My internet connection is off today so this will be a bit late... School also started so I'll be updating once a week instead of everyday. Seriously at my speed demon pace none of you will be able to catch up so maybe now you're able to. If you are willing to stick around that is... So sad most of you have left me.

Disclaimer: I don't own references to SpongeBob, YGO, references to Death Cabs For Cutie, references to Mad TV, references from Top Model, DEMON's magazine and incorporate, Days of Our Lives, or anything so leave me alone. I barely have anything for you to steal even if you did bust into my apartment. Only my precious text books will you be able to steal...


Kaiba was about to enter the room to be judged when he saw the group of girls behind him about to lose one of its members. Not really wanting to go with them into the judging room he decided that it would be best if he waited to go with the next group.

Walking back to the line he told the leader of the group, "You five can go before me." Then trying to make up a reasonable excuse he said, "It's not good to leave someone behind."

Before Kaiba could react the Alexis girl jumped him and gave him a loud sucking sound on his cheek. Then her friends pried her off of him and said their thanks before walking into the room. Several minutes later they all came out in tears.

I guess they didn't make the cut either…

The demon and four others were ushered into the room. There were five chairs in the very center of the circular room. Unlike the waiting room this room had bright lighting and was a lot smaller. A few people sat behind a desk…like a row of judges. Taking a seat in one of the five chairs in front of the judges he gave them an emotionless stare. The four other people who were behind him followed suit.

"OK, before we begin, please give a signed check of one thousand dollars payable to DEMON's and hand them up here," the judge in the center said.

Kaiba with his hands already shoved in his pockets retrieved the check and handed it to the judge. Sitting back in his chair he noticed the judge's strange expression and the others as they stared at the check.

"You're in the army?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes; he had heard that same question of disbelief so many times.

"It's hard to believe but it's true."

The judges now just stared at him as if he was some lump of rotten cheese festering under their nose. Since he was the most heavily clothed they decided to save the enigma for last. They came over and looked at the other four. The judges made them spin in circles, strike weird poses, and poked them before sending them out the door. Now they turned to him.

Surrounded by the seven judges he began to panic. Still sitting in his chair they stared down at him. Slowly like vultures returning to their perches they gracefully went back to the table and sat behind it.

Mustering up her courage one of the judges asked, "Can you take off your coat?"

Another reason why they were so scantily clad…

Shrugging out of his trench coat he stood and folded it then set it in his chair.

"Can you also come closer?"

"And lose the shirt," another judge added.

The others didn't have to strip… Then again it was as if they already had…

Tentatively he stepped forward. Then clenching his fists he lifted his hands and quickly undid the buttons while staring at them as if asking silently if they really wanted to see this sight. Then letting the material slide off of him and to the floor he waited for their response. As soon as he heard their sharp intake of breath he was ready right then to pick up everything and leave. Get out of this place and look somewhere else for employment.

Heaving a long sigh Kaiba asked, "Should I just leave now to save you the trouble?"

"No. Don't do anything," one of the judges nearly shouted at him.

Another whispered, "Copy the numbers on his arm."

"Look at those burn marks," another hushed whisper.

"You came from the dungeons? That's pretty rare…" A judge began looking up information.

"Pretty amazing," Kaiba said sarcasm dripping from his words.

"It says here you escaped. Is that true?"

"Almost escaped," he corrected.

"You really are from the army," another judge commented. The dog tags from around his neck tinkled as if acknowledging this fact.

"Do you have ant tattoos?"

Turning he showed them the one he got from a guy when he was in the training hall. The mark was etched high on his shoulder and it was on the opposite arm of the brand.

"Only this one. It shouldn't count…"

"Why not? It bears the mark of the elite."

Kaiba scoffed, "Elite soldier if anything. Over a hundred soldiers have these."

Then out of the blue another judge asked, "Can you turn around so we can look at your back?"

"I'd rather not."

"We've seen the burns across your ribs and that gash on your arm what's worse?"

Another judge decided to butt in, "It can't be that bad."

"I'm not turning around. If you want to see it then come over here and look for yourselves," he said spotting the rolling cameras behind them.

