Queer As Tachi – Chapter 67
Kicking through the debris scattered on the floor of the office, Yami Yugi found a large picture frame that had been knocked off the wall and broken into pieces, deciding it was perfect for what he needed. The certificate inside – some recognition from some gaming magazine from a few years ago – he put underneath a chunk of the ceiling to keep it from blowing away in the rough wind coming through the broken windows before coming back to Kaiba’s side. Kaiba was watching him warily, as he poked about in determined silence, and looked up as his rival knelt beside his unresponsive arm. “What are you going to do?” he asked sullenly.
“You said you think your arm is broken,” Yugi noted. “Until we can get you some medical assistance, it should be set as best we can. Excuse me…” He tugged at the shirt bundled beneath Kaiba’s head, getting him to move just enough to let him take it. He ripped it into several more strips and made to begin, picking Kaiba’s left arm up from the floor.
The moment he did so, Kaiba let out a shout of pain and nearly slugged him with the fist at his other side. Yugi paused, holding him still and letting him regain his breath. “Dammit,” he snapped, “be more careful, would you?”
“I’m doing the best I can, Kaiba,” Yugi said patiently, in his deeper Yami voice. “This…” He brushed his hand along the metal bracer on his forearm. “How does it come off?”
“Don’t take it off,” Kaiba seethed. “That’ll hurt worse than anything else you can do to me.”
“If I don’t get it off, your arm will swell and then the doctors will have to cut it off,” Yugi said sharply.
Without admitting he was right, Kaiba settled back down and looked away. “Underneath, you can find the clasps. Just pop them open.”
Lifting up Kaiba’s arm as carefully as he could, letting Kaiba’s sequence of hissed curses and savage growls be his guide to exactly what hurt when, Yugi found the small, inset clasps that held the bracer seamlessly closed and deftly popped them one by one with a flick of each switch. The bracer opened and allowed itself to be removed, and even Kaiba had to admit that his arm didn’t hurt so much without it now. Yami Yugi gave a small, wry chuckle as he rested the injured arm in his lap. “And you taunted me for wearing weird jewelry,” he smirked as he laid the broken pieces of the picture frame along Kaiba’s arm and made to bind them in place with the fabric from his shirt.
Kaiba took a deep breath and steeled himself to endure the wretched pain that seared from his arm through the rest of his body as Yugi created the makeshift splint, gritting his teeth to keep himself from crying out again. The worst was over quickly, as the broken bones in his arm were forced back into their proper place, and he was able to quiet down and breathe more easily as Yugi worked. Kaiba shifted his gaze to the graceful young man in the black tank top, the Millennium Puzzle swinging pendulum-like above his lap, and realized after a moment that he was looking at Yugi’s other half, his dark inner spirit – his true rival. He was the more confident one, the grim-faced and deep-eyed one, more curt and less soft than Yugi in situations like this. He was still gentle as he worked, but unlike young Yugi, who Kaiba thought he knew so well, he was far more controlled and said very little. He seemed to have shrugged off his own small injuries, the razor-thin cut on his cheek and a few more on his forearms which Kaiba noticed, in order to help. At last, he finished and sat back with a small nod to himself. Kaiba flexed his fingers to test the strength of the splint, wincing at the pain but content to see that it wasn’t as bad as before. He tried his cell phone once again and sighed. “It’s no use,” he reported. “I can’t get through to anyone.” His eyes closed briefly. “Mokuba…”
Yugi glanced at him. “I’m sure he’s all right,” he tried to reassure. “And just as worried about you.”
Kaiba grumbled to himself over Yugi seeing anything resembling worry in him, but could do nothing except lay there in pain, fumbling for the mug of water beside him to soothe his parched throat. Just then, both of them heard a faint but distinct sound of scrabbling in the direction of the barricaded door, and after a moment, a muffled voice shouting, “Kaiba! Mr. Kaiba! Are you in there?”
Kaiba pushed himself onto one elbow, eyes hunting toward the source of the shout. “Roland,” he realized.
Yugi got to his feet and ran to the barricade, not sure exactly in which direction he should try to call back. “Is someone out there? Can you hear me?” he shouted. “We’re in here, we need help!”
“You can hear me?” Roland shouted back from somewhere on the far side of the debris. “Where is Mr. Kaiba?”
“He’s in here with me,” Yugi informed him. “He’s been hurt! Can you get us out of here?”
On the other side of the blockade, Roland sized up the pile of beams and drywall and considered that from the faint sound of the voice calling back to him, it had to be of considerable size. They hadn’t even been able to find the receptionist’s desk yet, good thing she was in the bathroom when the quake hit. “Hold on!” he yelled back. “We don’t know how far in you are. It’ll take a little while to dig you out!” He looked over the debris, his heart sinking to think how much effort it was going to take to physically move all of that to get some small hole opened. Already a few of the workers he brought with him were picking their way through it, shifting pieces here and there, but it looked to be a sizeable job. He took a breath and called out one more time. “How badly is Mr. Kaiba hurt?”
Yugi listened and glanced at Kaiba before responding. “His arm is broken, and he was struck in the head. I can’t lift all of this debris by myself, I need your help from outside!”
“We’ll do our best!” Roland called back. “Just hang on for a bit!”
