Chapter Song: Jimmy Eat World - A Praise Chorus

Chapter 46: Neverland

Tamara pulled up to the curb on Wendy Street in front of a yellow two-story house with a blue and orange dragon coiled around a tree. A table splattered with paint and several drying objects stood in the middle of a covered driveway.

Joan sprang out of the car, stretched, and pulled her backpack out of the trunk along with a case of beer they'd picked up on the way. She left the suitcase she'd packed for Japan in the bottom of the trunk along with her laptop bag. Mokuba and the bodyguards picked up their own backpacks, and Joan led her entourage up the concrete walkway. The sound of guitar, drum, and trumpet music emanating from inside the house grew louder as they approached.

Joan opened the door without knocking and headed past a small mural of an alligator and pirate ship. Several names in cursive script, hers among them, crested the tops of ocean waves, blending seamlessly into the art.

Mokuba and the bodyguards paused awkwardly at the threshold of a great room. Sunlight sparkled through a high, iridescent window. A creepy clown doll, perched on a support beam, grinned down at them.

Joan dropped the case of beer on a kitchen island alongside a fluffy orange cat. Joan exchanged eyebrow raises with three musicians before unloading as many bottles as she could fit into the refrigerator. She then grabbed Mokuba's hand and tossed her backpack behind a couch before sinking into it, pulling Mokuba down with her. Joan then sang along with the chorus of the song until it ended.

"'Sup Joan?" A bald man with a well-groomed beard put down his guitar and came over to Joan for a hug. Joan introduced André to Mokuba as they shook hands.

The drummer, the tallest of the bunch with dark brown hair and a perpetual smile over his clean-shaven face, stood next in line to hug Joan. "This the big bad billionaire from that news article?"

"One of them, yeah," Joan said. "Dimitri, Mokuba. Mokuba, Dimitri is the one who introduced me to the rest of these folks. He was my TA in calculus."

"TA?" Mokuba asked as he shook Dimitri's hand.

"Teaching Assistant," Joan clarified as she recalled Mokuba had never gone to university.

"Oh yeah," Mokuba said, "I've seen that on several job applications."

"Dude, did you just skip college and go straight to being a CEO?" André asked.

Mokuba rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, though I feel like I missed out on a lot."

"It's never too late to start," the trumpeter chimed in. The trumpeter wore round glasses, a bright yellow dress, and long, purple hair with a matching beard. "I'm Kris and I go by they/them." Kris shook Mokuba's hand and hugged Joan.

"Hi Kris. I'm Mokuba and I go by he/him. Nice nail polish," Mokuba commented.

"Thanks," they said. Kris went over to the bodyguards and introduced themself while Joan asked André and Dimitri what they had been up to lately.

The sliding door to the back yard opened, and in walked a short woman with a cloud of red hair. "Hey, Joan! Give me a minute to get this dirt off my hands." She went to the kitchen sink and began washing.

Dimitri gestured at the redhead. "That's Jessica. We're her Lost Boys."

Jessica finished washing her hands and came over to hug Joan. Jessica then rose as high as her tiptoes would take her to hug Mokuba. "So, you're one of the Kaiba brothers, huh?"

Mokuba returned the hug clumsily. "Yeah, I'm Mokuba."

Jessica drew back and nodded at the bodyguards standing against the wall. "Who are your other friends?"

"We're bodyguards," Tamara said.

Jessica's eyebrows shot up. "OK, but do you have names?"

"I'm Tamara. I train with Marc sometimes."

"Joe," Mokuba's bodyguard stated without elaboration. "You always leave the front door unlocked?"

"Yes," Jessica said. "We've got six people living here, so there's always someone home. If you think there's some sort of threat though, we could lock it tonight."

"I've had death threats," Joan admitted, "but those people probably have no idea I'm here."

Jessica pulled out her phone. "I'll text the others and make sure they have their keys."

"Wait, real death threats?" Kris asked. "How serious are they?"

Joan plopped back onto the couch, and Mokuba put an arm around her. "I don't know. I only read the first one before handing it over to Seto and letting his staff handle it."

"I wish you'd told me sooner," Mokuba said. "I need to see those records." He pulled out his phone and texted Roland.

"Roland showed us," Tamara said. "There were six threats in all. Nobody from this area, but better safe than sorry."

"Roland the guy who got arrested?" Jessica asked.

