kittensinboxes | I Ended Up Losing And It's All His Fault

I Ended Up Losing And It's All His Fault

Kaiba had gone to the afterlife. He'd finally achieved his dream, and in doing so, faced his eternal rival in combat.

It was never meant to be permanent, of course, but he hadn't neglected to consider the possibility that he might struggle to come back intact. Before launching across dimensions, Kaiba had set his affairs in order, although only Isono was privy to what that meant.

If he was gone for more than a month, his shares would be converted into Mokuba's name, thereby protecting the interests of Kaiba Corporation. At this point, Mokuba would be appointed interim Chief Executive Officer of KaibaCorp.

If he was gone for two, then Mokuba would formally inherit the business in its entirety, with Isono overseeing most functions from day to day with stricter clauses added to his work contract that would disallow him the chance or ability to destabilize Mokuba from his position, which would still be interim CEO for all public records.

From that point on, the changes were only reversible on paper if Seto returned within a year from the launch date. If not, Mokuba really would inherit the business as the true CEO. He'd meant it when he said he was leaving it all in his brother's hands. What else could you say when you intended to launch yourself at speed from your own space station, with no full guarantee that you wouldn't impact, rather than travel across dimensions?

It wasn't a smart idea from the start to do that, and although Kaiba had achieved his goal metaphysically, the reality was that he had, in fact, launched himself from a space station down to earth. The impact was real, and while the safety features of the pod offset a great deal of the damage, he didn't escape unscathed.

The wreckage was found half a day later, bored sixty feet into the ground. Kaiba had been pulled from it and immediately hospitalized for his injuries which ranged from mild bruising to broken bones, specifically his legs and one arm. His resting heart rate had settled at 130, which was...less than ideal, and needed to be treated.

For the next 3 months, he remained in the hospital in a private room paid for by Mokuba, away from prying eyes and off the general record so that he could heal from his injuries and reawaken healthy but still remain incognito. The former worked out, but waking up...well, Kaiba simply wouldn't. His brain activity was elevated, and his heart rate often spiked, but Mokuba, at least, knew what that meant. He'd pulled his brother from their Neural Network inches before a severe cardiac episode before.

If his vitals were behaving that way, then he got what he wanted--he got that final contact with Atem that he'd been denied due to fulfilling his own dream of spreading Kaiba Land all across the world.

What happened was anyone's guess.

But after three and a half months, Seto Kaiba finally opened his eyes, and the light made his head ache. His heart rate was finally at a level that didn't indicate atrial fibrillation, and although he was pale, thin, and exhausted, he'd finally made it back where he belonged.

He was back home--no. He was...back in a hospital. Why a hospital? Why wasn't he home? Surely, he couldn't have been gone for more than a week or so, right? The dimensional connection had been flimsy at best, and he'd had to spend his time with Atem as quickly as possible.

So why were his limbs heavy? They felt wrong. So much felt wrong, and his eyes wouldn't open all the way, but he can make out a blurry image if he just...forces them to move. Someone...?

"Mo...ku...ba?"

Ugh. No, even his voice sounds awful. The muscles of his throat feel stiff, his voice is hoarse from disuse, and he'd barely managed to say his brother's name, to see if it really was him, or...maybe someone else.

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Gentle and soothing wouldn't have worked for Kaiba. He needs to be smashed against the temple with reality for it to really sink in. It doesn't mean it's any less shocking to see Kaiba's face fall, the confusion knitting his brows, everything.

"It didn't cross with me," he finally says quietly. The pod hadn't landed in the afterlife with him, that much was true. But he thought...if he was there, then his body had crossed over physically and not just mentally. Everything had felt so real, Atem ha been real, the feel of him had been more than just a dream--

"Why...?" he asks, and the more he tries to speak, the less fractured his syllables sound. "Why you? Why would he tell you?"

He wants to ask more. What happened to him? Why do his legs hurt? Why doesn't his arm feel completely the same? Was Mokuba okay?!

His brother...his brother had to be doing okay, right?

Yuugi gave him a lopsided, pained smile.

