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The hardest thing Yugi ever had to do in his life was take Seto Kaiba to get checked in at a psychiatric hospital.
Several things happened in the immediate aftermath of his return from the Duat. After he got a complete physical evaluation (which, to the bafflement of the doctors, he passed), he sought out Yugi. Naturally, Yugi had a million questions while they sat sequestered away in a tiny little cafe that Kaiba liked, sipping coffee while Kaiba told him the whole story. He only got to ask some of his questions, most Kaiba answered without prompting, a few he remained tight lipped on.
The gist of it, Yugi gathered, was that Kaiba saw him, dueled him, and was thrown out before they could properly talk. That was what seemed to be weighing on Kaiba’s mind the most; all the things they had left unsaid. But he told Yugi, if for no other reason than to get the words into the air. Maybe once they were spoken, they would find their way to Atem.
Yugi watched him break a little bit more with every word that he spoke. He didn’t even think Kaiba was capable of crying, but there he was, with tears in his eyes while he confessed to Yugi how much he loved Atem. Like really, desperately, painfully in love and there was nothing he could do about it. There was no going back to that place (and apparently Kaiba tried ) and the love of his life was lost forever. Part of Yugi was sure that if Kaiba had been given the option, he never would have returned.
In the following days, Kaiba buried himself in his work. Yugi didn’t hear from him for about a week. Then he got a text from Mokuba that he was being wired money and asked if he could bail Kaiba out of jail. He’d been arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct and specifically asked for Yugi to get him. That, Yugi understood. He could imagine Kaiba didn’t want his little brother to see him like that. So Yugi went down to the holding cells and his heart broke. Kaiba was curled up on the little cot, crying and mumbling about Atem. Yugi got him out, got him on his feet, and drove him home, where Roland and an English butler thanked him for getting him home safely and brought Kaiba inside.
A couple of short days later, Yugi got a phone call. Kaiba was slurring his words and Yugi could barely get an address out of him. When he did, Yugi rushed over as fast as he could. It was a nondescript apartment building in the middle of the city, just a few short blocks from Kaiba Corp HQ. Yugi recognized one of Kaiba’s aliases on the mailbox and went straight up.
The first red flag was that the door was wide open. The second was that Kaiba was laying face down on the shag carpet, not moving a muscle. From the doorway, Yugi couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. Panic swept over him as he ran into the flat. It took all his strength to turn Kaiba over (and really, when did he build himself that solidly??) and check to make sure he was alive. Which he was. Just passed out. The number of empty wine bottles around told Yugi from what.
The night went from bad to worse when Kaiba actually woke up. Yugi was just struggling to think of a way to drag Kaiba to his bed and was about to contemplate leaving him on the floor when Kaiba jolted into a sitting position. He has a thousand yard stare for a moment before Yugi got in his line of sight and tried talk to him. He really should have expected it, but he was still shocked when Kaiba suddenly pinned him to the ground and tried to kiss him. Of course, because in his inebriated state, why would he be able to see that he wasn’t Atem? It took a minute, but Yugi successfully got out from under him, leaving Kaiba curled up on the floor rather like he was in the holding cell.
To this day, Yugi is unsure how he got Kaiba into bed, but he did, with a rubbish bin next on the floor and a glass of water and Advil on the nightstand. He didn’t bother texting excuses to Tea or his mom; they had grown used to him just running off in the middle of the night so long as he returned safe and sound the next morning. So Yugi cleaned up the bottles, put the kitchen back in order, and took up position on an arm chair. The flat was tiny, he realized, and rather spartan in its decor. The only thing of note was the chain motor hard mounted dead center in the ceiling, but Yugi decided he didn’t want to know. From his position, he could see straight into the bedroom and settled himself in for a long night.
The night, thankfully, passed uneventfully. Kaiba woke up hungover and exhausted, Yugi managed to force him to choke down the pills and the water, and they parted ways without talking about what passed between them. There really were no more words to be said at that point.
Over the next month, Yugi bailed Kaiba out of jail three more times and picked him up off the floor of the flat twice more.
