Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Christmas Vacation ❯ Chapter Four ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: See 1st chap!

A/N: Yeah, I SO should get with it…

Christmas Vacation
By Mrs Grim

...Chapter Four...

If Arienne would have ever sat down and listed what she thought a day with the Kaibas would be like it would have been nothing close to what she actually experienced. She knew that rich people were snobs. She had been one for goodness sakes! But--this was just...odd.

Mokuba was having the most fun that he'd had in quite a while. He had decided that since they couldn't leave the hotel room, he would call down for something to do.

The tired looking bell-boy who ran the "something to do" up to the room deposited a sorry looking deck of cards and a battered board game into Mokuba's arms. Striding purposefully to the table, he then plunked them down and grinned at the other two in the room.

"Who's up for a game of Candy Land?"

Seto flipped over the page of his newspaper, pretending not to hear, and Arienne turned away from the window where she had been peering out for some time.

"C'mon! It's such a fun game! Haven't you ever played Candy Land?"

Seto blinked and his eyes focused on the grubby box.

"Candy Land?" he repeated, and then shook his head. "Why don't you get her to play with you?" He then placed the paper in front of his face and continued to read.

Arienne, who wasn't quite sure what Candy Land was either, had been ready to decline the invitation until Seto's comment. She sat down across from Mokuba.

"I would love to play a game with you, Mokuba," she said, and then continued in a louder voice. "It is good for all children to find love and pleasure at home." She glared at the newspaper, "I'd hate to think that you were being deprived in any way."

Mokuba, pleased to have a playmate, glanced hopefully at the paper hiding his brother. "Big brother! Please! Don't you want to play too? It's so much more fun with more people..."

The paper shook slightly.

"I'm sure you two will manage just fine without me."

Mokuba's face fell and Arienne felt sorry for him. She knew enough to sense that Seto did really love his brother a great deal. But--it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Seto was so used to his hectic life and had trained himself to be so cool to everyone that it was starting to creep into his home life also.

"It's alright, Mokuba. Some people don't enjoy the simple pleasures of life. It's sad, but they feel they're above games and, in essence, having fun at all."

The was a greater reaction from the paper this time, but Seto simply turned the page firmly and Arienne fancied she could hear him grating his teeth.

"Anyway, he'd prob'ly be afraid to play. What if he lost! Can you imagine that great Seto Kaiba losing at a child's game of Sweets Land?"

"Candy Land," Mokuba corrected helpfully.

"Right," she agreed. "You must forgive your brother for not risking his reputation for the sake of his little brother--"

The paper hit the floor. Seto was, however, attempting to act like he was still in perfect control of the situation.

"Since," he said calmly, "we have nothing else to do and since it is apparent you will persist in tormenting me if I do not relent, I will agree to one game. Just one."

~Two hours later~

"NOOO! Not the candy cane!" I was almost at the finish!" Mokuba wailed. But he grinned through his pout and sighed theatrically.

"Do you think this game will ever be done?" Arienne asked.

"Hmmm..." Seto murmured absently. He picked up a card.

"Oh, f-"

"Ahem!" Arienne coughed.

"-udge," he finished with only a slight break. "I was going to say that, really I was."

"Uh huh, right!" Mokuba exclaimed. "You were going to say-"

"My turn!" Arienne said happily, giving Seto a nasty look to which he had the grace to look ashamed at.

"YES!"

"NO!" her oponents yelled in unison.

"Ha ha!" she told them triumphantly. "This lollypop brings me merely eight spaces away from the finish!"

"So what?" Mokuba asked.

"He's right," Seto commented lazily, leaning back in his chair. "Last time I got that card I got the bloody candy cane the next turn."

"Mokuba just got the candy cane," she pointed out with a yawn that surprised her.

"How many times have we had to reuse the deck of cards?" Seto asked to no one in particular.

"Mmmmmm...I dunno," Arienne replied. "Ten, twenty?"

"Perhaps we should just let her win..." Mokuba said sleepily.

"No!" Seto and Arienne fairly shouted.

"No," Arienne repeated more calmly. "We have to be fair."

"Fair, yes..." Seto muttered. He did not look like a proper business owner. Right now his hair was rumpled since he would repeatedly run his hands through it; he was enjoying the game as much as the others thought Arienne doubted he would admit it.

"You won't win," Arienne told him as his hand hovered over the pile of cards. "I hope you get stuck on the green square."

"Ha! You're just worried. My skills are superior to yours so-"

The banter was interrupted by a snore. Arienne and Seto stopped and glanced at a sleeping Mokuba.

"Aren't kids supposed to wear us out?" Arienne said.

"He's tired; that's all. I'm glad he dropped off..."

"He looks like an angel..."

Seto snorted. "Enjoy that picture for now. He's a sweet boy, but, consciously or unconsciously, he always seems to sprout horns in the end."

~~*~~

Arienne would come to cherish that day in the future. It was so carefree and, well, fun. She had not been able to let go and be a kid for the longest time. They grew up too long ago. But that--that had been wonderful.

Why, she was but a child herself. Why, she asked herself, why couldn't life just be like this? Someone to play with and someone more like me than I realize to talk with and/or argue with. Shaking her head, she waved her fantasy away. Life was not like this. If it were, it would be too easy.

She felt so guilty about staying. They wouldn't go out for fear of leaving her alone and she was so touched by it. But--they could not hide her forever, she knew; it was merely a matter of time. And, absurdly, although everything she could see defied it, she felt that time was running out.


A/N: I was going to have more happen, but I had waaaay too much fun so it went longer than I had planned, so you'll get more action next chapter! ^_^