Title: Ice Fever

Pairing: Seta Kaiba/Yami Yugi (Atem/the Pharaoh), Yugi Moto/Téa Gardner
Tags: Romance, Angst, Drama, Cold Weather, Hurt/Comfort, Virtual Reality, Cyberspace, Episode s03e05-06 Freeze Play, Prideshipping

Summary: Téa won her battle with Crump the Penguin in cyberspace! Now Téa, Yugi and Atem must trek through Antarctica to find the others. Unfortunately, Atem loses his coat, and gets subsequently trapped in an ice cavern maze! Now Atem has a fever and needs taken care of and Kaiba deems himself the best man for the job. Also, Yugi is surprisingly mischievous.

AU: Atem and Yugi are two separate people.

Based on the episodes Freeze Play (part 1-2).

A/N: Yami Yugi = Atem/the Pharaoh, Seto Kaiba = Priest Seto (reincarnation)

BETA: TheSupernova

"Your stamina sucks," Kaiba said, smirking. "Kind of pathetic, really. The weather gets a little chilly, and you go and get a fever?"

"Shut it, Kaiba," Atem replied. "I was in Antarctica. It wasn't just cold, it was freezing. I had ice in places where ice shouldn't be able to form."

Kaiba snorted, chuckling lightly. Atem grinned in amusement. Kaiba (Priest Seto's reincarnation) may sound callous, but that was just his way. Priest Seto had been one of his closest friends when he was Pharaoh, and from what Atem could recall of his past, Kaiba's personality hadn't changed all that much.

"What happened to you, anyways?" Kaiba asked.

"Well…" Atem said, drawing it out, "It started right after Téa won her battle with Crump the Penguin."

"It's f-freezing," Téa stammered. She held her arms close to her body, though it did little to stop the shivering. "Why d-did it have to be Antarctica? What about those p-penguins that live in the Galapagos? That would have been a p-perfectly acceptable environment to duel in."

"That would have been nice," Yugi said, a smile stretching across his face. "Just think warm thoughts and try not to focus so much on the cold."

Yugi took off his jacket, wrapping it around Téa's shoulders. She returned the gesture with a smile and small wink.

"Thank you, Yugi."

"Anytime, Téa," Yugi replied. Before she could turn away, Yugi stepped closer, smoothing the jacket around her neck and arms. It was sickeningly sweet, the way they held eye contact, the cold slowly vanishing as the world gave way to that one moment in time.

When the image of Kaiba being so sweetly romantic invaded his mind, Atem barely held back a snort of laughter. Having attracted the attention of his friends, Atem attempted to cover his slipup with a small cough, though from the creeping grin that crossed Yugi's face, it hadn't been successful. Atem blushed and looked away.

"Is something wrong?" Téa asked, looking between them.

"No, it's nothing," Yugi said, smirk still plastered across his face. "Let's go."

He grabbed Téa's hand and pulled her along behind him. "No time to stop and chat. Let's go find the others!"

"O-okay," she said, as Yugi picked up his pace.

Fifteen minutes later, it was Yugi's turn to start shivering. Half an hour and some teeth chattering later, Atem threw his own jacket at Yugi's head, partially covering his face.

"Ah!' Yugi yelled in surprise. 'Oh," he added, realizing it was Atem's leather jacket, "thanks."

He cuddled the jacket around him closely, quickly zipping it up.

"Yeah, that's the stuff," Yugi said. "Thanks, Atem."

Atem nodded in turn. "Of course."

With a snow storm on the horizon, the temperature dropped steadily. The wind picked up, racing around them; slivers of ice pierced their skin. Minutes later, the storm front nearly slammed them to the ground, a wall of snow and ice.

"We got to get to shelter!" Téa shouted, her voice barely audible over the deafening wind.

"There!" Atem shouted. "A cave entrance, just ahead!"

He wasn't sure if they could hear him. Even though Yugi and Téa were less than ten feet away, the roaring wind drummed against his ears, to the point where it drowned out everything else. They fought against the oncoming wind, struggling as it attempted to beat them back. Soon, even the cave entrance was disappearing from view, obscured by the ever thickening storm.

The snow storm literally spit them out into the cave, where they crash landed on its cold, rocky floor.

