Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Walking a Thin Line ❯ Haunted By Ill Angels Only ( Chapter 2 )

Walking A Thin Line

A Realm of Villainy PWP with a twist

Co-authored by Ishtar Griffin

Haunted by Ill Angels Only

(Two)

The first of the other two members
of the Dog Pound is Duke Devlin (or Ryouji Otogi; gomen if I spelled it wrong).
Duke was always busy with work-but he didn't have as much work as the second
member, Seto Kaiba. Pegasus made sure he made it as easy as possible for the
inventor of Dungeon Dice-he said the game and the inventor had massive
potential. Translated, that meant "The game is great, and you're lucky you're
dating my niece."

Yes, niece. Pegasus J. Crawford had
one living family member. Her name was Eden Kirie, and she was of Egyptian
decent. She had the olive skin, the jet-black hair, the small, petite build.
Pegasus adored his niece-he boasted she was a warrior at heart. More like
stubborn and irritable.

She and Duke had a relationship. At first it was great-Duke
took her shopping, partying, surprised her with jewelry. The sex was good-it
wasn't mind blowing, but it was good enough to brag about. Eden, however,
discovered that she wasn't really that kind of girl.

Like most girls her age, she was
changing. She didn't like to shop as much as she used to, or party like she
did, and she had enough jewelry to make the Queen of England jealous. Over the
course of one year exactly, she became more private, focusing more on her
responsibility as owner of the Sennen Ankh, and one of two Guardians of the
Sennen Items. She isolated herself, became a lot more serious, while Duke stayed
exactly the same-wild, always a bit full of himself, and forever surrounded by
fan girls. As a result, their relationship started to suffer.

While Duke knew there was something
wrong with his girl, he didn't exactly go and ask. For one, he was dense as
hell when it came to relationships, and for two, he really thought that jewelry
solved everything. It had in the past. Sense would've told him to just ask if
he cared about her at all, but he never asked. This is not to assume that he
didn't care-he just cared in his own little way. So he continued with his life,
and Eden continued with hers, until the rift between them was so far apart, the
only thing that ever crossed the gap was snide comments and pointed glares,
none of which came from the male of the partnership.

****

Seto Kaiba, the other missing
member, was quite the opposite of Duke Devlin. He was always about himself,
never wild-he like to be in control, so he was something of a perfectionist-and
even though he thought highly of himself, love had softened his ego a ton. Love
does that-it changes people. Seto had become less brash, although he could
still be that way, and more humane and attentive. Joey told him that after the
last brawl they'd gotten into-he said Serenity did that to people. She always
made them want to be better than they were.

Kaiba thought about it a lot, their
relationship. It was going to be their one-year anniversary in 3 months, and he
was wondering if he would give Serenity what she always wanted: namely,
himself. Kaiba wasn't a virgin, but his sweet girlfriend was. And she wanted,
more than anything, to have him make love to her. But there was something wrong
with that situation.

Kaiba promised Joey that he
wouldn't take Serenity's innocence until they both realized that they loved
each other. At first the older teen thought it was a stupid idea, but he didn't
question it, seeing as how this was his sister, and at the time they were both
drunk as hell. But later on, after he was sober, he got to thinking about the
idea, and decided that it made sense. Love was fulfilling, and he wanted his
sister to have a good time her first time-he wanted it to be special. He got
that now. The problem came in at the terms-Joey said both, and he agreed. Kaiba
loved Serenity to pieces-he told her that every day. But she didn't love him
back.

It wasn't the lack of words. Well,
it was, but it was also in the look. People closest to Kaiba-and with big
enough balls-told him he just looked like he was in love. It was in his eyes.
Kaiba was no fool. He knew the look of love-he'd seen it. It'd made him sick
all too often-when he was younger, and before he met Serenity. But she didn't
have that look. The look she had was lust, and it was disappointing as hell.

Three months.

