A/N: Well, after much struggle, I'm back with what will be the last of the basically-every-other-day updates, because I'm back at school tomorrow! Ahhhhh!
Review Responses:
Willowwind: One: Thanks! Two: You should take your own advice... Three: You should over here, where there is no ritalin and we are free to be hyper all we like! WHEEEEEEE!
Dragonlady222: Ahhhhhhhhh, now I understand... Do you know, I never even thought of that... Oh well. Hopefully you'll like the rest of the story just as much!
Disclaimer: I don't even own the letters I type this with. Sad, isn't it? Lyrics to the song 'Suteki Da Ne', from FFX, are downstairs.
And so, without further ado, let's get to the chapter- Come on. I know you've always wanted to 'see' Seto using a sword.
Sixteen: Phoenix Down
March
It was unusually humid for this time of year, so for many the air seemed too heavy and sticky to sleep well. Tempers were wearing thin, so were nerves, and in general everyone was pretty grumpy.
One person who didn't seem to have the patience to be grumpy for more then a few seconds was Anna Mitsan. So, this morning early in March, even as she woke up trembling in sweat-soaked sheets, she didn't stop to dwell on the half-formed nightmares. Instead, she got up, tiredly had a long shower and got dressed. And it was still way too early to do anything. Stupidly early. Insanely early.
Anna groaned. That took it up to the last five days she'd done this. She wasn't sure if the dreams had anything to do with the heat- maybe she'd never know- but she sure hoped they stopped soon. She was too restless to sleep, and her bed too uncomfortable now. So, quietly, she kicked off her slippers, padded downstairs, and, slipping into the sensible shoes the school demanded they wore, she breezed out the house, feeling too cooped up inside.
Once she had walked a little way, the air began to clear a little. Gratefully, she lifted her head into the breeze that hadn't been for days. Perhaps they were finally going to get those winds the month normally promised. Either way, enjoying it, she decided to walk a little further.
And since she still had ages, she walked a little further, past the KC building, not open yet.
And still, there was time to kill, so she walked a little more, past Ryou's house, past the game shop, past the block of flats where Joey lived, and a little later, past where Téa did dance, right around the shopping centre, and still she went on, lost in thoughts about nothing in particular, and eventually found herself down by the Night Market. It sure looked different in the early morning sun, a small ramshackle cluster of stalls, a shanty town meandering around with no real direction to it. Even the carnival atmosphere had been replaced by a far more sleepy one, the stalls devoid of lights, or their stock, and even their customers. But it wasn't dead, not quite. A man and his daughter were just finishing closing up their stall, someone else was wandering around, collecting the small amount of let over litter. She really was here stupidly early.
Skirting round the edges of the market, Azreal slipped between two of the warehouses and out on to the jetty. Before she knew what she was doing, she was out on the edge if the pier, looking out towards the ocean. The pier was only short, and the tide still a few metres further out, so there was only sand below her. No-one else was around. The bay was very much an industrial one, and the sand was gravely. Not a big tourist destination, not even in summer.
Still, as Azreal sat down, swinging her legs aimlessly, she liked it. She looked out for a while, putting her hands in her pockets. There she felt a small case.
Her harmonica, still in her blazer pocket. She looked around hesitantly. There was no-one close enough to be annoyed… she still had a lot of time to kill, and she hadn't played much since the band had disbanded back in December.
Oh, why not?
So, for a while, Azreal sat there and played out to the wind and the waves. Then she got up, walked home, and was back before her dad and Ruby realised she had gone.
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April
As March ploughed through into April, the Easter holidays came and went, and a new school year began, the hot weather faded; and yet, Azreal's dreams did not. Still they came, half formed shadows that lingered when she woke up. What she had started late last month had become somewhat routine. She'd wake up, get ready for school and head down to the pier, play, and then head back home in time for breakfast.
No-one knew, not even her friends or dad and step-mother. Although, perhaps they were all a little suspicious as to why she was getting to school on time all of a sudden… And they were worried. Or, Téa was anyway.
"She's obviously not getting enough sleep." She muttered to Yugi, a few lockers down from where Anna was looking for an elusive textbook. "Can't you see it?"
