"If I could escape and recreate a place that's my own world,
And I could be your favorite girl—forever,
Perfectly together,
Tell me, boy, now wouldn't that be sweet?"
Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani
XVIII
When Kisara awoke that afternoon on January 1st, without a doubt, she was beyond exhausted... but she was incredibly happy. Kisara could recall the night before perfectly despite how exhausted she was. She and Seto had left the party almost immediately after the kiss they shared on the front porch. They hadn't realized at the time that the front door was wide open thus drawing a lot of attention to themselves when they finished kissing. They ran like a pair of fugitives down the street into another neighborhood and hid out there until Seto's driver showed up. From there, they ventured to Kisara's apartment where they sat and talked until the sun rose a few hours later.
There was something different about the way they talked all through the night that had made their pointless, and sometimes personal, chatter more meaningful than it had ever been previously. Could it have been because they had become "official" at the party? Was there something about being able to think of Seto and not having to be afraid of her own feelings that suddenly made Kisara more comfortable with the idea of liking Seto? There were so many thoughts and possibilities that were swirling around in Kisara's head. She was, however, far too tired from getting only five hours of sleep to attempt to understand them all. Still... she was happy, blissfully happy and that was what mattered most.
Kisara yawned a couple more times before making the grave decision to get out of bed. Her body felt sore and completely out of whack. Jet lag hadn't thrown her for a loop like staying up all night had. She couldn't imagine how Seto must've been dealing with the morning on top of his irregular sleeping patterns (a little known fact Seto explained the night before). Then she began to think that perhaps staying up all night has granted him the ability to sleep. Kisara had this sudden urge to call and ask him but she decided against it. She was being much too eager about this and she didn't want to scare him away on the first day.
Slowly making her way into the kitchen, Kisara had long since given up on the idea of making a half-hearted attempt to brush her teeth and headed straight for coffee instead. She flipped on the coffee maker and waited for the water to boil. The sun was high in the sky by now. Cocking her head to the side, she realized she hadn't seen her small living space with the curtains down this late in the day. It was past noon at that point in time so it seemed only natural to pull the curtains back and let in the sun. Upon sliding the curtains back, Kisara looked down and caught sight of a huge crowd that became frantic the moment they saw her standing in front of the window.
"That's her! She's awake!" One man shouted, causing even more energy and captivation amongst the crowd. The people below began snapping photos and pointing cameras in her direction. It took Kisara a few seconds to realize that it wasn't the apartment building they were taking pictures of but herself. She quickly pulled the curtains back again and took a step back. What was that about? There wasn't a lot of guessing she had to do in order to figure it out on her own. She had a good idea why these people were interested in her.
Kisara turned towards her phone lying on the ground beside her bed. She remembered an earlier thought she had; It's the first day, I shouldn't call him. Kisara ignored her initial instinct and dialed in Seto's number. The phone rang several times before someone finally picked up.
"Hello?" It was Mokuba who had picked up the phone.
"Mokuba, it's Kisara. I'm trying to reach your brother, is he around?"
"Yeah, let me get him," Mokuba said before turning away and calling for his brother, "Nii-sama, your girlfriend is on the phone!" A few moments later, Seto got on the phone.
"Kisara. Um... hello."
"Yeah, hi," Kisara said awkwardly. The two of them were still adjusting to their newly established relationship with one another, "Listen, I'm calling because I just woke up and there's a crowd of people with cameras outside of my house. I'm wondering if you would have any idea why that was." Seto certainly had one idea as to why.
"Okay, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to send over a car to come get you and bring you over here. In the mean time, I'll find someone to get those people away from your house. It shouldn't be too hard, I just have to make a couple calls." Kisara looked down at herself, still dressed in her pajamas.
"Wait, where will the car take me?"
"To my house. We'll need to set up some new arrangements now that we're together." Kisara felt strange hearing those words come out of Seto's mouth. The concept of them being together was still so foreign to her.
"To your house? But I'm still in my pajamas and I haven't even had breakfast yet. Are you sure it can't wait?"
"You have time to take a shower before the car comes to get you. And don't worry about breakfast, you can eat something at my house. You already know we have more food than we need over here, there's plenty for you to eat." Kisara smiled. Breakfast at her boyfriend's house... she definitely liked the sound of that! She turned off her coffee maker and ran over to the bathroom so she could turn on the water.
"Alright then, I'll see you soon. How will I know when the car is here to take me to your place?"
"I'll have someone come up and escort you out. I don't want anyone trying to assault you in trying to get a story out of you." Kisara didn't ask what story it was that the reporters would be trying to get from her. She agreed to what Seto said and then hung up. Just when she thought her life was complicated enough, her boyfriend had to end up being a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. Though Kisara couldn't claim she hadn't known this going into the relationship considering how much she did actually know about Seto and his company prior to coming to Japan in the first place, she had to admit she was surprised by how much attention he drew to himself just from the title he held.
