2 years 7 months ago

Kaiba hadn't heard from Laken in a few days, and he had a hunch why, but he didn't really like to think about it. So he was in his office fiddling with some new device when he noticed the blue rectangle shining at him from the corner of a desk. He put down his work and walked over to the object: Laken's personal phone. He chuckled in his mind. That could also explain why he hadn't heard from her much. He wanted to run it over to her apartment right away, but he was making really good progress and knew if he left now, he would come back and be lost on what he was doing with it. He shrugged it off and put the object back down. She didn't use her personal phone much anyway, she'd be fine without it until the end of the work day.

Kaiba's work day ran a little over: until about 4 am. Kaiba grabbed the phone and dropped it in his shirt pocket. He thought he'd just go home and return it tomorrow, but it was a Friday and he knew that Laken stayed up late. Even on school nights she would take a nap as soon as she got home and barely sleep during the night. Probably had to do with her work. So he decided to stop by her apartment, it couldn't hurt.

He stood outside the door and knocked at it a few times. He of course didn't hear her walk up behind the door and look through the peephole, he never could, though he hadn't yet made any mental notes of it. "What is it Kaiba?" She didn't call him 'Seto.' The voice wasn't the usual chipper nature of hers. It wasn't the sleepy voice of hers either that it usually was whenever it wasn't chipper. And the only other voice he had ever heard was the dead seriousness that she had spoken with when she told him about her employment. But this voice was entirely new and different. It was… threatening and harsh. He had never heard it like that before and it surprised him. He just stood there for a moment. "Sorry, that came out really angry sounding." This time wasn't happy, but it wasn't angry either. It was a normal speaking voice. "So what are you here for?" That time she sounded happier, but Kaiba was still worried. He swallowed as he looked at the door and she could see even through the peephole that he was concerned.

"Laken… are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay… So what's up?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out the blue rectangle.

"You left your phone at my office." He could hear her laugh through the door.

"That's what you came here for at… 4:30am? You're unbelievable."

"So… Will you open the door?" There was silence on the other side.

"Sorry, no can do, just… I'll get the phone tomorrow, I'll go over to your house and pick it up."

"Come on, I came all the way over here at 4:30am and you're just gonna pick it up tomorrow?"

"Okay, just give me a second." He didn't hear any movement inside beside a little water running. He heard it turn on and off a few minutes later as he stood awkwardly outside the door. A few moments after it turned off the door opened if only a crack and Laken's head poked through. She smiled sadly at her friend, "Thanks for bringing it over." Kaiba held onto the phone with a frown and an accusatory raised eyebrow.

"What's going on in there?"

"Nothing's going on it's just…"

"Just what?"

"Well, I just got back from a job…" Kaiba continued staring at her. "It's not pretty." She looked down at the ground with sad eyes and Kaiba studied her. She looked back up at him after a long, silent while and started feeling uncomfortable under his stare. "What?"

"I just realized what you mean when you say you're an awful person…" She looked at him inquizically, waiting for him to continue speaking. He spoke as though he had no soul, like he wasn't really there. "… You don't feel guilt do you?" Her face stayed frozen for a moment, like she was trying to decide whether to deny or confirm the claim.

"I feel guilt just... I just ignore it... I'm used to pushing back emotions."

"May I come in?" She turned around and inspected the room he couldn't see and opened the door wide for him and motioned him in. He took two long steps inside and she shut and locked the door behind him. The two of them stood quietly as he surveyed the room: nothing popped out right away, no smoking guns or bloody knives laying around, but his eye was drawn to the sink. He took a few steps closer to see a black lump of fabric inside. A river of dark blood came away from one of the sides and squirreled with the current down the drain. He then looked to the side where there was a cardboard box, which had blood coming out of the bottom, like grease in a fast-food container, it stained through. Below it was a folded up towel with layers of paper towels on top of it. The box was open and upon inspection there was more bloody cloth. From one of the corners he also saw what looked like a book and some broken pieces of wood and the bottom of a mop, and a soap sprayer. He looked at the rest of the counter and didn't find much interesting: a few pieces of meat were flung on the counter top, which he noted as odd. He turned around and looked at the rest of the room before turning to the girl. "Torture or murder?"

"Murder."

"Those the victim's?" he nodded his head back toward the sink. She shook her head. "Well whose are they?"

