Queer As Tachi – Chapter 57
Having his big brother drive him to school was such a rare occurrence for Mokuba that he usually suspected there was some kind of big secret behind the reason Seto gave him. Not that he had a problem with it, for it meant Seto would be breaking out the sleek red sports car they had bought on a whim and decided to keep. His middle school was clear across town from home, since it had been chosen for its academic programs and not its proximity to the Kaiba estate, so he got to enjoy a nice long drive on a sunny spring morning. The sakura trees were budding, and would be exploding into dreamy pink perfection within a week. Mokuba stared at them out of the car window as they navigated city traffic, in no hurry to get him to school and his brother to work. “Oh, that reminds me,” he said, turning his gaze to Seto. “They’re starting with the whole cultural-festival stuff at school, it’s not for another month but they’re already making plans and signing people up for stuff. It means I’m going to have to be in some activities and stay late at school.”
“Fine,” Kaiba sighed, keeping his eyes on the road. “Whatever. Just make sure the drivers know which days you need to stay late.”
“I will.” Mokuba sighed in annoyance. “I hate these school activity things. They can’t just let you beg off if you don’t have any talents or don’t want to participate, you have to do something. And the choices are like…cooking, art, music, theater.” He snorted and rolled his eyes. “Totally gay.”
Kaiba shot him a quick, sharp look. “What did you say?”
Mokuba didn’t notice his glare as he cast his brother a bored look. “They are. They’re all the kinds of things only girls and gays find interesting. Not me.”
Kaiba’s hands clenched on the steering wheel as he fought the hot rush of anger welling up in his throat. He managed to keep his tone even as he warned, “Mokuba, if I ever hear you use that word in that way again, you are grounded for a year.”
Mokuba’s shaggy head whipped toward him. “What? What did I do?!”
“You shouldn’t make generalizations about people like that,” Seto said curtly. “It makes you look crude and ignorant.”
Mokuba boggled at him. “All I said was…”
“I know what you said.” Kaiba heaved a long sigh through his nose, clenching his jaw to keep from shouting. “I will not have you putting a tarnish on the Kaiba name by going around publicly making derogatory comments about any group of people. Do you even know any gay men? Do you really think all they’re interested in is cooking and the theater?”
“Well…no…” Mokuba cringed in his seat. “I didn’t mean it like that, Seto, I just meant…” He gave his brother a frown. “Why do you care? You don’t like people. Why should you get all uptight about me making an off comment about gays?”
Kaiba waited until he had braked smoothly at the stoplight before answering. “Because,” he said seriously, turning a heavy gaze on his little brother. “There’s a big difference between disliking people and hating them. You know I have zero-tolerance policies at the office regarding that kind of harassment and verbal hostility. Why should I hold my employees to a higher standard than my own brother?” The light changed, and he sped off, his eyes returning to the road. “You don’t have to like people who are different than you, or the same as you for that matter. You don’t have to like your schoolmates, your peers, the house staff, or anyone. But to treat them as sub-human is quite different.”
“How did I do that?” Mokuba argued. “All I said was that some of those activities were gay…”
“Last time I checked, that word wasn’t meant to be an insult,” Kaiba snapped. “You meant it in a derogatory fashion, didn’t you? To say that anything you find weak and beneath you is associated with homosexuality?”
“Well…” Mokuba turned his eyes hotly away.
“I will not have my own brother seen as some kind of uneducated cretin, going around making insults like that. People will think I never had the decency to teach you to respect others.”
“You don’t even respect others,” Mokuba sniffed.
“I tolerate people until they give me a reason to dislike them,” Seto sniffed back. “Respect is earned, but I won’t disrespect someone I’ve never met. The only people I hate are individuals who bother me, not groups of people, or stereotypes, or anything like that. That’s the difference, Mokuba. You can hate someone who’s done you wrong or rubs you the wrong way, but to hate someone just because you assume they belong to some generalized segment of society reeks of ignorance. People may call me a lot of things,” he added sharply, “but I have never been called a bigot, and I’ll thank you not to give them reason to.”
Shocked by the vehemence of his lecture, Mokuba shrank back in his seat and looked back out the window. “Sheesh, all right, Seto. I get it. Man, I didn’t think just one little comment would set you off like that…”
Kaiba pulled the car up along the curb just before the gate to the school entrance, where any number of parents were dropping off their kids and letting them walk up to school. He put it in park and turned to Mokuba, his blue eyes gravely serious. “You wanted to go to a regular school instead of being tutored so you could socialize. That means you have to take responsibility for your words and actions around other people. I’m sure all your little friends probably run around calling this or that ‘gay’ when they don’t like it, but it’s time you learned to think and act for yourself. I don’t want my little brother growing up thinking that it’s all right to make comments like that, because it isn’t. You don’t know whether the man sitting next to you is gay, so if you open your mouth and that insult comes out, you’re the one who looks like an idiot. And me, because I’m the one who’s supposed to be raising you.”
Mokuba’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry,” he said timidly. “I didn’t realize…”
“Of course you didn’t. That’s why it’s stupid – because you open your mouth without thinking. If you want to get anywhere in this world, you have to learn to deal with people whether you want to or not. I have to, so there’s no reason why you should expect to get off scott-free.” Kaiba’s eyes narrowed. “After all, you wouldn’t even know if I was gay unless I said so, would you?”