"You worry too much." Yugi said reassuringly. "Okay, I'll admit she does look a bit pale, but-"
He was interrupted by Anna sneezing loudly.
"Judging by they way she keeps doing that," He continued wryly. "She just has a bit of a cold. She certainly doesn't seem too bothered by it."
Privately, Téa thought that if Azreal had her head bitten off by a ravenous elephant she'd still be there pretending nothing was wrong, but she said nothing. After all, she knew something Yugi didn't. . 'Listen, Téa,' She'd said. 'Muses are a lot more stubborn then humans. We have a billion different defenses to keep alive. That's why I never get sick.'
But now, if she was getting all the normal colds and maladies of everyday life, especially as she had had it for more then a week now…
How much longer did she have…?
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Cold or no cold, Azreal still had hours in the early morning to kill, and she still whiled them away on the wharf. And still, no-one knew about it.
Little did she know, this morning, late in April, as she had been going for almost a month, she would be discovered.
As she played, beautiful, aimless melodies, Azreal found her thoughts wandering. Sometimes she would think about nothing little things, like why Swiss cheese had holes in it or why a recorder was called a recorder if it didn't record anything or why paper cuts hurt but razor cuts didn't; but often she would think deep thoughts, about herself, who she was, about life and death.
It couldn't be far now, Azreal knew it. The inability to sleep, the constant cold that never got any better or worse and wouldn't go away, even the inability to control her thoughts and concentrate. Her human side was dying. It was odd, her Muse half was so weak now that not even draining her human side couldn't sustain it. You would have thought that the Muse half would die, but still leave her thirty, forty years of human life, but it looked like it fully intended to take her human side down with it. Perhaps you couldn't live as half a person.
She was sick of all this confusion, sick of not knowing the answers, sick of all the uncertainty. As she so often did, she pushed it out of her mind. She was going to enjoy what time she had left.
Drawing out what would be the final note of her tuneless tune, she sighed, put it back in the case, and stood up quickly.
"That was very pretty."
"Gah!" Azreal jumped, having not realised anyone was there. She just had time to register it was Ryou and his dog before losing her balance and falling off the end of the pier.
Again.
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"Good job the tide was out," Anna commented, having made it back on to the pier and begun to brush the sand off her uniform. It didn't seem to want to move.
"I am sorry…" Ryou apologised again, although he had had to hide a laugh. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"I'll forgive you if you stop apologising." Anna sighed. They stood in silence for a moment.
"So, what brings you here?" Anna asked eventually.
"Cassie." Ryou shrugged. "I…woke up early, so I decided to walk her down here by the sea. And yourself?"
"I…I woke up early to." Anna shrugged herself. She should have figured Ryou would have his fair share of nightmares to.
"I'm guessing it's not the first time."
"Am I that obvious?" Anna sighed.
"Uh-huh." Ryou half-sighed, half-laughed. "Téa's going nuts. She says you're going to kill yourself if you don't get some proper sleep soon."
Anna snorted. "Huh. Easier said then done."
"I know." Ryou said. "But you have to at least try."
"I'm sick of trying…" She grumbled, though of course, Ryou didn't know the full story.
"But what else is there to do?" Ryou asked. He didn't know the full story, but he could make a fairly good guess. He'd been there, done that, and was perhaps more likely to understand then anyone else. He hadn't just been knocking at Death's door, he'd been invited in for a cup of tea and a biscuit. And he knew what it was like perhaps more so then the others did- the weariness, the sleepless nights, the nightmares… maybe that's why he had guessed. But he didn't say any of that. If Azreal didn't want to open up, then… "Oh well. I'll see you at school later."
"Bye…" Anna watched him go. He certainly was mysterious, that boy. And sometimes she got the feeling he knew more then he let on.
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She was still spending her mornings playing on the pier. She was still waking up early, still having nightmares, and she still had her constant cold.
So, nothing had changed.
That morning, just as she reached the pier, pulled out her harmonica, and was about to sit down, her phone began to ring. Once again, she jumped, and this time she knew exactly what was going to happen as, yet again, she fell off the end.
