A/N: URGH, forgive any spelling/grammar general mistakes in this chapter please, I'm having to type with one hand as I practically cut through my right index finger whiile making the family dinner last night. But on the upside, someone ELSE has to make the dinner for a change. XD
And to one of my new favorite people:
WHY YES SOPHIE, START SMILING DEMURELY AND BEING A HOT SASSY ACTION CHICK ¬_¬
XD
~Ava
~XxX~
I got up from my sprawled position on the ground, rubbing my head and finding a twig in my hair. I looked over to my left and saw Mokuba doing the same as me.
"You alright?" I asked, nodding at him before I frowned at the twig; wondering why I could feel it if it was supposed to be a hologram, I threw it at the undergrowth and heard a rustle after I did so as a squirrel ran out.
"Yeah I think I'm-Seto!" Mokuba cut though his own sentence at the sight of his brother on the ground, shaking him awake as I got to my feet, again cursing the fact that I was in heels on this woodland terrain.
"Mokuba. Are you okay?" The kid nodded at his brother's words as Kaiba looked up to me and frowned slightly, "Callaghan." He stated flatly as I waved away his mildly annoyed look.
"Not my fault the Pompously Prickish Pentuplets decided to lob me in the same place as you." I said as I rolled my neck, I heard a sigh and heard the slightly amused tone to his next words.
"Quit the alliteration Callaghan."
"Fine." I frowned after speaking, looking both ways down the dirt-path inbetween the trees we were on, about to ask a question before Mokuba asked it for me.
"Which way do you think we should go bro?" He asked as said brother brushed some dirt off his cuffs and I stared into the undergrowth at the squirrel, it glared back at me reproachfully. My, it's just a hologram, mantra failing in this instance. I was snapped from my staring contest with the tiny mammal by Kaiba, who looked back over his shoulder as they were walking.
"Are you coming Callaghan? Or are you just going to glare at the virtual trees all day?" I looked up and walked quickly, catching up with them before speaking.
"I wasn't staring at the trees Kaiba, I was glaring at a squirrel." The look both brothers gave me as we walked making me rationalise why to them, "I threw a twig at it and totally knackered the squirrel, but..." I sighed, trying to think of a way to say, the hologram is real, without sounding like a madwoman. I didn't have to as Kaiba frowned at my words.
"A twig? As in, a twig that you could feel?" I nodded at his words.
"Well, it was lodged in my hair, I'm pretty sure I could feel it."
"Hmm," He frowned deeper, "there's no way that little twerp, Noah, created holograms that simulate touch on his own..." I smirked.
"I wasn't aware that the word, 'twerp', was in common usage in Japan..." I trailed off, thinking of something, "What about our friends?" I asked, feeling a pang on emotion at the thought of Teá being hurt, she had disappeared on her own...
"I've told you before Callaghan, they aren't my friends." I snorted as Mokuba frowned in confusion at my reaction, still walking.
"Mhmm," I avoided tripping over a pothole, "you keep telling yourself that Kaiba." My brain caught up with my ears, "Nice to know you aren't including me in the they." He glared at me for a second.
"I can't get rid of you Callaghan, you're always there." He said sounding mildly amused at my faux disgusted sigh halfway through his words as I smirked.
"Damn right I-WHOA!" I stopped dead in my tracks, almost walking into Mokuba who had halted infront of me. I gawked at the building that we had stopped infront of, it was sprawling across the land like some kind of spider, I felt the atmosphere to my right tense as Mokuba spoke.
"Oh hey! Isn't this the Orphanage where we grew up Seto?" Mokuba asked, slightly frowning at the building, "Huh, I didn't think this thing was still around..." Kaiba snorted.
"No, this must be a virtual version of the Orphanage..." He frowned even deeper, "which means that Noah has managed to get his software to read our memories of this place and turn them into this." I had momentarily frozen when Mokuba said the word, 'Orphanage', I had no idea...I glanced across at Kaiba, well, it certainly explained some things...
"Hey look Seto! It's us!" Mokuba pointed at a small child of maybe five who was sitting on a swing; a mass of black hair confirming it to be a younger him. My heart lurched uncomfortably at the sight of a ten(ish) Kaiba; smiling, cute and apparently sweet as he patted his brother's head while the younger Mokuba spoke.
"I don't like it here Seto..." A sniffle from the youngest, indicating that he'd probably been crying, "the kids are mean..." While it was no secret that I didn't paticularily like anyone under fourteen, I felt myself wanting to hug the kid.
"It's okay Mokie," I felt another lurch as the younger Kaiba tried to cheer up his, slightly down, brother, "we'll get out of here soon, but until then, all we have is eachother." The scene fizzled away, only to be replaced with a new one; the two brothers, both still younger, playing chess.
"Aww man!" The younger Mokuba said, laughing slightly as he stared at the chessboard his brother and he were playing at, "you beat me again Seto!" The past Kaiba-hang on-I cut my inner monolouge off, orphan equals different last name, and really, I glanced quickly at the present Kaiba on my left; staring resolutely ahead with a faint tic on his cheekbone, I can't compare the two. I glanced back to the scene again.
"You could beat me Mokie," a sigh of highly amused irritaion from the past...Seto, "if you just focused!" He started to re-set the board before the TV caught his eye.
"-And Gozaburo Kaiba has cemented his place as the worlds Number One chess-player for the FOURTH time running!" I frowned at the telvision, he had the last name...The name, "Gozaburo," sounds horribly familiar... I thought, vaugely remembering it from something or other.
"I liked those days better..." The present Mokuba said, pressing his hand against the glass window that we were looking through. Kaiba shot him a look.
"You preferred it back in this dump?" Was the shocked reply as Mokuba scrunched his eyes shut, as though he was physically pained by the half-shout.
