Lotusshipping (Seto x Noa x Mokuba)


(This chapter makes a reference to a character from Yu-Gi-Oh Season 0, called Daimon. He was the Kaiba's butler and one of Seto's game masters sent to challenge Yugi. He was something of a grandfather figure to Seto as a child. Just to let you know.)


"I'm sorry, Kaiba-san, but I don't have any files on a Noa Kaiba. You'd be better off checking the town hall, or perhaps Gozaburo Kaiba's own attorney offices."

Seto's hands curled into half fists on his lap, but that was the only outward sign of his irritation. The man on the other side of the desk was giving him a patronizing smile. It was obvious that this hospital worker didn't actually believe that Noa Kaiba had ever existed. Mokuba shifted silently in the chair beside Seto, expression unreadable. Seto knew, however, than Mokuba was just as irritated as he was.

"But the copy of the birth certificate I have says that he was born here," Seto said, as calmly as he could manage. "The hospital is supposed to retain their records."

"Well, if we had them, then they are no longer here for some reason," the man said, shaking his head. He stood up and tapped his papers against the desk, indicating that the meeting was over. "I'm sorry I wasn't more help."

"Sorry my ass," Mokuba muttered after they returned to the streetside to wait for Isono to bring the car around.

"Mokuba. Language," Seto said.

Mokuba rolled his eyes.

"But Seto, you saw the way he was acting. He didn't even believe that Noa was real."

Maybe he wasn't, Seto thought traitorously. Maybe he was just a program the whole time.

He shook his head.

"Noa was real, Mokuba," Seto said. "We have a birth certificate. We have some remains of school records. We'll find him."

This had been Mokuba's request. He had peeked into Seto's office without just walking in as he usually did, and Seto had known that something was up.

"I keep thinking about Noa," he had said. "I mean...his brain was on the computer but...what happened to his body?"

There were no certificates of death for Noa Kaiba. Barely any school records or lists of enrollment. Many photographs had gone missing. Seto had found the boy's laptop, hidden away in a secret compartment in his own room, but that contained little more than homework assignments and some potentially incriminating data that Noa stolen from government websites, seemingly just because he could.

It was obvious that Gozaburo had been the one to methodically erase his son from existence. After all, his plan had been to eventually resurrect his son, so it wouldn't do to have suspicious data lying around that someone could use against the ruthless CEO. Better to make it look like Noa had never existed at all.

Seto considered these facts as the car pulled up and the Kaiba brothers slid into the limousine. He stared through the darkened glass at the city moving along beside them, resting his head on his chin.

It was so incredibly likely that Gozaburo had simply burned Noa's body. And yet, Seto couldn't believe that. He felt that Gozaburo would have done something else. Something to make sure that he could bring his son back someday.

Mokuba slid down the seat to lean against Seto, letting off a soft sigh. Without thinking about it, Seto lifted his free arm and placed it across Mokuba's shoulders, his brother's long, wild black hair shifted across his arm and shoulder. Mokuba's small, warm bulk was solid and real, and Seto sighed softly.

Each other was the only real thing they had.

And they were all that Noa had now.

"I just wanted..." Mokuba mumbled, head leaning against Seto's shoulder for comfort.

"Hm?"

Mokuba sighed.

"I just wanted...you know. I wanted Noa to get a proper burial."

"I know."

He hesitated. He squeezed his brother's arm a little bit, awkwardly.

"We'll find him."

Mokuba nodded, but Seto could tell he was losing hope. They both were. After all, they had been searching for the better part of two months. Seto let out a breath and closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the seat. Two months of searching. All dead ends and closed doors, even to someone with the assets and skills of Seto Kaiba. Just more and more closed doors without keys -

Seto's eyes snapped open. Keys.

"Isono," he said urgently, leaning forward so that the driver could hear him. "Turn us around. We need to go to Kaiba Dome Hospital."

"Huh?" Mokuba said. "Kaiba Dome? We've already been there. They don't have records either..."

"That's not quite right," Seto said, shaking his head. "Mokuba, I think I know where he is."