Kaiba’s personal assistant had removed his suit coat and rolled up his sleeves to pitch in when a stranger appeared behind him, giving him a start. He vaguely recognized the tall young man with red hair and a long dark coat, but couldn’t quite remember from where. It had taken Alastair some time to get there, grateful that the emergency generators which backed up the computer systems and the main personnel elevator had kicked in, but he was a little out of breath from taking the last few floors by stairs. He looked past Roland to the piled up rubble and the KaibaCorp executives feebly trying to dig their way through it. “That’s Kaiba’s office,” he noticed.
“Who are you?” Roland asked him. “Did you have an appointment…?”
“You could say that,” Alastair replied, finally looking at him instead of the disheartening barricade preventing them from getting to Kaiba’s office. “I’m a little early, though. What can I do to help?”
Roland set his hands on his hips and huffed a short sigh. “Mr. Kaiba and his guest are trapped on the other side of that,” he explained, pointing. “Mr. Kaiba is injured and needs medical attention, but we have to get him out first.”
A flicker of concern passed through Alastair’s gray eyes. “It’s going to take you forever to get through this way,” he said bluntly. “There’s got to be another way.”
Roland shook his head sternly. “Not unless you can fly into the windows.”
Alastair perked up sharply at that. “Are there any helicopters on the roof?”
Roland gaped at him. “Wha…helicopters? Maybe, but…”
“Get a medic and meet me on the helipad,” Alastair demanded, turning and striding briskly back down the hall to the stairwell.
A short time later, Roland and an emergency worker carrying a tackle box full of supplies came out of the stairwell onto the roof, seeing the one helicopter that had been parked up there was undamaged and working fine, as Alastair was already in the pilot’s seat and had started it. Though he was pretty sure this was a crazy idea, Roland gestured to the medic and the two of them ran across the windy pad to leap into the open side of the civilian helicopter. Alastair glanced at them as they boarded and nodded, taking off immediately. Roland grabbed one of the headsets on a peg in order to use the radio to talk to their pilot. “Are you sure you know how to fly this thing?” he yelped.
Alastair glanced back at him again with a cool smile. “Trust me,” he answered. “I know what I’m doing.” He lifted them slowly up into the air, and with perfect technique, had them gliding out over the edge of KaibaCorp in seconds, circling the building at Roland’s direction to find the set of smashed-out windows that belonged to Kaiba’s office.
Figuring they were in for a long wait, Yugi had gone to the broken water cooler to fill the mug with what was left of the water and returned to Kaiba’s side with it, when the sigh of wind from outside was suddenly filled with a throbbing sound. Both of them glanced up to see a helicopter fly past, a blue “KC” logo on its side, and then it came back, settling in to hover even with the wide-open windows. Clinging precariously to the open door of the aircraft were a medic and an extremely terrified-looking Roland, both wearing harnesses to connect them to a safety line inside. Astonished, Kaiba pried himself up to look and see just who was brave and dumb enough to fly a helicopter so close to the building, his gaze shooting through to the cockpit and the red-haired figure at the controls. Alastair glanced back, but didn’t seem to see that far into the office – he was shouting something at Roland. The assistant was white with fear and paralyzed by the thought of just how far down it would be if he jumped and missed, but the medic beside him put on a brave face. He found something inside the helicopter to strap his medical box to his back, and then took a running start and leaped from the helicopter door through the window, landing neatly inside the office. Alastair managed to get the craft dangerously close to the edge of the building, his piloting skills providing them with a perfect leap of faith to get help to Kaiba. Roland stood at the edge for a few minutes, mustering his courage, while the strong wind buffeted him and made his shirt and tie flap violently. At last, he gritted his teeth and pushed himself off, reaching for the medic who was already reaching back to catch him and help him through the window. He made it with plenty of room to spare, and glanced back in shock to see that he’d done it. Having safely deposited his cargo, Alastair waited for them to unsnap the safety harnesses and pulled back from the building, hovering a moment longer to see the men waving him off before lifting the helicopter up and away, heading back for the helipad.
The medic ran to Kaiba’s side first, setting the box down and opening it up to get proper bandages for the wound on his head. Yugi looked up with a sigh of relief as help came to them, and Yami felt it safe now to let go and let his young charge be himself again. Aid was there, and he was no longer alone to look after Kaiba by himself. Yugi sat back out of the way as Roland knelt beside his boss, asking eagerly if he was all right and what he could do. Kaiba grunted painfully as the medic looked over his splinted arm. “Mokuba,” he said shortly. “Someone has to find Mokuba. Is your phone working?”
Roland shook his head. “I can’t get a signal.”
“Neither can I.” Kaiba laid back down and sighed. “Great. Now instead of the two of us trapped in here, there’s four of us. Great thinking, Roland.”
“The medic and I aren’t hurt,” Roland pointed out, “we can begin moving some of this debris from inside. I have several more people working on the outside, we’ll meet each other in the middle. Our main priority was to get you the medical help you needed.”
“We’ll have to have the doctors set this properly when we get out,” the emergency worker noted, “but it’s done up well for now. Did you do this?”
Yugi glanced up, realizing that he was being addressed. “Huh? Oh, yeah,” he shyly answered. “Is it all right? I didn’t make it worse, did I?”
“No, you did a good job,” the medic complimented. “Mr. Kaiba should be all right for now. Here, you look like you’ve been hurt yourself…”
The medic came over to Yugi instead, inspecting his cuts while Kaiba needled Roland for more information. “I need to know how bad the damage is,” he growled. “How many hurt? Is anyone dead?”
