The Bittersweet Fate Of A Duelist

Chapter 4

Before heading to the Kaibas' mansion, quite far from Domino itself, Atem decided to go home first, so he could recover both Deck and Duel Disk and a change of clothes, and at last the Pharaoh grabbed the backpack Yugi usually went to work with.
The day after was a work day, after all, and if Atem was staying at Seto's, there was no reason to come back and then go to the KaibaCorp. building.
He then spotted Yugi's grandfather, sitting on the living room couch, watching something on TV. Probably a Duel Monsters related show, or something similar, but Atem couldn't tell because of the commercial break passing on screen.
«Hey, grandpa? Don't wait for me tonight, I don't think I'll be back. No need to worry», Atem informed him, raising his voice slightly to overwhelm the TV's volume.
Without getting up from the couch, Solomon turned to look over his back: "Are you going to Seto's house?».
Atem involuntarily blushed, and the grandfather took the reaction as a clear answer: «See you tomorrow, then», he bid goodbye with a smile, returning to focus his attention on the screen.
Surprised, Atem also sensed Yugi's moderate wonder: Solomon had never shown that kind of approval to Seto, much less when Yugi had faced the situation head-on and talked to him about his love relationship with the CEO and president of the KaibaCorp, less than a year before.
"Is it me, or something is not adding up?", Atem asked Yugi, so startled he had to force himself not to speak out loud.
If Yugi's spirit could have shrugged from the Puzzle, he would have done it: "Yeah, something feels off... he never behaved like that... I have no idea. Let's go, we'll figure that out eventually".

After a relatively short trip, aided by the lucky lack of traffic, Atem parked his motorbike not far from the mansion's entrance door, careful not to accidentally ruin the perfectly tended garden when he stepped off of it.
The mansion was a huge building that majestically stood against the clouding sky, all surrounded by a beautiful garden with bright green grass, flowers and tall trees. Atem smiled at the memory of his first time viewing the mansion, a place with so many bad memories in it transformed in a quiet living place for the Kaiba brothers. Seto never indulged on his past, never told much about his abusing step-father, and both Atem and his modern counterpart never asked more. Instead, they smiled at every instance of a Blue-Eyes White Dragon décor, pieces of Seto's proud mind overwhelming the places regarding which his memories were worse.
The sun rays leaking through the clouds gently caressed plants and flowers, and threw metallic reflection on the tall gate that had just closed behind him with a slight thud.
Lost in thoughts Atem approached the door, but before he could raise a hand and knock on it, one side of the double door was opened by Seto himself, who had probably heard the motorbike's fierce roar.
The man was no longer wearing the previous turtleneck, but a short-sleeved, black plain T-shirt, wrapped around him so tightly it almost looked spray-painted.
Atem's eyes lingered less that a brief moment on the indistinct scars on his neck, accustomed to them even if not in peace with their story, and smiled: «Don't you want to let me in?».
Without answering, Seto moved away just enough to make room for the Pharaoh to pass through, and immediately closed the door behind him, as if he feared some intruder could suddenly enter his house.
He didn't miss to notice the backpack on Atem's shoulder, nor the fact that he was probably staying the night, but he didn't point that out.
Instead, he ducked his head towards the stairs: «We can go upstairs if you like. Talking a bit in front of a video game», Seto suggested, hoping for an affirmative answer.
Aside from the "kind of" date, he needed to know, to realize the whole situation going on with Yugi.
If Atem had in fact noticed his worry, mixed with the usual pinch of embarrassment Seto could not drive away in any way, he chose not to show it.
He rather widened his smile and nodded: «Of course».
Upstairs, the small living room the Kaiba brothers had turned into an incredible gaming room was a profusions of various consoles and controllers, both old and new generation, with other worldwide known brands mixed with their own.
The shelves lining the walls were crammed with dozens of videogames, all sorted by type, series and name, stacked in such a way as to almost replicate the books in a library.
Even various consoles no longer used occupied the shelves, shiny as if they were new despite the disuse, accompanied by their respective controllers with to cable mess in sight.
Under the huge LED screen of the TV, however, the furniture shelves on which it was balanced housed the most recent consoles developed by KaibaCorp, and several video games just released, including the one that, after a single play, had become Mokuba's favorite horror adventure.
There were also some older game, and Atem recognized in the pile both Outlast and Until Dawn, two titles he had greatly appreciated, despite the misadventures with the poor protagonists of the latter, who died horrible deaths in both Yugi's and Atem's playthrough.
The Pharaoh lightly chuckled at Yugi's unorthodox method of taking revenge on the game, such as starting over again when he was almost at the end, refusing to finish it unless with all the characters safe and sound, and he heard his partner mumble a protest.
"I should have recorded that. It was a YouTube* worthy reaction to dying characters in a video game".
"Shut up. As If you did not play the whole game again after finishing it, just to try and save everyone that time. It didn't even work".
Seto snapped Atem out of a comeback by dropping on the couch in front of the television screen, and the Pharaoh did the same, close enough to touch him with every movement, but not enough to make him uncomfortable. Despite the deep caring Seto had for both Atem and Yugi, he was still a little uneasy with someone constantly touching him, even them. He had crossed a huge mountain with their first time, but Atem wanted to give him his own time to adapt.
Unaware of the sweet look Atem was giving him, Seto threw him a controller and the two began to play, soon immersing themselves in one of their favorite fantasy adventures, leaving comments here on there on the playing style and on the game itself.
After a hour or so, without realizing it immediately, Yugi finally managed to switch with Atem, and when Seto noticed the light in his eyes becoming less fierce and kinder he could not help but smile.
He still had not received the explanation he wanted, but he didn't bother on raising that up: Yugi was back, and that was fine. Eventually, Yugi would bring everything up by himself, he thought.
«Yugi...?».
The other man took a moment to realize he was back in his body, while Atem was back in the Puzzle, and again a constant presence in his mind. Because of that, he ended up distracting himself and his character on the screen fell down from the mountain side, dying in the span of three seconds.
«Oh, damn it!», he exclaimed, seeing where the character respawned.
Unfailingly, Seto laughed under his breath, and Yugi put the controller aside with a half frustrated, half amused sigh. He was still shocked by his sudden shifting, and decided to try and curl up against Seto. He would step back in any moment if the man didn't want physical contact, but Seto put aside the controller for a moment to surround Yugi's shoulder with one arm, before picking the controller back up and returning his attention to the game on-screen.
Peaceful, Yugi concentrated on the video game without complaining about the apparent lack of attention he was given: he liked those moments with Seto, calm and quiet as the almost never were.