh of his own. "Yes, sir. I figured as much."
Seto raised an eyebrow. "You're not losing hope, are you, Carlson?"
"No, Mr. Kaiba. Just tired, is all."
"Good. Because I will find him," he growled, half to his guard and half to reassure himself. Quietly, he added, "If it kills me…"
Carlson cleared his throat. "That's what I came to talk to you about, Mr. Kaiba."
Seto finally looked at him, not sure that he liked this new topic. "Oh?"
He blinked, surprised, when he saw that the man was balancing a tray of food on his arm. "What's that?"
"Lunch, sir."
"I don't have time to waste eating lunch, Carlson," he growled.
"That's why I brought it to you, sir. So you could eat somethin' without stoppin'."
Seeing his employer open his mouth to protest again, Carlson pleaded, "Look, sir, you're gonna make yourself sick if you keep this up, and then where will we be?"
Seto gritted his teeth. "Fine. Leave it there," he gestured at a free space on the desk beside him. "I'll… get around to it."
"Yes sir," Carlson replied, sounding relieved. He did as instructed and left the teenager to resume his search.
Seto watched him step outside the white-blue glow generated by the computers. He waited for his footsteps to retreat up the stairs, and until he heard, very dimly, the door at the top of the cellar stairs close. Then, setting his jaw, ignoring Willy's worried whine, he resumed his search for his brother, the encounter, and the tray, forgotten.
A/N: Sorry for a short chapter. It was originally going to be much longer, but two things changed my mind. One was the sheer length that I was afraid it was going to amount to; the other was that this is just such a good place to end this chapter.
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