A/N: Writing this during my Saturday because I just can't help myself. I CAN STOP ANYTIME I WANT I SWEAR. ¬_¬

Watching my Death Note DVDs too, wondering just how different Light would have been if he actually had a loving family and friends that cared...FFFFFFFFF I'm now psychoanalysing anime characters. I really need to get a life.

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD THIS THING HAS BEEN MENTIONED ON TV TROPES. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF I found it when a friend and I were IM'ing, she sent me a link to a Trope and, as everyone knows, you can't just look at ONE Trope, so I found myself in the "Notable Fanfiction" area, looked through the Kingdom Hearts index and then the "Yu-Gi-Oh" one. That was about the point I choked on my Mint Milkshake at the sight of my name and the line in the synopsis about "Not being able to recommend this fic enough."

AACCKK

And I have super special awesome news to give at the end of this chapter.

~Ava

~XxX~

"You can't seriously be thinking about letting this go ahead!" I half-yelled half-whispered at Kaiba as he, his brother and I were en route to the Duel Arena. After the two numbers that were Joey's and Marik's had been drawn from the lottery I had been astounded by the lack of protest. I had posed this same argument to Teá, Yugi and Joey without getting through and had decided instead, to bug a higher power. "He's a homicidal maniac! You saw what he was going to do to Teá! To Yugi! To Joey! I mean," I paused for breath for a second, not letting him get a word in until I had finished my rant, "I know you don't exactly like Joey, but come on! Letting him face a murderous bastard who has once before taken over his mind is something that anyone with a functional moral compass wouldn't allow!" He sighed, arms folded as he dissmissed my argument.

"I set the rules Callaghan, I could not and would not change them for any reason." He raised an eyebrow, looking at me like I was Mokuba's age, I did nothing to help that speculation by stamping my foot and balling my hands into fists.

"I on't care about your bloody rules to your bloody cardgame Kaiba. I care that a friend of mine is going to be facing a man who we could quite easily turn over to the police, if you just landed this bloody egotrip." I was hissing now, I had said nothing in the truce about reigning in anger caused by the narrow-mindedness of his. I almost lost my balance as he held his arm out infront of me, forcing me to stop, I regained balance and realised that had I kept walking, I would have walked into Mokuba and a glass-"A lift? Why do we need to take a lift? Wait-" I waved away my momentary distraction, "why are you letting this go ahead? This cardgame can't mean that much!" Kaiba frowned as he always did when I disputed the seriousness of the Duel Monsters, while I liked the game, I didn't see just how it could be taken as a means to take over the world.

"He feels the need to prove himself as a True Duelist Callaghan." He said, sounding faintly like he was trying to explain Evolution to a Creationist as he called the elevator, "Also, Marik has the third God card in his deck, if you think I am going to allow the chance to study it slip through my fingers, you're sorely mistaken." The lift arrived as I gasped, stepping into the glass cylinder while I continued to stare, unbelieveing, at Kaiba, I glanced at Mokuba for a second; who added something to the end of his brother's sentence.

"Plus, he's bound to have alot of other rare cards in his deck." Mokuba said, in a reasonable voice that made me feel like I was the mental one here. My mouth dropped open further as I practically lost it.

"ARGH!" I screamed through gritted teeth, drawing a concerned look from the younger brother and a raised eyebrow from the elder. "YOU-YOU'RE-YOU'RE LETTING JOEY DUEL A PSYCHOPATH WITH MIND-SCREWING POWERS BECAUSE YOU WANT A FUCKING CHILDREN'S TRADING CARD?" I squeezed my eyes shut as I shouted through my teeth, my fists balled so tightly that my nails were digging into my palms, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? GAH," I slid down the glass to sit on the floor, knees to my chest, "GOD, I JUST-I WANT TO HIT YOU." I opened my eyes quickly, "I mean, I'm not going to," I added in my normal voice, "but damnit...you're just..." I exhaled loudly and rested the back of my head against the glass, "you're being such a selfish prick right now." Mokuba opened his mouth to leap to his brother's defence but was cut off by Kaiba speaking instead.

"I wouldn't, and don't, expect you to understand Callaghan. You aren't a Duelist and have no concept of what it means to be a True Duelist, or what a person has to do to earn it." He glared at me as I started to protest, "keep quiet Callaghan, I'm speaking," I narrowed my eyes but shut my mouth, "as for your latter point, if you thought I was hosting this tournament for any other reason than to obtain all three God cards you are not as intelligent as I thought you were." I put my head in my hands at the back-handed compliment.

