They landed safely and rode home from the tarmac without incident.
Mokuba ran out of the house to give them both crushing hugs.
Yami bent down to hug the child firmly while Mokuba wouldn't let go of him, blubbering incoherently, "t-t-thank you so much f-f-for sending the y-yakuz-za! I love you s-so much, Yami!"
"Love you too, Mokuba," Yami replied quietly, patting him on the back.
Seto watched this with a warm smile and gave Mokuba his fifth hug, and finally, his brother noticed their newcomer.
"OH MY GOD! IT'S HER!" Mokuba cried, and Yami jumped in fright and clenched his fists. Still jumpy.
Seto noticed this instantly and draped a protective arm around Yami's shoulders, feeling him let his breath out shakily and take another one in.
"S-Sorry, Yami…" Mokuba whispered, bobbing his head apologetically, but aimed his gaze back up at the girl who was slightly taller than him. "You're on the news as a missing, kidnapped person. Your face came up on the TV after mine," And he stared at the way she was wearing a weird mix of Yami and Seto's clothes.
Serenity paled and gripped the hem of her jacket.
Seto held his hand up to reassure them and felt an odd sense of calm settling over him as he pulled Yami closer to himself. He had it handled.
But first…
"I have a real anniversary present, for you," Seto said easily, leading Yami back into the house and feeling everyone follow him like a bunch of loyal ducklings. "Come see it…"
"No shouting or jumping up to yell 'surprise'," Yami said instantly, his hand going for a gun…but his fingers slipped on his empty belt. F-Fuck…
"No. You know me better than that. I listened to your doctor," Seto replied with a handsome smile, and he took Yami around the back garden to arrive at their pool area where balloons, and one giant flower arrangement in the number 3 had been set up right against the skyline of Domino City.
It was…beautiful. So touching…
Yami blinked and felt his knees weaken.
"Congrats!" Mokuba grinned, dancing past Yami's feet and giving him a peace sign. "Happy three-year anniversary as Seto's Boyfriend and as my cooler older brother!"
"Hey! …Cooler?" Seto narrowed his eyes as Shizuka laughed heartily beside him.
"He is cooler," she added, and Mokuba made a playful face at her.
"Riiight?"
Yami felt himself smile, and finally, relaxed a tiny bit. It felt like he'd been holding his breath on the plane, and now finally, after seeing this beautiful arrangement set up so thoughtfully to surprise him, his body was slowly recognizing that he was no longer in a threatening situation.
Back under Seto's protection, behind his walls of security and tech.
"Food is here," Mokuba said as he pointed at a couple of chefs wheeling out the food carts by the glass tables set up beside the grassy veranda. "Let's eat. I waited for you guys. Also, I have another quiz in like 4 hours. I need to pass."
They all sat down and were served cider while beautiful dishes of food were revealed before them, and Yami dug in gratefully, feeling himself smile more and more.
Maybe a vacation wasn't what he needed.
He needed to spend more time with Seto and Mokuba…
"Oh, shit… Isono," Seto patted his face with a napkin and stood up quickly. "Get the phone I had called in for Shizuka, and are the clothes we ordered for her here yet?"
"Clothes?" Mokuba asked curiously, his cheek pouched with cake while he had a phone in one had. "Am I allowed to know what's going on?"
Seto, Yami, Shizuka, and the family manservant all shared a look.
"Hey! I stabbed a guy in the neck and got kidnapped too! I'm 13!" Mokuba insisted, and Shizuka covered her mouth to laugh.
"Yeah, about that," Seto set his jaw as he wondered where Mokuba had learned how to do that. "You could've killed him."
"But he didn't," Yami answered lightly with his fork grazing the icing on the cake.
"I didn't," Mokuba echoed stubbornly, his gray eyes gleaming. "I should get a 'welcome home' gift too!"
"You gift is going back up there to study for your quiz," Seto growled as he walked back into the house with long strides, disappearing into the mansion with Isono following loyally behind.
Mokuba scraped his plate clean and sat back in his chair, huffing. "Someone tell me what happened."
