REBECCA'S PLAN

Summary: Rebecca Hopkins has an elaborate plan to catch Yuugi – a plan that involves the older brother of her sometime-best friend, womanizer Kaiba Mokuba, seducing her number one romantic rival – even though Seto REALLY can't stand Anzu. SetoAnzu, MokubaRebecca.

Note: Yay new story! I'm thinking this one will be 8 or 9 chapters.

Chapter 1: Rebecca's Plan

"Hey MK, I need to talk to you!" Rebecca called, opening the front door of the Kaiba mansion and striding in like she owned it.

Kaiba Mokuba was currently entangled on the living room couch with his latest conquest, and he shut his eyes and pushed the girl deeper into the cushions, fumbling to unhook her bra with one hand. Now that Rebecca was here, she was definitely going to ruin his hookup, so he might as well make the most of the final moments.

"Who's here?" the girl underneath him asked, halfheartedly squirming to get away.

"No one you need to worry about," Mokuba lied. He popped open her bra and copped a feel before Rebecca found them in the living room.

"Disgracing the family name again?" Rebecca snapped, crossing her arms disapprovingly. "What's this latest blonde floozy's story?"

"Hey," the girl said, trying to tug her shirt back down over her ample breasts. She clearly had no idea what Rebecca meant by 'floozy' but the tone of the other girl's voice was unmistakable.

"Honestly, Mokuba, I don't know why you lower yourself like this," Rebecca said, picking her way through scattered couch pillows to grab the girl's bag and high heels. "Why do you go for the body and not the brains? And I really don't understand why it has to be a different body every week."

"I like to keep life interesting," Mokuba said, sitting up to allow Cindy to wiggle out from underneath him. He watched regretfully as she clasped her bra. He winked at her, and she blushed and smiled shyly back. Then Rebecca dumped her purse in her lap and the spell was broken.

"What makes you think I don't have any brains?" Cindy asked defensively, glaring up at Rebecca. "And just who do you think you are, anyway?"

"I'm his PR person," Rebecca lied without missing a beat. "This one definitely isn't going to make it to the tabloids, sugar, so you should probably leave now. And your head makes a funny rattling sound when you move, that's how I know."

Mokuba rolled his eyes and decided to ignore the impending catfight. He set about the far more interesting task of rebuttoning his shirt.

"Excuse me!" Cindy stood up, glaring. "I'll have you know that everyone I know tells me I'm smart-"

Rebecca shoved Cindy's high-heeled shoes into her hands. "What's the lightest element?" she asked politely.

Cindy blinked. "What?"

"What's the derivative of x2?" Rebecca asked, still smiling that bland smile. "Calculus not your thing? Who wrote Ulysses?"

"Homer," Cindy said with certainty. Mokuba groaned. She looked over at him and smiled coyly. He looked away.

Rebecca rolled her eyes deeply. "What's the star closest to the planet earth?" she asked, her eyes somewhere in the back of her skull.

Frustrated, Cindy said, "Well, ex-cuuuse me for not having the solar system memorized."

"It's the sun, you moron," Rebecca said, still politely. "Get out now."

Cindy's jaw dropped, and she looked at Mokuba for backup. He shrugged. "You should probably get going. It's late." Rebecca looked at her watch – it was just after 6pm – and hid a smile.

"See you later, Cindy," Mokuba said, smiling his famous charming smile. She looked bowled over by him for a moment, then hesitatingly said, "It's Susan."

"That's what I said, you just heard me wrong." Mokuba smiled again. "Bye."

Since Susan apparently wasn't getting the message, Rebecca took the girl's arm and dragged her to the door. "Good-bye, Cindy," she said sweetly. "Please don't come back. Like I said, you would look terrible on a tabloid cover." Susan opened her mouth, Rebecca slammed the door in her face, heaved a huge sigh, and returned to the living room.

"Kaiba Mokuba, where do you find these girls?" she asked, shaking her head.

