Well…here I am again, bored out of my mind at 4 AM, bringing you the next chapter of this fic…I hope you are all happy…eh…just kidding, I just got a central idea, so I have to type it now before I forget it!
Disclaimer: Nope, I dun own Yu-Gi-Oh!, so I dun own Yuugi & co., the Sennen (Millennium) Items, or the Duel Monsters/Monsters and Magic card game…but I DO own Alina!
/blah/-Yuugi to Yami
blah-Yami to Yuugi
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Yuugi, Ryou, and Alina arrived at the Kaiba Corporation's main headquarters just before the sun sank below the many smaller buildings in the area.
"I appreciate you two coming all this way with me…" Alina said, smiling kindly at Yuugi, then Ryou. She then glanced behind her at the Kaiba Corp. building looming above her like, to her eyes, a dragon. She shuddered slightly and looked back at Yuugi and Ryou. "I…don't suppose either of you would like to come inside with me…?"
"Uh…I think I should head on home now!" Ryou said nervously, running off within the next second.
"What's with Ryou?" Alina asked, looking the slightly shorter Yuugi in the eye.
"Don't mind him…he just needed to get home before his father started worrying about him…" Yuugi lied, knowing full well that Ryou only left so that he did not get stuck with leaving Bakura, the self-proclaimed 'King of Thieves', alone with Yami. "Shouldn't we be heading inside now?" he asked Alina, glancing towards the ever-sinking sun.
"Oh! You're absolutely correct, I'm sorry!" Alina said apologetically, walking up to the front doors of Kaiba Corp. and stepping inside, waiting patiently for Yuugi to follow just inside the doors. "Well…might as well get this over with…" she muttered just loud enough for the Japanese man to hear before walking up to the receptionist at the front desk.
"State your name and your business at Kaiba Corporation," the woman said, her tone monotonous to a point.
"My name is Alina Rohain, and my business here is that I have a meeting scheduled with Mr. Seto Kaiba," Alina answered, her voice quickly growing very cold and business-like. Yuugi could understand how she could possibly be related to Seto. The receptionist simply blinked at Alina in slight surprise and picked up a phone receiver nearby.
"Mr. Kaiba, a young lady by the name Alina Rohain says that you and she have a meeting…yes, Mr. Kaiba…young Mr. Mutou is with her as well…should I allow him to…? Of course, Mr. Kaiba…" With that, she placed the phone back down and looked at Alina and Yuugi. "Mr. Kaiba wishes to see both Ms. Rohain and Mr. Mutou on the top floor, if Mr. Mutou wouldn't mind."
"Uh…no, I wouldn't mind at all," Yuugi managed to blurt out, glancing nervously at Alina as they walked to the nearest elevator. "I wonder why he wants to see me, as well…"
"I don't know," Alina said as the elevator began to convey them to the top floor. "You haven't, by any chance, known Seto for a long time, have you?"
"Well, I've known Seto for about…I'd say about three or four years now…but I'm afraid that talking to him from time to time as rivals hardly counts as really knowing him!"
"I see…" Alina said as the elevator finally reached the top floor, the doors opening to a very large and elegant office. There were two sofas, a large flat-screen television, and a large coffee table filling the center of the room. A door on the far right wall suggested a small bedroom beyond, and a large oak desk was sitting in front of the outside wall, which was nothing more than three large windows, allowing the owner of the office a very good view of Domino.
The owner of this proudly elegant office was sitting in a large leather chair behind the desk, his river-blue eyes taking in every detail of his visitors. His lean form was sitting perfectly upright in the chair, his head, which was adorned by somewhat long strands of light brown hair that were as smooth as silk, rising slightly above the back of the chair. A grin was brought to his lips as his gaze fell upon first Yuugi, then Alina.
"So…what brings Alina Rohain to my 'happy' little corner of the world?" the man asked Alina, grinning mischievously.
"Seto Kaiba…you're just like Father told me you would be…" Alina said, her eyes suddenly dimming into a saddened expression at the memory of her father, who was killed just the year before she learned of Seto and Mokuba's whereabouts. "Seto, I…" she started, hoping Seto was in a mood to listen while Yuugi was standing there.
"Alina…I know all about you…I looked into it," Seto muttered as Mokuba walked into the room and glanced at Alina. "Mokuba, you remember me telling you about that cousin of ours, right?" he asked, smirking when Mokuba blinked his grey eyes in confusion and nodded. "Well, this is her. Mokuba, meet Alina. Alina, Mokuba, my younger brother," he introduced, watching in utter amusement as Mokuba started blankly at Alina before smiling at the girl and walking up to her.
"I see you've met Yuugi already," Mokuba stated, holding his hand out. The boy had known for a long time that in the kind of culture Alina came from, a handshake was considered good manners, and he wanted to make a decent first impression.
"Yeah, you could say that," Alina said, looking towards Yuugi and grinning.
"If by 'met', you mean we accidentally ran each other over!" Yuugi said, rubbing the back of his head and laughing.
"You mean you really…" Mokuba said incredulously, arching an eyebrow in Yuugi's direction as he trailed off.
"I assure you it was nothing more than an accident, Mokuba," Alina said, looking at Mokuba, then at Seto, who was watching in amusement.
"Well, Alina, I hate to say it, but we had no idea that you were coming in today," Seto said, sounding very business-like. "Your room at our mansion is not ready yet."
"So…you're saying I have no place to stay, is that correct?" Alina asked, her voice edging towards alarm.
