"The remedy is the experience,

This is a dangerous liaison.

I say the comedy is that it's serious,

This is a strange enough new play on words."

The Remedy by Jason Mraz

XIII

School was out for nearly an entire week because of the snow. It wasn't until Friday that school began at regular hours, businesses had resumed, and life had once again returned to its normal routine… or so it would seem. Although the rest of the world had seemed to be running right back on track, something in the air was different and there were only two individuals who were aware of it. Seto and Kisara hardly even looked each other's way that day until they were forced to later on at work.

Seto walked into the office, expecting to see Kisara in her regular business attire, doing the regular work-related things she always did at the beginning of her shift. Though that was true when Seto walked in, taking that first glance at her seemed to be different than any other time he had seen her before in the past. There was something different about her, something even more beautiful than there ever had been before.

It was apparent that realizing his true feelings for Kisara had caused him to look at her in a different light. He suddenly began to recall the feelings he felt on the day he first laid eyes on her. There had been something strange, something peculiar about her that Seto simply couldn't comprehend. It was in that moment that he realized his feelings of weirdness had arisen only to mask his feelings of attraction. Kisara truly was beautiful. And as Seto stood, staring at her for over two minutes without her noticing, he began to realize she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

Kisara turned around and saw that Seto's eyes were staring right at her, specifically at her outfit. "Good afternoon," Kisara said, breaking Seto's trance and causing him to look up into her eyes, "How are you?" It was clear that even during their usual, meaningless small talk, there had been a shift in their relationship. Though neither of them could pin point what it was exactly, both had a faint idea of what it concerned; the first of the matter being Kisara's looks.

"Kisara, you look… different. Your outfit, is it new?" Kisara looked down at herself before looking back up and shaking her head.

"Nope, just something I threw on…" Kisara stated, disregarding the fact that although her outfit wasn't new, she had put the extra effort into her appearance that day. Instead of simply brushing her hair until it looked halfway decent, she had spent an hour combing it to perfectly, even putting in a small floral pin into it. Instead of wearing her comfortable and cute flats with straight pants, she was wearing a fashionable skirt with high heels. None of it was flashy or too much, but apparently just the right amount to get attention. "Do you like it?"

"Yes, actually," Seto stated, "I like it, a lot." There was a silence that ensued, causing both parties to feel extremely awkward. For a full thirty seconds, nothing was said between them. Both were trying to find the right words to say, if there were any right words to say at all. It was then that Seto closed the door to his office and decided to be a man by breaking the silence.

"Look, Kisara, I've been thinking…" Kisara placed down the files that were in her hands onto the desk in front of her, reaching into her pocket to take out something.

"I have been too."

"I'm not very good at this but I was wondering if you'd like to—go somewhere, with me, some time." Kisara's eyes widened.

"Oh," Kisara said in surprise.

"Oh?"

"I mean, sure. I'd love to. Where were you thinking?" It was then that Seto's eyes widened. He had almost been sure he was going to get rejected. He had to take a few moments to remember what he was supposed to say next.

"Well, maybe I could show you around Domino City some time. Has anyone done that for you yet?"

"No, no one's done that for me though I have been living here for almost three months now so I kind of have the gist of the place already."

"Allow me the pleasure to give you a real tour of the city. It's the least I could do for you." Kisara raised an eyebrow. All of this was so out of character for Seto. Could it have been the high heels? Kisara couldn't lie that Seto had been involved in the decision to wear them to work. She had wanted to look pretty that day… and though she would never admit it out loud, she had wanted to look pretty for him. Kisara looked down.

"Alright, that sounds like fun. Thank you." And just like that, it was done. Kisara and Seto were scheduled to hang out the following day, Saturday, and meet around eleven a.m. to tour Domino City together.

Kisara didn't know what to expect as she waited in front of the empty Kaiba Corp. building. The parking lot was completely deserted save for one or two cars. The building was locked as well. Not a soul was around since it was Saturday. Everyone was at home, going about their own business, running errands or spending time with their families. And yet there Kisara was, awaiting her boss and her friend, and letting her nerves get the best of her.

