Yesterday's lessons

I chapter

"The damage?" Seto asked with tight voice, his icy eyes taking in the devastation that had been just day a go one of his warehouses. The signs of the fire could be seen anywhere - the metal walls were painted by black and the paint of the door had gone from white to sickly shade of burnt sienna. He didn't have to be expert to see that most of the paint had boiled during the fire.

The worker leafed through the notebook in his hand. "The warehouse itself isn't as bad state as it seems like. Since it was mostly made of metal, it's unlikely that it will collapse, but some of the support beams have bent and the windows were mostly shattered when the fires were put out. Some repair and the warehouse will be usable. .."

"I'm not interested about the warehouse - I can have more build any time I want," Seto threw a frown at the worker. "How much of the product we lost?"

The worked coughed awkwardly and leafed through his book again. "As you know, sir, in that warehouse there was mostly DC3s, waiting for to be shipped out. At least half of them are burned beyond repair and the rest have suffered bad smoke damage and are no doubt unusable as well," the man frowned a little. "It also seems that the smoke got to the warehouses five and seven as well, so the products in those warehouses have also suffered fire damage…"

Seto's frown deepened into a scowl as his eyes skipped to the warehouses at the each side of the burned one. The flames had licked the walls of the other warehouses so there was probably some heat damage as well. "Just great," he murmured, striding up to the burned doors of the warehouse number six. "And the cause of the fire?" he asked.

"The specialist aren't quite sure yet, but it seems like it was malfunction in the air ventilation system," the employee quickly followed the president of the Kaiba Corporation. "They suspect that a bird might've flown into the air vents and caused some sort of disturbance, but they aren't hundred percent positive."

"A bird, hah!" the president snorted coldly, folding his hands while surveying the damage. It wasn't as bad as he had thought. Most of the stacks holding cardboard boxes were still undamaged and standing, but around the walls he could see how the boxes had caught fire. The sight of the ruined game devices sticking out was somehow very gruesome. Thankfully the sprinkler system had protected the stacks in the middle of the warehouse - before the system had gone down due to the fire anyway.

"Right," Seto murmured to himself. "I want everything that hasn't been touched by fire moved away from this warehouse and to the warehouses five and seven. Get some people to check them for damages - what ever is usable you keep and what seems unusable you send back to the factory so that it can be disassembled. Maybe the idiots there can make something useful out of the parts."

"Yes sir, but…" the worker looked at him worriedly. "You can't possibly be thinking about selling the damaged games, sir? The smoke and the heat, sir, it's unlikely -"

"If they still work, we will sell them," Seto glared at the man for even thinking about proceeding otherwise. "Making these games costs money, money that is only returned to the company once the games are sold. This stupid fire might've ruined the complete worth of the merchandise but not all of it. If the games work, they will be sold - even if we have to lower the price, they will still be sold," he turned his eyes to the merchandise and glared at the signs of the fire. "We need all the profit we can get to repair this damage."

"Yes… sir," the worker murmured. "But the likelihood that any store will be willing to buy damaged games…"

"We'll sell them to the stores that will. Local stores, small stores - it doesn't even have to be a game store. Just as long as they will buy them with as high price as we can hope to get at this point," the president turned to leave the warehouse, sick with the sight already. "Get me a list of the local game stores and other places that might be willing to buy games of the warehouse six. Electronic stores will do as well, even repair shops. Anything usable."

"Sir, I have a list with some of the local game stores in it," the worker quickly intercepted, pulling out a ruffled sheet of paper from the notebook. "I've marked the stores where the products from warehouse six were supposed to go before the fire - all the local stores are in it along with the stores of the nearby towns…"

Seto snatched the paper and quickly looked through them. Some of them were big stores, others were smaller ones - there were even few department stores in it. And there, among the sum of small game stores, was a familiar name. The Turtle game shop.

Stilling his walking, the president frowned at the name. Where had he heard that name before? Then it hit him. 'That's the store of Mutou Yugi's grandfather?' For some reason the thought shocked him slightly. He hadn't heard a sound from the King of Games in almost a decade - not since they had all been brats, living and breathing from Duel Monsters. 'I have that shrimp's grandfather's store on my lists? My company actually supplies that store? And I didn't know?'

