Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Arubaito ❯ Adversity ( Chapter 7 )

Ch 7 (Adversity)

 

A/N: Fear my over-used plot lines! Bah, this fic is a comedy, I'm allowed to put them into stereotypical situations. Why? Because it amuses me if no one else. Besides, if I get an opportunity to try my hand at something classic and write it in my own inane style I'm damn well gonna try it.

<3 You Guys!

Etsuyo

 

Disclaimer: Characters, worlds, people, games, and everything else is owned by and copyrighted Kazuki Takahashi. This is a non-for-profit fan work with no particular personal gain in mind. I own the writing and nothing else.

 

***

 

It was particularly cold. The kind of cold that had you rushing to put a shirt on in the morning and dreading ever stepping out of your front door. The kind of cold that was usually accompanied by intermittent rain, or wind that never failed to mess your hair up so completely that by the time you got to work you looked like you had just gotten out of bed and all your mornings preparation had come to nothing. Katsuya had never been a fan of the `drenching season' as Shizuka had referred to it when they were younger. A little rain was fine, when it was outside and you were inside, but when it chose to rain only when you were walking and then stopped once you reached shelter, well, it got old fast. As a result he was somewhat adverse to it. Coincidently Seto didn't like rain either but Katsuya didn't know that so couldn't have added it to the list of `things I am finding I have more in common with Satan than I had previously thought.'

On days like these people seemed to take the bad weather as a sign that the world was against them, and realized that they hadn't been doing enough complaining lately.

“I hate the rain. I wish it would stop.” People would say, even though if it didn't rain the crops would dry up and they wouldn't have anything to eat.

“Why is it always so dreary!” They would exclaim, referring to the way the heavily watered clouds darkened the sky, disregarding the fact that yesterday it had been sunny.

“My washing is soaked! This rain is horrible…” One would mutter, neglecting to consider that if it didn't rain they'd all die of thirst.

Katsuya would usually nod and agree with them along with everyone else. You were considered quite odd indeed if it began to pour and you suddenly cracked a huge smile and proclaimed: “Yay! Rain!”

Of course when Yugi did it, it was just cute.

Katsuya walked into work that Saturday cursing and grumbling and being altogether entirely annoyed with everything. All good things, and all bad things, came in threes. At least that was a philosophy Honda had heard from someone-or-other. In Katsuya's case they were bad things. Never mind the terrible coldness the day had presented him with, he had been woken up with a phone call from his sister. Normally this would have been a notch on the `good things' list, but today she had been the bearer of bad news. Their mother was supposed to be coming back to Domino for a conference that was to last two days, and after much begging Shizuka had finally been allowed to tag along, since there was no way she would ever have been able to afford the trip on her own part time salary. Apparently, however, the conference had over-booked on speakers and their mother's appearance was no longer needed. Shizuka, by association, would not be coming.

The second thing was that not one but two umbrellas had broken on his way to work. Before he had even boarded his first train the umbrella he had been using for over a year now got knocked about by a frantic crowd and crumpled beyond hope of ever being useful again. Knowing he was going to be extremely soaked without one, Katsuya invested in a second umbrella from a Hundred Yen store that was located in between train changes. He had almost made it all the way to work when a particularly strong gust of wind took the new investment by surprise. The cheap replacement didn't even stand a chance against the forces of bad Karma. It was rendered useless in seconds, and Katsuya found himself suddenly at the full mercy of the elements once again.

He had run the rest of the way, but still got extremely wet. And so he stood in all his dripping splendor slowly destroying the carpets of Shichi Corporation's reception area. Sasaki, by some sixth sense he imagined, always knew it was him. Which meant she never looked up when he arrived since greeting someone as lowly as Katsuya didn't even feature on her list of things she planned to do in her lifetime. He always greeted her on the other hand, although today's; “Hello Sasaki-san” was said with a distinct air of weariness. All he could think was, `What will be the third thing?' whilst all manner of possible misfortunes played through his mind.

He had almost made it past her when she suddenly spoke to him. This was most peculiar.

“Wait. Need you to get onto something,” her voice crisp and snappy like it normally was whenever she graced him with her conversation.

He turned, and his hair sprayed water in a circular pattern all around him. Sasaki visibly flinched at the development. He noted that she was remarkably dry, but also that this was not exactly surprising. There was no way in hell a woman like Sasaki was about to let a drop of water on her perfectly pressed clothes. Rain knew better than to fall on her whilst she was walking to work. No telling what she might do if her neat attire was tarnished by something as inconsiderate as water.

“Yes?” He asked, trying to emphasize his desire to find a towel.

She motioned to the corner behind her large reception desk. Someone had placed a stepladder, a hammer, some nails, an electric drill, and a screwdriver just out of sight of those merely passing by. Katsuya certainly would not have spotted them if he was not pointedly searching for them.

“Ah…” He started, a worried look passing over his face. Why was it assumed that if you were a man you knew how to use tools and had the skills of a hired contractor? No matter what it was she asked him to do, he was pretty sure it was going to be above his level. I mean, just because I'm an assistant doesn't mean they can ask me to do anything! He thought, a little annoyed. Fetching baguettes is one thing but building bookcases is another.

…

Building bookcases?

“After the power black out last night there was a number of electrical surges…”

He knew they were probably short staffed with all the lay-offs he was assuming Kaiba was having fun with, but this was just ridiculous!

“…a good number of light bulbs need to be replaced. Also, the larger storage room that was being painted has now been finished. But the company put the wrong hinges on the door so it needs to be propped open until someone can fix it, otherwise it'll close on you. They also ordered the wrong door handle so at present it doesn't have one.”

That was stupid.

“I just love death traps at the office.” He said, sighing contentedly.

