Chapter 10 - Strange couples

Strange couples



The next day dawn, sunny and beautiful, and the light streamed in through the window across the bed, when Kaede and Joey lay still, sound asleep. Kaede stirred, and the duvet fell off of her shoulders. She shivered in her sleep and slowly opened her eyes. She lifted her head a little, and looked around her, and at Joey who was sleeping behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist.

Gently pushing his arm off of her, she climbed out of the bed and over to the door to the en-suite bathroom, picking up her clothes along the way as she went. She quickly showered and got dressed into the clothes she had been wearing the night before. She towel dried her hair as best as she could, then emerged from the bathroom to talk to Joey.

But even this small task was foiled at the first hurdle, as Joey lay, sound asleep still, although he had spread out as much as he could, to take up nearly the whole bed. Kaede sat on the bed beside him and kissed him on the cheek to wake him up.

He opened on eye and then the other, and then buried his head in the pillow. Kaede jabbed him in the back with her little finger, then kissed his only just visible cheek, and left the room.

Walking through the upstairs corridors, Kaede found remnants of the previous night's party. Plastic cups, plates, shoes and socks, even a pair of panties. Kaede shook her head at the mess as she went downstairs, telling herself that she would help Ana clean it up as soon as she had had some breakfast.

Going start to the kitchen, found a bowl, cereal, milk and a spoon, created the masterpiece that is breakfast, and, with her spoon in one hand and her bowl resting on the other, she began to explore the mess.

When she entered the living room, she immediately wished she hadn't. It was ten times worse that the upstairs corridors, with a lot more clothes. She made to sit down on the sofa, but discovered Sakura, Yami and Ryou asleep on the sofas in the living room, all were dressed, but Yami and Sakura were sleeping side by side underneath a woollen blanket, Yami with his arm around Sakura, her resting her head on his shoulder.

Ryou woke up as soon as heard her come in, and stood up quickly too.

`Oh, thank goodness, we thought you had already gone home,' Ryou said.

`No, I was asleep upstairs,' Kaede looked away and went on exploring the mess in the room.

`Oh, it's just that so many people weren't there, we thought that you had taken them home,' Ryou began straightening the sofas. Kaede put her cereal bowl down and helped him.

`Oh, well, I didn't know anyone was missing, perhaps they went home with Yuula?'

`I don't think so, Takumi's car is still here,' Ryou pointed out of the window into the driveway, where, sure enough was the car that Yuula, Takumi and Kaiba had arrived in last night.

`Hey, where did Kaiba go?' Kaede pushed the sofa into place and sat down on it, brushing away a few of the crumbs that had gathered there the night before.

`No idea, maybe he walked home.'

`I doubt it, he wouldn't have do something that meant a lot of work for himself, he is probably hiding somewhere,' Kaede said, shrugging, leaning back against the sofa.

They heard some thuds on the stairs and looked up at the door as Joey walked in. He was wearing only the trousers he had wore the night before and his head was sticking up on end. Kaede smiled at him when he walked in and made a space for him on the sofa beside her, offering him some of her cereal.

All three talked quietly so as not to wake up Yami and Sakura, but this plan was interrupted by a sudden shouting coming from upstairs. They woke up with a start and looked around blearily eyed.

`TEA! WHAT DO YOU THING YOU ARE DOING! GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW!' There was a crash and even more shouting. “THAT IS SO DISGUSTING! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME? I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND.'

`I am so sorry, Ana, I wasn't thinking, I am so sorry!' Tea begged. `I really am, and I didn't think you would mind?'

`HOW WOULD I NOT MIND? HE IS MY BROTHER, TEA, OF COURSE I MIND.'

Ana ran down the stairs and into the living room, Tea close behind, followed by Honda and Marc. All four of them were half dress and looked as if they too had just woken up, Honda and Marc probably being woken up by Ana's shouting.

`What's going on?' Sakura mumbled, closing her eyes and tugging the blanket so that it covered more of her.

`I woke up, and went to my brother's room to ask him if he could take me to the stables today, but when I walked in I saw Tea asleep with him in his bed,' Ana folded her arms and glared at Tea, who seemed to be caught between fear and amusement. If she hadn't been petrified by Ana shouting, she would have laughed, because her face was priceless.

Kaede opened her mouth to say something, but heard a scream upstairs instead. After the scream there was shouting. And after the screaming, someone came running downstairs, still screaming.

`NO WAY! THAT ISN'T FAR! I REFUSE! NO, THERE IS NOW WAY I WOULD HAVE DONE THAT!'

All of the people in the lounge immediately raced to the foot of the stairs and looked up. Yuula came running down the stairs, with a large blanket wrapped around her, pulling on her clothes as she jumped down the stairs. She was closely followed by Duke, who was only in his boxer.

`Yuula, come back,' Duke jumped down the stairs, almost tripping as he did.

`PUT SOME CLOTHES ON YOU FREAK! YOU CAN'T GO RUNNING AROUND SOMEONE ELSE'S HOUSE NOT WEARING VERY MUCH!' Yuula said, throwing him a pair of trousers. She got to the foot of the stairs and flung on all her clothes. She looked at Ryou, who was watching her with a bewildered look on his face (he does that look a lot!!!). She turned away from him, ashamed. Then she sprinted into the lounge and grabbed her jacket and pulled out a set of car keys. `I'm going home, see you at school.' She ran out of the house, still pulling on her shoes. She ran to her car and jumped in, driving away as fast as she could.

