FicWad

Seto had expected to find himself dealt with a hand for poker and was bemused to find five piles of cards laid out in front of him.

'It's been a while since I last played but this seems like a strange layout,' he commented.

'Oh, we're not playing Poker now,' Mai explained, 'it's not great with only two people and anyway, I don't have much cash on me so the betting would be a bit difficult. Of course,' she continued with a playful smile, 'we could wager other things but I've already taken your coat and I wouldn't want you to catch a cold.'

Seto laughed. 'I wouldn't worry about that,' he said, 'if you've not caught a cold from the lack of clothes you're wearing today I should be just fine.'

Mai glanced down at her low cut top and tiny shorts. 'Why Mr Kaiba, I'm sure I don't know what you mean,' she said in a mock offended voice.

'So what is all this then?' Seto asked changing the subject and indicating the piles of cards in front of him.

'Ah, now, this is a game called Speed, one of my colleagues at the club I work at taught it to me a few weeks ago. It's a two player and, lucky for you, doesn't require much more than quick reflexes and a bit of luck.'

''Lucky for me'?' Seto repeated, his eyebrows rising.

Mai gave him a wink and went on to explain the rules of the game which appeared to involve taking cards from the pile in front of him and getting them onto one of the two piles that were placed between them by going up or down on the numbered cards that were shown face up. The object was to get rid of all of your cards and 'win' the smaller of the two central piles which would then be your deck for the next round. Seto recognised elements of strategy that could be incorporated into the latter stages of the game but, in general, as Mai had said, it was mostly down to fast reactions.

'We'll play a practise round if you like,' Mai offered but Seto shook his head.

'I've got it,' he said confidently.

Mai studied him for a moment wondering if he was being arrogant; it had taken her a few goes to understand all the rules that were involved. But when he looked up at her to see what the delay was all she saw was the expression of someone who was looking forward to a new challenge.

She nodded, 'All right then, let's do this.' She said and re-laid the cards.

The first two games unsurprisingly went Mai's way. Seto was impressed by her quick movements and keen eye. Despite having one arm in bandages she still managed to outplay Seto easily and he found himself concentrating harder on winning.

The third game was closely fought with the lead changing nearly every round. In the end both players were down to one card in their hand and Mai just managed to win by having the card she needed come up first.

'Right,' she said with determination, shifting her position so that she was face onto Seto, her legs crossed in front of her, 'I can see it's time to take off the kid gloves and start playing properly.'

'Ha! Don't tell me you've been going easy on me?' Seto laughed.

'Well I didn't want for you to get despondent by whipping your arse too comprehensively early on,' she said calmly, a small twitch at the side of her mouth the only give away that she was teasing him again. 'After all, I wouldn't want you to be a sore loser and order the destruction of the whole building or anything drastic like that.' Mai looked at Seto closely for his reaction. She had an uneasy feeling that she was pushing it a bit too far this time but ever since she had seen the destruction of the Battle City duellist tower at the end of the competition she had wanted to know what had driven him to do it. She wasn't the only one, media speculation had run riot following the event with newspaper headlines all questioning why he had done it - was it really, as one paper harshly implied, a case of 'Cry Baby Kaiba' throwing his toys out of the pram?

Seto scowled at her, he had got used to the gossip that surrounded the incident and had made it a specification for any interview not to bring up the subject of the Battle City Tournament or Yugi Moto. Despite this however the event was still frequently referred to, even in articles that bore no relation to what had happened that day.

'There was more to it than that,' he said coldly, irritated that the good humour of the last hour had been broken.

'Yeah, I figured,' she said sympathetically mentally kicking herself for having brought it up. We were getting on so well, she thought to herself, why do I always have to open my big mouth? There was a long pause. 'Wanna talk about it?' she asked kindly.

Talk about it? He thought bitterly, why does everyone always want to talk about it? Following the whole affair Seto had returned to his offices only to have the board of directors 'strongly suggest' that he see a psychiatrist. He had gone ballistic at the idea actually causing his long standing secretary, who had been given the onerous task of passing on the suggestion, to run from the room in terror. Eventually he had acquiesced to the idea but only for the sake of business. He was shrewd enough to know that he needed the full backing of his board members to push through all of his ideas and proving he was mentally stable would put a stop to any possible boardroom challenges. He tended to use the weekly sessions with Dr Felicity Wilkins as an opportunity for a power nap.

There had only been one occasion where she had proved semi-useful and that had only been to reduce the complex series of emotions that had led to his destruction of the duelling tower into one handy sentence. Seto remembered it simply because Dr Wilkins usually did the opposite by turning simple issues into reams of philosophical speculation and the type of verbal diarrhoea that immediately made his eyelids droop.

