Frozen by Your Side

By: Darkest Ember

Chapter 1: First Day of School

Summary: Dani Devlin is Duke Devlin's estranged twin sister. When they were younger, their father had asked a local game shop owner, Solomon Muto, to teach him to be a game master. They end up playing a dangerous game that ages their father 50 years in one night. From that moment on, he becomes obsessed with vengeance and plans to use Duke as a means to that revenge. Unable to save them both, their mother escapes with Dani and moves to America. A few years later, Dani starts to see the negative changes in her brother and decides to move back to Domino during her junior year of high school to save him. There, she meets Yugi and the gang, who all share her love for Duel Monsters. She hopes that they can also help Duke return to his old self. And then there's Seto Kaiba. Dani doesn't exactly get off on the right foot with him, but perhaps he is the one who can change her for the better.

Takes place between the Duelist Kingdom and Dungeon Dice Monster arcs. Inspired by the manga storyline that shows "Mr. Clown" (Duke's dad) as the reason why Duke challenges Yugi.

Each chapter will start with a foreshadowing segment of Dani and Kaiba's online chat...neither of them know the true identity of who they're talking to, but end up becoming friends online (picture something like A Cinderella Story with Hillary Duff and Chad Michael Murray).

Pairing: Kaiba x OC

BEWDragon would like to be friends.

Vampire_lady26 and BEWDragon are now friends.

BEWDragon: Let me guess, your favorite monster card is the…Vampire Lady?

Vampire_lady26: Actually, my go-to card is the Vampire Lord, but I relate more to the Lady on a personal level…if that makes sense? And let's see, yours must be the Blue Eyes White Dragon.

BEWDragon: Of course. It's one of the most powerful dragons in the game. What's not to like?

Vampire_lady26: True, but they're so hard to come across. Aren't there only four in existence?

BEWDragon: Only three now. My collection of Duel Monsters cards rivals that of Pegasus himself, so naturally I possess all three.

Vampire_lady26: YOU have all three?! That's impressive. And if you have the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon in your deck, I'd say you'd be nearly impossible to defeat.

BEWDragon: The only thing it can't stand up against is Exodia…

Vampire_lady26: You've faced Exodia the Forbidden One? I've never even seen those cards, let alone met anyone who had them. Even if you lost though, you're clearly a very skilled duelist…which makes me wonder why you're on here in the first place?

BEWDragon: I may be a Duel Monsters champion, but I rarely have anyone to chat with about the games…or to chat with at all.

Vampire_lady26: I completely understand where you're coming from. I don't know many people where I live and I can't get better at the game if I have no one to play with or at least strategize with lol

BEWDragon: Looks like you and I have a lot more in common than I would've expected.

When the alarm screeched in Dani Devlin's ear at 6:30 in the morning, she wanted nothing more than to chuck the clock across the room and watch it explode into tiny, broken pieces. She thought that giving herself a couple weeks to transition from life in America to life in Japan would be enough to prepare for her first day of school at Domino High, but clearly she was mistaken. It also probably didn't help that she foolishly chose to stay up past midnight talking to a cyber stranger about Duel Monsters.

The transition itself was predictably difficult. Her mother begged her not to go and insisted that there was a good reason why she chose to leave Domino behind all those years ago. Dani knew that she was probably right, but she just couldn't shake this feeling that she had in her gut – something was summoning her back to that city…back to her twin brother, Duke.

Knowing that he would be there any minute to pick her up for school, she scrambled to get out of the tangled mess of sheets on top of her air mattress and changed into her school uniform. She frowned at her reflection in the mirror; she loathed pink.

The sound of a honking horn pulled her from her thoughts. That must be Duke, she thought, feeling a mixture of excitement and dread boil in her stomach as she grabbed her backpack and snuck out the side entrance of the game shop. She didn't want him to know that she'd taken up residency at his unfinished game shop. She casually turned around the corner and waved a dismissive hand at his honking.

