A Twist of Fate

Author's Notes: This is a gift to a friend of mine, who has helped me a great deal over the past few days. I borrowed Pernia from Lady Nightshade, another friend of mine, because I like a few others where wondering what would happen if fate made a mistake and made Pernia a male instead of a female. This is the story that came to be.

Disclaimers: I do not own anyone in this story save for the secretary. Pernia and the Mitsu family are owned by Lady Nightshade and Seto is owned by his creator.

The term "Soul Mates" can mean many different things to several different people. To some it means, "your other half" the person you are destined to be with. To others it is someone that you have spent many different past lives with; a friend, a sibling, a cousin, a lover, a parent, etc. Still to others the concept means something else. One thing however, is common that your soul mate is someone that makes life easier and less difficult to go through life.

While the face of your soul mate, or mates as the case may often times be, changes you will always recognize them even if you don't want to acknowledge them. They will bring you a feeling of wholeness that you rarely feel with anyone else. It is believed by many that we will have two different soul mates in our lives, a soul mate that is our eternal lover, and soul mates that make up everyone else that we find important in our lives. Your soul mate, is your soul mate and nothing on earth; not the change in gender, the change in race, the change in religion, or anything else can prevent that fact from happening. No matter how much you try to avoid it or want to avoid it.

After all Fate has a strange way of making things go her way and no one can convince her other wise.

Kaiba Seto walked passed the rows of cubicles and the busily working employees of Mitsu Corporation, the company that he would be working with together in order to create a new gaming program. He ignored them and headed towards the desk before and to the side of the double oak doors with the brass knobs; where the owner of the company's office was. He stopped at the desk and stared at the middle aged secretary who apparently was typing out a letter to send to someone from her boss. She glanced up and smiled at him warmly, almost like a mother would smile at a child. Seto snorted in annoyance.

"I am here to see Mr. Mitsu," he said coldly, and in the sort of tone one would use if they were talking to a disobedient dog.

"Yes, yes," smiled the woman, bobbing her head. "Mr. Mitsu is expecting you; however," she continued, when Seto turned to open the door. "I am afraid there was a bit of a problem with one of his other programs so he had to duck out for a bit in order to see what the problem was and fix it."

"Very well," said Seto, continuing towards the door. "I will wait in his office then."

The woman blinked and got to her feet in surprise, asking herself about the manners of young people these days. "You can't just go in there," she said, following him into the room. "It is extremely…"

"It is alright Mrs. Hoshi," said a soft voice, causing Seto to pause and Hosi to almost run into him from behind earning a glare from Seto. "Let him in my father is on his way back up."

"Of course," said the secretary startled. "I will leave you two alone then." That said the secretary left the room and the owner of the soft voice stood up from behind the computer desk and Seto got his first look at the person.

The black slacks and white tank top told Seto that the person before him enjoyed being comfortable and the black leather jacket told him that the person liked the occasional clothing in style; then again leather jackets always seemed to be in still it was just a matter of how much style. The long brown hair had been pulled into a braid and the blue eyes examined him curiously and with interest. The build, coupled with the loose clothing prevented Seto from deciding on the gender of the offspring of the CEO of the company and he frowned, not liking mysteries at all. He definitely didn't like being surprised and seeing the offspring of Mitsu in his place was a definite surprise.

"My father will be with you shortly," they said, again in that soft voice that made Seto suspect them to be female with a rather flat chest. "I apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you. Please have a seat Mr. Kaiba."

"You seem to know my name," said Seto, taking a seat and watching the person before him taking a seat as well, back behind the computer. "But I do not know yours."

The individual blinked at him and then smiled sheepishly, "I apologize I assumed you knew who I was."

"All I know," said Seto flatly. "Is that you are the off spring of Mr. Mitsu that much, based on your coloring, but not your height, was obvious."

"Oh my name," smiled the younger being. "Is Mitsu Pernia."

'A female then,' thought Seto to himself, out loud he asked. "Why are you in your father's office?"

"I am helping him on a new program," said Pernia, continuing to type on the computer in very much the same manner she had been doing when he had first walked in.

"Ah," said a new voice, causing Seto and Pernia to both stand up. "Pernia I see you have been keeping Mr. Kaiba company. Thank you."

"Of course, father," said Pernia smiling, before gathering her things. "I have to meet Arora, we have a test coming up and I promised to help her study."

