There is no specific time when this is taking place. It's just some time after the end of the show. So no pharaoh, well maybe…, you'll just have to read to find out.
It was a cloudy day, one where you would rather stay in bed that actually move and leave the house. Grim and bleak, just like the current situation he faced now. While it wasn't raining at this moment, it had done so the night before and earlier that morning so that each step became a muddy squish. Mokuba gave his leg one good pull to free his shoe from the unyielding earth, which would already be taking enough from him today that he refused to give it anything else.
He finally reached the building and pulled open the solid oak door. One glance inside and he thought about turning away. The interior was filled with business associates of his brother as well as a large number of his employees who had come to pay their respects.
But they are my employees now, he reminded himself. He still didn't feel ready to fill his brother's place. He had never really quite imagined that he would have to fill it anyway. Seto and he were all each other had had for so long that he never pictured himself standing alone.
"Mokuba...I'm so sorry. I...we all cared about him."
A lie, of course. People didn't care about Seto Kaiba. They were scared of him. No one but Mokuba could miss the seemingly cold-hearted CEO.
"Thanks, Yugi," he replied automatically and began to turn away before a hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"Hey, kid," Joey, Yugi's best friend, said hoarsely. "If you need anything, we're here for you. I couldn't imagine what I would do, if it had been Serenity."
Mokuba kept silent so that he wouldn't say something too harsh. He knew Joey meant well, but he and Seto had never gotten along. Joey was probably happy his sworn enemy lay in a coffin now.
"Oh Mokuba!" came a feminine voice as he was suddenly engulfed in her embrace. Tea, who like the others hadn't been too found of Seto Kaiba, was crying nevertheless. "Are you okay? Well, of course you're not...I just...I'm so sorry...I can't...you're too young...and he was our age...and I just wanted to be here for you."
"Uh, thanks, Tea," Mokuba answered as he try to free himself from her death grip.
"It's just so unreal...I mean, I just don't know," she tried sputtering out through her sobs.
Mokuba suddenly remembered his brother when they were little. How Seto had always protected him, and how now, he had no one. Suddenly, he found himself crying along with Tea. She looked him through blurry eyes.
"Oh Mokuba, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to upset you anymore. I tried not to cry because I knew how much you had to be going though, but...I saw you and I just couldn't…," she stopped as she saw that she had only made the situation worse.
"Ah, Geez...Tea,...look what you did," Joey said as he tried to blink tears out of his own eyes. While he had never been found of Kaiba, he didn't want him dead. Plus, he could only imagine what Mokuba was going through since he had a sister himself, who suddenly appeared in the doorway. She had come with Duke Devlin, who had been all to willing to pick her up and bring her with him.
"Joey!" Serenity ran into his open arms with tears already flowing down her cheeks. Undoubtedly, she had been having similar thoughts as her brother.
Mokuba felt a pang of jealously sweep through him as he watched them embrace. That would never be he and Seto again. When was the last time they had hugged, he wondered now. Seto wasn't an emotional person and didn't often display signs of affection. The one exception was towards Mokuba, and even at times, Seto would hint more at affection than openly display it. Mokuba had long ago learned not to be offended by this. He knew that was just how his brother was.
Joey must have seen Mokuba looking at them for he suddenly pulled away from his sister and simply said," It's good to see you too, sis."
Serenity quickly realized what her brother had noticed when she glanced over at Mokuba, who for once, was standing alone. He had always stood beside his older brother, the two a strange pair. Seto, an ominous presence to say the least, and Mokuba, who always wore a bright smile, except now. Serenity ran over and gave him a tight hug.
"Mokuba, I'm so sorry," she whispered as she continued crying.
He returned the hug but really wanted to leave them all here and be alone. Mokuba knew they all meant well, but they still all had each other, and he had no one. When she pulled away, he quickly thanked them all for coming and made his way out of the room.
Mokuba opened another door in the hallway, and after glancing inside, noticed its vacancy. He slipped inside the dark room and pulled the door shut behind him.
