It should be known that Seto is twenty-two. Seto is six foot, one inch in canon (186 cm). HOWEVER, men do not stop growing until they are like 25 (the bastards. They are hoarding all of the tallness for themselves!) So he is much taller now. Probably about six-six. Atem/Yami is not the same age as he was in canon, either. I'd put him at about twenty. So he is also taller than his canon height of 5 foot (153 cm. Hehe he's so short). Probably about 5'4".
Chapter Seven: Trial By Fire
White armor gleamed like pearls beneath the moonlight. The long sword flashed, a silver fang of a white dragon. Blue eyes glared.
"Yami."
His shoulders shook.
An ornate cape billowed like wings.
"Yami! Wake the hell up!"
He blinked. Blue eyes loomed above him. "Rosenkreuz…"
The furrowing of a brow. "Rosenkreuz…? Who the hell is that?" Kaiba snapped.
Yami shook his head, palm to his forehead. "Seto. Mmm… sleep comes so scarce to me. But the dreams want to make up for lost time." Kaiba frowned. Yami sat up on the settee lounge. He blinked at the other man. "What time is it?" What year is it?
"Seven-fifteen. Night."
Yami hummed sleepily. "She will be here soon."
"I figured. That's why I woke you up."
"Thank you." He stood and stretched languidly.
Kaiba thought of some sleek, moon-drenched panther. "What am I to expect tonight?"
"She will arrive. We will entertain her, as any good hosts would." Yami padded from the room. Kaiba strode after him.
"Entertain her. What does that even entail?" Kaiba hissed.
Yami waved a hand dismissively. "Give her food and beverage. Chat. Perhaps play a few games."
Kaiba growled, though something in him turned over in amusement. Yami probably wanted to finally open one of those games that required more than two players. "This sounds horrible."
"This horrible thing could be what grants you access to Mokuba." Yami waved a hand over the knob of a locked door in the hallway. It was a door Kaiba never walked through, or even saw into. It was a bedroom. It was decorated with rich red fabrics and dark wood. The cloying dusty scent of incense danced on the air. Yami's room.
Kaiba paused. "What?"
Yami glanced over his shoulder, a slender eyebrow raised. "Yes. If you can control yourself around her, you should be ready to see your brother, finally." He opened the wardrobe. "Now, you can stay and watch if you truly desire it, but I am going to change my clothes," his deep voice purred teasingly.
It felt like someone hit Kaiba in the face with a snowball. He slammed the door shut (hard enough that the walls and floor shook) and stomped away. "Fucking freak."
Seeing Mokuba. It sounded unreal.
The last time he had seen Mokuba, Seto had been human. Alive.
The paradigm has shifted. As much as it pained and horrified him to realize it, he was not the big brother Mokuba once knew anymore. Seto couldn't sit at the table and eat and chat with him like he used to. Seto wasn't sure if he could stomach seeing Mokuba like this. The moment in the study haunted him, when he stalked Yami like a predator. What if he saw Mokuba, and thought of him only as prey?
But a hole was torn into Seto. He missed his little brother so terribly. Mokuba's laugh echoed in Seto's dreams. Dreams of after-dinner chess games, dreams of clutching the passenger door with white knuckles, Mokuba at the wheel. Visions of Mokuba turning the world right-side-down in search of his big brother.
He'd bear it. For Mokuba. Come hell or high water, Seto would see him again.
Down the hall, Yami's door opened. Kaiba turned. His brows furrowed.
The ancient vampire was wearing a black tank top (a damn wife-beater, for all intents and purposes) and some blue jeans.
"What the hell are you wearing?" Kaiba snapped.
A dark brow winged up. "Casual clothing."
"You look like an idiot." Button-ups and black pants suited him far better than that… that… garbage.
"I did not realize that my choices in wardrobe had to pass a test of your satisfaction, Seto Kaiba," Yami replied, and he turned away to walk down the other end of the hall.
"That's not what I meant, and you know it," Kaiba growled. He stalked down the hallway after him.
"Do I?" Yami turned into the kitchen.
During his stay, Kaiba realized many things about Yami's abode. One, most of the space went unused. Such as the actual nave, the place of worship. Two, the convent or abbey, where nuns or priests or whoever lived there during the church's time, was actually where Yami lived. There were truly countless rooms. Some hallways were permanently sealed off. By prior inhabitants or Yami himself, Kaiba did not know. And he didn't bother to ask.
But, what surprised him the most was that Yami actually maintained a fully-functional kitchen, despite not requiring food that had to be cooked in it.
"The aesthetics please me, the thought of human meals," Yami had said, somehow wistful.
It reminded Seto of when Mokuba began hanging those posters of "bombshell" models on the walls in his room. Something he could look at, admire, but never have.
Kaiba leaned against the counter, his arms crossed.
