Chapter Text
Seto leaned his head on his fist and and read over the monotonous report from his research and development team. Apparently they were struggling to work out a kink in one of their latest experimental programs, and were giving yet another update basically spelling out their incompetence.
He put it aside for the time being and swiveled his chair to stare out the floor to ceiling window at the city below. In the midst of his absent musings he went for the drawer on the left side of his desk and drew out a sketchbook and paper. He turned back to the desk, opened up to a blank page somewhere in the middle of the book, and with light stroke began sketching what he recalled of the image that had just been in front of his eyes.
He drew with care, but little thought; if he pressed for the image too hard he would only push it away. He sketched until he thought he’d captured all of it, and when he was done, placed the pencil down on the desk and studied his work. In one motion, he collected the book, twisted around, and held it up to compare what he’d created to the image outside the window.
Seto found all of his errors right away. The slight distortion of his angles, the inaccurate number of windows on one of the buildings, the missing balcony on a smaller building further away; one that could have easily been overlooked.
He flipped back to the previous page where he’d made red marks, and noted an improvement, but also noted the things he’d gotten the last time around but missed on this occasion.
The sound of the door jostling open pulled him out of his work. Kaiba snapped the notebook closed and turned around, ready to chastise whoever it was that thought it appropriate to invade his office without announcing themselves first. Whatever insult was on his tongue fell dead when he saw who it was, and the anger was replaced with an annoyed scowl.
“Wheeler,” he said. “What have I told you about barging into my office?”
“Dunno.” Joey put a box wrapped in cloth on the desk and deposited himself on one of the couches right in front of the desk. “Maybe something like ‘thank you, Joey, for always bringing me an extra bento because I’m a prick who don’t eat in the middle of the day even though I look like I’m friggin anemic.’ Somethin’ like that, just a guess."
Seto humphed, pulling the box forward and unwrapping it. “I do not look anemic,” he argued. “You just can’t entertain yourself so you have to bother me.” He took the lid off the bento and set it aside. “Why don’t you bother my brother for a change?”
“Can’t bother a guy on a business trip. Plus he always brings his lunch.”
“You realize I have a personal chef at home. If I wanted lunch, I would have it.”
“Yup.”
Seto bit into a piece of tonkatsu. It was perfectly juicy with a delightful crunch. The rest of the box was simple; consisting of rice and egg with some pickled carrot salad. They ate their lunch in silence, Joey’s much the same as Kaiba’s.
Halfway through Joey perked. “Oh--” he covered his full mouth and quickly finished chewing as he grabbed something out of the plastic bag sitting at his feet. He took out a can of tea and tossed it over.
Kaiba caught it and read the label. Shockingly, another new one. He huffed and placed the can down on the counter. “Where do you find these things?” he grumbled.
“Convenience store. A convenience store is this place, like a little place, where ya go and there’s food there--”
“I know what a convenience store is, Wheeler.”
They went back to eating in peace. When Joey was done, he took a long chug of his soda and croaked out a ghastly belch. Seto’s nose scrunched.
“You’re disgusting.”
Joey rocked to his feet and shuffled over to the desk, hands tucked casually in his pockets. His eyes scanned over the desk, not for any reason in particular. Seto kept eating and ignored him, but looked up to find Joey’s gaze had fallen sternly on the sketchbook.
Joey pointed to it. “Whazzat?” He asked. “Since when you draw?”
“Of course I draw,” Seto said. “Schematics. Designs. Things don’t get made if you don’t draw them out.”
“Oh. I see. Surprised you don’t got that kinda stuff in a locked up file or something--” he reached for the book, and got a hand under it before Seto could stop him.
Joey whisked the book away and cracked it open to the middle page. His brow twisted. He glanced between the drawing and the city outside the window. Seto quickly stood and tried to swipe the book back, but Joey turned away just in time.
“Don’t look like a schematic to me,” Joey said.
Seto clenched his fist. “Wheeler,” he growled. “I didn’t say you could look at that.”
Joey flipped a few pages in. “Aw, come on, I wanna see. You draw some pretty fancy schematics.” He found, further back, a sketch of Seto’s office, one of some books sitting on the corner of his desk, a whole bunch of the city, and one of a spider. At the top of every page was a long set of numbers with what appeared to be a date at the end of it. Joey referred to them. “Hey, what’s these numbers mean? That how many drawings you done or somethin?”
