Disclaimer: If I owned Yu-Gi-Oh! Alistair would have gotten more screen time.
"Infatuation got me spinning outta control
My body aching and I'm not sure why
But I'm sure it's got something to do
Do with you."
~Sex, Tila Tequila
Chapter 29
He never made a formal or even an informal announcement, but from the time he returned to Domino with Alistair Seto made some decisions about how he wanted his life to proceed. He marveled at his years of late nights at Kaiba Corp, pouring over a never-ending flood of paperwork, and for what? To get ahead only to do it all over again the next day?
He stopped staying past nine at his office even though the Tournament was almost upon him, and even starting showing up for dinner a couple of times a week. No one mentioned his sudden drastic change in routine, afraid that they might trigger a regression. And even though he didn't admit it, it was clear to everyone what had caused Seto to start coming home earlier.
"Hey Seto," Mokuba started, one week before the Grand Championship opening ceremony, "can I have some of my friends over tomorrow? I always go to their places, but we have a better gaming set-up here."
"Yeah, that'd be cool; I'd like to meet your friends," Alistair answered for him before taking another bite of Trudy's cherry pie. Seto shot him a reproachful look, then addressed his brother.
"As long as you tell Kanzo that they're coming and how long they'll be here that should be fine."
"Ok. And don't worry: I won't tell them about…you know, and we definitely won't go anywhere near your room." He carefully avoided catching either Seto or Alistair's eye.
"It wouldn't matter if you did." Seto said with dignity and Alistair sighed softly because unfortunately it was true. They'd done more when they didn't like each other than they did now that they did. He was lucky if he could even get Seto to kiss him, never mind anything else and it was starting to grate on him.
"Speaking of the tournament," Seto added, pushing his empty plate to the side and resting his elbows on the table. "I need someone to pilot my jet for when I make my grand entrance."
"And you want me to do it?" Alistair asked, surprised.
"Obviously or I wouldn't bring it up. You're the only person, besides myself of course, that I think is good enough to fly my Blue Eyes jet." Alistair stared at him, wide eyed. As far as he knew Seto had never entrusted his precious plane to anyone before. "Look, I know how you feel about Kaiba Corp so I'm asking this as a favor."
"Sure, I'll do it," he answered slowly. "What is 'it' exactly?" Seto rolled his eyes.
"Never agree to something you don't fully understand."
"Don't sound so condescending," Alistair snapped. "I'm not an idiot."
"Then don't say stupid things. Anyway, what I want to do is jump out of the window wearing my new jetpack and use that to glide down to the stage. You just have to keep the jet steady enough for me to aim properly." Alistair snorted. "What's so funny?"
"It's so typical of you to grandstand like that. Your clothes, your jet, your jetpack; you just have to be the center of attention, don't you. Unless it's not on your terms of course."
"What do you mean 'on my terms'?" Seto demanded, his eyes narrowing. Mokuba sensed an argument brewing and wisely excused himself from the table mumbling something about homework.
"It's all fine and good to jetpack out of a moving plane shaped like a dragon which will broadcast to the entire world, but you can't handle the thought of the fact that you're with me being known? Kind of a double standard don't you think?"
"I knew that that's what this was about."
"Well good for you. Glad to see you living up to your IQ," Alistair spat sarcastically, glaring at the man sitting across from him. "And don't think that I don't know that you have no intention of letting me wander around while Mokuba's friends are here tomorrow."
"Guess you're not so stupid after all," Seto said with a smirk.
"What, you want me to stay in my room and twiddle my thumbs until they leave?"
"If you'd prefer. But I was actually hoping you'd accompany me somewhere."
"You what?" Seto had never asked him anything like that before and it was enough to cause him to shelve his annoyance.
"You heard me. So what do you say?"
"Where?"
"If I didn't want it to be vague I would have told you in the first place. But as I said: if you'd prefer to sit around here tomorrow and twiddle your thumbs…"
"No, I'll go."
