Fairytale

AU eventual Prideshipping SetoxYami, "My brother doesn't believe in happy endings." After Mokuba's inevitable death, Yami finds himself the only one left to bear the cross that is Seto Kaiba's grief.

-

A/N: Hi everybody! This is Lizzie. I"m stealing SK's computer for just long enough to post this. Thanks so much for all the reviews I got. They made me a happy authoress. I hope you enjoy chapter two as well. ;)

-

Seto Kaiba was at ease in many places only because he toted a spotless reputation in his public dealings, his private dealings were another another story altogether, but right now, it was the public, and the image that mattered. Rather unluckily for him, this public dealing did not call for an act. He was genuinely afraid, genuinely worried, and...genuinely aware that the was about the lose the person dearest to him.

Maybe it was because he wasn't acting. He needed to act for the cool facade to be in place. When he didn't act...quite frankly, Kaiba didn't know what to expect. Not acting for him, was above all else, profoundly dangerous.

The nurse took him down the hall to Mokuba's room, and even though visiting hours were technically over with for the day, exceptions were made for Seto Kaiba. She opened the door for him and said, "Take your time, sir."

It was not in Seto Kaiba to grace anyone with gratitude, so he just nodded and looked at her back until she left to make sure that she left. And then, with a deep breath, he turned his attention to the boy on the bed, although twenty was hardly young. He wished he didn't have to look.

"Seto."

Kaiba wondered when it was that Mokuba grew out of 'Big Brother', ever since he left for college and returned because he fell sick, it had been Seto. 'Big Brother' was endearing, it implied respect and awe, while Seto just sounded affectionate. Seto Kaiba didn't deal very well with affection, even if the said person offering him affection was his very own brother.

But Kaiba never corrected him, and Mokuba never called him 'big brother' again.

"You look...better." He managed.

"I look the same." Mokuba shrugged the best he could lying down. "You, however, look like a ghost. I'm supposed to be the sick one."

Kaiba looked at his brother, and found knowing eyes piercing right back into his own. Mokuba knew that he didn't like being fussed over, what his little brother was actually saying was 'you haven't been sleeping.' He was just sounding rude to save Kaiba face.

"I've been sleeping." He said rather defensively.

"I never said you weren't." Mokuba said. "Here, help me sit up."

Kaiba approached the bed. He wished that he didn't have to touch his brother and feel skin and bones. But he did, and his fingers ached. His fingers ached where his heart couldn't.

"Seto."

Kaiba wondered why his brother suddenly sounded so ominous. "What?"

"You look sick. Your color's off."

"I have a headache."

It was a banter that both of them knew very well, but this was the first time (in Kaiba's recollection, anyway) that Mokuba had said anything about color. The hospital must be getting to him. Honestly, Kaiba would be much more assured if he could set up his own private medical facility with his own private specialists, but business was chaotic as of late that assembling a special team and flying them over was all that he could do.

"I wish you'd take a week off."

'I wish you'd take a week off to stay with me' was what Kaiba heard and he hated himself for it. He knew Mokuba would never voice the complete thought, and he wondered if he had failed as an older brother if Mokuba wouldn't even request that he'd stay.

But he couldn't.

If he did take a week off, it would be succumbing to the inevitable. "Kaiba Corps needs me."

"Fine, I need you. If you're such a bastard about it, I'll come right out and say it. Now you don't have an excuse." Mokuba snapped.

Kaiba was warm and numb all over; this was what a slap in the face felt like, he was sure of it. For the first time in a long time, he found no words. There was leaden lump at the base of his throat and the back of his eyes felt hot. "You will get well. And when you get well, I'll take a month off, and we'll tour Europe. Like we did that one summer." He sounded pathetic to his own ears. "You will get well."

"That's not the point. If you were the one that was sick, I'd take a week off. You don't have to be so stubborn all the time."

And then Kaiba knew that he couldn't stay. He stood up again, and paced the perimeter of the room. "Look, I can't stay. Not tonight, I'm flying to Naples in an hour, this deal took months to negotiate. I'll be back in two days, I promise I'll take the week off then."

