A/N: Sorry for the short delay. There were a lot of issues trying to get this chapter into the Doc Manager this evening. Hope you all enjoy, and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all!

/Text/ Spirit to Host

/Text/ Host to Spirit

Chapter 6: Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

"…And that roll landed you on New York Ave, so with the hotels, and the IOU from the last round, that brings your total to $1500," said Yugi. "You're almost out of money there, Joey."

"I still got some cash thanks to the tax pot in the middle of the board, remember?" said Joey, handing over a stack of colored bills. "All I gotta do is make it around GO, and I'm free as a bird!"

"Uh huh," said Téa, "But you have to make it past Mokuba's yellow houses and my blue hotels."

"It was nice knowing you, buddy," said Tristan, patting Joey on the shoulder. He was the first eliminated, forfeiting his properties to Yugi the moment he rolled himself out of Jail and onto the orange spaces.

"What the heck, Tristan, I'm not out of this yet!"

"Well…it's my turn," said Yugi, taking the die. "Hm…a chance card!" Yugi picked up the top card from the deck and read the description on the back, his face falling into a frown.

"Someone didn't get a good card," Mokuba snickered.

"Property taxes. Ugh."

"Awesome, that means all your wealth is going into the tax pot and is up for the taking!" Joey cheered. "Lucky dice roll, here I come!"

"I don't think so," Seto held out his hand. "Free Parking privileges have now been revoked."

"WHAT!" Joey crossed his arms. "Why?"

"Banker's privilege," said Seto sarcastically, "It's time to redistribute the wealth. The ridiculous amount of luck that has been passed around this game is bleeding the bank dry."

Téa sighed. "And I was getting close to Free Parking, too."

Yugi counted out most of his money and passed it sadly up to Seto. "Here you go."

"Well…it's my turn now." Mokuba looked out at the board and turned nervously to Joey. "You think you can infuse some of your natural luck to me for this?"

"What? No way, Mokuba, this is Monopoly. Every man for himself!"

Mokuba pouted and rolled the die. "Uh oh."

"Welcome to Boardwalk, Mokuba!" Téa said eagerly, "That'll be $2000."

Mokuba hung his head. "Well...my houses aren't gonna sell for enough. I'm out." He handed her his money and property cards. "It's down to three now!"

Joey looked at his dice roll. "Phew. Landed on a railroad."

"Lucky," said Téa. "Although, since Yugi just forked over most of his money to the bank, it looks like I'm in the lead!"

"Anything can happen Téa," said Yugi.

"I'm surprised you've made it this far, Yug'," said Joey, "You got all the cheap properties."

Yugi smiled. "But they're all developed and you guys keep landing on them. They may not charge more than $1000, but the entire first half of the board is a landmine. That's why I can keep landing on Téa's stuff and afford to pay it."

"But you also just coughed up half your money to Kaiba," said Tristan. "Are you going to make it to GO?"

Yugi shrugged. "Who knows?"

"Nice, a Get out of Jail Free card!" Téa grinned. "Bet you wish you had something like that when you were still in the game, huh Tristan?"

"Yeaaah, maybe just a little."

Two complete rounds passed before the timer on Seto's cell phone went off. He sighed, reaching into his pocket to silence it. "Game's over. Value your properties at their current worth. Jail free cards are $100 each."

Yugi and Téa immediately began organizing and counting up their earnings. Joey stretched out on the floor instead and tucked his hands behind his head.

"What about you, Joey?" asked Mokuba. "Don't you want to know how you did?"

"Nah," he shook his head, "I don't got nearly enough to come close to those two. My bet's on Téa."

Yugi finished counting up his money and properties and looked over at Téa. "$8750."

Téa held up her hands, defeated. "You win, but not by much! I was about two hundred under."

"Finally, this game's over," said Tristan. He helped to gather the pieces together to go back into the box. "I'm starving!"

.

"You know…I'm surprised there's no tree anywhere," said Joey, after dinner. "You wanted to celebrate everythin' like how they do in America, but you're missin' the most important part!"

Mokuba frowned. "I guess I figured there would be one of those artificial ones around here somewhere. But the house staff couldn't find it."

"We could look for it in the morning," said Téa. "Five heads are better than one."

"Six."

Mokuba turned to his brother. "Are you going to help us search?"

