Slip of the Tongue

Agent Malkere

Disclaimer: If I owned Yu-Gi-Oh, this would be an episode – not a fanfic!

"Really, I don't understand what girls see in the creep," declared Mai as she glared at the picture on the front page of the newspaper sitting on her coffee table.

"He's a billionaire," Tea stated blandly, shrugging in agreement with Mai.

"So? He's obsessed with Duel Monsters and his company."

"Yeah, and he's got hideously straight hair."

"Ugh, you're right, plus that trench coat fetish of his. Have you ever seen him not wearing a trench coat outside of school?"

"Nope, and you can't forget that manic laugh of his or his notorious smirk."

"Yeah, the guy's got a heart of ice. It's perfectly color coordinated with his Blues Eyes White Dragons."

"He's got dreamy eyes…." The other two girls stopped mid conversation and turned as one to stare at Serenity.

"Come again?" asked Mai completely taken aback.

"You do realize that we were talking about Kaiba, don't you?" asked Tea, light blue eyes wide with surprise.

"Hellooo? Anybody home? Hey, Serenity!" Mai waved a hand in front of the unresponsive girl's face. Serenity's eyes had a dreamy, glazed look to them and her lips had, unbidden, formed into a slight, faint smile. She jerked upright as Mai passed a hand in front of her eyes again.

"Huh? What?!?" She stared at her two startled friends. "Did I miss something?"

"Sweetheart, you said that last thought of yours out loud." Mai raised an eyebrow at her.

"Wh-which one?" asked Serenity nervously, a slight blush beginning to tinge her cheeks.

"The one about him having dreamy eyes," supplied Tea resting her chin in one hand and waiting expectantly for an explanation.

"Oh!" Her eyes widened with embarrassment and Serenity covered her mouth with one hand, blushing fiercely now. Mai and Tea exchanged a look that could be best translated as: She was having more than one thought like that?!? And then turned their attention back to the girl whose face had by then achieved a hue similar to that of a tomato. This time it was Tea who broke the uncomfortable silence which had descended upon the room.

"So, let's see if I've got this right – you like Kaiba, as in THE Seto Kaiba, the guy who despises your brother and was fanatical about beating Yugi in a duel for years."

Serenity wrung her hands in her lap and avoided meeting either of her friends' gaze. Finally she looked up, biting her lip slightly.

"Um, I wouldn't put it quite like that but… um… well… I… guess so," she replied hesitantly and so quietly that both Mai and Tea had to lean forward in their seats and strain to be able to hear her. Mai covered her eyes with one hand a rather pained expression on her face,

"Girl, you have got to get out more!"

--

Nobody really took much notice of the young man as he wove his way through the crowd, hands shoved in his pockets. There was nothing particularly remarkable about him. He was wearing a white t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and a brown leather jacket with a high collar. A few noted that he was unusually tall for his age – he couldn't have been more than seventeen but he appeared to loom over the people around him. An even smaller number had the passing thought that there was something oddly familiar about the way that he moved, but no one recognized him – not one person. He pulled the cap on his head a little further down over his reflective wrap-around sunglasses and allowed himself a very small smile of satisfaction. This was exactly what he wanted, some time to himself to just be normal, unremarkable, instantly forgettable. It was wonderful. He had even accidentally run into Yugi and the mutt and just as he feared that his cover had been blown the mutt got up, brushed himself off, grinned, and apologized for not paying attention to where he had been going. And then he and Yugi had walked off – no yelling, no cursing, no name calling – just walked off. It was a liberating feeling to be able to walk down the street or into a store without camera flashes going off in his face. He hadn't been able to do that since he'd taken over Kaiba Corp.

He took a deep breath of the crisp spring air. This was the most relaxing thing he had done in years. Why hadn't he thought of this before? Well, before he'd always been too busy with the company and every free minute he had he spent with Mokuba but today was different. Today, Mokuba was spending the day and night at a friend's house and for the first time ever his employees were doing all of their jobs exactly the way they were supposed to be doing them and hadn't created a single scrap of extra work for him. He had been able to finish everything he had to do in less than three hours. This had never happened before, plus, because it was a Saturday, he had had no meetings scheduled and didn't have to be in school so he'd taken the rest of the day off on a completely out of character, spur of the moment whim, gone home, changed, and then come here.

