Bows of Promise
Chapter 2
It wasn't that he was never addressed on a first-name basis by colleagues before. God knew that not only was he called by his first name, but got several nicknames before. Every single workplace he attended he had no less than two who gathered their courage to ask him out. Not just once, even, but several times… hence it wasn't even that he was never hit on by a coworker before. And the only serious relationship he ever had was with a male… so it was not even the fact that Seto Kaiba was of the same gender…
The fact was…Yami did not know why Seto Kaiba got on his nerves this way.
He did not know what the problem was. He was a professional. He had been dealing with such situations for longer than he could remember. He had more practice than a lot of people out there; letting admirers down, with anything ranging from a couple of gentle, politic words to –just once—a punch to the face.
In most cases, he rejected such attentions. He did not have the time for relationships. He was, to other people, perhaps, a bit too cruel on himself but he thought it was for the best. His work… his specialty needed that he stayed focused all the time. He did not have the time nor the ability to deal with the distractions of fretting over the typically dull problems of a personal life. He thought it emotionally exhausted him and drained him that he suffered physically from it, hence compromised his work and hence he distanced himself from such relationships.
Which, eventually, made him fret even more over Seto Kaiba and the paradox he presented.
His advances were unhampered by Yami's aloof, uninterested replies. His spirits remained surprisingly high, not dampened by the way Yami refused to call him "Seto" as he requested, or by the "I am not hungry" he always received in reply to his dinner invitations.
On the other hand, and while his iron control of himself never wavered, Yami found himself getting more and more irritated by the brunet. His anger was becoming more difficult to control, eyes flashing in fury whenever the taller surgeon would downright ignore the way Yami rebuffed him time and time again.
It wasn't about the way he was addressed either. The problem went far deeper. Every time Yami would seethe at Seto concerning the matter, the moment he turned to look elsewhere he would notice that a nurse would be staring at both of them. A nurse, a patient, the cafeteria worker… Jonouchi, once, was caught staring at them both.
And, to make things worse, after getting caught, people would look away quickly, and to Yami's complete mortification, several times the person would smirk knowingly and whisper something to a nearby colleague.
The attention was unwanted. Yami knew that it would cause tongues to wag, if they haven't already started. And the problem was that they were going to wag based on nonexistent facts.
It was frustrating.
So was work, so far.
The patients were difficult to deal with. Perhaps even more so than the ones he had to deal with in Egypt. At least back there the patients, after skeptically questioning his age, they would listen to his advice eventually. Here, his age was not only questioned but every single treatment option was picked apart and he had to spend extra time and effort explaining why, how, when and where every procedure was to take place. And even then, twice more, Seto had to step in to vouch for his expertise and Jonouchi, once.
It was making it difficult for him to start on his thesis. He didn't even start working on the protocol for his work and it has already been two weeks since he arrived. It was starting to stress him out.
"Dr. Motou, please do the rounds with Dr. Hiroto; Dr. Kaiba called in and said he would be late today," the nurse's voice cut through his annoyed, stressed thoughts. He put down his notebook where he just started penning down the thesis title and objectives. He had just finished his clinic hours and was waiting for the object of his annoyance to arrive so they could start working on their combined research together while their shift dwindled to its last few hours.
He recapped his pen and closed the notebook, grabbing his coat and stethoscope. "Did he say why?" he asked, taking the tablet where all the patient-related information was stored, from her.
It was still difficult for him to adjust to the fact that he no longer had to carry a ton-load of folders, papers and other heavy things in order to keep up with his patients' condition and their charts. Everything was stored onto the tablet that was half the size of an A4 paper. It was the most advanced form of archiving he ever came across. It was something that promised an easier life in Japan; that he did not have to search through files one by one to obtain his patients' medical history and follow-up data.
"Students' exams, Dr. Motou," she winked evilly at him and he laughed a little at the way she seemed to revel in whatever misery Kaiba seemed to be inflicting on the poor souls while walking beside her towards the inpatient ward where his junior resident was waiting to start the rounds with him.
