Issueshipping (Ishizu Ishtar/Jonouchi Katsuya/Kaiba Seto)

. . .

There are several things that you do not do at an orphanage. One of those is dropping by unannounced when your name is Seto Kaiba.

So, of course, guess what Seto Kaiba did.

Ishizu had never heard so much chaos in all of her life. She winced a little as the squealing of excitable children reached a feverish pitch. For his part, Seto looked entirely unaffected by the attention, standing very perfectly still as two children hugged his knees and another pair tried to play hide and seek in his coat. One little girl toddled over cautiously, balanced on a pair of crutches strapped to her arms. Seto automatically stepped around a trio of kids trying to climb on him to steady the girl. A brief smile flickered over his lips as the girl beamed up at him—it was a nice look on him, Ishizu thought.

"You certainly have quite the effect," Ishizu said with a soft laugh.

"I'm just surprised you wanted to come," Seto said, shrugging.

"And miss out on this?"

She gestured at him, with no less than four children trying to climb over his back and two more still ducking in and out of his coat tails, while a small mob tightened around him. It looked so odd, and yet, perfectly right for him at the same time.

A tiny hand curled into her dress and tugged for attention, and she turned her eyes towards the little boy with his thumb shoved in his mouth.

"Are you the duel lady that dueled Kaiba?" he asked her loudly, and she smiled at him and nodded. His eyes widened into huge saucers and his little mouth dropped open.

"Oy, oy, oy, what's all this commotion about?"

Ishizu blinked to hear the familiar voice, a drawl that she hadn't expected to hear in this environment. Seto's head snapped up too, with perhaps a little more surprise than he would have liked to admit to.

Sure enough, Jonouchi Katsuya appeared around the corner, blinking from under his mop of blond hair. He walked with some difficulty, as there were two kids clinging to his lower legs and squealing with delight each time he heaved another step that swung them back and forth. Another child swung from his right arm, and he oofed.

"At least one of ya little monsters get on the other arm to balance me out," he groaned. "Oy, Miki, stop pushing Shinkichi."

He flicked the offending child on the head as he passed and the girl yelped, but she scurried back nonetheless. Ishizu straightened up with a growing smile on her face.

"Jonouchi-kun! What are you doing here?"

"I could ask both of ya that myself," Jonouchi said. "Augh, Takumi, not the hair, not the hair!"

One of the children had managed to clamber their way up onto Jonouchi's back and his hands had curled into the back of Jonouchi's hair for balance. Jonouchi managed to drop the child hanging from his arm—gently, of course—and reached back to get the one on his back under the arms, lifting him up and onto his shoulders before settling his hands on the kid's knees to steady him.

"Anyway—yeah, I volunteer here a bit," Jonouchi said. "Didn't expect to see some other Battle City celebrities showing up."

He flashed a wide grin at the pair, and Seto looked for a moment like he was about to say something not particularly friendly, when his eyes flickered to the kids and he let out a heavy sigh.

"Of all the places I could have picked today," he said under his breath.

"Oh, don't act so happy ta see me, ya big lunk," Jonouchi said, grinning even wider. He seemed to have caught on that Seto wasn't going to be his normal caustic self in front of the children, and was definitely pushing his limits. Seto's lips pressed together and he looked like he was resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Ishizu laughed, shaking her head at the two of them.

"Oh, come on," she said. "You're both here for the kids, so get along. Be good role models."

The child who had asked her if she was from Battle City hadn't yet let go of her dress, and she smiled at him, patting him on the head gently. He let go of her dress and put his hands up towards her. She took that as a sign that he wanted to be picked up, and scooped him up into her arms. He let out a bubbly giggle. It was one that Ishizu had to echo when she saw one kid fall on Seto's head and almost make him fall completely over.

"Didn't know he was any good with kids," Jonouchi said to Ishizu. "But they seem to like 'im, for some reason."

"Kids can tell," Ishizu said, smiling. "Hm, but perhaps we'd better tell the people in charge why all their charges are having simultaneous meltdowns of excitement."

"Yeah, probably," Jonouchi laughed. "Ey, dragon boy, come on. You know, the gals in charge are gonna be pissed with you, even if they won't say it."

"Language, mutt," Seto said, as he wobbled to his feet with no less than five children all clinging to him from various directions.

Ishizu shook her head, smiling. It was going to be a long, ridiculous day.

. . .

A/N: I just...I needed the mental image of children crawling all over Seto and Jou. It's been a bit of a rough night, but this helped :'D Next up is Irateshipping (Marik x Jonouchi).