Damn, but are my ears still ringing!
Okay, to be fair, I was expecting Treeboy to be pissed, but that was a bit above and beyond what I was expecting. A few Kaiba-style glares, a stern march back up to the main house (damn it, I'm still doing it!), those I expected and got. I never thought I'd get the kind of yelling I've only ever heard Kitty and Mokuba get before. Whoops.
"Looks like you caught a slice of hell."
I glance over my shoulder and offer Seth a less than enthusiastic grin. "That's one way to put it."
He lounges in the doorway looking completely unruffled. Of course, he isn't the one who got strips taken out of him. "Seto does have an odd way of expressing his worry at times."
Yeah, and if I had the chance, I'd fix that bastard Gouzaburou for it. I know the bastard has to behind a lot of things with how Seto is now. I mean, Treeboy may be an asshole, but he's mine.
And wow, that was out of nowhere. It's not the first time I've thought something like that, but it was out of the blue this time.
"I guess so," I offer, and even I can hear that I sound uncertain. And damn it, things are starting to get fuzzy a bit around the edges. Here's hoping this one will be a whiteout instead of a lost episode. And that's fucking sad to be thinking. "What can I do for you, Seth?"
I think he's answering. It looks sort of like his mouth is forming words. I can't hear him, however, and reading lips so is not my thing. Looks like this one is going to be a lost stretch of time, after all. "--forgets how angry he is."
I blink hard, closing my hands into tight fists, anything to hold onto my concentration another few moments. "What was that?"
He tilts his head to the side just slightly, like he's trying to figure me out. God, I hope he isn't succeeding. He's a three hundred-plus year old vampire. Yes, he's on our side, whatever that means, but you don't let someone like that know you have a weakness as huge as mine. If I have any sort of luck, maybe he just thinks I'm still a mental space cadet from the coma.
Yeah, right, like luck ever goes my way.
"I said I might have something for you to look into. Get you out of the house until Seto forgets how angry he is with you."
I don't think 'angry' is quite the word he has in mind. It wouldn't be the word I would have used to describe Seto just now. But I wasn't on the outside looking in. Maybe it looked different from that perspective.
"I'll see about." God, it's get harder to hold on. Why the hell won't he just leave? "Leave me a folder or something on it, and I'll try to look into it."
A manila folder sails over my head and lands squarely in my lap, somehow without losing a single piece of paper. "Have fun with it."
A moment or so later, each second excruciatingly long, I heard the door pull closed behind him, and I have to let it go. I have to. I've tried over the last two weeks to hold these and the whiteouts off, and it only makes them worse when they do eventually hit -- and they always do eventually hit. I'm in for it now as it is, holding this one off these few minutes talking to Seth. Damn it.
As far as I know, no one knows about the blank spots. It's not something I'm particularly keen on sharing with anyone, even (or especially) the ones I call my family and friends. They're mine, and I take care of them, not the other way around. I take care of my own problems as well, not the other way around.
If anyone else did know about the blanks and asked me to describe them, I would be hard-pressed to even know where to start. I really suck at metaphors, after all. Try describing something really out there without comparing it to something else. Not that easy, huh?
For this, though, I guess I would say it's like being inside a storm cloud. It's like floating adrift in some dark cloud and being buffeted to and fro by an unseen force. It's like being completely unaware of self and body -- but still knowing that they're functioning autonomously: feeling your lips moving and speaking, your eyes seeing things around you that you won't remember, your body moving in reaction to external stimuli... all without you being able to control a thing. It's like being a blindfolded prisoner inside your own body, really.
I think, when Treeboy stops being pissy, I'm going to ask for a video camera or a digital recorder or something to carry with me and cut on when these things start. I want to know some of the shit that happens.
I can feel my hands moving, doing something by rote. Now let me tell you: that's a disconcerting feeling. Zombie hands, not digging it.
I always seem to come back into focus in a snap, compared to the slide out I do, and that's what happens this time too. I come to as my hand turns another page in the folder and a familiar voice asks, "So what do you think?"
Fuck, fuck, fuck, that's Seth back in front of me. How long has he been there? How long was I out this time? Long enough to be to the end of the folder at least. I have to-- Fuck. Don't freak out. That's going to be my new mantra from now on: don't freak out. Okay, I can deal with this. It doesn't look like he's noticed a difference in me. Still-- fuck!
"I'm making it my new policy not to make snap judgments anymore," I manage. Yeah, that sounds good, for being utter bullshit.