In fact, seeing Yami in his kitchen was… dichotomous. He was graceful and regal as ever (even in those ridiculous clothes), but it really seemed like he was photoshopped into the image or something.
Yami stretched up to open a cupboard. His shirt clung tight to his back. A scar peeked over the neckline, curled near the muscle at that ambiguous area where neck and shoulder meet.
Kaiba looked away, but his curiosity drew him back.
A tea kettle sat on the highest shelves, where Yami physically couldn't reach. Kaiba stepped forward. Yami reached his hand out, fingers splayed expectantly. The kettle slid forward, ground a bit against the wood of the shelf, and fell into Yami's hand.
Damn shadow tricks.
Next came a box of tea, a few mugs. Anything Yami couldn't reach was magicked into his hands.
"Why are you so damn short?" Kaiba asked, a bit mocking and smug.
Yami glanced over his shoulder. "I was almost average height in my era. People got taller through the millennia. It is not my fault that I am not a damn giant like you are. You are ridiculously tall."
Kaiba snorted. Yami swearing was humorous. Like a stuffy old aristocrat trying to sound intimidating by being crude. "I'm only six-six." Still smug.
"Little victories, Kaiba. You are a petty man."
"I wouldn't call it a little victory, Yami."
Yami grunted. He turned to face Kaiba. "She'll be here within the next ten minutes or so. I want to discuss a few things with you beforehand." His arms crossed. His biceps twitched. Kaiba gulped. "If at any point you feel overwhelmed, tell me. Tell me immediately. However, keep in mind that I will not allow any harm to befall either of you. Try to spend as much time around her as you can, but know that you may leave the room if you feel you must."
"Hn."
"Do not worry about keeping your vampiric nature clandestine. She knows, both about us and about what she is here to do."
"So humans do know about vampires? Or some, at least."
"A very small number of well-trusted individuals, yes," Yami tilted his head to the side in a half-nod. "But the general population is ignorant of our existence."
"Why haven't vampires just… I don't know, conquered the humans yet?" Kaiba asked sharply.
Violet eyes narrowed. "I have kept it from being so." Purple flared to crimson. "If at any moment I realize that you will abuse this power, I will kill you. And you will not come back this time." The shadows of the kitchen fluttered with each syllable, and the rumble of Yami's voice made the lights flicker.
Kaiba shuddered. A black beast flashed in his mind. "I was just asking for the sake of argument. Not like I actually want to do it myself."
Red cooled back to violet. "Good." His head tilted. He was listening. "She's here."
Kaiba paused, eyes averted to the ceiling. He concentrated on his hearing. Soft, light steps. The door leading to the abbey, not the nave. A playful knock, and she swung the door open.
He looked back to Yami.
"What the fuck?"
Those angular eyes were soft, rounded. Big, doleful, deer eyes. His pale face was softer, sweeter, an innocent boy. He was thinner, less firmly built. Even his demeanor changed. Less confident, he seemed smaller, shorter, though Kaiba could tell by comparing him to cupboard that it was just a trick of the eye.
Those big purple eyes blinked at him
"What. The. Fuck!" Kaiba growled, stumbled back and bumped himself hard on the counter. "What the hell did you do to yourself?!"
"I shapeshifted a little."
Even his voice!
It was higher, boyish.
"Jesus Christ! A little?! You're a different fucking person!" Kaiba damn near yelled. "Why? Why did you change?"
The… boy before him shrugged. "She knows me as Yugi Muto, a human. She finds my true form discomfiting."
Incredulous, Kaiba stared at him. "So you do this every time you go out?"
Those eyebrows, more curved and less stern, furrowed. "No. Just for certain human acquaintances."
"Why?"
"Immersion."
"Yugi! Is anybody home?" a feminine voice called.
Kaiba froze. He recognized that voice. But he couldn't remember a face.
"Just a minute!" Yami… Yugi… Yami called back. He looked back to Kaiba. "Are you done with this for now? You can reel in shock later."
"One question, first."
"Hurry. We are being quite rude to our guest."
"How far does this shapeshifting go?"
Yami blinked and tilted his head to the side. Normally, the motion seemed pensive. Now, it emanated a disturbing amount of innocence. "I can turn into animals."
Kaiba's blue eyes widened. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."
"No. I do not kid about these matters. Let us go." Yami strode from the room. His gait lacked the confidence of usual, but still he drifted over the floor with ethereal elegance.
Kaiba followed, though still a tad shell-shocked.
Yami walked down the hall and to a small foyer where the side entrance resided (Kaiba originally thought it was just a door to another room; it looked just like all the others). He could hear a human heart beating, steady, thu-thump, thu-thump, thu-thump. It was a strange sound, deliciously foreign.
