Disclaimer: Given that I've submitted this story on this website I think it's reasonable to conclude that Yu-Gi-Oh! doesn't belong to me.

"We are young

Heartache to heartache we stand

No Promises, no demands."

~Love is a Battlefield, Pat Benatar

Chapter 27

Even though he'd missed several days of work, Seto decided to call an early night. He may not have been in meetings or slaving away at his computer, but he hadn't been merely idling the days away and therefore didn't feel guilty about shutting his laptop just a little after ten.

He set the computer down on his desk and yawned, still not completely recovered from the strain of the last few days. He'd always thought of himself as tough enough to handle a little inconvenience, but he'd been wrong; he had become far too accustomed to a life of comfort where people catered to his every whim and where he never had to walk more than a block or two. He couldn't imagine living the way Alistair had been for a moment longer than he'd had to.

He absentmindedly reached for his phone before he remembered that he no longer had to check his app.

Deciding not to completely abandon his strict daily regiment, Seto made his way down to the pool only to see that Alistair had beaten him there. He hovered uncertainly in the changing room for a moment trying to decide whether or not to join the redhead in the water.

Unbeknownst to Seto, Alistair had purposefully gone for a swim hoping that the brunette would have the same idea. As soon as he saw Seto open the changing room door in his black KC embossed swimming trunks, Alistair swam over to the edge.

"Come on in, the water's great." He briefly ducked under to get his freshly cut hair off his face. Seto made his way to the stairs at the deep end and gradually lowered himself into the lukewarm water before preparing to swim a lap or two, all the while ignoring Alistair who was so unashamedly trying to get his attention. He was halfway to the opposite end when Alistair caught up to him.

"How about a race?" Seto smirked.

"What would be the point? There's no way you can beat me."

"Wanna bet?" They reached the lip at the shallow end. Seto rolled his eyes.

"You've got nothing to bet."

"Sure I do. If I win I get to tell Mokuba about how you freaked out on our walk back to the base."

"As if I care about that."

"Fine, then I'll tell him since you don't care," Alistair said, glancing sideways at Seto who was tucking a strand of wet hair behind his ear. On the one hand, Seto knew that it wouldn't be a fair race. Not only was he certain just from what he'd observed that he was a better swimmer, he could see practically every bone in Alistair's body which meant he was probably quite weak. On the other hand however, Seto wasn't one to turn down a contest.

"If I win I'm telling Mokuba that your nickname was 'Princess.' Are you sure you want to risk it? I mean, if your swimming abilities are on par with your skills as a duelist you might want to quit while you're ahead." His cobalt eyes seemed to be laughing. Alistair set his jaw, annoyed by Seto's cocky attitude.

"You're on. From here to the end of the pool."

"It's your funeral, Princess." Instead of retorting, Alistair merely focused on the opposite end of the pool, envisioning himself beating Seto to it. They both readied themselves.

"On three," Alistair announced. "One, two, three!" They pushed off from the tiled wall and Alistair could immidietely see that he'd made a mistake. He strained to catch up with Seto and finally managed it though it took all of his strength and sheer determination to do so. Seto saw Alistair catching up to him out of the corner of his eye and grinned; he wasn't even pushing himself. They were halfway across the pool when he decided to use his full ability and took an easy lead, not even bothering to look back and see where the redhead was. Suddenly Alistair appeared at the far end of the pool, slipping slightly on the wet concrete. Within fifteen seconds, Seto joined him.

"Guess I win," Alistair said triumphantly, grinning from ear to ear. Seto furrowed his eyebrows, trying to catch his breath.

"What are you talking about? You didn't even finish the race, not that you would have won if you had." Alistair's grin widened.

"I just said that the first one to the other end of the pool would win, I never said we had to swim. I could tell that I'd never outswim you, so I opted to think outside the box and just sprint." Seto stared at him, openmouthed. It was true that Alistair had not expressly said that they had to swim, but it was so heavily implied that Seto was inclined to call Alistair out for cheating, though he wasn't sure what his justification would be.

"You think you're pretty clever, don't you?" he asked sourly.

