It took an hour of cajoling before the door to Seto Kaiba's private hospital room opened again. And even then, it was solely the result of not wanting to disappoint Mokuba. He had obviously worked on his little surprise party for days. While Seto may have been immune to most persuasion tactics, very few could stand up to the power of his little brother's guilt-wrenching wibble.

The others seemed willing to forgive his initial entrance, and this time, sat silently as he made his way down the hall. Only Jonouchi muffled a snicker, and Honda quickly elbowed him. True, he found the idea of a pregnant Seto Kaiba waddling down the hallway in a mismatched combination of ill-fitting scrubs and an over-sized hospital gown absolutely hilarious. But he at least had the decency not to show it.

Everyone else just stared.

Seto held onto the egg as he lowered himself into the last remaining chair. He was surprisingly out of breath from the walk.

"Well?" he sputtered as he huffed.

The questions came at him with a fury.

"Is it actually true? Are you really pregnant?"

"Are you okay?"

"What's it like to have a dragon egg inside you?"

"Does it hurt?"

"Do you know if it's a boy dragon or a girl dragon yet?"

"Do you get weird cravings? My sister used to crave pickles."

"When are you due?"

"How is that thing going to come out? You can't exactly lay it, right?"

"Can I touch it?"

Seto waited until they all stopped talking at once. He took as deep a breath as he could.

"Yes. I am. I feel peachy, and if you believe that, I have virtual swampland to sell you in Indonesia. It's… you don't really want to know that. Sometimes, yes, it does hurt. It hurts right now. No, I don't know whether it's a boy or a girl and I don't think we'll be able to tell until it hatches. You have no idea. I've probably got about two more months, but we can't know for sure. And, of course not, mutt. Stop being a moron. It's going to require surgery."

"I knew that." Jonouchi glanced around. This earned him another soft elbow from Honda. There was still one more question on the table and Seto Kaiba paused for almost a minute before he answered it.

"… All right… If suppose you can touch it."

He pulled open the flaps of the hospital gown, revealing the round, swollen abdomen underneath. Ryou, always the curious one when it came to otherworldly phenomenon, went first. Seto rolled his eyes, but didn't flinch.

"It's… soft…" Ryou mumbled. He hadn't expected that.

Now, everyone else was curious as well.

"Woah, that doesn't feel natural…"

"I thought eggs were supposed to be hard." Honda pressed gently on Seto's left side.

"Dr. Wu said the actual shell will start to harden up more when the dragon inside is finished growing." Mokuba answered. "But for now…"

"For now, just be careful." Seto grunted. He pointedly closed the gown. "And I think that's quite enough of that."

"Well, you had us all really worried at that press conference." Yugi added. "So when Mokuba called and said he wanted to throw you a baby shower, of course, we said yes."

"So go ahead, big brother! Open up your presents!"

Seto glanced over at Mokuba. The boy was already juggling three boxes, trying his best not to drop them.

"All right. All right." He sighed, taking the first gift off the stack. Although he tried his best to remain aloof, he couldn't hide the thin smile that crossed his lips. Maybe it was one of those pregnancy mood swings, he thought to himself, but this was actually a nice surprise.

"Who's it from?" Mokuba asked, peeking at the tag on the side.

"This one is from Otogi and Honda." Seto read the tag, and proceeded to peel back the wrapping paper. Inside the box was set of three large baby bottles.

"We weren't exactly sure what you'd have to feed a newborn dragon." Otogi shrugged. "But we hoped these would be the right size."

"They're the same kind that are used to feed calves."

Seto studied them for a moment and set them aside. Those could prove to be very useful.

"Thank you."

Before he could lean over to pick up another box, Mokuba had passed him one.

"This one's from Yugi, big brother." He smiled. "And so are these."

Setting their constant rivalry aside for at least one more hour, Seto unwrapped the first present. It was a build-it-yourself feeding table, complete with metal bowls. The other boxes contained a mix of toys generally reserved for large dogs.

"The pet store's never seen a dragon before, but I thought you might want some toys for it to play with when it gets older. And the table's from Grandpa. He thought it might make it easier for you."

"… it might." Seto nodded. The thought of feeding the dragon was actually making him a little hungry. "If nothing else, the metal dishes will be easier to clean."

"Here's one from me. It's fragile, so be careful." Ryou passed a large box to Mokuba, who in turn, passed it to Seto. "If dragons are cold-blooded like other reptiles, they're going to need a good heat source. So I got you a whole box of special full spectrum light bulbs. They give off a greater spectrum of light than regular broad-spectrum bulbs, and that's essential for keeping reptiles healthy. Amane learned that the hard way when she started keeping snakes…"

"Even though I have ample space outdoors for my dragon to get plenty of natural sunlight, these are probably going to come in very handy."

"And there's a pair of chain mail gloves in there too." Ryou smiled. "I made them myself, as part of my latest live action role playing campaign. But you probably need them more than I do."

Seto thanked him, and soon found another gift in his hands, in the form of a small envelope.

"Mine's more for you… not the dragon." Anzu blushed. "I really wasn't sure what to get at first… but I figured after everything you're going through, you'd probably want this."

He peeled open the envelope.

"A Mother's Day Out gift card to the spa?" Seto blinked.

Jonouchi, Honda and Otogi all burst out laughing. Yugi and Ryou, however, thought the idea was rather cute. Mokuba was caught somewhere in between, and his face turned a bright shade of red.

"You know… to relax. My boss said that when she had her first kid, her back was killing her. So carrying an egg has got to be a huge strain."

"I'll keep that in mind." Seto passed the envelope to Mokuba. He was rather cold in his response to Anzu, refusing to admit that she was absolutely correct, but the look in his eyes betrayed him. It just screamed, 'Don't you dare lose this one! Not only am I going to use it, but I'm probably going to buy the whole damn spa! I have money, so I can do that sort of thing.'

"There's one more. And it's from Jonouchi."

He shook the box.

"This isn't a leash or something, is it, Mutt?"

"No. Just open it!" Jonouchi growled under his breath.

Seto did. When they all saw the pacifier inside, Seto wasn't the only one who raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Jonouchi looked around, ignoring the odd looks. "It's a binky. Everyone needs a binky."

"I'm having a dragon, not a little kid."

"Well, you might need a binky!"

"Trust me. It's not going to need, or want, this pathetic little pacifier."

"You don't know that!"

"Hey… Hey!" Anzu suddenly stepped between them. Knowing there was only one way to diffuse this situation peacefully, she quickly pulled out a knife. "That's all the presents. Now, who wants cake?"