Little Star

Chapter Two.

I sat quietly in the passenger seat, watching the early morning sunlight break across the frosted buildings, the people walking quickly with their arms wrapped across their chests.

"Would you like to stop for breakfast?" Tristan asked.

I glanced at him, but he was watching the road. There was a slight crease on his forehead that betrayed his casual tone.

"We probably shouldn't; it might take a while to get my car going."

"Nah... Not with this baby." He patted the steering wheel of the large four wheel drive.

"Who loaned it to you?"

Tristan shrugged. "Just one of the guys at the shop."

Ah. They all had big, manly cars. That is, if they didn't have a motorcyle like Tristan did. I guess it's a requirement when you work as a mechanic.

I switched my study of the outside world to the man sitting beside me. Tristan was good-looking, there was no denying it. His eyes were like slivers of pale burnished nutshell, reflecting out from his pale, so-slightly olive skin. Rich, messy, dark brown hair that framed an angular face. If those looks had been set on a girl, I might have called them pixie-like. As it was, they were on a masculine frame slightly taller than my brother's. Tristan's arms boasted the muscles of a mechanic who tightened and lifted things all day.

My brother would be over the moon if I'd only go back to Tristan.

"Come on, it's just breakfast with a friend. You've got plenty of time before class."

I felt a twinge inside and looked back out the window - and then I suddenly heard myself murmur, "Okay," while I was still trying to figure out how to say no.

He was always like this. It didn't get better over pancakes. Well, I had pancakes. Tristan had pancakes, hash browns, scrambled eggs, two sausages and a black coffee. I made it all the way to his hash browns before he started in on me again.

"You should leave Duke."

I tried to force my face to remain blank. "No, Tristan."

"Come on, Serenity - " he punctuated his comments by jabbing potato bits at me with his fork - "What kind of relationship is it when you can't even tell the guy where you work?"

I scowled. "That's none of your business."

"It is my business when I get phone calls at one am asking me to pick you up from a strip club."

"You didn't have to come."

"I always come when you call me, Serenity. Does Duke?"

"He would if I did," I said softly.

"I miss you, Serenity."

"No, Tristan."

"Yes, I - "

"Look, if we're going to have this discussion again, I'm going to catch a bus to campus and get my car later." I stood.

He looked crushed. I swear his lower lip trembled slightly. Damn. I sighed and sat down again.

For a little while longer, he ate in silence. The waitress came over and refilled his coffee cup once. She made eyes at him but he was too busy glancing between his eggs and my face. Honestly, I didn't know what to say. If I was nice he thought I was encouraging him. If I wasn't nice, the pain in his eyes made me feel horribly guilty.

Tristan knew me too well. I know he heard about me from Joey, too. Of all the people in my life, Tristan seemed to poke at my insecurities the best - not even my mother could equal him, with her frequent comments about how wonderful Duke is, how long we've been together, how well suited we are, how she can't believe she hasn't seen a ring yet. That poking is why I broke up with Tristan, I guess. Even though his intentions were good.

Or I like to think that they were. Otherwise he was just a clingy asshole, and jaded though I might be feeling, I couldn't bring myself to believe that.

"So... How are your classes going, anyway?"

I felt myself smile unconsciously. There was a safe topic. I opened my mouth to enthuse about them, but was interrupted by the Bride of Frankenstein suddenly lounging next to me in our plastic booth, his arm around my shoulders.

"Hi-ya, Toots." He leaned over and filched one of Tristan's sausages.

This is the part of the cartoon where steam comes out of someone's ears. "What the hell?" Tristan demanded, glaring.

"'Beware, beware, his flashing eyes / his floating hair...' Well, at least your hair isn't half into flight these days, Tristan." He smiled winningly, then turned back to me. "You get home alright last night, then, 'Renny? My brother didn't even recognise you."

"You KNOW this guy?"

"It wasn't until he mentioned the french maid thing that I realised YOU were the waitress he was talking about." Mokuba swallowed the last bite of the sausage and licked his fingers.

Tristan was bright red. It was kind of funny - the sort of thing that once upon a time, I would have called cute.

"And who the hell are you to comment on MY hair, you look like, like..."

"Can I have that other sausage?"

My ambitious breakfast date stood up. He had the same look in his eye that Joey gets when he wants to pound someone. Yeeeeah, that's not so cute.

"Serenity, what the hell is going on?"

I smiled sweetly, ignoring Tristan's outrage. "You remember Mokuba Kaiba, right, Tristan?"

His jaw dropped open. "No way!" He sat back down in surprise.

Mokuba nodded, wolfing down Tristan's remaining food.

Tristan's eyes narrowed. "Well, you still look like a punk version of Marge Simpson with that hair, kid. And didn't anyone tell you it was too early in the morning for leopard print?"

Actually, I added silently, it was two decades too late, but hey... It wasn't as though Mokie looked BAD in that top. He must've been cold by the way it was unbuttoned half way down his abdomen, though. And then there were the leather pants, again. But his hair, at least, wasn't that bad... Marge Simpson had several feet on Mokuba's short style of mohawk.

I spoke up to save Tristan from whatever retort Mokuba was dreaming up. "Well, I didn't recognise you, either! And you didn't say hello to me." Yes, I pouted slightly. Well call me the villain and be done with it.

Mokuba scooched further into the booth, his arm still around my shoulder. He didn't FEEL cold.