"I don't think, I know. How do you think I've survived all this time? I've always made my own rules, haven't you? Duelist Kingdom, for example. You knew you couldn't beat Yugi, so you threatened to kill yourself if he didn't let you win. At the time I just thought it was pathetic, but now, looking back on it, I probably would have done the same thing." Seto didn't care for having Duelist Kingdom brought up; it was not a chapter of his life he was particularly proud of. He hadn't wanted to resort to such tactics; it was far from honorable, but he'd had no choice. It was either threaten to jump or not get into the castle, and that simply hadn't been an option.

"Yeah, well, I only did that because I had to; I don't make a point to cheat to get what I want because then it isn't really mine." He pulled himself out of the pool and sat on the side, his feet still in the water. Alistair sat beside him.

"So let me ask you this: did you cheat in your chess match against Gozaburo? Depending on what source you read the story's different." Seto chose to look at the water as he replied.

"Yes," he said finally. "There was a moment, just one, where he took his eyes off the board and I knew that he hadn't been paying that much attention anyway because he thought there was no possible way I could beat him, so I moved my knight one more space than you're allowed to and he didn't notice. That was all I needed to win."

He'd never told anyone, not even Mokuba that he'd cheated during that game and had even managed to half convince himself that he hadn't. That chess match had been the thing he needed to turn his and Mokuba's lives around, and even though living with Gozaburo had been miserable it had gotten Seto to where he was. If he hadn't won, where would be now? Who would he be now?

"Do you regret it? I mean, do you ever wish that you and Mokuba would have been adopted by someone else? It's not like there was a shortage of people interested in you; I did some asking around at your old orphanage."

"You did what?" He asked, looking up at Alistair, feeling horribly violated. It was Alistair's turn to look down at the water.

"I'm not proud of it, but I did tell you that I was completely obsessed with you. I went there to see if I could find anything out that I could use against you."

"And?"

"No one had anything bad to say about you really, which was a shame. They just told me that you and Mokuba stuck together and that you didn't really hang out with the other kids unless it was to beat them at games. Everyone agreed that you were popular with parents because you were so smart, but that you hardly ever smiled."

"What would I have had to smile about? My parents were dead, I was stuck in a house with forty other kids who were immature and stupid, and no one wanted me and my brother. It was an endless nightmare, especially after the stupid IQ test we all had to take. That's when people really started to pay attention to me. But they didn't really care about me, they only wanted to use me as a trophy. Our son, the certified genius." Seto's voice was bitter. "In a way they were worse than Gozaburo ever was because it was never a secret that he and I were using each other whereas they always pretended that they gave a damn when they in no way did. So to answer your question: no, I don't regret it. There's only one thing that I've ever done in my life that I regret: not trying to stop you from leaving." Alistair stared intently at Seto who was staring just as intently at the water. Alistair's gaze drifted towards Seto's left wrist. The crisscrossing scars stood out in the moonlight. Several of them looked fresher than the others.

He gently reached out and touched the slightly raised skin. Seto twitched like he was going to pull his hand away, but didn't. He didn't regret the scars though he was ashamed of them. Alistair silently counted. There were thirteen. One was so faded that it could barely be seen.

"How long have you been doing this?" Seto debated whether or not to answer, not one to spill his secrets.

"A while." The truth was that he'd been twelve the first time and had been broken of his ability to cry by Gozaburo. He couldn't remember what exactly had made him do it, but it was after he'd been thrown into Gozaburo's closet as a punishment for something he'd now forgotten. Unable to cry but feeling utterly miserable and trapped, he'd found a penknife in one of Gozaburo's drawers and slashed himself across the wrist with it before he'd really stopped to think about what he was doing. The blood had fascinated him, the hypnotic effect of it streaming down his wrist having a certain calming effect on him. He'd eventually wiped the blade off on his pants and pulled his sleeve over the cut. He'd hidden his bloodstained clothes in his room until he eventually got rid of them.

Alistair could sense that Seto didn't really want to talk about it, and didn't ask any more questions, though he did proceed to trace each scar with the tip of his finger.

He personally had never felt the urge to hurt himself, not even after what happened to Mikey, and not when he'd been feeling suicidal. For him, there were only two options: live or die. Clearly for Seto it was different, and Alistair could only assume that it was because of Mokuba; Seto didn't want to leave his brother alone.

