AN: The rating of this story has now been upgraded to M and will contain mature content moving forward.
Atem
Isis's departure couldn't have been more than a few minutes before our own. The slender lead made the bustle and swiftness of my servants even more impressive as they moved from place to place, already busy with the preparation of the royal bath.
They diligently went about their tasks, only briefly stopping to bow as Kaiba and I crossed outside into the royal family's private courtyard and paused there to give the servants free roam and the space to go about their duties.
Carved in the shape of a giant cross the royal bath was a sight to behold. Father, Mother and I once bathed here together every morning and evening. It was a ritual, a normalcy of our family, one that I missed without them now that I could remember it well enough to do so. It was a symbol of our family's closeness that had been reaffirmed each sunrise and sunset. Though it was rare even my Uncle had been known to join the three of us on occasion and I supposed if we'd have known of Seto's lineage from the beginning he would have grown up sharing in this space too instead of bathing in the communal baths of the priesthood.
Many fond moments from my childhood had happened here. There had been water fights and contests of holding my breath with Father and singing songs to the Gods with Mother as she washed my hair. Those precious moments were made both familiar by memories of my life and strange by my time as the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, alone and disconnected from my family.
The bath's rim was a wall of stone reaching up to my knee that made it appear shallow at first glance, barely more than a wading pool, but inside of those walls a deep well had been carved and filed with crystal clear water that colored slightly green to the naked eye. Two levels around the inside acted as in-built stone seating. The first was deep enough to accommodate my father's height and the second of the two levels was shallower, carved into the walls of the bath at my mother's command when I was a child so I could join them as they bathed without fear of slipping down under the water. Neither of my parents would ever have allowed something like that to happen, but my mother was boundlessly fierce in her love even though she was of poor health.
To Yugi bathing had simply been part of his routine and never anything more than that, but now that I was myself again I felt very differently about the matter. To me there was nothing in the world better than a hot bath in the open air with my loved ones. There was a sacred and divine peace to being held embraced by the sun, the water and breeze all at the same time.
Though open air the structure didn't leave its bathers to the mercy of the Egyptian sun; a fact I was sure Kaiba would be glad for if I was indeed able to coax him into joining me. The innermost points of the pool's cross shaped walls were flanked by four thick pillars, painted in tones of forest green, mustard yellow and a ruddy red that had begun to fade over the years before either of the other two colors. The bases of each of these pillars were lined with hieroglyphs and incantations to promote relaxation and good health, while the top of them each held up a corner of a great stone scaffolding that ran across the heads of those in the pool beneath. Carved and painted into it was the history of my family, pictures of my ancestors in various states of victory - a scene of my great grandfather hunting hippopotamuses, his father winning battles and chariot races and their grandfather being visited by the Gods.
My servants moved fluidly across the space, quietly placing down bowls of dried figs and honey on the golden lip that lined the wall of the bath. It was inlaid with stripes of flawless ivory and gleaming lapis lazuli that complemented the bright blue glaze of the ceramic vessels. Mana often teased me for preferring the food of commoners to the various delicacies expected to best please a Pharaoh's tongue, but sweet dried figs were an exception.
A servant girl of about my age and Téa's shape who I knew to be one of Shimon's favorite chambermaids was scattering the heads and petals of blue and white lotus flowers onto the surface of the water while a stronger, heavily muscled manservant ferried freshly fired rocks from the courtyard's kiln to the pool and cast them into the depths to quickly heat the bath to a temperature just short of steaming. An older servant who wore the leather apron of one of the healing chamber attendants moved around the lip of the bath in slow and steady strides, placing down ceramic jars of creams, balms and mints. The smell of freshly lit Kyphi danced on the wind as yet more vassals moved around the area, placing down piles of clean linen, pouring wine from pitchers and setting out a large jug of the beer that Seto was partial to and the clay straws with which to drink it.
I took a deep breath, savoring the sweet smell of my home. The rich scents of wine, saffron, cinnamon, and sandalwood breathed new life into my body as the fragrance of the Gods permeated the air and settled there like a welcoming blanket. Kaiba watched me warily as I inhaled the aroma and glanced around the grand patio, noticeably avoiding looking at any of the passing female servants whose simple dresses exposed their breasts with a flushed scowl of embarrassment. I chuckled at him, which made him shoot his grimace at me instead.
What he'd seen in the visions of Call of the Haunted seemed to have bothered him far less than coming face to face with innocent displays of partial nudity. That curbed my warm feelings. I missed being part of another person - simply willing my thoughts and feelings into their beings so they could understand me and my emotions. Not for the first time I felt stifled by the singularity of my body, of being unable to just share my intent directly with another. I wanted to address my past actions with Kaiba, I realized, to have him know my feelings, but I wasn't sure how best to talk about what we had seen in the canyon properly.
"I'm sorry you had to see that." I tried. My words were quiet and burdened with a heavy weight. Did Kaiba now think less of me since witnessing my past? His respect was something precious and prickly, made all the more valuable for its innate fragility. I wondered what he thought, now that he knew I was less than the paragon I wished him to see me as. Did he now think of me as a hypocrite, and was I? Self-doubt had no place in the hearts of anyone wanting to do battle against Seto Kaiba, a fact he may well choose to remind me of if given an opening to do so.
"Tch! Then tell them to put on more clothes." Kaiba snapped, flushing slightly and steadfastly glaring off at a wholly unremarkable wall, away from my servants as they went about their duties.
"Not that." I sighed. Kaiba shifted uncomfortably at my side, dragging his eyes away from the safety of palace stone and risking seeing something unwanted as he glanced back to my face and studied it. "I'm talking about the spirits that Call of the Haunted summoned."
I could feel his eyes on my face as Kaiba analyzed me. He crossed his arms with a toneless reply of "Andro Sphinx was using them as a distraction, and it worked. There was a pause, an interlude created as an opportunity for me to reply but I couldn't think of anything to say. Making excuses or justifying my actions only dishonored the dead. "It's not like you to fall for such an amateur trick." Kaiba added, though his voice remained largely free of sarcasm or contempt, as if he was merely making a note of it.
