Puzzle Pieces

by serena.jones.585

Chapter 0, Piece 0: Preface "That? Oh, it's a puzzle, but the box is missing, so I'm not sure what the picture is." "Couldn't someone just put together and see?" "I suppose they could, but how? You'd pull out a handful of pieces, but you wouldn't know if they were sky or water or anything. There'd be no way to see how they relate. And you'd never know if a piece was missing."

47. Piece 13

Chapter 47, Piece 13 * * * * * * * *

Days later Kaiba discovered a sketch pad on his dresser, with a note that it had been found in the laundry.

It was one sketch pad, and almost filled at that. Surely even the cash strapped Jounouchi could afford a new sketch pad. If he had needed it that badly, he would already have asked for it. If he ever did ask for it, Sato could mail it.

Kaiba would have returned it in person, except that he had already withdrawn from school, submitting the paperwork online as he returned from the ill-fated class trip. It wasn't mandatory for him to attend and it was a distraction from corporate needs. He put the pad aside and left a note of his own beside it for someone to remove all of his school texts; store anything of value, discard everything else.

KaibaCorp was important. A class trip, a sketch pad, and a kiss in the dark were all irrelevant.