Kisara likes vanilla bean ice cream-she is very particular about the kind that has the tiny specks of real vanilla, even though her insistence makes Seto roll his eyes and remark to her that the "vanilla bean" is nothing but a clever marketing ploy to drive up the price of plain ice cream.
Mokuba likes strawberry ice cream, although to be fair, he likes every kind of ice cream. He likes sundaes, piled high with chocolate sauce, cherries, and whipped cream. He would just take a sugar cone if that was all that was available. He likes sugar. But especially, he likes tagging along with his big brother and Kisara on a Monday-night ice cream run, because he feels like he's getting away with something, especially when he looks at his brother's resentful scowl as he squints his eyes at the ice-cream menu.
Seto doesn't eat ice cream-especially not at one-thirty at night, from an all-night drugstore in the quiet outskirts of Domino City. This is not a dignified activity, he says to Mokuba and Kisara as they pile out of his white sports car and tumble across the parking lot. Amidst an early summer heat wave, it takes until well after midnight for the air not to feel unbearably thick and cloying. Even now, in the dead of the night, the air is unusually still and placid, filled with the frantic chirping of cicadas and the occasional rush of car tires along the quiet road.
He can't believe that Mokuba and Kisara talked him into getting ice cream on the way home, especially in the middle of the night. Mokuba has school tomorrow, and he has a meeting at nine. His head is still swimming with yesterday's spreadsheets, and his eyelids feel heavy with sleep.
He must be getting soft.
"Hey, bro." Mokuba, holding a pink paper cup piled up with a double-scoop of strawberry cheesecake and rocky road, nudges Seto's hip. "It's your turn to order."
The boy behind the counter, wearing his uniform cap backward and a royal blue apron smudged with ice cream stains, gives Seto a vacant, expectant look, and Seto frowns, shaking his head. "It's almost two in the morning," he responds curtly. "I'll just be paying."
"Come onnnn." Kisara, twisting her spoon into a single scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with whipped cream and a cherry, flashes a charming grin at the boy behind the register. "Tell him he should treat himself."
The boy's lips purse nonchalantly, and he motions at the empty store. "I've got all night," he tells Seto. "No rush." He leans his elbows against the countertop, fixing his round, pale eyes on Seto.
Tchh. Seto makes a soft noise of disapproval, glancing between Kisara, who is hiding her smile behind a mouthful of ice cream, and Mokuba, whose gleeful, mischievous giggles bubble out of him in spite of himself. A huge yawn escapes him before he can stifle it, and he arches his shoulders backwards, releasing a day's worth of tension in his neck.
How did these two manage to talk him into this, when he had been so ready to go home and fall asleep? Feeling the employee's bored gaze still trained on him, he shivers, feeling heat rise up in his cheeks.
"Fine. One scoop of"-he quickly glances down, surveying the flavors displayed on the glass-"Mint chocolate chip." A jolt of indignance sends shivers of protest down his spine as he sees Mokuba extend his hand to Kisara, and the pair of them high-five.
x
"You can't possibly be actually upset," Kisara says to him as they head out the glass doors and into the balmy night. Mokuba, briefly transfixed by a gaming magazine, lags behind in the store. "How can you be actually angry about ice cream?"
"Just tired." Seto yawns again, tilting his head away from Kisara. She huffs slightly with impatience-which is, admittedly, adorable-and scrambles around to stand in front of him.
"Oh, come on," she bubbles. "We've all had long days, and it's important to unwind sometimes. Mokuba had to finish that report for his science class, and you've been working non-stop on the new Duel Disk system you want to launch before the holidays, and I spent the whole day"-she paused, groaning emphatically-"debugging software for the new Duel Monsters application." She grins, and her cheeks glow brighter than moonbeams in the dim light. "What's the point of being the CEO's girlfriend, if I'm just doing all this annoying work?"
Seto smirks at her. "You're the one who said, no favoritism," he shoots back. "Or was that someone else?"
Kisara's lips contort into a begrudging pout. "True." She nudges him affectionately with her shoulder, adding, "I'll make coffee tomorrow morning. Thanks for being a good sport."
In spite of himself, Seto bites his lip, feeling a smile tug at his cheeks. "You know I can't deny you guys when you gang up on me like that."
"Hey, wait up, guys!" At the sound of Mokuba's sneakers on the pavement, Seto whips around just in time to dodge his brother as he zooms past. "You weren't gonna leave without me, were you?"
"Nah, Mokie," Kisara assures the boy, wrapping her arm around his shoulder. "How's finishing that giant ice cream going?"
Mokuba's expression is vaguely guilty. "There's more than I expected," he confesses.
Kisara giggles, dipping her spoon into his cup. "There's no hurry-c'mon." She guides him towards a bench on the side of the building, reaching out and pulling Seto along by his wrist as she goes.
x
"You know any constellations?" Mokuba asks, resting his head against the back of the bench to stare up at the stars. The remainder of his ice cream is melting into a puddle in his cup, abandoned on the bench next to him. Kisara sits with her legs tucked against her chest, and her chin resting on her knees.
Kisara shakes her head. "Maybe Seto does," she offers hopefully.
"Nope."
"Well-alright." Kisara's voice sounds slightly dismayed, and she unfolds her legs so she can lean back and get a clearer view of the stars. The three of them sit in silence for a moment, letting the starlight beat down on them from above, drowning them in soft rays of silver.
"Wait-I think I see it. The blue-eyes white dragon. Up there." Kisara points at the sky, tilting her head against Mokuba's so she can see from his perspective. "That one, the big star right there-that's the eye."
They spend a few moments deliberating before Mokuba exclaims, "Oh! Yeah-Seto, look!" Without further ado, he wraps himself around his brother's shoulders, pointing a finger at the stars.-
The stars, in all their splendor, just look like dots of light. Seto shakes his head at Mokuba. "Don't see it. Sorry."
"No, bro-come on, focus. Right"-Mokuba directs his finger at a brighter point in the sky and traces a shape in the sky. "That's the head. See?"
The soft smell of peppermint and vanilla, and the gentle pressure of a delicate chin on the top of his head, alert him to Kisara's presence behind him. "It's a little abstract, but there-there's the tail," she says softly. "I mean, you kind of have to want to see it."
For a moment infinitesimally brief, Seto sees the dragon in the sky-the eye pointed upwards as it roars mightily into the heavens, it's powerful tail curled proudly around its body. It disappears as quickly as it came, and he closes his eyes with disappointment, but when he opens them he can see it again, stretching its mighty wings. His breath catches in his throat.
"He sees it," Kisara says brightly. Her hand, delicate and cool to the touch, rests against his neck. "You saw it, didn't you?"
He nods, and as he looks away from the dragon-stars and to Mokuba and Kisara, he feels a lump rise in his throat. Their eyes are wide and joyous and look upon him with love, and he is overcome with gratitude towards them: his loyal, wide-eyed little brother, and this beautiful girl who can make dragons appear in the stars.
Author's Note
I'm alive and well, and so is this story! I'm drowning in science right now, so thank you so much (really and sincerely) for being patient, and continuing to read-which you must be, if you're reading this now :P
Still on the to-do list is to rewrite some of the earlier chapters, so they match the style of the later chapters (I'm thinking I'll post them as-is somewhere else-maybe on my blog-for safekeeping, so they're not gone forever :P), along with a prologue (breaking a little from the everyday, slice of life, mundane kind of aesthetic of these oneshots, because ooh destiny. Or something), but I'm going to keep the old chapters up as they are until I get around to changing them. Sorry for the jarring change in tense-it bothers me too, I just have a lot to do right now.
Sending good vibes your way!
Mei