Disclaimer: Summary taken from the title of an Lj-community, playthedamncard. YuGiOh and all related characters are copyrighted to Kazuki Takahashi as of 1996 and are not my own.

So. This turned out kind of… long. Thus, I think you should think of it as yet another badly chaptered story, or as a series of one shots working towards a final point. Some bits flow a lot better than others. For now, here's "part one" of the future.

Play the Damn Card.

"I guess we all do have something in common…"

- Robin Williams, "Hook".

The fight has always been the same except that for over a decade or so, they haven't really bothered with arenas or staging or setting up huge, over developed tournaments.

The thrill had gone out of that once Duel Disks started becoming usable in a home environment and everyone started duelling in their own living rooms instead of taking their duel disks out on the streets. This whole country was getting so damn insular these days.

'I summon the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon to the field by activating my Return from the Different Dimension…'

'I knew you were going to do that.'

Seto stopped, looking only vaguely irritated as he turned the slightly-dog eared card over. He was starting to regret having left it inside that glass case in the academy for such a long time, but the dog eared edges remained the same. He used to change them regularly, whenever one began to look slightly less than newly cut. Not anymore, though. 'Sure, Mutou. Just keep telling yourself that. Maybe one day you'll believe it.'

Yugi rubbed his eyes. Kaiba had never used to consider it, but the text they put on the Duel Cards was really ridiculously small. 'Kaiba, you always play the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon when you activate Return from The Different Dimension. You've been playing Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon by activating Return from the Different Dimension for the last ten years; it's already a standard move for the kids in the academy.'

They didn't make the Blue Eyes the way they used to, anyway. Not since they brought it back into production. Plus the design has changed twice in the last twenty years and now the older version won't even work on the new edition duel disks. He honestly wished Pegasus would quit messing with his own classics, already.

'Well if it's such a standard, why did it catch you out?'

'Well I never said it wasn't a good move.'

'Glad you think so. Do you have anything up your sleeves to counter that particular move?'

'Hm. No, right now.'

Kaiba's eyes narrowed in on him. 'You're bluffing.'

'Perhaps I am, but then again, Kaiba, you should know.'

'Just play your cards already. Let's get your pain over and done with as quickly as possible.'

'I don't think it works that way. I've been living with the pain for the last ten years. That's what you get for running around the world duelling and making monumental discoveries concerning ancient Egypt.'

'That wasn't the kind of pain I was referring too.'

'I know, but I think my answer's the same, either way. I end my turn.'

'What do you mean, you end your turn?'

Kaiba kept his voice firm and steady but internally he was all but exploding. Yugi must have been getting used to this, or something, however, because the expression on his face hadn't changed and his hand still lay where it had fallen, placed firmly atop his deck. All around them, viewers were stirring and trembling and whispering beneath their breaths.

'I mean I'm surrendering,' Yugi said, glancing suggestively in the direction of his hand, as if the words alone weren't clear enough.

'Bullshit. I'm on a hundred life points, for god's sakes, finish this!'

'Like I said, I am finishing it, Kaiba,' Yugi said, softly, staring at him as if that fact were totally obvious. 'Look. I'm surrendering the duel. That usually means its over, doesn't it?'

Kaiba was fairly sure he didn't appreciate Yugi's new found ability to use sarcasm. In fact, he wished it would go back to the tomb with the pharaoh who had planted it.

'Don't you dare patronize me in this way, Yugi. If we're going to duel then we duel to the finish.'

'It is the finish. One more move won't make a difference and I'm not trying to patronize you,' Yugi said.

Kaiba's grip tightened on the cards in his hand. He didn't notice how tight they were becoming until he saw them bleeding. Mokuba was watching from the side of the arena, face almost as white as Kaiba's face. 'You're manipulating circumstances, for crying out loud!'

'I'm not trying to do that either, I just…' Yugi pulled his deck up into his hands. '…I don't want this anymore. I don't want a title that… that only means anything to you, Kaiba. I don't want to spend the rest of my life fighting you for it. That's not me. That's not my life and it's not the life I want. Please, Kaiba. Don't make me.'

He waited, for a second, allowing that phrase to sink in. 'Does this look like it's all for my entertainment, Mutou? There's a crowd watching here, and you're just going to let them down by walking off?'

