#short story for heartof-thepharaoh

[kaibagirl007]

Belated Birthday Surprise

The 26th July was a date that Kaiba would never forget after having discovered it’s importance. The significance being that it was in fact his boyfriend’s birthday, something they had both learnt after Ishizu had helped Atem to decipher ancient Egypt’s calendar into modern day format. So it pained him that he’d pretended not to remember at all, though knew it was the only viable option he’d been presented with...

Over the last several months, Kaiba Corporation was struggling,- quite badly,- though he would never let on to the full extent of just how bad things were. Instead Kaiba chose to be seen shrugging it off as nothing more than an unexpected ‘dip' in the economy so as to keep his brother and boyfriend free from worrying. Yet in truth, matters were far worse as he strived to maintain dwindling partnerships.

It wasn’t completely unheard of that his company would have contracts terminated. Though that very rarely happened, and if it did it was because he felt the collaborating business gravely lacked in meeting the standards required of them. But ever since going public and revealing his relationship with Atem, his company had suffered drastically as a result.

Yes he’d been prepared to have the odd one or two bigoted businesses part ways, but hadn’t expected anything like the true scale when over a dozen contracts were ended within the first month of the reveal alone. Of course less than a third had actually had the gall to explain their decision directly. One of them however had even been brazen enough to ‘inform' him of the dishonour brought to his ‘family name', and that the only consolation was the fact that he wouldn’t be able to ‘spawn’ a dynasty of hafus with his chosen lover.

From then on he’d found himself working even longer overtime hours in an attempt to re-nagotiate as many contracts as possible so that only a few projects would be culled, thereby allowing his business to continue to thrive. It hadn’t been easy, and although he still maintained his major partnership with Industrial Illusions,- “I’d never leave you in the lurch dear boy, especially not over something so trivial as your choice of lover. Those narrow-minded enough to have done so don’t deserve to be acquainted with such brilliance as yours. You’re much better off without them trying to hold you to ransom with their discriminatory ways.”,- the withdrawal of smaller outsourced contractors meant that several projects had had to be placed on hold for now. Those included the expansion of KaibaLand theme parks both at home and abroad, his dreams of opening a school specialising in duelling and the building of his very own space station, as well as the his current labour of love in creating a duel disk that was powered by a person’s thoughts.

And had it not been for the fully booked week of numerous meetings,- that unfortunately happened to surround and occur on his boyfriend’s special day,- then he wouldn’t have been fortunate enough to have secured the deal allowing him to proceed with development of the Duel Links game designed for play on touchscreen devices.

Having purposely avoided any living soul that was likely to remind him of the importance of the date in the days leading up to it, the CEO then pled ignorance when his brother finally collared him the following day. A swift ‘apology' with the promise to make it up to Atem then appeased his sibling’s wrath. That then lead him to now; flying to a ‘secret' location.

“How much longer is this going to take?” Atem enquired as he sat in the back seat of the Blue-Eyes jet with a blindfold over his eyes.

“Not long.” Kaiba responded after having checked the remainder of their route on the navigation system. “We’re almost there; perhaps another ten, fifteen minutes max.”

“Very well… But no more loops! I wasn’t joking when I said you were in danger of re-seeing what I had for lunch.”

“No more loops.” He assured with a grin and pushed down harder on the thrusters to make sure they would definitely arrive within the timeframe he’d just given.

After another brief moment’s silence, it was hesitantly broken. “In case you’re wondering Seto, I’ve no ill feelings with you for having forgotten my birthday. Much like you, I’d rather not make a fuss. And it’s the first time in three thousand years that I’ve known the date myself, so I hardly expect anyone else to. You really didn’t have to go to so much trouble-…”

“It’s no trouble at all.” He cut in on the other’s words before he felt even more guilty by being assured that he’d done nothing wrong. “I had this surprise all planned for you. It’s just a little late in being given.”

“Of course it is.” Atem simpered, knowing that his boyfriend was far too proud to admit that the date had slipped his mind due to his busy schedule. That was all the other seemed to do lately; work. The fact that they’d be spending some quality time together was more than he could ask for. And away from Japan where they ‘hopefully’ wouldn’t be sneered at for being a same sex and/or mixed race couple. Yes, these next few days were exactly what the two of them needed.

It wasn’t much longer before the jet came to land at their destination. Once the cockpit visor lifted, Kaiba was the first to jump out,- quite literally,- and assisted his visually impaired boyfriend out of his seat too. When they were both firmly standing on the ground, he removed the blindfold to the sound of a rather theatrical, “Ta-da!”

Atem’s eyes took a moment to readjust to the bright sunlight now filling his vision as he looked out across rows and rows of grapevines. “Where are we?”

“In a vineyard.”

“I can see that!” He didn’t know whether to laugh or roll his eyes at the CEO’s deadpan response so did both. “I meant ‘WHERE are we’, as in what country?”

“France.” Kaiba declared as he then went to retrieve their bags from the jet’s storage compartment. “The Graves region of Bordeaux to be precise.”

