A/N:
*got a lot of positive interest and encouragement to give mokuba a little bit more story time, and also add MAHAD into this universe, so here we go, adding on a bit more when i thought THE END was the last chapter. thank you for reading this far, i really appreciate you!
Seto and Mokuba took turns putting while Yami relaxed in the passenger seat of the golf cart, watching them with sunglasses on and an iced drink in hand.
The sun was blazing down across the green, making Seto sweat, especially when Mokuba swung his club with a stiff whack! and sent the tiny ball flying into the distance.
This was boring as fuck, but he would never admit that outloud to Yami and Mokuba, who both insisted that golfing was a cool sport aboutangles.
He couldn't give less of a shit.
Familiar faces were trotting up towards them with clubs toted over their shoulders, and Yami raised his hand to wave casually at his friends.
Anzu, Joey, and Shizuka all waved back cheerfully.
"I want a drink!" Joey called as he dashed over to duck his head into the golf cart, spying a dark navy cooler in the back. "Nice. Can I get one?"
"Help yourself," Yami replied easily, toasting Joey with a smirk and taking a swig of his iced tea. What a nice afternoon. He'd been sitting here in this expansive grass without having one terrible flashback.
The healing was working.
Mokuba shielded his eyes and checked the flag in the distance, pulling out his phone to see how far his ball had gone. A long game was up head, so he decided to err on the side of caution and use the bathroom before heading out further.
Handing Seto his club, he jerked his head at the building behind them and said, "bathroom."
Yami perked up and grinned, watching Mokuba sink into the driver's seat beside him and start the tiny engine, waving at Seto and pointing at a couple trees behind them.
"Just wait there in the shade! There's a bench!"
Yami paused, deciding in an instant to hop out of the cart to join Seto on the bench instead.
Bench time meant kissing and hand-holding time.
Did he want kisses on the bench in the shade or a relaxing cart ride?
And these were the types of dilemmas he wanted to have.
"Wow, okay bye," Mokuba said ruthlessly, watching Yami grin prettily over his shoulder and hurry forward to grab Seto by the hand, giving him a sappy love-struck smile while they walked arm-in-arm towards the shade.
Mokuba rolled his eyes and huffed to himself, pulling the golf cart around to drive down the shallow slopes, passing Anzu and Joey who called out to him, "where you goin' Moki?!"
Shizuka didn't look up because she was busy lining up her putt.
"PEEING!" Mokuba called over his shoulder, the cart jostling him and making all the ice in the cooler rattle in the back.
Was it just his imagination or was everyone really up his ass lately?
He'd turned 13 and something shifted in people's attitudes towards him.
He was no longer a 'baby kid', because he was officially a teen.
Nice to be taken more seriously, but people still wanted to babysit him.
It was annoying.
Driving slowly up onto the paved road, Mokuba made sure to obey the 8mph speed limit.
What wasn't annoying was Yami's grandpa, coming over sometimes to play a video game with him, and at the end of those hangouts, the old man would give him cryptic advice like, "if someone you don't know is getting close to you, do your research," and, "always have 16 passwords along with a series of private key words in a specific order, otherwise, how else will anyone know it's you when you die?"
Weird old man.
But he was Yami's grandpa, which was kinda cool.
Cool to know they had a grandpa now–a grandpa who was awesome at video games.
Parking the golf cart into a narrow space by the shade of the building, Mokuba hopped out and strode inside, enjoying the blast of air conditioner in his face as he made his way down the wide hallway to the bathrooms.
On his way in, he saw a foreigner with dark skin sitting on the bench, hunched over his phone which he held in both hands with a video game console attached to it. He looked bored, or really into his game.
Mokuba strode into the bathroom to pee and locked himself in a stall, unzipping to relieve himself and wondering what game that guy was playing. He stood there, thinking, and remembered seeing a pair of antennas sticking out from the guy's game console.
Buttoning himself up and stepping out of the stall, Mokuba sank his hands under running water and the coldness made his heart skip a nervous beat when he realized where he'd seen that kind of video game console before.
Because it wasn't for a video game.
It was a drone controller!
Intrigued, Mokuba stared at his own reflection, thinking back to what he'd seen in that brief, 5 seconds.
