Her Sweetness: Hello, hello. Listen, I know I have other fics to work on and you want to throw a stone at me, but what can I say? A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.
Review afterwards, I want any and ALL feedback!
—To Be Left Outside Alone—
The day was brisk. Wind had been whipping threw the trees for hours now, maybe signaling a storm. Or maybe that was just the season's effect. Leaves of all colors had long since plummeted to the earth, now being shuffled along by the wind and by passing cars on the roads. One particular car was rolling down the street, going faster than most others and trying to get somewhere in a hurry. This car was always in a hurry.
The sunlight that could still be seen peeking through the incoming clouds was shining down on this car, making the black paint gleam as it pulled into the driveway of the large estate; through secured gates and up the small hill that severed this mansion from the rest of the world. As the car pulled to a stop, a man exited the driver's seat and hurriedly walked to the back, opening the door and letting out it's true owner. The owner of the car, of the estate, of many things.
His short, brown hair was tasseled by the wind, pulling him into the mansion, through those large doors and into the foyer. Glossy hardwood floors with a beautiful finish shone under the bright light of the chandelier, hanging high above his head as he called out into the empty halls and rooms of the house. His brother's name.
After a few tries, he sneered, rolling his eyes. His brother was not one to stall, especially when he was the one calling. Another try, one last try, and still nothing. Growing impatient, he decided to forget about why he had summoned his brother for the moment and went up one of the staircases leading deeper into the large mansion. Down a few hallways and then into one of the most important rooms in the entire house. His home office. He spent more time in this room than any other, this room was so important. His work was so very important.
Not even stopping to set down his briefcase, he went straight to his desk in the back of the room by the large windows. Curtains closed. Very little light was permitted inside this room. Rays that did manage to make it in were so very lucky.
The computer began to boot up and soon the desktop had appeared and he was about to get to work. After all day of working, there was still so much to do. But today… on this day, on this hour, in this second, he stopped and looked at the keyboard before letting his graceful, slender fingers touch any keys. He stopped, looking down at the obstruction in the way of his work, on his keyboard. A tape. A lone videotape that sat on the keyboard, a white scrap of paper taped to it.
He lifted it up for a better view and read mentally, 'To Seto, from Mokuba.'
The very next thought in Seto's mind was how stupid his brother could be. How very stupid. It was a fact, a known fact throughout the entire city that he was an incredibly busy man and to his brother, that was not only a fact, it was life. And for him to interrupt such busy work with a videotape, probably a game, was inexcusable. Of course, when Mokuba was seen again, this would certainly come up.
Sliding the videotape to the other side of the desk, he turned back to his work and forgot about it.
.0.0.
The late October moon had risen and the wind had died down from it's whipping and howling earlier to now only whispering in the darkness, though the autumn leaves still ruffled in the gutters.
Seven short and productive hours passed in the mansion. The busy man inside the room on the forth floor had not taken a break from his files, from his computer, from his work which was very important. He barely blinked or breathed during those hours that he spent, seated at his keyboard and starring into the computer screen that gave off an alluring, cerulean glow.
Finally, he sat back, taking his hands from the keyboard and looking around the room with sharp, diamond blue eyes that shone no matter how dark the room was. Looking on the other side of his desk, Seto frowned. He'd forgotten about that tape that sat on his keyboard a long while ago. Mokuba's tape. Sighing, he relaxed and picked it up, carelessly switching it from hand to hand.
He snorted, 'Despite all we've been put through, Mokuba's still such a child… Still into secret notes… Secret videotapes, apparently. I suppose it can't be helped, but he really should grow up.'
Though his conscious thoughts were a bit harsh, he noted the fact that his kid brother was just that. A kid. And for a brief moment, while his work for the time being had been completed and for lack of anything better to do, he got up and walked across the pitch-black room to his television set, opening the glass cabinet beneath it and revealing a dusty VCR. He hadn't used it in forever; in these modern times, such a thing was obsolete. But, apparently, Mokuba still thought it good for some use.
Seto slipped the videotape inside and sat back, watching as the screen of grainy, white static turned into a clear picture.
The brunette was a bit surprised to see his room on the screen. In the daylight. Mokuba must've come in and opened the curtains earlier in the day. Such a thought irked the elder brother. In less than a second of nothing but seeing his room, a familiar boy came on screen; sitting on the bed was Mokuba, his long raven hair was loose and hung down by the small of his back.
He smiled at the camera, a small smile, but noticeable. A wave followed, "Hey, Seto. I know you've found this tape by now. I prepaid one of the maids to set it on your computer so you wouldn't bypass it. Yes, big brother, I know how you are." He smiled playfully. A sad, playful smile, but the desolation in it wasn't noticed by the elder Kaiba who snorted at hearing this.
"I know you're busy. T-This'll only take a few minutes, I swear, Seto, so please just listen… Seto, I…" He continued, eyes flickering away for a moment before coming back to the camera, "It's just this trend that we've fallen into has been going on for a long time now… What, five years? You know what I'm talking about. This thing that we're doing… Me, at school and then at home… Me pretending that I go out with friends sometimes but all I do is wander around streets… And you, Seto. You with your work and the company and… you've become so different from how you used to be. It's like your gone. I'm gone. We're both so different now, Seto, I wonder if you notice? It's like we're playing roles in our own lives.
