By ElveNDestiNy, written March 25, 2005
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: This story begins some time after DOOM arc, and there's a full year between Ch. 1 and Ch. 2. Amelda's about 19 or 20, around the same age as Kaiba, and Miruko is 16 in this story. Amelda and Miruko were separated "almost ten years ago," so Miruko would have been six, and Amelda ten. I've kept things consistent, so hopefully ages are too unrealistic. Also, abuse, war, etc. has a way of stealing innocence, so keep in mind that biological age isn't everything.
o - o - o - o -
From the moment that Miruko left, it was all chaos. KaibaCorp Security belatedly came running into the room, guns drawn, quailing under the icy glare they received from Kaiba. Someone screamed, which set off various other cries, ostensibly more from the presence of the security guards' guns than from Miruko's escape, which most people hadn't even seen.
"Quiet!" Kaiba said, raising his voice just a little. It was a measure of his absolute authority that, miraculously, people obeyed. After all, Kaiba thought contemptuously, the fact that he had been younger than every single employee when he had first taken over the company, and yet had managed to efficiently exert control, said something about his persona.
He glanced back at his office, where he could just barely see Amelda still standing. Even from this distance the expression in those grey eyes glassy with shock was compelling.
Telling himself that his company needed him more right now, and that he was not being a coward for not wanting to go back there and face Amelda's no doubt emotional state, Kaiba deliberately turned away from his office.
"Go back to work!" He called Security over, and after some dire threats and questions – why didn't Miruko's gun set off alarms when he entered the building, why had they been so slow being alerted to a possibly dangerous situation – he sent them back with the reassuring promise that half of them would be fired tomorrow. Let them sweat it out for a bit; he'd conduct a formal employee review session soon and get rid of the lowest fourth.
When he finally had nothing left to do and the building was humming with activity almost as usual, Kaiba suppressed a small sigh and strode back to his office. He needn't have worried. Amelda was just as he had left him, standing motionless without any hint of an expression on his face.
Truth to tell, Kaiba hadn't expected anything different from him. He wasn't the kind of person that could ever bring himself to cry in front of other people, no matter how great the heartbreak.
Yugi and his little group, despite their constant despicable rants about friendship, probably wouldn't have understood. In fact, they would have taken Amelda's emotionless countenance as proof that he was heartless. But Kaiba thought he felt it from him, the pain, almost as if it were hovering in the room around Amelda, a tangible ghost.
"I don't have time for this," Kaiba said flatly. It came out little harsher than he had intended. But then, it always did. "Come on with me."
He realized why it sounded so familiar even as he walked to the elevator and heard the small bell sound that signified its arrival. Amelda walked in wordlessly, with only a soft rustle from his trenchcoat. Kaiba followed, and they stood in silence during the long ride down.
It sounded so familiar because it was exactly what he had said to Amelda when he brought him to KaibaCorp, to see his brother. Looking back on it, Kaiba wasn't sure what he had been thinking, or what exactly he had expected. A tearful reunion? A happy sort of ending after ten years of despair?
He wasn't even sure why he had done it. Certainly, Amelda would never say, 'Thank you, Kaiba, I'm sorry for all times I challenged you to a duel and tried to avenge my brother.' It would be ridiculous even if it something like that did happen.
Amelda had ridden his motorcycle to KaibaCorp, and as they went underground to the parking lots, he stopped by it. Kaiba kept on walking. For the first time, there was a little bit of expression on his face, and Kaiba was absurdly glad to see it. But all he said was, "I'm taking you home."
He was a little disappointed when Amelda neither argued nor questioned what exactly was 'home.' Kaiba arranged for the motorcycle to be brought along as well, and then they got into his stylish silver sports coupe. He chose to drive.
Halfway there, Amelda must have realized that he wasn't being taken to the house he shared with his two biker companions, but he made no protest. With nothing but silence during the drive home, Kaiba couldn't help ruminating over his disastrous actions.
He didn't know what to do with him. He'd had Miruko brought here as soon as he had learned that he was alive, he'd thought that there would be some sort of exchange of love, reaffirmation of family. Not this. Not like this, with Miruko poised on the edge of raw violence, everything about the troubled youth speaking of borderline volatile passions.
