A/n: Meh, time to move things along…
Disclaimer: I don't own YGO
%Day Seven: United We Stand, Divided We Fall%
Serenity stood over in the cliff, overlooking the sea's tide, sulking. She had found out that Seto had spied on her while she was privately bathing, and the oaf had the gall to brag about it, even. "Revenge" he kept saying, and what she kept saying was that hers had been an accident, while his was on purpose. Along with a few other things she'd hurled at him, that is, words she hurled. Even though I should have thrown a coconut at his head, she thought, cheeks still pink. She was feeling a bit embarrassed, though still indignant, about the way she'd acted, not very "ladylike" at all, totally unlike her usual sweet self, but he just brought it out of her.
Well, I did say some…..pretty mean things, she thought, flicking at a broken-up seashell. Unprintable things. Words that weren't in the dictionary, sort. But then he started to insult my brother, and---and all! And then he said….
That I had a pretty nice body, too…..
She flushed magenta at the thought. Why must my face be all red like this, she thought, pressing her dirty palms up to her cheeks. She needed to take another bath already, but she sure as….heck wasn't going to--! Must be 'cause he's cute, why my face is red, that is. Even when frowning and scowling like that. So? Plenty of others are too. But my face doesn't flush when I speak to them…..
Ergh! What am I thinking! Nonsense, that's what!
She squinted her eyes shut and opened them again. The sky was a heavenly light blue, nearly turquoise, the same color as the sea. A few puffy white clouds floated lazily by. The palm trees' fronds swayed with the breeze. The picturesque view was nothing alike to her emotions right now.
And then I said, she thought, remembering….
%%Flashback%%
"Fine!" Serenity said, still having no idea why her cheeks were burning. "We'll just divide up this island, then!"
"Divide?" he said blankly, looking taken aback.
"Yes!" Reaching over, she grabbed a long stick and drew a line across the sand, making an indentation. "This is your half of the island, and this is mine."
The blank look disappeared, followed by a harsh laugh. "Ha ha! You wouldn't last a day all alone, 'mutts-sister.' " Her eyes flashed dangerously, but all he said was, calmly, "Fine, though. But don't come crying back, when some wild boar eats you for dinner!"
%%end flashback %%
It hadn't been the wild boar that Serenity was afraid of, and was the fast that the supplies' bag was on his side of the divided up island. She had forgotten that tiny, but powerful point.
So, even though it killed the last of her measly, scraped together pride, she had to go back and apologize, and hope he would accept it. This isn't really my way of solving problems anyway, she thought, stepping along twigs and brush with a glum face. Yeah, united we fall and divided we stand, or….something like that….. that's what I'll say.
She half-expected him to be waiting beside some tree, arms crossed, smirk in place, just waiting for her to come 'crying back', as he put it, and apologize. But he wasn't by some tree at all. Serenity spotted him sitting by the shore, on the beach, sitting and apparently watching the waves.
Her eye fell on the discarded supply bag, peeking out of the granite cave. She adjusted her windbreaker jacket nervously, fidgeting, thinking about just taking it and running off. But it was probably some trick….
She bent down in her jean shorts and took it cautiously, expecting it would trigger some trap. She didn't trust him at all anymore. Not since he had admitted to have spied on her.
Casting another glance in his direction, she hoisted the bag over her shoulder. A nice picture of him coming over to her side of the island, crying HIS eyes out, floated into view. She spent so much time picturing it gleefully, it was quite dark before she came to her senses again.
Serenity cast another glance. He was still sitting there.
With a dejected-sounding sigh, she put the bag back where it was, then went and joined him. Kind of. She approached cautiously, like when a hunter approaches a dangerous tiger, and Seto heard her footsteps long before she spoke.
"You didn't take it eh?" he said as her mouth opened to talk, interrupting her.
"I---uh…." He must have eyes on the back of his head! "No…I didn't take it," she said proud of herself. The bag was still there.
"Idiot. You should've." He said tonelessly. But his voice lacked the usual fire and she wondered what was wrong. "Take a look," he said, gesturing over to the shoreline when she asked.
Serenity squinted in the dark, clouds had passed over the sun. It looked like the boat he'd been working on to fix. Except now it looked like a lump of coal.
"What happened?!" she exclaimed, not believing her eyes.
"Lightning," he said in that same toneless voice. Except now it had a twinge of disheartenment in it. "Last night, it'd been struck by lightning and ….burned to a crisp!"
The last part didn't sound as toneless as then words before it. But serenity knew what was wrong, they're last hope of ever getting back, their mode of transportation, had been destroyed. There was no way to fix it, and even he knew that.
"Ah….don't worry," she forced some enthusiasm in her voice. "I bet it's not as bad…….as …….it…..looks," she finished, looking a bit worried because she had gone over to the boat and really saw the damage. It really was a lump of coal. Char-coal, that is.
