Ok, this started out as a small incident but ended up taking the form of a chapter and therefore isn't exactly plot-driven. However, whenever I contemplated deleting it, I started receiving threatening looks from Kaiba and Joey, the former being extremely scary and the latter being almost impossibly cute! Anyway, I really hope you enjoy… the ultimate bath!

Kaiba's POV

Kaiba couldn't help but smirk as he swept along the long hallway of the Kaiba mansion. Today had been a complete and utter triumph. He had just completed an extremely important merger, identified and exterminated a potential mole in his company as well as making an incompetent buffoon, one who had the temerity to ask for a raise, burst into tears.

Yes, it had been a very good day for the world's most successful CEO. In fact, add his impending bath with Buddy to the mix and there wouldn't be a single way to top it!

Yowl!

Kaiba's smirk grew until it eventually covered his whole face. If he wasn't mistaken, that was the sound of the maid once more demonstrating her complete and utter impotence. That meant only one thing – he could add yet another dismissal to his list of triumphs. It seemed he had been wrong earlier – his day had just got a great deal more triumphant than he had possibly imagined.

Joey's POV

Joey was thoroughly depressed. His day had been a total bust. Not only had Mokuba been too busy to pay him the slightest bit of attention but Joey had spent the entire day revisiting his last bath with Kaiba – recalling each caress, each scratch, each whispered word (true, they were only words such as "Dirty puppy" but still, the way Kaiba whispered them in that deep, slightly hoarse voice of his seemed almost to turn them into innuendos. Thrilling ones.

Joey screwed his eyes shut. What on earth was wrong with him? He'd hoped to spend the whole day planning ways to get himself transformed back into a human. What had he done instead? Why, only spend the whole day imagining the many things he could do with Kaiba when back in his true form.

What was with these bizarre fantasies? Joey tried to sink into the mountain of fabric he had found piled in the basement. It couldn't be…He couldn't possibly-

Click

Wait, that sounded like a door closing. But the basement didn't have a door. What could it have been?

PSSSSHHHHHHHHH

Joey let out a deafening howl as water was squirted at him from all sides. What was going on?

All of a sudden, he felt the ground underneath the pile of fabric shift and he was dumped off his little mountain.

"Hey" Joey protested silently, "I was gonna sleep dere." Unfortunately for Joey, the ground had other plans. Every time he tried to get a grip on something, the ground underneath him seemed to tip him off his feet.

Things went from bad to worse as hot water began gushing out from all sides. It was like the bath from hell. "Think, Joey, think" he instructed himself sternly, "What could possibly be happening to you?" Then it hit him. He was being eaten.

Now he had realised it everything clicked into place. He had been sleeping the open mouth of some humungous creature, the pile of fabric had been its tongue, the water was saliva and the movement was chewing. Soon he was going to be swallowed.

Feeling all his hope drain away, Joey resigned himself to his ultimate doom. Death by giant monster.

Kaiba's POV

Kaiba was fighting the urge to laugh as his face pulled irresistibly into one of his rare but beatific smiles. His silly puppy had fallen asleep in the washing machine! True, it was a little bit bigger than most washing machines, but it still couldn't be mistaken for some sort of doggy bed!

It was strange. In the past, Wheeler had been the only one who could make him smile. The only one who could melt his ice cold exterior by evoking feelings of rage, irritation, humour, delight or a mixture of all the above. However, why could this puppy evoke exactly the same feelings?

Sighing with exasperation at the mystery at hand, Kaiba glided smoothly towards the washing machine in the corner of the basement, rapidly opening the door and ending his puppy's torment. He'd expected the mutt to come bounded out, shocked but unscathed following his little adventure. However, contrary to his former beliefs, no puppy emerged.

Joey's POV

It had stopped. Why had it stopped? Perhaps the monster wasn't hungry anymore and had decided to save him for later? Terrified, Joey remained where he was, trembling. Consequently, when the long, cold fingers of Seto Kaiba came to grab him, he instinctively fought against the invasion of his little bubble of space – though to no avail.

"Was puppy scared by the big bad washing machine? Was puppy frightened?"

Joey was much too petrified to even recognise the voice, let alone pay it any heed.

"Calm down, mutt. You're safe now."

Beginning to gather his scattered wits, Joey stopped fighting, though only to fall into a trembling, fearful state of submission. For some reason this irritated Kaiba more than the fear.

