Seto couldn't get to Domino Memorial Hospital fast enough. He more than likely broke every speed limit and ran multiple stoplights and signs on the way. He didn't care. He spent the whole drive berating himself. He'd known Kisa hadn't looked well. He'd seen how tired, how pale she looked. He should've called her, should've visited and made sure she was alright. But no, he'd trusted her band mates to take care of her. He trusted them to make sure she took care of herself.

Lesson learned. They were obviously too incompetent to make sure their band lead was well. He'd have to do it himself. She was too important to trust to those people.

Seto double parked and all but ran into the hospital. By Rena's information, Kisa had already been given a room and he was not to worry. Yeah, right. He bypassed visitor check in and headed straight for the elevators. He'd made enough donations to this hospital over the years for them to recognize his face and get out of his way. It didn't mean they didn't stare at him as he passed or the people in the elevator with him didn't cower against the walls to avoid his temper.

When the elevator doors dinged open, he rushed out, leaving a group of relieved visitors behind him. He hurried to the room Rena had indicated. He didn't think twice about throwing the door open when he got to it, didn't worry about startling those inside. Kisa needed to be lectured and her friends deserved to be yelled at.

Rena was the only other one inside besides Kisa. She jumped with the door banged open. Kisa was lying on the hospital bed asleep, the heart monitor hooked to her beeping rhythmically, the IV in her arm slowly dripping fluids into her system. Suddenly Seto didn't have it in him to be angry anymore. Kisa looked worse than she had last week. Her skin had taken on a sickly pallor. The large dark bags under her eyes were prominent even as she slept. He stepped up next to her bed, heavily tempted to take the hand resting above the sheets.

"Mr. Kaiba?" Rena was staring at him, her surprise starting to fade. "I told you everything was taken care of. You didn't have to come."

"I did." Seto said fiercely, not taking his eyes of Kisa. "I had to check on her myself. I obviously can't leave her care to you all."

Rena narrowed her eyes at him. "That's unfair. You don't even know what happened."

"Oh really?" Seto turned a glare on her, his anger flaring again. "She was obviously sick! Did any of you even think to force her to rest? Did any of you ever tell her to stop working?"

"Now look here!" Rena glared, keeping her voice low as to not wake Kisa. "You can't go and…"

She never got the finish. "What the hell is he doing here!?"

They turned to the door. Akira had just stepped through, two cans of coffee in his hands. He was glaring at Seto.

"I called him to tell him what happened." Rena answered, her temper ebbing. "He came on his own."

"Get out!" Akira stomped towards Seto. "You can butt into our business, but you're not part of this. Get out!"

Seto stood his ground, fixing the older man with a glare of his own. "I'm not leaving."

"You…!" Akira was close to yelling.

Rena jumped up. "Stop it!" She kept her voice low. "You'll wake her up." She grabbed Seto's arm and pulled him towards the door. "Come on, Kisa wouldn't want the two of you fighting in her hospital room."

She was right, but it didn't stop Seto from throwing one more glare at the other man before he allowed her to lead him out of the room. Akira stomped after them and shut them out. Out in the hallway, there was silence between them for a long while. Rena stood before the closed door, chewing her lip, as if there was something she wanted to say but wasn't sure if she should.

Seto leaned against the wall next to the door, crossing his arms. "What did happen?" He still sounded upset, even to his own ears.

Rena sighed, but didn't face him. "We did tell her to stop and rest. We really did, every day. But she's as suborn as she is talented. She's always been that way. I know. I've known her since we were kids. It's always been: I'm fine or I can do one more or don't worry, I got it taken care of. Next thing we know, she's worked herself to exhaustion and she ends up in the hospital."

Seto slouched back, putting his full weight on the wall. It did sound like something Kisa would do. She was that kind of hardworking, dedicated, person.

Rena continued. "She's been trying to do a lot, especially recently. There are rehearsals whenever we can do them, her job, and she's trying to finish the upstairs. Plus she's been meeting with that new lawyer every once in a while to set up that new custody case for her sisters. It's worse now since we're trying to prepare for the concert. We've offered to help finish the upstairs, but she keeps turning us down. She's the worst kind of workaholic, really."

