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Half an hour later and the two were still playing. Seto had won the right to have Mai call him by his first name and then had gone on to win the right for her to stop harping on about the bandages. After that though he had lost a game and had to admit that yes, he had once, very briefly, thought about hiring a hit man to dispose of Yugi once and for all.

'Hit men are prohibitively expensive though,' he had added, sardonically, and Mai had dissolved into a fit of giggles. Seto had watched her fondly and had been surprised at how good it felt to make her laugh.

The pair were each battling in their latest game for the right to hear the other's 'worst date' story. Seto, on a losing streak, was mulling over which story he should choose when Mai gave a sudden jolt.

'Ouch,' she said a scowl of pain crossing her face, 'ouch, ouch OUCH! God damn it!'

She began struggling to stand and Seto leapt to his feet, moving quickly to aid her.

'What is it?' he asked anxiously, 'what's wrong? Is it your arm?'

'No,' Mai hissed beginning to hop about on one foot, 'no, it's my leg - I've got cramp.'

Seto smiled, relieved.

'I don't know what you're smiling at!' Mai snapped, 'it's all your bloody fault. You with your goddamn lifts, and your goddamn assassins. OUCH!' she cast him a scathing glance. 'Would it have killed you to put in a softer floor?!'

Seto backed up a bit confused by the sudden change in mood.

Mai glanced at him again expecting a rebuke for the comments which she knew were unfair and uncalled for. She was surprised to see, not anger as she had expected, but only a soft look of concern on his face. She gave him the smallest of smiles as an apology before she rested herself against the wall and began twisting her foot in circles, wincing as she did so.

'Need a hand?' Seto asked cautiously.

'No,' she said softly smiling at him again. 'The pain's already going down. Sorry, by the way. I'm... I'm not very good with pain.'

'No shit!' Seto said laughing. 'I thought for a second that you had one of those inner dark sides like Bakura or that Marik kid. One second you're all sweet and playful and the next you're like the bitch from hell!'

'It really hurt,' Mai whined, pouting.

'Come here,' he said moving over to where she was standing. 'Lie on the floor and give me your leg,' he instructed clearing more debris to give her space.

She did as she was told, lowering herself down slowly with her one good arm. He took her leg, prised off her shoe and began massaging the calf muscle.

'More first aid?' she asked playfully.

'This is basic stuff.'

'Not like the bandages...'

'Look,' Seto said sternly holding her leg with one hand and waving a stern finger at her with the other, 'I won the right for you to stop bugging me about that.'

'You're right... I'm sorry.'

There was a pause and Seto was aware that she was still looking at him, waiting for an answer.

'Look, it's nothing really and now you've blown it out of all proportion and made the whole thing sound much more interesting and mysterious than it really is.'

Mai continued to look at him with a small smile and a look of innocent inquiry on her face.

Seto sighed. 'Okay, but don't blame me if you're disappointed by how dull this story is.'

Mai grinned, 'Go on,' she said eagerly.

'When I was seven I joined the Boy Scouts and they taught me first aid.' There was a long pause, 'and that's it.' Seto concluded, shrugging.

'Wow, that really was dull,' Mai said smiling at him, 'although,' she added, 'it's nice to think of you in a Scout's uniform.' She let her head drop to the floor and made a dreamy face. 'Mmmm.'

'Good grief, even my seven-year-old self isn't safe from you!' he teased.

Mai gasped and sat up, grabbing at him playfully she dragged him down so that he was lying on the floor next to her.

'Is your leg better?' he asked propped up on one elbow and looking down at her.

'Much better thank you Seto,' she said politely. 'Although, my arse has completely gone to sleep,' she added in the same posh voice.

Seto laughed and lay himself down fully so that they were both looking up at the ceiling.

'You've got another think coming if you're hoping I'm going to massage that for you as well,' he stated blankly.

Mai suddenly gave a massive yawn, stretching out her body and arching her back as she did so.

'What time is it anyway?' she asked.

Seto lifted his arm up so he could see his watch. '4.30. Why. Is it past your bedtime?'

'4.30? Is that all? I expected it to be much later than that.' She yawned again. 'I'm supposed to be at work in a few hours.'

'I thought you played Poker for a living?'

'That's where I get my main income but I also work at a small casino to pay the day to day bills and tide me over should I happen to go through a not-practically-unbeatable phase.'

'Do you enjoy it?'

Mai gave a short bitter laugh. 'What, working in a seedy club with sleaze-balls using any opportunity to grab your arse or look down your top?... Yeah it's a right laugh.'

'Why don't you do something else?' Seto had propped himself onto one elbow again and was looking at her intently. Again he was experiencing a strong emotion of protectiveness towards her mixed this time with a surprising anger directed towards the men she had described.

