Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ All's Fair... ❯ Chapter Five: I don't like five. I like seven. ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter Five: I don't like five. I like seven.

"'Scuse me!" Someone yelled, as he tore between Mina and Seto on his way down the sidewalk, sprinting at top speed. His hand reached out and shoved Mina off the curb and into the street, leaning suddenly to the left and shouldering Seto sideways into a shop window.

"Hey, watch where you're going…!" Seto yelled, picking himself up with lightning speed and turning around to go after the offending runner, but he was nowhere to be seen.

A scream. High pitched, afraid.

Mina.

Seto whipped out his flashlight, shining it into the street as he stepped off the curb.

"Mina? Mina, answer me!"

The dazzling light beamed onto a pair of tennis shoes, and as he moved the flashlight up, he realized that it wasn't needed. A pair of headlights was focused straight on her slight figure, and she was locked into them like a deer.

"Seto," She murmured, then louder. "Seto!"

And he ran.

The headlights became accompanied by the sudden rev of an engine, and a flash of deadly black moved out of the shadows, then into the dull glow of the lamplights.

The car was ten feet and closing.

Seto pushed off the curb.

Seven feet.

He was running, running, wouldn't, couldn't make it in time..

Five feet.

A hand extended, fingers spread.

Mina...!

Three feet.

But Seto was in the air, lunging, every muscle in his body strained…

Impact.

The bumper grazed Seto's legs with a painful sting, but he ignored it, there were much bigger things to worry about. Like the concrete he was about to hit. Quickly, he flipped around so he would land on his back, and braced himself.

He landed and skidded a few feet, arms closing tight around the girl he held in his arms.

I'll always protect you.

Mina felt the tremor rush through his body as he tried to move, and she sat up suddenly, rolling onto her knees by his side.

"Seto? Are you okay?"

He muttered something that sounded vaguely like `Yes", but she wasn't sure. Besides, the car was about to turn around and come back. Noting this, Seto pulled himself to his feet, wincing with the pain of moving. He had hit himself hard on the shoulder blades somewhere, and wouldn't have been surprised if he could hardly sit down the next day. If there would even be a `next day' for them.

"Come on, come on Mina!" He urged, and took off at a run for a narrow alley between two shops. Surprisingly, Mina was matching him stride for stride, legs flying.

"Who is that??" She panted, and he shook his head once, vehemently, to show that he couldn't answer right now, giving her hand a quick jerk and a squeeze.

Who was it? Good question. Seto flipped through mental catalogs of people who could possibly want him dead, but nothing drastic came to mind. And Mina had been the aim, and she was now. He could tell by the slow, methodical way the car was coming at them-at an angle, the headlights somehow illuminating only Mina. She was running as fast as she could, but Seto gave another sudden shake of his head and tugged her forward.

A screech of tires, and he felt Mina give a jerk. As her body flew into him, he spread his feet and leaned forward, catching her against his chest, bringing her close-now in the safety of the narrow alley.

"Mina…Mina…are you allright?" He asked, hands running over her head to check for bumps.

"Fine," She muttered, but there was a diagonal slash across the backs on her lower legs, and Seto made her sit down, taking off his jacket and tying it tightly just behind her knees, pressuring the veins, and sitting down next to her.

"What about you, Seto? You took a pretty hard hit back there." Came the question, and he smiled at the way she was keeping her head up and her eyes unafraid.

"I'm okay. You know that. Shhh while I think of a way to get home," He said, already scanning the alley for a way to bypass the square and get straight to their street.

He felt strangely faint, his vision swimming, and he felt Mina's hands reach up and turn his head ninety degrees, her gentle fingers skipping over a deep cut on his forehead, and she frowned.

"Seto-how do you feel? Dizzy at all?"

"No," he lied.

"You're lying. When you lie your eyes get darker, did you know?"

"Dammit, look Mina, I'm okay. Really, I a-why are you crying, for God's sake??"

And crying she was-big, fat, crocodile tears-and she suddenly reached up and hugged him, sniffling.

"I hate when you try and act all macho, Seto! I was so afraid that something was going to happen…"

"Mina…" He whispered softly, then smiled and held her tightly-so afraid to let go sometimes.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Shit, was the first pleasant thing that came into the Mastermind's head. Stupid Seto. You just have to meddle, don't you? You're weak now, I can see it in you. That girl is making you break apart and become soft. You should be my easiest one yet.

He remembered his mother at home, her hands as they flew over whatever she was sewing, the things she had told him when he was still small.

"You must defeat Seto, your father's new heir, and take back what is rightfully yours. Your father has spurned us, he wants nothing more than a power-hungry heir, and this is what Seto will one day become. Grow up strong, little one, and learn all you can about your enemy. When you are older-destroy him."

Destroy him. Do it slowly, picking at his weaknesses until he can't take it anymore, then annihilate him.

As the Mastermind slowly backed his car up, he thought about the girl. Something about her prompted him into strange ways of thinking, of how he could hurt everyone all at once. And especially Seto. He reached out a hand slowly, spreading his fingers so that from his perspective, Mina was in his grasp. With a sudden chuckle, he snapped that hand shut, and she disappeared behind it.

He smiled in his sleek way, licking his lips again as he lowered his hand.

This would be so, so easy.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mina and Seto made their way home quickly, the latter trying not to jar his head too much and the former to worried about him to limp.