"Because," he said, "I was the one who found your pod in the first place. I called Mokuba right away and we've been keeping an eye on you ever since.

"He also has your brain waves and physical state constantly updated via an app on his phone, so he should be here after his meeting is over. You had to wake up during a Fiscal Year debrief with the shareholders and C-Suite. He told me not to text him under any circumstances during that. Even if you -- his words -- got up and started making literal dragon noises."

Yuugi was the one...who found him? Why would he have been anywhere nearby...?

It's so improbable, so confusing that Kaiba closes his eyes again and just breathes, in and out, trying not to let the reality dizzy him anymore.

Mokuba would be here soon. He still kept track of Seto, after all this time? But Seto didn't want that. He wanted his brother to move on if he had to, and--

--and wasn't that unfair?

He left Kaiba Corporation on Mokuba's shoulders, admittedly with the help of the only non-family individual he could count on at all. But he's still out it on his young brother. A weight he should have been the only one to ever have to bear.

"Is he...alright?"

Kaiba sounds quiet again, but that's less to do with coming out of the coma and how it'd slowed him down, and everything to do with actual guilt.

Yuugi sat back and scooted his chair closer to Kaiba's side.

"Yeah," he nodded. "I've been looking out for him. He's your little brother, though: he's a lot tougher than he looks."

He couldn't even imagine how it would have felt to Kaiba, waking up after what he thought would only be a few minutes and hearing that he was not only in a coma, but discovered by his...rival? Friend? And that his brother had been running KaibaCorp while he was unconscious.

"We have lunch together every day, and go out to have dinner at least once a week."

He paused. Wait...would Kaiba worry about what Yuugi was putting in his brother's stomach?

Better rectify that.

He waved his hands in front of his face with a small laugh. "N-Not burgers or anything, I promise! I know you would kill me if I tried to stuff your brother with the kind of food Jonouchi and I eat when we go out together, so we tend to go to family restaurants."

Family Restaurants: The Japanese equivalent to Denny's, except with actual quality. Food that was actually worth eating.

"I try to get him to relax as often as he can, since I know he has a lot on his shoulders."

"Mmheh. Even if you didn't, he'd do it himself."

A smile? An actual, legitimate, tired smile? Somewhere in the world, a puppy might have perished over this. But it's true, Mokuba would probably have eaten burgers on his own, without Yuugi's interference. He enjoyed those kinds of foods.

Unfortunately...the more he thinks about the things Mokuba might enjoy, the more he realizes what his being out of commission had taken from him in the first place.

Seto Kaiba only feels guilt insofar as it pertains to his little brother. And it's written on his face how much he feels. On the other hand...now he owes Yuugi, for filling a position which he could not.

"I am grateful for you supporting him," he murmurs.

Laying in a hospital bed, his eyes half-closed and his expression reading as nothing but guilt, Kaiba looks terribly small. Not the mountain that he had to be, not yet. Not for a while, perhaps.

He'd been satisfied with how things had ended between him and the pharaoh. Finally...he'd received closure. But the cost of that closure, was it worth it?

Something in his smile made Yuugi's stomach flutter. Had he always been that handsome? Maybe it was a trick of the light, or the way it played with his face--

A bit of pink bloomed in his cheeks as he pushed the thoughts out.

Besides, the expression on his face, the guilt...

It...

"I was more than happy to," he murmured.

Kaiba looked so tiny like this. So frail. This wasn't the first time he sat by his side like this as he laid in a hospital bed, but it felt different somehow...

He wasn't sure how. Maybe...it was their age. The circumstances...

"I'm just...glad you're all right. And I know he is, too. He might yell at you a bit for worrying him, though."

"I'm sure he will," Kaiba agrees. And he sincerely hopes that Yuugi is not present to see how very much Seto Kaiba can flex like a reed in the breeze when it came to his brother. He'd done it before, and will continue to do it.

It's owed.

It's always owed, and the debt only grows steeper.

"...You probably ought to call a doctor," he says at last. He still doesn't sound right, his mind is still a few steps behind its usual. If it weren't, he'd have already interrogated Yuugi properly and gotten dressed to leave, his sore legs be damned.

