Chapter 9: Seto's Bad Mood

Note: Well, I lied, there will be one more chapter after this. I did intend to just make it one super long chapter but it's taking me forever to write the end and I didn't want to make you lovely readers wait longer than you already have for more!

"My apologies, sensei, but I need to speak with Kaiba Mokuba."

Mokuba and Rebecca looked up, startled; Shina had just crashed their computer analysis class. Their sensei looked surprised but clearly recognized Shina, manager of KaibaLand; she dismissed Mokuba with a nod of her head. Mokuba grabbed Rebecca's hand and pulled her out in the hallway with him.

"Wow, Shina, what's this ab-" Mokuba started to ask before she started talking and plowed right over him.

"Kaiba Mokuba, as Vice President of KaibaCorp, you need to march yourself into the office right now and talk some sense into your insane elder brother," she hissed.

Mokuba and Rebecca exchanged glances. "Sure, Seto's been in a bad mood lately," Mokuba began, before she once more cut him off.

"He fired me!"

Rebecca whistled.

"Really?" Mokuba asked, shocked. Shina was a robot, but she was a robot who was very good and efficient at what she did – running KaibaLand. It made no sense for Seto to fire her.

"He's dismissed two secretaries in a row, nearly half the people who've tried to talk with him in the last week – including yours truly – and overall, almost ten percent of the full-time staff. And the night cleaning crew," Shina snarled. "I don't know what his problem is, but he can't let the company suffer because of it. Doesn't he realize what poor leadership skills this reveals? A constant employee turnover is inefficient and undesirable, to say nothing of curtailing employee loyalty-"

"Okay, okay, I'll take care of it," Mokuba said quickly. "You're rehired. Get me a list of everyone else who was fired by Seto and I'll rehire them too. I'll send them a rehiring bonus… and a letter of apology from Seto," he said as an afterthought. "I can forge his signature pretty well."

"Can you just do that?" Rebecca asked doubtfully.

Despite himself, Mokuba grinned. "Yeah… we had a situation kind of like this a few years ago, when Seto broke his leg."

"I remember," she recalled with a grimace. "He was in a foul mood until that cast came off."

"Yeah, and he went on a firing spree back then too. Afterwards, he admitted that he'd been a bit hasty, and he gave me – as Vice President – all sorts of power to check his decision-making."

"And you'll talk to him as well?" Shina pressed.

Mokuba hesitated. He and Seto hadn't had a real conversation since their argument about Anzu. "Yeah, I'll talk to him," he said finally.

"Have you talked to Anzu recently? I mean, since the breakup?" Rebecca asked later that day. She and Mokuba were sitting on the couch in the Kaiba mansion, waiting for Seto to arrive home.

Mokuba still hadn't told her the entire story – that was Anzu's business. "Yeah, I called her the day after the breakup," he said, looking down. He had his arm wrapped around her shoulders, and he stroked her upper arm absently. "She seemed okay, but she insisted that she didn't want to talk to or about Seto."

"What happened exactly?" Rebecca pressed. "All you told me is that they ended things. Did she break up with him or did he break up with her?" She frowned. "And what were you talking about that day in the car – you said that if Anzu said she loved Seto, you would have to confess your feelings." She was unable to prevent a small smile. "So does that mean that she did? She said that she loved him? But then why did they break up?"

Mokuba cleared his throat, wondering how to answer her, and whether it would be easier just to explain that Seto was an enormous dick, when the door swung open.

"Come on, Mokuba, another blonde tramp in the living room?" Seto snarled as he stalked into the house.

Rebecca glowered. "You sure know how to make a girl feel welcome."

Seto did a double-take. "Hopkins?" He backtracked and stood in front of them, peering at Mokuba's arm wrapped protectively around Rebecca's shoulders. "Well, well." He smirked, the first vaguely non-angry expression Mokuba had seen on his face in days. "So our deal did work out well in the end!"

"Yeah," Mokuba retorted. "Now I'm sooo happy that you treated Anzu like a jerk!"

"He did? He was mean to her?" Rebecca asked quickly.

"I've said it before," Seto said, gearing up for a fight and pointing an accusing finger at Mokuba. "I never planned to stay with her for very long. I-"

"You have said it before, and I don't want to hear it again," Mokuba snapped, standing up quickly. Rebecca leapt to her feet too and he pushed her back down into the couch. This was between him and Seto. "This isn't about me, so I want you to shut up and stop trying to justify yourself to me. The truth is, there's no excuse for the way you treated Anzu, and you know it. You've been miserable ever since you two broke up, partly because you know you were a jerk, and mostly because you miss her. Well, the only solution is to beg for her forgiveness and beg for her back, and you're not going to be happy until you do that. That's your problem. I just want you to stop taking your misery out on other people, especially your staff." He folded his arms and graced his older brother with a version of Seto's own ice glare.

Rebecca stood up again. "Listen to my boyfriend," she said, also glaring at Seto. Then she grabbed Mokuba's hand and tugged him out of the room.

Seto gave a resigned sigh and stared up at Anzu's apartment building. He supposed that he had known, ever since he'd left Anzu alone in his bedroom, that he would wind up here. Mokuba's argument the previous day had finally pushed him into action. He was going to go up to Anzu's apartment… and he was going to grovel. He was going to forget about his pride, he was going to forget about how Anzu was better off without him, he was just going to try to get her back.

The only problem was… he took a discreet step back behind a car as Anzu came into view, lugging a bag full of groceries and chatting with her downstairs neighbor. Anzu didn't look like a girl who'd just been dumped. In fact, she looked as radiant and happy as always.

She MUST miss me, Seto thought to himself with a frown. Right?