Almost immediately all of them except the center judge stood up and surrounded him. After hearing their gasps and cries of disgust he had just about enough. Kicking his shirt off of the ground and slipping it on he quickly strode to where his trench coat was and donned it. Not looking back and in a furious mood Kaiba pushed through the heavy steel doors and left not hearing a single word or offer thrown at him.

Angrily he took the elevator down and took the time to button up his shirt. Striding out of the building and back across the street to the apartment building he just wanted to tear out of his skin.

He saluted a greeting to Ms. Williams then ran up stairs to his room to vent.

Stupid idiotic… Argh! I can't believe I stuck around long enough for them to ridicule me like that!

Shouting out other obscenities and stomping about his room Kaiba decided that some fresh air might be good for his senses. Opening up the window he leaned on the windowsill just to shout more obscenities to the night sky. This caused the giant slugs and other passersby on the street to look up at him.

Kaiba forgot he resided on the second story. Looking down he saw something that caught his eyes.

Sitting on a fire escape that was bolted to the ancient brick Kaiba contemplated his day.

He wasn't mad at losing the job; no that he didn't care about that for a second.

Regretting having hung up his trench coat, Kaiba settled with hugging his knees and peering out into the distant blinking lights that somehow reminded him of home. Whatever a home was

Unexpectedly the demon felt a presence besides him and the smell of coffee. Looking up Kaiba saw his boss leaning outside of his window trying to hand him a carton of ice-cream.

"Take it. It'll make you feel better."

Seeing how he was blankly staring at her she continued to try and goad him, "It is coffee flavored. Yum, caffeine… If you take it I'll give you a plain roll."

Almost immediately he snatched the frozen dessert from her hands then caught the roll she threw at him. Sitting on the windowsill Ms. Williams then slid onto the fire escape sitting next to him.

"You should be resting, Ms. Williams," Kaiba told her taking a bite out of the roll.

"Please, call me Abigail. Besides I thought that you could use the company."

"Hnnn…" He shoved some ice-cream into his mouth using the lid as a spoon.

Abigail had pulled out her own carton but seeing what he was doing to eat the frozen coffee made her try and suppress her giggles.

"Stop," taking the carton and its cap from his hands she detached the wooden spoon then handed it back to him, "that should work better."

I keep on seeing her as my boss when in truth she's about the same age as I am…

"Thanks, Ms…. Abigail."

"The city looks good from here. You got a good view," Abigail said trying to get a conversation started. Kaiba mutely nodded while shoveling the ice-cream into his face.

"So I take it that the interview didn't go well."

"Understatement of the century," Kaiba muttered after a series of low grumbles.

"Do you want to talk about it? I'll keep it secret."

"First off it wasted time and money and a lot of it. Secondly they played an already horrible movie on repeat. Thirdly I now hate my own skin," he explained with no emotion what-so-ever.

Abigail scooted closer to him and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"It's ok. There are other jobs out there. Don't hate your skin too much. In the end your body and soul is all you've got and your soul doesn't help you much when you're alive."

"True as it may be, it doesn't help the fact that I want to tear off my own skin…"

"Scars?"

Kaiba just nodded and took some bites of the cold coffee.

"To me scars are like pictures. Instead of good moments though they remind you of the mistakes that you have made in the past. Either that or they show to an extent what horrors you've been through. But you don't look that bad to me."

Lifting up his bangs he showed her a scar above his eyebrow that was caused by an arrow glancing off of his helm.

"That's not visible."

"Most of the other ones are after I take off my shirt," Kaiba once more grumbled into his ice-cream.

Letting out a sigh Abigail said, "I know that appearances don't really matter to you so I won't say anything about that but just don't let them get to you next time."

Mutely nodding he continued to stare off into the city.

"Listen you can have tomorrow off if you'd like," Abigail offered standing up.

"No, work should take my mind off of it."

Abigail decided to take away her offer, "Nope you are going to take the day off. I won't have you distracted and end up falling down the stairs or injuring yourself somehow so just promise me you'll take it easy tomorrow."