Nobody would even ever consider that he might own clothes like the ones he was wearing. Apparently none of them ever took into consideration that, while they were certainly impressive and eye catching, voluminous billowing trench coats weren't ideal indoor wear. Sure, he loved his trench coats, but not quite to the extreme extent that people seemed to believe. Wearing the casual clothes was like putting on another personality. No one recognized him so they weren't expecting him to act like the cold hearted (for lack of a better term) bastard he was stereotyped as. He didn't need to make all of the snide comments or use his now infamous smirk because if he did a) it would give his identity away and b) he'd more than likely earn himself a black eye if he wasn't recognized first. He could say thank you to someone without the tabloids instantly buzzing with this uncharacteristic behavior. For the first time in his life people were, unwittingly, letting Seto Kaiba be just an average teenager and he was enjoying it.

He glanced up as he heard two familiar voices chattering near by. Seto silently cursed as he caught sight of Tea Gardener and Mai Valentine standing out side of a store at the far end of the street apparently waiting for someone. Despite the fact that the two probably wouldn't recognize him, Seto automatically changed directions – he wasn't about to take any chances. Because his back was now to them, Seto didn't see Mai glance up and wave at someone and then grab Tea's arm and drag her in the same direction that he was now headed. In fact, Seto, who was once more oblivious to the people around him as he enjoyed anonymity, was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice the auburn haired girl running towards him and unfortunately she didn't see him either.

Seto and the oncoming girl collided with a thud which sent the two sprawling, knocking Seto's cap off and his sunglasses askew in the process. He lay on the ground for a moment in surprise and rather winded but the girl sat up immediately and began to apologize.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I should have been paying more attention to where I was going! I didn't see you…" Her voice trailed off as he sat up, his sunglasses sliding even further down his nose and both teens' eyes widened in mutual recognition. She blushed dark red. Later, Seto decided it was the combined effect of the casual clothes, running into the one member of the geek squad that he didn't mind, and her blushing at him that made him slip and not remember to refer to her by her last name.

"Serenity?" His voice came out sounding slightly strangled and he cursed her mentally for having that effect on him.

"K-K-Kai-?" Before Serenity could finish stammering out his name, Seto clamped a hand quickly over her mouth and shook his head. Pushing his sunglasses back in place, he reached behind him and replaced his cap on his head. He gave her a meaningful look – quite a feet since she could no longer see his eyes behind his reflective lenses.

"Not today I'm not." He stood up, brushing himself off, and then offered his hand to Serenity to help her up. She hesitantly took it and he was just pulling her to her feet well Tea and Mai came to a halt next to them.

"Hi, Serenity," exclaimed Tea. "We were starting to get worried about you! You're almost never late for anything!"

"I'm sorry – Joey couldn't get the car started so I had to catch a bus!"

"No worries, girl. So, are you going to introduce us to your friend?" asked Mai, raising an eyebrow at Serenity and grinning teasingly while giving her a playful nudge in the ribs. She could still make out the faint remnants of the blush which been coloring the younger girl's face before they had arrived.

At this comment, Seto suddenly became aware that he was still standing there. If he hadn't known Serenity he should have walked off by now, but it was too late for that. In his pocket, he crossed his fingers hoping that the younger Wheeler was a better liar than the mutt.

Serenity too looked rather taken aback at Mai's question but recovered quickly.

"Tea, Mai, this is Se-" Serenity caught and corrected herself as she nearly said Seto, "Seth. Seth, these are my two friends, Mai and Tea."

"Nice to meet you," he said politely to the two girls. Well, now I know if anything ever happens to Kaiba Corp, I have a promising future ahead of me in acting. Serenity's friends exchanged a glance and then turned back to Seto and Serenity.

