Chapter 18

Feelings

Seto intensely stared at the project report as Hikari's team darted around the lab. He'd stopped into check on the progress. Everything was proceeding faster than expected. A haggard Hikari stood next to him, tapping his foot. His clothes were wrinkled and his shirt looked as if he'd worn it for three days straight. Seto handed him back to report.

"Looks good, when can you start on the main construction of the prototype." Seto asked.

Hikari rubbed his eyes, deep circles underneath them. "The middle of the week."

"That's faster than scheduled." Seto looked Hikari over. He honestly didn't like him, but he was an excellent and smart worker.

Hikari grumbled. "I can't have you pretending to date Ana too long. I wouldn't want you to actually fall for her."

Too late for that.

Seto crossed arms, looking smug. "Don't worry. I won't. Feelings like that at are for idiots."

I've joined the world of idiots, ugh.

Hikari huffed and didn't seem convinced as Seto picked up his bag. He left the lab and pulled out his new phone that he'd had to run and buy. Yesterday, when Ana had over the top complemented him, his brain had frozen. His phone had slipped out of his hand it and hit the pavement face first, shattering the screen beyond repair. That night when he went home, he'd ended up not being able to sleep because his heart wouldn't stop beating loudly in his chest. Every time he'd almost fallen asleep, his mind would wonder to Ana and how nice she'd looked. His mind floated back to her comment about him protecting her and his face grew warm. Ugh, I'm an idiot.

Seto slapped his face and focused on getting to school. Ignore it, put it out of your mind. Our relationship is strictly business and nothing more. When he walked into the classroom right before first period, his eyes slid over to Ana's seat. She was sitting and chatting to Sanae, when she laughed at something her friend told her entire face lit up. Seto's heart tried to jump into his throat. Frick! Looking to his seat, he focused on getting there without making any contact with people, especially Ana.

"Hey, Kaiba-san!"

Seto groaned openly as knock-off-Yugi stepped in front of him. The red head didn't seem to notice and greeted him excitedly.

"Are you coming tonight?" Arata asked, grinning at him widely.

Seto didn't respond and growled at him, annoyed. Arata didn't give him time to refuse. He turned to Ana and Sanae.

"Hey, Ana-chan, Sanae-chan. Kaiba-san's going to come tonight." Arata bubbled excitedly.

Ana and Sanae looked over at Kaiba. His heart jumped when Ana's eyes met his. He quickly turned back to Arata, scowling.

"I didn't agree to anything," Seto snapped.

Ana? When did he get close enough to call her by her first name? I swear if I didn't have to play nice right now, I'd ring his neck.

Arata looked up at him, confused. "But you didn't say no."

"I don't even know what your inviting me to. Why would I say yes?" Seto growled.

"A test of courage." Arata's eyes sparkled excitedly. "At a local park."

Seto looked at him, disgusted. "What are you ten?"

He didn't give Arata a chance to answer. Instead, he shoved past him to his seat. The teacher came, so Arata had to return to his seat without an answer. Seto took his seat behind Ana and didn't look at her. He pulled out his tablet and tried to distract himself with work, but he wasn't making much progress. The day dragged on and on until lunch finally came. Unable to focus, he got up and left the room with his tablet and headed to the vending machine. He bought some coffee and sipped on it, while standing in front of the vending machine and looking over some reports. Oh, Inu-san finished this already. Hmm, maybe he'd be able to handle the paperwork for the upcoming tournament at Kaiba Land. Perhaps he's more dependable than I thought.

A small, cold hand touched his upper back. "Amin-chan."

He instinctively moved away from the touch by taking a step forward, but ran face first into the vending machine. The coffee fell from his hand, dousing his pant legs and shoes in hot coffee. Pinching his nose, he cursed loudly and turned around, his ears warm from embarrassment. Ana stood behind him, looking up at him concerned.

"What do you want!" He snapped, but she sighed and placed her hands on her hips.

"I called your name four times, so don't you go snapping at me just because you were being spacy."

Seto's ears burned. It was the first time anyone had accused him of being spacey. "I wasn't spacing out, I was working."

