Disclaimer: I can huff and puff, but neither of those things will magically make Yu-Gi-Oh! my property.

"Got a secret, can you keep it?

Swear this one you'll save

Better lock it in your pocket, taking this one to the grave."

~Secret, The Pierces

Chapter 11

Seto wearily began reading through the Out Loud article for what felt like the millionth time, highlighting the key points and cursing Britney Whinnery for being so long-winded. He was feeling confident about Monday's meeting. Even if she refused to attend the press conference he was willing to bet that for a fee she'd change her mind; everyone had their price after all and he was certain he could pay hers.

There was a light know on his office door.

"What is it Mokuba?" he asked without looking up. Trudy would never dare disturb him while he was working, and Alistair never bothered to knock, leaving only one person that it could be.

"Um, do you have a minute?" Seto set the magazine aside.

"What?" he repeated.

"It's Hilary's birthday tomorrow and I wanted to do something really nice for her. I already bought a present and all that, but I really want to take her up in the helicopter. I asked Roland but he told me to ask you."

"Go ahead," he answered. "But make sure it's ok with her parents," he added. "I don't feel like dealing with them calling to complain about their daughter being put in danger; I've got more important things on my plate right now."

"I didn't even think about that." It was testament to how accustomed Mokuba was to life without parental supervision. "Ok, I'll call them." He noticed the article the magazine his brother had been looking at. "Do you really think that this could damage KC's reputation?"

"It already has. Ever since it came out we've been getting calls and emails from people demanding that we do something about it, there are feminist, LGBT, and minority organizations that have stated that they're going to boycott us, and even Pegasus called to tell me that if this doesn't blow over he might break our partnership."

"He wouldn't!" Mokuba gasped.

"Let's hope not." Seto had been furious when the call had come through, though he knew that beneath the carefree exterior, Pegasus was shaken by this sudden turn in the KC's fortunes too, because their situation was a rather co-dependent one.

Kaiba Corp had really made a name for itself as a gaming company after coming out with the holographic dueling arenas. People were amazed by the graphics and had started flocking to watch matches, which in turn had bolstered Duel Monster card and merchandise sales, resulting in an international phenomenon. Without the KC technology there was no guarantee that Duel Monsters would stay popular. Even if Pegasus partnered with Schroeder Corp, they didn't have nearly the same clout or flawless holographics that Kaiba Corp did. They needed each other. But as Pegasus had explained, if this article shot KC's reputation he'd have no choice but to abandon ship and take his chances with someone else.

"I'm counting on you to turn this around, Kaiba Boy," Pegasus had said before hanging up. "Siegfried von Schroeder just doesn't have your sense of style." If he had a sense of humor Seto would have found that funny given that Siegfried and Pegasus shared a love of foppery, but as it was the conversation had only served to put more pressure on him.

"If you want my help, just tell me," Mokuba said. "I don't know what I can do, but if there's something…"

"There isn't."

"Ok...Well thanks for letting me use the helicopter! I really hope her parents say that it's ok; I know she'd really love it!" Seto nodded absently, already glancing back at the article. "Hey Seto?" He looked up again. "How come you and Alistair never go on dates?"

"Because we aren't dating." The answer was so unexpected that it took Mokuba a moment to respond.

"What do you mean you aren't dating?" he asked finally, staring at his brother. "What would you call it?" Seto sighed.

"I don't know Mokuba; I never thought about it."

"I mean, you love him, don't you?"

"Why are you asking me this?"

"Because neither of you ever talk about it. You act like you barely know each other most of the time, but I mean, you flew out to save him when you thought he was in danger, and you two sleep together, so I know that you care which is why I don't understand why you never talk about it."

"I'm not a thirteen year old girl; I don't feel the need to tell everyone every detail of my personal life, and neither does Alistair."

"There's a difference between not sharing every detail and saying that you're not dating the person you've been sleeping and living with for the past year."

"Let's get one thing perfectly clear: it is none of your business what Alistair and I do or don't do, understand?"

