When Worlds Collide
Note: Well… here it is… chapter 9. Wow. Thank you to the people who have reviewed, and know that I am made very happy by reviews… they mean that people are reading this…
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh, the Sevenwaters Trilogy or Tamora Pierce's books, or any of the characters, events and places relating to the above. I will take credit for the storyline and, of course, Lily and Steph, my fabulous OCs. Enjoy the story!
Chapter 9: Chasing the Wind
After a very fitful night, I woke to wonder what on earth was wrong with my brain. Had that Kaiba thing been a dream or… yes, it had surely been a dream. After all, since when did Kaiba care about anything besides himself, money and Mokuba?
And then I felt my head and noticed the bruise. That much had really happened, at least. Being a very curious person, I would not be able to relax until I found out what had happened, and so, after making sure Steph was still asleep, I crept out onto the balcony to search for evidence of Kaiba's visit.
Squinting down at the lawn, I was almost positive that I saw the faint indent of footprints on the lawn below. I decided that even my mind wouldn't stretch as far as the events of that night had gone, and that only reality would hold something so weird. Somehow, that brought a faint blush to my cheeks.
"Lil? What are you doing out there?"
"Admiring the view, of course. What are you doing in there?"
"Not showing the whole world my pajamas, I think, which is more than can be said for you."
Oh no, I though desperately, not the ones with the… v-neck. Sure enough, I was wearing v-neck pajamas and standing on a hotel balcony. Worse still was the knowledge that Kaiba had seen that. Just my luck.
"Darn it!"
Steph laughed and I fought off the urge to hit her. If she ever found out about my conversation with Kaiba, then I'd be dead. I might as well stay on her good side to prevent extreme pain to myself. Things were not turning out very well for me.
"You might want to come in here, Lily. I think that guy on the street is going to come up here if you don't."
At least she found it funny, because I sure didn't. Being closer to the street, I could see that 'that guy' was Duke. I fought off the urge to scream 'What about Serenity' and walked into the room, closing the door firmly behind me.
"Who shall we bother today?" Steph asked me from the bathroom where she was changing.
"Why not go to the library instead? I wonder if they have Tamora Pierce books there…"
"Alright, but only because I need the fourth Alanna book."
"How many times must I tell you that it's Song of the Lioness, not Alanna!"
I guess I should tell you that this is a long going argument between us, and that I always end up dropping the subject. The same happened now.
I looked through my clothes to find something to wear, deciding on a pair of shorts and a black t-shirt. Sadly, this too was a v-neck. It was surprisingly difficult to find anything normal in the world of Yu-gi-oh. I sighed and went to get changed, trying to shut out a sudden mental image of Kaiba.
"Hey, you seem quiet, even for you. Something up?"
"But of course not, Steph. When does anything of interest happen to me?"
"Since we ended up here."
We both laughed and then headed off to find the library, and, hopefully, something that could take my mind off of Kaiba.
"They have it!" Steph exclaimed in a whisper. I looked up from the shelf and smiled at her, then returned to browsing. What was I in the mood for? Humor, romance, mystery or suspense or… all of them! I remembered that one of my books had made the journey with me, as I always have one nearby. And it just happened to be one of my all time favorites; Daughter of the Forest. I didn't need a library today.
"Are you ready to go, Steph?"
"Yeah, let's go."
But at that very moment we both stopped dead in our tracks. We had just heard an unmistakable voice, and both of us were thinking opposite things. My mind was screaming at me to run far, far away, while Steph, no doubt, had no inclinations of going anywhere. I was rooted to the spot, my mind far gone off to a safer place; the world of books. I was thinking about Sevenwaters, and Sorcha, and most of all, Simon.
"Mokuba, we've been here for more than an hour, and I have a meeting to get to. Let's go."
My cheeks flared, and I desperately flung myself into a nearby isle, picking up the first book I saw and pretending to read it. However, since it was about some guy doing something heroic, I heard everything that went on around me.
