~O~
Silky locks of hair that gleamed like the light of the moon caressed the CEO's face. His lips curved into a smile, something that the world seldom saw him do, and he took in the scent of her hair. The aroma was unique, like nothing he had encountered before, and yet, its familiarity brought him great joy. When he tried to place what the scent reminded him of, he could only think of one thing; sand.
Sand? he thought to himself. Why would the smell of sand evoke these emotions within him? He began to wonder if seeing this mystery woman's face would explain the questions that plagued him, but when he brushed away her hair, he could not see her face. A haze shielded her features from him, denying him any answers. Kaiba, taken aback, drew away and tried to make sense of what was happening. "Who are you?" he asked, his voice booming with the same authority he used to command his employees. But the woman seemed unbothered by his order.
She tilted her head to the side, her silver-hair falling in cascades from her shoulders. "Tell me!" Kaiba demanded. Then, through the haze that hid her face from his sight, a brilliant blue light erupted from behind her and consumed them both. That was when Kaiba finally woke from the grip of his dream. He sat upright in his bed, breathing heavily from the shock of the dream. Sweat ran down the nape of his neck, plastering his brown hair to his skin. Kaiba ran his hands through his hair and swore under his breath. "That damn dream again," he muttered.
He swung his legs out from the bed and planted his feet onto the cold wooden floor below. He then pushed himself from the bed and walked through the dark to his bathroom, where he ran cool water from the faucet and washed the sweat from his face and neck. Once he had dried off, he glanced up at his reflection in the mirror. Dark circles, formed from lack of sleep and stress, surrounded his eyes. Others at the office had begun to notice the physical manifestations of his stress, but that's all they alluded them to; stress.
Nobody else knew of the strange dreams he had been having as of late, and he intended to keep it that way. After all, what would his employees think of him if they knew that the CEO of KaibaCorp was kept awake in the middle of the night with dreams of some silver-haired woman? Last thing Kaiba needed was rumors and speculation going around. Frustrated, he tossed the damp towel on the floor of the bathroom, knowing that the cleaning personnel would get it in the morning. He then returned to his bed and laid down in exhausted. All I ask for is a single night without that damn dream.
Kaiba pressed the heels of his hands into his sleep-ridden eyes and growled. The dreams had started a little over a month ago, shortly after being exposed to the hieroglyphic carvings at the museum. He hadn't said anything to Ishizu at the time, but something had flipped a switch within him upon seeing those carvings. The dreams had started that night, and every one of them seemed to involve that mystery woman.
At first, he hadn't been able to make heads or tails of the dreams; he only knew that the person was a woman. But as the dreams continued, more details came into focus. He had been able to tell her height and body build. Shortly after that, he was able to see that her skin was oddly pale. Now, he was able to see, feel, and smell her hair, but her face was still shrouded deep in mystery. Kaiba wanted to see her face in hopes that it would put an end to the dreams and stop his restless nights. There was also the natural curiosity that had built up within him; he had been seeing only glimpses of this woman for a while now, so he felt entitled to at least know what her face looked like.
However, Kaiba couldn't shake the nagging feeling that there was so much more to these dreams. It was a hard reality for him to face, seeing as he wasn't one to fall for superstitions, but he just knew there had to be a reason behind all of this. Kaiba removed his hands from his eyes and glanced over at the alarm clock beside his bed. It read 5:15 in the morning. He signed, knowing there was no point in trying to go back to sleep, for his alarm would only go off within the hour. So, he climbed back out of his bed and proceeded to gather his chosen attire for the day.
Once he was finished getting dressed, he quietly left his room and made his way down the halls until he reached the kitchen. The place that he and Mokuba called home was definitely larger than what the two of them needed in order to live, but as the head of a major company, Kaiba had to make sure to live up to the expectations placed before somebody of his status. Honestly, he probably would have been just as content in an average-sized home, as would Mokuba. The only difference is that it would feel less empty at times. That was the only qualm Kaiba had about their mansion; it was too damn empty and quiet in the morning.
As the day progressed and staff came and went, it felt a bit livelier, but he seldom got to experience that kind of atmosphere because he was always gone so early. By the time he would return home, most of the staff was gone, leaving just him and Mokuba. While in the kitchen, Kaiba lurked around for something quick to eat, which was another rarity for him. Since he was always so rushed in the mornings, he seldom had time to grab something to eat before leaving out. Usually his first meal of the day was around lunchtime. So, being that he had gotten ready early, he decided to delve in the rare ritual of enjoying breakfast. After a bit of searching, he opted for a piece of fruit; just because he had a little time didn't mean he had enough time for a whole meal.
So, with breakfast in hand, Kaiba made his way to the front door, picking up his briefcase as he passed by. But as he reached for the doorknob, he stopped when he heard his name being called. "Leaving early again, Seto?" Mokuba's tired voice asked. Kaiba glanced over his shoulder at his little brother and smiled. "Yeah, I decided to get another early start. Get more work done that way, you know? Now, go back to bed and get some more sleep." Mokuba rubbed the sleep from his eyes and said with a yawn, "Alright, see you later." He then vanished back down the hallway, leaving Kaiba to swear under his breath.
He hadn't told Mokuba about to dreams that had been plaguing him for the past month, or how the dreams had been stealing away sleep from him, either. Kaiba just didn't feel like that was something that he needed to trouble his little brother with; the kid already worried about the CEO enough as it was. With a sigh, Kaiba continued on his way to work, knowing that, despite getting an early start, he would get little done as long as that dream lingered in the back of his mind.
