Timeshipping (Atem x Kaiba)
Yet another dismal, cloudy, so gloomy you just want to throw something day. However, Seto Kaiba was far above such displays of useless anger, so instead he channeled his pent-up frustration with the weather into his current project.
Although, that was probably an even worse idea, as he broke the tiny cog he was trying to fit together. It was the fourth broken piece in the last minute.
With a soft growl in the back of his throat, Seto leaned back in his chair, letting his arms fall to his sides. He wasn't sure why he was even bothering with the old pocket watch. He had plenty of digital clocks to tell him the time and, of course, the clock on his phone, which could remind him of appointments in five different languages.
He turned back to the delicate inner workings – so very different from the wires and blinking lights that made up the inside of his Duel Disk system. Still, it was kind of intriguing. Each gear and cog fit so perfectly, like a puzzle. Cautiously, he flipped it over, looking at its intricate hands, made to look like twisted vines pointing towards calligraphic Roman numerals. The watch's cover was a soft copper-gold, plain but for the thin initials carved into the inside of the cover.
Seto traced the letters for the thousandth time, half embarrassed at his own sentimentality. From J.K. to S.K.
He couldn't quite remember where he had gotten the pocket watch. He seemed to recall a tall man with a warm smile showing it to him. It could have been his father, for all he knew. He couldn't remember his real parents very well – he had tried to forget them, at the orphanage. It made life a little less harsh. Still, he had never been able to bring himself to get rid of the watch.
He shook his head sharply, erasing the sentimentality. He couldn't lose the control he had gained. Maybe it would be better to forget about the watch – for now, at least. After all, he had plenty of paperwork to attend to. And a duel with Yugi to look forward to later. He would have to prepare for that.
Despite these thoughts, he reached for his tools again.
He turned the watch over again and tried once more to fit yet another cog into the right spot. For a split second, he felt the little piece slide neatly into place – and then it snapped.
An unexpected flash of rage punched through Seto's gut. He was a multimillionaire genius, the man who designed the highly lauded Duel Disk! And he couldn't even fix a simple watch?
He stood with a jerk, and his chair clattered to the floor.
"I ought to just scrap this ancient piece of junk," he said, moving to sweep the clock towards the garbage can.
In the motion, the clock flipped over.
And the hands began to move.
For a moment, Seto's vision blurred, and hot and cold chills ran all across his skin. Then the temperature settled into a thick, oppressive heat.
Sunlight seared at his eyes, and he snapped them shut. Sure, the gloomy weather had been bothering him, but this was insanity!
"Seto? What brings you here? I thought you accompanied Akhenaden to the archives."
Seto forced his eyes open, squinting through the haze of light and heat.
It took every ounce of willpower he had not to jerk back in alarm.
Standing before him was Yugi – but no, not quite. The boy certainly had Yugi's hair, which was hard to believe, but his skin was deeply tanned, and his eyes were a sharp, curious red. He wore a knee length white tunic and sandals. Gold jewelry glinted around his forearms and at his forehead.
"Seto, are you listening?" Yugi said, or was it Yugi? "Are you all right? You look fatigued."
The pseudo-Yugi had an odd, foreign accent that Seto couldn't quite place. The sun was bringing on a pounding headache.
Before he could answer the pseudo-Yugi, the boy's brow furrowed.
"You are not Seto, are you? I only just realized it, but your attributes are not quite the same."
He talked like someone out of a historical film. It would have been amusing if not for the headache.
"My name is Seto," he said. "Seto Kaiba. Don't you know that, Yugi? Or are you playing games again?"
The boy looked confused.
"Yugi? Do I look similar to someone you know? Yugi is certainly not my name."
"Well, then who the hell are you, then?"
The boy straightened, looking annoyed.
"I am Atem, prince of Kemet. And who are you, one that looks like Priest Seto?"
"I told you," Seto snapped. "Seto Kaiba. Now where the hell am I?"
Atem cocked his head slightly, studying Seto with narrowed red eyes. His bearing was so very like Yugi's that it sent a shiver down Seto's spine.
"I sense a hint of magic," Atem said finally. "That golden object in your hand...it must have brought you here, to this time and place. Your aura doesn't belong here."
What the hell kind of voodoo and magic stuff was he talking about? But the mention of the golden object made Seto pause, and he glanced down at his hand. He hadn't realized it, but he was still holding the pocket watch.
"This piece of crap?" Seto said, glaring at it. "It's just a stupid old pocket watch."
"I do not understand that word...'pocketwatch'..." Atem said looking a little confused. "But it has much potential. The power of time, though its store of magic is depleted. You should replenish it soon."
