Chapter 46 Brotherhood

Seto Kaiba poked his head into his younger brother's room. "Mokuba, there's a corporate gathering tonight. You're coming with me."

Mokuba glanced up from the textbook in his lap. It took him a moment to fully register that his brother was standing at the door instead of Serenity or Janet. Seto had not had reason to enter his room in over five years, so why start now? "Um . . . what?"

"I don't like having to repeat myself. Gilbert Jones is hosting a gala tonight. Get ready."

Mokuba set his textbook aside and examined Seto. He was already dressed in his light blue tuxedo and holding Mokuba's matching one on a hanger. He tossed it onto the bed and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Mokuba called, "I thought you could only bring one guest to these things."

"You're it."

"Who is going to keep Serenity company tonight?"

"Janet."

"But . . ."

"Mokuba, quit stalling. Spending one evening away from our wife is not going to kill you. You are a big boy now. Start acting like it."

With that, Seto left the room. Mokuba gazed at the empty door frame for a moment, reluctant to leave the comfort of his cushioned study chair. Then, he began mechanically taking off his jeans and donning the tuxedo. He didn't see what other choice he had.

Ever since Seto found out that Serenity was pregnant with Mokuba's child, Mokuba had been avoiding him as much as possible. Even though Seto had expressed acceptance of Mokuba's new role in the family, Mokuba didn't want to push his luck. The discovery had driven an awkward barrier between the two brothers that never before existed. There would be no more avoiding it now; Mokuba had to face his fears head-on.

Mokuba sighed heavily as he adjusted his bow tie in the mirror. Maybe Seto had changed his mind. Maybe tonight he was going to kick Mokuba to the curb, literally. Maybe there would be Stellar Defense agents waiting there for him. Perhaps Pegasus or Pattel would kidnap him and this time Seto would not do a thing to stop them. The possibilities floated through Mokuba's mind, nearly paralyzing him with fear.

Mokuba trudged slowly through the halls of the Kaiba mansion like a man on his way to an execution. He eventually made it to the ground floor where he spotted Seto chatting with a radiant auburnette and a petite blue-eyed brunette by the front door.

"I want to go to the next party," Janet declared.

Seto patted his daughter's head fondly. "Maybe when you're older. I'm sure you'd find it quite boring now."

Janet pouted. "I won't be bored as long as it is educational."

"We'll have our own party right here, just the two of us. We'll watch a movie about genes and eat ice cream," Serenity assured her.

Just then, Seto noticed Mokuba quivering on the stairway. "Finally. Took you long enough. Let's go!"

Mokuba suppressed the urge to gulp and strode bravely to the front door.

"You two look so dapper," Serenity gushed. She wrapped her arms around Mokuba's neck and kissed him. Then, she did the same with Seto. "Have fun."

The tingle from Serenity's touch remained with Mokuba as he watched her kiss his brother and long after she saw them out the door. The silver limo glistened in the evening twilight as the brothers made their way to it and stepped inside. Mokuba cast one last glance at the mansion with its alabaster pillars and tall hedges, concerned that he might never see it again. More importantly, the woman he loved and his unborn child resided there.

He was isolated now. Nobody, not even the driver, would be able to hear his screams through the soundproof glass.

"Mokuba," Seto began, "as you may have already guessed, there's more than one reason I'm taking you out with me tonight." His tone was cold and flat, but not angry. It was as if he had put so much thought into what he was about to say that any emotions he had about it had already been spent.

Mokuba looked down at the blue suede shoes that matched his tuxedo. His shoes matched Seto's. In fact, his whole outfit matched Seto's. What had once been a symbol of closeness to his brother and pride at being a Kaiba now frightened him. Without looking up, he said, "Yeah. Look, do whatever you want to me, but please don't take it out on Serenity."

For one rare moment in his life, Seto looked taken aback. Unfortunately, Mokuba missed it. "What are you talking about?"

Mokuba sighed. "I know you pretended to be OK with Serenity and me together, but I . . . I shouldn't have abused your trust. It's all my fault and-"

"-Spare me your insecure bullshit, Mokuba. I'll admit that I see the situation as a liability I must hide from the media, and as such I see why you chose not to burden me with the information until it was absolutely necessary. What I find strange is the fact that now everything is out in the open, you're avoiding me. As soon as I come home from work, you scurry off to your room as if you did something wrong."

"Well I did, didn't I?" Mokuba asked timidly.

Seto gave a short laugh and crossed his arms. "The only thing you did wrong was not telling me sooner. Every time I had to work late, I agonized over having to leave Serenity all alone. If I knew how well you were taking care of her, I could have concentrated better on my work. Mokuba, you're the best little brother a man could ever have."

Mokuba blinked. "So, you're not going to ask me to stay away from Serenity?"

