Kaiba's eyes half-lid as he makes out the shape of Yuugi's words, and he's...not sure how he feels about it. He knows that Mokuba is like that, but it feels like the memories are scattered, viewed through a blurred lens he hasn't quite managed to wipe clean.
It makes him happy, and proud, to know that his brother did not sit idly by and allow himself to be bullied. More still, his brother didn't allow Yuugi to be bullied either, for the kind of reason that Kaiba could feel flattered by.
But...
...it also hurts, deep down, because when had the tables turned? When had Mokuba needed to take care of others, rather than be taken care of?
(when you put him in a box and scared him very nearly to death
when you let him play poison roulette with your enemy
when you bet against him because you had no faith)
Something completely wrong and out of place happens then. Seto Kaiba sucks in a breath that aches, and then...something warm and unbidden tracks down his face. A small, single, pitiful badge of utter weakness.
Condensed guilt.
Loneliness of his own making, and really, what right did he have to shed it?
But he can't take it back.
Why had it happened in the first place? He hadn't shed a tear for so many years he had thought himself incapable. Even when pain overcame him, and it was unbearable, and he was seconds from death...he never did.
He can't look Yuugi in the eye. He won't. He doesn't mouth a single word, nor will he see any that his rival tries to form. His pride won't allow it.
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It makes him happy, and proud, to know that his brother did not sit idly by and allow himself to be bullied. More still, his brother didn't allow Yuugi to be bullied either, for the kind of reason that Kaiba could feel flattered by.
But...
...it also hurts, deep down, because when had the tables turned? When had Mokuba needed to take care of others, rather than be taken care of?
(when you put him in a box and scared him very nearly to death
when you let him play poison roulette with your enemy
when you bet against him because you had no faith)
Something completely wrong and out of place happens then. Seto Kaiba sucks in a breath that aches, and then...something warm and unbidden tracks down his face. A small, single, pitiful badge of utter weakness.
Condensed guilt.
Loneliness of his own making, and really, what right did he have to shed it?
But he can't take it back.
Why had it happened in the first place? He hadn't shed a tear for so many years he had thought himself incapable. Even when pain overcame him, and it was unbearable, and he was seconds from death...he never did.
He can't look Yuugi in the eye. He won't. He doesn't mouth a single word, nor will he see any that his rival tries to form. His pride won't allow it.