Disclaimer: Don't own YGO, just Sekka and any other characters not in the show. I don't own the lyrics to 'Ticket To Heaven' by 3 Doors Down either - wish I did, but don't.
A/N: I'm back! Alright then, this is the last before the lemon scene, and it's finally the prom! I know, your probably thinking 'FINALLY!' but I had to build up the plot. Anyways, with all that said……I get to shout out to all you wonderful people, lol:
Blue Savage: Thanks for thinking I'm so talented! Makes me all warm and fuzzy , lol. Anyways, I am updating, so I hope you like this chapter too! And thanks for reviewing so often...you rock! lol
InsaneShadowFan: Nothing wrong with a little fluff indeed. Although, two more chapters of fluff and then...# doom music #, lol. Anyways, enjoy the chappie!
serpent-vampfreak: Don't apoloigize for short reviews man! I'm happy that I have great people like you reviewing me at all! Anyways, hope you like this chapter and that your doing good!
CRAZYABOUTANIME: 0.o all the other questions were good but the last one...lmao. Anyways, yes it will be a sad ending...sorry but I don't want all my stories having the 'happily ever after' bullshit. Anyways, this chapter is a happy one...hope that makes you feel better, lol.
WolfOfShadow: The wait is over! Here's the next chapter, hope you like it. Hey, don't feel bad for spelling her name wrong, it's sad much seeing as the story is in her POV. Anyways, ja!
GothPoetofDarkness15: Yes get the circus thing from Anastasia # hangs head in shame# It was such a cute line...meh. Anyways, hope you like this chapter, more fluff and shit!
DreamAnimeKitten: OOOOOOOO! New person # jumps up and down # I know what you mean by there's so many stupid fics out there that are pretty much PWP (porn without point) but I try not to make my fics like that. Thanks for saying that there are real characters that people can relate with because that's what I try to convey in my writing! Your too good to me, lol. Anyways, welcome and hope you like this chapter!
Ok then……
WARNING:
Fluff ahead, lol!
Ok, I'm done, seriously! Maybe I shouldn't have bought that coffee……….
Like Petals From A Rose
Chapter Seventeen
The Wind's Whisper
A month later I stood in front of the mirror, my own eyes staring back as if they expected me to make the right decision.
The dress that Yami had bought clung to my body softly in a veil of snow white fabric. It was an elegant dress, simple, yet elegant. The bodice was straight across, leaving all of my neck and shoulders exposed, tightening in the middle to hug the curve of my hips before flaring out to circle around my ankles.
My arms were exposed, which made me nervous and I smiled a little at the memory.
I was standing in the kitchen of our small apartment that was the upper floor of a two-floor house. It was a small apartment, but cozy for just the two of us and our cat, Majy.
It was a one-bedroom that we shared with a living room, kitchen and a side door that lead to the roof that over looked the pool in the backyard of the bottom story residents, but they told us that we could use it anytime we wanted.
The TV drowned in the background.
Ten people shot dead.
That's what the news was broadcasting when he came through the door.
"It's a pity." I muttered as the news report concluded. Apparently, some psycho had walked into a store with a gun and started randomly shooting people. He was facing life in prison now.
"What is?"
"Nothing." I muttered. "Just the fucked up world." He nodded slowly and my eyes fixed on the package that he was only half trying to hide. "Are you going to tell me what that is?"
"Find out for yourself." He said with a sheepish little grin as he placed the box in my hand. I opened it gently, not wanting to rip the beautiful paper, as odd as that sounds. My breath caught in my throat as I lifted the gown out of the box and held it at arms length.
"My god……." Was all I could say as I drank in the beautiful shimmering silk.
Then I noticed the sleeves.
"Yami…….the sleeves…….there…."
"Short?" He finished for me. I nodded and he walked behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders.
"Remember when I told you that you didn't have to hid from me?" I nodded at the memory. "That applies now…… you don't have to hide from the world either, it's your playground now, knock 'em dead." I smiled and nodded, turning to him and kissing him flat on the lips.
"I love you." I mumbled against his lips, meaning it more then ever.