"What are you doing here, Kaiba? Can't a girl come to the library without interruption in this silly city?"
I sighed, a little too loudly, at her antics, and felt my cheeks get redder as all three of them turned to look at me.
"Oh, um, hi Kaiba, Mokuba. Nice day, isn't it?" I rambled, hoping that they would just go away.
"Come on, Mokuba, I'm going to be late."
"But Seto, you can't just ignore them like that."
"Ignore who?"
I smiled despite myself at the very amusing expression on Steph's face as the man of her dreams turned his back and walked away without even the slightest acknowledgement. I felt sorry for her, really, but she had always been the one who got the guys' attention; maybe it was due time for a change. Who says the quiet one isn't attractive?
"Steph, don't worry about-"
"He's gonna pay for treating me like that! He can boss other people around, and he can ignore them all he wants, but nobody crosses me!"
"Er, Steph… Isn't that a bit of an overreaction? Don't get me wrong, I know that wasn't very polite, but did it ever occur to you that he may be as scared of people as I am, only he handles it differently?"
To tell you the truth, that had just occurred to me as well, but it seemed like a good way to calm her down, so I pretended it was obvious.
"No way! Kaiba… scared? Never."
"I don't know… I mean, he has to be human, right? And I know better than anyone what it feels like when new people make you nervous. If I wasn't so darn shy, I'd probably be even worse… You'd be lucky to still have your head. You know how my temper gets; just imagine someone who actually has a reason to hate everyone in the whole world."
"That's just silly. I refuse to even talk about it. Let's get something to eat; I'm starved."
I just shrugged and put the book back on the shelf. Steph always won our little spats because she had the personality of a leader, like a king, while I had the personality of that one guy on the sidelines whose name nobody remembers. Actually, I kind of was a person on the sidelines whose name nobody remembered, but Steph, she didn't rule the world just yet… I was giving her a few more years to accomplish that task.
"How about Chinese?" I asked, seeing the third Chinese restaurant in a one mile radius. "
"Alright. I'll order, as usual. What do you-?"
"I am getting really tired of you're attitude towards my shyness! I can order for myself, you know!"
"Okay, okay… gosh, what did you do last night; throw away your chill pills?"
"Of course not…" I was going to joke around with her, but then I suddenly wasn't in the mood. "I'm not the one who needs them, anyway."
"Just what is that supposed to mean?"
I lost the bravery to go on, and just shrugged. "I meant Kaiba, but go ahead and be all defensive if you want, I don't mind." And then, of course, I felt guilty for saying mean things about Kaiba, and I mentally reminded myself that he didn't need any more enemies in the world.
"Let's just eat," Steph said, walking into the restaurant and knowing that I would follow, because that what I'd always done and both of us feared change.
Late that night, I couldn't sleep, which was no big shocker, so I pulled out my book and crept onto the balcony with a flashlight.
Although I was deeply absorbed in my reading (it was the Simon part), there were a few sounds that I would have been able to hear during a tornado when I had headphones on. One of them, or course, was Joey's voice, but the other… was the sound of a motorcycle.
You see, my dad had a motorcycle, and I had a need for speed. I loved feeling the wind on my face, and hearing it rush by me, and I loved the feeling that you could just escape all of your problems; throw them into the wind and let it take them far, far away.
So naturally, my first instinct was to look for the source of the sound, and I'm going to assume that you know what came next. I suppose that in a way, I had expected him to come. Why else would I be wearing my clothes, with my hair up, and sitting on the balcony in the silence of the night without anything but a book to keep me company? I think he knew I would be there too, because what happened next was, as far as I know, unspoken.
I climbed down from the balcony and fell, um, gracefully onto the ground. Then brushing the dirt off my clothes, I walked up the motorcycle with a small smile on my face. Kaiba, of course, was not smiling, but merely looking at me. Something happened just then, I think. It was, perhaps, a small change in both of us, enough to make us both take this chance, one that I would have been to afraid to take, and that Kaiba just plain wouldn't for unknown reasons. But that wasn't what we did that night. He held out a helmet to me and I took, swinging myself onto the back of the vehicle with practiced ease. He seemed surprised.