"Stay away from her? Ha! I couldn't do that to you or her in a million years. She needs you as much as she needs me, and it is quite clear to me that you would be miserable without her. That was clear to me from the first day you brought her to my office. I could have let you have her sooner, but for whatever reason she chose me first. I thought that by keeping her close, you would have a better chance with her. It took longer than I anticipated, but it turns out that I was right in the end."

Mokuba lifted up his head and stared into the electric blue orbs he knew so well. Whether Seto had schemed to bring him and Serenity together from the start or whether Seto had invented the story to make him feel better didn't matter. What mattered was that Seto cared deeply about him, now and forever. Tears started to well in Mokuba's eyes.

"Stop that. We're here," Seto informed him.

The limo glided up to an enormous mansion with grand marble pillars and an onyx walkway. Pristine hedges and statues of ancient war deities decorated the entrance. The Kaiba brothers stepped out of the limo to a cordial reception from trained servants and butlers.

Once inside, Kalvin Clein, a handsome CEO about five years older than Seto, sidled up to the siblings. "Did you hear what Noel did to Technicrop?"

Seto rolled his eyes. "Noel didn't do anything to Technicrop. If it did, that poodle would have announced it."

Mr. Clein chuckled. "She certainly tried, but Bakura stopped it before it went on the air. Oh, and rumor has it that Jones caught the leader of Noel and he is going to execute her in front of all of us tonight."

Mokuba drew in a sharp breath. He was not sure why he did it, but as soon as he realized it, he felt incredibly foolish. Fortunately, neither Seto nor Kalvin seemed to notice.

"Spare me the hearsay and speculations, Clein. I'll believe it when I see it, but until then I'm running my business as usual." Seto stuck his nose in the air and strode away from the other CEO with Mokuba in tow.

"What just happened?" Mokuba asked when they were a safe distance from the others.

Garishly loud pop music from a live band played in a corner of the ballroom. They sang the praises of the government and what an honor it was to be living in the modern era with Flo*Mart, Schroeder Electronics, and smart phones. The music was terrible, but the auto tuning made it tolerable.

Oh and when she left meee

It was time for an upgrade anywayeee.

So I threw my old phone

Through the window of her new boyfriend's home

So he could seee

All the dirty pics and texts she sent meee.

I got a better girl

A better phone

Better appliances in my home

Ignoring the music, Seto leaned in close to Mokuba and said. "As much as those creeps hate to admit it, they are noticing patterns in Noel's behavior. Now, it has become a game to guess which corporation will get targeted next."

"What patterns have they found?" Mokuba wondered.

"The most obvious one so far is that they like to make an example of anyone who doesn't pay their workers fair wages. They also have a thing for the environment."

"So essentially they are standing up for those who don't have any power to stand up for themselves?" Mokuba clarified.

"That's one way of putting it, but don't go taking their side or anything. Those pesky brats have defaced government property and cost the oligarchy billions. Actually, that's just my estimate. The corporations affected by Noel are too embarrassed to say how much business they lost in the aftermath. Actually, the smaller businesses are starting to gain some footing. Remember when I had a new motor put in our limo?"

Mokuba cringed at the memory of the first Schroeder Electric motor Seto had used to annoy Joey. It had sounded like a vacuum cleaner on steroids. Thankfully, Seto had replaced it with a better, quieter one.

Seto pointed to an elderly man with bright, wide eyes and a kind smile. He seemed oddly out of place among the cynical, shrewd CEOs in their perfectly tailored suits. "That's Mr. Spline from MM Gardens and Repair. His company made our motor. They are small and they were struggling in the early days of Bakura's regime, but more recently they have made a comeback. After Schroeder destroyed the reputation of electric cars, he stayed afloat by making electric garden tillers and repairing Schroeder products that broke down. Some of the others CEOs are jealous of him and spread rumors that he is in bed with the Noelites. I doubt it, though."

"How so?" Mokuba asked.

"Because similar rumors are being spread about Kaiba Corporation. That's another reason why you can't show any sympathy for them. Bakura could shut us down in an instant if…" Seto stopped talking when he realized that the band had stopped playing.

In the middle of the dance floor, a portly CEO with graying brown hair stood on a rising pillar of glass filled with glowing orange rods. The high-tech contraption awed the guests and captured their attention immediately. Towering above his guests, the CEO of Stellar Defense spoke into a microphone suspended from the ceiling. "Ladies and gentlemen! Thank you all for coming tonight. I believe a few of you noticed the lifelike Penguin piñata hiding in my supply room. Unfortunately, the story some of you heard about it may have been a little exaggerated. Fortunately, it is full of my latest portable laser weapons so that when you do encounter the bitch, you can shoot her on sight!"

