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dillian_winjaTitle: An invitation from Seto Kaiba
Characters: Seto Kaiba x Yami no Yuugi (Prideshipping)
Rating: NC-17
Summary: One fateful day, Seto Kaiba sees himself forced into a date with his greatest nemesis, the King of Games. But what do they have in common, besides their rivalry on the dueling field? Can anything good come of this?
Author's notes: This story takes place after the series' end, all characters are of consenting age and Yami has his own body just because we like it that way. Concrit and comments are appreciated!
Yu-Gi-Oh is the property of Konami and Kazuki Takahashi, and this work is only a very appreciative celebration, from which we hope to derive no profit of any kind.
The place was one he hadn’t seen since he’d visited three years earlier, to look at the proprietor’s rare card collection. Looking around now, Seto noted that it hadn’t changed much. The aisles were still small and crowded, the merchandise was still dusty, the proprietor, Mutou Sugoroku, was still small, and fussy-looking, and old. He didn’t look much affected by his trip through Death T, Seto thought, but if he felt anything such as guilt, or relief, instead of just indifference at the thought, he couldn’t have said. Mostly all he thought about him, was that it was a nuisance to have to come through his Game Shop in order to get to his real objective, which was in the apartment upstairs.
“Hello, hello,” came Mutou’s voice as soon as the pinging of the door announced his arrival. “Can I show you anything today?” Seto didn’t answer. He didn’t even slow down his pace, as he walked straight past the old man, and on through his shop to the staircase at the back. “You’ll be coming to see my grandson, I guess,” Mutou called after him, but Seto still didn’t pause to answer.
It amused him, in a wry way, how wrong the old man was. It was a joke on both of them, really. Mutou thought he was here to visit Yuugi, whom he hadn’t spared a thought for in the two years since he’d left Domino High. But did his real objective make any more sense? He was here to see Mutou Yami of all people, who had started out as Yuugi’s duelist aspect, and somehow taken on a full life of his own. What was the point of that? What could he possibly have to gain by doing it? Well, he knew what he had to gain (or rather, what he stood to lose if he didn’t do it), and with a big gold box tucked under his arm, he went straight up to the top floor. Footsteps echoing a sharp crack, crack, crack despite the carpeting, he strode down the hallway, and, at the end of it, he knocked on the Mutous’ apartment door.
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This was no life for a former Pharaoh. Doing the dishes, operating a vacuum cleaner, folding his own bed linens and clothes, that was work for a slave, a servant, not for Mutou Yami, King of Games, champion and savior of the world. Yami heaved a sigh, telling himself he shouldn't be complaining, should he? After having lost the Ceremonial Battle, he’d been granted his own body. He’d been ready to live the life that had been denied to him so long, having died young in the first place, and after that, dwelling as a Spirit for three millennia. But when the first euphoria of being in his own body had been over, Yami had found that life was actually quite boring. Without any tournaments at stake, he was 'condemned' to help out at home, as without any identification or birth certificate; he couldn't enroll in a school or find himself a job.
Now as he folded his laundry, Yami was annoyed. And, to make matters worse, someone was knocking on the door. Great, now he was reduced to a servant even more, as he had to answer the door. "Coming," he hollered and he dumped the dirty laundry to the side. In any case, the visitor was going to get him some distraction from a boring day at home, something to help fill the long, lonely hours, before Yuugi came home. Yami went to the door and reached for the handle, thinking it was probably a salesman, or the mailman delivering a package. He was prepared for anything, but not for Kaiba Seto standing in the doorway. His mouth fell open.
"Kaiba?" he asked, dumbfounded.
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Yami was wearing an apron, that was the first thing Seto noticed. It was a little girl-y looking on him, what with his lack of height, and the cute way his blond bangs framed his face. He also had a smudge of dirt across his nose, and a rather disgruntled look on his face (although that gave way to a look of surprise, when he saw Seto at the door). “Yami.”
Yuugi’s Other came to just below his chin, he estimated, although it was hard to tell what with his hair, and with the fact that he was looking up at Seto right now, with the surprise changing slowly to suspicion, on his face. Seto met his gaze full-on. Before he could lose his nerve, he thrust the box he’d been carrying, toward Yami, rather as he might have handed him a duel disc before a competition. The chocolates inside the box rattled a little as he presented it, and the red bow bobbed. “These are for you,” he said flatly.
“I want you to go out to dinner with me,” he said. “What will it take to make you agree?”
