Ambitions From the Heart

Written by: TheDemonHuntress

Chapter 1: A Secret Unravels

Dueling was my game. A game of domination, but also one for revealing one's weaknesses. Each and every duel was different; such was they way with duelists as well. As for strategies? They, too, reflected the style of the duelist.

After the defeat of Marik, I truly saw what a game of domination was. He had my friends bent to his will, especially Yugi. Only because I knew that Yugi would do anything for us was why he was a favorite target of Marik's.

Yugi was a true duelist. He was true to his cause, his heart, and to us, his friends. And for that, he had been led on by Marik throughout the Battle City Finals.

But at last, through all of our efforts, the evil was vanquished from Marik. Even Kaiba had helped, who I once thought to be too 'high and mighty' to help anyone.

True, even Kaiba had changed. The immensely handsome 17-year old had lightened up a bit, straying from his selfish ways for as much as a moment. He still secluded himself from us, but the more that he did, the more that I felt myself attracted to the heartless duelist.

"WHAT?!" Mai nearly screamed as I told her this. "No, no, Belinda… You are not falling for that freak!"

"Shush!" I covered Mai's mouth as she continued to struggle. "And it's not really anything! He's just cute, that's all…"

"Tea-" Mai began, but thought better of it. Tea came over anyhow, from another table in the café that the whole gang was at.

"Yea, Mai?" Tea asked uncertainly.

"I think our friend here is confused… she claims to be falling for Mr. Freak…"

"Mai!" I shouted. "I am not falling in love with him!"

I looked over at Tea exasperatingly. "I told Mai-" I glared at her, "-that I thought Kaiba was cute."

Something told me that Tea felt exactly the same way as Mai about this. But I knew that 'friendship girl' was not about to exactly hurt my feelings.

"That's great!" Tea said a bit too enthusiastically. But her tone suddenly changed: "Great to like a jerk…"

I was shocked, almost angry that my friends could not understand that I only thought of Kaiba as being cute.

"GUYS, I DO NOT LIKE HIM!" That was enough to make several heads turn, not to mention Joey Wheeler's. I smiled uneasily as I heard an old lady mutter, "Young love, I guess…"

"Sorry…" Mai mumbled. "Just makes for… interesting news!" And with that, she and Tea dashed off to Yugi's table, with no doubt on my mind about what they were off to do. I could not believe it.

I would've rushed after them, if only Mr. CEO-of-his-own-company didn't show up at that exact moment. No, of course, he wasn't going to sit down and have a cup of coffee. He had better things to do than that. But he just passed by on the street, carrying a briefcase with him and his little brother Mokuba following him. He looked so divine in his flashy silver trench coat with all black underneath. His hair was cut short in the back, but in the front it fell as bangs that gently shaded his eyes. The only thing missing from him was that dueling disk that everyone had worn for so long during Battle City. Obviously, he would be working on a new prototype by now…

My eyes followed him down the street as his trench coat billowed out from behind him. No matter how attractive he was, I also couldn't forget about how he was cold-hearted. He had a heart of ice, that is. Devoid of all emotions, he did only things that would benefit either himself or his brother, who was the only being that he cared about. Still, I found myself dangerously attracted by his extremely good looks.

As Kaiba passed out of my sight, I returned to the real world. Seeing that I was alone at my table, I decided to go over to Yugi's table to find out what damage Mai and Tea had already done.

As I sat down at the table, I realized how unnaturally quiet it was. Joey was always talking about how he would defeat Kaiba in a duel someday. Yugi was always telling him to calm down. And Tristan was always talking about Serenity. So right now, quiet was not an option.

"Guys…" I began, "It's okay…"

"Actually, it's not…" Mai said, "You're falling for some freak that doesn't care about anything!"

As if that was anything new. I looked over at Yugi, who looked confused and unsure about what to say. It would probably be better if he didn't say anything at all, I thought.

Joey looked sheepish. "We're talkin' about Moneybags, Belinda. How can ya even think anythin' about tha rich boy when he doesn't care for anythin'?"

"Look, I don't know!" I said. "I just think that he's cute."

Both Joey and Tristan's eyes popped out. Then they turned their backs and laughed hysterically. But after a few moments, Tristan asked, "Wait… you're serious?"

I sighed and put my head down on the table. "No, I'm lying," I muttered.