Duke stared out of the window as she drove away, and flopped down on one of the sofas, his face in his hands. Kaede sat down next to him and put her hand on his shoulder.

He looked up and Kaede took in his appearance quickly; hair messed up, his line makeup smudged over his cheek, and his eyes were red as if he were about to start crying.

`I don't know what happened, or why she did that. It was all perfect, I don't know what went wrong,' Duke buried his face in his hands again, and when he looked up again he really was crying.

`What happened?' Ana knelt beside him, totally forgetting her current hatred of Tea.

`Well, last night after playing spin the bottle, Yuula and I hung about in the room after everybody else left. She seemed like she was in a trance. I knelt down next to her and put my arm around her. She jumped up and started yelling at me, which I didn't really mind because she always yells at me, even when we were going out. But she started shivering, so I offered to hug her if she was cold. So she said I could hug her, and we sat on the bed hugging. And then, it just…happened,' fresh tears sprung to Duke's eyes and he buried his head in his hands again.

Kaede put her arm around his shoulders as he sobbed into his hands. She had always known that Duke was in love with Yuula, ever since they had first met each other, but she also knew that after they had split up, Yuula had almost forgotten Duke existed. Kaede was trying to find some words to comfort Duke, but before she thought of something to tell him to heal his broken heart, something moved in the corner of her eye. She looked up at the door, at Kaiba how was leaning against the doorframe, watching them with his arms folded.

`Oh, you're still here, are you?' Kaede said coldly, glaring at him. He smirked back at her and gave Duke the once-over. `I take it Yuula isn't here anymore, and need to get home, so can I please call my chauffeur and ask him to collect me, if that is alright,' he asked Ana.

`Oh, I'm sure Kaede or Sakura could give you a lift home, as they both have their cars with them,' Ana suggested.

`SHOTGUN NOT ME!' Sakura yelled after hearing those words, turning to smirk at Kaede. Kaede glared at her, and folded her arms when she turned back to Kaiba.

`Well, fine, but my van has only two seats, so you will probably be in the back where there are no seats. Surely you would much prefer to be in Sakura's nice, comfortable, spacious kombi?' she almost winced as she caught herself begging with him.

`But Kaede, Seto lives much closer to you than he does to me,' Sakura lied, still smirking. `Besides, Yami and I aren't going back home for a while anyway, so you may have to take Kaiba home.'

`Mumbling and grumbling, Kaede eventually agreed and everybody collected their stuff. Kaede found her bag from the night before and put on her jacket. She held open the back doors of the van and everyone climbed in, rather reluctantly. Kaede smirked as Kaiba, who was the last person to get in, had nowhere to sit, so he was to squeeze in between the still red-eyed Duke and the much annoyed Tea.

`Everybody comfortable?' Kaede asked, before she slammed the doors. Joey and her got into the front seats and Kaede turned the keys in the exhaust. As they pulled out of the driveway, Kaede saw Ana and Marc waving them off in the mirror, as well as Sakura laughing at them in her practically empty kombi.

She sped around the city, dropping people off as she went. As they began to disappear, more space was created in the back and Kaede heard a duel going on just after leaving Tea's house.

Eventually, it was just Kaiba left, and he had come and sat next to her in the front after Joey had left, much to Joey's annoyance. Kaede wearily turned in the direction of the Kaiba mansion and drove away, ignoring Kaiba as best as she could. This proved harder than it seemed; at one point Kaede thought that Kaiba was staring at her. When he denied it, Kaede put her favourite CD into the newly fitted CD player, and turned the volume up so that she would have something to keep her mind occupied, and listening to music was considerably better than talking to Kaiba.

But about halfway to his house, he turned down the music and turned to her, about to ask her a question.

`What did you do that for?' Kaede yelled at him. `I was listening to that! What do you want anyway?' she pouted, turning back to the steering wheel.

`What happened between Yuula and Duke?'

Kaede almost slammed on the brakes. She turned to Kaiba and, fighting to keep her temper and her volume down, said as calmly as you can, `That is none of your business, and if you really want to know, why don't you ask one of them, instead of talking about them behind their backs.'

`Well, Yuula wasn't there to ask, and Duke seemed pretty upset, so I am asking you,' Kaiba smiled at her.

`It is none of your business to know, and it is none of my business to inform you,' Kaede gripped the steering wheel tightly, her knuckles turning white.

`They slept together didn't they?'

This time Kaede really did brake. The car lurched forward and stopped suddenly. The car behind them hooted angrily, and then overtook, the driver swearing violently as they passed. But Kaede hardly noticed.

`Why did you bother asking me if you already knew what happened?' She yelled.

`I didn't know for sure and just wanted to check.'

She could have strangled him then, but with forced self-control, turned back to the wheel and forced herself to look ahead and not around at him.

They continued the rest of the journey in silence, and when they finally reached the Kaiba mansion and the automatic gates opened for them to enter, Kaiba broke the silence by saying, `Could you please drive me up to the gate.'

`Wow, a please, your manners are getting better,' Kaede smirked.

They drove all the way up to the door, and were met by Mokuba. Mokuba ran down the steps to Kaiba.

`Bye Kaede, hopefully I'll see you soon,' Kaiba said as he got out of the car. Kaede wasn't listening, and as soon as he closed the door turned around and drove down the driveway as fast as the van would go, not looking back.

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