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Mai was gradually becoming aware of a soft tapping noise. She opened her eyes, only to shut them again quickly against the harsh glare of the neon light above her.

Oh, right, she thought, remembering what had happened, the lift.

Without opening her eyes she did a mental appraisal of her situation. Her arm was still throbbing although the pain had died down again - clearly the shock of seeing her injury had caused her to pass out. Or maybe she just hadn't realised just how much pain she was in until her eyes had shown her. Weird the way your mind works, she thought. She tried to move her arm but it seemed to be trapped. She was lying on the hard marble-effect floor of the lift but her head appeared to be cushioned by something.

The worst thing of course was the fact that she strongly suspected that she was still trapped in a small space with an obnoxious brat. She opened her eyes again, slower this time. Tilting her head to one side she caught sight of Kaiba. Still working at his damn techno stuff I see, she thought sneeringly. I'm surprised that he even bothered to look when I fainted, I expect he just went straight back to his wires. She looked at him, scowling. Something about him looked different and she couldn't quite make out what. His face was still set and determined, his blue eyes glittering as he tried to solve the problem at hand. The cut above his eye had stopped bleeding and was now covered by his rich brown hair. His stance, even involved in a task like this, appeared arrogant to Mai's eyes. His dark clothes hugged his slender frame and Mai could see his arm muscles twitching through his high-necked top. The shape of his legs were clear and defined through his tight trousers which seemed to cling to every curve from his calf muscles right up to his tight - Mai blushed involuntarily, averting her eyes back to the harsh neon light above her. Then she had a thought and she looked back over at him.

'Get too hot in here for you?' she asked. Mai was satisfied to see him jump slightly at her words but he didn't look around.

'What?' he asked, getting straight back to his work.

'I asked if you were too hot. I don't think I've ever seen you without that long white coat of yours.'

'Huh,' was Seto's curt reply.

'So, what'ya do with it anyway?' Mai persisted 'Don't tell me you've melted down all those rivets and are using them in some complex technological -'

Seto finally turned on her 'Not that I would expect anything else from you but just a tiny bit of gratitude wouldn't go amiss,' he snapped.

Mai was startled, okay so she was teasing him about the coat but she didn't think it was that serious, and what was all this about gratitude? Does he want me to thank him for tapping away at some console whilst I'm flat out on the floor probably bleeding to death?!

'What did I say?' she finally asked defensively.

Seto continued to look down at her, anger and irritation in his eyes. It faded slightly as he realised that Mai really hadn't meant to offend him.

'My coat,' he said and, by way of explanation, he gestured towards her.

Mai looked down to see that her arm had been bandaged up in strips of long white material. She sat up, astonished by the realisation. Looking behind her she saw that her head had been resting on a mound of white material; with rivets in.

'But you - you love that coat! At least, that is to say, you're always wearing it.' Mai said, startled. She looked over at him but he had already gone back to his hand held device.

'I'm quite fond of it, yes' Seto conceded 'but your need seemed greater and anyway, when you started to faint I managed to break you fall and you got your damn blood all over me. And I don't care what those adverts say, dried in blood is a bugger to get out of a white coat.' He paused then turned to Mai with a small smile on his lips.

Mai was so shocked that she could only gape at him. She looked down at her bandaged arm again. No wonder she couldn't move it, it was strapped up really tightly; it looked professional.

'But I thought you - ' she began, but trailed off, embarrassed by her own unkind thoughts.

'What? You thought I would let you fall and bleed to death in my own lift?' Seto let his hands drop slightly and raised his eyes to the ceiling. He shook his head softly 'Nice impression you have of me.' He said coldly and went back to work.

Mai scowled to herself. She felt stupid, mean and, most of all, helpless in this situation. Kaiba made her feel small and weak and, even though she realised she was seeing a new and surprising side to him, she resented him all the same.

She winced as she got herself to her feet. She noticed that the floor beneath her had been cleared so that she hadn't been lying on broken glass and splinters of wood and again she frowned as she realised that she had even more reason to be grateful to the conceited brat. She looked across at him. He had found a small keyboard from somewhere and was tapping away at it rapidly with one hand whilst the other hand held it steady and cradled the tangle of wires that had been crudely attached to the back of it.

Mai desperately wanted to know what he was up to but didn't want to ask unless she was told that she wouldn't understand or something equally condescending.

