The final chapter of Carol! I'm so sorry, two and a half months is entirely too long a wait for one chapter, but those of you who read my bio earlier know why I was gone. Everything's fine now, and that's my excuse for about three weeks. The rest is vacation, major projects, and my own laziness. Again, sorry. Reviewer thanks to: hashiba42, Mein Engel, Koi-Bara, yumithebutterfly, and Wyvren Wing. And thank you so much to Mein Engel for your good wishes and thoughts. That made me happy.

And now, Christmas morning.

"Stop and look around you. The glory that you see is born again each day. Don't let it slip away. How precious life can be!" -Scrooge, A Muppet Christmas Carol

Chapter 6 - Bond of Brothers

Mokuba awoke to the smell of sausages. He wondered vaguely what time it was and rolled over in bed to look at the clock. Wait a minute. He was back in bed. Hadn't he fallen asleep on the windowsill? Maybe he'd been too tired to remember going back to bed. Oh yeah! It was Christmas! But then who was making the sausages?

Mokuba rolled out of bed and made his way down the stairs. I don't believe Seto, if he's making the cook stay here on Christmas. I'm gonna tell him to go home. Then I'm gonna wake Seto up and drag him downstairs by his pajamas if I have to…

But as he crossed the living room and neared the kitchen, he began to wonder if it really was the regular cook in there. There was an awful lot of banging…

Mokuba peeked in the door and his jaw dropped in shock.

His brother was standing at the stove, apparently making an attempt at cooking something. It didn't seem to be going very well, for the older boy swore and jerked his finger away from the burner, sticking it in his mouth.

"Seto?" Mokuba asked in disbelief.

Kaiba turned around and his face transformed into a warm – if slightly stiff – smile. "Good morning, Mokuba. Merry Christmas."

Mokuba was speechless, very nearly falling over in astonishment. His brother was smiling. "S-Seto? Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm feeling fine," his brother assured him. "Better than usual actually." It was odd, he thought. He'd only been on vacation for about ten hours and already he felt in a much better mood than normal. Perhaps relaxation had its merits after all.

Mokuba stared, dumbfounded for a moment more, than ran to his brother and nearly knocked him over in a hug.

"Mokuba?"

"Seto, what happened?!"

"What do you mean?"

"You! You're different, you're smiling, you're – you're cooking-"

"Is something wrong?"

"No! Wow, Seto, no, it's incredible!" His little brother was squeezing him tightly and Kaiba could see a look of absolute delight still mixed with disbelief on his face. Well, whatever else came out of that experience last night, that look right there made it all worth it.

He ruffled the black hair lightly and stepped back to the table, detaching the arms from around his middle and placing the plate of sausages between them. "Relax, I'm not going anywhere."

Mokuba shook his head, continuing to stare at the older boy. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to see you smile Seto. This is almost too good to be true, I'm almost afraid that if I ask why it's happening it'll stop."

Oh I think I have a pretty good idea. "Don't worry about it, Mokuba," he suggested calmly, nudging the plate toward his brother and stabbing a sausage for himself.

Mokuba poked a link and bit into it slightly. "Hey Seto. How come you can come up with one of the world's greatest theme parks, whup anybody in a duel with your eyes shut, and still manage to burn pre-cooked sausages?"

Kaiba frowned at the incriminating bit of meat on his fork. "For once I don't have an answer to that. I suppose I've been having others do my cooking for so long I've forgotten how to do it myself. Looks like I'll have to learn how to fend for myself this coming week."

Mokuba looked up. "What?"

"I said I'll have to learn to fend for myself this week. If I'm going to be staying here I'd better learn how to cook for both of us."

"You – you mean you're taking the week off?"

"That's right."

"But – but what about Kaiba Corp?"

"I think they can survive without me for a few days."

Before he knew what was happening, Mokuba had tackled him again, upending the chair and sending them both slamming into the floor. Kaiba opened his mouth to tell him off, but couldn't bring himself to do it when he saw his little brother squeezing his chest and very nearly in tears.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou…"

His expression softened and he tapped Mokuba on the shoulder. "Are you going to let me up, Mokie?"

Mokuba hugged him tighter and shook his head no. "This is unbelievable, Seto. If it was anybody but you I'd say it was like magic."

Magic. Kaiba scoffed quietly at this, but his heart wasn't in it. "Forget magic. By the way, don't you have presents to open?"

"But this is already the best Christmas present ever!"

"Ah. In that case I can return everything else, right?"

Mokuba looked up quickly in surprise, before realizing that his brother wasn't serious. "Not funny."

"It was worth a shot."

"Can we play a game afterwards?"

"I suppose so."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Mokuba hopped up and paused eagerly by the door. "Come on, Seto!"

Kaiba picked himself up from the floor, dusted himself off, and followed his little brother into the living room.

Yay, finally done! Let's hear it for our Scrooge.

Thanks to everyone who stuck with me through the long wait. Merry Christmas in April!