Screw it, I'm making first person omniscient a thing. Now the narrative can spell out the thoughts of any character, even though it's from the subconscious's perspective.
This is a chapter I've had written from the very start! In fact it's the longest chapter so far. In my opinion the quality of this one is way better than the rest because I've gone over it a thousand times and it didn't fight me to get written like the others did, but let's let the chapter do the talking, shall we?
Chapter 7: Kaibas to the Rescue!
It was an uncomfortable wait for Kaiba to come pick us up. Tristan and Joey were sending me funny looks—probably had something to do with my unique situation. Yami was sitting hunched over, breathing shallowly to avoid aggravating his wound, but whenever I would move to try to help he'd stop me with a glare. It was silent except for the wind. Even Joey didn't have anything to say.
How could one camping trip go so wrong?
The atmosphere was still tense as we all silently worried—about the possibility of the buck coming back, about Yami, about Tea…
The sound of tires on asphalt caused us to turn around. "It's Kaiba!" Joey celebrated. Yami perked up, grimace lightening slightly into what would have been a smile in any other situation.
The car rolled to a stop and it was easy to see that Kaiba was behind the wheel. That took me by surprise; I would have thought he'd send another driver rather than take time out of his busy day to drive us around. Maybe it was Mokuba's doing?
I observed Kaiba. He looked annoyed at having to have gone out of his way to help "us losers," but there was an undertone of worry in his eyes, just the slightest turn in his eyelids. Normally at this point I'd be telling Yugi to straighten up and stand firm, to not give Kaiba any reason to look down on him, but seeing as I wasn't in Yugi's head anymore I simply took my own advice. Being in direct control of a body, especially one that wasn't Yugi's, was a hard idea to get used to.
Mokuba was the first one out of the vehicle. "Where's the fire?"
"It's Yugi. He was attacked by a deer." Tristan answered.
Mokuba faltered for a moment (weren't deer normally peaceful animals?) before he came over to help. I thought I heard Kaiba mumble, "Of course it's Yugi," under his breath, but I wasn't sure.
Kaiba stepped out of the car and cleared his throat. "You said it was an emergency, so here I am. There's only room for two because a limo would have taken too long in traffic, so two of you are leaving however you got here." So help me if I have to drive Wheeler.
"Tea got knocked around a bit, she can come with me," Yami looked at me with distrust as he spoke, then at Joey and Tristan to make sure it was okay. Ah, I see how it is. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Yami didn't trust me and wanted to keep an eye on me. Well, that and he was probably worried about Tea, seeing how I was in control, not her. He wasn't lying about getting knocked around either. I felt the knot of my head from slamming into that tree and winced. It was probably good that I was going with Yami and the Kaibas.
Joey and Tristan moved to either side of Yami and helped pull him to his feet, guiding him to the car. I moved aside to let them through. Kaiba's eyes widened at the sight of the blood soaking through Yami's shirt, but he quickly masked his emotion under a mask of neutrality.
Once Yami was securely in the car Joey spoke up. "We'll meet you back at the game shop once you're all patched up, Yug."
"That's fine Joey, thank you."
Seeing everything was in order, Kaiba got back in the driver's seat and started the engine. He looked at me. "We don't have all day, are you coming or not?" I was startled from my observing, forcibly reminded that I had a body of my own (albeit temporarily) that I needed to take care of myself. I went around the other side of the vehicle and got in beside Yami.
Kaiba looked back at us through the center mirror with barely disguised concern. Catching me watching him his expression changed to a scowl. "Just don't bleed on the seats," he grumbled.
I looked to Yami to see if that was going to be a problem and grimaced. The spirit had a hand over his wound but already blood was beginning to seep between his fingers. I went to pull my jacket off of my shoulders to use to staunch the flow but found I wasn't wearing one; that's right, I wasn't in Yugi's head right now. Yami was wearing the jacket I was looking for, not Tea, and by extension, me. I sighed at the reminder that all was not right in my world.
"If you use your jacket to put pressure on it you'll be able to keep the seats clean," I suggested as a distraction. Yami looked at me suspiciously but started taking off his jacket regardless. He cringed at the movement and I reached to help, only for him to lean away from me.
"I got it."
Stupid, prideful pharaoh. He was grumpy when he was in pain. He grit his teeth as he at last got his arms out of the sleeves and wadded it up into a ball, pressing it into the gash the buck had left.
Mokuba had been watching the whole exchange and looked confused. "Is everything okay?"
Yami deadpanned, not gracing the question with an answer.
