A/N: Hm…only few responses on the last chapter? I guess it wasn't that good then. Or maybe it's because of Varon—no one likes him. But does that matter? This story is definitely Silentshipping. Add one and one and pity the loser. :)
Thank you, Tawnykit for beta-ing! (I love the boogeyman! XD)
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To Make a Shrink Snap
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Chapter Four
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"The Dinner"
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Pushing the curtains slightly ajar Shizuka gazed outside, waiting for Kaiba's expensive limousine to pull into the parking area in front of the building. It was already dark outside and it was getting colder these days. Autumn was over and winter crept upon the land. She sighed and looked back at her table where her cell phone was quietly lying as if it was staring back at her. It hadn't rung since yesterday.
Since she had told Varon that she had an appointment for dinner with one of her patients. Of course he was mad. He had every right to be. She would have to talk to Kaiba. This absolutely was an exception. Next time he would have to ask someone else to accompany him. A noise from the background made her turn and look outside again. There was the limo.
She grabbed her coat, pulling it on hastily before she took her purse and locked the office behind her. The corridor was quiet. She hated to be alone here in the evening. On weekdays at least there would be some caretaker but on Saturday, today, it was just Shizuka Kawai and the fact scared her.
The building she had her therapy rooms in had eight floors. Downstairs were just some banking automats, nothing else. In the first and second floor there was some sort of private school, offering courses to attend in arts, literature, math, languages, etc. The third and fourth floor held different kinds of store offices, small one-man-companies, agencies for different services, and even a small cafeteria.
Shizuka's office was on the fifth floor, together with another doctor at the other side from the elevators. Above her were offices with lawyers and small administrations. Usually this building was very busy. But not tonight. Tonight nobody was left apart from Dr. Kawai. Tonight only her own corridor was lit with light. Any other hallway was dark. No men, no women to see. Empty space, some furniture that added to the sinister darkness threw long and dark shadows on the usually white walls.
Creepy. Not that she was easily afraid. She had been living alone for four years now. But some things still were creepy. Nervously she waited for the lift to approach. Shizuka would have certainly tapped with her foot against the tiled floor but, as things were, it would only add to the creepiness.
A tapping sound onto tiles… darkness… shudder.
Nah! Not a thing she wished for. The thing she wished for was this stupid lift. Suddenly the lights on her corridor went off and Dr. Kawai winced. Time switches. She cursed them and shifted her gaze back at the numbers above the lift's doors. Why was it taking so long? Turning left she started. She could have sworn she had seen something from the corner of her eyes.
But there was nothing. Sighing she put a hand on her chest and watched the lift's lights. It was coming, finally. 1…2…3…4…5! The doors opened and quickly the woman scampered inside, just to be blocked by something really huge and dark. For a moment her eyes couldn't see! She didn't believe in the boogeyman but hey, these days everything was possible.
A hand grabbed for her upper arm—she could feel it and it sent shivers down her spine! Aaahhh!
She couldn't help it: her mouth emitted a small, strangled scream. That let out, she calmed down to a small extend and found the nerve to observe whatever was blocking her. It really was huge. Or tall. Her eyes wandered upwards across the fine buttons of someone's jacket. Either Michael Myers had found some style in fashion or this was not the boogeyman. A clue popped into her head.
"Good evening, Dr. Kawai," Seto gazed blankly at the woman when she had finally met his eyes. "Aren't you feeling well?"
Shizuka swallowed and mentally counted to ten. This was Kaiba, not the boogeyman, she reminded herself and tried to cover the last of her dignity. Confidently, she smiled up at him and winked.
"I'm fine." Everyone is fine, right?
"Good, I could have sworn you've been afraid of something. Or someone?" Kaiba pushed the button for the lift to move down again and the doors closed. "Not your boyfriend I hope? Or some stalker?"
The woman shook her head. "No, none of them. There was no one and nothing. I was just… over-reacting I guess."
"Probably. It would have been a shame if you had to cancel our dinner because you don't feel well, Dr. Kawai." Seto said calm as he was casually standing next to her, gazing ahead.
