Just finished the next chapter - gotta have to say once again that English's not my original language, so bare with me because of possible mistakes... thx. Thanks for any review!
Sangha.x
Chapter 8 – Conclusions
Mokuba was staring at the empty space where his brother had stood last time he'd seen him. Seto had left with Serenity and still, the younger Kaiba couldn't believe that his brother had insulted him that much. Who did Seto think he was? So Mokuba had made a mistake bringing Rebecca home even before finishing off his relationship with Serenity but that didn't give Seto the right to disown his brother – expecting the worst case.
Rebecca slowly made her way to the young man who had his back to her and softly touched his arm. "Maybe it's better if I'm going to leave." She said carefully.
"No!" Mokuba shot back and turned suddenly. "I don't want you to leave."
"But you see, your brother will come back sooner or later and probably he wants to have another word with you." She tried to reason but the guy was stubborn.
"So? This isn't his house alone and he can't tell me who to bring here. You're going to stay here with me and anyway, for today he's fucked up properly. I won't accept an apology."
"But I don't want to be in the way."
"You won't. Aren't you mad at him? I can't believe he had the nerve to call you a whore. True, I've made some mistakes but he goes too far." Mokuba stubbornly explained shaking his head.
Rebecca took the guy's hand in hers. "Of course I'm mad at him but maybe he needs some time to think about what he had said and done. That's why I don't want to provoke confrontation. But if you want to be with me we can always go to my place."
A deep breath was inhaled into the lungs of the dark haired man. "Fine. Let's go."
Yet another Tuesday morning and Yugi blinked into the bright sun light. It was the first day for many weeks the winter's sun was shining and the young man had to shield his eyes with his hand to gaze outside the window. He hadn't slept much last night and felt sick even. After he had left Tea's apartment yesterday he had had a lot time to do some serious thinking. He wasn't getting any further.
Tea's words rang in his mind and she was probably right. Yugi had been a bad friend to her. No wonder she was thinking he didn't care. But how was he supposed to act finding out his love spent a night with Seto Kaiba? Yugi couldn't deny he had been jealous but stubbornly he tried to be just a friend, unfortunately a bad one at that point. As a friend he wasn't there for Tea and as more he had clearly made sure Tea was thinking he was in love with Rebecca.
Had Yugi been the good friend he normally was, he would have known how far it was between Kaiba and Tea and obviously there wasn't much, apart from their spent night. With an inward sigh Yugi clutched his hand to his forehead and cursed himself for being an idiot. Of course, he had acted the wrong way with threatening Kaiba. He had made himself to a complete fool. Now Tea was mad at him and she had all right to.
Why could Yugi lose his temper? He had never done that. Not Yugi. He needed to put things right again and apologize. Not only to Tea but also to Kaiba. Then he would confess his love for Tea and left was only her decision if she wanted to be with him or not. But how should he start and all above where? It didn't really matter after all. One thing was for sure, Yugi needed to wait for Tea to make a move right now. She had thrown him out after his fit of rage against Kaiba.
Maybe Yugi should talk to Joey. Bad idea. If Yugi told Joey that he had almost punched Kaiba, the blond guy would only jump for joy and celebrate the beginning of a new century. Who was there left to talk to? It had always been Tea he could ask when he was having problems. Now she was the problem herself. He might talk to Tristan but he was occupied with his new girlfriend. A love sick trying to give advice was never doing any good.
Mai? No she probably would tell Joey. She couldn't stand Kaiba as well. Bakura? He was Tea's former boyfriend. He was out of any discussion. Grandpa? He was in some foreign country and shouldn't give advice to a twenty-four-year-old man. By the way old people had this habit to get kind of kinky with growing age. Yugi's mum? Even worse idea. He could hear her say 'get a proper haircut, no wonder you don't get the girl'. Not his mum, no. Who else?
There was no one left Yugi could ask for advice. He had to do that by himself. He just hoped he could do this.
It was a sunny winter's day but for the first time in her life Serenity couldn't see the beauty of this usually wonderful world. Her mind was drifting again and again to the things happening during last week. The weirdest thing was that although she could still bite Mokuba's head off her mind was with his older brother, Seto Kaiba. Last night she had thought about everything and couldn't get her head around all the questions in her mind.
Why was Mokuba cheating on her? Had his friend been Rebecca when he said he went to a friend in need for help? Why did Seto and she kiss each other the same evening? Was he oblivious to Mokuba's whereabouts? Would he freak out like he had done if he knew? Would he act to get to Serenity? Was Seto the kind of guy who had one night stands? Was he in love with Serenity? Would he know about love if he had never a real girlfriend?