Kaiba now faced, not just a
problem, but also a dilemma. He wanted, more than anything, for Serenity to
love him back. He thought that if he made love to her, maybe then she'd fall in
love with him. But that led to the recent questions plaguing his mind: Is real
love really based on sex? Did he even need love in the first place? Did anyone
need love, or was it just a want, a desire that could be ignored? He knew it
was love-she made him question himself. The real question was, did he make her
question herself?

****

Serenity was just as sweet and
innocent as they came.

And she was damn tired of it.

Mai would often talk to her about
sex, and she had no idea what she was talking about. But the blonde made it
sound so desirable, and more importantly, she made her boyfriend sound like a
bedroom god. She wasn't mad that Seto had a fling with Mai, but she was mad
that he wouldn't have one with her, his steady girlfriend for almost a year.
Seto had slept with a lot of women, and not one of them had ever complained.
She'd actually gone through his little black book and called all the numbers.
They told her stories that made her head spin.

So how come he wouldn't do that
kind of stuff with her?

At the moment she and Mai were
sitting in the gym of one Joey's friends. Her name was Eden, and she wasn't
gorgeous per say, but she did get venomous stares from the other girls as they
were walking down the street. It was almost as if they were jealous.

Mai got those kind of stares too,
and Serenity when she hung out with the blonde duelist. It was almost as if
they were so good-looking women instantly became insecure and hotheaded at the
sight of them. She actually kind of liked it-it reminded her of being in the
mall with Seto.

Eden was short, petite, just barely
over 5 feet, and had an odd trait-one blue eye, and one hazel one. Presently
the hazel eye was something between gray and black, and the blue one was
covered by damp hair. Eden had been working out for over an hour, and there was
no sign of stopping. From the looks of the way she jogged around the indoor
track, Serenity knew she was angry about something. But she didn't want to pry.

"…So how's your boyfriend?" Mai
asked the young heiress as she bathed her head in spring water.

Eden's response was a fiery glare,
and a triple kick to a nearby person-Serenity assumed it was her coach or
trainer. She crushed the empty spring bottle with her bare hand, and then began
to beat the living shit out of the poor trainer. Mai only yawned.

"I take it he's fine then," she
noted, pulling out a bottle of nail polish. "How's he treating you?"

Eden swore loudly in another
language, violently, and punched the trainer, making him wince slightly. She
shook out her fist, cursed again in the same language, and continued with twice
as much vigor.

Serenity immediately decided never
to get onto her bad side.

"…Mmmm…how's Kaiba sweetie?" she
asked the younger girl nonchalantly. "Still trying to get him into bed?"

"We're supposed to be going out
tonight," she grinned, ignoring the constant angry language coming from the
other girl.

"Did you ask him why he won't sleep
with you?"

The red head nodded. "Whenever I
ask, he just says `I love you', and keeps doing whatever it was he was doing
before. He's frustrating me."

"Sounds like he's avoiding the
question," Mai noted, coating her nails expertly with the crimson polish.

"Or maybe…" Eden spoke up suddenly,
never pausing in her hand-to-hand combat with her trainer. "…He loves you."

Serenity blinked, and Mai examined
her nails for any flaws. "What does that mean?" she asked, watching Mai blow
tenderly on her wet polish.

"If he loves you, he respects you,"
she commented harshly, still exerting herself. "If he respects you, then he's
waiting for the right moment."

"Kaiba old-fashioned?" Mai laughed
so hard, she nearly fell over. "Yeah right!"

"Love…changes people," the shorter
girl panted slightly. "Has he changed?"

"He's not as mean as he used to
be," Serenity confessed. "He's really sweet to me, and Joey says he's almost
half the jerk he was before we started dating."

"So what're you complaining for?"
she demanded. "…Sex isn't everything you know." She slammed into her trainer
with such force, he flipped over and landed on his stomach, groaning in pain.
She rolled her eyes, and turned towards the redhead, glaring at her
expectantly.

"This coming from the girl who
hasn't had any since they came back with platform shoes," their blonde
companion giggled shamelessly.

