Folgen Sie Ihrem Traum Chapter 22 (Yu-Gi-Oh, Seto/Téa, #8)
Title: Folgen Sie Ihrem Traum (Follow Your Dream); Chapter 22: More Revelations
Author: Crystal Rose of Pollux (rose_of_pollux)
Pairing: Seto Kaiba/Téa Gardner
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh
Theme: 8; Berlin, Germany
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine (except for the OC dancers) and the story is
Warnings: Villainy
Rating: PG13
This chapter will be cross-posted to 30_nights, 20_heartbeats, and http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4336463/22/
What ensued next was mass confusion. Gudiccelli was too frightened to open the door upon seeing the violet-robed men for herself, but the Rare Hunters weren’t going to be left out so easily. Two heavily-built Rare Hunters started using their shoulders as battering rams to break the door in.
“What do we do…?” asked Téa, as the door shook on its hinges. Another strike, and it would break open.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not about to surrender to a bunch of recalcitrant thieves,” Seto vowed.
The Rare Hunters ran at the door again, and as the hinges ripped free from the walls, confusion turned to pure madness. Gudiccelli fled into the adjoining room, praying that she hadn’t been seen as the small group of Rare Hunters entered and attacked.
Fists flew as Seto attempted to judo throw the first assailant who came near him. He was successful, but Aurus failed to dive out of the way in time, getting clobbered by a stay shoe. He wasn’t hurt, but the medallion slipped from his grasp.
Seto made a grab for the ancient trinket, but it soon became lost among the stampeding combatants. His attempts to retrieve it did result in a couple Rare Hunters being plowed aside.
His hand finally closed around the medallion as he heard the sound of splintering glass; someone else (another Rare Hunter, no doubt) had entered through the window. Seto looked up in time to see Strings standing before him.
“Not again…” he fumed, launching himself from the ground into an uppercut. Strings stumbled backwards, but now Lumis and Umbra came at him from behind.
Téa tried to yell out a warning, but a familiar hand clamped upon her mouth.
“Well, hello there, my little assistant…” Arkana mused. “I was afraid that I had lost you!”
Seto looked back upon hearing her muffled screams, but his lapse in concentration resulted in the numerous Rare Hunters surrounding him to gain the upper hand (however unfair it was). Aurus, too, was restrained, but Seto’s main concerns were for Téa.
“Kaiba, Kaiba,” said Kayser, with a shake of his head. “You had me fooled; I never would have guessed that you were in league with my prize dancer.”
Téa flinched; the last thing she wanted now was for Kayser to taunt (and subsequently banish) what little friendliness that Seto showed to her.
“I know why you’re doing this,” Kayser went on. “You’re still a little upset at the bad check, aren’t you?”
“A little upset!?” Seto fumed. “Oh, I think I’m far beyond upset!”
“Well, it’s clear that you don’t know too much about our scheme,” Kayser said. “We don’t need to be enemies, Kaiba. How about I pay you back the money I owe you right now? I won’t need to spend any money on hotel rooms, thanks to that girl’s crazy ideas.”
“What’s the catch?” Seto asked, knowing that there had to be one.
“No catch at all, Mr. Kaiba,” Kayser explained. “All we want is that you leave the girl and go home. We’ll leave your company alone. All we want is the girl to be inducted; she owes us that much after all that she put us through. I’ve lost my cover, thanks to her.”
Seto saw Téa pale as she heard the man’s words. And he found himself silent. When he had embarked upon this quest, he had done so to protect his company. And now he was at a point where he could restore the Kaiba Corporation’s good name, as he had intended to do.
But now there was a new, unforeseen complication: his feelings for Téa. There would’ve been a time (back when he had been seeking out Solomon’s Blue-Eyes card) when he probably would have accepted Kayser’s offer without a second thought. But now he could not.
“Why are you hesitating?” asked Kayser. “There’s no need to worry, Kaiba; Bandit Keith will take good care of her; she’ll be treated well under the wings of the Rare Hunters, especially with spying talents such as those. Who is she, anyway? She’s just a little dancing girl, isn’t she? She’s far too unimportant for someone like you to bother with.”
Seto flinched; Kayser sounded too much like his old, unconcerned self. And as he glared at him, the man tossed down a briefcase of money.
