I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! I am a poor college student. Please do not sue me, as I do not have much to offer.

I only have access to the English versions of YGO!, and as such I will be using Tea, Joey, and Tristan instead of Anzu, Jou, and Honda. Pegasus J Crawford is, to me, Maxamillian Pegasus. I don't know a whole lot about YGO!, only what I've seen on TV. Sorry... Also, the chapters will tend to be short so I will actually write this. When I start to focus on length, I get obsessed and I can't write. Thank you for reading, and enjoy. ^_^

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The Heart of A ... Kaiba?

Chapter 02

Liliana was angry. Her glasses had long since been thrown across the room in her bitter frustration, and her hair was starting to stick up every way due to the constant running of her fingers through it. She willed the information to absorb in her brain, but alas, it stubbornly remained on the pages of her math book and not a whit of it became available in her mind.

She sighed as she reached over and cranked up the volume on her computer. "I had a bad day again…" the song started, and she sang along to it quietly. She felt close to tears and shoved the book away. "It's not even like I'm going to school for math anyway," she muttered. This didn't lesser her failure any.

Brown eyes that were framed by slim, black wire glasses wandered around the room and settled on a deck. Duel monsters, she thought with another wave of disappointment. Yet another thing that, for some reason, she couldn't understand. Life points, combos, sacrifices… it might as well have been another language. It wasn't even as though she had bought the deck, but since it was a gift from him, she was damn well trying her best to learn. Well. Maybe her second best.

Her eyes wandered to her walls, which were plain, save a few drawings. Mostly done in charcoal, with a few pencil sketching here and there, her artwork decorated the small apartment. The small, barren apartment, she thought unrelentingly. On her shelves that were cluttered with books there were a few pictures, mostly of landscape scene. Never people.

Lily's mind again switched gears. Back to the cards, she thought. She flipped through the deck, frowning thoughtfully. Though about half of her deck comprised of monsters, less than a fourth of those were worth a second look. "Pfft!" she snorted, throwing the deck back down on the table. To learn, she decided she'd have to out into and observe. No more reading books that either ticked her off with their over-simplification (and thus making her feel like an idiot) or the books that made her feel stupid just by being too hard to understand. It was time to go find someone to watch.

A few minutes later, Liliana wandered around aimlessly, from one duel to another. She had yet to find one that actually interested her. Then again, she thought while stopped at another table, it's not as though I know much of anything about this game anyway. Frowning thoughtfully, she watched the two players place their cards down. As far as she could tell, a person could have five monster cards and five trap or magic cards. Beyond that, she still was confused. She had only worked out the last time she came around that the defeated monster's attack points were subtracted from the other's attack points to get however many life points were taking off. At least, that's what she thought. Lily rather doubted that she would ever understand fusion and magic and all that other stuff.

She sighed, almost frustrated. She knew she wasn't an idiot, but for some reason this was one thing she couldn't just figure out on her own or from reading. Kids half her age were playing with ease, and yet she couldn't understand what simple magic cards did. "Blehhh," she muttered out loud, causing the duelists she was currently observing to give her a startled look. Blushing, she quietly moved on.

Now, this one was a little more interesting. The duelists were either very good or very bad. Their life points had fallen to 250 each. She glanced at the field. Hmmm. Some of the monsters in her deck were better than those that were being played. At least neither had some 500 attack point creature on the field. She paused and fixed her stare on the game play.

It was over too soon. The very next turn one of the guys played a combination attack and defeated the other's monster. She sighed as she watched them shake hands. It was all Latin to her.

Lily pushed her dark hair back out of her eyes. Damn bangs, she thought idly. She continued to make her way around Kaiba World, but found nothing that caught her attention quite.

"Hey, miss, do you want to play a duel?" a boy of about nine asked hesitantly.

She paused, then blinked. "Me?"

"Well, yeah," he replied, looking almost embarrassed.

Lily smiled. "I would, but I don't know how to play. I don't understand it at all. That's why I'm here."

"You don't know how to play Duel Monsters?" he asked, his eyes wide.

She shook her head. "Nope." She bent over so that she was face to face with him. "But how about this: if you find someone, can I watch? And you help me learn? Maybe someday I can duel you, then."

"Sure!" he said cheerfully, then looked around. "I don't know many people because I just moved here and you were the only one who didn't look completely busy."