Mitsu nodded and watched his child leave the room, well aware of the fact that Kaiba Seto was watching the third party in the room leave. He sighed, feeling pity for both Kaiba and his offspring. He had not missed the look in Pernia's eyes; he had almost missed the curious look in the eyes of the other youth, Kaiba. If a relationship did form between them; no matter the relationship, they would society an almost unbearable place to live in.

"Well then Mr. Kaiba," said Mitsu. "Shall we get to work?"

Seto said nothing he simply nodded his head and sat across from the older male taking out papers and handing them to him.

Elsewhere

Pernia hurried down the steps of the office building and rushed out into the streets and sighed when he saw the limo pulling up. Without waiting for the driver to get out he yanked open the door and grinned when he saw his best friend seating there (A/N: for those of you that are wondering Pernia is a male in this story and Seto doesn't realize it yet).

"You are looking chipper this afternoon," smiled the black haired female. "What has gotten into you to make you so happy?"

"Nothing," said Pernia, taking a seat beside his friend and stretching his limbs. "Things are just starting to look interesting. I saw Kaiba Seto."

"Oh?"

"He looks taller then I expected."

"Everyone looks taller to you," smirked Arora.

"You don't."

"Hey! Now that's not fair!"

"Course not," said Pernia, smirking. "Hey Tanjo," said Pernia, drapping himself over the seat where the privacy mirror would normally be. Lets get going, we got a lot of studying to do."

"Of course, Master Mitsu," said the older male.

Pernia shoved himself back into the seat and grinned at Arora has the car stared to move. Arora laughed and shoved at the youth the elderly limo driver smiled and shook his head remembering the joys of being young and free.

When the limo arrived at the local tea shop the two friends enjoyed frequenting they rushed out before the driver could bring the car to a complete stop and acquired their usual table. With a sigh the limo driver drove off and to the side of the road knowing the two friends would be awhile.

Arora and Pernia pulled their books out of their bags and flipped through them to the beginning of the chapter they were currently working on in class.

"So," said Arora, smiling when the waitress brought their food. "What else do you think of Kaiba Seto other then him being taller?"

"He is a very cold and unsocial person," said Pernia, absently stirring his tea. "That much was pretty obvious and he doesn't like unexpected surprises. I could tell that from how he reacted to seeing me in my father's office."

"That's all?"

"I have only known him for five minutes," said Pernia, rolling his eyes. "Besides why do you care? You have a boyfriend already remember?"

"I know," said Arora, shrugging. "Besides I am just curious has to if he is has bad ass has the newspapers and reporters make him out to be."

"He probably is," said Pernia, sipping at his tea. "Anyways, if we both pass this test later on this week I was thinking of the two of us going out to the new night club on Saturday."

"Sounds great," said Arora. "I will have to make sure I am not doing anything this weekend though. I think mom wants me to help out at the hospital some. If that's the case just go without me and…"

Arora trailed off when the waitress came back with another cup of tea for Pernia. "I am sorry Pernia," she said grinning sheepishly. "But that gentleman over there wanted me to give you this."

Pernia blinked, several times, at the tea cup then looked over at the indicated male and blinked some more The said male was seating with a group of friends and waving at her with this goofy, yet irritatingly cocky smile that made Pernia want to knock his teeth out. This, while being nothing new, was still a strange occurrence that made Pernia wonder how many people got their eyes checked. Just because he had long hair and a rather feminine facial structure did not mean he was a female; his very flat, if not muscular chest would tell people that. He glanced up at Arora who was trying very hard not to laugh along with the waitress who was biting the inside of her cheek in an attempt to hold it down.

"Tell him thanks but no thanks," said Pernia, ignoring Arora's now soft snickering. "But he is not my type."

The waitress smiled and walked handing the tea to the male and delivering the message that the gentleman was flattered but said no thank you. The look that flashed across his face was almost comically and Pernia couldn't help raising his tea cup in salute to him with a cheeky assed smile plastered across his face. The male sputtered some more and threw some money on the table before high tailing it out of there.

Arora and Pernia continued to snicker before finally getting down to the studying they had promised each other they would do for the self reward of going to the new club.

Later that week

Seto sighed, and pulled on the dark blue turtle neck that went along with his black leather pants. He stared at the white trench coat and considered not wearing it before slipping it on along with some buckles on his arms. He had called the Mitsu house to talk to Pernia, the girl had been infecting his mind and it was really starting to bug him, only to discover she had gone out for the night.

