BookDragon: *tissues up her nose* "Welcome back…I replaced note with last week's chapter about a week ago…except the thing didn't say it was updated, which sucks and-"
Bill: *laughing his head off*
BookDragon: *glares* "What is so funny?"
Bill: "The fact you have tissues stuffed up your nose."
BookDragon: "If I didn't have a stuffy nose and this horrible cough, then you would be dead right now."
Bill: "Yeah, but if you didn't have a stuffy nose and tissues up there to stop the running then you would have nothing to kill me about."
BookDragon: "…on with the fic…"
Chapter 18: Uproar
"So you say you're here to help us?" Calendae, walking about in a heavy blanket provided by Bill, along with the roof over their heads, the chairs they sat on, the hot chocolate that swam hotly into their lips from his mugs, and the many books Ammon kept looking over calmly between the huge shelves; they all sat huddled against the fire place in Bill's library, where she walked.
"If you wish to think so, then I am, if not, then I can't."
"What kind of riddle is that?" Bill asked, confusion showing itself in the wrinkles of his brow. Yami shifted under his blanket toward Calendae, keeping his mug raised to his lips and his vision clear to her face. Yugi watched him nervously, scratching the back of his head, as Bakura rubbed his hands together and put them close to the fire, where Joey and Tristan were busy roasting marshmallows, and paid attention to both her movements and Kaiba pacing around the room, irritated, probably because his brother was somewhere out of his site. Kyle and Brian had joined them.
It was an uproar when they had first stepped foot on the main floor out of the basement, all three of the boys, Kyle, Mokuba, and Brian had been furious with them for leaving them in the dark so long and had been anxious for some soft of sign that everything went well or- well, they were fine anyway.
So they sat on the edge of their wooden chairs, interested in what Calendae had to say, as Ann fidgeted in her own chair, trying to warm her numb fingers without having to get up and approach the fire at all. Mokuba shortly returned with a huge novel that made his legs shake with the sure weight of it. His legs stopped buckling when Ammon lifted it easily from his arms and put a blanket around him, that apparently came out of no where; Mokuba smiled and returned to his brother's side. Kaiba's face finally relaxed.
"It is no riddle." Calendae said, gazing into the fire calmly, swirling the liquid in her mug like Ann when she was thinking hard. Ann stopped swirling hers when Calendae started.
"She means that if you want her help she'll give it to you, if you decline then she'll be off." Ann replied to Bill's bewilderment, making the lines disappear from his forehead in understanding and drained the last of his espresso (that he was still quiet fond of) and reached for the machine to brew another.
"Yes, you are correct Ann, but I can only help a little, since I am entitled to do that much. But I can't do anything big."
"What do you mean by big?" Yugi asked her, as polite as ever. Calendae sighed.
"I can't do anything that takes a lot of power, like replacing Kakra back into her dungeon, defeat any of your enemies, such as your twin and Marik, and anything else you can think of that would be to great use. That is beyond my self."
"Well that bites." Kyle said bitterly, and pulled out the bag of bugles he had found earlier in Bill's walk in pantry, all the way in the back, where no one had gone for who knows how long. Kyle could only glance at the expiration date when Tristan and Joey where very near to him and tried to take the bag away to have some, but Kyle resisted and caused an uproar among the three of them. Everyone sweatdropped. They rolled and rolled and rolled about, no matter how long any of the others called to them to stop, and it all finally ceased when someone landed on the bag and swashed it. Then they froze.
"YOU CRUSHED THEM!" Joey shouted at Tristan.
"DON'T LOOK AT ME! IT WASN'T MY FAULT YOU PUSHED ME INTO THEM!"
"WHAT! IF KYLE HADN'T SHOVED ME…!"
"Oh now it's my fault is it?!" Kyle boomed, causing the other two to howl at them and more yelling, and they yelled like that for another five minutes, their voices starting to give when Bill grabbed the flattened bag and took a long at the date.
"Uh guys, these are six months expired."
"SHUT UP!" The three boys shouted at him, leaving him to calmly walk back to his seat, fold his hands, and wait for them to loose their voices.
"Three quarreling dogs fighting over a rotting bone, pathetic." Kaiba muttered aloud enough to be turned upon by Joey, who lunged at him and succeed in it because Tristan was too busy dealing with Kyle. Another huge dust cloud swirled and Joey's mad grunts and Kaiba's calm but deep breaths with the thumbs of fists rang out as everyone stood, dumbstruck.
"Whoa. He actually got him…" Brian breathed, in a bit of awe that they were finally beating the shit out each other. Mokuba was horrified, but still rooting on his brother through the clouded haze. It didn't get far when the noise disturbed Ammon. He raised his head from the crisp paper, a bitter expression of his face as his eyes turned to the cloud. He then walked raggedly to the cloud, looking like Kaiba when he gets angry enough, that heat of rage in his eyes, as he placed to fists into the cloud and brought out two very dirt covered figures. Joey had two black eyes and a bloody lip with his glare at both Kaiba and Ammon. Kaiba's only injury was his nose was bleeding, probably from being taken by surprise the moment Joey made it to his target, the first swing Ann guessed, but he showed the same bitterness toward Joey and Ammon, probably being hung by his collar. They were all in a state of agitation.
"You…IDIOTS!" Kaiba was going to open his mouth to coolly protest but closed it when Ammon's enflamed eyes turned to him.
"DON'T INTERUPT ME!" He growled, leaving everyone else to stay silent. Ammon lowered his tone from a bellow to an enraged whisper.
