Music Lover's Alert: "Triad" by Jefferson Airplane

Chapter 45 Girlfriend

Seto Kaiba woke to find a little brunette with electric blue eyes jumping on his bed. He had gone to sleep so tired that he had not noticed the absence of his wife.

"Father! Father! Father!" Janet said happily as she jumped.

Seto clutched his aching head. "What?"

"Thank you for the genes!"

"Jeans?" I don't remember asking my secretary to buy Janet jeans.

"Yeah! You gave me my beautiful blue eyes and my awesome brain and my perfect skin and my…" Janet rambled.

"Oh! Those genes. Sure. You're welcome."

"Guess what else?"

"What?"

"You're going to be an uncle!" Janet declared.

"Really? When?"

"Eight months. Uncle Mokuba gets to be the father this time!"

How could I get this lost in my work? I didn't even know Mokuba had a girlfriend. "Who is she?"

"She who?"

"Mokuba's girlfriend."

"What's a girlfriend?"

"The mother of Mokuba's child."

"Is girlfriend another word for Mother?"

"No. Not usually, but in this case it is."

"Why?" Janet asked.

"Janet, not now. I have to get dressed. Go ask Serenity or Mokuba."

"OK."

Janet looked a little hurt, but Seto did not notice. He simply turned his back on her and went straight to the walk-in closet.

The tiny brunette left the room and carefully toddled down the stairs. She had tripped a few times on them already and knew they could be dangerous. "Uncle Mokuba! Girlfriend!" she called into the living room.

Mokuba and Serenity groaned and shifted on their couch. Mokuba was the first to open his eyes and notice the sunlight filtering in through the window. "Oh no! Serenity, get up!" he said as he bolted upright. His T-shirt and jeans were creased in odd places, and Serenity's scrubs did not look much better.

"Father said that girlfriend and mother don't mean the same thing, but in this case they do. Why?" Janet asked.

It took Serenity and Mokuba a few moments to realize what she was asking, but by that time it was too late anyway. Seto came downstairs to see Serenity and Mokuba in their rumpled clothing with their cheeks burning. Seto looked from Serenity to Mokuba, and then down at Janet, taking in the full scene. Janet attempted to engage the adults in conversation, but Serenity and Mokuba remained silent.

"Is this what it looks like?" Seto asked.

Mokuba and Serenity nodded. There was simply no other way to explain themselves.

Seto's jaw twitched, and then he said, "Fine. I'm going to work now," in a cold, smooth, even tone. He turned to go.

"Seto wait!" Serenity called.

Seto froze. With his face turned away from her, he started to let more emotions creep over it. "Why? You don't need me. All you need is my money. You can have it, but don't toy with my heart any longer."

"But Seto, I do need you. I need your time and your love. I know you don't have much time to give, so that's why I went to your brother instead of some stranger. Please, Seto! Stay with us. Let's talk about this! Be reasonable!" Serenity urged.

Seto turned to look at her again, and saw that she was in a low bow. Her long auburn hair fell around her face. Mokuba stood beside Serenity holding Janet's tiny hand while her other hand clutched her mother's calf. Serenity glanced up.

The moment Serenity's big, doe-like olivine eyes met his, Seto melted. Whether he would admit it to anyone outside the family or not, this woman owned him. Seto's knees trembled, but he took a step toward her anyway. Putting one foot in front of the other, he approached her until she was in his arms.

Serenity buried her face in Seto's chest and sobbed into it, not knowing whether or not this would be her last chance to touch him. Then, she felt Mokuba's strong arms hug her from behind and Janet's short arms wrap around her legs. They gave her a feeling of wholeness so beautiful and complete that she never wanted to lose it. When Seto did not let go, she realized that it was real. Her crying ceased, and for the longest time the listened to the sounds of her husbands breathing.

"Let's have some breakfast," Seto said softly.

Slowly, without breaking the physical contact, the family drifted into the dining room. The food was already out on the table waiting for them, but it was growing cold and the chef was about to take it away.

"Why are you late?" the chef snapped.

"None of your damn business," Seto replied.

The chef snorted. "It certainly is my business when I have to cook a meal that nobody eats!"

"Not anymore."

The chef scrutinized the Kaiba family, taking in the way that Serenity stood between the brothers with an arm around each one's abdomen. "This is preposterous! I demand to know-"

"-You're fired," Seto cut him off.

The ex-chef stood in the middle of the room with his mouth hanging open.

"And if word of this gets out, I'm going to sue away every last bit of money you even made here for slander."

The chef shut his mouth, turned on his heel, and left without another word.

Serenity shot Mokuba a worried glance. It was in that moment that they realized how serious Seto was about keeping the family together no matter what the circumstances were.

