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It's a terrible idea, but a pretty characteristic one: there's a shopping center downtown that hosts a massive, heavily advertised haunted house every year, and Joey - probably several of them, but definitely mostly Joey - thinks it would be fun to go.
its the 1st year ur old enough so u HAVE 2 go, he texts you, as though this is a tradition they've held for years and not an impulsive decision he literally just made. and u can probs convince ur brother 2 come, yugi wld like that
yeah a shitty haunted house is probably exactly what they need to finally have a normal relationship, you reply, but god, he's probably right. You can think of few things that would make Yugi happier than you and Seto engaging in friendship activities with the rest of them. And it's not that hard to get Seto to say yes; he can tell when your eager looks and your "please, big brother"s aren't quite sincere, but he also knows you wouldn't be bothering with the act if you didn't want it.
"Fine," he says, after some dedicated wheedling on your end. "But I'm not speaking to anybody."
Which is what brings you here, both of you staring up at a giant banner with an illustrated skeleton on it, you starting to think that maybe this wasn't a great idea. Behind you, Joey is trying to get a chant started, though no one is joining in except Tristan; Seto's eye twitches slowly.
The first thing is: you tend to start doing very badly when you can't get eyes on an exit, and you realize only now that even local shopping mall haunted houses probably aren't designed to give you an unobstructed out. You tap each of your fingers rhythmically against your thumb. Seto, beside you, is quiet in the way that you know means he's thinking most of the same things; he's not quite as bad with space, exactly, but he probably has an even deeper-cut suspicion of dark places where people in disguise could sneak up on you and -
- In. Out. Breathe. You, untouched, unharmed. It's a stupid haunted house, you think, and say as much.
"It's an assault on my sensibilities," he responds, which means pretty much the same thing.
He's with you, you remind yourself. Things only ever get really bad if you don't have him in sight, in reach, like dry land, even at times like this, when it's nothing. He'll be there. And god, you can't wuss out of a haunted house decided on by Joey Wheeler, of all people. You'd have to kill yourself.
All the same - Duke yells, "Hey, Kaiba!" and Seto turns around, presumably to tell him to stop using his name in public, and you take the opportunity to silently shift closer to Mai as she walks past.
"Hey, Mai?" you say, and she turns towards you, invested but not outright concerned - the one person you can trust not to make a big deal about things like this. "Not that I think this is going to happen, at all, but if I start, like, for real freaking out in there - could you just let somebody know?"
"...Sure thing, kiddo," Mai answers, and then gingerly pokes at a rubber severed arm dangling from the doorway. "Though I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that there's not going to be too much about this that would scare anybody."
"And if it helps," Serenity adds, because of course she's five feet away and gifted with super hearing, "they're not allowed to touch you. The actors, I mean. They just jump out and make faces but they can't actually - " She gestures vaguely. " - It's some kind of law, I think."
It does help, actually. For whatever it's worth, none of you could have gotten this far without learning what each other's Things are, at least a little.
"Alright," Joey yells from behind you; Seto has stepped away from them and come to stand next to you again, arms folded. "Tea and Bakura are here, finally , which means we are gonna get this show on the road!"
"That was my fault," says Tea, she and Bakura both clutching large colorful drinks. "I made him stop and get bubble tea." She takes a long, contemplative sip. "Oh! Also, I didn't want to come."
"What's the matter, Tea?" Tristan puts an arm around her shoulders. "You scared of ghosts ?"
"Do that again and I'll break your wrist," she says. He takes a long step back.
Yugi has just opened his mouth to say hello to the both of them when Joey grabs him by the shirt. "Okay, no more wasting time!" he says. "Ready or not, we're going for it!"
"Don't we need, like, tickets?" says Yugi.
"Kaiba's paying!" Joey yells, very quickly. "Everyone into the haunted house!"
He drags Yugi inside, Tristan and Duke following close; you give them five seconds before you chance looking up at Seto, who definitely seems more dangerous right now than anything that might be inside that building.
"Were you," he says slowly, "aware that this was the plan?"
"No." You were. "Absolutely not."
"...Are you Kaiba?" says the employee by the door, a little nervously.
"Yes."
"Are you... paying?"
"...Yes," he says through clenched teeth, and he hands you his card. You offer the guy your most practiced sorry-about-him,-you-know-how-it-is,-but-say-anything-and-I'll-kill-you smile as you pay for the tickets. It's a very complicated expression, but one you've had a lot of opportunities to hone. Tea's already followed the guys inside, Bakura and Mai and Serenity heading after her, and the employee seems to take his best guess as to just how many of you there are, swiping the card and passing it back in a hurry.
