Disclaimer: Does the cardboard box mean anything to you people?
Warnings: Attempted world take-over, poor cooking technique, exploding eggs. Implied Seto/Yami.

Conquering the World in an Afternoon

"Which color do you want, Nii-sama?" Mokuba was holding out the red and yellow boxes of pieces. Yami had selected blue and Mokuba had chosen the grey for himself. There were also black and green boxes, but the black was missing a few infantrymen and the teen had declared the green too ugly to play with.

"Doesn't matter."

Mokuba deposited the red box in front of him and grabbed the cards. Seto watched Yami watching his little brother, violet eyes wide in frank fascination as the black-haired teen divided the deck into three even piles.

"Take one, Yami," he urged.

Yami scrutinized each pile carefully, as if attempting to read each card through the top one. Finally he settled on the far right pile. Mokuba grabbed what had been the center pile, leaving Seto with the far left.

Silently, they placed their infantry pieces. Seto couldn't help but notice Yami already controlled Africa and Europe as well as part of North America. He noted with satisfaction that although he didn't control a full continent yet, he was perfectly poised to build a power base in Australia and root out Mokuba's grey pieces, giving access to Asia. Following that strategy, he put all his force into Australia except for a few select infantrymen that he deposited in Brazil, just to keep things interesting.

"Who's going first?" Yami asked, eying the dice sitting innocently near Mokuba.

"We roll for it," Seto explained, and snagged one of the red attack die to offer Yami. His lover took it and rolled, along with Seto and Mokuba.

Seto rolled a six, Yami a two and Mokuba a three.

"My move," the brunette announced, smirking a bit. "I declare war on the eastern half of Australia from the western half."

Mokuba's eyes went wide. He only had two measly pieces there while Seto's conquering force was built of twenty-odd companies of fighters.

"Um, I defend with two," he decided, picking up the pair of white dice while Seto brandished the three red ones fiercely.

The two of them rolled. Seto's triple roll easily defeated Mokuba's double. "Crap," the young teen growled, picking up his defeated troops and returning them to the safe haven of his box.

Seto eyed Siam closely. Did he want to attack? He could move reinforcements at the end of the turn… In the end, he attacked and lost six armies defeating the three cloistered there. Finally, he won control of the country, ended his turn and fortified his defenses before collecting a risk card. Not a bad turn.

Then it was Yami's turn. The ex-spirit had placed his own Risk pieces much more evenly over the board. Every country bearing blue carried at least two armies. For a moment, he studied the board, then declared in his deep voice, "I am attacking the Middle East from Egypt."

Mokuba made a face. "You two are teaming up on me!" he growled, reaching for one die to defend with. "Seto learned the hard way I don't give up my places without a fight, and so will you!"

The two cast their dice. Yami and Mokuba both had rolled fives. Mokuba punched the air in triumph. "Defender wins!"

Yami removed a single army from his Egyptian territory. "Egypt, attack again," he rumbled.

Again they rolled. Egypt lost again. Mokuba stuck his tongue out at Yami. The ex-spirit imitated him, drawing an amused look from Seto.

"Are you finished?" he asked.

Yami glanced at the game board. "I believe I am," he sighed.

Mokuba was all too happy to relieve him of the dice and immediately declared an attack on Scandinavia from one of the neighboring Asian countries.

He felt oddly detached as he watched his little brother sweep into Europe to destroy Yami's hold over the violet-purple continent. Then turns switched and it was his turn to add armies and attack. Originally, he'd planned on going straight north, but Mokuba's warring with Yami had left an easy path through Asia over to Africa. Seto opted for that pathway, and about twenty rolls later had achieved his goal. True, he'd lost a good third of his armies on the travel over, but now he controlled all of Australia and a path directly to Egypt. As long as neither Yami nor Mokuba could break his supply line, he'd be unstoppable. Just to make sure nothing strange could happen to that all-important line, Seto sent back a few armies to strengthen it. Perfect. He turned over the dice to Yami, feeling confident.

"I'm attacking your puny country from my bigger, stronger one!" Seto declared, waving the red dice enthusiastically as he did so.

Most of the countries on the Risk board had reasonably pronounceable names – but some were just crazy. He was attacking from one such country, and all three players had decided that (to spare their sanity) pointing would serve to indicate who was attacking whom and where. Eventually, the players had degenerated into pointing rather than declaring - except for Yami, who had given his countries nicknames.

"You dare attack my Fluff-Bunny nation?" he roared theatrically, scooping up the white defending dice. "You shall pay the price for your folly!"

Mokuba pulled his hands off his ears. "You're doing it again," he grumbled.

Seto blinked sheepishly. Whenever he really got into a competition, he had a tendency to revert to his dueling voice, along with the volume that accompanied it. "Sorry," he mumbled.

Yami, to whom the remark had actually been directed, leaned back a little on his haunches, studying the board. Mokuba had chased him out of Europe, but he controlled all of Africa and had a heavy power base in both North America and Asia, preventing full continential takeover. If Seto's attack succeeded, it wouldn't damage his lines too badly.

