In A Different Way

In A Different Way
By DarkGiggle
Part 5

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Disclaimer: I don’t own Yu-Gi-Oh. I don’t even like Yu-Gi-Oh but I just love Seto-Chan! I make no money off this so don’t sue!
Plot: Will be very OOC and very mild for the moment, beyond that I haven’t decided yet. :) However I don’t think I’ll keep it G-rated for too long. Language and Yaoi are sure to come.
Author’s Note: This is a Seto Kaiba story. I’ll pair him with someone as soon as I decide whom. I might have him flirt a bit and experiment with a few people he won’t end up with. (giggle)

Oh and about the summary, I’ll hold off for at least one more chapter because I really, really, really suck at them. I hate making summaries, they dang near always kill me in someway.

People Seto won’t be paired with: Mokuba, Honda, Yami no Bakura, Yami no Marik, Marik, Pegasus, Noah, Seth or any girl.
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Seto stared coolly at the panting twerp before him, then switched to his platinum wristwatch and went back to the short duelist. “You’re over four minutes early,” he said dryly, “and I won’t repeat myself just because you can’t tell time.”

Still panting and a bit taken aback Yugi had no idea WHAT to say. That had been Seth, Yami’s cousin, but why in the world was he seeing him here and now of all places.

The spirit of the past pharaoh was not doing much better than his counterpart. He kept wanting to call out his cousin’s name yet his instinct told him that was only a fine way to weird Kaiba out. By the time something suitable came to mind he didn’t get a chance to use it as all his worried, equally out of breath friends burst through the door behind him.

Not bothering to glance at his watched, Kaiba just rhetorically asked, “What? Can none of you tell time?”

Anzu was the first to recover and looked at him with suspicion. “It’s enough that we’re here. What is it you want now?”

He may as well get started. Seto didn’t take his eyes off them as he held up and opened his brief case; it made Mazaki, Honda, Mutou and the inu automatically tense. Well, wasn’t that telling! He pulled out several papers, all identical copies. “Before we get to the matter at hand, I need you to sign these. They are silence contracts.” As he holds them out all of the twerp squad moves away.

Legal documents Kaiba wants them to sign; nobody trusts the millionaire that much.

Seto barely held back from glaring. “At least read them over, before you all run off like frightened mice.”

Not liking being called a frightened anything Otogi glared. A business contract huh? He should be able to handle at least reading it. “Alright, I’ll bite. Hand it over.” The dice master seemed to get the ball rolling and the rest of the friends each grabbed one.

‘’‘Is this written in a forgein language or in is this some type of code?’‘’ Yami asked.

‘’‘No. This is some type of legal jargon format.’‘’ Yugi answered. ‘’‘….Maybe you should take over. Didn’t you ever have legal issues in Egypt?’‘’

Jonochi read the first sentence over for the fifth time. ‘I, the party of the second part, upon complication of signed and sanctioned agreement, irrelevant of the second party’s counsel or parental consent or there lack thereof, do here by and here after, declare to wave all second party rights of and to further communication and deliberation, in all forms of transmission, out of the bounds specified by the party of the first part, Kaiba Seto. What the flipping hell was that?!? The rest of it didn’t make any sense. He looked around hoping he wasn’t the only one clueless, he wasn’t but...

Ryuji was smirking. So this was a Kaiba silence contract. Though it was iron clad and legally binding, with some truly frightening consequences, it wasn’t actually harmful. At least as long as whoever signed it kept his or her damn mouth shut about what happened up here. He would have expected it to ask for something more than that. The green-eyed guy was about to say something about it when a tug at his sleeve drew his attention to his white haired friend.

Ryo pointed to the fourteenth line of the contract. “Can he really do this?”

Green eyes blinked, so the other could cut through the legal format too. Darn, there went his dragging rights. “Well yeah. And with your consent if you sign.” At that fear and uncertainty entered the smaller one’s eyes. “Oh come on, we just can’t talk about it that’s al-” He didn’t get to finish as Anzu spun him around to her.

Feminine eyes narrowed, “Are you nuts? We can’t sign this! We can’t even be a part of this! What if he confesses to murder or something?”

All male eyebrows rose at that. That was going way too far, by anyone’s standards.

WHAT the fuck?! Fierce blue eyes shot a death glare at the girl and he spat out, “You are more than welcomed to leave right now, Mazaki-San. All of you are. Just return the contract and go.”

As a silence and indecision hung in the air Ryo piped up, “Does this have to do with the two luncheons and is it the same as what you told Mokuba-Kun afterwards?”

Now that was a smart question, Kaiba thought and calmed. “Correct on both counts.”

