Spiceshipping (Seto x Shizuka x Keith)

The silence was almost worse than the shouting. Shizuka swallowed and started playing with her hair, watching the silent fireworks go off in front of her.

All she had been doing was going out to buy some spices for dinner – but then she had run into someone, a foreigner. She had gotten flustered as he slurred at her in English, and she tried desperately to remember anything from her English class that would make him go away. He tried to drape his arm over her shoulder, and she shied away so that he stumbled.

And then, to make matters worse, Seto Kaiba had appeared from around the corner. His eyes had fallen on Shizuka, then shifted to the foreigner. Just a few English words dropped from his mouth in a tight, irritated tone. Almost instantly, the foreigner had hurled something at the tall, white-coated boy. And things just got worse.

The foreigner kept shouting things in a broken mix of English and Japanese, as Seto replied in a clipped, accented English. The foreigner threw something else. But Seto just knocked it aside with the back of his hand. Shizuka had backed away, wishing she could just leave, but the sidewalk was narrow, the street was busy, and the two men were practically on either side of her. She didn't feel safe sneaking past either of them.

The shouting had continued for a few more minutes, and then the foreigner had grabbed Seto by the collar. Seto pushed his shoulder back, and they stood there, glaring at each other for a long, long moment.

The silence was terrible. Seto was completely frozen, his blue eyes so harsh and cold that Shizuka shivered, even in the warm spring air. The foreigner swayed slightly back and forth, probably glaring at Seto, but it was hard to tell past his sunglasses. Shizuka chewed on her lip, feeling a hint of tears in her eyes. All she wanted was for one of them to make a sound – it was so scary not knowing!

Seto spoke one more English sentence – something cold and dripping with a threat. The foreigner went just the slightest bit pale. Then he let go of Seto's collar, and the two broke apart. The foreigner leered at Shizuka for a moment, red rimmed eyes peeking over dark glasses. Finally, he took a swig from the bottle hanging from his hand, and slouched away.

Seto turned with a snap of his white coat and started to walk away.

"Uh...wait!" Shizuka said.

Seto glanced back.

"What do you want?"

"W-what just happened?" Shizuka asked. "What were you saying to him? What was he saying?"

Seto's blue eyes were unreadable.

"Stay out of trouble," he said.

And then he was gone.

And the silence continued.

A/N: Aw, I think Seto likes Shizuka. :) I'm not a big supporter of that pairing, but it would be cute if it would ever actually happen. Next is Spearshipping (Ryouta/Mako Tsunami x Yugi).