CHAPTER 3: HOUSE CALLS

Whatever questions Kaiba may have had – and he had many – when Yugi arrived, he left them alone downstairs while he got ready for work, to all appearances disinterested in whatever explanations Yami might have been offering his partner.

"At least your voice is still the same. It's not all squeaky," Yugi said.

Yami marveled at Yugi's ability to focus on the bright side of any situation. His voice, in fact, was still slightly deeper than Yugi's own.

"What happened?" Yugi asked.

Yami's sigh was full-sized too.

"Mokuba was right. Shadi was trying to re-arrange Kaiba's personality, to make it more like the Seto he remembered."

"I meant, what happened to you?"

"Shadi and I got into an argument as to whether my choice to remain here had diminished me. This was his way of emphasizing his point."

"What can we do to fix it? It's a game right? There must be a way to win."

Yami smiled at the unconscious use of the word, 'we.'

"No, it's not permanent," Yami said. "It's a challenge. There must be a way to force Shadi to undo this. He would not cheat once he had accepted my dare."

"Do you want me to take you home?" Yugi asked, wondering if his pockets were deep enough. Somehow it seemed disrespectful to ask for a shopping bag to carry his friend.

"No. Kaiba is the focal point for Shadi's spell. I need to stay here and figure it out. I just didn't want you to worry."

"You didn't want me to worry…" Yugi said faintly.

"You said it yourself – this is a game we will win. It feels like there's something I should know… should remember…. Perhaps it will come to me. That would be like Shadi, wouldn't it? He was furious at my choice, at my giving up my memories to remain here. It would be like him to create a riddle I need my memories to solve."

"That would be a low trick," Yugi said. "What're you going to do now?"

"Try and figure it out."

"Okay, let's get Kaiba in here and start planning…"

Yami shook his head. "No."

"What? Why?"

"Kaiba was asleep when Shadi and I had our debate."

Yugi's jaw dropped. "You mean he doesn't know any of this?" he asked.

Yami shook his miniature head again.

"Okay, now I get why Kaiba didn't greet me at the door with a rant about staying out of his business, but why on earth didn't you tell him? What could you have possibly said to explain all of this – especially since I know you didn't lie."

"I didn't say anything. Kaiba didn't ask."

"I guess I see your point," Yugi said. "Do you remember how mad he got over Mokuba coming to us when he was stuck in that video game? Just imagine how much worse he'd react to this."

Yami nodded, pleased that Yugi had clearly decided to drop the matter. Yugi, for his part was equally satisfied that his answer had calmed his partner. Yugi knew he wasn't getting the whole story. After all, the thought of Kaiba throwing a fit had never deterred Yami before. But in the face of this new disaster, he couldn't bring himself to say anything else.

Yami looked at Yugi, for the first time uncomfortable, for the first time seeming small… "Partner, if you could…"

"Don't worry. I'll break the news to the others. I'll come back after school."

Yami's first day was a trying one. Kaiba had taken him to work, set up a laptop sensitive enough for Yami to use, and then, except for occasional speculative glances, had ignored the miniature duelist, leaving Yami with little to do but listen intermittently to Kaiba's end of a seemingly interminable series of telephone calls about his upcoming tournament. He was negotiating, or more accurately barking instructions, on an endless catalogue of items – scheduling, accommodations, invitations, logistics – that had, to Yami's way of thinking, absolutely nothing to do with dueling. The thought of spending his days like this made Yami wonder if he'd discovered the cause of the other duelist's legendary bad temper. The only break Kaiba seemed to take was to pull up something on his computer monitor that looked like the plans for a space station, but was probably the latest proposed revisions to his duel disk.

It was boring and fascinating at the same time. Duel Monsters tournaments had simply appeared in Yami's life, as natural as rain in spring. Yugi had been invited; they'd competed; they'd won. He'd never thought about the process of setting up a tournament before, any more than he'd ever analyzed the mechanics of photosynthesis when smelling a flower.

Kaiba's seeming absorption should have given Yami time to think, to focus on the solution to his situation. But he had a hard time focusing on anything but the troubling, infuriating idea that he should already know the answer.

Not that Kaiba paid enough attention to his now-miniature rival to notice.

Kaiba wasn't being intentionally cruel. He just had no practice at being anything else. So he'd ignore Yami, only to sweep him into the desk drawer when people entered the room, without thinking of the staple removers, scissors and mechanical pencils that lay in wait. He'd thrust Yami (head first) into his trench coat pocket, causing Yami to reflect that however much he might appreciate the man he'd come to think of as a human dragon, he had no wish for a closer acquaintance with a Blue Eyes White Dragon key chain.

