Atem sat tiredly in one of the beds in the infirmary, cradling the baby and trying to stay awake. He swore she got heavier every time he picked her up to feed her.
He also found that he couldn't stop marveling at how tiny her fins were.

Solomon had been right. The color of her fins was beautiful. In certain lights, they had warm undertones of dark green, but in clear light of the infirmary baubles, they were a striking, bright blue.

She seemed to have also inherited Kaiba's pale skin…and rotten temperament.

The moment she was hungry, Atem was notified by an octopus and was dragged away from whatever he was currently doing to help feed her, so he couldn't swim out the palace gates for the past few moons because of it.

The worst was when she didn't want to be fed by him.
She would scream and cry until she wore herself out and finally accepted the bottle begrudgingly. After she'd had her fill, she'd open her mouth and continue to scream loudly, showing off two pearly-white fangs that cut anyone who tried to give her a kiss.

She was also unwilling to stay still.
Even the Medic was having trouble trimming her claws down, and as a result, Atem was always sporting five-fingered gashes down his chest and neck after every feeding session.

Deep down, he knew he couldn't resent her for being this difficult.
Deep down, he knew she was acting like this because her father wasn't here—her real father—the bearer, Seto Kaiba.

Everyone seemed to know this, and they put up a kind expression every time she hurt them with her claws, but it happened so frequently, Atem could no longer bring himself to apologize for her actions.

The other nagging issue was her name.
Everyone was waiting for Atem to announce her name, and Atem was waiting for a reply from the stolen purple messenger he'd sent to Kaiba, but all he'd gotten was silence. The messenger had come back several times, asking if there was another shore to wait on, but Atem was firm, and kept sending the octopus back to Kaiba's Private Rock.
He couldn't name the baby without Kaiba's input.

To make matters worse, it seemed Seth had also disappeared mysteriously at the same time.

Mahad's messengers would come back, exhausted from the long swim, saying they had failed to deliver the message, or even find the colony!

The baby turned over in his arms and dug her claws into his chest.
Atem grit his teeth, his heart pounding thickly as he bore through the pain. He recalled offering to swim to Seth's colony again, but he was pulled away by the Medic, who said it was time to practice new feeding techniques for the difficult baby.

Mahad had promised to travel there for him, and after what seemed like an eternity, his protector returned, looking deeply sorrowful.

He'd only been gone two days, and said that the colony had, in fact, disappeared.
There was no one there except for the giant tombstone, the medic's chambers, and several half-built dwellings which were all empty.

"So they've abandoned this child?" Atem had raged, unable to fathom why Kaiba would even begin to do such a thing, and he was corrected gently by Mahad, "She still has you."

Furious, Atem held her tighter to his chest, trying to stem the feelings of confusion and resentment.

Something wasn't right.

He had been tempted to send out search pods to hunt Seth down, but Mahad reminded him to be realistic.

The ocean was deep and vast.
If royals from a lost colony wanted to hide, they would be invisible and impossible to find.
It would also be a bad use of their resources.
Thinning their army down for search pods for seemingly no reason wouldn't be well-received by the kingdom. It would also mean that Joey and Tristan would be leading a few of these pods, and Atem didn't want to part with his friends anymore than he already had to.

Closing his eyes tiredly, Atem sagged against the pillows, trying to keep his spirits up, but it was hard.

He didn't want to be left single-parenting the new princess, and to-be-queen! The stigma against men abandoning their eggs for being 'slimy shore-lovers' was constant, and Atem was sure the rumors about the princess' other father were already spreading far and wide.

Perhaps that was why Seth had disappeared—to avoid backlash for Seto's actions.

He couldn't do this alone!
Didn't Kaiba know that?!
Where…the hell was he?!

Kaiba was standing stonily by Isono's bed, with Mokuba flanking the other side, while the doctor spoke slowly and clearly about the process of shutting off the ventilation machine.

Isono had been unconscious for the past four months now, and his condition wasn't getting better.

They had to take him off of it.

Their household had also been suffering from the lack of his presence, and it was showing greatly.

Mokuba was wearing a shirt that clearly needed to be ironed, and Ayame had stopped putting on makeup in the mornings to save time.

Noah was the only family member who looked even remotely put-together, but he would dirty himself with drool or food at every meal and would wear the stains proudly until someone had time to change him.