"Well, at least we have plenty of coal now, for making fire," she said, still brightly, but not daring to look at him. she was thinking he would think her annoying.
" 'Coal….for the fire…..' " she heard him say in a scoffing tone, with a ridiculing snort. She flinched and winced, expecting him to go in a tirade about how dumb it sounded. It sounded dumb even to her own ears, instead of comforting.
But instead she swore she heard him snicker. Or something that sounded like one. Then he began to laugh, like he was mad, and she was sure.
Sure that he had gone mad, that is. And he was certain he had. T-this girl…..ALWAYS has a 'bright side' to everything, he?
Thinking he was laughing at her, Serenity plopped down on the sand, studying the shoreline again. Humph. I come here to make amends on all he does is laugh. What a……boy! Well, might as well do it. "About what I said before." She said distantly. "I'm…sorry I said those mean things. I shouldn't have." She said in a whisper.
Even though, he heard it. "Yeah……whatever." Was the only thing he could thinking of to say. Universal words, those.
"Really? S-so forgive and forget and let's start over--?!"
If it weren't for the fact they were on a deserted island, he would've acquired her perkiness to sugar. "Yeah, I guess….." he said just to placate her and quit her from jabbering.
"Great!" she stuck her hand out in a peace offering and he shook it, reluctantly, depression starting it settle in again about the ruined remains of the once KaibaYacht. Sheesh, and those things cost money….! He kneaded his hands on his face, trying to think. Something I don't have right now….
"I wonder….." she mused, half to the world, "What the others are doing…..our family and friends, I mean." Probably wondering and thinking the worst, like never seeing us again, or something depressing. The thought was too hard to even fathom, that her family was suffering, that she got up and went closer to the pulling tide, something shiny having caught her eye. The reflection of a glass bottle. Remembering the bottle she'd threw for her brother, with the note, thinking it might a be a correspondence back. Meanwhile, Seto was still brooding the fact that he was completely powerless to get back, his business must be in ruins now, every enemy must have taken it over already, and he didn't even know anything about it, and a bunch of other stuff. Then he lifted his eyes and saw that she was only a speck on the horizon of blue sea.
What, is she drowning herself?! Getting up, he rushed over to the shore and hollered, "GET BACK HERE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
Ah! Got it! Serenity fisted the bottle, then swan back to shore to an angry looking Kaiba, staring at her. Hurriedly, she explained. "And I'm hoping this is a letter from him!"
"That's what you'd risk your life for?! A letter?!?!?!!?!?!?!"
"Well, yeah, if it's from Joey," she went on, and with a feeling of excitement, she topped off the cork, seeing a message inside. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him rolling his eyes and throwing up his hands in the air in disgust. "Hmm….well, it's not a letter from Joey…." She whispered to herself, disappointed.
"See?!"
"It's a……treasure map!" Her voice picked up in excitement.
"What?!"
Before she could react, he'd snatched it away. For such a big man, he sure can move fast, she thought. "Garbage!" he crumpled it up and threw it over his shoulder, declaring, "This is smut."
"Hey!" she said to the sand, as she bent down to pick it right back up as he moved away in disgust. "This….might lead….to something, at least….maybe to a way out of here!" The map looked old, with a classical big red "X" in the middle. "I could….." Serenity said dreamily aloud underneath her breath, "pay all of my family's bills if there is treasure…." Joey wouldn't have to do back-breaking work anymore! I'd be a hero! "It's better than to stay here and mope!"
"It looks like a child's play drawing," he warned over his shoulder, going away in the opposite direction. "Don't follow it."
Even though she never follow any orders of mine…..
%%%%
And how quite right he was. Serenity, armed with a pen flashlight she'd found in the supplies as well as the bag again, discovered the shoreline on the map nearly almost exactly matched the one on their island. The picture in her mind's eye drove her forward: of not having to run away for the IRS, tax collectors, etc. She'd seen the big burn scars of Joey's hands, from the job he worked at, making test tubes for scientific purposes. He saved me from that. at least I could do is repay him….
How she'd actually get the gold over to him was something she decided to work on later. Right now was just getting it first.
"Don't even think about it!"
Turning slightly, she saw Seto, with his long arms crossed in a no nonsense sort of way. He was glaring, again. "You can stay here."
"Yeah right. I'm not going to take your dead body back to Japan," he huffed in a sort of childlike way, like when little kids stubbornly fight. "You're staying," he threatened, even if I have to tie you to a tree! Got it?!"
She lowered her eyelids, a stubborn turn taking over her mouth and twisting it. No one tells me what to do except for my brother! But she was to shy to say so, with him glaring viciously and all. "Fine."
With that he turned. And she went right into the cave to start her journey, wherever it might lead to.......
To be continued….