It was absurd since Seto was bigger and stronger than he was, but Alistair suddenly had the urge to protect him. He let go of Seto's wrist and hugged him. A large part of Seto told him to push Alistair in the pool and escape the moment, but a bigger part wanted to give into the touch. It was this part that won. He rested his head on Alistair's thin shoulder, wondering at how strangely nice it was to be held, to feel vulnerable.

For the first time, Alistair felt like he was seeing the real Seto: a sensitive young man who had been beaten down for far too long and been forced to grow up far too fast. He was a man who cared more about his family than anything else, including himself, someone who was selfless, someone with honor. And of course, someone who was brilliant and talented with more than a slight competitive streak who could certainly be ruthless when he wanted to be. All of these traits were a part of who Seto was, and Alistair accepted them.

"Let's go to bed," Alistair said quietly. Seto nodded against his shoulder. The two men stood up, Seto easily three inches taller than Alistair, and proceeded back to the changing room to get their clothes.

"Were you swimming in your underwear?" Seto asked suddenly, only just noticing.

"Yeah, why?" Alistair asked, preparing to strip out of them. Seto looked away.

"You could have used one of my pairs of swim trunks you know." Alistair shrugged and then remembered that Seto couldn't see him.

"It never bothered me." He waited until he heard the rustle of Seto pulling his pants back on to turn around himself, knowing how touchy about that Seto was even though they'd already seen each other naked.

"Do whatever you like," Seto said, pulling his shirt over his head. "It doesn't really matter."

Alistair stopped by his room to take a quick shower and get a new pair of underwear and brush his teeth before going to meet Seto in his bedroom.

Seto was drying his hair when Alistair arrived. He offered Alistair the blowdryer when he was finished which Alistair accepted.

"Your hair doesn't lie flat, does it?" Seto asked from where he was lounging in bed.

"You're the second person to say that to me today. Trudy said the exact same thing when she was cutting it earlier. And no, it doesn't," Alistair replied over the noise. Once his hair was sufficiently dry, Alistair joined Seto on the bed, interested to see what might happen; Seto was in a strange mood.

"I'm glad to be back," Alistair ventured, lying on his side and resting his chin on his hand. "I'm starting to think that maybe everyone was right; I have been spoiled by living here. But I also think that I'm right and that I can do more here than there anyway. I'm not sorry I went though."

"Hmm…" Seto was lying on his back, looking at the ceiling.

"It's true, so don't feel bad about letting me go."

"I don't."

"But you said-."

"I know what I said, but I didn't mean that I wanted to have convinced you to stay, I don't think I could have. I regret not trying to talk you down because by not doing so I made it seem like I didn't care, which wasn't true."

"I thought about you a lot while I was there."

"I know. One of them told me you talked about me in your sleep." Seto glanced sideways at Alistair who surprisingly looked unabashed.

"I probably did. I did back before we met too, according to Valon and Rafael. Just your name: Kaiba."

"You really were obsessed; I'm flattered. You know, it's not too late to ask for my autograph." Alistair scrunched his nose.

"I was so mad when you said that to me at Duelist Kingdom. If I hadn't needed to keep you alive long enough for the leviathan to absorb your soul I would have shot you."

"You still believe in all that?" Seto rolled his eyes.

"You still don't?" Alistair shot back. "What happened anyway?" he asked, curious all of a sudden. "After I lost to you I mean. What happened to Dartz and Raphael and Valon?"

"I'm not sure," Seto replied honestly, his brain still unwilling to accept what had transpired as it appeared to have happened. "Yugi and the geek squad followed me and Mokuba to your boss's base and we broke in after being chased by some extremely advanced holograms. We dueled Dartz, Yugi and I, and he tried to trick us by pretending that if we attacked his monsters, which he'd modified to look like people we knew, that we'd actually hurt them in real life, and Yugi, because he's a gullible fool, believed him and almost cost us the match. Ultimately it came down to three of our cards: The Eye of Tomias, The Fang of Critias, and the Claw of Hermos. I had to sacrifice the rest of my lifepoints in order to give Yugi the opportunity he needed to win and then I guess I passed out, I'm not sure.

