Kisara rubs Seto's shoulders as he types away on his computer in the office. He has been working day in and day out to ensure that the reopening of his park will go smoothly, amping up the amount of security he will have there as well. Seeing that he is tensed and seemingly stressed out, Kisara does everything she can to help him feel at ease, giving him positive words and reassurances. But in the back of her head, she wonders what Ziegfried will come up with next. It would be naive of them to believe that he won't try and mess things up like he always does.
"You're so tense Seto," Kisara comments, still massaging his shoulders.
"Just making sure everything is in place for the big day. The White Lightning has finally been completed after all this time and the park is officially ready to be opened in a few weeks," he tells her.
"Well that's good. But don't forget to take care of yourself," she reminds him. "It's okay to take a break."
"I don't need—"
"You totally need a break," Mana interrupts, walking in the office carrying Cairo with Atem at her side.
Kisara squeals with delight when she sees the small baby, her huge amethyst eyes looking around with curiosity. She quickly makes her way over, scooping Cairo out of Mana arms, gushing over her. "She is so adorable! I just can't take it!"
"Hello to you too." Mana scratches the back of her head, seeing as Kisara has totally forgotten about Atem and Mana in an instant and her full focus is now on Cairo.
"I'm surprised to see you here." Seto turns around in his chair, his eyes set on Atem. "Especially after you have been ignoring my phone calls."
Atem narrows his eyes, already feeling agitated after only being there for a few seconds. "What part of paternity leave don't you understand?"
Mana wraps arms around Atem's waist, whispering, "Calm down Atem. We just got here."
"Make this quick," he mutters under his breath between clenched teeth, not taking his eyes off his cousin.
"So what are you doing here then?" Seto asks and Mana levitates over to him with her hands behind her back, landing gracefully next to his chair and flashing a mischievous smile.
"Actually, I'm the one that needs to have a word with you," she reveals to his surprise.
"Great," he replies sarcastically, glancing over to Atem. Atem sits on the blue couch next to Kisara who continues to give his daughter all of the attention. "What does she want?" Seto asks. With his arms crossed, Atem only shrugs his shoulders in response.
Reluctantly, Seto turns his attention back on Mana whose face is only inches from his. "What, Mana?"
She leans back, beginning to float with her legs crossed. "Well I'm sure you've taken into consideration that Ziegfried will more than likely pop up at your reopening right?"
"There will be more than enough security to handle him this time around," he answers confidently.
"I don't know Seto." She locks her hands behind her head. "You've said that the last few times and look how that turned out. Let's be honest. Your security isn't equipped to handle someone as sneaky as Ziegfried."
"I didn't ask for your opinion."
Atem grunts at his wife's bluntness. "Take it down a notch, Mana," he advises her, seeing that her current approach is putting Seto in defense mode. Typically he wouldn't care when it comes to his cousin since Kaiba tends to be more on the rude side. But seeing as she's trying to get Kaiba to go along with her plan, she needs to take a different approach.
Mana sighs. "I have a plan that will catch and expose Ziegfried for good."
"No thanks."
Kisara finally lifts her eyes from Cairo. "Seto, just hear her out please."
"The only thing that you need to do on your part is to make sure all of cameras are up and running. At some point during the day, Ziegfried is going to do something. It seems like he has resorted to summoning his monsters lately," Mana goes on. "They wreck havoc and then run away. But this time around, he and his monsters won't be able to escape."
Kaiba huffs. "And why's that?"
"There will be a magical barrier that surrounds the whole park."
"If you think I'm going to go along with that then you're crazy. The last time you involved yourself, it was a disaster. And I don't need you interfering again when this doesn't concern you."
"It concerns me now," Mana says, narrowing her eyes at him. "Since that day, he has been targeting me, your wife and Téa."
"And whose fault is that?"
"Look, whether you like it or not, we're all involved here and all of our safety is at risk. I want Ziegfried to face consequences for his actions and I know you do too. I know you're just as sick and tired of him ruining everything as we all are."
"Right on," Kisara chimes in and Kaiba side eyes her. If there's anyone that more annoyed by Ziegfried's actions, it's her. He has found a way to practically ruin their big day. And any time he comes up with something that will hurt Seto's image, it tends to take a toll on their relationship.
