Hierarchy

Secret

"Kaiba likes me!"

Ryo slammed the door to his apartment, stalking past a confused Mariku to the kitchen, grabbing the bottle of red from the counter and drinking straight from the bottle in a frenzy similar to that of a starved hyena. Mariku blinked a few times before walking over and taking the bottle away from the exasperated Ryo. He slammed the bottle on the counter, forcing Ryo to look him in the eye. Ryo visibly deflated, his anxiety and excitement dwindling away as he was confronted with his far more rational and far less emotional friend.

"From the top," Mariku began in a soft yet frustrated voice. "What happened?"

"I kissed Kaiba onstage and he squeaked!" Ryo announced as of the answer was obvious.

"He...squeaked...?"

"Yes!" Ryo insisted. "Look, my friend Bakura - I told you about him - he said that when Kaiba likes someone then he squeaks when he kisses them. And he squeaked when we kissed! That means he likes me!"

Mariku nodded, somewhat understanding, somewhat sceptical of this bizarre theory Bakura had. Mariku it hadn't met Bakura, but from what he had heard he was a pretty rational guy. So if he said something that weird then maybe Kaiba really did like Ryo.
"Wait Ryo...if Kaiba likes you...is that really a good thing?"

"Of course!" Ryo pouted. "Kaiba is fishy but he's a really good guy! Smart, cute, and those eyes! So amazing!"

"I don't think amazing eyes constitutes whether someone is a good guy or not..." Mariku muttered. "Ryo I have an idea,"

"What is it?"

"Remember our Japanese matriculation? We studied Shakespeare,"

"Of course I remember," Ryo giggled. "You failed!"

"Er, yes, well imagine I'm Barbantio and you're Desdemona. Kaiba is Othello. Now I need to know Kaiba's a good guy. Ocular proof, you know,"

"I get it, you wanna protect me!" Ryo giggled. "But you still used that totally wrong. Iago says ocular proof is for-"

"Whatever. I don't care,"

"Clearly," Ryo laughed.

"I'm serious though," Mariku chuckled. "If you want my blessing then you gotta show me just how good a guy he is. And trust me. You do want my blessing. For his sake,"

"Okay okay," Ryo relented with a tut. "I'll bring Bakura home tomorrow. He's known Kaiba-sama since they were both teenagers. He'll know,"

^

The next day the kissing scene wasn't rehearsed. Kaiba didn't participate in the  play at all, even though he was the main character, he just sat at the sidelines, as if afraid to get any closer to Ryo than that lest he confess his undying love for the small albino in iambic pentameter. Ryo acted perfectly in character, but stiffened up when we he could feel Kaiba's roaming, scrutinising eyes land on him. Later in the dressing room Bakura agreed to come over that night, and to talk about Kaiba, since he now trusted Ryo as a friend to keep the secret.

"You have a nice house,"  Bakura observed the large apartment politely, taking off his shoes and leaving them at the door in a heap. Mariku was just brewing tea as Bakura sat down on the couch, Ryo opposite him. Once the tea was done, Mariku sat beside Ryo.

"And you must be Ishtar-san," Bakura bowed a little. "Ryo has told me about you,"

"Only good things I hope," Mariku said playfully.

Bakura shifted his gaze to the side, sipping his tea.
"So you want to know about Kaiba? What about him?"

"Did he kill his father?" Mariku blurted out harshly. Bakura swallowed, as if trying to figure out how to word the answer.

"Yes and no," Bakura said, his voice dragging out as if it pained him to say this. "Gozaburo jumped out a window. His son Seto manipulated him - rather cleverly I must compliment - into doing so,"

"Why did he?" Ryo asked softly, just curious rather than actually caring.

"The man was a reptile," Bakura hissed, his voice laced with venom and execrable hatred. "He abused all his employees. You think Kaiba's a bad boss? No. Gozaburo would force you to do shit. Weird shit. Treated Seto like a slave too. Kept him in a collar and shit. The kid would be wandering around in a daze with bruises on his neck for days. I was only a kid myself, but I couldn't help but notice. That's why Kaiba likes me so much. I'm the only employee who didn't turn a blind eye. I took messages from him to Mokuba, they weren't allowed to see each other. I'm surprised it took Kaiba that long to kill the guy,"

"Woah..." Ryo exclaimed, impressed and now far more sympathetic towards the millionaire. He understood why Kaiba was so cold and why he cherished his litte brother so much. It didn't account for him being so...so cold...towards everyone but it certainly made him more tolerable. And definitely more interesting.