Title: Texas Hold'em
Theme: Gamble
Rating: T
Length: 944 words
Seto Kaiba couldn't believe that he was really going to go through with this.
He sighed, remembering how he had managed to get himself into this position. It had been a game. A pure, innocent game with his younger brother. The boy had wanted to spend some quality time with him… and Seto had reluctantly agreed.
He should have known better.
It wasn't Duel Monsters that Mokuba had wanted to play. It wasn't chess. It wasn't even that silly Capsule Monsters game the raven-haired child had been so infatuated with when he was younger.
It was poker.
Seto hated poker. It was one game that he wasn't particularly good at, though he was still better than the average amateur. And he despised gambling itself; he had worked too hard to earn his money for him to throw it all away, even if it was technically a gamble that had given him that money in the first place.
But the cold hearted, infamously dreaded, ruthless, heart-of-stone CEO had a soft spot for his kid brother, and so it was that he found himself sitting across from the boy, allowing himself to be dealt into a game of No-Limit Texas Hold'em.
He had lost.
That in and of itself was bad enough. He never lost; the few times he had had been embarrassing anomalies that he hated to recall.
But the real part he hated was the price for his loss.
Before they had begun their game, Mokuba had laid the terms. They wouldn't play for money; it made no sense, as they were both filthy rich. Instead, the winner would be able to challenge the loser to do anything they wanted... and the loser had to do it. It had seemed childish to the young CEO; it was only one small step up from Truth or Dare, a game he utterly loathed. But again, Mokuba was the one thing he was unable to deny.
And so he had agreed.
He should have known better than that, too.
He winced now, remembering exactly what it was that Mokuba had coerced him into doing. He had protested, of course; it wasn't proper, it was unsanitary, and if he was caught it would become scandalous.
Of course, as he had been so helpfully informed, propriety was relative, people did it all the time, and since when had he cared about his public image?
And he had promised.
He sighed now. It hadn't taken him long to track her down. She went for a walk in Domino City Park every evening as the sun began to set, a habit that ran as sure as clockwork. He didn't allow himself to name exactly how he knew that she did this; he kept tabs on everyone who had ever had some kind of influence on his life. He had no special interest in her…
There she was. Just ahead of him, he could see her long red hair glowing in the dying sun. She was standing in the edge of a small duck pond, listening to the frogs and crickets serenade her.
"Wheeler!" he called.
She whirled around, startled. When she recognized him, she gave him a puzzled look.
"Mr… Kaiba?" She knew him from Battle City, and had seen him occasionally in the hallways at school, but he had never appeared to pay any attention to her.
"No. Santa Claus," he growled in reply, coming up to stand beside her.
She stared. "I didn't know you had a sense of humor."
"It's called sarcasm, girl."
"…What are you doing here, Mr. Kaiba?"
"Am I not allowed to take a walk through the park? It is public property, isn't it?" He was still playing the sarcasm card, taking his annoyance at his position out on her instead of keeping a stoic silence like he would have preferred.
"Yes, it is." She had either missed his temper, or was ignoring it. "But aren't you usually working at this time of day?" At any time of day?
"…Yes." He took a deep breath, bracing himself for what he needed to do next.
"So then why–"
She was swiftly cut off as he reached over and grabbed her arm, pulling her close to him and clamping his mouth over hers.
She gasped in surprise… and then she… responded.
…She wasn't supposed to respond.
He had intended for it to be quick; he wasn't sure why it seemed that time had stopped around them. He wasn't sure why it felt like there was fire in his veins, or why he felt the sudden urge to deepen the kiss.
He had to stop this; he was enjoying it too much. He pulled away, leaving her gasping, and almost frowned when he noticed that his hands had disobeyed him by wrapping themselves loosely around her waist.
"What was that for?" The girl breathed; she did not sound entirely unhappy with him.
He looked down at her face. She looked so… innocent. She reminded him strongly of his brother, the dear child who had kept him strong for so long, and who had subsequently landed him in this position. A position which, quite strangely, he liked.
"Actually… That was for a bet," he admitted. Before she could pull away, he tightened his grip about her waist. "But… This one isn't."
And as he closed the distance between them again, delighting in the fact that not only did she not try to pull away, but that she seemed to be enjoying herself as much as he was, a stray thought crossed his mind.
He would have to do this again sometime.
And people claimed that gambling wasn't addictive…