"So we're keeping secrets from each other now?" Mokuba asked, a wounded expression on his face.

"It's not a secret, Mokuba," he said in a less confrontational voice. "It's just none of your business. I don't ask you about Hilary, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't ask me about Alistair."

"Are you ashamed of it?" the teen persisted. "Because I really don't care if you like guys. I don't think that there's anything wrong with that."

"That has nothing to do with it."

"Then what is it about Alistair that makes you so cagey?"

"Nothing," Seto snapped. "Look, I don't know what you want me to say!"

"Nothing, I just wish you wouldn't be so weird about it."

"I don't understand what you mean by weird." Mokuba couldn't believe that his brother, a certified genius since the age of nine, didn't grasp what was so odd about the situation.

"You're telling me that there isn't anything strange about the fact that you and Alistair act like acquaintances around each other? That the only time I've ever seen you show any kind of affection towards each other was when you were both blackout drunk? That you don't think of what you two are doing as dating?"

"You saw that?" Seto asked, horrified. Annoyed that that was Seto's takeaway, Mokuba nevertheless answered the question.

"Just for a second. You two woke me up when you fell down the stairs and I went to go see what had fallen." Seeing the look on his brother's face, he added: "don't worry, you were just kissing." Only partially relieved, Seto said:

"I'm sorry you had to see that. That was…that'll never happen again."

"I was a little bit startled, but it's not like you guys were…you know. And I mean, Hilary and I kiss too, so I'm not a prude, it was just that you're my brother…Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I don't want you to think that I have a problem with you and Alistair being gay." It was the first time that anyone had put that label on Seto directly and he wasn't sure how to feel about it.

He hadn't grown up living under a rock, and Gozaburo had had plenty to say on the subject, frequently calling Seto a 'sissy' and a 'faggot' if he did something that the former Kaiba Corp CEO deemed weak, so the label of 'gay' had always had a bad connotation in his mind. Objectively he supposed that since the first time that he and Alistair had kissed he'd known that that's what he was, but in his head he had never considered his attraction to Alistair 'gay.' Having Mokuba say that drove home just how absurd the accusations in the Out Loud article were. He had to laugh.

"What's funny?"

"This." Seto held up the magazine. "This girl," he waved it, "thinks that I chose those uniforms so that all the other men and I could, I don't know, get some kind of a kick out of being able to see their cleavage, and she claims that I'm homophobic because there aren't any gay people in positions of power. This entire thing is ridiculous!"

"Then you know the solution, right?" Seto stopped laughing.

"What do you mean?"

"If you came out as gay, her article would lose a lot of its power." Seto stared at his brother. It was so simple. The answer had been there the entire time.

"Yes," he agreed slowly. He sat back in his chair. "I'll only get one shot with that though, so I have to make it count. Hmmm…When I meet with her on Monday I'll say exactly what I was planning to say and get her to agree to the press conference, then, once we're on live TV, right when she thinks that she's won, I'll get her!

Of course there will be other consequences, but nothing I can't handle, and then the gay rights organizations will have no choice but to support me! Since it's so politically correct to champion gay rights right now I'll be untouchable! Why didn't I think of this before?" How could he ever have thought that keeping his relationship with Alistair a secret was so imperative?

Sure the paparazzi would follow him around for a while, but who said that that had to be a bad thing? Magazines like Out Loud might be supporting Schroeder Corp now, but once they saw just how gay friendly Kaiba Corp was they'd start singing a different tune. And even though it was obvious to just about everyone what team Siegfried batted for, he'd never said it publicly, so Seto was going to beat him to the punch yet again.

"Mokuba: this is brilliant!" Mokuba had no idea what had prompted this sudden and drastic change in Seto's outlook on the situation, but he was glad for it; his brother's confidence and zeal were catching.

