Chapter 25: Quiet Fury
It had been a week since the tournament and Kaiba had grown curious about the coverage of it and Yami. He had requested that his secretary gather various sources of information for his perusal and she had done so from a variety of sources. Opening up the large envelope his secretary had provided him, Kaiba took out numerous magazines featuring coverage of his tournament. Most of the features were standard fare, covering the highlights of the tournament with stock footage of the duels. A few of them had profiles and interviews with the top three duelists, which all seemed to say the same things in slightly different ways.
It was why Kaiba was so startled to see a shirtless Yami on the cover of a women's magazine, holding a card in one hand while the other pulled down on the band of his leather pants. Kaiba quickly flipped to the article and his eyes went wide at the two page spread of Yami sensually reclining in a pile of his scattered cards with a come hither look that shot straight through Kaiba.
A quick glance at the photographer credit showed that it was Wakayama Keisuke and Kaiba felt his blood boil in rage at the playboy photographer capturing Yami in such a way. He looked through the rest of the photoshoot and each picture managed to be sexier than the last. Kaiba was at war with being turned on and enraged at the same time. "What the hell?" Kaiba muttered to himself as he flipped through the spread again. He just couldn't get over the pictures and he burned to call Yami and ask what the hell had happened. How had he not known about it?
Forcing himself to calm down and set the magazine aside, Kaiba looked through the remaining magazines, but found nothing as sensationalizing as the previous magazine. Still, he couldn't curb his urge to talk to Yami about it. Finally caving, Kaiba called Yami, who answered on the second ring, "What a surprise, you calling me during the day."
"What are you doing tonight?" Kaiba asked without preamble.
"Whatever you've got planned," Yami smoothly answered and Kaiba could picture his grin.
"Where are you?" Kaiba wanted to know, hoping he wasn't out with his friends.
"At home, why?" Yami replied and Kaiba could hear him sit on his bed.
It distracted Kaiba momentarily, but he quickly regained focus. "I'll see you after I get off work," Kaiba informed him, sounding more terse than he meant to.
"Everything okay?" Yami asked, picking up on Kaiba's tone.
Rather than answering, Kaiba simply said, "I've got to go."
Assuming it was business related, Yami let it go and merely replied, "I'll see you later tonight, then."
Hanging up after saying goodbye, Kaiba continued to stew about the photos. All sorts of inappropriate thoughts and images were going through his mind about Keisuke, riling him up further. He wasn't mad at Yami, but Kaiba wasn't exactly thrilled, either.
Why had he done such a thing? Hadn't he been embarrassed? Then again, probably not. Yami exuded sexuality naturally and it shouldn't have been surprising to see such a shoot, but Kaiba still didn't know what to think. He was still at war with being angry and turned on by it all. The conflicting thoughts drove him to look at the magazine once more, this time at a much slower rate. He didn't like seeing Yami being objectified, but at the same time, he found it ridiculously hot. Plus he got a bizarre thrill out of knowing that he was the only one who got to experience Yami like that and so much more. It almost made Kaiba wish that more people knew about their relationship. He'd love to see the dejected look on Keisuke's face when he realized that he'd never stand a chance. But then again, he still got the chance to see Yami in such a state and Kaiba burned at the thought of Keisuke touching Yami to reposition his pose. Yami was his, damn it!
The sound of his intercom ringing distracted him from his thoughts. "What?" Kaiba brusquely demanded.
"Your 3.30 meeting is about to start," his secretary informed him, causing him to swear as he looked at his watch and confirmed just how much he had lost track of time.
Gathering up his files for the meeting, Kaiba said, "Thanks," before hanging up the phone. Putting the magazines back in the envelope for later, Kaiba did his best to put it out of his mind and focus on business instead.
A/N: A little on the short side, but it's setting up the finale, so...
NEXT CHAPTER:
The question made Yami want to laugh, but he got the impression that was the wrong response.
The finale chapter of Discovery will be posted on Sunday, April 6th. It's hard to believe that it's finally coming to an end, but I think it's been a good journey. Plus I have lots of new Prideshipping goodies ahead, so we'll see what comes next. In the meantime, I look forward to you reviews!