In A Different Way

In A Different Way
By DarkGiggle
Part 6

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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)
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It was a great sound. Be all means that laugh should have been an arousing sound which would normally make him suggest bumping-uglies some time very soon but right now… He wasn’t aroused in the slightest. He should be but he wasn’t. And why was this? Because he’d lost his nerve; for the first time in his life Otogi Ryuji lost his usual swaggering, over abundance of confidence in his dating ability and he’d faltered.

Oh he’d covered up fast, never one to let him-self be humiliated, by recommending to the handsome brunet that they hang out. It would, as he said, “make a smoother transition and who better than another business man to hang out with?” To which the CEO had just raised one eyebrow as if to say, ‘oh yeah? What’s in it for you?’ Which led him to side tracking by telling a joke. Which then led to the pleasant laughter he wasn’t enjoying. Thus, now, it was no big loss to Ryuji to lose the laugh when their sensei came in to start class and another piece of educational cinematography crap.

Deliberately he took the seat directly behind Kaiba and tried to console himself in the darkened room. It would be stupid to talk to Kaiba about being his boyfriend here in class. It was dumb just to even vaguely mention the meeting on the roof with the contract he just signed. Yes those were the reason’s he hadn’t thrown caution to the wind and asked straight up. At least that’s what the ink haired one said over and over again in his mind. Because it couldn’t be because Kaiba had looked so serene under one of the large windows of their homeroom that he’d actually chickened out. No, he most definitely had not been that big a wuss!

Mentally grumbling Ryuji turned to the retarded and ancient as hell economics movie they were supposed to be watch.

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Anzu looked over at Ryo, who she could tell was clearly unsettled, and just shook her head. Bakura was upset; while normally she would have done everything in her power to help, today she was shot and counting down the minutes until class was over. She would mollycoddle him tomorrow, for now he was on his own.

Instead Anzu turned to Yami, to see how his level head was handling the shocks. She smiled as she saw the ex-Pharaoh deep in thought, completely tuning out the film. That was so like him; he was always so delightfully sensible and serious. Hmm. She would have to make sure to take extra good notes for him to copy.

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‘’‘Yami, what do you make of it?’‘’ Yugi asked, ‘’‘It was just so weird.’‘’

Pulled from his private thoughts the spirit answered, ‘’‘I’m not sure and you’re right it is very odd that Kaiba would want to date Ryo.’‘’

‘’‘…’‘’ Yugi felt his proverbial eyes widen. ‘’‘Other Me, I meant seeing Seth, not who Kaiba’s dating.’‘’

Yami’s very real and borrowed eyes widened. Dear Ra! How had he forgotten about Yugi seeing that to?! Damn his mind was slow today. ‘’‘Give me a moment Hikari.’‘’ He was still putting things together. The heka, the sun image and the laugh were all Seth’s, which was why the signature had been so eerily familiar to him. Oh Osiris why hadn’t the recognized his precious cousin sooner? Wait. No, that’s not right, Seth…

‘’‘Yami? Any ideas yet?’‘’

‘’‘Yes. Seth reincarnated as Kaiba and that’s why I’ve been feeling his heka.’‘’

‘’‘Feeling his what?’‘’ Yugi asked though he was a bit unsure he wanted to know exactly what part of Kaiba Yami was supposedly touching. If this conversation were to suddenly turn more than G-rated, then being in class and in a uniform he’d finally grown into was not the place for it.

‘’‘His magic; Heka is ancient Egyptian for magic. I’ve been feeling it since the first lunch with Kaiba.’‘’

Oh okay, well nothing adult rated about that. What a relief but… ‘’‘But if he’s really your cousin why haven’t you felt his magic before? And why did we both just see him? Why hasn’t Kaiba said anything about it?’‘’

‘’‘…’‘’ Ra have mercy on him, his mind was truly failing him today. He’d certainly had too many shocks all in one lunch period. ‘’‘Those are very good questions Hikari and I can’t answer them right now.’‘’ He paused. ‘’‘We have all the millennium items there are and I don’t see how Kaiba could have tapped into Seth’s being without at least the Rod.’‘’