"I haven't decided. But Roland has the keys to the basement and to the attic access. If you're going to find a tree, it'll probably be in one of those places." His eyes caught Joey's continued attempt to work on his duel disk and he had to internally wince at every time he turned the screws in and out. The mutt was probably doing more damage to it trying to fix whatever the problem was rather than leave it alone or seek out one of the retail shops that also covered repairs. Sighing, he picked up his book and got up from the couch.

"Where are you going, Seto?"

"To the study for the night. And if you don't mind…" Seto glanced over, annoyed, at Joey and Tristan, "If you're going to have pool tournaments or freak out like a pair of sissies with that zombie show you were watching yesterday, keep the noise down. Some of us were trying to sleep last night."

"Sorry, man," said Tristan, "Not my fault Joey can't handle fake zombies."

Joey put down the screwdriver and crossed his arms over his chest. "Hey, it brought back memories of Duelist Kingdom, okay?"

Téa rolled her eyes. "Bonz's zombie monsters really weren't all that scary. The cave, maybe, but it was spooky on purpose."

"It was a terrible experience, okay! And you could hear us from all the way upstairs?"

"Seto's room is connected to the study," Mokuba explained as his brother left the room, "So you were essentially being rowdy right next to him. I'm surprised he didn't come out and yell at you. Try not to do it again."

"Eh. Your brother needs to have fun once in a while," said Joey. "I bet I'd wipe the floor with him at the pool table."

Mokuba snorted. "Sure, Joey."

"So…anyone want to watch a movie? They're playing a loop of holiday flicks on here," said Téa.

"Hey look," Joey teased as they perused the channels, and paused at the listing for a Grinch movie. "It's Kaiba!"

"That 'Grinch' was awfully nice to let you in, you know," Mokuba muttered, "Oh! Christmas Vacation! Let's watch that!"

Tristan raised an eyebrow at him. "Aren't you kind of…young to be watching that?"

Mokuba rolled his eyes. "Why, cuz there's adult themes and swearing in it? Please, I've heard way worse at Kaiba Corp – and not from my brother. You'd be surprised what some people think they can get away with saying to him just because they're twice his age or more. …Or what some of them say behind his back when they think they're not being overheard." He shuddered.

"The TV channels probably censored half the movie anyway," said Joey, "Takes all the fun out of watching."

"Well…I think I'm going to head to bed early too," said Téa. "I'll see you guys in the morning."

"Don't forget I'm making pancakes tomorrow," said Tristan, "If you want some before Joey eats all of them, you gotta get up early!"

Yugi laughed. "Right, because we're all such late risers anyway."

Mokuba giggled, "Compared to Seto, you all are!"

Tristan's warning to get up early or not have breakfast turned out to be unneeded as Joey ended up being the last one to get up the following morning. Mokuba, Tristan, and Roland were the only ones still in the kitchen when he finally surfaced.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Mokuba teased. "We ate all the pancakes. You snooze, you lose!"

"They're not all gone, you little liar," said Joey, snatching the bright red Santa hat from Mokuba's head, "I can see more in the pan."

"Those are mine," Roland deadpanned, not looking up from reading the news on his tablet. Joey almost had to do a double-take. He had never seen Kaiba's bodyguard in anything other than the black suit and sunglasses. The casual sweater look was just weird on him.

"Haven't seen you around much, where have you been hiding?"

"Around," said Roland. "It's nice and quiet on the other side of the house – or, at least it was, until someone was screaming bloody murder over a cartoon."

Mokuba nearly choked on his bite. "I thought you said you freaked out over a zombie show. You were really scared from an animated series?"

"Shut up, kid!"

Mokuba stuck his tongue out. "Nuh uh – and hey, gimme back my hat!"

"Nah – that's what you get for teasin' me all the time!"

"Oh, come on!"

"Nope – hey!" Roland plucked the hat out of Joey's grip and handed it back to Mokuba.

"Yay, thanks!"

Roland took a sip of his coffee and accepted the plate Tristan offered him. "I didn't realize I was sharing the house with more than one child."

Joey sighed and sat down at the table, arms crossed. "Don't tell me you're gonna gang up on me, too! I pegged you to be neutral!"

Roland shook his head. "I'm afraid I am not as impartial as you hope me to be."

