Atem
I'd never experienced anything like that before.
My pulse quickened again at the vivid recollection of leaning my body to Kaiba's and bucking against him like a wild horse. Our intimacy had been an honest, guileless and ferocious thing. A dull heat flushed my cheeks and my brow furrowed as I carefully revised the details as though they were the prior turns of a duel against an opponent I hadn't yet decided how best to beat.
Within my family it was a common saying that the men born from our royal bloodline had no need for the potent magics of the lettuce plant and now the joke rang true. Having experienced something so powerful and pleasurable with Kaiba I wanted to do so again - many more times. The legacies of my distant ancestors siring small armies of sons and daughters made sense to me now in a way the idea never had before. I felt as though our near coupling in the water had awakened something within me, or enlightened me to the existence of a new and great mystery of the world.
Exploring that discovery would have to wait for now.
Amusingly, despite our intimacy leaving me feeling refreshed and newly energized our time together in the bath seemed to have had the very opposite effect on Kaiba.
He'd been noticeably sedate in the aftermath. Softly illuminated by the light of the afternoon sun I'd never seen Kaiba look so tame or so docile. With the tension in his shoulders relaxed, the angular plains of his face slackened and his nut-colored hair soaked through and in mild disarray he'd looked several years younger.
No one would suspect that now as he prowled beside me through the corridors, scowling in annoyance every so often as his long fingers had sweep the fringe of his wet hair out of his eyes, only for it to stubbornly return there a moment later. The rebelliousness of it seemed appropriate.
Despite the deeper placidity that I could sense within him his stride was purposeful and his posture straight-backed and as arrogant as ever as he kept pace with me. Though dampened by this invisible blanket of calmness the distress of having his marred skin exposed lingered thickly in the air around him like a dense shadow. He swiftly crossed his arms each time we passed a guard or attendant, the positioning of one arm across the other carefully calibrated to hide most of the marks on his forearms. Without his coat eagerly gusting behind him he looked naked in a way that nothing to do with his bared flesh and dressed in so little the pose looked more self-protective than intimidating.
His veiled discomfort left me feeling unsettled.
I planned to remedy it.
Kaiba didn't ask where we were going as we paced the hallways towards the rear most sanctum of my palace that housed the royal domicile. He projected an air of disinterest and only as we neared the twin Hands of the Pharaoh guarding the doorway to my quarters did his face liven from stoicism to reflect a thinly veiled curiosity.
"Nice décor." He quipped as he parted the dark drapery that hung heavily around my room and stepped into it through the gilded doors.
The servants had lit the tall braziers that stood beside my bed and several other candles and lamps. Together they each joined as one to cast a golden light around the large chamber, emboldened by the bright sunlight spilling in from the far balcony.
I suppressed a chuckle as Kaiba's eyes immediately were drawn to the great tapestries of the Egyptian Gods that lined the walls.
I doubted he saw the magnificently woven images of Slifer the Sky Dragon, The Winged Dragon of Ra and Obelisk the Tormentor as anything other than ultimately powerful Duel Monsters that should rightly add their might to his deck. If he did view them as the divine beasts that they were, his stubbornness would compel him to keep silent on the subject. He approached the last of the three, marching toward the elaborate linen weaving of Obelisk to critically examine it like a new possession. Even striding across the room in only a schenti and his discordantly futuristic Duel Disk, Kaiba still seemed to emanate a unique blend of arrogance and unruliness. It made him both infuriating and relentlessly fascinating to watch as he appraised the tapestry as if it belonged to him and not me.
The boldness of it made me smirk.
He studied the hanging for only a minute and then cast the barbed net of his attention around the rest of the chamber.
The middle of my room was empty of anything beside my bed. He glanced at it for a second before a flush of color curiously stained his lean cheeks and he angrily snapped his head in the opposite direction to steadfastly ignore it. His sodden hair flung droplets of water across my quarters as he did so. Kaiba glared at me reproachfully as he noticed I'd been watching him. I left him to conclude his inspection unsupervised and passed through the entrance to the robing room to find new vestments.