Kaiba stared at the doctor's mouth, which was moving, but all he could hear was a dull buzzing in his ears. He was remembering something else that he'd witnessed in the house. The other butlers and maids were floundering, cleaning the same rooms twice because they lacked Isono's instruction, and Kaiba had tried to figure out where the old man kept the cleaning schedule before he realized…it had been inside Isono's head all this time.

Isono never wrote anything down. It was all verbal.

That would explain the giant stack of dry-cleaning still hanging behind Mokuba's door. No one thought to ever put it away for him, because Isono always did that.

"Mr. Kaiba? Do we have any questions?" The doctor nodded politely at him, and a couple of nurses stood respectfully by the door for their privacy.

"Can we have...a few moments?" Mokuba choked, and the doctor nodded. He turned and headed for the door.

Kaiba watched him go, feeling Mokuba grab his arm and speak, but he couldn't hear it, because he was remembering something else.

It was Seth.

He had called every week, from a different shore, sounding proud and ecstatic. Kisara would usually be in the background, chiming in happily and texting him pictures of her travels.

The lipsticks were selling extremely well.
They had more than enough money, but now, they needed to build a treasury to keep it all safe.
Also, everyone, including the Medic, had moved out of the colony in Seth's absence, thinking that, given his frequent travel, he had abandoned them at last.

Their colony was non-existent now.
They had no one who wanted to live there, and no one wanted to move back because of the bad atmosphere of death and destruction. Even though the debris had been cleaned, it was still a place that held bad memories for people who lived through the war underwater.

"Seto!" Mokuba kicked his shin so hard, his eyes watered in pain. "I'm asking you a fucking question! What the hell!"

"Say it again," Kaiba said numbly, staring at Isono and wishing he could see his face without the oxygen mask covering more than half of it.

"I said he might wake up if he gets unhooked, but…they say he won't last two hours off of it," Mokuba said shakily. "Do you believe that? I mean, I just heard them talking about it when I walked by their break room. Do we take that risk? He's practically our dad, Seto. I can't…deal with this right now, so can you please focus?!"

Kaiba blinked, willing his eyes to stay dry.

Yes, he was focusing. Maybe a little too much on everything all at once.

"Did you know Noah can read?" Kaiba asked quietly, and Mokuba stared tearfully at him, with dark circles hugging his under eyes.

"I know he can drool all over the book," Mokuba replied plainly. "And that Isono reads to him every Friday. I've been doing that in his place, so yeah, I know he can understand me when I read."

"No, he can read in his head, like…really fast," Kaiba said anxiously, recalling how disturbed he'd felt when he heard Noah reading rapidly in his thoughts. "You should get him books that are harder."

Mokuba's eyes shone with tears, and he pointed furiously at Isono in the bed, his voice barely audible over the hissing breaths of the ventilator as he raged, "I'm…asking you…what we should do…about Isono! Shut up about Noah for five seconds, won't you?!"

"We unhook him," Kaiba said shakily, unable to bring himself to look at the bed. "He wouldn't want to be like this. He wouldn't want Noah to see him like this. We unhook him."

There was a long silence, and Mokuba folded his arms across his chest, looking torn.

"Then what do we tell Noah?" Mokuba cried anxiously. "He keeps asking for 'Papa Two' to read to him!"

"This is a teaching moment," Kaiba said plainly, unable to believe the words dropping from his lips. "Teach him about death."

"He's…one!" Mokuba growled, and a tear rolled down his cheek before he quickly brushed it away. "That'll fuck him up."

"He's smarter than you think," Kaiba said, trying to sound reassuring. "He'll get it if you tell him in baby-talk."

"You are insane!" Mokuba hissed, his cheeks reddening with fury. "You know, Ayame and I were talking about how maybe you should spend less time with him, given how he's learning f-words from you! And she thinks I'm uninvolved, saying that's why Noah keeps calling you 'Papa One' instead!

"You don't come home from work before 11PM sometimes," Kaiba added, not sure why he was fanning the fire. "He goes to bed at 7 or 8. You know that."

"Yeah, because we can all just sit back and live on the money you made us when you were twenty, right?" Mokuba breathed, trying to stay composed, but he was slipping into a rant. "I'm trying to set a good example for him, and everything you do, even if it's wrong, somehow always gets attention! I work just as hard as you, so why am I being punished for it?!"

"Are you seriously asking for validation right now?" Kaiba said incredulously, wondering why they were having such a childish argument and if…Isono could hear them bickering. "You could just sit back on the wealth we've had since the beginning. Why don't you do that and be 'more involved'? People aren't going to stop buying cosmetics any time soon."