Mai was used to people assuming she was stupid. It irked her massively but for some reason, the sight of a big-chested blond woman in skimpy clothes led people to jump to immediate conclusions. Mai was anything but stupid. She had left school as soon as she was able, bored and frustrated by the small minded people she met there. On the back of her looks she easily got jobs working in bars and casinos where she charmed and conned the customers in equal measures. She took pride in learning everything she needed to know in any given situation, teaching herself to play Duel Monsters when she realised there was money to be made from it. She was fiercely independent and even the likes of Joey, Serenity, Yugi and the others didn't know where she lived or what job she was doing at any given time. She had considered it a big step to even give Serenity her mobile number.

Yes, Mai Valentine wasn't big into making friends and sharing her private life. However, she was quickly realising that she was even more uncomfortable being forced to share a small space with and almost-stranger and having nothing to do. Whilst Kaiba seemed content to tap away at his device, Mai was starting to find the awkward silence... well, awkward.

'How long was I out for?' Mai asked finally to relieve the tension.

Seto frowned briefly. 'About ten minutes, give or take' he said curtly.

Mai looked at her reflection in the broken mirror, studying the bandaging. 'Ten minutes?' she said dubiously.

'Give or take,' Seto repeated. He looked at her, 'you seem surprised.' He raised a questioning eyebrow at her.

'No, well, yes I suppose so,' she looked again at her arm. 'It's just that this -' she indicated her bandages with her good hand, 'this looks like it must have taken a while and that's after ripping up your coat to make the bandages in the first place and then you cleared the floor, and made a pillow, all in ten minutes?' she looked at him sceptically.

'No, I cleared the floor, ripped up my coat, made bandages and then patched you up in about five minutes,' Seto replied in a smug voice that made Mai's eyes narrow, 'I've been using the rest of the time to try and tap into the mainframe computers of the building in an effort to get help for us both.' He looked at her with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. 'Is that okay with you?'

Mai looked hard at him for a few moments. 'I've told you you're a jerk, right?' she finally said.

Seto smiled and turned away.

He was aware of Mai's eyes boring into the back of his head but chose to ignore her. Tapping into the mainframe was proving to be more difficult than he had expected and he was beginning to realise that the communications wiring that he had assumed would connect the lift to the outside world simply wasn't here. It made no sense to him that there wouldn't be a way to speak to someone in such a situation as this. Hell, even if there hadn't been an explosion, even if something simple had happened, like the lift getting stuck between floors, he would expect to be able to tell someone about it. That was basic stuff wasn't it? But no matter which wires he connected to his handheld device, he couldn't get the information he needed. Whilst he was careful to appear cool and aloof now Mai was awake, in truth he was getting frustrated and angry.

He regretted having told Mai what he was trying to do now. If he'd kept it quiet he might have been able to give up without losing face, telling her that he'd accomplished what he had wanted to do. Now though... He looked hard at the mass of wires, I must have missed something, he thought but if he had he couldn't see what. He became aware of Mai, now pacing the small room behind him.

He quite liked Mai really. Well, comparatively speaking. Of Yugi's entire band of irritating friends, Mai had always seemed to be the most level headed of them. She had never tried to lecture him about how he should be Yugi's 'friend' and generally left him alone. He also liked the way she was genuinely good at Duel Monsters, unlike the rest of the cheerleading squad who barely knew how to hold a card between them. When she had fainted Seto had instinctively rushed to catch her. He hadn't been lying when he had told her that he had found himself covered in her blood. She had been bleeding profusely and he had been amazed that the wound had gone unnoticed this long. He put it down to adrenaline but even so, he knew that most people would have suffered the effects of such a wound long before it had seriously affected Mai.

Holding her with one arm Seto had swept the glass and wood splinters out from beneath her and had laid her gently down on the floor. He had used a piece of the glass to tear his coat and had set about bandaging her up. Only once he had finished the dressing did he stop to really look at her.

Her face had still been pale but her features had softened until she looked like she was simply sleeping. He had brushed a lock of her blonde hair to one side and sat back on his haunches studying her. She was pretty, there was no denying it. Seto realised that he had never really looked at her properly before. Sure he had seen her lots of times but the way she dressed and acted, whilst on the surface designed to draw attention to her looks, actually meant that Seto had never really looked beyond the superficial; had never really seen more than her skimpy skirts and bulging cleavage. He didn't know it but this was exactly what Mai intended.

