Love and War

Seto watched as Elaine shook out her long raven hair. “Wow, she seems so different.” Mokuba said as they both crouched behind a cart so that she would not see them as Seto had insisted. Mokuba was right, Three years physically had given her a lot, more curves, longer hair, a few inches, but what she lacked was the smile that almost never left her eyes. It was almost as if she was naked with out her perfect smile marking her perfect face. She was as miserable as he was, this made no sense he thought. She had left him not the other way around what right did she have to live in his personal hell that she had made. He shook that thought from his head as she gave a thin wry smile in thanks for the fruit. “I want her back.” Seto said under his breath. Mokuba nodded whole heartedly. “Lets follow her all day and when the time is right you and I can approach her and take her back with us and we can be a family again.” Mokuba said as they watched her walk down the street. Seto nodded as they followed her to her hotel.
Elaine could not shake the feeling that she was being watched but she knew the duel disk and her rep as a duelist were enough to prompt that and in Domino at that point she had no doubt that a few eyes were on her. She held her head high as she clutched the bag of fruit in her hand. She for a second had started off towards the house of Seto Kiba but had stopped her self and held back the tears. She steered her way back to the hotel with a sigh. Perhaps after her shower and some breakfast she would go out and get in some practice with a few duels and then she would run by the bank to manage her affairs and then go from there. She looked at the sky, “Such a perfect day to go to the park.” She said before she went into the high class hotel building. She ate her fruits and then a quick shower and changed into some jeans and a tank top that had a Blue Eyes White Dragon on it. She again strapped on her duel disk packed with her deck that rarely failed her. She had the same basic deck she had used three years ago with few subtractions and additions. She took her messenger bag purse with her and then headed back out. Right away she had found some one to duel with, or rather they found her. A tall slender man who looked like a biker punk. She smiled as she excepted and then the duel got under way.
Mokuba watched as Elaine dueled. Every thing about the way she dueled screamed experience, the way she stood, her mannerisms, and her strategy was of course brilliant. She was the one who had major got him into duel monsters, with Seto it had been something to steal attention away from him, with Elaine it was a group project. He held back with every thing he could as he watched her tear down the last of the mans life points with her Wingweaver. “She is good, really good.” Seto said as tears welled up in his eyes. You could tell that he was thinking about that night once again, Mokuba set his hand on his brother’s shoulder and then pulled him into a hug. “It is ok Seto I miss her too.” Then Elaine took a small modest victory bow and when she returned upright, she looked directly at Seto and Mokuba. Then she turned extremely white and ran off in a direction.
Seto saw this and let go of his brother. “Come on Moky lets go after her.” he said as he took off running behind Elaine. His white trench coat flew behind him as his brother tried to keep pace with his short legs. “Elaine please wait.” Mokuba screamed after her beside Seto. Seto looked at him. “Ok this is not going to work I have to run ahead after her.” he said before speeding up. By this time they were in the park and Elaine had slow down. Seto rushed up to her and wrapped his long arms around her, then they fell to the soft ground and Elaine grunted softly. Seto planted a firm dry kiss on her forehead. “You came back…” he said almost so quite it had not been said.
“Get off of me right now you back stabbing skirt chasing play boy.” Elaine said as she wiggled free of Seto and Mokuba ran up to them a broad grin on his face. When she stood he almost tackled her and hugged her tight as if afraid to let go. “Elaine your back.” He said as she pulled away from him. “No I’m not, saying that I am back would imply that I am returning to how things were, and I refuse to live the lie that Seto Kiba loves me, I refuse to live it again” turning and running off for a second time, this time into the trees. Elaine tried her best to avoid trees and briars as she ran tears streaking her pale cheeks. She got a few scrapes by the time she had erupted through the woods and it started to rain. The fat droplets hit her hair and body. Her black hair appeared to cascade down her back in silken sheets and the drops bounced off her skin as she made her way to the hotel. Once inside she drew up an warm bath and got in. she reached up to her forehead and sighed as if the place he had kissed burned with love or hate, she could not decide which it was.