A second silence elapsed between us and as Kaiba pulled open his coat to pursue lighting a new cigarette it occurred to me that I was beginning to understand the mannerism. Like his subtle movements, innocuous noises and flippant emotions this new habit also had a function. It seemed to be a defense against things Kaiba didn't know how to face head on. I understood his reticence, too well. What was the correct reaction to watching a valued opponent sentence innocent people to their deaths?
"Distraction or not, they're still dead because of me." I admitted, quietly.
As were many others. When I'd first emerged from the Millennium Puzzle in Yugi's time I recalled a rage and wrath, but couldn't remember what fueled it or why. Yugi's various aggressors had become a welcome outlet to those vengeful feelings and being 'merciful' had been the least of my concerns. Looking back on it now with the benefit of my memories I'd reconciled with the fact that some of the infractions against him I'd punished justly, but others I had not.
"It's not like it matters." Kaiba countered nonchalantly. "That's not a 'new' behavior."
I glanced at him sharply, demanding he explain himself even as I already suspected what he would say next. Kaiba was a diligent adversary. I doubted much of my past had remained hidden from his scrutiny while he searched for ways to get the upper hand over me.
"You can't honestly believe that I don't know about all the crazy people you left babbling around Domino. Or that Yakuza stunt you pulled on the escaped convict that held up a Burger World." His voice and features were both bathed in a coarse stoicism. I couldn't read the intent behind his words but I suspected he was trying to anger me to some end. Yugi and his gentle nature would never had allowed such an attempt to stir my temper, but Yugi wasn't here to breathe calmness into me. "Call them 'penalty games' or whatever nonsense you want" Kaiba pressed, "It doesn't change what you did."
I scowled at him as he distracted himself with his lighter. Of all the people surrounding me Kaiba knew better than most how easy it was to be swallowed whole by darker instincts. Perhaps that was what prompted him to speak his next words.
He captured his cigarette between his lips and lit it. "You think I've never killed someone?" The question settled into the air with the softness of a stone. Only now was their any hint of accusation in his voice. He made it sound like I was threatening his credibility. There was no need for it. I knew full well that Kaiba had been capable of murder in the past. Likely with a gun, or some other modern tool to make the act as efficient and impersonal as it could be. However, from what I had observed Kaiba was more partial to threatening death than delivering it.
"I've known you to bluff about the deadliness of your creations in the past." I noted as I raised my eyebrow and stared him down. His expression turned into a probing glower.
"You got any proof to back up all that hot air?" He replied, breathing out a mouthful of smoke to mix into the sweet smell of incense and turn the aroma slightly sour.
"I do." It was an insight that Yugi had stumbled upon while studying for one of his school exams. "In Death-T you sentenced us to the Electric Chair Ride, boasting the lethality of it's 'one million volts.'" I began, trying to recount exactly how Yugi had explained the concept to me. As the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle I would've been able to share Yugi's understanding of the concept, but I no longer had the benefit of being able to refer to his knowledge.
"And?" Kaiba prompted, sounding bored and disinterested.
"And someone with your technical abilities would know that volts mean nothing. The amperage decides the deadliness of electricity, not the voltage." I concluded. I believed that was accurate but couldn't remember the information. Not precisely. The realization that I couldn't recall it perfectly washed over me like a tide of ocean water, coating my skin in a salt of dread that itched and irritated me.
Forgetting things over time wasn't abnormal, but if I'd begun to forget this then had I begun to forget other things too? Were there other fragments of conversations that had already slipped away without me noticing? Would others continue to do so as my afterlife stretched onward? Eternity was a long time. Was it so long that it would slowly erode away each of my memories of my time in Yugi's world? Until none remained?
I felt as though I'd just noticed a stray thread dangling loose in the tapestry of my mind and now that I knew it was there dreaded that it was just the first precursor to some great unraveling.
No. That wouldn't happen.
Yugi was – had been - my closest confidante. Forgetting his words or his friendship wasn't an option and I wouldn't allow it. Nor those of any of my friends. I'd hold onto each of those memories tightly, no matter what.
With a derisive scoff the part of Yugi's world most stubbornly determined to linger spoke again.
"Try explaining all that to anyone in the palace." Kaiba snarked, before adding "I'll wait." In sarcastic mockery.
Kaiba's poor humor had a point. A Pharaoh of Egypt shouldn't know anything of electricity.
"At least that version of you made it quick." Kaiba huffed with finality, returning to the previous topic while exhaling a burst of smoke that drifted lazily in the air. He watched the tongue of vapor disperse into the sky before sneering nastily. "Being insane or a drooling vegetable for the rest of your life is much worse than death."
"What?" I demanded. The backhanded comment took me by surprised, as though Kaiba had struck out against my life points directly without warning. Our eyes narrowed at each other with the promise of some otherwise unfinished business as his expression riled me.
"Death denies people the chance to change." I firmly contested.
I could tell I'd fallen into some verbal snare as Kaiba smirked triumphantly, as though he was about to summon one of his Blue-Eyes White Dragon's onto the field. "It sure does." He agreed, pointedly locking his eyes with mine. I frowned, realizing as he intended for me to the innate hypocrisy in those words. Death denied the chance for improvement and atonement, yet to Kaiba's condescending point it was exactly the state I was most willing to perpetuate myself in, to his narrow-minded way of thinking.
My irritation abated as Kaiba's victorious smirk lessened into an expression as close to honest curiosity as I'd ever seen on his face. "Is that why you're so determined to stick around here, instead of trying to cut it in the real world? Because your afraid of changing?" The bright blue of his eyes was as piercing and intense as ever but his tone was utterly bland. I couldn't recall if Kaiba had ever asked me something so bluntly before.
If Kaiba was going to reign in his temper and be straightforward without bursting into angry shouts or storming away then I wanted to return the sentiment and give him an honest answer, but in this moment I didn't know what that answer was. "I'm not afraid." I parried back, feeling the need to say that without knowing why. Even if I had been 'afraid', it would have been natural to feel that way. I'd only just regained my memories, my name and my identity. Was it cowardly to want to preserve those things just the way they were instead of instantly setting to work on altering them? No. There was something more to it. Something I didn't want to confront. I could feel it prowling around in the shadows on my mind waiting to pounce on me with comprehension.
Kaiba's eyes darted around my face as I was rendered silent by my own sudden pensiveness.