His brother’s gray eyes widened even more. “What? Seto, that’s crazy. Of course I know you’re not, because you’re my brother.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I…” A thought struck him belatedly, leaving Mokuba sitting there with his mouth hanging open.
Kaiba sat back in his seat, swiveling his eyes so they stared out the windshield. “You’ve never seen me date anyone. I’ve never told you whether I’ve seen anyone. How could you know? Because I don’t act like what you think a gay man is supposed to act like?” He glared ferociously at nothing. “Then maybe you’d be surprised to know that the visitor I had last night was a man…a man I know…and I had sex with him.”
Mokuba froze in place with his mouth still gaping. After a very long, tense silence, he worked out a few whispered words. “Are you…joking?”
“I’m not joking,” Seto affirmed, though he still stared out the front window. “I brought a young man home with me and we spent the night together.”
Mokuba stared at him for a long moment, and then shook his head and started in angrily. “You told me it was business!”
“I said I had an important visitor – you just assumed that it was work-related.”
“Well yeah, because you never go out or socialize or anything!” Catching himself, Mokuba took a breath to calm himself. “Are you serious? It was a date?”
“Not so much a date…” Kaiba began to look his way, but kept his eyes lowered. “I told you, it’s someone I know. We met up, and that was that. That’s all you need to know about it.”
Mokuba sat hunched in his seat, hands clasped in his lap, as he struggled to understand this revelation. “Does that make you…gay?” he asked in a whisper.
“I don’t know.” Seto turned a wise look on him. “Does one night with a man make me gay?”
“Well…” Mokuba shrank even further down. “I guess…you can’t really judge after just one time.”
“That’s right.” Kaiba’s gaze hardened. “Would it bother you if it turned out I was?”
Mokuba looked up at him, and met his gaze for a long, silent pause thick with tension. “No,” he said after a bit, shaking his head. “You’re my brother, Seto, and I still love you. But…I don’t know what I’m supposed to think about that.”
“That’s something you’re going to have to figure out for yourself.” Kaiba nodded toward the school just beyond them. “You’d better hurry up or you’re going to be late. I have to get to the office.”
Mokuba huffed angrily. “You’re just dropping me off at school with this bombshell and leaving me with it?”
“I want you to think about what you said, and how it makes you look.” Kaiba’s eyes flicked briefly toward him. “I didn’t intend to spring it on you like this, Mokuba,” he added in a lower tone. “But there’s no going back. You’ll just have to deal with it.” He looked away again. “All the same, I’d prefer it if you didn’t discuss my private life with your little friends. It’s Kaiba family business.”
“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t want them to know anyway.” Mokuba yanked the door handle to let himself out of the car. “Does this mean you’re picking me up after school, too?”
“No, the regular driver should be available as usual,” Seto said aloofly. “I’ll see you tonight when I’m done at the office.”
“All right.” Mokuba swung his feet out of the car and made to leave.
“Mokuba.” Kaiba glanced toward him, a bit of a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “You want another bombshell to take your mind off it? How about this – Yugi’s gay. So you can’t say you don’t know at least one.”
Mokuba stared at him. “Yugi? What, Yugi Muto, Yugi? No way!”
“I found out at the world tournament.” Kaiba took a smug satisfaction to the thought of outing his rival. “Chew on that one for a while. Now that, you can talk to your school friends about.” He kept smirking as Mokuba shut the door firmly behind him and hopped up onto the sidewalk, taking a moment to glance back at his brother before heading up to the gate and disappearing into the schoolyard. Seto knew Mokuba had a slightly more favorable view of Yugi than he did, so his reaction to finding out about Yugi would be an even better test of his attitude. After all, Yugi didn’t have the benefit of kinship to color whether Mokuba approved or disapproved of his lifestyle. If that information freaked him out, Seto would know what his brother really thought about it. Putting the sports car in gear, Kaiba peeled away from the curb and prepared to turn and head back downtown to the KaibaCorp headquarters, letting the thrum of the finely-tuned engine and the effortless handling of his little toy keep him distracted long enough to prevent deep, serious thoughts from ruining his morning.
On any given weekday, the KaibaCorp tower in the heart of downtown Domino was a hive of activity, between the managing of finances, the promotion of current products, and the development of the company’s future ventures. Its president usually remained isolated from that activity, though, in his large, opulent, soundproofed office with the giant wall of glass that looked out over the city. From here, Kaiba could rule his empire with just a few keystrokes at the computer or a phone call, a position which suited him perfectly. Most peons at the company never even met him, and few executives could say they saw him regularly. Yet, KaibaCorp still ran smoothly and was continuing to excel in the business of gaming. Only one person bothered Kaiba in person that day, but it was her duty to: his secretary, filling in for Roland while he was on vacation. She stood across his big desk from him, going over his schedule and reminding him about a few small matters while he coordinated it all on his computer. “…oh, and the promotions department reports that everything is in order for the sponsorship of the children’s game tent at the sakura festival,” she added at last.
“Good,” Kaiba said shortly. “I’m leaving that up to them, I have no intention of going to any festivals myself.”
“They seem to be aware of that,” the secretary said with a wry smile. “It’s all taken care of, sir. They have representatives in place to make the personal appearances.”
