Hours passed, and the hours turned into days and nights. Days passed, and the days turned into weeks. Weeks passed, and in a blink of Kaiba's eyes, it has almost been a month ever since he left England.
"Big brother?" A voice snapped Kaiba out of his train of thoughts. He turned to the culprit standing at the door.
"Yes, Mokuba?"
"Seto," Mokuba started, coming timidly toward his brother. "Ever since you came back, you seem…" he hesitated. "…distracted. Are you sure you're alright, big brother?"
"Mokuba," Kaiba beckoned at Mokuba to come to him then leaned forward. "We both know that KaibaCorp has the best computer database in the whole country."
"I know that, big brother."
"Well, the KaibaCorp satellite keeps track of everyone that lives or has been through Domino City."
"Yeah?"
"I want you to run a search for me. Search for a maiden of fourteen, with hair of sunshine gold and lips red as the rose." He noticed the funny expression Mokuba had on his face. "What's wrong?" He asked before realizing how ridiculous his description sounded.
"Nothing!" Was the quick reply. "Uh…what name should I began the search under."
"Nadina…Nadina Ishtar."
"Ishtar?"
"Yes, her brother should have been registered under the Battle City Tournament as Marik Ishtar."
"Alright, Seto, I'll tell you if I find anything." Mokuba turned to leave as Kaiba wondered what himself was doing. What am I doing…?
"Mokuba?"
"Yeah?"
"Never mind."
Summer passed, and autumn slowly crept in. All that are left at the Ishtar Estate from summer were the dark, cold, rainy, and lonely days.
Nadina sighed as she stood inside the French doors to her balcony. She tried hard to remember the day she was waiting for Marik to return home. How happy she was that time, how innocent, she sighed again. And that time now seemed so long ago.
It had been almost four weeks ever since Seto Kaiba have entered and exited her life. And while it was a blink for Kaiba, it was an eternity for Nadina. It had been her choice, however, and she never regretted a minute of it. However, these days of the weeks in her life were pure agony. Most of the time, she would lay on her bed, in stupor of unhappiness, trying to figure everything out, crying, and thinking about Marik and Kaiba, and listening to the sound in the rest of the house.
She heard Marik come and go, in and out of his own room down the hall. But he never even stopped outside her door. She existed alone, wrapped in her own silence and pain, brokenhearted and abandoned, sealed off from the world and cut off from her brother's affections. And that was the worst punishment Marik could have inflected. His cold disregard of her stung worse than any blows she's ever encountered.
"Nadina, how long are we going to keep up this silent battle." Marik said tiredly as he entered her room for the first time since the day he told her to stay in her room until he decided to let her out.
"I have no will to battle you, brother." She said demurely, turning around from the mirror. Her light summer clothing have been exchanged for heavier winter clothing. Her dress was the most glorious creation, well done on Marik's part. The gown was white silk brocade with inner satin lining and a wide red velvet sash that trailed to the floor. She had piled her honey colored curls up and had tied it with a matching velvet ribbon. Though Marik was punishing her, he still kept her well dressed and she kept her own appearance elegant and classy.
He glowered at her. "You know you are. We both know you are."
"Am I?" Nadina dropped her gaze.
"Look at yourself!" He snapped crossly, turned away from her and crossing his arms sullenly. "You're pale and thin. This is the way you're going against me."
"I don't understand…"
"Curt tells me you haven't been eating. You barely nibbled enough food to keep yourself alive. And I saw what he meant. Every single day for every single meal, Curt would carry back the tray of food and announced that you had refused to eat anything."
Nadina said nothing, but had to silently agree. Sipping only an occasional cup of tea or soup and nibbling enough to her alive was how she had survived through the last past weeks. But she wasn't trying to attempt to try her brother's patience. She had been too emotionally weary to think of torturing her brother any further.
But she was surprised to see lines of fatigue on his face and hollows under his eyes as if he hadn't slept, as if he, too, were going through some kind of private torture. Even under his dark suntan, he looked wan.
"Are you attempting to try my patience?"
"I…haven't been hungry, Marik." She felt wilted.
