Aria slowly opened her eyes to a soft sunlight streaming through her bedroom window. The fogginess of a dream laid at the fringes of her mind. As she tried to grasp at the lingering tendrils, she found that they kept escaping through her fingers. Giving up, Aria turned over onto her side and looked at her alarm clock. It read 6:50. She had woken up 10 minutes before her alarm was set to wake her and signal that it was time to get up to get ready for school.

Heaving a sigh, Aria sat up and stretched her arms. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she stepped lightly down onto the carpeted floor and headed for her private bathroom. Once showered and dressed, she decided to check her emails on her computer before heading down for breakfast. When nothing new popped up, Aria pushed away from her desk and looked again at her bedside clock.

7:10. She moaned when she saw that she still had almost an hour before school started. Aria couldn't remember feeling this restless before. Ever since she started her internship, her world has been topsy turvy. She allocated the blame on having to balance work and school life, making her too busy.

Or it could be a certain CEO, came a whispering thought. Aria covered her eyes with both hands, not wanting to go down that road again. What was it about him that kept making her think about him? It's true that she had never met a man like him. For acting so cold, Aria could definitely feel the passion that simmered below the surface. The passion that fueled his company. But was that all he cared about?

Mokuba's face came to her mind. She couldn't believe how the sweetest kid could be related to Kaiba. They seemed to her to be complete opposites. She could tell though that they were close. She smiled at remembering Mokuba's ribbing, making Kaiba flustered. She doubted many people could do that and get away with it. Her face suddenly warmed when she realized that she was one of those people. That Kaiba actually seemed to enjoy their back and forth repartee.

Giving her head a physical shake, Aria forced herself to think realistically. But what was she even daydreaming about in the first place? She refused to answer that question.

Seeing that the clock now read 7:30, Aria could finally go downstairs, make herself a quick breakfast, and be at the school before the 8 a.m. class started.

Fortitude setting in, Aria stood and made her way downstairs. I'm not going to let a stepfather get in my way Aria said to herself. And that goes for handsome CEO's as well. She inwardly cringed at the slipup of thinking Kaiba was handsome.

Arriving at school with five minutes to spare, Aria hastily stopped at her locker before rushing off down the hall to her first class. Although it was hard to pick out someone among the throng of students since everyone wore the same uniform, Aria couldn't help but briefly glance to see if she could spot any tall brunettes sticking out in the crowd.

Her first class sped by as did her second. Since school would be out next week, most teachers were going over review for their final exams. Aria had thought about asking for next week off from work, so she could focus on studying, but she worried it would hinder her chances of making it on Kaiba's special team. It'll just mean some late nights and long weekends of being locked away in her room.

Entering into the cafeteria for lunch, Aria grabbed a tray and joined the lineup of students buying their food. Just as she reached the buffet table, an arm was slung around her shoulders.

"Hey Ari, you don't mind if I cut in here do ya?"

Aria rolled her eyes at Joey's boyishness but smiled at his sweetness. "I don't mind. As long as you get a written note from each person behind me saying that they are okay with you butting in line."

"If you're okay with it, I'm sure they are," he said as he started piling as much food as he could onto his tray.

Aria shook her head, a smile still on her face. She found Joey too adorable to be mad at.

"Besides," Joey continued, "no one would dare confront a hottie like you".

He said this with a friendly wink and Aria couldn't help but laugh at his outlandishness. It was one reason why Aria loved being a part of the gang. They treated her like a friend and weren't constantly trying to get her to go out with them. When she first entered high school, she was startled at the forwardness of some of the boys. Apparently, she had "filled out" over the summer, bringing along a lot of unwanted attention.

When Yugi invited Aria to join them for lunch for the first time, Aria was hesitant. There were three boys and only one other girl. But she soon discovered the boys were all clownish more than anything else. And Téa immediately accepted her into their folds, happy to finally have another girlfriend.

Once they paid for their food, Joey and Aria walked together to their usual table where Yugi, Tristan and Téa were already sitting. Aria sat beside Téa at the end, while Joey sat across from her.

