I would like to thank XOXOserenityXOXO for requesting this story :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-G-Oh or any of its affiliated characters.
The sound of rapid clicking is virtually the only thing heard in the top level of Kaiba Corp as a woman enters the office to start yet another day as the secretary of the reclusive CEO, Seto Kaiba. The woman, Kati, is a professional and walks swiftly out of the elevator and into the clinical looking, if not industrial, waiting area and lays her personal items on her desk and starts up her computer, looking through the glass doors to the left of her desk she spots the CEO typing away behind his mahogany desk.
In her late forties, she has seen many people behind that particular desk. Because of her abundant experience, she is not only familiar with all the standard procedures of the company but is also familiar with the particular quirks of each company head, and thus notices that her boss is low on coffee. She shakes her head in abandon, and fixing a few strands in her salt-and-pepper hair she leaves briefly to grab two cups of coffee, she promptly returns to check the status of the day's meetings, drops off her own cup and calmly walks past the glass doors to wish Mr. Kaiba a good morning and inform of his agenda.
"Good morning, Mr. Kaiba." She says as she puts down his coffee. "You have three meetings today, the first one at 9a.m. All of them are scheduled within the building and are expected to last an hour and a half each, with thirty-minute gaps between each one. I will send you the room details shortly. Also R&D would like to speak with you at 3p.m. to go over the new duel disk simulation with you." Concluding her speech, she waits for the young man to take a sip of his coffee.
"Financials is the second meeting, correct?"
"Yes. They want to go over marketing details for the new project."
"Cancel it and tell them to use the same plan from last year's project."
"Anything else?"
"Tell R&D I will be there at 2p.m."
Kati raises an eyebrow, "Has Mokuba come back from school?"
Kaiba goes back to his computer and starts typing, "He got in yesterday morning and then slept for the rest of the day."
"Very well, I'll let Accounting know."
"That will be all Kati," he says almost offhandedly.
She bows and returns to her desk, with a slight smirk. In all her years of service, she still has yet to meet any CEO so invested into his company as Seto Kaiba, who since the day he officially took over the position when he was barely a teen, has consistently beat her to the office even though her work day starts at seven in the morning. Taking a sip of her coffee she begins typing up her memo, and smiles brightly when the office door opens roughly with a grumpy Mokuba Kaiba grumbling about "annoying, anti-social, sadistic, older brothers."
"Mokuba! You're home!" she gets up to greet him.
"Kati!" he hugs her smaller frame and then pouts, "Kati, can I move in with you and your husband? You can even adopt me, so long as I get enough sleep!"
Giggling she reaches up to pat his cheek, "Now dear, you know you would miss your brother's welcome home pancakes."
He sighs dejectedly, "Yeah you're right. Oh, are you and Hans coming for dinner today? I'm cooking!"
"No, no, we actually have…" a young woman bursting into the office interrupted her.
"I need…" she begins panting, her glasses askew and her blonde hair out wildly falling out of her ponytail, " Mr. Kaiba…R…D…problem…"catching her breath, "There's a problem in R&D and Mr. Kaiba is…"
"What am I doing, exactly? More importantly why can't my top notch scientists figure it out?" Seto Kaiba had walked out of his office with a scowl.
"Sir, the project arena is on fire!"
For a moment Kaiba was speechless, Kati and Mokuba were both too shocked to even move.
"What do you mean it's on fire!" he screamed. "Idiots! What am I paying them for! Get out of my way!" Kaiba pushes the frightened woman out of his way roughly, and Mokuba catches her.
Walking out his office lobby, Seto Kaiba runs to the stairwell and sprints to the Research and Development floor only to find a raging fire in the arena, a small fire rescue team setting up and trying to get it controlled, and his scientists scrambling over the controls trying to figure out what went wrong with the new duel disk.
"Fick! Where are you?" Everyone in the room stops, and an older man steps up to explain to the enraged CEO why the project failed two weeks before its launch.
Taking a deep breath Silus Fick rapidly defends why the main projector failed and subsequently caused the duel disk to fail, "So you see sir, since you were the original designer we ask that you take a look at them. Here are the workers bringing it in now, we will put it in the next room." Fick points to an adjacent room.
Kaiba rips the goggles out of Fick's hands and puts them on mid-step as he grabs a standard workbox from another scientist, and enters the room trailed by Fick and his two assistants.
"Let me show you idiots how to fix a simple light box." Kaiba proclaims as he nears the smoking projector on the table. Nearing it he notices that it's rattling, and a strange piercing sounds stuns him and three other scientists in the room. Then a blinding light blinds them as Kaiba and the scientists are all flung into the glass wall separating the work-room from the main work-floor.
In another part of town, a young woman wearily enters a shabby rundown apartment, sheds her jacket and unlaces her sneakers at the door, and starts undoing the top buttons of her blouse as she walks over to her answering machine. "3 messages" blinks back at her. Rubbing the fatigue from her eyes she presses play to hear:
"Three new messages:Message one. Hey sweetie, it's Mom. Happy 21st! We know you're busy at the hospital so I just called to make sure you're doing well. Call me back when you get a chance or just send me a message to let me know! Love you! Beep. Beep. Message two. Hey Ren, it's Joey. Happy Birthday! I hope you have a good day at the hospital! Ev'one knows youse the best nurse in the damned place! Let me know 'bout what we talked about a month ago. I know youse want youse own place and that but I have the extra room with me and Mai and it's yours if you want it. (indistinct shuffling and a woman yelling 'Joey' angrily) Hey, sweetie it's Mai. Happy Birthday and don't listen to this idiot do what you need to do but if you need any help you know where to find us! Have a good day at the hospital! Beep. Beep. Message three. Hey Red, it's Thalia. Thank you so much for covering for me last night. I know you should be getting home right about now and I know your own shift starts in a few hours but I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated it. The wedding was wonderful and my sister wants to thank you for covering for me so I could attend. Well see you in a few! Beep. Beep. Beep. End of new messages."
The girl sighs deeply and looks at the clock next to the machine that read 8a.m. "Happy 21st birthday Serenity Wheeler. Ok no more of this sad business; at least Thalia had a good time and I made enough to cover the next months rent." Yawning she stretches slightly, "Now I need sleep because I need to be refreshed for my next shift in 8 hours. Yawn. At least I washed my scrubs for the week so I'd have new ones. "
Walking to a small room in the back of the apartment, she sets her alarm clock, and promptly collapses on the bed.
Thank you for reading this everyone! :) Please review!