"I am involved," Mokuba said stiffly, folding his arms across his chest. "And I just said I wanted to set a good example. I grew up seeing you work hard, so I want him to see it that too, otherwise, he will be a spoiled, lazy, brat!"

"He's going to be bratty and lazy no matter what," Kaiba said vaguely, thinking he saw Isono's finger twitch. "Look at the way you both treat him. 'Want snack' every five seconds? He'll sooner be fat than lazy."

"…Seto…" Mokuba growled, curling his fists at his sides. "…You're unbelievable. Also, why are you spending several million yen every week? On lipstick?! Do I need to set a budget for you? At this rate, your savings will be gone! I can see your accounts too, you know! The lab called me asking to verify another batch. What the hell are you doing?!"

"I'm converting currency," Kaiba replied evenly, seeing Isono's finger twitch again. "Keep yelling at me. It's working."

"What?" Mokuba glanced down at Isono and at the heart monitor, listening to the steady beeps. "I'm not falling for that. I'm not an idiot. He didn't move. Now tell me what currency, and why I'm not seeing it reappear in your accounts?!"

"Mer-currency," Kaiba said, his eyes gleaming, and he saw Mokuba give him a slack-jawed glare.

"You're investing money in the mermaid economy?" Mokuba asked stiffly, folding his arms across his chest. "Are we going to see any return?"

"Nope. It's my money. I do what I want with it," Kaiba replied viciously, fully aware that he was indeed making himself a poor man on land just so he could have riches underwater…for the baby girl.

He'd be damned if Atem and his kingdom was going to raise her a million miles away from the sun.
Sun was healthy, and if Atem's people were this surface-adverse, he had a feeling he might just have to build a mer-army just to get his child back.
It was barbaric, but it was Plan F.
Plans A through E were full of violence and warships, and Kaiba realized he would end up putting himself on the same level as Gozaburo, so he had to stop thinking about it.

"Well, don't bankrupt yourself…again," Mokuba said tiredly, pulling up and chair and sitting down with a sigh. "See? And this is why I can't stop working. You spend money as fast as I earn it. At this rate, we'll only have just enough to send Noah abroad every year until college."

"Listen to yourself," Kaiba scoffed, pulling up another chair and sitting gracefully down beside his brother. "Why does Noah need to be away from home that much? Now that will fuck him up. Keep him in Japan. He'll tell you if he wants to go abroad."

"I hate budgeting down," Mokuba grumbled, sounding like his old bratty self again. "It means I'll have to think of more creative presents to give her, and she's perfectly happy with a new car every year, so I don't want to change that."

"Oh, the horror," Kaiba said sarcastically. "I think she'd rather you read Noah to bed three times a week instead of one."

"You think?" Mokuba asked uncertainly, and he saw Isono's finger twitch. "Seto! Look, he moved! He can hear us, can't he? Isono! Isono?!"

"Let's call the doctor," Kaiba suggested, daring to feel a spark of hope, but deep down…he had a bad feeling.

"Yeah, let's!" Mokuba leapt to his feet and raced out of the room, leaving Kaiba sitting alone beside Isono.

Seto….

There was a long silence, and Kaiba stared straight ahead at the painting of a meadow on the wall, trying to tune out the irregular beeping of the heart monitor beside the bed.

Seto…don't…ignore me… Seto…

Kaiba blinked rapidly and gazed around the room before he nervously eyed Isono, seeing the old man's eyelids flutter, and his stomach did a churning somersault.

Don't fight with your brother, Isono said quietly, sounding very coherent and much like his old self, but his physical body remained motionless aside from the odd twitch here and there. He's trying his best, and you know that.

"Can you talk?" Kaiba asked nervously, feeling himself grow cold all over, and he saw Isono's finger twitch again.

I'm talking now, aren't I? His manservant said, sounding oddly cheerful, but the crushing silence coupled with the beeping of the heart monitor made Kaiba's heart sink even further.

"How do you feel?" Kaiba asked evenly, trying to keep his voice from shaking, but it was hard.

Like...death, the old man joked, and Kaiba grit his teeth in annoyance.

I hear everyone talking, and I know it doesn't look good for me, Isono said, still sounding horribly cheerful. I've tried communicating. I've been waiting for you to come close enough to hear me. It's comforting…knowing you can hear me. This mind-reading invention you have…is truly…fascinating, Master Kaiba. I feel very comforted.