The guests hooted, cheered, and applauded. Seto and Mokuba clapped just to blend in with the crowd. Cheers turned to jeers and laughter as Jones's pedestal lowered and a blowup doll descended from the ceiling until it dangled just over the heads of the guests. Rather, it had the head of a blowup doll while its body was rigid paper mache. Hot pink lips gaped open, waiting for whatever might be thrust inside. A wig of platinum blond hair had been crudely glued to its plastic scalp. Its body displayed skimpy pink garments, much smaller than the ones the real Penguin actually wore. Its exposed midriff was covered with derogatory words and an asymmetrical tramp stamp sullied its lower back.

Gilbert Jones bowed slightly to Pegasus and Bakura. "Like her? My staff put her together."

Pegasus tossed his long silver hair and stuck his nose up haughtily. "You should have given her glowing red eyes. She looks boring this way."

Jones glanced at the effigy's dull hazel eyes. "I thought I would go for accuracy."

"You thought wrong," Bakura barked, causing the older CEO to draw back in fear.

Pegasus placed a hand on Bakura's shoulder. "Oh well. It will have to do. Gilbert-boy, try not to be so drab next time."

Humiliated by his superiors and not in a position to argue, Gilbert Jones hung his head. "Yes sirs." At least they had only picked on one aspect on his creation. He had spent hours designing and supervising the assembly of the rest of it.

Pegasus stepped up to the piñata and started organizing people like an usher at a circus. "All right boys and girls! Step right up! Get in line, shortest to tallest. That's right!"

As Mokuba watched the wives and young heirs of the CEOs bicker over who was shorter, he was secretly glad that he had grown ten centimeters since the last time he attended a corporate party. He wasn't nearly as tall as Seto, but at least now his stature commanded some respect and he felt no pressure to join the crowd of jostling and shouting teenagers as Pegasus put his hands on their heads and moved them from one place to another like overturned cups hiding a pea.

A snobby little girl of about twelve got the first swing. After being blindfolded and spun around, she missed the piñata by several meters, bashing Gilbert Jones's knee instead. Jones howled in pain as Bakura and Pegasus laughed, forcing everyone else to laugh by fiat. Gilbert Jones slunk away from the action and clutched his knee in shame, not realizing that arthritis would plague it for the rest of his life.

Seto chucked under his breath and whispered to Mokuba, "Next time that will be Janet holding the bat."

Mokuba nodded, but didn't say anything. The whole concept of hitting a woman, even one made from paper mache and plastic, bothered him. However, he forced himself to watch as more people took their turns and clapped when a smug sixteen-year-old boy finally busted it open. Colorful little guns tumbled out of the hollow shell and scattered all over the floor. Teenagers and adults alike dove for the weapons, trying to assert their dominance by gathering as many as possible.

Soon, there was nothing left on the floor and some of the guests had to barter jewelry or favors for a gun. When everyone was satisfied with their collections, they shot the remains of the piñata with tiny orange beams. The fun ended when the hardwood dance floor caught fire and had to be extinguished.

The rest of the evening was relatively mellow, punctuated by an occasional test of a laser on a new material. Mr. Spline, who had not participated in the frenzy, suffered a shoulder injury when someone accidentally missed another target. The beam cut cleanly into his bone, proving its effectiveness against human flesh. Unfortunately, Mr. Spline did not even notice it until he smelled the singed edges of his suit and he was permanently disabled.

Mokuba and Seto kept a wary eye on the trigger-happy guests, leaving the vicinity whenever one stepped within a ten-meter radius of them.

"Seto, about the behavior patterns … Do the Noelites hurt people a lot?"

Seto thought for a moment. "They have roughed up a few people, but never killed anyone. There are stories that they waved guns at certain people, but those particular stories have been neither confirmed nor denied, and that poodle really loves to shoot off her mouth every chance she gets. If she ever did kill someone or scare someone shitless with a gun, she'd be proclaiming it everywhere."

Both of them were silent for a long time before Mokuba spoke again, "What should I do if I meet one of them?"

"Remember the force field technology I was experimenting with a while back?"

"Yeah."

"I think it would be a good defensive tool. If we incorporate it into our duel disks, it would be easily accessible at all times. You would never be kidnapped again and my children would be safe." The phrase sounded a little forced and awkward. While their conversation as a whole could not be monitored in the endlessly flowing and mixing crowd of people, a short phrase such as our children could easily perk up the ears of gossiping women. Seto wasn't about to take any chances.

"Seto?"

"Mokuba."

"What you said earlier about family…"

"Not now."

"I get it. It's just that it takes some getting used to."

Mokuba and Seto drifted through the rest of the party, falling in and out of conversation with other CEOs. Thankfully, most of them were considerate enough not to brandish their new toys in front of polite company.

