Alright, I only got a few reviews, but oh well, I was going to post this either way before I left. It gets kinda dark towards the end, so watch out!
Chapter 7: Resurfacing of Bad Memories
Once again Kiseki sat through her class, though rather stiffly because she felt like Kaiba was watching her every move. In truth, he would only occasionally look up at her from his relentless typing, but from those few glances he knew that she was nervous. And why wouldn't she be? She was being harassed for something special to her, not only that, but the instigator was one of the most powerful, intimidating people in Domino City. Unishiwa noticed her odd position in her seat as he was teaching Trigonometry, and when the bell rang, he took advantage of the conversations that erupted among the students and walked forward to kneel down and rest his arms on Kiseki's desk, looking at her intently.
"Is there something wrong?" he asked when she looked back at him.
"N-no, does it look like there is?" she replied, making a split-second decision not to talk to him about Kaiba.
"Yes, it does."
It was only then that Kiseki realised how tensed up she was, and she quickly relaxed her muscles and shook some bangs out of her eyes to quirk an eyebrow at him. "Well, there's not." He mimicked her and raised an eyebrow as well, and she quickly added, "But thank you, sensei."
He stood up, but still was giving her a slightly questioning look. She forced herself to smile reassuringly at him. "Really, I'm fine."
"Well, I'll see you after school today, and I'll bug you again if you still look as worried as you do now, alright?" he said, picking up his things.
She nodded, making a promise to herself that she'd calm down before then. As he left with a wave, she heard movement behind her in the desks and when she looked back down to start working again, a fist with nicely trimmed pink nails slammed down on her desk. It didn't scare her nearly as much as the face that was two inches from hers when she looked up at the owner: it was Lokhai, and she looked rather livid.
"What do you think you're doing?" the red head hissed dangerously at her through clenched teeth.
Kiseki blinked and lightly pushed the girl's hand off her desk to start writing again. "I'm working, what's it look like?" She had really come to dislike Lokhai and felt no resistance to throwing her horrible attitude right back at her.
Her green eyes narrowed and she threw her hand out to grab Kiseki roughly by the front of her shirt to pull her up slightly and glare her straight in the eye. "You know what I mean, kohai. Unishiwa is mine."
"I don't see your name anywhere on him," said Kiseki, looking right back with no emotion.
"It doesn't need to be; you're taking his attention and there's no way I'm going to let you steal him."
"As if I wanted to," said Kiseki, prying the prep's hands off of her. "You're getting worked up over an assumption, so at least try to analyse what you see before you take on any rash actions. Unless of course, you think Sensei Unishiwa would prefer someone like you, then by all means, keep at it." When Lokhai didn't seem to be able to rebut, Kiseki added one more insult to her little speech with a slight grin. "Are you that jealous of a little kohai like me?"
"I—of course not!" she practically squeaked, straightening up and folding her arms. "Kami, you're even worse than techno boy over there!" she added, thrusting a finger out at Kaiba, who then chuckled and spoke.
"That's just perfect, isn't it? One more person for you to ignore," he sneered, making her jump, as he had never said anything to her before. "Maybe if you treated her more like me, you wouldn't get so flustered over such little things? But of course, red heads need something to keep up their tempers, don't they?"
Lokhai turned red and clenched her fists, though she could not seem to be able to come out with the right words to yell at him, so she stomped back to her seat, sitting down heavily with a huff. Her friends followed suit and they immediately started conversing amongst themselves, while the rest of the class started up again, as it had gone silent during the confrontation. Kiseki threw a glance at Seto to see him give one small snicker with his eyes closed, looking a little too smug for her liking.
As the two went back to work, Yugi and his friends leaned into each other to talk.
"Man... they're kinda alike, aren't they?" whispered Jonouchi.
"No kidding, though I think we're all happy that someone finally shut her up," said Honda, nodding towards Lokhai.
The boys agreed fervently, but Anzu put a hand to her chin thoughtfully instead. Honda looked over at her.
"You aren't about to defend that little--" He was cut off by a sharp elbow in the ribs from Jonouchi. Clutching at his side, he punched Jonouchi in the arm before continuing. "Are you?"
"No, I'm not... but..." Anzu bit her lip. "Don't you think that it was a little weird that Kaiba spoke out like that? I mean, he doesn't really pay attention when other people are getting picked on by her, and... he hasn't exactly been that nice to Kiseki, so why would he even bother?"
The group was left to ponder that question, as that happened to be the precise moment that the next teacher walked in and started class.
