Chapter 14 : Open up more.
One week passed since they learned about, well what supposedly happened between Kaiba and Gozaburo, deciding that there was nothing more to do about all this unless Kaiba became normal again they all pushed the matter away, much to Seto's relief.
One thing was still bugging them, according to Yami, Kaiba was supposed to became normal again as soon as he'll trust people again, well they might be mistaking but never had any of them seen Kaiba trusting anyone like today, so why was he still a kid?
8888Seto was starting to get bored, and hungry, the others and him were trying to make Joey stop flipping the stupid coin but he wouldn't stop until he wins, no matter how much they tried to explain to him he wasn't able to understand that he couldn't win. At first Seto thought it would be fun, and it have been, the first 15 times or so, but Joey had been flipping the coin for 15 minutes now.
Now just think hard, who, except for Yugi, could fool Joey like that? Seto of course, but now he was starting to regret it.
15 minutes sooner
Seto and Mokuba were sitting on the couch, they were bored out of their mind, they had played every games in the house at least 10 times and they couldn't go outside because of the rain.
"Tail." Mokuba said.
Seto flipped a coin and caught it in his hand before revealing it. "Tail."
"This is getting boring Seto." Even if head or tail was the only games were Mokuba could beat Seto it was still a boring one.
Fortunately for the two bored kid Joey entered the living room, followed by Yugi, Tea and Tristan, they all looked bored, an idea popped in Seto's mind.
"Hey what are you doing kids?" Joey asked.
Seto showed his coin to Joey. "Wanna play?"
Joey looked at the coin, it wasn't tricked, and just like Mokuba that was probably the only game he could beat Kaiba at, and he was bored also. "Ok."
Both Mokuba and Yugi looked at Seto, he was up to something, but then again as long as it didn't hurt Joey it could be fun…on second thought, even if it did hurt Joey it may be funny.
Seto grabbed the coin, ready to flip it. "If it's head I win, if it's tail you lose, ok?"
"Fine by me." Joey said.
"Head." I win.
Of course Joey was the only one that didn't see the catch, this time it was Joey who flipped the coin. "Tail, damn I lost."
Back to normal time
"I don't get it, how come I always lose, this game is supposed to be a 50/50 chance."
"I guess I just got lucky." Seto grabbed the coin and shoved it in his pocket so Joey wouldn't start playing again.
"I'm sure you did something to the coin." Joey complained.
"To the coin? No."
"Then what did you do, I know this game wasn't fair."
Seto sighed. "It's easy Joey, normally even three years old caught the catch after 4 games."
"What is it then?"
Seto smiled. "I said, if it's head I win and if its tail you lose so either way I win." All the others were smiling.
After about 10 second Joey finally caught on. "Ohhhhh!" He then turned toward Seto and took a step toward him. "Why you little…" Of course it was just for fun, he had no intention of hurting him.
Seto didn't caught the fun part of this, his instinct quickly came in and he backed against a wall, his eyes showed nothing but pure terror. All the others were taken aback by this, Mokuba on the other hand knew exactly what was wrong, he rushed to his brother's side and hugged him tightly.
When he felt his little brother beside him Seto calm down instantly, even if he was still shaking. "Seto, it's ok, he's dead." Mokuba whispered so that only he could hear him. Seto nodded. "I think you should go rest a little." The little Kaiba added. Seto nodded again and left.
Once Seto left every eyes turned on Mokuba. "Alright, what is going on?" Tristan asked.
"Nothing." Mokuba said a little too fast.
"Mokuba, just tell us what's going on." Yugi pleaded.
Mokuba looked away. "That's Seto's life, I can't tell you."
Joey was the only one who didn't looked clueless, he knew what this look Seto had was, he recognised it instantly, after all, he had that same look almost everyday when he was the same age. But he couldn't believe it, it didn't fit in his mind, there was no way that the Seto Kaiba could have been beaten when he was a child.
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A little bit later, when the others finally accepted that they weren't going to get any answer from Mokuba, the little kid decided to check on his brother.
Seto looked up at the sound of knocking on the door, he knew it was Mokuba. "Come in." He said.
Mokuba opened the door and stepped inside before closing it behind him. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine I guess." Seto lied.
"No, your not fine." Mokuba said, he knew his brother all too well. The little Kaiba sat on the bed beside his brother. "You know, he wasn't going to hurt you."