I woke up again though, or at least, I think I did, but I just kept hallucinating so I think that Dartz must have slipped us some kind of drug. There were monsters everywhere and Dartz appeared to have merged with one of them. There was some more stuff that happened too, but it was just illusions. The upshot was that we took a boat out to an island off the coast and Yugi ran off to confront Dartz, who was trying to escape. We had to leave without Yugi because otherwise we would have been in danger of getting killed ourselves but he somehow managed to escape anyway. All he said about Dartz was that he was gone. I guess he drowned once the island started falling apart."

"Dartz was able to raise the great beast?" Alistair asked, surprised. Seto looked at him pityingly.

"You do, you still believe it." Alistair was dying to know how they'd managed to defeat Dartz and the leviathan but knew he wouldn't get any answers out of Seto.

"What happened to Valon and Rafael?" Seto shrugged.

"No idea. They weren't my responsibility. All I know is that Raphael defeated Yugi in a duel." He paused to grimace. "And that other guy, Valon did you say, lost to Wheeler."

"But they're alright, right? Do you at least know that?"

"They woke up, that's all I know."

"I wonder if they're ok." Seto shrugged again.

"Like I said; not my problem. Why, did you want to try and find them?" Alistair shook his head.

"No, not really. We weren't friends. We couldn't even stand each other half the time. Valon joked around too much for my and Rafael's taste and I talked about you too much for their taste."

"Yes, I get it," Seto snapped. "You stalked me for what, seven years? You don't have to keep referencing it. It's creepy."

"Alright, fine, sorry." They fell silent.

"I'm exhausted. I don't know what you're going to do, but I'm going to sleep." Seto reached up and flicked the light off before rolling onto his side, his back to Alistair.

"You're not even under the blankets," Alistair pointed out. Seto didn't answer which Alistair took to be a non-verbal invitation. He slid over, noting that Seto hadn't even bothered putting on a shirt this time, and proceeded to run his hand along the curve of Seto's bare shoulder. Seto didn't protest so he took it a step further and leaned in to drag his lips lightly over the CEO's neck. Seto abruptly rolled back over, intending to tell Alistair to cut it out but then he found himself looking into the redhead's silver eyes, eyes that he knew had seen horrible things, things that no one should ever have to see, eyes that he had seen clouded by rage and sorrow, eyes that wanted him.

The moment their lips combined it was as though nothing else mattered. Not Kaiba Corp, not the tournament, not his jet lag, nothing. Only Alistair mattered.

Seto did not tell Alistair that he loved him, but he didn't have to; Alistair knew just by the way Seto held him that there was more than just lust there. As Seto kissed along his neck, Alistair ran his fingers through Seto's chestnut hair, messing it up a little.

"Let's do it," he murmured. Seto stopped kissing his neck and looked down at the man lying beneath him with desire shining in his eyes.

"We can't; I don't have any condoms," he replied practically, though that wasn't completely true; he did still have the one that Mokuba had tossed onto his desk all those months ago. But a: that was all the way in his office, and b: he wasn't completely sure how to have sex with Alistair condom or no condom. Alistair looked disappointed.

"A little eager, aren't you?" Seto teased, a half-smirk gracing his face. "Don't you think we should take this slow?"

"Oh shut up." This time it was Alistair that rolled over, embarrassed despite himself for having even made the suggestion. Behind his back, Seto gave a small smile. He was very glad to have Alistair back.

He hesitated a moment, then scooted towards Alistair, reached out, and wrapped his arm lightly around the redhead's waist, his hand resting just under his ribs. Alistair leaned into the embrace so that he was lying with his body resting against Seto's before closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep, warm, full, and content for the first time in months.

When his alarm went off, Seto jolted awake, groggy and disoriented. The sound coupled with Seto's sudden movement woke Alistair up too. He groaned and quickly closed his eyes again, burrowing back under the covers.

Seto, who didn't have the same luxury, slid out of bed, wincing as he stepped down; his feet were still sore from the trek he and Alistair had made two days prior. In the bathroom he put bandages over the worst spots and opted out of wearing his boots (which were still dirty anyway) in favor of a pair of dress shoes to go with his suit. He noted how tired he looked upon seeing his reflection, but there was little he could do about it.

He yawned as he sat down for breakfast a little under a half an hour later, and reached for the newspaper. To his satisfaction there was a small piece on the anticipated crowds that were expected to show up for the KC Grand Championship which was set to kick off in a little under a month.