"It's fine." He concluded, before gruffly adding as though it was intended to appease me. "People don't change. Not unless they have to."
That wasn't true.
Yugi had changed. He'd grown in confidence and courage into an indomitable force of good and kindness. Joey had as well. His boundless energy and enthusiasm had carried him from a novice to being one of the toughest duelists in Japan in such a short amount of time. Even despite his belief to the contrary Kaiba had changed too - and continued to do so. He was change incarnate, ever embodying all of the destruction, creation and chaos it demanded. Seemingly he had both an endless capacity and an unlimited potential for change and once he was away from this place I didn't doubt he would continue to do so.
It stung like the scratch of a cat to realize I envied him for that, and I was able to place the feeling I didn't want to face. It wasn't that I was afraid to change, it was that I feared I was no longer able to. Yugi's friendship had changed me and because of it I'd been able to return to who I truly was, but now with that journey finished it felt like my ability to change for better or worse had come to an end. Suddenly I imagined myself to be a heavy rock in the middle of Kaiba's river, watching his rapids rush passed me toward a destination I would never see. It had never bothered me before, not for the length of time I'd spent in my afterlife, but now that I had that picture in my mind it refused to be dismissed.
"People do change. Some more than others." I settled on.
Kaiba rolled his eyes, apparently willful blind to that same character trait that I found appealing enough to be jealous of. How frustrating.
"Do you really feel that nothing has changed you?" I pressed, matching his earlier tone by making my question blunt and to the point without any inflections or inferences. "That the duelist before me today could just as easily build another Death-T tomorrow?"
"I can - whenever I want." Kaiba hissed. "And no." He crossed his arms ever more tightly across his chest. "It was an indefensible legal liability." He muttered with a sour face, saying nothing more than that on the matter.
"We've seen the worst of each other." I noted. We'd even coaxed it out of one another.
"Hnh." Kaiba grunted in reply, before rounding on me in challenge. "Don't tell me you're getting cold feet about 'us'?" He quipped smartly, pronouncing 'us' strangely like it was a new word he'd just invented.
I closed my eyes and hummed as though seriously considering it, if only to see Kaiba's arrogant expression falter slightly.
"Never." I answered with a sure smirk. After all, the advantage of seeing Kaiba at his worst was the anticipation of next seeing him at his best.
And perhaps seeing him in other new and interesting ways as well.
Using a long wooden pole with a hook on the end two of the servants worked in unison to guide a dark purple cloth of fine quality over the bath's stone scaffolding and secured it to create a shield against the sun. With it in place and a final heated stone plunged into the water I judged the bath to ready. I squeezed Kaiba's hand covertly with my own and made my way across the courtyard to test it.
Decorative urns, tall potted ferns and four stone benches lined with plump pillows made L-shaped seating areas around the bath for those wishing to cool off or dry themselves. Kaiba followed behind me and made his way over to the nearest one, swiping away a cushion as he lowered himself to sit on the seat. His arms and legs crossed in a smooth well-practiced motion to create a series of sharp angles and strong lines.
"So did you really dragged me out here just to watch you take a bath?" He deadpanned, his eyes watching my movements carefully as I teased away the sandals from my feet and allowed the stone stairs inlaid with turquoise that glittered green in the sun to usher me up to the lip of the pool.
"No." I replied shortly as I stepped down the first of three identical stairs on the other side that vanished beneath the waterline. I paused, trying to adapt to the temperature of the water even while the stairs tempted me further, wishing to guide me down into the pool's depths. The feeling of the hot water lapping over my bare feet was heavenly, as if the sensation had been crafted by the God's themselves. I turned back to Kaiba and smirked, determined to have him in the water with me if only to see him try to smother a matching feeling of ecstasy beneath his usual surliness. I could only imagine what his expression might look like caught between two such extremes and I expected it would be funny. "I would like you to join me." I added, breathing a challenge into my tone and quirking an eyebrow at him tauntingly.
Kaiba's legs crossed slightly tighter as he unerringly stared at me. "Why?"
His tone was skeptical and his eyes narrowed with suspicion, as if the concept genuinely confused him. I'd thought the motivation to do so should have been obvious but Kaiba could be curiously dense at times. Apparently this was one of them.
I took a different approach.
"Because you smell like -" I paused for less than a second, searching for an appropriate example, "-a gaming convention." In fact the resemblance to that smell was quite uncanny now that the memory of Yugi and our friends visiting one came to mind. "That smokes." I added for completeness's sake as the harsh stench of his cigarette pinched my nose.
Kaiba paused from smoking and curled his lip to look both offended and disgusted before covering the expression up.
"Can you either stick to ye olde analogies, or modern day ones? The half and half is annoying." He complained sarcastically before taking a final huff of his cigarette and dropping it onto the floor to stamp out with his foot. No sooner did he lift his boot back up from doing so than a servant darted under his feet to retrieve the refuse with a burst of speed that made Kaiba flinch slightly and then snarl beast-like at the passing vassal.
"Fine. Then you smell like the morning after the final night of Wepet-Renpet" I easily countered with a goading shrug. "Which also smokes."
He glared down at the servant who was scrubbing the remains of his cigarette off of the stone floor tiles as she stifled a giggle. Fortunately she was unable to see his grumpy glower. Kaiba rolled his eyes and looked back to me. "Scalding, I assume." He replied in Japanese, slipping out of my language at the reminder that he'd been speaking it in the first place. His eyes warily tracked the servant girl who had laughed at him as she finished cleaning the floor and retreated backwards.
Had the request for the bath to be arranged not been so hasty these lower ranking servants would have finished their duties and vanished long before the Pharaoh's arrival so that the elite vassals named official care takers to the throne could assume their places and proceed to manicure my nails, wash my hair and disrobe me, but I wouldn't wait for them this time. Kaiba watched even the few servants that were here like he suspected they would accost him at any moment and adding any more attendants would only hinder my campaign for his company. After all, I doubted Kaiba would appreciate being catered to while in such a compromising position as a bath, or enjoy the presence of the royal musicians and entertainers.
