Author's Note: Written for the lovely SilverDragon14 because she wanted a random pairing. What is this, Mastershipping? (I will never fail to be amazed by the shear magnitude of ship names. Oh YGO, you make everything amazing.) with very very brief mentions of Changeshipping and Thiefshipping.
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Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
He'd die before he ever told Kaiba that out loud, but hey, anything goes in your own mind, doesn't it? Otogi had always thought that Dungeon Dice Monsters would be so much better – epic, even – if he could just use Kaiba's hologram system instead of the pieced-together one he'd managed to finally come up with.
And it did. It looked fantastic. Real. He was in awe. He was standing there gaping, to be exact, while Kaiba watched him from the other side of the board, bemused. It was that look that said, 'I'm good, aren't I?' like the whole thing had been his idea, when in fact it had taken months of bargaining and subtle pleading and being blackmailed to hell to get the stuck-up asshole to agree to the damn thing.
Otogi had decided it was worth it, even if he had to deal with Kaiba's bullshit attitude. His game, his creation, his baby was perfect. Finally complete.
Kaiba cleared his throat. "Done staring, dice boy?"
A derisive snort was his only answer before the game began.
It worked like a dream, too. It wasn't just pretty and lifelike - it was flawless. Sure, he'd had to concede that – yes– it was just like Duel Monsters and Kaiba could just use the data from his other systems to show all the monsters, because they were the same ones, but he had to admit it was beautiful, and perfect, and—
"Did you just let me beat you?"
Otogi started. He'd gotten distracted again, meandering around his own head, too in awe of his creation to even pay attention to what he was doing. He frowned. Kaiba looked… disappointed. In an arrogant sort of way.
"No; why the hell would I do that?" When in doubt, always lie. Sometimes it worked. It definitely would if Kaiba was somehow not as intelligent as he said he was. Which he obviously was, because Kami, his game had turned out pretty.
This thought was closely followed by, 'damn, Kaiba's hot,' which gave him pause. Lengthy pause. Long enough to re-evaluate everything he'd ingested in the past twenty-four hours and come to the conclusion that, no, none of it had been alcoholic or mind-altering in any way he was aware of, so Malik must have put something in his coffee that morning. Possibly to shut him up about the game, possibly to get him out of the way while he and Bakura had hot sex on the kitchen table, whatever the reason, Otogi didn't want to be thinking about Kaiba's hotness, even though it was painfully obvious.
Especially so when he realized they'd just been having a conversation, and he didn't remember anything past his response to Kaiba's accusation about being allowed to win. Probably something about electronic monkeys or fried chicken. He really needed to keep better track of what his mouth was doing when his brain was disengaged.
Kaiba didn't seem particularly phased by his mental lapse, though, so maybe he hadn't said anything completely retarded. Or maybe the billionaire just expected that sort of idiot behavior from all the plebes
"It's been… interesting, working with you, Otogi." That was almost a compliment. He gave Kaiba a gold star for effort in his mind.
"Well, we're not through yet. With this set up, Dungeon Dice Monsters will be explosive. Might even sweep Duel Monsters out this little 'everyone's favorite game' nook it's stuck in." Plausibly coherent. He was doing better.
"Highly unlikely. But in the event that it does do well, an upgrade will certainly be necessary. And perhaps next time you'll be able to take your eyes off it long enough to actually play it." A not-so-subtle barb, but also a large amount of pride. He wondered what the other boy would say if he realized he could distract Otogi much more easily that that.
"Yeah, don't worry, I'll kick your ass next time, Kaiba." Cocky. He was rather proud of himself for managing it.
The return was no more than a highly infuriating superior smirk. Otogi quickly suppressed the urge to kiss the look away. Bad Ryuuji. Mustn't think about how pretty Seto would be all naked and sweaty and ravished. Mustn't think about having sex with him right here and now, about just pinning him up against the wall and stripping him of that barely possible trench coat and all those damn belts and—
Damn, he thought weakly, not really bothering to keep up with their continuing conversation anymore. New angle. Try not to blush.
This idea was similarly pointless. His cheeks felt hot. He caught Kaiba smirking again as they made their way towards the door.
"What?" Only slightly accusatory, and – praise Kami – not a squeak.
"You're blushing." Damn him for his nearly continuous deadpan existence. Didn't he ever get embarrassed?
"Am not." Again with the lying. Otogi was starting to think he was very poor at this.
You are. Why?" He was so going to get Malik if he ever got home. The evil Egyptian had probably planted these thoughts in his head while he was asleep for a laugh.
Ah, well, Otogi sighed inwardly. Not as if there's much use in lying anyways.
"I was thinking about how much I'd like to fuck you."
That essentially ended the conversation. When Otogi got home – considerably later than he had been planning on and significantly more pleased with himself than absolutely necessary – Malik was waiting up, startlingly cheerful as always, wanting to know if something had gone wrong with the game, or if Kaiba had been a jerk again. Otogi decided not to mention it all. The blonde would probably castrate him for it when he found out, but it would be worth it.