Seto groaned as the early morning sun slapped him in the face, bringing him out of his peaceful slumber. Sapphire eyes blinked against the harshness of the bright light. With an exasperated sigh, he reached for the thick coverlet to pull it off of him only to notice that it wasn't where it was suppose to be. Curious, he pushed himself up on his arms and looked around and was slightly baffled when he saw all his covers were piled beside the door.
What the hell?
Getting up from the bed, clad in nothing but his black silk boxers, Seto stretched a bit before walking over to the pile of black covers, eyeing them warily. Just how the hell did that happen? The bed was a good twenty feet from the door, so it wasn't as if he could have kicked them off, only for them to land over here.
He supposed he could have been sleepwalking and had moved it over to this location. But he had never been known to sleepwalk before, so why start now?
What was different?
He could have physically slapped himself. Of course something was different! He had a son, he was a father! Atemu could have easily come into his room last night and pulled the covers off of him. But why he would do that was beyond him.
Speaking of the little imp…
Slipping on a pair of gray sweatpants, Seto walked out of his room and stood in the doorway gazing at the small sleeping figure curled up under the hunter green covers. Leaning against the doorframe, he smiled softly at the mass of tri-colored hair peeking out for the thick covers, one thumb twisted in his pajama shirt while unconsciously rubbing it against his lips.
Ok, so after seeing that cute scene Seto realized that he couldn't be mad at the little devil for coming into his room. He shook his head; Atemu was even getting away with things in his sleep. Walking over to the bed, he sat down on the edge carefully as not to spook the child.
He brushed blonde bangs away from chubby tanned cheeks. He marveled at how peaceful and innocent Atemu looked with his small thumb still softly caressing his lips, giving him comfort in his sleep. Sapphire eyes look behind his son to see an orange tail also peeking out of the sheets. Reaching over, he grabbed the tail and looked into the big plastic eye staring back at him.
"Well Crackers, it looks like we are going to have to wake him up. Would you like the honors?"
Seto mentally smacked himself when he realized he had been actually waiting on an answer from the stuffed goldfish. Rolling his eyes at his own idiotic self, Seto maneuvered the fish till it was in Atemu's face and proceeded to make it 'kiss' his son.
Dazed crimson eyes blinked open a few times to finally focus on the biggest eye he had ever seen looking back at him.
"AHHHH! Son of a bitch!" he screamed as he scrambled off the bed, tangling himself in the sheets in the process causing him to fall rear first on the floor. Heart beating wildly, Atemu untangled himself and peeked his head over the top of the mattress to see his oh so wonderful father laughing his ass off at him.
Crossing his arms over his tiny pajama covered chest, Atemu huffed, narrowed his eyes and glared. "Asshole. That was not funny."
"And it was funny to come into my room last night and take my covers off my bed?"
"Huh?" the crimson-eyed child tilted his head to the side then yawned.
"I woke up this morning and found all my covers by the door."
"Well I didn't do it." Atemu pulled himself up off the floor and back on to the bed. "Hey! Give me back Crackers! You have your own friend to play with!"
Handing back the stuffed animal to Atemu, Seto frowned. If his son didn't do it and he didn't do it then who was in his room last night? It unnerved him to think somebody had possible been in his house without him or his security knowing about it. Guess it was time to have another little chat with his Chief of Security.
"So what are we going to do today Daddy?"
"Kaiba Corp."
"WOOHOO!" Eyes full of excitement lit up as Atemu started jumping up and down on the bed.
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Pwease?"
"No."
"Pweease?"
"No." Seto glared at those big round crimson eyes that were boring into his soul like there was no tomorrow. He gritted his teeth against the onslaught of those menacing 'puppy eyes' and that begging, hopeful voice. He was not going to lose this fight.
"But Daddy!"
"Don't but Daddy me."
"But Daddy," he began, letting his bottom lip start to quiver. "Esel will be lonely if you don't take him to Kaiba Corp with you! He can sit on your desk and keep you company when me and Crackers can't be there!"
"That donkey is not coming to work with me." Seto pointed to the gray stuffed animal sitting in Atemu's lap. If he had known this was his son's reasoning for taking Esel with them, he would have demanded Atemu to leave it in his room. Now he was wondering if he could snatch the stuffed creature from Atemu and throw it out the window of his limo.
"Please Daddy? Pretty please with sugar on top?"