It had taken her nearly two hours to decide what to wear the night before, not to mention two hours to actually put on the clothes as well as her make-up the morning of. The thing that bothered her most was wondering what it meant that she and Seto were meeting outside of work and school for the first time. Did it mean anything or was it simply a thank you for helping with Mokuba?

No, she reasoned, since Seto had given her a hug as a symbol of his appreciation. At the thought of Seto's arms around her, Kisara's heartbeat began to beat even faster and suddenly she felt like she could hardly stand on her own two feet. She sat down, feeling positively exhausted from the mental toll she was putting onto herself.

"Kisara, I'm surprised to see you here already," Kisara's head jerked up and saw Seto approaching from the parking lot, "How long have you been waiting?" Kisara jumped to her feet.

"Not terribly long. I calculated the bus time wrong… I don't usually take the bus at this time of day," Kisara put her hands together nervously.

Without realizing, Seto stopped and took a second to observe Kisara's outfit. She was wearing a slim, soft pink dress that was flowed at the bottom and was frilly at the top. There was a slight slit at the top, exposing just the slightest bit of skin. The dress hugged her tiny waist before softly flowing down along her legs. She was absolutely awe-inspiring in that dress.

"So… shall we go?" Kisara asked as she began to walk towards Seto's car, assuming they had a great deal of driving and walking to do that day as they toured Domino City. Seto shook his head as he took out a card key from his pocket.

"Oh, we're not taking my car. Follow me," Seto gestured towards the Kaiba Corp. building, swiping the card key and opening the door for her. Kisara was confused but walked into the building as Seto insisted. The two of them got into the elevator and Seto pressed a button Kisara had never noticed before. She said nothing and decided to see for herself what Seto was planning. When the elevator opened, they were on the roof of the building. A helicopter was parked right in front of them.

"What's going on here?" Kisara asked, turning back to look at Seto. He grinned.

"You didn't think we'd be driving around the city like a bunch of common folk, did you? I am Seto Kaiba, after all. I own this city." Kisara raised an eyebrow.

"You own this city, huh? Are you telling me you know how to fly a helicopter?" Kisara said in a skeptical voice.

"I also ride motorcycles in my spare time," Seto said with a grin. Kisara rolled her eyes, but there was a smile in plain view suggesting that she was rather impressed with Seto's abilities. Seto didn't want to jump to any conclusions, but he was starting to think his charm was working… whatever charm he had to begin with.

"Well, I've never ridden a helicopter before, so I'll let you lead the way." Just as Kisara suggested, Seto walked over to the helicopter and opened the door. Kisara was hesitant for a moment as she gauged how high she needed to lift her leg to step onto the lowest step. Seto gingerly offered her his hand and helped lift her into the seat. He couldn't help but note how nice her hands felt in his. He had never felt skin that was so soft.

When they were all settled and buckled in, Seto started up the helicopter and they were off. They first rose to a reasonable altitude before they began flying over the city. Kisara leaned forward and looked down, seeing Domino City in a way she had never seen it before, scanning the land below.

"This is amazing! Domino City is more beautiful than I thought it was!" Kisara said. She looked all around as they cruised along in the sky, looking for a part of the city she was familiar with. Everything looked so different from this altitude. It was hard to believe it was the same city she had been living in. Kisara jumped with excitement and pointed down. "Hey, that's my apartment! Do you see it?"

Seto looked over and down to where she was pointing. "Indeed it is," Seto stated, "If you look over to your right, we'll be flying over our school pretty soon too." Kisara's head turned and sure enough, it was their high school, same as it had always looked.

"It looks like there's a gate on top of the roof, are students allowed up there or something?"

"Not anymore, but once in a while you'll see a teacher or a student up there smoking a cigarette," Seto looked around as he titled the helicopter slightly, changing trajectory of the helicopter. Kisara unexpectedly slid into Seto's side. "Oh, sorry, I didn't realize that turn was going to be so tight."

