Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.
Warnings: My attempt at an angst-romance fic, although I couldn't resist putting in a few humorous moments courtesy of Bakura.
Author: Koneko Shido
A/N: Everyone's out of character, but I don't care much at this point. I know that Kaiba isn't being his usual arrogant, 'to-hell-with-you-all' self, but he's in love, and apparently that makes people act weird. *Shrug* And as for Katsuya not trusting him and being a little pissy, I think he has every right to be that way. But that might just be me...
Thrown to the Wolves 3
Katsuya shut the door with a quiet click behind him as he let himself in, glancing over to see his father passed out on the couch. Sighing, he walked over and turned off the TV, which had been left on and had turned to static. Muttering to himself, he gave his alcoholic parent a bitter glare then ran a hand through his shaggy blonde hair and made his way over to a door at the back of the room and down the wooden stairs inside to his own basement room, the brick walls covered with posters and photos and the bed in the centre of the large room heaped with pillows and different coloured blankets.
"Damn Kaiba." He muttered angrily, ignoring the hurt he felt and replacing it with anger, an emotion he considered much easier to deal with. 'Bastard.' He thought as he dug out an American Hi Fi CD and stuck it in the player. A little music always managed to cheer him up, so he threw himself down on the bed and listened to the lyrics while he stared at the photographs of his friends he had taped to the ceiling. That always cheered him up, too. There was one with Ryou pouring cold water over Bakura's head for drawing obscene pictures of him and showing everyone. The look on Bakura's face was priceless as his spiky white hair dripped and he blinked, confused. Next to that picture was one of Malik sitting on Marik's shoulders, giving a peace sign to the camera. Above that picture was Yugi poking Yami in the side, and beside that one was a group shot of them all outside the school, with Honda holding up a paper sign that read 'Domino High flower arranging class.' In the picture Katsuya was standing next to him, snickering.
Grinning to himself, Katsuya raised his eyes to look at the next picture and froze, frowning in annoyance. It was a picture of Bakura and Marik pestering Yami, but in the background, just visible over Marik's shoulder, was Kaiba looking to the side, his trench coat fluttering around him in the breeze. His eyes were looking emotionlessly at something out of the shot and in one hand he held his briefcase, his other hand in his pocket. He looked damn hot like that, too. Katsuya growled and knelt up, ripping the picture off the ceiling and glaring fiercely at it.
"Sorry, guys," he muttered to Bakura, Marik and Yami, then tore the picture into as many pieces as he could and dumped them in the bin next to the bed. Scanning the other pictures still stuck to the ceiling, he was in the process of making sure there were no more with Kaiba in them when he remembered the shirt he was wearing and got off the bed to take it off, folding it up neatly to give back to Bakura in the morning. Yanking off the rest of his clothes angrily, he pulled on a sleeping t-shirt that was way too big for him and switched off the music, climbing into bed.
The moment his head hit the pillow he immediately found himself thinking about Kaiba again. 'That rich jerk!' He snarled inwardly, scowling. 'I shoulda slashed the tyres on his stupid limo or something.' That thought made him grin bitterly and roll over, hugging one of his pillows tightly. 'Jerk. Well, ain't no point moping about over him, wasn't like I ever expected him to give a damn in the first place.' Katsuya mused, knowing that Kaiba's hesitation to defend him in front of Otogi meant that he didn't want Katsuya as much as he'd claimed. In truth he'd never really expected Kaiba to be some knight in shining armour that would sweep him off his feet, but it still hurt to be proved right.
Rolling over onto his other side, Katsuya reached out and grabbed the phone beside his bed, dialling a number he knew off by heart.
"Hello?" Came a slightly shaky voice from the other side after a couple of rings, and Katsuya smirked.
"Hey, Yug'. What's up?" Of course, he knew that all too well.
"Oh, n-nothing..." Yugi whimpered slightly, and Katsuya grinned.
"Say hi to Yami for me, won't ya?" He snickered.
"Jou!" Yugi squeaked indignantly, knowing what his friend meant. "He's not, I mean we're not, I mean, it's, uh, ahh!" He yelped. "Yami!"
"Riiiight. I jus' wanted to know if you felt like hanging out tomorrow."
"Oh, sure! I'll tell everyone else, and- ahh! Yami, I-I'm on the phone!"
Katsuya grinned again, laughing.
