Yu-Gi-Oh: A Past and Future Pharaoh
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
Beta By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: If you ever wonder by the random moments when Kaiba refers to Yugi as a kitten. In the original version of this novel (Cuz its big enough to be one now) Kaiba more readily used the term 'Kitten'. I removed it because it was so OOC. So now when it IS used, its not as prevalent.
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Yugi nodded while quietly pushing himself up from his impromptu seat, the sounds of leather bending and flexing in the motion the only sound from the guy. "Seto? Do you think I can pull it off given what you saw on the way here?"
Kaiba blinked and turned his gaze from the teen and looked inward, after all this was an important question. If Yugi was hellbent on 'pretending' to be the Other Yugi rather than just be himself, at least for now. He needed an honest assessment, otherwise he was going to look like he was pretending to be someone else. Which if Yugi still looked like he did before it wouldn't matter, what were the odds of 'two' people with that hair?
Only Yugi did 'not' look like that anymore, this was more than just an announcement of Yugi's partaking of the KC Grand Prix. It was almost a formal coming out for Yugi as he looked now, as tall as Kaiba and looking his age. It meant that the images from the matches a year ago would be old and there would be a desire for new up to date pictures. So carrying on the Other Yugis' persona and slowly introducing Yugi's genuine personality would take time. Or at the very least, allow the mannerisms of the Other Yugi 'be' his dueling persona.
But all of that was for the future, right now did 'Kaiba' believe that he was standing in the same room with the Other Yugi? As their rivalry was well documented by now, it was really up to Kaiba to help, or hinder, Yugi's performance. So he replayed everything from the Limo, every step, every gesture and comment.
"Physically? You have the mannerisms down, you move like him, but its when you 'talk' you start falling apart. You certainly do carry his intentions when you speak, but," Kaiba didn't even know how to explain that aspect of the Other Yugi. Because it really wasn't from a lack of confidence on Yugi's part, he 'sounded' like the Other Yugi. "Don't be so friendly, the Other Yugi didn't try to make friends, that was your sell." It was the only way he could think of how to explain it. The Other Yugi wasn't so wordy or engaging with strangers, which made sense since he only knew the people around Yugi.
It was probably then, that Kaiba realized that the Other Yugi might just have been scared all that time. Regardless of how easily Yugi swapped places with him, being forced to interact in a world with no memory of his own must have been terrifying. Making the fact that the shrimpy little duelist managed to defeat him, 'repeatedly' all the more enraging.
"Well, thankfully I won't be doing much, if any talking today," Yugi chirped a wistful expression on his face. "Though I've been thinking of a speech I want to make at the Grand Prix..."
The phone Kaiba was carrying in his breast pocket began vibrating, causing him to reach into his suit pocket to check. The screen reading 'just answer it' as a name which meant it was Mr. Muto. Kaiba would have liked to have groaned, but instead shoved the phone towards the duelist in the room. "Its your father. Get him off my case."
Yugi blinked in surprise and nearly tripped over himself as he reached to take the call.
"Dad? Uh yeah, I'm here with him so he gave me the phone directly."
"Yeah, he's doing a press conference and I'm taking part in it too."
Yugi's body language, upon hearing his dad's voice, reshifted quickly back to the postures that Kaiba knew from when he first met Yugi. The hunched shoulders, the almost passive tone of voice even his pronouns went back to the meek words he used before. But he also moved around a lot more than Kaiba would have expected.
And somehow in the midst of the conversation, he probably saw the smoothest transition from the little Yugi that he first met, to the Other Yugi that he dueled against, to what could be considered a true 'grown' Yugi. Though he wouldn't admit it to anyone else, there was a very old part of him that was happy to see this. It was a sensation akin to 'finally its done' as though he had been waiting for this moment to take place. Even if it was a preview, it was a promised future now.
Upon realizing it was that annoying 'past life' that was trying to make itself heard again, left Kaiba barely suppressing a roll of the eyes. Though it made sense as the Other Yugi was roughly between 10 and 11 years old when he died. Kaiba never 'did' get to see the type of man that the mewling prince would one day grow up to be.
Until now.
Yugi went from hunched shoulders and near cowering, to bracing his stance as though he was about to enter a duel. Ending with him leaning against a table holding the phone to his ear as with his body posture screaming for the conversation to just end.
"My grades 'have' gone up, and I can't help the fact that I don't have a phone, I can't afford one right now." Yugis' arm, the one that he had folded across his midsection to rest his elbow on dropped, lightly bumping the table he rested against. "I am not going to do that, once I'm out of school and can get a job, I'll buy one."
Kaiba made himself a seat while he watched the conversation going on before him, manners be damned. The air conditioning kicked on with a soft humm to balance the heat from the systems that sustained the building. But it wasn't enough to block out the conversation and considering he was going to have to deal with whatever emotional fall out was going to happen. 'And' have to get Yugi back into a mental state where he can handle the press conference soon.
