Why hello there, my adoring fans! A few years ago, I decided that I just didn't have the time for fanfiction anymore with my life being so off-the-wall busy, but it was a personal choice of mine to start a yearly tradition where I write a Christmas fanfic and post it for everyone!

I came very close to not continuing with this tradition this year, but someone who was once a fan of my work, and now almost a best friend to me, gave me the inspiration to come up with a nice new idea for this year's Christmas fic. Props to my online bestie; you know who you are, my little bunny! ;3

I got into World of Warcraft this past summer and it dawned on me that this would be the ultimate Christmas cuteness edition for any fan out there to enjoy.

Alrighty, let's begin!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of its characters, because if I did… well, it wouldn't be a children's show!

The gaze of the laptop screen buzzed into his cerulean eyes as he gazed into the light and watched as the screen slowly began to shut itself down for the night; he would miss nights like this when all he could do was sit in his private little office and work, work, work, work, work the night away without being bothered.

With a sigh, the brunet rubbed his irritated eyes and leaned back into his office chair, choosing to stare straight up at the ceiling. The light the laptop screen offered dulled and then sent the room spiraling into a black abyss as the machine finally gave out and turned off for good. Seto shut his eyes and reflected upon what his psychologist had told him only days before.

"Seto Kaiba, you tortured soul," the man gazed at the sickly looking CEO and shook his head, placing his pen to his paper as he analyzed the teen sitting before him. "You are a nightmare to any other psychologist, just so you're aware of this."

"I didn't set up a meeting with you just hear you say things like this, doctor." Seto nearly spat and glared at the man on the other side of the desk. "The only reason I choose to be here is simply because Mokuba would not leave me the hell alone until I agreed to see someone like you. Now, what advice do you have for me so we can haggle and figure out what I can do?"

Brown eyes frowned as they monitored the CEO carefully and after a few minutes of complete silence, the doctor finally nodded and began to write down notes on his sheet of paper. "You look sick, Mr. Kaiba… I'm not going to lie to you. You seem to be aging faster physically than mentally. Even the mature adults know when to take a vacation and quit working so much." He droned on like a robot, not even bothering to look up from his paper.

"So, what are you getting at?" The brunet nearly growled.

"No work for the entirety of your holiday break from school, got it?"

"No. I refuse to take this as a treatment. Do you have any pills I can take?"

"I am a Psychologist, Mr. Kaiba; not a psychiatrist. I do not give out pills."

"Well, I demand another psychologist who will not give me such a bullshit piece of advice to follow. I have a company to run!"

"Let me put this simply, Mr. Kaiba," the man sighed and gave the CEO a stern look. "If you keep going the way that you are, you will be on your death bed before you graduate. Now, you chose to come here for the sake of your little brother and yet you insist upon sticking to your old ways. How do you think your brother will feel when his only family he has passes away at such a young age? Would you want your own brother to do the same thing that you are doing to yourself at this very moment?"

The silence pressed on as the brunet gazed into his lap, considering the consequences that the doctor had just gone over. It was hard to leave his company in the hands of other employees; it was just easier to everything by himself.

"Mokuba…" Kaiba sighed, almost gazing into the future. His heart sank when he saw his own little brother slumped before the very laptop that was sitting on his desk at his office; that just couldn't happen.

"I see we have a deal, Mr. Kaiba. Stick firm to your treatment and I'll see you back here when school starts up again. You are dismissed." The psychologist jotted a couple more sentences onto his notepad and set the slip of paper on his desk to most likely be looked over later.

That doctor had some nerve talking to him like that! But the CEO supposed that taking a break was the correct thing to do in this situation, but what would he do with all the extra time?

He looked at his sleeping work laptop and frowned. Picking up the machine, he opened the drawer to his desk and gently laid the laptop inside as if it were a slumbering child. He lifted a pale hand and stroked the grey surface of his baby before shutting the drawer and ultimately locking it.

"Nothing could be better than living in this dream world."

On the way out of his office, he shut the door and locked it behind him with a small promise that when he got home, he would give the key to Mokuba to hold onto just in case the CEO began to suffer work withdrawal.

He ended up getting home from his last work day at about three in the morning, exhausted but feeling as if he would never get a wink of sleep; such is life, he supposed. Shutting the door quietly behind him, he activated the security code and began to slowly make his way upstairs to avoid waking his little brother.