Seto wanted to talk to the female in hopes of it doing away with his fascination with her. He sighed and slipped his KC belt around his waist and left his room. He decided to take his motorcycle tonight and not worry about nosy limo drivers. He sighed and drove up to the club and glared at the long line of people; he hated waiting and since he couldn't see Pernia in the line he could only assume the girl had already gotten in.

When he finally entered the club he glanced around quickly before heading towards the bar. He saw a rather familiar braid of brown hair and moved closer taking a seat one seat down from the individual and looked at them out of the corner of his eyes. He sighed and turned to face to profile of Pernia and examined what she was wearing. He raised an eyebrow in surprise when he saw she was wearing a pair of midnight blue slacks to go with a lighter blue tank top and her leather jacket. Her chest looked even flatter from the side and he wondered why the girl wasn't trying to make herself look more feminine with some make up or more tighter clothes.

"Mitsu," said Kaiba in greeting.

He watched in amusement when she started and turned in the direction of his voice.

"Oh," she said smiling. "Good evening Mr. Kaiba. How have you been since we last meet?"

"I have been well," said Kaiba.

"I am glad," said Pernia. "What is it that brings you here? Since you don't seem the type to enjoy being around this many people?"

"I am meeting someone," he said. "Also I was hoping to talk to you."

"Oh?"

"Your father tells me you are better at game designing then him."

"I wouldn't say that," said Pernia. "But I do help him design some of the games and characters."

"I would like your help on character designs for a new game I am designing."

"I see," said Pernia, blinking. "But don't you have your own people for that sort of thing?"

"None of their styling is what I am going for, for this game," said Kaiba. "I saw some of your work and your style is what I am going for."

"I see," said Pernia, looking thoughtful for several minutes. "I guess I could help you with your designing. Do you want to talk about the game now or do you want to wait until later and when we have more privacy?"

Seto stiffened and tried to shake off the thoughts that invaded his mind at that comment. "I would like to set up a meeting later on this week at my office."

"Of course," said Pernia, grabbing a small square napkin and borrowing a pen from the bartender wrote her number on the napkin before handing the napkin to him. "Here, this is my number call me later." That said the brown haired girl disappeared into the throng of clubbers and started dancing.

Seto watched her for several minutes until the sound of giggling reached his ears; he turned his attention to the sound and saw three teenaged girls giggling at Pernia. He took a sip of his drink and left some money on the table for the drink before leaving the club deciding not to tell the girls that Pernia was a female and let them find out on their own.

Wednesday

Pernia walked down the hall heading in the direction of Kaiba's office pausing at the secretary's desk. "Excuse me," he said smiling at the young woman and ignoring the blush that spread across her cheeks. "I am here to see Mr. Kaiba."

"Um yes of course," said the female, glancing down at the calendar. "And what is your name?"

"Mitsu Pernia."

"Of course, he is expecting you go right in."

Pernia nodded and walked up to the office knocking on it briefly before walking in. "Good afternoon Mr. Kaiba," smiled Pernia. "How are you?"

"I am fine let's get down to business Mitsu have a seat," he said, glancing up at the new comer.

Seto watched Pernia take a seat at one of the chairs across from him and took a moment to examine what she was wearing. Dark green slacks along with a light green silk shirt and her usual leather jacket. The girl's hair was pulled back into its usual braid and her bangs framed her blue eyes. He smirked to himself and sat back in his chair.

"Shall we begin?" she asked, pulling out a notebook and a pen and laying them on her lap.

"Of course," said Seto, leaning back in his office chair and interlacing his fingers on top of his desk.. "Let's start with the over all plot of the game."

Pernia nodded and jotted down notes in short hand on the game plot, another virtual reality game, he wasn't aware when Kaiba got up from his chair and made his way over to stand behind him and lean over him. The Mitsu male started slightly when he felt the taller male's breath on him and smelled his cologne. He had heard that Kaiba Seto was not one for trust and he really wasn't surprised that the man was practically breathing down his neck.

"Wait," he said, brushing against the smaller male ever so slightly. "You left something out here."

"Oh, so I did," said Pernia, adding an arrow and writing it in the margin. "Did I miss anything else Mr. Kaiba?"

Kaiba looked it over and scanned the notes his blue eyes taking in the neat handwriting and small hands of the smaller brunette while checking for anything that was missing. "No," he said after awhile. "You have everything that I stated although I now see a part in the plot that might be a problem."

