Shadow Justice

46: Wakefulness and Horror

Kaiba came out of the trance and immediately slumped, rubbing his  eyelids as exhaustion crushed him. He felt like the world was pressing  down on him with punishing force. There was an ache in his chest near  his heart and his head throbbed near his temples. Mokuba had long since  fallen asleep in his lap and Kaiba felt incredibly guilty for having to  wake his little brother but his legs were cramping and tingling from  staying in the same position for over an hour at least.

He exhaled  slowly, focusing on relaxing each muscle one at a time until his entire  body twitched. Taking a moment to gather his wits about him, he nudged  Mokuba awake, feeling his lips quirk at the adorable way Mokuba gazed up  blearily at him. He leaned down and pressed a kiss on his little  brother's head, snuffling the soft black hair.

"Forgive me, Mokuba," he whispered in soft Japanese. "But I need to get up."

Mokuba  groaned and crawled sleepily out of his lap. Kaiba again felt guilty  and mussed his cute little brother's hair as he stretched out his legs  with a sigh of relief. He stood, surprised when his legs wobbled  uncertainly. He flailed an arm out for balance and grabbed the first  thing he touched closing his eyes to ease the nausea brought on by a  sudden severe bought of vertigo. A smaller pair of arms looped around  his waist to help support him and his other hand grabbed Mokuba's  shoulder. He leaned heavily against the people supporting him until the  dark tunneling on the edges of his vision faded from his sight and he  felt less top heavy.

Hesitantly, when he could finally see  clearly, he stood tall and looked over his shoulder slowly to his  supporter, surprised to see it was Oliver. His mouth felt dry and  scratchy and his breathing was still too heavy and uneven.  It confused  Kaiba as to why this was. Perhaps it was the exhaustion from the lack of  sleep and strain from the last few days finally hitting him harder than  he anticipated or maybe his argument with Seth had drained him. Either  way, this was unacceptable with other people present to witness it.

He  drew himself up and forced a calm to drape over him like an old,  familiar blanket. He nodded his thanks to Oliver but did not release his  hold on the vigilante. Mokuba stared up at him, worry lighting up his  dark gray eyes.

"Nii-sama?" he called softly.

Kaiba tried to  give his brother a reassuring smile but he must have failed because  Mokuba's eyes only grew more concerned. Even Oliver shifted his hold so  Kaiba was forced to look over to his kohai.

"Hey," the vigilante said quietly. "You look awful."

It  was a testament to how tired Kaiba truly was that he did not respond to  that particular comment in any way. He just blinked slowly and allowed  his head to droop. He felt horrible. "Ineedtosleep," he mumbled  incoherently.

"What?" Oliver asked.

Kaiba took a deep breath  and focused. "I need to sleep," he repeated, over-enunciating every  word to be sure he was understood. He felt like he was completely drunk  and he could feel another bout of vertigo coming on.  He was already  starting to sway again.

Thankfully, Oliver understood and helped  him stumble a few feet away from the couch before handing him off to  someone. Kaiba vaguely recognized the cologne Roland always wore and  slumped in his bodyguard's arms. He was barely aware of Roland picking  him up and holding him in a bridal hold. Normally, he would have  protested this degrading treatment vehemently, but he could not find the  strength to even argue it. He felt so heavy and tired.

He never  noticed when he closed his eyes and his head lolled weakly against  Roland's shoulder, but he did notice he had to fight to open his eyes  again when something soft replaced Roland's arms beneath him. He mumbled  incoherently, a hand weakly clinging to Roland's suit sleeve. After a  second of hesitation, Roland sat down by Kaiba's side, causing the  mattress to sink.