A/N:Once again, I am so, SO sorry for the delay. I think it's the dark weather having an effect on me. I just feel so lazy and tired all the time, and I keep getting distracted by different things, like... real life... and homework... and colds... but they're all bad excuses! I've had so much time to write in, and I've wasted it! Stupid me!
I do have one good reason, though. Over on deviantArt I've joined a group called The Black Fedora Pirates. Basically it's an RP group where a little group of different people is gathered to have fun, speaking like pirates and upload pirate themed stories once in a while. We all have an OC to play as. Mine is called Claire de Luna.
I won't go into much detail about it, but Claire de Luna is a soulless being, a human who has lost his/her soul, and has travelled the world for about 500 years in search of killing the one who took her soul and regain her memories. Then one night she encounters the captain of The Black Fedora Pirates, Captain Chenbeard, and after a ferocious battle against her creator Core, aka. the guy who took her soul, to keep Core from stealing Chenbeard's soul, she agrees to join his crew of pirates... and that is where her story begins.
In other words, I'm actually working on two projects now. The Crystal Items and the story of Claire de Luna. If anyone of you wish to read more about Claire de Luna, I am adding the link to my deviantArt account in my profile on this site.
EDIT: this has now been beta'd.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but OC's and plot.
Hanabi vs. Mokuba
Yugi:
Yugi stared at the scene in front of him: the fuming children, the blank expressions of their older siblings, the amused face of Pegasus.
A silence so heavy it could kill had fallen over the room. Then Una slowly began to talk.
"Wait, so it's him you've been ranting about for days on end? Him you've been ranting about with your friends?" she said, looking at the two.
Hana nodded, looking a bit smug.
Una closed her eyes, her eyebrow twitching and her face reddening. What she did then happened so quickly, Yugi almost didn't catch the movement of Una's hand. Una suddenly held two strands of Hana's hair between her thumb and second finger, pulling upwards, while Hana whined and begged for her to let go.
"Nee-samaaaaa!" Hana whined, trying to get the older girl to let go. "It hurts!"
"Serves you right!" Una said sternly. "How many times have I told you to watch your temper?" She tugged a little at the hairs.
Hana jumped a little to cease the pull on her hair. "I don't remember, but come on! Please let go," she answered.
Una knitted her brows. "No," she said. "Not until you get it into your little head, that you should always… what?" Her voice was stern, as she gave the hairs a quick little yank.
"Ouch! Watch my temper," Hana said.
Una tugged the hairs again. "That is correct, but what else?" She asked..
Hana sucked a breath in through her teeth. "Think before I speak," She tried to grab Una's hand, but the older girl just moved it out of her reach, tugging on the hairs at the same time.
"Yes, and…?" Una twirled the black hairs around her fingers.
Hana's eyes widened. "Uhm…" she mumbled.
Una knitted her brows and pulled the hairs upwards. "And…?!" she demanded. "Watch your temper, think before you speak and…?!"
Hana hissed. "Never act like a spoiled child, because I've been raised better than that!" she said, whining a little.
With that, Una let go of the hairs and patted the little girl's head. "Good. Then that's out of the way," she said and turned to the stunned group. "Sorry, Hana here is a handful, unless you know the little weaknesses."
Hana pouted and rubbed her head. "Yeah, just wait until someone pulls at your hair, and tell me how funny that is," she mumbled, going to stand behind Pegasus, who just laughed and ruffled her hair.
Feeling a bit sorry for the little girl, Yugi did the same, only managing to flatten the now unruly hair.
"Is that the way Una scolds you?" Yugi asked curiously.
Hana shook her head. "No, only when she's trying to get an important message through to me. And it does… but when I get mad, I forget it, thus the hair pulling," she said sheepishly, rubbing the sore spot again.
Pegasus laughed. "Like mother, like daughter. Marie did the same thing to Cecelia and me, when we had gotten ourselves into big trouble, and needed her help to fix it," he said.
"Ouch!"
The sudden outburst turned Yugi's, and Atem's of course, attention back to the rich duo. Apparently, it had become Mokuba's turn to experience Una's hair pulling.
"But she intruded on my secret place!" Mokuba protested.
"That doesn't make it her fault," Una scolded, at the same time Kaiba said, "That's doesn't mean you own it, Mokuba."
"But… ouch! Please stop!" Mokuba said, as Una tugged at the hairs again.
"No buts, Mokuba. That place is on the grounds of The Saitekina Academy, so you can never claim it is yours, because it is not. You just found it before anyone else," Kaiba said. "So no more of this stupidity, understood? You two were both at fault in this."
