"Memory keeps me back on my heels,

Like a cold wind,

Like a shadow,

It follows me round."

Shadow by The Southland

X

Kisara wasn't concerned when she heard that it was supposed to snow that evening. In fact, she was skeptical if it would even snow considering it was only the middle of November and as far as she knew, it only snowed on Christmas. She didn't take into account that she was from a place where it never snowed therefore completely unfamiliar with how snow worked but she didn't really care. There were many other things on Kisara's mind that day and snow wasn't one of them.

Seto Kaiba was the main person boggling her mind as of late. Despite sharing a strangely intimate moment on Seto's birthday, recently Seto hardly gave Kisara the time of day. Their interactions at school had vanished completely, though there weren't many to begin with, and the only times he would even be physically near her was when he was dropping things off on her desk for her to do. Otherwise, he was either never in his office or if he was, he completely ignored her at his desk. He stopped giving her rides home after work. He wouldn't even look her way when she would hand back files or paperwork and Kisara couldn't make sense of it.

She thought she had felt something between the two of them that night, a deeper connection of sorts, but that feeling was dashed as Seto spent more time trying to stay away from her. Maybe Seto felt it was wrong to have that sort of connection in a boss/assistant relationship? Kisara didn't want to get too caught up thinking about it. After all, Seto was just her boss not… something else. So she wrote it off as nothing and continued working away each day at the office like nothing was different. This was a surprisingly easy task, she found, when she focused only on her work.

That day, however, Kisara had noticed that Seto wasn't in class and she couldn't help but wonder why. She hadn't seen him the whole day and not once had Seto ever missed a day of school. Maybe there was a meeting he had to attend that day that he simply couldn't miss? Usually he didn't plan things that interfered with his school life… nor did he plan things that Kisara wasn't informed of. She was sure she would get answers when she went to work later that day and saw him in the office.

To her surprise, she arrived at the office at exactly four o'clock to an empty desk. Not only was his desk empty, Kisara could also tell it had been untouched since yesterday. It was then that Kisara became concerned. Missing school was one thing but missing work was a completely different story…

"Mrs. Amaya, did you see Mr. Kaiba come in today?" Kisara asked Mrs. Amaya, the woman who worked at the front desk. She shook her head.

"No, Mr. Kaiba didn't come in today. In fact, he called in to say he wouldn't be coming in. Oh, and that since he won't be in today, he also said you could take the day off. I'm sorry I forgot to mention that earlier when you first came in." That certainly didn't make sense to Kisara. Even though she knew she wasn't supposed to care about what was going on with Seto, something inside her was just dying to know and she was determined to find out.

When the doorbell rang, Seto dropped everything and ran to the door.

"I'm glad you're finally—Kisara?" Seto's facial expression changed dramatically. "What are you doing at my house?"

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to intrude," Kisara said, apologizing immediately, "It's just that you weren't in school today, and then you called in to work and said you weren't coming in and…" Seto stone cold expression didn't budge one bit through-out her explanation. "I don't know, I guess I shouldn't have come. I should go." Kisara knew that was her cue to leave, but before she turned away she heard a tiny voice call out to Seto.

"Nii… sama…?" Kisara looked up and saw Mokuba standing at the top of the stairs, his upper body draped on the railing as he was looking down at them. He was dressed in his pajamas and looked like he could collapse at any moment. Kisara couldn't believe how sickly the boy looked.

"Mokuba, what are you doing out of bed?" Seto went up the stairs and picked Mokuba up in his arms, bringing him back into his bedroom. Mokuba groaned in pain as Seto gently set him down back into bed. "Kiddo, you shouldn't be walking around. You need to rest." Mokuba's big gray eyes and pale face looked up at his older brother.

"I thought it was the doctor."

"No, I still haven't reached him yet… all the secretaries keep putting me on hold. I don't think they know who I am but when I'm through with them..." Seto sighed, "It doesn't matter. But don't worry about a thing because your big brother has it all under control. The cook called in sick because of the dumb snow storm, so I'm learning how to cook chicken soup from the internet, I'm going to bring you up some water, and I plan on going out and buying something to bring down your fever."

"I know how to make chicken soup." Seto twisted around and saw Kisara standing in the doorway. Mokuba gave a weak smile when he saw her.

"Hi Kisara…" Mokuba said drowsily before closing his eyes and drifting off. Seto slowly inched away from Mokuba's bed side and walked out to meet Kisara in the hallway. He closed Mokuba's door and turned to her.

"Look, I don't need your help."

"But I know how to make chicken soup… and take care of sick kids. I was a pretty popular babysitter back in Egypt."

"I don't care what you know or what you were. You're my assistant, that's it. You don't help take care of my brother. You don't deal with my personal matters. That's Isono's job. And the only reason he's not here is because this is the one week he takes off to go visit his mother." Kisara could sense a bit of frustration in Seto's voice, but she knew it was probably from the stress. She figured that Seto must've been up all night trying to take care of Mokuba to the best of his ability until the morning when he could try and get a doctor to make a house visit. His dull, tired eyes gave away the whole story. "Besides, it's your day off. Go home."

"If you're worried about me charging you for this, I'm not going to. It just so happens I care about your brother. I consider him my friend." Seto opened his mouth to say something but his phone began to vibrate. He looked at the caller I.D. and saw it was from Domino City Hospital. He could also hear Mokuba calling him from inside his room. "Just let me take care of Mokuba so you can deal with the doctors. It's as simple as that."

