My Time in Battle City [Tales of Luna, Book 1]

Chapter 5

He is just a fictional character, what's wrong with me?

She closed her eyes and hoped she would wake up back in the train. This had gone long enough, it was amusing at first, but she didn't need to feel like crap because of-

Knock knock

She opened her eyes but stayed put. She expected the knocking to continue but silence had taken over. After a while, when she was convinced that the person who knocked had gone away, she wiped the tears from her face and sniffed as she got up.

"Look, I don't do apologies. Much less when I still don't see what I did wrong. Who in my position wouldn't be suspicious of you?" Seto said, his voice much softer than before. "That said, I guess I could have answered your question instead of deflecting it."

Luna listened, not daring to move as if the slightest movement could break this moment they were having.

Seto was silent for another moment and she wondered if he had left, thinking she wasn't there, but soon she heard him sigh before continuing to talk.

"The truth is, Mokuba had come to dinner happier than I have ever seen him. At least since what happened in Duelist Kingdom." His voice sounded so vulnerable that she wondered if this really was Seto Kaiba that she was listening to. "He told me he was going to participate in the tournament and that he had even made his own deck and beaten the Lv. 40 AI with it. And yeah, he was always a smart and enthusiastic kid. But he had never shown any drive for a goal of his own. Or perhaps I just didn't notice because I'm a terrible brother."

The door moved a fraction of a centimeter with a very light thud. Luna assumed that Kaiba had sat with his back leaning on the door like she had done before.

"He always seemed content with just helping me with my goals, and so I never questioned it. I wanted to give him the freedom that I didn't have growing up. I didn't want him fighting for his life, I didn't want him forced to win or die. But I guess in my hopes of wanting to give him this freedom, I have simply detached myself from whatever he was doing. And it wasn't until he came running in today shaking his duel disk at me that I realized what a terrible mistake I had made." His voice was heavy with guilt and regret, Luna could practically hear his heart breaking as the words left his mouth. "So I asked him to show me his deck. But when he said that you had helped him make the deck, it was a different kind of pain. I'll admit that I was angry, feeling like you had stolen a precious moment with my brother from me. And then he showed me the Black Meteor Dragon, and I was angry at him."

At that, she felt like opening the door and arguing with him. But at the same time, she realized that her desire to protect and defend Mokuba was probably what Seto also felt. Mokuba was Seto's only blood relative, after all.

"As orphans, we only had one rule. We don't ever owe anything to anyone." He said and she thought she had heard him scoff lightly. "Which meant we never begged and we never took charity. Everything we did and got, we deserved it. Even getting adopted by Gozaburo. I challenged him and won. He didn't adopt us out of the goodness of his heart, he adopted us because he lost to me, we earned it. Just like Kaiba Corp's success being due to my efforts and nothing else. And so, I had come out to find you. To pay you for the rare and powerful card. I didn't- I still don't know you that well, and I don't want my brother owing you anything. He said you weren't like that, but he's still kid, he doesn't know what the real world is like and I need to protect him."

"Well, for what it's worth, Mokuba doesn't owe me anything. He did me a favor in letting me take on the higher level AI, and letting me stay here. He is as kindhearted as he is determined. I was just repaying him by helping him see that he has what it takes to go and become a strong duelist, which is what he wanted."

"Yeah, I see that now. When you yelled that Jaden was in danger, and then telling me over and over how dangerous those cultists were instead of just leaving on the helicopter. And when you came back with your duel disk, I realized you were a better person than I had first assumed." Seto admitted. "And I guess, thinking more clearly now, I wasn't angry because of what you did for Mokuba, but because as his older brother I should have noticed first, I should have helped him first without him having to ask about it or bring it up first."

She couldn't handle Seto feeling so vulnerable, she wanted to give him a hug and let him know that its going to be okay. She opened the door expecting him to be sitting down with his back to the door. But contrary to what she expected, he was up and facing her, leaning on the door with a raised arm. The sudden opening made him fall forward. And though he caught himself, their faces ended up extremely close to one another.

From this distance she could see that his eyes were more of an azure tone, almost shining from how bright the blue seemed. All thoughts left her mind in that moment as she seemed to be entranced by his gaze. Had the world come to a stop, or was it just her?

Suddenly she noticed that her heart was beating faster and that she had holding her breath. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed as they were locked into each other's gazes, but as she blinked and exhaled, Seto had straightened up once again.

He cleared his throat and put his hands in the pockets of his white jacket. She had no idea it had pockets until then. She quickly straightened up as well and flipped her hair behind her shoulder as she involuntarily bit her lower lip.

"So, uh-" Seto awkwardly resumed speaking. "I would still like to pay you for that card."

"Out of the question." Luna dismissed his proposal and her own intrusive thoughts with a motion of her hand. "Helping him was more important to me than money in that moment. You paying for it would invalidate that. And I swear, he doesn't owe me anything."

Seto seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding in silence.

"I believe you." Seto said solemnly. "Thank you."

Knowing she couldn't contain her smile, she tried to keep it to a minimal smile of acknowledgement. But her heart felt like it was about to explode out of her chest from excitement.

"Yeah, no worries." She said as she spun in place.

Why did I do that?

But her random and impulsive spin had rewarded her with a smile on Seto, who was too obviously trying to conceal it by looking down.

"Well, I should probably go." He said as he took his hands off of his pockets.

"Okay." She said, feeling slightly disappointed. "I guess I'll see around."

"Yeah." Seto nodded once again but lingered. "If you do hear or find out more about those cultists, I hope you will let me know."

She had a sudden urge to tell him that she was from another world, to warn him that things weren't happening as they were supposed to. But she suddenly had a flashback of the moments that Seto ridiculed anyone who mentioned fate and destiny in the anime. And she didn't want to ruin the moment they just had.

It was a moment we just had, right?

"Yeah, I'll let you know." She said, nodding as she put her hands on her hips.

Seto nodded one last time to her and left. By impulse, her arm shot out for a second as if trying to reach out and grab at his presence to keep him from leaving, but she quickly put her arm down and closed the door.

That had been enough excitement for her for one day. With that one last though, Luna took a deep breath and went to bed, in a world that was so familiar yet so strange to her.