Part Five
"Kaiba!!" Delaney yelled, just before having to wipe a splash of water from her eyes. He sat before her perched up on his hands in an ankle-deep pool of water.
"What the..." he started. Then he looked down at the water and waved his hand over it. It cast a perfectly mirror-like reflection of his arm. Then he looked up at the vast expanse of ceiling above him and the stalactites hanging from it.
It wasn't a gorge at all! It was a reflection of the ceiling!!! he thought angrily to himself.
Delaney released a long breath. She must have realized now what it was, too. She stood up and held out her hand. Kaiba looked at it for a moment, then took it and pulled himself up, with her help. The two walked easily across the last few feet of the bridge.
"Well, Sir Braniac, now what do we do?" she asked.
"What, you in some kind of hurry?" Kaiba shot back.
"I'd like to get out of this labyrinth before I get killed," Delaney retorted.
"I can't make any promises," Kaiba responded coldly. Delaney growled in reply.
"You'd just love that wouldn't you? I can see the headline now: 'Businessman Snaps: One Dead'. It'd make great publicity, don't you think?"
Kaiba's simmering anger boiled over. In a flash, he had turned around and pinned Delaney to the wall, his hand clenched firmly around her neck. Her expression gave away shock at first, and then finally the first ever glimmer of fear that he had seen in her at all.
"Publicity or not," he began quietly, "I would take great pleasure in this..."
She stared back at him, but now her gaze was expressionless. No, it wasn't, but the fear had been replaced by something he could not recognize.
It would be so easy... Kaiba thought. One little squeeze would end all my troubles. I might get out of this game sane that way.
Delaney watched him for a long moment before she finally choked out, "Go ahead, do it."
Kaiba looked at her in mild surprise. Then he narrowed his eyes and applied a little more pressure to her neck. Delaney's eyes bulged a little, and he could hear the air rushing down her narrowed air passage.
What am I doing?! He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and released her throat. He took a few steps back before he opened his eyes. Delaney stood frozen against the wall, breathing heavily. Her eyes narrowed, showing off a deep anger that had taken place beside whatever else was in her eyes.
"What's wrong? Can't even take care of one little challenge?" she mocked in rage. "Or are you afraid or something?"
Kaiba's fury flash-boiled again. The two charged at each other, Delaney directing her fist at his shoulder. He caught her wrist, and their eyes met once more. Kaiba looked at her and suddenly realized that it wasn't fear that he had seen before. What he saw there shocked him more than anything Delaney had ever said or done. He could feel the anger in her pulsing through her veins, but it was a mask for something much more infuriating. Then he recognized that his anger had been a cover for something this whole time, too. Something he never wanted to admit.
Delaney was still trying to push her way at him. Kaiba's arm shook with the effort of keeping hers in place. He let every anger he had at her have its moment, then he released her arm. Delaney was thrown off by the maneuver and fell into him. Instantly he pulled her up and put his mouth to meet hers. Passion, infatuation- call it what you will- and a million other emotions coursed through his veins and were expressed in the single kiss he pressed on her.
Delaney seemed for a brief moment to be completely taken aback at the new twist of events. Once her brain had enough time to process what was happening, she pulled back from him and raised her arm. She used all the strength she could muster and slapped Kaiba across his face.
Kaiba stumbled back a step, stunned for a moment. Delaney's hands flew to her mouth to cover her gasp.
Kaiba reached up and touched his sore cheek. Damn, that girl packs a wallop.
Delaney took a cautious step towards him. Her face had her remorse written all over it. Kaiba just looked at her, not sure what she was going to do next.
When he offered no resistance, Delaney went up and touched his cheek gently. He looked away from her and winced a little, even though the heat of her touch shot through his system.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, not noticing that she had moved a little closer to him.
"I think I needed that," Kaiba replied. He turned his head back up to look at her and their noses nearly collided. He could feel himself drowning in the deep ocean green of her eyes.
NO! he thought. I can't lose control. Not to her. He could feel her warm breath on his face. Her eyes shimmered with regret and concern. He could sense the blood running through her as much as he could feel his own. His heart thundered in his ears.
I can't do this. I can't surrender. I can't...
He did. Delaney moved closer and put her mouth to his this time, but Kaiba didn't fight it. A sharp sensation jolted down his spine, followed by tingles that spread slowly to engulf every inch of him, like the wake after a speeding boat. A part of his brain that he had not even known existed began sending commands to his body. Without knowing why, he gently grasped Delaney's shoulders and sank slowly to his knees. Delaney took the cue and moved with him. Then she was letting her instinct take over. Her hand crawled its way up Kaiba's arm and found the back of his neck, which her fingers then began lightly stroking.
The voice in his mind was silenced. He had come this far, and he couldn't go back. Right now he didn't want to, anyway. Boiling blood ran through his body, and all the heat he couldn't stand flowed out through his lips as well as his hands and fingers, which had found their way around Delaney's waist and were tracing intricate designs on her back.
Delaney pulled away, and both of them were breathing heavily. She looked into his deep blue eyes. He could sense the question in hers: What are we doing?
Kaiba tried to formulate an answer for that question, but his brain had been turned to mush. As much as he tried to produce a single, intelligent thought, nothing would come to him. An animalistic sensibility had taken over his mind, and he found the fleeting intelligent thoughts to be crowded out by his own base desires. The more he was near her, the more inebriated he became. The point came where he could no longer hold himself back. He leaned in and pressed his lips to her once more, but he didn't sop there. Delaney let out the smallest of surprised expressions as he kept pushing. She let herself fall backwards, and Kaiba crawled overtop. Their kiss deepened, and each of their action spawned a reaction from the other. She caressed his shoulder, he stroked her arm.
Delaney pulled away again, but only for a moment.
"What's your real name?" she asked.
Kaiba looked at her with a somewhat puzzled expression. "Huh?"
"I mean, don't you have a first name? Something people call you besides 'Kaiba'?"
"Why?" he asked.
"Because I think that that's a little formal for our circumstances," she answered.
He sighed. He did have a first name, but only a very select few even knew what it was. And of those few, even fewer dared to call him that name to his face. Actually, the only ones who did were his brother and sister. He remembered something that Raia had once told him, after he had asked her to call him Kaiba.
"Kaiba is the name of the cold-hearted jerk who runs this company. And rightly so, because that's who USED to run this company. But to me, you are SETO. You are my little brother, and that will never, EVER change. I see what no one else does, and I call you what no one else can."
He leaned in and whispered in Delaney's ear, "Call me Seto."
**I think this is kind of a good place for a reminder. I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! Or any of the characters, monsters, etc. I DO own Delaney, she is my baby, so don't take her away PLEEEZE!! Other than that, I hope you are enjoying this so far. Don't forget to review!!