Disclaimer: I solemnly swear that I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! but boy I wish I did because I turn this into a fantastic series...

"I kissed your lips and I tasted blood

I asked you what happened

And you said there'd been a fight

You been fighting for my honor...I just don't know why

I don't kiss losers, and I don't kiss winners

And I don't fight for honor because we are all born sinners."

Regina Spektor~ Your Honor

Chapter 30

The Next Day

"That's what you're wearing?" Seto tried to sound interested rather than judgmental but failed miserably.

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" Alistair asked innocently, glancing at his reflection in the mirrored closet door. He'd underestimated the muscle he'd gained in the past several months when he'd bought the tank top and as a result it was much snugger than if it would have been the right size and showed off half an inch or so of his stomach.

Seto sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"The sad thing is that there's a possibility that you really don't know why I'm asking. Can you at least wear a jacket?"

"It's too hot out," Alistair countered. "Look at it this way: I'm only showing a fraction of the skin Mai Valentine will be; no one will even notice."

"And why the gloves?" He was referring to Alistair's practically shoulder-high black riding gloves with studs on the knuckles.

"Because I don't have anything else and since you were so bent out of shape about the shirt I thought my gloves would draw attention away from it."

"Why are you doing this to me?" Seto asked in a pained voice. "This is kind of a big deal. Can you at least attempt to grasp that?" Alistair glared at him and crossed his arms.

"You practically dragged me here with you with absolutely no notice so don't even try to act like this is somehow my fault. And what the hell difference does what I'm wearing make anyway? No one's going to care as soon as they realize I'm there as your date." Seto made a face. 'Date' was such a distasteful word. He realized then that it wasn't actually Alistair's clothes he was wound up about but the red carpet entrance they had to make in just over an hour.

He had told no one, not even Mokuba about what he and Alistair were planning to do. The shareholders would certainly have something to say about it, and PR, and just about every business and entertainment news outlet, and the thought was putting him on edge. But looking at Alistair he knew it was the right thing to do. There were very few things of which the CEO was truly ashamed and Alistair wasn't one of them. Far from it.

"Let's run through this again," Seto said finally, acting as though their previous conversation hadn't happened. Alistair didn't press it; what Seto was gearing up to do was major and also permanent so he was allowed to be touchy to a certain degree. "The driver will pull up to the entrance and Mokuba and Hilary will get out of the car first. We wait five seconds then I get out and then you. It's about a thirty foot walk from there to these huge backdrops covered in our sponsors' logos. We stop there and that's when reporters get to ask questions."

"And what exactly am I supposed to be doing all the way up until then?"

"What, you're incapable of putting one foot in front of the other thus causing motion?"

"What I mean is: you and Mokuba are celebrities; you're the reason events like this exist. Hilary and I are just normal people. She and Mokuba will presumably be holding hands which will validate her presence there, but unless you want to do that, which I presume that you don't, I need you to tell me what to do."

"Just…wave," Seto said finally. "That's what Mokuba does. Act like you belong there."

"Wave?" Alistair asked skeptically.

"Yes, wave. Do you need me to explain that to you too?" Seto snapped.

"Cut it out."

"Then stop asking stupid questions." Instead of making some snarky counter-remark, Alistair crossed the room to stand in front of Seto and placed his hands on his shoulders, causing the brunet to look into his face.

"Thank you for doing this even though I know you don't want to."

"I'm not doing this for me," Seto said, resting his left hand lightly on Alistair's waist. "I'm doing it for us." The statement shocked Alistair more than the brunette saying 'I love you' had; it was the first time Seto had referred to the two of them that way.

"Then let's make sure to give them a show they won't soon forget."

The very short car ride from the hotel to the main entrance was a tense one. Seto could feel his heart pounding. He was really going to do it; he was going to break all of his step-father's rules as well as his own today. He was going to show the world that he wasn't the cool, calculating, and robotic person he'd always presented as. He was going to throw himself into a political arena he'd never in a million years have expected to be throwing himself into. This decision was going to potentially damage his career and lose him a lot of money. But if he didn't do this he'd probably lose one of the two people he cared about the most, and ultimately that was why he'd decided to do it: he wanted Alistair to know that he was far more important to him than all the money in the world.

