Rock Bottom: Season One

Halfway

"Things should be wrapping up pretty soon here," Kenji Bakura said cheerfully. "I'll be home in less than a month, for sure. Speaking of home, how are things going with just you and the little ones?"

"Well, since Marik decided to sneak off with his friends, I had to get someone to cover my shift tonight, but I already have tomorrow night off, which is good. Mokuba's on the phone with his brother now. Have you talked to Ryou?"

"Yes, earlier today we talked after he won his first duel. He assured me that he and Marik were fine and that they were having fun."

"That's good," she said, sounding a little relieved and a little pleased.

While Mrs. Bakura spoke with her husband on her cell that evening, Mokuba spoke to his brother in a different room.

"How was your day, Mokuba?" Seto's voice came clearly through the Bakura's home phone to the child's ear.

"It was great!" He said excitedly, glad to hear his brother's voice. "We went to the park and played games and had pizza for dinner!"

"That sounds like fun. I'm glad you're doing well."

"Have you won any duels yet?"

"Of course I have! I already have five star chips, which means that I'm halfway to landing myself a spot in the finals."

"Cool! I knew you could do it, bro! I bet you're going to win the whole tournament! Of course, Amane is betting on Ryou winning, but he's her brother, so that's okay."

"Are you using the term betting literally or figuratively?" Seto asked suspiciously.

"Well..."

"What did you two bet?" Seto asked sternly.

"We only bet Duel Monsters cards, not money!" Mokuba answered quickly. "She's working on this really cool fairy/spirit deck, and I had a card she wanted, so—"

"Okay, okay, I believe you," Seto said with a sigh. "Just don't make a habit of it, okay?"

"Okay, I won't!"

"How are Amane and her mother?"

"They're doing well." Mokuba glanced over at Amane and smiled, tempted to kiss her blushing cheek again. "Amane taught me how to braid her hair today."

"That's... cool." Seto honestly didn't know how to respond to that. Then again, hair braiding was a fairly innocent activity. There were a lot of things that were much worse than that for his brother to be doing, so he decided not to let it worry him. "You're behaving well, right?"

"Yes, Seto, I'm on my best behavior," Mokuba assured as Amane snuggled up against his side.

"You're saying please and thank you and all that good stuff?"

"Yes, I am, don't worry about me."

"Good, because if Mrs. Bakura tells me otherwise, then we're going to have a serious problem, won't we?" Seto hadn't actually needed to punish Mokuba for bad behavior in awhile—not since he'd been too young to know any better. He couldn't help but wonder if was Mokuba displaying early maturity due to their circumstances, if it was a result of Seto's good teaching, or if Mokuba was just so sneaky that Seto simply hadn't caught him doing anything bad.

"She won't have anything bad to say about me. She called me a little angel." Mokuba beamed at the memory of those kind words.

"Good." Seto was relieved to hear that.

"Tell me about the people you dueled," Mokuba asked suddenly, still intrigued about the Duelist Kingdom tournament.

"One of them was the American regional champion," Seto explained. "He used a machine-based deck and wore this stupid American flag bandanna. I think he was cheating, but I still won, so it didn't really matter. I won two star chips from him, but I didn't eliminate him, because he didn't wager everything he had."