A/N: OK…Here goes nothing. I have a few comments I find important that you might want to look over before you read. Both Jou and Seto are what are called 'Plushofiles.' It can be a sexual kink, but isn't always. I was chatting with a friend and we brought up a pretty big point. I don't want anyone to think that Seto is sitting in his office during his brake humping a small stuffed animal. He is not sexually attracted to the animal whatsoever, but emotionally. It is the same with Jou. Thanks. Now you can read.

"Hey Yug!" Katsuya Jonouchi shouted from his bed, where he was currently flipping through a magazine.

Yugi stepped into the room and gulped as dozens of pairs of bright blue orbs stared back at him. "Ummm…Sorry Jou, but could we please go somewhere else? I'm still not used to your…condition." He eyed one of the objects on Jou's headboard.

Jou rolled his eyes and sat up. "It ain't a condition and it ain't an illness. It's an obsession. And it's called Plushophilia. I'm what's known as a Plushophile, or Plushie. That is because I have a love for a certain kind of stuffed animal. If I just loved all kinds of them, I would be a Plushaholic."

"I know that, but why dragons Jou? Especially ones with blue eyes! Someone might think you've got the hots for…Dare I say it…Kaiba!"

Jou grinned. "That's just stupid."

"Maybe so, but it's not impossible."

"Don't start talkin' ta me 'bout it bein' possible fer me ta form some kinda relationship with Kaiba. I might hurl. 'Sides, the only person Kaiba could love is himself."

"Oh…Why are you even lying down? You sick or something?"

"Yeah…I caught Blorch at the last convention."

"Blorch?"

"Yeah. It's kind of like the flu. Symptoms vary. It only seems to spread at Furry and Plushophilia conventions."

"Oh. That's…strange."

"Yeah…but it happens. Ah well, try not to worry too much about it. Let's go to the living room."

"No arguments here!"

When they got there, Jou dropped lazily into his favorite chair. "Still can't believe the stupid teacher paired me with Kaiba," Jou mumbled grumpily. "'snot fair. You got paired with someone yer comfy with. Especially with this topic."

Yugi giggled. "Yeah…I'm lucky I got Yami. We've been a couple for…gods…four months. Definitely comfy. 'Something you have in common with your partner.'"

"You're telling me you're lucky! You guys look exactly alike. So simple. What about me and Kaiba? What exactly do we have in common?"

"Well…let's brainstorm. You both have a younger sibling. You both have a rare dragon YuGiOh card. You are both really hard-headed. You both work hard to keep up good grades. You both-."

"Okay, Okay. Point taken. I'll try to make this work."

"There's my Jou."

As Kaiba stroked the soft fur of his plush puppy, he heard the door click and open. He pushed the small beanie-baby back into his desk and locked the drawer. Clicking out of the plushie chat-room he had been in, he turned his gaze to his visitor. "Hn. What do you want, Inu?"

Jou turned his gaze to the floor. "I-I waited 'till I knew ya'd be home. Much as I hate it, we gotta discuss our project."

"I have nothing in common with an Inu like you."

"That's what I thought too…Then Yug started brainstorming with me. We both have younger sibs, we both are really hard-headed, we both have rare dragon cards, and we both work hard at our grades."

"Hmmm…I suppose those facts are true." Seto leaned back in his chair, his icy look replaced with one of great thought. "We both…have painful pasts, we both have an interest in vehicles, and we both nearly match Motou's dueling skill."

"See! Now all we gotta do is pick one!"

"Hn…We can do that tomorrow, Inu. I still have work to get done."

"All right, but that will give us only a week to prepare our presentation and report."

"I will write the report, and you will make a presentation. It will be easier, faster and less painful for us to do it that way."

"Fine," Jou snapped brusquely, shutting the door angrily behind him.

After Jou had left, Seto took his plush puppy back out.Stroking the velvet fur again, Seto wiped away a tear. His puppy seriously didn't care. His puppy hated him.

When Jou walked into the kitchen the next morning to grab a quick breakfast, he was shocked to find his father knelt down in front of the fridge, digging fervently through its contents. Looking around, Jou saw a gift sitting on the table, along with a card. Jou could barely make out the words, 'Happy Birthday Jou!' on the envelope.