Later on in the day, Kiseki once again sat by herself near the trees at lunchtime, this time just snacking on a small amount of pudding and some cashew nuts. Eating wasn't exactly her highest priority, and considering she packed her own lunch, there was no one to judge how she ate. The pudding was finished off first, for she was the type that liked to leave the best for last; cashews were by far her favourite things to eat. Yugi and the gang were sitting a few meters away at a table, again throwing glances at her every now and then. They were relatively quiet for some time, and those who made eye contact with each other would look over at Kiseki, then back at each other, then sort of shrug it off and go back to eating.Finally Jonouchi slammed down his sandwich.
"Is someone going to ask her to eat with us or what?" he practically yelled, making the girls jump.
"Well why don't you, if you're so worked up about it?" said Honda, reaching out a hand to gesture towards her.
"Alright, I will." The blonde returned Honda's look and then got up and walked over to Kiseki. "Hey, uh, Kiseki?"
She stopped eating and tilted her chin up, blinking at him.
"You wanna come over and eat with us?" he asked, bending over slightly to point under the low hanging branches of the trees.
"No thank you." She went back to eating quietly, eating each nut separately and savouring them.
Now it was Jonouchi's turn to blink as he straightened up slightly and pursed his lips, folding his arms. "Come on, what do you have to lose?"
"Nothing at all."
"So, why don't you come over?"
"I don't want to."
"Why not?" He was starting to become slightly flustered with her and was keeping himself from losing it and yelling at her as he had done the previous morning.
She shrugged slightly, keeping her eyes fixed ahead of her. "I just don't."
He clenched his fist slightly and then stomped back to the table and sat down heavily. He didn't need to say what had just happened, as it was blatantly obvious to everyone who had been watching, and they went back to eating quietly, though their glances did not stray to her again.
"Well, you certainly look better, Kiseki," said Unishiwa when she came in to do cleaning that afternoon.
She nodded, smiling as she once again took to clapping the erasers. She had quite liked it the day before and had gotten there early to ensure that she got them before anyone else.
"Are you sure nothing was wrong this morning?"
Again nodding, she turned to the windows and swung her hands together, closing an eye against the chalk dust that flew out as a result. "I was just tired, I guess."
"Didn't look like that to me, but--" He sighed, pulling some papers out of a folder and looking them over. "If you don't feel like talking about it, that's your choice, I suppose. But know that you can always come to me to talk about what's bothering you, alright?"
Her hands paused in their work as the words reached her ears; as they registered her eyes narrowed slightly at the sky outside. She could feel her hands tightening upon the erasers to the point that her knuckles started to lose colour. Another person had lost her trust. Unishiwa looked up from his papers and leaned over his desk slightly to look at her turned back.
"Kiseki?"
She started dusting the erasers out again. "I heard you, Sensei. Thank you." The words were hardly heartfelt, but the professor wasn't close enough to hear their toneless quality. After cleaning was done, he walked with her outside, and not very soon after a shrill call rang out across the courtyard and both of them turned to see Lokhai bounding up. Completely ignoring Kiseki, she started talking to Unishiwa, her hands clasped together in front of her. Kiseki shrugged and walked on without waiting, Unishiwa looking after her for a moment before turning back to Lokhai, lighting up a cigarette.
As the girl walked out towards the gate, she spotted a familiar black limo outside of it, a door already opening up. She stopped as Seto stepped out, once again in his elegant array of clothing, and she did not move from her spot as he came up to her, his trench coat billowing out majestically behind him.
"Have a good day of school, kohai?" he sneered at her, folding his arms.
"What do you want?" She wasn't about to let him catch her off guard again.
"My my, aren't we impatient," he said, snickering much like he had done earlier. "I'd have thought you'd have more respect for me by now."
"Why?" This time around, she had grown somewhat used to his height and wasn't nearly as intimidated as she had been before.
"Because you are so insignificant and meaningless."
She scowled slightly at the insult, but chose not to respond; she instead made to walk past him. He did not hold her to with his hand this time, however--moreover, with his words.
"Katsuya's sister is looking awfully pretty today; I'm sure you've noticed, kohai."
She had become rather stiff as he spoke, but she wasn't too detained yet. "And what if she is?"
"Well, you seem to have taken quite a shining to her," he said, smirking and turning to face her back, as she had not moved to look at him.
Her fist clenched slightly, but out of sight. "She's—nice, that's why." Her words were awfully strained, almost choked out.
He walked around her to lean down and peer at her, the twisted smile still upon his lips. "Tell me," he whispered. "Do you only blush at the sight of pretty girls like that? Or—" He grasped her chin and tilted her face up to him; he was so close that she could feel his breath on her face. "Do you swing both ways?"
Instantly she felt the heat rising to her cheeks, though what her face showed was nothing compared to the terror welling up in the pit of her stomach. Seto smirked as he saw a slight threat of tears from the girl.