It would take longer to dress myself without any attendants than it had to disrobe but I had no intention of calling in the proper vassals and inviting onlookers or interruptions. I was familiar enough with the various things the servants usually attended to and was confident I could manage without them. Towels and linens of varying shapes and colors lined the robing room's shelves and I selected a fresh white robe similar to the one I had shed by the pool but the robe itself had thoughts to the contrary. The material snagged on the right wing of my crown as I pulled it over my head. I thanked the Gods that Kaiba remained ignorant to the display as I twisted my body to be free of it and struggled to disentangle the two by feel alone.
"Ghn." The motion tweaked the cut on my side and I eyed the wound carefully. Re-opening it now while trying to do something as simple as put on my own clothes would be embarrassing, especially knowing the relentless heckling that would follow should Kaiba discover exactly how unused to dressing myself I was. As I pried the fabric back from my body it was a relief to see that he was still otherwise engaged with analyzing my things.
Unwilling to tempt fate a second time I tossed the robe aside for something more manageable.
An elaborate dark purple shendyt with a long triangular tongue was much easier to negotiate around my body. I secured it in place with a black leather belt. Its shape was cut to frame the lower point of the Millennium Puzzle and since arriving in my afterlife it had felt odd to wear the belt without the Item as an accompaniment. Thanks to Kaiba's obstinance reclaiming the Puzzle from Yugi's dimension had become a necessity, so the lack of the Item was no longer an issue.
Despite taking longer than it should have Kaiba paid me no attention as I dressed.
A rare feeling of self-consciousness pricked me as he took his time and moved around my space slowly studying the furniture, paintings, ankhs and tyet knots that imbued the royal room with their protection. He passed the room I was in, glancing at it with little interest as I stepped into clean sandals and fixed a new pauldron into place atop my shoulder. As I fastened a new necklace over my collar bones and replaced the gold band that encircled my waist the sound of his footsteps halted. I emerged freshly garbed to see what had captured his interest as Kaiba paused beside something that by modern standards would have been considered a desk.
The wooden frame was covered with sheets of gold inlaid with colored glass and both its legs and those of the chairs that matched it had feet carved into the shape of roaring lions. It was furniture worthy of seating a Pharaoh but it wasn't the craftsmanship that held Kaiba's gaze. Instead he looked over a board set with the half-finished game of Hounds and Jackals that I'd been playing with Shimon and an inscribed naos sistrum that had belonged to Mother before picking up and unfurling the top most of a small mountain of scrolls.
"No time to play hooky when when you're king, huh?" He commented dryly but his expression was stubbornly unreadable.
The comment cut through the silence of my room. One I had been too distracted to notice was there until it was so abruptly broken.
"You don't strike me the desk job type." Kaiba added, drolly.
There was something very revealing about Kaiba being here, in my room, seeing my things. These weren't Yugi's, or the mementos he'd gathered on my behalf during my stay in the living world. These were uniquely mine – each possession an artifact personal to me. I wondered what Kaiba's opinion was as I swept over the objects in the room and relived the memories of each one.
At my lack of response blue eyes glanced up from the scroll and followed the line of my vision to the bridle of my very first horse as I admired it on the adjacent wall, next to the triangular bow and matching bow box Father had commissioned for my birthday and the elegantly carved ram-headed ritual staff that Mahad had gifted to me for completing the trials associated with becoming a recognized court Magician, despite not strictly needing to do so as the son of the Pharaoh.
"No, I'm not." I admitted in delayed amusement, finding the timing of the observation poignant as I beheld the tokens of my life as a prince. I hadn't found much time for any of my hobbies after becoming the Pharaoh back when I still lived. In the afterlife there were no neighboring nations to require peacekeeping, no battles or wars to fight, no droughts or famines to plan for. I'd been able to enjoy many of my old pastimes since arriving here, but only because my afterlife lacked the flaws that had made my original reign so challenging.
I could feel the pressure of Kaiba's eyes on my face as he watched me closely for a moment. Without passing further comment he merely rolled the scroll back up and carelessly tossed it onto of the neatly arranged mountain of correspondences stacked up on my desk. They were most likely reports on the various aspects of my kingdom; probably the sort that I wouldn't care to deal with.
"I'll have Seto tell me what they say when he awakens." I added, placing the duty of seeing to the missives as far from my mind as I could. In my peripheral vision I saw Kaiba's eyes narrow at the use of his given name, even though he knew full well it was one he was currently required to share.
"Why not just read them yourself?" Kaiba demanded, suddenly almost seeming offended. It was as if I'd just declared an intent to waste his time and not my High Priest's.
