Interlude

He was lying across the couch in his office. He forced himself to sit up and ran a hand over his face. It was wet when he pulled it away. He stared down at his tears, stunned at the sensation of more leaking unbidden from his eyes. He couldn't remember the last time he'd cried.

"I'm sorry, Kaiba."

Seto clenched his fist.

The pharaoh was sitting on the edge of the coffee table. The sadness was still there, though why he felt any when it was Seto's memory didn't make sense to the CEO.

"You happy now?" Seto asked.

The other man was quiet for a time, then he heaved a heavy breath. "I didn't mean to cause you pain."

Seto scoffed and wiped his face on his sleeve. "All I've known is pain."

The pharaoh stared at him, his brows knit together.

"I'm sorry."

Seto clenched his fists. "I don't need your pity."

There was an earnestness in the pharaoh's face. "This isn't pity, Kaiba. We suffered so much loss in our past lives. Perhaps it was naive to hope that one of us would fare better in this one."

Seto couldn't hold the pharaoh's gaze. He looked down at his hands. His tears had stopped, but the sadness, the longing, however, still ached in the center of his chest. He closed his eyes and conjured his mother and father's faces in his mind's eye. He recalled their voices, their laughter.

Seto released his breath. "I should thank you. That Christmas, it was the last one before she died. Our father died four years later. I was eight."

"Too young to remember either of them," said the pharaoh.

Seto nodded and the other man turned his eyes to the floor. He took the opportunity to recompose himself, drying his face on his sleeve and clearing the thick remnants of emotion from his voice.

"I am glad I was able to reunite you with their memory," the pharaoh said. "I wish I'd been able to do the same for my cousin. He lost many loved ones before coming to the palace. It made him cold and distant. Every piece of happiness he ever seemed to find just kept getting snatched away."

Seto raised a knee and rested an arm across it. "Kisara."

"I think they would have been happy together if they'd only been able to get away. If I had been quicker, then perhaps…" The smaller man's fists clenched. He released the tension with a sigh and gave Seto a rueful smile. "We never did just sit and talk."

Seto shrugged a shoulder. "The world always seemed to be ending."

"And you hated me."

"I never said I don't."

The pharaoh laughed. "Are you ready to continue, then? I'm afraid these last two won't be as pleasant for you."

"I figured that much."

The pharaoh held out his hand. Seto stared at it a moment, then took it and closed his eyes again.