-Chapter 4-

The next morning Serenity woke up to find a small pile of books on her nightstand. She smiled and looked them over; Jorah had picked many different types of books for her to read. The one book that caught her attention was the one labeled A History of the Faeries. It was a plain book that really wouldn't catch anyone's eye except for the fact that the title was written in something sparkly. Serenity wandered over to it and ran a finger over the smooth lettering. Upon picking up the book Serenity happened to look out the window at the garden.

'Maybe I'll go read in the garden today,' she thought to herself. Rapidly changing into something comfortable she took the book out into the garden. She walked around the pathways and looked at the beautiful flowers and fountains before seeing a gorgeous gazebo. She smiled to herself and ran over to it. The gazebo was surrounded by roses and had cushioned settees inside. She thought about how perfect it was for reading and settled into a settee, which was delightfully comfortable. As she began to read she lost all consciousness of the world around her.

A few hours later Kaiba wandered out into the garden for his daily stroll. His eyes narrowed as he saw the girl reading in his gazebo. Normally he sat there for lunch but today it was occupied and he was unable to enjoy his peaceful, solitary lunch with a twit of a girl nearby. He quickly walked over to the girl and hovered there glaring at her.

Eventually she noticed him and looked up with slight fear in her eyes. They sat there staring at each other for a few minutes before Kaiba spoke.

"What are you doing here?" he growled at her.

Looking quite confused (and a bit scared) at the verbal attack she responded, "I just thought that I'd read in the garden for a while today. Is there something wrong?"

'Yes there's something wrong, you're in my spot. Go away,' he thought to himself. He was about to put voice to that thought when Jorah and Naiya arrived.

"I told you that I saw her come out here," Naiya said to Jorah while pointing toward Serenity.

Jorah made a face, "Yes, you did, well it's a good thing that we told the servants to bring lunch for them both out here." Jorah clapped and the Faeries behind them began setting up for lunch.

"Dear after you're done eating I'll help you into clothing that is a bit more adequate," Naiya said looking at the fairly loose dress that Serenity had put on.

The whole time this was happening Kaiba was settling into another one of the settees. Once the faeries had stopped talking he motioned toward Jorah who approached him. Making eye contact he told her that he would not appreciate having Serenity eat lunch with him. He asked her to kindly remove the girl.

"Kaiba, quit being such a spoilt brat," Jorah said simply before retreating with the rest of the faeries.

Lunch was painfully quiet, neither Kaiba nor Serenity spoke. Kaiba being a snob believed Serenity unworthy of his presence. Serenity being a normal human being was scared to death of Kaiba. When the meal was finished Serenity excused herself and practically flew to her room.

Naiya was there waiting for her.

"Take a bath dear and I'll get you prepared for dinner," Naiya said motioning toward the bathroom.

"But I just had lunch!" Serenity protested.

"Dinner is a very formal affair tonight and it will take you quite a while to get prepared. The bath is already ready," Naiya pushed her into the bathroom.

After washing herself Serenity wrapped a towel around her body and went back into her bedroom. Looking around she noticed a beautiful maroon dress lying on her bed. It was a fairly simple long sleeved dress with a sweetheart neckline, but it looked a bit on the small side in the bodice.
"Well now that you're done let's get you dressed," Naiya said seeming to emerge from thin air.

Serenity looked at the dress sadly and ran her fingers along a sleeve stopping at the end to finger the silk, "I'm afraid it looks to small for me Naiya…"

Naiya looked at the dress skeptically, "No it isn't. In fact, it might be a bit too big once we get a corset on you."

Serenity just stared at Naiya in disbelief as Naiya began to look through her drawers. Serenity had never had to wear a corset, well; she'd never owned a dress that needed one anyways.

Finding a suitable corset Naiya approached Serenity. Still thinking Serenity didn't realize this until the corset was pushed over her head. Serenity dropped her towel in shock and Naiya pushed the corset down further until it was situated properly.

"You might want to hold onto the bedpost while I lace this up," Naiya said while beginning to tighten the laces.

Serenity moved over slightly so that she could grip the bedpost and Naiya started lacing it tightly. As Naiya started to pull harder Serenity's grip on the bedpost tightened until finally it was laced fully.

After many struggles Naiya managed to get Serenity prepared for dinner in the fashion that Jorah had suggested. 'Jorah was right,' Naiya mused to herself, 'the girl really does look older like this.'

