Just One of Those Days
by: iloveatem
It had just been one of those days, but on a whole different level.
It wasn't that some colossal thing had occurred. It was just a build up of many things. And despite popular belief, Kaiba Seto is only human.
His alarm clock went off an hour late. He woke up at 6 when he should have woken up at 5. He had no idea why it had decided to go off an hour late. It couldn't have been his fault.
So he was in a hurry, being an hour late, only to find that his best suit (the black one that had been specially fitted to his slim figure) had a gapping hole in the backside. How this had happened, he had no idea. Why hadn't he noticed it? Yet another thing that had slipped his mind.
Screw it. He threw on the pants and a long sleeve black shirt, his dark purple trench coat (felt like going retro today), and tossed the rest of his poor suit on the banister to remind him to get it fixed.
He would usually spend 2-3 hours at the office before school started, just because he was an efficient guy. Now, he would only be able to spend about an hour at the office. His mood wasn't fouler than usual because of the day's events. He could handle a few hardships. But he was still far from a ray of sunshine.
"Kaiba-sama, sir, I have the minutes to this morning's conference," said a well-dressed but nervous looking woman in her thirties, handing Kaiba a small stack of papers.
'I forgot about that' Kaiba thought sourly. He muttered something dark and took the papers, shutting the door to his office slightly harder than need be.
It didn't take him long to find out that the office was out of coffee. This guaranteed the CEO an entire day of exhaustion and mental anxiety. Whoop-de-do.
After about 45 minutes of mindless typing and simmering down, Kaiba Seto realized that today had been the deadline for a large and important report regarding a multi-million dollar deal with a company in China. And then he realized something else that was rarely realized by this CEO for the sake of his employees.
…the report was not on his desk.
Grabbing his phone and dialing the extension to the person who was in charge of the surveillance of such reports, Kaiba firmly asked, "Who was assigned to the Chinese Gamers' account?" He could hear the sound of typing.
"Tsubaki, sir," answered the voice of a man whose name had slipped Kaiba's mind.
"And why isn't it on my desk?" he asked, he voice low and threatening.
More typing was heard.
"It appears Tsubaki committed suicide about two weeks ago and the project was never reassigned, sir."
After hearing this news, the first things to flash through Kaiba's mind were 'Who should I punish?' and 'How should I punish them?' Yes, after learning one of his employees committed suicide, Kaiba Seto comes up with punishment plans. No, he isn't normal.
"Reassign the project to someone dependable and have them get it done by 3 o'clock today" Kaiba said calmly, hanging up the phone soon after. He would fire the nameless man after he did his last duty. Kaiba didn't want a half-assed job, after all, and that's certainly what he would get from a man who knew he was going to be fired. But he was perfectly aware that his schedule would be thrown all out of whack because of this delay.
He arrived at school 15 minutes early. He didn't mean to, he honestly thought he was in a hurry. And his watch had stopped working.
This is just early enough that he had a while to wait for it to start (and everyone knows just how much Kaiba hates waiting) and just late enough that he had to wait WITH people (and everyone knows just how much Kaiba hates people). And just his luck, the classroom door was still locked. His only form of solitude was gone. He was to wait…in the hallways.
The hallways swarming with…people. And not just ANY people: high school students. Lord help him.
So he took to standing outside the classroom door. There was no bench close enough for it to be worth him making his way through the swarming students, and he didn't like benches anyway. And if leaned on the wall like this, perhaps no one would bash into him.
But remember, this was not Kaiba's day.
A body ended up ramming Kaiba's. Kaiba, being Kaiba of course, managed not to budge at all from his position on the wall. Even the unfortunate person, in this case, Jounouchi Katsuya, who had bumped into him, was able to stay upright, even if he was thrown back a foot or so. This deprived Kaiba of the pleasure of seeing his perpetrator at least hurt their tailbone. Poor guy.
"God, Kaiba, at least stand somewhere where you won't be in the way!" Jounouchi snapped, regaining his composure. It was at this time that Kaiba realized that his side hurt. A lot.
"It isn't my fault that you're a pathetic moron who doesn't have the common sense to watch where he's going," he said empathically, taking a quick glance at Jounouchi to check if…yes, there it was. It appeared Jounouchi was holding a plastic folder, the corner of which had effectively stabbed Kaiba in the side during their collision. And now he was in pain. Damn.
"Not one for small talk, eh Kaiba? Why don't you drop your witty shit and take me on like a man?" Jounouchi growled, his fists clenched. Kaiba looked at him dully, then made an up and down waving motion with his hand.
"Run along now," he muttered. He really wasn't having the kind of day where he felt like wasting his time on petty fools. Jounouchi smirked, made a satisfied 'hmph' noise, and walked off. This reaction was unexpected. Kaiba promptly felt saddened by it. And annoyed. Was this day so horrible that he was deprived even of the simple pleasure of seeing Jounouchi Katsuya angry? Apparently so.
And his side still hurt.
