Title: The Prize At The End Was Worth It
Author: Phoenix87
Rating: PG-13, T
Pairing: Seto/Yami (although it's interchangeable)
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Creative use of shadow powers, Egypt scenes following neither the show nor the doujinishis. (I haven't seen them)
Disclaimers: Yu-gi-oh does not belong to me. If it did…well…you wouldn't be able to pull Seto and Yami off each other.
Summary: A race from a mad man ends up dragging Yami and Seto threw the past, present, and into the future... a future in which they just might end up in each other's arms.
Status: Completed 3/10
(A/N: Hey people! Just got to address one thing here. I've had some really good questions asking why Yami isn't using his shadow powers…and well…I'll give it to you straight. The answers are simply:
1: it would be too easy.
2: you'll find out later.
Not much of an answer but…ah well. This chapter is kind-a of a transition chapter just to warn you. But it's needed to lead up to 4 which is one of my favorite chapters)
Chapter 3
Waking up from unconsciousness isn't a fun experience; kind-of like your mind walking threw a thick lake of mud. Yami was currently in the middle of the lake. Pain from the real world was starting to work it's way threw the bliss of unawareness, it was making him nervous. Where would he be when he wakes up? In the car? With the man? In the afterlife? And if he was still alive, how hurt was he? Ra, how was Kaiba? He guessed coming into full consciousness was worth it to find out how the brunet was. His eyes fluttered open; he almost panicked. All he could see was white! Was he really dead? Then how could his arm hurt?
'Woh…slow down Yami' he thought to himself. 'Take a breath, count to ten.' When he was calmer he realized that he was merely lying on top of something that was white- airbag. That meant he was still in the car! That lightened his heart a bit. Lifting his acing head up, his heart plummeted right back down again.
"Seto!" Yami threw off his seat belt and wiggled over to the motionless frame of Kaiba. The taller boy was slumped into his airbag, face hidden by the protective cloth. Yami was aware of just how fast his heart was beating as he pressed two fingers to the CEO's neck searching, prying to find a plus. There was.
He let go of a breath that he didn't realize he had been holding. Okay one crisis averted; now they have to get out of there. Whenever Joey and Tristan watched those car crash shows, the cars often blew up after they crashed- so Yami thought it best get out of there, but he's also heard that you shouldn't move an unconsciousness person after an accident. He sighed. What was he suppose to do now?
His decision was quickly made easier when the smell of leaking gasoline reached his noise. Yami crawled out of the car and rushed over to the driver's side door. He grabbed the door and tugged. All he received was a metallic grown in return. Stuck, doesn't that figure? Yami decided to try a different way, he kicked his right leg up on the side of the car for leverage, then yanked on the door as hard as he could. The door gave out, sending Yami on his bottom from lack of balance, but he swiftly made it back to the other person in the car. Gently taking the back of Kaiba's neck in one head, and placing the other hand on the CEO's forehead, he moved the brunet's head back to rest against the headrest. The hand that had been on Kaiba's forehead was coated in blood when he pulled it back.
'The windshield' Yami remembered unhappily. He reached into his pocket and took out small pocketknife then thrust it into the air bag. He needed all the space he could get, Kaiba was about 3 inches taller then him, it would be difficult to get brunet out. He took a step back and stared into the car trying to figure out the best way too attempt moving Kaiba.
Okay: First he un-strapped the brunet's seat belt, then Yami slipped his left arm underneath the other's knees and his right arm around Kaiba's back, hand gripping the right side of the CEO's torso. Scooting as close as he could to lessen the strain on his back, he raised the other out of the seat. After shifting the brunet closer to his chest, in order make him easier to carry; he began to slowly inch back and away from the car.
It was weird holding Kaiba like that, and not just because of the height difference- Kaiba was actually lighter then Yami had expected, it was all the emotions that were flinging themselves threw the pharaoh's mind threw the hole ordeal.
He was mad at the man for hurting Kaiba, he was mad at himself because this was the 2nd time Kaiba had gotten hurt helping him, he was worried sick that Kaiba was hurt badly, he was anxious about the man finding them again and that he wouldn't be able to protect Kaiba in this current position. That one stopped him; did he want to protect the brunet? He was used to protecting Yugi and his friends, but before all this he never even thought that Kaiba had ever needed protecting! In fact if the object of his thoughts had been awake at this moment Yami knew that he'd deny that he'd ever need help wholly. He sighed at himself. Why was he even thinking this? This was Kaiba. His rival. Nothing else.
But his stomach still wrenched when he looked at the other's blood streaked face.
