A/N: Gaaah, the spelling mistakes in the last one will be fixed by the time I post this chapter, but until then you're going to have to suffer through them XD
JESUS H CHRIST THERE WAS A SPIKE IN READERS YESTERDAY. AND TODAY! I am honestly amazed that so many people like this, seriously, see it from my angle, I'm a 16 year-old girl, sitting her bedroom writing on a laptop that is older than her while being stared at by her cat. Either that or I'm looking after my younger sibling or cooking dinner or working or SOMETHING and I come back to 400 story alerts/faves and a crap-tonne of views XD
I LOVE YOU. EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU THAT HAS BOTHERED WITH THIS THING.
~Ava
~XxX~
Blimps aren't like helicopters.
I love them.
Or, well, maybe just this blimp.
"Chrome." I said with a smile, running my fingers over the sill of a nearby window and turning round to sit in a black leather chair infront of a glass coffee table. I rested my head against the back of the chair, opening my eyes and gasping while I leapt up and clapped my hand to my chest. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph." I said inbetween hyperventilating as Kaiba smirked at me. He, apparently, had been standing behind me as all of us were in the main room of the blimp, I only realised this fact after I had sat down and saw him loom over me upside down. "What-what the HELL was that for?" I asked as I heard Teá laugh a little from behind me, I turned to her and surpressed a smile, I couldn't stay angry after I'd made a fool of myself but honestly...
"Callaghan, was that really necessary?" Kaiba asked, sounding mildy amused at my frantic and ungraceful manouvre. I glared at him, blush evident, but thankfully it could be attributed to embarrassment.
"Was it nece-forget it." I waved the possible argument away, remembering my promise from earlier, "Why were you looming?"
"Here." He threw something at me, which I caught neatly, feeling a little smug at the fact I did so as he threw something at Teá also, I held up what I had caught and frowned.
"Keycard?" I asked, not quite understanding, Kaiba nodded.
"Each of you has a room, unfortunately a few of you are sharing," he smirked, not making it sound unfortunate at all as he threw only one keycard with an orange tag on it at Joey, who looked from Tristan to Duke, the only others without keys now, with a look on his face that I can only describe as horrified. "There are two beds in that room, so I'm afraid you'll have to share." He finished, obviously enjoying the sheer disbelief that the three friends had plastered on their faces. Teá and I exchanged a look of amusement, well, it wouldn't hurt them.
"Think of it as..." I paused, trying to think of a way to soften the blow, "male-bonding. You can talk about cardgames and...whatever it is you do in your spare time..." I tailed off at the look they were giving me in unison before Teá's laugh at what I had said made me smile widely for the first time in months, smile fading as I thought of something; I turned to Kaiba.
"Just how long are we going to be on this blimp?" I asked, frowning at him and jangling the two pieces of plastic against eachother with the number '4' on them frantically.
"About four weeks Callaghan. Taking into consideration where the finals are going to be held and travel." He answered, frowning at my reaction slightly. I had gaped at his prediction before muttering to myself as I grabbed my mobile from my trouser pocket, flipping it open and dialling a number before holding it to my ear and waiting for it to ring.
"God, I just-I don't know why I like you so much sometimes." I said glaring at him and turning away to look out of the window before I could see his reaction. "Hi, Mum?"
"SOPHIE! Whre are you? You weren't even here for dinner and then you left! I barely saw you!" My Mother's relieved voice buzzing over the line, I took a deep breath, about to regret the trick I was going to pull next.
"Mu~m?" My Mother sighed slightly, the expression sounding like a hiss of static over the phone.
"What do you want?" She asked, I could almost hear her rolling her eyes and feigning exaustion. I launched into my improvised shpiel.
"The tournament that my friends and I are a part of? It's just come out that the quarter/semi and final-finals will be happening during...well...the Summer..."
"And?"
"And that means away. Ie, not here." I winced as I spoke, turning away from the window to face my friends, most of them crowded around the mini-bar in the corner and noting that neither Ryou or the new boy Namu was there. I anticipated the next words from her.
"I don't know Sophie...I mean, that means you'll be spending your birthday away from me, and it'll be with people you don't know-" I cut her off halfway through.
"Not true Mum, I'm friends with all of them." I said, fixing my gaze to Kaiba and narrowing my eyes at him. I also deliberately chose to neglect to mention the fact that there was the same homicidal and sadistic mind-controlling freak that took over my friends on the blimp too... the event which I had also neglected to mention.
"I'll have to think about it...but maybe you do need to learn what it's like to be away from your Mother once in a while..." She sighed again before she continued. "Will you be fed?" I eyed my friends, currently eating most of the food.
"Yes."
"Housed adaqautely?" My hand tightened around the keycard in my other hand.
"Yep, there's certainly room."
"Well, after your birthday, when you're seventeen ask me again." I winced again as I heard her words, judging by the sight outside of the window, we were already over a completely different part of Japan, I couldn't leave my friends and nor did I want to.
"I'm sorry Mum, my birthday's a week away and we have no time. I'm so, so, sorrybutI havetodothisbye!" I rushed my last sentence, hitting the end-call button and quickly flipping my phone over, prying the back cover off it as it started to ring, I yanked the Nokia battery out of it and the ringing died, leaning against the wall and closing my eyes; I felt a headache coming on.