"Mmm…" His eyes raked over her appearance. "I don't particularly care." He finally lied roughly. Curt entered with a tray.
"You're treating me unfairly, Marik." Nadina's voice trembled slightly.
"How have I been treating you?"
"Like a prisoner, not your sister. I know I deserved to be punished after what I've done, but this is unreasonable."
"If you have only known what trouble you could have caused, then you might realize that perhaps your room is where you deserve to be."
"I don't care what trouble I would have caused. It was wrong for you to treat Kaiba like that."
Now Marik looked at her. "You're behaving like a tiresome child. I really don't think you realized the implications of what you have done. So I shall keep you in your room until you do. And if you continue to act like a tiresome child, I shall send you to a boarding school, since you probably seemed to prefer that to me."
Oh, the cruelty! Nadina was shocked that Marik would think that's a choice she would consider. "I didn't say…"
"However," he interrupted. "If you wish to continue living with me, you will obey me and show at least an outward respect. And be sufficiently contrite for the trouble you have caused everyone."
Every timid little feeling and weak emotions and her wish to make her brother understand her and love her again was gone as she glared at him. She knew she should be contrite, but Marik was being so impossibly pompous. Why, it would be absurd for her to be submissive and not say what was true when he acted like he was right the whole time. He didn't understand at all!
"Well!" She snapped, remembering all those months that he'd left her and had gone for business. "I never knew you were such an impossible and ridiculously unreasonable imbecile, Marik! If a meek little ninny is what you want for a sister, then maybe you don't want me!"
For half a second, Marik Ishtar was speechless. His face went white with rage as he stood up and walked over to his sister. And before he even had time to comprehend what was happening, he raised his hand and brought it down hard across his sister's face. The force sent Nadina to the floor.
Gasps were heard and Clark's cry, "Master Marik!" He and Edward burst into the room. They've obviously heard everything. Clark hurried over to the young heiress's side and Edward tried to calm Marik down.
"Master?!" Curt skidded to a stop after running up the stair from hearing a crash. Odion appeared last. He looked at both his half-siblings silently.
As for Nadina, she had been too shocked to even cry. She slowly brought her hand up to her cheek and turned around to face her brother.
Marik was also shocked out of his senses at what he had done. God knows that he hadn't meant to hit her. He couldn't bear the look she was giving him. The look was everything he had tried to prevent from happening. Disappointment, loath, hurt, betrayal, heartbroken reflected from her eyes and chilled him. Marik was too upset, disturbed, and unsure of what to do next. But pride and his position as the heir of the Ishtar family wouldn't let him do anything to repair his mistake.
So without saying anything else, he stomped out of her room and slammed the door behind him.
"Marik," Odion addressed him as a brother would have for the first time. "You shouldn't have hit her."
Normally, Marik would be highly irked at Odion for correcting him. But right now, he was as upset as Nadina was in her room and even worse.
"I didn't mean to hit her, Odion," he whispered. "Really, I never meant to hit her. What should I do?" He asked his loyal half-brother. "I should apologize. I have to apologize and let her know I didn't mean anything I said or did."
"Wait till the morning, Marik," Odion said wisely. "Get some rest and let Nadina alone to calm down. You two are both too excited to do any good right now. Wait till tomorrow. There will be enough time for a proper apology."
He didn't know how wrong he was.
Nadina sat in front of her vanity, thinking, after she had send Clark and Edward away and they finally complied. All she could think about now that she was alone was what her brother had done. A fresh tear trickled down her cheek.
I knew it all along…she thought dully. I was just a burden after Mother and Daddy died. That's why Marik was never home. Because of his "business trips." She still couldn't bring herself to think of the sentence. The sentence that could and would take her life.
He hates me.
She choked back a sob. I've got to leave. I can't stay here. I don't belong here anymore. I need to go away somewhere before anything else happens.
But, where can she go?
Fumbling over her vanity for a tissue, she accidentally knocked over her little carved wooden perfume box. And the articles scattered themselves all over the floor. Wiping her tears away, Nadina busied herself as she began to pick up tall cut glass crystal bottles of perfume. She froze when she spotted an object and her fingers paused above it for a moment. Then she picked it up and sat back, cradling it with her hands. The silver and blue gleamed in the light and shimmer up at her.
