Disclaimer: Still nada. I own nothing.

Author's Note: So I'm still impressed that I was able to update this, despite it having taken a while, primarily because I just moved and have gotten as much done in the unpacking as I have along with getting this chapter up haha. In any case, onto the chapter!

Terms -

Staying late at work -

Arubaito - Means a "part-timer"; pulled from the German language

Yakisoba Pan - Fried noodles in a sandwich

CC Lemon - The Best drink in the world… think lemonade that isn't as sweet, but mixed with strong seltzer.

Lawsons - A chain of konbini.

31 - How the company "Baskin Robbins" is known by in Japan.

Mushiatsui - Means 'Humid'

1,000,000 yen - $10,000 USD… so many zeros haha.

Master Tourbillion Dueltime - see below in the second A/N.

Torii - a gateway to a Shinto Shrine, shaped similarly to the symbol for pi.

"妙" (Myou) - A Kanji with meanings such as "Wonder, Mystery, Strange, Weird, Odd, Curious, Miracle, Excellence, Cleverness, Adroitness, Knack, or Skill"

"法" (Hou) - A Kanji with meanings such as "law, act, principle, method, mood, or dharma"

"大" (Dai) - A Kanji primarily meaning "Big, Large, or Great"

Gozan no Okuribi - Hehe, you'll find out in later chapters… or I guess you could google it to spoil it. -shrugs-

UVERworld - A Japanese rock band active since 2000. They have done a number of opening and ending themes to various Anime, such as Bleach, Blood+, Death Note, Blue Exorcist, D. Gray-man, and Mobile Suit Gundam 00.

Chuo Koen – "Central Park"

Today's title means a "Watch" (used to tell time and worn on the wrist).

-YGO-

"Ah, if only our voices speaking at night,

Could ever reach the very edge of this world, and of time

Instead of fading into air and dust

Then what will the words, could it ever be

Farthest words from "probably"

Let's make a promise that will never fade

Let's say it together on the count of three, oh"

-"Dream Lantern" by RADWIMPS

Chapter Thirteen: 時計(Tokei)

Around 11:30 PM, Mokuba decided that his brother's absence (and the repeated calls he had made that were sent to voicemail) were enough of a reason to go down to KaibaCorp to see what the gaming industry had done to keep his brother from returning home for the night. Grabbing the keys to the BMW Z4, one of the few convertibles Seto would let him drive, he hit the gas and drove down to the monolith of a building that dwarfed the rest of Domino City.

The lights were mostly off. Many of their employees could be found staying late till 10, but a few stragglers tended to stay when deadlines pressed at their throats. Sighing, he parked the car in front of the building and, knowing the valet had gone home, covered the convertible and locked the door before he hiked up the steps, taking them two at a time. He swiped his key card pass and strolled inside, making his way towards the glass elevator that would take him straight up to Seto's office. Waving his card over the security checkpoint, almost instantly, he was taken up to his older brother's office, which he was surprised to find… empty.

Mokuba's brows furrowed. If his brother wasn't here… He picked up the phone and hit the familiar speed dial. It rang only once when the occupant on the other end of the line picked it up.

"Yes, Mr. Kaiba?"

"Isono, have you seen my brother?" Mokuba asked.

"He was down in the duel simulator last I heard, Master Mokuba," Isono said.

"What's he doing down there?" Mokuba questioned, both exhausberated and concerned at the same time.

"I do not know sir," Isono relayed, "He ignored and skipped all of his meetings today…"

Mokuba nodded, thinking. Had something happened? Seto wasn't one to miss meetings… but what would send Seto into a duel obsessed frenzy? It's not like it was something that happened much… anymore anyway. He rolled his eyes, hoping it wasn't something to do with Pegasus, Zigfried, or worse, their step-father.

"Thanks, Isono," Mokuba said, "I'll go check on him."

"Good luck, Master Mokuba," Isono seemingly saluted on the other end.

Mokuba let an ironic smile grace his features, "Thanks, bye."

