Name: I Want To Reach You

Author: Novalee Sims

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything but the clothes on my back and my plushy collection. Don't sue me, 'cause you're not getting my Seto-Chan.

The song played softly from the radio.

I want to reach you.

When did the road become

So long and narrow?

"Look, big brother! A shooting star!" Mokuba hopped around excitedly. "Let's make a wish! Pleeeeeease!"

Seto Kaiba, first class dualist and genius prodigy, owner of Kaiba Corp. International, rolled his eyes.

"Please, Seto, please!" The infamous little- brother-pout.

"I wouldn't know what to wish for." And it was true. "I don't wish for things to happen. I make things happen. You know that."

"Yeah, but... Think of something that you can't do." Mokuba pulled him over to the picture window by the tail of his coat. "Something impossible."

"If something is impossible, what's the use of thinking about it?"

But Seto's younger brother already had his eyes shut tight and his nose wrinkled up in concentration.

"Fine." If it meant that much to him, Seto would give it a try.

What to wish for... Not money. No, they had plenty of that. Maybe, power? But he could get that for himself.

Something impossible.

I want...

'I want...'

...to reach you.

'I want to be reached. For just one moment, to be really touched.'

An impossible wish...

Across town, Anzu Mazaki dangled her feet out of her bedroom window, singing along with her radio.

"Hey!" She exclaimed, out loud. "A shooting star."

Closing her eyes, she got ready to make her wish.

I want to reach you.

"There are so many hurting people in the world. I wish that I could reach just one person. If I could help just one person... That's my wish."

Legend has it that, if two people make corresponding wishes at the same time and truly mean them, they are tied by fate. They are connected by an unbreakable bond. And no wish they make together is impossible.

Anzu glanced across the classroom at Seto Kaiba. Something seemed different about him today. Somehow, she almost cried looking at him. Without looking or acting any differently, to Anzu he seemed so... sad?

"Hey, Kaiba?" This was a mistake. Waiting for him was a mistake. Even thinking of talking to him was a mistake. "Are you okay?"

He glanced up from his laptop for a moment and then went back to typing.

"Fine." He said apathetically.

"I just thought... I don't know. You looked kinda upset, maybe. I guess maybe not, though. Sorry."

Wow, she had really messed up on that one. But Kaiba was so hard to read. No one could tell what he felt. She had misinterpreted his emotions. Again.

As she began to walk away, she was surprised to hear his voice from behind her.

"Back in Dualist Kingdom," He shut the laptop and began to gather his things. "You asked me something."

He stood, preparing to leave, not looking at her.

"'What do you have at the end of the day?'"

Anzu nodded. Yes, of course she remembered. Once again, she had mistaken Kaiba's emotions. She'd misread him again, that time.

"The answer I gave you, that hasn't changed. I have everything I need. But, you see, I don't think you understood me."

She never did.

"In the end, I have everything. And... I have nothing."

And he was gone.

I want....

Seto rubbed the bridge of his nose.

'I'm losing my mind.'

What had possessed him? To tell Mazaki something personal, it was insanity. It was suicide. Everything he had been working for, the image he had always strived for would be dashed to pieces!

Had he really meant what he'd said? He didn't know.

When did everything become too little? He had a multimillion dollar company, more money than he would ever need, a little brother who loved him, and... What else?

There wasn't anything else. Should there be? Seto felt like he was missing something. But what else was there?

'Nothing.' He decided.

Everything and nothing.

The young CEO shook his head and went back to his paperwork.

...to reach you.

One week passed, then two. The days continued to round up. Finally, Anzu couldn't take it anymore.

She had been meaning to talk to Kaiba. She really had. She had just been so busy, with dance class and reports and projects....

Or maybe she had just been afraid.

Sitting alone with him, on a stairwell in a back hallway, she was very, very afraid.

"Do you...? I mean, what...?" She continued to babble on and on, as he merely stared at her, looking bored.

Was he really bored though? It was natural to be curious, so why was he acting as if he didn't care? Why did he insist on being devoid of basic human emotions?

"What are you thinking, Kaiba?"

He seemed to be a bit surprised by the question.

"Nothing. Why?"

Anzu shook her head.

