ME: Well, I'm getting into Yu-Gi-Oh now, am I?
This is a birthday present for my little cousin, who is possibly the biggest fan of this show in the entire country. To be honest, I don't know a lot about it, but I watched a bit, for the purpose of this fic. It's set sometime after the episode where Bakura gets blitzed during the Battle City Finals, but before Kaiba's own match.
DISCLAIMER: DON'T OWN IT. DON'T THINK I'LL EVER OWN IT, UNLESS I BECOME VERY RICH AND POSSIBLY JAPANESE IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME…
ME: Okay, on with the story!
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The soft tap on the door was unexpected.
Seto Kaiba felt his patience waning even further. It was becoming increasingly difficult for him to acquire any privacy these days. Not that it mattered; he was only preparing himself for the Battle City finals after all…
The door to his room slid open noiselessly, and he readied himself for some new complaint from Yugi and his moron friends…Oh, Kaiba, I'm afraid the airship might have hit a tiny bird, we have to land immediately so that I can nurse it back to health…
"Um, hi."
Kaiba blinked.
Serenity Wheeler.
Standing in the hallway looking like she wasn't even sure why she was there herself, Wheeler bit her thumbnail nervously and stared up at him.
He blinked again, somewhat disconcerted by this unexpected visitor, before regaining his icy composure. "What do you want…Wheeler?"
She shuffled her feet a little and avoided his gaze, before muttering, "Can I come in?"
Seto blinked again. Just for variety. "What do you want?" He repeated slowly, as if talking to a very young child. Maybe all the Wheelers were as slow as the mutt after all…
"I wanted to…thank you."
…
"Say that again?"
"I said I wanted to thank you!" She burst out suddenly, as if she was still incredibly embarrassed, but also getting downright irritated by his being difficult. "Now can I come in?"
He stared at her wordlessly, not quite understanding the words thank and you when used in a sentence directed at him, but moved aside anyway and allowed her in.
She stepped in and immediately began to look around. After all, even Joey would have noticed that Kaiba had a far nicer (And considerably larger) room than everybody else.
Actually, when she thought about it, knowing her brother that would be the first thing he'd notice…
And the second would be the impressive-looking deck of duelling cards spread out on the coffee table.
Kaiba noticed the direction of her gaze almost instantly, and moved swiftly to sweep all his cards into one pile and picked it up. So that was her real agenda, huh? Getting in through her powers of…persuasion, and then running to her mutt brother and his friends and telling them the intimate details of his deck. Well, that's never gonna happen…
"What are you waiting for then?" He snapped, feeling irritated that he'd even let her in now.
"I didn't come to steal a cheap look at your deck." She replied sharply, watching the way he held the cards close possessively. "And I could hardly jump you and take them, now could I?"
He stared at her blankly, taken by surprise by this girl…yet again. It was getting interesting. And annoying. "So what are you here for then?"
"I already told you." And now it was her who talked to him like he was small child. "I wanted to thank you…for helping Bakura." She paused, faintly red again. "You did the right thing."
Kaiba sat down and raised an eyebrow at her. "I did the right thing?"
"Yes." She sat down opposite him (Without being asked to, he noticed). "You did."
"Right."
"Right."
…
The silence was fairly uncomfortable.
"Y'know, you don't seem half as evil as my brother told me you were."
Well, what a stupid way to break a silence… For some reason, he felt faintly insulted that the mutt had been bad-mouthing him to Serenity. But still smirked at her and replied, "You caught me on a rare nice day, Wheeler. Don't get used to it."
"Oh." The smile that had been slowly creeping onto her face faltered.
Hah, take that, sister-of-the-mutt. The evil part her brother had warned her about seemed to be taking over in Kaiba's mind right now (And was currently performing the weirdest mental victory dance ever). He shuffled his deck absently, running a thumb over his Egyptian God Card and making sure she didn't see it…
Unfortunately, she noticed. "I told you I didn't want to see your cards."
He rolled his eyes at this. "And you thought I'd believe you?"
Serenity frowned. "Actually, I'm thinking maybe Joey was right. You are evil." She paused, before adding boldly, "And you're a real asshole too."
Seto blinked. He seemed to be doing an awful lot of that around her.
And who was she to call him an asshole anyway?! He, the CEO of Kaiba Corp., the richest young man in Japan…she should have been grovelling at his feet, awed by his might and good looks…
She stood up abruptly, breaking his self-indulgent inner monologue. "Thank you again for helping Bakura." She said, somewhat more frostily than before. "I'll leave you to prepare for the Finals now."
He nodded, not bothering to move from his seat.
The door slid open again, and she took a step, pausing. "Oh, and Kaiba…"
"What?"
She turned around and smiled brightly at him again. "Good luck!" And then in a flash of auburn hair was gone.
Kaiba was shocked again. So shocked that this time he didn't even blink.
That girl was interesting.
Pity about her brother really.
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ME: Well, there we are. It was kinda…amusing, I hope, if slightly OOC. (Coughs.) But hey, inside his head, I'm sure Kaiba's just as crazy as the rest of us…
And for a first try at Yu-Gi-Oh, it wasn't so bad, right?
…right?