He frowned at her. "Look, Rebecca, who I date-"

"Date?" she interjected, her voice heavy with disbelief. Mokuba had the gall to grin at that.

"Who I hook up with is none of your business," he said, turning away from her and putting his feet up on the couch.

"I'm acting on behalf of the universe," she said, annoyed. "Why do you keep getting involved with these brainless big-boobed clones?"

"Well, you just said half the reason," he said, folding his arms behind his head and closing his eyes. "Cindy had really nice breasts." Rebecca sighed again, and Mokuba opened his eyes to scowl at her.

"Look, Seto dates these intellectual, driven women, and they drive him crazy," Mokuba said, shaking his head. "Why would I want that when I can have a good, uncomplicated time with a gorgeous girl and then kick her out of my life forever? No stress."

"No morals," Rebecca snapped back, but it was an old battle of theirs, and it didn't mean much anymore.

Their friendship was a strange one, formed largely by circumstance, and Rebecca wasn't at all sure that they would even be on speaking terms if they hadn't been thrown together. As it was, they'd hardly had a choice in their friendship. Arthur Hopkins had decided a year after the KaibaCorp GrandPrix to settle down in Domino, where his good friend Mutou Sugoroku still lived. Rebecca was a few months younger than Mokuba, but they were in the same grade, and they entered lower secondary school at the same time. By that point their respective genius had been widely acknowledged, and although their teachers refused to move them up a few grades, the two children were given special projects and tutors and often required to work together. As they advanced into upper secondary school, and the intellectual gap between them and the rest of their classmates grew, the two of them naturally drew together. Now he was 19, she was 18, and they had both decided to attend Sora University (close enough to Domino that they could commute) with a concentration in computer and business administration.

And the thing was, Rebecca genuinely liked Mokuba… she admired his intelligence, he was really funny, he was one of the few people who could keep up with her. Unfortunately, he had acquired a truly disgusting taste in women, which she felt morally obliged to not let pass, so recently they squabbled more often than not.

"You'd be a good guy if it weren't for this dumb commitment thing," Rebecca said now, standing beside the couch and looking down at him.

"I'm nineteen years old, give it a rest," he said, shutting his eyes again. "Tell me why you barged in here and interrupted my date."

"Hookup," Rebecca corrected. She shoved his legs off the couch and sat down quickly, before he could put them back up. He put them back up anyway, in her lap. She shoved them off; he put them back up; she quit.

"Well," she began reasonably. "Now that we've survived our first year of university, and have decided to take a lighter load of classes this semester, I think that this is the perfect time in my life to start a relationship. I am eighteen and mature and well on my way to building my own life."

Mokuba's heart started to thump erratically, and he fell unnaturally still. You know where this is going, he told himself sternly, so don't kid yourself.

"So this is the perfect time to finally go out with Yuugi," Rebecca concluded, just as Mokuba said "So you're gonna jump Yuugi?"

"Date, not hook up with," she told him, scowling.

"Congrats," Mokuba said, staring up at the ceiling. "Not that this is big news to me. You've only been pretending to date him for what, five years?"

Rebecca jumped, and he looked over to see her blush ferociously. "Shut up, Mokuba," she said, shoving his feet off her lap again.

"Aw, come on," he said, leaving his feet on the floor and sitting up. "You think that your pretend relationship with him is less pathetic than my many girlfriends?"

This left her speechless and unexpectedly furious. Mokuba swallowed as he saw her eyes flash dangerously.

"So why are you telling me this?" he asked hastily, but Rebecca wasn't so willing to let that pass.

"How dare you, Kaiba Mokuba?" she demanded, and to his horror he saw that tears were welling up inside those bright blue-green eyes. "I have feelings – actual feelings – for an amazing guy, and you compare those real emotions to your promiscuous sex life?" She jumped up to go, and he leapt to his feet to stop her.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he said hastily, grabbing onto her wrist to stop her, and when that didn't work, wrapping his whole body around her. "That was rude and thoughtless, I didn't mean it, you know I'm dumb about relationships, I'm so sorry," he babbled.

