A/n: Ah! Chapter 20! Two decades of chapter-isms. Sniff… I remember when I posted Chapter 1 of the prequel, DTMSY… it seems like yesterday. Anywho, the chapters are getting longer cause I'm tryin' to cram everything that needs to be said in. So, I won't be able to answer reviews, unless a lot of people have the same question. And I KNOW, I know Seto should learn soon Serenity's secret. He will, I promise!

Chapter TWENTY: A Night to Remember Part II: Halloween Candy and Bishies DO Mix

"Thanks, Tristan," wheezed Ryou, leaning forward. "Those girls were vicious."

Tristan, while shaking his head slowly, said, "No problem." Ryou had been tied up and gagged to a chair. "Here, I'll call you a cab." He took a battered and beat Ryou to a phone on the wall-- by girls, no less! Wimp. Sigh. "Yes, hello? I'd like you to come pick up my friend over here . . . at the Kaiba Mansion."

Once that was done, he waited until the taxicab came and picked up the white-haired boy, then started scanning the place again for Duke. The "Diceboy" hadn't changed one little bit. In fact, he'd gotten worse! If that's possible.

# Meanwhile, Master Bedroom upstairs #

"Make sure that you see them get in!" Serenity rubbed her temples in a very Kaiba-like way, weary. The servants were slowly clearing the mansion of all the guests, calling cabs for those too drunk to return home safely, as she had directed. It was only 4 in the afternoon and how had she let things get so out of hand?

Joey and Mai had gone off someplace to be alone, and Serenity took a breather from all the chaos. She planned to tell Seto about their new baby tonight, when they were at their "dinner date" as they'd arranged. But, in front of the walk-in closet, she wondered what was "I'm going to have your baby" clothes? How am I supposed to tell him in just the right way for the best possible consequences?

With a deep long sigh, she sat down with a thump on the reflective massive bed. It looked like a surface of a lake at twilight with the lights off (as they were now) and with only the last remaining pale glimmers from outside streaming in from the big picture windows. A colorful quilt sat draped off to one side, a reed in a tall jar sat on a handsome credenza of mahogany wood to the left. She ran her fingertips on the polished smooth surface, still thinking of how to do it. Maybe I should ask Mai; she's better at these things. But Serenity decided not to bug her brother and his fiancée... except she didn't know where to start. Tiredly, Serenity took up a pillow and hugged it on her lap, remembering and recalling as her fingers absently twirled the silk tassel as if that held the answer.

Their first date. The epitome of long, awkward silences. At least, she had felt awkward. She had never gone out on a date before without her family approving, except for one time in middle school when the boy had stared at his shoes all evening. Seto hadn't done that, but he hadn't looked at her either. At first. Anyway, she had been glad he hadn't, because it always made her nervous. She had never asked him what he'd been thinking during those long awkward silences: probably, Oh God, what am I doing here with this girl?! in a regretful sort of way. I asked him ifI looked to him as dopey as I feltand he said yes. (Which caused her then to chase him around the living room with a rolled up newspaper!)

Smiling, she compulsively started to straighten up the desk. He taught me a lot, and I taught him too. A sweet memory of him cursing and grumbling the first time he'd tried to barbecue … in the living room! She had told him it was supposed to be done outside, but he hadn't listened. Oh well. At least the grill had been electrical and also high-tech, so they hadn't burned the mansion down. She and Mokuba had bet each other to sneak one of those "Kiss the Cook" aprons on "Mr. CEO." They had giggled to tears at how funny it'd looked coupled with his grumpy expression. Then it was his turn to chase her around the first floors with a spatula, whereas he caught her finally and demanded to prove the apron true. (Which she did.) So, sometimes he could be sweetly gruff and not unreasonable…

Hopefully, hewill be when he learns...reasonable I mean.... Surprisingly, they weren't supposed to go out at all in the first place! -- Serenity smiled as she laid her cheek on the silken pillow, smelling the faint scent of cologne-- After a charming "incident", she found out that she could stop thinking about him and, fearing an obsession, she'd gone to Ishizu for help. It was Ishizu who, smiling, had suggested she ask him out, at an assumption that he would be nasty, and turn her down flat, and she would be over her "little" fixation. She supposed that if he were indeed nasty to her, then she would be over him in a jiffy and he hadn't--

I wonder if that was what Ishizu had foreseen what would happen. That he wouldn't turn me down, I mean. But that doesn't make sense…does it?I'll ask her.

