"You must be enjoying your meal," Mai said after a long stretch of silence.
While wailing saxophones and pianos weren't Seto's preferred sound of music, he found the quiet atmosphere of The Spade soothing. Dinner had been quiet as well, his companion seeming to have little to say. Yet, he hadn't felt so relaxed in quietude in so long that he couldn't be bothered to care.
Seto swallowed a bite of the best steak he'd had in a long time.
"The steak here is quite good," he said.
I was enjoying the quiet, he thought.
"You know, I didn't invite you here just for the steak," she said.
Seto glanced up from his plate, quirking his brow. "Then why did you invite me? Surely, it wasn't for my charming companionship, either."
Mai smirked. "You'll see. After dessert."
"You did say there would be entertainment."
"Mhm," she hummed while twirling her steak knife in her fingers.
The meal passed mostly in silence, with Mai offering the occasional comment about Mokuba's attitude toward phys. ed. class, and Seto speaking only when he felt he needed to keep the pretend conversation going.
When he wasn't looking at his plate or catching glimpses of his companion to show he was listening, Seto's gaze drifted around the restaurant. The blue wallpaper was decorated with an intricate gold scroll work pattern, and the carpet was a neat gray with small violet diamonds.
Seto had been inside The Spade a few times as a child, but the establishment wasn't what he would call familiar. The interior had probably been remodeled. Nearly the only thing he had remembered was that the food tasted better than anything Gozaburo could cook at home, and the meetings he held after the meals always lasted too long.
When the waiter came to collect their plates, Mai placed a dessert order for both of them without asking Seto.
Seto wasn't interested in more than two bites of the crème brulee he knew he'd have to pay for, but he didn't complain. The concoction tasted pleasant and had an enjoyable texture, but he found the sweetness too overpowering to eat very much. He set his spoon aside to signal that he was finished and waited for Mai to do the same.
The woman appeared to lavish her dessert until the tiny dish was clean, when she finally set it aside. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, a pleased grin on her face.
"You've apparently enjoyed yourself," Seto commented, although the remark felt lame. How long could the two of them carry on a conversation based on how well the other was enjoying their dinner? Still, he felt he had nothing else to say.
Setting her dessert dish aside, Mai rested her arms on the table and folded her hands, then leaned in close.
"Are you ready for the next stage?"
Seto's interest in the evening was waning. A fine line ran between a relaxing atmosphere and a dull one, and the occasion was leaning toward the latter.
"I suppose so," he said, tossing his cloth napkin onto his plate. "Lead on."
Mai gestured the waiter over.
"Separate checks," Seto specified to the man. Mai had claimed he didn't have to pay for her, and he would hold her to it. He ignored the waiter's dirty glances as he scrawled out a check.
The jazz music seemed to drift into the background as Seto followed the woman's swinging hips through The Spade. Past the dining hall, where Gozaburo held his occasional business meetings or social dinners, were a set of wide, ornate curtains from floor to ceiling and even wider across than they were tall.
A young man standing beside the curtain inclined his head toward Mai, perhaps the way a butler might dip for the master of his house. But the man, no older than Seto, was dressed in a red designer dress shirt and dark stone-washed jeans, an outfit that looked like it had been bought at a shopping mall.
All the same, the man pulled back the heavy fabric—not enough that Mai could walk through on her own without pushing the curtain aside herself, but enough to show that the invitation existed. The man winked and kissed the air in Mai's direction.
"Devlin," Mai smirked as she passed, but she showed him no more regard as she led Seto through the curtain.
"You take all your dates here?" the man asked Mai, following around to the other side of the curtain.
Mai flashed a patronizing smile. "This isn't a date," she corrected. "We're just here to have a little fun. Blow off some steam."
The room behind the curtains was plain, other than that it shared the same decorative carpeting and wallpaper as the rest of the restaurant. There was no furniture, and rather than another chandelier to light the area, a set of florescent lights illuminated the room. The lighting cast a cheap, uninviting air about the area.
The room was made up of the curtains at Seto's back, and three walls. The wall opposite the curtain contained a single door. Where the left and far wall should have met in a corner seemed to create a hallway lit by more florescent lights, but he couldn't see where it led.