She glared at him, “This isn't funny. Just change the globe in there and then fix the rest of them.” She turned back to her work with a scowl, her part of the conversation completed.

“Fine fine fine.” Katsuya waved a hand at her dismissively, and walked away to tackle the more immediate problem of getting dry. It could wait; he had to take care of files and whatever else Moneybags wanted first.

 

Mokuba had told him that both good things and bad things came in threes. Seto had rolled his eyes but hadn't ignored his brother. Theoretically, as good things went, he was due for one more.

It had been three and a half weeks since Yahada's accident, and he had only just arrived back in Domino. However that morning he had made a phone call to the office and told Seto that he was able to come back to work on Monday, and Seto had informed him that they could talk about Shichi Corporation's developments then. The news had been particularly good, since Seto was eager to get the ball rolling again on the whole affair after nearly a month of stagnation. He did feel, however, that he wouldn't be able to install Yahada immediately into the company, working here had given him a chance to see that simply inserting someone new and saying; “Well, goodluck!” whilst waving and walking out the door in the opposite direction was going to be more detrimental to his plans that he had first thought. He'd need to wean Yahada in, making sure to get everything worked out properly so he would not have to repeat the last four weeks. Or however much longer this all took.

The second good thing, coincidently, had been another phone call. Apparently Niita had come down with a terrible cold as a result of the weather. She didn't think she would be able to make it in today. Her doctor said she should take at least a weeks worth of rest, but she had reassured Seto that this would not be the case, that she would be fine and back to work on Monday (he normally had Sunday's off, so she did too). Seto had immediately disagreed with her, saying that he thought no doctor had ever given better advice. She had begrudgingly agreed to give it until at least Wednesday.

Seto didn't think he had ever been this fortunate.

He wouldn't be surprised if nothing `good' happened to him for years now, but in Mokuba's theory he still had one more thing to get. However silly sayings and fortunes had never held Seto's interest, and certainly, he knew, had no basis in fact. He had just happened to receive two promising phone calls that morning. If nothing else this would cheer him up considerably for the rest of the day.

Of course, this cheery mood was not actually reflected in the attitude Seto wore on a daily basis. He had a very good mask of calm-yet-easily-irritated that not many other people could pull off quite as well. So if he had actually had a great morning, like today, no one was able to tell. (Conversely, if he had had a terrible morning people were usually able to tell a little easier. You were more likely to be fired for sneezing, say, than on one of Kaiba's good days, during which you were fired for finishing off the coffee in the machine).

Seto, furthermore, wasn't fazed that he had an extremely busy Saturday ahead of him. He was reaching the stage where he couldn't quite work out how he was actually going to fit it all into the eight hours he was provided with. But he knew, from experience, that it was all just a matter of doing one thing at a time. And having a lackey do something else at the same time, which got two things done at once. Which was ultimately more productive than doing one thing at a time by yourself.

He loved being able to boss people around.

 

***

 

Since he could no longer openly yell at Kaiba, throw a fist in his direction or swear violently at the top of his lungs, cursing every ancestor the CEO had, Katsuya had reverted to different methods of loathing that would, hopefully, still get the message across. Namely, his wit had to shake itself together and step up a bit, and use all of its power to make smart, underhanded and off the cuff remarks at Kaiba whenever they crossed paths. Although Kaiba was much more used to this then Katsuya was, who preferred dealing rebuttal in the form of a kick to the groin, it was the last resort for the college boy who needed to find some way in which to handle the hours working with someone he, on principle, hated the very mention of. This meant that Kaiba usually won their verbal arguments; although Katsuya was not about to readily admit this to anyone else.

Silently fuming from a recent vocal defeat (if you asked him, however, he would argue he withdrew for a timeout), Katsuya stalked down the hall and back to the reception area. He couldn't hit Kaiba, but he could get to work on `Sasaki's project'.

He picked up a hammer and grinned at it in a rather maniac kind of way, glancing over at the nails on the step ladder and imagining every one of them turning into miniature Kaiba's. Suddenly a lot more enthusiastic for the task, he politely asked Sasaki where it was he needed to hammer.

Not quite understanding his new found eagerness, but deciding that like everything else about Jonouchi, she didn't like it, Sasaki sighed and explained what needed to be done. Before she had even finished he took off with hammer and nails down the hall and out of sight remembering after a few moments to shout back; “Thankyou!”

She sniffed in disapproval and then continued on with her work.

 

About ten minutes after sitting down again someone started banging on his door. He was about to yell irritably, “Just come in already!” When he realized it wasn't that kind of banging that was going on. It sounded less like someone was knocking with the hope of gaining entrance than throwing a hammer against the door in the hopes that it would fall down.

Seto, applying his `daggers of death' glare, got up and strode to the door, not waiting for a pause in the hammering to grasp the door handle and swing the door right open. He would later agree that in hindsight, this was not the best course of action he could have taken. The hammer he had suspected as the cause of the ruckus, on being unable to hit his door, came flying through the air into the space behind the door. Just where Kaiba happened to be standing.

Seto never would have forgiven himself if he had gotten a broken nose from a hammer wielded by Jonouchi. It was entirely lucky for him that he had both the presence of mind and the reflexes to avoid such a terrible fate. The hammer, therefore, connected with the air to the side of his right ear, stopping its movements only after Jonouchi's forearm was blocked by Kaiba's shoulder.

The hammer quickly withdraw to the other side of the door. Jonouchi, he noted, looked more than slightly disappointed.

“Hey! I'm hammering here!” He said, and being Jonouchi wasn't able to hide his happiness behind the irritated statement. Clearly he was having a lot of fun disrupting Kaiba.

“I can hear that.” Seto glared, feeling that he would have liked very much to take the hammer and make it collide with the other boy's temple.