"Good morning Seto," Trudy said when she brought him his breakfast of coffee, scrambled eggs, ham, and toast. It was the first time she'd shown any genuine warmth towards him since November, and Seto realized how much he'd missed it.

"Where's my apple?" he asked, reaching for the white coffee mug.

"You know the drill: no apple for you until you've eaten all of this." He rolled his eyes.

"Who are you, my mother?"

"Something like that. And I do wish you'd at least try to lighten up a bit now that Alistair's back."

"What's that got to do with anything?" He took another sip of coffee and continued to pretend to read the newspaper.

"You're too smart for me to believe for one second that you don't know what I mean. You've been right difficult to be around the last few months, even more than usual, and it's no secret as to why. Now stop trying to act aloof and eat your breakfast."

"Yeah, yeah."

As he had expected, there was a pile of papers waiting for him when he got to work that morning, but despite not quite being completely healed from his ordeal abroad, Seto felt somehow refreshed. He tackled the work with a zeal that he hadn't felt in quite a long time and subsequently got twice as much done twice as well than all the days he'd spent grinding it out and as a result found himself with nothing pressing left to deal with by nine in the evening.

He sat at his desk in relative disbelief. Surely he couldn't be done for the day already. He could get ahead on tomorrow's work, he supposed, and started to reach for his computer mouse, but then stopped himself. What was the point of getting ahead for tomorrow? It's not like he took any days off, so it was simply going to put him in a position to do the same thing the next day: get ahead for the day after that. Why do that when he could just go home?

The thought that he might actually get to bed before midnight was so foreign he could scarcely believe it was a real possibility. He emerged from his office, briefcase in hand and winter coat on, still hardly daring to believe that he, Seto Kaiba, was about to leave work for a lack of motivation to do anything else.

On the drive home he wasn't able to speed the way he liked to because of all the people on the highway which was annoying, but once he reached the suburbs he increased his speed until he was fairly flying down the residential road, his motor roaring.

A man taking out his trash started to yell at the sleek red sports car for being too loud and bothering everyone as it streaked past, but it was already gone.

As Seto pulled up the driveway and passed Kanzo who was positioned at his station by the main gate, Kanzo expressed his surprise that Seto was home early.

"Are you feeling alright Mr. Kaiba sir?" he asked in concern, assuming illness would be the only thing to bring his boss home before midnight.

"I'm fine," Seto answered curtly before adding, "thank you."

"It's just that you never come home this early," Kanzo pressed.

"I felt like it. Now if you'll excuse me." He rolled his window back up and continued on to the garage.

Alistair heard Seto pull in through his open window and carefully marked his page in The Picture of Dorian Gray with the bookmark that Trudy had given him.

"I guess it's up to you to hold down the fort now," he told Sewell who was lying next to him on the couch. She blinked at him and he scratched her under her chin before preparing to leave for the night, although he wondered if he would be welcome to join Seto in the pool or not.

He stole down the hallway, his footfalls muffled by the black carpet, and down the stairs hoping to scare Seto on his way up. He was in luck; Seto had his back to the staircase while he unbuttoned his coat. Alistair carefully crept up behind him, intending to grab his shoulder, only to have to duck out of the way as Seto swung around with lightning-fast reflexes to slam him into the ground.

"I should have known it was you," Seto said disdainfully. "No one else would be stupid enough to try to sneak up behind me in the dark. What do you want anyway?"

"Do I need a reason to walk around my own house at night?" Alistair replied cheekily. Seto raised an eyebrow.

"I tell you you can live here and all of a sudden it's your house?"

"It worked for you. Gozaburo gives you a couple of shares and all of a sudden it's your company." Seto smirked.

"That was different; I had the skill and the tenacity to back that up, what do you have?"

"The uncanny ability to imitate people," Alistair said with an equally wide smirk. "I'll I'd have to do is buy some make-up, some contacts and a wig, and steal your clothes and forge your signature and I could sign all of your assets over to me."

"Please, no one could get away with imitating me."

"Please, no one could get away with imitating me," Alistair parroted back to him in a voice that sounded just like Seto's, his smirk growing wider still.

"How did you do that?" Seto demanded, unnerved.

"Same way I got you to believe I was Pegasus; I studied the way that you talk and then mimicked the pitch."

"You have some strange talents."

"I've led a strange life. Were you going to go swimming?"

