Note: An AU Seto/Serenity angst romance. I will be using their Japanese names. Seto meets Yugi and the others in first grade. Serenity, years later when he is 18 and she is 16. A lot of things from the anime/manga are in the story. Even though, it is an AU, how Seto and Mokuba become Kaibas is the same as the anime/manga, among other examples. Seto is 23 in this story. Mokuba is 18.
He hears the children playing in the background. The sun is setting. He closes his eyes as the wind gently caresses his hair. Aoi is now four and Suzaku one. It has been a year since she had left him. He looks to his children. Aoi is running. Suzaku is trying to catch up on his short clumsy legs. He falls on his face the next instant. Kaiba gets up dusting the sand off his pants. He reaches for his son, picking him up he wipes the sand off his lips. Suzaku laughs. Looking at the setting sun, he thinks to himself...'Another day and I am still without you...I have to keep going though, if for nothing else for our children.' He calls Aoi. The girl runs to him, taking his hand while the other is holding Suzaku. The three walk away from the beach.
Flashback
He is afraid. His parents had insisted that he go to a public school. He understood that, but that is not why he had been afraid. He was afraid; because he had never been away from them or his younger brother until that point. He knew he had to make the best of the situation. Before entering the building, he turned for one last time to look at his parents; not knowing that would be the last time he would see them alive. He held his head high and had a smile on his face. His look of confidence hid his bluff very well. He bumps into the first of his friends an hour later. The boy introduces Kaiba to his group of friends minutes later. He hadn't even been through his first class period when he is called to the main office. An officer is there to break the news.
He had been sitting at the chair for twenty minutes now. He was currently in his own world. He had completely zoned out the officer and the secretary were trying to break through his wall. Not even thoughts or concern for his brother reached his mind. He still stared at the wall when he feels a tug on his shirt. For some reason, he turns to see a boy his age with the weirdest hair, he has ever seen. It is spiky, red with a few blonde banga around his forehead. The boy looks at him with a curious, innocent expression. "Are you okay?" The boy asks in a barely audible voice. "I just found out my parents died in a car accident less than an hour ago." He still has a stony look on his face. The boy is about to say something when he hears his name being called. As the boy is leaving with his friend, Kaiba notices that they look identical.
During lunch, he is sitting by himself. A privilege that only goes to an outsider, a new kid. Not that he is letting it bother him, he is still in his own little world when the blonde boy along with his friends join him. They didn't even ask if they could. The blonde boy had been leading his brother and their friends to their table; however he went the other way after seeing the brown haired boy all alone. Not only is he alone physically, the expression is painfully evident in his eyes. "My name is Yugi Motou and you are..." "Seto ." Yugi smiles which Seto quickly finds contagious. Yugi, didn't pressure him for a last name, since it seemed like he didn't want to give one. "This is my twin brother; Atemu but everyone calls him Yami...and my best friend Anzu Mazaki... "so what do you say, you want to be considered one of us."
He is disturbed from his trip down memory lane, when his chauffer lets him know they have arrived at the mansion.He picks up his son who happens to be sleeping. His daughter had decided to latch herself onto his leg. After he became an orphan along with his brother; he never thought his place of residence would turn out to be a luxurious one. After their parents died, he took extra care to watch and protect his brother. He never thought Gozaburo Kaiba would one day would come to the orphanage; or that he would challenge the millionaire to a game of chance, in the form of chess. Going from rags to riches so to speak, changed what learning faculity he would attend. Gozaburo thought it would be best if he was home schooled, leaving little time for visitors, specfically Yugi and his friends. In time he slowly forgot about them. Their paths crossed a few years later however, along with new faces. At this point, Gozaburo had been dead for a year. Kaiba had been 15 at the time; Mokuba 12. Kaiba had decided to go back to public school and that is when his life drastically changed, and not neccessarily for the better in his point of view; at least not at first.
As he and his children go inside their house, they are greeted by his brother. Mokuba sees that he is still the same, just like he has been since the day she died. He keeps hoping Seto would have something happen to him, that would take away that look in his eyes. He knows his brother has more or less gotten over the denial stage of his grieving; but the loneliness and regret in his eyes has yet to disappear. He feels the same way as his brother. And just like his brother, he keeps on living for himself, Seto, his niece and nephew. He never really liked Shizuka. It wasn't that she hadn't been a nice person. It had been what had happened during the time she had dated his brother. Seto had slowly started to spend more of his time with her. Up until that point, Seto's attention had been focused on him alone. After their engagement had been announced, Mokuba couldn't help the jealously and resentment that had slowly crept into his heart. As the wedding quickly approached, he tried to squash these feelings, knowing the couple was in it for the long run. He tried his best to be happy for his brother. It hadn't helped that she had reached Seto on a level, not even he had been able to. Mokuba's feelings never allowed him to see beyond those emotions, in order to look for the positive aspects of the situation.
Mokuba sees that Aoi is pulling on her father's pant leg. Suzaku is screaming at the top of his lungs, tears running down his face. He sees that Seto has reached his daily tolerance level, and is about to break down. He quickly goes to diffuse the situation that is about to occur. He picks up Suzaku and drags Aoi away who starts kicking and screaming. She doesn't want to be separated from her father yet. As they are leaving the room, Seto simply stares at the rug lost in his own world. His brother's depression is starting to affect him and his children. He knew his brother truly loved his wife; when his brother came back to their house in a rage, and tears in his eyes one night a year and a half ago.
When Mokuba found out his sister-in-law had become terminally ill; he showed her a little more sympathy and compassion. He had questioned Seto about his problem that night. The answer he had received hadn't exactly shocked him, for it was something he expected of his brother. The form it came in, however had been unexpected, uncharacteristic like, and had come in the form of a slap. His brother had always been hard, since they had been children; however he had never thought his brother could be so cruel, to gone and done what he had. The emotions Mokuba had managed to keep inside for the past year finally flowed free, luckily he had just finished putting Aoi and Suzaku to sleep.
'Why did she have to die?...I can't believe what an idiot I had been...She had been nothing but kind to me, and I had looked upon her as less than dirt...She changed my brother for the better, not even I had been able to do that...And now she is gone things have become so much worse than when he met her. Mokuba walks back into the room his brother is occupying. Seto is in the same position he had been when he left. Only now, the tears have dried on his face. Before Mokuba could stop him, he had grabbed a vase tossing it across the room with all his anger, sorrow, and frustration. Upon impact with the wall, it shatters into small numerous pieces.
Seto falls to the floor. Mokuba sits by his brother and puts his head in his lap. Stroking his brother's hair in an attempt to calm him. He sees more tears springing from his eyes, as Seto raises his head a little to look at him. Seto grabs Mokuba's wrist, as his head falls back into his brother's lap. The moment being too serious, that neither bothers to contemplate how compromising the scene looks. The expression Mokuba had noticed in Seto's eyes, tells him that there is nothing anyone can do to help him. It leaves him feeling helpless, for he can only watch in silence and try his best to comfort his older brother. That expression also let him know that his brother's heart is beyond repair. 'It is all up to Seto, if he wants to get better...For now my brother is just a shell of a man...I will be there for him always, regardless of this.
