Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Persuasion ❯ Cherish ( Chapter 1 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Aria Marier 
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 09.13.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.8K | Visits: 369 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 09.13.2003 | Pages: 2 | Words: 1.8K | Visits: 369 | Status: Work In Progress
Persuasion
Aria: This is a much different story from the other I'm working on *enter shameless plug for Secrets of a Rose*, but I felt it needed to be done. As so many other writers have done in the past, I'm going to use this medium to work out my own experiences indelibly in metaphors and ink. And, as Seto and Joey are my favorite pairing, they're going to get the brunt of it. This is loosely based on a Jane Austen (my hero...ine?) novel of the same title. Here's the million dollar question for this piece...how can we ever know what choices are right or wrong? How can we tell when love will be forever? And so, I bring to you...Persuasion.
Disclaimer: By no means do I own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters in it. By the same token, I own nothing of Jane Austen's except her novels. A side note, after ~~~ are memories, and after *** is the present. Enjoy.
~ ~ ~
We laugh, exhilarated, tumbling into each other when we reach the door, a tangle of shaggy-smooth hair and flushed skin, long legs and flashing smiles. Your blue eyes---normally so cold---sparkling so deep and dark. Your breath comes fast against my neck.
Somehow we make it to an empty room---so many rooms, and all of them empty; it is never hard for us to find a place to be alone. How they must have ached before we came to fill them! How I ached before you came, and filled me. Bruises of a thousand tears---mine, my sister's, my friends---they fade away under your touch, under your voice. Not gone, not forever, but a beautiful strain and ache to remind me of before when I didn't have this. We tumble onto soft covers, a bed, you are above me, your weight comfortable and warm---warmer---flaming with passion.
"Ai..." I say. Love. Or maybe you say. It doesn't matter. It's the only word I know to describe the glowing snapping lightheatshineshiverdance in me.
"Always," you say---or did I say? Does it matter? It's the promise we make.
Love. Always.
* * *
It's been months now. I lean my forehead against the cold glass of the bus window---streaked with gum residue and the thick cigarette smoke that drifts from the back---and watch the town flash by. Not fast enough---the bus driver has been making this trip around, through the town to, from the school for probably longer than even he knows. He doesn't bother being on time---he is getting old and the route slows with him.
Eight months. A lot can happen in eight months, and I don't even expect you to remember what there was before. I can barely remember it myself, maybe because you haven't been around to remind me of it. I remember that your cheeks went white and then red with---anger? I don't know. I vaguely remember knowing every shift of your mood, the buttons that needed to be pushed to make your blue eyes flame, the blazing emotions I could stir...but I don't remember it anymore. I shrug. It's probably just as well.
But I can't shake the feeling that I shouldn't have listened. And it doesn't help that you've come back.
* * *
You clearly haven't seen me yet. That's good---gives me time to prepare. I knew I'd feel something; anger, maybe, at the way you deserted me all those months ago. I'm not prepared for the total indifference. My heart doesn't limp, my breath doesn't catch. I smirk. You have lost your power over me.
But it isn't the same. You've seen me now, and in your eyes I think I see the reflection of my own lack of feeling. I wait for you to taunt me, to begin our old fights, but you just turn away.
I'm lost. I have no chance even to insult you. Not that I'd want to---the 'puppy' I'd depended on to fire you up now has a totally different meaning.
I understand. You don't know what would happen, and neither do I. We avoid each other, and I watch your friends instead of you.
There are a few newcomers---your sister is finally out of the hospital---but no one I haven't seen before. Your group is so clannish---no matter how friendly they are, they are scared of strangers unbalancing the perfect set-up.
That's it. You're gone, and I don't have to worry anymore about the first sight, the first meeting. I needn't have worried. My suspicions were accurate.
I don't love you anymore.
~ ~ ~
There's a moment, always, when you see the person you love, that is when you realize you love them. When you see them in a way that is usually impossible. There's a moment when you look up and they look up and your eyes meet and you can't really say what color their eyes, their hair is, what expression they're wearing; when your heart falters and then beats once strongly pushing warm blood everywhere, your breath stops, every cell in your body pauses.
This is that moment.
