There isn't too much to say about this particular chapter. After all the big reveals and death threats and time travel mumbo-jumbo, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to go with something…innocent.
Which is to say I hope this isn't boring.
Sometimes it worries me that I spend so much time working on this series, and "Blue Eyes, Violet Eyes," and seem to be neglecting the core story. I intend to get back into it soon. I just have some…housecleaning to do, metaphorically speaking.
But honestly, everything that happens across the board in any of these three stories is connected to every other. That is, after all, the point of putting them under the "Paved with Good Intentions" heading.
Enid Brinkley had established early on that when she told her son (or her husband, as she was sometimes known to do) to clean his bedroom, she was as demanding as any drill sergeant. Part of it may have been the fact that she'd grown up with a United States Marine for a father. But most of it had to do with the fact that she was a tyrant.
At least, that's what Connor tended to think.
She was pacing through the boy's sanctuary while he waited in the living room like a death row inmate; she inspected every corner and hard angle, every nook and, of course, cranny. Admittedly, the room was small. There wasn't much room for him to make a mess; although that tended to mean that the mess he inevitably did make just piled up on other messes, until it felt like an archaeological event every time he went looking for something.
She heard the phone ring.
Connor answered. "Good afternoon," he said, quaintly polite. "Brinkley residence."
A moment of silence.
"Oh! Hi, Mister Kaiba! I…huh? Oh. Yeah, sure. Hold on."
He came into the room and handed the cordless phone to his mother. "It's Mister Kaiba," he said as Enid took the device from him. "He says he wants to talk to you."
Enid held the phone to her ear. "Yes?"
"Good afternoon, Missus Brinkley," came Seto Kaiba's voice, sharp as a chef's knife as it always was. "Mokuba has invited Connor to visit next Saturday. I trust Connor has mentioned this."
"Yes, he has," Enid said. "He's quite excited. What is it, Mister Kaiba? Did something come up?"
"It's possible that Mokuba and I will be required to attend a conference out of state that weekend," Seto said. "The decision isn't final yet. Would it be at all possible for Connor to visit the estate this afternoon?" Something about the way Seto referred to his home as "the estate" didn't feel right to her. It wasn't arrogance in the man's voice she heard; rather, Enid thought she heard a certain amount of...bitterness? She wasn't sure.
Enid looked around the room, decided it would suffice for now, and found a smile. She said, "I don't see a problem with that. Should I drop him off?"
"If you'd like," Seto said, and she heard a certain amount of relief in his voice. Enid wondered at that, but didn't press. "I can have Copeland pick him up from your house."
"No, no, that's fine. I have to head out, anyway."
"Thank you. I have to leave in a moment. From the sound of it, Kaiba-Corp is about to collapse." She wondered if that was Seto's attempt at a joke, but couldn't help but think that it didn't sound all that impossible for it to be the truth, especially considering the deadpan tone Seto used to deliver it. "My chief of security will be present, as well as our chef. I'll be back this evening. Would it suffice if I brought him home at eight o' clock?"
"Yes, of course. That would be fine."
"Excellent. Thank you, Missus Brinkley. You have the address?"
"I do. Mokuba gave it to us when he invited Connor to visit."
"Fine. I have to go, Missus Brinkley."
"All right, then. Goodbye, Mister Kaiba."
"Goodbye."
He hung up. "Connor!" Enid called, figuring if she didn't deliver the news immediately, the boy would explode. "How would you like to visit Mokuba a little earlier than expected?"
As expected, Connor popped into the room looking like it was his birthday, his eyes nearly as wide as his grin. Enid couldn't help but think, God bless that boy, as she sat back and marveled at the fact that she'd never seen her son like this before he'd met Mokuba Kaiba; nowhere even close. Leo was under the impression that it was as simple as Connor having found a real friend, but Enid thought it was more than that.
Mokuba seemed to make it his eternal mission to make everyone happy. He wasn't satisfied until everyone around him was smiling and laughing. Enid had spoken to some of his brother's employees, and they all seemed to agree on this point.
"People think that Master Kaiba got the drive and determination and Young Master Mokuba got the charisma," Roland Ackerman had said once, when they'd had a chance meeting in the parking lot of East Rivers Middle School. "That's such a fallacy that it makes me want to cry. They each have an overflow of both. It comes down to which one is easier to notice."
"It's a living miracle," Travis Copeland attested. "When you consider the crap—pardon—that's been shoveled onto them both since day one, you have to wonder how he's kept his brother as happy and well-adjusted as he has. Kid walks around with sunshine in his pocket, passing it out to anyone he meets. Know what I mean?"
She did.
"Really?" Connor asked, bouncing from one foot to the other, and Enid blinked.
Enid nodded. "Turns out Mokuba might be out of town this weekend," she said, "so Mister Kaiba's offered to have you come by today."
"Awesome!" And off he went, grabbing his backpack from his desk and cramming God only knew how many things into it. He was halfway through busting the bag's seams before he turned to his mother and asked, "...I can go, right?"
Enid tousled her son's hair. "No, I just told you that to be mean. Of course you can go."
And he was back to the races again.
Enid tried to remember how it had been in the beginning, when Connor had been afraid of Mokuba Kaiba, and couldn't quite manage it. The straight of it was, the heir to the Kaiba Corporation had bent over backwards to prove that his nasty reputation wasn't the slightest bit true, and any negative thoughts Enid might have ever harbored about him had long since been dashed completely.
She thought of Gareth, of his wife and son, and felt sick to her stomach. If she could ever convince them of the truth, she would eat her own shoes. They probably figured—if they thought about it at all—that Mokuba was a mirror-image of his brother (they probably also thought that Seto was the Antichrist), and that the nice boy was an act.
Connor threw himself out of his bedroom with his coat half-on, and Enid couldn't help but laugh a little as she followed him out to the car, thinking that it didn't really matter what Gareth, or Nadine, or Matt, thought about Mokuba Kaiba.
The excited grin on her son's face was all the testament to the truth that she would ever need.
D'awww. Yes, I know. Sap City. But c'mon. You should be used to this by now.
I really should see about getting Mokuba into some trouble, just to prove to myself that he isn't perfect. Heh. I think I might just have something in mind, but we'll have to see how that unfolds.
Does that count as a cliffhanger?
