Disclaimer: My army of ninja chickens are being assembled to take over yugioh and then we will go back to the GOOD stuff not people playing card games on motorcycles (seriously what's up with that!?)
I have never played duel monsters and know next to nothing on how to play it (some Yugioh fan I am); thus, the games in this and other chapters shall be short and undisruptive.
INPORTANT: My beta () is going to do that NaNoWriMo thing which means I lose my beta for a month so is anyone else interested in betaing until she gets back? (you get to read the chapter before everyone else)
Oh and go check out all of 's new Yugioh oneshots! I'm telling you guys you'll all love them!!!!
Once, as he was standing there under a tree, he saw the witch come up and listened while she called out "Rapunzel! Rapunzel! Let down your hair!"
----------------------------------------
"We're here."
All three girls looked up at the large looming building that stood over them. To the young girls, the large, rundown apartment building looked a lot like a huge monster ready to devour the small children.
"Do we really have to stay here?" Emi asked, rubbing Gwyn's arm reassuringly. The four-year-old clung to her older sister as if the ten-year-old could protect her from the unknown danger that lay ahead of them. Their father laughed, unloading his daughter's bags from the car.
"It's only going to be a few weeks until I get my business running again. Soon I'll hire a nanny for you and then you girls can all come home."
"Or you could just stay home with us," Mir mumbled. Her father, not hearing the comment, walked briskly up to the front door.
"Besides, your uncle is really excited to have you girls here. You can even help him with his work."
"What does uncle do?" Emi asked as she helped Gwyn with her bag.
"Oh, he's a dealer like me."
"Oh."
Emi and Mir exchanged glances as they walked up toward their new home. They didn't know what to expect, but the feeling of dread was hard to ignore. Emi smiled lightly at her younger sister, brushing a long strand of Mir's hair out of her face.
"Don't worry, Mir, we'll have fun. 'Sides, I'm here for you."
-----------------
We were just scared little girls who had just lost the most important person in our lives. We were vulnerable. The time we spent with our uncle and his gang was the time that made us who we are.
And made us what we're not.
Are we really what we are now because of those times? I'd like to think so, because if not, then those four years were nothing but unexplained useless torture.
But everything has a meaning, even the horrors like the ones me and my sisters had to be put through. And in many ways I'm grateful for those times.
--------------------------------------
"Snow! It's snow!" Gwyn squealed, jumping on her sister's bed.
"No school, no school!" Mir sang, running around the room. Emi groaned and pulled her pillow over her head.
"Too early for sisters."
Since the snow was pretty deep, they'd canceled school. Hence the reason Mir had been running around screaming/singing about no school. Since she was coming down with a cold, their step-mom didn't want anything to do with her children. So after giving her daughter Fedha money and a kiss, she'd kicked her step-children out of the house. Now the sisters were walking down the street with sleds, all ready to go sledding at the Kaiba mansion. Of course, neither of the Kaibas knew this yet.
That was soon going to change.
"Mirati, Gwyneira, Emiko!"
The three girls stopped to see Bakura running down the street. Mir laughed, waving at her classmate. He waved back and almost slipped on a patch of ice.
"Hey, Ryou, I almost didn't see you in all this snow, you're so white."
"Hahah, I know."
Emi laughed lightly. "Nice to see you again, Ryou, we're going sledding."
"Hence the sleds."
"Want to come?"
"Why thank you, I'd be delighted to join you."
--------
Mokuba was surprised when he saw the three girls and their white haired-tagalong on his lawn, waving for him to come out.
"It's a snow day, Moki, so there's no school, now come down and play with us!" Emi called out. Laughing, the young boy ran back in to get his snow gear. His new tutor couldn't make it because of the snow, so he didn't have any lessons either.
After a few hours of playing in the snow, the gang had trooped back in, red-faced and cold. They were now sitting in one of the huge picture-window rooms, sipping hot cocoa and looking out at the ivory scene before them. That was how Seto found them.
"What happened to Mokuba's studies?"
Emi didn't even turn around, sipping her cocoa as she replied, "We're learning how to have fun. Apparently, you flunked that class."
Seto leaned on the doorway, his blue eyes scanning the room. Mir giggled lightly, watching her sister and Seto, a mischievous glint in her purple eyes.
"Oh, look, it's started snowing again!"
Bakura's voice broke the tension as they all turned to look out the window. Letting out a squeal of excitement, Gwyn grabbed Mir's hand.
"Let's go out again!"
Mir jumped up, laughing as well. "Race you all outside! Loser gets a fistful of snow in the face!" With that, she dashed out the door, Mokuba, Gwyn, and Ryou right behind her. Getting up, Emi glanced over at Seto,
"Coming?"
