When Worlds Collide

Note: Is anyone actually reading this thing? If so, please, please review so that I know you are. Oh well, here goes nothing for Chapter 8…

Chapter Eight: If Kaiba fell in love…

That night, I lay awake, plotting the utter demise of Mai Valentine in an attempt to lull myself to sleep. However, I found that my hatred for her and will to come up with silly circumstances was faltering. This, I knew, was not good, since I had been plotting circumstances in my head from a young age and always found it amusing. I was changing, and I was afraid.

Seeing that the moon was full and bright, I got out of the bed and walked onto the balcony. My hair, free from its ponytail for once because it was nighttime, fluttered lightly in the breeze and I felt content for a few minutes until my mind found something to fret about.

How were we going to get home? And when, if, we did, where would we go from there? What if we changed, but our world stayed the same? Would we ever fit into it again?

I sighed and slumped down, hitting my head on the railing as I did so. "Oh, crud it," I muttered, rubbing the spot. I looked up and could have sworn that I saw Seto Kaiba climbing over the railing.

Fearing that I had firmly injured my head, I stood up quickly and poked the 'hallucination', which did not take kindly to that.

"Hey, don't touch me, you geek. What are you doing on my hotel room balcony? Who are you?"

"Gosh, Kaiba, I'm hurt. You don't remember me?" I pouted, thinking that I was just imagining this, and continued to be my usual self instead of the act I put on for people. "And this is not your hotel room, it's ours."

"I come here all the time and no one's ever had this room before… I'll have to have someone talk to the manager of this place."

He didn't seem to know what to say next, so I tried to contemplate what a Kaiba hallucination was likely to do to me. Hmm, that gave me two options, either try to kill me or kiss me. I waited.

When neither thing took place, I realized that this could, unlikely as it seemed, be the actual Seto Kaiba.

"Oh, fudge," I whispered. "You're really Kaiba."

"How much time have you been spending with dog boy, exactly? Of course I'm actually me. And… this is a waste of my time. I came here to be alone and now you're in my way once again…" he trailed off, apparently not able to come up with an appropriate insult.

"I am so sorry, Kaiba… I thought I had hit my head and… Oh, never mind it… sorry."

"Whatever."

And for several moments we both just stood there, on a hotel balcony in the middle of the night. I didn't know what to say, and for once, it seemed, neither did the mighty Seto Kaiba. I vaguely wondered if he perhaps did have a heart, but decided that it was merely the bump to the head talking.

"Um… Why do you come up here, Kaiba?"

"That's none of your business."

I sighed and stared into the distance. "My friend Steph used to be a lot like you, Kaiba. She didn't like it when people saw that she was only human."

"That's none of your business, you… you-"

"Oh, shut it, Kaiba, and let someone help you for once in your sorry life. What I;m trying to say… is that it's okay to let someone in… I'm not saying that has to be me, or Steph, or anyone like that, but someday, Kaiba… someday you'll need someone to be there, but you will have pushed everyone away. Don't let that happen to you, because trust me when I say this; I know what it's like to be alone, and it isn't a place that anyone deserves to be, not even you."

"I…"

I looked at him, and in the darkness I thought I saw just a flicker of emotion in his icy eyes, but it was soon gone.

"I tried," I whispered, not meaning for him to hear.

"See, that's the problem. Everyone thinks that I'm a hopeless case. No one really wants to help; they just want the satisfaction of being the one who breaks Seto Kaiba."

"No… you can't label people like that before you know them. I had you written off as a pigheaded jerk the moment you opened you mouth, but I think I was wrong. There may be hope for you yet, Seto Kaiba. And for me, too."

I think that he decided to just take the advice and act like nothing had ever happened, because he didn't reply. Instead, he started to climb down from the balcony. It was then that the whole Romeo and Juliet scenario of it all hit me, and I just had to laugh. It was too funny, the thought of Kaiba being anyone's Romeo, and me being a Juliet.

"What's so funny up there?" Kaiba snapped, making me laugh even harder.