"This seems to be becoming a habit…" She grumbled, clambering up. "Why can't they surprise me when I'm sitting down...? Oh, shut up!" She dug around in her pockets for the phone which, irritatingly enough, had not paused in it's cheery ringing as they fell.
"Hello?" She said, yawning to deliberately make whoever it was think she was still in bed at home. Her voice sounded odd. Her nose was blocked up-which had hindered her playing, somewhat.
"Hi." Seto's voice came. "Do you mind coming round to mine?"
"Why?" She blinked. Judging by Seto's tone, there was nothing wrong…
"I have something to show you." He said mysteriously. "Our one year anniversary…"
Azreal laughed. "I can give you three reasons why I shouldn't come."
"Oh?"
"Yup. A. It's still way too early, B. Our anniversary was at the start of this month, not the end- it's the last day of April, you know-you're about a month off-and C. I don't think my dad would be very happy if I started sneaking out in the mornings."
Seto chuckled. "You forgot D, E and F." He informed her.
"Oh?"
"D. You're already up, and, judging by the fact I can hear the waves, on the beach. E. I'm perfectly aware of when it was, but I wanted to get it perfect. Finally, F. I suspect you've been sneaking out of the house in the mornings for weeks, made all the easier today and for the rest of the week given as the rest of your family is staying with your 'ill' 'grandmother', about 4 hours outside of town, who hates you on principal."
"Hmm, you make a compelling argument." Azreal said in mock seriousness before sighing in resignation. "Fine. I'll be with you soon."
"Okay." She could practically hear him smirking. "Just try not to fall off the pier this time, like the last time we were at the beach."
"Hmmph." Azreal huffed, lying on her back in the sand. "I'm not so clumsy I'd do that more then once. Have a little faith, would you…?"
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"Okay," She said the second Seto opened the door. "What's so important that you had to call me at six in the morning to come and see?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Good morning to you to."
"Oh, come on…" She moaned. "Before I explode in anticipation."
He gave that characteristic smirk that she'd come to both love and hate. "I can give you three reasons why I shouldn't. A. You were rude on the phone, B. You obviously think it's too early, and C… Well, I just enjoy watching you squirm."
"D. It's not so polite calling at that time in the morning either, E. It is too early, but I'm here now, and F. If you don't let me in, you'll be doing a lot more then squirming." She grumbled, trying to make it sound threatening.
"Hmm," Seto replied mockingly. "You make a compelling argument… But, I'm afraid it's not good enough."
He really should have been prepared for Azreal's next reason.
She stretched up, and kissed him, right there on the doorstep, knowing, even at this inane time of the day where no-one was about, he'd be embarrassed. Still, he didn't pull away.
"That would be reason G." She muttered, sliding round him. Laughing, Seto shut the door behind them.
"I like that reason." He commented. "Okay, let's go down into the basement, then."
Azreal blinked. "The basement?"
He rolled his eyes. "You can call it the cellar if you feel so inclined. However, as you will shortly be finding out, we are going to neither."
"You're making no sense…" Azreal grumbled.
"Then you'd better come with me, hadn't you, Az?" He teased, offering an arm as if they were going to a ball rather then a dusty hole full of rubbish.
Of course, the Kaibas did not have an ordinary basement. Exchange 'dusty' for 'shiny', 'hole' for 'Half of a football (Soccer?) pitch' and 'rubbish' for 'weird and wonderful machines and components', and you'd be getting close to what Azreal saw.
Close.
"This is one cool basement…" Azreal informed him as she scanned the room from the wall of computers at the back, the shelves and workbenches littered around, with everything from screwdrivers to microwaves to things she couldn't even name, finally stopping on the large tarpaulin in the middle.
"It gets cooler." Seto laughed, sounding uncharacteristically excited as he dragged her down the small flight of steps. He sounded almost like Mokuba. "Here, can you free the straps over there?"
"Eh?" Azreal asked, a second before spotting that the tarpaulin had elastic cords through it that were being held by hooks hammered into the floor. "Oh, never mind, I've got it…" She freed each length of elastic one by one. The cover juddered, but didn't fall off.
"What now?" She called down to Seto, who was doing something at the computers at the end of the room.
