By ElveNDestiNy, written December 19, 2005

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! No copyright infringement intended.

Notes: Sorry for the long wait; I don't know why, but it's always hard for me to push myself to finish something. I guess in my mind I classify it as 'finished' simply because I can see the ending perfectly, and so I never bother to write it down. Enjoy!

- o - o - o - o -

There had been a lifetime's worth of change in just two months, Amelda reflected as he tightened the buckles on his arms, checking his reflection quickly to make sure nothing was out of place. His usual self looked back at him from the mirror: dark gloves, reaching past his elbows, dark trench coat, and dark red hair. He'd changed to a cerulean tank top that for once didn't bare his midriff, and the shades obscuring his grey eyes matched, gleaming silver-blue.

The descent down the sweeping double stairs of the Kaiba mansion was still odd, despite the fact that he'd had plenty of time to get used to it. It was a beautiful place, the double arches of stairs meeting at the top, like a slightly curved, upside-down V. But the luxury of space only emphasized the emptiness of the house.

Miruko met him at the foot of the left stair that he had taken, looking decidedly resolute. He would have already spoken to Mokuba, of course. They had become amazingly close for such a short period of time, but Amelda wasn't too surprised. Mokuba was a natural extrovert, and Miruko had been deprived of friendship for far too long. Seeing him, Amelda felt a surge of thanks, though to no particular person or even deity, simply because he'd won legal guardianship of his brother after all. Though this was probably due to Kaiba's influence more than anything else, unless one counted things like fate and destiny.

For a moment, doubts filled Amelda again. Wasn't it just easier for them to stay here, to forget the past? They'd rebuilt half their lives in Domino City, starting when Amelda had first confronted Kaiba. It was rather incredible, all that had happened since—the overwhelming discovery that Miruko hadn't been killed, the moment when Amelda had first seen his brother after so many years, in Kaiba's office. It was almost enough to convince him that miracles did happen.

"Are you sure, Amelda?"

Miruko's voice jerked him back into the present, but Amelda didn't answer for a moment. He'd been the one to suggest it—that they return to visit their past, to lay to rest the memories that had haunted both of them from childhood. But did he really want to leave Domino, when it was so much easier simply to move on? Raphael and Varon were here and the Kaiba brothers were here. Domino was his home now. The problem was, Amelda didn't think they could ever move on, without seeing what had happened to the war-torn country they had left.

"I don't know," he said at last. "Look, Miruko, it's as much your decision as it is mine. If you don't want to leave Domino…" If you don't want to go back…

Miruko regarded him with dark, serious eyes, and then nodded slowly. "I think…it's hard to say why, but I think we need to say goodbye."

It was exactly what Amelda had been unable to express and he met Miruko's gaze with something like relief, glad that his brother understood and even agreed.

"But before we go, there are other goodbyes to make, aren't there?"

Amelda hesitated, half wishing that they could simply slip away – he could leave a note, or Mokuba could pass on the news to his brother. Despite having lived for over two months under the same roof, he still regarded Kaiba with some wariness. Past enmities and prejudices aside, they simply had a relationship that wasn't exactly comfortable for either. Then again, that was probably what made it so special, Amelda mused.

He'd been an enemy, and now he was a friend, but those were shallow words, incapable of describing exactly what was between them. Well, Amelda didn't really know, and he was willing to be Kaiba was just as confused as well. Whatever else they were to each other, since 'friends' didn't seem to quite cover the depth or strangeness of the bond they found between them, Amelda could only say that Kaiba had changed his life forever. He supposed that two strangers, having saved each other's lives before, might feel the same sort of awkwardness – and indeed, Kaiba had as good as saved his life.

"Miruko, maybe we should just go," he suggested tentatively, somehow certain that his brother was disappointed in him. "He probably doesn't want a goodbye, anyway. You know how much he hates any sort of emotional scene."

There was no doubt who 'he' was, considering that Amelda had paid Raphael and Varon a long visit just yesterday. They'd been supportive of his idea, and Amelda had thanked whoever was watching over them again. They were, quite honestly, probably the best things that had come out of Doom.

