It's my brithday today so you get to enjoy it (and maybe send me some awesome reviews .) Anyway, as it's my brithday and the time was right I included snippets about Seto and Serenity's birthdays as well. This chapter is pretty long, 1700+ words so enjoy ^_^

As promised I received a phone call the moment she had gotten settled in to the small apartment she was renting for the school year.

[I learned something new today.]

"Oh?"

[Yeah, my roommate loves flower arranging and she saw the picture of us at my formal. She says that irises mean "I put my faith in you." Did you know that?] It was a rhetorical question and I could easily have said 'no' just to fill the silence. But I had promised to not hide things.

"I did actually."

[Really? How?]

"My mother loved gardening, she taught me a lot about flowers." Irises had always been my favourite and I had known the little fact Serenity told me, though I had forgotten about it until she reminded me. In my subconscious I guess I was putting my faith in her when I showed her who I really was. "So, tell me bout your new place."

She launched into descriptions of everything and I was glad that I had forestalled her asking about my family. It wasn't that I wanted to hide it, I just wasn't ready to share.

The first few days that she was gone I barely noticed to be honest. She still sent me texts throughout the day and we would phone each other in the evening.

That first Tuesday I caught myself expecting her at three like always, I had grown used to her over the summer and the chair she filled seemed empty.

I ended up going home early, unable to concentrate without her presence.

"Just call her, Seto," Mokuba sighed from his spot on the couch. He had been happy to see me come home early, but after watching him play his video games for just over an hour I could tell he was beginning to get annoyed with me. With a half hearted glare I took my phone and went to my room, leaving him in peace.

I didn't call right away, merely stared at the phone for a few moments. Her number had been permanently ingrained in my memory by then and it occurred to me just how much I had grown to care about the girl.

It had snuck up on me, slowly over the year she made her way past my barriers. She was my opposite in so many ways, but as stubborn as I was. If we were friends we needed to get together and know each other, that was her rule. 'Friends find time' she had stated many times over the course of the summer.

I never really had to connect with anyone. I never really had to try. But then Serenity came along and not only did I have to make an effort, but I wanted to.

It made me wonder what she saw in me that she thought I was worth keeping around. It obviously wasn't my money, she had protested each purchase I made. What else was there?
Not that I cared what she thought of me-it was merely. idle speculation.

I dialed her number and waited for her soft voice to answer.

[Hi, Kaiba. I missed you today.]

"As did I, Tuesdays won't quite be the same now."

The seasons passed, my final term of university courses went quickly as well. On the twenty fourth of October I found a parcel on my desk.

"Kaiya, what's this?"

"It's called a birthday present," she replied, trying to hide a smile.

"From who?"

"Serenity. She knows you won't be at work tomorrow so she sent it here." I nodded and went to unwrap it when my fingers were smacked lightly with the back of her clip board.

"What was that for?"

"Your birthday isn't until tomorrow, you can wait to open it." I glared, but set the wrapped parcel aside for the time being. It was only a present, I could wait a day.

I stared at the clock, my leg bouncing impatiently as the seconds ticked by getting closer and closer to midnight and the official beginning of October twenty fifth.

Finally the glowing red lights informed me that it was now midnight and my birthday. The curiosity had been eating at me for hours and I could now satisfy it. I tore into the wrapping and pulled out two things.

The first was a t-shirt of simple, soft cotton. It was very light blue and very faintly in white was the silhouette of a Blue Eyes, only when the light hit at just the right angle could I see it. A small note was pinned to the collar and I had to put on my reading glasses to decipher the tiny handwriting.

[Something comfy for you to wear when you learn to act your age.]

I smirked and inspected the next item. The shirt had acted as a cushion to protect it and I found myself looking at a framed photo of Serenity and I. The frame was no nonsense silver and bore no adornment, the image within seemed the polar opposite.

It was a picture she had taken while we were at Kaibaland. The angle was a little off and our faces barely fit in the shot. I had been caught off guard, though I probably wouldn't have smiled anyway, looking like a deer in the headlights whilst she beamed.

