"The dark green taffeta…or the lavender satin?" Nadina pawed through her closet. "Hmm…the dark blue crepé de chine looks pretty good, too. Charcoal!" She scolded as she shook the charcoal kitten off her skirt. "Let go! You're going to ripe the lace!" She shook the kitten off and looked in the mirror, just in time to see a bundle of black fur prancing on her vanity, knocking over cut glass bottles of perfume. She swirled around.
"Shadow! Off, shoo!" She gave a long sigh. The family cat, Midnight, had given birth to a litter of seven kittens. Now that the kittens were older, they get into everything. She could often see the Black twins pulling kittens from their hair or Curt rescuing them from curtains and drapes. The cook complained more than once that there were cats in her kitchen, in results to cat hairs in their meals.
She sighed again and flopped back onto her bed. Why should she care what she looks like, it's not like Seto Kaiba could see her.
"Follow your heart…" Joe had told her yesterday. Easier said than done.
"What do you say?" Nadina asked her heart out loud. "What am I suppose to do? I really don't want to hurt Marik, if that's possible." She lay still for a moment, then bounced up from her bed and took out the lavender satin. "I'll think about that later, I think I'll go visit Kaiba now."
She pulled the cool dress over her silk chemise and took her usual basket to the kitchen. On the way down to the cell, she saw Clark desperately trying to shake three kitten off his black leather jacket, Midnight meowing at the side.
Nadina hid a smile and quickly slipped past him. She didn't know that right after she left the room, Edward appeared beside his brother.
"Clark," Edward sounded breathless. "Master's boat will be arriving in less than half-an-hour."
"Half-an-hour?!" Clark's head snapped up.
"Yes, hurry up! The Master will expect us at the dock. Today is the day! What are you trying to do to Little Lady's kittens?"
"Trying to get them off! Will you be quiet and try to help me get them off?"
Kaiba noted Nadina's presence before she reached his cell. He had grown used to the silver tinkering of the bells before the welcoming sweet fragrance of flowers surrounded him.
The highlights of my days, he thought wryly.
"Hello, Kaiba." Nadina's melodic voice greeted as she entered the cell.
"Hey."
"You should have seen us today." She sighed as she set down her basket and untied the silk ribbons of her cloak, casting it off her shoulders.
"Let me guess—the kittens?" Kaiba knew Nadina's life almost as well as herself from the details that she had filled him in with.
"Yes!" She sounded exasperated. "Cream Puff knocked over a pan of milk today and was chased out of the kitchen by the cook with her broom. Edward chose the wrong time to enter and slipped on the milk. Pepper was stuck on the drapes again today, except this time, she was on the very top. Curt has to get the gardener's ladder to get her down. Shadow and Charcoal clung onto me the whole day!"
"I do feel sorry for you. I'm not that fond of cats." Kaiba said conversationally.
"You are such an old Scrooge sometimes." She teased good-naturally. "Oh, I made some blancmange for you!" She set out the soft pudding-like sweet, surrounded by a garland of green leaves and the scarlet flowers from a geranium. "Remember last time? You told me you haven't had blancmange since you were a kid."
"Really?" From the eager sound of his voice, Nadina knew he was fond of the dessert.
"I had to hunt through the cook's recipe box. I thought she didn't have the recipe until I saw it cramped at the bottom of the box. Do you know how long it took me to make it?" She took the spoon and dipped it into the milky cream pudding and didn't mention that it took her three days and five tries to get the milk to parboil.
"Mmm…" Kaiba swallowed and sighed. It was more savory than he had remembered. The rich, sweetened lingering taste left his mouth watering for more. "Trust me, it was well worth your time."
"Do you like it?" He heard her ask eagerly.
"It's more heavenly than I remembered." She blushed with pleasure.
"I'm glad you like it…" She said softly.
"I swear I'm gaining weight from the way you're feeding me." Kaiba shook his head. "I'm eating more than I ever did back then."
"Did you eat at all?" Kaiba could just hear the mischievous tone from under the innocent voice.
"Not really." He humored her with the truth. "I ate healthy. Enough to keep me alive." He grinned. "Never the sweets and never the junk food. Those are Mokuba's departments. God knows I've tried to stop him from rotting all his teeth."
"Well, I guess it's about time you enjoyed the finer things in life."
"Ah, yes. I wouldn't dream about missing it." Sarcasm dripped off Kaiba's words.
"You know, Kaiba—" She began. "You really shouldn't have worked that hard. You should stop to smell the roses at times."
"Feh…" Kaiba snorted. They've been through this conversation hundreds of times.
"The problem is, you work too hard." She continued. "You should remember. Your work doesn't love you, Mokuba does."
"Yeah, yeah…"
"Oh, really, Kaiba." She was irritated. "You're hearing me, but you're not listening to me. You—" Suddenly, she stopped talking. She just had funny feeling that someone was watching them. A sharp intake of breath from outside the cell made her drop her spoon. It landed with a high-pitched Clink. Nadina's heart leaped with fear. Stunned into silence, she slowly turned around.
She felt the blood drain from her face as she stared right into the ever-so-familiar pale lavender orbs of her brother.