There was another stifling silence.

"I'm…can't believe I wasn't there when you…" Kaiba felt his throat closing up, and his eyes stung painfully. "I'm an asshole. I'm s—" His voice died, and he wondered if he was about to say sorry for only being an asshole, when he had been everything else too: selfish, callous, rude, uncaring, a horrible example of a human being…etc.

Oh, look at you, apologizing! Finally! Isono said gleefully, sounding like he was holding back laughter. You haven't changed a bit, you know, Master Kaiba. I got old and grey, and Mokuba has stress lines on his forehead, but you—you stayed exactly the same. I always knew you were different, Master Kaiba, which is why I've always enjoyed my time with you.

"Stop it. Shut up," Kaiba mumbled, hating the end-of-life good-bye speech streaming from his unconscious manservant on the bed.

Are you sure that's how you want to talk to me now? Isono asked kindly, almost sounding like he was enjoying this a little bit. I can't move my arms and legs, and you're telling me to shut up. How does this look to others? Another thing you don't care for—what other's think of you.

Kaiba set his jaw and said nothing, feeling tears building horribly behind his eyes. Fuck.

"Keep lecturing me. I'm going to walk away," Kaiba said stiffly, forcing himself to stand, and he heard Isono chuckle, causing his stomach to curl painfully.

There was as soft knock at the door, and Mokuba stepped inside excitedly with the doctor close behind him, looking grave.

"I saw him moving his finger," Mokuba said happily, nodding at Seto who was standing awkwardly beside Isono, looking stressed. "What, Seto? Lighten up. He'll wake up when we unhook it."

Doubtful, the doctor's thought seeped into his brain and Kaiba swallowed thinly.

It might be painful, Isono thought mildly, sounding far away. But I haven't been in pain yet. Oh, is there medication hanging there? I already feel so tired. I'm so sorry, Mokuba, I feel like taking a nap….

"Will it be…painful?" Kaiba asked, clenching his fists at his sides to keep himself together. "He's conscious, but he can't move."

"Yes, we determined that with the scan, and we did discuss this." The doctor said, sounding slightly exasperated. "There was too much…brain damage. He might not ever fully regain control of his…body, even with intensive rehabilitation, someone his age…."

You see, Master Kaiba? It doesn't look good for me, Isono said blithely, and Kaiba couldn't help himself. He turned to the unconscious body on the bed, snapping, "shut up. Why do you sound so happy? You're about to die."

Horrified, Mokuba and the doctor stared at Kaiba, and the heart rate on the monitor sped up a couple beats before slowing down again.

"Did he just…did you just…" Mokuba gasped, the color draining from his face. "Are you talking to him?! Is he talking back to you?! Like, in your head?! How are you doing it? Show me the device! You're kept it hidden long enough, Seto!"

"Perhaps you both need some more time," the doctor said hastily, edging towards the door, but his eyes were nailed to the older Kaiba, waiting to hear an answer.

Boys, no fighting at my deathbed, Isono said stiffly, and Kaiba ground his teeth furiously.

Maybe it was the drugs that was making Isono sound this carefree, or maybe this was the blitheness that came with acceptance about death. Either way, it was heartbreaking and extremely annoying.

"Isono, what's he saying?" Mokuba cried, rushing to the manservant's bed and leaning over his face. "Someone say something!"

I'll speak, Isono said warmly, and Kaiba felt something wet streaming down the side of his leg, and he realized he had dug his claws into the palm of his hand, drawing a stream of blood.

Take care of your wife, Mokuba, and don't let Noah eat too many of those chocolate crackers, Isono said, and Kaiba wondered if he was supposed to be repeating this aloud. Master Kaiba, tell him!

"What? What!" Mokuba narrowed his eyes, seeing Isono's eyelids flutter madly while Seto's face darkened. "What's he saying?!"

The doctor backed against the door but didn't leave, holding his breath and watching the strange scene before him.

"He said take care of your wife and don't let Noah eat too much chocolate," Kaiba repeated, his mouth going horribly dry when the color drained from Mokuba's face.

Good, Isono said huffily, sounding like he was yawning. I'm very sleepy. Now, I don't want to see you two fighting about whose fault this is, do you hear me?

"And what?!" Mokuba cried, his cheeks wet with tears. "Stop it, Seto. This isn't a joke. This isn't funny."

