Once again, sorry for the delay! but in the spirit of Christmas, I forced myself to sit down and finish a chapter for you guys! Which reminds me;

MERRY CHRISTMAS
Or, if you don't celebrate Christmas
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Yay! Christmas time is here, horray! And my irish teacher gave me just what I needed; all my favourite Christmas carols... IN IRISH! Bleh!
Well actually... it is kinda cool, heehee XD At least she did something right this year!

So anyway, enjoy the chappy people! Ignore the really weird title XD

NOTE: I have not edited this in any way, so there's probably lots of typos! XD Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

"This is talking"
'These are thoughts'

Chapter Twenty - Sleeping in and Fish Teeth

"I say we poke him."

"You will do no such thing..."

"Oh... Okay... It's just... he's been sleeping forever."

"Forever needs five more minutes..." Seto thought sleepily as the voices at the edge of his mind began to pull him from quite a lovely dream involving lots of bombs, and all of them aimed at Ishizu. She'd been rambling on to him about tarot cards or destiny or something stupid, then threw a crystal ball at his head. He'd swatted in aside like an irritating fly, then ordered her to be taken prisoner and thrown in the dungeons (of where, he had no idea). The bombs had just come out of no where, but Seto had liked that little perk very much.

"Smiling in your sleep is one thing; smirking is another. He's kinda creepy, Ishizu."

"ISHIZU?! Crap!" He'd forgotten he was in that devil-woman's house! He stopped himself from leaping up at the last second, deciding to think about his situation first. It was always his way; take a deep breath, analyse the situation, then take the best coarse of action... as long as it didn't ruin his composer. One time, when he was young, he had just let one kid hit him, because he didn't want to look like an idiot jumping out of the way. He'd learned to dodge with style since then.

Now, though, he hadn't the foggiest clue how he could manage to look like the image of the powerful, confident CEO he had worked so hard to create. Nope, he just couldn't figure out a way to wake with style. Should he just sit up slowly without a word, get up, and leave the room? Nah, that had the 'cold-shoulder' aspect down, but even in his head it looked stupid. Getting up quickly was worse. Rolling off the sofa wasn't even an option. It was something little kids did! Plus he'd be crushing Yugi.

Yugi! He'd forgotten about him too!

Now that he was paying attention, fully awake but his eyes still closed, he wondered how he could forget. Even though he couldn't see him he could feel the child had abandoned his pillow and was clutching the front of Seto's shirt instead. He felt his face warm; great... just great! Here he was, trying to keep his reputation in the eyes of the one person who hadn't seen him acting like a maniac, and here he was cuddled up with a five-year-old on the sofa!

"Well wonderful, guess there's no point anymore..." he opened his eyes slowly and grimaced, the light from the sun shining right through the blinds covering the window and into his eyes. He cursed under his breath, but it was obviously loud enough, because Raine choose that moment to jump against the back of the sofa, jerking it forward slightly, and leaning down to his ear.

"Mmmmorning sleepy-head!"

Seto, forgetting himself, groaned loudly and lifted his arm up to cover his head.

"Raine, that was not a very polite thing to do to our guest."

"Lady Drugged..." Seto thought, going so far as to force spite into the voice of his thoughts. Great, what was she going to think of him now? He could just imagine (unfortunately);

"Oh my goodness Kaiba! A sign of immaturity! Clearly you were a child in your past lifetime!"

She probably would be air-headed enough to say something like that. Oh, she acts all smart, but when had she ever said anything even remotely intelligent? All she talked about was destiny! Destiny, destiny, destiny! And priests. And Pharaohs.

"Oh my God, she's crazy, isn't she?"

"Good morning Seto Kaiba, did you sleep well?" Ishizu offered politely, Raine quickly backing away when she spotted Yugi. In the spur of the moment she'd forgotten he was sleeping. He was now gripping tighter to Seto's shirt, groaning tiredly.

When he felt his face was awake enough to look scary, Seto moved his arm away and glared up at the woman with his cold blue eyes, "Like a very uncomfortable rock."

"It's sleep like a baby, swim like a rock." Raine corrected, but fell quiet when both Ishizu and Seto gave her stern looks. "Sheesh, what I do?" she muttered to herself.

Ishizu turned her attention back to Seto, "Well, that is unfortunate. Though if you had asked, I would have been more than happy to let you use the guest room."

The CEO scowled at her - no way would he EVER ask her for ANYTHING - then glanced down at Yugi. He was awake now, but still blinking blearily, unsure whether or not to wake up properly or go back to sleep. He gave the child a light poke in the shoulder, catching his attention, before moving to sit up. Yugi groaned and, rather than let go like Seto had hoped, he clung harder to the teens shirt and buried his face in it. "Yugi still sleepy..." he slurred tiredly.

"That's because you wouldn't go to sleep last night," Seto said, but his voice had no real bite in it. He placed his hands under Yugi's arms and pulled him away lightly, gaining nothing but a moan of protest from the child. He set him down next to him, but Yugi shuffled over and leaned against Seto sleepily. "Well isn't that peachy; he think I'm a frickin' pillow!"

