Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh. So there.
I can't tell you all how excited I am about all this! Everything is going to start moving SUPER fast after this chapter, I hope it'll be ok. (I'm nervous)
Also, like always, I want my reader's option, should Mir's operation go well or should she be blind forever? While I am pretty sure I know what I want, I want to hear what you guys think. After all this story is for all of you –heart-
"Oh, that I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the embroidery frame!"
-Snow White
"Good Evening, Master Seto. Miss Emiko."
"Good evening Crysta, how's your daughter doing?"
"Very well, she'll be home from college next week."
"That's wonderful! I bet you're so excited!"
"Yes. Are you here to pick up Gwyn?"
"Yep! Is my angel around?"
"She's in the game room with Master Mokuba I believe."
"Oh, I hope she isn't being a bad example for Mokuba and not letting him study."
Crysta laughed shaking her head, "Oh PLEASE! If anything it would be the other way around. I can't even imagine Gwyn being a bad influence on anyone."
Emi laughed as well then started toward the game room only to be stopped by several other servants.
"Good evening, Master Seto, Miss Emiko."
"Oh Chanca, did you find a dress for the wedding? Drakor, how are you doing today? Tarrence…"
Seto merely nodded toward the servants snaking his arm around Emi's waist pulling her down the hall. Emi giggled lightly as she tried to wriggle out of Seto's iron grip, which tightened with every struggle.
"I can move by myself."
"Not fast enough."
"Are you trying to get rid of me?"
Seto didn't answer as they got to the game room door. Emi just giggled good naturedly at his stern face than opened the door to see Mokuba showing Gwyn how to use the newest KaibaCorp game system worked.
"Just hold this and press this really fast." He put his hand over hers as he explained the moves. Gwyn felt her whole body heat up taking a deep breath she nodded hoping her face wasn't too red. Then looking up at Mokuba she realized how close he was, she was POSATIVE her face was scarlet now.
"uhhhhh…."
"Hey Gwyn"
"SISSY!" Gwyn jumped up and ran to Emi suppressing Mokuba with how fast she moved.
"Showing Gwyn the new shooter console?" Seto asked his brother. Mokuba nodded smiling at his brother. Emi looked down at Gwyn who smiled up at her older sister. Emi smiled back, but her smile was a little different than Gwyn's, a little more, thoughtful?
"So there's competition in the work place?" Mir asked as she pulled out a few potatoes for Gwyn to start cutting up. Emi had just finished telling her sisters about Tamarey and now Mir was convinced that the only reason Tamarey was there was to steal away Seto from her sister. Emi hadn't even thought about that until Mir had mentioned it, and while it would make sense it seemed VERY unlikely. That stuff only happened in stories and stuff, right? Besides this was SETO KIBA they were talking about, Mr. Screw-the-World.
"Well he can have her if he wants her." Emi shrugged. Both Mir and Gwyn looked at their sister, shocked, a little too shocked, "what?" Mir shrugged.
"We thought that you'd be upset, since you and Seto are going to get hitched soon and everything."
"We are not going to get hitched."
"But you guys kissed." Gwyn whispered as if she was saying something she shouldn't. Emi frowned. There it was again, that stupid kiss.
"We were both tired, stressed, and had been drinking."
Mir shrugged again as if all those weren't good enough, "Alcohol is the best truth serum."
Emi rolled her eyes, not really in the mood to talk about this, "well we did talk about it today." Silence from her sisters. "BUT, he didn't really understand what I was talking about when I mentioned a relationship. I think I'm glad. I don't have time to think about that stuff right now."
There it was again, that silent "with all the stress of Mir's operation." Mir wrinkled her nose. "Why not? What's going on now that you have to think about verses other times?"
"Because Mir, you know me, I'd rather just go the easy way out and not meddle in a relationship." Mir thought this over, and before she could come up with a reply Emi quickly changed the subject.