“I haven’t gotten reports from all sectors yet, sir,” Roland said. “So far, it looks like no one has been killed, and most of the injuries are minor to moderate. The emergency generators are working, the computer systems are all backed up, and the personnel elevators are operational. Your executive elevators are out, though,” he shrugged. “We lost power briefly, but essential systems are back online with the emergency power.”
“Fine,” Kaiba muttered. “That’s all we can do for now.” He checked his phone for a signal and growled at it, giving up. “Now you’ll have to dig us out, because there’s no way that helicopter can get close enough to the building for you to jump back out, let alone me and Yugi.”
“Who was that flying the helicopter?” Yugi wondered. “He was very brave, to do that.”
“Someone,” Kaiba answered hesitantly, looking away. He had seen clearly. “One of my later appointments.”
“I thought he was nuts,” Roland admitted, “but it was a good idea after all.”
The medic asked Yugi to look after Kaiba for a little while longer, while he and Roland saw to the work of trying to clear a path through the debris to the door. The main cause of the damage was a single metal girder that ran from the corner of Kaiba’s office, over the door, into the hallway and through, giving them a sort of path they could follow as long as they could clear away enough of the rubble to climb over it and out. Yugi sat back against the wall with Kaiba sprawled on the floor at his feet, having found it more comfortable to lie down instead of sit beside Yugi. They didn’t know how long it would take the men to dig them out, but at least they were relatively safe and had medical supplies close at hand now. Yugi curled his arms around his knees and sat in a timid little ball, alternating between watching the two able-bodied men work and glancing at Kaiba, who lay with his eyes closed. “Well,” Yugi said softly, “so much for our meeting.”
Kaiba spoke without bothering to open his eyes. “It’s not over. Consider it postponed.”
Yugi looked curiously down at him. “You really do want me to help, then?”
“I wouldn’t have asked you to come here if I didn’t.” Kaiba blinked and shifted his gaze to Yugi beside him. “I’m not in the habit of wasting people’s time. Whatever may happen between us on the dueling field, I’m not letting it have a bearing on my business. This project is important to me, and I will make all the right alliances and find the best deals to make it happen.”
“All right, then.” Yugi let his head fall back against the wall. “Don’t worry about it right now, though. You can call me when things get back to normal. Right now, just concentrate on getting better, and taking care of your company and Mokuba.”
Kaiba’s expression twitched uncomfortably at the mention of his little brother, though he restrained himself from checking his cell phone yet again for a signal. He stared at the ceiling, hoping to himself that Mokuba was all right, wherever he was, and that he would be out of the damaged office soon so he could send someone to find him. Then he heard Yugi’s soft voice again. “Let me know if you need anything. I don’t think there’s any water left, but there’s still some in the cup.”
Kaiba glanced up at him, noticing that he looked rather worn out already, considering they hadn’t been trapped more than an hour. He said nothing, but inwardly resolved to do whatever it took to repay him for the assistance he had already rendered. Business was one thing, but owing his life was something Kaiba hated to have hanging over his head, and always worked to rectify the matter as quickly as possible. He settled for closing his eyes again to rest, listening to the sounds of Roland and the medic straining to break through the debris into the corridor beyond, where help waited.
It didn’t take much for Joey to figure out where to take Bakura, as he staggered across campus hoping to not have to go far with the burden in his arms. The flashing lights and sirens of aid cars pointed the way to the main commons, where a temporary triage had been set up to handle the countless cases of minor injury suffered by a great many students who had been on campus at the time of the earthquake. Joey was directed to place the unconscious Ryo on an empty cot and wait, as there were more serious injuries coming in and everything had to be done in order of priority. An emergency worker checked over Bakura briefly but said he could be left to rest until he woke up, at which point someone would see to him, so long as he had no other injuries. Joey said as far as he knew, no, there was nothing else, so he settled down to wait with Bakura, not wanting to leave him alone at a time like this. As soon as the aid worker went back to help with someone with serious bleeding issues, Joey remembered to do as the spirit of the Ring had demanded and slipped the cord bearing the Ring from Bakura’s neck. He paused a moment, looking curiously at the Ring as he held it in both hands, wondering. Maybe I shouldn’t give it back, he thought. That spirit already has too much control over Bakura. Maybe it’s time this went back to the pharaoh. He would never know, he’s out cold. Joey reached to his friend’s backpack sitting at his feet, tucking the Ring inside. The dangling tines jingled faintly as they fell against the books inside. Then again… Joey frowned at the gleam of gold peeking at him from the bag. The spirit knows I took it, he asked me to. He’d figure it out sooner or later, and then I’d have to deal with him. A shiver ran up Joey’s spine. Gah! No way man, I do not want to have to deal with that. I’m not Yami, I can’t stand up to that thing if it decides to come after me because I stole his Ring and gave it to the pharaoh. Last thing I need is to be sent to the shadow realm permanently! All right, then. Joey settled onto his seat beside the cot, looking over Bakura’s peaceful sleeping face, streaked with dirt and sweat. I got your back, Bakura. I won’t leave you. I’ll just hold your Ring till you’re awake, and the doctors make sure you’re okay. That’s what I promised.