It wasn't that strange though. The company supplied over half thousand game stores all over the world. He didn't bother keeping track with them - he had workers to do it for him after all. But it was still a surprise that this store was on the lists and he didn't know. 'Interesting to see that the store is still up and running. That old man though… shouldn't he be dead by now?'

"Contact all the stores and shops in Domino to see if they will be willing to buy the damaged games - and have someone cover the story in the press. The damaged games will be going out to the market a bit earlier than meant so that should bring the price up a little bit," Seto mused. Then an idea brewed in his head - along with unhealthy amount of curiosity. "But this store…" he pointed the Turtle game store, "don't contact this one."

"Sir?" the worker asked with surprise. "The Turtle game store has been a loyal customer for many years -"

"Yes, I'm sure it has been. With those people, I can't see any other way for it to be," Seto rolled his eyes, remembering his old rival from way back. He handed the paper back to the worker before turning to leave. "Keep the store in the lists as usual, but don't contact it about this matter."

"May I inquire why, sir?" the worker asked with confusion.

"I intend to contact the store myself," Seto answered. He threw a glare at the dump struck worker over his shoulder. "Get to it! I don't pay you for standing around, asking questions."

Mildly satisfied by the way the worker hurried away, the president of the Kaiba Corp turned his attention ahead. 'Mutou Yugi hm…' he thought, as the image of the short King of Games flashed somewhere in the privacy of his own mind. The ridiculously wide eyes that had eternal look of wonder and surprise in them, that stupid haircut and dye, the laughable clothing his rival had used to wear… The greatest duellist in the world. 'How many years has it been since I last heard about him? Seven? Eight? Probably even more; I can't quite recall any meetings between us after high school… that was over a decade ago…'

Suddenly, unexplainably, he wanted to find out how his former rival was doing. 'He probably won't even be at the shop. It's still probably run by that old man, what ever his name was… but I guess it doesn't hurt to take a look. If nothing else, then I'll get to see how they present my games and gaming stations in the store…'

x

The Turtle game store was silent as Yugi concentrated onto the small figurine he was carefully painting. It was a tiny thing made with as much detail as he could make - as perfect miniature version of the Magician of Black Chaos as he could make. Currently Yugi was very carefully painting a tiny silver buckle in the magician's thigh with silver paint.

It was a quiet hour. It was too late for early window shoppers and too early for students. Most of his customers were students in the local schools and before the school hours would be over, his shop wouldn't have too many visitors. He didn't mind it too much. He had ways of entertaining himself during the slow hours - like figurine making, which had became a dear hobby some years ago.

Glancing up whilst reaching for more paint, the shopkeeper glanced at the lines of finished figurines. Smile tugged at the corner of his lips at the sight of Dark Magician, Dark Magician Girl, Celtic Guardian, Gaia the Fierce Knight and all other monsters that had been once upon a time treasured companions. Over them towered the slightly bigger miniatures of the three gods - it had taken him weeks to make them, but he was quite satisfied with them.

'What an otaku-ish hobby,' he mused to himself while dipping the tiny brush in paint and turning to the latest figurine again. He didn't care much about how otaku-ish - and therefore nerdish - the hobby was, though. He had lot of free time in his hands these days, and making the figures gave him a certain feeling of accomplishment. Especially if they came out as well as he wanted them to.

Hearing the bell ringing in the shop, Yugi glanced up. 'A customer at this time of the day?' he questioned with confusion, but lowered the brush and the figure carefully to the table. After closing the lid of the silver paint, he glanced around for his cane, quickly finding it from beside the table. Using it and the table's edge as leverage, he slowly stood up. Then, using the cane as support, he limped towards the door separating the backroom from the shop. 'This is a strange time to get customers. Maybe a student skipping school?'

The shop seemed empty when he stepped behind the counter. Trying to see to the between of the shelves of the shop, he frowned. Was there someone there? Yes, there was. He could see a shadow between the shelves - and unsurprisingly the customer was apparently looking through the selection of the Kaiba Corp's hologram games. They were very popular these days.

