I am astonished it is already Seto Kaiba's birthday! Oh, thank gosh I had an idea for him already, and can now post it! By the way, if you squint a little, I think you might find there's Jou x Kaiba, but I don't know, maybe it is just a mirage, or… implied. Well, enjoy!

Yuugiou is © Kazuki Takahashi

'Picturesque' is KCN-chan since October 25, 2004.

One-Shot. "Picturesque" by KCN-chan.

My birthday. A time to celebrate the day I was born. Receive gifts from acquaintances, and anonymous admirers, fans, executives, basically everyone that wants a piece of me, or my company…

Unfortunately, this day has pretty much been marked as every other day of the year. I am always receiving gifts for no reason, not that I object; I give most to Mokuba anyways, who makes good use of the items.

So, you can understand why today is of no importance to me.

I can't remember a day that I actually looked forward to my birthday since Gozaburo entered my life. The feeling of wanting little treasures from family, and friends has long since disappeared from my memory. I cannot even remember the gifts I received from my mother, and father.

All I know is that I was always happy at this time of the year, since they would always go all out for me. They would put up a huge Blue-Eyes White Dragon banner in the living room of our average size house, and it would take up a whole wall. On both ends would be my favorite dragons, with the third, and forth placed above, and below the words 'Happy Birthday Seto'. The room would have confetti flying everywhere, due to the many fans placed around the room, producing the winds to keep them that way; an ingenious idea father came up with. And my presents would be all over the place within the room, as well as those presenting them to me — my friends, and family at that time. To make it even better, the cake was always different, but it always had my favorite dragon type monster figure on it — and the cake was always delicious, home baked by mother…

In that time, only a few of my wonderful birthdays had been shared with Mokuba, and he barely remembers them. He sometimes asked me about them, and I did tell him as much as I could remember before our parents died.

But then Gozaburo entered my life, and I had forced Mokuba, and myself in to his life when we had been in the orphanage — the worst decision of my life. And since then, my memories have become bitter, and fewer.

Yet, despite how I feel towards today, my little brother makes it a point to remind me that today is special, and that I should look forward to it always, since I'll only be this new age for one more year. That I am becoming an adult, and my teen years will leave me.

… I don't sound like myself. Today always makes me solemn. It's hard to keep my emotionless mask on when today is one of those particularly vivid remembering-the-past days.

Mokuba smiled happily as he finished wrapping up his gift for his big brother, and added a blue ribbon to make it complete. The wrapping was decorated with Duel Monster dragon's from Yuugi's grandfather's game shop. And now all he had to do was see what everyone else had opted to give his brother for a birthday gift.

'They had better thought of something with real meaning behind their gifts, or big brother will over-react for telling them of his birthday.' Mokuba thought, suppressing a nervous laughter. 'He can get really angry.'

Ignoring the feeling of uncertainty, Mokuba left his bedroom, and asked the nearest maid to inform his brother that he had promised to meet him at the Domino School for his gift.

Which Kaiba kept his promise to, and was driven to his school just as the evening was getting dark, when the students were all home… at least, most of them.

A few familiar people were currently standing near an outside wall where a bunch of murals were placed. Who just happened to be the group he really didn't expect to see with his brother — when he was to celebrate his birthday to a certain degree secretly with Mokuba.

Kaiba walked closer, and was right — it was the group he had come accustomed to seeing not only at school, but also at every dueling tournament, and whatnot. The only people that were missing were the blond mutt's sister who had gone back home, and the cheerleader that had left for a year of dancing.

The sight of them was peculiar, unless…

"What are they doing here?" Kaiba asked while suppressing his angry tone, and kept his hard cerulean-eyed stare on his brother.

"I invited them." Mokuba smiled confidently, and held out his gift. "For you big brother!"

Kaiba would've said something, had he not noticed the nicely wrapped gift, and the cheerful look in his brother's eyes. 'I need a resolve against that look.' Kaiba thought as he sighed, taking the present, and carefully unwrapped it, considering he liked the gift-wrap too much.

It turned out to be a huge multi-picture frame with a few photo's placed neatly inside it. One was of just Kaiba with his parents (he'd have to remember to ask Mokuba how he got that picture), and another with him holding Mokuba from behind, staring in to the camera, smiling happily — on Kaiba's sixth birthday — together. And the last one had a more recent photo of Kaiba simply standing beside a more grown up Mokuba who reached just below his shoulders in height. The last frame had no picture… and Jounouchi stepped forward with a camera.