"Good. Pack an overnight bag and I'll pick you up tomorrow after Mokuba and I get back. Just make sure you're ready; I have a tight schedule."
"So is this like a date?" Alistair asked, dumbfounded. Seto gave him a pitying look.
"Of course not. I don't do dates. Not after Trudy set me up with Momo Tojikamuri."
"What ever happened with her? Did you hire her?" Seto shrugged.
"I think so. I handed that matter over to the graphics department; I presume that my recommendation would be enough for them to follow-up but I don't know if they actually did. You don't know much about my job, do you? I don't usually personally involve myself in things like hiring someone for a given department who isn't going to be overseeing anything."
"What do you do then?" Alistair suddenly realized that even though he'd done nothing but watch Kaiba at work all day for years he'd never really understood his job. He just filled out a lot of paperwork, went on trips where he schmoozed with other business owners and yelled at everyone who strayed across his path as far as Alistair could tell.
"If I had a week I couldn't explain that to you in a way that would make you understand." Alistair flared his nostrils and was about to retort when Seto cut him off. "Not because I think you're stupid; I don't associate myself with stupid people when at all possible, it's just complicated and if I gave you the simple version I wouldn't be doing myself justice. Moving on, if you want to come with me tomorrow you'll need this." He reached into the inner pocket of his white suit jacket and produced a passport. "This and all the other paperwork was finished yesterday."
He handed the small booklet to Alistair who took it from him and stared at it in wonder. He was finally legal. He opened it and his eyes traveled over the picture (one he'd had taken at the post office several weeks prior) and the information: Alistair Ravensdale, born 17 November twenty years previously in Domino.
"In total you now have a passport, a birth certificate, a national ID number, a new pilot's license, a driver's license, and a graduation certificate from Domino High. They're all based on a real number, so as long as you don't do anything that would cause anyone to look any deeper you'll be fine." Alistair would have asked how much getting all these documents made cost but knew Seto would never tell him. He tore his gaze away from the passport and met Seto's eyes, smiling.
"Thank you," he said. "You don't know what this means to me."
"Actually, I think I do," Seto replied with a small smile of his own. Alistair set the passport next to his empty plate and leaned across the table to kiss the man who had taken a chance on him.
Seto returned the kiss but pulled back when Alistair tried to deepen it.
"Trudy will be here any minute to get the dishes."
"She doesn't care," Alistair pointed out, getting up from his seat, intending to take Seto by the hand and lead him upstairs. "But if her seeing would bother you let's go to your room."
"No. I have work to do."
"It can wait." Alistair stood behind Seto and leaned down to rest his head on his shoulder.
"No, it can't."
"Ok, then after."
"No, I have to get up early tomorrow. I have a long day; I can't afford to be tired."
"I'm not asking you to run a marathon," Alistair laughed, kissing the side of Seto's neck.
"I said no!" Seto snapped, standing up abruptly and almost sending Alistair sprawling.
"Why not?" Alistair demanded, regaining his balance and crossing his arms. "And don't give me some stupid excuse about work; you never want to touch me!"
"Don't be so dramatic." Seto rolled his eyes. "Look, if you want to have sex so badly just go find one of your little friends from when you used to go clubbing."
That was it; the real reason Seto wouldn't sleep with Alistair. Seto refused to be less than perfect in any respect, and since the redhead had possibly years of experience and he had none, he wasn't going to potentially embarrass himself by not living up to Alistair's expectations.
Alistair stared at Seto openmouthed.
"Are you saying you think I'm a slut?" he asked, more taken aback than angry. "And how do you know that I went clubbing?"
"Spying works both ways," Seto replied stoically.
"You were spying on me? Why?"
"I thought you might be up to something so I had Saito trail you. Oh don't look so violated; you did the same to me for years, which is still extremely disconcerting by the way. So to make a long story short: yes, I know about your…escapades shall we say."
"And you think I was sleeping with all those people?" Alistair asked incredulously just as Trudy was rounding the corner. Before they could see her she decided to return to the kitchen for a little while longer.
