It's the final countdown! :D
LISTEN THOUGH! I've made some alterations to the very end of chapter 15 so that this chapter makes more sense. You can read it. . or don't.
Oh, and guess what? It's BAKURA TIME! XD x 48475!!!
Long night.
After arriving Aglaia arrived at Teá's lovely suburban home, Teá began the comically pathetic task of teaching Aglaia how to dance.
All night the more graceful of the two blasted all of the must-have CDs and tried her hardest to teach her movement-retarded friend some decent moves.
Around 11:00 or so, they decided to call it a night.
As Teá took her turn in the shower, Aglaia dried her hair on her temporary futon. The moon was full that night and Teá's large bedroom window gave her a full view.
(A sparrow came and perched on the window sill.)
Holding the ring on her finger up, she softly called, "Aphrodite" and the impossible visage began to materialize.
"I've been watching you," she cooed in a taunting voice, "and I've decided something."
"What?"
"You'll never find a man to marry you if you can only move so rigidly!"
Upon hearing this, Aglaia sat up even more rigidly.
"You must be confident, agile!" Aphrodite swished around the room, strutting the apparent ideal. "That is, if you ever want to fall in love!"
Aglaia blinked stupidly and cocked her head to the side. "But what if I don't?"
Aphrodite gasped theatrically and pointed her transparent finger at Aglaia's nose. "Don't say something so stupid! If you do not want love, then what else in the world matters?!"
Aglaia pulled her legs into her chest. "I'm not saying that I don't want love. . . I love my family and my friends. . . but I don't need to fall in love. I really want to--"
"To what?!" Aphrodite demanded.
"To be a designer. I really do," she wished childishly.
"Of your special robes?" Aphrodite sneered.
Aglaia nodded, feeling foolish. Aphrodite stared out the window(as two more sparrows gathered on the ledge).
"If you truly wanted to become a designer of robes, then just pray to the Fates! And allow me to guide the rest of your life."
"Pray. . to the Fates?" Aglaia thought of how she would be attending church the morning after next. Regardless of the goddess living on her finger(and simultaneously in her mind), Aglaia still felt as she always had, that there was God watching over her.
"Yes! Even if Olympus has fallen, surely the Fates still exist! If not, then life could no longer continue."
"But I can't."
"You can't?"
"No. I just can't." Studying the pattern on her futon, Aglaia then looked up to see Aphrodite glowering at her.
The immortal promptly humph-ed.
"Fine, then." Fading out, Aphrodite last said, "Don't listen to me."
Again alone, Aglaia could only hear Teá's shower running. Folding her hands together, Aglaia bent down and closed her eyes.
"Um. . . whoever is there, please listen to me. If it's You, God, please give me a sign. And if it's somebody else. . . please don't ignore me. I. . . I really, really want have my dream come true. Please listen to me. In--" She was about to recite whose name she prayed in, but didn't know who to designate. "In-- in-- please listen to me. Amen."
The morning after was warm and windy, but Teá didn't know it, as she watched the sunrise from her bedroom window. She didn't use to have so much time like this.
Teá woke up insanely early from a routine nightmare (of watching the Pharaoh walk into the light but never being able to catch him) and dressed as slowly as she could.
Now she had time to think. Think about how dull her life had become, think about the one she missed.
She recalled Aglaia blushing and telling her about how Ryou (who had returned only a few days before from his home with his father in England) and the most troubling thoughts came to her.
Was she almost a little jealous? Teá, who had always sought romance but settled for friendship (with him. . .), wondered why it was that after only having returned for two days, Bakura asked Aglaia to the dance.
He was always such a recluse and that he asked out a girl he barely knew simply didn't add up.
Picking up the single picture Teá had of Ryou off her shelve (including the rest of the bunch), she caressed the picture and sighed. She always knew that there were things he didn't tell any of them, and she always wanted to "make it all better" in her way.
If he was finally reaching out, that was good, right?
As Teá pined and Aglaia slept, Aphrodite watched the woken brunette closely.