"You've got so many photos, and you know what I've noticed?" Jounouchi asked, fiddling with the camera in interest — it was obviously new, and not his. "Of all the pictures your little brother has showed us, none have you, and us in it. That's insulting."

"I'd expect even someone with your low IQ to understand that in most cases, you don't usually take a photo with yourself, and those you rather not hang around with." Kaiba responded.

"But, I mean, over the years, we've had our differences, but… ain't we just a little closer compared to before?" The blond duelist asked, holding up the camera after turning it on successfully. "In the end, you're always around wherever we are, on purpose, or not. You're still a jerk you know, but you're getting better… except with the dog jokes, moneybags."

Kaiba didn't want to hear this — the blond rival of his was definitely no friend — from Jounouchi, or any of the others.

"We propose the idea of taking a picture of all of us standing together." Yuugi smiled, setting the camera on a nearby bench, and put the timer on, waiting for everyone to be ready.

"No. Definitely not." Kaiba replied, only to be forced by everyone, including Mokuba — the traitor — against the wall of the school right in front of a newly painted mural, which was covered by a large beige tarp.

As Yuugi put his finger just over the button — careful not to press down on it just yet — everyone got in positions, and Jounouchi quickly pulled down the tarp as Kaiba continued to protest, only to earn a dark look from Mokuba that was almost an exact duplicate of Kaiba's own cold glare.

"Fine." Kaiba said quietly, keeping his narrow gaze as he stared at the camera with suppressed anger.

Jounouchi smiled happily as he stood beside Kaiba, and shouted for Yuugi to run in to the picture, which is exactly what the tri-haired teen did. And much to Kaiba's horror, the small duelist had set it to take quite a few pictures, which amused Mokuba, knowing a few shots would have Kaiba looking shocked.

"We won't stop till you smile moneybags." Jounouchi grinned, starting a silent battle between the two as the blond teen began to make funny faces for the camera, which the others soon followed in doing.

It had taken exactly a whole half an hour till Kaiba couldn't take it anymore, and smiled reluctantly for the camera, but glared at anyone who dared to comment on it afterwards as they presented him with their gifts.

Although Kaiba knew all that they gave him could've been easily bought by himself, the idea of receiving them from people he knew well in comparison to anonymous gifts, was slightly heart warming, though he never showed it.

"And my gift is behind you moneybags." Jounouchi said, pointing to the uncovered mural that had been hidden behind the beige tarp before the picture taking.

Kaiba looked over, only to stare in shock at a hand painted mural unlike any other. On the right, left, top, and bottom were his favorite dragons, and the background was a dark sky with stars, seen over a blimp that had been used for part of Kaiba's tournament a long time ago. Standing on the blimp was everyone that had become significant to Kaiba; including his parents, though the way they were portrayed seemed ghostly.

"You did this, mutt?" Kaiba asked in disbelief after a few seconds of staring. "You painted all this?"

"Yup, I found out I had a talent in art!" Jounouchi announced proudly, slapping Kaiba on the back. "Moneybags, I bet you never knew I could be so good at something, eh?"

"You're no Michelangelo." Kaiba said, recomposing himself, then noticed the hurt look. "… Not that… that it wasn't a nice gift."

The blonde teen smiled at this, and began to laugh. "See? You are getting nicer, but you definitely need practice!"

"I doubt it mutt."

"Hey, don't name call!"

"Why should I do you a favor, pup?"

"I'm warning you!"

"I shall be prepared then."

"Shut up!"

"I don't think so dog."

"Kaiba!"

Mokuba beamed at how friendly Jounouchi, and his brother were — their arguing just didn't seem the same now, their tones proved that. He immediately decided that he knew exactly who he was going to invite to stay over tonight for what had previously been planned as an extra small, private party in case the earlier one had turned out horribly for Kaiba.

Maybe now, Seto Kaiba could truly enjoy his birthdays once more.

One-Shot Complete.

I know, the idea probably isn't working for you, or it was as dull as I feel it is, but oh well, it was forced out of me with no inspiration to follow, but perhaps I will come back, and spruce it up a bit!

Anyways, please review!