Seto glared at him and grabbed his chin to get the boy to look at him. "Mokuba," Seto sighed and released the little boy. "Mokuba, I didn't bring you home just to start treating you like your old family did. I brought you home because I couldn't stand the way they were treating you. What you need isn't daily beatings. What you need is to be loved and cared for."
"What Seto's saying is, that we want to be the ones to provide you the love, attention and security that you need and deserve."
"I told you I lost someone special. That person was our little brother. We've been searching and coming up empty for years."
"But we're going to give up our search. We have you now. We want to focus on you. We may find our little brother someday, but now we have a little brother. You'll fill the void, the one thing that's been missing in our lives."
"Mokuba I-we want you to be happy here. We don't want a slave, we want a little brother."
"The people who work here, they chose to work here. They're paid to work here."
"Mokuba, we don't want you to work here. We want you to be a normal little boy. One who can run and laugh and play without fear of punishment. Now as for food."
Mokuba had been looking between Seto and Yami as they talked. But when Seto mentioned food, Mokuba lowered his head.
It was then that it hit Seto where he'd eaten lunch before. "Mokuba, did you make lunch?"
Mokuba nodded. He'd noticed that Seto and Yami barely ate any of it "I-it's n-not m-my b-best, b-but t-there w-w-wasn't an-anything r-r-really t-to w-work w-with in t-the k-kitchen." Then in a lower voice he added. 'I-it's u-usually at l-least eatable."
Seto smiled. "The word is edible."
Mokuba blushed, "Oh, s-sorry."
"Don't worry about it kid, we'll get you a tutor to help with things like that." Yami said,
Mokuba frowned a little. 'What is a tutor?' Just then Mokuba's stomach growled again. 'Now's a fine time for you to start acting up!'
Seto glared at the boy, "You never did answer my question of what did you eat for lunch as if I don't already know the answer."
Mokuba bit his lip but said nothing.
Seto pulled the boy close and looked at Yami. "We have our work cut out for us don't we?"
Yami smiled. "Give him time, Seto. He'll adjust. You only just brought him home. You can't expect instant results."
Seto sighed then pulled the boy up. "Listen kiddo. We want you to eat. If you're hungry I want you to tell us or if we're not around or we're busy then you find Mai or Isis or even Ryo and you tell them and they'll feed you. If you don't like something, you don't have to eat it. We'll get you something else."
"B-but t-that's w-wasting f-food."
Yami surprised him by pulling him back against him. "We'll find someone to eat it or we'll feed it to the guard dogs."
Seto lifted the boy's chin. "Even if we do end up throwing it out. Then so be it. We want you to eat what you like. You let us worry about the rest."
Yami got up and scooped the boy up and set him down. Then took his hand and led him over to Seto's desk. "Now sit down here and wait for me, all right?"
Mokuba nodded.
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Yami went to Mokuba's room, then pulled the rope to call for assistants. Then I went in search of something. Just as he found what he was looking for, Mai entered the room.
"Master Atemu? Can I help you?"
"Yes, would you have a sandwich made for Mokuba and bring it to Seto's room?"
Mai bowed. "Of course Master Atemu."
Yami returned to Seto's room and walked over to the desk and put some paper and crayons down for Mokuba.
"Okay, kiddo. Now these are crayons. You can color pictures with them. Here's some paper. Now why don't you sit here and color for a while, all right?"
Mokuba nodded.
Yami smiled and ruffled his hair. "Good boy."
A few minutes later Mai returned with the sandwich. Mokuba was coloring while Seto and Yami were working and discussing their paperwork.
Mai walked over and set a glass of milk down then placed the sandwich. "Here you are, little one."
"Thank you, Mai." Yami said.
"Of course, but I thought he'd already eaten."
Yami shook his head. "He was raised as a slave and misunderstood that he wasn't supposed to work here. They almost never feed him so he didn't realize that here he was allowed to eat anytime he felt like it."
"I see, I'll tell Isis and we'll keep an eye on him."
Yami smiled. "I appreciate it."
"Anything else?"
"No, that's all you're dismissed."
x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x
Half an hour later Yami looked up and smiled seeing the kid asleep on the desk. He walked over and scooped him up and laid him down between him and Seto.
"Why did you put him here instead of putting him in his room?" Seto asked.
"I thought he'd feel safer between us."
"You really think we can break him?"
"I don't know Seto, but all we can do is try."
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Over the next few days Mokuba stayed mostly with Seto in his room or in his own room the three of them would share meals together in Seto's room.
Mai and Isis, true to their word, made certain that the boy didn't do any work. If he did they'd remind him he wasn't supposed to and would tell Seto and Yami. Seto and Yami would once again talk to him and then make the kid stay in the room to either color or just play.
Later in the day, they would have Mai take Mokuba outside so that he could spend an hour or two with Ryo before time for his daily treatment. Ryo and Yami both went with him and cared for him during his treatments. Yami had found some of his and Seto's old clothes in the attic for Mokuba while the royal tailor made him some and until they could get to town and get him some of his own.
x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x
"So Seto, it's Friday. Do you think you feel up to going to the bazaar?" Yami asked.