"If you wanna kill Joey for this then we gotta go through," you point out, as you head back over to Seto. It's as much for your own encouragement as for his.
"I'm never participating in anything ever again," he says, and follows the others towards the entrance.
"Sounds fair." You hang a half-step behind him, a reassuring rhythm even when you aren't ten and small and clinging. It's a good instinct, because as soon as you push through the dark curtain a man in a hockey mask yells and jumps towards you. You grab Seto's arm without meaning to, and he moves to stand in front of you in much the same way, and your hand tightens and you have to get away, you both have to get away -
The man steps back against the wall. You laugh, a little breathily, partly to trick yourself into thinking everything is okay and partly because Seto is still glaring a hole in him, which you always enjoy. It's enough of a pause to give yourself a chance to look around: no windows, no vents that you can see, one door on the other side of the room. It's set up to look like an outdoor scene, the door painted like the entrance to a house and plastic graves scattered deliberately around - the lights flicker in a way that's probably supposed to indicate 'lightning' but feels a little more 'skeezy club.' The others have dispersed to investigate whatever other varieties of cheap decorations are crammed into the room. Bakura is crouched down in front of one of the fake tombstones, staring at it with an expression of intense bemusement, which, yeah, seems about right.
It's not scary, is the thing. Even through the lens of every possible thing that could go wrong, it's still pretty objectively unfrightening. Your brother is here. You can roll with this.
You still let Joey and Tristan lead the way, because you're not an imbecile - they've already lost interest in the entry room, dragging Yugi and Duke with them towards the door. Tristan yells, "Kaiba, come on!" and Seto looks deeply affronted but, at least, not on the verge of snapping. It's always a fun line to walk between "wacky hijinks" and "nightmare tour of the Kaiba psyche" but maybe this time, for once, you can be on the appropriate side of it.
You and Seto mostly hang back through the next room, and the next, though as the path through gets tighter you all start to group up by necessity. There are a few things that start to come to light the further you go: the first is that the house doesn't really have any sort of comprehensible narrative, which is distracting enough that you forget to be scared, and the second is that no one seems especially interested in harassing someone who is very visibly the youngest in the group, which makes sense. Yugi's also mostly passed over, as is Serenity, at least after the first time she nearly bursts into tears. Seto doesn't have quite the same luck, which you feel a little bad about, less so when every time it happens he freezes and grabs your shoulder before glaring until whichever mask-wearing weirdo backs off.
You're in a corridor decorated to look like an abandoned hospital, because this place has really lost its plot, when Seto's phone rings. It happens as someone in a straitjacket emerges from a door and yells at you, and Seto holds up a hand in front of their face as he reaches into his pocket and answers the phone.
"This is Kaiba," he says, never one to bother with greetings, as the person in the straitjacket looks deeply, sincerely confused. You assume this hasn't happened before, which isn't really surprising.
"I'm going to go on ahead," you say to him, emboldened, before you lose sight of the others, and he frowns a little but nods in your direction. You shrug apologetically at the straitjacket person, who looks a little bit like they're reconsidering their entire career, and catch up with Duke and Bakura at the back of the group. Duke looks a little relieved to see you, which - you can't exactly blame him for.
"Your brother alright?" he asks, looking back over your shoulder; all this time and still nobody's ever sure what to make of the two of you apart.
"Business call," you reply, and Duke nods sagely like he understands.
Another dark curtain; you squeeze your eyes shut as you pass through, Duke yelping loudly as something roars in your direction.
"Hello," Bakura says to it evenly. You open your eyes. The path out of the hospital has opened up into a room that you don't want to call "cavernous," because that feels like a generous descriptor, but it at least carries the vague idea of a cave, broad paper-mache stalagmites breaking up the open floorplan.
"They really need to get someone in here with some design sense," you say, and Bakura laughs a little, which is rare. "What?"
"Nothing," he says. "That was just rather Kaiba of you, is all."
Well. It's a fair point. From somewhere else in the room Mai calls out, "Aw, that was cute, Devlin!" and Duke turns extremely red and heads in her direction. You turn to see that Bakura has already started wandering off, which you'll leave him to. Right; you can handle this on your own. The sounds of everyone else's yells and nervous laughter echo throughout the room as you make your way around the stalagmites, and it's honestly, embarrassingly, reassuring enough that your spike of fear every time another actor jumps towards you feels almost manageable. Like regular people feel, maybe.
