Title: The First Time

Author: Wintersslayer

Rating: Pg-13

Pairing: Seto/Yami, sorta Joey/Yami

Spoilers: None that I know of.

Warnings: Maybe some language. And please, LOOK at the pairings listed. If you don't like, then don't read.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh.

Summary: AU- 10 years ago, Yami had a beautiful relationship with Seto that ended tragically with Seto's death. Now, shortly after his engagement to his long-time best friend Joey, Yami meets a man named Seth, who curiously looks a lot like Seto...

Status: 7 of ?

A/N: Finally, I'm able to update! I'm on a small little break right now, so thought I'd better update at least. Thanks for being so patient with me!

Enjoy!

START OF CHAPTER

Chapter 7

Yami slowly blinked open his eyes. With a small groan he struggled to sit up, holding a hand against his pounding head. His gaze still rather unfocused, he glanced around his surroundings, surprised to find that he was sitting on a soft bed, the thick comforter now pooled around his waist. There was a small desk with its lamp turned on across the room. Yami shook his head a bit as he tried to bring into focus the person sitting at the desk, his back towards him. There was something rather familiar about his brown hair…

"Seto…" he whispered, almost to himself, "is that really you?"

The person at the desk turned his head towards him. "It's Seth, actually. I guess that damn drug must be affecting your memory too." He rose from his seat and walked over to the bed, sitting down on it about a foot away from Yami.

"Drug…? What drug?"

Seth frowned. "Those jerks who gave you that "congratulatory drink" at the coffee shop had put Rohypnol in it. It's a sedative basically. They had attacked you as soon as you left the shop. You don't remember any of that?"

Yami shook his head tiredly, then took another glance around room. "Where am I? How did I get here?"

"You're in one of the guest rooms at Kaiba Manor. I had overheard those men talking, and…intervened before they could really do anything." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Since I don't know where you live, I took you back here. You've been asleep for several hours now."

"Oh." Seth had saved him? That reminded him of a cold November night long ago, when Seto had come to his rescue as well. "Thank you for saving me then."

"Don't mention it."

Crimson eyes widened slightly in surprise. Those were the exact words that Seto had said that night. He gazed at the tall brunet with curious eyes, his headache making it difficult for him to process things completely. "Seth, where did you go to school?"

Seth raised an eyebrow. "In the United States."

"Have you ever gone to school in Japan?"

"No, this is my first time here. Though Mokuba spent about half his life here." He gazed back at Yami with curious eyes.

Yami shook his head, trying to make sense of his thoughts. "I'm sorry for prying. It's just that…" He hesitated, unsure if he should go on.

"Go on," Seth prodded gently, curious as to what the other had to say.

"It's just that…you remind me so much of someone I once knew. But he went to school here in Domino."

Before either of them could say anything else, the door suddenly burst open and in walked Mokuba Kaiba, carefully carrying a steaming cup in his hands. "Hey there Yami! Seth told me what happened, and I thought that some tea might help with your headache."

The two duelists stared at the dark-haired man. The elder Kaiba frowned. "Mokuba, how did you know Yami was awake?" He knew that he should be making some sort of "formal" introduction between the two, but…whatever.

"Umm….I heard voices and knew that it must be you two talking. So I ran downstairs and got the tea." He held out the cup with a wide smile on his face.

Yami accepted the cup with a small smile. "Thank you, Mokuba," he said quietly.

"No problem. I'm just glad that you're okay."

The elder Kaiba still had a frown on his face. His little brother was definitely up to something. He knew these walls were quite thick. And they hadn't been talking too loud either. His brother couldn't possibly have heard them unless he was purposely listening in. What could he possibly be scheming this time?

There was an uncomfortable silence as Yami carefully sipped his tea, till Mokuba spoke. "Well, it's getting late, and you two should definitely get some rest for your duels tomorrow. Yami, I'll call the driver and he can take you home." He started to head back out the room, but was stopped by his brother's voice.

"Don't bother, Mokuba. He can just stay here in the guest room. I've already let the driver off for the night anyways."

The spiky-haired duelist shook his head. "I don't want to trouble you. I could just call my brother and he'll come and pick me up." He started to move towards the edge of the bed, but was stopped by a gentle hand on his arm.

"Kaiba Manor is rather far from the city itself. It'd take your brother a while to get here. Mokuba was right- you do need your rest. So why don't you call your brother to let him know you are alright, then you can rest up here."

Yami opened his mouth to protest, but closed it when he saw the look in Seth's eyes. "A-alright then. Thank you," he murmured.