"You guys ready for exams next week?" Yugi asked everyone.

"I'm ready for school to be done," answered Tristan.

"But that means we won't be seeing each other as often," Tea said sadly. "Especially with all of us going off to college in the fall."

"Did you receive your acceptance letter yet, Aria?" Yugi asked.

"Sure did!" she answered enthusiastically. "My scholarship application is just waiting on my reference and I should hear by the end of the summer."

Everyone congratulated her and continued talking about their own college acceptances. Thinking of her reference made Aria look around the cafetorium, to see if she could find Kaiba. She found him a few tables over, sitting by himself with just a book and a cup of tea in front of him. His head was down as if he was reading, but Aria could detect a slight grimace on his face. She frowned wondering what was bothering him.

"Hey, Ari!"

She snapped her attention back to the table. "Sorry, what did you say?"

Joey gave her a quizzical look and glanced over to where she had been staring a moment ago. "I was asking who was going to be your reference, but I think I found my answer." He thrust a thumb over in Kaiba's direction.

Aria tried to hide her interest in Kaiba by acting indifferently. Shrugging one shoulder she said, "I probably have a much better chance with him then with my supervisor."

Joey snorted. "Yeah right. I don't think I've heard one positive thing come out of the guy's mouth once. Too busy singing his own praises."

A defense rose to Aria's lips, but the bell rang before she could utter it. As everyone started to clean up their trays, Aria realized how close she had come to publicly defending Kaiba. What was happening to her?

As Aria also rose, she snuck one more quick peek over to Kaiba's table, but it was already empty, his cup of tea the only thing left on top.

"See you guys in history!" Téa yelled back as she headed off to her own class.

Aria grimaced at the thought of having to see Kaiba there. She was being affected by him too much lately.

But Aria's unease was unfounded as Kaiba was absent throughout all of history. She found it strange as he was obviously at school earlier. She shrugged it off thinking that he probably got called in for a company emergency.

Happy when the school day was finally over. Aria hurriedly headed out to catch her bus, excited to continue her work at Kaiba Corp. Kaiba had already sent down some feedback and she was eager to implement it into her work.

Arriving at the office building, Aria ran into the women's washroom and changed into her "work" attire and continued on to the lab.

As per usual, Langley didn't acknowledge her presence when she walked through the doorway. Feeling unperturbed by this, Aria simply went to her station and got down to business. However, soon time got away from her and when she looked at the clock next, she saw it was past seven o'clock!

Quickly saving her work and shutting down, Aria immediately left to head down to the lobby. She had a ton of studying to do and had not planned on staying so late.

Upon exiting the elevators, Aria tried to walk speedily without breaking into a run. She wanted to at least appear dignified. Approaching the revolving doors, Aria willed them to turn faster, walking as close as she could to the glass. But in her haste, she tried to squeeze through the opening prematurely and ended up catching her feet and went sprawling on the other side.

Ow...she thought sheepishly. She slowly stood and started brushing herself off, noticing thankfully that there were no scrapes or bleeding.

Just as Aria caught her breath, a force rammed into the back of her, sending her sprawling again.

+++

Kaiba opened his eyes. After blinking a few times, they began to adjust to the darkness of his bedroom. He didn't need to look over at his clock to know that it was 5 a.m. But for once he wasn't in a rush to jump out of bed and hurry on over to Kaiba Corp for his morning meetings. Instead he rested one hand behind his head and tried to remember the dream he had been having. A flash of pushing back a black lock of hair invaded his mind.

He growled in frustration. Who cares about dreams anyway? he thought grumpily.

Pushing himself out of bed, Kaiba went over to his attached bathroom to get ready for the day. After showering, he went and stood in front of the mirror, buttoning up his school uniform. He scowled at his reflection, impatient to be done with exams so he could finally get rid of this attire. It barely had the decency to be called clothes.

