Chapter 2

Crash

Beep, beep, beep. Seto slapped the alarm on his phone and glared at the device. Great, another sleepless night. He saved the report he'd been working on and groggily made his way to the shower. The warm water lulled his exhausted mind into oblivion. He jerked awake as his forehead slammed into the wall. Rubbing his head, he growled at himself. If I died from falling asleep in the shower Wheeler would laugh himself to death.

Seto finished getting ready and left the small but clean apartment. The doorman bowed to him as he left the building. Mokuba had insisted he buy a house, but Seto thought it was a waste of money since he would only be here until this deal was done. Recently some higher-ups were looking for any excuses to dethrone him and being a spendthrift with company money would look bad.

Seto walked to the local high school and strolled into his classroom. The students noticed, and their conversations turned to whispers. He was used to this attention. Greeting no one, he walked back to his desk. The blunt girl, with long light brown hair that came down to the middle of her back even with it up in a ponytail who'd showed him around yesterday, stopped looking out the window, and up at him when the talking ceased.

"Good morning, Amin-chan." Her creamy sharp brown eyes, framed by her bangs, sparkled with amusement as she smiled at him pleasantly.

This girl... I don't have time for this. Kaiba ignored her and sat down. Pulling out his tablet, he continued to work on his report. Lately, something had been bugging him about this deal. Kaiba Corp. would pair with an electronics company to assist in creating their new device. Seto was supposed to help the engineer's design the basic structure of the device, but everything they sent him seemed to be less concrete plans and more theory. We need to get this device into beta soon or it won't be ready for release. Who's in charge of their scheduling? Better yet, who approved this deal? I'm going to need to visit the company tomorrow and get the details.

"Kaiba-san, can you read the next line?"

Seto stood up and without opening a book he stated the line, "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." Seto sat back down; the teacher clenched his teeth and moved onto the next student. He hadn't brought the book to class, but he'd already memorized the material. All he had to do was remember the last line stated, then blurt out the next one when called on. School is too easy.

Seto continued on with his report until he heard the bell ring for lunch. Saving his project, he tucked his laptop back into his bag and plopped his head down onto his desk. He jerked awake as the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Huh? Sitting up, everything in the room looked blurry. Pulling his tablet back out, he continued working. Once the bell rang for the next break, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out, and without checking the number answered.

"Hello?" Seto continued working one-handed.

"Hey, Seto-kun! How's the new school? Make any friends yet?" Yugi's squeaky voice came from the phone.

"How do you keep getting my number!" Seto shouted and slammed his free fist on the table.

He could hear Yugi chuckling on the other end of the phone. Ever since "The Pharoah" left, and Seto had shown up to help him, Yugi had stopped fearing Seto. In fact, he constantly tried to talk to him and butt into his life.

"Your brother gives it to me—" Seto cut Yugi off and speed dialed Mokuba.

"Hey Nii-san, what's up. Make any new friends? Are you eating properly? Did you sleep last night?" Mokuba went into mother mode.

"Why do you keep giving him my number!"

He could hear his little brother sigh on the other end. "If you'd stopped changing it every time he called, I wouldn't have to keep giving out the new one."

Seto's eye twitched. "That doesn't answer why!"

"Because you have no friends and Yugi tolerates you. I'm worried about you. What if you end up alone for the rest of your life?"

"I don't give a shit! Stop giving out my number. Don't make me cut off your account!" Seto felt a headache coming on.

"I stashed money away in preparation for that threat." Mokuba sounded proud of himself.

"Then you can't go on that trip next month!"

"Hehe, Nii-san, that was last weekend. I told you wrong on purpose. You said I could go, so I went." Mokuba snickered.

Seto felt irritated. "Since when did you get this conniving?"

"I learned from the best asshole out there. Also, Nii-san, are you in class right now?"

"On break, why?"

Mokuba sighed loudly. "Your classmates are only hearing half this conversation. It sounds like you're threatening someone."