Anzu parted ways with her neighbor and went upstairs; Seto followed at a distance. He rounded the corner just as she entered her apartment, and he darted forward and caught the door before it swung closed. He slipped silently inside and stood in the entrance for a moment, gathering his bearings. Anzu was humming from the kitchen and cabinets rattled; she was apparently putting groceries away.

Seto took a few steps forward and was about to enter the kitchen when something large and white came whizzing out of the kitchen doorway and landed heavily on his head. His knees buckled, and he went down.

Anzu raised the milk jug again, ready to whack him, and then lowered it when she recognized her intruder. "Seto?"

"You couldn't even wait for me to try to apologize first?" he sputtered, shielding his head.

Anzu turned around and put the milk jug on her kitchen counter with a heavy thud. "I heard someone sneak into my apartment," she said with a frown. "I didn't know it was you."

"Would you have hit me if you did?" he asked.

She looked at him oddly. "Why would I do that?"

He swallowed. "Well… I assume I hurt your feelings…"

She rolled her eyes. "There's that famous ego of yours. Why would you think that? Didn't Mokuba tell you that I was in on the deal?"

She turned away to put the milk in the refrigerator. When she turned back, Seto was still on his knees in the doorway, looking as stunned as if she'd hit him again.

"…Mokuba didn't tell you?" she asked slowly.

"You… I need you to clarify that," Seto said, standing up stiffly.

"Mokuba told me from the beginning what your plan was," she said, her eyes narrowed. "That you planned to seduce me. I went along with it for a laugh, and then I decided that it was time Mokuba confessed his feelings to Rebecca, so I helped you fulfill the conditions of your deal. You're welcome, by the way," she added.

Seto, still stunned, groped around for a chair. "I can't believe he told you!"

Anzu snorted. "Even if you planned to take advantage of my feelings, did you seriously think Mokuba would? He, at least, is better than that."

Seto winced, but his mind was still occupied trying to sort through this new revelation. "So… you lied to me?"

Anzu put her hands on her hips. "Please tell me you are not serious, you filthy hypocrite."

He stood up again. "You tricked me into falling for you!"

"You tried to trick me into falling for you!" Anzu retorted, really angry now. "How dare you accuse me of..." she paused, and her brow furrowed. "What did you say?"

Seto glowered, then turned around and stormed out of the kitchen and out of her apartment.

Mokuba and Rebecca had surreptitiously followed Seto to Anzu's place. Mokuba was hoping that the two of them would reunite with no more fanfare – unfortunately, he knew his brother better than that. His worst fears appeared confirmed when Seto stalked out of Anzu's apartment wearing a furious, hurt glare not ten minutes after entering.

"Should we go up and see her?" Rebecca whispered, tugging on Mokuba's sleeve.

"Yeah, I think we should," Mokuba said with a sigh. They hurried up the stairs and found the door to Anzu's apartment slightly ajar. They exchanged worried looks; Mokuba knocked softly before pushing the door open.

Anzu was lying facedown on the couch with a pillow over her head.

"Anzu?" Rebecca asked timidly. Anzu gave a sort of grunt and twitched.

"Oh my god," Rebecca whispered, horrified. "This is all my fault. I can't believe I thought a plan that took advantage of people's emotions was a good idea. What was I thinking?"

"It's not your fault," Mokuba said glumly, looking at Anzu, who still wasn't moving.

"Yes it is!" she said, nearly in tears. "Forcing Seto to date Anzu was my brilliant idea, and look where it's gotten us!"

"Becky," Mokuba said, putting a hand on her back. "Listen. It's not your fault, it's mine. See, I told Anzu about the plan too. I talked her into dating Seto."

"You… what?"

"I told her the day you first asked Seto, and he agreed," Mokuba said. He swallowed. "I wanted her to go along with your plan, but I didn't want her feelings to get hurt. But I screwed that up too," he said, looking down. "I should have just warned her to stay away."

"It's not your fault," Anzu said from underneath the pillow.

"Oh yes it is!" Rebecca said, putting her hands on her hips. "It's Mokuba's fault, so he's going to help me fix it!"

"If it's anyone's fault, it's mine," Anzu said with a sigh, finally taking the pillow off her head and tilting her face to the side. Her eyes were red, but she wasn't crying. "I just went along with this deal as a favor to Mokuba, really – it seemed silly and harmless. I actually thought it might be a little fun. And Mokuba was right, I thought it would be good for Seto to loosen up a little bit. But things went way farther than I expected them to. I should have called it off ages ago."

"But you didn't," Mokuba said softly. "Why?" Anzu was silent. "It's because you grew to care for my big brother, isn't it?" he pressed.

She finally looked directly at him, and Mokuba saw to his surprise that she wasn't sad, she was angry. "Mokuba, I really appreciate your concern," she said. "Don't think I'm not grateful that you warned me about the deal. But I would like you to stop talking with me about your brother now." She sat up, and her eyes were no longer red-rimed, but flashed with an angry blue fire. "Any vague notions I might have entertained about actually being a relationship with Seto walked out the door when he did."

Mokuba winced. Rebecca's eyes were large.

"It's just a good thing I didn't trust him," Anzu said fiercely. "If I did, can you imagine what a betrayal that would have been?"

"We're not here to justify my brother's behavior," Mokuba said timidly. "He and I have been fighting about what happened too. But I think it might help to know… he knows he screwed up, and it's killing him. His secretary told me that Seto's been throwing up in his office. He hasn't been eating or sleeping right and he's dropping a lot of weight. And he's been in the worst mood of his life lately." He waited, but Anzu didn't respond.

"We think he wants you back," Rebecca said, equally meekly.

"Well, I don't want him back," Anzu said defiantly. "I deserve someone who will treat me better."