Mokuba was too tired to be relieved. He lay back down with obvious difficulty. "...Promise?"

"If you're here, I'm here." Kaiba offered his brother a half smile. The word 'promise' also sounded ominous and inevitable.

"Deal." Mokuba looked at him and managed a vague grin of his own, "When you come back, we should play chess. I play Yami everyday, so I might actually beat you. Be ready."

Yami. Kaiba did a quick search of his mental database and drew a blank. It was alarming, "Who's Yami?"

"The intern that just graduated from Columbia that you hired, remember? Dr. Yami Mutou."

Kaiba thought some more, "Is he blond? Short?"

"Yeah, and he's about your age."

"He can't be better than me at chess." Kaiba looked incredulous, as if to merely offer such a suggestion would be treason.

"He did get out of Columbia, Seto." Was all Mokuba offered in reply, with the grin still in place, "We'll see though. Call when you get to Naples, okay?"

It was all right for him to go; It was perfectly all right for him to abandon his sick and dying brother. Kaiba almost gave in and canceled the flight. But he would rather die first, rather than give in completely to the inevitable. "All right, I'll see you when I get back. Would you like anything from Naples?"

Mokuba's grin widened, by just a little, "Well, honestly? I'd like for you to get a tan." After his older brother's expression dropped a few priceless notches, he added, almost as an afterthought, "...Just kidding. I just wanted to see your face. But do remember to eat and sleep, Seto. See you in two days."

-

"You look beat."

Yami shrugged off his jacket and dropped unceremoniously onto the couch. The television was on, blaring a pro wrestling game. He was grateful for the noise, if anything, "I am." He admitted, head lolling sideways to rest against a padded armrest. He was also grateful for the uncomplicated, dependable presence of Joey Wheeler, who always stayed the same.

"You eat yet?"

"No."

"Did you eat lunch?"

Yami struggled to remember; it had been a hectic day as usual. In the morning, he made his rounds, and in the afternoon, he had been halfway through a game with Mokuba when a conference was called. Lunch hadn't been provided, and after that, it was back to Mokuba again. Unless a pastry and a few bites of a plum counted, then no, Yami didn't have lunch. But he shrugged one shoulder, "I don't remember."

"How can you not remember?" Joey sighed a loud sigh, "I'm glad Gramps made you move in with me. You'd probably die sooner or later of accidental self-starvation." There was loud clattering in the kitchen, "...Eat something, or I'll shove it down your throat, pal. What do you want?"

"Don't joke like that. It's not funny anymore." Yami roused himself from the couch, and ambled to the kitchen's entrance. "...Are you trying to cook?" He looked politely disgusted as he watched his friend juggle pans and cooking oils.

"Can't blame a guy for trying, right?" Joey tried.

"If I'm the one that's going to be suffering through your 'cooking', then yes, I have every right to complain." Yami sighed, "Here, let me." Joining Joey at the counter, he looked at the equipment that were scattered about, "Put the black vinegar away. It's not used in the actual cooking process. What were you going to cook?"

"...I was trying to make fried rice. I didn't know you could cook."

"Of course you wouldn't, you're always bringing back takeout." Yami said, "...Could you help me chop up some carrots? Don't cut yourself."

"Course." Joey looked just a bit miffed as he headed for the fridge, "What do you take me for? And where'd you learn how to cook anyhow?"

A person not fit to be in the kitchen, that was who Joey was. But for the sake of their friendship, Yami kept that to himself, "Worrying about you isn't a crime. When I took a few crash courses in nutrition in Columbia, everyone had to learn how to cook."

"Columbia teaches you everything, huh?"

I wish. "Not quite."

There was silence. Whereas Yami liked the silence, Joey preferred noise, "...You know, ever since he took that job offer...you're back the way you were. Can't you just quit?"

"You can't say no to Seto Kaiba."

"You don't need his money. You don't need this job. You're top of your class, Columbia, you can work anywhere else, you just had to take the job." Joey raked a frustrated hand through his hair, "...Look, I"m sorry, but I hate it when you're like this. We all know that the kid is going to kick the bucket sooner or later. Why stay on a sinking ship? Why not just bail out now when you have the chance of escaping with your life? Everyone knows that Kaiba's a complete bastard."

