double / crown

Yugi:

Yugi’s eyebrows shot up, vanishing beneath his bangs. If Kaiba had even worse to offer, and Yugi was already exasperated with him, then the ‘yet’ in Kaiba’s sentence was hopefully an empty threat. “I sure hope that I don’t get to see it.”

Thank god Yugi had taken home economics last and this year, or else he wouldn’t know how to dance without sticking out like a sore thumb and he’d step on Kaiba’s feet very other move. Yugi even took charge of leading. He needed to regulate the pace and make Kaiba slow down since Yugi’s legs were much shorter. “You think?” The music was some classical piece Yugi didn’t recognize but at least the speed was managable. “So are you seeing whoever you were looking for? I don’t know how much longer we can blend in here before everyone realises that we look ridiculous.”

“There is a lot in the guy’s mind. He denies your existence, and is having a hard time processing my existence.” The priest responded as he fell silent for another brief moment. “At least, that’s what his memories tell me.”

A huff left him following his words, while listening to Yugi’s additions. He couldn’t help but grin in response to the things he heard, out of the other’s mouth. “You may have already heard of me… Either through your history lessons, or someone else. But, you may call me Set.”

He could perfectly feel and tell the way that his companion looked at him. And it didn’t bother him one bit. At last, he was getting somewhere and something other than dealing with his failed attempt at a vessel’s attitude. “I’ve been stuck in Kaiba’s mansion ever since I made it to this realm… Apparently, people seem to have a hard time telling us apart… Uh, something about paparazzis…”

“Set.” The name rolled off his tongue easily, as if he had spoken it many times before.To Atem it appeared ludicrous that people mixed up Set with Kaiba. It had taken him only one glance to know that this was certainly not Kaiba, no matter how alike they looked. Kaiba had his appeal, but he didn’t have what Set had. This alluring appeal that reached out to Atem as if Set was catnip and Atem a panther.

Then again, Yugi’s friends regularly mistook Atem for Yugi. To outsiders they were identical and if they were identical than so were Set and Kaiba.

“Did he explain what paparazzi are?” Judging by what Set had told him, Kaiba wasn’t any help to him, not like Yugi had been to Atem. If Yugi hadn’t accepted him and treated him with love and kindness, Atem wouldn’t have become so grounded in this new reality. Much to his own dismay, he had also started to mellow out somewhat. He was still in the process of getting to know himself but he discovered his cruel tendencies and how Yugi kept them in check.

It appeared he may have just wandered into a rabbithole, a hole deeper than he could possibly have anticipated. And to think, he had yet to run into any of those rare hunters, personally.

Kaiba quietly listened and kept his gaze fixated upon Yugi, the entire time he tried to recover. He may be listening to it, but his mind wasn’t quite registering the things his classmate was saying. The name Pandora… He doesn’t recall seeing it, in any of his documents or sign up lists to his competition. Clearly, he may have underestimated those rare hunters yet again.

“Well, you’re not injured right? You don’t need a trip to the hospital. You can still participate in the tournament, correct?” The brunette immediately responded when the other stopped talking. “You’re not dropping out of this, Yugi. Don’t you dare do that. We’ve got a duel waiting for us, in the near future.” At least with those words, he made it very clear he had no intentions of pulling him into one, for now.

“My team is looking into it, I’ll get a report on the situation later. How many map cards do you have so far? I imagine you must be close to achieving the required number.”

At least Kaiba reacted exactly the way Yugi had expected. He shot the man a nasty look at his question about his physical injury. “This is not about my physical wellbeing!” Yugi raised his voice so rarely, some people must be surprised that he was capable of shout at all. “I was scared, Kaiba! It was either me losing my legs or the man losing his legs right in front of my eyes!”

He knew Kaiba had the empathy of a casket, but Yugi had no patience for it right now. Usually he adapted to it and lowered his expectations but what he needed right now was proper comfort and at this point he was more likely to receive it from Mokuba, who was staring at him wide-eyed a few feet away, rather than from Kaiba.

At least he believed Yugi. Having his team investigate was a good start. Pandora may be gone but the hellish contraptions were still in the room and proof enough. He took another deep breath and forced himself to calm down. Shouting at Kaiba wasn’t going to help and he also didn’t like the other seeing him so vulnerable.