Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, and I'm probably not the first author to come with such a story, but I don't give a damn, I really liked the idea! The title was actually inspired by one episode of Cold Case (it's the title of a song written by a victim), although the story has absolutely nothing to do with the case shown in CC.

Rating: M (language and sexuality, yeah baby!)

Pairing: Silentshipping (already established), mostly ^^

Language: Yes I write in English, however my mothertongue is French so I might make mistakes, if you see some, especially one that makes a sentence awkward, please let me know so I'll change it ^^

300 flowers
Chapter 1: 300 flaws

The first time she saw him, she remained speechless. Because of what her brother had told her about him, she thought he'd be ugly, short, fat, with a cunning smile on his mean and cold face. She couldn't have been further from the truth. Seto Kaiba was tall, slim, and, although his lips would sometimes show a cunning smile, he was incredibly beautiful. His eyes... those eyes that Serenity had imagined black and vicious, had this amazing blue colour and this fierce look that gave her chills even the first time their eyes met. For the fifteen-year-old girl that she was back then, he was the perfect man. Smart, determinated and powerful. She couldn't help but think of him whenever she closed her eyes.

Two years later, she finally confessed her love for him. She was staring at her feet and speaking very fast, tears in her hazel eyes and a bright red colour on her cheeks. Without even leaving the time to open his mouth, she ran away. She didn't need his answer. How could such a man possibly love her, even notice her?

The day after, when she came back to the apartment were she was living with Joey, her eyes widened. The small apartment was full of beautiful red roses. There was flowers all over the place, in vases, on the couch, on the table, even on the floor. Their delicious smell caressed Serenity's nose. Speechless, she walked towards the biggest bouquet and took the white paper the had been put ontop of the red flowers. There was a short note written on it:

You never let me the time to reply, so those flowers are my answer: I love you too, Serenity. Three hundred times.

One year later, Serenity was wearing a wonderful dress in the biggest and most expensive wedding Domino had ever seen - to her big brother's disagreement, of course. But she didn't care. All she cared about was that her dream was coming true. Getting married with the first man she had ever loved. They were about to live their second marriage anniversary.

Perfect, wasn't it?

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Actually, the perfection had started to fall apart five months ago. Seto had been working more than ever, getting home later and later each day. At first, Serenity said nothing, but after three months, she got very tired of the situation and started to complain. Well... she tried. But each time she tried to speak to him, he would just reply that he was too tired to speak about that, that he needed to get some sleep and that they'd talk about whatever she wanted later. But here was the problem: that later would never come.

When Kaiba opened the door to their bedroom in the middle of the night, making his best not to make noise, she turned on the light next to the bed and sat, her arms crossed.

"I really think we need to talk, Seto", she said.
"Later, Serenity", he replied, his eyes half-closed, as he threw his tie on an armchair.
"No, now. I'm tired of your 'later's that never lead anywhere."

He sighed and rubbed his face with his hand.

"Honey, please. It's almost three in the morning and I have to wake up at six, just let me sleep for those three little hours."
"Fine", she replied as she stood up.

The young woman grabbed her pillow and walked towards the door, very upset.

"Good night", she said spitfully.
"Serenity, wait, where are you-"
"I'm gonna take another bedroom for tonight", she simply answered as she turned to look at him again. "So you can have a good sleep and I won't be tempted to speak to you about important things, because you won't listen or care anyway. I could just fall of the balcony, it'd take you forever to notice!"
"Serenity, don't be silly, just try to understand... I mean, just give me a break... I had a bad day and-"
"Fine, I said fine! I'm gonna talk with the wall, I'm sure we'll have a more constructive discussion. Good fucking night, Seto."

She slammed the door and he sighed heavily, too exhausted to do anything else than drop on his bed with his clothes on.

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"I don't know what to do anymore, Tea", she sighed as she sat on the couch with her best friend. "He just... he just looks like he doesn't even give a damn anymore. He's spending more and more time at the Kaiba Corp, I mean I know he's the CEO but he's always been the CEO and he never treated me like that before! He won't listen to what I have to say, he'll just saw 'Later, I'm tired' but it's ALWAYS later, I'm sick of it! I don't even remember the last time we did something together and, and-"

She blushed.

"The last time we made love together was like two months ago. He doesn't even react when I try to... you know. I-I mean, is it me? Did I gain weight or something?"

Serenity paused.

"Wait, you'd tell me if I did, right? Or maybe I'm just getting boring... I-I tried so many things to interest him, but nothing worked!"
"This has nothing to do with you, Serenity", Tea said with a comforting tone. "Don't blame yourself. He's just very tired, it has nothing to do with you being boring or unattractive."
"So what can I do? It's been five months, I'm tired of waiting for the situation to get better on itself. It won't. Some day I just wish he'd sell his company to be with me..."
"Oh, sweetie, I'm sure there's a way to solve this. Both of you need to talk-"
"I try, but he just won't listen!"
"Because when he gets back from work, he's tired and tense. You obviously can't confront him like you did yesterday without making sure he relaxes before. No matter how important what you have to say is, he won't listen if all he can think about is work."
"Yeah..."

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This evening, at eight o'clock, when Kaiba came back from the Kaiba Corporation, he found his wife, sitting at the dinning table, her arms crossed and a bit of anger in her eyes. There were candles on the table and the food smelled delicious, and a bottle of red wine was opened.