Kaiba returns his gaze to Mana who has a look of confidence and determination written all over her face. Then again, she wears that sort of expression almost all the time, so he doesn't know whether or not to fully put his faith in her. "And what about the park? I've spent months rebuilding it."
"If it sustains any damage, then we'll pay for it!" Mana declares with a grin.
"I beg your pardon?" Atem asks in the background with his eyebrow raised. "That's news to me." Mana quickly turns her head to shush him and he groans.
"So what do you say?" Mana asks.
"Fine," he replies. If Mana's plan actually works, he won't have to worry about Ziegfried getting in the way again in the future. "Just know if this plan of yours fails, this all falls on you."
"Of course!"
"That reminds me," Kisara says, patting Cairo on the back when she starts to get restless. "Where's Yugi and Téa? Shouldn't they be in on this meeting?"
"Téa isn't feeling well so they stayed home," Atem tells her. "But I'll relay this to them."
Mana lands on her feet and walks over to them, grinning widely. "She and Yugi have been having a lot of alone time. Me thinks Téa is gonna turn up pregnant." She snickers, poking her index fingers together and Kisara turns her lip up with disgust, flinging a throw pillow at Mana's face.
"You're so immature!"
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Atem lounges in the backyard of his house, sitting on the green grass with one leg bent and the other outstretched. His eyes are closed as he enjoys the gentle breeze blowing against his face, his melanin skin welcoming the warmth from the sun that is beginning to set. His moment alone is short lived when he hears feet shuffling through the grass and feeling someone plop down next to him.
"Is she sleep?" he asks, without opening his eyes.
"Yup yup," Mana replies, taking one last look at the portable video monitor before setting it down next to her. "It always takes longer for her to go to sleep when I'm the one putting her to bed."
Atem smirks. "Because you don't have the magic touch." Cairo practically falls asleep in an instant the moment he starts rocking her.
Mana chuckles. "She's definitely a daddy's girl." She inhales deeply, stretching her arms over her head.
"Tell me, Mana. How exactly were you planning on paying for the damages of Kaiba's park if that were to occur?"
"You're still thinking about that?" He only looks at her from the corner of his eye and she crawls over to be closer to him. Sitting on her hands and knees, she begins nuzzling her nose playfully into his cheek to get him to lighten up, but his facial expression doesn't change.
"Mana."
"Relax! Everything will be fine!" She shuffles so that she is sitting crossed legged next to him.
"You're not falling back into old habits are you?"
"Of course not. I promise," she assures him. "Trust me. I've learned my lesson. Anyway, what's your plan if something huge goes down?"
"What do you mean?"
"I feel like you just wing it. I never see you practice. Even when it comes to hand to hand combat."
"Everything I do is calculated," he replies, turning his head to her. "And just because you don't see me doesn't mean I don't practice."
"Prove it."
"No."
Mana pouts with disappointment. "How come?"
"I know you're just trying to spar with me. I'm not doing it," he says standing up and beginning to walk away.
Mana springs up, watching as he leaves and she squints her eyes. Atem always acts as if he's so above training with her, she thinks to herself. When they were teenagers, they would spar together all the time, but as they got older, that doesn't happen anymore. She also finds it hard to believe that he's finding time to train. An idea pops into her head and her wand materializes in her hand.
She points it at him. "Let's see how much he really practices."
As he walks away, Atem sighs heavily, closing his eyes. His wife can be so stubborn. But a side of him feels amused by her current actions. When he thinks about it, it has been awhile since they have done this together. Just as she shoots her magical blast, he simply steps to the side without looking and she gasps.
"So you were paying attention," Mana says as he turns around. With one hand in his pocket, he motions for her to continue and she grunts. "So cocky…" She begins to shoot multiple attacks his way and he avoids them all by simply walking out of the way, both hands in his pockets now.
"It's taking you too long to charge your attacks, Mana. Perhaps you need to go back to—"
"Oh hush," Mana says, growing agitated. Ever since she managed to fix her wand on her own, it has been acting a little janky. Throwing it to the side, she outstretches both of her hands, blasting directly from her palms instead. He runs in a zig zag pattern to avoid each attack until he is directly in front of her, quickly maneuvering so that he restrains both of her hands behind her back.
