High Twilight
Part Three
A Demon's Laugh
I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, or anything relating to it, really.
Except for Elendil and Estel. They're mine.
This takes place roughly five years after Hidden Truths ends.
Have fun, and remember, please don't sue me, I am nothing more than a lowly college student living off of imaginary food!!!
~~~~~Two Weeks Later~~~~~
"Estel, you took your medicine, right?" Seto asked for the fourth time as the two children, dressed in their little blue school uniforms, stood patiently by the door, Mokuba rolling his eyes.
"Yes, Papa." Estel whispered, tugging on her braid nervously. It was the twins first day of school, and Seto seemed to be more anxious than they were.
"Seto, just chill! They're fine, and if I don't leave now, they're going to be late!" Mokuba, ever the obedient teenager, snapped, grabbing his car keys. Seto sighed, and nodded, holding the door open.
"Okay, but Estel, remember, if you start feeling ill, tell the teacher immediately, okay?" Estel nodded, Elendil rolling his eyes now.
"Whee, race you to the car!" Elendil shouted, dashing out the door. Estel, much unlike her brother, walked quietly to Mokuba's car, and waited patiently, clutching her braid.....
~~~~~In Oxford(1)~~~~~
Ryou groaned, getting up from his microwave dinner, glaring at the phone. He was really beginning to regret having a phone line, with all the telemarketers that seemed to have so much fun calling just as he sat down to eat.
"Hello? Ryou speaking." Ryou sighed, expecting an over hyper sales pitch.
"Ryou, that you? God, you're an impossible person to find!" Seto sighed, finally getting the right number. He had been tracking down the albino ever since Estel had come home from the hospital, hoping that maybe Ryou might know something, anything, about that odd disease.
"Kaiba, that you?" Ryou asked, mildly surprised, sitting down on the ancient couch. His college dorm left much to be..... desired.
"Ryou.... I have something odd to ask you." Seto wondered exactly how he was going to explain any of this to Ryou.
Ryou knew that Yugi was dead, as did all her friends. But only Ryou and Seto knew why, exactly, and who the two children Seto had adopted were. Everyone else had paid it no mind, they weren't exactly on best friend terms with the young CEO.
"Sure, just as long as it isn't for money." Ryou grinned, the couch creaking ominously beneath him as he lay back. Seto chuckled.
"No, not money. I still have enough of that. Ryou, is there any odd diseases in your family? Where the immune system attacks the body?(2)" Ryou paled, sitting up.
"Why... why do you ask?" Ryou whispered, looking up nervously, making sure his roommate wasn't in.
"Estel became very ill about two weeks ago, and she's on some medication now, but they still can't figure out what's wrong with her. I thought that since Bakura's her father, it might be in your family too.(3)" Seto sighed, clicking his fountain pen, an annoying habit he seemed to have developed while tracking down the European.
"Yes, yes it was in my family. It.... it killed my mother Seto, and no, the doctors couldn't do anything about it. Estel stands a better chance now, if she's taking medication. I'm sorry that I couldn't be of any more help." Ryou whispered, looking up nervously as the door opened, and Ryou's roommate returned with a sadistic grin.
"Thanks, Ryou. I'll let you get back to your dinner, it is about that time over there, isn't it?" Seto chuckled, looking over at his clock. It was still only 9 AM in Japan.
"Yeah, thanks. Bye, Seto." Ryou gulped as he hung up the phone, a hand tugging on his white locks.
"That wouldn't have been about Yugi's little child, would it? You wouldn't have been keeping little secrets from me, would you, hikari?" Bakura whispered, Ryou cringing as Bakura nipped at his ear. The courage he had shown five years earlier had been quickly beaten out of him, after moving to Oxford to attend college.
Bakura just laughed.
"Bakura, please, they're just little children!" Ryou whimpered, and Bakura glared at him.