Walking downstairs, Kaiba walked right by the kitchen, opting to grab a cup of tea at work instead. When he exited out the front doors of the Kaiba mansion, the sun was just starting its ascent, the glow of dawn barely kissing the horizon. The limo was idling down at the end of the walkway as usual.

Once at work, Kaiba tried to focus on the meeting taking place with his executive directors but found that his mind was not engaged. Instead the wisp of a dream kept coming to the forefront, hindering his attention.

When the room suddenly went quiet, Kaiba refocused onto the board room table and saw everyone looking back, awaiting his response. Kaiba couldn't remember what they had been talking about, and hoped that they were just waiting for him to adjourn the meeting.

"Thank you, gentlemen. That will be all."

When they nodded in response and began to rise from their chairs, Kaiba almost let out a breath of relief at having guessed right. But he made sure he kept his face impassive as he watched them return to their prospective offices.

After everyone had vacated the room, Kaiba looked at his watch and saw that it was almost time to head over to the school. He knew he could probably skip these last classes of review and still ace his exams, but he found himself unable to stay away.

Getting up to leave before thoughts of how foolish he was being could change his mind, Kaiba went straight to the elevators to descend down to where his ride would be waiting to take him to his next destination.

Soon enough, Kaiba was strutting down the halls of the school, putting on an air of condescension. But his eyes were constantly flickering over the crowd, hoping to catch a glimpse of thick raven hair. He finally spotted her, hurrying over to her locker, thrusting it open impatiently and then heading off in the opposite direction.

Kaiba tried to compress the feeling of disappointment that she hadn't noticed him, dejected by the thought that she probably wasn't searching for him anyway. Continuing on to his first class, Kaiba prayed the day would pass quickly. How he wished that history wasn't his last class of the day.

After two very long and boring classes, lunchtime had arrived. The cafetorium was about half full by the time Kaiba entered. He glanced over at the "dweeb" table and noticed that only Yugi and two other of the nerd groupies were sitting. Aria and Wheeler were nowhere in sight.

Kaiba strolled over to the beverage table to get his customary cup of earl grey. While he steeped his tea, he debated about whether to head over to the food bar to grab a scone to accompany it. Just as he turned around to go in that direction, he froze.

Kaiba stood and stared as he witnessed Wheeler saunter up to Aria and haphazardly throw his arm around her shoulders. Although she rolled her eyes, she didn't move away from him and instead smiled up at him. If Kaiba had gripped his mug any harder, it probably would have shattered in his hand.

Kaiba didn't know what was more appalling. That Wheeler, a second-rate duelist, could be so brazen with a looker like Aria, or the fact that she didn't rebuff his overtures! He couldn't remember them ever acting as an item before. He searched through his memories of them in class and outside of school together but came up empty.

Accepting, albeit doubtfully, that they must just be good friends, Kaiba moved to turn away. At the last second, he spied Wheeler saying something to Aria with an audacious wink and then watched as she threw her head back and laughed.

His scone forgotten, Kaiba sharply turned around and stomped his way over to a solitary table. Dropping down onto the bench, he smacked the book he brought with him down on the table and tried to lose himself within its pages, trying to forget what he just observed. But he couldn't dispel from his mind the sound of Aria's musical laughter. If a loser like Joey Wheeler could bring that out of her, then certainly he could do the same.

Kaiba gritted his teeth in reminder that he wasn't supposed to be meditating on what Aria found humorous. She was an employee, nothing more. Then why are you jealous? A voice in the back of his mind muttered. This caused Kaiba to frown further. As if trying to disprove the statement, he looked over at their table and regarded Wheeler with his thumb thrusted towards him while Aria responded with an indifferent shrug.

By that point Kaiba had had enough. Nimbly rising to his feet, his tea left untouched, Kaiba sped towards the front doors of the school, deciding that he didn't need to attend his last two classes after all. He had a multibillion-dollar company to run and couldn't afford to waste anymore of his time at this hovel of an establishment. Couldn't afford to waste any more time thinking about her.