“I didn’t think that you’d trust another check from me, so I decided to pay you back in cash,” he said, opening the case before him. “And I even gave you some interest back; I don’t want you as my enemy, Kaiba.”
“It’s a little late for that,” the CEO snarled.
Kayser shrugged.
“But since I don’t want you as my enemy, I humbly request that you take the money and leave us alone--”
“The odds are, ten to one, that it’s counterfeit!” Seto retorted.
“Not at all!” insisted Kayser, in mock-outrage. “I did learn something from that check fiasco, you know. You wouldn’t have come chasing me all around the world if you weren’t so desperate for vengeance. If I tried to swindle you again, you’d be after my blood. So, just take the money, and we’ll forget that this ever happened. It’s a small price to pay for obtaining a new spy.”
Téa struggled harder against Arkana’s hold upon hearing this. She did not want to join the Rare Hunters, and she knew what would become of her if she did refuse. Her fate was in Seto’s hands.
Arkana snarled as Téa attempted to free herself again. He placed a hand on a pressure point on the girl’s neck. She beheld Seto’s face one last time before she fell unconscious.
***************************
“Téa?” asked Aurus. “Téa!?”
The girl finally awoke after several hours. She and Aurus were no longer in the villa, but were in a completely different place altogether.
“Where are we? What happened?” she asked.
“We’re in some warehouse in Berlin; we’re going to be staying here until my cousin finds a new plane; Bandit Keith has the other one. My cousin mentioned that we’re going to meet Keith in Paris. He’s so busy looking for transportation that he hasn’t had a chance to chew me out for letting you go.”
“But how did we get here!?” she cried. “What happened to Kaiba? Where is he?”
“On his way back to Domino, I suppose,” the dancer replied.
“You… you don’t mean…”
“He sold us out,” Aurus said, bitterly. “It turns out that his company was the most important thing for him.”
Téa sank to the floor as her knees threatened to buckle. After everything she had said and done… after everything that they had been through… he was abandoning her like this!?
“I… I don’t want to be a Rare Hunter…” she said, the world around her shattering to pieces with every passing moment. “Aurus, don’t you think that there’s some way we can--”
The door flew open to reveal Lumis and Umbra.
“Kayser wants a word with his traitorous cousin,” snarled Umbra, as he and Lumis forced the boy out.
Aurus cast one last glance at Téa before the door closed, leaving her alone in the warehouse. She tested the door; there was no way it would budge. And even if, by some miracle, she had found a way out, there would be Rare Hunters everywhere, especially after how she had snuck out from under Arkana’s nose.
She crossed over to the window, where she could see the buildings of downtown Berlin along the Spree. Only a set of bars upon the window separated her from the outside, but that was enough to keep her trapped.
But she was also a prisoner of her own feelings. She had wanted to believe that Seto was finally opening up to her… that he was changing… but no; he had gone back to his old egotistical self. She had come close to mattering, but now she was insignificant once again.
As the tears fell from her eyes, she noticed a familiar-looking youth furtively slip past from warehouse to warehouse, carrying a small package with him. He was obviously trying to avoid the Rare Hunters, and was trying to keep a low profile, but Téa recognized him immediately.
“Leon!?”
The boy leaped about five feet into the air before turning towards her.
“Téa!? What are you doing here!?” asked the violet-haired boy, running over to the window.
“I’m trapped,” she explained. “Listen, Leon; there isn’t much time. You need to contact Yugi and tell him that the Rare Hunters have me; they’re going to take me to Paris, I think… Bandit Keith is there, and I think they’re going to initiate me or something.”
“Right,” the boy said. “You can explain everything after we get you out of there; I’ll tell my brother. He can help get you--”
“Leon, watch out!”
Strings had come out of nowhere, trying to seize Leon, but the young duelist dove out of the way.
“Leon, there isn’t time!” cried Téa. “Go-quickly! Tell Yugi; tell someone!”
Leon dodged Strings’ second capture attempt and escaped behind another warehouse. Strings glared at Téa, and then proceeded to stand silently outside the window, waiting for Leon to return.
While this was going on, Aurus was watching his cousin pace back and forth.
“I’m… sorry?” he offered.
“You lost the medallion!?” Kayser roared at him. “After carrying it around for all these years--?!”
