Chapter XI: The First Date!

Before she knew it, Tea was trying on dresses in the ritziest clothes store in Japan. The store was named Kami-sama's, as the clothes made the wearer feel like a god. At least that was the speculation, and after trying on several of their more expensive dresses – at Kaiba's insistence – she was inclined to agree.

Kaiba insisted that Tea find what she liked the most, and that cost was not a matter. The trick to wearing formal clothes is to like what you wear; Kaiba knows this more than anyone, because he has to wear formal clothes to work everyday. Of course, telling a woman that cost is not a factor, is not always the best idea in the world, but Kaiba was prepared to buy the most expensive thing they have anyway, so by default nothing Tea could have wanted would have been out of the question.

Tea had the time of her life, she felt like she was one of the rich and famous. She could feel the joy of the sales woman that was helping her, it wasn't everyday that someone with more than enough money to buy the entire store walked in and offered a young lady anything she wanted. Kaiba hung back and let the two women do what they do, he would occasionally be asked his opinion about what dress looked the best, and he would always give the same reply, " The dress you wear tonight has to be parallel to your own soul, or you'll be fidgeting all night."

It took a good two hours before Tea finally found something that shouted out her. It was a light blue dress that tied around the neck making a V line. The silk dress reflected the store's light, dimly though so not to be flashy. The dress certainly would highlight the woman inside it.

" Kaiba, this is the one." She said when her eyes met it.

Kaiba smirked, he was happy that Tea had finally made up her mind, " How much does this cost?" He asks the sales woman.

" This? This will cost one hundred thousand, five hundred Yen." The sales woman said.

" Fine, please bring it to the register." Kaiba replies.

With the dress bought and secured inside a bag, Tea and Kaiba entered the car that picked Tea up. After Tea recovered from her sheer joy, she said to Kaiba, " I have some things that will go so well with this dress. Would you mind if I go get them from my house?"

Kaiba completely forgot to plan what to do after Tea had gotten her dress, it was still only four o'clock and the dinner wasn't to start until nine o'clock, " Hm, yes of course. I'll have a car pick you up at eight-thirty."

" Again with the cars? Why doesn't he pick me up himself, I mean, it wouldn't look bad for him." Tea thought before she said, " Okay."

The car dropped Tea off at her house, and she carried her bag inside. It might have been easier on her if her parents had not have gotten home from work yet, however at four o'clock they were always home from their Sunday shift. It also would have been easier on her if she could at least get to her room before her mother caught her, but alas, fate also has an off sense of humor, " Hi Tea, where did you just get home from?" Her mother questioned.

Tea turned around to face her mother, " Hey mom, I just got back from a little shopping." She laughed nervously.

" Where at?" Tea's mother asked, and looked at the name on the bag Tea was carrying, " Kami-sama's! I thought you were saving money to go to dance school?"

" Well, ya'see, I was invited to this dinner tonight at nine, and…" Tea started when her mother broke in.

" It's a school night tonight Tea, your boyfriend should know that!"

Tea almost kicked herself for forgetting about school tomorrow, but she still had an obligation to Kaiba. Then it hit her, boyfriend? Kaiba wasn't her boyfriend!

" Mom! I don't have a boyfriend. I know it'd be late, but I already gave Kaiba my word…" Tea started when her mother cut her off again.

" Kaiba, as in, Seto Kaiba! Ooooooh, good girl! You're going to rake us in a millionaire, aren't you Tea! I always knew my daughter would marry a millionaire…" Tea's mother said as she swooned away.

" Well…" Tea started awkwardly, " At least I don't have to worry about upsetting my parents…" Tea said to herself, and entered her room.

She looked around for hours for the two things she knew would look great with the dress Kaiba had bought her. Two light blue wristbands and her light blue high heels. When she finally uncovered those items, it was time to leave. Tea made a mental note there and then that she would clean her room, if everything were clean she wouldn't have spent all day looking for just a pair of wristbands and high heels. She put them on, and hurried to the front door.

Just her luck that her parents just happened to be waiting for her to exit her room, with a camera in her father's hands. Tea was blinded for a few seconds by the flashes from the camera, " What the – " She started to say when her mother started talking.

" Oh these pictures are so valuable, Tea going on her first date with her future husband Seto Kaiba!" She said with a sigh characteristic of most mothers in her situation.

" Mom, Dad, please, it's not a big deal." Tea tells them, but to no avail.