It took much too long for them to reach Kaiba Dome Hospital. Kaiba bolted out the door the moment it came to a stop, Mokuba right behind him. He tried to restrain his pace - it wouldn't do for his staff to see him bolting down the hospital corridors - but he walked quickly enough that Mokuba had to trot to keep up.

"You think he's here?"

"If he's anywhere, he's here," Seto said. "But we have to see someone else first..."

He stopped outside of a hospital room. The door opened as he reached for the knob. An irritated looking nurse stepped through, shaking his head and grumbling under his breath as he turned to lock the door with his card key.

"I need to see Daimon," Seto said.

"He is not currently receiving visitors," the nurse said testily. "He's just about to go under again."

"Then I have a few minutes, which is plenty of time," Seto said, brushing past the man.

The man made a few more protests, but Mokuba dropped something about his job security as he, too, jumped past, and the nurse went silent as the door closed behind the brothers.

Seto raised an eyebrow at his little brother.

"Threatening people's jobs to get entry?"

"I learned from you," Mokuba said. "So what does Daimon-jii-chan know about Noa?"

Seto shrugged - his mind was mostly focused on the man laying on the hospital bed. He was an old man, older than almost seemed possible, his face sagging with wrinkles, his deep set eyes resting just barely shut. They fluttered open at the sound of Seto's approach.

"Ah," he murmured. "Botchama...it's been a while since you've visited."

"Daimon-san," Seto said. "I know you're about to fall asleep, but I have to know. Several years ago, when I took over Kaiba Corp, you gave my my step-father's keys."

"I did."

"But you didn't give me all of them, did you?"

Daimon raised an eyebrow, but there was a lethargy to the movement.

"And what makes you say that?"

But Mokuba's eyes were widening.

"The basement door in the hospital!" he said. "The one that we never got through - you told us it was probably just old stored hospital files from before Gozaburo bought the hospital."

He looked up at Seto with wonder.

"Could he really have been here the whole time?" he whispered.

"Could who have been here?" Daimon asked.

"Noa," Seto and Mokuba said at the same time.

Daimon looked at the two boys for a long, long moment. Then he closed his eyes and sighed. Still, there was a little smile growing on his face.

"Inside the front cover," he said, managing to motion to a book on his nightstand. "Gozaburo's will stated that I was to destroy that key...couldn't bear to do it. I think you boys deserve it."

"Thank you," Seto said quietly.

But Daimon was already asleep. Seto reached for the book and opened it up. He had never seen Daimon without this book: a simple little thing of children's fairy tales. It had never left his side in years. A small key was taped on the inside. Seto gripped the cold metal shape in his hand.

"Let's go," he said.

Mokuba nodded, his eyes shining for the first time in days.

They left Daimon's room and headed for the basement. Seto had never given that small door in the back any thought. What could a hospital possibly have to hide, he had thought as a young man.

Now he knew what it could hide.

It was a bit dim on the staircase. Mokuba slipped once and Seto had to grab his hand to catch him. Mokuba didn't take his hand away as they continued down the stairs, and in the half-dark, Seto could almost imagine that they were ten and five again, holding close to each other so as to make sure they wouldn't get lost.

His mind wandered. Why was he so adamant about finding Noa? Why was he so invested in what could be a fruitless search? Was it just because of Mokuba? Certainly that was a large contributing factor. But he could barely understand his fervor himself. He hadn't really liked Noa - had even hated him at one point. He had hurt Mokuba. He was a spoiled, self-entitled brat.

He was broken.

Seto hadn't wanted to admit it before, but he understood Noa. The boy had clung to Gozaburo for the promise of love that had once been there, love that he hoped he would find again. He had talked about taking over Kaiba Corp or achieving some other lofty goal, but in the end all he had wanted was the love of his father. All he had wanted was acceptance.

And Mokuba had been the same. Mokuba had done the same for Seto himself. When Seto had fallen into the darkness of his own demons and turned away from his brother, Mokuba clung to him anyway. He did horrible things to catch his older brother's attention, he was willing to stoop to anything in order to bring back what he had lost. Seto had been to Mokuba what Gozaburo had been to Noa.