He tried his best to ignore it as he sat in his usual seat near the back of the class, but also closest to the door. Or, at least, he would have if…
"Caution: Wet Floor" is what the sign said, the one that was propped up right where his desk usually was, accompanied by a bucket. Glancing up at the ceiling, he noticed a hole had been torn through it, dripping a sickly and unidentifiable gray substance (which explained the bucket).
"Sorry, Kaiba-san, there was an accident yesterday. You'll have to sit elsewhere today," sensei Kira said sympathetically. Kaiba's blood boiled at the sound of pity from her voice.
"There are no extra desks in this class, sensei," he spoke slightly harsher than was necessary, but he was angry. Of all the desks to have a gapping, dripping hole over, why his? And why did sensei pity him?!
She smiled at him (this pissed Kaiba off even more) and said "Well, we'll just have to hope someone is absent today, won't we?"
During this whole encounter, students had steadily been filing into the room. And it was at this time that Kaiba could look up and notice if anyone was absent, and just how horrid their desk location was. Only a single person was absent, one Honda Hiroto, and Kaiba couldn't have been more disdainful at his new sitting arrangement for the day than if he had been assigned to sit on the roof. In fact, he would have preferred it.
Honda sat in the exact center of the room, the exact center of all 43 students now sitting and chatting animatedly, waiting for class to start. He sat behind Mazaki Anzu, in front of some kid Kaiba didn't know but rightfully assumed was a moron, and (if things couldn't get any worse) in-between Mutou Yuugi and Jounouchi Katsuya. But he hid his dread and disgust well under a face that suggested he couldn't care less as he made his way through the aisle thick with students' things and limps. He swiftly sat in his new and, please god, temporary desk, pretending he didn't notice that he had just literally cut in between Yuugi's and Jounouchi's conversation about who-knows-what.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Kaiba?" Jounouchi snapped. Yuugi tilted his head questioningly. Kaiba didn't know which reaction annoyed him more. But he wasn't about to waste his time answering the mutt's question. And so he ignored him, staring at the front of the room with a stern look on his face, easily seeing over Anzu's head.
"His desk is gone, and Honda's is the only one unoccupied," speaking of Anzu's head, it had just turned around and deprived Kaiba yet again of the pleasure of seeing Jounouchi angry. Gee, thanks.
And his side still hurt.
"Well Kaiba, there always comes some good with bad situations," Yuugi smiled warmly, his eyes sparkling, "Maybe we can take this chance to learn about each other! Wouldn't that be great?"
"Everyone needs friends, Kaiba-kun," Anzu added matter-of-factly.
Oh…so he was in hell now. Hell, how odd. He thought he was there about half an hour ago. Guess he was wrong, because this…this had to be Hell.
"Pffsh! I neither want to learn nor become friends with Kaiba," Jounouchi grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and scrunching into his chair, "I can barely stand being relatively near this asshole."
"The feeling's mutual" were Kaiba's first words since he had sat down. Luckily for him, class started just then.
"Okay students, I have some papers to look through before we can start today's lessons, please talk quietly amongst yourselves until I'm done," sensei said brightly. The students were happy.
Except one, of course.
"So, Kaiba, what have you been up to lately?" Yuugi chirped.
"Jeez Yuugi, can't you tell that he doesn't want to chitchat?" Kaiba was taken aback by the Jounouchi's accuracy, "he's obviously so much better than us that he can't partake in civilized conversation."
"Those are big words for you, mutt, be sure not to break your brain," Kaiba muttered, and Jounouchi almost didn't catch it.
"Aww, how sweet, the big bad Seto Kaiba cares about lil' ol' me!" Jounouchi said, making his eyes big and Yuugi-like. Kaiba wanted to throw up. And, sadly enough, his being caught off guard by a wave of sickness caused him to miss him comeback chance. The other three took his silence the wrong way.
"Hm, looks like he really does care about you, Jounouchi," Anzu muttered, surprised.
"Isn't that great?" Yuugi smiled brightly. Jounouchi had an unreadable expression on his face.
"Oh dear God, you have got to be kidding me," Kaiba growled.
And so it was that small talk took up a lot of his school day. Even as the lessons commenced, Kaiba had the pleasure to realize that the three spoke through lectures. And while he usually didn't listen to lectures anyway, he would have given anything to make them shut up. They had an odd ability to include him in their conversations even though he didn't speak a word. And Kaiba noticed that Jounouchi barely spoke at all. He spent most of his time staring down at his desk with a hard look on his face, like he was deep in thought. Although he did give these quick glances to Kaiba every now and then; Kaiba himself had no idea why.
But, even with the lack of the blonde's input to the talking, Kaiba wanted to die. And his side still hurt.
He could feel it. His sanity was slowly ebbing away. He was going to lose it. What he was going to do when he lost it, Kaiba didn't know. But something cataclysmic was going to happen. He needed. To. Get. Out. Now. Before he punched someone in the face or…something else happened.
