The next morning, Seto wasn't content to wait for the return of the night. While Yugi was in the shower, Seto decided to join him.
"Hey! Seto, I'm in a hurry," Yugi protested with a blush as Seto stepped into the shower with him. He threw the loofah in his hand at his partner, but Seto was undeterred by the soapy sphere bouncing off his chest and falling to the shower floor.
"And I've been neglected." Seto pushed Yugi against the tiled wall of the shower and kissed him hard as he began to stroke his lover into an erection. Yugi moaned and squirmed beneath him, as if still trying to put up a resistance.
"I-I have to go," he whined, trying not to pant audibly. Seto wanted to tell him that they both had the time, that Yugi's grandpa would still be there when they were done, but for once he knew it would make him look like a colossal dick if he said something like that, so he opted for something that would hopefully prove more persuasive.
"You don't need to go." When Kaiba nipped at Yugi's neck, he felt Yugi's hips jerk into his hand. "You need this as much as I do."
"No, I really should leave," Yugi reiterated weakly, his hands on Seto's shoulders as if to push him away, but he was exerting no real force against the brunette. Seto's hands stilled on his partner.
"Please." Those pure blue eyes had never pleaded before like they were in those moments. It was almost impossible to say no to him, especially because he so rarely pleaded for anything. It was almost impossible, but only almost.
"I'm sorry, Seto. I can't." Yugi looked truly apologetic as he kissed Seto's cheek and fled the shower, leaving the brunette with a hard on and a quickly growing sense of frustration.
Seto dropped Yugi off at the hospital that morning, speaking little during the drive, but he didn't pick Yugi up at the hospital that night. He sent Roland with the limo, giving him directions to Mr. Moto's hospital room and instructions for how to summon Yugi away from his ailing grandfather and to his home so that he could rest properly.
"No thanks, Roland. I'll stay here tonight."
"Nonsense, Yugi! You don't need to stay on my account! I'm feeling great! Go home and get a good night's sleep." He smiled weakly at his faithful grandson. "Go on, shoo! I'll still be here in the morning, you know."
Yugi didn't seem the least bit assured by Solomon's words. "Are you absolutely sure you want me to go?"
"Yes, go! It's for your own good!"
"Okay then," Yugi said hesitantly, giving his grandfather's hand a squeeze before standing and following Roland out of the hospital to the waiting limo. He was surprised that Kaiba wasn't in the backseat waiting for him. He asked about his lover's absence and received an unsatisfactory answer.
"He's occupied with an unanticipated emergency, but he plans on coming home later tonight."
Fair enough.
But when Yugi was still tossing and turning alone in his bed at half past one, he began to worry that Seto wasn't going to sleep that night. At least not here.
The next morning, Roland was at the Kame Game Shop to take Yugi to the hospital—or wherever else he needed to go. Yugi had texted Seto last night, but still had no answer. He tried calling him on the drive to the hospital, but it went straight to voicemail. He left a concerned, half-hearted message, then fiddled nervously with his phone for the rest of the drive. He couldn't help but feel like he was being shut out.
Around lunch-time, Kaiba called Yugi back, as he'd asked him to do in his message.
"Hi Seto," Yugi answered with audible relief. "I was worried when you didn't come home last night."
"I'm fine." Kaiba's cold deadpan voice gave Yugi a chill, stealing away his sense of relief.
"That's good," he answered, feeling uncertain of himself.
"Was there something specific you needed to ask me? I'm very busy, you know."
"I-I was just wondering if you would be home tonight."
"Probably not." Again, his voice was cold and monotone, as if he didn't care either way. "I have to get to a meeting." He hung up, leaving Yugi slack-jawed and wet-eyed.
Yugi became increasingly agitated throughout the day, and when Roland came back to the hospital last night to take him home, things only got worse.
"I must regrettably inform you that Mr. Kaiba has left the country on urgent business."
"Urgent?!" Yugi exclaimed, stopping suddenly in the middle of the hallway. He looked both shocked and angry as he turned to look at Roland. "How urgent can it possibly be? It's not like he works for the government or he's fighting a war."
"I'm not authorized to disclose any details," Roland answered uncomfortably, slipping a finger inside his shirt collar and loosening it a little. His gestured betrayed how anxious this situation made him.
"Why wouldn't he just tell me this himself? Why is he avoiding me?" Yugi's anger dissipated into confused sadness, and Roland wished that he had an answer for him.
As Kaiba walked across the tarmac from his private 737 jet towards his waiting limo, he pulled out his phone and turned it back on, finally letting himself look at all the messages waiting for him. Twenty-six missed calls and nine voice-mails from Yugi, three texts from Mokuba, and five texts from Roland.
He checked the messages from Roland first, four of which were updates on the company, and one of which was an assurance that a member of the mansion staff had cleaned the Moto house before Yugi had brought his grandfather home.
The texts from Mokuba were far more personal and pleasant, expressing his wish for his brother to have a safe flight, asking if he could have a friend sleepover this weekend, and telling him that his SAT scores had (finally) been posted online. Apparently, Mokuba wanted to tell them to Seto in person. Fair enough. Kaiba was sure, though, that they were high and impressive.