I shook my head slightly to clear the memory away and smiled at the mirror.
My dark brown hair was up in an artfully chaotic bun that Serenity had done for me with the aid of about a thousand bobby pins. She had used and a curling iron to curl the two pieces that fell around my face and eyes which were lined with eyeliner and mascara with a light blue eyeshadow. The jeweled bracelet that Serenity had leant me glittered on my wrist, sending small flickers of light through the room.
The girl staring back at me from the mirror looked so much different from the gaunt girl of few months ago, she looked older, more mature………..even happy.
I had gained weight, my ribs now covered by fat although I was still lithe and my skin had a healthy glow to it instead of it's former corpse-like whiteness.
"Knock 'em dead." I whispered to myself, feeling foolish, but doing it all the same. I turned around when Yami walked into the room, dressed in his rented tux. I could have laughed at the adorablity (is that even a word? meh) of the situation, but it would have been cruel.
He smiled when his eyes laid on me, his ruby eyes lighting with a love that I felt from all the way across the room.
"You look beautiful." I looked down and nervously rubbed the scars on my arms.
"Thanks."
"But something's missing……" He said, thinking as he looked over my outfit and hair, his eyes glinting mischief that made me slightly uneasy. He reached into his pocket and my breath caught in my throat.
"Yami………."
"Don't." He said softly, holding the small teardrop shaped diamond that dangled on a golden chain so that it caught in the light. I couldn't do anything but run into his arms and kiss him until he was sure he felt as if he would die from the force. He laughed a small laugh, no doubt joyful that he had made me happy.
"I love you." I whispered against him, feeling his hands on my back, hard and firm.
"I love you too." He smiled. "Come on." I nodded and let him lead to the limo. The back of it was all leather and comfortable, and I wasted not a moment to snuggle into him and feel him real and sure against me, reassuring me all over again that this was no dream.
He was here, I was here, and we were happy and full of young love, just rediscovering everything we had ever known and loved.
My rules were broken, my heart had conquered logic, and now I could only sit back and ride the wave that my emotions and his soft eyes had sent me on. I was lost in the currents and if drifting along in the river meant that there was a waterfall just down the path, then I wouldn't fight, wouldn't scream for rescue. I would let my soul go over the dreaded dam and could only hope and prey that I would resurface on the other side.
I'm walking a wire
Feels like a thousand ways I could fall
The ride was far too short and it seemed that we were at the prom in seconds, cast adrift into the sea of bodies.
The room was beautiful, dazzling even with it's Japanese lanterns, lights, and brightly colored paper and streamers. It was as if we were inside a fairy-tale, Prince and Princess among the Dukes and Duchesses, commoners and slaves. No-one was regarded here, no-one was classed or labeled here.
It was merely people, high-class, low class, it didn't matter anymore.
To want is to buy
But to live is to die
And you can't take it all
People's eyes glanced over me, shock written in their eyes. I could only pray that it was shock at what they saw I had become, how different I was and not who I was with.
I knew that some still believed me to be the whore in the back seat, a fifteen dollar blow-job in a dark alley, but that would soon die. Tonight was my night to shine, to rise above pettiness and envy. Tonight I would show them who and what Sekka Tate really was.
"You look nervous." He whispered into my ear, taking my hand in his, drawing it away from where I self-consciously rubbed the purple and pink scars on my arms.
"I am." I admitted, leaning into him as if he was the only thing holding me up.
"Don't be." He replied and his eyes landed on a group of girls, all eyeing me and whispering, Trish in the middle. "You see them, they want to be you, they want what you have, your strength" His hand went over my shoulder to the top of my breast "and you heart." I couldn't help but smile at the words he was telling me, the words that washed away my unease and bought me back to calm.
When everything is said and done I won't have one thing left
What happened to everything I've ever known?
An spokesman announced the first dance and a slow, steady tune picked up. For a moment the dance floor was empty, but the brave and the shameless were the first ones to emerge and claim the floor as theirs.
"Ready?"
