Middle of the Summer
Chapter: 4
Title: Crwn Thy Frnicatr
Fiction Rated: R for language, mature themes, adult humour and just stuff that tiny little people should not be reading about.
Disclaimer: I own only the characters that I create, and have no desire to kidnap those which I do not. I haven't the time (or the money) to organize such an event. Yu-Gi-Oh! Is credited to its respective owner— Takahashi Kazuki, I am simply borrowing his creations to carry out my biddings. Any songs that are mentioned in the duration of this story belong to (unless otherwise stated) the original composers. So ch'yeah! Keep your lawsuits in your pocket!
Summary: The two of them were nothing alike, and would probably have never become involved in each other's lives by choice. However, Mokuba's aspirations forced them to put up with each other, and much to their dismay- even enjoy it from time-to-time. (A Seto/OC fic.)
Note: Just a special disclaimer for this chapter... I don't own Starbucks coffee, and I don't own BlackBerry. I did own a BlackBerry for a while... but it annoyed me and met an unfortunate end on a rollercoaster. I also don't own the movie 'Black Snake Moan' but I do adore it. Watch it. Love it. Okiidoo!
Wet wind slapped unwelcoming at Ali's wrists as she leaned out the rather large window of one of the Kaiba's bathrooms. She was desperately trying to balance herself on the top of the toilet back, although occasionally slipping and grabbing the window pane for extra support. After being shunned through the rest of dinner, by Seto she had not wanted to dance on thin ice by smoking in his house.
And so, here she was; hiding in the washroom while Mokuba and his older brother waited for her back in the music room. Taking a final drag of her cigarette and making sure to blow all smoke out the open window, she butted it out, wrapped it in toilet paper and flushed it down the toilet. Sighing she forced the window closed, and toweled off her arms which had become the target for left-over raindrops falling from the roof.
She left the washroom, and counted the doors in the hall remembering her way back to the room. The sound of music grew louder as she got closer to the room, the door was left ajar and she peeked in before entering. Seto was seated on a white leather couch, that Ali didn't remember seeing before dinner. In the center of the room, Mokuba was playing a haunting melody on his violin for his brother, who watched with appreciation, but lack of real interest.
The blonde listened to the song, she had never been able to play violin, not that she had ever been particularly in the instrument, but she did enjoy a well played song on it. Her eyes met with Seto's as he noticed her, frowning in the usual disapproving manner she had grown used to. Clearing her throat Ali stepped in to the room flashing a grin at Mokuba who put down his violin.
"Did you like it?" he asked, interested in her opinion on his music, she nodded seating herself on the white piano bench. Sitting next to Seto just didn't seem like a wise maneuver after the dinner episode. The blonde's mind wandered as she remembered the tiramisu dessert. Shardi, the cook, hadn't made an appearance at dinner but Ali would have demanded he go home with her, had she seen the man.
"Yep!" The Russian said after a moment of reminiscing over the white chocolate wonder. "But I'm going to get you to focus on guitar for the next little while, 'kay?" she said, remembering that she was supposed to be helping the boy.
"Alright." Mokuba nodded setting his violin in its case which sat atop the parlor-grand piano, he made his way towards the Les Paul in the corner.
Ali shouted standing and darting between the raven-haired boy and the instrument he was approaching. "No, no, NO!" she exclaimed shaking her head and waving her hands. "You don't play this one until you pass my test. For now, just start there…" she explained motioning to the six-string acoustic hanging on the wall. Although confused, the boy nodded and made his way to the instrument.
"These are his instruments; I see no reason for you to withhold them from him." Seto voiced coldly from the couch, his eyes on her in an uncaring gaze. Angered by his contradiction of her, the blonde approached him, her eyes smoldering.
"Oh, right… I just forgot for a second that you're the expert." She said sarcastically. "By all means, pick up from here."
What the blonde didn't know, was that the young man currently opposite her hated, above all things, giving up control. His icy blue eyes meeting hers with equal dislike and anger, his thin lips drawn into a frown as he regarded her.
