"Seto!"
Kaiba groaned and rolled over, burying his head in his pillow. Joey curled against his back, arms wrapping around Kaiba's waist; breath splayed over his shoulder, warm and moist.
It was a nice position for Kaiba to have gotten some more sleep, if not for the sudden rude intrusion. Kaiba heard a frustrated grunt, and before he could think to react to that, there was something was bouncing heavily on the bed just to his left. "Seto! Wake up!"
Kaiba groaned and sat up enough to grab Alex by the waist, pulling the kid down so he was sitting beside where Kaiba was lying. He closed his eyes and curled back into his blankets. How was Joey still asleep after that? "What is it?" Kaiba asked grumpily, resisting a shiver as he felt Joey's feet brush his ankles. Damn cold feet.
"'nita told me to say that Mokuba is here. Is Mokuba your baby?" Kaiba resisted another groan – who the hell was Nita, and exactly what was the kid talking about? Kaiba blinked slightly, trying to translate the message, half asleep as he was.
Oh. The housekeeper had told him to tell Kaiba that… His eyes flew open.
Mokuba?
He looked at his bedside clock. Ten AM.
"Shit!"
It was ten AM, and Kaiba realized immediately what the date was. December third.
Mokuba had decided a few months ago that he wanted to visit Domino for the holidays again. He swore up and down that he missed the place, and that he wanted Kaiba to meet Mei, but he also wanted to show her his hometown. Also, he had pointed out that since Kaiba was living with Joey again, that it would be rude to leave home for the holidays.
There was that home thing again. But instead of scorning the word, Kaiba agreed with it. Despite his hurry, he found himself watching Joey on the bed, snoring peacefully into his pillow. There had been a few rough spots, but they had been living together in relative peace since that day…
He didn't have time for reflection.
He sat up, half-heartedly kicking Joey to wake him as he looked at Alex. "Is there a girl here too?"
"I dunno," Alex said, shrugging exaggeratedly. "Is Mokuba your baby?" he repeated.
"No, he's my brother, remember? Daddy told you about him." Kaiba said patronizingly; he needed to get out of bed, but first he needed to get dressed – neither a feat that would be easily accomplished with Alex present. "Can you go tell Mokuba hi, and that we'll be down in a minute?"
"Okay!" With that Alex hopped off the bed and left the room; the door was only half-closed behind the toddler, but Kaiba didn't care. He practically jumped out of bed and looked around for some clothes. He found a pair of pants somewhere near the bed. Damn it, he didn't have time for a shower, and he still smelled faintly of sweat. He should have known better than to stay up so late when he had to be awake early.
"Out of bed," Kaiba urged, yanking on the blanket. Joey grunted and pulled it back. Kaiba heaved a sigh and gave up; he'd just have to explain to Mokuba that Joey was a complete bum who couldn't be bothered to wake up.
"Get back in bed," Joey grumbled, but he didn't show any other sign of life. Kaiba rolled his eyes and pulled on a shirt, buttoning it as he left the room; he had it done by the time he neared the living room, and he smoothed out the horrible case of bed-head he was sure to have. He took a deep breath and entered the living room. Mokuba was on the couch, and the girl Kaiba presumed was Mei was sitting beside him. Alex was on the floor, playing with some trucks and eyeing the guests warily. Mokuba looked up and smiled at Kaiba's entrance.
"I'm sorry," Kaiba said sincerely, feeling more like he was entering a meeting late than greeting his younger brother. "I hope it wasn't too much trouble for you to get here."
"Not one bit," Mokuba answered, still grinning as Kaiba took a seat on the loveseat directly across from the couch where Mokuba was seated with Mei. "When you didn't answer your phone, I called Tristan, and we decided that we'd introduce everyone to Mei before coming here." Kaiba cringed, reminded that not only was he two hours late, but he'd made a bad first impression with Mokuba's girlfriend. It wasn't shaping up to be a very good morning… As if reading his thoughts, Mokuba said, "Don't worry, Seto; we had a good time. And damn, have you seen Téa recently? She's huge! She's got to be carrying a litter or something."
"Don't say that to her face," Kaiba warned; he'd seen Joey suffer for saying less.
Mokuba just laughed. "Well, anyway, Seto, this is Mei – Mei, Seto." The girl beside Mokuba smiled and inclined her head a bit; she certainly looked as shy as Mokuba had described her. Kaiba reached across the coffee table to shake her hand – she took the invitation, and despite her demeanor, she had a firm grip.
"Pleased to meet you," he said.
"And you," she replied softly, smiling. Kaiba nodded and released her hand, leaning back in his chair. He watched in vague amusement as Mokuba leaned over and said something to her quietly, his words foreign. They were just about the picture of a healthy relationship – Mokuba kissed her cheek, and she beamed.
Kaiba would never admit it, but it was a heartwarming sight.