Alistair, having gotten lunch at the diner, had gone on to Darren's apartment building, only to find out that he didn't live there anymore, and the current tenants had no idea where he lived now. Frustrated, he had gone back to Twist to ask if anyone knew Darren, which most of the people there did, but they didn't have his number.

Cursing his bad luck, he'd gone to several other pubs in the area, the ones that were open already, but didn't find Darren or anyone who knew where he was. Running out of options, he slumped over the counter of the pub he was in and ordered a beer even though it wasn't even five yet.

"Rough day?" the bartender, a burly late middle aged man asked as he handed Alistair the cool glass bottle.

"Yeah."

"Bad break up?"

"No." Alistair took a sip. "I'm just trying to find someone."

"Oh is that why you've been talking to everyone in the place? I just assumed you were looking for drugs or something." Alistair shook his head.

"Who is it that you're looking for?"

"His name's Darren Wiley."

"Sorry, I don't know him. Is he missing?"

"No, I just need to talk to him. He knows something that he's not supposed to and I'm afraid that he'll tell someone." The bartender had a very open, fatherly face, and Alistair found himself going into greater detail. "I wasn't supposed to tell anyone about who I'm seeing, but Darren figured it out and I have to try to convince him to keep it a secret or else the person that I'm with…he'll be really angry with me because he's afraid that if people know it'll ruin his reputation."

"Listen," the bartender said. "Things aren't like they used to be. When I was your age coming out was an absolute no-go. You could lose your job, your family, your friends, you could even get killed. Now I'm not saying that those things don't still happen, they do, but that's changing. So even if this Darren guy tells someone about your boyfriend, that's not the death sentence it used to be."

"Try telling him that," Alistair muttered vehemently, suddenly angry with Seto for having made an issue out of the matter in the first place. He took a moody swig of beer, the bitter taste matching his mood perfectly.

"Do you want my advice?" Alistair looked up at him. "I've seen a lot of guys try to make dating a closet-case work. At first the secret rendezvous' seem romantic and exciting, but ultimately I've never seen it end well. Believe me, I've tried it myself. But after a while I realized that being with him just made me feel ashamed of who I was. I'd already come out once after going through years of doubt and self-loathing and I wasn't going to let myself fall back to that place. It was ugly."

"I'm not ashamed of who I am," Alistair argued defensively. "I've been through a lot, and I've done things I'm not proud of, but I'm not ashamed of this."

"What's your name?" the bartender asked suddenly.

"Alistair."

"That's a nice name. Look: I've been with my husband for fifteen years Alistair. And when I'm feeling low, unattractive, old, do you know what he does for me? He takes me out on the town and tells random strangers that he's the luckiest man in the world to have me on his arm.

This boyfriend of yours, is he the love of your life? The one that you want to fall asleep with every night and wake up with every morning?" Alistair thought about it.

"I think so."

"Are you sure? See, I feel like to earn the title of 'love of someone's life' a person has to make you feel as special as you think that they are. By making your relationship out to be something shameful that needs to stay hidden, tell me: how is this man making you feel special?"

"I'm the only one he's ever been with. He doesn't trust people usually. And I know that he loves me even if he doesn't say so in so many words." He thought back to how he had slowly earned Seto's trust, remembered how he'd felt when he'd woken up in the hospital after being dumped there by the members of Robinhood to see Seto lying on his chest, having come to bring him home. He thought about the way that Seto looked at him sometimes, usually late at night and after Alistair had given some kind of pick-me-up speech, how he kissed him, held him. Seto did love him, and he didn't need the brunette to parade him up and down the street in order to feel special.

"I have to go," he said suddenly, pulling enough money out of his jacket pocket to pay for at least three beers. "Thank you for talking to me."

"I hope I was helpful in some way."

Once outside of the pub, Alistair pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and called Seto.

"Perfect timing," Seto said, his tone much more upbeat than usual. "I was just about to call you. Are you still at work?"

"Oh, no. I just left."

"Are you on your way home?"

