Again, thanks for the reviews! -big smile-

Lionessmon: Wow, that surprises me... I mean, sometimes I have lots of problems with the thing of setting a character up, but if what I've done is good, yay:))) Yeah, I've noticed that about Mokuba too... kinda disturbing, I mean, hell, he's cute, I wish my brother were more like him! ;)

kikioblack: Merci! ;) Hope you like what's coming now too...

That Sunday, Joey went by his usual morning procedures, and while Mokuba was occupied with a bath, he snuck off to the library; he still wanted to check out the cabinet which Mokuba had described in such a weird voice. He was glad to find the room deserted.

Looking around like a child about to stick his hand in the cookie jar, he plucked out a navy-blue leather-bound album, sat down in a chair next to the cabinet and opened it. He found himself looking at Seto, just a younger version. Joey guessed that he was twelve or even younger on those photos. He had an icy glare and stood at the side of a man Joey had never seen before. Puzzled, Joey flipped through the pictures, each of them showing Seto with his usual expression they all knew too well. Mokuba was missing entirely, and that thought bothered Joey. He also noticed that halfway through the album, the strange man vanished and Seto stood alone, looking very professional despite his young age. When the album was done, Joey closed it and chose a magenta-bound volume.

It proved to be a big "jackpot", so to speak. On the very first picture, he saw a woman and a man smiling at the camera. The woman was holding a baby boy in her arms. Joey stared wide-eyed at the infant, a horrible suspicion rising within him… He flipped forward through more of the baby photos when he found what he sought: a new series of pictures showed a probably two-year-old boy playing with toys, the innocent smile of a child on his face. The hair's shade of brown was unmistakable, as were the blue eyes: he was looking at pictures from Seto's early childhood! Joey felt almost paralyzed. He had really always considered Seto to be half-robot, but this proved perfectly well that he had once been a child like everyone else, without a worry in the world. To his surprise, Joey felt his spirits sink into deep melancholy as he continued with the album. What ever had become of that little boy, what had happened to make him the cold teenager they knew today?

Having finished that album, Joey looked at the others. Most were rather uninteresting, since the pictures only featured people he didn't know at all. Some names were scrawled beneath the images, but they rang no bells in him. Finally, he came across a thinner album crammed between a peach-colored volume and the wall, as if trying to hide it. It was bound in black leather. Joey opened it, and once again he got a feeling of deep sadness, a sadness he would never have guessed to experience in association with Seto Kaiba.

The first picture showed a brown-haired man holding an infant. The man was undoubtedly Seto's father. But there was something odd... he was crying, and Joey had the feeling as if he wasn't crying out of joy. The very next page confirmed his suspicion: it showed a picture of Seto's mother, a beautiful black-haired woman. Underneath the picture were three letters: R.I.P. Joey gasped. So Seto's mother had died… and the way it looked, she had probably died shortly after Mokuba's birth! The next pictures were even more proof: the father was still seen, but she was absent. Even in little Seto's face there seemed to be traces of sadness and bewilderment. Only Mokuba looked as cheerful as all kids his age should. Strangely, Joey felt that his eyes were wet, though not overflowing. He had had no idea… and slowly he began to understand why Seto wasn't cheerful at all. Still; back in his childhood, he had smiled again, even after his mother's death: Joey found a photo were the CEO-to-be was on a swing. An old man was pushing him. The joyful laugh on Seto's face was so touching, yet it was so sad all the same. (1) Now Joey really found himself fighting with his tears. He even found a picture on which Seto posed on the swing, the old man (his grandfather, maybe?) beside him. Little Mokuba was wrapped tightly in Seto's arms. But then it came: on a page near the end, Joey found a cut-out newspaper article that proclaimed the death of Seto's father in a car accident. The yellowing picture showed a coffin. Mokuba was old enough to be standing, and so he did next to his brother. Seto had bowed his head. The old man stood behind the two boys, but unfortunately the picture wasn't good enough for Joey to get a proper glimpse of their faces' expressions. A few dull-spirited pictures followed, and the final picture featured only Seto and Mokuba. Their backs were turned to the camera. They were standing in the rain under a black umbrella Seto was holding. The boys were looking at a building that wasn't too high, yet it seemed to dwarf them; bold letters inscribed it as "orphanage".

Joey slammed the album shut and rubbed at his eyes. The back of his hand was wet when he drew it back.

"Kaiba…" he whispered, gazing numbly at the album.

"…Joey?" a timid voice asked.