Yami set his fork down and gave the child a grave look, taking a deep breath, ready to recount the horrors, but to his amazement, Shizuka spoke up for him, saving him in the moment.
"No one's supposed to know this because we changed…security footage and flight records," she said tactfully, giving Mokuba a long look, and the child instantly looked serious, nodding in return. "But I just got back from NYC after a bunch of guys tried to assault me. Yami found me just in time, and Seto helped me board the plane without ID because…well, they flew me out of the country without it. How am I supposed to get back?"
"You could just say you're kidnapped," Mokuba replied callously.
"Not if the men kidnapping me are all mysteriously dead…in the states," she answered with equal callousness.
And Mokuba glanced admiringly at Yami, who smiled nervously at him.
"So the story is, I've been hanging out here with you guys for the past few days while I sleep off the 'drugs'," she said quietly, ready to get Mokuba on board with their lie. "I was never in NYC, Seto and Yami never went anywhere for their anniversary, and we all just…had a party. Sound good?"
"Mmhm, whatever, keep me out of it," Mokuba answered with the same tone Seto would use when he wanted to hang up the phone. "Glad you're back. I saw the footage on TV. It was scarier than mine."
She smiled shakily and asked, "you were kidnapped too, huh?"
"Yep, just got back," Mokuba made another peace sign, and Yami watched this interaction with mild fascination. They made fast friends…
Seto returned from inside the house with two large KC warehouse boxes and a burly bodyguard followed him.
"Shizuka, this is Lambda Guard D14, but you can call him Curly," he said shortly, jerking his thumb at the silent, earpiece-wearing, stoic sunglasses man beside him with a tight haircut. "Ex-military, will shoot to kill. One of Yami's guys actually. He'll be escorting you around campus, to home, the convenience store, wherever."
"I don't need him!" Shizuka protested, and Seto was quick to argue back.
"Yes you do. You'll feel safer with him. Give it two weeks."
"That'll be so weird! I'm not going to school with him," Shizuka shot back bravely, and Mokuba gave her an admiring look. Dang. She was arguing in the same way he had when Seto tried to give him a bodyguard at school.
He'd been mocked mercilessly for it.
He secretly hoped Shizuka would win.
"Why would you feel safer without him?" Seto challenged, folding his arms across his chest with a glare, no stranger to these arguments. "Do you know anything about the men who were after you? What's to say they're not going to try again?"
There was a tense silence.
"They're dead," Mokuba offered.
"Exactly," Seto replied. "And how would she know that? How would….any of us know that? Having been here this whole time?"
He felt an odd protectiveness over her.
She was older than Mokuba, but a lot younger than himself.
Enough to make him consider her as a little kid.
She was still an undergrad for fuck's sake.
Only a year past the driving age of a class 1 license.
The more he thought about it, the more he saw her as a baby on Mokuba's level.
"One week," she replied with a glare.
"Three weeks. Keep going," Seto goaded, and Mokuba gave her a frantic headshake, making a cutting gesture with his hand across his throat.
Don't do it! Seto will assign him to you for a year! Mokuba's eyes were wide as he tried to communicate with her silently.
She glanced at him, understood, and gave in.
"Fine. Two weeks—"
"Right. He'll stick around for a month then," Seto replied triumphantly, seeing her redden furiously and give him a glare that rivaled Mokuba's hateful glares.
"Toldju," Mokuba muttered, and Shizuka wrinkled her nose at him.
There was a lukewarm silence.
Seto opened the flaps on the boxes and pointed at the contents with a slender finger, "get dressed. The swimwear arrived too, so make sure it all fits. Anything that doesn't, leave it here and we'll send it back."
Shizuka lowered her head and nodded, her cheeks pink with embarrassment.
"And one last thing. Start posting, to show you're alive," Seto added, sliding a new phone box across the table, almost catching a bit of cake on his sleeve when he passed her plate. "Go do some of that…girly shit next to the flowers, the pool, post the photo of the nails. You have a job to do. Hurry up."
"We can help," Yami spoke up quietly with a smile. "Let's look at the clothes we ordered."