"Looks good", he said with a smile as he sat. "You asked Ethan to do it?"
"I made it myself", she said with a cold voice.
"You did? That's really-"
"Made it two hours ago", she continued as she shot him a deadly glare. "Your note said that you'd be back at six, so I thought I should make something special for you. You know, to apologize for my selfish attitude yesterday. But..."

She sighed and shook her head.

"Who cares, anyway? You probably wanted to sleep, didn't you?"

Serenity stood up.

"I'm gonna go out for a walk. Good evening, Seto."
"Wait."

He grabbed her wrist when she tried to leave.

"I'm sorry, Serenity."
"You don't even know what's wrong", she replied as she shrugged. "How could you? You won't listen when I try to tell you."
"I know I'm working too much these days, I know I'm not treating you the way you deserve to be treated. I know... I know I've been a terrible husband recently."

He hugged her tight against his body.

"I'll do my best to spend less time at the Kaiba Corp and more time with you, I promise."
"Really?" she asked as she moved her eyes towards his.
"Yes, really", he replied with a smile.

She smiled back to him. Somehow, this promise made her feel better. She moved her mouth towards him, hoping to kiss his lips, but he just kissed her cheek instead. Serenity mentally sighed.

Well, one thing at the time, I guess.

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"So, are things better, Serenity?" Tea asked over the phone.
"I'm not sure. I guess so. He promised it would change. I-I hope it's true, but... you know... I'm not sure. Doesn't look like it's gonna change, you know. He wasn't even there when I woke up this morning."
"Maybe he's just going to work earlier so he can come back earlier tonight."
"Yeah, but it's Sunday. He could've stayed all day long here."

She looked at her watch.

"Hey, I'm gonna go. I have to buy Mokuba's gift for his birthday."
"All right. Call me later if you feel like it."
"I'll probably do. Have a nice day, Tea."
"You too sweetie."

Serenity put the cell phone back in her pocket and walked towards the door.

"I'm gonna go out for a while, Mokie!"
"All right!" the younger Kaiba brother replied from his bedroom.

I wonder how the hell you got used to see your brother only once in a while.

Serenity was walking down the street, looking for a place where she could find a proper gift for Mokuba. She pushed the door of the first game shop she saw. She was looking around when a surprisingly familiar voice raised behind her back:

"Serenity? Serenity Wheeler?"

The young woman slowly turned and saw a young man, with black hair, muscles under his tanned skin and gorgeous green eyes. She blinked several times.

"Wow, haven't seen you in a while", he continued with a beautiful smile that showed his perfectly white teeth. "You look stunning."

She blushed, and he laughed.

"And you still blush the same way. Wait, you recognize me, don't ya?"
"Of course I do, Duke! There's no way on Earth I could've forgotten you!"

He grinned.

"But don't get any funny ideas", she said. "I'm Mrs. Serenity Kaiba now you know."

Duke arched his eyebrow.

"Really? Oh, yeah, Joey told me about that. Well sort of."
"Sort of?"
"Well I think he mentioned Kaiba's name among the 'damn asshole', 'ugly bastard' 'son of a fuckin' bitch' and other stuff like that when he told me you were married."

Serenity rolled her eyes.

"How long have you been with Kaiba?"
"With Seto, three years. Married... almost two."
"You don't see so enthusiastic about it", he noticed.

The red-haired woman blushed again, and quickly asked:

"Uh... well, what are you doing here anyway?"
"It's my shop, you know. I thought you noticed before. And you didn't answer my question."
"W-well... everyone's got problems, you know how it is."
"Nope. No idea. When problems show, I quit and that's it. Simple, isn't it?"

Serenity rolled her eyes again. This was exactly the reason why she had never fallen for his smooth-tongued attitude. He may have acted like he was interested in her - in a romantic way, of course - but she had quickly understand that he was acting like that towards any girl he found attractive.

"Never knew the meaning of commitment, did you?"

Duke shrugged, and then crossed his arms.

"Why make things complicated? Moreover, you don't really seem like marriage is fun anyway. Not tempting if you want my opinion."

Serenity bobbed down.

"I-it is, I swear... w-when..."

She didn't want to speak any more, but the next words slipped away from her mouth without her consent:

"When the other doesn't spend more time at work than he does with you."
"Well that's Seto Kaiba. There's a reason he owns this company."
"He did own his company when we got married and it wasn't like that. I don't know what's wrong-"
"I was about to ask you the same question."

She looked at Duke as he shook his head.

"'Cause, really, I can't find out. Can't find out what kind of man would choose his work over you."
"Maybe it's me, not him."
"About you?"

He raised his eyebrows very high as he stared at her for a while.

"I don't see anything about you that would make me spend time here instead of spending some... quality time with you."

Duke smiled as Serenity's cheeks turned to pink.

"You know, this isn't the best place to be chatting, but maybe we could have a drink somewhere one day?"

Serenity's eyes narrowed.

"I told you not to get funny idea. I'm not that kind of-"
"I was just offering a coffee or whatever drink you wanted. No need to worry about my intentions."

She didn't say anything, so he gave her his business card with a grin.

"Here, my cell phone's number is written. Feel free to call at any time if you wanna see me."

Few months ago, Serenity wouldn't have even looked at the card. But, come to think of it, few months ago, she would not have had reasons to carry such a conversation with Duke Devlin anyway. Maybe I should... you know, keep in touch with an old friend. Can't hurt me, can it?

She shyly took the card from Duke's hand with a small smile.

End of the chapter: Not that I am that much into silentshipping, it's just that it was such the perfect pairing for the idea I had in mind ^^ hope you'll reviewwwww!!!