"Yeah. Alone. I'll meet up with you afterwards."

"If I'll have you." Seto rolled his eyes.

"If you'll have me," he amended, finally taking his coat off and hanging it on the hook in the foyer. "Later," he said over his shoulder, disappearing off down the hall. Given that he had nothing else to do for the foreseeable future, Alistair decided to finally make use of the computer in his room.

It was a rather old-fashioned desktop that seemed out of place in the ultra-modern house, but then Alistair figured that it probably hadn't been used since Gozaburo's death. It took so long to turn on and boot up that Alistair was certain it was broken, but eventually a log-in screen appeared. Cracking his knuckles ostentatiously, he prepared to hack into the computer. It was as though he hadn't ever taken a break. Within ten minutes he'd done it. Not nearly as fast as Seto could have, but it was doggedness not speed that was his skill.

It didn't really turn out to have been worth the work; Gozaburo evidently hadn't used his home computer often or at least stored much on its hard drive (which had been a smart move on his part), although there were KC related documents, mostly copies of contracts and receipts for major purchases including several cars. Already bored, Alistair attempted to connect to the internet only to discover that he couldn't. At a loss as to what to do with it without an internet connection, he shut the computer down again and went back to Dorian Gray who, despite being described as blonde, Alistair envisioned as looking like Seto.

A few rooms over, Mokuba was on his laptop, video chatting with Hilary.

"Are we going to hang out this weekend?" she asked.

"Sure," he replied. "The American Duel Monsters amateur nationals are starting this Saturday; we could watch. The opening ceremony is always cool." She laughed.

"Is that all boys care about?"

"Girls play it too; the regional champ in America is a girl. And what about Mai Valentine and Vivian Wong?"

"That's only three though."

"What do you know? Can you even name any duelists?" Mokuba asked.

"Hmm…Your brother…uh…Yugi something…umm…"

"Is that really the best you can do? I've obviously failed at some point if you can't name more than two duelists after dating me for almost eight months."

"The world doesn't revolve around Duel Monsters you know."

"I've been lied to!" Mokuba said jokingly and she laughed again.

"I don't know if I'm up for watching the American Duel Monsters amateur nationals, but you're welcome to come to my place; my parents are going to be gone all day on Saturday to go to my mom's cousin's wedding. I begged off." Mokuba bit his lip.

Lately Hilary had taken to dropping hints about them sleeping together given that they regularly fooled around, but he still wasn't sure he was ready for that. It was the only thing causing their age difference to matter. He really wished he had someone he could ask about it, but there was no one since he couldn't ask his friends unless he wanted them to laugh at him. He supposed he could ask Yugi or one of his friends if he saw them around, but he didn't really know any of them that well since the only times they ever 'hung out' were when there was some sort of crisis.

"Um, yeah, sure, I could come over."

"Well don't sound too enthusiastic."

"No, I am, it's just…" He ran a hand through his dark hair. "I don't really think…uh…" Hilary realized what he meant and was somewhat relieved that he wasn't really keen on the idea of having sex either. She had mostly only been pressing the issue because her friends, who had all already done it, were making fun of her for still being a virgin, saying that it was no wonder since she was dating a child.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it."

"No, I mean, if you really want to…"

"I don't," she assured him. "I mean, it's not that I don't really like you, I just don't know that I'm ready for that. It's my friends that want me to. They keep saying that you're just a kid and that's why we haven't done it, but they're stupid. Forget I even brought it up. You're still welcome to come over though."

"Yeah, alright," he replied, relieved that they were on the same page after all.

"Maybe you could teach me how to play Duel Monsters."

"You're on!" He grinned. "But I'm not very good. Seto's the talented one, not me. Still, it would be cool to finally be able to beat someone."

"You never know: I could turn out to be the next Duel Monsters champ!"

"You'd have to beat Seto first, and no one beats him; he's the best!"

Author's Note: As one reader pointed out we've finally made it to the 'comfort' part of this hurt/comfort tale, and it's long overdue I might add. I also thought it was important to bring Mokuba back into the story since I find with many stories revolving around Seto he tends to get left out, but since I have him in such a critical stage of adolescence I thought it would be a shame not to develop his character beyond the younger brother who serves no other role than cheerleader and motivation for everyone's favorite anti-hero.