Mokuba swung his legs energetically around in his seat. "Are you gonna help us find a Christmas tree today?"

"Mr. Kaiba did mention something along those lines earlier, though I'm not sure if one exists. You might have better luck cutting down one of the ones in the yard."

Tristan waved the spatula around. "We could…"

"…But you won't," said Roland, "That's far too much effort, and Mr. Kaiba can't stand the mess they make. It almost doesn't seem worth it to set one up so late into the season as it is. After all, Christmas is tomorrow. By the time you finish decorating, it will be time to take the tree back down."

Mokuba shrugged. "All for the fun of it!"

Joey drummed his fingers against the table and looked around. "Where's Yugi and Téa, anyway?"

"They went off with Mr. Kaiba to search the basement," said Roland. "We will look through the attic." He leveled a hard glare at them. "We are to look for an artificial tree. Do not go poking through any of the other items stored up there."

"Kaiba don't want us to find where he hid the bodies, huh?"

Mokuba waved his fork at Joey. "There are a lot of memories in this house, and some of them were from before we were even adopted. He doesn't want to go digging around this stuff more than he wants you guys to. But since Christmas is tomorrow, we're running out of time to find a tree, so we're gonna have to split up to search for it."

It took the majority of the morning, but Téa managed to find a small artificial tree down in the depths of the basement.

"House staff must have used this," Seto had said once they managed to get it upstairs and into the living room. "Gozaburo would have had a real tree brought in if he was entertaining."

"It sure is dusty," Joey blew some of it off while adjusting the branches on it, setting off a small grey cloud into the air.

Mokuba sneezed. "Gee, thanks."

Roland entered the room a short while later with an equally dusty box in his arms. "You might want these. There are garlands and perhaps a string of lights in here. I didn't open it, but it was the only box in the attic marked for this holiday."

Yugi reached for his arm when he started to walk out of the room. "Wait – do you want to help us decorate the tree?"

Roland looked taken back. "I-I wouldn't want to intrude."

Mokuba beamed. "Help us, Roland! You don't have to hide the entire time!"

"A-alright." He broke the seal on the box and began hauling a knotted strand of small white lights out of it.

"Yeesh, I don't want to be the one to undo that mess," said Joey. "Noes goes!"

Mokuba and Tristan immediately placed their finger on their nose. "Not us!"

Téa rolled her eyes. "Seriously, guys. You don't have to use everything. We'll leave those lights off the tree. It's not like this thing is super big anyways."

Mokuba reached into the box and pulled out a box of glittery ornaments. "This doesn't strike me as anything Gozaburo would have gotten. They're way too bright and sparkly."

Seto looked down at them and scowled. They were extremely gaudy. "I imagine he took no part in decorating anything. It was probably his wife or they paid someone to decorate for them."

"Do you want to hang anything on the tree, Seto?" asked Mokuba. "There's still some tinsel left."

Seto shook his head and patted the top of the small box next to him from his seat on the ottoman. "Just this will do."

Mokuba tilted his head. "What's that?"

"Something for the tree."

"Aren't you going to put it on?" asked Yugi, leaning around from his spot on the floor. He tried to get a peek at what was in the box, but there was no way to see inside.

"When you're finished."

"So…" said Téa conversationally, "I saw enough ingredients while poking through the kitchen that we could do some baking after this. What do you say guys? Cookies?"

"COOKIES!" Mokuba pumped his fists into the air. "Yes!"

"Are you going to set some out on a plate for when you go to bed tonight?" asked Tristan.

Mokuba snorted. "Heck no. I'm gonna eat 'em! I may only be eleven, but come on now. Santa's not real."

Joey feigned a look of hurt and put his hand over his heart. "Oh no – my childhood dreams, and that of every other kid, shattered! Whatever will those little tykes do knowin' that some overweight guy in a red suit ain't gonna come down their fireplaces tonight and leave them presents?"

"If they could stomach the tooth fairy being complete bull, then they'll get over it," said Seto. "No one could drop gifts under every tree in every celebrating country in one night."

"That's because it's magic," said Tristan, making twinkling motions with his fingers. "You have to believe!"

Seto rolled his eyes.