Seto stormed around the desk and grabbed the book back. “None of your business," he bit. He marched back over to the desk and put the sketchbook safely back in its drawer.
“I dunno why you’re so weird about having hobbies,” Joey said. “Everybodies got hobbies, Kaiba. It’s good for the brain and the heart.” He meandered back over to the desk and eyed the almost empty bento. “You gonna finish that?*
Seto handed it over, and Joey wasted no time scarfing down the rest.
Joey barely finished chewing when he stuck the lid back on the box and looked at Seto. “Ready to go?” He asked.
Seto went to the coat rack standing in the corner of the room, and grabbed the black trenchcoat off the hook. “I don’t want to be gone long, I have work to do.”
“Yeah, yeah, you always got somethin’a do.”
Joey led them out of the office as Seto slipped into the long trenchcoat. The garment hugged Seto’s shape without being too tight. He secured the top five of the double buttons and put on the thin pair of gloves in the pockets. He locked the office door behind them and they made their way down together.
They walked down the chilly streets of Domino's financial district with their hands stuck in their pockets. Right around the corner from KaibaCorp there was a small cafe that appeared a touch too hippy for the area but did good business off the backs of the moguls. The interior was all browns and the pops of color were few and pastels. The space was decorated with the stray plant and there were various ways to sit; one could choose a pair of chairs by one window, or a four person table by the opposite. There was also a love seat and several other tables, most only seating two.
A young woman smiled and greeted them as they came through the door. “Mr. Wheeler,” she said cheerfully. “Nice to see you.”
“Oh hey,” Wheeler greeted with the same familiarity. “Feel like I ain't seen ya in a while.”
“No, school started again, I don't work as often.”
“Nice, how's it? First year, right?”
The girl nodded, and she and Joey carried on a conversation for a little while as Kaiba studied the menu.
Seto squinted at the hand written board. His brow pressed together so hard it made his head hurt. He blinked at the pain and turned away to spare himself the headache. He sucked in a quiet breath and huffed it out.
Joey nudged his arm. “Yo, whatcha gettin?”
Kaiba flicked a dismissive hand. “I don't care, just order me something.”
“Frozen triple cream caramel drink it is.”
“Wheeler.”
“You're so boring.” Joey ordered for them. “One frozen hojicha and one iced oat milk latte, please and thanks.” He whipped out his wallet and flipped a few bills out of the clip. When he handed it over he told the girl to keep the change.
Seto had wandered away from the counter and was staring at the building across the street. Joey stood beside him and stared at the same spot for a while. After a little bit he leaned over and whispered.
“What are we staring at?”
Seto clicked his tongue. “I'm just thinking. I know that's a concept you're unfamiliar with.”
Joey's name was called and he scurried over to the counter to grab their drinks. He handed Seto his as they left the cafe, and they walked another block away to the small patch of green between the skyscrapers. The park was quaint but nice. It was a narrow patch of grass with a winding path down the center that went all the way across the block, leading from one side to another. Small trees occupied the space, and pieces of art that doubled as something for kids to climb on.
Joey led them to their bench and they settled down. He spread his arm out on the back of the bench. Seto crossed his legs and tucked this free hand between his thighs.
They sipped their drinks in peace. Kaiba watched a stray bird hop around one of the bare tree branches and memorized its shapes and lines as it moved around. Another soon joined it, and after a few seconds they flew away together.
“Whatcha doin after work?” Joey asked.
Seto glanced at him. “Working out at home.”
“Can I come over?”
“Fine.” Seto sipped his coffee. “Did you get the packet I sent you?”
Joey didn't answer. He stared casually at one of the trees and never responded.
“Wheeler,” Seto prodded. “Did you hear me?”
“I heard you. But we're on break, I don't answer work questions.”
Seto rolled his eyes. “Please. You can hardly call what you do work. All you have to do is show up. I'm the one who has to do the real work.”
“Work’s work. And the rule applies to you, too.”
Seto scoffed. “You're ridiculous.” He took a longer sip of his coffee and they fell into silence.
After a while Joey nudged him and pointed to the mural on the wall across from them. “Hey, has that always been there?”
Seto looked at the piece of art in question. “No,” he said. “They must have put that up recently.”
The art wasn't particularly inspired. It was just a nice painting of various flowers with some words on top.
“I like it,” Joey said. “Adds a nice pop’a color.” He leaned forward and read them aloud. “Rain firms the ground,” he said. “The hell’s that mean?”
