Shadow Justice

63: Safety, Sniffers, and Shadows

The great god's huge, cobalt body, built like a sturdy, rugged mountainside loomed even though he knelt on one knee. The dwarfed Regent stood tall, facing the god without fear but full of regret. His pride gnawed at him for what he was about to do, but he knew it was the right thing. He also knew Obelisk had not deserved what he had done to him. He never regretted serving up well deserved justice, but only to those who actually deserved it. Obelisk had been innocent.

So it was with that in mind, that Kaiba Seto knelt on one knee and bowed his head in apology. He fought past the hesitancy in his chest and managed to say in a strong voice, "I apologize for my...for what I did to you. It was undeserved and cruel, even for me. Will you forgive me?"

Kaiba sat unmoving listening to the silence permeating the space surrounding him. Far below, he could see the half shadowed disk of the Earth hanging suspended in the void of space. The moon was poking out from the shadowed side reflecting some of the sunlight. City lights twinkled in the night from the continents only to fade as the sun crawled slowly across the North American continent.

When Obelisk finally moved, Kaiba could not help but tense in nervous anticipation. But he was not struck nor was he scolded. Instead, the powerful fingers that were known to reduce boulders to dust gently brushed Kaiba's hair before curling and pressing against the Regent's chin. Obediently, Kaiba lifted his face and stared into depthless cobalt eyes even he as the Regent sometimes felt lost in.

The finger moved away and the hand opened up inviting Kaiba to step onto it. Cautiously, the Regent stood and made his way onto the blue hand. He crouched in the indented palm of Obelisk's hand, bracing himself as the hand lifted so the two heads of the Balance could be equals. After a few moments of heavy silence, Obelisk grumbled and Kaiba let out a sigh of relief.

Obelisk cupped his hand around Kaiba so the Regent could stand and hold onto one of his fingers to keep his balance steady. Kaiba watched his god bow his head to him, mumbling softly. The brunette shook his head.

"You have nothing to apologize for," he said. "Kohai explained what happened." He flushed slightly in shame. "I assumed you knew and I took my anger out on you. For that I apologize. It was not your fault. And I know why, even if you did know, you did not understand." He dropped his eyes. "And however much I still don't want to be immortal, at least I have you for my god and not a pet bird or a prideful snake."

Obelisk made a sound that Kaiba knew was laughter. A rumbling echoed in the void and Kaiba scoffed. "Tell them," he said. "I don't care. I'll tell them to their faces."

Obelisk made the laughing sound again and reached up to brush just under Kaiba's eye, murmuring a question. Kaiba's blue eyes softened.

"They're called tears," he said. "However much I despise crying, it still happens. I may not sob like a baby, but the body finds ways to relieve it's pent up emotions either outwardly though weeping and screaming or inwardly though ulcers and illness. I can't afford to be sick so I'm just careful who sees me when I loose myself." The resulting growl reverberated through the hand Kaiba stood on and the Regent nodded solemnly. "Only you saw."

Kaiba grabbed Obelisk's thumb when the hand that held him moved forward before being pressed to the god's sturdy chest and surrounded by both hands. Kaiba raised his eyes in surprise and saw Obelisk bow his head over top of him. It was both protective and affectionate and Kaiba suddenly felt incredibly out of place.

This was not something he was familiar with. He had only ever experienced this feeling a few times throughout his two lives. In his current life, he only felt like this when Mokuba hugged him, when they both looked at the pictures framed in their lockets, and before their parents died. In his previous life as Set, he only experienced it before his father left him, before his mother died, when he joined the Shadow Court, and when he found Kisara.