He was a tall young man with dark brown hair which he had styled into a classic fade and dark hazel eyes that gleamed intelligently. He was dressed in the navy blue colored scrubs that signified that he was staying in the inpatient ward today and had his stethoscope wrapped around his neck. He was extremely neat and tidy, Yami made that observation when he first met him and later discovered that the tall young man had a thing for cleanliness and order that was translated into every aspect surrounding him; starting with his attire, which was neater than most other residents, to his work, where his stitches were a piece of art that rivaled those of the most skilled of plastic surgeons.
Currently, he was casually leaning against the wall flirting obviously with one of the nurses who stood restocking a dressing cart and embarrassing himself endlessly especially since she seemed to have zero interest in his advances.
"Dr. Hiroto…shall we?" he said after clearing his throat in amusement and suppressing a laugh at the little jump his young colleague gave, turning around to face him with a blush on his face and a grateful look from the beautiful nurse. Oh yes, she definitely wasn't interested.
"Yes, yes, Dr. Motou," Honda Hiroto said, ears red as he stepped away from the wall and fell into a long stride beside him.
Yami waited until they were out of earshot and asked, "What happened to last week's girl?"
"I am a free spirit Dr. Motou, I roam the world distributing my love to all young beautiful maidens who are deprived of…"
"Oh do shut up, Honda…" Yami laughed, shaking his head. "And slow down a bit, I have to run to keep up with you."
"As you wish, sensei…" the kid said, slowing down at Yami's request. His face had broken out into a wide toothy smile, his narrow eyes narrowing even further and little laughter wrinkles appearing by the sides of his mouth and eyes…
Sensei. The residents commonly referred to him as sensei and Yami couldn't get over the image of Master Shifu in Kung-Fu Panda, dressed in a white coat carrying a 'Yami Motou, M.D. Trauma Surgery' embroidered on its breast pocket.
He smiled.
"What?!" Honda exclaimed, raising a hand to the back of his head.
"Nothing… I am having troubles accepting this 'Sensei' you people throw at me," he explained, pushing the door open after knocking and interrupting whatever protest Honda was going to spout out at him. "Good afternoon," he greeted the patient cheerfully.
Honda immediately abandoned his easygoing attitude and took out his own tablet, starting to quickly rattle off their first patient's history, examination findings and the latest lab results. Yami listened carefully to him, while flipping through the previous lab test results and comparing them with the new ones.
It was a familiar process. They would visit each patient in the ward, one by one. The resident doctor would update him with a brief summary on each case, its history, examination and lab done as well as any other imaging studies. Then they would proceed onto examining the patient again, from head to toe, noting down together any changes, ordering more lab tests if necessary. Then he would add new information obtained to the file. His role was to give out commands, explaining them to Honda one by one so that, as a resident, he would learn how to proceed with each new case. It was a system much like the one he had back home.
The only difference from what he left back in Egypt was that the wards were separated into pre-surgery section and post-surgery recovery ward.
It wasn't exactly the only difference, a voice at the back of his mind reminded gently. Here he was a senior staff member not the junior resident. Here, he and Honda both spoke like colleagues. The attitude was much more relaxed and he enjoyed that a lot and hoped that the exchange of information between him and Honda was much smoother than any other rounds done in Egypt back when he had been a junior. He hoped that he was easy to approach and made sure that he let the residents know that the only thing that could make him difficult to deal with would be mistakes made due to malpractice of all kinds and not ones due to lack of knowledge.
It wasn't his favorite part of the job if truth be told. After all, long rounds in patient wards didn't exactly hold the adrenaline rush that fueled his passion for trauma surgery. But it was part of the job and he didn't exactly have a choice but to suck it up and do it. His specialty was mainly General Surgery and unless he redid his residency years in Emergency Medicine, it wouldn't matter how many degrees he obtained in his subspecialty, Trauma Surgery. He would always be a surgeon and hence, he absolutely had to do rounds in the wards. But to be completely honest, doing the rounds with Honda wasn't so bad. His notes were neat and tidy, his history taking precise, his examination findings on point and the kid was incredibly proactive when it came to lab tests.
Time that usually dragged on for what seemed like eternity passed rather quickly. He and Honda were almost finished with both sections of the ward when they found Seto walking in with a bright smile on his face.
He looked positively elated.
Yami's eyebrow twitched in irritation, out of instinct. It was rather difficult not to react negatively. The brunet wasn't exactly being likable.
