Chapter Three

"Huh." Prompted by a familiar tingle, Yugi had spent the morning playing with his computer, skimming over the massive amount of internal information about Dual Designs, Inc. available to him at his very desk. He wasn't certain what had triggered his psychic hunch, but as he poked about trying to satiate it, he was impressed with how well the company he shared with Kaiba had been organized. He and Kaiba had fifty-eight employees – with two of them being Seto Kaiba and Yugi Motou themselves. Aside from the art department which was responsible for any final clean up work on Yugi's designs to make them camera-ready for the cards; typefaces and graphics for boxes, sleeves, advertisements; point-of-purchase art and the like, there was a small legal department securing patents for aspects of the game play and copyrights for the art. There were people gathered into various other supportive departments, like personnel. And, it was poking about in the information readily available in this department that Yugi discovered an interesting fact – one that quieted his psychic tingle once he realized what he was looking at.

Kaiba had been completely accurate when he said that both he and Yugi drew salaries, just like any other employee of the company. These were matching, modest salaries, not designed to drain the financial resources of the new company, but still, competitive wages for the work each of them was doing. It took a moment for Yugi to realize what Kaiba had done with his own salary.

"Why that sneaky..." Yugi leaned back in his chair in admiration. It's a good thing Kaiba's not in the office right now, or I'd...

Yugi looked at the screen's display of information again, shaking his head in wonder. Kaiba really did want this company and his game to succeed. The man had put his money where his mouth was, so to speak, as his salary was designed to automatically return to the company as something of a continuing 'seed investment'. Yugi knew they'd established the company as an exact fifty-fifty ownership split between them. There were no shares for Kaiba to be buying to try to gain more control of the company than Yugi. There was nothing for Kaiba to gain by returning his salary to DDI – except Yugi's understanding and admiration. Since Yugi had to dig about for this information, prompted by his psychic gift, it's not something Kaiba had ever expected him to discover.

He'd probably get all weird and try to Mokuba Dodge me if I mentioned it, Yugi thought. But, it is cool that he believes in us enough to have done this. I know he doesn't need the money, what with Kaiba Corporation and all, but still...

Rationalizing that he didn't need the money either, with the investing he'd done with the five million Kaiba had rewarded him, and his own savings from his prior job, Yugi quickly set his own salary to do what Kaiba's was doing – return to the company as a bulwark against future growth. Satisfied with his decision, Yugi opened his game file to work on refining how the traps in his game functioned.

Momentarily stuck with how to balance one particularly powerful trap with the rest of the game, Yugi turned away from his computer. He reached out for a fresh sheet of paper and his favorite art pencil. He wasn't really paying any attention to the random lines he drew across the paper. His mind was occupied with trying to figure out one Seto Kaiba, his business partner.

Yugi admitted the man was always honest – for a certain value of honesty. Kaiba never lied to anyone – except himself. It was strange how Kaiba would say one thing, seemingly do the opposite, and yet not have lied. The Mokuba Dodge was the foremost example of this. It was a way for Kaiba to express his feelings and concerns, without lying, because Mokuba would feel the same way Kaiba claimed. Yugi had learned to take Kaiba's Mokuba Dodges in stride, realizing it was important for Kaiba to express his feelings, but equally important they be veiled. Kaiba was a surprisingly sensitive person under all his pretense of being a jerk. Well, no, Yugi admitted to himself, Kaiba is still a jerk, but there's something worthwhile under it all.

Yugi looked down and realized that while he was musing about his partner, he'd managed to doodle a rather intricate maze.

"Huh." Yugi picked up the sketch and chewed on the end of his pencil while he regarded it with a critical eye. Too bad I can't call it 'Mokuba Dodge', but I'm sure Kaiba would get way too weird about it if I did.

Still pondering, he put the sketch down and reached for a different pencil. While he continued to refine the sketch, Yugi kept turning over ways for the maze to work as a trap in his game. But, he already had a labyrinth trap card that he liked and didn't want to get rid of it in favor of this one.

Yugi turned over the genesis of this image in his mind. He'd been musing about understanding Seto Kaiba, a futile mental exercise to be sure. Kaiba never did do what Yugi expected him to. Draw a salary, then give it back to the company that gave it in the first place. Yugi's pencil lightly traced the first bend in his maze's wall. Actually care about people, but be completely unable to admit it, except by cloaking it in a deeper concern for his brother's wishes. That was represented by the dead end in the maze Yugi'd drawn toward the 'back' of the dimensional image. He really wanted to make this a card in the game, but even though the image was worthy, he couldn't come up with a function for the labyrinth trap, or walls of maze... A bizarre image of a card with a corn-inspired motif wandered across his mind.