Shizuka lifted the white lid off the phone box and bit back a happy gasp, seeing her shocked reflection in the immensely shiny rose-gold chrome backing of a new phone.
N-NO WAY!
Seto had even engraved her name on the back, with a Sakura embellishment on either side.
Shizuka ❀
"I… love this!" She breathed, passing her hand over it shakily, her heart swelling with joy as she picked it up out of the packaging and gripped it in both hands, giving Seto a grateful smile. "Thank you, Seto! You even engraved it!"
Aw, Yami thought as he sipped his drink and watched Mokuba rush over to watch her turn it on, instantly recommending games for her to download.
"Can you add me on Castles Vs Dragons?" Mokuba was already pulling his own phone out. "Pepper Cat café? Ummm…Do you play Genshin…?
"Yes! I play it too much! I needed to stop so I could study!" Shizuka gasped frantically. "I need to recover my account! ….Oh no! What if they send a verification code to my stolen phone?"
"It's okay, direct it all to email recovery!" Mokuba cried, also sounding panicked. "Did you have a lot on it?"
Seto rolled his eyes and sat back down to finish his cake, reaching over to rest his hand atop Yami's hand and giving him a squeeze.
Yami gave him a pretty smile in return and turned his hand around to lace his fingers in through his. Seto's heart warmed and he leaned in to press a kiss to Yami's cheek, feeling him laugh and press back into him to give him an enthusiastic, full-on, open-mouthed kiss that made his ears hum…followed by loud throbbing when Mokuba and Shizuka groaned at them.
"YUCK! STOPPPPpp! Children are present!"
"BLEGGGGGG! Let's leave."
"Yeah, let's go over there, Mokuba."
"Yep. Worm."
Their chairs scraped on the stone tiles as they got up together in a hurry to leave and sat by the edge of the pool to continue re-downloading apps.
"Thank you for this…" Yami breathed, and he draped his arms around Seto's neck, letting the CEO pick him up out of the chair and walk him back into the house, making him feel extremely loved.
"Gross," Mokuba muttered under his breath as he stared at Shizuka's phone loading the app, trying to talk about anything else. "Nice nails."
"Thanks. I think they were holding back on the plane," she replied calmly, enjoying her manicure glinting back at her in the sun. "For my sake."
"Well you're lucky. I hear them kissing all the time. I wanted to not see them for two weeks," Mokuba wrinkled his nose, and Shizuka laughed prettily, making him flush dark red. "Oh! It's done! Nice. Add me!"
Shizuka nodded enthusiastically and enjoyed the sun warming her legs as she soaked her calves in the cool water. She could barely believe this was her day today.
"Oh, I have to make 'proof of life' posts after I recover my Genshin account," she said seriously, and Mokuba glanced up from his phone to give her a grave nod, and she felt another rush of kinship towards the younger Kaiba.
Joey was shaken awake so roughly, he slid off the break room couch and landed with a rough oof! on his elbow on the ground.
"Ow…" he palmed his face, feeling a sleep-deprivation headache coming on. He'd been sleepless for two and half days and nights, finally crashing.
Anzu was standing breathlessly over him, pushing his legs aside to bring her laptop over to show him the screen, pointing at it with a gasp, "look! She's active on social media! She's okay!"
Joey bolted upright and jumped to his feet to grab the laptop from Anzu, his heart sticking to his throat as he scrolled through his little sister's feed, seeing her over-posting.
She was uploading a photo every 5 minutes.
And had been doing so for the past 30 minutes.
"Lunch!" Was the first caption, and it was a beautiful, seared salmon, arranged artfully, with the edge of a wine glass beside the plate.
"Didja check the reflections? Where is she?!" Joey cried, still scrolling, and Anzu gave him a stiff smile and nodded at him to continue.
"Spa day nails! :manicure emoji:" And it was of two people's hands. One was her's and the lighting was dreamy, pale yellow with sparkles added to the fingertips. Wait a minute….
The other hand in the photo looked like a woman's hand, but much larger.
There was a pale blue flower nail art on the forefinger which she'd done.