“I need help,” Kaiba finally croaked out when he woke up after the third time.
Yugi was startled out of a half sleep at those words. Kaiba was leaning on the doorway to the bedroom, looking smaller than Yugi had ever seen him before. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Yugi nodded. He sat Kaiba down on the armchair and took over. It was unfortunate that he knew the process of things from here. It had been harrowing taking Joey in for treatment, but at least then he had been alive and kicking. Literally. Yugi rubbed his ribs just remembering the impact. He packed for Kaiba the same way he packed for Joey. Three sets of clothes, slippers, toiletries, and the only book he found in the entire flat, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene. He’d been shocked to actually find comfortable clothes, but it seemed the only types of garments in the drawers were soft, well worn jeans, sweats, and t-shirts. Before that moment, he hadn’t even been sure Kaiba knew what those clothes were.
All the while he bustled around, he made sure to keep one eye on Kaiba. He wasn’t doing anything, just sitting in the chair, hands folded in his lap, head down, one ankle tucked behind the other. Yugi was frightened of what could be going on in his brain so he worked quickly. With a bag packed, he nudged Kaiba.
“Do you know where you want to go or do you want me to pick a place?” Yugi asked, kneeling in front of the chair so he could look into Kaiba’s eyes. That was an odd sensation, having to kneel for Kaiba to be able to see him.
Kaiba was silent for a minute, still staring at his hands. Yugi was about to ask his question again when Kaiba finally said, “There’s a place. . . It’s outside the city. . . West, I think. Um. Atlas something? I can look it up.”
“I know where you’re talking about,” Yugi said quickly. Yes, he knew that facility, it was the same place that he and Tristan forced Joey into. Yugi would never forget it. “It’s good, beautiful campus, great staff.” That got him a quizzical look from Kaiba, to which he sighed. “Someone I care about went there a few years ago.”
Kaiba just nodded.
“Do you want me to tell anyone?” Yugi asked. Mokuba’s name hung in the air between them.
Kaiba shook his head. “Mokuba’s in the States right now. He’s competing. Did you know he’s a sharpshooter? A really good one, too, I keep telling him that he’s Olympic material but. . .” Kaiba looked proud talking about his brother, and a ghost of a smile even crossed his face. But it was gone as quickly as it came and he returned to his slumped position on the chair. “I don’t want him to see me like this. I’ll. . . I’ll tell him I’m going to the lake house for a break. Turning my phone off. He’ll be happy about that. Won’t ask too many questions.”
Yugi made a face at that, but he was sure Kaiba didn’t see it. He didn’t seem to be seeing anything. Mokuba was smarter than that and Yugi knew that the teen would sniff out the truth sooner or later, but it wasn’t his place to comment on their relationship.
“If you’re sure then,” Yugi said with a small sigh.
“I’m not sure of anything anymore.”
~*~
The drive was quiet. Kaiba was on his phone the entire time, writing emails and setting things up for his absence. It was when he was done and put his phone down that Yugi’s heart well and truly shattered. Seto Kaiba had always been the strongest person Yugi had ever known. To see him like this, broken and mangled, staring unseeing out the window, curled in on himself. . . Yugi wasn’t used to seeing him look small.
“Kaiba–”
“I think we’re on a first name basis by now, don’t you?” Kaiba asked. For a second, his old self showed through with a mildly cocky smirk and a deviant gleam in his eye. But like when he talked about Mokuba, the look faded quickly and he went back to staring out the window.
Yugi let out a small chuckle. “Yeah, probably. . . Anyway, I was going to ask if you wanted me to come in with you or just drop you off.”
In truth, Yugi wasn’t sure if he’d be allowed in. When they brought Joey, he’d been so irate that two burly orderlies had to extract him from the car and he wasn’t allowed to have visitors for a week. That was several years ago, and Joey was being admitted on a court order, Kaiba was coming in voluntarily. There might be a whole different set of rules.
Kaiba didn’t answer. They drove in silence barring the soft classical music Yugi had playing over the bluetooth.
“Do you know if they have a piano?” Kaiba asked softly at one point.
