A/N: once again, to everyone, thank you for the reviews and alerts! keep those coming in, alright? because they keep me inspired!

anyway, this chap is finally done after rewriting it thrice *phew* i always thought that Seto would not be a guardian with usual parenting skills, so i inserted that subtly in here. further information will follow towards the end, of course.

and no, Seto won't be all warm and cuddly.

enjoy this chap, yea!


Tea stared at her reflection in the rearview mirror in confusion. She was supposed to be amazed, thrilled even to be able to get the chance to wear an off-white designer mini dress. Fully made of satin, the dress was relatively simple, but ruffled at the hem. To add to that, Mischa had plonked her down on a chair in her studio and gave her a makeover. Tea had tried to resist the mascara – it always made her eyes feel itchy – but the chatty Mischa was having none of it.

"Can I make a fair guess who your employer is?" Tea finally plucked the courage to make her guess known. They were back in Mischa's Mercedes, on the way to somewhere that the Indonesian had refused to disclose. She only hoped it was not Café Caire; she already felt bad for canceling the dinner with her friends at the last minute.

"You have an idea who it is?" Mischa sounded worried. Trade secrets no more, huh, kiddo, she thought back to her employer.

"I think so," Tea said slowly. "It doesn't happen to be a Kaiba, is it?"

"Sweet guessing," Mischa played the nonchalant game. "But which one?"

"Fourteen year old with long black hair whose name starts with an M."

Mischa, the image consultant, groaned as she tackled a bend. "Go Mokuba. Sheesh. I told him it wouldn't work."

Tea laughed as she turned to her newfound friend. "And what exactly is he up to, by dragging me away like this?"

To that, the dyed blonde grinned. "Trade secret. Can't tell." She pulled up outside a posh-looking restaurant. "And so, here we are! Ritzel's! Best fusion food in town!" She reached for her handbag and pulled out a slip of paper. "Show this to the waiter. Table 36."

"Uh, okay, thanks," Tea took the paper and exited the car. Before she headed into the restaurant, she peered her in back into the Mercedes. "Aren't you coming along?"

"They do serve French food as well, but French food and I don't go along together, no thanks to my French ex-beau," Mischa commented. She gave Tea a little wave and started to drive off. "Have fun! And maybe one of these days, we can dine there for a girls' night out!"

Tea waved back to the disappearing Mercedes S-class. When the car was gone from the road, she sighed. Somehow, she had a sinking feeling what Mokuba was really up to.

Maybe if he had asked me properly instead of doing all this, I'd be more thrilled, she thought broodingly as she reluctantly made her way to the front door of the restaurant.

XO XO XO XO

Throughout the journey in the limousine, Seto successfully tuned out Mokuba's chatter as he busied himself with his laptop. His financial analysts had just emailed him the latest outlook for the company, and if the overcast evening sky was of any indication, he had more trouble on his hands than he wanted.

The economic crisis was hitting the world hard, and it seemed that KaibaCorp was not spared. Their profits were marginal for the last few months, and if the situation carried on without anything being done, he would have to end up shrinking his empire. Worse still, if profits stop rolling in, the entire KaibaCorp infrastructure would crumble. Firing employees was something he had gotten used to, but laying off an entire building of workers was something he was not prepared to do. He had always dissed employers who took the shortcut to save costs by purging employees – how could they maintain production that way? Of course, Seto was peripherally aware that his employees had families to look after, and as much as he wanted to cut costs, there was no chance he would go against his principles of letting children take the brunt of what their parents were going through.

Seto glanced out of the window, his brows creasing in deep thought. He was tired of facing all of this: at office and at home. He wanted so much to tell Mokuba what he really felt about yesterday's incident, but his little brother was contented with the idea of going out for a dinner with his older brother. Seto was forced to lay off the plan for another time. Suddenly Seto understood how some parents must have felt having to handle adolescence in the household; it was a complete headache. And things at the office was not making it any better. The only thing that Seto wished for right now was for his body continue to listen to him and stop acting up; his high blood pressure had reverted to normal, and he had eaten on time so there was no way his body could possibly go against him by throwing him into a state of temporary 'shock'. Maybe the doctors were right - his uncontrollable stress level was driving his bodily functions haywire.

Mokuba was still trying to summarise the latest cartoon show on tv. Seto glared at him and said almost off-handedly, "Grown-ups don't talk about cartoons, Mokuba."

That got Mokuba to be silent. Then he said quietly, "I'm sorry, Seto," He cleared his throat. "Then what do grown-ups talk about?"

