Disclaimer: Sadly there are things I'll simply never own, Yu-Gi-Oh! is one of them.

"I never thought there could be so much more
When you showed me just how much you thought my heart meant

I hear you calling my name for a reunion
I thought I'd wandered too far away
But now I've got a brand new start
Reunion, reunion of the heart

But I'm frightened and you understand
I failed you last time and I don't want a repeat"

~Reunion, Cliff Richards

Chapter 25

When the nurse came to check on Seto before the sun set to see if he'd be staying the night, she was surprised to see that Seto was now lying on the cot, fast asleep, using his jacket as a blanket while Alistair sat beside him on the floor playing a game on a cell phone (Seto's as it happened).

"Oh, hi," he said, looking up.

"You're awake."

"Yeah, I woke up a couple of hours ago. Is there anything to eat? I know that's asking a lot, and if there isn't, I understand, but I feel like I haven't eaten in a week."

"I left some bread here."

"I know, but I made Seto eat it."

"I'll go check, and then I'll need you to answer some questions for me." She hurried off and Alistair returned to his game of solitaire. He soon realized that he couldn't win and set the phone aside, letting his gaze wander to Seto. It had been hours, but he still couldn't help but feel happy every time he looked over and saw that Seto was still there, that it hadn't been a dream after all.

The nurse returned with another half a roll which Alistair hungrily devoured as he answered her questions which included giving his name (which Seto had prepped him for) and a brief explanation of what had happened to him to check his memory. Next, she asked him to walk from the cot to the wall which was a total distance of roughly seven feet. He completed the task and she recommended that he try and walk as much as possible for the next few days to ensure that he didn't lose any muscle. After that she'd left, and Alistair, suddenly tired, lay down next to Seto on the small cot and fell asleep with his cheek pressed against Seto's upper back and his arm around him. He slept for twelve hours without having a single nightmare.

When he awoke it was light outside again. He sat up and swung his legs off the cot, trying his best not to wake Seto and failing. As the CEO stirred, Alistair noticed that he'd managed to get dust all down the back of Seto's shirt and for the first time in months he was embarrassed by how grimy he was.

"Morning," he said softly as Seto opened his eyes. Seto grunted a reply and sat up only to rest a hand on his forehead and groan slightly. Alistair realized that he was probably having some kind of caffeine withdrawal but that he could in no way really help him since there was nothing as fancy as coffee anywhere near here. But since they were in a hospital they might possibly have some pill, though it was a long shot.

"Go ahead and lie back down," he said to Seto. "I'll go see if they have anything for you." Seto willingly obliged.

"Just bring me a coffee, will you?" Alistair smiled, though it was short lived since he had to walk past all the unconscious people in the room before entering the hallway. How was it that he had been lucky enough to wake up, and they not? And what would the hospital do with them since they didn't have electricity and therefore were unable to feed them? Were they just going to let them die?

Once in the hallway he stopped the first nurse he saw, an older woman.

"I know this might be a lot to ask, but do you have anything with caffeine in it here?"

"What for?" she asked, surprised.

"My friend is going through a sort of caffeine withdrawal."

"Sounds like a first world problem to me," she snorted. "I had to deal with someone going into shock from losing a leg yesterday so you can tell your friend to count their blessings. Now excuse me." She bustled past him and Alistair slunk back to the room.

"Sorry Seto, no dice."

"This must be what hell's like," Seto groaned from the cot, one hand still resting on his forehead. Even though to Alistair something like a headache wasn't something to get too worked up about, Seto was acting like it was the end of the world. What Alistair didn't know was that this was the first time that Seto had been forced to endure something like a headache. Not even Gozaburo had denied him coffee or pain killers since both of them kept him productive.

"Let's get out of here," Alistair said softly. "I'll fly if you want."

"Fly? No, the jet's back at your little group's base so we're going to have to-." Seto swore and sat up, his headache momentarily the least of his problems. "I got driven here by one of them so now we have no way to get back. Dammit!" Alistair gaped at him. He'd thought that Seto always had a plan B.

"How far is it?"

"Probably thirty miles."

"That's not that bad. If we start now we'll probably get there by sunset. Normally I could do it in less time, but I'm a little shaky."

"How are we going to get there genius?"

"We'll walk," Alistair said matter-of-factly.

"You have got to be kidding me."

After being officially discharged from the hospital (Alistair asked the receptionist if he could leave and she crossly told him that if he was well enough to ask he had no business there) the pair started walking back down the dirt road.

"I hope they know that their 'secret base' isn't very well hidden," Seto said irritably, concentrating on not slipping in the slick mud of the road and trying avoid thinking about what the mud was doing to his shoes. "There's no point in blindfolding someone that a: already saw the layout of the area from the air, and b: isn't stupid enough not to notice that this road is a direct route from the base to the hospital and back."

