Just under 7,500 words! I had to start another chapter well before I'd planned on this one cutting of…drats. And I got sort of lazy with descriptions, so I think parts of it read sort of flat… Oh well. I am too lazy to go back and add more now.
I've already started on chapter 4 so hopefully I will be finishing it soon. I keep on getting distracted by side-plots and background pairings (which I will be posting separate stories of under the same series/universe title).
Thanks to everyone for their comments and favs and subscriptions! I am glad a few people out there are enjoying it (almost as much as my roommate; I'll stand there and talk about the plot for hours and we just keep laughing)!
Anyways, just a bit of a filler chapter. Bakura's going back to help Mokuba study and ends up staying longer than he'd initially planned to. No good can come of Bakura being in the Kaiba mansion for any extended period of time!
Here comes the crap! HUZZAH!
Chapter 3: I never did get that smore.
(Yami Bakura's POV)
I am not especially fond of cars, nor of being flashy, so getting inside of Kaiba's freaking ostentatious black limousine parked right outside of the school wasn't exactly my cup of tea. I would have made more of a fuss, but I knew it wouldn't help me any, so I just mumbled my complaints and climbed inside to park my ass on the leather seat. At least we weren't going in that damn Blue Eyes jet monstrosity. I swore to myself I'd destroy that thing someday when Kaiba was especially preoccupied. Framing someone would be imperative, however, so I was still on the drawing-board with that plan.
Traveling in vehicles was always a little uncomfortable for me. Ryou was fond of cars, so I focused on his feelings to help dampen my own anxiety. As Seto slid in behind me to shut the door, I closed my eyes and folded my arms, working to make it look like I didn't especially care about the situation while remaining irritable. The irritable part came pretty easily (I was being forced to do this, after all) but the looking relaxed part, not so much.
"You afraid of cars or something?"
I snapped an eye open to glare at the smirking billionaire when the car started to move. My stomach immediately lifted into my throat, so I focused harder on memories of Ryou enjoying weekend rides with his mother and sister in the countryside, ignoring the fact that they weren't alive anymore. "Am I not allowed to just sit here quietly, like a good dog?" I growled in his direction. "Or do you have a hoop you'd like me to jump through? Because you'd better have a damn Scooby Snack or I'll rip your freaking arm out if its socket."
Kaiba only flashed a grin, making me growl again. "Relax. You should enjoy the ride. Not many people get to experience this sort of luxury."
"Oh, yes. I should feel so honored to be your personal tutor-bitch. Please, oh great Seto Kaiba, show me the ways of the rich asshole's pet. I should warn you though: if I don't get walked regularly I'll eat your neighbor's cat and piss on their lawn."
He only chuckled and I snorted, looking away. I immediately regretted breaking my eyes from his, however, because I found myself staring right out the car window. I dropped my eyes to the floor and tightened my arms as I felt my hair bristle. Damn it… Why was this so unnerving? It was embarrassing, being so thrown off by a damn car. Even more embarrassing was my fear of open-water. I'd woken up on the beach once and suffered a panic attack. Ryou never went back after that, which is a little sad, because I knew how much he loved the beach.
Existing was always such a freaking chore.
"You really are nervous." His voice was observant and level, kissed with a bit of surprise. "Aren't you?"
I lifted my head enough to growl in his general direction, my teeth bared. "Shut the hell up!"
Kaiba's head was titled ever so slightly upwards in deep consideration of something. He was probably trying to think of various ways to torture me, now that he was aware of my anxiety.
My stomach sank a little more and I released another sick groan, my eyes falling back to stare at the floor.
"We could always slow down," the brunette asshole suggested.
"Just get us to the damn freaking house and stop spewing your false pity!"
He didn't respond and I could tell he'd dropped the subject.
I just wanted to get this day over with.
-SWITCH SCENE-
"Hey, Bakura!" Mokuba came running out to meet us on the stone driveway. Kaiba was busy talking with the driver and I was standing a good several feet from the black vehicle, glad to be standing still. "Seto told me that you'd be coming home with him today." I was never certain why Mokuba was so enthused to see me. It could have been because we were similar in some mischievous ways, but something about his smile was almost as unnerving as the damn limo had been.
"He said you have some work you need to do."
"Yeah. He's gonna be really busy tonight," Mokuba sighed," so he can't join us. But hey, it shows he trusts you more now, leaving us alone again!"
I just nodded a little, having become distracted by a large tree with yellow flowers. It hadn't been there last week and didn't look local. It shouldn't surprise me; Kaiba enjoyed flying in rare plants and trees. I didn't recognize the tree species, so I worked on trying to label the yellow, instead.
