Bows of Promise
Chapter Nine
An inane chatter dominated the interior of the car for the duration of the way to their destination, which turned out to be an American-style burger place.
Yami's eyes narrowed in a questioning gaze as they stepped out of the car. Seto just laughed once they fell into step beside each other, heading for the entrance and when he saw the skeptic look Yami didn't bother to prevent from surfacing on his features, "Just trust me. They make the best burger patties in town."
Yami followed him inside, remarking, "To be honest, this wasn't what I thought you'd have planned."
"You thought I'd take you to a stiff place with a waiter breathing down our necks with a bottle of champagne," Seto knowingly stated. Yami laughed and Seto took that as confirmation. "Don't worry. I know you wouldn't like that."
"Oh Dr. Kaiba, and just how exactly do you know what I would like and what I wouldn't like?" he raised an eyebrow taking his place opposite the brunet.
"Call it a gut-feeling."
Yami smiled and stared around him, taking in the cozy dimly-lit interior. He felt the knot in his stomach loosening and his heart slowing to a more comfortable rate. He reached for the menu that the waiter who followed them to their table offered and started leafing through it.
"Do you like the place?" Seto asked him.
"Yes, I do," he nodded, glancing over the menu at him for a moment, then looking back at the items on it. Mentally, he tried to calculate how many thousand calories each of them contained. "But seriously, Kaiba… my metabolism will never burn off the calories in the smallest meal on this menu!" he grumbled.
"Just enjoy your food without thinking of its calories, Yami," Seto shook his head. "I promise if you gain a few kilos, you'd still look gorgeous." He flushed and hid behind the tall menu. "Are you blushing behind that thing?"
"No!"
"Alright…"
He ignored the laughter in the brunet's voice and decided to take his advice and ordered without worrying about the nutritional value of his meal. He smiled as Seto started discussing music, using the restaurant's playlist as a starting point. Yami allowed himself to share the fact that he could play the piano but stopped as he got busier with his post-graduate studies and openly blushed as Seto gaped at him in awe and admiration. Slowly, the conversation turned to a discussion of books and poetry and Yami was delighted to know that, like him, Seto was a fan of George Orwell and that he had the entire collection of his works in his home library. Their food gradually disappeared as the chatter took them to discuss their siblings.
Yami was nibbling on a French fry when he finally found out what Yugi was telling Seto.
"Your brother is very overprotective," the brunet was remarking, sipping his milkshake. He had easily gone through a gigantic burger, his cheesy fries and was now finishing the jug-like glass of strawberry-banana milkshake that he ordered next to his meal.
Yami was struggling to get through half his sandwich. "Why do you say that?" he asked, pushing the rest of his mostly-uneaten fries around the plate.
"He felt the need to give me the shovel talk today when you were getting the scarf," Seto said with a little grin. Yami almost groaned. "Told me he was going to make me regret it if I upset you in any way." Yami shook his head, not knowing what exactly to say to that. "I would love to know what makes him so overprotective."
Yami shrugged. "He's just…" he started, trailing off for a moment. Seto patiently waited. "He's just been witness to some really bad decisions on my part." He laughed nervously.
Seto hummed, a thoughtful look on his features, the straw of his milkshake resting just inside his mouth. Yami tried not to stare. "Bad relationship decisions?" he asked.
Yami blinked and shrugged once more. "Yes… among other things, of course."
An awkward silence was spreading and Yami found himself getting desperate, mind racing over ways to prevent the good mood from dissipating.
"Mokuba is like that," Seto broke the silence to comment. Yami raised his head to look at him so he shrugged, sheepishly adding, "I think all of us took bad relationship decisions at one point or another."
Silence hung over them for a few moments, in which Seto finished his milkshake and Yami realized that he was never going to finish his food. He excused himself to wash his hands, disappearing for a few minutes into the bathroom to calm himself. He couldn't believe Seto wasn't going to press for more information on the matter. It seemed surreal; the brunet was just too good, too perfect to be real and inevitably, he found his heart racing once more in anxiety, thinking of all the ways Seto just seemed to be considerate. Like today morning, where he kept up that annoying chatter so people wouldn't press him with questions regarding the fiasco with Pegasus. He didn't have to do that at all. So why did he?
