Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Stolen Child
Roux climbed into the back of the limo the next day. She was feeling happy, since Kaiba had cooled off from his little abusive fit the day before, he had told her he would allow her to spend the days with Joey, after of course making her promise that she wouldn't do anything stupid, and that she would be careful.
She told him she would be, and that she was sorry again for going into the square the day before. Kaiba explained that the press would be all over him when he got to the office, with what happened at the square the day before, and that he wouldn't have time to look after Roux anyway. Sending her to go with Joey for the day was the best plan.
They sat in the limo fairly silently. Roux kept staring out the window, eager and excited to see Joey, even though she had seen him the day before, but she remembered Joey telling her that today he'd try to get a hold of the gang and see if they could all go to a movie or something. Roux was rather looking forward to it.
Ultimately Kaiba became conscious of her excitement. He shook his head, but only to himself. She got excited over seeing Joey and Yugi and his friends.there had to have been something wrong with this girl. What girl in her right mind would want to spend time with card geeks like Joey Wheeler and Yugi Moto? Especially when she was clearly not the obsessive type.
Very soon tension began to grow between them two in the back of the limo. Both of them felt the need for conversation, the silence was unnerving, even though Kaiba wouldn't answer any questions, if indeed Roux had any, it would be nice to hear someone talking instead of the remote silence.
When Roux rubbed her arm, and Kaiba saw her do it, he shuddered softly and remembered the bruise he had given her, and then when he apologized to her later the day before. It was still bothering him in a way. When he remembered apologizing to her, he suddenly felt funny, although he refused to show it.
"You're talking to the press today?" came Roux's voice, and when Kaiba looked up at her, stirred from his thoughts, he saw her blue eyes piercing into him with curiosity. He wondered why she would be interested in him talking to the press.
He shrugged in response. "I suppose I'll have to, if I want to keep the tournament up and running." He retorted.
Roux nodded and looked out the window. "The worse they'll do is postpone it, don't you think?" she asked.
Kaiba shook his head. "I don't know."
~ Wow, are Kaiba and I actually having a conversation? ~ Roux thought to herself in disbelief as she stared at Kaiba for a moment, recognizing his harsh blue eyes fixed on the passing objects outside his window, his arms crossed over his chest. ~ I didn't think Kaiba was capable of having a conversation with someone. I wonder how far I can take it.~
Tucking a strand of golden hair behind her ear, Roux straightened up in her seat. "What are you going to tell them?" she asked.
When he turned his eyes to her, Roux already knew she had pushed it. His eyes flared with irritation, it was clear he didn't want to be talked to at this point in time. But she watched him; she wanted to have a conversation with him.
He had apologized to her last night for bruising her arm; therefore he had a conscience, which meant that he was human, and not just some selfish drone. Perhaps there was a human heart within that cold soul. Roux would try to find out.
Surprisingly, both to Roux and to Kaiba himself, he replied. "I'll just tell them that one of the hologram duel platforms wasn't constructed properly, something went wrong and took out a bit of the square."
Roux nodded. She wasn't sure if that would impress the press, but then again he couldn't tell the press that he had unleashed his Blue Eyes White Dragon in the middle of an open area just to attack some civilians, even if they were trying to kidnap Roux.
A second question plagued her mind. She wondered if Kaiba knew the answer. "What about the men in the hospital?"
Kaiba smirked. "They're out of there by now," he said calmly. "If I know Marik."
Roux blinked, but that seemed to make sense to her. If Marik didn't want all his plans out in the open, he'd take his men out of the public hospital right away. If he was going to be questioned that day, and for sure he would be, Roux knew he would cover it up smoothly.
For the most part, the rest of the trip had gone rather quietly. They were into the city center before the incident of the day occurred.
They were just leaving the city center, moving into the residential areas that were close to the downtown area. Kaiba checked his watch quickly and noticed that they were running a bit late. He was wondering why. His limo driver was never late with anything. Why was this trip taking so long?