When he thought he was far enough away from the car he carefully set Kaiba on the ground, then plopped down beside him. He had no idea were they were, woods surrounded them and from the sun it looked about 3, 4 o'clock? Night would be falling in mire hours, but even if he did know were he was, what was he suppose to do? Carry Kaiba all the way back to town? He thought not. So instead he ripped some of his shirt off and began to carefully whip the blood of Kaiba's face. It would be good to find out how deep that cut was. At that point he really wished he had a magazine to read or a TV to stare at. Just so he was able to look at anything other then the face below him. His mind tended to wander when he though about Kaiba. Actually Yami was thinking he's been thinking too much about Kaiba lately- Ack! He was doing it now! NO. No more thinking about him. So Yami did his best to distract himself. He was in the process of rattling off every card in his deck with their attack points and special abilities when a slurred 'ow' came from beside him. Yami looked down quickly almost fainting with joy when he saw two sapphire eyes staring up at him.
"Se-Kaiba! Are you okay?" Yami cried
"I'd be better if you wouldn't yell in my ear." Kaiba groaned and tried to sit up, but Yami pushed him right back down.
"You should rest for more then 3 seconds."
"What are you talking about? I have been resting."
"Unconsciousness doesn't count!"
"I didn't know there were rules."
Yami rolled his eyes. That was a Kaiba thing to say.
"How do you feel?" Yami asked not wanting to continue the banter right now.
"I'm fine."
"How do you feel?" Yami asked again
"I told you I'm fine."
"How do you feel?"
"YAMI I'M FINE!"
"How do you feel?"
A sigh
"Okay whatever you win. My head hurts a little bit." Kaiba finally admitted. Yami nodded like he was expecting that answer…because he was.
"The cut on your forehead isn't deep. It should heal by it's self in a few days. How's you neck? And be honest."
"Not broken if that's what your thinking."
"Kaiba."
"Sore but fine okay?"
"Okay."
There was a pause.
"How'd I get out here?" Kaiba asked glancing around the forest.
"I brought you."
"How?"
"I carried you."
Blue crystal eyes stared at him in surprise
"What? Your not that heavy." Yami replied with a smirk
Something that Yami couldn't distinguish flashed in Kaiba's eyes.
"Well…thanks." The CEO mumbled
Yami was about to respond when a huge explosion rocked the area, flames from a fireball were visible from where Yami had just walked.
"That was my car wasn't it?" he heard Kaiba ask
"Yep."
"Damn."
Silence…
"Yami?"
"Yeah?"
"What happened to that guy?"
Yami's eyes widened and he automatically glanced around their location.
"I don't know he wasn't near by when I woke up."
Kaiba shook his head
"That doesn't make any sense! He had us right where he wanted us. We were both unconsciousness, unable to resist or do anything to defend ourselves. Why would he just leave?"
Yami didn't like this at all, Kaiba was right.
"He's playing a game with us…I guess he didn't want it to end so soon."
"Well I'm not interested in any games. Come on lets get going." He tried getting up; Yami caught him when he tumbled down.
"Maybe we should wait a little longer"
"No, I'm fine." Kaiba said escaping Yami's grasp then shakily stood on his own.
"And were are we going to go?"
"Were we where going to go before, Kaiba Corp."
"And what way is Kaiba Corp?"
"I'll just call them relax." He pulled his cell phone of out his pocket and flipped up the cover. After punching a few buttons roughly, he threw it back in his pocket.
"Problem?"
"It's not working, must have been broken during the crash."
"So what now?"
Kaiba didn't respond right away, Yami could tell he was thinking about what to do. He didn't know where they were either. Kaiba must have just driven as fast as he could to get away from the man; he hadn't paid attention to where. They had no idea how far they were from Domino.
"Tell you what, we'll just find a road, follow it to a town, find out where the hell we are and then I'll call Kaiba Corp from a payphone and someone will pick us up."
That sounded good to Yami.
"Okay"
So started the journey threw the woods. They had gotten a good half an hour walk before the puzzle began to glow and they had ended up in the underground cavern. The cavern who's walls Yami was staring at right now. The steady breathing of Kaiba beside him was the only noise in room. Turning his head he looked at the other boy, it certainly had been an interesting day.
(A/N: Guess what guys? Now that the Flash Back is over, you get Seto's point of view! –Which for some reason is much more difficult then Yami's, so enjoy while it lasts!)