Seth smiled as he rose from the bed, slowly letting his hand drop from Yami's arm. "You can use the phone next to the bed."

"Oh, I'll just use my cell, thanks."

The two smiled at each other once more. "Well, if you need anything, my room is right down the hall."

"Thanks again. For everything, I mean." He paused. "Good night, Seth, Mokuba."

"Night," both brothers echoed before turning and finally leaving the room. At the door, the elder Kaiba paused and gave the other duelist one final smile before shutting the door gently.

The World Champion smiled to himself as he placed his empty mug on the night stand. He was still wearing his jacket, and he quickly shrugged it off. He took out his cell phone before tossing the jacket to the foot of the bed. After speaking quickly with a rather concerned Yugi, he placed his phone next to the mug, then settled back down onto the comfortable bed. Yami fell fast asleep, and dreamed of a certain blue-eyed duelist…

The next morning, Seth had his driver drop Yami off at the Kame game store, but not before exchanging cell phone numbers. The CEO had offered to give Yami a ride to the dueling arena as well, but Yami had politely refused, saying that he usually walked there with his brother and fiancé. Seth had felt his heart clench slightly at the mention of that second-rate duelist, but didn't show it. Instead, he wished him luck in his duels (though he knew that he didn't really need it), then left to go check to make sure everything was ready for the day's duels.

Upon entering the small game shop, Yami was greeted with a huge hug from Yugi. The elder Mutou finally had to pry his brother off of him after a few minutes. Yugi glanced once out the window before looking back at his brother. "Uh…you better hurry up and get ready. Joey is already on his way over. He had called earlier this morning."

"Oh…Did you tell him about last night?" He knew that his fiancé would not be happy with him spending the night at Kaiba's.

Yugi nodded his head. "Yeah. He had wanted to speak to you, and so I had to tell him where you were."

Yami sighed. "Well, I better get going then. Thanks, Yugi." He turned and headed upstairs for a quick shower and change of clothes.

Half an hour later, the World Champion was faced with a rather cross fiancé. "I can't believe you actually spent the night at his house! You know how I feel about the Kaiba's!"

Yami hated it when Joey started raising his voice, started to lose his temper. It reminded him of that day in the mountains. "I'm sorry, Joey, but it was already late. Besides, the Kaiba's are nice people."

"Nice people don't make weapons that kill people, Yami."

He frowned. "In case you haven't noticed, Kaiba Corp makes games now." He held up his Duel Disk for emphasis, then shook his head. "I never quite understood why you hate the Kaiba family so much."

"Because," Joey said tersely, gritting his teeth, "they are a bunch of snobs who think the world should be handed to them on a silver platter!"

"You don't know them. They are not like that at all."

"Oh, so you think that just because you spend one lousy night in their house, that they are nice to you for one time, you know them?"

"Seto was always nice to me. And he's a Kaiba."

Joey growled in frustration. "I have had just about enough of you going on and on about Seto Kaiba! News flash Yami, he's DEAD. And he's not coming back, no matter how many times you go to that damn fountain!"

Crimson eyes widened at this. He had thought that his fiancé had understood why he liked going to the fountain. Perhaps he was mistaken. He sighed and shook his head. "I…we should get going, or we'll be late," he said in a quiet voice. Without waiting for a reply, he turned and quickly exited the game shop, heading towards Yugi who wisely had decided to wait outside for them. After nodding briefly towards his brother, Yami continued walking towards the arena. Perhaps he should have taken Seth up on his offer to give him a ride.

Later that afternoon, the World Champion closed his eyes tiredly as his Dark Magician destroyed his opponent's monster, drained his life points, and ended the match. Opening his eyes, he walked over as his magician faded and shook hands with his opponent. Finally done for the day, he quickly exited the arena and headed for the park. He had managed to avoid Joey the entire day, his words still hurting from that morning. As he walked, he began to unconsciously fiddle with the ring on his finger. Perhaps accepting his proposal of marriage was a mistake…

"Yami!"

The deep voice snapped Yami out of his thoughts, and he turned around to see Seth Kaiba striding up towards him. A small smile graced his lips. He had found himself missing the brunet during the day. "Hello, Seth. How was your day?" They continued to walk together.

"Hectic. Some kid had completely lost it after his duel, claiming that the monsters were real and that they would now kill him for losing the duel." He smirked. "Always one or two psychos in every tournament. So how was your day?"

"Oh…it was fine. The competition is getting tougher." He kept his gaze downcast.

