Featuring Trustshipping (Seto Kaiba x Ishizu Ishtar)

"I swear to God if I hear one more Christmas carol –"

There was a sputtering of laughter from somewhere outside the window as Seto stormed over and glared outside. His blue eyes flicked around the yard but couldn't locate the source of where the really loud, really off-key music had been coming from. Ishizu hid her smile behind her hand as Seto ripped open the window.

"Mokuba! Noa! I know it's you – and you both know that I'm working! That's enough!"

He snapped the window shut and then dropped the shades.

Ishizu tried to press her lips together to smother the smile as Seto stalked back to his desk, but it was nearly impossible. He sent her a half-glare as she quickly looked down at the magazine she had been leafing through.

"Don't you even think about laughing," he said.

"Wasn't thinking about it," Ishizu said, but it was bubbling up in her throat against her will.

Seto scowled.

"This goddamn season. I hate this whole goddamn season," he muttered, flipping through the papers on his desk with a little too much force. "Everyone goes insane. Not to mention no matter what I do the budgets get messed up...people not paying attention to their work because goddamn Pegasus won't stop hacking my goddamn PA system and playing goddamn Christmas carols..."

"And that's why you're working from home today, isn't it?" Ishizu said.

"Thought I wouldn't have to deal with it here...damn those two."

He was in a really bad mood today. Ishizu didn't want to laugh because it felt mean and insensitive, but it was rare that Seto showed this much emotion in this exaggerated a fashion, and it was honestly quite amusing.

"You're laughing at me."

"No I'm not."

"You're doing it in your head."

Ishizu smiled at him over the top of her magazine.

"Oh, did your contact with the Millennium Eye give you the ability to read my mind?"

Seto snorted at her, but the comment did bring half a sardonic smile to his face. She set her magazine down and reached across the desk to put a gentle hand on his arm.

"Mokuba and Noa are just being teenagers. It's what they do. And they're probably hoping it will make you laugh – you don't do that enough, you know."

Seto sighed.

"I know. That doesn't stop me from getting annoyed by the goddamn Christmas music – it's the same every single year. I can't stand it."

"I don't know...it's kind of cute. I like it."

"Yeah, well you haven't had to deal with it for as long; after about twenty Christmases it gets old."

He was relaxing though, and had stopped writing with enough violence to almost rip his paper. Ishizu smiled. There we go.

At least, he was relaxing until the loud voices of Mokuba and Noa came through the wall again.

"We wish you a merry Christmas, we wish you a merry Christmas, WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAAASSSS –"

"GODDAMMIT YOU TWO!"

Ishizu couldn't help it. She laughed. She laughed so hard that she almost fell off her chair, so hard that she could hardly breathe for a few moments and tears were starting to form in her eyes.

Seto glared at her – but even he didn't seem to be able to hold that expression for long. Her laughter seemed to get to him, and a half-smile twitched at the edges of his mouth.

"I'm glad I'm so amusing to you," he said, only half joking.

Ishizu couldn't respond. She was still laughing.