They arrived, right on schedule, directly on the back of Pegasus' overly-dramatic grand entrance where he'd parachuted out of a helicopter (which Seto couldn't fail to notice was a cheap rip-off of his Grand Championship entrance using his jet pack). Mokuba and Hilary got out of the car first, holding hands as Alistair had predicted, and immediately began waving to the cameras. Mokuba knew full well that his older brother was the one all the photographers and camera crews were there to see, but he nonetheless enjoyed his moment in the spotlight.

"Alright, let's go," Seto said after waiting the allotted five seconds, taking a deep breath, and putting on his usual air of indifference.

After Battle City and Grand Championship people had come to expect a show when it came to Seto Kaiba and were therefore disappointed when he merely arrived at the stadium in a limo and confused by the redheaded young man he had in tow in lieu of his younger brother who'd gone on ahead.

In Domino, Ryou, who, like millions of other people, had tuned into the Dueling Network to watch the event on TV, gasped when he saw Alistair follow Kaiba out of the CEO's limo. He'd wondered why Alistair hadn't come home the night before, but when he'd received a text from the redhead saying that he'd decided to go with Kaiba to California after all he'd relaxed. To be honest: he'd expected as much. Still, he'd never have been able to predict this.

Go big or go home, Seto chanted to himself as he and Alistair approached the backdrop. Go big or go home. Stepping in front of the white cardboard cutout embossed several hundred times over with the Industrial Illusions logo, Seto faced the sea of reporters, Alistair hovering beside him, uncertain how exactly the brunet intended to deliver his message.

The question on everyone's lips when it came to the champion duelist and CEO of Kaiba Corporation was: why did you try to kill yourself? Seto was not in any way willing to divulge that sort of information and instead began giving a very formal statement about the status of Kaiba Corp and his unquestionable role as commander and chief of the company.

"We may have hit a few snags this year," he concluded, "but despite what anyone may say to the contrary, Kaiba Corp is far from foundering and I have a project in the works that I plan on announcing within the next few weeks. That being said," here he hesitated. It was only a fraction of a second but it was enough to let Alistair know that the time had come. "That being said, the last few months have not only been hard on my company, but on me as well.

As I'm sure everyone here is aware, two months ago a freelance reporter made some allegations about Kaiba Corporation and about me by default. Kaiba Corp has already issued press releases concerning this issue and I decided to decline to comment because I felt the matter had already been resolved. From a business standpoint, it has been, and the offending policies have been changed, but from a personal standpoint I feel obligated to make a final statement." Here he allowed for a more pregnant pause.

"I am very aware of what it is that people have to say about me and for the most part, I don't care. However, one particular aspect of the most recent batch of rumors is one I can easily lay to rest." Here he turned to Alistair and smiled slightly as though to say 'show time' before bending him over backwards and kissing him full on the mouth.

The kiss was met with utter and shocked silence. Not twenty seconds before Mai had turned to Joey and said: "what's he doing here?" pointing an accusatory finger in Alistair's direction. Now both she and Joey and a little further on, Yugi and Tea as well as Siegfried von Schroeder, his brother Leon, Pegasus, and everyone else in the vicinity could do little more than stare dumbfounded with their mouths hanging open as Kaiba pulled Alistair back upright.

"I have no further comments at this time," Seto said with a smirk, his face slightly flushed. Then he put an arm around Alistair's shoulders and the two of them made their way to their VIP box where Mokuba and Hilary were waiting for them, almost as floored as everyone else, and waited patiently for Pegasus to take his place on stage to announce not only his new cards but also the first promotional match.

Slowly everyone regained the ability to speak and soon the stadium was buzzing, anything else anyone else had said or done completely overshadowed by the bombshell Kaiba had just dropped.

What did this mean? Was Kaiba gay or had it been a publicity stunt to belay the persisting rumors that he was homophobic? Was the young man his boyfriend? Who was he?