‘’‘Do you think Kaiba even knows what’s going on? That he knows about and understands Seth? I mean, the last I heard he was still so adamant that magic and dual monsters were all somehow fake. And… well… I can’t picture Kaiba being much of a willing host to Seth’s spirit.’‘’

‘’‘True. He is ignorant of my cousin and we shouldn’t be the ones to broche the subject first. For now we should just observe him, he is acting strange enough.’‘’

That decided they both went back to the movie when…

‘’‘What was Seth like, Yami? What was he like back then?’‘’

Yami stiffened in his seat at the random question but the feel of his Hikari’s innocent curiosity and pure wonder eased him. ‘’‘Would you like to see what he was like?’‘’

‘’‘See?’‘’

‘’‘I don’t have all my memories back yet, but I have a few early ones of him. I can show them to you if you’re so curious.’‘’

‘’‘You would really share them with me?’‘’ Yugi asked, thrilled. Just this morning his Other Me had been very private and now he was offering this!

‘’‘If it will spare one of us this awful film, I see no reason not to. Now just relax.’‘’

Yugi did as told, suddenly everything went dark and an image came into being in front of him.

At first all he could see was the top of a mop of chestnut brown hair, then the person shirted to look straight up. From under messy bangs thickly lashed, big blue eyes found him and locked on to his own violet ones, as he seemed to gaze back from somewhere above. It was a child, roughly six years old in a white dress and gold upper armbands. Slowly one chubby, pink bottom lip began to quiver. Liquid filled up the sapphire sockets making them shine as jewels in the sun until they overflowed. Giant tears ran down cherubic cinnamon colored cheeks and Seth started to absolutely bawl.

Yugi jerked. Of all the things he had been expecting that was not it! ‘’‘Seth cried?!’‘’

Unbidden Yami chuckled. ‘’‘Oh Ra yes. He was such a crybaby back then. I have many memories of our youth with him crying.’‘’

Concerned, because Seth or not, that at still been just a child crying, Yugi asked, ‘’‘Why was he crying?’‘’

The ex-Pharaoh blinked, he didn’t remember. In fact he didn’t remember any of the reasons why his cousin had wept, just that the other did a lot around him when they were little. ‘’‘Hikari, I’m not sure. I’ll check to see if it’s a memory stored in the puzzle later.’‘’

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From Ryuji to Kaiba to Ryo. From Ryuji to Kaiba to Ryo his brown eyes went, faster and faster. Whoa. Katsuya held his hand to his head; he’d made himself dizzy.

Damn it, he was just so confused. What the hell was going on with Kaiba?! A small part of him wanted to accuse the rich boy for trying to shock them all into cardiac arrest. But a larger portion just wanted to stick the bastard through a lie detector. Not that he’d ever get the chance for that so he tossed the idea out of his mind.

Still if Kaiba was going to act so out of character so as to date, it was a very in character choice to pick Ryo. His friend, with his small size, delicate body and gentle disposition, practically had uke tattooed on his forehead. It made sense that someone as dominant and aggressive as Kaiba would look for someone as naturally submissive and passive as Ryo.

Part of him grumbled that Kaiba probably hadn’t even thought of asking him out instead of Bakura. Not that Tall, Mean and Handsome had any reason to ask him; they got along worse than nitro and fire. Also Katsuya wasn’t really uke-ish, well not in his own opinion, and he actually usually like to take the top position anyway….

And most importantly, it was not like he would have said yes to a date. No, he would have turned around and ragged the hell out of the bastard C.E.O. He knew he would have harassed the blue-eyed stunner relentlessly. …Now if Kaiba had asked for a one night-stand, well that was a whole different matter.

Hmm. On the topic of someone looking for a one night-stand; he looked over at Ryuji. Never Going To Happen. He knew for a fact that Otogi liked to be a top too. The blond didn’t know what the dice master had said to make the taller male laugh (and what a drop dead sexy laugh it was) but bed-wise, Kaiba wouldn’t touch him or even go near him. All that fool was doing was insulting their friend Ryo.

