The Brinkley family is a common thread with me; that is to say, Connor and his parents were initially invented for no better purpose than to allow for the first major conflict of the story. The first chapter of the original work, "Good Intentions," involves Mokuba cheating on an assignment in class to help a classmate. I needed a name for that classmate.

Hence, Connor Brinkley was born.

As time has gone on, I've also attempted to come up with the rest of his family; who these people are, what they do, what they believe. In pursuit of that, I gain further insight into Connor, which helps me to understand Mokuba, who has befriended him.

Hence, this little scenario.

Enjoy.


It was disconcerting to go anywhere with Seto Kaiba.

Enid Brinkley had known from the very beginning, on the first day she'd ever met the man, that he was...severe. But she didn't realize that for him, what she'd seen so far was relaxed.

This day, Enid and her husband were at the mall. Seto had happened across them. She had thought it was a good thing, as Leo had never met him. "What a nice coincidence!" she'd said happily. "Leo? High time you two met, don't you think?"

She hadn't needed to introduce him. Everyone who'd lived in Domino City for longer than a week knew Seto Kaiba by name and face, if not reputation. He was everywhere. He was Domino City, in a way.

"A pleasure, sir," Leo said, holding out a hand.

Seto shook it firmly, nodding. "Leonard Brinkley. Connor's father."

"Yes, sir."

They'd almost heard the little check-mark being scratched in Seto's mental day-planner beside, "Meet Connor Brinkley's father." And that seemed to be the end of it for Seto. He answered questions when asked, but they were clipped and short, and eventually both Brinkleys stopped. "Not exactly a social butterfly," Leo noted.

Enid chuckled. "Mokuba must have gotten it from somewhere else."

"Connor invited Mokuba to eat lunch with him," Seto said without looking at them. "Matthew Kerns was present. Have you spoken to him, Missus Brinkley?" They didn't see his face, but they could both tell without checking that his expression wasn't pleasant. "Regarding his conduct?"

"I have," Enid said. "Leo gave him a bit of a talking-to, as well."

"I apologize for the way he's been acting," Leo said. "He usually isn't this bad."

"He usually does not have a target," Seto said.

It sounded like it should have been a guess, but it felt more like stone-cold fact.

"...Could be."

Seto was dressed in a stark-white suit, and it almost looked like it was glowing. The only parts of his wardrobe that weren't pristinely and cleanly white were the traces of black etched into his shoes. Though he was still known for wearing trench coats, he did not wear one today.

People noticed him; some stared, some cheered, a few snapped pictures. One asked for an autograph. Enid expected the elder Kaiba to brush past the girl—whose parents were nearby, looking embarrassed—and ignore her, but he took the game case (one of Kaiba-Corp's products, Enid figured) she offered him, took a marker from a pocket and swept his signature onto one corner of the cover art.

Nearly swooning, crying out that he was the best ever, the girl all but skipped back to her family, laughing and grinning and looking as though she'd just been blessed by some breed of messiah. The girl's parents looked flabbergasted. Enid was sure that she looked the same way. Leo looked thoughtful; of course, he had a much more limited scope of Seto Kaiba's personality. He was more mildly puzzled than actually shocked.

"That was…nice of you," Enid offered lamely.

Seto did not reply.

He walked with great, sweeping strides that bespoke a man of purpose, and it struck Enid Brinkley that she had never seen the man in public before. She'd never seen how he interacted with the public. She noticed that he tended to ignore just about everyone, except the children. Every boy or girl—from seven years old to sixteen—who approached him, he acknowledged. He nodded, he shook hands, he signed his name, he spoke to them.

It was the adults in whom he seemed to have no interest whatsoever.

"Ah…we're taking a day trip to Santa Cruz later on in the month," Enid mentioned after a period of silence. Seto did not respond, but she was sure that he'd heard. "The 18th? Connor got six A's on his progress report last week, and we wanted to treat him. He's been wanting to go for months. He asked Mokuba to come with us. Mokuba said that he would ask you. Have you decided?"

Normally, Enid would have left the inquiry more open-ended than that. She might have simply stopped at, "He asked Mokuba to come with us?" but she had learned over time that Seto had neither time nor tolerance for incomplete thoughts. If there was no direct question, he would not answer. She thought that he might have made allowances for them, because of Connor—and more specifically, because of Mokuba—but she figured it was best, for the boys' sakes, to play on his terms.