"Aw, come on! That wasn't fair!" A little voice shouted from the depths of the hallway. "I was casting, guys! He just put a silence on me." He continued.

Raising a brow, the older brother sighed and walked down the hall to knock on Mokuba's door.

"Uh oh…" The voice from inside came. "Come in." He called, feigning a cheery disposition.

As Seto walked into Mokuba's room, he put on his "what the hell are you doing?" face and stood at the door with his arms crossed and foot tapping. "I'm waiting for an explanation as to why you're up so late on a school night, Mokie."

The little mob of ebony hair shook a bit as the child laughed, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry, big brother. I got caught up in this dungeon on EWoMQ." The little one explained, growing a little blush to add to his look of innocence.

"You're speaking in an alien tongue to me, Mokuba. What is EWoMQ?" The brunet was genuinely puzzled as he glanced at the computer screen of his little brother, seeing the animated characters moving about with various armors and clothing styles.

"You haven't heard of EWoMQ?" It was clearly Mokuba's turn to be puzzled as he jumped up and showed his brother the full screen. "Ever World of Monster Quest is the number one online massive multiplayer online game in the world! It has over three million subscribers and it's still growing!" The little one exclaimed before continuing. "I'm going to send you a trial offer right now! You have to check this out, big brother!"

As the boy typed out a series of words, readying the trial link to be sent to Seto, the older of the two sighed and shook his head. "I'll check it out, but no promises. You need to get your gaming butt in bed or I'm disconnecting the internet." He kept his arms crossed, raising a brow at Mokuba.

"Awww, alright." He sighed and picked up his headset, speaking into the microphone, "I have to go, guys. I have school tomorrow morning. Goodnight." And he went through the process of logging himself out. Already in his pajamas, he gave Seto a big hug and got into bed.

As if it were second nature, Seto moved to tuck in his little brother. "No, thanks," Mokuba said, "I can do it myself. Goodnight, big brother." He smiled and pulled his blanket up over himself.

Masking the pang of hurt he felt over Mokuba being old enough to not want to be tucked in, Seto gave him a rare smile and said his good night before shutting the door behind him. Standing within the darkened hallway, the brunet sighed sadly and smiled to himself.

'He's getting so big that it's hard to believe that he'll be starting high school in just a couple of years. What will I do when he doesn't need me as much anymore?'

Once he made it to his room, he flopped onto his bed and sighed for the millionth time that night; sleeping would be tough, but getting up in the morning for school would be torture. Looking to his desk in his room, he spotted his personal laptop and rolled from the bed. He stood next to his desk, contemplating picking up the small machine to check his e-mail and just surf the web until he was tired enough to eventually fall asleep.

Temptation won him over and before he knew it, he was sitting on his bed, propped up with various silky pillows and browsing through the collection of e-mail messages that swarmed him daily.

At the top of the list, one e-mail caught his immediate attention entitled: "You've received a 10-day free trial of Ever World of Monster Quest!"

Grinding his teeth together, a nasty habit of his that resulted in frequent headaches, Seto clicked the e-mail and looked upon the information about the game. Within the e-mail was a button labeled, "Download your free trial!"

Hesitantly, Seto moved his cursor to the button and gave it a quick click. Before he knew it, he had downloaded the game to his personal laptop and before him stood the "Create your character" screen. He browsed through the endless possibilities of class and race combinations before settling as an elf ranger. Apparently, he read, rangers had the ability to tame animals to follow them around and attack enemies.

With his characters looks created, it came time to choose his character's name. Glancing around the room thoughtfully, he waited for an idea to pop into his head. He was never really the creative type, so he went with the name: Otes BlueEyes.

It was a fitting name since his elf had blue eyes and Otes sounded like a nice elf name to him; regardless of it just being his name spelled backwards, of course.

With his character ready to begin the game, he nervously clicked the "Log in" button and watched as the screen loaded. A flurry of images clouded his screen; a grassy landscape where many other players ran from one place to the other, figuring out how to utilize the controls to the best of their noob abilities. Animals roamed the screen as if they were real and had their own instinct to run on; this was like any other game, but for some reason Seto was drawn in almost immediately.

