Disclaimer: I like muffins. Oh.. and Takahashi-sama owns everybody but Blade, Sara, Victoria, and Rayne.. okay.. so Takahashi-sama doesn't own most of the people in this chapter or story. But he still owns them! ooh, and the city, too.. Yeah.. damn right. Err.. anyway.
Rating: Muffin.
Summary: Unexpected, but still expected. Odd! Seto shows up to have a little chat with his sister.
Author's Notes: If Sara were stranded on a desert island, her only source of food would be a muffin tree! Oh, R&R, too. :P I like feedback? kthxbye!
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It was raining when Seto got out of the car, but he didn't care. He hadn't even gone home after work, just went straight to his sister's place, and he had absolutely no idea that Rayne and Mai were already there.
He glanced down at his watch - it was one in the morning - and tried to figure out what, exactly, he was going to say to Victoria about what he had done. Oh, hey. Just wanted to drop by to tell you that I've scarred Mai for life. What? No-- don't look at me like that! When I say scarred, sister dearest, I mean scarred.. Oh, you don't get it? Fine, guess I'll explain. I took a knife to her back, you know. Something I've never done before and never, ever wanted to do. Guess that's just too bad now, isn't it?
Seto snorted. Yeah. As if he would go in there and say something like that..
Pushing some of his hair out of his eyes, Seto shook his head slightly, and just walked up and knocked on the front door. He wasn't surprised when Victoria answered the door almost right away-- he had known she would be awake, anyway.
Victoria looked annoyed at being disturbed so damn early in the morning, but when she saw who it was that annoyance in her expression quickly switched to anger. "What the fuck are you doing here, Seto?"
"Let me in. We need to ta--"
"No."
"What?"
"I said no, okay? Not this time.."
"It's raining, Victoria," stated Seto, narrowing his eyes slightly, "let me in.."
"Go home."
"I'm not going home.."
"Then go sit in your damn car. I don't care if it's raining, Seto. You're not coming inside."
"Why the fuck not?"
"Why? Because your wife, who you had the decency to cut up the other night, is here, and I'm sorry if I don't want you raping her or something in my house. Okay?"
Mai's here? Obviously.. Why the hell hadn't he considered it in the first place? They went here every other day.. "Fine.. fine. Look.. she's upstairs, right? Her and Rayne are asleep.. so just let me come in for a while. I'll stay downstairs--"
"No."
"Victoria, I need to talk to you, right now.."
".. no."
"Please.." he pleaded.
"I--" Victoria hesitated, frowning and biting her lip, ".. fine. But, I swear, if you even go near the freaking stairs.."
"I won't! I'm just here to talk.."
"Alright, then.." said Victoria. And she opened the door more to admit her brother. Seto stepped into the house, and she shut the door behind him.
".. thank you."
"Don't fucking bother.."
".. right."
Victoria went back to where she had been sitting on the couch, grumbling all the way. Seto stayed back to take off and hang up his jacket, before going over to sit down in the bloodied armchair that was nearby.
"So," started Victoria, "what's so important that you just had to come here and talk about it?"
"Well, you obviously know what I did, already.. so I don't have to tell you that.."
"What, then?"
".. I'm scared."
Victoria blinked a few times, "What?"
".. I'm just like him, Victoria.."
"Oh; and it took you - what? - eight years to figure that out?"
"No.."
"Then why are you just coming me to me and saying this now?"
Seto sighed, fidgeting a bit and just glaring at a particularily large bloodstain on the armrest of his chair; frowning, ".. I've never done anything that bad.."
Victoria scoffed, "Oh. Right. So you're saying raping her isn't the worst thing that you could possibly do to your wife?"
He stayed silent, looking up at his sister and frowning slightly. He shrugged a bit, ".. Actually--"
"Don't you fucking say that it's not the worst thin--"
"It isn't," he cut in, quickly.
".. Bullshit. How isn't it?"
Seto started to fidget a bit again; glancing around the room this time, before answering, "She's.. used to it.."
".. Okay.. ew."
"I-- well.. she is.. and.. cutting her.. is.. different.."
Victoria shook her head, mumbling something under her breath, before raising her voice to question Seto: "Obviously. But how is it worse?"
"... I ruined her by doing that.."
".. I fail to see how raping Mai doesn't count as ruining her, as well."
Seto just went silent, and didn't reply.
"Seto..." Victoria sighed.