At least one aftershock jolted the city, some hour or so after the initial quake, making the construction workers digging to find Tristan scatter from the unstable debris field for a short time. Duke paced the dusty ground nearby, having finally found some small thing to make himself useful – monitoring a battery-powered radio for tsunami warnings. So far there didn’t seem to be any indications that the earthquake had or would spawn a killer wave, which would swamp the entire harbor end of Domino where the construction site was, but they couldn’t let down their guard until enough time had gone by to ensure it. The radio sat on the hood of the foreman’s car, and Duke paced restlessly beside it, kicking at stones and wondering how long it was going to take to extricate Tristan from the rubble. Now that his initial panic had ebbed, he was getting annoyed and frustrated, no matter how much he kept telling himself that these were complicated matters and they had to be careful not to shift the rubble and crush the person they were trying to save. Duke stopped short of mentally blaming Tristan for getting trapped, since he was the only one at the site who didn’t make it out, because he was more worried about him and simply wanted to see him safe. He settled for pacing, and monitoring the radio, because any more than that would threaten to spill to Tristan’s manly coworkers that the two of them were gay, and Duke was not an idiot. He knew not to let that get out.
Tristan did his best not to fret and stayed in one place so as not to exert himself, lest he use up his good air too quickly, but the claustrophobia was getting to him and he began to fear suffocating to death in the little prison. He had managed at last to find the biggest, most promising hole to let in light and air, but he didn’t know how long he would last if the leaking gas fumes became stronger than the trickle of fresh air. His shouts had directed the men outside to the best area to dig, and they yelled occasionally to let him know they were working as hard as they could and were coming for him, but it was more heartening to hear the sounds of their excavation and feel the vibration of some of the debris around him as other pieces jolted or scraped on the distant outside. Then, a particularly violent slide sent a cloud of dust into the chamber, making him cough despite the shirt tied over his face, and his space was suddenly illuminated much more brightly. He looked up through the hole to see sky, and then several faces so far away that it crushed the fleeting moment of joy that had stolen through his heart. Nevertheless, Tristan stretched up as far as he could into the moderately-sized hole. “Hey, hey!” he called up. “I can see you guys!”
“Tristan!” one of them called back. “Hey, how are you doing?”
“Kinda not liking where I am at the moment,” Tristan replied in exasperation. “I’m okay, though. For now. I don’t know how big the gas leak is, so…”
“You got enough air down there?” someone else asked.
“Uh…think so, for now.” Tristan grinned beneath his mask. “I could go for a pizza, though.”
Duke heard the shouting going on at one part of the rubble, where they had been working the hardest, and came running over to see what the commotion was about. The men were laughing, so he guessed it wasn’t anything tragic. “What, what’s going on?” he asked them.
“We made a hole,” one of the men told him. “He’s down in there good, but at least we can see him and how much we have to move to get him out.”
“You can?” Duke raced up to them and climbed a short way onto the rubble, aware that he was not wearing the right shoes to be doing this. “Tristan! Can you hear me, buddy?”
Tristan could not believe what he was hearing, he thought the depth of his prison and the thickness of the rubble was distorting someone’s voice. “Duke?” he breathed to himself. Hearing his name called again, he was sure, and yelled back. “Duke! Is that you?”
“Tristan!” Duke accepted a hand from one of the burly construction workers and hauled himself up so he could peek into the hole. Deep down, at least six feet, he could see Tristan’s bright eyes looking back, and couldn’t help but smile. “Hey there,” he said, choosing casual as the best option for conversing with his lover in front of strangers. “How’s it going?”
“I’m stuck in a hole.”
“I can see that.”
“What the hell are you doing here? What about the store?”
Duke tilted his head in a sort of shrug. “Store’s a mess, but it’s not damaged majorly. I left it in the hands of my managers, I had to come down to find you. I couldn’t get through on your phone.”
“Hello, earthquake,” Tristan snorted. “I’m sure half the city can’t use their cell phones.”
Duke’s face sobered somewhat. “You doing all right down there?”
Tristan sighed, hating to see that look. “Yeah, for now,” he replied. “Duke, there’s a…”
“I know. They’ve been telling me everything.” Duke gave him a hardened stare. “Don’t worry, they’ll get you out. We already got this much of a hole, we can see you. Just hang in there.”
“Hey.” Another worker nudged his shoulder. Duke turned to see the man holding out a bottled water to him. “You’re smaller and skinnier than most of us. See if you can reach down in that hole and get it to him.”
Duke took the bottle with a nod, and hoisted himself up father. “Tristan!” he called down. “Can you stretch up to meet me? I’m going to try to hand you a bottle of water!”
Tristan glanced around him, making sure there was nothing sharp that he shouldn’t put a hand on first, and then crawled up into the space laid open by the excavation, stretching his arm forward. “I’ll sure try!”
Duke clenched the cap of the bottle in his teeth as he crawled forward into the hole, pausing when he felt something underneath him shift dangerously. Two of the workers lunged and grabbed him by the belt, steadying him. He grabbed the bottle in a fist and slithered into the hole, relying on the support of the workers to keep him from falling in himself. The passage was definitely too small for most people, but lithe Duke Devlin was able to get part of the way in before it narrowed to only permit his arm and the bottle of water to get through. Tristan’s hand groped up to meet him, and with one small lunge snatched the bottle away from him. He withdrew his arm to pass the water bottle into his other hand, and then reached up again as long as Duke was half stuck there. In the darkness of the little hole where no one could see them, their hands met and clasped for just a few seconds. Duke grunted, then, as the hands clenched on the cuffs of his pants were pulling and making his belt put too much pressure on his stomach, so he kicked his foot to indicate to the men that he should be pulled out. His fingers slid out of Tristan’s grasp, and they were apart again.