Shizuka watched. Shizuka studied. Shizuka concluded. There were no sign on Kaiba indicating to more than a doctor-patient dinner. She had thought about the way he had left her last time: with a quick kiss on her cheek. Maybe he had been just overjoyed? But hell, she may have only spend three hours with him so far but she could tell when one looked overjoyed. And Seto Kaiba hadn't looked like he was overjoyed. He never really looked like anything at all except from the fact of his extreme handsomeness. But that was that. The other side was that his looks didn't necessarily matched his actions.
Kaiba's eyes narrowed at her. "Have you listened to a single word I said?"
"Of course," she replied quicker than her brain should have allowed.
"Then what's your answer?"
"Um…I'm not sure." She began fidgeting with her purse—not a good sign.
"You're not sure about your answer?" Seto Kaiba indeed seemed puzzled.
"No, I'm not sure is the answer." Trying to sound confident her reply sounded more nervous than she would have been meeting her pop star idol during her teenage years. Unfortunately that had never happened.
"You're not sure if it's far away from here to where you live? How do you get here every day? Blindly driven?" Seto's look became more and more skeptical. He had heard of weird shrinks; they were supposed to be professional analyzers of sick brains for a reason: they had a sick brain. Maybe he wouldn't even try to hit on a shrink if Dr. Kawai wasn't as hot as she was. Plus, he was sure she had further authorities in other areas.
"Yes." The doctor nodded as they stepped out of the lift. She desperately needed to save some of her pride and intelligence. "I mean you can see it one way or the other. If you take the highway it's a bigger distance but you're faster. If you take the roads and avenues it's shorter but it'll take longer to arrive at home. In the end there are the factors of time and way to consider."
Kaiba thought about it for a moment. She was complicated. She considered two perspectives at once. Women were supposed to be capable to do that. He shrugged mentally and kept walking her to the exit. In front his limousine was parked. Seto opened the door for Shizuka and let her climb inside before he entered as well.
Shizuka quickly smiled when she met his blue-eyed gaze but glanced back in front of her, pulling her skirt further across her knees.
"Well, how are you doing so far, Mr. Kaiba?" Hating the silence that occurred between them Shizuka tried to do what she could do best: her job.
"I'm fine," he stated and thought about how to achieve her unconditional attention. "Apart from the nervousness and the feeling of losing control."
"Because of your company?"
"Yes. I really got cold hands." He complained sighing as pathetically as he was able to act and grabbed for Dr. Kawai's hand. "Here. See?"
An electric jolt drove through her nerves with his touch. She stared at his hands that grasped her small hand for a moment until she regained composure. Pulling her hand away blushing she smiled nervously and turned to look out of the window. "They're not really cold, Mr. Kaiba."
He cursed her cleverness and leant back. Maybe she wasn't an easy target but since when did Kaiba set his goals low? He shrugged mentally and stared ahead, forming a concrete plan in his mind.
During their ride Dr. Kawai spaced completely out thinking about their little contact. Having endured a study of psychology sometimes seemed to not have been the best thing to do as she began to analyze. With Dr. Kawai people had talked about their lives, their losses, their victories. and of course their loves. She should know almost everything by the experiences her job offered. Still she did not know why there had been a strange fluttering feeling in the pit of her stomach as had Kaiba touched her hand.
The car came to a halt and Seto climbed out, helping Shizuka to get out as well. She declined the offered hand though, not daring to make the feeling she had worse.
"Good evening, Mr. Kaiba," the man at the entrance greeted politely and bowed. Kaiba just gave a curt nod back. "The usual table, sir?"
"No," Seto stated calmly with a totally blank expression on his face. "I've made a reservation for two. Give us a table a little more romantic."
"Of course," the man bowed, having checked his guest's book, and motioned for the couple to follow him. "I hope your beautiful company and you, sir, are very pleased with this table?"
They were led to a table in the corner at the far end of the room where more privacy was offered. The lights were dim and the man lit a candle on the table. Shizuka gulped down the lump in her throat. More romantic? This was not a date! But for the sake of Kaiba's reputation she kept her mouth shut.
"Yes," the CEO answered and handed the man his coat.
Quickly Shizuka shrugged off her coat before Kaiba would get the idea to help her and handed it to the man as well. He smiled at her as if mustering the woman. She just raised an eyebrow and wasted no time sitting down. It left Seto cursing again since he wasn't able to play the perfect gentleman and push the chair for her.
