Kaiba sat on the shore of his private beach, his eyes stinging as he stared too hard into the setting sun.
Noah was beside him, excitedly scooping sand into his bucket and packing it in tightly. The beginnings of a large sandcastle were at his knees, and Kaiba would feel a spray of sand over his feet every time Noah missed a shovelful of sand into the bucket.
This was the fourth week he'd sat out here, waiting for Seth, or Adina to show their face, and he was determined not to lose hope. He had to believe that Atem was sticking up for him—for them. There was no way Atem could ignore how much Adina missed him, so…where the hell were they?
It had been a fucking month already!
"Are you angry?" Noah asked perceptively, seeing Seto's hand curling tightly in the sand. "What's wrong Pa—I mean, Uncle Seto?"
"…I'm waiting for someone," Kaiba answered so quietly, his voice was barely audible over the rushing waves. "Let me know when you want to go back inside."
"I don't wanna yet," Noah said firmly, patting the sandcastle into place with a satisfied sigh. "Hey, is it weird if other people laugh at you when you're not looking?"
Kaiba blinked rapidly, throwing Noah a nervous glance when he heard a stray thought from the kid.
They're not making fun of me, are they? Better ask Papa #2 just in case…
"Who is making fun of you?" Kaiba asked instantly, wondering if it was a family trait to be mocked mercilessly by the public and their peers. "What are they saying?"
Noah scrunched his face up tightly the way he usually did before he was about to tell a lie, and Kaiba bit back a sigh.
Both of his kids were being bullied in school.
Noah was in fucking…kindergarten!
What did snotty little five-year-olds have to say about his genius three-year-old nephew?!
Maybe Mokuba was right to want to homeschool this kid….
"Um…" Noah's shoulders sagged with sadness, and he stuck the shovel upright in sand, struggling to find the words. He didn't know how to say it. It was a feeling.
"Okay, show me the feeling," Kaiba said aggressively, holding out his hand and wondering if this would work. "Close your eyes and think about the time it happened. I can feel it if you think hard enough, ready? Do it now."
"O-Okay…" Noah frowned, and he reached out to grab Uncle Seto's cold hand, giving it a squeeze and closing his eyes just like he'd been told.
He pictured the hallway leading into the classroom, and recalled himself walking down it quietly, seeing three teachers huddled together by one of the windows, gossiping.
"…They're teasing him about…kidnapping insurance. Can you imagine how that must feel?"
"Hiyoshi-kun and his friends have been stealing his name tag. I caught them several times and gave them extra homework."
"Should we tell their parents? I'm afraid of the Kaiba family if we're being—OH! Nakamura-kun!"
A teacher from another class gave him a bright smile and the other teachers turned to follow suit, and Noah could practically see them all sweating.
Kaiba grit his teeth, tensing angrily as he watched Noah take him into another memory, and this one had several kids staring at him while he sat down at his desk.
A smashed chocolate pie still in its wrapper was sitting on his desk, and a note was attached to it in childish handwriting, "Enjoy the snack because its melty doo-doo like you, HAHA u rish snob."
Opening his eyes slowly, Kaiba gently withdrew his hand and saw Noah turned to face him with wide, tearful eyes.
"What do you think?" Noah asked timidly, seeing Uncle Seto's expression darken, which confirmed his suspicions. "Hey, what's kidnapping insurance anyway? Are we 'rish snobs'? He means, 'rich', right? Because of money? But everyone has money just like us!"
"Who is this…Hiyoshi-kun?" Kaiba asked venomously, his blood boiling. "He's a stupid kid who doesn't know how to spell."
Noah swallowed thinly and tried to force a laugh, but his voice had died.
Uncle Seto was taking this very seriously…so was this a bad thing?
Was it bad to be rich?
"No, it's not bad to be rich—" Kaiba began, but he stopped before he launched into a bitter argument with himself. Noah could decide for himself, but to do that, he'd have to live like the rest of Japan for a week to understand just how much money they had.
Would Mokuba even approve of that? It might give the kid a bad shock. He'd have to ride a crowded train for starters….
"I SAW A DOLPHIN!" Noah cried, jumping to his feet and pointing excitedly. "I SAW A MOMMA DOLPHIN AND HER BABY!"