"Hello?" Yugi asked carefully, stepping nearer to the counter to see better. "May I help you somehow?"

There was a moment of silence before the customer stepped from between the shelves. Yugi's eyes widened when he saw that it wasn't some student, but a man. A very tall man dressed into a long coat with hint of white collar and black tie peaking from the collar. Then Yugi saw the man's face, the slightly lengthy brown hair and the cold blue eyes.

"Kaiba?" the short shopkeeper asked with shock. He quickly raked his eyes up and down the man's lengthy frame before taking the man's face in again. Yeah, it was definitely Kaiba Seto. The man hadn't changed much since their teenage years - still tall, still pretty much expressionless, and still icy-eyed. He even had the metallic brief case with him - and even his haircut was the same. "Kaiba Seto," Yugi shook his head with wonder while carefully hiding the cane and leaning onto the counter for support. "How long has it been? Nine years? Ten? What brings you to my humble shop?"

"Nothing less than a disaster, I assure you," the tall man strode up to the counter. "I see you haven't changed much - still a shrimp. You've taken over for your grandfather in the shop, huh?"

Yugi shrugged, pushing aside the twinge of pain he felt at the words. "Grandpa died over four years ago," he answered, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible and hoping that Kaiba wouldn't see the cane. "I've been taking care of the shop since."

The tall man looked at him thoughtfully, folding his hands. "I half expected you to be touring the world or something. Running after Duel Monster's tournaments. It seemed to be all you did back when we were young."

Yugi lowered his eyes for a moment, hoping that his face wouldn't betray his bitterness. 'Touring the world… hah.' He faked a smile - smile he faked these quite often. "Well, I was young. I guess I settled down," he mused. When the taller man raised his eyebrows with surprise, the shorter man laughed. "Not that I'm married or have kids or anything like that. I mean settled down to living as a modest shopkeeper."

"Uhhuh," the taller man frowned slightly. Then he looked away. "Well, as wonderful as it is to see this… humble place," the man gave the game shop a slightly disdainful look. "I came here on business."

"Oh really?" Yugi smiled an honestly amused smile this time. 'Good to see that this man's mannerism hasn't changed one bit,' he mused. "And what sort of business would drive you from your lofty, erm, corporation to wander amongst peasants such as myself?" he asked with a grin.

Kaiba threw an annoyed look at him. Then the man rolled his eyes. "There was an accident at the corporation. One of my warehouses burned down and whilst we managed to secure some of the merchandise, the heat and smoke damage will make it impossible to sell them in your usual fashion."

"You mean asking your usual price," Yugi rolled his eyes. Kaiba Corp's products weren't cheap - for a damn good reason though. The hologram gaming systems were the best out there, so the man had the right to ask for good prices, but still… at times the prices could give little shop owners like him big headaches. "So you want to sell damaged goods with low prices?"

"They're not actually damaged. The boxes might've suffered some damage but I won't be selling broken games," Kaiba threw a glare at him. "I will not sell defective products - not even to a place like this."

Yugi's amused smile gained a slightly strained quality. "Yes, I imagine that my little shop is not quite up to your usual criteria," he muttered, before pointing the man accusingly. "And I didn't mean to insult you or say that you would sell faulty goods. That would probably be harmful for your company's reputation, so it's obviously not something you'd do. I just said it to make sure I understood the situation properly."

"Right," the taller man rolled his eyes. "In any case. I'm going to try and sell all the products that are usable to the local shops with low prices. Yours was on the list of local shops we supply, so I decided to drop by myself," the man grimaced and spoke the next words as if they tasted foul in his mouth. "For old times' sake."

Yugi couldn't help but laugh at that. He ignored the annoyed look Kaiba sent to his direction, marvelling how seeing a familiar face could make him laugh so quickly. He couldn't even quite remember the last time he had honestly laughed. "Why do I feel that Mokuba is somehow behind this?" he murmured amusedly while leaning his elbows against the counter. While trying to get his legs to more comfortable position, he missed the way Kaiba frowned and turned away sharply. "Well then, what are you selling?" Yugi asked. "I have most of your products here already."

