Rose Petals
One shot greatness, pre-Duelist Kingdom era. I was listening to the radio when I started thinking what fun it would be to write a story of romance for once and BOOM inspiration hit. I came up with my own version of events leading to mentioned events in the American Dub (so unspecific, aren't I…) Yu-Gi-Oh (As always). Complete!
Couples- Cecilia and Pegasus (or Pegasus and Cecilia, but I'm a girl, so girls get top billing…)
Warnings- OC's, probable OOC-ness, non-cannon stuff… The usual...
Disclaimer- I only own Mina, Marin, and a cat named Angel, but she has nothing to do with this story… No owning on my part, unfortunately for me…
It was a clear, starry evening, a perfect night for a romantic dinner. A young man stared out the window near the table at which he was seated within a romantic restaurant. His menu sat before him, unopened, as he sat, looking as if he were waiting for something dreamily. A waitress walked up beside him, and addressed him "sir…"
"Oh, I was just… waiting for someone…" was the young mans uneasy response.
"I see… this someone is very special if you bring them here…" the waitress said, indicating the ambiance of the restaurant.
"She is very special to me, she is like…"
"Your soul mate…" she finished with a slight air of sarcasm.
"Much more than just a soul mate, she's like something I didn't know I was missing until I met her…" he said dreamily, his thoughts drifting off to thoughts of her beauty and personality.
"I see, more like she's a part of the puzzle, a cog in the clock so to speak…"
"Basically, but enough small talk, I have a request for you, if you would…"
"Anything, I understand young love…" she said, adding the last part in a whisper.
"I'd like some champagne, but towards the end of the meal, if you would…"
"What is he celebrating?" She thought while writing down his request on a small sheet of paper and nodding slightly at the comment.
"Thank you…" he said, indicating the approaching shadow.
"She's the one?" She asked softly.
"She's my love, my true love…" As the shadow grew nearer, the waitress could see why the young man was so enamored. She wore a purple velvet dress with a matching hand bag. Throughout her blond hair were strewn several white rose petals and her blue eyes glistened in the candlelight (I've only seen a few fan-arts with her, she is quite stunning).
"I see she is quite beautiful…" she said to the man, then looked at both and added "I'm Mina, I'll be your waitress this evening…" At this she giggled slightly at the phrase she always seemed to say "but you already know that part, tonight we have some lovely specials for lovely couples."
"I already know what I want…" said the now seated woman "It's Maxie that needs a little persuading…" (I don't know how the nickname's spelled, but you get the point…)
"How cute…" she thought, looking at the woman again. Then, she realized what the woman meant, it wasn't just meals he had trouble committing himself with, it was everything. That and something about the younger woman through her off, as if she wasn't what she seemed to be… Mina shook off the feeling but it still remained in the back of her mind.
"Mina…" said a voice from behind her, she turned to see another blonde, this time she knew the shadow quite well.
"Marin, you spooked me…" she said, indicating the couple slightly.
"I need to talk to you, it's urgent…" Marin said, beginning to walk away.
"That's my boss, really all of our boss…" she said indicating the other waiters behind her "she is basically the owner, but she shares it with her brother…"
"Mina, what is taking you, I swear…" Marin said, approaching the table again.
"If you'll excuse me…" Mina said, bowing slightly and backing up towards Marin.
"Finally, we need to talk in the kitchen…" she said, walking in the direction of the kitchen. Upon arriving, Mina saw exactly why the elder woman was so urgent, the cook had disappeared.
"What happened…" she said, looking around the kitchen slightly.
"That's what we'd all like to know, but all I know is this rose petal…" Marin said, pointing at a rose petal on the floor.
"That's different, I mean…" Mina was unsure what to say, or how to say what was now running through her mind.
"You agree with me that this is not normal, one minute we have a chef, the next poof she's gone…"
"Yea… wait, what color is that petal…"
"Pink, why…"
"I think I have a hunch, go with me here… you know I had a weird feeling about that girl I was talking to… maybe she has something to do with it…"
"Are you nuts… wait, you didn't tell me that, I know why you had the weird feeling, and you may be onto something here…"
"I am? How so…" she said, putting a hand to her chin.
