"Your meeting ran pretty late last night," Mokuba said the next morning as his brother appeared in the living room. The elder Kaiba hadn't tucked in his shirt yet or fixed his tie properly, or even had his coat on.

Kaiba rubbed his neck, exhaling. "Yes, it did. Sorry. Did I wake you?"

Mokuba shook his head, scooping a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. "Nah, you only came back in at two in the morning on a school night."

"You're quite the jokester," Kaiba said, heading into the kitchen as Mokuba laughed. He stuck two slices of bread into the toaster, and opened the fridge. He didn't seem to be looking for anything in particular, however – rather he looked like he was just trying to look natural or something of the sort.

"You okay?" Mokuba asked, furrowing his brows. His brother looked uneasy.

"Yeah, sorry," he said again, leaning against the counter and shaking his head.

"Work's been hard?"

Kaiba scoffed a little. "Yeah, I guess you could say that." He exhaled again. "I hired a new programmer, and we started working on a new project, and this…programmer is driving me crazy." Kaiba thought that maybe sleeping off that weird feeling would make it disappear, but in the morning, he still felt the same. He should have kissed Kisara last night. Did she know that he was going to kiss her? Was today going to be awkward? Dammit, Kaiba hated himself for letting this get out of control.

Mokuba laughed. "I'm sure he's smart though. Don't worry Nii-sama, you'll be fine."

"You should come in later and check out the new project," Kaiba suggested, as the bread popped from the toaster. "After school, maybe, if you're not hanging out with Yugi and his circus-clown friends."

The raven-haired boy chuckled. "Sure, I'll come by after class. It's been a while since I've been at Kaiba Corp; I'm sorry Nii-sama. I'll try to come in more and help out."

"It's fine," Kaiba said, surprising his brother. "You're a college student and I understand that you are busy, and I know you're going to be trying out for sports. Enjoy your life in school because afterwards, the only thing you're going to be doing is work."

"Oh," Mokuba said, turning to his cereal. "Okay. Thanks, Nii-sama. I'll be sure to come in today to see your new project though. What's it called?"

Kaiba sighed deeply, taking his toast to the couch and sitting next to Mokuba. "The Mini-K."

Mokuba actually choked on his cereal laughing, receiving a look from his brother. "Mini-K?"

"Exactly what I said," he mumbled, shaking his head again. "Just come by after class, I want you to, ah, meet my new lead programmer." He wondered if it was a good idea for Kisara to meet Mokuba. Sure, she was older than Mokuba, but Kaiba also knew that his younger brother was a sweet kid and Mokuba and Kisara were more alike than himself and Kisara. Mokuba was smart and more sociable than him and had the 'cute' factor on his side, whereas Kaiba was as cold as the arctic. She would definitely like Mokuba much more than Kaiba and maybe – maybe she might treat Kaiba differently upon seeing how sweet Mokuba was. Kisara might…treat Kaiba the way everyone else did.

But it was too late to retract the invitation, as Mokuba just nodded. "Yeah, sure. I end class at around two today, so I'll come by after that."

"That sounds fine," Kaiba said. He took a bite from the toast and suddenly didn't feel that hungry anymore. "Come on, let's go," he said, placing the plate down on the coffee table upon noticing that Mokuba was finished with his cereal. He stood up, grabbing his coat from his room and fixing his tie.

Mokuba had already slung his bag over his shoulders and kicked on his sneakers, ready to go. He flashed his brother a smile and the two of them exited the penthouse, heading down to their car. "So, um, Nii-sama, I, ah, met a girl," Mokuba started quietly, wringing his hands together.

Oh, God. Kaiba did not want to have this talk with Mokuba now. Or, ever, even. Mokuba had other friends he could talk to about girls, right? Kaiba wouldn't know a thing about intimate relationships. "You do not need my permission to date, Mokuba."

"I know, I-I just, I don't know, wanted to tell you," Mokuba said, sounding embarrassed.

Kaiba took a deep breath. This was the first time Mokuba had mentioned a girl to him, maybe he should try talking to him about it, at least. "Okay," he said slowly as their car left the building. "What, ah, is her name?"

"I can't tell you that yet," Mokuba said immediately, looking panicked. Kaiba furrowed his brows. "I mean, I don't know, let's just, um, call her Shiro for now."

"Shiro," Kaiba said skeptically. Shiro meant 'white'. Mokuba seemed to squirm in his seat, so Kaiba just sighed again nodding and deciding to accept it. "Okay. What about…Shiro?"