Mokuba slipped his phone back into his pocket. "Yes, but we bailed him out the next day. He's been working for Seto and me for over a decade."

"Good to know you take care of your peeps," Dimitri commented.

A slight blush crept into Mokuba's cheeks as he thought of how his only friends over the past five years were the ones he paid. Still, when it came to learning about new people, work seemed like the most logical place to start. "So, what do you all do?"

The Neverlanders made their rounds explaining their occupations. Dimitri and André both lectured at the local university while Kris worked towards a bachelor's degree in physics. Meanwhile, Jessica pursued a master's degree in social work.

As they got better acquainted with one another, Mokuba began feeling some of what Joan had mentioned earlier about home being wherever the people you love are. He didn't know if Joan had any romantic connection with these people, but he could tell she loved them like he loved Seto. Neverland was a second home to her. Maybe someday, it could be his as well.

Chapter Song: World of Broken Dreams – David Rovics

Chapter 47: Medication

As Mokuba learned more about the Neverlanders, he began asking more questions about university life, wondering if it was anything like the few movies he'd seen. Dimitri and Jessica shooed the fluffy orange cat, whom they called Toad, off the counter and bustled around the kitchen while they chatted about some of the finer points of campus culture. Joan waited for a lul in the conversation to ask the burning question on her mind. "Hey, have you two set a wedding date yet?"

Toad climbed onto Joan's lap and sniffed Mokuba.

Jessica cracked some eggs into a bowl. "No wedding. We're just happy being engaged right now."

Dimitri opened a can of black beans. "Yeah, no need to ruin things with the big M-word."

Mokuba extended a hand to pet Toad, and Toad climbed partially into Mokuba's lap, sprawling across both laps as if he owned them.

Joan nodded as she recalled the trauma Dimitri had experienced after his first marriage fell apart. "You can always throw a party without it being a legally binding thing, you know."

"But we throw parties all the time anyway," Dimitri pointed out.

"That's true," Joan agreed. Dimitri's first wedding had been such a spectacular affair that it would be hard to top without a rich bride's father footing the bill. The parties Jessica and Dimitri threw on a regular basis, by contrast, were far more intimate and also more fun. We can find more meaning in a campfire's glow than we ever learned in a year or so, Joan thought.

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"So, what about you?" André asked. "What's with that Mrs. Kaiba stuff going around the internet? Some people say you're getting a divorce, but I don't believe it."

Joan laughed. "Michael says that when we get married, we should get divorced every day. After all, his name is on the ring too." She held out her hand and let André examine the ring.

"The plan is to throw a big party and simply change Joan's last name," Mokuba said. "I know it's weird, but in theory that will satisfy Seto."

André frowned. "No offense, but it looks like this ring came out of a Cracker Jack box."

"It's electronic. Activate random glow," Joan said. The holographic mask dissolved, revealing the full beauty of the gems.

André's jaw dropped. "Oh. How'd you manage that?"

"Trade secret," Mokuba said.

"I wanna see!" Jessica set her cutting board and knife aside. She dashed over to the couch and nudged André aside. "So pretty!"

Dimitri and Kris took turns looking and fawning as well.

"Hey, y'all still atheists?" Joan asked.

Dimitri pulled out a large skillet and set it on the stove. "Yeah, why?"

Joan considered telling them about the magic but decided to hold off. "Being in love activates the same feelings in my brain that religion used to."

"Girl, you got some wires crossed in your brain," André said.

"I've never denied that. We all do."

"Have you figured out what medication you're supposed to be on yet?" Dimitri plopped some patties into the skillet.

Joan grinned, remembering Dimitri's theory that everyone, without exception, needed to be on some sort of medication. "Sure. It's called lots and lots of hard cock."

"Wouldn't want you going without that tonight," Jessica said. "We can pitch a tent for you in the back yard. You want the air mattress or the crash pad?"

"What do you say, rich boy?" Joan asked.

"Air mattress, I guess."

Jessica nodded at the bodyguards. "How about you two? Crash pad or couch?"

"Either way, I'm not picky," Tamara said.

"Joe, any preference?"

"No," Mokuba's bodyguard replied.

Jessica slid a cutting board full of tomatoes into a bowl. "OK then, I guess you can hash it out later tonight."

"You need help with anything?" Joan asked.

"Nah, we got it." Dimitri pulled a few beers out of the fridge and used a wall-mounted bottle opener. The caps clattered on the counter. He kept one beer for himself and passed the rest around.