Mokuba sat on the ground beside his brother keeping dry form the tree cover. “Mokuba what did she mean when she said the lie of Seto Kiba’s love or whatever it was?” Seto asked looking in the direction she had ran to. “I think what she meant was that before she left she caught the middle of a conversation between you and Shasta, where you said that you did not love her blah blah blah, and that was what she wanted you to say but you are like that is not how I feel I really love her and whatnot. Well she only caught the not loving her part. So to her how she felt was a deception.” Mokuba said being deeper then he normally was with his brother. “Well that is perfect she broke my heart because I broke hers. Things are messed up.”
Elaine ran all the way back to the hotel in the rain. “Perfect I am not even here for twenty fours hours and then they show up and every thing goes to hell.” she said pretending like she was not going to cry. The truth was that when he had kissed her it had felt right and she had wanted him to hold her but he did not love her and she would not be made a fool of by twice by one man she refused to do it. She went into her hotel room and changed into some pjs and laid in the bed. She pondered what to do about this whole thing, first thing was to forget about it, then she needed to accept that he had not loved her, and then move on. So she would club tonight, come to terms and yeah forget about his kiss. No problem she kept telling herself. She played with her dark hair and closed her eyes. She imagined how things might be if she returned and Seto did love her. She pictured her self in the Kiba mansion making a big breakfast for them all and smiling while planning out every one’s day. She would duel some and then shop or what ever and hang out with Mokuba while Seto worked and then when he got home go on a date and then come home and have dinner with Mokuba. Just like one family they could be, if he had still loved her which he did not so that was just some stupid thing she played in her head. She laughed, she had just changed into her pj’s and then was going to change out of them to go clubbing. She wished more then anything she could be going with Seto. For some reason she was still hung up with him and she could not name why.
“Mokuba, how do we make things right? I need her back. I love that girl more then I love anything.” Seto said once they were back at their house. The message machine blinked with several messages. He knew all of them would be his advisors wanting to know why he had not shown up for work. He should call them all up and tell them to shove it but thought it might come back to bite him in the ass.
Mokuba looked at his brother. “Well I would say we stalk her and make her remember the things she loved about being a part of this family.” Seto nodded. “You know that sounds good so in the morning you me fruit market?” Mokuba nodded. “Yeah sounds great big brother!” He nodded. “Well night Seto..” He said hugging him and then going to his room. In his room he pulled his computer chair to his closet and stood on it to remove a brief case. He brought it to his desk and smiled as he opened it. In the center was a stack of cards , His deck to be more precise a deck Elaine had help make him. He smiled as he shuffled. “Tomorrow is going to be fun.” Then he set his deck in a holder that was also in the case before going to his bed to lay down.
Elaine was on her way to the club when she was challenged to a duel by a boy named Joey. The match had ended in a draw
when he used self destruct button on her. “Good game, My name is Joey, and this here is Yugi and uhhh Tea.” he said introducing
his friends. She smiled. “Good to meet you but I already knew about you two being a duelist and all but I must be on my way I am
going to a club.” Joey’s face lit up. “Well we are not doing anything would it be alright if we hung out?” Yugi and Tea nodded in
agreement. “Yeah that sounds like fun huh?” Tea said looking at Yugi. Yugi nodded and looked at her his eyes changing to become
more gentile. “Yeah that sounds like a good idea, I could use a break.” Elaine smiled, “Well if you guys insist I don’t have a
problem with you guys tagging along” truth be told she would not mind the company of a few new friends. Her encounter with
Seto was enough to put her in a bad mood. She skipped off with them beside her laughing. They chatted about the duel Joey had
been in. Joey looked at her and smiled. “You know who you should duel? Seto Kiba he is a good duelist ranked number two or
three it changes from me to him a lot.” She laughed out loud. “Seto, no I can beat him half of the time he is nothing great, the
person I am interested in dueling would be short fry Yugi over there.” Yugi made a face. “Hey, that’s not fair…. Wait what did you
mean you win with Seto half the time?” His face changed to be inquisitive. “Err nothing it is a dream that I have you know dueling
him…” she coughed and looked down. “Oh that is ok I have crazy dueling dreams too” Joey said pulling her into a head lock. “Oh
that is great Joey scare our new friend away with your b.o.” Tea laughed pulling on him to let her go of him. She laughed “No it is
alright…” She murmured walking into the club. As she did so Joey slipped his arm around her and she hesitated but let it be there, because maybe it was time to move on.

