Chapter Text
Eyes fixed straight ahead.
The forest around him was ever changing, shadows moving and morphing into different shapes as if they could catch his gaze, lead him astray. The path in front of him was slim, easily lost within the scenery if he would take his eyes off for even a moment.
He kept on walking, following the path even as he walked in turns, the other side easily reached faster if he’d only step into the green surrounding him.
“Seto, Seto please-”
It had become easier to blend the voice out by now. Or, not really.
Not at all, it still stung, stung so much, it pained to hear it, because it could so easily be real-
Seto went on, didn’t move his head, didn’t turn around. It wasn’t Mokuba, he knew it wasn’t him.
Pegasus… Pegasus wouldn’t let him go. Not like that, not without showing Seto once, if only to make sure the knife stabbed as deep as possible. It wasn’t Mokuba.
“Seto, I’m afraid, it’s dark, it’s so dark-“
There was a flower in the middle of the path. Seto stepped over it, back straight, not looking away. He did not allow himself to linger on the words. There were many cells down in the castle, even if the faery didn’t push Mokuba into the forest, it would’ve been so easy to lock him up in one of them, to simply be forgotten-
“It’s cold, I’m sorry, Seto, I’m sorry-“
Another flower appeared on the path, slightly bigger than before. Seto stopped, closed his eyes, took a deep breath in.
He had to focus.
He opened his eyes and went on, blending the voice and any shadow mocking his vision out, ignoring the thoughts that tried to stay within his heart, letting them flow like water, on and on, never long enough to hurt or harm.
His legs were hurting, his arms were heavy, his eyes wanted to be closed again and not opened until his restlessness was finally dealt with and over.
Seto walked on, ignored the aching, the sound his bones made as he forced himself to move like he hadn’t fallen on his leg quite badly when he’d been thrown. It didn’t matter, and he would ignore it just like the pain in his back and anywhere else.
The voice called out to him, but he ignored it. No more flowers crossed his path as he made his way on through the forest, one step after the other, on and on, ever forward. Just like water, a river, no memory able to trap him in fear, least of all that of the madman he would have called-
“Seto! Seto, I’m sorry, please!”
Seto shook his head, walked faster, even if there was no way he could ever walk faster at this point. It hurt. It hurt, everything-
It didn’t matter.
Seto stepped over the reappearing flowers, ignored how his arms felt like they were beginning to fall off. It hurt-
~“Oh well, you weren’t my target at all, human. I feel a bit bad about it now. Best to just die here, along with that fool you gave your life for.”
More flowers. The pain in his back got stronger, a wound, a stab, a throbbing pain-
“Seto, please, Seto, Seto, SETO!”
Seto stopped, took another breath. Closed his eyes. It wasn’t heavy. He didn’t need to think. He opened them, jumped over the flowers, went on, eyes always in front of him.
Pegasus wouldn’t count on him – it didn’t matter what Pegasus thought, counted on or did, not anymore. The only thing that mattered now was to get to Mokuba, to get Mokuba out of the castle. The place could burn for all he cared, the ash could be used to nurture those damn flowers so they would finally stop to cross the edge of the path to wrap around his ankles in an attempt to either drag him off, make him fall or just annoy him all the same.
~“Oh, the flowers? I like the white ones really much. Are you still alive? What are you doing? Are you trying to use magic? Come now, that’s too much. Why not just lie down? You deserve to rest, brave soul.”
Blood dripping out of a wound, a dagger sharp enough to slice a diamond, a poisonous white flower – he hated flowers. He hated them so much.
Seto heard dripping, felt a warm wetness in his back.
He stopped once more, closed his eyes, lifted his arms to block out the false voice. He would burn it all down, every flower, every tree, until nothing but the river and lakes was left.
She could finally look at the sky without any noise of life then.
She would enjoy that. Such thing always made her smile.
Seto opened his eyes again, took a few steps back, begun to run and jumped over the even bigger pile of flowers. Black and red, like blood and death and memories that were swiped away as he went on. There was no blood. Illusions couldn’t do anything to him, no matter how they tried.