"It's just their policy."

"Right, because I give a damn about their whereabouts."

"You don't, but people who could capture you might try to torture the information out of you."

"I am being tortured," Seto mumbled and immediately wished that he hadn't. He didn't want Alistair to think that he was incapable of walking as far as they were attempting to. As the afternoon wore on however, his resolve not to take a break started to waver, though he was also very aware of how exposed they were with nothing to hide behind should some enemy happen to drive or fly by.

Just a little less than three-fourths of the way left to go, he told himself grimly, having kept track since they started walking as a means of distraction. He glanced over at Alistair to see if he was showing any signs of fatigue. He merely looked as though he was deep in thought and completely oblivious to the world around him. Seto wished that he could as easily lose himself in his own head under the circumstances, but he was too distracted by the pain in his head, feet, stomach, and now his back and right shoulder. He was cold too and regretted not bringing a heavier coat. He wondered vaguely what had happened to the one he'd given Alistair but wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"Can we stop?" Alistair asked suddenly.

"If you're tired," Seto replied, grateful beyond measure for a break.

"Yeah." Alistair plopped down in the wispy grass on the side of the road, disregarding the mud. Seto scanned the area in search of a patch of ground that was mud-free but found none and despite the aching in his feet he stayed standing.

"Aren't you going to sit down?" Alistair asked.

"And ruin my coat? Not likely. Do you have any idea how much this cost?" Alistair rolled his eyes. The whole reason he had requested that they stop was because he could tell that Seto needed a break but was too proud to say so, and now that he had the opportunity to rest he wasn't taking it on account of his coat. And the guys called him 'Princess.'

"Aren't you cold?" Seto couldn't help but note that Alistair wasn't even wearing a jacket over his long-sleeved T-shirt.

"A little. Once we start walking again I'll warm up though; it's sunny out."

"Why aren't you wearing the coat I gave you or at least your own jacket?"

"It was too warm for that the day we went on our mission," Alistair explained. "How long has it been anyway?"

"Two days."

"You got here fast."

"I don't like to waste time."

"Well I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to come get me. I hope you aren't missing any important meetings."

"Probably. I was supposed to test out my jetpack prototype yesterday," Seto said wistfully.

"And you gave that up for me, I'm flattered."

"Shut up."

They walked the next five miles in silence apart from Alistair having to reassure Seto on several occasions that the sounds he was hearing were nothing more than leaves blowing in the wind, though he did decide to scare him once by saying he thought he heard a wolf howl in the distance and that they'd better be careful.

"There are wolves here?" Seto had asked, his eyes wider than Alistair had ever seen them.

"Yes. They like to circle our building at night looking for a way in because they can smell all the food. They're probably starving which means that if one of them catches us out here unprotected we won't be able to scare it off. Do you have anything we could use as a weapon?"

"I have a pen," Seto had replied, pulling it out of his pocket and brandishing it. "I think I'd be able to stab it in the eye before it could hurt us." The sight of Seto holding out a pen as a weapon against a wolf was too much for Alistair who laughed so hard he had to stop walking and recover himself. Seto had been livid and shoved Alistair into the mud, feeling extremely foolish for having been so gullible.

They finally arrived back at the base, just as Alistair had predicted, right before sundown. Seto had had more than enough of 'roughing it'. He had blisters on both feet, he was dirty, he was tired, he hadn't brushed his teeth in two days, he was hungry beyond belief, and all he wanted to do was go home. He decided he'd sooner hold a press conference highlighting Yugi's superiority as a duelist than repeat what he'd gone through the last two days.

"Princess, you're awake," Blaine said when he opened the main door. "I thought for sure you'd die up at the hospital.

"Let us in and get me a coffee," Seto demanded, in no mood for banter.

"Hey, I don't take orders from you Rich Boy," Blaine shot back, nonetheless holding the door open. "And we don't have any coffee."

"Of course not," Seto sighed. "Do you at least have food?"

"Not for you."

"Why you-!"

"Don't worry about it," Alistair whispered, laying a hand on Seto's arm. "Maude owes me because I took her shift the other day when she was sick."

He led Seto back towards the makeshift kitchen, Seto continuing to get stared at along the way.

"Maude!" Alistair called into the cloud of steam emanating from a huge black pot. "It's Alistair. I've come to collect on that food you owe me."

"Oh, you're back," came a woman's voice from somewhere beyond the steam. "I'd heard you died." She emerged, her dirty red hair sticking to her forehead. She caught sight of Seto and her expression immediately went from annoyed to simpering. "You didn't tell me you brought company," she said in what she evidently hoped was a playful, girlish voice, eyeing the tall, handsome stranger from Domino.