~O~
The CEO laid his briefcase on his office desk and sat down his chair; he was amazed how comfortable that chair could be when he was exhausted. Kaiba glanced at the surface of his desk and narrowed his eyes at the stack of paperwork waiting to be done. "It can wait till later," he muttered and pushed it to the side. Whatever the paperwork was for wasn't urgent. If it had been, then one of the secretaries would have placed a note on the stack, or they would have sent it to someone else in the building who could do it in a timely manner. With the papers out of the way, Kaiba picked up the receiver of his phone and waited for his secretary to answer. "Yes, Sir?" she asked.
Kaiba cleared his throat and said, "Send me an email with a list of everything that needs to be attended to today." He could hear her typing away at the keys of her computer. "Right away, Sir," she replied. Kaiba thanked her and placed the phone back on the receiver. Not a moment later, his computer chimed with a notification for a new email; his secretaries were most definitely efficient in their line of work. The CEO opened the unread file and scanned over the list. It was a short list compared to what he normally dealt with, but it definitely wasn't a list that would be finished quickly.
Most of the contents of it pertained to the upcoming tournament he planned to hold in the city. It was the basic stuff; permits, permission, event planning, approval of schedules, formulating rules, and so on. From personal experience, he knew that getting the permits and settling on a solid schedule would be the most time-consuming tasks on the list, only because the city was fickle in handing out permits; if they didn't feel it to be of major importance, they usually put it on the back-burner. But this was Seto Kaiba, CEO of KaibaCorp, who had brought in more revenue to the city in the past two years than any other corporation currently running.
If they city pushed him aside, then they would most definitely hear from him. As for the schedule, it would only be a pain because the idea of the tournament was still in its infancy. He still had many details to sort through and things to tweak. Kaiba could already feel his head starting to hurt from the impending stress. He reached down to the drawer of his desk for his bottle of Tylenol, but as he bent over, blinding pain shot through his skull. Cursing aloud as he clutched the sides of his head, Kaiba struggled to get to his feet. But as he stood up, the pain only intensified.
He grabbed onto the corner of his desk to catch himself, but his legs, suddenly weak, buckled beneath his weight. He sat there, knelt beside his desk, and clenched his teeth as the pain assaulted him. His eyes were shut tight, but flashes of light radiated behind the blackness of his eyelids. Something strange was happening, though. With each flash he saw something more than just light; he saw the silhouette of something. The brightness made it difficult to make anything out of what he was seeing, but he was able to tell that what he was seeing was most definitely two people, one a man, the other a woman.
The man stood above the woman, who laid motionless on the ground. That was all Kaiba could distinguish before the pain suddenly released its grip on him, leaving him disoriented and nauseous. Feeling sick, he reached for the nearest wastebasket and brought it close to him in case his stomach decided to rid itself of its contents. He never did throw up, but the sudden pain still left him disoriented, even to the point that, when one of the assistants entered the office, he didn't even notice them; he was too out of it and taken aback by what he saw. Were the dreams starting to bleed into his reality, too?
The assistant, a young, unpaid lad, knelt down beside the CEO and asked frantically, "Mr. Kaiba, are you alright? Should I call for somebody?" Kaiba, head still throbbing from the sudden episode, slapped away the young assistant and snapped, "I would be a lot better if you stepped away from me." The assistant, obviously afraid of his job being terminated, stepped away from the CEO and held his hands up defensively. Kaiba then tried to get back to his feet, only to have the room spin around him. He held onto the desk and swore. "Sir, maybe you should go to the hospital. You don't look well," the assistant suggested, his voice trembling with nervousness.
Kaiba shot the intern a glance and said, "There's no need for all of that. I'm simply overworked…Tell the secretaries I'm taking the day off to catch up on some rest. I'll finish up my work early tomorrow morning. Also get them to send my driver over." The assistant nodded and hurried out of the office. Now alone, Kaiba propped his weakened body against his desk and growled in frustration; he wasn't one to admit defeat so easily, so this was degrading to him. Not only that, but a lowly assistant had found him in such a vulnerable state.
The CEO had an image to uphold, and being found hunched over a wastebasket by an intern and too weak to stand seriously made his image look bad. He stood there against his desk for several minutes before one of the secretaries paged him to inform him that his driver had arrived. Kaiba, ever-so grateful to get out of that office, grabbed his briefcase and hurried to the elevator, making sure not to push himself too hard, just on the off-chance that he had another episode like the one he had shortly before.
Thankfully, the pain didn't return, and he climbed into the backseat of the limo that waited for him outside of KaibaCorp. "Where to, Sir?" the driver asked. Kaiba leaned his head against the window, closed his eyes, and said with his usual authority, "Take me back home. Now." The driver simply nodded, and soon, the car began to accelerate.
Story title based off the song Memories by Panic! At The Disco. So, I'm not really new to fanfiction, but I am new to writing in this fandom, and I have grown rather bored of writing in the fandom that I have called home for so many years, so I hope to make a bit of a name for myself in others. As it is kind of obvious in this chapter, I am a Blueshipper. I have watched the first two seasons of Yu-Gi-Oh and have a general knowledge of the remaining seasons, even though I have yet to watch them (I stopped watching shortly after season two). But I do know a bit of Seto's past with Kisara and their whole story, so I'm going to try and allude to it as much as I can (my apologies if some of my references/facts in the story are off, but it has been YEARS since I last watched any of the show). But I do hope that this first chapter is up to this fandom's standards, so please do read, review, and other things! ~Copperpelt~