Finally
Chapter Nine
Akina stood behind Yami with her hand over her mouth. After taking in her surroundings once her shock had lessened, she saw her boss standing in the doorway. Yami had his fists clenched waiting for him to make another move like that. But he just had his usual smug grin on his face, and that grin was just asking to get the shit kicked out of him! Akina turned quickly to put the children to bed… and not be a witness to a possible murder. Seto watched her as she raced out of sight and brought his attention back to Yami-who was now fuming even more than before. He let himself in and listened to the door slam shut behind him.
"I'm sorry. Did I interrupt something?"
"What do you want Kaiba?"
"Just my business partner back."
"From what she told me, it isn't just business with you," Yami retorted.
Akina came back down the stairs and went back to Yami, taking his hand in hers as a safety precaution. Seto noticed and a smirk broke out on his face. She was giving him the same cold look as Yami was and that was unusual for her, since she always greeted people with a smile if she hated them or not. They stood there glaring at each other for a moment before Akina decided to break the silence.
"Why are you here?"
"As I was just telling Yugi, I'm here for my business partner back."
Now Yami was getting annoyed. He was not Yugi! But he couldn't tell Seto that without him getting suspicious. Akina placed her other hand on his shoulder trying to calm him as much as she could. Seto took a step closer and Yami responded by placing himself in front of Akina. Seto kept his eyes on her, determined to leave with his partner. His intense stare was starting to make her shudder. She moved so that she could hide behind Yami-which wasn't very hard considering his hairstyle. The same smug look appeared on Seto's face again and the Yugi look alike almost killed him. Seto had a plan and he was going to make sure that it was perfectly executed. Akina rushed to the door and flung the door open. Bowing slightly she gestured out the door.
"I think you should leave now."
"Well, that won't be possible. My driver has left for the evening," he said, in the most arrogant way possible.
She looked out the door and noticed that his limo was gone and that she pointing out into the cold, dark, lonely streets. At the moment she could care less if he did spend the entire night out there. She didn't feel like dealing with him tonight. A sudden noise was heard from the staircase and Akina automatically brought her hands up to slap them across her face. Mokuba had woken up and was rubbing his eyes when he caught sight of his brother. He trudged across the cold floor and wrapped his arms around his brother, half dazed. Akina reached over and tugged him back a little ways so that she could pick him up again. He needed sleep and it was already twelve fifteen. She was hoping that Iva was a heavy sleeper and she couldn't hear the voices from upstairs. Mokuba was looking over Akina's shoulder as she took him back to the staircase. He reached towards his brother and she could hear the stress in his voice.
"Is big brother going to stay?"
She looked back and noticed the smile on her bosses face. He knew that she couldn't do anything to hurt Mokuba and in some ways she was like his older sister. She bit her lip but put on a smile for Mokuba who was now looking up at her for an answer. The tiniest glimmer of hope that rested in his eyes was enough to make Akina cry at his cuteness. But she didn't dare show any weakness in front of her boss/stalker. Yami had a continuous glare on him but would glance up at Akina every few seconds.
"I suppose…" she sighed, unpleased with her own answer.
Seto's face lit up and he walked over to her to take his brother away from her grasp. Yami was right behind him and had a good watch on his hands just in case. Once he was up the stairs Akina looked toward Yami had she could feel herself slipping. She was taking deep breathes to calm herself but that was doing absolutely nothing except making her dizzy. They made their way upstairs after they heard Mokuba's door shut. Seto stood in the hallway with one hand on the doorknob and the other shoved in his pocket. Akina kept a straight face but she could feel her palm sweating in her clenched fist. She stepped closer and pointed to a random room.
"You'll be staying here," she said coldly.
"Aren't you going to tell me where to find you?"
"You can find me down the hall second door on the right," Yami spoke.
Seeing the small smirk on Yami's face, Seto decided to retreat to his new room. Once his door was shut Yami pulled Akina down around the corner.
"How the hell did he find us?"
"Do you think I know? Mokuba must have called him or something, he didn't exactly know that I was running from him…" Akina trailed off looking back around the corner to the small Kaiba's room.
"Will you be alright? With him right down the hall, I mean," he questioned.