Kaiba barely glanced up over his computer at her as he worked. “When is Roland due back, again?”
“The day after tomorrow,” she replied.
“That’s right.” He nodded. “That’s all I need. I’ll be available if anyone comes calling until about one, then I’ll be in the development department and won’t want to be interrupted.”
“So noted, sir,” the secretary said with a brisk smile as she turned and left him alone.
What the secretary couldn’t see, behind the laptop screen, was that Kaiba had been fiddling with the wireless dueling network the entire time she had been talking to him. Not that he didn’t pay attention; he had everything firmly under control to the point where he could spare himself a few minutes of distraction. Only a few hours had passed since saying farewell, and he was already logged into his spy account adding “DynaDude47” to his watchlist. And to think, a week ago he nearly blocked the user. That done, he logged out and closed down the program to keep himself from being distracted by the fun of lurking and spying. Lacing his fingers together, Kaiba sat with his elbows on the desk and rested his chin on his hands, staring blankly at the screen for a while. He felt like the world should have somehow been different, that he should have walked in to find everyone skipping and singing or that Pegasus had called to sell him the Duel Monsters franchise and KaibaCorp stock was skyrocketing overnight. It was a completely irrational feeling, for he told himself that he wasn’t any different, yet it tingled in his mind nonetheless. Don’t be stupid, he told himself. I don’t care how good he was, he didn’t move the Earth or something. His eyes flicked to the framed photo of Mokuba standing as the lone personal effect on his desk, or in his entire office for that matter. His brother’s reaction that morning was no surprise at all. Kaiba figured that some of his attitude had rubbed off on Mokuba, like Alastair warned, and this was the result. He could only hope that he had caught it in time to correct it. What had him thinking, though, was his own reaction to Mokuba’s comment. His brother was right – he didn’t like people, and usually wouldn’t care if he heard someone make a derogatory comment about another person. So why did it bother him now? Just because he had sex last night? Why should that change anything?
Kaiba swiveled his chair and sat back in it, gazing out the giant windows at the cityscape around him. Just yesterday he was sitting here, with Alastair glaring at him, arguing over whether Kaiba had a heart hidden somewhere behind his cold façade. Now, he couldn’t stop thinking about the red-haired young man, and this time without scowling. He could find nothing bad to say about the encounter, and even just the slightest flash of memory to Alastair’s supple, naked body or his impassioned cries made Kaiba flush hot and his body twitch in anticipation. But Alastair was gone, now, or at least out of sight and therefore supposed to be out of mind, so what could he do about it? It’s done, it’s over, he tried to remind himself. It was just one night. Neither of us expected anything more than that. He closed his eyes and sighed hard, forcing himself to swivel back around and pull up to his desk to work. Dammit. Am I going to be haunted by it every time I have sex? Yet, as he stretched his hands over the keyboard and brought up three different projects he needed to be working on, he considered that maybe “haunted” was not the word for it. At least not this time. He was thinking about it, yes, reliving it even, but not in the same way as the mistake which cost him his pride and a tournament. He didn’t want to come right out and tell himself that he liked it and it felt good, and it made him feel good, but his general mood was certainly positive. Kaiba did his best to put it aside and just focus on work, but every once in a while he found his mind wandering again, until he could catch it before it ventured into serious soul-searching and steer it back towards the task at hand. It was enough to know that the unnamed feeling stirring inside him was not negative and had not ruined his day or week. He didn’t know how he felt, and didn’t want to think about it, but he could not get Alastair and those emotive gray eyes out of his head.
It was very late and dinner was already on the table by the time Seto made it home from the office, after plunging into a full-day’s work and coming out of it tired but satisfied. Mokuba came down the minute he heard his brother was home so they could enjoy dinner together like they ought to, since they missed the opportunity the night before. Yet, most of the meal was spent in silence, as Kaiba didn’t have much to say and Mokuba was still contemplating a few things and didn’t share much besides the bare facts of what he did at school that day. After a while, when they were almost finished and the house staff had left them alone, Mokuba sat poking idly at his plate while he mustered the words he knew he ought to say sooner or later. “Hey, Seto,” he began as casually as he could. “Um…I’ve kinda been thinking about what you said, this morning, and…um…” He kept his eyes lowered, even though he could feel his brother staring at him. “I’m sorry. You were right, it was stupid of me to say that.”
Kaiba folded his arms on the table and kept his stern eyes on his brother. “Would you feel the same if there wasn’t anybody you knew who might have been offended to hear you say that?”
Mokuba’s eyes widened as he looked up. “What do you mean? No, Seto, I really thought about it. It doesn’t matter, even if nobody I knew was gay it was still a dumb thing to say. But when you said you heard Yugi was, it made me realize that you were right and I wouldn’t be able to tell someone was gay if he sat down next to me. It was just a dumb word, I thought it wasn’t any kind of big deal.”
