A/N: It's been a while hasn't it? These chapters keep sitting around gathering dust... shame on me.

Upon returning to the office from their lunch together, Kaiba locked himself in his office demanding he not be disturbed for any reason or by anyone. Ali had sat right back down at her desk without a single glance at Mokuba, who had decided to lean on the edge of her desk and mope. Apparently, he hadn't left the office the entire time they'd been gone.

After a few minutes of an awkward silence only broken by the sound of Ali typing away on her computer, Mokuba worked up enough nerve to speak.

"Hey, umm..."

He was stumbling over his words and Ali picked right up on that. Glancing up at him, she saw that his face was red with embarrassment- or rather shame at getting her involved in his brotherly spat. She raised an eyebrow and gave him a prompting look.

"...Thank you," he spluttered, almost relieved. "For putting up with Seto."

She gave him a comforting smile and went back to her computer screen.

"Don't mention it," she replied casually. "But if he keeps taking me out to eat, I'm going to gain 15 pounds."

"He took you out?"

There was no ignoring the surprise in Mokuba's voice. Apparently, interaction with other human beings was incredibly unusual for Seto Kaiba if his own brother was startled by that. Ali giggled softly.

"It's really that weird?"

"No, it's just..."

Mokuba paused, debating if he should state the obvious.

"...Nevermind," he finished. "Thanks again, Ali. I owe you one."

You better damn believe it, she thought as he left the office. Putting up with Kaiba as much as she had in the past two days practically warranted that she get a raise.

This odd behavior did not stop with lunch.

Over the next month, Kaiba would sporadically interrupt whatever it was that she was doing to drag her off to do something else. He took her out to eat, for drinks, to movie premiers... things that he usually did with Mokuba- less often than not interrupting her plans with Misa and Inez. To be honest, it was getting really annoying.

"You've been spending a lot of time with Kaiba lately."

And people were starting to notice.

"Haven't had much of a choice, really," Ali mumbled through a mouthful of donut. "He keeps dragging me off before I can tell him 'no'."

Inez gave Ali a sympathetic look over her coffee. She knew exactly what it felt like to get stuck under Kaiba's thumb. Misa, however, scoffed indignantly and popped the rest of her donut into her mouth before wagging a finger at Ali.

"Well he keeps ruining our plans," she stated, obviously annoyed. "You've got to tell him to stop..." She paused to swallow her donut. "Or something."

Ali sighed and washed down the bite of donut with a swig of water.

"I'll see what I can do," she said. "But for now, we're still on for Saturday."

Misa nodded in approval.

"Good. Hey Nezzie, is your boyfriend coming with us?"

Inez smiled softly and shook her head.

"Nah, he's in Egypt again."

Inez was the only one out of all three of them with a steady relationship. Her boyfriend was a professor at the university, but he liked to spend most of his time in the field wherever there were plates that were older than dirt. Alicia was really glad that Inez had a boyfriend. It wasn't that she wasn't attractive, Inez was just very quiet and easy to overlook. Ali was also secretly jealous of Inez's perfectly straight chestnut hair and big emerald eyes, but that was besides the point.

Misa, however, was fairly outspoken. Her hair was still that obnoxious shade of blond and cut incredibly short. Her eyes were a shade of blue that were always filled with this energy that was almost contagious. To say that it was would be an overstatement.

"Is he ever home?" Misa asked. "It seems to me like he's constantly spending his time with those fossils."

Inez giggled.

"He's home more often than you'd think, and those 'fossils' are his colleagues."

Misa shrugged.

"Same difference."

Inez giggled again and opened her mouth to retort when her face immediately paled. Noting her instant expression change, Misa glanced over her shoulder before nudging Ali insistently.

"Kaiba at 12 o'clock."

Ali glanced back in the direction Misa had indicated and her face fell. He had that expression again- the one that meant she was going to be MIA for the next hour or two. Groaning inwardly, she put her donut down on the table and pinched the bridge of her nose, shutting her eyes.

"Oh please, God, no..."

Right on cue, Kaiba grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off across the room. She didn't even bother protesting anymore. It's not like he was going to listen to her anyways.

Misa and Inez watched their friend as she was yanked along by her arm as if it was some sort of leash before Kaiba and Ali disappeared around the corner. The two women sat in silence for a moment before Misa picked up the rest of Alicia's donut.

"Misa!"

Misa glanced up at Inez, who was staring at her- appalled. Shrugging, Misa took a bite out of the fried piece of dough.

"It's not like she's going to eat the rest of it."

Heaving a sigh, Inez shook her head wearily while Misa finished off the rest of Ali's midmorning snack.