"I'm afraid so," Seto told her, his eyes softening ever so slightly in sympathy. "That's why I wanted Yuugi here to come up as well…I was wondering if he wouldn't mind housing my benevolent cousin for a day or two."
"Well, of course I wouldn't mind, but my grandfather is a different story! You know how he's felt about the Kaiba family ever since you tore up his Blue-Eyes White Dragon card…"
"Say it's a suggestion from Mokuba, then. The old man seems to like Mokuba anyway." Seto's voice was beginning to edge towards anger, and Alina decided that she could either convince Yuugi's grandfather to let her stay on her own, or she could live out on the streets for a few days.
"Yuugi, we should get moving now." Alina said quietly, glancing out the window at the pitch-black night.
"Well, if you really want to leave now," Yuugi said, looking at Seto and Mokuba and bowing. "If you'll excuse us, Alina believes we should leave now."
"Go if you want," Seto said callously as Mokuba rolled his eyes and gave Yuugi and Alina a courteous bow.
Alina gave a quick, if not graceful, bow and followed Yuugi into the elevator. "You and Seto have been rivals for quite some time."
"How could you guess?" Yuugi asked, knowing that he had to separate himself from her after they exited the elevator so that he could allow Yami control for nighttime travel.
"Just something about the way you two acted around each other, that's all," Alina stated, leaning against the wall of the elevator wearily.
"Are you sure you're all right…?" Yuugi asked, his voice taking on a distinct worried tone.
"Yes, I'm fine. I just had to do a lot of traveling at night to get here when I did. I suppose I should have gotten a bit more rest on some nights, but…" Alina stated, trailing off afterwards.
"I see," Yuugi said as the elevator doors opened and they stepped out into the lobby. "Alina, could you wait right here for just a minute?" he asked as he quickly walked into a hallway just out of everyone's view. /Okay, Yami…you have to take over for now, okay?/
What, now? Come on, Yuugi, I was sleeping! Yami complained groggily.
/Yami, the sun has set already…/ Yuugi reminded the Egyptian, knowing that that would get the former Pharaoh awake.
Fine, fine…whatever…as long as I get to sleep again when we get back to your house...if one could even call it that… Yami muttered as the Sennen Puzzle began to glow, which made Yami wonder if anyone noticed the stupid bright glowing coming from the hallway that Yuugi had ducked into. Before he could get very far in his wondering, however, he had gained control. He sighed, knowing full well that his question would go unanswered, and proceeded to walk out of the hallway and up to Alina. "We can leave now…" Yami stated, silently thanking Ra for the fact that Yuugi's voice had gotten slightly deeper in the past few years so that the difference in the timbre of his and Yuugi's voices wasn't as noticeable.
Alina arched an eyebrow inquisitively at who she thought was Yuugi before realizing that yes, his voice was a bit deeper and richer in timbre, making him seem more like a royal from some distant land more than the person she had come to know.
"What?" Yami asked her as he noticed that she was staring at him, an eyebrow arched in his direction. He did not want to explain to the girl about him tonight, and from the way she was staring, he would have to very, very soon.
"Nothing," Alina replied quickly, pulling her hands up in a defensive way. She then glanced at the door and muttered something, causing Yami to ask what she had just said. "I was just wondering if anyone was outside right now…"
"I see…well, we really should get going before it gets any darker than it already is," Yami stated as he walked out the door, Alina silently following after getting her suitcase from where she had left it by the receptionist's desk. He was sure that Alina had noticed the slight change in "Yuugi"s height, the difference in timbre of voice, and the way "Yuugi" moved became suddenly more graceful and kingly, if such a way existed.
"Um…Yuugi?" Alina asked after a few minutes of silent walking. She had begun to notice the minions of the Shadows wandering the streets, and this made her slightly nervous.
"Hmr…what is it, Alina?" Yami asked, somewhat annoyed with having to do this when he could have been sleeping.
"Nothing…" Alina muttered, silencing herself in order to try to get some song out of her head. She felt like killing the last person she had traveled with, simply because the person forced her to listen to American rock groups for hours on end, most often some older group called N'sync, which was completely and utterly annoying.
"Is something…troubling you?" Yami asked, suddenly concerned. He had never seen anyone, besides Yuugi, who seemed quite as emotional as this Alina girl. His crimson eyes kept watching the odd-looking people, the minions of the Shadows, as they passed by, keeping a close eye on them.
"Nothing of any importance," Alina said, glancing to the suitcase still in her hand. She didn't really care much for American music, but had taken somewhat of a liking to three rock groups-Evanescence, whose music was rather down and depressing, Nickelback, whose music was fast-paced, yet still depressing, and Linkin Park, whose music seemed to speak directly to her heart and soul. In her suitcase were four cds, two of which were Nickelback, the other two being Evanescence and Linkin Park.
"Well, if you say so…" Yami said quietly, noticing that a few of the Shadow minions had noticed the Light magic swirling gently around Alina and were watching her with quite a bit of interest. Finally they made it to the Kame Game Shop and had stepped inside. Yami quickly allowed Yuugi control back while Alina's back was turned away from them, hoping she didn't notice the odd glow coming from behind her.
"There you are!" Sugoroku yelled from upstairs, causing Yuugi to wince slightly. "Where have you been?"
"I'll explain once I'm upstairs, Grandpa!" Yuugi yelled back, stepping into his grandfather's view.
"All right, then!" Sugoroku yelled, going back into the living room.
"Don't mind my grandpa…he's a bit nervous about my safety, even though I tell him that I'm old enough to be outside on my own at night," Yuugi told Alina, laughing.
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Well…there ya go…there's Chapter 2...hope you liked it! Please R&R!