Disclaimer: Five dollars isn't enough to buy a decent dinner, let alone an entire animated universe.
Warnings: Light swearing. Implied Seto/Yami.
"What?" he managed to get out.
Mokuba looked a little sheepish. "Well, you and Yami have each other –"
"That's rather a different case," Yami put in, his voice slightly strained. He shot Seto a look, as if apologizing for the disruption of order.
Seto sat down and took a long look at his little brother. Fearlessly, Mokuba's grey-blue eyes met his azure ones. In them he caught a tiny hint of loneliness. Just a fleck, but it was there all the same.
And what's wrong with getting him a brother? Seto found himself wondering. It'll be like getting a puppy. Instantly the Mutt came to mind. Scratch that – it'll be better than a puppy.
"I just want a little brother," Mokuba said, his eyes a bit misty for some reason.
Seto blinked and looked away. Well, it wasn't like they couldn't afford to take care of another kid, and if it would keep Mokuba happy, so be it.
The oven timer dinged, making them all jump. Yami pulled the door open and put the pizzas in. When the door closed, it did so with a snap that made Seto jump again.
"I'll think about it," he said to Mokuba, standing to leave the room.
"Lunch?" Yami asked after him.
He didn't reply. He had some phone calls to make. Obviously he and Yami weren't going to have a kid, so that really only left one option - the same way he and Mokuba had become Gozaburo Kaiba's – adoption.
The planner had his miniscule, careful scrawl all through its pages. He checked every day carefully, looking for the first opening he'd have in his schedule to go visit an orphanage to pick out a kid. Privately, he was still imagining it like a prospective pet buyer.
Opening his laptop, Seto pulled up the Internet and searched for orphanages and adoption agencies. He was shocked at the variety. Americas. Australian. Asian. Black. Hispanic. Russian.
Did it make a difference?
All I need is someone with a decent temperament, he decided and closed the laptop. The easiest thing to do would be to walk down the street to the local orphanage and let Mokuba pick out whatever puppy – kid – he wanted.
As Yami likes to point out, if I did things the simple, easy way, I wouldn't be Seto Kaiba. No, if he was going to play the philanthropist, he was going to do it with style.
Again the calendar came out. He flipped purposefully to the month of June and double checked July. June was full, but July… The thirteenth of July was a Saturday.
Seto picked up the phone book and the phone. There were some calls he really needed to make now.
Yami watched Seto disappear and grimaced. "I don't suppose there was a more graceful way to ask?" he remarked offhandedly to Mokuba.
The teen sighed and shook his head. "You know Nii-sama – subtle goes right over his head in anything that doesn't involve either KaibaCorp or Duel Monsters."
"Well," the ex-spirit commented, looking out of the kitchen to the hallway, "at least he didn't have a heart attack and drop dead. He's been looking a little peaky – I think he may be coming down with something."
Mokuba made a face. "Nii-sama's too refined to die of shock," he retorted. "And all other germs know to steer clear."
Yami pulled the finished pizzas out of the oven and cut them up, casting another lingering glance at the hallway.
"He's not going to come down until he's reached a decision," Mokuba pointed out. "We can just eat lunch – I'm starving!" He attacked the pizza Yami laid before him with gusto, polishing off the whole thing before the ex-spirit had even made a significant dent in his first slice.
He just wasn't hungry – not like this. For another few minutes he fretted, oblivious to Mokuba eying his plate appraisingly. When he stood up to get a drink of water, he returned to an empty plate without noticing a difference.
Then Seto came back down the stairs, through the hall and into the kitchen. He was holding a phone – one of the black and silver handsets from his upstairs office. A slight crease made him appear to be glowering, though in reality this was his 'thoughtful' face.
"Nii-sama?"
At the endearment, he smiled a bit at Mokuba, reaching down to ruffle the black hair. "Still want a little brother?" he asked.
Mokuba, wide-eyed, nodded vigorously.
"It'll take a bit of patience, but if that's really what you want…" Seto trailed off, seeing the insane look of happiness on his younger brother's face. "Think you can wait until July?"
He had half expected the black-haired teen's face to fall, but instead a determined look passed over it. "I can wait," Mokuba announced. "Thank you, Nii-sama."
Seto nodded, and watched, bemused as Mokuba scooped up three empty plates and deposited them in the dishwasher before leaving the kitchen entirely.
He watched him go before sinking down into a chair and setting the phone down on the tabletop. Yami came around behind him, gently massaging at tense muscles lurking below the skin's surface.
"Are you really going to do this?"
"If it's for Mokuba, I am."
"He's that lonely?"
