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Notes:

School, school, school. Grr. I can do this, man! I can do it! Sorry if it seems short. Overabuse of the line thingie. Sorry.

Five Replies:

To keisan: It's like She's All That? Really? Sadly, I have never seen the movie, so I'll have to take your word for it. I feel flattered, anyway. Yes, I like the idea.

random: When I'm writing something, I love hearing that people can 'see a character doing it'! It usually means that I'm doing something right. (Either that, or I'm doing something so terrible that the mental images produced make them scream in pain, but …) Love your name, by the way.

Reppu: Ooh, I do hope it's two-sided. grins Yes, I agree. Aren't snarky Mokubas fun? (Or would that be Mokubi? Mokubas? Mokubi? Oh dear.) Like Jou or Seto would do their homework in detention. Ha!

solarsenshi: Yes! He will learn to enjoy it, very much. Very, very much. Mwa ha ha ha.

Lemon-Merengue: Hee hee. I think you're right. Kaiba is definitely enjoying it. Hey, we all know he needed a challenge, right? I mean, sitting around all day ... this has to be more fun.

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Appeal

Three: Drama Rising

Actually, nothing much had really happened.

They sat, the teacher sat, and when the teacher looked away, they exchanged glares.

Or, rather, Jou glared, and Kaiba smirked in a superior manner.

Life was good.

Halfway into the session, Jonouchi had taken to throwing small paper wads in Seto's general direction. That had been stopped very quickly.

A shame, really; Seto had rather enjoyed watching Jonouchi miss – they were almost the entire classroom apart – and become ever more frustrated. The time the teacher had caught him, he had uttered a low growl as he threw his wad of paper. What an idiot.

But an idiot that he had to seduce.

All the better, he supposed.

He had decided at that moment to work on his plan of attack.

"Mr. Kaiba, for the last time, I know your motives! Please stop trying to convince me otherwise. The answer is no."

"Miss," Kaiba said quietly, "I honestly believe that I am the only person capable of pulling the boy out of his academic slump. Would you or would you not like to have one more 'A' student?"

"The only reason you want to do it, sir," the teacher replied in her impatient voice, "is that you know he won't do any work on the project whatsoever. You don't intend to be his partner at all."

Oh, yes I do.

"Are you accusing me of being a liar, miss?"

"Yes, I think I am." She glared at him stubbornly.

"Who would you have paired me with otherwise?"

"A random student from the class," she said. "As I explained to you all earlier. The drawing of names will be held the day after tomorrow."

Kaiba leaned closer to her, planting his hands on her desk. "If I truly wanted to work alone, would I not do so regardless of the person I was paired with?"

She frowned.

Kaiba met her eyes, knowing full well the unnerving quality of his own. A reporter had once called them an "unsettling azure"; Seto always used all of his assets to his best advantage. "I tell you that I would like to help Jonouchi Katsuya. Rig the drawing, and you can rest assured that your school will benefit."

"How?" she said, scooting almost imperceptibly backwards in her seat.

"A generous donation, of course," Seto said. He stood upright now, turning to leave. "It is your call, madam."

She was silent as he made his exit.

The chatter had died down slowly, but it had indeed died. The woman had begun to call names, glaring at Kaiba from time to time. Kaiba noticed this with vague amusement as he continued to work at his laptop.

"Honda will be paired with…" droned the teacher slowly and deliberately, pulling the next slip. She looked at it. "Mazaki."

Anzu groaned and hit her forehead, while her girlfriends made sympathetic noises. Honda grinned and gave Jou a thumbs-up. "I'm definitely gonna ace this!" he mouthed.

Seto watched Jonouchi as he grinned back. The boy looked a bit nervous; edgy, almost. It was as though he had an idea of what was coming.

The woman drew the next name from the box, and Jou flinched.

"Mutou will be paired with…" she began, and Jou relaxed. He showed his emotions so clearly. "Seki."

Yugi grinned at a tall, dark-faced boy. The boy smiled back, waving.

Several names later, she finally plucked the name of Jonouchi from her box.

"Jonouchi will be paired with…"

The class waited with bated breath; only a few hadn't been called yet.

"…Kaiba." She looked up and gave Kaiba a pointed look.

Kaiba nodded in acknowledgement.

And then Jou realized whose name she had just called.

"WHAT?!"

"No! You can't! You can't do this to me!"

Class had ended, and Jonouchi had immediately confronted the teacher. Students filed out, giggling at Jou's misfortune.

"It was a fair drawing, Jonouchi," she said. "There will be no changes."

"But, but – not him! Have you ever seen us get along?! There's no way I can work with him!"

Seto decided at that moment to interrupt. "I hate to intrude on your conversation…"

"Then don't!" snapped Jonouchi.

Seto continued smoothly. "I am, Jonouchi, perfectly willing to work with you. Surely we can … put our differences aside."

Jonouchi turned to stare at Kaiba as though the brunette had announced that he was, in fact, a flying pink daisy, and intended to join a troupe of daffodils passing through town on the next full moon. "…The fu--?" he began.

"Jonouchi!" the woman said hastily. "Watch your mouth!"

Jou never took his eyes off of Seto, mumbling an apology to her lackadaisically.

They were all quiet then.

Finally, the teacher tired of it. She clapped her hands together. "Well, if there are no further complaints… it's settled. Good luck on your project, both of you. I am certain that you will excel."

And so it was settled.

It seemed that Jonouchi was in shock.

"So now this Eiri character is schizophrenic?" muttered Kaiba, flipping the page. "Next he'll be claiming that he was a pharaoh in his past life…"

"Big brother! Big brother!"

Kaiba snapped the book shut. "Yes, Mokuba?"

"It's time for dinner! Let's have pizza!"

He almost groaned. "Mokuba, we had pizza last night. And the night before last. A bit of variety wouldn't kill you."

"Well, then, what are we going to eat tonight?"

Kaiba thought.

And then …

… he had an idea.

A horrible, wonderful idea.

A horrible, wonderful, brilliant idea.

He smiled and stood. "I'll call Jonouchi. Get ready, Mokuba."

Mokuba blinked.

Kaiba's smirk grew. "We're going out to eat."