As a sort of re-initiation into the group, Joey, Tristan, Yugi, and Duke took Bakura to see Crows Zero, the new must-see Shun Ogori film.
"So, what was it like in England, Bakura?" Yugi once again wrangled Bakura back into the conversation. He was always a little quiet, but this was getting ridiculous.
"Cold," the pale boy muttered. The afternoon was not going as planned.
Abruptly, as the crew turned a street corner, Ryou looked out across the road and tinted nearly green. Instead of crossing, he pardoned himself and ran down the road to the nearest rest room.
"What's with him?" Joey asked once Ryou was gone.
"I don't know," Tristan answered, as he shook his head. "He's been like that since he went over to England. You figure his dad did something?"
"No," Duke decided. "I've met his dad, and he's too involved in his work to bother with him."
"What do you think, Yug?" Joey questioned, but Yugi was too preoccupied trying to see what frightened Bakura.
"What?"
"Nevermind."
"But you know, he asked Aglaia out," Duke reported.
"I'll never understand that kid," Joey announced.
"Hey, if he's branching out, that's fine." Tristan nodded to himself. "Maybe she can work with him to get over. . whatever it is."
And it seemed that everyone's mouth firmed into a grimace.
Aglaia's first day at work felt something like lying on a bed of needles.
After leaving Teá's house, she went for her two hour shift in the charisma agency center at the Domino City Mall.
It was a glass box in the center of the west wing full of bright colors, pretty girls, needy girls, and round furniture. Aglaia was led by the agency's secretary to the center, behind silver, paper walls, where the agency's finest stitched, paired, and coordinated the best outfits for the best wearers.
All heads turned to the "new girl" and Aglaia could feel her face illuminate.
A queen with Versace heels, deliberately curled black hair, and a mouth full of gum stood and sized up Aglaia as the others sat.
"So you're the newbie?" she supposed as she smacked.
After a moment, Aglaia nodded stupidly, blushing deeper. "A-- Aglaia Atsuko," she stated.
"Well, Aglaia Atsuko, I'm Michiko, and I hope you're a fast learner. This is a dog-eat-dog business and unless you take this opportunity, you'll be demoted to repairs. Understand?"
"Y--Yes."
"There's no room for stupid mistakes. Every stitch is vital."
"Yes."
"Is that all you can say?"
"Y-- no."
"Huh-- " Michiko blew a bubble. "Wow. Well, Aglaia Atsuko, come here and work on this. This is your first order. You can start off back here fixing up the orders. You work your way up to designing. Here are the proportions."
Aglaia took the paper and read over it.
"Um-- who wrote this?"
"I did," Michiko barked. "Why?"
"Well, it says a china silk."
"So?"
"And a half loop stitch at the neckline."
"So?" Michiko insisted. Everyone in the room continued staring.
"Well, won't that pucker?"
Silence. . .
"Gimme that," Michiko snapped as she took the paper and went to the back to review it, as girls muffled their giggles.
The afternoon was approaching, and Aglaia found the rest of the charisma agency's "back-room girls" to be agreeable.
As she left to prepare for the dance, Hatsuka, the agency's secretary, stopped her.
"Aglaia, I've seen what you do. You're different, you know."
Aglaia didn't know how to take it.
"Anyway, take this." Hatsuka handed Aglaia a flyer. "It's for the Strut Youth competition. It's going to be held in Tokyo over Golden Week for amateur designers. A feature in Fruits magazine if the prize, and a guaranteed ride to the top from there." Hatsuka handed Aglaia the paper.
Like a ghost, Aglaia floated out of the store on shuffling feet.
When she reached the bus stop, she screamed.
"Self control," Aphrodite hissed.
And Aglaia blushed again.
As Teá and Aglaia entered the seizure-friendly rented hotel ballroom, they waited at the door a moment as not to be blinded and deafened by the flashing light and pumping music.
Aglaia's eyes sought out Ryou (like a little white flower on the wall, with the boys hanging awkwardly around him) and approached with her friend.