"Oh…great, them," Kaiba said dryly, rolling his eyes.
It was probably the snappy dolphin patrolling his shore like she said she would.
Wasn't she going to report him to 'the council' for 'bad parenting'?
"They come here a lot?!" Noah gazed down at Seto incredulously. "Do you see seals too? What about otters?! Or…or whales?!"
Kaiba opened his mouth to tell Noah there were much cooler sea animals than whales, but his breath caught painfully in his chest when he thought he heard a tiny voice cry out in his head, "DADDY!"
"Want to see something cooler than a whale?" Kaiba asked, also leaping to his feet with excitement. "Don't follow me. Stay here."
"WHAT! Why?!" Noah cried, giving Seto a strange look. "You're so full of opposites!"
I can't say 'follow me' or 'I'll show you'! Kaiba raged internally, realizing the limitations the pact put on his speech. He had to choose his words carefully.
Underneath the water, Adina swam happily forwards, flanked between Mahad and Seth. She hummed a sweet song to herself, feeling refreshed and excited.
Daddy was on shore waiting for her. She'd seen him sitting there and playing with another human in the sand before Mahad yanked her back underwater by the fins.
Letting several waves wash them closer to the tiny inlet, Seth froze when he saw a dolphin and her calf swimming up and down the length of the shore…looking like they were…patrolling it.
Oh crap.
"What is this?" Mahad muttered, echoing his thoughts. "Is this shore in violation of something? I've never seen a Guardian so far away from their pod."
Adina saw the dolphin and dove behind Seth with a frightened squeak, trying to stay invisible, but it was too late. The baby had spotted her and waved its mother over to the three merpeople with its tiny fin.
Swallowing thinly, Seth lowered his head in a bow, feeling Mahad do the same. Water rushed furiously towards them as the mother dolphin skidded to a stop in the water and began ranting at Seth, sounding incensed.
"I believe you remember me, King of None of Your Business from the Kingdom of Leave My Kid Alone!" The dolphin sniffed, and Seth bit the inside of his cheek, understanding that he was being mistaken for…Seto.
Given how angry this dolphin was, she must've undoubtedly had a run-in with Seto.
"You have the wrong merman," Seth said, but he was talked over, and he could feel Adina's claws digging into his forearm in a fearful grip.
"The Council has never heard of that kingdom before, so you have lied to me! That is a severe crime!" The dolphin cried, waving it's fins angrily. "Tell me your real name and status, and oh, little Maiden, I see you are properly being supervised today, but that is no excuse for your behavior last time!"
"We are…very sorry," Mahad said deeply, realizing he was once again defending Seto Kaiba's actions in the water. "The little maiden's name is Princess Adina, from the Kingdom of—"
"Muran!" The dolphin gasped, and its demeanor changed instantly. "A pleasure to meet you again, Princess. Is the Undercover Warrior under your employ? He is quite nasty but suppose I can't blame him for lying to me…wait! Then who are you?!"
She stared at Seth with her beady eyes, and Seth felt himself sweat.
Goddamn, did he have to identify himself too? Guardians were scary…
"I am Prince Seth," Seth said shortly, hoping to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible so they could leave. "Please let us through. This shore belongs to my twin brother, Prince Seto from the Kingdom of Helios. You are welcome in our waters any time."
"Am I in royal waters?" The dolphin wondered nervously, clicking at her calf to stay close while it circled them, repeatedly nudging Adina's elbow playfully. "I did not know. There were no markers indicating a Hemisphere!"
"There will be markers soon," Seth said anxiously, pulling Adina away from the baby dolphin. "We are here to set them. Have a good day, Guardian. We must be on our way."
"Yes, of course," the dolphin bobbed up and down in the water, giving them a friendly wave before she swam away with her calf tagging closely at her side.
Seth let out a sigh of relief, and he felt Adina's grip on his arm loosen slightly.
"No matter where he is, he seems to anger people in the sea," Mahad mused, and he caught a tearful look from Adina, and he quickly corrected himself. "…Because he was trained to be this way, yes, indeed."
Swimming steadily to the large rock, Seth grit his teeth and said nothing. He needed to have a serious talk with Seto about using better language. At this rate, he was setting up to be a bad example for his daughter.