"No." I answered with a deep breath. "But that's as close as your gonna get." He smiled and took my hand, leading me to the floor and into the rhythm. His lips were close to my neck, making me breath hasten before I relaxed and let him lead me with the rhythms. "I never knew you could dance."
"Neither did I." He answered, making me chuckle. How charming he was, how seemingly perfect. And yet, why did this scare me? Maybe I was afraid that he was no more then an illusion of my mind, or a dream that drift away and the morning sun streaming through the windows of my old apartment would wake me and I would again be more alone then I ever could have dreamed.
Cuz all it gave me was this ticket to heaven
That ticket to heaven
Just to lie in the bed that you've made
He raised his hand and I spun as if I had been taught ballroom dancing for years. I guess maybe that's why the men traditionally lead the women - they knew what they were doing.
"I amazed that I can do this so naturally." He smiled softly and looked into my eyes.
"Your not the only one." He replied. I could feel the jealously of the other women, women that thought they were better then me and hated me for having Yami. I thought that if I stood here long enough their eyes could burn holed into my back and burn me alive from end of my body straight through to the other side.
Now I'm restless and I'm running from everything
I'm running from everything
I'm afraid it's a little too late
"What have I told you?" He asked, making my gaze snap back to him and away from the other girls.
"Huh?"
"Don't worry about them, there nothing to you, no danger to you." His words wrapped a blanket of protection around my heart.
"I know." I sighed and leaned into him as we spun slowly. "But still………"
"No buts." His tone was firm, but not cutting or harmful. Instead of tearing me down with an order that I felt I had to obey, he used his words to build me up, leaving my life in my control if I so wanted.
"Yami……"
"Hm?"
"I love you." He smiled and looked down at me with such a sweet, soft and caring look in his eyes that my own heart whispered to my mind 'How can you not believe him? Look at him. There is no hardness in his eyes or soul now shut up and listen to me.'
Soft voices lie
Innocence dies
Now to win without shame
"I love you too." He said the words, and that warmed me, but another thought, dark and mysterious, loomed just under my mind, threatening to engulf me entirely.
"You know…….this is our last year of high school…..what are you planning to do with your life?"
"Sekka." He laughed a little at my question. "Why are you so worried?" How could I tell him what was in my troubled thoughts without hurting him? Without making him believe that I didn't have faith in him? Without sounding like a lost dog in desperate need of an owner?
"I'm just worried that you'll……"
"Yes?"
"That you'll have to go away." There, I had said it. I had implied that he would leave me, and now all I could do was wait for the flicker of pain to cross his features, then doubt, then anger and the end of my happy night.
But it didn't happen.
And all your dreams and all your money
They don't mean a thing
"So?" He asked me, as if I said the stupidest thing on Earth. Maybe I had. "Sekka, you should by now know that I'm taking you wherever I go." I smiled, happy that my dark thoughts hadn't proven true. Slowly, I was going to stop listening to these stupid and illogical worries.
I hadn't realized that the song had stopped until I was siting down at one of the tables. Yami offered to go get drinks and disappeared. Not two seconds later, Trish and her gang-bang candidates came over to me. I mentally rolled my eyes, hoping that they might see the big 'fuck off' sign across my forehead. Obviously, they didn't.
When everything is said and done I won't have one thing left
What happened to everything I've ever known?
"So you think that you're so good because Yami's showing you charity." She snapped at me. I looked away and ignored her, hoping that she would get bored of me and leave. Sadly, that didn't happen. "Listen to me you cheap little bitch!" Slowly I turned to lock eyes with hers.
"What?" I snapped.
"Glad to see you can hear me." She smirked, folding her arms under her breasts.
"With that shrill and whinny voice, who couldn't?" I quipped. I know that I had promised myself not to cause shit at the dance but……..they were asking for me to verbally trounce them.
"Fuck off, slut." She bit back and I masked my face so that they couldn't see how much the comment hurt. "You know, once you put out for him, he's going to throw you away like the trash you are, you know that right?" She continued before I even had a chance to respond. "You're just a cheap thrill, an easy bitch that he's going to use and lose. Face it you little whore, your nothing to him so just fuck him so he can get rid of you and come back to his own kind."