"Leave us. Pull the drapery closed as you go." I called out to the few who remained. With dutiful bows each one put down whatever object they had been carrying or seeing to and obeyed, quietly filing out of the courtyard. With a swish of weighty fabric the thick red curtains that lined the entrances were freed from their bonds to hang heavily across the doorways, blocking them.
"The royal family is not to be disturbed while those curtains remain shut." I explained to Kaiba.
As I suspected, the tension in his shoulders lifted slightly at the promise of privacy. He looked away sharply and blushed with embarrassment as I began to undress.
My cloak was near ruined and only held in place around my neck by a makeshift knot. The purple cloth fell free of my shoulders as I untied it. I let the material fall where it pleased, similarly discarding the winged pauldron that adorned my shoulder and the necklace that hung loose over my chest. Disrobing wasn't a duty that usually fell to me and catching the tiny latches to undo the gold bands that spanned my arms and legs was delicate work. With the promise of a warm bath so imminent I had no patience for such trivialities and so ignored the sum of my jewelry. Instead I unclasped the thick band of gold around my waist and pulled my robe free over my head before tossing it aside to join the remains of my vestments. Atop the lip of the bath I placed my Duel Disk and the Millennium Puzzle, making sure it and the soul it harbored remained within arm's reach.
If Seto was here he would no doubt chide me for my impatience; for disrobing myself and for denying the royal servitors the chance to perform their duties. I hoped he would wake soon as I stepped down to immerse myself in the bath water.
As my father's son I was reluctant to admit that at times I found the more economic and less interesting aspects of being a Pharaoh... trite. By Seto's account I 'shied away from such duties like an ill-trained donkey'. He often used the routinely schedule of my morning and evening baths as an opportunity to ambush me - when he knew full well I had no obvious or dignified avenues of escape - and coerce me into attending to the most pressing matters of the day, or demand answers to otherwise dull affairs of statecraft that I'd been procrastinating from addressing. He was the only person brazen enough to willfully ignore the privacy partition, if only so he could corner me and vent his frustrations with the 'lackadaisical' speed of my work. Though unconventional his method did indeed ensure that I attended to my duties on time and with the departure of Mother and Father I enjoyed the intrusion. My baths would otherwise lack any company at all without his presence and the lonesomeness was unsettling, I now found.
Being here, just freshly submerged in the warm water with my eyes closed and on the cusp of relaxing stirred a note of paranoia that Seto would sweep in passed the curtain at any minute and demand I see to some neglected papyrus or review the approval of a new law.
I wondered what he would think of Kaiba and I?
I'd have to ask him once he was well again and regained consciousness. With that concluded I poured out a cup of blood-colored wine and leaned back, enjoying the taste of pomegranate and grapes as the water lapped at my skin and cleaned my wounds. They'd stung as I lowered myself into one of the pool's carved seats and the skin surrounding the burn on my arm felt sore and tight but not enough to cause outright pain or drive me out of the bath. Wounds healed rapidly in the afterlife. With a bit of balm and a restorative rest not much more would be needed to mend the sensitive areas.
After half of minute of glorious relaxation a rebellious "Tch!" cut through the peace. I opened my eyes as I heard the familiar leathery sound that the material of Kaiba's coat made when he shifted. He'd already freed one arm from the white garb and glared at me point blank as he noticed me looking.
"I'm getting in. Because I want to." He emphasized, fixing me with a leer that told me not to dare contradicting him.
"Of course."
He only grunted in reply to my taunting agreement, but continued to undress.
With several arcs of his arm he folded his white coat into a neat square and place it onto the bench, positioning it on a portion of the seat shaded by the shadows of a sweeping blue awning. Kaiba's boots soon followed, taking a concerted amount of effort to yank free of the length of his legs before he slid across the floor and tucked them under the shady bench. The mechanical motions of neatly tidying his garb away and arranging his shoes side by side, they were familiar. Telling Kaiba this wasn't worth the trouble, but his habit was the same as my High Priest's.
"Are you just gonna keep staring at me?" Kaiba huffed without looking up as he turned his attention to removing his Duel Disk and undoing his bracers.
I shrugged in the picture of feigned apathy, the water embracing my shoulders rippling slightly at the gesture. "I'm curious."
My High Priest and Kaiba were similar in many ways but they weren't without their own deviations. I wanted to see how many more differences I would find between the two of them when Kaiba's body was bared to me.
For a moment Kaiba only stood utterly still. His lips drew together and his eyes narrowed at nothing. In those few seconds he looked unsure and irritated but quickly recovered with a defiant scowl. His belt was hastily discarded and Kaiba unzipped the length of his suit in a rush, the material reluctant to be pried away from his sweaty skin. With gritted teeth he peeled it free from his neck and left shoulder to reveal a long and straight scar across the joint. No doubt a token of the surgery Kaiba had mentioned earlier in passing. What I hadn't known to expect was the lasting imprint of a series of strange circular scars that trailed upward from his wrist and dotted the base of his neck around the sides. They were few and far between, only numbering three on his forearm and two on his neck but the irregularity of their placement and discoloration made them stand out against the paleness of his skin.
My brow pinched as I frowned at Kaiba's scars, ignoring the glare of warning he threw at me in my peripheral vision.
They looked like burns.
"From a cigar." Kaiba sneered, making the announcement as he denied eye-contact with me and scoffed.
He didn't need to say more than that. Anger pricked me and even the relaxing aroma of incense and warm water couldn't keep it at bay. How was it that despite being born into the world thousands of years into the future that Kaiba's upbringing had been harsher than that of Seto's own?
Kaiba snatched the other half of his suit away from his right shoulder to reveal another pair of cigar burns peppering the flesh above his right wrist, but this time they weren't alone.
"You don't get to know about this one." Kaiba cautioned me with a growl. He pulled his right arm slightly behind his body to faintly block my view of a large, jagged horseshoe-shaped scar carved into the meat of his inner forearm as he folded up the black suit and placed it with his coat.
I nodded wordlessly, agreeing to his terms.
My prior eagerness to see Kaiba's exposed skin was now tempered, even as his abdomen and legs were revealed to be unmarred beyond the wounds he'd acquired during his time in my afterlife.
He stood awkwardly, wearing only a pair of skin-tight black boxer briefs with the KaibaCorp logo on the waistband.