Setting the phone back on the receiver, Mokuba headed back to the elevator, where this time, he began the descent to the basement. Upon ending up on floor B2, he exited to find the Duel Simulator Arena locked. He rolled his eyes, punched in his birthday, and watched the keys unlock the digital gears. Seto really needed a new password combination and Mokuba thanked his lucky stars that he had convinced Seto to use a different combo for their bank. But when the sound proof chamber opened, his brother's password issues became the least of his worries.

"Nii-sama?"

Seto didn't even seem to hear him as the digital monsters in front of him pixelated into oblivion. He leaned straight back and let out a yell of frustration before turning around and heading to the controls, for what must have been the 400th time that night.

Level: Select.

Again: Exponential.

"Nii-sama, what are you doing?" Mokuba asked as Seto watched the machine determine he was to go first, a look of agitation and rage clearly set upon his countenance, "We haven't tested exponential yet. It's a three turn or less beat down…"

Seto drew four cards and set a monster in attack mode, bumping it up in defense and attack power with three spell cards. He wasn't even bothering to speak, his breath seeming slightly haggard from what Mokuba could only assume was a heavy beat of his brother's heart.

"Nii-sama…"

"Setting one monster in attack mode. Polymerization…"

"No!" Seto yelled, but it was too late.

A Summoned Skull took form and, with a Lucky Iron Axe, destroyed his defensive spells and took the life of the Hieratic Dragon of Nuit Seto had just set. Mokuba heard the duel disk's life force deplete on his brother's arm and in one more turn, Seto had lost, again it seemed. As Seto turned to start up the simulator again, his eyes were brimming with a kind of anger his brother had only seen a few times before. For that reason, Mokuba decided that now was the time to step in.

"Nii-sama, stop…" He said, grabbing his brother by the shoulders.

"Let… go of me!" Seto screamed at the younger, struggling to get out of his grasp.

"No, it's midnight, what on earth are you doing here?!" Mokuba demanded to know.

"Mokuba!"

"Nii-sama!"

Seto stopped struggling and looked Mokuba dead in the eye. Slowly, the anger seemed to fade upon seeing his brother's worry, but it wasn't all gone. He shut his eyes and in one swift motion, ripped Mokuba's hands from his arms and unclasped the duel disk from his arm, tossing it to the floor with a loud clatter. Mokuba watched, suddenly saddened, but also overcome with concern.

"Nii-sama…"

Seto got to the machine and shut the simulator down, wordlessly as his chest hurt from the strain his rapidly beating heart had put on him for the last few hours in the excitement and pressure from the games. Mokuba dared to step forward.

"Nii-sama, what happened?" He asked.

Seto leaned his head back, looking up at the ceiling, before startling Mokuba out of his skin by kicking with a yell of frustration a nearby trashcan to the ground. The loud booming echo was followed by silence as slowly, Seto's shoulders sagged.

"Nothing, just Wheeler."

Wheeler? Mokuba hadn't heard that one in ages. His expression of skepticism never reached his brother though, who moved to pick up his jacket and head for the door, a migraine coming on. Seto tried to focus on calming down. His brother was clearly worried about him, when there really wasn't a reason to be. Wheeler just didn't know when to take something and shut up. And just because he hadn't been able to beat the duel simulator today, it didn't mean he couldn't. After all, it wasn't like he'd even managed to draw a Blue Eyes in any of those rounds-

Seto's eyes widened. Wait… How could that be? After all, how many games had he played? It was statistically nearly impossible to not draw at the very least one. Had he forgotten to shuffle them into his deck? As he and his brother reached the elevator, he pulled out his deck and sifted through the cards. No, all three of them were there. It was bizarre...

Mokuba eyed his brother's gaze in question, "Seto?"

Seto looked over at Mokuba who was now at his side, "Huh?"

"You okay?" He asked.

Seto's gaze dropped back down to the three Blue Eyes, whose normal shimmer seemed dull in his hands. He carefully placed the deck back in its case in his pocket.

"I'm fine," He answered.

The elevator shot upward and in minutes, they were walking out to the car that Mokuba had driven over. Seto would get his tomorrow. He took to the passenger seat so easily, that Mokuba found himself questioning if this was actually his brother. He rolled his eyes and got in the car.

"Fine, if you don't want to tell me what's really bothering you, then fine. But we're going home because I have to go to bed," He said, slamming the door shut on his side of the car.