" This may not seem like a big deal to you Tea, but to your parents, these are precious memories." Tea's mother replied.

As Tea dealt with her parents, Kaiba sat in the car just outside Tea's house. He was debating furiously with himself whether or not to go to the door. He didn't even know if it was the right thing to pick her up at her house personally. But here he was, sitting in the back of the company car, waiting for his guest to come. He was starting to get impatient, the dinner would start in a half-hour, and he wanted to be there in good time. Thankfully Tea soon walked out the door of her house, annoyed a bit at her parents for making this a big deal.

She made her way to the car, and opened the door and received a big surprise, " Kaiba, I thought you were waiting at the dinner?" She asked him in wonder, as she really didn't think he would come get her personally.

" I need to show up with my guest." Kaiba said coolly, trying not to be taken in by the image of beauty that was now sitting beside him.

" Oh." Tea said, half disappointed, " Well, lets get this dinner over with then."

" Tea, there will be people asking about our relationship…" Kaiba started.

" I'll just tell them that I'm a friend." Tea said cheerfully, as a means to annoy Kaiba, but his response would shock her.

" That's fine."

This was definitely odd, Seto Kaiba actually admitting to have a friend! This was something she'd been pushing him to do for a long time, ever since Duelist Kingdom, but she never thought that it would actually sink in. It was either some mistake, or maybe it was destiny, like that old woman said.

Tea only showed her surprise with a slight widening of the eyes, which went undetected by Kaiba, as he was looking forward the entire time. He was still debating what his feelings were for her. Recently they were respect, infatuation, and love. The former was the most likely, the middle was likely, and the latter had only a loose foothold in his mind. But the night was still young, and he still had plenty of time left in his experiment. After all, the dinner hadn't even started yet.

When they arrived at the place of the dinner, Tea was a little confused, " The dinner's at Kaiba Headquarters?" She asked herself aloud.

" Yes, the fortieth floor is dedicated to events such as this." Kaiba answered.

" Okay."

The two entered the building, and started for the elevators. Neither Tea nor Kaiba picked up on the odd stares that several Kaiba Corp. workers gave them. To them this was a first, seeing their boss with a girl. It was actually heartening for them, to see that their boss is still a human being like they are.

After the elevator ride, they were there, in the fortieth floor of Kaiba Headquarters. People were already socializing amongst themselves; some had taken their seats in their assigned tables. The biggest shareholders sat at the table in the front of the room, which was also the table that Tea and Kaiba would be sitting at. They would be sitting in the middle of the table overlooking the entire room. Kaiba walked straight for that table with Tea following close behind.

Tea felt like a fish out of water, she may know how to deal with her own type of people, but these were all businessmen and businesswomen, and their spouses. She had no idea how to act in front of these people, and she wished that she could ask Kaiba about it, but she didn't think it would look good for him now in front of all these people. All she could do now was follow Kaiba, and act as ladylike as she could. For all that it was worth, she hoped that she wouldn't be noticed.

Of course that was like hoping you weren't going to be eaten when you are being turned over a fire, she was noticed as soon as she sat down by the entire table, and soon by the entire room when it came time for the presentation. She was bombarded by questions about her relationship with Kaiba – like Kaiba had said – and she was also hit with several others regarding her future. Mostly the questions were of the "when will you and Seto hook up" theme. All of her answers were truthful, but she grew tired of all these personal questions.

To her left, Kaiba was also bombarded with questions; many of them were of the new virtual reality pod and the future of Kaiba Corp., however he was also hit with some personal questions about Tea. Kaiba dealt with those questions with his usual grace, and was even more able to bounce off of them, and bring the topic back to the new tech he originated. Poor Tea didn't have a starting topic though, and was forced to deal with things as they were thrown her way.

When it was finally time for Kaiba to give his presentation, Tea thanked whatever power it was that was responsible for making it so. She was reaching her wit's end with all of the questions about her and Kaiba. However it made her blush just a little bit whenever someone said that they looked good together.

Kaiba stood up, as a projector started up just behind him showing pictures of the new tech on a screen that was suspended above the room so everyone could see it. The new virtual reality pod looked no different than the previous ones that she had seen when she and her friends helped Mokuba and saved Kaiba.

When Kaiba got up, he accidentally got a full glance of Tea. He took in how lovely she looked, and for the first time in his life, something overlapped his work. He took a moment to clear his head; there was no way he could give this very important speech if his mind stayed exclusively on his "date". When Tea hadn't heard Kaiba's stern business voice fill the room immediately, she turned around to see what was wrong. She looked right into his eyes as she thought of something to do to encourage the young CEO, but these thoughts reached him through her eyes.

