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Téa and Mai made their way through the crowds towards the stairs that led to the VIP area. Téa glanced behind her nervously, half expecting someone to be coming after them. Serenity, clearly fearing much the same, had already run on ahead. However, other than a few wary looks and an imperceptible edging away from Mai as she passed, everyone in the club seemed content to behave as if nothing had happened. Certainly, looking at Mai, there was nothing in her expression to give away the fact that she had just floored two men in a move that would probably affect their ability to walk properly for the next few days.

As if sensing Téa's gaze upon her, Mai turned her head slightly to look at her friend. She didn't smile but Téa could see by the glint in her eyes and the way she held her head high, that she was feeling good about what had just happened. It was the same expression that she recognised from watching her friends duel over the years; it was an expression of power and of victory.

Thinking of her friends Téa turned her attention back to their destination.

'Oh my God!' she gasped, stopping in her tracks and unconsciously reaching out a hand to grasp Mai's arm. 'Kaiba's here!'

Mai, who had been trying her hardest not to look towards the balcony, found herself instinctively following Téa's gaze. As she had feared and hoped, Seto was staring down at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

Mai quickly turned away with a slight frown. She glanced at Téa, subtly moving her arm out of her friend's reach as she did so.

'Yeah,' she shouted over the thumping music, 'he turned up a while back.'

She and turned her focus back to the stairs just a short way ahead of them, trying not to think about who was waiting at the top, and certainly not looking his way again.

'But wait,' Mai tensed as Téa's insistent voice, and even more insistent grasp, brought her back to a halt. 'You knew he was here? Why didn't you say?'

Mai tried her best to smile innocently (in her repertoire of bluffs she knew this one was one of her least convincing). 'I don't know,' she shrugged nonchalantly, succeeding in once again dislodging Téa's hand, 'it just didn't seem important,' she turned away before adding, archly, '... or interesting.'

Mai began walking again, hoping that Seto was no longer watching or in any way making the assumption that he was being talked about.

Téa caught up quickly. 'What,' she scoffed disbelievingly, 'Seto Kaiba, the Seto Kaiba turning up at a night club?!' Téa shook her head in wonder, 'seems pretty interesting to me.'

'Huh,' Mai mumbled quietly to herself, 'you just have a low excitement threshold.' She had reached the bottom of the stairs now and was annoyed to find that, once again, Téa had come to a halt. 'Are you coming?' she snapped impatiently.

Téa was looking perplexed. She raised one eyebrow at Mai. 'You don't seem pleased to see him?' she observed.

'Why would I be?' Mai turned now, giving up on the hope of making a smooth return to the VIP area, and instead fixing her attention fully onto her friend.

'Well, I thought the two of you got on quite well during the whole lift thing?'

Mai's eyes narrowed slightly. 'What do you mean?' she asked; a dangerous edge to her voice.

'Well, just that... you...you didn't end up killing each other or anything' Téa hastily tried to explain, feeling suddenly uncomfortable under the steady gaze of her friend.

Seeing the innocence in Téa's eyes Mai relented a little. Her mind quickly recalled the time trapped in the lift with Seto and, though her arm tingled slightly at the memory the injury she had sustained there, she also found herself wanting to smile at the memory of what had transpired between herself and the seemingly cold hearted CEO.

'I guess it was okay,' she finally conceded with a small smile. 'I wouldn't want to repeat it,' she quickly added, eager not to seem too nostalgic about an event that, to others at least, would appear to have been terrifying and traumatic in equal measures.

Téa, thinking exactly that, gave her friend a confused look. 'No, I wouldn't suppose you would...'

The two girls stood for a moment looking at each other. Téa was slowly coming to the conclusion that something wasn't quite right and that the intriguing behaviour of her usually unflappable friend was masking something more... interesting.

Mai was desperately hoping that Téa would simply drop the subject so they could both stop having a shouted conversation on a subject which she was feeling irritatingly uncomfortable about.

The seconds seemed to stretch between them and Mai had just started to turn to walk away when Téa asked another question.

'Why do you think he's here?'

Mai felt her patience snap. 'Well, I don't know do I?' she hissed, rounding on Téa aggressively, 'it's not like he called ahead to run through his evening plans with me or anything. It's not like he called me at all in fact...'

