I still don't, or ever will, own any rights to yugioh!
Chapter
Two
Four men in black suits carried a white coffin through the churchyard towards its final resting place. Behind it walked Kaiba who remained emotionless and carried a single white rose. Even though he had had a week to come to terms with his brother's death he was still in denial and was convinced that he would wake up to find that the whole thing had just been a bad dream, and was so convinced by this that he hadn't even given a speech during the funeral readings. Behind him followed members of his staff, and friends of Mokuba which included Yugi and his gang, all of whom had shed tears at some point during the readings.
As they approached the grave Kaiba was unable to take his eyes off the huge emptiness that he was about to place his brother in. It seemed to symbolise the way he was feeling, but were as you could see the earth at the bottom where the coffin would soon be at rest, his emptiness continued even further. He found himself standing alone at one side with everybody else gathered around the other with tears still flowing freely, whilst he didn't feel any need to show such emotion. Not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't.
The coffin was slowly lowered into the hole and brought gently to rest at the bottom. Soft earth slowly covered the coffin lid and Kaiba released the rose from his hand where it landed on top of a small mound before it too was also covered. He closed his eyes and wished that he'd been able to say a better farewell to Mokuba but knew that his brother would have understood how hard it was for him. Mokuba was the only one who even came close to knowing what he'd been through and nobody would ever replace him.
Kaiba felt something soft rest on his arm and opened his eyes to see Yugi standing beside him with a sympathetic look on his face. He looked down to see that Yugi had placed a hand on his arm as a sign of support. After gazing back at the grave that was almost filled in he coldly shook off the hand, turned and left.
"Kaiba, please." Yugi almost cried as he watched him walk away and felt himself being held back by his grandfather.
"Let him be." Yugi's grandfather kindly told him. "It's not easy accepting the loss of someone you love, especially when they were the only living family you had."
"That's why he needs us." Yugi tried again to persuade the others to let him approach Kaiba once more like he had done all week.
Tristan sighed and rolled his wheelchair closer to his friend, being careful not to hit anyone with his outstretched leg. "I think what Gramps is trying to say is that Kaiba will come to us in his own time."
"This is Kaiba we're talking about." Joey butted in. At first he was sympathetic towards Kaiba but as the week went on and he watched Kaiba coldly reject his friend's offer of help time after time, his true feelings about him soon returned back to normal. "Mister 'I don't need anybody else' …… Ow!" He rubbed his arm were Tea had hit him hard.
"Don't be so insensitive!" she remarked angrily.
"Not today you two." Duke told the two arguing friends who both agreed that now was neither the time nor place for their foolish behaviour.
"We should move along to the wake." Yugi's grandfather patted his grandson on the shoulder and slowly they all left the grave.
All apart from Bakura who stood looking down at the grave as the final shovelful of earth was laid to rest. Until Yugi's grandfather had mentioned it he had no idea that Mokuba had been Kaiba's only family. Now he understood why Yugi tried so hard to help Kaiba through the hard time that was about to lie ahead of him. "Goodbye Mokuba." he whispered softly before turning to follow the others. "We'll make sure he's okay."
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After avoiding the wake, Kaiba returned home to his mansion late evening. He didn't want to be around others who would spend all of their time just pitying him and drinking themselves drunk, so instead he spent the time working at his company's building away from anyone and anything that would remind him of the day's events. The place was now empty with only the remains of the food and drink scattered around the ground floor rooms, and a note from his maid, who he had given time off for the funeral, saying that she would clean up everything the moment she started the next morning.
Right now, the only thing he wanted to do now was rest. A week of near sleeplessness was starting to catch up with him and he could feel his body weakening with each passing moment. He climbed the two staircases, careful not to trip with his feet dragging as though made of lead, and made his way to his room. He stopped as he came to the open door of Mokuba's room and after a moments hesitation he entered.
The room was just like it had been a couple of weeks back the last time Kaiba had entered it. Piles of comic books where stacked down one side of Mokuba's unmade bed which was guarded by a chibi plush of a blue eyes white dragon. Wires and control pads for a games console sprawled out across the floor with a selection of games that had not been placed back inside their cases. Countless posters of his brother's favourite bands, films and idols lined the walls almost covering them underneath.
Kaiba approached the bed and sat down, pushing chibi blue eyes to one side as he did so. He glanced around the room as though he had never seen it before and stopped his gaze once he spotted a photo frame standing on a shelf that also displayed several action figures. He got up from the bed and walked over to the shelf were he picked up the frame.
Staring back at him was a photo of himself and Mokuba. He couldn't remember when it had been taken and was even more surprised to see a faint smile upon his face as he stood next to Mokuba who looked as though his face would split in two if his smile had been any bigger.
He was about to place the frame back on the shelf when his hand misjudged the position as a result of his tiredness, and it fell to the floor. The glass shattered and several tiny pieces skewered through the photo.
Kaiba bent down to retrieve it. Never mind. He thought to himself staring at the ruined photo. It'll be easy to replace, all we have to do is pose for another photo together... And then it hit him. There would be no more photos of the two of them, Mokuba was dead.
The little strength that he had disappeared and he collapsed down to his knees, narrowly missing the shards of glass. He would never again see his brother's smiling face or hear his brother's voice complain about him spending too much time working. Both his eyes and his throat were now burning. He fought hard to keep back the surge of emotion that had been building up inside him all this time, but he failed and burst into floods of tears.
An hour later and Kaiba was still in the same spot and crying heavily. Everything life had thrown at him so far he had stood firm and taken each blow. He had had to stay strong and grow up quick, not only for himself but for Mokuba, and so the experience had taught him that emotions were only for the weak. But right now he didn't care anymore.
Without his brother there was no reason for living. And there he remained all night letting out years of built up pain.