“Maybe to you it isn’t,” Kaiba said quietly. “But in the real world, outside the schoolyard, people’s reputations can be ruined with just a dumb word like that. You may know better, but that doesn’t mean other people do, so if they hear you shooting off your mouth, it makes it all right for them to do so – and they may actually hate the people you so casually insulted.” His eyes narrowed. “The best course is to just let it all go, and not make an issue of it. Any person on the street probably has a thousand reasons why you should dislike them, not at all related to things like what they look like or who they go to bed with. If you’re going to judge people, do it based on how they treat you, nothing else.” A grim smirk lightened his eyes. “That’s all I do, and believe me, I find plenty to dislike about people. Most of the time, all they have to do is open their mouth.”
Mokuba chanced a grin and a little chuckle. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I don’t want to be one of those people, I’ll watch what I say from now on.”
“Good.” Seto went back to the rest of his meal. “If nothing else, consider that every person you pass on the street is a potential customer, and I’d like nothing more than to make them want to buy my company’s products. But people are stupid and emotional, and quick to judge. They’ll boycott a company just because its representative says something stupid at a press conference. I don’t want to give them reason to look down on KaibaCorp. We have a positive public image, and I’d rather it stayed that way.”
Mokuba snorted. “You’re the face of KaibaCorp, not me. I’m just a kid.”
“I was just a kid when I took over the company.” Seto gave his brother an aloof look. “Whether or not you want to join me someday, you’re still a Kaiba, and that means people will be keeping an eye on you. Especially because you’re a teenager and they’re just waiting for you to screw up so they can put you on the front page of all the tabloids.”
“No worries there,” Mokuba said with a shake of his shaggy head. “I’m boring. I’ve seen the ‘bad kids’ at school and they’re just a bunch of wannabe rebels. They talk big, about smoking and drinking and stuff, but the minute their parents threaten to take away their privileges, they’re all innocence.” He snorted again. “Bunch of fakes.”
“Just remember,” Kaiba said in his most fatherly tone, “I
didn’t get to be where I am by indulging in any of those things. Discipline breeds success.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Mokuba pushed
back his plate and leaned on the table. “I
just don’t want to look dumb, like they do. They
try to look cool and all, but they just look stupid.”
A sneaky grin crossed his face. “They
just do it to make the girls like them. But
the girls aren’t any better. I don’t
want to play those games, the prizes aren’t any good.”
Kaiba snickered in agreement as he raised his glass to his lips. “I thought you swore off dating.”
“I did. Until I meet someone good. And I bet there isn’t a single one in my school,” Mokuba said with a roll of his eyes.
“You never know.” Kaiba casually set aside his plate and leaned on the edge of the table, swirling what was left of his drink in the glass. “Maybe if you pick one of those activities for the cultural festival you said was for girls, you’ll meet some better ones. I hear girls go crazy over a boy who’s willing to let them teach him how to cook.”
Mokuba stared at him as he tossed back the last of his drink and got up to leave. Did my brother just really say that? It occurred to him, then, that Seto was in a good mood for once. He hadn’t been in that kind of mood in ages, and compared to the general scowl that he’d worn since returning from the tournament two months ago, he was positively glowing. I’d better take advantage of this while I have the chance, Mokuba decided, hopping up to follow his brother. After all, there was a video game he’d had his eye on…
Kaiba wandered into the study to sit down with his wireless duel disk, to sign on as administrator and make some changes to the system that he had been working on over the past week. Though it was technically company business and could be done anytime, he liked to save it for after leaving the office just in case he ran into anyone important while online. Mokuba tagged along after him, remarking, “You never said anything about cultural festival time when you were in school…”
“That’s because I never had to participate in one.” Kaiba slid into the cushy chair behind his desk and tapped away at the computer. “I may have attended high school briefly, but it was merely to fulfill the obligation and get the official record that I had completed school. I didn’t do activities.”
“Lucky,” Mokuba grumbled. “I suppose that means you don’t even want to come, like all the other parents.”
Seto glanced at him, his expression unfathomable. “Do you want me to?”
Mokuba raised his eyes. “Well…I dunno. I guess if you want to…I just thought it wouldn’t be interesting to you…”
“Of course it isn’t,” Kaiba sniffed. “But if you decide to do something you’d like me to see…I may be able to fit it into my schedule.”
Mokuba stared even more widely. Okay, this is just weird. “Well, I’m not planning to go out for a starring role in the play or anything like that, if that’s what you mean.”
Seto heaved a short chuckle and turned back to his computer. “It’s up to you. It’s your school, your festival. Do what you want.”
Mokuba blinked, and then tried his new tactic. “Can I have the money for a new video game?”
“No.”
“Damn…”
“Mokuba,” Kaiba said curtly, as a warning about his language.
“Sorry. I just thought I’d try, because you’re in a really good mood,” Mokuba noted wryly, “and knowing you, I don’t think it’ll last more than a couple of days. Unless you see him again,” he added with a suggestive grin. “Are you going to?”
Kaiba looked uncomfortably back at his keyboard. “That’s none of your business.”
“Aww!” Mokuba leaned on the desk and fixed his brother with his best puppy-dog eyes. “You can tell me, big brother, I won’t spread it around or anything. Who was he?” he added with a hopeful grin.
“I told you. Someone I know.”
“Someone from work?”