"Well…this thing's just about done," said Yugi, scooting back a bit to take a look at the entire tree. The knot of lights stayed in the box, but they managed to find a few garlands to drape around. The least gaudy of all of the ornaments were scattered around the branches. "All it needs is a star at the top!"

"There was no star in the box," said Roland. "The only thing left are the lights."

"I wonder if it's buried in the lights. Who wants to start to detangle?" asked Tristan.

"That won't be necessary." Seto took the lid off of his box and removed the tissue to reveal a glimmering crystal dragon nestled inside. He got up and carefully placed the topper on the tree. The dragon's scales caught the light in the room, and the two sapphire eyes gave off a glow as if they were lit by light bulbs.

"That's so pretty!" said Téa.

"That's so…Kaiba," said Joey.

.

.

Seto sleepily opened his eyes the next morning to a wild mane of black hair inches from his face.

"Wake up, Seto! Wake up! It's Christmas Day! We gotta open presents!"

Seto tried to ignore the dull ache in his knee and ankle as he rolled over. "What makes you think there's anything under that tree?" he mumbled into his pillow.

"Cuz I looked before coming in here," said Mokuba, "And you always get me something for Christmas."

Without looking, Seto reached blindly over for his phone and checked the time. "It's only 6am. Why are you so awake?"

"Because it's Christmas, Seto!"

"That's hardly a valid answer." Seto dropped his head back onto his pillow. "Some of us only got to bed a few hours ago."

Mokuba slid off the bed and skipped towards the door. "That's not my fault that you can't go to sleep at a reasonable hour. Everyone else is already awake too, I made sure of that." He flipped the light switch and watched his brother jerk his head to the side and squint against the sudden light in the room. "Come on! I already started the coffee pot, just for you! And I got out your big mug, cuz you look like you're gonna need it."

"Christmas morning with the Friendship Brigade on not even three hours of sleep. I'm gonna need to a lot more than one cup for this," Seto muttered as he shoved back the blankets. "Give me five minutes to get dressed."

"Nope!" Mokuba tossed a robe onto the bed. "You're already wearing pajamas. Grab a robe like the rest of us and just come on out! It's a present-opening pajama party!" Once he was sure his brother had sat up and wasn't going to flop back down, he threw open the door and bounced out.

Seto sighed and shoved his arm through the sleeve of his bathrobe, pulling down the cuff of his shirt from where it got bunched inside. "Definitely need more than one cup for this."

"Took you long enough, Kaiba," Joey teasingly when Seto finally made his way into the living room, "You just had to get coffee and make us wait, huh?"

Seto scowled at him. "All the coffee in the world wouldn't be enough to prepare me to deal with you before the sun is up, Wheeler."

"This is kind of early," said Tristan.

Yugi made room on the couch for Seto to sit down. "Once Mokuba wakes up Christmas morning, that's it – going back to sleep is no longer an option, and if he's going to be on a mood high, then he's going to drag the rest of us with him."

"Actually, you guys got off lucky," said Mokuba matter-of-factly, "I was up at five."

"Geezuz, kid, don't you sleep?"

"NOPE!" The younger Kaiba plopped down next to the tree and began hauling packages out from under it. "Okay…so these can't all be for me. Did you guys bring presents for each other to your resort?"

"That was the plan, I guess," said Téa. "I was, at least, so I guess we were all on that wavelength."

"Okay, cool," said Mokuba. He flipped a tag over and passed it to Téa. "Here you go. I think that one's from Joey."

"It's from me and Yugi too," said Tristan, "We all pooled for it."

"Ooh, it's a little heavy, whatever this is." Téa unwrapped the paper. "Oh, a dance off game! This reminds me of the one in the arcade!"

"It is, sort of," said Yugi, "It plugs into the TV directly so you don't need a special console to play on it. You can play by yourself, or with a partner. There's a second dance mat in the box."

"Oh, thanks guys! Maybe we can try it out later!" Téa got up and hugged her friends, "This looks like so much fun!"

"You're welcome, Téa!" said Yugi.

"Alright, kid, who's next?"

"Uh…Yugi!" Mokuba scooted across the floor and passed a thin package to Yugi.

Yugi felt the box in his hands and laughed. "I know what this is!"

/I can tell also. They're Duel Monsters cards!/

"Oh, it's the new set that came out," said Yugi, examining the art on the package, "I haven't been able to read up on this set too much, so I have no idea what cards are inside. This will really be a surprise!"

