Disclaimer: Don't own anything from Yugioh or Marvel. –pouts-
Author's note: So the first chapter of the second story! Actually...this would be the -counts on fingers- twelfth first chapter of the second story. Still not sure if I like it but I wanted to post something so voila.
Claws of Heaven
Part Two of the Dragon Song series
"So…I'm having a big party this weekend…You interested?"
Twenty-two year old Seto Kaiba flicked his neatly trimmed hair out of his eyes and took a bite of his pasta.
"Tell me you're joking." He dabbed his mouth with a cloth napkin then let it drop on the mesh table as he studied the older, but no less striking, man across from him.
"Please, would I joke about a chance to meet beautiful women and kiss up to the press?"
The two made quite a pair, dressed in tailored suits, sitting outside one of Greenwich Village's better café's, just two friends having lunch on a beautiful, late summer day. If not for the way their eyes, intense and deep, flicked from one thing to the next, making notes, observing the smaller details, the casual passerby might take them for just another couple businessmen taking a break from work. Seto Kaiba knew better.
"I'm not going to another function where all I can do is flirt with women I don't want, glad-hand men I don't care to even be in the room with, and stare at that weird statue in the garden until you decide to make your grand entrance."
The older man just laughed.
"Come on, kid. It'll be fun."
"No, Tony."
Tony Stark, playboy and super-genius CEO of Stark Industries, threw up his hands and leaned back in his chair.
"You are impossible! You've been on edge since you got here. Look, just come for a little while. You can be my personal guest."
"I really don't like good in evening gowns."
"But the red brings out the gorgeous blue of your eyes."
"Yeah, and the white straight jacket looks divine against your black hair. Very bold, very daring."
"I do make an impression." Tony finished up his soup then pushed the bowl away. "Seriously though, you need to get out of that stuffy office and have some fun."
"I make games. Fun's not part of that."
"Just like a screen isn't part of a television."
"Now you're getting it." Seto grinned as Tony rolled his eyes and waved over the waitress.
"Fine," he said, after he had flirted with her and asked for their checks. "Be an old, crochety hermit. See if I care." He checked his watch. "I have a meeting in an hour then I'm going to Chicago."
"What's in Chicago? More toys?"
The waitress came back with their checks, they both paid with cash, and stood.
"Yup," Tony replied, "and a blonde that I would dearly love to get to know better. Call me if you change your mind, alright? You're a good-looking kid. You shouldn't be cooped up all day."
"But I have my hole just the way I like it, feathers and all."
"Need to fly sometime, Kaiba. See ya later."
"Right." Seto turned and walked the other way to his car parked in a nearby garage, briefcase safely in hand. He had met Tony Stark two years ago when a mutual business acquaintance had invited them to the same press conference. After five minutes, they learned of their shared distaste for said acquaintance and soon, the two men were exchanging technological ideas the likes of which would make George Lucas' head spin. Since then, they had kept in touch here and there, both enjoying the prospect of a higher level conversation beyond mere numbers. Seto found in Tony a kindred imagination, and even though Seto still put no stock in friends, he didn't mind having lunch with the man.
That didn't mean he'd go to a party with him.
Getting into his deep blue, 2008 Dodge Viper SRT-10 Roadster Convertible, Seto set his briefcase on the passenger seat and started the engine. The beast roared to life, the engine thrumming through his body, and he smirked. Simple pleasures.
His cell phone vibrated in his pocket and he answered it as he pulled out of the parking garage.
"Hey, kid."
"Hey, bro!" Mokuba's voice had deepened the last few years, losing that tell-tale puberty squeak. "How ya doin? How's Tony?"
Still hyper though.
"Fine. What're you up to?"
"Not much. A couple friends invited me to go see a movie tonight. Some thriller or something. That okay?"
"Who and how—" Suddenly a sharp pain shot through his wrist. His phone slipped out of his hand. He swore, leaning down, then someone screamed and his car jolted.
He swore again, louder this time, and threw the car into park.
"Seto? Seto, are you okay?!"
Seto quickly grabbed his phone and opened the door.
"I'm fine, kid. Be back by eleven. Keep your phone on."
"Okay, if you're sure…"
"I have to go." Seto hung up, slipping the phone back into his pocket, and hurried to the front of his car where a blonde woman staggered to her feet.
"I'm sorry," he said, reaching out to steady her. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay." The woman swept her hair out of the way and smiled bashfully at him. "It's my fault. I should've been paying more attention. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Seto couldn't help but stare at her eyes, a clear, crystalline green he had never seen before. "Where's your car? I can give you a ride."
"Oh, I don't want to impose."
"Please. As an apology. I'm Kaiba."
"Eve," she said, shaking his hand. "Evelina, really, but everyone just calls me Eve. Nice car, by the way. What year?"
"08." He led her around to the passenger side, made sure she was seated, then walked around to his side. When he got in the car, he could smell her perfume, a vanilla of some kind.
"Which way?" he asked.
"Level two."
Seto nodded and drove off, fighting the urge to flex his still slightly stiff hand. Stupid muscle spasms or growing pains or whatever they were. Mokuba had been after him to go to a doctor for months but if this could happen sober, there was no way he'd work hyped up on vicodin.
"Sorry about that," he said. "I'm usually better at multi-tasking."
"Kaiba, it's okay," Eve said, smiling. Her voice had a subtle lilt to it that matched with the expensive white woolen pant suit she wore. "Oh, there I am."
"Beamer. Not bad."
"Well, it's not a Viper but it works." She picked up her purse and got out. "Thanks for the ride. Maybe we'll run into each other again sometime. I'm an advertising agent for Chase."
He smiled politely and waited for her to leave before smacking the steering wheel. Stupid stupid stupid! Growling in exasperation, Seto drove out of the parking garage to the Kaiba Corp branch office building in Manhattan. Maybe if he drowned in his work he could forget how embarrassing that had been.
Yeah, right.
One hand reached up to rub the scars on his neck, the ones Melody had given him three years ago, and he sighed. Seems he was doomed to lose face in front of beautiful women.
Oh well. He smirked at his reflection in the mirror and tried to calm his heartbeat. He supposed there were worse things.
