Whoa! An update? So soon? I'm on a roll!

Yeah, I felt kind of bad for leaving such a heavy cliffy the last chapter, so I decided not to make you guys wait too much longer. And thus, here's the next one!

Enjoy! ;3


"Yami…"

Silence settled perilously around them as Kaiba helplessly watched the spiny-haired adolescent stare unbelievingly into his eyes, unable to make any words past that come out of his slightly ajared lips. Confusion, shock, hurt—all of these emotions resonated deeply within the boy's rich, crimson eyes as he gazed at Kaiba who could only sit and do the same.

Why in the world was Yami here? How did he get here? How long had he been standing there? How much did he hear?

By the look on his face, no doubt he'd been standing there long enough to hear that last statement made by Kaiba.

'I didn't really mean that.' he thought gratuitously as if the teen could hear him. 'I only said it to shut Kisara up.'

Slowly, as if he'd understood Kaiba somehow, Yami lifted his shocked gaze up to the said woman whom Kaiba was sure was still grinning madly. Upon seeing the woman's facial expression, Yami's look changed from shocked and hurt to tired annoyance and frustration in a matter of milliseconds. He glanced back down at Kaiba for a split second, then glared hard and Kisara before stepping into the room and shutting the door behind him with a bit more force than necessary.

Without a word, Yami plopped himself down right next to Kisara, crossing his legs and spreading his elbows out to lay on top of the back pillows of the couch and have his hands hang lazily down near his chest. He flashed a dangerous smile at Kisara who now wore the same look of shock Yami had been sporting before as the boy lounged comfortably on the couch as if it belonged to him.

"Wha…what do you think you're doing you twerp?" Kisara asked incredulously, more than likely thinking—as was Kaiba—that he would have immediately left after hearing Kaiba's cruel statement about him. No, instead he sat there with a dark smile painted on his face and a malicious glint in his eyes all directed toward the person who hadn't said anything to insult him, save from the name she'd just called him after seeing him sit down next to her.

"You know," Yami spoke up finally, "when I was a child, there was this story my mother told me. It's quite a popular story. I'm sure you know it." He eyed Kisara mildly before continuing. "It's called 'The Tortoise and the Hare'. You know the story I'm talking about."

"In that story, it told about how a tortoise and a hare competed in a race against each other. Normally, it would seem inevitable that the speedy hare would win the race against the slow tortoise. However, that stupid white hare was too damn arrogant and instead of keeping its eyes on the prize, it decided to taunt the poor tortoise about how much better it was than the reptile and even took a nap along the way. And in the end, the tortoise won because of its persistence and the hare's overabundant arrogance."

The teen fell silent after his retelling of the story and continued to glare at Kisara, who stared harshly back. The two seemed to be in quiet combat as Kaiba observed the standoff, taken aback by Yami's sudden urge to instill story time upon them. He sat confused with his brows wrinkled together, finding the story to be rather irrelevant to the current situation.

Kaiba swallowed dryly, now feeling a bit less at a loss for words, and calmly asked, "Yami. What are you doing here?" The teen broke the staring contest he held with Kisara and shifted his gaze over to Kaiba, softening it a bit. He watched the brunette for a moment, then reached into the right pants pocket of his school uniform and pulled out a folded up piece of paper, holding it up so it could be seen properly.

"I found this note in my locker at school today telling me to come here." he answered matter-of-factly. "Here." He reached over the coffee table and held the paper out for Kaiba to take. The man accommodated and slid the note out of his hand, glanced in his direction skeptically for a moment, then slowly unfolded it to divulge in its contents.

We need to talk. Meet me in the filming and production building in the west wing of KaibaCorp. at 4:30 this afternoon. I'll be in the break room on the 1st floor. If you show this note to one of my employees they will show you the way there.

-Kaiba

Kaiba stared dubiously at the note, finding the handwriting to be nearly a perfect copy of his own. Despite this, the note was not written by Kaiba.

"And you actually think I wrote this?" he questioned, eying Kisara as it was obvious that it could only have been her who plotted this. The woman looked off to the side, refusing to make eye contact with him.

"No." Yami admitted. "In fact, it was so painfully obvious that it wasn't written by you I decided to go ahead and come investigate." He looked back over to Kisara as well, wearing an amused smirk that at the same time almost looked scary. "But whoever did write this must really be an idiot to think I would fall for whatever they were up to."

Kisara looked up from the spot on the floor that she seemed to be so interested in for the past minute or so and glanced at Yami, over at Kaiba, then back at Yami.

"What are you looking at me for?" she shouted defensively, the statement only hardening Kaiba's glare. Yami stood up from the spot he sat in suddenly, then pointed a rather dramatic accusative finger at her.

"You, Kisara, are that idiotic hare." he said. All traces of amusement were drained from his body as he continued with a hellish glare plastered across his face. "Instead of going about your way honestly and fairly, you choose to mock and jeer untastefully at anyone whom you feel is even remotely a threat to getting what you want. Rather than trying harder to accomplish what you want, you make an effort to step on and crush any and every one in your way in the most demeaning or hurtful ways you can think of, thinking that you need no justification for doing so other than you merely don't like them. You don't care how you might hurt others as long as you get what you want. You have an air about you that reeks of self-centeredness; so much so that it's sickening." he said in a calm tone that didn't match his expression at all.

