11. Morning After

Sara groaned as sun filtered into the room through half-drawn blinds. Opening her eyes, she looked around the unfamiliar surroundings and tried to get her bearings. Where was she?

Then the previous night came back to her, and she groaned louder, putting her hand to her forehead. Rolling sideways, she saw that the place beside her in the massive bed was empty—somehow not surprising—and she sat up, resting her head in her hand. What had she been thinking, sleeping with this man after knowing him for all of eight hours? Just because he reminded her of an Egyptian carving? Was she mad?

Actually, it wasn't just the carving that he reminded her of, and that bothered her more than anything. It was her dragon dreams. When he'd summoned his holographic dragon, he'd looked as if he'd walked straight out of one of her dreams, where dragon and man were connected so inextricably. And for that, she'd slept with him. Although… she did have to admit it was the most incredible sex she'd ever had in her life. Just thinking about it, thinking about him made her flush and her heart start to race.

"Argh! No!" She shouted out loud, pulling at her hair. "This is so wrong. You're an idiot, Sara Drake. An idiot and a cheap tart."

She looked around his expansive bedroom, trying to work out what to do next. It was a luxurious room, but in sort of a sparse way, with expensive blinds and carpet and furniture, all black and very masculine, but cold and distant. It was so very Seto, and definitely a rich bachelor's room. Rich, attractive, attitude to spare, and an ego the size of England, she thought, shaking her head. He probably has a new girl every night. No doubt there's a note somewhere: Thanks for the good time. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

As it turned out, there was no note, but he had left out a set of towels in the bathroom for her, and he had a tub the size of a small swimming pool. She considered a bath, but she had no clean clothes to change into. Which means I get to go back to Yugi's in the same clothes. Lovely. She groaned again, furious with herself. And to make matters worse, she was a guest in Téa's home and she'd stayed out all night without even bothering to ring and let her know. Hopefully, they were all so absorbed in trying to find a ritual for the two pharaohs that they hadn't missed her or worried.

She eyed the towels, which looked thick and soft, and decided cleaning up first might at least help temper the slag-coming-home-the-morning-after impression she was sure to make walking in the door. A quick shower then, and after she could slink home and hope none of them really noticed her absence. Téa had said the elevator went up to the top floor where their flats were, so she wouldn't have to come in through the common room. That was something, anyway.

She showered quickly, towel dried her hair and clipped it back, then dressed and headed out, hoping she could find her way back to the front door of the huge, maze-like penthouse. She made it as far as the dining room when she stopped short.

Mokuba was sitting at the table eating breakfast. He looked up right as she stopped. "Oh hey, Sara. Seto had to go to work, but there're some bagels and cream cheese and fruit if you want some. And tea and coffee."

"Uh… thank you, no, I don't want to be a bother. I'll just be on my way." She could feel her cheeks getting hot, and wasn't sure which was worse, that she had been caught out by a fifteen-year-old who could not have missed the fact that she'd spent the night with his brother, or that he was so blasé about it, as if it were a regular occurrence for strange women to wake up in his home.

Mokuba shrugged. "It's no bother. It'd be nice to have some company, actually. I've been so bored ever since we got back from London, what with school still out and Rebecca in Boston and everything."

She cocked her head, trying to puzzle out the teenager. At times he seemed to be younger than he really was, especially the way he clearly idolized his brother even while adopting an attitude of teenage apathy. Although given the little bit Seto had told her about their childhood, she supposed it wasn't surprising that he would venerate the one person in his life who'd given a damn about him.

Other times, like now, he seemed much more mature than an average fifteen-year-old. In all the things he'd shared with her at dinner, the only friend he'd mentioned his own age was Professor Hawkins' granddaughter, and considering she was a college graduate at fourteen, she could hardly be considered a typical teen. Everyone else in Mokuba's life seemed to be Seto's peers or employees. She thought it must be lonely for a kid to spend his whole life in an adult world.

When she didn't answer him, Mokuba continued to try and ply her with bagels and cream cheese. "Come on, there's too much food here for me to eat by myself. The maid always lays out a spread like we're having a breakfast meeting for twenty instead of just the two of us."

"All right." It wasn't like he didn't already know she'd spent the night; what was the harm in breakfast? She slipped into a seat beside him and picked up a sesame seed bagel and spread some strawberry cream cheese on it. "Did you mention tea?"

"Yep." He was already pushing his chair back. "Green, herbal, or black?"

"I'm British, aren't I?"

He grinned. "Black it is. I think it's even some English brand Seto has imported."

"If you tell me it's PG Tips, I'll love you forever."

"You know what? I think that's it." He trotted off to the kitchen, returning a minute later with a teapot, a mug, and several bags of her favorite tea.

"Brilliant!" She put a teabag in her mug, smiling at him as she poured the steaming water over it. Then, a thought occurred to her, and she looked around. "Are we the only ones here?"

