A/N: This chapter was originally longer, but taking Moon's advice, I decided to chop it in half... Although after proofing and tweaking, it ended up breaking 9 pages anyway. Oh well 9 is better than 12+!
A/N: I wanted to strangle this chapter. SO MUCH ANGST! I hate THIS CHAPTER! I'm tired of looking at it!
A/N: And by the way, please don't hate me! ^^;
Beyond His Body
Chapter 9
OoO
It was nearly sunrise by the time Yami returned home to the game shop. The exhausted royal barely had the energy to keep one foot in front of him as he trudged into the kitchen. There, he made Yūgi a small but filling breakfast of cereal, buttered toast, a glass of water and a side of over easy eggs. Both his body and mind were so fatigued from constant emotional fluctuation, he didn't pay much attention to his actions and nearly dropped a few eggshells into the frying pan along with the yolks. Thankfully, he stopped himself before Yūgi's surprise breakfast became a a first class disaster and readied the table. After all of that was taken care of, Yami dragged his feet over to the couch in the Living Room where he usually kept the cell phone hidden during the day. Because of the incident the night before, the device was still in pieces strewn about the carpet. Thankfully, its repair only consisted of replacing the battery, sim card and back cover to their proper places. While Yami wasn't the best when it came to handling electronics, he seemed to easily figure out where the pieces went; it was just as if he were simply completing a puzzle.
A puzzle... like himself and Seto. The two of them were both like incomplete segments of two different assortments. Fruition wouldn't equate to much by one of them alone; only when their pieces intermingled was when an actual result would be formed. It was the same as having two different pieces that were from different puzzles and there shouldn't have been any way possible of joining these two objects together. But when they are, they are a perfect fit. The impossible seemed quite feasible between the two of them when in most usual situations such things should not be. Both Yami and Seto had a way of bending and breaking the rules to what was best suited for the moment. If they hadn't, the virtual reality pods would have never been made, Yami never would have needed to sneak out to meet with or talk to Seto late at night, the two of them wouldn't have had rather many a lover's quarrel, nor would they have gained a deeper understanding of the other in a short amount of time. And to think, all of this started with a visit to the Kaiba mansion just for Yūgi to help Mokuba with his homework. It was funny how things had a way of falling together sometimes.
After he reassembled the missing pieces and turned the phone on, memories of what had transpired just last night and earlier that morning with Seto and Mokuba finding out their secret crept into Yami's vacant thoughts. And same as before, the souring guilt returned steadfast to its perch atop Yami's shoulders. How could he have been so careless? Did he really miss Seto that much to let his guard down that much? Still, there was no excuse for his behavior.
"... …."
As troubled as he was with himself, along with his listless actions of the previous night, there was no point in dwelling over it now. Discreetly, he returned the phone to its hiding place beneath the sofa cushion, then sighed. He placed his fingertips to his forehead as if to soothe the throbbing headache that had been brewing for quite a while. There was a familiar waver in his consciousness that he deduced as Yūgi preparing to wake up soon. He needed to rest this body now so that some of its fatigue would be somewhat lifted. Without wasting more time on useless thoughts, Yami laid atop the sofa and stretched out his arms and legs. Then, he shifted onto his side, bringing his knees close to his chest. It was one of the positions Yūgi often conformed to when in deep sleeps. Perhaps when the little one saw himself in it, he would think he had slept more than what was actual reality. No sooner had Yami shut his eyes, did the form of Yūgi take its counterpart's place. He remained asleep for a few minutes more and rolled onto his other side. But since he was on the couch and not his bed, he tumbled onto the floor instead face first. Luckily, the Millennium Puzzle didn't break his fall as well or else he'd be doing far more resting of the more permanent sort.
"Gllgghld! Ungh... Who put this floor here...?" he sleepily wondered, looking around the room. Lifting his spiky head, he recognized the sofa and blinked, "Oh, the sofa? But... how did I get here?"
After finishing his breakfast, Yūgi made a beeline to the front door to be ready to greet with his friends at whatever time they arrived when a sudden series of beeps rang in the air. Startled by the new sound, Yūgi jumped nearly a foot in his skin. While he waited for his heart to calm down a bit, he didn't move an inch. Intently, he listened as another series of beeps pass. What was that noise? Where was it coming from? He jogged from the front door to inspect behind the sofa, then under it until he realized the sound was emitting from inside of it.