"You know, of course, that learning to play on an acoustic before playing an electric makes the transition much easier." Ali's voice was dripping with sarcasm as she continued to challenge the brunette. "Not to mention that a Les Paul is not a guitar to learn on, at all." She concluded staring Seto down.
The oldest Kaiba stood, drawing himself to his full height standing at 6"1, towering the blonde by at least six inches, she noted the mug of steaming coffee in his as he wordlessly loomed over her head.
"I'm not paying you to argue with me." He stated, as though he was bored with her.
"You're not paying me at all, moron. The nice check you wrote to Gillis didn't crawl in to my bank account. This is all volunteer work. And, believe me, if he," she nodded towards Mokuba who was standing nervously looking at the two older teens argue "… didn't have the possibility of being the next freaking prodigy of the worlds, I would not be here." She finished, trying to hold herself with the same commanding air as Seto currently gave off.
"Hn."
The brunette exited the room, giving no more acknowledgements to the Russian girl, who continued standing in the same place, shocked, not even turning to see him leave.
After several moments she turned her eyes back to Mokuba who was looking at the floor, clearly upset by the argument that had just taken place. Ali sighed loudly and stepped towards him.
"Well he's the screw up, Mokie. Your parents did a much better job on you." She stated matter-of-factly patting the young boy's raven hair in an attempt to comfort him, however her attempts were futile.
"He was just standing up for me; you didn't have to be so… so mean." Mokuba said, looking angrily up at the dark brown eyes that were now staring at him in confusion. "Seto never did anything to you." He grumbled seating himself on the white couch with the guitar and beginning to play a simple song from one of the beginner's books Ali had brought along.
Sighing again, the Russian teen pulled the twelve-string off the wall and sat on the floor a safe distance away from the hurt eleven-year-old, she played along as best as she could, although she had never been especially good at playing a twelve-string guitar.
The time dragged by slowly as the two sat in the white room, speaking only to each other when Ali offered advice, or Mokuba had a question. By the time the girl left the house, sitting in the seat of the driver's car to be taken home, she felt like she had made a huge mistake.
Not that she regretted saying what she did; after all… she had been right. Hadn't she?
Something in the young boy's eyes had made her feel so terribly wrong.
"I need a drink." she groaned, leaning her head on the window and staring at the passing houses.
--
The rest of the week had passed quickly, her visits (or, as she preferred to call them: sessions, seeing as there was nothing visit-like about them) to the Kaiba mansion were cold and moderately boring. She had taken to bringing her own dinner, to avoid any more arguments with Seto, who completely ignored her existence in his home. Aside from the occasional time when she would catch him watching Mokuba with pride as he played the guitar (which he had picked up quickly and was already playing past the beginner level), the brunette never entered the same room as her.
Mokuba, was civil towards her, however he didn't treat her like a friend, as he had when they first met. He regarded her as a teacher, nothing more. Ali had begun to dread going to the brother's house each afternoon for those three hours, one hour wasted watching the youngest Kaiba do his homework, and then eating leftover pizza alone in the music room.
Of course the weekend had always been her time to thrive, a time when she didn't need to worry about any responsibilities. A time she looked forward to spending with herself, or her friends, maybe even the occasional stranger.
Sadly for the girl, this Saturday would be less than relaxing.
"I hope she's home." Mokuba said as he and his older brother approached the door of apartment 12. Seto looked at his younger brother, it had been the young boy's idea to visit the blonde Saturday morning; saying that she might like to spend some time with them.
Mokuba knocked hesitantly on the door, it was the only sound heard in the building. Seto assumed that since most of the occupants were college students and it was a Saturday morning, the entire building was engulfed in slumber. After a moment of no response, Mokuba knocked again, louder.
"Maybe she isn't here." The raven-haired boy said, slightly put down. However moments later a shuffling was heard from behind the door, followed by the sound of something falling, and a loud curse being uttered.