A smile pulled at Ishizu's face, "It appears that Yugi has taken a liking to you, Kaiba."

"Well isn't that special?" Seto spat at her, getting up and letting the child slip to lie on the sofa, not too quickly so as to startle the child, but fast enough to make it look like he didn't care if he upset Yugi or not. It didn't seem to make a difference, the second Seto was gone Yugi was rubbing his eyes, trying to wake up.

"Someone's in a bad mood," Raine noted, folding her arms. "You'd think a little hibernating would have made him less grouchy."

"Seto..." Yugi moaned, still rubbing his eyes as he sat up. His hand had automatically reached out for the pillow he had dropped last night, and he started hugging it with one arm again.

Ishizu cleared her throat, silencing Seto before he could snap at Rain. Which was a good thing on Seto's part; it was too early to think of snarky comments. "With, regards to the curse..."

Seto narrowed his eyes, "You must be dumber than you look," he muttered, turning to look down at the child by his side, who was looking up with wide, questioning eyes at the word 'curse', "Yugi, go find Yami."

"But what is she talkin' about curses for?" Yugi asked, suddenly seeming far more awake. And worried. Clutching his pillow tightly he yelped, "Seto is dere a curse on me?!"

"No you idiot, she's talking about herself."

Ishizu and Rain exchanged confused glances, while Yugi's eyes snapped straight to Ishizu.

"She... She's cursed...?" Yugi asked, a slight hint of shock, but mostly awe, in his voice.

Seto felt a smile tug at his mouth, but managed to keep his face straight. Kids were so gullible. "That's right."

"What kind?"

Seto rolled his eyes. He'd hoped that hearing that the woman standing five feet away cursed would have a five-year-old running for the hills, or at least shaking a little, not staring at her like she was made of gold. "The bad kind," he said, reaching down and nudging Yugi lightly towards the door, "and it only works on kids, so you better get out of here before you... become.. a... fish..." he finished pathetically.

"A fish?!" Yugi exclaimed, turning now to look at Seto with sparkling eyes, "Really?!"

Seto blinked, "You... like that idea?"

Yugi nodded enthusiastically, "I always wanted to be a fishy!"

It took Seto a moment to digest this, "Why would you want to...?" he shook his head. Not the time, there were other people in the room. People who were probably laughing at him right now. "Go find Yami and tell him about the fish curse then."

"Ok!" Yugi exclaimed, turning and dashing towards the door, but not before stopping and staring curiously at Ishizu for a moment. Then he was gone, with only the sound of his feet padding on the wooden hall floor behind him.

Seto kept his eyes on the doorway for a moment to compose himself, then straightened up and folded his arms, "You were saying?" he said, his voice slightly straining at the sight of the smile on Ishizu's face, as well as the grin on Rain's.

Ishizu let him sit in silence for a second - just to let him soak in his embarrassment, Seto guessed - then continued, "As I was saying, regarding the curse that was placed on the Pharaoh and his companions-"

"It's always 'the Pharaoh and his companions', or 'Pharaoh and friends', or 'Pharaoh and those other people.'" Seto thought absently to himself.

"-It appears that Rain had found the correct instructions for the item," Ishizu glanced at Rain, "but hadn't followed them correctly." The younger girl grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of her head.

"Maybe she's got the hots for him." Seto made a face at that thought.

Ishizu blinked, "Kaiba, are you listening?"

"Where's my brother?" Seto asked, suddenly realising his brother wasn't in the room with them. He was wondering why he hadn't turned around and had to hide a jump as he normally did when Mokuba appeared by his side.

Rain rolled her eyes, "I guess that answers your question Ishizu..."

"She asked me a question? Uh... I'm... Coldly ignoring her. That's it." Seto tapped his finger off his arm, pretending to feel impatient that they hadn't answered his question. Actually, they hadn't answered his question yet. Now he really was kinda peeved. "... I need more sleep."

"Mokuba's holding the fort while we try and talk to you about de-chibi-fying your friends," Rain explained, gesturing with one hand while resting the other on her hip, "So maybe you could, you know, wake up and get your ears working?"

"She's annoying." Seto was really feeling out of character today. Luckily he was keeping all these comments to himself. "So what do you propose we do?"

"Kaiba!" Rain sighed loudly, "Ishizu already told you, we already have the potion recipe."

"I know that, idiot," Seto snapped. He didn't really, but he wasn't going to tell her that. "I mean how long will it take? What do we have to do?"

"Well, unfortunately, the instructions Rain was following are the correct ones," Ishizu explained, frowning, "but one of the ingredients is quite rare, and Rain used my supply up in her attempt to create the potion yesterday."

"So technically, you don't have a potion at all," Seto sneered. Yes! A slip up!

"No, it simply means we will have to alternate the final result." Ishizu corrects him, a slight hint of smugness in her voice. Oo, she knew what he'd been thinking… Weird woman. "It will work the same way, but the texture will be slightly different."

Seto didn't know what to say to that, so he settled on a good old reliable grunt, then asked, "So what do you want me to do? I'm hardly an expert in any of this hocus-pocus nonsense."