"Oh, ouch," Téa grumbled. She sat up. "Well, at least we're out of the storm. So that's something."

"Whew," Yugi said, trying to catch his breath. He was bent over, with his hands on his knees. "Man, this is some storm. I bet Noah is behind this."

Atem hmm'd in agreement.

He turned around to find the mouth of the cave sealed off with a thick wall of ice. Noah was definitely stringing them along but they had no choice but to continue playing whatever game Noah was up to this time.

The ice wall produced a thin veil of light that reached back far enough to illuminate a three way fork.

"Looks like he sealed us inside some sort of maze. Just great," Téa said sarcastically. "This day just keeps getting better and better."

Yugi threaded Téa's fingers through his. "It'll be okay. We'll find the others, defeat Noah and the Big 5 and escape this virtual nightmare. Don't give up hope just yet."

"Mmm," Téa answered agreeably. "I see a nice, hot shower awaiting us once we're back in the real world. Hot food, hot shower, and a nice, warm bed."

Atem walked ahead of his friends, studying the tunnel entrances.

"We should stick together," Atem said, changing the subject. "If we split up, we many never find each other again."

When he didn't get a response, he looked behind him to find nothing but rocky walls and icy stalactites hanging above his head. His friends were nowhere to be found; he was alone.

"Noah," Atem growled. Noah was toying with them, splitting them up again in some sort of perverse pleasure.

Since the mouth of the cave was still impassable, Atem had no choice but to front this maze alone. All three paths ended in complete darkness and the soft echoes of dripping water and familiar whistle of wind winding though the many twists and turns greeted him from all sides. When Atem heard a soft growling sound coming from one of the tunnels, he sighed. That didn't bode well.

Atem brought his hands around the Millennium puzzle and closed his eyes, easily accessing the powers within. The iris of the puzzle's Eye lit up the surrounding area, creating a much needed light source. Once he summoned his Black Luster Soldier (that growling sound had to belong to something) Atem started down the middle path.

At this point, Atem was starting to regret giving Yugi his jacket, but if Yugi was facing the same icy conditions as him, then Yugi would need all the extra protection he could get.

Despite the temperature, Atem was determined to find his way through the maze and nothing would stop him from getting to the end and finding Kaiba and the others. Although it's quite possible he would freeze to death long before he reached the exit.

Atem was nearing a frozen popsicle by the time he reached the exit, but he was met with a warm, tropical beach on the other side of the cave system, where he found Yugi and Téa relaxing (and defrosting). Téa was spread out on the warm sand, and Yugi had rolled his pants up to splash around in the shallow waves. Both of them had discarded their jackets nearby. Atem eyed his black leather jacket and took a running nose dive for it before his friends could even greet him. He huddled inside it, releasing a pleasant sigh before sitting down next to Téa.

They spent quite a while on the beachside, mostly waiting for Atem to regain feeling in his extremities.

Eventually they continued on, meeting up with Tristan, Joey and his sister, Serenity, before being led to a door that opened up to the Kaiba mansion, where Kaiba and Mokuba were hanging out.

How long they had been in the virtual world was up for debate, but exhaustion was quickly filtering through their ranks. Noah graciously decided to let them sleep for a few hours because he was 'such a nice person' that 'they deserved a break.' Of course, he finished off with needing them well rested for round 2, because they would be 'more fun to play with' if they weren't 'dropping like flies from exhaustion'.

Despite Noah's promise that they would be left alone for the night, there was a unanimous decision to set up a rotating guard watch overnight, just in case the Big 5 tried to pull something behind Noah's back (again).

The only people exempt from night watch were Atem and Kaiba, to no one's surprise.

"My body was so frigid that I was shuffling and moaning about like a zombie," Atem complained. "I would know. I saw a reflection of me on some of the ice walls lining the cave. It was not my finest moment."

Kaiba chuckled at Atem as he spread another comforter on the four poster bed. "It's your fault you gave your jacket to your little friend. You have no one to blame but yourself. Next time, just let those dorks fend for themselves."

Atem huffed, amused. Despite Kaiba's disparaging remarks, he was busily tucking the blanket around Atem's body, carefully smoothing out the wrinkles and silently worrying about the sick one. Atem was one of the few able to get past Kaiba's defenses, to understand the actions behind Kaiba's haughty, egotistical and self-centered attitude.