"Actually no, that's what I was calling to tell you. Moira's boyfriend just broke up with her and I offered to keep her company. I'll probably end up staying at her place tonight." He couldn't believe how naturally the lie rolled off his tongue.

"Oh." Seto was disappointed. He'd been hoping to tell Alistair about his plan that night, but he didn't want to do it over the phone; he wanted to see the redhead's face when he told him.

"Why, did you need me for something?"

"No. I'll see you tomorrow then." He hung up.

What was that about? Alistair wondered. He was certain that there was no way Seto could know that he was lying about going to Moira's, so he had no idea what about what he'd said had caused the brunette to act so put out.

He got back on his motorcycle and roared off to the bank to get enough money out of the account he'd set up after getting all of his legal documents to pay for a motel, food, and cover for Byzantium. He was more determined than ever now to find Darren so that he could protect both himself and Seto.

As Seto got into bed that night, he realized that it would be the first time he slept alone since returning from Egypt. He didn't like it. His bed seemed far too large without Alistair lying beside him.

Alistair awoke the next morning in the seedy motel room he'd rented the night before, tired beyond belief. He'd arrived at Byzantium when it opened and had stayed until it closed, but Darren had never shown up. He glanced at his cell phone. How could it be so late already? If he didn't hurry he'd be late for work.

He splashed cold water from the sink on his face and pulled on the same clothes he'd worn the night before. They smelled of old cigarette smoke, but there was little he could do about it.

After making sure he wasn't leaving anything behind, he hurried downstairs, checked out of the motel, and jumped on his bike. He managed to get to the library just in time to clock in only to find out that this time someone really did need him to cover their shift which meant that he would be stuck there until the library closed at nine, leaving him very little time to search for Darren. He never should have said that he'd be available to take extra shifts.

Seto, who was currently going over his plan of attack for his meeting with Britney Whinnery the next day with his lawyer, Roland, and the head of PR, was running on empty. He hadn't been able to fall asleep the night before and had ended up staying up all night fiddling with his new Duel Disk design. It was only thanks to the power of caffeine that he was even standing, but by six that evening his fatigue was starting to catch up with him, despite the many cups of coffee he'd had.

After almost falling asleep at his desk while trying to write out an email to the manager of the San Francisco Kaiba Land to assure him that he'd send someone from HQ to look into a bug in their graphics system, Seto decided to go for a walk. He left his office and took the elevator down to the programming department to see if he could convince one of them to fly to California to give the system there a once over. Normally this was the kind of thing he'd tell Roland to do, but seeing as how he would only be able to keep his eyes open if he kept walking around, he opted to deal with it himself. He already knew who he wanted to ask too.

As soon as he hit the floor, everyone went into a panic, though they tried to keep it contained. A visit from Seto Kaiba almost always meant that someone had screwed up. Seto ignored all of the tense faces and marched up to the floor's supervisor.

"Is something wrong, sir?" the man asked nervously.

"I'm looking for a girl named Momo Tojikamuri."

"Momo?" Since joining the team Momo had proven to be one of the best programmers there, so what she could have done to elicit a visit from Mr. Kaiba the supervisor had no idea.

"Yes. I need to talk to her."

"Yes sir. One moment. He hurried off and returned a minute later with the pretty brunette.

"Hi," she greeted Seto and her boss was shocked by her show of familiarity.

"Have you ever been to California?" She shook her head. "How do you feel about going there next week to fix the bug in their graphics system?" Her dark eyes widened.

"You'd want me to do that?" He nodded. She secretly suspected that the job offer had less to do with her level of competence and more to do with her gender given everything that had been going on recently, but she wasn't about to pass up an all-expenses paid trip to San Francisco on moral grounds. Besides, she didn't believe that Seto Kaiba was the sexist pig that he was being made out to be. "When would you need me to go?"

"Sometime next week. I'll have my secretary send you a formal email. I just wanted to see if you were interested."

"Sign me up."

"Good. That's all." His goal accomplished, he turned and swept back to the elevator as quickly as he'd come without a backward glance.

