A/N: Oh god I'm hungry, hold on a sec while I go make myself a sandwich...
Mmm, salad sandwich...cucumber, raw red onion, sweetcorn, cheese, pepper, chilli nomnomnom...
OKAY! LET'S GET THIS FIC ON THE INFORMATION SUPER-HIGHWAY!
~Ava
~XxX~
"What are you doing Callaghan?" Kaiba asked as he walked out of his 'office' and over to the coffee machine as I flicked through the channels as I crossed my bare feet under my person, I glanced over to him while answering.
"Running up your electricity bill I think. Why?" I questioned as I stopped on an American music channel, "What are you doing?" I turned back to the screen and frowned at the scantily-clad women on it, rolling my eyes and changing the channel again, muttering about Emmeline Pankhurst as I did so, he sighed exasperatedly.
"I meant, what are you doing out of your room?" He eyed the screen like it wanted to borrow money from him, "I can already see what you're doing." I mirrored his sigh and flicked channels again.
"Coffee plus insommniac plus a day already spent in a blue cube is enough to make anyone crave a change of scenery." I stopped on another music channel, Japanese this time, I listened to the 'rock' for a moment before sighing again. "That isn't rock, it's so forced...there's no true emotion there..." I heard Kaiba laugh derisively from my far right, I turned to him as he stood near the coffee machine as it whirred, I frowned, "What?"
"Of course there isn't Callaghan, its merely a publicity stunt." He said, as though talking to a five-year-old, "can't you see the stratagically placed brand-names?" I rolled my eyes again and flicked the channel.
"Yes, well, I get that, but that doesn't mean I like it." I huffed, settling instead for the BBC 24 news channel, smiling at the English accent the woman spoke with, learning that Boscastle had flooded and wincing at the photos that were shown, I looked over at Kaiba, who had just recived his coffee, "you wouldn't make me one would you?" I asked, plastering an obviously fake smile on my face, he raised an eyebrow at me and smirked slightly.
"What do you think Callaghan?"
"I thought not." I sighed as I moved from my comfy and warm spot on the sofa, putting my shoes back on and wincing slightly as I walked over to the same machine, sighing theatrically and punching the button for latté, frowning at his retreating figure I switched the tv off and invited myself into the same room after my latté finished making, smirking at Kaiba's reaction to the door swooshing open five minutes after he'd already entered.
"You do realise that this is supposed to be a private office, don't you Callaghan?" He asked, not even deviating away from his amazingly-fast typing. I looked up at the screen, frowning slightly at the golden dragon on the card.
"You do realise that you should've really listened to my advice back when we were looking for Yu-" I froze just before I finished my counter-sentence, remembering something I had said; something he'd repeated a few hours back. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, smirking behind my coffee as I took a sip, "Huh, you do pay attention sometimes..." He gave no indication that hed heard me, still typing, I glanced back up at the screen, he seemed to be running a search for something and was constantly refining the search parameters. I sat in the chair I had dragged over last night and hadn't been moved, looking over to the sleeping Mokuba who, once more, had Kaiba's coat over him. I laughed a little, regardless of whatever downing events that had transpired today, the comfortable silence punctuated by the stattaco clacking of keys, was easy to relax in. For some strange reason, I felt more at home with the sleeping boy and the emotional brick-wall, I suppose because I felt more comfortable when there were less people in a room. The clacking of keys stopped suddenly after I had been in the 'office' for fifteen minutes or so, the lack of it seeming odd, I looked over to Kaiba to see why but was confronted by him staring at me with a half-frown on his face.
"Wha~t?" I asked, drawing out the 'a' in confusion.
"What do you want Callaghan? He countered as I relaxed back into the Bugatti-chair, finding this the perfect instance to answer with a quote.
"I want nothing." I said, leaning back even further into the chair and sipping on my coffee, "I have good friends, good beverages and a sleeping Mokuba in the corner." I smirked at him, "this is the ideal life." He sighed again exasperatedly
"That was extremely paraphrased, Twain's probably spinning his his grave." Kaiba said, turning back to his computer, though his tone conveyed mild annoyance, I could swear I saw a slight smile.
"Good, stick a couple of dynamos on the man, maybe he'll be able to power my Mum's sense of freedom." I said, sounding a tad more bitter than I felt, Kaiba glanced over at me.