"Hold on, let me load it…" He replied, enjoying confusing her. "Okay…" He hurried back up the room, and took hold of the edge of the tarp. "Are you ready?" He teased, deliberately drawing it out.
"Are you ready, are you ready for this, are you hanging on the edge of your seat, another one bites the dust?" Azreal sung, rolling her eyes. "Yes, I am! Get on with it already…"
"You know, patience is a virtue…" Seto said lightly, hauling the enormous tarpaulin off regardless. It slid away to reveal his pride and joy- or rather, a cluster of them.
"VR pods…?" Azreal found herself blinking again. Then she grinned at Seto. "Just what do you have planned?"
Seto began climbing into one, gesturing for her to do the same. "Let's just say that I've had more spare time since quitting Wheeler's site."
"That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence…" Azreal replied as the lid slid shut above her. It was certainly an odd experience.
I hope Seto knows what he's doing… She thought vaguely. Considering what, according to the others, happened every other time they went to the Virtual World…
And then, it didn't seem to matter so much any more.
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She might have knownit was all virtual, but she didn't care. She was standing on a small grassy incline, looking down on a clearing. At least, the trees that formed an impenetrable wall around it would suggest it was a forest clearing. In the middle was a large, glimmering lake, and the 'sky' above, though dark, was littered with stars. You wouldn't get somewhere so perfect in reality.
Seto smiled as he heard her gasp in delight. She liked it, then.
"It's so… It's so beautiful!" She yelled, "And now, I really, really have to roll down this hill." She walked to the edge of it, but then paused. "Don't think I'm going to do it all alone…"
Seto raised an eyebrow. "No."
"Yes!" Azreal insisted. "Come on! I'm not doing it all on my one…"
"You will, or you won't do it at all…" Seto told her, backing away from the advancing girl. He hit the solid wall of trees that marked the edge of the terrain. She grabbed him, and pulled him towards the edge. Eventually he stopped resisting, threw himself down, and rolled like the best of them.
Giggling, she sat up, pulling the very realistic grass out of her hair. "See?" She said triumphantly. "I knew you had it in you."
Seto continued to lie in the grass, laughing quietly.
"Tell you what, though…" Azreal continued. "This place isn't half realistic. I've even got grass stains on my cloak-" She realised what she said. "Wai! I'm wearing a cloak!"
"And very nice it is to." Seto rolled his eyes, surprised she hadn't noticed before. But then, it was Az, so maybe it wasn't so surprising after all. Meanwhile, Azreal was still getting excited over her fantasy-style garb.
It wasn't dissimilar, she decided, to Frodo's outfit in The Lord of the Rings, although it was a little more colourful as the cloak was a bright red, the top too-white-to-be-called-white, and the trousers a kind of fawn brown. Satisfied that she could now describe the outfit, she hugged Seto happily- he, she noticed, had no sort of costume.
Azreal didn't have one of those cool Elven broaches either, she noted.
"You know," Seto said almost conversationally. "If you'd get off me, I could finally stand up."
"I know." Azreal giggled, but not relenting as they laid in the grass, her head on his chest. It was some time before she spoke again, picking up from where she'd left off. "But I don't want to move. I just want to stay here and never move and never think again, but I know we can't…" She felt him laughing slightly, the vibrations in his chest. "But I guess we've had this time, and this moment, and I guess I'll always remember it…Right?"
"Me to." He said softly, but he sat up anyway, gently kissing her before pushing her off. "But there's more to see, you know." He stood up, offering her his hand. "Come on. Let's go for a walk, shall we?"
"Okay." She agreed, accepting his offer, and his hand. As they began to walk round the edge of the lake, water rippling in the simulated breeze, she noticed something.
"You've got background music." She laughed softly, cocking her head to listen. "Heh. Suteki Da Ne, isn't it?" She looked around the scene again. A lake, in a clearing in the middle of the woods, at night. Then she began to laugh. "Hmm, have you been playing Final Fantasy X, by any chance…?"
"You know I think they're a waste of time…" Seto replied.
"That wasn't what I asked." Azreal replied, poking him with the hand that wasn't in his. "I wanted to know- Hey, it's stopped…"
It was true. The beautiful backing music had stopped. And in it's place…
Battle music.