Can I go up now? Adina asked anxiously, pressing her hand against the rough surface of the rock and bobbing up and down as a wave washed in over their heads. I miss my daddy!
"Be patient," Mahad replied warmly, safely storing his spear inside the rock's crevice which he noticed had gotten larger since the last time he'd seen it. "I will check if it's safe first."
Huffing impatiently, Adina watched Mahad kick off the rock and swim away while Uncle Seth remained by her side, smiling softly.
"I'm going up," she announced, and just as she expected, Uncle Seth did not stop her.
Poking her head up above water, she took a deep gasping breath of air and froze, seeing the face of a young boy staring directly down at her from above.
Noah was leaning over the rock's damp edge on all fours when he heard a splash, and he nearly fell in when he saw a little girl who kind of looked like…his dad, except, she was insanely pretty.
Her long black hair was parted into three messy braids, with two of them framing the sides of her face nicely while a diamond chain decorated her forehead.
The only difference was…she had Uncle Seto's eyes.
Extremely confused, Noah reached his hand down to offer her help.
"Did you fall in? Lemme help you out," he said, genuinely concerned, and to his surprise, she turned red and ducked back under the water.
Throwing herself into Uncle Seth's arms, she sobbed, "A boy saw me! The human boy from last time!"
"Ah, Seto's supposed kin, Mokuba?" Seth asked, very interested and he popped his head up slowly. He made eye contact with a small boy with black hair, no older than five, and the child's mouth dropped open in surprise before he slipped…and tumbled into the foamy water below.
SETO?! Noah cried anxiously, thrashing in the cold water as a pair of strong arms wrapped around his body and pushed him back up to the beach.
Adina hovered behind Seth, her eyes wide as she stared at the tiny legs kicking in the water above her, in sync with the rapid thumping of her own heart, and she couldn't help but wonder why both Seto and this boy had reached a hand down in the water towards her in the same exact way.
Uncle Seth had said 'Seto's supposed kin'.
Did that mean…this human boy was her brother?!
Noah rolled onto the wet sand, coughing thinly and shaking the water out of his ears as Seto patted his back strongly, comforting him.
"There, there…get it all out," Seth said reassuringly, rubbing the boy's wet back. "Are you Mokuba? Nice to finally meet you."
"I'm not my dad!" Noah shot back instantly, and he turned to glare at Seto, shocked to see that Seto's hair had suddenly gotten extremely long.
It hung in thin brown strands down the sides of his face and even past his waist…where a giant, blue-green fishtail was attached to the lower half of his body.
"A-AHHHHHHHHHH!" Noah screamed, scrambling away from the fish monster wearing Seto's upper body.
He kicked a wet clump of sand into monster Seto's face, and managed to heave himself up on his feet, soaking wet and shivering, but it didn't matter. What mattered was that he called the hospital! Seto needed help! He had turned into a sea monster!
Noah ran five steps and bumped nose-first into Seto, who was standing before him, holding several shiny, pointy weapons on his shoulder, looking down at him curiously.
Did it work? Kaiba wondered if it had been too dangerous to leave Noah alone on the rock for three minutes, but if he could count on Seth to take care of Adina, he knew he could count on Seth to catch Noah if he fell.
"Wh-but-…you-were…just—there's a-a- fish monster who looks like your clone, Seto! You have to believe me!" Noah cried, clinging onto Seto's leg and dragging him towards the water. "You brought swords to fight him?! Good!"
"What? C'mon kid, you're being ridiculous," Kaiba said blithely, grinning.
Good. It did work.
Pact punishment avoided.
He wasn't having trouble breathing and Noah only seemed mildly frightened at the sight of Seth.
"I'm serious! It's not a joke!" Noah fumed, grabbing Seto by the hand and dragging him past the large rock, hoping with all his might that the fish monster clone was still there. "Here, I'll show you!"
He blinked and felt his legs give away when he saw a second fish person sitting beside the Seto clone, and it was…the little girl with black hair.
She whipped her head around and held her chubby arms out into the air, cheering, "daddy! I missed you!"
Frozen with a mixture of shock and horror, Noah watched as Seto dropped the weapons and raced forward to scoop the baby fish up in his arms and give her a tight hug.
Sitting down in the sand with a wet squish, Noah watched this reunion with a strange feeling churning in his stomach.