"I can't believe I just saw what I just saw," the ever-articulate Joey said to Mai, his eyes glued to the monitor which had swung around to show a close-up of Kaiba, Alistair.

"Me neither," Mai agreed vaguely. They were joined soon thereafter by Yugi and Tea.

"You know Richboy better than the rest of us," Joey said to Yugi, "did you know about this?"

Yugi shook his head. "No, I had no idea. I mean, I thought they hated each other."

"I knew," Tea put in softly.

"What?" the others asked in unison.

"Not about Alistair specifically, but I knew, or at least I guessed after what happened on Ishizu's cruise ship in Cairo."

"What're you talking about Tea?" Joey asked in bewilderment.

"You made a joke about him having a boyfriend. He got so upset about it I figured it must be true." Joey was still in shock.

"I can't believe that Kaiba's into guys and I can't believe that Alistair's into Kaiba. Weren't he and Bakura a thing?"

"Not for a while," Yugi said. "I noticed that even if they never said anything about it."

"Who'd pick Kaiba over Bakura?"

"If he's just in it for some hot eye candy then picking Kaiba makes perfect sense," Mai put in. "Don't get me wrong," she added after seeing the pained expression on Joey's face. "Kaiba's despicable, but it'd be hard to deny that he's got good genes."

"You think Kaiba's good-lookin'?" Joey's voice conveyed how jealous the thought of Mai finding Kaiba handsome made him.

"Grow up, Joseph," she scoffed. "Just 'cuz I think he's hot that doesn't mean I'd sleep with the guy so relax; I'm not that shallow."

"I don't know that Alistair is either," Yugi pointed out.

"So, what, you think he actually likes him?" Joey asked incredulously, and they all turned to look up at the redhead seated next to Kaiba in the stands.

Pegasus tried valiantly to bring everyone's attention back to the purpose of the event-namely his new line of cards, but most people were still discussing Seto Kaiba's gay kiss on the red carpet. Only once the brunet joined Siegfried von Schroeder's seventeen year old younger brother Leon on the main stage did things quiet down again.

It was admittedly a very anti-climactic match given that, as Seto had predicted, Leon wasn't really on his level and used essentially the same strategy he'd used against Yugi at Grand Championship minus the illegal card Siegfried had slipped into his deck. The duel lasted less than twenty minutes and even that in Seto's opinion had been a waste of time. Still, he had to admit that even though he in no way needed any support from the peanut gallery, glancing over and seeing not just Mokuba but also Alistair there cheering him on was heartening.

In the stands, Alistair wondered if most people thought that the histrionics Seto displayed while dueling were merely put on, but he knew that the swagger, theatrical card draws and dramatic poses as well as the over-the-top commentary were completely genuine and resulted from Seto's deep-rooted passion for the game. The CEO's diva-like attitude made him a pain in the ass to duel against, but highly entertaining to watch.

After losing, Leon made a point to thank Seto for a good game. Seto started to roll his eyes and say that it hadn't been a 'good' game; just a boring one, but instead he smirked and said:

"You're better than Siegfried anyway," before rejoining his brother and Alistair in the audience to watch the event's title match between Yugi and Mai Valentine.

"That was a great duel Seto!" Mokuba gushed as soon as the brunet sat back down.

"Yeah, congratulations," Hilary, who barely even knew how to play Duel Monsters added cautiously. Seto shrugged indifferently although as always the compliments inwardly made him glow.

"I don't know why you're both act like defeating Leon von Schroeder is any kind of accomplishment," Alistair said snidely. "Seto's a Duel Monster's champion whose only worthy opponent is Yugi Motou. This match was hardly worth his time." Seto knew that Alistair was being facetious and chose to play along.

"Please, no one's worth my time. Without Exodia or the God Cards even Yugi wouldn't stand a ghost of a chance against me."

"Sounds like I need to step my game up or else you'll have no one to play against and that'd be such a waste of your talent." Alistair's gray eyes were sparkling playfully.