"You… and… balcony… and… me," I tried through fits of laughter. I knew, somewhere within me, that I was going to start crying once the hysterics wore off. Kaiba couldn't see that. "Just... oh." I gave up, feeling the laughter falter and the tears well up.

As they fell, I hoped blindly that he couldn't see me. "Are you… are you still down there?" I asked, trying to keep the tears from showing in my voice.

Silence, and then, "Yes. Is… is there… a problem up there?"

I wanted to faint. He was being nice! Oh, someone fetch a camera, I thought wildly. And then I realized that I was still crying, and that he was waiting for an answer.

"No… I'm…" Fine, I thought, say fine. But I couldn't force that word out. I had just told him not to shun people, and there I was doing just that. "not okay in the least. Things aren't going very good for me right now… but it doesn't matter," I laughed falsely. "I'm wasting your time. Just go."

But he wasn't gone. He was on the balcony again, next to me. "I… I guess I'm supposed to say something nice to you about now… but I've got nothing."

I smiled and looked up, feeling strangely comforted by his presence there. Only inches from my face, were two ice blue eyes that glittered faintly in the moonlight. They were so opaque, so hard to read… it was amazing.

"What's going on in that head of yours, Kaiba?"

"I'm not going to answer that."

"I thought not. You know… I cannot peg a label on you, Kaiba. I've never not been able to do that before. But you… you are something else. You like it that way, don't you?"

Again, he opted not to respond. I sighed. "Forget it."

"Why… why were you… crying?"

My head shot up with surprising speed and I felt my eyes widen. "I… it's nothing. Nothing that matters to you."

"What if I said… it does matter?"

"Then I'd tell you that I miss my family, and my dog and my friends… but most of all, I miss being able to predict that nothing special was going to happen to me."

"Are you… far… from home?"

"Yeah… farther than you could know. And I miss it… It may have been boring… but it was safe. This… this is not the life of boring, fat Lily the author… I don't even know what to call this."

"I think I know how you feel. Those first days that I started… changing… I kept thinking that it wasn't right, wasn't fair… wasn't my life at all. You see how that ended up."

"Are you proud?"

"Proud… of what?"

"Of… this. Girls love you, they all want to be your girlfriend… men envy you for your money and for the earlier mentioned… and you have all the money a person could want. Are you happy?"

"No."

I laughed bitterly. "Of course not. Who is? I'm not… your not… Steph's not… my gosh, I bet even Joey isn't happy. How so you become happy?"

"You're asking me? That's not very bright."

I sighed and looked up at the moon. "I think… that they," I pointed to a prak bench that was lit up, showing a couple holding hands. "are happy, at least right this moment. But I don't think I'm ever going to get there…"

"I know I'm not. People hate me… at least you have dog boy and Yugi to talk to."

I snorted. "Joey and Yugi are great… but they don't feel that way about me… no one feels that way about me. Random girls on the street feel that way about you."

He shook his head and looked away from me. "I think… that I know of at least one person who does feel that way about you."

I raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Despite my breakthrough with Kaiba, I was beginning to feel drowsy. Maybe, I thought, he won't notice if I just… rest my eyes.

Kaiba's POV:

She was just sitting there one minute, and I was trying to say the right thing to her, when she just sort of… fell against me. I looked down to see that she was asleep, and smiled slightly, since no one was around to see it.

She was so smart… and so nice, even to me. Why did she care what happened to me? After all, I insulted her and her friends and the guy she's obviously sweet on. Shouldn't she hate me?

I found myself stroking her hair, and then stopped. This was not something that should happen to me. I was supposed to be calm… supposed to feel nothing. How could she have this kind of effect on me?

Finally, I decided that it was getting too late, or too early really, for me to be out of the mansion. What if there was an emergency and they found out that I wasn't there? Then I could never sneak out again.

The only choice was to take Lily inside and then go home. Maybe she'd think it was just a dream… Did I really want that?

End note: Hate to break the mood, but I'm tired and I have a killer headache. Expect more very soon. There is a button at the bottom of the screen that I know you want to press… please review. Stay tuned!