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“Thank you for waiting,” Mokuba says as soon as he enters the conference room, the stern frown on his face melting upon the sight of a friend. “I had to check up on something at the Mansion…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine!” Yugi stands from his seat, where Mokuba’s secretary had shown him in, right before she asked for an autograph for her younger sister who admires him and his games so much. “It’s good to see you, Mokuba.”
Mokuba chuckles as he gives Yugi a brief hug. “I have to tell you, it’s a relief to hear you call me by that name.”
“Still not used to being addressed as ‘Kaiba-sama’ all the time?”
“I could never get used to it,” Mokuba confesses, pulling back from Yugi’s embrace. It is good to see the King of Games—a title that remains his, even now. Even though it’s now more about the game ideas that he has, improvements on Duel Monster’s gameplay, on venturing out to new and exciting games that resonate throughout everyone.
Yugi stares for a moment, before murmuring, “How is Kaiba, by the way?”
“Nii-sama is resting,” Mokuba replies after a pause. He sits beside Yugi and powers up his laptop so he can view the presentation Yugi emailed him earlier this morning. Drumming his fingers against the table, he continues, “He looks… peaceful.”
To the rest of the world, calling Seto Kaiba as anything remotely to peaceful is an unthinkable thought. Then again, to the rest of the world, Seto Kaiba had passed away in his sleep, some congenital illness suddenly rearing its head and leaving the young, powerful CEO suddenly defenseless. The first couple of years after that had been tumultuous, Kaiba Corporation’s investors unwilling to take a chance on Mokuba even if he was the Vice President. It had been Yugi who’d provided a huge help then—collaborating with him to make an interactive game that swept the world by storm, proving that young blood means fresh and profitable ideas.
Yugi smiles and pats Mokuba’s wrist. “That’s good to hear.”
Yugi’s smile is genuine, so Mokuba smiles back.
Seto’s body is kept inside that chamber and his heartbeat is non-existent, but Mokuba thinks that if he’s awake, he’d also have smiled, even just the tiniest bit, at the sentiment.
Life goes on, for the entire world. Mai and Jounouchi’s wedding invitation is dated for next year, Anzu will be there as one of the performers for the reception, as a favor for a dear friend. Shizuka’s going back home to Japan from her travels, Ryou accompanying her. Otogi’s made plans of wooing Shizuka away from Ryou, apparently, even if Ryou is insistent that he has no romantic aspirations for his friend. Honda just wants them to leave his sister alone. Yugi is here, developing games with him, making the world a livelier place, one game at a time.
Seto’s body is in stasis, but his mind and his heart is locked with his one true passion. Mokuba can’t resent him for it at all, even if he does feel lonely sometimes.
Life goes on.
“You’ve sacrificed your entire being, just to meet me?”
Kaiba huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. “To defeat you.”
“And yet you lost.”
“I will win next time,” Kaiba promises with a glare, the expression not softened at all by the fact that there’s a tiny mass of sun-kissed, gold-adorned skin perched on his lap. Outside, the Egyptian sun bears down on the sands of time.
“So if I keep on winning…”
Kaiba cuts that train of thought short with a fierce, “I will defeat you.”
“So that your sacrifice doesn’t lose meaning, huh?”
“It’s not a sacrifice,” Kaiba says with a roll of his eyes. Even so, he doesn’t shove off the person—the king—the pharaoh from his lap. He doesn’t cradle him close either, but the mere fact that he’s allowing this to continue in the light of day, with not even a faint breeze to enter the room to relieve it of its smoldering temperature says everything about their situation. “You really think that highly of yourself, Atemu.”
A laugh. “That, coming from someone like you.”
“It’s not a sacrifice,” Kaiba repeats. “I did things to get what I wanted, that’s all.”
Atemu blinks, before he laughs again, a rumbling flutter in his belly as he leans his weight against Kaiba’s sweat-hot chest. “You really could be quite the romanticist, hmm, Seto?”
“Shut up,” Kaiba snarls—and before Atemu can claim that Kaiba has no room to order him around, even if they’re far away from the throne room, does everything in his power to shut him up.
Their kiss is lost to the sands of time.
Outside and beyond, life goes on.