"Where Mr. Kaiba?" asked Pernia, looking up at the older male looking up at the older male before turning back to the note pad. "I don't see any problems with the plot."

Seto smirked when the female turned back to the notebook and took the time to examined the slenderness of the neck. "Here," said Seto, brushing against her upper arm and pointing to a plot point. "We need to add something in here to tie it all together."

Pernia examined the paper for several minutes biting his lip and then his face brightened when an idea came to him. "What about having the main character's lover discover the "key" so to speak to defeating the enemy and taming the dragon?"

"Or just having her be the lock," whispered Seto, in Pernia's ear letting the subtle suggestion hang in the air while watching for a reaction out of the corner of his eyes.

Seto wasn't sure if Pernia caught on to the suggestion or not because the female was too involved in writing down the plot hole filler. When she glanced up again she nearly jumped out of her skin when she noticed how close Kaiba was. He smirked at her in amusement his blue eyes flashing briefly with something that Pernia couldn't really place and Seto had intended it to be that. He wanted the girl to continue wondering about him he wanted himself to be a mystery to her so that she would keep coming back so she could figure him out. He wanted her mind to be on him, and only him, when they weren't around each other.

"Did you want to move on to the characters themselves or should we end it here for the day?" asked Pernia, glancing out the window into the darkening sky.

Seto looked up at the darkened sky and thought for several minutes. He really had other things to do although, he did want to spend more time with the Mitsu heir. He sighed and in the end work won out. "I think we should end it here and continue this later I have other things to do."

"Of course," said Pernia, getting to her feet gracefully and shoving the notepad in her bag and bowing slightly to Seto before leaving the room.

Seto, sighed and ran his hands through his short hair he was rather disappointed that he hadn't been able to see down the shirt but didn't dwell on it for too long and returned to his computer desk so that he could continue with his work that he had been doing before Pernia showed up.

Later that week

Pernia once again found himself standing before Kaiba Seto's office door and knocking on it before disappearing inside. He sighed and examined the taller male for several minutes watching him finish up whatever it was he was working on and the invitation to sit down. He took the time to examine him. He was exceptionally tall, about six foot give or take an inch, and was obviously well in shape judging by the muscles in the chest and arm area. It wouldn't be hard in fact for Seto too. The Mitsu heir shook his head it wouldn't do to have thoughts like that running through his head. They were both males and besides Pernia had to marry to provide an heir for his family's business. He sighed blowing a lock of hair from his eyes and continued to wait to be acknowledged.

It was all Seto could do not to smirk when he realized that the female was watching him, it gave him some sort of perverse pleasure to know she found him interesting. He could feel her eyes on him and felt his pride swell, he knew he was attractive and that females, and even some males for that matter, wanted to date him. He watched the girl out of the corner of his eyes and saw the faint blush before it disappeared with the shake of her head. He turned back to the computer and nearly chuckled arrogantly. She wasn't nearly as good at hiding her emotions as her father was.

Good.

"Don't just stand there sit down," he barked finally, watching in amusement has she jumped. "I want to get the main heroes and villains out of the way today."

He watched her move to take a seat where she had been last week and noticed she was wearing the same thing she had been wearing at the club. His eyes focused on her for several seconds before he stood up and moved to stand behind her. They started on the hero and he watched her sketch the male listening carefully to his words and making notes around the edges on weapons and other things. He inhaled her scent and took in the smell of Green Tea and honey.

Pernia became well aware of Kaiba standing behind him and tried to ignore his scent but found it difficult. Kaiba had such a commanding persona that it was almost impossible to ignore him anyways. He shifted slightly uncomfortable with the closeness of the other male and tried to focus on the work at hand and not let his thoughts wonder to things completely unlike him. It was one of those times where he wished he was more like his father in more then just the coloring. Flipping to another page he started working on the heroine of the game and felt Kaiba move slightly closer and wondered what had caused Kaiba to be so paranoid and untrusting.

"It's getting late," Kaiba finally said, looking up at the darkened sky. "We can finish this later this week."

"Yes," said Pernia, standing up and gathering his stuff. "I will see you later then good bye."

Seto sat back in his chair and leaned back smirking things were starting to get interesting Pernia was interested in him, or starting to get interested in him. He wondered how much longer it would take for him to be able to make the girl jumpy and nervous in his presence. He wanted her to be on edge when he seduced her so he could catch her off guard and not expecting it to come when it did.

Oh yes, playing with her was fun.

