Many thanks to The Duelist's Heiress, Harya, Sallie, Lace Kyoko, biskittins, lesnuitsdhiver, Meowth That's Write, miaou5, MackenzieMedica, TeresaShiho, hopelessmine, QueenofR, and Miaett for their wonderful reviews and to xVampirexElegancex, kolbow, Kiyoshi Kozue, IcyBreeze7, and Kisara Harlow for alerting/faving!

Real success isn't about winning or losing but going the distance.

Ten: Intertwined

Mokuba had a secret girlfriend. Why he would think it necessary to hide the fact from his own brother, Seto didn't know. Mokuba was probably afraid Seto would tell him to break up with her – which meant Seto had probably already met her before and didn't particularly like her for some reason or the other.

Seto had a lot of reasons to not like people.

But surely he could get over whatever dislike he had for this mystery girl for the sake of Mokuba's happiness. And it was Mokuba's business. His love life. It wasn't like his little brother was preaching Seto about what to do with Kisara.

Seto's hand paused midway through turning the page of the grammar book he was looking through. What was he talking about? Kisara's case was completely different from that of Mokuba's girlfriend, whoever she was. All Kisara was doing was living in Seto's house, eating meals with him, spending copious amounts of time alone with him, taking walks with him, inadvertently making him scramble (gracefully, of course) every time it even looked like she needed something… Oh, and she was very pretty…

Shit. She'd only been awake for several weeks, only been in his life for that same amount of time. When had she become his not-really-girlfriend? And why wasn't he feeling upset at this revelation? Seto swiveled around in his desk chair, gazing out his study window down onto the lawn, where the subject of his thoughts was having a picnic lunch with Tea, Mai, and Serenity.

Kisara's English had gone from nonexistent to conversant at a much faster pace than even Seto, who'd had very high expectations of the clearly exceptional girl, could believe. Natural flair for languages? Draconian skill with tongues? Gift of comprehension from her gods? Sheer willpower? A combination of all of the above?

"I think I am ready to meet the other people now," Kisara had told Seto during breakfast. In English.

"Okay," he'd answered, too preoccupied with watching the way her hair shone in the morning sunlight to really process what she'd just said. Then, "Wait, what?" Yes, what the hell was wrong with him? He was acting just like a simpering, pathetic, lovesick fool –

Hold that thought.

Kisara's brow furrowed in worry. "Did I… say it wrong?" Her words came out more hesitantly now that she was under the belief she'd incorrectly translated what was on her mind.

"No, no, no, what you said was right. Just… never mind. I'll see what I can do about you meeting the others."

He still hadn't picked up the phone.

The Ishtars had left town ages ago, but not before telling Seto they would come back to Domino in a few months to make the long-awaited acquaintance with Kisara. (Because surely by then she would be comfortable in front of more people.) Three fewer to pester him, but unfortunately everyone else who'd been involved in the project in some way either lived in Domino City or was Pegasus, who was practically retired and could pretty much do whatever he wanted.

Laughter pealed from the garden, and Seto's eyes immediately found themselves drawn to the white-haired girl sitting by the rosebushes. Her face was pink from playing tag with the other three, a game she was delighted to find herself good at. She abruptly looked up at his window and beamed happily at him, to which he responded with a small smile of his own.

That was when Seto decided he wasn't quite ready yet to share Kisara.

Then he saw that the girls had packed up their picnic and were on their way inside, and he belatedly remembered the little luncheon Kisara had left for him because he'd claimed he had too much work to be able to join them. The sandwich disappeared in four bites, the fruit salad was devoured without him really tasting any of it, and the chocolate chip cookies were stashed in a drawer to bribe Mokuba with later.

Seto was sweeping crumbs off his desk when Kisara tiptoed in. "Hello!" she said brightly. "Did you enjoy your lunch?"

"Yes, thank you. Your English is still improving."

Kisara ducked her head in embarrassment but still glowed with pride. There was a question in her eyes, and Seto patiently waited for her to find the nerve to ask. "Seto, what is Duel Monsters? Mai was talking about it and explained a little, but I didn't understand completely."

"Duel Monsters is a game, the most popular one in the world. It's played with cards, and my company – my business – designs technology – machinery, that sort of thing – to make better the gaming experience."

Kisara nodded slowly, mulling over his words. She'd recently requested Seto speak solely in English to her and she was constantly absorbing new vocabulary, while he'd developed an eye for when she didn't know a certain word and automatically provided a short definition for it. "Mai said you play Duel Monsters."

"Used to play," Seto corrected instinctively.

"Oh. Do you not like Duel Monsters anymore?"

He shook his head. "I didn't have time to play it anymore, and I've never gotten around to picking it up again." The game had also put him off when he'd realized it was inextricably intertwined with magic and ancient Egypt. And whenever he played the Blue Eyes, he remembered the Shadow Games that were the reason why Kisara had died.

