#[[I feel like mb I've written something similar to this I'm soRRY IF I HAVE

[youtriggeredmytrapcard]

“Kaiba,” he voices, dropping a hand down to his hip as he takes a step to the side, turning towards the latter, “there is something I want to tell you.” He appears rather calm for what he plans to say next. A smile over pristine facial features, a sense of certainty expands from within. “Make whatever out of this if you will. I have great admiration for you. And it goes way beyond dueling. Despite our rival status, you always raise me up when I’d fallen. You breathe confidence in me when I need it the most. Even in the most despairing and hopeless of times. There’s something about you that helps me find myself. My worth, my strength. I realize there are no limits to anything. Everything is possible. And that’s why I need you… I want you by my side. I know I wouldn’t be the same without you…” There’s a moment of pause and he hums, his smile never fading. “Remember it.”

In my inbox, write a confession your muse want to tell my muse. The catch, my muse will forget what your muse said unless they say in the end “Remember it.” // @ofthepuzzle

Yugi had a talent for saying things that make Kaiba want to yell and scream, just as much as he had a knack for rendering him speechless. He stared, trying to decipher the meaning behind these words, why they were being said, what wasn't being spoken-- Which wasn't the smartest thing to do when the words at face-value were more than enough to process.

The fact is, this is kind of what he'd wanted to hear.

There was a part of Kaiba that ached to mean something. A part that could never be content with fading into the background, shying away from the spotlight, giving something important to the world that everyone would look at and say, 'That's amazing, and Seto Kaiba did it.' He never saw that part of himself as weak, it only pushed him forward, striving to greater and greater heights, seeking perfection and the infinite progress that was expected of him by so many. Only recently... He wasn't sure when it started, but only recently had that desire gave way to a sickening weakness that he tried to stomp out: That he wanted to mean something, to Yugi.

What sort of rival could only win against his opponent by threatening to throw himself off a roof, after all? Not that Kaiba regretted that really, given the circumstances, but the fact stood. Kaiba was just yet another person that Yugi defeated on the regular, and while he made Yugi work for the victory, all that mattered was the outcome. It ate at him, for so many reasons. For his own pride, of course-- he needed to be the best at this game he cared so much about. He craved victory, like all humans did. And he craved to mean something. To keep giving Yugi reason to accept his challenges, and to fight at his hardest. Deep down, he knew Yugi didn't have any reason to. It's why he concocted things like Battle City, to force it.

And here Yugi was, telling him, in no uncertain terms, that it was already true. He didn't have to fight for it.

It was strange, to hear Yugi describe him, so polar opposite from what Kaiba had always assumed he looked like through Yugi's eyes.

He's just staring. Say something, you idiot.

Kaiba bowed his head, closing his eyes, trying to regain enough composure to make words come. "... You flatter me." Even saying that much made Kaiba feel his pulse in his throat. Why is it all so hard!? He's no good at speeches, when there's no anger behind it. "Do you even understand what you're saying? You're... ridiculous."

The insult was so half-hearted that it barely was one. In fact it sounded more endearing. "... There's something I never told you directly," Kaiba spoke, opening his eyes again. He didn't know how to express such sentiments as powerfully as Yugi did, so he fell back on the only way he did know, to connect with others. "Exodia. I spent countless hours trying to figure out how you did it-- how you defeated me with Exodia. For awhile there, I had myself convinced it was one of the worst things that ever happened to me." He glanced up, looking past Yugi at the wall, loosely folding his arms. "... But that's old news. The fact is, I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't know where I'd be now, if the outcome of that duel was any different. Battle City never would've happened, I'm sure of that. Probably more, there's no use dwelling on it." The Duel Disks might never've been created, actually. Not in the same way, or with the same motivations behind it.

"Don't get the wrong idea," Kaiba's eye-contact returned, tipping his chin up slightly. "I don't enjoy losing to you. And I will be the one to defeat you. What I'm trying to say is... that I don't regret meeting you." I don't want to imagine a version of my life where you don't exist.