However it was Monday morning and Joey Wheeler's apartment was on the other side of the city, opposite of the Kaiba mansion. In a way it wasn't very surprising.
"What are you going to do today?" Kaiba asked Roux very suddenly.
Roux snapped from her daydreaming and looked over at Kaiba. He was sitting patiently, expectant of an answer. She blinked confusedly at him. Was he taking an interest in what she was doing during the day?
She shrugged. "I don't know; I suspect I'll go with Joey and the gang for lunch or something, hang out." She told him, and then pushed on. "Why do you ask?"
Kaiba smirked. "I'm your protector, aren't I?" he asked snobbishly, and it almost made Roux smile. She never would have thought him to admit that he was really protecting her. "I should know where you're going during the day, as to make sure you don't do something stupid."
Roux smiled at him, she flashed her camera smile, the one that only few saw when she laughed. It startled Kaiba when he saw her smile like that. She was beautiful when she smiled; well she was always beautiful- Kaiba shook the thought from his head. What was he thinking? It was just a smile, and it was probably paid for by thousands of dollars in dentistry.
"Don't worry, Kaiba." She said to him, smiling. "I learned my lesson from yesterday. I wouldn't make the same mistake twice, especially since the one yesterday almost cost you your tournament."
Kaiba swallowed tightly, and his eyebrows furred in suspicion. Since when did she care about anything he did?
Roux bit down on her lip. How could she say something so stupid? She didn't really believe in it either, he seemed to become a little more human each time she talked to him, but he was still the same cold-hearted Kaiba.
His arms still crossed and his eyes wrought in suspicion, Kaiba opened his mouth to ask her when she had started to care about anything he did.
But at that moment something memorable happened.
Something loud and startling hit the side of the limo, scaring both Roux and Kaiba nearly to death. Roux let out a scream as a second one came, hitting the side of the limo, making an incredible sound. The limo stopped abruptly. Apparently the driver was confused.
Kaiba thought someone was shooting at the limo, something was going on. This couldn't possibly have been a coincidence, this was intentional. Someone was trying to cause them harm. Marik, it just had to be. His goons were back, and this time they weren't even going to give Kaiba or Roux time to defend themselves.
Three, four, five more blasts hit the side of the limo, making incredibly noises, and Kaiba saw that Roux was panicking. She screamed when more started to bombard her side of the limo.
Instinctively, without thinking at all, Kaiba threw himself over Roux, pushing her down to the floor of the limo so she would have less chance of getting hit, and he told her not to move, he covered her with his body so that if anyone was hit in the limo, it would be him.
Roux was suddenly more scared now than she was when she first heard the attack on the limo. She was beneath Seto Kaiba, what was he doing? He was protecting her, she knew this, but what had driven him to do this? He couldn't have changed so quickly within a day or so.could he? She was so confused and so scared at the same time.
Kaiba looked up eventually. The limo driver wasn't doing anything, not calling back to them at all. Kaiba assumed he was shot or something. He took in a deep breath and looked up out the window, just as he saw something large and yellow hit the window, make the breath taking smack noise against the limo, and then disappear.
Kaiba scowled. What the hell was going on? Then a second one hit them. It was red, and didn't disappear when it hit the side of the limo.
Angrily Kaiba's lip curled in fury, and he got up off of Roux and turned to leave the limo, but not before he turned to Roux, looking at him with confusion in her eyes. "Wait here." He instructed her, and then left the limo.
Roux was about to shout to him not to go out, but he was already gone. What was he doing? Leaving her to be shot inside the limo? Or was he sacrificing himself for her? Or was he negotiating?
When Roux peeked up and looked through the window, she was rather surprised to see Kaiba yelling at four small kids, all boys. One of them had a running water house in his hand; the others were all holding circular objects in bright colours. They all looked terrified as Kaiba yelled at them.
Then Roux understood. They weren't being attacked, not by Marik anyway, but by ten-year-old kids.with water balloons.
