Twenty six, Twenty seven, Twenty eight, Twenty nine…

Seto Kaiba, Duel Monsters champion and CEO of Kaiba Corp, was counting. He was counting the number of cards in his deck for the sixth time that day. Something about the cards in his hand, the counting of the numbers, the repetitive motions, all of it soothed him. He had been in his home office that day, door closed and left undisturbed, not even by maids or butlers or even Roland himself. They knew on the days when he locked himself away, it was better to leave him be. And so Kaiba was left alone. He counted over and over, again and again, finding comfort in the numbers, in the repetitive motions. And he continued the pattern for a long time.

Seto Kaiba had PTSD. It had been diagnosed a while ago, when there came a point where he had nightmares every day for a week straight, had two flashbacks in one day, and jumped three feet off of the ground at the sound of the doorbell ringing. It was Mokuba who begged him to see a doctor, and the psychiatrist gave him a diagnosis, along with some medication to take for the nightmares and depression. Kaiba took them and felt much better afterward, but after the week of straight nightmares Mokuba insisted on sleeping with him until they stopped. And they did shortly after. The signs of him having a flashback were different. Sometimes he shook so hard he couldn't type or write. Other times he stared into space, although sometimes outsiders mistook that as him concentrating- but Mokuba knew the difference because it was all in his eyes. Occasionally something would happen and he would dissociate. And then there was what he was doing now. Repetitive counting of his cards. Mokuba thought it might be a sensory thing- the smoothness of the cards, the repetitive motions, the constant presence of the numbers.

There was only one person on earth who could ever break him out of it.

Mokuba Kaiba, the younger brother of Seto, had just gotten home from school, when Roland pulled him aside.

"Excuse me, Mr. Kaiba, but I want to inform you that your brother has locked himself in the office today." He said.

Mokuba understood what he meant by this. The maids, the butlers, Roland, and the staff, were not dumb enough to go into their bosses office when he was like this. They knew without hesitation that they would be fired. The only one who could breach the perimeter was Mokuba. So Mokuba nodded to Roland.

"I'll take care of it." He promised.

With that, he ran off to the home office.

He opened the door, to see his brother repeatedly counting his cards over and over again. He hadn't even noticed the door opening. Mokuba sighed. He went in and shut the door, knowing his brother wouldn't like anyone seeing what was about to happen. The first step had to be done. He went over to his brother and climbed into his lap. Seto was still in that universe of his own making, and so Mokuba went onto step two. He gently wrapped a hand around his brother's arm, and forcibly lowered it, and the cards.

"It's okay, Seto. I'm here." Mokuba said.

Seto was still counting. It was time for step three. Mokuba leaned his head on his brother's chest, and wrapped his arms around his neck in a tight embrace, wrapping his legs around his waist. He held on as tight as he could, without cutting off his brother's air supply. And he held onto him, whispering words of comfort to him. He kept it up for a long time. And slowly, the murmuring stopped. For a time, the only noise in the room was Mokuba talking to his brother.

For Seto Kaiba, he didn't notice anything until he felt someone touch him, and then it calmed him. Then, he heard the sound of his brother's voice. And slowly, very slowly, he stopped his recitation. It took him a very long while, but he was able to come back from the world he was entrapped in. When his senses came back to him, a little at a time, He twitched a hand. And then, when his arms began to have feeling again, he lifted it, and started to stroke Mokuba's hair. Mokuba knew it was working now, and he kept it up, talking to his brother, telling him everything was okay, and that he was here, right here, and wasn't going anywhere.

Mokuba better than anyone, knew what most of Seto's Complex PTSD consisted of. Mostly, though, it was nightmares. Flashbacks. Not of defeat, though, as most would assume. It was nightmares and flashbacks of losing him. He assumed it was a flashback that triggered this, because Seto had been fine at breakfast this morning, and when it was a nightmare, Seto usually ended up coming to his bedroom and watching over him until he woke up. So, flashback it must have been. He would ask about it when Seto was stronger again. The hair stroking was a good sign. He kept it up.

Finally, Seto's posture relaxed, and he buried his face in Mokuba's hair, sighing. Mokuba calmed immensely, the tension of seeing his brother like that at any point unnerved him. For a moment, there was nothing but the calm between them. Finally, Seto gave him a kiss. That particular form of affection was pretty rare from him, reserved for only these moments- the ones of extreme stress after a flashback or occasionally a nightmare. Those were the times he showed his little brother the most affection. Mokuba bathed in that, savoring those moments for when his brother said something he didn't mean later on, though he hated the circumstances that created them. And now, he paused in his stream of reassurances to his brother, and let that all in. For a few moments, it was completely quiet in the house. There was no sound of footsteps in the hall, nor talking downstairs. For just a little while, it was the two of them and no one else.

Finally, Mokuba moved. He moved his head just enough to look his brother in the eyes. Seto's eyes were no longer blank and listless. They were… Mokuba tried to find a word for what they were now. It took him a while but he found a few. Relieved, anxious, and underneath it all, scared. Mokuba reached up and patted his cheek.

"It's okay, Seto. I'm here now." He said.

Seto smiled at his little brother. "Thank you, Mokuba."

Mokuba relaxed immensely hearing him speak to him. Then, he got himself together. "I'll go get you some juice and a cookie, and then I'll be right back." He said. Seto nodded, and he scrambled off of his lap and raced to the kitchen to grab him some orange juice and a chocolate chip cookie. He found them both easily, and then, he went back. He got right back into his brother's lap, and handed the items to him.

"Thanks." He said. Mokuba smiled out his thanks, but then gave his brother a taste of his own medicine with a stern glare.

"Drink the juice and eat a bite of the cookie." He tried using the intimidating and stern voice his brother used with him when he was in trouble. Seto, for a moment, looked dubious, then briefly impressed, and then he smiled, and started drinking and taking a few bites of a cookie. Mokuba grinned and gave him a big hug, before nodding his approval. Seto smiled at him.

"You did a good job." Kaiba complimented. "You got my favorite juice and kind of cookie."

Mokuba's grin widened. "I tried." He said. Then, his face grew serious. "What happened? What did you see?"

Seto's face hardened immediately. He did not want to talk about this, but he also knew that Mokuba would be like a dog with a bone with all of this, going and never letting go until he got his answers. Seto decided to relent, and tell him, let him in. "Some glass shattered in the kitchen after you left this morning. I saw…" He hesitated. He hadn't spoken of that incident. He looked into Mokuba's encouraging face, and then continued on. "There was a day when you were still sleeping. I went to get water from the kitchen, because Gozaburo was out and Hobson was in another room. When I got the glass in hand, the front door burst open, and I was so surprised I dropped the glass and Gozaburo saw. He was home early. And he… Well… I won't go into details. But let's just say it was bad."

Mokuba nodded. "I understand. You don't have to talk anymore about it."

Seto nodded. "Satisfied?"

"It's not about me, Seto, It's about you getting this stuff out of your system. Keeping the bad stuff inside, it's not good for you. I know that you don't want to talk about it, but you need to sometimes. Otherwise, it just makes you worse. It's like when you tell me not to go out in the snow when I'm sick, because it will make it worse. You always took care of me when I was sick, and now it's my turn to do it for you. You just have to let me."

Seto looked a bit surprised. But then, he smiled. "I suppose you're right."

"Good." Mokuba smiled. "It's nice to hear that I'm right too once in a while."

"You usually are, Mokuba." He said.

Mokuba responded by giving his brother another hug, and this time, Seto hugged him back right away.

"I love you, big brother."

Seto paused only a moment, before he said, "I love you too, Mokuba."