Kaiba can hear the wailing the moment he opens his car door. It continues on and on as he walks up the steps to the front door and pauses on the front step. He considers knocking to be polite, but it's only a passing thought. Under the circumstances, that seems like a good way to end up stuck on the front porch. So he twists the door handle, and finding the front door unlocked, he lets himself into the house.
He follows the screaming to find Mokuba pacing around his bedroom. The source of the noise, his brother's newborn, is tucked into his arms, refusing to be still or lulled out of her unhappiness. His brother is frantic and doesn't notice Kaiba at first. He's attempting to bargain with the baby, trying to ask her what she wants and what he can do for silence.
Kaiba tunes out the noise and takes a moment to asses the situation. Mokuba's shirt is a mess of food and things he would rather not think about. Kaiba wonders if his brother had any sleep at all in the past two days.
Kaiba doesn't move quickly, but he has his niece tucked against his chest before Mokube notices his presence.
"Seto!" Mokuba's whole body sags now that he doesn't need to support a newborn in his arms. He looks like he has more to say but can't form the right words.
Kaiba doesn't wait to figure out what Mokuba wants to say. He pushes his brother straight to the bathroom. "Shower," he orders, shutting the door and closing Mokuba in the bathroom.
Somehow, Mokuba manages to turn the shower on and strip off his clothes. He gets under the stream only to lurch back out when the water burns his skin. It wakes him up, and he realizes how pathetic he must look, a father who can't soothe his daughter. It was his wife's turn to make the store run, and ever since she got into her car, his daughter had wailed and wailed.
He adjusts the water temperature and then debates washing his hair. He doesn't want to leave his brother with his crying infant for too long. He doesn't want his brother to think he's incompetent. But his shirt was disgusting, and he's sure that his hair is just as gross. So he makes the decision to wash it as quickly as possible.
Mokuba finishes cleaning himself and turns off the water with a sigh, missing the hot water immediately. He wraps a towel around his body and looks at the pile of clothes. He decides that they're not going anywhere near his body until they've been washed in boiling water and emerges from the bathroom, ready with an apology for Seto.
The room is empty.
Mokuba knows that his brother wouldn't do anything to hurt his daughter, but he's overcome with the need to know where she is. He doesn't bother with clothing as he walks into the hallway calling out, "Seto?"
His brother doesn't respond, but he doesn't need to. Mokuba finds Seto in the nursery across the hall, sitting in the rocking chair with a quiet bundle in his arms.
For a moment, Mokuba wonders where his daughter went. Surely that can't be her sitting with his brother. The room is too quiet.
But he approaches, and sure enough, that's his daughter.
Mokuba isn't sure how he stays upright. His entire body feels like dead weight as he realizes that his brother successfully put his daughter to sleep when he couldn't.
Seto realizes that he's crying before he does. His brother, comfortable with a wailing infant, turns away from him to stare at the wall, and Mokuba knows that the wailing is him this time.
"Go take a nap," Seto orders.
"I'm a terrible father!" Mokuba cries as he sinks down to sit on the floor.
Seto stiffens, and Mokuba knows that his brother is wishing he would have saved his breakdown for later, but Mokuba is glad his wife isn't around to see it. She has too many doubts of her own.
Maybe they weren't ready for a baby?
His daughter begins crying again, her wails joining his, and Mokuba knows this is evidence of how bad he is at being a father.
Seto stands, cursing under his breath, and leaves the room. Mokuba assumes that he's taking his daughter somewhere quieter so she can sleep away from her terrible father, but then Seto returns, balancing a glass of water in one hand. "Drink," he orders, "and then do us both a favor and start a pot of tea."
Seto leaves him alone, and Mokuba drinks the cold water, somehow composing himself. He finds his brother sitting in the kitchen and talking to his daughter in a low voice. If it were anyone else, he might say they were talking in a baby voice, but Mokuba won't even say that about his brother in his thoughts. He starts a pot of water before joining his brother at the table.
"You always cried when Dad tried to walk around with you."
Mokuba picks up his head. This is news to him. But Seto never did like talking about what happened after mom died.
"Rocking you to sleep always worked, but Dad didn't like the chair or the nursery. And you liked to cry all night long." Seto pauses and frowns. "I thought about smothering you with a pillow a few times."
Mokuba knows that confession shouldn't make him smile, but it does.
Seto stands up, raising his daughter into the air as she coos at him. "It's like anything else. Trial and error. I figured out what worked for you before Dad did, but that doesn't mean anything. You'll figure out how to take care of her, and you'll be just fine."
Then Seto gives Mokuba his daughter back as the water begins to boil. Mokuba looks down at his daughter, her wide eyes following her uncle's every movement as he makes two cups of tea. He doesn't have any real memories of his parents. For a brief period of time, there was Gozaburo, the monster he never wants to be.
But Seto was always there. Seto was there for everything.
Mokuba smiles down at his daughter. "I guess I did have the best example to learn from."
Seto puts the teacups down on the table, ignoring his comment, but Mokuba knows that he understands the compliment.