“I think I remember seeing one in the rec room, yeah,” Yugi said with a nod. “Just a keyboard, nothing fancy.” Then Yugi’s ears perked up as he actually heard the question and asked, “Do you play piano, Seto?”
He nodded. “I play a bunch of instruments but I like the piano the best.”
Sensing a chance to lighten the mood, Yugi instantly asked, “What instruments? My dad tried to get me to play guitar when I was a kid, but I never kept up with it. You?”
Kaiba cast his eyes to the sky and started ticking things off on his fingers. “Let’s see. Piano, guitar, violin, lute, some various percussion instruments, I could pick up a tenor sax if I really wanted to, but the brass instruments are Mokuba’s poison of choice, not mine, and otherwise I’m really not allowed to touch woodwinds.”
“That sounds like a story,” Yugi chuckled.
“Not really. The first time my music teacher put a clarinet in my hand, I made such an ungodly noise that she said I was never allowed to touch woodwinds ever again.” Kaiba smiled at the memory, even chuckled a little. “Music and art. Those were the two lessons that let me survive Gozaburo. I had music on Wednesdays and art on Fridays. If I worked hard, kept my grades up, and did all my homework, I got to have those lessons. If I didn’t, the lessons were canceled that week. Dangled them in front of me like a goddamned carrot, but it worked.”
Oh. Yugi hadn’t meant to stray into that territory. He saw Kaiba close off again and curl up and he cursed himself.
“Hey, maybe after you get out, you can teach me to play guitar?” Yugi asked, trying to sound hopeful. “Or maybe even piano? Hell, I’d love to play you in chess one of these days, if nothing else.”
“Maybe.”
~*~
They did let Yugi in after Kaiba lied to them and told them Yugi was his partner. A nurse took Kaiba back for evaluation while they handed Yugi paperwork. Paperwork he could do. The fact that Kaiba trusted him enough to fill it all out put a heavy responsibility on Yugi’s shoulders.
He could only imagine what Atem would be saying if he was there. Would he be fretting? Pacing back and forth in his soul room biting his thumb nail? Or would he have fronted, taken control of the situation, talked to Kaiba in the way only they could? Then again, if Atem was there, Kaiba wouldn’t be in the mess in the first place. Still, as the pen glided across the paper, Yugi could have sworn he felt another hand on his, guiding him.
After a couple hours, the doctor informed him that Kaiba was going to be admitted for a two week stay at least. He detailed a complex treatment plan, comprehensive therapy, and medication. At the end of two weeks, they’d reevaluate if Kaiba could go home or if he was going to need to stay a bit longer. Yugi was allowed to visit on the weekends and Kaiba could call him whenever he wanted, and Yugi could drop things off during business hours. Kaiba certainly had more freedom than Joey had.
Paperwork done, Yugi went home. The presence that he felt from the moment he walked in did not walk out with him. He felt it leave him and head towards the back. There was no telling who that was, but he hoped that it was Atem. Kaiba needed all the help he could get.
~*~
Kaiba only called Yugi twice. Once to tell him not to bother visiting.
~*~
When Yugi saw a strange name on his caller ID, he was about to not answer it. Spam calls came in all the time for him. But he felt something push his hand towards the phone and he answered anyway.
“Hello?” Yugi asked through a small yawn. It was still early in the morning, he was actively making his coffee.
“Hey,” came Kaiba's exhausted voice.
“Hey!” Yugi replied cheerfully. He hadn't expected Kaiba to reach out during his treatment. This was a good thing. “How's it going?”
“It's going,” Kaiba muttered. Yugi had to sit down. Kaiba sounded even worse than the day Yugi dropped him off. “Listen, I. . . I don't know what you may or may not have been planning, but I don't want any visitors. I just want to focus.”
“That's totally okay,” Yugi said softly with a nod even though Kaiba couldn't see it. “Hey, I'm glad you're getting help. I think this was a really long time coming.”
Silence lapsed over the call. Yugi bit his lip. He could feel that Kaiba had something to tell him. Something important.
“Is there. . . Anything else?” Yugi asked carefully.