"Yes, I noticed," Kaiba coughed, nodding towards the shelves he had been looking at previously. "Very well stacked I might say. Popular?"

"Does your ego really need another boost?" Yugi chuckled. "Yes, highly popular. Most customers that come here are after hologram games. And every second person comes here asking when DC3 will come out. You have lot of people holding their breaths, waiting for the new console."

Kaiba gave a slightly satisfied smirk before nodding. "That's quite fitting. It's DC3s I need to sell."

"You burned down a warehouse of DC3?" Yugi raised his head with surprise. The gaming world was waiting for the new Disk Console with drool practically pouring from their mouths - heck, Yugi himself was anticipating it too. The game was promised to come out in the end of the month, but it had been almost two years worth of wait until now. If there had been a single console out there right now, people would've paid millions of yens to get their hands to it. "Damn, what a waste."

"Tell me about it," the Kaiba Corp' CEO sighed. "Annoys the hell out of me; I lost over twenty thousand consoles in that damn fire. And about ten thousand suffered smoke and heat damage. Half of them will be recycled and half - the ones in best condition - I will sell to shops like this one."

Yugi raised his eyebrows. "Only five thousand, hm?" he asked curiously. Then he narrowed his eyes. "Do you mean to say that you're going to release these damaged consoles ahead of schedule?"

"Yes," the taller man nodded.

The shopkeeper couldn't help but be impressed with that. If it had been after the release date, Kaiba wouldn't have gotten anything out of the damaged consoles. But since it was before… Right now the gaming masses were screaming for the DC3s. They would no doubt pay well even for damaged consoles. And this worked well as a publicity stunt too. Five thousand consoles, released solely in Domino and ahead of schedule. The word of that would travel fast and far.

"Not bad," Yugi nodded to himself. His mind was already running a mile a second with what he could do with those consoles. If he could get his hands on just few of them, he could auction them off in the Turtle game store's website - it would get him nice little profit… "Not bad at all. To how many stores are you going to offer them?" he asked from the taller man.

"All the stores in Domino that will be willing to buy," Kaiba shrugged. "And maybe to one or two websites."

Yugi frowned. 'Hasn't he realised the auction value these things will have?' he mused. 'If he would start auctioning them on Kaiba Corp's website, he could get some profit for himself as well…' Yugi smiled slightly. "I'll buy. How many would you be willing to sell to me and what's the price?" he asked. 'I want at least few consoles before he realises that by auctioning them he would get much more out of them.'

"To your store?" Kaiba glanced at the store. "How many regular customers does this place have?"

"Around two, three hundred I think," Yugi mused. "Mostly high school and college students."

"Then I'll sell you two hundred. That would be… three million yen," the man said almost flippantly.

"You expect me to pay fifteen thousand yen per a console?" Yugi asked with raised eyebrows. "Hey, these are damaged consoles we're talking about, and you're asking that sort of price?"

"The usual price is around fifty thousand yen," Kaiba gave him a flat look. "It's a seventy percent discount. Don't expect me to settle for any less than that. The products might be damaged, but it's the boxes that are damaged, not the consoles. They're still quite unusable."

The shorter male frowned. 'Well, when he puts it that way…' he mused. "Well, three million yen is still too much. My shop isn't that wealthy. I'll, hm… I'll buy fifty consoles. That'd be about seven hundred and fifty thousand yen, right?"

"Yeah, that's about right. Fifty it is then," Kaiba nodded, setting the metallic briefcase to the counter. With well adjusted movements, he opened the locks of the suitcase and brought out official looking documents. "You don't mind if we'll have this deal in written word, right?" the man asked, taking out a pen as well.

"Not at all - and why I am not surprised you carry these sorts of things with you?" Yugi chuckled. 'Better for me though. The sooner it is made official, the better. Once it's written down, he can't go back on his words.' With mild amusement, the shopkeeper watched how the Kaiba Corp's president filled in the document before handing it to him to be signed. After glancing through the document, Yugi added his signature underneath Kaiba's. "There we go. Nice and official."