Mermaids.
The little girl was a mermaid.
She had fins for ears, just like Seto had said that time doctors were called into the house.
She had called Seto 'Daddy', which meant….
"She's my cousin?!" Noah breathed, shaking from head to toe, and he caught a warm smile from the Seto clone, and it sent him reeling again.
A man who looked exactly like Seto, except he had long hair, and a fish's tail.
Did this mean Seto was a fish man too?!
To Noah's rising incredulity, a third merman rolled onto shore, looking furious. He had long brown hair, tanned skin, and golden bands around his muscular arms.
"I said to wait!" Mahad fumed, glaring at Seth who was wiping sand off his face. "you could've been seen by a—a child!" He pointed a clawed finger at Noah, shaking, and he realized they had been set up, so he rounded onto the older Kaiba.
"You did this on purpose! Does the pact mean nothing to you?" He spat, fully aware that he was scaring the child with his merspeak. "Seto Kaiba, is this game to you? Atem is suffering because of that idiotic pact, and here you are, breaking it left and right, it's no wonder he can't even visit a surface colony without feeling ill!"
Noah continued to sit in the sand, letting the strange language ring in his ears.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Kaiba said mildly, bouncing Adina up and down on his knee while she giggled happily and hugged him.
"Daddy, can you tell what's different about me? Can you?" She asked, and Kaiba gave her a beaming smile.
"Yes, very good! You can speak Japanese so well now!" He patted her cheeks lovingly with both hands, pressing a kiss onto her forehead and enjoying the warmth that flooded his body when he did so.
Keeping her chubby arms wrapped around her daddy's neck, Adina gazed at the human boy sitting a few yards away, staring at them with wide eyes.
"Is that my brother, Daddy?" She asked slowly, and to her disdain, Warrior Mahad answered her first.
"Gods, no!" Mahad gasped. "Did you have a human child on land too? You two-timing—"
"That is Mokuba, who is his kin," Seth corrected Mahad loudly, and Noah's mouth dropped open, realizing the two adults had no idea who he was, and that made him madder than anything.
"I'm NOAH!" He shouted, finally regaining his strength.
Brushing the sand off his pant legs, Noah stormed over to the merman who looked exactly like Seto and he stood in front of him, glaring, "Mokuba is my dad. Stop confusing us. We don't even look the same."
"I wouldn't know," the Seto look-alike replied calmly, unfazed by the shouting. "I've never met your father. Bring him sometime, won't you?"
"Yeah I just might!" Noah growled, clenching his fists at his sides when he saw the other adult merman give him a strange look. "What're you looking at, you freak?"
"Ha ha, he called you a freak!" Adina cried, pointing a tiny, clawed index finger at Mahad gleefully. "Freak, freak, freak! I know a bad word in Japanese! Freak!"
"Yeah, I'll teach you some more bad words," Noah nodded excitedly at the little girl, his heart jumped when she grinned prettily back at him, showing off a set of pointed fangs. Her eyes tilted up at the corners the same way Seto's did when he laughed.
But was it weird that she also kinda looked like…dad?
"No, no one is teaching anyone anything," Kaiba said carelessly, and he nuzzled his nose into the crook of Adina's ear, hearing her shriek happily and push him away.
Daddy that tickles!
"Boy, fetch those for me," Seth commanded, pointing at the spears in the dry sand. "Thank you for polishing them, Seto. These will be useful—"
"I'm not your servant, do it yourself," Noah said stubbornly, folding his arms across his chest and giving the Seto look-alike a glare. "You talk funny."
"Noah, be nice and do as he says," Kaiba said firmly, throwing Noah a look over his shoulders with Adina's arms still wrapped around his neck. "He's your Uncle Seth. Where are your manners? Greet him properly."
Noah wrinkled his nose in disdain but did as he was told. He bent himself forward obediently in a bow and said in a rush, "nice to meet you, Uncle Seth. You're not my uncle. I don't know you."
Mahad pressed a hand to his mouth to cover a smile, and Seth stared incredulously at the little boy.
"Are you sure he's not your direct blood relation?!" Seth cried, mildly offended. "This little girl here said the same thing to me!"
"Yeah, bee-cause I didn't know you," Adina chimed in helpfully, and she saw the boy smile gratefully at her. "Ha! He agrees. He agrees!"