"How, may I ask you wise men, can I learn how to end our troubles by looking through theses hundreds of hundreds of books, with you two…fighting like a couple of little girls…disturb my long work?" They were silent.
"ANSWER ME!" He shook them both by their collars, beyond a little shake but more like an earthquake. They both kept their mouths claimed tight, pressure against each set of jaws was unseeable, but still there. Ammon took a long breath of air and glowed worse.
"No _ideas_? Hmmm…maybe if I punish you? Yes, that's right. I could make your lives a living hell if you push me far enough. Will I do it now?!"
"No, I believe in warns and second chances…so that is why I'm not going to hurt you today… but if you push me far enough I _will_ do it…consider this the first warning…your last warning." He dropped/shoved the two away from him and turned to everyone, purple-faced and eyes so red that Ann was surprised they didn't burst into flames.
"WHAT ARE YOU ALL STARING AT?!?!" Everyone jumped at his sudden shout, everyone but Yami and Calendae, which both took a step toward him with a calm frowning glace.
"Calm down, Ammon." Yami tried to comfort him by placing a hand on his shoulder, but Ammon swept it away angrily, and darted from Yami to Calendae almost in disbelief.
And before anyone can say anything else, he bats a whole pile of books off the table so suddenly Ann jumps with shock as he tramps out of the room and slams the door. Calendae shook her head slowly.
"He was always so angry." Yami looked at her curiously but didn't say anything to her remark and turned to his friends.
"Is everyone alright?" Everyone was a bit shaken up, even Kaiba showed a hint of surprise, but Bill looked the most aghast. His face had completely drained off all color and his eyes were gazed, clouded over enough for Ann to know that he was thinking very hard in somewhere very deep inside his mind, either processing what just happened or talking to Ammon. She had to admit, getting angry when someone was being very loud and irritating when you're trying to concentrate can being out the worst of people, but not that bad. Her heart was racing wildly still and when a hand placed itself upon her shoulder she jumped and spun around so fast it made Calendae remover her hand with a start.
"Easy…Don't be on edge so much…" Ann didn't reply to her remark, nor did she smile; she just stood there, trying to calm down. Calendae seemed to relate with this heart pounding; why wouldn't she?
"Don't worry about Ammon, he doesn't get angry that much, so it builds, until it needs to burst. Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Wheeler were just the ones that got it dealt out on…but never fear; he is a better at teaching than handing out punishments…you will see…" That woke Ann up, and sent the memory of a giant griffin roaring and made her shiver. Then the memories of his so called "lessons" were supposed to start.
"Wait. He's going to teach…me?" Calendae smiled and nodded. Ann sighed with despair.
"But he hates me." Calendae's forehead suddenly exploded into a thousand wrinkles of bewilderment.
"How do you interprat that?" Ann scratched her arm nervously and eyed Bill, still standing with no one at home, and the others were talking to each other, something about how stupid it is to argue about food with a whole walk in pantry of it, not to mention the huge ice room. Calendae caught her drift.
"You don't want the others to know, even though they freely show who they hate and when." She nodded toward Joey and Kaiba, making Ann sigh deeper.
"Yes, I know. I'm just…"
"You like Ammon." Ann's head bolted up and looked straight at her, opening her mouth to protest, but Calendae placed her hand over her lips lightly and hushed her.
"It is true, don't deny it, you only react when you feel it is necessary. Such as if you walked alone and a group was conspiring to hurt one of your friends you wouldn't confront those head on. All because you feel that you should not become mad so easily for a small mistake you made from being so young. You shouldn't punish yourself; you should take whatever wisdom you learned from that moment and move on."
"First, that would be stupid to confront them head on, courageous I know, but every stupid in wit. Second, I try to leave it behind, but it doubles back to me painfully, digging deeper. Don't tell me what I should or should not do. Even though you made me, I'm still not you." Calendae's left eye twitched with what Ann knew as a sudden wave of boiling anger, but Calendae let out a deep breath and took her hand off of her shoulder, with some effort not to open her mouth.
"It appears…you are correct…however…if you can't express your rage then it will swallow you…these tests he will give you will be hard if you can't figure away to vent…now I will go to my room." Calendae turned heel and briskly walk out of the room and quietly clicked the door shut. Ann shook her head and sighed, and looked up again to find everyone staring at her.
"What are you all-" she didn't finish for it was what Ammon had only said moments ago before making the papery mess under her feet, so she bit back her tongue.
"I'm going to find a book to read…please don't disturb me unless it is important." Ann walked away, and, without looking, grabbed a random book off the shelf she randomly walked by and started toward a chair in the far corner, where she flipped open the book and started to read a random line. A few of them watched her flip a few pages and knew she was silently telling them to go away, so Yugi, Brian, Kyle, Yami, and Tea took the warning and left. Kaiba didn't give a shit how she felt but left with his brother since his brother always followed him everywhere, Joey and Tristan stayed and kept roasting marshmallows and taking about why it was stupid to attack Kaiba and Joey nursed his eyes. Bill still stood motionless, and Bakura just watched him, unwavering from his position, just keeping an eye on him. Ann was aware that he was doing so, and felt a little grateful, and also wished to know if he could help him or not, and if so would he.
He would help if it was in his power, she decided as her answer an half hour later, and knew that Bill was going through something every difficult that Ann could not place. And if she couldn't place it, she decided further, then she shouldn't meddle with it, and so she flipped the page of her book and tried to drown herself in the words, until she felt she could think. The page turned dimmer and dimmer, even though the light above her head stayed at his brightest, until her heavy eyelids closed softly. She plunged into the darkness of sleep.
BookDragon: "Please review."