Kaiba opened his eyes only to be blinded by the sun light on his face. He closed his eyes again and sighed, didn't he close those curtains? He reached to his side to pull his blanket up over his face, but all he got was a fist-full of sand. He was terribly confused for a moment before he remembered that he was not in his home. No, he was in an underground cave with Yami, because some crazy, flying, telephone pole throwing psycho was chasing them. If it hadn't happened to him he never would have believed it. He chanced opening his eyes again and sat up groggily. He pulled his coat back on then looked at the watch on his left wrist. It was 7:30. Hmm he slept later then usual. He looked beside him; Yami was still asleep. Kaiba couldn't help but wonder what had happened between the other and that insane man. Yami didn't strike him as the type to go around making enemies left and right. No that was him. He chuckled to himself quietly and stood up. His head swirled around for a split second, but it passed. He raised a hand to his forehead and gingerly touched the cut he received from the windshield. It still stung a bit, but was better. He sat back down and rested his back against the wall. He was bored. Usually by now he had a laptop in his hands and was working. The only thing he could do here was watch Yami sleep. So he did. Yami seemed much more fragile when he was asleep not the hard-core duelist he was used too. But then again when Mokuba was asleep no one could tell what a little devil he could be. Mokuba! He was going to have to buy his little brother a lot of comic books to make up for this new stress he's causing him. He drummed his fingertips on his knees and sighed. God he was bored. He wished Yami would wake up, at least then he'd have someone to talk too. But he didn't want to just walk over there and wake him up. He didn't want Yami to know he wanted to talk to him. He'd have to be subtle. So the brunet scooted close to the former pharaoh, reached his arms over his head like he was stretching and let out a moderately loud grumble. He was watching the other out of the corner of his eye; nothing happened. He brought his arms back down again and looked around. There were some rocks piled near-by so he knocked them over. Ready to look surprised, he watched Yami's reaction: Nothing. He narrowed his eyes then picked up a rock and threw it at the opening of the cavern. The rock hit part of the earth surrounding the hole sending a shower of dirt down on the both of them. Yami woke quickly enough before the dirt could asphyxiate him. Kaiba watched trying to hide a smirk that was just dieing to get out as the shorter boy twisted around and glared at him accusingly.
"How'd that happen?" Kaiba answered innocently.
Yami just shook his head.
"I wonder."
Kaiba let himself grin this time. He knew he gave himself away, but he was pretty sure Yami had already figured it out anyway. He was smarter then the people he hangs with would lead you to think.
"I was bored." He said truthfully.
Yami laughed as he put his jacket back on.
"Well lets see what we can do about that." Yami got up, stretched then looked around, eventually ending up underneath the hole. He was staring at it so intently that he didn't even notice when Kaiba came up behind him.
"You could reach the top if I lifted you up."
Yami jumped a little at his voice then turned his head to look at the CEO.
"You'd better not drop me."
"Boy scouts honor."
Yami looked at him skeptically, but Kaiba just answered with an exaggerated sigh, grabbed the other by his waist and hoisted him upward. Kaiba watched as Yami grabbed on to the grass and wiggled over the side then popped his head over the hole to stare down at him and laugh.
"What?"
"I was just picturing you in a boy scouts uniform."
"Really?" he raised an eyebrow, "How'd I look?"
"Brown…not really your color."
"Just give me you hand!"
Yami smiled and helped Kaiba out of their former shelter.
"Come on, lets find a town. I'm hungry." Kaiba said bluntly.
It took them only 20 minutes to find a road; hopefully a town would follow sooner instead of later. He looked sideways at Yami the other seemed lost in thought so he guessed it was up to him to start a conversation.
"So," he started "How are…things?" Wow that was intelligent. He groaned inwardly. It's not his fault, he's never been much of a talker.
"I'm guessing your not counting being chased by the psycho?"
"Yes"
"Fine."
"Ah"
Silence. Well he tried. The stillness was ended when a rumble started to shake the old road beneath them. Sounded like a large vehicle was on its way. They stepped to the side waiting to see if it would stop. An old rickety truck appeared over the horizon bouncing wildly on the poorly paved road. It seemed like it was going to fly right past them when it stopped suddenly with a thunderous grown and burst of smoke out of the tail pipe. Slowly the door sung open revealing an old woman about, late 50's, dressed in simple jeans and a white oil stained shirt. Her gray hair was pulled behind her head in a common bun that accentuated her kind, but well-worn face. She looked the boys up and down thoughtfully for before speaking.
"Lordy what were you two boys do'in? Wrestling in the mud?"
(A/N: Well good. My least favorite chapter is over! The good stuff is coming back next!)