"He said…he's sleepy," Kaiba breathed, wondering how his voice still worked when it felt like all the air was being crushed from his lungs. "And that he doesn't want to see us fighting, or blaming each other for this."

There was a long silence, and Kaiba glanced down at Isono, expecting to hear a response along the lines of, 'thank you, Master Kaiba', but all he could hear was an odd buzzing in his ears…which he realized was the heart monitor flat-lining beside the bed.

Mokuba drew in a deep, shaky breath and burst into silent tears.

The doctor blinked and scratched his head, wondering what he ought to do.

Seto Kaiba was standing emotionlessly over the patient while Mokuba Kaiba sank to the floor beside the bed and rested his forehead against it with his shoulders shaking with grief.

The doctor paled and pressed himself flat against the door, wishing he was invisible.

This was…a private moment, and he was supposed to have been out of the room, but somehow…he had missed his chance and witnessed something incredibly strange.

Seto Kaiba could communicate with comatic patients? With something he'd invented? A device?

Go away.

A cold voice echoed inside his head, and the doctor whipped his head around, wondering if he was going insane.

I said, leave. Come back in fifteen minutes, Kaiba thought coldly at the doctor, seeing the man nearly wet himself as he scrambled for the doorknob and tripped out of the room.

Mokuba's quiet sobs were echoing through the room, and Kaiba slowly sat back down, feeling himself grow hot and then cold all over.

He hung his head over the edge of the bed and held his breath tightly before letting himself cry in earnest, feeling the tears streaming down his face and landing all over Isono's sheets.

Seth floated through the marketplace with empty seaweed sacks over his shoulder, smiling triumphantly to himself. He had successfully sold out. Another wonderful day—

A hot, searing pang of sorrow shot through his core, and he froze on the spot, wondering if Seto was in pain.

These ghostly feelings had disappeared over the decades as he'd gotten older, but having been recently reunited with his long-lost twin, the connection seemed to have strengthened again. He used to feel pangs of pain all the time when Seto had been deployed on land, and it was only now that he was reminded of how much mourning he'd gone through.

He's in pain, Seth thought darkly, swimming faster through the marketplace, intent on surfacing to deliver news to Kisara, and then swim back home.

He passed a group of women huddled together, testing out their new lipsticks on each other's faces, and he heard something that made his stomach drop.

"The Princess of Muran is without a Bearer. I keep hearing people say he's a shore-loving Undercover merman!"

"What did you say?!" Seth cried, spinning around to barge into their social circle, and the women backed away, their faces pale with shock.

"What? Nothing!" The woman closest to him snapped, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "It's merely gossip. Go home, Merchant. No one here wants to mate with you."

"I have family on shore, and he's Undercover," Seth glowered darkly, and the women gave him disdainful looks. "Don't say such things about people you don't know."

"I see how it is," the woman farthest from him said, her lips painted a dark red. "You are also a human-lover. Go away then."

"You said 'the Princess of Muran'," Seth repeated, feeling his patience slipping away. "She hasn't hatched yet, so don't speak such disrespectful words—"

"Seems someone isn't with the times," the woman closest to him said, rolling her eyes. "She hatched nearly three moons ago! You don't know this because you were probably on shore, being a shore-lover! Begone, Merchant, or we'll never consider buying from you again!"

Seth's breath hitched painfully in his chest, and he turned to swim away without another glance behind him.

The princess had hatched! This meant he had missed it! And it had been three moons ago? Did Seto know this?! Perhaps this explained the pang of sorrow.

I'm coming up, Seto, Seth thought angrily, powering upwards through the water and wondering how he could even begin to break the news to his twin brother.

She had come early, which meant she was incredibly strong-willed.
They had a five-year re-building plan based on her hatching time.
Here, they had just barely started. Sure, they had riches now, but the colony was non-existent!

Sighing to himself, Seth continued to swim upwards, his shoulders growing heavy with dread.

Nothing was going according to plan.

Kaiba sat glumly on the couch in the spacious living room, feeling oddly alone even though Mokuba was sitting directly across from him. Isono was gone, and that was hard to accept.

His brother had a stack of books in his lap, and Kaiba eyed them apprehensively. He had a feeling he was about to be lectured, because Mokuba's thoughts all sounded accusatory.

Seto keeps zoning out. I get that he's sad, but we need to talk about this.

"Okay, what is it?" Kaiba asked dully, feeling as if a grey haze had settled over his entire being. "Hurry up. I don't have all day."