“Then what's your problem?”

“It's annoying me. Stop it.”

“'Fraid that's not possible. Gotta nail your new name to your door.” And he actually looked totally thrilled about it too.

Seto had gotten someone to remove Nobita's nameplate from the door weeks ago, but didn't recall ordering a new one.

“I don't recall ordering a new one.” He said with annoyance, especially one with his name on it since he did not intend to make his stay permanent. He would always own this company of course, but that did not mean he wanted to work here.

“Sorry, can't help you there.” Jonouchi said in a somewhat dismissive voice, turning back to the task at hand and holding a nail up to the door experimentally, like a construction worker informing a property owner that sorry we forgot to build on that fourth bedroom you asked for but there was really nothing to be done about it now.

Seto pondered the development for a moment. Then his glare deepened, “Niita.” He hissed her name in the kind of way someone would swear under their breath. He wished just once she would go out of her way to do something useful instead of something entirely counter productive.

BANG.

The knock of the hammer brought him back to reality. It also brought a nail right through the office door. The right side of the plate was now secured into the wood, the left side hanging down but waiting to be nailed into place.

Having no other assistants to glare at, he took to glaring at Jonouchi again; who was still hammering the same nail. He couldn't help but feel that this was entirely illogical.

“What are you doing? That nail is already poking out of the other side.”

“Just got to make sure it's secure.” Mainly he liked how the sound annoyed Kaiba.

“Well why, for instance, aren't you using a drill? It would take two seconds with one.”

“Perhaps they don't have a drill?” They did. It had been sitting next to the hammer.

“If you hammer anymore, the hole will be the size of the hammer.”

“I know what I'm doing.” He'd never used a hammer before in his life, it was a miracle he hadn't broken a finger yet.

“You're pissing me off is what you're doing.”

“Yes I am.”

“Jonouchi…”

“Kaiba.”

Seto suddenly reached out and grabbed the hammer from the blonde's grasp. Jonouchi hadn't exactly expected Kaiba to do this, not usually one for physically butting into things, and so it left his hand without much protest. He wished he'd had a little more time to ready himself for that.

They glared at each other.

“Find something else to do.” Then he slammed the door in Jonouchi's face.

 

Katsuya had decided that something better to do would be to start on the light bulb fixing problem, however he had hardly finished on the first one (it took him awhile to grasp the concept of how it was meant to work) before he got called back into Kaiba's temporary office.

“You reconsidered?” Katsuya grinned.

“No. I'm going across town for the afternoon. I'm very busy so I need you to cover my phone.” Katsuya was almost shocked that Kaiba would entrust him with such a task, especially since he had, only a short while ago, been annoying the hell out of the CEO. Usually he got his office phone to divert to his mobile, so he concluded that Kaiba really must have been that busy, and didn't want any interruptions.

Katsuya, as usual, wasn't exactly in a position to say no. And to be honest, answering the phone had the potential of being more interesting than the endless filing and distribution he seemed to be doing. Fixing broken lights was interesting too, but he felt more equipped to handle a phone than a screwdriver.

“Uh… right?” He watched Kaiba get up quickly and recover his belongings from about the room with all haste. “That's it? Just answer the phone?”

Kaiba paused long enough to throw him a look that implied he'd never heard a question more idiotic in his life. “Yes. Just answer the phone. Do the rest of things you normally do. Use your initiative.” He made it sound like giving his assistant instructions was the most tiresome thing he could possibly have imagined doing.

“Fine.” Katsuya frowned. He wasn't even sure if Kaiba heard him, as not more than a second later the brunet swept out of the office, pulling the door closed behind him.

As the other one's footsteps echoed down the hallway and faded out, the scene finally fell silent. He stared around the lifeless office, for the first time since his initial meeting with Nobita at a loss for what to occupy himself with. However he was met with the odd feeling of being so out of place that it was just wrong for him to be here at all. He was the sole occupant of the large office and had been instructed to take care of it. But it just felt so out of his league. Although Katsuya had always adopted an attitude of; “Anything Kaiba can do I can do Better”, this last month and a half had opened his eyes to the possibility that maybe there was just one thing that Kaiba was slightly better at. He could console himself, however, with the fact that he had never, even in his most dull and uninspired dreams, thought to place is future in the business and corporate world. This was a temporary part time job to get him through university, that was all.

Steeling himself again, he went to tackle the problem of what to do next to break the eerie silence in the office. There were the light bulbs, of course, but (and he rather let himself grin internally at this) Kaiba had told him that he needed to look after the phone. And so do that he would. This would naturally involve sitting at Kaiba's desk and spending the time not taking down phone notices going through any of his boss's things he hadn't thought to take with him to wherever it was he had been going to.

Feeling it a positive step in what was perhaps not the right direction per say, but a fun direction in any case, Katsuya pulled back the leather office chair and sat himself down in it with a mighty “plonk”.

Then, as no one was looking, he indulged by spinning around in it just once. Because he could.

 

In reality most people were kids at heart, they were just too afraid to admit it.

 

***

 

About mid-afternoon the rain decided it'd had enough of playing around and took up permanently residency in the Domino City skies. As a bonus it also started to thunder, and lightening could be spotted occasionally in the distance. It did nothing to cheer Katsuya's mood which had been consistently dark since his two `bad things' that morning. In the back of his mind he was still waiting for the ultimate disaster to occur. He figured he could probably count Kaiba as a walking disaster himself, and the fact that Katsuya needed to see him at all was one of the worst bad things he could imagine, however the way the `three things' deal had been described inferred that the things had to be stand alone events. Katsuya saw Kaiba at least three times a week, so unfortunately he didn't count.