"I'm not your therapist Callaghan." I rolled my eyes at his words.
"Damn right you're not," I said, setting my half-empty latté down on the desk, as clear from the keyboard as possible, "I'm not paying you fifty quid an hour to listen to my problems, you're my friend; you're supposed to do that shit for free." He didn't even stop typing as he answered me.
"I'm not your friend either Callaghan."
"Well that's bull." I said, even though I'd expected the words they still stung a little, "I consider you a friend, you get no say in the matter. It's not your choice anyway." I countered, smiling at his slight smirk.
"...I still don't care about your problems Callaghan." He said at my reasoning and turned back to the screen, frowning at the writing, I too, frowned.
"Well," I said, shifting in the seat to get a better look at the writing, "I care about yours, so what the hell is your problem?" He glared across at me before shaking his head.
"Nothing of your concen." He half-smiled again, "besides, if I can't figure it out, I doubt you would." I flushed at the combination smile and sarcastic tease.
"Jerk." I stated, smiliing as I picked up my cardboard cup and took a sip, for some reason considering it half-full now.
~XxX~
"So, is it the Semi-finals tomorrow?" I asked Kaiba as dawn started breaking, three hours after I'd originally wandered in uninvited to his 'office.' Those three hours had been filled by short bursts of fairly amiable conversation with sarcastic banter every now and then and long periods of easy silence, I checked my watch after speaking, 5:30am.
"No." He said, as my head snapped up from my watch.
"No?" I repeated, shocked, he shook his head.
"No, it will take us the rest of the day to get to where the Semi-Finals shall be taking place-" I cut him off halfway though his words, eyebrows raised in shock.
"The rest of the day/" I said, shock evident, "Just where are you hosting these things?" I asked, pursing my lips in a 'not impressed' look at his raised eyebrow, "Oh don't give me that, tell me." He shook his head.
"I can't Callaghan-"
"I'm not a Duelist, it's not going to give me an advantage you know." I cut across him asecond time, though this time I sounded more reasonable at least.
"Callaghan, you may not be a Duelist, but you are friends with Duelists." I acted affronted at his words.
"OH. And you knowing is perfectly fine? Need I remind you that you are a Duelist also?" He smirked at mine.
"Yes, but as the host of this tournament; I have to know." I rolled my eyes at his reason, a smirk of my own on my face.
"Unbelievable. You are absolutely un-bloody-believable." I sighed and shook my head, rising from the seat I had claimed as my own, wincing, and sitting back down again. Kaiba frowned at me as I rubbed the heel of my foot and winced again.
"Problem Callaghan?" He asked, sounding vaugely concerned at my display of pain. I shook my head and winced again, flexing my toes and repeating the heel-rubbing with my other foot.
"Not really, I just forgot that I'd spent three days in high-heel shoes. It aches like hell." He sighed exasperatedly and turned back to the screen, still researching the card's power.
"Then maybe you shouldn't have chosen high-heeled shoes for this." I cut him off from taking more by pointing at him with my free hand.
"Hey! I wish to get one thing clear. I did not choose these shoes for this..." I tried to think of a word but none came to me, "expedition," I settled for, "Teá phoned me while I was drying my hair after I had gotten soaked earlier on, remember? My practical footwear was drying on the damn radiator when I came here." I huffed faux bitterly, "I had no idea that I was going to be stuck on this floating egotrip for a month with just the clothing I'm wearing currrently and with a psychopathic hypnotist on board." Kaiba smirked again at what I had said.
"Well, at the very least you look professional, rather than wearing sneakers with a suit." I gasped, about to unload a British pop culture reference at him when I paused, was that a very round-about compliment? I filed that away for the moment.
"I'll have you know that the best protagonist in a British sci-fi series so far wore 'sneakers'," I hooked my fingers around the American term, "with a pinstripe suit. He looked perfectly fine." I said, smirking and blushing slightly. I rose again, this time not wincing so badly and exited without a word, walking through the corriodrs to my room, where I stopped abruptly outside Teá's room, which was situated next to mine. I frowned, there seemed to be several voices coming from inside. I knocked on the door tentatvely and was greeted by Teá.