"I don't know," Mokuba said, still wringing his hands. "She's really…pretty. And smart. And she's super funny and really sweet, and she's so good at video games."

"She sounds nice enough," Kaiba said. "Make sure that she likes you for the right reasons, Mokuba."

Mokuba waved his hands frantically. "Oh, no, it's not like that or anything. I don't like her, and she doesn't like me in that way. We're, um, friends from school. I think she's seeing someone else, actually."

"Mokuba," Kaiba sighed. "Do not disrespect her or the man she is seeing. It would look bad on you if you did so. I am sure that there are going to be many other girls for you to choose from later in life."

"I wasn't thinking of homewrecking or anything," Mokuba said. "Agh, I just have this terrible crush on her, it's nothing, but I don't know, I can't really talk to Yugi guys about it 'cause we're all friends and that'd be weird and they'd be trying to get us together when she has a boyfriend and everything. I'm sorry for talking a lot," he finished sheepishly, running a hand through his hair.

"It's fine," Kaiba said, taking Mokuba by surprise again. "Perhaps just wait. Either your crush will fade, or she will see the error of her ways and find a better man in you, Mokuba. Either way, the problem will be solved."

Mokuba chuckled a little. That sounded just like something his brother would say – always speaking logically. "Okay," he said, thinking that even though it was a typical Kaiba-answer, it was actually a pretty good one. Although, he was hoping for the latter of his statement. He wondered how her date went. "I think I'll try that."

"You don't need to take my advice," Kaiba said quietly. "I know nothing of relationships."

"Yeah, but I think that makes sense," Mokuba assured him as they pulled into the university. "Well, it's time for school now. Have a great day at work! Thanks for the talk, Nii-sama."

"Ah, sure," Kaiba said as his brother slid out of the car. Kaiba took a deep breath. He had no idea what was wrong with him. His little brother was having girl problems now? Kaiba sighed and shook his head for what felt like the thousandth time. He didn't have the energy to be worrying about girls his brother was going to see when he couldn't even figure out anything about the woman he saw last night.

Last night had honestly been the most fun the young CEO had in such a long time that no matter how much Kaiba tried to push it from his mind, it always resurfaced even stronger than before. He hated that she had been right – saying that she was fun company on a date – because she had definitely made the night fun what with her preparing a game of Duel Monsters for them. From the moment they had said goodnight at her doorstep until this moment, she was the only thing he was thinking of.

"Good morning, Kaiba-shachou!"

Kaiba looked up from his computer. Wait, what? He had been doing something on his computer? And he was in his office? He hadn't even realized that he had driven all the way to work and gone up to his office. It was already nine in the morning, wasn't it?

Kisara was standing there in a slim fitting white dress with sleeves that went down to her elbows, showing off her golden cuffs. There was a wide black woven belt around her waist and her hair was tied over her shoulder with a light pink flower clip in it. She looked cute, like she was going out for a lunch date.

"What the hell are you wearing?" he responded on reflex.

Kisara looked down at herself. "A dress."

"I thought I told you not to wear things like that anymore."

"And I thought I told you that I don't have any other suits. I wore like, a pair of slacks and an ugly-ass blouse yesterday. I felt like I was like, forty years old!" she said, tugging at her dress.

"Whatever, go do work already," Kaiba said, dismissing her with an exasperated sigh.

"Okay," she said cheerfully, and bowed. "Have a lovely day, Kaiba-shachou."

Kaiba ran a hand through his hair as the door closed behind her. She acted like nothing happened. Which he was a little thankful for, but what else had he been expecting? Had he been expecting her to be as anxious as he was? It wasn't fair that he was so worked up about her presence while she just frolicked along without a care in the world.

He stood up abruptly, pushing his chair back with the motion. What was she thinking? He needed to know, right now!

"What are you doing?" he demanded, coming up to her desk downstairs. The other works seemed to be mentally flailing, trying to look busy. Kisara looked up from her computer.

She pointed to the screen, puzzled. "Working?"

Kaiba didn't know what to do now. What the fuck was he even doing leaving his office and coming downstairs to demand some sort of explanation from Kisara in front of everyone? What did he even want her to explain? If she was some sort of sorcerer that made his stomach in knots, and made his chest tight?

"Oh, wait, since I have you here," Kisara said, smiling. "I forgot to ask earlier, but we kind of need more programmers. You think we could hire some more?"

The entire room froze, Keiko and Izumi exchanging looks with each other. They hadn't actually thought that Kisara would seriously ask Kaiba to hire more people! It was like asking Santa to deliver presents in July – impossible. "Excuse me?" the CEO asked as though he hadn't heard.