When they opened the front door and stumbled in-cold and wet, no less-they found Mokuba had already gone to bed, sent there by a well-meaning butler. Mina, without bothering to take off her shoes even, started up the stairs with a slow, heavy step, hand sitting loosely on the railing. Seto went into the kitchen for some aspirin and a bottle of rubbing alcohol, wincing as he brushed by a chair with his leg. There was probably a sizable bruise there already.

Reaching up for the bottle of alcohol, he grabbed it and began to rummage around, looking for some cotton balls-and perhaps a large bandage for Mina's legs.

And then, suddenly, his cell phone rang.

Seto sighed, looking at the small device, left on the counter before he and Mina had gone out. The clock on the wall read eleven thirty-who in their right minds would-

It rang again, and then began to vibrate. Leaving the alcohol and abandoning his search, he picked it up carefully, looking at the number.

Or what should have been a number.

The gibberish on the screen stated to Seto that whoever was calling had a scrambler attached to their side of the connection, and he frowned, hesitant. Scramblers meant the person had something to hide, and this made him think of…well, dangerous people. The phone began to ring again-louder, it seemed-and Seto warily conceded.

"Seto Kaiba," He said, straightening reflexively, using his business voice.

"Seto himself, what an honor," the person purred, and Seto heard a glimpse of male tone in there somewhere.

"Who is this?"

"Someone you know, and yet don't. You don't remember my name-so I'll let you call me the Mastermind."

"Maybe you didn't hear me right. Who is this?"

"I told you-I'm the Mastermind. In fact, I'm watching you right now."

Seto strolled to the window, glancing out. "Oh, really now?"

"Mmm. I'd watch where you step from now on. There might be danger lurking around every corner for you…"

Mina dragged herself slowly into the room, flopping down on a kitchen chair, laying her head on the table. Seto glanced back at her, and gave a frown.

"…or your lover…" The voice continued, innocent and carefree.

"You leave her out of this," Seto stated calmly, and Mina looked up with a curious glance.

"Why is she so special to you, hmm? Is it something silly like love? You've never been one for love, have you? It must be lust then. Tell me, what makes her so desirable? Is it-"

"Shut up, you perverted weirdo. I said leave her out of this!"

Mina was sitting straight up now, her brow furrowed, watching Seto glance out the window three successive times in a row, anger in his eyes.

But whoever it was was cheerfully listing things off over the phone, and Seto shook his head suddenly, giving it a disgusted look before hanging up.

"Who was it?" Mina asked softly, and Seto turned around to look at her-really look at her. Was it possible that-eww, no. He didn't want to think about that. That was just wrong and-well, wrong.

"Wrong number," He muttered, walking back over to the counter and gathering the rubbing alcohol and cotton balls again. "Here, let me see your legs."

She sighed, standing up and turning around, and he kneeled down, drenching a chunk of cotton ball with the alcohol and swiping it quickly over the diagonal slash. For some reason, his hands were shaking, and he had broken into an embarrassed sweat.

"Ow!" Mina exclaimed as the chemical began to burn, and Seto fanned it with a hand, examining the other slashes near her ankles.

"Try to start walking home with a friend, okay? It's not really all that safe to walk home alone, or with Mokuba in tow," He said after a while, bandaging the big cuts.

"We've been fine befo-"

"No. Try to start walking home with a friend. Someone you know well and trust a lot. Clear?" He cut her off, standing to face her.

Something in his eyes shone so intensely, so angrily, that she nodded dumbly, knowing better than to say anything. They watched each other for a minute, only a heartbeat apart but two worlds away. And suddenly, Mina reached up and brushed his cheekbone with her right hand, breaking into an understanding smile. She said nothing.

Seto loved her for it.

"Oh. That reminds me-" He started suddenly, frowning again.

"Of what?" She asked, a silly half-grin appearing on her face.

"There's a charity auction for something or other tomorrow-I can't get out of it, already tried. It's some sort of dinner/dance, and I'll need to steal you for the evening to be my escort. Sound good?"

"What's with the authoress's obsession with dances?" Mina quipped nonchalantly, laughing.

"I have no idea," Seto replied, and the characters having had their fun, the story once more can resume.

"Yeah, I think so. I can dig around in that box of my mom's old dresses that dad sent me. Who's going to be there?"

"I honestly don't know," Seto muttered, but thought something else. He had heard that Cali was going to be there…She had returned from her `business trip', then? Seto faced the meeting with apprehension, and yet some part of him was thrilled to see her again.

Did he still love her, he wondered? Some nights he wouldn't be able to fall asleep, and he would wander around the house, calling forth various old memories. And Cali was a recently often reoccurring one…And it was also one that sparked doubt in his heart. He would stand at the entrance of Mina's room, watching her as she slept, something in his expression softening and changing, and he would realize it.

He had loved Cali, but they had never been meant for each other. Mina was the Ying to his Yang personality, and all it took for him to realize his feeling was one glance at her.

"Seto?"

He was snapped out of his thoughts for a minute, and suddenly noticed Mina was halfway out the kitchen door.

"I'm gonna go to bed, okay? G'night."

"G'night, Mina," He replied almost automatically, flashing a quick smile for her benefit. And as he watched her move slowly up the staircase, he knew…

There was no other situation he would rather be in right now, with any other person.