"Yami!" said brunet exclaimed, looking genuinely excited for a reason Yami couldn't begin to fathom.
"Dr. Kaiba," he greeted coolly, walking towards the last room left. "Pleasant exam, I suppose? Done torturing the bright new minds of the future of the medical field?"
"I wish I could say I am done; I gave three of them a fail. They will be back again," Seto replied smartly, eyes narrowing as he stared at him from top to bottom as they stood in front of the door. "Call me Seto…"
Yami rolled his eyes, changing his mind about berating this insufferable man for making the lives of students hell. There was no point in it. He turned and glared at Honda who was ogling at the exchange, opening the door after knocking, "Come, Honda, let us proceed."
Honda rushed after him into the room, "Yes, sensei…"
They greeted their patient, Yami listening to the history and they finished their examination, Yami upping the dose of antibiotics and anti-edematous agents, before heading out of the room. The three stood in front of the nurse station, Yami adding a few remarks to Honda's history taking on some of the cases and explaining a few points related to basic physiology that the kid was enquiring about during their rounds.
And while they stood, Yami speaking and Honda listening and Seto simply watching Yami like a hawk, Yami's phone rang, making him jump a little, earning him a laugh from Seto, to which he replied with a glare while answering, "Yami Motou speaking."
"Dr. Motou, thanks for taking my call," the emergency resident's voice drifted over to him, clear and calm. Yami smiled a little, listening as the young man continued, "I have a case of an 18 year old male, presenting with abdominal pain, query appendicitis with CT inconclusive. Complaint started one day ago, with a progressive course and was accompanied by vomiting three times and one incident of non-bloody diarrhea twelve hours ago. Now he has significant sharp right lower quadrant pain and he is feverish and looks very ill. I am calling to admit the patient to your care. Would you like to know anything else about this patient?"
"What's his temperature and white cell count, Ryuji?" he asked, motioning for Honda to follow him to the elevators.
"Thirty-nine-point-five degrees and Thirty…" the answer came promptly and he raised his eyebrow.
"Alright, thanks, Ryuji. I am sending Honda over right now…" he said, lowering the phone and turning to his junior resident who was expectantly looking at him. "Appendicitis. Abdominal pain for one day, diarrhea once twelve hours ago and three times vomiting. CT inconclusive. But the patient looks ill, has sharp right lower quadrant pain, high grade fever and has a white cell count of 30. How would you like to proceed?"
Honda stayed silent for a few moments, then said, "I'd prep for laparoscopic appendectomy."
Yami nodded, "Alright, but aren't you concerned with the white cell count and the temperature?" Honda hesitated and Yami smiled. "Go on, why do you think the temperature flew like that?"
"Err…I am not sure…" the brunet hesitated.
"No, think about it a little," Yami encouraged, leaning against the wall beside the elevator, looking up at Honda, pointedly ignoring Seto completely as he stood behind the junior resident staring intently at Yami.
"It could be from the inflammation," Honda hesitantly suggested.
"It could…but most cases of appendicitis present with low grade fever and dull aching pain, first central then becoming localized. And the white cell count usually doesn't exceed twenty. What do you think happened here and what would we be afraid of?" he asked gently.
"Well usually this happens with a ruptured appendix… but the CT showed no signs of rupture…" Honda hesitated.
"I didn't say there were no signs of rupture on CT. I said, inconclusive," he smiled, pushing away from the wall. "So? What do we think of?"
"Perforation and peritonitis, causing the rise in body temperature and cell count," Honda nodded.
"And intestinal obstruction," Yami added.
Honda paused a little. "It doesn't have to be that," he said.
"Because it's not," came Seto's voice. Yami rolled his eyes at him. "You are so dramatic. A simple case of appendicitis and you turn it into intestinal obstruction? Honestly, Yami…"
"The patient has intestinal obstruction, Dr. Kaiba, I have no doubt about it," Yami coldly addressed him, then turned to Honda. "Head over to the emergency room and have them do a simple erect abdominal X-ray but not before inserting a nasogastric tube and suctioning the stomach contents."
"Alright, sensei," Honda said, hurriedly leaving, obviously not wanting to watch his seniors arguing in front of him.
"And do tell me what the X-ray shows, won't you?" Yami said, watching him leave and getting an affirmative nod, before turning his gaze back towards Seto and glaring.
