Chapter 42 Day Again

The next morning at the Kaiba mansion, Seto signaled that he was leaving for work early by grabbing an orange and kissing Serenity on the cheek at the breakfast table. He then waved to Mokuba and Janet as he rushed out the door with a simple, "Bye. Stay safe."

Janet didn't even seem to notice that her father had come and gone. She simply tugged on Serenity's long auburn hair to bring the attention in the room back to herself.

"Serenity," Mokuba asked timidly, "is everything all right between you and Seto?"

Serenity spooned a glob of nutritious goop into Janet's mouth. "I guess so. What little time we spend together is always good. Why do you ask?"

Mokuba bit his lower lip and gazed at his wife with soft violet eyes. "It's just that last night you seemed really mad at each other. When Seto asked to be alone with you, I almost didn't go. I was afraid he would hurt you or something."

Serenity laughed easily. "Oh that? That was all just play. We don't have time to really be mat at each other. He was just helping me work up a good excuse to spank him. He really likes that sort of thing. He told me once that after ordering people around all day, he finds it really refreshing when I order him around. It's fun for me too because I know he likes it and I get to try new things, but sometimes . . . I like the way you and I do it, too."

Mokuba smiled warmly, but guilty thoughts plagued his mind. "Does he know?"

Serenity took a deep breath and set down the spoon that she was using to feed Janet so that she would not spill anything as her fingers trembled. Janet looked at Serenity unhappily and said, "Breakfast not done!"

"I know, dear. Be patient. Mokuba, Seto doesn't have time to know. If he did that might be a different story, but right now it just doesn't matter. He has so little time for me that it doesn't conflict with my time with you."

"Still, shouldn't you tell him?"

"Why should I tell him? Why don't you tell him?" Serenity countered.

"I . . ." Mokuba thought for a moment while Serenity carefully spooned another bite into Janet's mouth. "I never made him any promises regarding you. You, on the other hand, promised to be faithful to him and even though he broke his promise about insulting Joey, you . . ."

"I didn't," Serenity said boldly.

"What?"

"I didn't promise to forsake all others or keep myself only for him."

"No way! Of course you did. I was there," Mokuba said in disbelief.

"What's 'forsake' mean?" Janet asked.

Serenity ignored her daughter and looked at Mokuba with concern. She had a feeling it wouldn't be long before her daughter figured out what they were really saying. "Go watch the recording if you don't believe me. Look, let's not talk about this right now. I have to finish feeding Janet. Then, I have to go to work."

Mokuba looked down at his plate and mumbled, "All right."

Serenity turned her attention back towards Janet while Mokuba finished his meal. He picked at his food as he thought about the busy day ahead. Serenity would take Janet to the hospital with her and let the day care there take care of her daughter while she monitored heart rates, changed bandages, administered injections, took samples of bodily fluids, changed bedpans, and helped families cope with the loss of their loved ones when there was nothing left to be done. Meanwhile, Mokuba would be attending lectures, socializing with his peers, and reading textbooks.

Serenity wiped some spilled good off Janet's face with a napkin, and then picked her up. She was about to leave the room with Janet on her hip when the little girl threw a fit. "Say bye bye Uncle Mokuba!" she cried.

"Bye bye Uncle Mokuba," Serenity said quickly.

"No! Mouth on Uncle Mokuba," Janet insisted.

Serenity found herself smiling in spite of the morning's tensions. She walked back over to her husband and kissed him sweetly. Mokuba returned the kiss, and then gave Janet one on the forehead. If only his brother knew what he was missing.

After Serenity left, Mokuba gathered up his things for class and left for the university. On the train ride there, he tried to study on his laptop, but his mind kept wandering. He dug through the files on his computer and found that he did indeed have some video clips and photographs of Seto and Serenity's wedding. He plugged a set of headphones into his laptop and listened carefully to the part where they exchanged vows, keeping his ears tuned for any mention of sexual or emotional exclusivity. There was nothing. He listened twice more before the train reached his stop. He then snapped his laptop shut and scrambled out the door.