“What was I supposed to do? You just came barging in and started brawling,” Aurus retorted. “I think I saw Kaiba with the medallion, but I couldn’t say anything; that would’ve looked too suspicious.”
“Fine, fine,” said Kayser. “What did you tell the girl after she woke up?”
“I told her that Kaiba took the money and went home,” he said. The youth frowned at his cousin. “I hope you’re happy; I didn’t like having to lie to her. She’s dying inside right now.”
“You care for the girl, don’t you?” asked Kayser. “What better way to win her admiration than by opening up her eyes to what a creep her crush really is?”
“That’s the only reason why I went along with this,” admitted Aurus. He was jealous of Seto Kaiba-jealous that he was the one who had won Téa’s affections. But Aurus had concerns for Téa, too. Deep down, he didn’t want to see her become a Rare Hunter; she was too good, too noble. That was why he had looked the other way during all of the times he had known she had been spying. He had seen her face as she had discovered that they had been dancing in Morse code. She was intelligent on top of graceful. But the wistful look in her eyes as she talked about home and her friends had made him realize that he was not a part of her world. He had almost come to accept it, but after seeing how Seto Kaiba was so undeserving of the feelings she had for him, he changed his mind. If she became a Rare Hunter, he would be a part of her world. And that was the only reason why he had allowed himself to betray her; it had been solely for her own good.
But there was one slight hiccup to the plan; Seto Kaiba hadn’t accepted the money. After Téa had been knocked out, another brawl had erupted, resulting in Seto (and about a half dozen Rare Hunters) being rendered senseless. Kayser had chosen that moment to escape. Aurus knew that the CEO would be furious when he regained his senses. But hopefully, by the time that occurred, Téa would already be inducted. And once she was a Rare Hunter, there was no leaving the organization; Aurus knew that all too well. His cousin had drafted him into the group, and now it was an inescapable part of him. But he held comfort in the thought that he could find solace in Téa when she donned the violet robe herself.
**********************************
“Signor Kaiba? Signor Kaiba!?”
Seto shook away the mental cobwebs as Gudiccelli threw a glass of water on him to bring him around.
“Gardner…?” he asked, looking around. Night had fallen in the time that had lapsed. “Where’s Gardner?”
“She is gone, Signor,” said Gudiccelli, with a shake of her head. “They took the other boy with them, too. But it is odd; they did not take the medallion from you. I guess that they were keen on getting away.”
Seto pulled the medallion from his pocket, looking over it. He didn’t know what to make of it at first, but as he turned it over, he noticed something tiny attached to the gold with adhesive. It looked like part of a silicon chip, and he knew as well as the next person that the ancient Egyptians never used those in their jewelry.
“A tracking chip…” he realized, furious, removing the chip from the artifact. “That other dancer was working for them all long!”
“I was still hiding as they left,” said Gudiccelli. “I think I overheard them mention Berlin.”
The CEO wasted no time; he had a contact in Berlin. He wasn’t keen on asking this man (a business rival) for help, but he could not allow the Hunters to get away with Téa. He would have to ask the other businessman for assistance.
And that is why Siegfried von Schroeder found himself discussing the unusual case with Seto Kaiba.
“I must admit that I am curious, Herr Kaiba,” said Siegfried, gazing out the window of his home office, which held a spectacular view of the Großer Wannsee lake. “As the man said, you have your money; why do you still insist upon chasing after Fraulein Gardner when the rest of her friends would come to aid her in a heartbeat?”
“Don’t bother trying to read into it,” Seto growled. He may have been developing feelings for Téa, but he saw no reason for Siegfried to know that.
“Be that as it may, Herr Kaiba,” the other businessman replied, biting back a smirk. “I have noticed a recent appearance of Rare Hunters, but as for any news of Fraulein--”
“Is that Kaiba!?” asked Leon, as he frantically ran into the office. “Tell him I know where Téa is! She’s being held in a warehouse along the Spree until the Rare Hunters find transportation to Paris! Bandit Keith is there, and he’s going to induct her has soon as they reach!”
“Did you hear that, Herr Kaiba?”
“Yes, I did,” Seto replied. “There’s every chance in the world that they might’ve left already. I’ll head to Paris to cut them off, but you check out that warehouse and see if you can stop them if they’re still there.”
Siegfried stared at the phone as his business rival disconnected.