Her words seemed to hang in the air for a moment and Mai, realising her mistake, watched in horror as Téa's expression changed, in seeming slow motion, from surprise at her friend's anger, to confusion and then... excited realisation.

'Oh!' Téa gasped, clasping her hand to her mouth.

Mai widened her eyes in terror, her usually cool exterior shattered in the face of her friend's sudden understanding. She sought a quick escape and turned again to ascend the stairs, only to find Téa's hand, as tenacious as ever, grip hold of her arm and pull her, commandingly to a halt. She turned slowly to face her grinning friend.

'Something happened didn't it?!' Téa blurted out excitedly. 'In the lift? You and Kaiba?!'

To Mai's panicked senses it seemed as if the music, the sounds of laughing, the shouted conversations, the commentary of the DJ, all of it, had just been muted, whilst, at the same moment, Téa's voice had been turned up full blast. Mai quickly closed the distance between them, alarmed by Téa's words and half convinced that the whole world had heard them.

'I swear to God Téa,' she growled savagely, ripping her arm away from Téa's grasp and putting a shaking hand to her friend's mouth, 'if you say one more word I'll - '

Far from cowering under the force of Mai's anger Téa actually giggled delightedly and clapped her hands together in glee. 'It did! It did!' she laughed, casually swiping away Mia's hand. 'Oh my God that's so great! So what happened? Who made the first move? Did you kiss? You didn't do more did you? Was he any good? Did he -'

Mai blinked at Téa in horror; clearly her usual scare tactics weren't about to work. Watching her friend's happy face as she shouted out one question after another, Mai's mind speedily weighed up her options. In her panic she briefly considered punching Téa full in the face; her theory being that at least it would shut her up. Conceding that it was an action likely to lead to even more questions however, she quickly dismissed the idea. With a sinking feeling she realised that she would have to resort to something that she usually considered to be the last option.

She threw herself on her friend's mercy.

'Please Téa - stop!' she pleaded desperately, reaching out to grasp Téa's hands within her own. She looked plaintively into Téa's eyes and bit her lip. A small part of her was infuriated at the sudden feeling of helplessness but it was swept aside for an absolute, all consuming need for Téa to stop talking so loudly, stop grinning like that and definitely to stop looking over Mai's shoulder to where she assumed Seto was standing - if he knew... she thought, grimacing at the very idea.

'Look,' she eventually said, so quietly that Téa had to move in closer to hear, 'something... happened but it didn't mean anything and Se - Kaiba's obviously forgotten all about it and I'm not about to remind him.'

Téa's grin faded to be replaced by a look of renewed confusion. 'What do you mean he's forgotten?'

'Well,' Mai started, feeling a flush of shame as she thought of what she was going to say, 'he said he'd call and ...he didn't.'

There, it was out, she had said it. Seto Kaiba had turned up his nose at her. The memory sent a renewed surge of emotions through her: anger, embarrassment, disappointment. She lowered her head unhappily.

'So?'

Mai looked up at Téa in surprise. 'What do you mean, 'so'?'

Téa smiled again, a look of something akin to pity showing in her eyes. 'What I mean is he's a man!' she laughed. 'Men are terrible at phoning when they should.'

Maybe in your experience Mai thought unkindly, noting the hint of condescension in her friend's voice and feeling incredibly irritated by it.

'And why do you think he's here tonight?' Téa went on, her voice taking on a sing-song quality, like a primary school teacher trying to explain something simple.

'You've already asked me that,' Mai observed coldly dropping Téa's hands and folding her arms in front of herself.

'Well it's obvious,' Téa laughed, 'he's here for you!'

Mai frowned slightly as she gave the surprising idea some thought.

'... You think?'

'Well duh!' Téa giggled pulling a face at Mai and slapping her playfully on the shoulder.

Mai scowled dangerously.

'Come on,' Téa grabbed hold of Mai's arm once more and started to lead her up the stairs, 'let's go talk to him.'

Mai wrapped a firm hand around Téa's wrist and held her in place. She looked straight at Téa and gave her friend the sternest look she could muster.

'I swear Téa, if you breathe a word of this - ' she began forcefully.

'Yeah, yeah,' Téa laughed dismissively, patting Mai's hand gently before tugging her up the stairs again, 'oh this is so exciting!' she grinned.

Mai followed on behind, determined, when she next got the opportunity, to work on her scary looks in the mirror. They clearly needed some fine tuning.