Thanks to my awesome beta, Dreamer of Legends, I was able to post the first chapter of my first story here. Your reviews and comments will encourage me to post more :)
I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! ... As if that's not obvious.
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CHAPTER [1]
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In an early hour of the morning, a young brunette stretched his arms out and looked at the digital clock on the nightstand next to his king size bed. '4:40… Good,' he thought.
He slid his legs out of bed and walked to the attached bathroom to take a quick shower. After fifteen minutes he came out with a white towel around his neck, wearing a half buttoned white shirt with navy trousers; his usual school uniform minus the jacket.
He threw the towel at his bed, grabbed his school bag and went downstairs to find a lavish breakfast waiting for him in the dining room. Fried eggs, toast, pancakes, fruit salad and a glass of orange juice in lieu of his usual mug of black coffee. This morning he had a meeting with her again, and she wouldn't be happy if she knew he was still drinking it.
When he finished his breakfast, it was 5:10. The meeting was at 5:30; he figured he had just enough time to get there if he walked, and the weather was nice enough to allow for it. He tossed his jacket across his right shoulder, grabbed his bag, and left.
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A cool morning breeze welcomed his face the moment he opened the double doors of his huge, fancy manor. His perfect, still wet hair fluttered lightly, sending a bit of a chill shooting through his thin frame. He closed his blue eyes and took a long, deep breath, savouring the crispness of the air before he released it.
His magnificent garden lay before him. He couldn't help but smile at its wonderful sight, wishing that he could convince his little brother to wake up early so they could have their breakfast out here. He chuckled at this thought; he knew his brother very well, and so he knew there was no force on earth that would make him wake that early. He was thankful if the kid woke before school started by ten minutes, let alone two hours.
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The streets of the city were so empty, so quiet; he liked it that way. He reached the house he was heading to after fifteen minutes of peaceful strolling. It was a nice looking, mid-sized house with a small garden in front of it. He walked to the white wooden door, pressed the golden doorbell on its right and waited several moments before someone opened it. A woman in her early forties was standing there with a warm, welcoming smile on her lips. She had shoulder length brown hair and a pair of blue eyes behind her black framed glasses. She was wearing a dark gray skirt with a white blouse.
"Welcome, honey. You're on time, like always," she said as she stepped aside, allowing him to enter her home.
"Of course I am," he replied simply, taking two steps inside the home and closing the door after him. He swapped his shoes for the light green slippers which were prepared for him, heading into the living room and placing his jacket and bag on one couch before claiming the other for himself.
"Would you like to drink something?" the woman asked from the opened kitchen.
"I would like coffee. Will you serve that to me?" he asked with his normal tone, taking a magazine from the glass table in the middle of the room. The woman looked at him skeptically. "Seto…"
He looked up from the magazine with a smirk, knowing what she was going to say. "What?"
"You don't drink it behind my back, do you?" she asked, knowing he would do just that.
"You said it will take time," he put the magazine down after he realized it was a feminine type. The woman walked to the room with two glass cups of green tea with some spearmint leaves in it and handed one to him. She sat beside him, on his left, taking a sip from the tea and speaking in a mocking tone.
"Now you were hearing what I was saying."
He didn't answer; he just looked down at the cup between his hands while his mind moved to another place. She placed her hand on his arm in sympathy. "Hey kid, how do you feel these days?"
"Better than before I think, but…" he tightened his grip on the cup, not caring of how hot it was.
"But what?" she asked with narrowed eyes, not moving her hand from his arm. When she received no answer, she continued. "You know you can trust me, I was with you since it began. Wasn't I always by your side?"
He raised the cup to his mouth and took a long draw. The cup clattered to the table as he set it down and stared at it, unable to speak past a whisper "I hate it."
She knew exactly what he meant, it wasn't the first time he said these words after all. And every time he spelled it out, she came up with a joke to make him think of something else. "Oww… now you hate my tea. Come on, it's not that bad. I doubt you would say that if I gave you the worst coffee on the planet."
He moved his gaze from the cup to the woman; his face was empty of any kind of emotion. He didn't understand her comments and actions sometimes. She took another sip from her own drink, placed it next to Seto's, and looked at him with serious eyes. "You will be okay, physically. But I can't say that for the emotional and mental side. We have to start working on it today, and I won't lie to you by saying you will like it. Knowing you, I think it will be the hardest part in your recovery, but you have to keep your spirit high."
"Will be there a medication treatment?" he asked, hopping to hear 'no' as an answer. But, as he expected, she nodded.
