S o m e t h i n g Borrowed,
Something Blue
JoeyXMai - 'Competitive Couple';
SetoXSeren - 'Contrasting Couple'
YugiXTea - 'Classic Couple'
Don't ask why they all start with "c"...
Chapter 1: It's Hard Being Seto's Girlfriend
Domino University. In the fall, leaves, crispy brown leaves littered the ground of brown and tan cobblestones, blowing and gathering on tops of the huge brick buildings and upon the acid-rain green roofs.
There we can see a trio, two guys and a girl, all with different-colored, same-length hair. The tall blond guy said something to the shorter, auburn-haired girl; and she clapped her hands together rapidly twice, before throwing her arms around him,her eldest brother.
"Joey, that's wonderful news!" Her light exclaim of delight sent students looking over as they passed by, armed with textbooks, paper and pens, like Yugi, Joey and Serenity were.
The second guy with his long ebony, black hair in a ponytail, watched, envy mixed with skepticism at his two friends hugging. But he wasn't the only one -looking on, that is.
I guess Joey told Serenity about him proposing to... Mai. A third guy slowly shuffled closer, feet dragging and hands in his leather clad pockets, awaiting for the others to take notice but not offering a greeting..
"Hey, Yuge," Joey greeted him, taking note first. Serenity looked startled, then she smiled in welcome at her brother's best friend, while Duke nodded to him. "I just tol' my sis, the news! At least, she's the only one happy fer me." He looked pointedly at his two friends.
Yugi smiled faintly. "Greeeaaattt..."
"But you didn't tell her how you expect to propose," Duke pointed out, twirling his hair, eyeing Serenity. She had gotten prettier as if that were even possible at 17, nearly eighteen years of age, even in her light blue windbreaker jacket and blue jeans. She'd recently cut her long reddish hair to "mid-armpit", as her sweetly-crude brother liked to call it, instead of waist length; making her have a sophisticated air. In contrast, her brother had grown out his sandy-colored hair to nearly to same length but not exactly alike.
"How, how will you do it, bro?" Serenity's dark doe-shaped eyes sparkled with excitement, and she was practically jumping around in excitement and anticipation. Her looks and enthusiasm for the crazy life landed her one of the richest men in the world.
"Hol' up, I gotta eat first." They all started heading to a café on campus, but it was obvious Serenity couldn't wait that long to hear how he was going to do it. "Okay, okay sis, I'll tell ya...!"
His dark hazel eyes sparkled, looking much like his sister's were, as he held both hands up expertly. "Picture it, if ya will: a romantic moonlight." Duke made a big show of coughing loudly. "Water. Sand. A-and ...dat's about asfar as I got," he admitted sheepishly with a slight shrug of his broad shoulder. "But I'm thinkin' 'bout rentin' one 'o those planes with da banner, y'know, saying, 'Will you marry me?', like, in the movies?"
A girl, on her way to the other side, stopped, in front of him, and scoffed. "As if!" Then left.
"Gr-r, not you!" Joey growled, waving a fist at her diminishing back, ignoring Duke's snickers. Or, actually, trying but failing to ignore Duke's laughing and making a menacing 'come here' gesture. Duke took the hint and donned a perfectly serious face, cutting out his making-fun.
"Oh-h, Joey, that's sounds sooooo rrrromantic! She wouldn't be able to resist!" Serenity eyes shone, picturing it. "I know it!"
Yugi smiled a little and spoke for the first time. Out of the three--Joey, Duke, and himself--- he was the only one who supported the Serenity and Kaiba match. "Would you say yes if Kaiba asked you like that….?"
Serenity blushed at the personal question, while the other two scowled at the floor. "Um…w-well, it's hard to say," she hedged, scuffing her toe shyly at the tiled restaurant's floor they just entered.
They sat down and changed the subject back to the upcoming wedding, sinceJoey tolerated his sister's relationship with her boyfriend like he "tolerated" relentless schooltime and he "tolerated" passing a kidney stone. "I sure hafta save my dough up to afford…..everything," he said, referring to the cake, the wedding, the plane, the honeymoon…It seemed like a lot.
Duke said scornfully, "Duh-h! like, your girlfriend's rich or have you forgotten?"
"I know, but I wanna pay fer it myself." Joey held up a hand as Serenity opened her mouth. "Before you say anythin', sis, no, I'm not accepting any money from you OR yo' boyfriend. Period."
"But….But……it wouldn't be from him, per se," she said carefully, using her law classes in diplomacy. "I-I mean, I'd be the one writing you a check---"
"Datchu got from his big fat bank account," he finished, eye twitching. "Fact is, sis, you don't work."
Serenity was hurt by his remark. Who fixed his dinner, did his laundry, cleaned his room? "Well…maybe I will get a job, then, to help you out."
"Naw, ferget I said dat, sis," he patted her head fondly, "I appreciate everyding you do fer me already. You don't need to get a job."
"But I want to help you," she said earnestly with her pink fingertips on the tabletop.
"Awwwww….." He was interrupted by his ringtone of his cellphone. "Hello? Oh, hey Mai," he said warmly as Duke started making lovey dovey eyes and mouthing his words back, while Serenity and Yugi focused on their food. "Yeah….yeah….so how was your trip?" The food arrived, but Joey just turned away and continued to talk. Serenity and Yugi exchanged glances. Joey give up food? He really must be in love.
"He wants to know something," Duke was shouting into the phone.
Serenity looked up in alarm.
The proposal was a secret!
Duke grinned maliciously. "He wants to know what you're wearing underneath your-----" There was a scuffle, then he ended up in a heap on the ground. Ow.
