Disclaimer: Lil-Riter does not own Yugioh in any way/shape/form.
A/N: Redone 11/10/04 These next few chapters are the ones most affected by my reworking. I've combined some of the chapters, and deleted some stuff, and all in all like it this way better. And remember, I'm trying to fit this with the whole Battle city arc, so don't mind if it spoils the show for you.
> > > Takara POV> > >
I was scared as hell of Marik, and what he would do. I wanted to run. Just to keep running, just keep going. But Seto promised to pick me up. At the same time I wanted to fight Marik and beat the crap out of him. His henchmen guys would probably kill me, and that would be if he didn't brainwash me with his Millennium Rod first. But still. . .
"Did I tell you about Yugi? What happened to him yesterday?" Derek asked.
"No. . ." We sat across the kitchen table from each other now, and it was near daybreak. I'd had my clothes dried in the dryer, so they were all nice and dry. I noticed, though, how Duke kept lots of pictures of himself hanging around. Duke's cute, I thought, but he's conceited. Then there's Joey, kind of cute, and very sweet. And then there's Yugi. . .
"Somebody tried to steal his Puzzle. Then Yugi got caught in a burning warehouse. He was in the hospital until late at night yesterday," Derek continued, cutting off my thoughts.
I thought a moment. "Oh. So that's why he wasn't at school?"
Derek nodded. "That's what I called you about yesterday," he said. I stayed silent. He played with his lip ring a little. I noticed that he does this whenever he's nervous.
There was a loud honking sound down outside. I jumped a little, and then recovered. "Duke won't wake up, will he?" I whispered, in case.
"Nope," Derek said, leading me to the door. "Still asleep."
Seto was waiting in a nice— not just nice, beautiful— blue Lexus with tinted windows. (1) He leaned over from the driver's seat to open the passenger car door. "Get in."
"Don't tell anyone about this," I warned Derek. "If you do. . ."
"I won't," Derek promised. I jumped into the car and pulled the door shut.
I grinned at Seto. I was still tired, remember, and my stomach still felt slightly sick. He eyed me warily, his expression impassive. My grin faltered, so I turned to look out the window instead, so he wouldn't see me depressed at this.
"So, Takara, are you going to tell me the story or what?" His voice was cold, the norm. I just bore it and grinned, telling the truth as we pulled away from the curb.
> > > Seto POV> > >
"Why am I so surprised to find you in such a situation? Although there is no excuse for your idiotic actions."
Takara sighed as I spoke those words while maneuvering around a tiny dirt path in my Lexus. I'm surprised she let it go without retaliating. She's normally into doing that. Must be really sick, I thought worriedly, glancing at her. Oh gods, I'm going sentimental, aren't I?
"Where are we going?" she asked finally.
"Oh, I have someplace in mind." I replied evenly. We were currently cruising along the coastline, towards a seaside wood.
Takara sighed audibly. "I take it we're not going to school." Air blew out of my nose. The closest thing to a laugh I ever got. "So you CAN take a joke!" Takara exclaimed. I ignored her. Something, I don't know what, made me not want to kill her right now. Whatever. Takara changed the radio station again. I surprised myself by not changing it back to the prior station. I glanced at Takara out of the corner of my eye. She was going to be searched for, of course, because she's a minor. Watching my sisters sleeping form, I felt like I was watching an older, less mature version of Mokuba. I rubbed my temple with one hand. How was I going to get Takara out of this mess?
"Call home," I ordered my voice activated cell phone. I glanced over to make sure Takara was still asleep. Like a rock.
"Moshi moshi!" Mokuba's cheery voice made me grimace. I wish I could be as cheery.
"Mokuba," I said, rubbing the back of my neck, "remember to get ready for school. I may come home late, so there might be a sitter. Be nice."
"But Setoooooo . . ."
"Not now, Mokuba." I commanded, then terminated the call. I drove in the silence for a few minutes, wondering what I was going to do next. Takara had told me she was running from her gang lord. Who did I know that could help with this situation? Finally, I said, "Cell phone. New call."
>>>Takara>>>
I opened my eyes groggily. "Seto?" I looked up at his face, intent on the road. I saw buildings flash past us through the tinted windows. We were close to the city. I closed my eyes, feeling tired and drained. Apparently, my brother hadn't heard me. 'As soon as this whole thing is cleaned up, I can go back to planning the tournament to lure out the other Egyptian God cards.' I sat up, instantly peeved. I HATED those things. Seto didn't restrain me as I crawled back into the front passenger seat. He instead turned his concentration on not veering the car off the road as I stepped on his hand (it was on the gear shift.) I sat down in the seat, and glared at him.
Seto glanced at me. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"I heard you," I muttered. I kept the glare in my eyes, but turned it to the near empty road in front of us. "I heard exactly what you just thought."
Seto swallowed, and glanced over at me again. "About..."
"I heard you thinking about Obelisk." I blinked. My voice was getting colder. Though still nowhere as cold as his. "I heard you think about that tournament you're hosting. The one you can't just WAIT to get to work on." My eyes were filled with tears of rage. He was putting this tournament ahead of me. He didn't care that I was in trouble. He didn't care that I was his sister. In fact, he didn't care I was in trouble with the guy who was trying to take the card Ishizu had given him. Or let him borrow, actually. No, all he cared about was getting back to the tournament. I mean, honestly.
