T. K.: This is set somewhere between Duelist Kingdom and Battle City. I don't own YGO.
"What is it, Mokuba?"
That always freaked Mokuba out a little bit, the way Seto never had to look up to know his little brother was standing there.
"Mokuba?" Now Seto did look up, those blue eyes pinning his little brother.
"Do- Do you… love me?"
Seto's normally icy features thawed as his jaw dropped slightly. "What?"
"Never mind!" Mokuba yelled as he ran to his room.
Seto sat there for another second before the slam of Mokuba's door had him out of his seat and moving down the hall. Seto, for the first time in a long time, had no idea what he was going to say. He knocked but got no answer; he entered anyway.
"Mokuba?"
"You used to call me Mokie, you know?" The child's voice was muffled in his pillow, but Seto still understood. "You haven't called me Mokie since we were adopted."
Yet another reminder of how badly Seto had screwed up by choosing Kaiba Gozaburo as their 'father'. Sitting gently on the bed, he gathered Mokuba to his chest, Mokuba struggling to get away, but Seto got him settled in his lap. "What brought this on? Why would you think I don't love you?"
"Because I can't think of a time when you've said you do."
Seto himself could think of a few times, but as he looked on the memories, he realized what Mokuba was really saying. He hadn't said it since Death-T, after he had supposedly changed. He stopped saying the L-word long before that, when Gozaburo had taken them in.
It was time to make up for that mistake.
"Look at me, Mokuba."
The child lift his head but didn't look his brother in the eyes. Seto guided Mokuba's head up and brushed the few tears from his cheeks with his thumbs.
"Look at me and see the truth. I love you, ototo, even though I haven't said it nearly enough in your twelve short years. You know I did what I had to, that I had stop loving you when he was alive, to keep you alive, to keep him from hurting you. You were just a pawn to him, but to me, you're the king and I had to act like the knight and make my moves unpredictable so that he would focus on me to keep you safe. I had to act like you weren't there and keep his eyes on the threat. I thought that you realized that, but I guess I was too focused on our game to see the pain I was causing you. Mokie, please accept this apology and know deep down that I have always loved you, even when I didn't realize it myself."
Mokuba had resisted most of his tears but now, safe in this knowledge, finally let himself release all the pain he had been holding back. Seto held him, also safe in the knowledge that he loved his little brother.