"Seto, this is Maude; she does all of the cooking."

"And the mending and the cleaning up," she added. "I'd make a wonderful wife I daresay." She threw Seto a suggestive look. He raised an eyebrow skeptically, but she didn't take the hint. "I'll be right back with some soup, you poor thing, you must be starving. Here, there's a table in the back, why don't you come sit?" As much as her ridiculous attempts at flirting annoyed him, it was better than how everyone else around here treated him. She led them to a rickety table in the storage room where she usually ate her rations because it was one of the warmest rooms in the bunker.

"There's only one chair I'm afraid," she said, not sounding sorry at all, offering it to Seto and leaving Alistair to kneel on the floor. "The soup will be ready in a moment." She ran a hand down his back on the way out and he tensed at her touch.

"I think she likes you," Alistair said with a straight face once Maude was out of earshot.

"She's got good taste," Seto replied, running a hand through his hair and flashing the same smirk he'd worn in the clothing ad. It worked on Alistair just as much as on the teenage girls; he felt a swooping sensation in his stomach that had nothing to do with being hungry.

Maude returned a minute later with a bowl of soup that was much fuller than what she usually gave out and contained way more vegetables. She started to set a spoon down next to it but 'accidentally' dropped it onto the floor.

"Whoops, clumsy me," she said with a giggle unfitting for a woman of her age, and bent down to retrieve it, careful to leave her backside in the air. Alistair laughed, more so at the look on Seto's face than anything else.

"What are you laughing at?" Maude demanded, slamming the spoon on the table.

"Careful Maude, I think you dropped something else."

"I did not you little ingrate."

"Sure you did. If you bend back down I'm pretty sure you'll find your dignity lying on the ground somewhere." Seto snorted and Maude reddened.

"You would know all about losing your dignity, wouldn't you? I know what you do with the men out back," she spat, storming out of the pantry.

"What's she talking about?" Seto asked, trying to sound more curious than jealous. Alistair rolled his eyes.

"I always go outside to get away from all this and sometimes some of the guys follow me hoping that I'll suck them off because apparently they're all sexually deprived and think I would a good alternative to getting themselves off," he explained scornfully. "It's pathetic. Oh, and go ahead and start eating, she's not coming back with anything for me now that I've embarrassed her. It's not a big deal though; I'll just make myself something."

He looked around the pantry, picking out ingredients with his eyes as Seto began eating the soup Maude had placed in front of him. It was extremely thin and relatively flavorless, but it was warm and so he quickly finished it as Alistair started pulling things off shelves and making himself a sandwich.

"Normally we aren't allowed so much food at once, but after not eating for almost three days I think I deserve to indulge a little." It was very strange to Alistair to have Seto at the base, like two worlds colliding.

After they had eaten, Seto requested that they go to his jet so he could retrieve his toothbrush, toothpaste, and extra clothes.

"I can't believe you packed all that," Alistair commented.

"Of course, I wasn't sure how long I'd be," Seto replied, tossing Alistair his second spare outfit which consisted of black jeans and a long-sleeved black turtleneck. As he removed the last of the clothes from the small suitcase, a pill bottle rolled out onto the floor. Seto realized what it was and pounced on it like a drug addict, popping the lid open and swallowing two of the pills dry. "Caffeine tablets," he explained.

"Ah."

"Where are we staying tonight?" Seto asked.

"Why aren't we leave-? Oh right: no private international flights after dark. Uh, I guess you can sleep with me, although I'm not sure the cots here would support both of us. If they won't I can just sleep on the floor." Seto nodded.

Clothes in hand, Alistair showed him to the room where his cot was, where Seto had been before. "That one's mine," he said, pointing. "And the bathroom's through there, but I have to warn you that it's nothing fancy." That explained, he pulled off his boots and prepared to change clothes. Seto opted to go into the bathroom to change, a decision he instantly regretted; he had to hold his nose the whole time. Still, with a full stomach, fresh clothes on, his teeth brushed, and having finally taken his shoes off to give his aching feet some relief, he emerged in much higher spirits.

"Here," He offered Alistair the toothbrush. "I only used it once."

"Thanks, but I already have one." Alistair took what easily could have passed as a prized possession around the bunker, a toothbrush, out from the backpack under his cot as well as a half empty tube of toothpaste. "I brought five tubes with me that I got from the supply closet next to your and Mokuba's rooms before I left. This is the second one. I've been rationing them and making sure to brush my teeth only when there's no one else around. I told you: I take good care of my teeth." He took his turn in the 'bathroom' and then came back a few minutes later to see Seto sitting on his cot, seemingly thinking about something.

"What are you brooding about?" Alistair asked, putting the toothbrush and toothpaste back in his backpack and sitting beside him.