"…Kiss my ass," Eden snapped, never
taking her eyes off of Serenity. "…Lucky you. Your biggest problem is your
boyfriend won't sleep with you, and every time you ask why, he says, "I love
you". There are worst relationships to be in."

"Whiner," Mai yawned, standing up.

"…It's in his eyes Rin," Eden advised
bitterly. "Learn to read between the lines."

"…This is the kid's first
relationship," the blonde duelist noted. "Cut her some slack, would ya? She's a
virgin in more ways than one."

"How much of a virgin can you be?"
she sneered. "If your man respects you, you know. If he loves you, you don't
have to ask. It's called women's intuition. Every girl has it. You always know
when something's wrong, when something just isn't enough. And when it's time to
move on, for whatever reason."

"You sound like you know," Serenity
observed.

"Yeah, well, I do. My boyfriend
hasn't asked me what's wrong in over 6 months. The last time I had sex with him
Disney re-released Cinderella. I've got enough jewelry to make Princess Di roll
over in her grave. But he doesn't respect me, and he sure as hell doesn't love
me. 99.9% of the time, I have no clue where he is, or what he's doing. He only
calls to break dates and promises. You get the picture."

"So why don't you just break up
with him?" the younger girl asked logically.

Eden laughed bitterly in response.
"And go where? To someone else just like him? Most men are the same. Sometimes
I get cold and lonely in bed-he takes up space. If I wanna sparkle, he takes me
shopping, and if I want attention, he'll show me off. Hmm. When you know you've
got something, hold on to it. I'm too old."

"You can't be older than me." Serenity's smile was so
pretty, it almost softened Eden's exterior. Almost.

"…I meant mentally. I'm too set in
my ways-too icy. Who's gonna put up with me? My relationship's made me bitter,
and I don't see myself magically meeting someone who'll break my icy outer
shell. Besides." She grinned wickedly, and for a minute, looked so feral
Serenity thought she was going to attack her right then and there. "I'll kick
anyone's ass who even tried. I'm gonna go shower Mai-time me."

Mai nodded, absently looking at her watch.

Once Eden exited into the locker
room, the scarlet clad duelist smirked, and gave Serenity a warm smile. "You
don't know this yet, but you will when you get older," she told her
sympathetically. "Some women-well, most-think that they can change their men.
And some, like Eden, have stayed with their men for so long, that they become
bitter towards the idea of love in general. They've let themselves be ruined.
So they start to think that all guys are the same." She laughed a little, as if
they thought were actually amusing. "The thing is, it all boils down to
chemistry."

"Chemistry?" her young protégé
repeated.

"Yeah. Chemistry. If you and your
guy mesh well together, if you just click, if you can most of the time agree on
everything, that's chemistry. Eden and her boyfriend, they don't have any
chemistry anymore. They used to, but they don't anymore. She changed-he didn't.
That made them grow apart. Sounds to me like maybe you and Kaiba are going
through the same thing. If you don't want to wind up like her-a 100 year old
woman in a teenager's body-you'd better do something about it."

"Like what?"

Mai grinned, and Joey's sister
could just imagine the horns growing out of her head at that moment. "Why don't
you just make him jealous?" she asked simply.

****

They were outside of Mai's favorite
shopping mall, staring at a leather outfit in the window. Mai partied a lot-she
knew where all the great clubs were. To Serenity she was a walking
rulebook-full of knowledge about guys' behavior, sex, love, parties. To Eden,
she was full of shit.

"…Ok, define cheating," Serenity
blinked, staring at Mai with innocent eyes.

"In this case, it's not really cheating," Mai laughed. "Just
flirting, maybe light touching, a kiss or two on the cheek. Sensuality is a
must-you wanna make him realize what he's missing out on."

"Yeah, but I don't want him to get
mad at me."

"Let him get mad!" Mai exclaimed
good-naturedly. "Honey, that's half the fun."

Eden nearly crossed her eyes. "Why
don't you just talk to him about it like a civilized human being?"

