Once again, I apologize for the delay. Of late, I have been feeling rather "under the weather", and it affected my writing frequency. Anyway, if anyone finds this chapter a little weird, go ahead and blame it on that! A/N: Ok, so I thought there was an actual candy called a honey duke, but then I asked everyone ad they said there was no such thing. But it was too lat to change. So, I made it up for the story, ok? Just use the context to figure out what it is. In response to a frequent reviewer:
Game and Watch Forever: Let me start by saying that I thank you for all your reviews, the many they were-, and for your encouragement. It is so nice to have someone keeping up with the story line and caring about it. Your recognized the symbolism? Wow, I didn't think anyone would. Yes the seventh chapter was confusing, I was kind of blocked when I wrote it so. You know, I don't think I have the skill for writing professionally, but thank you for suggesting it! That's a good comment! As for the Lock and key combination symbolism, I have to admit something: I didn't do that on purpose! I wanted a strong name so I picked Lock, which was short but steadfast, you know? But you're right, that's cool. I'm SOOOOOOOOOO glad you think this story that much. I want to keep writing it now. Read chapter nine, please. I want to know what you think of this one!
Disclaimer: Do I still have to say it? It's getting kind of redundant.....ok, fine here it goes for the ninth time: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.
Chapter 9: The Honey Dukes
Soon after I finished my work on Kaiba Corp., I felt the tension in the air. The deep breath and hold-out before the storm. It's strange; when I could see, I don't think I really noticed how different the world was before it rained—(other than the dark clouds that crept in unexpectedly)—but when I was blind, I knew the rain was coming because I felt it. Weird, but intriguing.
The rain itself was intriguing. I didn't really need my sight for it. I felt it as if I were a part of it—feeling where the rain would fall how hard and how fast for how long. I had lost myself in it unknowingly. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. I liked it.
Mokuba came downstairs when the rain started, (he never liked the rain, even when we were kids. He hated thunder and to him rain was just the accessory of it). I figured it was next day already.
"Seto, because it's raining, I don't think we're gonna be able to go back to Lock's house, again." Mokuba never went outside when it poured as much as it did that day.
But I wanted to be outside in the storm. I wanted to feel the raindrops on my face and forget about my life for just one second. I was acting crazy, I know, but this was what I wanted to do.
"We will Mokuba, the rain won't last all day." As much as I didn't want it to end, I had to respond to Mokuba logically.
"Ok...but we won't be early..."
"No." I got up and tapped down the stairs. I opened my front door and felt the rain come into the house a little bit. Only the spray.
"Seto, what are you doing?!" Mokuba knew I was too reserved to do something like this—I knew I was too reserved to do something like this. But, what the hell, my life had changed and I was realizing that I was slowly changing right along with it.
I stepped outside and into the rain. Standing in it, I felt it pour over me and seep into me skin—drenching me, really. I sat down on the driveway as it engulfed me.
I sat for about an hour or so in the pouring rain, right up until it stopped. I had sworn that I wouldn't go in until then. I needed to get sort of dried off before I went down to Lock's, so I went back into my house, dripping wet, straight upon a stunned Mokuba. "Seto! What was the point of that?! Now you're all wet and we can't go to Lock's until you're dry." As he talked I tapped my way up the stairs and to a nice, clean towel. "You could have gotten struck by lightening! And..."
"I couldn't have gotten struck by lightening Mokuba," I explained as I wiped my face. "There wasn't any lightening or thunder." But if there had been, that would be a treat for my ears. "Besides, I wasn't the tallest or most conspicuous thing out there that would attract any electric currents. Calm down. I just needed to do that. No harm done."
"Yeah, well, I still don't like it."
"I'm not asking you to." And I wasn't. I didn't need anyone's permission to go ahead and do something like that—least of all, my little brother's. So if he had a problem with it, I felt that was really too bad.
After that, Mokuba realized I was meant to be left alone and he departed. I had to switch into another outfit, which was easier said than done, as most things were then, because I couldn't wear anything with buttons, snaps or buckles, lest I would attach them incorrectly and look like a fool. So, it was a little while before Mokuba and I set out again for the Domino clock tower.