“Whoa, ya made yar own bro’ sign this too?” Katsuya cracked.

This comment went ignored by everyone. Hiroto minutely shook his head.

Without waiting another second Otogi whipped out a pen and signed. As he forked the document over he said, “Oh I got to know, anything dragged out this much and that you told to Mokuba has to be juicy.” He grinned smugly.

Seto eyed the only other businessman on campus, for some odd ball reason he had an urge to smirk back just as cockily. He suppressed it but just barely.

Slowly the others joined in, not about to let a friend face whatever Kaiba was about to dish out alone.

Papers all accounted for the CEO suddenly felt nervous. Internally he scowled at himself for getting so worked up, and launched into the matter before the others could notice his hesitation, “There is a person I wish to date and I would like to hire you all to act as chaperons or more precisely hire you to act as decoys for the media, whom I don’t need digging into my personal life.”

To say there was a slight stunned pause was an understatement.

Seto looked at all the mouths that hung open and half wished there were flies around. Screw this silence, it was eating precious time and just making him more nervous. “If I date someone the media will make a big ordeal out of it and cause me trouble, the size of which varying on whom I choose. Yet if I’m seen as just ‘hanging out with a group of friends,’ that’s normal, average and uninteresting. Now as for pay, of course it will be an hourly rate with standard part time health care insurance, I will pay all date expenses and shifts can be alternated within the group. Further-” He paused when he saw Mutou raise a palm to halt him.

“Kaiba, why turn to us? Why not hire professionals? Why not keep this…” Yami felt his throat tighten, “…lover of yours a secret and out of the public eye? Surely you have enough money to take her to only private places.” Ack! That was the most uncomfortable mouthful ever; inside he felt Yugi nod in agreement.

Ah, it was Not-Mutou again; somehow this talk instantly became both easier and harder. Seto didn’t stop to think on how that was so and pressed on, “Your group is durable or so your track record shows. As for the rest you were a bit off. This person is not my lover…” Seto faltered for the first time in a long time but recovered quickly, “I haven’t even made my intentions known to him yet.”

HIM?!? Again, collective group jaw-drop.

“Yar gay?” Katsuya squawked. Oh sure he’d fantasized, sure he’d secretly hoped but to actually hear it was hugely different! There may be a way to get into the rich boy’s pants yet.

Seto ignored the inu but just barely. If the blonde called him a fag or some other homosexual slander it was on! He’d beat the dog until only a bloody smear of mutt was left.

Katsuya turned to his buddy, nudged him and nodded in the other brunet’s direction.

Hiroto got it and asked, “You’re gay?”

One blue eye twitched a little. Those bastards. “No. Bisexual, not that it’s any of your concern. Now do we have a deal?”

“Wait.” Otogi said. He looked uncertainly at Kaiba. “Why now? You’re not eighteen yet, right?” He asked rhetorically then continued on, “I understand now about the need for silence contracts and I get this ‘hidden in plain sight’ theory you want to try with us as decoys. But Kaiba, what about Mokuba-Kun? The media, no, fuck the media, with the enemies you have… didn’t you even piss off a judge just two months ago?”

So Otogi Ryuji really did think on a business level if somewhat inelegantly, Seto observed. That was… pleasant to know. Blues turned to focus solely on greens and for some illogical reason it made it easier to answer. “That judge has already been taken care of. Mokuba's position is guarded, financially and in other ways. I’ve already set up some precautions so anyone who tries to make hell for me by questioning my character as my Ototo’s guardian is in for trouble themselves. As for Kaiba Corp., it is a risk but it’s worth taking.” He paused to let it sink in.

Everyone but the black haired teen blinked. They hadn’t even thought of that. Kaiba did have a lot of enemies and homosexual relationships weren’t exactly accepted. Was that why he was being so hush-hush?

“As to why,” Seto went on, “after our senior year is over the only people who will be around in my life, outside of Mokuba, will be business associates or gold diggers. Not the best grounds to experience something as normal as dating for the first time.”

From inside Yami, Yugi wondered if he’d heard right. It was surprising as hell to hear Kaiba Seto just come out and say ‘I want to date,’ no matter his reasoning.

After a short silence Bakura questioned, “Isn’t this all a bit backwards Kaiba-San? This is all contingent that he, your interest, agrees both to date you and to have us hang around him?”

For the first time since this meeting started Seto locked eyes with the ex-Brit. “It is, and hopefully he will pardon it.” He took a deep breath then asked, “What do you say Bakura-San, do you pardon and do you agree?”

Jaws literally hit the floor as Kastuya, Anzu and Hiroto face-fault. The rest seemed too frozen by shock to move.