Joey looked up and – to his horror – saw Mokuba. The questioning expression of the young teen said it all.

"Hi kid," Joey said in a husky voice.

Mokuba shuffled over and had an almost apologetic look in his storm-grey eyes. "You saw the pictures, right?"

"Yeah." Joey put the album back and closed the cabinet. "I had no idea…" he murmured.

"How could you? We never said anything about it."

"Yeah, but I thought Kaiba was a jerk for no reason at all. But now I see it in a different light…"

"Joey, listen to me! Don't talk about that with Seto! He never talks about that with anyone, not even me! He'd kill you if he finds out that you've been looking at those photos!"

"You can't honestly expect me to keep quiet, do you?" Joey asked incredulously.

Now Mokuba's eyes began to shine too. "I wish you could, but if you can't, please delay it as long as possible! I don't want Seto to do anything to you just because you whirl up memories he tries so hard to rid himself of!"

"Easy now, sport, I'll keep my mouth shut. But… right, your mom died after she had you?"

Mokuba's voice grew smaller and smaller. "Yes… I never knew her. And I didn't learn the truth until our stepfather adopted us." Quite quickly, the tears came, and Mokuba started to sob.

"No… Mokuba, c'mere…" Joey pleaded softly and hoisted the littler boy onto his lap. He willingly allowed his host to claw his fingers into his shirt and weep against his shoulder. Not too much longer on, Joey himself started crying, though he could impossibly tell whether it was over Seto or Mokuba – most probably both. It took the two of them a long while to rid themselves of tears, and they both sought refuge in their rooms to fully calm down in order not to arise suspicions in Seto.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When Joey saw Seto that evening at dinner, it cost him a lot of self-control to act as if he hadn't had a very private insight of the brunet's life. Ironically, he noticed it anyway, for he asked:

"Mokuba, you're awfully quiet tonight… is something wrong?"

"No, Seto…" the younger sibling muttered, but he couldn't fool anyone. Even Joey would have noticed the lie without having looked at the photos.

Mokuba left the table without a word after dinner was over, and that was when Seto allowed himself to focus on Joey.

"Mutt, what happened?" he demanded sharply.

"Nothing." 'Great, now I'm lying as well. He'll kill me for it…' Joey moaned silently.

"Don't bullshit me," Seto told him bluntly.

Joey raised his eyebrows. "I didn't know you could cuss like that, Kaiba."

"You don't know much, so there you go," was the snide retort.

"Maybe Mokuba just slept badly," Joey said, making a feeble attempt to excuse the young one's behavior.

"Nonsense, he was perfectly cheerful when he said hello to me earlier today," Seto snorted.

"Ask him yourself, then. I gotta get ready for school…" Joey sighed and left the table too, leaving a rather confused Seto behind. As soon as he was in his room, he made a phone call without loudspeakers and discussed what he had learned with Yugi and Yami.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Naturally, they all were a bit low-spirited when they met in school that Monday. Each of them swore not to say a word to Seto, though they put Yami in charge of making sure that Bakura would keep his "promise". Luckily, school proved to be so stressing that they didn't have much time to dwell on the new information they had; hence, Joey wasn't able to behave suspiciously, so Seto told himself that he had just been imagining things that evening.

But it wasn't so: on Friday night, when he went to check on Mokuba one last time before going to bed himself, he discovered that Joey was already there. They were talking in hushed voices, and Seto listened because his brother's voice was tearful.

"…I guess you still miss her, right?" Joey asked softly.

"Yeah… I mean, I wish I had known her," Mokuba sniffed.

"It wasn't your fault."

"Still… I sometimes wonder if Seto is mad at me because she died after having me…"

Seto twitched violently. Those words stabbed him like no insult ever had. His face bearing an unseen shocked expression, he peered around the door. Joey was sitting on the bed's edge like an older brother and comfortingly petted Mokuba's hair.

"Never," the blond said firmly, "I may say what I want – you know, I often say that he's a total egoist and such – but of one thing I'm sure: Kaiba loves you, and he'd never hate you for that."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Hey, he's your brother, and he cares about you very much. Look at me, even! I wouldn't hate Serenity if our mom had died after having her, I'm absolutely positive about that!"

"Mama…" Mokuba barely uttered that word before breaking into a weeping fit again.

"Easy now, little champ," Joey said, sounding as if he were chanting as he took the boy into his arms and rocked him a bit, "It's alright… remember, you've still got Kaiba – and me. I wish I could do more for you, but… well…" He didn't bother to explain and instead busied himself with calming down Mokuba.