"You only say it's nonsense," Rain grinned, "because you don't understand it!"

"We would like you to take the Pharaoh-" Ishizu started.

"And his friends?"

"-and his friends-"

"Knew it."

"-out of the house while we create the potion." When Seto remained silent, she continued, "It will take an entire day to make, and the fewer distractions the better. It may seem simple, but this potion takes a great deal of concentration."

"A whole day?" Rain muttered. She's made hers in an hour max. "Well, guess that explains why it went wrong... I need to brush up on my hieroglyphs..."

"Can't you get you're best friend Kiko to do it?" Seto asked, but almost immediately added, "Fine, I'll take them out of the house. Mokuba could probably distract them long enough for you to make this 'potion'."

"Hey, don't leave it all up to poor Mokuba," Raine protested, "These kids are hard work!"

"And not my problem," Seto turned on his heal and headed towards the door, really wishing we was wearing his long trench coat to aid to his exit. He loved that jacket, it was just so... dramatic. It made statements, and not just fashion ones.

As he left the room and headed down the corridor he smirked, hearing Rain complain about him to Ishizu who, despite trying to sound indifferent, seemed to be a little annoyed with the thought of having him mind her brother and her precious Pharaoh for a whole day. Success; he's annoyed Lady Drugged. This day was starting to look good already.

"Fish?"

"Ya! She's got a curse!"

Yami didn't look convinced. He shuffled around a little to try and get more comfortable on the tiled kitchen floor, to no avail, before asking, "Where'd she get it from?"

"Uh..." Yugi paused for a moment and blinked, then looked up thoughtfully, "Hmm... I'm not sure... Maybe she was bitten by a fish!"

"Do fish have teeth?" Ryou asked as he sat down next to Yugi, helping to form a circle with the small group of children. Bakura was standing over beside Mokuba, who was looking in the fridge for food, and Marik, Téa and Joey had also joined Yami and Yugi on the floor.

"Of coarse they do silly!" Marik exclaimed, rolling his eyes, and head, enthusiastically, "Don't you know the song? One, two, three four five, once I caught a fish alive! Six, se-ven, eight nine ten, then I let him go again!"

"Why did you let him go?" Yugi sang along happily.

Marik grinned and threw out his hand. "Because he bit my finger so!"

"Which finger did it bite?" Téa joined in this time.

Marik poked his little finger on his left hand, "This little fin-ger on the right!"

All the children laughed and began to sing the song again, Yami fighting for main vocals and eventually winning. They had sung it about eight time by the time Seto entered the room, and merely glanced at the giggling group in confusion.

"Hey Seto!" Mokuba exclaimed, closing the fridge door, "I've been lookin' for breakfast, but I don't think these guys had been expecting nine visitors to pop up all of a sudden... Or to drink all their grape juice."

"I was thirsty!" Ryou beamed.

"So that's where all the shleour1 went..." Seto shook his head as Ryou giggled nervously, then looked at the group. "One, two, three, four, five, six... seven? Oh ya, Téa's there now..."

"Alright everyone," he said, stepping forward and looking at the circle of children, "we're leaving."

"WHAT?!" The group yelled in unison.

Now that, Seto hadn't expected.

"Well be coming back later." he said.

"No, it's not dat," Téa said, shaking her head, "It's just dat-"

"We're STARVING!" Bakura yelled, clutching his stomach and making a face. Thee was a chorus of 'ya's from the rest of the children, who all held their stomachs and frowned also.

"Come to think of it Seto, they've hardly eaten anything since yesterday morning." Mokuba said with a frown. "Man, with all the worry of losing Yugi I didn't even notice."

"You mean Lady-... Ishizu didn't feed them?" Seto winced at himself. How'd he nearly slip that one up?

Mokuba shook his head, apparently ignoring Seto's mistake. "She only showed up when you did. The only thing they've eaten is the candy Kiko gave them last night."

Seto groaned. Great, hungry children. "Ok, there's not enough food in this house for you," they looked just about ready to cry when he said that, "but the food here probably tastes terrible anyway. Let's go out and get something to eat in the city." "Oo!" Yami bounced to his feet and stumbled forward slightly, clenching his hands in front of him and beaming up at Seto, "Can we go to the arcade too?!"

Seto took one look at Yami's beaming smile and shining eyes and knew he couldn't say no. If he did, it could be painful. He shrugged, "I don't see why not." There was a collected cheer from the group as Seto turned to Mokuba.

"The arcade?" Mokuba asked, "Are you sure?"

"Did the chicken come first? No, I'm not sure, but we'll see. Now," the CEO stretched and looked down at the children, frowning. He turned back to Mokuba. "Uh... Think you can help me find fourteen different shoes?"

"Sixteen," Mokuba grinned, pointing at his own bare feet.

"Right..."

To Be Continued

1 It's sparkling grapejuice, don't know why Ryou would like it, but my sister does! XD

Well that was terrible random XD And terribly written, but kinda entertaining for me, hope ya liked! Please review and see ya next time!
Bay Bay!

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