And then you round an unfamiliar corner, and that's the point where you ruin Halloween.
Embedded in the wall ahead of you is a structure like a dimly-lit dungeon cell, plastic skeleton chained to the wall, gray-painted plywood bars, but even as you recognize the details, the flimsiness of it, none of it manages to register with you because all you can see is some basement, some island, and you - cannot - where is he, he's not here, you've lost him, you can't - it's fake, it's all fake, you know where you are and no one's getting to you here, but you - you can't find him, you don't know where, something could be happening to him right now and you would - can't see windows, can't track vents, no doors except for this in front of you, the place you're always going to end up no matter - if things were safe he would be here, you know what happens when he - hands hands hands hands hands, hands and hands and chains and dark dark silent dusty rooms a hundred feet underground with doors you'll never open and you alone you alone you alone -
Someone screams near your face and you choke for air, pulling your arms tight around yourself; you have to get away but you can't, can't fight back, stupid stupid small and useless, you don't know where he is -
" Mokuba." Mai's voice then, directly in front of you, though it takes you a second of concentration to pick out Mai from your initial assessment of not a threat. " Can you hear me ok, kiddo?"
Where's Seto, you want to ask, but you know you're not getting any words out through the crushing ache in your chest, so you manage a brief, tight nod.
"Ok," says Mai, the same easy tone. "Ok. We're gonna blow this popsicle stand, I think, sweetie, yeah? You wanna come with me?"
She holds her hand out to you, the first thing to enter your immediate sphere that you've actually registered - bad bad bad awareness, Mokuba, can't be on top of things when you actually need it - and it takes a moment but you extricate your arm from your own vice grip and reach out to take it.
She holds your hand gently and leads you away from the cell, the air around you suddenly no longer threatening to break your ribs, and you can't process where you're going and you don't know where he is and the only thing you can do is pull closer, useless, childish, trust that she knows what she's doing.
The noise starts to quiet down around you as you turn and you're in an empty hallway - you hear someone behind you and nearly yank away from her as you turn to look, but it's Serenity, smiling softly, just me, don't worry, it's okay - and then another turn, and finally finally a door, and fresh air and sunlight hitting you like a wave.
Fine. Safe. The whole time safe. You still don't know where he is, but - nothing's going to happen. You know this. Of course you know this. Why can't either of you ever just -
In. Out. Mai's let go of your hand, and you take a few steps away from the door before you sink to the ground against the wall, and breathe, and breathe. It's a grassy plaza area just outside the mall, too many people for you to track any of them but a clear line of sight in all directions, and your back to a wall, which always helps.
Mai and Serenity sit down in the grass across from you, quietly, while your breath steadies. Before either of them can say anything, the door opens again, and Tea steps outside.
"I brought some water," she says brightly, handing you a water bottle before sitting next to the other two on the grass. "Made somebody show me where the employee break room was."
Serenity blinks. "I didn't see any, like, regular staff people around there."
"Yeah, I know," says Tea. "That's why I had to get one of the actors to do it."
The idea of Tea berating someone in a skeleton costume until he agreed to take her backstage is entertaining enough that you laugh a little as you twist the cap off the water bottle, and Tea winks at you. It helps - you hadn't realized you were thirsty, but you usually don't, and having something to do helps you bring your attention here, in the air where it's safe, untouched, out of the dark.
It's another moment before Duke and Tristan step out of the door, Yugi and Joey following behind them; the former two are squabbling in whispers and shoving each other back and forth, though they start to fall quiet when they see you, and you glance away to fidget with the hem of your shirt. It's Yugi who steps forward, crouching down in front of you, knowing full well he's the only one allowed to get this close to you without asking, besides, well.
(He's fine. Everything's fine. He'll be here soon.)
"Hey, Mokuba," says Yugi, always the same unaffected gentleness. "You feeling alright?"
Fine. Better, objectively, than you were a minute ago. You're opening your mouth to say that, so he doesn't need to look at you with such soft-eyed concern, but instead of the words what comes out is the choked beginning of a sob.
