Disclaimer: I've placed a bid on Ebay. They haven't gotten back to me yet. Hopefully raw eggs are enough for the purchase.
Warnings: Twisted minds, lots of page breaks, bad poetry. Implied Seto/Yami.
His office was silent. There were papers, all neatly stacked and placed in color-coded folders. It didn't even feel like he was home. This office had the same sparse furnishings as his office at KaibaCorp. A desk, a chair, two sets of fire cabinets and the all-important laptop. The room was even soundproofed, meant to prevent any sort of distraction.
I can't believe I almost forgot about the Dioscin Project… he growled to himself. I planned on taking at least half of today to work on it. Risk must have distracted me. Damn game. The young CEO flopped down inelegantly into the chair, flipped open the laptop and dove back into his work.
Where did I put those charts?
The phone rang. Without breaking his typing, Seto switched to single-hand mode and turned the phone to speaker.
"Seto Kaiba speaking. Who is this?" he half-asked, half-demanded, returning his hand to the keyboard, staring at the screen.
"Hi, Nii-sama!" Mokuba's voice jerked him out of his work.
"Mokuba –"
"Seto, we were wondering if you'd consider coming downstairs to have dinner now," Yami's authoritative voice cut in.
He glanced at his watch. Had it really been six hours since he'd shut himself up in this room? The Dioscin Project was nearly finished. Maybe another half-hour or so to put the final touches on it.
"I'll be right down."
Mokuba and Yami were sitting at the table when he walked in, eating Chinese takeout. From the looks of it, Mokuba had given up using chopsticks and was digging into the Mushu enthusiastically with his fingers. Yami, much more dignified, patiently fought with the cheap wooden chopsticks, pulling single noodles out of his lo mein.
Seto sat in the chair next to his younger brother, pulling a plate of white rice towards himself.
"Did you finish it?"
He shook his head. "It's almost done. Maybe another half-hour or so."
Yami frowned. Generally speaking, Seto's perception of time left something to be desired. "Will you finish it tonight?"
"Probably not. I don't plan on it taking all of tomorrow, though," he added at the look his lover gave him. "I'll finish it before noon, I promise."
The violet-eyed duelist nodded. That was the best concession he could hope for, under the circumstances.
Mokuba yawned hugely, drawing attention to himself. "What time is it?" he inquired sleepily.
Seto checked his watch. "Seven-forty," he reported, and watched in amusement as his teen brother attempted to be more awake. Through the rest of dinner, the teen only yawned another dozen times.
Yami followed behind him up the stairs as he carried Mokuba's sleeping form in his arms. At the landing he turned right; Yami went left. The door to Mokuba's room was partially open. With a nudge from his foot, it swung further inward.
A maze of video games littered the floor, accompanied by crumpled clothing stacked in a pile by the closet door. Seto navigated the confusion slowly, making his way towards the made-up bed that looked so out of place in such a messy room. He laid his brother's sleeping form down gently. The slight movement roused Mokuba and he smiled a bit, his face sleep-fogged.
"Good night, Mokuba," Seto whispered, pulling the blankets up around his little brother.
Sleepily, Mokuba mumbled, "'Night, Nii-sama."
He paused at the door, looking back to see his little brother's face lit up with a content smile, deep in the throes already. Only then did he leave, pulling the door almost shut behind him. But not all the way. Never all the way.
Feeling ancient, he slowly migrated to the other side of the hallway, to his room where Yami was waiting. "He's asleep," the brunette said, rather unnecessarily, considering Mokuba's condition as he carried him up the stairs.
Yami nodded and came around to Seto, wrapping his arms around the taller duelist, looking up so their eyes met. "You look like you're getting sick," he observed, running a hand gently along the other's back.
Seto grunted in reply. He returned the hub, albeit not quite as tightly. He blinked slowly, letting himself finally begin to really relax. Yami's face was tilted up towards him. Lightly, he brushed a strand of golden-blond hair out of the way, followed by a gentle kiss to the lips. Yami didn't cling to him when he let go either, for which he was grateful. Too many nights he woke up in a cold sweat, feeling the certainty of chains ebbing slowly away, but never quite gone. No more bonds. At least he had someone who understood.
Yami led him back to the bed and pushed him down into it. "Go to sleep, Seto," he commanded, his soft, deep voice inducing a strange new level of consciousness.