"No Atemu."
"Pretty please with me on top?"
Seto blinked then blinked again. Surely his five-year-old son had not just said what he thought he said.
"What did you say?"
"I said, 'pretty please with sugar on top.'"
"No, that's not what you said."
Innocent crimson eyes blinked. "Yes it is. I know what I said." Then his chubby face took on a look of concern as he gripped Esel tighter. "How old are you?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I want to make sure you're not too old to take care of me. You could be getting Alzheimer's or dementia! I mean you are an old fart and I'm only five, I don't want to have to change your diapers when I just got out of them myself."
Seto just rolled his eyes. "I'm not that old. I'm only twenty-five."
Atemu's cute little upturned nose scrunched up. "Well that's good but your still taking Esel with you."
Narrowing his eyes, he growled. "Just shut up and give me that damn thing." Anything to shut the kid up.
With a huge happy grin, Atemu handed the damnable stuffed thing over to his less than pleased father.
Seto sighed as he watched Atemu run over to the floor-to-ceiling length windows to gaze out at the view of Domino City. It was a miracle in itself that he didn't have to fire anyone on his way up to his office. Yes he had received plenty of stares, curious glances, and he knew there were newly formed rumors starting right this very moment, but for once in his life he couldn't bring himself to say anything to his employees in front of son.
Ok, so he admitted it was strange for him, Seto Kaiba CEO and owner of the multibillion corporation to be walking through his building carrying a wide-eyed, over ecstatic child of Egyptian heritage on his back with a gray stuffed jackass in his left hand as he pointed out the various halls, rooms, and machinery to him. After all he was a cold-hearted bastard with no feelings, no heart, no soul……so much for that image.
Sitting himself in his chair behind his grand oak desk, Seto glared at the abomination in his hand and swore that the donkey was smirking back at him, as if it knew that he had lost a battle with a child over him. Sapphire eyes looked from it to Atemu, softening slightly at the sheer joy on the young one's face as he pressed his face up against the glass, fingers splayed beside his chubby cheeks, trying to get a better view.
Well he didn't have a picture of the child yet but there was going to be a nice face and palm portrait on his windows now for the entire world to see.
Abruptly, Atemu pulled away from the window and looked at Seto with a strange look on his face – somewhere between pained and embarrassed.
"What's wrong?"
"Umm…I have to go stinky-stinky."
Seto blinked. "Did you just say stinky-stinky?"
"Yes." Atemu grounded out, looking rather irritated.
"Stinky-stinky?" Again he repeated the strange word, not quite sure what to make of it.
"I'm sorry, is that too complicated for you to understand? Should I have said poop, bowel movement, shit, No. 2?"
Seto's furrowed his brow in confusion. "Why didn't you just say so? Why use such a childish word? I thought you were intelligent."
A low growl was heard from the child as crimson eyes narrowed. "Well then you explain that to the orphanage, for some reason stinky-stinky was the word of choice for when one has to do one's business. So are you going to show me the bathroom or do you have a nasty fetish for wiping asses?" A small dark eyebrow quirked in amusement to the disgusted look on his father's face.
"You're sick."
"Thank you, but your about to be just as sick as me if you don't tell me with the toilet is cause I'm sure it wouldn't be pretty if I have to go right here."
Banishing away disturbing thoughts of a pile of human stinky-stinky in his office, Seto replied; "Out the door, first door on your right."
Watching as Atemu did some type of track record out the door, Seto raised his hand and harshly rubbed his face and mumbled, "That kid is going to be the death of me."
Atemu stood up on his tiptoes, biting his tongue in concentration as he reached for the knob on the sink to turn the water on. He grunted as he struggled to turn it on. Furrowing his eyebrows in concentration, he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror. Quickly he finished washing his hands, dried them off and turned his attention back to the oversized mirror.
Something wasn't right. His five-year-old mind tried to wrap itself around the problem, tried to logically figure out it out but he just couldn't grasp what was making him feel this way.
Sighing, he shrugged his small shoulders. He would just have to think about it later, right now he wanted to get back to his father and find out what kind of things he could get into.
Peeking his head out the door, he quickly looked from left to right before he slipped out into the hall heading for Seto's office. Smiling sweetly at the secretary, he ran up to the big wooden doors and started to push them open when he heard strange voices on the other side.