-- she had felt so disorientated that she was, like: Hey, you weren't ACTUALLY supposed to agree! You were supposed to yell at me you dope! Serenity hid her smile in the pillow. So uncertain. As a little girl awkward Coke-bottle glasses, braces, and skin problems made her shy and timid among other classmates. She'd taken comfort in reading, grades, and writing songs and taping songs from the radio to save money. And daydreaming. Only when did the braces had came off, her skin cleared, and she had her eye surgery did the boys flock around, even the same ones who had called her 'mute' before! The new attention felt weird; she still felt like her nervous, shy self inside--

And then, everything started to look up: Her mother's advertising business had took off so they were able to afford better clothes, she was reunited with her brother after a decade, and then she had found a first best friend in Mai, including Tea, Tristan, Yugi, Ryou; and the rest of her brother's friends. Real friends, for the first time in her life. And best part of all: she had fallen in love.

Serenity hugged her pillow a bit tighter, her eyes softening. Her brother, Joey, had fallen in love as well. She and Seto had been dating secretly for nearly a year, she had been terrified that Joey would find out, so she'd enlisted Mai's help to "distract" him, since he was getting really suspicious…. Of course, she, Serenity, had had secretly hoped they would fall for each other. She knew Mai had a special fondness for him in her heart, already since Battle City. And Joey would always stammer in her presence and act all macho and goofy whenever her name was mentioned, so there was definitely "something" there.

And I was right! They fell in love, just like me and Seto did. Even though . . . sometimes I'm jealous of them. I wish Seto would stammer in MY presence sometimes! Though, that would be very uncharacteristic of him. Though, he ALMOST had once. It was when they had said, "I love you" for the first time to each other. Much to Joey's disappointment, by the way. It had been so romantic, in her opinion. It was when Joey had finally found out and cooked up an elaborate scheme to trap Seto, for what he said, "to test his fidelity" by setting him up with Mai. Well, it had backfired in the worst way. Seto had found out-- as Mai had told her later-- and pretended to hit on her with Joey watching. Her brother had gone "insanely" jealous and came out swinging. When she, Serenity, had gotten whiff of what was happening, she had run down to the restaurant where they were and stopped the fight.

Right now, she could look back with a bit of a fond smile, but then, it hadn't been funny to her. It had taken three men to hold them both, they'd been so angry. She had been angry them both for lowering to petty violence. And then: "How can you force me to choose between my brother and the man I love?" She had sobbed, before running.

Later, he had met up with her in their hotel room, a bruise on his cheek from where Joey hit him, and asked if she had meant what she'd said. She had answered yes and he had . . . stammered for a while. Well, almost. And then he said that he loved her too.

Of course, she wasn't blind. She knew her brother and Seto didn't get along. But at least they stopped fighting in her presence, and neither called the other names in front of her out of courteousness. She still held blindly on to the hope, with both hands, they would get along as friends . . . someday.

She was patient; she could wait. Looks like I have to.

The baby kicked, and turned over. It kind of felt like when her stomach rumbled. Serenity gave her belly a pat. If I could settle a 'feud'… that would be it. Sigh.

Her naturally sensitive hearing caught a sound to her left, but she assumed it was the maid to inform her on the current situation of the mansion…

"Eep! Duke!"

# Meanwhile, downstairs #

"Aw, lookit him, isn't he just the cutest thing?" Mai was saying from the plush recliner sofa, where they were watching, on a normal-sized TV, (there was something about one's nose being as big as a house that was weird) a kiddy talent show. Soft music from somewhere outside floated in the den through the closed door, a fire was going in the exquisite fireplace. A little kid with blond hair and a wide, beaming face played the guitar and sang on screen. He couldn't have been more than six.

"Mm" grunted Joey, reclining next to her, " . . . I guess." Yeah right. The kid looked a bit goofy to him and he thought if that were him, he'd hide in shame.

"Ah . . . don't you ever wonder what our children will look like?" Mai went on, taking a candy from the bowl and unwrapping the shiny foil. "I bet they'll be adorable. Just like that little boy. And he sang so cutely . . . so I bet our kids will have my singing ability."

He winced (luckily, she didn't see), since her "singing" if you could call it that . . . could crack a cracked vase. I love you, just don't sing. "Sang kinda corny ta me. If we do have a kid, I won't make 'im go ta talent shows." A new act with a teenage girl dancing and twirling batons came on. "Wow! Is she flexible!"

Mai hit him with a throw pillow, covering his eyes and popped the chocolate in his mouth with a smile, saying, "I think the boy was cuter…"

"Oh, really?" he said, playing jealous. "No talent shows for you."

"Look who's talking, Mr. 'Boy-is-she-flexible.'"