"May I bring something to drink, sir?" The man was still there and gazed at the both of them once he had laid the menu cards down on the table for them.
"Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon," Seto ordered and darted his gaze upon Shizuka expectantly.
"Water, please," she said with no clue what Kaiba actually had ordered. As soon as the man was gone she quickly opened the menu card and started to read. Not that she was trying to avoid looking at Kaiba but, well… she was. He made her nervous. She couldn't help it. Maybe she should order some alcohol?
Paging through the menu she suddenly gasped and covered her mouth with an apologetically look in her eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"Didn't you order the Silver Oak wine? You should have read the menu card first. The bottle is 126 bucks!" she whispered wide-eyed as if telling a secret.
"Yeah, I know. That's what I take with steak." If Kaiba was a blatant guy he would have scratched his head right now because it wasn't quite obvious to him why she was telling him that.
Shizuka stared at Kaiba for an eternity, or at least it felt like one, before she swallowed and shifted her gaze downwards, realizing her mistake. God, she was a fool. How much did Kaiba own? Millions or Milliards? What were 126 dollars to him?
"What do you want to eat?"
"Huh?" Shizuka visibly snapped out of her daze.
"What would you like for dinner?" he asked again. "Steak, meat, seafood? Anything, hm?"
"I…well…" she pondered, not having thought about it at all. "Do they have chicken?"
"They've got good strips of chicken breast in curry with jasmine rice," he stated all too coolly, making the woman wonder if he came here often. At least the man who she supposed was a waiter knew his name; hence Kaiba wasn't here the first time.
"Okay, I'll take that." She smiled and put down the card.
In no time the waiter—a different one—was at their table and took their orders.
"For the lady a glass of Beringer Chardonnay and the Sautéed Strips of Chicken Breast," Kaiba classy told the waiter. "Grilled Filet Mignon for me. Thank you."
"Yes, sir, madam." The waited bowed and left quickly.
Dr. Kawai had to suppress a sigh. Instead she took a deep breath and gazed around the room. This was probably the most expensive restaurant she had ever been in. All the guests were well dressed in elegant garbs and suits. Her most expensive dress was pitiable compared to their clothes. She earned good money but still not as much she would need to count to the top class standards. She wore a plain black top and a deep red long skirt—no dress at all—and she was surrounded by snobs.
Somehow she had the right to feel awkward. Besides, opposite her sat the probably biggest snob of them all. Although…apart from his classy style of ordering dinner…oh, and the limousine drive…he wasn't that snobbish at all. Kaiba—as unbelievable as it may seem—seemed to be captive within a world he didn't belong in. Judging from the way he was talking, quite plain and rude sometimes, he might be some local worker.
Shizuka forced her mind to stay on task. Why was she here again? Yes, to help Seto Kaiba to fight his fear of losing his company! That meant her next step would be to approach some casualty between them.
"Do you come here often, Mr. Kaiba?"
Seto narrowed his eyes for a split of a second before he took a deep breath. "Would you please not call me Mr. Kaiba? Say Kaiba. Or Seto."
Puzzled and surprised the doctor raised her thin brows. "Isn't Mister adequate?"
Suppressing annoyance he groaned mentally. He hated when being questioned about his motives. God damn it, yes! Mister was more than adequate, plus he had an immense problem with offering his simple surname, not to mention his first name, to other people—anyone actually—BUT the sooner she would stop calling him Mister the quicker they would become closer to each other.
"I don't feel quite…comfortable with it," he squeezed the word 'comfortable' out of his mouth.
"Oh." Dr. Kawai combined: casualty and formality somehow didn't match. He was right. Clever bastard. "Okay, well, then I'm going to call you Seto. B…because I kind of think t…that calling people by their surnames isn't polite."
Whoo—what was that? Shizuka stuttered. Explaining her motives why she would call him by his first name! And aside that, she had suddenly the feeling she would burn from inside the moment she voiced out mentioned first name! Gulping down her water quickly she hoped the heat in her would vanish.
Kaiba's eyes lit up like they had once seeing the Blue-Eyes for the first time in his life. Did she blush? In his mind he rubbed his flat palms against each other. So far so good. And as clever as he had once claimed her to be she was not. Her words had left him with options.