We've expressed our hate to the entire audience; but now I've betrayed my love to you, instantly. It's a shame---I didn't realize it existed until now. You're shocked, you don't understand this new insult, this new taunt. We have unfrozen, I have unfrozen, and I don't know how or when.
I growl, your eyes narrow---so honeywarm to your friends, so sharp to me. We have reverted. I feel myself growing taller and if I were to look in a mirror I know my eyes would be blazing---for once, not with hate for you, but rather hate for this sudden confusion.
I drop. "You aren't worth my time, you sniveling puppydog," I sneer. I flee.
You have seen me break, and I don't know what to do.
* * *
I see you everywhere now, and I am relieved to find that it doesn't bother me---even though the reasons that I see you everywhere are Tea and Serenity. You make them laugh, they make your eyes glow.
Serenity never knew. It's the reason this is working at all...no one knew. Except for us, and Yugi. My best friend in all the world, all the universe---he knew. And I have never been able to place blame on him, or to hate him for how it ended. Like the buddy he is, he looks out for me. He watches my back. He saw something dangerous in us---in you---and he acted. The part of a friend.
I'm grateful to him for that.
Tristan doesn't like it much---he grumbles to me about how much time you're spending with Tea. We were sure they would finally get together---they've been flirting and talking with heads close together for weeks---but then you came, and were so charming that they couldn't help but forget the old Kaiba, and fall in love with the new one.
I'm called on to play my old role, of course, but I don't mind. I've changed too, in these past months. Quieter, maybe, less quick to lose my temper. But still proud---I still walk like I own the whole world...even if I don't care about it.
Something I learned from you.
I don't think I've ever seen you so in control. Even in those days of our matches in the hallways, the parking lot, the streets, you never held yourself like this. You walk around the school with Serenity and Tea hanging on your every word---grudgingly accepted into our circle by Tristan, cautiously and then whole-heartedly by Yugi. We don't mind your being here---you're something new. At least to them.
* * *
I can't help but feel smug. I came back here, and immediately two beautiful girls fall all over me. The way they used to. And do you know what? I'm enjoying it, for the first time in years.
I've thought of you for so long, and it unspeakably soothing to be sought after once again. I'm not oblivious to your friend's glares, or their possessiveness, and I don't mean to make this into anything...but, oh, how sweet it is. And maybe I will make my choice from these two loving girls.
Tea, so loyal and almost fierce---she melts in the most amazing manner. It's hard to see, since she used to oppose me so strongly.
And Serenity.
Your sister.
She's so unlike you in so many ways---doesn't have the toughness, the resilience you've tried so hard to build. She looks at me through those clear eyes that you fought to save, and I almost feel myself thawing.
Almost.
~ ~ ~
I'm confused. I thought I saw weakness in those sea-clear eyes of yours, and I don't know what it means. This isn't in the script---it is unexpected and so is this feeling of sudden reckless collapse. I'm collapsing into you, falling into you.
I ring your doorbell. I don't know what I'm doing, but it seems obvious I can't do nothing.
You aren't at home, and I am delighted, totally crushed. I don't know another move---I'm at a stalemate.
The night is warm, and walking home isn't a problem, except for the weird feeling of the pavement curling, liquid, under my feet when I see what looks like your coat up in front of me, flapping moodily behind someone who looks just like you.
It is you. And now it isn't just the pavement curling and falling in on itself, it's my chest, my ribcage. The same feeling I get when we fight, but I've only just recognized it. I don't have time to wonder---you are already walking past me. I have to do something.
I trip you. You stumble, your long legs and reverie causing you to thud heavily onto the treacherous pavement. You look around, and up.
I want to give you a hand, help you up, but you'd never forgive me for that. My face is warm, but the blue light from---your eyes---the night sky hides it. I stand above you, uncomfortably as you slowly glare up at me.
I suddenly realize that you have come from my house.
You look away, ashamed.
The pavement tosses me. I extend a hand to balance myself, but it brushes your shoulder, and you turn. Take it. You almost pull yourself up, but the world has inexplicably stopped.
You smile.
~ ~ ~
Aria: The first installment! Please, let me know what you think. This won't be a long story, and it was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but I want to get reviews for this. Some notes---I know I used 'ai' for 'love', the simple explanation being that I think it's something like that in Japanese anyway, and I'm much better with Chinese than with the pieces of Japanese I've picked up from other fics. Also, I apologize if it's too OOC, but I feel it works best this way. Please read and review!