He recognized that as her favorite way to paint nails ever since she was 7.
He scrolled, trying to make sense of it while Anzu remained silent beside him.
"Managed to reactivate my account after my phone got stolen :crying face:" and it was a screenshot of the game she liked to play. The second photo in the same slide was her character, fighting a friend's character, and tagged, was, "GOKUBA".
Joey clicked the tag, and was taken to Mokuba Kaiba's page, where it was only screenshots of mobile game achievements, and he swiped back to his sister's page, slowly putting it together.
She was with…the Kaibas.
That meant, Yami had her?!
She was safe?! And having spa days!
"Oh my holy," Joey breathed, sagging against the couch and feeling like fainting when his head rushed. "They found her. Holy sh—why didn't she call me first thing?!"
"Keep scrolling," Anzu said gravely, and Joey sat up wearily to oblige.
A beautiful photo of flowers almost blinded him, and the bouquet was framing a rose-gold plated, latest edition KC phone with her name engraved prettily on the bottom, obviously courtesy of Seto Kaiba, and in the reflection, was Mokuba Kaiba and Shizuka, taking a clever picture of the new phone with themselves in it—using another phone.
Wow.
Both were throwing up a peace sign and looking extremely cute together.
Shizuka was in a white t-shirt, looking healthy and happy.
He scrolled.
Shizuka had taken a photo of her bare knees with her feet in the pool, and her friends were commenting under her photo at an alarming rate, it was making the page glitch and refresh repeatedly.
"WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"Omg vacation?! Way to give us a scare!"
"….Is that Domino City view?! Girl are you okay?"
"Can I come? CALL ME BACK!"
"….Shizuka! love you! You're so pretty! Did I see your face on the news or did they get the wrong person?! You look okay!"
Joey scrolled again.
It was an outfit mirror photo with Mokuba in the lower corner, digging through a big box with the KC emblem, his black hair only a swirl because he wasn't looking up while Shizuka posed in front of the mirror to show off a cute KC visor, the white t-shirt, and pastel pink shorts, paired with KC socks and slides.
"not sponsored :silly face:" was the caption.
The next one was another outfit photo.
She was wearing a flowery pink bikini under a towel wrap and the strategic blur of the CEO was seen walking by behind her, carrying what looked like a coffee mug in his hands while Mokuba was still in the same position, on the ground by the box.
"Been adopted tee hee :heart:" was the caption.
"I'm gonna go over there right now!" Joey breathed, palming his phone and scrolling through Anzu's laptop with his other hand, completely unable to believe it.
The next four were outfit photos.
It appeared Seto Kaiba had spoiled her with some new clothes and shoes.
"White KC sneakers! I love this little KC bead on the laces!" And the photo was of her sitting in front of a different mirror in a different part of Kaiba's house, stylishly tilting her head so her hair hung down her shoulder in a ponytail while the white shoes were the focus.
"Techie sweater with finger holes?! Hahaha" And her hand was photographed in a sleeve where her thumb was put through a gloved opening, and the KC emblem was on the wrist.
"Yes I got a biiig box of Kaiba Stuff because I beat Mokuba Kaiba in match!" It was another screenshot of the game, and the next photo behind that was of her in a matching KC athleisure wear, navy blue jogger sweats and a matching windbreaker.
"Painted toesies!" The last photo was of her manicured feet in sandals, once again by the pool, and there was a flower floating in the water beside her pale calf, looking very aesthetic.
The comment she wrote underneath her friend's worried texts were all, "I'm fine!" and "having a spa day!", and "I got the OK to post about my friendship with certain a Kaiba :computer:"
And that was the end of the posts. Her stories were new too and highlighted in an icon with a computer and phone emoji.
He didn't need to watch them.
He knew she was posting more of the same stuff there.
"Okay, I'm gonna go get her," Joey announced, putting his computer aside and feeling like a thousand tons of bricks had been lifted off his shoulders.
"Wait. We can't leave," Anzu said with a grimace, nodding at the group of uniformed agents walking through their cubicles in stiff, formal suits.
They wore their badge importantly around their necks and everyone bowed when they passed.
