Stepping into a new family is frightening. But opening your heart to someone and letting them into yours is also frightening. I've never adopted children, but I've been a big brother for half my life now. I won't pretend to have gotten everything right. Not even close.

But I tried, and I can only hope it helped my siblings feel welcome.

Does Gozaburo Kaiba care about making his new children feel welcome? I must confess I'm not sure about that, and I think I doubt it.

But I do think Amaya Kaiba does.

.

The first time Seto heard his baby brother call Amaya Kaiba "Mama," he had to leave the room. It wasn't something he understood on a conscious level; it wasn't something he was actively hurt or insulted by. Rather, he simply felt an overabundance of emotions that he couldn't figure out for the life of him, and the only thing he could think to do was escape.

Eventually, once Seto was able to think back and reflect on the moment, he would realize that he didn't want Mokuba to think it was wrong. It was only natural, it was only right, that he call her Mama. What else should a toddler call his mother? What was Amaya, if not the only maternal figure Mokuba had ever known? Yuki Yagami had died four hours after his birth. There was nothing wrong, nothing to correct or critique; yet all the same, Seto knew if Mokuba saw his Nii'tama's reaction, he would believe he'd done something bad, that it was a mistake, and that he should stop.

Seto didn't figure out any of that all at once, though.

It would take him months to untangle it all.

He found himself outside, sitting on that familiar bench in the back gardens—where he always went when he had to be away—which seemed to be happening a lot, lately. Every new thing that crossed his mind, every new obstacle that crossed his path, seemed to send Seto reeling more and more off the track that he'd thought his life would go. He'd planned all this; he'd planned to be a Kaiba. This wasn't to say that he'd had any real hope of succeeding; it was a pipe dream, the sort of thing kids like him daydreamed about when school was going on for too long, when time was moving too slowly and there was nothing else to think about. He hadn't actually thought it would work.

But it had worked, it really had, and now life made no sense.

The way Seto's heart spasmed with pain when Mokuba said "Mama" was just the latest thing to add to the list of things that confounded him.

.

Amaya waited for Seto to come back inside to approach him. "Seto, darling," she said when she saw him in the hallway. "Could I speak with you for a moment?" The poor boy looked like he was anticipating a punishment, and she offered a smile and a hand on his shoulder. "It's all right."

Seto sniffed, then nodded. "Yes, Hahaue," he said.

He followed Amaya into the drawing room, and he only looked mildly concerned when she shut the door behind her. She had no easy, comfortable way to bring up what she felt compelled to say, and so Amaya Kaiba did what she always did and came right out with it.

She said: "It bothered you to hear Mokuba call me Mama, didn't it?"

Seto flinched, violently. "It's . . . that's not . . . I . . ."

Amaya smiled again. "It's all right, darling. You aren't in trouble." She strode forward and took to one knee in front of her son. She put both hands on his upper arms and held him. "Listen to me, Seto: you have an important mission in that life. It wasn't one you asked for, and it isn't one you should have ever had to take on at your age, but you have it all the same. Do you know what that mission is?"

Seto frowned, opened his mouth to speak, then shut it and shook his head.

He was so small.

"No," he mumbled.

"You must keep your parents' memories alive," Amaya said. "They are no longer in this world; they are a flame of memory, and you carry it." She jabbed a finger at his ribs. "Here. Within you. You are the only one who still remembers them. You hold them inside yourself. Do you understand what I'm telling you?"

". . . I think so."

"I've heard you invoke them before. Your mama and your papa. That is right. It has never been, and will never be, my intention to replace them. You needn't call me anything you wish not to call me. That you've taken after Noa's example, thus far, is more than I ever would have asked. If you called me Amaya, I would not protest. After all, it's the name I was given."

Seto's brow furrowed. "it's just . . . it's . . . not fair."

"What isn't fair, darling?"

"He doesn't . . . remember," Seto said. "He can't remember. She was taken from him. Papa was taken from him. He doesn't have them, like I do. That's not right. It's not fair. I'm . . . glad you're here now. I'm glad he can . . . that he can . . ." Seto drew in a breath, let it out, started again: "I'm not upset that he's calling you that. It's just . . . he should have been allowed to meet her. She should have been allowed to meet him. And I . . . I wish there was someone else who remembered them."

Amaya rubbed Seto's arm.

She watched his eyes for a time.

Then she said: "I'm sorry, Seto. This world can be cruel. The best thing we can do is make it less so. To fight against that cruelty and remind it that we won't be cowed. You're a strong boy. I know, in the depths of me, that your dream of making this city better will come true. You'll build it with your own hands, your brothers will help you do it, and it will be more glorious than anything I have ever seen. I don't believe in destiny, but that is what every generation inherits from the one before it: the ability to make this earth a brighter, stronger, better place than it is."

Seto nodded. "Yes, Hahaue," he said.

"Do you believe in the afterlife?"

"I . . . don't know."

Amaya nodded sympathetically. "I don't know either," she said. "But I do believe one thing: if such a place does exist, somewhere out in the cosmos, your mother is watching you from there. And she is as proud of you as any mother has ever been. Never feel shame for missing her. I am sure she misses you just as much."

Seto blinked away tears. He nodded.

"I'm sure she regrets, more than anything, that she cannot love you the way you deserve," Amaya said. "I can only hope to love you in her stead."

She held out her arms, and Seto stepped gratefully into a hug.

". . . Yes, Hahaue."