Before entering the car, she paused to appreciate the fact that a 16-year-old like Duke already had a sports car in his possession. Must be nice, she thought bitterly as she ducked down to get into the low car. "Well this definitely beats riding the bus or walking to school," she commented.

"Sure does," he agreed. "But for future reference, maybe we should meet a little closer to the school, especially since this is our first week here. Or, you know, you could just stay with us. We have a couple spare bedrooms."

Dani cringed at the offer. She wouldn't mind staying with her brother – he's the whole reason she moved back – but she despised their demented father. He was always crazy, but she felt that his craziness was somehow influencing Duke too. And she was hoping that by being there, she'd be able to save him before he went full blown psycho. "Hmm, no thanks. You know how I feel about our dad. Besides, I'm totally fine. I'm staying with an old friend."

"You stayed in touch with your grade school friends?" he asked, cocking a disbelieving eyebrow. "You haven't lived here in like eight years…"

"Whatever," she muttered, crossing her arms defiantly over her chest. "Just don't worry about me, I'm fine, okay?"

"Sure, whatever you say, sis. Let's just get this day over with," he said, parking in the nearly full student parking lot.

Duke was fortunate enough to have received a tour before transferring from the private school he'd been attending. As such, it only made sense for Dani to follow him to the main office. She just wished she didn't look so pathetic, practically cowering behind his tall lanky frame as they walked down the halls filled with students in blue and pink uniforms.

"Ah you must be the Devlin twins!" the secretary exclaimed. "Welcome to Domino High! I believe I've already met you, Duke. And you must be Danielle."

"Dani," she corrected, politely extending a hand. "Pleasure to meet you."

The secretary looked down at their files and gasped. "Oh my goodness, you just moved here from America? That must've been a huge transition!"

Dani shrugged. "It's been a bit of an adjustment, sure. But I was born here in Japan so it's kind of like walking down memory lane the last couple days."

"Excellent. Well, if you need any help with anything at all just let one of the faculty members know and we'll be happy to help."

"Thanks," Dani said, smiling awkwardly and wondering why this woman thought she was so helpless. She must've seen the way I was walking in the halls, she thought, groaning internally.

The secretary glanced at the clock. "Alright, kids, here are your homeroom assignments. Unfortunately, due to your late admission, Miss Devlin, I couldn't get you two in the same homeroom. Duke, you'll be in 3B and Dani you're in 3A."

Despite her attempts to maintain a cool composure, Dani felt like she was crumbling on the inside. She was always shy around new people, and the thought of a classroom full of strangers without Duke by her side sounded downright terrifying. Luckily, though, their homerooms were right next to each other, and she was sure that they would have some similar classes throughout the day.

"Good luck, sis," Duke said, giving her a reassuring hug. "See you in third period."

With a deep breath, Dani opened the door labeled "3A" and stepped inside. Most of the people in the room didn't even glance up to acknowledge her entrance – they were too busy in their conversations, which was just fine with her. She managed to find a seat that was near the windows, yet not too close to the front of the classroom. There was something about being surrounded by a sea of students that offered some semblance of comfort.

Despite the bell ringing to begin the day, the teacher was still busy preparing his desk, which only allowed more time for the students to continue their chatter.

Although the noise volume was high, she found herself honing in on a conversation happening between the two boys next to her. One of them turned his desk around so that they were facing each other and playing a game of Duel Monsters. "I hate to say it, Joey, but once I summon this monster, you're going to have say goodbye to Red-Eyes," a small boy with tri-colored spiky hair said. Dani glanced over her shoulder to get a better look. She couldn't believe that boy was a junior in high school…

More importantly, though, she got a good look at his opponent's hand. Graverobber, Dragon Nails, Baby Dragon, and Flame Swordsman. If he played his cards right, he might be able to get out of this corner that the boy trapped him in.

"Bring it on, Yug. The only way I'm gonna get better is with practice!" Joey responded with a surprising Brooklyn accent. Maybe I'm not the only American here…?

Yugi chuckled. "Alright, but you asked for it! I play Monster Reborn to bring back my favorite monster, the Dark Magician! I'll use the Dark Magician to attack your Red Eyes."