“No.” Kaiba gave him a dark glare. “I know better than to mix work and personal time. I would never risk any business relationship like that, nor would I chase after any employees. That’s bad form.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Mokuba smiled cutely at him. “You don’t want to be sued for sexual harassment or anything like that. Fine, be that way,” he added with a sigh, straightening up and stepping back from the desk. “You like to keep your secrets. But whoever this guy is, he must be really cool.” Kaiba shot him a questioning look, but said nothing as Mokuba grinned and continued. “Because I don’t know anyone else who could get you to smile and be in this good a mood.”
Kaiba blinked at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Okay, maybe you didn’t actually smile,” Mokuba teased him, “but you came pretty close. If it takes being with another man to do this for you, then I’m all for it. I’m behind you, bro.”
Seto gave him a wary look, and then sat back in the chair with a sigh. “Mokuba,” he began seriously, swiveling the chair to face his younger brother. “What I said earlier about people’s reputations and that one little word you threw out this morning applies to this, too. What I do in the privacy of my bedroom is no one’s business, not even yours, but it’s not the sort of thing I want broadcast to the world.” His blue eyes darkened. “I don’t know whether I’ll see that man again, or whether I’ll get involved with anyone else, ever, but that information stays between us. It could be very bad for me and for KaibaCorp if even false rumors about me got spread around.”
Mokuba sobered and nodded. “I know, Seto,” he said quietly. “You don’t have to worry. I won’t tell anyone. But…” He faced his brother bravely. “I mean it. Whoever this guy was, and whatever you did with him, it left you looking happier than I’ve seen you in more than a year. I hope you do get to see him again, because I want to see you smile again.”
Sighing, Kaiba turned his chair away and went straight back to the computer. “You’ve got homework to do. Better get on it before it gets too late.”
Accustomed to his elder brother’s easy way of dismissing emotional connections, Mokuba shrugged it off and let him have his stubborn way. “Yeah, I know. I’ll go get started. But will you check my math after I’m done? I really hate this pre-calc stuff,” he growled, “I don’t get it at all.”
Kaiba kept his eyes on the screen and his fingers flying over the keys. “Bring it down when you’re done. I’ll be right here.” He listened to Mokuba trudge out of the study, and then glanced at the watchlist on the corner of his screen. It belonged to his regular admin account, but he had added the same names from his spy user’s watchlist. Naturally, all the names were dark, including the newest one he had just added. Alastair would probably not get back to accessing his wireless account for a few days, if he was busy sightseeing across Japan. The smile Mokuba had been talking about tugged briefly at the corner of Seto’s mouth before he turned his attention toward the essential tasks of upgrading programming code and recruiting new moderators for the community. There was plenty of work to do.
As March turned to April, the online chats between Bakura and Marik progressed from text to voice, as the headset for the wireless duel disk enabled for cheaper talk than cell phones even if Bakura still could not be convinced to duel. Talking was more fun, especially now that they could hear each other laugh and the tone of their voices change to express the enthusiasm, smiles, seriousness, and gentleness of their moods. Even though both chatted occasionally with Yugi, the friendship between them was growing to be something both relied upon and neither wanted to take for granted. Marik was there for Bakura when no one else could be, always sounding calm and pleasant no matter what time of the day it was. He took a genuine interest in the ups and downs of Ryo’s classes and research, and though the field was a little different from the archaeology Marik was used to hearing about from the professors and researchers who met with his sister, he still relayed small tidbits of fascinating information he picked up around the cultural museum. In all the time they had been talking, Yugi and the others came up only rarely, as a casual mention if it pertained to the subject. Most of the time, they shared their lives and experiences as they were happening, discussing dreams and goals and worries with each other as only friends could. While everyone else they knew went about their own lives their own ways, Marik and Bakura would sit up until it was very late in Japan, talking over the wireless duel disk about everything and nothing. Bakura told his friend about the sakura festival he was missing that weekend in order to work on a paper, even though he had put the paper aside and was now just idly chatting. “The trees are so beautiful,” he admitted, glancing out the window even though it was now dark and he could see no cherry trees from his vantage point anyway. “I shall have to take a picture for you, before the blossoms are all gone.”
“It sounds lovely,” Marik admitted. “That’s one of those things you always hear about, that people associate with Japan. Cherry blossoms in the spring…”
“As much as they associate pyramids with Egypt, I suppose,” Ryo chuckled. “Oh, I had a professor last term say the stupidest thing about Egypt. Admittedly, his area of expertise is European history and Western culture, but he tried to tell me that everyone knows the Great Pyramid at Giza was aligned with the equinoxes just like Stonehenge and maybe I should do a paper on that.”
Marik groaned. “And this was a professor? I’d think they should know better.”
“Not always.” Ryo got up, toting his duel disk along, and retired to the bedroom to sprawl out on his futon and talk over the wireless connection. “Ah well. I expect to have many opportunities to set him straight with my papers.”
“As long as you’re not working on yours right now,” Marik suggested, “what would you say to a duel? For fun?”
Bakura sighed tiredly, directing his gaze upward to the ceiling. “Marik…you know how I feel…”
“Yes, I do,” Marik said understandingly, “but I think you should try it. Just once. You’ll never know if the spirit really will come out when you duel if you don’t duel. It’ll be okay,” he added more gently. “I trust you.”
Ryo gazed worriedly at the duel disk sitting next to him on the bed. “But what would you do if the spirit does make an appearance?”
“Easy,” Marik snorted confidently. “Defeat him. Sending him slinking away with his tail between his legs, then maybe he won’t bother you.”