I had forgotten she had taken the photo until I was faced with it. With a faint smile I placed the photo and the note from the shirt on my bedside table and finally went to sleep.

My twenty third birthday passed much the same as the year before; I slept in, Mokuba made me breakfast, I read and watched a couple movies. There were a couple differences from previous years, however.

I wore the shirt Serenity gave me, which Mokuba was quite quick to comment upon and for the first time since I was a child I had someone sing Happy Birthday to me.

Things were changing, I could feel it. I think by that point they already had been changing for quite some time and it was far too late for me to stop it.

Even if I had wanted to.

On the nineteenth of November Mokuba offered to drive to Tokyo to deliver Serenity's birthday gift. I think he just wanted to take my car, I had allowed him to take a year off after high school as I had done and he was enjoying the freedom.

In the end I sent my gift, but still let Mokuba take one of the cars for the day. He had begun dating that Hawkins girl and liked to be the one to drive places.

[Aw, Kaiba thank you!] Serenity gushed around noon on the twentieth.

"It's nothing much, but I thought you'd enjoy it." I had sent her a sturdy handmade mug and a tin of the finest chai tea I could find for her twentieth.

[No, it's beautiful. The glaze they used is amazing, the blue is so rich and it flows from dark to light so nicely with silver flecks that catch the light... Oh, I'll almost feel bad drinking from it.]

"Don't, that's what it's for. I hope it will keep you warm on your winter break," I told her, unable to suppress the little glow of pride I felt having found the perfect thing for her. It had taken hours of brainstorming to come up with it.

[Oh, didn't I tell you? I'm coming home for the holidays. My train comes in first thing the morning of the twenty fourth. We should do something together, you and I.]

"Alright, after work we'll go out and catch up."

[Sounds like a plan, I'm going to have some tea while I study, but you get some rest. You work too hard. Sweet dreams.]

"Good night," I replied, smirking at her insistence that I go to bed. How the tables have turned.

Work in December went by as it always did; stressful, but profitable. I left Kaiba Corp on the evening of the twenty third and the doors would open to no one until the twenty sixth.

I was looking forward to having some time to unwind during Christmas Eve day when Kaiya phoned me in a panic at eight in the morning. I had been asleep for only a couple hours, having stayed up to finish some last minute reports.

[Mr. Kaiba? Could I beg a favour?]

"What is it?" I groaned, still not fully awake.

[I forgot to do my grocery shopping for dinner tomorrow and-]

"I am not doing you're grocery shopping."

[Oh heavens, of course not,] she said impatiently. [The shops will be sold out in no time so I'm on my way now in hopes I can get what I need right when they open. The problem is Serenity's train arrives in less than an hour and I don't think I'll make it to the station in time to get her.] I held back a yawn and got up.

"Can't her brother pick her up?" I asked already pulling clothes from the closet.

[He doesn't have a car. Please, sir? I would be deeply indebted to you.]

"It's fine Kaiya, with all the work you do I can do this one thing in return. I was going to spend time with Serenity today anyway." She thanked me profusely and I couldn't help but wonder if maybe this was some match making mother scheme. I doubted it, she seemed genuinely stressed and I had been keeping her late for the past few weeks so she wouldn't have had much time to shop.

With a yawn I went to wake Mokuba, we'd have breakfast the three of us after we picked Serenity up.

Soon enough my brother and I waited at the train station, sipping on our godforsaken drive through coffee.

"You okay Seto?" Mokuba asked, peering at me.

"I don't feel well," I confessed between sips. The coffee was warm, but did not taste all that great.

"What's the matter?" he asked giving me a strange, yet knowing look.

"I think perhaps it's this coffee, my stomach feel oddly empty and I think I might be sick."

"I feel fine," he shrugged. "Sounds like you've got butterflies in your stomach to me." I rolled my eyes in response.

"Nonsense."

Oh, is that feelings he's getting? And Kaiba doesn't know this, but you can bet Serenity and Mokuba do. Christmas eve in Japan is a big date night for couples ;)

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