Sinking down to the carpet, he took a deep breath to try to calm himself. Shakily, he opened his locket, which had been left shut since the day he found out his brother was dead. Even with the only light coming from a crack in the curtains of the drawn window, he could clearly make out the figure of his brother in the picture. The one who had sworn to always be there for him and to always protect him. The one who would stop at nothing to find his brother all of the times he had been kidnapped and promised to let no one tear them apart.
"Where are you now, Seto, when I need you the most?" he sobbed. He curled up into a ball and tried to pretend that it was all going to be okay. He finally fell into a gentle sleep on the soft carpet.
"Mokuba's been gone awhile," Yugi said to his friends with a look of concern on his face.
"Maybe we should go find him," Tea answered knowing that Mokuba probably needed a shoulder to cry on right now. He had just lost the one person he cared about most in the world, and it probably wasn't a good idea to leave him unattended for too long.
They left the room and began searching the halls.
When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw were people, lots of them. His head was pounding like he had been hit by a train. He muttered a string of curse words. He jerked up as someone called his name.
"Yes, what the hell do you want?" he said. When they didn't respond, he shrugged. He received that response often by from strangers. No one was ever prepared for his cold responses, as if they didn't know who he was. Everyone still seemed to think that he would be friendly outside of the workplace, but each time, they were proved wrong. People were complete idiots sometimes, or in his opinion, all of the time.
He began to walk away in a bit of a daze. For some reason, he couldn't see completely straight and everything looked slightly blurry and out of proportion. He kept walking and finally looked up to see he was standing in front of his building. He walked inside hoping to get some migraine medicine and coffee into his body as soon as possible.
Yugi and his friends opened every door the came across and were close to giving up when Tristan looked into one and saw a sleeping kid on the ground. He placed his hand on Mokuba's shoulder to wake him up.
Coming out of a dream, Mokuba was unaware of his surroundings. "Seto?"
Tea looked like her heart had just broken. She wrapped her arms around him. "No, honey. He's gone."
"But…where is he?"
Unable to respond, she looked away as tears streamed down her face in hopes she wouldn't upset Mokuba again.
Joey placed his arms around Mokuba and picked him up as if he was a small child, and not a teenager.
"How about you come stay with us for awhile, kid?"
"But what about Seto?" he asked groggily unable to keep his eyes open any longer. It had been days since he had actually slept.
"He'll be fine," Yugi whispered, the first lie he had told in a long time.
Mokuba didn't respond. He was already off in a better world where Seto and he were children again and had all the time in the world.
He walked through his building to the elevator, which would take him up to his office. His head was still throbbing and the rest of his body didn't feel much better. What had happened? He honestly couldn't remember the last twenty-four hours. The last thing he could recall was the previous night. He had still been working at his office trying to figure out the last minute details for his newest design. He would be launching it in America in a few days. He was set to leave the following day. He had been typing on his computer when Mokuba had woken up. His brother had been passed out on the couch, still unable to pull all-nighters like him.
"Seto, what time is it?" Mokuba asked sleepily. He turned to see his older brother still sitting as his desk in the same position he had been in since Mokuba had fallen asleep. In fact, it didn't look like he had moved an inch, except for his fingers which continued to fly over his keyboard.
The typing stilled for a moment. Seto looked at Mokuba as a small smile passed his face.
"Mokuba, I told you if you're tired, go home. Don't worry about me. It's not like I don't do this all of the time."
"Yeah, but I want to wait for you. I won't see you for a whole month after tomorrow."
Seto sighed and turned off his laptop. He still had a few things to finish, but he could take care of them tomorrow on the plane. For now, he would take Mokuba home. He knew his brother wouldn't go home without him, no matter how tired he was.
"Okay, I guess we can go home. I'll take care of the rest tomorrow. I don't want you sleeping on this couch all night," Seto placed his laptop in his briefcase and shut it. He rose and walked over to his brother.
"Thanks, Seto," Mokuba answered smiling up at him. "I'm going to miss you when you're gone."
"Yeah, I'll miss having you nag me to go to bed," Seto replied as he shut off the lights.