"Yeah, I mean, once everything starts picking up, it's gonna be tough for all of us to work on this with such a small team," she explained, completely calm. "It'd be better for all of us – and you – if you hired more people, so we wouldn't be as tired, but you'd still get the same quality product."

Keiko and Izumi looked concerned. Kaiba was going to explode and kill everyone in the room, starting with Kisara. It was over. Kisara was going to die.

"Fine," Kaiba said. "You do the interviews, then. You can hire as many people as you need, just make sure they aren't jackasses because I will fire them, and then I will fire you."

"Great, I think like, five or six more people would really make the work load a little easier for all of us," she said, smiling brightly as though completely oblivious to Kaiba's threat. "Thank you, Kaiba-shachou."

"Whatever," he responded, shaking his head. He turned on his heels to leave and then stopped for a moment. "My brother is coming later in the afternoon to meet you."

"Oh? Okay, that sounds nice," she said, sounding extremely cheerful. Kaiba couldn't help but feel a little annoyed in that moment. "I can't wait. Before lunch or after?"

"After. Around two thirty," Kaiba said, pushing open the door. "Don't make an ass of yourself in front of my brother."

"I never make an ass of myself," she teased, laughing. "Bye, Kaiba-shachou."

He left without another word, sweeping down the hall and storming up the staircase. Kisara smiled, getting back to her work on her computer. Keiko patted her on the head. "H-how is it that you're still alive? You asked him to hire more people, Kisara!"

"And I told you he'd understand," Kisara said triumphantly, smiling. "He's a really nice guy, you know."

"And what do you mean by 'before or after lunch'?" Keiko asked, pulling up a chair as though preparing to listen to campfire stories. "Do you and Kaiba have lunch together?"

"No," she lied. She thought that Kaiba might get upset if people started talking about them together. Kaiba didn't have time for most things and Kisara knew that he didn't have time for rumors. She didn't want to cause him any trouble. "Just, you know, I was asking if it was after my lunch break or before it."

Kisara decided not to talk about that any further. Keiko tried probing for more answers, but Kisara just gave her vague responses, laughing and waving off her co-worker. She wanted to stay on Kaiba's good side.

Last night, she thought that Kaiba was going to kiss her. She had struggled so hard to keep a straight face when he had grabbed her wrist so suddenly, as though he had forgotten to do or say something. But he had merely reminded her about work today – such a Kaiba-thing to do – and she honestly had to say that she was a little disappointed.

Still, though, seeing him play Duel Monsters, and hearing him say that they might go out again made her happy. It was enough. Her decision to come back to Japan hadn't been in vain. She never understood why she had been drawn to Kaiba, but she felt like she needed to be by his side, protecting him.

It sounded crazy, but she completely believed in it. Ever since she had been younger—

"Kisara, I think Kaiba sent up someone for you to interview," Izumi called, gesturing to the door. Kisara looked down at the clock to see that several hours had passed. She could see right through it, noticing a tall young man with dark hair pulled up into a tie with a vest pulled over his slender body.

"That was quick," she said to herself, getting up from her chair. She pushed open the door. "Hey, what's up?" she greeted, and the man seemed to be taken by surprise.

"Ah, hajimemashite," he greeted politely. "I was told to look for lead programmer Kisara? My name's Otogi Ryuji."

"I'm Kisara," she said with a smile, showing him in. "Kaiba-shachou is really fast with business crap isn't he? I just asked him to hire more people a few hours ago."

"Actually, I already had an interview for today," he said, sitting down next to her. "I haven't really been doing much, and I'm really great at designing stuff, so I figured I'd get a part time job."

"Cool, well, consider yourself hired, then," Kisara said, smiling brightly.

"Woah, what?" Ryuji responded, holding his hands up. "You can interview me properly, you know. I'm sure there are a lot of other candidates looking for a job."

"I already kind of know you," she said, waving him off. "Creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters, right?"

Ryuji blinked several times. "Yeah, actually."

"I played the video game version of that. It was really fun. I heard you designed everything yourself and did program mounts and whatnot," she said with a smile. "I'm sure you'd make a great addition to our team."

"Wow," he said, running a hand through his hair. "Thanks so much. I'm flattered that a beautiful woman such as yourself has heard of me."