But right now? In the interest of acquiescing to the ones he'd incurred debt to, he'll behave accordingly. Besides, there was something about Yuugi's face that was off-putting. Like he was in some way appraising Kaiba as he lay there.

He doesn't like it. He's aware of how weak he looks.

"Yeah."

He knew Mokuba wanted to talk to him privately once he got up. No matter how much time he spent at the Kaiba estate these days -- enough for Mokuba to give him a little building on the property that he ended up moving into -- he was not meant to see their inevitable quarrel.

Instead...

"He should be here in a few minutes. I'll...I'll give you two some privacy."

Before calling the doctor, anyway.

Yuugi stood up and moved towards the door--

Only for Mokuba Kaiba to burst in, harried and exhausted as though he ran all the way there.

"Thank God, you kept him from trying to walk out!"

Before dashing in and hugging his big brother close and breaking down into tears.

Yuugi took that opportunity to slip out of the room, giving them their much-needed privacy.

The privacy afforded to the brothers was used to hug one another at first, followed by Kaiba apologizing ineffectually and Mokuba biting his head off, as he knew he well deserved.

But deserving doesn't mean relenting entirely. He'd left his affairs in order, after all, which Mokuba was highly unappreciative of, his nerves frayed from overseeing the meeting and then basically yanking Isono by the ear to the car and forcing him to break several laws to get him here.

By the end of it, Mokuba exits looking very nearly as harried as he had walking in, but there's a sense of relief so thick in the air it feels palpable.

To Kaiba's deep annoyance, no amount of strongarming or threats could convince the doctors to discharge him that very day. By the time Yuugi comes back in, Mokuba's washed his hands of his brother's absolute infant behavior and is sitting in the hallway, coordinating the executives via phonecall.

Good luck to Yuugi Mutou as he enters Kaiba's hospital room to hear:

"I've bankrupted companies for less than what you're telling me now!"

Oh hey. Sounds like his voice is coming back, huh?

Oh, geez. Well, at least his voice sounds like it's getting the workout it needs?

He poked his head in the room.

"Ah, is this a bad ti--"

The doctor almost looked relieved to see him, waving Yuugi in with a flourish that he knew better than to say no to.

"Oh, perfect timing! You're done with work for the day, yes?"

"Ahhh, um. Yeah. I a--"

"Good!" How a woman standing at a little over 5'3 can act like she's taller than Kaiba was anyone's guess. "Stay in here with him tonight. He needs a guard dog in case he tries to break out."

"I don't think that's ne--"

"Nonsense! I'll have Yuki bring in a cot for you."

"WHAT?!"

What the fuck did she just say?!

Actually Kaiba can't even lodge any further complaints, because his disused and now very much abused vocal cords decide that now's the time he needs to shut up. Not only is he sent into a coughing fit, but he's rather effectively blown out what voice he had regained by shouting as if he was in the middle of a tournament final.

He is not an animal to be caged! He can't say it, but he's definitely glaring at everyone in the room, up to and including Yuugi, about it!

The commotion attracts Mokuba to poke his head into the room, and his eyes immediately half-lid in total annoyance. The similarity between the brothers has never been more pronounced.

Kaiba, ever the gracious patient, immediately tries to push himself up onto his elbows as he'd done before, and although he succeeds, perhaps he'd wish he hadn't once the perfectly assertive doctor gives a little hm! and moves to exit the room. Mokuba allows it of course.

"Bro, they're going to sedate you if you don't stop," he says blandly, still holding the phone to his ear.

"He's right," Yuugi added before striding to the bed and gently touching Kaiba's shoulders in a bid to get him to lie down. "I know you want to get out of here, but I know you want to get drugged up even less."

Though from the way he was acting, you'd think Kaiba was told that he had to take out his own catheter with his teeth.

...

You know, maybe Yuugi shouldn't bring up that he'd had to call the nurses to empty his bags multiple times?

Yeeeeaaaaaah.

He was going to keep that to himself.

"Try not to move around too much," he said instead. "You might dislodge something."

Yuugi is rewarded by an absolutely livid Seto Kaiba shoving his chest as hard as he can, which at this point in time isn't very hard, but would still probably knock him backwards.

