Special thanks to P.O.J.A for the great review that got my butt in gear to finish this chapter. Hope it was worth the wait.
School till two and then work till at least eight, often later. It was the same thing over and over.
"Hi Seto," my brother would say when he greeted me at the door every night. I often wished I could spend more time with him, but work left me with little spare time.
"Hi Mokuba," I glanced at the clock, I had already missed the news and I had to email Kisa yet. "I have some things I have to take care of, but how about once I finish up we have a mock duel?" It was a Friday after all so I knew Mokuba didn't have to worry about school and I myself only had work. I could sacrifice a few hours of sleep to spend some time with my only family.
"Sure! Just let me know when you're ready," Mokuba replied with a grin. I smiled back and ruffled his hair, though he was too old for it, as I made my way to my study. I sometimes wondered what people would think if they saw the way I treated Mokuba. It was no secret that I cared deeply about my brother, but I suppose my cold exterior kept most others away.
I sat down at my desk and opened up my email. I hated the obligation of having to message Kisa every night, but I knew the odds that the one time she really needed me for something would be the one time I didn't message her.
Seth,
Hi, how was your day? Happy it's friday? School was fine, I got to watch a movie in English. Ever seen Some Like it Hot? I'm sleeping over at a friend's house tonight so I won't be able to reply till tomorrow.
Kisa
I sighed, relieved. I could send that stupid obligatory email and not have to worry about coddling her. Every day this week had been the same annoying crap. How was your day? Have plans? What's your favourite food? Useless, teenage girl drivel. I could practically feel my brain cells dying as I read through it. In all honesty I preferred her whining, at least then I could give her the insight I had in the world of PRs, especially since the one in question was my own.
Kisa,
I don't care what day of the week it is and I don't care if you email me back or not.
Seth
I groaned and covered my face with my hands before deleting everything that had come after 'Kisa'. I had to be a faithful mentor and while normally I wouldn't care if I hurt some girl's feelings I had a feeling my credit would suffer if I was a bad mentor. Being sarcastic and condescending was a no go.
"What else is there?" I demanded in frustration.
"Seto? Are you okay?" I glanced up, I hadn't even heard Mokuba come in.
"I'm fine."
"What'cha doing?" he asked coming up beside me and reading over my shoulder. He was the only person would could get away with doing that, anyone else wouldn't have even dared try it.
"I was signed up to be a mentor and now I am trying to write a reply to their message, but I don't know what to say."
"Well that's easy," Mokuba said with a shrug. "Just be nice and talk about whatever they want to talk about." I shot my brother a half hearted glare, he made it sound so simple. I worked hard to divert our stepfather's wrath so Mokuba was able to retain most of his childhood innocence and making friends came easily to him.
Being nice is hard, I couldn't help but think casting another frustrated look at the computer. "I've been putting up with this unimportant drivel all week, small talk and nonsense all of it."
"Well they probably want to get comfortable talking to you."
"They were quite comfortable bringing up their problems the first day."
"Well yeah," Mokuba reasoned as he collapsed into the chair across from me. "Whatever problem they had the first day was probably fresh in their mind and they wanted someone to vent to. Now it's not bothering them so they probably want you guys to get to know each other better."
I wondered when my sixteen year old brother grew to be so intelligent. Of course it was only a matter of time, he was my brother after all. Though it felt more than a little odd being twenty one and having my little brother be the one doing the teaching.
"Well, what do you suggest I do then? Be myself?" I asked with a sarcastic eye roll.
"Of course not!" Mokuba laughed. "You don't want to scare the girl." Even I smiled a little, he was right being 'myself' was out of the question. "There it is."
"There's what?"
"The Seto I know. That's a Seto people should get to know."
"Mokuba you're the only family I have, it's completely different talking to you than talking to a girl I barely even know."
"Why not talk to them like they were me?" he suggested with a shrug. "Be honest, I know sometimes I talk about things that you don't care about, but you still listen and respond without being a complete douchebag. How old is this girl anyway?"