It was easier.

Seto did not answer at once. "Mokuba did mention that," he said. "That weekend is…problematic. I've not yet concluded whether or not we can spare him for the day." Leo looked quizzically at his wife, but Enid simply shook her head.

She wasn't sure what she thought of just how much responsibility Seto seemed to place on his young sibling's shoulders, but she couldn't deny that Mokuba was up to it. He seemed to like it. She had a sneaking suspicion that he asked to work for the Kaiba Corporation at his age, and that he had to convince his brother to say yes.

That seemed to be the end of the discussion.

They approached the food court, where Connor and Mokuba were sitting at a round table, eating. Matt was with them, leaning back on the back legs of his chair, brooding and scathing as always. The blond man Enid recognized as Joseph "Joey" Wheeler was also there, standing behind the boys and looking around. They all seemed deep in conversation.

They hadn't noticed anyone else.

Seto stopped moving forward, slipping next to a trash bin just out of sight of the group.

"…C'mon, rich boy," Matt was saying. "Your brother's some kinda computer freak, isn't he? You gotta know how to get past the stupid thing."

"I could probably figure it out," Mokuba replied, "but I won't."

"Don't be like that. I said I was sorry, right? Jeez. Fuckin' stupid. I can't find anything with that damn Nanny thing on. I bet you don't have one of those things on your computer, do you?"

"I don't." Seto held out a hand to halt Enid and Leo, who were starting forward again. In response to their confused expressions, he simply looked back at them, a smirk on his face. He actually winked. He held up a finger as if to say, Wait.

"Tch. Figures. Lets you do whatever you want, don't he?"

"No," Mokuba said. "Niisama trusts me. He built me that computer himself. It's top of the line, best of the best, and he keeps it that way. If he wants me to stay away from weird stuff on the internet, it's the least I can do to repay him."

Matt scoffed.

Joey glanced over to the three of them, caught Seto's eye. The elder Kaiba made a cranking gesture with his right hand, and the blond seemed to understand because he winked and said, "You serious, kid? Not once? You ain't ever turned Safe Search off and Googled…I dunno, Angelina Jolie 'r somethin'? I know yer, like, six, but still. Gotta be curious sometimes, right?"

"Shut up," Mokuba said, but he was smiling. "No. I haven't."

"Whatever," Matt said. "C'mon, Con, you convince him. You're buddy-buddy or whatever. You can't tell me you want that thing blockin' all the good stuff, do you? He'll do it for you. Betcha he will."

Mokuba looked at Connor, a curious expression on his face.

Connor was looking at his cousin with obvious dislike. "He said he's not going to do it. Drop it, Matt."

"But you want him to, don'tcha?"

"Mom and Dad put that on for a reason," Connor said. "Probably to keep you off of it." And that was the end of it for Connor. When Matt tried to bring it up again, the boy glared at him, and Enid blinked in surprise; she couldn't remember ever seeing her son look quite so stern. "The internet at our house is mo-ni-tored. That's it. We're done. Drop it."

Enid smiled. Glancing at Leo, she saw that he was grinning like a fool. They looked at each other, and nodded. Both were thinking the same thing: That's our boy.

Seto was still smirking. But there was something about that look that wasn't pure amusement. Enid couldn't quite pinpoint what it was that told her this, but all the same she couldn't shake the feeling that he was prouder of Connor's behavior than they were.

He strode out into the food court, hands in the pockets of his obscenely expensive slacks. Mokuba finally noticed him, and a look of surprised delight spread over his face. "Done already, Niisama?" he asked.

Seto ruffled his brother's hair.

And he said, "So…I hear tell you're going on a trip soon."


Matt Kerns made his first appearance in chapter three of the original Good Intentions, called "Lullaby," and any question as to why Seto isn't all that fond of him can be answered there. Suffice it to say, him dumb guy.

I work on the assumption that Mokuba is a fundamentally good kid, and as such would only befriend similar sorts. Considering the crap he's dealt with from adults, I think it's easy to assume that he can see right through the mind games other children play to hide their true natures. He can read people, just like his Niisama.

I don't mean to say that if Connor had asked for help getting past the monitoring software (Net Nanny, more likely than not) on his home's internet connection that Mokuba would have disowned him…but I don't think he'd have done it, either.

No. I don't consider that a good thing.

Read into that what you will.

See you Tuesday.