Oh crud.
"Mazaki? Miss Mazaki? We're here to speak with the head of national security …" A man was moving through the cubicles, looking for her.
"Oh crap, that's me," Anzu stood quickly from the couch and smoothed her blazer down, giving Joey a frantic nod. "There's a box of stuff in my desk, you need to go get it out," she whispered, pressing the key into Joey's palm. "Put it in your car and go straight to the Kaiba mansion to give it to Atem. They're gonna wanna question you too, so come right back."
"What stuff? What's goin' on?" Joey asked curiously but Anzu was already bowing, so he had to stand up to also bow, feeling himself sweat.
A man approached him and took the laptop out of his hands. "This is evidence. We'll take that."
Evidence? Joey blinked and watched the man bag Anzu's laptop and take it away. Whaaaaaat-
"Come this way, miss," the man led her out of the break room and Anzu threw Joey a warning look, so Joey nodded stiffly and waited until everyone sat back down. He saw them take her into the hallway for the interrogation rooms, and realized she might be in trouble for even talking to Atem about it. But she did. And Atem saved Shizuka. Somehow.
Gotta move, Joey thought frantically as he hurried into Anzu's office. No one paid him any attention.
He used the key she gave him to open the bottom-most drawer, and there was a phone box with the sticky note with a doodle of spiky hair on it. Oh shit. The Atem-Kaiba Phone.
It was beside another small box of stuff, and he opened it to see familiar USBs.
One was labeled ATM phone calls.
Another was labeled SK phone calls.
Another was labeled ATM grocery footage,
Joey snatched it all up and pocketed it into his blazer, sweeping the rest of her desk for any other Yami-themed stuff.
Her notepad.
He took that too.
They already took her laptop and stuff. But he knew she never talked to Yami on police-issued equipment, as per Yami's orders.
I gotta wipe my phone too, that's why I'm goin over there right now! Joey panicked, remembering how he called Yami from his personal phone in a desperate attempt to reach him about Shizuka in a moment of weakness. Fug.
He locked the drawer and hurried out of the building, passing a cadet who bowed at him.
"Out for lunch?" The kid asked.
"Yep! See ya! I'll be back after I get some grub!" Joey called as he tried not to sweat, and he took his own car out of the police lot, not wanting to be tracked by police GPS showing up at the Kaiba mansion.
As another precaution, he turned off his phone in the parking lot first and took out his sim card. He'd learned a thing or two after reading Atem's files.
Guy always took out his sim card.
He took the sim card out of Anzu's Atem-Kaiba phone too and left it in the box, peeling out of the parking lot and almost speeding over the security bump as he drove out the gates and onto the main road, trying not to sweat.
No panic. He had an hour to get rid of all this stuff.
He could see Shizuka while he was at it.
Turning down the road, he tried to relax as he hummed to himself and blasted the radio, seeing the Kaiba Mansion's private road loom into view, and he drove down the paved road, his heart pounding in his ears.
Man he felt like a secret agent every time he pulled up here.
He stopped at the black gates and leaned his head out the window to talk to the intercom.
"EYaaa… It's me," Joey said nervously, seeing the gate open immediately to let him in.
Pulling the car carefully beside the fountain, he was unprepared for Shizuka to come running down the white marble steps of the Kaiba Mansion to throw herself in his arms to give him a crushing hug.
"B-BIG BR-BROTHER!" She sobbed, clinging to Joey and smelling office coffee on him, and she hugged him tighter while he hugged her back with so much strength, her ribs stung. "Owie…"
Seto and Mokuba stood by the doorway, watching this while Isono stayed respectfully at a distance, also watching.
"Oh, they're related," Mokuba said with a sniff. He recognized the same cop Yami was always talking to. The friendly one that was kinda loud.
"I never would've guessed," Seto said with a smirk, leaning against the doorframe.
Joey sank to his knees in exhaustion, biting back tears, and Shizuka followed him down to kneel beside him, talking so fast, he barely caught her words.
"Yami saved me!" She cried breathlessly. "He gave me water instead of vodka and then killed all the men inside the hotel room right before they were gonna rape me!"