Noah lowered his head nervously, feeling his cheeks burn so much, his ears stung.
She was really cute!
How awesome would it be if she could grow legs and be his actual little sister?
Having someone like her to play with after school would make things less boring.
Turning slowly, Noah walked across the sand to pick up the spears on the ground. They were heavy, and he could only hold one, so he decided to drag it across the ground by the dull end, because the sharp point was scary.
If dad was here, he'd flip out if he knew Uncle Seto let him touch something as cool as this.
Correct, and that's why you're not going to tell him, Kaiba said firmly, eyeing Noah and seeing him freeze on the spot with shock before he nodded again and continued to drag the spear closer to the water.
"Thank you. Good boy," Seth praised, picking up the spear and turning it over in his hands. "This will do nicely."
"I'm not a dog," Noah replied, and he sat down in the sand beside Seto, sticking his feet outwards and shivering when a wave washed over his feet.
It was weird, but it felt kind of nice to sit here to watch the sky getting darker with two Setos.
Do you want to talk to him? Kaiba asked Adina, and she shook her head furiously, tucking her head into his chest shyly.
Noah saw this and his heart sank.
Maybe he had to be very very nice to her too, just in case she was scared of him.
"Hi, I'm Noah. Sorry for scaring you earlier," he said keenly, and he saw her shake her head again and look away.
"Aw, okay…" Noah lowered his hand and tried not to feel upset.
"…Introducing her to a male human at such a young age…you're corrupting her," Mahad growled, and he was soundly ignored.
"Adina, come sit here and let Uncle Seth fix your hair," Seth said kindly, and Noah shrunk his feet up to his chest as the girl rolled off Seto's lap and inched across the sand towards Seth.
Long arms scooped her up from the ground, and a hairbrush was passed from Seto to Seth.
Noah blinked, watching the Seto look-alike slowly unbraid her hair and begin to brush it out. He couldn't stop staring at everybody's fins. The tanned adult's fins were a darker violet, and it almost melted into the shadows of the water.
Mahad noticed the boy staring at him, and he shot the kid a glare, but to his surprise, the kid was unfazed and glared challengingly right back at him.
"How'd you get like that?" He asked, almost rudely, and Mahad narrowed his eyes at Kaiba, but he was being ignored.
"I was born this way," Mahad replied gruffly, looking away and feeling his heart race. He was unaccustomed to being interrogated by children, and his tone was annoyingly similar to Adina's.
"What about you, Papa?" Noah asked curiously. He caught himself again, and angrily corrected himself, "I mean, Uncle Seto."
"Papa?" Seth said sharply, and Adina stared curiously at Noah too.
She liked the sound of that.
Papa.
It was better than 'father'.
Atem had now been upgraded to Papa.
"I was probably, maybe, born like that, but I don't remember any of it," Kaiba answered truthfully, seeing Mahad's eyes widen slowly in the semidarkness. "And don't get yourself wound up, Seth. He calls me 'Papa #2' in his head. I'm in second place compared to Mokuba."
"No! I don't mean that! I love you and dad both, equally!" Noah protested, and Adina nodded in vehement agreement, realizing she had more in common with this human boy than she'd originally thought.
"Me too!" She chimed in, wiggling her fins in the sand, and she earned a stern admonishment from Seth, "don't move, little one."
"And there's no way you're Seto," Noah continued, talking to Seth and eager to convince himself he hadn't been scared earlier. "You sound completely different, and you don't even look the same."
"Agree!" Adina shrieked happily, and Mahad winced, rolling his eyes.
"Men, I will patrol the shore until it's time to head back," he said firmly, and without waiting for anyone to react, Mahad pushed off the shore and dove into a rolling wave, welcoming the sweet silence of the depths below.
There was a giant family reunion going on up there, and he didn't want to intrude.
Kaiba watched Mahad go, and he slowly rose to his feet, dusting the sand off his pants.
"Don't leave, Daddy, who said you can leave?!" Adina cried, wiggling furiously in Seth's arms while he wrestled the brush in her hair, and Seto gave her a loving smile, gesturing at the spears in the sand.
"I'm going to put these away for Uncle Seth. You can watch me the whole time."