Duke climbed down off the rubble and wiped the sweat out of his eyes with the back of his arm, finally able to dust himself off. His face was now covered in dirt and flushed with exertion, or perhaps emotion, but he felt much better now that he had seen for himself that Tristan was okay. Meanwhile, inside the chamber, Tristan sat back down on the debris and uncapped the water, greedily drinking down half of it before realizing he should save it, in case they couldn’t get Duke back in to deliver any more. He put the cap back on and replaced his mask, and leaned back against a loose rail. Knowing Duke was outside made waiting a little more bearable.
It took considerable time for Roland and the emergency medical worker to push aside enough of the debris to make a hole big enough for a man to be carried through, but the other KaibaCorp employees on the far side halved the process, meeting them in the middle somewhere. Kaiba lay quietly the whole time next to Yugi, who sat in a daze against the wall, his thoughts turned inward to Yami, who was silent but soothing in his presence. With a last crash part of the wall fell away in a cloud of drywall dust, and suddenly several employees in shirtsleeves with their ties flung away were staring at each other across the heavy metal beam that had fallen through the ceiling. Roland rushed to Kaiba’s side and found him alert and ready, and had no trouble helping him up off the floor, shouldering him carefully. Kaiba held his splinted arm to his side, but was already barking orders even before they had gotten out of the room. “First things first,” he demanded of Roland, “send someone to find Mokuba, immediately! I want him brought here at all costs. We have injured? Only send the life-threatening cases to the hospitals, I don’t want to swamp them with every little cut and bruise. We have medical facilities on the lower floor, everyone else can go there. There’s enough trouble in the city as it is, we don’t need to add to it. No, I’m fine,” he added to some peon who came up to see if he could help. “Don’t worry about me, just do as I say!” Roland helped him over the beam still sort of blocking the way, and then they were in the hall and face to face with Alastair. Kaiba’s words froze on his lips, as he found himself staring in wonder at the slender young man. Alastair had thrown off his coat and pitched in to help, and was currently looking disheveled and dirty, but he gazed back with mingled relief and expectation, and a good dose of uncertainty. He didn’t know what Kaiba could or would say to him, in this tense moment, and he didn’t know that he should expect any kind of acknowledgement. A fleeting smile passed so quickly across Kaiba’s face that anyone who blinked missed it. “What’s the status of the helipad?” he went on as if nothing had happened to arrest his attention.
“There are some significant cracks in the pavement, but it can still be used,” Roland reported. “Your helicopter is fine.”
“It better be.” Kaiba gave Alastair a brief, surreptitious glance as he was escorted past, and then concentrated on making his way down the stairs with assistance to the infirmary.
Yugi was the next to pass through the opening, though the medic followed behind him to make sure he was all right and needed no help. It was then his turn to face Alastair, and he started in shock at the random appearance of this ghost from his past. Alastair, in turn, was rather surprised to see that Yugi was the guest who had been trapped with Kaiba in the office. “Yugi?” he said in wonder. “What are you doing here?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Yugi said, giving him a wan smile.
“Bring him along,” Kaiba suddenly barked from down the corridor. They looked to see him glancing back over Roland’s shoulder at them. “Yugi’s hurt too, I want to have his injuries looked at.”
“I’m fine,” Yugi protested, waving a hand. “It’s just a few little cuts.”
“Maybe,” Alastair said, “but you’re not gonna argue with him, are you? Come on, I’ll help you down there. You don’t look totally fine.”
He picked up his coat and then put an arm gingerly around Yugi’s shoulders, guiding him along. Yugi submitted to his assistance, feeling a bit wobbly after all. “It’s…Alastair, right? I don’t think you and I ever really met face to face,” he murmured as they walked. “This is kind of weird, considering…”
“I know,” Alastair said gently. “But I assure you, I’m not the same man I was then. I’m not a bad guy, all that was over when I lost my soul…and then found it again.”
“I believe you.” Yugi looked tiredly up as Alastair held the door to the stairwell open for him. “It sounds like just about everybody connected with that craziness had a change of heart in the end.”
“I know I did.” Alastair quickly darted out a hand to catch Yugi as his foot slipped on a step. “Careful, there. You must be more shaken up than you thought.”
“I guess.” Yugi gave in and leaned on Alastair, as long as he was going to be there for support. “So…what brings you here? To KaibaCorp, of all places?”
“Um…” Alastair hesitated, not sure how much he should relate at the moment. “I came to see Kaiba,” he said to start. “We had an appointment, for later. But I was nearby when the earthquake hit, so I came to see if I could help.”
“Ah.” Yugi nodded absently. “You’re in Domino for…fun? Or did you move here and I missed it?”
“Business, actually,” Alastair said casually. “I’m working now as an international courier, I had a package to deliver.”
Yugi chuckled faintly. “What a time to visit, huh?”