As expected, Kaiba's body was long, thin and powerful, pallid and strong like the coils of a great white serpent. It was interesting to discover his shoulders were a little less broad than the cut of his coat would suggest and his pale skin was stretched perhaps a little too tightly over the ribs beneath his armpits. Nevertheless, he was toned and trim with well defined upper body muscles and a line of downy hair trailing south from his navel to disappear into his underwear. That was unexpected, and somehow appealing to me.
Kaiba crossed his arms over his chest again as a flush of pink stained his irritated face. His hands clenched into fists and he side-eyed his empty clothes as though seriously debating climbing back into them before the bridge of his nose crinkled. He sniffed the air around him twice and muttering something about 'gaming conventions' before squaring his shoulders and marching toward the pool with stoic determination. His long legs needed only to ascend the first stair until he could step onto the submerged stone steps on the other side. The water parted as he lowered himself into the bath opposite me, hissing through his teeth like an angry snake as the water lapped into his various cuts and wounds.
Kaiba
Baths weren't my thing.
The idea of sitting around and stewing in my own discarded filth was disgusting. Despite that after spending so long running around the desert being almost fully immersed in clean hot water had its charms. I hissed getting in as all of my cuts stung under the waterline but with every second that passed by each of my aching muscles went from feeling like steel spikes to warm rubber. As soon as the discomfort went away I rubbed down my arms and legs to get the grit and sweat off of my skin and it felt like I was peeling off an exoskeleton I hadn't known about. This still didn't compare to the perfectly pressurized spray of a hot shower, but it was better than nothing.
I didn't get 'home sick' but I missed my mansion just for the showers. When I was Mokuba's age the shower in my en suite had been the only place Gozaburo ever gave me any damn privacy in so I'd gotten into the habit of making each one as long as possible. Like hell Gozaburo had let that last though. After the fun little incident that gave me the scar Atem had non-verbally agreed not to ask about I got cut back to only four minute allotments of unsupervised time in the washroom and when they were up some goon would barge down the door and drag me out, no matter what I'd been doing.
Pleasant memories.
We sat and soaked without saying anything for at least five minutes. I didn't want to talk about my damage, or anything else. The Pharaoh seemed to get that.
I doubted this was the sort of fun pool party he'd been imagining when he told me to join him but he seemed to be enjoying himself anyway. He reclined backwards with his eyes closed as obnoxious flowers floated around us, lifting his arm up every once in a while to drink something that looked a lot like wine or snag a piece of fruit from a nearby bowl. Atem looked completely calm. Calmer than I'd ever seen him before outside of being unconscious. The waterline bobbed up and down his chest as he slowly breathed in and out, filling the hollows of his collar bones and riding up the base of his neck. It was unbelievable he could be so relaxed after appearing that formidable as he'd undressed in front of me.
I'd already known to expect the toned bronze skin from that involuntary peep show back at the lake and I'd unwillingly got a good look at the outline of his body while he'd been walking around in clingy wet clothes for the while after. What I hadn't been expecting was exactly how powerful he looked almost naked. He'd left all the obnoxious jewelry on apart from a necklace and the Puzzle and stood confidently over the pool like Adonis, or some other fantastical mythological figure. Somehow he was muscular and masculine despite his small stature, dripping with an ease and pride even while stripped that felt almost primal.
The bastard made being clothesless look easy, like he'd been designed to make me feel inferior.
It's not as if there weren't any flaws though. He had a few cuts and bruises from this stupid misadventure and there was a smattering of dark stubble pooling in his armpits from obviously not keeping up with his apparently full-body shaving routine. His nipples were a lot darker than I'd have guessed and a humiliating gnaw of physical arousal shot through my body as my brain unhelpfully re-rendered them with perfect clarity at the front of my mind. The timing wasn't great. It was logical - he was ninety-six percent naked in front of me right now - but not great. It didn't help that the regal tone he'd used to order his servants and priests around with was apparently a huge turn on for reasons unknown. I'd never understood before what made me tick beyond basic physical stimulation, now there was suddenly too many things and the number was growing by the moment. Watching the way he moved and smirked when he dueled, or the commanding tone of voice he used to boss people about with targeted something inside of me. Even the demanding way he kissed and smugly taunted me had its appeal.
He distracted me from my cataloguing as he placed his cup back onto the side of the pool, swallowed down another piece of fruit and nonchalantly crossed the bath to sit next to me with a bowl of something in his hand. The water ran down all the shallow dips and muscular lines of his body in a way that made my mouth feel dry as he'd stood up to make his way over to my side and I had to look away from him to keep it together.
Oh.
Doing something along those lines was probably what he'd had on his mind when he'd lured me into the pool. Dammit it. The mood was now gone no thanks to Gozaburo and his fucking cigars.
"Kaiba." Atem called my name so I turned back to him and suppressed the pathetic urge to flinch nonsensically as one of his hands landed on my face.
I must have been clenching my jaw. It eased up a bit as he stroked a finger over the cut on my cheek, leaving behind a trail of something wet and tacky in the process. I slapped his hand away and wiped off the weird substance, holding the goop between my finger and thumb. It was amber, and familiar. But it belonged in beehives, not my face.
"Why are you smearing honey on me?" I demanded with a justified amount of suspicion.
Atem smirked. His eyes and gold bangles flashed in the sunlight, and even I couldn't tell which shone brighter. He wasn't deterred by having his hand thrown off. He just scooped up even more on his fingers from the bowl in his hand.
"The healers use it to dress wounds." The water sloshed as he sidled back up to me and went right back to what he'd been doing, coating all my little scratches and scrapes with it.
I closed my eyes and just let him have his way. I guess I owed him that after accidentally sabotaging whatever else he'd had planned.
Leaving so much sugar to sit on my skin sounded like an outbreak waiting to happen, but there was something soothing about the strokes and the feel of his fingers. Between them and the steaming water I was too mellowed to bother trying to fight him off. It wasn't worth the effort.
He moved down my body and away from my face to my upper arm, working it onto one of the cuts he'd given me with Excalibur out in the forest before looping back up and massaging some of it into the surgical wound on my shoulder.
"And to fade scars." He added.
I opened my eyes just enough to glare at him as he pulled up my forearm out of the water and traced a layer of it over the U-shaped scar.
