"What does that say about your so-called friends, that your enemies and a supposed mind-reader are the only ones that see your potential?"

Kaiba actually rolls his eyes, letting his arms drop to his sides again. He turns his gaze from Yuugi, because the tears in his eyes feel like something that he shouldn't be seeing.

"I don't see why you're crying about it," he adds in a mutter. "Ridiculous."

Yuugi was more fortunate than he knew. Not for being bullied, but for being protected. Kaiba still thinks those friends of his were vastly underestimating the person they were supposedly friends with, but evidently, they couldn't tell the difference between Yuugi and his counterpart.

By Battle City...Kaiba struggled to deny it. There were two fighting spirits inside Yuugi, two entirely different people that made his heart hammer the drums of war. Not that he hadn't been guilty of underestimating Yuugi compared to the pharaoh of course. But...seeing how he brought a possessed Jounouchi to his knees--no, he'd brought Marik to heel, using his bond with Jounouchi--Kaiba had no way to deny the man's strength.

There he was. As worthy a rival as Atem could be.

There's a faint beep as the machinery reads Kaiba's elevated pulse, his swiftly beating heart.

"Tch."

He wants to tear the wires off of his body, to be able to hold his own thoughts and feelings inside, without leaving them for someone to ponder to themselves.