Seto's face remained expressionless as he placed his laptop on Mokuba's lap. "This," he pointed to the line graph on the screen. Mokuba was immediately aware of the rapidly declining gradient for the past six months. "Any suggestions on how to improve the situation?"

Mokuba froze out. He barely understood what the actual situation was, but he knew that whatever it was, it was not good for KaibaCorp. Besides, what was up with Seto? Just before they left the house, Seto had barred Nana from helping to clear up Mokuba's room and insisted that Mokuab be the one to do it. Before that, he even barred Nana from preparing breakfast or doing practically anything for Mokuba.

"He's all grown up, Nana," Seto had declared during the latest incident. "And adults clean their own room, don't they? So Mokuba can settle his room now. I'm sure he can clean it in time for dinner."

Luckily, the limousine finally pulled up at the restaurant, and Seto had no choice but to cut short his business discussion with Mokuba. They stepped out of the limo and headed for the entrance of the restaurant.

"Good evening, sir," the waiter at the door greeted them. "A table for two?"

"I made a reservation," Mokuba chirped. "Table 36."

The waiter smiled and ushered them in. "This way, please."

The two brothers followed suit, and as expected, heads turned in their direction. Several gasps could be heard from the female patrons. Mokuba smiled smugly while Seto merely rolled his eyes. They were a few steps from their designated table when Seto caught sight of a brunette already seated there.

Seto looked down at his brother expectantly. Mokuba glued his eyes to the floor and shuffled uncomfortably. Here they go.

XO XO XO XO

As the sound of gasps started nearing her table, Tea figured that her long-awaited guests must have finally arrived. Putting on her most annoyed face, she turned around in her seat to throw dagger stares at the brothers. But what she saw immediately doused out any irritation within her and soon she found a smile creeping its way to her lips.

Kaiba looked exceptionally… amazing. Could a simple wardrobe change add a different dimension to his outer character? He had on a long-sleeved black shirt with thin vertical stripes running down it, paired with black straight-cut jeans. Adding on to the new look was a chain around his neck, acting as the suspender for his pendant and ID tag.

"H-Hi," Tea stuttered. When Seto turned to look at her, she felt herself blushing against her will. Why must he look so stunning tonight? Suddenly she wondered whose idea it really was to kidnap her for dinner here.

"Gardner," Seto addressed her. "What are you doing here?"

"Shouldn't you be asking your brother that?" Tea shot back, equally civil.

"I'm waiting for that too," Seto commented.

"Okay. Seto, Tea. Tea, Seto," Mokuba babbled an unnecessary introduction. "And it's not a dinner date. So can we please sit down now and start having our dinner?"

As if on cue, a waitress approached their table to take their order. Seto ordered foie gras and iced green tea without even touching his menu. Tea played it safe and after scanning the menu, settled for mushroom ravioli and soda. Mokuba was the only one left struggling to decide on what to eat. Finally, he turned to Seto and issued an emergency call for help. To his surprise, Seto merely shrugged and said, "Adults make their own decisions, remember?"

Mokuba lowered his eyes back onto the menu and said plainly to the waitress, "I think I'll just have curry udon. And coke?"

The waitress smiled, rechecked their order and scuttled off, but not before casting a longing glance at the tall young man seated at the table. Unfortunately for her, the certain CEO was oblivious to her.

The trio sat silently at the table. Occasionally Tea could not resist staring at her classmate. He looked so different. But somehow she knew it was not exactly his style of dressing; Seto was usually a plain dresser. Mokuba must have forced his brother to actually dress up for this dinner. Just like how he made me without my knowledge, she added on maddeningly. She threw a glance at her young friend. And just like how he set me up for dinner with his brother without neither of our knowledge. I should kill him for this.

"Uh… Seto?" Mokuba said uncertainly.

"What?"

"Can I…" Mokuba lowered his voice and leaned towards his big brother. "Can I go to the toilet?"

"Mokuba, grown-ups can do whatever they want to do," Seto replied uninterestedly without looking at him. "Kids ask for permission. Adults don't."

The slight shock was evident on Mokuba's face, but he quickly excused himself anyway. As she watched Mokuba weave his way past the tables to the restroom, Tea commented, "Reverse psychology. Nice going."

Seto glared at her. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Tea rolled her eyes. "It is a compliment. I know what you're doing, Kaiba."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes," Tea insisted. "That's the first time I ever see a parental figure teaching a teenager a lesson about life without resorting to shouting and nagging. I know what he said hurt you, Kaiba. But I'm glad you're… well, getting back at him in this way."