"What is that...?" he wondered rhetorically, dropping to his knees. While Yūgi was very curious to uncovering this new discovery, he was also very cautious about the idea of sticking his hand in and obtaining whatever it was. Closing one eye, as if it could help shield him from whatever mishap that could backfire in his face, Yūgi hesitantly lifted the cushion and gasped from what he saw. It was a cell phone. At least he thought it was. It was one of those blocky-looking Blackberry models he had heard so much about. Finally, his curiosity got the better of him, and he scooped the device up in one hand. Its screen was dimmed and the icon for the battery was constantly blinking. Obviously, the batteries were low and the beeping attested to that.
"Huh? Where did you come from?" Yūgi pondered cutely to the phone, rotating it at different angles to gain a better look. It was definitely one of those high end Blackberry phones he had seen many people with briefcases in suits use while in their fancy cars on their way to work, "Did a customer leave this here? Why was it under the couch?" he continued to speculate. Did the spirit use it? Did someone let him borrow it? Maybe he could find some answers before the phone died from checking the call log. It took him a minute or two to figure out how to work the thing, but he managed to find what he was looking for. And what he saw shocked him into awed disbelief.
"N-no way!"
Almost every call listed was late at night, after he had gone to sleep- to some concealed number of zeros and ones. Only a few of the calls were incoming, dated yesterday with a minute interval in-between each of them. Whomever this caller was, they certainly wanted to stay hidden. Maybe it was a bill collector? Wait, why would someone who could afford one of these have any bills? In that same token, the question answered itself. Deciding a bill collector being a high possibility, Yūgi nodded to himself, then skimmed over the numbers again. In his haste, he overlooked one of the numbers that had a name crammed next to it: "Big Bro #2". And just as his luck would have it, the phone gave one final beep before shutting off completely. With no way to backtrack his findings, the befuddled youth tossed the phone on the couch and stood up.
"That was weird... What does it all mean...?"
Disturbed as much as he was confused, he tried to search his brain for a connection. If a costumer did leave this here, how did it end up in the Living Room? From all the customers he had seen enter, even before Grandpa went on his trip to visit Egypt, none of them wandered into that area. Sure, they could have dropped the phone in the doorway or near the counter but it didn't make sense of how it ended up under the sofa cushion. None of his friends had fancy high-end phones like this. Whomever it belonged to had to have quite a comfortable budget.
Stumped, his eyes glanced upto the sofa and outlined its shape. He woke up here, so that meant the spirit must have been laying in the same spot. Did he know the phone was under him? Maybe he knew who the phone belonged to.
"Wait, why am I putting so much thought into this? I'm sure it was a mistake. People misplace things all the time," Yūgi smiled weakly, trying to reassure himself. If this was such a common and simple matter, why did he feel so compelled to solve it? He felt like he had to understand its cryptic meaning for benefit of himself as well as for the spirit within him. And anything that could help the spirit was worth identifying. Yūgi would do anything to aid his companion by any means that he was able to accomplish, for better or for worse. Anything.
Just then, there were a few knocks at the front door, "Yuuuuugiiii! We're heeerrrre!" Anzu's voice sang from behind it.
"Ah, I'm coming! Just a sec!" he called back, stumbling towards the door. As he opened the door and greeted his friends, his mind still circulated all the clues he had uncovered. "Big Brother", expensive phone under the sofa almost like it was hidden there, encrypted phone calls taken place mostly after he had gone to bed... It didn't make any sense to him, yet he still couldn't shake the feeling of having the wool pulled over his eyes somehow... But the Pharaoh wouldn't do that. Yūgi trusted him most of all... didn't he?
OoO
Secluded within the labyrinth of the Millennium Puzzle, Yami's spirit drifted in heavy thought. What was his best choice? He had broken his promise to Yūgi. He betrayed him, using his body to sneak out and visit Seto. Even he was taken advantage of by Yami, although not intentionally. Ever since Seto designed those pods and made it so the two of them could delve into and explore their feelings for each other more closely, Yami had gotten very used to it and expected it often. He took Seto, his availability and his invention for granted for his own selfish reasons. Although those reasons were mutually shared with Seto, Yami still had himself to blame for them. He was still "alive" in this time by accident and needed to return to his afterlife to balance things out. But then Seto happened. And once he played an even larger role in Yami's life, everything duty and honor he thought he had to do was tossed into the air. He wanted Seto, he wanted to remain with him for as long as he could. Yet, he was on borrowed time. He had to be honest with himself. Without a body of his own, there was no possible way he and Seto could stay together. Yami's thoughts wavered back to the night Seto had him "delivered" to his office so they could talk. It was a time they shared a few real kisses—a memory Yami would always hold dear no matter how soaked in guilt it was. Also during that night, Seto had stated something that feared Yami into believing their relationship would have ended there. Perhaps it should have. Maybe it would have been better to break things off. Perhaps him leaving so they wouldn't have to suffer with such a delicate subject any longer was the better volition to lean towards. But, he gave Seto his word that he wouldn't leave him. He promised. Although, he also gave his word to Yūgi that there was nothing going on between himself and Kaiba that the little one needed to worry his head about. Things had reached a point of Yami not being even able to trust himself and his own emotions and wants—exactly as he feared what would happen. He had betrayed the two main individuals he cared for the most, with one of them gaining more respect from him than the other.