It was after what felt like an eternity that the bell rang for the end of classes. Kaiba was itching from head to foot with an unidentifiable feeling that needed to be address immediately. And so it was that Kaiba almost lost his cool as he booked it out of the classroom. The students threw him odd looks. It isn't often that they saw Kaiba Seto looking like he was stressed out. Some laughed in his general direction. He felt nauseous.
And so he flew to his least favorite place in the entire school: the boys' bathroom. True, it was very clean (this is a Japanese high school we're talking about), but Kaiba hated it for multiple reasons: one, there were usually other people there; two, it was too small for his liking; three, who wants to do their business when someone may walk in any minute?; and, four, who likes public bathrooms anyway? Kaiba did his best to avoid it at all costs.
But this day…it had been…ungodly horrible. No amount of public bathrooming could compare.
So he burst in, shutting the door loudly behind him, taking a quick check to see if anyone else was there. No one. What do you know, something good did happen today. He felt sick.
He stood in front of the mirror, gripping the sides of the sink so hard, his knuckles turned white. He was panting, his eyes clenched shut. He just needed a few minutes, a few minutes to allow him to calm down and assess his day. But he wasn't calming down.
Slowly letting go of the sink, he hiked up his black shirt and looked at his side. There was a scrap there, the area around it had been skinned clean, and dried blood ran a little way down his torso. It was red with irritation from his shirt. Kaiba frowned.
Remembering something, Kaiba looked down quickly. He saw nothing. He had left his briefcase in the classroom.
And that's when it happened.
Seto Kaiba had cried twice in his life, not including when he was an infant. The first time had been when his mother had died giving birth to Mokuba. No one had seen him do this; he had done it in the safety of his dark room. The second had been a couple years later when his father had died. Even then, no one had seen him shed a tear; he did so when he was alone. Even during everything, the emotional and physical abuse by Gozaburo, the multiple kidnaps and life or death situations with Mokuba, the fact that his childhood had been ripped away from him, everything, he hadn't cried. And it all came crashing down on him like a ton of bricks.
It started off with a bit of wetness around his eyelids, slowly forming tears that slid down his cheeks one by one. He looked quickly at the mirror, bringing his hand up to touch his damp face, because he really didn't believe it. Him, crying? Really, that couldn't be happening. Seto Kaiba didn't cry. But he had barely enough time to contemplate how to fix this problem before his body became overwhelmed by the feeling. And so he did the only thing his body and mind would let him do at the moment.
He bent over the sink and sobbed.
Not loudly, mind you. He made no wailing noises; he didn't hiccup, or breathe like he was hyperventilating. His eyes didn't get pink and puffy. His body was shaking, but it was hardly noticeable. He closed his eyes and let it come, because, oddly enough, it was making him feel better. And he couldn't have stopped it if he wanted to. It was all too much. And, after all, Kaiba is only human.
So he gripped the sides of the sink again to help him keep standing (his legs were beginning to feel like jelly) while the tears rolled silently down his cheeks like a river. His breath was quiet but choppy from his sobs.
It was an odd feeling filling him, one that he didn't recognize. Like he was full of lead and it was slowly being emptied out of him. Like he was holding the weight of the world on his shoulders and someone had come along and was taking it from him. Like his body had been in drought for ages and it was storming. Like he was dirty, and was being cleansed. It felt…invigorating. Refreshing.
He didn't know how long he stood there, hunched over the sink, crying like a man possessed. Whenever he felt like he was done, a fresh wave of tears hit him, and he could do nothing but let them come. He was lucky; no one ever came into the bathroom. But, strangely enough, this worry never crossed his mind.
His breath eventually steadied. He used some paper towels to dry his face and clean his wound. He spent a small amount of time making sure that he looked normal. He was still sniffling slightly when he exited the bathroom.
And ran smack into Jounouchi.
"Oh, uh, Kaiba!" Jounouchi stared at him when he regained his balance, a stern look on his face. Kaiba merely looked (slightly) surprised. "You forgot your briefcase," he added after a short pause. Kaiba looked at his forgotten metal case in the blonde's hand like he didn't recognize it. The effects of the crying still hadn't worn off, emotionally. He was slightly out of it.
Jounouchi looked at him closely, a bit of awkward concern in his eyes, "Uh, Kaiba, you okay? You look like you your stocks just dropped."
Kaiba averted his eyes from the case to the mutt, the emptiness in his eyes dissipating. And then he chuckled lightly, taking his briefcase back.
"I'm perfectly fine, Pup," he gave a small smile, "And I think it's sweet that you care about little old me." With that, Kaiba ruffled Jounouchi's hair and was on his way, walking down the hall in long strides. He reached the door to the school and pulled it open.
After a stunned silence, Jounouchi whipped around.
"I am not a dog!!"
Kaiba was gone, but Jounouchi was sure he had heard him. The blond cocked his head and smiled.
"So," he said aloud and to no one in particular (the halls were empty now), "You are human." Jounouchi laughed to himself as he headed down the hall and exited the school, thinking that the CEO should cry more often.
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I hope you enjoyed!