"No, I mean it. I won't see you for a whole month. I don't think I've ever gone that long without seeing you." Mokuba said quickly looking up at his big brother. Seto looked over at Mokuba and gave a little laugh.
"A month isn't that long, and you've gone much longer without seeing me quite a few times. Remember last year, I was gone for three months. You were just fine without me," he answered hoping to appease Mokuba. He didn't want Mokuba worrying about him. They both had enough to do while he was gone.
"I guess, but I'm still going to miss you."
"Me too, Mokuba, but I'll always be here for you."
Mokuba smiled at his older brother as they left the building. As always, he believed every word his brother said.
Mokuba screamed as he tried to free himself from the grips of some horrible nightmare. Joey was the first one awake and able to rush into the room. He saw that not only was Mokuba screaming but he was also crying and shaking.
"Hey, Mokuba, it's all right. You're okay. It's just a bad dream," Joey tried to tell him comfortingly. The boy continued to scream and thrashed out at Joey, punching him in the stomach.
"Oomph!" Joey tried to catch his breath and he continued to dodge an onslaught of attacks. "Mokuba, wake up. It's just a bad dream."
Finally, Mokuba's eyes snapped open and he looked around the room frantically. "Where am I? Where's my big brother?"
Instead of answering, Joey pulled Mokuba into a tight hug. As Mokuba fully came awake, he began sobbing as the past few days came back to him. Joey, for all his street talk and trying to act tough, found himself crying along with him.
"Joey? Is everything okay?" Yugi asked as he came into the room. All of them had decided to come back to Joey and Tristan's apartment, which they had moved into together a few months ago. They had put Mokuba in Tristan's room while Tea and Serenity shared Joey's. The rest of their friends had fallen asleep in various places in the living room.
"No, Yugi, not really, but given the circumstances...," he didn't finish but Yugi nodded his head anyways. They both stayed in the room until Mokuba had fallen back into a light sleep.
"Do you think he'll ever be okay?" Joey whispered to Yugi.
Yugi surveyed the boy who had begun tossing and turning in his sleep. "I hope so, Joey, but I just don't know."
Seto made his way to his office. He was surprised when the secretary didn't greet him. It was one thing for him to ignore her, but she always said a cheerful hello to him. He knew it wasn't because she liked him or thought he was a fantastic boss, it was because he could easily replace her in a second.
"Open the door," he ordered her when his door remained close before him. He usually had a key on him in case she was gone, but he seemed to have lost it. Plus, she was here and it was her job.
He looked over at her angrily when she didn't answer or open the door. Was she really that dumb?
"Did you hear me? I said open the door!" he shouted angrily at her. She still didn't move a muscle. It was almost as if he wasn't even there. But he was here, right? Maybe she just wanted to make a scene by refusing to listen to his demands. If that was the case, she should have just handed in her resignation.
"One last time or you're fired," he said evenly. Still she didn't look his way. Instead she picked up the phone which had begun ringing on her desk. Was she serious?
"Hi, no, Mr. Kaiba isn't here...Yes, I understand...It probably does have something to do with his brother's death...I'll tell him as soon as I see him." She wrote something on a post-it and placed it off to the side. Then she looked in Kaiba's direction for a minute, but then shook her head and returned to her work.
Did she just say 'his brother's death?' Mokuba's dead? Seto ran out of the building never noticing the wet streaks his shoes had started leaving behind.
The sun streamed into the room. He blinked awake and looked around the room. It was small with posters of motorcycles and women on the wall. There were a few clothes on the floor and trash on the shelves. Definitely not his room. Even when he was younger, he kept his room clean. Seto had taught him that appearance was everything. A room said a lot about a person.
Where am I? If this isn't my room, than whose room is it?...What was yesterday...oh, it was the...
He blinked back tears as the events from the day before come flooding back to him. Why couldn't he stop crying? That was the last thing Seto would want. He had said tears were for the weak.
A knock pulled him from his thoughts back into the real world. He thought about not answering and just going back to sleep forever. If he never awoke, he couldn't say he would mind. At least his pain would be gone.
