Love and Rivalry

Chapter 8

Kaiba's arms instinctively reached out to grab the person before they could hit the ground. When his fingers closed around fabric, he yanked back, sending the form falling back in the opposite direction. Kaiba used his body to stop their momentum with a thud and soon a small figure was leaning back into his chest. A figure that he could now tell had very womanly curves.

At first, Kaiba had reacted solely on impulse to stop the person from falling to the ground. But now with her pressing against his chest, it was easy for Kaiba to recognize that it was Aria who he had slammed into. With her so close, her scent drifted over Kaiba, and soon all he could smell was a light floral scent of lavender. He was tempted to put his nose in her hair and deeply breathe in the scent.

"You know, you really need to stop making it a habit of running into me or I might think you're doing it on purpose."

Kaiba snapped out of his reverie at the sound of her amused voice. Unwillingly, he let go of her arms and allowed her to step away from him to turn around. "Maybe you need to be more aware of where you're standing." He intended for the retort to come out biting, but it fell flat.

Aria gave him a knowing smile.

Mokuba poked his head around and lit up when he saw who Kaiba had bumped into. "Hi Aria!"

Aria broke her gaze with Kaiba and smiled over at the bushy haired kid. "Hey Mokuba, I didn't see you there."

"What are you doing here so late?"

Kaiba was wondering the same thing.

"Oh, I just lost track of the time," Aria replied. "I was actually rushing home, so I could get started on my studying."

"If you were rushing then why were you just standing outside the doors?" asked Kaiba with a raised brow.

Aria turned a little pink and looked down at her shoes. "Well...because I was in such a hurry, I kind of tripped coming out of the revolving doors, and when I had stood back up, that's when you came out."

Kaiba smirked at her obvious embarrassment. Although he loved seeing Aria with her eyes flashing in ire, he couldn't help but think that the meek and abashed Aria was pretty cute too.

"Anyways," she continued, "I better get going. Thanks for not letting me eat the sidewalk."

She turned to leave with a wave and started to walk away. Kaiba frantically tried to think of something to make her stay but was coming up empty. Fortunately, Mokuba intervened.

"Why not join Seto and I for our outing? It'll be much more fun if you come along."

Aria stopped and turned around, indecision showing clearly on her face. "That's nice of you to offer Mokuba, but I wouldn't want to impose on your family outing. And I really do have some studying I need to get to."

"I'm sure the studying can wait," Kaiba broke in before Aria could turn away again. He was going to kick himself for this later, but for right now, he didn't want her to leave just yet. "Mokuba could really use the spirited accompaniment, since, let's face it, I'm not exactly the life of the party."

Aria looked stunned at his pronouncement, but it soon turned into a wry smile. She looked back up the street as if contemplating whether or not to accept his offer. When she looked back, she peered into his eyes for a second then slowly nodded her head.

"Awesome!" cheered Mokuba. "Let's hop into the limo so we can decide where we're going." He ran over and threw open the door before hurrying inside.

Kaiba walked over to hold the door open, and with a sweep of his hand, signaled Aria to go in ahead of him. Not meeting his eyes, she shuffled over and climbed in, Kaiba followed close behind. When he sat down, he noticed that Mokuba had taken a seat on the bench that ran the length of the limo, leaving Aria to take the seat beside him. Kaiba didn't know whether to hug or throttle his brother for his meddling.