"You haven't…?" She whispered to Seto. He merely let go of her hand, and moved over a little.
He had.
Azreal looked at the monster that had appeared before them.
"So, we fight this thing?" She grinned at Seto.
"Of course." He replied, holding an arm out to the side easily. When it returned, he was holding a large sword as though he'd been holding it all his life. "Try it."
"Uh, okay…" Azreal shrugged, holding a hand out to the side. Her fingers closed around something long, made of varnished wood. She swung it round, grabbing it with her other hand. "A swallow…" She said, looking at the long staff with a small blade on either end. "…Woah! I just love this place more and more!" She laughed happily.
"Try attacking." Seto told her. "This is the equivalent of a tutorial battle, so it won't do anything too serious."
"Okay." Azreal said, sounding a little apprehensive. "And here's hoping Square doesn't care as much about it's copyrights as it used to!"
She ran up to the monster, delighted to find that she instinctively knew how to use this weapon of hers as she twirled the blades expertly into the creature.
To her relief, there was no blood or gore. The monster just flinched, a small number 97 floating out of it.
"Damage." Azreal noted, leaping back. "Cool!"
It wasn't so cool when the dog-like creature jumped forward, swiping Seto with his claws. A number 20 came out of Seto as the CEO in question straightened up.
"It's alright, it doesn't hurt." He assured her. "The flinch is just an instant reaction."
"What happens if you reach zero hp?" Azreal asked, as Seto readied his sword.
"You're out of the game." He said, calmly walking over to the creature and slicing it. He watched in satisfaction as a number 212 floated from it. "Unless someone uses a Phoenix Down, of course. Now," He stepped aside. "Would you mind finishing this thing off?"
"How come you do more damage then me?" Azreal asked as a 103 came from it.
"Same as always." Seto grinned as the monster disappeared behind him. "I've had more experience."
"This is by far the oddest- coolest, mind you- experience I've ever had." Azreal laughed as her swallow dematerialised.
They continued to walk slowly around the edge of the lake, wandering into random battles now and again, talking, laughing, and generally having a great time.
"So," Azreal said eventually. "You made all this for me?"
"Mmm." Seto replied, almost embarrassed.
"You know, I think you should sell it."
He looked down at her in surprise. "What?"
"To the company." She shrugged. "They'd pay you a bomb to make a VR game for them. Or for you to teach them how to make one. They'd be well ahead of anyone else. Or, better, they could keep releasing online games and whatever until the public wants something more, then bam! Out it comes."
"…" Seto hesitated, then shook his head. "No. Not now, at least. I did this for fun, and I did this for us. Not for the money."
She squeezed his hand. "A year ago, I wouldn't have thought it possible for you to say that."
"A year ago," Seto replied. "It wouldn't have been."
Suddenly, Suteki Da Ne was cut off by a wailing siren.
"What's that?" Azreal asked in confusion.
"That," Seto replied. "Is the carefully calculated get-out alarm, made to give us enough time to eat breakfast and get to school with five minutes to spare."
"Okay, how do we save?" Azreal asked.
"Well, you have to wade into the lake and defeat the boss, but we don't have…" Seto's words stilled as she looked at him. "Beat a boss in less then five minutes?" he asked indcredously.
She looked at him.
He shrugged and they went and waded into the lake.
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"This isn't going to work." Seto decided, as they hacked away. They were doing little damage and their hp was declining fast.
"How do we beat it!" Azreal yelled, jumping out of the way of another plume of water from the sea serpent. "Thunder attacks?"
Seto nodded. "I was kinda expected you to be a spell caster but… there has to be another way!"
"You programmed it, you should know!" Azreal screamed back. "How much time do we have left?"
"Three minutes!"
"Blast it…" She muttered. "We can't be late to school, but… Man, I did not come here to lose!"
"Words, Az!" Seto shot back, rolling awkwardly under a plume of water fired at him, knee deep in the water, before stabbing ineffectively at the creature's gut. "We need to do something if you want to beat this thing!"
"I know!" She screamed in frustration, laughing at the sheer insanity of it all. "Well, what are it's weak points?"
"I didn't programme any!" Seto yelled back, laughing to.
They should have been paying attention.
