Little Star

To anyone who read the first chapter of Before You're Burned, don't worry; it'll definitely be continued. I find myself coming up with more, though. Thought I'd try something serious. If you've heard the Soundtrack, you'll know the title is a song.

Standard disclaimers apply - don't own YGO, or Gackt's hot sexy body, or anything else mentioned herein except my own angsty/corny ideas.

Seto-Serenity, obviously.

Chapter One.

I groaned as I slid into my car and flopped my head back against the headrest. My feet ached in my black leather shoes and I wistfully thought about the pair of white sneakers lying at home on my bedroom floor. I didn't even want to drive home in these things. My legs didn't feel much better, they were cold from the short skirt - fishnets weren't a stocking. They were a fashion statement. One I wasn't so happy with, come to that.

At least had my coat. Of course, I always did, since I needed it to get past my boyfriend and leave our apartment. Duke thought I worked in a cafe.

It was almost true.

I sighed and turned the key in the ignition. For some crazy reason, I actually expected it would buzz to life and carry me gently home - if you can call icy road conditions and the late-night winter mist splitting your headlights wildly a gentle ride - but the engine was as cold as I was.

I glanced around the parking lot. It was almost empty. It should've been; I'd just finished closing Les Femmes Fatales up for the night. There was one fogged-up car, far over on the other side of the dark and desolate carpark, and I wasn't going to bother THAT for anything.

I shivered, then tried the engine again, holding my breath - still nothing.

I started flicking switches, hoping for life. No radio, no air conditioning, no lights. I stared at the handle for my headlights. It was already in the on position. Well. Mother... Of pearl. And that's what happens when you're running late.

"Great, Serenity. You're tired, hungry, and now grumpy and you can't go home because you're a TOTAL IDIOT whose car battery is dead because you left your lights on. Again. So you've only been driving a few months, that isn't much of an excuse." I looked at myself in the rearview mirror and wasn't too impressed by what I saw. I looked grumpy with me.

The brown eyes reflected were artfully lined with a warm chocolate colour, tinted on top with a bronze-green. And they were a little red, and had bags under them. I poked gently at the skin for a moment and sighed. Late nights and early classes were not a good mix, and not even Mai's make up tips could help with that one.

"Cellphone!" I breathed, and lunged for where I'd thrown my purse. As usual, I'd chucked it into the car and let it go right over the other side of the passenger seat, figuring I'd worry about it when I got to my destination. As usual, it was wedged between the seat and the door. I gave it a sharp tug, and with a grunt my little black bag came free.

I fell onto the handbrake and it poked into my stomach. I grunted again, but otherwise ignored it as I rooted around, tossing things out. Make up, money, a cocktail napkin with my hours for next week written on it, three blue ballpoint pens, vanilla perfume... A letter one of my friends had passed to me in my marketing class... A scrap of paper with a library book written on it that I really needed to get some time soon...

My bag was empty.

"Oh no."

Think, Serenity. When you left the house, you were running late because you'd been talking to Joey on the phone, and you grabbed your coat and put it on... I patted my pockets absently and came up with a lipgloss... And then you grabbed your bag off the kitchen bench, and... Left your cellphone sitting on the table by the door.

I wailed and let my head flop forward onto the steering wheel.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOONK.

I might have just ignored the noise and stayed there, but there was a sharp tapping on my window. I shrieked and grabbed one of my pens.

There was a guy wearing a black business suit standing outside the car. I smashed the button for the central locking and heard the reassuring click of the car doors.

Outside, he rolled his eyes. Familiar eyes, come to think of it. Blue eyes. Familiar face. Face that I saw on magazine covers a lot and sometimes drew funny moustaches and mullets on. Yeeeah... Seto Kaiba probably wasn't going to rape me, though I had to wonder what he was doing here. He said something to me.

"What?"

He repeated himself.

Oh, right. Locked inside a car with the windows wound up tight. I tentatively put down the window on his side.

"Are you alright?"

He had a look of concern on his face. Funny. Most of the time his face was so impassive. Not that I made a point of studying his face, of course. I mean, when I was fourteen I thought about getting a poster of him and putting it in my wardrobe, behind my clothes, where Joey wouldn't see it. And the doodling didn't count. But he was in the media a lot, and he never seemed to be smiling.

Maybe it was because I was sitting here at one o clock in the morning with my head on my car horn.

His eyes flicked over me.

Or, maybe it was because I was wearing a french maid outfit. That'll get a guy to look interested. I yawned.

He turned away.

"No!" I blurted. Good going, space cadet. Your cavalry shows up and you become mute. "No, actually, my battery is dead, and I forgot my cellphone, and I know how to program the alarm but not how to disarm it, and I'm too scared to walk to a pay phone because this isn't the greatest area, you know, so - " I yawned again, involuntarily.