"I'm glad you say that. I can't stand calling people by their surnames either, Shi-zu-ka."
Had she ever seen an evil smile? An evil grin perhaps, or an evil smirk, but an evil smile? If not, she saw one for the first time. But it didn't matter. She wasn't able to concentrate on this smile of Mr. Kaiba—correction Seto—anyway. She shuddered too much as his deep voice formed her name. And the scariest part was that it would probably sound quite enjoyable in a more romantically intimate situation.
The heat in her face rose again and she coughed. "You never answered my question."
"If I come here often?" Obviously he hadn't forgotten as he waited for her nod of assurance. "Sometimes. They have the necessary seclusion to allow my business partners and me to have actual business dinners at all."
"Oh, I understand," she suddenly laughed lightly. "A shame you can't just go with them to McDonald's."
"Indeed."
What? He agreed?"I suggested Sardi's manager to provide toys with their main courses but he didn't seem to be convinced at all." Kaiba shook his head slowly, acting most serious, and crossed his arms.
Was that a joke? Shizuka stared at him until…
She suddenly burst out laughing until she nearly cried. Patiently Kaiba waited and watched her. He had trained in front of the mirror to make jokes like this. Unfortunately Roland had found him doing that but Seto had just used this opportunity to ask his employee if the CEO was funny or not. Roland had then suggested to Kaiba that he would be the type who suited the more serious jokes—not one where he had to laugh himself. It was just too creepy. Trust Roland—he knew Kaiba.
"Just imagine that," the doctor giggled still. "Just imagine the people in here jumping in joy receiving a toy with their dinner! God, this is hilarious!"
Pleased, Kaiba smiled as he folded his hands in front of him. He was a winner. Nobody could deny that. He would win the doctor too!
Even as the waiter came with her food Shizuka had to suppress the urge to laugh at the scenario colored in her mind. She giggled a 'thank you' and tried to take a hold on knife and fork even though they mysteriously kept on falling from her hands. She took three deep breaths and calmed finally down to a small extent.
"How's your boyfriend?" Out of the blue Kaiba asked, calmly eating his steak. He chewed unusually long and slow with his strongly built jaw while he kept on cutting the food with his knife until the metal made a screeching noise along the plate. Cold as ice he muttered: "Sorry."
"Fine. He's fine." She had no clue why Kaiba always asked about her boyfriend but if he had to anyway, she would at least say Varon was fine even if he wasn't.
"You have been together for how long?" he pressed out between gritted teeth, fantasizing about how he would approach the jackass, pull a gun from under his trench coat and just shoot his head off—bang! Good night, buddy.
"Six months." She smiled at the thought. She hoped Varon would be ready for commitment next year. Every woman dreamt of a proposal. Shizuka was no exception.
"And you want to be with him for the rest of your life? Every day wake up next to the same face? Have him get you pregnant and quit your career to bear him many, many children? That's what you want, hm?" Sweetly Kaiba smiled.
Sweet plus Kaiba equals deadly.
"Well," she pondered. Was Kaiba trying to make her have doubts? Did she already have any? "I won't have to quit my career for my children. I'll just have to bear them. My boyfriend will take care of the babies then."
That sounded naïve even to her. Kaiba just raised one brow. "He will quit working?"
"Not really, no." She tried to find a way, how to put it in the right words. But there weren't any. "That won't be necessary really because my boyfriend doesn't have a job at the moment."
"But that's just temporarily, isn't it?"
"Well, no…and yes. But…no." Varon hadn't worked for two years now. Did that still count as temporary?
"How does he survive? With your money or does he have rich parents?" All Kaiba wanted to know was who this lowly creature of a man is, so he could shoot his head off! No, he wouldn't. But to imagine it was allowed, wasn't it?
"Varon works sometimes here and there." Illegal car races didn't count, did they? However, mentioning them was no good idea whatsoever.
"Varon," Kaiba repeated the name to save it within his mind.
"Doesn't matter anyway, does it? How are you doing so far? Everything okay? Are you feeling fine?" She tried to close the topic of Varon.
