Happy Valentines day, here's a bit of romance that I'm sure everyone can enjoy.

Christmas was different that year. Mokuba and I still went and saw a movie and we still made dinner, but this year we had Rebecca and her grandfather over to share it with us. We even ate in the large dinning room instead of the kitchen.

Mokuba suggested we invite Serenity and her family as well, but I wasn't ready for it.

I returned to work and Kaiya was happy to inform me that they'd had a good Christmas.

"You spoil her, you know."

"Hm?" I looked up, my thoughts had wandered during our conversation. Kaiya just smiled.

"I said, you spoil her," she sighed and shook her head. "Just be careful, I don't want her to get hurt." I watched her leave and returned my thoughts to Serenity. Mokuba had cheerfully reminded me that we were to bring a guest to watch the sun rise on New Year's day. I wanted to bring Serenity, but wondered if it would be alright. New Year was traditionally spent with families.

In the end I decided to take the plunge and invite her.

"What are your plans for New Year?" I asked, looking out my office window in the direction of her house.

[I was just going to spend time with Mom the night before and then go to the shrine with my brother and his friends. Did you want to come? They said it was okay.]

I thought about it for a moment, I had wanted it to be more or less just us and while I didn't want to have to spend time with people I didn't know she would be going back to Tokyo soon.

"Well I was actually going to invite you to watch the sun rise from the roof of my building."

[Oh, well I can do both. We usually don't go to the shrine right at dawn anyway.]

"Mokuba usually wakes me around three, want me to pick you up?"

[Sure, would we be able to pick them up on the way to the shrine too?]

"Sure, I suppose," I didn't exactly relish being chauffeur, but I also recognized that it was practical to car pool as shrines tend to be busy on New Year day.

[Thanks, Seto,] she said and I softened. Too few people used my name.

"My pleasure."

The days leading up to New Year passed without much importance, I had received a few compliments on my pocket watch and felt a little glow when I was able to tell them it was a gift.

As per usual Mokuba woke me up around three; he didn't jump on me as he had in past years, merely turned on my light and shook my shoulder.

"Come on Seto," Mokuba said rummaging through my closet. I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

"What are you doing in my closet?" I demanded, getting out of bed.

"Picking out your clothes. You need to find the perfect balance between warm and nice."

"What's wrong with my clothes." I eyed his own attire; new kahkis, a new sweater and what looked like a new collared shirt underneath.

"You always wear the same thing," Mokuba snorted pulling out what he had been looking for. "I bought you a pair of jeans and I know you got a new button up shirt the other day. Wear them. Please." The 'please' was an after thought, but I took the offered garments.

"I thought we were supposed to dress up on New Year," I remarked, shedding my pajamas and changing into the outfit Mokuba had chosen. I added the shirt Serenity had given me underneath, only I would know it was there after all.

"Normally, yeah," my brother acquiesced. "But the people you're going to the Shrine with aren't likely to dress up and your normal clothes are too recognizable. I mean, you'll probably be recognized by people anyway, but this will be a little less likely." I straightened my locket around the shirt collar, brushed my hair and grabbed my pocket watch while he spoke.

"Alright," I said, nodding towards the door. "But I'm still wearing my black trench coat, it's too cold not to."

Mokuba allowed my coat and we set out. We picked up Rebecca first as she lived nearer, Mokuba surprisingly relinquished his automatic 'shotgun' to ride in the back with her.

From there we left to get Serenity. She had dressed nicely, but sensibly. Thick white leggings and knee high white and blue wool socks would keep her legs warm despite the cream corduroy skirt that ended mid thigh. I couldn't see what she had decided to wear as a top as her off-white peacoat obscured it. She completed the look with mismatched mittens and a pink scarf.

"Morning," she said softly, judging from the darkness of the home Kaiya was sleeping yet.

"Morning," I returned. I handed her the pink toque she had forgotten and waited until she had arranged her pigtails around it before we set off. "Your mittens don't match," I commented.

She shrugged with a smile. "They don't need to match to keep me warm. I conceded that she had a point, opening the door for her before going to my side.

Mokuba and Rebecca both greeted her warmly, and the drive to Kaiba Corp was filled with chatter, some of which I participated in.

Mokuba had prepared by bringing a thermos of coffee again, but also a second on of hot chocolate for the girls as neither Rebecca nor Serenity drank coffee.

Serenity also surprised us by bringing freshly baked muffins. We watched the sun slowly rise in relative silence, but it was a warm and comfortable one.

Once the sun had completely risen over the horizon I caught Mokuba's eye and silently asked him for a few moments alone. He gave me a sly smile, but soon after asked Rebecca if she wanted to warm up on a private tour of Kaiba Corp.

"Don't go into my office," I called after them, realizing that the 'tour' might be less showing her around the building and more showing other places.

"We should probably head inside too, my nose is getting froze," Serenity said. "And we still need to head to the shrine." Mokuba had declined our invitation to join, saying that they were just going to go back to Rebecca's. I had a feeling there was something going on, but he was more than old enough to make those sorts of decisions for himself.

"I wanted to talk to you about Christmas," I started.

"I'm sorry," she cut me off. "Obviously you don't think of me that way and it was wrong for me to kiss you. I-"

"It's okay," I told her, wrapping my arm around her shoulder. "I. want to keep going with our... Our us." I couldn't bring myself to say 'relationship'

Serenity giggled. "'Our us'?"

I smiled in return. "To be frank, I never planned on being close to anyone."

"So, I'm the exception?" Serenity asked uncertainly.

I hesitated a moment, then lifted her chin to make her look at me. "You are my only exception." In my world of rigidity and rules it was nice to have one thing that broke them.

This time I leaned down to kiss her and we said our goodbyes to Mokuba and Rebecca, then left to pick up her friends, Serenity shyly holding my hand all the while.

I let her direct me where to go and I frowned as I realized what neighborhood I was in.

"Where did you say we were going again?"

"To my friend Yugi's house. Everyone agreed to meet there."

"You're friends with Yugi?" I asked feeling a sense of dread.

"Yeah... Through Joey, but still. I thought you knew that. I mean after Battle -" she cut herself off and just stared at me as I parked in front of the game shop. Turned out the mutt hadn't been lying.

"It seems you and I are full of misunderstandings," she laughed weakly. I could tell she was feeling hurt that I hadn't remembered her.

There was that guilty feeling again. Why did she do that? Did she know that she was the only person aside from Mokuba who could cause me to feel this way? Even Mokuba rarely did it.

"I'm glad I didn't remember," I stated after looking back on our interactions.

"What?" she asked looking surprised.

"If I did know and remembered then I don't think things would have turned out how they did. I won't lie and say that had I known I still would have done what I did, but we're here now and I- I wouldn't have it any other way."

She smiled and kissed my cheek. "I suppose that's fair. We both had our judgements on the other."

"From here on out no more misunderstandings," I promised getting out of the car with her. I only hoped it would be true.

Now that Seto and Serenity are officially together expect greater leaps between time. I don't want to bore you with all the little things.I'm even debating at one point skipping to after she is finished art school as each year she's in school and comes back for holidays will be horrible repetitive. Let me know in the reviews how you feel about me time skipping over such a large period. Your opinions will influence my final decision.

Reviews = Karma