Reluctant Surrender
Re-Conception Veritas Chapter 3
They had been stuck together for months, and the irritation was beginning to show. Kisara had stopped getting dressed most days and either wore a sports top and small biking shorts, or a white robe with a blue dragon that was just sheer enough to show she was nude underneath. It annoyed him that her attire was becoming more than just casual.
"Will you go put some clothes on already! It's the middle of the afternoon!" he barked at her. She scoffed and tossed her hair back.
"Why? So you can complain about that too? It's hot out, I'm either wearing a robe or a sports set. Just because you enjoy wearing layers in heat doesn't mean everyone else does! How dare you tell me how to dress in my own house, if you weren't here I'd be naked," she snapped back.
I'm surprised you have enough decency not to, considering the vulgarity you use regularly," He quipped. Her phone began to ring and she ignored it.
"You are so fucking disrespectful to imply that I'm trashy while living in my home. Vulgarity widens a persons vocabulary and helps relieve stress, not that I have to explain myself to you. You are unique Seto, and part of that is being one of the rudest, most condescending, and disrespectful people I've ever had the displeasure of being around. You gotta a lot of work to do on yourself man. Stop lashing out and internalizing things. It's not healthy," she shot back. He scoffed and took a drink of his coffee.
"Strong words from little Miss Perfect here," he sneered. Immediately her brow furrowed and she snarled.
"I'm not claiming shit Seto. I know I have my own work to do, but at least I'm more aware of the flaws I need to change than you are. You have no self awareness," she picked up her phone to check the voicemail from the call she ignored. It was loud enough for Kaiba to hear.
"Hello, Mrs Payne," it started in a shaky voice, "My name is Mary, I'm Ashley Stern's mother, and I need to let you know that she passed away a few nights ago, and I need to know if she had a retirement plan or something to help cover burial costs…" she trailed off for a moment and sighed. "Please give me a call when you can, thank you," and then the voicemail ended. Kisara immediately hung up and put the phone down, her anger had washed away into surprise and grief, her face was red and she was struggling not to cry.
"Fuck. Seto this is bad. She was one of our Human resource reps," she stuttered out before she broke into a few stifled sobs. " She had two kids, and was a single mom, those poor kids! I really hope her mother takes them in. They would be separated in foster care" she added. Seto got up and grabbed a bottle of wine before pouring two glasses and handing her one while she wiped away the tears from her eyes. "Holy shit. I don't know how to handle this. We've never had an employee die before," she mumble before opening her laptop. Seto took a drink of his wine.
"We'll cover burial costs," he announced, as he watched relief take over her face.
"That's very generous, and I know it'll be appreciated, She didn't have much in her retirement account," she told him. He nodded and asked how much it was. Kaiba frowned. He knew it wasn't enough to retire or live on for very long.
"Add a zero to that number and write the check," he told her haughtily. Finally, he had the opportunity to throw his money around in a way that might impress her. That made him wonder why he was trying to do it in the first place. She gave a small smile.
"Thank you for taking care of the family. I'll call her in a minute," she expressed before taking a drink of wine. She briefly went out to the balcony for fresh air before returning to her sofa, smelling of cigarettes and something else…
"I can smell the smoke on you," he griped.
"Shut up, I don't want to hear it right now. I need to call Maria? No, Mary, her name is Mary," she told him. He rolled his eyes and turned back to his laptop while he strained to listen to the call.
"Mary, This is Kisara Payne calling back, and first let me say, I am so sorry to hear about Ashley. I know this is difficult, so Kaiba Corp. will be covering your burial expenses, we've also multiplied her 401k and can send that out at anytime," Immediately Seto heard the woman crying, and expressing gratitude. Once she calmed down she opened up a little bit more.
"I'm not sure of what to do, I can't take the girls because I live in a Senior community and they've told me they won't allow it, and I can't afford the rent on this place, but the landlord did waive next months rent so I have a little bit of time to try and find a place but I am also on a fixed income so we might have to apply for section 8 housing, because I don't want them in foster care, but I'm also dependent on a nurse for help…" she explained. Kisara expressed understanding and gave her some more information,
"And Mary, once our housing complex is complete next month, you and the girls will have a home there and we'll adjust the rent to your income. There will be 82 units, and I will make sure you're one of the first to move in, that you're on the ground floor so stairs aren't an issue," Kisara continued.
"Ms. Payne thank you so much for easing some of this burden, and I might be able to sleep now knowing that the girls will be with me and have a home," she cried. Kisara wiped away stray tears and refilled her wine. Finally, the conversation ended and they hung up.
"I thought construction will be done next week," he commented. She nodded and kicked her legs up onto the coffee table.
