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“You sure you should be doing this, Mokuba? I mean, drinking in public...”
“It’ll be fine. People do this all the time. No one cares.”
“It’s just, if the school found out-”
“They won’t! If you care so much, why do you let me in yours, huh?”
“Because that’s just between you and me.” It also meant that Jounouchi could keep an eye on him and make sure he wasn’t getting out of hand, but he left that part out.
“So is this. You, me, and the rest of the party, which is sure to be full of other freshmen. Nobody’s going to tell.”
“Well...” Jounouchi bit his lip. If Kaiba ever found out about this, he was dead. He had no way of stopping the kid, though, and tattling to Kaiba would be a breach of trust in the highest degree. “Okay. Go. But I’m going, too.”
Mokuba dropped the shirts he had been comparing. “What? No!”
“Relax! It’s just so I can look out for cops or teachers or whatever. I’m not going to get in your way.” Jounouchi offered an ingratiating smile, but Mokuba still eyed him with suspicion. “Just in case. And if you need help with anything else, like getting home...”
“I knew it. You don’t trust me. I swear, you are just like my big brother sometimes.” Mokuba turned back to his prospective ensembles.
“Ugh. Those are fighting words.” At least that got a laugh out of him. “But, Mokuba… it’s not that I don’t trust you. I just… you know, I worry.”
“Isn’t that the same as not trusting me?”
“Not exactly. No matter how careful you are, things can go wrong anyway. Look, I promise I’ll leave you alone. I’ll just be there if you need me.”
“Well… alright. But I’m going to be fine.”
He wasn’t.
When he arrived at the party, Mokuba made a beeline for the chaos around the beer pong tables. He paired off with a girl from calculus whose name he'd forgotten and jumped into the next round. Mokuba's aim degraded rapidly as he downed cups, but they went up against a team that was already half-sloshed, so they took the first round. When the senior overseeing the tables grabbed one of Mokuba's arms and one of his teammate's, raised them, and declared them the current champions, something in him clicked. He had to do it again. For honor. For victory.
As all this began to unfold, Jounouchi kept his word. He stood across the room and grew increasingly anxious as Mokuba grew increasingly drunk, but he let him do it. He tried to go through the motions of chatting up a girl or two, but his attention was too scattered to keep anyone's interest for long.
Still, enough was enough. Around 3 AM, when he noticed that Mokuba could barely walk without tripping over his own feet, he knew it was time to intervene. Mokuba would thank him later, when he wasn't dying from alcohol poisoning.
But just as Jounouchi was about to put his plan into action, Mokuba pulled out his phone. “Big brother, you don’t understand,” he announced into the receiver. It didn’t seem to matter that the phone had gone straight to voicemail. He kept going, though the roar of the party behind him threatened to drown out his unsteady voice. “I was born for this. I’m going to win.”
He didn’t.
The next morning, Mokuba was juggling the worst hangover of his life and the enraged Kaiba that had shown up on their doorstep. “I can’t believe you!” Kaiba said. “You put your education, your reputation, and yourself in danger!”
“It was fine,” Mokuba croaked, turning over and snuggling deeper into the couch. Jounouchi hadn’t been able to get him to go any farther the night before. “Jounouchi even came with me.”
Kaiba whirled on Jounouchi. He had to restrain himself from jumping the coffee table and wringing his neck. “You took. My brother. To a party.”
“He’s an adult, Kaiba! I told him not to, but what was I supposed to do, barricade him in? And keep your voice down.”
“You keep your voice down!”
“Both of you keep your voices down!” hissed Mokuba.
“Anyway,” Jounouchi continued in a stage whisper, “I went so he wouldn’t get hurt. You should be thanking me.”
“I should thank you for this?”
“Yes, ‘cause he’ll shake this off in a day and and never do it again. This is a lesson learned, right, Mokuba?”
Mokuba groaned. “Go away.”
“Well... you heard him.” Jounouchi was out the door, leaving Mokuba to recuperate and Kaiba to stew in his rage.
When Kaiba did try to speak again, Mokuba repeated, “Go away. I know you’re worried, big brother, but go away. Jounouchi’s right. I’m not doing that again. Ever.”
Jounouchi had actually been right this time. About everything. Mokuba wouldn't admit it, but he would remember it. Whatever he had been born for, it wasn’t parties, and it definitely wasn’t beer pong.