Chapter 10
Rubbing tired eyes, Seto gazes at the various letters and numbers on his laptop screen. He glances out the window to see darkness enveloping the city. Stretching out the kinks, he glances at the clock. 3AM. Setting the electronic device aside, he finally closes his eyes hoping that a few minutes will be enough. If you return, then we are meant to be. He briefly wonders when he began to think of fate and destiny. Magic is for fools, magic does not exist. Everything has always been easier with the blond. He never realized how tedious his work had become until after Joey entered his life, but whenever he began a new project he felt excited. Only when he began the finalizing part, the dull endless amounts of paperwork, did he feel the strain of the day. Sighing he finds his thoughts drifting towards his childhood with his stepfather. Quickly he banishes the memories. Unbelievable how the man lived and breathed every word he said. 'Emotions are a weakness. Kaiba's are never weak. A man is never to be made a fool of. He must strive to be great and protect that greatness at all cost. Power is everything.' Those words had echoed through the hidden speakers in his room while he slept until every word the man spoke was engraved into his mind. Or the times he was tied to the chair and forced to study everything from foreign languages to complex math problems. 'No one can love you. You have no heart. Kaiba's have no need for love. Love is only a devastating weakness. Such emotion can cripple a man and leave him a pathetic invalid. A real man shows no emotions. Emotions equal weakness and to be weak is to fail.' Yet Joey had proved his stepfather's words to be untrue. His passion had only made him succeed, his love helped him conquer almost anything. Joey hadn't been weak. Just worn down to the point that he couldn't handle the emotions anymore and he had fled. "I have a heart," he states to the empty room knowing that the ache from it cracking is proof that he still feels something. Still, he holds on in vain to the hope that Joey will return. Turning down the sheets, he crawls into bed and frowns at how big and empty it seems. The darkness around him a kindred spirit to his suffocating soul. Finally sleep claims him, yet his stepfather's taunting voice follows him. 'Friends are only enemies with false smiles. Friendship means nothing, use people as a means to the end. Such weak fools waiting to be manipulated. People will sabotage you for you are far superior to them. You, my little genius, will be perfect. Perfection is all that is acceptable.' He doesn't understand, the nightmares had stopped for so long that the abrupt arrival of them startles him. He use to be terrified that he'd blink and his stepfather would once again be towering over him with a whip in hand. His fear of the man had decreased to the point where his name no longer sent shivers down his spine, but now that terror is back full force.
Tossing and turning in restless sleep full of nightmares, he's unaware that he's shouting. 'He never loved you. How could anyone ever love you? You're cold, untouchable. A Kaiba. No need for love or anyone else, you proved that to him multiple times. You must arbor weakness, and he is your weakness. You must resist temptation to become a simpleton.' His shouts turn to screams as he watches his stepfather kill his beloved puppy.
"Big brother!" Shaking Seto awake, Mokuba stares wide eyed at the panic claiming his sibling within its vice grip.
"Joey?"
Startled as frantic blues see through him, Mokuba tries shaking his brother into reality.
"Joey?" Unseeing, his older brother reaches for the empty space beside him. Repeating the boy's name as if it's a sacred chant, Seto still can't see beyond the crushing darkness.
"Pick up the damn phone!" Tears streaking his cheeks, Mokuba cradles the phone between ear and shoulder. Voice Mail. "Crap, Damn you!" He tries again. It's 5 in the morning and for half an hour he attempted to coax his brother into a calmer state before dialing the familiar number. He knows it's only 4 AM in Wisconsin and that most likely Joey is asleep, but the boy always answers his phone for his calls. "Joey, answer your damn phone! What's the point of having the damn thing if..."
"Mokie? What's wrong?"
"Finally! Joey, he wont stop asking for you. He doesn't even know I'm there. He's having nightmares again. I can tell by the look on his face when he woke up." Frustration and fear creep into his voice.
"What can I do, Mokie?" Desperate despair in the blond's tone.
"Come home! You should have came with us! He wouldn't be like this if you had. Please, Joey, come home. We need you here."
Before Joey can respond, the phone goes dead. "JOEY? Joey?" He stares at the phone then his brother's closed door. "Big brother, something's wrong. Joey's phone went dead on me and he'd never hang up on me." Finally his brother's azure orbs clear. He sits on the bed next to his brother gazing at his clenched, bone white hands. "Bad connection, Mokie," his brother states matter of fact while he shakes his head and argues, "I called his home phone after getting voice mail."