You clap a hand hurriedly against your mouth - Yugi inhaling a little with alarm, everyone turning to look at you which is great, thank you, thanks - and you really are, you're okay, you know where you are and you know Seto's safe and everything should be fine , but you still feel heat in the back of your throat, another strangled noise punching forward even as you try to swallow it, and then before you can start to run damage control you're full-on crying.
Without an instant of hesitation Yugi moves to sit beside you, placing an arm over your shoulders and rubbing gently, still the only one who could, and you want to tell him that it really is nothing, it has to blow over, just ignore it and it'll stop, but every time you try to say something you start crying harder, gross and blinding and breathless. You have to stop. It's not like none of these people have seen you cry before, to your eternal dismay - but you're practically an adult, and you're in public, and god, people are probably looking at you, aren't they. Get ahold of yourself. Stop acting like a child. If you cry it means you're weak, if you're weak they hurt you, if you're weak they hurt Seto, stop crying, stop crying -
You go to bite down on the edge of your thumb, an old practiced habit, and Yugi guides your hand away but does not hold it there, murmuring it's okay, it's okay , because he's Yugi, and of course he does.
Time gets sort of weird when every breath you try and take is interrupted by another wave of tears, so you can't quite tell how long you've been sitting there when Yugi slowly stands up and moves away from you, but it's definitely way too long, and you certainly can't blame him - and then he's replaced by another, more familiar presence settling wordlessly beside you, a hand you know resting atop yours on the ground, and the sudden, unrecognizable sense of air in your lungs.
Him; safety; in; out. The smooth weighted edges of a locket against your chest, and just for this instant, you can't remember why you were afraid.
"How'd your call go?" you ask, without looking at him, still a watery, trembling edge to your voice but each word getting easier.
"Everyone who works for me is an idiot," your brother replies.
You laugh once, thickly, and rest your head against his arm. "Well, I knew that. That's why you keep me around."
He makes a quiet, assenting noise, and rubs his thumb against the back of your hand, the sort of thing no one else can see but moment by moment pulls you back to what you remember is a normal rhythm. The others are quiet, though not in an uncomfortable way, which is its own kind of relief. Everyone's assembled, by now - Bakura must have come with Seto, or maybe he found Seto, or maybe he came outside at any other point while you were crying your eyes out - and they're all scattered lazily around the grass of the plaza, catching at least a couple bewildered looks from passersby.
It's Joey who speaks up first after a minute, because it's Joey, and says, apropos of nothing, "You know what my thing is? Boats."
"What?" says Tea, craning around a little to look at him.
"You remember - " he starts, " - I mean, you remember, obviously, I think the first time we met Marik, and like - his weird mind stick, and that whole thing with the anchor? You know? And now it's like - anytime I'm near a dock or anything I get scared that somebody's gonna try and get inside my head, and also kill me with a big anchor, which obviously isn't a thing that happens? But I still. I don't know. Boats."
"You never told me that," Tristan says, ripping up a fistful of grass and tossing it in Joey's direction.
Joey throws most of it back at him. "I don't gotta tell you everything, do I," he says, as Tristan scoffs and flicks grass off his shirt.
"...I can't go to the beach anymore," Mai pipes up. "Which is a travesty because - I mean, obviously I don't even need to say this, but I look amazing in a swimsuit."
"No boats, no beaches," says Joey. "Sorry, Serenity, but sounds like that's two against one for you and Mai having an island honeymoon."
"Uh, hold your horses, there, Joseph," says Mai. "I don't see why you get an input on what happens on our honeymoon."
"I'm chaperoning, obviously."
"Gross, Joey," says Serenity.
"I'm scared of heights," says Duke, blissfully steering everyone away from that conversation.
"You were scared of heights before you almost fell off a blimp, weren't you?" says Tristan.
"I mean, yeah, but almost falling off a blimp didn't help." He looks pointedly in Seto's direction. "Thanks for that, by the way."
"I didn't invite you onto my blimp, as I recall," Seto says. "That was somebody else's idea."
Duke looks to you, and you shrug. "Sorry," you offer, with your most winning smile. "To be fair, I didn't do that thinking you would manage to almost fall off."
"I mean, we did, after that, get sucked into a video game, so it's weird that the blimp would be your biggest problem," says Tea.
"Yeah, that's true," Duke says. "I guess also I can't play video games without thinking about old businessmen with robot bodies trying to kill me, so that's, like, a whole thing?"
"I'm okay with monkeys," Tristan points out, like it's a victory.