"Yeah, I went to see them."
'See them?'
"Yeah, well what can I say? At least I 'went' to see them, have you even come back to Japan to see them?" Yugi's eyes began to roll before he focused his gaze to a spot across the wall then ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "No, my point is that I'm not a child. I understand that you have to work, and that it means you have to be out of the country. But I am 'not' a child, at least I can't be one anymore and being talked down to. Especially by someone who who can't even be bothered to see me on my birthdays? Doesn't exactly sit right in my eyes. Is it 'that' hard to mail me a birthday card? A picture? Anything?"
Yes, this certainly was an adult Yugi that he was watching. The words were the Other Yugi while lacking the commanding expectation that others should just bow to his will. But he wasn't passive, and there was just enough in the body language, the fixed position of the feet the warning that Yugi was about to stand straight up. Yugi learned how to deal with a variety of different people, but Kaiba could see all the signs that Yugi could go 'Pharaoh' on his dad if the conversation didn't end soon.
With a sigh that sounded strangely tired, "Dad, I can't stay on the phone much longer. Press conference and all. Yeah... yes... I love you. Bye." With that he snapped the phone shut and walked over to hand it to Kaiba.
Who was looking at him with a peculiar expression, even if it really wasn't any of his business.
Kaiba had to chalk it up to being raised by Gozoboro that he found the very idea of saying 'I love you' to a parent absurd. He checked the time on the phone 8:34am, while Yugi went to the door and peeked out. Kaiba slipped the phone back into the pocket while Yugi slipped his head back into the room.
"The reporters are starting to set up," Yugi reported, his voice distracted.
"Yes, that's what happens when you hold a press conference, the press shows up," Kaiba mocked as he sat there. Noting that Yugi didn't seem to hear him as he spoke and drifted over to another chair and settled himself down.
"I know he means well, but its hard. I can't just tell him whats going on and expect him to understand," Yugi replied instead. His voice and mannerisms that of a person who was lost to their own thoughts. "Growing up and complications seems to go hand in hand doesn't it?" Yugi asked into the air.
Kaiba couldn't tell if he was being addressed so instead he merely sat there and let Yugi talk out loud whatever was going on in his mind.
"I think being Pharaoh was probably going to be the easier life to live. At least then I could depend on you to help me make the right decisions. But now, I feel so alone, because all the thoughts in my head are mine alone. Things I won't share. It sounds so selfish when I make a decision on my own, simply because I can't discuss it with the group."
"What were you talking about that would even involve your little nerd group?" Kaiba finally asked, not understanding how that simple conversation could kick off this much introspection. Yugi spoke as a Pharaoh, his words framed as though addressing his inner circle of high priests about the masses. As though Yugi was living in both worlds simultaneously as the pharaoh but about his modern friends.
Yugi started and looked at Kaiba, his eyes wide for a moment before he settled back down. As though he had forgotten Kaiba was even in the room. Then he shrugged with a faint smile, "I'll tell you after the conference."
Kaiba nodded in answer, though it really wasn't his responsibility to play councilor to Yugi. Yet Kaiba could tell that Yugi was hiding something and he hated not knowing these things. They had yet to find the group that had kidnapped Kaiba months ago. And now that he was not going to be focused on the Grand Prix. He could actually sit down and get to finding out who was trying to take Kaiba Corp from him.
This time.
"Did we ever get to have sit down talks?" Yugi asked out of the blue, his head cocked to the side like a child. "I know I was young, but eventually I was old enough to have structured conversations, so... did we? Just you and I?"
Kaiba was left blinking at the teen before sighing as he realized Yugi was trying to get Kaiba to remember the past. Again. In answer he gave Yugi a death glare that Yugi willingly stared down in response before sighing.
"Is it so bad? What happened back then that makes you so resistant? What could have happened ? I mean, besides me dying and having a part of my soul sealed within the Sennen Puzzle?" Yugi asked, clearly baffled by Kaibas' persistence in resisting the obvious past. Despite the whole trip to Colorado and just about everything else that had happened in their lives.
But it didn't matter, because eventually Yugi was going to remember those days himself, and even if he looked at it through rose colored glasses. Excused it or just forgave Kaiba for what happened those days, it didn't change the fact that those days 'happened'. Perhaps there would be those who would say that Kaiba was being too hard on himself, but the reality was that Kaiba remembered. There was a vast difference between writing off a forgotten past and writing off a remembered one.
And when Yugi was asking probing questions of this nature? When he wasn't being kuriboh induced cutesy and more like an adult? It hit hard what happened in that past life, it brought the pain and loss that Kaiba felt. It made looking at Yugi all the harder as it brought back all the blood that was spilled that night. Even under the artificial light of the office, Kaiba could see the stains of blood that Yugi bore that day. Making any interest in looking down at himself go right out the door, funny how the absence of the Sennen Puzzle made self reflection impossible to avoid.
