Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ You Already Have a Valentine ❯ Hot Chocolate ( Chapter 14 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Joey woke up Sunday morning with no feelings of disorientation, but a jumbled memory of everything since Saturday morning. Well, start with the basics. He was in the Kaiba mansion, sleeping on Seto's bed in a tangled mesh of what he presumed to be sheets. His clothing was intact and the CEO was lord-knew-where. Joey wasn't sure whether he ought to be relieved or disappointed.

Well, what else?

Friday had been a “normal” date...sort of. A movie would have been normal if he'd been with anyone other than Kaiba. Okay. To be fair, the movie part had been normal, and Kaiba's taste wasn't half-bad. But when you go to the theater with your significant other, you'd think you would at least hold hands! Y'know, like acknowledge your presence—talk to each other, something—and afterwards, the guy is supposed to kiss his date goodbye. No such luck there, either. Sure, it was their first official date and neither had any intention of going beyond the preliminaries, but did that mean that they had to act like casual acquaintances?

Yeah, whatever.

Yesterday. Hmm, Joey had come over around noon and hung out. They'd played video games with Mokuba, and then...they'd done something that night. Joey'd be damned if he knew what, though. His memory was more fuzzy than usual.

Oh.

Right...

Seto's private collection of wine. You'd never expect it of Mr. goody-goody-two-shoes. It had been fun, though Joey didn't actually remember very well. They probably hadn't gotten very drunk, as Joey's headache wasn't bad, and his memory found this a good opportunity to start doing what it was there for. Images clogged his brain now: dark, Seto's face, his eyes, close enough the blonde went cross-eyes looking at him; shadowed, his lips, the impression of gentle, firm hands, nervousness—well, that answered that, but where the frick was Kaiba now?

Somewhere.

“Yeah, real helpful, Joey,” he told his brain disgustedly.

***

Some time later, Joey's stomach led him down to the kitchen. The route was pretty straight forward, actually—out of the bedroom, down the hallway, down the stairs, through the living room to the dining room, guess the right door and hurray, you were in the kitchen. Hunger sensitized Joey's nose considerably, and he made it there in five minutes. The thing was huge: huge oven, huge stove, huge refrigerator—a cook's paradise. Needless to say, Seto was not the cook. A plump, motherly middle-aged woman greeted Joey with a smile and a plate of hot blueberry muffins. He grinned at her and joined the Kaiba brothers at the kitchen table.

“How many times did you get lost on the way here?” Kaiba smirked acidly in greeting, although his voice sounded gentler than usual.

“I didn't,” Joey threw back good-naturedly, used to Kaiba's taunts. The guy was mostly bark and very little bite (unless he hated you, which was a completely different story).

“Oh?” Kaiba raised an eyebrow.

“What can I say? Finding the kitchen is one of my many talents.” Mokuba giggled at the two of them, and Joey bit a huge chunk of his muffin, content to munch away. No way could Kaiba distract him from his food any longer.

***

Life passed much as it always had for Ryou, except, of course, that he was ridiculously happy. There were little shadows around the edges, admittedly, but he tolerated them easily. He wouldn't have noticed the way he sat brooding on the couch Sunday afternoon if Bakura hadn't plopped down beside him with two glasses of hot chocolate and a puzzled frown. Handing one steaming mug to Ryou, Bakura murmured, “Careful not to burn yourself. What's wrong?”

Ryou looked up and smiled, unaware that anything was wrong until Bakura mentioned it. “My dad's coming home next Thursday. He's in Cairo, and I got an email from him earlier.”

“That's a good thing, isn't it? I know you've gotten used to him being gone, but you miss him, don't you?” Bakura sipped at his chocolate, probably somewhat masochistic to drink it this hot.

“Yeah, but...” Ryou blinked, and blew at his own chocolate. “He was around a little more when I was younger. We did things together sometimes; we played ball—usual father-son things. He raised me Christian. Catholic.”

Bakura winced. “I think I see.”

Ryou nodded, “Yeah. I mean, I rejected it a couple years back because I can't relate to the philosophy, but I never actually replaced it. Right now if someone asked me what I believed, I couldn't tell them.” He cocked his head, thinking, and absently staring at the deep brown chocolate he'd nearly forgotten by now. “I guess I just feel like the one thing that's going right ought to be completely wrong.”

“Eh?” Bakura spluttered on his mouthful.

“You.”

“Okay.”

“Well, I'm sure you realize how sinful our relationship is by Christian standards.”

“Yes, I know.” Bakura waved a hand dismissively. “Sodomy. I take it you haven't told your dad about your sexual orientation?”

“He still speaks to me, doesn't he?”

“That bad?”

Ryou shrugged. “I think so. He barely knows me, so it'd be rather tough to explain.”

“We don't have to tell him.”

Ryou glared.

“It isn't lying, koi, we just aren't telling.” Leaning back in silent satisfaction at his own brilliance, Bakura finished his chocolate. Ryou gulped his own down, realizing belatedly that it was barely above room temperature, and gazed mournfully at the bottom of his empty cup until Bakura removed it from his hands. Taking his chin in his hands, Bakura turned Ryou's face to kiss him softly. The tension gradually ebbed from Ryou, and he cuddled into Bakura's arm gratefully.

“Ry, how long is your dad back for?”

“Two months,” he mumbled, utterly content with Bakura's warmth.

“WHAT?”

Ryou blinked up at him. “Two months.”

“Okay, I realize you have no problem keeping your hands to yourself for that long, but seriously! I mean, no cuddling, no kissing, no touching, no sleeping in the same bed, no—”

“We'll cross that bridge when we come to it,” said Ryou. “Kiss me. Now.”

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I took more liberties with Ryou's past than I expected, and I'm sorry if I contradicted something in the show or manga. I'm also very sorry it's taken me this long to update. I guess I've been a little distracted by other things. In any case, thank you for reviewing (in advance ^_^). And of course, thank you and I love you to evvy body who reviewed before.

~Mala