"What about you and Ryou? He has been walking you home every day. When is he going to make it official?"
"Well…" Mir mumbled. Her sister's froze.
"Wait, he DID ask you to be his girlfriend!" Emi and Gwyn, were on top on Mir so fast she almost fell over. But then girls will be girls and girls love a good love story and these girls were no different.
"No, he did ask if I wanted to but then backed out of it so fast it made my head spin. I'm so confused now." Her blind eyes tried to find where Emi would be standing; she wanted her older sister's option on this. Who would have thought that Mir would EVER be asking Emi for relationship advice? It only seemed like yesterday that Emi was trying to get the brunette to find friends and now Mir was having boy trouble. Go figure.
There was silence, a little too long for Mir. The brunette shifted uncomfortable, "Maybe he just doesn't like me enough." She mumbled playing with a strand of her hair nervously. She had thought about this a lot and while she kept telling herself she was ok with that. But in reality she really wasn't.
Emi sighed that, 'must be wise' sigh she gave when her sisters needed a motherly figure. Most of the time Mir hated it, but this time she was grateful for the way her sister was. "I don't know if it's that Mir. I have a feeling he's scared."
"Scared?"
Emi nodded, "Ryou takes things very seriously, which is funny because you almost never do…"
"Ha. Ha"
"I think that something might be holding him back; A past girlfriend, a family problem, something like that."
"Oh." Mir nodded thinking it over. "I guess that makes sense. Oh the DRAMA" Mir added throwing back her hands dramatically as if throwing away her problems. They all laughed and the tension that seemed to be growing like a storm cloud in the room eased up. Gwyn looked around at her sisters, she loved times like this. When it was just them talking about their lives and helping each other, she always felt like they could overcome any hardship if they were together. In fact, this had been proven so many times in their past that is wasn't hypothetical, it was a reality.
He woke up screaming, his body covered in a cold sweat. The faint whispers of the nightmares still swimming around him whispering their horrors. He gasped for air as if he had been drowning. Maybe he had been. The dreams never stuck what he had been doing or where he had been left him before he even opened his eyes. There was only one thing that always stuck long after everything else faded. The sound of his laughter.
It was still ringing in his ears as Ryou looked around his room. The world around the white haired boy was calm, as it should be this late at night. But his mind wasn't. The dreams, that laugh, it hadn't been this bad since…since… since he had been alive. But he wasn't, he was dead now.
Letting out another breath he didn't know he was holding, Ryou laid his head in his hands trying to push away the nightmares that had been haunting him these past couple of days. He thought he had beaten them, sent them away for good.
But he hadn't and he knew why they were coming back.
Mir
Her operation, she had been the first person in a long time that Ryou had really let in. The first person he thought he could really get to know – maybe even love- without hurting her.
But he was wrong.
He didn't care what everyone said, he knew whose fault it was for her blindness, her trials, all the suffering that she was going through. It killed him to see her try so hard to get back on her feet. Watch how each day was a struggle. It was painful knowing he could only just stand there and watch.
He tried to stay away from her; it was for her own good. But she kept coming back and he didn't have the will to push her away.
So the nightmares persisted.
But to hear her laugh, to see her smile was worth the sleepless nights. His pain he could handle. But could he handle hers? Could he stand and watch her suffer because he was a friend killer? He was so selfish, do damn selfish. He couldn't stand himself.
Laying back Ryou looked up at his ceiling forcing his breathing to steady. He was going to have to tell her soon about his past. He was going to have to open that closet and let those ghosts out soon, before this all went too far.
If it hadn't already.
Emi typed rapidly on her computer, a stack of papers sat next to her as she quickly tried to sift through them before the end of day. Too much to do with too little time to do it, just another day at KaibaCorp. Not that she had ever minded the work. However, with Mir's operation in a few weeks, Emi found herself growing more and more nervous. She was going to need a dictation soon.
"When are those new prototypes coming in from development? They should have been here an hour ago!"