Yami didn't complain. He'd rather have been skewered by a mechanical pencil point than sue for mercy… or even remind Kaiba that, appearances aside, he wasn't a toy.

But Kaiba must have found the morning as unsatisfying as Yami, because he left before lunchtime – not that he ever bothered eating lunch anyway. And when Kaiba pulled Yami out of his pocket once they were safely back at the mansion, he couldn't help but notice that the other duelist was looking a little worse for wear.

"You ready for lunch?" Kaiba asked gruffly, picking the lint out of Yami's hair.

"Lunch?"

"Yeah. Your room should be ready."

"My room?" This conversation was making less and less sense to Yami, although at Kaiba's words he realized how hungry and tired he was. It was only early afternoon, but it'd been a long day.

When they reached Kaiba's bedroom Yami saw what Kaiba had meant. A low table had been moved next to Kaiba's bed. On it was a one story doll house. It was ingeniously done. Half the rooms were ceiling-less, so that Mokuba or Kaiba could look in. The other rooms, including the bedroom and a bathroom, complete with its own plumbing system, were roofed, affording privacy.

Yami walked through the open area. There was a dining room, set with a table for one, and complete with plates, bowls, and a choice of silverware or chopsticks.

"Kaiba," Yami said, but the tall duelist had already turned away.

"It's amazing the amount of shit they sell for dolls nowadays. Maybe I'm in the wrong business," Kaiba said.

There was a knock at the door. Kaiba answered it and returned with a tray. He moved minutely chopped portions of beef and vegetables to an equally downsized bowl on Yami's dollhouse's dining room table, and placed his own, slightly larger version at the end of the table. Yami wondered what on earth the chef had thought, unless of course, he was so deeply in shock that Kaiba had come home early and requested lunch, that he was incapable of thinking anything at all.

Kaiba had never quite had a meal like this one – and it wasn't only because his lunch companion was in a dollhouse. His usual habit was to race through meals as quickly as possible; he hated wasting any more time than necessary on such a mundane chore. Kaiba was used to sitting through business lunches and dinners of course, but this was different: a meal consumed with someone who was neither a business associate nor Mokuba. Kaiba gave no clue at how unprecedented this all was, and yet his thoughts on the meal were much the same as Yami's on his newly acquired doll sized chair: both were surprisingly comfortable.

"I never did thank you," Yami said as they finished eating.

"For what?" Kaiba responded.

"The driver's license, the identity cards, the birth certificate, the high school diploma… all the paraphernalia of establishing who I am, delivered to my doorstep after we got home from Egypt. You were the only one who could have done it."

"Think of it as another Shadow Game – a modern one. It's amazing how many people mistake information for truth."

"I didn't even realize you knew we were gone. I never told you what had happened," Yami said. "I should have called."

"What would you have said?" Kaiba asked.

"I don't know. Yugi was always the one who knew what to say to friends."

Kaiba shrugged. "No thanks are necessary. I was repaying a debt. You gave me back my identity too, didn't you?"

"Is that truly all you were doing?"

Kaiba grimaced, wondering why it was even harder to lie to Yami in this state, as if honesty was the one gift he could not refuse to grant.

"No," he said.

"Then you're right," Yami said with a smile. "No thanks are necessary. They never are – between friends. We will get through this together, as well."

"Get through this? You didn't lose?" It was as close as Kaiba would allow himself to come to asking what had happened. Irksome as it was, he had promised.

"The game continues," Yami said, hoping Kaiba would accept his answer without comment. He jumped as the intercom buzzer sounded. The butler announced Mokuba's arrival home. Kaiba picked Yami up and they went to meet Mokuba in the living room.

Mokuba took one look at Yami and scowled. Nothing had gone the way he'd planned. He'd come to think of Yami as the guy who could fix anything. But maybe, he realized as he stared at Yami, it would have been better if he'd remembered just how fucked up things could get on the way to being fixed a little bit earlier. At least his brother was safe, and maybe Yami could arrange one more miracle – and soon, before they had to clue his brother in. Luckily before Kaiba noticed his brother's unusual silence, the intercom sounded again. Kaiba answered and turned to Yami.

"Speaking of getting through annoying times – your friends are here," Kaiba said, a slight emphasis on the word, 'your.'