There were not many people dueling and competing that day because of the storm, but this didn't bother me much. The less people to bother me the better. Plus, it meant that Serenity had a lesser probability of being there, an even greater effect. There were, however, many puddles in which to splash in accidentally—or actually, as it was in my case, splash onto yourself by the large, wooden cane you were protruding in front of you every five seconds to keep your bearings straight. Tedious, but unavoidable.
Mokuba remembered precisely which building it was that Lock lived in, luckily. By the time we reached the darkened hallway, Lock already knew we were there. "Ah, Mr.Kaiba, and the young Kaiba! You decided to come back, I realize. Welcome once again to my humble home. I took a shower a while ago. Happy?"
"You really are strange, if I failed to mention that before," I said, acknowledging his old greeting.
"I believe you did not. How do you like my cane?"
"It's very sturdy, I have to say." I wasn't going to tell him how much inner strength it gave me, or how precious it was to me.
"Indeed. It gives one inner strength as well, does it not?" Damn mind reader.
"I suppose."
"Hmm. Well, I'm glad it was put to good use. Now, let me ask you. Do you have your duel monsters deck with you now?" So, that was the first lesson.
Unfortunately, "No, I don't have my deck right now." I guess I messed up with that, but really I didn't know what I needed at all in the first place, so you can't blame me.
"Why not?"
"Because it didn't occur to me."
"Well, why were you here in the first place? To come with nothing and expect everything?"
"Yes. Now go cry about my little mistake and take some time to think up more insults." I could tell you one thing; I was not there to get insulted.
"Later. Presently we need to continue our session." That's what we were calling it now, a "session"? "Come." I followed him without any expectations as to what I was getting myself into this time.
We walked down a new hallway, I could tell because it smelled sweet—like candy, almost—and the floor was carpeted, not wooden. I wondered how big his home was, I never asked Mokuba if it was a skyscraper or a hut, and how many rooms he had. If it was too big, he could have anything here, but then he was a grave-digger. I mean, they don't pay those guys with the shovels leaning on the tombstone, smoking a cigarette next to a horde of grieving people and a priest, waiting for the sermon to end so they can drop condemned soil onto an even more condemned body and do their jobs much, do they? If so, that was news to me.
I was brought out of my grave-digging thoughts by a very oppressive smell. The smell of a genuine candy store. Seriously, I smelled it all, every type of candy: The sugary sweet smell of cotton candy strongest of all, artificially flavored raspberry and strawberry lollipops, sweet-yet-sour lemon drops, sticky honey dukes, the darker smells of chocolate truffles and licorice, fine-powdered scented cinnamon sticks, and, for some reason, granular coffee beans. All in all, it was a very disgusting place.
"Wow...Seto...this is like a candy store and a bakery and a coffee shop all in one! Everything here looks so good to eat!"
"Why do you have this in your home?" I asked.
"Why not? I'm afraid I have a bit of a sweet tooth and just need some candy every now and then and approximately twelve times a day." I guess he did get paid a lot of money to have this whole sweet-shop thing in his house. Was it all in grave-digging, (if so then, hell, everyone should be a grave-digger)?
"Mr.Kaiba, do you like candy?"
"No."
"Yeah...that was a stupid question..." He paused for a moment. "Well, if you had to pick a favorite"—"I don't like nor eat candy of any kind." What was so hard here?
"Ok, fine. Young Kaiba? What is your favorite candy?"
"Umm...gee...I don't know..." Mokuba loved candy. He always did when we were kids and even now he always enjoyed it. There wasn't really a lot of candy in our house because I had no use for it, and really it was bad for Mokuba so I kept it scarce, but when he found some—any kind—he enjoyed it. "There are so many good kinds!"
"Yes I know. Which one would you like now?"
"Umm....I guess, the honey dukes—they look so good!" He giggled at the end.
"Do they? Hmmm, I always imagined they would, but I never actually asked anyone else. Very well, then young Kaiba. Mr.Kaiba, go get your brother his candy." Wait, what?
"No, that's ok; I can get it myself..."
"No, I think Mr.Kaiba would like to get you one of them himself. And don't knock anything over with your cane on the way, Mr.Kaiba. I worked very hard to get this place organized."