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"Wh-what?" Yami's annoyance went from surprise, to suspicion, to utmost disbelief in just a few seconds. The biggest shock of all had been to find Kaiba Seto on his doorstep, and the very same Kaiba Seto gave him a gift (he didn't know there were chocolates inside the box, but any gift from Kaiba was like signing your own death warrant) and asked, no, demanded him to go out on a date?
"You're crazy," was the first thing to come out of his mouth. Automatically he took a step to the side (Yuugi's mother had told him not to leave guests standing out in the hallway), his mind busy processing what was going on. Then suspicion took over.
"On a date with you," Yami parroted. "What will it take me to agree? You're out of your mind, Kaiba. Why would you want to go on a date with me?" It was too preposterous for words. Seto hated him, didn’t he? Two bitter rivals, and suddenly he wanted to go on a date with him? Something was wrong here. Was it some kind of a prank? "You're not being very funny."
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“Believe me Yami, I am not being funny.” Taking advantage as Yami stepped aside from the door, Seto walked into the little apartment and looked around. It was kind of crowded, a little fussy-looking, much cleaner than the Game Shop downstairs, but still with an air about it that wasn’t quite poverty, but came way closer than anything Seto was used to. As for Yami, even wearing an apron, he stood out like a sore thumb. He looked like the champion he was, not the kind of humble low-life that would fit in, in a poverty-stricken background like this.
Seto sat down on the sofa, putting the chocolates on the table in front of him. “I’m dead serious, Yami.” It wasn’t a lover’s voice he used, or even the voice of someone starting a negotiation; if anything, Seto sounded like he was giving his rival a challenge. “I want a date with you,” he said, “and I’m not going to take no for an answer. I’ll let you choose the date, I’ll let you choose the restaurant, I’ll let you choose what we do.” He folded his arms and looked at Yami, a look that was almost a glare. “I’m not leaving until you agree,” he said, “so we’d better get this over with.”
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It had to be a prank, no way in hell Kaiba Seto was visiting him and asking... demanding him for a date. And if he really wanted a date, the young CEO certainly didn't show much desire; he glared, he huffed and he puffed, and he sat on the couch as if he owned the place. Yami slowly took of his apron, folded it and put it on a small side table, buying himself some time to think. Seto had never shown any interest in him. More so, he’d never any interest in anyone, ever, no way. The tabloids loved to link him to actresses, starlets and singers, but Yami, knowing him, knew, they were making it all up.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked, a hint of curiosity taking over from his suspicion. "You don't really strike me as really wanting to go on a date. But if you're not leaving until I agree, and if you can prove to me you're being serious about this..." Well, it was pretty predictable, wasn't it? Yami crossed his arms in front of his chest and puffed himself up. "... if you are really serious, you give me your Blue Eyes. Right now."
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His Blue-Eyes. Seto had to laugh at that. His rival had no way of knowing how appropriate that demand was in the current situation; he had no way of knowing the dire situation that had forced him to come here, and that was going to render all of his beloved Dragons meaningless, unless he emerged from this negotiation successful. “One Blue-Eyes,” he said. That was the joke part, was the number: Right now there were three extant Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards in the world, and he owned all three. But a threat hung over the head of this rarest of card now, a threat by the name of Pegasus J. Crawford.
Creator of Duel Monsters, head of the card company known as Industrial Illusions and, sadly, owner of the rights to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Pegasus was insane. He’d always been insane, since before Seto had met him (shaming a low-level duelist named Bandit Keith Howard with some kind of pseudo-magical trickery), and whether he was rescuing his brother’s soul from him, or just negotiating to get the rights to use Duel Monsters images in his VR games at a fair price, Seto didn’t trust him any further than he could throw him. It was he who’d summoned him to his office a week earlier, and it was he who’d made the threat that had brought Seto here.
“It’s quite simple, Kaiba-boi.” His voice put Seto’s teeth on edge. -- Even his smell (expensive shampoo, and a faint scent that could only be described as money) made him want to throw him across the room. -- Pegasus looked smugly at him now from behind the big expensive desk in his office, and he gave him the ultimatum: “I want you to take Mutou Yami out on a date. And you are going to do it, Kaiba-boi. I have the perfect weapon to hold over your head to make you obey me.”
“I’ve had the factory make 10,000,000 Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards. -- Yes, that’s right,” he said, as Seto opened his mouth to speak. “Enough that if they’re released, the Blue-Eyes will become a drug on the market. Your beloved rare card will be commoner than a Kuriboh.” He smiled. “You see where I’m going with this, Kaiba?”
