Seto was thankful that the walk to the cafe was short, because they haven't said a word to each other the entire way there. They walked quietly beside each other, keeping a safe distance but not too far apart to make them look like strangers coincidentally walking the same pace. He could see her from the corner of his eye; her hands were clutching the strap of her gym bag, and her eyes were focused on her feet. Her body language read unsure, shy, and reluctant.

"Here we are." Anzu opened the door and let him inside first. He nodded in thanks and stepped in; the cafe was small, but quaint. There were a few people inside, quietly chatting amongst themselves. The floor was covered in worn wooden panels, and the walls were exposed bricks. Soft music lulled over their heads. "Cool, huh? I usually come here with coworkers after rehearsal."

"So why didn't you come with them this time?" He sat at the table farthest away from the window.

She raised an eyebrow as she took the seat across from him. "Because I'm with you, maybe?"

Stupid question. Seto awkwardly cleared his throat and reached for the menu; she must have noticed his embarrassment because she began to giggle. "Er, so...how long have you been here? In New York." He couldn't even formulate his words properly, and he hated himself for it. Seto Kaiba wasn't supposed to be intimidated by anything.

"I was accepted to The School of American Ballet right after graduation." Anzu explained as she flattened her own menu on the table, "Two months after high school was over I had my things packed and ready to go. I've been here ever since."

The waitress swung by, and both of them placed their orders: soup for her, a sandwich for him. "Has ballet always been something you've wanted to pursue?" There was genuine curiosity in his voice. Maybe it was because he always associated her with Yugi, and nothing more; a mere background character with no personality or backstory - then again, she always stuck out to him in comparison to the rest of Yugi's friends (even compared to Jonouchi). She was the only female most of the time...and she had a sharp tongue. She wasn't afraid to call him out when he deserved it - and yes, he had managed to bring himself to admit his wrongdoings. His head wasn't as inflated as it used to be.

"Well, dancing in general has always been a passion of mine, but I only recently decided to professionally pursue ballet." Anzu's voice sounded distant, like she was recalling a memory. "I've been in ballet classes since I was really little, but as I got older I got into other forms and sort of left ballet on the back burner." She absentmindedly stirred her straw in her cup. "When graduation came closer I had to explore my options, and the S.A.B. was one of them. At first I wanted to get into Julliard, but when I got the acceptance letter for the S.A.B. I couldn't say no." She chuckled to herself. "I'm talking your ear off, Kaiba. You haven't said a single word - not even an insult."

His eyes slightly widened, and he moved to adjust his tie but stopped himself at the last minute. His fingers twitched anxiously. "I was simply listening to your story. It seemed Mokuba knew you wanted to be a dancer." Her story was interesting, but he wasn't going to admit it. His ego hasn't deflated that much.

"I'm pretty sure I mentioned it to him before. Out of the both of you, he was always the easier brother to talk to." She paused to laugh when he huffed in irritation. "Well, it's true. I don't recall you saying anything to me that wasn't degrading."

The waitress had returned with their food. Seto quietly thanked her when she placed his plate before him. "That was a long time ago. I'm over all of that now."

"Are you? Like...with Duel Monsters and everything?"

"Of course not - my company more or less revolves around Duel Monsters. I meant in the sense of my relations with...your friends. Yugi, in particular." He took a bite of his sandwich. Not bad.

Anzu broke her bread in half and dipped a portion of it in her soup, biting off a generous piece of it. She swallowed and reached for her drink. "You keep in touch with him? He didn't tell me that. Do you keep in contact with Jonouchi too, then? Whenever I talk to him he always makes it sound like he doesn't speak with you."

Yugi never told her they kept in contact...interesting. "Occasionally. He and that mongrel-" He noticed the change of expression on her face and he couldn't help but smirk, "-have been assisting in developing the game and creating new ways to play it. We're not friends or anything, but their expertise has been helpful." He paused for a moment, unable to help himself. "I mainly speak to Yugi. I don't have time for third-rankers."

"I thought you said you were over that. You just called Jonouchi a mongrel and a third-ranker!"

Seto shrugged. "Once a mutt, always a mutt. He has good intentions, but he has to learn to think before he acts. He wouldn't have gotten so far in his dueling career if he didn't have Yugi breathing over his shoulder him all the time."

"I was beginning to wonder if you were saving your insults for later." Anzu took a few more bites of her food. "So are you and Yugi over the whole rivalry thing? I mean, if you're working together and stuff I'd imagine you don't butt heads as often as you used to."

"Titles no longer mean much." Seto replied, already halfway finished with his sandwich. He was hungrier than he thought. "Perfecting the game has become the utmost priority for the both of us, and with a common goal it was only natural we ended up working together. Shame he hasn't taken his innovations anywhere outside of Domino; he could have done a lot more if he and Jonouchi weren't so attached to that tiny game shop."

Anzu scoffed. He hadn't seen that indignant look in years. "They're not in it for the power and money, Kaiba."

"I'm not either."

"Could've fooled me."

The both of them rolled their eyes and returned their attention to their food, mentally cursing each other. Seto finished off the last of his sandwich and wiped his mouth with his napkin; she still had that sharp tongue, at least. Some things just never change.

"So," Anzu decided to break the silence, "Mokuba's grown up quite a bit."

"Don't even get me started on him." Seto's voice suddenly hardened, and she raised an eyebrow.