"Oh," Kisara repeated, looking very downcast.

Seto frowned slightly, troubled by her grayer mood. "What's the matter?"

"I was… I was hoping you could teach me… But, ah, it's okay…" She bounced on the balls of her bare feet, nibbling on her lip as she glanced sideways at Seto.

A single blink of those big blue eyes utterly defeated his weak resistance. "I'll think about it."

Delight lit up her face as she bid him goodbye and flitted back down the hall. Seto ran his hand through his hair, setting it in complete disarray, before propping his chin up on his hand and letting his gaze slide over to the neglected deck of cards sitting on the corner of his desk. He'd gotten back into the habit of carrying them around with him, but every time he reached for the top card, he stopped himself and changed the direction of his hand to his coffee cup.

He rapidly tapped his foot on the hardwood floor, shifting so that he was hunched over the desk, glowering down at the playing cards. His adolescent obsession over being the champion, over crushing Yugi, would they come back with his return to the game?

Only one way to find out. Seto drew the first card and was met with the unrelenting stare of his most faithful, reliable monster. He could hear its roar in some distant realm of his memory, faintly see its white lightning attack in his mind's eye. He'd always loved the feeling of power just holding the card gave him, the power to annihilate his opponent without mercy, to devastate the field and prove himself the inherent victor. "It's been too long," Seto murmured to himself, already unlocking the forgotten part of his mind that plotted the ultimate strategies to defeat those foolish enough to challenge him. Perhaps if he caught Yugi off-guard –

No. He wasn't doing this for his title. He was doing this for Kisara. Only Kisara. She has you wrapped around her little finger, doesn't she?

He replaced the Blue Eyes back in the deck, picked up the whole stack, and went off in search of his new pupil. All he had to do was follow the sound of peppy, techno DDR music. One of the girls had apparently discovered the game room.

Tea whooped victoriously as he warily peered inside. "Oh, yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" Tea's high score flashed onscreen as Serenity disentangled herself from the dance mat, laughing good-naturedly.

"Hey, get in here, Kaiba." Damn. Caught. Mai's call attracted the attention of the other three, and Kisara looked curiously at him. "We want to borrow Kisara tonight," the blond duelist continued.

"For what?" Seto asked suspiciously.

"My spa's completely free tonight. Kisara deserves a girls' night out."

"Isn't it a girls' night out with you all every night?"

"Quit whining, Kaiba, you get her eighty percent of the time. She hasn't left your property at all these past few weeks."

"She's still overwhelmed by cars and computers, she's not ready for downtown Domino yet."

Serenity's tentative voice spoke up. "Why don't you just ask Kisara if she wants to go?"

Heads turned to the girl in question, who had been following the argument with an intense look of concentration. When she realized she was expected to say something, she blushed and asked, "I'm sorry, what am I doing?"

Berating himself for not thinking of asking Kisara first, Seto softened his expression. "Mai wants to take you to her beauty parlor in the city. Do you want to go?"

Kisara hesitated, looking between the CEO and the beauty specialist. "I… I…" She didn't want to upset either of them.

"Mai, isn't your spa on the edge of the city and suburbs, anyway?" Tea interjected. "It's not exactly downtown." Mai nodded vehemently.

"Um…" Kisara tugged on a lock of her hair. "I suppose I could go to the… the spa, tonight… if I spend time with Seto first?" Serenity and Tea suddenly clapped their hands over their mouths as their bodies shook in amusement, noises that sounded like strangled snickers escaping them, while Mai smirked knowingly.

"Of course." Seto flashed a smile at Kisara before narrowing his eyes at the gigglers three. "You've had her all morning and you'll get her tonight. It's my turn now, so go away."

"Possessive," Mai muttered, grabbing her purse as they filed out of the room. "Be back at seven!"

Seto waited for the distant slamming of the front door before shutting off the TV and looking once more at Kisara. Her legs hung off the couch, swinging back and forth, while she sucked on a chocolate lollipop, one of her favorite innovations of the twenty-first century. She was watching the tropical fish swimming about in the giant aquarium in the corner, but her attention immediately shifted to Seto when he quietly cleared his throat. "Did you have fun today?" Kisara nodded eagerly. "Good, good," he mumbled absentmindedly. He held his Duel Monsters deck up and watched her face light up. "I can get in a quick lesson right now if you want."

"Of course!" She patted the seat beside her and he sat down, acutely aware of her nearness and the scent of lotuses surrounding her. "What's first?"

"Each game of Duel Monsters has two players facing each other. Both have what are called life points, and each player wants to get the other's life points to zero." He looked to make sure she was following. "You take their life points either by attacking them directly or by attacking their monsters."

"Monsters?"

"There are three types of cards. Monster, spell, and trap." His hand hovered for a second before revealing the top card. "This is a monster."