Then there was also the possibility that the lightning would wreck any new bulbs he might have attempted to install, so he used this as an excuse not to tackle the task at all. You hardly noticed they weren't working unless you happened to be standing in the storage room (as it was the smallest room on the floor), and most people usually weren't.

After the slow start to the afternoon in which Katsuya had amused himself by rifling through Kaiba's things - a bag he had left, the desk drawers, the computers files that weren't code locked - the rate of incoming calls had steadily picked up to the point where he was actually having to put people on hold until he could finish another conversation and get back to them. This was probably a good development since previously mentioned rifling had produced very little to be interested with. The most he had found was a goofy picture of Mokuba at Christmas time which he suspected Kaiba might have been keeping for blackmail purposes. He was distinctly disappointed not to uncover secret company plans for world domination, or, to a lesser extent, Kaiba's hidden stash of porn on his hard drive (which had to exist on the principle that everyone else believed it did so that made it true). Not that Katsuya ever wanted to entertain the notion in a situation other than laughing about the idea with his friends.

Katsuya was finding that he was dishing out the same few answers to every question people had called him with, no matter what it had been. For the first hour or so he had needed to turn away people looking for appointments or wanting to know when Kaiba would be free to call back, but once he discovered the CEO's supposed timetable somewhere amongst the C drive, Katsuya found these easier to handle. He realized at some point that he must have been portraying Kaiba being a lot freer then what his clients were used to, as many of them seemed shocked that Katsuya was openly admitting that he would be in his office all day Tuesday, he had a free afternoon Wednesday, his lunch meeting for Friday could be rescheduled…

Maybe Kaiba was normally busier?

But he was beginning to have a small inclination that the business world was about appearing busy, rather than literally filling up ones roster with things to do.

There was also the very common response on finding Kaiba was not there and would not be back for awhile; what other numbers could I contact him with? As a result Katsuya found he knew Kaiba's alternate office number better than he did his own house phone. With a feeling of protectorship he found he really couldn't explain, he had decided not to dish out the CEO's mobile number, although he had discovered it. Kaiba had said he was busy and he suspected these people would be calling his alternate number as soon as they set down the phone with him. Katsuya didn't want to get fired because they harassed him and would probably let slip that his `helpful' assistant had given them the number.

Then there were the more memorable calls of the afternoon. He had received a conversation from an animal rights group who had claimed that Kaiba Corp. treated their test subjects unfairly. Katsuya could not help but question which subjects they were referring to as, he carefully reiterated, Kaiba Corp. was a gaming company so all road testing was done with humans. The rights movement spokesperson had mumbled something almost incoherent before hanging up abruptly.

Then there had been two calls from what appeared to be dating agencies. Kaiba's single status was a burden to himself, they explained, and were wondering if he wanted any help? Katsuya had been strongly inclined to book them an appointment when he realized that might have been really pushing his future job prospects. He did silently make a mental note to tease Kaiba about this later.

A crazy old woman had called asking for Pete. He had considered pretending to be Pete and finding out what she wanted, but then another call came through so he gave up on the idea. Several people had called to complain about faulty products and this led him on an office-wide search for the technical support number. Someone had called to ask about prices in their latest swim suit catalogue, and he had been forced to confess that as far as he knew they didn't actually sell them.

He was, by this point, confused as to why Shichi Corporation didn't have a better phone filtering service in place. Although seemingly random phone calls concerning the price of Rhubarbs in a local grocery store did cut into the tedium of having to repeat alternate phone numbers or imply, once again, that Kaiba was out on business.

Once the pace of calls picked up the afternoon progressed rather quickly. The current weather conditions were actually rather interesting when they weren't accompanied by ghost stories or involved him being under a tree during a lightning strike. However the afternoon was getting on, and by the time he began to see other people from the office packing up and heading home, he started getting annoyed.

His sense of duty and `seeing things through to the end' was in this case rather more of a burden. He checked the clock every five seconds it seemed but time just kept ticking away. Katsuya was sure Kaiba had only said he'd be gone for the afternoon, which implied he'd be coming back for the evening, right? He was in no way worried about the other man, simply extremely annoyed that he had likely already gone home and simply not bothered to tell Katsuya that he could finish for the day.

Five fifteen appeared, and by this point very few people were left at all. Stubbornly he decided to wait until six at the latest. That was when Sasaki finished in any case, and he felt that would be giving Kaiba adequate time to get back here so he could yell at him for being late.

He answered a few more phone calls, even though it was now technically after hours, before finally setting it up to go straight to voice mail. He tapped his fingers on the desk impatiently.

Suddenly… finally… the door opened, and in walked Kaiba, his shoes soaked and splotches of rain on his jacket. His hair still seemed to be perfect, Katsuya reflected distractedly.

“Time consuming afternoon, huh?” Because `You're late' made him sound like an irritated housewife.

Kaiba didn't say anything but grunted something affirmative, paying more attention to putting his umbrella away.

Katsuya decided to try a different tack.

“Your phone wouldn't stop ringing. It's insane how many people call you.”

“Yes, Niita isn't there today so all of her calls were forwarded to you. Thanks.”

Thanks?

Katsuya's head snapped up and he blinked at the CEO. Had Kaiba gone out to get high or something? He was thanking him. Something must have been wrong.

“Uh…” He started.
But Kaiba had obviously either not noticed the slip or had dismissed it and moved on already.

“I'm going to need you to work a bit later tonight.”

Katsuya almost gaped, throwing out a final life line; “You know, traditionally you ask someone for a favor before they actually do it.”

Kaiba didn't falter, “I am.” He left the rest up to Katsuya to figure out.

Jou glared, “But it's already 5:30!” That sounded a bit whiney but he didn't particularly care.

Kaiba sounded exasperated, “You'll be paid for it. Actually that's extremely generous of me considering.”

