Middle of the Summer
Chapter: 7
Title: Woe Is Us
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: Hunnnnmmmmmpaarrrr-guh. Okay, well that was my attempt at spelling out a dramatic sigh. I am uploading the newest chapter because, well... I feel bad punishing the people who did review for the fact that I didn't get my three reviews. I guess I'm not going to be able to force all those people who have my story on alert and such to review, but I will say it's kind of offensive. I'm posting an entire chapter for you, and you can't even bother with a review. If I could spell out a sad-face, I would.
"Son a BITCH!"
The yell ran through the Kaiba manor, reaching even the floor below where Seto Kaiba had been working on his computer for half-an-hour. Blue eyes glanced up from the computer screen they had been focusing on. Mokuba wasn't due home for another twenty minutes or so, and Ali had been using the music room for something or another. Her shout hadn't really fazed him, it was the loud crash that followed which caused him to stand and leave his study to walk upstairs.
As the brunette turned in to the room where Ali had been since they arrived his eyes could barley contain their amusement. The blonde girl was curled up on the floor next to the white piano, holding her head in pain, papers scattered around her and the twelve-string acoustic guitar in her lap. From what he could gather Seto decided that she had been playing the guitar atop the piano, and had fallen off of it, which would explain the crash.
It took a few moments before she registered the older Kaiba's presence in the room.
"Oh, you find this funny?" she hissed, noticing the slight smirk that graced his lips. When he didn't answer she muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'sadistic bastard'. Shakily she stood, one hand still cradling her head, the other holding the guitar by its neck. "You know I could have a damn concussion!" she grimaced, placing the guitar back in the piano before bending down to gather the scattered sheets of paper.
"How does one manage to fall off of a piano? Why were you even up there to begin with?" the brunette asked coyly leaning against the doorway.
"I just like it up there." She snapped standing to place the messy pile of papers atop the piano as well. "I was playing, and then I went to… move over, but apparently I was already sitting on the edge, and then BAM!" she exclaimed pointing at her head. "Luckily my freakin' skull absorbed the shock, so the guitar didn't break."
The white sundress she wore was wrinkled, and the ripped jeans only added to her scruffy presence. Slowly she approached the white leather couch and laid down on it, returning to cradling her head. "It… actually hurts." She murmured letting her eyes slip shut.
"Well whose fault is that?" the brunette mocked, though straightening up and moving to stand next to the younger girl. "Let me see." He motioned for her to sit up.
Brown eyes snapped open, staring suspiciously at the boy before she shook her head, grimacing in the pain it caused. "No, it's fine." She sat up, as if to prove her point.
Ignoring her words the brunette laid his hand on the back of her head to feel for a bump. The blonde gasped, throwing a hand down on Seto's leg to help her stand. "Don't touch me!" she exclaimed much louder than she had intended to. Clearing her throat she shook her head, a sharp pain piercing into her skull as she did so. "Sorry, I just… I said don't." she muttered looking at the floor quickly.
Seto frowned; in all honesty he hadn't meant to freak her out so much, however her ridiculous overreaction wasn't his problem. "Whatever."
The brunette stood to leave but Ali's voice stopped him. "Ugh, my head kills… don't suppose you have any painkillers around?" she tried, feeling slightly guilty about rejecting the only amount of concern he had yet shown for her.
"Hn."
The blonde took it as a yes and followed him out of the room and through a few different halls before he opened a door and stepped in, Ali followed at his heels.
The room was extremely clean, although dark. Navy drapes had been pulled, keeping the bright sun from the room, a computer desk sat in the corner of the room with several large stacks of paper neatly piled around the machine. What stopped Ali in her tracks was the bed.
It was massive, a four-poster cherry-wood frame held the huge mattress. Unlike most four poster beds she had seen, this one had no curtains of any sort hanging around it, the dark navy blankets on the bed matched the drapes. She sighed, suddenly hating her own old double bed, which didn't even have a frame. She pouted, she would have traded her mattress on the floor, for just one nights sleep in that gorgeous bed.