“You’ll release the cards if I don’t go out with Yuugi,” Seto said flatly. He gave Pegasus a look that should have incinerated him on the spot. “You bastard,” he said. “You devious, conniving, manipulative bastard. What the hell business is it of yours if I go out with Yuugi?”
“Yami,” Pegasus said.
“What?”
“I want you to go out with Yami,” he said. “Yuugi is his Other Self. Yami’s the one that does the dueling,” Pegasus said, “the good one, the one that beat me on Duelist Kingdom. And don’t make some kind of snarky comment about how anyone could have done that,” he put in again, as Seto opened his mouth to say (well, exactly that, as it happened). “I didn’t notice you being able to do it, Kaiba-boi. Yami’s the interesting one, I imagine you’d find little Yuugi rather boring. And besides,” he added with a smile, “it’s always so cute when rivals date each other, isn’t it?”
“You want me to date Yami because it would be cute,” Seto said, trying to get through to the crazy American one last time.
And Pegasus’ response was echoing in his head now, as he responded to Yami’s own demand: “I want you to date Yami because otherwise I’m going to flood the market with Blue-Eyes White Dragons.”
“I think I can manage your request,” he told Yami. “One Blue-Eyes?” He took his deck out of his pocket and shuffled through it. The three Blue-Eyes were grouped together, almost as if they knew there was a threat to one of them, and were trying to protect each other. But Seto knew the real threat wasn’t here. And besides, he could always take one single Blue-Eyes from Pegasus’ flood of them, before making sure the rest were destroyed. He handed the card to Yami.
“Now, about that date?” he said.
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Yami's eyes went wide as Seto handed the card over to him. Just like that. No whining, no yammering, no shouting. The man, who would murder and kill for just another Blue Eyes, had just handed one of his cards over to him as if it was nothing. Completely flabbergasted, he took the card and stared at it. His arch enemy, his nemesis, the Blue Eyes White Dragon had made a lot of his duels difficult and struggling. It was Seto's signature card, he knew how much it meant to the young CEO. And still... he just gave it to him. Yami didn't know what to say. If I had known he would do this, without skipping a beat, I should've asked for his mansion. "I..." he started. ”You're just giving me this? Without dueling me for it? What has gotten into you?" Yami held the card, staring at it, still disbelieving. It had to be a prank, or else Seto had to be insane, or possessed. There was no way he would give up one of his beloved Blue Eyes. Yami would fight to the teeth to keep his Dark Magician, and he certainly wouldn't give it up for a date.
Still, Seto had kept his word, and despite everything, as a man of honor himself, Yami wanted to keep his word too. He had asked for a Blue Eyes, he had gotten one, and well... that was it.
"All right," Yami said, slowly, as if weighing every word. "One date it is, then. You gave me what I asked for, and I'm not backing out on my word." But I am going to make this profitable for myself. If you want a date that badly, you're going to have to bleed for it. His trademark grin returned. "You're going to take me out to Kiyoshi," he said, naming the most expensive and exclusive restaurant of all Domino. "And then you'll take me to the kabuki theatre. Front row seats, of course."
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His Blue-Eyes. Yami transferred it into his pocket with barely a look, and Seto watched it go. He knew where he’d gotten that card, and when, and in what circumstances. Some replica card straight out of Pegasus’ factory was going to be a very poor replacement, and it took all his willpower to hide his regret. But he wasn’t a child, he understood about priorities, and sacrificing one Blue-Eyes to save the integrity of all three of them (plus that one extra from the factory, and maybe he could arrange to have the one he’d given Yami destroyed later on, so he’d still own all the Blue-Eyes cards) was a pretty good trade-off.
“...Kiyoshi,” Yami was saying, “and then after that I want to watch kabuki. ...Best theatre in town ...front-row seats,” he kept prattling on, describing what sounded like the most boring evening in the history of the world, and Seto gave a little sigh, letting himself notice, just for a moment, how much he was sacrificing to save his Dragons, before returning to the conversation.
“Kiyoshi,” he said, “of course,” and then, “and kabuki, certainly Yami, if that’s what will please you.” It wouldn’t please him, -- He hated fancy restaurants, and kabuki theatre was just a lot of guys in white makeup making funny poses all over the stage as far as he was concerned. -- but this evening wasn’t about him, he knew that going in. He was fulfilling an obligation here, and once it was fulfilled he’d never look at Yami’s face again (except when it was behind a duel disk on the opposite side of a tournament field). “Is next Tuesday good for you, Yami?” he said. “About seven?”
