Chapter Fifteen:

Seto frowned as he counted the rings of the Skype call. Six…seven…eight… and Yugi had not picked up. The call failed unanswered and Seto tried again. Ten rings and the call failed again. Seto pulled out his cell phone and called Yugi that way. Four rings and it went to voicemail. Seto hung up without leaving one and lowered the phone to his lap.

He was in Paris, having arrived late last night. With the time difference, it would have been five am in Japan, so Seto had sent Yugi only a text at that time to let him know he had arrived safely, but had not called. Now it would be just before noon, so why was Yugi not answering?

Seto tried to remember his school schedule, then realized belatedly that as it was Thursday, Yugi was in class.

Well, if Seto didn't reach Yugi, it wouldn't be long before he saw him. He was due to return home on Sunday. In slightly more than three days, he could see for himself what shape Yugi was actually in.

Because Yugi lying to him. He was sure of it.

He just didn't know why. Yugi was not a liar.

Seto dialed Mokuba's Skype. He had, of course, let his brother know he was in Paris as well, but they hadn't spoken in the week that had followed Yugi returning to the Game Shop. Hearing that Mokuba had been so nasty to Yugi as to cause him to leave the mansion had really pissed Seto off.

Mokuba was supposed to be the nice brother.

He was well aware that Mokuba was having a hard time in school. He was also well aware of why. Sociable and friendly, Mokuba was popular, but he lived in Seto's shadow. He was not as smart as his brother and other people were too stupid themselves to understand that that could happen. One teacher had even hurt Mokuba's feelings by musing out loud how she couldn't understand that Mokuba didn't understand the concept if his brother did.

Seto had seen to it she was fired.

But that hadn't really helped matters much. Mokuba was struggling with math and chemistry, two subjects that had been laughably easy for Seto, and having his brother come to his defense had only embarrassed him further. Especially since a few kids had taken it out on Mokuba that their favorite teacher had gotten a pink slip.

Still, Seto oftentimes found himself biting his tongue against telling Mokuba he only thought he knew what a hard time of it was like. Moody teenagers with sharp tongues had nothing on Gozaburo and his gremlin sidekick Hobson.

But he knew that to do so would be no help.

"Hey, Seto," Mokuba said as he answered on the fourth ring.

"Mokuba. Did you get my message?"

"Yeah, you're in Paris. You're still coming home on Sunday?"

"Yes."

"Good." There was a pause and then Mokuba said, "I've missed you."

Well, that pretty much took the wind out of any angry sails Seto still had. He sighed, then nodded. "I've missed you, too. You usually handle people for me."

Mokuba laughed. "Have you killed anyone?"

"Not yet."

"See, you're better at it than you thought."

"How are your studies?"

Mokuba's smile disappeared and he sighed. "Not good."

"I want you to hire a tutor."

"What? No! You never needed one."

"Mokuba, you are not me. There is no point in trying to ignore that fact, because it's true. It is also no reason to be embarrassed or whatever it is you are. Numbers are not your thing. Words and pictures are."

Mokuba was proving to be a great artist. He'd been introduced to a real art class his first year in middle school and was a natural. For the last two years, almost all KC related logos and art had been designed by Mokuba himself, which had proven to be a lot more creative than Seto's habit of just slapping KC on everything.

"Yeah, but-"

"No buts. This is important. School will be over soon enough and you won't have to worry about math and chemistry anymore, but until it is, you're stuck with it. So no buts."

Mokuba looked sulky, but he didn't say no again. After allowing a moment of silence, Seto spoke up again.

"Has Yugi returned to the manor?"

"No. I sent him a text telling him to come home, but he said no."

Mokuba said it like it was Yugi who was being unreasonable. Seto just barely kept his mouth in check.

"You haven't seen him lately?"

Mokuba could read him as well as Yugi. He looked up and frowned. "What do you mean?"

"When I left, he was sick all the time. Now he's suddenly better? Bullshit."

Mokuba's frown deepened while he looked thoughtful. "You think he's hiding something?"

"Yes. It's what Yugi does."

This was true. Yugi would give literally everything of himself to fix someone else's problems, but his go-to move when something was bothering him was to sneak off and deal with it himself. Seto had seen enough of that behavior during Duelist Kingdom and Battle City.

"Maybe. But, Seto, none of his friends or family have said anything. If Yugi was sick, I mean, really sick, someone would have said something…right? He's been with his mom and grandpa for a while. And Yami and Joey are really close to him."

That was true, but not every serious illness presented with obvious symptoms. If Yugi was hiding something, he could probably hide it from them as well.

He wondered if that included Yami.

"You'll be home in like three days and you'll see," Mokuba said.

The words sounded good, but Seto didn't believe them.

******

"Hi, Seto!"

It was several hours later and Seto had finally gotten Yugi on the phone. Every attempt to Skype him had gone through without answer, but he had answered his cell phone.

"Hello, Yugi. How was class?"

"Oh, okay. They're really nothing special. I thought they might be fun, but… Well, I should have listened to Joey when he asked me how I could want to go back to school."

"You don't have to continue them if you don't want to."

"I know. And maybe I won't here soon. So, how's Paris?"

"It's a city. The only difference is hearing French instead of Japanese."

"Oh, come on, it can't be just like that. There's the Louvre, the Eifel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe…"

Yugi pronounced every single one of those wrong, but Seto understood what he meant. The terrible pronunciation sent an unexpected stab of longing in Seto for Yugi. He hadn't for one minute forgotten about the impending bad news and the realization that Yugi was hiding something from him made it unbearable. Suddenly an idea came to him.

"You want to see them? The Learjet can be ready to get you in-"

"No, no, that's not what I meant. You can see them, you're already there."

"It would hardly be an imposition, Yugi. You have a passport, it's my private jet… I could be showing you Paris in just a few hours."

There was a long silence. Seto had thought trying to emotionally manipulate Yugi would work, but apparently not. Which only served to solidify his earlier belief: Yugi was hiding something from him. He was not as well as he pretended. And he was hiding it from Seto. Why? What did he think he couldn't tell him?

Unless, it was so terrible that he just wanted to wait until he was face-to-face.

"Maybe some other time," Yugi said finally. "I-"

"I'm coming home tonight," Seto interrupted.

"Seto, don't. You still have the Expo and-"

"Fuck that," Seto snarled. "I'll leave here-"

"Seto, please. I'm okay. I swear."

"You're lying," Seto said bluntly. "Classes you hate and a shop that Yami could look after for a few days would not stop you from coming here if there wasn't something else."

"I don't hate my classes and it's not fair to just shove the shop on Yami without warning. Listen to me, Seto. Actually listen to me. I. Am. Fine. Yes…there is something I need to tell you, but it is not something that you can't hear three days from now. Even if you hate people and don't want to admit it, this is a good opportunity for Kaiba Corp and you need to be there. You know that, or you never would have agreed to begin with. If there was something pressing, I would have you here. But there's not. Trust me, Seto, please."

Seto sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Are you listening? I'm fine. I can look up how to say it in French, too, if you want."

"I'm not in the mood for jokes, Yugi."

"Stay in Paris. Eat a baguette, go see Monet, or something. I don't have anything more to say about it right now."

tbc...