"No problem," Kisara said, awkwardly looking in the opposite direction and back out the window. They continued to cruise along, Seto pointing out different landmarks and neighborhoods within the city such as the Game Shop, library, Kaiba Dome, aquarium, and the bullet train. Kisara listened and observed without saying a word for the majority of the ride. Eventually Seto became quiet and there was silence between them, save for the propellers of the helicopter.

"I think I'm going to turn us around, we're nearing the borders of the city."

"Hey, I recognize that place!" Seto turned to Kisara.

"What place?" Kisara pointed to the left.

"Isn't that the orphanage you grew up in?" Seto looked down to find they were just hovering above the Domino City orphanage. Seto hadn't even realized he was flying over that part of the city.

He turned to Kisara, "How did you know that?"

"I studied everything there was to know about you before coming here, remember? It was my dream to work for Kaiba Corp. ever since you took over… I've been following your story ever since."

"That's flattering to know, though I imagine working as an assistant wasn't exactly the job you had in mind when you decided you wanted to work at Kaiba Corp."

"No, but I knew I would have to start somewhere before I worked my way up," Kisara grinned.

"I'm going to take a wild guess that you were hoping to take my job some day, is that right?" Kisara laughed to hide her embarrassment.

"What can I say? I was a little girl with big dreams… and I don't think I realized at the time that we were the same age. You always looked much older in the pictures." Seto was smiling, too, and once again silence had fallen upon them. "Before we go back, I was wondering… can I see the house you grew up in? You know, before you went to the orphanage." Seto didn't say anything for a moment and for that moment, Kisara was worried she had crossed the line.

"Sure," Seto said after a long pause, one which Kisara couldn't interpret as good or bad, "It's not too far from here, actually. Right on the outskirts of the city," Seto launched the helicopter forward and over a quaint, little suburb only a couple miles away from the orphanage. "That's the one, right there, that's where I grew up." From that height, the house didn't look like much of anything. It was a reasonable sized house, not nearly as big as the Kaiba Mansion, but it was a place Kisara could see Seto and his brother growing up in, if only for the short time that they did.

"It's a beautiful house." Seto turned the helicopter and started heading back towards Domino City.

"It's getting late. I hope you don't mind if I fly us back to headquarters. Is there anything else you can think of that you didn't see?" Seto asked. His smile had disappeared from his face, replaced with the serious look that he always had on at work. Kisara sunk into her chair and shook her head, feeling guilty that she had possibly offended Seto.

"No, there's nothing else. Thank you for doing this."

"It was the least I could do." Kisara decided if she just kept her mouth shut for the rest of the ride home, she couldn't mess things up any further than she had. To her surprise, Seto spoke once more, "I actually had a bit of a personal question for you too if you wouldn't mind answering."

Kisara turned towards him, "Not at all. What is it?"

"I'm just curious about your apartment. Do you live there by yourself? I know your parents still live in Egypt but I can't imagine you were able to move here alone. But I also never hear you talk about anyone. Didn't you say you were living with your uncle at some point?" Kisara folded her hands in her lap.

"Actually, it's my Aunt Senbi that I live with but I haven't seen her since the first day I came here. She gave me a ride from the airport, gave me the keys to the apartment, and gave me her cell phone number before she left to go back to Tokyo. So yeah, I essentially live on my own."

"What does she do in Tokyo?"

"Oh, well she basically lives there. She's a big time movie actress and she only owns the Domino City apartment because she never took the time to get rid of it when she moved. It ended up being a good thing because when I called her up and told her I was coming, she already had a place I could live in. My parents don't know she's never around and that I'm on my own, but that's because I don't want them to worry. All I knew was that I had to get out of Egypt and fast, and Domino City was the only other place I had ever wanted to live."

"And that's because you wanted to work at my company?" Kisara looked forward, gazing out the window. She let her body sink into the chair and her hands falls to her sides as she stared out across the city in front of her. The sun was beginning to set, and a bright, warm orange filled the once bright blue sky in front of her.

"That was the idea, though after doing this I have to admit I've fallen in love with the city's beauty too."