Kaiba found what he was going to say, and began his speech, " Every so often, in sparse years, there is a new advancement in technology. Technology the definition of our species. This year Kaiba Corp. advances the field of technology to the next realm." Kaiba starts, getting the shareholders' attention, " Behold! The virtual pod!" Kaiba says, as a the large screen behind him backs away to reveal the new virtual pod being raised from a trap hole in the floor, " This is an advanced model of the one previously released in Kaiba Land here in Domino. The new virtual pod boasts a new enhanced virtual reality system, which works by sending information straight to the brain. The previous model took a person's consciousness and dumped it into the modem, where information poured into the brain at the frequency the modem could emulate. However that system created semi-real images that did not have smell and taste. The new system, which feeds information directly into the brain, emulates real-world sensations by causing lucid dreams. Dreams that the modem controls to create environments, and regulate the laws of physics. Because the person experiences all of this as a dream, the chemical senses of taste and smell are emulated perfectly, but not by the modem, but by the person's own memories of the smell and taste. Essentially, it's like a normal dream that anyone of us has experienced, but at the same time is regulated by the modem in order to create balance and regulate environmental changes, and also to run a game program." Kaiba continues, and everyone in the room is impressed, especially Tea who was completely flabbergasted by all of the philosophical and scientific ideas involved, " This virtual reality pod will replace everything from gaming systems to computers. It could all be activated at a thought, and the most complicated of systems could be written in the blink of an eye." Everyone was now completely in awe of the new virtual reality pod, but that was still not the real shocker that Kaiba reveals next, " The Internet, once a philosophical place of numbers and information, could become a place!" At that the entire floor went silent, what Kaiba just proposed was quite easily the invention of the millenium.

It appeared as if no one was going to ask any questions, so Kaiba announced the end of his presentation and that dessert was being served and took his seat. He was pleased, after all of his hard work; he had silenced the place. His plans for the new virtual reality pod would net Kaiba Corp. millions, making the company richer than it had ever been before. Even though he couldn't reign supreme atop Kaiba Tower to defeat his adopted father, he at least could defeat him by taking over his company and bringing it to new fame and fortune. Now, more than ever, Kaiba Corp. belonged to him.

Tea noticed the relaxation in Kaiba, he looked almost completely different, his body was slumped in the chair, his hands were on top of his lap in a satisfied manner, and his head was tilted slightly back. But what Tea noticed most were his eyes. They were softer, less focussed and near sinister than they are normally. This put a smile on Tea's face, she had never known Kaiba to be this relaxed, and she couldn't help feeling that at least forty percent of it had been her doing.

She was not far off the dot, either. Kaiba was prepared for his presentation, sure, but he had actually scrapped his original speech, which he worked on for hours the other night, when his eyes met hers. Something seemed right, and the words that had found him then were more effective than the ones he had wrote. He hated that speech, for hours he worked on it, but it just wasn't good enough. He was very thankful that Tea was there, she was like a muse to him.

Since Kaiba seemed to be in such a good mood, and everyone was off getting desserts, Tea decided to chance talking with Kaiba, " I'm not big on business, but I take it that went well?"

" Very well. Normally there is at least a ten minute question period after a presentation, but it seems everyone is pleased with the new virtual reality pod." Kaiba responded.

" Well that's good. You spent many sleepless nights on it since you began, haven't you?"

" How could you tell?"

" Woman's intuition. But mostly because you look like a zombie every time I see you at school!" Tea says laughing a bit.

" Heh, remember last week?"

" The long weekend?"

" I slept through it."

" Wow, must be tough."

" No, I'm used to it. And it was worth it to see this success." Kaiba says, motioning towards the people, just now starting to come back from getting dessert, " After dessert, the dinner will be over. Afterwards, there is something I was to show you." He adds.

" What is it?" Tea asks as the people from their table were starting back.

" A surprise."

One of the shareholders was kind enough to bring Tea and Kaiba their share of the desert, Tea thanked him and Kaiba just nodded at him. While the shareholders were taking with Kaiba about his new virtual reality pod, Tea couldn't help but wonder what surprise Kaiba had in store for her. Whatever it was, it couldn't be any bigger than him coming out and inviting her to this dinner in the first place!

