A/N: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters.
A/N: Warning: Yaoi. If you don't like it, then don't read it. Don't say I didn't warn you. Also, Atem has his own body.
Chapter 4: Kaibas and Their Needs
"Yugi, stop this. What's up with you? What are you thinking about?" Maria pouted kneeling in front of him, trying to get his attention.
"It's nothing," he answered, his eyes still held a vacant look as he stared into the distance. Maria abruptly stood up, pulling Yugi up with her, but lost her balance and they fell back onto the couch, with Yugi on top.
"W-wh-what?" Yugi stuttered, his face blooming a brilliant cherry red.
"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean for that to happen!" Maria apologized, her face a ripe tomato.
"I-It's my fault, too. I should've been able catch you when you lost your balance," Yugi sheepishly hid his face.
"Yugi, I'm much taller than you are. I stand a full head taller than you, even with your hair!" Maria chuckled. (A/N: I contibute Yugi's 5'8" status to his spikey hair. If you don't like the idea, deal with it, please?) She continued, "So don't worry about it alright?"
"Yeah..." Yugi being suspended in mid-air by Maria's arms pushing him upwards so as to reduce the amount of stuttering.
"You know Yugi, this would be kinda comfortable if I could just lay you down without you stuttering," Maria sighed.
"!" Yugi exclaimed a high pitched noise in shock.
"What? Did I say something? Yugi?" Maria worried over the sudden silence of her tri-color-haired friend.
"No-" Yugi started to lie.
"You should know better than to lie to me, Yugi," Maria chastised.
Yugi looked away from Maria, a blush forming noticably on his cheeks, mixing with the remnants of his recent blush.
"Yugi," Maria breathed, laying him down on top of her and giving him the biggest hug he could hope for. Then she kissed him on the forehead.
"Maria, I'm so –" Yugi started.
"Stop apologizing! It's not your fault! It's always my fault! Me leaving, you getting hurt –" Maria started ranting.
"Maria!" Yugi grabbed ahold of Maria's face with his hands. He forced her to look straight at him, continuing, "It's not all your fault either!" Maria's eyes shone with unshed tears, and Yugi did the first thing he could think of – kiss her. Maria's eyes widened noticably, and she was unresponsive for a minute, but then her "Kaiba" blood kicked in and she responded, taking control of the kiss. She was very careful not to force herself down Yugi's proverbial throat. (A/N: Like she could shove herself down the real one. Wait, she could probably force her tongue down his throat... haha)
Yugi struggled to breathe as the kiss lengthened. It wasn't getting any deeper though, so assuming her response earlier meant she wanted him to keep kissing her, he nipped lightly at her lower lip. Maria pulled back immediately, her eyes filled with love and lust.
"You don't tempt—" she hissed in a breath, "—an already overloaded Kaiba." She immediately flipped their positions so he was laying on the couch and she was above him. Maria then hissed, "See what happens?" Yugi was looking up at her, realizing she had complete control of the situation and it's outcome. Maria then pulled completely away walking to another seat before plopping down in it, a hand covered her eyes – the thumb at one temple, and the fingers at ther other.
Yugi sat up, trying to keep his composure. Maria had just flipped the circumstances on him in 10 seconds flat.
/Line break! Yay for line breaks! And for the randomness of the author you get to see! XD/
Atem knocked nervously on the study doors. He had never known anyone to come up to Kaiba's study, while he was working no less, and survive. Then again, no one dared to disturb Seto Kaiba when he was working. Unless of course, you were an Ancient Egyptian Pharoah. Atem only knew one Egyptian Pharoah and that was himself, so there was no one else who had disturbed Kaiba in his study (besides Mokuba) and gotten away to tell Atem his tale.
"Who's there?" Kaiba asked grumpily, not moving an inch. Not even looking up from his desk of work.
"It's—" a slight pause, Kaiba almost swore he heard footsteps walk away, but then the voice spoke again, "—Atem."
"Come in, Atem. I could use your insight on some of these matters anyways," Kaiba sighed to himself. Why had he just done that? He wasn't going to be able to get any work done with Atem in the room. The only possible work he could even try to get done was having himself and Atem test his newest virtual reality for little bugs and cheats.
"And what matters could these be?" Atem's voice sounded too close. Kaiba looked up and noticed Atem was standing next to him. How could he have not heard Atem enter and traverse the spanse of the room?
"I need to test my newest virtual reality, and I need someone outside the family, but still trusted, to test it with me. This way I'll get their honest opinion. Though, to be truthful, I don't have many relatives or friends in this industry, so finding someone outside of Maria and Mokuba is difficult," Kaiba explained.
"So you trust me, and you think of me as a friend?" Atem asked Kaiba hopefully. Kaiba inwardly groaned, he gave away too much.
"The short answer is—Yes. We have work to do, so I won't bore you with the long answer," Kaiba responded, praying to whatever being stood supreme in the universe that Atem wouldn't press him for the longer answer. His prayer was answered as Atem and Kaiba strode to the virtual reality testing area in Kaiba Corp. after a quick, and silent, car ride there.
