~XxX~
"Soph. I hate to break it to ya, but you're a human." Came the dry response from Joey after I had declared myself Switzerland in regards to the semi-final's contestants.
"Noooo. I think you'll find I'm Switzerland, that is to say, I'm a country in west central Europe. I've been neutral since 1515 and show no signs of changing my mind when it comes to two of my loveliest friends playing a card game against each other." I laid on my most sickeningly sweet voice for the word 'lovely.' I had, for the rest of the Duel, cheered on neither side, claiming neutrality. I had instead heckled both sides. Heavily. Of course, when Yami won I offered a vague congratulations as he questioned me as to what I had meant by 'Psychological damage.' I told him that when my hand healed up I'd tell him and then slap him, something he took in good humour, in fact, it was a very amiable atmosphere on our side of the Duel Arena. On the other side however, Mokuba was on his knees and Seto seemed to be having an existential crisis. I hesitated before stumbling towards them. Not of my own volition, however, Teá had shoved me in the back. Hard. I caught myself before I could fall flat on my face and glared over my shoulder at her. She shrugged and smiled at me before I stalked back to our group, hissing my words lowly so that the others couldn't hear me over Joey's posturing for his Red-Eyes. What followed was a string of lightning-quick replies in the same tone, I had a feeling that any passers-by that hadn't been listening to Joey would have thought there were two demented snakes in the Duel Arena.
"I'm not going over there, Teá."
"Why?"
"Why do you think? I feel like I've been ignoring my friends for a guy I may or may not like who I generally want to smack."
"Oh well woe is us. We simply couldn't get along without our pillar of misanthropy."
"…Wow. Sarcasm. That's original."
"Look, Sophie. I love you, but I want to smack you sometimes too."
"Thanks, hun. Love you too."
"Look, you're the first person I've seen that has been able to get a halfway decent response out of him, and if it can make him less of a shallow, self-centred, acerbic ass. I'm all for it."
"Well, that's just great. It's a shame he's an insensitive unfeeling prick with no respect for others, and that he never stops scowling or being rude even to you, and you're not even his 'arch-rival.' He's cold-hearted and rude and self obsessed and makes you think he's finally going to open up and then he throws it all back in your face and makes you feel like crap. He brings out the worst in people because he's just a grumpy, unwashed, disgusting bastard of a man who can't start a committed friendship let alone relationship and-"
"So you like him then?"
"...Shut up."
"Look, I know you don't place much value on Duel Monsters, I didn't think much of it in the beginning too, but after Pegasus, and the Pharaoh…I don't know anymore. I just know that there are some things that have a lot of value placed on them by other people, even if it seems stupid to me."
"…Fine. Fine. I'll go. Yeesh…"
"I know. I'm very good at this sort of thing."
"What sort of thing? Manipulating my feelings to suit your own purposes? I hope you're getting this bitch-stare."
"Oh yes, it's very threatening."
"Good."
"But no. I just poked you into saying what you were already thinking."
~XxX~
"You. Up." I pointed to Mokuba, "Please?" I amended, reminding myself that my curtness was directed only to his brother and not to him. The black-haired boy looked up at me from his dejected position.
"Seto l-lost. It can't be true." The way in which he'd said it made me almost feel sorry for Seto before I reminded myself of the very quiet, internal reason that I had been rooting for his loss that I would never ever verbalise. I held out my hand to help Mokuba up, he took it without looking away from his brother. I sighed.
"Look, I...I know that the game means a lot to the two of you, hell, to everyone on this island, but it's not like it's the end of the world."
Apparently I couldn't have said something worse if I'd suggested making bunting out of cat entrails for some kind of 'Ha Ha You Lost' party. This was evidenced by Seto glaring daggers at me over his shoulder as Yami approached him.
"That was the most challenging duel I've ever had, Kaiba." Yami said, sounding as respectful as you could imagine from a 3000-year-old Pharaoh. Unfortunately it wasn't received as well as it would have if Yami had said it to anyone other than who it actually was said to.
"Don't patronise me, Yugi." Seto spat back. I mentally sighed in utter exasperation as I looked over to Teá, her face buried in her hands. Honestly.
"I'm not patronising you, Kaiba." Yami said, sounding infinitely patient, "If I hadn't had Joey's Red Eyes, I would have lost." Yami removed the card from his Duel Disk, holding it up to Kaiba as the latter scoffed at him.
"That one card can only do so much, Yugi." He snarled at my eccentrically-haired friend,
"You're right, Kaiba. It's what the card is and what it means that led to me winning our duel." He turned over his should to look at Joey, as Téa re-surfaced from her hands. "Red Eyes Black Dragon is Joey's card and I know that when I duel with it, I am never alone in my duels." I smiled slightly, that level of friendship was actually rather touching and, not for the first time, I was happy I wasn't my thirteen-year-old self. Seto snorted derisively, this seeming to have, rather than touched a nerve; yanked it out and hooked it up to a car battery.
"Not alone? Listen to yourself, Yugi! We are all alone! I've never had to ask for help or receive it, and I know that victory means nothing if you didn't grab it with your own hands." Barely restrained anger, it appeared, was what happened when you tried to talk to Seto about common human interactions. "Friends? I would never have anyone to slow me down. I've never needed help from anyone else or had a need for frie-What the HELL, Callaghan?"
"What, Seto? I always throw shoes at bloody morons." I sniffed after spitting out the last two words, "It's my thing." I had no real excuse for removing a shoe and throwing it so hard at him it rebounded off his shoulder, but it was better than the alternative of throwing Mokuba at him instead. I didn't even break eye-contact with Seto, but I could feel the waves of repressed laughter rolling off both Joey and Teá. He rounded on me as I let go of my death-grip on Mokuba's shoulder and took a step forwards.
"I don't care if you're offended, Callaghan. I've made it very clear in the past that you are not my friend." He partially snarled the words at me as I laughed scornfully, taking a few steps forward again to conceal my small amount of hurt at his words.
"Oh I'm sooo glad you feel that I hold you in such high regard. But no, that's not why I did it. I did it because you really are a fucking moron." I ploughed on before he had a chance to speak, "Alone? Really? Then I suppose that he's just a figment of your demented imagination?" I gestured wildly behind me at Mokuba. I was glad I couldn't see the kid's face, I was basically using him as an argument against his beloved older brother. Seto made a noise like a punched bear before turning away from me sharply and gesturing to Mokuba to follow him, which he did. I narrowed my eyes at his back before glancing over to a smirking Teá and rolling my eyes exaggeratedly.
Of course, then I realised that the jerk had taken my other shoe with him.
~XxX~