"No."
"Flunker."
"…"
Chuckling lightly to herself, Emi walk toward the door, almost tripping on her scarf that she had forgotten was laying on the floor. Behind her, the blonde heard Seto chuckle. Rolling her eyes, Emi picked up the long red scarf as she walked out.
Seto stood inside, watching the others play for a while, then decided to walk out onto the patio to get a closer look at those fools. That was a stupid mistake; the moment he stepped outside, a cold, wet snowball hit him in the face.
"HA! Take that, flunker!"
Seto wasn't sure how to respond to Emi's immaturity, but Ryou did it for him. He had been next to Emi, but suddenly stumbled on a patch of ice; Emi tried to catch him, but ended up falling as well. Seeing them vulnerable, Mir let out a war cry and attacked them with a mass amount of snowballs. Bakura laughed, jumping up; his quick recovery startled the girl and she fell over.
"Oh, Mir, are you—?"
Splat! She got him square in the face.
"MUAHAHA! DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME!"
Emi was whispering something to Mokuba, who was grinning evilly. Seto frowned, his arms folded over his chest. Suddenly, his brother and Emi let out screams as they ran toward him, pelting the CEO with snow. But this time, he was ready for them. He got Mokuba square in the face as he dodged the oncoming missiles of snow. Emi was almost upon Seto when she slipped on a patch of ice, causing her to skid across the slick patio, taking Seto with her. Both teens ended up colliding with a snow bank. The older Kaiba boy landed heavily on top of the blonde girl, who was buried in snow.
"Sissy, are you ok?!"
"Seto? Emi?"
"Emiko? Kaiba?"
"AHAHAH, EMI! That was AMAZING! Klutziness wins again!"
Emi blinked up at Seto, who was trying to un-wedge his foot from the snow. "Uhhh, could you get off me?"
"What does it look like I'm trying to do? Just stop moving; you're making it harder for me to get out."
Once the two teens had untangled themselves, Seto snorted, "Your klutziness really has no bounds, does it?"
Emi laughed, rubbing the back of her head as she tried to get snow out of her hair, embarrassed. "No, not really."
-------
Manon came home in a bad mood. Well, bad mood was an understatement. The older woman's life was turning into a living nightmare. Her husband, the last means of income, was dead. The young girl whom she had spent almost six years manipulating was now a headstrong young woman who wasn't going to put up with much. She needed to make some money and she needed it fast. All her life, Manon had been a pampered child who had gotten whatever she had wanted. She was used to getting her way with little to no work involved. Well, more like no menial labor; there is always lots of conniving and plotting when one tries to get one's way. But that was what Manon was good at, and it was starting to seem like she might have to get that dreaded thing:
A job.
Her parents had raised her above all that minimum wage crap; she had been bred for greatness. She had been pampered for things like fashion shows and theater. And she had taken both over with grace, a beauty that no other woman had ever had. Her first husband had been a stage star like her, and it had been all over the news, even months after they had had their first and only daughter. But, like most superficial marriages, it turned sour. Manon was so full of herself and her wonderful life she failed to see that her husband was cheating on her until it was too late. Soon after the discovery, he had left her for some French dancer leaving Manon to cry and sob to the papers about her horrible husband leaving her and her seven-year-old daughter.
Then things had gotten bad. Somehow, word got out about her vanity; less and less people wanted to come and see her show herself off. Interest in her career plummeted, and the once high-and-mighty queen of the stage was now nothing more than a proud pauper. That was when she met her old best friend's husband. Gayle Hidenka had been widowed for the past three years with his three young daughters, living at his wife's brother's house. When she had found out how much money the handsome dealer had acquired in his travels, she was thrilled. The broken man wasn't very interested in getting remarried—or anything, for that matter—and spent most of his earnings on keeping his three daughters at their uncle's. However, with the help of his own daughter, it didn't take long to snag her departed friend's husband. She married him a year later, and they all moved back into the home her ex-husband had built for her.
Everything had been going fine until her second husband had died, leaving everything to his daughter. It was only by fate and preplanning that had Manon and her seventeen-year-old daughter were still able to keep living in their home with her step-children. But it wasn't going to last long; in fact, she had five years if she was lucky, just until Gwyn—the youngest—turned eighteen. So Manon was trying in vain to find a way to make sure her future was secure.
"Mom, you're back! It's about time; I'm really annoyed with Mir! She is being such an idiot! When she came home, guess what she said! She called my boyfriend a dog!! Mooooom, you—"
"Fedha! Shut the hell up! I'm tired and don't have time for your whining, and your boyfriend is a freak. Just get a new one, honey, you're too pretty to tie yourself down to one boy."