Seto nodded. When Rena didn't continue speaking, he did. "I… apologize if I was out of line."

"You should've let me explain originally." Rena cut her eyes at him.

"I apologized." He said simply. "Though, I believe he may have been more out of line than I was." Seto nodded his head toward the closed door, indicating the man inside.

Rena let out an exasperated sigh. "You can't blame him really. Kisa and he used to date, so he's a bit attached. He hasn't quite gotten over her."

"What?!" Seto couldn't hide his outrage. The curled snake of jealousy awoke again and tightened around his insides. "He went out with…"

"She didn't tell you?" Rena blinked. "Oh dear… I've opened my big mouth again." She sighed, cupping a cheek in one hand, looking put out.

"How could she want to date… that!?" Seto's outrage was turning to disbelief.

"Hey!" Rena glared at him, all pretense of exasperation gone. "Akira may act like an ass to you, but he's a good man. Kisa had dumped him. She never told me why. The fact that he can't completely let go is their problem, not ours."

For such a small woman, she carried attitude enough for two. Seto got the feeling that, while Kisa was the driving force behind their band, this woman was the backbone that kept them going.

"Hmm…" She looked at him curiously, a tonal shift Seto wasn't ready for. "Could it be that you're jealous?"

Seto pushed himself off the wall, thrown off by the bluntness of the question. "What was that?"

She looked amused. "You heard me. I think you're jealous. You're harboring a little crush on Kisa! That's so cute!" She grinned.

Seto turned on his heal, facing away from her to hide the indignant warming in his cheeks. He'd been called out, and so directly by one of Kisa's own friends. Rena, annoyingly enough, stepped up to his side, still grinning.

"Don't get embarrassed." From where Seto stood, she reminded him of a Cheshire cat. "If you want, I'll let you in on a secret."

Seto looked down at her, suspicious. "Why would you do that?"

Rena sighed again, "Because my best friend needs a kick in the ass sometimes. Otherwise she'll concentrate on what she has to do instead of what she should do."

"Is there a difference?" His brow shot up.

"Maybe, maybe not," Rena shrugged, that annoying smile still in place. "I can tell you that Kisa definitely isn't gonna be getting back together with Akira."

"And why is that?"

"Because who Kisa likes isn't Akira. It's someone else."

It felt like Seto's heart had stopped beating. He struggled to breathe as he asked: "Who?"

Rena just winked at him. "Oh, I think you can come up with an idea in that genius brain of yours. But I didn't actually tell you, so I technically can't get in trouble." Seto wanted to ask more questions, but she was already getting ready to reenter the hospital room. "That's all I can tell you. So you might wanna leave before Akira comes out here to start something."

All Seto could do was nod.

Rena grinned. "Kisa's being released tomorrow afternoon. Don't worry; we'll make sure she stays in bed until she's good and rested. She'll be as good as new for the concert." She threw him one more wink before opening the door, slipping inside, and closing it behind her.

That, Seto decided, was a woman he could trust Kisa's well-being to.

On his way out of the hospital, Seto flipped open his phone to look up the number of a respectable florist. As he dialed, he seethed. So that man believed he didn't belong. He would rather Seto stayed away from Kisa because he couldn't get over the fact that she'd dumped him. Well, Akira apparently knew nothing about Seto Kaiba. Seto wasn't going to go away just because a man nearly ten years older didn't want him getting close.

He sat in his car and ordered flowers to be delivered to Kisa's room in his name first thing the next morning. With that finished, he threw the phone haphazardly onto the passenger seat before starting home.

Telling Mokuba what had happened when he got home wasn't a pleasant experience. The boy fussed and worried until Seto sat him down and had one of the maids bring him a mug of hot chocolate. Even after the boy had been placated some, he continued to question.

"Why aren't you still at the hospital with her?"

Seto didn't answer right away. He'd moved the two of them out of the entryway and up to his private home office. He got up off the couch and moved over to his desk, pulling the chair out before sitting in it. He liked his home office. Unlike his office back at Kaiba Corp, it wasn't a sterile looking room. The furniture was dark woods and leathers sitting on dark blue carpeting.