"I know you hate medication, but you have to take it. It's an important part of getting over your problems, although we can't compare it with the practical part."
"Practical…"
"Yeah, it's important and I don't want to hear any complaining. But first, let me check on the new wound and your general health, then we will talk about it… Come on," the woman walked to a door on the right side of the living room, opened it and stepped inside, leaving the door half opened for him to enter. After a sigh, he stood up and entered the room, no caring to close its door.
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It was a large, maple floor room. Three walls were covered by white wallpapers with thin and simple light green ornaments. The one on the left was fully windowed wall, a white examination bed next to it. The backyard garden was clear behind that window, full of flowers and a small but nice looking pool. There was a large bookshelf in the right side of the room. A mid-sized, also simple desk was in the front, where the woman was sitting with a pen in her hand, writing something in a file.
He sat down at the bed and took off his shirt, showing a wide bandage around his stomach. After five minutes of silence, the woman finished her scribbling and came to him. She gently moved the bandages and told to him to lay down. There were three long, deep cuts in his stomach, as if a wild tiger attacked him.
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"Didn't you find the one who did that to you?" she asked.
"Not yet," he answered shortly.
"Any suspects?"
"All I know was that she was a girl."
"Girl? That does explain why you didn't defend yourself properly," she said, mockery in her tone once more. He raised an eyebrow but didn't answer, he hated it when she got like this.
"So, how school doing?" Taking a cotton ball with tweezers and filling it with aseptic, she began to dab at his wounds, making him wince in pain.
"This is the last semester, I can survive," he answered, looking through the window to the garden as if it will help him to ignore the pain he felt.
"Does it hurt you that much?" she asked and he simply shook his head. "You didn't take your medicines and painkillers, did you?"
"No."
"Why?" she asked. He narrowed his eyes, but didn't move his gaze from the garden. "I don't feel like I need it anymore."
She didn't like his answer, which was clear from the sudden change in her expression. She pressed his wound with more force, increasing the pain.
"H-hey!" He looked to see her chuckling.
"You want a painkiller now, right?"
She didn't wait for an answer from him. She stood and crossed to her cabinet, returning with a large needle half filled with green liquid.
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After half an hour
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"And with that, we're finished!" she exclaimed, after placing the last adhesive bandage. He sat straight up in the bed, holding his neck because of the pain.
"Finally…" he mumbled. The woman laughed at his comment as she opened her previous file and started to write some details about his condition.
"Your blood pressure is at a healthy level. Your heartbeats are unstable; if you feel tired, rest, no matter how important your current task is. Your health is way more important than anything; put that in your mind. Got it?" she said and waited again for an answer, but he said nothing.
"I said, 'got it?'" she repeated in a higher voice.
"Yeah, whatever," Seto moved his hand from his neck to his chest and closed his eyes, feeling his heartbeats.
"Anyway, I reduced the doses to half. I wish we could see an improvement, even if a little." She then took a notepaper and wrote something on it. He opened his eyes again after a pause, and put his shirt back on. He was doing the last two buttons when she called him. "Come on, kid. We still have work to do."
"I thought you said we were finished?" he moved to her desk, trying to conceal his irritation. He sat in the white leather chair. "And I'm not kid anymore, don't call me that again."
"That's what they all say when they grow up a little." she said under her breath, but still clear enough for him to hear. "We finished the physical check. And as I told you earlier, today we will start with the mental part."
She paused and gave him the note she was writing. "This is the medicine you have to take. I assume you will buy it today. If you like, I can buy it for you while you are at school, but you have to come to my home directly after to take it."
He glanced at the paper for a second before his gaze snapped up. "Five! Are you serious? I have seven at home already. This'll make it twelve! Are you even a psychiatrist?"
"What do you want me to do? Your health isn't in great shape, and you are not helping by dropping your medicines! You act like more of a child than Mokuba sometimes," her voice rose, but she was obviously trying to sound as calm as possible. He didn't answer, just stared down at the paper in his hands. The woman looked directly at his blue eyes to see something only few people can see: a shade of sadness.
"Listen, I'm sorry. I shouldn't-"
He looked up at her; his cold gaze made her stop. "No need to apologize, you are just doing your work. Can we delay it to another day? I don't feel like doing it now. Or maybe it will be better if we drop it," he stated in his normal, cold tone. He stood up suddenly, offering a clear 'thanks for today' by way of goodbye. He left without another word.
"Seto, wait!" she called, running after him. He was standing in her living room, wearing his school's navy jacket.