“Huh. Somehow I doubt that.” If he'd been honest with himself, he might have actually thought Kaiba was right. Many people he knew worked overtime without pay. If they didn't they lost their jobs. However when it came to conversing with Kaiba it was mandatory to disagree with him on every aspect, no matter what it was. Katsuya would have never forgiven himself otherwise.

Kaiba managed to spare him one of those: `don't argue with me' glares, before finally straightening up, walking to his desk, and giving him his full attention. “You're in my seat, mutt.”

Katsuya decided glaring back was an appropriate course of action. It seemed about all their arguments could amount to these days.

He vacated the chair, but took his time; “Right.” Pointedly Kaiba sat down in it again once Katsuya had reached the other side of the desk.

“Why am I working overtime?” He continued, ready to argue the point if he thought it sounded too weak.

“I need you to put these away,” He reached into his bag and extracted a pile at least 20 centimeters thick of paper, “And find me a number of files and case studies before tomorrow.”

“Why can't you do that yourself?”

“Because I need to finish this paper work.” Kaiba emphasized the word by dragging out a slightly less thick wad of paper from the hopefully empty bag.

“Now scoot.” He made a shooing motion with his hand to dismiss Katsuya, who growled in annoyance, once again unwittingly conforming to Kaiba's ever-present dog association. With much huffing and obvious show of irritation he snatched up the pile of documents and exited the room, making sure to slam the door loudly on his way out.

 

If time was money, he tried to convince himself he didn't mind spending a little extra time to make a little extra money. Although with the way the office was now empty, Sasaki making sure to give him one of her superior smirks before leaving at six, and most of the lights turned off since no one was really using them, the place felt damn spooky and Katsuya was more than ready to go home. He'd filed the papers as quickly as possible, pretty sure he'd misplaced one or two but not really caring, had dashed around trying to find the reports and case studies Kaiba had requested, and was now on his way back to Kaiba's office to dump them on his desk and leave… quick smart.

He wasn't really consoled by the fact that the other boy was working late too. Kaiba had chosen this life of late nights and paper work for himself. Vaguely Katsuya realized that he didn't often hear Kaiba complain about it. Maybe he did really enjoy it? This evening, for instance, rather than being annoyed about working over time, the way he had tackled the situation was with calm resolution. This would actually have been a very admirable quality, had Katsuya believed Kaiba possessed any.

Upon reaching said CEO's office, to his great annoyance he found, in literal terms, the lights on but nobody home. Frowning he placed the files on the desk, then went to find out where the other man had gotten to. He thought it was simply polite to announce that he was leaving, rather than just disappearing seemingly without warning.

He felt that yelling: “Kaiba! Kaiba!” to try and find the CEO was a rather embarrassing way of going about it, no matter how effective it actually might have been. Although knowing Kaiba he wasn't likely to yell out: “Here I am!” in response either. So Katsuya searched the office in relative silence. It was getting rather dark by this time of night, and his anxiety at finding the other boy grew accordingly. He wanted to get home, damnit. Home to his nice warm apartment so he could eat and sleep and avoid doing some well-needed study.

And another thing… who kept putting chairs right in the middle of the hall!? This had to be at least the fourth time he'd crashed into one in the semi-darkness now. Was everyone at Shichi Corporation an un-coordinated untidy compulsive inconveniently-placed-chair leaver?

Evidence would suggest this was the case.

He raged mentally as he grabbed the latest rouge chair and moved it out of the way. He realized he'd probably been a bit too violent with it, as it made a loud crash against what could possibly have been a filing cabinet, or maybe some sort of bookcase. From what he could tell it was still standing in an upright position however. Hopefully what it had hit wouldn't be too dented…

“I always said you needed to take anger management classes.”

Katsuya spun around. Nobody was there. Okay, as far as he knew he hadn't hit crazy yet, so he peeked around the open door on his right.

“There you are!” Although he didn't sound nearly as happy as the exclamation mark implied.

“You were looking for me?” Kaiba appeared sarcastically incredulous, “Did you miss me that much little puppy?”

With irritation Katsuya realized Kaiba wasn't even looking at him. He was browsing through a box of… something.

“What are you doing?” He folded his arms, now standing a few feet away from the CEO.

“Looking for a stapler. Mine has apparently gone missing.”

Katsuya sniggered, “How can you even see in here? It's getting darker by the second! And the light is broken you know…”

“Of course I know, otherwise I would have switched it on.” He had the air of someone pointing out something very obvious, such as when a toddler points at a small winged mammal usually found near water with a long bill and states: “duck.”

But something in Jonouchi's statement made him stop what he was doing and pay a bit more attention to the situation. It was getting darker rather quickly.

“Jonouchi…” Seto spoke slowly and deliberately, implying, in this case, that he didn't really think he needed to clarify this because no one could possibly be that stupid but felt the need to ask anyway; “That crash I heard earlier wasn't you kicking away the chair that was the only thing keeping the storage room door open and not slowly closing in on itself, was it?”

The other boy's ensuing silence and the fact that when he had said it was getting darker by the second he had meant that literally, was not reassuring.

They both turned, ready to check on the situation, but realized quickly that it was already too late.

When it is twilight the world is dark, and darker still if one is sitting inside without the light of the moon above them. Although this is `dark', if they were to close their eyes it is possible that the world, for them, will become even darker. Which makes a person with open eyes at night time consider that maybe that darkness is not so dark in contrast after all.

It was because of this kind of `dark' that both Katsuya and Seto were able to actually see the door closing them in. Then, once it had closed with a very unsatisfying `click', their world descended into what was extremely close to the second kind of darkness. The one that felt as if someone had just draped something over their eyes with the intent that they would not be able to see anymore. They had succeeded astoundingly.