Mokuba said nothing and thunked the books down on the glass coffee table before him, flipping each one open to a marked page.

Kaiba spared them a glance and realized with a jolt that they were photo albums.

What, were they going to take a trip down memory lane just because the old manservant had croaked?

"Remember this?" Mokuba asked stiffly, pointing at a photo stuck underneath the plastic sheet. "How old was I here? 11? 12?"

Kaiba blinked and looked away, not bothering to look at the photo. He didn't care. Could Mokuba just say what he had to say and then leave?

"Look at the damn book, Seto," Mokuba snapped, pushing the album towards him. "We were at the beach…before all the mermaid nonsense."

Now slightly intrigued, Kaiba leaned half-heartedly to take a look, noting his own smiling face grinning beside Mokuba in the sand. His arm was slightly in the shot while he held the camera up to take the photo.

Cute…maybe?

"I was 11 here, so you were 21," Mokuba said stiffly, closing the book and reaching for another one he had open. "Now, this one…I'm 14, and you're 24. This was during the mermaid nonsense. Look. You look sick."

"Thanks," Kaiba said sarcastically, wishing Mokuba would get to the point already. "I'm really not interested in walking down memory lane right now."

"This is me, the day I passed my highschool entrance exams," Mokuba continued, ignoring him and pointing at the photo. "Look, you, and me. And Isono, taking the picture."

Kaiba ground his teeth furiously and said nothing.

"Okay, next, college," Mokuba closed the album and pulled a third one from the stack. "This is us at the airport before I left for my one year abroad. Remember that? Maybe not. This was when you were clearly on drugs. Look at how thin and grey-looking you are here. I can't believe I couldn't see it at the time, but now, looking back, I realize how blind I was."

"They were not drugs—" Kaiba began angrily, but Mokuba talked over him, flipping the album open to another page.

This one was decorated nicely with stickers and hearts.

"This was when…we went to a resort together," Mokuba continued. "Maybe you remember this. You chased that blond flunkie down on the beach and stabbed him in the leg with an antihistamine."

Now Kaiba was interested.
He pulled the album closer and saw a newspaper clipping preserved underneath the plastic beside a photo of Ayame in a bikini, hugging a shirtless, grinning Mokuba.

The newspaper clipping read, "Japanese billionaire, Seto Kaiba, saves a life while on vacation with his family…" and a photo of Joey bent over on the beach was blurred because he was naked, but the image of himself standing above the merman holding a syringe in his fist, was crisp and clear.

"Next, comes the embarrassing phase of our family," Mokuba growled, slamming the album shut and reaching for the fourth one. "According to my wife, most of these are 'hilarious paparazzi shots', or 'kindhearted, but greatly misunderstood articles written by gossip magazines' phase. This was before I learned how to do better PR and you were running around being a nutcase in public."

"I—" Kaiba's breath left his lungs and he wondered why he was being punished right now. Isono had just passed away not 5 hours ago, and he couldn't catch a break!

"CEO of Kaiba Corp, a.k.a Kaiba Cosmetics, spotted hanging out with two college drop-outs at a bookstore," Mokuba read loudly, unwilling to show the page on the table. "Next is, 'Mokuba Kaiba, rising star of the Kaiba family,' question mark, 'Will he be the new face of the company run by the elusive madman behind the brilliant, anti-aging serum,' question mark."

"What is the point of this?" Kaiba demanded, reaching for the book, but Mokuba turned the page and continued to read stubbornly, "Mokuba Kaiba, all grown up as the face of MQ. Seto Kaiba, predator or kind-hearted mogul, question mark."

Kaiba pressed a hand to his face.
He didn't know people thought he was being predatory by hanging out with Joey and Tristan. What the fuck.
Mokuba was still reading.

"…Mokuba Kaiba, on growth and marriage. Seto Kaiba, caught speeding on highway cameras and then leaving his supercar parked on the side of the road, nearly causing an accident. Mokuba Kaiba, interviews his wife on child-rearing and pregnancy. Seto Kaiba, found skinny dipping in—"

"Alright! You think I'm an embarrassment! I get it. I fucking get it," Kaiba fumed, trying to snatch at the album again, but Mokuba wasn't finished.

"…In the ocean at night. Mokuba Kaiba declares an expansion of the company to include eyeshadows, lipstick, and body creams. Seto Kaiba, seen drunk and vomiting on the side of the road outside an upscale restaurant downtown. Mokuba Kaiba, on dating, love, and sex after marriage. Seto Kaiba, mystery marriage, question mark. Seto Kaiba seen driving around an older lady with pure white hair, fiancé, question mark. Mokuba Kaiba shares exclusive photos of his newborn son, Noah."