“Sie Liebe Gardner, Kaiba,” he mused. “You love her, and you can’t escape it.”
Author: Crystal Rose of Pollux (rose_of_pollux)
Pairing: Seto Kaiba/Téa Gardner
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh
Theme: 8; Berlin, Germany
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine (except for the OC dancers) and the story is
Warnings: Villainy
Rating: PG13
This chapter will be cross-posted to 30_nights, 20_heartbeats, and http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4336463/22/
What ensued next was mass confusion. Gudiccelli was too frightened to open the door upon seeing the violet-robed men for herself, but the Rare Hunters weren’t going to be left out so easily. Two heavily-built Rare Hunters started using their shoulders as battering rams to break the door in.
“What do we do…?” asked Téa, as the door shook on its hinges. Another strike, and it would break open.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m not about to surrender to a bunch of recalcitrant thieves,” Seto vowed.
The Rare Hunters ran at the door again, and as the hinges ripped free from the walls, confusion turned to pure madness. Gudiccelli fled into the adjoining room, praying that she hadn’t been seen as the small group of Rare Hunters entered and attacked.
Fists flew as Seto attempted to judo throw the first assailant who came near him. He was successful, but Aurus failed to dive out of the way in time, getting clobbered by a stay shoe. He wasn’t hurt, but the medallion slipped from his grasp.
Seto made a grab for the ancient trinket, but it soon became lost among the stampeding combatants. His attempts to retrieve it did result in a couple Rare Hunters being plowed aside.
His hand finally closed around the medallion as he heard the sound of splintering glass; someone else (another Rare Hunter, no doubt) had entered through the window. Seto looked up in time to see Strings standing before him.
“Not again…” he fumed, launching himself from the ground into an uppercut. Strings stumbled backwards, but now Lumis and Umbra came at him from behind.
Téa tried to yell out a warning, but a familiar hand clamped upon her mouth.
“Well, hello there, my little assistant…” Arkana mused. “I was afraid that I had lost you!”
Seto looked back upon hearing her muffled screams, but his lapse in concentration resulted in the numerous Rare Hunters surrounding him to gain the upper hand (however unfair it was). Aurus, too, was restrained, but Seto’s main concerns were for Téa.
“Kaiba, Kaiba,” said Kayser, with a shake of his head. “You had me fooled; I never would have guessed that you were in league with my prize dancer.”
Téa flinched; the last thing she wanted now was for Kayser to taunt (and subsequently banish) what little friendliness that Seto showed to her.
“I know why you’re doing this,” Kayser went on. “You’re still a little upset at the bad check, aren’t you?”
“A little upset!?” Seto fumed. “Oh, I think I’m far beyond upset!”
“Well, it’s clear that you don’t know too much about our scheme,” Kayser said. “We don’t need to be enemies, Kaiba. How about I pay you back the money I owe you right now? I won’t need to spend any money on hotel rooms, thanks to that girl’s crazy ideas.”
“What’s the catch?” Seto asked, knowing that there had to be one.
“No catch at all, Mr. Kaiba,” Kayser explained. “All we want is that you leave the girl and go home. We’ll leave your company alone. All we want is the girl to be inducted; she owes us that much after all that she put us through. I’ve lost my cover, thanks to her.”
Seto saw Téa pale as she heard the man’s words. And he found himself silent. When he had embarked upon this quest, he had done so to protect his company. And now he was at a point where he could restore the Kaiba Corporation’s good name, as he had intended to do.
But now there was a new, unforeseen complication: his feelings for Téa. There would’ve been a time (back when he had been seeking out Solomon’s Blue-Eyes card) when he probably would have accepted Kayser’s offer without a second thought. But now he could not.
“Why are you hesitating?” asked Kayser. “There’s no need to worry, Kaiba; Bandit Keith will take good care of her; she’ll be treated well under the wings of the Rare Hunters, especially with spying talents such as those. Who is she, anyway? She’s just a little dancing girl, isn’t she? She’s far too unimportant for someone like you to bother with.”
Seto flinched; Kayser sounded too much like his old, unconcerned self. And as he glared at him, the man tossed down a briefcase of money.
“I didn’t think that you’d trust another check from me, so I decided to pay you back in cash,” he said, opening the case before him. “And I even gave you some interest back; I don’t want you as my enemy, Kaiba.”