"Look Alistair, I don't even care, I'm just saying that I-."
"I didn't sleep with any of them. I've never gone all the way with anyone. I didn't even think about sex at all until I met you." Seto stared steadily back at him, his expression impassive. Knowing that Alistair hadn't in fact ever slept with anyone before changed things.
"As I said: I don't care. If you say you never have, fine, whatever. Maybe you should start so you stop pestering me about it. I have work to do so stop bothering me." He took his leave, leaving a confused Alistair standing in the dining room where Trudy joined him a few minutes later.
"How was the pie?" she asked, pretending she hadn't heard any of his and Seto's conversation.
"It was wonderful as always," he said. "And look." He picked the, his, passport off the table and showed it to her.
"Look at you, all official," she congratulated him.
"Thank you very much for letting me use your and George's last name; I can't think of one I'd rather have." She smiled even though at his words she'd grown misty-eyed.
"I can't think of anyone I'd rather have bear it. Now you're really a part of the family." She gave him a hug then wiped her eyes and began collecting the dishes.
Seto had never locked his office door before; most people weren't stupid enough to disrupt him by barging in unannounced, but because of the nature of the research he was planning on doing he thought it would be in his best interest to make sure he wouldn't be disturbed.
He adjusted his headphones and let his fingertips hover over the keyboard. He suddenly felt horribly foolish.
What was he doing? For all he knew Alistair was lying. And even if he wasn't, Seto's belief had always been that sex wasn't something he cared to get involved in. It was a bad idea for a myriad of reasons, and yet, here he was.
After hesitating another minute or two he typed in several keywords and pressed enter before he lost his nerve. He sighed before clicking on the first link. Had his life really come to this?
Seto was nothing if not thorough, and over the course of several general searches and a couple of movies he took a copious amount of notes though he admittedly had to get over the initial shock of seeing two men having sex for the first time.
After filling three pages with his shoddy script he decided to watch one more movie before calling it quits. A thumbnail of a young man who reminded him of Alistair caught his attention. The clip was ten minutes long and involved the man who resembled Alistair having sex with his biology professor for extra credit. It was so absurd and the acting was so terrible that Seto could do little more than roll his eyes for the first two and a half minutes.
Then something happened. With more imagination than he thought he possessed, Seto started to envision the man as Alistair and himself as the professor. Though in his version the scene took place in his office at KC headquarters.
About halfway through the video he noticed just how tight his pants were and absently reached down to unbuckle his belt thinking dimly that he'd have to stop eating Trudy's pie. Practically of its own accord, Seto's hand didn't merely undo his belt; it unbuttoned his pants and wormed its way into them.
On screen the professor had bent his student over his office desk. At about the same time Seto's hand proceeded to slide under his black boxer briefs in an attempt to relieve the itch-like feeling that had developed in his lower abdomen.
The men in the film were moaning their heads off, particularly the one that looked like Alistair, and Seto knew in that moment that he wanted to cause similar noises to spill from the redhead's mouth for real. He could picture it vividly: Alistair lying beneath him, his hair damp with sweat, his silver eyes half closed, his lips parted…
Just like that the cloying feeling in the pit of his stomach became more concentrated and before he could stop himself he'd cum all over his hand, the underside of the desk, and gotten some on his pants.
He sat back in his chair, breathing as hard as though he'd sprinted a block while the last thirty seconds of the movie played out, appalled by what he'd just done. He carefully opened his desk drawer with his left hand, hoping he still had a package of Kleenex from when he'd had a cold back in January. There turned out to be just enough for him to clean himself and the desk off until the only evidence left was a small stain on his jeans and of course the tissues in the trash can.
Seto exited out of the porn website, reminding himself that no one could possibly ever find out about what he'd done, and regarded his pages of notes. So long as he took a few minutes to look them over on the plane ride the next day he was confident he'd be sufficiently prepared. The only question that remained was how he was going to get the things that he needed to make it work. It was with a deep flush to his cheeks that Seto called Roland to ask him to pick up the necessary items.