As the piece of road kill movie ended the lights came back on and the bell rang. As always money bags was crossed the room and was the first to the door. However not like always Kaiba paused at the door, threw an over the shoulder look back into the class and asked, “Are you coming Otogi-San? I believe we have much to discuss.”

The whole class, sensei included, went still, shocked into silence. Yet Ryuji seemed to snap out of it nicely and sent a lecherous smirk before following the other out. As the ink haired one passed him Katsuya could already see the green eyes glued to the C.E.O.’s retreating ass.

Silently Katsuya cursed for the first time at not being in Advanced Physics with Kaiba and Otogi.

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((Ancient Egypt))

Atem opened his eyes and continued to scowl down at the figure a story below and half a courtyard away from him. Petulant violet eyes tracked the rapidly moving figure relentlessly. It wasn’t hard, as the boy he was staring at was the tallest of the bunch of children.

As he watched the boy’s peers gather around him, with laughter and smiles, all he could think was that it wasn’t fair! As he watched him chat and squeal with childish glee with the other kids, all he knew was that it wasn’t fair!

Abruptly the group broke off, scattering in all directions. At first he’d thought they were finally calling it a day, but as he kept looking he saw that there was some order to it. It was a game! Frantically he tried to recognize it but failed which just deepened his scowl. It was a new game! And it was probably just another one made up by Seth, he was always thinking up new games.

Now more miffed then ever Atem turned around away from the window’s bottom wall and moved to sit on the small stool he’d been standing on.

It wasn’t fair that Seth got to play with all those kids. And that he got to play all those games. Humph. If he were allowed to play he’d probably run circles around all the lucky brats… or whatever it took to score points and win the game. Well… maybe not now but if he was as big as Seth he knew he would.

The light patting sound of small feet drew him out of his thoughts. Getting up and looking out he saw the object of his irritation running quickly to the wall below him. Several children were chasing after him, but the gap between chasers and chased was increasing. Atem knew the little fools had no hope of catching Seth, with his long fast legs, out in the open but then why run to the wall? As his cousin came closer his four year olds’ arms had to strain their young muscles to heft himself up on the window’s ledge. As the brunet touched the wall he began to count aloud rapidly and somewhat out of breath, which made the chasing children strained to reach him all the more.

The young Pharaoh-to-be recognized this piece from some of Seth’s earlier invented games. The children each choose a number they had to count to before their safe zone was considered safe. They normally picked low numbers but Seth, the little show off, always picked some stupidly high number; sometimes to his down fall and sometimes not. Atem waited with baited breath as the children drew close, when the tall one suddenly yelled out, “95!”

All the children stopped, not five feet away from the cornered boy and he clenched his teeth. Great Ra that wasn’t fair! To his knowledge that was the highest number the other had had ever picked and the ‘safe’ boy must have cheated or skipped to get to it! Without another thought Atem drew his saliva and spat at cheater below him. It missed the brown mop of hair and landed on a thin shoulder. Everyone stilled then slowly looked up at him, finally seeing him.

He glared at the surprised sky blue eyes. Like always, slowly a lip began to quake and fluid rose in the orbs until it began to leak out. Tears rushed down and Seth started to utterly wail. Atem just snared, having expected it. The other children neared, glanced once up to him with fear clear in their faces and then swiftly pulled the loudly sobbing six year old away with them to the other side of the courtyard.

Indignation blossomed in Atem’s chest as he watched them comfort the cheater. It was more unfair than he could bear! He turned and walked away from his look out and marched back into his room. Well who cared about those stupid children! If they wanted to be around a big crybaby like Seth, and a crybaby he really was as this wasn’t anywhere near the first time he’d seen or made him cry, then fine!

Humph. That was at least one thing he had over the High Priest prized pupil, he never cried. He hated crying! When he was made Pharaoh of Khemet his first new law would be to outlaw being a crybaby!

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End Part 6.
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