What could this card do? It was just a maze to trap enemies, but... Yugi grinned. Just as Kaiba never did what was expected, this card shouldn't either. It would make sense for it to be a trap card, therefore it couldn't be a trap card. A spell card? It would be a weak one, and Yugi didn't want this card to be weak. A monster card? What could a wall do, except fall on someone as an attack? Wait, it didn't have to attack. Maybe a defensive monster card...

He'd never seen anything quite as defensive as Kaiba's way of dealing with expressing his emotions when they might inconveniently reveal something about himself he didn't want to admit. It occurred to Yugi that the 'Mokuba Dodge' was purely a defensive maneuver on Kaiba's part. In fact, Yugi didn't think there was any way Kaiba could ever use that odd quirk of his to attack anyone, since it would automatically mean that Mokuba wanted something bad to happen to someone. No attack value for this monster appealed to him. Yugi scribbled a zero for the monster's attack and considered what defensive value he should give it. After a moment of thought, he had it. Three thousand, just like the Blue-Eyes attack value. Kaiba might not ever realize this card is based on him, just like the Blue-Eyes, but the hint is there. Yugi grinned wickedly.

So, a purely defensive monster with no attack and an ultimate defense. Labyrinth Wall. These walls form a labyrinth with no exits for enemies.

Just as he finished adding the code that would indicate this was a card to be officially added to the game, Kaiba himself strode into the office, and placed his laptop down on the desk. Or, tried to. The computer immediately began to roll, as Yugi's pencils, again, had rolled over to Kaiba's side of the desk. Glaring at him, Kaiba sighed, lifted his laptop again, scooped up the offending pencils, and thrust them at Yugi.

"Why must you always use my side of the desk?" Kaiba growled.

"Good day to you, too, Kaiba," Yugi countered, accepting his pencils.

Kaiba grunted, opened his now-stable laptop and called up a report just as the phone on his side of the desk chimed.

"Yes?" A pause. "Motou's mess slowed me down. Give me a moment, then send the call through."

By the end of the day, Yugi considered adding thorns to his Labyrinth Wall, Kaiba had been just that prickly. When he realized the 'thorns' he was imagining were more like giant pikes whose lethal metal tips met in the middle, just like something out of an action movie, he decided not to change anything, just yet. Still, Kaiba had been impossible all day long. Yugi had knots of tension between his shoulder blades that didn't ease until he'd gotten home and pounded them with very hot water in his shower. He mused about how his really good day at work had turned to dust once Kaiba got there with his mega-grumbly attitude.

If things don't change, there's no way this company can succeed. The unwelcome thought saddened Yugi more than he expected.

– – – – –

It was strange, Yugi realized, that he felt nervous about seeing Kaiba at Kaiba Corporation. Duel Designs, Inc. was an office, and a business, too, but... Yugi's job was to draw and create the game. Because of that it hardly felt like a business to him. Kaiba Corp., on the other hand, was serious. Yugi knew that in the bowels of the mighty company somewhere there was someone who did as he did – leaned back in a chair and used his creativity and his mind to come up with a new concept that would ultimately enrich a game. Of course, that creative person in Kaiba Corporation worked on holograms, or microchips, or something else technical and far more serious than a mere game. But, the aspects of Kaiba Corp. that Yugi always saw were the executives in custom-tailored suits who were concerned with legal concerns, patents, multimillion dollar investments – oh, and said company's CEO. Kaiba was never 'fluffy' at the best of times, about the only time he ever unbent enough to appear to even know what the word 'fun' even meant was – was around his little brother. Whenever Kaiba was ensconced in his corporation he was a horse of a different color. Yugi thought he would rather face a dragon curled up on a vast pile of treasure than to meet with CEO Seto Kaiba, at Kaiba Corporation, again.

There was no helping it. Evidently some important papers required both his and Kaiba's signatures, and Kaiba's very full appointment book meant he wouldn't be coming to Dual Designs, Inc. soon enough before the papers had to be filed. Really, it wasn't a bother for Yugi to meet at Kaiba Corp. It was just not the most comfortable place for him. He might be an executive himself, now, but he didn't feel any different. He still felt very much out of his element whenever he had to make an appearance in the corporate world – and Kaiba Corporation most definitely was part of that unsettling world.

Yugi sighed while he waited in the reception office just outside of Kaiba's office. He refrained from swinging his feet in boredom, instead indulgently cursing his 'short' genes that made it so his feet didn't comfortably reach the floor in a standard sized chair. It might only be Kaiba's executive secretary, but Yugi didn't want to appear like a fidgety child before the man.

Slightly bored, he looked around. It really was fascinating how the computer monitor at the man's desk was fully virtual, a hologram emitted by the desk, containing no real substance in and of itself. A thought nudged at Yugi's mind, an important one, but before he could draw it out and examine it, the phone at the man's desk chimed. It was a signal, for the man rose from his desk and crossed to the door leading to Kaiba's office.

"Mr. Kaiba will see you, now."