In the morning Mokuba’s alarm rang bright and early, it was the first time in a long time that he had been able to sleep through the night without being woken up by Seto’s late night dreams. He had fallen asleep thinking of dueling strategies that he could use against Elaine once she was back with them. He could hear his brother starting to wake up and get into the shower as he always did the only difference was that it was incredibly early for him. He had not even gotten up this early when Elaine had lived there, he always slept in and waited for her to get back and wake him up. After a few minutes he pulled himself out of bed too and walked to his shower and turned it on. Once the water hit him he started to get excited at the prospects of the day following his friend and getting her back.

Seto barely managed to pull himself out of bed when the cell phone beside him had went off telling him to get up. Last night had been a long hard night for him but he did not wake up with his normal dream. Instead he dreamt of the kiss he had planted on Elaine’s porcelain forehead and how good her cool skin had felt. Only in his dream she had let him hold her and share a more passionate kiss in which her mouth was pressed lovingly to his. When he got out of bed he stood up and stretched and looked at the ring and kissed it gently. “Soon you will be on her finger.” He smiled at the prospect and walked off to his shower hearing his brother stir and smiled. Mokuba was excited about Elaine coming back he could tell. He was a little upset that his brother did not tell him about Elaine as soon as he found out but then again in all fairness he had been asleep before Mokuba had even left so he could forgive him. After he got of the shower he set out to pick the perfect outfit for the little scene he had been playing over in which Elaine and he share the perfect kiss and everything is perfect again, nothing could ruin his day today nothing in the world.

Elaine groaned as light came through her window, she was not ready to get up. She had been up last night talking with her friends and just dueling for fun in her hotel room. It reminded her of the things she, Seto, and Mokuba had done together. She knew she had to get up though, she had plans for the day. First thing she was going on a mini date with Joey fruit shopping then afterwards they were heading over to Yugi’s grandfather’s card shop to do a little work and then she was going to head out and duel for the day and see where the night took her.

When she got to the farmers market she walked around feeling eyes on her once again but shook it off again as it being nothing more then her duelist reputation. She looked around testing some fruit, soon enough she felt a set of strong arms wrap around her and gentle breath on her neck. “Mmmyeah wow Elaine it sure is early.” then Joey kissed her cheek, “But you are worth it defiantly.” She smiled and pushed him away from her gently. “Hey we are in pub….” she did not get the rest out of her mouth before falling over from an impact. When she scrambled up from the ground she saw Seto on top of Joey punching him. “Oh my God what is going on?!?”

“SETO! NO!” Mokuba yelled as he lost control of his brother. Seto had started shaking violently and cursing under his breath when he saw Joey wrap his arms around Elaine and when he kissed her cheek there was no containing him what so ever. Seto had torn free of him and ran across the way and tackled Joey and Elaine in the process. He saw Elaine scramble up fruit squished into her clothing and hair as he watched his brother pound away at his friend with out mercy. He watched for a few seconds and then sprinted across the street.

He watched as Elaine tried to pry in between the two men. By this time Joey was on top of his brother pounding away, he could see a black eye forming under his brothers left eye. “Stop it Joey your hurting him.. Seto…. Seto SETO?” she screamed tears streaking her face, her voice was so concerned for Seto that it started to quiver. Mokuba had to smile a little at her care for his brother it was a good sign. What however was not a good sign was how she put herself beside Joey to pull him off. Soon she was pushed back by the force of the fight and Joey knocked her down the ground this time she stayed down and quite.

Seto stopped as he heard Elaine grow silent and Joey did the same. “oh God what have I done?” he heard Joey say in his hood rat accent. He saw the blonde man run to Elaine’s side and crouch down, this ignited his fire once again. How could he let the man that knocked her out feign care for her that only he could have. Seto rushed forward and knocked Joey square in the jaw. Joey too stayed down not knocked out but certainly dazed. Seto then crouched down and slipped his arms around Elaine and lifted her up. “Mokuba?” “Yeah big brother?” “Listen I need you to stay here and take care of things you know as far as making sure the cops don’t get called and what not. I am taking Elaine home.” With that he started walking off in the general direction of their compound Elaine in his arms. His brother standing there left to clean up his mess.

A quite a few hours later Mokuba walked through the kitchen door way and sat down at the bar rubbing his temples. It had taken a lot of talking, time, and money to convince the fruit vender to not call the police of a lawyer. It took an even longer time to get Joey patched up and calmed down enough to where he would not try something drastic. Joey was pretty beat up, his eyes were black and Mokuba was pretty sure his nose was broken. He was also fairly sure he wanted to kick him a few times for measure at first. The more he thought of it, Seto was not completely innocent in the matter. He had been involved in the force that had knocked her out, which was probably Joey’s saving grace from unlocking a very evil part of Mokuba Kiba.

Mokuba looked up at the clock and found it was about two thirty in the afternoon which explained the hunger pains he was feeling. He stood up and grabbed a tube of chips and opened it. After eating a few he decided to make a sandwich to go with them. He got into the fridge and pulled out sandwich pepperoni, smoked swiss, mustard and a few other things like olives and pickles. After making a huge sandwich he sat down to eat his lunch. It was several minutes before he realized that his brother had walked into the kitchen doorway and was resting there, a huge red print across his normally flawless face. “Did you sort everything out with the needed people?” Mokuba just looked at him and heaved a sigh. “How is she?” He asked not even answering his brother who knew perfectly well the answer. “Well I would have to say pissed beyond belief would be an understatement. I don’t know which she hates worse the fact that I changed her into something else or the fact she allowed herself to get knocked out and carried by me, well not knocked out by me but you know.” He nodded and pushed off the wall to sit across from his brother.