“Seto-”
“Shut up”, he muttered, went on. His arms weren’t falling off, and the vines reaching for him easily ripped with every step he took.
On. Always on, he would get out of here, he would come back, take his brother.
No need to think. No need to feel, no need to see, no need to hear. All he needed to do was go until the trees finally stopped blocking his view on the sun.
~“My, you actually did it. I didn’t even know that humans could use magic so old as that. There must be something magic about you, Seto. Old magic, otherwise you’d be dead – Seto? Can you still hear me, brave soul? Ah, well. Goodnight to both of you, then. Maybe I will find you again next time. Your majesty, I’ll be taking my leave now.”
Seto opened his eyes, hadn’t been aware that he had closed them in the first place. There were more flowers, not on the path this time, but next to it, leading up into a clearing, vanishing from his sight within the woods.
Seto, despite knowing better, looked at the flowers for a while longer, a feeling of fondness overcoming him.
Then the pain in his back was back and he went on, forgetting about even thinking about the stupid idea he’d actually been contemplating. He wouldn’t leave this path, absolutely not.
“I bet I could make you leave your path. Let’s play a game, won’t you?”
“Seto! Seto!”
“Shut up.”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, it’s my fault, I’m sorry, I opened the window, I’m so sorry-”
“You’re quite rude. Why don’t you want to play with me?”
“Because you would cheat. All that those of your kind do is cheat.”
“Now, how would I be able to cheat you? I’m bound to the rules once I’ve agreed to them. I’m even more bound to them than you!”
“Leave me alone.”
“Win against me and I will. I swear it.”
His arms begun to grow heavy again. He took off a bracelet, threw it into a pile of white flowers in front of his feet. The path became clear again, no trace of his bracelet left. Seto could feel his arm again. The other one became twice as heavy four steps farther, a tiny tear beginning to paint itself across his skin, well-hidden underneath his shirt.
It was too hot, he couldn’t – it didn’t matter. On.
“What are you doing here in the first place? I’ve rarely seen one who came out of his own volition.”
“It doesn’t matter to you, does it? Go and play with someone else.”
“If you go down that path, you will come to a –“
Seto ripped his eyes open, ripped out the vines around his legs. There was a heat around his neck, a noose, trying to suffocate him.
An illusion, nothing else, but it hurt so much. He went on, black flowers blooming next to him with every fiber of their being, painting everything but the path into an all-eating black, the suffocating feeling getting worse.
“That’s exactly where I’m headed.”
“What a bold decision. Are you sure you want to follow down this path? She will be your certain death, that much is clear.”
“Here it is, your first lie. I’m sure a lot more will follow out of your oh so honest mouth, so why not keep it shut and stop bothering me?”
“I want to bother you though. How about this, if I win our game, you tell me your name? Should I lose, I will give you mine in return.”
“I don’t need your name. And there is no way I would ever give you mine.”
“I don’t want you to give it to me. I merely want you to tell it.”
He had made quite a way. Or maybe he hadn’t moved at all, he couldn’t quite tell and didn’t really know.
“Seto, are you there? I’m not crying anymore, I’m strong. I’m sorry for crying, I promise I won’t cry anymore-”
“Shut up! Shut up, shut up already!”
“I’m sorry! Don’t be angry, please-”
“Shut up!”
The second bracelet made its way into a pile of white, leaving nothing once it vanished.
“I don’t have the time to play. I need to go now, ----- is waiting for me.”
“Well, I’m not letting you go until we have played at least one game!”
“I don’t requite your permission. Leave me be now.”
Seto went on, hearing nothing but his own heavy footsteps, the sound echoing through the woods, tud, tud, tud.
“You’re back, Seto!”
“I’m not here for you, feary. Let me be.”
“But you came back! You did not drown. Play with me again!”
“I’m not doing it. Move aside, Atem.”
