Picture Perfect.

Hey guys... Just a couple of things. Normally I try to do reader responses, but I've never been fortunate enough to have so many readers before and I'm currently a bit pressed for time. Just the same, rest assured that I appreciate your reviews very much. There was one question from Downtrodded about age... Five years since highschool have passed, which puts Kaiba and Joey at about twenty three and Mokuba at about seventeen, or that's what I intended anyway.

Three more things... Yes, it's short; sorry, but that was about all there was to say. And yes, I purposefully changed the tense for this chapter; it will be reverting. Lastly, sorry to anyone who might be a bit bothered by the language - consider yourselves warned, okay? - but to me it's in character.

Disclaimer. Well, you know it.

Chapter Three.

Seto Kaiba wakes up. His brain feels like it's swollen inside his
head and is trying to get out of his skull. Maybe there are little
Setos inside who are trying to break free so they can wreak all
sorts of havoc - like smashing priceless crystal Blue Eyes
statuettes and unleashing computer viruses through the security
system and eating all his Pocky.

Or, maybe he's just hungover. Maybe the person groaning next to him
is hungover, too.

Seto Kaiba is suddenly leaping out of bed, despite his aching head.

"What the fuck?"

The lump tangled up in his expensive black silk sheets grumbles
again, and mutters. It sounds like something to the effect of,
"Good morning to you too, sunshine."

Sunshine? "Get out of my bed!"

"Kaiba, it's too early."

"GET OUT OF MY BED!"

Jounouchi raises his head, but doesn't look at Kaiba. He's staring
sleepily down at his pillow - his blonde hair is sticking up on
one side and smushed against his face on the other. If Kaiba was
actually seeing anything but red, he probably would think it was
cute. But red is the colour of both anger and of embarrassment,
which is a terrible combination of emotions.

"Geez, alright, keep your pants on." Jou glances up. "Or maybe you
should put some pants on, so you can keep them on."

Kaiba experiences a dreadful moment of realisation. Ever so slowly
he looks down. And then ever so quickly, he seizes his pillow and
holds it across his mid-section.

"GET OUT!"

Jounouchi, fortunately, IS wearing pants when he struggles his way
out of the messy bed. "You know, I always thought you had a bigger
vocabulary. Or maybe you're really a robot, and you're
experiencing a programming error with your speech."

Kaiba grinds his teeth. The crunching is audible to Jou from across
the room.

"Actually, you being a MACHINE would make a lot of sense." Jou
raises an eyebrow in a cocky fashion.

A Blue Eyes White Dragon suddenly crashes into the wall next to his head.
The little Kaibas have escaped.

Jounouchi grabs his from where it's dangling on the lampshade, and starts to back
towards the door. "Come on, Seto, that was a compliment."

"GET THE FUCK OUT!"

Kaiba realises he is acting like a jilted, highly-strung female
lover who has just walked in on her boyfriend (in the words of that
glorious musician Shaggy) banging on the bathroom floor. However,
at this point in time he is too far gone to actually do anything
about it except yell and wince at his own throbbing temples.

An expression of dismay touches Jounouchi's features. "Sure thing."
He turns and walks out of the room.

Kaiba finds himself following across the apartment without realising
it. "This is by far the dumbest thing you've ever done."

Slowly Jounouchi stops and turns around. He happens by now to be standing
on a giant red stain on Kaiba's living room floor. And he looks
very, very, angry. The hand clutching his shirt trembles slightly.

"This is my fault, is it?"

"You're the one who had to bring your stupid photographs over."

"And may I remind you whose fault THAT was?"

Kaiba stares defiantly at his opponent. He is aware of all the
pigheaded things he's done this is possibly by far the most
disastrous (and that included the time he bet his jaguar against
Yami in a game of knucklebones). Which is good, the
logical-but-quite-stupid voice in his head says, because that means
he'll never, ever have to repeat any of it. Great. Wonderful.

Why would he want to?

"You know what, Kaiba, it takes two to tango, and it sure as hell
takes two to fuck."

A moment later the front door to Kaiba's penthouse slams. Kaiba is
still standing in the living room, almost dizzy from the pain in
head where some demon has sprung out, much like a fully-formed
Athena from the head of Zeus, brandishing a spear - but much, much
more pissed, and much, much more stupid than any goddess of wisdom.
He is almost on fire from embarrassment, and staring at his ruined
carpet. All very good reasons why he doesn't drink.

He walks back into his bedroom, a little dazed, and sits down on the
bed intending to put his aching head in his hands. He doesn't quite
get that far because when he sits on the bed, things shift
slightly with his weight. A small jingling sound is heard.

Jounouchi's silver bracelets are just to his right, glinting against the sheets.

"Shit."

It's about now Kaiba realises that for only the third time in his life, he must be very, very late for work.

"...And fuck."