"Ren, I know we were going to have an all girls day but how about we take Seth along with us? I'm sure he'd enjoy coming to the arcade with you." Mai gave her a mischievous wink and Serenity started to blush again.

"Well, I-" Seto began to protest but Tea interrupted him.

"Oh, come on – it will be fun! Besides, Serenity has never mentioned you before and we want to find out why she's been keeping you a secret!"

Seto felt his face get slightly warm at this comment, but before he could protest further his clothes took over his vocal cords and answered for him.

"Sure, I'd love to."

Serenity gaped at him for a moment in complete and utter shock wondering if the Seto Kaiba she knew from school and her brother's dueling career had had a personality transplant or something. She wasn't the only one wondering about this – Seto was fuming internally at himself for this. Why had he agreed to go? It was practically guaranteed to blow his cover and then at least two of the people there, not including himself, would probably blow a fuse and after that the media would have a hay day.

Mai, completely unaware of the strange behavior she had just witnessed began to herd Serenity and 'Seth' down the street ahead of her. Tea trailed along next to them glancing at her wristwatch.

"Just out of curiosity, has anyone else here eaten lunch yet?" The rest of the group shook their heads. "Alright then, it's nearly twelve o'clock – why don't we grab a bite to eat before we head over to the arcade?"

"Alright."

"Sure."

Seto merely shrugged, feeling rather overwhelmed by the circumstances in general, but his apparent indifference was taken as a yes by the ringleaders of the situation.

"It's your turn to pick where we go this time, Serenity. Got any preferences?"

"Um," Serenity glanced nervously at Seto, who was walking silently next to her and brooding to himself behind his sunglasses, "How about Burger World? What do you think, Seth?"

Seto hid his grimace with a grin. You're not Kaiba for today – you're Seth and Seth would probably not mind going to a fast food restaurant, even if Kaiba would. Good Lord, at this rate I'm going to start having split personality issues every time I put on a pair of sunglasses and a hat. I should be getting an Oscar for this… or a discount for a psychiatrist. "That sounds great. I've never been to Burger World before."

"What? You poor deprived person!" exclaimed Tea jokingly, giving him a light, playful punch on the arm. "You don't know what you've been missing! Right then, Burger World it is!"

The group changed course slightly and crossed the street. The girls chatted about this and that, though Mai and Tea did most of the talking. Serenity was perfectly happy to just listen, for the most part, to her friends' conversation. It was what she normally would have done, even if she hadn't been in a slight daze due to the secret knowledge that she was walking next to the one and only Seto Kaiba minus the trench coat and duel disk. She couldn't believe that Mai and Tea hadn't realized who 'Seth' really was yet. Well, she couldn't blame them really – Serenity hadn't noticed until she'd knocked off his hat and sunglasses by accident. This thought led to the other thing that she had been wondering about – why was Kaiba gallivanting around the city n street clothes and why was he playing along as the part of Seth? It was all starting to give her a bit of a head ache.

Curiosity finally got the better of Serenity's two friends and just as they arrived at the fast food restaurant the questions started.

"So, Seth," Mai began, "why haven't we seen you around before?"

Be polite, be polite, be polite, be polite. "Oh, I don't go to the local high school."

"Really? Do you go to a private school then?"

"Um, you could sort of say I'm home schooled."

"Interesting, then how did you meet our dear little Serenity?"

"In the park." He improvised as he followed the girls in. Mai and Tea found an empty booth by the window and quickly sat down on one side so that Serenity and Seto had no other option than to sit next to each other. There was silence as they each gave the menu a cursory glance and then gave the waitress their orders.

"How's dance been going, Tea?" asked Serenity hoping to change the subject and avoid having Mai or Tea further interrogate 'Seth.'

"Oh, pretty well, but the end of the year performance is coming up so everyone is getting sort of stressed out. It's getting a little nerve wracking. Speaking of nerve wracking, why wasn't Joey in school on Thursday or Friday?"

Serenity sighed.

"He had a bad cold but he was over it by this morning."

