Rebirth
by Ceresi

Rating: R

WARNING: There are spoilers for the HP books in here. I know, it's crazy. Also, slash, and one racy little R scene. ALSO. This is still, for all intents and purposes, a rough draft. I've had it betaed and edited it several times myself, but I'm working on a sequal, and some changes might be necessary.

Want more notes? See Chapter One

***

Mokuba elected to eat in the kitchen, stubbornly refusing to give up his campaign of silence against his brother. When he felt guilty, he reminded himself that Joey would be there later tonight, that if Seto felt bad, Joey would help. Joey might even patch things up without a sacrifice of pride from either of them.

Mrs. Kamazaki needled him with her gaze but fed him up. She vanished mysteriously just before Mokuba finished -- if he'd had enough time, he would have wondered why.

The kitchen door swung open and Seto entered. He tossed his plate into the sink with enough force that it cracked.

Mokuba nearly fell off his seat on the counter. He stared at Seto with wide eyes.

"Tomorrow, one of the bodyguards will pick you up," Seto said. He didn't even look at Mokuba as he started for the door.

"What? Why? Because I was twenty minutes late?"

"You know why." Seto gave him a dark look. "He'll also drive you there and check in with your teachers -- if you decide to skip any classes, I'll know."

Mokuba almost slid off the counter in his rage, but it wasn't a good idea to maximize the height difference between them. "That's insane."

"Think whatever you want."

"That's right, just obey." Mokuba spat the words, throwing his own plate into the sink so that it broke. "Whatever you say, big brother."

Seto stiffened, his back to Mokuba. "I did warn you," he pointed out. "If you could just be on time --"

"I thought it didn't have anything to do with that!"

Seto looked back at him. "Do you want to get into a discussion about that?"

"Why not?" Mokuba's always been more outspoken then Seto; he used it shamelessly to his own advantage now. "Why not talk about the fact that I was with Daisuke? Why the hell do you care?"

Seto looked like he was striving to hold onto his last threads of patience and failing. "You're my brother and my responsibility."

"That's right. Just your job. Well, I'll tell you what." Mokuba brushed past him. "A brother's not good enough, it never has been. You might as well give up trying to be my father, and I'm tired of you acting like --"

"Like what?" Mokuba was halfway to the stairs, but the frozen note in Seto's voice stopped him cold. That was the voice he used to use on Yugi, the one that said make one wrong move and you're dead.

Mokuba turned a contemptuous look on him. "Like you're an all-knowing god."

"One of us is acting like an all-knowing god," Seto said, still dangerously. "It's not me."

"Like a hypocrite, then," Mokuba said spitefully. "As if you'll just be holding hands with Joey when he gets here tonight."

"Would you rather he didn't, then?"

It was the wrong thing to say. He didn't want to think of Seto willingly turning Joey away just to make him happy. Because he knew that Seto would do it in a heartbeat.

"No," Mokuba said. He felt incredibly cold inside. "At least he's normal. And it'll be a break from you."

Seto actually looked stung, which might have been a first. Mokuba stormed up the stairs without looking back.

~

"Come to my house," Daisuke said when he called. He could probably tell that Mokuba was on the verge of angry tears. "Just for a little while."

Mokuba readily agreed.