"Had enough?" he says into her ear.
Mana narrows her eyes, using all her strength to break free before crouching down, using her leg to trip him up and throw him off balance. He wobbles forward a little and manages to keep upright. "Nice move," he remarks, ducking when she aims a punch from behind.
"How are you even dodging my attacks without looking?" Mana asks.
"I anticipate your next move," he replies, whipping around to catch her fist in his hand before pulling her close to him, staring deeply into her eyes. "And I know you."
Mana smirks and her eyes glow a bright pink to his surprise. "You sure?" The wand that is on the ground comes flying at him at a fast speed and he jumps back as she catches it. Before he has time to recover, she starts aiming punches and kicks at him, managing to hit him in the stomach.
He grunts, placing his hand where she hit him and then he lets a light chuckle. "Looks like you had more tricks up your sleeve."
Their next round of sparring leaves them evenly matched, both blocking the other's punches and kicks. But when Mana hears a cry from the baby monitor, her heads whips over in the direction of the house. "Cairo—OOF!"
"Shoot!" Atem cringes, a pearl of sweat dropping from his forehead when he accidentally punches Mana in the face after she is caught off guard. She lands on the ground, holding onto her nose and he rushes over to her, apologizing profusely. At first she doesn't respond, using her free hand to magically make the baby monitor float to her hand. She looks at the screen to see that Cairo has put herself back to sleep. She was probably startled out of her slumber which caused the sudden cry. Then she pulls back her hand and blood leaks from her nose and onto her shirt, causing Atem's eyes to widen in horror.
"I knew we shouldn't have sparred. That was such a bad idea. I don't know why I even let you talk me into doing that," Atem rambles on and on in a slight panic as he cleans Mana's face up in their bedroom. Mana on the other hand finds Atem's franticness to be amusing and she giggles. "It's not funny Mana." He pinches her nose with a white cloth that is now bloodstained.
"You really got me there," she giggles again. "That was quite the punch."
"We're not doing that ever again."
"Aww, but I had so much fun sparring with you!"
He shakes his head, a smile creeping up on his lips. Though he would never admit to it, he enjoyed sparring with her as well. But he refuses to say it out loud. That would just fuel her even more and she would want to do it all the time. Whenever he did train, he preferred to do it alone where he could fully go all out and test his limits from time to time.
Seeing that the bleeding has finally stopped, he removes the towel from her nose. "So do you think we'll be ready when the time comes?"
"We have no choice but to be," he answers.
"And what about Yugi? Were you finally able to get in contact with him?"
"I have not."
Mana takes out her phone, dialing Yugi's number. "Let's check in shall we?" She taps the button that will place the phone on speaker and it rings two times before someone finally picks up.
"Hello?" Téa answers, her voice sounding pretty normal for someone who is sick.
"Oh hey! Where's Yugi?" Mana asks and she hears Téa suck her teeth.
"Gee, thanks for checking up on me, Mana," she snaps. "Some friend you are!"
"Must be the hormones," Mana mutters over to Atem who places a hand on his forehead, practically feeling Téa's blood boiling from over the phone
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Téa yells, causing Mana and Atem to practically leap off the bed in a fright, covering their ears.
With one of her eyes shut from the ringing in her ears, Mana holds her chest before saying, "Not so loud Téa. The baby is sleeping."
"A person is capable of being sick without being pre—"
Atem takes the phone out of Mana's hand, shooting her a quick glare and she only chuckles. "I apologize for Mana's crudeness and I hope you're feeling better."
"Thank you Atem. I am," Téa responds. "Here's Yugi."
"Hey Atem, what's up?" Yugi comes to the phone, holding it up to his ear.
As Atem relays the information over to Yugi, Mana picks up her tablet to scroll through social media. A post from the KaibaLand page advertises it's grand reopening in the coming weeks and her face becomes serious. She hopes everything will go as planned and that they can defeat Ziegfried. She was tired of him terrorizing her and the others and with her daughter in the picture, they definitely have to stop him once and for all. She looks down at the time and date of the reopening and breathes out a sigh.
It's only a matter of time now.
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Hope you enjoyed this short chapter! The big confrontation is next! Leave a review in the meantime!