Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Don't Tell ❯ Good Advice? And the Consequences... ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: [humming along with song on radio] ...huh?

A/N: Konnichiwa! Yes, I *was* actually planning on posting the next chapter! *sweatdrop* Sorry it took so long, ya'll... I was experiencing a period of acute laziness, that's all ^^;; But the point is that it's up now! I don't think this chapter's really much to get excited over, but it is necessary for the next chapter, after all. And the next chapter's fun... So enjoy!

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Chapter Two: Good Advice? And the Consequences...

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{Wednesday afternoon, the next week}

Kaiba sat stiffly in the back seat of the limo, wishing the driver would go faster but not really feeling like asking. There was nothing like being stuck in a room with a bunch of mindless, greedy corporate jerks for an hour to make you want to go to sleep early...

`But, of course, I can't,' he thought, sighing inwardly. Thanks to the meeting he had a good bit of work to take home with him, and it was already six.

When he got home he greeted Mokuba (who happily knocked him into the door when he entered), then headed upstairs to his office. He had barely gotten started on the work, however, when his little brother brought him some warmed-up dinner.

"Not hungry," he muttered, his attention still half on the computer screen.

Mokuba made a face. "Tough. You need to eat."

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Hey, I'm the oldest," he said distractedly. "So why is it that you sound like a parent sometimes? A mom, even!"

Mokuba groaned. "That's *low*!" he complained.

"Don't worry, I know it is," Kaiba assured him. "Anyway, thanks for the food, but I've got some work to do."

"All right," he said, giving his big brother a quick hug and going to the door. He paused just before leave though. "Hey, anything else you need?" he asked.

"No unless you can give me girl advice," Kaiba muttered under his breath.

"WHAT!?" Mokuba shrieked. "Okay, now this I *gotta* hear!"

"Oh no..." Kaiba sunk down in his chair. "Please tell me I didn't just say that out loud..."

"But lying is bad!" Mokuba said innocently. "Now spill."

"Since when is my little brother street-wise?"

"You're trying to change the subject," Mokuba stated.

"Yes," he admitted.

"I won't let you sleep until you tell me," Mokuba threatened.

"Good." Kaiba shrugged. "I've gotta stay up anyway to work on this stuff."

The younger boy grinned evilly. "I'll unplug your computer."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Would too!" he snickered, hand poised above the wall socket.

This lead to a brief scuffle, ending with Mokuba on the other side of the office door. "Come on, Seto!" he said, pounding on the door. "You know you want advice!"

"Maybe I do," Kaiba said. "But what I *don't* want is you spreading rumors to all your friends."

"Okay, here's the deal," Mokuba said. "You tell me who she is and what's going on, and I'll try to give you advice and I promise I won't tell any of my friends. You don't tell me anything, and I spread all kinds of *nasty* rumors."

"WHAT!?"

"It sounds fair to me," Mokuba shrugged.

"Hey," Kaiba said accusingly from the other side of the door, "what makes you think that a little 5th grader like yourself could actually give good advice about... something like this?"

"Unlike *some people*, I have a social life," Mokuba shot back, sticking his tongue out at the door.

"You sound like a girl," Kaiba said wearily, opening the door. "Again. And don't think I didn't see that. All right, all right, get in here."

"I knew I could bring you around!" Mokuba said, instantly claiming the office chair. "Okay, who is she?"

Kaiba sighed, leaning against a wall. "Listen, before I tell you, I want you to promise one more thing on top of not telling anyone."

"Okay," he nodded.

"You have to promise that you won't tease me about this, or at least about who it is."

Mokuba frowned thoughtfully. "Well, all right," he said doubtfully. "This has *got* to be good."

The older brother swallowed, contemplating just making a break for it. "Serenity Wheeler."

"As in..." Mokuba's eyes went wide. "As in *Joey* Wheeler?!"

"Don't start," Kaiba warned. "Yes. His sister. I met her in this pizza place a few days ago... don't ask... And now I can't stop thinking about her." He buried his face in his hand to hide the fact that he was blushing. "Happy now?"

"Wow... Joey's sister; who'd of thought... Wow..." Mokuba appeared to be in some sort of a daze.

"Are you going to sit there going `wow' all night or are you actually going to help?" Kaiba said irritably.

Mokuba snickered. "Of course! I thought you'd gotten in an argument with a girlfriend or something; *this* is easy. You just need to find an excuse to hang out with her. Does she walk home?"

"Yeah, she does," Kaiba recalled.

"Perfect. If you've got some classes with her, ask her afterwards if she'd like a ride home. Just sort of mention on the way that you could stop at a restaurant or a mall or something if she'd like. Then if she had fun, ask if she'd like to meet you sometime during the weekend. See, easy."

"For you maybe, Mr. Social Life," Kaiba muttered.

"Hey, don't complain," he said firmly. "You asked for advice, you got advice. And now..." He edged towards the door. "Time to spread the word!"

"What?!" Kaiba demanded.

"You know that's my word and you've used it twice, right?" Mokuba said over his shoulder.

