A/N: as much as i hate to say it, this is the final chapter of this fic. (sobs)

anw, thanks a lot to everyone who has been reading this fic faithfully, especially MythCreatorWriter. thanks also to everyone who has put this fic on alerts and placed in reviews. the success of this fic is nothing without you guys.

as my parting gift in Dik, this is the last chapter. enjoy (:

When you're awake and asleep

In all your dreams and reality

You'll always protect me

With your life and death

Never, I never want you to fall apart

- Dik by Wali Band

Everyone scrambled to get back to their seats. Just as the last person lowered herself on the bench, the judge walked in. He surveyed the court crowd, and once he was satisfied, gathered his robes and sat at the high seat. The court secretary handed a thin file to him, and after a gracious nod from the judge, returned to his seat.

Seto gripped the railing tightly. He braved himself to look at the judge in the eye, his back ramrod straight. He kept his face devoid of expression, but any onlooker could see that the KaibaCorp CEO was nervous. Not that any of them would admit to noticing that. There was something about Seto Kaiba that got everyone to view him as coolheaded in the face of danger although they knew he was not.

The DA was smugly leaning back in his seat. He darted his eyes over to Seto. Serves you right, you arrogant prick. Somebody ought to bring you down, and how lucky. That person turned out to be me. Bringing you down, and elevating my own status. Killing two birds with one tiny pebble. And the catapult? That kid Mokuba.

Mokuba shifted his gaze to from Tea to Yugi, who were seated on opposite sides of him. They both glanced down and gave him a smile. A reassuring hand squeeze from each of them reassured him that everything would turn out alright. Mokuba tried to relax and smile, but found that he could not. He glanced over at his brother on the witness stand. There was no sign of haughtiness etched on Seto's face, a common trait if his brother knew that he was going to win.

"After much discussion," the judge started the reading of the long-awaited verdict. "The court has reached a conclusion regarding the verdict. After hearing from all sides involved, and studying the evidences that were presented to the court, the Domino City Subordinate Court has agreed to hand over custody of Mokuba Kaiba to…"

The entire court room shushed as everyone waited for the name with bated breath. Seto's fingers almost dug holes in the railings. The DA was adjusting his tie and brushing off non-existent lint from his suit. Even without looking in his direction, Seto knew the DA was throwing him a sly smile.

"Seto Kaiba!"

Seto's head shot up. Had he heard the judge wrongly? The judge's announcement was received by a mixture of applause and jeers from the crowd. Seto looked around, shellshocked. The dorks and Mokuba were practically jumping on their bench, clapping wildly and cheering for him. He glanced back. The police had signaled for him to make his way down the witness stand. Seto complied by staggering down the steps.

"Big Brother!"

Seto could only kneel down as Mokuba made his way over to him as fast as he could with Tea's and Yugi's help through the thinning crowd. Mokuba had still not recovered fully, he noted absently as he stretched his arms out to await his brother's embrace. The moment Mokuba was standing directly in front of Seto, Tea and Yugi let go and took a few steps back to allow the brothers some privacy.

"Mokuba," Seto spoke softly as he encircled his brother's small physique. Unwittingly, his lips broke out into a small smile, tears welling up in his blue eyes. "I thought I was gonna lose you twice in one go."

Mokuba clung onto Seto's neck as he sobbed, "I heard you all the while, Big Brother. I wanted to tell you that it's okay and I'll be fine, but somehow I just couldn't."

Seto cupped his brother's face, still smiling as he said indignantly, "It's alright, Mokuba. I know."

The black-haired Kaiba leant it to hug his brother more tightly, a grin so wide adorning his face that it made his brother chuckle softly. "I miss you so much, Big Brother. And I'm so glad I got my wish."

Seto frowned as he asked, confused, "Your wish?"

"Yups! I wished that the moment I wake up, I would see you smile. Just like this!" Mokuba exclaimed, tapping his brother's cheek lightly.

To his surprise, Seto laughed quietly. "Alright, chipmunk. Let's get you back to the hospital. Somehow, I get the feeling that you ran away from there rather than file a proper discharge."

"You laughed!" Mokuba chattered away as Seto put back his Ray-Bans on and led him out of the court room by the hand. "This is awesome! I only wished for you to smile and I got a bonus! So does this mean that I can ask you for that new board game that I saw at Yugi's grandpa's shop?"

"Don't push it."

XO XO XO XO

A few days later…

Seto opened his eye slightly and groaned as bright light almost blinded him. He shut his eyes again and rolled over onto the other side of his bed, away from the light. The unoccupied end of the bed bounced and Seto found his shoulders being shaken rigorously.

"Come on, Seto! Wake up!"

