Hey ya! Welcome to this installment of the Fire and Ice saga of Seto and Serenity. What an alliteration! Well, I'm really in a writing mood, so I'll make this chapter long and meaty.

There's this really good fic called…crap, I forgot what it was called, but it totally sparked my interest for writing! As did my B on my summer essay, but…hey.

Fire and Ice

By: Sakura Takanouchi

Chapter Six

"Yeah, the boards go over there…No, Tachikawa-sama, use the other end of the saw…and be careful, you're going to cut your fingers off…" It was the next day, or the day of our huge meeting for the culture festival. The gym was our construction site, and we were making the wooden frames that would house the different venues.

"Hey, Wheeler, got a minute?" Seto asked, leaning over the blueprints of the carnival.

"What is it, Kaiba," I answered annoyedly. I emphasized his last name, but he didn't notice. In fact, he looked as frazzled as I was.

"We're dangerously close to running out of nails," He informed me, quickly looking over the blueprints. "And the measurements of the snack stand are off. We're wasting lumber."

"Stop the press," I said sarcastically. "We're dangerously close to making a correctable mistake." Seto smirked at me. "And how do we solve it?"

I took a pencil and drew a few lines over the sketch of the prize counter. "We minimize this stand by the same scale the other one was increased, just we add shelves in the bottom, and store extra prizes there. We'll also use one of the storage closets to store additional prizes so we don't run out."

Seto's smirk faded with some slight look of respect. "Maybe I didn't give you enough credit," He said. "You do know something."

"Go get some nails," I said, writing down the address of the tools store just across the street. "Don't get run over."

He said nothing, just walked out of the gym. I turned around and began to assign people to work on hemming and sewing the tent covers, which were bright striped red and yellow, with the snack stands being blue.

The end of the day bell had rung and everyone had quickly emptied out of the gym, leaving me alone, holding a hammer. "Hello?" I asked. 'Woah…talk about getting out of school early,' I thought.

"You look confused," Seto's voice caused me to turn around, where I saw him leaning against the stage of the gym. "Here's the nails."

"Yay." I unenthusiastically took the bag from him, took a nail out, and began to hammer it into a piece of wood, which was gradually taking shape into the snack stand.

"Uh…Serenity?" He asked.

"What is it?" I turned around, surprised by his tone of voice.

"Why are you still here?" He asked, coming up towards me. "School is over."

"I'm working on this booth," I said, resuming my work. "I was given a leadership position, and I intend to fulfill it." I drove the nail into the wood and got another. "What else should I do?"

Seto grabbed a basketball from a rack and dribbled it causally. "Play me. One-on-one," He said.

"But you know I suck at that," I said. Despite myself, I dropped what I was working on.

"Come on." He threw the ball at me. I caught it, and then began to dribble it up the court. The tent frames were all along the sides of the gym, so I didn't have to worry about that. Seto stood in my path, so I attempted to dribble by him. It didn't work, and he easily took the ball from me and was already on the other side of the court.

"You have to go faster than that if you're going to live up to your rep!" He said, gracefully shooting a basket.

"You make it look so easy," I panted. He threw the ball back at me. "It's 1-0," He said. "Make it a tie."

I nodded, and dribbled towards the basket. He stood in my way, so this time I turned around him, instead of trying to go around him. I was in perfect alingment with the basket, so I aimed, ready for a lay-up, but—

Seto swatted the ball out of its path and it was back in his posession. "Better," He said, "But not good enough!"

Then something inside me ticked. Maybe it was just that I didn't want him to think of me like that. Better, but not good enough. 'I'll show him,' I thought.

I found a burst of speed and slapped the ball out of his hand. It was mine, and Seto's reaction timing was off. He wasn't expecting that, and I could tell by his expression. Mine clearly read, "Gotcha!"

I dribbled the ball towards my basket as fast as I could and tossed it in. I didn't pick up the ball, just let it roll until it hit my foot. "1-1." I said with a sly smile.