'There's nothing to talk about,' Seto finally answered Mai's question, 'it was simply a case of...' he looked up trying to remember the exact phrasing the doctor had used, 'me emotionally projecting my negative childhood experiences onto the tower which I saw as the physical manifestation of my adoptive father.' He fixed Mai with a long stare.

Mai met his stare in open-mouthed wonder.

'Oh,' she said finally, 'oh, well, that's all right then.'

Seto continued to stare at her for a few more seconds and then he began to feel his mouth twitch. He eventually had to look away, finding Mai's look of complete incomprehension too much to bear. He looked up at the ceiling and allowed himself to break into grin.

'That's it?' he asked incredulously. 'Do you know how much my psychiatrist would have loved to have heard me say that?'

Mai grinned as well, glad that the tension had passed, 'well, I can always pretend to understand what you just said and we can explore the whole matter some more if you'd like,' she offered innocently.

'No,' Seto said hastily, 'no thank you. Maybe we should just get back to that ludicrous claim you were making about you 'going easy on me' and put it to the test.'

Brushing aside a few pieces of broken glass he shifted his position so that he was mirroring hers, his long legs folded before him. He fixed Mai with a hard stare and then twitched his eyebrow, 'Bring it on,' he growled.

*
Seto had been surprised to find that Mai was able to step up a level with her playing ability giving credence to the idea that she had indeed been going easy on him.

'I'm not in the habit of making idle boasts,' she had explained simply, 'when I say I'm good at something I mean it.'

Seto had revelled at the challenge and had upped his own game to match hers so that they were playing fairly evenly once more.

Somehow, at some point in the last hour, the idea of wagers had re-emerged, although Seto couldn't quite remember who had first suggested it. They had agreed to steer away from money as their concepts, even of pretend monetary bets, differed so massively with Seto happily betting a thousand dollars to Mai's fifty. Instead they bet personal possessions which they each agreed they could place their own values onto.

So far Mai had won two yachts, a jet plane, a holiday home in Bermuda, several works of art and Seto's favourite car. Seto, in return, had managed to pick up a cute black handbag that looked like Louis Vuitton even though she'd brought it from a guy on the corner of Central Park; a pair of 'really sparkly' earrings; numerous clothes and finally a gorgeous pair of sling-back shoes that apparently 'went with' everything in Mai's wardrobe.

'I'm still not convinced that I'm getting a good deal here,' he commented caustically.

'Rubbish, the stuff you're getting is far more important in my life than your stuff is. I mean, when was the last time you went on either one of your yachts?'

Seto gave it some thought.

'And yet,' Mai continued, 'I wear those sling-backs all the time. Therefore, they're much more valuable.'

'Okay then,' he conceded, 'what's next then? I can put up a year-old Mercedes - black, hardly used.'

'Hmm, I'm not sure I need another car - especially if I already have your favourite one,' Mai said thoughtfully.

'What, and I'm really in need of a tiny, black mini skirt that makes your bum look pert?!' Seto asked incredulously. 'I'm sorry, I didn't realise we could turn down each other's wager choice.'

Mai laughed, 'okay Kaiba, you may have a point but I'm nearly outta stuff so perhaps we could alter the stakes a little,' she looked at him shrewdly. 'How about I win the next game and you tell me where you learned how to bandage people up so well and so quickly.'

'Are you still going on about that?'

'I'm curious,' she shrugged. 'Plus, as an added bonus you could apologise for being such a jerk about it when I asked earlier.'

'I'm sorry,' Seto said in a mock official voice, 'only one jerk apology is admissible in any stuck-in-lift situation and I believe, Miss Valentine that you already got that earlier.'

Mai sighed in disappointment. 'How could I have forgotten that rule?' she asked smiling. 'But the other bet is still on - you'll tell me where you learned the first aid?'

'If you win,' Seto conceded, 'however, if, as is much more likely, I win then you... start calling me Seto.'

Mai looked up in surprise. 'But,' she began, confused, 'everyone calls you 'Kaiba'.'

'I know they do.'

'I didn't think you liked people calling you 'Seto'?'

'No one has ever asked,' he said smiling gently at her perplexed expression. 'My staff obviously call me 'Mr Kaiba' and that's as it should be but it does get grating when people my own age do the same. It's been going on since school, even my teachers called me 'Kaiba'. I just find it odd that anyone would think I would enjoy being called by the name of my adoptive father.'

'Well, why didn't you ask people to stop it?'

'It didn't really seem worth it. Mokuba always calls me Seto which is the main thing. Other than that... I was never really close enough to anyone for me to feel it was worth bringing it up in conversation, and as for the teachers, well, let's just say that I was never a teacher's pet and, had some of them known that the name thing bothered me, they would have used it more often just to wind me up.'

Mai nodded, 'I had teachers like that.'

'So, is that a fair bet?'

'Sure,' she nodded decisively, 'let's play.'