"Guess it's a good thing I have you around to satiate my Duel Monsters needs," Seto smirked, throwing an arm around the back of the redhead's chair for publicity purposes. He'd be damned if he and Alistair weren't the talk of the town after all was said and done.

After Yugi defeated Mai (to the shock of no one) in their King and Queen match Seto would have been content to go back to the suite in order to escape the inevitable media onslaught for a few more hours, but as co-host of the event he was required to attend the stupid after-party which was nothing more than a thinly veiled means for up and coming duelists to sign sponsorship contracts with industry bigwigs. Seeing as he hardly needed any kind of monetary backing Seto hoped he wouldn't have to stay long.

The party was set up in the Kaiba Land hotel ballroom and consisted of a small crowd of people, a buffet, temporary card booth boasting the newest booster packs, and a general air of snobbery mixed with a tinge of excitement on the side of the duelists, particularly those hoping to score rare cards and rub shoulders with the community's elite members.

Seto and Alistair made an unspoken agreement to divide and conquer on the car ride back to the hotel. Seto wanted nothing less than to be bombarded with questions by Wheeler and the rest of the 'nerd herd' and opted for the only slightly less odious option of being forced to endure Pegasus.

It had been a wise decision. Seto watched on from the safety of the booster pack booth as Wheeler, followed by Yugi, Tea, and Mai, charged up to Alistair and began flailing his arms around.

"You're just full of surprises, aren't you Kaiba Boy?" Pegasus commented, sidling up to his co-host. "That wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I told you that you ought to have a little fun, but it certainly is dramatic. Who would have thought that beneath that cold exterior beats the heart of a romantic?" Despite his years of teasingly flirting with the temperamental blue-eyed beauty, Pegasus had never once suspected that he and Kaiba batted for the same team. Seto shrugged, his face impassive. He wasn't about to let Pegasus get under his skin.

"You just always have to be the center of attention, don't you?" Pegasus pressed and Seto rolled his eyes.

"That's rich coming from you. Nice entrance by the way; jumping out of a moving plane was so original of you."

"Now, now," Pegasus chided, shaking a finger in the brunet's face. "No need to be cynical; we're on the same side; now more than ever."

"Let's get one thing very clear," Seto said, turning to face the foppish businessman properly. "You and I are business partners, but we aren't, nor were we ever, friends—as you very well know. And we don't have anything but Duel Monsters in common, so don't act like this changes anything. It changes nothing. I don't like you. I never did and I never will; I endure you because the success of my company depends on it." Unperturbed, the silver-haired billionaire's one remaining brown eye shone with mirth. He so loved toying with Seto Kaiba. Suddenly he noticed the approach of Siegfried von Schroeder over Seto's shoulder.

"I hate to cut our little chat short, but it seems like one of our guests requires your attention. Ta, ta, Kaiba Boy!" Seto whipped around and Pegasus took the opportunity to flounce off and get a closer look at the mysterious boy toy Kaiba had brought with him.

"Could I possibly borrow a moment of your time, Herr Kaiba?" the flamboyant president of Schroeder Corp asked, his trademark rose-scented perfume achieving the seemingly impossible and cancelling out Seto's cologne. Seto didn't want Siegfried to borrow anything of his, including his time, but etiquette dictated that he listen—not that meant he had to be happy about it.

"What do you want?" he demanded irritably. The only thing that placed Siegfried von Schroeder above Pegasus in Seto's mind was the fact that he hadn't done anything to harm Mokuba, but he still loathed him all the way down to the lace dripping from under the pink-haired man's sleeves.

"Not to worry," Siegfried drawled in his thick German accent. "I do not think this will take long. First, I wanted to congratulate you on your ravishing debut; I don't think I'm alone in saying that that was quite...unexpected."

"You don't know me well enough to expect or not expect things of me."

"True."

"I assume you also had a second point?" Seto pressed, eager to shoo the man away.

"Yes," Siegfried said, toying with the rose in the buttonhole of his lapel. "I want to know how you came to procure such an exotic and beautiful flower from the ruins of that place."