Seto couldn't see the draw of the room, or how anyone could 'blow off steam' here.
"Hey," Devlin called, speaking directly to Seto. "Entertainment costs extra."
"Excuse me?" Seto questioned, his eyes on the man a head shorter than himself.
"I said, your entry fee isn't included in your meal. Plenty of people come here just for the steak, you know."
Devlin held out his hand, palm up and fingers greedily twitching.
Seto glanced back toward Mai, who had walked a few steps ahead of him without looking back.
"Don't worry about her. She has a tab."
"How much?"
"Two hundred."
Seto scoffed. "I don't even know what I'm paying for," he argued, not bothering to reach for his wallet.
"Entertainment," Mai emphasized over her shoulder. "I promise, it'll be worth it. And who knows? You might even get your money back at the end of the night."
Seto squinted at the blonde, but the loud screech of an amplified guitar cut through the air. He peered around the lobby area, but couldn't see any speakers.
"You brought me to a rock concert?" Seto asked, but Mai didn't seem to hear him.
"Don't mind the music. Someone's just turned up the stereo," Devlin explained.
"You aren't concerned about the customers in the dining room, trying to enjoy their quiet jazz?"
Devlin flicked the heavy curtain. "Sound absorbing."
"Are you coming, or not, Mister Kaiba?" Mai called impatiently.
Seto rolled his eyes, but he pulled his checkbook out of his coat pocket.
Devlin put up a hand. "My apologies, sir. Cash only," he said with a slight bow.
Seto didn't put the book away, but instead flipped open the cover and flipped through a set of bills discreetly tucked into the flap of the checkbook's cover.
"I wouldn't have expected otherwise," he mumbled as he placed two hundred dollar bills in Devlin's open palm.
The man grinned and pocketed the crisp bills. "Enjoy your evening, Mister Kaiba."
Mai waited for Seto to catch up to her and linked her arm around his.
"My, my, aren't we a big spender tonight?"
"I don't like to sound cheap. But when you told me I didn't have to pay for your meal, I never expected that this night was still going to cost me nearly three hundred dollars."
"I wouldn't count it lost just yet. Remember, there's still a chance you might get that money back, and more."
"And when are you going to explain to me how I might do that?"
Mai pushed open the door, which looked more like an emergency exit than the door to a night of loud music and expensive entertainment. The volume on the other side of the door was deafening, but only lasted another moment before a few indiscernible shouts rose above the guitars, and the music was turned down.
The inside of the large room was set up like a casino, if one had been made up by teenagers and broke college students who had only seen casinos in movies. Seto had never gambled before, simply because he hadn't had much extra cash to make it worth his while, so he didn't feel drawn to many of the game tables.
But one area of the room held fast Seto's attention. It didn't appear to be like any casino game he'd ever heard of. A large circle of chairs ran in the center of the room, with several more rows of seats inside. Nearly every seat was taken, but most people—especially in the outer rows—were not sitting in their seats.
"This isn't a dog fighting arena or something crude like that, is it?"
Mai flashed him a disgusted look. "You think I would bring you to something so distasteful?"
"I didn't think you would bring me to a makeshift gambling ring, either."
"If that's what you think this is, you're not looking hard enough." She gestured forward toward the circle of rowdy people.
Seto had to move closer to see through the crowd. When he was close enough he could see that in the center of the sea of chairs was a table with two seats opposite each other. Two people sat in those seats and appeared to be in the middle of playing a card game, though it would seem more like they were gladiators with how heated the match was.
"Are they…?" Seto paused, studying the arena. "Are they playing Magic & Wizards?"
Mai gave a knowing smirk and slapped his back.
"I've seen your boy play this game at school. I heard a rumor that you're interested, yourself."
"I could be. I'm curious who, other than my brother, knows I play."
"Doesn't matter. Interested?"
"Does it matter if I don't have a deck?"
Mai winked. "That's what makes it fun."
(giant arena thing. It doesnt matter that seto didnt bring a deck because part of the fun of the underground competition is that they have preset decks people contributed to, more than enough usually, and you can grab one at random to play.)