Ever since my initial spazz, Kaiba had attended my and Mokuba's afternoon 'lessons'. He'd mostly just sat there with his arms crossed, boring his Seto-Blue eyes into my freaking soul from across the oak table we always sat at. It might have been considerably distracting, if I actually did any real work during that time. How Mokuba was so accustomed to his brother just sitting there and watching him for hours without moving, I didn't know, but I guess he'd had a few more years than me to grow a Seto-Tolerance. Personally, I'd rather work on a tolerance for cobra-venom or something than have someone like Seto Kaiba breathing down my neck for two hours a night.
"And we'll have fun without him, right?"
Since when could we have fun with him? "After you finish your work."
He pouted but I only smirked at his sad attempts to break me. Once Mokuba decided I wasn't going to cave under the weight of his dark eyes, he switched methods. "Has Ryou woken up at all?" I shook my head. "Weird. Maybe he'll show up tonight."
"Perhaps. Now stop stalling and get your ass inside. We have work to do."
Mokuba nodded and smiled, waving back at his brother as he grabbed my hand to pull me indoors. I didn't especially mind being pulled around by the boy. He knew his way around better than I did, and I was still preoccupied with staring at the yellow flowers on the tree. They were goldenrod-yellow, I think. "We'll see you later, Seto!" he called. Kaiba only responded with a nod before he roamed off to another exciting business meeting.
I got the feeling that sometimes his existence was more exhausting than my own.
-SWITCH SCENE-
"All done!" Mokuba announced, dropping his pencil and leaning back in his chair. He giggled empathically in triumph as I scooped the papers up to glance them over. I really just pretended to proofread any of his work—Ryou was the tutor, not me.
"Looks like you finished," I concluded and then dropped the papers to return my attention to the blue sucker I was finishing off.
While Mokuba had been working for the last hour, I'd been busy studying a painting of his brother that hung over the over-extravagant brick fireplace. It was an older painting, by Seto-standards. I recognized the purple coat he'd worn a couple years back and remembered how glad I'd been when he'd changed to the white one (purple wasn't his color at all). He was looking especially 'I pwn your ass with my money and good looks' in this one. I'd decided about forty-five minutes back into my study that I really hated this painting. Mostly, it was that coat that ruined it. I couldn't care much less about his 'I rule the world' face (even if it was particularly douche) and the painting itself was a well-done Renaissance-style work in rich oils. It was just that damn coat. Destroying it was put higher up on my to-do list, maybe even above destroying his freaking ridiculous dragon jet thing.
Mokuba leaned into my field of vision, his black eyebrows lifted high on his face. "Yes?" I mumbled, irritated that my thought process had been broken. "Can I help you?"
"You like my brother or something?"
I nearly spat out my sucker. "What?" I choked. The reaction was more out of surprise than anything. Me, like Seto? Pfft. "Where the hell did that come from?"
"You've been staring at that picture for almost the entire hour."
My face was burning, and I was pretty sure it wasn't from facing the fireplace. "I've just been thinking about all the ways I could destroy that damn purple jacket of his. It's a menace to society, that purple." I growled up at the painting and pointed my sucker at it accusingly. "Freaking royal purple! Seto doesn't look good in that color at all!" I turned my now crazy eyes towards Mokuba, who only seemed bemused over my fit. "Tell me where the damn coat is! It has to die!"
He smiled then and began to walk backwards. "I know where it is," he winked. I stood and began to follow him, my expression still enraged. "I'll show you. You really wanna destroy it?" I nodded darkly. I couldn't exactly be sure what expression I was wearing at this point, but it seemed to amuse Mokuba, who only chuckled and turned to begin running down the hallway. "Come on!"
-SWITCH SCENE-
"Seto's gonna be maaad…"
"I feel better," I folded my arms, smirking proudly at my work, "and that's all that matters." The coat that had once violated Seto's skin tone was now in a messy pile of royal-purple fabric. Its brass bits had jammed the now smoking leaf-shredder.
"He never wears it much more, anyways," Mokuba laughed, scratching at his cheek a little nervously. He wouldn't ever wear that damn thing again. I wouldn't allow it. "So I doubt he'll notice for at least a couple of months."
"That's a couple of months that I'll rest easier."
Mokuba laughed and closed the door to the shed, which was the size of a large garage. We'd taken the coat out back to destroy it, just because the sneakiness made the boy feel more developed as a person, I think. "So you prefer the white one?"
I grinned widely with toothy satisfaction at one of my many to-do goals having been met. I somehow doubted that Mokuba would be so willing to help me in the destruction of the jet, but I'd find a way someday.
