Chapter 51: Restraint

Even though Kaiba had told himself to stay out of the matter, by morning he had made an executive decision to do something about Yuugi. He was still deeply bothered by Yami's nightmare and everything in Kaiba was urging him to do something to protect his boyfriend at any cost. Thus, Kaiba had turned off the alarms and called into the school to tell them Yami would be absent from classes today. Then he got ready for school, satisfied that Yami was still in a deep and dreamless sleep.

Kaiba stood in the hallway outside of Yuugi's room, waiting for the moment he would emerge and he could finally confront him about his stupidity and its repercussions. He had run through several scenarios of how the conversation could go and Kaiba had to actively remind himself why going the route of eviscerating Yuugi would be a terrible choice. Kaiba knew he had to play this game carefully because he didn't want to risk having Yami get upset at him because of how he treated Yuugi. It was enough to temper Kaiba's natural inclination to rip into Yuugi and make him regret ever having started the problem in the first place.

Kaiba's mind snapped to attention when Yuugi finally emerged from his room. Yuugi was clearly startled by Kaiba's presence, all the more so when he glanced around and didn't see Yami anywhere in sight. The intense way Kaiba was glaring at him made Yuugi shrink back a little as he stuttered, "Wh-Where's Yami?"

"Oh, now you suddenly want to see him?" Kaiba sarcastically questioned. "How nice."

The comment made Yuugi frown, but he simply repeated his question, "Where's Yami?"

"He's unconscious in bed because he had night terrors that kept him up all night thanks to you and your selfish stupidity," Kaiba hissed, trying to reign in his temper before he let it get the better of him.

"What are you talking about?" Yuugi asked in an annoyed tone, confused by the statement and not taking kindly to Kaiba's insult.

"Because you've decided your feelings are more important than anyone else's—" Kaiba started.

"This is really none of your business," Yuugi said as he started to walk away.

Unable to stop himself, Kaiba reached out and grabbed Yuugi's wrist to stop him and force him to turn around again. "You made this my business," Kaiba said in a threatening manner that made Yuugi jerk his wrist out of the hold. "Because if you think I'm going to stand by and watch as you make Yami question everything about himself and feel horrible because of you, you are sorely mistaken."

"And what are you going to do about it?" Yuugi challenged as he glared back at Kaiba. "Beat me up? I've been beat up by bigger people than you."

"Trust me, you don't even want to know what I'm capable of doing," Kaiba warned before mentally checking himself because he knew he was going down the wrong path very quickly. "I may not be able to make you stop being such a hypocritical little shit, but I'm telling you that you need to change your mindset on this problem and fast."

"And how am I a hypocrite?" Yuugi demanded.

Laughing cynically, Kaiba scoffed, "Seriously? Where are all your friendship and forgiveness speeches now? Where is your belief that you should stand by a friend through anything? You espouse such platitudes and yet you can't even do any of that for the one person who is supposed to be your closest friend of all? Some fucking friend you are."

The words hit uncomfortably close to home for Yuugi and he blustered, "And what do you know about friendship? You barely tolerate our existence. We've been trying for years to be friends with you and you scorn us every chance you get. If we're so terrible, why do you let your brother hang out with us?"

"Because I was under the apparently mistaken belief that you actually practiced what you preached," Kaiba told him as he crossed his arms defensively over his chest. "Knowing that Mokuba was surrounded by people who would do anything for him regardless of his circumstances was some source of comfort. But if you can't even support Yami, what hope should I have that you'll ever stand by Mokuba's side when he really needs you to?"

"That's different!" Yuugi protested.

"How? How is it any fucking different?" Kaiba angrily demanded. "If the mutt had feelings for my brother instead of for Yami and Mokuba rejected him, would you throw him out of the group for the sake of protecting Jounouchi's feelings? Would you treat Mokuba the same shitty way you are Yami in the hopes that he'll feel bad enough to leave on his own?"

"Of course not!" Yuugi insisted with a scowl.

"Then why the fuck are you punishing Yami for not reciprocating someone else's feelings?" Kaiba questioned.

"It's not about punishment," Yuugi replied, although he didn't defend the point.

"You're right. It's about you and your petty reactions," Kaiba snarled. "Because somehow the mutt having unreciprocated feelings for Yami became all about you. Yami finally living and having a life outside of you became inconvenient to you so you began lashing out at Yami for shit beyond his control because it's easier than dealing with the fucking facts."

"Stop acting like you know everything," Yuugi snapped, getting defensive as the words once again struck a little too close to the truth.

"Then tell me where I'm wrong," Kaiba challenged. "Please explain to me the part where this is somehow all Yami's fault because of malicious intent, despite the fact he would rather die than hurt you. Because I'm not fucking seeing it."

Yuugi didn't have an answer to that so he threw up his hands and said, "Think whatever you want to think, Kaiba-kun. I'm not going to be late for class because of you."

"Go ahead, run away like the fucking coward that you are," Kaiba sneered with a disgusted look that made Yuugi instinctively take a step away. "Why should I expect anything else? After everything Yami has done for you, after everything he has helped you achieved, you can't even give him the simple courtesy of supporting his happiness? And you have the gall to accuse me of not knowing the fundamentals of friendship? Hn, maybe try looking in the mirror first before you start throwing around accusations."

The words felt like a punch in the gut to Yuugi, mostly because he knew it was true. There was that tiny voice inside of Yuugi that agreed he was being unreasonable, but he didn't know how to stop himself from reacting the way he was. Yuugi could only manage to say, "Whatever," before turning and walking away from Kaiba, who coldly watched him leave. The whole encounter was deeply unsettling in many respects and Yuugi knew that he had a lot of things to think about, even though he didn't want to do so.

Kaiba forced himself to passively let Yuugi retreat and took a deep, steadying breath. He hadn't meant to get so heated, but it pissed him off on numerous levels that Yuugi was treating Yami in such a way. Kaiba already knew that Yami was going to be severely displeased about how he accidentally got threatening, but it was worth enduring if it meant getting Yuugi to see that he was wrong. Looking at his watch, Kaiba realized he was already going to be late for his first class because the encounter ran far longer than he had intended. Knowing that sitting in class and fuming about the matter wouldn't be productive, Kaiba decided to turn around and go back to his room as he pulled out his phone to call the school and tell them he would also be absent from class.


A/N: Sometimes it's easy to forget that Yuugi used to get beaten up on a regular basis. It creates an odd defense mechanism…

NEXT CHAPTER:

"You can't fight my battles for me," Yami angrily told him, not entirely comfortable with the interference in the situation.

The next chapter will be posted on Sunday, January 3rd. How can it already be 2016?! I feel like this year just flew by, didn't it? Thank you for another year of support and I look forward to 2016 with everyone because we get the new YGO movie that's going to inspire all sorts of awesome new things. Happy New Year to everyone!