FollowTheRobin owns nothing, because if I did somehow manage to lure it off Kazuki Takahashi, he would have killed himself a long time ago.
What I do own is a plot to lengthen this with, but do tell if that's worth doing because other than that, I'm also very lazy. Continue the story, or leave it be?
And yes, reviews are still appreciated!
Some promises are made to be broken. He had promised himself to never look back again once that final duel was over. He had promised himself life would be the same without him. Finally the throne would be passed over to someone who really deserved it. It was for the best, wasn't it? Everything and everyone would move on like nothing happened.
Everyone except him.
Seto Kaiba didn't now when his rivalry and revenge turned into obsession that in turn became lust, and by some magic trick, evolved into love. He didn't know how, why or when it happened but one day Atemu's burning eyes were all that mattered to him. They ignited a spark inside of him, brought life to a part of Seto that had been since long lost. The first months without him he would have preferred them to have stayed dead. But it was far too late and when the months went on, endlessly slow like time itself had stopped for him only, Kaiba knew there was no turning back. He wasn't a man of love or trust. He was a man of pride and his life had room for nothing more than Mokuba. That was the way it was and how it had been for many cold, rough years. And he had been fine that way.
He had to be fine that way because to Seto, it was his only way of survival. But survival isn't the same as living and for the first time, his ideals began to crumble. What he had first thought of as a life of strength, that he himself was a man so far from the weak, empathic creatures he shared the Earth with, turned out to not have been that impressive at all. He hadn't known how weak he had actually been before those ruby eyes met his for the last time. Seto hadn't said much, not what he wanted to say. Partially because his mind shut down completely. His heart too rusty to comprehend what was happening to him, had been happening for a really long time. But also partially because all the things Seto wanted to say, couldn't be put down in words.
First he hadn't believed in Atemu. Or, Yami. The other Yugi. He'd just thought of him as Yugi. That scrawny little kid everyone bullied because he didn't have the guts to stand up for himself. He let people come close and because of that they hurt him. Kept hurting him all over again and yet, Yugi never gave up. His heart stayed warm and his eyes never lost their innocence. Kaiba had been… perplexed, bewildered of how such a weak person could continue to exist in a world that was nothing but cold and cruel. He had even gone to such lengths as to be repulsed. Ashamed even that someone like that could beat him, Seto Kaiba. As close to a God on Earth one could come.
Not that he believed in Gods. Not until he started to believe in Atemu. The former pharaoh who he himself was the reincarnation of Horus, the falcon God of the skies, symbol of resurrection and the rising sun. Seto didn't know when or why he started to believe, but one day the pieces just seemed to fall into place. And honestly, he had seen so many strange and unexplainable things during the time he and Yugi had known each other. What was another surprise amongst hundreds of others? He'd never say it out loud but in a way, Yugi helped him. Kaiba had always thought that being cold-hearted and emotionless, keeping what you truly felt well hidden, that turning yourself into Pandora's box was what defined power, discipline and most of all greatness. It was, after all, survival of the fittest that was the one and only rule and Seto would be damned if he was not the fittest of them all.
And still, his mighty walls were crushed by one simple, small yet passionately arrogant smirk. The smirk of the man who beat him, in what he was the best at. Games. Seto had always played them, no matter in what aspect of life he had mastered them to a level where he did not only win the rounds, he even set the rules. He dealt the cards, he won the chips, he created the field. And still, there he was, and in one moment those petty things didn't really matter anymore. Face to face with The King of Games. What a stupid title. If someone would have told him all those years ago at the orphanage that he would lose a game to a short little punk in the blink of an eye, Seto would have laughed. If someone would have told him after Gozaburo took him in that he would once find love in his dead, barely beating heart and lust in his rusted veins, Seto would have laughed even harder. And that in itself spoke many words since he never really laughed anymore.
That was the irony of life, he guessed. Not only did he lose the game, but also he lost a part of himself. A part he never knew he had. And to who? A God, a thousands of years old spirit – residing in a puzzle, no less – who after everything he put them through, returned to the afterlife. The fields of Aaru, the boat of Ra, eternal peace and rest for a soul that had been restless for far too long. Seto had been blind with anger. Now in hindsight he could see it was childish of him. For what could he demand of a man he had been nothing but a rival to? Whom he had only tried to crush and humiliate every time they'd crossed paths? Atemu owed him nothing, and in turn Seto only craved so much more.
Seto promised himself to never feel a thing like that in his life. He promised not to miss someone and to never care for anyone but himself and his brother. How mistaken he had been. Not only did he miss the damned spirit, but also did he yearn and crave for him with every stupid part of his pathetic being. And the worst part was that nothing helped. Nothing filled the emptiness, the hole and the hollow space inside of him that he had lived with for years. For crying out loud, he had been hollow. So why was it not until now that the emptiness inside of him actually started to burn?
If Seto could have him back he would. If he himself was reserved a place in the endless fields or wherever those pure of heart belonged, he would have leaped there no doubt. But he wasn't, far from it. His heart was so far from pure it was cold and lifeless, only a piece of coal left in its place. And if it had been pure, then what good would it have done if it was no longer with him? It had been stolen, sneakily so, by a God. Because no matter what a pharaoh was, in Setos eyes Atemu was more than that. He was… divine. Holy. The only thing in his life that really was, since Seto had always believed nothing to be holy.
And for the first time in Seto Kaiba's life, he had been wrong. He often found himself wondering if one could be brought back from the dead. Until recently he had not believed in such a thing as life after death, but as his ideals fell little by little, he couldn't help but wonder. Selfish as it was, Seto had always taken that which was rightfully his. Perhaps the problem wasn't that it was selfish of him to want someone who deserved rest more than anyone, but the fact that Atemu had never rightfully been his to begin with. He hadn't been anything to Seto but a nuisance that always came in the way. An obstacle that was impossible to remove, but Seto had tried. Always would have even if it killed him.
And now when the man was gone, Seto for the first time heard the silence. Really, fully listened to it. Understood what it was whispering to him and the cold in his room that he had grown used to, was now unbearable. It was as if a shadow, or a veil of night had just lowered itself over his life and never really left it. He never showed any of this on the outside, though. Even if he had lost his dignity and a part of life itself – for that had been what Atemu had always done, provided him with a reason other than Mokuba, something to fight for, a goal to reach for a man who had always thought himself to have everything – it didn't mean Kaiba would lose face. He still had his pride, and he would never let it go.
Not even for him.
He had read somewhere during one of many sleepless nights, that it was believed in Ancient Egypt that a shadow could not live without a person, and in turn the person could not live without the shadow. If Atemu was the darker side of Yugi, a shadow self, then there had to be truth in the myths he had slowly started to... not believe, perhaps, but accept as something that wasn't quite as ludicrous as he first thought it to be. And if so being the case, being weak seemed almost inevitable now because he had lost his shadow.
Maybe one day they'd meet again. He would never truly know until the final day came when every card was dealt and there were no second gives. When it was time for Mokuba to take over KaibaCorp and all that the name meant, a name he himself had ridden of its sins. Only then would Seto truly know. But the most terrifying part of it all was that, no matter how hard he fought or how hard he tried, he was probably unrequited in this… affection, love, or perhaps curse was a better word for it. If he ever made it to wherever Atemu rested, it would most probably have been in vain. Despite that Kaiba was king of the modern age, although not wearing a crown, there was one question the mighty CEO could never answer.
What would a God ever want with a mortal?
The Sun Rises In The East