"You mean I looked like a dummy," she muttered bitterly. Imagine, being so much older than this kid and not even being able to play a game against him!

"Huh?"

"Uhh, nothing," she replied, her face clearing and she felt more than a little foolish at her irritation.

"Okay." He glanced around a little more. "Everyone here seems so busy. Is it always this crowded?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Lily replied. "Sometimes it's worse, especially right after the middle and high schools let out."

"Man. Does Seto Kaiba ever play here?"

"Um. I don't really know," she answered truthfully. A brief flash of blue eyes and brown hair played into her mind, but she shoved it down forcefully. Couldn't be.

"Hey, what's your name?" he asked suddenly.

"It's Lily. What's yours?"

"Shun," he replied, almost bouncing in his eagerness. "Lily's a pretty name. Kinda like the flower, ne?"

"Yes," she agreed, glancing around.

"Well, come on!" Shun said with the impatience of youth. He tugged on her hand. "Let's go find someone!"

Someone found them, though it was not in a physical sense. Seto felt like a peeping tom, watching her wander around his playground like this. He couldn't help it, though. He should've been concentrating on trying to make some stupid ad for class, but instead he was sitting in front of his computer, his eyes fastened steadily on a girl he didn't even know.

"Well, well. Never thought I'd see the day when Seto Kaiba turned into a pervert," his computer chimed.

"I am not a pervert," he replied, frowning. "What makes you say that, you insolent piece of machinery?"

"It's obvious, isn't it, sir? You're sitting here watching some girl. The only other time I see you this fascinated by the happenings at Kaiba Land is when someone like Yugi Mutou is playing. Which, these days, is a rare thing indeed. And this girl isn't even playing! So confess. Who is she?"

He hesitated, reluctant to admit that though he had snuck glances here and there at her drawings, he never really paid attention to her name. "Just some girl," he replied nonchalantly, aware that his silence had been too long to pass off his curiosity as passing to his computer.

"Uh-huh. And does just some girl have a name?"

"Undoubtedly. I, however, do not know it," Kaiba returned, glaring at the screen. Damn!

"She's a bit on the short side, isn't she? And she's rather plain. She wears glasses," the computer continued her observations.

"She's not plain," Seto protested before he realized he said it. He growled. "Stop this nonsense before I disconnect your voice again!"

"Hmph," the computer retorted, but desisted its comments. Artificial intelligence was both a blessing and a curse, Seto thought darkly, but returned to his watching anyway.

She was walking with some kid through the maze of dueling pairs. Seto wondered briefly if that was her kid brother, but quickly dismissed the thought. She had shown up alone and then, Seto presumed, had been approached by the squirt looking for a match. The odd thing was the slightly puzzled look on her face as she watched the dueling. She almost didn't look like she didn't know what was going on. It wasn't a stupid look, though, like many people got when they couldn't understand something. It was a cross between irritation and determination. She really wasn't plain, he realized. But she made herself look that way. Minimal work went into her look.

He watched as the boy led her around. Finally, he ran into another kid who didn't have a partner, and they settled down to duel. She sat behind the kid she had been walking with and occasionally they conferred. The odd thing was that she didn't look like she was helping him; instead, it seemed that he was explaining it to her. Could it be that someone didn't understand Duel Monsters?

A plan formed in his mind. He grabbed up his own deck with his prized Blue Eyes White Dragon cards and headed for the door. He was slightly annoyed when his hand, seemingly acting of its own free will, smoothed down his hair. Very confident, he strolled down to the section where the two kids were dueling. He got a few looks here and there, but no one seemed to want to stop him. That was usually the case when Seto Kaiba had a goal in mind; few tried to get between him and it.

Turn left here, he thought, and make the next right... perfect. He was standing behind the brown-haired girl from his class. "Excuse me," he said softly, "may I watch this match?"

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So that's it for chapter 02. I feel really strange making them this short, but as you can see with some of my other stories, when I try to force out length I usually end up losing interest in writing. Thank you to those who reviewed.

On another note, I purchased episodes 1 - 32 on DVD today. Imported DVDs, no less, so I won't be able to read the cover. Eee. But at least I'll have them, so hopefully I'll be able to write this without worrying about mistakes. If I've made any, please let me know. And, as always, comments are greatly appreciated!