Chapter 3: Loneliness
He's gotten through about half the employees on his list, and he, if given the choice, would probably remove eighty-five percent of them. Unfortunately, there are very few people in this world who work as hard as Kaiba does, and thus it isn't the workers' incompetence, it is the fact that they all pale in comparison to him. Kaiba's been hunched over for a couple of hours now, and there's a quiet knocking at the door, and he opens it to find Ischizu Ishtar, standing there. He is surprised, but says nothing. He gets this evil idea to slam the door in her face, but he doesn't. Instead, he wonders out loud.
"Who let you in?" It's almost a sneer, but since Kaiba doesn't 'sneer' technically, it isn't. But it is very close to one. She smiles slightly, letting herself in, which is strange, and awkward at the same time. This is his office, and to his incredible dislike, he is working at home. Working at home means dealing with distractions. Kaiba is clockwork and thus distractions are an utter abhorrence.
"Your brother did," she says. Her hand reaches up to gingerly rub her bare shoulder, and it is then that Kaiba notices that her cropped peasant top has short, puffed sleeves and it does not begin to clothe her torso until slightly below her shoulders. They glimmer in their honey-colored tan. She crosses and uncrosses her legs several times on a chair very close to his desk, her pastel blue skirt rustling in the quiet.
"You don't give up do you?" he says, rather mockingly. But he doesn't mean it, because Mokuba hasn't come up in hours and it's been too quiet in here. That's why his head throbs when he looks at the list of employees, and sometimes he doesn't see employees names' at all, but symbols and hieroglyphics. "I refused your offer." She closes her eyes gently and opens them again, as if he has heard the same things over and over again.
"Do you dislike me so?" He shifts his weight from one leg to another. Ischizu's walking up to him now, and he has taken note that she has this graceful form, and even her stride is rather elegant. Kaiba has a similar form of walking, but he doesn't employ it much unless he's in a business meeting of some sort. At home it is completely useless and rather tiring because he has to remember to keep his back straight, and his posture firm.
"No, it is because I have no interest in you, and you still pursue me," He states, and she fingers his collar once again. She's too close for comfort. He wants to throw her out of his mansion at this minute. This is his house and he doesn't have to allow anyone in whom he doesn't want. There she goes again, invading his personal space.
"I know that you are a good man at heart. What has made you so cold?" She says, and she looks up at him with her glassy eyes. "What has made you so?" Her voice is a light whisper. Now she's got her palm on his chest, on top of the blue cloth of his buttoned shirt. He feels uncomfortable, yet the touch is so foreign he doesn't know yet what to quite make of it.
"It isn't your business," and he removes her hand off him. He can feel his heartbeat quicken. It is time to end these advances before he lets her do too much; perhaps pry into his business so that she knows every single weakness. But she is probing him now, checking for all possibilities before approaching as if she knows too much. He dislikes those who jump to conclusions or with weak assumptions. But she hasn't come with any.
"I have work, if you don't mind." He sits down at his desk and hopes that she'll leave on her own and that he doesn't have to yell, because if he does have to yell, it will involve his head throbbing some more, and then he won't ever be able to finish. But she does not leave. Ischizu Ishtar places both her hands on his shoulders as he is hunched over, as he enters the worker's percentage to contribution in his Excel documents.
"If my head wasn't about to explode, I'd throw you out myself." He states out loud. She is strangely quiet and the effort to remove her from the premises would prove to either be a worthless one or one that required too much effort. Kaiba lets out a soft moan as he realizes she is kneading his shoulders. Her swift hands bury themselves into his flesh, loosening knots in his muscles. It feels incredible.
He lets his head loll forward and eases forward as well so she can work downwards. He lets out a ragged breath as she massages the area near his shoulder blades. Strangely, Kaiba wants more. As she presses and squeezes muscles that have long been neglected, he feels a strange calmness become of him. Then, as she moves her hands towards his temples, he enters a complete state of nirvana. He lets out a quiet request of 'more' when her hands stop moving. He gets up, rather sluggishly, and together they somehow find their way to Kaiba's room. It's dim and quiet there.
"Come here." She says, rather softly in the dark room. He obeys and feels Ischizu's warm hands quickly unbutton his shirt. She even pulls out his arms from the sleeves because Kaiba is still in his state of delirium. Kaiba lays down on his front, his naked back exposed to her. It still aches; being in a poor posture for several hours without breaks can do that to one. She tucks her legs underneath her as she sits right next to him.
Leaning forward, she soothes his aches with her hands. He moans her name quietly several times into the darkness. She finishes sometime later, her hands slightly tired. She lies down on the bed next to him, but not too close. He faces her, his hand buried deep within his own hair. They just stare at each other for a long while before Ischizu moves forward and leans into kiss him.