"Then my eyes are sticking to you forever en never," she said haughtily, crossing her arms with a huff. "You can't trick me again."
"Nobody wants to trick you," Seth said anxiously, sensing a tantrum.
"Can I help?" Noah asked eagerly, struggling to his feet and biting back a shiver. "I wanna see you put them away. I've never seen them before! Where do they go?"
"…Secret," Kaiba answered simply, wading into the water, and predictably, Noah followed him on his short legs.
"Wait! Wait for me!" Noah cried, and Seth raised his voice in warning. "Seto! Your child is following you into dangerous waters!"
"God, I fucking know!" Kaiba growled, backtracking to sweep Noah up with one arm, and he continued wading into the water with a spear in the other hand. "Okay, Noah, are you paying attention? You're going to need swimming lessons this summer, got that?"
"Uh huh," Noah nodded nervously, seeing the water swirling and rising up to Seto's waist, and he tensed fearfully. "C-Cold!"
"You need to see this," Kaiba said seriously, tightening his grip around Noah's body and hugging the child closer. "Hold your breath, and lock your arms around my neck, and don't let go, no matter what…until we come back up, got it?"
"N-o…-y-yes…" Noah trembled and threw his arms around Seto's neck, seeing the little girl wave happily at him.
He shakily raised a hand to wave back at her, feeling very weird about everything.
The water slowly rose up around his calves, then his waist, then his shoulders. Taking a deep breath like he'd been told, Noah puffed out his cheeks and let Seto sink them under an oncoming wave.
The ocean water was biting, and it made his entire body numb.
Seto swam with even strokes steadily around the giant rock and then stopped when they couldn't the beach behind it anymore. They were going lower…and Noah pried his eyes open slowly to see through the dark water, barely able to make out a giant cave opening in the rock, and the breath exploded out of his mouth with surprise.
Kaiba saw a stream of bubbles nearly block his vision as he lodged the spears safely inside the cavern, and he heard Noah's thoughts loudly.
WHOA! A SECRET CAVE! SETO IS A SUPERHERO!
He saw it and that's enough, Kaiba decided, and he kicked upwards for air.
Taking a deep breath when they surfaced, Noah tightened his grip around Kaiba's neck, ranting incoherently.
"Seto! You have a secret cave?! That's no fair! Does Dad know? Can I tell him?! What else is in there? Do mermaids live in there?!"
Seto waded steadily back to shore, letting several shallow waves wash them to the beach, and Noah rolled off his body with another shiver.
"Let me get you a towel before you catch a cold," Kaiba said, but Noah wasn't listening. He was still going on about superheroes and bat caves inside his head.
"You saw the drop-off structure?" Seth said encouragingly, hoping to bond with the little boy. "Very …cool, right?
"Yeah, super cool!" Noah cried, wringing out the hem of his shirt and shivering again. "I'm okay, Seto. I can get the towel by myself. I'll also change cuz I'm all wet!"
"Okay, be careful," Kaiba said simply, seeing Seth give him a worried look.
"He's a mere infant! Can he walk that far up…there?" Seth eyed the house on the hill, and Noah gave him a funny look.
"There's a ramp. I'm not a baby," Noah replied angrily, and the merman gave him another blank look.
"Stairs?" Noah added hopefully, and the Seto clone's face softened with understanding.
"Steps?" Seth clarified, and he saw Kaiba roll his eyes at him. "What? I know my human structures!"
"Daddy, nails!" Adina demanded, jerking her head away from Seth's hands and holding her arm out regally. "Cut me now."
"Cut them now," Kaiba corrected, lifting her out of Seth's lap and setting her down in the sand between his long legs. "Which hand first?"
"Mmmmm, left," she said, wiggling her fingers in Kaiba's face while Noah trotted off back to the house.
"Bye Noah, come back soon!" She sang, and to her surprise, the boy turned around, grinned, and then continued walking.
"He's nice," she commented, watching Daddy lower his head and diligently file her nails down, left hand first as she'd requested. "Are all boys that nice?"
"No, definitely…not," Seth replied darkly, placing a hand atop her head protectively. "Better stick with girls until you're as old as Mana. Then you can understand boys."
"Okay," she said happily, noticing that Daddy's grip had tightened painfully around her finger as he worked. "Ow! Daddy, you're pinching hard!"
