1. Waking Into A Dream
Kinou slowly opened her eyes to see some bright pink sunlight peeping in through some open windows in the master bedroom she now slept in. She tried to sit up, stretching, but failed miserably—something was holding her down. She glanced down to her right to see Seto Kaiba with his arm wrapped protectively around her waist, fast asleep. Smiling warmly, she kissed his nose lightly before gently lifting his arm off her and getting up, picking up her rag doll cat, Emily. The bathroom was across the room, so she slipped a silk robe over her short nightdress, yawning, before walking over to it, somewhat slouching. As she stepped in front of the mirror, placed Emily on the counter, and peered at herself, she was amazed at how dishevelled she looked that morning. Her dirty blonde hair stuck up in almost every direction, though it was still pinned up by her hair tie, and her bow was lopsided. A two-inch scar stuck out like a sore thumb across her right cheek, though it had gradually been turning the colour of her skin, making it slightly less noticeable. Dark circles were evident underneath her golden eyes, as always, but they were slowly beginning to fade away as the days passed, for she was able to rest comfortably for as long as she wanted. And with Seto there it makes it that much nicer, she thought to herself. She cast around for a brush and found one neatly arranged beside other beauty supplies—most of which were unopened. As she pulled out her hair tie and started brushing her hair back into its natural state, she left her bangs out of it to hang freely, framing her face. After putting her hair tie in once again, she carefully retied the red and blue ribbon around it in a bow once more. When she was satisfied with her appearance, she walked out of the bathroom, tying the robe around herself so that she would at least look half-decent at the breakfast table downstairs. Her cat, of course, went in the pocket on the right side of the robe.
It was only about 7:30 in the morning and Kinou was still extremely tired. Suppressing a yawn, she looked around the kitchen, completely deserted except for her.
I should go back to bed, she thought tiredly.
You know what'll happen when you do that.
Welcome back, my goody two shoes other state of mind, sighed Kinou mentally. What words of wisdom will you provide me with today?
You know that if you go back to bed, you won't be able to fall asleep again.
Yes, you know-it-all, I'm well aware of that. But I think it'd be a good idea. Seto hates it when I'm not there when he wakes up; you know that. Not to mention none of the servants are awake yet to make me those really good pancakes…Her stomach gave an oddly loud and obnoxious growl. Well, maybe I'll have a bowl of cereal first just to calm that down…
She walked over to one of the cabinets and pulled it open with a noisy creak. Sadly, there were no boxes of her favourite cereal, so she went with a box that looked like it had corn flake-like contents. As she poured it out, she yawned once more and closed up the box with only about half the bowl filled. She rubbed her eyes as she walked over to the refrigerator and got the milk out, but stopped when she saw a little short, black-haired someone out in the hall, apparently trying to sneak by. Grinning, she put the milk on the counter and creeped after him, not making a noise. As she stepped after him, the floor creaked and he whirled around just in time to see her pounce on him and pin him to the floor.
Kinou stared him straight in the eyes with mock accusation in her voice. "Where do you think you're going, Mokie?"
The younger Kaiba brother blinked and tried to look innocently up at her with his bright blue eyes. "Nothing, just going to the bathroom is all," he said sweetly, his voice matching the cloud-covered sleep ware he was dressed in.
"Sure you were," said Kinou, and she suddenly took her hands off his hands to tickle his sides; he gasped out in laughter and tried to wrap his arms about his waist to keep her from getting to it, but she knew every trick in the book to keep him laughing for nearly two minutes before she finally stopped and sat up on him. "I've been here for about two months, Mokie, I think I know you well enough to know that you're not the type to sneak to the bathroom this early. You're usually running to it."
Mokuba blushed, becoming even more red than he already was from being tickled so much. "I'm not saying anything."
"Not yet you aren't," said Kinou, grinning widely. She raised her hands once more, getting ready to tickle the life out of him, and he put his hands out in front of him.
"No wait! Not again! I'll talk!"
Kinou instead folded her arms and glared down at him. "Yes? What would you like to say, mortal?" she mocked. "Were you going to wake up Seto so that I could get in trouble?"
Mokuba clamped his mouth shut as a shadow passed over Kinou and she looked up to see Kaiba in his robe, complete with messy morning hair. She gave a small laugh and stood up, pretending to dust herself off. "Good morning, your high priestness," she said, giving a low bow to him.
"Better not do that; I can see straight down your nightie," he said, sneering.
She kept her head down in her half-curtsey. "You say that as though it were a bad thing."
"Mokuba, go find something to do," said the CEO, and Mokuba obediently left, grinning, for he knew what Kaiba was likely to do when the two were alone. Kinou straightened up, smiling at Kaiba as the younger brother sped away down the hallway into a game room. He pressed her against the wall, leering over her.
"You weren't in bed this morning," he said in a tone that would have scared someone who didn't know him; Kinou had come to think of it as a sort of adorable quality.
"I know; I just got hungry." She looked up at him and ruffled his hair, messing it up more than it already was. "Does little Settykins need a teddy to guard him from the monster in the closet when his Kinou's not there?" she teased.
"I hate it when you talk to me that way," he said, tilting her chin up, reminding her without words at how much taller he was than her.
"That's why I do it, Seto; it gets your attention."
Their lips met for a moment before Kinou poked him in the stomach, causing him to give a slight squeak and release her from the pin against the wall. She laughed at how much Seto let his guard down to reveal his softer side when she was around and went back to start pouring her milk into the cereal bowl. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, his breath going past her ear.