Now this was pointless. When in my life was I going to need to sniff out a honey duke in a pile of candy? When is that important? I wasn't going to argue, though. I knew what Lock was trying to do; have me use my sense of smell in a difficult situation and test how strong it was and how well I could maneuver. Well, I could do that. I'd been in worse scenarios in all honest truth. "Fine," I told him, accepting his challenge. "I'll get it for you Mokuba."
If I was only as strong internally as I was vocally. Oh well, it was too late by then. I stepped out in front of me, unsure at first. Hesitantly, I tapped with may cane and hit only carpet. Trying my luck, I did this again, and again and again, all the while trying to orient where exactly the drippy honey scent was coming from. But...it was only getting fainter as I walked. I realized I was heading in the wrong direction. I turned a little bit, closer in the path of the smell I wanted, and tapped slowly in that direction. Feeling luckier and stronger with each unblocked step, I moved until I suddenly hit something. It made a sharp ding on the side of my cane. I stopped abruptly, nervous.
"No those are the truffles," Lock's voice had come back. Careful, I keep them in a glass show-case that's easily broken." Right...I had noticed the smell of chocolate nearing me as I neared the honey. Maybe this wasn't as hard as it seemed.
I ran my cane gently along the show-case until I reached the corner. I then slid it along the other side of the truffles until it was no more. Now I had to find the honey dukes. The smell was close. I was able to detect the exact place of it somehow. It was like an image in my head: the coffee in front of me...a little to the right then the licorice...more to the right, (as I imagined this I walked in the path)...the honey dukes! When I reached them I tapped the show case with my cane.
"Yeah, those are the right ones!" Mokuba said happily.
"Now, get a napkin and give one to your brother." Dear me, what a slave driver Lock was. He was right, though. The honey dukes were sticky and very warm—it seemed he was cooking them rotisserie style in the showcase. I scoped out the top of the case for a napkin holder, trying very hard not to burn myself, with my hands. When I found it I nearly knocked it over. But I got a napkin nonetheless.
I didn't think I needed a key to open the show case because Lock couldn't do that every time he wanted a honey duke. So, I felt down the front of the case until I reached the sliding door stub. I stuck my hand into the warm case hoping I would stick onto one of the candies. I accidentally stuck my finger in the middle of one—burning it a little bit because they were so fresh—but Mokuba wouldn't mind. I wrapped the napkin around the candy, picked it off the rotisserie stick and closed the sliding door.
Gingerly, I tapped back to my starting point, offered the honey duke to Mokuba and said, "Here, enjoy." He took it from me and I felt accomplished. Really, I felt like I just graduated college I was so proud, but I kept my face blank and emotionless in case there was something else to be done.
"Good job, Seto!" Mokuba had his mouth full of my prize, and I was glad he enjoyed the gooey, sugary, honey soaked sweet. I nodded in acknowledgement.
"That took excruciatingly long." Of course, Lock was unsatisfied. I didn't care in the slightest.
"If you wanted it done faster you could have gotten it yourself."
"But then you would have learned nothing."
"Exactly. I did learn something. I have to say that, at least."
He laughed and said, "That's good! Excellent! You're making slow progress. Enjoy your honey duke, young Kaiba, your brother earned it well."
"Yep! It's really good!"
"Isn't it? Well, I think that's enough for today. Come back tomorrow."
"Bye, Lock!" We turned and walked out. I wasn't going to say good-bye, why would I?
"Good-bye, Kaiba brothers. Until the next day." So we left. Mokuba munched on his honey duke all the way home.
It had been a very interesting day. I didn't meet that oddity Serenity again, though. For some reason I couldn't stop thinking about her and what she said. I kept working up new come-backs to say if I ever came across her again. Eventually, I almost wanted to catch her walking by me once more or something. It was strange...then.
At home, it started to rain again. This time I was ready for it. It was too late to stand outside, but I leaned against the window and felt and heard the little taps of the rain drops bounce off of it. I thought it was strange that Lock hadn't mentioned the rain in our "session". Did he enjoy it as much as I did? Perhaps not. No, definitely not. What was I? Did it make any sense that just because Lock was blind like me he had to like the noise of the rain? No, it didn't. He didn't have to like anything I liked. Really there was no similarity between us. But...Serenity...did she like the rain? Oh, why couldn't I stop thinking about her?