Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-gi-oh or any of the characters associated with it.

Enjoy.

"Sir, we're ready to begin."

Ignoring his guards, Kaiba simply gave a curt nod and with a flick of his fingers he gestured them out the room; they rushed out of his office stumbling fecklessly over one another.

He suppressed a roll of his eyes.

And while on most days, Seto Kaiba would regrettably be his usual person which included nothing short of arrogant and prideful, today was really something else - something he would prefer to throw out the window, hoping that it broke into unrepairable pieces.

Today was Kaiba Corp's bi-annual open job fair.

Kaiba cringed at the thought of those white-collared workers, all of them premature and optimistic thoroughly under the deluded impression that they would 'impact the company positively'; in which case, Kaiba had labeled that the most overused line in all of interview history since he had the torture of sitting through them. Because of that stale, overly exhausted line, Kaiba had informed every pre-existing employee that if anyone uttered such contemptible dialogue during the interviews, they were to be thrown out immediately.

He found this to be extremely effective as half the interviews were usually stopped short on the first sentence. Although Kaiba would never admit it out loud, he found their pathetic points brought up during the interviews inwardly amusing yet entirely ridiculous at face value.

Kaiba could only wonder.

In any case if there was one thing he dreaded, feared, and loathed to an unbearable extent, it was this job fair. It was for simple reasons, nothing out of the blues, but he just couldn't stand hearing the mindless rambling of people's responses and their lack of understanding when he curtly stood up and said 'get out'.

They never did understand those two words - in fact, it usually took around four to five guards to get the message through to them. Sighing profusely to himself, he pulled himself from his office chair, "damn," he muttered, exiting his office. A guard met him right outside his office doors, scampering quickly behind him, "Mr. Kaiba the show-up this year is huge! Huge, I say- there are tons of hires! Tons!"

Kaiba held in the urge to correct him and say 'to be hired.'

"Are you new here?"

The man behind him blinked, "yes, sir - I started working here last month!"

Kaiba swiped his head around and eyed the man coldly, "stop being so happy- this isn't a circus. You're here to work, not ride an elephant." He made a mental note to check the job statistics and criteria for the company. If this guy was being hired, clearly Kaiba Corp. had dropped its standards a few notches too low. That, or he would simply have to fire them all together, and start fresh.

Wonderful.

"Yes, sir!" The man eagerly responded.

Kaiba really did roll his eyes this time as the man behind him stumbled and followed him down the hall and towards the elevators. Kaiba languidly paced through the doors of the elevator as the other man waddled inside. Unfortunately, Kaiba had no idea - for nonapparent reasons - as to what floor the interviews were on, but he was saved by grace as the man pushed the 14th floor button and the elevator began its journey.

He noted that the man beside him was drenched in sweat, and had now pulled out a handkerchief to dab the sweat off his forehead. Consciously, Kaiba inched away from the water-bucket beside him, considerably displeased that the AC system was clearly ineffective if someone was sweating as though they had just completed the Tour de France.

This company would undoubtedly have to file for bankruptcy without me, he thought mentally.

Really, things had to be done.

"We're here sir," the man mumbled quietly as he wiped the sweat from his forehead once more.

Kaiba gave him an uncharacteristic glance, before walking down the hall, "I can see that."

He stopped shortly and the man behind him briefly made contact with his back when he suddenly halted. Kaiba held in a sigh and turned around to dismiss the watery rag. "Go outside and get some air." You need it, he thought, disgusted.

The man stood there, guffawed, "but Sir-"

"Get out," he interjected.

Clearly the man was new - didn't he know that Kaiba entered the room alone, and always alone? Of course with the occasional exception of Mokuba every now and then, but aside from that, it was his walk and his walk only. Spinning on his heels , Kaiba left the poor man gaping at his back. Reaching the doors, he pulled them open, only to be addressed by multiple people at once.

"Sir, we have a problem-"

"Seto Kaiba, we have issues to discuss-"

"Sir! The interviews are taking longer than expected - we're running behind on schedule!"

"When is the new schedule going to be up?"

"Wait- what new schedule?"

Kaiba, was of course, not the CEO of the company for nothing - he had a reputation to uphold and while at times like this all he felt like doing was shouting 'shut the fuck up', he was forced to address the issue at hand in a non-crude manner. Nicely even, but that wasn't in his nature - far from it actually.

"Quiet," he hissed, slamming his hands down.

The room ceased its bantering. Slowly, the executives, lead designers, engineers and god knows who else was there, pulled in a few chairs and sat down, muttering quietly.

"Listen up you old croons- I want everything to run smoothly. No mistakes will be tolerated as you are all individually representing Kaiba Corp today."

"What do you mean, sir?" One of the men pressed.

Did he have to spell it out for them in finely transcribed cursive? "It means that we will hold single interviews amongst everyone here, meaning that each of you will interview one person at a time. I have been informed that we have quite the large show-up today. We're going to finish them all today," he added.

The man to his left looked baffled, "b-but there's over fifty thousand people outside! How are we-?"

"Well you better get to work then, because I'm not going an hour over today for the crowd of halfwits outside." He stated icily. The men nodded meekly, and began scrambling to set up individual tables so that they could interview people. "And one more thing," he said, "send anyone who looks like a decent secretary to my office."