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, reprimanding himself and reminding himself of Yugi's words that he shouldn't work himself up needlessly. Because really, he knew Seto wasn't an insensitive little asshole who kept bringing up uncomfortable topics. He knew that very well. Why was he trying to ruin a perfectly great night for himself?
Successfully managing to bring his worry under control, he returned to the table. The rest of his meal had been packed neatly in a brown paper bag for him to take home. He sat down in his place opposite Seto who was checking something on his cell phone.
"Look at this," the brunet told him, holding out the phone to him.
Yami looked at the screen. It was an event in Domino. A piano and violin recital and it was taking place just half an hour from now in one of Domino's culture clubs. His eyes lit up in excitement and he took the phone, exclaiming, "Oh wow! I had no idea these events took place anywhere nearby. I went to a concert like this almost eight years ago and it was so much fun! Are the tickets still available? Can we go?"
He looked up suddenly, just in time to catch a very soft, very affectionate look in cerulean eyes that were watching him closely. He had moved too quickly, before Seto could mask the unguarded, openly warm stare that Yami wasn't naïve to mistake for anything other than what it was. Whatever doubts he had, whatever worries gnawing at him settled down a little at the look that Seto was obviously having a very hard time hiding from him. Someone with ill-intentions could never fake such a look. And with the doubts that settled, came a different king of anxiety.
He swallowed, not even trying to hide the flush spreading up his neck.
"I was showing it to you to ask if you wanted to go," Seto explained, a soft smile tugging on his lips and Yami felt his own features lighting up with a happy little smile. "Let's go, we'll make it just in time if we move now."
No one ever looked at him that way before.
He knew that very well. The thought had repeated itself in a maddening, unrelenting mantra in his head all the way to the event's venue and as they were seated in very, very good seats that were impossible to get with how late they booked their tickets, but Seto's celebrity-status in Domino ensured. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the two-hour long concert; far from that. As he told Seto, it wasn't the first time attending such an event, with two of his favorite instruments blending beautiful notes to create chilling sounds that his heartbeat attuned itself to. However, this recital was on an entirely different level of professionalism. More than once, he found his breath taken by the music.
He was acutely aware of Seto's gaze on him more than once throughout the evening. The stare of the blue eyes was almost physical, he could feel it raising the fine hairs on the back of his neck and the side of his face with its intensity. There was growing heat in it that the brunet had more than once blatantly revealed to him. But this…this was different. The softness from earlier intermingled the heated look, giving it an intensity that Yami felt his hands trembling just thinking of it, and he had to clench them into fists to avoid appearing anything but composed.
No matter how hard he tried to focus on the music only, his mind kept racing with thoughts. The attentiveness and care in the gesture, of actually searching for an event like this nearby, finding one and suggesting attending made Yami's heart skip a beat and his stomach twist and turn in a not-entirely unpleasant way.
He was familiar with the sensations. The racing of his heart and the weird fluttering in his gut; coupled with the undeniable way he was physically attracted to the brunet. There was no way to lie to himself about what was happening. Surely, he was falling for his colleague and there was absolutely nothing he could do to deny it or prevent it. It didn't help at all that he had agreed to go out on this date.
Panic was rising in him at what was happening.
It must have been very obvious, because after the duet recital was over, Seto suggested they took a walk in the park nearby and he hummed distractedly in a way the brunet didn't fail to notice when he told him that there was a fair being held there and that they should check it out.
They walked in silence for a few minutes, broken by the occasional chirp of a night-bird or insect, the rustle of the cool wind in the leaves that clung stubbornly to tree branches that were otherwise bare in an almost clichéd façade of autumns that Yami previously only saw in pictures. He was now grateful for the soft white piece of fabric wrapped around his neck. He buried his mouth and nose behind it, hiding the silent, deep breath he used to take in the lovely scent that clung to it, and the way the corners of his mouth curled ever-so-slightly at the myriad of pleasant stimuli hitting most of his senses.
"Are you alright?"