A few floors down from the executive levels they could catch a working elevator, and piled in together with Roland and Kaiba. The company’s own private infirmary and medical facilities were on one of the lower floors, one which appeared to have escaped most damage apart from things being knocked over. Employees with various cuts, scrapes, concussions, and other minor hurts looked up in surprise and concern as their president was led through them to a private screened-in area near the back where doctors could look at him, no matter how much he shrugged off the pain and insisted he was fine. Yugi was directed to go with him, and Alastair guided him until they were all closed away behind the privacy screens. Kaiba was made to sit down on a gurney, where he was immediately swarmed by medical personnel wanting to see to his broken arm. He continued to snap orders to Roland and his other assistants over their heads, before sending them all away to do as he requested and letting the doctors do their work. Alastair sat Yugi down on another gurney, waiting a few minutes to see that no one was coming to look him over before sitting down to attend to him personally. It wasn’t hard for him to round up the right supplies, and in a few minutes he was kindly swabbing Yugi’s cuts with saline and making sure all the glass was out of them. Yugi looked very tired, but he managed a smile as he watched Alastair prepare a gauze bandage with ointment for one of the particularly deep cuts on his arm. “You’ve done this before,” he noted.
A shadow of a smile crossed Alastair’s face. “You may not know this, but…I grew up in a war zone,” he said quietly. “I was a refugee, in Eastern Europe back in the days when it was all civil wars and genocide. You had to learn basic first aid just to make it.”
“Oh. No, I didn’t know,” Yugi murmured. “Was it hard? Growing up like that?”
“I didn’t think so. It was just the way it was, I didn’t know any different. But I lost all of my family,” he added, more seriously. “That’s where my connection to Kaiba begins…his father supplied our enemies with the military vehicles and weapons that destroyed our village and killed my family.”
Suddenly, being scratched up and trapped in an office didn’t seem to Yugi to be so bad. “That’s terrible,” he sighed sympathetically. “That’s why you went after him, when you worked for Dartz?”
Alastair nodded solemnly. “It’s a much longer story than that, but you don’t need to hear it right now. Suffice it to say, Kaiba and I have…history.”
“I see.” Yugi glanced past him, to where Kaiba sat with a swarm of doctors doting on him. “I got some of the story of what happened between you two from Mokuba, after it was all over. Kaiba didn’t want to say anything about it but Mokuba told us everything he remembered seeing. So…” He frowned in question. “…what did you come to see Kaiba for? I always thought he put that whole business with Dartz behind him and didn’t want to look back.”
Alastair sighed heavily, hesitating to answer. He was able to avoid it for a few minutes while he finished cleaning Yugi’s cuts, but then there was nothing left to busy himself with. “Well,” he began, “maybe I’ll save Kaiba the embarrassment of having to tell you himself. He and I…we kind of had a date set for tonight.”
Yugi blinked uncertainly. “A…date? Like, a real date?” He blinked again. “Kaiba?”
“I wouldn’t say it too loudly if I were you.” Alastair glanced over his shoulder, but Kaiba’s attention was rather elsewhere at the moment. “For his sake, I won’t go into detail. But…it’s not the first time. He and I sort of…see each other whenever I’m in town.”
Yugi’s mouth fell open in awe. “Since when?”
“Not long. A few months ago.”
“Wow.” Yugi looked down at his hands clasped in his lap, and the neat bandages taped to the worst cuts on his arms. “I would have never seen that coming.”
“It’s nothing serious,” Alastair tried to insist, wiping his hands clean and putting things away. “Just a…little fling.”
“Don’t worry. I understand.” Yugi smiled faintly. “I’m just amazed that it’s Kaiba we’re talking about. I never thought of him as the kind to let anybody get close to him.” A memory flitted across his mind, and he found himself sitting up in amazement. Of course! Maybe that’s what Kaiba meant at my party, when he said he owed me for good advice. We talked about this on the plane. Maybe he’s taking what I said seriously, and now Alastair… Yugi shook himself alert and gave his helper another smile. “Thanks, I feel a lot better now. I told you, it was just a few cuts.”
“Yeah, but you have to take care of those, too.” Alastair set the medical supplies on a stand set up beside the gurney and gave Yugi an amiable pat on the knee. “Just sit and rest for a bit. I’m going to go see if there’s anything to eat or drink around here.”
He ducked out from behind the screen for a moment, just as Roland came back in waving a cell phone in the air. “Good news, Mr. Kaiba!” he crowed. “We’ve found Mokuba.”
Kaiba sat up sharply, nearly throwing off the doctors. “Where is he? Is he all right?”
“He’s fine,” Roland was happy to report. “I’ve got a driver on his way down to the school to pick him up right now. He should be here shortly.”
Kaiba breathed a soft sigh and sat back in relief, finally relenting and letting the medical personnel finish doing their respective jobs. “Good,” he muttered. “Have him brought straight in here when he arrives. I want to make sure he’s not hurt either.” He shot a quick look to Yugi in the other corner, who sat looking weary and alone as he rested against the backrest of the gurney. “And get him some real help,” he grumbled to Roland. “I don’t want him leaving here if he’s got some kind of concussion or something.”
“I’ll try to find someone right away,” Roland promised.
“When he’s been cleared to go, we’ll need to set up a driver to take him home,” Kaiba mused. “Have the driver bringing Mokuba stay on call for me.”
“Will do, sir.”
Alastair drifted back in just as Roland was leaving, and tried not to glance in Kaiba’s direction as he crossed to Yugi and handed him a bottle of water. “Sorry, this is all that’s available,” he shrugged.
“That’s more than enough, thank you,” Yugi said, reaching up to accept the water. “You were the one flying the helicopter, weren’t you?”
“What, earlier?” Alastair glanced furtively away. “Uh…yeah. Kind of a crazy idea, wasn’t it?”
“You got help to me and Kaiba,” Yugi pointed out. “Thank you. You didn’t have to tell me you’re a changed man, I can see it in the way you’ve been helping out. I’m glad.”