Upon his departure, the room was absurdly loud once more.

"Secretary eh?" One man thought out loud.

Another grinned, "It has been a while since we had one of those."

"Actually, Mr. Kaiba has never had any for that matter."

"Well I can bloody see why."

"That man's got a stick up his ass, that's why."

"Good luck to whoever has the displeasure of pulling that out!"

"Bold of you to assume we can conclusively find anybody."

Kaiba sat there furiously clicking away on his laptop - work was never a low point for him. It was always there; a little or a lot, it was there. And he decided he liked it that way. It kept him thoroughly occupied and made it seem like he had nothing better to do than work, which in reality, he did not.

So far, being locked away in his office had been the best open job fair day ever despite how noisy it was outside. He could only imagine the horrible dread his executives and hiring managers had to sit through - but then again, he was paying them for it. He was even more pleased to find that not a single potential secretary had been instructed his way. Kaiba silently hoped that none would come- he knew he needed someone, but the prospect of one of those loons outside working at such close proximity with him everyday was highly unnerving. Who knew what they would do to him - not that he was not prepared for such situations.

Kaiba was always ready- disproportionately so.

What he was not ready for was the shock that registered when he actually saw someone physically walk through his office doors. It was a miracle, per se. What struck him even worse was that the person entering looked oddly familiar with her golden auburn hair swaying gracefully by her hips. "Mr. Kaiba, we- we found a secretary sir!" The man at the door mumbled.

"I can see that," Kaiba replied, not taking his eyes off the woman before him. The man gave an awkward nod before rushing himself out the door. Serenity blinked, looking around with a slightly curious but unfazed expression.

"You."

Serenity turned her attention back at the man in front of her. "Hello, my name is-"

"I know who you are," he cut in. "What I want to know is how you got here."

Serenity stared at him dumbfounded by his question."I came up the stairs first, but then I found the elevator," she responded plainly.

Kaiba found himself blanching at her atrocious use of what he presumed was humor; that or mild impending brain damage. He couldn't tell. "Funny," he commented dryly, "but I assume you passed the course of instructions and examinations my employees provided you."

She nodded, "yes, I did, but then I was told to come here-"

"How's the dog?" Kaiba interjected again.

Serenity's face resembled something along the lines of a frown, "my brother is quite well, thank you for asking - I didn't know you cared about him, but it is nice to see you worrying yourself over his well-being," she smiled.

"You're just a salt shaker of jokes, aren't you Wheeler?" He retaliated.

Kaiba realized how professionally she had handled that instead of snapping at him. He was, admittedly trying to get some sort of reaction from her. Spinning around his chair, Kaiba walked up to her; he couldn't help but note that he was a good head and a half taller than her. His observations continued, drawing in her face and everything below that. She was dressed formally too, adorned in a black skirt, with a black blazer, white dress shirt and classic heels.

She looks the same - just, different, Kaiba concluded mentally.

"Mr. Kaiba."

It felt unusually odd to hear her address him so formally. He snapped away from her frame, facing the glowing sunset outside his glass windows; the day was almost over, having passed surprisingly quicker than he remembered it. "Why do you want this position?"

It was straight.

Blunt.

To the point.

And quite frankly the only thing he cared about since she entered the room. "I need it and I believe I am qualified," she replied curtly, and continued, "besides, is it necessary for me to divulge my personal matters and issues regarding the reasoning behind my decision given that your hiring managers already relayed the terms and requirements for this position which I resolutely seem to possess?"

Kaiba narrowed his eyes- she was on mark with that one.

"No. It's not, but if this is something you're doing for the fun of it you should know now that there will be dire consequences. It's not easy being my secretary."

Her lips tugged upwards, "I know."

"Alright."

Serenity tilted her head slightly, "Alright?"

"You're hired- you start tomorrow morning."

Now it was Serenity's turn to look shocked and if Kaiba could laugh, he would - but Kaiba didn't laugh. It just wasn't his thing.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Are you certain that-"

"Did I stutter?," Kaiba snapped.

She frowned again, "no."

Kaiba said nothing. She truly embodied the saying 'Ignorance is bliss' as she was still unaware of how devastating her life was about to be. Silently, he paced up to her, holding out a hand. It was formal courtesy of course; to shake one's hand at a proclamation was something he just had to do as CEO. Staring at his hand, she tentatively reached towards it with her own.

Kaiba stared at their connected hands; he noticed that her hand was a lot smaller than his, and a lot warmer too.

Quickly, his hand retreated.

"Thank you," she said calmly.

Kaiba nodded, and watched as she left his office. At his office doors, the commotion suddenly rose. When Serenity walked out, she was met with a handful of Kaiba's guards who had clearly been eavesdropping right on the door. Kaiba had the urge to fire them all right that very instance.

"Out," he said curtly.

Sighing, he walked back to his desk in disbelief of what he had just done.

He had hired Serenity as his- what again? Ah, yes.

Secretary.

Smirking slightly, he turned back to his screen.

If she lasts even a week, I'll buy Mokuba that ridiculous jet ski joy ride, period.

:)