His head snapped up and sideways, alarmed by the sudden question and a little embarrassed to be seen sniffling at the scarf in that creepy way. He stuttered slightly, "Err…yes, yes, I'm fine."
"Didn't you enjoy the concert?" Seto asked, a tiny frown crinkling the area between his eyebrows.
"No, I actually loved it," he replied, a huge smile spreading on his face at the very welcome opportunity to speak of anything else other than the discussion he knew was going to happen. He didn't know if Seto was genuinely wondering if he liked the concert or if he was offering him a chance to get his mind off whatever thoughts rampaging around in his mind. He grabbed the chance with open arms. "It is on an entirely different level of professionalism than what I saw before."
"Oh?" Seto exclaimed as they strolled on the side of the walkway leisurely.
Yami nodded, "They both look like they've been at this for a very long while, possibly since early childhood. In many cases, musicians don't reach that level of skill unless they've started doing it since a very young age."
"Did you?"
Yami laughed.
"No," he said, shaking his head and letting his eyes roam.
He took in the scene before him, taking in the stalls making up the fair being held, stretching in front of him in two rows, with an occasional kiosk standing in the middle of the area. The area was lit with lamps inside lanterns to give the place a gorgeous, ancient feel that stirred a strange, almost melancholic sensation deep within him. The previously muted sounds were now louder but not annoyingly so; just a cozy mixture of laughter, surprised exclamations and friendly bartering between stall owners and attendees of the event. His nostrils were slowly getting assaulted with the rich, pleasant smells of the food stalls selling street foods and he made a mental note to grab something for Yugi before he went home. It was warmer here, too, the lights, the crowd and the heat from grills taking the edge of the biting cold that dominated the rest of the park.
His smile widened and he blinked, once again turning to look at Seto as he added, "No, no, I am not even quarter as good as the pianist. I can't compose or anything. I took lessons after moving away from my parents trying to make myself feel better. It became a habit to go to classes and I made friends with the people at the center where they took place."
"I thought you started young," Seto muttered in low tones.
"No, my parents didn't believe in such things," he dismissed. They stood under the umbrella of a stall selling dream-catchers, wind-bells and Ofuda talismans. He pushed at the wooden wind -bells and the iron ones, listening to the sounds they made and adding with a little laugh, "It's a joke between me and Yugi actually. Our parents were so focused on our academics, they didn't bother with our interest in sports or arts, that we ended up being failures in all three aspects."
He was so focused on selecting a talisman and comparing wind-bells' prices and how to hang them up at home that he totally missed the incredulous look on Seto's face. It was only after he made his purchase and turned to proudly show off the Ofuda, Omamori and the wind-bell –which he shook to emphasize how happy the sound it made left him—that he noticed how the brunet was staring at him.
"What?" he asked, face falling a little at the disappointment shining in the blue eyes.
"Don't do that!" Seto admonished.
Yami blinked, "Do what?" he asked as he fell into step next to Seto, who was moving onto the next stall.
"Don't demean yourself like that." Yami laughed and was about to say he wasn't doing that when Seto stopped, vehemently snapping, "No! Don't…" Yami stopped as well. "I don't exactly understand what it is you are doing, but stop belittling yourself like that. Do not call yourself a failure. Not even as a joke." He hastily added the last part when Yami opened his mouth to say that it was just a joke.
"Chill, Kaiba," Yami placated, holding his free hand out in a calming motion.
"You piss me off sometimes," Seto grumbled, heading straight for the stall making a food item that Yami didn't recognize.
"Well, consider it payback for pissing me off all the time," he laughed. He then frowned in confusion as Seto stood ordering. "Are you seriously about to eat again?" he asked incredulously, mouth open in shock.
"This is takoyaki. One does not simply not have some," Seto admonished.
Interest piqued more than his amazement at Seto's never-ending appetite, he peered at the stall's contents, looking at the batter getting poured into a pan with multiple half-circles punched into it. "What's that?" he asked in interest, watching the man adding seafood bits and pickled ginger and spring onions into the still runny batter.
"It's takoyaki," Seto helpfully supplied, his eyes shining brightly.
