1st chapter up - Review please!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or 7-11 or Starbucks.

: (Flashback, one year ago, Kaiba's POV) :

What am I doing? I come out to get a coffee and to get away from the office for just a few minutes, and I'm shopping for books now. What's wrong with me?

I walked down the city sidewalk, plastic coffee cup in one hand, trench coat in the other. It was a warm day in spring, and I had taken off my coat only after a few minutes out. I tried to ignore the gawking stares of the city's tourists and civilians. Was it that uncommon for a CEO to be striding down the street?

After a few moments of pondering, I decided yes, maybe it was.

I turned the corner onto yet another street full of shops. I gazed idly at each shop as I walked by: A clothing store, a 7-11, another clothing store, a children's clothing store, a Starbucks, and yet another clothing store. How many existed on this one street anyway?

One can only see so many frilly pink display windows before one got tired. This was the case with me right now I guess. I turned to cross the street and to head back to an office, then another store caught my eye. It was a bookshop, and its signs and posters weren't as loud and blatant as the other shops around it.

Curious, I wondered what such a small and resigned-looking store was doing in this district of expensive designer clothing shops. I crossed the street and walked a bit closer to read the store sign: Jo's and Kham's Books of the Nations.

What an odd name…

Another sign, a smaller one, hung in the display window. Instead of the usual greeting of "Yes, we're open!" or "OPEN!", it read, "Come on in…enjoy what you find…and be warned as well."

I checked my watch. Only thirty minutes past noon…and what the heck? I was the CEO of one of the biggest businesses in the world; No one's going to yell at me for coming back a few moments late from my lunch break.

I pushed the door of the store open. I was greeted by the overwhelming smell of old books, new books, and another curious scent (was that mint?). I paused in the doorway, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dimly lit place, blinking a few times.

: (Normal POV) :

"Seto Kaiba," came a voice from the blue-eyed individual's right. It wasn't a question, rather a statement, as if the owner of the voice had been expecting the duelist.

Said male turned to find a young teen looking up at him. She couldn't have been more than 15 years old. Wonderful. Another shrimp for him to deal with. Not that she was exactly short, but she was shorter than him, and anyone shorter than his 6 feet some inches was considered a shrimp in his book.

"What?" Kaiba asked snappishly, already regretting walking into the store.

The young girl pushed her mid-back length black hair out of her chocolate-brown eyes and gazed back at him reprovingly. In comparison to the other storekeepers and their employees who all wore Chanel or Prada or whatever, this girl dressed rather plainly in regular blue jeans, black boots, and a black tank. The only accessory was her neck buckle, which had a mini duel card hanging off of it. It bore an uncanny likeness to his own locket, but Kaiba dismissed this fact because after all, his own locket's outside did look like a duel card.

Ignoring his question, the girl asked him, "May I help you with anything?"

The shrimp was talking to him—as if she were the same status as he was. Him! Seto Kaiba, top duelist, CEO of KaibaCorp, being talked to as if he were a commoner.

"Just looking," Kaiba replied shortly.

He turned his back on the girl and wandered off to the back of the store, as far away as he could get from her. Unbeknownst to him, the girl half-smiled and murmured softly to herself, "Merry we meet, Seto Kaiba, merry we part, and merry meet again." She turned and disappeared behind the curtain leading into the main office.

\/\/\/\/\/

Kaiba wasn't really paying attention to where he was going; only stopping every once in a while to pick up books with interesting-looking covers, but put them down again without perusing them carefully. He had the gut feeling that there had to be some good books in here…he just had to find them.

His feet brought him to the section called labeled "ANCIENT FINDS." He was immediately wary of what he would be finding here. After all the psychos he'd encountered over the past year or so, he wasn't so sure he wanted to read more about ancient fun facts.

Before he knew what he was doing, his hand had reached out to grasp a dusty book with a spine at least 3 inches wide. The blue-eyed teen blew the dust off of the cover to see the words, "The Only Pharaoh In My Eyes" embossed in articulate gold swirlings. A pair of mysterious honey-brown eyes stared up at him from the cover. The eyes…Kaiba had seen a shade just like them somewhere before, but he couldn't place his finger on it.

His eyes flickered back to the cover, scanning the title critically.

Pharaoh?

How was it that anything and everything that even-shorter-shrimp-than-the-girl-at-the-front-counter preached about seemed to follow him everywhere?

He paused, not sure if he wanted to open up the book anymore. Again, his fingers moved without him commanding him to, and he flipped open to the title page. Holy--! This book was written almost a century ago!

"That's a very interesting book," came another voice.

The young CEO jerked his head up to find another teen looking serenely at him. She had black hair as well, but it was tied up high in a ponytail. Her eyes, a lighter shade of brown than the other girl's, were framed by oval shaped glasses. She was wearing relatively plain clothes as well, dark purple flare plants, with the exception of the blazing red Japanese word 'Darkness' shining out on her black tube top. And she was shorter than him. Lovely.

"I'm sure it is," Kaiba replied evenly, trying to shove the book back into its original place on the shelf.

"No, no, I insist you read that book," the girl said, pushing it back at him.

"But--"

"No buts. Take it. If you're not satisfied, return the book and get your money back. But read it first." Under her breath, she muttered, "Stubborn pig…"

"I don't want--"

"Take it," she said firmly with a glare this time.

Kaiba glared back at her, but surprisingly, he did as she said and walked back to the front desk where the other girl had greeted him.

She took the book from him, glanced at the title, then breathed, "Ah…"

"What?" Kaiba snapped.

"I wonder…" she murmured, not answering his question.

Annoyed at this whole 'mysterious' pretense the two employees were under, he shoved the money at her, took the book, and stalked back out into the blinding sunlight.