Aria: This is a much different story from the other I'm working on *enter shameless plug for Secrets of a Rose*, but I felt it needed to be done. As so many other writers have done in the past, I'm going to use this medium to work out my own experiences indelibly in metaphors and ink. And, as Seto and Joey are my favorite pairing, they're going to get the brunt of it. This is loosely based on a Jane Austen (my hero...ine?) novel of the same title. Here's the million dollar question for this piece...how can we ever know what choices are right or wrong? How can we tell when love will be forever? And so, I bring to you...Persuasion.
Disclaimer: By no means do I own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters in it. By the same token, I own nothing of Jane Austen's except her novels. A side note, after ~~~ are memories, and after *** is the present. Enjoy.
~ ~ ~
We laugh, exhilarated, tumbling into each other when we reach the door, a tangle of shaggy-smooth hair and flushed skin, long legs and flashing smiles. Your blue eyes---normally so cold---sparkling so deep and dark. Your breath comes fast against my neck.
Somehow we make it to an empty room---so many rooms, and all of them empty; it is never hard for us to find a place to be alone. How they must have ached before we came to fill them! How I ached before you came, and filled me. Bruises of a thousand tears---mine, my sister's, my friends---they fade away under your touch, under your voice. Not gone, not forever, but a beautiful strain and ache to remind me of before when I didn't have this. We tumble onto soft covers, a bed, you are above me, your weight comfortable and warm---warmer---flaming with passion.
"Ai..." I say. Love. Or maybe you say. It doesn't matter. It's the only word I know to describe the glowing snapping lightheatshineshiverdance in me.
"Always," you say---or did I say? Does it matter? It's the promise we make.
Love. Always.
* * *
It's been months now. I lean my forehead against the cold glass of the bus window---streaked with gum residue and the thick cigarette smoke that drifts from the back---and watch the town flash by. Not fast enough---the bus driver has been making this trip around, through the town to, from the school for probably longer than even he knows. He doesn't bother being on time---he is getting old and the route slows with him.
Eight months. A lot can happen in eight months, and I don't even expect you to remember what there was before. I can barely remember it myself, maybe because you haven't been around to remind me of it. I remember that your cheeks went white and then red with---anger? I don't know. I vaguely remember knowing every shift of your mood, the buttons that needed to be pushed to make your blue eyes flame, the blazing emotions I could stir...but I don't remember it anymore. I shrug. It's probably just as well.
But I can't shake the feeling that I shouldn't have listened. And it doesn't help that you've come back.
* * *
You clearly haven't seen me yet. That's good---gives me time to prepare. I knew I'd feel something; anger, maybe, at the way you deserted me all those months ago. I'm not prepared for the total indifference. My heart doesn't limp, my breath doesn't catch. I smirk. You have lost your power over me.
But it isn't the same. You've seen me now, and in your eyes I think I see the reflection of my own lack of feeling. I wait for you to taunt me, to begin our old fights, but you just turn away.
I'm lost. I have no chance even to insult you. Not that I'd want to---the 'puppy' I'd depended on to fire you up now has a totally different meaning.
I understand. You don't know what would happen, and neither do I. We avoid each other, and I watch your friends instead of you.
There are a few newcomers---your sister is finally out of the hospital---but no one I haven't seen before. Your group is so clannish---no matter how friendly they are, they are scared of strangers unbalancing the perfect set-up.
That's it. You're gone, and I don't have to worry anymore about the first sight, the first meeting. I needn't have worried. My suspicions were accurate.
I don't love you anymore.
~ ~ ~
There's a moment, always, when you see the person you love, that is when you realize you love them. When you see them in a way that is usually impossible. There's a moment when you look up and they look up and your eyes meet and you can't really say what color their eyes, their hair is, what expression they're wearing; when your heart falters and then beats once strongly pushing warm blood everywhere, your breath stops, every cell in your body pauses.
This is that moment.
We've expressed our hate to the entire audience; but now I've betrayed my love to you, instantly. It's a shame---I didn't realize it existed until now. You're shocked, you don't understand this new insult, this new taunt. We have unfrozen, I have unfrozen, and I don't know how or when.