"Yes, we've got that established already," Yami impatiently said. Then he laughed at him, "Seriously, Seto, where does all the food you eat go? Is there some…super stack of vitamins you take to have superman's metabolism?"
"Just an occasional course of vitamins every few months," Seto shook his head. "You really should try swimming," he told him as they stood waiting for the order be ready.
"And get briefs instead of trunks, yeah, yeah, I get it," Yami remarked in a mock bored tone. Seto laughed and gave him a thumbs up.
They stood in amiable silence for a few moments, Yami watching the man dexterously using chopsticks to turn the hardening batter around every few moments, shaping the final dumpling into a perfect sphere.
"So you've never taken part in any sports?" the question came suddenly.
"It's not like that," Yami sighed, feeling the delighted look that dominated his features at the skill displayed before him disappear gradually. "We had PE class, I rode bikes, played football. Just never seriously and by the time I was grown up enough to realize for myself that it is important to be active in some way, it was already too late to incorporate it as a habit. I tried, of course, but the times I spent focusing on trying to take up a sport seriously were few and far between."
He was appalled at the amount of mayo the man was drizzling on the six spheres placed in the small rectangular plate where Seto's snack was placed.
"So you never tried swimming? Never put on a swimsuit?" Seto insisted, handing him a pair of chopsticks as they sat on a bench on the side of the stall. There was an evil little glint in his blue eyes and Yami rolled his eyes.
"Did you really sleep with half of Domino's population?" he countered, deciding to start asking questions as well.
Seto choked on the first bite he had taken. Yami raised an eyebrow, unimpressed, as he coughed a little.
"Seriously, Motou, not you too!" Seto groaned, his cough ceasing but his face was still a bit red.
Yami wasn't sure if it was from choking or if he was embarrassed or angry.
He shrugged, snapping the pair of chopsticks away from each other. "It's the first thing I was told about you, after your name and that you'll be my thesis partner."
Seto held out the plate to him.
"How do I do this?" he asked blankly, trying to pick a piece that wasn't drenched in mayo.
"Just pick it up with your chopsticks and have a bite…" Seto explained. "You do know how to use chopsticks, right? Should I get you a f…" Yami rolled his eyes and expertly picked up the plump sphere between the two sticks. "Oh okay…"
Yami took a tentative bite. He chewed carefully, then realized he was being silly, because there was nothing to fear about batter and seafood. He smiled appreciatively and swallowed. "This is delicious!"
"It's takoyaki," Seto said with a fervent tone.
Yami giggled a little at it and continued eating while watching as the brunet dug into the snack happily. They ate quietly for a while, Yami finishing his piece and declining the offer for another one.
"So… did you?" he insisted.
Seto looked exasperated, "I did not."
Yami narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"I just flirted with half of Domino. Didn't sleep with them," Seto smirked in retaliation to that.
"So where did the rumor come from?" Yami asked, thoughtfully staring off at the nearby trees.
Seto shrugged. "If you find out, tell me," he said. "I've had exactly three serious relationships since I graduated from med-school."
The suspicious look was back and Seto looked indignant. "No side detours here or there during or in between?"
Seto scoffed, "I don't cheat, if that is what you mean! And I don't lie around, either." He looked away at the vendors, apparently cooling down his temper doing so. Yami let him, staying silent until he decided to speak again, "I really have no idea where the rumor came from. I suppose people are using the stereotype of playboy millionaire and making me wear it even if I have no idea where exactly they're getting their information from. I slept with three people…the only three relationships I had so far."
Yami straightened ever-so-slightly, his interest stirring with those words. He didn't know how much more information Seto was going to give and he did not want to seem indifferent in any way. Nor did he want to give the brunet any hint that, even though he knew for sure that there were exaggerations to how much he 'slept around', the very low number took him completely by surprise.
"Kisara was a sweetheart. One of my younger classmates who became a dermatologist later on. She was beautiful and brilliant, with blue hair that I had no idea how she kept that color. Things were perfect with her until they just…weren't, anymore. Whatever was there just…sort of died," the brunet started. He smiled while chewing on his beloved takoyaki and Yami took the chance to observe every little detail he could put his eyes on. "A year after Kisara I met Shizuka, Jonouchi's sister."