"What's there to expect? He's seventeen, Kaiba. Teenagers get themselves into trouble all the time. Look at what we got into when we were his age." When he cast her a confused look she shrugged. "I read the newspaper and I have an internet connection at home. I know what he's been up to."

The young CEO groaned and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. Out of all the things she could have possibly wanted to talk about, it had to be his brother. "Mokuba was fortunate to grow up without Gozaburo jumping down his throat and the weird Egyptian mumbo jumbo dictating his destiny."

"Unlike you, and how you're supposed to be doomed to a life dedicated to obsessing over three pieces of paper with shiny dragons on them." Anzu was grinning at this point, and her grin only widened when Seto's face grew slightly pink. "I'm just teasing you. Go on."

Seto cleared his throat. "His easy upbringing spoiled him. He grew up without any strict expectations or dire consequences hanging over his head...and as a result he lacks any motivation or ambition to do anything productive with his life." He crossed his arms and huffed. "Now that he's older he thinks it's smooth sailing from here. I can hardly keep any sort of control on him nowadays, and he never listens to me. He thinks he knows what he's doing. Tch."

"Sounds like your typical teenage mindset to me." Anzu shrugged and gulped down the rest of her drink. "Don't give up on him. I know it's a little difficult to see now, but he's going to appreciate you later on, when he grows out of this phase."

"If he grows out of this phase."

"Well...you've grown out of yours, haven't you?"

Her words confused him. He couldn't resist adjusting his tie this time. "What are you talking about?"

"You just said earlier that you were over the animosity between you and Yugi. Titles and figuring out who's a better duelist don't matter to you anymore, right? That's a big step forward from where you used to be." Anzu's voice lowered slightly. "And...well, I can sort of tell you've changed just by the way we've been talking. You're...different, but I just don't know how to describe it. I want to say mature, but you've always been a lot more mature than me and the others in more ways than one - even if you were a power-hungry jerk." She smiled to herself. "We're actually having a conversation, Kaiba - a real conversation. We're not hurling insults at each other. Don't you think that's something worth noting?"

His expression was thoughtful. "I suppose so."

The smile on her face was small, but genuine. "We're never the same person for very long, Kaiba. Give it time."

"I didn't need advice on how to raise my brother, but thanks...I guess." He reached into his jacket's inside pocket and grabbed his wallet. He tossed a few bills on the table and promptly stood up, raising an eyebrow when he noticed Anzu staring at the money. "What?"

"You put down way more than you owe - and that's including the tip."

He half-turned away from her. "Are you coming or not?"

"Er..." He could see her hesitating out of the corner of his eye; her hand was halfway into her gym bag.

He sighed. "Don't worry about it."

"Thanks..." She hastily rose from her chair and scurried to his side, and they left the cafe together. Once outside, Seto called his driver and requested to be picked up. He refused Anzu's protests, even turning his back to her so he could drown her out while speaking on his phone.

"You already drove me home once. You don't have to do it again." The dancer mumbled as she crawled into the car.

He shrugged and tried to make it look like he didn't care. "Mokuba wouldn't let me live it down if I let you take public transportation."

It was her turn to sigh. "Well, I guess you have a point there. Thanks again, Kaiba."

He kept his eyes trained on the scenery on the other side of the car's tinted window. "Don't mention it."

As he expected, Mokuba hounded him the instant he stepped through the penthouse's front door.

"Sooooo..." The younger Kaiba leaned in so close that Seto had to step back a bit. "How'd it go?"

The brunet rolled his eyes and politely pushed past his brother. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't play dumb with me, nii-san." Mokuba followed him into his home office. "Your date, stupid! How did it go?"

"For the last time, Mokuba, it wasn't a date." Seto rubbed his temples before collapsing on his leather chair. He booted up his laptop and began to check his email, trying to block out the younger Kaiba's presence.

"I'm not leaving until you tell me what happened." The younger of the two stubbornly crossed his arms and moved to sit on the edge of the computer desk. "C'mon, just tell me. Was it good? Bad? Did you ki-"

"We just talked about our careers." Seto hastily cut in, which elicited a smile from Mokuba. "She asked about you, I told her about our collaboration with Yugi and Jonouchi, and then I took her home. There, are you happy now?"

"Aw, that's boring." Mokuba's hands moved to the back of his head. "At least you brought her home. Did you pay for her meal?"

The young CEO pretended to be busy with his laptop for a moment. "...Yes, I did."

"Did you make plans to go out with her again?"

"No."

"And why not?!" Mokuba's voice raised unexpectedly, catching Seto off guard.

"Why would either of us make plans to see each other again? Even just running into her the other day was pure coincidence. If it weren't for you philandering with random women you find off the street I wouldn't have seen her!" He grumbled a few choice words under his breath before rumpling his hair. "It's your fault this happened in the first place."

Mokuba rolled his eyes. "Hey, my philandering is actually doing you some good. You need to hang out with people for fun every once in awhile, y'know. It's called having a social life. It's called being a normal human being who interacts with other normal human beings." He let out a sharp puff of air. "You hang around with too many machines, bro. Sometimes I worry you're forgetting you're not one of them."

There was a heavy silence between the both of them. Seto continued to work on his laptop, seemingly forgetting his brother was still in the room. He heard Mokuba sigh one last time, followed by the shuffling of feet and the opening of a door.

"I'm heading out." His brother's voice was low. "I'll see you around."

Seto still didn't answer. Mokuba quietly shut the door behind him.