…"I'll come to thee by moonlight,

Though hell should bar the way."

~

The rain spattered against the window in a medley of tapping. Seto Kaiba snapped his pencil in half. Damn that rain. He couldn't concentrate. Over the years he had cultivated the concentration skills of an automaton, something he found invaluable in his line of work, but today for some reason, he just couldn't concentrate over the racket of that infuriating rain. He felt, well, restless. He shoved his chair away from his desk and stood up with a sigh.

His window looked out on the streets of Domino. He could see the glow of the street lamps, the grayed sidewalks and pavements, the occasional person under an umbrella, all blurred by the sheets of rain cascading down his window, as the wind continued its plaintive howl.

Mokuba was lying on a sofa in the office, ostensibly reading, but Kaiba hadn't heard him turn a page in about twenty minutes. No doubt Mokuba had fallen soundly asleep. Kaiba faced the window with his hands behind his back. A sharp click came from the door. Seto didn't need to turn around as he watched in his highly polished window Ishizu's reflection enter through his office door.

"You're ten minutes late."

"In case you haven't noticed, Seto Kaiba, it happens to be raining out."

"Is that an excuse? Here at Kaiba Corporation, I don't give a damn about excuses, especially when it's about the weather." He spoke in a low voice as he watched in the window as Ishizu hung up her coat. Her hair was wet, and tiny streams of water ran down her face and neck. Kaiba watched, eyes narrowed, his face stony. Her gold earrings swayed imperceptibly as she moved.

"Kaiba Corporation is planning a merger soon. I'm having a business dinner Tuesday night at eight. I'll expect you to be there. The invitation's on my desk."

"How do you know I don't have plans?"

"Well, you'll just have to break any plans you do have."

Kaiba closed his eyes. He could hear the angry click of Ishizu's heels against the marble floor. He could hear them getting louder and louder, as she approached his desk and swiped the invitation, scattering papers on the floor as she did. Her heels faded slightly as she walked toward her own office, and slammed the door with a bang that made Mokuba wake with a start.

Pompous jackass, Ishizu thought angrily as she tore the envelope open. The truth was, she didn't have any plans for the rest of the week, but the certain arrogance with which Kaiba expected her to be there irritated her to no end. She pulled out a thick sheet of linen paper and perused it. Tuesday night, eight o'clock, Domino Hotel, formal dress. She'd have to find a babysitter for Hathor, and other than that, she'd have no problems, but, being a recluse, she'd always hated social events like this. She'd had to endure her share of them as head of the Department of Archaelogy, but she still abhorred the thought of a dinner party. She ran her finger over the embossed letters. This was all Kaiba's fault.

~

The priestess Aishizu stands by her window in one of her rare moments of free time. She allows herself to savor these few moments by herself, since right now, she seems to find her solitude oddly comforting. She refuses to let her mind dwell on the High Priest Seth. Strange, once again, how her relationship with him, this one aspect of her life which brings her much more happiness than she can ever comprehend, can also bring her so much torment. But to ruminate is painful, and to dwell on such matters is far worse, as she tells herself.

She leans her head against the wall. She hears footsteps, and she knows instinctively who is approaching her door.

"You left me abruptly this morning."

"What more was there to say?" She tries to keep the bitterness out of her words, but when she looks at him he has an almost wounded expression.

She looks away, but continues. "Can you not see where this is going to go, Seth? Your quixotic plans are doomed from the start. This will end in nothing but catastrophe for both of us. Please, I beg you, Seth." She struggles to keep the tears from coming to her eyes. Her voice becomes choked. "Please, if not for yourself, then for us, at least."

"I'm afraid not. Can't you see, Aishizu? My very soul is stagnating in this hellhole of an existence."

Aishizu looks away sorrowfully, as she realizes it is futile to try and dissuade him from his foolish ambitions. But she tries, nevertheless, to save their future together.