Blue Eyes shit was especially irritating to me, though I wasn't sure why. The way Seto looked at it just pissed me off. Who was that obsessive over something? He knew it was just an imaginary creature from a children's card game, right? Regardless, the jet had to go. Maybe I could pay the Ishtars to destroy it for me. Malik was especially talented at sneaking into high-security places like this. I could probably convince him to do it in exchange for cookies or something.
"He looks good in white," I nodded, "so I don't have a problem with his current one. It's still a little pretentious." I held the door open for Mokuba to let him in first. "But everything he does is pretentious."
The white jacket was my favorite. I didn't know anyone but Seto that could wear it and not look like a total fool. Sure, it was still completely ridiculous (what were those horn things on his hips, anyways?), but it was just so…Seto.
"You're weird," Mokuba laughed and flopped on one of the expensive plush couches.
I sat beside him, crossing over one of my legs and leaning back with my arms splayed across the back of the couch to stare at the ceiling. I was still high from getting to throw that freaking coat in the shredder. I sort of wished he had a second one to do it again, but Mokuba had informed me that Seto in fact only had one of each of his coats. Less fun for me, I guess. He'd probably planned it that way.
Damn Seto, ruining all my fun.
"Soooo…." I turned my eyes to angle towards him, grunting to push his sentence forward. Mokuba smiled a little bashfully and my lips fell into a half-frown at the youth's mischievous face. "You never really answered before."
"Huh?"
"About my brother."
"What about him?" I returned my eyes to the ceiling. It was a little boring, really; just a bland off-white. I half-expected there to be a mural up there. I bet there was one over Seto's bed. It was probably of him and a Blue Eyes. I'd never gotten to see his room before and couldn't decide if it would be completely empty and devoid of all color or pleasure, or if it would be filled to the brim with Blue Eyes shit (which I'd enjoy taking a sledgehammer to).
"Do you like him?"
"He's digestible," I grunted. "He can be boring sometimes, but he's more interesting than the other morons at school."
"No," Mokuba shook his head. "I mean do you like him? –Like him, like him?"
I arched an eyebrow, still staring at the empty ceiling. Mokuba's words had twisted my thoughts, however, and now I was looking at his dragon-filled room sitting on the bed with me staring down at him. Oh, for the love of god… I growled to make the images pass before sitting up to glare at his little brother, whom was still smiling hopefully in my direction. "What the hell is this about?" I demanded while swatting at the couch as though I could physically push the images of him from my head. "He can barely stand me!"
He smiled, now more mischievous than hopeful, and I leaned back some at that glint in his dark eyes. "That's not answering," he cooed before shooting an accusational finger up at my nose, suddenly having become quite overexcited. "You do! You like my brother!"
"I never said that!" I leapt from the couch to stomp to nowhere particular, just working to escape him. But Mokuba shot after me, giggling and twirling. "Stop twirling!" I hissed. "And why do you care, anyways?"
"I think it would be cute if you and Seto got together," he replied impishly as I glowered down at him, still baffled at how easily he ignored my rage. Kaibas seemed to be completely immune to my anger.
"And what the shit makes you think I like him?"
"Because you started calling him Seto like me."
What? When did I start doing that? I stopped, my anger dissipating as I allowed this sentence to roll through my mind. …How long had I been doing that?
"That," he grinned wider, "and I've seen you looking at his butt before."
"You little brat." I glared at him flatly, my rage having shifted to irritated embarrassment.
"He never notices that sort of thing, though," Mokuba assured, still grinning. "So I am pretty sure you're safe for now. If you want, I could see if he likes you, too!"
I snorted and folded my arms, my legs locking in place to express my irritation. He didn't seem especially intimidated, though, probably because my face was bright red. "I don't need your help, thank you very much," I grumbled. "If I liked Set—Kaiba—I'd do something about it on my own, whether he liked me or otherwise. I take what I want."
"He's hard to break." Mokuba had turned away from me mid-sentence, a finger to his chin in consideration of his options while completely ignoring my commentary and succeeding in returning me to my rage-state. "And he's really blind to most things, especially his own feelings… I don't know how I'd begin to get him to admit that he likes you, even to me!" He giggled, turning back towards me and just smiling at my snarls. "But I'll think of something, Kura! Don't worry!"
I could tell arguing about it was as useful in this situation as arguing with Seto had been that afternoon about coming over to begin with (freaking Kaibas and their freaking mind-control!) so I just folded my arms to express my distaste. "Why do you care about this all the sudden, anyways?"
Mokuba walked closer to me.
What he hell was with this family?