Serenity's head started to hurt and rubbing her temples she gave up reading her book in the university's library. She suppressed a yawn and tapped her pencil against the table. In school she only needed to think logically and in real life there was certainly no logic, or was there? Needing a solution to a problem in school she would just write down what she had and with an easy formula she would simply calculate until she knew what was right. Even in literature she could at least write down the facts and see what might have been reasons for the character's doings.
But maybe it worked in real life too. Serenity took a sheet of paper and wrote down:
Seto told me: made big mistake, spent the night with a woman, but in love with someone else who already had a boyfriend
Mai told me: Tea and Seto spent a night together
Possible solution:
99 true, the woman Seto was mentioning was Tea – they've spent a night together
That made clear that Seto regretted having spent the night with Tea because he was in love with someone else. But who was the mysterious girl with the boyfriend?
Possible solutions:
Serenity – but she was single again
Mai – that would be a problem
Taking herself as a possibility Serenity went through the details again. Seto was in love with her but she had already been with guy and he respected that. Why should he care – Seto Kaiba – for anyone else than his own brother? This was making sense.
What didn't make any sense was his behavior. At first he had been totally impolite, rude and a complete jerk. Then he had been acceptable until they had kissed. Afterwards he was rude again and even mean and ignorant. That was until he had seen Mokuba and Rebecca. Kaiba's fit of rage was a riddle to the woman. Why should he get pissed as his brother's and her relationship broke apart? If he was in love with her that would be the jackpot. Was it just a moral thing? Or was he angry because he couldn't play his games anymore with Serenity?
There she was again, thinking and riddling about Kaiba but with no solution at all. Knowing Kaiba just slightly was enough to be suspicious about his true intentions. Maybe someone knew more than the auburn-haired but who could that be? There was only one way to solve the riddle, starting at the 99, Tea Gardner. Serenity needed to talk to her.
Could life become any more difficult? During her teenage years Tea had thought everything was starting to get difficult but it would go by. Now she wasn't so sure anymore. Maybe life became more complicated with every passing year. Feeling tired and sick she had placed herself on the sofa. Her stereo was playing old pop songs from the radio while she was once again thinking.
Finally, when she had come to an agreement with Kaiba, there had been Yugi who had totally freaked out. So Kaiba had been an asshole and still he was in some sort of way, always had been, but in the end he had been nice after all. In his very own way of course but that wasn't the point. Tea could be glad they had the same opinion, found an agreement and concerning their night together had used protection.
But the thing was Tea wasn't happy. Yugi had shown up and threatened Kaiba in a way that had made the woman scared. He hadn't been a good friend to her during the latest times and suddenly his concern made him do things he wasn't able to ever before. Was he in love with her? The question was in her mind and not without reason. His behavior could easily be explained with jealousy but since Tea had seen him with Rebecca she doubted any connection of love between her and Yugi.
The sudden ringing of the doorbell made the blue-eyed woman jump off the sofa. She was wondering who it might be this time. Slightly annoyed she walked to open the door and hoped it wouldn't be Kaiba or Yugi. She would indeed be glad if it was Mai this time. Or anyone else would be just fine but not Yugi or Kaiba. She was surprised to find Serenity Wheeler waiting outside.
"Serenity, hello."
"Hi Tea, can we talk for a minute. I need your advice." The hazel-eyed gazed at the woman who led her inside the apartment.
"Sit down, can I offer you a soda? Coffee? Anything else?" Tea smiled at the not so very good-looking small woman sitting down on the sofa.
"No, thank you." Serenity gave a tired smile. Her eyes were still looking slightly swollen because half of the last night she had been crying and almost every bone in her body felt exhausted.
"Well, you don't look too good. Is everything okay with you?" Sensing problems the older one sat down opposite Serenity on an armchair and looked worried.
"Mokuba broke up with me." The auburn-haired explained, not knowing where to start with her actual matter.
"Oh… I'm so sorry for you. What happened?" She couldn't help asking.
"Mokuba's with Rebecca but anyway, that's not the reason why I want to speak to you." The younger said and fiddled with her small handbag.
"Mokuba's with Rebecca?" So sorry Tea was for Serenity but those were good news in some kind of way. "Sorry for me being nosey, but I can't explain myself how this can be."
"I don't know either. I found out yesterday and really, I don't care about further details. Ask them. I just know that the story of Mokuba and I is past."
"Okay, sorry. It was impolite of me to ask you this. So you wanted to speak to me about something else. What is it?" Trying to be a good friend Tea switched the topic as much as she hated it. But there would be time enough later to get to the ground of Rebecca being with Mokuba.