"It is foretold. I have seen it in my Millenium Tauk. To continue with this foolishness is madness. You cannot go against destiny, but I will tell you this, Seto. You will never gain the power of the pharaoh."

She rises and faces him. Her tone has suddenly become invested with a gravity and solemnity, and suddenly she is no longer a desperate woman trying to save the future, but a priestess ordaining an undeniable truth. She can keep up this charade no longer, and she suddenly sits back down. Seto stands in front of her.

"There is no such thing as destiny. Destiny is merely for those who are too weak to determine their own future. I, however, will decide my own fate."

She has nothing to say to this, but buries her face in his waist and begins to sob and begins to torture herself with the realization that they are doomed, if he continues with this.

Seto strokes her hair and begins to speak softly. "I need your help in this. You are the keeper of Obelisk the Tormentor, and I need Obelisk, Aishizu. Tell me where he is kept."

Aishizu says nothing. It is true that she alone of the priests is the keeper of Obelisk. But it is a sacred duty entrusted to her by the pharaoh Yami and she does not know if she can bring herself to break that trust and allow the Pharaoh to be destroyed by the very creature he entrusted to her.

But Seto continues to stroke her hair and speak in a low, gentle voice, as if trying to pacify a child. And finally it is a love so terrible in its furor that prompts her to lift her tear-streaked face and tell him in a cracked whisper exactly where Obelisk was kept.

~

Kaiba scowled and downed a glass of champagne. God knows how many of them he'd need to get through the night. He always hated these dinner parties, he hated wearing these dinner jackets, and he hated these idiots he was surrounded by. But he had a merger to make, and this dinner would be imperative to that end.

Mokuba came over and leaned against a chair. "Bourgeoisie bastards. And you spent a fortune on those appetizers themselves. Did you know you could probably feed a starving family in an underdeveloped country for months with what you spend hosting just one of these dinner parties, Seto?"

"Stuff it, Mokuba. I'm not in the mood to hear it. And you seem to have forgotten the fact that you're the one who always ends up eating an ungodly amount of those appetizers." Kaiba growled, and left. He'd always hated being criticized, and Mokuba seemed to be doing a lot of that nowadays. He'd had to put up with Mokuba popping up out of nowhere to criticize the cost of his dinner parties, the amount of water he wasted when he took showers, and the fact that his soul was slowly and irremediably rotting away due to a mixture of his bourgeosie ideals and his entrapment in the business world. What were they teaching in those schools these days, anyway?

Ishizu, meanwhile, was sitting in a corner of the room. She'd rebuffed numerous attempts to draw her into conversation, and was periodically checking her watch and wondering if Kaiba would ever notice if she were to leave about an hour and a half early. She was reminded forcibly of how much she hated social events of any kind. Kaiba noticed her from across the room, but made no movement to come near her.

She sighed. This was going to take forever. She noticed a balcony outside, and deciding that she needed some air, she slipped through the crowd and stood on the balcony. Much better. The din of conversations and the intolerable smell of everyone's perfumes and colognes had given her somewhat of a headache. She rubbed her head and leaned over the wall and stared out into the street.

"Enjoying yourself?"

Kaiba had snuck up behind her without making a sound. He leaned against the wall, a faint smirk on his face.

"I could ask you the same question."

Kaiba smiled silently to himself as Ishizu leaned further over the side of the balcony, lost in her own reverie. Neither one said another word, but the tension was palpable. A faint breeze slipped by, stirring the roses growing nearby on a trellis on the wall. Kaiba broke off a rose and coming up to Ishizu's side, offered it to her with a sardonic smile.

"How many drinks have you had, Kaiba?"

"You don't have to be so damn cynical, Ishizu. It's just a rose."

"And I don't want it."

Kaiba toyed with his rose, stroking its stem. "Do you see how perfectly white it is? White roses. The symbol of platonic love, Ishizu." He tossed it onto the street and looked up at her once again, making her feel slightly uncomfortable. He smiled again, and she could see the gleam of his teeth in the darkness.

