Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Seto Kaiba's Perfect Match ❯ Musical Friendship Interlude ( Chapter 7 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Morning light awoke me gently, coming in through the window, which was thankfully covered with blinds to mute the light a bit. I had no idea of what time it was, but I decided to get up and about, since I was pretty energized. Ain't no telling what good sex and good sleep will do for you, I'm telling you.
After quietly getting my shirt from the chair beside the bed, I walked around the bed and saw the evidence of our little strip show from the night before scattered everywhere. My panties were still on the floor, and as I was pretty much naked as a jaybird, I picked them up and put them on, along with my shirt. Peeping outside the closed door and seeing no one, I decided to take a little walk, since I was curious to see some other rooms----besides the bedroom, of course. I knew that Seto and I would be spending a lot of time there, of course.
I left the safety of the guest room and followed the hall down a little further to its end, which was not very far from where I started. The hall seemed to continue off to the left, so I followed, and eventually came to a medium-sized room, which was not furnished too heavily----just two couches, a chair, and----was that----
"A piano!" I said joyfully to myself. I hadn't been able to play since I had left for the Battle City tournament, and so my fingers had been getting quite itchy lately. It was a baby grand, and beautifully polished black. I ran my fingers lightly over the keys, feeling how well-crafted they were; I was almost inspired just by the sight of the musical instrument. Since I had been taking lessons since I was ten and then had begun to compose music at the age of twelve, I had fallen in love with pianos and found any opportunity to play.
I sat down on the piano bench and began to play my 27th piece, "Angelic," since it matched how calm and peaceful I felt this morning. Quietly, the high, twinkling melody started on the high octaves of the piano, followed by a response in the bass clef along the same melody line. I controlled the tone so as not to wake anyone, but I felt so happy to finally be able to play. My right foot pumped the damper pedal in time to the music, creating a gentle floating effect and making the music prettier and more lasting, I felt. I was so engrossed in my musical world that I didn't hear anything but the music until---
"Good morning," I heard a familiar deep voice say softly over the music. I stopped playing, turned and looked over my shoulder to see Seto standing there in the doorway.
"Good morning," I responded, my face blushing at seeing him. He was dressed in the rumpled clothes from the previous evening, and his hair was messed up a bit from sleep. But he looked so adorable, I didn't mind one bit.
"Did you have a good night's sleep?" I asked as he walked over to me and put his hands gently on my shoulders, massaging lightly.
"I should say I did----thanks to a certain woman I know," he said with a deep chuckle.
"I'm glad. I slept like a log," I said, laughing a bit. I gestured to the piano. "Do you play?"
"I used to, before my company required more of my time," he said shyly. "But the music you were creating this morning----what a wonderful wake-up call." I scooted over and he sat down beside me on the piano bench. "What were you playing, by the way?" he asked, his blue eyes again looking at me inquisitively.
"One of my compositions; I call it 'Angelic' because it's very peaceful and calm," I said breezily. He looked a little startled.
"You---you write music? Like that?" he asked me, gesturing to the piano keys.
"Yes," I replied honestly. "I've been writing music since I was about twelve. It's kind of a compulsive thing with me----sometimes the music in your head compels you to the keyboard or to the piano and you have to write it, even if it's, like, two A.M. or something. I get inspired and the music just flows out of me." I noticed that Seto cocked his head in thought and gazed at me with love in his eyes as I said this.
"Sometimes I get that way when I have a new idea for an invention or something," he said softly. "Take the new duel disc, for example. I was actually woken out of a sound sleep by the idea, and created the preliminary designs at about 4:30 in the morning. It turned out pretty good, I think."
"Did you dream it or just---" I trailed off and let him speak.
"I don't know---I had been thinking a lot about a new design for the duel disc before I had gone to sleep."
"Maybe the Muse just struck you in a dream and you had to get up," I said lightly. "That's how it is with music----you have to get up and form that melody into something good, or you're going to lose it. I've lost many a melody by being lazy and rolling over and going back to sleep." I laughed at my own laziness.
"But that's wonderful, that you can compose music," Seto said, his voice full of wonder. "It gently woke me up, not like an annoying alarm, which I hate, by the way."
"Me too," I said in gentle agreement. Then I remembered something. "Did you know you have a composition of your own?"
"What do you mean? I can't write music."
"No, I mean there is a composition of mine that fits your personality very well." I gestured again to the piano keys. "In my music, I search to describe states of being, and sometimes even people. Every person in the world has a melody that his or her soul vibrates to, and you know it when you hear it. In your case, that song is my 28th piece, called 'Sorrow.'"