"I should have known better than to talk with you about love," she said scathingly, still trying to shake him off, and that was when the front door slammed and Seto came in shaking a pair of bright pink panties.

"In my car, Mokuba?" he demanded, throwing them on the floor.

Bad time, Seto, Mokuba thought, still clinging to Rebecca to prevent her from leaving.

"And now in the living room?" Seto asked, catching sight of them. He scowled and turned to go, then took a second look and recognized Rebecca. "Hopkins?"

"Your brother is attacking me, make him let me go," she said through clenched teeth, only angrier at the sight of the lacy panties.

"Not until you promise to sit back on the couch and tell me about your plan for Yuugi," Mokuba said, his voice muffled since his head was pressed into her hair. "I'll help, I promise."

She froze, then he felt her relax. He tentatively released her, watching for any sign that she might bolt, but she looked calmer now. Still miffed, but not like she was going to punch his face in.

"I do need your help," she admitted, kicking the panties so that they slid under the couch.

"Hey," Seto said, annoyed. "I want those in the garbage, not under my couch."

"I didn't want to look at them anymore," she said, scowling. Seto could apparently appreciate the sentiment, because he didn't argue further.

"Are you sure those weren't Shina's?" Mokuba asked, knowing perfectly well that they were from his date last weekend.

"Shina wouldn't have worn pink," Seto glared. "And we certainly never would have gotten it on in my car."

"Because Seto has class," Rebecca interjected cuttingly.

"What did you want again?" Mokuba asked, annoyed. He had to agree with Seto, though; he couldn't imagine Shina doing anything the least bit improper. His brother's ex-girlfriend had been an ultracompetent, ambitious, soulless robot of a person with even less personality than those blonde floozies Rebecca kept yelling at him about.

"I wanted Seto's help." Rebecca looked at the older boy beseechingly; he looked at her warily. "Look, I want to date Yuugi-" she began, to which he let out a loud and uncharacteristically undignified snort.

"I know you don't care for him," she glowered, "But I'm not asking you to." Suddenly she looked nervous. "Actually, I'm sort of asking you to date Anzu."

Silence fell immediately and densely in the room.

"They've been hanging out together a lot," Rebecca rushed on, "And you know she's always had a thing for him. I just want her out of the way, you know? Otherwise occupied. Then I can have Yuugi to myself and make him see that he really likes me."

Seto looked at Mokuba. "Can you piss her off again so that she'll storm out?"

"I know it seems sudden," Rebecca said, childishly stamping her foot. "But I thought it out and I really think this is the best plan. I know you just broke up with Shina-"

"Good riddance," Mokuba added, crossing himself.

"-but you still need a date to office parties and such, and Anzu's pretty, so it would work out for you there," Rebecca said, approaching Seto beseechingly. "Plus it could be good business connections – you know she's got an internship with the department of education, managing camps that run during school breaks. Mokuba said you wanted to set up a Duel Monster-oriented camp in KaibaLand. She would be a good contact for that."

"Rebecca, it's very sweet of you to butt into my personal life," Seto said flatly, "But go jump off a bridge."

Since Seto and Rebecca were the only people capable of arguing as viciously as Mokuba and Rebecca, the younger Kaiba jumped in.

"Rebecca, Seto's had a rough day, you've told him your plan, let him think it over," Mokuba said, grabbing her again and this time steering her towards the front door. She let him drag her away, flashing a petulant pout at Seto over her shoulder, which he ignored.

"MK, talk with him for me?" she asked in a low voice once they were in the entrance hall.

Well, if she was calling him by that stupid nickname again, she wasn't mad anymore. MK – some dumb thing she'd picked up in America, calling people by their initials, and putting the family name last. Luckily, Mokuba knew how to get her back.

