Chapter 17 – Forget Me Not
It is a cold winter afternoon in the middle of the busy streets of London. Impatient shoppers hurried from one store to another while shaking the white powdery snow off their heavy winter coats. 'Snow' she thought to herself. She learned to love the cold ever since … she had met 'him'. The thought of him sent a warm and fuzzy feeling throughout her body, as if her heart magically ignited a flame.
She passed by a bookstore and decided to peer through the rusting old display windows. In a moment there, she saw him, tall and dark, standing between the bookshelves aisle reading a book in his hand. She softly smiled at the thought even though she knew very well that the aisle is empty. Illusions! Illusions that she has been creating for herself in the past three years. 'How can I be so stupid? Falling in love with someone who only existed in the virtual world!' She turned her head in disappointment and continued down the coffee shop to meet a friend which she hasn't seen for three years.
"Hey, Adrianne! Over here." A man with silver glasses, sitting behind one of the tables, waved at her.
"Dominic, how have you been?" She hanged up her coat behind her chair and took her seat.
"Busy with work as always. It's been three years…."
"Yes, it has…." She nodded as the words lingered on her lips.
"So Adrianne, what bought you back here?"
"I am working in a computer software computer in the states. There is a software convention here in London and I represent my company to attend."
"I see, is business related as usual. Smart girl as always. By the way, do you remember this guy you graduated with? His name is Marc and he has been asking me about you a lot. When I told him I am meeting you for coffee, he wanted to know if you have a boyfriend yet."
"Marc is a nice guy, but you know he is not my type."
"I see. You like the cold hearted ones, those who are rich, snobbish and self-centered." Dominic shook his head. "You couldn't forget him, could you?"
Adrianne lowered her head. "I am fine by myself." she spoke quietly, but she knew Dominic wouldn't believe her.
"You know you had a choice back than between terminating the character or leaving Project Eden. It is a felony to interfere with the virtual world!"
"I understand. That's why I choose to leave."
"Well, it is partly my fault too for not stopping your from going any further in the first place. I am assuming you want to know how he's been doing in these past three years."
"Are you going to tell me?" Adrianne's dark brown eyes widen with anticipation.
"It's no big deal as long as you don't tell anyone else up at headquarters that I told you." Dominic continued. "After you left, he's been hiding in his office for the majority of the time. Poor guy, you can tell he was heart broken, but I have to admire that he is a pretty tough one indeed."
"What do you mean?"
"Within a year, he was able to rebuild his reputation quickly and expanded his company to the European market. But he didn't do this simply because he has money. He worked days and nights, as if he is more like a machine than a human being. He is a tough one alright, cold and confident on the outside, but we all know that he is lonely and withdrawn in the inside. A constant internal battle he is fighting himself to forget and be strong. But this is slowly draining him up day by day."
"What about Mokuba?"
"Who? You mean the kid. Well, he send him to a private schools that he can have more time alone in completing this new virtual system. I can't give you too much details in that or else it is going to be in violation of number 311 under the Project Eden Code. I just thought I should let you know when you shouldn't be playing with fire in the first place.
"And I couldn't do anything to revert things back to normal"
"Don't worry Adrianne. Let's leave the past behind and continue to face reality. Anyways, what other plans do you have here in London?"
'Dominic is right. The time spent with Seto Kaiba was only a dream. This is reality. Did I made the right decision or did I regret for not choosing the virtual world over the real world?'
"Adrianne…?"
"Oh, … I bought tickets to see the Romeo and Juliet play tonight" For the remainder of the day, the two friends chatted over their coffee until the day is dawn.
Adrianne waltz down the velvet red carpet into the first time opening of the Romeo and Juliet play. Decked in shinny white gold jewelry and a spaghetti strapped long silk blue gown, she stepped into the theater and handed her ticket to the doorman.
"Madame," The doorman took her ticket. "Are you by yourself?"
She nodded.
"We had some last minute seat arrangement being made and we have moved you to one of the seats up on top of our private balcony. We apologize for the last minute notice, but we hope you find our VIP seats more comfortable instead."
"Not a problem." Adrianne thanked the gentlemen and was surprised to find herself a better seat than she had reserved for.
She strolled up along the wide carpeted staircase and opened the door to her private balcony seat.
"Beautiful." She whispered as she absorbed the spectacular view of the theater's stage with her dark brown eyes. She took a step back and sank her body into the comfy sofa behind her. 'I wonder why they would assign me this seat, is it because the mezzanine area is that full?' She wondered.
The spotlights dimmed and the red curtains drawn.
The play is about to begin.