"Children!? Children! How many whelps did the Pharaoh's brat have!?" Bakura demanded angrily, hauling Ryou up by the scruff of his neck. Tears trailed down the pale boys face as he looked away.
"Two. A boy and a girl." Ryou whispered and Bakura threw him down on the couch with a grin.
"Good, now we're getting somewhere. And where are my little precious children, hmmm? Would it be that they've been calling Seto Daddy all this time, hmmm?" Bakura purred, yanking Ryou back up. Ryou sighed, and nodded painfully.
"Bakura, please, Yugi and Yami are dead, leave the children alone, there's no more revenge left to be had!" Ryou begged, and Bakura threw back his head, and laughed. An eerie, growling impression of a laugh that grated against the nerves. Ryou shivered, afraid of the funny look that was creeping into the spirits eyes.
"But children need their father, not some stuck up imitator!" Bakura growled, pausing at the door, "And Ryou, my dear hikari, if you even think about warning anybody again, I can promise you that you won't be dead, but you'd be praying for it." Bakura grinned, closing the door softly, leaving his broken hikari to sob on the couch, his dinner going cold on the table......
~~~~~One Week Later~~~~~
"Mr. Kaiba, I've called you here because I'm concerned about Estel." Ms. Reed(4) said with a warm, concerned smile. Seto gulped, sitting down in one of the tiny chairs, looking over at the teacher, with her brown hair in a neat little bun, everything in the classroom neatly organized.
"She's been sick lately...." Seto began, but Ms Reed held up her hand, shaking her head. Her appearance was not at the center of the conference.
"That's not what I mean. I understand that she's been ill, but it's her personality I'm worried about. She doesn't seem very social. Estel seems to be more willing to create imaginary worlds of her own that coexist with the one she lives in. Now, I understand that she's only in first grade, and it might be her reaction to being thrown suddenly into a social environment for a first time, especially with a child as shy as Estel, but it seems to be a little more than that." Ms Reed explained, and Seto chewed on his tongue nervously. The twins had only been in school for a week, and already he was getting called down for a parent teacher conference.
At least it hadn't been for an overactive Elendil, Seto thanked the gods. Elendil was a little too rough in his sport, and he had been afraid the little boy might hurt someone.
"I... I see. But she's always been a little shy, there's not really anything I can do about that. She just has to find her way on her own." Seto said confidently, knowing it was true. He had been a loner throughout school, but not shy. He supposed it was more of Ryou's gene's(5) showing through.
"But, Mr. Kaiba, I think it would be healthier for her if she was more socially active." Ms Reed complained, and Seto shook his head, standing up.
"No, Ms Reed, I think you must understand. She simply prefers quality over quantity in her friendship, just as her mother did. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to." Seto got up, leaving the teacher sitting at her desk, very flustered, and a grinning man, with wild white locks hiding in the hall way......
~TSUZUKU~
Well, how was this little dainty!?
He he, and so the angst goes marching on, though slightly more dramatic than before.....
Explanations:
1: I am a huge Tolkien fan, and Tolkien taught at Oxford, so I guess it's sort of like homage, since I can't attend there, one of the characters can!!!
2: As I have mention before, I know nothing about medicine. I think my description of the disease might actually be a disease.
And no, it's not AIDS. AIDS is where the immune system shuts down, and is destroyed, not when the immune system attacks the body.
Two completely different things, believe you me.
For simplistic purposes, I am going to refer to the disease as Arte Disease, because that is my Elvish nickname!!!
3: I refer to the fact that Ryou's gene's might have an impact upon Estel's, even though her father is Bakura, for one major reason. The spirits separate from their hikari's bodies when the form in the physical world, which means that Bakura has a very similar gene make up to Ryou's.
4: Ms Reed is yet another of my teachers.
My computer teacher from 10th grade. She was pretty cool too, and probably get a kick out of the fact that her classroom is neat.
10th grade computer nerds can destroy more classroom in less time than all the first graders in the world!!!
5: Refer to explanation 3.
R&R Please!!!