Rushing out the doors into the afternoon sun, Kaiba abruptly stopped when he noticed that his limo wasn't outside waiting for him. He sighed in annoyance when he realized that it wasn't scheduled to pick him up until the end of school. He could call his driver to come get him now, but that could mean a 20 minute wait, and Kaiba needed to get away from here, now.

Walking down the steps and onto the sidewalk, Kaiba elected to instead travel on foot back to work. The 45 minute trek would be good for clearing his head.

After about ten minutes, Kaiba's body had visibly relaxed and the anger that had fueled his jealousy was ebbing away to a low simmer. Kaiba hadn't realized how much he missed being outside, soaking up the sun's rays. He must look dreadfully pale from being cooped up in an office for so many hours of the day. He couldn't regret it though. Kaiba Corp stocks have soared exponentially since Battle City, and the revenue from the duel disks was phenomenal. But like any new technology, it only had a limited lifetime until it became outdated. And it was Kaiba's life ambition to keep Kaiba Corp as the top competitor in its field. He would rather die before letting another company have that title.

Lost in his thoughts, the 45 minute hike felt like it went by in minutes. Approaching the base of the Kaiba Corp building, Kaiba stopped and looked up, taking it all in. In just four short years, he had totally restructured the Kaiba Corp foundation. Switching over from building military weapons to making Duel Monster technology, the company now made more money than it ever did under the guidance of his stepfather.

A deep sense of pride filled Kaiba as he stared at the fruition of his accomplishment. Holding his head high, he strode into the lobby, feeling the power he held reverberate through him. He felt confident of where he stood and wasn't going to let one moment of jealousy shake that again.

Once in his office, Kaiba immediately sat down at his desk and started to work with a fervor that he hadn't felt in a long time. Soon he was lost within programs and software mechanisms. When his office door opened without a knock, Kaiba knew immediately who had walked in.

Wondering why Mokuba had arrived so early, Kaiba glanced at his clock and was surprised to see it was 7 p.m. He hadn't even noticed that the natural light in his office had significantly dimmed.

Kaiba stopped typing and eyed his brother. Mokuba seemed his usual cheerful self. Perhaps a little too cheerful. A bounce in his step as he came up to Kaiba's desk, Kaiba inwardly groaned, knowing that Mokuba was probably going to request something from him. He never did have a good poker face. It was one Kaiba trait he had yet to acquire.

"What is it Mokuba?" Kaiba asked, cutting to the chase.

Mokuba shrugged nonchalantly, but Kaiba saw through it for what it was.

"Well actually, now that you ask," Mokuba began. "I was wondering if you wanted to go out tonight. Do something fun."

Kaiba almost snorted at the word "fun". He couldn't remember going out and doing something he actually enjoyed. Not related to work of course. But didn't he say he was going to try harder in spending more time with Mokuba? The last outing they did was pizza at Bartini's and that was weeks ago.

Looking over at his computer, Kaiba contemplated Mokuba's request. Since he had come back early from school, and worked productively for quite a few hours, he was actually ahead in his planning. Although he never said the words to Mokuba, Kaiba loved his brother very much, and actually wanted to choose him over his company for once.

"Alright Mokuba, let's go."

Mokuba's eyes widened in surprise, obviously not expecting his older brother to yield so easily. "Really? Just like that? I don't have to beg first?"

"Am I not allowed to actually want to take my little brother out somewhere?"

Mokuba crossed his arms and glared at Kaiba. "Okay, who are you and what did you do with my big brother?"

Kaiba responded with a stony look. "Are we going out or not?"

Mokuba put his hands up in mock surrender. "Fine, fine, I'm not complaining."

Exiting the office together, Mokuba and Kaiba rode the elevator down and started to walk across the vast lobby to the revolving doors.

"So, I was thinking we could do something like mini putt , just like old times," Mokuba said as they entered the revolving doors.

Walking through, Kaiba looked down at his brother skeptically. "Mini putt? You can't be seri-oof!" He felt his body collide with another just as he was leaving the entrance. Before he could fathom what had just transpired, he watched as a head of black hair went flying towards the ground.