"What flower?" Seto snapped, now just as confused as he was annoyed. "I don't even like flowers. That's your weird obsession, not mine."

"Come now, Herr Kaiba," Siegfried said, smiling conspiratorially. "You may be able to fool all of the others and perhaps even Pegasus, though I doubt it, but I know where he's from and why he's here."

"Really? Did you figure that out all by yourself?"

"I want one."

"What, a new personality?"

Siegfried rolled his eyes. "I want to know where it is that you found him." He gestured towards Alistair who was being grilled by Pegasus while the Duel Monsters creator snacked on food from the buffet.

Out of the corner of his eye Alistair saw Siegfried von Schroeder pointing at him. It was as good an excuse as any to escape from the gang and from Pegasus, so he took it. After excusing himself from the conversation, he joined Seto and Siegfried on the far side of the ballroom.

Seto had just finished telling Siegfried that it was none of his business where he'd met Alistair when the redhead approached. Siegfried's eyes lit up.

"He is even lovelier in person," Siegfried said, more to himself than to anyone else. Alistair caught Seto's eye and contracted his eyebrows in confusion as though to say 'what gives?' "You don't mind, do you?" Before Seto had a chance to ask him what the hell he was talking about, Siegfried had reached out with tapered fingers and cupped a startled Alistair's face in his hand. "Whatever he's paying you, I'll pay double," he purred after manually turning Alistair's face this way and that several times. Seto grasped what Siegfried had thought from the beginning a split second before Alistair figured it out.

Before he'd really stopped to think about what he was doing, Seto's fist had connected with Siegfried's cheek and the side of his nose. Siegfried reeled backwards, clutching his jaw, blood trickling from his left nostril and a shocked expression on his face. Ignoring the stares of everyone who had seen what had happened and the Austrian businessman's approaching bodyguard, Seto stood his ground and glared at the pretentious playboy.

"How dare you come to my event and not only insult me by insinuating that I'm the kind of person who consorts with prostitutes, but also my boyfriend by calling him one!"

"Are you stupid enough to think he actually cares for you?" Siegfried said loudly, stemming the flow of blood from his nose with the sleeve of his expensive suit jacket, his composure completely cracked. "If you're going to play the game Herr Kaiba you should at least understand the rules!"

"I'm not a prostitute," Alistair cut in indignantly, crossing his arms.

Off to the side, both Siegfried's beefy bodyguard and Saito had begun squaring off, preparing to intervene on the off-chance that further punches were thrown. From behind the sleeve he still had pressed to his throbbing face, Siegfried regarded Alistair kindly.

"You do not need to lie my little desert bloom, at least not to me. Come, you do not want to be in the employment of someone so violent." Here he paused to glare at Seto. At first he had approached his business rival out of curiosity both about his sudden public declaration and about his handsome companion, but now that Seto had punched him he was determined to steal the redhead from him. "My offer still stands," he added persuasively. "Would you not rather lounge in my mansion on the Danube with servants to wait on you than stay here in this concrete jungle with a man so cold you probably have to wear gloves to touch him without getting frostbite?"

"I don't think you understood me," Alistair said firmly, cutting Seto off before he could begin to retort. "He's not paying me. I'm a student at the university in Domino and I pay for my classes and my apartment myself. If you're looking for a prostitute I suggest you search elsewhere; I doubt you'll find anyone who fits that profile here."

"Now get out," Seto put in vehemently. "If you're lucky I won't blacklist you from all my future events."

"You can't; I am a sponsor too!"

"I don't need your money," Seto scoffed.

"I will take you to court and sue you for assault!" Siegfried shouted angrily, taking several steps forward only to be intercepted by his own bodyguard.

"Herr von Schroeder: das wäre nicht ratsam," the large blonde man discouraged his boss softly. He knew of Seto Kaiba's bodyguard, Saito Hajime, and didn't particularly want to have to tangle with him.

"Do whatever you like." Seto's expression was stony. "But don't ever presume to say something like that to me or to him ever again, do you understand?"