Yami eyebrows shot up in surprise.
Seto laughed and nodded, taking a bite, chewing and then pointing at Yami with the half-eaten dumpling, "Yeah, you heard that right." Yami stared incredulously at him, waiting patiently until he swallowed and elaborated, "It didn't work out in the end. She expected me to be exactly like her brother. We were colleagues, worked together…friends. She hero-worshipped him and expected to find a copy of him in me."
"And what made you lose interest?" Yami asked him.
Seto smiled sheepishly, "Don't get me wrong, but she was very, very beautiful. It wasn't interest in her, it was lust disguised as interest." Yami rolled his eyes. "Really, I won't even try to deny it. We met in the hospital. Mai wasn't discharged yet after her accident." Yami could feel the niggle of curiosity eating at him once more. There was a cloud of something dark and sorrowful in the blue eyes which disappeared just as quickly, while Seto resumed, "she was sitting there, the sun in her hair. She wasn't blonde like Jonouchi. She had long red hair, freckles and grey eyes. She was very beautiful and I was not exactly thinking things through when I asked her out. We dated for a year, then decided to part ways while we were still friends when we realized we couldn't give each other what we needed."
Yami listened in silence, wondering why Seto would be telling him all this if he was just playing around. A part of him –which spoke in Yugi's voice, for some bizarre reason—snapped that by now he really should let go of his paranoia. Surely, no one went to such measures to lure someone to their bed did they? He repeated that thought every time, yet he still wasn't convinced, he didn't know why. And from what Seto was saying, he was used to dating girls with poster-girl beauty standards. He didn't need to spend so much effort wooing him. A different part of his mind, this time in a dark voice that didn't remind him of Yugi at all, whispered in wonder that if Seto was so used to dating and bedding such beautiful women, why would he bother with him? Plain and uninteresting and looking years older than his actual age and with mental issues enough to send anyone running the other way around?
"Jonouchi wasn't as difficult to handle as I thought he would be. He was quite mature about the whole thing; I think he knew long before we did that we wouldn't find what we were looking for in the other," Seto explained, pulling him out of his dark thoughts. He smiled but Yami could see a cloud of glumness in his blue eyes. "He was actually a lot of help with the fiasco that came after with Zigfried von Schroeder." Yami raised an eyebrow questioningly. "He was an old acquaintance from my days in KaibaCorp, owned a similar company in Germany," Seto explained, pushing the last dumpling around absentmindedly.
Yami smartly guessed that this was not as easy to talk about as the others. He felt his heart racing, aching for whatever sorrow was caused to the brunet who, despite his best efforts, managed to worm his way with ease into his heart.
"He had pink-tinged blonde hair and was a few inches taller than me. He always smelled of roses. Always looked like he stepped out of a medieval novel, wearing a classy suit, carrying a flower, never a hair out of place and never an unnecessary move," Seto said, fondness lacing his words. Yami was too mature to let the pang of blind jealousy appear in his eyes as he listened as the brunet carried on after letting out a sigh and shaking his head, "He was perfect. He did everything right. Said everything right, understood the insane work hours of a mid-senior surgery resident and brought food, said he supported everything I did… Jonouchi told me he didn't like him, at first and I just laughed at him. I really thought I had hit gold. That he was the one, but Jou was right eventually."
"What happened?" Yami asked tentatively, once again the cold making him bury his nose in the scarf, but his eyes were fixed on Seto.
"I am not sure, to be honest. I can't exactly pinpoint what went wrong, or if it had all been an act, then whatever mask he was wearing slipped off gradually. Whatever support was there for my work became little frowns at surgery lists that went on longer than expected. Phone calls from my thesis supervisors caused temper tantrums and arguments. Not just that, I was expected to make conversation all the time, yet I wasn't to speak of work. He was a right ass."
The corners of Yami's mouth twitched a little at the way Seto sounded just like him saying that expression.
"I didn't know why I put up with him, but I guess some part of me thought I loved him."