It had been an after-thought that had led Seto to gently lift Mai's head and place the remains of his beloved coat gently beneath it, noticing with surprise a gentle aroma of Jasmine emanating from her mass of golden hair as it fell onto his makeshift pillow.

Now she was awake again Mai was proving to be an unwelcome distraction. He heard her stop her pacing and tensed himself for another of her attempts at conversation.

'Kaiba?'

Seto chose to ignore her thinking that she had definitely been better company unconscious,

'Kaiba?' her voice was more insistent this time.

'What?' he snapped wondering why she kept insisting on trying to talk to him. It's not as if he had been particularly chatty with her up to this point. Why couldn't she take the hint?

'Well, I was just thinking -' she started.

Seto clicked his tongue impatiently, was this going to be another of her - let's try the doors - ideas? Obvious and a waste of time?

Hearing the tongue click Mai lost patience 'Uhh!' she exclaimed, disgusted 'God you're just - uhh!' she stamped her foot and turned away towards the mirror muttering audibly 'jerk, jerk, jerk!'.

Seto smiled to himself, he loved to get under people's skin like this. He tried to regain his concentration but found it shattered again by the sound of glass breaking. He turned around, glaring. What now?

Mai stood at the back of the lift where the remains of the mirror had been. She had taken a twisted piece of metal and had used it to smash away the last pieces of glass and now stood with a shower of reflective mirror pieces around her feet. She gave Seto a fierce look.

'I just wanted to say' she said in voice so sharp Seto actually flinched slightly, 'that I thought I saw a camera light behind this mirror and that maybe, if you're looking for a way to contact someone who might be able to help us, this could be the set of wires and cables you're looking for.'

Seto stared in amazement. Mai, stood before him in a stance and expression that looked for all the world like she would happily come at him with the metal pole should he choose to say the wrong thing. Even her bandaged arm didn't distract from her look of absolute ferocity.

Seto worked at keeping his face neutral in spite of the range of emotions he was feeling. First he was naturally a bit shocked at being in a confined space with this violent looking woman, second he was pleased to see that she had solved his communications problem although this led onto his third emotion which was annoyance that she had found the solution and not him. The final emotion Seto felt was the most startling and unexpected. Looking at Mai, her face red with anger her expression one of hatred, he caught himself admiring her strength and defiance. Owning a powerful company like he did, Seto rarely come across anyone so willing to say exactly what they thought of him, and certainly not in such an up front way! It was refreshing, if a little alarming.

'Yes, this does look promising,' he conceded coolly.

Giving Mai the thinnest of smiles he pushed past her, disturbingly aware of the heat coming from her body, the rise and fall of her chest as she worked to regain her composure and that faint smell of jasmine again.

He looked at the camera; of course, it made sense that they would have installed hidden cameras in these lifts. A lot of business people came to this building. Most of them were legitimate but there were also some unsavoury types who were well worth keeping an eye on. The fact that the small red light was still on indicated that someone could know he was here, was maybe watching him on some small security screen right now. Despite the level of hope that the thought instilled in him he still felt slightly uncomfortable about it.

Seto caught hold of the small wire that provided the feed from the camera and then followed it down eventually pulling up exactly what he had been looking for - a small intercom speaker. The speaker itself had been broken, a large crack in it showed that the insides were in a bit of a mess but Kaiba considered that it shouldn't be too much of a job to get something fixed up to it.

'Mai, fetch me my handheld computer,' Kaiba commanded kneeling down by the contraption and already intently sorting through the wires. He heard silence behind him and turned his head, wondering why Mai wasn't doing as he had asked.

She looked at him; stony faced her good hand on her hip. She raised an eyebrow pointedly.

What? Seto thought, what does she want now? He looked at her as she began to tap her foot. Does she want me to... of for heaven's sake!

'Please,' he added, and scowled to himself as she gave him a cheerless smile and walked across to get his computer.

Returning to him a moment later having unceremoniously yanked out all the connecting wired with a force that made Seto wince, Mai smiled sweetly as she held the device out to him He reached for it but found it snatched out of his grasp at the last moment. Mai raised her eyebrow again, clearly enjoying herself.

Seto gave her his hardest look. 'Thank you,' he said through gritted teeth and Mai handed over his property with a smirk and turned away, propping herself up against the opposite wall and staring at him.

A cold silence fell on the room again as Kaiba began work once more.