He looks like he's trying to yell something, but it comes out more like hissing than anything audible given that his voice is climbing to a level that is as of now forbidden. If Yuugi's any good at reading lips, however, he might catch some of it.

IF THAT WOMAN TRIES ANYTHING I'LL STRANGLE HER MYSELF!

DON'T TOUCH ME! DON'T TOUCH ME!

Mokuba says something rapid over the phone, then disconnects, immediately moving to Yuugi's side and asking if he's alright. Then, he glares up at Seto because this is getting ridiculous!

Fortunately for two of the three people involved, the doctor's back, and she's come with reinforcements.

The reinforcements are chemical. And despite Kaiba's impressive reach, he's not in any position to push her as he'd pushed Yuugi, not with the way his lower body was leaden and useless on the bed at the moment. It makes it exceedingly easy for her to inject something at the back line of his IV, then roll it open to increase flow.

Again, he mouths his displeasure--How DARE you!--but it's short lived. Within a few moments, he's slumping back down onto the bed with a soft groan as his limbs lose their strength and his head swims. He's not unconscious, but he's also not going to be acting the fool for a minute.

"...So anyway, you're staying, right?" the doctor asks, turning to Yuugi, still holding the syringe. It's not a threat, but what if it was?

He wasn't knocked back far, thankfully; he really had lost most of his strength, huh...? That should have knocked Yuugi clean across the room, but instead just made him stumble back a few steps.

"I'm okay, don't worry."

It wasn't much, but...

Kaiba.

Gods, this really is a struggle for him, isn't it...

"Ah, haha...um. Yeah. I guess I am staying." Yuugi said after a moment. "Wouldn't be the first time."

The first time they found intense brain activity close to this; around two weeks in. Yuugi stayed with Mokuba by his brother's bedside playing games as they stayed up all night.

He didn't wake up, but the two grew much closer after the experience.

Nooooooo. NO!!

STOP PLAYING UNO WITHOUT HIM. DEAL HIM IN YOU BASTARDS!!!!

Kaiba's in Lorazepam prison, and although he is mostly out of it, he's still very indignant about Yuugi and Mokuba playing games without him! He was TRAINED IN GAMES! MOLDED BY THEM!

Now they're PLAYING CHESS??

Around that time is when he makes a disgruntled groan, but he can't really do much about it. This is hell. He's in hell, and the only reprieve is when he finally manages to doze off, some point around Yuugi and Mokuba's second round of Monopoly, the bastards. He's the Monopoly master! He is the president of a CORPORATION! HE...he...

...He's out until morning, when he is graced with the privilege of no longer being sedated. Lesson learned, because he doesn't immediately cause trouble once he comes around. Instead, he assesses his surroundings.

The two were fast asleep.

Mokuba took the cot, curled up in a ball in his favorite Cyber Dragon PJs. The games were all put away, stacked and neat in the corner, where it seemed like there was a place set aside for it.

How often did these two play games together late into the night?

Yuugi was also asleep, having changed into his Kuriboh sweatshirt and pajama pants. He leaned against the side of Seto's bed, head resting against his arms as a blanket was wrapped nice and tightly around him.

Did one of the nurses do it?

With a little nudge, he could fall onto the bed easily. Or at least have his head rest against Seto's leg.

He sleeps, quietly.

So they stayed here after all? Hmm.

Kaiba's curled on his side at this point, sleeping in a more human fashion than he had been while he was comatose. He still feels incredibly small, and uncomfortable because of where he was.

He wanted to get up, but he remembers what Yuugi said last night, that he ought to be careful or he might dislodge something. With his mind cleared and his anger abated, he realizes that being comatose probably meant he wasn't getting up anytime soon without the doctors removing...certain things from his body.

If he railed against them, he'd end up here even longer than he wanted to be. And in the meantime, his behavior was not only disrespectful to his concerned brother, but to Yuugi, who it seems had been spending a lot of time visiting him.

Those games...they had a place.

There was a reason for that.