Roland was far too professional to let any clue as to his thoughts be heard in his voice, but after getting off the phone with his boss he couldn't help but think that of all the things Seto had ever asked him to pick up for him (things he either didn't have time to get or was unwilling to get for himself), including buying him cover-up foundation, this was the most surprising. He knew why of course; Seto and Alistair were to the staff the worst kept secret in a series of badly kept Kaiba family secrets, but the thought of the robot-like Seto Kaiba having a love or sex life of any kind was still strange.
I wonder where he wants to take me, Alistair mused as he re-packed his worn backpack with two changes of clothes, Mikey's action figure, his father's knife, his copy of Black Beauty, his new passport, and toiletries.
Sewell watched from the bed, her paws curled under her and her eyes half closed.
"Sorry I can't take you with me," he apologized to the calico. She blinked up at him. "But you don't like Seto anyway." After he'd brought her to sleep with them that night it had become apparent that Sewell not only didn't trust Seto, she didn't like him. Every time he'd shifted in his sleep she'd attacked his feet and hissed at him. After the third or so time that this had happened he'd unceremoniously exiled her from the bedroom despite Alistair's protests. She meowed before laying her head down to take a nap.
After zipping his backpack up Alistair stretched out on the couch to read the picture book Seto had mentioned to him the day they'd driven up the mountain together; he'd procured a copy at a secondhand shop earlier that day.
It didn't take him long to finish it and when he did he knew he wanted to add it to his shelf of favorite books.
Reading a story that had been so special to Seto made Alistair feel closer to him, though admittedly not as close as he wanted to be. The thing that bothered him the most about Seto not wanting to have sex with him was that he felt Seto's refusal had a lot to do with a fear of intimacy, and Alistair didn't like that Seto still felt he needed to be that guarded with him.
Outside a car pulled into the driveway and Alistair got up to see who it was. Despite a partially obstructed view, Alistair saw that it was Roland's black truck. What was he doing there this late in the evening?
As he continued to watch, he saw Seto emerge from the house. Roland produced a plastic bag from his car and handed it to the CEO who snatched it from him. The two conversed for another minute before Seto shoved some money into Roland's hand and marched back inside.
Alistair's eyebrows furrowed. Surely whatever was in the bag couldn't be drugs, right? That would be completely out of character for Seto given that drugs are all about relinquishing control.
Curious, he set the picture book on the coffee table and padded down to Seto's office only to bump into him as they arrived at the same time.
"What's that?" Alistair asked, pointing to the bag Seto was trying to conceal at his side.
"Some stuff that Roland picked up for me. Not that it's any of your business."
"You sure it's not cocaine?" Alistair asked jokingly.
"You got me. It is in fact cocaine. I'm about to snort some off my desk, wanna join?" Seto said sarcastically. Alistair crossed his arms.
"If it's not drugs what did he get for you?"
"I am under no obligation to tell you. I repeat: it's none of your business."
"Of course it is! I'm your…" he stopped himself short.
"Were you going to say 'boyfriend'?" Seto's sounded amused.
"Of course not," Alistair scoffed, his cheeks warm. "I was going to say 'friend'. It's pretty arrogant of you to assume I think of myself as your boyfriend."
"Right. Anyway, make sure you're packed and get a good night's sleep if you want to fly tomorrow."
"Wait, what? You want me to pilot the flight?"
"Was my sentence in any way unclear? Do you or do you not want to fly tomorrow?"
"What are you springing this on me all of a sudden? You didn't say anything to me about flying before! I can't help but feel like you're just trying to change the subject and I'm not going to let you manipulate me like that!" Alistair was good, Seto had to give him that; most people wouldn't have put that together.
"I'm not telling you what's in the bag and that's that. However, I really do want you to pilot tomorrow; it's the most discreet way to allow you to come too." Alistair thought about it and decided it wasn't a battle he wanted to fight.
"What kind of plane?"