'The money's not bad,' Mai explained, 'plus, if you're going to make any serious cash playing Poker, you have to run in the right circles.' Looking across she caught Seto's expression. 'Hey, you know you don't have to worry about me,' she said proudly, 'people learn pretty fast not to try anything.'

'Yes, but -' Seto began, but Mai cut him short.

Propping herself up on her good elbow so that she was level with Seto she gave him a look which clearly told him not to push it. She was still smiling slightly but her eyes had hardened and her voice was cutting.

'Look Seto, I know you're just being sweet and looking out for me but this is my life. It may be cruddy in places but what I do, I do by choice. My choice and no one else's and I'm not looking for anyone to come along and 'save' me. Got it?'
Seto nodded giving her a small smile which he hoped she would take to mean that he understood. He hated the idea of where Mai worked but he truly admired her independence, it reminded him of himself.

He lay back down on the floor staring up at the faintly flickering neon light above. Beside him he sensed the movement of Mai also lying down. They lay for a few minutes in the silence.

'Is that the voice you use to talk to misbehaving clients?' Seto finally asked smiling to himself.

'Mai turned her head to face him. 'Pretty scary huh?' she grinned. 'My boss calls that my 'teacher' voice. You're lucky - you only got level one.'

'How many levels are there?' he asked turning his face so that he was starting right into her eyes.

'Six,' Mai said after a brief thought. She turned her head back.
There was another long pause.

'Mai?'

'Mmm?'

'You know our means of communicating with Murdoch and everyone upstairs?' Seto said slowly, clearly contemplating whether or not he should be bringing up the subject.

'Yes.'

'What would you say if I said I could rig up my laptop so that we could have constant communication without having to worry about the batteries going down?'

Mai sat up and looked at Seto excitedly. 'That would be great. Why? Do you think you can?'

Set remained motionless on the floor staring, unseeing at the light above him. 'Yes, I could do it.' He said simply.

'That's fantastic,' she enthused. 'How?'

Seto sighed, 'On the button control panel there's a wire that connects to the mains power. It's what I used to get the main light working again. If I connected my laptop to it, well, it would be like plugging it into a wall socket. We could use it for as long as we wanted.'

Mai looked at him suspiciously, noting his flat voice and despondent sighs. She narrowed her eyes. 'And how long have you known about this?' she asked looking at him squarely.

He shifted his eyes from the light at met her gaze. 'Since I got the main light working,' he winced slightly waiting for her reaction.

'But that was hours ago!' she exclaimed, shocked. 'Why didn't - why did ... why?!'

Seto sat up and met Mai's astonished gaze with a level look of his own.

'At the time I hadn't found the communications wiring so it was all academic anyway. And then you found the camera and my main priority was to connect to that which is what I did. And then...' he lowered his eyes slightly considering how to explain the next part. 'And then we got through to Murdoch and he said about the bomb and there were all these decisions to be made and I knew that, if I kept the communication line open I would be expected to solve everything, every little thing that came up. And I just, I don't know, I just didn't want to.'

'Didn't want to, what?'

'I just didn't want to have to solve everything,' he said simply. He looked at Mai to see if she understood but she stared back at him with that incredulous look that he had almost become accustomed to. He didn't exactly blame her. He'd been wondering at his own decision ever since he had made it.

'But, Mokuba?'

'Well, if Mokuba had been caught up in the blast that would have been different,' Seto stated firmly. 'Of course I would have assumed control and done everything I needed to do. But with him safe, well, that was another excuse to give myself a break,' he smiled to himself and looked again at Mai. 'You know he's a very capable leader. People tend to overlook him when I'm around, they just give all the decisions to me, but I know Mokuba will have everything under control. He'll do a good job,' he smiled proudly.

Mai looked on in wonder. Seto certainly had a habit of surprising her. She'd always assumed that he was a control freak, that he loved making decisions and bossing people about, but then, she thought, she'd also assumed that he liked people calling him Kaiba.

'So let me get this straight,' Mai said slowly, trying to wrap her own thoughts around the idea, 'you get yourself stuck in a lift as a result of someone trying to kill you and, what, you see it as a handy way to bunk off work?'

Seto looked at her for a few seconds, mulling over her simplistic explanation. Finally he nodded 'That's about it, yes.'

'Fair enough, I'm planning to do the same for work tonight - although you may need to get someone official sounding to back me up. I'm not sure they'd believe me otherwise.'

She lowered herself back onto the floor and lay there with her eyes closed. She could feel Seto watching her. After a few moments he too lay down

'So should I be flattered that you would choose to spend a few hours with me as your only company?'

