Chapter 10
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Serenity jumped awake at the sound of her door being opened. It was very early in the morning and she didn't have school for little over three more hours. For a split second, thoughts of "What did I do..?" raced through her mind.
"Phone call." Her father said angrily, throwing the phone onto her bed rather hard. He wasn't very happy about being woken up because one of her friends called too early.
"H-Hello?" Serenity said into the phone, rubbing her leg where it had hit her.
'Serenity!!' Mai's voice shouted through the phone. Serenity rubbed her eyes.
"Do you know what time it is?" She asked, rather uncharacteristically.
'I'm sorry, but I just couldn't wait any longer . . . Joey proposed!' Serenity shot up.
"What?" She said, smile forming across her face.
'A few hours ago! He proposed to me right by the fountain in the back yard, it was so beautiful!'
She splurged.
"Oh my God, you're getting married!" Serenity shouted as quietly as she could.
'I'm getting married!' Mai shouted as loudly as she could. Serenity laughed, happy for her. 'I wanted to tell you, Oh! I have to call Tea!' She said.
"Call her, but don't tell her you told me before her, She'd want to be the first one to hear!" Serenity giggled.
'Will do, bye little sis!' Serenity ended the call and got up to put the phone away.
"Hey Seto." Mokuba called as he walked into his brother's room. Kaiba had been fixing his shirt in the mirror. "Can Serenity come over after work tonight? We both get out at six, and I want to play Sims 2 with her."
"Fine." Kaiba said shortly.
"Oh, and can she eat here too?"
"Sure." Kaiba also said shortly.
"Thanks Seto!" Mokuba went to give him a hug but stopped. "You spent the weekend like that?" He said, quietly.
"Like what?" Kaiba asked, facing him. Once he saw Mokuba's face, he looked back at himself facing sideways in the mirror. Blood had been seeping through the back of his shirt. "Shit." He said rather calmly, pulling it out and unbuttoning what he just recently buttoned.
"Cant you just skip school and let it heal?" Mokuba asked, picking out a new shirt for him.
"No, I have a test in calculus today." Kaiba said, walking into the bathroom. Mokuba followed him, getting ready to help.
Mokuba was quite good at bandaging, but he had had lots of practice. After Kaiba was sure that the blood would not seep though the bandaging he took the shirt Mokuba had pulled out for him and put it on. He grabbed an extra shirt, just in case, and left for school.
"Bye Joey!" Serenity waved at her big brother as he passed her with Mai, riding away on his bike. She was so excited about Joey and Mai, and couldn't wait to help plan Mai's 'Last night of freedom' party.
She walked down the street to her house, just thinking about how great the day had turned out. First, Joey and Mai's engagement, then she aced the calculus test, and even after that Tristan gave her his chocolate pudding. She giggled at herself for thinking the last one, but she loved chocolate pudding.
Serenity walked up to the front door of her apartment, and pulled out her key. She smiled thinking about the day, but she did wonder why Kaiba disappeared during lunch and had a different shirt on during the piano and guitar class. She sighed, blowing it off and opening the door. Once inside she pulled off her jacket, and hung it on the hook attached to the back of the front door.
"Do you know how exhausting my work schedule is?" Her fathers voice rang from behind her. "I hope you didn't forget."
Kaiba sat behind his office desk, working on his laptop. Actually, in truth, he wasn't working, he was playing solitaire. It just looked like he was working from the other side of his desk. He was truly bored out of his mind. He had finished the days work, and half of Tuesday's work as well. Did he really have to wait the extra two hours to close up?
Unlike his weekend employees, Kaiba didn't trust his weekday employees as far as he could throw them . . .which might be pretty far depending . . .Steve from accounting would go flying-
Kaiba was shaken out of his thoughts by the buzzing of his cell phone.
"Hey Mo-"
'Seto, I think Serenity's hurt!'
"What?"
'well . . . shewasn'tatthecornerwhereIwassupposedtopickherupandIcalledhertwotimesandshedidn'tanswersoIwaitedafewminutesandtriedagainandsomeonepickedup-welltheydidn'treallypickuptheymusthavehittheanswerbutton-
"MOKUBA!" Kaiba yelled through the phone, urging his brother to speak so I could use the space-bar. *
" When I called Serenity, she was screaming and crying!" He said. Kaiba didn't even say goodbye before hanging up and preparing himself for driving really fast. He reached into his desk draw for one last thing before heading out the door.
As he got into his car he called the police, placing an anonymous call with Serenity's street address and the problem. He hung up as he rounded the last turn, and pulled in front of her building. He didn't even shut off the engine when he ran out and kicked in the front door.