Fedha gasped in shock at her mother's sharp tone, then set her lips in a pout. "Well, it's not my fault you're upset! Don't take it out on me!" With that, her daughter spun around in a huff to call her boyfriend and nurse her wounds. Letting out a low, exasperated sigh, Manon sat down in one of their large red loveseats.
"She'll thank me someday," she sighed, massaging her forehead.
"Man, its cold out there!" Oh, joy, the loud one is here.
Mir brushed off the snow from her jacket, looking up to see her step-mom. "Oh, hey, Manon, what's the matter? Rough day?"
"Like you care, you wretch."
"Hm, true. What's the matter, couldn't con some poor helpless guy out of his money, or maybe it's—"
"That's it! Up to the room, now!"
Mir's face fell. "Oh, I didn't mean it! Please don't… We were going…"
"No excuses! Up now! Maybe this time you'll learn when to shut up, you little wretch!"
Letting out a sigh, Mir hung her head as she trotted toward the stairs, grumbling about how annoying it all was.
"I heard that! Stay in there longer!"
"Yes, Madam!"
"Longer!"
------------------------
Shoot! Why did I say that?! Darn, darn, darn! We were going to go check the theater to see if Gwyn got the part. All I needed was my warmer jacket… Mir, why do you have to be such a loud mouth?! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Letting out a huff, Mir flopped on the window-seat, growling to herself. She wasn't sure who she was more furious at: her step-mother or herself. She was mad at her step-mother for being a controlling witch, and she was mad at herself for getting herself into these messes.
Sighing, Mir leaned her head against the cold window, letting her breath fog up the glass. Suddenly, a large white snowball hit the window, splattering right in front of Mir's face.
Letting out a scream of surprise, the brunette jumped back in shock, only to lose her balance and fall backwards off the window seat. Leaping up, Mir opened the window, looking out to see Ryou smiling and waving at her from the street.
"RYOU! You freaked me out!"
The white-haired boy laughed as he ran up so that he was directly under her window. "Sorry about that, I couldn't think of another way to get your attention." Mir laughed too, brushing back a strand of her short brown hair, her breath making puffs of condensation as she spoke.
"Well, you sure did, wanna come up? Did you bring your Duel Monster cards this time?"
Ryou held up his deck in response, and Mir disappeared, getting her rope. Once she had retrieved it, she threw it out of the window, and Ryou climbed up. Mir pulled out some pillows from the dusty sofa that was in a corner of the room and put them on the floor so they could be more comfortable.
"Ok, let's get cracking! But I must warn you! I spend a lot of time up here planning strategies." Then, laughing, she added, "But I'm sure you'll still win, since I have never really played anyone else."
Ryou smiled happily at her confident grin. "I'm sure you're an amazing duelist."
---------------------------------------------
Manon had been kind enough to tell her two other step-daughters that Mir wouldn't be joining them to go do "whatever it was they were doing." Emi had been about to argue with her step-mother, but Manon had slammed the door in their faces and locked them out. The girls had tried to get Mir's attention, but the brunette hadn't seen them, so the sisters had decided to just check the casting board and tell Mir the outcome.
So there they stood, only a few steps away from the cast list that was posted on front of the small community theater, both girls too nervous to venture any closer to see the results. Grabbing her younger sister's hand, Emi straightened. Confused, Gwyn glanced up at her sister's suddenly firm expression.
"Let's do this," the older sister said. Then, glancing down at Gwyn, she winked and gave the younger girl a small smile, showing her that she was just goofing off. Giving a small giggle, Gwyn straightened up, too.
"Aye, aye, Captain!"
Slowly, both girls walked up to the list, reading down the names until they came to the main young girl's part.
Gwyneira Hidenka.
The girl gasped as she re-read the part over, her eyes starting to shine with tears.
"Gwyn?"
She turned to her oldest sister as crystal tears dripped from her purple orbs. "I'm… I'm so happy," she cried, covering her face her hands as she wept from pure joy. Emi laughed, hugging her little sister.
"Oh, Gwyn! I'm not surprised at all! You did it! You did it."
Gwyn laughed, throwing her hands up, tears still on her face. "I did it, I did it!"
----------------------------
The two sisters rushed right back to their house to tell their middle sister the good news, but Manon still had the doors locked, and Mir was either sleeping, not in that room, or really wrapped up in something, because she didn't answer when they threw snow at her window. So after a several tries, Emi suggested they go tell Mokuba the good news.
The black-haired boy was ecstatic when he found out Gwyn had gotten the part, and after much rejoicing they all went out to play in the snow. That was how Seto found them again, covered in snow and panting.
"Do you ever do anything but goof off?" he asked Emi. The blonde rolled her blue eyes as she brushed her hair out of her face.