Yep.
The guy had a drone controller attached to his phone.
It made him ask questions, like, why was he flying a drone out in the middle of a golf green? Was he trying to find a special ball?
…Or was he illegally surveilling someone…?
Yami's grandpa's grating voice rippled through the front of Mokuba's head, "....If it makes you ask more than three questions, go and find out for yourself. Being prepared will always give you the upper hand, you little VIP."
Mokuba pulled his phone out and made sure to put Seto on speed dial on his side button, and then emergency services on three taps. On a third thought, he pinned Yami's number to the lock screen so he could call that in an emergency too, right after dialing Seto.
Then he hit 'record' and walked out of the bathroom to confront the stranger.
Taking a deep breath and forcing a smile on his face, Mokuba eyed the dark-skinned man still hunched over on the bench.
The man was obviously flying a drone now that he got a closer look. And the model was a tiny, cheap one, based on the thickness of the antenna.
"Hey mister!" Mokuba raised his hand in a friendly wave and grinned. "What'cha doin'?"
The man jerked his head up and they made intense eye contact.
Mokuba kept the smile on his face, faltering to appear weirded out, because the guy had almost the same eye-shape as Yami, almost the same skin tone, and…maybe he was making too many comparisons to Yami, because Yami and Yami's grandpa were the only dark-skinned foreigners he knew.
Maybe that was biased?
Was it also biased to wonder if the guy couldn't speak japanese?
It had been a solid minute of silence and the guy hadn't replied yet.
Mahad stared at the teenage kid grinning at him, and his heart leapt into his throat, recognizing the little face instantly. This teenage boy was…Mokuba Kaiba!
The file he had was 4 years old now, but this boy was obviously that Kaiba.
"S-Sorry, my Japa…nese…is bad," Mahad muttered gruffly, lowering the controller into his lap and wondering how nice he ought to be to this kid.
He'd flown to Japan after reading and hearing about the invulnerable CEO Kaiba, and had come to avenge Atem, knowing that the CEO probably had something to do with Atem's disappearance….or death.
He didn't want to think about it.
Was the baby Kaiba even worth talking to?
Yes.
Children were great information outlets.
He'd use this boy to get closer to Seto Kaiba, his true target.
"S'okay, I can speak English!" Mokuba switched languages with fluidity and enjoyed the shocked look on the foreigner's face. "Whatcha doin'?"
Mahad blinked slowly and nodded once, replying in English, "...playing a game. Want to see…?"
"Yep," Mokuba plopped himself down on the bench and leaned intrusively onto the man's elbow, bumping his hand on purpose, seeing a tanned thumb go skidding over the control stick, making everything on the screen a green blur.
Ha.
"Oops, sorry," Mokuba grinned evilly and eyed the foreign man's face for his reaction, seeing the man clench his jaw so hard, a vein flexed in his temple.
Nice, he pissed this guy off.
"You are fine. I'm not doing much anyway," Mahad said calmly, telling himself to leave the child alone. "Your english is good. How often do you learn?"
"I learn every damn day," Mokuba replied callously, trying not to feel the cold shiver of fear when he noticed the man had righted the drone and was slowly panning across the green in a methodical up and down sweep, clearly searching for…something.
"What are you looking for?" Mokuba asked again, and he gave the man another long look, memorizing his features, taking in his long brown hair, serious frown and sharp, slender nose. "Where are you from? You look cool."
Mahad felt a small smile tugging at his lips and replied, "Egypt. And what makes you think I'm looking for something?" Sharp boy.
"We're on a golf course, what the heck else would you be doing?" Mokuba asked gruffly, his cheeks burning as he tried another intrusive question. "What's your name? Nice to meet you by the way. Egypt is a cool place. I've never been."
Ahh… He's looking to make friends? Mahad narrowed his eyes and smiled, making sure all his teeth were showing while he answered in fluid english to match Mokuba's tone, "yes it is cool. I'm sure visiting my country won't be an issue for a little VIP like you."
Mokuba blinked and felt something cold sink into his stomach, freezing him to the bench.
The only people he knew who used the words "little VIP" were Yami's grandpa, and Yami.
And they were both dangerous people.