"Here." Seto said, he had just emerged from what she assumed was a washroom, connected to the bedroom. In his hand was a bottle of prescription-strength painkillers. Ali took the bottle reading the label; it was prescribed to 'Kaiba, Seto' she glanced back up at the blue-eyed boy.
"Are you sick?" she asked, it was unusual for someone to have pills this strength unless they had been in a horrible accident or something. The brunette shook his head.
"No, are you going to take them?" he asked, annoyance clear in his voice.
"Uh, sure." She mumbled. It wouldn't hurt her, they weren't too serious, nothing she couldn't handle. "But… I'll need something to drink."
Seto's eyes rolled, he strode across the room, opening a black mini-fridge and removing a bottle of water, returning to hand it to her. She popped one of the pills into her mouth and chased it down with a drink of water. "Is this your room?" she asked, handing the pill bottle back to the older teen.
He nodded taking the pills and turning back to his washroom to return the medicine to his cabinet. The blonde girl walked to the bed, climbing up and curling herself into the fetal position on the blankets.
"What are you doing?" his voice was mostly irritated, with a slight hint of amusement. The girl hadn't even heard him come up behind her.
"Wondering how many supermodels you've screwed on this bed." The blonde answered as if it was the most casual thing she had ever said, but the brunette had to refrain from letting jaw drop.
"That's really none of your concern." He said icily. "Get off my bed."
"Hm… I'm guessing between five and… eight." She said, sitting up and making a thoughtful face. "Well you don't seem like a guy who's in to porn stars… and no right-minded girl would actually date you. So you must be getting your fix from models." She explained, a dangerous smirk etched over her face.
Seto only stared at the girl, he was beyond annoyed with her, especially considering she was partially right, he had, on more than one occasion, spent the night with a supermodel. He wasn't looking for love, and neither were the majority of the half-famous girls he had been with. It was easy, quick and the women were beautiful, of course he wasn't about to share this information with her.
"Off." He repeated firmly.
Ali complied standing from the bed and leaving the room, before sticking her head back in through the door.
"Uh… I have no idea where to go from here." She said slowly. The last thing she wanted to do that night was get lost in the Kaiba mansion.
The brunette rolled his eyes, exiting the room and closing the door, letting the blonde follow him through the halls until they were downstairs and Seto had reentered his study, Ali dancing in behind him.
Choosing to ignore her, the brunette seated himself back at his computer and continued typing the report he had been working on before. The Russian teen approached the bookshelves along the opposite wall.
Her nose crinkled as she looked over the spines of the books, there were books from every language she knew, and some she didn't, all of them encyclopedias or reference books of some sort… not a novel in sight.
Sighing loudly, Ali sat on one of the brown leather chairs in the room, turning herself so that her legs hung over one of the arms. "I'm bored."
"Go do something."
"Like what?"
Seto's blue eyes stared towards her, he didn't care what she did to cure her boredom, and frankly he just wanted to finish his work in peace. "I don't care."
Sighing again the blonde chewed on her chapped lips and stared around the room. "What're you doing?"
"Working."
"But what are you doing?"
"Get out of here."
"Fine!" she stood from the chair and stored out of the study leaving Seto to finally enjoy the peace and quiet.
After several minutes though the silence became unnerving. He couldn't hear the piano being played, or anything breaking, which as he had come to learn… meant that Ali was up to no good. Growling quietly the brunette rose from his desk, angered at having to stop and check on her yet again.
Seto found the Russian girl in the kitchen, perched atop on of the counters lying on her stomach. She was scribbling away on a pad of yellow legal paper and tapping her feet against the wall, listening closer he could hear her humming quietly.
"Miss me already?" Ali asked, looking up from whatever she was doing, her voice laced with sarcasm and her brown eyes sparkling in amusement.
"I was just making sure you weren't destroying anything." The brunette replied icily, making his way to the fridge to remove a bottle of water. As he did so he smelled the putrid scent of cigarette smoke, turning to look back at the blonde he noticed that she had a cigarette burning and was using one of his crystal wine glasses as an ash tray. "Do not smoke in my house." He stated stepping towards her.
