Daisycutters: Okay, so this chapter is written in first-person, but only this though (and probably the last chapter if i am encouraged to continue.) The rest will be written in third-person. I hope you like it, i worked hard on this chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own YGO!
SUMMARY: "When you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, Think back to the wonderful times we've been together, And slowly savour, and dream of the soft look, Our eyes had once, and of their shadows deep." Y.B. Yeats.
Life couldn't get any worse for Téa, she had lost her place to stay, her belongings, her dream... basically her everything. And when she thought that everything she had dreamt of is over for this lifetime, a new light shone upon her - except that the person who offered help wasn't anyone who she had expected. Will she grab hold or let the opportunity pass by, again, due to her pride & setting a sight too high? There's only one way to find out.
There is a dimly lit lamp on a nightstand beside the half empty bed that shows that Seto is up.
The tawny rays coming from the light bask my cheek with warmth in an unseasonably cold night. Seto must not be far away, I think, taking in the soft and sweet scent that is drifting into my nostrils. I breathe a little more in, committing to memory what his soft bow of neck has smelt like.
"How long have you been up? Up to watch over me?"
Trying to recollect the exact curves of your jaw which grow hazier with time, I make an attempt to open my eyes after what seem like a decade.
"They're firmly stuck been shut for that long." I tell myself.
How pathetic for me to have lost the strength to unseal my own eyelids. It wasn't long ago than I was still able to roam through Domino enjoying the thin night breeze brushing against my skin. Or was it? I suppose I have lost track of time during the blurry days.
Growing more sensitive in hearing during the lucid hours, I concentrate on the tiniest sound my ears can afford to pick up in the huge room. Suddenly hearing a light shuffle and soft footsteps, I picture Seto walking towards me in my head. It isn't long till where the fulvous coloured rays have been overcast by his shadows. My fragile body leans to the right as Seto supports his hunched body with one hand on the soft mattress causing pressure. His other hand gingerly rests on my cooler cheek caressing it with his tenuous index finger. Warmth flooded through my veins giving me hope and courage. But just as I am about to disclose my eyes, the lamp winks. Then a rush of cold air hit my skin which is soon replenished with the body heat of Seto. He nuzzles his nose into my hair, curves an arm around my waist and says in a whisper: "Good night." "He doesn't know I have been conscious." I think while keeping my eyes shut, it would be too dark for me to see anyway. But that one little sentence, its power of comforting me is enormous, relieved of anxiety, I quickly drift off to sleep.
I wake up with a start the next morning, feeling myself been carried in Seto's arms in mid air. He walks gently, stopping at the threshold of what seem like the bathroom to let my head in first. Everything is done like a slow-motion, since Seto doesn't often move that slowly. To my surprise, after some good rest last night, I've regained bit of my strength back. Enough for me to crook the corner of my mouth wee bit anyway, to smile. With a click, the bathroom door is been shut behind us with Seto's back. He continues walking further into the sunlit bathroom, stopping in front of the steel-framed mirror and sits me on top of the bathroom counter. Despite the fact that I am conscious, my body is still limp, been drained weedy of energy.
Leaning me against the mirror softly, he strides away. I shiver at the sudden coldness of the mirror, goose-bumping. Then there is the bickering of water splashing on the smooth, shiny surface of the tub. "He must have noticed those little bumps on my arms when he came back." I am thinking to myself, feeling the gentle back and forth rubbings.
"Cold?" He says, concerned.
I would have kicked myself if I was able to, for not been capable of answering him.
Seto first wraps my hair in a towel and then carefully brings me closer to him, reaching behind my back. He quickly unzips my nightdress and slides it down. Hugging me close to give warmth, he carries me closer to the sound of the fast-running water. I take in heed that he has quickened his pace. Maybe not wanting me to catch cold?
Then there is the abrupt sensation of steamy, hot water surrounding my body. I lie there as Seto washes me gently with a towel.
"It'll get the blood circulating faster." He murmurs, explaining to himself.
It is unbearable for me to know that he never realized that I am awake, that we never held a proper conversation in the past days. They were all one-way; silence took place instead of my responses. Tears suddenly well up in my eyes and there is sourness in my nose. I don't know whether I have the strength left to cry.
'After all the love he has given me, this is what he gets in return?' I cry in my mind, 'A big CEO of the world's leading technology cooperation is kneeling beside a bathtub washing a selfish little "quadriplegic" who cannot do it for herself? ......I am so sorry Seto...Do I really deserve your selfless dedication?'
"You are crying?" It isn't until seconds later I hear Seto croaking out those words. He rubs my tears away with his thumbs, "Can you hear me?" He asks hysterically, this time almost loosing self-control. "Can you?" Finally, he breaks into tears. "This is not what I intend, Seto!" I say in my mind while forcing teardrops down my throat. But to him, there is only silence.
He makes himself busy and carries on, but I can hear soft sobbing and sniffles every now and then. It makes my chest strain and heart ache.
"There isn't much time left of me," I warn myself. Like the old and grey who live in the past, I let those images of my previous years flash before me. I breathe deeply, taking in the warm air of the Kaiba mansion. Though Seto has changed and I have changed, the air itself has not.
I see time flow by backwards, leaving the future in a distance. Energy comes flooding back to my body. I let my mind take over me, sending me back to that fateful time, to where everything has begun, because there is where I want to be, for one last time...
Daisycutters: so what do you think? Is it good for my very first chapter of my first fanfic? Do you think i droned on too much? is it bit verbose? well i have a thing for details. Review to tell me what you think. Don't be too harsh on words please, be nice and reasonable, thanks!
Thanks to Jodi Picoult who I have adapted ideas from! They say she's a good author, good at what she's doing, but I just can't be absorbed in her story though.