"You didn't think this was the first time I snuck out of the house to ride a motorcycle, did you?" I joked. "Because don't worry… it is."
He just shrugged and started the engine, earning a broad smile from me. In about five seconds, I was no longer worried to death that I was doing something I promised myself I would never do; sneaking out with a boy. It didn't exactly help that this 'boy' was Seto Kaiba.
But with the wind blowing around me, it was almost impossible to worry about much of anything, except not falling off. This was a difficult task with my hands trying desperately to grab on to anything but Kaiba's waist, which was, of course, the logical solution.
"Hold on!" He yelled back to me, accelerating. Wanting to go faster, I swallowed my pride and held on for dear life.
Having never been this close to a guy before, I was one scared girl. But I wanted to go fast, wanted to erase all of the painful memories that always dwelled just under the surface of my mind, the ones that no one knew about but me. My own thoughts run amuck, tearing me apart from the inside out.
When I thought about that, I realized that Kaiba and I were not so different. In fact, we had very much in common, but dealt with it in different ways.
I withdrew from the world, losing myself in fantasies and romance novels, only to wake in the middle of the night crying because I would love out my days alone. Crying that I was too afraid to stick up for myself, too frightened of the consequences to really live. And I always cried alone, and put on a happy face, or an angry face towards others.
Did Kaiba cry alone at night too? I had never even considered that, but it was actually very likely. I knew what it was like to feel alone, and I knew that Kaiba, too, was a loner. Maybe there was a way that we could help one another to change. Maybe, just maybe, I would at last make peace with my inner demons. Maybe.
And then Kaiba suddenly hit the brakes, causing the bike to swerve, resulting in a very uncomfortable moment, in which I was holding on to Kaiba like a scared three year old. But then I saw Joey.
"Wheeler? What the-"
"Eh, Kaiba, why don't we finish dis fight right here, right now? I'm sick of havin' you bug me an' Yuge."
I shook my head wildly, all thoughts but one pushed from my mind. That was not Joey. I had sat and stared at the screen blushing, and cried my eyes out at night because he wasn't real; I would know that voice, that face, anywhere.
"Marik! You leave him alone! I don't know what this is about, but it doesn't concern him or Kaiba!"
"I'm sorry, my dear, are you bothered by my new body? That's too bad, but don't worry, as long as you come with me, neither of them will get hurt, too much."
Kaiba stepped forward, but I held him back with a single hand, blind rage forcing its way into my heart. "No, this is my fight, and I'm going to start fighting it myself."
"If you thought that it would be easy to… to… whatever you plan to do to me, well you're too late… I'm not that girl anymore."
"No matter what you think you are, you'll always just be a scared little girl, Lily. Maybe the spirit is making you feel braver, but that will change. I will have its power, and the shadows can have your mind."
Fear shot into me like ice; my worst fear was to not be able to have my mind… to go insane, or to be sent to the shadows. But I couldn't let him hurt Joey or Kaiba because of me.
"We'll see about that, Marik. But this is between us, and it doesn't concern Joey and S… Kaiba. Let them go."
"I think not, my dear. I like this body and I can't be free of that cursed Shadow Realm without one."
I felt as if I was going to cry… nothing like this had ever happened to me before. I'd never had to be strong.
"Run, Kaiba. I'm not going to answer for both of you being hurt. Find Steph and tell her what's going on."
Kaiba, for once, did not argue. He looked at me, and seemed to see something in my eyes that told him to go, and then he nodded and climbed onto the motorcycle and drove back the way we had come.
End note: Well, it's a cliffhanger again, sorry. So... what do you think? Please review and tell me. Stay tuned for Chapter 10.