"Alright, alright! Don't give yourself a freaking aneurism over it, geeze…" Ali said dramatically taking a last drag of her cigarette and butting it out in the glass, then she raised her hands as if to say 'there you go'.
The brunette lifted the glass from the counter and dropped it in to the garbage can; he wouldn't be drinking out of it again. Frowning he turned back to the blonde who was staring at him trying to muster her best innocent look… she didn't seem able to pull it off.
"What?" she asked as he studied her, a sly grin appearing on her face. "See something you like, Kaiba?"
"Yes, the sight of your mouth—closed. I was nice while it lasted."
Ali pouted dramatically, before returning to her writing. "My friends' band is playing tomorrow night, I was hoping I could take Mokie." She said. "You remember Jordan from Saturday? He's the bassist."
"No." Seto didn't even need to think it over, there was no way he was releasing his brother to the wildfire blonde and her creepy friends.
"Why?" she whined looking towards him and scooting to the edge of the counter so only her legs were hanging off. "I think it would be good and… as his teacher I know what is best!"
Blue eyes stared at her coldly, "What time would you be taking him?"
"Well, they go on stage at 10 tomorrow night."
"Where?"
"There's this quaint little bar a few blocks from my place." She answered, smirking at her use of the word 'quaint', it was far from quaint.
Seto raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Those would be the first two reasons I absolutely forbid it."
"And what are the other reasons?"
"You, and your friends." He stated turning and exiting the room, leaving the Russian girl to grumble and wait for Mokuba to finally return from school.
--
"No! Ugh… Mokuba you're a total drag!" Ali exclaimed, aggravated by the boy for the seven-millionth time that evening. "It needs passion!"
"Sorry, but I just can do this!" the boy replied, lowering his sad eyes and shaking his head. The blonde had been pushing to create an original composition on his guitar for an hour, but he simply couldn't manage to please her.
Sighing, the Russian placed her hand on the boy's fallen shoulder. "It's okay, you can do it… I'm probably just taking the wrong approach. Let's start try again, tell me what's going on in your head?"
"Nothing. I have no idea what I'm trying to do…" Mokuba said slowly, shifting the guitar in his lap he had eaten a lot at dinner and felt slightly bloated.
"Just think of something that means a lot to you, and transfer the passion you feel in to music." She explained, listening when the raven-haired child tried again. The chords were simple and mediocre as he played.
"That's worse!" Ali sighed trying desperately to think of what she could possibly do to help the boy when her eyes suddenly lit up and she yanked the guitar from his small hands, setting it on the floor. "I've got it!"
"What?" Mokuba looked confused at the blonde's sudden revelation.
"You need words." She said quickly walking quickly to the other end of the room where a stack of lined paper sat on a shelf. Returning with a few sheets and a pen she handed them to Mokuba. "Start writing." She stated tossing a pen in his direction and turning to exit the room.
"What am I supposed to write about?" he asked, his voice holding a whiny undertone.
"I dunno… whatever matters to you." She quipped stepping from the room and walking down the halls, counting doors so that she knew where to turn until she reached the stairs. She walked down to the first floor and opened the door that she knew led to Seto's study, he was sitting at his desk talking on the phone, his eyes narrowed when he spotted her but he continued on with the conversation.
"I want the blueprints finished by next week, no excuses." He demanded, irritated. His blue eyes watched the blonde as she opened one of the massive windows on the wall and hoisted herself up to sit on the window sill, lighting a cigarette.
The hot muggy air seeped into the room, battling with the crisp cool air created by the air conditioner. Ali was staring into the courtyard watching a large marble, dragon-shaped fountain spew water over itself into a shallow pool. Flowers dotted the yard and she noticed that the landscaping had been worked out beautifully.
"I specifically remember telling you not to smoke in my house." He said blandly after hanging the phone.
"You say a lot of things, but all I really here is blah-blah-work-blah-you suck-blah." Ali replied not bothering to look his way as she flicked her ashes out the window. "At least I have a window open and I'm not polluting your brother's tiny little lungs."
"And my lungs?"