"You have to be thinking something. You're a genius, aren't you supposed to always be thinking?" She cocked her head to the side. "What are you thinking about, Kaiba?"

It surprised both of them when he answered truthfully.

"I'm thinking that, if I'm not careful, Mokuba will end up just like this. Sitting with someone and having absolutely nothing to say to them. No way to relate to them. Completely alone and surrounded by people."

"Are you really alone?"

He smiled wryly.

"Always."

When did the road...

Kaiba continued to speak with her. While summer became autumn, he started looking for flashes of brown and pink. He didn't really like her, particularly. Only, it felt as if she understood somehow.

They would simply see each other, sit down on a bench or at a table, and she would talk. He never did hold conversations with her, just a yes or a no, usually. Sometimes she didn't talk either, and they would sit there in silence. It wasn't an awkward silence, though. It was like taking a rest... when she was near.

Seeing her walking with her friends, it surprised him to note that she was completely unremarkable. Brown hair, blue eyes, long legs, large chest; nothing she possessed wasn't owned by countless other girls. She was perfectly normal.

But she had the ability to draw him in. Whatever she possessed, it was something he wanted badly.

Maybe normality was just what he needed.

...become so...

Anzu would never remember quite how they had ended up sitting so closely together on the park bench. She could never recall exactly when his lips pressed against hers, or what she had said directly before.

But she would always remember that Seto Kaiba tasted like cinnamon and that his palm fit perfectly, wrapped around her neck. She wouldn't forget that his hair had been even thicker than it appeared and that she had wanted to tangle her fingers in it and never let go. That he smelled like pine trees. She couldn't forget the way his lips had lingered on hers, cold on warm, ice on fire.

And, no matter how hard she tried, Anzu would never forget the look on his face directly afterwards, before she had uttered those accursed words. With snow whirling around them and her face nestled in his shoulder, she had said the worst thing possible.

"I love you."

... long and narrow?

He sat out in the cold, on that same bench. Maybe he had been waiting for her. Maybe it was a coincidence.

"Hey." Anzu said softly, shyly even.

His breath came out in icy clouds.

"You know, I don't need you."

His face was like stone. His eyes hard and cold as ice, couldn't fix themselves on hers. If they did, he was sure her warmth would melt them into flowing pools of emotion. Emotion he couldn't feel.

"I don't need you and I don't need your pity."

She looked as if he'd slapped her.

"W-What?"

"You expect something from me. Something I can't give you."

She stood still, with her hand pressed to her heart. It was physically hurting her, as if his words had stabbed her.

"You want me to love you, I think. You expect me to care for you." He lifted his eyes to her for a second, and then quickly looked away. "If you do, then... You don't know me at all."

"That's not true." Tears began to run down her face. "All I want... Is to be with you. I just want to help."

He turned to leave.

"Sorry. But I don't need your help." It came out as it was meant to. Heartless.

She wiped her eyes and stood up straight, speaking to his retreating back.

"I think you do. And, when you're ready to admit it, just know. I'm always here for you."

He paused for a moment, but continued on.

"I'll be waiting."

"Hey Seto? Wanna make a wish?"

Was it that time of year already?

"I'm busy, Mokuba."

The youngest Kaiba looked shocked.

"To busy to make a wish?" He asked incredulously.

After much prodding, Seto finally agreed.

Standing on the balcony and starring at the sky, with the radio blaring in the next room, he knew what to wish for. This time, Kaiba knew.

'I want...'

Across town, nestled in a lawn chair and wearing headphones, Anzu Mazaki looked up.

"What do you know? A shooting star." She thumbed the volume up on her Walkman. "Imagine that."

'Okay then. I want....'

"And now, a chart topper from yesteryear for all of you fans out there."

I want to reach you.

When did the road become so

Long and narrow.

'I just want to reach you.' 'I just want to reach you.'

Hmm.... That was... hmm....

I liked it. I've never really written anything like that before. It was kinda fun. Actually, it was really fun.

So, what do you think? Don't quite my day job? Review and tell me!

Oh. And I got the song line "I want to reach you..." from Volume One of Kare Kano. Originally it said, "when did the road get so..." But I changed it to "become". I was just walking along and humming how I think the tune would go (haven't seen the anime) and this idea popped out.

I love it when they do that. I think I'll plug shamelessly for reviews now!