Author's Notes: its like, mattie, what the heck are you doing, writing a different fic when you have TWO OTHERS to work on? buddy, i dont even know

A Shift in Perception

It was almost quarter to two in the morning when Isono returned from the airport, pulling up to the front entrance of the enormous Kaiba household. As usual, he timed their arrival perfectly, lining up the back door of the limo with the very start of the walkway just as the metal gates swung open. What was unusual was what he saw when he glanced in the rearview mirror.

There had been many times throughout his employment where Isono had encountered something completely unexpected, but he'd always taken it in stride. At this point, he figured, nothing could possibly surprise him anymore. But this felt different somehow, he thought, unable to take his eyes off of the two other people in the car with him.

Isono blinked several times and turned his head to look at them directly to make sure he wasn't just imagining things, but what he saw did not change: the Kaiba siblings were definitely both asleep. Seto had his body leaning against the door, his elbow propped up near the window, his chin in his hand keeping his head upright. Mokuba was pressed up against him, the side of his face squished against Seto's upper arm. Isono turned the key in the ignition and the sound of the engine faded, allowing him to hear their slow, even breaths.

Isono didn't move, didn't speak. In the back of his mind somewhere, a faint voice told him that he shouldn't be so surprised; Mokuba had fallen asleep in the car more times than Isono could count, and though the same could not be said for Seto, he was only human, and needed sleep just like anyone else. After all, they had been awake since four in the morning–Mokuba had grumpily informed him of this when he first climbed into the car–and were likely to be very, very jetlagged. Mokuba looked dead on his feet when Isono met up with them, and Seto wasn't much better, the bags under his eyes so dark they might as well have been considered additional luggage. It was only natural that they would have dozed off in the car, but Isono couldn't help but gape at the two children curled up together in the back seat.

Children.

He knew better than to refer to Seto Kaiba as a child, especially to his face, and had long since stopped associating his boss with the word "child" or any of its synonyms. With Mokuba, he could probably get away with it, but he held so much authority in his small voice, carried himself with such certainty, that he could hardly be called a child either. But now, at nearly two in the morning, Isono remembered what he'd forgotten.

Seto Kaiba is sixteen years old. Mokuba is eleven.

Isono shook his head. When he was that age, his biggest responsibilities were to get decent grades, help with chores, and maybe walk the dog sometimes. But Seto and Mokuba Kaiba had the entirety of the Kaiba Corporation resting on their shoulders.

He wasn't sad, nor did he pity them. He had accepted long ago that he and the Kaiba siblings came from very different worlds, and that feeling sorry for them or wishing that they could be "normal kids" was a waste of time and energy. He had learned to see them as the president and vice-president of one of the most powerful corporations in the world, rather than a couple of children who just happened to inherit a massive company. Now he understood that those two things were not mutually exclusive.

For all intents and purposes, yes, they were responsible and mature people in positions of power, but they also happened to be kids. Kids who would not benefit from an uncomfortable sleep in the back of a car, no matter how endearing it was to see them huddled close together.

"Seto-sama," he called, hoping his voice would wake only the older Kaiba and not the younger one, but neither of them moved.

Isono repeated himself a little more loudly, but again, Seto's eyes did not open. Isono bit his lip, facing forward to turn the key, restarting the engine and quickly shutting it off again. He hoped that the sound and movement would wake him up…

And it worked. In the rearview mirror, Isono saw Seto blink, lifting his head and rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand. He made eye contact with Isono in the mirror, and suddenly he was a lot more alert.

"How long was I…" he started to ask, then trailed off.

"We've just arrived, Seto-sama," Isono lied. No doubt his boss would be a little embarrassed if he knew he'd been asleep for so long, so he decided to spare him the grief, "It seems that Mokuba-sama has dozed off."

Seto glanced at his younger brother, who was still leaning against his arm. Isono swore he saw the corners of Seto's mouth twitch upwards. "It's been a long day for him," he said. He pulled his jacket back on, careful not to jostle Mokuba. The gesture was very sweet–but also very distracting, thought Isono, tearing his gaze away to focus on the job at hand.

"I'll have the luggage brought in," he told Seto, sliding out of the driver's side to move around to the trunk. He texted Fuguta, who was waiting inside for their return. His coworker joined him moments later but was gone again in an instant, dragging one of the Kaiba siblings' large suitcases behind him. Isono lifted the second one out of the trunk and turned around just in time to see Seto step out of the car with Mokuba in his arms.

The younger sibling had his chin on his older brother's shoulder, his arms wrapped loosely around his neck. Isono couldn't contain a smile, but his expression soon changed to surprise, because not a second later, Mokuba's eyes opened. He stayed still, a huge grin spreading across his face. He noticed Isono looking at him and winked, then closed his eyes and feigned sleep again.