"I take it the news wasn't recived well?" Kaiba asked, smirking again, I opened one eye and glared at him before I threw the battery to him, he caught it neatly in one hand and inspected it.
"I just directly disobeyed the one person on Earth I love and trust because of your stupid tournament, some freak that likes screwing with people's minds and my bloody friendship, I'd appreciate it if you hushed for the moment so I can wallow in self-pity." I snapped at him, feeling a little disgusted with myself. It may not have been a big deal for many other teenagers to directly disobey their parents, but I was very close to my Mother and being so...different to my usual me was taking it's toll. I pinched the bridge of my nose and pushed myself off the wall. "Could you just..." I motioned the battery I had thrown at him, "I don't know, put it in a safe or something? I don't want to be able to get to it..." I raised my voice to shout across the room to my friends, who were eating and talking about something I wasn't paying attention to, "I'm going to bed guys...I've got a headache, I'll see you in the morning." I caught a few nods when Joey raised a point.
"You'll miss the first duel Soph, are you sure you want to do that?" He asked, shifing a pair of chopsticks in one hand as he held a bowl in another, I frowned for a moment, while I didn't paticularily like the game, I knew how much it meant to my friends and how much it meant for them to have their friends around them when they played. I was spared the navigation of such a delicate subject by Kaiba sighing exasperatedly.
"Just go Callaghan, I can't be responsible for your fainting during a duel, it would distract the duelists." He said with a disinterested tone as I stared at him in disbelief. Did Kaiba just save my skin? Instead of questioning this however, I instead allowed myself to smile slightly at him before almost bolting out of the room and into the first of many corridors on the way to my new room.
~XxX~
It had taken me several attempts to find the fourth room, but once I had found it I removed my jacket, blouse and shoes, falling asleep the second my head hit the pillow. I hadn't realised the downside to this plan at the time however.
It was two thirty in the morning and I was wide awake.
Well, in actuality, when I had woken up it was one in the morning, but I had spent the past hour and a half in the en suite to my room testing toiletries. I had decided that, at the very least, when it came to hotels, if KaibaCorp ever decided to branch out it certainly wouldn't fail. So now I was fully dressed, smelling like peach and kicking my feet backwards and forwards over the edge of my bed when a thought hit me. I was away from my clothing, my books, my laptop, my-
"Oh no..." I moaned and buried my face into my pillow. "My coffee..." I sat up quickly, pressing a hand to my head to stave off the headrush, "there was a coffee machine in the main room." I thought aloud, snatching the keycard to my room and stuffing it in my pocket as I left the room in a rush, already feeling the jitters of caffine withdrawal.
~XxX~
"Who're you?" I asked a man in a black suit and shades who was standing by the door as I halted infront of the coffee machine, reading the sign along the side and punching in the number for 'latté', the black machine chunked and gears whirred and whined inside it, as I was waiting I turned round to face the man, frowning at my lack of anything akin to an answer when I heard a voice behind me.
"His name is Roland, he's my new bodyguard." I turned to face Kaiba, who seemingly appeared from thin air."Callaghan." He said, aknowledging me with a nod and a frown, "Why are you here?"
I snorted, "Never mind that, how did you pull that magic trick? And why are you awake?" I asked, another 'chunk' signalling my coffee was ready, I retrieved it and sniffed it gently; not wanting to scald my nose on the steam.
"There is no such thing as magic Callaghan, I expected you to know that." He answered, avoiding both of my questions and somehow looking far less intimidating and far more accessible without his coat again. I hadn't noticed last time due to my deliberate avoidance of him before I apologised, but now...I hid my blush behind the cardboard cup as I drank a little of it, burning my throat slightly but ignoring it in favour of hiding my embarrassment, I gagged a little and looked around for the sugar.
"No side-stepping the question." I said, lowering the cup and narrowing my eyes slightly, still searching.
"There's a drawer at the top Callaghan," he sighed as I found the small back handle and pulled it open, setting my coffee back down and adding two sugars.
"You're still doing it you know." I reprimanded as he rolled his eyes and folded his arms.
"I was in my office if it means that much to you. Why do you need to know?" He countered, frowning at me.
"If you're going to appear out of thin air behind me I'd like to know how, plus, I've had sleep. You look like you've probably been awake all this time." I shrugged before frowning back at him, he sighed slightly, sounding like he was just giving up with me before turning and exiting the main room through a door I hadn't noticed before. I stared at the door for a moment, thinking something over for several minutes before steadying myself for what I was about to do next.
"Hey, Roland?" I asked, turning to the man who finally aknowledged me by turing his head to face me, eyebrows raised above his shades to invite a question, I took a shaky breath before asking.
"How does he take his coffee?"
~XxX~
A/N: OH MAH GAWD. IS THIS A ROMANTIC SUB-PLOT IN PROGRESS?
Why yes, yes it is.
And you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out how it pans out. SO HA.
(I love you really.)
Actually, y'know what? How about double-updates on Friday so I don't have to write during my Saturday?
Fuck it, I'll just do that.
~Ava