She looked down, and noticed her desert, a small plate of soft looking vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup, and decided to taste it. It was good, probably the best ice cream she had ever tasted, and it was just vanilla and chocolate syrup! It was unbelievable, but whoever made this sure was able to make something good out of so little.

She finished off her desert in her usual grace, a grace thankfully unnoticed by the other people at the table who were too busy conversing with Kaiba. Kaiba, though, saw her. He was looking at her through the corner of his eye, ever since their eyes met that night; he found it harder and harder not to look at her. Tea met his one eye, and immediately felt sheepish at its hard stare, probably because she ate her ice cream in a less-than-ladylike fashion. But there was still a hint of jocundity, which made her almost want to laugh at herself. Sadly, this was not the place for gaiety; or else she could have made Kaiba look bad. Which was a new feeling of duty to have for Tea to feel towards Kaiba, seeing as she had never had any love for him since just after this whole thing had started.

After another half-hour, it was finally eleven o'clock, and hour from midnight. Tea was tired, it wasn't often that she operated at this time of day, heck the last time she remembered staying up this late was when she asked Ishizu to use the Millenium Necklace. Kaiba on the other hand, seemed to peak at this time; he looked even more alert than ever. It may have had something to do with the coffee he drank during the dinner, or maybe it was just his natural clock, but it just seemed odd to Tea that someone could be so alert so late at night.

The shareholders were clearing out into the elevators; all ready to head home and into their beds. Tea almost envied them, but she was getting a surprise from the CEO, and she really wanted to know what it is! After the floor was completely empty, Kaiba called for the janitors to clean up, and once they arrived, he turned around and headed for the elevators. Tea always resented this, Kaiba's rudeness to just walk off and expect people to follow, " Kaiba, wait! What are you doing, walking off like that, you got to tell me when you leave!" She growled at him, as she ran to catch up to him.

" I thought you were waiting for me, so it wouldn't matter." Kaiba responded, but oddly enough, not in his cold tone.

" Well, you shouldn't assume things." Tea says in a forgiving tone.

Once inside the elevator, Kaiba pressed four numbers on the keypad in a certain order. Then a card reader opened up beside the keypad, which Tea couldn't even see until it had opened up. Kaiba swiped a card through it, and then the words "bottom floor" read out above the elevator door. Tea was surprised enough now, considering that Kaiba is taking her to a secret floor; that she didn't need the actual surprise. The elevator ran for a while, taking them all the way down to the bottom floor of Kaiba Corp. Headquarters.

Once the elevator came to a stop, and the doors open, Kaiba motioned for Tea to follow him. She walked through the odd looking room, it didn't look like any floor she would expect to find in Kaiba Corp. It looked like a tech lab, but it didn't seem like a place for many people to work in. There were several large computers hooked up to the walls, but no monitors. She was curious about what this floor was used for, and she didn't need to ask. Kaiba was nice enough to tell her anyway; " This is where I work. This is the mainframe of the new virtual reality pod."

" This place looks scary." Tea noted aloud.

" It's not meant to look nice and pretty, it's meant to store all of Kaiba Corp's data, and act as the main server for the virtual reality modem." Kaiba silently informs her.

They walked in silence again for the rest of the short trip to the back of the room, where two of the prototype virtual reality pods lay on the ground in the center of a circle of computers each as tall as Tea and twice as wide. Just behind the pod to the left was a small wooden chair; used by Kaiba himself while he was working on the wiring and minor programming inside it. Despite the custom jets, and the posh offices, Seto Kaiba worked in environments closely related to those of starving artisans. It went to show Tea just how seriously Kaiba took his job.

Kaiba told Tea to relax in the pod to the right, as he typed some sting of code into the monitor at the back of the circle of computers. After five minutes of lying in the comfortable white leather inside of the pod, Kaiba finally finished his programming, and lay inside the other pod. While lying in the pod, Kaiba said a few words to the computer so it would startup the pods.

After those words, Tea felt her entire body felt heavy, like it had weighed twice that of its normal weight. Her mind then felt fuzzy, and she fell into a quiet slumber. When she opened her eyes, it was as if she had only just blinked, and the surroundings took a sudden change from cold and mechanical to warm and inviting. It took her a few moments to realize that she was in a cabin, through two windows she could see now and woods, she also smelled to wood of the cabin and felt the heat of a fire just to her left. It was simply amazing that she could get the full cabin-on-a-snowy-mountain feeling while knowing that she was really on the very bottom floor of Kaiba Corp. Headquarters. Suddenly she heard Kaiba's voice behind her.