'Today's my birthday?' Jou checked through his mental calendar. 'Sure as hell; January 25th. And dad remembered before me! Maybe he really is trying to turn this thing around!' The thought made Jou's heart bubble up with joy.

He quietly tiptoed back out of the kitchen and up to his bedroom where he climbed back into his bed. He would wait for his dad to call him. His dad was finally trying to work things out, and Jou sure as hell wasn't about to fuck it up.

He only had to wait for about ten minutes.

"Hey! Boy! Git down here!"

"Comin' Dad!"

As Jou thudded down the stairs, he caught a whiff of burnt toast and burnt bacon. When he got to the kitchen, the blonde saw that the scrambled eggs were still runny.

It made his heart positively soar.

"Happy birthday, boy." His father stood at the other end of the table, watching his son. "I know the food ain't great, but-."

"It's perfect, Dad. Just perfect." The blonde stepped around the table and gave his dad a brief hug. "I love ya, Dad. Very much."

"Errm…Yeah. Yer not so bad yerself, boy." His dad patted the teen awkwardly on the back, and then cleared his throat. "Ahem…I got ya somethin'...It ain't much, but…" He didn't finish the sentence, but held out a badly wrapped gift and a card.

Jou carefully opened the card, making sure not to rip the envelope, and read:

Son,

You are the light of my life. You are the thing that keeps me going every day.

I hope you have a wonderful birthday.

Dad

Jou offered his dad a watery smile and threw his arms around the man in a bear-hug. After a moment's hesitation, his dad returned the hug.

When they parted, the older man looked down at the gift on the table. "Well…Open it, already."

Jou opened the package as carefully as he had the card. There was no way he was going to risk damage to any of these precious mementos.As the packaging came away, a leather shoulder-pack was left in its wake. It was all brown, and, printed on the flap that covered the front was the word 'Jonouchi' written in pretty gold script.

"I hope ya ain't embarrassed ta wear the name. Ya had ta have at least seven letters and I know ya don't like 'Katsuya', so-."

Jou cut his father off with another huge hug. "Never, Dad," he whispered. "I'd never be embarrassed to wear this name. I'm proud. I want you to remember that, Dad. I'm proud to wear your name."

His dad smiled, and then released his son. "Eat yer breakfast, boy."

Jou settled down and ate the burnt toast and bacon. He could even stand the runny eggs. When he finished he stood and took his dishes to the sink, intending to wash them.

"Don' worry 'bout it, boy. I'll get 'em. You go on up and dressed and ready for school."

Jou smiled and ran upstairs. After quickly showering and getting dressed, Jou transferred his school-books from his tattered, old backpack to his new one.

Going back downstairs, he gave his dad a good-bye hug and ran out the door, shouting behind him, "Later dad! Love you!"

Not expecting a reply, he blinked in surprise as, just as he was shutting the door, his father's gruff voice reached his ears. "See ya, boy. You too."

He couldn't resist the smile that curled across his lips. Or that the smile remained there through the entire walk to school.

When Yugi got to school, he saw Jou standing at his locker, waiting. "Hey, Jou! What's up?"

"Nothin'…Jus' got here early. I didn' have ta do any o' my normal chores this mornin'."

"Ah…Okay. See you in his-." Yugi eyes landed on Jou' leather shoulder-pack. "Wow! Where'd you get that pack?"

Jou smiled widely. "My dad. My dad gave it to me for my birthday this morning."

"Oh! Jou, that's wonderful! I'm so happy for you!" Yugi traced his small index finger over the golden name. "It's beautiful, Man. Brown and gold-gold hair, brown eyes. Perfect!"

"Thanks, Yug. Well…there's da bell. Gotta git ta class." Jou turned and strolled toward his Human Relations Class. The class that he shared with Kaiba.When he got to class, the blonde carefully placed his precious new pack on his desk and wiped off a smudge that had appeared on the 'c' in his name.

The first thirty minutes of the class were long and boring, as they usually were. Jou dozed off three times, had four different daydreams, and stroked the white dragon hidden in his brand new pack on seven different occasions. The last half-hour, however, was different. Everyone was told to pair off into their groups for their projects. They would be working on their 'in common' assignments

Jou had just settled down next to Seto and had pulled out the list he'd made of things that they could write about, when the brunette's beeper went off to the annoyingly loud tune of 'Halleluiah'. Seto gritted his teeth and stood up. Strolling toward the teacher, he silenced the noise.After a few words of explanation from Seto and a frustrated gesture from the teacher, the icy CEO was gone.