Yami bit his lip, hard. "I signed contracts. It's not that easy."

"Get a lawyer."

"What sane, sensible lawyer would fight Kaiba Corp in Domino?"

"Isn't Columbia Law School supposed to be top-notch? You have friends, don't you?"

For Joey, everything was simple. Yami almost wished that it was that easy. "I have friends, but I don't like to take advantage of them unless I have a good reason to, besides, most of them have steady careers now, and fighting Kaiba Corp will ruin everything."

Joey gave him a look, "You really want to go down fighting, don't you?"

Yami sighed as turned off the stove. "Not particularly, I just doubt that fighting Kaiba Corp would bring a positive outcome for me."

"...When did you become so pessimistic without me knowing?"

Why did Joey's sense of humor become so utterly tasteless? That was what he wanted to know, but Yami only shrugged, "A lot of things change, you've changed too." Except the changes in Joey's case weren't life altering, for the most part. "I'm going to wash up, okay? I'll be back in a few."

-

Self indulgence made a person vain. And inevitably, sooner or later, vanity led to pride. But it was not self-indulgence that at last persuaded him to draw a warm bath, nor was it vanity that led Yami to stare at himself in the mirror after he had shed his clothing.

This was all right, wasn't it?

No, of course it wasn't. His own eyes betrayed him.

And Joey was right in a sense, he had lost weight.

Yami sighed again as he turned from the mirror. He turned off the water and gingerly dipped a hand into the steaming tub. It burned, just a little.

After another moment of hesitation, Yami stepped in the tub, though a little bit too warm, the steaming water was soothing. He closed his eyes. It was impossible to ask the water to soothe all of his pains, but for now...

"Yami, you in there?" Joey's voice rang out. Yami opened his eyes, he found that he was relieved at the interruption.

"Yes?"

"You have a phone call."

A phone call. Yami's heart dropped to his stomach and he was suddenly overwhelmed with an urge to vomit. A phone call, from the hospital to say that the inevitable had happened, that Mokuba had had a stroke, or a seizure. Or perhaps it was a call from Seto Kaiba himself, wanting to do him a favor by warning him that his life was going to be an orchestrated living hell from now on...

"Yami?"

Yami swallowed hard, his throat hurt, as if he had just swallowed some poisonous bile, "Who is it?"

"Dunno, some guy. Hang on." There was muffled muttering, and Yami kept his eyes shut tight. And then Joey said, "It's a Duke Devlin? He said he went to school with you."

Duke Devlin. The name greeted Yami with mixed feelings. Relief and mild annoyance...maybe a little bit of warmth? So for that, he guessed he was happy that Duke's timing had been off. "Can you tell him I'll call him back later?"

"He says he's going out...I think."

"Tell him I'll call him tomorrow, if he's not there, it's his own business."

-

"...Why are you looking at me like that?"

After his bath, Yami was in considerably better spirits, his body no longer ached, and thanks to the long soak in the tub, his problems that seemed so pressing before was suddenly not as baleful as they could have been. But that look that Joey gave him was still suspicious enough for him to pause.

"What have you not been telling me?" Joey said.

Yami dropped next to him on the couch, "What do you mean?"

"You know, about this Duke Devlin guy."

Yami paused, "We're...friends."

Joey seemed to consider this for a long, long moment, "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. He might be weird...but Duke's an all right friend of mine." Yami turned to face Joey, there was still that uneasy, prickling feeling in his chest. The feeling didn't come often, but it wasn't often that Joey gave him the look, or that Duke had time to drop him a line. "Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"Dunno," Joey leaned back against the couch, "My ears are bleeding, that's all I know." He snorted, "Do you know how disturbing it is for me to pick up the phone and hear—hell, I don't even wanna say it." Heaving a heavy sigh, Joey shook himself, "Anyways, it's just...I don't want to hear it again."