"…Right, like you and Duke do on a
regular basis," Mai grinned readily.

"You take bad advise, you get bad
results."

"Who made you a relationship guru?"

"The same person who made you one,"
Eden hissed. "I've been on the toilet longer than most of your relationships
have lasted."

"Oh please," Mai snorted. "Cause
you've just got so many success stories."

"Let the girl figure it out on her
own!" the shorter female snapped. "It's her relationship-who're you to get
involved??"

"You're so moody lately-just
because you're unhappy in your relationship and unwilling to fix it, doesn't
mean that everyone else should be that way."

"What the fuck does that have to do
with anything?!"

"It has everything to do with
everything-it's the reason why you work out so much, why you won't hang out
anymore, why you won't even go shopping…"

"There's more to life than clothes
and clubs Mai!"

"Oh, so now you're saying I'm
shallow!?"

"I only call it how I see it."

"…And what're you building your
body up for? You wanna become a male?"

"You wanna keep your ovaries??!"

"…Ladies, ladies, please!" a voice
announced with partial amusement. "Let's just calm down."

All three girls turned around.
Serenity was afraid to get involved in the fight, because Eden's temper was
world-renowned. Joey said she decked a substitute once just because he put his
hand on her shoulder. The girls were glaring, and there her brother stood in
the center, ready to laugh his head off. How could he be amused at a time like
this?

"Kiss and make up," the boy
laughed, and Mai slapped him hard on the back.

"That is not funny Joey!" she
snapped.

"What's the problem Mai?" Joey
questioned good-naturedly. "Seriously."

"…Eden's being bitter about her
relationship with Duke again," Mai accused. "She's mad because I'm trying to
give your sister good advise about what to do with Kaiba…"

"Kaiba?" Joey's normally gentle
brown eyes hardened into little pools of hatred. "What the hell did he do
Rin-did he hurt you? I'll beat the fuck outta that bastard…"

"No, it's not that!" Serenity
assured him hastily. "He's being sweet to me Joey, really. Maybe a little too
sweet."

"What'd ya mean?" her older brother
blinked curiously.

"…It's almost been a year,"
Serenity confessed readily, "and he hasn't…slept with me yet. Joey, I'm still a
virgin, and I'm almost 16!"

Joey's eyes softened considerably.
He thought it was something major. He laughed, completely relieved. "Is that
all?! Oh Rin, I thought I was gonna hafta kill `im. Look, you've been with him
almost a year, and he ain't slept with you yet. That means either one of two
things-he's cheatin' on ya, or he respects ya. Now I know he ain't cheatin' on
ya-I see him enough to know. And he says he loves ya-and I believe him. He
ain't the kinda dude that's just gonna say that to anybody. So he respects ya a
lot. You're lucky you got a guy like that-he treats ya like a queen. You
changed him for the better, and that's something every guy wants in a girl."

"Really?" Serenity blinked
hopefully.

"Really, really. Listen, it don't
matter what you hear these other guys sayin'-I'm tellin' ya, every guy wants a
girl who makes them wanna be better. And you're that girl for Kaiba. He treats
you good, and he loves ya. So now what're you complainin' for?"

Because Serenity didn't just want
Kaiba to respect and love her. She wanted him to show her.

"…I say he's cheating," Mai put in
wisely. "There's no way a guy as sexually active as Kaiba can all of a sudden
hold out on sex for one girl for almost a year. No way."

"Alright, shut your trap Mai!" Now
it was Joey's turn to be upset. And over his worst enemy no less.

Serenity sighed heavily as she
listened to her best friend and her brother bicker. She didn't know who to
believe anymore.

"Listen to me," Eden advised as
they headed out of the mall later on that afternoon. "I know. It doesn't matter
what Mai says-two wrongs never make a right. Never."

But like most teenage girls,
Serenity just wasn't satisfied with the knowledge of the more experienced and
wise. She had to find out if it was true for herself.