She nodded and walked back to her room without looking back. 'What did I do to deserve this shit?' That was a good question in her mind. She cared for the two children like they were her own, she was kind to most people-with an exception to Seto-, and she always thought of others first. Can't she think of her own safety for once? What was she supposed to do? While she was thinking about this in her room, she didn't hear her door open. She was sitting on her bed staring out the window in her clothes from earlier. She didn't dare change just in case he decided to come looking for her. That thought made her skin crawl a little bit. The figure sat on the other side of the bed causing the bed to squeak slightly. Akina jumped up with a small yelp and turned to see the intruder. Iva was looking down at her hands that she had placed in her lap. Akina was clutching her shirt where her heart was located in hope of stopping it from beating rapidly.
"Iva? Is everything alright?" she managed to ask between heavy breaths.
"Why is Mokuba's brother here?"
"... I wish I knew…" she whispered.
"Is he here to make up with you?"
"I told you that there was never anything there, Iva."
She rolled her eyes behind her eyelids as she reminded the little girl. Hadn't the last few days showed her that she loved Yami…Wait, did she just think that? She loved him… 'I might have to tell him that' Of course, after Seto had gone… or was murdered… which ever one came first. Even if she hated him Akina hoped for the first one. But she would have to wait until later. Iva walked over to sit near the teen, who was again sifting through her thoughts and, unfortunately no matter how hard she fought them, her memories were flooding back as well. Iva snuggled up to her 'caretaker'-as Akina liked to call herself- and started to drift to sleep. Akina thought about taking her back to her room, but stopped herself with the thought of Seto finding her bedroom. She soon started to fall asleep herself, fearing for the worst.
Seto on the other hand, wasn't tired. He placed his jacket on the chair in the corner of his room, and sat on his bed. So far this was all going as planned. He successfully entered the home, and was now there for the rest of the night. Now all he had to do was get Akina back. He sat for about five minutes in the silence of his bedroom. He could leave to search for her now and risk getting caught, or wait until he was positive she was asleep. Deciding not to have a run in with the furious man down the hall, he waited; and painstakingly at that. So at about one in the morning he slowly opened his door and peered into the hallway. He knew that Akina's room was down the left hallway since she didn't accompany Yami walking to his room. He saw that one door was slightly ajar so he opened it more to get a clear view of the room. Akina was asleep with the small girl in her arms. Yami took the door from his hand and pulled him from the door before he could enter.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I could ask you the same thing," Seto smirked.
"She's been having nightmares lately…" Yami trailed off, remembering the 'star' of her horrifying dream.
They were silent for a few minutes, both waiting for the other to make some sort of movement toward the door. Akina had been awake when Seto opened the door, because she heard the hinge squeak. She cuddled Iva closer to her out of fear. 'What the hell am I doing?' she asked herself. She slid away from Iva and walked to the door, wide open so that she could see the show. She stood in the doorway for about five seconds before anyone took notice of her. But once they looked at her, she only met Seto's gaze, hoping that she could stare right into his soul and mess up his confidence slightly.
"You know me better than that," he replied, giving his own death glare.
She smirked and began to walk down to the kitchen with the two men following her. She was very pissed. Not only because her stalker had shown up- but because she wasn't asleep right now. Seto followed close behind her but wondered why she gave him that cold look when she noticed him. She lifted herself onto the counter and looked at the two. They stood about two feet in front of her and seemed to forget about the others' existence. They stared at her waiting to see if she would say anything but she just examined them, biting her bottom lip when she looked into their eyes. 'Blue and Violet…' she wasn't going to pick from eye color-that would be ridiculous! The clock on the wall read twelve thirty…It was only half and hour into the New Year and she was already getting a bad start! She let out a long sigh and brought her attention to the two.
"Seto, I want you to leave as soon as you can. I will be back to work in a few days," she said sternly.
He gave her a questioning look and was about to retaliate but was stopped by her raising her hand to speak again.
"I have loved only one man. To me there was never another choice. It's been that way since… well let's just say my entire life," she giggled.
Seto didn't quite understand the statement but just looked over at his-what he referred to-competition, who was smiling at Akina's answer. You may have been wondering what exactly Akina was considering during those nerve-racking minutes of silence between the three. She was thinking about the future. How would she live? Did she want the life of fortune and fame, living with more than one maid and others tending to her every need so that she didn't need to lift a finger? Or… she could live with Ayame and Hiroshi in her own home, and two children would come everyday after school, and her new friends could talk and devour all of her food but she would laugh at it anyway-that was normal now. She couldn't imagine anything else. She could live her life the way she had been for the last year. If she had told Seto about the bands, he would have surely kept her for only one reason… research. After all the time working with him she had found out that he was a cold, power hungry, fun sucking man. But she couldn't help but love him. Unfortunately for him, it was more like a brotherly love. She had loved Yami from the very beginning and it was going to stay that way.