Yugi slid off the chair, pulled the hem of his jacket to straighten it, and entered the room. As he walked across the room to Kaiba's desk, he was struck once again at how neat – ruthlessly neat – Kaiba's office was. Well, that was the nice way to put it. To Yugi's way of looking at things, it was sterile. Yugi knew that Kaiba did a ton of work, and yet there was no sign of it, no papers, no computer media, no product prototypes cluttering the office – anywhere. Yugi suppressed a shiver at how alien such a barren workspace was to him.

In his mind's eye he visited his workspace. His desk had the fully articulated model of the human form that he used as a reference for proportions. That he would sometimes fold silly paper hats to put on the head of the model was just for amusement, and to unblock his creativity. There were many grades of artist's pencils, his art pens and dipping ink well, several different types of erasers for the different weights and types of paper he used – and an abacus. That had been the weird graduation gift from his grandpa when he'd completed his course of study as an accountant. Yugi wasn't working as an accountant anymore, but he still liked having the abacus nearby so he could play with the beads when he was worrying at a problem. It had been his lucky talisman at his last job. Perhaps that luck would wear off on DDI, too. Kaiba had given him an odd look when he placed the abacus on his side of the desk that first week they were setting up, but he hadn't said anything.

Today, Kaiba was in his full, intimidating 'business man/CEO' mode. His manner indicated that he just needed Yugi to read and sign the documents in his presence (while he did the same) so they could be filed with the appropriate authorities, and get on with his day. Kaiba's demeanor suggested very strongly that he didn't have any time for idle chit-chat.

While he was reading through the papers, with the calm Mr. Cumberson at hand to explain anything made too obscure by the legalese, Yugi overheard the reason for Kaiba's behavior. He was getting ready to travel to America and submit Kaiba Corporation's services in a bidding war for a substantial contract with a prestigious company. Yugi shuddered as that was the end of the business he had no aptitude or tolerance for. Despite his abrupt manner with Yugi, Kaiba seemed to face the prospect of pitting Kaiba Corporation against other companies for this contract with a sort of thinly veiled glee.

"So, when are you leaving?" Yugi asked casually as he placed the papers he'd just finished signing on the desk for Kaiba's signature.

Kaiba gathered the papers before they rested on the fine wood surface for even a full minute, signed them himself as he'd already read and understood them, and handed them to Mr. Cumberson. "Leaving? Oh, for America. In two weeks. I'll be putting in extra hours at DDI this week and next so that the trip doesn't impact our company too much."

Yugi grinned. Kaiba hardly had to explain his actions to him, but it did make it seem as if they really were partners when he did. So did Kaiba's reference to 'our company'. "See you tomorrow, then?" Yugi thought to take his leave and let Kaiba get on with his Kaiba Corporation work.

"No, I'm needed here all day tomorrow. Wednesday. Eight o'clock, sharp." Kaiba suddenly met his eyes and gave Yugi his full and undivided attention. "Thank you. For coming down here to sign those papers. Mr. Cumberson informed me that they need to be filed today, and there was no way I could come down to the DDI offices."

Yugi smiled, again. "No problem. See you later!" Yugi waved as he crossed the room and let himself out.

Mulling over his trip to Kaiba Corporation on the way back to the Dual Designs, Incorporated office, Yugi was struck by a thought. Kaiba, even though he was mega-busy, maybe because he was mega-busy now that Yugi thought about it, seemed – content in his office at Kaiba Corporation. More content than Yugi had ever seen him at DDI. Some of that might be that Kaiba Corp. was an established company, but, Yugi suspected the reason might be even more simple than that. So simple, in fact, that he almost missed it.

He decided to try an experiment. Starting Wednesday, for the rest of the week since Kaiba would be there each day, Yugi made every effort to be scrupulous about keeping the top of the partnership desk clear – even though it made him edgy. He kept the topmost, right-hand drawer on his side slightly open so he could drop his hand in it and touch the now-hidden abacus beads for comfort whenever the starkness of the work surface got to be too much for him. When he was actively working, he made certain to never let any of his work wander over to Kaiba's side of the desk. Once he'd finished with his art supplies, he reminded himself to place them back in the drawer. Yes, even his articulated model. Kaiba's mood improved. By Friday his partner had begun to radiate some of that contented energy Yugi had noted in Kaiba's office at Kaiba Corporation.

Telling himself it is for a good cause, Yugi deliberately left a messy, half-completed sketch, a handful of pencils, and his kneaded eraser scattered on Kaiba's side of the desk the day before Kaiba was to leave on his trip. As he now expected, Kaiba was curt, on edge, and unhappy that entire day. Kaiba refrained from saying anything openly to Yugi about it, but Yugi had caught his partner eyeing him as if Kaiba wanted to say something. Each time, Kaiba stopped himself, thinned his lips in a disapproving line, and turned away. It was a great relief to both of them to realize that Kaiba would leave for his trip the next day.