“It's like pressure makes diamonds,” Seto provided.
“Oooh.” Joey leaned back and replaced his arm on the bench. “Ya know, I always hated those kinda sayings. I'm not a better person because I had to go through some shit.”
Seto humphed in agreement. He stood up. “I'm ready to head back.”
Joey spring to a stand and made to follow. “Ey, whatcha want for dinner tonight?”
“Why? Do you plan to stay that long?”
“Figure I'm goin all the way out there, might as well make it worth my while.”
“You know you don't have to use my gym.”
“I know, but I wanna. Besides, you're alone this weekend, right? I'll keep you company.”
Seto sneered. “Oh joy,” he grumbled. They came to a halt at the front of KaibaCorp. “Go home,” he urged. “I have real work to do.”
“Alright fine. Ey, bring my boxes.”
“I'll text you when I'm leaving the office.” Seto barely left him with goodbye and retreated into the building.
He made his way back up to his office and placed the coffee on the Blue Eyes coaster sitting on his desk. He went back to what he'd been doing.
After reading over the report again he started writing up a response email. He swiftly typed out a whole paragraph of numbers, then copied it to the translation program and copied the proper form into the body of the email.
He sent it off and closed the laptop, and turned his chair around to stare at the city.
Seto set his pace on the treadmill. Joey hopped up on the one beside his and started fiddling with the buttons.
“Whatcha startin at?” He asked
“I'm working up to a jog.”
“Aw, a jog? You're so boring.”
“I'm not going to start sprinting on cold muscles, Wheeler.”
Joey set his start speed just as low. “Alright, alright,” he conceded.
They started with a walk. The home gym was spacious but not huge. There were three treadmills against the wall, a section with weights against the adjoining wall, a rowing machine in the middle accompanied by a few other machines to guarantee a full body workout. All of the walls facing the outside were topped by windows to let in plenty of natural light.
Seto checked his emails as the walk went on. He absently upped the speed, and after a few minutes put the phone down.
“You have an appearance next week at Kaiba Land.”
“I know, I put it on my calendar.”
“You were late last time.”
“I know, ain't gonna happen this time.”
“Be sure that it doesn't.” Seto sipped his speed to a swift walk.
Joey did the same. He eyed his exercise partner. “Runnin yet?”
“No.”
Joey upped his speed to a jog. “I'm runnin.”
“I don't care.”
Seto upped his speed to match Joey's.
They kept this pace for a little while until Seto upped him by 3. Joey was right behind him, upping his by 4.
Seto went up two more. Joey matched him. They were running now. Seto casually upped his even more. Joey matched him, but he was starting to huff and puff. They stayed at this pace for a while, Seto controlled his breathing but wasn't anywhere near winded yet. Joey upped his speed first and pushed his legs even harder. Seto followed him a few seconds later, but increased his speed four times more.
They were sprinting now. Seto maintained only a touch more decorum in his exertion, but even he was starting to strain under the speed. Joey matches him, but only maintained the pace for a few seconds before he started falling behind the pace.
He only managed an “oh, shit--” before losing pace entirely. His hands reached for the bars but he was already on his ass.
Seto started laughing, his hands fumbling for the buttons. The laughter loosened up his muscles, and in the brief lapse of concentration, he, too, fell behind pace and went hurtling off the treadmill.
Joey rolled around on his back and held his stomach, laughing so hard he couldn't breathe.
He rolled over and reached towards Seto, still groaning on the floor.
“Are you okay?” He wheezed.
Seto sat up and rolled over onto his back, spent in body and breath.
Joey mirrored his position, and they just laid there a while trying to catch their breath.
“So,” he panted. “Whataya wanna do next?”
Joey popped open the bottle of wine and poured Seto's glass before his own. They were out of their work out clothes, freshly showered. The house was mostly dark - as was often the case - but the kitchen was bright as Seto began preparing dinner.
Joey handed him his glass of wine and it was accepted without thanks. He looked Seto up and down, noting the frilly apron themed to Blue Eyes White Dragon.
“I'm still surprised you wear that thing,” he commented.
“If you didn't think I was going to wear it then why did you buy it?”
“To add to your Blue Eyes merch collection.” Joey wandered over and sat at the island. He took a sip of wine and did a few twirls on the stool before coming to a stop. “Whatcha makin?”
