It had been nearly an hour when they finally exhausted themselves. But in spite of their hoarse voices, sore red hands, and tired feet, the group was smiling. Well, everyone but Mokuba. Seto did not want him to stay any later than he already had, so he was sending him home even thought making such a decision required to not look into his little brother's eyes, which the younger Kaiba used like manipulative weapons. After their driver picked the youngest boy up, Seto returned to Mai's living room to see everyone sprawled out across the room, sipping drinks, resting, or chatting with someone next to them.

But Mai was not in the room with them.

"Time for the next game!"

Her voice shouting from right behind him in his ear nearly caused the brunette to jump, but he merely brushed it off, watching her walk around him holding something in a medium sized shoebox. She grinned at everyone, and Yami Yugi was sure he was not going to like what happened next if she had more strange games in store for her guests.

"Okay, now everyone get in a circle." Mai instructed them, pushing back furniture so that they would all have room to sit on the floor. "Come on, hurry up!"

"But we were in a circle the last time." Ryou remarked, slowly getting up from his seat on the couch next to Yugi. After the way his Yami had danced with him, he'd been nervous to get too close to him just yet. What if he'd read Bakura wrong? He looked at the blonde girl as she sat down on the white carpet gracefully, waiting for everyone else.

"What are we doing this time?" Anzu questioned.

"We're gonna play Spin the Bottle, silly." Their hostess replied in a too sugary sweet tone, smiling at them. Ryou's jaw dropped, and his Yami looked back at the blonde.

"And just what is the point of this game?" he asked curiously.

"There is no point, I guess. If everyone will sit down like they are supposed to, I will show all of those who don't know how to play what to do." Mai said pointedly, looking up at Seto, who was the only one not seated yet, trying her hardest not to sneer. She could see that he, again, did not want to participate, but she was sure the others would take care of that.

"Come on, Kaiba! It'll be fun." Yugi insisted.

"Have you ever played this game before?" the taller boy shot back.

"Uh, no…" he blushed slightly.

"I rest my case." Seto smirked, not moving from where he stood.

"So you're just going to ruin my birthday party?" Joey whined in the most pathetic voice he could muster without laughing, even sticking out his bottom lip for good measure. He then made his eyes tear up just a bit, giving the young billionaire his best 'puppy-dog' look, which always seemed to work. "Please play with us, Kaiba. It will be fun, I promise. And when we're done, we'll all let you stand in the corner and act like you don't know us."

Rolling his eyes, and regretting what he was about to do before he even made his feet move, Seto joined the circle, ending up sitting between Mai and Malik, his arms crossed over his chest, muttering, "Should have known Mokuba would teach you that trick."

"Now that that is taken care of, we can start." Mai announced taking a bottle made of green glass with a red ribbon tied around the neck out of the shoebox. She set it down in front of her, in the center of their circle. "Okay, the rules are simple. You get one spin, and try to get it to go around at least once so it's fair. You can't pick who it ends up on if you spin it the way you're supposed to. After you do that, whoever the end with the ribbon points to, you move into the circle and kiss them. Got that everybody?"

"You have to kiss them?" Yami exclaimed, eyes wide.

"Yeah, that's how you play." Mai shrugged.

"Does it matter who it lands on?" Bakura questioned, one eyebrow raised.

"Nope. Whoever it lands on you give them a kiss, on the mouth. And the more times you land on the same person the longer you have to kiss them." She grinned, enjoying the looks on their faces. It's my game, so I get to go first, okay?"

No one protested. They all just watched as she spun the bottle on the carpet as fast as she could. Around and around it went almost a green blur against the white floor. Yami had his fingers crossed it wouldn't land on him, Bakura was sure that he would never have to kiss her, Seto was sure that he would be doomed to lock lips with her, and Joey was just hoping that it landed on Honda. The blonde boy knew that his oldest friend was head over heals for Mai, and if he got the chance to kiss her, maybe he'd finally have the courage to tell her how he felt. Soon the bottle began to slow down. Everyone's eyes followed it until it finally stopped. Joey almost let out a cheer. It had landed on Honda! A miracle!

Mai scooted into the middle of the circle, leaning in and brushing her lips over the spike haired brunette's, then he finally regained some sense, and began to kiss her back. He was just getting into it and enjoying himself when she pulled away and sat back down. Honda was a little disappointed but quickly realized that it was his turn to spin the bottle.