"If you knew when they were going to come in then why are you asking me?" Emi looked up to see her dictation. Seto was standing in her doorway, his long cape trench coat thingy still flowing from his quick entry. Looking back at her computer screen Emi tried to hide a smile. There were so many things about Seto that made her laugh, his temper tantrums being one of them. Behind him Tamarey poked her head in wondering what was going on. Obviously she was bored since Seto refused to give her any work to do. "Besides" Emi added picking up another file "I'm not in charge of that stuff."
"Well you are going to help me find out what happened, there is going to be a few people unemployed by the end of the day."
"I could do it." Tamarey said, Emi looked up surprised at the sound of the woman's voice. It sounded different… deeper. Now that she looked at her the blonde noticed that Seto's new secretary was also dressed in a rather… tight outfit. The girl under inspection was twirling a strand of her hair looking up at Seto with large blue eyes. Wait weren't they hazel yesterday?
Seto glanced at Tamarey for a moment then back at Emi. Obviously he was not going to take no today. Not that he really took it any day.
"I am going to need a list of the people working on the prototype and you will walk down to their department with me to see what the holdup is."
"Ok, fine, just let me…" Emi said getting up and gathering some papers. However her hands fumbled and all the contents came crashing down onto the floor. Flushed Emi bend down to pick them up hitting her head on her desk. She could hear Tamarey giggling behind Emi as picked up her things, giving herself a paper cut on a folder.
"Stop" Seto's voice was calm as he took her hands and pulled her up. Blinking Emi looked into Seto's sapphire eyes still very flustered. He was studying her face, trying to read her. Gently he brushed her forehead where she had hit herself.
"You're bleeding."
"Am I?" She asked her hand reaching up toward her now throbbing head –funny how when you know something is bleeding it hurts more- wincing at the pain when she touched it feeling blood.
"Don't touch it." Seto mumbled as if he were talking to a child.
"Miss Shyn, go get a first aid kit." Emi glanced over at the new secretary, oh yeah she's still here.
"Shouldn't…"
"Now"
She left quickly; no one would refuse Seto when he used THAT tone of voice. Emi giggled looked down at her feet.
"Still got that Kaiba charm I see."
Seto's intense gaze didn't falter, "You make my promise to take care of your very hard to keep."
Emi instantly pulled away from him almost falling over again. "Well I don't see why you have to keep that promise if we don't mean anything." She said her tone turning out more menacing then she had wanted. Seto was about to reply when Tamarey came back in.
"MIR!" Mir turned slightly at the sound of Satra's cheery voice. However Mir was surprised to hear another pair of footsteps besides her best friend's.
"Hey Satra, who's with you?"
"Hey Mir, It's Duke Deviln. How are you feeling?"
Mir raised an eyebrow, why was Duke hanging out with her best friend? Flashing a smile she replied, "Good, how are you?"
"Great, Hey Satra, thanks for the notes I'll call you to make a time to meet for our project. Later."
"No problem, anytime! Talk to you later!"
As Duke walked away Mir coughed three times. This had been the single that Satra had come up with a few weeks ago when there was some explaining to do. Most of the time it was the red head who used it on Mir, (most of it had implied to Ryou) so the brunette found it funny she was now doing it to Satar.
"We're working on this science project together, for science."
"Normally you do science projects for science." Mir snickered "But you guys aren't in the same class."
"I know, it was really funny all these girls were fighting over him so the science teacher ended up asking me to be his partner. Something about the girls saying I wasn't a threat or something."
"Psht that's what they think. He'll be head over heels in love with you by the end of the week."
"Haha, I just wonder why they didn't ask a boy to partner with him."
Mir dubbed over laughing unable to think of a witty comment to reply with.
"Oh Mokuba! Come sit with us!"
"You're my best friend Mokuba!"
"Did you get my text?"
"Your hair is so cute; I love how you cut it."
