Disclaimer:
What is obvious is that I don't own anything officially related to Yu-Gi-Oh. What isn't obvious is that I also don't own the title "Lost Innocence". I was attempting to be cute. The title belongs to the Eric Stuart Band, or Eric Stuart himself as the man who wrote the song to begin with. It's important to note that the song and this story started out in no way connected to each other.
Author's Notes:
The week after I wrote Ceremony of Dolls, the kids who had been at camp the previous week wanted a new story. They still liked Ceremony of Dolls, and were convincing the new kids to get me to read it to them, but they really wanted something new. I tried to start The Card Catalog at that point, but it ended up going nowhere quickly. Eventually, I'll have to go back and pick it up again. Most of the kids knew my favorite character is Seto Kaiba, and so many of them suggested I somehow needed the dear boy to come in and mess up my otherwise cute Tristan-Serenity story.
I wasn't wild about the idea.
After I got home that night, though, it occurred to me that I could write a Kaiba story. Cartoon Network had started re-running "Enter the Shadow Realm", and I found myself sitting there watching Seto duel his stepfather. Somehow, in the midst of watching the episode, my disintegrating notebook found its way into my hands, and this piece began.
Lost Innocence
Chapter One
The dim light of his desk lamp was the only light in the room, the pencil scratching across the paper the only sound. Mokuba had been asleep for an hour, but Seto still had a stack of homework in front of him. Not that he minded terribly. He didn't find the work particularly challenging, just boring. Tonight's math homework was unusually mind-numbing, but he had quickly learned that the punishment for incomplete or sloppy work was a great deterrent to blowing off any homework. He shuddered involuntarily as he thought about his first couple of days in the manor.
He'd noticed over the past few days that the tutors seemed overly preoccupied with him, almost to the point of ignoring his little brother. Indeed, his little brother seemed to be an afterthought to their stepfather, Gozaburo Kaiba. It was really starting to bother the ten year old. Still, it was more of a life than they'd had in the orphanage. If there was one thing the very young Seto Kaiba wanted, it was to give his little brother Mokuba the best possible life.
Seto looked over with as much jealousy as he could muster at his brother sleeping peacefully on the bed. The brothers now had separate rooms, their own private spaces. Seto's room was fairly bare beyond the basic furniture, while Mokuba's boasted a variety of distractions for the youngster. And yet he's here, asleep in my bed, Seto thought. He hadn't been comfortable with the arrangements to begin with. The brothers had never been apart and now the older one found himself resenting the situation, not really wanting to let Mokuba get too far away. The problem resolved itself every night. Mokuba would tiptoe into Seto's room, awakened by any manner of night terrors. Seto would calm his younger brother back to sleep and then tuck him into his own bed. Then he would finish his homework and crawl into bed beside his brother.
It had been a week since the brothers had come to live with Gozaburo Kaiba, and the man was becoming more intolerant of the situation. Already fairly gifted at reading the people around him, Seto was pretty sure that the exponentially-increasing amount of homework he'd received over the past two days was an attempt to discourage the younger boy's behavior. He suspected his stepfather expected him to send Mokuba away when he was busy. The truth was, there was no amount of work that could ever make him send away his brother.
A gentle rustling of the bed sheets told him that Mokuba was about to wake up. He carefully set his pencil in his math book and left the desk to sit beside his brother on the bed. No sooner had he sat down than he heard the small voice, "Seto?"
"I'm here. It's all right. Go back to sleep, Moki." The little boy rolled over and went back to sleep, and Seto returned to his desk. He worked for another hour before finally crawling into bed, asleep before he even had a chance to remove his slippers.
As he had the past couple of mornings, Gozaburo himself came to wake the boys before dawn. The man's voice thundered as he entered the room, "Mokuba, you must stay in your own room at night. I won't let you keep Seto awake. He's a growing boy who needs his sleep."
Seto eyed the stack of books on his desk, "Moki doesn't keep me awake! All of that work does!"
In a placating tone, Gozaburo tried to reason with his older stepson, "Seto, you cannot be expected to do your best work with Mokuba constantly clinging to you."
The older boy drew a deep breath, "Mokuba's just scared. We aren't used to being apart!" I need him to be here as much he needs to be near me!
"Then it's time he starts learning." Kaiba Corp's CEO turned his back on the boys as he headed for the door. He hadn't wanted to adopt the younger boy, but the older one wouldn't leave him.
"But he's just a little kid," Seto protested. Beside him, still wrapped up in the sheet, Mokuba hugged his knees to his chest. A lump caught in Seto's chest as he realized how the fight was affecting his brother.
"Enough. It's settled. Mokuba will stay in his room tonight." The younger boy shot his brother a terrified look. The older boy went to protest again, but Gozaburo had already left.
The next couple of days were among the roughest in young Seto's life. His complaints about his homework load were respected, but Gozaburo put security outside both his and Mokuba's rooms at night to keep the younger boy in his room and away from his brother. They were only allowed to see each other at meals. Mokuba didn't take the separation well. He stopped eating at meals, and Seto heard rumors that Mokuba was having nightmares that were getting worse. The tutors couldn't even get the younger boy to work on his school work, now that he finally had his own tutors.
Worried about his brother, Seto started neglecting his own schoolwork. Initially, the punishment wasn't too severe. The lanky ten year old was locked in his room all day. Meals and tutors came to him. The only thing missing in his opinion was Mokuba, and he was struck any time he mentioned his brother's name. At night, he refused to sleep, instead curling up on his bed and hugging his knees to his chest wishing he could hear his brother's quiet footsteps in the hallway. A couple of times he thought he heard something, but it never turned out to anything.
Things continued in this manner for the next two weeks. Between the lack of sleep and his newly developed lack of appetite, Seto's health started deteriorating. He promised himself that he wouldn't acquiesce to the servants' requests that he eat or sleep until he saw his brother again.
Gozaburo quickly tired of the situation. Neither boy was eating or sleeping (not that he cared about his younger stepson). Seto had defiantly stated that he wouldn't cooperate until Mokuba was returned to him. The rumor from Mokuba's tutors was that the boy alternated between crying and staring sullenly out the windows, similarly not eating or sleeping. To see the older Seto, in whom he saw so much potential, so emotional over his pathetic younger brother angered the CEO more than he could articulate.
To successfully turn Seto into the man he wanted him to be, Gozaburo knew he had to break his stepson's connection with his younger brother.