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"That would be just fine," Yami answered. He tilted his head. Seto was still sitting on the sofa, and he agreed with everything, even giving him one of his Blue Eyes as soon as he, Yami, had asked for it. What was going on? Kabuki theatre should be a torture to the CEO, and he was still agreeing. He didn't believe it was a prank anymore, not after Seto giving him the BEWD; no prank in the world could make him hand his card over like that. Yami wasn't stupid. Something else had to be at work. Something so terrible, so gruesome, that it had Kaiba Seto cooperating. What could it possibly be? Mokuba kidnapped? Another whacko with a powerful card claiming to conquer the world?
"Are you going to tell me what this is all about?" he asked, curiously. The BEWD was safely in his pocket, he'd have to store it more carefully later. No doubt Seto was going to duel him for it sooner or later and he hated his cards to wrinkle or be stored in any less than perfect condition. "We’ve hardly spoken until now, and you suddenly ask me on a date?" He didn't know if Seto was going to tell the truth or not, but his curiosity was going to the roof. "If you're so willing to accommodate me, I should've asked for much, much more." It was mean, but he almost had to grin.
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“What this is about?” Seto scowled. He should have seen this coming. Yami was smart; it was one of the ways a person could tell him from his Other, Yuugi, who wasn’t exactly dumb, but was so eagerly cooperative and friendly, that he might as well have been. “Why does it have to be about anything?” he demanded. “Maybe I’ve wanted to ask you out for a long time. Maybe I’ve been thinking about you,” -- Only he hadn’t, so he wasn’t able to get very much conviction into his voice that way. He revised, trying to sound more plausible. -- “...Maybe I get tired of work, work, work all the time, and I want to talk to someone who shares the same interests as I do.” That last bit sounded true, because it felt true, or at least it did until Seto remembered that this rival of his, who supposedly shared his interests, had just trapped him into an evening of kabuki theatre and fancy-ass French cooking. “It’s not like I meet a lot of people my age in the business world,” he added, a little more lamely.
Lame was a good word for how he felt in general, about this discussion. And whiny, and wangsty; the next thing you knew, he was probably going to be leaning on Yami and burying his face in his shoulder, and how hard would that be, considering he was a head taller than him! How convincing could he possibly be if he acted all out of character like this? But he didn’t want to tell Yami about his deal with Pegasus. There was no way he was going to let his rival see him dancing to that American lunatic’s tune again for a second time. “You always have to over-analyze everything,” he told Yami. “Pick-pick-pick, you’re always picking at things. Can’t you be content that some things are just the way they seem on the surface for once?”
“I just ...wanted to do something different. I wanted to spend some time with someone my own age, who wasn’t Mokuba, for a change. I wanted to talk to someone else, and maybe have some fun. If it’s such a problem for you to get used to the fact that I might want your company, then forget it. Just give me my card back and I’ll leave, Yami.”
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Yami was still standing in the middle of the living room, with Seto in front of him, still processing the CEO's words and trying to.. well, to pick at them, just as Seto 'accused' him of. It was difficult to believe that Seto had been thinking of him in any other way than to get his revenge for all duels lost, but on the other hand, he could understand, at least sort of, Seto's words about work-work-work. It was no secret that he always worked, Yami could imagine that Seto wanted to do something different. Only why he would pick his rival to do that... they were rivals, weren't they? Well, at least on the dueling field. Outside of that, they had no qualms about each other, except each of them thinking the other was a big-ass jerk, maybe. So maybe Seto had thought about him after all, and as working all the time had finally gotten to him, he had turned to him, Yami, for distraction.. for a date. He couldn't exactly blame Seto for barging in and demanding one, could he? Seto had no social skills, but the way he wanted to give Yami everything, even a night at a kabuki theatre, was.. actually kind of cute. Yami started to feel flattered.
"All right," Yami finally said. "I can see you want to do something else but work all the time. You'd work yourself to death if it was possible, it's good that you look outside of it, just like any other young man. You've accomplished so much already, a break would be nice." A break for himself would be nice too; it would mean saying goodbye to dusting and cleaning for a while. But if he had known better about this situation, he would've asked Seto to buy him his own apartment, for crying out loud. The BEWD safe in his pants pocket, he thought about showing it to Yuugi and telling him about Seto and the date. His aibou would probably keel over from shock. "Then next week Tuesday, seven o'clock it is," he showed his trademark smirk, "I accept your challen... ah, your date, Kaiba."