"If you think that's beautiful, wait until you see the most iconic building in all of Domino City." Seto did another turn and Kisara looked forward. "There it is." Kisara smiled as they approached the Kaiba Corp. headquarters, in all its architectural beauty and finesse. The bright orange seemed to be originating from the building itself as the sun began to set. Kisara's heart seemed to melt just from the sight of it all.

"That truly is the most beautiful sight I have ever seen, don't you agree?"

"Yes, it truly is." Kisara turned to see that Seto was staring at her, smiling. Kisara's mouth opened slightly. She thought she was going to ask what Seto meant by that, staring at her in such a way, but she was able to figure it out all on her own. Seto took his eyes away as they began to descend back down onto the building. "Here we are."

Kisara quickly undid her seatbelt and tried to open the door when they landed, "Alright, well thanks for the ride, but I really should be going." She tried pulling and pushing every lever that looked like it would open the door.

"Let me help you with that," Seto said, undoing his own seatbelt and trying to help her out. Kisara finally opened the door herself, though, before Seto could.

"Goodbye Seto," Kisara said before jumping out of the helicopter.

"Kisara, wait! Hold on. Where are you going?" Seto got out himself, worried he had somehow offended Kisara to the point where she no longer wished to speak to him. When he got out, he saw Kisara, standing still and staring. There was a small, round table with two candles and a full course meal set. There were two waiters standing by, welcoming her. She twisted around and stared at him.

"Is this… a date?"

"Was it not already?" Kisara nervously laughed as she rubbed her arm repeatedly and stared at the spectacle in front of her.

"It's one of those things that's hard to tell, I suppose."

"I could imagine. It took me forever just to decide what candles to use." Kisara put a hand on Seto's arm, causing him to look down at her.

"Look, Seto… I like you. But knowing that, especially telling you that just now scares the hell out of me." Seto nodded with understanding as the uncertainty of where the conversation began to build up.

"I know and I feel the same. Look, I'm fully aware that this was a stupid idea, but I thought…"

"No, this was a great idea. In fact, this has been the most wonderful evening I've had in a long time. But I just got out of a really terrible relationship so I'm terrified of jumping into something new." Seto turned his head away.

"If that's how you feel, you can go. It really was a stupid idea to begin with, so I apologize for putting you through that." Kisara didn't let go of his arm, causing Seto to look back at her.

"You don't have to take it that way, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm trying to say is that we should get to know each other first, I think, before we go any further. Does that make sense?" Seto took a moment to try and make sense of it all. Sure, it wasn't the way he thought the evening would end but he also had to acknowledge the fact that he wasn't sure how the evening would end. He hadn't known what to expect to begin with so he reasoned that this was a better result than how it could've gone.

"It does," Seto held out his hand, "And you've got yourself a deal." And there it was; an opportunity to get to know each other and all Kisara had to do was shake his hand. She was scared, as she had been all evening, of countless things and shaking his hand would only be adding to the worries she had.

It was then and only then that she decided she didn't care anymore about all the fears that plagued her, slapping his hand away, and pulling Seto into a hug. As the sun set beneath them, they both knew deep down that their lives would never be the same again.

A/N: Andddddd END SCENE! This was a bit of a long chapter, not sure if anyone noticed, it went over my usual word count for a chapter by about 1,000 words so that was a little treat right there. There was just so much to fit in, I couldn't resist, I just had to keep going. Each chapter keeps getting harder and harder to write but I'm starting to think it's because this is a romance story involving Seto so I suppose I'm not supposed to feel natural writing this chapter. Aside from story stuff, life has been pretty hectic this past month so much so I almost thought I wouldn't be able to update on time but somehow I did. :] I think the real trick now will be trying to update on time next month since the date will be finals week, but I'll find a way to manage. After all, writing is the only way I'm able to maintain sanity and your reviews have definitely helped. I've had a couple days where everything in the world has gone wrong and then I come home to find a review that brings my spirits up. So thank you, all of you, and I hope you enjoyed reading!