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'Tis the Season – Chapter 4 (of 7)(WARNING: Lemon content at end of chapter!)
Four years ago
'What the hell was Yami thinking?' he ruminates for the tenth time today. 'What the hell was I thinking? Gods, Anzu…Yami's Grandpa…his friends…they must think I'm pure scum.
'What the hell do I do now?'
More stressed than he's been in years, Seto asks his secretary for more coffee. He had a pile of work on his desk and couldn't stay distracted with this any longer.
He hadn't heard from Yami in weeks. The wedding was planned for next weekend, but he didn't know what would happen now. As best man, he should know, but after Yami's birthday…
Shaking his head to clear it, he runs his fingers though his hair and gets back to work. His secretary arrives with his coffee and he gives her a grateful smile before diving back into the pile.
It's well after midnight before he stumbles into his apartment, exhausted.
Flicking on the light in his living room with a loud yawn, he's nearly startled out of his skin by the site of a bleary-eyed Yami sitting on his couch.
"Shit! You scared the hell out of me!" Seto exclaims.
The spiky head tilts down.
"Yami?"
"I can't do it," he mumbles.
"What?"
"I can't do it, Seto. I can't marry her."
"Yami…about what happened…"
"This has nothing to do with the party, Seto," he sighs deeply.
"Then what…?"
Crimson eyes lock to his sapphire.
"I don't love her, Seto. I never did. At least not in the way she wanted."
"I don't understand."
Yami sits back on the couch, staring at nothing beside him.
"Yugi was in love with her. I only went out with her because he begged me to. I do love her, but not enough to marry her. But Yugi was dying and I wanted him to be happy and I knew it would make her happy and by default him happy if I proposed, so I did. Yugi died a few weeks later."
Seto's silent. This revelation proves more painful than he'd expected. He feels even worse for all those times he wished for their break-up in the back of his head. Yami had done what he thought best for his dying little brother. How could Seto fault him for that? And he and Anzu had been together for years. If he didn't love her, he could have walked away a long time ago, before Seto could give him an out for his "cold feet".
Now, here he sits, begging for Seto's blessing to back out of the wedding. Just yesterday, he wouldn't have hesitated to give it, now…
Maybe that's why he kissed Seto at the party. Maybe he was just looking for a way out.
"You can't back out, Yami," he whispers soberly. "Though, under the circumstances, it may be best if I don't show up."
"You're the best man. You have to show up," he admonishes, sounding fully resigned to his fate.
"It would be disrespectful to your fiancée and your family after what happened. Jou can be your best man."
Yami turns to his friend, eyes pleading…
"Seto…"
The strained sapphires turn away.
"Also," Seto begins, heart heavy, "it might be best if we don't hang with each other anymore. I'm certain it would be upsetting to Anzu and the rest of your friends and family."
"Seto, don't…"
"I'm sure you can find your way out, Yami," he forces, heading swiftly for his bedroom. "Good-bye," he concludes closing and locking the door behind him before falling face down on the bed and burying his head beneath a pillow.
This pain better be worth it. Yami better go off and be happy.
He hears the front door close a few minutes later.
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Yami's opulent nuptials become the talk of the town for weeks as does his departure for several Duel Monsters, chess, Backgammon and Go tournaments shortly after. For the first time in his career, he'd even joined a Professional Poker circuit, though it would take him even farther away from his new bride and for a longer time.
Yami played everything relentlessly. The game king had become much more competitive and ruthless and everyone wondered what could be the cause. Those who'd opposed him in the past now cowered even more under his onslaught. His new opponents in the Professional Poker arena had never seen anything like the tri-colored stranger.
Seto gobbles up any news about Yami greedily. Every match won, every card played, every piece moved, every country traveled to…he couldn't get enough. He missed Yami terribly and tried any way he could to feel his presence.
One night, while watching a satellite feed of an interview from the World Poker Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada in America, which Yami was winning, he hears an unexpected response to an oft-asked question.
"Mr. Mutou," the reporter asks, "many of your competitors say that they've never faced such fierce competition as when they play you. Some of those quoted mention facing you just last year in many of the same tournaments in which you are participating this year, but that you've become much more ruthless. What do you say to their claims?"
"They're probably right," he replies with a laugh and a slight accent.
