He dreamt that night, not that dreaming was an unusual occurrence, but the fact that he recalled it so vividly the next day, was. Usually his mind processed so much during the day that at night it shut down, refusing to divulge any information, subconscious, or otherwise. All the same, dream he did.

Of the mother and father his brother never remembered, of whom he wasn’t so sure of himself after so many years. A king going down in checkmate. Mokuba’s and his own 12th and 18th birthdays. Of his first time, with each sex. Duels won, lost, or otherwise and opponents better left forgotten. An annoying mutt who gave him hope once of a nearly normal life. Images of white eyes and black hair. Fragmented visions of his past and blurry images that could only be signs of things he wanted to come.

Of course, he didn’t believe any of that. Never believing in visions of past or future, Seto still liked to assert he controlled what was going on in his life. The only reason that made any sense for the change in his natural non-dreaming routine was the change in his usual practices and he didn’t plan to alter this new schedule anytime soon. Therefore, if his mind felt the need to wander through his life’s past moments, it could as long as it didn’t affect him while awake.

Having decided he had lain about in bed long enough going over nonsense, covers swept off his body as he moved to sit up. It was still early for most people, not that he was running late by his own definition, but as he entered his bathroom to get ready for work, he realized how nice it would have been to sleep late. Not as if Kaiba Corp. would suddenly crash to the ground if its CEO decided not to show up one day, he had more confidence in the people he had hired to work there than that. Usually.

Today was different though and it wouldn’t do for him to skip out on a day when there was a meeting with a potential new client on the agenda. He only hoped the other principal Kaiba member would agree. Mokuba had never disappointed him and deep down Seto knew he wouldn’t this time either, as long as they could sit in the same room long enough.

Going through his morning rituals on autopilot, he finished quickly trying to get his body moving at the same speed his brain had set. Thoughts ran at warp speed going over everything he would need to do or say during their meeting not once, but twice; facts and figures he had poured over for weeks before came as easily to mind as the nights before.

From that little thought process, his mind shifted to the previous nights. Funny, somehow he had developed a liking for ebony-haired bedmates when in past it was always the blonds that caught his eye. From one end of the spectrum, an ultra blond, so light to be called white or a dirty dishwater blond, to the other end jet black as the night, he had certainly picked some interesting ones to hook up with even as short as the relationships had been. That thought gave him pause; it was not a safe mental track to follow with something as important as this meeting in front of him.

After dressing, he left his room heading downstairs to what would most likely be his only daytime meal depending on how long the later negotiations took. Stopping for a moment outside his brother’s door, he paused wondering if it was even worth his time to knock unsure whether the room’s occupant had made it home the previous night. He rapped lightly on the door, reasoning if his brother was indeed home and knowing about their later meeting, he would be awake. No immediate answer came from within.

As he turned to walk away, a faint click of the door unlocking stopped him. Mokuba slowly opened the door. He stood there, apparently caught in the middle of dressing. Upon seeing who disturbed him, he let out an agitated sigh, “What? I’m up and getting ready, I didn’t forget the meeting.”

Seto knew he could make one of two choices at the moment, give in to the urge that wanted to throttle his brother or do what he had intended when he first knocked. “I was going do to get something to eat, and wondered if you wanted any breakfast. I can have a plate ready for you when you get downstairs.”

He noticed with some amusement the astonished look upon Mokuba's face at the civility of his statements. The words his brother originally intended as a retort to what he expected Seto to say died on his lips, “Sure I’d like that. I’ll be down in a few minutes.” The door closed again between them with Seto leaving to prepare their morning repast.

Grabbing a few items out of the refrigerator, he hastily threw the meal together. Looking up, he handed Mokuba a plate as he walked into the kitchen, noticing with slight annoyance how long his brother’s hair had gotten lately. It had always been long, but now it reached down most of his back. For some reason it had never bothered Seto until he took the time to notice, or care. One would have thought the whole point of having longer hair was to wear it as such, but Seto could not remember ever seeing Mokuba actually wear his hair down. He always had it pulled back one way or another, which Seto found ridiculous. If he was not going to wear it, cut it.

