"I need to get you a new uniform before school starts," Seto observed with a sigh. Mokuba's uniform had already begun to look too small on him by the time school let out that spring, but he hadn't realized just how much his little brother had grown over the summer. His old uniform didn't fit him at all.
"Should I still pack it?"
"Yeah, bring it anyways." Seto leaned back and let himself flop onto the mattress behind him, draping one arm over his eyes as his mind swirled with all the things he needed to do: finish packing up their things for Joey's house, buy new winter clothes and uniforms for Mokuba, new shoes for him too, make the appointment with the hospital for removing his stitches, finish the data processing by the end of the day when he finally got to work, recalibrate the card reader on their new Duel Disk prototypes, tell Ryou that he wouldn't need him babysitting anymore... Why did he feel like he was forgetting something?
"Where do you think Dad is?" Mokuba asked suddenly as he was packing his uniform into the duffel bag Seto had rummaged out of the hall closet.
"I don't know, but I hope he stays away until we're out of here." Seto sat up again and started packing all of Mokuba's school books and notebooks into his backpack.
"I don't think I like him." Mokuba had been feeling conflicted about their father for the longest time, and he felt like he ought to like him more than he did. He couldn't bring himself to love the man who made life so hard for them, especially after the way he'd hurt Seto the day they returned from Duelist Kingdom. While Joey was driving him to the hospital as they followed the ambulance, Mokuba had been terrified for his brother. Seto mattered to him far more than his father ever could.
That was when Mokuba had realized that he didn't like his father at all.
"That's okay." Seto understood because he hated their father more than Mokuba's good heart would ever allow. "You don't have to like him. You can just forget about him altogether, if you want." Seto would prefer to erase Mokuba's painful memories if he could, even if it meant that he forgot their father completely. Yes, he'd been a good man once, but Mokuba never got the chance to meet that good man.
Even after moving in with Joey, Seto was still arguing with him about certain parts of their arrangement. School was about to start again, and Joey had soccer practice after school, so Seto wanted Mokuba to continue going home with Amane and picking Mokuba up himself when he got off of work. Joey, however, wanted to tell Serenity's babysitter to pick Mokuba up too so that they would just go home together, and then Joey would pick up Seto when he got off work. Seto, however, would have preferred to keep things the same and pick up Mokuba from the Bakuras' house, and let Joey pick them up a few blocks away. Walking to Joey's house from Ryou's was a longer trip than it was to get back to their apartment, and if it wasn't necessary to travel the whole distance by foot, Seto would prefer not to. Joey was still resisting this arrangement up until Seto pointed out that picking up Mokuba from Ryou's house was the only time he saw any of his friends on a regular basis now that he'd graduated. Joey didn't want to risk Seto slipping out of their friend circle, so he agreed to it.
Then they'd argued over money. Seto wanted to pay Joey something for letting him stay at their house indefinitely. Joey didn't want a cent from Seto, though, so he had to haggle the price lower and lower until he got it to fifteen bucks a week, threatening that if Seto gave him any surplus, it would be going straight to Mokuba. It was on these terms that they could finally come to an agreement, and they shook hands on it. Once that was settled, Joey went to the attic to find a bin of his old clothes that he thought might fit Mokuba, school uniform included.
The trouble with dressing kids is that they just keep outgrowing whatever you buy them, so they don't tend to wear any one set of clothes for very long. This had proved to be a recurring difficulty for Seto, but he didn't resent his brother for it. It wasn't Mokuba's fault that he just kept growing.
"Seto, I want you to meet my sister, Ishizu." Marik introduced his sister with an air of pride, pleased to have his family and friends intermingling. Ishizu was just emerging from the guest room, and as Seto's eyes met hers, he felt Seth leap in his mind, the paternal spirit filled with joy at seeing her again. As two pairs of blue eyes locked together, Seth's memories of her flooded Seto's mind.
Six funerals. Five weddings. A young girl whispering frantic confessions at the altar to the artifacts she felt to be her closest friends. An adolescent who yearned for fresh air and an open sky. A young woman who struggled to find her place in a smothering society with a harsh father.