Part of Yami wanted to hide from his friends. He didn't want to hear their exclamations of surprise and pity. But that would have been cowardly. He had accepted and benefited from their encouragement in the past; that left him with an obligation to accept their concern now.

"Shit! Just look at you! Don't worry, Yami. We'll figure out a solution," Jounouchi said as he bounded into the room with Honda, Yugi and Anzu following behind. "No way are we leaving you all shrunk like that."

"For you to figure anything out, you'd have to think first," Kaiba observed. "Well, at least all the unaccustomed activity will keep you busy and out of the way."

"Hi, Yami," Yugi said, ignoring the combatants.

Anzu gave Yami a weak smile and a wave. She glanced at Kaiba and kept her mouth shut tightly, as though afraid a secret would slip out.

"Come on, Yugi – let's take Yami and head back to the Game Shop," Jounouchi said.

"I'm not letting you take him anywhere," Kaiba said dismissively. "You'd probably trade him in for a hamburger."

"Shut up Kaiba! This is probably all your fault to begin with!" Jounouchi shouted.

"Don't be ridiculous. I haven't been responsible for the destruction of life for two years now." Kaiba's words were sarcastic, but he was slightly white around the lips.

"Then how the hell did he end up like this?" Jounouchi challenged.

"Like what? Oh yeah, I guess he is a little shorter than usual," Kaiba said with his usual smirk, possibly pleased to be doing something as familiar as baiting Jounouchi.

"Stop fucking around!"

"It's up to Yami what information he chooses to divulge," Kaiba said. It was just like the mutt, he thought, to come yapping at him for answers when Yugi and Yami were sitting right there.

Yami shut his eyes. "It's not a matter of trust, Kaiba."

Kaiba's lips tightened further, but he managed to keep his voice even as he said, "It doesn't matter, Yami."

"I swear it."

Kaiba looked at him and nodded, but Yami wasn't fooled. Kaiba was wearing the expressionless mask he usually reserved for dueling unknown opponents.

Jounouchi took the opportunity to say to Yugi (in what he hoped was an undertone), "Let's grab him quick and get out of here."

Yugi smiled but said," "You know we can't do that."

"C'mon Yugi – you've got to be crazy to even consider leaving him. Kaiba doesn't know the first thing about friendship."

"No, but he knows everything about devotion and hanging tough," Mokuba shot back. The way Jounouchi always seemed to forget he was trashing Seto in front of his kid brother had Mokuba wondering if he really was as dumb as his Nisama insisted. Mokuba looked at his brother and was relieved to see he'd walked to the window, ignoring the noisy group in his living room… clearly preferring his own thoughts, whatever they were, to the chore of listening to Yugi and his friends.

Yugi's head was down; streaks of yellow hair were covering his face as he said, "It's not my decision. It's Yami's, and I'm not going to even try to interfere. If they're going to have any chance…" Yugi's voice trailed off, and he pressed his lips together. "They need to do this together," Yugi finished after a pause.

"I can put two and two together. This must have something to do with whatever Mokuba…" Jounouchi continued.

Yami considered walking across the couch and biting Jounouchi, but somehow that action had become associated with Kaiba in his mind.

"Jounouchi," Yugi said. "Don't interfere. Please."

"I'll figure it out," Yami said, his old authority back in his voice – and with no indication of how desperately he was clinging to his own certainty.

But his confidence, real or feigned, was enough to send Jounouchi, Honda, and Anzu home eventually in a slightly happier frame of mind. Yugi stayed behind.

Unsurprisingly, dinner was an awkward affair. Yugi looked like he was trying to restrain himself from cuddling Yami as if he was a favorite stuffed animal; Mokuba was too busy trying not to look guilty to spare much thought for anything else. Only Kaiba was being his normally argumentative self, as if determined to prove he wasn't going to cut his rival any slack just because he was now only 9 inches tall.

It was only after Yugi had left, Mokuba was asleep, and Kaiba and Yami were talking that Kaiba discovered – and was shocked by – an impulse to censor his own words.

"How can you… never mind… it's not important," Kaiba said.

"What?" Yami asked, a familiar hint of challenge in his voice.