Joey blinked and felt a nauseous curl rise up in his chest. What?
"Wut," Mokuba heard this and Seto tried to drag his brother away from the door, but Mokuba fought him cleverly and escaped his grip, running out to stand beside her, gaping at her. "You didn't tell me that!"
"Why would I tell you that? You're 13!" Shizuka snapped, her eyes sharpening as she glared. "All you need to do is remember our story, okay? Jeez. Do you even know what that word means?"
"Uh yeah, my IQ is pretty high," Mokuba shot back with a similar glare. "But you got away, right?"
"Obviously," Shizuka replied with an eye roll. "No one took off my clothes. I'm okay. Yami even hid under the bed to kill the first guy who touched me."
Joey blinked.
Seto grit his teeth.
"Cool," Mokuba beamed, and Seto came striding down the steps to pull him away.
"Not cool. You have a quiz in an hour. Focus on that," Seto demanded, hating how Mokuba was hearing more and more horror stories that he wanted to protect him from. "Come on, kid. Leave them alone."
"Wait, but she'll come back to hang out, right? Play co-op with me on Genshin!" Mokuba whined, reaching his hand out to wave at Shizuka, who had her arm on Joey's shoulder and she waved back cheerfully.
"We're going 'carting' together if you get an A!" She called back, and Mokuba was satisfied with that answer, turning to walk back into the house without Seto's pushing.
Palming his face in exhaustion, Seto envied Yami who was napping peacefully upstairs after having fucked it out earlier. Maybe he ought to go up there and fall asleep until tomorrow too. The super-boost coffee mix Shizuka had made him on the plane was wearing off.
Joey stared at his own shoes, his body trembling with relief. Holy crap.
Yami had really saved her! And Anzu was paying the price for asking him right now. Anzu.
Her USBs, and his hot-with-evidence phone.
"Crap!" Joey leapt to his feet and ducked into the passenger seat of his car to pull out the box of stuff, rushing back out to hand it to Kaiba, who gave him a disdainful look.
"You gotta get ridda this stuff, man," Joey ranted, pushing the phone box and the USBs rattled inside. "It's labeled 'Atem phone calls', and 'SK phone calls', and 'Grocery footage'."
Seto's blood ran cold, and he snatched the items out of Joey's hands. Oh fuck. More erasing.
"Also, this is her notebook," Joey hastily dug it out of his pocket. "Gotta read this and tear out yer names or something. She's bein' questioned right now by Interpol cuz they're tryin ta' find Yami! They know Anzu's been callin' ya. We can't deny that, okay? All our stations got call records of you n' us callin' each other."
Shizuka swallowed nervously and saw Seto's face pale. Oh no…
"A-And you gotta do somethin' about my phone, cuz I called Yami with it once," Joey dug his own phone out of his pocket and offered it up to the CEO with both hands, pleading. "Please, please, Kaiba, I'm beggin' ya. Also can I get back in an hour? This is my lunch break. They're gonna question me next about Atem—Yami."
Seto nodded swiftly and eyed the notebook in Joey's hands.
"Come inside," he said shortly, turning to walk back in. "Shizuka, read through the notebook!"
"Okay!" she chirped, and she took the notebook from Joey's hands with a gentle smile. "We got this, big bro. Don't worry. Come in and drink some water. It's hot today."
Standing shakily with her help, Joey walked into the Kaiba Mansion on wobbly legs.
He was taken to the pool area where a table laden with fruit and cake was set up, followed by all of Shizuka's outfits laid out on every single chair, and the most shocking thing was the giant flower arrangement of the number 3.
"Who's turnin' 3?" he asked dully, sinking into the seat and taking up a glass of cider that Shizkua poured for him, and she opened the notebook to begin diligently reading, replying with a shrug.
"It's their 3-year anniversary. Seto and Yami."
Oh. Joey rolled his eyes, and Shizuka gave him a sweet smile.
"Aren't they cute? Want some of their anniversary cake?" She gushed, and Joey had to swallow the cider extra hard and cough.