It was difficult not to let his jealousy show. He looked away to stare at random parts of the fair and observe people moving around. His gaze settled on one of the lanterns, the kanji letters written on the colored glass soothing him.
"It was a very bad time." Seto was saying. Yami slapped himself mentally for being a selfish little shit who was having jealous rants in his mind while Seto was sitting there, sharing these painful memories with him. "It's everything that's wrong with being in a toxic relationship. You don't realize how much of yourself you've lost until you've changed so much that you no longer recognize yourself and others no longer recognize you."
The melancholy and the truth in the words touched a chord inside him. He could relate. Oh yes, he could relate to every word Seto was saying and unconsciously, before he could stop himself, his hand reached out, placing itself on Seto's. He didn't know if he was trying to offer comfort or if he was seeking to comfort himself from the onslaught of memories the words brought upon him.
A smile spread across the brunet's features as he looked at Yami's smaller, lightly-tanned hand. It was covered in tiny marks and scars from adventures in the kitchen and looking generally rough from the use. A clear sign he did things for himself for a long time. It was a stark contrast against Seto's which had slender fingers like Yami's, a characteristic feature for most surgeons and was many, many shades lighter in tone. Seto's hand in contrast was completely unmarred by any mark. He was raised an aristocrat, used to easy living since childhood.
Seto turned his hand around, his fingers wrapping around Yami's and loosely, they held hands as they sat on the bench.
"Needless to say, the breakup had been bloody."
Yami flinched slightly at the words, head turning to look at Seto.
"Figuratively," Seto corrected, a curious look flickering over his features. Yami relaxed visibly, hiding how unsettled the expression made him and let out an internal sigh of relief when Seto took the bait and continued, "But it had to be done. He wasn't very amused that I was the one leaving him. Made a scene at the hospital and started calling me names. It was a bit pathetic and I didn't think it was worth it to reply. Jonouchi was pissed off way more quickly than I was, however. It was the first time since med-school that I saw Jonouchi take a swing at someone like he did. Gave him a bruise to match his pink hair."
Yami giggled at that.
"Who would date someone with pink hair?" he remarked, shaking his head, nervously laughing between words. Seto joined him. the sounds of their giggles hung around for a while, lightening the atmosphere. Yami then he remembered the conversation he had with Yugi just a few hours ago about weird hairstyles. "I used to have weird hair…" he admitted.
"You still have weird hair, Yami," Seto remarked, deciding to eat the last takoyaki left in the plate. "I am thinking of taking a DNA sample from you to find out how come you have three shades of three different colors. You must have been a Calico cat in some other life."
Yami shoved at him playfully and the brunet laughed again, obviously very pleased with himself. Yami shook his head and looked ahead once more at different corners of the fair, noticing the subtle way with which his date straightened and inched closer so that the heat from his body was flush with Yami's entire side.
They sat in companionable silence for a few moments.
"Is that why you've shunned me at every chance?"
Yami didn't reply.
"You thought I slept with half of Domino?"
Yami could feel the blue eyes settling on him. He buried his nose once more into the scarf, taking a few seconds before answering, thinking carefully of what to say.
"At first, yes," he admitted. He sighed and raised his head, turning to face Seto while adding, "To be honest, a part of me regrets coming out tonight." A frown crinkled the space between Seto's eyebrows and Yami had to look away. "I don't mean any offense. I just don't understand what it is you want with me."
"I thought I made it very clear," Seto said, confused.
Yami rolled his eyes and laughed, "No, really… don't make me laugh."
"You just did anyway," Seto observed. Yami stayed silent, staring ahead of him. "You think I want to sleep with you then move on."
"I thought this was it, at first," Yami agreed with a hum. "Which is why I am now confused as to what exactly do you want with me. No one goes to such measures to get someone into their bed."
"Perhaps I want more with you than just getting you in my bed," Seto flatly suggested.
Yami laughed once again and shook his head in disbelief.
"I didn't think you'd be the type to bury yourself in self-loathing misery and chicken out of new experiences."
