I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of its characters. If I did, do you really think I'd waste my time talking to you about them instead of talking to them?

GO READ MY AN in chapter 3 if you have not already. If you have, keep reading here. :P

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Incidental Pyrotechnics

Incident Four: Short Twin Circuit

Fifth Period at Domino High, twenty-one minutes to bell. Library.

An icy pair of blue eyes flicked to the clock on the library wall, then focused back on the computer screen before them.

"Twenty-one minutes. Plenty of time," Seto Kaiba murmured, increasing his already rapid typing speed. Pages of coding flew past his eyes as he transcribed the program even as fast as he conceived of it. Referring to a page of carefully laid-out notes and numbers, written in a precise hand on graph paper, Kaiba scrolled through his document with satisfaction. Again checking the clock, he allowed himself a minute to re-read a section of the program he was especially pleased with.

'Seto Kaiba, you're a genius,' he told himself inwardly, saving his progress and paging down to the end of the code with a few quick keyboard strokes. He took a sip from a nearly-untouched warm Coke, sitting all but forgotten on the desk before him, and began a new string of programming, now adding bells and whistles to the essential lines of the code. A smile tugged at his mouth, succeeding only in turning up one corner into a self- satisfied smirk.

A clamour in the doorway drew Kaiba's attention, and he sighed as two shocks of red and golden hair bobbed into the library, the smaller of the two darting energetically around its twin. Kaiba's fingers moved across the keyboard with renewed vigor as the pair of Yugis approached him.

"Hello, Kaiba. I didn't know you, too, have no class this period." Yami Yugi's tone was polite and crisp, and it was obvious to his listener that no malice was meant by his intrusion. Still, an interruption was an interruption, and Kaiba had to fight an urge to dismissively snap back at the spirit.

Yugi Motou, plainly in a good mood, grinned broadly at Kaiba as he followed his yami into the room. "Kaiba, why aren't you in the cafeteria? Yami and I just had an early lunch-we're gonna do our homework outside at noon break. You should'a joined us, it would've been fun!"

Kaiba replied tersely, his eyes fixed on his work. "Pharaoh, Motou, I have to finish this coding in the"-here he again glanced at the clock-"fifteen minutes I have left until my next class, because my client in Singapore needs to receive it in time for his deadline. If you'd like to run the risk of delaying this program, and consequently endangering my business deal, then by all means, do continue."

Yugi blinked at the conclusion of this statement, apparently startled that the world didn't share his good mood. Yami put up a finger to silence his hikari's intended comment, then replied to Kaiba more gravely than was suitable for the occasion. "Oh. I was not aware you were under so much pressure. Please, is there any way I can help you?"

Kaiba groaned inwardly. Some long-dead Egyptian kings just couldn't take a hint. "Leaving would be splendid," he deadpanned, opening another window and comparing its contents to the formula he was creating. Engrossed in the white-on-black screenful of text, Kaiba distractedly picked up his Coke, which he raised to his lips and drank from. He shook his head a little to clear it as he put the drink down, and because Yami remained, reading over his shoulder as the program neared completion, did not indulge in running his hands through his smooth, thick hair in weariness.

'At least Yugi's gotten distracted somewhere,' Kaiba consoled himself, as he replaced his hands on the keyboard and resumed typing. He was almost able to completely forget the presence of the Pharaoh reading over his shoulder, and several minutes later when he again moved to take a drink of Coke, hardly cared that Yami watched as he let a victorious smirk play at his lips. 'Done. This is going to seal the negotiations faster than you can say "partnership,"' Kaiba gloated mentally. 'Seto Kaiba, you are more than brilliant.'

As Kaiba tipped his head back again to drink, his left hand still dancing over the keyboard in the well-memorized keystroke sequence needed to save his work, Yugi bounded over to his aibou, crashing into Yami's back with an exclamation which in full would have run along the lines of "Guess what, Yami, I was just reading this magazine, and there's this cool new Duel Monsters card!" He didn't, however, get past the first five words.

In colliding with his yami, Yugi had caused the pharaoh to lurch forward. Because he was directly behind Seto's chair, and bent over slightly to see the computer screen, and because Kaiba had his head tilted back at that moment, drinking his Coke, when Yami was pushed forwards by Yugi's leap, he collided squarely with his rival's skull. Jarred out of his hand by the combined forces of Yami's impact and Seto's shock at being touched in the first place, KaibaCorp's beverage of choice landed on the keyboard in front of Kaiba. Its syrupy contents spilled instantly, coating the keyboard and dripping onto his knees before he had time to push his rolling chair away and out of the flow of liquid.