I enjoyed the surly sight and concluded that "There are more pressing matters to attend to at the moment". Yugi. Mahad. Seto. Even Kaiba himself. Each of them was far more important than whatever paperwork was waiting for me. "Besides, I don't care much for reading."
Kaiba stared at me steadily, apparently waiting for the punchline to a joke.
I shrugged at him casually. At my less than committal gesture his leer transformed into the sort of wary expression my High Priest reserved for deranged criminals or raving lunatics.
"You don't 'care much for reading'" He repeated incredulously, as though I'd just shared with him the sordid details of a royal scandal.
To Kaiba it was likely an odd concept to reconcile with.
In the modern world it was a necessity to read often and copiously. I'd found it much easier to do so while in Yugi's body, but here in my own the characters had a tendency to blur and sway on the papyrus the longer I stared at them. Seto also had a habit of encoding any missives he though were sensitive or especially important with a personal cipher that he often changed without warning. Mahad suspected Seto did it just to vex him. Whatever the reason I'd discovered long ago it was quicker to have my High Priest read the scriptures to me than gamble and squint at them myself in the candlelight until the hieroglyphs stayed still, only to discover the message unintelligible.
The lull of Kaiba's disbelief gave me the opportunity to throw the towel I was holding to him and with my hands free I began to navigate the inner compartments of the gilded chest beside my desk that contained Father's coat. Much like Kaiba my Father had harbored a fondness for them, though the cut of his were looser and befitting Egypt's climate. Most had been entombed with him but one remained. It'd gone long forgotten at the bottom of a trunk in the Pharaoh's chambers and having ascended to the throne those very chambers had since become my own.
In the periphery of my vision Kaiba turned away from me to begin toweling himself dry with a single-minded determination that was amusing to watch. He attacked his own body with the cloth, the raw focus in his eyes seeming almost comical as he applied himself so seriously to a task that was so mundane. I had to look away from him to pull the item free as my fingertips touched the familiar texture of the parcel I was seeking at the bottom of the chest. Having never before been worn it was still carefully wrapped up in rough linen canvas just as Father had received it. Kaiba reflexively caught the garment as I pulled the package free and threw it at him, deftly snatching it out of the air as he tossed his towel aside onto my bed.
"What's this?" He glared at me suspiciously for good measure before snapping the twine that bound the canvas together and unfolding it.
The gold thread and beadwork sewn into the bottom wasn't to his liking, or so I assumed from his childishly sour expression as he ran his fingers over the stiff stitching, but I wagered any coat was better than none at all. That assumption was promptly proven correct.
"You might want to start reading things again, Pharaoh." Kaiba smirked as he held the garment out in front of him to judge the fit before shrugging it across his back, "Because it looks like you ordered the wrong size." He quipped, already looking ten times more comfortable as he pulled his arms through the fine material.
I shook my head at the playful jab, feeling my earrings bounce against my jaw as I did so.
"It belonged to my Father, but he never wore it." I reflected. Father hadn't liked red clothing and had many other more preferable vestments of a similar cut so it had gone completely unused. Kaiba paid me little mind as he patted the fabric down to smooth it against the muscular lines of his body. He was a little taller than Father had been. The hem of the coat only stretched down to his calves and not his ankles but the missing length hardly mattered and it hid the scars on his forearm, neck and shoulder well enough. "He didn't like the color." I summarized.
Red had certain connotations, symbolizing life but also destruction and evil. Father had viewed it to be an unlucky color, especially for a Pharaoh, one that was best worn in small doses or not at all. It represented anger, chaos and was closely bound in association to Set, our tempestuous God of storms and the divine progenitor of my High Priest's name. A name that Kaiba had had fittingly inherited despite being born thousands of years and many countries removed from my people and our Gods.
Destiny was truly a powerful force.
"Tch. Me and him both." Kaiba sneered nastily, interrupting my musings as his mood abruptly shifted as unpredictably as the wind.
His lips slightly turned downwards and pulled against each other tightly as his lower jaw subtly clenched.
I'd seen him do this several times now while in my afterlife. Possibly it was something he'd done with some frequency back in Domino as well and I'd been too distant from him to notice. I felt my eyebrow's quirk upward in interest as I contemplated the strange habit. It seemed to happen largely at random but I doubted that was truly the case. Usually the expression was followed up with a sudden outburst of anger that had no obvious source or purpose.
