Hey guys! Hannah (FutureStar27) here! Not too long ago, Natalie (DarkQueenofDuels) and I started private messaging each other pretty frequently. At first, it was just to bounce ideas off of each other for our own stories. However, one day we had an idea. What if we did a collaboration story together? Well, due to our similar writing styles and similar opinions on how certain canon characters should behave, we decided to do just that! Natalie and I are super excited to start our very first collab together and we hope you guys enjoy it as much as we enjoyed writing it. By the way, this collaboration is a mixture between our two stories; the Take A Chance On Me trilogy and the That Stabbing Feeling duo, so if you haven't read them already, then go check them out or little to nothing here will make sense. For those who have already, enjoy!
Alissa scowled at the painting in front of her and slammed her paintbrush down on the easel in frustration. It was Sunday afternoon, and she had gotten Seto to agree, albeit reluctantly, to take the day off from work. The couple had spent the past few hours painting and she discovered rather quickly that painting was not one of her strong suits.
"That's it. I'm finished."
"You're quitting?" he asked without taking his eyes off his own painting.
"Yes I'm quitting. I can't paint! My painting looks like it was done by an eight month old baby who got a hold of finger paints!"
"Infants barely have the dexterity to crawl at that age, let alone paint a picture."
"Warning. That's a warning."
He tossed her a sideways smirk before placing his own paintbrush down on the easel in front of him.
"Let me take a look." He strode over to where she was standing and stood behind her to peer at her painting from over her shoulder.
"It isn't awful."
"Yeah, well it's not good either. It doesn't even look like a bowl of fruit!"
He glanced at the fruit bowl sitting in the middle of the room then back at her painting.
"Add some shading all along here and on the right side of the bowl. The subject of our painting isn't made up of single shades of red, green, and yellow."
"But I only have one shade of each color."
"That's what the other paint colors are for. You're supposed to mix them, moron."
"Hmm, charming. Obviously I'm supposed to mix colors, but how am I supposed to know which colors to mix if I don't know the whole color wheel?"
"It's not a difficult concept to grasp."
"I must be stupid then."
"Stop with the theatrics, you know that isn't what I meant. Now add a little bit of black paint. It'll make the shades darker."
She picked up her paintbrush and palette with a sigh. She quickly mixed a little bit of black with the other colors and started adding more shading to her painting. She nearly jumped when long, thin fingers wrapped around her own.
"You're holding too much tension in your hand. You're holding an instrument, not a lifeline."
"Like this?" she asked after adjusting her grip.
"Move your grip further down. You'll have more precision if your grip is closer to the ferrule of the brush. No, now you're too far down. You want your grip to be just above the ferrule, not on top of it. Yes, that's correct. You're tensing again relax your grip. Yes. Now try painting."
He watched silently as she shaded in the areas he told her to. Once he was sure she had a handle on things again, he stepped back to his easel to finish his own painting. A loud crash caused the couple to look up from their paintings.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" she roared when she saw the three kittens surrounding the fallen bowl of fruit. "How did they even get in here?"
"I would assume they came in through the door."
Her eyebrow twitched in irritation as she snapped her angry gaze to him.
"It was a rhetorical question! Why do these cats hate me? I was the one who wanted to keep them in the first place!"
"You're being ridiculous. They don't hate you. They're kittens, they want to play. I'll grab Apollo and Scooter. We'll finish this later." As he spoke, he set his paintbrush down and strode over to pick up two of the ragdoll kittens.
"But I'm in the middle of adding more shading, if I stop now the shading won't be consistent."
"That's an easy problem to fix. Now grab Bastet so we can get these cats out of here before they make a mess."
"Fine." She huffed and put her paintbrush down before approaching the last ragdoll kitten and scooping her up into her arms. The blue-eyed kitten peered up at her owner and meowed softly. Alissa's anger faded instantly and she scratched behind the kitten's ear with a small smile.
"I can't stay mad at you."
"Come, Alissa. We should get them out of here while they're calm."
"Okay." She followed the brunet out of the attic and back down to their bedroom. Once the attic door was shut behind them, she placed Bastet on the floor. The kitten meowed loudly before dashing out of the room with her brothers at her heels.
"If those cats make another mess they're sleeping outside," he snapped.
"They're kittens, they want to play," she mimicked with a smile. "Besides, you love them too much to make them sleep outside."
"Hmph, whatever."
"Hm, you know, we make great parents."
He tensed and immediately turned his gaze to her. Parents? What the hell was she talking about?
"Excuse me? Are you trying to tell me something?"
"I'm talking about the cats, idiot."
He was about to say that they were the kittens owners not their parents, but her lips connected with his before he could speak. She pulled away so her lips hovered centimeters above his.
"Don't think too hard, you'll pop a blood vessel."
"Shut up," he growled before pulling her into another heated kiss.
xxx
A soft clicking was the only sound that filtered through Seto's office as he worked. He paused briefly to run a hand down his face. It had been another long day and he still had a lot to do before he could call it a day. He glanced briefly at the watch on his left wrist and rolled his eyes. It was already nine o'clock. It appears getting home before midnight is no longer an option. Alissa will never let me hear the end of this one. A knock on his door caused him to pause in his typing again and clench his fists tightly. I thought I explained that I was not to be disturbed.
"What is it?" he growled as he continued typing.
The door opened and a woman with medium length blonde hair and brown eyes peeked her head into the room. The woman couldn't help but blush a little upon seeing the brunet CEO. He really was handsome. She'd only met him once previously, and that was when she was hired two months before. And when that happened, she had only seen him in passing.
Seto frowned when he didn't hear anyone speak. After several seconds of silence, he glared up at the intruder.
"What is it? I thought I made it perfectly clear that I was not to be disturbed for the rest of the evening."
"My apologies, Mr. Kaiba. I'm from the financial department. I have the reports for this week that you requested."
"I asked for those hours ago," he snapped, holding out his hand expectantly.
She entered his office apprehensively and walked over to his desk to hand him the folder in her hands.
"I apologize, Mr. Kaiba. The person who usually writes up the reports was absent today so I had to step in."
"Would you care to explain why it took you so long to 'step in' then?" he asked as he grabbed the folder in her hands and flipped through it.
"My apologies. I'm his assistant. I usually just make sure he doesn't miss any of the reports."
"How long have you been working here?"
She swallowed around a large lump that settled in her throat. Why was he asking that? Did she do something wrong?
"Two months, Sir."
"What is your name?"
"Ichii Saeko, Sir."
"Hmph, the quality of these reports are a pleasant surprise. You're a reliable worker."
She smiled and felt a small blush rise to her cheeks. The Seto Kaiba had just complimented her on her work.
"Thank you, Mr. Kaiba."
"If that's all you needed you can excuse yourself."
She nodded and left his office with her smile still intact. He said that she was a reliable worker. He was impressed by her. He complimented me, she thought as her smile widened. He never compliments anyone. As she walked towards the elevator, she couldn't help but fixate on the blue-eyed CEO. If he had complimented her, he must really like her. She had been watching him from afar since she got hired, waiting for the day that he finally noticed her and the connection that they shared. Now that he noticed her she knew that the connection she felt with him was real. They were meant for each other and anyone who said otherwise would pay.
Well it looks like Seto's got himself a stalker! When Natalie and I were discussing ideas for this story, we toyed with the idea of having a female antagonist. Obviously, we loved the idea because that's what we plan to do. Well, anyhoo, that's it for the first chapter. Since we'll be switching who is writing every other chapter, that means the lovely DarkQueenofDuels will be writing chapter two. Let us know what you thought and we'll talk to ya'll next time!