The tone of his voice made Bakura chuckle a little. “Well, I do have this fancy wireless duel disk. It’s not meant to be an inexpensive cell phone, you’re supposed to duel with it, right?”
“Come on,” Marik cajoled. “You won’t know unless you try. Didn’t you say you entered the tournament to try to have some fun? This is even better, there’s no tournament so there’s no stakes to winning. No point, just having fun.”
“Oh…all right.” Bakura sat up and reached to find his deck sitting on the dresser, and sat cross-legged on his bed while he shuffled it. “Anyone else but you asking, and I would have put my foot down,” he said wryly into the microphone. “But for some reason, I can’t say no to you.”
Marik’s voice became even more gentle. “I know that it bothers you, always having to consider whether dueling will be a temptation to the spirit of the Ring,” he said kindly. “But if you refuse to duel because of him, that’s just one more thing that he’s taken away from you. I’m not just anybody on this network, I understand. And I’ll be mindful of how the duel affects you while we’re playing. All right?”
A genuine smile crossed Ryo’s lips. “All right. I accept. Let’s duel!”
Though inwardly he was terrified that the spirit of the Millennium Ring was going to take advantage of the fact he was dueling, Bakura swallowed his trepidation and began the game, taking a few moments to adjust to the screen in front of his eye that would show him his opponent’s field and moves. Marik’s pleasant voice in his ear relaxed him, and before long they were playing casually with no sign of interference. The Ring was safely put away, but that didn’t mean the spirit wasn’t around in some form. Yet, he remained absent throughout the length of the duel, which stretched on as Bakura gleefully put off Marik’s attempts to defeat him and they found themselves laughing at each other over the connection. Marik hadn’t been a finalist in the world tournament for nothing, and though Ryo put up a strong and spirited fight, in the end he lost. It wasn’t a terrible loss, he had held his ground and wrestled Marik down to less than five hundred life points before the tables turned and the game ended. As they sat on their respective ends laughing off the outcome, Bakura realized that the spirit had not once tried to pop into his consciousness. Their duel had been fun and angst-free. “Do you know,” he said to his opponent, “that was fun. I don’t mind that I lost.”
“No problems?” Marik asked for verification.
“Not at all,” Ryo reported with a shake of his head. “Everything is perfectly normal. It was just a duel, to have fun, and you beat me fair and square – nothing more.” He sighed happily. “I’m glad.”
“I’ve never heard anyone take losing so well,” Marik chuckled.
“Well, all things considered,” Bakura said modestly.
“I hope this means we can do it again sometime,” his friend continued. “I mean, I like talking with you, but a little duel now and then to pass the time might be fun.”
“Sure,” Ryo said with a smile as he sat back, resting his back against the wall behind him and flipping up the viewscreen now that the duel was over. “I like talking with you, too. It doesn’t seem like you’re so far away.”
Thousands of miles away, in sun-drenched Egypt, Marik was leaning on the wall just inside the patio of the house he shared with his brother and sister, keeping to the cool shade as the hottest part of the day was upon him. Even with the duel disk still on his arm, he had his arms folded on his chest while he relaxed and listened to his chat partner. He gazed away to the east, as if trying to look across the miles to the home of the gentle voice in his earpiece. “I know,” he mused. “It’s amazing how these days, technology is breaking down all the barriers and boundaries. To think, when we were born, none of this existed or had even been dreamed of. People still communicated by sending letters in the mail.”
“And you lived in a hole in the ground,” Ryo pointed out.
Marik laughed. “Thank you for reminding me.” He sighed wistfully. “So much has changed, in so short a time. Look at us. I remember the first time we met, even if you don’t. Just a couple of years, and we’ve changed so drastically.” He gave a small, soft laugh. “A couple of months ago, we were still strangers to each other.”
Ryo tugged a blanket around his feet to keep them warm while sat on his bed, listening to the comforting voice from Egypt in his ear. “It’s hard to believe how easy it has been to talk to you,” he admitted. “When I first found your name, I hesitated because I expected you wouldn’t want to speak to me. Considering our past connection.”
“I hesitated, too,” Marik confessed, “but only when I thought you wanted to duel. When you said you just wanted to talk, everything changed.”
Curling his arms protectively around himself, Ryo sat back and stared at the wrinkles in the blanket while he took a deep breath to prepare himself for what he wanted to say. “Marik…I want to tell you something.”
“Oh?”
“You’ve been so kind. I feel I can trust you.”
“Of course you can.” Marik’s voice quieted even more. “What is it?”
Tears sprang to Bakura’s eyes, but he blinked them away. “That first time we talked, I…I was laid up for a different reason than the one I told you. I didn’t tell you because…well, it was difficult. I wasn’t merely sick, I had just gotten out of the hospital…” His voice dropped to a whisper, but the crystal-clear KaibaCorp technology picked it up as surely as if he had been standing next to Marik. “I tried to kill myself a few days earlier.”
Stunned silence met him from the other end, but eventually Marik just whispered, “Ryo…?”
“It wasn’t because I wanted to die,” Ryo continued, plucking up the courage to let it all out. “I did it to stop the spirit of the Ring. If I died, he would be destroyed. I thought it was the only way, but…I didn’t succeed. He took control of my body and called the ambulance, and saved me.” He heaved a short, sad chuckle. “I’m glad, now. I’m glad I’m alive.”