Seto paused, “Fuck.”

Katsuya would have reflected that this was the first time he had heard the other man swear properly in many many years, but that little fact really wasn't relevant at this precise moment. Calmly, Seto put the box he had been looking through back on the shelf where he remembered it was.

Katsuya's mind was working in over-drive. First he tried to recall exactly what Sasaki had said to him that morning. It seemed like weeks ago. One thing came irritatingly clearly to mind however; that they had removed the door handle, which meant that even if he could see, and even if he did happen upon a small wire, there was no way he could pick the lock. Something which he was actually rather good at. Secondly, upon confirming that he was trapped, his mind raced onwards to escape routes. There was no back door or hidden underground tunnel that he knew of, so that left option c.

“Uh… you have cleaners that come after hours and… clean. Right?” Katsuya had developed a kind of straining tone that implied he was trying desperately to keep his voice from raising a few octaves due to a panic attack.

“Yes.” Seto responded smoothly, “But they clean in the mornings.” He was doing his best not to let the same panic he was beginning to develop show through.

“Th…then what the hell do we do!?” Katsuya practically screeched, unknowingly right beside Seto's ear. He had lost it, it was too much, and he couldn't take it anymore. His entire life seemed to be one giant `bad thing'.

Seto winced and took a small step back and away from the potential of more explosion. “Calm down, your freaking out is getting on my nerves.”

“Oh, your nerves!? I don't give a fuck about your nerves!” Katsuya needed someone to be angry at, to blame someone for his predicament. He'd always hated Kaiba, so it seemed a logical and happily available choice. The fact that he himself had been the one to kick the chair away was relatively inconsequential.

“Shut UP.” Seto demanded, barely able to control his own temper, his voice rising at the provocation. “You yelling will get us absolutely nowhere, as there is no one around to hear it.”

“You're right. Of course. So I'll just have to break the door down instead if no one will come to our rescue.”

“You idiot, you can't just kick a door down. This is a storage door, they're meant to remain solidly closed!” He was also going to add that Jonouchi was a moron, and they could always just use a mobile phone to call for help; but the boy had already moved away and was, presumably, getting ready to try to open the door by force.

Without thinking Seto reached out his hand to stop Katsuya from the distinct possibility of breaking his leg. He even moved forward in what he assumed was a direction closer to the door.

Katsuya heard Kaiba's words but he ignored them, all doors were simply a matter of applying enough force and pressure and something about physics that he couldn't remember…

So once he'd felt the door in front of him with his finger tips, he leaned back, raised his right foot, and kicked as hard as he could.

Physics had never made much sense to Katsuya. So if Seto had begun to berate him about the laws of motion and why, by not taking them into consideration, he would hurt himself in his current frame of action, Katsuya would definitely have fallen asleep. And shortly after tried the kicking-door trick anyway.

Newton had three laws relating to motion: the first was that of inertia; that all objects would remain motionless unless provoked into moving and once moving would continue to move at the same rate until something either slows it down or stops it. In this case, Katsuya provoked his foot into moving and it continued to move until it was stopped by the solid wooden door.

The second law concerns that of acceleration. That is, "the acceleration of an object is proportional to the force applied, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object." Simply put, how much faster an object travels is dependant on how hard it was pushed, but hindered by how heavy it is. So if one had a twenty tonne square block of stone, even if someone pushed on it really hard, it still would probably not go very far. In this case Katsuya's foot didn't weight very much, and he was throwing it at the door with all his might, so it was in fact traveling very fast.

The third law of motion states that for every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction. So, if you push on something, that something will push back. Here the idea of mass comes in - if something pushing on something else (both with the same amount of force) weighs more than the second something, it will be able to move the second something.

So in this case, when Katsuya kicked the door, the door kicked him back. But because the door was heavier than Katsuya's foot, it `pushed' back on Katsuya's foot harder than he was able to push the door.

Seto wondered why so many people thought Physics was hard to understand.

Thus, the door remained in place, and Katsuya ended up with his foot hurting. He was also thrown backwards with all the excess power the door had bestowed on him with its come-back, and the fact that he had been rendered off-balance. He didn't know how far away the shelves were, but he thought he came into contact with them sooner than expected. He dimly considered that they couldn't have been the shelves because the shelves were concreted into the ground, and this shelf seemed to be moving backwards as well.

So, he deduced, the shelf must have been Kaiba.

 

Seto had tried to warn him that it wouldn't work. Didn't he specifically say that?! But then again, he wasn't exactly surprised that Jonouchi had ignored his advice. Wouldn't he have done the same thing in the reverse? He had subconsciously led himself over to the door as well in a last futile attempt to get the boy to stop the absurd action, but that, again, had seemed to back fire on him. Jonouchi had presumably lashed out at the door, and upon failing the attempt at freedom (somewhat given away but his sudden cry of pain and distinctly soundless response from the door itself) had suddenly fallen backwards, off balance and surprised, right on top of Seto. Who in his defense hadn't realized he had even been that close.

It would have looked very undignified if anyone had actually been able to see it. Katsuya's solid form hit Seto, who in turn was thrown completely off balance at the new development and fell right back into the shelves behind him.

His head hit the metal jutting out from the wall and he saw stars. Unfortunately they didn't provide sufficient lighting, and were gone a few moments later. It was almost like being hit in the back of the head with a lead pipe, the shelf was certainly thin enough. Seto vaguely threw out a hand to try and stop himself from falling further and possibly doing more damage to his skull, but the weight on top of him was still present and in motion. His hand didn't even get a chance to grip on the nearest secure object before he fell completely to the ground, the weight falling with him. Seto was dimly aware, and annoyed, to find that now there was pain in his tail bone as well.