Kaiba paused, still disconcerted by his own impulse to be kind. Kaiba knew how he was supposed to feel. His rival – the only person ever to have beaten him – was now a fucking doll. He was Kaiba. He was supposed to gloat. Because even if he hadn't exactly won, Yami had undeniably lost. And yet, the little figure standing as proudly as ever on his night table didn't seem to know that he'd been defeated. This was just another move in another game. The fine vestigial hairs on Kaiba's arms stood up; the strength of will implied in Yami's unconscious gesture was electrifying. Kaiba felt charged, the way he'd always felt just a little more fired up while dueling Yami – even though all they were doing at the moment was sitting in his bedroom talking. He frowned at his own stray thoughts and focused on the matter at hand: was it kindness to censor his own words as if Yami was too small to bear up under them? He'd always believed that mercy and contempt were intertwined, and that was the one emotion he refused to feel for Yami.

"How can you carry on as if this is all okay with you? Where's your anger? Your pride?" he finally asked.

"Anger clouds judgment. Did you think every time I screamed that at you I was parroting empty words? Did you think me a hypocrite? As for pride…"

Yami paused, drowning the flash of anger he'd just shown. "My pride is as full-sized as ever. But there is something that's just as expansive – faith – in myself and in others, to win through. And that is so great it crowds out everything."

"What if that fails you?"

"It can't. How can it let me down? It's the thing that sustains me."

"Some times the things that feel the most a part of us are the things that fail us the worst. The things that helped us survive are the ones we must, in the end, erase."

"I heard you locked your deck in a vault – that you're not dueling in your upcoming tournament." Yami's voice rose slightly, making almost a question – or an invitation to talk.

Kaiba nodded.

"I couldn't imagine it… dueling is so much a part of you," Yami said.

"When I duel, I can feel the anger, hatred and bitterness all rising to the surface. You rightly named them my demons. I almost killed Mokuba because of them. I'm going to destroy them once and for all, even if I have to starve them into submission to do it."

"Kaiba, you can't banish your demons by cutting out the things you love doing along with them."

"Why not?"

For the first time, Yami wondered just how much damage Kaiba might have done to himself, had he Shadi's powers.

"Because you're amputating a part of your soul! That's not any less of a mutilation, just because your hand is the one holding the knife."

"I had to do something." Kaiba said stubbornly. "You even told me that. Why are you arguing with me now?"

"I never meant for that 'something' to sever you from dueling."

"My decisions are my own – and they're none of your fucking business!"

"Are you telling me not to care? Stop denying that we're friends! I want you to face the challenges in your life, not avoid them," Yami said.

Kaiba wanted to deny their friendship with all his heart. He suddenly hated everything about their association, but most of all the feeling that he had somehow given Yami the right to care about him. There's no way to storm out of one's own bedroom without looking like a bit of a fool, but Kaiba almost did it anyway. But Yami wouldn't be able to follow and continue the fight. And that one thing was enough to keep Kaiba in the room, even as he indulged in the image of Yami, standing marooned and helpless, in his doll house.

"Are you saying I'm afraid?" Kaiba demanded.

"Not of the usual things."

"Not of anything!"

"You knew you could trust us after Duelists' Kingdom. You admitted as much. But when your Board of Directors trapped you in that virtual world, you would have let yourself rot there rather than ask for the help you knew we would rush to give. Then in Noa's World, you walked away every time we tried to come to your aid."

Kaiba's muscles twitched in protest, but once again, he restrained himself from bolting out. He compromised by getting up and pacing the confines of his room, before returning to face Yami.

"I learned not to rely on help, not to depend on anyone but myself. It's a hard lesson to unlearn, especially since trust can only be applied on such rare occasions, like a formal suit donned only for contract signings – while distrust is like a trench coat that can be worn in any weather. But you know that as well as I – since you haven't said a word about how you ended up like this."

Looking at Kaiba's averted face, Yami knew he had made a disastrous blunder when he had decided to keep silent on last night's chain of events. But even as he opened his mouth to confess, he realized this was one wrong that could not be immediately righted. Yami couldn't so cavalierly reveal the secret Mokuba had kept at his request – not without first talking to his young co-conspirator. Whatever he did, it seemed he was guaranteed to end up shortchanging a Kaiba brother – and he knew which one Kaiba would prefer he kept faith with.

"Your pardon, Kaiba. You're right. That's my failing, not yours," he said.

Kaiba wondered how he'd won the argument so easily… and why it was so unsatisfying. After all, Yami's secrets were his business, not Kaiba's. He should have been delighted at the chance to throw Yami's hypocrisy back in his face; thrilled to hear Yami's voice take on that apologetic tone. But somehow losing the brief sense of rapport they'd shared– as brief as the moments of camaraderie that had followed so many of their duels – had hurt more.