Most people knew better than to get this close to me when I was angry, people who knew the real me at least, but Kaibas had serious balls. They didn't give a damn when I was angry. I wasn't sure what made them think they were safe. Maybe all Kaibas out there thought they were immune to me. Whatever it was, it was both able to infuriate and intrigue me. No matter what I did, no matter what I said, I never seemed able to push them away—they just kept taking steps closer.
Before I knew it, the child was hugging me around the waistline and I just stood there and took it like a good tutor-bitch. "Because you're the first person that we've both really liked," he spoke into my stomach as I stared down at him. "I can tell he likes you at least a little bit, and that's actually a whole lot by most people's standards! And, well, you're fun and cool, and Ryou is really nice. I can tell big brother likes him, too, though he'd never admit it."
"Of course not," I grunted, still standing perfectly still. I wasn't a very touchy-feely person, so a hug wasn't something I readily accepted. If nothing else, the whole experience was an awkward one, so I just continued to focus on his inky-black hair. "He has to keep his assness intact."
Mokuba giggled a little before smiling up at me, his chin on my stomach. "See? You understand us. I just don't want you to leave." His eyes withered and I flinched a little. "You're graduating next spring and we'll never see you again…"
I couldn't tolerate the hugging anymore, so I gently pushed him back with my hands on his little shoulders to give me a foot or so of personal space back. "You worry too much about tomorrow," I stated matter-of-factly. "If there's anything I've learned in this strange almost-existence, it's not to worry about tomorrow but to focus on the here and now. I'm here right now, so stop wondering about whether or not I'll be here tomorrow. Besides, Ryou likes you," I folded my arms, "so I'm sure he'll continue to bother you well after he graduates."
"What about you?"
"I can't say how long I'll exist." I smirked supportively when the boy's eyes drooped. "But I'm here now, right?" He nodded. "So let's have some fun. Got any more coats I can shred?"
Mokuba shook his head. "No. But maybe you could spend the night!"
I blinked. "Spend the night?"
"Since you're awake and such, why not? Live in the here and now, right?" I frowned at how easily he'd turned my own advice against me. Mokuba knew I really did have an interest in making him happy. Why I cared so much I didn't know, but I did, and refusing him was often a challenge. "We have clothes here and everything else you could need. We could play video games and tell ghost stories and eat smores!" I could sense his growing excitement, but the enormous smile pasted to his face was more than I could tolerate.
I groaned, running a hand over my face. "Fine," I gave in. There was no use fighting it. Mokuba got what Mokuba wanted—if not from his brother, than from, me. Because, you know, he needed to be spoiled more than he already was. "I'll stay."
"Yay!"
"But only for a night."
Mokua danced around a bit before shooting down the hall, laughing and summoning for me to follow. "Come on! Let's go find an air mattress!"
I sighed and followed after him at a sluggish pace.
…What the hell was a smore?
It didn't take Mokuba very long to get everything set up for our little 'sleepover'. In fact, it was almost as though he'd been prepared for it. He'd been keeping an air mattress tucked under his bed with the inflator thing beside it, and even had all the necessary blankets and pillows that I might require. He had spare toothbrushes, various toothpastes, and other personal items in a blue case in his bathroom, and even had a blue and white striped towel with gold trimming (seems he thought I was as flamboyant as he and his brother) in the bathroom closet.
Just how long had the little shit been planning this?
Mokuba's room was enormous, as one might assume it would be. He had his own bathroom that rivaled the size of our home-classroom, and his closet was even bigger, but most of it was packed with boxes of who-knows-what instead of actual clothing, of which he seemed to be lacking in for someone so wealthy. His bed as a Full size, which also surprised me, and on it was (of course) a Blue Eyes. I cringed a little and tried not to stare too directly at the bed, choosing instead to eye all of the technology around me as Mokuba got my mattress set up.
Like his brother, Mokuba was a genius when he came to technology. I, however, was not, and being as technologically advanced as a plank of wood, I had no idea of what half of what I looked at was. I took a guess that the majority of it was directly related to projects that Kaiba had given him, so I could safely assume it had to do with playing Duel Monsters.
Ryou didn't care much for card games, but I found I had a knack for them, particularly this one. Kaiba's company had been responsible for successfully creating realistic holographic images based off of data that could be stored in cards, and he applied this principle to the card game Duel Monsters, which of course made the game skyrocket into a worldwide phenomenon basically overnight. Why he chose to use these advanced holograms for a card game instead of something, I don't know…adult, I didn't care enough to ask about. I enjoyed the game and was good enough to tear through other Duelists, which was all I cared about because I often played for cash. It was a good way to make an easy buck, though I was pretty sure that Kaiba would get angry if he found out how I'd been 'abusing the game'. He was like Yugi in that way: they had a ridiculous amount of respect for Duel Monsters, and I knew better than to abuse it, at least in front of them.