Breathing became easier for a moment, red and violet dancing in the corner of his eyes, trying to guide him off the path and back towards the clearing he had long since bypassed.
Seto took in the air greedily, went on, only for the noose around his neck to tighten again in punishment. Quite a jealous friend he had made there, huh.
Seto went on all the same, did not stop, not until his vision went completely dark.
*“Your heart is quite weak. It will not pump water through your veins, nor keep it out of your lungs. What use has such a heart anyway?”
“----------”
*“No, your heart really is useless, even for a human one. At this point, you will clearly die.”
“That’s true. My heart never was really strong. Would you like to eat it after you drowned me? I wouldn’t mind your eyes being the last ones I ever see.”
*“I will never drown you. For how could one drown their own heart?”
A white hand leaving from where it had rested on his chest, only to suddenly-
“What have you- you’re bleeding-“
*“Do not worry. It doesn’t hurt at all, and it will soon heal. You are mine now, and you will be, no matter what happens.”
“I was from the first moment I laid eyes on you. Do what you want with me.”
*“Say my name again. I want to hear you say it once more.”
“------”
An unbearable pain in his chest as something useless was ripped out, replaced with ease, with something that fit better, for it had always belonged in there.
The stone on his necklace exploded, causing a shard to somehow cut the cord around his neck, releasing him of the noose trying to actively suffocate him.
Seto, after tying and frantically failing to see if he could find any shards on the path or outside of it, closed his eyes again, shook his head.
Calm down. He needed to calm down.
He wasn’t suffocating, he could still walk, he needed to go on.
“Seto? Are you there? Can you answer me? It’s… it’s so dark down here. I’m sorry if I bother you again, I won’t talk, I promise, just please-”
"Shut up already! Shut up!”
Breathing worked. Ignore and move on.
The vines became more aggressive a while later, trying to wrap around him until he had to rip them off with the roots in order to go on. There were flowers on the way, trying to block him, to make him go back, to have him turn around and go back to the grave to push him inside and keep him there, because even the fondest fairy was nothing but a monster at heart.
“You are different that the last two times, Seto. What happened?”
“I’m still myself. Can you stop bothering me already?”
“I like bothering you, Seto. Join me today?”
“There is a kingdom for you to look after, your highness.”
“And you’re part of my kingdom now, Seto. It’s a miracle you were even able to leave the forest in the first place.”
“I’m definitively not part of your kingdom nor your court, Atem.”
Seto stomped down on a black flower, could feel the blood underneath his shoe as he went on. It would dye his shoes red, angry cries filling the air. He would not care.
If this was a kingdom, the king could die for all that he cared. He needed to go on, even without the protection given to him – he would apologize to Yugi afterwards, once all of this was over – once they were back to how it was.
“You’ve stopped me from going again.”
“Well, you’ve proven that you will just go afterwards if I leave you alone at dusk. Join me tonight?”
“Atem, leave.”
“Now that’s cheating. Don’t use my name if you only tell me to leave.”
“As if it works like that. You don’t leave anyway. What do you even want with me?”
“To steal you away. To keep you here.”
“You’re too late- I was stolen already and I don’t plan on returning. Leave me be.”
“Seto-”
“Leave me be.”
Forward. On. On. On, he needed to go on-
“You’ve been gone longer than before. I thought you would drown.”
“Did you wait for me?”
“Of course I did. I will always wait for you.”
Green. Black. The last light of the day had vanished, leaving nothing but darkness behind, and him in the middle of it. Was he still on the path? He couldn’t have left, he hadn’t strayed, he knew where he was, he knew where to go. On. Always on, that was it. He needed to-
“Aren’t you afraid you will lose yourself in the darkness? There is no way for your eyes to see.”
“I don’t need my eyes for that.”
“You shouldn’t see her at night.”
“I shouldn’t see you either, yet here you are.”
“You’re so cold to me. But I want to make your life easier anyway, so hear me out. Do you see those flowers, right over there?”