He nodded.
"I don't understand why." Yami hit a particularly tight knot and Seto hissed. "Sorry," the ex-spirit apologized. Then, "But why can't he hang out with Yuugi-tachi? They don't mind him."
Seto twisted a little to fix his lover with one blue eye. "The friendship gang isn't the answer to every problem in life. None of them are in high school anymore, Yami. Even if Mokuba wanted to 'hang out', I bet they barely have time for each other."
He felt Yami flinch slightly and was instantly contrite. Ever since Yuugi went away to college, the ex-spirit had been rather touchy on the subject. At the reminder that Yuugi no longer had enough time even to see old friends, something seemed to go out of him.
"Shit, Yami, I'm sorry," Seto said, twisting out of the seat to wrap his arms around the shorter duelist and pull him into a comforting hug. "I didn't mean it like that. I just – oh hell. I'm not thinking clearly."
Yami smiled faintly at him. "I've noticed," he commented.
"I've been that much of an ass?"
"No, but you seem more absorbed in your own thoughts." He paused, searching for a word. "More intense."
Seto smiled faintly. Trust Yami to take what could be considered an insult and transform it into a twisted compliment. "Thanks, I think," he drawled, extending the vowels in a parody of his normal speech pattern.
"Really though," Yami said, disentangling the two of them, "I don't know how wise this will be…"
Seto shrugged, slightly uncomfortable. "He's lonely," he reiterated. "I'm not able to be around as often as I should be – " He looked down to meet Yami's eyes. The blue violet orbs reflected concern and understanding. He let their heat warm him, staring into pools of liquid fire…
"Nii-sama?" It was Mokuba, poking his head into the kitchen.
"Hm?"
"When you're done thinking up bad poetry, wanna play another game?"
Seto flushed slightly but nodded. "As long as it's not another video game," he amended.
"Nah – I was thinking Risk. I feel like taking over the world." Mokuba laughed when Yami's eyes went wide. "Not like that!" he exclaimed.
Yami muttered something that sounded an awful lot like "Bakura" and "corrupting influences".
Seto grinned. "And this way, you won't have an unfair advantage."
His brother's eyes grew wide with innocence. It wasn't feigned – well, not completely.
"Yes, you," he growled, a smirk playing at the edges of his lips. "Don't think I haven't noticed that you can practically recite the rulebook for all the videogames in the house." He lifted an eyebrow. "And without even having read most of them."
"That's hardly an 'unfair advantage'," Yami argued, a smile laughing in his eyes despite the deadly serious expression.
"It is when I can't remember half the damn rules myself," Seto growled. He lurched forward and almost caught Mokuba, just as the black-haired teen jumped back and ran, laughing out of the room. Seto followed. Yami settled himself down in an empty chair, shaking his head over the underlying craziness present in the Kaiba mansion.
A few moments later, his musings were interrupted when Mokuba dashed back into the kitchen - and then out again, followed seconds later by a ruffled-looking CEO.
He glared at Yami accusingly. "You let him have caffeine again, didn't you?" but there was still a smile in his eyes, so despite the harsh-sounding words, it was still just playful banter.
Mokuba reappeared at the door before Yami could retort. "Nii-sama," he remarked, a little too casually, "you're getting a bit slow, aren't you?" He dove out of the way with a yelp, barely a nanosecond after Seto launched himself forward again.
Yami settled in. After all, for the Kaiba brothers, this was normal.
"I challenge you to a game of world domination!" rang out through the hallways in Mokuba's voice. "And Yami too!"
The ex-spirit levered himself out of the chair.
Maybe 'almost normal' was a better description.
Author's Note: I'm skipping class to write this. I'm a bad person. If you're skipping class to read this, good for you! Major thanks to beta Lightning Sage, both for putting up with me and for the corrections.
--I figure that if Seto's not a real people person, he's not going to look at life the same way, as say, Yuugi and co. So, to make it a little more obvious just how much out of the loop he seems to be, he's seeing adoption as picking out a dog. A lot of people regard it that way, which isn't really a good thing.
--I'm not a mpreg fan, so that's why Seto's doing this the hard way. Plus, it wouldn't be quite as much fun waiting for one of the two lovers to have a kid and then have to raise it. Nah, picking a problematic child out of a whole bunch of them is much more interesting, I think. Plus, they come hardwired with difficulties already! No installation required.
--Mokuba strikes me as the type of kid who would love to play Risk. The thing has got so many rules and twists in it that I don't even bother playing by set rules anymore. Plus, when he yells his challenge it sounds rather funny, especially with Yami tacked on at the end.