One tear escaped my eye, sliding down past my nose and onto my lips. One big fat tear, leaving a trail down my face. I wiped my eye quickly with my bare arm, licking the droplet from the corner of my mouth. I glanced back at him. He was driving tightlipped towards our destination. It looked like we were nearing the heart of the city. There was more traffic than out there before, but it was still empty on a Friday. "Stop the car." I don't know what I thought I was doing. "Stop it."
Seto complied. I unlocked the door. "Stop." He grabbed my arm, holding it tightly on my studded cuff. "Don't get out." His voice was cold, but not as sharp as usual. There was a slight, uncertain, quiver in his tone, though I ignored it.
"Don't tell me what to do," I said, sharpening my voice. It broke in the middle of 'do,' but he hopefully didn't hear it.
"They're looking for you," he said. "That will make you an easy target. For Marik. You haven't told me what he looks like yet," he added, almost pleading me to stay. To talk so I would stay. Maybe I just imagined it. His hand gripped me hard, but I easily wrenched my arm out of his grip.
"Fine," I hissed, although I refused to describe Marik to him. With that, I slammed the door shut, crossing my arms tightly. Seto winced, but didn't do anything about it. Wise. "What happened? We didn't drive around for hours just to come back to the city, did we?" Seto sighed fustratedly, turning another corner.
"You were out cold for a while. You threw up in your sleep. I had to stop and clean it up." Seto made a gagging sound. Good, like I cared if he was disgusted. "I had business to attend to, you know. So I did the business, and now we're back in Domino," Seto finished lamely. My eye twitched. He wasn't telling me the whole story. I could tell. I'm his twin, remember? But I didn't say anything about it.
> > >Seto> > >
Takara had probably been totally out of it when I'd reached the meeting point, if she didn't remember any of it. I'd tried to explain to her about the two detectives who, because they were good friends of our parents, had been tracking us since our father died.
--- Flashing back ((creepy music plays)) ---
"I'm HUNGRY!" Takara whined. She grinned from her seat on the ground, leaning against the car, as I gave an exasperated sigh. I walked over and squatted down so we could see eye to eye.
"Takara, we are out in the middle of the woods. Takara, you just threw up your entire whatever meal you last had. Takara, I had to stop and clean out the car. Takara, I do not want to have to do that again. Takara, I have no food on me. So Takara, stop whining." Takara yawned. I couldn't believe it! She wasn't even listening to a word I said! Growling slightly, I stood up and looked around again, for any sign of Reese and Haylie. When I looked down, my sister was completely knocked out again. Takara, I thought to myself, shaking my head slightly. Geez. After depositing my sister's faint body into the backseat, I noticed a vial, one used normally for women's perfume, on the ground near the pile of dead leaves Takara had been lounging in. I didn't smell any perfume on Takara before... Thinking no harm would come out of it, I picked it up, uncorked it, and took a whiff. It smelled like roses. I popped the cap back in, and tossed it into the glove compartment.
((HONK))
I turned to see a crappy Honda Accord round the bend. It parked right next to my Lexus. I'd decided not to tell them I had my sister in the back of my car, glad I had tinted windows they couldn't see through. "Haylie(2), Reese(3)," I greeted as they exited the car. The two detectives stared. "Yes, I know all about you two. I know that you've been tracking my sister and me for a long time. And I know that you have something to give us. Or me. So hand it over." Haylie looked nervously at her partner. Haylie was short, with strawberry blonde hair. She was dressed in casual wear. Reese was a normal sized man, still slightly shorter than me, with dirty blonde hair, and a trench coat with a hat pulled down to try to make him look "mysterious."
"First of all," Detective Haylie said, regaining her composure, "We need to know if you know where she is."
"Isn't she at school?" I asked lazily.
"She was reported missing this morning," Reese jumped in. "I don't think she's going to school if she's missing."
"I'll tell her that she's being searched for," I said dryly. "When I find her. Which should be easy. Now hand it over."
Frowning, the two PIs each took an envelope out. Of course there were two, one for me and one for Takara. They shoved them in my hands. "Now I think you should get back to Domino."
"WHAT?!" The male PI was red with rage. "IT TOOK TWO HOURS TO GET HERE!"
"And it'll take two hours to get back, so you'd better get going." I jumped into my Lexus and shut the door. I rolled down the window as I backed away. "Thank you, Reese. Thank you Haylie. I'll see you sometime. Hopefully not soon." I rolled the window back up and sped away, watching the fuming, cursing man amusedly in my rear view mirror. I put the envelopes in my front pocket with Obelisk. They were almost as important.
--- End flashback and chapter---
Whee! Wasn't that good?! One of my friends, Haylie, is planning to read this. So, for her sake, I'm adding little footnotes:
(1) Yes, this is my dream car. A nice, marine blue 2005 Lexus GS 300 , or a nice, marine blue 2004 Lamborghini Gallardo. The Gallardo is unrealistic though, so I'll settle for the Lexus.
(2) Haylie! I'm sorry I wrote this character based on you without your permission! I never really thought about the character since I wrote her last summer, but said you were getting a new fan fiction account, and then I went to update this chapter, I realized !!! Sorry, she was also based on a TV character too, but she got the fact that she was short and (obviously) her name from you.
(3) Reese was taken from that show Malcolm in the Middle. I do not own that.
Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go reupholster some more chapters. I'm planning to get up to chapter 12 or 13.