YUGIOH

MP: Aftermath

Chapter 20.

Kaiba was forced to have this temp worker for a few days, now. The dreams of Joey were still haunting him, and he was even tempted to call him once, having to literally drag himself away from the phone.

While, Mokuba had already called Joey's parents, family, and friends to let them know about the transfer. If anyone inquired why, Mokuba explained that he recently broke-up with someone and asked Mokuba if he could give him a job far enough away to get a lot of space between them. Though most didn't know he was even dating, Yugi knew what Mokuba was talking about. Infact, Mokuba even called Yugi secretly, telling him the whole truth of what they planned, and made Yugi promise not to tell anyone for both Joey's and Kaiba's sake. Yugi wished Mokuba luck, and Joey as well.

Kaiba had absorbed himself into this project with Mokuba, which he felt was kind of fun, really. And even though the temp worker he felt to be annoying, stupid, and inept, her growing arguments with him was almost amusing, reminding him of his arguments he used to have with Joey, before everything became confusing.

But, that actually made her rather entertaining to him, and she reacted so well to his simple prodding of her ego. Mokuba was already starting to notice the interesting familiarity, but said nothing. Then every evening, he would get the read-out on his test subject, and compare notes with the read out this person originally had before the transformation.

As the third day came along, it was already lunch time once again. Jasmine was entering Kaiba's room to give him yet 'another' coffee, when she froze in place.

Inside the room was none other than Mai Valentine, who was looking over her expensive new bracelet. "Wow Seto, you really out done yourself, this time. This must have cost you a small fortune!"

Kaiba stretched his long legs out from away from desk, crossing them and sitting rather comfortably, as he stated, "So, which restaurant would you like to go to for lunch, today?"

"The most expensive one, of course!" Mai laughed. "I was thinking over at the Sea King, where I've heard they have the best lobster steak combo you can get anywhere."

Jasmine's hand was so tight on the coffee cup, it's a surprise the thing didn't shatter yet, as it shook in her hand, at the outward apparent jealousy. Yet no one even noticed she was in the room, yet.

Kaiba smirked, saying, "Surf and Turf? Don't you think that's a bit rich for lunch?"

"Oh, don't you worry....I'm worth it!" She giggled. They were both suddenly interrupted, by Kaiba's coffee cup slamming on Kaiba's counter, and spilling a bit over.

"Here's your coffee, Mr. Kaiba." Jasmine said. She then looked up at Mai, the jealousy and envy easily seen by Mai, as she added, "Sorry, hope I didn't interrupt anything...."

Mai looked coldly at this woman, then up at Kaiba, asking, "Who's this?"

"Temp worker....Mokuba's idea." Kaiba answered.

"Oh, temp help? Should have known....she certainly doesn't seem very useful to you, Seto. I don't see why you bother even keeping her...." Mai said, giving a smirk Jasmine's way.

"That's pretty simple, Mai." Jasmine smirked. "Atleast the paycheck he gives me is a lot cheaper than yours is."

Both gawked at Jasmine, realizing the implication Jasmine stated for all to hear. Despite Kaiba's surprise, there was no sign of anger from the comment.

Mai, on the other hand was fuming. "You little tramp! Did you just call me a whore??"

"Hey, lady….if the shoe fits." She smirked, daring Mai to do something about it.

Mai looked like she was about to strangle her, but then finally noticed Kaiba didn't say a damn thing about it. She turned to him, and protested, "Well, what are you just sitting there, for? Aren't you going to defend me, or something? You could atleast fire her!"

Kaiba did his best to hide the smile trying to form on his face, but the humor was still quite evident in his eyes, as he stated, "Technically Mai, I can't. She's under a temp contract. If you were an official Kaiba Corp. employee I could. But, since you don't work here and aren't an important client of this company, I'm afraid I'm unable to...."

'An 'official' employee??' Mai thought, getting even angrier. Did that make her an 'unofficial' employee? If she didn't know any better, she'd think Kaiba had just subtly agreed with this temp worker!

"So, you think this is funny, do you?" She snarled at Kaiba. "Well, fine! You can just skip the lunch, then! And while you're at it, you can skip seeing me for awhile, too! And if you ever want to see me again, I want an apology from both you, 'and' this tramp!"

With that said, Mai turned on her heal, storming out the door, while calling back, "And don't expect me to be returning anything to you, either!" Slamming the door on her way out.

There was a moment of silence after Mai stormed out, between Kaiba and his temp worker Jasmine. Kaiba kept silent because it was all he could do to keep from falling on the floor in a fit of laughter. After all, he really didn't want to encourage this kind of behavior in any of his employees, especially in a work area.

So he forced the humor back, keeping the mask up, and turned his attention finally over to Jasmine, giving her a glare. "Well?" He finally asked.

Jasmine looked sheepishly guilty, as Mokuba ran in, saying, "What's going on? Mai came storming through swearing at everyone."

"Our temp worker called her a prostitute." Kaiba stated.

Mokuba looked at Kaiba, then at Jasmine, and fell on the floor in a fit of laughter. "Mokuba…" Kaiba scorned, but the smile was finally starting to show at the corner of his mouth.