"If everything was okay we wouldn't have called, Mokuba." I answered for him, but didn't elaborate further. If Mokuba was anything like his brother, he wouldn't believe a thing about this whole mind swapping business, so there was no point in trying to tell him about it.
The younger Kaiba colored. "I mean, aside from the obvious. You two are acting weird."
"They're always weird Mokuba, why should now be any different?" Kaiba pointed out.
"I guess…"
Silence settled in the car and I was reminded of the tense terms everyone was on with each other. This was going to be an awkward ride.
Kaiba took a turn I wasn't expecting. Yami didn't notice, his eyes closed as he forcefully tried to relax, but I did. I called the CEO out on it. "Where are we going? This isn't the way to the hospital."
Kaiba looked at me through the mirror. (He should really pay attention to the road) "We're going to Kaiba Corp. It's closer."
"Kaiba Corp has medical facilities?" I asked.
"Yeah!" Mokuba cut in. "There was this one AI Seto made once that was so complicated it made computers explode! So we built a medical wing in case that kept happening."
That was…honestly not surprising considering the technology at Kaiba Corp. I sat back in my seat and waited for us to reach our destination, trying to ignore the increasingly obnoxious headache that was forming.
It was only a matter of time before we arrived. Kaiba, Mokuba and I exited the vehicle while Yami just opened his door, trying to find the least painful way out.
"Do you…" Kaiba looked at the sky, like his next words pained him to say. "Need help?"
As hilarious as it would have been to see Kaiba, especially with how tall he was, help Yami inside, I needed him to trust me and this was the perfect place to start. "I got him."
The pharaoh looked unhappy with the arrangement but did allow me to help him, finally.
We made it to the medical wing without incident, the four of us making an odd sight to the few employees who spotted us.
Nurses started scurrying around upon our entry and Yami was taken from me and laid on a white bed while I was ushered over to another to sit down. They were a whirlwind as I was asked what happened and if I was hurt, the expected questions. I answered them to the best of my ability, leaving out the whole I'm-supposed-to-be-part-of-Yugi bit. I received an ice pack for the bump on my head and then scooted aside in favor of taking care of the bleeding king of games.
Kaiba ditched us as soon as possible, leaving us with Mokuba as he "had stuff to do." I couldn't blame him, really. I was surprised he drove us here personally—as a CEO he probably had loads to do.
"Ra!" Yami ground out between his teeth. I turned my attention to the pharaoh to see that the nurse had stapled the the gash closed and was carefully stitching the rest. I winced in sympathy.
Another nurse checked on me since Yami was being taken care of. I managed to wave her away after assuring her that ice was all I needed and she confirmed that I didn't have a concussion.
After waiting a few minutes for Yami to finish getting patched up we were discharged and Mokuba led us down to the entrance. "Seto had a driver ready to get you home. Here you are!" He stopped in front of a black van with someone standing in front of it who was nice enough to open the door for us. Yami refused help getting to the van, so I watched to make sure he was okay before going around to the other side. Mokuba trailed after me.
"Seto says to consider us even after helping us with that virtual world fiasco, but I say don't worry about it. Call me anytime you need something!" He went back inside. What a sweet kid. It was a wonder he was Kaiba's brother. I wondered if Kaiba was ever that sweet…nah. I couldn't see it.
Opening the door to the van, I saw that Yami was already laying down across the seats. What in the…was he asleep?! I cautiously got in and sat down, trying to disturb him as little as possible. Then, throwing caution to the wind, I poked his head, just to check if he was really asleep. I got a grunt in response, but nothing else. Okay. Um. What was I supposed to do now? In Yugi's mind I didn't really have to do much, at least not 24/7. Yugi took care of most of it and I took care of the little things.
"Where to, miss?" The driver brought me out of my thoughts. He was looking at me expectantly.
"The Kame Game, please." At least that was one thing I knew. I knew where home was. The car smoothly started moving, not disturbing the sleeping King of Games one bit.
The weirdness of the situation hit me once again as I looked at the sleeping form beside me. Aside from the fact that it was like looking at myself in third person, I wasn't sure I'd ever seen the pharaoh sleep. He was normally in dueling when he was in control. I looked at my—Tea's hands. How could this be happening? I spent the rest of the ride home with my thoughts going in circles trying to figure it out.
A/N: Before I saw that there was indeed a medical wing at Kaiba Corp in the show, I had to make up a reason for the existence of one myself. (I started writing this while I was watching season two) I found the idea of Kaiba exploding computers extremely entertaining and not entirely unlikely, so that's what I went with!