Seto groaned and pulled the covers over his head. "Do you know how many days I haven't slept?"

Mokuba was insistent. "Nooo! Come on bro! Get up!"

"You can't make me," Seto growled from under the covers.

"Yes. I. Can!" Mokuba yelled out in reply, pulling the covers away from his brother. He put his mouth directly above Seto's ears. "WAKE UP!"

That did the trick. Seto bolted up from bed and wrapped an arm around Mokuba's neck, wrestling him onto the bed. Mokuba screamed in mock pain, and soon the Kaiba brothers found themselves laughing side by side on the bed. Mokuba peeked a glance at Seto; he had never seen his brother so relaxed and carefree in a long time.

"Come on, let's get breakfast!" Mokuba announced, grabbing Seto by a hand out of bed. His older brother made no effort to object and trailed out of the room after his brother. "Nana told me today she's making pancakes! She made an 14 inch one for me, y'know! I'm gonna ask her to make a 19 inch – no, wait, a 20 inch – one for you, alright?"

Seto seemed mortified. "14 inch and 20 inch pancakes?"

Mokuba beamed. "Yups, in accordance to our age! But I aged you by one year to make it 20! Just giving you credit as the adult around here!"

Seto shook his head in disbelief. He did sit through and surprisingly finished his 20 inch pancake. Over coffee (milk for Mokuba), the conversation took a heavier end. While sipping his milk, Mokuba asked suddenly, "Seto, why were you so cold during the trial?"

His older brother slowly set his coffee down and gazed at Mokuba. He took a deep breath before trying to explain to the 14-year-old, "I had to be impartial. I couldn't give the court or that stupid DA a chance to say that I'm trying to appease you to side with me." Mokuba's stare told him he had to try harder. Seto sighed as he admitted, "Fine. It was my first time as a lawyer, and I just thought that maybe…"

Mokuba remained silent as he finished up his milk. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Mokuba slowly looked up to meet his brother's gaze. Seto's coffee had remained untouched since just now, and his brother was looking pretty uncomfortable.

"Seto?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you going to change?"

Seto met his gaze. "What do you mean?"

"Are you going to change for real? And not just promise that you'll change?" Mokuba's voice sounded a cross between hopeful and dismayed.

Seto became pensive. Deep down inside, he wanted to. But reality meant that there was no chance of that ever happening. He stared back into Mokuba's pleading eyes. Maybe I could try, he added on gruffly. For Mokuba's sake.

XO XO XO XO

"Hey Yug!" Joey breezed into the game shop. He waved a relatively large box in his hand – a gift, presumably – but he looked pissed. "Look at what I – whoooaaaa! Isn't that one of moneybags's new toy? The Duel Disk Watch or something? I thought it's still not out in stores?"

Yugi beamed as he held his wrist up. The watch looked pretty neat, and it entailed his character perfectly: physically harmless but once challenged, deadly. KaibaCorp had came out with 4 official colours for the DDW: blue, black, silver and green. The one adorning Yugi's wrist was personalized: black leather with metal studs. it even had YM engraved on the watch's face.

"Yups," Yugi confirmed Joey's suspicion. "Kaiba and Mokuba dropped by the shop just now and Kaiba passed it to me. He told me it was one of a kind cos he wanted to show respect to a fellow duelist."

The door to the game shop tinkled open and Tristan yelled out from the door, "Hey guys! Check out what Kaiba gave me!"

Tristan held up a gleaming new motorcycle helmet. Yugi and Joey stared at him expectantly. Catching their confused look, Tristan smiled smugly and began to explain, "He told me it was KaibaCorp new technology stuff, but they won't be releasing it until they installed a game component inside. But guess what? It had built in GPS inside of it. All I have to do is click this button at the side, put down the visor and I have the map of the entire world."

Joey let out an anguished scream as he slammed his box on the countertop. He chucked off the top and held out a 7cm by 4cm manila card which contained only 5 letters: Thx. SK. Yugi and Tristan stifled a laugh.

"That stupid Kaiba," Joey seethed as he tossed the card back inside. "I open up the mailbox today, saw this stupid box and that's all I got!"

Yugi and Tristan seemed surprised. Yugi stopped admiring his new toy and looked questioningly at his best friend. "It was in your mailbox?"

"Yeah," Joey replied. Then suddenly he understood his friends' shocked reaction. "He didn't personally gave you guys those stuffs, right?" He recalled what Yugi had said earlier. "Arghh!! He did! And he chucked mine in a mailbox?"

Tristan rubbed more salt into the wound. "Well, yours was just a piece of paper. But you mean, that's all you got? You didn't get a VIP ticket to KaibaLand's new ride, Dragon's Lair?"