"S-Sophie?" She asked, stuttering over the 's' before leaping at me and throwing her arms around my neck, I was knocked back a step by her but awkwardly hugged her back, a frown on my face as she pulled back. "Well, that's one of you out of the way..." She frowned at me and stood aside to let me in, I did so, if possible, even more tentatively after her display of affection. When I was seated on her bed next to Yugi I looked round the room, the rest of my friends also there.
"I love you, but, what on earth was that for?" I asked her, frowning, she frowned back at me, folding her arms and leaning on her back foot.
"YOU tell ME that!" She said, her voice raising slightly at the end, "we thought that you and Bakura had disappeared together!" I held up my hands and pushed backwards, signalling her to slow down in her, well-meaning, accusations.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up!" I said hastily, "Bakura is missing? Ie, our unconscious friend is missing?" Teá nodded frantically.
"I went to his room after placing his Millennium Ring with him and now he's just-gone." I placed my head in my hands, and I had hoped for a quiet, stress-free day. Joey spoke up from near the minibar with Tristan and Duke while Serenity was, I assumed, still with Mai.
"Hey, where were you? Cuz Teá went to your room n'all to get you and you weren't there." He asked from around a mouthful of...well, something you ate with chopsticks. I cleared my throat uneasily and felt embarassed at being embarassed.
"I...uhhh..I was elsewhere." I said, inwardly wincing at the next question from Joey, the last person I would tell.
"Elsewhere? What's that supposed to mean?" I gritted my teeth and briefly wondered why I was so inwardly against putting the Bambi-like friendship Kaiba and I had into words to a person who would quite happily punch him in the face, oh, yeah, that was why.
"I was watching Kaiba do some research on the God card..." I trailed off at the look he gave me, his mouth open in shock and it seemed to be a look that was mirrored on Tristan's and Duke's. Teá however, had a look in her eye that mildly scared me, it wasn't shocked, angry or anything that would inherently worry me as to the status of our friendship; it was however, a look that gave me the distinct feeling that she knew all along and just wanted to hear what I had to say about it. Yugi on the other hand was more tactful in his shock at least, he wasn't looking at me like I'd kicked a puppy.
"Y-You did WHAT?" Joey asked, yelling a little at the end, but not at me, more in shock.
"What?" Tristan echoed as I raised my hands again.
"Look, can we get back to the point here? I'm here and Bakura isn't. Do you think he's okay?" I asked, snapping the feeders by the small fridge back to reality. Joey pointed at me with a finger and two chopsticks.
"I'm not finished with you, but yeah, ya have a point." I nodded at his words and stifled a yawn with my hand.
"So? Do you think he's okay?" I asked again as Yugi nodded.
"Yeah, he has to be, I mean, even if he isn't, we'll get him back." I smiled, once again astounded by the quiet confidence my eccentrically-haired friend was the owner of. I covered my mouth with my hand as I yawned again.
"Oh god I haven't slept in two days..." I glanced over at the door and got up shakily, "Night guys, if we're going to be stuck on this thing for the rest of today," I pushed the red button in the wall and watched the door swoosh open again, "I'm going to spend it catching up on sleep." I waved and stumbled into my room, almost falling off my heels, removing my blue blouse once more and throwing it on the dresser, making a mental note to wash my clothing in the sink after I showered later, and fell into a dreamless sleep.
~XxX~
A/N: HO SHIT. I'm done with the Battle City arc! My dear, dear readers, this marks a momentous occasion.
I AM THE FIRST PERSON TO WRITE A NON-MARY-SUE, KAIBA/OC ROMANCE IN THE BATTLE CITY ARC!
AND THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE! THEY SCORNED ME! BUT I MADE MY DREAM REAL! I DID WHAT NO-ONE ELSE HAS DONE BEFORE! SUE-AUTHORS, TAKE NOTE.
YOUR OC? IT CAN HAVE A REALISTIC ROMANCE! HMKAY HUN? I'M NOT A TALENTED WRITER, (feel free to correct me here and pet my ego on the way out XD), BUT LOOKIT; I'VE DONE IT. AND I'M NOT EVEN FINISHED YET! I HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN TO THE BIT WHERE THERE ARE INJOKES AND EMOTIONS AND AND AND!
*puts on shades*
/CSI:Miami
*takes off shades*
Tell your grandkids.
~Ava