"Mokuba, are you awake?" It was little more than a whisper as if the person was afraid of waking him up. It was also a feminine voice but it didn't sound like any of his maids.
"Yeah, I'm up," he finally answered. If nothing else, he at least wanted to know where he was.
Tea walked into the room and sat at the edge of the bed. As if she was afraid to speak, she began smoothing out the covers, not that she was helping. The thin covers were rumpled and wrapped around Mokuba as if he had rolled around in them over and over again.
"Umm...do you need anything? Or want to talk...we're all here for you...we care about you, you know that, right?" Tea said suddenly. She looked at Mokuba seriously.
He nodded as his throat closed up. He felt as if he might cry if he tried to talk. Mokuba had always known they liked him well enough and considered him a friend, but to hear Tea say those words, right now, he simply didn't know what to say.
"Okay, well, if you need anything..." She didn't need to finish. He nodded again. She reached over and hugged him.
"There's breakfast if you feel up to it, if not, don't worry. You won't offend us if you don't eat. We know that you might not be hungry right now. Plus Tristan and Joey made it and even I might not eat it."
Mokuba laughed, the first time since his brother had died. It felt good to laugh and be with friends. He felt less alone. "I'm not really up to eating anything right now, but maybe later. I'm still a little tired. I don't think I slept very well last night."
She smiled understandingly. "Okay, well just let us know."
"Uhhh, one more thing," Mokuba began uncertainly. He wasn't really sure he wanted to ask this or hear the answer.
"Yeah, Mokuba," Her smile was encouraging and she waited patiently.
"Ummm...do you guys really miss him? I mean he was...well...he just really wasn't one of your friends. And I know Joey and he-"
"Mokuba," Tea cut in, "whether your brother consider himself one our friends or not, we'll never know. I don't really care, though. We've always looked at him as one of our friends. And I know you probably think Joey hated him and is glad he's gone, but that's not true. I mean, Joey still thought of him as a friend. Maybe not a good one, but he figured he wasn't always a good friend to Yugi, either."
A tear trickled down Mokuba's face. "I'm glad you guys cared about him. He wasn't as bad as everyone thought. Seto had just been through so much as a kid. He didn't like people getting too close, either. I think he was afraid he would lose them, like he lost our parents."
Tea nodded and found herself starting to cry as well. Joey and Tristan suddenly walked in.
"C'mon Tea, I know it doesn't look good, but don't worry, it tastes okay," Joey said wrapping an arm around her.
She laughed a little. "You really think I'm crying about your food?"
"Well, I would cry if I was you. That stuff is terrible," Duke said as he entered. He was eating a thing that resembled a pancake only it was more black than brown and it was in the shape of a square.
"If it's so terrible then why are you still eating it?" Tristan asked laughing.
"Well, it's not like there's anything else to eat in this house," He replied taking another bite. He made a face and threw the rest away in the trash can by the door. "How do you guys live like this?"
"We're living the dream, baby," Joey answered proudly surveying his surroundings.
"Yeah, not really. This place is smaller than my closet," Duke smiled as Tristan and Joey glared at him.
"Watch it. You're starting to sound like-"
Even though he had cut himself off, the sentence still hung in the air as a dark reminder of who was no longer there. Tea glared at Joey as Mokuba looked down at the bed.
"Sorry, kid. I didn't mean it. Me and my big mouth," Joey tried but Mokuba refused to look at him.
"No, it's fine, Joey. I'll think I just want to be alone for awhile if that's alright," Mokuba replied. Tea looked at him and nodded pulling the three boys out the door with her. She looked back one last time at Mokuba who was facing away from her and shaking silently before she pulled the door closed behind her.
Outside the room, Tristan looked at Joey. "And I always thought I was dumb."
Duke smiled at him as Tea simply shook her head and walked away.
"Don't worry, Tristan, you are," he said, "Joey's just dumber."
If this chapter is sad, no worries, it gets better. Kaiba showed up so not all hope can be lost. Anyway, reviews are always welcomed, the good and the bad.