Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-gi-oh or any of the characters associated with it.

Enjoy.


"Sir, we're ready to begin."

Ignoring his guards, Kaiba simply gave a curt nod and with a flick of his fingers he gestured them out the room; they rushed out twice as fast, almost stumbling over each other.

He suppressed a roll of his eyes.

And while on most days, Seto Kaiba would, regrettably be his usual person, which included nothing short of arrogant and prideful, today was really something else - something he would prefer to throw out the window, hoping that it broke into irreplaceable pieces.

It was hiring day.

Kaiba cringed at the thought of those white-collared workers, all of them premature and optimistic, thoroughly under the deluded impression that they would 'impact the company positively'; in which case, Kaiba had labeled that the most overused line in all of interview history since he had the torture of sitting through them. Because of that stale, hideously positive line, Kaiba had informed every pre-existing employee that who ever uttered such a line or anything of the sort during the interviews, would be thrown out in the blink of an eye.

He found this to be extremely effective, as half the interviews were usually stopped short on the first sentence. And although Kaiba would never admit it out loud, he found their pathetic points brought up in the interviews inwardly amusing, yet ridiculous all the same. Did these newbies come to die?

Kaiba could only wonder.

In any case, if there was one thing he dreaded, feared, and loathed to an unbearable extent it was hiring day. It was for simple reasons, nothing out of the blues, but he just couldn't stand hearing the stupidity in people's responses and furthermore, their lack of understanding when he curtly stood up and said 'get out'.

They never did understand those two words - in fact, it usually took around four to five guards to get the message through to them. And for this reason and many, many more, Kaiba also hated hiring day because it lasted over a week. Sighing profusely to himself, he pulled himself from his office chair, "damn," he muttered, exiting his office.

Once out, a guard met him right by his office doors, scampering behind him. "Mr. Kaiba the show-up this year is huge! Huge, I say- there are tons of workers! Tons!"

Kaiba held in the urge to correct him and say 'to be workers.'

"Are you new here?"

The man behind him blinked, "yes, sir - I started working here last month!"

Kaiba swiped his head around and eyed the man coldly, "stop being so happy- this isn't a circus. You're here to work not ride an elephant." He made a mental note to check the job statistics and criteria for the company. If this guy was being hired, clearly Kaiba Corp. had dropped its standards a few notches too low. That, or he would simple have to fire them all together, and start fresh.

Wonderful.

"Yes, sir!" The man eagerly responded.

Kaiba really did roll his eyes this time, as the man behind him stumbled and followed him down the hall and towards the elevators. Kaiba languidly paced into the doors of the elevator as the other man waddled inside. Unfortunately, Kaiba had no idea - for apparent reasons - as to what floor the interviews were on, but he was saved by grace as the man pushed the 14th button and the elevator began its journey.

He noted that the man beside him was sweating generously, and had now pulled out a handkerchief to dab the sweat off his forehead. Consciously, Kaiba inched away from the water-bucket beside him, inevitably displeased that the AC system was clearly ineffective if someone was still sweating as though they had just crossed the desert.

This company would rot without me, he thought mentally.

Really, things had to be done.

"We're here sir," the man mumbled quietly as he wiped the sweat from his forehead once more.

Kaiba gave him an uncharacteristic glance, before walking down the hall, "I can see that."

He stopped shortly and the man behind him briefly made contact with his back when he suddenly halted. Kaiba turned around to dismiss the watery rag. "Go outside and get some air." Really, you need it, he thought, disgusted.

The man stood there, guffawed, "but Sir-"

"Get out," he interjected swiftly.

Clearly the man was new - didn't he know that Kaiba entered the room alone, and always alone? Of course with the occasional exception of Mokuba every now and then, but aside from that, it was his walk and his walk only. Spinning on his heals, Kaiba left the poor man gaping at his back.

Reaching the doors, he pulled them open, only to be addressed by multiple people at once.

"Sir, we have a problem-"

"Seto Kaiba, we have issues to discuss-"

"Sirrrrr! The interviews are getting late - we're running behind on schedule!"

"When's the new schedule going to be up?"

"Wait- what new schedule?"

Kaiba, was of course, not the CEO of the company for nothing - he had a reputation to uphold and while at times like this, all he felt like doing was shouting 'shut the fuck up', he was forced to address the issue at hand in a non-crude manner. Nicely even, but that wasn't in his nature - far from it actually.

"Quiet," he hissed, slamming his hands down.

The room ceased its bantering. Slowly, the executives and god knows who else was there, pulled in a few chairs and sat down, muttering quietly.

"Listen up you old croons - I want everything to run smoothly. No mistakes will be tolerated as you are individually representing Kaiba Corp today."

"What do you mean, sir?" One of the men pressed.

Did he have to spell it out for them in fine text? Glaring at the man, he said, "it means that we will hold single interviews amongst everyone here, meaning that each of you will interview one person at a time. I have been informed that we have quite the large show-up today. We're going to finish them all today," he concluded.

The man looked baffled, "b-but there's over fifty thousand people outside...how are we-?"

"Well you better get to work then, because I'm not going an hour over today for the crowd of centipedes outside." He stated icily.