Just as I expected his cool blue eyes chilled with an icy ire and he scowled viciously at the loose-fitting sleeves of the appropriated coat, eyeing the baggy fabric with venom as it slightly lagged behind the movement of his arms and in those moments revealed the burns on his upper wrists.
I contemplated the dilemma of successfully navigating this new development as he carefully pulled the material to lie flat on his arm over his Duel Disk, covering the marks from view once more.
"Seto's cuffs would hide those." I noted. The gold bands would be ideal for the task.
Kaiba's eyes quickly flashed up to mine. "Pass." He scoffed heatedly.
I frowned at him and his testy reply but refused to feed his temper with a similarly harsh tone, though a question of 'why?' was implied in the sharp look I aimed his way.
"Gold isn't my thing." Kaiba crossed his arms and scanned over my possessions once more before glaring back at me with a steely expression. "Besides, if you came back to Domino would you really wanna wear all of Yugi's stuff?" His features shifted into a condescending amusement. "Though I'm gonna guess the leather and buckles weren't exactly his idea to begin with."
"You're hardly one to talk in that regard." I parried plainly, fixing him with an unimpressed stare before relenting with an admission of "Yet I see your point."
Yugi had been kind to me. More generous a host than I could have ever hoped for. Each time he'd discovered something I enjoyed he'd made an effort to incorporate it into his life. Whenever he'd had the opportunity falafels, onion rings and mozzarella sticks had become frequent side orders and many of the things he'd worn during our duels had been for my comfort instead of his own. His thoughtfulness was without bounds. Even so, I had to concede that Yugi's school uniform wasn't something I'd wear again if given the choice.
By that same logic I could understand Kaiba's refusal to borrow from Seto's wardrobe, especially as the two didn't appear likely to ever get along.
"Though wearing your dad's stuff is off-putting in a different way." Kaiba added, his harsh tone lessened by distraction as he finished adjusting the coat to his liking
My eyes trailed over Kaiba's body.
"I think it suits you." I complimented with finality, goading Kaiba with a pleased smirk. It was a risky move given his shifting mood but I was learning to enjoy the challenge that came with strategizing how to best conquer his temperamentality.
It was also very true.
Despite the undesirable and ironically appropriate color the coat fit him well. It accentuated the width and strength of his well toned torso as it narrowed into his trim angular waist and flared out behind him as though the long dormant garment had been brought back to life by Kaiba's innate energy. Even in the face of his obvious irritation I couldn't help but smile to myself as I beheld him returned to form. The sight filled my chest with a feeling of fondness.
Kaiba paused at my compliment, rendered still by my words as he judged my expression warily. His eyes narrowed to snake-like slits before he answered with soft grunt of "Hnh. Don't get used to it." though his tone lacked the bitterness it otherwise could have held. "Once my clothes are dry you'll never catch me in any of this ever again." He parried, in somewhat playful mockery.
He may be waiting for them longer than he thought.
I suspected that after we'd left the bath all of the discarded clothes had been collected up by my servants to be properly washed. Frankly, Kaiba's needed it.
"I'll enjoy it while it lasts." I countered, choosing to keep that insight to myself as I stepped into his personal space and threaded my fingers through his. Kaiba's fingers tensely twitched before ardently interlocking with my own. He responded to me by leaning down as I stretched upwards to meet his lips in a kiss that was quick and harsh, just shy of being nip. Every one of these exchanges felt new and different, like the final turn of a victorious duel. It invigorated me and I pulled us together, the renewed keenness of my body meeting only softness as I pushed my hips towards Kaiba's own.
"What, your people haven't invented the refractory period yet?" He muttered against my mouth.
I raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar term.
"It's the time it takes for-" Kaiba began and then blushed hotly, looking equal parts awkward and irritated as he cut off his sentence half way and instead finished with a growl of "Forget it."
Chuckling at him earned me a half-hearted scowl. I gathered his meaning from context alone. Though I was eager to experience more of him, to meet him again on this new and gratifying battlefield, Kaiba apparently needed more time to recover from our previous encounter.