Y-Yeah… 'cute'. More like fucking scary.
But he accepted the slice of cake anyway.
"You okay, baby sis?" Joey asked softly, and he froze when Seto came striding back out to sit down casually beside her.
"Baby sis?" Seto taunted, giving her an elbow nudge.
"Shut up. I'm reading," she announced, her cheeks pink, and Joey noticed this, and he leaned forward furiously to glare at Kaiba over his cake slice.
"Why'd you do that? Don' touch her," he growled, and Kaiba gave him a deadened stare.
"What do you think I am? A pedophile?" Seto shot back heatedly, and Joey's mouth dropped open.
"I'm 20," Shizuka said robotically.
"Barely driving age, and you're not graduated from anything. Shut up and read," Seto replied callously, leaning back to plug the USBs into his computer to kill them. He didn't even bother watching or listening to any of it. Time was of the essence.
Joey gaped at Seto Kaiba, staring at his pale hands flying across the keyboard while a tiny blue flower nail art sat on his forefinger. H-HOLY…
"That hand is your hand?!" Joey cried loudly, his incredulity rising. "You painted his nails, Shizuka?"
"Yep. I said I'm reading," she replied, turning a page of Anzu's notebook. "I see a 'Seto Kaiba called unprompted…' This is from months ago."
"That's this one," Seto dangled the USB that he'd just erased from a keyring he'd put them on. "Tear it out. Burn it. They'll have the record on that side, but no other proof that a real conversation happened once I erase that evidence with a hard-update on their database, so that's enough for my lawyer to snake us out of it and call it an accidental dial."
She dutifully ripped out the page and made sure to pick the paper bits off the binding to make it seamless, making it hard to tell if anything had been ripped out.
Joey gaped.
His little sister was being an accomplice!
"Atem and I had a spa day, I asked him to check out the Domino Met Hotel" she read aloud, and Seto hissed.
"Destroy."
She yanked it out and also found the next few pages were about Atem scheduling spa days with her. Aww…
"I wanna do pizza Saturdays too! No fair, big bro, you've been coming here for those pizzas?" Shizuka exclaimed, seeing 'Jou now doing SAT PIZZA DAY w Atm'. She tore it out to show Seto.
"I wanna do pizza Saturdays," she announced, and set the page aside.
"You don't want to eat the ones he makes," Seto replied coldly, yanking out the USB he'd just killed and giving her another date. "Make sure to read all the ones after the Met days, she might have pages about it."
Shizuka scanned the notebook and nodded, finding a juicy detail, "ooo, Atem sniper-killed a man in a stairwell - 38th story window?!"
Joey gripped the armrest of his chair, his heart pounding. Whoa. He did not know that detail.
"Right in front of me," came the heartless reply from the CEO who was stabbing another USB into his laptop. "He deserved it."
Shizuka ripped the page out and cleaned the seam with happy motions, and Joey could not believe his own eyes.
"Have you ever seen him kill someone in front of you, Jou?" Shizuka asked calmly, and Joey struggled to find his voice. He couldn't lie to his little sister.
"Yeah uh, some guys driving by sprayin' bullets during the robbery day, almost got killed there," Joey muttered, palming his face when he remembered the piles of paperwork he had to do. "Back'a da head two times through their car window, and I had to go apologize to their families cuz he used a police gun ta' do that. I almost lost my badge when I took credit fer those…"
"You took credit for it? How dare you," Seto said darkly, and Shizuka laughed.
They worked in pleasant silence, with Isono coming up behind her to pick up the stack of papers.
"Is this all, Master Kaiba?" he asked, and Shizuka added another torn out paper to his hands. He saw his own name in all capital letters in the handwriting.
ISONO – accomplice?
And his blood ran cold.
He was burning these.
"The notebook is getting thin," Shizuka commented as she weighed it and glanced at it from the side. "And now you can see visible chunks missing, even though I ripped it neatly."
"….You can take notes however you want," Seto replied calmly, now wiping Joey's phone. "She could say she likes ripping pages out. Who cares?"
Joey blinked and nodded. "I do that."