Almost robotically he replied, "I promise I'll take it easy tomorrow."

Abigail smiled to the sulking demon before climbing back through his window and went back to her room.

He was rejected from countless other jobs. How did this one manage to get to him? Maybe after all of those horrible interviews and rejections this one was the final straw? I just hope he gets better after tomorrow…

Next Morning:

Kaiba woke up early like every other morning but instead of putting on his uniform he slipped into a worn black inside shirt and went downstairs into the break room where he downed coffee and chomped defenseless plain rolls.

"How do you live? Surviving off of coffee and bread rolls and the occasional slice of leftover ham… How do you do it?"

"Good Morning Ms. Williams. Because I can that's why."

"Why are you even down here at this hour?"

Instead of answering he gave her a questioning look. Like the kind of look you get from a rabbit after you cut off one of its ears. It is like what did you do that for?

"I told you to rest today."

Holding a roll in his mouth he gave her a blank look.

"Just go upstairs and watch TV. I'll work today just like yesterday. Now shoo."

Waving her hands at him she tried to get him to leave. But after a while of waving at him she gave up and left.

After she had left he mused over what she had said. "TV? OK." After grabbing a roll and downing the rest of his coffee he wandered into the lobby and stood in line behind the customers.

"Ooh, aren't you a hottie?" One of the customers had taken notice of him.

Instead of answering he just stood there. If I stand amongst the customers she'll get mad and notice me faster than if I stand near her. I wonder if she even knows where the remote to my TV is…

A frown marred his features as he thought. The girl continued to blabber on asking him rhetorical questions. Ms. Williams couldn't help but listen to the conversation and get frustrated over it because it distracted her. Snapping her pencil in half from her anger she suddenly shouted, "Kaiba stop flirting with the customers and get over here."

Immediately he came to her side and took the items she gave him.

"After dropping these customers off at their room go watch TV. Here's your remote."

Entering his room and flopping onto his bed Kaiba flipped on the TV.

"Hmmmmmm…. Television……"

Immediately sappy music floated through the room. Frowning slightly but curious he turned up the volume and laid back. Turning the volume all the way up to keep himself awake he managed to watch one scene of some guy named Victor try and win back a blonde girl named Casey, before falling asleep.

While he was snoozing to sappy love scenes Ms. Williams had to deal with some strange customers.

"You're saying you two are from the DEMON's across the street. Why are you here and what do you want with my only employee? Didn't you just reject him yesterday?"

"We didn't reject him," they started.

Abigail gave the unusual characters a piercing glare that made them cringe.

"If you want another chance, talk it out with him. He may still want the job," scribbling out his room number on a post-it note she stuck it to the man's hat.

Glaring at them as they left she went to take care of the other customers. The judges went to his room. Hearing love making sounds they kind of backed off but seeing how the door was open they peeked inside. Slowly they stepped into the small apartment and closed the door to hear the love fest on the highest setting and seeing the demon sprawled out on the bed fast asleep.

They decided to shut off the annoying soap opera but as soon as they did they turned around to face a sword pointed at them.

"What are you doing in my room?"

They backed off a bit saying, "Don't you know who we are?"

"From yesterday. Why are you here?"

"After you left we lost interest in the others. They were too stereotypical, but you…"

"What about me?" He lowered the weapon and sheathed it but continued snarling at the pair.

"You were different. We didn't know how to react once you stepped through that door. We never had someone from the army come in before and not have it be a joke. Even those are rare actually," she offered.

"So…" Kaiba eyed them warily.

"Please come tomorrow when you have time," the two pleaded.

Still eying them cautiously he said, "I'll come tomorrow but if you end up mocking me I won't hesitate to burn your corporation to ashes."

Nodding hysterically they backed out of his domain and shut the door. Running a shaky hand through his chocolate brown hair he muttered, "I can't believe I got the job… I can't believe I fell asleep watching TV…"

Downing the water by his bedside he laid back on his bed and slept most of the day away.


Next Chapter he goes to work… Not very pleasant but It all fits later… You'll see….

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