A Bunch of Blues

The Perfect Gift

A/N: A companion piece to Life's Changes with Seto and his new family. xD It was a Christmas special I put up on ff.net a year ago. :)

Paperwork... An insane amount of paperwork.

It was driving him nuts, but then again, he was already used to it. He could catch a break, but he didn't want to. Not yet anyway. All of this needed to get done and then he could take the week off, with only a few things from work that he could safely do at home. Besides, if he was in the house, Sero would occupy his time, especially since it was the Holidays and the little girl always insisted on spending it with her family—even though Serophia would probably end up hogging his little brother's attention most of the time.

The telephone sitting on top of his desk rang. He was too engrossed in encoding the necessary things, so he didn't pick it up right away, although he was half tempted to just hang up. Still, the loud shrill persisted, filling the once quiet room with a ringing that made his ears want to pop. Sighing in frustration at being interrupted in the slightest, he gave up and answered it, putting the device to his ear as his secretary's voice flooded through the device.

"Mister Kaiba, Roland requests to see you." She told him.

"Send him up." The CEO ordered before he promptly put the phone back in its cradle.

Someone was knocking on his door a few minutes later. He was curious to know what the man wanted, and perhaps getting it over with was the quickest way to return to his work. It was only five in the afternoon, and his family was expecting him to come home at seven—not unless something urgent popped up which he, for once, hoped wouldn't happen.

"Come in." He called out in response and didn't even look up from what he was doing as he waited for the set of footfalls that would eventually announce Roland's arrival.

His fingers flew over the keyboard, carrying on with encoding as he waited for the other paperwork his secretary would have to bring in later for him to sign. A slight frown crossed his features as none of the sounds he had been expecting arrived. His office was eerily quiet, and he was sure he had seen the office door open seconds earlier. He paused in whatever he was doing to check the expansive room, and his eyes fell on a very unexpected sight—unexpected but highly pleasant.

His daughter's face broke out into a wide toothy grin once she saw that she had his rapt attention. Seto blinked rapidly, and before he could say a word, the little girl lifted a hand and waved at him happily as she sat on the cream suede couch in his office.

"Hi, Daddy." She giggled. "Surprise!" She shouted, jumping off of the couch as she performed a little twirl to express her exuberance.

It only took a second for the surprise to fade only to be replaced with the pressing need to inquire. Surely his wife was here?

The CEO cocked an eyebrow at the little girl. "What are you doing here?"

He winced at the forwardness of his own tone of voice. That would probably make Sero shrink back...

"Surprising you." The little girl replied immediately. He didn't know if she was directly unfazed with the inappropriateness of his inquiry, or his daughter just didn't care and decided to ignore her father's blatant question.

Seto smirked. "That did a number." He commented smugly, leaning both of his elbows on top of the desk to gauge the expressions flying across his daughter's face. "So Roland brought you here." Seto mused. "And your mother?"

The little girl's face sobered at the mention of her mom, but she didn't seem upset—just bummed about something. Upon seeing her reaction, Seto already knew Kisara wasn't with her daughter.