When in doubt, throw in an action scene.
Or something.
Look, I'm not above just wanting to see my favorite characters kick ass, all right?
.
Henry and Zelda St. Vincent both knew, at a glance, that Seto Kaiba would always have a stronger hold on their kids' attention than they ever would. He was more than a man; he was more than a celebrity. To the St. Vincent children, diehard fans of Magic & Wizards all, he was a demigod.
Domino City was his sphere of influence, his holy court.
He guided his bodyguard's family through the streets of his home like a seasoned tour guide. It was clear and obvious that he was a performer at heart; he had a talent for catching, holding, and guiding an audience. Kisara was just as enthralled as they all were. Only Mokuba was distracted, barely paying attention. This told the St. Vincent elders that this wasn't a unique show that they were currently witnessing; this was just what this man did.
Kisara just hadn't been around him long enough to develop an immunity to his charisma.
Mokuba, who'd grown up with him, had.
Henry had been a politician long enough to know what a threat to himself, a threat to his family, looked like. He'd yet to see anything like that, but he had seen Seto's security operatives more than once. He could see that they were keeping a tight ring around the group and were paying close attention to their surroundings. It set Henry at ease to know that his eldest daughter's boss clearly knew what he was doing, and that he'd hired other people who knew what they were doing.
So at ease was he, in fact, that Henry didn't even react when the first men came running for them.
The eldest Kaiba cut himself off, mid-sentence, and immediately set himself in between his charges and the man currently vaulting toward them. Kisara was right behind him, standing at his back, head on a swivel, body tense and ready to strike.
Seto caught the man with an open hand, clutched him about the throat, and whipped around in a swift, singular movement that sent his prey sailing over his shoulder and onto the ground, cracking against the concrete of the sidewalk.
A second man came rushing forward in the shadow of the first. Henry was quite certain that his host would be barreled over, and that—for as impressive as he was—he would be lucky to come out of this day with fewer than fifty stitches. It crossed his mind to wonder, not for the first time, why law enforcement wasn't involved here.
Kisara rolled over her employer's back and sent a boot across the second assailant's jaw with enough force to send his head snapping to the side; his eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed in a heap. Henry watched, mouth hanging open, as his little girl—his Baby Kay—dropped a man twice her size in two seconds. She didn't look surprised, or frightened, or even angry; if anything, she looked bored.
The threat was over so quickly, with so little fanfare, that the younger children broke into applause. Reiji's eyes were falling out of his head, while Riley hopped around and squealed with laughter. Ray and Rhett clapped reservedly, no less impressed.
Henry looked at his wife. Zelda looked at her husband.
They seemed to have been the only once to truly understand what they'd just witnessed.
Then Henry saw Mokuba Kaiba's face and knew that wasn't true.