Upstairs Seto had finished drying Mokuba off and getting him changed. Then he put some new bandages on. He had put some in his bathroom incase he had to do just this, give the kid a bath. This way they wouldn't have to go all the way downstairs to the lower levels, just to get the doctor to wrap him up.
"Okay kid, now I'm going to take a quick shower you can stay in my room if you want till I'm done."
"Okay big brother." Mokuba said walking into the bedroom, sat down at Seto's desk and started practicing his writing.
A few minutes later Yami walked in and smiled seeing the kid sound to sleep at the desk.
"Poor thing he must be wore out." Yami thought stroking his hair. Then he walked over to Seto's bed and pulled down the covers. He knew that he would feel better knowing the kid was safely within Seto's arms. He also knew that after everything that happened Seto wouldn't be able to sleep without being near him. He walked over and gently picked the kid up and smiled as he snuggled closer. He walked over and gently placed the kid into Seto's bed. The he kissed his head and covered him up. Then he walked over to the desk and noticed that the kid had dropped a pencil. He picked it up and was about to set it on the desk when he noticed the kid had been writing something. His eyes went wide as he saw the writing was not even close to the run away note and it was barley readable even though it had been printed.
Just then, Seto walked out drying his hair but dressed for bed. "Yami what are you doing in here? Where's Mokuba?"
"Nothing to panic over Seto, look in your bed."
Seto looked over and smiled seeing the kid snuggled up under the covers.
"Take a look at this. Mokuba was writing it."
"Any clue what it says? I mean it's not even close to the letter he left."
"Perhaps the letter was really written by Ryo, if this is the way Mokuba writes then it'd make sense."
"You've got a point. But what have I told you about mentioning his name." Seto said still a little upset at Ryo for taking Mokuba away from him.
Mokuba had woken up hearing Seto, but winced a little trying to keep from crying as Seto basically said he hated Ryo.
"Seto! How can you say that? Ryo nearly died to protect Mokuba!"
Seto sighed, "I know, you're right. I guess I still hold a little anger towards him for kidnapping Mokuba."
"Seto, we discussed this before, Mokuba left of his own free will. We both saw Ryo alone, others saw Mokuba alone, think of it like this Seto, we never appreciated Mokuba before. You brought him home and into our lives. We fell in love with him. But we didn't think about his feelings or how much we meant to him or he meant to us. One mention of our brother's name and we left him behind. It wasn't till he was gone that we truly learned to appreciate him. You could say Ryo did us a favor it forced us to realize how much that kid truly means to us."
Seto sighed, "You're right, I hate admitting it but you're right. We realized that we never told him how we feel, it cost us his trust and he left. Now that he's back, we know what we did wrong and we can hope to learn from our mistakes. I'll get over my contempt for Ryo. As you said, he did risk his life for Mokuba. He deserves respect not contempt. I'll work hard on doing that. Tell me though why did you put him in my bed? Not that I'm complaining but you were having his room fix up."
"I didn't think after he was nearly killed twice in one night that you'd be able to sleep knowing he was alone. Not to mention your nightmare. I just felt that we'd both feel better if he was in your arms."
"You're probably right. Goodnight big brother."
"Goodnight Seto, little brother." Yami said leaving.
Seto crawled into bed and turned out the lights. Then he started to settle in to the pillows.
Mokuba smiled and looked up. "Seto."
"Hey I thought you were asleep."
"I w-was, but I w-woke up."
"Come here." Seto said encouraging the boy closer.
Mokuba scooted closer and rested his head on Seto's chest. Seto wrapped his arms tightly around the child.
"MMM… you don't know how much I missed this and missed you."