As Mokuba began to drive off, Seto let the cool air on his face calm his features.

'Just let it go. Just let it go,' He thought.

And then he saw her face watching him and Wheeler arguing and a fresh wave of anger hit him. He turned his face away from Mokuba. Why did that matter? Why did it matter that she was there? Kisara was just... someone who he had made an agreement with. Nothing more. So why then... was her startled and worried face so bothersome to him? He shut his eyes, cursing the image away. It didn't bother him. It didn't.

But it did.

-YGO-

Kisara slipped her hair behind her ears for about the fifth time that afternoon as she reached down to lift another box up from the back room to bring out to the game shop's bustling aisles. Joey had been right. From Friday afternoon until all day Saturday, the game shop had become as busy as could be with gamers coming in for the new game boards. Even though game boards were not the preferred method of playing Duel Monsters on (that title remained with the KaibaCorp Duel Disk), they were still by far the method most often purchased. While a Duel Disk could run for well over 10,000 yen, depending on the model, a game board could be as cheap as 500 yen, with the most expensive tending to round out to about 2500 yen ($2S). In other words, they were by far much cheaper.

And just like the cover of Tea's phone that she seemed to change constantly depending on her outfit of choice, so too did duelists also change the design of their game boards (though Kisara admittedly preferred the beautiful pink crystal blossoms and blue snowflakes on Tea's phone covers to the monster themed art amid the many game boards). But in short, all of that meant that this weekend would be busy. And busy it was.

As Kisara struggled to keep a strong hold on the box as she pushed through the many patrons of the store (being sure to excuse herself if she did indeed actually bump into someone), she found relief in reaching her destination where she could plop the box down (quietly) and restock the shelves. She cracked her back as discretely as she could and bent back down to open the box and get back to work. Though she was exhausted, she was happy to be able to work. Joey had actually told her that she could have off today if she had wanted, but she declined saying that she would rather get in some of the hours.

"You sure? You're just an Arubaito, you don't have to," Joey said.

"No, no, it's fine! Any work is good work!"

Recalling the conversation as sweat dripped down her brow, she half wondered if she half-regretted her cheery statement from before.

"Hey, are those the new Ginzo boards?"

Kisara looked up to see a patron, probably around Serenity's age. She nodded, "Yes, would you like one?"

"Yeah," He answered, "Just one."

She handed him the board with a bow and he replied, "Thanks."

She stood up with a smile and slight nod, but was grateful as he began to walk away. Her shoulders inadvertently slouched. Joey normally did the heavy lifting, but doing the heavy lifting meant she could stay away from the front, where she would have to keep a cheery demeanor on all of the time, which since yesterday, she just couldn't seem to bring herself to do for more than five minutes at a time. She couldn't help it though. She felt a guilt that swelled in her throat every time she thought of the incident from yesterday. She felt a tap on her shoulder and looked up to see Joey.

"Hey, couldn't find you and I got a minute," He said, "You okay?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine, what's up?" She asked.

Joey looked over her flushed face with concern, but shrugged it off begrudgingly, "Well, go take a break, you missed lunch, right? Tea is inside the house if you want to go catch a bite with her."

Kisara looked over at the backdoor, which signaled some relief. She nodded, "Okay, thanks Joey."

"No problem."

As she walked to the doorway into the house, she held herself with poise, but upon shutting the door to the hallway of the Muto home, she leaned against it with a sigh of relief.

"Joey, that you?" Tea called.

Kisara looked up and wearily pushed herself up off the door and walked to the kitchen, "No, it's me."

"Oh, hey, was wondering when you'd get a break. Pretty crazy out there today, isn't it?" Tea said, shutting her book.

Kisara nodded, "Yeah..."

"You hungry? You want to get something?" Tea asked her.

Again, Kisara managed a nod. Tea grabbed her bag and the two exited from the side door, where they began the walk to the little strip of shops that had a variety of cute little cafes. But Kisara was content with just the idea of konbini food. Cheap food.

"Well, you can take solace in knowing that you're not the only one working overtime," Tea told her, "Yugi had to cancel lunch today with me because of work. I swear, Pegasus uses him sometimes. It's not like the past is going anywhere you know? Not that finding out what brought you hear isn't important; I think Pegasus is making him work on other things too though that are not as pressing in the grand scheme of things..."