Characters: Seto Kaiba x Yami no Yuugi (Prideshipping)
Rating: NC-17
Summary: One fateful day, Seto Kaiba sees himself forced into a date with his greatest nemesis, the King of Games. But what do they have in common, besides their rivalry on the dueling field? Can anything good come of this?
Author's notes: This story takes place after the series' end, all characters are of consenting age and Yami has his own body just because we like it that way. Concrit and comments are appreciated!
Yu-Gi-Oh is the property of Konami and Kazuki Takahashi, and this work is only a very appreciative celebration, from which we hope to derive no profit of any kind.
The place was one he hadn’t seen since he’d visited three years earlier, to look at the proprietor’s rare card collection. Looking around now, Seto noted that it hadn’t changed much. The aisles were still small and crowded, the merchandise was still dusty, the proprietor, Mutou Sugoroku, was still small, and fussy-looking, and old. He didn’t look much affected by his trip through Death T, Seto thought, but if he felt anything such as guilt, or relief, instead of just indifference at the thought, he couldn’t have said. Mostly all he thought about him, was that it was a nuisance to have to come through his Game Shop in order to get to his real objective, which was in the apartment upstairs.
“Hello, hello,” came Mutou’s voice as soon as the pinging of the door announced his arrival. “Can I show you anything today?” Seto didn’t answer. He didn’t even slow down his pace, as he walked straight past the old man, and on through his shop to the staircase at the back. “You’ll be coming to see my grandson, I guess,” Mutou called after him, but Seto still didn’t pause to answer.
It amused him, in a wry way, how wrong the old man was. It was a joke on both of them, really. Mutou thought he was here to visit Yuugi, whom he hadn’t spared a thought for in the two years since he’d left Domino High. But did his real objective make any more sense? He was here to see Mutou Yami of all people, who had started out as Yuugi’s duelist aspect, and somehow taken on a full life of his own. What was the point of that? What could he possibly have to gain by doing it? Well, he knew what he had to gain (or rather, what he stood to lose if he didn’t do it), and with a big gold box tucked under his arm, he went straight up to the top floor. Footsteps echoing a sharp crack, crack, crack despite the carpeting, he strode down the hallway, and, at the end of it, he knocked on the Mutous’ apartment door.
This was no life for a former Pharaoh. Doing the dishes, operating a vacuum cleaner, folding his own bed linens and clothes, that was work for a slave, a servant, not for Mutou Yami, King of Games, champion and savior of the world. Yami heaved a sigh, telling himself he shouldn't be complaining, should he? After having lost the Ceremonial Battle, he’d been granted his own body. He’d been ready to live the life that had been denied to him so long, having died young in the first place, and after that, dwelling as a Spirit for three millennia. But when the first euphoria of being in his own body had been over, Yami had found that life was actually quite boring. Without any tournaments at stake, he was 'condemned' to help out at home, as without any identification or birth certificate; he couldn't enroll in a school or find himself a job.
Now as he folded his laundry, Yami was annoyed. And, to make matters worse, someone was knocking on the door. Great, now he was reduced to a servant even more, as he had to answer the door. "Coming," he hollered and he dumped the dirty laundry to the side. In any case, the visitor was going to get him some distraction from a boring day at home, something to help fill the long, lonely hours, before Yuugi came home. Yami went to the door and reached for the handle, thinking it was probably a salesman, or the mailman delivering a package. He was prepared for anything, but not for Kaiba Seto standing in the doorway. His mouth fell open.
"Kaiba?" he asked, dumbfounded.
Yami was wearing an apron, that was the first thing Seto noticed. It was a little girl-y looking on him, what with his lack of height, and the cute way his blond bangs framed his face. He also had a smudge of dirt across his nose, and a rather disgruntled look on his face (although that gave way to a look of surprise, when he saw Seto at the door). “Yami.”
Yuugi’s Other came to just below his chin, he estimated, although it was hard to tell what with his hair, and with the fact that he was looking up at Seto right now, with the surprise changing slowly to suspicion, on his face. Seto met his gaze full-on. Before he could lose his nerve, he thrust the box he’d been carrying, toward Yami, rather as he might have handed him a duel disc before a competition. The chocolates inside the box rattled a little as he presented it, and the red bow bobbed. “These are for you,” he said flatly.
“I want you to go out to dinner with me,” he said. “What will it take to make you agree?”