Seto saw it all, and as Ishizu stepped forward with a demure smile and sparkling eyes deeper than the sea, he knew better than to think that she was meek or mild. She was small, but she was strong. Unbidden, a quite from a Shakespeare play he'd been required to read for school popped into Seto's mind: "Though she be but little, she is fierce." It almost popped out of his mouth, too, but he managed to swallow it back and greet her instead.
As he extended his hand, he said, "It's nice to meet you, Ishizu," hoping that he didn't sound as breathless as he felt.
She shook his hand, her lips curling into a pleased expression, making the outer corners of her eyes crinkle. "Likewise."
Had that word always seemed so gracious, or was it only so lovely when she said it?
"And this is my brother Rishid," Marik continued cheerfully. Seto dragged his eyes away from Ishizu to look at Marik's giant of a brother, whose dark scowl made the warmth in Seto's cheeks cool quickly. They shook hands as Marik babbled happily.
"Your father and his colleagues have all been so kind to us! They're going to work at the museum with him translating things, and they all pitched in to help get us an apartment. That means we'll be moving out of here this weekend, just before school starts"-here Marik's light dimmed briefly and he tugged Ryou into a loose embrace that made his lover blush. "I'm going to miss living here, but I guess it couldn't last forever." He rubbed his nose against Ryou's, and Seto found the gesture to be achingly familiar. He glanced away from them, offput and slightly embarrassed. Usually they were far more discrete, but Marik was so eager and Ryou didn't know how to turn him down. Even as Rishid's hand rested on his sister's shoulder protectively, she caught Seto's gaze and offered him a pitying look, as if sensing and sharing his discomfort.
"I'll still see you at school, Marik," Ryou reminded him, hoping that he wasn't as flushed as he felt.
"He's going to Domino High this year?" Seto was surprised. Was he really ready for high school? Marik was still so naive that Seto feared he'd suffer a second culture shock on his first day there. High schools were naturally infested with petty tyrants looking for someone to terrorize, and he didn't know how well he'd fair.
"Yeah. We had to explain his situation to the school," Ryou explained, easing away from Marik, who dropped his arms to put his hands in his pockets, unaffected by Ryou's bashfulness. "And they were pretty accommodating. He'll get a diploma even though he's only staying for senior year. They've already assigned him a tutor for him to meet with during his study hall, and he's going to have at least one member of the gang in all of his classes, so he'll never be completely alone."
"That's good to hear." Seto was running out of things to say and ask, so he was grateful when Kenji entered the room, his arm in a sling but a smile on his face. They exchanged greetings before he took Seto aside so they could talk more privately.
"I'm sorry for the long absence," he began, clearly concerned. "But it's not going to happen again anytime soon, for obvious reasons." He was referring to his injury, but did so with a light heart. "How have you and your brother been while I was gone?"
"We've been good."
"What about your father?"
"He's... worse than he used to be." Seto didn't feel comfortable going into details and focused his eyes on the patterned edge of a picture frame hanging near Kenji's head.
"Have there been any incidences since I left?" Mr. Bakura didn't pull any punches, and Seto respected him for that, even if he disliked the results.
"One, but it wasn't too bad." He shrugged indifferently and added, "I needed some stitches, but I was fine otherwise."
"Stitches?" He raised an eyebrow at him curiously. "Where?"
Glad that he hadn't asked "how" or "what happened," Seto tapped the side of his head and answered, "The hospital waived the fee when I told them I couldn't afford the bills."
Getting stitches at a Patient First clinic was one thing, but going to the hospital was another. "If you were hurt badly enough to go to the hospital—"
"We moved out less than a week ago," Seto interrupted with a small sigh. "Joey knows what's been going on," he admitted. "He's letting us stay with him for a little while until I can afford a place of our own. I've been trying to save up, but there isn't really any place at our apartment that I could put my savings where he wouldn't get to them, so it shouldn't last long."
"I'm glad to hear that." Taking their father's state into account, this was the best course of events he could have hoped for—excepting Seto's injury, of course. Kenji wished that it hadn't taken that much to convince Seto to move out. "If you ever do need my help again, though, don't hesitate to ask."
"I won't," Seto assured, although that agreement would be applied on a circumstantial basis. "Thank you again for all you've done. How's your arm?"
