The days spent in Kaiba Mansion without Nadina became a torture for Kaiba. He was back to his routine. During the weekdays, he'd go to school and after school, to KaibaCorp to finish his work. During weekends, he'd dive headfirst into the piles of work that he had left alone when Nadina was with him. He'd work until it was later than midnight before he'd return home. By that time, Mokuba was usually asleep. Which was fine for Kaiba. The few times that the Kaiba brothers actually came face to face, they always ended up in a heated argument about Nadina in which Kaiba would yell at Mokuba to go to bed. The little Kaiba was at a rebellious age, so he would yell back that he would go to bed whenever he pleases. Then, half an hour later in his room, Kaiba would find Mokuba dead asleep on his bed, his covers half off and his lights on to fool Kaiba into thinking that he wasn't asleep.
"Hey, guys," Joey remarked to his friends. "I think Kaiba went back to being his old usual jerk self again."
"Joey," Téa admonished. "That's not nice. Kaiba's been through a lot."
"I bet he misses Nadina." Bakura added.
"I miss Nadina." Tristan sighed, looking tired and sorrowful. "Somehow, she made classes a lot more easier."
"Yeah, that's because you're just staring at her the whole time, instead of paying attention to math."
"I wonder if she's ever coming back." Duke shook his head as he played with the two dice in his hands. He flicked on into the air and it hit Joey, who gave a cry then made several unpleasant gestures at the other boy. "Oh, sorry, Joey." He apologized absentmindedly.
With Nadina gone, life is some form of torture for everyone, but most of all, Kaiba…
Nadina hummed as she stepped out of the shower, the steam rippling out with her, surrounding her in the mists.
"Ah," she sighed happily. "Home is good. I can use my own shampoo again." She dried her body and put on a negligee before sitting down in front of her vanity. She looked at her wet locks and pulled out some bobby pins from her vanity drawer. She piled the golden curls on top of her head, so that some curls hung down, framing her face.
"Now, for a dress." She studied her selection of flocks in her closet. "What dress is the favor for today?" She poked at the dark midnight blue faillé and finally pulled it out. "Marik is still a better dress shopper than Kaiba is." She murmured, pleased. Nadina, then, sighed heavily and flopped down on her bed.
"I'm back home. Everything's good between Marik and I…" So why do I still feel so down? She twisted a strand of her hair between her fingertip. What's wrong with me, why do I feel this way? I'm suppose to be happy. This is a storybook ending. Everyone's happy…
…Aren't they…?
"Nadina!" Marik's voice came from outside her door. "Nanna want to know if—" The door opened as Marik waltzed in, uninvited. He stopped talking as he realized Nadina wasn't dressed yet and was only in a dressing gown. The siblings stared eye to eye for a moment before Nadina shrieked.
"Get out, get out!!"
The door slammed shut and the Ishtar brother's muffled voice could be heard outside saying, "I'm sorry, Nadina, I didn't mean it!"
She quickly pulled on the dress and tied back the long ribbon at her waist—after much difficulty—and peered into the mirror to examine her hair before letting her brother into the room.
He gave her a dark, yet embarrassed look. "Sheesh, you shadda dressed before flopping yourself around like a fish." He remarked before seating himself comfortably in a chair.
"And you should have knocked before entering somebody's room. Especially if it's a girl's." She retorted.
"Yes, yes, my fault." He held his hand up in truce and grinned. "Anyway, I just came to tell you that Nanna wants to know if you want some blancmange. She just made some."
"Blancmange?" That perked Nadina up. Her slender body and her peaches and cream complexion leaned forward, interested.
"Yeah…" Her brother looked at her strangely.
"Nothing…" His sister seemed to far away. Her eyes looked illusory and her cheeks began to flush.
"Nadina…?" He peered at her face curiously. As if snapped back to reality all of a sudden, Nadina blinked and looked over at her brother.
"Yes?" She said sweetly, thought to Marik, it almost sounded sad.
"Um…I think I'll go get some blancmange for myself." He got up to leave, then turned back. "Do you want some?"
"I'll get some later."
After her brother left, Nadina went back to the question she had asked herself over and over again during the past week that she's been home. It was the same question her brother asked her before she ran away. There was no answer, only a question her heart could answer in due time:
Am I in love…?
Nadina…Nadina… Kaiba growled and turned over sharply and buried himself deeper into his blankets. The sweet smile, the warm laughter…those eyes…those dark deep pools of violet that you just can't get out of…
"Stop it!" He cursed and hit the pillow with his fist. "Why can't I get her out of my head! She's gone and she's happy!!" With that, he flipped the pillow over his head and tried to block out the pictures of the golden British beauty. Except he couldn't. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't keep the image of her delicate, fragile face out of his mind. He couldn't forget the lilting quality of her voice, the eagerness of her small smiles, the play of sunlight in her golden hair.
The voices continued to taunt him.
Remember those delicate tendrils that use to frame her face whenever she'd put her hair up? Remember the dance? When you took her into your arms and swept her off her feet? Remember that one moonlight moment when you wanted to kiss her so badly, but held back? Remember how sweet and precious she was to you?