"Depends," he replied coldly and stabbed the fork in his salad. Physically he felt hundred percent healthy. Mentally he would rather like to stab Dr. Kawai's boyfriend. But all in all he was here with her, wasn't he? Hence he felt fine. "Sometimes more, sometimes less."
Shizuka drank from her wine, as she didn't know how to reply. She needed to think of something! Her mantra was casualty. "Any other news? How's your brother? I've seen him in TV for the KaibaLand commercial."
"He's just fine. He's always fine. I wonder if he takes something," the dry jokes went well with Kaiba, he decided and smiled inwardly.
But this time Shizuka couldn't laugh. "Do you think so? He looked quite healthy to me."
"He is. And he's doing his job fine. He's got great talent for promotion."
Talent and the looks, she added in her mind. "I'm not surprised. He was voted for Japan's most attractive hunk beyond 25 years in People's magazine. Have you seen the article?"
"No, but I had to face the party afterwards." He cursed that day as he came home and all of his house was full with different people—males and females and some who couldn't be defined. Mokuba had held a monstrous party for 'his victory'. Seto had locked himself up in his bedroom.
Shizuka just laughed, glad that Kaiba apparently had had a ball. She couldn't even imagine in the slightest how wrong she truly was. "I guess you'll have to take care of your rank when he gets older."
"How do you mean that?" His rank in what? Mokuba didn't duel at tournaments.
"Your rank! In Japan's most attractive men beyond 30! Don't you know? You're almost at the top," she stated not quite believing that he didn't know. If they threw a party for Mokuba, Kaiba surely would have one too, wouldn't he?
"Oh." Almost at the top? It thundered within Kaiba's mind and there was definitely lightning too! Not that he cared if he was most attractive or not but if there was a competition, why wasn't he at the top? He hated to be second best!
"C'mon, don't try to fool me. You must know that! It should offer you fat chances," she winked and grinned cheekily.
"Chances?" Changes were good, he decided.
"Yes, with women. You once said you don't have anyone special in your life but I can't quite believe that there's no one at all. Never." She was convinced if he didn't have a girlfriend, then maybe he had a few of them? "You've got a lot of chances!"
Kaiba slowly twisted his lips into a smirk. "Do I?"
"Yes!" She was certain about that. He was handsome, rich and frighteningly hot—he must have a life beyond all his business, even if he was not the type like his brother who smiled for commercials, gave interviews in TV shows, and visited silly game shows.
Great, Seto thought. No, he didn't. Instead he thought: fantastic! Chances were fat that Shizuka would soon be more than just his date for dinner (and shrink what could be mentioned only by the way). The only exception would be if her boyfriend, Varon, would be even more attractive.
"Who's ahead of me in this article?" His voice held suddenly an icy tone.
"Hm…if I recall correctly you were second right after Ryuji Otogi. But he doesn't count. He outed himself gay last month." Shizuka slowly started to like Kaiba, having finally found one who was interested in the yellow press. And she was well informed after all.
Second after Otogi was anything but pleasant. Seto mourned for a moment in silence. Why were women so into gays? Hold on. Women were into Mokuba. Was Mokuba one of…them Seto had a slight clue because of the huge amounts of eyeliner and black nail-lacquer in his brother's bathroom, but that wasn't something extraordinary these days. Men in skirts, high heels and with make-up were everywhere.
"Whom did my brother beat?"
Oh, joy! Kaiba seemed to love the things she liked! "Leon van Schraider was second I believe."
There you go, Seto agreed mentally. That buddy never wore eyeliner as far as Kaiba remembered. No wonder Schraider was only second. Perhaps Seto should wear eyeliner, too? Then he certainly would be on top of the list and Shizuka had no other choice than to take him as her lover.
"Do you think I should wear eyeliner?" he asked seriously and looked at the woman intently.
But Shizuka rose a confused eyebrow, considering the possibilities of Kaiba's true sexuality. He had no girlfriend, no women at all in his life and he asked her if he should wear eyeliner. Alright. She should have known it. He was just too gorgeous to be straight! And gladly she was safe.
"I don't know." She helplessly shrugged. That really was something he had to decide himself.
"Would you like me better with eyeliner?" He pressured.