Seto's eyes narrowed as he stared directly at her, the coldest glare she had ever seen. While she knew she was supposed to feel threatened, she couldn't help but note that it was the first time in weeks that he had looked directly at her. It was true, Seto did terrify her but he intrigued her more than intimidate her. All of the sudden, Seto grabbed her by the wrist and held it tightly in his hand as he used his other hand to answer the cell phone. Kisara's eyes widened. She was no longer intrigued, she was scared speechless.

"Can you hold for one moment?" Seto said into the phone before lowering it, "Now you listen to me, Kisara… that's my little brother in there and if anything should happen to him, you WILL be fired. My brother is the most important person in my life. Should anything befall him, your life will end, business-wise, for the rest of your stay here in Japan. I will make sure of it." Kisara slowly nodded with understanding as Seto slowly let go, his eyes never leaving her until she re-entered Mokuba's room and closed the door behind her.

Seto wasn't ready to accept help, anyone's help. He hadn't been the type of person to even seek help but in his situation, he was painfully aware that help was necessary. That was why he decided to let Kisara take care of Mokuba. It was the only way he was going to be able to do all the things that needed to be done. Seto may not have been the type of person to ask or accept help, but he was smart enough to know when he needed it.

Though his heart was heavy and filled with doubt, he did what he did best; shut away his feelings inside of himself and focus on the next step that needed to be taken. He couldn't worry about Mokuba right now. He had to believe that Kisara could take care of his younger brother to the best of his abilities. To his surprise, it didn't take long to convince himself that was possible. To his surprised, he realized… he knew she could and that was the reason why he had accepted her offer in the first place.

That didn't change the fact that Seto was stuck, though. The one woman he had sworn to stay away from was now in his house, taking care of his younger brother. Seto didn't have the time to ponder how the hell he was going to make that work but being a Kaiba, he was sure he would find a way by the time the day was finally over.

Kisara came into Mokuba's room with a cool rag and another glass of orange juice. "Hey buddy, how are you feeling?" She asked as she came over to his bed side, removing the empty bowl by his bed that had once been filled with chicken noodle soup and another empty glass that sat beside it. She replaced the items with the new glass of orange juice. Mokuba turned his head to look at Kisara.

"I feel much better actually, especially after drinking your soup. Thanks for that… it was really good." Kisara smiled.

"Why thank you, Mokuba! That's sweet of you to say. I made a lot of that soup so your brother can heat it up for you tomorrow. If you keep taking it easy and eating right, I can assure you that you'll be feeling better soon. I made that soup with…" Kisara trailed off when she saw that Mokuba was beginning to close his eyes. Kisara smiled again, carefully reaching over and slipping out the remote from Mokuba's hand right before she clicked it off. It was nearly nine o'clock at that point so she knew it was probably time for her to head home.

"Thank you, Kisara… for everything," with his eyes still closed, Mokuba reached out and touched Kisara's hand. Kisara pulled up the extra blankets at the bottom of the bed and placed them over Mokuba, tucking him in.

"It was my pleasure, Mokuba. Sleep well and I hope you feel better." Kisara gave Mokuba a little pat on the head before switching off the light. She crept out of the room as slowly as possible without making too much noise. When she turned around, she saw Seto standing out in the hallway, watching her through the crack in the door.

"Hey Seto," Kisara whispered, slipping out of Mokuba's bedroom and closing the door, "I think Mokuba's gonna be able to sleep for the rest of the night. He's feeling a lot better but he needs to stay in bed if he wants to—" Seto wrapped his arms around Kisara and brought her in, his body pressed against hers.

"Thank you for taking care of my brother today. I know he's better, I can tell… he means everything to me." Time came to a full stop for Kisara. At first, she stood completely motionless as a billion thoughts went through her head all at once. What did this mean? Was this legal? Would this be considered sexual harassment? Then without thinking, almost instinctively, her arms came up and wrapped around Seto's waist, returning the kind gesture.

Her mind went blank as she lowered her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes, openly embracing the first hug she had received since the day she had left Egypt, letting the warmth of Seto's body consume her. As she let her senses melt into a euphoric state of mind, she couldn't help but feel good being in Seto's arms. For the first time in months, she finally felt right, she felt happy, and she felt security. A security that no one had ever provided to her except for…

Kisara opened her eyes and quickly shifted away from Seto, detangling herself from his arms. "I have to go." Kisara didn't look Seto's way as she moved past him, down the hall and towards the stairs. Her heart was pounding so fast she was worried she might have a heart attack right then and there as she sprinted down the stairs. Her hands were shaking, her head was sweating, she couldn't think straight… and knowing that scared the daylights out of her.

Only once in the past had someone made her feel such feelings and she had promised herself it would never happen again. It couldn't happen again and Kisara was going to make sure it wouldn't. Tomorrow afternoon she would quit her job, switch schools, and never speak to Seto again. That was the plan and she would stick with it. When she opened the door to leave the Kaiba Mansion forever, however, she saw something she had never seen before.

It was snowing.

A/N: Hey every pony! It's HiKari here with another update. I was originally going to wait until Valentine's Day (aka: the one year anniversary of this story first being published) to post the next chapter but I decided I was far too excited to wait that long. I was surprised how long it did take me to write this chapter because more than half of it was written last time I updated but this chapter ended up taking much more time than I realized. I was very unsure about a lot of things, especially where I ended this chapter, but I may end up re-writing some stuff if that's the case. Anyway, it's been really awesome receiving and reading your reviews! I hope you've enjoyed the chapter and hopefully there will be another chapter soon because I'm thrilled about what is to come in this story. Thanks for reading! Have a nice weekend!