Kaiba set a tray with a water jug, a small glass of water, some ice and a small towel on the nearby nightstand. When he began wrapping the towel around some ice, Atem had to quickly stifle a snicker (which earned him a glare from Kaiba) because this was a side of Kaiba few would ever see (let alone believe).

Before long, they were interrupted by the bedroom door dancing heavily on its hinges as loud, heavy banging resounded from the other side. Kaiba had locked the door to prevent certain "idiots" from inferring with Atem's bedrest, as he was currently under the notion that they would make Atem's condition worse.

The banging was making the spinning ceiling spin faster; which caused a momentary flash of pain to spike through his temples. Atem shut his eyes, releasing a groan. He heard Kaiba scowl as he marched over to the door.

Kaiba twisted the handle, and the door flew open, revealing Joey on the other side. Relief flooded through Atem in the silence.

"Sweet, sweet silence," Atem said quietly, too low for the others to hear. It was bliss, pure sweet bliss… Until the idiots at the door began arguing.

Atem knew immediately where this was going. Once Joey and Kaiba started in on each other, it either ended in a duel, or a fist fight. That was the one downside to dating Seto Kaiba; the man loved to rile Joey up and Joey fell for it every time. They had opposing personalities, and Atem had the ever growing suspicion that this was simply their means of interpersonal communication.

He released another small groan, because he was not in the mood for this, whatever the cause. Fortunately, Kaiba was more astute than he gave him credit for because the yelling immediately stopped.

"Sorry," Joey said apologetically after a few beats of silence, though Atem wasn't sure who he was talking to, since he hadn't been paying attention to what was going on in the first place.

"You should be," Kaiba sneered. Joey glared in response. "Only dogs have such bad manners. Don't you know not to make loud noises around a sick person?"

"Kaiba, you jerk!" Joey released a sigh. "I'm just worried about him, you know? He's my friend. I haven't been able to see him at all since we got here and knowing he's here with you…"

Kaiba didn't take the bait.

"Sorry, Atem," Joey said, stepping around Kaiba and entering the room. "He just gets me so mad sometimes, I just-"He growled a bit, before shrugging. "You okay, man? We're all worried and Kaiba here won't tell us anything."

"Because it's none of your business," Kaiba said, walking over to them. "He'll be fine, that's all you need to know."

And now the two were in another stare-down contest.

Atem didn't need to use his dark powers to know that Kaiba's confrontational attitude derived from frustration and feelings of helplessness (either in helping or being able to prevent) towards Atem's current state. Joey naturally irritated Kaiba and, unfortunately for Joey, became an outlet for Kaiba's anger.

Being helpless meant losing control, and this entire situation with Noah and the Big 5 was already wearing on Kaiba's nerves. Atem couldn't do anything about the latter, but he could help Kaiba regain some of that control right now.

"Seto," Atem said, "here-" He broke into a short coughing fit, which not only made his oncoming headache worse, but caused his entire body to tense up in pain as it struggled to reroute the necessary energy needed to keep coughing.

Kaiba pushed past Joey, almost knocking him to the floor as he rushed to Atem's bedside. He heard Joey yelp when he found himself covered in Kaiba's white trench coat a moment later.

"Hey!" Joey snapped. "I'm not a coat rack!"

Kaiba threw Joey a smirk, before climbing on the bed behind Atem. He had stopped coughing, but was franticly wheezing for breath. Strong, large hands rubbed soothing circles along his back, it felt good and the physical distraction caused his body to relax, though it still took a while for his breathing to return to normal.

"…you're not so bad, I guess," Joey admitted reluctantly.

"I wouldn't let anything happen to him," Kaiba said.

Atem shook his head. He must have blacked out; it seemed he came to in the middle of their conversation.

Joey was sitting in a chair next to his bed, while Atem found himself laying against Kaiba, who was sitting against the headboard, holding him closely. Protectively. Atem startled when he felt Kaiba run his fingers through his hair.

"Yeah well, I'm still keeping an eye on you, rich boy," Joey added calmly. "But I've seen how well you take care of Mokuba. Just let us know how he's doing once in a while, yeah? That's all I'm asking."

"Hmm. I'll let you know if he gets worse," Kaiba finally replied.

