Kaiba woke up in a golden bubble of warm, heavenly bliss.
It was shattered with Isono roughly shaking him awake and shoving a pad under his nose for him to see through his barely-open eyes.
"Master Kaiba, look!"
Furious and sleepy, Kaiba realized Yami wasn't in bed with him anymore, so he snatched up the pad and glared at it while his mind slowly churned. He was looking at monetary gifts, sent to him by every individual at the event, including a private message from the Prime Minister's desk, praising him for 'fast action' and working with the police to ensure their safety.
Nice. Now where the hell was Yami?
"Master Yami is receiving a massage on the fifth floor," Isono stammered, taking the pad back instantly when he noticed the master's mood souring. "There is also some press outside waiting for a comment."
"Get rid of them, and let me find Yami," Kaiba growled as he peeled himself out of bed and groggily walked into the bathroom to wash up before he trudged up the steps.
The moment he arrived on the fifth floor, he told himself not to be surprised at the three massage tables set up, occupied by familiar crops of hair and pale shoulders.
He froze when he recognized Anzu in the middle, with Yami on the edge, and a blond at the other end. R-REALLY?! Yami was inviting cops up into their home for a massage and spa day?!
The blond at the end lifted their head up, and Kaiba's stomach twisted when he recognized the agent from yesterday.
"'Eyyy we got a visitor," Joey mumbled into the pillow and sank into the heated blanket, extremely relaxed.
Yami lifted his arm to wave, felt a jab of pain go down his shoulder, so he lowered his arm, hearing Kaiba's footsteps rushing to the edge of his bed. Predictably, the CEO was furious.
"Explain why this is happening?" Kaiba breathed, hating it so much, his head spun when he saw Anzu ignore him and relax further into the masseuse's touch. "What are you doing?"
"…Sore, from yesterday," Yami offered unhelpfully, jerking a thumb at his own, toned back, making Kaiba's mouth water for a brief second before he saw the masseuse's hands pass over ripples of solid muscle.
Gritting his teeth, Kaiba rested his hand onto Yami's warm shoulder and gave him a squeeze. "Can we talk? …Alone?"
Yami nodded calmly and got up from the massage table, letting Kaiba lead him out onto the balcony and slap his hand on the sensor to close the sliding glass doors with a soft whir.
Adjusting his robe around his shoulders, Yami leaned on the glass edge and gazed out over the tops of pointed trees that lined Kaiba's property, taking deep breaths of clean air while he readied himself for an argument. He knew what the CEO was going to complain about.
"Okay. Cops A and B can't be your best friends," Kaiba growled as he stood beside Yami at the balcony railing, trying to enjoy the sunshine shining prettily across Yami's tanned skin.
"Why can't we be normal friends?" Yami asked playfully, and Kaiba scowled at him so darkly, the smile slid off his face. Oh, alright…
"I'm a private citizen now. I can be friends with whoever I want," Yami said carefully, and the CEO let out a tired sigh.
"Yeah. But I'm not," Kaiba muttered, his ears burning as he continued to stare at Yami's neck where his adam's apple jutted out enticingly, and he forced himself to look out into the view instead. Because Yami in a robe was distracting, making it hard for him to have regular arguments together where he'd normally be able towin.
"Correct, and neither is Mokuba," Yami added, glancing briefly at the handsome CEO with a knowing nod. "He needs protection outside of your hired security if things really go twisted. Not saying they will, but…I'm thinking of him, understand?"
Kaiba stared mutely at Yami, his mind churning with turmoil as he understood what Yami meant.
Befriend the local police and keep them close, was what he was essentially saying.
"Marik won't be the only threat," Yami continued darkly as he propped his elbows up on the balcony railing, his heart clenching with a brief jolt of anxiety. "The Rare Hunters will reform. There will be a new head. They'll change their name—we won't know—but these organizations will always exist. And we won't…always exist for Mokuba, you see?"
Kaiba let out a half-growl and draped his arm around Yami's slender shoulders, dipping his lips down to plant a kiss atop the curve of Yami's ear.
"I get it," he muttered, baring his teeth to give Yami a playful bite and feeling Yami shove him away weakly and laugh.
