"Remind me why we're going to this...thing again," Seto grumbled while boredly staring out the window of their limousine. He had his arms and legs crossed defiantly, making Mokuba sigh in exasperation. And to think, the party hadn't even begun yet.

"Because we were invited," he said, sounding like a broken record.

"No, you were invited. Why am I going?"

"Because you promised, big bro."

"In my defense, I thought I'd never see you again. I was clearly hysterical."

Mokuba seemed to consider this for a moment. "Fair enough. But since we're on our way, we might as well make the most of it, 'kay?"

Seto chose not to respond. In truth, he was still recovering from the whole Masquerade fiasco the day before, and it made him unfortunately pliable to Mokuba's will. So, on they rode to the Moto residence while he tried to psych himself up for this party. Maybe he'd get a duel out of his rival. Maybe, if Ryou came at all, he would come alone so he'd have a decent conversationalist. Maybe a certain blond prankster was staying home with the flu or something so Seto wouldn't have to put up with his barking all night about some comeuppance or other. Okay, so, yeah, he doubted that last one, but he could dream.

All too soon, they were pulling up to the game shop. Its store windows were dark, despite the relatively early evening hour, but the upper ones were colored warm and lively. With a resigned sigh, Seto followed Mokuba out of the car and into the shop he was starting to know by heart. And what a horrible thought that was.

"Mokuba!" the group cheered in unison when they entered. They gave half waves and sheepish smiles in greeting to Seto, as well, when they noticed him, but he was glad for the dialed back enthusiasm. After Serenity basically forced him to hang out with them at the carnival (he mentally blocked out the botched karaoke trip), he had been afraid the posse actually liked him now.

He did a headcount of the attendees: Serenity had already whisked Mokuba away to the sound system, Tristan and Duke were by the snack table, the latter stuffing his face, Téa and Ryou were chatting on the couch with a rather disgruntled looking Bakura watching with mild interest, and Yugi was talking excitedly to his companion in a distant corner. This is what held Seto's attention.

Seto practically stalked over to the two conversationalists. As he approached, Yugi nodded toward him, prompting his partner to turn and regard Seto's approach with the cool distance and slight amusement he was used to. "Yugi," he greeted casually, then turned to the other and said, "Pharaoh," with the slight undercurrent of mocking he usually gave the title.

"Kaiba," the former king replied, inclining his head slightly. "As I've said before, you don't have to call me that. I have a name now." He exchanged a smile with Yugi.

"Hm," Seto replied simply. "I only came over to demand a duel," he continued, clenching a fist in determination. "What better welcome-back gift could you ask for?" He slid on a cocky grin and almost reached for his deck, already anticipating the once-king accepting his challenge, when someone jabbed him in the side.

"Been here two seconds and you're already challenging 'im to a duel?" Joey asked, crossing his arms in mock exasperation. "Shoulda known. Though I'm shocked you showed at all."

Seto didn't dignify that with a response (because he had none), which allowed Atem to speak up. "Kaiba, I'd be glad to duel you, but I figured you'd be sick of competition with this prank battle I've been hearing so much about."

Yugi blanched at the word "prank." The statement somehow also caught the attention of the rest of the gang. "Here we go again," Téa said, rolling her eyes and setting her chin on her hand to watch the inevitable fallout.

But there was none. Joey felt a stray spark of indignation alight in his chest at the mention of his rivalry with Seto that past month, but the memory of Serenity hanging several feet above ground stamped it out quickly. He glanced over to Seto to see if he was having a similar reaction and met the tail end of a blue glare. Joey shrugged. "Yeah, this past month we've been pranking each other and dragged the others into it." He threw an apologetic look over his shoulder to his friends. "Kinda got out of hand, but...but I think it's over with."

"It'd better be," Seto replied. "I refuse to invest any more time or effort into it." It was the closest to a truce he was going to come.

"Wow, that's surprisingly mature, guys," Ryou said. "I'm proud of you." He and Téa snickered to themselves.

"How did this whole thing start?" Atem asked.

"Ask him," Seto said, eyes narrowing at Joey.

The blond sputtered an explanation. "W-what? No! I prank called you on April Fool's Day. You got me back the day after, thus declaring war!"

Tristan nodded sagely. "Everyone knows you can't prank someone back the day after April Fool's Day."

"Thank you!" Joey said to him, clapping his hands together once loudly.

"Well, what kind of pranks were there?"

"Ooh, my favorite was the viral video," Duke said with an almost feral grin. "It was Joey's little fifteen seconds of fame, and it was hilarious."

"To you, maybe," Joey grumbled.

"The pranks were also educational," Ryou said with the faintest edge in his tone. "For example, some of us learned the definition of 'grand theft auto.'"

Joey bristled and Bakura tried to hide his snickering as Seto glowered at him. "So that was you!" he seethed.

Bakura waved a hand lazily. "You have no proof," he said in an almost sing-song tone.

"I don't know," Téa said, defusing the impending skirmish, "Joey's talk show appearance was pretty good. How did you even get on Domino Insider?"