"Doesn't this seem familiar? This same scenario happened seven years ago. You are as stubborn as ever," she said, standing at her office's door with crossed arms.
"You know I'm stubborn, why try to stop me?"
"Because in the end you will know I was right, and you will listen to what I'm telling you and do it," she said, letting a smirk appear on her lips. He took his bag and walked to the door, unfazed. "Well, until then."
"Wait!" he half-turned to see her come to him. When she didn't say anything, he asked. "What?"
"Umm… well, it's kind of… early to go to school now, and…" she began nervously.
"Dr. Akimi, stop acting like my fan girls. State what you want."
"Since you have plenty of time, why don't we sit here and talk," she suggested after letting out a sigh.
"Talk? About what?"
"You know… general topics. Like mother and… son talks."
He froze in place, staring at the woman in disbelief.
'Mother and son… is she in her right mind to say something like that?' He didn't wait another moment. He wanted to simply leave, but he would never be so discourteous to her, no matter how upset he was. He bowed slightly, saying politely, "Excuse me, I have to go." He replaced his shoes and walked out the home, shutting the door after him.
Akimi stood alone in her empty home, placing her right hand on her forehead. "Oh my God... What have I done?"
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xxxxx
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"Hey guys!" the cheerful and childish voice of Yuugi called his friends, who were walking beside the school wall. Jounouchi and Honda looked back to see their tri-color haired friend waving his hand to them, Anzu at his side.
"Good morning everyone," Anzu greeted after they had caught up to them.
"What's wrong with you today? Usually you're in class at this time," Honda asked.
"My grandfather bought some new card collections, Anzu and I were busy helping him organize them," Yuugi explained.
"New card collections! That sounds awesome!" Jounouchi exclaimed.
"Wait until you see it, there are a lot of great cards and some rare ones too. You have to come to the shop after school," Yuugi said.
"Great! This day will be the best!" Jounouchi yelled loudly as they reached the school gate. The students at the gate stopped and looked silently at him, except one.
"What? Haven't you ever seen someone hap-" Jounouchi began, when the one who had ignored his yelling suddenly bumped into him, without bothering to stop or apologize.
"HEY! Look where you're walking, jerk!" Jounouchi shouted.
"Isn't that Kaiba?" Yuugi observed. The four friends stood silently at the entrance, students swirling around them, their gazes fixed on the teen in question until he disappeared inside the building.
"That's… weird," Honda said slowly, not sure if weird was the right word.
"Did he just ignore me?!" Jounouchi demanded, clearly still angry.
"Finally, one of you decides to act mature. No more childish fighting in the morning!" Anzu exclaimed, following with a soft giggle. Honda threw his arm around Jounouchi's neck saying, "Too bad, I'll miss your daily humiliation."
Jounouchi's anger reached its limit. He threw off Honda's arm and marched toward their class. "That's it! I will show that jerk the results of ignoring me!"
"Jounouchi! Wait!" The others followed him to their class, but they were too late, Jounouchi was already standing in front of Kaiba's desk, which was in the last row. The brunette was placing his head in his hands with his elbows on the desk, which was an unusual position for him. Jounouchi apparently didn't notice, or care, for he slapped his hands strongly.
"Hey moneybags! Look at me!" he shouted, but the other teen didn't move.
"Jounouchi, stop!" Yuugi said as he reached them. When he looked at Kaiba, he felt that there was something wrong. "Kaiba, are you ok?"
Placing his hands at his desk, Kaiba looked up at Yuugi with his usual cold eyes. "If I said yes, will you vanish from my sight with your annoying friend?"
"But you don't look ok…" Yuugi said in a lower tone. Kaiba again placed his head in his hands. "Whatever."
"HEY! I'M TALKING HERE!" Jounouchi shouted and pushed Kaiba's shoulder. At that, Kaiba slapped his hands onto the desk angrily and stood up, giving the blond a glare that promised death.
"Don't ever touch me again." he said, dangerously low, making Jounouchi take a step backward.
"I-" Jounouchi tried to speak, but Kaiba cut him off. "And if you didn't get the point yet, I'm ignoring you. Can't I have a peaceful day for change?"
For a second, a sharp pain flared in the left side of his chest. He clutched at it, bracing himself against his desk for support. Luckily for him, the teacher arrived at that same moment, taking the attention of the students. In the sudden commotion, only one person noticed the sudden change in his act.
"Come on class, get to your seats and let me see your homework," The teacher began, pushing the incident out of their minds.
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TBC … Salam :)