"Wh-what?" Yami's annoyance went from surprise, to suspicion, to utmost disbelief in just a few seconds. The biggest shock of all had been to find Kaiba Seto on his doorstep, and the very same Kaiba Seto gave him a gift (he didn't know there were chocolates inside the box, but any gift from Kaiba was like signing your own death warrant) and asked, no, demanded him to go out on a date?
"You're crazy," was the first thing to come out of his mouth. Automatically he took a step to the side (Yuugi's mother had told him not to leave guests standing out in the hallway), his mind busy processing what was going on. Then suspicion took over.
"On a date with you," Yami parroted. "What will it take me to agree? You're out of your mind, Kaiba. Why would you want to go on a date with me?" It was too preposterous for words. Seto hated him, didn’t he? Two bitter rivals, and suddenly he wanted to go on a date with him? Something was wrong here. Was it some kind of a prank? "You're not being very funny."
“Believe me Yami, I am not being funny.” Taking advantage as Yami stepped aside from the door, Seto walked into the little apartment and looked around. It was kind of crowded, a little fussy-looking, much cleaner than the Game Shop downstairs, but still with an air about it that wasn’t quite poverty, but came way closer than anything Seto was used to. As for Yami, even wearing an apron, he stood out like a sore thumb. He looked like the champion he was, not the kind of humble low-life that would fit in, in a poverty-stricken background like this.
Seto sat down on the sofa, putting the chocolates on the table in front of him. “I’m dead serious, Yami.” It wasn’t a lover’s voice he used, or even the voice of someone starting a negotiation; if anything, Seto sounded like he was giving his rival a challenge. “I want a date with you,” he said, “and I’m not going to take no for an answer. I’ll let you choose the date, I’ll let you choose the restaurant, I’ll let you choose what we do.” He folded his arms and looked at Yami, a look that was almost a glare. “I’m not leaving until you agree,” he said, “so we’d better get this over with.”
It had to be a prank, no way in hell Kaiba Seto was visiting him and asking... demanding him for a date. And if he really wanted a date, the young CEO certainly didn't show much desire; he glared, he huffed and he puffed, and he sat on the couch as if he owned the place. Yami slowly took of his apron, folded it and put it on a small side table, buying himself some time to think. Seto had never shown any interest in him. More so, he’d never any interest in anyone, ever, no way. The tabloids loved to link him to actresses, starlets and singers, but Yami, knowing him, knew, they were making it all up.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked, a hint of curiosity taking over from his suspicion. "You don't really strike me as really wanting to go on a date. But if you're not leaving until I agree, and if you can prove to me you're being serious about this..." Well, it was pretty predictable, wasn't it? Yami crossed his arms in front of his chest and puffed himself up. "... if you are really serious, you give me your Blue Eyes. Right now."
His Blue-Eyes. Seto had to laugh at that. His rival had no way of knowing how appropriate that demand was in the current situation; he had no way of knowing the dire situation that had forced him to come here, and that was going to render all of his beloved Dragons meaningless, unless he emerged from this negotiation successful. “One Blue-Eyes,” he said. That was the joke part, was the number: Right now there were three extant Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards in the world, and he owned all three. But a threat hung over the head of this rarest of card now, a threat by the name of Pegasus J. Crawford.
Creator of Duel Monsters, head of the card company known as Industrial Illusions and, sadly, owner of the rights to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Pegasus was insane. He’d always been insane, since before Seto had met him (shaming a low-level duelist named Bandit Keith Howard with some kind of pseudo-magical trickery), and whether he was rescuing his brother’s soul from him, or just negotiating to get the rights to use Duel Monsters images in his VR games at a fair price, Seto didn’t trust him any further than he could throw him. It was he who’d summoned him to his office a week earlier, and it was he who’d made the threat that had brought Seto here.
“It’s quite simple, Kaiba-boi.” His voice put Seto’s teeth on edge. -- Even his smell (expensive shampoo, and a faint scent that could only be described as money) made him want to throw him across the room. -- Pegasus looked smugly at him now from behind the big expensive desk in his office, and he gave him the ultimatum: “I want you to take Mutou Yami out on a date. And you are going to do it, Kaiba-boi. I have the perfect weapon to hold over your head to make you obey me.”
“I’ve had the factory make 10,000,000 Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards. -- Yes, that’s right,” he said, as Seto opened his mouth to speak. “Enough that if they’re released, the Blue-Eyes will become a drug on the market. Your beloved rare card will be commoner than a Kuriboh.” He smiled. “You see where I’m going with this, Kaiba?”