He couldn’t see anything right now, let alone a stupid-
“If you shake them, they begin to glow, white lanterns to lighten your way. That is, as long as you know your way.”
“Are they also yours?”
“Everything inside of the woods it mine. But I did not make them.”
“They- but nobody shook them. How come they still shine?”
“What could possibly shake a flower, Seto? It’s the wind.”
Dancing around his tired limbs, caressing his face and hair with a familiar touch – whose hand was that, whose voice echoed in his mind? – making him sigh out. Shortly after the way around him began to be visible again, a soft blow and immediately there was white light, lightening up his path.
It was still the right one. He hadn’t strayed yet.
“I would have found my way without this.”
“I don’t doubt it. But why face needless hardships? It would go against your own policy, Seto.”
“Seto”, the trees begun to whisper again, ripping him out of his slumber, causing him to walk on. He couldn’t sleep. If he fell asleep he wouldn’t wake up again, would be eaten by vines and flowers, blood used to paint the earth and nurture the soil.
“I’ll be there soon.”
On, on, new wind blowing the lights on and off as it pleased, making him a flickering, wandering shadow. Seto clenched his fists, traced over the emblem on his chest. He would go on. He needed to go on.
~“I’m actually surprised by how well you seem to be able to navigate through our woods- Seto was it, right? You must have taken all possible short-cuts to arrive here in time. Did the forest guide you along the way? Did it want to save its king that badly it would rob me of the only moment I could take that crown for myself?”
Shortcuts. They would take him off the path, towards a clearing, a bridge.
“------“
“------!”
To a river, impossible to cross unless the owner wanted one to. Towards a river, towards-
“Seto?”
Seto’s head snapped to the side, turning faster than the rest of him could, not believing his ears for a second, he knew better, and yet-
There he stood, just as he (had) remembered him, illuminated by white flower lanterns, a ghost in the night.
“Seto?”, it repeated, stepped onto the path, came closer with every movement. “Is that really you? You’ve grown. You’re too tall.”
A white figure in white light, a ghost in the dark, dressed in clothing not his own.
A face so familiar that even the worst nightmares could not compare.
“Noa.”
“So it is you!”, the mirage smiled, excited, “I haven’t talked to you in so long, I wondered if I had just dreamed about you. How are you? How is Mokuba?”
Closer still, until he stood directly in front of him, looking up where he used to look down.
Seto’s knees longed to give, but he forced them to stay, strong and miserable.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m… I’m just here, what are you doing here? You look tired, Seto.”
He felt tired too, tired enough to just lie down and-
“Seto!”
Eyes open. Eyes open!
Seto again looked down on the brother he hadn’t been searching for, on the one he had long since given up on ever finding again. A brother already dead.
A brother currently reaching out, holding onto Seto’s hand as if it was not the first time in years that-
“You don’t look good at all, Seto. Has father been hard on you again?”
A slight pull, away from the path, away-
“Noa, stop, I need to leave, I can’t get off the path-“
But his legs, his weak, tired, useless legs had already moved without his permission, feet stepping onto silk-like moss, one step after the other.
“Leave? Already? But you’ve just arrived! At least stay a bit, tell me what’s going on outside, Ryou won’t tell me anything, no matter how much I ask!”
Farther inside, the path gone the moment he turned around to check on it. “Well, almost nothing. Just that their king has somewhat lost his mind in grief and makes it everyone’s problem – Seto?”
“It’s nothing. Noa, I need to leave, I really need to leave-“
“Aren’t you an unfilial little brat? Don’t you want to know where I have been? What I have done, what I’ve seen? Seto-“
“I need to save Mokuba, Noa, I can’t stay here, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I can’t stay!”
The child that shouldn’t be a child, the face that shouldn’t look still so much like Mokuba twisted into confusion. Noa hadn’t heard Seto beg often, not if he remembered right.
(There were few things he probably didn’t remember right, had done his best to forget. The feeling that had burned itself into him was enough a reminder, after all.)
“Mokuba is in danger? Why? What did you do?”