Mokuba nodded, causing the hairs to be pulled a bit, as if to intensify what both the older teens were saying.
"Good," Una said, letting go of Mokuba's hair and patting his head. "Then that is out of the way. Except… Hana!"
Yugi noticed Una's pendant flashed in a golden color, as she called for Hana's attention. As the little girl looked up, he couldn't help but think that in that second, there was something different about Una's appearance. Just for a little second. He couldn't quite figure out what, but she had definitely looked different.
~We'll have to find out what that pendant is~ Yugi said through the mind link.
~So you admit something is wrong about her? About time,~ Atem said.
Yugi just quietly shook his head at the spirit.
Hanabi:
Hana looked at her sister, who had called for attention. She noticed the golden glint from the tear drop pendant Una always wore, and instantly knew it was important.
"Yes, Onee-sama?" she said, walking to stand next to her sister… but as far away from the jerk Mokuba as possible.
Una put her hand on the younger girls head and said, "Just like Seto and I have many things in common, more than I would like to admit, I believe you and Mokuba will find out you both have much in common."
Hanabi nodded, but only just so her sister could feel it through her hand. It was an answer to Una's silent request: be nice and don't try to kill each other.
"Well, I'll try… but I make no promises," she thought, glaring a little at the black haired boy in front of her. Mokuba was sending her a glare of his own.
"The same goes for you, Mokuba," Kaiba said. "Now, run off and go play somewhere, you two."
Hanabi nodded and bowed. "Of course… follow me, chibi Kaiba," she said in an overly sweet voice.
She noticed the younger Kaiba's eyes twitch as she called him that, but he followed nonetheless. She couldn't help but send him a mocking smirk when she turned around. She noticed he gritted his teeth, seething in rage. They both knew, however, that they were only playing nice while their older siblings could hear them.
And as they both predicted, once they were out of the adults' hearing, they said simultaneously, "That was your entire fault!"
Hana glared at him. "How was it my fault?!" she sneered.
The boy glared right back at her. "If you hadn't intruded on my secret place, we wouldn't even be in this mess!"
Hana let all of her anger show in her eyes and gritted her teeth. "Your' secret…! You stupid jerk! It was so not my fault! It was you who demanded I left a public place. I mean hello-o~ arrogant!" She said, turning on her heel and walking towards a big door.
Mokuba fumed and followed. "Hey, where are you going?" he called.
Hana opened the door and went inside. "I figured you wanted something to eat, since your cooking skills are beyond horrible," she said, smirking, as she showed him a big room with tables filled with any kind of food.
Mokuba:
Mokuba felt himself go red in the face. The nerve of this girl! He was going to get back at her for that.
He took a lookat all the food around him. It actually looked pretty good. Plates filled with everything from sushi to minced pies to chocolate cake to big juicy apples. The offending girl had taken one of said apples and bit into it, smiling happily as she munched on it.
He snorted, and she looked at him.
"Whut?" she said, frowning, as she took another bite of the fruit. "Eny broblems wif," she swallowed the bite. "The way I eat?" she asked.
He smirked, preparing the right words in his head. "Actually, I do," he said, walking over to her and grabbing the apple right out of her hands. She scowled, reaching for it.
"Give that back!" she demanded.
Mokuba held it out of her reach, shaking his head, getting ready to teach her a thing or two. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but did you never learn anything about manners? It is rude to speak with food in your mouth. Besides, it makes you look even more ridiculous than you already do," he said.
Hanabi's face turned as red as the apple, and if looks could kill Mokuba would have been dead in a matter of seconds. She didn't say anything, so he pushed her a little farther. "And who in the world settles on a mere apple, when they're surrounded by all delicious food in the world? Are you trying to show off, Princess Perfect?" he asked, sneering a little. He then did something that would change his life forever.
He threw the apple in the waste basket.
Hanabi's face paled for a second. Then it reddened so it appeared to be more flaming than a volcano.
She slapped him in the face.
Mokuba didn't sense the pain, nor that she jumped on him and slapped him over and over again and pulled his hair. All he knew was that he was suddenly on the floor fighting the girl with the black hair and storming eyes.
"You insufferable brat! You stupid jerk-face! How dare you call me that! Hedgehog-haired orphan!" she screamed.
Mokuba tried to get her off him, insulting her all the while.
"Oh yeah, you're one to talk!" he sneered, pushing roughly on her face and pulling her hair. "Look at you, behaving all goody-goody in front of the press and your family! You've never had to endure the pains my brother and I did. Compared to me, you're nothing but a wannabe artist and a spoiled brat of a girl!"