Following the series of hints and tips that popped up onto his screen, he was able to maneuver around quite fine by himself, but when it came to questing… he lacked the ability to solve every quest by himself.

He found it particularly difficult to attempt a level five quest when he'd just made it to level three within the first hour. The quest told him that deep within a cave dwelled an aggressive slug four times the size of any elf out there and his objective was to slay it. After managing to tame a nearby wandering wolf, Seto attempted to venture into the cave. After the fourth time coming into contact with that large slug and dying, he was beginning to grow a little frustrated.

He wandered about, killing other beasts until he reached level four and thought he had a better chance at slaying the slug and turning in the quest. He went back to that same quest, and found the slug.

"Bring it on, you nasty thing." Seto didn't even realize that he was talking to a game, that's how into it he was. He couldn't even remember being this into a game since Duel Monsters!

He initiated the battle, sending his wolf companion to tear into the beast. Even at the level he was at, it still seemed as if the pixeled mass of a slug was going to beat him into his death once more. When Seto was about to give up all hope on ever defeating this creature and turning in that damned quest, another player ran into the scene and began running circles about the slug.

Mousing over the character, Seto read the name aloud to himself, "Joun Underdog… hm, that's a strange name to have for a character. Last I heard being an underdog wasn't something to be proud of." He spoke to himself.

When the beast was defeated, Seto typed in a message for the other player to read.

-_-_-_-_-_-

Otes BlueEyes: Thank you. I've been trying to kill that thing forever.

Joun Underdog: No problem! Teamwork is better on this game, anyway. :)

Otes BlueEyes: I wouldn't know. I just started playing today.

Joun Underdog: I'm sure you'll get the hang of it in no time! Well, I'm going to go turn in this quest now. See ya around!

-_-_-_-_-_-

And with that, the other character was out of the cave and on his own way again. Seto thought over the "teamwork" statement and pursed his lips. "Guess I better make some friends in this other reality to help me get around."

He then looked to the digital clock that was staring at him from his bed side night stand. The clock glared five thirty-six in the morning and the brunet figured it was time to get some sleep. An hour of sleep was better than no sleep at all, he concluded.

Shutting his laptop, he set it down beside himself on the bed and laid down completely, staring up at the ceiling. For some reason, the game made him feel like he lead some kind of exciting other life in a world where monsters truly existed and one could just wander aimlessly, a mercenary picking up the requests of others in need and completing them for currency or much-needed weaponry. It was an amazing feeling that was almost addicting from the beginning.

"Nothing could be better than living in this dream world."

And with that, his eyes were shut and he was sent spiraling into a short-lived dream world, only to be disturbed an hour later by his buzzing alarm clock. Reaching to the side, he switched the buzzing clock off and sat up, lifting a hand to feel his bed-ridden hair and give his eyes a good rub to wake up.

The school was alive with jittering teenagers just aching to get their last day of school over with for the sake of the holiday vacation they were all excited for. Teachers stomped into classrooms, attempting to shut up the students and get some kind of work done, yet it was never and easy task.

Seto gracefully made it through his day without much of a problem from the underpaid teachers, yet his last class of the day was proving to be the only downer thus far. Standing before the class was a very short, stubby and overweight female with a permanent scowl and an attitude that could even beat out Seto's on some days.

Ms. Frick (A/N: This teacher is, in fact, based on my Abnormal Psychology professor in college; she was crazy!) taught the high school psychology course and she was, by no means, ever a nice lady. At every little quip from any student, she would shun them even send them out of her class; not to be let back in until after the class was over and even then she'd make them apologize for whatever they did to piss her off at the time.

This was the only class the CEO shared with Yuugi and his entire crew, thankfully. He could put up with each their nonsense separately, but rarely together all at once. He could honestly say that the only classes he ever enjoyed were the ones he took with Jounouchi. Not that Seto had ever actually hung out with the blond, though they were forced together for various group projects; he just enjoyed being near the charismatic teen.

A broken smile crossed his face as he thought about Jou and how he'd come to feel for the other within the past couple of years. Hell, they'd been through so much that it was hard not to fall for the other male, but that wasn't something that Seto would just come out and announce randomly. Like most, he would loom in the shadows to wait and see if Jou showed any signs of returning the affection; sadly, there hadn't been any that the CEO could pick up on.

