Author's Note
This is a fanfiction I'm writing for fun just to pass the time and because I had the story in my head. I never usually write fanfiction but I really wanted to write a Prodigy one as there just aren't many out there and I liked this story. Seto and Rebecca are two of my favourite characters. They have a LOT in common, yet also seem to come across as polar opposites. The story will be told from the perspectives of both Seto and Rebecca over alternating chapters. This gives me (and any readers I might have!) the opportunity to get inside both character's heads and also to cover more base. And because I think writing in first person is more fun than third!
The story in terms of personality and ages, language, setting etc is based on the Japanese because that's the canon for me. However, I'm a huge Eric Stuart fan. At least, his music anyway, so all chapter titles are lines from his songs. Some of them are hilariously apt.
Some of the story will be very dramatic (and terribly over the top). But it's really just for fun. Any comments at all are greatly appreciated! I love the reviews, they seriously make my day!
Chapter 1: Well, That Gypsy Woman Knew Nothing At All
There's something extremely unsettling about planes when you don't own them. I can't be the only one who feels this way. Although logically speaking mass air-transportation is eminently practical, the construct from the viewpoint of the terminally unsociable – bordering on sociopathic, I'm not afraid to admit – is slightly… sickening. It's a sardine can filled with strangers you're forced to eat with, sleep near, converse with at times…and there's no escape.
If I was the anxious type, I might struggle on planes. But I'm not.
As I make my way over to my seat, irritably dumping my briefcase on the floor in front of me, I brood over the fact that I allowed myself to be coerced into taking a commercial jet on such a weak argument.
I know better than anyone that Ishtar's predictions are seldom more than bullshit swathed in the sparkly cloth of her aureate words. I also know better than to get suckered into believing her. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for my gullible idiot of a brother. I used to have such hopes for him before he hit puberty and the blood supply became permanently rerouted away from his brain.
With a frustrated sigh, I pull my laptop out of my briefcase and set it on the shelf in front of me without switching it on, observing my fellow travellers. Mercifully the seat beside me is empty. However, the rest of business class doesn't quite hold the level of sophistication I had secretly crossed my fingers and hoped for.
"I thwear to GOD, Thamuel, if you think I'm eating your mother'th chicken fritatta ever again, you have got another thing coming I am not even kidding, mithter!"
"But Jimmy, baby! You know how happy it makes her!"
"Ah'm awful sorry again abaht your dreyess, sweetie pah. But that stuff does come aht, you know. Hell, ah've managed to get buckets of the stuff outta mah haiyer!"
"I told you, daddy, I don't WANT to go to Disneyland. I want to go to the WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER!"
I would have been fine flying to America privately. I do it quarterly without a hitch. A masochistic bastard am I to endure this just for the sake of placating a boy who is no longer a child, much as he may act like one.
Mokuba swears he had a premonition. One bad dream about the plane crashing and it freaks him out so he goes crying to Ishtar of all people for 'confirmation' – I swear the woman fabricated the whole thing just to see me suffer. She never liked me.
I close my eyes and try to block the others out, concentrating on the fact that at least I can use the twelve hours to get some extra work done on my way over; time I would otherwise have lost if flying there myself. Who said I can't find the silver lining in these things.
Hell, I might even start to see this as being positi-
"HELLO!"
… Oh, fuck, no.
Seriously.
"Is this 12B? It is, isn't it?" The woman in front of me squints at her ticket then peers at the seat number and squeals with glee. Squeals. "Oh good, yes! Well well well, what do you know? Small world! Looks like you and me are sat together Kaiba! What do you make of that?"
"I really don't-"
"Although actually, do you mind moving? Only I really need to be sitting by the window. The lady at the desk didn't give me an option and I was like "excuse me?" but I was in kind of a hurry you know. It's just how I get on planes. It's like a water pistol of vomiting. I mean like a weapon. If I tried, I could aim it-"
And now she's gesturing. Horrified, I stand up and motion for her to get out of my way. She beams at me and slides past me into her seat. The physical contact takes me off guard and makes me feel very uncomfortable. Warily, I sink down into the seat beside her and watch as she moves my laptop over.
"Small world," I echo, not amused. She grins again and tosses her hair over her shoulder. Lighter than I remember it, and a little longer than it was last time I saw her.
"What are you doing here? I didn't know you were back in Japan."
"Nobody did," she shrugged. "I figured it was best to… you know… keep a low profile…" I nodded. The events of three Decembers ago left a nasty taste in a lot of mouths.
I wasn't there but news travels. By all accounts, it was a hilarious spectacle. I'm almost disappointed I missed it.
"Right."
"So Kaiba! How are you? Look at you slumming it with the common people!" She shrieks with laughter and all sympathy I may have had is forgotten. She deserved that slap she got. "How are you with plane etiquette? Do you chat? Do you not chat? It's quite an intimate travelling experience, don't you think?" she murmurs and touches my thigh. I quickly grab her wrist and remove it, giving her the coldest glare I can muster. "Just strapping you in," she said lightly.
"They provide you with headphones on planes. I think that goes some way to suggesting what most people do."
"Touchy."
"They're wonderful devices. They isolate the sound," I pick a pair up and pointedly put them on my head, just in time to hear the end of the pilot's obligatory speech.
"They make your hair look Beiber-esque."
I take them off.
"What do you want, Rebecca? Stop grinning, it's very annoying."