He could hear Marik sigh long, but when he spoke, there was no scolding or disgust in his voice, only sympathy. “I can understand why you wouldn’t have wanted to come right out and tell me that,” he said gently. “That’s not the sort of detail you just casually share with someone you’re chatting with.” Another sigh. “Do you know…I’ve been there, too. I went through the same thing you did.”
Ryo frowned to himself. “When?”
“Battle City. You were gone by that point,” Marik said uncomfortably, “so you couldn’t have witnessed the shadow game between my dark side and the pharaoh. I was just where you were – I had nothing left, I didn’t even have control over my body, and I thought the only thing I could do to help the pharaoh save everyone was to let myself die. He didn’t want to attack the dark creature masquerading in my body for fear it would destroy me, but I told him he had to. I told him not to be concerned about my fate, for it was as it needed to be.” He turned away from the bright, sunny street below him and faced the dark, shadowy inner chambers of his home, empty at this time of the day but for him. “I wasn’t blameless, I had done my share of evil, but I thought that was the only way to atone for it. I asked the pharaoh for his forgiveness, I told him to destroy me if it would send the dark spirit into the shadows. But it wasn’t the right way. He knew it, as did my brother. There was another way, a way I was too blind to see because I had been overwhelmed by the darkness. They pulled me out, and made it possible for me to live.”
Ryo murmured softly in sympathy. “I didn’t know.”
“I had made peace with it,” Marik told him. “I was ready to die, if that was what it took. But I’m glad it didn’t. You must feel the same way I did…captive to your dark side, not sure how you could ever have the strength to take your life back from him?”
“Yes,” Bakura said. “That’s exactly it. Don’t worry,” he added, trying to sound cheerful. “I know now that killing myself isn’t the answer. It only enables the thief inside me to steal my life completely away from me. I don’t want that. I plan to live, if only to thwart him.”
“I’m glad.” Marik leaned on the door frame, running his fingers idly down the sun-dried wood as if wishing they could be touching something else, something that was too far away for him to touch right now. “It’s an awful feeling, I know. But there is hope on the other side of it. The shadows may be dark, but light always banishes them.”
Ryo smiled to himself. “I’m glad someone understands. I don’t feel so alone, anymore.”
Marik’s voice lowered to a pleasant murmur. “I wish I could see you. I mean…I know what you look like, but…there’s something to be said for sitting face to face across a table and really being able to talk.”
The tone of his voice made Ryo smile even more, and a little flutter beat in his chest. “I wish I could see you, too. I have so few memories of us meeting, I’d like to be able to face you for real.”
“When is your birthday?” Marik suddenly asked him.
Ryo blinked. “September,” he stammered, “why? What does that have to do with it?”
The voice became wry and cute. “I thought it would be a nice birthday present if I were to come visit you in Japan. But September is a long way away,” he complained.
A blush dashed across Bakura’s cheeks. “You don’t have to do that,” he protested. “That’s a big trip, coming all the way from Egypt just for me…”
“But I want to,” Marik said plainly. “Besides, I have other friends in Domino I could visit, too. But I suppose if you didn’t want to see me…” he added with a fleeting moment of hesitation.
“It’s not that,” Ryo insisted. “It’s just…I wouldn’t want you to make too much of an effort over me. A trip like that would be expensive.”
“I have money saved up. I sold everything I used to own as a Rare Hunter, I’m hanging onto it for a better day.” Marik’s voice became even more cheery. “I guess that just means I’ll have to find a different excuse to come and see you earlier than September.”
The blush burned even more fiercely on Ryo’s face. “You would…do that?”
“Of course I would.” Marik’s voice softened again, sweet and gentle. “It’s worth it, to see my new friend. So we can put our pasts behind us once and for all and just concentrate on moving forward. Getting to know each other.”
“Sitting across the table from each other and really talking,” Ryo added.
“Exactly.” A note of seriousness crept into Marik’s voice. “We’ve already said we forgive each other for what our dark sides did in partnership. I would like the chance to show you how much I meant it. Not only am I a new man, but I feel like I’m meeting you for the first time all over again…Ryo.”
Bakura smiled again, curling into a little ball in his embarrassment. “I like to hear you say my given name,” he murmured.
“It’s hard for me to call you Bakura,” Marik sighed. “It reminds me too much of the spirit of the Ring. I know it’s probably forward of me to use your first name instead, but…I feel it distinguishes you as yourself. You are Ryo, to me.”
“Then, by all means.” Ryo leaned his head against the wall he was propped up against, tilting his face toward the west as if to face Marik wherever he was. “And I guess…if you’re so adamant about coming to visit, I won’t turn you down. I’d like to see you.”
Marik laughed happily. “Great! I’ll look into it, see what I have to do. You’re sure you don’t mind?”
“Not at all.” Ryo laughed back as he glanced around his bedroom. “My flat is kind of small, though. If you don’t mind staying with me…”
“I was hoping you would ask.” From where Marik stood by the door, he could hear the distant call across the city for Muslims to go to prayer, not that he needed to obey, but it reminded him of the time. “Is it that late already?” he mused. “It must be midnight where you are.”
