"Once upon a time I was falling in love but now I'm only falling apart.

There's nothing I can do… a total eclipse of the heart.

Once upon a time there was a light in my life, but now there's only love in the dark.

Nothing I can say… a total eclipse of the heart."

Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler

XXV

Pain. Pain was a word Seto was familiar with ever since his parents died when he was a child. Pain had become his default emotion for more than half his life until he learned how to ignore and move past it. He thought that was how healing worked: forgetting pain existed by moving forward in life. That wasn't the case and many times the pain would return to haunt him in his sleep. Perhaps in Seto's conscious and daily life, pain wasn't present but when the sun set and night was upon him, he could never sleep. After living with so much pain for so long, Seto had not only become accustomed to getting no sleep but also believed he could handle any kind of pain for the rest of his life.

The pain he felt from breaking up with Kisara though… it was a whole different kind, like none he had ever felt before. It was unbearable the way his heart would ache every time he went to work and saw an empty desk in the corner of his office where Kisara would typically be. It was unbelievable the loneliness he felt when his phone never rang at night, a time he usually spent having a phone conversation with Kisara until she would fall asleep. She always had this adorable determination every night to try and stay awake long enough to talk to Seto through-out the whole night but it never worked. It was unexpected the emptiness he felt no longer having a date night to look forward to at the end of the week.

Everything about the break-up was hurting Seto in ways he thought he could never be hurt and it left him emotionally devastated. After a while, it became apparent that some action needed to be taken and Mokuba, after watching his brother mope for weeks, took it upon himself to get that process rolling.

"Hi Nii-sama," Mokuba said, walking into Seto's home office to see his brother exactly where he thought he would be: slouched over his desk, his head buried in his arms. Seto didn't move to look or even greet Mokuba as he walked in. It was odd for Mokuba to see his brother this way because he couldn't remember the last time Seto was distraught over anything. While most aspects of Seto's life remained unaffected by the break-up, it was his clothing that suffered. He wasn't a complete mess—Seto wasn't one to show up anywhere looking completely disheveled—but he didn't look his best. His ties wouldn't be tied in tip top condition and his hair would only be somewhat combed to perfection. Even Seto's shoe laces were starting to suffer… neither bow on his laces had been evenly tied. On the outside, Seto looked normal, but to Mokuba… he knew his brother better and by Seto's standards, he looked like a mess.

"What's up?" Seto mumbled some sort of incoherent response. Mokuba walked over to his brother's side and pulled Seto's upper body up from the desk. "Nii-sama, I don't want to sound mean, but you really have to pull yourself together. You're starting to worry me." While things remained business-as-usual at the office, it seemed Seto felt nothing about letting Kisara go to the other employees. At home, however, it was obvious to Mokuba that his brother was upset.

Seto leaned back in his chair, letting his arms drop in his lap and not caring to even sit up straight while he was speaking, "You're just now starting to worry about me?" Seto replied sarcastically, "Kisara's not the only one who's gone… so is my company's reputation." The break-up wasn't the only woe weighing on Seto's soul as of late: the press had gone crazy after Kaiba Corp. was forced to pull its presentation out of the Tokyo Game Show line-up because of Schroeder Corp.'s success. Kaiba Corp. was experiencing bad publicity for the first time in several years and it wasn't exactly helping Seto's mood.

"Let's forget about the Tokyo Game Show for a second and talk about what's really bothering you…" Mokuba hopped up on Seto's bed across from his brother's desk and sat himself down, "If you're really that upset about breaking up with Kisara, why don't you call her? It's been a month since you guys broke up and it's obvious you still want to be with her." Seto sat up straight, anger suddenly brought life back to his body.

"Why would I ever want to talk to her again? After what she did to me and my company? I would rather lose a duel to Yugi on national television than try contacting Kisara again," Seto crossed his arms and turned away in his chair, "No way. It's over between us."

"It might be over but you clearly care about her. I mean, you were in love with her after all…" Mokuba took a deep breath before continuing, "And don't you think there's a possibility you may have jumped to conclusions without knowing the full story of what was going on with Kisara and Schroeder Corp.?" Seto twisted around and shot Mokuba one of his coldest glares.

"I can't believe you would say something like that. Isn't it obvious that she did it?"

"Obvious how? Obvious because you clearly jumped to conclusions in order to save yourself from being vulnerable with another human being?" Seto got up from his chair and walked over to his younger brother, towering over the boy half his size, looking down.