"Attention, students!" Ms. Frick cut into his line of thought with her ravenous voice and the students were quick to shut up and gaze upon her. "It's come to my attention that the grades in here are not my liking and, I'm sure, not your liking as well." She cast an angered glance to Jou, obviously meaning he'd been slacking.

"There are many of you in here that seem to be failing this course and I have no clue why that is happening. Care to share?" She dared anyone insane enough to have a death wish to speak up.

Silence filled the room along with tension about as thick as gelatin and all anyone could do is stare at each other, waiting for someone to speak up. A hand was raised and everyone gasped to themselves as they saw that the only one ready to speak up was Jou.

Gritting her teeth visibly, Ms. Frick eyed the blond and her brow furrowed; this wasn't going to be a pretty sight. "Yes, Mr. Katsuya? Do you have a word to say to your fellow peers about their lack of integrity to get school work done?"

"Actually, miss," Jou smiled widely, knowing that he was going to get in trouble for this. "If you noticed that a lot of people are failin' ya class, why don't ya jus' fix the way you teach? I mean, if you, yourself, are complainin' that we aren't doing enough, isn't there something wrong with you? I mean, how many people are failing this bogus class?" He laughed as Honda and pumped their fists together in victory.

Seto raised a brow as he watched Ms. Frick go from angry to flat out raging after the blond spoke up against her. It was almost amusing how her makeup seemed to melt away and drip down her reddening face. If it was possible for people to spontaneously combust due to anger, he was quite sure they were about to witness it.

"For your information, Jounouchi…" Her voice was now shaking with anger. "Over seventy-five percent of this class is failing. And I-"

Her sentence was cut off as Jou stood up, hands on his hips. "Well, there ya go! Sorry to say this, miss, but if the majority of ya class is failin', it's not just the students! If your teaching habits weren't so fucked, maybe we could learn something interesting in this class for once!"

"Jou, calm down." Yuugi whispered nervously, watching the volcano about to erupt.

"Yeah! It's not our fault that we're failing! You just can't teach!" Honda joined the revolt and stood up too, hand clenched into a fist as he shook it at her. It was now that Seto began to realize that this was just one of their childish ploys to keep the teacher from assigning a holiday project to do over the break.

It is a strategy that many teachers utilize every holiday or spring vacation. They look at the grades the students have and instead of blaming their own way of teaching, they come up with this crazy project that takes a couple of weeks to finish and they assign it on the very last day before break. Not only do they fool themselves that the students will actually do the project, but also that it's not their own fault for the students failing, but rather the lack of work the teenagers do.

'It's filled with so much idiocy that it may just work.' Seto smirked and looked at the shaking teacher, waiting for her to begin the screaming fit that was building up inside her so quickly.

Seto eyed the blond youth standing confidently in place with his arms crossed over his chest. He smiled to himself as he thought over the many dreams he'd had about him and the pup finally being together and happy.

He could see it within his mind's eye. It was a cold winter day, snow falling from the sky and landing upon the ground gracefully, adding more white to the streets and yards of Domino City. Inside the mansion they were laying together downstairs on the couch; a fire blazing and crackling loudly. They would watch the dancing flames and look at the blinking lights on the Christmas tree in the corner. In this little fantasy, he knew that Jou was excited to get his hands on the presents labeled with his name, but he would remind the blond that it wasn't Christmas yet.

They would rest comfortably in each other's arms, feeling safe together in their own warmth away from the coldness of outside.

"Nothing could be better than living in this dream world."

He was taken from his fantasy world when he realized that Jou was staring back at him with a puzzled look. Seto's eyes widened with embarrassment and he blinked as Jou grinned at waved at him, sending a wink his way.

Scoffing, he looked away from the other male quickly. What did that wink mean?

"Mr. Katsuya! I'll have you know that I am possibly one of the best teachers here at Domino High! Three years ago I was nominated for the teacher of the year award!" Ms. Frick spoke up, shrieking with rage.

"Yeah… nominated. I don't see an award anywhere on your desk!" Jou called out, laughing with the rest of the class. It was then that Yuugi held his palm to his face and shook his head at the antics.

The classroom watched with amusement as Ms. Frick's teeth gritted together, her eyes bulging from her sockets and her fists clenched together almost tight enough to make her bleed. Something was snapping in her mind and Seto wasn't sure if he wanted to find out what was going to happen.