"You know more about strange stuff than I do, I'll leave it to you to figure out, but if I'm right, it will be her dates last night of happiness…" Marin whispered the last part.
"What are you mumbling about? I don't understand your reference…"
"I'll leave it to her to tell you, if I'm right that is…"
"If, right… is that a big if…" Mina said; walking towards the couple after Marin opened the kitchen door.
"Yes, Mina, a big if indeed, nothing to worry yourself about…"
"Okay, well, I'll keep it mind though…" At this, she walked back towards the table from whence she had came.
"Simple Mina…" she added after Mina walked out of earshot "she'll understand soon enough…"
"Sorry about that, guys, I'll take your drink orders now…" Mina said after arriving back at the table.
"Quite alright…" Said the man, his white hair falling in his eyes a bit at the expression, his smile amplified the joy he felt.
"Other than your request earlier, sir, what other drinks would you like…"
"I'd like some coffee; it is a bit chilly in here…" Mina nodded at the man's request, writing down the coffee bit.
"I'd like some coffee as well," started the younger woman "could you bring some cream as well…" the woman finished lightly.
"You two are easy to please…" she said jokingly, noticing that the two had ordered the same drink. "You two ready to order, or do you need more time?" She asked, mainly addressing the male of the group, at this he looked franticly over his menu, nothing saying "order me, eat me…" or anything of the like, nothing sounding better than the last. "If you need more time…" Mina said to the now searching man "I can go talk to Marin or something…" she said softly, this time turning to the blonde of the group, a slight worried look was hidden deep in her jovial eyes.
"Maxie, pick something…" she said, hiding the worry in an air of sweetness "you don't want to make our lovely waitress wait do you…" this was filled with multiple meanings the way Mina heard it. The woman was obviously expecting the man to do something, but what it was could be anyone's guess, maybe it had to do with the champagne, or the ambiance, or something that Mina, or anyone for that matter, would have to drag out of the situation.
"It's no hurry, ma'am…" At this, one of the various rose petals came cascading down from her hair and landed on the table "I'll take care of that…" Mina said, lifting the rose petal off of the table and taking it with her to the kitchen where Marin was waiting.
"About time you got back, the world could have had another ice age…" Marin said sarcastically upon Mina's arrival.
"How would you know about ice? Besides, I found something…" At this, Mina opened her hand and exposed the now pink rose petal.
"Oh, what the…" Marin said lifting the rose petal to her eye level; it was the same color as the rose petal before. "Where'd you find this?" Marin asked, lowering the petal to her chest level at the end of the question.
"It fell out of the blonde's hair…" she said softly, now noticing the change of color "it was white when it first fell though…" Mina finished, putting a finger to her chin again.
"That's definitely strange, I've never heard of rose petals changing color…" Marin said, indicating the petal in her hand.
"I think I may have figured out the whole thing…" Mina said in an air of darkness.
"Really…" Marin said, leaving out her next thought of 'finally,' conveniently enough.
"Here goes, in the Middle Ages, there was the Black Plague, characterized by black boil-like elevations, right, maybe there's a disease characterized by pink rose petals…" Mina laughed in her mind at her own conclusion, it sounded ridiculous, but Marin disagreed with the younger mind.
"It sounds like a good conclusion…" Marin said in all seriousness, her mind already knowing what Mina had just figured out.
"Really, I thought it was crazy, in fact, I could almost hear you agreeing with that more than the fact it was a sound conclusion…" Mina said softly, trying to decipher it all, more importantly trying to figure out if the woman knew, and if so when she would tell her date.
"See, it wasn't so hard to figure out that I was right…" Marin said softly as Mina reached for the coffee pot.
"Figure out that you were right, you mean about the "last night of happiness" bit?" At this Marin nodded slightly, adding nothing. "I'd better get them some coffee; it's going to be a long night…" She finished, taking the now filled mugs out of the kitchen.