"Actually I don't know how to start." Serenity began quite nervously. "Please don't be mad at Mai but she told me about you and Kaiba."
Tea's face fell by mentioning that. "You have to understand I don't like to tell everyone about this. So I'm of course disappointed in Mai that she told you. It's not something I'm proud of."
"Sorry, I know. Mai said she's not allowed telling anyone and I understand why. But she told me out of good reasons; please don't be mad at her. She just did because there was something between him and me. Kaiba." Serenity's hazel eyes suddenly seemed to think of the carpet as an interesting part in Tea's apartment while the blue-eyed stared at her in disbelief.
"Between you and Seto Kaiba?" Furrowing a brow Tea was confused.
"Yeah, a simple kiss. Nothing else, nothing worse, nothing more. But…" Taking a deep breath Serenity continued. "The point is I don't know what to think of it. It happened last Sunday. I was waiting for Mokuba at the Kaiba's place because he went to see a friend. I guess it was Rebecca but that's not important. Important is that Seto suddenly showed up and as usual he had been quite mean and rude. Like he is normally."
"I understand what you mean."
"Yeah, but I asked him why he can't stand me and he assured me that it hasn't got anything to do with me. Because of my pressure he told me that he had made a huge mistake and spent the night with a woman who was probably mad at him. He said he had been drinking too much because he was in love with someone but she already had a boyfriend what he indeed respected by the way." Serenity finished for once and thought about if she had missed out on something.
"Wow." Tea was slightly impressed that Kaiba had told Serenity all that. Maybe all of them knew nothing really about him. Just the face he was showing them. "And Mai told you I was the one."
"Not exactly. I assumed you were meant by him when Mai told me about you spending the night with him."
"Probably. We both were drunk and neither of us would have done that otherwise. It wasn't planned and it was one big mistake." Tea needed to get this off her chest but this wasn't the topic right now. "But how could it come to you kissing each other?"
"Well, I told him he should talk to that woman and tell the truth about his reasons. Somehow this had resulted in a very awkward situation. He wasn't like he usually is. He was thoughtful, even sad and kind of lovely." Serenity couldn't help her blush rising mentioning the word lovely. She felt like a stupid teenager again. "Then we kissed. I don't know why. I was still with Mokuba at that time. After we broke apart Seto ignored what had happened and left. I guess he felt regret because of his brother. I felt miserable as well."
"Wait a second. So you kissed and then he left and you think it was because of Mokuba." Tea gave a short summary.
"Yes. But I'm not sure anymore. Yesterday we both found out about Mokuba and Rebecca. Seto was his usual self again and gave the same mean comments as ever until we found my boyfriend with a certain blonde in the kitchen, testing how deep each other's throats are." Serenity almost spat her last sentence in disgust. "Then Seto freaked out."
"Seto… I mean Kaiba freaked out? What did he do?" Tea had been asking herself why Serenity suddenly called the CEO by his first name during her speech. Were they so close?
"Yeah, he called Mokuba names, bad ones really. He called Rebecca a whore and Mokuba a moron and things like that. After that he gave me a ride home and that's it so far."
"Okay but I don't really know what I could do to help you. I don't understand Kaiba myself. I had been trying to get a hold on him for three days but he wouldn't want to talk to me after you know what happened. Then yesterday, suddenly, he was here and wanted to put some thing straight to say it with his own words. Actually we came to an agreement including to tell no one about it. And…" Suddenly another memory crossed Tea's mind. "You know what he told me as well? That he was in love with someone else. I don't know who."
"At least there has to be some truth in it if he even told both of us." Serenity shrugged.
"Do you want it to be you?"
"What?"
"Do you want him to be in love with you?" Tea asked more precise.
Serenity shrugged. "Should I? I don't know because there are many reasons speaking against. First of all I don't even know if he's indeed in love with me and I shouldn't jump into conclusions. Then there's still Mokuba. This could be difficult. Then there's Seto's controvert nature. Why had he been so angry with Mokuba cheating on me? If he was in love with me he could be glad that I'm single again."
"I see but…" Tea paused having an idea. "It makes sense. You said he should talk to the woman and suddenly he shows up here. Could it be that he has only done that because of you?"
Serenity shrugged. "No idea. He's really weird, like I said."
"I need to ask you something else. How can you just go over from one Kaiba to another? I mean, aren't you just sad about Mokuba? We shouldn't forget the aspect that you might hurt Kaiba. God, I can't believe I'm saying this." Tea shook her head at the weird thought of hurting non-emotional cold-hearted Kaiba.