Hanabi grabbed his shirt collar and got right into his face, blue and grey fire in her eyes. "Don't you dare call me that! Do you think I liked standing like an angel up there?!" she hissed, jabbing his chest with a… surprisingly paint-splattered finger. He blinked up at her, confused. She spit at the ground next to them.
"Like hell I didn't! Don't you see, Einstein? In this business it's all a game, and to Hoshi I am nothing but a pawn. He only used me and this day to promote Yama-Tech. Inc.," she said, getting off of Mokuba and brushing her skirt off. He slowly rose, looking at her back. When he tried to touch her, she glared at him.
"Don't even think I have endured the same pain as you, I haven't. But I assure you, the pain of always being left back alone with the servant or Uncle, while my sister and that man are off making deals even Onee-sama hates, and my mother is almost always away taking pictures, hurts just as much!" she hissed, turning around and leaving the room.
"I can't stand it! I can't stand you! Kami, where are my brushes when I need them! I. Must. Vent!" she yelled, as she hurried down the corridor.
Slowly, as if in a daze, Mokuba followed her. He had never expected for her to become that furious, just because he called her Princess Perfect. It was "just" an insult, what was the big deal? She had hurt him with the insults, too… though it wasn't like he didn't deserve them.
"But why do I feel so sorry for her? Is it because she could feel abandoned? I mean, hidden all your life, it must be tough. Ugh, great, now I have to apologize to her!" he thought as he entered the room he had seen Hanabi enter.
Though had no idea what he expected of the room he entered, it certainly wasn't what he saw.
The floor of the room was covered in a thick, red carpet. It had a big window in the back of the room. There were a few plants, couches, chairs and a desk with a laptop, just like in a normal office. What shocked him the most, however, were the walls.
He could find a little bit of white on them, but that was about it, because every single wall was covered from floor to ceiling in paintings and pictures. Big ones, small ones, realistic paintings, abstract art, fantasy settings and realism. Just all kind of paintings. And in the middle of it all, Hanabi sat on the floor, furiously dragging a colored pencil over a page in a sketchbook. She looked up at him for a short second when he entered, a scowl on her face, and then she continued her scribbling.
"What do you want?" she asked.
He didn't answer. He just took in all the different pictures, all different yet fitting together so perfectly.
"Where did you get all of these?" he asked.
Hanabi snorted. "The pictures are taken by my mom. The paintings are all made by me and Uncle Pegasus," she answered, not looking at him.
He couldn't believe it. All of these paintings… it showed an enormous amount of artistic skill. Almost subconsciously, he walked around the room, staring at each painting.
"I don't believe it," he said, tracing the outline of a mountain on one of the paintings.
Hanabi sneered. "Well, I did make them! Look, my initials are in the bottom right of the painting. What more proof do you want?" she asked.
Mokuba shook his head. "No, I didn't mean it that way… your pictures… they're so beautiful. It feels like I'm watching a dream… or another world," he said.
At this Hanabi just stared at him blankly. Then she blushed.
"Thanks…" she mumbled.
At this, Mokuba decided to go see what she was actually drawing while they talked. An awkward silence had fallen across the room, and it made him uncomfortable.
He decided to man up and fix it. The first step was one he dreaded: the apology.
"Look I'm… I'm sorry for… what happened. Both earlier and on that day," he mumbled.
Finally Hanabi looked up at him, her blue-grey eyes curious, but wary. "Why the sudden change?" she asked.
He blushed. "I don't know," he admitted. "I just… I don't know, thought about something a friend of mine told me that same day. I guess it applies really well, right now." And he knew it was true.
Now Hanabi looked directly into his eyes, curiosity taking over her anger, though there was a hint of regret in them. "It's okay," she said. "I'm sorry for calling you a hedgehog haired orphan… and wanting to tell you: Sega called, Sonic wants his style back."
At that, Mokuba chuckled a little. "That's actually a pretty good insult," he said. Then her sketch caught his eye. "What are you drawing?" He asked.
She held up the sketchbook and showed him a picture of a garden. "It's our backyard," she explained. "I love that place already, even though we just moved here. I promised a friend to paint my favorite place. I actually wanted to draw that clearing for him/her, but… things got out of hand," she admitted.
Mokuba smiled. "Funny. I was there for the same reason," he said, joining her on the floor.
The two looked at each other and laughed at the coincidence.
"So… what was it that friend told you? Because I have a saying, which would also fit to all of this, I think," she said.
Mokuba smiled. "Oh, it's simple. It goes like this…"
"Painting is a way of showing the world our... souls…"*
Mokuba and Hanabi stared at each other. Then suddenly, they both felt as if something fell into place.
Then Hanabi screamed.