"I hope you don't plan on firing me because I would miss Mokuba coming over to play with Iva. She has taken a liking to him," Akina spoke in the most business tone possible.
Seto turned without a word and stalked back up to his room, slamming his door.
"I think he's mad," the girl sighed as she slid off of the counter.
Yami chuckled and hugged Akina but pulled back for a moment to look into her eyes.
"Did you mean that?"
"Mean what?" she asked flustered.
"That you have loved only one man," he chuckled again.
She blushed and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Yes. I hope that's alright," she joked.
They heard more footsteps and looked toward the stairs through the kitchen door to see the two children smiling at them. Mokuba-who Akina thought would be upset for her not choosing his brother-looked the happiest. Of course Iva was happy, but she was still sleepy from earlier so she had one eye closed and the other slightly open, head resting on her arms that were placed on the banister. Minutes later all of them were asleep, except for Akina who was still trying to prepare for the worst the next morning when she would face Seto again. Knowing him, she was looking at a giant grudge or even worse.
Seto woke at about six in the morning. He groaned after his five hours of sleep even if it was the most sleep he had gotten this month, he didn't want to wake up. But he did promise her that he would leave as soon as possible. Alright he didn't, but she expected him to. And if that made her happy then, he would do so. Akina was already at the table when he made his way down into the living room, to see Yami sitting on the large sofa drinking water from a tall glass. Iva and Mokuba soon joined him and Akina just watched the group with careful eyes as Seto took a seat across from his rival. Seto looked up and met her gaze again, but unlike that night, she just smiled at him.
"I will see you in a few days then Ms. Hanari. I'll be looking forward to seeing you," Seto said, rising from his chair.
'Just like that?' she thought as he walked to the front door with his cell phone to his ear. She walked him to the door, leaving the view of Yami and the two children. Seto turned quickly and Akina ran into him not paying attention.
"Mokuba can visit as much as he likes and work will be as normal as it used to be before-"
He was caught off guard by a pair of arms wrapping around him. She was about a foot shorter than him, only five foot three inches. She pulled back and looked him in the eyes and smiled wide.
"Thank you Mr. Kaiba."
He raised his hand and placed it on top of her head. After bending down to reach her eye level he corrected her again, like he did weeks ago after the party.
"Seto."
And then he left, after kissing her one last time. She stood, shocked and confused, in the doorway. He smiled his genuine smile and retreated to his limo that had waited for him at the road. Akina waved still with the stunned expression and slowly closed the door after he was out of sight. She walked into the living room and sat close to Yami resting her head on his shoulder. She looked down at his wrist and saw the bracelet that had been with him the entire time she had known him in this world. One little golden trinket had kept him here and it could easily be taken away. Then she glanced at his chest and the shining puzzle that he always had. He would have to go back there soon and talk with Yugi, but did that mean that he would leave her?
"I don't plan on going back," he answered her unasked question.
She was confused at first. How did he know that was what she was thinking? But then she noticed that her hand was unconsciously rubbing the small band on his wrist and she had been staring at his Millennium Item. A dark blush filled her cheeks and she pulled away from him but was tugged back. Iva and Mokuba were too preoccupied with the television to notice anything that they were doing. But it was extremely difficult to think that Seto would just go like that. But maybe it was just her over thinking it. She shrugged it off and kissed Yami just like she would any other day. Not thinking about Seto for the rest of the day.
Seto rested in the back of his black stretch limo and sighed deeply. Did he want to leave? 'No.' Did he regret his past efforts? 'No.' Did he think he loved her? 'Yes.' Did he love to see her happy? 'Yes.' Would he continue chasing after her even if she hated him? 'Yes.' And that was that. The pros outdid the cons so he would continue to watch from afar like he had been doing for an entire year. But Akina was happy and he could see it. She didn't look at him the way she did with Yami. Of course he knew that it would last forever. While he thought about his future, Akina just sat with Yami feeling the same as she did 5,000 years ago. Now that Yami knew his past and Akina could finally live with it, could it be they can start where they left off? This, in Akina's opinion, was the best thing that ever happened to her. So what happened happened and you can't change it, but you can change the future.
