So if you've been to my profile or follow me, you know this isn't exactly new. It is the first fic of my IC Kaiba romance series, but now much better. The old one has always been my least favorite of the series. As the first fic I ever wrote I find it rather cringeworthy. However, after rewriting it, I now feel much better about it. The beginning is probably the most similar to the original, but I hope you all enjoy it. Please let me know what you think!

Also, I strongly DON'T suggest you read the old one until you've ready them all, if you must read it at all. Otherwise, it could get confusing and you're going to run into a lot of continuity errors. Once I finish this fic on Christmas, I will be replacing several chapters a day sequentially in the others as I did a bit of embellishing with small modifications as well, but not enough to republish. Once again I will go back to updating daily.

Kaiba philosophy/what's up with this story:

I find Seto Kaiba's character fascinating. When reading fanfiction, I always found it disheartening and a tad frustrating when he was doing something OOC. I understand why authors do it as it's hard to get him to do anything. That's why I wrote these, with the challenge of keeping him in character and to do the hardest thing of all for SK: fall in love. I won't lie, he's a bitch to write for, but it turned out to be quite fun, hence why this turned into a decently long series. I think I did a halfway-decent job of keeping him in character in the first one but was so focused on it that the actual plot fell to the wayside. Hence this fic.

In terms of the girl, I just can't see him with any of the canon characters. No, not even Kisara, not after he went through the emotional torture that his stepfather dealt him and he became Kaiba. This actually made me a little sad, but I read a theory recently that I absolutely love and made me feel better (and I do touch on it much later). That only left an OC, but how do you create a girl for such a bad-ass character that would actually meet his standards without going over the top? I mean, it's hard enough to just write someone who doesn't annoy him and he finds worthy of talking to. Well, I tried, you all can tell me if I did ok or not, but let's just get to the story now, shall we? As always, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Kaiba

What a fool, I gloated, staring down at Obelisk. I was back in my home office, my eyes fixed on the card in my hand. There was no way Yugi could beat me with this, and with two more Egyptian God cards out there my deck would only become more powerful. His defeat would be crushing.

I was ready to design this tournament. The only thing that bothered me about it was that cretin had the original idea and had asked me to carry it out. I was tired of people trying to elicit things from me. She was just lucky this fit into my agenda.

To make up for this, I comforted myself with the fact that this would all be for me. She just gave me the information, but I set the path to my victory. I would plan this tournament, but first I would learn everything about this card and how to integrate it seamlessly into my deck.

"Hey bro, your schedule came," Mokuba informed as he entered my home office unannounced, waving the envelope in the air.

"Not now, Mokuba," I countered, irritated. School was the last thing I wanted to think about now.

"Watcha got there?" Mokuba asked, coming over to me. "And what happened with that woman from the museum last night?"

"She told me everything I need to know to defeat Yugi," I remarked smugly. I was about to get everything I wanted.

Jemmea

I stood, looking down at the bit of water between the white fiberglass and weathered wood. My boat was one of the few places I felt safe. I had been sea bound for a while now, making sure to have my voyage be a long one as I loved it.

I briefly considered just stepping back and returning to the sea, but I knew I couldn't stay there forever. That was only meant to be temporary and I had already managed to secure hotel room, the trick would just be finding it, especially as I was unfamiliar with Domino. From there I could find an apartment.

As I considered all this, the wind huffed and the boom struck me on the back of the calves, knocking me forward onto the dock, no doubt leaving a lovely bruise on my fair skin. Well, I guess that settles that dilemma, I thought as I caught myself. I turned, being quick to grab my boat so I could tie her up. Once secured, I de-rigged her and gathered my few bags. I glanced down, catching the fancy Jemini etched on the side of the boat. I had chosen it when I was a bit more juvenile, and it was about time I changed it anyway. I'd have to get to that quickly.

This would be good, it would be new, and it would be my first time on my own in a city. I did not like people, but cities were less intimate. I was excited to just be a number. I could hide here, at least for now. If anything did happen, I had found that society was rather protective of young girls. I just had to make sure I could be loud enough to ask for help. I was a runaway, and I was determined to stay that way.

I planned to finish high school, at the very least. I liked learning, it was the people who made me apprehensive about the experience. I had considered homeschooling myself, but that's what my father would expect, so I made the compromise thinking public school was better than having no say in my life.

With my bags slung around me as best I could, I left her. I headed for the concrete of the city, double checking that I had my sailing wedges on. They didn't catch like heels and would be safe from the cracks between the boards. As I got closer to the buildings, I felt smaller. There were people, but not one turned their head toward me. I took a deep breath. This might just work.

Next Chapter: Begin Again

"Oh, ya new? Yeah, it's down- well, it's kinda hard to find. But I'm a nice guy and will take some time to show ya. Anda, by the way, I'm Joey." Awesome, I thought sarcastically. He was being too friendly.