"Hey, you promised you wouldn't tell anyone!" Kaiba said, getting up.

"I crossed my fingers!" he said, laughing wickedly and running down the stairs.

"If you tell, you are *so* grounded!" Kaiba shouted, taking off after him.

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{Thursday morning}

Sitting still through the first class was agony. But just when Kaiba thought it couldn't get any worse, he had to sit through Algebra too. Serenity was so close... Just one row in front and two to the left. He seriously considered just passing her a note and getting it over with, but in the end he decided it wouldn't seem casual enough.

`When most people watch the clock, they're waiting for the class to be over,' he mused, staring attentively at the aforementioned object. `I'm dreading it. Thanks a lot, Mokuba.'

Finally, to his dismay, the bell rang. He sat for a moment longer, trying to get some courage, and finally forced himself to get up and go over to her.

"Serenity?" he managed to get out, when she didn't notice him right away.

She looked up from her bag, which she was putting stuff back into. "Oh, hi!" She smiled. "You're Seto Kaiba, aren't you? You're so quiet I usually forget I even have the same class as you. Nice to meet you... again." Her smile widened a little as she remembered last Friday.

"Uh, hi," he said, shifting his weight uncomfortably. "Listen, I know you walk home, so I was wondering if, er..." He hesitated.

"What?" she said blankly.

"Hey Serenity!" an overly-cheerful voice called over the din.

"Oh, hey," Serenity greeted the shorter girl who had come over to them.

"Listen, I've been dying to tell you all day, I got the coolest - oh, sorry, I didn't realize you were talking to someone..." She took a closer look at Kaiba. "Hey, you're Seto Kaiba! I'm-"

"Jasmine," Serenity said sternly. "He was trying to ask me something, okay?"

"Oh, sorry," the girl said, looking slightly deflated.

"Anyway, what were you saying?" Serenity asked, turning back to Kaiba.

"Uh, it was nothing, really," he muttered.

"Oh, come on," she coaxed.

"No, really, it was nothing," he assured her, and fled. `I am so glad I only have one class with her a day; I don't think I could stand two...'

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As if that stopped them from seeing each other... He saw her twice in the halls, and each time the girl Jasmine burst into a fit of giggles.

`Great, so it didn't really do any good to keep Mokuba from telling his friends about this,' he thought. `Now the whole school probably knows...'

At last, after what seemed like eternity, school was almost over. Everyone was headed to their last class - except Kaiba, because he had forgotten something in his locker.

"Hi Kaiba!"

He gasped, almost dropping the combination lock. "Hey Serenity," he said, turning around. "Um, why are you here? Shouldn't you be in class?"

She grinned. "I could ask the exact same of you, you know," she commented. "I forgot something. What about you?"

"Same here."

"Hey," she said thoughtfully, "you wanted to ask me something, didn't you? Something you were too embarrassed to ask in front of Jasmine..." She giggled.

"Uh..." he looked for something to say, but finally had to settle for a plain old, "yeah. I guess."

"Well, what then?" she demanded.

"Um..." `Damn it, I'm so stupid! Just ask already!' "Well, I know you walk home after school, and I was wondering if you'd like-"

"Kaiba!"

"Joey?" Serenity asked, startled. "Um, hi."

"What?" Kaiba demanded, turning around to glare. He would never admit it, of course, but he was almost grateful the other boy had shown up. He instantly felt more normal - pissed off, in other words.

"What the hell'er you doing?" Joey demanded, glaring right back.

"Talking," he said irritably. "Sorry, I wasn't aware that you didn't approve."

"Why are you here, Joey?" Serenity demanded. "Don't even try to tell me you forgot something too."

"Well, I sorta lost track of time 'cause I was, um, talking to... Mai..." His voice trailed off near the end, and he went red.

"Oh, so puppy *does* have a girlfriend," Kaiba commented, smirking.

"You just watch it," Joey growled.

"Oh, and what are you going to do?" he said sarcastically. "Bite my ankles? *Please*..."

"Boys!" Serenity said. "Stop it; you're acting like little kids. Why don't you want me talking to him, Joey?"

"He's a jerk!" her brother said. "It might be dangerous to be alone with him; I know for a fact that he never does *anything* that isn't for him, no matter how much it hurt the other people involve!"

"What are you suggesting, puppy-dog?" he demanded, somewhat surprised. It *was* Joey, but still... "That I would *rape* her? Isn't that a bit overly paranoid of you?"

"I wouldn't put it passed you!" Joey said, trying to pull himself up to his full height (which really didn't do much as Kaiba was a head or two taller than him). "And see, just listen to him! He lives for picking on people!"

"Well, I don't know if I'd exactly call you a `people...'" Kaiba said, sneering and shaking his head.

Joey gritted his teeth. "All right, that's it!" he shouted, lunging at the other.

Serenity stepped between the two, managing to shove Joey hard enough to not only stop him but send him stumbling backwards. Kaiba blinked. "What the hell-?" Joey demanded.