Not his words to his brother, who had spent his lifetime waiting to avenge him, whose brother in his mind was still the innocent child that he had been when they had been separated…
There was nothing to do but take him home. Kaiba didn't think that it would be right to return him to his house, with Raphael and Varon, whose concern for their friend would be justified. But Amelda didn't look like he could take much more right now.
Though home also meant Mokuba, and who knew what Amelda would think of his own brother? Kaiba didn't sympathize with people, but in this case, it was too easy to imagine. If it had been Mokuba…he couldn't imagine how he might handle it. And in some ways, it was his fault that it had turned out like this.
Oh, granted, he'd meant well. He had no idea that Miruko would react like that, or that the child that Amelda couldn't seem to forget would have grown up to be an angry, gun-carrying teenager rebelling at the hard life he'd been given. Kaiba had brought them together in his office with what most people would call pretty good intentions. It just hadn't worked out the way it was supposed to.
o - o - o - o -
He was woken halfway through the night by a hoarse cry so heartrending he sat bolt upright, heart pounding in fear. The computer screen before him had blurred after many fruitless hours of trying to implement a new program; the code had too many errors and he was frustrated with himself beyond belief. There was nothing worse than flawed reasoning.
Despite the urgency, he ducked in to check with Mokuba, finding that he was still sleeping peacefully. He ran towards the room he'd temporarily given to Amelda, although the enormous house was quiet after that first scream.
The door was slightly ajar and he stood right outside, reluctant to go in after he had ascertained that nothing truly dangerous was taking place. Amelda was obviously caught in the grip of some nightmare.
He had planned to go in, to say wake him something—what, he didn't know, but something at least. But it would have been wrong, now, to have him deal with this as well. They weren't friends, after all. They were nothing more than strangers, who happened to be at the same place, at the same time…like two trains heading towards the site of a wreck.
It took a moment before Kaiba realized that Amelda was awake, and he was staring at him. If there was embarrassment, the dark hid any sign of color in his cheeks. All Kaiba could see of him was the faint outline of his form. Amelda probably could see even less of him, hidden behind the door.
He opened it so that he stood in the doorway fully. The room was dark, but he could make out Amelda's harsh breathing that shook his frame, probably aftereffects of whatever he had dreamed.
"I thought—he was dying right before my eyes and I couldn't—I didn't save him," he said, as if trying to explain, clearly at a loss.
Normally Kaiba would have left. Emotional scenes annoyed him, and that plus the fact that Amelda was nothing to him – should have prompted him to ignore the other duelist just like he ignored the rest of the world. But for some reason he felt obliged to do more.
"It'll be all right," he lied helplessly. He couldn't see how it could be.
o - o - o - o -
Mokuba was the one who got impatient in the morning, waiting for Amelda to show up. Seto finally told him to go check, wondering if perhaps the redhead had merely overslept. He would want to go back to his friends, who after all were probably very worried. Or maybe not, since they seemed like an independent lot. For all he knew, they might find nothing wrong at all with Amelda not coming in for the night.
"Seto? He's not here!" Mokuba bounded down the stairs, almost crashing into his brother, who was standing at the bottom.
His first thought was, of course. But just to be sure, he checked himself. There was no sign of Amelda, or indeed, that Amelda had ever been here. They walked to the garage, and Amelda's departure was confirmed with the disappearance of the red motorcycle.
Mokuba looked up at him, questions and worry in his slate-blue eyes. "Is he going to be all right?" He'd always been more caring of Amelda than anyone else, even as far back as the airborne duel. Perhaps whatever reasons that made him love Seto so much also carried over to Amelda.
"Don't worry, Mokuba. He can take care of himself. Go eat your breakfast. I'll be back soon."
"Where are you going?"
Kaiba told himself that he was overreacting, that Amelda was probably just returning home, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong. "I'm just checking up on something."
o - o - o - o -
Notes: Some really good stuff coming up, and everything's planned out. Still working on the re-write for this chapter, but I wanted to get some of the typos out of the way. This story will have a total of 10 chapters andthe good news is that I've got them all planned out!Anyway, pleasereview!