"Ok, see you at twelve, the usual place. I'll leave you two to go back to whatever you were doing now..." He cackled, then hung up when Yugi tried to deny everything, as usual. Of course, no one ever believed him, since they all knew that Yami could never keep his hands off his little lover for more than five minutes at a time.
* * *
Katsuya was just getting off to sleep, having finally managed to banish the though of a pair of mocking sapphire eyes from his mind, when the phone rang. Guessing it was Yugi calling to cancel or change their plans, he reached out and groped blindly in the darkness for the phone, managing to close his hand around the shrieking device and bring it to his ear.
"Nuh?" Was the most intelligent comment he could come up with, since it was late at night and his brain was chanting the word 'sleeeeep' over and over again to him like some hypnotic mantra.
"Katsuya?" A deep voice asked from the other end of the line, and the blonde's eyes snapped open in the darkness as he sat bolt upright, all thoughts of going back to sleep vanishing.
"Kaiba. How did you get this number?" He asked coldly, scowling and hoping that somehow Kaiba would sense it. He really, really didn't need to talk to that rich jerk right now...
"I'm the chief executive officer of a huge corporation, I can get pretty much whatever I want." Kaiba's smooth voice replied, though he sounded slightly more hesitant than usual.
'Yeah? Well you can't get me.' Katsuya thought angrily. "Whaddaya want?"
"I wanted to explain what happened at the party, I-" Kaiba began, but was cut off by an angry growl from the blonde.
"It's real late, Kaiba, why don't you go amuse yourself with someone else?" Katsuya told him, glaring into the darkness of his room.
"Katsuya, please, you don't understand-" Kaiba tried again, but was cut off once more.
"Like I said, don't lose any sleep over it, right? It's no big deal, I won't hold it against you. It ain't like we ever got on anyway, and like that dice guy said, you should find someone higher bred than me."
"Wait-"
*CLICK*
Katsuya glared at the phone he'd just hung up and muttered under his breath.
"Bastard."
A second later, though, the phone began to ring again and Katsuya snatched it up, feeling a headache coming on. Didn't this guy ever give up?!
"What?" He snarled into the phone.
"Katsuya, listen to me-" Kaiba tried, but it seemed Katsuya was determined not to let him finish a sentence. Taking a deep breath, Katsuya hissed at the phone.
"No, you listen, you rich bastard! I'm not playing your sick game anymore, so leave me alone! I don't want to be part of whatever statement you're trying to make, find someone else to trail around after you! We both know that Otogi guy was right, you're only gonna get laughed at by your friends if you pretend you want someone like me. You've had your fun, and I'm sure everyone at the party got the joke, so you can stop now! You win, ok?" He growled savagely, then slammed the phone down and reached over, yanking the cord from the wall.
'Play with me, will you? Well I don't like being toyed with!' He fumed, clenching his fist. 'You can go straight to hell, moneybags!'
With that thought, he rolled over and forced his eyes closed. He would not think of Kaiba. Nope. No way. He would just go right to sleep now. Any time now...
* * *
He was running... Away from something? Or to something? It didn't matter, just that he was running very fast, and he was so tired his lungs felt as though they were about to burst. Suddenly something shoved him to the ground from behind and a collar of some sort was clipped around his neck, tight. Struggling to get away, he found that the collar was connected to some sort of leash, so he turned around to find out who held it. Of course, none other than Seto Kaiba stood there holding the end of the leather leash, looking smug as ever.
"Let me go, Kaiba!" He demanded, growling. Kaiba just smirked at him.
"Why should I? You're my dog, after all." The CEO said in his ever-calm voice.
Katsuya tried to escape, but it seemed that the more he struggled the tighter the collar got, until he was choking. Kaiba knelt down beside him and lifted his chin, forcing his head up so that their eyes met.
"What's wrong, puppy?" The blue-eyed executive asked, his voice laced with amusement.
"I-I can't breathe..." Katsuya choked, gasping where he knelt in front of Kaiba.
The brunette smirked.
"I know." He whispered, staring coldly right into Katsuya's eyes.
TBC
Not really happy with that part, but what the hell, I wrote it in about half an hour so I could get it posted, it's a little bit rushed. ^_^ Hope you forgive me! And next time, I couldn't resist bringing Ryou and Bakura and everyone else back, so they shall be hanging around next chapter! And Marik and Malik, 'cause I like them. So 'till next time.
- Koneko