With this Mokuba exploded at him his face turning from its norm pale to beet red in a fraction of a second. “Are you even kidding me, it takes a lot to knock that girl out and Joey was not the only one that put force into that fray. He is just the unlucky bastard that was nearest her. Huh what if you had knocked into her? Would it be one hundred percent your fault? Your just as much to blame as he is! And you changed her what a juvenile thing to do! I don’t care to know the depth of your physical relationship with her, but you just don’t go around and change people in and out of clothes just because you once dated them once!” Seto blinked a few times, had his little brother just said that to him. “Mokuba it is not like that you know I would never hurt her in anyway shape or form!” he said trying to defend himself from his brothers harsh words and fierce gaze. Never in his life had he seen his smaller brother that way, in that moment it seemed the roles were reversed to Seto. “Yeah just like when she left, she wasn’t hurt then huh?” Mokuba said standing up and stalking out of the room.

Elaine was awake and in a dark blue button up shirt of Seto’s, it would have felt nice if she was not so outraged at that second. “Let me the fuck out right now you hear me Seto Kiba you hear me?!?” she screamed as she banged on the door. When she had awoken she had seen Seto’s figure sitting on his large bed as he tossed her fruit smeared clothes in the laundry hamper. Seconds after she had given him the smacking of a lifetime and a few choice words as he ran from the room.

Now she was pacing like there was no tomorrow waiting for the door to come open once again. When it did come open it was Mokuba, he ran to Elaine and embraced her tightly. “Oh Elaine I am so very sorry.” He said as his face was buried into her cleavage. She laughed and stroked his hair lovingly, “Oh Moky you know it is not your fault none of it kay, just your arrogant good for nothing brother. You know you can never do any wrong in my eyes right?” Mokuba smiled up at her, “About Seto…” She shook her head, “I don’t want to hear about it alright.” she closed her eyes and tightened the embrace.

She was so involved in hugging Mokuba she did not notice another figure enter the room. “Careful Moky I get jealous easy.” Seto said in attempt to joke, “Let me and Elaine be alone.” Mokuba nodded and let go of her and ran form the room. Elaine stood up and narrowed her eyes. “You suck so effing…” She did not complete the sentence.

Seto smiled as soon as Mokuba left the room and kicked the door closed. Then he strode over to Elaine and grabbed her and kissed her passionately. At first she resisted as his tongue fought to gain entry but eventually her fighting subsided and she began to return the kiss heavily even deepening it. The next thing he knew he was on top of her on the bed enveloping her with his long arms.

After a few minutes of hard kissing on the bed barely breaking for air his hand crept to the hem of the shirt she was wearing and carefully up the body he once knew so well. His fingers found her familiar pink mound and began to tease it lovingly until it was hard underneath his long slender fingers. His other hand slowly started to undo the buttons of the shirt slowly. By the time her shirt was open they had stopped kissing and her chest rose and fell in steady pattern. “Elaine I missed you so much…” Seto said looking up at her before his mouth formed a seal around her pink nipple, her breathing quickened and he knew she could feel his erection against her thigh as he felt her pulse race. “all is fair in love and in war!” she said emphasizing the word and before pushing the palm of her hand into his nose breaking it. “And don’t you forget it next time you try to seduce me you bastard!” With that Seto watched her walk out pulling on a pair of jeans.

Elaine held her breath as she walked out trying to remain calm hearing Seto’s painful cries of “Fuck!” from the other room. When she was fully dressed she made her way to the front door and realized she had no way of getting home, and no shoes on so walking was out. She smirked at the silver glare of the car key basket. “I am sure Seto would not mind.” She walked over to the basket and rummaged through finding the keys to Seto’s favorite car, a British racing green Mini Cooper. “Awesome I always wanted to drive this thing.” she pocketed the keys and went out the front door.

She walked around the house quickly now hearing Seto’s furious yells. When she got to the garage she quickly jumped into the car and started it up. She was a fair way down the road when she spotted a silver mustang dart out behind her and the car phone rang. “Hello this is Elaine.” she said cheerfully. “You broke my nose, I popped it into place no harm but it hurt like a bitch. That was fucked up blue balling me like that.” Seto said in a cold voice over the other end and he speeded up until he was riding her tail. “Mmmm Seto what did I tell you all is fair…” she grunted in a pain as he rammed his mustang into the mini cooper. “In love and war.” he finished for her. “So which is this Elaine I really need to know, no games.” He said ramming the car again and hearing her grunt. “I thought you wanted to be the King of Games my dear Seto, and besides that little performance on the bed was evidence of what it is.” She responded coolly and heard him chuckle. “Baby that was not a one sided show you were into it, I could tell by how hungry your kisses were.” Elaine returned the chuckle, “Then you have your answer it is love then.” She then ripped the car phone cord out and tossed it out the window and sped up.