Ryoko Akane was an enigma. A beautiful seventeen year old who just recently moved to Domino City, Japan from America. A lethal duelist, cunning, sarcastic, and possessing a past shrouded in shadows that she keeps carefully hidden.
Seto Kaiba was the...
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Ryoko had been wandering around Domino by herself for that last few hours now, searching for someone else to duel so she could obtain her last locator card and qualify for the finals.
Mokuba had been there for a few of her duels and Seto had been there with Mokuba to see Ryoko take down the regional champion for Tokyo by use of her Rose and Thorn Empress combo. Throughout the day though Ryoko's mind continued to drift to her eventual conversation with Seto. How should she tell him about her adoptive siblings, her title as America's National Champion, or worse still her relationship with Maximillion Pegasus?
She was wraked with nerves to the point that she could barely focus on anything else. The thing inside her perked up in the way it only did when Seto was near, and as she glanced up she spotted her secret boyfriend and his brother near a café. Mokuba caught sight of her iconic sunset dyed hair and waved her over, Ryoko gave a half smile to the boy as she walked over to the pair. Seto gave her a half smile while Mokuba threw his arms around her waist in greeting.
"Hey boys, how's it going?" She asked as they headed inside the café to grab a bite to eat. It was Mokuba who answered, "We've been good, Seto's already got five locator cards!" The violet eyed boy sounded so proud of his big brother's achievements. Ryoko and Seto gave the boy two small smiles as Ryoko replied, "Not too surprising, your brother's not the World Champ for nothing."
Seto was preening at the praise, a self-satisfied smile on his face as he munched on his cesar salad. Dispite her facadé of joy Seto could tell that something was bothering her, he didn't know what was bothering her but he was determined to find out.
Ryoko kept the atmosphere light while they sat and enjoyed their brief respite from the tournament. Internally however she was a glorified mess, pessimistic thoughts and emotions were a raging whirlwind inside her that she kept carefully hidden beneath a mask of happiness she'd perfected over the years. Was she procrastinating? Yes. Was she aware of this fact? You bet your life she was, it was difficult to know where to begin explaining the situation to them but she knew she had to do it now or else she'd just bury the truth under layers of white-lies and half-truths that would eventually shatter before her like glass.
While she continued to ponder how to explain what was going on behind the scenes Seto took note of the slightly pensive expression and tauntness in her shoulders and decided to broach the subject first.
"Ryoko is something bothering you?"
His tone was gentle and coaxing, like one would speak to a stray dog or cat to keep the animal from lashing out or running away. Ryoko jumped slightly at his question but soon released the breath she didn't even realize she'd been holding, gifting the brunette with a greatful look. Thank Ra he extended the offer to her rather than leave her floundering around for a reasonable way to broach the topics that had been hanging over her like a dark cloud. She gave a slight nod to confirm that something had been troubling her before she decided to start with the simplest of the three topics, and the one that would have the lowest chance of angering him before she finished explaining.