Seto sighed. "I know, it's just that something can't be forgotten that easily."
"I guess not."
"Did you tell them?"
"No, it's your life, it's none of their business if you don't want it to be."
"And I'm supposed to be the older, you've been taking care of me a lot more than I've taken care of you lately."
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"I really wonder what is wrong with him." Tristan said.
"Would you drop it already?" Joey said. "It's none of our business."
"I'm surprise that you are the one saying that." Tristan said.
"So, you have something against it?" Joey asked.
"Well it looks like you know something that we don't.".
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The next day Seto was sitting outside, well not really sitting, he was walking aimlessly around town, that is, until he saw Joey.
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school."
Joey turned around and sighed when he saw it was only Seto. "Who are you? My mother?"
"I was just wondering."
Joey smiled. "I'm working."
"I thought domino high didn't allow the students to work."
"Well it doesn't, that's why this is a secret." Joey said with a mischievous smile. "Wanna help me?" Seto nodded, the job wasn't that hard, it was just delivering all kind of stuff.
"Why are you working?" Seto asked 15 minutes later.
"Because I need the money if I don't want to starve to death."
"I thought you were going to school."
"I am, but today's an exception, since it's during school I get twice the pay, and I really need the money."
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At lunch break Joey bought them some fast food, after all, he was working so he could have money to feed himself.
"Hey, about the other day, I didn't mean to scare you like that." Joey said.
Seto looked down at his hand like he just realised they were there. "I know, it's just…."
"Instinct." Joey finished for him. "Don't worry, I know how it feels." Seto still didn't looked up at him. "So, since when as it been going on."
"About two months after he adopted me."
"Two months, why did he wait that long?"
"To make me feel safe, at first he was all nice to me and Mokuba and one day just like that he moved Mokuba's room to the other side of the mansion, he burned all the thing I had from my real parents and he started beating me."
"And did it stopped?"
"Now that he's dead yes, but to me thing aren't that way, I went to sleep one day and woke up here so for me it never stopped." Seto hugged his knees. "Why do you think my arm was broken?"
"I had my doubt."
"Hey, thanks for listening to me, no one ever cared before. Except Mokuba but I didn't want him to know."
Joey smiled. "What are friends for? Don't worry, I won't tell anyone what you told me." He stood up. "Now come on, let's finish that so I can wipe the floor with you at duel monster." He added with a grin.
Seto smiled. "You wish."
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Kaiba was sitting on the ground, staring at the tombstone in front of him. (An: and yes I did write Kaiba). July 7, the best and worst day of his life. The best because that was the day his little brother is born, but the worst because they had lost their mother.
He always made sure to come here that day, usually he came early, it was his little brother's birthday and he didn't really wanted his little brother to feel sorry on his birthday. Each years he came while his brother was still asleep he would stay for about an hour and come back.
He had been surprise to see he was back to normal again when he woke up this morning, he could remember what happened, at least that was a good thing, now he was thinking, he had trusted them because he was a kid, but now what should he do?
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Mokuba woke up, the first thing that he noticed was that his brother was already up, well in fact that's the only thing he noticed before going downstairs to eat breakfast.
"Hi!" The kid said.
"Good morning!" Yugi replied.
Mokuba looked around. "Where's Seto?"
Both Yugi and his grandfather looked at him with confusion. "You mean he's not sleeping?" Yugi asked.
Mokuba shook his head.
"That's strange." Yugi said. "I've been up for two hours and I didn't saw him." Yugi gave Mokuba his breakfast. "Happy birthday!" He said with a smile.
"Birthday?" Mokuba was confused.
"We're the 7th of July Mokuba, it's your birthday."
"Hey that's right. Thanks!" He said, eating his breakfast. Then I know where Seto is.
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"Where are you going?" Yugi asked. As soon as he finished eating breakfast, Mokuba put on his shoes and was about to head outside when Yugi saw him.
"I'm going to catch Seto."
"So you know where he is?"
"In the graveyard." Mokuba replied but left before Yugi could ask anymore.
"Graveyard?" Oh, that's right, his mother died the same day Mokuba was born.
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Mokuba almost ran all the way, he had no idea why he was happy like that but that didn't really matter to him. Of course nothing could have prepared him for what he saw when he reached his parents tomb.
