Thank you so much for reading and reviewing as always! I'm sorry for being a little late, but you know how hectic the end of the year can be. I also want to thank my beta, Fleet Sparrow, once more!
Yu-Gi-Oh! and its characters don't belong to me. I didn't make any money writing this.
BREAKING NEWS
by Inktrap
Chapter 3
Class should have been a blissful experience. It always was. The teacher was scary enough to keep the students quiet and Katsuya would usually enjoy the silence with a long, invigorating nap.
Not this time. Whenever the teacher looked at the board, multiple eyes turned at him and Kaiba. He knew people were staring at Kaiba because he was peeking too. Katsuya didn't particularly feel like watching him, but even when trying hard to pay attention to the board--something he never did--he simply knew Kaiba was trying to kill him when he wasn't looking. He didn't want to take chances. Yet, burning in his pocket, the crumpled newspaper still called for his attention.
Deciding that his imminent death was unlikely, and that he'd have better chances at survival if he knew what Kaiba was holding against him, Katsuya slowly took the paper out. He unfolded it under his desk, making sure the teacher wouldn't take notice, and started to read.
There were a lot of Kaiba's pictures. They drew his eyes first, because the text was too much, too tiny, and Katsuya didn't even like to read the words in Duel Monsters cards.
Damn, Kaiba was popular. What did the guy have that he didn't? Well, it was an easy question with an obvious answer, but Katsuya still felt pretty upset. There were like, three pictures of him there. And Kaiba had about ten, most of them being adds for his company's products.
It kinda bothered him. There was about one girl who played Duel Monsters (well, there also was Anzu who, no matter how many times she had beaten him at the game, was his friend and therefore Not A Girl; and Rebecca, who was eight), and she didn't give a flying fuck about Kaiba.
Oh god, he hoped she didn't.
Not that it'd be weird if Mai cared about money, status, and beauty.
Not that he thought that Kaiba was pretty, but this seemed to be the general opinion of whoever wrote the article, as words like 'gorgeous' and 'hot stuff' and 'sexgod' seemed to appear next to his name (his horrible personality going seemingly ignored).
So much for journalistic impartiality.
His own name had only earned the adjective of 'that guy from Kaiba's classroom'. He didn't even know why Kaiba was so angry. Katsuya certainly wouldn't mind if the only words said behind his back were "What a nice ass" from girls he didn't know.
Kaiba should make a Duel Monsters game with his own pictures instead of the originals. Blue Eyes White Kaiba. Trap card Kaibaland.
It'd sell millions.
Katsuya couldn't understand girls at all. Wasn't there a time when personality counted more than a pretty face?
Not that Kaiba was good looking.
Okay, maybe he was. But what, couldn't a man find another man attractive?
Girls found each other pretty all the time. "I wish I could be pretty as this actress" or "This model is so beautiful!". He had heard enough from Anzu. Katsuya would go to his grave swearing to not find anything good in Kaiba, but, hey, he could only lie to himself to a certain extent. Girls were unfair. Just look at Anzu. Yuugi had the biggest crush on her, yet she just started noticing him when he finished his puzzle and grew…strange. Especially at those weird times when he seemed to appear a little taller, when his voice was huskier. Yuugi wasn't even as nice to her during those moments, at least not the way he was when he felt normal. All the other Yuugi cared about was Duel Monsters.
Honda was also a good guy. Not good enough for his Shizuka, of course, since his sister was the exception to the rule, but Katsuya couldn't understand why Miho wouldn't date him.
Mai was another one. By lack of a better definition, Mai was just like the harpies she played with.
Not that Katsuya was the best kind of guy, but he was trying to change. Didn't it matter? So what if Kaiba could appear good in promo shots, if he could buy everything a girl (or anyone, for that matter) could want? Kaiba was a dick. He probably would treat her like shit, too.
Apparently, it was normal for guys to bully the girls they liked. It was what the newspaper article said, as if that explained all their fights in the school hallways. Katsuya couldn't argue with it. He had always been a bully, he knew how it worked, though this rule was generally applied to children in kindergarten.
He remembered Yuriko, from first grade, whom he called ugly until his sister pointed out that it wasn't the right way to attract her attention. Then he started throwing paper balls at her.
The day she left school crying in her mom's chest was perfectly clear in his mind.
In fourth grade, he and the other boys liked to corner the pretty girls and call them a few mean words. In eighth grade, he started trying to get closer to the girls, but somehow they only found him annoying. Even now, all he did was fight against Mai. He had harassed the boys, of course, but that was different. He had always been persistent with the girls he liked. The boys were only there to show off.
It wasn't as if Kaiba only fought against him. Heck, those newspaper writers were probably looking at the wrong person to talk about. Kaiba was obsessed with Yuugi, not Katsuya. After all, Kaiba didn't humiliate only Katsuya….
At least he respects Yuugi, sort of, Katsuya thought, sighing. Kaiba acknowledged Yuugi's strengths, even when Yuugi lost to him on purpose. He also had shown respect to other duelists during matches. Pegasus, for example; though respecting Pegasus as a person was beyond anyone but Yuugi, with his understanding and faith in other people.
Kaiba didn't even start to treat him better once he won second place in the Duelist Kingdom. Still all the same insults: mutt, dog, mediocre, pathetic, weak, third rate duelist. Katsuya had never known why Kaiba didn't simply ignore him.
Kaiba Seto walked through people in the school hallways as if they were ghosts or some lowly beings unworthy of being in his immaculate presence. Just once or twice he'd growl at Yuugi and glare at him.
But not Katsuya.
He bothered Kaiba, Katsuya realized, absentmindedly looking at the newspaper. He bothered Kaiba enough for that jerk to bully him like he used to bully little school girls.
Well, he hoped Kaiba wasn't thinking of him as a little school girl. Because then….
Oh shit, he thought, a sick feeling settling in the bottom of his stomach.
Kaiba can't possibly like me.
------------- To Be Continued
Thank you for reading! I hope you're enjoying the story, and that you're anxious for the next chapter!