"Try his cell again."
He uses his brother's cell phone to dial the number just in case it's his cell that's acting up. "Straight to voice mail." Once again he tries his own cell before using the land line on the bedside table. "Same," he states as Seto straightens the covers of his bed while he begins to pace the perimeter of the room. Rubbing tired and worried eyes, Mokuba watches his brother begin his ritual after a nightmare when Joey's not there to keep the demons at bay. Smooth the bed since sleep is next to impossible now, go into the bathroom to brush teeth and change, re-enter room in sweats and t-shirt to pick up any items that miraculously are out of place. Seto leaves for their personal gym a floor below and next to the room that houses the indoor pool. "Don't over exert yourself," he calls after his older siblings retreating back already knowing his words are in vain. Seto will workout till his muscles ache and burn, then struggle into the shower on legs barely able to hold his own weight.
Desperately he tries calling Joey's phone off every phone available including the emergency lines. "Joey?" Hope floods his voice as the ringing stops and he hears breathing on the other end.
"Not exactly. I have your precious Joey and I plan on destroying him."
"What? Why?"
"Because things will never be the same. I'm getting too old to think otherwise. He killed her, you know. I can't go back and bring her to life."
"Joey was living here still when she died. How can her death be his fault?"
"Doesn't matter. His father cheated, she died for it. Sins of the father and all that. You realize, until her I never felt any pain and now that's all I feel. It consumes me. Makes me so angry. I want him to feel that pain, that agony. Slow, torturous pain like a flame in a slow dance."
"Joey had nothing to do with his father's actions. It happened so long ago."
"If your beloved was murdered, would time matter to you? I can no longer do things over again, she's dead and there's no repeat button to press and give her life again."
"You said that. Where are you? Why are you doing this? Joey's a great person, he doesn't deserve this. He's human just like you and me, he feels pain. You think her death didn't affect him?"
"I'd kill your brother if I could. Joey's heart and soul rides in his hand even if every dream he had was crushed by those very hands. Enough. I grow bored with your voice. My time is sacrosanct. He'll be dead soon anyways. I'll take him and break him."
Racing into the gym, he finds his brother curled into the fetal position in a corner hidden from the windows with a speaker in his hands. "I designed it myself so I could listen in to the phone conversations. I didn't trust anyone, not even Joey. I had to know who kept calling and hanging up. Joey answered once and the man threatened him. He just laughed it off like he does everything else in his life. Make everything better by pretending nothing is wrong." Slowly a cold strength steals into Seto's orbs changing his features into something sharper, more sinister.
"We have to do something, Seto." No one will ever love you like he did, don't you get it? Seto, don't shut us out! He needs your help now.
"Enough, Mokuba. Go to bed, I'll deal with you in the morning," his brother hisses and glares daggers at him before adding, "I do not need him. He decided to fight this battle by himself so he can finish it."
Wincing at the impact of his brother's fury, he lowers his head, "It is morning. But he needs us. Maybe you don't need him, but I do. I need someone that actually likes spending time with me!"
His heart breaks as his brother stalks out the room muttering something about work. He follows to see if his brother will take the car or limo. He prays for his brother to take one of the cars. Stifling a gasp, he watches Seto unveil a dark blue Cobalt and rip the bright green ribbon off. That was for Joey, he couldn't bring himself to even look at the graduation gift before today. Tearing out of the garage, Seto narrowly avoids slamming into the fountain in their front yard. He rubs his eyes until the tears vanish. "What happened to the Seto that wanted to try and get his puppy back no matter what?" The memory the car stirs makes his heart break even more.
"Mokie, I want to get Joey a car. He's always wanted one. What type should I get him? Anything too expensive might make him uncomfortable." His brother had sounded so excited, so happy. It had been the day after Joey's birthday and he'd been passed out in bed still.
"He likes the Cobalt, Corvette, Camaro, Mustang, and..."
"Mokie, how'd you know all this?"
He had grinned mischievously before stating, "His eyes get excited and huge when he sees one." They hadn't realized how unhappy Joey had been at that point. The next week, Seto went off and bought the car and hid it beneath a tan cover knowing Joey never snooped in the garage. He had helped his brother with the ribbon a few days before Valentine's Day, but then Seto and Joey had got into a huge fight on the romantic day. So the present waited and was put off for graduation day.