"This isn't payback, Gardner," Seto said levelly. The whole time he refused eye contact. "This is the only way for me to get him to wake up and realize that I'm disappointed in his attitude. This way, he doesn't get hurt or angry or whatever. Mokuba thinks he's adult enough, fine. I'll treat and understand him like one."

"He's still a kid, Kaiba. And he realized that already, I can see it on his face."

"I'll wait for him to admit that," Tea was slightly taken aback by the CEO's indifference. But after that episode yesterday, she knew that it was just him putting up his walls again. "But it won't be tonight. Mokuba's stubborn."

Wonder where he got that from, Tea added on silently. "So you're gonna keep this up until he admits that he's wrong?"

"He's not wrong, Gardner. Just misinformed about independence. And besides, it's probably time for me to see if I did raise him well." Seto suddenly locked eyes with her, and he said sincerely, "Thank you for the note. It gave me the solution of what to do with Mokuba."

"I…uhh, it's nothing," Tea stumbled over her words. "What do you mean, solution?"

Seto kept his eyes on her and snickered. "For the smarter of the dorks, things sure connect slow for you in the brain department, don't they?" Then he regarded her seriously. "Two words stood out from your note, and they reminded me what I had to be, and what I had to do."

"Father, and guardian," she spoke, almost in a whisper.

Seto looked as if he might elicit a small smile on his features, but after a while it did not materialize. However, he did look straight at Tea for the duration, before finally, reluctantly, he commented, "You look good in white."

Tea stared back at him, surprised. Gaining her composure, she returned the compliment, "You look great, too. Maybe you should wear stripes more often."

"Maybe."

Tea sighed and shifted her gaze to the dance floor. A familiar ballad was playing, and the people on the dance floor seemed like fun. Too bad she was stuck with someone who probably rejected offers to dance, even at his own functions.

"Go if you want." Seto had apparently seen the fleeting gaze of someone itching to dance on her face.

Tea turned to face him. Maybe she should just risk it, for the fun of it. Besides, if he could not dance, she could file the memory away and have a good laugh at it when she got home. Without warning, she grabbed his hand and dragged him out of his seat. Seto's relaxed pose made it easier for her to pull him over to the dance floor; if he had been his usual tense self, she doubted she would have succeeded.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Seto seethed.

"Dancing," Tea remarked simply.

"Then do it on your own. I'm not interested."

"Can't do," Tea stubbornly insisted. "This dance needs a partner, and rather than leave you to rot at the back there, I chose you."

"Nobody tells me what to do. Especially not you."

They were already in the midst of the dancing crowd. "View this as a way to repay my favour. And my way of saying sorry to appear unannounced to you for tonight's dinner."

Seto reluctantly took her hand in his and resisted the urge to shrug her off when she placed another hand on his shoulder. He had to admit, in the wan lighting of the restaurant's dance floor, she looked… pretty. In the end, he relented, "One dance. And after that, I don't owe you anything anymore."

Tea smiled. "Deal." The song had changed, and the new one caught her by surprise. It was one of her favourite song, and usually she would be jumping all over singing along to it. But tonight, somehow, the same song carried a different meaning. Suddenly, the song seemed to be attributed to… them.

Seto sensed her sudden rigidity and snorted. "You dragged me out, and now you don't want to dance."

"No, no," she was quick to deny. She threw a frustrated look at him, and then just sighed exasperatedly. "Forget it, just dance."

And as they danced (Seto turned out to be a great one, as Tea would realize when she got back home), Tea kept her attention fully on the song, and how it suddenly brought an entire new meaning to her:

Time goes by, we have so many meetings and partings
Here I am, relying on someone's kindness, I lost sight of something
What do you think of now, all alone at night as you count the seasons past?

Sometime, sometimes the loneliness overwhelms my heart
I don't want to be all alone, it's painful
One day, one day you'll fine your precious one
If you look up at the sky, there's a single shining star

Tell me why, why do we long for love like this?
The starry sky is honest, decorating the night with its tender sparkling

Somewhere, somewhere there's my precious only one
You're not all alone anymore, you're not alone
Someday, someday you're fated to meet someone you'll love
Before you realize it, they'll be by your side

Even if a million years go by
We never change, no worries, you'll be alright
I know you'll meet your precious only one
One day you'll find them on this earth, I believe in love
Always


note: the song the translated version of Precious One by popular Japanese boyband, KAT-TUN