"I don't get it," Serenity murmured to Yugi who seemed to be staring into space. Yugi was taller, finally achieving that growth spurt, yet still slender about 5'11''.
"So….what ARE you wearing?" Joey grinned into the phone, stepping on Duke triumphantly with his sneaker.
Later
"You really shouldn't tease Joey like that," Serenity chided, putting another bandage where Duke took a trip to the nurse's office. "he's very stressed out…..I hope he doesn't overwork himself."
"Humph. I doubt he'll remember to go to his own wedding," Duke muttered. "Knowing him, he'll probably blunder the whole thing up."
Serenity was troubled. "Don't you think she'll say yes? And I wonder why Yugi was so quiet today….." She wrapped a bandage about his arm. "I don't want Joey to neglect his studies. He's been doing so well…."
Duke didn't say that Joey had been skipping classes, though it was temptation enough. "If you say so." He looked at Serenity admiringly at her designer jeans. Still petite, she barely reached his shoulder. He slid off the table.
Serenity started to get a bit nervous about the way he was staring at her. Even though her relationship had been made public, Duke still leered at her every chance he got, when no one was around. He was resentful of how his arcade he just opened, wasn't doing as well as Kaibaland. She continued, backing away subtly, politely fixing a nervous smile, "I hope Yugi's doing as fine as my brother…..every since his grandfather died…." She rounded the table, putting it between them. "He's been quiet, don't you think?" she said quickly, nervously, in effort for distraction. He slapped one hand behind her head, then the other, trapping her to the wall.
She ducked around his arms, and they rounded around the table a couple of times, like a game of musical chairs. "D-duke…." She didn't want to hurt his feelings because he was her friend. "Seto wouldn't like this."
"He's not here, is he?" A dash to the right made her dart agilely to the left. "And meanwhilst….."
"S-see that man over there?" Serenity nodded to the black suited bodyguard Seto had lent her. "He has orders to shoot on sight." Her foot knocked a chair over, sending it flying. I'd better get outside... there's more room to run.
But the bodyguard was unwrapping his beef steak sandwich sub, not paying attention at all as the two went flying outside, one in pursuit of the other. Quickly, Serenity scaled a tree, and watched down, knowing Duke couldn't climb trees in past experience. She wanted to call out to the bodyguard to help, but he was having such a nice time enjoying his food, that she didn't have the heart to bother him. "Duke, I'm warning you…" she said, keeping her voice light, but threatening all the same.
"Come on, Serenity, just dump him already……make a lot of people rich by cashing in on their bets," Duke huffed and puffed, climb his way up slower.
That made her freeze. "What do you mean by that...?"
"Half of Domino betted that you two would break up before the end of six months:" Duke explained casually. "The time almost up, and I don't want to be in debt!" He said it as if she'd twisted his arm to gamble.
"Uh….." Serenity was considering throwing a branch on his head. "Why don't you just go to your girlfriends for money to pay it off, then?" she suggested helpfully, since he was still her friend.
He grabbed her foot, and she kicked him off in a quick move, leaped from tree to tree like a female Tarzan, in effort to get away from her lustful friend. The bodyguard looked up in mid-chew, thinking he heard a footstep, than continued eating. Yugi, still eating with Joey in the café, saw her fly by the restaurant's window, agilely avoiding branches like a squirrel.
"Whatcha lookin' at, Yuge?" Joey was about to ask his friend why he looked so sad about him marrying Mai. He twisted in his chair to see. "Oh, yeah, but it's just .Serenity's running away from Duke again." Yugi folded his napkin casually.
"Oh." Joey thought he meant actual running, not leaping from trees and swinging from branches type. "Anyway, Yuge……"
Meanwhile, Serenity finally had landed in a neat stance on top of the arts building, listening carefully. Birds beside her cooed and chirped, greeting her arrival. University students and faculty looked up and saw the auburn haired girl perched on a ledge, then glanced back down idly, faces not even flickering.
Conversation rose comfortably, for this is a usual occurrence. Sighing softly, relievedly, she made her way back to ground floor, brushing off leaves and broken twigs from her jacket. Good, no tears it in this time…..I'm late for class! Oh no! Even though she was only seventeen, she was smart enough to skip a grade in high school and join her brother in college. Missing a class was simply unacceptable.
"There you are."
Duke was standing right behind her, making her freeze, surprised that she hadn't heard his footstep.
"Sorry, but I'm late for class," she stammered, backing away, thinking of a way to tell him to fuck off, but politely.
With a lunge, Duke grabbed her by the arm, too quick for even her to evade. Her lovely doe eyes grew wide as she struggled out of his grip. "What's the matter, we're friends, right? Aren't we?" He knew she was too polite to tell him to take a hike.
As he grabbed her other arm, a shrieking, piercing noise seemed to split the air, followed by a mechanical chant:
"S tep a-way from my girl-friend. Step a-way from my girl-friend. "
Duke looked about, startled, thinking it was that creepy bodyguard of hers that was talking. But no, the mechanical voice seemed to be coming...from her?.
"Ah, Devlin," Seto Kaiba drawled, walking out from behind the white pillar of the building, "you must never learn..." He clicked off the shrieking alarm with a small remote from his hand, and the noise stopped at once. Teachers looked over and smiled, passing by from class to class. That was a usual occurrence, too.
A/N: Well, as you hopefully may have guessed, SxS are together for 4 years now, JxM are together for 3 years, and YxT hasn't really started but getting there! Seto's kinda possessive and lazy here as you may surmise. So Ch.1's done! Read on!