No force in the world could ever truly stop Seto Kaiba from talking, or asserting himself in some way. Even being in multiple comas had only shut him up temporarily!

Admittedly...he wasn't at his best. Talking and moving, he'd done that during the fight to regain his company and his brother from Pegasus, out of sheer power of will. This was no different.

And because it was no different...there were deficits elsewhere.

His inability to walk. His inability to regulate his emotional outbursts, apparently. He might be awake, but Kaiba was inadvertently behaving like a cornered beast at all times, including now.

"You say that, but without the challenge inherent, I'd only be wasting your time," he says sharply. "It's a waste right now."

He licks his lips suddenly, a reflex. They sting from disuse, from breathing open-mouthed during months of unconsciousness, and he wonders, unbidden, if that had been unpleasant for Yuugi?

They...they had kissed, hadn't they? That wasn't a dream.

His gaze follows the movement of Yuugi's legs covetously, but he tries not to let it show, not anymore than he wanted to reveal why he'd licked his lips in the first place.