After about an hour, Kisara received a knock on her door. When she opened the door, a huge, burly man in a black suit with sunglasses was standing in front of her. "Miss Safiya?" Kisara almost didn't reply. The man looked like he was supposed to be some sort of body guard or FBI agent working for the government... he couldn't have been here for Kisara. Then she remembered that Seto had mentioned he would be sending someone over to escort her to his home. Kisara nodded.
"Yep, that's me."
"Follow me, Miss. We have a limo waiting for you outside to take you to Master Kaiba's estate." Kisara followed him down to the elevator and let him lead the way as they headed towards the door. When they emerged from the apartment building, Kisara noticed there were even more men dressed in black suits, most of them keeping the reporters from getting too close. That, however, did not keep the cameras from taking pictures. The clicking and chatter of their cameras erupted all at once in addition to several reports shouting questions at Kisara.
"Kisara Safiya, can you define your relationship with Seto Kaiba?" One reporter shouted. Kisara said nothing, letting the bodyguard in front guide her to the limo. He kept a firm grip on her arm, encouraging her to look straight ahead and avoid any eye contact with the people shouting at her. Kisara found this to be quite easy considering how uncomfortable she felt having so much attention drawn to herself.
"Kisara Safiya, is it true that your hair is white due to the fact that you have a pre-aging condition?" Just before Kisara got into the car, she twisted her head.
"Excuse me?" The bodyguard quickly hurried her into the car and shut the door before she could say anything else. "They think I have a pre-aging condition because of my hair?"
"I wouldn't take it to heart, Miss Safiya. The press will assume anything before they know any of the facts," The limo driver assured her. Surprisingly, his comment didn't make Kisara feel any better about the situation. She couldn't get her discomfort out of her mind the entire ride over to the Kaiba Mansion.
"I believe Miss Safiya has arrived, Master Kaiba," Isono said in response to the doorbell ringing. Seto and Mokuba both just barely noticed the doorbell or Isono's comment, even after Kisara walked into the dining room to find the brothers busy looking at their laptops.
"Good to see you all were expecting me," Kisara said with her hands on her hips. Seto looked up and immediately rose to his feet when he saw Kisara present.
"Oh, Kisara, you're here... sorry about that. Please, sit down. I'll get you something to eat." Kisara walked over to the table and sat down next to Mokuba.
"Good morning, Mokuba," Kisara said in an attempt to grab Mokuba's attention.
"Morning." Mokuba didn't look up from his laptop. Kisara thanked Seto after he placed a plate of food in front of her before returning to a laptop of his own.
"Jeez, what are you two looking at that is so interesting?" Kisara asked, leaning over to see what was on Mokuba's screen. There was some sort of gossip column article that Mokuba was reading. There was a low resolution picture, one that had probably been taken on a cell phone, of a couple kissing in the dark. The flash from the phone just barely shed light on the faces of the two love birds. "Aw, those two look cute. Is the article about the couple in the picture?"
"Yep, it's about you and Nii-sama." Kisara's eyes widened. She leaned in closer to get a better look. It turned out that the two people in the picture were, in fact, Seto and her. Someone at the party must've taken a picture of them while they were kissing. Mokuba turned to Kisara with the widest grin on his face, "So... how long have you two been kissing each other? This is new to me." Kisara turned red.
"That was our first kiss, Mokuba. Now lay off," Seto said in a stern voice. He was typing ferociously on his laptop, his eyes fixated only on the screen in front of him. "I knew I should've been more careful about this. How could I have forgotten I was standing right in front of someone's house when that happened?"
"Did the kiss happen before or after you assaulted some guy who goes to your school?" Kisara looked back at the screen. Mokuba was right; the bit about Jiro and Seto's tiff was written in there in addition to an inarticulate account of Seto's declaration of love for Kisara. "It says here that 'Kaiba said, 'We are together and will be forever. I love you more than my brother and I've never felt a love like this before'... Nii-sama, did you really say all of that?"
"Mokuba, I didn't say anything remotely close to that. I'm not that cliché and I would never say I loved anyone more than you."
"There was certainly no mention of love... but he did say we were together," Kisara clarified, awkwardly looking over at Seto. Suddenly it seemed like everything had gotten out of control and there was no way to stop it. As if their feelings for each other weren't confusing enough, it didn't help that the whole world was trying to blow things out of proportion. Mokuba turned to Kisara and then to Seto.
"So wait, does that mean you guys are now...?" Seto looked up from his computer and Kisara glanced over at him. Their eyes met for a moment and then turned back to Mokuba. Seto nodded.
"That is correct." Mokuba smiled.
"That's awesome! I'm so happy you guys got together. I was worried Nii-sama would never get around to asking you out." Kisara smiled as well.
"I'm happy, too. The only thing I'm confused about now is what the big fuss is about. I mean, they're writing articles about us already? It's not like we're getting married or something."