"She finally figured it out, but does she really realize what this means, or is she taking what I said literally as always…" Marin asked in her mind, shaking her head slightly at the thought that seemed to reverberate through her mind.
"Sorry about that, guys, I had to check on some things back in the kitchen…" Mina said, placing the coffee cups on the table, then the cream in the middle of the two.
"I think we're ready to order…" said the man, his white hair falling in his eyes once more.
"What will you have tonight…" Mina asked, bringing out the small notebook again.
"Alright, I'll have your chicken-fried steak, I heard from a friend it was quite good…" at the expression, his white hair dropped unto his neckline adding a certain mystique.
"That either comes with salad or baked potato, your choice…"
"I'll have the backed potato, no sour cream, okay?" Mina nodded silently, scribbling in the notebook.
"And for you, ma'am?" Mina added, now looking at the blonde, trying to shake the felling that had once again came over her.
"I'll have your eggplant parmesan, it's one of my favorite meals…" the blonde said, a few of the rose petals cascading through her hair, as if held there by the hair itself.
"Excellent choice, one of my personal favorites, as well, salad or baked potato…" Mina added while jotting down the new order.
"I'll have a salad… Oh, I have to go fix this hair of mine, I'll return shortly…" She said, getting gracefully up from the table, pushing in her chair, and walking to the bathroom.
"Now that she's temporarily predisposed, do you mind to tell me what it is that you'll be celebrating?" Mina asked as soon as the other was out of ear-shot.
"Only this…" at the statement, the man brought out a purple box, small in size, but the object inside was of interest. The man opened the lid to reveal a ring with a small diamond in the center, an engagement ring.
"So, the whole you having trouble committing to anything just got blown out the window?" The man just nodded, putting the ring back in his pocket "You should ask her upon her return…" she added to another, less enthusiastic, nod.
"You're right, I should, it would surprise her…" at this he put a finger to his chin, wondering why a complete stranger had given him such life-changing advice.
"It would? She might be expecting it…" Mina added, once again motioning around her, as if the ambience itself were a dead give away (I love that phrase, two meanings!). "I mean, she did mention that you had trouble committing to anything… maybe this is what she was waiting for…" she said the last part in a soft whisper, slightly softer than the man could hear. But before he could ask what she had said, the blonde reentered, looking as if she had not only fixed her hair but had also applied a bit more makeup. "If you want me to go…" Mina added, turning to walk towards the kitchen.
"No need… I want someone to be here so I won't be so nervous…" at this, he rose out of his seat softly, pushed the chair in towards the table, and pulled out her chair as she came closer.
"What is he doing?" The blonde thought to herself, as if she was only expecting a romantic dinner. Mina sensed the thought slightly and smiled a little, the ambience and the romance getting to her, as if through these two she was young again. The blonde sat down, looking apprehensively at her still standing date.
"Cecilia…" he whispered, feeling himself growing nervous already, he had never known why he was going through with it tonight, anyway, but something inside him told him that it couldn't wait until tomorrow.
"Yes…" she whispered back at his unnatural pause, as if he was never this hot-under-the-collar type he was suddenly acting like.
"Cecilia…" he started again, now bending down to meet her eye level, balanced on his right knee, got the ring out of his left pocket he continued "will you marry me?" At this, he showed Cecilia the ring, with which she nearly jumped out of her chair, but got up gracefully and bent down to hug him around the neck (softly now mind you, but I regress…)
"Oh Maximillian…" Mina's ears perked up at the name, as if she had heard it somewhere before, but her thoughts were interrupted when the comment was completed "of course I will. I love you, more than you can imagine."
Maximillian looked as if Cecilia had read his very thoughts, said what he had said earlier in the evening. Everything felt so great, as if a great weight had been literally lifted off of his shoulders, at this feeling, he hugged her back, and both slowly got up at once. "Well, that was quite the experience…" Mina whispered to the shadows, Marin approached from the kitchen, clearing her throat on her arrival.
"Well, what's going on out here, or do I want to know?" Marin said with an air of sarcasm, indicating the still embracing couple.