Mokuba walked mechanically, automatically while he wondered how the priest could let Seto and Serenity become bonded in holy matrimony without swearing to "forsake all others." Not that he had paid any heed to that tradition either, but surely someone had to have noticed.

Mokuba slipped into an empty seat in his Advanced Macroeconomics class and opened up his laptop again. His friend Paul took a seat beside him and saw photos of the wedding on the screen. "Whoa dude. Who's that? She's hot!"

Mokuba opened his mouth without thinking. "My wi-er, sister-in-law."

"That one?" Paul clarified, pointing to Mai in the corner of the picture.

"Yeah, her too," Mokuba agreed without much enthusiasm, relieved that his friend had not been ogling Serenity, but also wondering how he could find Mai more attractive than Serenity. He wasn't sure if Mai technically counted as a sister-in-law, but close enough.

"Something on your mind, man? You're not acting much like yourself today."

Their professor, a lean man who came from the territory that formerly belonged to the country of Iran, barked at the students to quiet down.

"I'm fine," Mokuba said quickly before the silence settled.

Paul took a piece of paper out of his notebook and wrote, "No, you're not fine. Tell me what's wrong," and passed it to Mokuba.

Mokuba read the note and stared at the paper, trying to decide what to write back. He didn't want to tell Paul too much, but he didn't want to be rude, either. Finally, he decided to throw Paul a bone. "When one gets married, does one really have to stop daring other people?" he wrote. Mokuba slid the paper back to Paul.

Paul read it with a curious expression on his face and scribbled, "Duh! Unless one lives in the 1960's or some bush in Africa, that's how it usually goes. If you're so worried about it, don't get married. Just stay single forever and get lots of hookers."

When Mokuba got the paper back, he found the words strangely comforting. He knew that Paul was probably joking when he mentioned hookers, but actually it wasn't such a bad idea.

Although prostitution wasn't officially sanctioned by the government, it tended to allow long-standing local customs to continue. In regions where prostitution was not allowed, individual women roamed the streets looking for a good trick while local law enforcement officers pestered them and the corrupt ones gave that a "get out of jail free card" for their services. In regions where it was allowed, small corporations paid a hefty business license fee to the government and had to have all of their employees regularly checked for diseases and drugs by one of the major medical corporations. These certification requirements meant that customers were charged more, but the service was safer and the women were happier. Since Mokuba had all the money he could ever need at his disposal and he didn't want to risk infecting Serenity with anything, the latter type of prostitute sounded like the better option.

Mokuba smiled to himself. Maybe I'll try that next time Seto comes home early. He wrote, "Thanks, pal," on the paper and handed it back to Paul. Then he focused on the lecture.

Mokuba's laptop had several special features that were intended to enhance his learning experience as a student. First, it had a built-in recorder with a video camera on the exterior of the device for recording lectures. Of course, the camera didn't help much if the other students' heads were in the way, and even when Mokuba sat in the front row, the professors often walked back and forth so much that the camera only caught them occasionally.

Another feature of Mokuba's laptop combined voice recognition software and internet searches. When the professor mentioned certain key words, the computer would automatically bring definitions, diagrams, and pictures on his screen. It would also ask if the material was relevant to the lecture. Mokuba often found this feature to be more distracting than helpful, so he turned it off.

Mokuba's friend Paul, on the other hand, had no such learning aids. He simply listened very attentively and wrote down bits and pieces of information in his paper notebook. Mokuba sometimes wondered if he would do better in school without the fancy laptop, but it had been a present from Seto and Mokuba wanted to use it as often as possible. What he did not know was that although Seto had purchased it, his secretary Ms. Brown had selected it.

By the time class was over, Mokuba felt much more relaxed. He and Paul got a bite to eat and flirted with passing chicks. Nothing came of their efforts, but it was still fun. Mokuba never let on that he had a fine young wife and daughter waiting for him at home. Even though they were legally his sister-in-law and niece, he still thought of them that way. Sometimes, he worried that he might actually call them that aloud, but he always caught his tongue. Protecting them from the harsh cruelties of a world that did not understand them was first and foremost on his mind.