Chapter 55:

A Competent Assistant

Seto watched Ana out of the corner of his eye as they walked around the park. Is it too late to change my mind about the PDA? Ana stopped when a loud rumble came from her stomach. Seto laughed at her and she glared at him.

"I guess it is past lunchtime." Seto pointed over to a food stand. "What do you want to eat?"

Ana blushed but walked over to the stand and ordered a hotdog. Seto ordered a burger. The guy at the stand tried to give it to them for free, but Seto ignored him and paid for it.

"B-but." The guy looked nervous.

"Not paying would throw off the balance for the food orders and profits. So shut up and take the money." Seto glared at the man who cowered but took the money.

They walked away and found a seat to eat at. Ana was giving him a weird look.

"What?" He finally asked.

She shrugged, then smiled at him teasingly. "Well… Shut up and take my money is pretty funny sounding coming from you."

Seto glared at her and focused on his burger. It didn't take them long to finish. He noticed an ice cream stand. "Want dessert?"

"Yes!" Ana said, a lot more enthusiastically than he expected.

"You really do like anything sweet, don't you?" He rolled his eyes.

Ana blinked a few times and looked surprised. "When did I tell you that?"

"On that weird date, not date, when we went to the karaoke place before I met with your family for the first time." Seto reminded her.

"Oh, yeah." She seemed to recall what he was talking about. "And you hate Oden."

Seto sighed. "That's what you remember?"

"You like white," Ana said as she got up and headed for the Ice cream vender. Seto followed. When they got there, Ana ordered a double scoop of chocolate. Seto didn't order anything. It took him forcing money onto the vender again to get them to accept. Ana worked on her ice cream happily. She kept peeking up at him, though. Finally, she asked, "Do you remember mine?"

"Yellow." He growled. "Like that handkerchief."

"You're not getting that back," Ana said flatly. She looked at her ice cream and then up at him. "Want a bite?"

He about said no until he saw the excited look on her face. He shrugged, then bent down and took a small bite out of her ice cream. When he bent back up, he noticed her blushing. What the heck? What's up with that reaction? All I did was take a bite of her ice cream.

An announcement played over the intercom. "There you have it, folks. In an amazing upset, Kaiba Mokuba has beaten Joey Wheeler! The last match will be Kaiba Mokuba versus Muto Yugi!"

"Oh, your brother won." Ana sounded surprised.

Seto just smirked. "Of course he did. He had my deck. If he'd lost to Wheeler using my deck, I would have grounded him."

"What if he beats Muto-san?" Ana asked while smiling at him evilly.

Seto paused. "Then I've highly underestimated my little brother. It won't happen though."

The smile faded from her face. "Aren't you going to go back for the last match?"

"I already pulled one over on them as it is. If I did that, then other people would start complaining that they get to use substitutes for a duel they don't want to do."

"They aren't going to complain already?"

Seto shrugged. "Oh, no. They're going to complain. I just don't give a frick'."

His phone started ringing, and he picked it up.

Inu shouted at him over the phone. "Stop flirting with your girlfriend in public and go somewhere else! I can't do damage control on all the pictures, run the tournament, and everything else all at once!"

Seto had to look at his phone to make sure it was Inu who'd just shouted at him before putting the phone back to his ear. "Did you just yell and scold me? I'm your boss. Do you want to be fired?"

"Go ahead! The severance package is nice and while I'm lounging at home chilling, you can deal with all the work by yourself." Inu hung up.

Seto stared at his phone, opened mouthed. "What the frick? I'm going to fire him."

"No, you won't." Ana had apparently heard the conversation. Inu had been loud.

Seto glared at her. "What do you mean, no I won't?"

Ana crossed her arms and tilted her head. "If you fire him, then you'll have to take on all the work you've allocated to him until you get a replacement."

"So? It's not like I wasn't taking care of it before."