"He just proposed, she said yes, that's what happened…" Mina said in a gruff synopsis.
"Well, that would be special, considering everything that's happened tonight, it's the only preplanned thing to happen all night…" Marin said to a nod from the addressee "But," she started another comment "we have work that needs to be done so that these two can eat what they ordered." Another nod and the two walked off in the direction of the kitchen.
"Well," started Cecilia "I wonder what that blonde meant by "preplanned event"" She finish in an air of questioning and softness that seemed to abound in the air surrounding her. "I wonder if it has to do with everyone else…" she thought, her mind wondering why the whole night seemed to go, in some odd way or another, awry. This had been planned all week, really all month, to celebrate their one-year anniversary, but it seemed that all the bliss was just a mask to hide the truth she dreaded, and it seemed to her that the two had another thing hidden then what she had hidden, the whole thing was a maze of guises and white lies. The only one not in correspondence with the whole thing as a partial lie was Maximillian, the only one that seemed oblivious to what the others seemed to know. Everything was coming apart at the seams, and she could hide it no more.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Mina wondered about the last piece of the puzzle, "But what I don't understand is that if she knows, she would have told him by now, right?"
"Not necessarily, that's why I said earlier that it was up to her to tell you, because I don't think she's accepted it yet." Marin replied matter-of-factly.
"So she's in denial about it, it must mean something will happen later on she's not willing to face…" A nod from Marin confirms her conclusion "perhaps something has come between the two, or will…"
"Like death…" Marin finished, bringing a book from on top of the small table in the center of the table into full view of a confused-looking Mina "I found something quite interesting earlier, while you were first introducing yourself."
"Does this mean that she will try to hide it until…"
"If at all possible, perhaps she'll try, but as the days pass it will become much more difficult, he'll eventually ask, she'll either tell him now or lie until then." Marin said softly, interrupting Mina's thought "but our concern now is dinner, if she tells you, you tell me, got it?"
"Yes, but how are we supposed to cook dinner…" Mina asked slyly, knowing the other had a plan already.
"For so many, I don't know, but for two we can manage." A nod from Mina as Marin scans the kitchen for various ingredients. "We can cook using this stuff, all these spices and all…"
"Salad and baked potato first, that's the appetizer each chose, respectively."
"The woman chose the salad, I assume." At this Marin walked towards the refrigerator and upon arriving opened it. "We'll need lettuce, tomatoes, etc. Salad stuff, like…" she paused, seeing a dozen eggs at the bottom of the refrigerator. "Boil some water, I've got an idea." She added, grabbing the box, a bag of spinach, a head of lettuce, a few tomatoes, some radishes, and an oil and vinegar mixture.
"Water's on…" Mina said, indicating a pot on the stove "what else do you need."
"A cutting board and a knife, also some spices to make dressing, or at least flavor it," Marin replied, indicating the oil and vinegar in her hand.
"Aye, aye Capitan…" Mina said sarcastically, getting the requested ingredients "I wonder…" she began, peering through the crack between the door and the wood surrounding it to see the couple still staring into each others eyes across a lit candle "I wonder what he's thinking…"
Meanwhile, the couple sat in complete silence, as if the whole night had built up to the moment they were in now. Nothing was to follow, for them, or at least that is what Maximillian had first thought. But as the night continued, he found it harder to hide his true feelings. And Cecilia found it harder to hide the truth she'd known for a week or two, but she had never been one to force a decision on the other, but she felt that the expression of passion was a little late in coming however much she didn't expect it tonight she had expected it for awhile, the small hints, the ambience of the last month, the dinner, the restaurant, everything seemed to build up to a few minutes ago, as if the night would go unplanned from there. "If only I could read his mind, then I'd know what other things he had planned" she thought, the thoughts swirling in her mind like a whirlwind, shaking her to her limits, as if she was waiting to see what else would turn out of this night, as simply chaotic as it seemed (oxymoron, but I regress to our tale) to all involved but the white haired man across the table from her, for he was focused on the, as he would have put it, "happiest day" of his life.
