Chapter Two: It's your Fault!

As soon as the words had left their teacher's mouth, they glared ferociously at one another. Kaiba straightened and let Serenity go, so she stepped back and steadied herself, then reluctantly turned around.

"I'm really sorry, Mr. Bamako, but we were held up in a… an altercation," she nervously explained, putting on a helpless smile. Mr. Bamako remained stony faced and motioned for the two to take the two empty seats at the back.

Kaiba completely ignored Serenity and sat himself down while Serenity busied herself with shutting the door and settling herself with her Business folder and stationary in front of her.

Kaiba however began to think about what Mr. Bamako had said and didn't like what he was thinking he had said at all.

"Aren't you going to say sorry for your lateness and the mayhem that was caused?" Mr. Bamako's eyes glared at Kaiba and Serenity dreaded what was about to happen.

Returning Mr. Bamako's glare, Kaiba narrowed his icy eyes to subzero temperatures in an instant.

"Volunteers?" he questioned, ignoring the request for an admission of guilt, his eyebrows arched enquiringly. It was partly inquiring, partly a challenging of Kaiba's authority over Mr. Bamako's deemed power.

Mr. Bamako's face filled momentarily with ferocity before sinking into defeated blankness. He was not willing for some element of Kaiba Corp to ruin his life today.

"You two are to be our class's representative for the college inspection in six month's time. In that time you shall work together on a presentation as if you are planning a business. You shall be given money for field tests in order to prove the business venture you're going to develop together is viable – proof it works," the man explained with a spark of excitement glinting in his eyes.

Kaiba's blood ran cold at the notion of having to spend half a year of his life working with Serenity, sister of one of the most annoying people he had ever met and he frowned deeply.

"We didn't volunteer," he snarled in a silky voice and Mr. Bamako shook his head.

"It doesn't matter. I've picked you two – you're proof that businesses can be run at a young age - and very well, I suppose I must add. Serenity here has done some marvellous theory work which is showing signs that she's got quite the head for picking a good venture – she's in touch with what people want," he explained and Kaiba and Serenity shared a fierce glare at one another before both turning their anger on Mr. Bamako.

"But we-!"

"Listen, you can't make me-!"

"-can't possibly work together, I mean-!"

"-do anything I don't want to! I'm Seto Kaiba and-!"

"-it's not fair-!"

"-it's not my fault, it's hers!"

"-it's not my fault, it's his!"

They argued their case in unison and after their outburst Mr. Bamako impatiently waved them quiet and shook his head, putting his foot firmly down on the matter, his dark eyes glinting warningly.

"I will not reverse my decision. You shall work together whether you like it or not! End of discussion, please. Now class, let us move on to our textbooks, page eighty-five…" he closed the subject with a glare at the two of them and Serenity gave the evillest eye she could manage at Kaiba, while he focused his frosty navy eyes on Serenity with laser intensity until the two cracked under each others stares and refused to make any eye contact for the rest of the lesson, which now seemed painfully slow for the two.

Serenity's mind raced with questions that begged not to be answered. How Joey would handle the news was going to be a tough one. He was definitely not going to be happy in the slightest about this arrangement. Six months working with his least favourite person was going to drive Joey up the wall for sure. Serenity was confident that her working with Kaiba even for a day would be out of the question with Joey. Serenity wasted time in lesson not paying attention in class for the first time since she began her business class by planning how to break the news to him. It largely revolved around a large plate of food to distract him as she blurted it and took refuge from the fallout in her small room.

Eventually, though, class drew to a close, but just as Serenity planned to escape, Mr. Bamako called over the din of packing up and chatting, "Mr. Kaiba and Miss. Wheeler shall stay behind until I have had a word with them!"

Serenity managed a private groan of despair as she tidied her things away into her bag, while Kaiba openly glared threateningly with his scornful blue eyes, then shoved his work into a massive suitcase he could have wielded as a weapon.

When all the students had drained out of the class, Mr. Bamako beckoned for the two to approach his desk, which they reluctantly did while still carefully ignoring one other, causing Mr. Bamako to sigh heavily.

"Please would you two act your ages?" he asked wearily, habitually fiddling with his dark brown beard, and Serenity snuck a look out of the corner of her eye guiltily to see Kaiba do the exact same thing.

"I really need you two to work on this project for the next six months for me. This inspection will contribute heavily to the college receiving a prestige award along with a large grant that the college needs. Our part in the inspection is just as important as the rest. You shall have shining recommendations for future employment as I will personally make sure what a grand undertaking you, well, took. Now, I know you two don't appear to get along from what I've seen today-"

"You better believe it," Kaiba muttered and Mr. Bamako rested his eyes on Kaiba for a moment before continuing.

"As I was saying… I picked you two for a reason. You're probably the best student's in this class and I trust the two of you to do the job well," he encouraged and Kaiba could see Serenity's eyes glimmer with pride from where he stood and his heart froze with the thought of having to work with one of his most annoying enemy's sister.

Mr. Bamako proceeded to outline business ideas to get them started, which made Serenity fidget next to Kaiba to the point he wanted to throttle her. He stood straight and barely moved, which Serenity believed must have been taught to him or he had some kind of stick up his ass.

After half an hour of talking, Mr. Bamako finally let them go and stopping them again only to dig out of his desk draws a massive load of paperwork which he told them would come in handy.

