Chapter 04: Distractions and Denial
No amount of berating himself could make Kaiba focus on the book he held in his hands. The words disappeared in favor of his dream replaying and he didn't want to deal with the consequences of that while sitting in homeroom, so he struggled to stare blankly at the page before him despite the fact that it was a losing battle. It didn't help that there were several annoying voices disturbing his solitude, either. The friendship brats were chattering away and Bakura was even there on time for once, Kaiba found himself noting. Annoyed with himself for noticing something like that, he forced himself to focus on the book once more, but it was not to be.
"Yuugi, are you sure everything is okay?" Anzu asked with a concern that drew Kaiba's attention to their corner once again. "You know you can tell us anything, right?"
"E-everything's fine," Yuugi said brightly, a statement that made Kaiba scowl. Everything was not fine; Yuugi needed to gain control of Yami before—no, Kaiba would let that thought go no further. The dreams were all a product of his own mind and he would treat them as such. He only vaguely heard Yuugi questioning her as to why she was so worried about him.
"It's just…I was worried about you yesterday and I went to check on you," she began to explain, a comment that caused Jounouchi to start giggling perversely before being elbowed by Honda into submission. "But when I got to your grandfather's shop, he said that you weren't there."
Scratching the back of his head with a nervous laugh, Yuugi tried to explain his absence to her and the rest of them, "You probably came by when I was running errands for Jii-chan, although he didn't tell me that you had stopped by…."
Bakura spoke up, his voice full of all sorts of insinuations, "Why don't you tell them what you were really doing?"
"B-Bakura-kun," Yuugi began to stutter as his friends began jumping to his defense, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh?" he asked, his eyebrows arched as he leaned back and crossed his arms, staring at Yuugi. "Then the pharaoh must be up to something, is that it?"
He's up to something alright, Kaiba thought and was then instantly cursing himself. Why couldn't he quit thinking about the bastard? All pretenses were forgotten as he watched the events begin to unfold before him, unable to turn away.
Strength returned to Yuugi's voice as he defended his darker half, "Leave Yami out of this!"
"Why should I?" Bakura asked with a sniff of disdain. "Mark my words, I will find out what he's doing."
Kaiba continued his silent participation in the conversation, Good, and when you do, could you please inform me so I can quit wasting my time with this matter?
"He's not doing anything!"
"So he just went to the museum to visit old friends? Not bloody likely!"
Jounouchi decided to interrupt then, "Wait, Yuugi, you went to the museum yesterday?"
Nodding in confirmation to his friends, Yuugi continued to glare defiantly at Bakura. "Yeah, but it's not like it's a big deal or anything."
"So you can duel me today, right?" he asked, his voice full of hope.
"Uhm…Jounouchi-kun, can we talk about that a little later?" Yuugi asked, not liking the look Bakura was giving him.
"Sure," Jounouchi responded, although he sounded a little dejected by the brush off his friend gave him.
Anzu decided to take a more active role defending her friends, so with her hands on her hips, she glared at him with all of her might. "What difference does it make to you, Bakura?"
Kaiba had to give her a little credit for standing up to the kid. He wasn't exactly known for being the most stable or polite guy when it came to matters like this. "Because if that accursed pharaoh is trying to do what I think he is, it'll make a big difference to me."
His explanation was met with a chorus of confusion and Yuugi vehemently denying Bakura's insinuations, "I don't know what you think Yami is up to, but—"
Cutting him off mid-sentence, Bakura began to taunt him, "Why won't the pharaoh come out and explain himself, then? Personally, I'd love to hear more about this little plan of his. Or is he just going to hide inside of the Millennium Puzzle all day like a coward?"
Kaiba found himself watching Yuugi intently, looking for any changes in his demeanor that could signify the arrival of his "other half." Kaiba had seen it before numerous times, always right before their duel, only to change back at the end of the battle, but nothing happened. For the briefest moment he thought he saw something flicker in those violet eyes, but the sound of the classroom door sliding open with a loud bang broke the moment. Glaring at his interruption, Kaiba was surprised to see that there was a new teacher standing in front of the class, this one more timid than the last.
Bakura began to laugh maniacally and the new female teacher noticeably flinched, despite the fact it was not aimed at her. "So the pharaoh escapes again, eh? This isn't over, though," he threatened before quieting down for the time being.
The whole incident left Kaiba feeling both confused and curious, neither of which he enjoyed. Just what had Bakura been implying? And why was he so damn eager to see a spirit that did not exist in this world? He wanted to bang his head against his desk repeatedly—anything to get these idiotic thoughts out of his mind. Why was it that the harder he tried to ignore the subject, the harder it became to get away from it?
"Anyway, as I was saying, since your normal teacher will be out for a little while, I will be taking over the duties as your homeroom teacher. Yes, you in the back, do you have a question?" the petite woman asked Bakura who had a particularly wicked grin on his face.
"How's sensei's back doing?"
She regarded the white haired youth strangely before repeating his question. "His back? How did you know he hurt his back?"
The sound of his perverse laughter caused the substitute's cheeks to be engulfed by a particularly strong blush as the class erupted into noisy amusement. "He really should be more careful next time."
"I-I'll be sure to pass along the message to him," she stuttered, the blush by this point reaching her ears. "Now, let's take role."
The insane laughter stopped abruptly and Kaiba spared a glance over at the boy, who was now looking very much confused. "Oh no, not again," he groaned quietly, slumping over on his desk.