"Yeah. I told you, Seto went to work."

"Oh yes, I know, but you mentioned a maid. I guess I expected servants or something in a place like this."

"Nah, Seto's kind of independent. Doesn't like having too many people around. He's got his personal assistant, Roland, and a whole bunch of flunkies at work, but at home he likes it with no one else around. The maid comes in every morning and cleans and lays out stuff for breakfast." He indicated the breakfast spread with a nod of his head. "And sometimes one of the chefs from Shiroki Ryu comes and cooks, but mostly we eat out or order in. And there are drivers and stuff like that, but no live-in help, not here anyway. It's too small."

Sara choked. "You call this small? My flat in Cairo could fit in here a hundred times over."

"Well, small compared to the mansion in Domino. There's a whole staff there, but we spend most of our time here these days."

"Sounds lonely. Especially if Seto works so much."

He shrugged. "Nah, it's a lot better than it used to be when I was little. Gozaburo—uh, that was our adopted father—he never let us spend time together, and was always making Nii-sama study and work."

"Nii-sama?"

"Japanese for Big Brother."

Sara nodded. "Seto told me a little bit about him. Your father, I mean. Sounds like a lovely man."

Mokuba made a face. "Oh yeah, he was a real sweetheart."

"And Seto really took over the company from him when he was only sixteen?"

Mokuba looked at her in surprise. "He told you that? He doesn't usually talk about it."

"Really? I would think that's exactly the sort of thing he'd enjoy boasting about to anyone who would care to listen."

She was surprised and a little disconcerted to see Mokuba's face darken until it was almost as cold as his brother's. "Not really, no."

Her curiosity was piqued, but it was clear that Mokuba didn't want to discuss it, so she changed track. "So how did you two end up with this Gozaburo bloke anyway? Was he an uncle or something?"

"No," Mokuba said, the darkness lifting from his expression to be replaced by a more normal look of distaste. "He came to the orphanage where we were living to throw his money around and make it look like he gave a damn about the poor little orphans. Seto decided he was our ticket out of there."

"Seto decided, did he?" Sara couldn't help but smirk, imagining a ten-year-old Seto Kaiba deciding who would adopt him. "And how exactly did he make Gozaburo see things his way?"

"He beat him in a chess game."

Sara gaped at him. How was it that this man could continually surprise her? "He… beat him in a chess game? And how did that get you two adopted?"

"Gozaburo was this big-shot chess champion, so Seto challenged him to a game, saying that if he won, Gozaburo would have to adopt both of us. Gozaburo didn't want to look bad, declining a challenge from a little kid, so he accepted, and Seto beat him."

Sara shook her head in amazement. "He won your adoption in a chess match." Then she had a sudden flash of déjà-vu. Frowning, she tried to work out why. "You know, this story sounds vaguely familiar. Has it been in the press or something?"

Mokuba snorted. "Not hardly. Gozaburo was humiliated, and Seto doesn't ever give interviews about anything that happened at Kaiba Corp prior to his taking over."

"Hm, I wonder why it seems familiar then." She stirred her tea, contemplative. "Did he ever regret it, given what kind of person Gozaburo turned out to be?"

"Please. Seto would have to look up regret in the dictionary just to know what it means. And it was all good in the long run anyway."

"I suppose it was." Still, she couldn't help but feel sad for the two of them, robbed of their childhood.

Mokuba put down the last bite of his bagel. "Hey, I was thinking that when you go back to Illusions Tower, I could go back with you and help you carry back the scrolls and stuff that you finished and maybe help them out over there for a while."

As soon as he mentioned going back to the place where she was supposed to be staying, Sara moaned, letting her head fall forward onto the table in front of her. "Oh, no, I keep forgetting. They didn't even know I was staying out all night. Terribly thoughtless of me. I really should be getting back."

"Why don't you just call and let them know you're here?"

Sara looked up at him with one eye, shamefaced. "I, uh… was hoping to make a more subtle return. I'm staying in Téa's flat, so perhaps only she realized I was gone. I do feel awful, not letting them know."

Mokuba brushed off her concern with a wave of his hand. "It's no big. I'll take care of it," he said, getting up out of his chair again.

She looked up in alarm. "Mokuba, what are you—no, Mokuba, don't!"

She stood up quickly and tried to reach for him as he picked up the phone and dialed something on speed dial, but he twisted out of her reach. Holding up his finger to her, he spoke into the phone. "Hey… Tristan? Yeah, it's Mokuba. Hope I didn't wake you. … Okay, good. I just wanted to let you guys know Sara Drake is over here. … Yeah, well you know how Seto is; he thinks three hours of sleep is too much. We were up like half the night and fell asleep on the couch." He winked at her.

She let her head bang back down onto the table. I shagged a man I just met, and his fifteen-year-old brother is covering for me. Kill me now.