“Bordeaux.” Atem quietly mouthed in awe at having been brought to the birthplace of some of the finest wines he’d ever consumed. Sometimes it amazed him at just how much thought his boyfriend gave things by catering them to his personal interests and tastes. “Wow, this was unexpected. Please tell me we're here to sample the wine.”

“Heh heh, not quite. Though you’ll certainly be able to do so during our stay."

“Well then, why ARE we here?”

“To make the ownership handover of my vineyard to you more impressive.” Kaiba pulled out a file full of documents and handed them to his perplexed looking boyfriend. He leant down and delivered an accompanying kiss. “Happy Birthday.”

Atem was too stunned to react as he tried to process what was happening. Finally he found his voice. “Wait a minute… how long have you owned a vineyard?”

“A good several years or so. It was one of my earliest investments that allowed me to keep Pegasus sweet with a continuous supply of wine. Costs like that can build up pretty quickly. I’ve saved myself a considerable amount of money in doing it this way.”

“And now this place is mine?”

“That was kind of the idea.” Kaiba suddenly began to feel nervous. Was his gift not liked? Had he somehow messed up? Knowing how much the other loved to drink wine, he’d been so sure that it would have been well received…

“You can relax.” Atem assured as he sensed the growing uneasiness festering behind those blue eyes surveying him. “I love it. Thank you.” He clutched the file close to his chest and stood on tiptoes to return the kiss from just a moment ago.

“You’re not just saying that?” He held the other close once the kiss was over.

“Of course not. Granted I am a little unsure of what it is you’re expecting me to DO with this place…?”

“That choice is completely up to you.” The CEO’s long fingers brushed blond bangs aside as he spoke tenderly to the one he loved. "You want to use this vineyard as your own personal lifelong wine supply, go right ahead. However, this place turns over a fairly decent profit,- the Claret produced here is especially popular with the British and Americans,- so it should set you up nicely if you wish to expand into a bigger empire. Or if you’d rather sell up-…"

“Monsieur Kaiba.” One of the vineyard’s workers approached the two men, completely unfazed by the affectionate display right in front of him. “The pressing process is about to begin if you’d like to witness it for yourself.”

“Can we join in?” Atem’s eyes seemed to light up at the announcement which had been made. He had such fond memories of him and Mana dancing together inside the huge pressing baskets. Oh how he’d love to relive such a simple pleasure.

“Oui.”

“Then we’ll be right there.”

The worker nodded in response to the shorter man’s reply and headed back to the processing shed.

“You certainly perked up.” Kaiba chuckled as he let go of his boyfriend from his hold and the two of them followed on behind.

“Wine pressing is fun.” Atem threaded his fingers with the other’s hand as they walked. “I’ve done it many times as a child. Haven’t you?”

“No.” The scoff came before the CEO could stop himself. “Besides, what’s so great about turning a wheel to push a plate down on some grapes?”

“A plate? You mean you don’t crush the grapes with your bare feet?”

“Heh, sometimes I forget just how old you are… No, no-one makes wine like that anymore. That method died out centuries ago.”

“Oh.” Atem was saddened by what he heard. He wouldn’t get to have fun after all. No wonder people in this day and age were so gloomy all of the time if even the pleasurable tasks had machines to do it for them. He then glanced down at the document file held in his other hand. “Wait a minute! I own this place now, correct?”

“Yeah…?”

“So I could just instruct to have the plate removed and do things my own way?”

“I guess so… if that’s really what you want?”

“Yes, it is! Very much so!” He grinned upwards. “You’ll join me, won’t you?”

“Pfft, you won’t catch me treading on grapes with my bare feet.”

“Oh come on, live a little. It’s not like I’m asking you to strip down and do it naked… Not unless you want to of course?”

“There is no way you’ll get me to crush grapes with you, and definitely NOT without my clothes on.”

“But it’s my birthday!”

“No, that was last week.”

Atem resorted to pouting. Hey, it always seemed to get Mokuba whatever he wanted so why not him?

“N O, spells no.”

Damn, it didn’t work. “Okay then fine! I can’t make you do something you don’t want to do…” An idea then hit him. “But you DO realise the double standards you hold?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Well on the way here, did you or did you not, do a triple loop whilst we were in your jet?”

“Yeah, so? It was fun.”

“But did I have any say in it? No. I had to sit there and-…”

“Okay, okay; you’ve made your point! I’ll press wine with you just this once. But if I get grape juice in places it should never go-…”

“Then I’ll lick you clean.”

“…!” Kaiba froze just several steps short of the pressing shed door. He looked at Atem whilst displaying a curiously cocked brow. “You better be able to live up to that claim.”

“You know damn well I can.” A sly smirk was given in return. Sometimes his boyfriend was far too easy to lure into his playful traps. And whilst their time together for his special day may have been delayed until now, Atem had a feeling that this birthday was going to be his best ever.

@heartof-thepharaoh