Jou sighed and looked around himself. Everyone else in the room was having a grand old time. The teacher had put his students with people he knew would enjoy working together. Everyone except for Seto and Jou. The teacher had put them together for an obvious reason: they hated each other. The young teen didn't know why, but the asshole 'sensei' must have hated them.

At the front of the classroom, the so-called 'asshole sensei' was watching the young teen. Jou was scowling down at his desk, his thoughts obvious to an observant onlooker.

"You can't keep on thinking like that, Jou," he whispered. "You'll never figure it out." The teacher was an activist against prejudice, and he was hopeful that putting two Plushophiles together would get some good results. On several occasions, he had seen Kaiba stroking a little, golden puppy and Jonouchi doing the same with a beautiful, white dragon. The two teens had very few things in common, apart from that, and he had hoped that since they were both hard-headed and strong-willed, they wouldn't be scared to write about it. But if they couldn't get along enough to figure it out, then he would probably end up with some half-assed report on their younger siblings or a duel-monsters card.

When Jou saw the brown leather briefcase sitting on the desk next to him, the blonde let out a hissing sigh.'Great…now the asshole will expect me to retrieve it for him. I can just see him. 'Oh Good. The Inu knows how to fetch.' Asshole.'

At the end of class, Jou took hold of the briefcase when he stood up. 'Damn! This thing is heavy! What da hell does he have in here?' Deciding he would ask the teacher the question that had been swirling around in his mind for the past two days, Jou waited until everyone had left before approaching his Sensei. "Sensei…Why did you pair me up with Kaiba?" he asked. The blonde was known for being straightforward. There was no point in being secretive or sneaky, from his point of view.

"Ohayo, Jou. I saw your name on the billboard earlier. Happy birthday."

"Domo Arigato, Sensei. But you didn't answer my question. Why did you pair us up?"

"Hmmm…You two are quite alike. There is one thing in particular that I'm hoping you will write about."

"What's that, sensei?" Jou asked, intrigued. What was this teacher getting at?

Instead of answering, the teacher turned his head toward the briefcase. "I wonder what secrets you could find out about Mr. Kaiba in there…" With a noise somewhere between frustration and bewilderment, Jou turned and stomped out of the classroom. "Nice shoulder-pack by the way…" Jou caught the random phrase about ten steps from the door

'Jesus Christ…Sometimes I'd swear that teacher isn't all there,' Jou thought bemusedly as he tramped down the hall.

By the end of the day, Jou had decided that the briefcase was just too damned heavy to walk all the way to the Kaiba Mansion, so he took the bus instead. As the bus rumbled along at an agonizingly slow pace, Jou found himself more and more tempted to find out just why Kaiba's briefcase weighed a ton. Finally, his curiosity became too much to bear. Looking at the combination lock, he thought of possible codes. 'Hmmm…his birthday? 10/25/80. He keyed this in and heard no satisfying click to tell him he had gotten it. "Ok…Mokie's birthday? 07/07/90.' After typing this in and still not unlocking it, he nearly gave up. Then it hit him. "Blue Eyes' numbers! Eight stars, 3000 attack points, and 2500 Defense Points! 08/30/25!" When the lock sprang open, Jou gave an impish grin. 'And Kaiba calls me stupid? That code is way too simple.'

As he rummaged through the numerous stacks of papers, he found nothing of interest, and nothing to make the case as heavy as it was. It was a simple briefcase. Nothing more, nothing less. Jou could admire the interior though. Running his hand over the velvet cloth that lined the inner walls, he felt his hand hit something hard. Pulling back the small lip of maroon cloth, he revealed a zipper. Unzipping the pocket, he pulled out two things: a small, plush beanie baby golden puppy and a remarkably thin white laptop. The chassis was about as thick as a ! credit card. Printed across the top of the laptop in bold black lettering was the word 'PLUSH.'

"Plush? What is that supposed to mean-?" His question was cut off by a sudden thought. 'No way. Not a chance. Not a snowballs hope in hell."

When the laptop had booted, Jou froze. He had only three icons on his desktop: 'Internet Explorer', 'My Documents', and something called 'Plushchat Documents'.Skipping over Explorer and My Documents, Jou opened Plushchat

"No fucking way."