Francesca

Everyone was staring at her. She knew the heat she was feeling was all in her mind. But she had to steel up her nerve. "Kaiba Corp has a better product." She shrugged. "I thought it would be the logical choice to take the offer from the company with the superior product. Your company repeatedly undersells KC every year and has for the last eight years or so. While, I do have to admit, the offer was more lucrative. Money has never been a driving factor to me." She tried to act nonchalantly, but inside she was trembling. She was relieved, when looking over Alexander's shoulder, she saw a look of approval on her new employer's face.

She turned back to focus on her food, ignoring the intruder to her left. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him trying to maintain his composure. He was obviously angry. After a moment he stood up and stalked away angrily. "Wow" Mokuba said laughing as Mr. Kaiba chuckled to her left. "That was great Cheesy".

"Thank you," she replied. "And thank you for pulling me away. I kinda froze." Mokuba nodded, not saying anything. She took it to mean "anytime".

After dinner the trio walked out of the restaurant into the hot night. "The heat is so different here. It's almost arid." She exhaled. "I'm used to being humid and wet. This is a nice change." She laughed "going from almost 100% humidity to 0 is a shock though." She twirled happily "this place is so busy, it's a tad bit overwhelming. But lovely." The limo pulled up and a tall man came around and opened the door for them.

"Miss Delacroix." He was a menacing figure. Tall with black hair and sunglasses.

"Chessy, this is Roland. He is our chief of security. He goes everywhere we go." Mokuba said as he touched her elbow gently. He carefully led her into the limo.

Seto

The green looked lovely on her and the dress looked like it was made just for her. Her hair was beautiful, just like he thought and long. So long. He had watched from the doorway as she fixed it into that ridiculous braid. He wanted to see it free and wild. Not under the ridiculous constraints of hair ties or up in buns.

She muttered something under her breath that made Mokuba laugh as he walked out, but he didn't hear her.

Dinner that night was at some hip new restaurant that Mokuba wanted to try. So they did, because he would do anything that his brother requested. Walking in he saw how everyone watched them. It wasn't unusual to see the brothers in LA. What was unusual was to see them with someone, especially a female someone.

She seemed to not realize how captivating she really was. They sat together at a round table in the corner. Her with her back to the wall facing the restaurant, the brothers to her left and right.

When Alexander weaseled between them Seto wanted to punch him. But it seemed that Francesca did ok holding her own against him. Both brothers seemed captivated by this girl; she was younger than both of them.

It was close to 2 am and he was awake working. Stretching, Seto stood from his desk and began to head downstairs for a drink. Opening his bedroom door he found the hallway still covered with light. Looking over he saw that Francesca's door was slightly ajar. He walked by and peeked in seeing that the young woman was asleep on the bed with something strewn about. Walking in he saw that they were pictures, he picked one up and saw a much younger Francesca. She was probably fifteen or sixteen in the picture sitting on the shoulders of a black haired teen. She was smiling widely while the boy made a crazy face. He turned the photo over and saw "Malachi and Chessy 15 years old". Seto carefully put the picture down and picked up another, this was again a much younger Francesca, probably three or four being carried by an older red haired boy. Turning the photo over he saw "Sammy 13 Chessy 3". So this was her big brother, the one who encouraged her to play video games. He placed the photo back on the bed carefully so as to not wake her up. He looked down at her sleeping form, she was wearing only a black sports bra and matching shorts that made her pale skin seem to glow. He admired her for a brief moment, his eyes taking her in then left her sleeping form and turning out the light. He then walked down stairs to get his glass of water.

The next morning Seto was woken by Mokuba running into his room. "Seto, you have got to come see this." The younger man had huge eyes as he turned and left the room at a run. Seto kicked the blanket off his legs and followed his younger brother thinking something was wrong. He found Mokuba in the dining room standing in the doorway, his mouth agape. Seto looked around his brother and saw a feast. There was so much food on the table and as they stood in shock Francesca came out of the kitchen door with more. "Chessy, what is all of this?" Mokuba asked, looking from her to the table in shock.

"Is it too much?" She worried "I haven't had anyone to cook for in so long that when I walked into the kitchen this morning and saw everything fully stocked I knew I couldn't control myself." She looked sheepish. "I made homemade biscuits, sausage gravy, tomato gravy, bacon, sausage, eggs, pancakes, waffles, toast and I tried to find some grits in the kitchen but apparently no one in LA has ever heard of them." She sat down at a place setting off to the side leaving the head of the table for one of the brothers. "Please don't be angry, I haven't been able to cook for someone in so long. We have had maids and cooks since I was sixteen, and I have missed it so badly. But I might have gone a little overboard."

"We aren't angry," Mokuba said, "we just were not expecting to come downstairs this morning and see all of this. You aren't our maid or our cook. You do not have to do any of this for us." He looked at her concerned. Mokuba walked over and kneeled down in front of her, "Sweetheart, this is too much." he took her hands in his. "But I promise, neither Seto or I are angry with you in any way." he chuckled, "we just now have enough food to heed a small army."

Francesca wiped her eyes a little, then looked down at the shirtless man in front of her and then over to the shirtless man standing silently in the doorway. She could feel the heat rising in her face as she blushed. She looked away from the man and pulled her hands away, "you might want to start eating before it gets cold." She stood and that was when Seto noticed that her hair was up in a high ponytail. He had been right, it was long and beautiful. She disappeared into the kitchen again and the men heard pots and pans begin clanging.

"Seto, we cannot eat all of this," Mokuba exclaimed. "Not even half." He looked over to the kitchen door, "let's get dressed then see how much of this we can eat." Seto nodded, still in shock of the sheer amount of food the young woman cooked.