WAITING

Disclaimer: I don't own YUGIOH

Thank you my only reviewer, I really appreciate your comment. I hope there is an improvement, otherwise tell me and I will try really harder.

All her life she waited. As a little girl, she waited for her brother to come and save her. Now that she was eighteen, she longed for something special. She knew perfectly well that she wasn't the only waiting person in the world. People of all ages waited for something, a loved one, a promotion, relief, salvation and so many things. But regardless of the nature of that thing, it was supposed to bring happiness and joy into their lives. She has always lived with the conviction that she was a weak person and hence has always to rely on someone's support and protection. At the beginning, it didn't bother her. She felt sort of unique and the fondness that both Tristan and Duke showed for her nourished that feeling. There were also sweet people like Yugi and Ryou, always ready to help and most of all, her brother who was ready to bring the moon to her feet. However, and as years flew by, she realized that being a princess in distress was no longer an option. Strong people were leading whereas weak ones remained in the shadow. Also being a girl is not seen as an alibi anymore, her closest friends Tea and Mai are assertive and independent. God, how she envied Mai for her strength and Tea for her strong character and wished she could have just a little of those.

After that episode with kaiba, she felt even weaker than before. What was she supposed to do now? Quite frankly, she had no idea. She had called Ishizu earlier and excused herself from her duties. The woman was considerate enough and didn't bother her with questions. She was aware of her cowardice but she blame it on her low personal self-esteem which was due – in her opinion- to the pitying glances and remarks she got when she almost went blind. Anyways, as long as she was busy with her studies and her work, she was fine. What was the point of killing yourself thinking about solving a problem that she thought was so insolvable?

That was the fuzzy ramble of thought that deprived Serenity from sleep a large part of the night. When she came home last night, she took refuge instantly in her room avoiding any direct contact with her brother. She was certain that if their eyes were to meet at that moment, she would have broken in hysterical sobs mumbling some incoherent phrases about the cruelty of people and their lack of heart.

After setting the table, she went to awake the heavy sleeper that was her brother. Joey was definitely not an early bird but she was afraid that he might loose his job at Industrial Illusion. Kaiba had commented on the event saying that this was certainly the joke of the year and foresaw the upcoming demise of the company. Pegasus, on the other hand, saw it as a humble payback, after all, Yugi and Co deserved to be shown some gratitude.

"Come on Joey, wake up!" pleaded serenity repeatedly.

As nothing happened, serenity decided to play the Mai card "hey Mai, what are you doing here?"

"Mai! No… wait! I was just pretending…ahhhhh" with a heavy sound, Joey collapsed into the floor in a somehow awkward position. Serenity burst laughing at her brother who retaliated by throwing a pillow at her.

"You keep tricking me sis, you should really think of something new!"

"And you keep falling for it again and again. Besides, I don't need something new, it always works"

Their laughter was interrupted by the ringing of serenity cell phone. The displayed number was unknown to her but she answered it anyways:

"Hello, Serenity speaking"

"It's Marik Ishtar, how are you?" a male voice answered.

"Hmm, hold on a second"

"Who is this?" asked Joey after adjusting himself.

"I'll tell you later", then she left his room for her own.

After closing the door carefully, she brought the phone back to her ear and inquired "where did you get this number from?"

"From your application form, I hope that you don't mind! Anyways, I was wondering why you quitted"

Feeling anger and confusion coursed through her body, she replied angrily: "what do you want from me?"

"I will meet you in the cafeteria near the bus station, 2 o'clock".

"What do you want from me?" she repeated furiously.

"We'll talk when we'll see each other? I'll be waiting for you"

"Don't even bother, I'm not coming and that's final!"

"Fine, let's make it for tomorrow, same place, same hour".

Serenity sighed heavily: "Don't you understand, I'm not coming today or tomorrow or even the day after tomorrow"

"And I shall be expecting you to show up tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and the day after and the day after…"was Marik response.

That's it; serenity couldn't suppress a short laugh and closed her cell phone shut quickly. He was funny in his own way but she did not know him. According to his sister, he was a nice person that just happened to suffer a lot. She made her mind up though, she will not go; she didn't want to disappoint her brother who clearly stated that he didn't want her to associate with him.

No, he did so much for her and she won't deceive him. Now to the difficult task of explaining this call to a very suspicious and overprotective Joey.

Marik waited patiently in the cafeteria. He was 100 sure that Serenity is not going to set foot here today. But he waited anyways. When they left Egypt, it was partly because of him. He couldn't stand living there anymore; he needed to escape, at least for a while. Then he saw her, Joey little sister. That girl was certainly something. She was so innocent, a luxury that was rare those days; so, and to his sister's joy and surprise, he started attending the same college. It took him months and several rehearsals to approach her and exchange just those few words with her.

But today ,and he congratulated himself, he took some actions. Well, he was forced to if he wanted to have any chance with her. What he witnessed yesterday outside the museum was quite an incentive; 'Kaiba at the rescue of his enemy's sister!!'.

Marik himself was going to prove himself and get rid of that pink-haired guy when Kaiba beat him up. That was suspicious but we will see, he thought seriously.

Read and review!