Win, Lose, Or Revenge

Today's slogan, recipient and sender are courtesy of Hales731, her review of Chapter 62.

'If at first you don't succeed, maybe winning isn't for you.'

It started with a tick. The tick speeded up and grew to a full-blown twitch. The twitch snowballed and became a deadly glare. The glare mushroomed and became a look of complete, utter, murderous rage.

Seto Kaiba was not happy.

The cause of his unhappiness? One seemingly innocent bumper sticker that had arrived in his daily mail five minutes previously.

"Eh-heh," Joey chuckled weakly. "Seems Yami's really getting' inta dis game, ne, Seto?"

"Too into this game," Mokuba muttered, watching as his normally unflappable – except when it came to his own safety, his company's gross income, or Duel Monsters, in that order – brother boiled over with barely-suppressed rage.

"I don't care if he's already technically dead, I'm going to resurrect his corpse, kill him again, and damn his soul to be eaten by Amut," Seto gritted out.

Mokuba winced. "Don't you think that's a little harsh, ani-sama?" he asked weakly.

Seto actually appeared to seriously contemplate that. "Mmm… You know, Mokuba, you might be right."

Joey blinked. "Nani?" Since when did Seto Kaiba suggest something and then decide it was overkill?

Seto smirked grimly. "It's too little – needs to be harsher. Maybe I can resurrect him more than once, what do you think?"

Mokuba gulped.

Joey just sighed and rolled his eyes. "Let's not get carried away here, ryuu, whaddya say?"

Seto just blinked at him complacently, like a cat watching a mouse he knew he could catch with a minimum of effort and was debating whether to not it was worth it. Then he pouted. "Why not?" he asked childishly.

If Joey had been an anime character, he was sure a giant drop of seat would have formed on his brow. As it was, his eyes did their best to pop out of his head at the completely oddball expression that had come over his boyfriend's face.

Seto Kaiba did not pout. Glare, smirk, frown, and rarely smile – mostly when he'd either done something stupid or extremely sexy (sometimes both at once) – but Joey had never seen the CEO pout.

It was kind of cute, actually. In a 'The world is going to end now that such a completely impossible thing (more impossible than Hell freezing over and Heaven being set on fire, Santa's elves being replaced by leprechauns, all the members of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade turning into mice and running rampant in the streets only to have to be gathered up by the Pied Piper of Hamlin…) has happened.'

Well, you get the idea.

"Ano…because den you'll never get a chance to beat Yami at his own game?" Joey stuttered.

Seto frowned and grumbled under his breath. "You have a point," he admitted grudgingly.

"Of course I do," Joey said self-righteous, one hand coming to his chest in a show-off gesture. He paused, laughed lowly and rubbed the back of his neck in a sheepish gesture. "Er…what is it, exactly?"

Rolling his eyes upward to beseech the ceiling in a, 'Why did you stick me – me, Seto Kaiba, one of the smartest men in the world – with such a baka?' look, Seto was saved from answering by his younger brother.

"It's time for Seto to prank Yami," Mokuba said, his tone adding the silent, 'Duh!' that his face made plain.

It was Joey's turn to grumble. "Yare, yare…"

"Exactly," Seto agreed. "Winning is definitely for me, and I'll show that self-involved Pharaoh just who is the King of Payback," he growled.

"And da King of Conceit," Joey mumbled, smirking as he heard Mokuba's quiet affirmation.