"Aww, I figured I might throw you off your game. Plus, you don't want to be associated with the likes of me, do ya?" He batted his eyes at me. Really.

But he had a point. Making friends with the clientele was just plain bad for business. And aside from that, our boss Angela is pretty strict on the waitresses sticking to waiting. We don't need to flirt for big tips, and she doesn't want anyone to think they can get more out of us than liquor. Makes more work for the bouncer.

And anyway, what the hell? Why was Mokuba frequenting strip clubs anyway? Did I really want to be hanging out with him?

"He's right, Serenity, he looks like trouble. Do you want to be hanging out with him?"

Thank you, gallant Sir Tristan. I glanced at Mokuba's face. He was still smiling, but it was a taut line. His eyes looked sad. Well, how would you like to be rejected by someone you looked up to as a kid, who was always nice to you? I couldn't stand to see him feel bad. I mean, he's still a couple of years younger than me. All the bravado and... Was he wearing eyeliner?... Didn't entirely mask that. I leaned back into him.

"Tristan's just jealous. I'm working again on Friday night, if you're out on the town."

Mokuba's eyes lit up. I suddenly got the impression I'd just adopted a big, exotic animal that had more money than me. Too spikey for a puppy, of course, but the eyes had about the same effect. He jumped out of his - or was that MY - chair before Tristan could get another grumpy word out.

"Anyway, I was just passing by on my way to work and saw you two through the window. Thanks for breakfast; I'll be seeing you Friday, 'Renny!" he chirped the last part out and waved in a slightly crazed manner, backing out of the cafe.

"I'll be maintaining a professional distance!" I called after him. He didn't seem bothered and he waved again at the door, then tore off down the street.

"Well, you just made someone's day." Tristan was not a happy camper.

"You were being rude to him."

"Serenity, you work in a STRIP CLUB!"

I promptly kicked him under the table. "Thanks for just breaking that news to the rest of the civilised world."

"Look, Mokuba is obviously NOT the same little boy he was. Just look at him! I mean, what was he doing there? And you invited him BACK? So much for your terrible secret."

"...You ARE jealous, aren't you?" I stared.

Tristan opened his mouth then closed it again, sullenly. "I just think if he's hanging around there's no way you're not going to get found out. What if he tells someone? Holy shit, his brother - did he say KAIBA was there?"

Talk about your delayed reaction.

"Serenity, this is really bad. I didn't even know they were back in town; what if he runs into your brother, now? What if he says something? And he's bound to meet up with Duke for business at SOME point. Kaiba would love to rub that in their faces! I can't believe you encouraged him! I thought this was important to you."

I felt like it was my turn to do an impression of a very angry little teapot. "Let's go get my car."

"I mean, you keep saying how you have to be 'independent' - " I could hear the quotation marks, " - and how important it is that Duke doesn't know his girlfriend works in a place like that, and now you're just - "

I sighed and collected my bag and coat. Despite the horrible ending to my parents' marriage, I'd had better role models since, and watching Joey and Mai had once made me think that love came easily. Now I knew better.

As he followed me out of the diner, I tried not to listen to Tristan ramble on about what was best for me in my situation. I'd heard it before, afterall. I didn't really need the track on repeat. He didn't understand how hard it was for me to get a decent job, or why it was important to me that I paid my own way through college. He didn't understand why, if I was going to break up with him and move in with someone with money, I wouldn't let that guy take care of everything for me.

So here we are. Joey wants me to date Tristan. Tristan wants me to date Tristan. Or if not, then date Dukie and let him pay my way through life. Duke wants a perfect, pretty girlfriend he can dangle on his arm as he rises in the corporate world. A respectable girl. Sure, he loves me; my mother wants me to marry Duke. Do I really love him that much?

My job and my classes are the only things I have right now that are mine.

Only two people know about my job, and they disapprove. Even my coworkers looked at me strangely when I started working there. Maybe I'd invited Mokuba to visit me on a whim, but thinking about it, he and his brother had been the only two people so far not to think twice about my current source of funds. Mokuba seemed delighted... The high and mighty Seto Kaiba had not once in the short time he talked to me seemed to look down on me simply because I was a waitress in a skimpy french maid outfit.

And I realised, as I climbed back into the confined space of the car with Tristan, that I really wanted to see both of them again, to find out why two apparently eccentric billionaires, practically strangers, with plenty of better things to do... Why they had looked at a desperate, red-headed university student and seen an actual person, when it seemed like no one else in my life could.

Major props (I love that stupid phrase) to Setine for, as she put it, jrockshipping. Setine (j)rocks. Mokuba is punk. That is final. I love badass Mokuba.

The Summer Stars: Hentai Mokuba lives in my heart. And my heart will go on, and on. Probably.

clarity: Yeah... Plot... It has one!

hakubaikou-chan: Hopefully it'll have a strong continuation. More serious drama/comedy isn't quite my forté. Give me characters and I automatically spin out screwball. ;)

Sangha: Well okay, then. :salutes you:

SerenityMeowth: Mokuba is everywhere you wanna be, baby.

a song for jeffrey: Mokuba has to be amusing. It makes up for Kaiba's lack of wackiness. Though he is wacky in his own way. Bless him. (No, I'm not discussing characters as if they're real. Ahaha.)

You all rule the school, so I updated instead of studying for exams. To anyone who can place that line of poetry... Uh, do you want to take my Romantics exam for me?