Chapter 11
The Past Hurts, No Matter What
Hey you guys. Just a quick note before you start. To the middle of the chapter, there's going to be some adult content. Nothing too much, but just a slight warning. This was on of the reason's the rating is M.
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The sunlight was just flitting through the tree leaves of the forest when Minako Moto and Seto Kaiba lay in the quiet hot spring that lay hidden. If you moved further east of them, you would have seen the small village lying in an open field in the middle of the large forest. The straw huts were spread out in an orderly fashion. Nearby you could see the glint of white and black as Blue Eyes White Dragon and Fallen Angel fought, practicing their moves. In the hot springs, Mina was lying on her back with her eyes closed and body submerged with a pained look on her face while Seto stood in the water, a concerned look straying across his face. His chest could be seen above the water; droplets glistening across the toned chest and chiseled biceps making him a sight to behold. His ice blue eyes bored holes into Mina's face. Mina felt those eyes on her face and she opened her own bright purple eyes, so similar to her brothers. She looked into those eyes and thought how different they looked from before. Before, when she looked into them, she used to think they were like icebergs, deep and harsh; ready to sink you without a fleeting glance back. Now when she looked at them she saw crystals, beautiful and shining, full of life. She wondered what had changed him.
"I suppose you have the right to know… I mean you stayed through my moaning and groaning AND you looked after me when you didn't have to." Mina reluctantly admitted.
'I did it 'cause I wanted to.' But out loud, Seto didn't say a word. He just stared into the girl's eyes.
"Ok, well settle down for a long story."
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I was different when I was 16. I don't know if you knew me then. Even if you did, you wouldn't recognize me now. I mean, yeah ok I look the same but I was a completely different person. I was meek, quiet and I relied on Yugi for almost everything. I had just turned 16 and we had this massive party for me at Grandpa's. All my friends were there including all the gang. Then a guy stepped into the room, asking for Grandpa. He said he wanted to buy something. You know Grandpa's house was also a games shop right? Well anyway, Grandpa asked me to serve him so I went up to the counter and looked around for the guy. He was standing there with in jeans, a leather jacket, chains all over his clothes and a hood over his head. He asked for a deck and said that I should probably ask someone else there for advice 'cause a girl wouldn't know a thing about dueling. Of course, I gave him a look and showed him how wrong he was. Hey, I wasn't that different.
Anyway, he was impressed by my skills and started talking to me. He pulled back his hood and showed a mass of dirty blonde hair. Then he began flirting. Of course, I, being a typical teenage girl with hormones, began to flirt back. What 16 year old girl could resist a charming, good looking bad boy? Yugi noticed and came over. After sending the guy of with a huge display, he began to tell me to stay away from him. I didn't know anything about this guy's past escapades but Yugi and the others sure did. They didn't tell me about it but they told me to stay away from him. Of course I got angry. I had a right to like whoever I wanted.
I met the guy on the street again a few days later. He invited me for lunch and so I went. He told me his name was Keith. We talked during lunch and I began to find out a lot about him. Now that I think about it, everything he told me was a pile of bullshit. But I didn't know better then and Keith can be very charming when he wants to be. He showed me how good he was at dueling and I showed him a thing or two as well.
Mina broke off and gave a small smile. Looking up into the sky, she sighed and leant against the wall of the hot spring. Seto, sensing her disturbance, moved closer towards Mina. He leaned against the same wall; a meter away. Mina gave a small smile and moved towards him. She leaned her head against his shoulder and gave a small shudder. Kaiba was about to open his mouth to speak when Mina gave a small sigh and continued; the tremor of her voice sending vibrations up his arm, towards his neck. Seto gave a tiny shudder from his neck and leaned contently against Mina while she spoke.
Time passed and I began to spend more and more time with Keith. In secret of course, cause Grandpa and Yugi didn't want me to hang out with him. The more I spent time with Keith, the more I thought he was amazing. I was so infatuated with him. One day, he took me for a ride in his car. He took me to the beach and we sat there for a while, just enjoying ourselves in the silence. I've always remembered this moment. It made what happened even worse. He leant over and kissed me. I won't go into too much detail. I figure it'd be way too awkward for you. But I remember kissing back and we spent a time in that car just kissing. Then he whispered in my ear. 'I love you.' Oh God. You have no idea how I felt then. It was like I didn't have a care in the world. My parents didn't die, my brother wasn't in danger, and my friends didn't like Keith. All that mattered was that he loved me. He dropped me back home but not before promising a date and giving a kiss. I told Yugi. I had to. I relied on him so much then. I needed him to accept and allow. I think Yugi was too nice then. If he didn't accept and love his little sister to bits, he mightened have said it was ok and this mightened have happened. But he did. He wanted me happy and so he accepted that I was going out with Keith.