He was pushing his luck.
Luckily for him he seemed to get that. With grunt he nodded at me and let go, leaning forward to nuzzle his nose against mine like an over affectionate pet before backing off to open up a foot of space between us in the water. "Let it sit for a few minutes." He commanded and then started on his own body, lathering up the grazes on his elbows and the slice on his face before standing up in the bath with a flex of his legs so he could rub the rest into a scuff on his knee and what was left of the wound on his side.
The triangle of linen he was wearing as a loincloth clearly wasn't made to double as a bathing suit. I could see the outline of everything as he stood up and it plastered itself to his wet skin.
"Why are you even bothering with that?" I questioned, jabbing a finger towards his underwear.
Atem glanced downwards before lowering himself to perch on the edge of the pool like a demented bird, I guessed to let the honey do its thing. "You're wearing yours." He commented as his eyes trailed down to my briefs under the water.
"Tch." I crossed my legs, hating that I was so predictable to him.
I'd rather have them on than go freeballing it in a semi-public open air bath. Now they were soaked though and I'd probably have to leave them out overnight to dry, so long as it didn't get too humid.
Atem's servants had hung a canopy over the bath. It was thick enough to blot out some of the sunlight but thin enough to see the clouds through. I eyed them to get a read on the weather. I was no meteorologist but up in the air clouds equaled turbulence so knowing how to read them was a basic aviation practice that kept pilots away from any unwanted hazards. Some cirrus clouds were hanging far up in the troposhere and below them a swarm of puffed up cumulus clouds were floating by. Ultimately they meant fair weather for the intimidate future. That suited my purposes.
If Mokuba was here the conditions would have been ideal for the cloud gazing game we used to play. It'd been a few years but we could do that when I got back, if he wanted to. I was gonna owe him a big chuck of leisure time to make up for getting caught in this mess and being away for days on end.
Years ago, before the events of Death-T that the Pharaoh suddenly seemed so determined to bring up, I would have seen just hanging out as a massive waste of my valuable time. Now sitting down with Mokuba, watching some movies and playing video games sounded like a vacation. The market had been flooded with a lot of co-op games recently, catching up on those would make for good entertainment and we could get in some competitor analysis at the same time. Anything besides team games and Mokuba tended to get frustrated because I never let him win. If he wanted to beat me then he had to earn it and we both knew that wasn't going to happen. Mokuba liked games but he didn't have that drive, that need to win. Not like me and the half-naked dolt next to me covertly trying to lick honey off his fingers without being noticed.
"You wanna play a game?"
I ignored the way his pink tongue darted back into his mouth after curling around his thumb, or I thought I did.
To Atem it probably seemed like I was asking out of blue in more ways than one, but I was going to bet the King of Games wouldn't disappoint me anyway.
He watched me for a few seconds like he was sizing me up, so I stared right back. With a hum of amusement he accepted my challenge, casually leaning backwards even while everything about his face became less relaxed and more focused. "What's the game, Kaiba?"
I pointed upwards towards the sky and the thick cottony clouds that were lazing around up there. "Cloud gazing."
He perked an eyebrow at me.
"Choose a cloud. You get a point if you say it looks like an animal and the other person can't beat the resemblance with something else." It was hardly the most challenging game in the world, but it didn't take any pieces or a game board to play. Mokuba and I had gotten a lot of mileage out of it as kids just for that reason.
Atem smirked and despite how that expression usually went with him trying to piss me off it sent my pulse skyrocketing. Making people 'happy' wasn't my modus operandi and I wasn't hardwired for it, but every time I managed to drag one of his little grins of a stupidly deep laugh out his mouth it was like a jolt from Domino's electrical grid.
He closed his eyes slightly, the lack of light darkening his irises to the color of his wine and quirked his eyebrow. "Even cloud gazing is a competition to you?" It sounded like a taunt but his tone was lukewarm which made it softer somehow.
"Everything's a competition." I countered.
"Alright then." The small grin he launched my way hit my heart rate like a nuclear warhead. "I'll go first." He declared with so much confidence he must have been using up at least half of his nation's quota of it.
Atem blinked slowly and turned his head upwards to find a worthy candidate to represent him as his champion. He surveyed the sky like he owned it and maybe the Pharaoh did in his culture. The sunlight across the water reflected across his sharp jawline as his eyes darted around the clouds with that look of ultimate intent that he should trademark.
"That one." He selected, pointing up into the atmosphere. "It looks like a hyena."
Yeah, it had better be the most hyena-ish looking cloud ever to have existed for me to actually pick it out. With him sat on the edge of the pool and me still in it we were sat at different heights and looking at the sky from slightly different angles so 'that one' was just about as useless a direction as they came.
Between a cloud that looked like one of Mokuba's Capsule Monsters and another that looked like a Kuriboh with a knife stabbed into it I came up empty.
"Where?" I got up out of the water and sat down beside him.
He shifted over slightly so I could get closer to his center mass and properly follow the line of his finger upward with my eyes. It bought us a lot closer than I'd intended and I was going to blame my shiver on the temperature difference between the pool and the Egyptian air.
My face was right up against his and I was almost hovering over one side of his body, but I got a look at his 'hyena'.
"Looks more like a bear to me." I scoffed, almost directly into his ear. He inhaled quietly through his teeth but this close to him I heard it all the same.
"A bear's tail is shorter. It's definitely a hyena." Atem contested smoothly, turning his head slightly toward mine as he argued so that we were almost cheek to cheek and I could see the way his eyes blazed in way too many scarlet and crimson tones to be natural. "Look at the curvature of its spine." He traced the angle of his cloud's back, right down to the tip of its tail.
I wasn't convinced by his spine argument but I had to hand it to him that the tail was too long to be a bear, unless that bear had a fifth leg.
"Hnh. Fine. It's a hyena."
"My point." He concluded triumphantly like the haughty bastard he was.
I side-eyed his goading grin and tried to find something that would beat his mutant hyena.
The Kuriboh with a knife stabbed through it had smudged a little in the sky. Its body had stretched out into a more oblong shape that narrowed into a long neck with a lump on the end and the little pointed trails of wispy cloud were pulling away from the rest of the knife to look a bit like a bat's wing.