"Well... at least tell me if I have to say anything," Yugi suddenly switched gears so quickly that Kaiba was left stunned. But at the same time he was relieved that he wouldn't be forced or nagged to remember the past. "We never got a chance to discuss that in depth and I haven't prepared anything if I 'am' going to talk. Like what if the reporters ask me a question? Are there things I'm not at liberty to say?"
"And this is why I hate comas," Kaiba sighed as yet 'another' thing that was meant to be completed before today was found undone.
"I could just act all mysterious?" Yugi suggested with a slight grin on his face, watching as Kaiba scowled at him. "So I get seeded into the tournament and in doing so? At the end I face who ever is left and I just reestablish I'm the Duel King, or someone takes over. Say, Seto, why aren't you in it? I don't recall there being a rule forbidding such things," Yugi inquired, while seemingly mentally going over everything.
"Battle City took a whole city with only the requirement being that a person had a Duel Disk. If I were to host another tournament with a far smaller pool of people then enter it myself? Do you honestly think it 'won't' come down to the two of us again?" Kaiba asked, crossing his arms and leaning back to study Yugi as the teen thought about it. "The public can't be made to believe aspiring in the game is a hopeless cause. With just you or just myself, it gives a bigger impression that they can reach greatness."
Yugi nodded thoughtfully and sighed, "I don't suppose you can tell me of any of the duelists?"
Which made Kaiba roll his eyes at the child trying to peek at his presents, "I don't know for certain. At 10am today the invitations will be sent to each possible duelist, who can and will make it won't be revealed until their acceptance is given. Though I will say I am sending one to Kajuka."
"Oh! That's great! I haven't seen Mai in a while, well outside of the televised duels she's been in! Dueling her would be fun! Just the notion of Maha now being self aware fully having to deal with all those virtually nude, hot, wom-... I'm sure he thinks you're hot too Seto. Geeze you're such a woman." Yugi grumbled while Kaiba saw so many shades of red at the teasing he was receiving. "My asexual, bisexual General of grumpiness."
"One more word out of you until we leave this room and you won't be needed for the press conference. Because I am going to take that chair and beat you into unconsciousness is that clear?"
Yugi sat there looking at Kaiba and slowly, very slowly, he began to shift his posture so he was sitting 'away' from Kaiba. Going so far as to try to push the chair back, only the sharp squeak of the chair on the floor made him stop. Yet his expression settled back down from any type of fear to a quiet, almost retrospective, expression.
Kaiba didn't have the time to be bothered with what was going on in Yugi's head. His phone vibrated again, causing him to pull out the phone again and found the mansions' number on its screen. Meaning...
"Hello Mokuba."
"You didn't wake me up! And Isono isn't going to bring me until he can pick up the rest of the gang because of big brother Yugi! That's not fair Big Brother!" Mokuba ranted, using both pronouns for 'big brother' for himself and Yugi.
"You've been working hard to look after me, consider it a day off from 'brother watching duty'. Its not like your gang member brother isn't here staring at me." Kaiba replied, looking over Yugi's black clad, appearance again. 'Yugi said that everyone was meeting up at the mansion. Mokuba wouldn't lie, especially while he was angry...'
"I'm not happy about this! Let me take the helicopter!" Mokuba continued while Yugi's expression softened even though he couldn't hear what Mokuba was saying. "Yugi promised!"
Kaiba raised an eyebrow as he fixed his gaze onto Yugi, "what did you promise Mokuba?"
"That the next time you host a successful event you both would be together. Well we could summon Maha and have him bring Mokuba now. But then there's the issue of Isono and the gang, cuz I know they would want to come." Yugi explained patiently.
Shaking his head Kaiba sighed, bringing the helicopter 'was' an option, but Mokuba couldn't fly it and if Isono had been ordered to pick up the others... "When did you start giving orders to 'my' personal guards." Kaiba began before shaking his head, "I'll talk to Yugi, I'll see you when you get here with the unfortunate nerd squad."
"Big Brother..." Mokuba whined into Kaiba's ear.
"I'm sorry Mokuba, I didn't know that Yugi was being this underhanded. When we get home we're going to have a meeting," Kaiba finally said, attempting to soothe his hurt brother. All the while giving Yugi the 'Look'. Given the fact that Yugi managed to talk Isono into disobeying Mokuba, "
"mmmm 'kay..." Mokuba grumbled not the least bit happy. "See you when I finally get there."
Kaiba gave a small grunt in answer as he studied Yugi. The teen looked positively professional as he sat there, waiting with a surprising patience for the conversation he knew was coming. But there was also a sympathy in his eyes as his focus was on the phone. Unspoken apologies drifted behind Yugi's eyes as he watched the whole conversation take place before him.