"One of the company jets. The purpose of the trip is for me to make one last personal appearance before the Grand Championship Tournament to promote Kaiba Land, specifically the Kaiba Land in Germany."
"We're going to Germany?"
"Alistair I've told you before that I don't have patience for stupid people and that I hate repeating myself. Yes we're going to Germany. Hamburg to be precise. It'll be roughly an eleven hour flight. I presumed you would agree and therefore took the liberty of assigning one of my regular pilots as co-pilot so that he can take over for you halfway through the flight in order to let you get some sleep."
"Fine, I'll do it. I've never been to Germany before…How long will we be staying?"
"Two days, two nights. We'll arrive late tomorrow night, the event is the next day, and we'll fly out the day after that. You can either share a suite with me or have your own room, your choice." Alistair was taken aback that Seto would even consider the possibility that he wouldn't want to share a room.
"I'll share with you." Seto nodded.
"Fine, but know that there are a couple of stipulations that come with that. No one can know that you're sharing a suite with me. You either have to stay in the room all day or stay out of the room all day. If I were you I'd choose the former; Hamburg's a nice city."
"Ok, I'll do that." Alistair tried not to let his resentment towards the secrecy show. "Oh, but I don't speak German…" Seto gave a small smile.
"Don't worry, English will get you pretty far. I only learned German because it's an important business language."
"You speak five languages, right?"
"Five and a half; my Russian is pretty good. I speak English, Japanese, French, German and Mandarin Chinese fluently and I'm working on improving my Spanish."
"Does that ever get confusing?"
"Of course not; I'm a genius, remember?"
"How could I forget? Between you and Mokuba I always feel stupid," he admitted, instantly regretting it; Seto's conceit was nothing he cared to feed. Sure enough, Seto smirked.
"Most people feel that way around me."
"Careful, you keep talking like that and your ego won't fit through your office door."
"I'll manage. Later." He unexpectedly leaned in to give Alistair a kiss which the redhead returned, reaching up to briefly run the tip of his finger down Seto's cheek. They held each other's gaze for another moment before Seto turned to walk into his office.
"Seto, wait," Alistair said. Something had just occurred to him. "Could you have someone get me some cables so I can connect the PC in my room to the internet?"
"You don't have internet?" Seto asked in surprise. "Why didn't you say so before?"
"I didn't need it before." Seto shook his head in disbelief. He could barely imagine having to go five minutes without being connected to the internet, never mind several months. Knowing he was always connected had always been a comfort to him.
"I'll have someone set it up while we're gone. In the meantime you can use my laptop. Hang on." He ducked into his office and returned a moment later with a silver case not unlike his signature briefcase and handed it to Alistair. "Just be careful with it and don't touch any of my files."
"Like I would."
"Well given that you went snooping around my room…"
"How did you know about that?"
"Lucky guess. I didn't until just now so thanks for that. Did you find anything interesting?" Alistair licked his lips guiltily.
"Just some pictures of your family. That's why I asked what your last name used to be before it was Kaiba."
"Ah."
"I'm sorry." Seto shrugged.
"It doesn't matter. A couple of years ago I might have cared, but as it is the people in those photographs might as well be strangers."
"You remember them though, don't you? Your parents?"
"Not well," he answered shortly. "Do you remember yours?"
"Not my dad. I remember my mom though, and Mikey of course. I still miss them." He lowered his sorrow-filled eyes.
"It gets better you know, if you let it. I used to miss my parents, but once I acknowledged that they were gone and never coming back and I started looking forwards it hurt a lot less. The future is infinite; the past is merely a string of footprints."
"It's awfully callous of you to just forget about them."
"No offence, but I'd rather not be like you. Let them go; you'll feel better. I know you still dream about them." Alistair lowered his eyebrows as he thought about it.
"Maybe you're right."
"I'm always right."
Author's Note: Are the last two big scenes obvious yet?
Also, this stems in part from one of my headcanons that since Seto's such a perfectionist and so methodical there's no reason he'd handle sex any differently.
One last thing: does anybody recognize the line I borrowed from the manga?