I recognized several Duel Disks mounted on the boy's wall as previous models and wondered how far along Kaiba was on a new one. He tended to release a new model once every year or so, but it had been a couple of years since the last version had been revealed. Maybe he'd gotten distracted by something not related to a children's card game for once, though that seemed unlikely.
Besides the Duel Monster-related things, I had no idea what the hell the rest of the blinking and humming things were. I was pretty sure the Kaibas had a Doomsday Device hidden away in this place somewhere, though. They seemed like the type of people that would have that sort of thing just casually lying around.
"All finished!"
I angled my hip to glance back towards where Mokuba had finished setting up the mattress. The blankets were normal, thank god. At least he was normal enough to have crap not covered in dragons. "Thanks."
"Is it big enough?"
"I'm not a monster like Seto." I sat on the floor beside the bed, glancing it over to reassure him that I was satisfied. "I don't have many problems with fitting on things."
"Want me to get us some snacks?"
I scratched at my head, still thinking a little about where they might be storing that Doomsday Device. It would have to be somewhere physically close to Kaiba (he always kept his good shit close to him) which only gave me another excuse to sneak into his room. "Snacks?" I repeated, only half-listening. I dropped my brown eyes to where Mokuba was now sitting across from me. "I don't think I should risk going into the kitchen again so soon after the other day," I snickered. "Another repeat of last time and I can't promise your brother won't escape without a missing limb."
Mokuba laughed. "I am sure he's still at that meeting. He said he'd be gone most the night and wouldn't be back until late, but I'll go get us the snacks, just in case." He stood, hands on his little hips. Small hips seemed to be a Kaiba trait—Seto's waistline was freaking ridiculous (not that mine was any better). "Want anything particular?"
"I don't eat vegetables," I mumbled.
Mokuba made a face. "Vegetables aren't a snack, anyways," he grunted.
"They are for some people." Like Marik.
"Blech! How about chips? And a soda? Or do you want a beer?"
I smirked and tilted my head slightly at his offer. "You know I'm underage, right?"
"So is Seto and he drinks."
A smile crawled across my face. "Oh he does, does he?" This could be fun. "I didn't know that. Do tell."
"Well, he likes wine," Mokuba nodded. "And champagne and stuff."
My smile dropped. "That's not surprising, I suppose," I commented, heavily disappointed by the lack of naughtiness I'd hoped to hear about. A drunk Kaiba might not prove to be a fun Kaiba, but he'd probably have more personality, at least. Now I needed to conspire ways to slip him alcohol until he willingly accepted hugs from people like Yugi—now that would be entertaining.
"He doesn't drink very much."
"That's not surprising either."
"So you want a beer or something?"
"I probably shouldn't." I exhaled a breath and fell back to stare at the ceiling. There wasn't a mural on his ceiling, but I didn't expect him to have one, really. "If Ryou wakes up, he'll get sick. He doesn't handle his alcohol very well."
"You handle it differently?" He seemed genuinely surprised at this. "But don't you share the same body and all? I mean, it doesn't make any sense that your body would react differently to a chemical, just because you're in a different state of mind."
My eyes flattened a little. "Sci-fi talk and I don't get along."
"I just mean that it's weird, since you have the same body and it reacts differently to alcohol just because of which of you is in control at the time," he clarified.
"I guess it is weird," I agreed before chuckling. "But then again, what part of us is normal?"
Mokuba laughed, his hands slipping behind his head. "Yeah," he agreed. "I guess that's true. You guys are a pretty special case."
"Just go get whatever snacks you want. I'm not hungry."
"Not hungry?" He blinked. "But you're always hungry!"
"I'm fine."
"I'll get extra, just in case." He walked towards the door, opening it and stepping into the hall before he glanced back at me as I remained still on the floor. "I won't take long. Just wait here, okay? And don't be too loud, just in case Seto does come home early." I lifted an arm to signal I'd heard him and he closed the door, leaving me alone to stare at the ceiling.
Now then, where might Seto's room be?
I calculated how long I had to explore while listening to Mokuba's little steps disappear down the length of the hallway. He had to get to the kitchen, decide what he wanted, and then come all the way back, so I was certain I had at least a five minute window—plenty of time to picklock a door. But the goal during this window, I decided, was not to sneak in to Seto's room. Not just yet. I wanted to find it first, but the hardest part of that job was done by Mokuba. Kaiba would keep very close to his little brother at all times, meaning his own room was in the same hallway. I knew it would also be the largest room. Maybe not the largest room in the house, but damn large enough to say 'Here is where Seto Kaiba lays his oversized head on his overpriced pillow.' I'd be half-surprised if he didn't have one of those 'Do not disturb' signs hanging off his doorknob, though I expected it to be something more like 'Do not disturb the Blue Eyes King or be smitten by his overpaid MIB rejects.'