Yes, Yami was a liar. Yes, he was a hypocrite and yes, he had betrayed. Despite his affectionate and selfish reasons for doing so, both intentionally and unintentionally, most of all, Yami was human. He had emotions, thoughts, doubts, beliefs and love. He became ensnared by the latter and didn't realize how far he was being reeled into its depths until he began to run out of air. He had two choices: to either slice its tether around him or allow himself to be vacuumed deeper into its core. Over the years, there had been quite a few times when he had chosen Seto over Yūgi or his friends and now, this present was no different.
That was enough. He didn't want to continue to litter his mind with a resounding constant of incomplete thoughts any longer for today. He was tired of debating to himself about it and he knew Yūgi was tired of waiting on his next move. At a loss, Yami closed his eyes and allowed himself to weightlessly drift.
'… Seto ...what should I do...?'
OoO
"What? Did I stutter? I said, you're staying here. Period." Kaiba finalized sternly from behind his desk. It was now the afternoon and Mokuba had been ushered urgently into Seto's office after returning abruptly from Europe. After Seto returned to Kaiba Corp after dropping Yami off at the game shop, he made a quick phone call to have Mokuba extracted from where he was and be brought back to Domino. The adolescent was less than thrilled being separated from his girlfriend like that and disliked the reason being because of what he learned the night before. At least, that was the hunch he had for Seto's reasoning to drag him away from Rebecca. But she heard Yami confess too! Why didn't Seto make the both of them come back together? It just wasn't fair!
Mokuba loved his older brother, but sometimes his antics could be just a little unreasonable. As Mokuba matured, gone was the blind "yes-man" that would jump at doing anything and everything the great "Lord Big Brother" wanted. Since his last birthday, Mokuba had formed a little more free will towards his own opinions and thoughts. Even the great big brother was capable of being wrong, and now was one of those times, he thought.
"Awwww what? Come on, Seto! I'm nearly 16 now, you can't keep treating me like your little kid brother, you know!" he sharply griped, "I'm at that rebellious age, after all!" In his disappointment towards his elder, he stood with one ankle crossed over the other, both arms folded behind his head and his eyes elsewhere other than Seto in the room. With a girl being one of the main reasons for their conflict, Mokuba was behaving quite opposingly. For his age, it was a rightful happening; for Seto's current mood, it was a headache. His lengthy fingers steepled together in front of his mouth, Seto peered stoically at Mokuba. Hours worth of documents and printed graphs rested beneath his elbows, pinned to the desk top. He set aside keeping within his usually hectic schedule to both tame and discipline his younger sibling with matters of the heart. His own.
"I said. You. Are. Staying. Here. If Rebecca misses you that badly, she can send you a postcard."
"What?" Mokuba shot back in a tone much harsher than he originally intended it to be while he darted his eyes towards his brother. His standoffish behavior wilted away while a reckless emotion took its place. "You can't do that to her! She's been waiting all this time to see me! I mean, you let me go over there, which was great, then you have Roland drag me back and now I can't go back to see her this week?"
Seto's eyes narrowed into a fine glare at his brother's choice in words towards him. In a thin, calm voice that was far beyond the opposite of his mood right now, he answered, "No."
"But! She's having a tournament this week and I promised her I'd be there!"
"Whoops. Looks like that can't happen," Seto snorted, switching his gaze to the work below him. There was a shift in Mokuba's poise that he didn't see but only heard. Then the sound of his sneakers against the carpet neared closer to the desk in muffled steps. The youth had a bone to pick and like most youngsters who thought they were in some sort of love, he was going to speak his mind to stand up for his girl, "Let me guess..." he began, his voice merely a few degrees above Seto's usual condescending approach, "This has nothing to do with Rebecca and me spending too much time together, does it? This is about what me and 'Becca heard last night, isn't it?"