Marik couldn't believe what he was seeing. His sister—the very sister that he had so cherished and loved—was in this darkened cell, feeding and talking pleasantly to the man that was Marik's very nemesis. He heard a small squeak escape from Nadina's lips and heard gasps of surprise from all around him.
But no one could be as shocked as himself.
"Oh, my God…" he said softly to himself. "Oh, my God, oh, my God…" He finally snapped as rage burned through his very veins and barked an order.
"Light the torches!" He jerked the keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. Before he knew what he was doing, he had his sister by her wrist and had dragged her out from the cell, ignoring her cries. And before he himself knew what he was doing, he had his sister over his lap and was punishing her as he would have done ten years ago.
"Marik…" He heard Nadina whimper.
"You told me you don't know where his cell was." Betrayal was the only thing in Marik's mind. His voice cracked, "You promised you would never come down here again. You made me believe you could never tell your ways apart if you were here. You let me believe you, you let me trust you…"
He propped his sister to her feet. His large hands steadied her when she wavered. He looked at her. Her big violet blue eyes were filled with tears that tore at Marik's heart. But he managed to look stern as he grasped on to her wrist so tightly that the Black twins winced, fearing that their master would snap his sister's wrist.
"Will you promise me never to come down here again?" Half of Marik was sure she'd give in from what had just happened, but the other half of him knew she wouldn't from the bottom of his heart.
"No," She shook her head. "I can't promise you that. He'll die. I can't watch you let a man die."
Marik sighed, louder this time.
"What in the seven hells is going on here?!" Kaiba's voice was echoing through a suddenly quiet surrounding. "Marik…is that you?" His roar turned into a hiss. "Why don't you let her go… your enemy's been me this whole time."
"You wretched bastard," Marik stood up and glared at the blindfolded pathetic CEO. "It was your doing all along. You corrupted Nadina's mind and filled it with your foolish ideas. You've led her to betray me. You led her to break up the relationship between us. You… It…was…all…YOU!" He dropped Nadina's wrist and started toward Kaiba. "It was all your doing. I should have killed you when I've got a chance to. I wouldn't make the same mistake again."
The gleam of the knife flashed through the darkness of the underground.
"Master…" Odion was obviously distraught at his master's behavior.
"Oh no, Marik, no!" Nadina scrambled up from the ground and stood in front of her brother, blocking his way to the cell.
Marik stared at her. In the time since he had returned home, she had defied him at every turn, despite her fear.
"Move aside, sister." He said quietly…chillingly…dangerously…
Nadina shook her head stubbornly.
"Move aside, Nadina, I'm going to kill him." Marik raised his voice. Nadina swallowed hard and her voice came out thick, but firm and determined.
"If you kill him…y-you'll have to kill me first." She used herself as a gamble. I'll kill myself, if you kill Kaiba, her eyes challenged. Looking at Marik's fierce eyes, she wasn't sure if this trick would work or not. Marik looked like he was about to kill her along with Seto Kaiba.
Kaiba, on the other hand, couldn't believe what he was hearing between the siblings.
"Nadina," her brother sounded shocked at her words and then grave. "I'm going to ask you one more time: move aside."
"I won't, brother." Nadina almost seemed to glow from determination.
It was deathly quiet, as the Black brothers, Odion, Curt, and a few Rare Hunters sucked in their breath. The tension was so thick in the air that it could be cut it with a knife.
Curses could be heard as Marik threw his knife down. It landed by Odion's foot with a loud clatter. "Dammit, Nadina! Damn it!" He hit the stone wall hard with his fist. "Why are you protecting this bastard!?" Marik was seeing red.
Nadina was silent. Marik looked over only to see tears rolling off her cheeks softly, staining the front of her gown. He cursed again.
"Clark," he looked over at the head of the security team, who shivered slightly when he saw his master.
"Yes, Master Marik?"
"Keep these keys. From now on, you're the only one, besides me, that would hold the keys to the cell." He caught his sister's wrist again. "I'm taking my sister upstairs. Report to me if anything is not as it should be."
After those cold, hard words. Marik dragged his sister up from the cell.
From Kaiba's cell, Clark sadly picked up the half-eaten dish of blancmange, which had been so sweet but has now turned bitter.
"I can't believe this." Marik muttered to himself as he paced back and forth in front of Nadina's bed. He stopped and glared at his sister, who sat on her bed with her nightgown on, her knees pulled to her chest with her arms wrapped around it.
"Well," he demanded as he reached to with two long strides. "Don't you think you have some explaining to do?"
Nadina said nothing.
"So you have nothing to say?" Marik growled. He roughly lifted Nadina's face up by placing his fingers under her chin. "How long have this been going on?"
Still nothing.
"Blast it, Nadina! Why did you have to interfere!?" He stomped over to her open window and looked out at the dark sky, trying to cool his temper.
"Nadina…" He turned around and caught sight of a crystal tear falling from the dark eyes. "Bloody hell." He muttered. He walked over by her bedside again and peered into her eyes. Then asked a question that sent goosebumps down his back.
"Nadina…are you in love?"
Am I in love? Nadina thought dully. Of course not. Of course, she realized. After spending all these time down the cell, she had developed certain fondness for the surly CEO, but it wasn't love. At least, not the way Marik was defining.
At least, she hoped it wasn't.