"See that." I pointed at it. It was a sad excuse of a dragon but it would do. "It's a dragon, with its tail coiled around its body."
Atem leaning his face against my shoulder so he could look directly up the line of my arm, then he pulled back and threw me the smuggest smirk I'd ever seen – and that was saying something.
"Kaiba," He drawled, playful and taunting and mocking all at the same time as he lowered his eyelids at me, "I'm sorry to tell you this but dragons aren't animals." With a dramatic pause he stretched out in self-satisfied nonchalance. "So unless we're now including mythological creatures I'm still winning."
"Tch!" He wished! Like hell I was going to hand him that advantage!
I covered his stupid teasing face with my hand and turned it away from me which only made him snicker into my palm. His backwards culture claimed anything they could stick an inappropriate head onto was some kind of god - allowing mythological creatures would only work in his favor!
Whatever! Atem ducked away from my hand as I did a sweep of the sky. I pulled my arm back like a catapult and shot it off rapid fire. "There, that looks like a chinchilla."
Atem's head whipped around to take a look and smacked me with his earrings as I switched to point in another direction. "And that one looks like an aardvark."
Watching his head pivot around like a spinning top was amusing. I chose another innocuous looking cloud right behind him and he leaned so far backwards he was looking at it upside down in an attempt to keep up. "That's definitely a platypus."
I crossed my arms with finality threw his smug smirk back at him with one of my own. "Unless you can contest them that's three points to me, Pharaoh."
He righted himself and didn't miss a beat.
"You ass! You're choosing animals you know damn well I've never seen before so I can't challenge you!"
Between fighting back a grin and pretending to keep a straight face he looked like he was trying to swallow an egg, whole. So much for the divine dignity of the Pharaoh. The combination of his point blank accusation and scandalized expression was the best thing I'd ever seen and I threw my head back and laughed at it until my diaphragm started to ache.
"Don't be such a sore loser, Pharaoh." I mocked between breaths.
"This from the mouth of the worlds largest hypocrite!" Atem yelled, but despite shouting he couldn't hold in his own laughter anymore and it reverberated around the courtyard at exactly the same volume. I liked the sound but he was so loud I was surprised the guards hadn't come running in to see what was going on and break up the moment, or something equally dumb.
"Gumf!" I grunted in amusement as he smacked my arm and snaked his hand up it toward my head. A quick scrape of his fingers against my scalp set off fireworks as he snagged a handful of my hair and pulled our faces together.
His kiss was light but determined and tasted sweet, like summer fruit. It didn't stay that way for long. We set a new record - not that I'd been subconsciously timing our previous kisses - this one lasting long enough that I had to figure out how to breathe through it without breaking it off to inhale. Our mouths kept battling in this single kiss that kept on going and going, becoming even more assertive and domineering on both sides with each shift in angle and adjustment of our lips.
Atem's other hand was flush against my abs and I didn't know when he'd put it there, but it gave him the leverage needed to push us apart just enough break up the impromptu make out session. We got our breath back, listening to the breeze ripple through the awnings and the gurgle of the water. In a split second the Pharaoh's expression morphed into the one he got right before he called out the finishing move in a duel, and he pushed his arms against me to shove me backwards into the pool.
I resurfaced and had to cough out the petals from one of those ridiculous waterlilies or whatever they were that I managed to swallow as he stepped into the water, marched across the bath and then pulled himself against my body.
His hands gripped my shoulders as we touched noses but that wasn't enough direct contact for either of us so I smashed our mouths together again as Atem pushed me down into one of the carved out bath ledges and straddled me. I hissed at the spike of sensation as he pressed his erection against my sixty percenter in some weird new definition of dueling.
It felt like he was everywhere all at once; like he had more than the normal amount of hands or had summoned in a bunch of monsters as backup. He ran them though my hair, squeezed my biceps, hooked an arm around the back of my neck and stroked my chin with his thumb until I opened my mouth to groan and got a throatful of his tongue. I hadn't understood the appeal of slapping one tongue against another when he tried it the first time, but right now it felt damn essential so I mirrored what his was doing with mine so they could duel between our mouths.
He used the arm around my neck for leverage and my hands found his hips under the water by feel alone. I couldn't tell who'd taken the first turn or if we'd started at exactly the same time but the bath water sloshed around between us, a drop of it splashing upwards towards my eye, as we bucked against each other.
The friction was incredible. Better than incredible.
Even through our underwear I could feel his pulse throb against mine with each grinding rub of our crotches, his breaths quickly devolving into hot ragged pants that dried the water on my skin. With a muffled 'tssss' my body quaked as his mouth left mine and he ran his superheated tongue over one of the thick trails of honey he'd smeared onto my face, lapping at my skin in firm self-indulgent strokes while never once breaking the rhythm of our hips.
What was probably minutes of this felt like seconds as a charge built up between us.
It should have been annoying, but not being able to clearly see what happened under the water worked better for me. Analytically I knew we were just dry humping, probably badly, and likely looked like a pair of idiots. This way we didn't have to see each others junk, or anything else that might put me off my game.
The arm around my neck tightened and my grip on Atem's hip bones did the same.
Logically I was probably holding onto him too tightly but the biological imperative to ejaculate had been riding in the back seat for years and now that it had the car keys it was clear I'd have to pry it away from the steering wheel with a crowbar. I felt like I was going to lose my mind and go insane if it didn't happen right the hell now!
The suspense didn't last long, for either of us.
The crown on Atem's head flashed in the light as he threw his head back, opened his eyes up wide and shuddered. The yellow stalks of his hair slapped me in the face but all of that was a distant irrelevance as I ducked my head under his jaw, pressing my nose into his chest as the explosive climax made my muscles clench and twitch.
I forced my jaws shut, managing not to make a sound other than a strangled gulp at the back of my throat that sounded like a fish drowning.
Atem didn't have any of my weird conditioning not to vocalize and it figured a Pharaoh could be as loud as he damn well pleased in his own palace. The noise he made was somewhere between a soft roar and a deep chirp and so completely unique I immediately knew trying to recreate it in my hologram was going to be a hassle - if I ever got desperate enough to try programming my Pharaoh hologram to do 'that'.