"Do you want to use my cellphone or what?" he interrupted harshly.

"Yes, please."

He stared at me through the window for a few moments. "Well, open the door, then."

"Oh. Right." I hesitated for a moment, hand over the lock button. Then there was a click as the doors unlocked.

He wrenched the passenger door open and I jumped slightly.

He bent down to pass his phone inside, and I held up the hand holding my blue pen.

"If that's your form of payment, I have enough pens, thanks."

I laughed nervously. And stuck the pen in my pocket, before taking his cellphone. At least I knew how to work that properly. As the earpiece began its dull, throbbing ring, I contemplated my own state of exhausted idiocy. Sleep, sweet sleep, come to me now.

"Hello?"

"Duke!"

He yawned. "...'Renity? Why aren't you here in bed?"

Oh goody, I woke him up.

"Getting there, Duke. I just called because - " I froze. Well, actually, I was already frozen from the weather, but now my mouth stopped working again. I glanced at Kaiba, who raised his eyebrows.

"...I love you!" I chirped.

Kaiba didn't look surprised. He sort of looked like how a surprised snowman with very blue eyes would look if he wasn't actually a snowman and was in fact capable of looking surprised. If you know what I mean.

"See you soon!" I pushed the big red button.

"Okay. You're... Clearly insane. Now give me back my phone, and I'll be going."

I sighed as he held out his hand. "I'm sorry, Mr Kaiba, I called the wrong person. If you could just - "

He was staring at me. Uh oh. Maybe he thought I didn't know who he was. Fat chance of that - every girl between the ages of ten and death knew who Seto Kaiba was. Sort of like they knew Gackt. Or Johnny Depp.

"I have to go."

"Please!" I pleaded. "I have no other way of getting home!"

He folded his arms, standing outside my car. "Fine. Make it quick."

I shook my head as I pushed the numbers on the keypad. Stupid, stupid, dialing the wrong number automatically. Stupid fingers. Duke can't pick you up if he doesn't know where you are. I mean, he doesn't know where you are, so he can't pick you up.

"Hello?" This voice sounded more awake.

"Hi, Tristan," I said softly.

"Serenity?"

"Yeah." Great, now he sounded even perkier.

"What is it? Do you need something?"

"Actually, yeah." I looked around my settings. "My car is dead and I'm stuck at work."

"I'll be right there!" He'd hung up before I got the chance to even say thank you. It was nice someone was so happy when I got into trouble.

Kaiba extended his hand again, and I quickly gave him back his fancy phone. "Thank you, Mr Kaiba, I honestly wouldn't - "

"Look, just don't tell anyone I was here, and we're even." Ah. That would be why he was unhappy I recognised him.

"No problem, don't tell anyone I was here, either," I responded.

His eyes narrowed and he glanced at his phone. "I see."

"What?"

"Nothing. Goodnight - goodbye." Kaiba made to close the door behind him.

"Wait!"

He turned to face me again, giving a loud sigh.

"I was... Uh... Just wondering why you were here? I didn't see you inside."

"That's because I wasn't inside!" He sounded indignant. Oops. "I'm here looking for my little brother. I thought he might have been in this car."

For the first time I realised there was another car stopped behind me. ...What? Like I was checking my mirrors for other vehicles, sitting there in the parking lot!

"I guess he's over there." Kaiba glared at the car across the way with the fogged windows.

I swallowed, thinking about the young man we'd had in tonight waving money around and flirting with all the girls. He was good looking. Or I thought so. I guess it depends on how you feel about black hair spiked up with white streaks on either side - very Bride of Frankenstein. And tongue rings. And leather pants.

But I hadn't realised he was cute little Mokuba, who used to tag around after my brother's friends. Yeah, sort of like I did.

"I'll be going now. Like I was never here. Meditate on that thought," he said dryly, and slammed my door.

Unable to vanquish my curiousity, I watched him get in his fancy, dark blue sports car and drive across the lot. Then he wrenched the rear door of the other vehicle open and started gesturing wildly. Eventually, Mokuba climbed out, gestured a bit, and they drove off. The other car left then, too.

And not too long after that, my knight on a big black motorcycle rode up. His hazel brown eyes were eager even though it was two in the morning. He promised me he'd bring me back before breakfast, when he got his hands on some jumper cables and an actual car with an actual engine to jump with.

I didn't tell Duke about my car troubles. I didn't tell Tristan about the Kaibas. I went home, put my headphones on, and climbed into bed. I played the Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack. At some point Duke pressed his familiar shape into my side, and I still felt cold with his arm around my waist, his face nuzzled into my neck. He smelled like oranges, though.

Continue, Y/N? Heh.