Roux laughed after she had come to understand everything and she tried to calm herself down. She sat down and watched as Kaiba finished chewing out the kids; yelling at them and telling them to do something better with their time. All the kids looked petrified by the time Kaiba came storming back to the limo.
Kaiba got in the back seat and slammed the door shut. He was red in the face, his blue eyes were burning with anger. Roux almost giggled, but she didn't dare to.
After he talked to the limo driver, telling him to go on and not to be asked questions, Kaiba sat back and looked out the window. "Damn kids!"
As though she didn't know what happened, Roux asked innocently. "What happened?"
Kaiba shook his head angrily. "Water balloons. That's all it was, damn kids throwing water balloons at the limo." He was so miffed.
Roux couldn't help it, she laughed, and Kaiba looked at her irritably. "What's so funny about that? Here I think we're under attack by Marik and his goons and you're laughing that it was a bunch of kids scaring us both to death by throwing water balloons at the limo?" he was about to lose it, his blood pressure was rising.
When she finished laughing, Roux shook her head, smiling at Kaiba, who stared angrily. "Oh Kaiba, they're only kids." She said understandably. "You got to let them have their fun."
"Why?" Kaiba demanded.
Roux wasn't sure of the answer to that question. She shrugged. "Because.childhood is probably the best part of life for a person. It's one of the only times of your life where anything you do wrong is excusable, where you can be immature, where you can go days without bathing and not have to worry about what you're going to do for a career." She smiled softly.
Kaiba stared at her as though he didn't understand what she was saying to him. The fire in his eyes had died down a bit, but only to a certain level. He was trying to make sense of what she was saying.
"Don't you remember being a kid, falling down, scraping your knees, eating milk and cookies, watching cartoons on Saturday mornings?" Roux asked sweetly, leaning forward. She certainly remembered that time. It was a great time for her. In a way she really missed it.
Kaiba's face brought on a look of alarm, almost sadness. Roux's smile was gone when she saw his reaction. In an instant he looked away from her and stared out the window, his skin returned to the pasty colour, his eyes full of sadness.
This startled Roux. She never liked seeing anyone, even Seto Kaiba, sad in any way. She leaned forward a little more, and reached out to touch him. "Kaiba.are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" he snapped angrily at her, his voice was rising.
Roux jumped back in horror. What had she said? Once again he looked away so he wasn't facing her. Roux sat and stared at him in confusion. Was there something about his childhood that upset him to such a great deal?
She looked at her fingers. "What was your past like, Kaiba? Your childhood?" she asked softly. "It obviously must have been pretty intriguing, I mean I see how Mokuba's growing up, what were you like? Mokuba never tells me anything about-"
"And he damn well shouldn't!" Kaiba yelled at Roux, his eyes were full of hatred and danger, his expression scared her. Roux jumped, startled at the tone of his voice, at the volume of his voice. She stared at him in wonder.
"Listen to me, Roux," he said through his clenched teeth. "You may hold the Millennium Stone, and you may be a big-time supermodel, and you may be under my protection, and everybody may love you because you're so sweet and chipper, but nothing-NOTHING gives you the right to interfere with my past!" he was screaming at her, and Roux was trying to back into the cushion of the seat. He was scaring her.
Kaiba cooled down within the moment. "Now if you want to keep that stupid ring and your life, you'll stay the fucking hell out of my life and mind your own business!" he added harshly.
Roux was sorry she had ever said anything. She stared at him with a hurt look on her face as he stared out the window, not looking at her, not saying another word to her. Roux bit down on her lip, and she wanted to tell him she was sorry. But then again she was sure he would bite her head off if she did. So she said nothing.
She wasn't surprised that when the limo pulled up at the Wheeler apartment, Kaiba didn't even look at her when she got out of the limo. Roux climbed up the steps to the apartment and watched as the limo pulled away down the street and disappeared behind a corner. She raised her hand to nothing and breathed to the wind.