Not sparing the fallen idiots a glance the executive stated, “Bakura Ryo, I request permission to court you.”

“What da fuck Kaiba? Ya like Ryo? Since when?” Jonochi exploded once his brain unfroze. Since fucking when?! He was sure he would have seen something if money bags was interested, he been watching so closely! Just watching tall, mean and handsome so painstakingly closely.

When was that stupid inu going to learn?! Cerulean blue orbs stayed completely focused on the white haired boy, tracking the slight movements the wind made in the pale tresses and shallow breathing, watching for a first reaction.

Ryo now knew what it meant to be pinned by a look. He couldn’t move an inch under the strong, sharp stare. Everything that was Kaiba seemed to come out of the blue irises; an arrogant, deadly, powerful predator. It made Ryo just want to turn and run away, like a scared rabbit.

Unreasonable anger began to seep into the blonde as the CEO gaze continued. Kaiba was looking at Ryo as if… Roughly he elbowed his buddy in the gut.

Hiroto grabbed his stomach and sucked in the air the jab had forced out of him. He glared at his pal but the one Katsuya sent back at him viciously murdered his own protests. Resigned he repeated, “What the fuck Kaiba? You like Ryo? Since when?”

That broke the tallest male’s gaze, nearly making him jerk. “Like him? Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t like Bakura-San. I do not even know him.” He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Okay, apparently it wasn’t just him and his Hikari that were loosing it. The eldest Kaiba was making no sense, yet that was just so unlike him and it made Yami wonder, “If that’s true, why do you want to date him?”

“Because I want to get to know him.” The words came out easily yet the moment after, some part of him wanted to take it back. Some part of the back of his mind was screaming at him that this was wrong somehow. What the hell? Although he was surprised he didn’t outwardly show it. Still he didn’t like that he was suddenly even a smidgen conflicted over something he had been so sure of just moments before. He needed to end this meeting and go figure it out. “You have until two pm Saturday to decide Bakura-San. If you agree come to the entrance of Domino Park at that time with whomever here you want. If you do not agree we will not speak of this again and go on as things were.” With that he walked past the group to the door, intending to leave.

As the other passed him Yami had to fight his own arm and it’s weird urge to reach out and grab him. For what purpose he didn’t know, but he thought it would be unwise to touch Kaiba at this moment. He kept his arm tightly pressed to his to side until the tale-tell echo of shoes on steps reached his ears.

‘’‘Yami, what’s wrong with your arm?’‘’ Yugi too had felt the insistent need to grab and touch.

‘’‘It’s nothing Hikari, it’s nothing.’‘’ He dismissed unconvincingly.

“Well isn’t that something,” Ryuji said, killing the unease they’d been left in. He turned to Ryo. “Do you like him? Cause if you don’t want him I’ll take him.”

Bakura blinked, “What?” Silently Yami, Yugi and Katsuya all identically thought, ‘what?’

Not sure she could take any more shocks to her system Anzu questioned, “You’re joking, right?”

A lecherous smirk crossed over the raven-haired one’s face, “Nope, Kaiba’s damn sexy. If he’s in the market and looking to shop I intend to inform him of his full options.” His eyes flew back to their original target. “Unless of course you like him,” His voice dropped to take one a husky tone, “unless you want him, Ryo.”

Ryo flushed then swallowed when all eyes suddenly turned to him. “I don’t want him like that!” He shrieked. It was only after a deep breath that he embellished, “I don’t know him. I would rather not d-”

“Date him? Great! Ciao.” In a flash the dice master was off and flying down the stairs.

“-ecide yet,” he finished. Ryo’s eyes widened at the dust cloud the other’s departure made. “I can’t believe he did that…” A bit of anger stirred in the normally calm boy. “Shouldn’t I get to decide whether or not I’d like to date him first?” He asked rhetorically and thus did not wait for a response before marching back in the school.

Anzu, Katsuya, Hiroto and Yami were all about to share a look when the class bell rang, so instead they settled for scrambling to get to their homeroom.

Rushing up to the entrance of their room they were blocked by Ryo’s petrified-solid form. Halting to see what caused it they heard a bizarre sound coming from with in.

Looking in causes all their systems to hit ‘tilt’ of their daily shock meters. Kaiba is sitting at his desk, with Ryuji hovering smugly near by and Seto is laughing. It’s quiet but it resonates in the silent room and the full richness to the tones can be heard. There is none of the usual arrogance and cruelty; it’s just deep, calm and soothing.

‘It’s the same’ Yami thought privately. ‘It’s the same as it was back in Egypt.’

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End Part 5. AN: I don’t like this chapter but it was a necessary evil for the plot.
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