"Go on, open it," said Tristan. "Let's see if you got anything good."

The box had ten packs inside. "Some good spellcaster support, and a few good fusion monsters too! Thanks you guys!"

"You're welcome," Téa smiled.

"So…this one – oh! This is your gift, Seto!" Mokuba jumped up from the floor and handed his brother a very small box. "The IT guys helped me with it…so if they seemed a bit, uh…suspicious and sneaky lately, you know why."

"I was wondering why they had the 'deer in the headlights' look for the last few weeks." Seto placed his coffee on the table and accepted the small box. "Mokuba, this feels like there's nothing in it."

"Well you gotta open it." Mokuba propped his elbows up on his brother's good leg.

Inside the box on a navy blue cushion was a pin just smaller than the size of the "KC" sewn into the collar of his Battle City coat. It was in the shape of a Blue Eyes White Dragon, but the position of the dragon's wings and claws formed a similar "KC" insignia.

"You were always saying how helpful that pager thing was that you had sewn into your trench coat," Mokuba explained, "But since you don't really wear your flashy coats anymore…"

Seto carefully set the pin back into the cushion and ruffled his brother's unruly hair. "Thank you, Mokuba."

Mokuba beamed. "It'll work anywhere in the building, too. Roland and I tested it the other day. He was able to hear me from down in the third basement level while I was up in your office! Aaaand…" he tapped the box. "It can connect with your phone too! Isn't that neat?"

"That sounds really cool, Mokuba," said Téa.

"I'll have to test it out when we go back to the office," said Seto. "Thank you."

Mokuba pumped his fist into the air. "Yes! You are super hard to gift to, you know that?"

After unwrapping a new motorbike helmet for Tristan, a remote-controlled drone for Mokuba, and a new box of Duel Monsters cards for Joey, Téa noticed a package still under the tree. "Hey, there's still something left that's unaccounted for."

"That's weird," said Yugi, "Everyone got their present already."

Joey snickered and gestured to Roland, who had been sitting in the armchair by the fire, silently nursing his coffee cup the entire time. "It's gotta be for you, man. It's your holiday bonus – Kaiba's enrolling all his guys in the 'Jelly of the Month' club!"

Seto rubbed at his temples as Roland chuckled. "No, Mr. Wheeler. The company bonuses have already gone out to the employees. Besides, that box has your name on it."

"Huh?" Mokuba darted back to the tree. "He's right – but you guys already gave out your presents, and we didn't plan on you all being here with us to get you anything. I wonder who gifted it to you?"

"Well, let's find out!" Joey held out his hands. There was no other name on it to indicate the sender. "Wrapping paper confetti, here we come!"

He tore the paper off the box, frowned, looked about the room, and then back at the box. "What the – is that…"

"What is it, Joey?" Yugi asked curiously.

"Kaiba…" Joey looked around the room again, back at the box, and then to Seto. "Did…did you just put my duel disk in a box?"

Seto merely raised an eyebrow and took a sip of coffee.

Joey pulled it out of the box and looked it over. "It's got all my scuff marks on it, all right…I don't get it." He turned it over in his hands and froze. One of the small plates on the back of the device didn't have the same wear and tear marks as the rest of it. In fact, it looked almost new. His jaw dropped as he looked up at Seto. "Did you fix it?"

Seto leaned back against the couch pillows. "Watching you attempt to dismantle it was painful, Wheeler. Do both myself and your disk a favor – stop taking it to school."

Joey was flabbergasted. "I – but – you –"

"The chip that reads the card data was damaged beyond the surface scratches, probably from your continued manhandling of it."

"I –"

"Break it again, and you're on your own," said Seto stiffly, "This was a one-time thing."

"I…thanks, man…I'm….wow."

Mokuba cheered. "Merry Christmas, Joey!"

.

The phone call arrived late in the afternoon, as Téa was wiping the floor against Mokuba in the new dance off game. Mokuba collapsed back onto the carpet in a fit of exhausted giggles as the scores tallied up onto the screen, hers still calculating long after his shameful number stopped on his half of the grid.

"I concede," he sighed. "Oh boy that was intense!"

Téa laughed. "That was the easy level!"