All the evidence he needed was in front of him. Serenity's father froze as Kaiba caught him mid punch. Serenity was on the ground and her father was standing over her holding her up by the collar of her shirt.
"You!" He father glared, getting ready to follow through on the punch. Within seconds Kaiba had pulled out his P99 and aimed it at the man in front of him. He froze again.
The sounds of sirens could be heard and Kaiba made the mistake of turning his head slightly in response to the cops being outside. In that second, Serenity's father grabbed her, using her as a shield in front of him and moved back towards the bedrooms. Kaiba followed him, making sure he didn't shut and lock a door between them.
"Kaiba!" Serenity shouted, trying to free herself. Her father just tightened his grip on her, somewhat choking her in the process.
"Let her go or I swear to God, I'll end you!" Kaiba said, trying to get a clear shot. The man made no reply. He seemed somewhat crazed by the escalation of things, like he would do anything, and that scared Kaiba.
"You think you're the only one with a gun?" He said edging towards the bedside table.
"Don't." Kaiba warned. He moved anyways and Kaiba took the only shot he could afford.
The man howled in pain, dropping Serenity and grabbing his arm. Serenity crawled, coughing towards Kaiba, who helped her up.
Hands came from behind Kaiba, pulling him back. Kaiba barely stopped himself from attacking the policemen who were moving him out of the way. He decided to let the police handle the crazed wounded man. After a few minutes, Serenity and Kaiba were out on the stoop to her apartment. An ambulance had taken Serenity's father away, and the police had just finished asking questions, and had gone back to the station. They were alone.
"You . . . you lied to me." Kaiba said, just staring at the street. Serenity couldn't think of anything to say to him
"You lied to me, and to Joey." he said, making her feel worse. The fact that he used her brothers name meant that she was in trouble.
"I . . .I'm sorry." She couldn't bring herself to look at him.
"Why did you defend him?" Kaiba half yelled, raising his voice.
"I . . .I-"
"He beat you and hurt you, and you still lied about him!" Kaiba stood up, not happy with just sitting, and paced the sidewalk. "You lied to everyone who trusted you-"
"Why do you even care!?" She yelled back, finally defending herself. He stopped and looked at her. "You don't care about anyone, It's always just you! So why are you doing this?" She cried. Kaiba could see her breaking down inside, but her words yanked him from the sympathy he would have felt.
"Fine, if you really think that, then there's no reason for me to be here." He got up and headed to his car. He could hear her crying behind him and after much deliberation, decided not to let his rage take over. Turning to look at her, he saw that she was sitting with her head in her hands, trying to figure out what to do and how to act. He sighed heavily and shut his car door.
" . . . I'm not leaving. At least . . .not until Joey gets here." He said, sitting down next to her.
"Why are you here?" she asked quietly, still crying into her hands.
"Because . . . I wasn't about to let it happen to anyone else." he sighed. She looked up at him, then back down to the street in front of her.
"I'm sorry." She said again.
"For what?" He said, aggravation lacing his voice.
"For dragging you into this. I . . . I should have told someone." She folded her arms around her legs and leaned her chin on her knees.
"Yes, you should have . . . but I have to admit . . .I did enjoy shooting him." Kaiba said, looking at her. At first she tried to stop herself, but after looking up at him she cracked a smile, and, unknowingly, he did too.
"Can she can she can she?????" Mokuba pleaded, following Kaiba around the mansion like a duckling follows it's mother.
"Mokuba, it isn't our problem!" Kaiba shouted back. "Mokuba, I know you want to help her, but it's out of our hands now. She's still officially a minor, which means she needs a guardian."
"You're my guardian." Mokuba said, trying to get Kaiba to stay in one place.
"Barely. And only because of my constant fighting with the law officials and my financial ability to take care of you." Mokuba looked down, trying to figure out a way to save Serenity.
"Mokuba," Kaiba said, pulling the boys attention back to him. "I know you like Serenity. I know you care about her and want her to be safe, but we've already helped all we can. We have to let her and her brother make the decisions now."
"But I feel so useless now." Mokuba tried to look away again, but Kaiba pulled him into a hug.
"You can support her. You can make her feel better." He said to his little brother. Mokuba pulled away from him.
"I'm gonna go hang out with her right now!" He said, turning to leave.
"Mokuba! Your room now." Kaiba said, stopping his little brother with only the tone of his voice.
"But . . . You said . . ."
"Tomorrow. Tonight, bed." Kaiba said sternly. Mokuba trudged downstairs and all the way to his room, slamming his door.
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Short chapter, I know . . .but I think it's a bit critical to the main plot . . . meh . . .
*I know it's not "professional" for me to add myself into the story, but I couldn't resist ^.^'''
R,R & E!!!