"Hm," Kaiba just nodded, hiding the document in his briefcase again. As he locked the thing again, he gave Yugi a look that maybe was curious one - with Kaiba it was hard to tell. "Do you think you can sell them?"

"Of course I can sell them," Yugi snorted, giving the man slightly amused look. "Why do I have a feeling that you don't deal with your marketing too much? People have been expecting the third Disk Console as if it was the second coming! I'll auction the consoles of in the internet, and I think I'll get nice bit of profit out of it too."

Kaiba gave him a surprised look. "My god," he then said almost sarcastically. "You actually have a business sense, Yugi."

Yugi smiled though he felt a twinge of awkwardness at the words. When he had taken over the Game Store, he had been forced to auction lot of old things off so that he could get some money. He had needed it to get the shop up and running again after being closed down for months. At that time he had been more or less forced to become a successful salesman - it was either that or bankruptcy. "I guess I do have some sense," the shopkeeper admitted.

"I never knew you had any," Kaiba gave him a darkly amused look. "You've always seemed to lack most sense - common sense especially."

"Oh shut it," Yugi chuckled wondering how he could be amused by things that could've previously made him feel insult. 'I guess I've grown thicker skin since grandpa died…' he mused. 'It's strangely nice to talk with Kaiba again. Maybe it's because of a familiar face, but… it's nice.'

Kaiba gave him a thoughtful look before glancing at the clock hanging from the near by wall. "I think I should get back to the office," he then said. "Now that this business is concluded."

"In hurry to get away from me?" Yugi asked amusedly though somewhere inside him he felt a bit saddened. "Pity. It would've been fun to catch up."

"Catch up?" Kaiba asked as if he had never heard the words before.

"Yeah. You know, talk about things that have happened and how we've been doing and stuff," Yugi made a circling motion with his hand to wrap it all up in nice packet. "It's not like I don't know how you've been doing, though. I mean, in this business you can't turn around without hearing something about the great Kaiba Corporation," he chuckled. "But in the least it would be nice to pay some respect to the days gone by. Or something."

'I just want to talk to someone I know,' Yugi mused silently. 'It's been too long since I've gotten the chance to talk about the past with someone who shared it.' Not that he'd say that aloud.

Kaiba frowned but in the same time he seemed just a little bit intrigued. "Well… I was thinking about grabbing a bite to eat before heading back. Have you had lunch yet?" he asked. "There should be some restaurants around here, right?"

"Are you asking me out for a dinner?" Yugi asked amusedly, grin spreading to his face. Underneath it he was a bit worried. Like this, leaning onto the counter, he was fine. But to go out to a restaurant would require walking - and with him walking required, among other things, a cane. And he had been sort of hoping that Kaiba wouldn't see the cane.

"Hey, you're the one who want to catch up," Kaiba threw annoyed scowl at him before looking around in the game shop. "As… humble as this abode of yours is, I think there are better places for lengthy discussions."

"Man, you sure know how to compliment someone," Yugi laughed but straightened his back. 'Well, I guess this place isn't that nice to spend time in - heck, I go to the back room every time there's no customers around… and it's not like I can hide my disability anyway. Stupid to try really.' He stretched his hands. "Alright, let's go grab a bite to eat. But you're paying."

"For myself yes, you can get your own bill," Kaiba snorted.

"But you're rich! My wealth is very modest," Yugi faked a hurt. "With my measly pay I can barely eat fast food. Going out to a restaurant… it would drain my wallet dry!"

"Very funny," the taller man rolled his eyes but there was something tugging at the corner of his lips - a smirk maybe. "Can we get going now?"

"Yes, yes," Yugi sighed. He hesitated for a moment before reaching for the sleek black cane with his right hand. "Could you wait for a moment whilst I fetch my jacket and wallet?" he asked.

Kaiba glanced down to the cane before looking up. "Alright," he said with strange voice. Whilst Yugi turned to visit the backroom, he could feel the other man's gaze on him. Feeling a bit self-conscious, he glanced down to his feet once he was out of the other man's sight. His leather pants reached his ankles and underneath them the mid-calve-high boots covered his feet well. There was no way the man could see his legs.

