Tale of Two Hearts

Chapter Nine

After a quick detour, she put on her best office clothes (long black pencil skirt, red blouse, black blazer, red pumps.) and she slipped into Kaiba's car. "So. Make sure you come to me when I tell you to come up, and we can announce our engagement together."
Sophia suddenly felt self conscious, realising she would be everywhere. Seto Kaiba had a massive fan base. She could picture the online abuse already... her inner turmoil was ceased by a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"You're looking pale. Are you sure you wantto do this?" Sophia nodded, setting her jaw and smiling as genuinely as she could.
"Alright, lets meet the hordes."

"Mr Kaiba! How are developments going onthe new duel monsters projection system?"
"Very well, my team are working round the clock to develop bigger and better systems."
"I hear a prototype is ready to be tested. Who will test it?"
"Me obviously. These are my creations, I take responsibility for them."
"That sounds rather selfish, with all due respect." One plucky news reporter said from the side. Seto smirked and nodded hishead.
"Albeit I am a selfish man, we've had accidents with prototypes before. And I'm not prepared to have some of the best minds I have ever employed be threatened by a rouge machine."
"So you would consider yourself a caring man?" Sophia peeked from behind the heavy curtain, staying concealed. She could see his face, his frown, the tiredness under his eyes that he hid sowell from the rest of the world.
"I test these machines myself so that I can ensure every family have a husband, wife,mother, father, son or daughter come home to them at the end of the day. It's in my best interest to put my own life at possible risks, rather than have several families suing the company for loss of life."
he answered. Sophia could see the subject bothered himdeeply, but she couldn't understand why.
"Sir! Do you have any plans to further the development of Kaiba land?"
"I handed all assets and rulings to my younger brother, Mokuba, three years ago. Kaiba Land was more of a business built for us, not me alone. He however, calls the shots. Any questions regarding KaibaLand, the game shops, and other leisurely investments will be handled by him." Mr Kaiba looked as if he was ready to wrap things up,and Sophia wondered what they would do next. He had dropped enough hints for them to pick up on, with the open answered caring man question, and earlier when they asked about recent time away from the company for personal reasons and he'd said he had been in Italy, no one had picked up on it. She was starting to think no one actually cared, when she heard one high pitched voice speak up from near thefront of the audience.
"Speaking of family and leisure! Can you please explain Tokyo Today's recent headline regarding a young blonde?" a woman in the front asked. She wore red horn rimmed glasses, and her hair in a high bun on her head.
"I was waiting for you to bring her up, Miss Magumi. I knew as soon as I heard a reporter from Twenty would be in attendance. The blonde woman you all saw me with is with me today. Sophia, can you come out here, please?"she took a deep breath, and stepped out.

To all of those in the audience, they saw a beautiful blonde woman, hair tumbling to the small of her back come out from behind the curtain, and into the stage lights. She was five foot ten in three inch heels,and she had a slim, yet athletic build. She stepped up towards Kaiba,the smile on her face growing wider as she did so. As they reachedeach other, they wrapped their arms around each other, and Seto Kaiba kissed her forehead.
"This beautiful woman beside me is Sophia Ann Giovanni. She is a dance teacher from Italy, and she is my fiancée. And I am very much in love with her. Why do you think I have decided not to enter my own duel monster competitions?" He had his arm wrapped around her, smiling down at her. Sophia looked up at him and smiled wide. He was a good actor, that look on his face was so believable.
"Kiss her, Mr Kaiba!" The crowd cheered, turninginto a chorus of: "Kiss, kiss, kiss!" The pair faced each other,and Seto looked into Sophia's eyes, as if asked permission. She nodded slightly. Wrapping his arms around her small waist, he leaned in and picked her up, and kissed her hard. She melted into the contact. She was so engrossed in the kiss, she didn't see the cameras were flashing around them.

Around the world, there was mixed feelings to the kiss. Some massive Seto Kaiba fans had already started the Twitter hashtag #kissofthecentury,which was already trending across the platform. In other countries,the reaction was a little different.

In a house in Sicily, Carlos templed his fingers as he stared at the television screen. He breathed heavily, trying to keep his anger in.Unable to do so, he jumped up and punched the wall beside, screaming:"FUCK!" at the top of his lungs. He drove his fist into the wall over and over, until his knuckles were bloody and the wall chipped plaster. "The fucking little bitch." he raged. Grabbing his coat,he left the house, slamming the door behind him.

In New York City, Melanie screeched at the television, throwing the remote at the screen. "DADDY!" DADDY DADDY DAAAADDY!"
Both of her parents came skittering into the living room. Her father, a short, portly man with light balding, looked flustered. "What is it, pumpkin?"
"LOOK! Seto is with THIS WHORE!"
"Who is that?" her mother asked, intrigued.
"I DON'T KNOW!"
"It's alright pumpkin, you can do much better than that cold hearted animal." her father embraced his daughter. But there was no calming the rage inside his spoiled brat of a child.

Maximillion Pegasus laughed at the screen. "Oh this is wonderful! Young affection blossoms!" He drank what was left of his wine and smiled, remembering when he first met his darling Cecilia.

       

After the press conference, Sophia had had many photos taken, candid and otherwise. She's sure she'd see them plastered across tabloid papers come the morning, alongside pictures of her with Seto. Looking at her lap, she touched her lips lightly. The lips in which he'd taken so roughly, to please the photographers. She glanced at him, and he was staring at the road, blankly. Suddenly, he pulled over onto the side of the road. "What's up?"
"What do you mean, Mr Kaiba?"
"Seto. You have to start calling me Seto, if we want this engagement to be believable!"
"I think we mad a good performance earlier." She said dryly. Seto turned his body to face her, and looked at her carefully.
"Are you upset with me?"
"N-no." She said, quietly. "I'm just worried about Nonni, you know? All alone out there in Sicily. She must be confused about what's going on. Lord knows my father and her do not speak. "
"Ah. I see. Well, call her when you get home and we can arrange something I'm sure." Nodding, Sophia returned to looking out of her window, still filled with the strange feeling of sadness. Shaking his head, Seto drove off from the side of the road, heading home.

Thank you so much for being patient guys! I'm now in a great job that gives me enough time to update these. I'll be working on the other two fics that aren't on hold. Thanks again for the patience :)