Una:
Una walked down a corridor with Seto, Joey, Tea, and Yugi trailing after her. She had given them a tour of Yama-Tech. Inc.'s newest labs, and told them about what they were currently working on.
"Though working with Kaiba Corp. has been our main project lately, we've also been working on medical devices," she said as they passed a giant, transparent computer screen with numbers and a massive amount of text covering it.
"What you see up there is our preparations for a new type of hearing aid. The goal of it is to implant it near the ears of deaf people and make it possible for them to hear again," she said.
Even Seto couldn't hold a gasp back at this, and she smiled smugly.
"Proud of ourselves, aren't we?" a voice suddenly asked teasingly.
Una carelessly flicked the side of her pendant, feeling it stir and heat up.
"Hey!" The voice yelled. Una just chuckled silently, as she led the little group towards her own floor again.
"I think Hana-chan and Mokuba are still up there. I heard a few screams and crashes from the tracker I put on her," she said.
The four stared at her like she had just spoken Russian. She rolled her eyes.
"Oh come on. It's not that weird," she said.
Seto shook his head. "You are the only one I know who put trackers on people and openly admits it," he said, and the others nodded in agreement.
Una smirked. "Like you're one to…"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Una looked up quickly, as she heard the scream. "That was Hanabi!" she yelled, sprinting towards the direction of the scream.
"Oh God… Mokuba!" Seto exclaimed, following her.
Una ran as quickly as she could. She felt her pendant heat up with an unbelievable speed and noticed it glowing bright gold. At the same time a strange feeling began to emerge deep inside her. She closed her eyes and let the feeling wash over, entering every corner of her body and mind and merging with her. When she opened her eyes again she picked up the pace and sprinted ahead of Kaiba. It was almost as if she flew.
~"Let her be safe!"~ She thought, though her inner voice was slightly different than her normal one.
She quickly found the room Hana was in, kicked the door open, ready to save her little sister… and found both her and the younger Kaiba completely unharmed.
Instead Hana and Mokuba were staring at each other, sputtering out half sentences.
"Are you…?"
"The one and only… then you…?"
"Yup!"
"But that means…"
"We were…"
"And that day in the… you were…?"
"Yeah…"
"So we both tried to…?"
Una stared at the weird exchange between the two children. It had gone from Mokuba to Hana, back to Mokuba and ended in total silence. It was as if their minds were processing something from that strange conversation.
It didn't take long, though, before Hana suddenly grabbed her head and yelled, "DUDE, I AM SO SORRY!"
Una froze at the little outburst, but it was quickly continued by Mokuba.
"You're sorry? You're sorry?! Nononononono! No! I am the one who should be sorry!" He said.
"Dude, no! It was totally my fault, man. I mean, it was me who, like, intruded on your favorite place. I can't believe I would diss another artist like that! Idiot me!" Hana exclaimed, shaking her head furiously.
Mokuba shook his head just as furiously, the mass of hair turning into a black blur. "No, you were never at fault! I was rude to you, so technically I should bow before you and beg for forgiveness. I mean, you're great!" he said, his arms flailing around as to enhance his statement.
Una felt her pulse calm down and turn into confusion instead. What in the name of all was going on?
"What happened… here…?" Una heard Seto ask, as he finally caught up to Una and looked over her shoulder into the art covered room.
Mokuba looked up at them, his eyes beaming with joy and admiration, instead of anger and hate, as he pointed at Hana.
"It's her!" he stated at the same time Hana exclaimed, "Onee-sama, it's him!"
The two older teens stared at their black haired younger siblings, completely confused.
"Excuse me… what?" Una asked slowly, not understanding anything.
Mokuba smiled widely. "She's PaintingGamer!"
*Said in unison
A/N: An alternative title for this chapter could be "Introducing Paintshipping".
How many of you saw this coming? Come on, raise your hands, don't be shy. Seriously, I want to know, how many actually figured out who was behind the username PaintingGamer. And also how many figured out Hanabi and Mokuba is the third main pairing in this story.
To those of you who didn't figure it out, SURPRISE XD Yes, Mokuba and Hana will be shipped. Why? Because those two together is so sweet and fluffy, that it could give you cavities! All credits for the name Paintshipping goes to Scaehime-KingofKing's Daughter, who suggested it back in chapter 14 :)
Special thanks: The Queen of Water, Shadow Realm Triforce, Scaehime-KingofKing's Daughter, SerenePanic, anna the viking XD and xxxPureRosexxx.
I hope you and all the other readers had an amazing Christmas and a happy New Year. I know I did... though having snow covering everything is not so fun after Christmas.
See ya' all next chapter!
-Nordic Twin