Grinning to himself, Atemu forcefully pushed the doors open and without a second thought he ran inside heading straight for his father who was sitting at his desk. Overall covered legs quickly scrambled up into his fathers lap, placing both hands on either side of Seto's cheeks and planted a big wet sloppy childish kiss on his lips.
"Hi Daddy! Miss me?"
Seto just sat there, shocked, unable to do anything. That was the last thing he had expected for Atemu to do. He was about to respond when he suddenly felt Atemu being lifted from his lap. Looking up he saw one of his Board of Directors had grabbed him by the back of his overall shoulder straps and was currently holding the child away from him like he was something infested with germs.
"Put me down asshole!" Atemu glared at the taller stranger, crossing his arms over his tiny chest.
The older man sneered at the kid and turned his attention back to his boss. "I'll get rid of this thing right away Kaiba-sama."
"Put. Him. Down." It took everything Seto had not to knock the shit out of the man currently holding his son. "Release my son before I personally get rid of you."
"You heard my Daddy!" Atemu swung his leg out and kicked the man right in his thigh, causing the older man to drop him. "Bastard!" he hissed while standing backup.
Seto quickly walked to his son's side and knelt down, needing to check to make sure he hadn't been injured. Luckily, the only thing that seemed to be wounded was his pride.
"Kaiba-sama," the white haired man began, "I was not aware you had a child."
"Well as of yesterday I do now." Seto stood up turning his icy gaze onto one of the members of his Board of Directors.
"Couldn't you have gotten a Japanese boy? Did you not think about what you were doing? It will not be good for business for Kaiba Corp to be turned over to an immigrant."
"Well," Atemu smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I WOULD explain it to you but I don't think Daddy keeps any crayons around." He turned towards his father with a mock innocent look on his face. "Or do you Daddy?"
Seto felt the corners of his mouth turn up and fought against it as he looked from his son to the enraged man before him. "Sorry Atemu but I seemed to left them at home."
"Damn. Sorry Mister, but it looks like I'm going to have to explain it in the simplest terms possible and hope your tiny brain doesn't explode under the pressure. Me smart, you dumb. Got that?"
"Insolent little brat!" The man fumed and stepped forward and raised his right hand ready to strike the child before him, but was suddenly stunned when he felt his arm being twisted behind his back.
"You just made a terrible mistake," Seto hissed, madder than hell. "Not only is that MY son you were going to strike but also they future heir of Kaiba Corp, your would be boss IF you were going to still be around."
Atemu giggled at the man's reaction. "You got fired dumbass! But I enjoyed talking to you, my mind needed the rest!" And he finished it off by forming an L with his index finger and thumb, placed it on his forehead and stuck out his tongue.
It wasn't long before security came and carted the man off with strict instructions to not allow the man to clean out his desk that it would all be shipped to him when Seto felt like sending it.
Sapphire eyes glanced over to the bedside clock reading the time of 11:48 pm, sighing as he looked back down at the sleeping child that was cuddled up to him. After this afternoon's events, Seto had a hard time letting the child out of his sight. The image of that hand about it strike Atemu still haunted him and enraged him at the same time.
They had left not long after, heading straight home, Atemu barely able to stay awake in the back of the limo. It had amazed him that Atemu seemed neither upset nor scared at the fact that an adult was going to harm him, but then again the little Egyptian wasn't like most kids.
Once at home, Seto had given Atemu a bath and dressed him in (at his request) in one of Seto's old T-shirts. He smiled as he thought about that. The white shirt had all but drowned the five year old, but he had to admit Atemu looked adorable in it.
It was amazing how this little child had wormed his way into his heart in just two days. But Atemu was an exceptional child, full of spunk, brains, and wit, with eyes that seemed to be the key to your very soul.
He shook his head, adjusted Crackers so the fish's tail wouldn't be poking him in the most personal places, and kissed Atemu on the head and closed his eyes.
Just when it felt as if he was about to fall sleep, he felt something heavy shift on top of him, causing his eyes to open up, only to blink at the amused crimson eyes looked down at him, followed by a deep, rich, honey-filled voice.
"Guess I won't be pulling your covers off tonight now will I, Big Daddy?"
Dragon: Ooh now we get to the good stuff! Sorry for the long wait but my hard drive failed and I've just now gotten back on track. Hopefully you won't have to wait as long for the next chapter. Thanks again for the wonderful reviews!