"How does this work again? Heart of the cards, guide me." Mokuba placed his hand on the top of his deck and drew a card. Yugi's Dark Magician was on the field, and he had only one thing that could defeat it now.
"Did you get what you need?" the other boy asked him.
"No," Mokuba glared at his card before placing it in attack mode anyway. The Blackland Fire Dragon, with an attack power of only 1500, went up against the Dark Magician and destroyed itself, wiping out the rest of the younger boy's life points.
Yugi sighed. "Mokuba, you have to learn to be more patient. You could have placed a monster in defense mode."
But the child sitting next to him was barely paying attention. Instead, he flipped through his deck and found the card he was looking for, Raigeki, near the very bottom.
"Yugi, does believing in the heart of the cards really work? Grandpa believed, and he still lost to Kaiba."
"Kaiba's holograms threw him off his game. I think he was afraid. I've never seen him like that before," Yugi mused. The curious look on his little brother's face roused him from his reverie. "Anyway, having faith in the heart of the cards does work. That's how I was able to summon Exodia; I thought about you. And all our friends."
Mokuba grinned. "I'll help you work on your deck later," Yugi told him. The child looked up at his brother innocently.
"Big brother?"
"Yes?"
"I'm bored. Can we do something else?"
Yugi couldn't resist that face. "Alright," he said. "How about we play your favorite game next?"
The child's face lit up. He began putting his cards away and found his Monster Capsule pieces.
The two boys were about to start when their grandfather came in the room. "Yugi, I need to speak with you in the kitchen," was all he said before leaving again.
"He looked strange," Mokuba commented when he was gone. "Do you think he's sick or something?"
"I'm sure it's nothing," Yugi assured him. "Don't worry about it. I'll see if anything's wrong."
~`~`~`~`~`~
In the kitchen"What is it Grandpa? Are you okay?"
"Yugi, you'd better sit down. I can hardly believe the news myself."
"What is it?" Yugi asked while taking a seat at the table.
His grandfather sat down as well before speaking again. "I received some news. Seto Kaiba is Mokuba's natural brother."
"No way!" Yugi nearly jumped out of his chair.
"Yes, Kaiba found the records from the orphanage to prove it. Now he wants to take Mokuba to live with him."
"He can't do that! Mokuba was legally adopted."
"But Kaiba has enough money to buy the best lawyers available. He'll win the case or keep it tied up in court for years," he paused before continuing. "Kaiba proposed another plan. He wants Mokuba to stay with him for a month and then let him decide where he would rather live. I've agreed to it."
"And what if he doesn't want to go?"
"I don't believe he will at first, but he needs this chance to get to know his last remaining family." He sighed. "Mokuba has lost so many people in his life. His mother died in childbirth. His father in a car accident. And then your parents. I know Kaiba will take good care of him. When I talked to him, I could tell he was being genuine. He honestly cares about him. Besides, Mokuba will be right across town. We can check in on him whenever we want to."
"So you talked to the other one then?" Yugi asked. "He seemed to care about Mokuba. His behavior was so strange. He was very protective of him. But now he's working with his counterpart. Do you think this could be a trick?"
"I honestly don't think so. I had this feeling… I just knew this was the right thing to do."
"I don't like this, especially after what happened last week. And now we're just going to turn him over to Kaiba, two of them in fact," Yugi told him. He closed his eyes and looked down. "I don't want him to go."
"I don't either. But, Yugi, I really believe that this is the best thing for him. I can't explain it, but I feel that he needs to spend this time with Kaiba. It's as if I wasn't alone in making the decision."
"When is he taking him?"
"On Friday afternoon."
"Grandpa, can you do something for me?"
"What is it?"
"Let me be the one to tell Mokuba about this."
"Okay. If you're sure, Yugi."
His grandson nodded. "I just need a little time to figure out how to do this."
~`~`~`~`~`~
An hour laterYugi walked into his brother's room. "Mokuba, there's something I need to talk to you about," he said as he sat on the bed and motioned to the younger boy to come next to him.
"It's serious, huh? Is it about Grandpa?"
"No. Mokuba, I uh…" Yugi forgot the whole speech he had come up with when he looked at the child's innocent face. He could not think of what to say and so just blurted it out. "We found your real brother. It's Kaiba."
Mokuba was taken aback. He starred at Yugi for a moment before saying, "No. That's just not possible. My brother was nothing like him."
"Do you remember much about him?"
"Seto had brown hair and blue eyes just like Kaiba. They may have the same first name, but they're not the same person."
"Even when you first saw him in the game shop, didn't you wonder for a moment?"
"No, we never even took a picture. It's hard to remember sometimes exactly what he looked like. That doesn't matter anyway. You're my family now. Seto left me a long time ago." He bit his lip and thought for a moment before saying, "Kaiba can't be my brother. He doesn't act anything like him. My brother wasn't mean."
"He has documents proving you're related." Mokuba looked away. Yugi took his chin and starred into his eyes. "He wants to spend some time with you to get to know you again. He's picking you up this Friday to stay at his house for a month. Then you'll be able to decide if you want to live with him permanently or not."
"I don't want to stay with Creepy Kaiba!"
Yugi tried not to laugh. "You probably shouldn't call him that to his face."
"Joey came up with the nickname. I think it fits."
"I'll have to have a talk with Joey. He can be a bad influence."
"I don't care what some papers say," Mokuba told him suddenly. "You're my real brother, Yugi!" He threw his arms around the older boy. "You don't want to get rid of me, do you?"
Yugi was shocked by the question. "No! Of course not, Mokuba. Grandpa and I just think this is what's best for you right now. This is a rare opportunity. Besides, you'll get to stay in a huge mansion."
His little brother just looked at him sadly. "Will you miss me when I'm gone?"
"You bet I will. This place will be so quiet and dull when you're not here." He thought for a moment. "Tell you what, if you're ever lonely or need to talk to someone, call me. Even if it's in the middle of the night. Or you can ask Kaiba to let you visit me for a while. I'll always be here for you."
Mokuba tried his best to smile and hugged his brother. They stayed like that for a long time until Yugi tucked him in to bed.
~`~`~`~`~`~
At the end of the week, a limo came to pick Mokuba up. Yugi and all their friends stood outside to see him off. Tea had tears in her eyes as she hugged him. Joey and Tristan tried to be strong, but everyone could tell they hated seeing him go. Mokuba hugged his grandfather and then Yugi who gave him a photo of the three of them to keep him company. After this, the child got in the back seat of the limo as the driver held the door open for him.
To Be Continued