Joey wouldn't. Yami planned on telling Duke never to call the house again. He got up, "I think I'll go to bed."

"You eat yet?"

"No, I'm not hungry."

There was a belated pause, "...Night."

-

Naples, Italy.

Middle of summer, Naples proved to be impossibly hot and Kaiba was just slightly tempted to follow through with his brother's ridiculous wish. But only slightly. It was an urge so slight that it wasn't even there.

The contract with Longino Enterprises was done and done. Everything transitioned smoothly and the chief executive, Vittorio Longino, a man in his fifties with a son Kaiba's age, had understood perfectly when he explained how and why he was in a hurry. Longino too, had been following Mokuba's plight via international television along with the rest of the world. And Kaiba hated it. He'd done everything in his power to stop the hospital from leaking information to the press, but every once in a while, a juicy morsel would surface when he wasn't looking.

So instead of having the trip take a full two days, it would now only take only a day and a quarter. It was a day and a quarter that Kaiba lived through relying on caffeine pills. He worked relentlessly, ignoring the obvious fatigue he felt, work kept his mind focused, so he would not wonder what awaited him back in Domino.

But it was of little comfort to him to remind himself of Mokuba's phone call. His brother had sounded unexpectedly bright over the phone, he was even cheerful.

"I bet you'll find a hot girl on the beach."

Kaiba had blanched. And then he had remembered that Mokuba was twenty, and saying things of -that- nature for twenty-year-olds were perfectly normal.

"I'm just kidding. You make the most priceless faces when I say something like that. You haven't even gone to the beach. You probably didn't even sleep."

And then there had been silence. And his brother had grinned.

"I gotta rest up so I can play chess with you when you come back. Yami says he doesn't think that he could beat you either. But hey, you know, miracles happen."

Kaiba wondered what that meant. Being a Kaiba meant that Mokuba never meant what he said, usually he meant something else entirely. Pondering that, he must have fallen asleep because the next time he opened his eyes, it was to the buzzing his cell phone that was never far away. He stared at it blearily, rubbing his eyes.

"Hello?"

"Mr. Kaiba?"

Kaiba rubbed his eyes again, he wished that he had coffee. But the voice on the other end wasn't one that he could place. "Who is this?"

"This is Dr. Victor Melbourne, chief of your medical board. I'm calling from Domino General Hospital." The man's voice sounded overused, and carried a bit of an Northeastern lilt. "I have some unfortunate news for you regarding your brother." The doctor was probably so used to delivering 'unfortunate' news that his voice sounded flat.

That jerked him upright in his chair and out of sleep in a hurry. Kaiba's first instinct was that there was some sort of mistake. A mistake that some more wired transactions could easily correct. But he found that he couldn't speak, his vocal cords had suddenly withered without him knowing.

"Mr. Kaiba?"

He inhaled sharply, and mustered without great difficulty, "...I'm listening."

"As I have told you many times before, Mokuba's continuous paralysis is unlike anything we have ever seen. Its progress is simply frightening, and now...it seems that we have run out of time. He had a heart attack just a half hour ago, the whole time is working to stabilizing him now, but I have to warn you, the chances are slim. Perhaps it is best to make preparations--"

Kaiba slammed the phone shut.

-

To Yami, the sudden chaos gone silent meant that the fight was over, and there was nothing left to do but to wait for death. They had barely managed to salvage Mokuba's heart, it hadn't given out completely, but it was hardly stable. The patient also had failed to regain consciousness, but the fact that he was still breathing at all...that was a miracle.

They had to keep him alive, at least, until Seto Kaiba returned from Naples. Even if they had to rely on a machine to ensure that he lived and breathed.

Naples. Naples seemed half a world away and Yami wondered what Kaiba was doing there. Had he no sense of propriety that he would go and run off on a business venture, one that he would most undoubtedly have a second chance for; instead of staying by his dying brother's side, a place that he would never have a chance to be again?

One of the nurses looked. "Dr. Mutou, are you all right?"

The back of his eyes felt hot, and when Yami touched a hand to his cheek, he realized that the skin there was not completely dry.

He turned and fled.