"Sorrow? Why would that be me?" he asked in confusion.
"Honestly? I didn't know the reason myself at first," I said. "I thought about you, and the long, lyrical melody of the piece seemed to fit you so well. I wondered at first why I had chosen my saddest composition to describe you, but then I realizedlast night." I alluded to his revealing his long-hidden pain. "Sometimes I can pick up on the sorrow in a person's soul without even knowing it, and I think that's why I chose it for you."
Seto's blue eyes looked a bit distant for a minute. "Would you play it for me?"
"Sure," I said, and he got up and went to one of the couches to sit down. "I'm going to warn you, though----this piece comes out of nowhere as loud as possible, so be prepared." I took a deep breath and banged the first loud notes of "Sorrow" out, expressing the shock of grief and the soul's anguish that inevitably accompanies it. Then my tempo slowed and the music softened, and the gentle rocking of the predominant melody began, its tune melancholy and brooding. My eyes threatened to well up with tears, remembering the sorrow of my own which had created this music, but I kept it in check, pouring the emotions instead into the beat of every note and the poetic expression of the melody and its accompanying bass.
I glanced over in my playing and saw that Seto was completely lost in the music, his body even subconsciously moving slightly with the rocking motion of the melody. Like a sad lullaby, its soft tune had captured him within its world. I smiled to myself, knowing that it was my music that had this effect on him.
The extremely high and poignant ending melody began to play over the top of the main melody, expressing a deep longing and a sadness which could not be expressed any other way. I couldn't help it---the sorrow in my own heart began to spill from my eyes, lightly splashing onto my hands as I played. The bass sounded softly, like distant thunder, echoing a sound of finality and loss that Seto and I both knew all too well, for different reasons. I held the final chord for as long as it would still make music, the sound echoing within the piano and slowly dissipating into nothing, until I finally released the damper pedal and fell still and silent. It was a long time before I heard or sensed anything, and the first thing I heard was gentle applause.
"That---was the most beautiful----" Seto seemed at a loss for words. "It---really was me. I could understand it. That's amazing," he said softly, in disbelief. "I've never really understood music before, but yours----it made perfect sense."
"Really?" I asked, quietly excited. I was glad he had liked my music.
"Yes. Perfect sense," Seto repeated, in an almost dreamy sort of voice. I think he was still somewhat in the atmosphere of the world I had created with my music.
"I'm glad. I had hoped you would like it."
"Oh, I definitely liked it," Seto said, finally rising and walking slowly over to me, putting his hands gently on my shoulders again as I sat at the piano. "It's yet another way in which you are intelligent and talented----not to mention what talents you showed last night." I turned and looked up to see a slightly mischievous glimmer in the sapphire eyes.
"I see," I said mysteriously, and returned the look with a playful grin. "You were quite talented yourself, as I recall. You sure you hadn't done that before?" I laughed my naughty laugh and grinned. "Those fingers of yours are magic, let me tell you."

After a quick check of the clock (it was only 6:30 in the morning, for God's sake!) and a little extra sleep (get your mind out of the gutter, I did actually sleep), I prepared myself to head out for another day of the Battle City tournament. As I was getting ready to leave, making sure I had all my cards, Seto appeared again in the doorway of the guest room.
"Leaving already?"
"Well, I do have a tournament to win," I said jokingly. He playfully rolled his eyes.
"I don't know about that, but I will say that I will look forward to our duel at the finals." He gestured to my four locator cards. "Looks like you're almost there."
"I hope I do make it to the finals," I said modestly. "I'm a good duelist, but I can always get my butt kicked unexpectedly."
"Well, you can expect to get your butt kicked at the finals by me," Seto said, trying to sound serious, but the rare twinkle in his eyes giving the joke away. I laughed with him.
"I'll hold you to that----'cause I like it rough, big boy," I said, making my voice husky to tease him. He blushed and I laughed as I picked up my duel disc.
"Wait." The word left Seto's lips unexpectedly.
"Huh?"
"Walk with me?" My heart melted---he sounded like a sweet little boy asking that.
"Sure." I put my hand in his, and we left the mansion just as we had entered it the night beforetogether.

Battle City contestants had already started to scatter from their respective homes and hotels to challenge each other as Seto and I walked down the street. However, the crowds surrounding these duelists and their games got distracted by an even bigger spectacle, or so it seemed.
"Oh, my God---Is that Seto Kaiba? Walking with a girl?"
"That's the chick who beat him, right? Wow, she must've really gotten to him in their duel."
"See, I told you they were going out."