(Your hand tenses on the ground as you remember everything, Seto pressing down over it, both of you and the boy you hadn't known and you saying words that aren't yours and frozen and reaching and -
- In. Out. It's enough. For today, it's enough. You've both got material to last yourself several lifetimes, and you can limit yourself to one meltdown for the day. You don't want to seem greedy. You glance to Yugi, who's also mostly been quiet, listening - and yeah, okay, everyone's dealing with stuff on different levels.)
"...I can't stand spiders," Bakura says, after everyone's been quiet again for a few seconds, and most of them turn to look at him with puzzlement.
"How come?" says Yugi, and Bakura frowns.
"They're just gross," he replies, with such impassioned sincerity that half of you let out a snort, and just like that everyone collapses into laughter.
"I hate spiders because Weevil Underwood sucks," says Joey, snickering.
"Oh my god, Weevil Underwood," Mai says. "I'm changing my answer, I would live on a beach for the rest of my life if it meant I never had to see Weevil Underwood ever again."
"Fuck that guy," Tristan agrees, and Yugi, alarmed, hisses "Tristan! " like he always does when one of them swears in public.
"Uh, actually - " says Tea, looking to the side, and following you notice someone like a mall security guard approaching the whole cackling lot of you.
"Uh, hey there, folks," he says as he comes within range - a little apprehensively, which is only to be expected. "There's, uh - we actually don't really permit loitering here, so I don't know if you were all done in the haunted house, but we kind of need you to - "
"I need you to go find the highest-level employee you have working on site today," Seto interrupts.
The guard frowns. "I mean, I can do that, but they'll definitely tell you the same - "
"I want to buy this mall," says Seto clearly.
The guard blinks once, twice - you can honestly watch as he gives up trying to make sense of that - then says, "I'll be right back," and leaves without another word. It's another three seconds before everyone lapses into a fresh wave of hysterics.
"Hi, I'm Seto Kaiba," says Mai, breathless and several octaves deeper. "Your haunted house scared my brother and now I need to buy your haunted house."
"This is Seto Kaiba," Duke adds on, the impression alarmingly spot-on, as always. "My brother burned himself on one of your toasters so I own your toaster company now."
"Guys," says Yugi admonishingly, sending a glance in your direction, and you shake your head that it's fine - it is funny, and also, they're not exactly wrong. Seto looks more put out by it, when you glance up to him, but, well. When doesn't he.
Tea stands up, flinging out her arms, and mock-yells at the passerby, most of whom are definitely, definitely staring by now. "Time to clear out, scrubs! This is our haunted house now!"
"Tea, oh my god, sit down," says Serenity, embarrassed but laughing.
"It's definitely not 'our' haunted house," says Seto. "It's my haunted house. The rest of you are customers if you're lucky."
"...Hope everyone's ready for the world's first haunted house entirely themed around Blue-Eyes White Dragon," you say, and Yugi lets out a sudden bark of laughter. Seto looks a little affronted, probably because you stole the thunder from what was definitely his actual idea, and you nudge his arm again, give him a look that means, sorry, but I have kind of earned something today, and he softens a little, looks away with a huff.
"You guys can go back in, by the way," you continue. "I don't want to take away what's probably going to be your last opportunity to experience this place as it is."
"Nah." Joey stands up and stretches a little. "Honestly, that whole thing was sort of the pits. Now I just want a sandwich. Hey, Kaiba, if this is your mall now, can I get a free sandwich?"
"Actually, you have to pay twice as much for everything," says Seto.
"Rats," says Joey. "Anyone wanna come buy me a sandwich?"
"No, but I wanna watch the look on your face when the cashier gives you the special Joey price," says Tristan, standing up next to him.
"You guys know he doesn't actually own the mall yet, right?" Tea asks. "You can probably just get a normal sandwich, for now."
"Not for long," says Bakura, nodding as the security guard heads back toward them, accompanied by a man in a suit.
Joey yelps, shoving Tristan forward as he grabs Tea by the wrist. "Come on, come on, let's go!"
"I should... probably go with them," says Yugi, standing up to follow.
"Actually, I want to see how this goes," you say, carefully pulling your hand away from Seto's, trying to ignore Yugi's look of embarrassingly sincere pride as you head after them. Even now, every step away from him you take there's a pull at you, insisting something will go wrong if you're on your own; even now, even still. Maybe someday you'll feel okay, but for now, well. You made it through today. You can probably make it through finding a sandwich.