As they stood there, soaked, and giggling hysterically, a large jet of water headed straight for Az. No way to avoid it. Looked like she was about to be KO'd.
She held an arm up in vain to shield herself, but there was no longer any need to. Kerzaap, declared the bolt of thunder as it intercepted the stream of water and pushing all it's force back into the leviathan.
"You two need to hurry up!" Mokuba declared, skidding in between them, shaking his hands as they continued to tingle from the magic. "There's only two minutes left!"
"Hey, good to see you, kid." Azreal declared. "But it's weak now. It's time to finish this!" She swirled the staff above her head, levelled it, and shot it forward, slowing down just enough to-
Poke it gently.
The sea serpent roared and then exploded, showering them in water.
"Let's go!" Azreal yelled, buoyed up on the sheer elatedness of it all, as she ran towards the still-fading-in Savepoint. They pressed a hand against it, a flash of white light and-
They woke up in the pods.
After breakfast, they arrived at school precisely a minute before the bell.
Amazing.
They would play again after school.
"You look happy today." Téa commented. "You seemed a little stressed before."
"I… just found some monsters to take it out on." Anna replied, mysteriously.
"… I'll just guess Seto is involved and not ask…"
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Azreal felt fine all day. It was only when they were headed home that she began to feel a little… odd.
They had had Maths last period, and now they were moving with the mass of students towards the stairs to the ground floor, talking and laughing happily. As they reached the steps, Az felt herself going a little woozy… Yugi was saying something and they were laughing, but… she took hold of the handrail for support, almost tripping down the stairs.
Tristan gave her an odd look, was saying something to her… they were all talking, and shouting…
Oh, look, the ceiling.
Lots of noise, and people talking at her all at once so she couldn't possibly make sense of it all, telling her it was going to be alright, and someone holding her hand, soft skin at first then turning to something hard and firm, and still, the talking and an alarm that wouldn't stop…
"…Pointless!" Joey was saying venomously. "What good is it going to do anyone standing here moping?"
What the…?
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May
Azreal looked around her in confusion. She was in a bed in what was probably a large room but was rather crowded. All her friends were crammed in there, leaning on walls or sitting on one of the chairs. They all looked pale, or withdrawn, or worried. As far as she could tell, anyway. She didn't have her glasses on, and so they were all pretty little blurs of different sizes and proportions.
"Don't say that!" Téa hissed, eyes red. "Don't say that! We're here for her! And stop yelling to!"
"Why?" Joey demanded. "What the hell do you think it's going to do! Wake her up!"
"Guys…" Yugi began uncertainly, but it was too late. Téa had already slapped Joey.
He stared down at her for a second, livid, then deflated.
"Guys?" Ryou tried.
"Dammit…" Joey muttered, turning away. "You're right. Sorry, Téa."
"Guys!" Ryou tried again.
"I shouldn't have hit you…" Téa whispered, sounding like she was going to cry. "Sorry, Joe. It's just… everything…"
Inside, Téa knew that her friends would find it weird that she was losing it so much over this. She'd always held it together when it was Mai or Ryou, but then there had been hope, hope that Yugi and Yami could bring them back, but Azreal… Azreal was going to die.
"Great…" The girl in question muttered from the bed in the corner. "Now that we're all friends again, would someone mind explaining what the heck is going on here!"
They turned to her in surprise. Except Ryou, who had noticed her looking round.
"You fell down the stairs." He said, sounding stupidly cheerful. How he, of all people, remained irrepressibly optimistic was a mystery to Azreal. "Knocked yourself out and didn't wake up for these five days. Doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong. They reckon you knocked a few wires loose when you hit your noggin. How do you feel?"
Momentarily overwhelmed by all this information, and the use of the word 'noggin', it was a second before she replied. Indeed, it was a moment before she realised there had been a question in there. "Vaguely embarrassed." She said.
So, she had fallen down the stairs and ended up spending five days in the hospital. How stupid.
"You had use kinda worried there." Yugi admitted, smiling in relief. "Especially as they couldn't contact your parents…?"
"Oh… they're at Ruby's mom's…" Azreal replied, focusing on something she could comprehend at the moment. It felt vaguely like her brain had been put through a liquidiser and served on toast. "She doesn't approve of mobile phones…"
"Do you know her home number?"
