Author's Note: I don't own the licenses to any of the video game/arcade games listed in this chapter or throughout the story.

Chapter 6:

It was around 11:00 that the trio decided to pack their things, grab lunch, and start tackling the arcades. Jou had wondered what the two famous brothers would do in public, poking at the idea of them dressing incognito. Kaiba had openly scoffed at the idea, but when he walked out of his room, Jou realized he was closer to the truth than the CEO would admit.

"Damn, Moneybags, didn't ever picture ya looking normal."

Standing in the hallway was Kaiba, donning a pair of black jeans with a light green, v-neck t-shirt. An expensive watch hugged his right wrist, and Jou could see the sunglasses attached to his front pocket. Jou himself had changed out of his swimming trunks and into a pair of khaki shorts and a yellow t-shirt. The blonde watched as Kaiba took a seat at the island, clearly waiting for his younger brother. "Did you think I would be walking around in my swimwear?" Kaiba countered, glancing over at him.

"No, but again, I've only seen ya in those fancy trenchcoats." Jounouchi couldn't help but take in the moody brunette, and before he could stop himself, he muttered, "You look good."

Jounouchi immediately felt his cheeks redden, but to his utter shock, Kaiba's sarcastic comment didn't come in the form of an antagonistic threat. Instead, the CEO smirked, turned to look at Jou directly, and countered, "Compared to any other time?"

"Pfft. You know what I mean, Kaiba. You look freakin' normal." Breaking eye contact before he could get himself into more trouble, Jounouchi looked out the glass doors of the patio to the town beyond. "So, uh, where are we going for lunch?"

"There's a sushi bar attached to an arcade just a block north of us," Kaiba stated. "We'll start there."

"And how much do we got for the arcade? I have maybe…2000 yen?"

The laugh that erupted from the CEO was a combination of condescension and actual humor, and Jou whipped his head around, jaw dropping. Kaiba was still looking directly at him, clearly doing his best to calm himself. His smile refused to cooperate, however, and he quickly had to hide his expression behind his hand. "Jounouchi, if you think we're only spending 2000 yen in an arcade, you're going to be sorely unprepared."

"And what makes ya say that?"

Before Kaiba could respond, the sounds of footsteps reached Jounouchi's ear, and he watched as Mokuba plummeted down the hallway, waving his arms in the air. "Sorry, sorry, sorry!" he exclaimed, panting as though he ran a mile. "Couldn't pick out a shirt."

"You're fine, Mokuba." Kaiba stood, and Jounouchi followed suit, turning to look at the two Kaiba brothers. Pointing at Jou, Kaiba noted, "But you need to explain to the blonde our arcade policies before he makes himself a bigger fool than he already is." Mokuba smiled and nodded, and Jou watched as Kaiba grabbed his wallet and keycard before heading out the door. Before they were fully out, Kaiba quickly turned as though remembering something and pointed directly at Jou, his finger inches from the blonde's face. "Just one thing. I don't care what games you play, what all you do, but if I see you at a pachinko machine, I'll personally haul you away to an actual game. We don't gamble."

Jounouchi's eyes widened in shock as a sudden, massive wave of respect for Kaiba flooded him. "Nah, man, no worries. I, uh...can't say that I like gambling."

"Good."

Jou blinked, glanced down at Mokuba, then followed the two brothers out of the room and to the elevator. As they stepped in, Jou peeked over at Kaiba, who was putting his sunglasses on.

He knew why what Kaiba said mattered so much, but at the same time, he had no idea why it mattered so much. Rather than reflect on it, he mentally shrugged and thought, Today really is my lucky day.

"Is that all for today, sir?"

Kaiba handed over his card and muttered, "Yes, that's perfect."

"All right. Your total comes to 24,000 yen even. We'll split this evenly along the three cards, as requested. You can only use this card at this particular arcade; however, if you plan to stay longer than a day, you can carry your balance over."

Kaiba nodded in understanding, then glanced back at Jou. "You hear that? Don't lose this card, either."

Jounouchi merely stared, dumbfounded, as Kaiba put what literally amounted to two days' worth of shifts on three separate cards, all for the sake of playing video games. Reminder that this guy is on a freaking whole other level than the rest of us, Jounouchi reflected. How many games is he even planning on playing?!

Kaiba stared at him for a long minute, confusion across his face as he took in Jou's shocked expression. Finally, he asked, "Mokuba did explain to you how serious we become with games, correct?" Leaning back as the cashier continued to prepare their cards, he added, "Duel Monsters isn't the only game I'm serious about."

"Clearly, dude."

"And remember," Kaiba added, pointing at the blonde. "No pachinko machines."