He laughed at something Tristan said. "I know, but personally, I think he was afraid Téa would come back and chew him out again." He laughed again. "No kidding! So anyway, Seto of course woke up hours ago and went to work, but me and Sara just dragged ourselves up, and she feels really bad that she didn't call to let you guys know where she was, but we just didn't expect to fall asleep like that. …. Well, that's cool. We're getting some breakfast now, and then we're gonna both head over there. I was thinking I could help you guys out, if that's okay. I figure I kinda owe it to the other Yugi, considering he once did the same for me, you know? … Okay, cool. See you in a bit, then. 'Bye."

He hung up the phone, and she looked up at him to see him grinning at her. "See? No big."

"Well, thank you. I think." Then she sat up all the way. "Mokuba, what's all this about 'the other Yugi.'" You mentioned it last night, too."

"Oh, yeah. I guess I should call him Atem, but I can't get used to it. I think I'll always think of him as the other Yugi. Or the Pharaoh."

Her brow furrowed in puzzlement. "I don't understand. Why would you call Atem 'the other Yugi'?"

"For a while, that's all we knew about him. Well, I didn't even find out about him until way after the others, of course. I know it all started when Yugi put together the Millennium Puzzle, and he didn't even know the other Yugi was there at first, but by the time I found out about him, they knew he was a pharaoh and that's about it. They didn't learn his real name until just before he left for good. Mostly I couldn't tell the difference between them, at least not until the whole Orichalcos thing, and then it was kinda obvious once Yugi's soul was gone. But anyway, I always just called him 'Yugi.'"

She blinked, having another one of those surreal moments where she felt as if she were listening to some secret code for which she didn't have the key. "Mokuba, I have no idea what the devil you're on about."

He shrugged. "Maybe you just had to see it to understand. When the Pharaoh took over, it didn't really seem any different to us, not at first. He looked like Yugi, sounded like Yugi… well, his voice was deeper, I guess, and his eyes got sort of… intense, but we always figured it was kind of a dueling thing. I'm not even sure when I realized he was two different people. The end of Battle City, I guess, with Yugi chained up like that while the Pharaoh dueled Marik. That was creepy." He popped the last bite of bagel into his mouth as if he'd just given her the weather report.

She stared at him. "You sound like you're saying Yugi was… possessed by Atem's spirit or something."

"I don't know if I'd use the word 'possessed.' They were more like partners."

Partners? "Aibou…."

Mokuba looked at her in surprise. "I didn't know you knew Japanese."

"I don't. It's a word Yugi used, and someone else translated it for me. But that's not what he meant by 'aibou,' is it? He couldn't possibly believe Atem's spirit possessed him."

Mokuba frowned at her. "You didn't know about this already?"

"Know about this? Are you mad?" And then another thought occurred to her. "I suppose you're also going to tell me that the Pharaoh Seto possessed your brother?"

"Oh, no, nothing like that." Mokuba laughed. "No way Nii-sama would go for that. But we think he was probably his past life."

"Past life." She shook her head. "Mokuba, you do realize how absurd it is."

He gave her a completely unperturbed look. "Yeah, but it is what it is. Only, if you didn't know Atem was the other Yugi, why are you here, helping to look for a way to save him from the Shadow Realm?"

"I—" She tried to say something rational, some reason that made more sense than the spirit of an ancient pharaoh that had been dead for thousands of years possessing a young man, but there was nothing she could say. She was here because she used to regularly dream she was a dragon, and once she dreamed that that dragon protected an Egyptian priest who resembled a figure in a stone carving. And to top it off, she'd just slept with a man because he shared that priest-turned-pharaoh's name and a connection to a dragon that reminded her of the one in her dreams.

Who was she to call anyone else mad?

"I'm here because it seemed like the right thing to do," she said after a moment.

He accepted that with a nod and a smile. "Yeah, me too. Well, that and the other Yugi saved me from the Shadow Realm once, so I kinda owe him. I figure we can go over to Illusions Tower together, and I can come back with you when you meet up with Seto this afternoon."

At the mention of meeting up with Seto, she felt her cheeks getting warm again. How awkward would that be to see him again? He hadn't even bothered to leave a note for her; surely he had no interest in seeing her again. And then it struck her that they'd made the appointment before… well, just before. He probably was planning on canceling anyway.

"I don't know, Mokuba. He sounded rather busy. I don't think I'll be working with him tonight."

Mokuba frowned. "That's not what he told me. He said you were meeting him at his office at four."

She raised her eyebrows. "He said that? When? This morning?"

"Yeah. I saw him when he was on his way out. Why?" Mokuba was giving her a quizzical look. "That is what you guys agreed on, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, but he also mentioned how busy he was and I thought maybe… well, never mind," she said looking down and taking a bite of bagel to mask her embarrassment. What would she say to him? And was she so uncomfortable because she didn't want to see him, or maybe because she actually wanted to see him rather a lot?