"So, you're just going to walk away? After all he's done for us?" Miruko's voice held the edge of accusation, and Amelda firmly kept his eyes on the ground, not wanting to see it mirrored by dark grey eyes.

"It's not that simple," he said, and only silence met his weak statement. Miruko's words suddenly brought back a memory with painful clarity…what Kaiba had said to him, right before he'd suffered the relapse in the hospital that almost ended his life.

You'll just walk away in the end like they all do.

"Not if I can help it," he muttered underneath his breath in response, much to Miruko's surprise.

"What?"

"Actually, Miruko, do you know where Kaiba's at?"

Miruko stared for a moment, wondering at Amelda's sudden change of heart, but too wise to question it. "I asked Mokuba, and he said that Kaiba went out really early today. You could try Kaiba Corp, but it's Sunday."

"He is famous for being a workaholic," Amelda commented absently, but he was also wondering where Kaiba had gone. He knew perfectly well, from the days when he'd made a point of studying Kaiba, and from personal observation over the last few months, that Seto made a point of reserving his Sundays for time with Mokuba, since he was so often busy all the rest of the time.

"Well, Mokuba has no clue, so I doubt you'll be able to figure out where he's at," Miruko said. "We might as well just wait. We have at least five or six hours before we have be at the airport, and I'm sure he'll be home before then…unless you want to call?"

The idea brought an unwilling smile out of Amelda and the silver in his eyes warmed. "And say what – 'come home, Kaiba, we're leaving?'"

"Well, you could always try," Miruko said as seriously as he could manage. He became quite alarmed, however, when Amelda simply stared at him, a peculiar expression on his face. "I was only joking…hey, Amelda, are you okay?"

"Fine, Miruko," came Amelda's mumbled reply. "I just realized where he might be. I'm probably wrong, but I might as well try, anyway. I'll drop by and pick you up later, all right?"

"Sure." Miruko hesitated, but curiosity got the better of him. "Where do you think he is, then, if he's not at Kaiba Corp?"

His older brother gave him an unfathomable look, and then said, with the oddest laugh ever, "The cemetery."

- o - o - o - o -

Although he'd half expected it, it was still a surprise when Amelda reached the cemetery and found Kaiba present. He took his time securing the silver motorcycle he'd borrowed from the garage, also secretly observing the infamous…here, Amelda's mind came to a halt. Infamous young CEO of Kaiba Corp? Infamous duelist? Infamous, arrogant, glacial…these words had been frequently used to describe him, but none of them really encompassed everything that was Kaiba. He was simply too complex.

Amelda approached the lone figure slowly, examining Kaiba as Kaiba in turn studied the gravestone. He'd met Kaiba under almost the exact same circumstances not so very long ago, and the entire situation gave him a bad sense of déjà vu. Kaiba had even brought a white rose again.

The sharp snap of a twig beneath Amelda's foot alerted the other to his presence, but when Kaiba spotted him, there was no sign of surprise. The brunette almost seemed resigned to Amelda's presence, just as he had accepted that he would never be entirely freed from Gozaburo.

"Do you believe in fate, Kaiba?" he said as a greeting.

It was not at all what he had prepared to say, but once the words were out, Amelda found that, nevertheless, he was quite interested in the answer.

"I never did, before," was the stoic, unsatisfying reply.

"Before…" he prompted.

"Before I met you."

Amelda bit back an annoyed comment when Kaiba proved to be no more forthcoming than before. He looked so lost in thought that he looked down at the rose in his hand as if he'd forgotten what he was holding. After a moment, he reached out to put it on the aging, mossy marble of the tombstone.

"I guess it's finally an appropriate symbol," he said cryptically. Even so, it wasn't difficult for Amelda to follow Kaiba's thought, perhaps because he simply knew him so well, or because he'd always had a special insight when it came to Kaiba.