He looked away sharply, fighting to hide a look of embarrassment if his warring features were any indication and snorted tiredly as the damp weight of his own bangs fell back into his eyes again at the abrupt movement. The sight made me grin and in turn my grin made Kaiba step away with a reprimanding glower and snare the towel he'd left behind on my bed to resume his previous task.
"Laugh it up, Pharaoh." He jeered blandly, roughly applying the towel to his head to massage his bangs dry. "Unlike you and Yugi, most people's hair doesn't act like memory foam."
Made wild by the treatment and now peppered with flyaways Kaiba's thick shock of hair had a striking resemblance to Joey's as he pulled the towel back to sightlessly paw and claw his fingers through it.
"So I see." I countered, watching the display in amusement while Kaiba did battle with it again. He continued for some time before pausing to try and tease and finesse his hairstyle into it's usual appearance. "We are in Egypt, Kaiba. It'll dry on it's own." I noted even as the familiarity of the sight made me feel warm in a way that had nothing to do with the hot temperature.
He ignored that completely which would have irritated me had the reaction not been made predictable by knowing my High Priest.
As he rose through the ranks of the priesthood Seto had also become very particular about his hair. He would all but snarl at anyone who wetted or otherwise disfigured it. The headdresses he wore were a vaunted mark of his station as High Priest but also a clever way to protect his scalp from lice without needing to shave his head. Perhaps it was a family trait as I too joined him in the refusal to part with my hair. Wigs itched and there was something about them I found uncanny. I'd disliked them for as long as I could remember, refusing to wear one in the place of my real hair even as a child. Mother had found the rebellion enchanting and allowed me to have my way, much to Father's chagrin.
"The back loses its shape if it isn't dried right." Kaiba muttered as he began viciously swiping at his hair once more, hooking some of the thick strands over his ears and pulling others towards the back of his head.
With the towel in hand he stood still in the middle of my chamber, twisting his head from one end of my room to the other as if searching for something. I wasn't sure what.
"If you're looking for a hair dryer then you're a few thousand years too early." I goaded, watching with satisfaction as the comment made him turn back to me, scowling unimpressed.
"No mirrors either." He concluded sourly.
"Only hand mirrors." I confirmed with a nod of my head. Kaiba's answering eyeroll suggested that wouldn't be sufficient for his purposes. "Your cosmetological needs will have to go wanting." I taunted with a smirk.
"Great." He deadpanned, lifting the towel to his skull and trying to both flatten and dry the cinnamon tresses as he pressed the cloth down the back of his neck in long strokes. "Looking like a punk it is then." The thick stands were smoothed down with each reapplication of the towel to his head but the end effect was nowhere near the extreme tidiness of his hair's usual style.
With a casual roll of my shoulders I blinked at him slowly before volunteering myself for the task, if only to see his reaction. "You could let me try."
He didn't outwardly respond to my offer at all for a moment. Then, he snidely grunted "Got a ladder?"
I stepped across the great square-cut stone slabs that made up the chamber's floor, remarking "Your diligence to being as obtuse as possible at all times is impressive" as I took a seat on my bed. I pushed aside the pillow so I could lean back against the headboard and smirked at him in challenge. Kaiba only stared skeptically as I waved him over to sit in front of me where I would have full access to his back.
"Hnnnnh." Kaiba grumbled, eyeing the sweeping awnings that traveled the length of the wooden beams above the bed to frame it on all sides with a paranoia that would have been vaguely insulting had it not been so absurd. I could see the scales in his eyes, weighing tempering his pride now to join me on the bed against navigating the rest of the duel with a less than perfect appearance.
"Whatever." He decided.
After a lengthy internal debate he joined me, crossing his legs to sit tense in front of me on the bed.
"It should look-"
"-I know how it's supposed to look." I interrupted factually.
At that Kaiba handed over the towel with reluctance, as if by doing so he was consenting to be strangled with it.
With gritted teeth he stayed rigid and still as I applied the towel to the top of his head and worked downwards towards the nape of his neck, trying to copy what he'd been struggling to do by feel alone. I didn't permit my eyes to linger on the burns at the back of his neck. Instead I focused on the soft silken texture of his hair and the way the it shined slightly copper in the afternoon light. It had been cut to lead neatly down into a point on his spine, ending just before the juncture at which his neck met his shoulders. I followed that line downward with mixed results, dodging the circular scars there as I did so.