Later that week

Pernia was half asleep when his phone rang. Groaning he rolled over reaching for the phone to pick it up. With a sigh he sat up and put the phone to his ear and finally spoke.

"Yes?" he asked. "Who is it?"

"Mitsu," came the familiar voice of Kaiba.

Pernia froze and shifted on his bed, flipping his messy brown hair behind him. He sighed and frowned slightly wondering why Kaiba was calling him in the middle of the damn night.

"Yes?" said Pernia softly. "What may I do for you this early in the morning?"

Seto smirked, he could hear the slight annoyance in the girl's voice and couldn't help but it enjoyable. Annoying the girl was just as much fun as making the girl jumpy and off her game. He was really starting to enjoy this little game of cat and mouse he was playing with her, despite her not knowing.

"Are you free to meet with me at five this morning?" he asked.

Pernia sighed, and hung his head trying to think straight and figure out why Seto wanted to meet with him THAT early in the morning. "Yes, I can meet with you at five this morning. May I ask why?"

"I was hoping to spend the day going over the rest of the main characters before going into the minor characters," said Kaiba smoothly, a hidden agenda behind his reasoning.

Kaiba didn't want the female to know this but, he really wanted to spend more time with her, he wanted to have more time to touch her without her catching on, more time to inhale her fragrance and more time to seduce her without her knowledge. He did of course, want to work on the game but there was no reason why he shouldn't kill two birds with one stone.

He wanted her, he wanted her badly.

"I guess I will see you later today then," said Pernia.

"Of course," said Seto, before hanging up the phone.

Pernia sighed and hung up the phone collapsing back in bed and trying to ignore the strange feeling that was rising up within him.

Later that Morning

Pernia rode up the elevator and tried to stay awake while taking another sip of his green tea and honey drink. He sighed and collapsed against the elevator wall and concentrated on staying awake by checking to make sure that he had everything before going into the taller male's office. He sighed and pushed his brown bangs out of his eyes and walked out of the elevator when it opened and headed towards Seto's office without bothering to knock walked right in.

Seto glanced up and waved the female to a seat before going back to finishing up his report and closing the program to his attention to the female seating before him with the notebook perched on her lap. He hide his lecherous smirk behind his hands and closed his eyes inhaling deeply before standing starting the meeting while she made quick sketches of the main villain and notes along the sides. Later she would design the characters on her computer program and then bring them back for him to check. When he noticed that Pernia was deeply involved in her note taking he stood up and moved behind her and placed his hands on the back of her chair his knuckles touching her back. His breathing was starting to get heavier the more he breathed in her scent the more aroused he became.

He wanted her now, he reached out with one of his hands to touch her neck and stroke her hair.

Pernia glanced up and twisted in her chair to see Seto standing there with one of his hands reaching for him. "Is there something wrong Mr. Kaiba?" he asked, blushing slightly at the uncomfortable tension that had now formed between them. "Do you not like the sketch I drew?"

"The sketch is fine," said Seto, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Shall we continue?" he asked, taking a seat again back behind his desk smirking arrogantly to himself when he felt her eyes on him.

The day continued well into the night and Seto and Pernia ended the day by going to dinner and agreeing to meet in two more days to finish the minor characters.

One week later

Pernia plugged in his laptop and turned it on while digging through his bag for the disc that had the character designs on it. He pulled it out triumphantly and put the disc in the computer pulling the program up before opening the characters file.

Seto Kaiba stood behind Pernia his hands placed on either side of her on the desk watching the computer generated characters come to life. He smirked in delight, realizing that the characters were exactly the way he had envisioned them to be. The Mitsu heir had done well and he was pleased. She would make a good companion, she was brilliant and didn't try to grab his affection.

She didn't really have to work at grabbing his attention; she already had it.

Nightfall

Seto Kaiba turned off the lamp and lay down in bed staring up at the canopy and allowing his mind to wonder to Pernia before drifting off to sleep; where he could not escape her even in his dreams, even though he had no desire to.

Seto pressed Pernia against the closed and locked bedroom door pressing his lips against her before sliding his tongue into her mouth. He ran his hands under her shirt and brushed them against the breasts that she kept so well hidden from him. She dug her hands into his hair and moaned into his throat pressing her hips firmly against his aroused crotch. Seto growled against her mouth and wrapped his arms around her waist and grabbing her rare end.

