Disclaimer: I don't own YGO!, nor do I profit from this work
A/N: An entry for the Silentshipping round of Computerfreak101's contest. Not my pairing. Seriously. Then again, neither is Puppyshiping, but it managed to write itself in. Anyhow, five hundred words on the nose, almost a character study, the bare amount of action theoretically set some time down the line but I'm sorry to say that when this takes place got lost in my mind somewhere. I don't particularly care for this, but here it is anyway (enthused now, aren't you?)
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Kawai Shizuka loves her big brother.
She'd have to be several paces past ungrateful not to. Katsuya has always looked after her, leant her the strength that he's had to fight so hard for himself. He makes her want to be stronger, and give strength back, and when she does he never acts as though it's his just due. Everything that she's ever given him— from postcards to smiles— he's treated like a gift.
She doesn't think he'd treat news of a crush on Kaiba Seto the same way.
It isn't something she really understands, but it is a problem. Not just because he's arrogant and unkind, because his obsession with victory is so many shades of unhealthy. No, she's seen the way he looks at Mokuba, restrained, but with no less love for him than Katsuya has for her. If Kaiba (and even though she feels his dream-touches long after she wakes, she always thinks of him as Kaiba) were as horrible as he seems to prefer people to believe, he wouldn't be able to look at anyone that way.
In the back of her mind, Shizuka wonders if that's what this all comes down to, Kaiba being someone's big brother, and loving and protecting that someone so fiercely. But that sounds a little strange when she says it out loud, so she lets it go. The whole thing is neither here nor there.
What is here is a flutter deep in her belly as she sees Kaiba coming towards them (Katsuya, Yugi, Honda, Anzu and her— them) from the crowd of duelists. There must be hundreds, maybe thousands, of people gathered for this tournament, and yet in the next second he's here (part of her registers that Mokuba is too, and later she'll feel guilty over barely noticing him a second time). And Shizuka must have missed something, because the second after that, Katsuya is spitting nails at Kaiba's attitude.
Granted, Shizuka tries not to listen at times like this, when Kaiba is baiting Yugi and Katsuya is the one taking it like an eager fish. Shizuka loves her big brother dearly, but she's more world-wise than she once was, and she knows he isn't perfect; she knows a few words set him off as effectively as a match does dynamite, and his fuse is a short one. Honestly, she prefers not to think about it.
Shizuka snaps back to the world around her as, with a parting shot, Kaiba is gone in a swish of designer coat, Mokuba trailing behind him.
"Jerk!" Katsuya barks at Kaiba's retreating back. "Walk away from me before I get a shot at the last word…"
Kaiba hadn't even started out talking to him and still had him at the first word, as Anzu points out, but she may as well not be talking to Katsuya either for all that he's paying attention. He watches Kaiba until the latter disappears.
Shizuka knows about that too. It's not something she can't think about.
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Praise appreciated, concrit treasured, flames raspberried