If he didn't have that sign, I'd make it for him. I could do the letters in Seto-Blue.
I slipped into the hallway, glancing to make sure Mokuba was turning the corner towards the kitchen, and got to work. The hall was long and wide, decorated with paintings and expensive shelves and rugs. My brown eyes moved across the doors lining the hallway as I moved quickly (the rooms were large so it was quite a distance between them) but I was certain his room had to be one of the closest to Mokuba's.
Bingo.
I smirked when stopping in front of a door that was for sure Kaiba's. This door was actually modeled after a freaking Duel Monster's card. It was still made of solid oak like the rest of them, but in the center the wood was stained with a darker oval, and the outer rim of the door was a lighter wood than the inner portion. It was subtle, for Kaiba, but still blatantly screamed that this was his room. That or it was his 'card room', which was worth a peek anyways. Seto Kaiba had every card in existence, or so he'd have you believe, and it would be intriguing to see how he'd organized his sets. No doubt there were Blue Eyes everywhere, but certainly he didn't keep his decks in there—right?
So was it his bedroom or a card room?
After staring at the door for two of my five minutes, I decided it was his bedroom. It was just too damn close to Mokuba's not to be, and I was sure his card room would be somewhere more secret. Another hint was the size of this room: there weren't any doors for the rest of the hallway, whereas on the opposite side there were at least three more bedrooms or closets. I was just glad there wasn't a freaking dragon on the door, but the fact that there wasn't remained surprising.
With my five minutes now up, I walked back to the room and took my spot on the floor to wait for the smaller Kaiba brother to return with the food. Maybe I was a little hungry.
Mokuba arrived around the six minute mark, carrying two bags of chips, a bowl of popcorn, and a six-pack of soda. I might have gotten up to help him but he seemed to be doing just fine on his own. The dark-haired boy dropped the chips before flopping across from me and offering me one of the drinks. "Here you go. It's root beer," he informed as I popped the can open.
I nodded before grabbing one of the bags to tear into the chips. They were mesquite-flavored. "No meat?"
Mokuba laughed, shaking his head. "No, but we have some leftover barbeque chicken in the fridge for later, if you want any."
"I might take you up on that." I wasn't a huge chicken fan, but any meat would suffice when necessary. Chips and soda were fine for now, but I knew I'd eventually need to get real food to satisfy myself. "So what now?" I'd never done the whole 'sleepover' thing before. I couldn't even recall Ryou having gone to any, so this was a new experience for me.
"Traditionally, we might play a game or tell stories or just do whatever is fun," he explained, stuffing his face with a handful of buttered popcorn. I preferred my own dry and heavily salted. Melted butter made me nauseated. "But I know you're not much in to the whole game scene, aside from Duel Monsters, and I'm not really very good at it. So how about we skip straight to story-time?" He smiled and tilted his head as I arched an eyebrow.
"Story-time?" I spat back. What was I, five? "What the hell?"
"Yeah! We can swap funny or weird stories. You know, just to get to know one another better."
Not willing to waste my remaining energy on arguing with a Kaiba, I just shrugged. "Whatever."
"Okay! I guess I'll go first, then."
I glared a little. "Don't tell me you're going to sit here for an hour talking about girls you have crushes on or something, because I don't think I could take that."
He laughed. "No! I can tell you something funny about Seto."
Well, now—that perked my interest. "I could listen to that."
"Okay. Well, what do you want to know?"
What a fun opportunity to better educate myself on the elusive Seto Kaiba. "How about you tell me something embarrassing?" I gave a toothy grin, leaning forward in expectation.
"Okay…" Mokuba leaned in as well and gave me his most mischievous smile. "He used to have a little crush on Yugi's brother. The guy who grabbed his butt that time"
I threw a hand forward. "I knew it!" I exclaimed and hit the carpet enthusiastically with my other hand. Finally! Proof! "I knew he had a sex drive! But for Atem? That's so hilarious! Tell me he fucked him!" I begged. "Please tell me he fucked the drama queen!"
"He never did anything about it," laughed Mokuba.
"Aww, well, shit." I fell back on the carpet, still snickering. "It would have made for some good stories!" After a few minutes, the hysteria finally settled and I was able to sit upright again, rubbing at my watering eye. "Oh god. Tell me more."
"I already said something, so it's your turn."
"I'm not telling you anything embarrassing about myself." He pouted a little. "You used your brother. How about I do Ryou?"