"Toupee."

"Don't you mean, touché?"

"Yeah. Whateva!" he said as she started giggling nonstop. "Stuff a sock in it, Beautiful." She snuggled into him happily. "So… why'd you react that way when you saw Ishizu's brother earlier?"

She stiffened at the subject change. "What…? Don't even think about changing my mind," she said, getting up in a sitting position. "I don't want to talk about it. Besides, you know why." Grumpily, she took another candy from the bowl. When he continued to just stare, she added, "If you can ban Kaiba to the wedding, I can very well ban Ishizu's brother!"

As she continued to plot and plan, she forgot about a diet and stuffed a big red lollipop between her lips and savored it, furious. I'll kill him, she thought with vehemence . . .. someday. When I get the courage to…Or, I'll kill him just so I don't have to see him again. Either way worked just as well.

Her eyes were in a fixed stare at the television set, so she almost didn't catch "the look." But it was there. He was staring avidly at the TV, shifting, and clearing his throat with an a-Hem. Smiling, she secretly thought his shyness with her was cute even after all this time.

She crossed one slender leg over the other, straightening her long knit dress just so… for once. Not crossing of legs, but the fact her skirt was long, for the winter. If anyone were to look at us, they wouldn't think we were engaged. She saw his eyes go to her exposed skin and snickered softly at his expression.

So adorable!

But he heard it and gave her a disgruntled, chastising expression, his dark brown eyes narrowed. She smiled innocently. He returned it, just as innocently, catching on, more like a smirk playing on his features.

Two could play. He just crossed his arms and pretended to stare at the TV while she fumed inwardly and made a face. But when he turned to look at her, she just smiled back at him and 'licked' her lollipop. He watched as the head made a looong, lazy swirl on her perfect tongue, and then back up at eyes dancing as they rested upon his. It was a game of who could cave-in first and he knew it.

Meaning…no laughing. She had to suppress her amusement when he cleared his throat and ran his fingers through his thick long blond hair and pretended to study the ceiling. But his wandering eyes gave him away-- as they kept returning to her. Stubborn. The only sounds were the cheerful crackling from the fire, when she then took his hand that was lying in between them on the cushions. He glanced down then and then his fingers slowly curled around the engagement ring on the third finger, a symbol of their love and soon union and he spoke.

Voice husky above a whisper, as if afraid or in memory, he said, "I…love you, Ms. Mai. I promise, to always be there for you."

And then, the romantic being that he was, he took out the other that was hiding from behind his back. In it was a small violet-rose flower he'd saved, all along.

Touched, she took it demurely and returned the "I love you too" while slowly passing the candy over her lips while he watched and squeezing his hand that was still underneath hers and then tossing the candy over to the side with a graceful flick of the wrist.

He smiled then as they sank lower in the couch, "Giving a new meaning to sugar lips, eh?" Me like.

Laughing appreciatively at his joke, she turned off the TV… and slid in his lap for a long, "sweet" kiss-- games were fun, but sometimes he talked too much.

# Meanwhile, just outside Kaiba Corp #

"But-- oh!" Tea fumed, her fists clenched at her sides. She thought of what to do-- Kaiba had kicked her out of KaibaCorp, where Yugi and he were for their duel. He said this was between men, not some cheerleader chick. And Yugi had agreed… the part of this being between men; not that she was a cheerleader chick.

Oh, gee, and I thought we were friends, Kaiba, she thought very sarcastically as went down the building. Well, I wasn't there when Yugi lost his grandfather, so I have to be there now! She spotted some boxes stacked in top of one another underneath a small window. It looked open.Well…I did it once before, I might as well do it again. Looking left and right over her shoulders, Tea put one foot on the first box. Good thing her dancing made her light-footed.

The box creaked under her weight and she was glad she wasn't wearing a skirt for once. Climbing upon the next box in turn, she knew that the promise she'd made was another reason to watch Yugi duel…about going out with him if he'd win. I don't know why he put that condition on it…I would've said yes anyway… maybe he's just got something to prove to himself.

And I'm going to watch him do it.

To Be Continued

A/n: Ah! 12 pg.s, 'cording to my browser. A bit of J/M fluff never hurt anyone…I got that bit from eating some leftover Halloween candy and I was thinking, Mmm…candy…mmm…chocolate…mm, bishies…droool…. Lols. I was eating chocolate candy…(milk chocolate.)… though, I like dark or white chocolate better than milk chocolate… yum. Ahem! I digress; so I hope you enjoyed and please leave a nice review and I'm gonna go eat some candy now.