"Hey Mokuba, guess what."
Gwyn stood in the door way to the cafeteria watching as Mokuba was dragged by a swarm of girls toward a table filled with even more giggling girls. Sighing she looked around until she saw Cam waving from a table in the corner.
A lot had changed since middle school. Seto had decide that –instead of hiring yet more tutors- he would take Emi's advice and put his younger brother in school. But instead of enrolling him in Mir's public school he chose a small privet school that had opened up a year or two ago. Mokuba agreed on one condition, that Gwyn join him.
Emi had fought long and hard with Seto about Gwyn's school bill. The blonde hated feeling like she was indebted to the CEO of KaibaCorp but Seto's iron will –like always- won over. He had convinced Emi by telling her that it was in the company's best interests. After all KaibaCorp did cover a existence daycare program why not a schooling one? Not that Gwyn was really under Emi's custody, but all the same that was Seto's final word on the matter. And Seto Kaiba's word was law.
Gwyn had been so excited –not that she would have told Emi that- to be going to the school that, not only Mokuba was going to but also her best friends Cam and Chiharu. The sisters had been overjoyed when Gwyn told them the news. Even though they were both older they stuck to the blonde like glue and showed her the ropes of the school.
"Gwyn! How was class?" Cam asked jumping up and down like a puppy dog that had just seen it's master. Next to her Chiharu, Cam's older and much more dosal sister rolled her eyes.
"I think the Mokuba fanclub grew over night."
Cam suddenly stopped bouncing mood changing completely as she gowned shooting the table of giggling girls a degusted look, "It's the hair." She said pointing to her own head.
After a comment from Mir, -who couldn't even see- Mokuba had gotten his long bushy hair cut for the summer. The conversation had gone something like this:
"Gosh it's so hot out! How can you can keep your hair so long Mokuba!"
"How do you know it's long? I could have cut it."
Mir's hand reached out and tugged on the end of Mokuba's hair, "But you didn't. You should, I bet all the ladies would love it."
"Really?" Mokuba asked sending Gwyn a look of surprise as if the thought had never crossed his mind.
"Sure, don't you think so Gwyn? I mean don't take my option I'm blind after all."
Gwyn shrugged her face heating up from Mokuba's intense stare and the fact that she had to admit that he might look cuter if he cut his hair, "Y… yeah I guess…"
He had gotten it cut two days later and Mir had been right. He looked really good with it short, not that Gwyn had thought he looked bad before, it was still as messy as before, but it made him look a lot older and more mature.
"I had to admit," Cam added, "It does look good. What do you think Gwyn?"
Gwyn shrugged feeling her face heat up as she looked away from Mokuba and his posse. Chiharu laughed nudging Gwyn with her elbow. "I would have a crush on him if he wasn't so young. Oh well you'll just have to take him Gwyn." This made Gwyn turn even redder.
"I'm pretty sure he doesn't like me." She mumbled looking down at her food. Chiharu laughed,
"He would be stupid if he didn't like you, you're beautiful."
"And talented! Have you READ the papers?" Cam added taking an all knowing bite of her food.
"Speaking of theater stuff our mom says that the theater wants to do Snow White. They are also thinking about doing Seussical after that."
"Oh sounds like fun!" Gwyn said, "I love the story of Snow White."
Chiharu nodded, "and we got a notice from one of the bigger theaters, I don't remember the name, but they are holding auditions for Les Misérables. You should try out I'm sure you'd get a role."
"Yeah! You're famous after all!"
Gwyn blushed looking away, "No, I'm not."
Laughter exploded from Mokbua's table as he and another boy tried to balance water glasses on their foreheads. Gwyn glanced over silently wishing she could be there with them having fun.
"You sister is so lucky, this is a nice school." Satra said as they stopped in front of the small privet school that Gwyn attended.
"Didn't you go to a all girl's school before you came to our high school?" Mir asked. Around her she can hear kids talking and laughing as they leave for the day.