“Marinated pork chops.” Seto grabbed the bag of marinating meat out of the fridge along with everything else he would need. Joey stood by, occupying himself with his phone or his wine.
Seto put the meat in the oven and set the timer, then started on the sauteed vegetables. In the midst of doing this, his phone started to vibrate somewhere in the room. He wiped his hands and searched for it in his pockets and on the counter.
“I got it,” Joey said, picking the phone off the counter. He took a glimpse at the screen, and furrowed his brow. There was a notification box, but no words. There were numbers for the title and body. “Uh--”
Seto swiped the phone and checked his messages. It was a text from his brother, just checking in.
“Who was it?” Joey asked.
“Just Mokuba.” Seto sent a quick response and put his phone in his pocket.
“Hey, how come all your contacts is listed as numbers?”
“I don't know what you mean.”
“I mean like my contact is just a buncha numbers. Well, and the dog emoji. But it ain't my phone number. How come you do it like that?”
Seto shrugged and didn't otherwise respond. He stirred the vegetables and hoped the conversation would die there. He took a sip of his wine.
“Come to think of it,” Joey said. “I feel like I've never seen nothin but numbers on your desk. Everything, it's all numbers. You really dealing with that many numbers?”
“I run a multi-million dollar tech company, of course I'm dealing with that many numbers.”
“Still. Feels weird.”
“Of course it would feel weird to you.”
The timer beeped, Seto took out the pork and flipped it over and put it back in. He finished the vegetables and left them on low. While they waited for the food to finish, Seto retrieved the small Quarto board from the next room and they played a couple of rounds.
At the end of the second Joey grabbed their wine glasses and bottle and carried them to the dining room just as the timer ticked down to zero. Seto plated their food and soon joined him.
They are dinner in silence, and when Seto had finished over half his meal he leaned back and sipped his wine. Joey shoveled the rest onto his own plate.
“So I been readin this book lately,” he started. “About these dudes who exhibitioned to the South Pole. First guys to overwinter. And holy shit did these dudes got no business doin this shit.”
“Have you finished it?”
“No, but you gotta read it. It's crazy. Really good too.”
Seto hummed. “Maybe I'll procure a copy.”
“You can borrow mine.”
Seto put his glass down and poured himself more wine. “That won't be necessary. It probably has your slobber all over it.”
“It ain't in the prettiest condition,” Joey admitted. “Alright, but tell me if you read it, huh?”
“I will.”
“I'll text ya the name.” Joey did so right away.
Seto's phone on the table lit up with a notification, and Joey barely caught a glance at it before it was taken away.
“I'll look it up,” Seto said.
He did a quick search on his phone and found a digital version of the book to download. He tucked the thought away for later and put his phone away.
Joey cleaned up after dinner. Seto relaxed at the table with his glass of wine. He scrolled through a new batch of emails and categorized them accordingly. One marked ‘urgent’ he clicked on right away just to give a once over - on the off chance it actually was urgent. As soon as he opened it he was bombarded with a wall of text.
Apparently this message had somehow slipped past the filter; perhaps because it was marked ‘urgent.’ He made a note to himself to alter the program later.
As predicted, it wasn’t very urgent.
Joey emerged from the kitchen, humming a tune with two ice cream bars in hand. He tossed one to Seto who glanced at it with half a frown, but opened it up anyway.
“This is just a ploy,” he said. “So you can have two.”
Joey plopped down in his chair and tore open his own ice cream. “Nah. Someday you’ll eat it all.”
Seto took a bite. His was plain vanilla ice cream covered with a plain dark chocolate shell. Joey’s was much more involved, including nuts, caramel and chocolate swirls.
“You wanna watch a movie or you want me to dip?”
“We can watch something, I’m sleeping in tomorrow.”
“Ya want something stupid or something legit?”
Set hummed, considering his answer. He took another bite of the ice cream bar and handed the rest to his friend. Joey scarfed down the two of them and got rid of the trash while Seto went to the home theatre and started setting up the movie. In the middle of doing this, he got a text from Joey. Apparently he wanted to be in the living room.
Seto huffed and stopped what he was doing. As he made his way into the living room he called into the mansion.
“Wheeler!”
“What!?”
“”Why do you want to be in the living room!”
“It’s more comfortable!”
Seto scoffed. He stopped short when he detected the smell of something savory. “Are you making popcorn?”
“Yeah!”