Outside the door, Seto barely managed to watch or listen anymore. Never before had the two Kaiba brothers spoken to anybody about their mother… and deep, deep down inside of him, a little boy's voice cried out how he missed her as well; other than Mokuba, Seto had lived with her for a few years and knew how she had been. But it was woeful agony to hear his brother's doubts; his worries whether he hated him for being born, so to speak. Seto held his head as if in pain and slumped against the wall. A million thoughts ran through his mind, thoughts of which he only managed to grasp a few:

'What have I done? What have I done to give Mokuba a reason to think that? Is it because of the attitude I acquired from my stepfather's treatment? Don't ever say that again, little brother… Wheeler's right, I love you…!'

Suddenly, he heard Joey say as if from a far distance:

"I'll go to bed now, okay? If anything's wrong, call me and I'll come."

"O-Okay… thanks, Joey," a tear-stricken voice croaked.

"Sleep tight, Mokuba. And remember: you haven't done anything wrong."

Seto silently slipped into the next room. He felt a bit childish as he stood there in the darkness, pressed against the wall like a secret agent. He listened attentively and heard how the blond closed the door to his brother's bedroom.

"Poor little kid," he heard him sigh ruefully. Then muffled footsteps sounded out on the carpet, and he saw part of Joey's shadow dancing in the corridor as the teen headed for his own room. Only when all was quiet again did Seto venture forth from his hideout and paid the planned bedtime visit to his brother, though this time with additional intentions.

"Mokuba?" he whispered as he entered the dark room.

A shadow jerked upward, and in the dim light from the corridor he saw two shining eyes – shining with tears. "S-S-Seto!"

"Thought I'd check on you before you fall asleep," his brother said softly and sat on the bed's edge like Joey had done before.

Mokuba said nothing, but averted his gaze as if in shame. Seto used the moment to turn on the bedside light at its dimmest level. He saw that his younger brother's cheeks were still damp with tears.

"Listen, Mokuba," he began, feeling a bit uncomfortable, "I… I by chance heard what you discussed with the mutt– Wheeler, I mean," he corrected himself, deciding that it probably wasn't wise to call Joey names in front of his now emotionally labile brother, who was quite taken with the blond anyway.

"Seto… I never wanted Mama to die…!" Mokuba squeaked with a hearty sniff.

For once completely laying down his cold businessman's attitude and switching fully into big-brother-mode, Seto laid his hands on his sibling's shoulders and said gently:

"Mokuba, look at me." He waited until that happened before continuing: "I never blamed you for our mother's death. How can you even say that you 'didn't mean for that to happen'? You were just… well, a baby. And because I overheard your previous conversation, I know about your worries. After all these years… Mokuba, you must believe what Wheeler said: I love you, and I always will. I love you more than life, I couldn't possibly hate you. You're the only real friend I've ever had. No words can describe how important you are to me."

"Big brother… Seto… you know I love you too…" Mokuba whined.

"I know you do. There's one thing I'd like to ask of you."

"Yes?"

"Please, don't ever get such doubts about us again. Hearing you voice your worry about me hating you was the most hurtful thing I've ever heard. Promise me that you won't ever put me through that again, and I swear I won't give you any reason to think that way ever again, okay?"

Mokuba stared in wonder at his brother. It had been many years since he had last seen him remotely in this state: for once, the blue eyes weren't hard at all, but soft and compassionate. It was a most graceful addition to Seto's appearance and changed exactly that quite remarkably. It thrilled the young Kaiba to see his brother like that again. He wished Joey could see it…

"Yes, Seto. I promise. I'm sorry for hurting you!" he cried apologetically and flung his arms around his brother.

"It's alright, Mokuba…" Seto felt as if he were almost singing to his brother as he hugged him back. Finally, he let the raven-haired boy fall back onto his sheets. To his relief, a faint smile graced the young face once more.

"Goodnight, Seto," Mokuba whispered.

"Sweet dreams, Mokuba," Seto whispered back and let his hand lightly brush across his forehead. Then he got up, switched out the light and left the room.

Mokuba snuggled up deeper into his blankets and smiled contently. He hadn't even known that the word "sweet" existed in his brother's vocabulary.

Riiiiiiiiiiight... sorry about that, but I just couldn't resist! I absolutely love scenes like that... -sigh- :)

(1) Actually, that's a (flashback) scene from "Yu-Gi-Oh! The Shadow Games". I thought it was so cute... Christ, he looked so innocent! -happy squeal-