Isono found himself grinning as well, shaking his head as he ducked back into the driver's seat. After parking the car, he returned for the other suitcase, closing the gates behind him with the push of a button on his key fob. He could see the light in Mokuba's bedroom turn on as he made his way down the front path. The light flickered off again when he reached the door, and when he stepped inside, Seto was just coming down the stairs.

"You can leave Mokuba's bag outside his room," Seto said, "He's still sleeping. He'll get it in the morning."

Isono nodded and complied, hauling the bag up the stairs–jeez, it was heavy, how much stuff did Mokuba have in there?!–and when he made it to Mokuba's bedroom door, he was startled to see that it was open, and that there was a pair of gleaming eyes staring out at him from inside.

"Hi, Isono," came Mokuba's voice.

"Hello, Mokuba-sama," Isono replied, unsure of what else to say.

They stood there for a while, until Mokuba opened the door a little wider. He stuck his arm out. "Can I have my bag? My toothbrush and stuff are in there."

"Of course."

He shuffled the bag forward until Mokuba could reach it and squeeze it through the narrow space. He wondered why Mokuba didn't just open the door all the way. It would make this a whole lot easier–

"If I open the door any more than this, it'll creak super loudly and my brother will know I'm awake," said Mokuba sheepishly, as though reading Isono's mind. The bag disappeared into his room, but Mokuba didn't shut the door, instead moving forward to look at Isono again, "You won't tell him I was awake the whole time, will you?"

Isono almost laughed. Not out of malice, but because for the first time, he was taken aback by how normal the Kaiba siblings were. He could recall a situation exactly like this one, with his own family. "Of course not, Mokuba-sama."

The younger Kaiba let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks Isono." Then he smiled again. "I've got him totally fooled, y'know."

"Oh?"

"Yeah! He wouldn't carry me if I was awake." The smile dropped. "He… he got kinda distant as we grew up, so this is the only time he does stuff like this." Even in the dim light, Isono could see Mokuba's face flush before he started speaking again. "B-but mostly, I was too lazy to climb the stairs. And tired. It's a long way up and I didn't feel like it."

"I see…"

"So don't tell him, okay?"

"I won't."

Mokuba stuck his tiny hand out the door, pinky extended. "Promise?"

Isono copied the gesture. "I promise."

Mokuba withdrew his arm and held Isono's gaze for a few more seconds. "Okay. G'night, Isono!"

"Good night, Mokuba-sama."

The door shut in his face, and he heard Mokuba's light footsteps move away, retreating further into his room. Isono backed away and returned to the first floor, where he found Seto waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs.

"I take it Mokuba brought his suitcase in?"

"Uh." His promise with Mokuba flashed in his mind. He could still remember what it felt like to have Mokuba's finger curled around his. He didn't want to betray that trust. "Well, that's–"

"He thinks he's so clever," Seto interrupted, barely louder than a whisper. His voice was soft, softer than Isono had ever heard it before, "He thinks I don't know that he's awake, that he's successfully tricking me into carrying him up to his room. But I know when he's awake. I always do."

Isono opened his mouth. Closed it again. He had no idea how to respond. Thankfully, Seto filled the silence himself.

"I've known Mokuba since the day he was born. I know that he's a light sleeper, that he is very easy to wake up when he's actually asleep. He can't fool me."

Isono thought that Seto might be annoyed, given how dead-set Mokuba had been on keeping his little stunt a secret, but on the contrary, there was a very faint fondness to the edge of Seto's voice. A subtle, almost imperceptible smile tugged at his lips.

Seto didn't say anything else after that. He stood with Isono at the bottom of the stairs, in an almost trancelike state, until the old clock in the living room chimed once to mark the quarter of the hour.

"I'll see you in the morning," said Seto. He didn't even wait for a response before turning around to go back up the stairs.

Isono watched him go, feeling unusually emotional. He kept his eyes on his boss, the CEO, the older brother, the teenager, until he disappeared from sight.

"Sleep well, Seto-sama."

Author's Notes: i cannot believe i wrote another fic. this was supposed to go w/ mokuba's other mundane moments but it just Didn't fit so i made it its own fic. i swear i'll update the other one soon. im doing camp nanowrimo and i have a 25k word count goal to attain, and i know half of it is probably going to be ygo fic so it shouldn't be long before i update again, or even better, i'll Finally finish that dumb fic i wrote about haga and ryuzaki. did you know that that thing is sitting at 7k words right now, and it's not done yet. what the heck. this was never supposed to happen.

in other news, i made a separate twitter account for my yugioh ramblings. im kaibacorn if youre interested. dont ask about the name, my friends made me do it. blame them.

ANYWAY, thanks for reading!

–fearowkenya