Seto took the day off for the sake of accompanying Mokuba to the police station that morning, letting them question his brother to get all of the information out of him that they could in order to find his kidnapper. He'd talked to his brother after breakfast beforehand, though, finally asking to hear for himself what had happened.
It was painful and disturbing for Seto to hear Mokuba describe an experience much too close to what Gozaburo had done to Seto: the collar, the beating, the way they'd avoided any damage to his face. Gozaburo had done the same thing to Seto, so that if he followed orders, nobody would know what had happened unless he spoke up, and Gozaburo knew that Seto wouldn't breathe a word of his abuse to anybody. It was too close to be a coincidence. Seto Kaiba did not believe in coincidences. He didn't have an explanation for it yet, but he wouldn't rest until he did.
When he sat Mokuba down in the garden that morning, he'd felt a chill in his bones despite the summer heat. Side by side they sat on a wrought iron bench facing the Koi pond in the middle of the hedge maze. As Mokuba told his story, there were moments when he had intense difficulty getting out the words. Seto put his arm around Mokuba's shoulders and drew him close to his side, comforting him with his presence as best he could. When he was done, Seto moved to stand, but Mokuba reached out and grabbed his sleeve to stop him from walking away. Seto looked down at his brother's troubled face.
"Seto? Why didn't you want me to say anything about this to Duke or the others at the hospital last night?" Seto sighed and got down on one knee in front of his brother, hoping that he could find the right words.
"Pain is a sign of weakness. If a bad person sees you in pain, they'll exploit the fact and take advantage of you. You need to be strong, Mokuba. You don't show people when you're in pain, unless they're someone that you trust with your life."
"Who do you trust with your life?" Mokuba asked after thinking over his words for a few moments.
"I trust you," he answered honestly. "I trust Ryou, and I trust Duke, and I trust Roland, to a degree. I only trust a few people, Mokuba, but it's okay to trust a few more than I do. You need to figure out who it is that you trust."
"I trust you," Mokuba said immediately. He thought for a few more moments. "I trust Ryou and Duke too. I trust Yugi, and Roland, and Joey, and Tristan, and Tea." Mokuba formed his list slowly, thoughtfully. His brother had impressed upon him that this was a serious issue, and he was taking this as seriously as he should be.
"And why do you trust those people?" Seto asked. "It's important to know why you trust them, so that you can know for sure that they're worthy of your trust."
"I trust you because you're my brother," Mokuba answered, feeling like he didn't need any more reason than that, not when it came to Seto. "I trust Tristan because he saved me from the Evil Bakura when Pegasus stole my soul. I trust Tea because she helped me escape when Marik kidnapped me. I trust Duke and Ryou because you trust them too, and because they're kind of like my brothers. I trust Yugi because he's a good person who's repeatedly put himself in danger in order to protect not only the ones he cares about, but also strangers and innocents. I trust Roland because he's always been there to look out for us, ever since we got adopted."
"And why do you trust Joey?" Seto asked, feeling a twinge of amusement.
"I don't know…" Mokuba answered. "Maybe it's because Yugi trusts him, and the way he protects his little sister and his friends shows that he has a noble heart."
Seto smirked and rumpled Mokuba's hair. "I suppose even mutts have their good points," he commented with a chuckle, making Mokuba laugh as well. "Sometimes, though, there are people that we have to trust whether we want to or not, like the police. That's where we're going now. You're going to tell them everything that happened and answer all of their questions so that they can catch the bad guys. Then, when we're done with the police we'll go see Ryou and Duke at the hospital. Okay?"
Mokuba nodded, and it relieved Seto to see him smile again. Seto stood and so did Mokuba. Seto, hand on his brother's shoulder, guided him back into the house.
Ryou was in the process of being signed out of the hospital when the Kaibas arrived. Seto gave them all a ride to Duke and Ryou's shared apartment where Duke made lunch for the four of them. They talked and laughed, and Seto realized that he'd needed this: for things to feel normal again, for them all to be discussing mundane matters of little importance.
It was on that day that Seto finally asked Duke and Ryou to move into the mansion with him. Ryou getting poisoned had awakened him to the fact that life was short, they were safer living with him, and he was ready to demonstrate more substantially his commitment to them. They both said yes, of course. They'd been expecting this, anticipating it eagerly. It meant that they were all able to celebrate life together, like Mokuba's thirteenth birthday, Seto's twenty-second birthday, Ryou's twentieth birthday—the youngest of them now finally no longer a teenager—and their one-year anniversary.
In the weeks and months that followed the whole incident, nothing else happened to Ryou or Mokuba or Duke. The police still couldn't find Mokuba's kidnappers, who hadn't contacted Seto since they told him where they'd dumped his little brother. Seto kept waiting for the events of that day—the way he'd given so much dangerous information to people who were clearly hardened criminals—to come back and bite him in the ass. Surely there would be consequences to his actions. Surely something was going to happen that would make him regret what he'd done. Besides, he was still disturbed by the fact that Mokuba had been mistreated in Gozaburo's style of abuse. The more time that passed, though, the more he gradually began to relax and let the matter slip his mind. He tried to enjoy himself with those who were dear to him, instead of worrying about improbabilities. He let Duke put an end to his workaholism. He let Ryou talk him out of his caffeine addiction. Life was good, better than it had ever been.