"I'm afraid of what I might do to Rayne, next," his voice was so quiet that Victoria had to strain a bit to hear what he was saying, but she caught all of it, and just moved closer to hear the rest of what her brother had to say. That was probably the first time Victoria had ever heard Seto actually use his daughter's name. ".. what if I.. make her do something.. like.. slitting her wrists, and draining the blood until she's filled something up.." he trailed off, shuddering and rubbing at one of his wrists as if remembering something horrible that had happened to him.
".. Something like a metal garbage bin?"
Seto looked up at Victoria, slightly shocked for a moment. Oh.. right.. he made her watch..
Sighing again, Victoria got to her feet and walked over to stand infront of Seto, frowning, "You won't do that.."
".. who knows."
Victoria shoved her scrawny sibling over a bit so she could squeeze in to sit beside him. "You won't."
".. You'd better be right."
"When am I ever not right?"
"Almost always."
".. Oh, shut up.." Victoria mumbled, and was rather shocked when Seto actually did go quiet.
The two sat in silence for a good fifteen minutes; Seto rolling up one of his long sleeves so that he could scratch irritably at his wrist; Victoria tugging absently on a few strands of her long hair and staring at the coffee table. The taller sibling mumbled something, and Victoria glanced over in his direction; eyeing what she could see of his heavily scarred right arm, "You did all of those ones yourself?"
Seto looked up and over to his sister, shrugging a bit with his reply, ".. Yeah." Victoria frowned, and opened her mouth to say something else, but Seto got there before she did: "And don't you goddamn lecture me or something, Victoria.. The only reason I have more scars than you do is because most of them were done by somebody else."
".. I don't do that any more, you know.."
"I know."
"Good." she slipped an arm around her brother's shoulders, and leaned into his side a bit. "And if I can get better.. you can, too, alright? Just.. give it time."
"I have been giving it time.."
"Give it a little more? I mean.. other than last night.. you've been doing a helluva lot better.."
Seto scoffed, sniggering a bit, "You sound like Ryou.."
".. Shut up."
"But you're right."
"I know."
"For once."
Victoria rolled her eyes, and smacked Seto upside the back of the head, grumbling, "Aren't you gonna thank me, or something?"
"Nope."
".. Thought so. Look, you can sleep on the couch tonight."
Seto went quiet for a moment, before just flinching, ".. I'm too tall for that goddamn couch.."
"It's either that or the floor, Seto, because you are not going upstairs."
".. Fine. I'll take the couch."
"Good," Victoria pulled her arm away, and started to get up.
"And Victoria?"
She stopped. "What?"
"Thanks.."
Smiling slightly, Victoria stood up completely, and just nodded. Seto stood up as well, and Victoria was shocked when he suddenly pulled her into a hug. Blinking a few times, she muttered against her brother's chest, "You're welcome." and returned the embrace.
---
Watching quietly from the top of the stairs, Rayne scoffed, and just shook her head-- scowling. How could her aunt believe anything that her father said? Why the hell did she even let him inside, in the first place? Should have left him out in the rain.. And why the hell was papa comparing himself to that ever elusive 'him' again? Gah.. Rayne shook her head, too many questions.. I should just go check on mama. Maybe she woke up.
Sighing, the little girl just turned, releasing the deathgrip she had on the stair's railing, and starting off down the hallway. Scratching wrist - which, unbeknowst to either of her parents, was already rather harshly cut up, anyway - and reaching out to open the guest room door. Her hand was mere centimetres from the doorknob, when the voice of her aunt stopped Rayne:
"Still can't sleep?"
Rayne let her hand drop to her side. Shrugging slightly, and not turning to face Victoria as she replied, ".. No. I never can. You know that.."
"Yeah, yeah.. I know. Look, your father is here, and he's gonna be sleeping downstairs.. Whenever she wakes up, you ought to tell Mai that, too. Okay?"
"I already knew he was here," Rayne turned to look up at her aunt, frowning and chewing on the inside of her lip, "and I wanna know who you were talking about."
Victoria blinked, and one of her eyebrows rose, "You were listening in again?"
".. When don't I?"
"Good point," smiling slightly, Victoria just shook her head, "and I can't tell you; not yet, anyway. You know that."
"When can you tell me?"
".. I'm not sure. Look, I'll talk to Seto about it, okay?"
".. that's what you said last time."
"I know it's what I said last time," she sighed, "but I mean it. Okay?"
Rayne turned back to the door again, reaching out and opening it, ".. fine."
"Goodnight, Rayne."
".. Mama's not going to wake up."
"I.. know that.."
".. Okay," Rayne went inside the guest room, "goodnight, then." and shut the door quietly behind her. Victoria just sighed, and left to check on Blade and Sara before going to bed, herself.