"Yes, but it takes a week or so to paint and finish loose ends," she remarked. He shrugged and went back to the reports. He could see that she was still a bit distressed and told her she should order in take out and relax. She took a deep breath and agreed.
Finally, after nearly a month the workers that were staying in the office finally moved into the apartment complex on site, and they could finally put the filing cabinets back where they belonged, however, the cats were not amused to lose their sleep spot. Bastet meowed at the empty space, while Fluffy stared staring angrily flipping his tail back and forth. Kaiba couldn't help but chuckle at their emotions. Eventually Kisara stuffed a pillow in a box and set it down in the spot and watched as they both climbed in and cuddled up comfortably.
"Cats can be rather amusing sometimes," he pointed out, returning to his computer. She laughed.
"They sure are better company than you," she quipped. He smirked.
"Funny, I was going to say the same about you," he snapped back. She laughed and tossed her hair over her shoulder.
"You should get your brother some company too. This epidemic has been rough on him I'm sure,"
"I'm so sick of this conversation! Enough!" He barked.
"Well I'm sick of you! If you're lucky maybe they'll let you fly back home with the dog and you can get the hell out of my house!" she shot back. There was a long pause, both of them staring the other down with overt emotion.
"I'm only going to do this because of the chance to go home," he relented in a firm tone. "Get dressed and let's go," he ordered. She rolled her eyes and sighed, before setting her laptop on the table. She stood up, walked to the kitchen and began brewing a pot of coffee before disappearing into her room. It was nearly an hour later when she walked out, dressed in black leggings and long baby blue shirt. She had put on make up and styled her hair in a long braid. Seto immediately hated how attracted to her he was and scowled.
"It's about damn time. You take way too long to get dressed," he spat. She rolled her eyes as she grabbed her purse.
"Sorry, was looking for the stick that's no doubt stuck in your ass, you crabby bastard," she remarked. He rolled his eyes and grabbed his jacket before following her out the door. In the parking lot Kisara got into a small beat up white sedan, he groaned and got in the passenger side reluctantly. She drove for about 20 minutes, going through part of the downtown area, then past some suburbs into a smaller town center before pulling into the parking lot of a large building. It was not the same shelter that Seto got the cats from. She announced their arrival and turned off the car before grabbing her purse and getting out. Seto got out and looked out. It was quiet, the roads were bare, and the greenery was flourishing around the cream city brick building.
Once inside Kisara led him to the canine unit of the shelter and began to look at each of the dogs intently. Many were jumping or barking, running in their cage or trying to climb it. All of them had so much excitement to be looked at, except one cage. Inside were two fluffy grey and white Malamutes lying on their bed, curled up together. Cautiously they eyed up Seto. He opened the cage and walked in. Once of the dogs got up, walked over and sniffed his hand before licking it, that was when he noticed the dog only had one ear. It looked over to the other and gave a small huff, prompting the other dog to get up and also sniff and lick his hand. He gave them each a nice pet and a scratch behind the ear, one of the dogs made an 'oooo' squeal when he got a good scratch, making Seto laugh. These two were different. They were calm, amusing and docile. He called Kisara over.
"These two. They're calmest ones here, and they make funny noises," he announced. She nodded and began petting one of them, and Seto watched as the dog tapped his foot and squealed with scratches.
"Did you notice that one is missing a leg?" she asked. Seto looked down at the dog he was petting, and saw that one of his back legs was missing. He shrugged and walked away, watching the dog hobble with him.
"He seems like he can move around just fine. At least he won't get far if he tries to run away," he joked. Kisara smiled and left to fetch an attendant, leaving Seto with the dogs. He threw a toy across the small cage and watched as they chased and fought for it. Yes, these dogs he would be able to tolerate, and he hoped they were his ticket home.
After filing pages and pages of paperwork the verdict was in, Seto would not be able to fly with the dogs. He was aggravated, his pilot could fly the jet, but he couldn't be on it, and the pilot wouldn't be able to exit the plane until he returned to the states. He hated the rules and was bent on trying to find a loophole that would get him home. Kisara was just as aggravated, if not more so, scowling and mumbling under her breath.
"This is bullshit, I want to be there and see his face when he finally gets the dog he's been begging for," he grumbled. She poured a glass of wine.
"That's why I had cameras put on the cage and the dogs. If I can't have the joy of you leaving, I at least want the joy of seeing your kid brother's dream come true," she replied. He words excited him in multiple ways, she thought of the cameras before he did, and she cared about his brother beyond her job and duties. These feelings he was having towards her were new, and he wasn't sure how to identify them, it was sexual- well, that was a part of it, but there was something more than that, and he was positive it had nothing to do with history. Even though the wall to his emotions was slowly dissolving, he still had to hide behind it with snark, sarcasm and wit. It didn't matter that she constantly impressed him with her ability to handle chaos, he could never tell her that, especially because he had already slipped and told her once.