The chaos and noise of their private space cleared away, then, as the doctors had finished setting Kaiba’s arm properly and left him to himself as he requested of them. He sat on the gurney with boots and coat off, flexing his fingers where they stuck out of the cast now securely binding his forearm. Now that they were alone, Alastair decided to go to him, to assure himself of Seto’s condition if nothing else. Yugi watched silently from across the room, sucking at the water bottle, as Kaiba glanced up when Alastair came to his side. “Hey,” the tall foreigner began.
“Hey,” Kaiba said back, his voice unusually quiet. “You’re insane, you know that?”
“The helicopter?” Alastair chanced a grin. “We didn’t know you weren’t hovering near death, we just wanted to get medical aid to you.”
“Right. And I’m sure Roland put you up to it.” Kaiba sighed shortly and looked down at his arm. “Thanks.”
Alastair shrugged it off. “Chalk it up to good timing. You’re lucky I was downtown, instead of at my hotel.” He stepped a little closer to the gurney. “I heard your assistant. Mokuba’s coming?”
Kaiba nodded. “They say he’s fine, but I won’t be satisfied until I see for myself. He’s better off here with me anyway.”
Alastair’s gaze wandered. “Do you want me to go before he gets here?”
Kaiba looked sharply at him, his brow creasing with an unpleasant frown. “Why should you?”
“I’m pretty sure you haven’t told him about us, yet…”
Kaiba sighed even more heavily. “What ‘us?’” he muttered. “It was just that one time…”
“Two times. And would have been tonight, I’m guessing,” Alastair said sharply, “if not for this little disaster. Look.” He softened his tone, and his expression. “I’m sorry, I’m just a little rattled right now. I had a strange feeling go through my heart when your assistant told me you were hurt. I know it’s nothing serious, but even so…”
“Alastair…” Seto stared absently at his hands in his lap for a moment or two, not sure why he wanted to say what was on his mind just now. “You’re right. I did want to see you tonight. But, you should know…” His voice dropped in volume, but remained the same even, moody Kaiba tone as usual. “I may have feelings for someone else. A girl, a duelist. We chat online sometimes. I don’t know for sure…” He glanced up at Alastair, expecting some kind of reaction. “I’m kind of new to this.”
“It’s okay,” Alastair said flatly. “I already knew not to expect my feelings to be reciprocated. You’re the only one who can make decisions about who you like.” He tried to smile. “A girl, huh?”
Kaiba groaned under his breath, already regretting saying it. “A former rival. But she’s in England, and I don’t know the first thing about her except that she likes to flirt with me.”
“At least she’s got good taste.” Kaiba snorted at the indirect compliment. Alastair reached out to him, then, gingerly touching the back of his injured hand. “I’m not going to fight for you, if you don’t want it. But we have fun together, and I…I guess…” He found himself absently stroking Kaiba’s hand, across the knuckles where they stuck out from the cast, and kept his eyes on his actions as he spoke. “Against my better judgement, I’ve developed this sense of caring for you, and if all I can do is make you happy for short spaces of time whenever we come into contact, then…I’m okay with that.”
Kaiba sat still, submitting to the gentle touch on the back of his hand. “I can’t promise you anything,” he muttered, “positive or negative.”
“You don’t have to.” Alastair shook his head slowly. “When you want to see me, you’ll call me. I don’t expect anything more than that. At least, until you figure out what it is you want.”
Seto nodded his agreement. “Thanks, though. For your help.”
There was a rustle on the far side of the privacy screen, and Alastair deftly took a step away, withdrawing his hand in time. Roland peeked back. “Mr. Kaiba, the driver just called to let me know he’s on his way. Mokuba will be here in a few minutes.”
“Thank you, Roland.” As soon as he was gone, somehow Alastair was right back where he started, resting his hand on the padded gurney beside Kaiba’s knee. Seto peered at him. “You said you were going to be in town a while?”
“Till the end of the week,” Alastair replied casually. “I’m supposed to wait around for another package to be prepared, and pick it up when they call me. I think I’m going to Texas this time.”
“Oh, wonderful,” Kaiba retorted with a sarcastic roll of his eyes. “I’m sure it’ll be fun.”
“Hey, I don’t always get to pick my destinations.” He gave Kaiba a little smirk. “Though the fact that I’m the only courier in the company who speaks Japanese means I’m pretty much on the short list for all deliveries here.”
Kaiba met his gaze upon hearing that, and a brief look passed between them, but then a commotion outside the private corner got their attention. Alastair stepped back just in time as Mokuba burst through the curtain, dragging his backpack behind him. “Big brother!” he yelped as soon as he came within sight of Seto. “What happened? Are you all right? The stupid driver! He told me you were hurt but he didn’t say how badly.”
“Calm down,” Kaiba said curtly, sitting up a bit. Alastair wisely slinked off to the corner where Yugi sat as the lone witness to their conversation and the moment of Kaiba’s vulnerability. “I’m all right, Mokuba. It’s just a broken arm.”
He held out the cast for his brother to see. Mokuba stared at it, and then directly at him as if to study him and make sure he wasn’t kidding. “That’s it? You’re okay?”
“I’ve got a little cut on my head too, but yes, that’s it. I’m fine.” He swung his feet around so they were hanging off the side of the gurney, making to get up eventually. “Are you all right? Did you get hurt in any way?”