Once he was seated inside the backseat of his limo, he reluctantly checked the time stamps of Yugi's many missed calls. Then, with increasing reluctance, he put his phone to his ear and started playing his voice-mails. There was a steady progression from anxious to agitated to angry to upset to confused to furious to cold. It was hard to listen to them all at once, and part of Kaiba wanted to call him back, but he was hardly likely to be awake after three in the morning.
He'd nodded off for a bit during the drive home, but he was roused by the motion of the limo coming to a stop in front of the mansion. He collected his small suitcase from the trunk and walked slowly up the vast front steps of the building. Between the long flight, the jet lag, and the current time, he was exhausted and more than ready to fall into bed without even changing out of his suit. At the base of the central stairway in the foyer, however, a surprise awaited him, startling him enough to bring him to a higher level of alertness.
On one of the bottom steps sat Yugi, slumped against the railing as he slept in a position that would surely make his neck stiff in the morning. Had he been waiting for Kaiba to come home? Probably. Although Seto hadn't communicated with him once while he was gone, he most likely learned from Roland when Kaiba would be returning. The brunette approached the stairs and looked down at Yugi, contemplating his options. It wasn't a very difficult decision to make, though. He couldn't just leave him there.
He abandoned his suitcase at the foot of the steps and carefully scooped Yugi up in his arms. He ascended the steps as smoothly as he could, not wanting to wake him. For one thing, he needed the sleep. For another, he wasn't ready to explain to Yugi why he'd disappeared on a business trip and hadn't spoken to him once since he left. Despite his best efforts, Yugi began to stir as he reached the top of the stairs.
"Seto?" he whispered, his eyelids heavy and his voice thick with sleep.
"Go back to sleep, Yugi," the executive murmured, glancing down into his orchid eyes for a fraction of a second before returning his attention to where he was going. His lover, though, had his mind set on disobeying.
"Put me down, I can walk on my own," he muttered with a rare tone of grumpiness. Seto complied, setting the King of Games on his own feet, then immediately starting to move way. "Wait, where are you going?" Yugi protested, following after him.
"I'm going to sleep. Feel free to use any of the guest rooms." He waved one arm in a vague gesture without even turning to look at him, but was forced to when Yugi jumped in front of him and held out his arms to keep Kaiba from going around him.
"You've been ignoring me for a week, and we finally see each other again, and you're just going to walk away?" He had that stubborn look in his eyes, like the look he had when he dueled.
Dueling.
Remembering the many times that Yugi had beaten him in a duel made Kaiba's mood even more sour.
"It's almost four in the morning. I think it's reasonable for me to wish to sleep." He crossed his arms as a familiar scowl settled over his features.
"That's not the issue here." Yugi crossed his arms too. "Why weren't you answering my calls?"
"I was working."
"Not all the time, though! There must have been a time when you could have called me back."
"I'm a busy man, and sometimes you can't be my top priority. I thought you understood that." Kaiba brushed past Yugi, walking quickly in the direction of his room. The sooner he got to his room, the sooner he could end this conversation, and the sooner he could sleep. Yugi grabbed his arm, though, and turned him around, further frustrating the brunette.
"That doesn't explain why you were giving me the cold shoulder before you even left, though. And now you don't even want to share a bed with me!" Yugi released Kaiba's arm when he saw the fierce look in the other's eyes, a slight fear shivering down his spine and reminding him that Kaiba could be quite volatile when he got truly angry. Seto saw the fear in his face, and it just made him angrier.
"I. Am. Tired." The words were growled around clenched teeth. "We can talk about it tomorrow when we can both be calm and rational about it."
"Can't you ever stop being rational?" Yugi asked in irritation. He didn't seem at all sleepy now.
"Yes, and you see it all the time," Seto snapped, his fists clenching at his sides as he fought for control of his temper. "The only reason we're together is because I stopped being rational about you! Loving you is the most irrational thing I've ever done! Or did you completely overlook that tiny little detail?" Kaiba pushed past him again, and this time Yugi didn't stop him. He followed him, though, taking a few moments to come up with a response.
"Seto, did I do something wrong?" The soft, quiet question couldn't have been more pitiful if he'd been trying. "Did I... upset you somehow?"
"Do you really think I'm that sensitive?" He really did sound exhausted now that his anger had left him. He still sounded cranky, though, and when Yugi followed him into his room, he didn't push him away or tell him off.
"I think you're more sensitive than you let on," Yugi murmured, taking Seto's hand and leading him to his walk-in closet. The taller of the two was tired enough to tolerate being led like a child. "More sensitive than you'd like me to believe."
Kaiba didn't answer as Yugi started to undress him, taking off his suit jacket, unbuttoning his shirt, and everything else.
"You're not normally this tired after a business trip." Yugi's eyes studied Seto's bloodshot ones as he finished buttoning up Seto's pajama shirt.
"Hmph."
"Come on, then. Let's get you to bed."
Seto swayed a bit as Yugi started tugging him along, but he managed to stay on his feet up until the point that Yugi gently pushed him down onto the mattress. He couldn't even keep his eyes open.
"Can I sleep with you, Seto?"
"Hmmm..." He was half asleep already, and Yugi took that as a yes. He tucked Seto in under his covers, flicked off the lights, then went to Seto's closet and changed into a spare set of pajamas that he kept here for nights like this. He slipped in under the sheets next to Seto and closed his eyes, preparing to go back to sleep. After a few moments, he felt Seto put an arm around him and pull their bodies closer together before falling into a truly deep sleep.