Quietly, he reached a hand out, intending to prod Yuugi. It's not to wake him up, just to touch him. To put hands on him, at least on his shoulder. Kaiba wants to confirm that after all, this was real, and he wasn't in a dimensional hallucination. Had any of it been real?

Was this?

Or was he still among the dunes, trapped in the shimmering mirage of the afterlife?

...If he was, then he probably wouldn't have dreamed about getting sedated. So...

Yuugi twitches slightly, mumbling something in his sleep that Kaiba can't hear.

What was that?

Seems he's outcold, though.

Yuugi's lack of response emboldens Kaiba, and his slender fingers reach further, settling at the other man's shoulder.

Warm. Present. Real.

Kaiba still doesn't trust it, really, but he has nothing to lose at this point, and so he decides to sate a curiosity he'd had ever since he'd met Yuugi, by reaching out to touch his hair. Bangs first, then the fluffy red and black tinted locks. He's not delving his fingers deeply, nothing of the sort--he's just brushing through, carding the tips through the stiff locks.

In his sleep, Yuugi smiled; he leaned into the touch with a pleased little noise, not unlike a content cat.

Someone was touching his hair.

It felt good. Really good.

Eh?

Kaiba's fingers pull back slightly at Yuugi's reaction. What is he dreaming of, to be behaving like that?! He doesn't even know who's touching him! How could he react so naively?

(a thick hand fisting short hair, threatening to tear it from the root)

He's tempted to shake Yuugi awake. Idiot. Stop sleeping and letting your guard down! Hadn't Kaiba shoved him before? Didn't he remember? And yet here he dozed, at the edge of Kaiba's hospital bed, in the danger zone.

...Kaiba doesn't snatch his hair up in his hands, fisting and pulling at it. It never even crossed his mind to do that kind of thing. But he could.

He does reach out, thumbing Yuugi's hairline beneath the bangs, just because he could. Because he's bored, and alone, and he doesn't want to feel unengaged. What if he slips back into oblivion unbidden?

"Nnnn..."

Again, Yuugi leans into the touch with a happy noise. It sounds...sweet.

"Ka...ah...."

What is he mumbling about?

...Kaiba's invested now, and although he knows he shouldn't press on, he does trace along the hairline, then gently slide Yuugi's bangs behind one ear.

He remembers...Atem had asked about Yuugi with such fondness. They'd seen each other more than Kaiba had seen Atem, so he'd expressed aggravation at it. And Atem? He'd laughed. He'd laughed, and laughed, but then he'd apologized. He cited his reasons, believing that Kaiba had gone to fulfill his own destiny, and that there was nothing left unsaid between them.

But still. Atem had spoken of Yuugi. He'd asked Kaiba to do something truly, absolutely ridiculous: to watch over Yuugi. Protect him.

Protect him? Yuugi didn't need protecting, least of all from Seto Kaiba. It had been a selfish request from the pharaoh, and Kaiba hadn't entertained it! Or...at least that's what he wanted to think. That he wouldn't.

But his bond with Atem...it compelled him to do as he was asked.

He wouldn't, of course. Not unless he wanted to. But he did want to keep touching Yuugi's hair. He wanted to know what was so captivating? Why had Yuugi stolen time from him even past dimensions, and lived rent free in Atem's head when he should have been focusing on no one but Kaiba?

Yuugi shivers under his touch, but it's a pleasant one. In his dream, someone is also touching him gently, watching him with beautiful eyes and a curious gaze.

"K...mmn...st...y..."

He's happy to stay like this...

Even if he doesn't know that Seto Kaiba's fingers touching him isn't just happening in a dream.

Curious. So curious. Kaiba's thumb slides against Yuugi's cheek...but then he catches himself. No.

No, he can't do this. It's highly inappropriate. So he pulls his hand back and tries to shift further away from Yuugi. All he manages to do is wince and rattle the bed. making it creak.

Nngh, seriously, why did his legs hurt? He hadn't wanted to look at them. It wasn't cowardice, but his curiosity was not enough to make him move the blankets. Not yet.

He hopes Yuugi doesn't wake from the sounds he'd made. Mokuba either, because he definitely deserved to rest.

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