'Ahh... to be honest I didn't really give you much thought at the time. I just kind of decided. It was a spur of the moment thing,' he turned to face her giving her an apologetic smile.

'Charming!'

'Obviously I'm very glad that you are here.'

Mai laughed. 'Obviously.'

'Seriously, I've enjoyed getting to know you. You're a pretty surprising woman.'

'You're not exactly what I expected either,' she turned her head to look at him. Staring into his deep blue eyes, seeing his serious expression and feeling another rush of feelings towards him she hastily turned away and hid once more behind her customary cutting humour. 'I mean, the mighty Seto Kaiba bunking off work? It's unthinkable!'

'It's not often I get the opportunity to disconnect myself from my work. Spending a few hours idly chatting and playing cards just never happens,' he smiled. 'I mean, ideally I wouldn't be in a lift.'

'At least not a lift with such hard floors.'

'Quite. It's nice though, to just lie here and not have to deal with everyone's questions. I can just forget about it all.'

'To be honest I would have thought the idea that someone is trying to kill you would be pretty distracting,' Mai said, arching an eyebrow at him.

Seto scowled briefly. 'Don't worry. When I'm out of here those bastards are going to-'

He was interrupted by a sudden loud noise that filled the lift and penetrated through his body. The lift began to vibrate sending ripples through their bones. The two of them jumped up in alarm flattening themselves against the wall furthest from where the noise appeared to be coming from, although it was so loud that it was nearly impossible to tell.

'What the hell -?' Mai yelled.

Seto shook his head and suddenly made his way towards his computer. Mai stared after him, confused until she saw the flashing red light of the camera.

He quickly connected the wires and held up the small microphone.
'Hello?' he shouted.

There was a reply but too quiet to be heard.

'You'll have to speak up.'

''Can you hear me now Mr Kaiba?' Murdoch's voice came through the speaker with the slightly muffled sound of the microphone being held too close to someone's mouth. He was loud enough to make out though.

'I can hear you,' Seto shouted back, 'what's the deal?'

'Ah, err, Mr Mokuba sir, he wanted me to warn you that the um, the rescue team will start drilling any minute sir.'

Seto looked at Mai, sharing with her a look of total exasperation. Mai smiled, laughing at his irritation. Seto raised the microphone to say something, but, knowing that he was about to lambaste the hapless Murdoch, she snatched it off him.

'Hi Murdoch, it's me,' Seto noticed that she still managed to get the flirtatious tone into her voice despite its exaggerated volume. 'I think the drilling might have already started, hon,' she said kindly. 'How long do they think it's going to take?'

'Oh, about forty-five minutes, Miss Valentine. The biggest delay was in getting the equipment down the shaft but now they're there it should be a pretty quick job. Oh, and Mr Kaiba?'

'Yes?' Seto said in a flat voice, not sure his patience could handle much more of Murdoch.

'Err, Mr Mokuba is with the rescue team. He insisted sir.'

As suddenly as it had started the noise of the drilling stopped; plunging the lift into a silence which sounded strange after the clamour of before. When Murdoch continued he was still shouting, unaware of the change. Mai moved to tell him to quieten down but Seto stopped her with a brief shake of his head. He reached over and turned down the volume on his computer.

'Before he went though he said to tell you that he's had a look at the schematics of the lift and that there should be a way to open a permanent line of communication.'

'Really?' Mai asked in mock wonder, 'Gosh Seto, did you hear that? If only we'd known earlier, eh?'

He narrowed his eyes at her.

'Also sir, we've had a problem with the camera feed. We've not been able to pick up any images since our last communiqué. I was all for trying to get it fixed but Mr Mokuba said not to worry.'

It was Mai's turn to give Seto a narrow eyed glare. He shrugged, feigning innocence.

'One final thing sir, I would suggest that you stand by the far wall, away from the drilling. When they break through it could be quite dangerous sir.'

'I see,' Seto said in a dead pan voice, 'and was this another recommendation from 'Mr' Mokuba?'

'Err, no sir. It's my own recommendation. I would hate for any harm to come to you or err, Miss Valentine.'

Mai had to slap a hand across her mouth to stop from laughing out loud. Even Seto found the sides of his mouth twitching.
'Right,' he said, just about managing to keep a straight face, 'well, Miss Valentine and myself thank you for your concern. We'll certainly not stand right where the drills are going to come through.'

He quickly signed off before he too dissolved into laughter.
The sound of drilling started up again causing both to jump slightly.

'Well, you heard Murdoch's inspiring health and safety suggestion,' Mai shouted, 'let's go.'

They both walked across to stand at the far side of the room. They stood, enveloped by the sound, staring at the wildly vibrating wall that was going to be their gateway out. Neither said anything.