She narrowed her eyes. "You weren't really functioning before. Plus, you won't have any time to spend with me. I'm not going to hang out with you in the same room just to watch you slave away."

Seto paused and couldn't find a rebuttal.

She continued. "Besides, it seems like you're overworking him. Maybe you should consider hiring another assistant."

Seto pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Good assistants are hard to find."

"Then I guess you really aren't going to fire him." Ana smiled.

He felt annoyed that she was right. Glancing over, he noticed people taking pictures of them. "We should probably leave. Now that they know I'm not actually at the tournament, we might start getting approached."

"That sounds good, actually. I'm kind of tired after everything today," Ana admitted.

"Alright." Seto assented. They headed to where his car was, and he messaged his driver to meet them there.

"What about Mokuba-kun?" Ana asked, looking a little worried.

"Inu-san won't leave his side until the end of the tournament and security has been increased. He should be alright. They'll bring him straight home after," Seto explained.

She still didn't look happy, so Seto called Mokuba.

"Hey, Nii-san! I won." He bubbled happily on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah. I know. I expected you to. We're kind of drawing attention, so we're going home. Are you going to stay and finish out the tournament?" Seto asked as he glanced at Ana.

"What? Of course I am! This is fun."

"You're ok if we leave you?"

Mokuba huffed on the other end. "Of course! I'll be fine. See you at home."

Seto hung up and looked over at Ana. "See?"

"The kid's a lot more resilient than me." Ana sighed.

Seto frowned, then thought of a way to piss her off. "You sound like an old woman."

Ana glared at him and got into the limo that he'd sent Mokuba in that morning to pick her up. He climbed in after her. They were quiet most of the way. Hmm, she's spending the night at my house again. Last time we weren't dating… Wait, why does that matter? Why am I thinking about this? Seto eyed Ana, who was spacing out while looking out the window. Am I expecting something to happen? We've hung out in my apartment alone plenty of times. Why do I feel so weird about her spending the night at my house? I guess I'd feel even more unsettled if she spent the night at my apartment. Wait, why? It's not like we're going to have sex or…

His mind went blank, and his eyes shook a little. Ana just happened to look over at him right at that moment.

"What's wrong? Your face is bright red. Are you feeling ill?" Ana looked at him, concerned.

He turned his head to the window and wouldn't look at her. His voice cracked when he spoke. "Fine."

"Uh… ok." She didn't seem to believe him, but she didn't press him.

Damn it! It's because we had that conversation about consent and stuff. They remained silent the rest of the way back to his house. When they got there, Seto told his butler to prepare dinner by six, which meant they had about three hours until time to eat. Ana was eyeing him.

"What?" He asked, still feeling unsettled by his earlier thoughts.

"Are you going to keep wearing that coat around your house?" Ana pursed her lips.

"My coat is awesome." He was feeling annoyed by her constant nagging on his coat, but he did feel sweaty from walking in the hot sun all day. "I'm not going to keep wearing it, though. I'm going to go take a shower."

"Ok…" Ana seemed to look around his home at a loss.

"You can go relax in the room where you lost horribly at chess." He smirked.

"You're an ass."

He snickered, then went to his room to shower and change. After the shower, he was feeling sleepier. Ugh, I kind of want to lie down and nap, but I can't. He went to his study/ game room that was decorated with oak shelves filled with games and books. In the center of the room was a table where he could set up any game. Ana wasn't sitting at it. He looked around the room and found her sitting on the plush couch next to the window. She was slowly nodding off.

"I'm pretty sure I'm the one who needs a nap." Seto felt even more agitated.

Ana opened her eyes and stared at him sleepily. She patted the spot next to her on the couch. He sighed, then sat down next to her.

"What did you want to do until dinner?" He asked, too tired to think of anything on the spot.

Much to his surprise, she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down so that his head was in her lap.

"Uh…" was the only sound that came out of his mouth.

"Shh." She petted his hair softly.

What the frick'? I'm not some baby. I won't… He was out like a light.