As a boy I'd often laid by Mother's side when she was feeling to weak to rise from her bed and relaxed into the familiar strokes as she petted my hair. It had been calming and soothing. Though lessened by his tension a similar effect wasn't lost on Kaiba. Just as he began to ease against me and his back melt into my chest my fingernails caught on the scalp behind his ear. The brief contact made him jump, before turning back to snap "Don't do that" over his shoulder at me with an intriguing blush of pink coloring staining his face.
"Aha." I agreed, slowly blinking at him until he turned back around even while I committed the reaction to my memory.
After several long minutes of drying his hair as I would have my own the dampness abated and in boredom the stiffness of Kaiba's body faded. His head and neck became pliant in my grasp as he leaned against me fully. My attempt, though earnest, wasn't yielding the result I'd expected. As I rubbed and pinched the copper strands dry with the towel I left behind upturned tufts like those of an animal's whose fur had been stroked in the wrong direction. I hummed, finding it typical that even Kaiba's hair was defiant to my wishes. A final stroke that pressed too hard against the back of his head in an effort to tame the rogue ruffles drew Kaiba's suspicion.
Leaning forward he batted my hand away, feeling at the cowlicks on the back of his head with his hand.
"Nailed it." He sarcastically drawled, before belated adding "You're not good at this." with a pleased smirk.
I frowned. "Yes, I can see that." The vassals who attended me as I washed and dried always made this look so easy.
My admission seemed to fill him with a wicked delight. He looked impossibly contented with my ineptitude as he settled back against me, as if inviting me to continue failing for his own petty amusement. I was surprised that in the minutes that followed that he didn't respond with another witty remark. The lack of one was suspicious. I supposed I should be grateful for the interlude, though I suspected Kaiba's newly acquired patience came from the dark joy of knowing I was failing in this task rather than a sincere appreciation of my efforts.
I glanced to his face, ready to counter whatever barb he was waiting to throw at me next but found the reason for his silence much easier to deal with.
His eyes were closed.
"Are you asleep?" I murmured.
"Yes. Thanks for asking." He softly snarked.
I fixed him with a smile that he couldn't see while seated in front of me and lowered the towel to lie on the bed.
With my fingers I tried teasing the peaks I'd left behind in his hair down with my fingers. They were as difficult to persuade as Kaiba himself, but responded slightly better to this treatment. With one smoothed flat I repeated this elsewhere, gradually making my way back down the length of his neck and toward the burns at the base. The sight stilled my ministrations as my fingers neared one to the right of his spinal column that his shirts and high necklines had likely always covered.
He'd been unflinching in revealing the scars to me before our bath; his face determined, furious and courageous in a turbulent mix that Kaiba blended together with ease. Upon seeing them it had felt as if the blistering heat of his fury towards the man I assumed was responsible for branding him was somehow my own as well. Out of respect I hadn't permit myself to dwell on the marks. Kaiba had been upset enough without me saying anything more on the topic.
Abruptly Kaiba stiffened against me, interrupting my thoughts.
"Stop looking at them." He sneered, his relaxed posture and angry tone fusing together into a low growl. "I don't want your pity."
"It's not pity, Kaiba." I frowned pensively. Warriors fighting at war rarely came back from battle unscathed. Scars like these were the cost of victory. I knew this as well as he did. "I just regret that you have them." I concluded sincerely.
"Save it." Came the mildly derisive reply, his voice growing subtly softer the longer his eyes stayed closed. "It's not like they're your fault."
He sounded certain, but I wasn't sure about that.
If it was Seto's wish to aid me that had led to his reincarnation then Kaiba's destiny was one designed ultimately to help me reach this afterlife. The implications were troublesome. By that reasoning fate had placed him into the hands of Gozaburo Kaiba intentionally ultimately for my benefit; to mold him into the ruthless duelist I called my rival.
If that was true then I would be throwing everything Kaiba had endured back in his face if I ever considered leaving this place.
After a pause he spoke again, unwittingly filling the air with dismissive words that should have been a comforting assurance but weren't. "What's in the past doesn't matter anymore." He muttered.
By his own uncompromising logic that was true. It wasn't Kaiba's habit to dwell on such things. That was likely for the best. It made me wonder something though. When I was in Kaiba's past would I no longer matter either?
