Sorry this chapter is on the short side, I wanted to have it up on October 25th, but I just got really busy :( I'm still not 100% happy with how it turned out since I wrote it on my phone over my lunchbreaks and I really wanted it to be longer. C'est la vie.
October passed quickly what with midterms approaching at school. There was also work to contend with, Advertising was busy putting out commercials for the holiday season and there were press conferences and interviews where I needed to talk about the changes made in the new duel disc system.
So when I woke to the sun pouring in my window one morning in late October I was a little panicked.
I sat up quickly and looked at the time, or at least tried to; someone had unplugged my clock. I glanced out the window trying to judge the time by the sun, but it was a cloudy day and I soon gave up.
I was about to rush downstairs and demand to know who had unplugged my clock when I passed my calender and I realized what day it was.
With a smile and a shake of my head I went down to the kitchen where I saw Mokuba in the middle of making white chocolate chip pancakes.
"Must you do this every year?" I asked with a sigh as I sat down at the comfortable kitchen table. "I nearly had a heart attack when I woke up."
"Morning to you too," Mokuba laughed and set a plate in front of me. The pancakes vaguely resembled the Blue Eyes, the kid had gotten better over the years at his pancakes. "You know I have to or else you'd be up and gone to work before I could stop you." I sincerely doubted that statement, if previous years were any indication my engine would be missing a couple vital pieces, my cell phone was hidden somewhere in the mansion and the body guards were under strict orders to keep me from leaving the premise- by any means necessary. I never wanted to feel a taser again.
"You'd better hope I don't miss any important meetings," I said, only half joking. Come to think of it I never did seem to miss anything, it made me wonder if Mokuba had roped Kaiya in. I chuckled at the image of her threatening anyone with what would happen if they so much as dared try to contact me.
"Don't worry, today you can just relax and maybe read one of those books you've been meaning to."
"I suppose," I agreed, digging into my breakfast. I rarely had time to eat in the mornings and often only had a coffee and a bagel on the way to school.
"Oh, and Seto?" Mokuba said as he sat down with a plate of his own.
"Hmm?"
"Happy Birthday."
I wore sweat pants and a hoodie as I lounged comfortably on the couch in front of the fire place. I didn't even brush my hair, today was all about relaxing and being comfortable.
Mokuba would bring snacks occasionally or drinks, but mostly he stuck to his own Sunday ritual; sprawling on the floor and playing some hand held game.
The day passed peacefully, and I was a little sad for it to be almost over. Mokuba had gone about fixing the numerous things he had hidden or taken apart leaving me alone.
A beep from my laptop startled me out of my book and I glared at the offending piece of technology. I reached for the computer, thankful that because of my long limbs I could still be lazy and not actually get up.
[1 New Message]
I clicked the icon and saw Kisa had emailed me, to my surprise I wasn't angry that she had interrupted my book. If anything I was annoyed at myself for not noticing the time.
I adjusted my reading glasses, something I recently needed due to all the hours I spent working in the dark, and read her message.
Seth,
How was your day? Do anything fun and exciting ;P
Kisa
Without a moment's hesitation I began to type my response, it was only after I hit send that I realized I had willingly chosen to respond to her, even though I knew I could have ignored it till the next day simply because it was my birthday.
Kisa,
My day was nice, far from exciting though I did enjoy myself. I stayed home in my comfortable clothes and read all day. What about you?
Seth.
I went back to reading, but kept my laptop on me while I waited for the reply, we'd need to do something about that. I hated having to wait if I knew we were going to be having a prolonged conversation.
After a few minutes my laptop beeped at me again.
Seth,
I'm so glad you got to relax, you're always telling me that you work. You need to take a break sometimes. Even my mom's boss takes days off now and then and he's Kaiba!
I spent the day with my brother and his friend's at one of their houses. Everyone is really into Duel Monsters so I spent the day watching them duel one another.
Kisa.
I froze when I read my own name, did she know it was me? Of course not, I doubted she'd feel comfortable talking to her mother's employer.
Kisa,
I have a very important after school job, the business belonged to my father, so it's not something I can take a lot of time away from.
You should try to play duel monsters sometime, you may find you like it.
Do you dislike your mother's boss? You've mentioned him a few times.
Seth
I waited for her response, unsure why I cared if she liked me or not. After all come April I wouldn't ever have to speak to her again. We'd meet, she'd find out it was me and then that would be the end of it. Though now I question as to why I chose to be (mostly) honest with her. Perhaps deep down I was testing her, seeing if she'd notice, how she'd react.
Seth,
Oops, so much for leaving names out... There's a lot of reasons I don't like him, he's not a very nice person and he's always working my mom so hard. She's barely ever home so it's just me and my cat. I guess I blame him for why I'm lonely all the time, but I've got you now so it's not so bad as before.
Kisa
I felt an odd sort of feeling in my stomach, it took me a moment before I realized what it was; guilt. I hadn't felt guilt over something in years and yet this faceless girl was doing it.
I didn't like the feeling and when I bid Kisa good night a while later I promised myself that I would try to help where I could, if only because I seemed to be part of the reason she was unhappy.
Seto's birthday, he's 22 now ^_^. I had fun imagining poor Seto trying to get to work previous years, I like to think that Mokuba rigs half the house to prevent him from leaving.
That's all for now, keep the great reviews coming in, they mean a lot to me.