"Careful now, Mr Sunny. Don't want to blind the pilot."
"Still a child, I see."
"Still a miserable asshole, I see."
There's really no response to that. I turn away from her and look out the window on the other side of the plane as it climbs into the air.
"I'm not a child anyway. I turned eighteen not long ago and don't pretend you don't know," she smirks and smoothes her skirt over her thighs. My attention is diverted by the plane jolting around. That's a lot of turbulence for this early on in the flight. Damn commercial pilots can't fly for shit.
"You're right; I cried and burnt all my teddy bears in protest."
"Still as skeptical a bastard as ever." I manage a wry smile in response to this.
"If it ain't broke…"
"Aren't you broken, Kaiba?" She speaks without missing a beat.
"You have nerve, kid. You don't want to go there. It'll give you nightmares and you don't have any mass-produced, soulless, anthropomorphized creature to take your fears away."
All she does is grin and reach into her bag and there it is in all its… ugh, dungareed glory. I shake my head in resignation. There is officially no hope for her. And I heard somewhere that she was supposed to be some sort of prodigy.
"Isn't it time to let go?"
"Why does everybody keep saying that to me?" she shrugs. "Yuugi, Anzu, grandpa, the woman at the shoe store, now you," she raises her eyebrows in mock despair. I believe this is called self-deprecation; an unnecessary conversational device I'd never really understood.
I'm witty.
"Maybe if you took the hint every once in a while, you wouldn't have furious brides trying to pull your hair out and smash your face into cake."
"That never happened! It's a false rumour," she protests vehemently. I don't care, I'm already laughing.
"But she did slap you."
"I didn't know Anzu had such a powerful backhand," she rubs her face.
"You fucked up her wedding day."
"I don't want to talk about this with you."
She's riled up now. Well she wanted to start. I'm sure as hell not stopping now.
"Don't dish it out if you can't take it, little girl." Her jaw becomes rigid. I'm a gentleman; I know when to take my victory and leave. Satisfied, I sit back, put my headphones on and switch on my laptop.
"…still speak to her?" Is she still talking? I ignore her. But Rebecca isn't having this. She grips my arm until I'm forced to face her.
"Anzu?"
She nods.
"Sometimes. Rarely. Obligation." Three words. That's all I can summon. Frankly I don't like talking about Anzu any more than Rebecca does, but if there's anyone she hates more than me, it's the blonde beside me looking like she might cry. "Any necessary correspondence is usually conducted through Jonouchi."
She nods again.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have started…" Apologies. Now this I can't handle. If I have to get emotionally involved less than twenty minutes into this torture, I might as well jump off the plane now and swim there.
"It's fine, Hopkins. For once in your life, let it go. Let's just get through this, shall we? It's a long flight, why don't you take a nap or something?"
"Hopkins, kid, little girl… Kaiba, it's been six years, you can use my first name."
"Go to sleep."
"Say it with me. Rebecca. Re-beck-ah."
"Goo-too-sleeeep."
She giggles and steals my blanket.
"Maybe I wi-"
She's cut off as the plane gives an almighty jolt. I'm thrown forwards and smack my nose on the chair in front of me. Shit, that hurts. I reach up to touch it and my hand comes away red.
"Jesus Christ," Rebecca shrieks and reaches out towards my face. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, stop clawing at it!" We're still jolting around. I clutch the chair in front of me for support and hold my nose with the other. People in the plane are starting to get awfully noisy. Someone is shouting not to panic and to stay in our seats. "I'm going to see what this is about," I say and stand up.
As I do, I'm thrown forwards as the plane jolts again. More screaming. Again, I feel hands clawing at me, pulling at my belt and my shirt. I try to winch them off until I realize who they belong to. She's looking at me with pleading eyes and clearly talking but I can't hear a word she's saying over the racket.
"Let go, Hopkins, I'm going to talk to the pilot. I might be able to offer some assis-" Another huge shudder followed by a loud BANG cuts me off and startles the populace of the plane. There are flight attendants yelling at me to stay in my seat and the oxygen masks are starting to drop down. "I'm going to try and help!" I yell.
"Don't you leave me!" She isn't pleading. She's demanding. "Don't you dare! What if we crash?"
Crash.
"I'm telling you, Seto. I'm sure of it... I can feel it in my heart like it's the most sure thing in the world. If you fly to America, you are going to crash. Big brother, if you care about me at all, you won't do it. You won't fly there yourself. I can't let you take the risk!"
"Shit… Hopkins. Stay here. I have to go to the cockpit."
"NO!" She's clinging on like a god damn limpet. How can I make her understand without sounding hypocritical… or crazy. "You can't just walk off and leave me here! What do I do?"
I think fast. We're on a Minakami flight. Minakami have a security hatch that can be activated if the plane is at under ten thousand feet… it has a code and I might be able to hack it.
"Find a rope and a flotation ring and stand by the nearest emergency door. I'll come back to you, I promise."
Before she can say another word, I extricate myself from her and force my way through towards the cockpit.
Author's (lol) Note
There was a reference in here, and I don't mean the chapter title XD Who got it?
So there it is, the first full chapter. They'll probably get longer.
If anybody read that, thank you. I would seriously appreciate any and all comments on this, no matter how small they are! Just don't comment on any inaccuracies about the plane... My research was extensive but I learnt nothing. In the end I figured I'd make up my own rules.