~ I didn't mean to interfere, Kaiba. ~ She thought to herself and then sighed. ~Forgive me. ~
The Stolen Child
Roux climbed into the back of the limo the next day. She was feeling happy, since Kaiba had cooled off from his little abusive fit the day before, he had told her he would allow her to spend the days with Joey, after of course making her promise that she wouldn't do anything stupid, and that she would be careful.
She told him she would be, and that she was sorry again for going into the square the day before. Kaiba explained that the press would be all over him when he got to the office, with what happened at the square the day before, and that he wouldn't have time to look after Roux anyway. Sending her to go with Joey for the day was the best plan.
They sat in the limo fairly silently. Roux kept staring out the window, eager and excited to see Joey, even though she had seen him the day before, but she remembered Joey telling her that today he'd try to get a hold of the gang and see if they could all go to a movie or something. Roux was rather looking forward to it.
Ultimately Kaiba became conscious of her excitement. He shook his head, but only to himself. She got excited over seeing Joey and Yugi and his friends.there had to have been something wrong with this girl. What girl in her right mind would want to spend time with card geeks like Joey Wheeler and Yugi Moto? Especially when she was clearly not the obsessive type.
Very soon tension began to grow between them two in the back of the limo. Both of them felt the need for conversation, the silence was unnerving, even though Kaiba wouldn't answer any questions, if indeed Roux had any, it would be nice to hear someone talking instead of the remote silence.
When Roux rubbed her arm, and Kaiba saw her do it, he shuddered softly and remembered the bruise he had given her, and then when he apologized to her later the day before. It was still bothering him in a way. When he remembered apologizing to her, he suddenly felt funny, although he refused to show it.
"You're talking to the press today?" came Roux's voice, and when Kaiba looked up at her, stirred from his thoughts, he saw her blue eyes piercing into him with curiosity. He wondered why she would be interested in him talking to the press.
He shrugged in response. "I suppose I'll have to, if I want to keep the tournament up and running." He retorted.
Roux nodded and looked out the window. "The worse they'll do is postpone it, don't you think?" she asked.
Kaiba shook his head. "I don't know."
~ Wow, are Kaiba and I actually having a conversation? ~ Roux thought to herself in disbelief as she stared at Kaiba for a moment, recognizing his harsh blue eyes fixed on the passing objects outside his window, his arms crossed over his chest. ~ I didn't think Kaiba was capable of having a conversation with someone. I wonder how far I can take it.~
Tucking a strand of golden hair behind her ear, Roux straightened up in her seat. "What are you going to tell them?" she asked.
When he turned his eyes to her, Roux already knew she had pushed it. His eyes flared with irritation, it was clear he didn't want to be talked to at this point in time. But she watched him; she wanted to have a conversation with him.
He had apologized to her last night for bruising her arm; therefore he had a conscience, which meant that he was human, and not just some selfish drone. Perhaps there was a human heart within that cold soul. Roux would try to find out.
Surprisingly, both to Roux and to Kaiba himself, he replied. "I'll just tell them that one of the hologram duel platforms wasn't constructed properly, something went wrong and took out a bit of the square."
Roux nodded. She wasn't sure if that would impress the press, but then again he couldn't tell the press that he had unleashed his Blue Eyes White Dragon in the middle of an open area just to attack some civilians, even if they were trying to kidnap Roux.
A second question plagued her mind. She wondered if Kaiba knew the answer. "What about the men in the hospital?"
Kaiba smirked. "They're out of there by now," he said calmly. "If I know Marik."
Roux blinked, but that seemed to make sense to her. If Marik didn't want all his plans out in the open, he'd take his men out of the public hospital right away. If he was going to be questioned that day, and for sure he would be, Roux knew he would cover it up smoothly.
For the most part, the rest of the trip had gone rather quietly. They were into the city center before the incident of the day occurred.
They were just leaving the city center, moving into the residential areas that were close to the downtown area. Kaiba checked his watch quickly and noticed that they were running a bit late. He was wondering why. His limo driver was never late with anything. Why was this trip taking so long?
