ONE CARD SHORT:
CHAPTER SIX - STILL PROUD
"Shadow Games? We put a stop to those years ago."
Written by Gregory Smith
All characters portrayed within are copyright 1996 Kazuki Takahashi,
With the exception of Gradius, who is copyright 2003 Gregory Smith.
Kaiba was ready to go home. The school day was over, and yet he hadn't been able to avoid the creeping consequence of his actions. Even though he hadn't gone to school that day, Gradius had still come to see him. Despite trying to get away from everything, everything had come to find him. "Can't outrun my fate, I suppo—" Kaiba thoughtfully began, as his office door suddenly slammed open, "Hey! Who the hell—" Kaiba stopped himself, even though he hated being interrupted.
In his doorway, dripping wet with rainwater, almost completely out of breath, and eyes wide and afire with desperation, stood Yugi. Awkwardness reigned for a moment as the two stared at each other in an almost stunned silence.
"Well, shut the door, Yugi," Kaiba reacted coolly, his eyes returning to their normal shape and angularity, "How the hell did you get up here, anyway? I'd like to think my guards stopped you."
Yugi smirked a little, shaking his head roughly, water sailing about the room from the massive, five-pointed crown of hair adorning his head. "Come on, Seto-san," he chuckled, watching Kaiba wipe unwanted rainwater from his own face, "We've been together for so many years, I'd like to think your guards would just let me come upstairs."
"And, from you being here, looks like they did," Kaiba grumbled, making a sort-of snorting noise, and turned to his desk to sit down, "And what the hell do you mean by 'together'? You'd better not be getting any 'alternative lifestyle' ideas."
Yugi's smirk grew into something of a wicked smile. "Honestly, Seto-san," he chortled, quickly making his way over to Kaiba's desk, taking a seat on the edge of the boy genius' metal workspace, "You know that's the furthest thing from my mind. I just used 'together' because we may as well be family with how long we've known each other."
Kaiba shut his eyes tightly for a second. "Yugi, enough with the formalities," he began quietly, heatedly drumming the table with his fingers, "so will you just cut the bullshit?" His eyes opened slowly, looking up at a no-longer-smiling Yugi, who now wore a rather serious expression on his face.
"Fine," Yugi answered simple, folding his arms, "Did a boy named Gradius visit you today?" Yugi judged Kaiba's sudden twitch as a "yes" and explained everything Gradius had told him. In between Yugi's explanations, Kaiba explained what Gradius had told him, as well. Finally, after an hour, there was silence again.
"Shadow Games?" Kaiba chuckled, finally, looking up at Yugi with a wry smile on his face, "We put a stop to those years ago." It wasn't like Kaiba to use "we" to refer to himself and Yugi, but it was true. It had taken the both of them to save the world from final destruction, and they were proud of it. Even if Kaiba wasn't vocal about it, he was still proud.
Yugi couldn't bring back a smirk. "Kaiba," he asked, almost monotone, "Have you looked out your window in the last … oh, I'd say two hours?" His arms folded tighter; he knew Kaiba would be a stubborn ass about this.
Kaiba blinked, standing up and turning to his window. He hadn't; he closed the blinds after Gradius left, since the sun was coming out and he wasn't really used to daylight all that much as of late. "Of course I have, Yugi!" he answered with a confident lie, pulling open the blinds forcefully, "What makes you think I—" And, in an instant, Kaiba was struck dumb by the blank, purple sky. Yugi simply looked uncomfortable, despite the situation they were faced with.
"You see, Kaiba…?" Yugi asked absently, his expression taking on that of a concerned one, "But it's not just Domino City, this time! The whole planet's been covered!"
Kaiba half-sighed, shutting his eyes. "And this concerns me," Kaiba growled, leaning his forehead against the plate-glass window, "because the whole world's at stake. Why can't we all just get a break, for once?" Yugi didn't have the answers; he hardly ever saw Kaiba like this. Kaiba was downright depressed about this. But why shouldn't he have been? Hell on earth shouldn't get the chance to make a comeback.
"Seto-san…" Yugi sighed, reaching for his friend's shoulder for a moment before pulling his hand back.
"Yugi, don't say anything." Kaiba snapped, standing up and pulling on his trench coat; his ever-present briefcase came along with him, "We need to get moving." His determined cobalt eyes bored straight into Yugi; this wasn't a joke. The world was going to end this time, and they really were the only ones who could stop it from happening.
"Right." Yugi answered bluntly, pulling his uniform shirt back over his shoulders; he changed his mind, though, pulling it over his arms instead. This brief exchange of movements from Yugi caused a moment of pause for Kaiba. For just an instant, Yugi had looked almost exactly like Yami. Kaiba's heart hurt for that instant, too. But he couldn't look back on two years past anymore. They had to stop the present.
Kaiba could deal with his demons later.