The corset had managed somehow to make Serenity's curves appear more womanly and the barely noticeable make-up made her look older and more refined. Her hair was twisted back and up with slight strands escaping and Naiya had put a ruby necklace onto Serenity's neck. Naiya smiled and moved over to Serenity where she pushed Serenity's back slightly inward.

"Don't forget to stand up straight," Naiya told her after Serenity had given her a confused look, "you wouldn't want to ruin the beauty of that dress by slouching." After forcing Serenity to also tilt her chin upward slightly Naiya knew that there was little else that she could do.

Moving over to Serenity's door and opening it Naiya led Serenity to the dining room stopping right before the dining room door. She turned to Serenity and told her that she shouldn't fear Kaiba. Naiya also mentioned that Serenity had better keep her upper body straight otherwise she'd make sure that the corset was even tighter next time. Then Naiya smiled and opened the door, pushing Serenity inside.

Serenity entered the room nervously but remembered to keep her back straight as she looked around. Looking at the table she saw two place settings on it. Noticing that Kaiba was sitting at one with a cross look on his face she hurried to the other one. Almost as soon as she sat down the meal was served. It was almost like the faeries were waiting for her to arrive. Shaking her head at the thought Serenity began what promised to be an uneventful and quiet meal.

Kaiba had been sitting there waiting for the stupid girl to show up. He was rather hungry and the faeries refused to serve dinner until she arrived. It had put him in an even fowler mood than normal, if that was even possible.

The door opened and he looked up expectantly. Seeing the girl get pushed inside he allowed himself a quick smirk before glaring at her. She straightened up and he suddenly noticed the difference in her appearance. She seemed to have matured over the course of a few hours. She was almost, well, acceptable.

Kaiba shook his head ad she began to stiffly walk over to the table. The key word was almost. She still had a long way to go before he would even consider her as…

He stopped that train of thought as the meal was set into place. He shouldn't even be considering what he might consider her to be. She may clean up nicely but most women could do that. Her intelligence and mannerisms still seemed a bit average and that would probably never change. She wouldn't ever be good enough for him. In fact, he doubted that anyone ever would be.

Kaiba smirked and began to eat. Eventually Jorah would realize that this girl didn't suit him and take her back. Until then however he could ignore her. She seemed to be scared of him so there was no chance of her seeking him out. After all, there was very little anyone, even a fae, could do to get a human to go against fear. Mankind was weak that way.

-Chapter 4 End-

Disclaimer- I do not own any Yu-Gi-Oh characters. I don't own Beauty and the Beast although this version does not have the same exact plot. Just the basics and the Fae you don't recognize.

Author's Note- Well, it's been a year I think. I'm sorry. I meant to update quite a while ago and I was almost done with this chapter when my computer crashed. I did have this chapter saved onto a disc but for some bizarre reason the disc was corrupted. Well, I got a brand new computer shortly afterward but all inspiration had already left me. I just couldn't bring myself to re-write it.
Well, here it is. I meant for it to be longer but that just seemed to be the perfect place to stop. I don't stop where I want to just where the story demands it of me. I have an idea of where I want this story to go but first I need to get through the boring stuff (a.k.a. this chapter). I'm sorry but I couldn't find a way to make it more interesting without rushing it and it's a bit rushed as is.
Well as always, comments are loved. Constructive criticism is even more loved as I certainly do need it.

-Edit- Even as a bear Kaiba thinks of himself as about the rest of the human race. Anyways, I didn't have to change much in this chapter but yeah. I still don't like it much.

Comments to Reviewers-

Afrkapuz-Ha ha, yeah. Kaiba probably would be out to get me after reading this story. I'm sure that there are other authors that he'd rather kill first though.
Hopefully…

Hakudoshi-chan -Yeah, so far I think that I like my prologue better than the rest of the story. There's going to be another scene coming up that I think that I'll like a bit more though.

vendred13- I know, I wish that my chapters would be longer too. I'm going to start trying to get them over 2000 words but well… sometimes I just run into good places to stop. I can't help myself.

Paladin Dragoon- I hope you don't have anymore trouble this time around… even though I had more time between updates. I'm going to try and update often to make up for it.

SirisAnkh- Eh, I'm still rather hateful of your Kaiba characterization. It really bothers me but then again I'm overprotective of his coldheartedness. :Shrugs:

Tecna -You can't imagine how happy I am to hear that and I hope that I've managed to convert you.

Fanactic- Well you've got your wish. I've continued and I plan to keep on doing so until the end in fact it was your review that made me start thinking about this story again.