And it sickened Seto to think that he had become the monster his stepfather had been.

Now he had to make up for it. Mokuba had regained his older brother. But Noa had never regained his father. Seto felt that he had to make up for that somehow. Because he had been the same monster that Gozaburo had been, and it was time to step up and fix things.

They reached the door. Mokuba hadn't let go of Seto's hand, and Seto could feel the tremble in him. Seto didn't bother to hesitate. He pushed the key in the lock and turned.

The door swung open at his touch.

Inside was no file storage room.

It was much bigger than Seto would have imagined. A giant screen took up one wall, and wires and control boards covered two more. No lights blinked or engines whirred, however. The computer system had been obviously shut down, probably just after Noa's programming had been transferred to the island facility. Dust coated everything.

But Mokuba had already found the most important part of the room and had drawn away from Seto to get closer, mouth slightly open in awe.

"It's him," he said. "It's Noa."

The capsule-like structure at the center of the room, connected to various wires and plugs, was clear. Inside was most certainly the slight frame of Noa Kaiba.

He hadn't aged a day within the capsule. It was like something out of a fairy tale. He looked as though he might only be sleeping. There was no sign of the violent car accident that had taken his life.

Seto approached cautiously. He placed a steadying hand on Mokuba's shoulder, who was shaking uncontrollably.

"Mokuba. You don't have to be here," Seto said.

Mokuba swallowed.

"No, I do," he said, voice shaking. "I just...I forgot that..."

It was shocking, despite everything, to see Noa's unmoving form. It seemed that Mokbua as well as Seto had forgotten that their search would still end in with Noa dead.

Mokuba leaned back against Seto, still shaking, and Seto put his other hand on Mokuba's other shoulder.

"It's too final," he whispered.

"I know."

"Why does he look so...new? He's been dead for over seven years."

"I was just thinking that."

Seto inspected the capsule from where he stood.

"It's cryogenics," he said, shaking his head.

"What?" Mokuba said.

"Gozaburo froze him. Sometimes they do that to preserve the brain...in case they can be revived."

Seto shook his head.

"Bastard Gozaburo. I should have known he'd do something like this. And then he wanted to destroy the key...bastard. He would have just left his son here, frozen and forgotten."

Noa looked so, so tiny. So small. Just sleeping. That's all it was. He was just sleeping.

In spite of Seto's cold exterior, he felt a sharp pain in his heart. Nobody deserved this, to be forgotten.

"It's called the Lotus system," Mokuba mumbled.

Seto, too, had just found the writing on the side. Seto had never heard of the system. He suspected he wasn't supposed to have heard it.

He squeezed Mokuba's shoulders.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Mokuba shook his head.

"I needed to find him."

"I know."

Seto stared at the machinery. He looked it over, seeing that the cryogenics were still running smoothly, the rest of the programs running on the machine were continuing, the heart rate monitor was...

Shit.

Seto froze. He stared.

"We should call Isono," Mokuba said, his throat tight with uncried tears. "We need to get ready for the funeral..."

He hesitated as he looked up to see his brother's face.

"...Seto...?"

"Mokuba," Seto breathed. "His heart rate monitor is picking up something."

Mokuba flinched. His eyes found the machinery. He saw the little blip. He looked up at Seto again.

"It could be a malfunction," he said.

"Could be," Seto said.

"We might be getting our hopes up."

"Probably."

"His heart shouldn't be beating when he's so cold."

"I know."

"Seto?"

"Mokuba."

"What are you going to do now?"

Seto took in a breath. He looked at his brother. He looked at the little boy in the capsule that didn't deserve to have died, that never got a chance to regain the care that he so desperately wanted.

"I'm going to bring him back."


A/N: and there, I'm going to leave you there. *evil laugh* I know Noa wasn't really in it much at all, and I don't even know if I really explored their relationship all that well, but I dunno, I didn't know where else to go with this. Threesomes are hard. Especially incestuous ones *shudder*. Next is Losshipping (Dinosaur Ryuzaki/Rex Raptor x Esper Roba x Insector Haga/Weevil Underwood).