"And why do you suppose that is, Mr. Mutou?"
Yami pauses for a moment before responding.
"Usually," he begins solemnly, "I would say that it's just my nature, but that's not really the truth." A heavy sigh "The truth is that I miss playing with Koshi, so I play everyone else like I would play him."
"Koshi?"
"He's a…friend that I had to let go of recently. Extenuating circumstances and all that."
"I see."
Yami looks directly at the camera.
"If you're watching Koshi, I'm sorry. Drop me a line sometime."
The interview goes on for another ten minutes from there, but Seto hears none of it.
'Drop me a line sometime,' he'd said.
Taking a chance, he pulls out his cell and calls Yami's personal cell from his phone list.
"Hello," a sleepy voice mumbles. Seto curses himself. It must be 3 o'clock in the morning there.
"Hey," he calls sheepishly into the phone.
Silence.
"Yami?"
"You saw it," he gasps on the other end.
"Yeah."
A pause.
"So, how are you?"
"How do you think?"
"Yeah, I miss you too, Koshi."
"How did you know I'd be watching?
"Because you're just as obsessive as I am. By the way, nice new car."
"What? How did you…?"
"I keep investigators on the payroll. And like I said, I'm obsessive."
"How's Anzu?"
"Why are you bringing her up?"
"I'm just being polite. She is your wife, after all."
"No, you're not. You're trying to get me to back off. It's not going to work. I already told you how I feel about her. Or don't feel, as the case may be."
"Does she know?"
A long pause.
"Yami?"
"I told her last night after the interview."
"You what!"
"I can't do this anymore, Seto. I can't live this lie. That's why I said what I did in the interview, hoping you'd see it and call me since you wouldn't return any of my calls or e-mails."
"Yami, I was just trying to do the right thing," he sighs, running his free hand through his hair.
"I know. And I appreciate that. You're a great friend."
Another pause.
"So, you ever been to Vegas?" Yami coaxes.
Seto grins into the phone.
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Their first time together, in Yami's plush hotel room, is also Seto's first time as uke.
"Yami," he moans as two of Yami's lubricated fingers slide in and out, preparing him while he clutches the spiked head. Yami's warm mouth matches his fingers' rhythm up and down Seto's shaft.
A third finger is added and Yami increases his suction, drawing a gasp from his partner's lips.
Just as Seto is on the verge, Yami slides off of his arousal.
"Ugnh. Yami, why'd you stop," he groans, trying to push the spiky head back down.
His response is to slide slowly up Seto's body, nipping at random points on his torso and brushing their arousals together before engulfing his lover in a heated kiss. For several minutes, Yami rubs their erections together, never ceasing in the thrusting of his fingers into the pliant body beneath him, grasping the others hip hard enough to bruise, and nipping at Seto's lips and tongue as he kisses him.
Pulling back from the kiss abruptly, Yami finally speaks.
"Look at me Seto," he pants.
Sapphire eyes open to intense, lust-filled crimson.
"Do you want me, Seto?"
"Yes, Yami," he moans, closing his eyes and throwing his head back in ecstasy. "Yes, I want you."
"Look at me, Seto," Yami commands again.
Seto turns his barely coherent, half-lidded orbs back to the burning crimson, crying out as Yami enters him in one thrust.
Quickly finding a rhythm, he begins his assault on Seto's prostate, his Koshi wrapping his legs around him and grasping his shoulders fiercely.
"Aaahhh! Gods, Yami! Don't stop!" Seto cries out as Yami pounds into him.
Yami, for his part, buries his face in Seto's shoulder nipping at the flesh there, overcome by the feeling of being inside the tight passage. Though he exuded confidence, this is actually his first time with a man and he worries in the back of his mind if he's hurting his Koshi and if he's doing everything right.
Moving a hand from where it's pushing open Seto's right thigh, Yami grabs Seto's arousal and begins pumping in time with his thrusts. Seto's eyes roll back and he explodes all over Yami's hand within minutes.
Grasping Seto's waist tightly, Yami's thrust start losing their rhythm until he stiffens and erupts into his lover with a low growl, Seto's nails digging into the flesh on his back.
"Koshi. My Koshi," Yami whispers into Seto's hair as he holds him close in the after glow.