Siegfried flared his nostrils, the dry blood on his face cracking, and spat at Seto's feet before turning on his heel and storming towards the door. "Komm, Leon: wir gehen!" he called to his embarrassed younger sibling, giving the boy no choice but to hastily excuse himself from his conversation with Mokuba (both teens had been trying in vain to ignore their warring older brothers) and scurry after him.

"I've had enough of this," Seto muttered to Alistair once Siegfried was gone. "Pegasus and Mokuba can take care of things here. Let's go." Alistair nodded gratefully. He too wasn't sure how much more of the staring he could take; at this point even those who hadn't seen what had happened were looking in their direction.

"I think I ought to go with you," Saito said quietly.

"That won't be necessary," Seto replied, considering he only intended to go upstairs to the suite.

"Sir, all due respect, but I think it would be unwise not to allow me to escort you."

"I'm more than capable of taking care of myself. Your job is to take bullets for me and keep the cameras out of my face. Since neither one of those situations seems likely to come up between now and when we get to our room I'd prefer it if you stayed here and kept an eye on Mokuba." Alistair looked back and forth between them, his brow creasing in concern. Saito so seldom said anything that the redhead often forgot he was there, but whenever he did speak it was almost always to advise his boss to exercise caution.

"Don't be stupid, Seto; he knows more about this sort of thing than you do."

Not wanting to stand there debating the issue, Seto relented. "Fine. But if anything happens to Mokuba in the meantime it is one-hundred percent on you." Saito looked relieved that Seto was agreeing.

"Understood."

Seto easily parted the small crowd of people who hastily got out of his way lest they be wacked by the heavy fabric of his jacket. Alistair walked slightly behind him and Saito brought up the rear. Mokuba looked at his brother questioningly as he passed, but Seto shook his head indicating that Mokuba ought to stay there and the teen nodded to show that he understood.

As the party stepped into the lobby, Saito scanned the area to make sure there were no potential threats before allowing them to begin walking to the elevators.

"I really don't think this is necessary," Seto repeated as the three of them rode the elevator up to the top floor suite. "You haven't been this overly protective since I first took over Kaiba Corp."

"You had a lot of enemies."

"And I don't still?"

"Most people know better than to pick a fight with you."

"And what I've done will somehow cause them to forget?"

"This is a hot topic and people on both sides will have strong opinions about it."

"Don't be so cynical; the climate in Domino is nothing like that, even less so here."

"Still. You can never be too careful."

"Stop worrying about things that haven't even happened and may well never happen; it's a waste of time. We'll deal with things as and if they actually transpire." Alistair and Saito exchanged glances. Saito had been working for the CEO long enough to know better than to try his patience and Alistair could tell that the brunet was going to stubbornly bury his head in the sand which left him to look out for both of them.

"That will be all," Seto told his bodyguard. "Unless you think someone's scaled the wall and is hiding in my closet." Truth be told Saito would have preferred to scan the room before returning to Mokuba, but Seto was clearly not in the mood.

"Alright. I'll go back to the ballroom."

"And keep a lookout," Alistair added quietly as Seto scanned their room key. The dark-haired man nodded before getting back on the elevator and pressing the 'down' button.

Author's Note: I'm so sorry it's taken so long to update! Life (mostly school) just kept getting in the way. In any case, welcome back to Out Loud. There are just a few chapters left, but I also have some one-shots set on this timeline if anyone would care to read those.

But yes. It took me a really long time to get this chapter where I wanted it because it's so pivotal, so I hope you enjoyed it.

Seto coming out so to speak was something I'd planned from the beginning and was essentially the whole point of this second book. After I finished Fire and Ice the way I'd left their relationship didn't sit well with me, but I realized that getting Seto to actually publicly acknowledge Alistair would take way more than a one-shot or even one additional chapter could cover, hence, Out Loud.

Oh, and I honestly don't have that much against Siegfried, but the scene happened so naturally I had to include it. Besides, after everything I felt like Seto deserved to be able to punch somebody. Well, I'll see you in the next chapter!