Offended, Yami's eyes flashed as he shifted them to his companion who had an eyebrow raised challengingly. His temper was quick to rise and Seto knew just which buttons to push, "I'm hardly chickening out. I am highly logical and tend to read between lines. From what you just told me about past lovers and the frankly ridiculous way you look like something out of a fashion magazine, I understand that I am lacking in looks, fame and intrigue for someone like you. I have been a victim of rushing without logical thought into situations that ended very badly for me and it resulted in a lot of damage that I am not very willing to expose myself to any more. Forgive me if I am trying to…"
He had plenty more to say.
He didn't get the chance to say it, however, because Seto moved suddenly, resting his hands on the sides of his face and kissing him.
It wasn't just a kiss. It was why it effectively shut him up and silenced the tirade he had launched himself into and quieted the insecurities tearing him up inside. There was more to it than the physicality, even if that in and of itself a very effective reassurance. The need to get closer to this person beside him made itself known now that it took place. The way Seto's fingers stroked his face calmingly, the way he was gently pressing his lips to Yami's… it held more even if it was enough by itself. It held a promise, a comforting message and it was as if Seto was trying to lay his anxiety to rest.
He was very successful.
Yami drew away slowly. He closed his eyes, bowed his head slightly and breathed out, trying to relieve the ache that lingered in his chest.
Slowly, one of Seto's hands left the side of his face, letting it drift up to his hair. The long slender fingers he was just admiring a few minutes ago buried themselves in his wispy locks, gently rubbing his scalp in a touch that raised the hairs on his body on end and before he could deal with the electrifyingly tender, intimate touch, he felt the lips that were just against his own pressing themselves against his forehead.
His eyes fluttered open, a disbelieving expression in them. It was a bit sad to realize that, at his mid-thirties, it was the gentlest touch he ever received in his whole life. It was magical and he felt silly all of a sudden. Silly, inexperienced, stupid. What did logic mean when this simple gesture, a kiss in the middle of an angry retort, a hand in his hair and a pair of lips on his forehead made him realize how starved for affection he was?
Even before Seto spoke, he realized the flaws in his own words.
"I do not care what is logical," Seto stated, allowing him to draw back. His voice was quiet, eyes open and he could clearly see the plea in them. "I don't care what past experiences taught you; I don't care about anything you just said, except to show you that you are wrong for thinking you are lesser than me, or anyone I knew. I care only about making you understand that nothing disqualifies you from trying."
Yami hung his head down, staring at his feet for a few moments. "What makes you think you won't just lose interest like you did before? How do you know this isn't lust? And more importantly, how do you know I won't be as toxic as your German friend, if not more? I drag a lot of luggage around, Seto…" it was only fair to issue a warning.
The brunet sat back as well. Silence stretched between them for a very long while, that Yami thought that he finally made a point and that no answer was appropriate for his question.
The crowd in the fair had started thinning out. The weather gradually got colder around them. It was more difficult to find something to focus his attention on; more difficult to try and avoid burying his freezing nose into the warmth and smell of the scarf…
"I am taking a leap of faith."
Yami turned to him to find him looking ahead at the stall owners, now relaxing a little and heading over for a chat with neighbors.
"I am not exactly happy with the way things turned out with Zigfried. Or Kisara or Shizuka, for that matter. But I know that you…" he paused. Yami listened and watched him blink once, then turn to face him, adding, "You make me want to try again. I don't care about anything else, just the fact that you make me want to take that risk."
Yami pursed his lips slightly and stared at him for a few long moments. Deep down, the question he asked himself ever since he let himself get dragged towards Seto's flame, the question that niggled within him…what was he doing? Why was he being so reckless once again? A burst of enlightenment appeared in his mind at Seto's words.
Seto made him want to try once again. Forget the disaster he went through before. Place good memories instead of the horrible ones he associated with being anything other than lonely and cold and missing affection.
He took a deep breath, turned away and sighed it out.
"That makes two of us," he admitted softly. So softly, that he wasn't sure Seto even heard him, but apparently, he did because he felt the familiar soft hand wrapping around his once more, holding on and giving it a gentle little squeeze.
tbc…