"…It's on the fridge."
"…Fair enough." With that, Yugi scurried off to find a doctor. Azreal felt around to find her glasses, feeling much better when she could see again.
"You had us all scared." Téa remarked into the silence. "Kaiba hasn't been into work these last five days, you know. He's barely left you, except times like now when he had to get Mokuba. He didn't say much, he just sat there and… and held your hand… like he did all the way here… he saw you going into the ambulance, and he just looked like…" She dissolved into a fresh stream of tears. It didn't look like it was her first lot that day.
"Hey, hey…" Azreal tried. "I'm alright, I'm alright…"
Téa said nothing, but they were both thinking the same thing:
Yes, but for how much longer?
Just then, a whole troop of doctors walked in, and her friends were chucked out.
But not before promising to get in touch with both her dad and Ruby and Seto.
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Perhaps an hour later, Seto appeared in the doorway. Visiting hours apparently held no bearings to him. Maybe he had just gave a generous donation. It wouldn't surprise her.
"Hi." She offered weakly.
"Hi." He replied, walking in and sitting down on one of the chairs by her bed.
He half-laughed, half-sighed. "Goodness Az, you had me scared."
She looked at him, and she could see it there, could hear it in his voice. He was so pale…he could convincingly have been the one in hospital.
"I know." She sighed. "I know, I know…"
"Azreal." He said quietly. "Was it the game? If it was, you have to tell me, because if it was I-"
"Ssh." She whispered. "It wasn't the game, Seto. Heck, I wish it had been…I wish it had been the game… I wish…" Suddenly, she was crying to, and this time, it was Seto ssh-ing her. "You have to sell it Seto… It would give so many people fun… you have to… you have to… promise me…!"
He wasn't good at all this comforting stuff. But still, he wrapped his arms round her as she sobbed, comforting and being comforted, and wishing he could stop her ever crying again. "I promise." He reassured her. "I promise."
As he held her, Azreal couldn't help but cry harder.
She wanted this moment to last forever. And she was beginning to realise she didn't have anywhere near that long.
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A/N: Amazing. You know, that was originally going to be one of the fillers- or the idea of a virtual FF. world was anyways. Meh. Here's the lyrics for you all, first in their original Japanese and then in English.
Suteki Da Ne
kaze ga yoseta kotoba ni oyoida kokoro kumo ga hakobu ashita ni hazunda koe tsuki ga yureru kagami ni furueta kokoro hoshi ga nagare koboreta yawarakai namida suteki da ne futari te wo tori aruketa nara ikitai yo KIMI no machi ie ude no naka sono mune karada azuke yoi ni magire yumemiru kaze wa tomari kotoba wa yasashii maboroshi kumo wa yabure ashita wa tooku no koe tsuki ga nijimu kagami wo nagareta kokoro hoshi ga yurete koboreta kakusenai namida suteki da ne futari te wo tori aruketa nara ikitai yo KIMI no machi ie ude no naka sono kao sotto furete asa ni tokeru yumemiru Isn't it beautiful The wind, like a heart that swam in the accumulated words The clouds, a voice that was shot into the holding future The moon, a shaking heart in an unsteady mirror The stars, gentle tears in an overflowing stream Isn't it beautiful, to walk together in each others hands I do so want to go, To your city, your house, into your arms That heart, held within your body In those confusing nights I dream The wind, its halting words are a gentle illusion The clouds, the broken future like a distant voice The moon, a heart flowing in the clouded mirror The stars, broken and swaying, like tears unable to be hidden. Isn't it beautiful, to walk together in each others hands I do so want to go, To your city, your house, into your arms. That face, A soft touch, Dissolving into morning, I dream.Odd words, aren't they? And, for reasons I am unable to explain, ffdotnet has decided to fuse them all into one huge block... and I can't sort it out. Hope the bold and italics help a little...Really pretty song though...Okay, so, it's goodbye from me! I shall try to have a chapter for you next weekend, but there's no promises, because I'm on the DoE camp… (Sigh) Where did the six weeks go…? Meh. Buh-bye now.
