Guardians

Note: I'm still crying from the last chapter, but the story must go on! I hope that you're all enjoying this as much as I am! Review for me, everyone!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-gi-oh or IHOP.

Chapter Forty-Five: Business at the Beach

Karmina didn't sleep that night. She had a strange feeling that Seto Kaiba was no longer so far away from her. It was as if she walk out into the street, take a few turns and walk a short distance, and find herself staring into those fathomless blue eyes.

Eventually, the sun rose and, though she was tired, Karmina felt a certain sense of importance about this day. She washed her face, trying to make herself feel cleansed of her tears, and brushed her teeth. She was in the middle of trying to find something to do with her hair when Serenity woke.

"Good morning," she yawned tiredly.

"Morning," Karmina replied, hearing that her voice was absolutely normal despite how she was feeling, which was not exactly well.

"Why don't we have the boys treat us to breakfast?" Tea yawned, making them both jumped because they hadn't noticed her waking up.

"Okay!" Serenity said, hoping out of bed and rushing to get ready. Tea and Karmina followed suit, although the latter with less enthusiasm. She couldn't help but remember her depressing speech to Joey, and the way she'd cried again in his arms afterwards. There was no hope, this time, of going back to the way things had been. Something in their friendship was bound to change.

But when he stepped out of the room, he was wearing that same bright smile and it was as if last night had never happened. It was exactly what Karmina needed to see, and Joey knew it was.

"C'mon, den, you guys, I'm starvin'!"

They all laughed and found an IHOP to eat in. In the doorway, Karmina hesitated. She'd just gotten the strangest feeling from that building. Disregarding it, she stepped in and saw something that made her heart stop. At the biggest table in the center of the room were several men in suits, and one in a trench coat, his back to the door. Even so, there was no mistaking that posture and that hair. Seto Kaiba was sitting mere feet away from her.

The others failed to notice, following a waitress to a table that was near Kaiba's but still to his back. She didn't know what she was going to do, what she should do. So she stared.

She wasn't the only one staring. Several other woman were regarding him, a good looking, single, famous and rich man, with interest. With a little pang she looked away to try paying attention to her new friends.

Although he didn't let on, Joey had noticed Kaiba. How could he not? After all, just as one always can spot the one they love, one can always recognize the ones they loath. And Joey had never loathed anyone as much as he loathed Seto Kaiba. As far as he was concerned, the guy was a stuck up jerk, and yet he'd still managed to steal Karmina's heart. He didn't really understand it, but that was how he felt about a lot of things. Still, he liked to consider himself a lot better of a person that Kaiba, and at least an equal as far as looks went. So what was it about money bags that Karmina preferred?

"We were… very close, for a while there. Closer, I think, than either of us even realized."

How could she possibly be closer to Seto Kaiba, the world's coldest heart, than she was to him? It was impossible to see her, so shy and guarded, opening up to someone so cold, so heartless. There was no way she could've cried into Kaiba's arms the way she had so often into his.

"Everything about you… you're the person I always saw myself with in my childhood fantasies. Lying in bed, listening to Avril or Kelly, I saw myself with you, Joey. From the day I met you, I thought you were the best thing in the world. And then… Outside the orphanage, I ran into Seto Kaiba, and, maybe even in the very instant, I changed. Something in me shifted, and now… now I can't even imagine that scenario anymore."

Why hadn't he known? Why hadn't he realized that she'd been there, all the time? Why couldn't it have been him?

"Or maybe if it had been you to see me when no one else did, maybe then it would still be you. But the fact of it is… Seto was there for me when no one else was… he understood me when I thought it was impossible for anyone to understand."

How? How on earth could Seto Kaiba understand Karmina, understand any human being, more than he himself, Joey Wheeler, could?

And he stared at Kaiba's back in a way that could have burned a hole in it, trying to understand, wanting to know why he wasn't good enough.

Needless to say, with two people staring in his direction, it was impossible for the others not to notice him now.

Serenity, Tea, Tristan, Yugi, and Duke all gasped. "I don't believe it," Duke said.

"What's he doing here?" Tristan asked, as if someone at the table might know.

"Business," Karmina whispered, her eyes not leaving Seto.

"What're the odds?" Yugi wondered aloud.

"Should we talk to him or ignore him?" Tea asked.

"Ignore him," Duke and Tristan proclaimed at the same time. Joey was too lost in thought to hear what anyone was saying, or else he would have agreed.

Karmina kept staring right along with Joey. She couldn't believe her eyes. He was right there, close enough to touch, if she could muster the courage to walk the distance. Somehow she didn't think her legs would carry her.

The food came, and that distracted most of them, except for Karmina and, to everyone's surprise, Joey.

Serenity stared, wide-eyed, at her brother. "Joey, the food's here," she said pointedly.

"Not hun- I mean, great!" He recovered, remembering that he was acting like everything was peachy. Even so, Serenity still noticed that he attacked his several plates of food with less gusto than usual.

"Um, Karmina, are you alive over there?"

"Yeah…"

Duke waved a hand in front of her face and she slapped it away on impulse. "Oops! S-sorry, D-Duke!"

He shrugged. "It's fine," he said, although inwardly he was wondering what her problem was.

Karmina just didn't know what to do. There he was, sitting right there, and she just couldn't manage to move, to do anything but stare. Eventually, she knew, he was bound to turn around and see her.

But he was still sitting there when everyone had finished their food. She stood with the others and followed them to the checkout, which was inevitably in his line of view. Now that her back was turned, and she didn't have the courage to turn and face him just yet, she had no idea how he reacted initially to seeing her there.

When he saw her, he dropped his fork and stared wide eyed at her for several seconds before he regained his composure. The men in suits all stared after his gaze and then looked at him with curiosity in their eyes. What did it mean, when the CEO of Kaiba Corp stared at a girl like that? Certainly it didn't mean that he had ever had any type of relationship outside of the knowledge of the press.

"Karmina," he said softly before he could stop himself.

And even though he'd said it quietly, she turned around and their eyes met. She had missed those eyes so much, but they still felt outside her reach. "Image," she mouthed to him with a fake little smile, and she turned back around, hoping that he would make the choice that she would have in his place.

But he got the wrong idea. He thought that she was talking about her image, or that she meant she was still angry with him for before. He didn't get up and follow her out like he wanted to.

End note: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Don't you just love cliffies? Well, the next chapter'll be here as soon as you all review!