"Don't you dare play psychologist on me, Mokuba. This was my company, OUR company, that she ruined. Stop trying to turn this on me when Kisara is in the wrong. Got it?" Mokuba respectfully stepped back and then threw a portfolio onto Seto's desk.

"I'm not playing psychologist, I'm just your brother and I love you," Mokuba stated firmly, "Which also means I love you enough to take matters into my own hands sometimes when I want to prove a point. According to this evidence, Kisara wasn't the one who sold those blueprints. It was that Katsu guy you tried to fire nine months ago."

"You did what?" Seto snatched up the portfolio immediately and began sifting through the papers, scanning each one to make sense of the evidence that was in front of him. What the portfolio contained was a variety of records, transactions, and files that all pertained to Mr. Katsu, who appeared to not even be recognized by that name at all in most of the evidence he looked through, "Did you find out this all on your own?"

"Oh, of course not. I hired a private investigator after the Tokyo Game Show to find out more information. I knew Kisara wasn't behind what happened and it turns out "Mr. Katsu," or rather, Albert Bruder, had a history working for Schroeder Corp. previous to his employment at our company that managed to slip under our radar. He was working for Zigfried the entire time." Seto rose from his chair but Mokuba stepped in front of him before he could leave the room.

"Calm down, Nii-sama. He's already been fired and is now under investigation by the police. Not only was selling our blueprints illegal but turns out he isn't supposed to be living here either. So everything's fine in that department, you don't need to storm out of here and beat someone up." Seto's hands refused to unclench from the fists they had become. He was seething with so much rage he could barely see straight.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?!" Seto yelled, "After everything he's done, everything he caused me to do…" Mokuba then realized this wasn't just about the blueprints. Seto was upset about something even more important than a man who was selling his own inventions to other companies for profits. It was then that Mokuba realized just how hard Seto had fallen for Kisara. Mokuba walked over to his older brother, putting his hand on his arm.

"Now that you know she didn't do it, will you please just call her? I know you want to." The tension in Seto's body relaxed a bit as he let his shoulders slump and his hands became free of the fists they had once been. He was no longer angry… instead, he was overcome with regret.

"How can I call her after everything that's happened? She probably hates me for what I did."

"Probably, but that's why you have to fix everything by calling her and apologizing," Mokuba suggested, guiding Seto away from the doorway and over to the side of the bed where they both sat, side by side. Mokuba sat and turned his body completely towards Seto, placing a cell phone in his brother's hand. "If you tell her the truth, it'll probably go easier for you."

Seto shook his head, "No, it won't." He looked up from the floor to have his eyes meet with his brother's, "Because the real truth is that… I knew Kisara wasn't the spy. I never questioned it. Granted, I wouldn't have guessed who it actually was, but I knew for certain it wasn't her."

"Yeah… that truth probably won't help you but that begs the question of why you would even do something like that in the first place! I mean, you loved her, didn't you? Why would you break up with her?" That question was one that had echoed in Seto's thoughts all too frequently over the past few weeks.

"I don't know… maybe, maybe it was the way she made me feel. Being in love with her was the most wonderful feeling I have ever felt. I finally understood how a person can appear and suddenly, you realize that every day of your life was spent waiting for them to show up," Seto explained, "It was the most beautiful experience I have ever had…"

Seto could tell without even looking that Mokuba didn't understand. Seto felt he didn't understand it himself, for being with Kisara had brought him such effortless joy he had never experienced before. "I guess, that was why I felt the need to find a reason—any reason—to break up with her. I had never felt that good before for such a long period of time that I… I was afraid. I was afraid of her waking up one day and deciding she didn't want to be with me anymore and I was afraid of the pain it would bring me. I thought that if I broke up with her first, perhaps I could save myself the heartache because…"

His eyes widened with realization. "It was because I was in love with her—and knowing I was in love with her—that terrified me. And with the history she has for falling in love, I couldn't risk being in love with someone who could never love me back," Seto's voice changed to a tone of desperation, "I don't even know if I can be loved, Mokuba, or if someone ever will love me. My whole life has been about being strong and separating from the rest of the world so I can survive… no one ever told me I could be loved so I grew up believing I couldn't be." Seto broke out of the trance he had fallen into when he felt a small hand grasp his. Seto looked down and saw Mokuba staring back up at him, looking as though he was on the brink of tears.