"What if this does get out?" Mokuba asked timidly.

Seto narrowed his eyes. "It won't… unless you do something stupid like having coitus in public."

They all sat down and started munching on fruit and yogurt. "It's just that, um, what am I supposed to tell the other girls?"

"How many of them are there, Mokuba?" Seto asked with genuine concern.

"Just Serenity right now, but the thing is that Joey is always trying to help me get a date. So, I kind-of have to pretend that I'm interested in other women. The thing is that I don't want to break anyone's heart. What if one of them tries to get serious with me?" Mokuba wondered.

"Just don't let it get serious in the first place," Seto answered, "because Serenity comes first now and if you break her heart, I'll never forgive you."

Serenity's olivine eyes widened. "Wait, I don't want to stop Mokuba from having a life. That wouldn't be fair. Besides, not letting something get serious is easier said than done. Love happens in the most unexpected ways. When I first met you two, I had no idea that I would be with either one of you, let alone both of you. Now, I can't justify standing in the way of your feelings for someone else."

Seto narrowed his cold blue eyes at her. "Serenity, this isn't about feelings. It's about my company's reputation. If word gets out that I let my younger brother sleep with my wife, I'm ruined."

Everyone was silent for a moment, and then Janet piped up, "Why would your company be ruined, Father?"

Seto took a deep breath and let it out. It took some time for him to adequately form his thoughts on the matter before responding. "Most people have certain expectations about the way a family should be. When those expectations are not met, they tend to shun anyone who is different. Therefore, we must pretend to conform to the model that the rest of society uses."

Janet blinked. Although she knew more words than most children her age, her father had used several that she had never heard before. "I don't understand," she said.

Serenity took her daughter's hand and squeezed it. "Neither do I, but we have to live with is. We have to pretend to be a normal family, which means that Mokuba can't be a father in the eyes of the world."

"I didn't know the world had eyes. What do they look like?" Janet asked.

"It's an expression that means everyone else, or at least anyone who would want to know," Mokuba explained, "and knowing about what our family is really like would make a lot of Kaiba Corporation's customers very uncomfortable."

A sudden, scary thought dawned on Serenity. "What if Noel find out about us and exposes us?"

A chill ran through the room. Since they were wandering in uncharted territory, and little was known about the secretive organization, becoming a terrorist target was a concern.

"That's a chance we'll have to take," Seto said at last, "but I doubt it will come to that. Noel seems to get its information and pick its targets by hacking into corporate computer systems. As long as you two don't start sending love letters to each other via e-mail or text message, we should be safe."

"What about phone conversations?" Serenity asked.

"Those are harder to record and monitor, but it is still done. Global Communications has software that picks up certain key words in people's conversations, and only then does a real person start to listen. Without the key words, all data transmitted to and from the satellites gets erased. Therefore, I doubt that the Noelites would be able to catch us that way-if they were even interested in our personal lives in the first place. Still, I will set up a private, encoded network for us. Anyone who tries to listen to our phone conversations will get nothing but scrambled garbage."

Serenity and Mokuba's eyes shone softly. "Really? You'd that for us? Aren't you really busy already?" Mokuba asked.

"I'll tell you what, little brother. You write the initial code and I'll proofread it," Seto offered, "That way it will be perfect, unbreakable!"

Mokuba could not believe that his brother was taking this so well. In fact, his brother's attitude downright scared him. He felt that he needed to offer something in return. "If I do well, can I take on more of your work so that you can spend more time with Serenity?"

Seto hesitated.

"Come on! I'm going to be graduating from college soon. I'll have plenty of time to help you and be a father. Besides, you need to start acting like a father, too. Janet needs to know you better."

"But there are certain things that I have to-"

Serenity silenced him by shooting him a sharp look. "If you neglect her any more than you already have, she'll grow up resenting you."

"All right," Seto finally agreed, "I'll get Ms. Brown to re-arrange my schedule and give a few things to Mokuba."

As if she had some sort of telepathic link to anyone who mentioned her name aloud, Seto's phone rang and his secretary's name appeared on the screen. However, it was more likely simple coincidence since Seto was over an hour late to work. Seto answered the phone. Unlike the chef, Ms. Brown did not express any interest in the reasons why Seto was late; she simply informed him that he had an appointment in five minutes. Seto told her to cancel it. If she was at all surprised by this request, she did not show it.

Seto spent another hour with his family catching up and sorting out things. Then, he kissed Serenity and Janet, gave Mokuba a big hug, and left for work.

Closing Note: The Kaibas now need a new chef, but this story is getting rather long and I have not even gotten around to revising the initial chapters I wrote, so I'll put that part in a separate story called "Amanda."