Kisara laughed a little. "It's nice that you would humble yourself and come work for Kaiba Corp even though you're already quite famous. I'll let Kaiba-shachou know and I'll take care of all the paper work and whatnot. I actually have my lunch break in a bit, so go and talk to that man over there, Izumi-san," Kisara said, gesturing to the person, "he'll give you a briefing on our new project, and you can play around with that for a little bit, and start on Monday. Does that sound okay?"

"That sounds fantastic," Ryuji said immediately. "Thanks, Kisara -sama."

"No problem," she said with a smile, and Ryuji got up from his seat to speak with Izumi. She got up herself, slinging on her bag and slipping out before anyone could ask where she was going.

Lunch was the same as usual. Kaiba wasn't downstairs waiting for her, so she took her bike to Tsuki's instead, seeing his Lexus parked in its usual spot. She ordered edamame and melon soda and asked if Kaiba wanted anything, to which he would respond with a prompt, "Absolutely not," and she would laugh and send the waiter off.

"What's your brother coming to Kaiba Corp for?" she asked, sipping from her melon soda.

Kaiba narrowed his eyes. "Because he is my brother."

Kisara giggled a little. "Well, duh, I obviously know that, I'm not an idiot."

"Could have fooled me."

"Did you tell him about the Mini-K?"

"I told him that he should come by and take a look at our new project that will not be called the Mini-K," Kaiba said as a matter-of-fact.

"Once he sees it and gets a chance to play, he'll be like, 'Nii-sama, Mini-K is such a brilliant name for a device! I agree with Kisara, you should stop giving her crap about naming it that and embrace it!'" she teased.

"Unlikely," Kaiba told her, remembering how his brother had laughed at the name this morning. "Your brother doesn't think it's a ridiculous name?"

"My brother's like, 'Yeah, totally, Kisa-chan, Mini-K is a brilliant name for a device! Tell that Kaiba-shachou to stop giving her crap about naming it that and embrace it!'"

"Hilarious," Kaiba said, his face emotionless.

She giggled again, taking another sip from her soda. "My brother's really busy. We webchat here and now, which is why I rush off whenever he calls, 'cause that's the only times he really gets to talk. He knows about my Mini-K, and totally supports me."

"As a brother should," Kaiba told her, turning his eyes back to his computer.

"You should meet my brother when he comes back."

"No."

"Yeah, never mind, my brother's so sweet, I don't think you two would get along," she joked, sticking out her tongue to once again, let Kaiba know she was just jesting. "Really though. I'm not sure when he comes back; he's traveling right now, but when he does, promise you'll come meet him?"

"No."

"Aw, come on!" she urged, laughing. "He's nice. And smart. And he's like, tall, and handsome, and super nice—"

"Are you trying to set me up with your brother?" Kaiba growled, and Kisara laughed.

"Maybe." Kisara winked playfully. "I like boy's-love romances sometimes."

"You're a disgusting human being."

Kisara just laughed in response, popping a soybean in her mouth. "I hired someone today, by the way."

"I assume it was that Otogi kid that came in," he said with a scowl. "He is a good game designer, and very good with computers, it's just that he…is friends with people I hate."

"He's good, though, and that's all we need, right? He seems really nice and everything, too," she said with a smile. "He's cute. I like him."

Kaiba narrowed his eyes at that, but forced himself to stay focused on his computer. He had no right to be jealous. "Look for the rest of the extension for your team yourself. Set up interviews for Monday and Wednesday. I would prefer a game designer working with us, which was why I sent Otogi up, but as for the rest, profile them and give the potential candidates to me."

"Yes, sir," she said with a determined nod, and Kaiba rolled his eyes. Her phone went off, and Kisara dove into her bag, flipping open the tiny device. "Moshi moshi," she greeted, so Kaiba assumed that it wasn't her brother. "Eeeh? Okay, I'll be there. Sorry, I totally forgot. I'll be there in a little while, okay? Thanks!"

She snapped her phone shut and glanced at Kaiba sheepishly. His eyes flicked from the computer to her face. "What?"

"The university just called. Apparently there's meeting today for all the computer science majors and whanot – my professor just called to see where I am because it starts in a little bit. I'm not sure how long it will last, so I'm not sure if I can meet your brother today," she explained, gathering her things. She placed some money on the table for her food. "Please tell him that I'm sorry. The Mini-K is with Izumi-san, and you can take it home this weekend to keep it safe. I'll see you on Monday."

"Fine," Kaiba said as she slid out of the booth.

"Have a lovely weekend, Kaiba-shachou," she added with a little bow before dashing off. Kaiba hated that he felt a little relieved, but decided not to share that with anyone, ever.