"So will you come inside and…play nice?" Yami smirked, pleased to have won. "You already own the city. Being friendly with the police is inevitable. I'm helping your status. Let me help."
"I'm not running for office, fuck," Kaiba muttered as he tried to bite Yami's ear again but was led back into the edge of the sliding glass doors where Yami used his palm to slowly open the barrier, and he took this chance to dip down to plant a kiss on Yami's neck, earning a deep laugh that made his stomach flutter.
Anzu and Joey barely reacted from their massage tables.
If anything, they both buried their heads deeper into the pillows, trying to shut them out, because the obvious PDA was annoying and shattering their zen massage atmosphere.
Kaiba waited patiently while his staff wheeled up another massage table for him, and he eased himself onto it, hyperaware that he was right beside Joey, but the cop paid him no mind, and didn't even look up from his pillow.
Fine. Playing nice might be easier than he thought.
—-
Yami knelt in the closet and dug behind his shoes, pulling out a pair of old combat boots he never wore.
He reached his hand into the shoe and pulled the sole out.
His burner was waiting for him, fitted snugly at the bottom, wrapped beside a charger and a spare magazine.
Slipping the phone out, Yami held the power down and counted the seconds, seeing it flash and power on, with 13% battery.
Good enough.
Tapping the only contact in the phone, he hovered his thumbs over the keypad, typing.
"This is Atem."
He sent that, and his stomach curled with a strange feeling, but he quickly pushed that aside and wrote a second message.
"You're going to see news about the Domino Met hotel. I was involved but I was aiding Mazaki Anzu and she has the feeds & audio of the entire incident.
Obtain them & seal or destroy.
Especially stairwell footage."
Sitting back on his heels, Yami waited and stayed alert, listening to movement outside the closet door.
Seto was at work, Mokuba was at school, Isono was running errands, leaving him alone in the house with the maids and the chefs.
No one should be coming up to bother him…
The phone buzzed in his hand and it was an angry reply.
"Are you fucking serious?!
YOU PROMISED TO STOP ACTIVITIES!
Do you have any idea how heavy my workload is right now?!
I'm not yet fully prepared!"
Yami's ears hummed and he replied with swift, firm taps of his fingers.
"Don't lecture me. You will find a way. Do it now."
And he switched the phone off, wrapping the cord back into the bottom of the sole and fitting the phone back into the little slot in the heel, trying not to let the rush of irritation consume him.
Yes, he said he'd stop activities, but when Seto or Mokuba's lives were being threatened, it would always make him act swiftly.
Because… They're my chosen family, Yami nodded to himself as he tucked the boots back onto the rack behind three other rows of shoes, leaning away and letting the glass doors soft-close.
There was that, taken care of.
Anzu sat in the cold metal chair, gritting her teeth while two agents circled her and draped wires around her chest, arms and back, then clipped a pulse monitor to her index finger, finally finishing hooking her up to the lie detector test.
She was angry but took deep breaths to calm down, knowing it would show on the chart.
A fucking lie detector test!
All because Atem showed up tohelp.
The test administrator sat down across from her with a grim nod and eyed the camera propped up beside the table and also pointed at the two mounted in the ceiling.
"Do I have your full consent to be recorded for this questioning session, Miss Mazaki?" The man droned, and Anzu nodded once.
"Please say 'yes' or 'no'," the man replied, so Anzu let her breath out slowly and said, "yes."
Assholes.
"Then we can begin," the man saw the chart jump and ticked the box for 'aggravated'.
She was a hostile agent, nothing new.
"Is today Tuesday?" The man didn't look up from the laptop.
"Yes," Anzu did her best not to roll her eyes.
She would give stiff, formal reactions.
Nothing that would indicate guilt.
"Is your name Mazaki Anzu?" The man asked, and Anzu tried not to clench her fists, but she felt a rush of anger anyway. Dammit.
"Yes."
The man blinked and made a note next to the aggravated box again, baseline…up.
"Now, have you had any contact with an individual named Atem in the past year?"
"No," Anzu answered honestly, and leaned back into the chair. His name was Yami.