There he was, his real brother, the one that was twice his size with a trench coat, was sitting in front of his parents tomb. He looked so calm and peaceful that Mokuba wondered if he remembered at all what had happened in the past few months. But that didn't matter, he ran up to him as fast as he could.
Kaiba could hear running footsteps coming his way, he didn't really paid attention to them, this was a graveyard after all, and anyone could come to see their family. Of course, out of curiosity he looked up just in time to see messy black hair ran into him. He didn't need to look down to know it was Mokuba so he just hugged him back.
Seto looked down at his little brother. "How did you know I was here?"
Mokuba sat down next to him. "You always come here each year at this time."
"How did you know, I never told anyone?"
"I followed you two years ago, I wanted to know where you were going so early. Why didn't you ever told me you came here."
"I didn't wanted you to be sad on your birthday, and I guess I wanted some time alone with them."
"Do you want me to go then?"
Kaiba shook his head. "I'd like you to stay."
They stayed silent for e few minutes, it felt good. "Seto, why did you go through all of this?" Kaiba looked at him with a questioning look. "With Gozaburo, I mean. He was beating you everyday, why didn't you ever tell me, I would have believed you, we could have just left."
"To do what? Drag you around on the road until we both starve to death?"
"Seto please, I'm serious."
"So am I. I thought about it, but you kept saying you were happy there, I'd never seen you smile like that, you had the best lifestyle possible, I couldn't just force you to leave all that just because I wasn't happy."
"Well you should have. Back then, I had no idea how much you suffered, if I'd know I would have dragged you away myself."
"When did you find out?"
"When I was 9, on day when you were sick, I took care of you, even if Gozaburo didn't want me to but I did it anyway. You were sleeping on your stomach and when I touched your back you started to whimper so I took a look." Mokuba looked down as if he had done something bad.
Kaiba put and arm around his shoulder but Mokuba looked up at him with anger in his eyes. "Why did you let him hurt you like that? Do you think that I don't care about you?" He shouted.
Kaiba was taken aback by his brother's sudden outburst. "I promised." Mokuba looked up in surprise. "Before our mother died I promised her I would always take care of you."
"Does that mean that all those years you only took care of me because of a promise?"
Kaiba was shocked that his brother could think something like that. "Of course not, Mokuba you are more important to me than anything else. All my life I was always alone, that's why I wanted a little brother so much, then I got you and you stood by me no matter what, you were always there for me. You did nothing but bring me happiness and I wanted to repay you the favour."
"But I don't want to be happy if that means you have to suffer."
"I know, but Gozaburo can't hurt me anymore, those times are over."
"No they're not." Mokuba whispered.
"What was that?" Kaiba asked.
Mokuba's head shot up. "Just look at you, you are exactly like he wanted you to be; a cold hearted bastard, just like him. Just face it Seto, even in death he still has control over you, you don't even have a life of your own."
For the first time in ages Kaiba was at a lost of word, no one ever talked to him that way, especially not Mokuba. "But I have you, doesn't that count?"
"But that's all you have Seto, but even then I'm only here when you have nothing better to do."
"That's not true."
"Really? You only spend time with me when something good happen at your job and you end up with nothing to do."
"That's not true."
"Then tell me, when was the last time you decided to take a day off to be with me?" Kaiba stayed silent, he couldn't remember. "I'll tell you, it never happened. Even when you have nothing else to do, all you do is walking me everywhere and want and watch me play, you never have any fun for yourself."
Kaiba looked away, he knew Mokuba was right, he always knew. "What should I do?" He asked.
"Free yourself, you have a chance to make yourself a life and it may be the last you'll ever get, just take it."
Kaiba thought about it, a chance? He didn't understand what his little brother meant. "Let's go back." The two of them stood up and started to walk toward the exit but both of them had forgotten a rather important matter.
"Seto Kaiba."
Both Kaibas turned to their left and saw two policeman pointing guns at them, well at the taller one more precisely.
"You're under arrest for the murder of Gozaburo Kaiba."
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And that's were I stop once again, actually this chapter was done about two weeks ago, I even finished writing the entire story, for those interested the last chapter is 17. And about Mokuba's birthday, I said it was the 7 from memory, it might be wrong but I'm to lazy to check about it.