/Another line break! Time to see what's going on with Maria and Yugi!/
"Yugi, do you want to go test out Kaiba Corp.'s newest virtual reality?" Maria asked.
"Isn't that more Atem's thing?" Yugi pondered.
"Yeah, but I already saw Seto bring Atem out to the car, and I figured that's where they were going. Considering Seto would be unable to focus on any work with Atem there, and the only work he and Atem could really do together is testing out the new virtual reality," Maria explained her logic, sewing together seemingly useless bits of information into the facts needed to support her arguement and question.
"Uh, sure. What's supposed to happen?" Yugi asked.
"Well, from what Seto and I programmed it's supposed to be set in a lush forest with temples spread throughout. Each temple has a guardian; and an item required to enter the high temple, which is where someone you care about is being held captive. It's meant for both solo and group play. But I'm pretty sure there's a kink that if you and your group get seperated, then you each believe you're going to the temple to save each other; when in reality, no one is actually there until one of you arrives," Maria rambled about the experience through the car ride there. They arrived in the virtual reality room to see Atem and Kaiba already in the system. Unfortunately, the fact that the screen was split into two meant that they had gotten seperated, or started seperated. Hopefully, for the sake of Maria and Yugi's prodding them into noticing each other, it was the former of the two.
"I guess we either enter the game late, or wait until their done... any preferences?" Maria asked her guest.
"Uh... not really. Though seeing this world through their eyes couldn't really hurt," Yugi offered.
"Just what I was thinking. Except I'm also hoping that they got seperated. Oh! I'll get some popcorn!" Maria giggled, skipping off to the snack area. Immediately all the staff were hustling about getting the most perfect, and largest, batch of popcorn made to accomadate her and the guests.
"Thank you!" Yugi heard Maria smile as she walked back over to him, with the biggest bucket of popcorn he'd ever seen in his life in her arms. She popped a few in her mouth and sat down near Yugi with the popcorn bowl being between them.
/Sweet! Another line break! That's, like, the third one I've used this chapter! XD/
Kaiba dreaded the fact that Atem might have been captured and is waiting for him to rescue him. Though it would establish Kaiba as having a more dominant role, supposing he wasn't captured himself. They had started the game together but seperated, causing their minds to worry about the other's capture. Kaiba had a strange feeling that someone was watching him and he quickly checked his surroundings. He didn't want a surprise attack like the one that serperated him and Atem to lead to their losing the game. He already had two of the artifacts and you needed four. Four was an important number symbolizing stability and family, so he thought it fitting that there should be four artifacts required to save your friend.
/Line break! I mean, this is getting old... how many of these am I going to need before I finish?/
Atem glided above the forest watching intently for an attack or the last temple before the High Temple. He was moving quickly because he managed to find this glider, and he could only hope that Seto was alright. The only artifact he was missing was the scarab. He had the cuffs, the headress, and also the ornate tunic. He honestly wondered why the game was so focused on Egypt, but he figured Maria must have had something to do with it.
/I mean... maybe I should just stop it here? Well... no, not quite... I'll give you a little more.../
Maria sucked in a harsh breath. Atem was so close to the final temple, but he didn't know it was hidden among the trees. Yugi watched her face change between anxiety, hope, anger, excitement, and so many more emotions. Kaiba stood just feet away from his third temple. Not even Seto knew what the artifacts were, and she had designed a set special for each of them. Though it seemed Atem was getting suspicious of the whole thing, Maria was certain her plan would work. Now all Atem had to do was find the tunic and get to the High Temple before Seto did and everything would fall into place perfectly.
A/N: So yeah... that's it. I figured this chapter was already pretty long and that I probably should end it soon... Considering I was getting bored with my line breaks (that's always a bad sign). So I stopped it there. But I guess you guys want a preview like what I did last time? Well I can't give you certain lines that are definitely going to be in the next chapter (because I haven't started writing it yet) but I can give you a couple pieces of insider info. If you can't tell Maria absolutely wants her brother to be happy and will do anything to get that end. Therefore she essentially rigged the game. I won't tell you exactly what for, that would ruin the surprise, but she always has a reason behind her actions (well at least 75% of the time at least). I'm also going to put up a poll for those who are reading/will read this story. It will be up for about 2 months from 5/7/12 so get your votes in while you can! It's going to be about this story so do your best to vote alright? I'll try to cover everyone's possible opinions.
Maria: Hey! What's taking so long? You need to get back to writing so they can read what happens sooner!
Atem: I agree.
Kaiba: Troublesome author. Just get back to writing already.
Me: Geez! Being ganged up on isn't fun! Well I guess I'll leave you with -
Maria: Oh just shut up! AliceMarieSwan is sorry to cut this short but she would love if you all took the time to review and leave some virtual cookies and milk. She needs them right now cause she has two essays to write tomorrow. :) Read and Review please!