"You don't really care about your own health seeing as all you do is drink coffee and avoid real food. So I'm not going to bother trying to keep you healthy." She said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Glaring at the side of her face, the brunette tried a different approach. "There is nothing less attractive on a woman than smoking."
"There is nothing less attractive on a man than being a workaholic-android."
It was clear that it wasn't a battle worth fighting, so Seto only rolled his eyes and turned to his computer screen typing something on the keyboard before he stood and left the room.
Ali sat in the quiet for a few moments, not really bothering to keep the smoke from her cigarette from blowing into the room. When the phone on Seto's desk rang, an evil grin settled on her face and she tossed the butt of the cancer-stick out the window, jumping down to lift the phone on its third ring.
"Kaiba residence, Seto's sex puppet speaking."
There was a long silence on the other end before anything else was said. "Oh, er… hi. This is Yugi Motou, I'm calling to talk to Kaiba."
"He's not in me right now, he went out to buy new handcuffs, ours broke… kinky bastard." She said as though it was the most natural thing to say, though her face was contorted in an attempt not to laugh.
"Oh… well when he gets back in… you… could you let him know tha--"
The blonde cut him off when Seto reentered the room holding a mug of coffee. "Oh! Look at that that, he's back… here!" she yelled holding the phone out to the brunette, who noticed that her face looked like she had been caught doing something she wasn't suppose to be doing.
"Hello?" he greeted, though his face registered anger when he realized who was on the line. Ali watched as he talked on the phone, he didn't say much and when he did his answers were short. Finally he placed the phone back on its cradle.
"That your boyfriend?" she asked, knowing full well that it wasn't.
Seto glared at her. "Just a loser who thinks I might be interested in the new shipment of cards his grandfather's store just received."
"Right…" she said slowly, not sure what to make of the ridiculous situation, but lucky that she hadn't been caught for telling insane lies. "Well I should go back up to help Mokie. He's passionless too, you know. I guess you two are somewhat alike." She grinned, before twirling out of the room.
When the blonde returned to the music room she was greeted with what was possibly the most adorable sight she had ever seen. Mokuba was lying on the floor on his stomach, his feet sticking up behind him and kicking back and forth. The unruly raven hair fell into his eyes as he chewed absently on the pen in his hand, his free hand traced circled on the polished wood floor as he thought.
Ali giggled quietly, but was heard by the child who snapped out of his daze and looked up at her. "I wrote some stuff." He muttered pushing the paper towards her and moving to sit on his knees. She lifted the paper and read over it.
'…I watched him get thrown at walls, I heard him cry at night until one day he just stopped. It was in the middle of the summer when my brother turned in to someone I didn't know anymore. He never smiled, he didn't laugh and he hasn't shed a tear ever since…'
Ali's brown eyes narrowed as she read over the page, and looked down at Mokuba who was staring up at her nervously. She cleared her throat before speaking, "Is… what is this?"
"You said to write about something that mattered to me."
"Mokie… where is this coming from?" the blonde asked softly sitting down next to the boy and looking into his storm coloured eyes.
"It's just things I remember from when me and Seto were adopted." He said, Ali remembered that Seto had told her earlier about he and his brother being orphaned by their parents' deaths.
"Right, well that's good. I'll take this home and see if I can turn it in to something…" she offered tucking the sheet into her black bag. "I have to be getting home, though." She pulled the child into a warm embrace, the faint scent of gardenia drifting from his hair into her nose.
She stepped off the staircase and looked at the closed door of Seto's study, still confused by the words Mokuba had written. She didn't understand what he had been trying to say, but the little voice in the back of her mind was screaming that she shouldn't mention anything to the brunette.
Sighing lightly she stepped into her purple boots and opened the front door where Frederic, the driver was waiting patiently in the car out front. The warm evening air caressed her bare arms and she stared out into the sky.
"I guess it doesn't take a kidnapping or a death to lose someone…" she murmured before opening the car door and falling exhaustedly on to the seat.
The over dramatic life of the Kaiba brothers was beginning to wear her down.
R&R
KC.