"Sure I will, Becky," he promised, grinning when her eyes flashed angry again. "I will," he said to reassure her, opening the door and shooing her out. "Run along home like a good little girl. I'll call you tonight." He patted her bum, and Rebecca turned around snarling to rip his throat out, and he shut the door in her face.

"Come on, Seto," Mokuba said, wandering back into the living room after showing Rebecca out. "Help her out. It's not like she's asking a lot, either – Anzu's no bag lady. Might even make Shina jealous to know that you're dating another beautiful woman."

Seto turned to look at Mokuba with real surprise. "I thought I was doing you a favor by refusing to go along with her plan," he said, frowning.

Uh-oh. "Why's that?" Mokuba asked, trying and failing to sound casual.

Seto rolled his eyes. "Come on, Mokuba, it's obvious that you're carrying a major torch for Rebecca. All these women you bring home are just Rebecca replacements – blonde, curvy American girls. But dumb, because if they actually had personality, you'd notice that they weren't Rebecca."

"You never thought to tell me that you noticed this?" Mokuba complained, putting his hands on his hips and glaring at Seto, not bothering to deny the accusation.

"I was hoping you'd work it out on your own," Seto said, going in the kitchen to pour himself a glass of juice. "I don't know why you don't just tell her."

"It's not that easy," Mokuba said, following Seto. "She's totally obsessed with Yuugi."

"Obelisk knows why," Seto said with sudden heat, and Mokuba had to laugh at that.

"Either way, Mokuba," Seto said, leaning against the counter. "You really need to get your love life back on track. Enough fooling around with the cloned women, it's getting sickening."

"You're one to talk!" Mokuba retorted. "Like your love life is any better than mine."

Seto glared. "I don't know what you are talking about," he said with dignity. "I date mature, successful women."

"You date nasty robotic control freaks," Mokuba shot back. "I think it's because after all these years, you still feel more comfortable around machines than people, so you pick women who are as cold and empty as a machine."

Seto and Mokuba were both very strong personalities, and this kitchen had seen a lot of squabbles and even a few shouting matches. Fortunately, they both loved each other deeply, and had become very good at compromising.

"I am perfectly capable of dealing with feelings," Seto said, eyes narrowed.

"Prove it," Mokuba challenged. "Do this favor for Rebecca and date Anzu. She's more human than all your past girlfriends combined."

"That's ridiculous," Seto said patiently. "One person can't be more human than the rest."

"She's got more warmth, more spirit, and more energy than them all," Mokuba countered, then rethought his words. "More positive energy, that is." He smirked, a trait he had clearly picked up from his older brother. "I don't even know if you'd be able to handle her."

Seto smirked right back. "Of course I could. I could handle any woman, even one as emotional as Mazaki." He paused. "That doesn't mean I'd want to, though."

Mokuba started to argue, and Seto held up a hand. "Wait. I propose a truce." Mokuba waited.

"I'll do this thing," Seto said slowly. "I'll seduce Mazaki. I'll have a relationship with her. If you tell Rebecca how you feel about her."

Mokuba started to protest, and Seto shook his head. "We're going to be even on this," he said firmly. "If I'm going to have the kind of relationship you want for me, you'll have the kind of relationship I want for you."

"You'll really have a relationship with Anzu?" Mokuba asked doubtfully.

"Well, there'll have to be a deadline," Seto said, wrinkling his nose. "Maybe after one month."

Mokuba shook his head. "No way, that's no way to measure the quality of a relationship." He paused to think. "After she says she loves you."

Seto looked startled, so Mokuba asked, "Women have told you that they loved you before, right?"

"Of course," Seto said indignantly.

"Have they meant it?" Mokuba asked, this time mischievously. Seto just gave him a dirty look. "Okay, okay." Mokuba gathered his thoughts. "So if you get Anzu to fall in love with you – and to actually say it – I'll tell Rebecca how I feel about her."

"It's a deal." Seto reached across the counter to shake his hand, and after a moment, Mokuba accepted.

"Now get that underwear out from under the couch and burn it," Seto said.