Toonshipping (Pegasus x Kaiba)
"I don't think you can even begin to understand how much I hate you right now," Kaiba said.
From his position in front of the window, Pegasus half smiled, knowing it would irritate the boy. It did – Pegasus could see it in the way Kaiba's knuckles whitened as he gripped his suitcase, the way the lines around his eyes tightened and the cold blue of his eyes went even colder. Pegasus could almost see the thoughts swirling around in the young boy's head. Well, if he had wanted to, he certainly could have peered in and checked to be sure, but he respected the young businessman a little too much to take that advantage.
Yet, anyway.
"I'm shocked, Kaiba-boy," Pegasus said. "That's the first thing you have to say to me? After all this time since we've seen each other? I don't think that's good business sense, do you?"
He swirled his wine glass a few times. There was another thing that irritated Kaiba. It was much too easy to get him riled. But then, that was what made it fun.
"Cut the bullshit, Pegasus," Kaiba said. "You're not exactly the paragon of good business sense yourself – kidnapping my brother? Even I wouldn't have stooped so low."
This made Pegasus pause. He couldn't remember hearing Kaiba swear before. In fact, he recalled hearing from someone that Kaiba had fired someone for dropping an F-bomb because the computer had crashed. Swearing, Kaiba had said, was a loss of control. And it didn't pay to lose control.
Pegasus considered this for a moment, watching Kaiba levelly. The boy stood stock still at the other end of the room, strategically and psychologically putting distance between them. Even in their previous encounters, Pegasus couldn't remember seeing him this tense. More than that, the boy was practically crackling with fury.
He took another sip of his wine, drawing it out to coax another angry outburst from Kaiba.
"Pegasus, you know what I'm here for, so stop playing games," Kaiba snapped. "You kidnapped my brother while I was unconscious, you sorry, cowardly bastard – I want him back."
"Bastard, hm?" Pegasus said. "That's quite harsh. If anyone's the bastard in this room, I'd think it would be you."
Kaiba's eyes widened for the barest hint of a second. Pegasus couldn't hide his smile. He had hit a nerve: poor little Kaiba had been hurt more by the loss of his parents than he pretended.
"You –"
"Hm, was that a bit low and crass of me?" Pegasus said. "I suppose it was."
"Let Mokuba go," Kaiba said through gritted teeth.
Pegasus drew in a breath, letting his eye meet Kaiba's. The bangs around his Millennium Eye shifted, and for a moment, Kaiba's expression faltered as it caught the glint of metal behind Pegasus's bangs.
"You know that's not how it works on Duelist Kingdom," Pegasus said softly. "The cards decide everything here. So. A duel, then?"
Pegasus allowed his Millennium Eye to activate, slipping his vision into the spiritual plane. His metal eye's gaze found Kaiba on it's own, and for a brief, blurred moment that seemed much longer than it was, Pegasus drowned in images.
There was young Seto, putting himself in between Mokuba and a boy twice his size. There he was again, switching the pieces on the chessboard while Gozaburo wasn't looking, telling himself it was for Mokuba's sake.
And again the scene changed, Seto Kaiba now, tears bubbling unbidden from his eyes as he drew the knife across his wrist again, realizing that he had made a mistake in choosing this life. Then he was outside, on the balcony – a year had passed, he was taller, and the scars on his wrists had multiplied – shoes had been left behind, neatly side by side at the glass door as he stood on the balcony railing.
A cry – Mokuba? – and then that man grabbed the falling Seto by the hair, dragging the flailing and screaming boy back inside, away from the balcony – away from death.
He struggled as the man cuffed him across the head and left him, trembling in a ball on the ground with confused nine-year-old Mokuba sobbing hysterically above him. That moment in his mind when he realized if he was going to survive, he was going to have to stop caring. He was going to stop feeling.
He was in the library now, and Cyndia was kneeling on the floor, dull-eyed as she neatly and methodically sliced the pages from the book in her lap –
Pegasus yanked himself back – those had been his own memories, not Kaiba's.
Seto Kaiba blinked a few times. The boy knew something had happened, and Pegasus knew he was confused why those memories had surfaced after being buried for so long. Pegasus swallowed. He hadn't been expecting that. He had been expecting to find something he could use against Kaiba, throw him off guard in the middle of the duel.
But this...this pain...he had had no idea that Kaiba – no, Seto – had the capability to contain this much pain. And he had been so strong that he had almost looked into Pegasus's mind, bringing memories to the surface that Pegasus had thought he had finally forgotten.
"Right. Let's go out to the tournament room, shall we?" Pegasus said, faking his usual self-confidence. He was used to wearing a mask; despite the shock it was easy to put it back on.
"I want Mokuba back," Seto said.
"Win, and he's all yours, Seto."
Seto tensed for a moment. Then he stepped to the side of the door, met Pegasus with level eyes, and said,
"After you."
Pegasus laughed, but it was hollow.
"Worried I booby trapped the hall, Seto? Very well, if it makes you feel better."
And as he passed by Seto, he felt a chill go through him.
It was only then that he realized Seto really did know what had happened in that moment, and he knew what Pegasus had seen.
It was not like Pegasus to worry, to regret, to second guess. But as he moved towards this duel, it was difficult, if not impossible, to stop those unfamiliar feelings.
A/N: Interesting scene, as well as me getting to stick some completely fan-created backstory to the two characters. :D It wasn't really romantic in any sense, and both of them were focused on their own goals rather than on each other, but I think that's how it would go with these two. I made the terrible mistake of reading some Toonshipping for inspiration...and I am now scarred for life. Jeez, I can't believe people actually ship this. Pegasus is like twice Seto's age, for Madoka's sake! That's just gross! Ugh. Anyway, next up is: Tombshipping (Pegasus x Marik). Great, I'll have to use the anime canon instead of the manga canon...