"They're mine, I got hurt on the job."

"You okay?" She looked at him incredulously, like she couldn't believe he had just asked her that. She had just gone on a job to murder, and he was asking if she was okay after seeing a little blood of hers. To Kaiba, it just felt natural. She nodded.

"So where's all your stuff?" she knew he was referring to the weapons and the like.

"Secret."

"Is that what you were doing at the door?" She shook her head.

"I was cleaning myself up. I needed to get the blood off my face." He stood silently with his hands in his pockets as she looked at the ground.

"How'd you get hurt?"

"Some thug got me in the side with a knife." He looked up at her. "I'm fine, I already patched myself up." He stood in silence with his hands in his pockets looking at his shoes. His head then shot up at her.

"I don't get you… you're, you're… you're so nice all the time. But at the same time you, you do... this for a living. You're my best friend… but at the same time I hate you because I don't understand you, and you intrigue me because I want to understand you but can't." He bit his lip gently. "And I… I'm confused because I like both sides of you even though they're opposite. But who are you?" He looked at her with determined eyes despite his stuttering. His icy gaze was met by the same apathetic wall of green that greeted so many others.

"I don't know." She held his stare and spoke as fact. She just didn't seem to care that she didn't know who she was.

"I don't even know your real name, but I need you to call me 'Seto.' And that name is reserved. I don't even let Roland call me that. But I need you to. It feels wrong when you don't." He looked for any change in her still walled eyes but saw none. "Who was the target?"

"Some underground drug dealer."

"Do you hurt innocent people ever?" Kaiba wasn't sure if he had ever heard greater silence before she answered.

"Not often. I mostly work the big cases, where evil rich people target other evil rich people."

"But… you sometimes kill innocent people…" She sighed.

"It's just a job, none of us are innocent and we all die at some point anyway."

"That's... that's sick!" She held his gaze in hers.

"Look! I do my job to survive. And I try to kill the people with the least pain possible! There are lots of other assassins who would be assigned to the jobs I have. If I didn't, someone else would, but some of the others... I try to make it painless and quick. There are some others who don't," She stood quietly and rubbed her crossed arms, like she was cold. "And don't act so high and mighty Kaiba. Your past isn't exactly clean."

"I never said it was. And I'm not saying anything bad about you." He couldn't find it in himself to hate her, and he hated it. No matter what he couldn't hate her. He stood with his hands in his pockets for a few minutes in silence, barely breathing, than ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes.

"I told you to call me Seto." He looked up at her now surprised green eyes. She watched him. He walked over to her and stood directly in front of her. "You may be sick, but I'm just as bad, because no matter how hard I try I can't hate you." The two locked eyes. "I mean, I asked you if you were okay…"

"I'll find a way out of it, Kaiba_"

"Seto."

"No. I won't call you that until I pay up for my crimes."

"No. I need you to call me Seto."

"Fine. Goodbye, Seto." She pushed him out the door and immediately locked it behind him. He stood in the hallway and wondered how he got in front of the door, when she opened it, and when she took her phone back. He sighed. She sure was good at what she did.

Almost 4 years ago

"Kaiba?" He looked at her from the chess board now splayed across her hospital bed. "What happened to your family?" He sighed and made his next move. "They died."

"Well that wasn't vague at all."

"Sorry, it's just personal is all."

"Well you found out a lot of stuff about me from the nurses and doctors without my consent. I'd say being gang raped and mother massacring your entire family is pretty personal." She moved a black pawn forward.

"Look, I'm sorry about being nosy. If you really want to know my mother died giving birth to my brother and my father died 3 years later in a car accident. After my family died our extended family took our money and left us at the orphanage. I played a man named Gozaburo Kaiba in chess. The deal was if I won he'd adopt my brother and me. I won. I knew living with Gozaburo would be tough, but if I took the brunt of it Mokuba would have a good home. So I was abused and then took over the company a few years ago. He killed himself and now I run the company." She nodded.

"Gozaburo have any family?"

"He had a son who died around the time he adopted my brother and me and an ex-wife, but that was it really."

"He kill himself because of you?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"At least he was a bad guy." He looked at her sad face leaning lazily on a hand as she made her next move.

"Hey, none of that was your fault."

"Doesn't bring them back to life."