"Because you're a dumbass" Seto replied coldly, and Shizuka narrowed her eyes.
"HEY! Be nice. He's my brother and you don't see me calling Mokuba names."
"Whatever," Seto muttered, restarting Joey's phone and making sure it loaded correctly, almost as if it had been untouched. "I'm done anyway." And he handed the phone back across Shizuka's arms to give Joey his phone back.
"…'tanks," Joey said cautiously, and his phone backing was extremely warm. "What'ja do?"
"Pinpointed my personal number, Atem's number, the dead phone's number, or the Kaiba Residence's number in your phone, took it all out," Seto replied, thinking he couldn't call the phone company to erase it, but at least the lawyer could maybe get them out of it.
Shit. He needed to call a lawyer.
One that represented criminals, maybe.
He'd check his email since he remembered this one annoying criminal defense lawyer who just wouldn't leave him alone–even on his birthday.
"Done. Last page is…. 'called Atem 200 times to get him to find Shizuka, Seto also did not pick up'," she said, passing her finger over the writing on the paper before gently tearing it out. "Looks like that worked."
She handed the paper to Isono, who walked it into the house, presumably to burn them.
Seto downed the rest of his cider and stood to stretch. "All in a day's vacation," he said, and he swept up his laptop to walk away. "I'm lawyering up the entire family for this mess. Take some cake with you back to the station. Everyone here is officially done eating it."
"Oh yeah, take a slice for Anzu, tell her thanks," Shizuka cried jumping to her feet to slice a big piece off for Joey, seeing a kitchen helper come forth with a box for it.
Joey nodded eagerly and stood up to help cut an even bigger piece off when his phone rang, so he reached down to answer it, aware that it was Anzu. Was he allowed to answer this on Kaiba's grounds? Crud, he didn't ask.
"Should I pick up? It's Anzu," Joey said nervously, and Shizuka shrugged, picking up her new phone and texting fast. "I'll ask Seto. He's calling his lawyers."
Her phone buzzed with a reply, and she held her phone up to show Joey a message thread she shared with Seto that already had other messages in it.
"SETO [flower]: no. joey does not answer calls on his break time. Lawyer's instructions.
SETO [flower]: tell him its also none of the department's business where he takes his lunches"
Joey read the messages and tried not to feel a weird pang of something that felt like envy.
Seto and Shizuka were…friends?
'Kay well, I'mma head back," Joey said, leaning down to give Shizuka a hug and kissing her atop her head, smelling the scent of flowery shampoo mixed in with the scent of the pool. "Ya smell nice, sis."
"Thanks, it's leave-in conditioner," she replied calmly, waving him away. "Have fun at work. I'm sleeping over here cuz he said I could!"
Joey wrinkled his nose. "Do ya gotta?"
"No, but I wanna," she replied, splaying her hands out at the sun that was steadily setting over the Domino City view. "How pretty is this?! I wanna study here! Mokuba said I could invite my friends! Seto said so too! C'mon big brotherrrr, you were hiding Pizza Saturdays from me! Atem is so sweet, and I can tell he needs some friends to get him through the week sometimes..."
Wow, okay, Joey grumbled, secretly glad that his little sister was getting such preferential treatment from the Kaibas.
His phone was buzzing again, so he had to go.
"Alrighty, don't overstay," he said, and he took Anzu's notebook back from her. Then he hurried through the house, hearing Shizuka call after him.
"Not possible! Seto says he's barely home sometimes!"
Throwing himself into his car, Joey backed out of the Kaiba's driveway with a screech of his wheels, his palms sweating as he tried not to think about what he'd just done. It was fine.
He was protecting Anzu, who had in turn, protected Shizuka, who was ultimately saved by Atem. She'd been trafficked overseas, meaning Atem had shut the docks and airports down too late.
Which meant if he had balled up earlier to ask for help, Atem would've done that for him.
I owe that guy a great thanks, Joey told himself as he parked back in his spot with a rough jerk of the parking brake, and he climbed out with the notebook and cake box tucked under his arm.
Author's note:
ooo trouble is brewinggg