"About this place. I thought the orphanage I lived in was bad, but it was nothing compared to the quality of life here, or lack thereof."

"Yeah, things are pretty bad," Alistair agreed grimly.

"That hospital didn't even have electricity, did you know that? Or food. That's so...crazy." He said nothing for a moment, then added: "I understand why you were so angry now. I must seem really spoiled to you."

"Sometimes. But you don't have a perfect life either. I didn't know that when we first met even though I could have if I hadn't been so set on revenge. I can't understand what I was thinking now though; even if your step-father had been responsible that didn't give me a right to take that out on you and Mokuba."

"You were manipulated by Dartz, I get it."

"Still, I'm almost glad I was in a way," Alistair mused. "I wouldn't have met you otherwise."

"That's true." Alistair rested his hand on top of Seto's which he'd lain in the space on the cot between them and curled his fingers around the brunette's. Seto regarded their intertwined hands, then Alistair's face, and did what he should have done the day that Alistair left: leaned in and kissed him. It was the closest Seto had ever come to showing any kind of tenderness as the kiss held no promise of anything more. It was simply a pure expression of (love) affection.

The cot as it turned out wouldn't hold both of them, but since both refused to let the other one sleep on the floor they ended up on the hard cement ground which was where the men found them later upon their return.

Michael and some of his friends had decided to do some gambling after returning from the north where they'd been collecting money from lottery ticket sales. Bragging about how good they each were at cards, the group of five entered the room, intent on a few rounds of Poker.

"Shut up," Michael hissed when he saw Alistair and Seto lying side by side on the floor after shining a lantern into the semi-dark room. "Check it out." Alistair had waited until Seto fell asleep, unsure of his boundaries, and then put an arm around him and pressed his cheek against his back like the night before. "Don't they look cozy?" His friends, several of whom had followed Alistair outside on more than one occasion, snickered. That was all it took to wake Seto up, which in turn jostled Alistair awake.

"Do you mind?" Seto snapped, sitting up and glaring at them, shielding his eyes from the light. "Some of us have to make a flight tomorrow." Michael, a large man with bulging biceps, was not about to let himself be bossed around by some scrawny rich brat from Domino.

"You talk to me like that one more time and I'll make sure they send you back in pieces," Michael said threateningly, shoving the lantern into one of his friends´ arms, his hands curling into fists.

"Seto, leave it," Alistair advised him quietly. Seto ignored him.

"Is that supposed to scare me?" He stood up. "Don't make me laugh."

"I'm going to wipe the floor with you!" Michael snarled. Seto smirked.

"Oh really now? It seems to me like you're stalling." Michael couldn't explain why, but he had a feeling that the tall foreigner wasn't bluffing. Still, he couldn't back down in front of his friends. He lunged at Seto whose smirk widened. The next thing he knew, he was flying through the air, Seto having used his momentum to flip him over his shoulder, and crashing into and subsequently breaking, one of the cots behind him.

"What do you say?" Seto asked, looking down on the dazed man. "Wanna go for round two?" Michael merely groaned in response. "Didn't think so. Anyone else?" Michael's friends glanced at each other. One looked like he might try, but one look at Michael caused him to wisely think better of it. Michael managed to pull himself to his feet, wincing, and slunk after his friends as they all trooped out again, cursing Seto under his breath.

"How'd you do that?" Alistair asked as Seto sat back down next to him on the floor.

"Years of practice," Seto replied shortly, yawning. "I'll show you some day. Now I don't know about you, but I'm going back to sleep."

"How are you even tired? You took two caffeine pills."

"That was just to get rid of my headache. It takes more than that to actually keep me awake."

"That seems healthy."

"You're in no position to be criticizing my lifestyle."

"That's probably true." Alistair lay back down on his side, his head propped up on his hand. Even though he was dirty and underweight, Seto could see why the men here would want to take advantage of Alistair. "What?" Alistair asked as Seto continued to stare at him intently.

"You need to take a shower; you're filthy," he said finally, turning his back on the redhead and preparing to return to sleep. Alistair sighed, but wasn't sure why he'd expected anything else. Seto had his moments, but for the most part he wasn't one to share his every thought.

Mokuba stared at his cell phone screen. He'd done little else the last few days, not hearing from his brother putting him on edge. Seto, where are you? Please be alright...

Author's Note: In a shameless bid for a connection to my audience, I implore you to tell me what you like, what you don't like so that I can proceed accordingly; I want to upload a story that you enjoy you know and I'm not above taking suggestions.

To the story!

Seto, poor thing, still hasn't learned that it's really quite acceptable to tell Alistair what he really thinks instead of hiding behind a mask of indifference. Luckily for him Alistair knows better than to expect just about anything from our brunette protagonist.