Kisara listened vaguely when she saw the entrance to the Lawsons. The two walked inside and while she picked out her food, a Yakisoba Pan and CC Lemon soda today, Tea perused the aisles for other items like stockings and lipgloss. As the items rang up with a couple 'beeps', Kisara found her energy draining as she fumbled with her coin purse to pull out a 500 yen coin. Handing over the bronze colored old coin, she thanked the lady at the register and met Tea by the door.

"You sure you don't want to stop by a cafe?" Tea asked her, "Joey wouldn't mind if you're a little late."

"No, this is fine," Kisara said as they pushed through the doors and headed back to the shop.

Tea watched as her friend's eyes seemed downcast at the pavement, focused on just putting one foot in front of the other. She pursed her lips and grabbed Kisara's wrist and began to drag her over to a colorful looking shop across the way.

"Huh, Tea, wha-"

As they j-walked across the way, Kisara held her breath hoping no oncoming cars would suddenly round the corner, allowing herself only relief once they were safely on the sidewalk where Tea continued to drag her over to a colorful pink and white store with the number '31' at the top. Inside, Kisara found the cool air a refreshing break from the heat and humidity that the summer had brought. Japan's heat was different than that of Kemet's. The 'mushiatsui' feeling of dampness in the air was enough to make her want to collapse on occasion, even within the game shop, due to the constant opening and closing of the front door. However, this place felt nice inside and a sweet scent of sugar pervaded the area.

Tea smiled upon seeing that no one was in front of them in line and proceeded to bring Kisara to the front, "What flavor do you want to try?"

"What? Tea, I'm alright..."

"My treat, go on!" Tea told her.

Sighing, Kisara looked at the multiple flavors. Spotting a light blue and white swirl, she pointed and answered, "I guess... Cream Soda?"

Tea nodded and went up to the teenager behind the counter, "Can I get a double scoop of Cream Soda in a cup and a scoop of Strawberry Cheesecake and another of Chopped Chocolate in another? Oh, and for toppings..."

Kisara's eyes wandered back to the street, thinking of her need to get back to the store, but primarily of her desire to just go home, when a cup of swirling blue and white ice cream and toppings jumped into her line of vision. She followed the hand holding the ice cream up to see Tea smiling back at her.

"You can have dessert before lunch for once," She said.

Kisara smiled and took the cup, "Thanks."

"No problem," Tea said, "Come on, let's sit outside."

The two girls followed the stairs up to the second floor where they were met with a beautiful outdoor veranda. Finding a table with two chairs near the edge, Tea sat down, relieved to take a load off.

"So, why don't you tell me what's bothering you?" She said.

Kisara stopped mid-way through her bite of her cute ice cream treat, "Huh? Nothing's wrong."

"Oh, don't tell me nothing's wrong. Why do you think I bought you ice cream?" Tea told her, taking a bite of her own, "So want to spill?"

Kisara mulled it over in her mind for a moment. Tea wasn't the type to give up easily. It was probably best to just to tell her.

"Well... uh, I think I uh, might have been the cause of a fight..." She said slowly.

"What? Between who? Over what?" Tea asked, leaning back and getting ready to take another bite.

"Um, well, it all started when I got back to work late from lunch with Seto-" Tea choked on the ice cream in her mouth, making Kisara pause in a panic, "Are you okay?"

Tea coughed and fought her way through a brain freeze, "I'm, I'm fine, but wait, when you say Seto, you mean Kaiba? As in Seto Kaiba?"

Kisara nodded, "Yeah, why?"

Tea found herself tongue tied as a million different thoughts, worries, and opinions flooded her mind from the memory of the conversation she had had with Yugi that day when they went for lunch. Unsure of how to proceed, she went with the most neutral route she could, "Well, uh, never mind, what were you guys doing having lunch together?"

"He offered to teach me how to play Duel Monsters at the onsen last week," Kisara explained to her wide-eyed roommate, "So I've been meeting him for lunch every day since Monday."

Tea felt like a bowling ball had just landed in the pit of her stomach, "Since Monday?"