When he couldn't delay his answer any longer, he sighed, "Because there seems to be a least one in her group who doesn't appreciate my involvement in their profession."

Mokuba was quiet for quite a few minutes. So long that Seto raised a brow at him. He could nearly see the gears turning in the boy's head as he pondered over his older brother's statement. Finally, Mokuba took another sip from his hot chocolate and smacked his lips.

"A romantic rival?" He'd asked the question innocently enough.

"No," Seto answered at once.

"Or do you just not consider him a rival?" Mokuba grinned.

"He's not worth a pointless rivalry." Seto let himself settle into his plush office chair. "It's been made clear to me that's she's not interested in him in that way."

"Really? You've got a chance then, yeah?"

Seto nodded silently, letting one finger twirl the cord of the locket around his neck. He'd been pondering so much over the past few weeks. He'd thought heavily about what he felt the night he'd dropped Kisa off after their impromptu dinner date. It had been, by far, the strongest he'd ever felt for anyone. Yet he still didn't understand what it was. So much of his life had been controlled over or demanded of, he'd never felt what many of his peers did. It was so much different then what he'd expected to feel for Kisara. Seto would give it more time; see where this pleasant burning in his chest would take him.

"Are you going to see her tomorrow when she gets out?"

He'd nearly forgotten Mokuba was still in the room. The teen was watching him with a kind of wizened understanding Seto didn't know he was capable of. There must have been some expression on his face, or something, which had betrayed where his thoughts had wandered.

Seto let the cord fall limp. "Yes, I suppose I'll have to."

"Have to or want to?"

"I don't know."

There had never been a moment over the years where Seto admitted to being wrong or not knowing something. To admit as such to Mokuba was different and a little scary. Everything that he'd been feeling lately was like that; new, exciting, and a little frightening. Mokuba must have understood, because he didn't ask any more questions on the subject for the rest of the night.

xoxo

Seto drove to the Dragon's Den the next afternoon, leaving his office early to do so. He'd wondered how much work he'd been neglecting since Kisa came into his life, but didn't dwell on it long. In the end, it didn't matter. He was the boss, so he could do as he pleased. Not that he was comfortable taking as much personal time as he had been. Their friendly business meetings had quickly turned into comfortable conversations over anything but work. Seto Kaiba was perfectionist, among other things, but Kisa was starting to come first… even before the company.

Strangely enough, he was okay with that.

There was a car pulled up in front of the club when Seto arrived. He didn't worry as to whether it could be Akira inside or not. He didn't care. He wouldn't be moved this time. There was a small hope bubbling in his chest that Kisa would rather he stay instead of that man anyway. And, as he parked, his mind raced to Rena's statement. Kisa liked someone other than Akira. Seto could take a guess as to whom, but even thinking about it gave him the strange sensation of not being able to breath.

The side entrance was unlocked, so he let himself in. There was no one about in the main area, so he headed directly for the door that led to Kisa's home. It was open a crack, letting the conversation taking place inside creep through. He reached out and laid a hand on the doorknob.

"You're sure?"

Rena's voice made him refrain from revealing himself. It seemed as if it was only the two girls today, of which Seto was thankful. From the sound of their voices, they were seated on the sofa a few feet away from his position.

"That's the millionth time you've asked me since yesterday." Kisa sound exasperated, "Yes, I'm sure. Please stop asking."

"I was only checking."

"For the millionth time…"

"But you can't just drop a bombshell like that and expect him to just go with it. Cause I can tell you one thing, after what happened in your hospital room yesterday, he's not going to take this lying down. He's going to know why you're doing it."

Seto heard Kisa sigh. "I know he's not, but what else am I supposed to do? I can't stand the two of them glaring continuously at each other whenever they're in the same room. It does a number on the nerves."

Seto lifted his hand away from the door, not wanting to accidently knock it open and reveal his eavesdropping. Curiosity had never really been a problem with him. Seto knew when to keep to his own business and when to butt into others. But he couldn't help himself this time.

