Bonus Chapter:

Mokuba woke to darkness. He had a feeling in his chest that was a familiar one. Something was wrong.

He reached out a hand, feeling for the lamp on his side table. His fingers found the switch, and he turned it on.

Mokuba had to close his eyes at the sudden brightness. It took several moments, but when he finally felt that his eyes had adjusted enough, he cracked them open.

At first, the only thing he saw was the numbers on his clock, a glowing green 3:07 AM. Mokuba rubbed a hand over his eyes, trying to wake up enough to look around the room.

He wasn't expecting to see anything. Mokuba often had nightmares that would pull him out of his sleep and leave that burning sensation in his chest. He knew he was paranoid from all the times it had happened before. There had never been anything in his room.

The last thing he expected was to see his brother sitting on the recliner beside the window. Seto didn't appear to have noticed the light coming on. He just stared out, though Mokuba doubted that he was looking at anything in particular.

"Seto?" Mokuba said. His word came out slow, a clear sign of how tired he was.

Seto glanced over. Mokuba noticed that Seto also had to squint into the light.

"Why are you awake?" Seto asked.

"Well, I was asleep. You look exhausted."

"I'm fine, kiddo. Go back to sleep."

"No," Mokuba said, feeling stubborn in addition to more alert. He pushed himself up on his elbows to get a better look at his brother.

Seto really did look exhausted. Even in the ill-lit room, the redness of his eyes could be seen, accompanied by dark rings below. He slouched, a strange posture to be seen on the once proud Kaiba. Each blink that Seto look lasted a moment too long, as if his body wanted sleep, but his mind refused to let him drift.

"Seto, what are you doing?" Mokuba asked.

"Just thinking. You really should go back to sleep."

"But why aren't you asleep?"

"Have you ever wondered what might have happened?" Seto asked. He turned his head back at a slight angle to the window. The dim light from the street lamp contrasted with the light beside Mokuba, giving Seto's face a hollow appearance.

"Of course I have."

"What would be different, do you think?"

Mokuba blinked at his brother's question. He wasn't sure that he understood.

"I never would have gone to the police," Seto continued. He shifted to lift his legs up into the chair. He wrapped his arms around his legs, almost pulling himself into a ball. His eyes moved to the floor as he went on. "You are so much braver than I am. We would still be with him."

Mokuba kept silent. He mind felt like it was spinning. Seto seemed to be implying that there was a positive side to his kidnapping.

So Mokuba threw his legs over the edge of the bed. The air in the room was cold against his bare feet, so he grabbed the blanket off the bed and pulled it tightly around him. He then walked over to Seto and sat on the arm of the recliner.

"Everything I have ever done was for you, and if this helped-"

"Seto, stop."

Mokuba hated seeing his brother in such a position. Seto resembled a child, trying to comfort himself through his own embrace.

But Mokuba had to remind himself that Seto had been kidnapped at seventeen. No matter how mature Gozaburo had tried to make him, Seto had been young. He hadn't mentally aged in his time away, if anything, he lost several years. If Mokuba tried to picture being in Seto's place, he knew he would be in much worse shape.

"Seto, you never should have gone through that," Mokuba said. The words felt dry on his tongue. They were so cliche that there was almost no meaning.

"I'm not saying that I would do it again, but look at the end result."

Mokuba, from his higher position, was looking down on his brother. He knew that under no circumstances would he see any positive outcome. Seto was radiating his broken nature. Nothing could make Seto's torture worthwhile.

"Big brother, why are you talking like this?"

Seto shook his head slowly. Before he spoke, Mokuba began again. "It's over. Haru and Gozaburo are in prison. We don't have to worry about it anymore."

Mokuba moved a hand out from under the blanket and put his hand on Seto's shoulder. The degree to which Seto flinched proved to Mokuba that his brother was still terrifed.

"I don't feel like it's over," Seto whispered.

It all clicked inside Mokuba's mind. He suddenly understood why his brother was so tired, why he was acting so strange, and why Seto was sitting near him while he slept. Mokuba felt terrible that he hadn't noticed it before.

"You haven't slept, have you?"

"I can't," Seto said. He shook his head slightly as he turned his face down.

"You're awake, Seto. This is real," Mokuba said. He tried to sound reassuring, but he was so upset with himself, he doubted the proper tone came through.

"If I wake up and I'm back in that room-" Seto began, but his sentence was cut short by a choked end.