Something told Seth that not everything was alright, that something bad had happened. As they walked along the quiet pathway, Seth watched his rival with careful eyes. He definitely seemed upset over something. Usually, he didn't concern himself with the feelings of others, except for Mokuba. It was rather strange that he would be concerned about his rival, of all people. Again, the feeling that he was something more than just his rival came up, and he had to quell the sudden impulse to take the man into his arms and comfort him. "Really now? I've found my duels to be rather boring. No challenge at all. Speaking of which, tomorrow I'll be facing your fiancé."

Usually, Yami would immediately come to the defense of Wheeler's dueling skills (the little that he had). But today, Seth noticed that he did not, that he simply glanced up from the ground and looked at him with an uneasy expression. Ah, so something must have happened between the two of them. An argument, perhaps. He smiled gently at the other. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I-it's nothing really. Just an argument that we had had this morning."

"Hm. Well, if there is anything that I can do to help, just let me know."

A small smile was his reward. "Thank you."

They continued their walk together, simply enjoying each other's presence.

All throughout the night, Joey had tried to get a hold of his fiancé. He had tried his cell phone he didn't know how many times. Yami never picked up once. He had tried the house phone as well. But it was always Yugi who had answered, informing him that Yami still didn't want to talk. Desperately wanting to apologize and set things straight with him, he had even gone over to the game shop in person. Of course, Yugi had let him inside, but to his dismay, Yami had already locked himself up inside his room. His frustration skyrocketed as he continuously banged on the door, demanding that Yami open it and talk. After nearly ten minutes of banging, he gave up with a frustrated growl, and left in a hurry, grumbling to himself how, even in death, Seto Kaiba still managed to screw up his life.

Now, the following day, Joey found himself facing a different Kaiba, the one he knew (and despised) as the Dragon Master. He was quite determined to beat him, especially with Yami there watching along with their friends. However, to increase his frustration, throughout the duel he noticed that Yami wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to him or his fantastic playing. Instead, those crimson eyes were always focused on that of the tall brunet, and a small smile would appear whenever Kaiba made a particularly lucky move. It only made Joey even angrier.

"And now, I'll sacrifice my two monsters to summon Blue Eyes White Dragon! He's been waiting to make his debut appearance today."

There was a collective gasp from the audience as the mighty dragon rose to stand fiercely in front of his master. Brown eyes widened impossibly large as the dragon roared. No way…there was only one duelist in the world that had that card. And he was long-dead…

Yami's mouth dropped open at the sight of the magnificent dragon. Seto had had that exact card in his deck. Now that he thought of it, Seth's strategies were a lot like Seto's. Could he be using Seto's old deck? Mokuba must have given it to him.

Joey was so stunned at seeing the dragon, that he lost his concentration completely. The duel ended shortly after the dragon's summoning, and Kaiba was declared the victor. As his friends gathered around him to congratulate him on playing hard, he watched as his fiancé walked up instead to Kaiba. He smiled and nodded as they exchanged a few words, then waved as the Dragon Master walked off, a young raven-haired man following after him. He narrowed his eyes, determined to talk to Yami.

A few hours later, Joey at last got his chance. He spotted Yami walking along the sidewalk, just coming out of the park. He drove up beside him and rolled down the window. Yami looked at him, surprised. "Get in the car, Yami. We really need to talk." He didn't mean to sound as harsh as he did, but he was still ticked off from his duel.

Yami could smell the alcohol on his fiancé's breath. Joey always liked to drink when he was angry. Glancing at the backseat, he spotted several empty cans. He frowned. He supposed they had to talk sooner or later. With a small nod, he opened the door and climbed in. Joey started to drive off as soon as he slammed the door shut.

They were silent as Joey continued driving. Yami stared out the window, not really paying attention to where they were going. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his fiancé take another drink from a can, then toss the empty can into the backseat with the others. He wondered how much he already had had.

Growing tired of the silence, Yami finally spoke. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"I think it's time that we take our relationship to the next level. I mean, we are already engaged, so it's only logical."

Yami raised an eyebrow. Here they were, just having an argument the previous day, and he wanted them to go to the "next level", whatever that was. "Shouldn't we be talking about yesterday morning?"

Joey ignored the question. "I even got us this nice, fancy hotel room. It'll be a night to remember. It was supposed to your gift to me for finally beating Kaiba. But whatever. It doesn't matter any more."

Crimson eyes widened at his words. Joey wanted them to sleep together? Before he could reply, his cell phone suddenly starting ringing. Frowning, he pulled it out and flipped it open. "Hello? Oh, hi Seth." The frown immediately disappeared into a small smile.

At the mention of that name, Joey suddenly reached out and snatched the phone from Yami, ignoring his shocked expression. He placed the phone to his ear, continuing to steer with his other hand. He caught the end of Kaiba's sentence. "-check to make sure you got home safely."