However it was Monday morning and Joey Wheeler's apartment was on the other side of the city, opposite of the Kaiba mansion. In a way it wasn't very surprising.
"What are you going to do today?" Kaiba asked Roux very suddenly.
Roux snapped from her daydreaming and looked over at Kaiba. He was sitting patiently, expectant of an answer. She blinked confusedly at him. Was he taking an interest in what she was doing during the day?
She shrugged. "I don't know; I suspect I'll go with Joey and the gang for lunch or something, hang out." She told him, and then pushed on. "Why do you ask?"
Kaiba smirked. "I'm your protector, aren't I?" he asked snobbishly, and it almost made Roux smile. She never would have thought him to admit that he was really protecting her. "I should know where you're going during the day, as to make sure you don't do something stupid."
Roux smiled at him, she flashed her camera smile, the one that only few saw when she laughed. It startled Kaiba when he saw her smile like that. She was beautiful when she smiled; well she was always beautiful- Kaiba shook the thought from his head. What was he thinking? It was just a smile, and it was probably paid for by thousands of dollars in dentistry.
"Don't worry, Kaiba." She said to him, smiling. "I learned my lesson from yesterday. I wouldn't make the same mistake twice, especially since the one yesterday almost cost you your tournament."
Kaiba swallowed tightly, and his eyebrows furred in suspicion. Since when did she care about anything he did?
Roux bit down on her lip. How could she say something so stupid? She didn't really believe in it either, he seemed to become a little more human each time she talked to him, but he was still the same cold-hearted Kaiba.
His arms still crossed and his eyes wrought in suspicion, Kaiba opened his mouth to ask her when she had started to care about anything he did.
But at that moment something memorable happened.
Something loud and startling hit the side of the limo, scaring both Roux and Kaiba nearly to death. Roux let out a scream as a second one came, hitting the side of the limo, making an incredible sound. The limo stopped abruptly. Apparently the driver was confused.
Kaiba thought someone was shooting at the limo, something was going on. This couldn't possibly have been a coincidence, this was intentional. Someone was trying to cause them harm. Marik, it just had to be. His goons were back, and this time they weren't even going to give Kaiba or Roux time to defend themselves.
Three, four, five more blasts hit the side of the limo, making incredibly noises, and Kaiba saw that Roux was panicking. She screamed when more started to bombard her side of the limo.
Instinctively, without thinking at all, Kaiba threw himself over Roux, pushing her down to the floor of the limo so she would have less chance of getting hit, and he told her not to move, he covered her with his body so that if anyone was hit in the limo, it would be him.
Roux was suddenly more scared now than she was when she first heard the attack on the limo. She was beneath Seto Kaiba, what was he doing? He was protecting her, she knew this, but what had driven him to do this? He couldn't have changed so quickly within a day or so.could he? She was so confused and so scared at the same time.
Kaiba looked up eventually. The limo driver wasn't doing anything, not calling back to them at all. Kaiba assumed he was shot or something. He took in a deep breath and looked up out the window, just as he saw something large and yellow hit the window, make the breath taking smack noise against the limo, and then disappear.
Kaiba scowled. What the hell was going on? Then a second one hit them. It was red, and didn't disappear when it hit the side of the limo.
Angrily Kaiba's lip curled in fury, and he got up off of Roux and turned to leave the limo, but not before he turned to Roux, looking at him with confusion in her eyes. "Wait here." He instructed her, and then left the limo.
Roux was about to shout to him not to go out, but he was already gone. What was he doing? Leaving her to be shot inside the limo? Or was he sacrificing himself for her? Or was he negotiating?
When Roux peeked up and looked through the window, she was rather surprised to see Kaiba yelling at four small kids, all boys. One of them had a running water house in his hand; the others were all holding circular objects in bright colours. They all looked terrified as Kaiba yelled at them.
Then Roux understood. They weren't being attacked, not by Marik anyway, but by ten-year-old kids.with water balloons.