"You may have destroyed ol' Red Eyes, but I've still got tons of monsters to defend my life points," Joey declared, placing Baby Dragon face down in defense mode.

Before she could help herself, Dani blurted, "You should've played Graverobber to use his Monster Reborn! Then you could've brought back your Red Eyes Black Dragon and made it stronger than the Dark Magician with your Dragon Nails…"

Joey and Yugi at first looked a little startled from the sudden input from a student they didn't know, but after the initial shock, Joey looked down at his cards. "She makes a good point…Oops."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," she said, laughing nervously.

"No worries," Yugi said with a friendly smile, "I take it you also like to play Duel Monsters?"

She nodded, now fully turning around to face them. "Definitely! I just moved here from America. It was just starting to take off there, but I'm glad to see it's so popular here!"

"Not only is it a popular game, but you're also lookin at two of the finalists from the Duelist Kingdom tournament," Joey said, grinning smugly.

"Don't lie to the new girl, Wheeler," someone sneered from behind them. "Just because you got lucky enough to make it into the finals doesn't mean you're worthy of any titles."

Dani turned around to see who else had joined the conversation. Despite wearing the same blue uniform as all the other guys, he seemed to stick out like a sore thumb. He had icy blue eyes that were filled with contempt. He sat rigidly in his seat with painfully perfect posture. While the other students had been talking – or playing Duel Monsters – he had been busy working on his expensive-looking laptop.

"Give him a break, Kaiba," Yugi said defensively. "You know that Joey worked very hard to earn that spot in the finals, and he's come such a long way in the past few months."

Kaiba laughed, though it wasn't a sound of amusement. "If you want to keep living in denial, that's your problem. I prefer to live in the real world."

Thankfully, the conversation couldn't escalate any further because the teacher had finally composed himself and was ready to begin the homeroom session with attendance. As she listened to the names being called out, Dani sunk into her seat, wishing she'd never intervened in their game. If she hadn't pointed out the flaw in Joey's strategy, Kaiba probably wouldn't have went on his insult rant. Great, the first two people that could be potential friends probably already hate me.

Dani had every intention of keeping to herself and avoiding that Kaiba guy at all costs. Unfortunately for her, she had six out of her seven classes with the asshole. But without people like Joey around, she noticed that he pretty much kept to himself. It was obvious that his intellect surpassed most of the students' in the class, yet he didn't seize every opportunity to show off that little detail.

Evidently, he also noticed their similar schedules and decided to finally confront her at the beginning of sixth period. He chose a seat behind her, which immediately put her on edge. A few minutes passed before he leaned forward and started talking to her. "I'd stay away from the Nerd Herd if I were you. If you're not careful, they'll rope you in with one of their pathetic friendship speeches."

At first Dani wasn't sure who the "Nerd Herd" was, but after seeing Joey sitting with a brunette girl and a white-haired boy in the corner of the room, it wasn't difficult to figure out who he was referring to. "They don't seem so bad," Dani shot back. "At least they have friends."

Kaiba was leaning close enough for her to feel his hot breath billowing across her neck. "If you want to be successful, you don't need friends. They'll only slow you down."

Confused with his logic, Dani immediately spun around and was surprised to see that he remained leaning forward. Even so, he still had a couple inches on her and looked as though he were peering down at her from a metaphorical pedestal with those damn chilling eyes. "I wouldn't consider anyone truly successful, if they're all alone. Even if you're the richest person in the world…what good is that money if you don't have someone to share it with?"

For the briefest second, Dani swore she saw the icy exterior crack as a hint of sadness peek through.

A/N: Well, here it is, my first attempt at a Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic! After years and years of being a fan of this show, I finally came up with a cool idea that wouldn't revolve around duels lol although I may still try to write a few dueling scenes. The main focus will be the drama surrounding Dani and Duke's family and, of course, the angsty feelings that will develop between Dani and Kaiba ;)

Leave a comment and let me know what you think so far! Next chapter will be up later this week.