"Yeah," Kisara said, "Anyway, so I was on my way back-"

"Wait, wait, hold up, does he, well, know?" Tea asked, "About..."

She twirled her fingers around in a circle and the expression on her face relayed the silent question to Kisara, amazingly with ease, "No, I didn't tell him about the tablet or Kemet. He does know I don't remember everything about my past though..."

Tea sat back in her seat again, nodding, "Okay... sorry, just had to ask, so... you were saying?"

Kisara sighed, "Well, I went back to the shop late and Joey, you know, he was just telling me to not be late next time. And then Kaiba came in and told Joey to blame him for my being late..."

Tea listened, her ears feeling like they'd stretched to the size of an elephant's as so much bizarre and unheard of information leaked down the tunnels to her eardrums.

"And then they got into a fight-"

"Not a fist fight right?" Tea asked immediately.

"Huh? No no, not... well... I don't know, I thought Seto was going to hit him at one point," Kisara said, musing over yesterday's events, "But he didn't! He threw me his watch instead and left. Joey had said to get a watch; that's why."

Tea sat back in her chair. Kisara had been seeing Kaiba every day this past week. Kaiba had offered to teach her Duel Monsters. Kaiba had taken responsibility for Kisara's tardiness. And it was Seto Kaiba. Not Mokuba Kaiba. Seto freakin' Kaiba.

"What?" Kisara asked, "You look more... confused about the whole thing than I do."

Tea looked up and swallowed, trying to think of where to start, "Well, uh, I mean, you shouldn't feel bad about Joey and Seto fighting. They always fight. Like it's normal whenever they see one another. They've had a rivalry since Pegasus hosted the Duelist Kingdom tournament. Well, Joey more so than Kaiba. Joey irritates Seto to no tomorrow though. Even Yugi said he was surprised that Seto didn't rip Joey open for all of the stuff he spewed at Kawaguchiko... "

Kisara nodded, waiting for her friend to continue, "But... I don't get it."

"What do you mean?" Kisara asked.

"I don't get... why Kaiba would do that for you," Tea said, "Don't get me wrong, I believe Yugi when he says that Kaiba's a good person, but... he can be a bit of a jerk at times and he's rather self-centered. The only person I've ever seen him do anything for selflessly is his brother."

Kisara shrugged, "He said he was a man of his word."

"Huh?"

"Well, he promised to teach me, so he said he would... And he said he'd continue to teach me if I wanted, even after yesterday..." Kisara trailed off.

Tea watched her friend with concern. Yugi wouldn't like this. In fact, she should probably tell Yugi. He'd want to know. But something that nagged her in the back of her head prevented her hand from texting him right then and there. It was the fact that Kisara wasn't just some thing or a nameless entity. She was her roommate and in the short time they'd known one another, Tea had learned quickly that even though Kisara was out of her timeline, she wasn't an empty shell. She had her fears, concerns, and desires, just like her. She sighed, leaning her head back.

"Is he nice to you?" She asked.

"Huh?"

"Is he nice to you?" Tea asked again.

Kisara paused, but nodded, "Yeah, he is."

Tea nodded and bit her lip on the inside, "Well, if he's nice to you and you want to continue to hang out with him, I don't see why you shouldn't. But you should probably tell Yugi. That's something he'd want to know."

Kisara smiled, "I'd tell him if I ever saw him. But he leaves early and doesn't get back to the game shop till after I'm gone."

Tea let out a small laugh, "Yeah, I can't blame you. He's hard to get a hold of... But until you do, I wouldn't tell Seto about Kemet or anything. He's just... he becomes really difficult whenever anything regarding Ancient Egypt comes up..."

Kisara nodded, taking another bite of her ice cream. That's what Yugi had said too... "Why?"

"Hm?" Tea looked up from her ice cream.

"Why does Seto not like talking about Kem- er, Ancient Egypt?" She asked.

Tea shrugged, "Honestly, I don't know. He's always been like that though. He hated whenever Yugi would mention Atem, or well, at the time we called him 'Yami', because we didn't know his real name, but... for whatever reason, Kaiba just didn't want to accept that Yugi was his vessel... maybe because he just doesn't like the idea of destiny or whatever and didn't want to be involved in that..."