"So, what did you find out?" The question brought Mina back to the kitchen, but she had found out nothing, as if the man's thoughts were just beyond her reach, she just shook her head silently "Not much, eh? No matter, it isn't important, is it?"
"I was just wondering if he knew… I was hoping that he did so it would be easier for us all…" She responded in an air of soothsaying softness, a mystery intertwined in her every word. She turned towards Marin, softly frowning "I can't believe all this happened, tonight of all nights, I mean I thought it would be a good night, a happy night…"
"I said it would be his "last night of happiness" not necessarily happy for all those involved, especially her…" Marin replied; grabbing the now prepared salad and a potato from the oven, which she had placed there while Mina was staring out the kitchen door, and put it on a plate like the salad. She handed both plates to Mina, who carried them out the door with her.
Upon arriving at the table, Mina sat both the salad and the baked potato in front of their respective consumers (it's better then 'eaters' or 'people that ordered them') nodding to each silently, looking at Cecilia more adamantly, as if trying to see into her thoughts.
"Something wrong?" Cecilia asked at the slight strange look from Mina, as if the look itself spoke volumes.
"Nothing…" Mina whispered, returning her gaze to her notebook, looking at the orders again.
"Don't worry, dear, she's just a bit busy…" said a voice from behind Mina, the one she recognized as her boss.
"Yes, busy indeed…" Mina whispered, staring eye-to-eye at her "boss" (they are the same height) as if the phrase was unwarranted and unneeded.
"I should not have asked…" Cecilia said softly to a slight shake of the head from Mina "You didn't mind?"
"I was just wondering something… that's all…"
"What exactly were you wondering, I'd like to know." Cecilia whispered a falsely demanding tone to her normally soft voice.
"Your thoughts, I was wondering about what you were thinking…" Mina replied softly, turning to Marin in the process "Did you find anything else of interest?" She asked, a slight dark tone escaping from her lips.
"Yes, but we won't discuss it right now… we have dinner to prepare…" Marin said in a condescending tone to a slight defeated nod from Mina, as if the phrase had brought her back to cruel reality.
"I have to go, Boss wants dinner, and that's what Boss will get…" Mina replied, a slight annoyance in her voice, as if the ambience was starting to affect her more then she had thought, but reality was closing in on all those involved, making dark shadows in the light (duel meaning, yea!). They both returned to the kitchen for the third time that night, darkness in every step.
"So, this is what I found…" Marin said upon entering the kitchen and bringing another book with her, this time opening it to the now "dog eared" page. "It mentions symptoms and all…" she added, looking at the book.
"But what does this have to do with right now? I mean, this is quite old…" Mina responded, indicating the worn look of the page.
"Exactly, so is the disease, I thought it was long gone…" Marin said darkly, indicating the last word in the list "death", a word they'd come to see so many times, but never truly experienced (also duel meaning here…) and were both blessed and cursed for it.
"They said the same thing in the 1600's when the Black Plague ravaged London…" Mina added, the second time she had used the comparison that night, then it occurred to her to ask a second question "so is it contagious or just a random coincidence that two people in the same building…"
"Not contagious…" Marin interrupted "barely even an epidemic in its prime… affected one person for every thousand…" at this she shut the book with an angry, dark look crossing her face.
"And it had to be the one that came here…" Mina finished Marin's thought, at which the addressee nodded silently "if that's not coincidence, I don't know what is…"
"Irony is a foreign language to you, isn't it…? Don't you see, we never expected all this to happen, we thought it would be a slow night, no worries, go home for the weekend, relax and all, but now we have to worry about a couple and their future… more like the male's future…" Marin said to a dark nod from Mina, both had realized that it was high time to take the night into their own hands and try to get the younger blonde to tell what was going through her mind… And the dread was thick enough already. "What we need to do now is convince the blonde to trust us with the truth and then convince her to tell her date…" At this she looked around the kitchen again for the ingredients to what each had ordered.