What did he do indeed, losing his ability to judge because of something as stupid as trust and pride and sheer naivety.
“I don’t have time-“
“Tell me! What did you do, Seto? Where did you fail?”
Failure. Utter failure, all eating, consuming, a whip hovering over his head, under his chin, pulling it up, forcing him to look-
He was looking down. He wasn’t that small anymore. The failure was still the same.
“It doesn’t matter”, he said, and immediately regretted it, green eyes fixating on him at once, part predator, part sibling, both enraged.
“Of course it matters, Seto! What did you do?! Why didn’t you keep him safe? Wasn’t it all about Mokuba in the first place? Haw dare you say it doesn’t matter-“
“Because it’s my fault either way! I trusted someone who wasn’t to be trusted and now I’m paying the price.”
“You never trusted anyone!”
“I didn’t plan to! I failed!” He didn’t man to shout, didn’t mean to want to draw that much attention to himself in the middle of the forest with nowhere to hide should a bigger creature suddenly decide he looked like a very easy meal.
His stomach ached at the thought of food.
“I failed, Noa.”
“You knew better.”
“I did.”
Noa snorted. It wasn’t cheerful at all, full of the snark Seto remembered he had. Used to have.
“Trusting peasants was never a good idea, Seto.”
“It wasn’t a peasant.”
“Then who? And what are you doing here, Seto? You should know better.”
“A madman.”
“You trusted a madman.”
“I did.”
“...A human mad-man?”
“…I’m starting to doubt it.” Seto still wanted to deny it. It was harder to deny with a childhood mirror come alive again to mock every attempt at denial he could bring.
“A madman… of the royal kind?”
“A king… apparently. A king who has Mokuba.”
Admitting it to himself hurt a lot more than falling through the window had. It felt like talking to an echo, hearing his own thoughts spoken out by the whispers of plants and trees.
“What’s his name?”
“Pegasu-“
His mirror sneered, interrupting him. “Never mind, you’re done. No, better get comfortable, you won’t be leaving anytime soon, fool.”
“Noa, please.”
Now the memory’s shadow held in in its rage, frozen in time. “…Please?”
“Please, I can’t stay, I need to bring him back. I need to leave.”
Noa looked torn between wanting to be cruel for punishment’s sake – there always was a punishment, they didn’t know another reality – and not wishing to actually leave him here.
“You gave him to him. You gave Mokuba away.”
“I didn’t know and I didn’t give him.”
“He was taken from you then. Quite the embarrassment you are. How did you ever get rid of father, Seto?”
Seto held in, ripped out of the amount of blame that tried to suffocate him, blinked. “From where do you know…”
“Ah, I was told. Sometimes I’m told a thing or two if Ryou thinks it’s worth to tell me. At least somewhat. By all means, you can tell me the rest, for you will never-“ He stopped himself, shook his head.
“…I don’t really think you deserve to leave this forest. You screwed up, you deserve to stay. Why should you be allowed to leave again? By all means, this is just fate correcting her oversight.”
“And you’d want that? Really?”
“No.”
Seto sighed, shoulders sacking down. “Alright. A bargain then.”
“You have something to bargain with? And I’m not of their kind, this is nonsense-“
“Shut up and look. I’m sure you will be quite willing to trade, you little brat.” He reached under his outer shirt, pulled off the emblem resting on his chest like it always had, held it up to the light of a flower to be seen. “There.”
Noa looked like he’s been struck. Or rather, like a younger version of Seto who had been struck once again, a perfect whipping boy. That monster would never raise hand against his own child.
“…You kept it?”
“Of course I did. It is mine.”
The dragon shone in the dim light, pale and dreary.
Noa snorted. “I guess that’s not wrong. You did become the oldest son after that night, in a way. Do you want to trade the jewelry or the implications it holds?”
“You can decide. Can you lead me out or not?”
“I can.” Noa reached his hand out for the emblem, smirking when Seto naturally held it out of reach.
“Do you accept the bargain?”