The men nodded meekly, and began scrambling to set up individual tables so that they could interview people. "And one more thing," he said, "send anyone who looks like a good secretary to my office."

Upon his departure, the room was absurdly loud once more.

"Secretary eh?" One man thought out loud.

Another grinned, "It's been a while since we had one of those."

"Actually, Kaiba Sir has never had any for that matter."

"Well I can bloody see why."

"That man's got a stick up his ass, that's why."

"Good luck to whoever has the displeasure of pulling that out!"

"...If we can find anybody."


Kaiba sat there furiously tampering away on his laptop - work was never low for him. It was always there - a little or a lot, it was there. And he decided he liked it that way. It kept him thoroughly occupied and made it seem like he had nothing better to do than work - which in reality, he didn't. I mean, what were social parties good for anyway?

So far, being locked away in his office had been the best hiring day ever despite how noisy it was outside. He could only imagine the horrible tread his executives and hiring managers had to sit through - but then again, he was paying them for it. He was even more pleased to find that not a single potential secretary had been sent to his way. Kaiba silently hoped that none would come - he knew he needed one, but the prospect of one of those loons outside working at such close proximity with him everyday was highly unnerving. Who knew what they would do to him - not that he wasn't prepared for such situations.

Kaiba was always ready.

What he wasn't ready for was the shock that registered when he actually saw someone physically enter his office. It was a miracle, per se.

What struck him even worse was that the person entering looked oddly familiar, with her golden auburn hair swaying gracefully by her slim hips.

"Mr. Kaiba, we uhm- we found a secretary sir!" The man at the door mumbled.

"Yes, I can see that," Kaiba replied, not taking his eyes off the woman. The man gave an awkward nod before rushing himself out the door. Serenity blinked, looking around with a slightly curious face - she clearly didn't realize that she was currently standing in Seto Kaiba's personal office space.

"You."

Serenity turned her attention back at the man in front of her. "Hello, my name is-"

"I know who you are," he cut in. "What I want to know is how you got here."

Serenity stared at him wordlessly, " I came up the stairs first, but then I found the elevator."

Kaiba found himself blanching at her atrocious use of humor - or was she serious? He couldn't tell. "Funny," he commented dryly, "but I assume you passed the tests my other employees threw at you."

She nodded, "yes, I guess I did- but then I was told to come here..."

"How's the dog?" Kaiba interjected again.

Serenity's face resembled something along the lines of a frown, "my brother is quite well, thank you for asking - I didn't know you cared about him, but its nice to see you worrying yourself over his well-being," she smiled.

"You're just a bottle of jokes aren't you?" He retaliated swiftly.

Kaiba realized how professionally she had handled that, instead of snapping at him. He was, admittedly trying to get some sort of reaction from her. Spinning around his chair, Kaiba marched up to her, not giving her time to reply. He couldn't help but note that he was a good head and a half taller than her. His observations continued, drawing in her eyes, face, lips and everything below that. She was dressed formally too, adorned in a black skirt, with a black blazer, white dress shirt, and heels.

She looks the same - just...different, Kaiba concluded mentally.

" ?"

It felt unusually odd to hear her address him so formally. He snapped away from her figure, facing the glowing sunset outside his glass windows. "Why do you want this job?"

It was straight.

Blunt.

To the point.

And quite frankly, the only thing he cared about since her presence entered the room. "I need it," she replied curtly, and continued, "besides, is it necessary for me to divulge my personal matters and issues?"

Kaiba narrowed his eyes- she was on mark with that one.

"No. It's not, but if this is something you're doing for the fun of it, know now, that the consequences will be sever. It's not easy being my secretary."

Her lips tugged upwards, "I know."

Like hell she does, he thought.

"Fine."

She titled her slightly, "...fine?"

"You're hired- you start from tomorrow."

Now it was Serenity's turn to look shocked- her look was priceless, and if Kaiba could laugh, he would - but Kaiba didn't laugh. It just wasn't his thing.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Are you su-"

"Does it looked like I'm kidding," Kaiba snapped.

She frowned, "no." Her face brightened again, "this is great!"

Kaiba said nothing - she was shortly about to find out how devastating her life was about to be. Silently, he paced up to her, holding out a hand. It was formal courtesy of course - to shake ones hand at a proclamation was something he just had to do as CEO. Staring at his hand, she tentatively reached with her own and grasped his.

Kaiba stared at their connected hands as though they had done more than just shake hands. He noticed that her hand was a lot smaller than his...and a lot warmer too.

Quickly, he retreated his hand.

"Thank you," she said calmly.

Kaiba nodded, and watched as she walked out his office. At his office doors, the commotion suddenly rose. When Serenity walked out, she was met with a good handful of Kaiba's bodyguards and executives who had clearly been eavesdropping right on the door.

Kaiba had the urge to fire them all right that very instance.

"Out," he said curtly.

Sighing, he walked back to his desk.

He still couldn't believe what he had just done.

He had hired, Joey's sister as his...his- what again?

Ah, yes.

Secretary.

Smirking slightly, he turned back to his screen, pondering to himself.

If she lasts even a week, I'll buy Mokuba that ridiculous jet ski joy ride, period.