“Why!? You just ate!”
“I want popcorn with the movie!”
Seto rolled his eyes and stalked off to the living room. He turned on the TV and settled down on the couch as he flipped through the various entertainment options. He found several movies that looked impossibly dumb and low budget. Joey soon arrived and deposited himself on the couch with a bowl of popcorn. He left his slippers on the floor and sat crisscrossed.
“So? Legit or dumb?”
“Legit,” Seto decided, handing over the remote.
Joey scrolled for a little bit, and stopped in the classics section. Seto rolled his eyes. He could have predicted this.
“You’re going to make me watch another one of your ‘necessary classics’?” He grumbled, stealing a few pieces of popcorn.
“Oh, this one. This one’s pretty good.”
Joey pressed play, and the muffled classic music started to play. Seto sighed back into the couch. Not every classic movie he’d been made to watch had been boring or unfunny. The front credits rolled by, Seto occupied himself with his phone as they went. When the first scene began, it was quiet, and he suddenly didn’t have faith that this was an outlier.
It really was a lot of nothing. There were two boys by a rail station, then a man walking up to one of the buildings. The shots weren’t very inspired, and the music was boring. The men wrung something in his hands as he nodded to the man in the building. His mouth moved, but no words came out.
Seto furrowed his brow and grabbed the remote. He turned up the volume but only the music went up.
A black screen with text on it suddenly popped up.
“Oh, it’s silent,” Joey said.
“It’s--?” Seto’s mouth snapped shut. “Oh.” He put the remote down and sat back.
His jaw clenched so hard his teeth hurt. He watched this trio of people wallow, and every time the words flashed on screen he felt the rising frustration.
“This movie is boring,” Seto blurted out.
“It just takes a minute to get started,” Joey claimed. “And it’s a real understated flic--”
“I don’t care,” Seto snapped. He grabbed the remote and turned it off. “It’s-- you suck at picking movies.”
Joey was taken aback. “Wha-- geez. The hell’s got you twisted?”
“Nothing.” Seto put on a movie they’d already seen and they both liked.
Joey rolled his eyes. He was displaced when Seto stole the blanket off his lap and kicked him in the thigh, demanding he scooch over.
Joey moved and Seto laid down. The movie rolled on, but the moment Seto was horizontal, he started to doze off.
When he opened his eyes again the credits were rolling. Joey shook him by the ankle.
“Hey, you awake? I’m gonna take off.”
Seto slowly sat up. He threw the blanket off and scrubbed his eyes. “I’ll walk you out,” he grumbled.
He walked Joey to the door.
“You want me to keep you company tomorrow?” Joey asked.
“I don’t care,” Seto said. “I told you I’m sleeping in.”
“I’ll come by, don’t got anything else to do.”
“Of course you don’t.”
Joey turned around right outside the door. “See ya tomorrow.”
“Yeah, whatever.”
They said goodnight and Seto closed and locked the door behind him. He sighed, and made his way upstairs. No echoes carried across the big empty mansion. He got dressed for bed in equal silence, clicked on his white noise machine, and laid down under the canopy of the bed, settling into complete darkness.
No matter how long he laid there, his mind wouldn’t settle. He tried to blend the thoughts into the white noise, but it wasn’t working. He tried music instead, but that was equally ineffective.
After a while, Seto huffed, and got out of bed. He put on his slippers and robe and padded out of the room. He passed through the long empty corridors, following what little light there was coming through the windows; provided by the moon and the few spotlights dotting the garden outside.
He found his way to the library and opened the large, creaky door. This space seemed even quieter than the rest of the house. He clicked on one of the small table lights and pulled a random book off the shelf.
He sat on the edge of a chair and held the book in his lap, scanning the title.
His jaw clenched.
It simply wasn’t right. Nothing about it was right. The symbols swapped places, they were out of order and misshapen, shortened when they shouldn’t have been shortened, and blended together or skipped entirely. Just reading the title - just the title - made his chest ache with frustration. When he opened to the first page that frustration boiled over; struck with a wall of text that made no sense and had never made sense.
His teeth grit, his hands clenched the book so hard his fingertips made dents in the cover. Seto stood, and in a burst of rage, threw the book as hard as he could across the room. The spine cracked and some of the pages spilled out as it fell to the floor.
Seto clenched his fists and huffed. He turned out the lights and stormed out of the library, slamming the door behind him.