These were just some of the comments I heard as we walked around Battle City. I wasn't too interested in dueling anyone yet, however; the world felt just right the way it was.
As we approached the hotel at which I had been staying, I saw a familiar group of four waiting near its doors, on a set of two benches arranged in a right angle. I almost yelled out to them, but remembered just in time that Seto might not want me to be calling out so boisterously to those who had so recently been not so friendly (or at least to him sometimes).
"Hey----Seto. Is it all right if we talk to them?" I whispered quietly. Well, I didn't want to piss him off---could you blame me?
"Who? Oh---I see. Yes, that's fine." His voice sounded unusually gentle, and sweet. I took him at his word, however, and called out.
"Hey, y'all! Long time no see!" I said, waving to them. Yugi was the first to look, turning slightly in his seat. When he saw who my walking partner was, he smiled big, as if to say "Way to go!" Tea and Joey exchanged a knowing glance between them, and Tristan rolled his eyes.
"Well, look who decided to show up," Joey said as we approached the bench where they sat. Tristan and Yugi sat on a bench facing away from us, Tea sat on the perpendicular one, and Joey was sitting on the ground in the angle between the benches. I blushed and looked at Seto, who was about the same shade of red that I was.
"Hi," I said shyly to all of them, knowing that my actions of the night before were probably easily readable on my face.
"I wondered why you weren't out here earlier," Tea said, her eyes shooting me a knowing look. "Guess it's kind of obvious now, huh?" She patted the ample space beside her on the bench. "You guys can sit down if you want." After a quick nonverbal communication I had with Seto, we sat down and made ourselves comfortable.
Yugi was brave enough to break the ice. "Well, um---I know this sounds probably pretty stupid, but---um---are you---together?" He gestured to Seto and me.
My big smile gave it all away, but I looked at Seto and nodded, taking his hand gently in mine.
"Aw! That's so sweet!" Tea said, looking genuinely happy for us. "So, how did she finally tell you that she had a gigantic crush on you?" she asked Seto, who seemed to be in his own world at the moment.
"She rescued me," he said quietly, looking off in the distance.
"Rescued you? From who?" Joey and Yugi asked at the same time, exchanging a glance at the simultaneous speech.
"Marik," I said with a downcast look.
"Holy shit," Tristan said, his fists balling up. "What the hell did he want?"
"He wanted Seto's Egyptian God card, and he somehow knew that I---had feelings for him, so he trapped him, and forced me into a duel," I said, the words spilling out of me faster than I could keep track. "But it wasn't a regular duel with cards----somehow, we used the energy of our souls to battle. I beat his ass, though," I said, not being able to keep a little pride out of my voice.
"Wow." Yugi spoke softly in awe. "That's wonderful."
"I did it all for Seto," I said kindly, looking at him as I had done during my duel with Marik----with eyes full of love.
"Aw, man, that's mushy," Joey said, his humor breaking the atmosphere, and we all started to laugh. I couldn't help but notice that all of them had to wipe something out of their eyes, though.
"So, what happened after that?" Yugi asked.
"Well, um, I was going to go back to the room and all, but then---uh----" My cheeks started to flame, and I looked over at Seto. "Do you want me to tell, or both of us, or what?"
"Tell us what?" Joey asked, his enthusiasm bubbling over.
"If you'll quit barking, puppy dog, we'll tell you," Seto suddenly said, and it admittedly took a minute to realize that his tone actually had a laugh in it rather than an insult. The phrase "puppy dog" almost sounded like an affectionate nickname when he said it like that. Joey looked confused, then started to laugh nervously.
"Glad to see you caught my humor," Seto said, and his signature slight smile crept across his face, relaxing the tension around us almost immediately. All of us started to laugh.
"Anyway, as my counterpart here was about to say," Seto said, looking over at me with a smile, "I invited her to stay in one of the guest rooms in my mansion, knowing that she'd probably be more comfortable. It was the least I could do."
"Now this is a Kaiba I've never seen before," Tristan said suspiciously, looking at Seto out of the corner of his eye. "How did you change from being a cold-hearted S.O.B. to being---the person you seem to be right now?"
Seto seemed to brush off the "cold-hearted S.O.B." comment and instead replied calmly, "I changed because she cared enough to tell me what she thought of me honestly, and loved me enough to risk her own soul and mind to save me. She also brought me the first joy I have experienced in a long time."
"I think I know what that 'joy' is," Joey commented under his breath to Tristan, who snickered quietly. "She probably had to work with him awhile to even get him to let her play with his joystick." At this, both of them started laughing uncontrollably. All of us had heard the comment; Yugi and Tea both shook their heads like "Tsk, tsk," while I burst into a rich naughty laugh. Seto couldn't help but smile a little.