The clock struck the appropriate time and the bell for dismissal went off, urging the students to stand and run from the room. It wasn't surprising that Jounouchi was the first to dart from the classroom and head down the halls before the teacher could pursue. Seto, himself, stood slowly and casually walked to the exit.

"Oh, and Ms. Frick," Seto paused, eyeing her. "My apologies for you that Mrs. Belle won the teacher of the year award. It must be hard running in the same competition against the dance coach who was once Mrs. Domino City in the Domino Pageant." He said and made his way from the classroom, smirking.

The shriek of Ms. Frick was quick to fill the hallways.

Outside, students were trampling over each other to get out into the snowy streets and find their ways home. All Seto had to do was wait for his chauffer to show up and take him back to his mansion. As he waited by the stop sign, Yuugi and his crew could be heard walking up behind him. Jounouchi's voice was the first to be heard among the group of chattering teens.

"I'm so addicted to this game! It's like living a whole other life and killin' monsters and stuff!" Jou exclaimed excitedly.

"I'm sure it's fun and all, but I'm more of a card game person, obviously." Yuugi commented, followed up by a vocal agreement from Yami.

"I'm just not into the whole technology behind it. Sounds like you're on your own with this game, Jou."

A figure stopped to his right, causing Seto to glance down. Little Yuugi smiled up at him; he was always trying to be so friendly and though the CEO did appreciate it, he felt it was too awkward to really say his thanks.

"Hey, Kaiba," Yuugi greeted and then paused hesitantly, as if mulling over his words carefully as to not irritate the taller of the two, "I don't doubt at all that Mokuba will want to come to the shop sometime during the break to hang out. You're always welcome to join in if you ever feel like it." He finished.

As much as he wanted to, it would hurt him too much to be near the person he loved so much. He knew how close Jou was to the group and couldn't imagine being near him without wanting to touch or kiss the blond. He lifted his sapphire eyes to look over the welcoming group. With the exception of Anzu, Seto really didn't have a problem with the group; friends were just too hard to keep up with and a waste of time.

He realized he that was staring at Jou for a second too long and when he found those doe colored eyes gazing back, he fought the blush from his cheeks and looked back at Yuugi. "As much I'd love to… hang out," He seemed to struggle with the term, "I have far too much work to busy myself with this holiday break. I'm going to have to decline the offer, but thanks." Seto pushed the last part out in a rush so he didn't seem rude to the group.

"Oh, alright. Well, the offer is still open if you have a break or something." Yuugi smiled.

"Yeah, Kaiba, all work an' no play makes for a really- uh… dull life, or something." Jou piped in, but turned red at the fact that he forgot how the quote went.

Honda lifted his fist and playfully hit the blond over the head, proclaiming, "All work and no play makes Kaiba a dull boy, stupid!"

"Now, now, children." Yami nodded toward the bickering teens. "Let's go; it's getting quite chilly out here and this Pharaoh hates chilly."

Just as the group of teens were leaving, Seto's ride arrived, but before getting into the limo, he looked up at the retreating group just in time to see Jou look over his shoulder at the CEO and then continue looking forward; what was that for?

Back at home, Seto grabbed his laptop almost immediately, his hands itching to get online and play some more of that online game. With a few clicks and his password entered, Seto was soon running about on the Ever World of Monster Quest game, grinning like a little boy at Christmas every time he leveled.

It was as if he didn't have a care in the world at the moment. He'd finished all of his holiday shopping and had the presents wrapped up and under the tree for Mokuba to gawk at, there was no work due to his mental instability and he was just flat out enjoying himself.

After traveling the virtual world, he came upon a quest that seemed easy enough for him to handle. He had to kill these ugly creatures called Musk Rats and collect fifty of their pelts to bring back to the tribe leader of that village. This seemed simple as the rats were only one level above the CEO.

Thirty minutes into the quest, however, Seto was irritated beyond belief. He didn't understand how even though the pixels of the bodies of the Musk Rats had fur, the item for their pelt would only drop to be picked up every now and then; causing this quest to be long and tedious. (A/N: I have come across many quests like this in World of Warcraft… talk about frustration!)