She ignored him though and pulled a handkerchief from her skirt pocket and handed it to him. "You should go clean that off before it stains. Thankfully, our school uniform is black."

Seto looked down at the lacey yellow handkerchief with small pink flowers embroidered on it. "Is this your handkerchief?"

Ana glared at him. "What's with the doubtful tone? I didn't steal it."

"I mean, it seems a little girly for you."

She frowned at him. "I am a girl. You can shove it, Amin-chan. Don't go taking out your embarrassment on me. If you don't want it, then give it back."

Ana held out her hand to him, waiting for her handkerchief.

"I meant it looks childish." Seto didn't hand it back, and her eyes narrowed at him.

Gosh, damn it!

"I've had it since I was a child. If you have a problem with using it, then give it back." She still held out her hand to him. His heart wouldn't shut up.

"I didn't say I had a problem using it." Seto clenched his fist around the handkerchief and let his arm fall to his side. "What did you want?"

She finally dropped her hand as well and sighed. "I wanted to thank you for yesterday, but you had to Amin-chan it up as usual."

Seto's eyes wondered down her face to her lips as she talked. "You already thanked me. What purpose is there in doing it twice?"

"It's called good manners, not that you seem to know what those are unless there's something in it for you." Ana crossed her arms and looked away from him. His eyes flicker to her chest and arms before returning to her face.

"Why do I need to be polite to people who can't do anything for me?" Seto was only half aware of what was coming out of his mouth as Ana shifted her feet, drawing his attention to her legs.

Ana sighed and answered him by holding her hands palm up and shrugging. Oh, my frinkin' gosh. Stop moving around so much! I can't focus. Did she always talk so much with body language before? His heart wouldn't stop beating in his chest so loudly it felt like someone was pounding on a drum. She can't hear that, can she?

"Whatever, just go clean up." She turned and walked away. He watched her ponytail swishing back and forth as she walked. He kept watching her until she turned the corner.

I wonder if running into the vending machine did some brain damage? Seto went to the bathroom to clean up, he didn't use the handkerchief, but toilet paper instead. He stood at the sink and looked down again at the tiny flowers on the cloth. They'd been embroidered by hand. The stitches weren't even, almost as if the person who done it had just been learning. Did she do this?

"Hey, Kaiba-san fancy meeting you here."

Ugh. Seto turned and found Arata enter the bathroom. The redhead grinned at him. Why, why won't this idiot leave me alone? Arata's eyes slid to the handkerchief in Seto's hand.

"Oh, hey. That's Ana-chan's handkerchief," Arata commented.

Something inside him snapped. "Don't you frickin' call her that."

Arata's eyes widened in surprised. "Call her what? I just called her by her… Oh… I get it."

Seto flinched, taken aback by his own possessiveness. What am I doing? What does it matter if he calls her by her first name?

"Alright. I won't call her by her first name." Arata grinned at him, and Seto got a bad feeling. "If you come to the test of courage tonight."

"What? Why the frick' should I have to do that?" Seto growled at him.

Arata shrugged. "Well, you don't half too, but I'm going to keep calling her Ana-chan then. Also, we're going to be pairing off for the challenge, so you never know. Another guy might just make a move on her while you're not around. Ana-chan is pretty well liked by most of the guys in class."

What? Wait, is that true? Seto had ignored the rest of the class, so he hadn't really been paying attention to how the other guys acted towards Ana.

"Well, if you don't come, that might happen. It's at Karinma park. We're meeting at 7 p.m. Don't be late!" Arata ran out of the bathroom.

Wait, did he not have to use the restroom—that little prick! He came in here just to frickin' mess with me. Seto looked down at the handkerchief. It really was very cutesy. Does she like cute things? Mindlessly, he brought the handkerchief to his nose and smelled it. Peppermint. Does she keep breath mints in her pocket? He grinned at the thought until he realized he'd just sniffed her handkerchief. Quickly pulling it away from his face, he groaned. Noticing his reflection in the mirror, he could see he was red all the way to the tips of his ears. Damn it. I think I need to run into that vending machine a few more times. This is going to drive me crazy.