"Yeah. But when I came back here this school wasn't open yet, plus I was done with small privet schools."
"Makes sense."
Satra had some problems with friends a few years back that had caused her to have a mental break down. The strawberry blond had been going to counseling since then and had transferred to the public school by her home. While Satra didn't like to talk about it, Mir could sometimes see hints of her best friends past come through in her personality. Something she was picking up more and more now that she was blind. It's funny how losing one sense had made her more alert in other areas. Her sense of insight was better than ever.
"MIR!" The brunette smiled at the sound of her younger sister. Gwyn ran up to Mir and her friends, Mir could hear a few people behind her, she guessed it was probably Cam, Chiharu or maybe Mokuba. "Hi Satra, Ryou."
"Hey Spunk how was school?" That was Satra's nickname for Gwyn. Mir found it slightly funny since Gwyn was anything but spunky.
"Hey Gwyndolyn," Ryou was the only person Gwyn knew who used her whole name. He use to call Mir by her whole name but Mir had made him stop. Gwyn kind of liked it, it was like his own nickname for her only it wasn't a nickname it was her full name.
"Hey, how are your eyes doing Mir?" Mokuba's voice said, Mir couldn't help smiling, Mokuba had become like her little brother.
"It's still pretty dark around here." She teased.
"You haven't come to pick me up in a long time," Gwyn remarked, "I'm glad you're here." She added quickly. She didn't want her sister to get the wrong idea.
Mir shrugged, "well I thought I would catch up with my favorite little sister." Gwyn giggled.
"I guess that means you'll be going home with your sister?" Mokuba asked Gwyn. The blonde nodded.
"Y… Yeah I guess. See you tomorrow?" Mir raised an eyebrow at Gwyn's strutted reply. Why was her sister nervous around Mokuba? They had known each other for over a year now.
"Of course! Bye Mir! Satra, Ryou."
"Bye"
"I'm heading out, I dropped off those warning slips with Chel and got everything straighten out with the guys working on the prototypes." Seto looked up from his desk to see Emi placing some papers on his desk, "Now I just need you to sign these and we'll be good to go."
"Ok" Pulling out a pen Seto started to fill out to paper. Emi turned to go but the CEO's voice stopped her.
"I'm almost ready to go,"
Emi turned to answer him as Tamarey walked in, "Here are the forms from commissions, Roland wanted me to give them to you." She walked slowly toward Seto placing them on his desk as she bent over slightly farther then she needed to expose more cleavage from her already low top. Emi watched the bleach blonde eyebrow raised. What WAS this woman trying to accomplish here? Seto, on the other hand, didn't even seem to notice. He took the papers without even a glance at Tamarey, eyes still on Emi trying to read her. Sighing Emi finely spoke.
"That's nice, I'm going to walk home so don't worry about giving me a ride."
Seto's sapphire eyes narrowed as if he was trying to read between the lines, but he didn't say anything. "Ohhh I could use a ride home?" Tamarey said, "My car is in the shop."
"Then how did you get here this morning?"
Emi almost laughed at Seto as she quickly left the office before the CEO could say anything else to her.
Emi sighed as she walked through the crowded streets toward her house. It had been a crazy week, with preparations for Mir's operation and Gwyn getting ready for her next play. Actually, Gwyn's sudden fame in general was just… crazy. While Emi knew her sister was extremely talented she had NEVER thought the shy blonde girl would ever become an overnight sensation.
However, the little girl seemed to be handling it all very well. The press wasn't being to annoying –mostly coming to visit Gwyn at the theater- and Gwyn wasn't letting any of it go to her head. Emi vaguely wondered if her little sister could ever let ANYTHING go to her head.
"She doesn't even know she's famous." Mir had laughed one night after Gwyn had fallen asleep. The brunette found all the popularity her sister had gotten quite funny. Emi wasn't sure if that was because of the irony or because it really seemed to annoy their step-mother Manon.