"YES!" He shouted, taking both Kaiba and I aback slightly, "At least when we were here yousmiled! And you used to call me 'Mokie'!" Eyes still shut tight, Mokuba balled his hands into fists, "But that all changed once we were adopted!" I felt my heart lurch once more and I took a half-step forwards, just as the ground under the kid crumbled and he fell. In a split-second Kaiba and I had leapt forwards, each grabbing one of Mokuba's arms, I gasped as I took half the force of his body and heard the grunt from my right as Kaiba did the same.
"Callaghan, don't drop my brother." There was something about the way that Kaiba said those words that made me feel like he would personally kill me if that happened, I growled as I helped pull his brother up.
"Oho-ho-ho," I winced as we pulled Mokuba onto land, "you are so getting hurt for thinking that I'd do such a thing." The second he was on land Mokuba hugged his brother tightly, I unthinkingly leant against Kaiba, catching my breath. "God," I panted inbetween breaths, "I love you both, but what the hell have you been eating kid? Rocks?" I heard a slightly muffled snort from the folds of Kaiba's trenchcoat, "And you," I shoved Kaiba as hard as I could in my energy depleted state; he barely budged, "if you ever doubt my commitment to saving a friend again, I'll-" I paused for a second, wondering what I'd do, "Well, I probably can't do anything to you." I admitted, hearing an identical snort from my leaning post, "But I'll probably stop hanging around." Another snort.
"That doesn't sound like a threat Callaghan." He paused for a second as I grabbed onto his shoulder to push myselff back to my feet, "Unless you've misunderstood the concept of a threat." I rolled my eyes as I brushed supposedly virtual dust off my blouse.
"Oh you'd miss me Se-ack-Kaiba." I fumbled over the name I inwardly referred to his younger self as while he and Mokuba got to their feet, he shot me a momentarily undiscernable look before it was replaced with a raised eyebrow.
"Thanks you guys," Mokuba said, detatching himself from his brother and frowning down at the sheer drop five meters infront of us, "I thought this virtual world wasn't able to be such a danger..." I frowned also.
"Hmm," I made a vaugely agreeing noise, "And that twig was real...I could feel it..." Kaiba glanced around our landscape as it started to change back to the Orphanage.
"We'll have to be more careful fom now on." I 'hmm'd' another agreement before smirking.
"My charm, my wit, my ravishingly good looks." Both brothers looked at me like I'd finally lost it, "Oh don't mind me," I said, flitting a hand to the two of them, "I'm just listing the things you'd miss about me-" At my words Kaiba smirked at me at the same time Mokuba laughed. "My conservative coffee drinking-"
"-Your chattering, your general annoyance, your constant invasions of privacy." Kaiba cut across me mid-sentence, I smirked but at the last point I glanced away from the two of them, towards the Orphanage. I sighed.
"I'm sorry." Kaiba's eyes narrowed at my words.
"We don't want or need your pi-" I snorted at his.
"Psh, I'm not pitying you." I waved away what he had said, "GOD no, I hate it too, al the time after Dad left," I rolled my eyes, " though I didn't get it on your level," I added seriously, "but nooo, I can't stand that pity-squint either, I know they have good intentions but-" Another glare.
"Get to the point Callaghan." Kaiba said, frowning at me. I sighed and took a breath, looking bsck to the brothers at making eye contact with both of them before locking eyes with Kaiba.
"I'm sorry for being here." I sighed again, "it's the ultimate invasion of your privacy, it's your childhood, hell," I snorted and gestured somewhere over my shoulder, "I bet even Yugi doesn't know this whole-" I outlined a circle with my hands, "-thing..." Another raised eyebrow from both the brothers this time.
"But," Mokuba started, frowning slightly at me, already having gotten over the shock from earlier, "it's not your fault, I mean, you've already said so too." I laughed a little.
"HA! Yeah, I know it's not my fault, but I'm still apologising. Just...so you two know that I'm not exactly filing this information away to, I don't know" I shrugged and tried to think of something that someone would do with this info, "sell it or something." Kaiba snorted as I tried to fathom what the hell the expression on his face meant.
"Hmm," a non-committal noise, "you'd better not Callaghan." He frowned at me until I clapped my hands over my heart and took a step back, as though the very notion that I would pained me. Mokuba smirked at my display.
"Oof, that statement has wounded my very heart Kaiba." I shook my head and laughed slightly, taking the step forwards again, "I am shamed that you don't trust me." I said with a smile that contested my last statement.
"I barely trust you Callaghan." He sighed as the scenery solidified into the Orphanage again, this time in the concreted plaza infront of it. I scoffed as I moved to stand next to him, lowering my voice as though the approaching hologram of a man in a red suit could hear me.
"Barely implies some form of trust," I whispered, "who's he?" I nodded at said man, taking note of the look of pure hate that both brothers had on their faces, admittedly Mokuba's was less hateful due to the fact that he was literally as cute/innocent-looking as the squirrel I'd knackered earlier.
"That's Gozaburo." Mokuba answered my question with an eye-narrow at the man.
~XxX~
A/N: Why yes, I was in pain while writing this chapter but like I said, THIS IS AN ADDICTION! That and with the painkillers I'm taking, there's a 50/50 chance that I'm being stabbed right now and I don't know it.
Why yes, that was a reference XD
RIGHT, I NEED YOUR HELP! I need to know whether you guys think Sophie is a Mary-Sue, I need to know how you think that her's and Kaiba's interaction is going and I need to know whether or not you guys would pick envelope One or Two. The last question was real too by the way, I've been wondering what a paticular character would say/do and I couldn't decide. SO, the plot bunnies were stuffed into envelopes and I need you guys to choose one.
~Ava