Chapter 4

Whilst SK was working on a way of getting them down there unnoticed, Tristan and Kaiba where working on things to help them once they were. Kaiba didn't exactly like the thought of having to attack his brother, although he was more than prepared to do it if he needed to in the least painful ways possible. Deep down he still held out a thin ray of hope his brother could be rescued from his current madness; that the five years they'd spent apart hadn't changed the younger Kaiba brother out of all recognition. But the truth was he didn't know, all he could do was have faith.

A continual tapping noise alerted him to the fact his son had entered the room. When he'd first learnt the reason for his son's muteness he tried to stay calm about it; after all, Taylor had appeared calm about it. Then with everything involving Tristan, Mokuba and the three members of Kaiba's little family having to come up to heaven happening so soon after it hadn't seemed to matter. It wasn't till a few days later, when Tristan and Taylor had been working out a series of signs, gestures and noises between them to help his son communicate that Kaiba had started feeling angry about the whole situation. He didn't want his son to be learning to use an alternative means of communication; he wanted him to get better.

'Hey Tay,' Tristan voice was filled with a level of brightness Kaiba wasn't sure he could have managed, 'you okay?'

Taylor nodded, then sighed slightly.

'What's up?'

Taylor placed both hands over his heart and made some gesture Kaiba couldn't quite make out at the distance he was away, although if he had to guess he'd have said it was a backwards D; that had been the agreed upon sigh for Drake and Kaiba couldn't help but feel a sting of disapproval. He had no problem with his son's sexuality; after all, he could hardly talk. And he knew from Drake's little trip to the past five years ago the pair of them were probably soul mates. In fact the revelation of the feelings the pair had for each other hadn't surprised Kaiba in the least. What he disapproved of was the fact his son had bothered to sign at all.

'It's okay,' Tristan shot him a reassuring smile, 'I'm sure you'll see him again soon.'

Nodding, Taylor jumped up onto the table next to Tristan and pointed down at the mortal and pester. Again Kaiba stung with disapproval; it was such a childish thing for his sixteen year old to do and he hated it.

'Lavender, if you can believe that,' Tristan swept the Win style fringe back from his eyes as he gave an amused sounding laugh. 'You're Dad and I are thinking about putting Mokuba to sleep; what do you think?'

Kaiba had spent most of the last five years learning what various movements in his blurred vision were, giving him the ability to guess what others were doing even if he couldn't see it properly. But that didn't mean he wanted to use what vision he had watching his son talking in body movements. Lowering his gaze back to the book in front of him, Kaiba's fingers moved along the bumps on the pages. Tristan had been half right about what the lavender was for, but the end result was going to be a little more potent than a sleeping potion. For a few moments he tried to concentrate on reading, blocking out the sound of the one sided conversation as he did. Then two sharp slapping noises brought his attention back up to his son. Two sharp slaps was the agreed upon noise for Dad.

'What is it Tay?' Kaiba tried to keep his voice as casual as possible.

Instantly Taylor started gesturing for something, but Kaiba held up his hand to stop him.

'Tay you're moving too fast, I can't see what you're trying to do, just use your telepathy to let me know.'

Taylor made a slight noise of disapproval, before shaking his head. He then started the series of gestures again from the beginning at a slower pace.

'Taylor,' he began in a warning tone, 'I told you, I can't see what you're trying to sign. Just use your power, you need to strengthen your telepathic abilities anyway.'

At that Taylor slammed his palms down against the table he was sitting on and Kaiba could almost sense the anger buzzing off of him. He then jumped off of the table and stormed out of the room.

'Well I can't say you didn't deserve that,' Tristan once again swept the Win styled fringe back from his eyes.

'What?' Kaiba shot him a look, feeling angry that his partner was blaming him for Taylor storming off. 'I told you, I couldn't make out what he was trying to sign.'

'I'm not so sure about that Seto,' he could hear the tones in Tristan's voice. 'We made sure the gestures were clear enough for you to understand them at a moderate distance, so I think you're making excuses and not even trying to follow what he's trying to say. And I have to be honest with you here Seto, I can't believe how selfish you're being about this; you could try to be a little more understanding.'

'Of what? The fact that Wheeler's good for nothing son broke him?'

'Is that how you feel?'

'Isn't it how you feel?'

'Oh come on Seto, Arados didn't mean to do that to him.'

'And that's supposed to make it alright?' He was beginning to feel more and more agitated, although he wasn't one hundred percent sure why.

'You're right,' Tristan sighed heavily, 'it doesn't excuse what happened. But Taylor is not broken and what happened to you being all understanding about this situation? What happened to all of us learning to live with our problems, not run and hide from them?'

'My son is mute,' he gritted his teeth so tightly they hurt. 'My son is mute because someone who called himself his best friend tried to…'

'If Taylor can forgive Arados, then so should we.'

'I don't want to forgive Arados.'

'Why not?'

'Because he broke my son,' Kaiba hissed, trying to keep at bay the angry tears which had been welling up inside him for days now.

'Our son,' Tristan corrected him. 'Our son who's currently hurting because his Dad is too ashamed of him to let him communicate the way he needs.'

'All those gestures are difficult for me to follow, even if they're clear enough for me to see. Besides, Taylor has more than proven he has latent telepathic abilities now, he should use those.'

'What if he doesn't want to? Not every telepath wants to communicate that way all the time.'

Kaiba made no attempt to respond to him. Instead he sulkily tried to compose himself unable to believe Tristan, of all people, couldn't understand his feelings on this. After everything they'd been through together his partner should know exactly what was upsetting him and why. Gritting his teeth, he tried to concentrate on the texts in front of him again; his fingers slowly moving over the bumps and lumps on the page as though he were reading brail for the first time again. If he was being truly honest he hadn't a clue why Taylor's muteness was bothering him this much; just that everything had felt more extreme to him since the dust of fully become the Pure had settled.

An unsettling half thought suddenly filtered through him, but he quickly suppressed it.

'You didn't fail him,' Tristan's voice broke with a strange kind of clarity, 'there was nothing you could have done to have prevented this from happening.'

'What makes you think I feel like I've failed him?'

'Nothing makes me think that, it's just what I have to keep telling myself. That even if he'd told me about his feelings towards Drake or even if he'd confided in you about what was bothering him, he still would have ended up in that room with Arados. He still would have made that pass. Arados would still have flown into a rage of jealousy. And…' he gave a heavy sigh, 'there was no way to avoid this.'

'Wasn't there?'

'No there wasn't. Because it was Crovell's fault it happened; he wanted to punish the trio and he did. That would have happened no matter what Taylor told either of us.'

'Do you really tell yourself that?' Kaiba lifted his gaze to meet his lover's the best he could, feeling for the first time that Tristan was at least trying to understand how he felt.

'For Taylor's sake I have to,' Tristan reached out and pulled Kaiba into a hug, 'and for his sake you have to too. Because I know its eating Tay up inside that you're refusing to understand him right now. Don't make your guilt tare this family apart Seto. Neither one of us could stand that.'

'I just… feel so powerless right now.'

'I know, that's why I was thinking maybe we should talk to Fray about all this.'

'Fray?' Kaiba felt more than a little confused.

'Mm, he is technically Tay's older brother after all, so he might be willing to use his skills as the God of the Spoken Word to help Tay find his voice again. I know it's a long shot, but…'

'It's not such a long shot,' Kaiba half smiled, 'although I would have to be the one to ask him.'

'Why?'

'Because Fray was always a mamma's boy and since I am the Pure now…'

'Then you go ask him.'

'Now?'

'Why not now? It seems like as good a time as any to me.'