“I’m not a faery, Seto.”
“Do you accept?”
“…Alright, yes”, Noa said, carefully looking away from the Kaiba-emblem. “I will keep the dragon and let the undeserving rider leave.”
With that the boy begun to walk ahead, naturally in a completely different direction than Seto had moved in.
It would be foolish to follow him. There was no faster way to get lost than to follow accusing shadows of the past.
Seto was already lost anyway. And the pull of this shadow was a strong one.
“You will tell Mokuba that I was the one who saved him.”
“I will let him know.”
“Of all the people to piss off, how could you’ve chosen a faery? It’s a miracle that you’re not a flower in a garden or a painting on the wall!”
“Why are we not going back to the path?”
“Because you want to get to Mokuba. The path will lead you out, but you don’t have the time to wait until you’re at the end. We will take a short-cut.”
“How long will that take?”
“Well, I never tried it before?”, Noa admitted, carefully taking a step away as if calculating a punch that wouldn’t come, “There is a short-cut at the silver-river, but we are quite far away from there to choose that path. Besides, the kelpie that lives there doesn’t like to be disturbed. I don’t want to risk your life after you miraculously avoided being turned into a plant. We will take the safe route, Seto.”
“Where are we going then? And where will we come out?”
“Somewhere between home and the most farthest part of the town. The exit is always a bit different depending on the time of day.”
“When were you there the last time, Noa?”
“Do you want another guide, Seto? I could call one, he would certainly answer”, Noa huffed. “Though you can’t bribe him with jewelry. He will ask something bigger of you.”
“Would that save Mokuba?”
“It would. It would also mean you two will stay here forever, Seto. I didn’t push you away so you would come right back.”
Seto tried and failed to overcome the feeling that made him want to lower his gaze and clench his fists. Noa pretended he didn’t notice, which made it all the worse. Instead he pulled at his sleeve, blurring the lines between the adult he was and the child he looked like.
“Come, either way it will take its time. So we should hurry.”
They did, through the woods at a quick pace, even though one’s legs were by far shorter than of the other. It seemed like the forest just parted itself for Noa, made it easy for him to come forward and even lead the way.
That courtesy didn't work on Seto, but the lingering effect still worked well enough that they were getting forward much faster than he had before. (Maybe it was because this was just an illusion and the only thing it did was making him get lost even more. Who could tell.)
Time passed in silence, every word he wished to speak too much breath he would lose talking about it. About then, about now.
There was nothing to do but to walk.
(Pegasus would chide him. The idea of not having any words to say to someone who should be no more was absurd to the lord. So absurd he would – it was such a familiar feeling, this stinging. This goddamn stinging.)
“Can you tell me how you tricked father?”, the boy asked at one point.
“Do you remember the mines the Kaiba owned? I made use of the gas that emerged from a badly build tunnel. It went up in flames during an examination with him and five other lords. It was a true tragedy.”
“In flames”, Noa mused, more in thoughts than accusing. “He went up in flames. Like a dragon!”
“I’m aware.”
“God, you’re awful! He probably laughed while he burned away!” Noa was laughing now, loud, vile. “He burned and laughed and his laughter will haunt that mine for decades to come!”
They bypassed a big tree that nearly caused Seto to trip, the motion slowly bringing his brother back. “Who were the other 5 lords? Did I know them? Cared for them in any capacity?”
“I doubt it. Or, maybe you did. They were respected lords of the noble class, didn’t live in Domino and only came to visit the state of the mines. The Kaiba family sent their most sincere condolence.”
“You mean the five? The group that always-“
“Exactly.”
“My, I didn’t like them at all! They always smiled so strangely.”
They did a lot more than just smile strangely. There was a reason they had been chosen.
“And what did you do afterwards? Did you take over or sold it all and finally rested? You did always like to overwork yourself.”
“I am too tired to walk and talk. Stop asking questions already and focus on getting me out of here.”
