Once Upon A December

By: Shy Freefall

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Yu-Gi-Oh. I also don't own the title. So please don't sue me!

pairings: SxS, JxM, YxT, and others.

Warning: Characters may be a little OOC (Out Of Character).

Last time:

The 3 friends/siblings were all devastated at what was happening to them. But they knew that someday, they would meet again. Shizuka disappears, Jounouchi moves with his father to Kyoto, and Seto studies hard as he is Gozaboro's heir to Kaiba Corp. But no one knew that the paths of these 3 friends/siblings would ever meet again, before the actual time came.

Chapter 3- Brief Meeting at Karasu Park

It was about 6 months after Shizuka and Jounouchi's parents had divorced and the 3 friends--- Shizuka, Jounouchi, and Seto were separated from each other, never to hear or see each other again.

But that was about to change.

RIIINNGG RIIINNGG

"Seto, can you get the phone?" asked Gozaburo, who was busy typing away on his computer. Seto looked up from his foreign language studies, nodded a silent 'yes'. He went to pick up the phone and asked,

"Hello?" in a rather hushed voice.

"Hello? Seto, is that you?" asked a feminine voice.

"Who is this?" he asked, still in his hushed voice

"It's me, Seto. Shi." Replied the said voice.

"Shi? Is it really you?" Seto couldn't believe it, Shizuka didn't seem to be busy at all and was scheming for ways to seeing or hearing him again.

"Yeah, it's me. Can you do me a favor, Seto?" asked Shi, who seemed to be talking in a hushed voice as well.

"Sure, Shi. Anything. What do you need?" he asked her, still in his hushed voice.

"Okay, I can't stay on the phone for much longer. Can you send one of your best guitar/music teachers to me with a picture of you and your two little brothers? I would like to meet them someday." Shizuka replied.

"Why, Shi?" asked Seto curiously wondering why his friend wanted to learn music.

"You might recall me having told you what one of my dreams are… I want to become a singer… well a country singer for that matter." She replied, and smiled at the memory of having told her first best friend.

"Oh, ehehe… right, I remember now. Where do you want to meet her? When? And what time," he sent the barrage of questions off at unimaginable speeds giving him one of Shizuka's muffled giggles.

"My father fired one of the best music teachers for teaching country music. So sure I can do that." Seto said, as he suppressed a heavy blush… that was burning his face.

"You're so funny, Seto. I almost forgot how funny you were. At Karasu Park and ASAP for those last two questions. What's the name of the teacher with your picture?" Shizuka asked, voice still muffled.

"Okay… the name of the teacher is Reiko Yamaguchi. Alright?"

"Okay… Arigato, Seto. I've missed you… and still do." Then she hung up before he could reply.

"Yeah, I still miss you… and I still do." Seto mumbled to himself, as he put the phone back on the receiver, but then picked it back up and dialed the number to Reiko Yamaguchi's apartment, and let her know that she had a student waiting for her at Karasu Park and wanted to learn country music and become a country singer. Reiko was so happy that she said that her student didn't have to pay a single cent for her lessons. Seto agreed and after a short discussion with her, hung up.

After he hung up, he went back to the living room, where his father was still typing away at his computer. "Who was it, Seto?" asked Gozaboro, who didn't bother looking up at his oldest son. Seto just looked at him with an expression of boredom on his face.

"Just an anonymous caller asking me to get them into contact with a music teacher that you fired," Seto said, not telling who that anonymous caller was, but otherwise told the truth to his father. Gozaboro looked up at his son for the first time since the phone call just a few moments ago.

"And no, they didn't give their name when I asked for it." Gozaboro stared at Seto long and hard trying to figure out if he was lying or not. Then, he went back to his typing, while saying,

"You can take your studies up to your room, Seto. You can have a 2 hour break. You can go out and do whatever you wish." Seto looked up and silently nodded.

'Finally,' Seto thought to himself, I can finally go and see Shi.' He quietly packed his school things into his backpack and quickly and quietly went up the stairs, set his backpack down, grabbed his wallet and jacket, slowly went down the stairs, and almost reached the front door, when all of a sudden, a small voice came from behind him.

"Seto? Where're you goin', Big Brother?" asked the voice. Seto turned around and found his two younger brothers, Noah and Mokuba. It was Noah who had asked the question.

"I'm going to the park for a couple hours. But if you want to, you guys can come with me." Replied Seto, cheerfully. The two boys looked at Seto, then at each other, then back at Seto… then practically pounced on him, yelling,

"Yeah! We get to go on an outing with our Big Brother! And "Yayyy! Seto's gonna take us out!" Seto couldn't help the smile that was spreading across his face at his younger brother's antics.