"Knock. It. Off. That simple." She sighed. "Look, if you really want I won't talk to him any more in school, but I want you to leave him alone too. Now, seeing as I'm not going to be able to be part of a reasonable conversation if I stick around here, I think I'd rather not be any later to the last class than I am. See ya."

Kaiba stared after her. "You know, I think you made her a little mad," he commented.

"Eh, shut up," Joey grumbled. "I doubt you care."

"More that you, obviously, if you're not going to go talk to her," he retorted.

"Hey," Joey said accusingly. "Just who do you think you are, thinking you know if my sister's mad or not? I never knew you had enough of a heart to notice something like that, and anyway I think *I* would know her better that *you*!"

Kaiba laughed rather coldly. "Huh. Not only do you not care enough to go after her when she seems a little mad, but you're also doing exactly what she asked you not to; *bothering* me. Goodbye, puppy."

He turned to go. Joey stared at him for a moment, then, with an outrage yell he lunged at him again. Kaiba whirled around to face him, however, and caught his wrist.

"Boy," he said, shaking his head. "On top of everything else, you fight dirty." He threw Joey to the floor, and turned away again. "If you'd rather fight then go see your sister, well... *I'll* go see her."

Joey grunted, standing up painfully. "But didn't you hear her, you jerk?" he demanded. "She seemed willing enough not to talk to you anymore. Fine, since you're so *obsessed* with her, I'll see if I can find her." He brushed passed the older boy, but paused just before turning the corner at the end of the hall. "And just letting you know, if it weren't for her asking me to leave you alone I'd be beating you up right now for that." He left rather hurriedly.

"Run while you can!" Kaiba called after him, smirking. But one he was gone, his smirk faded. He really didn't have any intention of going after him; it wasn't worth it, even though it was a bit tempting. Besides, that fact that Joey didn't seem to realize he'd gone the wrong way was amusing enough...

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Several hours later when he got home, he was, as always, thrown into the door, but this time he was bombarded with questions as well.

"So, did it work?" Mokuba asked. "Of course it worked; how did it go? Does she want to see you again this weekend? Did you go to a really romantic restaurant? Did you kiss her?"

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Re-wind about four questions," he said. "I never got to ask her."

"What?!" Mokuba demanded, shocked. "But... why? You said you had a class with her; how hard could it have been?"

"Hard," he assured him, shrugging off his coat and heading up to his office. "One of her friends came up and started talking her head off. She sounded like she was on the verge of asking for an autograph or something humiliating like that. I'm pretty sure the little brat has spread rumors all over the school by now... And to make matters worse, I tried to talk to her again in the hall but Chihuahua-brain showed up, and we got into a little fight. He made her agree not to talk to me in school again."

"I hope you didn't hurt Joey too bad," Mokuba said reprovingly. "She'd be mad, and anyway he's not really such a bad guy once you get to know him. I talk with him sometimes when I go over to Yugi's to hang out."

"I'll take your word on that one," his older brother said. "But no, he's fine. Just some bruises... Well, you know. He sort of fell."

"Sort of, huh?" Mokuba said, raising an eyebrow. "Whatever. Are you gonna try to ask Serenity out again tomorrow?"

Kaiba frowned. "No," he said, after a minute.

"Why not?" Mokuba demanded.

"Well, she's not supposed to talk to me, after all," he said. "If Joey found out - and he would, too; he usually walks home with her - he'd be mad. At her, as well as me." `And besides,' he couldn't help but think, `she seemed pretty willing not to talk to me...'

"I could talk to Joey next time I see him," Mokuba offered.

"No thanks," he said hurriedly. "It might just be better to, uh, give him time to cool down, you know?"

"Oh," the younger boy said knowingly. "Right."

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{Friday afternoon, after school}

Serenity smiled, adding the final touches to her makeup. Then she grabbed a note book, ripped out a piece of paper and wrote, `Am shopping with the girls. Will be back in time for dinner. Love ya, Serenity.'

She paused thoughtfully, then grabbed the phone and dialed Tea's number.

"Hello?" came the voice on the other end.

"Hey, it's Serenity," she said. "Look, I've got something I need to do, so if anyone calls, I'm shopping with you. Okay?"

"Um, okay," Tea said, sounding slightly confused.

"You're the greatest. Could you call Mai for me and tell her the same thing?"

"... Sure," she replied, sounding even more confused.

"Sweet. Bye."

"... Bye..."

She went downstairs and left the note on the kitchen table, and fifteen minutes later she was scanning the buildings downtown in the business area.

"Ah, there it is!" she said triumphantly, to herself. "Kaiba Corp..." `So what if I can't talk to him in school? I am *not* going to rest until I know what's up with him...'

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A/N: [sweatdrop] Dang, Kaiba is so OOC in this fic... But you guys don't mind, right? Right? [multiple sweatdrops] Well, I hope you liked it (enough to review) anyway :) Lots o' love, ya'll - though not in a creepy way O.O ........XD One word: sugar. Sugar, my pressssious, beautiful sugar...