His walk had served its purpose, and upon returning to his office where a fresh cup of coffee was waiting for him, courtesy of his secretary, he metaphorically rolled up his sleeves and prepared to tackle the many emails he still had to answer.

He was halfway through his second shift when Alistair had a sudden flash of insight. He had been concentrating on finding Darren when he should have been looking for Britney. Surely since she was working as a journalist she'd have some kind of contact information. All he had to do was look it up.

He glanced around for his boss before making his way to the library's collection of magazines. He was almost positive that they had a subscription to Out Loud. Sure enough, there it was: the latest edition. He reached for it triumphantly and flipped to the title article with the now familiar pictures and charts. And next to Britney's name: an email address. He stared at it for twenty seconds, memorizing it, before putting the magazine back.

Before he had the chance to get to a computer and email her, a middle aged woman came up to him and asked if he could help her find a book her ten year old daughter could write a book report on. She turned out to be extremely picky, and the task took far longer than he felt it should have, but eventually the woman left, satisfied with the final selection.

Finally he had a moment to use the computer, but he knew he'd have to be crafty if he didn't want to get in trouble. He decided to solicit Zoe for her help.

"I have to send an email," he told her. "It's important. If anyone asks, can I tell them I'm looking up something for you? A book someone called about?"

"Sure," she replied, happy that he seemed to be coming to think of her as a confidant.

"Thank you." He sat in one of the swivel chairs at one of the computers and booted up the web browser, logging into his email account, which he only ever used to communicate with his boss, who sent out the new schedules via email. He quickly typed a message to Britney:

Hey, it's Alistair. I know it's been a while, but can you do me a favor? I don't know what, if anything, Darren told you about me and Kaiba, but please don't mention it at your meeting tomorrow. That has nothing to do with why you attacked Kaiba Corp in your article and he's already planning on doing what you want him to do, so there's no need to blackmail him with that. ~Alistair

It was a vague message at best, but he figured that if she did know something, the meaning would be obvious. Given that he hadn't talked to them in months he wasn't sure that it would be enough to convince her if she did know what he was talking about, but it was legitimately the best he could do and it was his last chance. If she didn't write back, or worse; told him flat out that she didn't care and was going to tell him anyway, he'd be forced to tell Seto about it which he didn't want to do.

Britney had been in the middle of video chatting with her best friend from her hometown when she heard her email ding.

"Hang on Kia," she said. "I just got an email; it's probably from Kaiba Corp with the details about tomorrow." She clicked over to her email and was surprised to see that it wasn't from Kaiba Corp, but from Alistair if the screen name was anything to go on. She clicked on it and scanned the message which was just as startling as hearing from the redhead after he'd seemingly fallen off the face of the earth.

"Can I call you back?" she asked. "I have to deal with this."

"Sure. I should get going anyway; I have a paper due tomorrow and it's not going to write itself. Bye!" Without powering her laptop down, Britney pulled her cell phone and called Darren.

"What's up?" he asked.

"You'll never believe who just emailed me."

"Who?"

"Alistair."

"What? Since when is he back in town?"

"I have no idea, but he knows about our meeting with Kaiba tomorrow; that's what he emailed me about; to tell us not to tell Kaiba about what we know about the two of them sleeping together."

"How did he know we're meeting with Kaiba?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe because he and Kaiba are still an item. Genius." She rolled her eyes.

"That can't be right….He told me that he was going home to do some sort of humanitarian work and since he wasn't in Domino legally in the first place it should have been next to impossible to come back."

"Unless you have someone with deep pockets to get you a fake passport. Anyway, he doesn't want you to use his relationship with Kaiba against him at the meeting tomorrow, and I agree that that'd be a pretty low thing to do. We may not like Kaiba, but he's still technically one of us, closeted or not."

"Just because we both fuck guys doesn't mean that he and I are in any way the same."

"This isn't a dong measuring contest Darren, and I'm putting my foot down. Either you promise not to try to blackmail him with that or you aren't going."