Remember…remember…remember…
"I will not remember anymore!!" He finally exploded, yelling into his pillow in fear of waking Mokuba. "I cannot, and will not, think about her anymore! She's gone, for good." He added firmly. "Marik will never let her come down here again, so forget about her!"
But the thoughts, as if knowing what he was trying to do, refuse to obey his outburst.
The way she moved about in gowns, always so graceful. And the way she talked, her lilting voice, the refinement of her actions, how naïve and innocent she was, how gentle and loving she was to Mokuba…
"What in seven hells is wrong with me?!" Kaiba finally couldn't contain himself any longer. He bounced up from his bed literally and stared off into the darkness of his room. He was irritated and upset at this unknown feeling that was trying to take over his mind and he feared—more.
Why? What's happening to me? His heart thudded against his chest. For the first time in Kaiba's life, he was anxious and nervous about himself. This feeling was one that he had never experienced and for that, he lost all the confidence in himself. I'll have to figure out what's wrong with me, this is getting out of hand. I can't go on acting unsure and paranoid. I am the president of KaibaCorp, I need to keep my acts together. Okay, then. Kaiba took a deep breath.
Do I miss her? Yes, but that's not it. Am I worried about her? Yes, but that's not it either. Do I want her to return? Yes, I do very much. Do want to see her desperately again? He paused for a moment, then answered silently. Yes, I do want to see her very desperately. Geez, from the looks of it, I want a lot. He wrinkled his nose in disdain. Could there be something wrong with her that I don't know about? Most likely not, Marik would have called me and accused me of the crime already. He smiled wryly into the darkness. Now, lets take it from a different point of view. Let's say she does come back, what would I do, then?
I would hug her first—or no—she would run up to me a hug me. Then I would hug her back and kiss her—on the forehead.
But what does this all mean? What does it turn into when I sums it up. Kaiba jumped with a start in his bed as an idea slowly dawns upon him. His eyes narrowed. What was that Mokuba said before Nadina left again?
* FLASHBACK *
"Nadina, please don't go." Mokuba begged as Nadina and Kaiba got ready to leave. "Please don't leave me."
"Mokuba," Nadina knelt down so that she was eye-leveled to him. "I've got to go home. You see, my brother misses me very much and I've got to go back to him."
"But he could come visit you! I can make sure Seto doesn't beat him up!" Nadina smiled sadly as she reached out and tousled his hair.
"Listen, Mokuba, if you go off to college one day and you're living away from home, and your brother wants you to come live at home because he misses you very badly, would you go home?"
Mokuba pouted. "That's not going to happen. Seto would never let me live on my own. He said if I ever go to college, he's having a mansion built right by it so that he and I could live together. He said that if he lets me live alone by myself, I'm going to rot every tooth in my mouth and get diabetes before I can get a decent girlfriend. He said he has to live with me so that he could make sure I don't eat too much candy."
"I'm sure he would." She nodded agreeably. "But if your brother decides to stay at Kaiba Mansion and he still misses you very much, would you go home?"
The little Kaiba thought for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Yes."
"That is why I must go home." She said, smiling sadly. "You understand now, don't you, Mokuba?"
"Yes." He looked up with teary eyes. "You…you won't forget me, would you?"
"Of course not!" Nadina seemed shocked. Mokuba sniffled, then suddenly threw his arms around the older girl.
"I love you, Nadina, and I'll never forget you."
* End Flashback *
"Love…" Kaiba said slowly, the word foreign to his lips. "Could it be…?"
…That he loved her?
But…
…not as a sibling…?
"Aw, hell…"
Nadina wasn't doing any better back in England. But like a girl, she slowly and carefully analyzed her thoughts and problems with detail.
Is this love…? Nadina wondered to herself as she stared out the window into the night sky, scattered with thousands of diamond-like stars. I wonder if all girls experience this sort of sadness when they're in love… It feels like stars are falling in my chest.
I…
…I'm in love…
But how could I possibly fall in love with Kaiba? She frowned and looked almost upset, as if not knowing when love happens, it happens quietly. It creeps into one's heart like the first ray of the sun, so you don't realize it before its obviousness is right in front of your nose.
And it had been right under her nose all right. The whole time.
This afternoon, for example, Edward seemed especially demanding that afternoon when Nadina dragged herself down to do her lessons, where she managed to stay attentive for two hours, but after two hours she felt like an electric saw was sawing in her head, she couldn't even form the answers correctly. Her mind began to wonder to Kaiba back in Domino City.
I wonder how he's doing? She thought silently to herself, playing with he pen. I've never had a chance to say good-bye to him. She shook her head sadly.
"What is the name of the city in Italy that's been buried from a volcano explosion?" Edward had asked.
"Seto Kaiba." She said automatically, without thinking. Edward stared at her. She shook her head and said quickly.
"Wait, what was the question again?"
"Well, the answer isn't Seto Kaiba, that's for sure." He eyed her critically.
When she had given two wrong answers in geography, Edward slammed his textbook down on the table in a way that echoed most unpleasantly in her head.