I'd wanted that just a few short days ago; for him to discard me and move on. For him to live his life.
Now I wasn't so certain. This young affectionate thing we were building meant something to me. I wanted to preserve the memory of each kiss and quarrel and verbal joust - to bottle them all up in a canopic jar - so they would stay with me forever. I wanted it to mean the same to him; for us to be equally matched in this. It was a selfish mortal desire, but as Pharaoh I was only half-divine and if Kaiba had his say doubtless not even that.
"You discard your past so carelessly." I began slowly, choosing my words carefully. "After you've return to Domino will you dismiss me too?" Would I be cast aside to summon his new future, like sacrificing away a Duel Monster from the playing field?
I jumped as Kaiba barked out a harsh laugh that took me by surprise. It was almost a scoff, but one of genuine amusement.
"If things had gone differently, sure." He drawled, setting my pulse racing as I waited for him to continue with something it took me a moment to recognize as nervousness. "If I'd just straight up won our duel I'd already be back home by now, putting you in the rear view mirror." There was no doubt in his tone or hesitation in his words – they were quick and unflinchingly. "Even if I'd lost it would at least have been a conclusion to our battle that I was prepared to face."
"Atem." He had never used my name before. Hearing it from his lips the short syllables seemed heavier than I'd ever known them to sound before. They were weighted down with an intense need for something that only Kaiba could communicate so deftly with so few words. "I need this done." He told me simply.
"Like I could now, though." He smirked. "More like I'll get back and wonder if any of it even happened."
"What?" What was he saying?
His shoulders shrugged against my chest, the right hitching slightly higher than the left.
"I'll tell Mokuba about it, leaving out all the kissing bits, and it'll feel real for a few months. Then that'll start to go away." He explained, sounding indifferent to his own prediction. "So I'll start wondering if the Dual Dimension system crapped out and I lost consciousness re-entering the atmosphere, and this was all a stupid dream." Tilting his head to meet my eyes he leaned back further against my chest and his blunt piercing conclusion stilled my blood. "You won't get to become the past, Pharaoh. You'll become another thing permanently looping inside my head before that can happen." He taunted, as though he thought he was scoring a point.
That was close to the answer that I'd wanted, but I felt no pleasure hearing it. Almost the opposite.
Kaiba. You fool.
"Sit up." I commanded. His victorious smirk dulled instantly as I ordered him to move and all of his relaxation slipped away as he pulled his body forward to disconnect it from mine.
"What?" He demanded warily, abruptly agitated as I willed myself free of the bed and walked back to my desk, finding a clean sheet of papyrus and reed pen there.
"It's nothing. Don't worry." I replied simply, squinting to focus on the paper. The order was short and to the point. I heard Kaiba make a sharp "Tch." noise as I waved the finished message in the air to dry the ink and I turned back to find him watching me closely through gloomy narrowed eyes like a small boy thinking he was about to be scolded. "I'm not angry with you." I assured him, feeling my eyebrows raise in surprise at both the clear assumption and his reaction. Kaiba silently glowered at me, apparently less than convinced. "I just need to send this message." I added, rolling the missive up and tying it with a papyrus string.
"Great time to do your paperwork." He sneered sardonically, the fresh tension that had gripped his shoulders leeching out slightly as I opened the door to my chamber and handed off the scroll to one of the Hands of the Pharaoh standing poised outside. "Take this to Shimon." I bid the guard. "He has my permission to withdraw from the royal vault and follow these instructions."
With a dutiful bow the Hand turned away to do my bidding and I closed the chamber door once more.
Kaiba stared at me like a cautious cat unsure if it was about to ejected from a warm room as I rejoined him on the bed, nesting behind him once more to assume our previous position. He didn't ask me what it was I'd just done even as he stiffly leaned back against me for the second time. I couldn't tell if that was due to defiance, fatigue, or a polymerization of both. Gently I returned my hands to his head to pet his hair again, hoping to soothe the stress my hasty decision had created from his body.
"So now you're just gonna boss around the knockoff of Yugi's fossil of a grandfather since 'Seto' isn't around?" He quipped, gradually easing back against me as he hissed his own name snake-like. The question was snide and sarcastic, so likely genuine.