"I take it back, you aren't a prick," I sighed as I rose from my spot on the floor, "you're a hypocrite."

"What's that supposed to mean Callaghan?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at me slightly as Mokuba frowned heavily, I winced a little inside; I didn't like fighting with his brother in front of him, it felt so...pre-divorce parents-y.

"I went to visit Bakura earlier and was kindly informed by Teá that it took all of them hassling you, and finally Serenity pleading with you, to send a freaking doctor to see him. Now, you are letting a known psychopath duel a friend of mine." I sighed, "If I remember correctly, you said that you couldn't have someone die in your tournament." His right eyebrow looked like it was trying to abandon his face.

"Hmm, so you actually do pay attention sometimes Callaghan." He said, as I snorted.

"Of course I did, it's you." SHIT. I thought, visibly wincing now as I blushed as red as my hair and saw him smirk at me out of the corner of my eyes. The lift slowed and stopped as I kept silent, I could practically feel the laughter he was holding back at my Freudian slip, I pushed past him and walked briskly over to Teá, shivering and snapping out of my utter embarassment in favour of utter confusion as to our location. Until I saw the clouds at a suspiciously closer angle, it took a moment for my frazzled brain to connect two and two to realise that we were ontop of the blimp.

"Hey S-" Teá stared before narrowing her eyes at me and, what I suspected, was my blush. "What happened to you?" She asked, folding her arms and demanding an answer as I smiled at her seriousness.

"I just spent ten minutes half-yelling at Kaiba about letting this farce go ahead." She frowned at my answer, grabbing my wrist and dragging me over to the rest of our friends who appeared to be cheering Joey on even though the duel hadn't started yet, she pointed at Joey on the top of the Duel Arena, shuffling Marik's deck.

"Sophie, you're just going to have to accept, Joey is choosing to do this. He could have said 'no' to forefit, but he didn't." She turned to face me, "The most we can do for him now is to support him in his choice, not argue with it." She smiled as I sighed in defeat and nodded wearily, "but, I would have paid good money just to see you yell at Kaiba for ten straight minutes." I snorted and stood myself inbetween her and Serenity, frowning up at the Duel.

"...Wh-Why is Joey still shuffling those cards?" I asked, puzzled at just how long it was taking him, Teá massaged the bridge of her nose.

"I think he's trying to intimidate Marik..." She said as I glanced at her, leaning forwards a little at the sight of lilac, I spotted the newest person to the finals, Namu, we hadn't actually met yet, but after this duel I'd attempt to introduce myself. That was, if I didn't die of embarassment everytime I glanced across the top deck of the blimp and saw the brothers.

"Alright Wheeler! You've shuffled enough cards for ten Duelists now! Take your places!" Roland yelled at Joey, who growled at Marik before handing him his deck, the man with the facial tattoo staring solemly ahead, like this was the single most important thing in the world to him. I rolled my eyes, wondering just how I was going to be able to support Joey if I really couldn't take this game seriously.

Marik drew his first cards and set two facedown.

~XxX~

A/N: OKAY FINE. THIS IS AN ADDICTION. I CAN'T GO ONE DAY WITHOUT UPDATING. SO HOW ABOUT SHORT CHAPTERS ON THE WEEKENDS? XD

ANYWAY, SUPER-SPECIAL-AWESOME NEWS.

Since the deadline for this thing to be finished if I were to enter it into the competition has passed, I have no time-limit on this. So I don't have to limit myself to a short, hastily-written romance over one story arc..

Are you getting where this is going?

No? Well, let me paraphrase the ending of the latest YGOTAS.

WE'RE GOING TO NOAH'S WORLD, THE DOMA ARC, AND EVERY DAMN ARC AFTER THAT BAYBEH. Yes, I'm making this my main project for the next few YEARS guys. Why? Because the TV Tropes thing, (and the subsequent boost to the alerts/faves/my ego), I have realised that there is more of a...market for my little challenge-fic than I had thought when I first took up the mitten.

Well, that and I am SO DAMN BORED during my Summer holidays,when college starts again this'll slow considerably, but I'll still be going, hence the YEARS thing. XD

Hope you guys stick around,

~Ava