Mokuba shut the album with finality and shot Seto an exasperated look.

"If you're expecting me to apologize, don't," Kaiba said coldly, crossing his arms and legs stiffly. "Keep dissing me. Go ahead. Read that last album you brought."

"I came here, to show you the pictures," Mokuba said quietly, reaching for the last album and prying it open to the first page. "So here are photos from our wedding, and Noah's first everything."

The photo album thunked heavily down on the table and Kaiba saw a picture of himself, sitting at the table in the mansion, holding Noah on his knee with a piece of cake in front of them. Ayame was glowing beside him, looking slightly puffy from all the baby weight, and Mokuba was at his other side, smiling handsomely with his hand trapped in Noah's death grip.

"Nice family shot, right?" Mokuba beamed, his eyes softening at the corners. "Ayame looks super pretty here."

"Uh huh," Kaiba said noncommittally, beginning to get bored again. "Turn the page. Did you get the one where Noah dipped his finger into my coffee and then licked it—"

"Hang on, Seto, look at this," Mokuba dragged the first album over the table and pointed at the photo of them on the beach and placed it beside the family picture. "Spot the difference."

"We're wearing shirts, and you have a wife and kid," Kaiba said dryly, rolling his eyes. "Turn the page."

"No, you idiot! Look at our faces," Mokuba snapped, pointing at his own face. "I'm kind of chubby here. Look at me now."

"Yes, you grew up and got skinny. Wow, amazing," Kaiba couldn't keep the sarcasm from leaking into his voice.

"Sure, and you? You look exactly the same," Mokuba said darkly, pushing the Noah album aside and flipping the other ones to their marked pages. "In…every…single one of these, you haven't…aged."

The entire coffee table was covered with open albums, and Kaiba blinked slowly, staring at the collection of photos of himself gleaming under the plastic. Some of them were decorated with hearts and words with Ayame's handwriting. The earlier ones were blank, and merely shoved into the slot with no décor.

Mokuba slipped a photo out from his high school graduation and pulled a photo from Noah's album of Seto sitting in the car beside the baby.

"These two pictures look like they were taken at the exact same time," Mokuba said slowly, propping his hand up on his chin and looking thoughtful. "At first, Ayame said, 'wow, did your brother get plastic surgery?' And then I thought about it some more. Did you get plastic surgery? Even plastic surgery can't make you look this ageless. There's a twenty-five, almost thirty-year difference here."

Kaiba swallowed thinly, feeling a familiar sense of dread tricking through him, and he wondered why he felt this way. There was a tight knot of fear curling in his stomach.
It was making him want to jump to his feet and run from the room, and never stop running.
Alarm bells were going off in his head.
He had been caught.
But…caught doing what?
Living his life?

"Did you discover something about aging when fiddling with the serum?" Mokuba asked perceptively, and Kaiba swallowed so thickly, his throat burned.

"It's vitamins," he said, hoping his voice didn't shake, but Mokuba wasn't convinced.

"How old are you, Seto?" Mokuba asked evenly, and Kaiba opened his mouth to reply '24' before he stopped himself.

He wasn't quite sure.
Maybe it was 34.
Better add ten years just to be safe.

44.

"You don't know?!" Mokuba cried incredulously, leaning back into the cushions with his arms folded. "The drugs fuck you up that bad, or is it something else? Mermaid vitamins?!"

"I'm 44," Kaiba said quickly, and Mokuba gave him a withering look.

"It took you two minutes to come up with that," Mokuba said tiredly, shaking his head. "I've been thinking, Seto, you keep acting like you're twenty, maybe because…you are twenty. You've been twenty my entire life! That would explain why you're so embarrassing."

"I might…be a fish," Kaiba said hastily, gripping his knees tightly and feeling his ears burn at the sudden confession. "I've been experiencing symptoms, and I've been self-administering medicine they give me. Do you remember our parents, Mokuba?"

"No?" Mokuba frowned, uncrossing his arms slowly. "All I remember is crying a lot into the sheets at the orphanage before you tricked Gozauro into adopting us."

"Yeah, how did I manage to do that?" Kaiba asked faintly, wondering if there weren't other forces at work, pairing him up with that madman. "Was it just a game of chess?"