Kisara listened, even as the heat beat down on them both through the umbrella shading them from the sun. In the pit of her stomach, she felt an odd sense of unease. Seto didn't like 'destiny'. Nor did he like Ancient Egypt or Kemet. And from what she had seen in the week of lunches spent with him, he seemed very down to earth too. Unwilling to believe in magic or unexplainable events... all of which she was. She looked at the watch on her wrist. It was about time she head back and she still had yet to eat her lunch.

"Is that it?" Tea asked.

"Hm?"

"The watch, is that the one he gave you?" Tea clarified.

"Oh, yeah," Kisara answered.

"Well let's see," Tea said, motioning for Kisara to show the item on her wrist.

Kisara slipped it off and held it up for Tea to see more closely when for about the third time that day, her roommate's eyes bulged, "The heck, he just gave this to you?"

"... uh... yes?" Kisara said, uncertain as to why Tea was responding the way she was, "Why?"

"Because that's a freakin' Jaeger LeCoultre!" Tea exclaimed, "They're super expensive. I remember seeing an article with Robert Downy Jr. and he was talking about his. I wonder what model it is."

Kisara's brow furrowed, as she slipped the watch off her wrist for a better look, "Wait, how expensive?"

"Like 1,000,000 ($10,000 USD) yen plus expensive," Tea answered, pulling up Jaeger LeCoultre's website on her phone.

Kisara nearly dropped the watch, "Wh... what?"

"What's the model?" Tea asked, searching through the website.

"Uh..." Kisara turned the watch around looking for whatever would indicate the model, when she found in very tiny print the name engraved on the rounded edges on the bottom, "It's a... Limited KaibaCorp Edition... Master Tourbillion."

Kisara turned it around. Sure enough, she hadn't noticed it before, but there it was, the KaibaCorp logo beside the 9, made of the same brilliant white as the base that held the watch and all the gears in place along with the hands that ticked around in a perfect fashion. She looked up when Tea exclaimed in excitement, her phone close to her face.

"Ah ha! I think I found it," She said, having searching her iPhone, "Or well, the closest we're going to get to it. I doubt Kaiba would let something like that go on sale publicly... was probably some collaboration or something..."

"What's it say?" Kisara asked, curious.

"Immersed in the depths of its blue dial, the Master Tourbillion Dualtime Watch, ha, Dualtime, of course, um, oh, is a testament to the jewelry and watchmaking expertise of the Grande Maison," Tea read aloud.

Kisara got up and looked over Tea's shoulder. Indeed, it did look like the watch she had. With the deep blue dial, the surrounding diamonds on the edge and hour markers, the white gold... The only primary difference from what she could tell was the white leather strap, softly brushed streaks of light blue radiating from the center, and the diamond encrusted KaibaCorp logo... diamond... Kisara felt the blood rush from her face and grabbed onto Tea's shoulder.

"What?" She asked.

"He... diamond... these are diamonds..." She said breathlessly.

"Yeah, a lot of them by the looks of it," Tea said, "This one says 83."

"83?!" Kisara repeated.

"Well yeah, but that one looks like it has more," Tea replied.

"More?!" Kisara said, feeling her knees shake and her ankles weaken.

"Are you okay?" Tea asked.

Kisara shook her head, "N, no... wha... why would he just... why would he just give me something like this?"

Tea shrugged, "Probably wasn't even thinking about it. You said he was in a fight with Joey at the time right? Maybe he just didn't realize?"

"How could he not realize?!" Kisara questioned ademittly.

Again Tea shrugged, "You forget this is Seto Kaiba. He probably has like 50 of these things."

Kisara wasn't sure what part of her brain was more overwhelmed, the mathematical or the emotional side. He just gave it to her? Wasn't even thinking about it? No, he must have realized...

"You want to know how much it cost?" Tea asked.

"N, n, no!" Kisara exclaimed, standing up in full and bringing her hands to her cheeks.

Tea laughed, "Well good, because I was only going to read what the general price for what that kind of watch was. It's probably much higher."

Tea stood up and dropped her ice-cream cup into the trash along and dragged Kisara, still with her hands to her face, down the steps to the street below so they could walk back.