“It’s a little late for that,” the CEO snarled.
Kayser shrugged.
“But since I don’t want you as my enemy, I humbly request that you take the money and leave us alone--”
“The odds are, ten to one, that it’s counterfeit!” Seto retorted.
“Not at all!” insisted Kayser, in mock-outrage. “I did learn something from that check fiasco, you know. You wouldn’t have come chasing me all around the world if you weren’t so desperate for vengeance. If I tried to swindle you again, you’d be after my blood. So, just take the money, and we’ll forget that this ever happened. It’s a small price to pay for obtaining a new spy.”
Téa struggled harder against Arkana’s hold upon hearing this. She did not want to join the Rare Hunters, and she knew what would become of her if she did refuse. Her fate was in Seto’s hands.
Arkana snarled as Téa attempted to free herself again. He placed a hand on a pressure point on the girl’s neck. She beheld Seto’s face one last time before she fell unconscious.
***************************
“Téa?” asked Aurus. “Téa!?”
The girl finally awoke after several hours. She and Aurus were no longer in the villa, but were in a completely different place altogether.
“Where are we? What happened?” she asked.
“We’re in some warehouse in Berlin; we’re going to be staying here until my cousin finds a new plane; Bandit Keith has the other one. My cousin mentioned that we’re going to meet Keith in Paris. He’s so busy looking for transportation that he hasn’t had a chance to chew me out for letting you go.”
“But how did we get here!?” she cried. “What happened to Kaiba? Where is he?”
“On his way back to Domino, I suppose,” the dancer replied.
“You… you don’t mean…”
“He sold us out,” Aurus said, bitterly. “It turns out that his company was the most important thing for him.”
Téa sank to the floor as her knees threatened to buckle. After everything she had said and done… after everything that they had been through… he was abandoning her like this!?
“I… I don’t want to be a Rare Hunter…” she said, the world around her shattering to pieces with every passing moment. “Aurus, don’t you think that there’s some way we can--”
The door flew open to reveal Lumis and Umbra.
“Kayser wants a word with his traitorous cousin,” snarled Umbra, as he and Lumis forced the boy out.
Aurus cast one last glance at Téa before the door closed, leaving her alone in the warehouse. She tested the door; there was no way it would budge. And even if, by some miracle, she had found a way out, there would be Rare Hunters everywhere, especially after how she had snuck out from under Arkana’s nose.
She crossed over to the window, where she could see the buildings of downtown Berlin along the Spree. Only a set of bars upon the window separated her from the outside, but that was enough to keep her trapped.
But she was also a prisoner of her own feelings. She had wanted to believe that Seto was finally opening up to her… that he was changing… but no; he had gone back to his old egotistical self. She had come close to mattering, but now she was insignificant once again.
As the tears fell from her eyes, she noticed a familiar-looking youth furtively slip past from warehouse to warehouse, carrying a small package with him. He was obviously trying to avoid the Rare Hunters, and was trying to keep a low profile, but Téa recognized him immediately.
“Leon!?”
The boy leaped about five feet into the air before turning towards her.
“Téa!? What are you doing here!?” asked the violet-haired boy, running over to the window.
“I’m trapped,” she explained. “Listen, Leon; there isn’t much time. You need to contact Yugi and tell him that the Rare Hunters have me; they’re going to take me to Paris, I think… Bandit Keith is there, and I think they’re going to initiate me or something.”
“Right,” the boy said. “You can explain everything after we get you out of there; I’ll tell my brother. He can help get you--”
“Leon, watch out!”
Strings had come out of nowhere, trying to seize Leon, but the young duelist dove out of the way.
“Leon, there isn’t time!” cried Téa. “Go-quickly! Tell Yugi; tell someone!”
Leon dodged Strings’ second capture attempt and escaped behind another warehouse. Strings glared at Téa, and then proceeded to stand silently outside the window, waiting for Leon to return.
While this was going on, Aurus was watching his cousin pace back and forth.
“I’m… sorry?” he offered.
“You lost the medallion!?” Kayser roared at him. “After carrying it around for all these years--?!”
“What was I supposed to do? You just came barging in and started brawling,” Aurus retorted. “I think I saw Kaiba with the medallion, but I couldn’t say anything; that would’ve looked too suspicious.”