"Mm," Mai nodded in agreement as she took a sip of the soda the waitress had just brought. "He called me last night to apologize and tell me that he wouldn't be able to make it to dinner with me after all."

Seto observed the drink in front of him as a thoughtful silence descended on the little group. The liquid in his glass was brown and bubbly and was, at the moment, fizzing at him. What had it been called? Root beer or something like that. He'd only ordered it because he'd heard Mokuba talking about it once with great gusto and he had figured, why not? He would probably never set foot in a fast food place again. The bubbles reminded him of the champagne that most other CEOs seemed to drink at conferences and dinner parties. For some reason they always seemed particularly fond of drinking the stuff in front of him. Maybe they were trying to rub in the fact that he wasn't actually old enough to drink alcohol yet. He had no clue why they thought that that would bother him.

Raising his glass, Seto took a small sip of the soda and nearly choked on it. It took almost all his self control to swallow the painfully bubbly, sweet liquid and calmly set his glass back down again. Well, that had been about the same reaction he'd had to alcohol when he'd been allowed to try it at a New Years party when he was seven. People actually enjoyed drinking this stuff? It was disgusting!

Apparently his emotional mask was being affected by his casual clothes as well because Serenity glanced sideways at him and couldn't restrain a laugh.

"What is it, Seth? Haven't you had Root Beer before?" she asked still smiling. His face warmed with embarrassment.

"No," he mumbled wondering if it was really him talking. Maybe all of this was a dream and he'd wake up and find that everything was back to normal and he hadn't lost his mind. If this isn't a dream, I may have to invest in a straightjacket for myself.

The three girls were staring at him as if he'd just grown a second head. He shrugged and crossed his arms.

"My parents were health food fanatics."

"Oh," Tea gave him a sympathetic look, "mine, too. My mom threw a hissy fit when she found out that I had gotten a job here to help pay for my dance lessons. I mean, I wasn't even eating the food, just serving it to people and she still went nuts."

"And yet again, I am reminded of the joys of being able to live on my own." Mai leaned back and grinned at them. "You can never achieve true happiness until you have your own apartment."

This said, lunch arrived. Seto gave the cheeseburger that was set in front of him a dubious look. This was the sort of thing Mokuba enjoyed eating. Picking the thing up, he took a bite, this time prepared for any side effects which might ensue. Much to his surprise, it wasn't actually that bad. It was basically a hot sandwich on roll instead of normal bread with about twice the fat content of regular sandwich. He managed to eat about half of the burger and a few of the French fries which was more than he normally ate during any meal of the day.

Not long after, the group paid for their meal and headed out again, this time destined towards the Domino City arcade. The walk wasn't very far and there were a surprisingly small number of other people already there when they arrived. Due to the rather dark interior of the place, Seto was finally forced to remove his sunglasses and hope that the hat and clothes would be enough to keep his identity hidden. Mai and Tea didn't notice a thing. He and Serenity played a couple of battle games together at the insistence of Mai before Tea finally challenged Serenity to a game of DDR. Mai and Seto watched as the two girls took the stage and the music started. Seto's attention focused solely on Serenity, watching her lithe and graceful movements. Ugh, stupid hormones! This is the Mutt's sister I'm thinking about here! Wheeler and graceful are contradicting terms. Even so, with her eyes lit up like that she does look kind of cu- Argh! Note to self: order a straightjacket when I get home.

"So," Mai begin, startling Seto out of his internal battle against teenage hormones and what was becoming his split personality. "Should I be asking you what your intentions are towards my friend or should I leave that for her brother when you pick her up for your first date?"

"Wh- What?" Great gods, he was stammering! How would he ever be able to face his employees again? Maybe all he needed was a healthy dose of ominous trench coat to get himself back to normal….

Mai continued, completely unaware pf what was going through his mind.

"I mean, you and Serenity would be great together! I really don't know why she hasn't mentioned you to us before… unless you're already secretly dating." She raised an eyebrow at him and grinned.

"No! No, we're not," he corrected her hurriedly.