"Sorry," Kaiba muttered, loosening his grip and moving onto another sharp claw while his chest tightened with dread at the thought of her 'understanding boys'. Worst feeling ever. Better not think about it now.
They sat together in pleasant silence with nothing but the soft scraping of the nail file to fill the air before Seth yawned and fanned his fins in the water, rolling onto his stomach with a sigh.
"Seto," he began. "We need an army. That is still a problem. Our dwellings are full of residents who want to feel safe while on vacation."
"Goddammit," Kaiba said quietly, and he heard Adina giggle.
OoOoo Daddy said a bad word again!
"I've tried everything," Seth continued, tucking his hand under his cheek and lying down. "I've put out multiple messengers, offered discounted stays inside the dwellings; better pay, better food, free nursery care for fresh hatchlings, you name it. No warrior wants to live, nay serve, in a colony so close to the surface and so tainted by…violence."
Kaiba grit his teeth and said nothing.
He had thought of a solution but had scrapped that idea because it was dangerous.
"Tell me," Seth said instantly, seeing his twin's frown deepen as he continued to file Adina's nails down. "Any idea from you counts as five from me."
After a long silence, Kaiba finished Adina's left hand and reached for her right one, which she willingly gave, and remained quiet, listening to their conversation.
"You issue special equipment," Kaiba said softly, running the nail file across Adina's thumb. "Something no other person can get elsewhere. You create exclusivity. Warriors care about status and weapons, right? You give them a weapon that dictates their status."
"You are…" Seth paused, trying to find the right words to frame his feelings.
Amazing. Incredible.
Seto had once again figured out how to 'hack it', as the shore-term described.
And it was extremely dangerous to hand out tools that could potentially be fought over.
"Well I don't think you'd fight each other over whose spear is shinier, right?" Kaiba asked, lowering Adina's hand to look at Seth over the top of her head. "So what if I gave you steel cuffs that blocked thoughts? The warriors wear them while on the job, nowhere else."
"You can do that?!" Seth cried, his blood running cold at the thought of Seto managing to create something that compromised their way of communication. "That's monumental! That might bring about a war if other colonies wanted to snatch it from us!"
"If anyone wants it, they can have it for free," Kaiba said cleverly, lowering his head to continue filing. "…In exchange for their service. The tools come with the job. And pay them whatever you had in mind. Offering the steel cuffs will be more than enough of an incentive, don't you think?"
Seth nodded and looked out over the dark horizon, his heart tightening.
That was a good idea!
Warriors and hunters, near and far, young and old, would be clamoring to fight for them if they knew they could wear this revolutionary piece of jewelry.
"Great thing is…" Kaiba held Adina's hand away from his face and smiled at his handiwork. "They can be made cheaply and can be fitted just by bending it. I'll send a ship out there to drop a net full of these down to you. How many do you want? A hundred? We'll start with that."
"Thank you, Daddy!" Adina gushed, holding her hands out in front of her and admiring her rounded nails. "Now my hands look like yours!"
"Yes, they do," Kaiba beamed and held her small hand tightly in his, feeling his heart warming quickly. "And Uncle Seth did your hair so nicely. Ready to go home?"
"NO!" She cried, throwing her arms around his neck and clinging onto him so tightly, the air was crushed from his windpipe. "I wanna live up there with you!"
She pointed a chubby finger up at the house on the hill, and Kaiba smiled at her, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead.
"I still have some work left to do here," he said truthfully, gazing into her beautiful, round face. "I'm going to be done really soon, and then before you know it, I'll be there for you on the day you get your lobes pierced."
He earned a sharp look from Seth, but he ignored it.
He was a man of his word.
He kept his damn promises—to Atem, and most of all, to his own daughter.
He was going to figure his shit out on land, and then claw his way underwater to spend time with his beloved family.
Author's note:
Pact avoided?!
Kaiba managed to pass on the 'family secret' to noah!
What other shit does he have to figure out? Hurry up, Kaiba!
plus, more awesome fanart from batcheeks!
these are amaaaaaZING! they're my new phone backgrounds! (heart eyes)
thank you so muchhh batcheeks! (for those who couldn't see it last time, the link has been fixed on AO3)
hugs,
Ugli