IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!! - This is the Yu-Gi-Oh! Yaoi portion of the Shipping List in order. Be forewarned. Some "pairings" will not be fluffy and cute. But they will all, hopefully, be believable. Rating's will vary.

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is the intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi

Author's Notes: I liked how this one came out. It surprised me since it's such an "out there" pairing. It didn't come out as a "pairing" per se but, ya know, if given the time it could have been and so long as that's shown, I feel I accomplished something.

Rating: G (no warnings whatsoever)


Yu-Gi-Oh! Shipping List #24 - "Refugees of Death"

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Bayshipping (Priest Set x Noa)

"Seto," Seth said, entering into Seto's home office without knocking. "teach me to play this game." Seth presented a child's board game before him and Seto frowned.

"You know I don't have time for that. I have a company to run."

"Seto, as my hikari it is your duty…" Seth began sternly but Seto cut him off.

"Why don't you go and ask Mokuba?"

"Mokuba is studying at a friend's home tonight." Seth answered levelly.

Seto knew that … really.

"Then Noa." Seto tried. "Why did we go to the trouble of resurrecting him, if not for times like this?" Seto's tone betrayed the notion that Noa was not his favorite person in the world. He even removed his fingers from the keys of his laptop in order to send Seth a smile that plainly said, 'I am generously devoting this second to you in order to get you to leave.'

Seth frowned, catching the drift loud and clear. "May Ra strike that computer dead." Seth muttered, just loud enough for his other to hear, as he made his way out the door, closing it behind him.

Seth found Noa in the usual spot. Noa Kaiba had fiercely forsaken his once-bedroom, opting instead for a room at the far corner of the manor, secluded by scores of empty rooms separating himself from the house's other occupants. Within this room, however, were what he referred to as the mansion's greatest asset. A set of what some might refer to as too-large windows overlooking the rear grounds, each complete with an alcove where Noa could most often be found curled, leaning against the glass, staring vacantly down at the greenery.

Noa Kaiba was neither grateful, nor resentful for having been given a second chance at life. He had simply slipped away into this room and preceded to fade quietly into its four walls. On a bad day, he might have seemed melancholy, on a good day, indifferent. Noa had been reborn, yes, but reborn into a world in which he could never again live, for in this world, Seto was the heir to Kaiba and Noa was long dead, far beyond any logical explanation of miraculous recovery.

He still did work for the company, for Seto, in the mansion's private labs and testing facilities, but even that he did largely in solitude. As a result of that and of Seth's opinion that Seto truly needed guidance and that was his true purpose, Seth did not know Noa well, did not even see him much, aside from dinners and the rare trips he made to Seto's home office to discuss their projects.

Despite his lack of knowledge, Noa Kaiba had become a creature of habit, if he was not always one, so Seth had no trouble in locating him in his private quarters at the far end of the east wing. Knocking lightly on the door and receiving invitation, Seth stepped into the room, leaving the door ajar behind him.

Noa removed his gaze from the scenery beyond the window pane long enough to take note of the board game beneath Seth's arm and returned his gaze from whence it had come. For a moment, Seth thought Noa might ignore him, until a slow, grim smile made its way across the youth's face.

Noa was very similar to Seto in appearance; nearly the same height, his hair nearly the same length though green rather than brown, even close to the same style, and his build was similar also. To the untrained eye, to one who did not know either well, Noa and Seto appeared more as brothers than Seto and Mokuba did. But to say such a thing was a painfully taboo statement for Seto and so was not allowed. Seto to this day, hated Noa's birth father with a forcefully bridled passion and speaking of him was not allowed in Seto's presence.

"We are the refugees of death, aren't we?" Noa's quiet, contemplative tone seemed to fill the room as air or fog might, not visibly demanding, yet penetrating in a way that could not be ignored.

Seth was unsure of how to reply but Noa saved him the trouble. "No matter what, …we have no place in this world. Do you feel guilty, …for cheating death like this?" Noa never looked back at him, giving Seth time to contemplate his words carefully.

It was true, at times, he did feel guilt. Death came to all mortals and yet here he stood, thousands of years past his time, and for what exactly? Not to ensure the future of mankind, and truthfully he was failing even at preserving the future of himself, not to exact revenge, or to pay a debt. He was here simply because his soul had been too weak to resist the pull of his Item and now, he was forever bound to it, living purely by selfish desire to escape the prison of darkness that was the Sennin Rod. Yes. He felt guilt for withholding his soul from Osiris, God of death and life, in whose hands it truly belonged. But despite that guilt, his situation was beyond his ability to alter, and so, wasn't it a worse fate to waste a life given, regardless the circumstances? As Noa was wasting his own life.

"We may not be welcomed into this time," Seth said, choosing his words carefully "but here we are - a part of it regardless. And so here we must carve our destiny."

Noa looked back at him for a long moment, a ghost of a smile gracing his lips eventually. "Destiny." he mused, feeling out the word delicately and pausing again before speaking to him. "What have you got there?" Noa nodded toward the board game pressed against his person and Seth pulled it away, showing it to the other.

Noa reached out taking the game and looked it over. "This is a game called Destiny Board Traveler." he said, appearing even to be contemplating the game itself. "It's a game played with Duel Monsters. I think…it didn't hit it off very well. It wasn't very popular so Seto abandoned it."

Seth felt a strange sense of kinship to that board game all of a sudden. "Will you play it with me?" he asked and Noa nodded, rising to take it to a card table nearby.

Noa set up the game and they each got out their decks and sat to play. Noa explained the rules to Seth, they were simple enough, and the two began playing the game.

"It's really meant for four people." Noa commented, almost absently, but Seth recognized his tone for what it really was. "That's probably why it didn't go over well."

Seth rolled the dice and played his turn through in silence. Several more turns passed before Noa spoke again. "You could come here more often." A suggestion, or merely an observation.

"Are you content?" Seth asked, suddenly, moving his piece five spaces and choosing to tribute. "The air is stale."

The statement didn't have to be poetic. Noa understood it plainly. "It's easy." Noa replied at length, holding on to his piece a moment longer than necessary before setting it to the board. "Easy to disappear this way. I don't know how to live anymore. I don't even know if I ever lived while I was truly alive…"

"What is life?" Seth asked him, causing Noa to look to him startled, realization instant in his features - realization that he did not know.

"I do not know." Seth offered. "I do not know the answer to that. Nor do I feel the need to know it. I exist and call that life so long as I wish."

Noa's eyes drifted to the board, the pieces, Seth's piece, held in his slightly tanned hand. "I…can't do it alone…anymore."

Seth set his piece and caught Noa's gaze with striking, solid blue. "You are not alone. We refugees of death must stand together." Noa was met with a reassuring smile, which he could not help but return. In Seth's eyes, Noa saw life, for the first time, and in Seth's smile, more a true smile than Seto's smirk, Noa found the path to a future he had never believed existed.


Post whatevers: Next up: Roba x Ryou. As always, if you liked, please review. Ja!