“You used to be more charming”, Noa commented, shook his head as if exasperated by the antics of a small child. “Good thing that we will be resting soon then-“
“We won’t be resting-“
“I already said you will have to leave this place in one piece and alive. How long have you been wandering already, Seto?”
“It doesn’t matter-“
“It does matter. Because I will be resting, and if you don’t rest with me, you will be going on alone, get lost and I will have to ask Ryou to please not let you turn into fertilizer.”
Noa pointed ahead, towards a hut not far away, standing in the middle of nowhere, lonely and old.
It looked inviting, cozy.
Seto realized he had been tricked.
“You little-“
“I used to be taller than you, brat. Now be good and rest, eat and sleep and make sure you don’t collapse, Seto.”
“Absolutely not. Did you even listen to me?!”
“I did!” Another tug at his sleeve, irritating the shivering skin underneath . His coat was still hanging on the heavy chair in that godforsaken room in the castle. “Come now, aren’t you curious? Don’t you want to know what I live like, how I spend my time, what happened with me here? Don’t you want to know at all?”
“Noa, I swear if you want me to I will come back to this cursed place and listen to you for weeks on end, but I need to leave.”
“Mhm-mh. Sure you do. You also need to arrive standing and with clear sight. Come along now.”
With that the boy, talking like he had never even stepped a foot inside this place, kept on, humming a song Seto tried desperately to not think about, tried to ignore how it dragged his mind back into a dark unfamiliar room with only one friendly face singing them to sleep-
He couldn't stop his feet from following, stepping into the tiny place, sitting down onto a wooden chair next to a table.
It took pathetically little to convince him to drink at last. Seto gulped the water down without thinking, ignored the biscuit Noa shoved towards him on a porcelain plate. “Eat.”
“No.”
“You used to do it without hesitation.”
“Because I was hungry.”
“And you’re hungry right now too. Seto, I don’t know how long you think you’re here already, but it has probably been a lot longer than that. You need to eat something.”
“Noa-“
“Eat already.”
“I doubt it’s food that will-“
Noa took a jar with su- no, with salt, put a spoonful on the biscuit. "There you go. Eat.”
“It’s enough for me to drink. Please stop.”
“Fine”, the boy puffed his cheeks, looked away, “Starve.”
They sat in silence like that, Seto drinking his tea carefully, trying not to think about how dangerous it could be, trying to ignore how thirsty he was, because that would make him question just how much time really had passed already-
Of course he had taken what was given to him without hesitation back then. Seto had been so hungry that Noa could have fed him scraps of yesterday and he would have gulped them down.
Noa hadn’t. Seto still remembered the taste of the meat sneaked away from the big table they had been allowed to sit, but never to eat at, the way it had filled his belly so much he had been able to actually sleep that night-
No. Noa, for all the arrogance and glee a child raised on the Kaiba’s knee, had never been anything but gracious towards them. He had…
Perhaps it was loneliness that had made him kinder to them. Perhaps seeing a matching face (“Well, you are a changeling done right. A bit short, but the right shoes can fix that until you grow.”) had made him kinder to the two mutts brought into his house and made to take over his spare room.
It must have been loneliness that had made him take them along in spite of his father’s wishes when going for trips or demanding they learn how to ride as well.
It must have been loneliness that made him push Seto away that night like it was no big deal, a body acting on instinct before it could even realize what it was giving up, what it was sacrificing that moment.
Was it loneliness that made Noa give up his life for him?
“What did you even do to piss him off in the first place?”, the boy asked after he had finished the biscuit, finally looking at him again. Seto shrugged, put his cup down.
“I refused to give away what was mine.”
“Well, you’re paying the price now. The whole forest is actively trying to keep you in its claws, Seto.”
Noa drank his tea gingerly, feet dangling from the chair he sat on. “But I don’t care, I know the way, even if the plants try to overgrow it. Tomorrow you’re out of here, then you can go and steal Mokuba and get the hell away from all of this.”
"Thank you."
The boy looked at him again, then away, huffed. He didn't reply.