Another player popped into his vision on the screen, however, and offered Seto a little bit of hope as he saw that it was that Joun Underdog person from the night before. Eagerly, he typed in the message box.

-_-_-_-_-_-

Otes BlueEyes: Hey. I remember you from last night.

Joun Underdog: Oh, hey! Yeah, we killed that slug together. How are you?

Otes BlueEyes: A little frustrated. I have to work on this quest to kill these Musk Rats for their pelts and they're barely dropping any.

Joun Underdog: Oh? I bet it will go faster if we get into a group. We could kill them together a lot faster than by ourselves.

-_-_-_-_-_-

Soon enough, Seto was working with this online player and they had some idle chit chat while killing the Musk Rats. The CEO figured that making online friends was just easier because nobody knew it was the legendary Seto Kaiba… so he didn't have to keep up with his reputation, but he was allowed to be friendly for a change.

"Nothing could be better than living in this dream world."

This small online team soon blossomed into a full blown friendship as the two worked together day after day on different quests. Not only did it make the game a hell of a lot more fun, but it was also nice to have someone to just talk to without having to act like the ice cold king all the time.

He found out a lot about this man throughout the few weeks that they chatted randomly while finishing quests. He learned that the man on the other end was also a student at Domino high school and that he was having problems with his love life, too. They both talked of their troubles of being in love with someone who they thought would never return their feelings and how it was just hard sometimes.

Seto never knew that it was possible for others to have the same love problems as him, but it was an odd kind of comfort knowing that he wasn't the only one madly in love with another whom would probably never feel the same way.

The two spoke of crazy teachers in the school and the different people that walked the halls, along with talking about the various places that were fun to hang out in Domino City. Seto didn't have to say on the fun places, seeing as how he never really got out enough to hang out with people.

During one particularly hard quest, Seto's online friend gave him his number to call sometime so they could talk through a phone instead of just the computer all the time.

They traveled to the city that they were supposed to go to in order to turn on a quest, but as they approached the quest giver, Joun Underdog suddenly logged off. Seto, thinking that the other was simply having connection errors, waited around for a full fifteen minutes until curiosity stole him completely away from his laptop.

He eyed his personal phone and lifted up the piece of paper in which he'd jotted down the other's phone number. Hesitantly, he began to push each button to dial the phone number, not sure of how he expected the man on the other side to sound like. He knew that the guy couldn't have been an older man seeing as how they talked about Domino high school together.

The phone rang once, twice, three times, four times…

And on the fifth rang, the phone clicked and in the background Seto could the yelling of an older man; he sounded drunk.

"…Hello?" A voice whispered almost inaudibly on the other end of the phone.

"Git off that phone, you lazy son of a bitch!" The man shouted in the background.

The phone suddenly went dead, leaving Seto sitting on his bed a little more pale than usual. Whatever situation was happening over there sent chills down the brunet's spine; was his online friend okay?

Not knowing of anything else to do, Seto logged back into the game. Within minutes, his friend was back on as well.

-_-_-_-_-_-

Joun Underdog: Was that you who called?

Otes BlueEyes: Yeah… sorry if I interrupted anything.

Joun Underdog: Nah! That's just my dad being an ass.

Otes BlueEyes: Oh, are you okay?

Joun Underdog: Yeah, I'm fine. Hey, I have an idea.

Otes BlueEyes: Hm?

Joun Underdog: You told me that you didn't hang out a lot and I find that a little sad. What do you say we meet up and hang out tomorrow? Seeing as how we both have problems with our love lives right now… maybe we can cheer each other up?

Otes BlueEyes: Sure, why not?

-_-_-_-_-_-

After much deliberation, they decided on meeting up at a bookstore close to Yuugi's grandpa's game shop. They bid each other good night and Seto logged off, already feeling nervous about meeting up with this person the next day. He must be going crazy; he didn't know this guy and he wasn't sure if could even trust someone.

Calming himself down, Seto took a deep breathe and readied himself for bed. Perhaps things would go alright the next day and the brunet could finally have a friend to spend time with.

The next day, Seto found himself awake and ready for his experience. Though, for his own safety, he decided to take his own car with him just in case he needed to make some kind of escape to get away from a stalker or a robber or rapist or-

Seto cut his own paranoid thoughts off and tried to focus on something else why he drove to the bookstore. Surely, he would have a positive experience with this whole meet up deal.