"You know I hate it when you do that, too, Kinou."
No you don't, thought Kinou to herself. "Go get dressed, Seto."
He brushed a soft kiss on her ear before walking out of the kitchen once more, and she watched him leave, still slightly bewildered at how sexy he was even when he was in complete disarray. She sighed, pouring the milk half-heartedly into the bowl, wanting to follow him and reveal the huge wave of desire she was so suddenly overcome with. As she put the milk back, Mokuba came waltzing back in, a half-grin plastered on his face.
"I still can't figure out how you make him do that," he said, sitting across from her at the table as she started to eat.
"Do what?" asked Kinou unconcernedly, delicately tipping most of the milk out of the spoon before taking a bite.
He rolled his eyes. "Squeak."
She shrugged. "I don't know, really. I guess I've been tickled so much in my lifetime I've come to have a sixth sense about where other people's ticklish points are."
"Seto's not ticklish," said Mokuba confidently. "You probably just surprise him when you do it."
"Oh, you have no idea," smirked Kinou, looking mischievously at him. "If that's the case, I scare him about three times a night."
Mokuba's mouth dropped open; he looked completely bewildered. "You don't mean…" he turned rather red as he struggled to find the right words.
Kinou laughed. "No we haven't," she said. "…yet."
A wide grin spread across his face. "That's disgusting."
She simply shrugged and continued to eat her small bowl of cereal. They sat in silence for a few moments before Mokuba picked up a small napkin from the table and start to wring it in his hands slightly, reminding Kinou of the first time she had met him when he had tried to tell her something of grand importance. She swallowed a mouthful of cereal.
"Do I dare to ask what it is this time?" she asked, pushing her bowl aside and leaning forward slightly.
Mokuba looked at her, but this time his eyes displayed hesitance; he took in a breath before he spoke. "Can I ask you about…. The other world?"
"You mean where I came from? Sure, why not," said Kinou, slightly relieved that he didn't bring up something foreboding that had jumped into her mind when she saw his face.
His face brightened considerably and he put the napkin down. "Cool; I wasn't sure whether you'd want to talk about it, considering how long you've been gone, you know."
"It's fine," said Kinou, smiling. "It's really not that great; personally I like it better here."
"Don't you miss your friends and family?"
"Not really," said Kinou, going and getting two glasses and a carton of orange juice, pouring them a glass each. "I'm kinda glad I got away from it all. I'm pretty anti-social, really. I didn't have many friends, but the ones I did have were really close to me, and my family is a big mix of cultures; it's really confusing and frustrating trying to remember where everyone is and what religion they are and everything. Though most are extremely conservative Christians and drive me nuts…"
"But it must be really cool to have no evil guys trying to take over the world," he pressed, leaning forward, ignoring his juice.
Kinou laughed rather loudly. "Are you kidding? The bad guys in my world may not have Millennium Items, but they sure as hell can be evil when they want to."
And with that, they continued their conversation until the sun had risen completely and flooded the kitchen with a blinding sunlight, reflecting rainbows off of the many glass plates in the cabinets, on reserve for very special occasions. Kinou put her glass down, almost empty, after giving a long and detailed explanation of how duel monsters was played in her world.
Mokuba looked shocked. "You mean there are no holograms or anything?" Kinou shook her head. "Not even duel disks?" She nodded slightly, taking the last sip from her glass. "You do? That's good!" said the younger boy, looking much happier.
"Plastic," said Kinou simply, instantly wiping the smile off his face. "Face it, I'm staying here and there's nothing you can do about it," said Kinou, and Mokuba laughed.
"How will I ever survive? I'll just ask Seto to save me from you."
"Speaking of Seto," said Kinou, suddenly distracted. "Where is he? I know his outfit isn't exactly the easiest thing to get into, but he's been gone for a really long time…"
"He probably just went back to working before eating," sighed the Kaiba brother. "He always does that."
"Still…" murmured Kinou, getting up. Mokuba shrugged and started walking in the opposite direction, towards his bedroom.
"I'm gonna get dressed; me and some friends are meeting at Kaiba Land later to duel. With holograms," he added nastily before Kinou made a rude gesture at him, causing him to snigger and leave.
Kinou began walking towards the master bedroom, her feeling of insecurity growing with each passing step. I really hope he's not focused on the Millennium Rod again; whenever he does, it's like someone else is there and it scares me. Ok, calm down; Mokie's probably right. He's just at work… She had reached the door into the bedroom, and she pushed it open slightly, peering in.
No one was in sight, and she breathed a sigh of relief, taking a few steps into the room. She stopped, however, upon seeing that the Millennium Rod was not in its glass case on a small table as it usually was. Right as fear began to creep back into her stomach, she felt movement behind her and someone closed the door with a snap. She whirled around to see Seto leering at her, now fully dressed, but something was not right about him as he straightened up and fixed her with a piercing stare, his mouth twisting into a cruel smile. She stood, frozen to her spot with fear; as he came towards her, she sensed an evil far beyond anything she had ever felt before.
"Hello, Anji."
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Ha ha! Nasty cliffie at the end of the first chapter! Bwaha. I vow to start trying to push past my four-month Writer's Block on this thing so that you all won't have to wait to read =]. Reviews will certainly help speed it along! Arigato again!