"Nadina Ishtar! Do you provoke me intentionally because I've scolded you for not paying attention? Or have you become more adept at the stupidity in my absence?" His British accented voice was more demanding. His irresistible dark eyes looked as black as the night as ever and a lot sharper behind the little glasses he sometimes wore for reading. He had declared that it makes him look much sterner and more professor looking…not that it worried Nadina. She always giggled whenever he said that, making him even more cross.
"No, sir." Nadina could not even comprehend the question, she was so deep in the thought of Kaiba.
Edward scowled, no doubt suspecting impudence. "No, sir, what?"
She shook her head numbly.
"What's wrong with you?" In act of taking off his glasses, the security-guard-tutor peered at her over the top of his reading glasses.
"I don't think I am feeling very well…sir." She tried her best to focus on him, only finding herself shaking her head to clear her vision. God, Edward looked tall.
He got up and came to scowl over her, looking very much like an aggravated professor in those glasses. At six foot, he was quite a bit taller than Nadina. Nadina leaned back in her chair, clutching her book at her chest, fearing he would do something outrageous for the temper he had shown—totally unlike the gentle and protective Edward. But he only reached out and put a cool hand on her forehead as gently and as practiced as a professional doctor would have done. Then he took the book from her, "Go tell your brother that I said you have a fever and you're to be put to bed. There will be no lessons tonight nor tomorrow, in heaven's name, child, why didn't you tell me?"
Edward will never make a doctor, that's for sure. Nadina smiled to herself after the memory. Just because I've always behaved and paid attention during his lectures, doesn't mean I'm sick the day I don't pay attention.
Though her eyes were positioned at the sky and its stars, somehow, the stars had long withdrawn and in its place formed the face of Kaiba.
She had memorized Kaiba's fine, but dark, features: perfectly arched dark eyebrows, those never-to-be-forgotten midnight blue eyes as blue as the darkest parts of the ocean, and his rich dark chocolate brown hair. His willowy tall frame that could easily tower over her. And his long fingers that had encircled around her waist at the night of the dance. She had never loved anyone else the way she loved Kaiba.
The first time she saw him, she stood there quietly among Marik and his Rare Hungers, drinking him in. And when she finally had his trust and care, she was almost in tears because she had never felt so alive.
She had cried bitterly the day they parted, feeling utterly alone as she watched him vanish down from the underground Ishtar maze.
She doesn't know how long she stood there holding him that day, the day that she woke up in Kaiba Mansion, breathing in his scent with her face pressed against his shirt. She knew she didn't want to let go.
Nadina stared out at the moon and its beauty made everything fly out of her mind as she watched it shine on the black velvet sky serenely.
Everything except one perfect name…
Seto Kaiba…
"Brother?" Nadina appealed to her brother the next day. He was bent over his work when she walked into her office, but looked up as soon as he realized that she had came into his office with a serious intention.
"Yes, Nadina?"
"I wish to talk to you about something."
"So speak." Marik smiled, but his eyes were serious.
"I…" She drew out her courage. "I wish to make a trip to Domino City."
Marik was silent. In fact, he was silent for so long that Nadina was afraid he would refuse on the spot.
"I…" She took a deep breath. "During my stay there, I have experience various things. Like their school. I find it quite appealing. And…" She trailed off.
"Go on," her brother prompted. Marik had a pretty good idea of what Nadina was going to say. And even thought he was smiling, he doesn't like the idea. Not one bit.
"And I would like," Nadina took another deep breath. "I would like to visit Seto Kaiba. Not for very long! Just…enough time to say good-bye." Her voice softened into a whisper.
"Nadina…"
"Yes, Marik?"
"You know you can tell me anything." He leaned forward and clasped his hands together. "I know you have more to say.
"Well, Marik, Kaiba is quite a jerk sometimes and so very arrogant, but he's protected me and shield me while I was there. He cared for me when I was ill and helped me when I wasn't strong. I have grown…quite fond of him." Quite fond of him indeed, she thought silently. "I've grown to—to like him very much."
"I see." She looked up, expecting to see a scowl on Marik's face, but instead, all she sees is a smile curved on his lips.
"Marik…?"
"I knew this would be happening sooner or later." The scowl appeared as he opened this drawer, took out something, and slammed it on the desktop. "I knew it! I just knew it!"
Nadina felt her face flaming up as she blushed furiously, while the Ishtar heir continued to rant,
"I knew that no good moneybag wouldn't just vanish quietly into thin air. I knew you were going to bring him up sooner or later. Here!" He removed his hand from the envelope he had slammed down and held it out to her. Nadina took it gingerly.
Inside the envelope held three plane tickets for Domino City.
"Tickets!" She gasped before asking. "Three?"
"You don't' think I'll let you go alone, do you?!" Marik snapped back, sullen. "The Blacks are going with you for I'd rather not see that arrogant jackass any time soon."
"Marik, that's not nice!" She scolded before Marik's next words sent her flying to her room to pack.
"Better go pack, sister. The plane leave tomorrow morning, eight o'clock."