He welcomes her openly, clasping a hand into her hair and pulling her forward. Kaiba invites her into a tender kiss, enveloping his mouth around hers. She can feel his chest now and her hands are fidgeting in his hair, tugging at the chocolate tresses. He breaks off the kiss and she doesn't know what his expression looks like. It's too dark.
"Are you that easy with every man?" He says, a little coldly. She sits up, brushing off her skirt. It's getting a little rumpled. Ischizu shivers a little, and for a short while, Kaiba thinks she is crying. It really is too dark. He can't see anything, let alone his hand, which is almost directly in front of his face. "Well, are you?" He demands, sitting up and pressing his hand onto her shoulder.
"Not with every man I meet, because there are very few men in my life. I suppose I do get lonely," She states, pressing her head back to study the ceiling. It's unusually cold in here. "I apologize for my advances towards you." He can feel the nape of her neck now; Kaiba's pushed her hair out of the way so he can feel the soft skin underneath. She lets out a quiet gasp as she can feel his teeth sucking and biting on the back of her neck. "Seto, do you get lonely much?" Ischizu manages in between soft cries of pleasure.
"I don't have time for other people," he bites the soft nape of her neck, lifting and pulling the skin, rendering her near helpless. "And they don't have much time for me." She is like a soft kitten in his grasp; kittens that are weak when pulled up by their necks. It is very frequently a woman's weak spot. She wonders whether he is biting too hard, but it feels good nonetheless. Perhaps tomorrow morning she will wake up with several bruises on her neck. Ischizu moans contentedly as he no longer bares his teeth but drags his lips across the smooth surface of her nape. He's kissed his way upwards towards her shoulders.
"Your brother – he cares about you very much, doesn't he?" She turns her head around, and can feel the small rustle of his slacks as he shifts his sitting position from one leg underneath him to another. Kaiba lifts his head up, wiping away his soppy hair from his eyes. It isn't even warm in the room; quite cold, actually, and here he is, sweating. He murmurs a sound of consent, as if he doesn't want to bring light on the subject. Perhaps some wounds are too real to be discussed, even with her. But for a moment, Kaiba remembers he is single, unmarried, with a woman in his bedroom and of course, that he is very well known.
"What did you come for?" He asks, rather suddenly. Perhaps her intentions are to deceive him in order to swindle him of his assets. Yes, that is probably right. Everyone that came into his life, and eventually left, managed to play his or her hand of cards. And he supposed that even when he was dealt a horrible hand, he never asked to switch cards, and had never managed to fold underneath the pressure.
I just want you to be happy. As he slunk into her lap, looking up at her, he could envision his brother, kissing him gently as he had argued with him earlier today. No, Kaiba was so small and insignificant. He couldn't do anything right, not ever. And he kept thinking of his brother, how much he has to do for him, and how much he will have to do for him. You won't let me go, he thinks. You will hold on to me, and I will always be there for you, because that is my duty to you, he thinks. It is too much. The weight of it all is too much, and already now Kaiba was sinking under the weight.
"If you are tired, I shall go," she says, softly. He's been looking up at her face, her hand smoothing out his hair so that it is no longer a messy mop atop his head. He does feel tired, but he does not want her to go. It is a strange feeling. It has been long since he was able to tuck Mokuba into bed, choosing that perhaps his brother, as well, needs to toughen up. No, he thinks, he doesn't want his brother to become like him.
"Stay." He says, and perhaps it is the rasp in his voice, the breaking edge of it, or the fact he actually does want her to stay that she does. Kaiba feels the crumpled crepe of her skirt. Great, he's messed up her clothes. She lifts his head gently and smoothes out her skirt before laying it down again. He had nearly forgotten that he still has work, and thus he curses outwardly.
Ischizu quiets him rather bluntly, placing a finger on his lips so that he'll keep quiet. She leans her head forward and kisses him upside down, capturing his upper lip between both of hers and then releasing it slowly. With a slight grunt, he hooks his arms around her neck and pulls her down to continue the kiss. They break apart nearly a minute later, gasping for air. It is awkward, but comforting, laying his head in her lap and looking up at her upside down. She runs her hands down to his collarbone, identifying its rough yet jaunty shape.
"You must not be eating right, because your body is much more thin than it should be," She notes. He likes her voice now. Kaiba believes that all logic, reasoning and deduction left him the minute she began to massage him. She massaged all his sensibility right out the window. "And with all those clothes, it is hard to tell." He wonders for a moment whether she has considered her statement, mulled over it awhile before saying it, because he finds a secret meaning, even if she hasn't meant anything by it at all. He opens his mouth to say something, but before he can, it gets lost in his throat.
She rises from the bed and leans towards the window. It's so dark she can see the stars very clearly, the glimmering patches in the blacked out sky. Ischizu wonders whether she has spent too much time with him, that when she goes back home, she will regret ever coming here. But it is not because she knows that he will eventually leave her, and much to her discontent, she will be heartbroken. As she always has been.