Jessica put the finishing touches on a salad while Dimitri flipped the patties and pulled out plates. "Ever had black bean burgers?" Jessica asked.

Mokuba's eyes grew wide. "No. Are those . . .?"

"Yep! You're in for a treat."

A few short minutes later, everyone was chowing down. Although different from his usual favorite food, Mokuba marveled at how good the meatless meal tasted. He lost himself in the variety of textures the various ingredients provided, so much so that he missed the Neverlanders' foray into the politics of prostitution.

A little squeeze from Joan stole Mokuba's attention away from the food. "Of course he's paying me."

Jessica swallowed. "OK, but you . . . you're different. You do a lot of things most people wouldn't normally do. You're technically an escort anyway though, right?"

"Technically, but that's just the word we're using to avoid legal issues since escorts don't guarantee sex. Call it whatever you want, but copulation is part of my job description, especially when I'm working for Seto."

"Sex should never be a guarantee," Dimitri said.

"If I may weigh in," Mokuba said, "My brother would have gone crazy years ago without consistent access to sex. It never really made sense to me until recently, but he never wanted a girlfriend. This whole love thing just sorta happened to us."

"So how long have you been a, uh, client?" Jessica asked.

"Just a couple of weeks, but Seto has been at it for more than a decade. It stabilizes his mood, and I've found it beneficial too."

"Kinda like your weed," Joan pointed out.

"You know that's for PTSD, right?" Kris said.

Joan nodded, but Mokuba twitched. "What do you think my brother has? Our parents died when we were really little, and we were adopted by one of the most heartless men on the planet. Seto sheltered me from that man and many others who tried to take advantage of our vulnerability as kids. He couldn't afford to go soft or numb his mind with substances. I don't know what your experiences were, but don't think for a second that growing up rich made our lives easy."

A tense silence settled over the group before Dimitri said, "Thank you for sharing."

"How about we go play a board game?" Jessica suggested.

Joan smiled with relief. "Great idea. Got anything new?"

André and Kris went back to playing music while everyone else headed upstairs, past a mural of a tropical jungle with Wendy and the Lost Boys painted on both sides of the stairwell. The stairs opened up to a spacious game room with two couches and shag rugs. Shelves with games and textbooks lined the walls, and a chalkboard displayed an eclectic combination of drawings and equations.

Toad followed them up the stairs and plopped himself on the coffee table. He meowed until Joan petted him. Jessica let Mokuba pick out a game, and they played around the cat. Tamara joined in the game as well, but Joe simply stood watch.

Later that evening, Jessica and Tamara helped Joan set up the tent in the back yard. Having never set up a tent before, Mokuba merely watched the ladies handle it. Once finished, Joan and Mokuba bid the others goodnight and got settled.

Mokuba and Joan inflated the air mattress with an electric pump, zipped up the tent, and enjoyed a leisurely fuck. The scent of reefer floated through the thin nylon as André and Kris enjoyed an evening smoke. Joan and Mokuba stifled their moans, but the two Neverlanders still noticed.

André waited until the moans subsided to call out. "Yo Joan! Got your daily dose of cock?"

"Yeah, but I could always use more," Joan replied.

"I thought you told Seto you weren't taking on anyone new," Mokuba hissed.

"Yeah, well André isn't exactly new to me. Jessica had a dream about us hooking up, and then we did that just for fun."

"Girl, if you'd asked me earlier, I'd be all up in you, but this shit makes me soft," André said. "Let me know if you're still down for it tomorrow."

"OK," Joan called back.

"I'm not ready for another threesome," Mokuba whispered. "Seto and Marc were one thing because I've known them longer than I've known you. Plus you've got your IUD out."

"How about I just give him a quick blowjob tomorrow while you chill with the Neverlanders? André has the best-tasting cum I've ever had."

"Even with the marijuana?"

"Maybe because of it. Tobacco, on the other hand, makes cum taste downright toxic. Michael used to smoke, and his cum got so much better after he quit."

"I'll keep that in mind," Mokuba said.

They lay in silence for a while, listening to Kris and André chat about theoretical physics. The words flew over Joan's head as usual, but at the same time she found them comforting coming from such familiar voices. The whistle of a nearby Coast Starlight train as it approached a station brought a nostalgic smile to her lips. She drifted off to sleep on Mokuba's chest, surrounded by more love and friendship than she could fairly ask for in a world of broken dreams.