"Ugh! Fine. Have it your way; we'll play fair despite knowing that he won't."

"Apropos: did you get my email with all of my notes and stuff for tomorrow?"

"Yeah. And I talked to Luke too and he says that legally he's pretty sure we're alright, but he also said that we'll be on our own tomorrow law-wise since we won't have a lawyer there to bear witness to whatever might happen."

"Not true: my dad said he'd go with us."

"What? Your dad? I thought you guys were still fighting."

"We are, but when I called to tell mom about what's going on, she told him and he's insisting on coming to make sure that you and I don't get screwed over. I said that in that email I sent you."

"Well I didn't read it; I just downloaded the attachments."

"Remind me why you're going again."

"Moral support so that you don't cry when Kaiba goes for your jugular."

"Oh yeah."

Alistair didn't get the chance to check his email until the last ten minutes of his shift, though he figured it was probably just as well. To his immense relief, Britney had gotten his message and promised not to use the knowledge against Seto.

The lead that had settled in his gut suddenly disappeared and it was with a much lighter heart that he left the library that night.

Upon arriving at the mansion and parking his motorcycle in the garage he walked upstairs to Mokuba's room to see if the teen had ordered take-out yet.

"Hey Alistair," Mokuba said, the momentary distraction causing his avatar to fall off a cliff.

"Sorry," Alistair said, realizing he'd been the cause of the character's untimely demise. Mokuba waved his apology away.

"I wasn't at an important part. Anyway, where have you been? I haven't seen you since Saturday morning."

"A friend of mine just got broken up with so I spent the night at her place."

"Seto told me you had a double shift at work."

"Yeah, I went to her place after I got off work and then today I had another double shift. That's what I get for being such a pushover." Mokuba wasn't sure that 'pushover' was a word he'd use to describe the fiery redhead who was anything but. He got the sense that Alistair wasn't being completely truthful, but he wasn't sure why he would lie. As far as he knew, Seto and Alistair were happy together. He decided he was just being paranoid.

"Oh. Hey, did you talk to Seto yet?"

"About what?"

"So you haven't."

"Why, what happened?" Mokuba smiled and bit his lip.

"Go ask him. He's been dying to tell you. I haven't seen him this excited about something in ages."

"He's home already?"

"He didn't sleep last night so he came home at around seven. He's probably passed out in your bedroom."

"My bedroom?"

"Well, his technically."

"I don't want to wake him up if he hasn't slept yet."

"Believe me: he'd want you to. What he wants to tell you is about you, sort of." Intrigued, Alistair left Mokuba to his game, the take-out forgotten, and walked to Seto's room.

As Mokuba had described, Seto was fast asleep and if he hadn't been so curious about what Seto had to say, Alistair wouldn't have had the heart to wake him. As it was he sat down next to the brunette on the bed and shook him gently.

"Seto, wake up." Seto, who had been having a dream involving riding the Blue Eyes White Dragon and chasing Joey Wheeler through Kaiba Land, groggily and with great difficulty, opened his eyes. His first conscious emotion was annoyance at having been woken up, but when he realized that it was Alistair who had shaken him, he sat up and rubbed his eyes, trying to force himself to be more alert.

"Where have you been?" he asked blearily.

"I told you; I stayed at Moira's yesterday and then I had another double shift today."

"You smell like cigarettes."

"Yeah, she smokes when she's upset. What did you want to tell me? Mokuba made it sound like it was important." Suddenly fully awake, Seto put his hands on Alistair's shoulders.

"I'm going to tell everyone about us." Alistair's eyes widened in complete and utter shock. If he hadn't known for a fact that he was awake he would have been certain that he was dreaming.

"What?" he managed to say finally.