With a shake of his head, Yugi turned to get his coat. 'Stupid, of course he can't see. Stop thinking about it - stop making such a fuss about it. Just… act like normal. If you're calm and casual about it, he should be too…' quickly he got his knee-length coat. After checking that he had his wallet and keys, he turned to return to the shop. "Okay, I'm ready to go," he said.

The taller man was watching him closely as he limped around the counter, leaning onto the cane with every other step. "What happened to your legs?" the man then asked rather bluntly.

"Just an accident some years back," Yugi assured with a casual wave of his hand. "Nothing to worry about, I assure you."

Kaiba frowned a bit before nodding. Then the man strode past him and Yugi wasn't quite sure what to think about the act that the taller man actually held the door open for him. "I might be limping but I'm not completely useless," Yugi gave the taller man a strained look while reaching for the door and adjusting the lock so that the door lock once it would close.

"Well, I wouldn't want you falling over at the porch of your own shop," the taller man grimaced at him but there was hint of embarrassment on his face. Still, he kept the door open until Yugi stepped out. After Yugi had checked that the door was properly locked, the taller man lead him to a near by car - a very fancy and shiny car, probably newest model and everything. Thankfully Kaiba decided that one show of manners was enough and allowed Yugi to open the door by himself.

As Yugi sat down, it was a bit clumsy. If Kaiba noticed that he had to arrange his feet by his hands so that they were in comfortable positions, the man decided not to say anything about it. Once Yugi had settled the cane down beside his feet and closed the door, the taller man merely asked for nearest good restaurant. As Yugi gave the directions, he had to wonder if his disability would ruin the upcoming conversation.

x

'What the hell happened to him?' Seto glanced at the rear-view mirror while backing the car from Turtle game shop's parking lot. 'Just a little accident my ass. He can't move either of his legs properly - heck the right one barely bends at all…'

When he had seen the shopkeeper, he had thought immediately that Mutou Yugi hadn't changed much. Leather shirt underneath a white button-up shirt, leather pants, that stupid collar thing around his neck and the same ridiculous hairdo even… nothing had changed. Or so it seemed. And then the man - who still the short shrimp he had been back when they had still been in high school - pulled out a cane. And a heavy limp. And acted like it was nothing.

'Nothing to worry about he says. Well if it has been years since what-ever-happened, I guess it's a bit too late to worry - not that I'd worry about him,' Seto glanced at the man sitting in the passenger's seat. 'But to me it sounded more like he didn't want to talk about it. Well, that level of injury, I guess it makes sense… Strange that I've never heard of this. The King of Games has had injury so bad that he now walks with a cane, and I've never heard anything about it…'

Suddenly Yugi sighed beside him. "Does it bother you that much?" he asked, reaching down and rubbing his left knee slightly. "These legs of mine."

Seto glanced at him. 'So it is both of his legs?' he thought. "It's not that it bothers me," he then said, turning his attention to the road again. "I just never imagined… I never heard anything about this. I should've heard something."

"I haven't been active in the gaming world for a long while," the shorter man mused, leaning back again. "At that point no one really cared that much - and even if they did, it did no good to them. I tried to keep the incident to myself, not many know about it really."

Seto threw a glance at him. 'I guess that makes sense. He never was all that interested about the fame part of our lives - that was what the low-lives and useless players were after. I still should've heard something.' He frowned. "When did it happen?" he asked.

Yugi glanced at him before looking away. "About four years ago," he said.

'Four years… didn't he say that his grandfather passed away four years ago?' The taller man hit the breaks as they ran into lights. "The same time your grandfather died?"

"Very same," Yugi nodded. "It was a car accident - some drunkard behind a wheel ran right into our car… Grandpa died and I survived with some injuries." The shorter man made a dismissing motion with his hand. "It's ancient history now. I got back to my feet and moved on. It's nothing special really."

"He died and you're limping, I'd say that it's something special," Seto frowned. 'How can he be so nonchalant about it?'

"Maybe," the other man admitted before shaking his head. "I don't really want to talk about it. There are better things to talk about, really."

