Title: Sugar and Spice

Author: Satanic Mechanic

Rating: PG-13

Pairing(s): Seto/Jou, slight Otogi/Honda

Beta: Jennie

Spoilers: None

Summary: A baking contest turns Domino High into a competitive frenzy.
What effect will this have on everyone's favorite CEO and a certain
underdog in the competition?

"We should have stayed longer. I bet you would have had fun."

"I find that highly unlikely."

"You like Yugi, right? You should make friends with him."

"I don't think so."

"Come on, I know you respect him a lot, you just don't want to admit it."

"Whatever."

"What about Jounouchi? You guys seem to be getting along lately, maybe you should be friends with him."

"If 'getting along' means not killing each other, then yes, I suppose we are. It's only a temporary truce."

"Still, it's better than it was before."

"I suppose."

"You should make friends with him." Mokuba pleaded his case again.

"Why the sudden interest in finding me a play-mate?" Seto looked away from the road for a moment to regard his brother in the passenger seat next to him.

"Well, I dunno. When I see Yugi and Jou, and Anzu…they all looks so happy together. I just want you to have something like that," Mokuba commented softly. Seto felt a twinge of guilt at the statement. He didn't mind it really, working insane hours, putting his personal life aside for the good of his company; he had already gotten so used to it. But hearing that it was making his brother upset made him think that maybe there was room for a bit of change.

"Well, Mokuba…" Seto was about to comment before he slammed on the breaks, narrowly avoiding the flock of swans that had just flown by the car. "Mokuba, are you alright?" The boy had been thrown forward by the impact, but luckily had been saved from harm by the seat belt he was wearing.

"I'm fine, just a little surprised." Mokuba rubbed the spot on his neck were the belt had dug into him.

"What on earth are swans doing roaming around the city?" Mokuba shrugged and Seto was ready to start the car again when they both noticed something peculiar.

"Um…Seto, why did you drive into a snow drift?"

"I…" Seto leaned forward on the steering wheel to see that the front end of the car was, in fact, buried under a mound of snow. "I just wanted to get out of the way of the swans, I didn't see the ditch." The brunette sighed and put the car in reverse, trying to back up but only succeeding in spinning his back wheels, spraying snow everywhere. "Well, this is perfect."

Mokuba sighed and unbuckled his seatbelt, "We'd better get started on digging the car out; all we have is our hands." Seto nodded his head and the two brothers stepped out of the car, making their way over to the white mass that had nearly swallowed the vehicle whole.

"Hey, Kaiba! What happened to your car? Did you get stuck?" Seto heard a familiarly annoying voice approaching. They had gotten stuck in one of Domino's backstreets; not many people passed through, but he was hoping that if anyone did it wouldn't be someone of limited intelligence. Seto straightened up and dusted off his now frost bitten hands.

"Well you see, I decided a good place to park would be under 3 feet of snow. I guess I was wrong. Hm." Seto scratched his chin in mock thought as the blonde snarled at the sarcastic tone.

"Asshole, I was going to offer to help, but now…"

"We're still going to help," Honda commented from next to Jou.

"What are you talking about, he's being-,"

"Kaiba. He's being Kaiba. Haven't you gotten used to that by now? He's obviously just trying to cover up his embarrassment with the usual attitude."

"What would you know about it?" Seto sneered, not liking the fact that a guy he hardly knew, the sidekick of Yugi's sidekick, thought he had him all figured out.

"Look, would you just shut up and let us help you? Damn!" Honda sighed in exasperation. Jou seemed to be over his original anger and now had his head bowed quiet defeat as he realized he was now being ignored, letting the two brunettes battle it out.

"Seto, they're just trying to be nice," Mokuba commented, putting in his two cents.

"You know I hate owing people things."

"Brother, it's getting cold out," Mokuba pouted, effectively getting the point across that he would like the help, and he would like it now, without having to say it.

"Fine…well, get over here then!" Seto turned and snapped at the two boys standing a few yards away. He turned back to his digging without meeting the eyes of either one as the four of them got to work. After about ten minutes, the front of the vehicle was mostly uncovered. Seto stepped inside and started the engine, pulling away from the snow bank slowly and setting it into park.

"Thanks a lot guys," Mokuba said as he saw that the car was now free to move.

"Not a problem," Jou said and Honda nodded. Seto stepped out of the car and cleared his throat, looking at the two boys in an uncertain manner. Suddenly Mokuba's words came back to him, about how he wanted him to make friends. Although these two were the last people on earth he had in mind for that job, he figured he at least owed them some sort of gratitude for their efforts.

"Where are you two headed?"

"Well…uh, we were just on our way home," Jou scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, the parade sort of got out of hand and had to close down early," Honda commented. Seto remembered the flock of swans that had gotten them into this whole mess, figuring that it must have been part of the aftermath of whatever chaos had gone down earlier. What chaos, he didn't know, and he was pretty sure he didn't want to find out.

"Get in the car. I'll give you a ride home," Seto stated before shutting the door and turning on the ignition. A few moments later he heard one of the back doors open and the two piled in quietly. He turned to Mokuba to see him grinning like an idiot.