"Just checking." She looked thoughtful for a moment, once again watching the two figures dancing on stage. "You are single, right?"

"Yes."

"Then ask her out – she needs a boyfriend." Before Seto could respond to this, the music ended with Tea declared the victor and the two girls were bouncing towards them once more.

"Awesome!" said Mai as Tea and Serenity stopped in front of them. Seto opened his mouth as his clothes and hormones grappled for control of his larynx. The resulting comment was:

"I never knew you could dance like that, Serenity!" I hate my life and my hormones. Thank god only one person here actually knows who I am, though I'd prefer it if none of them knew who I was.

She blushed an endearing shade of pink.

"I took ballet lessons for a little while when I was living with my mom."

"Well, you're really good." Okay, I'm officially a sucker for those blushes of hers – they almost have the same effect as Mokuba's puppy dog eyes. Who needs straightjackets? I think I'll just slit my wrists when I get home….

"Anybody else up for a game of DDR?" asked Tea eagerly. It was, after all, her favorite game in the arcade. She gave Mai a pleading look.

"Oh, alright, friendship girl – you're on!"

"Yeah! And quit calling me friendship girl!" she added as an after thought.

"You brought it on your self. If you didn't do all those friendship speeches of yours, the name never would have occurred to me."

"Well, maybe if someone actually listened to me once in a while, I wouldn't have to!" Tea snapped back good naturedly. They left, leaving Seto and Serenity alone together. The two teens glanced at each other and then quickly away again as the music for Tea and Mai's match started. Seto, who had simply given up battling his hormones for the time being, was contemplating what Mai had meant when she said that Serenity needed a boyfriend. Serenity was thinking about the compliment he had given her. They kept sneaking curious glances at each other, each wondering if the other was going to break the silence – neither did.

When Mai and Tea's match ended, with Tea once again the victor, they all trooped outside. It was starting to get late and Serenity said that she needed to be getting home.

"So, will we be seeing you again next Saturday, Seth?" Mai asked casually. Seto shrugged.

"I don't know." As he said this, Mai suddenly pulled Serenity aside and whispered something in her ear.

"What? Mai! No!" the younger girl gasped.

"Well, it was very nice to meet you, Seth." Tea gave him a bright smile. The feeling is not mutual, Gardener.

"It nice to meet you, too, Tea." Somebody give me a bucket – I think I'm going to throw up!

To his right, Seto saw Mai give Serenity a shove in his direction and heard the older girl saying, "Yes, you can!"

Serenity approached him hesitantly. She gave him an awkward smile.

"Well, Seth, I really had fun today. Maybe we could do this again sometime." She paused for a moment as if summing up all of her courage and then stood on tiptoe and gave him a quick, brushing kiss on the cheek. Her face turned crimson. "See you later then, bye!" And she dashed off in the other direction. With a quick wave goodbye, the other two dashed off as well after the younger girl, Mai yelling:

"Wait! Serenity! I was going to give you a lift home – remember?!?"

Seto stood frozen in place, a vague smile on his face. Maybe having split personalities or an alter ego or whatever, wasn't so bad after all.

--

"Good job, Serenity! I can't believe you actually did that!" exclaimed Tea from the back seat of Mai's car.

"Neither can I," mumbled Serenity, whose face was still bright red. Next to her in the driver's seat, Mai grinned.

"See? I told you that there was a guy out there for you – you just didn't believe me! And Seth is one hundred times better than Kaiba any day of the week!"

Serenity had to cover her mouth to hide the widening smile on her face.

"You really think so?"

"What? Compared to that creep? There's no contest!"

"Yeah!" agreed Tea as the car stopped in front of Serenity's townhouse so that the auburn haired girl could get out.

"See you on Monday!" She waved as her friends drove off and then ran inside and laughed until she cried.

A/N: Hehehe – I enjoyed writing that! If you're wondering if clothes can really have that much effect on your personality – yes, they can and I speak from personal experience! Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed the story and thanks for reading! Keep an eye out – I think I'm going to do a sequel or two to this! ;P