"What do you mean? Yeah, it was," Mokuba said, starting to sound anxious. "Don't tell me you're forgetting stuff about our past too. Man, you're a great example to Noah. I'll just tell him 'don't do drugs or you'll turn out like Uncle Seto.'"

"No, I mean, how did I force him into it?" Kaiba asked angrily, his head spinning as he tried to recall anything about his interaction with Gozaburo. "Otherwise, why would a monster like him want two little kids like us?"

"So he could…do…bad things to us?" Mokuba whispered, raising his eyebrows and eyeing Seto carefully, wondering if his brother was experiencing a nervous breakdown. "Are you…okay, Seto? Let's not talk about this anymore."

Take us with you!

Seto blinked and saw the younger version of himself in his mind's eye, throwing his arms out to block the doorway of the orphanage, his body burning with a strange fire as he glared at the fat beady-eyed man towering above him.

These rats are disgusting…

Seto bit back a gasp and remembered…back then, he could hear Gozaburo's thoughts.
Was that how he'd beaten that evil man? Mind reading?

You'll let us live with you if I beat you in a game of chess! The young version of him was determined, for some reason, to go home with this monster, fully aware that he was a monster. Why?

Piece of cake! The fat man had agreed readily, but only for appearances, because cameras were nearby to take photos of him being "charitable".

Seto then remembered grabbing Gozaburo by the arm and nearly dragging him to sit down in the chair in front of a chessboard, mistakenly drawing blood when he gripped his arm too hard.

You little brat! Look what you did! The old man's face reddened with anger as he pointed at the crescent-shaped pinpricks on the back of his hand. Apologize!

I will, only after you promise to adopt me and my little brother…when you lose to me in a game of chess! Kaiba's head spun and he pressed a hand to his temple, feeling an awful headache coming on.

Alright, you little…boy. I will adopt you, only if you can beat me in a game of chess, the old man leered.

And Mokuba, Kaiba remembered adding viciously with a nod, and the old man nodded too, his mind filled with vile thoughts about betrayal as he repeated, "yes, and Mokuba too. Now, play chess. Hurry, I'm a busy man."

I…forced him into it with a blood pact?! Kaiba reeled, feeling a familiar wave of nausea rise inside his stomach. Mokuba's voice was far, far away, calling out to him frantically.

"Seto! Are you gonna faint? Seto?! Do I need to call a doctor?! Seto!"

Then did he die because he tried to disown me?! Kaiba continued to reel, shutting his eyes and rocking back and forth in his seat.

Yes.
The crazy old loon had jumped out the window to his death, after they had a fight about…money, or how to manage the company. Something was said during the fight that triggered him to smash the window with a chair and….

"So, I was right. I did kill him," Kaiba whispered, cracking his eyes open slowly when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder.

Mokuba's worried face swam into his view.

"You didn't kill him. We're not going to have this conversation again," Mokuba said, looking extremely regretful about bringing up Gozaburo's name. "Do I need to—"

"Our parents," Kaiba repeated, his heart thundering in his ears as he wondered if talking about it more was going to trigger more horrible memories, but the correct ones this time, not ones about a child molester.

"What? I don't know, Seto, I blocked it all out!" Mokuba raged, rising from the couch and eyeing the door. "Stop it. I don't want to go down memory lane, like you said. I'm leaving now. Can I get you anything before I go?"

"Tell me…if you remember anything," Kaiba breathed, eyeing the elastic in Mokuba's ponytail as his brother hastened to the door, clearly eager to leave.

"I won't and I never will," Mokuba said stiffly, shrugging on his coat and stepping into his shoes. Mokuba's demeanor was now rushed and frantic, very similar to his own actions when Joey first asked him about his parents.

"Do you think we've had our memories suppressed on purpose?" Kaiba pressed, but Mokuba straightened up, gave him a quick hug, and walked out the door.

Kaiba stood in the doorway, watching Mokuba get into his convertible, start the engine with a roar, and back out of the sandy driveway with urgency.

Sighing, Kaiba shut the door and leaned against it, rubbing his temples slowly.

Maybe the memory of his parents was better left unsolved. After all, one tiny snippet of his time with Gozaburo made him regret his entire existence.

Better to leave it all buried.

Author's note:

atem needs a name for the baby

Isono officially passes away

Seth overhears news about the seto and atem's baby

mokuba confronts seto about his strange anti-aging photos and it triggers a flashback about gozaburo