"Like what?" Seto asked, driving his car out of the lights now that they had changed. "Where was I supposed to turn after the crossing?"

"Left, the restaurant will be in the right side of that street," Yugi motioned at another crossing coming up. "And there are loads of things we could talk about. Like, hm… What did you do after high school? Did you go to a college? With the Kaiba Corp there, you probably didn't really need to get an occupation, but…"

"I did go to a college. Domino University, I studied technology related things mostly - things I can use at the corporation," Seto answered. "Also took some courses on business and such. I might've been running the company since I was sixteen, but most people didn't take me as seriously as they should have before I got an official degree."

"Heh," the shorter male chuckled at his words. "As seriously as they should've. That's… interesting way of wording it."

"It's the truth," the driver rolled his eyes before glancing at the other man. Then he looked up as he saw the restaurant. "How about you?" he asked while driving to the parking lot. "What did you do after high school?"

"I went to college too," Yugi nodded. "Can't quite remember what I studied specifically. I was mostly in hurry to get it done with so that I could move onto other things."

"And then you settled down?" Seto asked while manoeuvring the car to a parking space. After turning the engine off, he turned to look at the other man. "I guess that your, hm, settling down had something to do with the injury?"

"There was few years between college and the accident, but yeah," Yugi frowned slightly while unbuckling the seat belt and opening the door. Seto took note of how he took support of the cane and of the car's door as he sat up - and he still looked like he could've easily fallen over. "With legs like this, you can't exactly run around," the shorter male grinned to him.

Quickly getting out of the car himself, Seto waited until Yugi had closed the door before locking the car. "You're surprisingly casual about it all."

"Well, I don't plan to spend my entire life mourning over my legs," Yugi made a dismissing motion with his hand. "I'm alive and kicking and that's really all that matters at the moment." As they headed towards the restaurant, the shorter male looked up to the taller one. "So. What did you do after college?"

"Concentrated onto Kaiba Corp mostly," Seto said with a shake of his head. "When you're a president of a company, the company will most likely take most of your time. There was never really any need to do anything else, though. I'm content with my corporation."

"With the amount of money you make it's no wonder," Yugi chuckled. Because Seto reached the door of the restaurant first, he held it open for the limping man. Yugi gave him a look. "You're making me believe that you somehow became a gentleman when I wasn't looking."

"Hah," the taller man said. "Very funny. Just get inside, shrimp."

"Hmph," Yugi smiled at him but stepped inside.

Seto followed him with a frown, wondering why he was being so courteous with the other man. 'It's not like he actually needs help, he doesn't seem that helpless…' he glanced at the other man as Yugi slowly limped into the restaurant. 'Or actually… he does. I wonder how bad the injury really was…'

They found themselves a table. Since the restaurant wasn't as high class as some of the ones Seto had visited, they weren't immediately brought drinks or anything of that sort - and the menu's were actually sitting on the table when they sat down.

"So, how is Mokuba doing?" Yugi asked after slowly sitting down. He reached for the menus and after handing one of them to Seto he opened the one he had gotten for himself. "I haven't seen him in the media lately."

Seto frowned at the words. 'Mokuba…' he thought with twinge of regret. "I… Mokuba and I haven't talked in a while," he then said. "As far as I know he's doing well - he's working as a freelancer in the gaming industry. You probably have some games in your store that he has been part of - though these days, he doesn't work with Kaiba Corp…"

Yugi looked almost shocked. "You… haven't talked in a while?" he repeated. "You were inseparable back when we were young - heck, Mokuba worshiped the ground you waked on! What happened?"

"He grew up," Seto shook his head. 'And realised that I'm not as good person as he tried to believe I was.' Turning his attention to the many, the president of the Kaiba Corp tried not to feel the stinging pain he felt every time he thought about his little brother. "In a way it's good," he murmured. "When he was following me like a shadow, he didn't have much independence. Now he's his own person."

"You don't really believe that, do you?" Yugi asked. When Seto didn't answer, the shorter man sighed. "I guess no one can survive through a decade without failing relationships," he murmured, glancing over the menu one final time before putting it aside. "Being adult sucks."