"Hm…no. You know, I think it's advantageous for your brother cause the black eyeliner matches his hair. But in your case that wouldn't make sense and besides, it would only hide your marvelous blue eyes," she gave her honest opinion and with that brightened Kaiba's life enormously—just that she had no clue.
His crystal blue eyes sparkled. Marvelous blue eyes! No one had ever told him that he had marvelous blue eyes. Mar-ve-lous! And that without contacts! Maybe it was just a black-haired thing that they were at the top. They wore eyeliner that matched their hair color. But had they marvelous blue eyes? No.
"Who do you think is more attractive? Ryuji Otogi or…me?" He leant forward and let his eyes dance a little for the doctor. She found them marvelous after all.
But Shizuka just shrugged. "I can't choose. Otogi definitely has great looks with all the ebony hair and green eyes but you are a brunette and I really like brunets—my boyfriend's a brunet. That makes the choice quite skewed."
So her boyfriend had brown hair? More info please. A photo would help quite much. Fat chance finding the guy and blasting off his water-head. But Kaiba focused on the positive aspects concerning the beautiful doctor and reminded himself, that at least she liked brunets—so no changes in his style.
Meanwhile the waiter had taken care of their well-being and was now asking them for their wishes for dessert. Shizuka didn't quite know. Had there been any desserts on the menu card?
"One minute," Kaiba instructed the man to come back later.
"Of course, sir." Bowing the waiter left.
Dr. Kawai sighed. "I can't choose. I just don't know what I want."
That was no good, Seto mused with a different thought in the back of his mind. She would have to choose sooner or later. And she better choose him over her boyfriend. "Maybe I can help? What do you regard as your options?
"Tiramisu Cake with Espresso Vanilla Sauce, Tahitian Vanilla Bean Crème or Floating Islands with Vanilla Sauce. Tiramisu sounds great but Tahitian would be interesting too. Floating Island also sounds funny," she thought out loud and expectantly gazed over at the CEO.
He could have watched her big hazel eyes the whole evening long but guessed that he had to reply sooner or later. "Have you got a thing for vanilla?"
"Um…kinda. I'm addicted to vanilla ice cream. I could eat it all day long," she explained lightly and giggled at herself.
Perhaps inviting her for dinner wasn't such a good idea after all, he deemed. Instead they should have gone eating ice cream somewhere. He saved in his mind to ask Mokuba for a nice place to do that another time with Shizuka—at least until she would finally be Kaiba's and Kaiba's only! But at first he had to help her finding a dessert.
Take me for dessert, honey! "Don't try the Tahitian Crème; it doesn't match the vanilla taste well. That much I can tell."
"Well, then I'll take the Floating Islands. But with extra Vanilla sauce." Satisfied, she smiled while Kaiba motioned for the waiter to get their orders.
"The Floating Islands with extra vanilla sauce for the extra sweet lady and for me the Boccone Dolce." Seto kept his gaze fastened on his company while the waiter politely took the order and left, bowing. "
"What's Boccone Dolce? It sounds like a perfume." Casualty. She believed she had achieved the goal she had set and smiled.
"It's with Meringue, strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate." Now, interested? She could have all of this plus Seto if she wanted. The right corner of Kaiba's mouth twitched into a little devilish smile as he kept thinking of his very own Shizuka-dessert.
"Sounds great," she agreed and smiled as they waited patiently for their final sweets. Strangely Shizuka didn't think the evening had turned out as bad as she had imagined in the first place. Kaiba was an interesting talking partner once you melted the ice-cube around him.
It wasn't much later when the waiter came back with their desserts and Shizuka's eyes went wide and her mouth watered at the sight of her dessert with the extra vanilla sauce. She examined Seto's 'sweet mouthful' and smiled, "Looks good. Tastes good?"
Kaiba cheered mentally at her question and picked one of the strawberries from off his plate. "Here. See for yourself."
Shizuka nearly shrieked as she found herself with a strawberry in front of her face all of a sudden. She stared at the red fruit, then her pupils wandered to gaze at Kaiba who was making his best impression of innocence. He urged with wobbling the fork in front of her but Shizuka mourned. The fruit looked very delicious. But there was something about a man, a woman and a fruit. She just couldn't remember what. It didn't matter, she decided. After all Kaiba was gay!