To this, Seto flinched very slightly, but Mokuba noticed it clearly. When someone usually sat straight for a multitude of hours, it was easy to take note of any light movement they'd make. Seto paused before responding to that question. It pained him to even think about what happened, yet his somber expression did well in not broadcasting that. While having his privacy peeked into by his brother of all individuals, Yami's behavior that night irritated him far more. However, that was past now and the past, he believed, deserved to be crushed.
"The two of you heard nothing about us, "Seto pressed in a flat voice, "The two of you know nothing and if you think you know otherwise, then we will have a problem."
"Oh yeah?"
"Don't test me, Mokuba... Baby brother or not, if you think you're man enough to step to me, I will put you in your place," Seto clarified very crisply. That statement wasn't a threat. It was an affirmation and a solid one at that. Seto may have loved Mokuba, but he was not going to stand for being walked all over by anyone.
"...Hmmm..."
An offbeat silence set between them. For the first time in his life towards Seto, Mokuba just...didn't give three bits. His lips gradually parted and his chest rose as he breathed his first word of retaliation, "Honestly..."
"Honestly, what," Seto snapped.
"Honestly, Seto, I don't care that the two of you were sword fighting..."
Seto said nothing, but the new glare he sported certainly did. It was a look only a sibling could be immune to, which was a blessing in Mokuba's case. To Seto's silence, the youth continued on, "And I definitely don't care to know that the two of you were fudge-packing each other..."
"Mokuba-!" Kaiba vociferated, pushing himself up from his seat. He was practically fuming at this point. But instead of flying over the desk and drop-kicking his little baby brother square in the face, he decided to be as calm as he could and remain where he was. Where in the world did Mokuba pick up a term like that? The boisterous teen gave a faint triumphant smirk from how angry he had gotten his brother. Perhaps it was a Kaiba brothers trademark? Whatever it was, it was soon milked for all it was worth.
"Nothing to say, big brother?"
"You do not want me to say what I have to right now..."
"If I can't talk about your relationship and the SEX you had with him, then don't bring my girlfriend and me into your problems!" Mokuba huffed, slamming a palm down atop the desk, "Tell me, Seto, did YOUR condom break?"
Seto twitched. It took all he had to withhold lashing out at his brother for speaking so boldly about things he didn't understand. Thankfully for the both of them, Mokuba pulled away and turned on his heels.
"Whatever, I don't wanna hear it anyway!" In a fit of adolescent rage, the mouthy adolescent dashed past Seto's desk and fled to the balcony. A little too hastily, Kaiba made chase after him, "Mokuba! Get back HERE!" he called. He couldn't believe he was getting ridiculed by a 15 year old. Granted, he wasn't that much older than him, but how dare he get into his sex life! What he did to Yami was his own business, just like everything Mokuba did in general, especially with a girl involved! Angrily, Seto pushed open the balcony doors and was met with an unruly, unwelcomed sight.
Stark hair the hue of a blank void sauntered in the graze of a light breeze; glinting rows of teeth in the form of a wicked grin were enhanced by the deep brown eyes as its centerpiece. Around its neck was the Millennium Ring. With it as the main focus, the garish top and length trench coat beneath it seemed less than secondary. As Kaiba coldly beheld the presence of the intruder that now stood before him, the bickering he had with his brother had already begun to melt away and acidity swiftly took its place.
Mokuba was nowhere in sight and the only one who was out of place enough to know what happened was standing right in front of him with a haughty smile. Before Seto could demand to know where his brother was or question Bakura's reasoning for being on his property in the first place, the shady thief graced Seto with an eerie chortle before he spoke, "Well, hello there Kaiba. Fancy meeting you here," he announced with mock familiarity, "And don't worry your pretty little mullet head about that brother of yours, I've already put him to bed."
"What did you do to Mokuba and where is he," Seto seethed in a jaw-clenching growl.
To this, Bakura nonchalantly shrugged and flicked his bangs from in front of his eyes with a twitch of his neck, "Hard of hearing, are we? I said I put him to bed. See for yourself," he jeered. He moment he made even the slightest alter in his position, Seto prepared himself for almost anything. He was ready to bum rush that fool off the balcony if the opportunity presented itself well enough. As tempting as it was, all murderous impulses were probably best left put on hold until he located his brother.
With three small sidesteps, Bakura moved to his left; the flicker of dark hair much like that of Mokuba's was rendered visible pressed against the thief's back. As he moved more to the side, half of the boy's body was shown. The youth was unconscious on his feet, slumped limply against Bakura's back. After he moved aside enough, Mokuba's body began a free-fall towards the concrete and would have given him a nasty gash if Seto hadn't dropped to a knee to save him in time.