"Nii-sama, I love you and I'm not the only person who does. I know Kisara loves you too, even if she hasn't realized it yet," Mokuba gave Seto's hand a reassuring squeeze, "You have to call her. You have to fight for what makes you happy. You have to let her love you." Seto felt his brother's hand move from his, and looked down to see that it had been replaced with his own cell phone. He stared at it for a long moment.

Suddenly, Seto's eyes gleamed with a new found determination, as he turned his phone on.

"You're right. I can't keep running away from happiness as if I'm not supposed to be happy. Kisara is all I've ever wanted."

"That's right," Mokuba affirmed, "And last I checked, Seto Kaiba always got what he wanted!" Seto smiled. He got down on one knee before bringing Mokuba in for a tight hug.

"Thank you, Mokuba. You always know the right things to say. I'm sorry I was a little hot-tempered earlier," Seto held his brother and closed his eyes. Mokuba was the only family Seto had to his name, and he was so happy to have someone he could talk to about all of this. His younger brother was the only person he could even envision himself talking to about these issues he had. Despite Mokuba's long-standing belief in him needing to go to therapy, Seto felt it was unnecessary. After all, why would he need anyone else when he had a brother who already knew him so well? "I love you, Mokuba." The hug carried on for a few moments more until Mokuba detached and broke away from Seto.

"As much as I love hugging you, there's a girlfriend you need to call and win back. Do what you have to do and apologize, okay?" Mokuba advised, giving him a pat on the shoulder. Seto smiled and nodded his head.

"That's exactly what I plan to do."

"Good. I'll give you some privacy then," Mokuba said as he turned to leave the room, "Let me know how it goes." When Seto heard the door close after Mokuba, he looked down at the phone in his hand. He knew the number he had to dial but even recalling the digits made his heart race. There was no turning back now. As much as his fear gnawed at his soul and told him to run from the one relationship that made him happy, he knew he had to ignore it. He knew that, despite the years of torture and pain he had endured previously, he deserved to be loved by another human being. His heart may have felt emptiness for the majority of his life, but he wasn't going to run from the one person who made him feel like it was possible to be whole again.

Without another conflicting thought, he quickly dialed the number and held his breath as he listened to the phone ring. With each and every ring, his heart began to sink. He imagined Kisara seeing his number on her phone and ignoring it. He imagined the way his heart would break in two the moment her phone went to voicemail with the intention of never listening to what he had to say. He imagined every terrible break-up scenario that ever existed as the phone continued to ring… until he heard her voice.

"Hello?" Seto almost didn't know what to say. It was her… it was Kisara. She had picked up the phone! "Who is this?" Kisara asked, she sounded as though she was in a rush to go somewhere. It was probably the reason why she didn't know who was on the phone, she didn't have time to look at the caller ID. Seto felt this probably worked to his benefit, freeing him of all the romance movie dilemmas he surely would've had to have faced had she known it was him calling. All he needed was one conversation with her to right what he had done.

"It's me—"

Seto held his breath, he felt as if his whole body was frozen in suspense, he was so completely immersed in the silence that he felt as if his heart had stopped beating.

After an eternity, he spoke.

"Kisara?" His stomach churning, Seto pulled the phone away from his face and looked at its screen.

"Call to KISARA ended. Call duration 0:03 seconds."

A/N: HI EVERYBODY! Kari's here, up way past her bed time doing her best to get this chapter out to you as soon as possible! Sorry it didn't come sooner. I was having a lot of trouble writing this chapter. It was a very powerful and emotional chapter and I knew there was only one right way of doing it so I didn't want to rush any part of writing it. I actually spent the majority of the last six hours working on this so hopefully you all enjoyed it! I also have another exciting announcement: I finally have a beta reader! It's Kura, my epically awesome friend who just came to visit me over spring break last week, who's been spending the last three hours helping me with this work. I've gone to her a lot in the past for help (I'm sure I've accredited her before in previous chapters) but we decided to make this Fanfiction official so you heard it first! Kari and Kura are a dynamic fanfiction duo once more! ;) I'm pretty excited for this experience because this'll only help this story soar higher than it already is (she is largely responsible for why this chapter is so awesome) so give it up for her! Thanks for reading. I hope to be posting the next chapter a little under a month from now but we'll see. For now, stay classy, !