"Scary."
That infernal bastard, Yami thought to himself, glaring for a few more moments at him, then deciding to be an adult and walk away. Unfortunately, Seto seemed to have another plan, because he followed him towards his office.
"Why would it be intestinal obstruction?"
"Oh, now you want to ask me like a grown adult?" Yami snapped, walking into his office and trying hard not to slam the door in the brunet's annoyingly handsome face. "Wasn't it, 'oh you are so dramatic' a few moments ago? Or is it because we have no audience now? Honestly, just grow up, Dr. Kaiba."
"Seto," he insisted, raising an eyebrow expectantly.
"Dr. Kaiba," Yami repeated, pausing from where he stood behind the desk, glaring at the brunet. He ignored the 'ooh, scary,' that Seto was mouthing in front of him while taking a seat in front of the desk, and added, "This is highly unprofessional."
"Why would it be intestinal obstruction?" Seto repeated, placing one leg over the other and leaning back in his chair, letting the tips of his long, slender, oddly attractive fingers cross before his handsome features as he stared up in amusement at the irate Yami.
"Because it is the most probable conclusion to his presentation, Dr. Kaiba," Yami coldly replied, taking a seat behind the desk. "And I would like to ask you not to belittle my medical opinion in front of the junior residents. It is just unethical and I will not stand for it."
"It cannot be intestinal obstruction. The patient passed stool," Seto ignored Yami's remark, thoughtfully shaking his head and staring at the corner of the room.
"Twelve hours ago," Yami shot back at him irritably, getting out the papers he had been working on before he started the rounds. He set them out in front of him, then noticed that Seto didn't question his reply and found him staring at him questioningly. "Twelve hours ago could be considered 'early diarrhea'. Absolute constipation starts after the bowels have completely been emptied." He explained, satisfied he had shut the brunet up effectively with his explanation.
"Maybe."
Apparently not.
"You're being a child. And for your information, I will not stand for you questioning my instructions to the juniors. I will not interfere with your cases as long as you don't interfere with mine."
"Why do you talk like that?" Seto asked, amused.
"Like what?" Yami asked irritably.
"Like you walked out of a dictionary…"
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Yami bit back and pushed the papers closer to Seto. "I have been working on the protocol today morning. Please take a look and tell me what you think."
Seto lazily pushed the papers away. "Let's discuss it over dinner."
"I'd rather dine in hell with the devil himself," came the unimpressed reply, making the brunet throw his head back, laughing with joy that had him raise an eyebrow. "I just don't understand you, Dr. Kaiba," he sighed as the bout of laughter passed and he waited until he held the amused blue eyes with his own crimson ones, adding, "I cannot stress how important this degree is to me. Yet here you are trying your very hardest to ruin it. I don't understand why but if this childishness continues, I will have to request resuming without you and I will carry out the necessary research on my own."
"You're too serious…" Seto replied, his gorgeous lips that distracted Yami way too much to be comfortable, twisting deliciously into a pout. He zoned out for a few seconds, too focused on trying not to let himself imagine how those rosy petals would feel, after which he shook himself mentally as Seto flipped through the papers, obviously commenting on topics he penned down, "…your interest in laparoscopic procedures."
Yami blushed a little. "I beg your pardon?"
Seto smirked lightly and Yami felt like hurling the paperweight at his stupid head.
"I asked is there a particular reason behind your interest in laparoscopic procedures? See? I am being all serious and you are the one distracted."
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes and kept up a mantra of 'I am too mature for this'. "I've done my fair share of exploratory laparotomy procedures in Egypt. I think I am ready to move onto laparoscopes, since that field is defective there." It was the only way to proceed, he decided. Simply ignore the taunts, rise above them and respond appropriately.
But obviously, this was not going to be as easy as it sounds in his head.
"I don't like any of these."
Yami saw red.
"Well, if you don't like them, I suggest you come up with something better," he snapped, getting up and leaning over the desk to snatch his papers back from the infuriating piece of shit seated so calmly before him.