It took a lot to remind himself, he needed to pick his fights with his brother. This one would not be worth the breath it would take to talk about, let alone to fight. Besides, they had both sat there for quite a while eating in peace; he did not want to push it causing things to go completely downhill for the rest of the day.

Mokuba stood picking up his plate and then walked it over to the sink. “I need to leave, have to make sure Carter knows what he’s supposed to be doing today with the test specs on the Mephitic prototype while we’re busy. Thanks for breakfast.”

Seto looked at his watch after Mokuba left the room. They had actually gotten along for twenty minutes. Mokuba had walked out of the room, no slamming door no yelling or swearing. Therefore, they could do it; maybe the day wouldn’t go as bad as he originally thought, although something told Seto not to count on it.

*****

His head hurt. A typical head headache would have been a blessing; hell a gut retching migraine would have been wonderful. But no, his head hurt the only way dealing with someone who was a complete idiot would make your head hurt. It would have been less of a strain to explain quantum physics to Jounouchi and have him understand.

The only thing that kept him from throwing the man out of the room was the potential contract. However, that was becoming less of an incentive as time went on. He tried focusing once again on the information Mokuba was relating to the client; impressed with the way his brother had kept his own frustration from showing. The meeting was going nowhere fast and had been doing so for six hours Seto jadedly noticed. It was over now.

Placing the folder down a little more forcefully than intended, Seto spoke to the men in the room. “Why don’t we call it a day, Mr. Mitchells? We’ve given you a lot of information; I’m sure you just need to sleep on the ideas and will then see the benefits of working with Kaiba Corporation on this venture.” Standing up, he started to walk toward the door, leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind the meeting was over, period.

He held the door open for their guests, waiting with patience he didn’t realize he had left, until they were out of the room. As the last man left the room, Seto shut the door; the room now empty, barring himself and Mokuba. “I should have ended that hours ago, when you had to explain the damn system for the sixth time.” Sighing he sat down in the nearest chair, resting his head upon his hand.

“It was worth trying,” Mokuba sat down opposite him. “So, will they come back tomorrow or should we write this off?”

“Everything was perfect, facts, reports, test figures, your presentation. It’s not our fault if the man is too fucking brainless to know that.” Mokuba looked over at his brother, uncertainty showing through his eyes. “If he doesn’t come back, I’m certain to find someone else who isn’t so unintelligent as to miss the value of this system.”

Getting up to leave the room, Mokuba started to pick up his files; they might need them again sometime. “I’m going to see how Carter got through the beta testing today.”

“Leave it until tomorrow. Go home or wherever, it can all wait until later.” Seto heard rather than saw his brother leave, the soft click of the door opening then shutting again as he left. Alone, he finally sat up in the chair tossing his head back in aggravation. The whole day had been a stupid waste of time, resources, and energy. That voice from the recesses of his mind laughed at him, reminding Seto it was just another failure to add to his list. Wasn’t he tired of that?

It was only failure, he retorted, if they didn’t learn anything, if they made the same mistakes again. For every loss, he could recall ten winning situations. This was just another one, after all Mokuba had done a damn good job and they hadn’t broken into an argument afterwards.

Seto suddenly wondered when his definition of a win or loss had changed so drastically. Once he would have stood there vowing revenge on the bastard for even a seemingly unintentional slight of him or the company. Now, it just wasn’t worth the effort to care, the man wasn’t importance enough to waste any more thought or assets over.

Now that his head had gone from pounding a dull ache, he moved to his office, it was past time to leave as far as he was concerned. Everything else would wait, besides he had another meeting to attend, one that promised to be more interesting by far than the morning one could have ever hoped to be.

There wasn’t adequate time to return home first to change out of his attire; however, he had always kept additional clothing in his office for the nights when he had worked throughout, giving him at least the appearance of change.

The jacket was off and in hand before he made it to his office, the tie followed shortly thereafter. After entering the room, he made a quick change from the plain white business shirt into something better suit for his latest nightly obsession.

Before leaving word with his secretary that he was leaving, he went over a few final items that, unfortunately, would not wait until the next day. They didn’t take too much of his time, and he was out of the building before long, headed to a far more pleasurable rendezvous.


 

onward