Joey was almost dizzy from the rapid spinning and it gradually began to slow. To be honest Honda was nervous about who it would land on. He only really wanted to kiss Mai, but fate was against him, for the neck of the bottle was pointing at Malik. Violet eyes going wide the Egyptian crawled into the center waiting for Honda to meet him there and get this over with. The spike hair boy braced himself as he pressed his lips to the other's.

There it was over it was over. He had survived and now it was Malik's turn.

Anzu had not been paying attention to the game, but suddenly Joey was pushing her into the middle of the circle laughing at her startled expression. She was absolutely amazed when Malik put a tan hand on the side of her face, leaning in, in what seemed like slow motion to her, to kiss her lips ever so sweetly. The brunette girl was swooning into the tender caress floating on the blissful feeling of it. But then reality came back to bite Anzu in the butt making Malik pull away and retake his sit on the other side of the circle. The moment was over before she knew it, so now she had to keep the game going.

"There's no way I'm kissing him!" she exclaimed disgusted.

"Anzu honey, that's how the games works." Mai scolded her from across the circle, with a wicked almost laughing smile on her face. Behind her hand she tried not to laugh as she added, "Just give him a quick peck and we can keep the game moving."

Glaring at the blonde boy, she hissed, "I'll never forgive you for this!"

"Hey, I'm not going to like this either!" he shot.

Because they were sitting right next to each other it was easy for them to lean in and quickly smash their lips together instantly ripping apart, Joey sticking his tongue out.

Everyone burst out laughing as Anzu wiped her mouth off on her sleeve. Even Seto was laughing. This was actually quite entertaining! He couldn't believe what fun it was to watch the others have to practically make out with whoever was on the other end of a piece of cheap glass. But then everyone stopped laughing and he opened his eyes to see why. Joey had already spun the bottle, and it had stopped. ON HIM! Seto froze a blank expression on his face. What was he supposed to do? Kiss Joey? Oh this was not fair!

"No way, I am not kissing Kaiba!" the blonde yelled.

"Joey, that's not fair." Ryou interjected his voice calm. He glanced over at Anzu for a second. "You had to kiss Anzu, why won't you kiss Seto too?"

"You make it sound like I want him to!" the brunette CEO cried.

"It's only fair that you two kiss. We didn't make up the rules." Mai retorted, glaring at both of them. That threatening glare that seemed to convey the fact that she'd torture them endlessly unless they complied with the rules of the game, and fast.

"I hate you." Seto growled at the birthday boy.

"The feeling is completely mutual." Joey snarled back.

Ignoring the fact that they were appalled by the action they were about to commit with each other, both boys crushed their faces together for a split second. Blocking out the catcalls all around them from the rest of the group, both of them then hurried back to the safety of their seats. After spitting on Mai's carpet and not caring that he'd done so, it was after all her idea to do this, he threw the bottle back into the center watching it slowly twirl after bouncing up about a foot off the floor. At least things couldn't get worse for him.

Whatever twisted fate had begun to weave this strange web of humility, it had been far from finished. The bottle pointed at Yami. His eyes went wide and he began to wonder what the hell the possessed piece of glass was trying to do with him. 'And I foolishly agreed to play this game with them…why, exactly? First Joey, now Yami?'

"No! This is-" But the former pharaoh was cut off when Bakura roughly shoved him into the middle, practically throwing him into the young billionaire's arms. Seto caught him by the arms and he forgot what he'd been saying a minute before. Those entrancing azure orbs held him even as Seto leaned down the few inches between them, kissing his lips softly. It was supposed to be a quick kiss, but when Yami tried to pull away, he couldn't.

The brunette was holding him tight, his lips still caressing the tri-color haired boy's with a gentleness that had, before, seemed to be only reserved for Mokuba. Yami soon found that he did not want to separate from the taller young man's embrace, wrapping his arms around Seto's neck. That was what brought him back down to earth. He tore away from the other, almost scurrying on his knees back to where he'd sat between Bakura and Malik. He had his hand over his mouth as he made the horrid piece of glass whirl around. Silently he prayed to Ra that he would not have to kiss Seto again. Something had happened when he'd been in that boy's arms and he was, well, honestly afraid to repeat it. When the thing finally stopped, it was pointing at Ryou. Bakura was going to stop them, but since it turned out to be just a quick innocent peck, he only glared daggers at the pharaoh, and that was never unusual. Now it was Ryou's turn to play. He slowly gave it a spin.