"You've finally made your peace with Gozaburo's ghost…and a peace with yourself, too," he said in a low voice. "With who you are. You aren't Gozaburo's heir in anything but name."

Kaiba simply nodded to acknowledge Amelda's matter-of-fact statements, and his thanks, though unvoiced, was heard and accepted anyway. Amelda moved to Kaiba's side and they stood, looking down at the grass that so desperately tried to cover the grave markers.

The sky was overcast and the wind chilly; Amelda briefly wondered if it would rain soon, and hoped that their flight would not be delayed by the bad weather. With that reminder, he realized that he still hadn't told Kaiba that he and Miruko would be gone come morning.

"Kaiba…"

No reply, but he knew he had his full attention when that blue gaze locked with his. He found he couldn't look away, but suddenly he didn't have the heart to say the next few words, no matter how necessary they were. He still hesitated, remembering Kaiba's inadvertent plea, the bitterness behind the words when he'd accused Amelda of walking away as everyone else had.

"Kaiba, we're leaving tomorrow to go back home. Well—it isn't a home, not anymore. I suppose that's here, with Raphael and Varon…and you and Mokuba. But I think we need to say goodbye to the past, before we can try to brave the future."

It sounded so inadequate to his own ears, but he thought that if he added anything, it would only make it worse, so Amelda stood and bit his lip, waiting to hear what Kaiba would say in return. Those blue eyes had looked away, releasing him from their scrutiny, but now he very much wanted to see the expression in them, because he found that he couldn't read the other at all. Kaiba had never been so completely closed to him as now, just when he most wanted to know what he was thinking.

Seconds stretched into minutes, which merged into an indeterminable amount of time, as the air steadily grew colder, and the sky darker, and the heavy clouds more threatening. In desperation, hoping to provoke some sort of response, Amelda blurted out, "What did you mean, when you said you didn't believe in fate before you met me?"

Kaiba finally turned to him, and he was treated to a long, slow blink, and a blank stare that was simply unnerving, under the circumstances. "Well?"

"I never believed in fate," he said then. "Did you ever notice, Amelda, it's always the people who come out on top, that believe in fate? As if they try to justify the unfairness of the world by attributing it to some divine power, and that power plays with human lives as if we're only a game for its dispassionate amusement. I never wanted to believe that I had a destiny laid out before me, that any action I took was absolutely futile, because that would mean that Gozaburo was my destiny, and I could never escape."

"Why the change, then?"

"Tell me, why do you suppose we met, Amelda? We were on such distinctly separate paths, parallel, perhaps, but never to meet. So what kind of force made our two lives intersect?"

"I don't think anyone can answer that, Kaiba," Amelda said soberly.

"But it makes you wonder, doesn't it, if there's something guiding us from the outside? Some sort of…fate, for lack of a better word, that brought us together, so that in such an interlude of intertwined fates, our lives are changed forever, beyond what either of us could have imagined?"

Amelda simply looked at him, accepting the questions, but not understanding why this was so important to Kaiba, at least this latter part. He could understand how the idea of being powerless to change the course of one's life might have tormented Kaiba, when he was young and in Gozaburo's control. But Amelda was firmly grounded in practical reality, and he didn't see how fate was in any way relevant to the fact that he and Miruko would be leaving.

Kaiba, interpreting the blank look correctly, only looked slightly exasperated. He began to speak, only to be interrupted.

"I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the fact that I'm leaving, but…Domino is my home now. We won't be leaving forever, we'll come back, soon, hopefully…well, what I mean is… Kaiba, I'm not walking away from you."

He watched the changing expressions on Kaiba's face, as the brunette remembered their exchange months ago in the hospital. Amelda almost cursed himself; no one in his or her right mind, much less the proud Kaiba, would like to be reminded of something like that. Like how much of his vulnerability he had revealed, for example.

Kaiba finally opened his mouth to speak again, but if Amelda had been expecting anything dramatic, he would have been sorely disappointed. "All right. Well, I don't want to make you late for your flight. I suppose Miruko has already told Mokuba, and that your friends know?"