"I have to pee," Jou whined, in what Seto considered the most asinine highpitched manner. They had been stuck in the parade traffic for about twenty minutes and were just now approaching Jou and Honda's neighborhood. Seto was eager to drop them off and head home, never to speak of this day again.

"Why didn't you go before we left?" Honda teased.

"Shut up! Kaiba, can we pull over?" Jou whined again, tapping his foot and squirming around in place, shaking the interior of the car slightly, which made Seto twitch in aggravation. Have to be nice, have to make friends, he kept reminding himself. He saw the bridge in the distance, and thought it might be rather appealing to drive over the edge. He might have just followed his impulses had Mokuba not been in the car.

"There's no way. I'll have you home in about five minutes."

"Brother….I kinda have to go too, I don't know if I'll be able to hold it until we get home." Mokuba peeked over shyly at his brother and Jou laughed. "Come on, there's no one out here. We'll be quick, right Jou?" Seto groaned and pulled over to the side of the road, annoyed at the fact that his own brother seemed to be aiding Jou in his idiotic antics. Still, if Mokuba really couldn't hold it, their house was on the other side of town and he really didn't feel like explaining to the cleaning staff what that weird stain was.

"Just hurry it up," he ordered, snapping the gear into the 'park' position harshly. Mokuba nodded quickly and he and Jou stepped out of the car, hiding behind a few bushes that were on the side of the road. The inside of the car was silent, and Seto would have enjoyed keeping it that way but, unfortunately, the other boy in the back seat had different ideas.

"So how's Jou in the kitchen? I have never had the privilege of seeing him cook anything yet," Honda grinned.

"Well, he hasn't blown anything up yet, so, so far so good. How are you and your partner doing?" Seto asked, not really interested, but wanting to keep the polite conversation going, if for nothing other than to take his mind off the fact that his little brother was taking a whiz outside, in public, and with the mutt of all people.

"Otogi is great. I mean, he really knows how to cook, and we have fun, and I'm learning a lot of things and…what?" Honda froze as he realized the way Seto was watching him through the rear-view mirror.

"If you ask me, I'd say it seems you are quite taken with him," Seto smirked as he watched Honda's face heat up.

"Well it's a good thing no one asked you then!" Honda huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, hard pressed not to jump over the seat and wipe that smirk off of Seto's face the painful way.

Outside, Jou had found a clean spot of snow that looked like as good of a place as any to do his business, a nice clean slate. "Hey, Mokuba, got any requests?" Jou called over to the other side of the bushes that Mokuba occupied.

"You're crazy Jou…" Mokuba giggled.

"Eh, whatever; don't say I didn't ask you!" Jou finished what he was doing and zipped up his pants just in time for Mokuba to peek around the bushes.

"What did you write?" Mokuba answered his own question by reading the yellow letters in the snow. "Seto is g? What's 'g'?"

"I ran out," Jou shrugged. "It was supposed to be 'gay'." Not exactly the most original thing to write, Jou knew this, but it was hard for him to think too hard when he felt like his bladder was about to burst.

" 'Seto is gay'?" Mokuba shook his head at how immature the boy who was older than him was being. "How did you know?" Jou froze, not having expecting that reaction. He couldn't possibly mean what he thought he meant…right?

"How did I know what?" Jou laughed nervously, "I don't know anything!"

"That my brother is gay. I don't think he's told anyone…" Mokuba trailed off, watching as Jou's eyes widened in horror. Suddenly all the teasing, all the fighting, took on a whole new meaning for Jou. 'Mutt' for example. Who calls people that? It sounded more like a pet name than anything. Then of course there was that dream…did that mean that he was gay too? Did that mean that…they were meant to be gay together? Like as in…not straight? Just as Jou felt that his head was about to explode he realized that someone was waving a hand in front of his face.

"Hello? Earth to Jou…are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah, it's nothing. Let's get back inside before your brother gets pissed off and eats me for dinner," Jou stated sarcastically, wincing a few seconds later at how that could be possibly be taken in a dirty manner. "Dammit…" Jou hissed as he followed the younger Kaiba into the car.

………

"Hey, thanks for the ride," Honda said as he opened the door to the back seat, receiving a slight grunt of indication from Seto. "Yeah…so, good night." He scratched his head awkwardly and waved good-bye to Jou.

"No! Wait! Um…I'll get off here too…you know, my house isn't that far from here." Jou jumped up, climbing over the seat to the open door on Honda's side, anything to get out the general proximity of Seto.

"Suit yourself," Seto shrugged.

"Bye guys," Mokuba smiled, and Jou nodded.

"See ya." The blonde took one step out of the vehicle only to feel his wrist caught in a steellike grip a second later. Jou gasped and turned around to see Seto looking at him. His fingers were slightly cool, but Jou felt like he was going to burst in to flames any minute from the contact.

"Don't forget, we have work to do tonight." Seto released his grip and turned back to the steering wheel.

"Right. I didn't forget," Jou huffed; Seto only nodded his head and rolled down the window, driving off quickly.

"Dude, you totally forgot. Right?"

"Shut up," Jou scowled, but didn't try to deny it. He had forgotten, even though Kaiba had already reminded him twice today. Maybe he really wanted to forget, so he could avoid going over there. Things could get pretty confusing in a blonde's head, especially when that blonde was beginning to question his own sexuality.