After a few minutes of laughing, Joey and Tristan and I finally settled down, and I continued the story. "Seto was so kind to me---and he can be tender and sweet if he wants to be," I said, affectionately stroking his hand as I said this. "That's why I care about him so much." We made eye contact and I smiled big.
"Well, what happened after that?" Joey asked eagerly.
I only smiled mysteriously in reply, my eyes twinkling, and Seto shifted uncomfortably in his seat, looking away. Both of us were blushing furiously.
"Ah," the group said as one, knowingly looking at us. Then Joey pumped his fist. "Yes!! I won! Pay up, Tristan! Ten bucks!"
"Aw, shit." Tristan reluctantly pulled out his wallet and handed a five and five ones to Joey. I looked incredulously at the two of them.
"Did you bet on what I think you bet on?"
"Hell, yeah!" Joey said, grinning widely. "I bet Tristan ten dollars that you would end up screwin' Kaiba. He was dumb and thought you wouldn't."
"Aw, fuck you, Joey," replied Tristan, looking dejectedly at his depleted money supply. Tea giggled delightedly.
"You guys are the only two in the group who did any of that," she said jokingly, gesturing to Seto and me. I watched as Seto's cheeks turned that same adorable shade of red, and he looked down at himself, embarrassed.
"So how long did it take you?" Tristan finally asked, ribbing me gently.
"Aw, y'all," I said shyly. "Don't talk like that before my man." I actually liked that sort of racy talk, but I didn't want to make Seto mad by discussing the more, ahem, private aspects of the relationship we had forged.
"Aw, come on," Joey said, nudging me. "We just want to know how---well the evening went!" He burst into snickers at the end of his sentence and elbowed Tristan, who responded with a couple of laughs.
"It went very well, thank you very much," Seto spoke up, shocking all of us. "After all, I am a champion in everything I doand I do mean everything." He looked at me and winked, and I laughed a quick version of my naughty laugh.
"What the fu---holy shit, Kaiba's kinky!" Tristan sputtered out in surprise. Yugi's face turned the shade of a tomato, and he looked away in shyness and embarrassment. Tea couldn't stop giggling at this point.
"Well, he is very good, you have to admit," I said, not being able to stop the joking grin from spreading across my face as I said it. "Talk about the power of a dragon----damn!" I nudged Seto and growled softly like a tiger. "I had to tame that thing before I could do anything with it, ya know what I'm sayin'?"
That did it----everyone started laughing hysterically. We attracted quite a bit of attention, the six of us sitting around cracking up at each other. Seto laughed a little more quietly; I was about too far gone to do anything with. Finally, though, we managed to settle down, and Seto moved to get up.
"As much as I've enjoyed this, I must get on to the tournament," he said, with a tinge of what I interpreted as regret. He looked down at me. "Do you want to come with me, or would you like to stay?"
"I'll come with you," I said cheerfully. "You always need a buddy walking around with you. Gets kinda lonely otherwise." I stood up and was about to leave with him when Joey called out.
"Hey, Kaiba!" Seto looked over his shoulder (damn it, he looks so fucking sexy when he does that!!!).
"You're not too bad, ya know? I mean, for a guy who likes to kick people's asses for a living." Joey shrugged a little, and I saw Seto smile out of the corner of my eye.
"I suppose you're all right----for a puppy dog." The mischievous glint in Seto's eyes gave the joke away, and I giggled. Joey looked stunned for a minute, then grinned.
"All right, Kaiba, whatever," he said, waving us both on, and I waved bye to the group before catching up to Seto.
"You know, I'd never realized it," Seto said thoughtfully as we walked, " but those four are actually---quite entertaining." He pulled me a little closer, as if to tell me a secret. "And I'd never let him know, but Joey's actually all right too."
"Why wouldn't you let him know?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Because conflict is good. Besides, he pretty much knows I don't mind him that much anymore." The smile on Seto's face was genuine, and I could tell he really enjoyed hanging out with friendly people, once he actually got out and did it.
"So, is this the end of the 'lonely Seto Kaiba' era?" I asked jokingly, ribbing him gently in the side.
"Not by a long shot," Seto said with a sigh. "Just because I can tolerate people doesn't mean I like to be around them all the time." He shuddered. "I can't stand when people get into my personal space and try to mess with me."
"You liked me messing in your, ahem, personal space last night," I said seductively, gazing up into his gorgeous azure eyes.
"That's different." His arm slipped protectively around my waist, and I snuggled into the embrace, feeling very comfortable, to say the least.