To his surprise, Seto moved so swiftly, grabbing his wrist and standing up from his seat as well. Yami hardly stifled a gasp of shock that tried escaping his mouth at the sudden motion that took him completely by surprise. The brunet had risen up to his full—frankly very impressive— height in front of the desk, leaning towards Yami while still holding his wrist securely. There was a smirk playing on those lips, a mischievous gleam brightening the endless cerulean orbs that stared so deeply at him from beneath the brown silky locks that fell onto them, losing their usually orderly arrangement towards the end of their long twelve-hour shift.
Yami struggled to regain composure, finding himself too close to the brunet. Close enough to smell the subtle middle and bottom tones of whatever perfume Seto was wearing. A part of his brain registered the bold muskiness, wrapped tightly in a perfect splash of geranium and mandarins. Immediately, he felt a faint flush rushing through his body and he fought with all his might not to lose control of his reactions but it proved to be extremely difficult, especially as Seto's chuckle resonated through his ears, his hot breath hitting the fine hairs next to his ear. His body was sent into overdrive as each nerve ending seemed to be hyper-aware of the brunet standing so close.
"You look absolutely ravishing when you're angry."
Yami scowled. He needed exactly a few moments to get his body under his control again. He drew back, pulling his hand back from the surprisingly gentle grasp it was held in and crossed his arms, glaring at the infuriating person before him. "Your behavior is exceedingly unbecoming," he admonished.
To his annoyance, that inspired another laugh. "Seriously, stop it…you're making me laugh."
Yami was about to physically harm him when an ecstatic voice coming from behind the brunet made him pause, "I'm glad you're both getting along so well…"
"Hardly," Yami snapped, too angry to make an effort to be nice anymore, as Jonouchi seemed to choose that exact moment to walk in, obviously taking only Seto's words as indication to what exactly is going on. It made him even more irate to see his blond superior greeting Seto with a high five.
"I'm here, boys, you can go home now!" the blond said, grinning excitedly at them both.
"There's still forty-five minutes to the end of the shift…" Seto pointed out. He then grinned evilly, asking, "Did Mai kick you out of the house?"
"Oi, Kaiba…shut up!"
Seto completely ignored him, turning to Yami. "An early end to the day. Let's go have a cup of coffee and decide where to have dinner."
Before he could vehemently stress over his previous answer that he would rather dine in hell than with Seto, his phone rang. After glaring heatedly at both Jonouchi and Seto, he glanced at the caller ID, before answering, "Yes, Honda, what have you got?"
Honda's excited voice drifted over from the other side, "Sensei! You were right!" the hero-worship in the breathless voice almost made him laugh.
"Was I? I am glad, otherwise Dr. Kaiba would never have let me hear the end of it." Yami said, still glaring at Seto who winked at him behind Jonouchi's back and sent an airborne kiss. "Did the X-ray show air under diaphragm?"
"Yes and multiple air-fluid levels, five and I am doubting there is also a sixth; I'll confirm with the radiologist. I started him on a drip-and-suck and getting his admission papers ready."
"Great job, kid. I will be there in five minutes so we can discuss what we should do next," Yami praised, smiling and lowering the phone and staring at it after receiving an 'alright' from Honda.
"Don't tell me you were right!"
His smile instantly vanished and he turned back to glare at Seto, who was grinning at him in amusement. "I would like you to stop being a child and trust my expertise to diagnose a simple case of appendicitis complicated by perforation and intestinal obstruction. If you cannot trust my judgment on something that simple, then I'm afraid we are wasting our time working on a PhD thesis together, Dr. Kaiba."
At that, Jonouchi noticed that there seemed to be anything but getting along going on. The tension was palpable in the room so he stepped between them, staring up at Seto, asking, "What happened? Kaiba don't tell me you're giving him a hard time, you complete idiot! He only just arrived and he doesn't know how much of an asshole you could be."
"Me?" Seto asked with an innocent expression. Yami bristled. "I would never…"
Jonouchi obviously didn't buy it for a second. "Honestly, stop being an ass and grow up…" he groaned, frowning at him.
He then turned to Yami, asking, "Seriously, Yami, if this guy is harassing you, tell me and we can find someone else if you're not comfortable working with him. It is more than okay and I am sure I can speak to someone, pull some strings and get it done."
Suddenly, there was very heavy silence hanging like a thick curtain over the room.