"You know as well as I do that Solomon Muto is a skilled duelist. Just as Shimon makes for a brilliant Grand Vizier." I parried. Kaiba might not respect much, but he appreciated the talent of those he deemed to be expert duelists at the very least. I suspected that list wasn't a long one but Yugi's grandpa should have earned a place on it many times by now. "And 'Seto' is his name too." I added, addressing the other more petulant part of the prickly comment as I eyed the Seto lying against me, making sure to keep my tone and body language relaxed and neutral.
"He can keep it." Kaiba commented, his tone growing a little soft and distant as his eyelids lowered steadily. I was glad he was resuming our embrace so easily as he relaxed against me again. "I'm better off being 'Kaiba'."
"You wield it as a title." I noted. Across Domino 'Kaiba' was a brand that penetrated every household. Kaiba had claimed his status to be comparable to Pharaohdom in my throne room. I supposed in the modern world it really was.
"It is one. In Domino at least." Kaiba grunted back. "My KaibaCorp surveillance system gives me eyes on the whole city. The Domino police have been funded by KaibaCorp for the last ten years and the media is strangled from reporting on me under Domino provincial law since I'm technically still a minor. I'm untouchable." He elaborated, yawning as he did so in either tiredness or boredom. "Next October will be a trainwreck though."
"Why? What happens in October?" I questioned. Nothing that had once been in Yugi's calendar sprang to mind.
"My birthday's in October." Was the short, factual reply.
"Aha." That felt like something I should have already known.
"Don't worry about it. I don't know when yours is either." He muttered, eyes almost closed.
I frowned, realizing that I wasn't sure either where my birthday fell in his modern day calendar. My High Priest was born in the flooding season - I recalled it because his birthday was very close to Mahad's. If Seto and Kaiba shared a birthday and the later half of Akhet corresponded to October then I could walk back our respective seasons back to find the approximate month for the later half of Shemu.
"It's in early June." I calculated.
"Hnh. Makes sense. Yugi's is the forth." He murmured.
Kaiba was right, it was now that he mentioned it. Why did Kaiba remember that? I frowned, finding it strange and curious in equal measure.
He answered me before I could ask with a lazy grunt of "Numbers are easy."
This made me hesitate. Kaiba had just given me several personal facts about himself in as many minutes and each one was a surprise.
Did I truly know him so little?
"Stupid things like that just don't matter between duelists like us." He added sleepily. I didn't know if he had noticed my contrition and was trying to soothe it or was simply speaking his own thoughts aloud.
"Perhaps not." But despite my response I wasn't sure about that. I wanted to know Kaiba better, I realized.
Even now, after all these years there was so much about him still to discover. The thought chafed. Our time together and my only opportunity in which to learn more was so short. It was already slipping through my fingers like fine sand.
A long pause passed by without a reply and I confirmed with a glance that Kaiba had fallen asleep in the lull. His head was bowed to rest on his chest and his dark brown eyelashes cast a fan of shadows over the the deep shading under this eyes that looked like smudged kohl. His fingers twitched, he jerked and his eyes squeezed tightly closed every once in a while before relaxing back into their previous position but even with those flaws he looked peaceful.
There was no doubt that the servants had prepared separate quarters for him, but now that he'd fallen asleep so easily against me whatever chambers had been arranged for him were removed from play.
I willed myself to rest just for a moment and then leave Kaiba here to join the hunt for Andro Sphinx, but the longer I sat watching the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest the harder attempting to marshal my thoughts to that task became.
Leaning back against the headboard of my bed I too slowly closed my eyes.
AN: It feels like after 29 chapters I'm still only just scratching the surface of Atem's mysterious character. We see his bedroom very quickly in the anime but it's just a big empty space with a bed so I've embellished it a bit to make it feel more personal to him. I don't really like diverging from canon unless I have evidence to justify the change, but I have to admit that throughout this story I've both knowingly and accidentally made quite a few deviations. To cover up any massive incongruities I've left the mechanics of how Atem's afterlife works pretty vague by design to allow for some suspension of disbelief. Ultimately his bedroom (and whole afterlife) is intended to be a reflection of Atem and what he needs to be contented for the rest of eternity, but not necessarily what he wants. People's needs are often shifting and contradictory and this is the conveniently flexible logic his afterlife functions on for the purposes of this story.
Next chapter we'll catch up with Yugi. Please read and review if you get the chance!