"Healing," he answered with a casual laugh, "It'll take a few weeks and some physical therapy, but it'll be good as knew in a few months, I'm sure." He omitted the doctor's prognosis that his arm might never be quite as strong as it had been. "I'll still be working, but I won't be traveling again for at least a year. My wife and I are still talking it over, but I think my travels have come to an end for the foreseeable future." He didn't look at all bitter about it, although Seto would have thought he'd want to continue his expeditions.
Seto left with Mokuba mere minutes later, and it wasn't until after he'd left that he realized he'd only heard Ishizu utter one word, while Rishid hadn't spoken at all.
"You like Ishizu, don't you?" Mokuba asked slyly as they started walking towards the nearby park where Joey would pick them up.
"I like her well enough," Seto answered indifferently.
"No, I mean, you like like her."
"Pfft. I do not."
"Do too."
"Do not."
"Do too."
"Do not times ten."
"Do too times infinite!" Mokuba declared, looking utterly pleased with himself. "And infinite beats ten, so that means I'm right." He looked smug, but Seto decided to let it go. Besides, Mokuba wasn't completely wrong.
Ryou's birthday fell on the second day of school, and he was pleasantly pleased by a shower of gifts. He'd received from Marik a heated kiss in the bathroom stall at school; several packs of Duel Monster cards from Yugi, Joey, and Anzu; a drawing of his favorite card from Mokuba; and new modeling supplies from his family. The message was clear: he hadn't touched any of his RPG or modeling materials ever since he'd put his friends in danger with the spirit's Shadow RPG. He'd been avoiding the basement entirely because of it, and giving up his craft had notably disheartened him. This was their way of telling him to take it up again.
That evening, after Mokuba had been picked up, Seto had given him a rare fiend card, and they'd eaten both dinner and dessert, Ryou was in the basement sitting at the card table in the corner where he did all of his model work. He put on an oversized, button-down shirt and rolled up the sleeves before getting to work. This was the shirt he always used when crafting his models, and each paint stain carried a memory. He'd just finished shaping the wire frame for a sorceress with a pair of needlenose pliers when he heard steps at the top of the stairs.
"I thought I'd try a different style for my figures," Ryou said without looking up, tweaking the elbow's angle of the arm holding the staff. Before now, he'd made them short and squat, because they were easier to make when he'd first started. Now, though, he wanted them to be more detailed and more aesthetically pleasing. He set down the pliers and picked up length of wire, measuring it out for a second figure.
"What's this one going to be?" Kenji asked as he pulled up a chair and sat across the table from him.
"That's going to be a sorceress, probably an NPC. I thought I might base her design off of Morgan from Celtic mythology." The wire snapped with a satisfying click. "She may end up morphing into an evil queen, I'm not sure yet."
"Why would that happen?"
"Because while Morgan le Fay was the sorceress sister of King Arthur, the Morrigan was a goddess associated with war, fate, and death who could shapeshift into a crow, and I could see a crow-feather collar looking cool on an evil queen. I've never tried feathers with much success before, though, so I don't know how well that would turn out."
"What's the other one you're working on?"
"I'm not sure what I'll name her yet; I need to do some more research into mythology before I'll know that fore sure, but I wanted this one to be her counterpart. Morgan will be an evil witch, while this one will be a benevolent sorceress. When Morgan causes plagues, this one will heal and advise the player. That sort of thing." What he didn't say was that he planned on basing the good one's design on his mother. He thought it was high time he based one off of her, and he wanted it to be flattering.
They kept talking as Ryou kept shaping the wire. They talked about Ryou's plans for his newer models, the events of Duelist Kingdom, Kenji's plans for his research at the university. Things were starting to feel normal for Ryou again, and in no small part because his father was home. He was pleased that his father would be around for this next year. He'd missed him too much while he was gone. They all had.
Author Notes: What's your favorite duel during the Battle City Tournament in Season Two of the anime? Let me know in a review!
My personal favorite is the two-on-two duel of Kaiba/Yugi vs. Lumis/Umbra (in the alley, before they're wearing masks), when Kaiba pulls the most OP move ever: summoning Lord of Dragons, equipping it with two Flutes of Summoning Dragon, thus allowing him to summon any four dragons from his deck or hand without a sacrifice, so he summons three Blue-Eyes plus another dragon, and just lays waste to both of them, ALL IN ONE TURN. It's absolutely glorious.