"Look jerk," he growled into the phone. "Yami is MY fiancé, so I suggest that you just stay the hell away from him!"

There was a pause on the other line. "Wheeler. I have no intentions on wasting my time with you. Put Yami back on the line."

Growling in frustration, he snapped the phone shut and pulled over to the side of the road with a rather violent swerve. Once parked, he hurled the phone out the open window as hard as he could.

Yami could not believe what his fiancé was doing. "Joey! What's gotten into you?" With a shake of his head, he unsnapped his seat belt and opened the door, intent on retrieving his phone.

However, Joey unsnapped his seat belt as well, and quickly reached over Yami to pull the door shut once more. He grabbed Yami by the back of his head and forcefully pulled him into a sloppy kiss. Yami struggled to break the kiss as Joey's other hand made its way to Yami's belt. It's time he showed Yami just who he belonged to.

As he felt Joey's hand fumbling with his belt, Yami suddenly realized what he was planning on doing, and his own anger suddenly soared. He was tired of putting up with his fiancé's inexcusable actions of late, this by far the worst. Using all of his strength, he gave a violent shove at Joey's chest, managing to catch the other off guard. The blond duelist fell back into his own seat with a surprised grunt, staring at Yami with stunned, angry eyes. Yami quickly opened his door and climbed out. He began running, stopping only to retrieve his phone, which had been lying several feet from the car.

Back in the car, Joey suddenly realized what he had just tried to do. He quickly jumped out of the car, and desperately looked around for his fiancé. He just barely caught a glimpse of the spiky hair as he turned a corner. He immediately took off after him, calling his name and shouting his apologies. However, in his drunken state, he only succeeded in tripping over his feet and landing face down on the ground.

The World Champion ran through the streets. He wished he had paid closer attention to where Joey had been driving. None of his surroundings looked even remotely familiar to him. After a long time of running, he finally collapsed exhaustedly onto a bench, still quite lost. He didn't know what to do, too embarrassed and angry over what had happened to call anyone for help.

Suddenly his phone, which was still clutched his hand, started to ring. He tiredly glanced at it, expecting to see that Joey was calling. However, to his surprise, it was actually Seth. Hesitantly, he answered it. "Hello?"

"Yami, are you alright? I had thought that you would call back after your fiancé had so rudely hung up on me."

As he listened to Seth's deep, rich voice, Yami started to break down. "S-Seth. I-I'm not alright. Joey…he tried to…tried to…" he shook his head, unable to even say it.

"Where are you? I'll come get you immediately." His voice was full of concern.

"I…don't know. I wasn't paying attention to where he was going."

"Don't worry. I'll find you. Stay right where you are, and I'll be there soon."

"Alright." He closed his phone and stuck it back into his pocket. His wrapped his arms around himself, suddenly feeling cold. The temperature was starting to drop.

After what seemed like forever, at last Yami saw the familiar white limo driving down the empty street. He stood up and stared as the door was thrown open, and out rushed the tall CEO. He smiled as Seth rushed up towards him, his face full of worry.

"How did you find me so fast?"

"Well, first I tried using my satellites to find the location of your cell phone." He frowned as he glanced around. "But there must be something around here interfering with the signal." Still frowning slightly, he looked back at Yami. "I'm…not really sure how I found you. I just…knew where to find you, somehow." He gazed at Yami with a curious expression on his face. It was just like how he had found the dragon fountain- he felt as if something was guiding him to where Yami was, telling him where he would find him.

Yami smiled. "I'm glad that you found me. Tonight has been…rather rough."

The frown returned to Seth's face. If that jerk Joey Wheeler hurt him… "Are you alright?"

The other sighed tiredly. "I honestly don't know any more. I thought that everything was going fine, and that I'd be happy with Joey. But now…I'm just not so sure. I'm so confused by everything that's happened. I don't know what to think or feel any more." He closed his eyes.

Suddenly, he found himself pressed up against Seth's body as the other wrapped his arms around him in a fierce hug, and he opened his eyes in surprise. Seth's rich voice whispered in his ear. "Everything will be alright. I promise."

For some reason, Yami found himself believing his words, and he brought up his own arms to return the embrace.

END OF CHAPTER

Whoa…long chapter this turned out to be. Things are definitely starting to heat up between Yami and Seth.

Next chapter- Yami tries to break it off with Joey, but the stubborn blond is in denial. Joey throws a party for Yami and makes a big announcement, but that only sends Yami running away once more. I wonder who he'll end up running to? ;)

Thanks for reading and please review! ;)