"Of course you did, you have to live vicariously through the joy of others since you yourself can not find happiness," he cut back. She remained calm, took a drink of wine.
"You're not wrong, but be aware, not only are you the catalyst for it, you're in a similar boat, except you derive joy from humiliating people and the suffering of others. I'm the kind of person that finds happiness in solitude as well," she elegantly purred back. Seto was grateful his computer was in his lap, because her admitting he was right was the biggest turn on he'd ever experienced, and it was making him flustered. Thankfully, he was saved by the chime of her phone. She jumped around with excitement and began to broadcast her phone to the TV.
"They're arriving with the dogs!" she squealed, she flipped through a few of the cameras, and they watched as the dogs were put in the crate, and it was quickly covered with light wrapping paper. Kisara sat on the couch next to Seto and they listened to it being delivered. Mokuba was told to open it immediately, and as soon as the delivery men left he began to tear into the paper. It was mere seconds before Mokuba saw his new pets, and immediately, he began jumping up and down and screaming.
"FINALLY, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, SETO FINALLY GOT ME A DOG!" he tore off the paper and continued "THERE'S TWO! THIS IS THE BEST GIFT EVER!" Mokuba opened the crate and let them out. He eagerly began petting them and looking them over. Kisara looked over and saw the first genuine smile on Seto's face. He was happy, for good reasons, and she loved how Mokuba's happiness spilled over. He played with the dogs, giving them scratches and belly rubs. He grabbed toys from the crate and began to play tug of war, only to be dragged across the floor with an insane amount of laughter. Lightly, Kisara set her hand on Kaiba's thigh for a moment before picked up her wine. The shocks that gentle caress sent through him was electrifying, jolting him from the situation. How was she able to do that? To manipulate his body like that with something so simple and brief? He hated it while simultaneously adoring it. His mind briefly touched on something more before snapping back to reality.
"I've never seen either of you this happy before," she remarked before taking a drink. Seto huffed, turning his attention back to his brother, who was just now noticing that one of the dogs was missing a leg.
"Wow, you really get around buddy, I didn't notice you're missing a whole leg! I'm going to call you Tripod, and your brother will be Van Gogh because he's missing an ear. You guys are the coolest dogs ever. Let's feed you and go outside," he announced. While the dogs were eating. Mokuba called his brother and thanked him profusely for the dogs, gushing about how great they were and their names with so much excitement that Kisara was able to overhear the conversation, which kept a smile on her face. After they hung up, Mokuba took the dogs outside and played fetch while Kisara made dinner and watched from the kitchen. Seto was engulfed in his brother's excitement, listening to his laugh and interact with the dogs. He barely looked at the food Kisara made before eating it mindlessly as they watched Mokuba into the night. Eventually, Seto fell asleep in the recliner, only waking up in the morning when she made coffee.
"Well that couldn't have been comfortable to sleep in all night," she remarked, he rolled his eyes and began to stretch.
"It was fine," he snapped back before getting up to get coffee. She sighed and put a spoonful of sugar in her coffee.
"So you're not sore from sleeping in a chair?" she asked. He poured a cup and shook his head.
"No, why would I be?" he retorted. She took a drink and sighed, before opening the fridge and taking out a carton of eggs.
"Nevermind," she huffed as she turned on the stove and began breakfast. He shrugged her off and returned to his chair.
The weeks were beginning to drag on and on into months, and the epidemic was now being considered a pandemic, which further stressed out Kisara. Despite being oblivious to most emotions, Seto was able to see the obvious stress markers when he caught her smoking on the balcony with a glass of scotch, then it happened again. He didn't ask; he didn't care enough to want to know or to let her vent to him, it was bad enough living with her. Yet, he could still hear her when she vented to someone on the phone, and felt stuck, forced to deal with her personal life instead of just the professional one. Mokuba was no help, and it felt like Mokuba was trying to push him towards Kisara instead of away from her. Sure, she may have stirred up foreign emotions in him, but he wasn't going to pursue any sort of personal relationship with one of his most competent employees. As much as he wanted too, he didn't want risk losing her contributions to his company. He had seen her value shine so many times, that he knew he could never replace her. She truly was one of a kind, and he was starting to recognize that.
AN:/I know this chapter is late. I don't want to explain why or apologize, it is what it is, I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for all the love & support. It's slowly getting spicy. Who do you think will make the first move? Much love, MK.