"So the big bad washing machine has brave Buddy cowering in submission? You disappoint me, mutt." Kaiba sighed, feeling slightly guilty. Perhaps he was being too harsh on the pup. After all, he looked nothing less than traumatised. "Ok pup, we'll have you're bath now."

At the word bath the seemingly lifeless puppy in his arms seemed to spring to life. Within seconds he was flailing, scratching and howling as if his life depended on it. This was bad. Kaiba needed to get his pup into a bath to wash away the detergent that would undoubtedly have an antagonistic effect on his healing wounds. He needed a plan – and fast. Fortunately, that was his specialty.

Joey's POV

Joey was huddled in the corner of the strange blue room, trembling. If he hadn't been so petrified of the long, oblong shaped pool of water in the middle, he would have been awe-struck by the room's unique beauty. The walls were painted pale blue and the ceiling was made of glass, enhanced by mirrors, thus enabling the evening sunlight to penetrate the room whilst naturally heating the water. The mirrors causing the water to shimmer radiantly in the magnified light. It was then that Kaiba strode once more into view, this time carrying some sort of bottle in his hand.

"Oh no!" thought Joey desperately, "He's going to drug me and then bathe me when I'm unconscious." However, to Joey's immense relief, Kaiba instead moved towards the pool-like object where he began pouring liberal amounts of a strange, translucent liquid into its previously clear depths.

Suddenly, appearing as if from nowhere, a thick layer of bubbles began to spread across the surface of the pool. Yet these were no ordinary bubbles. As a result of the mirrored ceiling, each and every one seemed to display a refracted spectrum of light, filling the room with a huge assortment of rainbows. In fact, the display of colours was so magical that he almost didn't notice the tall figure moving stealthily towards him. Almost.

Kaiba's POV

Kaiba's confident smirk was replaced by a frown as Buddy's flinched away from his hands. Damn. He had been convinced that the bubble display would have his puppy willing, if not downright eager, to enter the water. It seemed that the puppy was even more afraid than Kaiba had predicted. How could he possibly persuade his reluctantly stubborn puppy to take the bath he so desperately needed to keep his wounds clean?

Up until this point he had completely avoided the nagging feeling that there something more to Buddy and his relationship, something that had been growing for years not weeks. However, with desperation gnawing at his mind, Seto Kaiba finally decided that it was time to accept some slightly uncomfortable truths, albeit temporarily, if it meant helping his puppy take a bath.

Joey's POV

Joey eyed the large room warily. Kaiba had disappeared once more. Undoubtedly cooking up some irritatingly clever albeit rather underhanded scheme to get Joey into the water. All the same, Joey was adamant that he would remain dry for the remainder of his life. Nothing would ever persuade him to get wet. Nothing.

…Except perhaps for that…

Kaiba had once again emerged, this time wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. All at once, Joey forgot his newly intensified hydrophobia, his resentful feelings towards Kaiba, hell, he probably even forgot his new puppy-shaped form.

All he knew was that Seto Kaiba was going to remove that towel once he got in the water and there was no way on earth that he, Joey Wheeler, was going to be watching from so far away.

Kaiba's POV

Removing the towel with his left hand and holding his puppy in his right, Kaiba couldn't help but smile. His plan had worked! He really was a genius. Catching some of his puppy's furtive glances, he felt his rare smile expand, "No peaking, puppy…not yet, anyway."

Picking up the shampoo bottle, he began his almost ritual-like process "Rinse, lather, repeat." In fact, he was so absorbed by this strange, light-headed feeling that he almost missed the little noises being made by the small creature in his arms.

At first he was afraid he was hurting his pup and so instantly stopped, frozen in horror at the prospect of doing yet more damage. However, the look his puppy gave him then was so irritated that he couldn't help but chuckle. Nevertheless, even as he resumed the shampooing process, he couldn't help but feel that he was missing something. That look. That slightly irritated, slightly admiring look. Where had he seen it before?

Kaiba sighed heavily, half with resignation, half with contentment (a very strange combination for the top CEO). No matter how difficult the mystery at hand might be, he would eventually work it out. After all, his considerable cerebral capacity enabled him to work out anything he set his mind to. And he certainly wanted to work this mystery out. Didn't he?

So, will Kaiba work out the mystery? Will Joey melt the heart of our favourite CEO? Don't forget to review for the next chapter...I hope you enjoyed it:D