"Check on the stove, Sherlock, I have it covered" Mina said slyly, pointing at two skillets on the opposite end of the room.
"I'm not going to ask how the heck you did that, all I need is more freaky stuff to freak me out, I'm convinced we'll all be crazy by the end of the night…" Marin said darkly, walking towards the stove.
"Don't be so cynical, although that's your job, but tonight isn't the time, we have to work on getting that chick to talk about, maybe even whisper, what's on her mind right now, I can sense it's something multilayered, not just what we first thought…" Mina added to a plate-toting Marin, who just nodded as if the thought were already going through her own mind at the very moment before Mina had said it.
"Indeed, but we need to get these plates to the guests before they die of anticipation…" Marin added cynically, handing the plates to Mina and opening the kitchen door to escort her out.
"I'll come back with any news…" Mina added, walking towards the table at which the couple were seated before, but now just Cecilia sat there, her date had left for the restroom. "Here's his plate when he returns…" Mina said, indicating were she would sit it down, right in front of where he had been seated.
"Can I talk to you…" Cecilia added, looking at her own plate before her.
"Certainly…" Mina added, walking towards her with a slight softness in her steps.
"Bend down so I can whisper in your ear, this is sort of something I'd rather that everyone didn't hear…" At this Mina obeyed, bending on both knees to hear her every word, at this Cecilia whispered the confirmation of Mina's thoughts and it hit her like a ton of bricks.
At the end of the whisper, Mina added softly "you should tell him, this isn't something you should hide… I mean I wouldn't want something to hamper you two having a great night, but you should tell him, it would make your life so much easier…"
"I don't know, he'd ask why I hadn't told him sooner, and I'm not ready to face him right now…" At this she turned to face the direction of the restroom to see if he had come out, then added "besides, perhaps I can wait until tomorrow, I don't want him to be pushed any farther into this than he's willing to go, I mean I have been hinting all month about how lovely it would be to get married and so on and I was afraid he didn't get the hint until tonight, then everything I had hinted had come out in a large wave, spilling over my control, or attempt at it…"
"I think you should tell him tonight, you'll sleep easier knowing that he knows than knowing that you willingly hid something from him, my opinion, of course, doesn't matter here. What does matter is that you are happy and proud with your decision and you can feel confident that you made the right decision instead of guilty, like you're feeling now…" Mina replied, lowering her head slightly, noting that she said too much, expressed her true feelings a bit too much in what would turn out to be a not-so-simple night..
"You're right, of course, but I just can't, I'm afraid that if I told him that would push him into something too hard and push him to the brink of sanity…" At this, Mina looked towards the bathroom and the subject was now approaching and his footsteps resounded in the slight uneasy pause.
"I'll leave the decision to you…" Mina whispered, indicating Maximillian slightly with her eyes, indicating that a change of subject would ensue shortly after, at this Cecilia nodded, a defeated look on her soft face for in that moment she realized what she had to do. "I have to go, good luck…" At this, Mina walked towards the kitchen to tell Marin what was going on.
"Maximillian, I have to tell you something…" was the last thing she heard from the table before she got completely out of ear-shot.
"So, did she tell him…" At this, Mina turned to see her boss right behind her, she nodded slightly indicating the eerie silence emanating around the table "I suppose that would explain the look on his face…" At this, Mina looked back to the table at which the man was sitting chin-on-chest and crestfallen, both knew now that Cecilia had indeed spilled her thoughts to the other…
A/N- I wanted this to span to their wedding, but it would make it WAAAY too long, it's already eighteen pages as is. Leave a kind review and you may see more works of romance from my hand. Flames will be used to roast Kung-Pow chicken and marshmallows and to cook Eggplant Parmesan… YUMMY! Anyway, I think it turned out pretty good… not my best but I can't complain… at least I have it (at least as much as possible without making it over 25,000 characters) complete. As mentioned, this was planned to span longer, but it turned into just one night, really about a half of an hour, it goes to show that one moment really does change a lifetime… All hail inspiration and romance (Happy Romance Day (AKA Valentine's Day).) That is all, have a great day…