She was a young woman, chin-length brown hair, big blue doe eyes, and a shapely figure.
"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, Tea."
Kaiba froze. "Tea?"
The young woman's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Seto Kaiba?"
Yami looked between them. His eyebrows winged up. "You two know each other?"
Tea dazedly blinked at him. "Yeah… We… went to high school together."
Yami chuckled… no… giggled. "It never fails to amaze me how small the world really is."
Tea looked back to Kaiba and smiled sheepishly. "I'd say that life after graduation has treated you well, but I never thought we'd ever see each other again, much less under these circumstances."
Kaiba was barely listening.
Yami was right. He could smell how hot her blood was. Crimson and copper, the scent undulated in pace with her pulse. He grit his teeth, felt his fangs lengthen.
"I… can say the same."
Holy fuck, he could see the arteries in her neck flutter in time with her pulse. A sharp ache.
He could feel Yami's gaze on him. Those violet eyes reeled him back in.
Tea was talking to Yami. "Even when you email, you are still so weirdly cryptic! I'm surprised you didn't just send me a typed note."
"You didn't like it the last time I did that."
"I didn't mind that note itself. What I did mind was the fact that you left it in my bedroom. Why couldn't you just leave it in the mailbox like a normal human being?!" she huffed, less exasperated and more fond.
Yami shrugged. It was the second time Kaiba saw him do it so far. Apparently, as "Yugi," even his mannerisms were different. "I didn't realize it would upset you so much."
"It's creepy!"
"Duly noted."
The pair drifted toward the kitchen, slowly but surely, and Kaiba quietly followed behind.
As he walked behind them, almost imperceptibly, his pace began to match Tea's. He stepped when she did, copied her gait. If anyone listened, it would only sound like two people walking, Yami and Tea.
His blood flashed colder in horror.
Like some alleyway predator… He shuddered, his intake sharp.
Yami glanced over his shoulder, round purple eyes blinking softly. Calm down.
Kaiba paused in the hallway, leaned against the stone brick of the wall. With a hand on the small of her back, Yami led Tea into the kitchen. Kaiba panted, gulped around his elongated canines. He gripped his forehead, his knuckles white.
"Just a moment, Tea. Would you mind starting the tea for me?" Yami's voice echoed as if through water.
"Yeah! I wouldn't mind at all," she responded with that over-the-top sincerity Kaiba had always loathed with a passion.
Cold hands gripped Kaiba's clammy cheeks. "Seto, look at me." Deep, commanding.
Kaiba obeyed. Angular violet eyes. He felt himself slumping into Yami's hold.
"Is this too much for you?" Yami asked. "I need you to be honest with me."
Pride reared its ugly head. Yes, I am fine, let go of me, but…
… he could trust Yami.
"I don't know," he whispered, voice hoarse and broken on some breaths.
Thumbs tenderly swiped over his cheekbones. "Do you need to feed right now?"
Did he? Was this hunger merely a reaction to a human's presence, or could the sensations be genuine appetite?
"Would… Would it help if I did?" Kaiba asked.
Tea poked her head around the door. Kaiba was very nearly curled over Yugi's smaller form, his face cradled in Yugi's small hands. She swallowed her squeak of embarrassment and ducked back into the kitchen, her face ablaze.
Yami had sensed their spectator but gave no outward sign of it. "I do not know. Every vampire has a different reaction to humans for the first time."
"I… I don't want to be like this around Mokuba."
Yami shook his head slowly, his violet eyes locked onto ultramarine. "I would never let that happen, Seto."
Kaiba sank lower. Their foreheads pressed together. The cold contact soothed him. The breathless panic faded. He had to do this. He had to do it for Mokuba. He abruptly straightened. Yami's arms fell to his side.
"C'mon, Yugi. We've got a guest to entertain."
Seto Kaiba had been through many stressful situations in his life. Being an orphan, having an adoptive father like Gozaburo, raising Mokuba after said father's death, and running a company basically on his own produced endless taxing scenarios. But nothing tried his endurance quite like this trial. Thankfully, Yami proffered many distractions; tea as a vampire was disgusting (even more so than before; Kaiba very nearly spit it out, but the only thing that stopped him from doing so was seeing Yami delicately sip it as if it were fine wine), and Yami was a tactical master at not only chess, but contemporary board games.
"And… Yugi gets the 'longest route' and 'globetrotter' bonuses, and, at two-hundred-eighty-seven points, is the winner of this round," Tea announced after adding up everyone scores.
Kaiba swiped all of the train cars off the board petulantly. Some of them fell to the floor. "This is bullshit!"
"He's a sore loser," Yugi said to Tea.
Tea nodded with lifted eyebrows. "I remember as much from high school."
Kaiba jabbed an irate finger at her. "I never lost anything during high school."
"Yeah, you did."