He frowns, and frankly, I get a brief second of chills that are distressingly hard to hold back. The man gives new meaning to 'you wouldn't like me when I'm angry'! Mental note to me: ally, yes -- safe to piss off, no.
"Just don't take too long thinking it over," he finally growls. "Who knows how long these two will be in town."
Wait, what? No, there's no asking about this. Not unless I want to seriously out myself here.
"I said I'll look into, and I will. I just don't want to, you know, jump in running again." There, that sounds fairly plausible. And now, for something believable to tie it up with. "Yami would beat me if I go off and get hurt or something."
Seth shrugs. "So take him with you. Another set of eyes couldn't hurt, right?"
Wait a minute... Permission to go off with Yami alone? Freely given, no threats or bribery involved? At last! "Might not be a bad idea," I try to say like I'm only considering it, instead of any of the more enthusiastic reactions I'm considering, like perhaps bouncing up and down on the couch.
He stands up, moving away from me and back to the door before he pauses to add, "I don't think this needs to be brought to Seto's attention yet. Not until we know something more substantial."
Okay, wait, what? That's a little odd. Still, I guess every suspicious folder can't go across Seto's desk or he would never have time for anything else. "Yeah, sure, whatever."
It isn't a promise, though. I've learned my lesson about promises. Nobody -- whether human, demon, or monster -- ever keeps them.
It seriously should not be a chore to try to track down my own lover. And really, finding Yami isn't that hard; there are only a few places I can realistically expect to find him. It's keeping Seto out of the loop and dodging my little brother that actually makes this difficult.
I probably should have waited until dawn to try this. There were a few reasons why I didn't though: one, Seth made this all sound very urgent; two, it's been two weeks since I woke up and I want some 'we survived that' sex; and three, I want out of the house now.
So he's not upstairs, he's not in the library, and -- seeing as how Yuugi is in the room with my little brother -- he's not with Yuugi. That leaves either his grandfather's place or Kame Games. I'd put my money on the latter, so that's where I'll head first. Once I manage to sneak off the grounds, at least. It's evening and the vamp guards are out, so that much will be easier. I've never really mastered sneaking past Magnum; in fact, I've lost count how many times the man (wolf?) has marched me back to the house.
Still, it's a relatively simple matter to sneak off the grounds. I don't think any of us ever so much as breathed a word to Seto about how and where Kitty used to slip on his property for years before we all moved there, so I just slip over the fence there and start hoofing it. Luckily, I don't even have to walk too far before I manage to wave down a taxi, and then it's off to Kame Games.
Of the three major gaming companies, I swear Kame is the only one that keeps human business hours. Of course, it is the only one of the three run by an actual human... though I would argue that the Old Man can be scarier than a lot of immortals I know.
It's been a little while -- a year, at least -- since I last visited Kame Games. It hasn't changed much. In fact, I think the same two guards were on duty the last time I snuck in. And even with how out of practice I am, it's still a relatively simple thing to do, to use the wave of absent-minded office drones leaving for the evening to cover my entrance. It really shouldn't be so easy, but hey, it makes my life simpler. It's the small things, really.
The elevator doors open with a fairly quiet 'bing' on the floor I want. If Miho's still the Old Man's secretary, then she's already gone home for the day, so I just slip right past her desk. Treeboy's been trying to instill something between manners and tact into me, so I do at least consider knocking before I go in -- but that's it. Instead, I just quietly ease the door open and glance in. If the Old Man is there, I'll just pull it to again and go check Option Number Two for where Yami could be, but if Yami is there...
He is. Hell, wonder of wonders, he's even there alone. Someone up there likes me tonight.
You know, it was only two or so years ago that I hated his guts. I thought he was an arrogant prick who really needed either a fist to the face or to be turned over someone's knee; I talk a good game and all, but I'm not that kinky, sorry.
And yeah, he's still an arrogant prick who still likes to act like he owns the world... but he's my arrogant prick.
06 June 2010
Another chapter done, go me! I was hoping to have this one done yesterday, but it just wasn't happening. At least I managed it before the weekend was over. I'm even a few paragraphs in on the next chapter. For some reason, I'm rocking and rolling right now.
I'm still planning on having this done by the end of June, so that I can throw myself headlong into JulNoWriMo. Plans right now are for me to do a fan fiction for the challenge this year; I'm not feeling working on a novel with all the crap going down with the publisher. It'll probably be YGO, and it'll be back to my pairing of choice... depending on the idea I go with; I've got about 8 I'm toying with.
Thanks in advance for any reviews I receive. I'll try to be more prompt than I have been of late with answering them.
See you next chapter!
~Apollymi