"SAY WHAT?!"

Yugi nodded as he held his ticket up. "Yeah. Kaiba said it's a brand new ride, and the opening for VIPs is this Sunday. There's gonna be actual dragons – as in, robots, but you catch my drift. He did away with holograms. He even placed Red Eyes as one of the first few dragons."

Joey clenched his fists and started shouting at a newspaper that was lying on the countertop. Incidentally, the front page was about the ride. "Damn you Kaiba! When I see you in school – oh wait, you don't have to go to school anymore! Arghh!! I am definitely gonna whack your sorry ass! You put in my dragon and ditched the owner!"

He felt a light tap on his shoulder, but shrugged it off as he continued cursing, "The moment I hang you upside down from the lamp post, I am gonna gather all the basketball teams in Domino and have them pound you with the balls. And you're gonna hang there for a week!"

"Uhh, Joey," Yugi said more loudly this time round. He slid a ticket in front of his friend's face. "I found this taped below your box."

"Huh?" Joey grabbed the ticket and examined it closely. He held it close to his eye, and then up in the light. He even turned the ticket round in his hand. "It's real."

Tristan sighed. "Yes, it is. And he did give it to you, you dimwit. It even had your name on it. If only you had – aaah!"

Yugi laughed as Joey pounced onto Tristan and the two of them rolled out a mini wrestling match on the floor. Some things never change.

XO XO XO XO

Tea glanced around the café and checked her watch. She frowned. Was it possible that she was the early one? But her watch already showed that it was fifteen minutes past the meeting time. Wondering about the whereabouts of the other party, she seated herself at the appointed far corner of the al fresco section of the café. It was the best seat; private, and overlooking the sea. The sea breeze blowing in was definitely something to revel in.

"Been waiting long, Gardner?" the bored voice woke her from her stupor.

Tea looked up to see Seto peering down at her. She blinked at his choice of attire; she was so accustomed to seeing him in his suits and coats that the sight of the CEO dressed in a sea blue football jersey and well-cut jeans was too much for her to fathom. He caught her gaze, looked down at his shirt and said blandly, "Required attire for something that Mokuba planned."

"Really," she said disbelievingly. Then she perked up. "Oh yes, how's Mokuba? He's not here with you?"

Seto took a seat opposite her and settled into his customary business seating pose of crossing his legs. "He's better," he raked a stray hair back. The breeze was unsettling his hair. "He was, but I dropped him off first. Said he has some stuffs to get ready."

Tea half-smiled as she gestured as his attire. "I suppose it has something to do with that?"

"Yeah," Seto gave a small smile as he looked out into the sea. "Kid wants to play football. After everything, why not? Besides, he put in so much effort into planning the whole thing." He glanced over at her and smirked. "Bet you can't imagine me running around on the field, can you?"

Tea's smile widened as she shook her head. "To be honest, no," she admitted. "What made you want to meet me here?"

Seto pulled a well-wrapped box from somewhere (he had it in his hand, but Tea was too taken aback by his clothes to notice). Tea's eyes widened as he slid it over to her. The gift was encased in an oblong box, and wrapped with black jacquard.

"For you," he said it casually. "You've done a lot. Looked after Mokuba, stayed by him." He grudgingly added, "Looked out for me. Assisted in the case."

Tea's fingers closed over the box, and she firmly slid it back to Seto. "I can't take this. I did what I did because… I thought we're friends."

Seto stood up and turned to walk away. Before he did that, he looked over his shoulder and said, "Don't decline it. Your friends accepted theirs graciously. Besides, you deserved it more than them."

"Friends don't do things to get back favours," she argued from her seat.

Seto snorted. "You're a good person, Tea. Don't waste your friendship on a person like me."

"Kaiba!" Tea called out, but he had already moved away, parting with a mock salute in her direction.

Tea sighed as she brought the gift closer to her. Gingerly, she undid the silver ribbon, and the black jacquard fell open to reveal a carved oblong box, with small butterflies painted at the edges. She lifted the lid. Resting in the cushion were two pieces of paper. She picked the folded one out and unfolded it.

"Gardner, thanks for everything. And in case you're wondering what the box is, it's a pencil box that Mokuba found at a shop. He chose it, so in short, it's his gift. I only gave you the ticket. Don't lose it. See you and the dorks there. – Seto Kaiba"

She had to smile at his words. Clearly, Kaiba had a long way to go if he was to change like Mokuba wanted him to.

i know i know. it's supposed to be The End. but (scratches hand) itchy fingers and the fact that i like this fic (fine... Seto) tells me that i'll be coming up with something soon. do you guys want a spin-off of this fic, or a completely unrelated one?