Keep it. She heard Kaiba's voice as clearly as if he was right beside her. That way, a part of me will always be with you. And when you need someone, look at this and think of me…
She stared at the Blue-Eyes-White-Dragon card and then slowly, she lifted her eyes to the picture of her brother, grinning from the silver frame that stood on her vanity. Tears filled her eyes as she picked that up also. She closed her eyes and gave the picture a kiss, then flew to her baloney and threw the French door open before began to climb down the white lattice trellis. Lightening flashed, thunder roared, and the rain continued pouring as Nadina reached the ground. There's only one place to go.
There's only one person she wants to see right now.
He was her only hope.
Seto Kaiba wondered from room to room in his huge mansion, restless. He couldn't focus on his work at all these few days. All the business details that had crowded in his mind seemed to have disappeared and only one thing lingered about.
Nadina.
He couldn't get his mind off Nadina.
I wonder how she's doing? He thought restively as he headed down the stairs and through the hallway. It's been weeks. Is this really the end?
Kaiba stopped pacing as he realized that he had somehow roamed to the greenhouse located at the east wing of Kaiba Mansion. He stopped and took a deep breath of the fragrance of the flower blossoms.
The room looked soft and shimmery, ready and waiting for someone who would never return.
Kaiba closed his eyes and recall Nadina's face, her tears. He realized that she had been like one of those shooting stars that his mother had told him about so often under the night sky. Nadina had streaked across his life and lit up its darkness. Then disappeared under the thin line of the horizon.
He caught the scent of a Bluebell garden drifting from the dainty handkerchief that he held in his fingers, but wasn't surprised.
"Marik always said that one can always distinguish a great lady. The air around her smells like flowers."
Kaiba heard Nadina's voice as clearly as he had on the afternoon only weeks ago. He nodded silently in understanding, even though he saw no flowers in the room. Her presence would always linger in his life, no matter what his future hold.
"I'll never forget you, Nadina," he vowed in a whisper. Kaiba turned and walked quickly toward the front door, where his limousine was waiting to take him to KaibaCorp, tucking the handkerchief in the front pocket of his trenchcoat.
Rain sputtered hard down upon the city of Domino. Everyone soon ran inside shops or under covers to duck the rain. People doing their Christmas shopping slipped inside stores and people walking home began running. Bicycle riders disappeared at the first sign of rain. Cars and buses skidded on the wet pavement as they willed the time to go by faster so they could go home.
The sky was dark, as if the angels were crying in heaven. Soon, the rain cleared almost everybody off the streets and sidewalk as everyone seek the warm, cozy refuge in their own homes. There was one figure, however, that continued running through the mists of rain, wind, and silence.
She had been running for hours in the rain. Her hair, which looked as if it was in a neat ponytail that morning, was now doused and plastered themselves on her forehead and the nape of her neck. Her dress, once white, was now drenched with rain and sputtered with mud. The large patches of brown told the number of times the white silk slippers, which was not much against the large puddles and wet cement, had slipped in the mud puddles. The large deep red velvet ribbon, which was tied smartly earlier, was now unfastened and was being trampled against the rainwater that flooded sidewalk.
But through all that, the slender pale figure moved on, picking up the heavy dress, sodden with raindrops, as the soft tissue-thin slippers continued rhythmically through the water.
Never forget, Marik…I love you more than life itself, she thought back to what she had whispered as she looked back at Ishtar Estate for the last time.
Suddenly, she tripped on her once lacy and pressed petticoat and she found herself in a large brown puddle. Passerby wouldn't be able to tell whether the drops running down her face was rain or tears unless they got close enough to hear the low, heart-wrenching sob that escaped her throat.
She looked almost too tired to get up, but she did, pushing herself off the ground and pulling her gown up before trudging again forward, to an unknown destination.