Atem snickered lightly. That's as good as Joey was going to get; Atem was surprised Joey even got that much from Kaiba.

"Hehehe," Joey waved a small medicine packet in front of Atem's face. "I get updates on your condition, he gets the medicine I found."

He threw the packet at Kaiba, who caught it with his free hand.

"Get better soon, okay Atem?" Joey said with a grin. "We're all downstairs if you need anything." He gave a sidelong glance at Kaiba, before turning his attention back to Atem, lowering his voice. "And I mean anything."

"I'll be fine," Atem reassured him.

"Hmm. Okay, if you say so."

Joey got up, heading for the door; he paused just before his hand reached the door knob.

"Oh! I almost forgot." Joey dug around in his pockets until he pulled out a folded piece of paper. He turned and threw it towards Kaiba. "Yugi asked me to give this to you. Both of you," he clarified. "Not sure why he didn't just bring it up here himself, but he said it was top secret..."

Joey shrugged. "I didn't read it, so don't shoot the messenger later if it's bad news, okay?"

He pulled the door, closing it with a soft snick. It didn't take long for Kaiba to rip open the small packet of pills. He reached for the glass of water with his other hand.

"Now," Kaiba said, "open and swallow."

A few minutes later…

"So what was in the note?" Kaiba asked him.

"What note? Oh!" Atem exclaimed. "I completely forgot. Where is it?"

Kaiba took the note off the nightstand. "Here." He dropped it in Atem's lap.

"Hmm. Let's see…"

He opened it up to find a giant red heart carefully colored in with crayon. Inside the heart was a poem:

Kaiba and Atem sitting in a tree
S-H-A-GG-I-N-G
First comes love, and then comes marriage…
[Censored: Sexually Explicit Content]

If the shagging didn't get to Atem, the last few lines did. Instead of words about a baby and thumb sucking, there were descriptions of sexual activities in there that even Atem didn't know was physically possible. He blushed, and Kaiba burst out laughing.

At the bottom of the note was Yugi Moto's signature. Atem eyed it carefully, crumpling it up. As he did, Atem heard a soft snick and a low chuckling at the door. He saw Yugi peeking through the small opening.

"YUGI!" Atem yelled, ignoring the sore rasp in his throat. He threw the paper ball at Yugi, who shut the door and took off, his laugh echoing down the hallway.

"I KNOW WHERE YOU SLEEP, YOU LITTLE-"

Kaiba nipped Atem's ear, immediately shutting him up.

"Mmm," Kaiba purred into Atem's ear. "I think Yugi might just have the right idea."

"About what?" Atem asked hesitantly. Kaiba was using his sexy voice. Atem was weak against Kaiba's sexy voice.

"I know how to get rid of your fever." Kaiba whispered into Atem's ear. "See the line just below Yugi's signature?"

"Hmm…" He must have missed that line the first time. He got up to retrieve the paper ball, before quickly crawling back into Kaiba's arms.

Uncrinkling the note, Atem began reading the last line. "P.S. The book I was reading said it knew of a sure-fire way to get rid of a fever…" Atem nearly chocked when he read the rest of the line. As it was, he ended up coughing and needed another drink of water.

He raised his eyebrow at Kaiba. "Really? Starve a cold, fuck a fever?"

Kaiba shrugged. "Can't hurt to try. Yugi did say it was a "sure-fire" thing."

Atem was about to argue that it would probably serve to make the fever worse, but then Atem caught himself because fuck it. He hadn't gotten any since the finals started.

"You're right. It is a good idea." Atem kissed the back of Kaiba's hand gently. "Virtual sex is just as good as real sex."

"Hn," Kaiba agreed. "Noah's probably watching, but who cares? Let's give that geek a show. If he doesn't like it, it's his fault for trapping us here."

A nefarious grin split Kaiba's face moments before he twisted them around, pinning Atem to the bed. Atem chuckled deviously. Perfect.

The last thing Atem remembered clearly was hearing Kaiba's sexy, sexy voice laughing lightly in his ear as he teased Atem with the things he was going to do tonight to his body. After that, it was a bit of a blur, probably due to the fever.

But it was a very sexually explicit blur that Atem fully approved of.

Atem's fever was gone the next morning. He made a mental note to thank Yugi later.