"Yes, but the public doesn't care about that."
"Then what do they care about? I can't be so interesting that people want to camp out in front of my apartment building like they were this afternoon." Seto sighed.
"You're the first girlfriend I've ever had. That's what they care about." Mokuba leaned over to Kisara.
"It confirms that he's not in the closet," Mokuba whispered.
"Hey now," Seto said in a stern voice.
"It's true! The public has been speculating for years. This article even mentions it. 'This act of love is not only a declaration of affection for Safiya but also a confirmation of the years of speculation concerning the sexuality of Seto Kaiba.'" Seto shook his head in disdain.
"Ugh, I can't believe the crap people publish these days. It's absolutely idiotic that people would assume a person is homosexual based only on the fact that they've never been with anyone before."
"And let's not forget the special individuals who think you and I are romantically involved in addition to being brothers," Mokuba added, shuddering with disgust. There was nothing more revolting to Mokuba than the idea of someone actually believing his older brother loved him like that.
"Don't remind me," Seto said and then sighed again. Kisara felt out of place in the conversation. She had never had an article written about her nor had she ever experienced 'the public' having an opinion of her. It was all overwhelming to deal with all at once. She wasn't sure she could right in that instant.
"So what do we do now?" Kisara asked with the slightest bit of concern in her voice, "I mean, are there going to be reporters outside of my apartment forever? Am I going to need a bodyguard just to date you?" Maybe she hadn't thought this whole relationship thing through. Dating Seto Kaiba in theory was a great idea but in execution... she hadn't thought that far ahead. She hadn't actually pictured that he would ever remotely like her in that way... nor did she predict she would feel the same. It was thrilling but it was nerve-wrecking. Her life had practically changed overnight because of it.
Kisara didn't have to say any of her thoughts, Seto could tell just from looking at her that she was concerned and overwhelmed by everything that was going on. Seto rose from his seat and went over to her, grabbing her hand. "Look, I know this is all happening very fast and if this seems too difficult to get through, maybe it would be best if we just end it right here and right now." Mokuba stopped what he was doing to watch. His brother couldn't be serious, could he? This was the girl he had been pining after for weeks on end. How could he be willing to drop her right after he got her? Mokuba quickly got up from his seat, knowing instinctively that this was a private conversation that shouldn't include him. He quietly left the room without notice.
"You want to break up with me already? It hasn't even been a full day yet."
"No, I don't want to break up... I just want you to be happy and I would understand if this life isn't what would make you happy. I told you last night that being associated with me comes with a lot of consequences and certain things you'll have to endure. I don't want you to suffer just to be with me," Seto looked down at his hands that had become intertwined with hers, "I don't want to hurt you like he did." Kisara instinctually knew who what 'he' Seto was referring to in that sentence: her ex-boyfriend.
Though she still had yet to reveal any concrete facts about her past relationship, there wasn't much that needed to be said in order to understand that she had been incredibly hurt by the last relationship she was in. She had once described it as him taking her heart and not only shattering it in to a million pieces but also smashing the remains repeatedly. Even as she stood there, her hands holding Seto's, she couldn't be sure whether her heart had been entirely put back together since she and her ex had gone separate ways. She, however, was willing to believe that Seto could repair that which might very well be beyond repair.
"You won't hurt me, at least not in the way he did," Kisara assured him, touching Seto's face with her hand, "You're a good person which means there's a chance I won't suffer half as much as I did when I was with him. I've got a good feeling about it." She smiled and Seto could never get over how beautiful her face was when he saw her smile.
It was then that Seto couldn't resist the urge to kiss her. Seto tried to forget about it but then he saw that her hands were in his, his body against hers, her smile directed at him. After all these months of trying to avoid their own feelings for one another, they were finally in a situation where they didn't have to be afraid of being attracted to one another. It would take time for him to feel comfortable with these feelings of vulnerability but for now... he was just happy to lean in and kiss her.
A/N: Like I mentioned before, this is probably where people will feel the urge to start rioting in the streets screaming, "SETO IS BEING OOC! GO DIE IN THE PIT OF FIRE FROM WHICH YOU CAME!" Though I was pleasantly surprised I didn't get that from pretty much all of you who reviewed last chapter and I appreciate all of your trust in me and my writing that backs the idea that this isn't OOC. :) I've been writing stories about the Kaiba Brothers for nearly nine years so I'm glad to see all of this training has led to this one moment in life where I can write a romance story revolving around Seto and no one will throw pitchforks at me because of it. XD Anyway, this chapter was pretty easy to write (I think I actually wrote the whole thing a day or two after posting the last update) but actually sitting down to edit was definitely what took up the entire month. As you can probably figure, college has started back up which means I will have less time to dedicate to writing but as always, I will try and update on or near the 12th of each month. Thanks everyone for your reviews and your support!