Our chests buffeted against each other as we both panted and stared. That was the most intimate thing I'd ever done with another person and I felt just as dazed by it as Atem looked, but that expression didn't stick around on his face for long.
He smirked at me and we ended up lip-locked again but it wasn't as deep or demanding this time. Instead it was soft and slow, which I preferred by comparison now that I could think again. My fingers were starting to feel numb and taking a twenty minute power nap sounded perfect even though this little jaunt into fantasyland had decimated my polyphasic sleep schedule.
Atem leaned back in my lap as I pried my fingers away from his hips, looking every bit as boneless as I felt. Even his hair looked less spiky - as if someone had found a remote and dialed down the global rigidity of his character model by twenty percent. He chuckled into my mouth and I shivered as his dark knuckles brushed against my crotch to run up the trail of hair below my navel. I couldn't go again for a while but the light touch was still a turn on and I guessed he didn't want to contact to end yet. He shifted around in my lap to sit back in the seat next to me, closing is eyes and hooking his arm around my neck to pull me down until I was closer to his level and had to lean against him slightly.
It felt... nice.
His shoulders were broad for his height, enough that I could rest my head on one at this new angle and feel the warmth of his skin under my cheek and listen to the subtle tempo of his breathing. It was strong and steady, like most things about him. I hadn't realized how far I sank into the feeling until water splashed back at me as I literally sank into the bath.
I pulled myself upright now wide awake with an irritated splutter and sat back up in my seat. Atem's crimson eyes flicked open and darted around my face like he was inspecting me before he drew the conclusion of "You're tired."
No shit, Pharaoh.
"Hnh." I was caught between the dueling impulses to throw that eagle-eyed observation in his face just to remind him who he was dealing with, or leave it alone since he was right and I'd just been fantasizing about taking a nap... and almost fallen asleep in the water. "So are you." I deflected. Ultimately it didn't really matter if he noticed I was tired so long as he was too. That kept the score even.
Lying about it was apparently beneath him so instead he nodded shamelessly, not even bothering to try and deny it.
"Falling asleep in here without any attendants around isn't wise." Atem cautioned, looking pensive for a moment as he slowly cast his eyes around the courtyard. They lingered on my clothes, which made sense since I doubted he'd even be able to see any of his stuff after just throwing it onto the floor the way he'd done. "Let's get out. I'll find some clothes for you." He decided eventually.
"Yeah, I don't think we're the same size." I grunted. "And don't even think about giving me the other guy's clothes as a loaner." Getting back into my bloodied sweat-soaked flightsuit wasn't and appealing prospect but I'd be dead before anyone caught me wearing a dress, anything gold, or a stupid hat.
"Alright." Atem replied simply with a weary grin that I didn't like. I narrowed my eyes at him and he only shrugged in reply, wearing the same overly innocent face that Mokuba did right before he started messing with someone. He covered it up by starting to kiss me again lazily and lightly. Despite his suggestion he apparently wasn't in a hurry to get out of here if the extended make out session was any indication, but there was no way I was sticking around in the pool after what we'd just done.
"I'm not staying in this water now." I muttered between kisses.
With a hum of agreement he pulled back, grinning tiredly even though he still taunted me like he was at the top of his game. "Kaiba, you've assassinated the mood in just seven words."
"Next time I'll do it in five." I deadpanned.
Despite the comeback Atem looped his arms around my neck and pressed his nose against mine, holding it there for a long second before backing up and clambering off of the seat. He tossed a superior look over his shoulder at me as he strode up the stone stairs and out of the bath, picking up his Duel Disk and catching the cord of the Puzzle in his hand as he did so. There was a pause as he slid it back into place around his neck and waited for me to follow him.
Even knowing what was now in the water with me didn't motivate my body much. It took a lot of effort to gather up my legs and force my muscles to work again.
From the side of the pool Atem pulled out a rectangular piece of linen from a pile and tossed it to me as I stood up in the water. I caught it easily even as I staggered in place. Vertigo and lightheadedness from the hot water and lack of proper nutrition or hydration jumped me. I could feel him watching me as I stood there until my head stopped swimming and then held out what Atem had thrown at me over my body. The cut was simple but the fabric itself was soft and pleated. That was the only clue I had that it wasn't a towel.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" I glanced over at the Pharaoh. He might as well have handed me a bunch of jigs with no puzzle box and told me to reassemble the picture. "Wear it, unless you'd prefer to to be naked." He replied with a raised eyebrow.
As if I'd do that. I wasn't going to walk around in just my skin with all my damage showing.
Atem was watching me with obvious amusement as he selected a matching cut, like I was entertainment for him.
"Here. Just watch me." He added as he slipped it around his body. His hands brushed against the top of his loin cloth as he passed the material diagonally around his slim hips, tugged on the fabric to pull it tight to his skin and nudged his fingers under the waist line to tuck in one end. The other end he straightened to hang free at the front.
That was stupidly simple; I could have figured it out on my own. Within seconds I copied his demonstration, tying the stupid thing around me. Technically I hadn't compromised myself; it wasn't a moronic hat, gold or a dress. It was more of a skirt, or a kilt. On Atem it reached down to just above his knees. On me it was uncomfortably shorter but I was beginning to feel too exhausted to be self-conscious. Feeling that way was nonsensical anyway after everything we'd just done.
Atem nodded in approval and sauntered over to the red drapes that made this place not even remotely as private as he seemed to think and began securing them back in place.
It gave me the opening I needed to get out the bath without being watched and peel my underwear away from my body. I could manage without my briefs while they dried and there was no way I was wearing them now. Not after going off in them like an unattended fire hose. I laid them out flat in the sun next to the rest of my clothes, rearranged the pile as I grabbed my Duel Disk and turned back to find Atem was now loitering around for me by the exit with an hand on his hip.
He smiled at me as our eyes connected. It was a small, soft manipulation of his features that I hadn't ever seen before. Yet another thing to add to my hologram when I was back in the real world. At this rate it'd take months to get all the updates done.
Without another word or pausing to dry off he started back through the archway that led back into the palace corridors.
I didn't know where he was going, but I didn't care right now. I strode over to him and followed his lead anyway, our hands brushing against each other with every other step as we walked side by side.