“You’ll release the cards if I don’t go out with Yuugi,” Seto said flatly. He gave Pegasus a look that should have incinerated him on the spot. “You bastard,” he said. “You devious, conniving, manipulative bastard. What the hell business is it of yours if I go out with Yuugi?”
“Yami,” Pegasus said.
“What?”
“I want you to go out with Yami,” he said. “Yuugi is his Other Self. Yami’s the one that does the dueling,” Pegasus said, “the good one, the one that beat me on Duelist Kingdom. And don’t make some kind of snarky comment about how anyone could have done that,” he put in again, as Seto opened his mouth to say (well, exactly that, as it happened). “I didn’t notice you being able to do it, Kaiba-boi. Yami’s the interesting one, I imagine you’d find little Yuugi rather boring. And besides,” he added with a smile, “it’s always so cute when rivals date each other, isn’t it?”
“You want me to date Yami because it would be cute,” Seto said, trying to get through to the crazy American one last time.
And Pegasus’ response was echoing in his head now, as he responded to Yami’s own demand: “I want you to date Yami because otherwise I’m going to flood the market with Blue-Eyes White Dragons.”
“I think I can manage your request,” he told Yami. “One Blue-Eyes?” He took his deck out of his pocket and shuffled through it. The three Blue-Eyes were grouped together, almost as if they knew there was a threat to one of them, and were trying to protect each other. But Seto knew the real threat wasn’t here. And besides, he could always take one single Blue-Eyes from Pegasus’ flood of them, before making sure the rest were destroyed. He handed the card to Yami.
“Now, about that date?” he said.
Yami's eyes went wide as Seto handed the card over to him. Just like that. No whining, no yammering, no shouting. The man, who would murder and kill for just another Blue Eyes, had just handed one of his cards over to him as if it was nothing. Completely flabbergasted, he took the card and stared at it. His arch enemy, his nemesis, the Blue Eyes White Dragon had made a lot of his duels difficult and struggling. It was Seto's signature card, he knew how much it meant to the young CEO. And still... he just gave it to him. Yami didn't know what to say. If I had known he would do this, without skipping a beat, I should've asked for his mansion. "I..." he started. ”You're just giving me this? Without dueling me for it? What has gotten into you?" Yami held the card, staring at it, still disbelieving. It had to be a prank, or else Seto had to be insane, or possessed. There was no way he would give up one of his beloved Blue Eyes. Yami would fight to the teeth to keep his Dark Magician, and he certainly wouldn't give it up for a date.
Still, Seto had kept his word, and despite everything, as a man of honor himself, Yami wanted to keep his word too. He had asked for a Blue Eyes, he had gotten one, and well... that was it.
"All right," Yami said, slowly, as if weighing every word. "One date it is, then. You gave me what I asked for, and I'm not backing out on my word." But I am going to make this profitable for myself. If you want a date that badly, you're going to have to bleed for it. His trademark grin returned. "You're going to take me out to Kiyoshi," he said, naming the most expensive and exclusive restaurant of all Domino. "And then you'll take me to the kabuki theatre. Front row seats, of course."
His Blue-Eyes. Yami transferred it into his pocket with barely a look, and Seto watched it go. He knew where he’d gotten that card, and when, and in what circumstances. Some replica card straight out of Pegasus’ factory was going to be a very poor replacement, and it took all his willpower to hide his regret. But he wasn’t a child, he understood about priorities, and sacrificing one Blue-Eyes to save the integrity of all three of them (plus that one extra from the factory, and maybe he could arrange to have the one he’d given Yami destroyed later on, so he’d still own all the Blue-Eyes cards) was a pretty good trade-off.
“...Kiyoshi,” Yami was saying, “and then after that I want to watch kabuki. ...Best theatre in town ...front-row seats,” he kept prattling on, describing what sounded like the most boring evening in the history of the world, and Seto gave a little sigh, letting himself notice, just for a moment, how much he was sacrificing to save his Dragons, before returning to the conversation.
“Kiyoshi,” he said, “of course,” and then, “and kabuki, certainly Yami, if that’s what will please you.” It wouldn’t please him, -- He hated fancy restaurants, and kabuki theatre was just a lot of guys in white makeup making funny poses all over the stage as far as he was concerned. -- but this evening wasn’t about him, he knew that going in. He was fulfilling an obligation here, and once it was fulfilled he’d never look at Yami’s face again (except when it was behind a duel disk on the opposite side of a tournament field). “Is next Tuesday good for you, Yami?” he said. “About seven?”