Completely disconcerted by now, Amelda took the opportunity to ask the question that had been haunting him all along. "Kaiba…will you be all right?"

He regretted the words the moment he said them, instantly hearing how silly, how utterly absurd, how inconceivably ridiculous they sounded, and knowing that they would probably offend Kaiba more than anything else. He was prepared for the laughter that came after a startled few seconds, but it was not mocking, as he had expected.

"Everything I've said has just gone right over your head, hasn't it?"

Amelda's hostile glare was his only answer. He couldn't believe how patronizing Kaiba could be, having never quite experienced it before.

Kaiba only gave him a bemused smile, one that could only be described of as bittersweet. "Well, things have certainly come full circle…I hope you believe in fate. Goodbye, Amelda."

Amelda couldn't quite pretend that he wasn't slightly hurt by how casually Kaiba had treated the whole thing, especially in comparison to how intent Kaiba had been when he'd been talking about all his philosophical ideas on fate and such.

But what did he really expect, after all? A tearful farewell? Hugs? Long, drawn out speeches on how much each wanted to thank the other? He couldn't begin to imagine something that would be so disgust both of them.

So all he said was, "Goodbye, Kaiba," and began to walk away, shoulders prickling with the thought that he was being subjected to an icy blue gaze. It wasn't until he'd reached the borrowed silver BMW motorcycle outside of the cemetery gates that he realized the heavy weight in his chest was disappointment, because he had somehow thought that Kaiba would at least call out to him, to add something more. Something more than just, "Goodbye, Amelda."

But Kaiba hadn't, and that was that – though he had a thousand more things he wanted to say, that he would only remember later, though he'd never thanked Kaiba for giving back his brother, for giving back his life.

He'd resisted the urge to turn around all the way back, but as he put on the helmet and pulled down the visor, he glanced towards Kaiba, knowing that even if the other were watching him, his eyes would be hidden behind the darkened plastic.

He'd never even looked at Amelda. So Amelda had clung to the familiar comfort of the motorcycle and sped away, without another backward glance.

- o - o - o - o -

The land was a very lush green and seemed minuscule from the window of the airplane. Besides him, Miruko had fallen asleep, so Amelda had covered him with a blanket. Left with no one to talk to or anything to do, Amelda couldn't stop his thoughts from replaying his last meeting with Kaiba over and over again.

He smiled bitterly down at the vast expanse of ocean, reminded of a certain pair of stormy blue eyes. Like it or not, he had to admit that he felt a little betrayed, as if he had given his time and secrets to someone, only to find that the other didn't care about him nearly as much. He knew he was missing something important, something about fate…'I hope you believe in fate,' what was all that about?

When would they see each other again? Maybe never. Maybe a week later.

Amelda was just about to give up when his overly tired, and thus strangely uninhibited mind suddenly let him see with absolute clarity…and he nearly laughed at how slow he had been. Kaiba had simply worded it poorly, it should have been more like…I hope you trust in fate.

He knew the reply he would make, too – of course I do.

- o - o -finis- o - o -

Dear reader,

Well...the whole experience of writing this has been very special, and I think this has been rather special for you as well. I've said before, there are some things you just write, not because you planned it, but simply because the story's waiting to be told. Thank you so much for the support -I'm so glad to see that so many people have chosen this as a favorite story, especially since this is such an unorthodox story. If you read my other things, I hope for many merry meetings in the future...and if your life and mine have only briefly come together through this story, then I wish you a fond goodbye.

That said, please review. My secret goal is to reach 100, just because it's a nice, even number - yes, I'm weird like that. If only a third of all the people who have this as their favorite story take a couple seconds to review, I'd be overjoyed.

- E.D.

P.S. For those of you following my Kaiba and Amelda romance (more like angst, but when have I ever written anything else?), Angel's Grace, please read my profile. And if you seriously don't get the ending of FI, feel free to ask and I'll try my best to reply...just make sure you're logged in, or that you leave contact info!