"Your most recent arrest, Strings, claims he gave you intel on Atem's stay in this country, and that introduction made you two friends. Is this true?"
Anzu blinked and nodded slowly, "that was two years ago. He called on a dead phone–"
"Yes, or no?" The man interrupted her, and Anzu fumed.
"Yes, but I didn't believe him. I thought Strings was doing it for attention," Anzu snapped, clenching her fists for real. "Next question."
But also 'yes' on being medium-friends with Yami.
Maybe.
Kind of.
She didn't know.
But they were so irritating, assuming she was working for Yami. As fuckign if!
Yami didn't even want to work.
Getting him to help with the gala was like pulling teeth.
Pulling teeth might've been easier.
"Have you had contact with Atem in the last month?" The man asked, upping the timeline, and again, Anzu replied, "nope."
Truth. He didn't even pick up the dead phone he gave her!
His name was Yami and insisted it was.
Everyone in the house addressed him as such and he looked angry if the name wasn't being used, so who the fuck was Atem?!
"There are records of encrypted calls to your desk," the man began, and Anzu's eyelid twitched.
"Were those calls from Atem?"
"No. Those calls were from Seto Kaiba," Anzu tried not to laugh. "He called to yell at me for invading his privacy and threatened a lawsuit."
There was a silence as the administrator made ticks on his chart, tapped on the laptop, and then changed tones.
"Now, at the event," the man began, and Anzu felt a sleepy, bored haze blanket her immediately. They were seriously going at every angle trying to get Yami.
"Did you see him enter the building at all?"
"No," Anzu droned. They had access to their button cams and footage inside the building.
Why did they keep asking her useless questions?!
"You reported he is living in the country of Japan. Do you know where Atem lives?"
"For the last time, no," Anzu snapped, feeling her heart rate increase with anger…and fear.
She suspected he lived with Seto Kaiba, but had no proof.
She didn't get to see the rest of the house.
The administrator glanced at the chart and saw it was up again, but it was consistently up–due to anger.
He sighed.
"Last few questions and then we'll be done, please calm down," he said, knowing this always made subjects angrier, and as he predicted, she snapped at him.
"I've been calm. I've been calm for the last 12 and a half hours. Let me go home. I work here!" Anzu raised her voice to yell at the mirrored glass. "And I get that I touch dangerous people all the time, but he is notusing me the way you keep suggesting!"
"Miss Mazaki," the administrator raised the clipboard and barreled through the last three questions, eager to leave. "Please answer these and you may go."
"Have you encountered or had interactions with the firm Doma and Associates?"
"No."
What the fuck was that?
She couldn't read Atem's redacted file so why were they asking?!
"Have you encountered or had interactions with the company Turtle Games LLC?"
"No!"
Again, what the fuck was that?!
"What is the nature of your relationship with Seto Kaiba?" The administrator raised his eyes off the laptop and saw her scowl.
"One where I hate him and he hates me," Anzu replied flatly, knowing her heart was thumping in her chest if she wondered if they were going to ask what the nature of Atem's relationship with Seto Kaiba was, and she couldn't lie about that.
The administrator nodded and raised his head to talk to the glass, "we're done here."
Finally, Anzu itched to yank the wires off her body, but had to wait for someone to come in and help unclip them.
Fuck this shit, seriously.
She was a virtuous agent and their suspicions were frankly offensive.
More agents filed in to pick up the equipment and cameras, and the general ducked in to tell her, "please wait an hour while we review your results. Then you may leave."
Gnashing her teeth, Anzu remained seated and nodded.
If she was guilty, this kind of waiting would make her pee her pants.
But she knew nothing she'd done in the past 3 months with or without Atem had been illegal or would incriminate her in any way.
Honestly, Yami was smart for keeping his distance, making it so that she decided when to speak to him by arriving at the mansion.
He did not contact her first, ever.
I contact him, and he stays away from me, Anzu thought furiously, drumming her fingers on the metal table. Their questions were all backwards.
All of this grueling made her ache for a pedicure soak.
Author's note:
short chapter where we all take a breath and then there's more coming up soon! :D