" This is the virtual world, it is exactly the same as the real world. What you are experiencing is memories, all compiled and being improvised inside your brain from what the modem is telling it." He said.

Tea turned around to see Kaiba, " This is what you call a lucid dream, right?" Tea asked him.

" Yes. A controlled lucid dream, really." Kaiba replied, " That is how the virtual world can seem so much like the real world. Other than me, you are the first person to experience this new virtual reality. Officially the first people to go into the virtual reality world will be a lucky winner of a contest that the advertising department is organizing and myself. But I want you to technically be the first person to experience it."

" Wow, thanks Kaiba." Tea said, knowing it was a big honour that Kaiba would invite her specifically to be the first in his newest creation.

" Please, have a seat by the fire." He asks her.

She obliges, and Kaiba takes a seat across from her, " Why'd you bring me here anyway Kaiba?"

" I…" Kaiba starts, debating on something to say, " Wanted to have your input, since nobody else has experienced the new virtual reality system, I wanted to know how another person felt, before it went out to the public."

" Oh…" Tea started, " Well, I think its great. There's no flaws at all, I would swear that I was really up in the mountains with you, if I didn't know for sure that my body is sleeping in that pod amongst all those creepy computers."

Kaiba chuckles at this, he had been around those computers so long that the sight of them was second nature, but to hear Tea's opinion of them was a true eye-opener to him, " Heh, that's good to hear. That means my lucid dream theory is correct."

" You actually doubted yourself? If I had even ten percent of your genius, I would be confident in everything I did." Tea exclaimed.

" I never really doubted myself, but…thanks" Kaiba said as he looked into Tea's eyes and became entrapped in them.

Tea looked into Kaiba's eyes as he looked into hers, and she could see a different Seto Kaiba than the one that was once so cold-hearted and so cutthroat, the Kaiba she despised. This was a more caring and less mean Kaiba than the one she had known only just a week ago.

Kaiba was feeling quite different himself, he had never shown this side of his personality to anyone but his little brother Mokuba, and even he only saw it when they were both children in that orphanage. Perhaps being the CEO of Kaiba Corp. has turned him into a cold and calculating person. After his loss to Yugi he had lost his evil side, but he was never truly free of it until this very moment. He knew exactly what he wanted now, but he was too afraid to take it, he was afraid that Tea would leave him forever if he had even brought it up now. So he sat there gazing into her eyes, unable to speak, unable to move. It was until Tea blinked and remembered how late it was that he was able to recover.

" Kaiba, its gotta be midnight by now! I need to get home, it's a school night!" Tea said, while looking around frantically for a way out.

Kaiba shook his head while she was still distracted by the fight or flight response, which caused her to look around so wildly. He looked calm afterwards and luckily just when Tea looked to him for the way out.

He decided that he should stop the virtual reality pod, and he said the wake up code, " Modem five three five, wakeup and shutdown."

This caused Tea and Kaiba to wake up from their lucid dream and the two pods to shutdown. Tea felt a little refreshed from the nap she had just taken, but she still needed to sleep in order to be ready for school that morning. She got up, and started walking towards the elevator with Kaiba.

Inside the elevator, Tea decided to say her goodnight to Kaiba, " Well, goodnight Kaiba, thank you for the evening."

" Its still a half-hour drive to your house, it might be easier if you stayed right here." Kaiba responded.

Tea was shocked, now he was inviting her to stay with him and in Kaiba Corp. Headquarters as well! She didn't think that the headquarters would have any beds, " Here, in Kaiba Corp. Headquarters? There're rooms?" She asked.

" Yes, the entire eightieth floor is dedicated to rooms for the late-working executives." Kaiba responded.

" Well then, if I have my own room, I'm sure my parents would be okay with it. Especially since its you, my parents probably wouldn't mind me staying over at Kaiba Corp. Headquarters with a billionaire." She said with humour, " My mom's got it in her head that you're my boyfriend!" She said laughing.

" Hm, indeed." Was all Kaiba could say.

Author's Note: So sorry for the long delay with this chapter, got very busy all of a sudden at my end. So, for all the people who thought my average chapter is too short, this one is for you! So with the end of the dinner come so many possibilities for this couple, but where's Yugi in all this? He's not called "Fate's Bane" for nothing you know! My girlfriend designed tea's dress by the way; here's a link to the picture (get rid of all the unnecessary spaces first) http: www. deviantart. com /deviation /13946177/