Broken Things

by Gesshoku2008

To the outside, Seto Kaiba is ruthless, cold. To his brother, his is detached. Then Kisa Miyoshi comes into his life and sends his closely guarded emotions reeling. She is beautiful, alluring, and uncomfortably familiar. When their relationship takes a romantic turn, Seto has to come to terms with his own trauma and learn to love again before he pushes her away forever. AU, OOC

1. Preface

Hello readers,

This may very well be the final story I post to this website. Those who have been keeping their eyes on my profile page and my uploads will know that I have been silent for nearly a year. This was not exactly planned, but it was how things ended up during the creative process around Sands of Time and my various other projects. In this last year alone I have finished three drafts of three separate stories. The first was my Young Adult fantasy novel, which is about to enter its second round of self-edits. The second was Sands of Time, which is sitting in limbo right now. The third is the story this preface is about, Broken Things.

Let's start with Sands of Time.

I started self-edits, then uploading, Sands of Time back in April. However, during the course of those edits, I realized that Sands of Time had one HUGE issue. It was overstuffed. There were too many themes and plots stuffed into that one story. The past life stuff, Seto's mental health struggles, his fracturing relationship with Mokuba, Kisa's personal history and goals, Seto's professional goals, all the shit around the detective, etc, etc, etc. Adding in the fantastical elements really bogged down the personal stories that were going on. This is not saying that Sands of Time is forever dead, far from it. The concept, I think, is amazing. It's actually a concept an author friend of mine used in the four-book series she released last year. So I've pulled the past life stuff out and sequestered it on its own to reuse at a later date. I'm thinking a gender-flipped Romeo and Juliet type story would work best for the theme that the story was going for. This leads me to...

Broken Things

I didn't expect this project to become as important to me as it did. Broken Things is more than a story about one broken man learning to love again. It's a story about the strength gained through trauma, about trust and love, not just romantic, but familial. There is a lot that goes into healing and it is not easy. That's something I have learned the hard way, not only working through my own mental health struggles but through seeing my husband's healing process. A lot of what Seto went through, my husband went through. It's exaggerated, yes, but you kind of have to expect that from fiction. For this story, I took the framework of Seto Kaiba's character and expanded it, added some meat and muscle, dressed it up, added some depth. I hope you all will enjoy what I did with him. I do. He isn't just 'Seto Kaiba, a billionaire businessman with an obsession with children's card games'. He's Seto Kaiba, a person with a past, a history. He feels more real.

Of course, what goes with that is some real serious warnings, probably the most severe I have ever had to make. There are some adult themes in this, and I don't just mean the steamy sex. There will be mentions of child abuse, suicide, sexual assault. There will be moments that are really hard to read, but I promise you, it is all worth it in the end. As it is with life in general, I suppose.

The process is long and hard, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Healing is not the same for everyone. There will be tears. There will be pain. But trust me and my husband, a survivor, it is all worth it.

I am planning to begin self-edits on Broken Things at the end of October. Chapters should begin to be uploaded by mid to late November through December.

Until then, stay safe, stay healthy, stay together.