"Listen here, you-" Kisara began, springing up from where she sat with her fists clenched and nostrils flared.

"You are a mean, hateful woman. And that is why you will never win the race against the tortoise. You already lost your chance; the tortoise is already too close to the finish line while you're still in the cabbage field sleeping the day away."

Kisara's eyes flashed over to Kaiba for a brief moment, then were placed back over to Yami with a glare that could turn him to stone. Kaiba remained silent as he continued to closely monitor the conflict.

"How dare you, you impolite, hypocritical, swine!" she spewed acidly.

"You are two faced." Yami went on, flat out ignoring her comment. "You use the façade of a polite, pleasant, good-natured girl to cover up the truly mean, nasty, ugly woman that you really are. No matter how much makeup you pack onto your face, it will never be enough to cover up how absolutely horrendous you are on the inside. For no matter how much you may try and fake it, you are nothing more than an undeniably ugly, ugly human being." he finished furiously, not caring in that moment how harsh his words were.

It was quiet for a while. Kaiba watched as Kisara's angry glare was slowly chipped away until she only had a distorted frown and wrinkles between her brows left. Tears sprung from the corners of her eyes as she quickly turned and dashed out of the room, collecting what remained of her shattered pride on the way. Kaiba watched as she left, slamming the door hard behind her which caused a picture nearby to be shaken. He exhaled a quiet breath once the woman's presence was gone from the room and looked back over to Yami who was now sitting back on the couch opposite to him with his eyes pointed upward toward the ceiling contemplatively.

"Maybe I went a bit far…" Yami considered to himself softly, tapping his index finger on the leather couch seat next to him monotonously.

"I say she deserved every bit of that." Kaiba voiced. After all, it's not like Yami had done anything to her in the first place for her to try setting a scheme such as that up. Yami brought his eyes down to look at Kaiba, then smirked weakly with an indifferent shrug.

Kaiba viewed Yami for a short while. Sure, Kisara had been deserving something like that for a long time, but Kaiba was surprised that it had been Yami to be the one to give it to her. The teen normally seemed so cool and collected; it was shocking to see him lose his temper so extremely all of a sudden. It was starting to become apparent to Kaiba that there was a lot more to Yami than he'd first thought. Even when it came to simple things like how he reacted to certain situations. His heartbeat quickened at the realization at how mysterious the boy still was and at how much he wanted to know more about him.

Kaiba bit down on the inside of his cheek as he felt guilt suddenly wring at his chest for what he'd said earlier. Of course he hadn't meant any of it, and it seemed like Yami already knew that based on his reaction. Still, he almost felt a need to apologize. Almost.

"You know, none of this would have happened if you hadn't of been dumb enough to come here after you realized that note wasn't even from me." was what came out of his mouth instead of what he really wanted to say, and Kaiba instantly regretted saying anything at all. Yami raised his eyebrows at the brunette as he looked him up and down. Then, after a moment, he leaned back in the couch, crossing his arms with a wide smirk.

"You're sorry for what you said. You didn't mean it and wish that you could take it back but since you can't you're just going to say something rude to cover it up. Right?"

Kaiba chocked on his spit.

After clearing his throat to stop himself from having a coughing fit, he stared disbelievingly at Yami, feeling a little humiliated and hating it and the fact that the teen had been so spot on.

"Excuse me?" Kaiba questioned with his voice raised.

"It's okay Kaiba, I forgive you." Yami said teasingly with a wink. The crimson-eyed youth stood up from the couch with a huff, as if the onslaught of insults he'd rained down on Kisara had tired him out. "I think I should get going then." he said, then began making his way out of the small room.

"Wait a second." Kaiba found himself saying. The teen obeyed, turning slightly back around just before he'd been able to get his hand on the door handle. Kaiba just looked at him for a few seconds, allowing a question he was much too curious to get an answer to to slip out.

"If Kisara is the hare…" he began. Feeling anxious to see what Yami would say, he continued, "…Who is the tortoise?"

Yami stared at Kaiba for a little bit and Kaiba stared back, feeling an odd sensation as their eyes connected. He was practically entranced; he didn't think he could remove his eyes from Yami's even if he wanted to. So, he just kept looking into the rubies for eyes that Yami had as he awaited an answer.

"I'll let you be the one to figure that out. Kaiba." Yami said softly. After a few more moments, the teen finally tore his eyes away from Kaiba's, pulled the door open, and exited the room. The door closed with a light thud and Kaiba blinked a couple times once he was at last broken from the trance he'd been in. He turned to face forward in his seat, unable to erase Yami from his mind.

One thing was for sure. Yami sure was a weirdo.


Dayuuuuuum! Yami went OFF!

Oh Kaiba, Yami may be a weirdo, but you know you like it! ;D

I hope this chapter was enjoyable for you all! I was so skeptical about it and honestly kind of afraid you all would hate it! But I'm pretty much that way when it comes to every chapter I post! xD

I'm sure I'm not the only writer like that though!

Can anyone take a guess at what Yami meant when he brought up "The Tortoise and the Hare"? What was the point, exactly? Who is the tortoise? What does the finish line symbolize, I wonder?

Oh god, why am I asking you all these questions like we're in English class or something!? O.o

Please don't be shy about reviewing! This being the first multi-chapter fanfic of mine, I could really use the feedback! It really makes me feel motivated to hear what you think! I'm always open to critics!

Thanks for reading!