Chapter 6

It had been quiet for more than an hour now and Kaiba, more out of curiosity than anything, decided he needed to know why. He began by heading towards his brother's room, but almost as soon as he reached the door he found himself pulling away again. He couldn't face him. Not again. Not so soon after the last time. Taking a deep breath in he began checking out the other rooms on that floor, before moving on to the rest of the house.

He found Tristan in one of the smaller rooms on the ground floor, stretched out on the couch, with his eyes closed and a pillow under his head. Kaiba's eyes did a quick visual check of the room as he leant against the door frame. It was sparsely decorated. There was a table, a couch, a mirror hung above the mantle and a couple of unused picture frames. Apart from that there was nothing, not even a clock.

'You know I can't sleep with you watching me,' Tristan's voice was flat.

'I thought you were already asleep.'

'Living in this house has made me a light sleeper,' he rolled onto his side. 'Now are you going to let me sleep, or what?'

'I'm sorry, since when was this your bedroom?'

'Since it became the only room in this whole damn house I could get any sleep in,' he sounded more than a little irritated. 'Now will you leave?'

'I'm sorry, I didn't realise this was your mansion,' Kaiba folded his arms, 'and here I thought I was the one paying all the bills. Doesn't that mean I have a right to stay in whatever room I choose?'

In reply, Tristan lazily raised his left arm and made shooing motions with his hand.

'I'm not leaving Tristan,' Kaiba wasn't sure if his need to stay was him being stubborn or childish, 'if you're really that desperate for sleep, you can always find some other room to do it in.'

There was no response and, after a few moments, the deep sound breathing reached Kaiba's ears.

'And I thought you said you couldn't sleep,' Kaiba rolled his eyes.

He sighed and rested his head against the doorframe. He wasn't quite sure how long he'd been stood there for when he realised he was literally watching Tristan sleep. His whole body fidgeted uncomfortably as he tried to come up with a good reason for him to still be stood here like this, aware with every passing second that the situation was just getting weirder and weirder. Just as he managed to convince himself the best thing he could do was leave and never think about it again, he became aware of the fact he was being watched.

Looking up he saw a youth of indistinguishable age stood in the far corner of the room. The youth's chocolate brown hair was neatly parted in the centre, with the right half cropped short and the left half falling level with his chin, hiding that side of his face completely. He was shirtless, but he wore an open black leather waistcoat casually over his exposed flesh. His tight black jeans flared slightly over his pointed black boots and his visible brown eye glinted curiously at Kaiba.

'Who are you?' Kaiba's whole body tensed. 'And what the hell are you doing in my house?'

The youth didn't reply. Instead he continued to silently observe Kaiba.

'I asked you a question,' his jaw hardened, 'what are you doing…?'

Before he could finish the sentence, Kaiba felt the words catch in his throat and was alarmed to find himself completely unable to move. The youth slinked towards him, with a strange smile spread across his face. He came to a stop an inch in front of him and lightly brushed a tussle of Kaiba's hair away from his forehead. The youth then tentatively began to trace Kaiba's features with his fingers, his single visible eye following the movement with fascination.

Eventually the youth's hand came to a rest under Kaiba's chin. Their gazes met and, even though he never said a word, it was clear what he was thinking; I have complete control over your body. Internally Kaiba raged. He couldn't believe this was happening. He couldn't believe he was letting this happen. Everything in him willed him to move but, despite his best effort, he remained frozen where he was. Kaiba cast a glance towards the body still sleeping on the couch and willed him to wake up. All he got for his silent pleading was a heavy, sleep filled sigh.

The warmth of a hand on the side of his face forced Kaiba to turn his attention back to the youth, whose visible eye was once again closely examining him. There was something about the up and down motion of the youth's eye which made Kaiba realise just what was coming next. He tried to pull away, but it was useless, his body was as frozen now as it had been before. With nothing else he could do, he just stood there as the youth leaned in to kiss him.

After what felt like an insufferable eternity, the youth pulled away and lightly stroked Kaiba's cheek, before slowly turning and walking back towards the other side of the room. Halfway across he stopped and turned towards Kaiba again. Kissing the fore and middle finger of his right hand, the youth flicked his hand towards Kaiba, before vanishing without a trace.

Almost instantly Kaiba felt his paralysis lift. Shaking in anger and confusion, he slid to the floor and ran his fingers tensely through his hair, furious he'd allowed someone to have so much power over him. He cast a nervous glance towards Tristan, who was still fast asleep, and a slight twinge of guilt ran through him, but almost as soon as it had, he suppressed it. Taking a deep, calming breath in, he rose to his feet and, without any further hesitation, left the room.

'Oh come on, this date isn't that boring, is it?' Duke teased as she yawned for the fifth or sixth time.

'Sorry,' she rubbed her eyes, 'I didn't think I was this tired.'

'Are you sure this isn't your subtle way of telling me you wish you hadn't agreed to a date?'

Instantly her face took on a hurt expression and Duke regretted his choice of words. He knew from past experiences with her jokes like that weren't always such a great idea since she didn't always get them.

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean it the way it sounded,' he shifted his gaze away. 'So why exactly did you want this first date of ours to be a picnic exactly?'

'Because I always thought it would be,' she grinned, 'that's why it had to be on Sil.'

'You always thought your first date with me would be a picnic on Sil?' Duke cocked an eyebrow at her.

'No, I always thought my first date ever would be a picnic on Sil,' Catilin tilted her head to one side in thought. 'Is eighteen too old to be going on your first ever date? Because before I came to live on Sil all my friends were going on their first dates. That's what it felt like anyway. I didn't mind, but...'

'I don't think there's an age limit Cat, people go on their first date when they go on their first date,' Duke's face filled with a soft smile. 'Besides, isn't it more important it's a good first date?'

'Uh-huh,' she nodded, 'and this is a good first date, right?'

'Right,' he laughed, 'even if you are trying to fall asleep on me.'

'I'm sorry...'

'It's okay Cat,' he held his hands up to stop her apologising again. 'So how did you find this place?' Duke glanced round the wooded area they were in.

'I spent a lot of time exploring when I was living here on my own,' Catilin grinned. 'There wasn't a whole lot else to do and even though everything looked different back then I still knew this place was really pretty. It's near to the circle where the Guardians of Sil are trained. That's where I took Veronie on his first day here. But it's a special sort of place so I couldn't take you there too, sorry.'

'That's okay, I like this place, it reminds me of a den I used to have as a kid.'

'You had a den as a kid?'

'It was in the woods behind my Dad's estate,' Duke smiled as he remembered, 'I'd almost forgotten about it until today.'

'You…' the rest of her sentence was cut off by a loud yawn.

'You know maybe we should call it a night,' he gentle stroked some of her hair back behind her ear, 'you've looked pretty tired all evening.'

'I am pretty tired, but... I don't want it to come to an end yet.'

'Well don't think of it as coming to an end,' he met her gaze, 'think of it as going on hold for a few hours. We'll do the second part tomorrow.'

'Second part?'

'Yeah, all dates are supposed to have second parts you know,' he laughed, 'and this time it's my choice what we do.'