"No, I didn't! Your memory is shot, you old hag!"
She leaned back in her chair. "If I remember correctly, you're actually a year older than me, Kaiba. Anyways, what about that one baseball game against the staff?"
Kaiba scoffed. "I do not count sports."
"Well, you certainly acted like it was a big deal at the time."
Kaiba grumbled.
Tea giggled a little.
Yami, his elbow on the table and his chin in his hand, looked between the two. His eyes glinted with amusement.
In the resulting silence, Tea's heart was far too loud, far too… tempting…
Kaiba hurriedly placed all of the game pieces and cards back into their box. Wordlessly, he took the box and left. When he set it back on the shelf in the study, he leaned his forehead against the cool wood. Old paper and faded ink washed the crimson and copper from his lungs. When his fangs receded back to normal length, and the ache in his gut faded into emptiness, he walked slowly back to the kitchen.
"You seem pretty determined about this," Tea said softly. Her words were but a low whisper. But not quite enough. Kaiba paused in the hallway.
"It's… cruel to keep him locked up in this place. He's been cooped up here for two weeks now. I don't savor caging him like a rabid dog, but it's necessary." Even with that strange voice, the rawness echoed through his words. He paused a minute. "Though I have to admit, he is the most swiftly developing fledging I have ever encountered. His self-discipline is iron strong. Any other and I would not have thought you safe, Tea."
"I can't imagine him tolerating any sort of dependence upon you," Tea remarked.
"He just barely does," Yami said with wry amusement. "Sometimes getting him to feed is like pulling teeth from a crocodile."
Tea laughed, and their conversation meandered into mundane topics about her life.
Kaiba leaned against the wall. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back.
The antique grandfather clock in the study rang its solemn toll of midnight. The deep rings resonating through the stone brick of the walls around them. Tea sighed, stood. "Well, boys, I know you probably stay up all night, but I have work tomorrow. I should get going."
Yami nodded. "Understandable."
They walked her to the door.
"Thank you," Yami said, clasped her hands in his own before he wrapped her in a warm hug. Her slight, pale arms stood out against the black of his shirt.
Acid bubbled in the back of Kaiba's throat.
"Of course! Anything, anytime, okay, Yugi? Be sure to email me more often, all right?" She patted his back, and, when they separated, she pecked that pale cheek. She turned to Kaiba. "I'm sorry that these aren't the best circumstances, but I'm glad to know that you're okay, Kaiba."
"Hn." The tip of his tongue burned.
Yami looked at him. Though they were still the soft, warm eyes of Yugi, a hard sternness lurked. "I'm about to ask something of you that I know you will not want to do."
Kaiba stiffened.
"Embrace her, Seto." The firm tone brooked no protest.
Protest Kaiba did. He drew back a few steps. "No! Why the hell should I do that?!" he hissed.
Yami's brows furrowed. "Do you not think that Mokuba will throw himself into your arms upon first laying his eyes on you again?"
Kaiba sucked a breath in through clenched teeth. Mokuba most certainly would.
"You need to do this," Yami said, "if you want to see him any time soon. I don't want to hold this above your head, Seto, but would you rather hurt him?"
Kaiba's face flushed cold with shame and frustration.
He edged closer to Tea. She remained relax, calm. She beamed up at him. "I trust you, Seto."
His molars ground together. His arms stiffly wrapped around him. Her cheek pressed against his collarbone.
Her heart thumped steadily in her chest. He could feel its beat through their clothing. Even through her skin, the scent of hot, fresh blood wafted up to him. His arms tightened reflexively, and a growl rumbled in the back of his throat. She gasped sharply, and the sound pierced through his haze. He abruptly let go of her and hastily stepped back. Yami's small hand petted his back soothingly. He allowed the contact.
"Be careful. The night has fangs, Tea."
"I know, Yugi."
She left. The door shut quietly behind her.
Kaiba whirled and lunged. Yami's back thumped against the wall.
Angular eyes peered up at him.
Kaiba growled, yanked what little of Yami's shirt was in the way away from his skin. He wrenched Yami's head to the side with tense fingers in that coarse hair. His fangs sunk into Yami's pliant neck, his jaws tight with unfettered hunger.
This time, he was far too lost in the thirst and the burning acid to pull away when that cold blood ran hot and shaking hands scrambled at his back and clenched in his hair.
"Se...to…"
END PART
Okay, I have a few more things to note.
IN REGARDS TO THE BEGINNING, I just couldn't resist making a Duelist of the Roses reference. If you don't know what I am talking about, you missed out on one of the best damn games for the PS2. I sunk an inordinate amount of time into that game. I also find it ironic to make Yugi the alter ego rather than Yami. How that came about will be explained in future chapters. There's soooooo much backstory to delve into *shivers in excitement*