Joey, Tristan, Yugi, and Duke looked relieved to see the girls, but Bakura's expression was unreadable.
Immediately, Aglaia and Ryou fell behind the conversation's frontier and eventually the white-haired boy motioned towards the open balcony washed over in moonlight.
The two made their way out and walked along the hotel's fourth story ridge in silence until they found an agreeably isolated spot.
Examining the ledge, Aglaia quietly spoke, "I kind of want to sit down. . . but I'm afraid I might fall."
Bakura rubbed the back of his head and smiled softly. "Yeah, I'm the same way." He cleared his throat and looked at the floor. "I'm clumsy that way. . ."
Aglaia nodded and after several minutes of trying to find something to look at, she watched Bakura slide to a sit with his back on the stone ledge. She joined him.
Once her fingers became boring to twiddle, Aglaia broke the uncomfortable silence with, "So-- so tell me about you-- you, please."
After a pause, Ryou asked, "What do you want to know?"
Then, another pause. "Why you're being so quiet."
. . . "I'm a quiet person, I guess."
"But not this quiet."
"How do you know?"
"Tristan told me so."
"Is that what he whispered to you earlier?" he asked in his admittedly adorable accent.
Aglaia giggled a bit. "Yeah. . ."
But Bakura didn't seem to find it funny, as his grimace just firmed.
The steel silence seemed unbreakable.
"Why did you ask me out, Bakura?" It was a bold question, uncharacteristic of Aglaia, and she immediately began to blush.
"I don't know," Ryou said as he examined his palms. "I guess I just wanted--"
"A-- date?"
"No."
The silence went undented.
"I didn't--"
"Want-- to be alone?"
"Yeah," he smiled sheepishly and it remained as an apparition for a while longer.
Their silence echoed around the dance's hustle (seemingly in the far distance) until Aglaia poked a hole in it like a metal balloon.
"You're more brave than I am, Bakura. . . . but. . . you don't really like me this way, do--" She almost stuttered, but not quite. "--do you?"
"What way?"
Aglaia gestured to her dress and then to the ballroom.
"I like you," he assured. "But-- no."
"I. . . I understand."
"You do?"
"You- you're a person like me. . . we're both quiet people."
In agreement, the two became quiet.
"I have nightmares a lot," Ryou randomly confessed.
". . . what?"
"I've been having a lot of nightmares. Ever since I left. I just wanted someone to know."
". . . you're lonely, aren't you, Bakura?"
No one answered her.
Abruptly, Aglaia stood, and stood taller than she had before. Taller, broader, prouder-- more "agile".
The body of Aglaia took off her square, reflecting glasses and cracked them in her hands.
"What are you--" Bakura tried, but the curious girl took him by the wrist and ran with him into the screaming music before he could resist.
Once submerged in the crowded dance floor, this tall standing woman spun around and looked the wriggling Ryou square in the eyes and before he could comprehend the violet and mocha shades, he fell (or rather, was pushed) into the sea of rampaging rhythms and could only think about the music.
In the middle of the dance floor, a foot-tapping butterfly called Teá was wedged in between a few others divas when in came a white-haired boy who fell in step like a rag doll.
At first, she didn't believe that it was Bakura (clunky, klutzy Bakura) but his big brown eyes were so sewn into hers that she couldn't escape the realization.
And a few more, as well.
"Duke!" Yugi called out to his friend who was hidden in crowd of admirers.
"What is it, Yugi?"
"It's Joey. He and Tristan went to the the Lucky-Mart, but--"
Duke noticed Yugi trembling.
"What's the matter, Yugi?"
"It was Mai. Mai was there."
"What? Mai Valentine?"
"Yeah-- and now Joey's gone."
[Once I was watching a movie with a once-friend. Just as it became epic, she threw her hand in front of my face and shouted "CLIMAX!". Allow me to do that to you now. The next chapter will be Mailicious and plot-terrific and will henceforth conclude the Spellbound Arc, the arc with the least amount of Kaiba, guaranteed.]
[Now review! It's only fair. If you've spent time reading it this far you at least bother to review.]