Yugi turned around on the platform and the crowd began seething once again, their movement a constant hum in –Kaiba imagines, because surely it can't be his alone– both their brains. 'They're not interested in titles, Kaiba. You know that. It's just the politics of the playground, really. "Can my hero beat your hero?" No offence intended at all, everyone,' Yugi added, glancing upwards into the crowd. Most of them hadn't seemed to hear him. However, they were all too busy whispering amongst themselves how this was just like the fight between two other famous duellists earlier in the year, only better. Yugi looked, quite frankly, tired of it all.

Down on the right hand side of the platform, Bakura Ryou was shuffling his feel while Tristan picked at the cuff of his shift. Both were smiling at Yugi in a way that was almost sad, in comparison to their usual vibrant cheering. It seemed a little different, without Wheeler and Téa. The kind of difference that Kaiba wouldn't even have noticed if they'd actually been present and not off doing something else in some other corner of the country. Kaiba hadn't bothered to find out what, exactly. Why should he bother?

'What'll you do afterwards, anyway?' Yugi asked while looking back up at him. 'Will you just… take it as that and let it be, Kaiba? If I keep going and… and win against you again, right here right now, will this be the last tournament you stage? The last battle we ever fight?' Yugi gazed faintly at Kaiba's stunned face. 'I wanted to ask you,' he said, 'before we came out here… but I didn't. I thought it sounded silly at the time, but I guess now it doesn't matter, so I will… I wanted to ask you: when does all this really end anyway, Kaiba?' Yugi picked at the edges of the two cards in his hand. Seto wondered what they were hiding. He wondered what strategy could still be necessary, even while Yugi had him hovering in limbo on one hundred life points and…

And why the hell wouldn't he play a single damn card?

'…This battle won't ever be over, Yugi.' Not until the day I win it.

Yugi smiled again, reaching out to carefully gather the cards from his side of the field. The dark Magician Girl shimmers out of existence like a holographic ghost. Then he descended quickly from the platform and starting walking over to join his two friends.

The look on his face… Kaiba had seen it once before, about five years ago. The look he saw when Yugi won a duel and killed a Pharaoh.

'I know it won't, Kaiba. Or at least, it won't ever end if we keep on doing it this way.'

And that was where he left Kaiba standing, enraged and bewildered, in the middle of a crowd of watching duellists who had come to see a battle of champions, which had finally ended in surrender.

'You honestly think I'm going to fall for that, don't you?'

Kaiba pointed at the face down card located right in the middle of Yugi's side of the tabletop arena. Yugi didn't answer but really, the silence was answer enough. 'You do, don't you? You think I don't know you well enough to know that is definitely not a trap card.'

'It isn't?' Yugi asked innocently.

'Don't play game's Mutou.'

'But Kaiba, this is a ga—'

'Yugi…' Kaiba interrupted. 'It's not a trap card. I know it's not a trap card and this being you, Yugi, there is no way in hell I could ever have been fooled into thinking it was a trap card.'

You're quiet certain about that, Kaiba?' Yugi asked, in a voice that sounded far too much like an older, ancient version of Yugi's personality for comfort.

Kaiba snorted. 'Of course not. I'm just making a rather astute educated guess.'

'It's a good guess, really.'

'I thought it would be,' Kaiba smirked a little drawing from his deck and preparing to beat the definitely-not-a-trap-card into oblivion.

'…I won't mention that new twitch which is suggesting otherwise, then,' Yugi piped.

'…What?!'

Seto Kaiba had never known what to think about Bakura Ryou.

But then again, nor had he ever particularly cared about him, either. The boy should have been of no more importance to him now than he had been as a rival –a twisted, insane, quite possibly homicidal rival but still nothing much special as far as Duellists went– back in Battle City. How they had both ended up sitting on the walkway above the beach together that evening was something Seto had no interest in fathoming.

Though when he thought about it, Seto could vaguely consider the idea that the boy had been following him. Perhaps he should have called security.

And then –Gods forbid– Bakura had sat himself down far-too-carefully on the bench besides him. Knees together, hands resting atop of one another, and asked if he might join him. With that in mind, there was probably no getting rid of him. Seto sighed impatiently and let it be for a good few minutes while both of them sat and watched the ocean churning in a gentle breeze.

'You could always tell me what happened, if you're just so desperate to get it off your chest.'

When Bakura spoke it was as nervously as always, picking at the cotton of his shirt in a blindingly obvious attempt at faking nonchalance. 'Oh. I… well, no. Nothing happened.'

'Of course it didn't,' Kaiba muttered. Whether something did happen or didn't wasn't really his concern but he did feel slightly annoyed that the boy should decide to interrupt his scheduled walking hour if it really was just for "nothing". 'You ran away before you had a chance to find out, didn't you?'