"What about you, Yugi?" Mai asked. "Any comments?"

I hated to see Yugi put in such an uncomfortable spot, especially when no one's opinion really mattered to me anymore. Yugi simply shook his head, and I was grateful.

"So what diya guys wanna do?" Joey asked, breaking the silence. "Wanna go down to Duelist Corner?"

A hearty approval followed, and we were whisked away to a designated area in Domino City where duelists from anywhere met to show their stuff.

We all met at the water fountain and decided to meet back in an hour or so. Yugi and Tristan went off with Joey, who looked to be dancing a new 'dance of pride'.

"Are you guys going to tag along or what?" I asked Tea and Mai.

"You go by yourself," Mai replied. "We've got some unfinished business to settle…" She and Tea walked off towards Rex Raptor, whom they were obviously looking for. As soon as Mai approached him, hearts sprouted from his eyes, and I sighed, as I knew that he was going to lose because of that.

As for me, I found myself alone for a while. I wasn't quite looking for a duel, so I just found myself sitting on a bench outside Yugi's grandfather's shop.

And I saw him again. Kaiba was with Mokuba again, only this time they were looking into Kaiba's briefcase not too far away from me. I caught Mokuba's look of delight as he saw me watching him. I had always been fond of the little kid who, despite his brother's influence, had a big heart. He looked away as he talked to his brother for a while about something possibly having to do with me. I saw Kaiba glare at me with those icy eyes. The gaze was so penetrating that I almost wanted to look away. The two talked a bit more, until it looked as if Kaiba gave in and Mokuba came over to me.

"Hey there," I greeted him.

"Hey!" he said. "My big brother has something to show ya!"

This I was surprised about. I half didn't believe him, but I let the little guy lead me to his brother, who did not look pleased at all with the prospect.

Kaiba maintained his favorite emotionless expression as I stood before him. It actually was the closest that I had ever been to him, after all of these months.

"Show her your new prototype, Seto!" Mokuba exclaimed. Sometimes I wondered how anyone around Kaiba could cheer him up. But it was hard to not like the fun, cute personality of Mokuba.

"You're gonna like it a lot!" Mokuba added as his eyes lit up when his brother reached over to his briefcase.

As for myself, I didn't know if I belonged here right now. In fact, if it weren't for my friendship with Mokuba, I would have surely not appeared here before Mr. President.

"It's the latest revolution in dueling technology," Kaiba announced, and I could actually sense a swelling of pride in his voice. "I call it the DuelPort."

He removed a sort of machine from his briefcase. It looked to be a rectangle; only I saw hinges on it that probably would fold out to become something larger.

"The DuelPort is smaller than the duel disk, for transportation efficiency," Kaiba droned on in his cold voice. "The hologram projectors shoot out from the sides-" He pushed a button, and two projectors flew out from two sides, coming to rest on the ground far way.

"You place your deck in this compartment-" He pushed a green button labeled 'Load' and looked up at me.

He wants my deck, I thought. I reluctantly handed it to him, and he placed it in the machine, where it was automatically shuffled.

"In case you might misplace a card, there is a scanning system to record the cards in your deck. Since there is no way to have more or less that 60 cards in your deck, the system will only record your current deck until you update it." He took the top card of my deck and found it to be Kuriboh. He sneered, and then scanned it into the system.

"During a duel, your opponent's playing field and life points will be shown on this screen-" he flipped up the screen which showed a Kuriboh card, "and your cards are put on the bottom surface."

"So whadaya think?" Mokuba piped up, clearly impressed by his big brother's work.

Kaiba's new system really did blow me away. It was simple to use, and it was small enough to transport anywhere.

"It's great!" I smiled and looked at Kaiba, only to see him return a smirk. I narrowed my eyes.

"Yea! It's gonna be the best!" Mokuba continued on enthusiastically. "My big brother always makes the best things!"

Kaiba actually smiled as he ruffled his little brother's hair. "C'mon, let's go, Mokuba."

He stood up and returned my deck to me. "I thank you for your time, but it wasn't needed," he said in any icy tone.

And with that, he took up his briefcase with Mokuba following him, who was oblivious to his brother's cold remark.

I almost felt broken after hearing that… if only Kaiba hadn't stolen a piece of my heart with him when he walked away.

Please review! Chapter Two is coming up in a few days!