She inhaled and looked away, and began to wonder just how many glasses of champagne Kaiba had had. He leaned in closer, so close she could feel his breath, so close she could reach up and touch him, so close that it is as if he will kiss her.

"Seto!" Mokuba Kaiba's voice cut through making both of them start perceptibly. Mokuba's head poked through the curtain separating the balcony from the room.

"Am I interrupting something?" Mokuba looked curiously at Seto, whose face was now a vivid scarlet, to Ishizu, who was looking determinedly at the floor.

"No." Kaiba said hastily, regaining his composure. Ishizu mumbled something likewise, and fought furiously not to look at either Mokuba or his brother.

"Ahh. I see." Mokuba's tone said little, but he gave the pair one last curious look before disappearing.

Kaiba cleared his throat awkwardly, before moving toward the exit. Ishizu tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, and made her way out. Before she could leave the balcony, though, Kaiba's hand brushed against her shoulder lightly.

"I apologize, Miss Ishtar. That was a, uh, unprofessional moment I think we just had there, and… I'll make sure it won't happen again."

"Yes."

Ishizu forced herself to look up at Kaiba again, and he was looking at her with an indescribable expression in his eyes. Suddenly without a word, he laced his hands around her waist and bent down. It took Ishizu a moment to realize that Kaiba's lips were locked against hers. She closed her eyes and lost herself for a moment, as she wondered when was the last time this had happened. Rishid. He was the only man she had ever kissed. The feeling of Kaiba pressed against her, however, brought back a recollection so sharp she could not help but gasp sharply and pull herself away.

It took a few seconds for her breathing to return to normal. Kaiba put his hands in his pockets and avoided looking at her.

"I'm sorry." Ishizu said, aware of how flat her words must sound.

"Why should you be sorry?" Kaiba replied in a monotone, crushing something invisible with his heel.

"It's… complicated."

"I don't see what's so complicated about it. I kissed you when I shouldn't have, and you didn't like it."

"That's not it." Ishizu felt like some small child, unable to express in words that it was hungry, or sad, or cold. She felt oddly frustrated at her inability to tell Kaiba something she herself did not know.

"You don't have to justify yourself." Kaiba paused for a minute, staring into nowhere. "That shouldn't have happened, and…"

"And what?"

"Forget it. It never happened, all right? I… I just forgot completely and I… kissed you."

Ishizu was completely at a loss for words, until all of a sudden, all the spite and anger she'd felt for the past several months was suddenly unleashed.

"Is this what happens to all your secretaries, Seto Kaiba?" And she suddenly remembered something. "At my interview, I was told about the former secretary. Where you the one who got her pregnant, Kaiba?"

Kaiba spun around with a look of unadulterated fury in his eyes. He inhaled sharply and suddenly, without warning, slapped her viciously.

"Don't talk about things you don't understand, Ishtar." He spat his words out angrily.

"And as of this moment…

You're fired."

*

*

*

(…I feel like crap. My molars are breaking through and my gums got infected, so it hurts like hell every time I chew, so I've been drinking nothing but liquids for about a week now. x_x. So let that be a lesson to you, people. *pokes random reader* You hear that? Stop reading and go brush your teeth. Now.

Anyway, thank you so much for the reviews! It means a lot to me, it really does, and it's very gratifying to know there's people out there who like reading my stuff. And congrats, Ambie-chan and Kiira for figuring out the quote from the last chapter. Here's your imaginary sticker. Have fun with it.

And I have a new excerpt. Anyone who can guess which poem it's from gets a, uh, imaginary cappucino maker. ^_^ Yes, you heard right, an IMAGINARY CAPPUCINO MAKER! *gasps from audience* Now isn't this little game fun? Okay, just ignore me, I'm a dork.

But thanks for reading, and the next chapter should be posted in about 2-3 weeks, but maybe sooner if I stop procrastinating so much. -_-