"Looks like she is." Seto said, annoyed. He had hoped he could go about his half-day off doing something worth doing.
The door was pulled open slowly and Ali squinted her eyes, obviously having just woken. She was slouched, her hair in absolute chaos, wearing a huge white t-shirt and a pair of grey boxers.
"What—huh?" she said, stumbling over her words, and holding a hand over her eyes as if to shield the dim light of the hall.
"Hey Ali." Mokuba said looking at the girl in confusion. It was almost nine-thirty, he rarely slept past eight in the morning, even on a weekend.
The girl cringed slightly as she spoke, her eyes glassy and unfocused. "Why are you here?" she asked, mostly to Seto. The brunette only motioned towards his younger brother, however Ali's eyes did not follow the hint, they were fixed on the cup of Starbucks coffee he held.
Without a word, she reached out and took the cup, gulping from it, trying to keep the bitter liquid from touching her tongue. She turned and re-entered her apartment, leaving the brothers to follow. When they finally did they were greeted by more of a mess than they had seen the first time they had visited.
Instruments were strewn on the floor, along with empty pizza boxes, beer cans, and papers. The biggest change was the shirtless male that was sleeping heavily on the green couch, a drumstick in one hand which dangled off the couch. Ali sat on a pillow on the floor, holding a bottle of painkillers and drinking Seto's coffee, finally she spoke to the two.
"Why didn't you call, or something?" she asked, irritated.
"You didn't leave a number." Seto stated obviously.
"I don't have a phone." The blonde retorted, "Because if I did people would be calling me on Saturday mornings."
"Well I just thought that we could all do something." Mokuba said, trying to evade another argument. Ali's brown eyes focused on the boy, he wasn't treating her coldly as he had been all week, and although she was stubborn, she didn't want him to dislike her, or be angry with her anymore.
Grumbling she hoisted herself off the ground, stopping once she was up to press her hands against her temples. "I was out all night; my friend's band was playing at this bar…" she said "… I probably drank too much, seeing as Jordan is here." She explained motioning at the sleeping teen, and then stepping towards him and yanking the drumstick from his hand. Instantly he was awake, his blue eyes surveying the room as he pushed a few long strands of black hair out of his eyes.
Seto grimaced, he was extremely resentful of his young brother being in such an environment.
"Go home." Ali mumbled elbowing the boy, who she had called Jordan. He stared at her, then at Mokuba, who looked beyond confused, and rested on Seto.
"Why is he here?" Jordan asked, his deep voice cracking after waking. Obviously he recognized the brunette boy.
"Who knows." The blonde replied shortly, handing him a black t-shirt and pushing him off the couch. "Out."
"Alright, well are we on for next weekend?" he asked, referring to something that neither Seto nor Mokuba understood.
"What?" Ali asked as she walked him to the door. "Oh, right… uhm, I guess so. I'll talk to you later. Good luck with the band." And with that he was out the door, and it was closed. She turned back to face the brothers. "My head is bleeding from the inside." She whined.
"That's your problem, Mokuba wants you to entertain him, and I have to work in a few hours so are you coming or can we do something worth-while with our day?" Seto asked. Ali mentally noted that it was the most she had heard him speak in one go, and although she didn't want to, one look at Mokuba's pleading eyes had her grumbling and walking to the washroom to wash the night off of her.
Mokuba sat down on the green couch when he heard the shower turn on in the washroom, while Seto frowned and took a seat on the wooden chair which had been placed next to the coffee table.
"Hey look Seto." Mokuba said, pointing at the coffee table, which had been cleared of everything and a deck of cards was laid out in an orderly fashion, some face-up but most face down. "Duel Monsters."
Seto stared down at the cards; they weren't laid in the way they would be if a game had been in play. He watched as Mokuba gathered them into a deck and began looking through them, his face registering confusion.
"They're not very good, and they don't look like they work well with each other… I wonder if she's a duelist?" he asked looking to his older brother for answers. Seto was about to shrug it off when the apartment door opened, and a girl stepped in.