"Scoot over," Mokuba said. Seto just stared up, finally meeting Mokuba's gaze. He didn't move, so Mokuba had to push his brother to the other side of the recliner.

Seto seemed startled, but didn't protest as Mokuba slid off the arm and onto the seat.

"Okay, we are way too big for this," Mokuba muttered as he tried to fit down beside Seto. He ended up on his side, facing his brother. He knocked Seto's legs down, breaking his brother's grip on them. Mokuba wrapped his arm around his brother, giving him something else to hold on to.

"Seto, please sleep. I promise that when you wake up, I'll be here."

"Mokuba, I really can't," Seto insisted.

Mokuba laid his head down on his brother's shoulders. He felt the stiff position of Seto's body, but ignored it. Seto couldn't help his reactions to touch.

"I would die. If this turns out to have been a dream, it would kill me."

"Trust me. We will both wake up right here."

Exhaustion grew inside Mokuba's body. He tried to fight it off. Mokuba wanted to make sure that Seto fell asleep before he did. But it was too late, and he had woken up before his body had the time it needed.

"You sound so sure," Seto said.

"I've done it three times already," Mokuba said, but he wasn't sure if Seto understood. His words had been more mumbles than words.

Mokuba closed his eyes and when he opened them, the sun was shining through the slits in the blinds. Mokuba's head had fallen slightly while he slept, so it pressed against Seto's chest. The slow, rhythmic rising and falling let Mokuba know that at some point in the hours before, Seto had drifted to sleep.

Mokuba wanted to wake Seto up and proudly show him that it had not been a dream. He was eager to see his brother's reaction. Seto had to be happy, as he could finally see that there was nothing to fear.

But Mokuba remembered how exhausted his brother had been. As much as he might want to prove their reality, Seto needed to sleep.

Mokuba could wait. He was happy that his brother's arm was wrapped around his waist. Seto was back and maybe soon they would be able to return to how things were.

Mokuba fell back asleep, but was woken up by Seto jerking awake. He tried to push himself up, only to be stopped by Mokuba.

"It's okay! Look, I'm right here," Mokuba said. He leaned back so that Seto could see his face. "I'm right here."

Seto's head turned to scan the room before looking down at Mokuba. He lifted a hand to brush the hair out of Mokuba's eyes.

Mokuba nearly spoke again, but Seto removed his hand, turned his face away, and squeezed his eyes closed.

Seto began to cry.

Beneath him, Mokuba felt Seto's body trembling with sobs. The movements terrified him. Mokuba had never seen his brother cry until that moment. It was so shocking of a sight that Mokuba couldn't decide how he was supposed to respond.

Mostly, Mokuba wanted to start crying as well. It was wrong for their positions to be so inverted. Seto was supposed to be the strong one while Mokuba cried. It wasn't supposed to be the other way around.

"B-big brother?" Mokuba whispered. He cursed himself for studdering, but he needed to make sure that the man he clung to was in fact his brother. This just couldn't be Seto. Mokuba's brother was so independant and powerful, but this?

Mokuba touched a tear rolling down Seto's neck. It was warm against his fingers, a very real feeling.

Maybe what scared him so much was the silence his brother still possessed. It was as though he tried to repress any sounds. Crying was weakness, and Seto never had been able to voice his weaknesses.

And that told Mokuba that it was still his brother. The idea dawned on him that perhaps, Seto had not cried throughout the duration of his capture. Seto was very likely to have held in the tears that had built up over the last four years.

If that was actually the case, then Seto had to get them out. Now that he knew it was really over, there was no need to be devoid of emotion. Everything he had hid away was pouring out of his eyes.

Mokuba understood that he didn't need to say anything. The best he could offer his brother was not acknowledging his weakness. Seto would be strong again, and when he was, he would want the current moment to be forgotten. None of the positive aspects would be remembered. It wouldn't matter that he gained the knowledge that he was out. He wouldn't care that Mokuba was actually right beside him.

All Seto would remember was that he broke. So the most Mokuba could do was pretend it never happened.

But Mokuba would remember. He would remember it as the moment that Seto began his recovery.

End.

I hope you all enjoyed Dear Mokuba ( to the extent that one can enjoy a sad, depressing story). Don't forget that the sister story, From Seto is now uploaded. Please go check it out!

Thanks again for all your support throughout the course of this story. I loved receiving your feedback and talking to many of you over messaging. You guys are the best.