The CEO raised the dice. In a stage whisper, he declared, "This is an attack directed at Fluff-Bunny, originating from Carrot Top Inc. We fight for the freedom of vegetables everywhere!" He and Yami both cast their dice.

"I guess the Fluff-Bunny nation doesn't agree with being taken over," his lover suggested mildly, poking the triple one roll Seto had managed.

The brunette snarled and grabbed the dice, picking off a pair of infantry from his attacking nation. "Again."

They rolled again and this time he fared slightly better. Instead of losing two, they both lost one.

"Again."

Mokuba stood up. "Anyone want anything to eat?" he asked, edging towards the kitchen.

"Nope," Seto and Yami replied simultaneously. They grinned at each other. Or, rather, Yami grinned while Seto smirked in a self-satisfied way.

"Again," he growled and cast the final roll, taking out the remaining defenders of Yami's precious Fluff-Bunny nation.

"You have just destroyed my Fluff-Bunnies, and for that you will pay!"

"Oh, please. I blew a hole right through your supply line. Unless you armies are digging tunnels with spoons, your lines aren't connected anymore." Seto reached for another Risk card, handing off the dice.

Yami studied the board. Slowly, he began to smile, and set down all ten of his new infantry in Egypt. "That's where you're wrong. I've still got connecting lines," he corrected.

Seto frowned. "No, you don't."

The shorter duelist grinned and called into the kitchen, "Mokuba! I'm attacking your –" he lifted up the two infantry to check the country's name. "I'm attacking Great Britain from Greenland."

Mokuba poked his head out of the kitchen. "Seto, can you roll defense for me?" he asked, holding a butter knife in one hand and a jar of preservatives in the other.

"What are you doing?" Seto asked, hand inching towards the white dice.

Something exploded in the kitchen. Mokuba whipped around, a swear word escaping his lips as he dashed back in. Yami and Seto leaped up and charged into the kitchen.

It was a mess. The explosion had presumably been the egg that now dotted the ceiling. Chopped vegetables littered the cutting board countertop. Bread soaking with something was growling on the third pan on the stove.

Seto lifted an eyebrow as Yami dove for the stove, rescuing the pan with soggy bread slices before their menacing crackling could turn into another explosion.

"What exactly were you doing?" he asked his little brother.

"Um, making food?"

A piece of egg dropped from the ceiling.

"You have an odd way of going about it," Yami commented, licking a finger.

"Did you burn yourself?"

He shook his head. "No, but whatever Mokuba soaked the bread in tastes good."

Mokuba flushed slightly. "Sugar and milk," he mumbled.

Seto frowned and moved over to the pan to stick his own finger in the swiftly cooling goo. It was sticky and congealing on the bread so that it resembled frosting. He tasted it. A bit sugary sweet, but he supposed it was okay –

"You put vanilla in this too, didn't you?" Yami asked, licking another generous glob of it off his fingers.

"How – ?"

"You left the bottle open on the counter over there," Yami answered, smirking. "And I am possessed of the trait of observance."

Mokuba nodded a bit. Then, he looked up at Seto, his grey-blue eyes a touch wider than usual. "Are you mad, Nii-sama?"

Seto stared into his younger brother's eyes for a moment, then sighed. "I would be, with anyone else," he told his brother. "Somehow, I can't stay upset with you."

Yami wrapped an arm companionably around Mokuba's shoulder as he surveyed the damage to the kitchen. "Well, cleaning this up won't take too long, and then we can finish taking over the world."

"I think you mean I can finish taking over the world," Seto argued, bending over to wipe up egg off of the floor with a wet dish rag he'd retrieved from the counter.

The ex-spirit wore a feral grin as he replied, "Not if you plan on finishing the Dioscin Project on time. Now Mokuba and I, we've got all afternoon."

Seto swore descriptively and colorfully before turning to his younger brother. "Mokuba, whatever you do, don't let Yami take over the world. One colony of Fluff-Bunnies was enough."

Author's Note: Whoot! The first time I've made it off three pages, typed. Although...this one's only three pages and ten lines. Oh well, still broke the barrier, right? Muchly thanks to Lightning Sage, the awesome beta keeping my head attached to my shoulders.

--I like the game of Risk, which is why it features so prominently in comparison to the videogame of two chapters ago. I also have trouble pronouncing some of the country names, so I decided to do with these cherries what I do at home - they either resort to pointing (Seto and Mokuba) or come up with their own names (Yami). I've never had a Fluff-Bunny colony, but it seemed ridiculous enough to let Yami have them, so...yeah.
--I seriously considered playing out a game of Risk to decide how the game would really play out between these three, but in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't. Dragging out the rulebook and setting up a few colonies myself was easy enough to do, timewise, and required little to no thought.
--The Dioscin Project: Now if I told you, it'd spoil the suprise, wouldn't it?