"Oh, hey!" she said smiling, her tangerine eyes looking at the two brothers. Seto remembered her being the girl who had let them in to Ali's apartment the last time they had showed up. "What're you guys doing here this early…? I didn't know Li-Li could socialize before noon." She giggled.
"She's in the shower." Mokuba offered, also recognizing Samara, who rolled her eyes.
"Classic Ali." She said shaking her head. "I just came to drop off her bills and stuff." She said, holding up the pile of opened mail in her hand. "If I didn't take care of that stuff, she'd never get around it, typical artist." Samara laughed, shaking her short navy out of her face.
"Really? You pay her bills?" Mokuba asked, surprised, and a little amused.
"Well, she gives me the money for it; I just make sure it all goes to the right place." The college student sat down next to Mokuba on the couch, twitching and pulling a drumstick out from under the cushion. "I really don't mind since I'm studying accounting. It's just practice." Her orange eyes wandered to the deck of cards in the young boy's hands. "Are those Ali's?"
Mokuba nodded, before setting the deck back on the table. "Does she duel?" he asked.
"Li-Li? Oh God, she would never be able to sit through an entire card game, no she does something else with those." She said casually leaning down to pick up a stray paper from the floor and looking it over. "Looks like she had a productive night."
"What's that?" the raven-haired boy asked, craning his neck in an attempt to see the words on the paper.
"Well, you know she's aiming to be a song writer." Samara said, but Mokuba's expression showed that he hadn't known that. "Well she is, and she's pretty decent, I mean… I'm no expert, but she does some commercial writing and that's how she pays for this place." The orange-eyed girl explained.
"Commercial writing?" Mokuba asked, not understanding.
"Oh, just simple stuff… she composes really simple music for commercials… most recently? She wrote the guitar chords for the song in that men's body wash commercial where the guy is in the shower."
"Cool!" Mokuba exclaimed.
"Yes, but don't talk to her about it… she hates it. I think she's ashamed, but who knows with that girl." Samara laughed. "So what are you guys doing here?" she asked turning to Seto.
"Letting Aldorina drag us around for a few hours." The brunette replied, his tone clearly implying that he wasn't especially excited over it.
"Oh, well that will be fun, she makes everything fun." The navy-haired girl said, smiling kindly.
"Yeah." Mokuba agreed, nodding his head. "She doesn't really get along with Seto, though." He added barely loud enough for the girl next to him to hear.
"Ah, don't take her too seriously. Her bark is worse than her bite, if you know what I mean." Samara said calmly.
"I want to bite someone." Ali's voice grumbled as she dragged herself back into the room, her hair was loose and slightly knotted in its wet state hanging down between her shoulder blades, she was wearing a black t-shirt with the words 'Black Snake Moan' written on it, it was smaller than her usual baggy shirts, but still fit her loosely. A pair of black jeans with rips in both jeans adorned her legs. "What's up Sam-I-Am?" she asked, using the playful nickname to distract from her severely hung-over state.
"Just dropping off all of your freshly-paid bills." The girl chimed. "And your check from that company came in." she added sifting through the letters and handing the check to Ali who looked at it quickly before setting it back on the table.
"Awesome, I get to eat this month." She joked stepping around Seto to look for something on one of the shelves in the room.
"Well I should go, and leave you guys to your fun." Samara excused, standing from the couch. "Oh! By the way Li-Li, your parents called for you last night when you were out. You should really get a phone so they can call you personally."
"But they so enjoy talking to you." The blonde said irritated, slipping on a pair of trucker-sunglasses that she had been looking for, relaxing as she felt her headache calm.
The blue-haired girl just laughed waved to Mokuba, and then exited the apartment. Ali looked at her watch and groaned. "How can you even be alive this early?" she asked sitting on the floor leaning her back against the couch.
Neither of the boys answered her, and the silence was interrupted by the sound of a cell phone vibrating. Seto pulled a sleek BlackBerry from his coat pocket and answered it.