Seto paused and looked up. The students turned their heads away from him, but it was obvious it scared them to make eye contact. When he looked forward, he found the obnoxious girl looking at him exasperated. She picked up her notebook and wrote out "Amin-chan, stop yelling I can't sleep." You can't sleep! I don't remember the last time I slept through the night!

"Anyway Seto, try to make some friends—" Seto cut him off and furiously when back to work on his report.

His head was throbbing as he sorted through the data on his tablet. The next class passed without him being called on. Probably because I look angry right now. Mokuba you're so grounded when I get home. The next teacher was kind of hard-headed and made it clear yesterday he didn't like Seto's special treatment. It's not like I bribed the dean or threatened him. All I had to do was ask, and he willingly let me work in class with no convincing.

"Kaiba-san! Come to the board and do this problem!" The teacher shouted loudly.

Seto stood up without a word, but stopped as the world went momentarily black. Uh oh. He put his hands out in front of him before his face slammed into the desk. Crap, when was the last time I ate? The empty gnawing feeling in his stomach made him want to throw up, but there was nothing there to regurgitate.

"Kaiba-san!" The teacher slammed his book on the desk. "If you're not going to take this seriously—"

"Ah! Sensei, I'm going to take him to the infirmary before he throws up everywhere," the obnoxious girl shouted.

Shove off, I don't need—

An iron grip seized his wrist and before he could protest, he was being dragged from the room and down the hall. She shoved him into the nurse's office and set him in a chair. The next thing he knew, he was staring at the bottom of a trash can. Reflexively he dry heaved, but nothing came out.

"When was the last time you ate?"

Seto felt his stomach spasm as he coughed into the trash can.

"What day is it?" Seto asked after he stopped, he felt queasy.

The crinkling of a wrapper sounded in his ear and he looked up at the bread she was offering him. She didn't look at him judgementally or even out of pity. It was a straightforward, honest look, Seto didn't refuse the bread.

"Thanks," he mumbled as he forced himself to eat the snack.

His stomach complained at the foreign substance, but he refused to let it come back up.

"Amin-chan, are you actually an idiot?"

Seto glared up at her. "Are you actually a guy?"

She frowned at him. "Where did that come from?"

"You have a stronger grip than some adult males." Seto pinched the bridge of his nose, fighting the headache.

"Oh, thank you." She smiled smugly.

"That wasn't—"

"—A compliment? Well, that makes it even better. I've practiced for a long time to take down men double my size."

"Why?" Seto finally set the trash can down, the nausea passing.

"Because I'm a... Ah, I see what you did there." She narrowed his eyes at him.

"What? Did what?"

"You're going to need to try harder to figure out my name, Amin-chan." She chuckled.

"I don't care what your name is!" Seto snapped, rubbing his head.

"What do you care about?"

The question threw him, and he looked at her suspiciously.

"Stop, I was just asking. Not everyone gives a shit about you or your job, Amin-chan. When you feel you won't pass out, come back to class." She strolled out of the room, leaving him alone.

... Not everyone cares? Seto rubbed his eyes. What game is she playing at? His stomach finally calmed down, and he went back to class. No one said anything as he walked in. His tablet lay on his desk, an enormous crack on the black screen. He took one look at it, picked it up, and left the classroom.

"Kaiba-san! Where do you think you're going?" The teacher shouted after him.

Nope, screw it. I've got to finish this report by the end of the day. Time to go home and salvage what I can. Seto didn't turn around and promptly left the school grounds. As he walked by the store advertising a new electronic he scowled. At least their marketing department is on schedule. Returning to his apartment building, the guard looked at him judgementally as he entered, but said nothing as Seto went up to his apartment.

By the time he got the files off his tablet, and organized onto his spare one, he only had an hour to finish and more reports that needed to be done by the morning. Crud, oh well. Guess it'll be another sleepless night.