He quietly opened the door. Not wanting to make a single noise to interrupt the audiences, he slides himself into the private balcony and approached the red sofa from behind.
Suddenly, she felt a presence of warmth and familiarity in her heart crawling from behind. She wasn't sure. 'Did they assign another guest to the private balcony? Or could it be?...' She didn't dare to look. He sat closely beside her, inches apart. She can feel his shadow…….tall and dark.
But she had to know. It was driving her heart insane. She pretends to brush her hair off her face as she turned to see the man sitting next to her on the same couch. A last minute thought came into her mind. 'It better not be Marc. Is Dominic trying to play matchmaker here?'
A sign of relief came to her when she realized it isn't Marc.
He looked a bit different as his blue eyes soften on hers, but he remained gorgeous as the day that she had always remembered.
"Seto, … but how?" Her lips parted.
He reached his arm around her and pulled her closer to him, sealing her lips with his as he gently pressed her down onto the soft red couch, sharing their moment that they have missed for the past three years.
A/N- Thank you so much for all of you who have been so supportive with this story. Hope this is a little treat for you all just before Valentines Day. I know I couldn't just end the story like it was in Chapter 16, hopefully you enjoyed it. Don't forget to review one last time! I am thinking of writing another fan fiction sometime down the road. If you have any suggestions on what kind of stories you would like to see. Just leave me a review and I will always love to hear from you.
To those of you who have found your true love/soul mate – Congrats and I hope you treasure your loved ones
To those who are still looking, I wish you all the best and take your time to do so in finding your prince charming. (I am assuming most of you are girls who read this fiction). Remember fools rush in!
Happy Valentines Day
Goddess of Victory
SetosBlueDragon – Even though it was a sad chapter, but I am glad that you still enjoyed it. I hope you like the good ending one as well.
Inchantris Z – Don't worry, I won't let it end the way it was in my last chapter. I hope you enjoy this ending more and thanks for following along with my story.
sangokirara5 - I am very happy to hear you like the way I write. I have to admit I do try to write romance stories in a different way that many others do. Than again, every author have their unique style of writing and I am glad you can pick mine up. Did you want me to do another Seto x OC story? I am thinking of doing a Seto x Serenity, which it seems is pretty popular among many of the readers. What do you think? Or should I just do another OC instead?
Ryu- no-kyoki – Thanks for noticing the errors. But overall I hope you enjoy the story.
SirisAnkh – Thanks for all your review. I hope you will like this ending better. Emphasis on characters feelings in the story is a tough job. Especially when you have a character like Kaiba who doesn't show any feelings at all. And if he shows too much, he will be out of his character. By the way, why do you like OC stories? I noticed a lot of readers out there who will rather read a Seto X Serenity story or Seto with anyone but an OC. But what kind of an OC are you interested in reading?
CRAZYABOUTANIME – I have to give you two thumbs up for being very supportive and for reviewing all the chapters I wrote. As for your question earlier on, (and you can say I am going to be mean), I will leave it up to the reader's imagination as to what happened in the 'night to remember' and same goes for what happened up in the private balcony. Thanks for being such a great reviewer! You brighten my day!
Winner – I agree, Kaiba does need her. But she didn't went into the virtual world, she went out of it. Kaiba is in the virtual world. Hopefully that will clarify things up. Man, I didn't realize I was that bad of a writer. Confusing my readers is never a good thing.
LazerWulf – Wow, you do notice things don't you? I actually realized this problem about aging everybody and forgot about Mokuba. Maybe in Seto's eyes, Mokuba will always be his little brother. So I always think of him being little. In this story, he should be around 19 or 20 years old. Maybe Miriam is teaching him post secondary lessons? Anyways, thanks for reviewing and I hope this story didn't bore you so much that you stopped reading in Chapter 3. Now that I am done my story, I will also have some free time to check yours out too! Hoping to hear from you soon.
BlackJoey – Thank you so much for all your support. Your reviews are always so wonderful and it brightens my day every time I read them. It's true in reality, not everything has a happy ending, and that's why chapter 16 ended up that way. But at the same time, this is a fan fiction site. Fiction - meaning things can be made up. So I decided to add another ending to this story. Do you like this ending better? By ending it this way, it also creates hope to the readers. I mean how can Kaiba possibly jump out of the virtual world and into reality? (Although I am sure most fans will want that) but obviously we are coming back to the concept of fiction again where anything can happen and in this case (Kaiba spending most of his time working to come up with a plan to reunite with his Miriam). Anyways, thank you so much, and if you ever write a story, I will love to read it as well. Thanks