Disclaimer: yada, yada, yada. Yu-gi-oh not mine.
Rating: K+
Summary: Based on the moment in the Noah arc when the computerised brat turns the Kaiba bro's to stone. Seto reflects.
My Mountain
He was lost. Irrelevant. The duel was over. Irrelevant. He, Seto Kaiba, had lost a duel that decided the fate of his company. It doesn't matter. Mokuba ... He reached out, smiling, as his brother leapt towards him, reaching ... He saw the flash, the horror in Mokuba's eyes as stone encased them, their fingers, so close, so achingly close, yet unable now to touch. He was stone, a statue, kneeling before his brother. He saw the gentle tear that welled and flowed, living, from his brother's frozen eye. And was glad that his own face had worn a rare smile when Noah's attack had overtaken them.
Mokuba, my brother. Who do you cry for, brother? Do you spend your last living tear on me? Do you cry that I am stone? Ah, no. Don't. Don't cry for what I am. I've always been thus. You've seen it. You've seen my walls, my bastions of stone, that I gather around myself like armour. You've watched me become what I am, a mountain, cold and hard and untouchable. Do you weep that this boy has shown the world the truth of me?
Or is it you? Do you cry that your own warm heart must be caged so? That your joyous movement must be stilled? I know how you must feel. This was never how you were meant to be, my brother. Your movement was not meant to be caged in stone, your warmth smothered by its cold embrace. That's why I wore my walls for you, made myself the mountain to shield your warm valley. I should have done so now, too. But you don't need to cry. Yugi will free you. he doesn't know what it is to fail. Don't fret, Mokuba. you will not be captive long.
But I wish I could be with you now, in this new mountain of yours. I wish I could feel as you feel now that we are the same. Perhaps if Noah hada waited one moment longer, and my mountain could have embraced yours. But I will be content. Your tear glistens, like a delicate crystal, but living. Even now, you live. And I do too. Deep in my mountain's core, safe behind my walls, I have watched your joy, and loved. You are my life, brother.
I will be the mountain. I will wall myself in stone. I will live to watch you live. And I will be content.
Do not weep that we are stone, brother. Rejoice that despite it we may live.