For a moment, Kisara was completely still. Then slowly, she reached out and took the card from Seto's unresisting fingers. "My dragon," she breathed, eyes shining with emotion. She clutched the card to her chest and breathed deeply, as if hoping she could somehow absorb its essence that way.

Seto lowered the deck to his lap. "Maybe we should do this some other time –"

She shook her head. "No, we just… I'll be okay. What about the other cards? Trap cards?"

He skimmed his deck before selecting one. "Wish of Final Effort. It can change the attack points of your last monster destroyed and sent to the graveyard into life points." His eyes traced the painted image of the girl with her head bowed, wielding a shining sword, and he winced as the memory of a distant arc of green ice ghosted through his torso.

Small hands wrapped around his wrist, and clear blue eyes met troubled cobalt ones. "What happened?" she asked softly.

He ran his hand down his face, still staring at the card. "The current world champion of Duel Monsters is Yugi Muto, one of the people who want to meet you," he began. "He and I were in some trouble a few years ago with a man named Dartz. It's… complicated, but Dartz had a way of stealing souls, different from the Millennium Items. He used something called the Seal of Orichalcos and involved Yugi and me in a duel. Whoever lost the duel lost their soul. I lost. But before the Seal took me, I revealed a trap card I had laid down. This one. It was too late for me, but… it saved Yugi." He heaved a sigh. "I used to not believe in magic, but I guess on that day, I started wondering if there could be any truth to it, because if I were in complete denial over it, I don't think I would have used it to help Yugi."

Kisara gazed down at the card. "It's very beautiful. It means a lot to you, doesn't it?"

"I suppose." A physical embodiment of one of the turning points in his life, and it was a piece of cardboard…

She looked up at him and smiled. "Then it's my favorite card."

Seto managed a weak smile in return. "You've only seen these two so far." And he would've thought a certain dragon would've been the one to gain her favor.

"But it will always be my favorite, just because it means so much for you." Kisara placed both the Blue Eyes and Wish of Final Effort back in the deck. She glanced at him and reached up, smoothing his hair back down. "It was messy."

"Uh-huh." Now he knew why Kisara always looked so content when he played with her hair. She looked so adorable, face slightly scrunched in concentration as she tried to get that one lock to behave.

Her lips were very pink.

Very nice.

Would she mind?

Kisara's eyes widened as Seto swooped and caught her very admirable lips with his own, but then they fluttered closed and she unconsciously leaned closer to him.

Nope, she didn't mind.

She made a quiet noise of delight and he deepened the kiss, moving his hands to her waist. Her arms draped around his neck and their chests pressed together as his back met the sofa cushion –

"Hey, thereeeaahhhgghhhh…" Mokuba's strangled cry faded as he hightailed it back out into the hallway.

Seto and Kisara broke apart, and she blinked in surprise, hair mussed and cheeks red. Seto sighed and glared halfheartedly at the open door. "I'm going to kill him."

"I'm sure he didn't…" She tried to pull away, but his grip was firm. "S-sorry, I don't know what – I didn't mean to kiss you."

"I did." At his words, her face grew even redder and she buried it in his shirt, the only place she could hide. "I'm getting the feeling that you've kissed before." But he definitely wasn't complaining.

"Just… just once, with… with…"

"Priest Seto?" Seto guessed. She made a noise that vaguely sounded like affirmation. "I see. Who was better?"

Her head shot up. "Better?" she squeaked. He nodded, gaze unrelenting. "I can't really… That's not a fair question… You… were both equally good?"

"We can't both kiss exactly the same."

She bit her lip, trying to find a diplomatic answer that would insult neither the memory of her first love nor the man who was currently keeping her a willing prisoner in his arms. "You're gentler. And softer." A spark of fire flitted across her expression. "But he was a lot… hungrier."

Then Kisara found herself on her back, trapped beneath Seto's body. "I can do hungry."

Several rooms away, Mokuba could hear Kisara giggling. He hadn't heard Seto saying anything to make her laugh, so that meant…

"Ew," he grumbled, shoving his headphones on. At sixteen, he definitely knew a thing or two about kissing and cuddling, but listening to his own brother doing it?

Yech.

Weren't expecting a kiss that early, were you? ^^ Hopefully not too many of you are kiss-at-the-end fans, but I personally dislike it when stories/movies/etc. drag out kisses that are obviously supposed to happen until the very last moment. A bit more romantic, sure, why not, but intensely frustrating for both the characters and the viewers. :P And some drama is officially coming up next chapter, so I might as well give these two a break before the storm.

I feel bad I was gone for so long and I'm really grateful and flattered that you all waited so patiently, but – man, vacation was awesome! Cruise ship + Greek isles + hilarious Romanian "vampire" waiter = amazing.

Upcoming: Kisara has a nice girl chat, only to come home to a very big technological shock, and Seto agrees to work with Yugi on yet another "project."

Review please!