We continued playing, but neither of us scored. I just managed to block all of his shots, and he stole the ball away before I even had a chance to aim. I had to score. I dribbled the ball away from the middle of the court, hoping to make a longer-distance shot. I backed up, and my foot hit something. It was a paintbrush, which caused me to become of-balance. I was going to crash right into the tent frames, freshly painted ones at that!

I heard a wooshing sound, and then a figure pushing me out of harms way. I turned my head. "Seto…" I said. He said nothing. We landed in the pile of fabric that would be used to cover the wooden frames of the booths.

I couldn't help it. I suddenly started laughing, which confused myself just as much as it did Seto. I couldn't make myself stop, even though I didn't even know how I started. In my laughter, I rolled over, content to bury myself in the colorful fabric, until I realized who I had rolled into.

Seto stared at me, unsure of what to say. I finally stopped laughing, only to see his expression and start laughing all over again. Until a young boy's voice caught my attention. I stopped mid-giggle.

"Anyone in here?" Yugi turned on all of the gym lights as he walked in the direction of my laughter. 'I distinctly thought I heard her voice,' He thought.

My eyes widened and I scrambled out of the fabric mountain. "Yugi?" I asked.

"Oh, hi, Serenity!" He said, finally seeing me from across the gym. "I thought I heard your voice."

"Yeah, I'm…working on my class project for the culture festival. What's your class doing?"

"Oh, just selling food," Yugi said. "It's not as cool as your idea…I'll sure to swing by the gym to see it."

"Thank you." I answered. Yugi looked questionably at Seto, but since I didn't say anything about it, he decided not to bring it up.

"Well, grandpa got some new cards at the game shop, so I was…ah…wondering, if you'd want to come by and look at them, sometime." Yugi stuttered. Seto looked on, amused.

"Sorry, Yugi. I'm busy, but once I'm done working, I'll swing by, ok?" Yugi nodded. "Come on, I'll walk you to the door." Seto watched us leave, but I turned my head to look at him and mouthed the words, "I'll be back, so don't go."

"Sorry, Yugi, I wish I could go, but…" I told him as soon as we were in the gym lobby and out of Seto's earshot. My voice trailed off, and Yugi nodded.

"I understand," He said, and a faint blush tinged his features.

"Huh?" I said, my reaction based on his blush. "Oh, you think? We're not like that, Yugi. We're just the leaders of our class for the culture festival. Yugi, please don't tell Joey about that…you won't tell him, will you?"

Yugi smiled. "I won't tell," He said. I smiled gratefully at him. He opened the door to outside, and I could see that it was raining, and really windy.

"Here, take my umbrella," I said, retrieving it from my book bag in the lobby. "It's not the most masculine color, but it'll keep the rain out." I handed him the umbrella and he walked outside.

I was about to return to the gym when Seto's voice caught me off-guard. "So, is what you told Yugi true? What do you think…" He said, putting one arm on my shoulder and another on the doorframe, "Of me? Of…us?"

I stood, frozen, looking into his ice-blue eyes and saw the fire deep within them.

A/N

Oyyyyy… looks around I am so tired! stretches 'Sup, minna! It's weird, I write each chapter so far ahead of time, and then I proofread it once, and then I wait several days, and then post! So, I guess everyone thinks I'm crazy for withholding a chapter from you guys, right? WRONG-O! sighs You people must think I'm high or something.

Just to let y'all know, I will be starting another fic, which will be released soon after Meaningful Simplicity ends. I'm giving you a preview, so be sure to check it out when it comes out!

Title: Love Works Both Ways, You Know

Pairings: Seto/Serenity (main), plus one-sided Tristan/Serenity and Duke/Serenity and MAYBE some classic pairings like Yugi/Anzu and Joey/Mai, MAYBE MAYBE Noah/Serenity, but I'm still contemplating that one.

Summary: The two most unfortunate people meet under the most unfortunate of circumstances. Serenity finds herself torn between several men, one who is holding both her and her friends captive in a digital world!

TAKES PLACE DURING THE ARC WITH THE BIG 5 AND NOAH!

(yes, I like to spell his name like that. So sue me don't own YGO)

See you in Chapter Seven, and don't forget to leave a review!