He pressed her against the door harder when she wrapped her legs around his waist and moved her lips down to his neck biting and nibbling. He carted her to the bed and pushed her down into the mattress grinding his hips into her and letting her know how much he wanted to take. She groaned and arched her hips rubbing them invitingly against his hips. Her hands reached up for him and kissed his mouth again. When they pulled away she was breathing hard and scooted back on the bed towards the pillows before reaching for him. He smirked and crawled towards her closing the drapes around the bed plunging them into darkness. He reached for her and the sounds they left her throat from that moment on caused him to become even more aroused and pleased with her reactions to him.

Seto jerked awake and sat there for several minutes in bed trying to get his breathing back to normal. He ran his hands through his hair and rolled over in his bed looking at the clock before he became aware of something else. He glanced down and snorted in annoyance when he saw the mess on his sheets. He got out of bed and headed in the direction of the shower. He really did need to get clean before going into work. Speaking of work he needed to drop by Mitsu's place today so that he could get the rest of the data on the characters from her.

He could hardly wait to see her again; although he wasn't sure about how he would react to her now that he had had that dream of her.

Mitsu training hall later that day

Pernia and Arora were circling each other on the mats, holding bamboo staffs and looking for an opening. Pernia was wearing lose pants with his hands and feet wrapped up in white cloth and his brown hair pulled back in a long braid. Arora was wearing a similar outfit but with a matching sports bra and her long black hair was in a braided bun. He moved forward and swept the staff at his friend who ducked and parried with her own. They continued like this for awhile before Pernia found an opening and slammed her staff into Pernia's stomach causing the male to double over and her to sweep his feet out from under him.

Arora hovered over him and placed the end of her staff at his throat taking a offensive stance over him. She didn't however expect her friend to slam his foot up and cause her to tip forward, making her drop the staff and place her hands before her so that she could flip over him. She tumbled to the ground and was flipped over onto her stomach with her arms pinned to her back and her friend over her.

With a growl Arora twisted her body sharply using the momentum to throw him off balance and get to her feet.

"Pernia?" came a slightly shocked male voice.

The two friends turned to look at the new comer and saw Kaiba Seto standing there staring at them, or Pernia to be more precise, in shock. Arora smirked and shook her head trying desperately not to laugh for fear of hurting Pernia and infuriating the taller male.

"I guess I will let you two talk about this little situation and I will see you later," she said, walking out of the room grabbing her towel and water bottle.

Pernia cleared his throat and turned away from Seto to grab his water bottle. "From the look on your face," he began slowly. "I take it that you didn't know I was male and assumed, much like a lot of people, that I was a female." Seto said nothing so Pernia continued on. "I am a little surprised that you didn't notice it considering what I have heard about your observation skills. But I guess not. What now Kaiba Seto? Do you still want to work on the project with me or would you rather close the project down?"

Kaiba Seto stared at the male and considered him for several moments taking in his options. If he left he would lose a valuable partner and a good chance at creating a new game. If he stayed then he would risk going down a path that he wasn't that certain he wanted to go down. He had never noticed males that much; at least not in the way he was noticing, or had been noticing Pernia and that worried him. To be involved with another man, no matter how "open-minded" the world was, would scandalize him and his company.

Kaiba aburtly turned and walked out of the room without saying anything and leaving Pernia to himself. The younger male frowned and collapsed against the wall, cursing the other male under his breath. How fucking dare he walk out of the room, he wasn't the only one that was having a hard to time with the relationship and feelings that had started to develop. Just because he didn't have a chest didn't mean he was less worthy of someone's affections. Sighing Pernia banged his head against the wall and refused to cry. He refused to let that bastard get to him.

But he couldn't ignore the fact that the entire thing had left him feeling like shit. Damn him to fucking hell. "I guess this means that we won't be working on the project anymore." He sighed and stayed in the room for a good few hours before leaving the room.

A few days later

Seto sighed and ran his hands across his face. How was it possible for him to still be thinking about Pernia. It was like the male had infected him with his very essence. He snorted and turned away from his computer to face the large window of his office and stare out over the darkening city. He sighed and inhaled deeply and could still smell the scent of Pernia in the room he jumped to his feet and made his way to the door grabbing his trench coat on the way out. He had to get away from the other male's scent before it drove him insane. He told his secretary to make sure the cleaners, cleaned up his office well.

