Endure (Yu-Gi-Oh, Seto/Anzu, #40)
Title: Endure
Author/Artist: praiseofshadows
Pairing: Seto/Anzu (although this fic is more like Seto and Anzu)
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Theme: #40 - cactus (endurance)
Rating: PG-13 - R for depictions (though mild) of attempted suicide)
Disclaimer: Totally not mine! ^_^
She watches him from the corner of her eyes. Watches as he walks, spine straight and steps strangely measured.
She’s still afraid.
He had threatened to kill himself, after all, and that’s nothing to take lightly.
And so she isn’t surprised (horrified but not surprised) when Mokuba comes pounding on their door one night, like he had not-so-long ago with that despicable RPG trap the Kaiba Corporation Board had sprung.
Mokuba’s sobbing, and in-between his gulps for air she and the others manage to make out bathtub and razorblade and blood everywhere. Yugi’s grandfather looks (for once) his age, grey and haggard, and awkwardly patting Mokuba on the back as Yugi tries to get some concrete information (such as, is Kaiba-kun dead?) without being far too tactless. And she and Jounouchi and Honda can only stand there and wait.
He isn’t dead. Mokuba had called for an ambulance, and the EMTs managed to stitch up the gashes in his wrists as the water still overflowed onto the bathroom floor.
She knows he probably wishes he were dead now that Kaiba Corporation is back in the scandal sheets, and she wonders just what he was thinking or if he were thinking at all.
She and Yugi go to visit him - bringing a cheerful cactus they purchased from the hospital florist - because they know he’d hate anything garishly sentimental.
The doctors let her and Yugi in (only because Yugi is who he is and he’s rumoured to be the closest thing to a friend that Kaiba has) but make them both promise not to tire out Kaiba. Not to stay longer than ten minutes.
They’ve got him doped up on something that makes his pupils too big in his eyes and his movements sluggish, and there’s a hovering nurse and thick bandages covering the mess of his wrists.
“Shoulda used a gun,” he says, by way of greeting. “Quicker.”
“We hope you’re feeling a bit better, Kaiba-kun,” Yugi says, smile shy and hopeful. Pretending, Anzu assumes, that he hasn’t heard what Kaiba actually said.
Anzu decides to follow suit and holds out the cactus. “We brought you a present.”
Kaiba smirks, but it’s a weak parody, and he seems to know it. “Trying to tell me something?”
Anzu bites her lip from retorting that yes, everyone already knows you’re a prick, so can we just move on to something constructive? because she can see that Kaiba’s in no shape to actually use his hands.
The nurse stops her hovering to take the cactus and set it carefully down on Kaiba’s beside table. “It’s very nice of your friends to visit, isn’t it, Kaiba-shacho?” she ventures.
Kaiba doesn’t answer her, and she takes to hovering again, and Anzu feels more than awkward.
“Mokuba’s anxious to see you,” she says.
Something like pain twists over Kaiba’s face, but it’s gone too soon for Anzu to be sure. “I don’t want the kid seeing me like this,” he growls. “That’s why I didn’t want to use a gun. Didn’t want him to hear….” He trails off, aware that he’s spoken too much.
Looks down at his wrists.
She feels the tears burn in her eyes as she watches him. Face on and with no more pretense. Because she (and she realizes this with a sick lurch) hasn’t been seeing him at all.
Author/Artist: praiseofshadows
Pairing: Seto/Anzu (although this fic is more like Seto and Anzu)
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Theme: #40 - cactus (endurance)
Rating: PG-13 - R for depictions (though mild) of attempted suicide)
Disclaimer: Totally not mine! ^_^
She watches him from the corner of her eyes. Watches as he walks, spine straight and steps strangely measured.
She’s still afraid.
He had threatened to kill himself, after all, and that’s nothing to take lightly.
And so she isn’t surprised (horrified but not surprised) when Mokuba comes pounding on their door one night, like he had not-so-long ago with that despicable RPG trap the Kaiba Corporation Board had sprung.
Mokuba’s sobbing, and in-between his gulps for air she and the others manage to make out bathtub and razorblade and blood everywhere. Yugi’s grandfather looks (for once) his age, grey and haggard, and awkwardly patting Mokuba on the back as Yugi tries to get some concrete information (such as, is Kaiba-kun dead?) without being far too tactless. And she and Jounouchi and Honda can only stand there and wait.
He isn’t dead. Mokuba had called for an ambulance, and the EMTs managed to stitch up the gashes in his wrists as the water still overflowed onto the bathroom floor.
She knows he probably wishes he were dead now that Kaiba Corporation is back in the scandal sheets, and she wonders just what he was thinking or if he were thinking at all.
She and Yugi go to visit him - bringing a cheerful cactus they purchased from the hospital florist - because they know he’d hate anything garishly sentimental.
The doctors let her and Yugi in (only because Yugi is who he is and he’s rumoured to be the closest thing to a friend that Kaiba has) but make them both promise not to tire out Kaiba. Not to stay longer than ten minutes.
They’ve got him doped up on something that makes his pupils too big in his eyes and his movements sluggish, and there’s a hovering nurse and thick bandages covering the mess of his wrists.
“Shoulda used a gun,” he says, by way of greeting. “Quicker.”
“We hope you’re feeling a bit better, Kaiba-kun,” Yugi says, smile shy and hopeful. Pretending, Anzu assumes, that he hasn’t heard what Kaiba actually said.
Anzu decides to follow suit and holds out the cactus. “We brought you a present.”
Kaiba smirks, but it’s a weak parody, and he seems to know it. “Trying to tell me something?”
Anzu bites her lip from retorting that yes, everyone already knows you’re a prick, so can we just move on to something constructive? because she can see that Kaiba’s in no shape to actually use his hands.
The nurse stops her hovering to take the cactus and set it carefully down on Kaiba’s beside table. “It’s very nice of your friends to visit, isn’t it, Kaiba-shacho?” she ventures.
Kaiba doesn’t answer her, and she takes to hovering again, and Anzu feels more than awkward.
“Mokuba’s anxious to see you,” she says.
Something like pain twists over Kaiba’s face, but it’s gone too soon for Anzu to be sure. “I don’t want the kid seeing me like this,” he growls. “That’s why I didn’t want to use a gun. Didn’t want him to hear….” He trails off, aware that he’s spoken too much.
Looks down at his wrists.
She feels the tears burn in her eyes as she watches him. Face on and with no more pretense. Because she (and she realizes this with a sick lurch) hasn’t been seeing him at all.