Ryo glanced at the clock by his bed. “Yes, it is. Time certainly flew tonight…as it always does.”
“Yes, it does.” Marik pushed himself away from the door with a sigh. “That means it’s close to the time I should start dinner. Ishizu and Odeon both should be home shortly.” He wandered through their simple home, reluctant to have to take off the duel disk and say goodnight to his friend. “I don’t want to keep you up too late.”
“I suppose I probably should get some sleep,” Ryo hesitantly admitted. “Tomorrow is my early class.”
“Yes, I thought so.” Marik leaned on the back of a chair. “I’ll be good and let you go. As much as I’d like to keep talking with you.”
“You would?” Ryo smiled. “Then, tomorrow,” he whispered. “Same time.”
“Okay.” Marik lowered his voice to a whisper as well, unable to stop himself from smiling. “Same time tomorrow. I’ll talk to you then. Take care of yourself, Ryo.”
“Have a good evening with your family,” Bakura said kindly. They both chuckled, and then forced themselves to say goodnight and sign off the network. Bakura got up to put his duel disk away in the main room and shut everything down, and then returned to his room to change for bed and crawl in under the blankets still warm where he had been sitting on his bed all night. As much as he didn’t want to get his hopes up all over again, Ryo was starting to feel the same tingling thrill in his heart that Yugi used to give him, when he had come back from traveling to find that his old school friend had grown up to be a beautiful young man. For Marik to elicit that kind of response from him, just from hearing his voice and sharing so many warm, comfortable conversations with him, Ryo guessed that it couldn’t be just infatuation. But until either one came out and said something to the other, they had to remain just friends. But that was more than enough, Ryo thought as he curled up under the blankets, feeling more at peace than he had in a very long time.
What Ryo didn’t realize was that the spirit of the Millennium Ring had been there the whole time, listening to every word and thought. He was never truly absent, only dormant, now that he had given his word to the pharaoh that he would not interfere in his vessel’s life so long as the boy showed no sign of wanting to hurt himself again. It was a strain to the dark Bakura to have to sit tight and bide his time, since his vessel’s personality was so completely divergent from his, but this new development over the past month with Marik was something he wanted to keep an eye on. At the moment he had no opinion on whether it was a good or bad thing; after all, it was his fault the two of them even knew each other. He had been the one to meet Marik the first time, years ago in the middle of the Battle City tournament. It was he who had agreed to let Marik stab his fragile vessel in order to gain the confidence of Yugi and his friends. And from where he sat, the spirit figured that he might still be able to gain a few advantages over Marik by simply observing. He knew Marik had information relevant to his own pursuits, even if he no longer possessed a Millennium Item himself. The fiasco last fall with the threat against them and the young tombkeeper’s bodyguarding trip only confirmed that. Letting Ryo get close to him might allow the thief inside him a chance to spy out valuable facts about the Items and the pharaoh and work towards restoring Bakura’s opportunities to lay his traps and bring his plans to fruition. Yet, doing so meant he would have to put up with watching Ryo get all sappy and fluffy with his new friend, and potentially watching a relationship blossom without having any say in it.
While Ryo slept peacefully, nestled on his side in the blankets, the spirit of the Ring hovered over him, glaring down at him, aware that he could ponder and rant to himself without disturbing his vessel’s slumber. After all, he didn’t want Ryo suspecting that he was still there, or the tenuous truce might come crashing down around them. Bakura knew better than to jeopardize his position, but some part of his dark soul wanted, out of instinct, to insinuate himself between Ryo and Marik and ruin their happy little party just because it annoyed him. Not as much as Ryo’s prior bout of self-loathing, but it was still a bit much for him to have to sit and suffer through as a third-party observer. Spending time with someone, talking and dueling for fun, was clearly making Ryo happy, and as dark as he was, Bakura was not the kind of spirit to want to squash that happiness purely because it was there. He had an agenda, but he wasn’t about to stomp on his vessel’s needs and feelings like some ogre who only took an evil glee out of making other people miserable. Simply put, other people did not matter to the Ring spirit – only he mattered, and so long as the others didn’t directly interfere with his plans, they could be allowed to go about their business. The only reason he had for being disgusted with Ryo’s growing affection for Marik was that Bakura had to play witness to all of it whether he wanted to or not.
Dark eyes fixed on Ryo’s sleeping figure with a scowl. It figures. No sooner do I request that his friends keep an eye on him so he doesn’t try to kill himself again, and he goes and gets all mushy with a former rival. For my sake, I hope Marik doesn’t return these feelings. Bakura seethed an angry sigh and dissipated, returning to dormancy to gnaw on the bones of his captivity. It irked him that Marik had come slinking in with words of forgiveness for what he did in partnership with the spirit in the past, but he could do nothing to stop Ryo from accepting it. Bakura’s only hope of keeping them apart lay in resentment dug up from the past, but Ryo and Marik had already gone over all of that in a prior conversation and were coming out as friends. All he could do was let it happen, and look for his chances to use Marik, to get him to lower his guard and reveal any secrets about the Millennium Items that might prove useful to Bakura. He thought of the rumor of scriptures left in the tombkeeper’s possession, and smiled wickedly to himself as he faded out of sight and left Ryo wrapped in happy dreams.