I began to spend almost all my time with Keith. You know the usual stuff that you do when you date? Although I think he was getting me into trouble but I didn't know it then. All I knew was that I was ok with Keith at my side. Nothing else mattered. Yugi, Joey and the others were concerned as they knew what happened before with Keith but they couldn't tell me. I think Yugi tried a few times. Twice he stopped after seeing me so happy and another few times when he tried to tell me, I refused to listen, thinking only of my Keith.
I adored him but he didn't care about me. All he thought of me was a trophy at his side. He had got the best catch in Domino City. I didn't notice any of this though. God I was so pathetic then. His friends jeered and leered at me, making suggestive looks and actions. Of course, I was scared and looked to Keith for protection but he didn't do a thing until one of the guys got really close. Then he pulled me away. I guess I was his property and no one else's. I didn't see it that way then. He had protected me from the evil man. I cannot believe how stupid I was. Soon things got worse. His friends made fun of him, making jokes about how he didn't have me yet and that why he hadn't taken me and had his fun with me. At first he growled and ignored this. But as the jeering got worse, so was his reaction to them. They got to him. I could see it in his eyes. But he never showed it in his demeanor. I didn't believe he would do such a thing to me unless I wanted him to so I thought I was safe. Hpmh. I thought wrong.
One night, he turned up at my house and asked if I wanted to go out for dinner. He was going to take me to Piesta Coul, the restaurant near the Domino Park. I wasn't sure as Yugi had gone out and so was Grandpa. They had both told me specifically not to go out. Keith pressured me into it and so I agreed. I called Yugi up and told him I was going out for dinner with Keith. I didn't let Yugi say yes or no. I just told him I was going out and to pick me up at ten pm. Keith and I then drove of to the restaurant. Keith didn't talk much that while night. He just sat there eating and thinking and occasionally looking at me and giving a slightly evil smile. I was beginning to get a little nevous.
After dinner had finished, he told me he wanted to show me something in the park. I was a bit hesitant. I wasn't stupid. I knew that the park was a bad place to go to at night. But Keith reminded me that I was with him. What could go wrong when I was with him? Oh so much, but I didn't know then. So I left with him but left a message at the restaurant for Yugi saying Keith had taken me to the park to show me something. Then I followed Kieth into Domino Park. He brought me to a place where not many people were but it still could be seen from the street. Probably to lure me into a false sence of security. The street lights shone dimly in the dark, illuminating slight parts of trees. I asked if this was where he was going to show me the thing. He said no and grabbed my wrist and ran. He borught me into a secluded part of the park and at that point I was getting really uncomfortable. Not scared mind you. Some small part of my mind thought he was going to propose to me.
Mina stopped for a moment and gave a shaky laugh. Then she stopped. Seto could feel her shaking as her body was pressed onto his, unconsiously. After going through all those psycologist classes Gozaburo Kaiba put him though, Seto knew heaps about the mind. Mina was scared and so needed something like a security blanket to keep her safe. He didn't mind bein her saftey blanket. He wrapped his arm around her protectivly and she pushed her body slightly closer towards him. Her chest moved up and down as Mina tried to calm herself down. The water swirled against the two bodies, warming them up and soothing the nerves. Mina continued.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me roughly towards him and crushed his mouth onto mine. He held onto my wrist while doing that and he bruised it badly. I tried to wrench myself away but he held on fast.
'Keith, let go. You're hurting me.'
All he did, though, was grin evilly and pull me in closer, pushing me hard against a tree. His body pushed against mine so I couldn't move. He pressed his mouth onto mine and his hands began to move. He started to unbutton my shirt and when I realised what he was doing I began to struggle. He pulled away from me and looked at me.
'Don't you want to do this honey?'
'I'm not ready yet Keith. I don't want to do it yet.' I muttered.
'Well, too late sweatheart. I'm not taking no for an answer. I'll have you whether you want me or not. And there's nothing you can do to stop me.'
'Keith. Please don't do this. Please stop!' I pleaded.
But he ripped of my shirt and began to hitch up my skirt and all the while kissing me all over. I struggled and pushed at him but he was too strong. All these thoughts were going through my mind and I couldn't bare it.
Mina began to cry and she turned towards Seto's chest and buried her face under his neck. She began to sob and Kaiba held onto her as tight as he could. Mina couldn't stop talking now, not for Seto's sake but for her own. She had to get out what she had kept bottled up tight inside her for so long. The only one she had actually told all the details of that night to was Yugi. Mina began to talk softly, all the while crying into Seto's neck. Seto sqeezed her hand and held it tight as she continued, sqeezing it encouriginly although the disgust of what happened to her washed over him like cold water.
Keith stopped fumbing with my skirt long enough to undo his belt and pull down his pants. Then he…. He…
'Leave me alone!' I screamed. 'No no stop…Please.'