Kaiba nodded curtly, his lips aching with the effort of holding back the words: 'But you told Yugi.' He was being foolish and he knew it. Yami and Yugi had always been surrounded by an invisible fence that no one could jump over; he'd never wanted to. So there was no reason to be surprised, much less bothered, to find that hadn't changed even now that they were in separate bodies.

"At Alcatraz, I didn't need to see your card to put it in my deck – even with mine and Yugi's lives on the line. Please believe my silence isn't because of a lack of trust in you," Yami said. "I knew last night, the moment I asked for sanctuary, you'd give it. I have no right to ask, but let me trespass on your limited store of patience and faith for one more day."

It was an opening… a weakness even. Yami had left a drop of his blood in the water and Kaiba knew it was his cue to attack. But he liked hearing Yami's words, liked having that feeling of companionship steal over him again. Even as he was surrendering to it, he was confused by the impulse that led him to say, "That's twice today you've apologized for not clueing me in on your latest body update. What happened the first time?"

Luckily Yami was quicker in seizing the unexpected olive branch than Kaiba was in realizing he'd offered it in the first place (or he might have been tempted to snatch it back). Yami was grateful that Kaiba had asked a question he could answer.

"We went to Egypt. We had a mission, Yugi and I."

Kaiba snorted. "Just can't stop trying to save the world, can you? It's a bad habit."

Yami ignored Kaiba's snide comment with the ease of long practice. "We dueled the enemies from the battle I'd fought 3,000 years ago – the one that had resulted in my being sealed in the puzzle in the first place. I didn't even remember who I had been then. I never found out."

"You must have remembered enough to win."

"I'm not sure that's a game that will ever end. But my mission here was finished, my ancient enemies were banished. I had one more duel – with Yugi – to determine whether it was time for me to return to the shadows or begin a life here."

"I take it you won."

Yami smiled. "It was a tie."

"So you really have no memories?"

"I could only pick one – a past or a future. I was unsure which road to take. Then I thought of you saying that people who don't carry their future within themselves have no light."

"You remembered that?" Kaiba looked startled.

"I remembered the way you looked – like you had just found something you were never letting go of. My name might mean darkness, but I didn't want to let go of that light any more than you. It's the light I feel when we duel."

Kaiba thought about talking of his past at Alcatraz, about talking of light and darkness at DOMA. Why did the strangest situations always seem to bring out his honesty?

"I know. I feel more alive when you're in the arena, like each battle has meaning," he said.

"And I feel tall," Yami said with a smile. He stopped, feeling like a puzzle piece had just slipped through his fingers.

Kaiba grinned, but said, "I meant it."

"So did I," answered Yami.

Kaiba nodded, unsure of what to say. He felt an impulse to ask Yami again how he had wound up like this, to press him for the answer he sensed was inches away, but the mood was so unexpectedly companionable, and it was such a new feeling, he didn't want to break it.

Yami walked into his bedroom. Kaiba turned off the overhead lights. He sat on his bed, staring at the closed bedroom door. He was vaguely glad he didn't have to worry about Shadi popping in for a while. Kaiba had enjoyed the whole bizarreness of his encounters with Shadi…. The way the other man would suddenly appear in his bedroom or office when the rest of Domino was long asleep… how he'd disappear the same way before Kaiba awoke… giving their encounters the feel of one of Mokuba's horror movies.

Here was danger of a different kind. Sitting with Yami, talking with him was just as exciting. He couldn't put his finger on why Yami had always had him so keyed up, as if Yami's regard was somehow different, better even, but he wasn't denying it either. It existed. It was as real as the miniature figure asleep in a doll house in his room, and as unexpected.


Thanks to Bnomiko for betaing this chapter.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: One thing I've always found interesting about the idea of Yami in a separate body, is that it made me aware of just how much of the relating to people stuff Yugi does for the both of them. We know Yami cares deeply for Yugi's friends, but he rarely interacts with them for any length of time, his caring is usually expressed by his actions in duels rather than in words. Some of this, of course, is because it is Yugi's body, and Yami is simply seen a lot more rarely. But I also wonder if it's a bit outside of Yami's comfort zone to interact with anyone besides Yugi, with whom he already has such a symbiotic relationship. Anyway, I wanted to show Yami branching out a bit here, extending his range, even while physically its gotten a lot smaller. In a slightly related note, I think part of what makes his exchanges with Kaiba in Yugioh so interesting for me is the challenging nature of their conversations – even if the challenge is often simply in the challenge of differing ideas.

As usual, comments would be adored...