Sleep. Sleep sounded good… He faded away into the dreams, welcoming them, if not with open arms, then with the certainty of knowing exactly what it was he was going to face. No thought required. He knew the steps to this dance by heart. Only the tempo differed.
What would tonight be?
Lapsing back into a semi-reality, he found out himself.
A hand shaking his shoulder pulled him out of the chains, melting them with the supernatural force of reality over dreams. He came up, gasping for air, eyes dilated to their fullest extent, barely any blue showing at all in the darkness. Softly glowing purple eyes met his, reassuring and calm. The litany that had called him back repeated itself, shaping nothings into a belief system. Logic circled around illogic in the form of a religious vocation. Alive – awake, safe.
He didn't say anything to the violet eyes – didn't need to, because both of them knew, and a mutual understanding existed. The violet vanished, reappearing so quickly it was nearly impossible to believe they had left at all. His own eyes felt heavy. The depths of sleep were calling again, and this time there was no face down card to spring by accident. With a regretful sigh at leaving consciousness once more, he sank back into the pits of his own mind.
In some remote corner of his mind, he knew that he was dreaming. All things were possible with the simple stretching of the imagination, an exertion of willpower he simply didn't have – not in this state.
The possibility of anything destroyed rational thought, linked to existence. Anything was possible, and in reflection, nothing was.
He followed the linked, red carpet pathways, rolled out in twisting, aimless patterns that lead everywhere. Anywhere. Anyplace. They took him, tenderly at first, then violently, twining in the mad throes of a dying animal. There was pain, cutting through the rational, approaching whatever apocalypse belonged in this sick universe.
He was grounded, held in place with entrapments of steel and silver wire. Not the chains – never again the chains. Lightning struck, flashing out of the ground, wrapping itself around the inverted cross section, sending tingling jolts up through him.
Shifting scenes played out, drawing out the dragons – all the dragons. Magnificent Blue-Eyes cowered away, the three brothers, pulling back as one.
What is it?
In the peculiar way dreams have of telling too much without actually revealing anything, he felt the presence of two somethings at his back. The knowledge that if he turned around, he would see his end kept him from actually moving. Caught between the floorboards – stuck, but not actually falling. Not yet – his mind didn't know what the hell of fire and brimstone actually was. If he fell, if he turned, he'd wake.
He fell.
Damn dreams. Sitting up in bed, Seto rubbed at his eyes, brushing away the dregs of sleep. The room was still dark, and the glowing clock in the corner boasted that it was one in the morning. He growled something softly at the clock and closed his eyes again, unwilling to sacrifice a night of sleep, or even only a few hours. It simply would not happen.
He shut his eyes, determined to force his body back to sleep, but his body refused to obey, protesting by awakening more fully than before. Even his eyes had worked their way open. Snarling silently, he rolled out of bed, careful not to disturb Yami. If he couldn't sleep –
"Seto, what are you doing up?"
The voice came from nowhere, making him jump a little in surprise. He turned to see Yami, a thick bathrobe wrapped around his lover's lithe body.
He didn't trust words to his voice, shrugging instead, without meeting Yami's eyes.
The other slid down onto the couch next to him, wrapping one arm around his shoulders loosely. Thank the gods it was loosely. Chains – too many of them, reminders of the physical bonds of the world.
He barely noticed that Yami was crooning something softly too him. An ancient Egyptian lullaby, only half-remembered consciousness at best.
The night is drawing in her cloak
The Nile carefree flows
Desert sands, the breath of he will keep
The lover to whom the goddess goes
Dream on my sleeping child
For when the sun begins to rise
Across the sky in a golden chariot
The gods favor you with their eyes
Sing on my darling
As the golden world begins to shine
No matter the sands, no matter the sun
Through the gods you are forever mine
Then the melody changed, no longer sweet but with a tinge of desperate longing to it.
Hush now my baby, be still now, don't cry. Sleep as you're rocked by the stream. Sleep and remember my last lullaby, so I'll be with you when you dream. River, oh river, flow gently for me. Such precious cargo you bear. Do you know somewhere he can be free? With love, deliver him there…
Author's Note: I tried to make this chapter a more smooth one. The dreaming sequence is a tad surreal, and that's the real feel I was going for. I hope it worked. I'm not sure I'm happy with how it turned out.
--The first poem/song lyrics I wrote myself. The second are from The Prince of Egypt and sung by Ofra Haza. I adore that movie. So, copyright where copyright is due, and the disclaimer for that song is here. I don't own it! Didn't mean I could resist putting it in!