Seto recognized this from the dream she was having a few days back.
I began to cry and scream while all the while Keith… Oh Seto, it hurt all over. It was nothing like it said in the books. It hurt and I couldn't stop myself from crying which only gave him more satisfaction.
'Yugi! Yugi where are you?' I began to scream for my brother, hoping, praying that he would come to save me.
'Your brother won't save you now. He won't know where you are.' Keith panted.
Then I remembered the message to my brother I left on his phone and the message I left at the restaurant, telling him Keith took me to the park. I knew it was way after what Yugi said he would pick me up at. Yugi didn't trust Keith and so he would come looking for me. I knew it. My big brother would save me. All that time Keith continued.
'Help me someone! Get off me! Please! Someone will find me here and you will be…' Keith jerked hard and I screamed in pain. 'Stop it Ke - '
Just then voices came out from the side of the park. I could recognise them. It was Yugi. Yugi was here! Keith gave one last hard thrust and drew himself up. He looked at me with one evil grin, got himself ready and ran away. Everything hurt all over. I couldn't even hold myslef up. I colasped on the hard, earth ground. I felt so cold and alone. I wrapped my knees against my chest and hugged my arms around them. I just lay there and sobbed. I cried and cried until Yugi and Joey came running through the bushes. They gasped when they saw me, lying on the floor, naked and bruised.
I grabbed onto Yugi's shirt as he knelt over me. 'Yugi! Yugi! He… he did it. Ban… bandit Keith.' I managed to sob out. I could see Yugi's face get older right in front of me.
Joey wanted to go off right away and find Keith but Yugi stopped him. They wrapped my up in Yugi's jacket and helped me into my skirt. Yugi carried me home and put me in my bed. I slept. I slept for days and days until my body healed. Although, all my physical wounds had healed, all my mental ones didn't. It was days before I even mentioned Keith's name. Only a month later did I tell Yugi about what happened. I found out that Keith had been put into jail and I felt safe again. A few months later, I began taking martial arts classes. Soon I became a black belt at Karate and Tai Kwon Do. I even trained with knives and swords. I won championships and became national champion. I fought against all sorts of people and was never scared of any one of them. I became basically what I am right now. But even until today, the moment I think of Keith, I get scared. The day you saved me for the first time, the day with the giant Dark Tyranno attacked us. That day, we saw Keith again. I got so scared. I became the shell that I was a few years back, hiding behind Yugi. Oh God Seto. I can't deal with him.
Mina's story had ended and she was sobbing into Seto's neck. Her arms were wrapped around his neck and his were wrapped around her waist. Seto rested his chin onto the top of her head and he noticed that they were the perfect hight for each other. Her head came exactly under his chin, so they fit together like a jigsaw. He would have quite enjoyed this position but for the fact that the girl he was holding was crying into him and that he was shaking with rage from what happened to her. He hopped Yugi and the Mutt made good work of that bastard because if they didn't, he would. He couldn't believe anyone could do such a thing to Mina. She seemed so different now, so vulnerable. He held her in his arms and slowly rocked her, moving to the rhythm of the beating water. Her breathing slowed and her sobs ceased until they became sniffles and then slight hitches of the breath. Finally, she stopped altogether and just rested her head onto his chest.
The two stood like that for a few minutes thinking about what had just passed.
"I'm sorry for making you tell me." Seto finally broke the silence.
"No, its ok. I needed to get it of my chest sooner of later. And plus, since when does Seto Kaiba say sorry?"
'That's the Mina I know.' Kaiba thought. He bowed his head slightly and winked at her.
"C'mon. Let's go back. Blue Eyes and Fallen Angel will start to worry. And I'm getting all prune-like." Mina sighed and heaved herself out of the water.
She pulled on a towel and handed one to Seto, deliberatly not looking at his chest. She slipped into her shorts and tee and was about to walk of when Seto caught her arm.
"I packed all this food for nothing? That's nice."
"I don't know. I told you, they're going to worry."
"I doubt you care about that. All you thought was that your skin was going to get wrinklely. Well, if you think about it, this way you can get a tan while you sit out here and eat."
"Hmmm…. Ok."
Mina placed herself down on the mat opposite from Seto and accepted the sandwich he handed her. Seto himself lay back on a tree, a sandwich in hand and a fruit in the other. He rested his head back onto the tree trunk and began to tell Mina about one of Mokuba's adventures when they were at the orpahnage. Mina lay on her stomach watching Seto's Adam's apple move ever so sightly as his deep, smooth, baritone voice flowed out from his mouth.
Once the sun hit the middle of the sky, the two regrettably rolled up the mat and trudged back to the hut where they spent the day, practicing thir duelling with Fallen Angel and Blue Eyes.