Mokuba sighed and snuggled closer wrapping his arms tightly around Seto. "M-me too big brother."
x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x
The next morning Mokuba woke up and was sad, that Seto wasn't there. As he looked around the room, he was surprised to see his blue eyes white dragon in Seto's room. He smiled and walked over and took the dragon into his room. He quickly got dressed. Then as he stared at his blue eyes white dragon, he saw his baby dragon necklace still around its neck. He realized that Seto would probably prefer him to wear the baby dragon. Mokuba figured since that necklace was his connection to Seto and Yami. Neither one would really like it if he continued to wear the angel. Especially Seto, who had made it clear that he was upset with Ryo; Seto probably wouldn't want him wearing a necklace that connected him to Ryo. He sighed and thought hard, he finally decided to go with the baby dragon. Though he wished he could wear both, he knew the longer he wore Ryo's the more it would hurt Seto and Yami. It might make them think he was going to go back to Ryo. Even though Ryo made it clear, that he wouldn't let him go away with him if he decided to leave again if Seto and Yami wanted him back. So, with a heavy heart and tears he took off his angel necklace. He kissed it and laid it down on the desk, then took the baby dragon necklace and put it on.
x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x
Then he went downstairs and was even sadder that Seto and Yami weren't there. Mai walked out with a plate and Mokuba's doll. She set the plate in front of him then handed him his doll.
"I believe this is yours." Mai said.
"Yeah, t-thanks. But t-this isn't her dress."
"No, the other was ratty, Isis made this in her spare time and said you can have it."
"W-wow thanks a lot. T-tell her thanks."
"I'll do that."
x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x
After breakfast Mokuba was sitting at the table not sure what to do. Mai walked in and saw him sitting there.
"I'm sorry Mokuba, but the king and Master Yami got word that…"
"M-more on their b-brother." Mokuba said.
Mai smiled. "No, sweetheart. They're in the royal chamber. One of the kings they have a peace treaty with called earlier and said that he has found flaws with the treaty and they're in there trying to work it out."
"Oh, okay." 'At least they're still here, I was afraid they'd lied and went looking for their brother.'
"Why don't you go play in the playroom?"
"W-what's a playroom?" Mokuba asked.
"Oh, that was going to be a surprise for your birthday, I'm sorry, I forgot. Come on." Mai said holding out her hand. Mokuba quickly took it.
Mai then led the boy to a room. "Well here we are."
Mokuba was just in awe of it all he'd never seen so many toys and games in one room a little bigger than his bedroom before.
"A playroom is where you can play with all your toys." Mai explained. "You can leave them in here and never have to worry if you leave one or two in the floor that it'll be in the way of getting to like you bed or something."
"All of t-this is mine?"
Mai smiled "Yes, its all for you."
Mokuba ran in and started looking around. Then he ran upstairs and got his blue eyes, dark magician and baby dragon. Then set them all around a game board. He tried to read the instructions but what he could read was confusing. So, he forgot the instructions and started to play the way he wanted to.
x-x-x-x-x-x-xx-x-x-x-x-x
Two hours later, Seto decided to check on Mokuba. He went into his room and the first thing he noticed was a necklace lying on the desk.
"That's strange why would he take his baby dragon necklace off his blue eyes white dragon toy?" Seto wondered walking over and his eyes went wide when he saw it wasn't the baby dragon but the angel necklace on the desk.
Just then, Yami walked in. "Seto, King Kujaku of Cascadia is back again. He wants to talk and says on the way home after our discussion a few hours ago there are more things he realized he forgot to discuss with us."
"Okay." Seto said not truly listening.
Yami was concerned and walked over. "What's wrong Seto?"
"Look at this." Seto said showing Mokuba's angel necklace to Yami. "Why did he leave this here?"
"I'd say it was obvious myself."
"You want to make it obvious to me."
"You said you're still mad at Ryo. He knows the necklace connect us as a family. He's probably wearing the baby dragon. He must feel that by continuing to wear this it's somehow betraying us."
"Why not just wear both? I mean he clearly told us that he thinks of Ryo as his brother too."
"Seto, he was probably afraid we or more importantly you would be mad, hurt or upset if he did. He loves us Seto, he doesn't want to do anything that might upset us."
Seto clutched the necklace tight in his hand. "But we'd be betraying his feelings for Ryo if we didn't allow him to wear this necklace. It'd be like he was turning his back on Ryo or trying to forget him." Seto sighed and said, "Like he did us when he left his baby dragon one behind." Then he decided to do something about it, he turned and started towards the door.
"Seto where are you going?"
"To find him!" Seto said leaving. 'I'm sorry kid; I didn't mean to force you to chose! It's not fair for you to have to choose. Ryo nearly gave his life for you, I'm wrong to want you to be exclusively ours. You don't belong just to us, I don't guess you every really did. Your heart was connected to Ryo's long before we met. I should have realized I couldn't or shouldn't try to break that bond.'