"Alright, alright… quiet down. Father is still busy typing. Now go and get your jackets and meet me by the front gates, 'k, guys?" Seto laughed softly to himself at their scurrying away to get their jackets, and he made his way out the door and to the front gates, but to his surprise, a young woman, that he recognized, with short dirty blonde hair and in her 20's, was just outside the gates and about to push the gate button—but stopped suddenly when Seto approached.

"Ahh… young Seto, your young friend is already at Karasu Park and is waiting for me to arrive. I drove passed the park in wondering if you would like to come with me." The woman said, while pulling her hair into a high ponytail… at least what she could put into a ponytail.

"Sure," replied Seto, while opening the gates from the inside. "but my younger brothers are coming too. It was unexpected, but Shizuka said something about meeting Noah and Mokuba. So…" But before Seto could continue, Noah and Mokuba were coming up to them… running.

"Whoa, slow down, Kiddo!" exclaimed the young woman, catching Mokuba just before he fell flat on his face.

"Ahehehe… gomen nasai, Miss Reiko. Where're we going today?" apologized Mokuba, as Noah helped dust him (Mokuba) off.

"We're going to Karasu Park, Little brother." Seto said, while opening the doors to a simple black and yellow convertible that was parked by the front gates.

"Really? Wow." Noah asked in awe, amazed that instead of asking for a limo, they were going to ride with the fired music teacher. The two brothers followed their elder brother into the convertible and the door was shut behind them by Reiko, who then headed to the driver's side and off they went.

Meanwhile at Karasu Park

There was a familiar auburn haired girl waiting for someone to arrive with some teachings of music and a picture of Seto and his two little brothers. Just then tap on her shoulder made her spin around… again… a little too fast… and into a certain someone's arms.

"You did it again, Shi." stated the mystery boy, chuckling and helping the young girl back up only to see familiar cobalt blue eyes.

"Seto!" the girl cried out, and lunged at him for a hug. Seto returned the hug gently, then slowly turned the girl around to face the people he had brought with him.

"Shizuka, these are my two little brothers, Noah and Mokuba." Noah smiled his boyish smile, and Mokuba stepped forward and held out a small photo to Shizuka.

"This is a photo of Seto, Noah, and me. I really hope that you and Seto will always be friends." Mokuba said, as Shizuka gently took the photo.

"Oh, arigato, Mokie-chan!" exclaimed Shi, as she hugged the photo close to her.

"It's actually a copy of the original, which is kept with me. I actually made 4 copies of the photo and…: he trailed off for a moment, as he took out a medium sized package out of his jacket pocket and gave it to Shizuka and continued,

"this is for you." Shizuka took the package from Seto and opened it and right before her own eyes, she looked into those dark blue eyes and then back down at the package. Inside the package was a small adjustable duel deck belt and also a pendant that looked like the back of a dueling card.

"Arigato, Seto-kun." Shizuka finally said, as she went to give him a hug.

"Itashimashite, Shi-chan." Seto replied, as he returned the hug.

"Gomen nasai for ruining the moment, but I do believe Miss Katsuya and I must be going, ne?"

Shizuka looked up at the young woman.

"Are you…?" Seto nodded his head at the woman.

"Hai, I am Reiko Yamaguchi. Seto must've told you that I was going to be teaching you music." Shizuka hugged Seto, but while she hugged him, she slipped a slip of paper into his back pocket. When Seto felt Shizuka put something into his back pocket, he was startled.

"Shi!" Shizuka broke away with a small smile on her face and turned to hug Seto's younger brothers good-bye.

"Ms. Yamaguchi, I think it's time for us to go now." Shizuka said, as she turned to her new music teacher.

Reiko chuckled, and opened the door of her car for Katsuya Shizuka, who thought to herself, 'I hope that he reads it and writes to me soon.'

She chuckled and soon looked in her lap, where she found a music folder and several music sheets with no notes or words on them.

"This is your first lesson, Shizuka. You are going to be your own composer and musician. Composing first, then the instrument. Okay?" Reiko told her. Shizuka looked at her, then nodded her head in agreement with what she was going to be taught.

"Okay, Miss Rei." Shizuka said, as she looked out the window at the fast passing scenery. Reiko looked at her surprised that she'd been called by her old school name. She smiled and drove off with Shizuka in the passenger's seat.

OoOoOoOo

A/n: Konnichiwa, Minna-san! Gomen for the long long delay in updating this chapter. I hope everybody's enjoyed this chapter so far… Chappie 4 is on its way. So enjoy whatever's up and running…kk? Anywho, depending on how many reviews I get for this chappie, I might start putting up previews for the next chappies.

Until the next time,

Peace out,

Shy Freefall