“No, I’m fine,” Mokuba assured. “I ducked under my desk when the earthquake started, like they tell us to. It’s not so bad over by my school – the damage is a lot worse downtown. Man, the electricity’s out, the cell phones are down…I tried to call you.”
“I know, so did I,” Kaiba said calmly. “It’s all right, it’s over now. We’re going home.”
Mokuba nodded gratefully, but then noticed that there were other people behind the privacy screen with his brother. Yugi, sitting on the gurney, didn’t surprise him, but his eyes went straight to the other, taller figure and widened. He knew that face, it was clear from his reaction. “Wait,” he said, “what is he doing here?”
Alastair stood motionless, looking as calm as he knew how. Kaiba glanced over at him, and then faced his brother. “You remember Alastair,” he said plainly.
“Yeah, of course I do,” Mokuba said hesitantly. “But why is he here?”
Both men looked and met each other’s gaze, momentarily frozen when neither knew how to react. Yugi politely looked away and tried not to pay attention. At last, Kaiba’s gaze hardened into a firm, assured look. “He and I were supposed to go out tonight,” he answered truthfully, his voice even. “Alastair is the man I spent the night with before, a few months ago. The one I told you about. He’s only in town for a short time, but we were to see each other again.”
Yugi turned back quickly, his eyes wide. Alastair, too, stared in astonishment, finding it hard to believe that Kaiba just gave his little brother an honest answer without covering it up. Mokuba looked back and forth between the two of them, and then turned to Alastair. “Really?”
Alastair nodded. “It’s true. But, thanks to the earthquake, I don’t think we’re going to get to go out. I was nearby, I came to help.”
“He saved our lives,” Yugi added quietly. “Kaiba is okay now, thanks to Alastair’s help.”
Kaiba scowled uncomfortably at the reminder, he didn’t need Yugi’s help in this matter. Mokuba gazed in interest at Alastair, and then smiled strongly. “Thank you,” he said. “So…you’re the one who made my big brother smile for a few days, then?”
Alastair’s eyes went to Kaiba in curiosity. Kaiba decided that was enough honesty for now. “That’s all you need to know,” he said curtly to Mokuba. “Come on, now. Find my boots, I want to get out of here. And get Roland – I want a doctor to clear me to leave.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Alastair wondered.
“I’m fine.” Mokuba handed him his boots from where they had been sitting on the other side of the gurney, but Seto realized after a second that it would be difficult to put them on with only one useful arm. Mokuba determined that he could help, so Alastair slipped out of the privacy curtain and went to find the head doctor in the infirmary. Yugi just sat back again, taking another sip of water, not sure what he should do now that he had sat in on private personal conversations, gotten in the way, and generally had nothing to do. He wondered if his grandpa was all right, and whether the shop was damaged. At last, a comment from Kaiba got his attention. “Yugi. Do you need my doctors to look at you?”
Yugi lifted his gaze and blinked uncertainly. “I…don’t know,” he answered. “I guess it couldn’t hurt.”
Alastair returned with the doctor, who briefly consulted the company president and decided he couldn’t stop him from leaving if he wanted, but he asked Kaiba to wait one moment while he found a sling for his arm. Kaiba then demanded he go and check Yugi, and sat waiting until the physician declared that the young man was perfectly fine, now that his cuts were dressed and he had gotten some water. Kaiba accepted the diagnosis with a curt nod. “Fine. Roland!”
The assistant peeped his head in from behind the curtain. “Yes sir?”
Kaiba closed his eyes as he gave his last order of the day. “The driver on call. Have him take Yugi home, and then go around to Alastair’s hotel and pick up his things.”
Surprised looks met him from everyone who heard. “Yes sir, Mr. Kaiba,” Roland said deferentially. “And you?”
“When he gets back, we’ll be going home,” Kaiba grumbled. “I need to rest. See to it that everyone is escorted out of the building, either home or to the hospital, and security closes the place up until we can get survey crews in to assess the damage.”
“Right away, sir.” Roland gestured to Yugi to come with him as he ducked back out.
Yugi paused before leaving. “Thanks, Kaiba.”
Kaiba didn’t bother to look at him. “When things are back to normal, I’ll call you to reschedule our meeting.”
“Okay.” Yugi and Mokuba wished each other well, and then there was Alastair, waiting quietly in the corner. “Thanks for being there for us,” Yugi said to him, giving him a smile and not sure what other blessings to wish upon him, being as he was apparently going home with Kaiba. Alastair just nodded with a little smile.
“Yugi.” Kaiba’s voice was rough as he spoke up one last time. “What you heard spoken in here is Kaiba family business.”
“Don’t worry,” Yugi assured him over his shoulder. “I don’t plan on saying a word.” He shared a nod with Kaiba to seal the deal, and then he was gone, chasing after Roland to find the driver who would be finally taking him home.
Alastair folded his arms. “Am I to take it that you want me going back to your place?” he wondered, a bit suspiciously.
“Your hotel is probably damaged,” Kaiba said matter-of-factly. “You can stay with us the rest of the week, until you leave Japan.” He gave the young man an aloof sort of look. “Unless you had a better idea.”
“Cool!” Mokuba broke in. “It’ll be nice to have someone else around to hang out with. How are you doing, Alastair? How’s life?”
Alastair looked at him, taken aback that Mokuba should be so casual and forgiving considering that the last time they saw each other, he was trying to kill the younger Kaiba, but he settled for a smile of gratitude. “Just fine, kid. Thanks.”