Yugi, draped over his yami's back with his arms around his neck and his feet off the ground, stopped short right in the middle of "just," and Yami stared in dismay (though his severe features translated that dismay into more of a "horrified" expression) as Kaiba gathered his wits and rolled his chair back to the desk. Ignoring the stickiness of the keys, the puddle of Coke on the floor under his feet, or the now-empty can that clattered loudly away as his chair wheel collided with it, Seto swiftly entered five key sequences, then cold-rebooted the computer. He then reached around behind the computer at the desk next to him and unplugged its keyboard; it whined shrilly in confusion. Turning it off to silence the noise, Kaiba unplugged the ruined keyboard from his own terminal, and plugged in the fresh one.

As the boot sequence flashed over the computer screen and the familiar, though not thoroughly comforting, whirr of the hard drive could be heard, Seto Kaiba slowly turned his chair and stood to face the pair of flame- haired teens. Yugi slid off of Yami's back and moved to stand by his side shamefully. With shoulders hunched and heads bowed as they were, the standing pair were barely half as tall as Kaiba, regally slender before them.

"Seto-" Yami began, his voice strewn with gravel and remorse.

The other's blue gaze flashed quickly and personally at Yami at use of his first name. Yami didn't notice it with his head bowed, and Kaiba quickly wiped the soft touch from his eyes.

"Kaiba-" echoed Yugi, looking up at the only pair of blue eyes he knew that could so believably impersonate steel.

Those eyes glared unfeelingly at both Motous. "Stop. Do you two have any idea what you may have just caused? If my quick thinking wasn't enough to save the files, nothing can recover them now. And if that's the case, my dear bright-headed boys, you two are going to pay dearly. If, however, the sequence I used worked, you two will still pay dearly, but at least you will have the comfort of knowing I might eventually be persuaded to forgive you. IF the files are safe, that is." Kaiba's gaze pierced the pair of duelists, and Yami commented to Yugi through their shared mind,

You are aware I've never known Seto Kaiba to forgive an offense this great, Yugi.

How long have you known him, Yami?

A long, long time.

I'll pray, aibou.

Kaiba opened his mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by a squeal from his computer. He spun around, quickly read the error message on the otherwise blank screen, and began typing, working his way to the source of the problem using DOS. Behind him, Yami and Yugi watched with bated breath as KaibaCorp's CEO delved into the network of computers that ran Domino High. A slight relaxation of the blue-eyed brown-haired teen's frame signaled to Yami that they had grounds to hope; a minute later, Kaiba addressed them as he continued working, his tone barely contained.

"Pharaoh, you have the most damnably persistent good luck I've ever seen. My quick thinking saved my program from being deleted or corrupted by your asinine mishap, but the server I saved it to collapsed because it couldn't handle communicating with this computer," he said, gesturing with his hand to the destroyed keyboard as he spoke. On the word "collapsed," both his listeners looked sharply at each other and back at the back of his head, Yugi's eyes going even rounder than they were, Yami's staying static but, to one who knew him, obviously betraying his shame at having caused Seto this trouble. Either unaware of their actions, or disregarding them, Kaiba continued.

"I am searching the file recovery depositories-for you laypeople, that would be the place where unfinished, unsaved documents are stored if some emergency like this occurs. Though I can't imagine its creators envisioning something this moronic occurring, the depository still served its purpose. My program is safe. I will go find the principal and demand he forbid any students using the computers until I have recovered it from the server, and you two will stay right here until I return. I'm not done with you."

With that, Kaiba rose from his chair and stalked towards the library door, his hands clenched in fists and his long gait betraying some degree of his anger. As he reached it, and a moment before he was about to step into the hallway, Joey Wheeler went zipping past him, trailing smoke from his blazing (and quickly disintegrating) apron, followed closely by Duke Devlin. Both were screaming-Devlin what sounded like a command you'd give a spaniel, and Joey some sort of statement of defiance.

Despite himself, his anger at the two flame-headed teens behind him, and his general aversion to losing his cool, Kaiba could not help himself from turning around to face Yami.

"Was that.?"

"Yes, Kaiba, that was Joey, on fire, followed by Duke. I think now would be a good time to assist them. I will return to take my blame for ruining your program. But right now, Joey needs me more than you." With that, Yami pushed past Kaiba and out the door and sprinted down the hallway, followed at a distance by Yugi, the Millennium Puzzle bouncing around on his petite chest as he chased his lanky, loping yami.

[] AN: As always, read and review, please! Thank the YGO cast for tolerating me all this goofiness, and PT and SW for letting me post! Review or no more updates!