He was lying at the bottom of the shelves, his shoulders still slightly propped up; something was falling onto his hair, and all he could think was that god his head was throbbing so painfully, that it near overloaded all of his other senses. He decided he needed to let go for a moment to give it all time to settle. So he blacked out.

 

Katsuya cried out as the pain shot from his foot right up his entire leg, and the shock and force of it sent him tumbling backwards into the CEO. He flung his arms out wildly to try and stop their descent but they were in the middle of the whole room, which was the only place where something wasn't. Suddenly he heard a loud crack, immediately followed by crashing of metal against metal. He assumed Kaiba had found the storage shelves. They kept falling but, finally, they reached the floor. Katsuya's foot was still throbbing painfully, so he felt the need to voice this out loud. He couldn't really think much further than that, much less decide to move.

However, when after a few moments he realized Kaiba hadn't moved in the slightest, or even made a sound, he began to get worried.

He shifted off of him as best he could, but soon found that trying to roll off to the side found him straight up against another wall of shelves. “Uh.. Kaiba?” Katsuya tried to keep the concern out of his voice.

No answer.

Katsuya shifted around, the pain re-pronouncing itself in his foot, so that he was as far away from Kaiba as possible (which, really, wasn't that far as the shelf was so close, so he was still almost fully in contact), and questioned him again.

There was a really long pause where everything took its time in becoming silent, and coupled with the darkness, it was just completely eerie.

Oh God, he's dead.

Katsuya started to panic again, imagining that if he could see Kaiba, there would be blood all over the back of his head. Maybe he hit something pointy? Oh shit, what if he hit a pen or something and it went straight through his skull!? Katsuya's imaginings were getting more and more unreasonable, as most panicked thoughts seemed to do.

Impaled by a ball point pen. How ironic.

He wanted to reach out and shake the other boy, but Katsuya couldn't even see where he began. Plus, privately, he was a little worried about reaching out and touching something he really had no intention of going anywhere near.

…

Because in the dark there was all the possibility of his fingers going up Kaiba's nose rather than onto his shoulder to wake him.

A small noise punctuated the silence suddenly. It sounded like a groan, and it hadn't come from Katsuya. He was instantly relieved beyond what he knew he should have been, and a moment later he felt Kaiba's arm move slightly.

There was more noise as Kaiba moved again; Katsuya guessed his was raising a hand to his head. Then Kaiba swore. Then there was more silence.

Under the circumstances, Katsuya couldn't stand this. “Uh… are you okay?” He really, really, did not want to ask that. But he was the good guy, damnit, and even if Kaiba was a heartless bastard, that didn't mean Katsuya had to be as well in a bad situation like this. His friends really were rubbing off on him…

“My head feels like it's been run over by a tractor.” It was good to remember one's cynicism at all times.

“Well, if it's any consolation my leg feels about the same.”

Seto made an odd noise which sounded something like a cross between a scoff and a sigh; “You idiot. Why couldn't you have just waited and I could have called for help? That's why people invented mobile phones, you brain dead dog.”

Katsuya felt his face get hot, from the irritation at yet another insult (and when he had been so concerned a few moments ago as well!) and also because Kaiba was painfully right. It was only too obvious now that this would have been a much smarter move.

So he bit back his insults and protests and said simply; “So, do you have your mobile phone on you?”

“Always.” Seto replied from the dark. “Only, it's in a pocket that I think you are lying on.”

“Oh.” Katsuya felt a tug on the fabric beneath his left arm. He tried to move up and out of the way, but only succeeded in twisting himself half around so that he was even more uncomfortable than before, and not really managing to pull away from Kaiba that much at all. Seto could tell what he was doing, and knew that whatever it was really wasn't working. But his coat seemed to be a little freer, so he reached down to try to find his mobile.

“I'm not sure where the pocket has gotten to…” Seto muttered to himself, although Katsuya could hear it well enough, as he clutched at the empty fabric. Katsuya didn't say anything, but instead tried to search for the phone as well, he could guess the general direction it must have been in.

Their hands brushed together mid-search, and Katsuya involuntarily shivered. It was dark, and cold, he reminded himself. Cold. Thus the shivering.

Katsuya pulled his hands back, no longer willing to risk the exploration. Luckily, less than a second later Kaiba announced his triumph. He could hear the phone being extracted from the pocket, and in another moment Kaiba had flipped it open.

Blue light engulfed the room, and Katsuya blinked stupidly for a moment, wondering what the hell was going on. Although, the term `engulf' probably was a massive overstatement for the tiny amount of light the screen was outputting, for two people who had now spent a considerable period in the dark, it seemed massive.

Katsuya's eyes adjusted, and for the first time in too long, he could see properly.

He almost had a panic attack. Again.

Although he had been able to feel that their bodies were practically on top of eachother, it took sight for this to really sink in. Katsuya had twisted so much that he was now facing Kaiba rather than having his back to the CEO, as he had when he they had first landed. And Kaiba's nose was a matter of inches away.

He immediately tried to spring backwards and rectify the situation. But it seemed in his twisting one of his legs had become intertwined with Kaiba's jacket, and the other took his movement as an opportunity to remind him that he'd just smashed it against a door and it still hurt.

“Ow!” He proclaimed loudly, falling back down again, which actually only helped to close the distance between them instead of lengthening it. Happily, he had not landed near Kaiba's face.

Oh, because landing on his chest is a better scenario?

“Well, that was completely pointless. Will you please just calm down for one minute while I try to get us out of this?” Kaiba almost sneered; and who apparently was not as annoyed about their current positions as Katsuya was. That or, perhaps because Kaiba could not jump backwards into the floor and with the weight on top of him was practically restricted of movement anyway.

