Forgotten Love, Resurrected

Chapter 4

"You're looking awfully chipper this morning," Mai greets Katsuya over her mug of coffee. The pair sit in the almost-empty cafeteria. With no classes to tend to, the teachers have some time in the morning to catch up and act like friends - not just people stuck together on an island.

"I am," Katsuya can't help but smile, gently stirring the sugar into his morning tea. "I settled some unfinished business with Seto last night. I'm feeling good about what we discussed,"

"Seto Kaiba?" Professor Banner, another teacher, blinks curiously from the adjacent table. "You know him?"

Katsuya gives him a sheepish smile, sipping his tea - green tea, the only good kind. "Yeah, we went to high school together,"

Mai gives him the side-eye but says nothing.

"Wow, and now you work at the school he owns? Doesn't that get awkward?"

"A little," he grips his mug tighter, his smile now tight.

Despite his anxiety, he couldn't be happier. He checks his watch every few minutes, obsessed with counting down the seconds to the moment of the picnic. Finally, the moment arises - twelve in the afternoon. Katsuya fumbles from his seat, apologising for leaving the table early. He has enough time, he doesn't need to, but still he runs to meet Seto.

*

Seto looks up from his textbook, a thick volume that used to be Gozaburo's. His stepfather never read, but he kept tall bookshelves to impress his guests at dinner parties, mostly investors. Seto has been working his way through the book collection his left behind, but is sure there are too many to finish in a lifetime.

"You came,"

He closes the book.

"Of course I did!" Katsuya's smile falters a little at the edges, his earlier anxiety returning. "I actually thought you wouldn't show up,"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I dunno, you still seem kinda scared," Katsuya prods the ground with his heel. They begin walking towards the forest, Seto using yesterday's drone footage as navigation.

"I'm not scared, I'm... apprehensive,"

Apprehensive to meet my eyes. "Haven't we dealt with this already?" Katsuya huffs, speaking in Japanese. He doesn't mean to sound terse, but the last embers of his fiery temper leak through the air. Seto invokes something irresponsible and angry in him. Seto disparages himself and it makes Katsuya feel like he's the one being attacked, as selfish as that is. How does someone go from being such an arrogant bastard to having no self-esteem whatsoever?

Seto reaches up and pushes away some thick branches, his expensive boots sinking into the mud. He groans internally but his ruined boots feel inconsequential when up ahead, he sees the clearing. With more vigour in his footsteps, he approaches the firmer ground and sits down on the grass. "Found it,"

"Awesome," Katsuya drops the picnic basket unceremoniously and crashes down on the grass. He looks around, admiring the different trees and plants, upon which dew sparkles in the high afternoon sunlight. Seto stares at him, there's a filter. It's like he's looking through a window. The light distorts Katsuya, his blonde roots peeking through the black dye. He looks more like he used to in the natural light, more beautiful too.

"I've never been a romantic," Seto admits sheepishly, with no need to. That's something you realise about Seto five seconds before meeting him. But to him, it feels like a character flaw, something he's incapable of. The ground is wet. I should have brought a blanket to sit on.