Cuz all it gave me was this ticket to heaven
That ticket to heaven
The way she said the words 'his own kind' made it seem as if we were an entirely different rave altogether. Maybe she was right, there were two planets - the rich and the poor. They lived on the same Earth, but the Earth itself was divided into these two worlds.
I willed myself to keep my mouth shut, but the words flew past them faster then I could seal my lips and I could see them flying out of my mouth and into her face like bats out of Hell.
"And what is your kind ne? A world of breast implants, face lifts, and miracle creams? A world that's filled with lies that harvest out of your own greed and jealously? That's no world that belong on this Earth. And he had left your so-called 'kind' then I can see why he was so eager." That did it. She was stunned, her face shocked, unable to think of anything to fire back at me.
My lack of anger had surprised her, unnerved her. And here she was, opening and closing her mouth like a dumb fish that had suddenly found itself in sand and the only it could do was try fruitlessly to get back into it's home while it suffocated slowly.
Just to lie in the bed that you've made
Now I'm restless and I'm running from everything
I'm running from everything
The 'friends' were silenced too, and slowly she did the only thing she could, she left. The way she turned I could see that she was trying to make it seem as if she had told me of and was leaving as casually as she could, but I could see her shoulders trembling in fury.
I'm afraid it's a little too late
It's a little too late
Yami reappeared seconds later and I could tell that he knew something had happened from the look of triumph in my face that something had happened.
"Are you going to explain your cat-that-just-got-the-canary look are am going to stay in puzzlement the whole night?" I just looked at up at him with a little smile then looked back at Trish whose hand wobbled ever so slightly as she drank from her punch. His gaze followed mine and a amused smile crept unto his face.
"Don't worry." I said a little too cheerily. "It was nothing."
All it gave me was this ticket to heaven
That ticket to heaven
He just nodded but I knew that he had a good idea of what was said and it pleased him that I had beat them at their own game. They had expected me to react, to hit them and get myself thrown out of here and publicly humiliate myself.
But like this mother had so doubted, I had changed my stripes and with it the knowledge of what made me tick. They couldn't get to me now and it frustrated them that they couldn't get me to do what they wanted anymore.
Just to lie in the bed that you've made
Now I'm restless and I'm running from everything
I'm running from everything
The rest of the night went smooth. They didn't come near me or Yami and no-one new came to stir up shit. The night was peaceful and I spent the whole nice dancing with him to different beats and songs, but there was only one song I heard that night.
It was the same song he heard. The bitter screaming song of misery and despair as it was thrown bitterly into the night. But the same song changed along the way to something soft and mellow, the rhythms and beats spinning a tale of young love that formed under the moon and stars.
I'm afraid it's a little too late
The seasons of this song changed from fall to winter to spring. It was the story of my life really. The fall had been Marik, the winter that followed his hate and my pain. And now spring was here and the promise of summer heat was near and we awaited it.
All it gave me was this ticket to heaven
That ticket to heaven
Just to lie in the bed that you've made
There were no leaves rustling in the ground, the final screams of dead hopes and dreams that were never to revived. But that was ok now. They had been swept away and decomposed into new soil, fresh and ready to harbor new flowers.
Now I'm restless and I'm running from everything
I'm running from everything
Hours later the prom ended and everyone left, including us. I sat in the seat of the car as we made our way home as a looked out the window I caught a glimpse of the moon. The waxing was over and it was at full power, the great pearl amidst the endless sky of diamonds.
I'm afraid it's a little too late
It's a little too late
The silver moonlight bathed the roads and the wind whipping around the car carried the night's promise of a new beginning…….
A/N:
Take a guess what's happening in the next chapter # wink # lol. Anyways, yes, the next chapter is going to be a LEMON meaning that it's going to be rated R. And after the lemon well………. new surprises # evil grin # You all just hate me don't you? lol. Anyways, hope you liked the chapter and please review! The faster reviews come, the faster I update and you guys can get to the good stuff, lol!