Will I ever see the whites of your eyes

[hackeralastair]

WHO: Alastair and Kaiba with special guests Mokuba and Bakura
WHERE: a stretch of highway outside the City
WHEN: today!
WARNINGS: mouthy jerks
SUMMARY: Kaiba has challenged Alastair to a race against a D-Wheel street model. Let's see what happens.
FORMAT: place your bets on paragraph

Once they had stopped sniping at each other over compensation and reasons for accepting the challenge, Alastair had agreed to Kaiba's proposal and let him make the date and arrangements. After all, it was KaibaCorp's publicity stunt. He just had to show up with a full tank of gas and his riding gear. Having beaten Bruno's prototype already, Alastair was fairly confident in himself, though he still wasn't sure exactly who was going to be driving the finished D-Wheel.

He screeched to a halt at the starting point, which was very clearly marked out and well-attended by KaibaCorp employees, a camera crew, and a helicopter (currently landed in the median). How the CEO had managed to pay somebody off to close a stretch of highway for a few hours, Alastair didn't want to know, but an actual street test was much more fun than racing on a track anyway. He had decked himself out in his best gear, a real racing jacket instead of his trenchcoat and his gloves and boots. As he parked the bike in its place, he took off his helmet and shook out his red hair, grinning boldly. Win or lose, this was going to be fun, and look at all the publicity he was going to personally get. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

Comments

[allthecards]

'Riding on his coattails?' The phrase echoed in Kaiba's mind, sent him into a boiling fury. This was the first hologram technology he was selling that he hadn't built and designed entirely himself. A fact of which he was painfully aware throughout the entire process. He did everything by himself, he didn't do anything as a team and this was why. Because your successes would never be your own. That insult dug deeper than he would ever want to admit.

Mokuba's outburst was what kept him back from physically attacking. He didn't lose himself like that in front of his brother. Instead he pointed Alastair and shouted. "You defeated a Dwheel prototype. That means either you've lost any and all talent or you were facing a superior vehicle and superior rider! There's no point in advertising how much of a failure you are since everyone already knows!"

[hackeralastair]

Alastair recoiled briefly, and then angrily jammed his helmet back onto his head. "Come on, Bakura," he snarled, his voice muffled even though the visor was up. "Get on your bike and let's go home."

That was the lowest of blows. Only by retreating could Alastair maintain any shred of composure and not completely ruin things in front of Mokuba. He didn't care about the elder Kaiba, but he still wanted to stay on the younger one's good side. He didn't even wait for anyone else to say anything and started up the bike, letting the engine purr.

[the-other-kaiba.livejournal.com]

Mokuba shrugged away from Bakura to stand defensively at his brother's side, glaring at Alastair. The thought entered his head that no, Alastair wasn't so much a loser since he had been really awesome and Niisama had just out-awesomed him. But he had also insulted Niisama and that wasn't to be had.

How could he treat a friend that way?

[How could Niisama respond like that to a friend?

Hmm. Must get more information on this at another time.]

He looked over to see what Bakura would do, still angry but trusting the older boy enough to believe that whatever he did next would be the right thing. [No pressure or anything, Bakura.]

[shiromadoushi]

Really, Bakura should have expected this. Separating the pair of them when they had started bickering seemed to be the only thing that helped, so at the suggestion he nodded, giving Mokuba an apologetic look. "I'll talk to you later, okay, Mokuba-kun?" he half assured, half asked before turning to head for where his bike was parked.

[the-other-kaiba.livejournal.com]

Bakura was leaving, so leaving was obviously the right thing to do. He nodded and waved a little, then slipped his hand into his brother's.

"Do we have to talk to anyone, or can we go too?"