"Replenish it? And how the hell am I supposed to do that?"
Atem shrugged.
"Aren't you a sorcerer? You used it once, you should know how it works. Did your parents not pass on their magic to you?"
Seto blinked.
He tried to hide the sound of his footsteps, but he kept scuffling across the carpet. The man in the chair paused in his work, looking up into the dark room. His glasses were illuminated eerily in the single spot of light from the desk lamp.
"Seto? Are you sneaking around again?"
He paused, scrunching up on himself as though he could disappear. The man laughed softly, a pleasant sound.
"You don't have to be sneaky about it. Come here, take a look."
He walked tentatively to the desk, peeking up over the top. Gears and cogs were placed across the top, each one carefully organized around the opened golden pocket watch.
"What's wrong with it?" he said.
"The winder just needs some tuning," the man said, reaching for his tools. "It needs a bit of replenishing, too."
"How do you do that?"
The man smiled, clicked one more piece into place, and then screwed the cover back onto the watch.
"I'll show you," he said, and he reached down and pressed the watch into Seto's tiny hand, folding his son's fingers around it.
Seto jerked out of the reverie. What...had that been his father? Had he really forgotten that? But...what...
"Your enchantment on the object seems to be waning," Atem said. "Are you quite all right, Seto Kaiba?"
Seto's hands trembled.
"I have absolutely no idea what your problem is," he said slowly. "But I don't think I like your superior attitude!"
Atem blinked, looking surprised.
"I'm not here because of some magic spell, this watch doesn't mean anything, and I don't like the thoughts you're making me think of again!" Seto's voice rose into a shout. "I threw away that sentimentality years ago, and I don't have the time to bring it back! I don't have time to get all sappy over my memories or this stupid watch, and I certainly don't have time for this crazy dream!"
He raised his arm above his head and hurled the watch to the ground.
In slow motion, the pocket watch fell. In slow motion, the cover snapped. The back burst open. The gears scattered.
And the watch was broken.
Seto's heart wrenched unexpectedly.
He was crying on the floor. The watch was broken.
"It's all right, Seto," his father said, closing his strong, grizzled hands over Seto's. "I'll just teach you how to fix it."
Seto wrenched the tears back, refusing to let them come.
Those hands were closing his hands around the pocket watch, still warm with his father's touch...
Soft hands touched Seto's, and he flinched. But the hand held firm. Slowly, slowly, Atem raised Seto's hand up, turning it over. He opened Seto's clenched fist, and softly pressed the watch into Seto's hand.
It gleamed, unbroken. Like it was brand new.
"I think," Atem said. "That you have plenty of time."
His red eyes met Seto's. The soft but strong hands did not let go.
And Seto woke up, his face pressed uncomfortably on a set of secondhand gears.
He rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he sat up. His eyes adjusted slowly to the change from the hot desert sun back to the dim lighting of the his desk lamp, and when he finally was able to see again, his heart jumped in his chest. The watch – where was the watch –
His hand cramped painfully and he opened it with a jerk. The watch tumbled into his lap: whole and unbroken. Although, the sheen of the cover seemed a little more copper than gold than before...maybe it was the light.
But Seto wasn't so sure. He picked up the watch and clicked it open, staring at the intricate face and hands. He closed it again – and his heart jumped. The plain gold copper cover now appeared to have an engraving of the pyramids of Giza on the front. The copper coloring was much more prominent, as well.
"It needs to be replenished..."
The quiet, yet strong words of that strange boy rang through his mind. He stared down at the watch.
"I think you have plenty of time."
The office, his paperwork, and his company were waiting for him. There were things to be done: things that didn't allow for pointless walks through memory lane.
"I think you have plenty of time."
Seto blew out once, and let his eyes fall close.
"So, dad," he said softly. "How do you go about 'replenishing' a watch?"
The words spoke to him across time and space, a memory that he had long ago suppressed.
"It's very simple: all you have to do is wind it."
A/N: And finally, FINALLY I have attempted to delve into the possible back story of Seto Kaiba. I had fun playing around with the pun of the shipping title too: it's called Timeshipping in reference to the expanse of time between them, but I decided to use a pocket watch. :) Okay, maybe that wasn't as amusing to you guys as it is to me. All that aside, I really had fun seeing Seto with the pocket watch. I was going to start the story with him doing paperwork again, but I'm pretty sure that's been done to death with Kaiba stories. And then I thought, maybe he'd building something, like a duel disk. And then suddenly, there he was fixing the watch. It all fell neatly into place after that. :D Okay, next will be Tiltshipping (Keith x Katsuya x Yugi). Happiness and joy...(note my sarcasm).