“Fine, fine,” said Kayser. “What did you tell the girl after she woke up?”
“I told her that Kaiba took the money and went home,” he said. The youth frowned at his cousin. “I hope you’re happy; I didn’t like having to lie to her. She’s dying inside right now.”
“You care for the girl, don’t you?” asked Kayser. “What better way to win her admiration than by opening up her eyes to what a creep her crush really is?”
“That’s the only reason why I went along with this,” admitted Aurus. He was jealous of Seto Kaiba-jealous that he was the one who had won Téa’s affections. But Aurus had concerns for Téa, too. Deep down, he didn’t want to see her become a Rare Hunter; she was too good, too noble. That was why he had looked the other way during all of the times he had known she had been spying. He had seen her face as she had discovered that they had been dancing in Morse code. She was intelligent on top of graceful. But the wistful look in her eyes as she talked about home and her friends had made him realize that he was not a part of her world. He had almost come to accept it, but after seeing how Seto Kaiba was so undeserving of the feelings she had for him, he changed his mind. If she became a Rare Hunter, he would be a part of her world. And that was the only reason why he had allowed himself to betray her; it had been solely for her own good.
But there was one slight hiccup to the plan; Seto Kaiba hadn’t accepted the money. After Téa had been knocked out, another brawl had erupted, resulting in Seto (and about a half dozen Rare Hunters) being rendered senseless. Kayser had chosen that moment to escape. Aurus knew that the CEO would be furious when he regained his senses. But hopefully, by the time that occurred, Téa would already be inducted. And once she was a Rare Hunter, there was no leaving the organization; Aurus knew that all too well. His cousin had drafted him into the group, and now it was an inescapable part of him. But he held comfort in the thought that he could find solace in Téa when she donned the violet robe herself.
**********************************
“Signor Kaiba? Signor Kaiba!?”
Seto shook away the mental cobwebs as Gudiccelli threw a glass of water on him to bring him around.
“Gardner…?” he asked, looking around. Night had fallen in the time that had lapsed. “Where’s Gardner?”
“She is gone, Signor,” said Gudiccelli, with a shake of her head. “They took the other boy with them, too. But it is odd; they did not take the medallion from you. I guess that they were keen on getting away.”
Seto pulled the medallion from his pocket, looking over it. He didn’t know what to make of it at first, but as he turned it over, he noticed something tiny attached to the gold with adhesive. It looked like part of a silicon chip, and he knew as well as the next person that the ancient Egyptians never used those in their jewelry.
“A tracking chip…” he realized, furious, removing the chip from the artifact. “That other dancer was working for them all long!”
“I was still hiding as they left,” said Gudiccelli. “I think I overheard them mention Berlin.”
The CEO wasted no time; he had a contact in Berlin. He wasn’t keen on asking this man (a business rival) for help, but he could not allow the Hunters to get away with Téa. He would have to ask the other businessman for assistance.
And that is why Siegfried von Schroeder found himself discussing the unusual case with Seto Kaiba.
“I must admit that I am curious, Herr Kaiba,” said Siegfried, gazing out the window of his home office, which held a spectacular view of the Großer Wannsee lake. “As the man said, you have your money; why do you still insist upon chasing after Fraulein Gardner when the rest of her friends would come to aid her in a heartbeat?”
“Don’t bother trying to read into it,” Seto growled. He may have been developing feelings for Téa, but he saw no reason for Siegfried to know that.
“Be that as it may, Herr Kaiba,” the other businessman replied, biting back a smirk. “I have noticed a recent appearance of Rare Hunters, but as for any news of Fraulein--”
“Is that Kaiba!?” asked Leon, as he frantically ran into the office. “Tell him I know where Téa is! She’s being held in a warehouse along the Spree until the Rare Hunters find transportation to Paris! Bandit Keith is there, and he’s going to induct her has soon as they reach!”
“Did you hear that, Herr Kaiba?”
“Yes, I did,” Seto replied. “There’s every chance in the world that they might’ve left already. I’ll head to Paris to cut them off, but you check out that warehouse and see if you can stop them if they’re still there.”
Siegfried stared at the phone as his business rival disconnected.
“Sie Liebe Gardner, Kaiba,” he mused. “You love her, and you can’t escape it.”