A/N: I felt like I owe something this Valentines. Well, considering that Beneath the Heedless Moon was a Halloween-themed fic conceptualized last Christmas, I'm way off by seasons. So I assumed that holiday specials were impossible for me. Possibly not this time?
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! trademark is the copyright of Kazuki Takahashi, Hatsune Miku of Crypton Future Media, and Ochiba to Waltz o of ichiP.
Theme #3:
A Trap Sealed by the Warmth of Leaves
Inspired by Hatsune Miku's Ochiba to Waltz o
Kaiba cleared his throat at Shizuka. "Why am I here?"
She smiled at him, "No reason. I just wanted some company." Kaiba heard leaves crushing beneath her boots as she approached him, eyeglasses in hand. He shut his eyes as she hooked the glasses around his ears. She clapped her hands together. "I'll never get used to seeing you like that."
Kaiba wanted to argue that Shizuka should take them off, but his conscience was against it. Shizuka annoyed him, but she had never antagonized him by word or action. Her views weren't different from Mazaki and Jounouchi, but despite being similar to Yuugi, Kaiba still considered her…unique.
Feigning sensitivity, Kaiba offered Shizuka his elbow, and she held the crook in her hand. It wasn't new; Kaiba had frequently been chosen as an escort within corporate parties. But he enjoyed them less that with Shizuka. There was nothing different in how he treated any of these girls…well, except maybe after he'd warmed up to Shizuka after the earlier meetings he'd had with her…
Kaiba took notice of the road, lined with trees, and winds pulled on their twigs and broke off their leaves, scattering everywhere and laying a thick carpet for them to walk over. He hated socializing at such glamorous parties, but this organic carpet could not remind him of them. "Where will you take me now?" he asked.
"Just a stroll. You know that we can't be seen in the city streets. It's too risky for you."
Kaiba raised his brows, "And since when were you interested in my well-being?"
"If I weren't, I wouldn't choose to spend time with you like this." Before he could argue, Shizuka continued, "I said I wanted to be with you today, and you chose to be with me today. If I got the wrong idea, then that's fine. I can go with anyone else. I won't be lonely."
"Tch." Kaiba realigned his glasses to fit his nose. "I'm not saying that it was the wrong choice—or the right one—but why'd you pick me?"
Shizuka shrugged, "I just did. Or rather, I don't want you to see me in a bad way."
Kaiba paused, "…Bad?"
Shizuka released his elbow. "Well, you were always picking on my brother. And I understand that he wants to get even because you're always putting him down…" she looked up at him, "but I won't. I think you were just affected by how you were raised. You were done so with a strict dad…while I was separated from mine."
She took Kaiba's hands. "I don't see you the way my brother or his friends do. You're not some rival or hassle or, to yourself, even a corporal big shot."
Kaiba, a man of pride, began to wonder: Shizuka had crossed out everybody else's impressions of him. He clasped her shoulders, "Then, how do you see me?"
"Another person introduced to me by my friends," she answered bluntly, "but if they have the nerve to introduce you to me, then that means there's some good in you."
Kaiba erased his supposedly well thought-out script and reacted blankly. He examined the road. There was barely any hardened asphalt visible underneath the sheet of leaves, while more floated in groups as the breeze came from all directions.
He offered Shizuka her hand. "Would you like a dance?" A voice from the back of his mind said You idiot! Take it back! but his pride relented. He was never going back. Always forward. It was a talent he had always harbored…something nobody else had recognized.
To his surprise, she accepted it. He sheepishly thought of reconsidering when Shizuka said, "It's a first step."
And she led him away from the road and into the trees, where more and more leaves where ready to conceal them from people who would not bother…and who could not.