Seto continued to search but was coming up empty. Then as he was looking around, he ran in to Mai.
"Mai have you seen Mokuba?"
"Not since breakfast why?"
"I'm looking for him. Why else would I be asking?" Seto said walking towards the living room.
"Well last time I saw him, I showed him the playroom." Mai said.
Seto stopped in his tracks. "You showed him?"
"I didn't see the harm in it."
Seto shook his head. "No, its fine." He said walking past her.
As he reached the room, he heard talking. He carefully opened the door and smiled seeing Mokuba sitting there, he was playing quietly by himself. He carefully undid the claps on the necklace, snuck up and put it around Mokuba's neck.
Mokuba looked up in surprise. "Hi, S-Seto."
Seto kissed his forehead. "Hey kid. I've been looking for you."
It was then that Mokuba noticed what Seto had given him. "Seto, why, why are you giving me back my angel?"
"You are an angel, kiddo and you shouldn't have to forget Ryo. He's…" Seto sighed. "He's as much your brother as we are, if not more so. You should keep the pendant. Wearing both keeps you connected to us all. I want you to wear them both. You shouldn't have to be forced to chose one over the other."
Mokuba looked up with tears in his eyes. "Y-you mean that big brother?"
Seto smiled kissed his forehead again. "Yes, Mokuba I mean it. You shouldn't have to pick who you should and shouldn't love. You should love who you want and I'm not going to force you to stop loving Ryo. I realize now that he's a part of your life too. He always will be, I'm not going to try to change that."
Mokuba smiled and hugged his neck tight. "Thank you big brother."
Seto smiled and hugged back. "You're welcome Mokuba. I'm sorry I made you feel like you had to chose."
Mokuba sat back and looked at his necklaces as Seto started to stroke his hair.
"So kid, um what are playing?"
Mokuba sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "D-don't know."
Seto was confused. "What do mean, you don't know?"
Mokuba gulped he hadn't wanted to tell him but decided he might as well tell and get it over with; if he really was going to stay here, he'd find out eventually. He grabbed the box and held it up to Seto. "I c-can't read or understand the instruc-sturctions."
Seto looked it over. "Well I'll admit it is a touch hard to read."
"T-that's not the only r-reason why I c-can't." Mokuba said in a low voice his head down.
Seto looked at him confused. "What do you mean Mokuba?"
Mokuba took a deep breath and said, "Until R-Ryo started s-sending me to Nosaka's I c-could only r-read a few words and t-those only cause Ryo taught them to me."
Seto's eyes went wide. "Mokuba, are you telling me you can't read or write?"
"I c-can a little now, b-but when I c-came home with you I could just barely read a c-couple of words."
Seto pulled him into a hug. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"You and Yami are s-so smart. I d-didn't want you to think I w-was stupid." Mokuba said holding Seto's arms that were around him.
Seto kissed his head and rocked him. "We would never think that sweetheart, never. I don't know why I assumed that witch that raised you would actually send you to school. You obviously meant nothing to her."
"I had to ask Ryo w-what a school was."
"I am sorry Mokuba. I'll do better at trying to realize what you need. I had planned to hire you a teacher but they backed out at the last minute. I'm still looking for a replacement. Maybe this friend Nosaka, you said? Maybe she'd consider coming here and teaching you."
With that, Mokuba burst into tears and turned around burying his face into Seto's chest.
Seto was greatly confused. What had he said wrong? As he rubbed the boy's back, his eyes landed on Mokuba's doll and his eyes went wide with what it was wearing. Holding Mokuba tight, he reached over and grabbed it. 'It, it can't be!' Keeping his arm around the still crying Mokuba, Seto examined the necklace. 'I-I can't believe it! It is it's my necklace it's the real thing. The writing on the back is the same as I remember. I know cause I wrote it down so that I'd never forget! I can't believe my instincts were right all along but I let logic and reasoning overshadow what everything was pointing to. It was all pointing to Mokuba but I refused to believe it.' Seto squeezed Mokuba tight. 'I found my brother after all! I can't believe this! I have to tell Yami that Mokuba is our brother he'll freak!' Seto said picking Mokuba up as well as keeping a tight grip on his doll and headed off to find Yami.