"Kaiba." He snapped into the phone.
There was a long moment of quiet, during which Ali grabbed her deck, shuffling it and then laying four cards in front of her on the table, face down.
"Just have the files faxed to my office, and I'll look them over when I come in." the brunette all but snarled at the person who had called before abruptly hanging up. "They can't run five minutes without me." He declared quietly.
"Oh poor you." Ali said with mock-sadness as she turned the first card to face her.
"What are you doing?" Mokuba asked, joining her on the floor and watching her intently. Seto, although still irritated by the blonde's comment, also looked towards the table, mildly curious as well.
The first card she had turned up was 'Cemetery Bomb' a fairly common magic card, nothing the boys hadn't seen before. Although when turning it up, Ali chuckled to herself before turning to Mokuba.
"I don't… really know what I'm doing. I've just always done it." She laughed, still greatly amused by the card. "Kinda like brushing your hair, I don't remember exactly when I started doing it, but now it just feels normal."
"You brush your hair?" the words were, surprisingly, Seto's as he smirked down at the blonde who dropped her jaw in mock shock.
"It speaks!" she exclaimed pretending to be surprised. "Anyway…" she turned back to the younger boy. "There are a lot of theories about Duel Monsters, because of its origins there are beliefs that the cards hold a certain… mystical-ness." She said pointing to the upturned card. "Cemetery Bomb, in the game when you play this your opponent looses a hundred attack points for every card in their graveyard."
"Right." Mokuba agreed nodding his head. "But what is it supposed to mean?"
"Well…" Ali started, her eyes darted quickly to Seto as though she knew what she was about to say would go over well with him. "I was asking why I felt so damn shitty this morning. My guess is, that the card is telling me that I'm loosing stamina for every drink I had last night…" she said smirking. Mokuba looked greatly impressed, while Seto looked at her like she a complete clown. "My cards have a sense of humor."
"Can I try?" the young boy asked excitedly.
"Sure." She said gathering her cards, not bothering to turn the other three up, and handing them to Mokuba to shuffle. "Now think of a number, lay out that many cards." She guided him watching as Mokuba placed six cards face down on the table. "Okay… now this is the tricky part, think of something you really want to know, and choose one card. Try to feel the card that's pulling you towards it." She explained, sounding unusually serious compared to her usual character.
Mokuba looked blank for a moment, thinking, before he reached out and turned up the third card from the right. All eyes were on the card, Ali looking at it with interest, Mokuba with curiosity, and Seto with a completely blank stare.
"Hm, 'Monster Reincarnation'? Weird… what did you want to know?" Ali asked holding the card to her face.
"I wanted to know what we could do today to make you have a really awesome day." Mokuba beamed. "So what does it mean?"
The blonde's eyes faded and for a moment she looked as though she would be sick, but as soon as it appeared it was gone and she was laughing nervously. "I'm not sure, Mokie." She admitted gathering the cards and standing. "It doesn't always make sense."
As the Russian teen walked past Seto to place the deck on one of the shelves behind him, he couldn't help but feel as though the card had made perfect sense and she was hiding something. But in order for that to be true, that would mean that there was some magical power to the cards, and he defiantly didn't believe that, either way… it didn't really matter to him if she was hiding something, she barely knew him and his brother why would she want them to know every detail of her life? He removed himself from the thoughts leading him in circles in time to see her sitting next to the door.
"Okay, let's get out there in the big… bright, noisy world!" Ali said faking enthusiasm as she pulled on the purple boots she always wore. She pushed the large sunglasses up the bridge of her freckled nose as she stood. Both boys moved to follow her, when she stared up at the older brother. "And we can drive this time… I don't want to walk, or move for that matter. I hope you brought your wallet, because you're buying me food." She stated, holding her stomach as she left the apartment.
REVIEW! I'm writing this for me… but I won't bother with this site if no one is reading.
Blargamuffin!
Kasumi.
PS. So I'm introducing a few other pieces of the plot in this chapter, any questions I'll answer.