A moment of silent indecision passed between Kaiba and Serenity over who took the papers, which prompted Kaiba to snatch them out of his teacher's hands and put them in an empty folder within his killer briefcase.

Kaiba then took his case and swept out of the without a backward glance. Serenity frowned at Kaiba and went to leave, but paused to give Mr. Bamako a wave, then hurried after Kaiba.

"Wait up!" she called as she saw him disappear round the corridor's corner. She pursued him, eventually trotting along next to him to keep up with his long legged strides.

"Is that's what you're going to do now – shut me out?" she asked and Kaiba stopped, turned to her and looked hard into her eyes, which made Serenity squirm slightly.

"I don't need your help," was all he said and he turned on his heel and began walking again.

Serenity couldn't help herself and reached out, took his arm in one hand and halted him. He sighed as if he was really tiring of her and faced her.

"I have run Kaiba Corporation for the last eight years of my life and it's thriving beyond the Big Five's dreams. Because of the decisions I made. I don't need you to help me get this project because I can handle it just fine. You'll only get in the way," he told her firmly and continued on to the double doors, Serenity's hand slipping off his arm.

He exited the college and strolled across the grass to call for his chauffeur, whipping his phone out of his trench coat pocket and had a snappish conversation with his chauffeur before putting his phone away. He realised that Serenity was standing patiently next to him, watching him with interest.

"What are you still doing near me?" he asked irritably and an expression of interest crossed her face as she prepared herself to venture into unknown waters and taunt him. The way he was behaving as if he was King of the World was annoying her and she felt like biting back, her eyes narrowing witheringly.

"Do you always talk to your staff like that?" she enquired, pointedly ignoring his question.

"I've had a bad day," he stated meaningfully and Serenity looked hurt, her mouth briefly opening to retort, but quickly snapped shut as she took the time to come back with a reasonable answer.

"I'm staying here until you allow me to help on the project. Mr. Bamako assigned me to the project too for a reason!" she exclaimed and Kaiba rolled his eyes, mentally discarding her words in favour of his own opinions.

"Please leave me alone," he told her and watched her, waiting patiently for her to leave, as if this would finally finish the conversation. Serenity watched him wait for a moment before valiantly stepping up to him, her eyes locked threateningly with his equally vehement glower.

"I won't," she said adamantly, and then her brown eyes went wide as she spotted Joey coming towards her with a mixture of confusion and anger on his face.

Kaiba craned his head around to look at what had instilled fear into Serenity and he wondered why she was so afraid of her brother.

'He is protective of her… and with me, his most hated enemy near his beloved sister, I suppose she should be scared for him,' he snickered to himself as Joey came within hearing range.

Kaiba's ruthless streak came to the foreground of his mind and he grinned as he formed a way to anger Joey.

"I'll see you at seven thirty this evening at my mansion. My security will be notified of your arrival and you will be admitted," he told her a little louder than his normally quiet voice, inching his face intimately close to Serenity's for effect and relished the expression of Joey's face as he straightened and turned to leave the college.

Joey's eyes flared and he stomped his way up to Serenity, whose pretty features were blemished with an all encompassing blush that went right down her neck.

"What did that bastard Kaiba mean when he said that? 'Cause you wouldn't be goin' round someone like that's house," Joey pressed her seriously and Serenity wanted to hide her face from her brother.

"Well, you see the thing is we were forced to do this project for the college a-and I didn't want to b-but Mr. Bamako said we were the best students in business to do this presentation to get the college a grant," Serenity faltered and Joey halted his anger for a moment.

"You're one of the best business students in your class?" he changed his tone of rage to disbelief.

"Mm hmm," she nodded and Joey hugged her then pulled back.

"But you can't work with Kaiba! I… I forbid you!" he oscillated back to anger and Serenity shrank back at his command.

"But I can't let Mr. Bamako down! He's got such high hopes for us aiding Domino College - I just can't let him down, working with Kaiba or not," Serenity implored to her brother, but he still held severe reservations.

"But it's Kaiba!" he protested and crossed his arms with a pained frown.

"I know, but I'm the one who's going to have to work with and tolerate him for six months," she explained and Joey's mouth dropped open with appalled shock.

"Six months?!" he blurted and shook his head.

"I-I can't accept this Serenity. It's too much," he told her looking hurt. And with that he stalked off, unable to look at her or say anything more, the pain of his adversary even near his sister too much to face at that moment.

Serenity felt her eyes well with tears she couldn't hold back and they spilled down her face. She looked at her feet dejectedly and cursed Kaiba with all her might.

'How could he?!' she raged through her angry hot tears.

It was the most cruel, insensitive thing Serenity had possibly ever witnessed and it hurt her that her brother had been so deeply hurt by this problem, even though it wasn't even her fault!

The fact it wasn't her fault made part of her quite irate. Her brother could be so insensitive himself sometimes, only caring about the terrible enmity between him and Kaiba over Serenity's duty to her college work. Her face melted into disgust at the thought of her 'business' partner.

'Well let him sulk! I have a duty to follow whether I like it or not!' Serenity decided and she angrily wiped her tears away, hiked her slipping bag back onto her shoulder and made her way home to get ready for the trial the evening would bring.

A/N: Well, the second chapter is also a bit short, but I promise you that I make this up in the future – I can't seem to stop writing later on! Once more, hope your liking it as much as I'm having fun writing this!