"Mokuba?" Seto called, his voice heavily laced with concern for his baby brother, "Mokuba?"
"I~~~I wouldn't worry too much about him, Kaiba. He is merely 'sleeping' after all," the artifact robber rectified. Then a toothy grin shaped his mouth, "At least unconscious, he won't be prone to getting kidnapped at random, you know! That's a good thing! He's quite like a princess for that one, if you ask me...However, my business is with you, not that little pipsqueak!"
"Tell me, now..."
No verbal answer was given immediately. Instead, Bakura casually reached into the back pocket of his overcoat and retrieved an item. Assertively, Kaiba's eyes darted between those deceptive tawny eyes and the closed fist that neared closer to him. His focus remained pinned to that hand until it opened to reveal...
"The Millennium Eye?" he questioned absent-mindedly from the sheer unexpectedness of seeing it again. Seto didn't want anything to do with those ancient trinkets, and especially not with the man this particular one once belonged to. It crossed his mind to even demand how Bakura even obtained it from the flamboyant card developer. But as his glare lifted from the item and towards its pilferer's eyes, a sudden surrounding of pitch black claimed Seto's vision and anything afterward didn't register. He was knocked out cold by a blow to the head from something he didn't get the chance to see. His heavy body dropped to the callous floor of the balcony, just seconds away from Mokuba's. Seeing his work here was done, Bakura brushed off his coat and then departed from the scene.
OoO
Many hours later, away in the torrid locale of Egypt, a life- changing event was preparing to take place. Three companions stood surrounding their beloved friend while he stood between the eve of a fateful unraveling and their silent support. The Egyptian tablet that hid the secrets of the Pharaoh lay before him. He knew it was wrong to leave so abruptly like this, but he believed it was for the best. The answers that were needed were awaiting to be released right in front of him; the tablet and the god cards were the only items left to be activated.
He was betraying someone vitally important to him by doing this but it needed to be done. There had been too much procrastination with turmoil and suffering as its result. He loved his other and hated to make the choice for him, but obtaining the truth was something needed to be fulfilled. With a quiet, deep-felt apology, he held up the god cards to the stone tablet and soon became engulfed in its sudden light.
OoO
Ugh this chapter _ Anyways, I hope no one was offended by the terms Mokuba used.
On a random note, good chunks of this chapter was written and tweaked to the song of "In The Bargain" from Sonic Shuffle. Check it on Youtube or someplace if you don't know what it is already. ...Yes... this goofy, stupid song got me in a nice writing mood for all the seriousness and angst being tossed around. I've written a super intense moment b4 to an even goofier sounding song!
Sigh...
ooc!
Yami: I HAVE MORE ANGST. Should we stay together or break up?
Seto: I dunnuh
Yūgi: YOU GUYS SHOULD BREAK UP!
Mokuba: NO FUDGE-PACKING, BIG BROTHER!
Seto: But Yami loves it
Yami: …...! I do so! Guilty as charged!
Mokuba: So who went to Egypt?
Seto: You broke your promise to me
Yami: ….
Yūgi: ...
Yami: No I didn't!
Bakura: I'm actually in this story. I'm flattered! And guess what, Mokuba? I don't kidnap you this time!
Mokuba: YAHOO! But wait, I still get knocked out tho...boooo...
Bakura: What do you have to say to that, Millennium Eye?
Millennium Eye: …...
Bakura: Well what do you expect from an inanimate object, right Pharaoh?
Yami: … … … ..
Seto: … … …
Yami: Can you smex me now, please already?
Seto: Aren't you in Egypt?
Yami: Well-
Seto: THEN NO.
Yami: But I didn't break my promise! I swear I swear I swear!
Priest Seto: My Phara- oops my part isn't in this chapter yet. My mistake! *leaves, then comes right back*
Seto: …. ….Tell me you are not doing this guy
Bakura: I would...
Yūgi, Mokuba, Seto Priest Seto, Yami: ….
Bakura:... ...Did I say that out loud?
Yami, Priest Seto and Seto: ….MIND CRUSH!
Yami: Hey you two can't do that! I'm the only one with enough allotted True Main Character Points to do that move!
Yūgi: I thought I was the true main character!
Mokuba, Seto, Priest Seto, Yami: Shut up, Yūgi!
Yūgi: Awwwaawwwww...
Bakura: Bollocks! Is this the only cameo I get in this story?
ooc!
To be continued
-Mel