"Charlie, Game Shop." He doesn't waste time on pleasantries, especially with the new driver. He misses Roland but the man's sister had taken ill and needed him there to help with the kids. Detesting the way the driver calls him Master Kaiba nearly as much as when some of the maids had called him Little Master, he snarls, "Hurry. I don't have all day!" Concern for his brother and Joey leaves him no choice but to ask his brother's rival for help. The Game shop arrives within his view and he smiles. This place never loomed, never felt formidable or untouchable. As he enters the shop, he comes to the conclusion that he's scared of his brother and frightened for Joey.
"Mokuba? Has Joey contacted you, too?" Tears unabashedly roll down Yugi's cheeks as his boyish face quivers with distress.
"Kinda. We lost connection."
"He told me he was sorry, that he loved us, and goodbye. Tristan called: he's here now, and said that Joey's more scared than he's ever heard him before. Then right after he said goodbye, Joey let out this heartbreaking scream." Yami steps forward taking his light into his arm trying to console him.
"He's in trouble, but even I can't get to him in time to save him," Yami explains.
Tristan saunters into the room looking as tough and pulled together as possible for someone with red rimmed eyes and cracked knuckles. His nails are chewed so low that blood seeps from them and distress laces as his words as he offers a name. "Andrea Botticelli."
Logging onto Yugi's computer, Mokuba feels expectant eyes upon him as he tries to locate the unlisted number. Slim fingers deftly slide over the keyboard. "Got it!" Tristan dials the number he reels off. Impatiently they wait grouping to form a circle around the pointy haired male like a pack of wild wolves. Only Marik and Bakura look ready to leap and tear him limb from limb if the information isn't satisfactory.
"Hello, ma'am, you don't know me but we both care about Joey. He's in trouble but we have no idea where to find him or how to reach him. Please, help him and give us a call back. Thank you."
All they can do is wait for her to get the message. The phone rings five minutes later stirring them all into action. "Hello?" Ryou's polite voice fills the air and he flashes a thumbs up before tossing the phone onto speaker. "Joey is in dire trouble. He called each of us to say goodbye, then we heard this god awful howl of pain." Malik draws closer and takes Ryou's free hand in a sign of comfort,
"Of course, I feared as much. I'll find him, don't worry about that. Shall I call when I discover him and bring him to safety," a woman's voice soothes from the other side of the phone.
"Yes, please. Thank you very much."
"She's going to get him. She has to, she sounds to determined not to," Ryou whimpers as he trembles.
"It'll be okay, Ryou," Tristan states clasping him on the shoulder while ignoring the glare Malik sends his way. "The way Joey talked about her, she's a tough one. Worse even than the man he called Padrone."
"I have to tell Seto. He's not acting himself." He leaves them to suffer together as he wonders if he should even try to visit his brother. Kaiba Corp looms in his eyesight. His usual joy at seeing this place is dulled by formidable aura surrounding the place. Feels more like a dungeon, then his brother's work place. "Big brother," he calls out tentatively entering the office, but the male ignores him. "Seto," he tries again. Still all that greets him is the typing of keys. "Kaiba," he states as coldly as possible with a glare to rival his brother's.
"What do you want? I have work to do. I shouldn't have slacked off so much for that mutt."
As he recalled, Seto barely took any time off for Joey. "What the hell is wrong with you? That mutt is Joey! You love him, you told him so! He might be dead!" The last word he barely chokes out not wanting to believe the possibility that the blond could meet his demise so early in his lifetime.
"Does it look like I give a damn? Sorry, but I have more pressing matters at hand."
Steeling himself, he backhands his older brother. "I would understand if you just didn't want to see him and sent your support anyways. I'd understand if you were trying not to break down and go after the man that has him yourself. I don't understand how you could become some coldhearted monster. A carbon copy of him."
Disbelief settles in cold blues before anger consumes them in a cold fire. "Get out." It's said in an eerily calm tone. Nearly a whisper.
"Planned on it. I envied you what you had with him. I looked up to you. You were the greatest man on earth. I loved you, big brother, and I want the old you back."
"There's no such thing as love, Mokie," Seto states dejectedly before focusing his attention back on the computer.
"I'll let you know what I find out, Seto."
Blues meet his orbs for a flicker of a minute but he spies that glimmer of love peeking through the icy mask. With hope sliding into his heart, he heads home to await the news. I told you, Joey, that this would end in disaster if you didn't come home. Why doesn't anyone listen to me? I can't lose you, Joey. If I lose you, then I lose Seto I don't wanna be alone. Please, make it home so we can be a family again.