Hearing the cashier set the cards on the table, Jou watched as Kaiba quickly swiped them and passed the cards around to each of them. "Pachinko machines are in the back, Nii-sama," Mokuba observed. "Looks like racing games are in the front."

"Then we'll go there first." Kaiba smirked over at Jou. "Care to lose?"

"Yo man, you clearly never saw me in a racing game before," Jou retorted, returning the smirk. "Don't think you'll beat me that easily."

"Then pick one out, and we'll see."

Jounouchi's eyes widened, hearing Kaiba's dueling persona coming through with the challenge. And I'm more than happy to oblige. Jounouchi felt his heart skip a beat, feeling his own competitive nature rising, and he quickly glanced around the building. They were surrounded by all manner of video games, ranging from shooting to racing to pinball to music and dance. The sounds and lights coming from every direction made it hard to pinpoint individual games, but he quickly found an open racing seat. Like a little kid, Jounouchi raced forward, hoping that some punk wouldn't steal his "claimed" game. Finding three free Mario Kart seats, he slid into one and waited for Kaiba to sit in the game next to him. Mokuba took the third seat.

He waited for Kaiba to make a snarky comment about the childish, colorful displays, but to his surprise, the CEO swiped the card in the reader. Mokuba did the same, and not wanting to be left out, Jounouchi swiped his own card.

Holy shit, he thought as the game came to life, the adorable noises emitting from the speakers. Kaiba let me pick our first arcade game. Is that...a kind gesture? From him? He peeked over to see Kaiba's hands on the wheel, a smirk that was more smile than the CEO would ever admit across his lips. Just who the hell died and took over his body?

"Pick a car, Jounouchi, else it'll do it for you," Kaiba taunted, causing Jounouchi to blush. Returning his attention to the screen, he quickly picked his character, took his personal photo, and leaned back in the seat. The screens came to life, and Jou laughed at Kaiba's image, which was just the top of his head.

"Nice photo," Jou remarked.

"Still better than yours."

Yeah, yeah. We'll see how fancy you are after this! 3...2...1…

Jou stepped on the pedal, flooring it despite it being a simple arcade game.

Mokuba had picked an easy track, with few turns and fewer tricks, but that meant more room for item usage. And Jounouchi learned, to his utter dismay, that Kaiba was no pushover. Every time Jou managed to catch up, Kaiba would launch an attack or use an environmental trick to boost himself forward. At one point Jou even tried to push Kaiba off the map, only to have them both fall off.

"You absolute child," scolded Kaiba, shooting Jou a glare that to anyone else would've meant certain death. Mokuba was laughing beside him; he had barely been a contender but seemed to be watching his brother and Jounouchi's antics more. Jou stuck his tongue out, and the two managed to finish the race in 3rd and 5th places. Mokuba was in 7th, but the cheeky grin on his face showed he approved of their combat.

Jou smiled and leaned back in his seat. Placing his hands behind his head, he chuckled and shot Kaiba an amused look. "Well wasn't that fun?"

To his surprise, Kaiba swiped his card again, then turned to look at Jou. "We're doing a redo," he stated with a serious tone that didn't match the characters laughing on the screen. "That bullshit of pushing me off was amateurish. You're going to have to do better than that."

Holding his hands up, Jounouchi swiped his card again. "You in, Mokuba?" he called over.

"Oh yeah, I'm not missing this for anything!" Mokuba exclaimed.

"Same route, same characters," Kaiba dictated.

Jounouchi couldn't repress the laugh. "Alright, Moneybags, you got it." Realizing he could accomplish more by being a pain than an actual opponent, he tried really, really hard to get Kaiba to fall off the edge with him again but to no avail. It landed him in last place, but the looks Kaiba would shoot him made it worth every yen spent. Kaiba managed to get to second place after Jounouchi successfully waited 'til the last second to use an item on him, however, and the CEO swiped his card once more as the round ended. "You like this game?" inquired Jou, his eyebrow rising in surprise.

"I'm not letting you keep me from getting first," Kaiba explained. His tone was harsher than expected for an arcade, but from Jou's previous interactions with the brunette, he knew it wasn't as harsh as it could have been. "And I don't move on from a game until I've beaten it."

Jounouchi slowly leaned forward and swiped his card again. "Well, I guess I'll just have to do my best to beat you over and over again," he noted, shifting to get comfy in the seat.

"By your previous standings, I'd say you'll be here longer than our vacation, Jounouchi."

"Don't forget, if I keep using items on ya, you'll be here awhile, too."

"You two have fun," Mokuba stated, standing from his seat. "I'm going to play another game."