"Mmh…very luscious," she spoke and chewed the strawberry with a sweet smile.
But Seto didn't even register. He had entered another world. The moment she had opened her pink full lips and the strawberry vanished inside of her petite mouth, Kaiba's throat suddenly went dry. He swallowed as his eyes watched every little move of her chewing on the fruit. God, he would give all of his millions to feed the little kitten with fruit and vanilla ice-cream every night and day. Unaware his tongue darted out to lick along his bottom lip.
Dr. Kawai paid her attention back to her Islands and all too slowly Seto snapped out of his dreams and ate the dessert he had ordered. It wasn't that easy as he had pictures in his head of Shizuka lying within all these shining red strawberries and the whipped cream. She would be his chocolate beyond all doubt.
Sighing Shizuka laid a hand across her belly as she contently smiled. "That, I must admit, was a fantastic dinner."
She received a satisfied nod in response. "I could invite you more often."
"A tempting offer but I have to decline. I'm sure you'll find a nice companion other than me you can invite sometimes," she spoke with a reassuring smile, sure that he would find some friends. "I doubt my boyfriend would be pleased if I'll have dinner with you more often."
Boyfriend here, boyfriend there. Kaiba was sick of that. He growled inwardly but kept his cool façade. It was hard not to lose control and it was frustrating but he had always been stronger than to give in to aggravation or to give up at all. He was a fighter! And he would be a lover!
"If that's okay for you, I'd like to go then. It's getting late," she apologized graciously.
Kaiba paid the bill with no further words. But he wondered. He had never felt like this in his entire life. True, he knew hate and he truly hated her boyfriend. But just her single request to go made him feel disappointment and sadness, sneaking up somewhere between his breast bone and the pit of his stomach. Odd. Largely oddest.
It was ridiculous. Things had happened in his life that should have made him disappointed and sad but they never did because Kaiba never lost control of his emotions. Now there was a woman who said that she wanted to go and suddenly a world shattered.
Even as they left, they left in silence. Seto helped her in her coat and led her outside to the waiting limousine. Inside the car Shizuka couldn't take it any longer, worrying about her patient.
"Is something wrong?" she asked softly as they sat in the car.
"No," he replied curtly but cursed within his mind. To achieve what he wanted, he couldn't let his emotions take control. He had to go on with his master-plan.
"You sure? You're so quiet. Are you worried about something? You seem distant." She didn't just talk to him like a shrink but also like a friend.
Distant, Kaiba pondered. If she didn't want him distant, she could easily have that. Quickly he thought of some excuse. "This has been the first time I was having dinner out of business or with someone else other than my brother. It wasn't all bad, you know?"
Shizuka smiled a rich smile of joy. "I'm glad it wasn't. That is a first step. And I must admit that I had a great time this evening."
Strike! "Good."
The car stopped and Shizuka climbed out after Kaiba who held the door open for her. She gazed up at the tall businessman and smiled. If he weren't her patient—patient her ass! She had an offer to make.
"Thanks for the evening, Seto." She bowed with a smile. Considering his sexual preferences it wasn't even so hard to voice out his first name anymore. "Perhaps I'll be the first one you can add to your list of friends."
His chest swelled. This had been the first time she had called him directly by his first name. And boy, did it feel good. But that was not the only thing he found agreeable. Not that it wasn't his mind's perfect ending that she offered him friendship but it was a huge stride towards her unconditional desire for him. The way to a woman's bed lead through their friendship—that he was sure of. Or was it a woman's heart? Through the stomach? Maybe he wasn't so sure after all.
Using the opportunity he quickly bent down and placed a (second!) kiss on her cheek. "I've got to thank you, Shizuka."
With a last nod he vanished inside of the car that sped off quickly. Shizuka stood there for awhile, gazing ahead. Even kissing her wasn't that bad now that she knew about his true likings in gender. But still it sent shivers down her spine when his deep, erotic voice spoke her name: 'Shi-zu-ka'.
Shudder.
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End of chapter four.
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A/N: It turned out different than I had it planned. I never wanted to make Shizuka think of Kaiba as gay but…well, it just floated out of me that way. But she will realize he isn't. That's a promise!
Please review! Tell me what you think!