This guy…might be too big of a boss monster.
"Little VIP?" Mokuba shoved both his hands into his pockets so he could grip his phone with one hand, ready to call and ready to run. "So you know my name but I can't know yours? You're no fun."
"I'm not here for fun," Mahad replied coldly, no longer in the mood to entertain the kid. "Run along now. The game I'm playing is boring."
Mokuba let out a huff and got up from the bench, walking away and throwing a furtive look over his shoulder, seeing the man stare beadily after him, so he waved cheerfully, and the man didn't wave back.
CRUD.
He'd failed that mission.
That guy knew who he was, called him a little VIP and was flying a drone around the green. The fact that he was sitting by the bathrooms to fly it was telling.
Crud crud fuck crud.
He had to tell Seto.
No, because then Seto would tell Yami, and Yami would go HAM on that guy. They were supposed to be relaxing right now.
Yami's grandpa maybe? He needed that guy's face just in case then.
Pausing mid step, Mokuba dashed back down the hall and yanked out his phone, turning the camera on and aiming to surprise the guy on the bench. He'd seen another exit at the end of the hallway, so that would save him.
Mahad heard footsteps come rushing up, so he tensed and glanced up in mild anger, seeing Mokuba Kaiba come running to him with a malicious grin, and suddenly, a camera flashed in his face as the kid took a photo of him and jeered, "say cheese motherfucker!" and the kid ran off down the hall, shouldering the door open at the end and disappeared.
F-FUCK!
Fuming with boiling rage, Mahad tucked the drone controller into his suit pocket and decided to wring that child's neck to teach him a lesson.
He leapt to his feet and gave chase, his heart thundering his ears as he wondered what he'd done to give his advantageous position away. The child had approached him first and was antagonizing him! Why?!
Because he had dark skin?
He'd never know, but he could ask…when he got his hands around Mokuba Kaiba's neck.
Mokuba pinned himself against the pillar of the building, terrified and gasping for breath, pulling out his phone to send the photo to Yami's grandpa and then running again.
He saw a group of 3 adults packing up a cart and getting ready to roll out, so he approached them with a happy wave and bent over to catch his breath.
"H-Hey…can I catch a ride with you guys out…to… Hang on… Ah…" Mokuba dramatically hung onto the cart and glanced into the rearview mirror, seeing the foreigner's tall form come jogging up behind the building and come to a stop after seeing him surrounded by people. Ha.
"You okay kid?" The driver gave him a friendly grin and patted the seat beside him. "Sure you can. Where you headed?"
"8th…hole…" Mokuba was still panting dramatically and he sank into the seat, giving the guy a grateful nod. "Dude, thanks. I'm pooped."
"It's hot today, drink some water," the woman in the back piped up, handing him a bottle of water. "You look familiar."
"Probably. My brother's famous," Mokuba said proudly, giving the foreigner a wave and a grin. "There's a fan right there. Bye!"
The golf cart trundled forward, leaving Mahad standing by the shade of the building, steaming from the ears at how he'd been outsmarted by a child.
"Famous! What for?" The woman's voice carried, and Mokuba grinned, ready to name-drop when he felt his phone buzz with a call, so he replied anxiously, "...he just makes computers. It's boring. Hang on, I think he's calling me…" And he pressed the phone to his ear to talk loudly, "I finished peeing and I got a ride back! Chill out!"
Everyone in the cart chuckled, and Mokuba grinned at the driver again, hearing silence on the other end of the phone so he waited, wondering if it was Seto or…
"Mokuba-kun, where are you right now?" It was Yami's grandpa, sounding grave.
"Uh, passing the 5th hole, almost there, why?" Mokuba replied sourly, and Yami's grandpa didn't reply for a long time, making Mokuba a little uncomfortable. Crud. Was he in trouble or what?
"That man you photographed, I know him and I'm not sure he's here on entirely good intentions," Yami's grandpa said, his voice almost drowned out by the laughter and chatter of the golf cart adults gossiping. "Was he armed? You spoke to him? You were close enough to get a photo."
"Yep, I can tell you in a sec–oh there they are!" Mokuba waved at Joey's blond hair and called out, "I'M BAaaaaACK!"