Seto glanced up. "What eloquent way of putting it," he murmured sarcastically while turning his eyes back to the menu. "And what relationships of yours failed?"

"All of them really," Yugi said with a shrug. "Right after high school Anzu left for America and Ryou left to Britain - both to study but they ended up staying there. Jonouchi ran away with Kujaku Mai when I was in middle of college, and during college Honda started dating Shizuka. Sometime after I graduated, they moved away too - Honda got job somewhere or something. I don't even know where Otogi is these days… Excluding some random phone calls, I haven't really talked to any of them in… years."

Seto looked up with surprise. "What the hell?" he then asked, looking at the shorter man suspiciously. "I thought you were going to be friends until death do you part of some other corny crap like that."

"They grew up too," Yugi answered with a shrug, staring at the table. "It's all nice and dandy to talk about eternal friendships when you're young, but the chances of them lasting eternally are never really set in stone. People grow and change as the time goes by… we grew apart I guess."

As the waitress came to take their orders, Seto had sudden image of what it might've been like when Yugi had the accident. Had there been anyone there to help him when his grandfather died? After giving his order, Seto turned his eyes to his former rival and took in his face. Yugi's eyes were still as big and bright as they had been when they had been young, but now… there were lines around them. At first it had looked like Yugi hadn't aged at all in the last ten years but now Seto could see that he had. His former rival's face was still young, but his eyes were old.

"It's strange," Yugi murmured, looking at the other man thoughtfully. "To see a familiar face after so long, it's strange. I see you all the time in the television, but still…"

"Yeah," Seto agreed. Someone he knew - not as a business associate or as a worker, but as a past acquaintance or maybe even more than mere acquaintance… it was strange. And in the same time it was… comforting. 'What a stupid and weak notion, but still…'

"It's nice too, though. Being in the company of someone I actually know," Yugi chuckled and the look in his eyes was a bit sad. "Let's talk about happier things."

"Like what?" Seto asked because he wasn't sure if he could think of anything… happy to talk about. He didn't give so called happy things all that much worth.

"I don't know. Tell me about the DC3," Yugi suggested.

Seto thought about it and then nodded. The game console was a safe subject to talk about. It would give them enough to talk about for the entire duration of the meal. 'Strange, though. I know everything about the console so it's a bit useless to talk about it… and yet…'

He talked, and Yugi talked back until they had lengthy conversation going on about he console and its qualities and its games and everything else. As they talked Seto found himself relaxing for the first time in a long while. And by the look on Yugi's face, the other man seemed to enjoy the conversation as well. 'Yeah,' Seto eventually admitted, though only in his own mind. 'This is… nice.'

They had started and finished their lunch before they even realised. After ward they still talked for a moment before getting up to leave, still talking about one particularly popular game that had been recently released for DC2. The conversation lasted until they reached the game shop.

"It was good seeing you, Kaiba," Yugi said while opening the car door.

"I guess there are worse people to spend time with than you," Seto admitted and watched how the other started get up to his feet. The taller man felt somehow awkward about just sitting there and watching. It felt like he was supposed to help the other man somehow but in the same time he knew that trying would just seem stupid. The fact that Yugi had been dealing with the injury for years and that he was probably adjusted to it already still hadn't quite sunk in.

"I'd say that I'd like a repeat of this, but I doubt you have the time for that sort of thing," Yugi laughed once he was finally on his feet. He was leaning onto the cane again and by the looks of it keeping himself standing straight only because of it. "But… if you feel like it…" he shrugged. "I'm at the game shop most of the time. All the time really - I live just upstairs after all."

'Open invitation,' Seto thought with slight surprise. "I'll keep that in mind," he nodded. He raked his eyes over the other man one last time. "I'll make sure that you'll get the consoles tomorrow, day after tomorrow in the latest" he then said. "I'll leave now. Try not to fall over," he said as way of saying farewell. For some reason he almost felt reassured when Yugi just laughed at the words.

x

What to say, what to say... hmm... I actually can't think of much to say about this. Seto and Yugi centric drama story, will develop eventually into slash. My attemp of spreading Rivalshipping love to the world - there just isn't enough of it around.