Bakura winced and Kaiba knew that he was right. The boy was remarkably easy to read, these days. Not like back in Battle City where you had no idea what the hell he was going to do next. 'Who was it you let down this time, then?' he asked, feeling only vaguely intrigued. 'Gardner? Wheeler? Or probably Mutou, since he's the least likely to give up on you in a hurry.'

Bakura didn't answer. Another good reason for Kaiba to assume that he was right. sometimes Yugi was just so patiently gullible Kaiba didn't know whether to laugh at him or scorn his naiveté.

Kaiba was starting to understand, now, the exact circumstances of Bakura's lack of sanity. That none of it was Bakura's fault. At least not in any legal, non-religious way. Not that he didn't cause enough damn trouble for his mere presence here to bug Kaiba mercilessly anyway.

Still, Kaiba understood the difference between insanity and sadism, despite how often people tried to group-classify the two. This, along with Yugi's not-so-gentle prodding, was probably the only reason Kaiba hadn't call up to have the boy committed to an asylum somewhere with the highest security the state could offer the moment they landed back in Domino after Battle City.

'I… I was wondering, Kaiba. Have you duelled with Yugi today?' Bakura asked, eventually. The company was uneasy enough without an attempt at small talk.

'Does it matter?'

'Ah.' Bakura nodded vaguely in understanding and Kaiba felt his muscles tighten just a little in the shoulder area. He all but willed them to relax before Bakura could notice. 'It's alright, you know,' Bakura said, gently, looking out into the water below them. 'It's just a game, after all. Winning really isn't everything.'

'I don't need your support, Bakura.'

'Oh… of course not. Only… It's funny really, isn't it?'

'Funny?'

Bakura shuffled. 'Well Yugi offered his support. To you, I mean. He's offered it a number of times,' he brushed aimlessly at the sand blowing up at them from the beach below. 'You never took him up on it, but… but I would. If I didn't…' he paused, thinking about something he really didn't need to think about. .

'If you didn't have to worry about going insane at the next opportunity for bloodshed?' Kaiba asked, and Bakura seemed to shrink a little inside himself. 'It's all over now, Bakura. Don't you get that? Anyone would think you thought you were going to up and kill someone at any given moment.'

'But… but that's just it. I still… I wonder, sometimes,' Bakura said, suddenly speaking far too quickly. Almost like that was something he was waiting for Seto to say, just so that he could respond in kind and elaborate on how pathetically true it was. 'I mean, I don't black out unexpectedly or… or vanish for hours and not know where I've been. Not anymore. I don't think. But I still remember him and what he did and… and people think I don't.'

He gazed at Seto firmly and Seto looked back out of the corner of an eye, strongly considering just calling for the Limo, stuff the ten minutes walk back to the mansion. 'So… it's a little strange. Because even with everything that's happened and everywhere we've been together and everything the spirit did to them… they still all treat me the same way they always did.'

'And this is a bad thing… because why?' Seto asked, bluntly. Bakura blinked.

'I beg your pardon?'

'Oh, can the British manners and civility, Ryou. Lesser fools than Yugi and Co would've at least spent the rest of their lives avoiding a person like you, after seeing what you were capable of.' Seto said, evenly. 'And that's only the very least of it. At worst, you could've been committed to the nearest mental institution and left there for the rest of your life. You should count your Lucky Stars, Bakura..' Though God only knew why he still had any.

'I see…' Bakura said softly, in a voice that suggested he didn't really understand at all.

'You want them as your friends,' Seto said. 'I won't pretend to respect it for a moment, but I also won't pretend to make sense of your cowardice concerning it. It's been three years already. Quit cowering in your own fear already, Ryou, and just take what you want while it's still being offered.'

'You would know what I want?' Bakura asked, softly.

'Believe it or not, I think I do. You want to start to be the person you want to be instead of just some half crazy fool with a patched up memory. But then, that isn't the person you really are, after all.'

Bakura stayed quiet for a very long time. No doubt letting Seto's words sink into that far-too-thoughtful head of his. Eventually, though, just as Kaiba was getting ready to leave, Bakura spoke again.

'You mean… you mean like you did, Kaiba?' he asked him, without as much as a trace of sarcasm.

'You're the one who told me that winning isn't everything, Bakura. Why don't you tell me the answer to that one?'

And then Seto Kaiba got to his feet and strode away without giving him the opportunity.

That'sthe first bit done, then. Reviews and concrit are both much appreciated.