Kaiba hiccuped. “Don't touch the Duel Links disk I gave you. In fact, bring it to Kaiba Corp as soon as you can and tell the front desk I told you to take it to R&D.”
“Is there something wrong with it?” Yugi asked. There had to be if Kaiba was warning him off.
Now the hiccup sounded more like a sob. “Three people have died. They slipped into comas and their families pulled the plug. Over a dozen more have irreparable brain damage. The whole system is being recalled and decommissioned.”
Yugi's breath caught in his throat. Died?! He couldn’t imagine that Kaiba had been so flagrant in his testing to allow such a dangerous product into the market. He had so many questions about what happened, but he heard someone talking to Kaiba softly, though he couldn't hear what they were saying. Maybe an orderly or a nurse seeing what was wrong?
After a minute, Kaiba came back to the phone. “By the way, if you see Ishizu, you don't know where I am, okay?”
“Sure, but why would I see Ishizu?” Yugi asked, completely confused.
“She's in Japan,” Kaiba muttered. “She's my girlfriend.”
“Your what?!” Yugi cried, jumping out of his chair. He hadn't heard that right. There was no way he heard that right.
“I know, I know, I don't know what I was thinking,” Kaiba continued. He was drained, Yugi could hear it. Drained and miserable. “I. . . I’m trying to move on. He'd want that, right? For life to go on?”
Yugi sobered and smiled even though Kaiba couldn't see. “Of course he would.”
“I wish I picked better,” Kaiba groaned. “She's. . . Touchy. And feely. And she tries to talk to me when I'm working. And has no concept of boundaries or personal space.”
“Sounds like you should break up with her.” Yugi relaxed back in his chair. Girl talk, he could do. Easily. “If she's making you that miserable, that is. Is there anything you like about her?”
“I don't know. She's smart. I guess she's pretty. She's. . . I. . . We. . .”
“Is this about you two having sex on the blimp?” Yugi prompted knowingly. He heard Kaiba choke on the other end. “Yeeeaaahh, her room was next to mine and the walls were thin. You kept us up all night. So, what, you started dating because. . . You felt obligated? Felt. . . Something?”
“Something.” There was something Kaiba wasn't telling him, and Yugi could hear it. But Kaiba had already opened up so much, Yugi was worried about him slamming the door closed if he started prying. “It's hard to explain. Yeah, maybe a little obligation.”
“That's not really a good reason to get into a relationship,” Yugi mused. “Listen, Seto, we're all still young. Go out and meet people, have wild consensual and safe sex, date and break up with however many people you want. Live. He would want you to live. ”
“Yeah.” Silence lapsed for a moment. “I'm gonna go. Thank you for everything.”
“No problem. Talk to you soon?”
The line went dead. Yugi went back to his coffee.
~*~
The second at the end of the two weeks to ask him to pick him up. The man that walked out of the facility did not look much different than the man that walked in, still tired, still small, but he seemed a little bigger than before. Not the giant that he’d known, but getting there.
Once again, the ride was silent besides some classical music. Kaiba was on his phone the entire time catching up on everything he’d missed. There were so many questions in Yugi’s brain, but he couldn’t ask. If Kaiba didn’t want him to know or visit, he wasn’t going to pry. So despite wanting to shake the answers out of him, Yugi stayed silent.
When they pulled up to the manor this time, only the butler was there to greet them. He took Kaiba’s bag from the trunk, thanked Yugi quietly, and ushered his master inside. Yugi was going to continue his quiet streak, but something nudged him on his shoulder and he rolled down the window.
“Seto!” Yugi cried. Kaiba stopped at the top of the steps and turned slowly. Yugi smiled at him. “You owe me a chess match, remember? How about Saturday morning?”
Kaiba looked surprised for a second, and then smiled softly and nodded. “It’s a date.”
Yugi nodded and righted himself in the driver’s seat. He expected that Kaiba wouldn’t be willing to open up again after being so vulnerable. But that man always loved a game so Yugi was going to use that to get him comfortable again. Maybe he could even bring the ideas he had for his own tabletop game and get Kaiba’s insight. Anything to try and cheer him up.