Jounouchi watched the kid stand up and leave before returning his attention to the screen. For a split second, he stopped to look at Kaiba, whose eyes were glued to the screen in front of him. And while he wasn't smiling widely, he wasn't necessarily scowling, either. His gaze darted across the screen, his eyes glowing from both the lights from the monitor and his own determination.

Hearing the race track load up, Jounouchi returned his attention to his seat, damned and determined to make Kaiba's racing adventure a living hell. It's finally time ta get some payback for all those insults from years ago.

Kaiba sighed heavily and leaned back in the seat. It had taken an embarrassing seven more rounds, but he managed to score a first place victory despite the persistent blonde's attempts to sabotage him. "I couldn't say this before, Jounouchi, because my brother was here…" He turned and pointed at the blonde, who was now looking at him, "But you. Are an asshole."

Jounouchi burst out laughing as Kaiba stood from the seat, stretching his legs ever so slightly. The blonde stood as well, his cheeky grin still across his lips. "Yeah, well, someone's gotta knock ya down a peg or two." Walking around the machine to face Kaiba, Jou asked, "Did'ya have fun, though? I mean, that's the most important part."

In reality, Kaiba did have fun. Most arcade games were a walk in the park for him, but shockingly, having Jou be just a thorn in his side made him use a few new strategies. Rather than admitting it, however, he simply shrugged and glanced around before pointing at a shooter game. "I'm going to tackle this one," he stated. "Feel free to play whatever."

Breaking away, Kaiba strolled down the aisle to the House of the Dead game, smirking at the old graphics. He quickly swiped his card and pulled the gun out of the cartridge, only to be surprised when Jounouchi also swiped his card. "Just what are you doing?" he asked, blinking in shock at the blonde.

Jounouchi picked up the imitation shotgun and smirked. "Joining ya."

"You can't sabotage me in this game-"

"Who says I wanted to sabotage ya?" Jounouchi's smirk turned to a genuine smile. "You just happened to steal the game I wanted to play next. And I mean, it's 2 player, after all."

Sighing in defeat, Kaiba picked up the plastic, red handgun. He had hoped the mutt would go elsewhere, but he wasn't going to argue and make a scene. Instead, he pointed the gun forward and muttered, "I choose the levels and ways we go."

"Dude, I got it. You think I haven't figured it out yet that you're kind of a control freak?"

"I'm not…" Sighing and shaking his head, Kaiba muttered, "Whatever," before aiming his gun. Soon the screen was filled with zombies, and he cleared the room out with ease. To his surprise, Jounouchi was also rather competent at the game, even saving them from a trap at one point in the level.

So when Jounouchi was hit by what even Kaiba thought was an incredibly ludicrous shot, he felt his body go on autopilot and swiped his card to revive the blonde's character. Jounouchi went to speak, but Kaiba, covering himself, simply stated, "I'm not dying because the game chose to knock you out early. Now start shooting."

Jounouchi did, and the two managed to make it through the entire game in a top record time. Setting the guns back in the holsters, Kaiba turned to see Jounouchi smiling at him, hand raised for a high five. "Nice work, dude," he stated, his hand awkwardly raised. "Mokuba was right, man. You don't fool around in those games. I always thought arcade games would be beneath you, but it seems like you just enjoy video games, period."

Kaiba slowly nodded, wishing the blonde would drop his hand. He soon did, then turned to look down the aisle. "So, uh, what other games you got in mind?"

"I'm going to find Mokuba," Kaiba stated. "By now, he'll have found the air hockey table."

"A'ight. I'mma tackle the pinball machines."

Nodding, the CEO walked away, scanning the aisles. Sure enough, his brother was playing a game near the air hockey tables. He quickly approached and poked his shoulder. Mokuba glanced up and smirked. "You didn't kill him, did you?" Mokuba asked, looking around for Jounouchi.

"He went to play something else," Kaiba explained. "Up for a round of air hockey?"

"Sure!" The two quickly approached an empty table, and as Mokuba swiped his card, he leaned forward and said in a sly tone, "You looked like you were havin' fun at the zombie game with Jou, Nii-sama."

Kaiba waved his hand, though for some reason he felt his cheeks slightly warm at the thought. "He wasn't terrible," he admitted, taking his position at the end.

"I figured. You even used to tell me to leave you alone so you could finish the game."

"That was once, and you were downright terrible at that game, if memory serves me right."

Mokuba chuckled and nodded. "Still, I'm happy we're all having fun."

Kaiba's lips parted as his brother got out the puck and set it on the table. Before he could respond, however, Mokuba shot the puck across, and Kaiba quickly turned his attention to the game at hand.