"I can't deny that I'm still mad at Mokuba. I feel sad and disappointed in him. He cheated on me and I feel betrayed but the thing is, even before this happened I couldn't get Seto out of my mind. Since this kiss I'm totally confused. It wasn't like with Mokuba or anyone else. It felt special." Again she couldn't hold back the blush in her face. "I sound childish, huh? But I can't help it. When we were kissing there was nothing else that I wanted apart from him. I don't know how far I would have gone. I really feel stupid."
Tea smiled at Serenity. Indeed she seemed to be really in love with Kaiba, even though she had been with his brother until only two days ago. "You're not stupid and you shouldn't feel so."
"You think? Well, but I do feel stupid. I must sound stupid. Here I am, telling you this. You had him, full stop. And you're not in love with him, don't even want him. I just kiss him and fall in love with him. So don't tell me I'm not stupid." Serenity sighed heavily.
"Yes, I had him but I had never even wanted to. Not on purpose. Like I've said before I'm in love with someone else and actually I've to admit I can't remember about the night with Kaiba when it comes to emotions. I was just drunk. That's something else." Tea sadly smiled. It was sad that people could do things without emotion. Alcohol was a bad thing.
"Probably." Serenity suddenly smiled out of nothing. "That means you and Kaiba are okay. There isn't anything between both of you anymore?"
Tea raised her eyebrows. "For god's sake, no!"
"Great." Shyly the hazel-eyed gazed down and smiled. "Thank you Tea. For being nice and a great friend and well, for everything."
"Welcome but what are you up to?"
"Facing Seto Kaiba."
When Kaiba came back last night after bringing home Serenity he found the house empty. Still dead tired he went straight to bed and fell into a deep slumber. But not thinking the evening before his mind was already hurting waking up in the morning. He knew he had overreacted calling his brother names and he was sorry for doing so. But on the other hand he still couldn't believe how stupid his brother seemed to be after all.
Mokuba had hurt the woman Seto was in love with which was making the older one angry still. Nonetheless there was the aspect of Serenity being single now. But certainly the woman didn't feel ready for another relationship yet, not to mention with the brother of her former boyfriend. Actually Seto had no clue about how to react to Mokuba at all. He was too stubborn to apologize and why should he anyway? He had been right after all when he thought of his brother as a stupid moron concerning Serenity.
Kaiba drove straight to his company where he could occupy his mind with work. The whole morning he just ignorantly blocked any thought out off his mind when it came to the whole cheating thing. It only brought more confusion to his already stressed mind. The situation didn't become any better when Mokuba suddenly faced him and sent a huge heap of files nonchalantly on his big brother's desk.
"What's this?" The brown haired guy asked.
"The work I've had no time to do so far." Mokuba replied still mad at his brother. "You can do that by yourself I guess."
"Do you?" Seto couldn't help his arrogant tone.
"Yes." Short cut the younger one answered. "I'll go home now but I thought if you seriously want to have this to be done today, you can do it by yourself."
This morning Mokuba had found his desk full of files. Not that this was rare but it had been unusually much and he guessed Seto was pulling that straw to make him drown in work. But the younger Kaiba had other plans.
"Fine." The CEO replied simply and glued with his blue eyes to the computer screen.
Mokuba sighed and walked to the door. "How long are you going to ignore me?"
Seto's gaze shot up with a glare. "I don't know what you mean. "
"Of course you don't." The younger one said in a dull tone with a lot of sarcasm and left shrugging.
Sure, Mokuba was sorry about Serenity and how things had turned out in the end. He felt as mean as he probably had been but that didn't give his brother the right to yell at him, ignore him or be mad at him at all. Not when the younger could tell hours long tales about his brother's own selfishness. But he had never complained, ever stood by him. No, this time Mokuba wouldn't give in that quickly.
After Mokuba had left Kaiba sighed but kept working until the late afternoon. Finally leaving the company it had been half past seven and Seto was sure in about five years at last he would need glasses, so damn much hurt his eyes after working more then thirteen hours at the computer. He should go and buy a wheelchair in order to be prepared for everything because his back was aching as well. But stiff as ever he sat on the backseat of his limousine and stared ahead.
It was getting slowly warmer with each day. The temperature was rising above zero and Seto was carrying his winter's coat across his left arm when he walked up the front porch. Mokuba's car was standing in the driveway, so the guy had to be at home Seto thought and entered the mansion. Maybe he should apologize after all. He had never done that before, never needed to actually, never called his brother not worth the dirt on his shoes and even if Seto had made mistakes he had never actually said he was sorry. Was today the day to start with?