I growl, your eyes narrow---so honeywarm to your friends, so sharp to me. We have reverted. I feel myself growing taller and if I were to look in a mirror I know my eyes would be blazing---for once, not with hate for you, but rather hate for this sudden confusion.
I drop. "You aren't worth my time, you sniveling puppydog," I sneer. I flee.
You have seen me break, and I don't know what to do.
* * *
I see you everywhere now, and I am relieved to find that it doesn't bother me---even though the reasons that I see you everywhere are Tea and Serenity. You make them laugh, they make your eyes glow.
Serenity never knew. It's the reason this is working at all...no one knew. Except for us, and Yugi. My best friend in all the world, all the universe---he knew. And I have never been able to place blame on him, or to hate him for how it ended. Like the buddy he is, he looks out for me. He watches my back. He saw something dangerous in us---in you---and he acted. The part of a friend.
I'm grateful to him for that.
Tristan doesn't like it much---he grumbles to me about how much time you're spending with Tea. We were sure they would finally get together---they've been flirting and talking with heads close together for weeks---but then you came, and were so charming that they couldn't help but forget the old Kaiba, and fall in love with the new one.
I'm called on to play my old role, of course, but I don't mind. I've changed too, in these past months. Quieter, maybe, less quick to lose my temper. But still proud---I still walk like I own the whole world...even if I don't care about it.
Something I learned from you.
I don't think I've ever seen you so in control. Even in those days of our matches in the hallways, the parking lot, the streets, you never held yourself like this. You walk around the school with Serenity and Tea hanging on your every word---grudgingly accepted into our circle by Tristan, cautiously and then whole-heartedly by Yugi. We don't mind your being here---you're something new. At least to them.
* * *
I can't help but feel smug. I came back here, and immediately two beautiful girls fall all over me. The way they used to. And do you know what? I'm enjoying it, for the first time in years.
I've thought of you for so long, and it unspeakably soothing to be sought after once again. I'm not oblivious to your friend's glares, or their possessiveness, and I don't mean to make this into anything...but, oh, how sweet it is. And maybe I will make my choice from these two loving girls.
Tea, so loyal and almost fierce---she melts in the most amazing manner. It's hard to see, since she used to oppose me so strongly.
And Serenity.
Your sister.
She's so unlike you in so many ways---doesn't have the toughness, the resilience you've tried so hard to build. She looks at me through those clear eyes that you fought to save, and I almost feel myself thawing.
Almost.
~ ~ ~
I'm confused. I thought I saw weakness in those sea-clear eyes of yours, and I don't know what it means. This isn't in the script---it is unexpected and so is this feeling of sudden reckless collapse. I'm collapsing into you, falling into you.
I ring your doorbell. I don't know what I'm doing, but it seems obvious I can't do nothing.
You aren't at home, and I am delighted, totally crushed. I don't know another move---I'm at a stalemate.
The night is warm, and walking home isn't a problem, except for the weird feeling of the pavement curling, liquid, under my feet when I see what looks like your coat up in front of me, flapping moodily behind someone who looks just like you.
It is you. And now it isn't just the pavement curling and falling in on itself, it's my chest, my ribcage. The same feeling I get when we fight, but I've only just recognized it. I don't have time to wonder---you are already walking past me. I have to do something.
I trip you. You stumble, your long legs and reverie causing you to thud heavily onto the treacherous pavement. You look around, and up.
I want to give you a hand, help you up, but you'd never forgive me for that. My face is warm, but the blue light from---your eyes---the night sky hides it. I stand above you, uncomfortably as you slowly glare up at me.
I suddenly realize that you have come from my house.
You look away, ashamed.
The pavement tosses me. I extend a hand to balance myself, but it brushes your shoulder, and you turn. Take it. You almost pull yourself up, but the world has inexplicably stopped.
You smile.
~ ~ ~
Aria: The first installment! Please, let me know what you think. This won't be a long story, and it was originally supposed to be a one-shot, but I want to get reviews for this. Some notes---I know I used 'ai' for 'love', the simple explanation being that I think it's something like that in Japanese anyway, and I'm much better with Chinese than with the pieces of Japanese I've picked up from other fics. Also, I apologize if it's too OOC, but I feel it works best this way. Please read and review!