"I just think it would be best if you waited. Save on the drama, you know? He doesn't need to know until after the concert."

Kisa sighed again. "Maybe you are right."

There was a long pause where Seto was tempted to reveal himself, but Rena started talking again. "What about him?"

"Hm?"

"Seto."

The sound of his name made his heart falter. Seto heard the clink of something being set down on a table before Kisa answered. "Not yet. I will though… soon."

"Like when, on his birthday?" He could hear the frustration in Rena's voice.

"Seems like a good enough time to me. I figure after the concert, that way the stress is gone."

It was Rena's turn to sigh. "I doubt if your stress is really gonna be gone. You still haven't heard back on when the custody hearing is gonna be. But, if that's really what you want. I know you told me all that stuff in confidence years ago, and I still barely believe any of it, but if you don't do it soon, I will."

What stuff was Rena referring to? Seto felt his anxiety tighten in his chest.

He didn't hear Kisa's answer, but he heard Rena get up from the couch only a moment later. "I'd better get back. Yuri works tonight, so he'll need the car."

"Okay, you'll come by again tomorrow?"

"Of course," There was pleasant humor in Rena's voice. "We can't leave you to your own devices anymore, can we?"

"I guess not…" Kisa laughed.

Seto could hear Rena's footsteps heading towards the door and his stomach dropped. If he didn't act quickly, he'd be caught. He put a hand back on the doorknob and knocked gently with the other. The two inside went quiet, surprised by the unexpected interruption.

"Come in," Kisa called out.

Seto took a breath to compose himself before pushing the door open. He caught the look of surprise on Rena's face change slowly into careful understanding; but the woman said nothing. Kisa retained a look of pleasant surprise and smiled at him as he entered.

"Seto, you didn't have to come and check on me." She said.

"I felt it was necessary. I wasn't able to stay very long yesterday, so I wanted to make up that time." It sounded professional enough, if a bit awkward. He couldn't have stated he'd been worried in a more round-a-bout way, even if he wanted to.

Kisa just kept smiling. "Well, if you felt it was necessary, then by all means."

He allowed himself a small smile back.

"Well! That's my cue to leave!" Rena said loudly, knocking away the pleasant moment as she moved to leave. "Kisa, you remember what I said."

"Go home, Rena." Kisa rolled her eyes.

"Alright, alright," Rena laughed. "Bye! And goodbye Mr. Kaiba."

Seto gave the other woman a polite nod as she exited and shut the door behind her. When she was gone, he turned back to the woman still sitting on the couch. "Did I miss something? Remember what she said about what?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing!" Kisa said quickly, waving a dismissive hand. "Girl stuff. You don't want to hear it."

He raised a brow at her, remembering the last time she'd dismissed a subject so quickly. His eyes immediately glanced to the band of tarnished metal around her wrist. He'd drop the subject for now. The vase on her dining table caught his eye, laden over with dozens of large white roses. It was a gaudy display, especially in the middle of Kisa's humble home. He'd spent a lot of money on the flowers, much more than he probably should have. If he'd known, he wouldn't have requested so many. Seto couldn't stop himself from grimacing at the site of them.

Kisa laughed at the look on his face. "What's with the look? I like them."

"It's a bit more than I expected."

"Well, it is you. If it was any less I'd think you were getting ill."

She had a point. Seto sighed and moved to sit beside her on the couch. "Speaking of illness, you never told me you had such a self-destructive habit."

Kisa smiled sadly, the lines worrying the tired pallor still present in her cheeks. "I know it's caused a lot of problems for everyone. I just get so into my work that I seem to forget to do the simple things."

"Like your health? That's not a simple thing." Seto stated incredulously.

She laughed lightly. "I guess not. There's just so much I want to get done. I've been living with a half-finished upstairs for months. I just want it done and off my mind. The rest of the furniture I ordered arrived a couple days ago too, so now there's a load of boxes sitting up there that need to be taken care of. I feel bad asking Rena or Yuri or Akira for help. Along with rehearsal, they've got jobs of their own. I hate to trouble them."