The voices coming from the living room made Seto suspiscious and he went straight to where the noise was coming from. His worst guess became truth when he saw the little blonde upon his brother on the sofa. But hell, the sight was still better than if it would have been Serenity. Mokuba was such a gangster when it came to girls and women. A sickening feeling overcame Kaiba by the thought of his brother doing these things to Serenity. After all he could be glad it was the blond smart ass Mokuba was bugging now.
Seto coughed and finally entered the room properly. Rebecca shot up startled and had a purple color to her cheeks while Mokuba was having an annoyed look in his eyes as soon as he recognized his older brother.
"Did I interrupt anything?" Kaiba's trademark smirk appeared when he crossed his arms.
The blonde was about to say no when Mokuba cut in. "Actually, yes you do." A grin appeared.
"Well, I just wanted to inform you that I'll be out in about an hour. I'd be glad if you could take this somewhere else as long as I'm at home. Or at least wait till I'm out of here." Seto stated calmly with just a slight pitch of sarcasm, arrogance and amusement.
"Let's go upstairs." Mokuba grinned at his girlfriend but she glared at him before she was gazing at the tall brown-haired standing at the door.
"We can wait." Rebecca replied with a sweet smile receiving a pout from the man beneath her.
Kaiba smirked, again, and left the two of them to themselves. He was going out because of them but they shouldn't know. His thoughts were quite complicated in this case but he had his reasons. First of all, he didn't need to see them making out. Second, if he went out there would be the slight possibility of seeing Serenity. Third, he wouldn't need to apologize to Mokuba and his excuse was that Rebecca was here.
Anyway, after a quick change of clothes Seto said even goodbye to the youngsters before he jumped within his NSX and drove over to Rainmen's. The club wasn't even that full on a Tuesday evening and Kaiba was glad about it. He was looking for a quiet corner and ordered himself a beer. One wouldn't hurt, would it? Though oblivious to the usual stares of people whenever Seto Kaiba was showing up somewhere he chose to ignore them.
"Kaiba."
Seto's gaze darted upwards to where the familiar voice was coming from and faced Yugi. Next to him stood his always present nerving friend Joey Wheeler with a puzzled expression. Narrowing his eyes Kaiba silently snorted.
"What do you want, Yugi?"
"Kaiba, listen to me. I want to apologize about what I did yesterday. It was wrong of me to threaten you and I ask you to accept my apology." The not so tall man said in a sincere tone standing in front of an eye-brow-raising Kaiba.
"Save it, Yugi. I don't need any apology." Seto couldn't deny he was secretly pleased that his old rival had apologized. But being the stubborn guy he was Kaiba did only show that he'd give a damn about it.
"Thank you, Kaiba. I appreciate it." Yugi said with a nod. He probably knew the tall blue-eyed the best after all and accepted him the way he was.
"Just forget about it. I don't have time for your problems, Yugi. I've got my own things to care about." With a wink of his hand Seto shrugged the other guy off.
"Damn Kaiba!" Suddenly Joey thundered. "How can anyone be as heartless and cruel as you? Yugi's just apologized to you! But you are so damn selfish!"
"Joey." Yugi cut into his friend's raged self. "Stop it. It's okay for me."
"As if you would know anything at all, Wheeler." Seto suddenly stood up and gazed down menacingly at the blond haired younger man. "But I could easily show you how heartless and cruel I really am." Kaiba smirked. "But you're lucky the award for the one who can lick my ass this year's already given to someone else! I'm going to make it really easy for you now." The blue-eyed man gave a lazy smirk to show how annoyed he was. "Just leave me."
Joey growled instead and was ready to shot another remark at Kaiba but got calmed down by Yugi who was slowly pushing him away.
"C'mon Joey, let's go. Leave him." Yugi said and the blonde obeyed as usual.
Kaiba instead went to go upstairs, thinking of how that dog Wheeler always obeyed to his master Yugi. A slight smirk appeared on Seto's face but it faded when he realized once again that Joey was still Serenity's brother and even if she would be with Kaiba one day the next problem was already ahead of Seto. Right now he shouldn't care about that.
"What was that about at all, Yugi?" Joey asked his friend as soon as Kaiba was out of sight.
"We had a row." The smaller one replied. "Nothing serious." He lied.
That evening Serenity didn't show up at Rainmen's, neither did Tea. But tomorrow as another day, another chance and Kaiba as well as Yugi were up to take the challenge. Both of them had different destinations but quite a similar way to go.
(A/N: I hope you understand why I called this rather boring chapter 'Conclusions'. The puzzle's nearly finished and put together! The next chapter should be more interesting.)