"I guess that would be fair," he agreed.
"Okay. Hm. Let's see. Something embarrassing…" I tapped at my bottom lip in consideration. There were lots of things I thought were embarrassing about Ryou, but I wasn't sure what might entertain Mokuba. "Okay then. How about this: Ryou color-coordinates everything he writes to me in gel-pens to express his emotions."
"That sounds like Ryou!" Mokuba laughed. "But that's not very embarrassing! What about his first kiss? Or something he's scared of?"
"Ryou's too shy for kissing anyone." I sat back on my arms. "As for stuff he's scared of, Ryou's easily startled so he's capable of being scared of most everything."
"He's like Seto then."
"Seto's easily startled?"
Mokuba shook his head. "No," he smiled. "The other thing."
My eyes widened slightly and my grin returned. "He's never kissed anyone? Are you fucking kidding me?" It really shouldn't surprise me. Seto talked big and bad and said the reason he didn't date as because his job took all his time, but it was obvious to me that he was very shy when it came to anything sexual. I wondered how long it might take some pressuring to break him out of that.
"Big brother's pretty bashful, I think."
"Yeah, well, his attitude doesn't help with the ladies, I'm sure," I mumbled. Mokuba blushed a little and went quiet for a moment. I studied the boy until tilting my head up a little in understanding, my eyelids slightly relaxing. "I see."
"See what?" He stuffed another mouthful of popcorn in his mouth. "So it's your turn then!" Before I could comment on my understanding of the previous statement, Mokuba had already changed the subject. How Kaiba-like on him. "What about you? Seto doesn't date and Ryou's too shy, and I'm obviously too 'young', so how 'bout you, Kura? Do you date?"
I shrugged. "I've casually dated in the past. Nothing fascinating came of it. Just stuff I can't tell you about."
"You're so mean! I want to know!"
"Too bad, kid." I took another mouthful of chips before finishing off my root beer and tossed the empty can into a garbage bin across the room. He proceeded to whine and beg for me to give up my secrets, but there wasn't a thing I was willing to share with Mokuba when it came to sex. "Too adult for you just yet."
"Okay," he moped. "Well… How about something else about yourself, then? Something interesting?"
"How vague." I picked at a piece of red crap in the carpet, growling a little when I couldn't seem to get it out. Maybe it was stained. Naughty, naughty. Kaibas were supposed to be anal and clean.
"How about you tell me what happens when Ryou's awake?" Mokuba suggested. "You know, when you're not around? You've never really told me what happens. Is it all just black? Do you even notice the shift?"
I sighed and sat upright again, scratching at my neck as I digested his questions. "Aren't you supposed to only get one question at a time?" Answering all of that would take a while, and I was feeling pretty damn lazy.
"Just explain what happens to you when Ryou's awake."
"It's nothing astonishing," I shrugged. "It's basically the same as sleeping. I always have the same dream series, though."
He tilted his head a little. "Dream series?"
"It's all about the same stuff," I yawned after giving up on figuring out what the red stain was. "It has the same basic places, people, and themes, but it's different every time, as though it is in sequence."
Contrary to my lack of believing that this was very special at all, Mokuba seemed fascinated. That face was one he only made when looking at something new and shiny. I didn't get what was so interesting about my dreams. I had them almost every night. Well, it had been three nights since the last one, but I always had them when Ryou was awake. What was so damn special about some recurring dream I had?
"That's so awesome," the small Kaiba awed. He leaned in closer as though he could see my dreams through my own eyes by gaping into them, and I leaned back and gave a little swat to shoo him away. What was with Kaibas and invading my personal space? What was it about me that said 'here is my personal bubble; please invade it'? "Tell me about it!"
I scowled. "Why do you care?"
"Because I'm curious!"
"You're always curious. That's hardly a good enough reason to take time to explain something so stupid."
"Come on, Kura! I wanna know!" He wriggled around and whined a little until I couldn't stand it anymore. "Pleaaaase? Pretty please?"
"Fine! God! Fine. Just…back away." He sat back on his feet and beamed up at me, patiently waiting for me to begin. It was a little more than annoying at how easy the brat could get me to bend to his will. But he did get a lot of practice on Kaiba, the world's least-flexible billionaire in existence (besides Ryou's father) so I needn't feel too bad about giving in to him. "It's not all one-hundred-percent clear, really," I began, "but I know I am in a desert in the dreams. It took me a long time to clarify that, and faces took even longer to find. I've had the same dream sequentially about six times in the last three years. I recognize a lot of people in it—Seto's there."
"He is?"
I nodded. "He's a priest though." Mokuba laughed at that. "Atem is there, too," I added. "He's a pharaoh."