He also didn't wait for an answer, a series of small beeps let Katsuya know that he was dialing or looking into his phonebook.

“Who are you calling?” Katsuya questioned, feeling that he had a right to know.

“Mokuba. He can get someone to come and get us out of here.” Seto answered without pause. His people were the only people for the job, really.

“That's stupid. Call the front desk security. They'll come up in five minutes.” Katsuya protested.

Seto paused in his finding of the right number. Damn, that was actually a much better idea. Why hadn't he thought of that first? He blinked. There was no way he was going to admit out loud that Jonouchi's idea had been better; “I don't know what their number is. Do you have any idea?” His tone implied that he suspected the boy didn't.

He wasn't lying either, he really didn't know this office's security number.

Katsuya shook his head lamentably, realizing Kaiba was right. “Fine then.” Kaiba said dismissively, and continued to find the number. He held the phone as close to his ear as he could get. The blue light right there makes him look even spookier, Katsuya reflected.

Since it was so silent he could just hear the ringing tone that the phone was making. With nothing more to say Katsuya sat patiently and listened, praying to God that Mokuba would pick up.

Unfortunately, he had been getting the distinct feeling for weeks now that God took too much amusement in his misfortunes, and as such would not be one to let something as classic as being locked in the storage room with his worst enemy slide. God may have been all-powerful but that did not mean he was bereft of a sense of humour.

Mokuba's voicemail confirmed Katsuya's divine suspicions.

Seto swore once more. Nothing was going right. He was incredibly angry but felt he was doing a remarkable job at not showing it. It had occurred to him to beat the living crap out of Jonouchi just to make himself feel better, but at that moment he couldn't even concentrate on the phone's screen without his eyes swimming and the pounding in his head doubling itself. He did not make a habit of getting into fights or throwing himself backwards into solid objects, but he had heard a lot about it. He thought his symptoms might have been normal for head injuries, but he was in fact finding it extremely hard to do just that. The shock of it, and waking up again had helped him to think clearly for awhile, but that bought of concentration whilst he had phoned his brother had taken it out of him again. He looked back down at his phone, perhaps considering calling again, but the screen was moving all over the place and the buttons wouldn't stay still.

He was pretty sure they normally did.

He flipped the phone closed again, making a slightly pained noise as he automatically raised his hand to his forehead and pressed it, wishing such an action would take the hurt away. Thus they were plunged back into darkness again, but Seto found himself not really caring. He had the presence of mind to realise that once Mokuba saw his missed call he would probably return it. He was once again extremely grateful that he had such a persistent younger brother.

And then there was the fact that Jonouchi was still lying on top of him. To the mutt's credit he had already tried to change that but apparently to no avail. Seto himself felt it would have been best for him to shove the other boy as far away as possible but he didn't think he could have held the required concentration to do it. Plus, and only in his most semiconscious thoughts would he ever have been able to think this; it was cold, and Jonouchi was warm.

For the less-able-minded-due-to-being-smashed-in-the-head, this was as simple an equation as adding one and one and getting two. In other words, it made perfect sense now, but probably wouldn't tomorrow.

Seto was sure he muttered something along the lines of; “He'll call back,” before he slouched slightly further down the shelves and turned his head to the side, slipping out of consciousness for the second time that evening.

 

Katsuya wanted to ask more questions, but the way Kaiba was slurring and didn't even manage to finish the three word sentence before trailing off led him to believe that the CEO had likely blacked out again. Katsuya couldn't really blame him. He'd spent a good part of his childhood getting into fights which more than often involved blows to the head. Someone like himself was a bit more immune to them nowadays, but he assumed that Kaiba wasn't as accustomed to the experience.

So there was nothing more that he could do. His leg wouldn't stop hurting and he had a growing suspicion that he might have fractured something. That was probably worst case scenario, he tried to remind himself, it would probably just be very bruised in the morning. There was no point in thinking about that now anyway, because there was nothing that he could do about it. Nothing he could do to help Kaiba either, if he had wanted to.

He couldn't wait to get them some ice packs.

Him an icepack.

Kaiba could get his own, thank you very much.

Katsuya sighed, the pain in his leg didn't exactly make him feel sleepy, but something about how warm it was, was making him feel a little more relaxed. That was another thing he couldn't quite comprehend. It was supposed to be cold, right? He was cold before, he remembered shivering... because it was cold.

But it was warm.

As it was so still and so silent, Katsuya felt the tips of his hair move as a gust of air pushed past them. He craned his neck to look upwards, but then remembered that it was pitch black. That didn't matter, he was pretty sure he knew what that had been. With a sigh he made one last effort to push himself as far away from Kaiba as possible. He made little more headway before finally giving up. His leg ached and the more he moved it the worse it became. So he unwillingly conceded to the situation. A part of him felt completely embarrassed and angry, but he was too annoyed to care. The most he could do was wait for Mokuba to call back. He wished he'd had a mobile of his own so that he could have called one of his friends, the little good that that might have done. He made a mental note to invest in one.

Katsuya closed his eyes, noting that it didn't really make much of a difference, and attempted to stop thinking. He never really got to sleep, but drifted in and out of a slightly conscious state until finally Kaiba's phone started beeping, some time later.

 

***

 

If you're still reading, I applaud you. Too cliche? -shrugs- I had to make them do something. Credit for explaining the laws of Motion go to my year 11 Physics teacher. Jeez that was a long time ago now. Because you all came to read about Newton, right?

 

It is important to note that reviews make wonderful birthday presents (although mine is not for another two days, by the time you read this it probably won't be my birthday anymore). Better late than never though, eh? Also, if you're getting sick of my random review replies just let me know. I'm not sure what the norm with that kind of thing is with fan fiction…

See you next time!~