"I'm not going to say that I never see you anymore, big brother. Because I do. I see you all the time. On the television, in magazines… Getting praised by other companies and getting slammed in weekly newspapers." Mokuba slid down on the bed, stretching his arms out in front of him as if he were a cat, small and agile. He smiled again as he looked back into the camera, "I see you in the office, too… When I got off early from school, I used to think it was fun to have the chauffer drive me to Kaiba Corp and I'd get to come up to your office and watch you work. I thought it was so much fun. I wonder if you notice that I don't come anymore? … But… I do watch you in your home office… Don't be mad at me for spying, but I can't help it… I just like watching you when your door's cracked open.
"Your fingers are so fast at typing, Seto. I'll never be that fast. I'll never be like you, you know. Have… have you ever thought of the fact that I'm going to take over Kaiba Corporation someday? I think about it every time I see you. I think about everyday. Oh God," He smirked and bit his lip while covering his face with one hand, "They're going to hate it when I become CEO. They're all so used to your methods of getting everything and more for the company, having efficiency ten times better than any computer on the market… But what will they get as a replacement? Me. Seto, they'll get me. I can't be you. You're such a hard worker… You do everything, you do more than everything and you're what any company would kill to have. You're it, Seto, you're the ultimate."
Mokuba turned back on his stomach and let his arms hang over the side of the bed, swinging them softly from side to side and kicking his feet behind him. The normal bored signs of a child. A beautiful, rich, bored child.
"Seto…" He almost sung the name, pronouncing both syllables, "I wonder if you know how lonely I get…? I wonder if you… get lonely, too? You seem like you get lonely… 'C-Cause when I watch you in your bedroom, you seem to be in another world. Like you're away on some fantastic adventure… There must be something awfully wonderful where you are, big brother. But, knowing you, the place you go to isn't wonderful… it's you who makes it so entertaining, Seto… I-I get awful lonely, Seto… Real lonely… And I've been wondering if… if I could come with you the next time you go off into that place?
"Or we could… stay home…" He lifted his arms and put them underneath his stomach, tilting his head so that he'd be starring right at the screen with those stormy, empty eyes. He rubbed his hands together nervously, "I don't have to go on that adventure with you. I don't have to go anywhere, but I do want… to be with you. To actually be with you, Seto." He shook his head, his bottom lip starting to quiver but only a little bit, "Like I said, I see you all the time. I don't want to complain that I don't see you or that you're not a good brother or anything like that. But there is one thing… I just want you to see me. Just once, Seto, I want you to watch me while I'm eating or walking down the hall… or sleeping, even. I don't have to see you do it… J-Just do it. Just look at me…"
As Seto watched his brother's eyes go from light and playful to dull and weary, his eyes changed too. From stoic to stoic. From sapphire to sapphire. But from slits to eyes now. Actual eyes that saw something.
Mokuba closed his eyes, "I don't think you've really looked at me, at my body or even into my eyes for the past five years… I-I can't remember the last time you said something to me about the way I look. I wonder if you care? Maybe you do… Maybe I can't see that you care. Along with being forgotten, am I blind as well?" He stopped talking for more than a moment, as if waiting for an answer through the camera. It was more than three minutes later before he opened his eyes but Seto watched every second of it. Stormy orbs unlocked themselves and two smooth, parted lips began to move, "I'm not in your thoughts anymore, am I, big brother? How many times a day do you think of me? Of what I'm doing, what I'm saying, how I'm living without you…
"There's no more of what we used to be, is there…? Hmm, I've become so selfish, Seto… All I can think about is me and what I want and how I'm feeling. But then… someone has to, don't they? Seto, I'm so tired of being alone. You're always right there, but you'll never be next to me. You'll never look at me. That's why I wanted this tape delivered, Seto. It's my gift you to. I want to be noticed, I want to be inside your mind, I want you to think of me!" His voice went a little higher as he pushed his torso from the dark blue sheets and swung his legs over the side, sitting in an upright position. His held tilted to an unbearably uncomfortable position as he glared into the screen, "This tape's been coming for a long time, Seto. My brother."
His small hand reached down, feeling along the cold and soft carpet surrounding the bed. He found what he was looking for and pulled it up so that the camera could see it. So that his brother's eyes could see it.
"Seto, I wonder if you think I hate you now…?" Mokuba's eyelids drooped as he raised the silver pistol to his temple, letting it part through his lovely, black locks, "Yes… I hate you. Because I no longer have to ability to tell you how I feel…"
Two small fingers jerked back. A sound came, yes, a sound came. Loud as the color of blood that was spilt, quick as the body it laid down. Horrid as the white static that followed the end of the tape. It was a hour, maybe less or maybe more before the elder and only Kaiba brother stood from in front of the television. It was a hour, maybe less or maybe more before the elder and only Kaiba brother flicked on the light switch in the large and dark room. And it was only a second before the light revealed the blood-soaked bed in the opposite corner of the room. Stormy, empty eyes still starred up at the ceiling, at the nothing, at the everything that they could no longer see.
The video camera sat on the floor, in front of the bed. Right where it had always been.
—Owari—
Just look what I've done. Are you mad at me… Big brother?