The wind howled and whipped her hair about her, and still she walked on. The rain poured harder, and still she walked on. The sidewalk now was flooded with a steady stream of water, and still she walked on. The sky darkened to almost a pitch black, and still she walked on. A car zoomed past her and dirty water sprayed up against her, leaving her shivering and shaking with cold, and still she walked on.
Finally she did stop and looked up.
She was facing the entrance of the Kaiba Mansion driveway that was closed off against the world with a thick, black, iron gate, giving them a majestic look along the white stone wall. Behind them, the damp driveway straightened out to dramatically reveal the magnificence of Kaiba Mansion. The three story white brick and marble structure commanded at the end of the imperial driveway. The Parthenon-like roof was added to the mansion's grand looks.
There was never a more beautiful picture than this in her eyes.
With tears streaming down her face, she pushed the iron gates open weakly with the little strength she had left. And slowly trudged toward the double doors of the mansion. She movements were slow and awkward from the cold and she fell twice before reaching the door. The second time she fell, she just doesn't have the strength to get up anymore and she slowly made her way to the door by crawling and hoisting herself up the marble steps with her arms. With not enough strength to even lift her hands to knock, she fell against the door and slowly began to slide down to a pile on the ground.
The first person the notice the queer sound at the front door was Mokuba Kaiba. The younger Kaiba was just enjoying a cup of hot chocolate—overwhelmed with as many marshmallows that he could fill his cup before his brother could find out—when a light thud at the front door caught his attention. He shrugged and snuggled deeper into the comforting cushions on the couch that faced the fireplace, where a roaring fire was crackling.
But somehow, he couldn't let go of that strange noise he heard. He battled many battles of whether he should just forget about the noise and drink his cocoa or to tell his big brother what he had heard before conscience won. He sighed as he hopped off the couch and walked up the stairs to his brother's home office.
"Seto?" He popped his head into the room.
"Hmmm…?" His brother wasn't paying any attention to him. His attention was diverted on his computer screen and a portfolio he held in his hand.
"I think there's someone at the door." Mokuba informed him.
"Did you answer him when he knocked?" Kaiba asked absentmindedly as he frowned at the folder.
"He didn't knock."
"Ring the bell then?" Kaiba tapped a few more keys before making more comical facial expressions at the folder.
"He didn't ring the bell either." Mokuba answered honestly, looking at his brother carefully. Was Seto okay? He seemed to be acting a bit… lunatic.
Kaiba slammed the folder shut. "How do you know there's someone at the door then?" He settled his piercing gaze on his little brother.
"I heard a thud."
"It's probably just the wind."
"If you say so, big brother." Mokuba was satisfied with the answer and plan to leave for his comfortable seat in front of the fire to finish his hot chocolate in peace. Before his brother called him back, that is.
"What do you mean, if I say so?" Kaiba arched an eyebrow. "Don't you think it was the wind?"
"No. I don't know what it was though, but it sure didn't sound like the wind."
"I'll go take a look." With that, Kaiba got up from his chair and started down the stairs with his brother clambering behind him. After stepping on his elder brother's trenchcoat and smacking right into his back and getting scolded, the two Kaiba brothers finally made it to the doorway.
"You know, Mokuba," Kaiba planted his wrists on his hip and turning back. "This person is probably gone already. It probably wasn't a person anyway."
"We'll see." The littler Kaiba was just as defiant.
"We will." Kaiba nodded authoritatively before opening the door.
What happened next, none of the brothers were prepared for. Though Mokuba had won his bet, he almost wished he didn't. Kaiba was especially shocked when he opened the door and found that a figure of white was barely hanging on smoothness of the door. He caught the white slender figure as she collapsed. Mokuba gave a squeak before jumping away.
Kaiba was shocked, but had enough sense to brush back the honey-colored locks of hair to reveal the person. He almost didn't recognize her. It stuck him that she was very familiar, yet at the same time, a complete stranger. It was because he's only seen her once through everything that her looks did nothing to stir his memories.
It was a scent that brought him to his senses. A very, very light scent of the fragrance of Bluebells that had somehow stayed with her through all the rain and mud. As the heart-aching perfume drifted toward him, he gasped and whispered,
"Nadina?"