The golf cart driver slowed to a halt to let the kid off, and watched the black-haired teen rush off to join his group. Friendly waves of thanks were given, and the golf cart drove off.
Solomon waited patiently on the other end, listening to Mokuba fending off questions before a loud rustle sounded and Mokuba returned to say, "...okay, I'm alone and walking very slowly to Seto and Yami in the shade. Are we in trouble?"
"Depends. What was he doing and tell me all of it," Solomon said gravely and Mokuba was quick to detail his encounter.
"He was sitting by the bathroom, obviously flying a drone. I couldn't get his name and he called me a 'little VIP'... S-Should I tell Seto?"
Another long silence on the other end and Solomon finally spoke, "...I think you can handle him if you managed to take a photo of him and get away alive," the old man chuckled. "Find his drone and take it out. You can do it, you smart boy. Text me a photo of it destroyed and I'll buy you that DLC of new skins you were wanting, hm?"
"DEAL! Heck yeah!" Mokuba cried, and he hung up in a flash, excited.
Time to be fucking cool and take out that asshole's drone….since Seto had put a purchase restriction on his video game spending, gettingGrandpa to buy DLCs for him was the perfect loophole.
…And crud, he might have to borrow Seto's phone to hijack the drone's signal in mid-air, but…borrowing Seto's heavy-duty phone might alert him of something suspicious.
Mokuba heard Joey and Anzu walking up the green behind him, and he zeroed in on the bucket of golf balls swinging in the cop's hand, so he rushed forward to pry it out of Joey's hand with a grin, "thanks! I'll bring it back when I'm done!"
"Ey! We paid for those!" Joey protested, glancing around for the golf cart. "Where are yours?!"
"Left them back at the building, oops!" Mokuba replied carelessly, already scanning the skies for the drone. Crud. It was so bright, he couldn't see shit!
Wait. Seto had sunglasses.
And borrowing Seto's sunglasses would not raise alarms.
Hefting the bucket over to the shade, he plopped it right by the base of the tree and had to throw his hands up over his face when he saw Yami and Seto sitting on the bench, sucking face. He saw a tongue dart out from someone's mouth. GROSS!
"UEGH! Stop kissing for 5 seconds! I need somebody's sunglasses!" Mokuba yelled, blindly holding his hand out for it, and feeling something cold and metal land in his open palm. "Thanks."
And he stumbled away, back to his bucket of golf balls.
Shoving the glasses onto his face, Mokuba lugged the bucket out over to the starting putt, and stood by Anzu, seeing her reach into it to grab a couple, and set a ball down on the tee.
Mokuba kept his neck craned upwards, listening…waiting….
If it was a cheap model, he could probably hear the whirring…
"Hey Moki, whatja lookin' for? Birds?" Joey squinted upwards and shielded his eyes at the cloudless blue skies, seeing nothing.
"Looking for a guy invading our privacy," Mokuba muttered darkly, reaching down to grab a golf ball and curling his fist over it, his palms sweating. "If you see a drone, let me know."
"A WHAT?!" Joey's voice carried, making the girls raise their heads curiously, and Mokuba hissed at him, "shut UP! Don't yell about it! Secret mission, okay? Trying not to alert Seto or Yami because we're supposed to berelaxing. And you know how they unrelax. I need to find the damn drone because it's easy. I can do it."
Joey quieted down and stared protectively at the top of Mokuba's black hair.
A drone, huh?
Wow, never a dull day when hanging out with Atem and Seto Kaiba.
"Enemy drone?" Joey asked quietly, and Mokuba nodded.
"Can it shoot at us?" Joey asked again, and Mokuba shook his head, his neck still craned upwards, searching for a tiny black dot in the sky.
"He's just gathering intel, but the less he knows, the better," Mokuba muttered, thinking he heard a telltale whir. "I think I see it. Grab a ball. We're gonna fuck it up."
Joey bent down to grab a fistful of golf balls, following Mokuba up a shallow slope and seeing him throw a golf ball in the air. It soared upwards and missed the black dot in the sky. The ball fell with a plomp! in the water beyond, but Joey instantly understood and lobbed one up at the tiny drone.