At last, Seto and Mokuba had endured enough of the party to make a graceful exit. As they left, a butler handed out extra weapons to those who had not obtained one during the festivities. Seto and Mokuba took theirs graciously and made their way out to their limo.

Once they were safely inside, Mokuba pinched the butt of his ray gun and held it out in front of himself like a dead rat. "I feel weird holding this thing."

"Don't tell that to anyone else. You'll look like a pussy," Seto said as he tucked his own pistol into a hidden pocket of his tuxedo.

Mokuba did the same. "Yeah, but what am I supposed to do with it?"

"Carry it with you until I get the holographic defense system working. Then, do whatever you want with it. Knowing that all the other CEOs are armed, don't go near them without protection."

Mokuba put his head in his hands and sighed. "Great. You know, I don't get why everything has to be so complicated these days. If the government was fair and just, it wouldn't have to worry about Noel in the first place."

"Don't let anybody hear you say that, either. The world is a cold, hard place. Get used to it."

Mokuba gave his older brother and angsty look. You're not helping!

"All right. Forget that. There's something else I wanted to tell you that I didn't get a chance to say earlier."

"Really? What?"

"Serenity wants you to sleep with us."

Mokuba looked up in alarm. "Um… is that what you want, too?"

"I wouldn't be telling you if I didn't agree. It's the practical thing to do. I bought the biggest bed I could find to impress her, but she feels it is too big and empty without someone else in it. She also showed me a few research papers on how human touch can improve health and well-being. It would be better for both of you to fall asleep together more often, and if memory serves you have not done that since I found out Serenity was pregnant."

Mokuba reddened. "Um, I think we took a nap once."

Seto shook his head. "Even if you did, she went back to the master bedroom where she tossed and turned until I came home from work. Next time I come home late, I expect you to be there with her. You can't just ignore her. Her health affects the baby's health."

"I . . . I never looked at it that way. I thought I should just give you some space and let you two patch things up."

"We can't patch things up without you. You are part of us. We are a family."

Mokuba nodded and fell silent for a while. Then, he said, "Yeah. That makes sense. I'll do it, then."

They arrived home and were greeted by a weary Janet and sleepy Serenity. Janet proudly displayed a set of freshly painted royal blue nails with silver stars on them before collapsing into Seto's arms. Seto carried her upstairs to the nursery followed by Mokuba and Serenity.

At the door, Seto nudged Mokuba in the direction of the master bedroom with his shoulder. "Get settled," he whispered, "I'll join you in a minute."

Serenity kissed Janet's forehead and grabbed Mokuba's hand. She led him down the hallway while Seto tucked Janet into her crib. Very soon, it would be time to get her a big girl bed.

Mokuba's heart beat faster as they neared the bedroom. "What should I wear?"

"Nothing," Serenity replied.

"Are you sure? What are you wearing?"

"Nothing." Serenity opened the door to the spacious master bedroom with its gigantic bed. A navy blue comforter with twinkling four-pointed stars embroidered on it lay neatly on top of sky blue sheets. It was new, or at least different from the ones Mokuba had seen on previous visits to the room.

"Um. Maybe I should get my pajamas."

Serenity pulled Mokuba into the room, closed the door behind them, and started undressing. "Nonsense. This is a down comforter. You'll sweat all the moisture out of your body and be dehydrated by morning if you wear anything." She unhooked her bra and tossed it at Mokuba playfully. Her long auburn hair fell around her warm, welcoming breasts.

Feeling that it was not polite to stare at a naked woman without also being naked, Mokuba took a deep breath and discarded his own clothes. Serenity tossed hers into a large decorative urn and he followed suit. He felt strangely liberated and relieved once the clothing was gone, but now he had other matters on his mind. "Which side do I sleep on?"

Serenity jumped into the bed and snuggled under the covers. "The right side."

"My right, your right, or the metaphorical right side?"

Serenity patted the space on her right. "This one. Seto sleeps on the other side."

Mokuba slid into bed where Serenity had indicated and lay on his back while Serenity lay her head on his chest and entwined her legs with his. His heart continued racing as they waited for Seto.

When Seto came in, Mokuba closed his eyes and pretended to be already asleep. He listened to the rustling of clothes and when the lights went out, he shivered despite himself. He soon felt some shifting coming from Seto's side of the bed, and a bony hand wiggled between Serenity's breast and his side. Then, everything was quiet.

It took Mokuba a while to adjust to the strangeness of the situation, but once the novelty wore off, he was able to get a decent night's sleep. On nights when Seto was late getting home from work, a round of energetic sex would tire out Mokuba and Serenity to the point where they wouldn't even stir when Seto plopped into bed beside them. On the rare occasions when Seto got home early and wanted sex, he was completely frank about it, giving Mokuba a time frame for when he should come back to bed. As for Serenity's birthdays, the brothers learned to set their inhibitions aside and work together to please her.