"Seto!" A loud crash is heard from downstairs, and it's Mokuba's scream that allows Kaiba to leap up from the bed and dash out of the room. She is standing there, thoroughly concerned, and so, she too, follows him. There's another scream and she can see the older Kaiba sprinting down the stairs, then he stops immediately. Ischizu starts running down the stairs when she hears his voice.
"Stop!" He nearly screams at her. She hears a gunshot ring out and she can feel that the bullet was shot from somewhere nearby. She immediately freezes; hoping that whoever has the gun will stop shooting if she doesn't move. Kaiba moves, inch, by inch towards the lobby of the mansion. The chandelier that usually hangs there has been clearly shot off. The glass pieces are scattered across the floor. Was it because of this he ordered her to stop?
Ischizu sees the real cause as she peeks her head in the direction that Seto is looking in. She mentally screams. There is a man there, no, there's several of them, perhaps more than a dozen, clad in dark suits and dark sunglasses. She wants to run out to Seto and ask what the heck is going on, because she doesn't know. But the voice that rings out in the eerie lobby is clear.
"Ah, Seto Kaiba. It is nice to finally meet you. You see, I've noticed you in magazines and on television, but I've never actually met you in person,"
The tallest man says. The sunglasses are blocking her from clearly identifying them. At first she believes that they haven't seen her, and so she tries to creep back up the stairs.
"So do you usually have women around? Quite the playboy, hm?" There's a second voice. This man has Mokuba pinned to the floor. Ischizu wonders whether he is unconscious; all her chances of escape are destroyed. Kaiba moves one step closer to the initial floor and the man points the gun at him.
"I wouldn't try any further. Unless you want to see his blood ruin your marble floor." The tallest man has spoken up again. This is when she manages to sprint up the stairs until she hears a gunshot ring out. "Don't try and run for it. Call the police and I'll kill him." She feels her chest heaving up and down as he presses the gun tightly to Mokuba's head. The younger Kaiba lets out a small whimper. Tiny pinpricks of tears threaten her eyes. Kaiba turns around and orders her with his eyes to stay where she is.
"What do you want?" Kaiba yells out, rather calmly for what is going on. Sitting down on the stairs, she watches the drama unfold beneath her. The man shakes his head, and lets out a strangely sincere laugh. Chills run up Ischizu's spine as she sits there, rubbing her arms because the lobby is quite cold. She is panicked and inside turmoil swirls inside of her but outwardly she is calm, cool, and collected.
"Well, Mr. Kaiba, I want you," He says, with a certain sneer. "We don't want your money, but we want your skills. If you join us, you might become a valuable asset." Kaiba brushes his hand through his hair again and this time he wonders whether this man is crazy. They all wanted his money. Heck, he'd had enough to throw it around, but he never, ever did. He saved it an account for future use. And then he says something that not even he was expecting himself.
"Let my brother go. I'll come with you." It is submissive and modest, and it doesn't sound like Kaiba at all. Further up the stairs, Ischizu clasps her hands together tightly, perhaps too tightly because her knuckles pale as she brings them together. Mokuba tries to speak but the man forces his head down against the floor.
"Very well, good decision. You wouldn't want your brother to be hurt, now." The man shoves Mokuba at him. There's a quiet muffling sound as Kaiba presses his brother to his chest, and then leans down towards his ear and whispers, so quietly that the others can't hear. He bends down to his brother's level and welcomes him warmly. Ischizu shivers on the stairs. They're going to take Kaiba. They'll take him and they might kill him. No, they wouldn't kill him – they need him.
"Take care of him, Ischizu." Kaiba throws over his bare shoulder. She realizes he isn't wearing his shirt. Part of her wants to go back up and get it for him, but she stays, frozen on that step. The men snap a rather submissive looking collar onto his brother, with small electrical generating nodes on two sides. "Be safe, Mokuba." The way his brother said it, Mokuba thinks, sounds as if it will be the last time.
"No!" Mokuba runs over to him and immediately his brother falls on his knees, trying to rip the collar off his neck. The tallest man from the dozen holds up a remote control that indicates pressure settings for the collar. After a while, the convulsing stops and Kaiba drops to his knees, gasping for air. There were electrical shocks programmed into the collar to train police dogs.
"Don't bother leaving the mansion, either. There are snipers situated right outside." The man sneers. Mokuba collapses and places his face in his hands. Ischizu finally goes to him, stepping quietly on each marble stair and wrapping her arms around him protectively. He shrugs off her hands and begins to cry, wiping at his eyes rather quickly with his sleeve.
The men in the dark suits and dark glasses finally leave with Kaiba. It is desolate and quiet in the lobby. The chandelier's glass pieces are still on the floor. She can see the different reflections of the ceiling, and finally herself and Mokuba. He swipes away a pile of glass shards out of his way so he doesn't have to see himself cry. It was dark, and the shattered glass windows brought in a sweep of wind that howled all around them.