"It's worth troubling them so they don't worry." Seto narrowed his eyes at her.

Kisa nodded, "A decade and I'm finally starting to get that. I'm sorry for worrying you so much. I promise I'll be better in time for the concert."

"Why do you think I was worried?" The defiant edge to his voice wasn't as strong as he wished it had been.

"Oh, so you didn't barge into my hospital room yesterday and cause a scene? Not to mention that you almost got into another fist fight with Akira." She gazed knowingly back at him.

"He had started it this time." Seto settled back against the couch cushions, crossing his arms.

Kisa laughed loudly. "He may have, but it doesn't erase the fact that you blew your way into the hospital, possibly knocking over multiple people and scaring dozens more just to check on me. I swear, people thought I was dying with how much of a hurry you were in."

Seto tried to think back to his walk up to Kisa's room, but he'd been in such a hurry he barely remembered it. "And if I was worried?"

"Seto," Kisa's voice was stern. When he didn't answer or look at her, she reached up and took his chin with surprising force and turned him to her. "You don't have to get all haughty just because you don't want to admit you were worried over my well-being. Seriously, it's just me."

Seto looked down, reaching up to pull her hand away from his face. It was true. He had less to hide from her than any other person in the world. No one but Mokuba knew him privately, knew the faces he could make away from the public eye. Not even Yugi, Jounouchi, or the rest of that group knew him the way Mokuba knew him.

He placed her hand on the cushion between them, keeping it there with his own. "I was worried about you." He kept his eyes down, focused anywhere but her face. "You're important…" His sentence faded away in the awkwardness of the moment.

She blinked, staring at him confused. "Important?"

Seto couldn't finish the thought that had spilled out from his lips unwillingly. He pulled his hand away from hers. Instead he settled to cross his legs and fold his hands on his knee. "Forget it. It was nothing."

Kisa cocked her head to the side, looking at him thoughtfully. "It didn't sound like nothing to me. What were you going to say?"

He felt like fidgeting; bouncing his knee, drumming his fingers, anything to distract himself from the thoughts running through his head. True, he didn't have to hide anything from Kisa, but this was too much. A man just doesn't come out and say something like that. But what did he know? Perhaps they did and he's just been in the dark about it. What was the issue with say it anyway? It was true, and Kisa would appreciate him being truthful. But it was also embarrassing and Seto Kaiba does not do embarrassing. Then Seto glance sideways at her and saw her still staring at him with that look; that adorably curious expression. Even still slightly pale and sickly looking, Kisa was a sight to behold.

He sighed, unable to fight it any longer. "You're important… to me." He felt mortified warmth spread over his cheeks, but he didn't turn to hide it. He wanted to see Kisa's reaction.

He watched her blush beautifully, her eyes widening with surprise before they closed as she gave him a wide smile. "You're important to me too."

Now Seto was positive that his heart had stopped. He watched her, unable to look away as she opened her eyes. Kisa's gaze was unwavering as she looked back at him. The look in her eyes told him that there was so much she still wanted to say. Seto wanted to ask, but it was as if his throat had closed. He felt that pleasant warmth he'd experienced so many nights ago spread through him again. It was as if electricity was sparking between them, bring with it the urge to act, to do something, but he didn't know what.

Before Seto could stop himself, he was leaning forward. To his surprise, she was leaning to meet him. His mind should have been racing, but it was surprisingly empty. He was so caught up in the moment; it was all he could focus on.

But the moment was broken when Kisa had to turn away and yawn widely. Seto stared at her, not wanting to believe that it was over so quickly. When it subsided, she looked up at him and smiled awkwardly.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I guess I haven't gotten enough rest yet."

Seto couldn't help the gentle smile that crossed his features. "It's alright."

Kisa nodded. Seto watched her smiling face, basking in the warmth that spread from his chest to his fingertips. His suspicions on these feelings only grew and he became surer as to what they were. But now wasn't the time for such things, not with her being ill. Perhaps another time.

Like whenever she told him whatever she was hiding.

*Thanks for being patient everyone! V(^_^) Here's chapter eight at last. I hope you all like it.*