Tabloidshipping (Mokuba x Seto)
(Something that I can't stand about some people is that they can't understand love unless it's romantic.)
New fallen snow. The crisp, unmoving feel of soft wintry air. The silence of a windless night and a setting moon glittering across drifts of snow. In spite of himself, he couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic.
He didn't have a whole lot of memories from before he was ten. It was easier, less painful to just forget about them. But trudging through the snow, grudgingly bundled up in a heavy coat and scarf that made him feel as bulky as an astronaut, he couldn't help but smile into the folds of his scarf. Snow made the same sound it always did, a soft crunch and then a muffled step as each foot broke through the icier shell. He could remember this. He could remember the sound of silence.
There was Mokuba, his cheeks and nose red from the cold, his hat slipping off of his head. He had taken off his gloves again. That kid. He was going to get frostbite.
But Seto Kaiba did not tell his brother to put his gloves back on. Mokuba just looked so estatic that Seto couldn't bring himself to ruin the mood.
"Nii-san!" Mokuba called back – he had already run up much farther ahead. "Nii-san, come on! You're so slow!"
Seto half-smiled, but his mouth was still covered by his scarf. That was probably a good thing, because he wasn't sure how Mokuba would react if he saw him smiling. It would be very out of character.
By the time Seto had reached his brother, Mokuba had dropped onto his back, in the midst of making a snow angel. He sat up quickly and smiled sheepishly at his older brother, as though embarrassed about his occupation. Seto sighed softly, but it was not an exasperated sigh.
"So," he said. "Is this place snowy enough for you?"
Mokuba grinned widely.
"Yeah," he said. "And look, nii-san: you can see the stars here. Much better than in Domino."
Seto glanced up. Then he paused and really, really looked at the stars. It had been a really long time since he had left the city. The faint pinpoints of light wavered, gleaming coldly in the black sky.
"Nii-san…thank you," Mokuba said. Seto looked down from the stars. "Thanks…for letting us come out here."
Seto just shrugged.
"Hey…nii-san?" Mokuba said shyly.
"Hm?"
"Do you…remember our mom?"
The question surprised Seto. He himself hadn't thought about their parents, their real parents, for a really long time. It had been too painful.
"Do you?"
Mokuba shook his head.
"Do you remember our father? Not Gozaburo. Our real father."
Mokuba shook his head again. Seto hesitated. Did he even remember their parents? He had tried so hard to forget them. Carefully, he lowered himself down into the snow beside Mokuba. Mokuba looked up at his brother with surprise, but Seto didn't meet his brother's eyes.
"Mom...was a red head," Seto said slowly. "I can't remember if it was natural or not. Dad had glasses."
"What did dad do?"
"He fixed clocks, I think. Mom helped him sometimes."
"Did she ever sing? Or tell stories?"
It took Seto a long, excruciating moment, but slowly, the images resurfaced. When he began to talk, he was surprised at how easily the picture was painted in the dark winter night.
They lived in a small house outside the city. It was sunny a lot, but there was always a lot of snow in the winter. Their father worked in the study, and they really weren't supposed to go in there while he was working. But they would sneak in more often than not, and he would turn around, and instead of getting angry, would just smile and invite them closer to see what he was working on. He always told the most fantastic of stories while they watched him work on a clock. Their mother was almost always singing. Every now and then, when one of the boys would peek into whatever room she was in, she would look up and smile enthusiastically, and then she would take their hands and dance around the room with them to imaginary music. And every year, when the first snows fell…
"Oh," Mokuba said, eyes going wide. "I remember that! We all went outside, and we would sit and watch the snow fall."
Seto nodded quietly. It was…unnerving…how easily the memories came to the surface. And how much they hurt.
"And dad threw you into a snow drift once!" Mokuba said excitedly. "And then I begged him to throw me too, cause it looked so much fun, and then we were both stuck in the snow up to our necks and we couldn't stop laughing…"
His voice trailed off into the night. For a long time, they sat side by side in the snow, neither speaking, just their breath trailing up into the air.
"Nii-san? Do you miss them?"
Seto wasn't sure how to answer. It would hurt too much to admit that he did. It would make him think too hard about the mistakes he made. About that man.
A snowflake fluttered down from the sky. And then another. And another.
Mokuba leapt to his feet as the flakes started to drift down, enhancing the silence.
"Nii-san! It's snowing!"
"Really? I hadn't noticed."
But even his big brother's sarcasm couldn't pop Mokuba's bubble of happiness. The young boy just laughed aloud, and ran to catch a few flakes on his tongue.
Seto watched him from far away, and then looked up into the sky to stare at the falling ice crystals.
"Yes," he said softly, so that only the snow could hear. "Yes. I do miss them."
A/N: There's a certain thing that has always bothered me about some people, especially shippers. No one nowadays seems to understand that there's more than one kind of love. There's romantic love, of course, but there's also love between family members, love between friends, and etc. But no one wants to acknowledge that love. As soon as someone says the word "love," all the other forms of love are thrown out the window and it's automatically a "let's get married" love. It's just a pet peeve of mine. Seto does love Mokuba. It's just a kind of love one feels for family, and that doesn't make it any weaker or less than romantic love. Anyway, now that my rant is over…guess what? I just finished the T's! :D Next up is Symbioshipping (Ryouta/Mako Tsunami x Esper Roba). Don't expect me to leave the S's anytime soon…if I post at the same rate as I usually do, it'll take me almost 9 months! XD
