Radioactive: Chapter Twenty-Three

Radioactive

Chapter Twenty-Three

~Promises Promises~

Last Chapter for Radioactive Saga

It was early in the afternoon and Kaiba walked into a small alley way. The bouncer at the door narrowed his eyes as Kaiba approached. He took a stance and crossed his arms. Kaiba stood in front of him and crossed his arms as well. They glared at each other as a third person ran down the alley.

“Here,” she held up her hand. A clear invitation popped up in front of her hand. The man took a look at it and nodded.

“Come on in,” he stepped to one side.

Kiri opened the door for Kaiba as he walked inside without turning around. The Tower had invested a new kind of body for her and until recently, she had still been in Ing’s programing. The little android was very protective of her and wouldn’t even leave the Tower gates. Her new model body was a prototype and had a few more tests to go through. According to Sirius, however, she could go have a night on the town is she wanted as long as she didn’t start taking toxic baths on a regular basis.

 They entered Fang’s establishment. They were met by a beautiful singing voice and the strummed notes of a guitar. There was a round of applause. Kiri looked around at the small group of people present. She saw a few people she didn’t know, they looked like the employees that Fang hired. Fang was behind the counter, naturally, him being the bartender and all. Ing was back there too. From the looks of things, he was trying to stack plastic cups. A task that Fang probably gave him to keep him distracted. Jekyll sat at the bar. He looked the way he always did as if he knew something that everyone else didn’t and didn’t care. Duke sat in one of the booths and tried to calm Riu down. She clapped and whistled as the woman singer placed her guitar down.

Fang looked over at the door. He grabbed a glass and poured a soda into the cup. As Kaiba approached, Fang pushed the glass toward him. Kaiba looked down at the glass.

“Seriously?” Kaiba sighed.

Fang nodded, “Seriously.”

Kiri hid her smiled by turning to look at the performer. Jekyll turned to look at Kaiba.

Kaiba looked back at him, “What? What did I do this time?”

“Nothing,” Jekyll looked away, “I just can’t stand you.”

“I see you’re in a good mood today,” Kaiba muttered.

Jekyll nodded, “Aren’t I always?”

“Frankly, I prefer Jekyll’s mood over yours any day,” Kiri stated. Her gaze was on Kaiba.

Kaiba barely gave the statement a moment’s thought. He looked at his watch for a brief moment. Fang took notice.

“Have somewhere more important to be?” Fang asked.

Kaiba looked up, “It’s the debut of my sister’s play. I can’t stay long.”

“So you came to say hi to all your friends first? That’s sweet of you,” Fang teased.

“Who said any of you were my friends?” Kaiba said, “I just had nothing better to do.”

“Ouch,” Fang stated. He rolled his eyes and helped himself to a drink, “And here we thought that you were such a charming guy.”

“I did it!” Ing had stacked all of the plastic cups in to a great pyramid pattern. He looked at Fang, “What now!?”

“Put them back in the exact order that you took them out of the box,” Fang told him.

Ing looked at the stack with mild panic. He didn’t keep track of what order he took the cups out of the box. As an android he could easily figure it out but he hadn’t been paying attention and wasn’t sure if he could accomplish Fang’s task. Ing took a deep breath and started to stack. He started to grab one of the cups when Fang stopped him.

“Nope,” Fang pointed to a different one, “That one.”

Ing looked wide eyes at Fang. He didn’t realize that Fang had been keeping track the whole time. Even if Fang wasn’t looking directly at Ing, he knew what order Ing had brought out the cups. Ing grabbed the cup that Fang motioned to and out it in the box. He then stood there a while, thinking. Fang sighed. He pointed to the next cup and the next one after that and the next one after that.

Kiri came up to the bar and pointed to one, “Actually, that one is next then this one.”

“Really? How so?” Fang looked at her.

“In the one moment you looked at us coming in, you missed when he pulled another cup out of the box,” Kiri said.

Fang smiled, “You mean, that’s when he pulled two out of the box. They were stuck together. So technically, this one is the first. Don’t worry, common mistake.”

“Hey! What’s going on over here?” Riu asked as she walked over.

“Seems like everyone is having a nice time,” Duke said as he walked just behind Riu.

Ing raised his hands above his head, “Fang is so smart! Nothing gets by him!”

“Don’t you forget it either,” Fang looked at him, “Don’t think I didn’t see you sneak another soda when you though I wasn’t looking.”

“But I didn’t!” Ing wailed.

“Mmhm,” Fang wasn’t at all convinced.

Jekyll looked over, “You really need to work on your lying.”

Kaiba stood up and straightened his suit, “Well, I have to go.”

“Aww,” Riu smiled, “It’s nice that really want to be there for your sister.”

“Actually, Amber said that the play sucks and I really don’t have to go and that she doesn’t know why everyone is making a big deal about it. I’m really only going because I kept some kind of promise that I don’t quite remember making. Either way, it’s a family event. That and I can sneak my tablet in and finish up on some work.”

“You’re not even going to take pictures?” Duke stared at him.

Kaiba stopped a moment and seemed to be remembering bad memories, “No. With mother, you always get way more pictures than you need to last a lifetime. Come to think of it, I feel bad for Amber right about now.”

“You feel?!” Riu raised an eye brow and shifted her weight, “I never thought I’d hear those words come out of your mouth.”

“Amber’s the pearl of the family,” Kiri explained, “The whole family dotes on her. Surprisingly she doesn’t act spoiled.”

“Well, glad you stopped by, Kaiba,” Fang said.

Kaiba walked toward the door.

“Oh, Kaiba,” Jekyll called. Kaiba turned and looked over his shoulder. Jekyll continued, “If you ever have the urge to take me along on one of your missions, please don’t.”

“You’d rather do you surgeries?” Kaiba asked.

“No,” Jekyll stated, “It’s just that I don’t think any mission could give me the same satisfaction this one did. Getting the chance to kill you doesn’t come often enough and I fear that the opportunity will never again present itself. So instead of getting disappointed after every mission, I’ve decided to just not go.”

“Seriously?” Fang looked at him, “I would go on every single mission just to have the chance to almost kill him.”

Kaiba sighed and turned to walk out the door, “No one is going to almost kill anyone because I’m never bringing either of you with me next time.”

“Aww! Don’t say that,” Duke stated.

Riu laughed, “Yeah, I bet that within the week he’ll come crawling back begging us to help him take down the mad scientist. Any takers?”

“What’s the starting bet?” Duke asked.

Riu shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know. Whatever you have on you.”

Fang thought a moment, “$150 for.”

“Seriously?” Duke asked, “Then I’m with Fang. What about you Jekyll?”

Jekyll waved a hand, “I could care less.”

“Wait,” Duke groaned, “That means we’re all for. That doesn’t work out then.”

Fang rolled his eyes, “Not my fault I did the math in my head. You were the one to say that you were for anyways.”

The door closed as the group argued with each other. Kaiba walked out into the alley way with Kiri close behind. He stopped a moment while Kiri caught up with him. When she was alongside, he started walking again. Kiri noticed and smiled. He never used to wait up for her before. She couldn’t always figure out what was going on in that head of his but part of it could be that he felt bad about how the last mission went for her. Whether or not that was the reason, it was nice to see the side of his face and not just the back of his head.