'I can't look!' He felt someone pull on his sleeve. Gathering his courage he opened his eyes to see that it had somehow stopped on Yugi, who was sitting right next to him. As he chastely gave the other boy a kiss, he missed his Yami's death glare at the pharaoh's light. Yami, however, did see it, and when he caught Bakura's eye his face conveyed the same threat, only much more so. Yugi was already spinning the bottle by now.

"Yami, it's okay." Yugi assured him, moving over to where the tomb raider sat. After giving the former pharaoh a sinister smirk, Bakura wrapped Yugi up in his arms and kissed him as no one had ever kissed the tri-haired boy before. He would have slipped the younger boy the tongue, but the boy's darker half tore Yugi out of his arms, being gentle only to his aibou. His gentle side was a little dazed, shaking his head.

"See," Bakura sneered. "That wasn't that bad."

"I hate you." Was all the other yami could find to say.

* * *

It was again Ryou's turn. He was praying that it wouldn't land on his yami. As he tapped the glass to get it to twirl he took in a deep breath and held it, almost closing his eyes but unable to look away. Everyone watch while the bottle spun entranced by the play of light on the green glass. When it actually stopped Ryou thought he was going to faint.

Of course the accursed bottle had ended its revolution on Bakura. Now he would be forced to not only kiss his yami, but in a way face his feelings as well. To be honest he was almost jealous of Yugi for the way Bakura kissed the shorter boy earlier.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt an arm going around his waist, bring him close to the warm body of his dark side. An almost shaking, and definitely blushing, Ryou soon looked up at his other half, fear completely obvious in his deep brown eyes. His Yami traced a finger down his cheek, his breath like a heat spraying on his aibou's face, and it seemed to make the rest of the group fade away for his gentler side. Then those lips were on his, and the white haired light moaned, needing his other much closer. This felt so good, so right, he was melting into those arms, not hearing everyone else, just kissing Bakura back. They would have stayed that way much longer, but the white haired demon began to pull back, knowing the others would get impatient with them.

Ryou almost whimpered as he sat back down next to Yugi, but he held it in, watching his yami move away. Tears burned in his eyes. Why was this so hard? He wanted to tell him about how he felt, but he was so sure that Bakura would never accept it, and never return that love. But he bit his lip, pressing those emotions away for now.

* * *

'Finally!' Joey thought happily. The bottle had just granted his wish, it had landed on him. He grinned as the other boy moved towards him, a little reluctantly, and as soon as he was close enough the blonde took hold of one of his wrists crushing their bodies together before capturing his lips. A small gasp came from the other, but Joey was enjoying himself too much burying his other hand in the shorter boy's hair. After a moment, his semi-reluctant partner began to kiss back and that was when Joey let his tongue glide across their lips, asking for entrance, or maybe just being playful. He was going on instinct.

"Joey!" Anzu chided. She grabbed the back of his jacket and yanked him off, letting him fall on his butt. He was about to yell at her, but he saw the other boy's face.

Yugi was panting for breath and blushing a deep crimson. He didn't look angry or anything, in fact, he was almost smiling. The birthday boy winked at him just before Yugi turned away, going back to his own seat. Anzu didn't see the dirty look she got after that.

* * *

"Okay, Yami, your turn is the last spin. We have other games to play." Mai informed the former pharaoh just as he was about to take his turn. He nodded, then giving the green piece of glass a twist to make it whirl quickly in a blur.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" Yami exclaimed.

"HELL NO!" the other dark one agreed.

Yugi couldn't help but snicker. "Aw, Yami, it's the rules."

"I don't care about the rules, aibou, I am not kissing that soul stealer!" Yami shouted, looking angrily at the white haired demon next to him. There was no way he was going to lock lips with that arrogant tomb raider! He would not allow it. He would rather kiss Kaiba a million times more than Bakura! "Can't we just call the game over now?"

"No!" The rest of them said together, loudly.

Suddenly the two dark halves were grabbed by the group members from behind and forced to be pressed against each other. Then Mai began chanting 'kiss', which got everyone into it. They were yelling in their ears, and soon Yami couldn't take it. He grabbed Bakura's face and kissed him, hard. He didn't care if the tomb robber liked this or not, because as soon as it was over he was going to throw up and then get new lips.