The bookstore was warm and quiet on the inside, smelling of coffee and various sweets that they sold at the café. Seto was, of course, punctual with his timing and he waited around the café as they had planned. He took a seat in one of the small tables and gazed about the store.

A flash of blond caught his eye and the CEO's heart sank deep into his stomach, a chill running throughout his body as he realized that Jou, his obsession, was standing just a few feet away from where he was sitting by himself.

'No… it couldn't be.' Seto reassured himself quickly and caught his bearings while straightening up in his seat.

Forty-five minutes were quick to come and go and Seto still sat in the café, Jou across the room still looking through various magazines. He'd observed the teen pulling out his cell phone and checking the time and looking at the entrance frequently… as if he was waiting for someone.

Feeling nervous, the brunet reached to the nearest book shelf and picked the first book he saw and began to thumb through it. Before he knew it, a shadow loomed over him. Sapphire eyes slowly began to rise from his book until they met with, and began to drown in, Jou's honey colored pools.

Lifting a fist to his mouth, Jou cleared his throat awkwardly. "This is gonna be a little awkward for me to ask, but uh… are you waitin' for someone? 'Cause I've noticed that you've been here from the time I was supposed to meet an online friend." Jou scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

Seto's heart thumped so hard that it felt like the veins in his neck were going to burst from the increase of his blood flow. He should have known!

Flashbacks worked on fast-forward for him at this point; he suddenly remembered Jou talking about being in love with a game online, but Yuugi had no interest. The screen name of 'Joun Underdog' was clearly the beginning of Jou's name and he'd always been the underdog when it came to Duel Monsters. And, of course, he'd always heard things from Yuugi's group about Jou having an abusive father. Everything clicked into place at once, as well as their conversations online concerning how Jou was in love with someone.

His heart sank further and his mind raced; the mutt was in love with somebody and Seto just knew that it could never be him.

Growing pallid quickly, Seto lifted his hand and reached into his pocket to grab his cell phone. Opening the phone, he dialed the recent number he'd called the night before and waited, holding his breath.

Jou jumped as his phone began to ring in his pocket, emitting some kind of rock song into the bookstore. Jou grabbed it from his jeans and held it up for Seto to see who was calling; none other than the very CEO sitting before him.

"Wow, Kaiba, I had no clue that you played EWoMQ! I mean, I guess I should've known since Mokuba's been so into it and you're his brother and all." Jou grinned, but something flashed in his eyes that looked like sadness for a split second.

Regardless of what Jou said to lighten the mood, Seto was breaking inside at the thought of Jou being in love with another person. He clenched his jaw and gazed down into the book he still had lying in his lap. As tiny droplets filled with his pain and sadness hit the book, he held back his sobs only to be interrupted by Jou.

"Hey… you alright?"

That was the snapping point for the young CEO. He stood immediately, the book falling to the floor beneath him. He had to get out of this situation. "Why didn't you tell me who you were?" Seto asked, not quite sure where was going with this.

"Well, to be fair, you didn't really tell me, yourself."

"That's not the point! I learned to trust you online only to learn that you were… you were…" Seto trailed off, not able to finish his sentence. He turned his back on the confused blond and left the store in a rush to get back home. As he looked into his rear view mirror, he saw Jou rush out into the street and watch as the CEO drove away.

The entire drive home was nothing but a blur due to his tears. Seto was lost with his current situation and had no clue how to fix himself and make life work again. He came home to an empty house; surely Mokuba was at the game shop with Yuugi and whatever friends were hanging out.

His sadness was overwhelming, but the only thing he could manage to do in this time of discord was log into the online game and take his frustration out on many of the monsters that surrounded the territories.

He gathered a special quest to go to the dark forest north of the village and take down a large dragon that was terrorizing the people around the area. Seto traveled to the very place and found that dragon. His excitement dropped when he realized that the dragon not only had two minions with it, but was also two levels higher than his character.

"Fuck it." Seto sighed and rushed in to attack the beast, knowing full well that he wasn't going to get very far, but he wasn't in the mood to care at the moment.

"Nothing could be better than living in this dream world, but it never seems enough anymore."