"Oh no, no, no this is... I don't even..." Kisara began to moan in worry.

"Oh, don't worry about it," Tea said, "Seriously, if you think it was a mistake, just return it to him the next time you see him."

"But," Kisara started, "What if he did mean to give it to me? Like for real?"

Tea looked at her friend, "Well... I guess we'll get a safe?"

"Get a sa- a what?" She asked.

"A safe, like a vault to keep valuable items," Tea explained.

"I can't keep this!" Kisara exclaimed, "It's way, way too much."

"Well, you could always sell it," Tea offered.

"No!" Kisara yelled back.

Tea looked back at her, "Well... it's either you return it, sell it, or keep it. And one of those is dependent on whether or not Kaiba allows you to return it."

"Why wouldn't he allow me to return it?" Kisara asked.

"Some guys just don't let girls return things to them, that's all," Tea said with a tilt of her head.

"Oh..." Kisara said, trailing off as they stopped at a crosswalk waiting for the light to turn green, "Has this ever happened to you before?"

"Hm?" Tea said, her head turning fully to Kisara.

"You know, has a guy ever given you something that he wouldn't take back?" Kisara repeated, "Like Yugi or someone?"

"Huh? Yugi? Why Yugi?" Tea seemed startled, much to Kisara's surprise.

"Well... you're close friends right?" She asked, "Has he ever given you anything that he wouldn't let you return?"

Tea's gaze directed itself to the ground in thought. He'd given her a lot of things. He gave her her very own Dark Magician Girl Card, adventures, inspiration, his friendship, his own light... She bit her lip.

"Um... I guess you could say that he has," Tea said slowly, "Nothing physically that expensive, but... what he has given me, I guess there really isn't any way to return them..."

Perceptively, Kisara let the subject drop with a simple acknowledgement of understanding. Gazing to her left, she saw an electronics store filled with TVs. Reports showed a giant boat, a torii, and "妙" (Myou), "法" (Hou), and "大" (Dai) characters, all a light in mountains with the caption reading "Gozan no Okuribi" at the bottom. She watched as a man interviewed another man, but no sound came out. As the wonderment of where the place was trickled into her mind, the light turned green and they crossed as the familiar beeping indicating safety sounded. The two girls gave one another a small bow as they bid their ados. As they turned to depart, Tea found herself looking over her shoulder as Kisara swept into Yugi's house to finish her lunch before likely busying herself with more work.

Plugging into her iPhone and letting "UVERworld" play, Tea walked through Chuo Koen on her way back to the train station, mulling over all of the news she and Kisara had discussed. Workers built up stands and electricity generators were being rolled into place, distracting her from her songs and train of thought. She sighed as the worry and fear that Yugi would overreact to Kisara spending time with Kaiba filled her mind. Was he really justified in his concern? Was there really any harm in it? Maybe... if Seto was unwilling to help later on down the road... And then the realization hit her. If they really were spending their lunches together, then it was possible that... Kisara and Seto were becoming friends.

Tea numbly scanned her Suica card as she got passed the barrier to the JR line to take her home. The train arrived on the platform within seconds. She waited for people to exit before getting on and finding a corner seat to slump down on. The familiar hiss of the doors sliding shut sounded, but her mind was lost to other notions and fears, such as those relating to her roommate's happiness. She really wanted everything to work out for Kisara. But... how that would happen... she just wasn't sure. What even was 'work out' defined as in Kisara's book? Would she even want to return to Ancient Egypt now that she'd been here and was making friends? She bit her lip in worry, hoping that Yugi would figure out what was going on soon before something irreversible would take place.

-YGO-

A/N: So the watch is based off of two real watches, one of which is indeed made by Jaeger LeCoultre, called the "Master Tourbillion". If you search up the name, the brand, and then add "White Gold" and "1563480", it should be one of the first hits you get. That one runs for about $90,000 USD. The other is sold by SuperGroupies, a seller of fashionable anime related attire and accessories. Just look under their YuGiOh! section and you'll find the watch (it's much more affordable too lol). Anyway, thank you again all for your patience! Let me know what you thought and until next time~~

Later,

~Rena