"So," Mokuba said, "I see the kid's okay, but where's his dad?"
Alex looked up almost immediately and chirped, "Daddy's lazy."
Kaiba snickered. "He's – "
"Right here," Joey finished, yawning as he made his way to the loveseat; he dropped beside Kaiba and scratched his head. Kaiba raised an eyebrow at his appearance; he obviously hadn't bothered to get dressed, just pulled on his t-shirt and slacks from the night before, and his hair was disheveled. The only thing worse than that was that he practically landed on top of Kaiba, and promptly curled against the brunet, closing his eyes. "You could've told me why you were gettin' up," he complained blearily. Kaiba scowled and tried to covertly shove Joey upright; he wasn't up for creating a scene in front of Mokuba and Mei – and they were already smirking and laughing quietly.
"Were you two up late last night?" Mokuba teased.
Without a moment's pause Joey yawned, "Yes." Kaiba tried to fight the blush as Mokuba's laughter intensified – that wasn't something Joey had to tell them about! But Mokuba looked at him, and there was something in his eyes that made Kaiba pause, embarrassment forgotten as he tried to dissect the emotion. Mokuba almost looked relieved.
"I see you two are doing just fine," he said with a smile, and Kaiba nodded. They were. They still argued, usually every couple of weeks. Sometimes it was something small, like Kaiba complaining about Joey's smoking, or Joey bitching about how much time Kaiba spent at work. That one usually turned into a bigger fight, because Kaiba would accuse Joey of sounding like some disgruntled housewife, and it always snowballed from there. Kaiba was suspected that they fought because it was the only way to keep regular tensions to a minimum; the more little arguments they had, the fewer big ones.
There had never been any explosive fights, and despite the couple of times that Joey had retired to a guestroom for a night or two – which was usually the best move – there were obvious steps forward too. Joey had picked up on calling him 'Seto', and they stopped using sex as a way to make up when they DID fight. And even though they fought, there were more good times than bad.
For the most part, they just enjoyed each other. Kaiba always felt slightly ridiculous, even when he only said it in his inner monologue, but they were in love, and in the end, they both knew it.
It made the petty arguments worth it.
"So anyway," Joey said, sounding more awake than he had, "Welcome home, Mokuba."
Welcome home…
Kaiba smiled slightly and relented, giving up on making Joey get up and instead putting an arm around the blond's shoulders. He half-listened as Joey and Mokuba related gossip and news about all that had gone on in Domino in the past six months. Téa's pregnancy, the Game Shop's business, Joey's work there, Duke and Serenity's plans for a family, preschools… None of the chitchat caught Kaiba's attention. Instead, he was thinking over his own story of Domino.
It had only been a little more than a year since he'd returned, and he'd felt empty when he returned. He'd hated it at the time, but despite everything he'd expected, he ended up feeling like he was at home. It was a nice feeling – even he wouldn't deny that.
He closed his eyes, listening to the banter in the living room, his arm wrapping a little tighter around Joey as the blond shifted against him. He felt Joey's hand on his back, tracing little circles as he talked. Kaiba smiled, but just a little.
Maybe it wasn't such a bad morning after all.
notes
A huge thanks to Sarasusa, for stickin' this beta thing out for the last half of the story (and living through the unbeta'd first half, lol) -- I swear you guys have no idea how much I think she helped to story.
Also, sankyuu to anyone and everyone who listened to me bitch and moan about the story, or offered thoughts that helped. (lol, very many of you, I assure you. )
Finally, very big thanks to everyone who read the story (even if they read two lines of it and hated it, lol). bow You guys, seriously, can't believe how much I appreciate it. Anyway, enough blubbering, hehe, and onto the actual notes...
Of which, I don't have many.
So I guess it's spring or something, but I have a case of the happily-ever-afters right now. But the epilogue gave me hell -- there must've been twenty. (okay... maybe 4. Whatever different versions of the ending, lol (all happy, though, and at least two that included sex. oO) Originally Kaiba was actually going to China for the holidays, and there were three different ways I was working that epilogue -- one version was the morning of, and there were two versions of the night before. Then I gave up on that, and there was an epilogue with Kaiba just sort of lying in bed thinking. That didn't work, mostly because it left a lot of loose ends, and it was hard to tell that everyone else was alive and well in that situation. Eventually it all warped into this -- which still leaves plenty of loose ends, but at least gives you the impression that everyone's doing pretty well, eh?
It's... very, very weird, lol -- somehow, when I started this story, I never expected to finish it. It just never, ever occured to me that I actually could... but you know, I'm happy. I'm super!glad it to turned out.
And... well, I'm out. I think -- like before, lol -- I'm going to stick a bunch of random cuts & such up at my site, because that stuff amuses me, so if you want to look at any of that, have a good one.
Thanks!
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