Yami and Seto exchanged looks and Yami just knew that his pride would never allow such a thing to take place. Requesting a different thesis partner under such circumstances meant that he was losing some kind of battle of wills with this infuriating young man. The way Seto's eyebrow rose ever so slightly and the light smirk playing on his lips suggested exactly what the brunet was thinking, that if he walked away, he would be losing some kind of an undeclared battle.
He never backed away from challenges.
His eyes narrowed and he replied to the question hanging in the air waiting as expectantly as Seto, "That will not be necessary. I am sure Dr. Kaiba will act in a most professional manner. I was just making sure he knew that I do not like interferences in my decision making and that he may only offer his help when he sees that I am incapable of making correct decisions towards giving optimum patient care."
There was a brief moment of silence. Then…
"Why does he speak like that?" Seto asked, looking at Jonouchi in bewilderment.
Yami rolled his eyes and walked out of the room, heading towards the elevators that would take him to the emergency department. To his annoyance, Seto was following him again. He ignored him, waiting until he got inside the elevator with him then pressed the ground button.
"I wasn't questioning your skills." It was spoken calmly, in a low voice from behind him.
"Thanks for the clarification. You could have fooled me," he dryly replied.
"I mean it," Seto insisted. Yami turned to look up at him and he thought he saw genuine seriousness in those blue eyes. "I was doing it to annoy you. You blush so perfectly when you're annoyed."
Yami rolled his eyes for what seemed like the millionth time in the past hour and turned them towards the elevator doors that dinged open, "Glad I could amuse your majesty so much," he remarked, walking out and striding towards his destination.
Honda was standing next to Ryuji Otogi, the emergency medicine resident on call today. He had long black hair that he tied into a ponytail, revealing the multiple piercings placed in his ear. His eyes were an electrifying shade of bottle-green and he didn't try to lessen the intensity in them in any way, carefully surrounding them with heavy kohl that looked just right on his exotic features. He looked the exact opposite of the prim and proper Honda, both bringing out the differences in the other. They had their heads together as they pored over some documents. Yami observed them for a moment as they stood huddled closely together, Ryuji calmly pointing something out and Honda's ears turning slightly red as he made a correction in his notes. A small light of recognition flickered in his brain and he smiled as he made his presence known by clearing his throat.
"Dr. Motou," Ryuji greeted him with a smile. "I thought Honda was just annoying me when he asked for an X-Ray. Nice catch…"
"I understand this is rare here in Japan but Egypt had a case of intestinal obstruction coming in every few hours," Yami explained, taking Honda's notes to look over them. "We had to learn the hard way how to diagnose such cases using minimal information. If you want, you can join Honda while I explain how to spot diagnose these cases…" he explained, quickly scanning the instructions to the nurses that Honda had written in neat, tidy handwriting. "Good job, Honda, starting him on cefuroxime and metronidazole. I need you to also start him immediately on another 500cc of ten percent dextrose after he's done with the ringer solution because his random blood sugar is less than 70…"
He managed to completely forget about Seto as the last hour of their shift brought in a burn victim with laryngeal edema and he had to perform a cricothyroidotomy on him. And it was just five minutes to the end of the shift when a gunshot abdominal wound patient was rushed in.
Some things never changed, after all, he thought as he finished briefing Jonouchi over the phone about that last patient. The last hour or two of any shift were always the hardest, where things got most hectic and cases flooded in with varying levels of difficulty. It didn't matter which part of the world he was located, obviously.
He closed his eyes for a moment, rubbing them. He was exhausted and he couldn't wait to go home and get some sleep. He walked out of the hospital building, happily enjoying the soft, cool night breeze as he headed towards his car, fishing for his keys in the pocket of his backpack.
"Leaving without even saying good night?" the voice came from behind him.
He rolled his eyes before turning. "Good night, Dr. Kaiba." He was being patient. Smiling professionally and turning back to his route towards his car, adding sarcastically, "It seems that you always find one thing or the other that I failed to say before heading home, Dr. Kaiba. Maybe we should set up a checklist together and go over it before the end of our shifts."
The brunet fell into step beside him with ease and Yami grumbled in his head at the unfair height difference.
"The interns love you," Seto remarked, a thoughtful look on his face.
Yami smiled, "That makes me happy. I don't want to be that horrible senior who makes their lives hell."