"Seventeen I suppose, she's in her final year at school in any case."
"See? Easy, lots of the stuff she has to say is probably stuff I've mentioned anyway. I'm gonna go set up the duel arena, you almost done?"
"I'll be there in a minute," I told him as I pulled the keyboard closer to me and tried again.
Kisa,
My day was fine, busy. The only difference between the week days and the weekends is if I'm in class or at work. I don't watch many movies, what is it about?
Have fun,
Seth
I read over the message, it seemed fine to me. Perhaps not the nicest thing in the world, but I was not sweet and the sooner she learned that the better. I can't wait for this to be over,then I'll never have to talk to them again, I thought as I stretched and headed down to where Mokuba was waiting.
Kisa seemed to like this new way of my emailing her, in any case over the course of the following weeks she asked more questions and offered information about herself. I followed Mokuba's advice and treated everything she did as though I was talking to him. I told her about small details, inconsequential things she could easily forget by the next day.
Seth,
What sort of stuff are you interested in? What's your favourite animal? I like baking, art and my favourite animals are cats and monkeys. What about your family? Do you have brothers or sisters? How about pets? I have an older brother and a pet cat.
Kisa
I often wondered why she wanted to learn about me, surely she didn't expect anything to happen. Nonetheless I would always answer her questions as honestly as I could and attempt to make conversation. It was surprisingly easy to talk to her, she was a very open person and seemed content to talk with anyone about anything. It was a very strange experience, and yet I wasn't surprised. Kaiya was very much the same way, she did her job very well and I was realizing through Kisa that I took advantage of that. Kaiya never said a word though, she just smiled her motherly smile and did as I asked, sometimes making comments about how I needed to eat more or ask about Mokuba.
Kisa,
I work a lot and go to school, so I don't have much free time, though I do enjoy playing duel monsters. I don't really have a favourite animal, I suppose I like dragons if that counts. I don't have any pets, but I have a younger brother. Why do you want to know all of this?
Seth
I would keep a tab open with my email account and work while I waited for her reply. She was a creature of habit I noticed, I wasn't sure if she was like that herself or if she adapted to my own schedule. All I knew is every night at 9 o'clock, after watching the news and having a late dinner with Mokuba there would be an email waiting.
Seth,
Just want to get to know my mentor better. I'm not much into duel monsters, but my brother and a lot of my friends are so I know a fair bit. Have you been in any of the competitions?
Kisa
I spent the next hour talking about the card game with her, I was careful not to mention what place I had gotten in Duelest Kingdom or that I had in fact created Battle City. I was also very careful not to tell her any of my recognizable cards, even though they were my favourite. It was strange, but the conversation seemed to flow easily. Finally when it hit eleven I enforced bed time for her, I of course would be up for at least another three hours, if not more. Kisa sent one last email and as usual wished me 'sweet dreams'.
I stretched and went out to the living room where Mokuba was still playing some new video game.
"Bed."
"But Seto, I'm in the middle of a quest!" he argued, glancing up at me before returning to his game.
"And it's a Wednesday night. You have school tomorrow so bed."
"So do you, and you work," he mumbled while shutting off his game.
"It's different," I said. The argument was the same every night, we knew our lines well and rarely deviated from them.
"So how's the mentoring going?"
"Well. You're advice seems to be doing the right thing, we actually had a good conversation about duel monsters today. Perhaps she's not the empty headed girl I had originally thought."
"See? Sometimes you just have to give people a chance before you judge them," Mokuba yawned and I had a sneaking suspicion that he might have actually been ready for bed on his own. "Night Seto, don't stay up too late." I nodded and returned to my study. While I worked for the next few hours I could help but have passing thoughts that perhaps this getting to know people thing wasn't so bad after all.
FireEdge, Seto's whining about being a mentor is for you, as we talked about you made a great point and I admit I had fun writing him complaining ^-^.
That's all for now, keep the great reviews coming in, they really motivate me to keep writing.