Roux laughed after she had come to understand everything and she tried to calm herself down. She sat down and watched as Kaiba finished chewing out the kids; yelling at them and telling them to do something better with their time. All the kids looked petrified by the time Kaiba came storming back to the limo.
Kaiba got in the back seat and slammed the door shut. He was red in the face, his blue eyes were burning with anger. Roux almost giggled, but she didn't dare to.
After he talked to the limo driver, telling him to go on and not to be asked questions, Kaiba sat back and looked out the window. "Damn kids!"
As though she didn't know what happened, Roux asked innocently. "What happened?"
Kaiba shook his head angrily. "Water balloons. That's all it was, damn kids throwing water balloons at the limo." He was so miffed.
Roux couldn't help it, she laughed, and Kaiba looked at her irritably. "What's so funny about that? Here I think we're under attack by Marik and his goons and you're laughing that it was a bunch of kids scaring us both to death by throwing water balloons at the limo?" he was about to lose it, his blood pressure was rising.
When she finished laughing, Roux shook her head, smiling at Kaiba, who stared angrily. "Oh Kaiba, they're only kids." She said understandably. "You got to let them have their fun."
"Why?" Kaiba demanded.
Roux wasn't sure of the answer to that question. She shrugged. "Because.childhood is probably the best part of life for a person. It's one of the only times of your life where anything you do wrong is excusable, where you can be immature, where you can go days without bathing and not have to worry about what you're going to do for a career." She smiled softly.
Kaiba stared at her as though he didn't understand what she was saying to him. The fire in his eyes had died down a bit, but only to a certain level. He was trying to make sense of what she was saying.
"Don't you remember being a kid, falling down, scraping your knees, eating milk and cookies, watching cartoons on Saturday mornings?" Roux asked sweetly, leaning forward. She certainly remembered that time. It was a great time for her. In a way she really missed it.
Kaiba's face brought on a look of alarm, almost sadness. Roux's smile was gone when she saw his reaction. In an instant he looked away from her and stared out the window, his skin returned to the pasty colour, his eyes full of sadness.
This startled Roux. She never liked seeing anyone, even Seto Kaiba, sad in any way. She leaned forward a little more, and reached out to touch him. "Kaiba.are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" he snapped angrily at her, his voice was rising.
Roux jumped back in horror. What had she said? Once again he looked away so he wasn't facing her. Roux sat and stared at him in confusion. Was there something about his childhood that upset him to such a great deal?
She looked at her fingers. "What was your past like, Kaiba? Your childhood?" she asked softly. "It obviously must have been pretty intriguing, I mean I see how Mokuba's growing up, what were you like? Mokuba never tells me anything about-"
"And he damn well shouldn't!" Kaiba yelled at Roux, his eyes were full of hatred and danger, his expression scared her. Roux jumped, startled at the tone of his voice, at the volume of his voice. She stared at him in wonder.
"Listen to me, Roux," he said through his clenched teeth. "You may hold the Millennium Stone, and you may be a big-time supermodel, and you may be under my protection, and everybody may love you because you're so sweet and chipper, but nothing-NOTHING gives you the right to interfere with my past!" he was screaming at her, and Roux was trying to back into the cushion of the seat. He was scaring her.
Kaiba cooled down within the moment. "Now if you want to keep that stupid ring and your life, you'll stay the fucking hell out of my life and mind your own business!" he added harshly.
Roux was sorry she had ever said anything. She stared at him with a hurt look on her face as he stared out the window, not looking at her, not saying another word to her. Roux bit down on her lip, and she wanted to tell him she was sorry. But then again she was sure he would bite her head off if she did. So she said nothing.
She wasn't surprised that when the limo pulled up at the Wheeler apartment, Kaiba didn't even look at her when she got out of the limo. Roux climbed up the steps to the apartment and watched as the limo pulled away down the street and disappeared behind a corner. She raised her hand to nothing and breathed to the wind.
~ I didn't mean to interfere, Kaiba. ~ She thought to herself and then sighed. ~Forgive me. ~