"You should know; I've been working all week. Besides, most of the people I work with aren't there today because of the snow. Now, it's my turn for a question: Do you ever take time off?"
"Not as much as you do."
Emi shrugged. "You'd think with all that money you'd have more time for fun."
"Who says I'm not having fun? At least I'm not all red-faced and freezing."
"True."
-------------------
"Gaaa, you won again!" Mir cried as Ryou ruthlessly took the last of her life points. The snow-haired boy laughed at her exaggerated anger. "You almost got me that time."
Mir just snickered as she, once again, shuffled her deck. "Sure, sure, try to make me feel better. Well, this time I'm back for blood!"
Ryou laughed as he drew his first four cards. "You can do it."
"That's not what an opponent says! You're supposed to say… say… well, something epic."
"Like, 'you will be vanquished by my superior might'?"
Mir giggled. "Yeah, something like that." She paused for a moment, then snickered. "Of course, that also really sounded a lot like Seto." Ryou laughed along with her.
"It does, doesn't it?"
Mir was now rolling on the floor laughing so hard she could hardly breathe; Ryou sat next to her, laughing as well. He always felt so relaxed, like he was able to say anything around her. He always felt like he could be the truest form of himself. He loved being around her; just to make her laugh made him so happy he couldn't even describe the joy it brought.
I guess this is what true friendship really feels like.
After a few more games, Mir finally won one—barly. She was so happy she refused to play anymore in case she broke her "winning streak," so they just sat and talked until something caught Mir's attention. It was the sound of her step-mother's voice talking to someone else's, a voice she had never hard before. She dismissed it at first, until she had heard her father's name. Holding up a hand to silence Ryou, she walked toward the door and pressed her ear against it. She couldn't really make out what they were saying, but it sounded like some sort of dealing. Suddenly, the man's voice grew fainter while Manon's sounded closer and closer. Gasping, Mir ran back to Ryou, who was sitting confused on the floor.
"You have to go now," Mir said, pushing him toward the window as she pulled out the rope and threw it down. Ryou nodded as he grabbed a hold of the brown cord, flashing one more smile at Mir, whispering to her before he started his descent.
"See you tomorrow at school."
Mir smiled, waving at him until he disappeared down the street, like the sun that was now setting.
-------------------------------------------
"So you got locked in your room again because you said, 'Yes, Madam'?" Emi asked as all three girls sat on Emi's bed. Gwyn was already asleep, tired out from her long exciting day. Mir laughed slightly as she played with one of her smaller pillows.
"Well, that and a few others things. I asked if she was angry because she couldn't con some poor helpless guy out of his money…"
The blonde's blue eyes went wide. "Mir! You didn't! Why do you say those things?!" Mir tried to look innocent.
"I don't say them! I mean, I try not to, but they just… just come out. It's like some other person says them against my better judgment." Emi raised an eyebrow, glancing at her sister, a small smile playing on her lips. Mir was going to have to explain this one.
"Another person?"
"Yeah! I've been calling her Gabby."
"Gabby? Why Gabby?"
"No idea, it was the first thing that popped into my head."
Emi shook her head, laughing slightly. "Well, we're just going to have to tell Gabby she needs to can it." Both girls giggled hysterically, trying not to be too loud.
--------------
Wow so much to say and I pretty much forgot it all ^^;
For whatever twisted reason I had a blast writing that whole Manon part –shrugs- it's always fun to try writing about a character that's very different from the others. I hope you guys didn't hate it to much.
Like I said before I'm looking for a temporary beta for the next month. Also if you want some amazing oneshots I command you all to go check out 's newest stuff, you guys would LOVE THEM. So after you review go read them XD
Speaking of reviewing I'd like to thank the five people who helped create this chapter. Because my reviewers keep this story alive! So keep them up!!! You guys are AMAZING!!! I don't deserve your love.
Claamchowder: I'm so GLAD!!! I as really worried everyone wasn't going to like it cuz It's all new and stuff :D –glomps-
Reiko The Awesome: Thanks :D I really had fun starting over and plotting everything out to a new fairytale :D exciting!!!
Happy Hour123: why thank you, and that review was such a nice way to start this story too
PB-Queen-101: why thank you, I happen to like that part too –heart- lol your reviews are amazing no matter the size XD! Hummm good point I'll try to expound more on Hunter and stuff :D THANKS SO MUCH!!! –glomps-
Emilee-san: Lol why thank you :D that's one of my favorite parts too :D Ryou is a cup of sugar –heart- he's the sweetest thing EVER… hummmm maybe Seto IS getting a little jealous…
AHHHHH I can't describe how much I love you guys!!! –hugs you all-
-Liz (Element-girls)