Broken Bridges
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh.
A/N: Thank you to my reviewers: Journey Maker and moonangel93. I'm so glad that you liked my first draft of chapter 2 and I hope that you liked the rewrite (if you read it). So without further ado, here is chapter 3.
"blah"-dialogue
'blah'-thoughts
Chapter 3
The following morning, Artemis woke up with a massive headache, but nothing a couple of Tylenol and a cup of her favorite tea couldn't fix. She sat on a barstool at her counter and stared at the phone. The Post-it note saying "Call Seto Kaiba" lay on the counter in front of her. She sighed and picked up the phone. Almost immediately, she set it back down in the cradle.
"I can't do it," she said aloud to no one. She held her head with her hands and sighed. 'You know what? I'll take a shower, and then I'll call him.' With a final nod, she walked away towards her bathroom. Seconds later, she ran back into the kitchen, picked up the phone, and dialed the number (which she suddenly happened to remember). It wasn't until it rang that she realized what she was doing. With a surprised squeak, she slammed the phone back on the cradle. She turned around and walked into her bathroom to take a shower.
Meanwhile, in the Kaiba mansion, things weren't quite as frenzied. The elder of the two brothers was fast asleep in his bedroom. On any given Saturday, he would most likely be found in his home office typing away at his laptop until early the next morning. This particular Saturday, however, was different. After he got home from the bar, he lied awake in his bed thinking about her, what could have been if they had stayed together, and most of all, his baby. Unlike some people who never lost their pregnancy weight, Artemis looked just as she did before she had the baby. But he couldn't say for sure. When he last saw her, she was three months pregnant and a lot could happen in six months. He wondered what the child looked like now. Was it a boy or a girl?
After seeing her that night, a large part of him was ridden with guilt, although he would never admit it to anyone. When Artemis had needed him most, he wasn't there for her. Now, as a single mother, it couldn't have been easy for her. He wondered if his child was there that night, perhaps sitting in the back somewhere watching his/her mother sing.
These thoughts kept Kaiba awake for most of the night and continued to plague him in his dreams. He dreamt of what his life would have been like with Artemis. They would have lived together in his mansion, just Kaiba, his brother Mokuba, Artemis, and their child. They would have gone to the park every weekend. He wouldn't work as much as he had been these past few years. He'd smile and laugh a whole lot more.
The what-ifs of Kaiba's dream were interrupted when a tall, ebony-haired figure silently entered his room. Slowly, it tiptoed across the plush navy carpet to the slumbering CEO's bedside with a handful of ice cubes clenched tightly in one fist. The figure reached out and placed a dripping ice cube on the sleeping man's neck, then quickly ducked down. In a split second, Kaiba bolted upright in his bed streaming colorful curses like the Trevi fountain does water. Once the initial shock faded, he slid his legs over the edge of the bed, nearly tripping over the crouched and snickering figure of his younger brother, Mokuba.
"Good morning, Seto. Did you sleep well?" he chirped.
"Mokuba, you are seventeen years old. Don't you think you're a little too old to be doing stuff like this?" he groaned wearily.
Mokuba laughed as he dusted off his knees and rose to his full height. "Seto, you are twenty-two years old. Don't you think you're a little too young to be acting like such a hard-ass? Come on, it's a Saturday. Let's do something together."
"Such as?" he asked as he walked into his walk-in closet.
Mokuba sighed and followed him. He grabbed a random pair of jeans and a random shirt and thrust them in his brother's hands. "I don't know. But when was the last time you and I did something fun together? It's been ages and we both have nothing to do today."
Seto opened his mouth to protest, but decided not to. Mokuba was right. He didn't have anything planned for today, much to his surprise. With a reluctant sigh, he gently pushed Mokuba out of the closet and walked into the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind him.
"How does this sound? When I'm done, we can go out for breakfast and go to the park. After that, it's all up to you," Kaiba shouted through the bathroom door.
Mokuba beamed. "Really? Sweet! Seto, you are the best," he shouted joyfully as he dashed out of his brother's room and into his own to get ready.
Seto just laughed and shook his head. "Kids," he muttered to himself. "They grow up too fast."
Later that morning, Seto and Mokuba were sitting on one of the many park benches eating ice cream and chatting away. Actually, Mokuba was doing more of the chatting. His chocolate ice cream cone was melting all over his hand while Seto's vanilla cone was almost gone.
"I saw her last night," Seto said when Mokuba had finally stopped talking.
"Who?"
"Artemis Sloane. Remember? That girl I dated in senior year?"
Mokuba licked his ice cream thoughtfully. Seto had dated a few people in senior year. Most of them were short relationships, but only one was actually serious.
"Oh, you mean the chick with the dark hair and dark eyes, the one that you went out with for five months?" When Seto nodded, he continued. "Ah. I liked her. What happened? Did she move away?"
Seto sighed. In the seven years that had passed since he had seen her, never once had he mentioned that Artemis was pregnant with his child. He had always wanted to set a good example for the boy and telling him that he had a pregnant girlfriend in high school was not exactly an example of responsibility. Then again, neither was abandoning her.
"Yes Mokuba. She moved away. And I guess she's been back in Domino for a while."
"Really? Well, then you should see her. You're not dating anybody and you do have that annual banquet thingy in five months. It's never too early to ask."
'But is it too late to apologize?' Kaiba wondered.
A/N: Sorry guys. No SetoxOC interaction here, just a bit of brotherly fluff. Hope you liked this chapter. Please review.