Anzu once again was quick to comfort him. "What did he do to sensei this time, Ryou-kun?" The change in her demeanor and manner of addressing Bakura did not escape Kaiba's attention.
Straightening up in his seat, the boy sighed, not quite meeting her eyes. "You don't want to know, trust me."
"Oh, it can't possibly be that bad," she reassured him, but he wasn't paying her much attention it seemed.
"I didn't even know a person could do that…"
"What? Ryou-kun, you're not making any—"
"I mean, bodies just shouldn't be able to move like that," he continued muttering, stretching his body with several audible pops causing the girl's eyes to go wide. "It's no wonder he got hurt."
The only person who was going to be getting hurt was Yami once Kaiba got his hands on him again. This had to stop, because the longer it continued, the more Kaiba was going to begin to think it was acceptable behavior and then he would be just as bad as the rest of them. The simple fact that the thought of seeing the other again in a dream was tempting to him was reason enough for Kaiba that it couldn't be allowed to happen again. He would not let himself become weak over something like this, but even then his own voice began to question him, What do you plan on doing? Stay awake forever? Kaiba knew that was impossible, but he could certainly throw himself into some of the work he had been neglecting recently. Yes, that would be one solution, although not quite as enjoyable, his mind continued to argue against him.
Upon dismissal, Kaiba put his book into his briefcase and was eager to get some distance from these people. Still, he found himself hesitating for a moment when he heard Bakura call out to Yuugi, "Pharaoh is still refusing to come out and play, is he?"
"For the last time, Bakura-kun, leave Yami out of this!" Yuugi exclaimed, his friends instantly circling behind him as if that would protect him from anything.
No, Kaiba would not allow himself to pay attention to this matter any further, he would not let his mind wander any further than it already had. He had other places he needed to be, other things he needed to be doing besides standing around here and wasting his time. Shutting his briefcase, he turned to leave when Bakura spoke again. "It'll be one hell of a surprise if he can pull it off," and he paused to chuckle evilly, "one which some will enjoy more than others, I'm sure."
"Bakura-kun, what are you talking about?"
Kaiba was almost out the door when Bakura called out to him, forcing him to pause. "Isn't that right, Kaiba?"
It was almost enough to make him wish he sat at the front of the classroom in order to leave before stuff like this could happen. Then again, stuff like this never used to happen to him. Turning and looking at Bakura with disgust, he calmly stated, "This has nothing to do with me."
"Oh," Bakura said, walking closer to him, clasping him on the shoulder, speaking low into his ear, "I wouldn't be so sure about that," and with those words he was out the door with a wave, cackling all the way down the hall.
Before Kaiba could follow—not to ask questions of course, only to go to his next class, he reassured himself—Yuugi and the rest of his friends surrounded him. "Kaiba-kun," Yuugi began, looking up at him with those large purple eyes that were so different from the crimson pair he had been seeing at night, "do you know what Bakura-kun is talking about?"
His grip tightened around the handle of his briefcase and he was sure that his knuckles were slowly turning white. Despite his resolve to ignore anything involving those stupid little dreams of his, his mind was cataloguing the differences between the boy standing in front of him and the one that continued to visit him during his sleeping hours. He thought about just saying, "No," and leaving, but his earlier curiosity won over that desire. His eyes never left Yuugi's as he settled for a simple, "Should I?"
"I…it's just that with what he said, I—"
"What you do with your own time is of no consequence to me, so long as it doesn't interfere with our duel on Friday," he said calmly before turning to finally get out of this room he was growing to loathe more than his boardroom at Kaiba Corp.
He was vaguely aware that the mutt was protesting, but he couldn't be bothered to care. Slamming the door closed behind him, he went to his next class. Kaiba decided to challenge himself to think about anything besides what had just occurred and anything that could remotely connect itself to Yami. Because that's the only way you'll stand a chance at winning, his traitorous voice whispered at him. Kaiba shrugged at that. A win was a win, and that's all that mattered to him right now. Everything else could just wait.
A/N: Bakura does have this strange, innate ability to go from being an insignificant player into the major force of mystery in this series, doesn't he? And the same holds true here, it seems. If I didn't find established characters and OCs to be so disagreeable, he might even manage to get a side story about what exactly he's been doing to this poor male teacher that never got a name. :laughs: I could always crossover a teacher character, but eh.
As in the previous chapter, I thought about having Kaiba analyze the matters a little more, but I decided against it. I didn't want to weigh this piece down too heavily with the angst, nor did I think having a mini flashback/new fantasy in the middle of class would be appropriate (although I was sorely tempted by the latter). Given that it's homeroom and the first class of the day, only a couple of hours would have passed between the dream and the current time, so he would still be in the process of sorting through the matter. Now by the end of the school day, that might be a different story entirely, especially if there was a boring teacher and we all know how many of those we had in high school! :laughs:
So, we'll suffice it to say that Kaiba spent plenty of time thinking about the dream and convincing himself that he shouldn't bother thinking about it and then getting angry about the fact he was wasting any time at all with such thoughts, okay? All to spare you, my lovely readers, a lot of back and forth angst.
I really do appreciate all of the kind comments you guys have been leaving me! So as always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to review and I'll get back to you.
NEXT CHAPTER: Borderline
Kaiba's plan to stay awake eventually fails and Yami confronts him about it. The game turns serious when Kaiba decides he's done playing, but Yami isn't one to give up easily.
Chapter five is probably my favorite that I've written thus far, so hopefully everyone else will enjoy it as much as I have. Hopefully it'll be up within the week, so please look forward to it!