"A pharaoh?" Mokuba's face twisted a little. "Like…Egypt?"
"Guess so."
"Hmm." He paused to mule this little bit of information over. "Have you ever been there?"
"Nope. I like the heat, but I don't know how well I'd stand up to the blaring sun with this pale skin of mine, so the Sahara isn't exactly on my places-to-visit list."
"That's a strange thing to dream about." Damn Kaibas, always studying my thoughts like they were something more than just rambling images and words put together. Had they forgotten that I was insane? That I wasn't even real? Who gave a flying fuck about my dreams? "Go on," he prodded.
"I'm some sort of thief," I continued, "and I'm out for revenge on the pharaoh."
"Atem, right?"
"Yup."
"Ahh. I get it. That's why you call him 'pharaoh' all the time at school. I was wondering about that."
"It seems to really bug him when I do it, too," I smirked. "He doesn't have a clue why I call him that. I think that's the part that bothers him."
"Tell me more!" Mokuba begged.
"Telling the entire story could take forever."
"We have all night."
"You're not going to let me sleep without telling you this damn story, are you?"
He smiled and just shook his head. "Nope! So get to it!"
I groaned as the boy shifted to lye on his stomach, getting comfortable for his 'story-time'.
It would be a long night…
"So….you die?"
It had been about three hours since I'd begun talking about my dreams, and, quite frankly, I was exhausted from it all. Like any good Kaiba, Mokuba was incessant with questions, determined to wring out as many details from me as he could manage. I'd finished the bag of chips, the leftover popcorn, and four of the six root beers by this time, and that chicken was sounding pretty good.
"Every damn time."
I scratched at my head and sighed, leaning my chin in a hand that was held upright by my elbow atop my knee. It was sort of depressing to think about, now that I actually took a moment to look back on my dreams: every time, at the end of the massive dream, I died. No matter how hard I tried, I never succeeded. Freaking Atem killed me every fucking time. I always knew the end was coming because it always happened the same way, and there was never anything I could do to prevent it. Nothing I wanted to do affected the outcome; it was as though it had all been set in stone.
The only good thing about dreaming the same thing constantly was that every time it got rebooted, I got more details. Mokuba had been most interested in my character's relationship with the 'priest', known as 'Seth' in my dream-world (I wasn't very imaginative, it seemed), when I'd told him that the two characters had apparently shared a fling. I kept most the details out of it, for both our sakes.
Mokuba seemed to share in my distress of my recurring death because his mouth was low on his face and his eyes were particularly large and bubbly. "That sucks! I wish you'd manage to beat him for once."
"That would be nice," I murmured.
"You know, these are really vivid dreams."
"I already said that."
"No. I mean…really vivid… My dreams are never that detailed. It's always something like me getting chased by a hamburger or something like that. This is more like…memories."
I arched an eyebrow before laughing. "Memories? It's just a recurring dream that's especially fucked up," I rasped before standing and stretching out my lanky body. "Now then, story-time is over. Go get ready for bed."
"All right…" He groaned a little as he stood up and began to roam towards his bathroom to change. "You need pajamas?"
"I have my boxers."
"Okay." He shut the door behind him and I got to stripping off my outer layers of clothing until I was down to my dark blue boxers, which had bats all over them. I was fond of this pair and only got to wear them when I was awake for an extended period of time. It was nice not to be in Ryou's British-flag boxers every once in a while.
A lazy glance at Mokuba's Kuriboh-themed wall clock told me it was just past midnight. It was still early for me, but the little runt needed to go to bed soon, especially if I wanted to try to find time to sneak into Seto's room. He should be getting home by three or so; Mokuba often waited up for his brother, but I had a feeling he'd forget to tonight with me being here. Once he was asleep, I could sneak out and check the locks on that door.
Even if it took another two or three sleepovers, I'd get in that damn room.
And there's the end of chapter 3.
Already 1500 words in to chapter four and Bakura is keeping me entertained.
I am pretty sure if Mokuba hadn't shown him where that coat was that he'd have had another freak out.
You know, I really need to keep up with his list. He seems to keep making it longer!
Getting side-tracked again by writing out some future-plots for this series! I need to focus on finishing chapter 4… I like how it is at the moment, but Bakura's being indecisive as of what to do next, so until he decides, I am working on this side story to amuse myself. And my roommate. Whom just read the 3 pages of it that I typed up and seems to want me to write more stuff in Seto's POV.
Haha. Anyways, I'll update this story ASAP. I guess I need to go back and write more to the Ryou-x-Kaiba one I have posted on here since people seem to like that one. I didn't get very far, though!
Talk to you guys the next time I post!