"They respect you endlessly," came another remark and Yami paused in his tracks.
Seto continued walking, then realized that Yami had stopped. He turned to stare at him questioningly.
"Why are you telling me this?" Yami suspiciously asked.
Seto smiled. Yami stared, observing the way the soft tapering corners of that beautiful mouth curled. It was the first time he noticed but there was a small dimple buried in the middle of a quite gorgeous laughter line in that insanely handsome face. He swallowed and forced himself to focus.
"I am telling you this because I really wasn't trying to belittle your medical opinion. And no matter what I say in front of the kids, they will always respect you."
Yami blinked at the unexpectedly serious note the taller young man spoke with. He nodded once slowly, smiled and resumed walking, "Alright."
Once again, they fell into step and silence enveloped them for a while until they reached car.
He stood beside the driver's seat door, still searching for the keys that seemed to disappear within the black hole that was his bag. Ever since his books and belongings required him to take a bag with him everywhere, he swore every time that the next time he kept his keys, he would put them in a separate pocket so he wouldn't have to search and search for them but that never actually happened. It was so annoying.
When he finally fished them out, he felt warmth standing flush behind him. He turned to find Seto standing a mere footstep away and leaning towards him.
"Yes, Dr. Kaiba, can I help you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow and staring up at him, taking a step back, only to realize he was trapped between the Seto's larger frame and his car. His lips curled in annoyance, realizing how much of a déjà-vu the situation unfurling at the moment seemed to inspire and at the fact that Seto seemed adamant not to let any friendly feelings last between them for more than five minutes.
"Call me Seto…" the brunet lazily said, placing one hand on the car's frame, eyeing him appreciatively.
"I want to go home," Yami tiredly responded. He was at the end of his patience; tired—exhausted actually—and the mental strain of trying to deal with this maturely taking its toll on his already aching body.
"Won't you have dinner with me?"
"No, Dr. Kaiba. I am not hungry…" he replied, the response now customary and stubbornness fueling the insistence that seemed to be the only language Seto spoke. "Please step aside so I can head home. It's been a long shift."
Seto grinned and leaned even closer. Yami had to fight with all his willpower not to bolt at this invasion of his personal space, especially when those soft-looking lips drifted closer to his ear, whispering, "Call me Seto and I'll let you leave." He stayed still, ignoring the proximity and trying to control his body. "You don't have to be so uptight, Yami…just call me Seto and I will let you leave."
"This is absurd…" he breathed, not trusting his voice to rise above a whisper because he knew it would betray him.
"I can stay here the whole night…"
The gust of hot breath against his ear was sending him into uncontrollable shivers. If this went on, the brunet would definitely notice.
He sighed. There was no other way around it. He had to concede this one time. "Seto…would you please do me the honor of backing off so I could go home?"
"Mmm… see that wasn't so hard, was it?" the brunet pushed back, smiling at him. "It sounds so sweet rolling off your tongue with that accent."
"You can go to hell," Yami responded, unlocking his car. "I am glad to have been a part of your childish game tonight, Dr. Kaiba. I am sure you shall sleep soundly tonight after winning this epic battle over the title of the most juvenile citizen in Domino." He ranted, almost to himself as took his place in the driver's seat, placed his backpack beside him on the passenger's seat and added as he reached for the door to close it, "And I don't have an accent."
That low, rumbling laugh bubbled from the insanely attractive pit of Seto's chest and Yami swallowed, hearing it from behind the closed window. "So, so uptight, baby… loosen up a little…" Seto responded, leaning on the car door after Yami rolled open the window. "Or do you need help?"
"Now we are on pet name basis? Sweet…" Yami sarcastically remarked, buckling his seatbelt and revving the car's engine. "Do remember to come up with a suitable protocol for our thesis, since mine didn't live up to your majesty's expectations…"
"Alright mom."
"What ever happened to 'baby'?"
Seto smiled, pushing back from the car. "I will thoroughly enjoy watching that uptight façade crumble, Yami…"
Yami smirked up at him, "Dream on, Dr. Kaiba. I will be happy to disappoint you… consider it a challenge."
And he drove away, leaving the brunet standing in the parking lot with a bright gleam in his blue eyes.
tbc...