Seto grimaced, remembering the tabloids he'd had to hunt down to quash the rumors Joey had started the weeks following that one appearance. "How did you manage that?" he asked, in part curious but mostly for research so that he could avoid that scenario in the future should any disgruntled former employees or business partners get any ideas.

"I know someone on the production team," Joey said with a self-satisfied smirk. Then he sighed. "I had to call in almost all my favors to keep up with this guy."

"I was wondering how you managed to hire those hijackers," Mokuba said around the cookie in his mouth. "They weren't cheap, you know."

"Wait, hijackers?" the Pharaoh asked, raising an eyebrow in incredulity.

"A group of bandana-wearing operatives held up the train Seto and I were on, then forced us off of it so that we had to walk back to the nearest town."

"Yeah, and apparently the freak was so impressed he hired them later to kidnap himself," Joey said, shaking his head.

"Oh, I remember that," Yugi said. "Joey had to duel for Mokuba's freedom because he was pretending to be Kaiba. It was a weird day."

"You're telling me," Seto mumbled, actively trying to delete the memories from that day. It didn't even seem like a proper prank, just torture; although, that was kind of what that month had devolved into.

"But it made for good practice against Masquerade," Atem said, "right?"

Joey considered that, then nodded. "Yeah, I – wait, how did you hear about that?"

His eyes widened before he exchanged a look with Yugi. "Oh, uh, Yugi told me about it. You two were all over the news anyway."

"And the Internet," Tristan said. He turned his phone to his friends and scrolled through a trending feed, showing them that the so-called Masquerade Ball was still topping the charts.

"I'm just glad that you two are okay," Duke said, walking over to the teens to squeeze Mokuba's shoulder and sling an arm around Serenity. The others nodded their agreement.

"And that's all thanks to our amazing big brothers," Serenity said with a bright smile. "So, I guess we all can put this petty prank war behind us. Right?"

"And just in time for you two to finally learn to work together," Atem said through a smile that belied his serious tone. "That final gambit was risky, but it paid off in the end."

Joey could hear someone smacking their forehead from the direction of the siblings and Duke, but he didn't register it until after the question searing his mind had already left his lips. "H-how did you know about that?"

Seto exchanged a shocked glance with Joey. "The duel wasn't televised," he said slowly.

It was true – they had both searched high and low for official footage of the duel in hopes of deducing Masquerade's true identity or where he had disappeared to. They had only managed to come up with amateur videos from audience members' cell phones, nothing worth poring over. Even the stadium security footage had mysteriously been wiped right after the event. The rest of the room joined in watching Atem for an explanation. Seto noted that Mokuba was chewing on the inside of his cheek in anticipation.

Finally, the former Pharaoh sighed. "I have a confession," he said lowly. "I didn't actually return from Egypt today. I...I've been here for a few days." He looked up at both Seto and Joey before continuing. "I knew about the duel with Masquerade because I –"

"Because you were in the audience!" Joey said, slamming a fist into his palm like it all made sense. "You couldn't resist watching us defeat the big bad for once," he added with a grin.

Seto rolled his eyes. "No, you moron, he was Masquerade."

"But that's..." his voice trailed off. Then he cocked his head to the side and regarded his friend carefully, remembering the little tells he had ignored the day prior in favor of the pressure of rescuing his sister. Speaking of which, "So, I take it you didn't really kidnap them," he said slowly. Joey narrowed his eyes and turned to face the pair of teens, joining Seto in doing the same.

Duke retreated from the twin glares and walked back over to the snack table with Tristan. The teens, meanwhile, had the decency to look a little guilty. "Okay, we admit it," Mokuba said, "we were never in any danger."

"Yeah, we talked Atem into playing the villain and staged our kidnapping," Serenity added, suddenly finding her clasped hands morbidly fascinating.

"B-but why? We were terrified."

Serenity was at a loss for words, so Mokuba continued in her stead. "For comeback," he said simply. "You two were dragging us into your schemes, so we thought you deserved a taste of your own medicine."

"Basically," Serenity said, finding her voice, "it was a prank."

The room went pin-drop silent as everyone waited to see how the brothers would take it. Finally, Seto snorted a laugh, trying and failing to hold it back. The teens visibly relaxed, and soon everyone else was laughing, too. Joey grinned and walked over to lean an elbow on Serenity's shoulder.

"You got us good, sis," he said. "Although you're not completely out of the woods yet," Joey pointed to Atem, who merely nodded in understanding.

"I think it's safe to say," Seto started, having finally caught his breath, "that Mokuba and Serenity are the official winners of the prank war."

A/N: A HUGE thank you to everyone who stuck through this story with me. Whether you've been reading from the beginning or just recently picked it up, you all encouraged me to keep writing. What was originally supposed to take a literal month stretched out into four and a half years, but it's finally done! Checking off that "completed" box will be the most satisfying feeling of the year, and what a fantastic way to start 2019! Stay tuned for future projects in this and other fandoms.