Seth was distracted from the book he was reading by the sound of a loud crash, followed by voluminous and creative cursing. Loud thuds and smaller crashes followed in rapid succession, and he put down the book carefully before he stood and left the library to knock on the door of Seto's office—the room on the other side of the wall.
"Seto, is everything alright?" he called gently, but received no answer other than more crashing and cursing. After a few moments, the noise died down, and he tentatively opened the door. "Seto?" He saw his reincarnation kneeling in the middle of the mess he'd made: papers scattered, books abused and displaced, the lamp that once sat on his desk now shattered to bits on the floor. The High Priest stepped gingerly inside, tiptoeing around the debris so that he could come to crouch beside Seto and place a gentle hand on his tense back. "Are you okay?"
"I still see him," Seto whispered through gritted teeth, tears streaming down his cheeks as his fingers gripped the floor savagely. Small cuts and scratches marked his hands, his knuckles bloodied from where he'd punched the wall, leaving a prominent dent behind, along with smears of his blood. "I can still hear him… taunting me…" He was deeply shaken, as if he'd really seen a ghost, but his blood-shot eyes told a different story.
"Didn't I warn you just a couple weeks ago that you'd start to hallucinate if you went too long without sleep?" Seth quietly scolded with a sigh. He shifted a little so that he could pull Seto into his arms and carry his scrawny form out of the trashed room and to their bedroom.
"It felt so real," the teenager whispered, clinging to Seth anxiously, his partner beginning to feel the tremor in his limbs.
"You need to get some sleep, but you're clearly in no state to do so at the moment," Seth observed out loud, carrying Seto all the way to their bathroom and setting him down on the edge of the inset tub. "You need to relax before you'll sleep a wink." He ran the water in the bathtub and began to undress Seto, who resisted at first, but finally yielded when Seth dimmed the lights significantly. The Priest still found it adorable that the lights made him nervous, that he was so shy about himself naked when there wasn't a shy bone in his body otherwise. He undressed himself then carried his long-limbed companion into the hot bath with him. Seto's trembling soon ceased as the hot water relaxed them both, Seth merely holding Seto in his arms as the silence worked its own kind of magic on the two of them.
"What happened Seto?" the tanned one finally asked, half-afraid of the answer.
"He appeared while I was working," Seto sniffled, lifting a handful of water to wash away his dried tears. "He started… criticizing my work, how well I took care of Mokuba, my relationship with you…" Seto inhaled and exhaled, shuddering as he fought for control. "He said all of the right things to make me go nuts, and I just… lost it."
"Have you ever… 'lost it' like this before?" Seth asked hesitantly.
"No, at least, not on such a large scale," Seto admitted. "A couple of times I might have thrown a book across the room when nobody else was around, but I've never gone to such destructive lengths before." Seth lowered Seto's injured hand into the hot water to clean the wound, but the younger hissed in pain and pulled his hand back. Seth took his time guiding Seto's hand back into the water and was washing it with a soft washcloth before he spoke again.
"You're lucky Mokuba's at a friend's house tonight, or he would have been disturbed by something like this." He glanced up at Seto, a warning look in his eyes. "You need a vacation, Seto, and I don't just mean one day off. I mean you and I need to go away to some kind of resort for a full week so that you can catch up on sleep and completely relax before returning to all of this stress. You do see how it's poisoning you, don't you?"
Seto opened his mouth to protest, but shut it again; even he wasn't stubborn or foolish enough to argue with him, not after all of the stress- and exhaustion-related incidents he'd had in the past few weeks. Mokuba was worried about him enough as it was, and it would put his mind at ease to know that his brother was taking a proper vacation. Which meant that somebody had to watch Mokuba while they were gone…
"We'll call Yugi and ask him to watch your brother for the week," Seth said, reading Seto's mind. He pressed his forehead to Seto's, two pairs of sapphire eyes locking together. "If I wasn't here to take care of you, you'd be doing a terrible job of taking care of yourself," he murmured.
"Depends on how you define terrible," Seto whispered back before giving the Priest a tender kiss. "I survived this long, didn't I?"
"Just barely," Seth answered with a faint grin, kissing Seto's cheeks as he noticed the other's eyelids beginning to grow heavy. He quickly washed his lover's body and hair, doing everything as gently as possible while, at the same time, not letting him fall asleep in the tub. Secretly, Seth adored these kinds of scenarios with Seto. He loved seeing the CEO vulnerable, because even with Seth, he put up his defenses all the rest of the time unless he was exhausted, sick, or otherwise unwell. And Seth was the only one besides Mokuba who ever got to see this soft, yielding side of Kaiba, the part of him that was dependent and willing to be led. The part of him that appreciated being taken care of.
After their bath, Seth dressed himself and Seto in the bare minimum and tucked them both into bed together, Seto almost nearly asleep. Seth kissed the pale one's forehead and whispered his love to him before they both fell asleep.