Manon, the woman seemed to be getting angrier as the days went on. While Emi didn't think too much about their step mother she knew she probably should. Manon didn't like it when things didn't go her way, and Gwyn's recent fame seemed to be the icing on the cake. Last time Manon had gone into one of these moods Mir had gone blind. Whither Manon had really been there or not it was a small fact that still kept Emi up at night.
Of course, it might have just been the fact that her middle sister's blindness that kept her up. Mir's operation was closing in line a huge dark storm cloud. While the brunette didn't seem to be too worried about it, it was a fact that kept popping its ugly head up in Emi's mind every day. Sighing Emi paused in front of her house, whatever happened in these next few months they would still be sisters. Mir was a strong girl and if she was blind for the rest of her life she would deal with it and –Emi had no doubt- excel in whatever she did, despite her handicap.
Shaking her head Emi tired to rid herself of those thoughts. This Doctor came highly recommended and everything was going to be ok… it had to be.
"Sooo what's up with you and Mokuba?"The three girls were getting ready for bed when Mir spoke. The brunette was sitting on her bed brushing her hair blind eyes staring ahead of her a sly smile on her face. While she wasn't looking at anyone they all knew who she was talking to.
"WHAT!" Gwyn squeaked wincing as her voiced cracked. Her sisters laughed.
"That's right Gwyn, you have been spending an offal lot of time with that boy." Emi giggled nudging her now red faced sister.
"Yeah you never even ask me to pick you up anymore."
"Sorry, I'll ask you more." Gwyn said hanging her head as if she had done some horrible crime. Both her sisters laughed. Mir shrugged,
"I don't care, but I want to know why you spend so much time with that Kaiba boy."
Emi could hold it in any longer she burst out laughing, "Why do you even need to ask? We've seen it coming for months!" The oldest burst out into song dancing around the room, "Our little Gwyn is in love! Ohhhh out little Gwyn is in LOOOOVVVVEEE" the blonde sang as she leaned over hugging her younger sister who was now beet red.
"Wait you already knew this!"
Emi giggled landing on her bed looking over at her sister, "I've known for a while Mir, you need to get with it."
"Sorry I can't help it, you know the saying… I'm blind."
"That's not funny!"
Mir smirked laughing at Emi and Gwyn, "My blonde sisters take everything too seriously, you both need to lighten up"
Off to work on the next chapter, only a week left of break! GAH! How I wish I didn't go to a three year collage that had classes in the summer! It's so unfair! –end rant-
Anyway here's to the people who rock my FACE off! You guys all deserve more praise and love than I can give you all.
Also check out the blog for information on writing. Right now I'm trying to write Red Rose into a podcast (non-fanfiction of course) if any of you have a story you want to publish as a podcast let me know! I'm collecting story right now! (My email is on my homepage)
REVIEWS! (love you guys more than you know)
Lightest'Ink
EEE! ME TO! I have so many ideas! They are just bursting out of me! I hope I can put them all in without it being too fast paced. As for it being my last, I DID start a Harry Potter fic but yeah, it's going to be one of my last. But don't worry! I will be writing for my podcast and will always be writing until the day I die! So you'll be able to hear/read my stories and I'll be around to see yours as well!
DaAmazingMeepers
Awww thanks! I try :D I hope you liked this chapter as much as the first! I am going to try really hard to keep everything moving quickly, but not too quickly. I also want to do your contest for your fanfic! I'll have to talk to you about it later (not here :P)
DarkestInk
AWWW Thanks! Your too good to me! Well you're going to HAVE to pick a fav! (haha jk you really don't) and Manon has a role in this one, I've got like two or three story lines going on in this story, I'm nervous about it but I'm also pretty excited.
kisaraxseto forever
HEHE! Glad you liked it! I hope it was funny in a good way.
Until next chapter!
Liz (aka Element-girls)