"More than ready. Without Mokuba, it'd been a totally boring week. I tell you without him I'd been going stir crazy being cooped up in here."
"What does the doctor say?"
"He said as long as I take it easy and keep my cane close it should be all right. He'd still prefer it if I stayed in bed another week but I think he knew I wouldn't do it. So when are we leaving?"
"Well I was thinking after lunch." Yami said.
"Lunch? Yami, that's five hours away! We'd lose half the day!"
"I know that but I don't think your knee would last the whole day."
"I'll manage. Mokuba!"
Mokuba came running into the room. "Y-yes Seto?"
"Put the outfit Ryo gave you on, we're going into town."
"Okay, Seto." Mokuba said, running off to his room.
"Are you sure about this Seto?" Yami asked.
"Sure about what? Going into town or taking Mokuba?"
"Both really."
"I told you I'm fine, I can handle it. As for Mokuba he seems to be adjusting around here fairly well and weren't you the one who wanted to take him to begin with."
"Point taken. I'll change and we can get going." Yami said, walking next door to his room.
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After Seto had finished getting dressed, he walked over to Mokuba's room. He lightly knocked and waited. Mokuba thought it was odd no one had ever knocked before they'd always just come in. Then again, he was learning lots of things that were different. He wasn't used to actually having a bedroom. He vaguely remembered that even when he slept in the main house he had to share a room and a bed with Noah. He walked over and opened the door.
"So kiddo do you like your new room?"
Mokuba nodded.
"Are you ready to go?" Seto asked, holding out his hand.
Mokuba nodded and quickly took Seto's hand. Then after getting Yami, they made their way outside.
"What's this?" Seto asked, seeing a carriage.
It wasn't the official one they used on royal business, just a slightly fancier version of a normal one they used for things like going to town, when they didn't want to make a big public scene. Right now, they didn't want to make a big fuss if they could avoid it. First, they wanted to feel like a normal family or at least as normal as they could get considering who they were and second they didn't want to scare Mokuba by having people fall all over themselves in front of them.
"I'm sorry Seto but even though the doctor said you were well enough to ride I felt it'd be better if we went in the carriage. This way Mokuba won't have to ride with one of us; he can ride between us. I just think it'd be better for everyone all the way around. Plus by using this carriage anyone who doesn't know us won't be bugging us all the time."
"You don't think the guards would be a give away?"
"Well I was only planning on taking one or two with us. Just our personal guards, they know how to dress and act in public so as to not attract a lot of attention." Yami told him.
"What about Mokuba? I haven't assigned one for him yet. I was going to wait till I was up and around, so that when we're off conducting royal business he can explore the grounds and the castle that much more."
"Let's discuss this more on the way. You need to get off your knee to be able to do this more."
"Fine let's go." Seto said, climbing in.
Yami helped Mokuba up and then got in himself. Then the royal driver got up and started to drive them into town.
"So, Seto, have you thought of asking Ryo if he wanted to be Mokuba's official royal guard yet?"
"Actually I was going to give Ryo what he wanted, knighthood and let him learn more about being a knight. No, I was thinking dog boy would be good. He yelped at me all these years demanding to be made a knight. Well now he can be a good watch dog and take care of Mokuba for us."
"He's not going to like that Seto."
"You think I really care, what he wants?"
"What about Mokuba? He loves and trusts Ryo. It'd be better if it was Ryo, it'd be better than Mokuba having to adjust and learn to trust someone new."
"Well the problem with that is Ryo's like Mokuba. They're both new to the kingdom. They could get lost easily. You already told me they got lost once."
"Yes, but…"
"But what? Next time there might not be someone to help them find their way back. We'd have to send people out to search for them. We'd have to assign a guard to watch them both to keep them safe."
Mokuba sighed and snuggled closer to Seto. He left his baby dragon at home cause he feared he'd lose it or someone might take it away from him, so he left it on his bed.
"No offense kiddo, I know you and Ryo love each other and all but I just think this other person would be the better choice." Seto said, hugging him and keeping his arm around the boy.
"What if he turns you down, Seto?" Yami asked. "You wouldn't do him like you did Otogi, would you?"
"No, everyone thinks because Otogi turned down one assignment that that's the reason I punished him."
"You never told me why you punished him so severely."
"I caught him making out with some girls while he was on duty and then continually back talked me. What gave him his current punishment was after he turned down the job to look for our brother, which I accept. I didn't like it but I accepted it on the grounds it was personal not business. Well then, I gave him a chance by giving him a true government assignment. We had a treaty due by the end of the week and I gave him the signed treaty to deliver. I got a call the day after the treaty expired saying they never got it."
"I remember that, we had to go out there and it took two weeks to convince them not to go to war over it. Then as Otogi showed up, we were leaving claiming his horse went lame when it was one of our kingdom's horses. It had the same brand. If his claim that his horse went lame was true then the horse he was riding wouldn't have had the brand used only at the castle. It would have had a different mark or no mark. I did think it was strange at the time. But I never thought to question it."
Soon they were riding through town to get to the bazaar at the end of it. Mokuba then noticed the toyshop and smiled but then he was suddenly saddened when he noticed that both the dark magician and the blue-eyes white dragon were no longer in the window.