Mokuba shook his head. "I've never really played games like these. We can all see I'm not good at them."

"Pssh, man you're more coordinated than me," said Tristan.

Seto walked back into the room and pocketed his phone. "That was the grounds staff. Public road crews made it to the gate, and your car was towed to an on-call mechanic to check for damages."

"It was only a rental," said Tristan.

"Even so, the private clean-up crew is working on the driveway in. Once your car comes back, you'll be set to go."

"Wow," said Téa, "That's a lot quicker than I thought it was going to be. I figured we would be snowed in here for a lot longer – not that I'm complaining of course."

"It's just too bad we won't be able to go on that ski trip after all," said Joey. "The check-in period's gone by now."

"There will be other times, Joey," said Yugi, "Think of it this way – we got to spend the holidays with each other, and that's the important thing, not where we did it."

"You're right, Yug'. And just think, if we didn't get lost and nearly run over a deer, we never would have had that crazy snowball fight, or lose spectacularly in that racing game, or end up getting my disk fixed! See, this is why a duelist always gotta be prepared!"

"You would probably have been able to do some of those things, just not with us," said Mokuba, "But that's okay. We all had fun, and that's the most important part to me!"

The rental made it back up to the front steps of the mansion as the sun was beginning to set. Roland began loading their belongings back into the trunk as Yugi pulled Seto aside.

"Before you say anything, Kaiba," Yugi began, "I just wanted to thank you…again, for letting us stay and ride out the storm. I know this wasn't the ideal scenario for you and Mokuba to spend holidays, and I'm sorry we kind of intruded on your peace and quiet."

Seto shook his head. "As far as I can tell, your initial unwanted presence actually helped distract Mokuba. In my eyes, you all did what I was incapable of, and it gave Mokuba the best holiday vacation he's had in years. For that, you have my gratitude."

"Hey, Yug'!" Joey called from the car. "You comin'?"

"Be right there!" He turned back to his rival. "And I know that he's already stuttered it out a couple of times already today, but thank you for fixing Joey's duel disk. He was getting concerned he would have to get a new one soon, and he's been really attached to his original one."

"Hn. Call it my good deed for the year."

"I don't know how we – or even Joey – can repay you for this."

Seto chuckled lightly, shaking his head. "You want to do something in return? The next time you find yourself in some ridiculous mess again – leave me out of it. This past year was nothing but soul-stealing, mind-controlling lunatics and stupid hacker incidents. There's only so much of that nonsense I can take. So when you find your next supervillain of the week, try to keep me off their radar."

Yugi laughed and hoisted his bag over his shoulder. "I'll try, but it seems I don't go looking for trouble – trouble finds both of us!"

Seto rolled his eyes. "Try hard."

Mokuba appeared in the doorway as Yugi opened the door to the backseat. "Bye guys! Safe journey home, and Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas, Mokuba!" Yugi waved.

Mokuba didn't stop waving until the car had moved the entirety through the driveway circle and out of sight. He looked up at his brother. "Do you think they'll make it back to Domino okay?"

Seto shrugged and turned to go back inside. "So long as they get through the gate, it's not our problem anymore."

"Well, that didn't sound very reassuring."

"Consider Tristan Taylor is a terrible map-reader, I wouldn't trust him behind the wheel. But I suppose it's better than Wheeler."

"Well, Téa's reading the map, so that's points for them, right?"

"Anything's better than Wheeler/Taylor duo."

Mokuba followed his brother back into the kitchen where Seto placed his mug under his Keurig machine. "You know…I'm glad your leg is feeling better and all, but maybe it was some kind of fate that they got lost and ended up here. It made things a little better around the house since you were laid up those first two or so days."

"They ended up here out of dumb luck, which Wheeler has in abundance," said Seto.

Mokuba shrugged. "Still," he said as Seto raised his now steaming cup to his lips. "I had a lot of fun. Maybe we can make a tradition out of it. How about next year we invite them to the main house for the holidays?"

Seto nearly choked on his drink.

Mokuba laughed. "Sorry, sorry, I was kidding." He rushed forward and hugged his brother around his middle. "I'm glad we were able to do this though. Merry Christmas, Seto!"

Seto ruffled Mokuba's hair and embraced him back. "Merry Christmas, Mokuba."

-End-