He sighed and climbed into his limo at the moment the smell of bleach would be far more preferable then the smell of Pernia. He held his head in his hands and tried to get his mind off of the male he wanted to go somewhere, anywhere, and get his mind off of him. He sighed and told his driver to take him to training hall. If he was lucky the blonde mutt would be there, he was looking for a good brawl and if he got him angry enough the mutt would fight till he couldn't get up anymore. That should work enough for him to get over whatever it was about Pernia that was bothering him.

Elsewhere

Pernia sat before a computer in his father's office and worked on his lap top helping his father to rebuild part of their system that had been nearly destroyed by some idiot tech. He sighed and tried to focus on the work at hand cursing every time his mind wandered to Kaiba. He shook his head rapidly and forced himself to focus on the job at hand until he was so absorbed into it that he couldn't think of anything else but the work at hand.

A difficult task seeing how every time he worked on his computer he couldn't get the day with Kaiba out of his mind and he hated that fact. Kaiba had no interest in him anymore, in anyway.

So why was he still thinking about the bastard. He refused to believe it was love; but from how his father had talked about falling for his mother. It sure was starting to seem exactly like it. Screw it, screw it all.

Three months later

Kaiba stared down at the invitation in his hand and took a deep breath. There were times where every now and then Pernia would still haunt his dreams and thoughts and what better way to take care of things then to face the problem head on and get it over with here and now. He removed a gun from his drawer, checked it for bullets, before sliding it into the holtster he had on and covering it with a jacket.

'Yes,' he thought firmly. 'Tonight would be a good time to finish it.'

All he had to do was get Mitsu Pernia alone and then everything would be taken care of. With that thought in mind Seto climbed into the limo and headed off to the Mitsu mansion. He sighed soon it would all be over.

Mitsu Family Mansion

Seto saw him across the room and made a beeline for the smaller male and froze just outside the male's small circle of admires, mainly female, waiting for a chance to get the youth alone. He took the time to take him in and make note of how the tuxedo made him look for male then any of the other clothing he had worn. He sighed and also noticed that the boy's long hair was no longer there and he wondered if he had cut it off or tucked it into the jacket. He found himself longing to touch the strands of hair and run his hand through it.

Finally, one by one, the admirers left and Kaiba stepped in before anyone else could claim the male. "I wish to speak with you privately," he whispered into the younger male's ear. "Is there anywhere we can go and talk in private?"

Seto watched the emotions flicker through his eyes and sighed inwardly, getting the boy to speak with him privately would be harder then he had thought. But he was surprised when the boy nodded and lead him through the crowd and out the door to a stone porch. Without looking back he continued leading the way down to the garden and along the paths before stopping in the middle of the labyrinth of flowers and trees.

"What do you want Kaiba?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

Kaiba would have smirked at the situation had it not been so serious and delicate. He stared into the other male's blue eyes and saw something in them that made him come to a decision then and there. It might be suicide for him to take this step but he was willing to risk it.

Wasn't he?

"I wanted to talk," he said smoothly.

He watched in interest as Pernia's face twisted into fury and disgust. "Why!"

"I find you interesting," said Kaiba. Pernia's snort showed him that the male didn't trust him or thought there was something else below the surface. "I was surprised to find you a male." Pernia remained silent. "Not only are you intriguing but you are also brilliant in a way that would compliment me, even if it does not match my standards."

Pernia continued to remain silent though the stance of defiance and hate had changed slightly to being one of despair and anguish, without the crying of a female. With an annoyed sigh Seto reached his hand out and yanked Pernia to him slamming their lips together and running his hands through the smaller male's hair, which had indeed been hidden in the jacket.

Pernia jerked back and stared at him angrily, before sighing after several minutes and staring at him with a determined look in his eyes. "I am willing to give this another try," he stated, answering the unspoken request. "However," he stated. "I refuse, to be left standing alone in a situation every time you get all chicken shit on me because of this! Do you understand! I will NOT be left to deal with the backlash of our relationship with the public and our families because you are too scared to deal with it! Because if you run off again then I will not let you back into my life again and I will make sure that any partnership you have with my family's company ends!"

Seto stared at him for several minutes before nodding slowly and reaching for the other male again. "I understand completely," he whispered his voice husky and light. "Now," he said coolly, "where were we?"

That said Kaiba slammed his mouth over Pernia's twisting it so that their lips molded together and he slide his tongue into the other boy's mouth. Pernia was his and he would kill anyone that tried to take the younger and smaller male away from him.

THE END

Author's Notes: This is a gift for lingalanodel who has been a great help to me recently. Thanks, I owe you girl.