"That would be just fine," Yami answered. He tilted his head. Seto was still sitting on the sofa, and he agreed with everything, even giving him one of his Blue Eyes as soon as he, Yami, had asked for it. What was going on? Kabuki theatre should be a torture to the CEO, and he was still agreeing. He didn't believe it was a prank anymore, not after Seto giving him the BEWD; no prank in the world could make him hand his card over like that. Yami wasn't stupid. Something else had to be at work. Something so terrible, so gruesome, that it had Kaiba Seto cooperating. What could it possibly be? Mokuba kidnapped? Another whacko with a powerful card claiming to conquer the world?
"Are you going to tell me what this is all about?" he asked, curiously. The BEWD was safely in his pocket, he'd have to store it more carefully later. No doubt Seto was going to duel him for it sooner or later and he hated his cards to wrinkle or be stored in any less than perfect condition. "We’ve hardly spoken until now, and you suddenly ask me on a date?" He didn't know if Seto was going to tell the truth or not, but his curiosity was going to the roof. "If you're so willing to accommodate me, I should've asked for much, much more." It was mean, but he almost had to grin.
“What this is about?” Seto scowled. He should have seen this coming. Yami was smart; it was one of the ways a person could tell him from his Other, Yuugi, who wasn’t exactly dumb, but was so eagerly cooperative and friendly, that he might as well have been. “Why does it have to be about anything?” he demanded. “Maybe I’ve wanted to ask you out for a long time. Maybe I’ve been thinking about you,” -- Only he hadn’t, so he wasn’t able to get very much conviction into his voice that way. He revised, trying to sound more plausible. -- “...Maybe I get tired of work, work, work all the time, and I want to talk to someone who shares the same interests as I do.” That last bit sounded true, because it felt true, or at least it did until Seto remembered that this rival of his, who supposedly shared his interests, had just trapped him into an evening of kabuki theatre and fancy-ass French cooking. “It’s not like I meet a lot of people my age in the business world,” he added, a little more lamely.
Lame was a good word for how he felt in general, about this discussion. And whiny, and wangsty; the next thing you knew, he was probably going to be leaning on Yami and burying his face in his shoulder, and how hard would that be, considering he was a head taller than him! How convincing could he possibly be if he acted all out of character like this? But he didn’t want to tell Yami about his deal with Pegasus. There was no way he was going to let his rival see him dancing to that American lunatic’s tune again for a second time. “You always have to over-analyze everything,” he told Yami. “Pick-pick-pick, you’re always picking at things. Can’t you be content that some things are just the way they seem on the surface for once?”
“I just ...wanted to do something different. I wanted to spend some time with someone my own age, who wasn’t Mokuba, for a change. I wanted to talk to someone else, and maybe have some fun. If it’s such a problem for you to get used to the fact that I might want your company, then forget it. Just give me my card back and I’ll leave, Yami.”
Yami was still standing in the middle of the living room, with Seto in front of him, still processing the CEO's words and trying to.. well, to pick at them, just as Seto 'accused' him of. It was difficult to believe that Seto had been thinking of him in any other way than to get his revenge for all duels lost, but on the other hand, he could understand, at least sort of, Seto's words about work-work-work. It was no secret that he always worked, Yami could imagine that Seto wanted to do something different. Only why he would pick his rival to do that... they were rivals, weren't they? Well, at least on the dueling field. Outside of that, they had no qualms about each other, except each of them thinking the other was a big-ass jerk, maybe. So maybe Seto had thought about him after all, and as working all the time had finally gotten to him, he had turned to him, Yami, for distraction.. for a date. He couldn't exactly blame Seto for barging in and demanding one, could he? Seto had no social skills, but the way he wanted to give Yami everything, even a night at a kabuki theatre, was.. actually kind of cute. Yami started to feel flattered.
"All right," Yami finally said. "I can see you want to do something else but work all the time. You'd work yourself to death if it was possible, it's good that you look outside of it, just like any other young man. You've accomplished so much already, a break would be nice." A break for himself would be nice too; it would mean saying goodbye to dusting and cleaning for a while. But if he had known better about this situation, he would've asked Seto to buy him his own apartment, for crying out loud. The BEWD safe in his pants pocket, he thought about showing it to Yuugi and telling him about Seto and the date. His aibou would probably keel over from shock. "Then next week Tuesday, seven o'clock it is," he showed his trademark smirk, "I accept your challen... ah, your date, Kaiba."