"I got the idea when I was talking to Mokuba. It's brilliant: if I come out as gay not only will her whole argument about me being sexist be invalid, but no one will care since they'll be too busy writing about my announcement! Pegasus won't have to partner with Siegfried, and Siegfried will look like an idiot for having criticized me! And then you won't have to pretend that you're just an employee anymore." Alistair had no idea what to say; he was still processing what Seto had said. Of course it made sense; to be honest, he was surprised that Seto hadn't thought of it the moment the article had come out, and he was certainly glad that Seto was coming around about keeping him a dirty little secret, but it was a lot to adjust to all at once. "Speechless?" Seto asked, smirking. Good. He hoped that Britney and every other person in the world would have a similar reaction. He always liked putting on a good show as long as it was on his terms.

"You…"

"I'm brilliant, I know." Seto pressed his forehead against Alistair's. "I want you to be there," he said, kissing Alistair lightly. "If you want to be." Alistair found himself nodding, though he was still reeling from the news. Seto yawned suddenly, his spurt of adrenaline exhausted.

"You should go back to sleep," Alistair advised him.

"Probably," Seto agreed, yawning again and lying back down. "I can't wait to see the look on her face." He chuckled. "She'll say something like: 'don't you think there's something inherently sexist and demeaning about forcing your female employees to dress provocatively for your own enjoyment?' and then I'll say: I agree that that would be sexist and demeaning, and any man at Kaiba Corp who views women as sexual objects is a pig. I'm very grateful that you brought the issue to my attention. Then she'll say: 'you can't expect anyone to believe that you didn't notice that all the women who work for you have their breasts falling out of their shirts.' And then I'll say: if I were a straight man I wouldn't expect you to believe it, but as it is…" He laughed again. "She won't know what hit her."

"No, probably not," Alistair agreed, not able to match Seto's level of jubilance.

"What's wrong?" Seto asked.

"Long day at work," he lied, lying down next to the brunette and resting his head in the hollow of his neck, breathing in the smell of his cologne. Now that he knew what Seto planned to do, he should have been pleased, but as it was all he could think about was how many lies he'd told that weekend and how afraid he was that they'd come back to haunt him. He wished he could just skip to the end of the week once all of this was over.

He sat back up and got on top of Seto, leaning down to kiss him deeply, his hands cradling the CEO's head.

"I'm too tired for that," Seto told him honestly.

"That's ok," Alistair said softly, stroking his face.

"What's gotten into you all of a sudden? You're not usually this affectionate." Alistair shrugged.

"I don't know." Seto stared steadily into the redhead's eyes, wishing he could read his mind. He was mentally drained, but he could still tell that there was something Alistair wasn't telling him. "Go back to sleep," Alistair said for a second time, breaking eye contact and getting off of Seto. "You have a big day tomorrow."

"What am I, six? I know." Alistair threw his hands up in defeat.

"Ok. Well, I'm going to go take a shower and get something to eat, then I think I'll go to bed too, but don't wait up for me."

"I don't think I could even if I tried," Seto replied, yawning for a third time and rolling onto his side. He fell asleep almost immediately. Alistair waited until Seto's breathing evened out and became deep and steady before getting out of the bed to go to the bathroom and take a shower.

Once under the steaming water, he hoped he'd be able to wash off the slimy feeling that had come over him, though he held little hope. He never should have allowed Darren to figure out that he was seeing Seto, and he definitely had had no right telling the art student about Seto cutting himself or any of the other personal things he'd revealed.

He'd all but forgotten about Darren since leaving to join Robinhood, but now his betrayal of Seto's trust was back to haunt him. Britney had promised not to say anything, and Alistair believed her, but the whole thing was reminding him of just how guilty he'd felt at the time.

After getting out of the shower and stealing down to the kitchen to rummage around for food, Alistair got into bed, wrapping an arm around Seto's sleeping form.

I'm so sorry, he thought as he was falling asleep.

Author's Note: As is supported by the canon, Seto's willing to do just about anything for his company, and while I don't necessarily see it as a good thing to come out simply to save his company's reputation, that's how he is.

As for Alistair-he tried his best, truly, to protect both himself and Seto, but will it be enough?