Him and his tamed pet fought and fought, using potions to keep their health up, but it didn't seem to be enough as the dragon kept thrashing and attacking at the CEO's pet and his character.

Just as his character was on the verge of death, another player rushed in; it was Joun Underdog. Jou's character ran about the screen casting his Paladin spells and eventually taking down the dragon, earning Seto the right to turn in his quest… not that he cared to turn it in at that very moment.

Text showed up on his screen and Seto read it carefully.

-_-_-_-_-_-

Joun Underdog: Seto, I know it was wrong to not introduce myself and I'm sorry. Look… I don't know what happened back there, but I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do anything to upset you. I would never want to.

Joun Underdog: Are you going to say anything?

Joun Underdog: Alright, I guess I deserve this. Look, Seto… I was trying my best not to ever tell you this, but I can't take it anymore. You know that person I was talking about who I said I loved so much?

Otes BlueEyes: … Yes.

Joun Underdog: You speak! Anyway… that person is you, Seto. I love you, but I knew that you wouldn't return my feelings. Shit, we've been through so much together that it's impossible not to love you and I'm sorry I feel this way.

-_-_-_-_-_-

Right after the last sentence, Jou's character disappeared from the screen, leaving Seto alone to read and re-read that sentence over and over again.

'Me? He actually… loves me?' He thought to himself, a little bewildered at the actual thought.

Though he felt the need to be overcome by happiness at the new he'd received, worry soon flooded him and he wondered what was happening and why Jou suddenly popped offline from the game.

In the blink of an eye, he was up and grabbing the keys to his car and running out of the door. He remembered the general neighborhood in which Jounouchi lived due to having seen Jou walking home on some school days. He sped toward that very neighborhood, wondering how in the world he would find out which house belonged to the teen and his crazy father.

Luck seemed to be on his side as a dark figure was seen walking on the sidewalk in the snow. Looking closer, he noted that the figure walking along the road was, in fact, Jou. The blond was huddled into himself, only wearing a thin jacket and some jeans with his famous torn up sneakers.

Rolling down the window on the passenger's side, Seto called out to the cold teen. "Jou, get in. It's too cold for you to be walking in the clothes you have."

The blond stopped, looking into the car at the brunet with a small grin before opening the door and hopping in. In the moving car, Jou remained silent and only gazed at the road before them, obviously a little awkward at being saved.

"How did you know?" Jou asked out of the blue.

"I just had a worry and went with my instincts to protect you from harm." Seto responded, not looking away from the road.

When they made it back to Seto's mansion, the CEO made Jou some hot cocoa (tea just wasn't the pup's thing, after all) and had a seat on the couch in front of his fireplace. Too many thoughts were rushing through his head, but he knew that he had to tell the blond everything since Jou was probably feeling the same way Seto did before.

"Jou…" Seto sighed, not knowing exactly how to begin to talk about his feelings for the blond standing before him. Rubbing his face with his palms, he realized he was shaking from the nervous feelings running through him. Worries began to flood throughout his mind.

What would they do now?

Would Jou want to move in with him?

What if this love is just a crush and nothing more?

Too caught up in his thoughts, Seto didn't notice the weight being added to the couch cushion beside him. He was knocked from his thoughts by the warmth of thin, but built, arms wrapping about his thin frame and pulling him into the chest of the blond.

"Ya don't have to say anything, Seto. If you let me do this, I'll believe that you feel the same way." Jou smiled that charming, loving smile that Seto always wanted to see. He relaxed into the arms of his new love before they sank down onto the couch, the CEO lying atop the blond comfortably.

"I should have told you." Seto looked into Jou's brown eyes.

"Nah, then we wouldn't have played the game together. That was fun." The pup grinned.

There was a small moment of silence before the blond took away all of the awkwardness in the situation by closing the gap between himself and his new love. Their lips met for the first time and the spark that shocked the both of them sent warmth throughout both of their bodies; they knew it had to be love then.

They continued to lay there, gazing at the Christmas tree and remaining in each other's arms. This was the beginning of something new. A new dream world that would help them escape all of their problems forever.

"Nothing could be better than living in this dream world; the perfect reality."

Their hands intertwined instantly as they continued to cuddle each other endlessly. There was no need for any words or questions… just blissful silence and understanding.

This would be a very merry Christmas, after all.