He also missed, but the drone veered to the right and hovered closer to Mokuba, giving him a better aim, and sure enough, Mokuba's third golf ball collided with plastic, and the drone came clattering down by the pond.
"What the FUCK are you guys doing wasting our balls?!" Anzu shouted, crossing her arms angrily and seeing the boys chucking balls into the water. "STOP IT!... Someone has to go fish those out, you know!"
Seto and Yami glanced up to see Mokuba and Joey having a throwing contest with the golf balls and they let out simultaneous sighs of exasperation.
Typical Joey, and Mokuba was humoring him.
"We'll pick it up!" Mokuba waved over his head and jogged over to the tiny black drone, still whirring sadly on its side in the grass. SUCCESS!
He yanked out his phone and was about to snap a picture of it when he realized it was still filming, so he brought his foot down on the lens portion and stamped on it until he broke the body. Then he knelt to disconnect the battery.
There.
Fucker.
He also wanted to take out the sim, but he didn't have a tool.
Oh well.
Raising his phone, Mokuba snapped a picture of the drone in pieces and sent it to Yami's grandpa, hearing Joey come huffing up behind him and clapping him on the back.
"Eyyy, we did it! Man, that guy is gonna be mad we crashed his toy drone-plane," Joey said with a snicker, and reached forward to pinch a propeller up off the ground. "This thing is tiny… Is it expensive?"
"Nope. This is a cheap one, but still dangerous," Mokuba growled, standing up to fling the remains of the drone into the pond, knowing he was littering, but he didn't care.
That guy deserved it.
"WOOO! Free balls!" Joey saw a few golf balls littered in the grass by the muddy edge of the pond and gathered them in his fist, quickly washing them clean in the water. "Like new! The girls will stop yellin' at us about wasting."
"You can have my bucket, since Seto isn't putting anymore," Mokuba said with a grin. "Thanks for helping."
"Nah it was all you bro," Joey replied with a goofy grin and he walked back up the shallow hill to show off the balls he'd found to Anzu and Shizuka.
Brimming with triumph and glee, Mokuba dug his phone out to see a text from Yami's grandpa, praising him.
"GOOD JOB boy! I'll buy that DLC for you now and… here is your gift link [...] And a weapon's pack too, wow [...] look at all these fun ones we can play with the next time I visit! Did you take the sim card out?"
"I couldn't… No tool," Mokuba replied with a guilty tap. "I threw it in the water though…so he's gonna have to go swimming for it if he wants it back."
Yami's grandpa replied swiftly, "okay. I will give you a gift of tools next time we meet. You'll carry it with you at all times, and this 'no tool' incident won't happen again, yes? Always always take the sim card."
"Yes Grandpa [thumbs up]" Mokuba replied with an eye roll.
He knew that, sheesh.
But now he was annoyed he didn't think of a better way to extract the sim card before tossing it in the water. Whatever. Next time, he'd be less hot-headed.
Walking back up the shallow hill, Mokuba froze when he saw a tall man come striding up along the paved path, so he didn't hang around to get caught. Dashing back to the safety of Anzu, Shizuka and Joey, he threw another look behind him and breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed the uniform of a staffer, coming to rake up balls from the pond.
Shizuka stood beside him and gave him a playful nudge, whispering, "what's going on?"
"You really wanna know? Because you'll be unrelaxed," Mokuba replied with a growl, watching Anzu lecture Joey about 'wasting balls' while taking the ones from his hand and setting them into their bucket.
"Yeah I wanna know. You're acting weird," she replied with a swish of her ponytail as she picked up her club and walked forward, so Mokuba followed, hyper-aware of everything and unable to calm down. Dammit.
He now felt super jittery and kinda angry.
Fine. He could tell Shizuka, who was like a cool older sister he'd never had.
"I'll tell you, but Seto and Yami can't know," Mokuba said with a firm nod, glancing into the shade of the trees again and seeing them sitting together with their knees touching, mouths still connected. "...Because we can handle it."
Shizuka nodded gravely and kept walking forward to follow Anzu and Joey, now on high alert.
Oh boy.
Relaxing golf day was about to be unrelaxing.
Author's note:
To be continued! Mokuba is mobilizing everyone around him to defeat mahad haha