"Well? Did you suddenly forget how to speak?" He tilted his head a little. "Though your cheeks are bright red right now, kohai. What does that say, hm?"
"L-let me go," she stammered out, reaching up with a slightly shaky hand to try and pry his off her chin. His grip only tightened, however, and she grimaced slightly before muttering something inaudible.
"What was that, kohai? Your voice has become so weak and feeble that I couldn't hear a word you just said," he snickered at her. "If you speak up I may decide to let go." When she did not speak, he went further and wrapped an arm about her waist. "Need I persuade you any more?" he asked as her cheeks flushed even more. "Speak!"
She swallowed hard, trying with all of her might not to think about how close their bodies had suddenly become, before glaring up at him, her eyes beginning to brim with tears of fear. "...I... I... do..." She swallowed again. "...like boys...too..."
He chuckled darkly at her. "The mutt's sister is quite a pick, kohai; I'd advise you make the move on her soon before someone else does. Though of course, that would make known to everyone that you're a fag."
She cringed at that word and pushed herself away from him, tears beginning to flow freely down her cheeks. This wasn't supposed to happen... no one should know... I don't want... that to happen again... not again! She turned on her heel and ran away from him as fast as she could, her fright reaching a peak when he shouted after her.
"Give me the card, and you might be safe, kohai!"
The shout attracted everyone's attention to him, then to her as she pushed her way out of the crowds of students and down the street, gritting her teeth as more tears splashed down her face. It also made Unishiwa look over from his conversation with Lokhai, and when he spotted Kiseki in her state, he immediately ran forward and stopped next to Kaiba as the teen smirked and folded his arms.
"What did you say to her?" he demanded fervently, turning to Seto.
The CEO looked at Unishiwa, the smirk disappearing from his face. "What's it to you, Kabau?"
"That's Sensei Unishiwa to you, young man," the professor growled. "Answer my question!"
"I merely pointed out something she did not want me to," he replied.
"Well, what was it?"
"Why don't you ask her yourself, since you're so concerned for her well being?" Seto turned and started towards his limo, Unishiwa following closely behind.
"I don't want to see you harassing her any more, do you hear me?"
Kaiba stopped slightly to turn to Unishiwa. "Fine then, I'll do it outside of school and away from your eyes," he sneered, and with that, he got into the limo and shut the door with a snap; the limo drove away seconds after, leaving Unishiwa standing by the curb with a clenched fist.
Kiseki did not stop running until she had reached home, and as soon as she was safely inside the apartment, she collapsed upon the floor in a heap, curling up and shaking, her sobs escalating. Immediately her mother ran out of her bedroom and gasped when she saw her child in a fetal position. Just as fast, she had rushed over and knelt beside Kiseki, pulling her up to cradle her to her chest.
"Kiseki-kun, what happened?" she asked fervently, stroking her daughter's hair and rocking her gently from side to side.
"Mama... mama...." Kiseki couldn't get any words out; she merely clutched at her mother's shirt, shaking violently now and barely containing her loud cries.
"Sh-h... calm down, sweetie, calm down..." The mother held her girl closer and put her head down to rest her cheek against blue hair. "I'm here now."
Kiseki merely pressed herself into her mother, curling up again, though her crying became slightly more subdued. Her mother gently tilted her chin up and wiped away her tears, peering concernedly, yet softly, into her blue eyes with her green ones.
"What happened?" she asked again.
"Mama..." She swallowed as fear once again emerged within her and harshly twisted her stomach into a tight knot. "...S-Someone... someone found out...."
The woman's brow creased slightly. "Found out about....?"
"About me! He knows, mama! He saw me looking at a girl and he knows!" She broke away from her mother and ran into the bathroom, locking the door and then turning on the shower full blast to drown out a fresh wave of terrified cries.
As the bathroom filled with steam, her whole body felt drenched with tears as the moisture clung to her skin; after a few minutes she stripped down and practically crawled into the shower, sitting on the floor of it and curling up, hugging her knees to herself as the water came down in torrents, streaming over her body. She wasn't crying anymore, but her eyes were bloodshot and fear still gripped her mercilessly as she started to rock back and forth. A hand went down to her right side, slowly rubbing it over her skin until it reached a point slightly above her hip, where it stopped to shakily trace over a deep, two-inch scar. Leaving that hand over it, she leaned heavily against a wall of the shower, raising her other hand to trail her fingers over the smooth tile, then clenching her hand into a fist, her teeth gritting again as she shut her eyes.
"Not again....."
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Ooo what happened to Kiseki? You are all left to ponder that until I get back! Bwaha! Alright, on a more serious note, I'll be back on June 30 and I'll try to update when I get home. Have fun guessing!