Thick clumps of snow fell steadily from the sky, blanketing the world in a white shroud that muffled all color and sound. Not just that, but it obscured all semblance of corruption and filth. Snow made it so much easier to pretend that the world was clean and pure. It also made the weather much colder, and cold weather made people more likely to stay indoors and celebrate the holidays with the people they cared about.
It was precisely this impulse that had prompted Joey to make cookies with Mokuba from scratch. That is, once he'd been shown how the industrial kitchen functioned. The warm, comforting scent of home-made chocolate chip cookies filled the air as Joey opened the oven and removed the cookie trays, Mokuba perched on a stool as he tried not to bounce with excitement.
"Can we eat them now?" Mokuba asked impatiently as Joey placed the last cookie tray on the counter and turned off the oven.
"Not just yet!" Joey proclaimed, wagging a finger at the child. He picked up a metal spatula and used it to remove two cookies from the tray and place them on a plate.
"How long do we have to wait?" Mokuba asked, his eyes glued on the cookies.
"One minute after they come out of the oven," he replied promptly. "Otherwise, you'll burn your mouth so badly you won't be able to taste the cookies at all." Joey looked at his watch for a moment to check how long had transpired since they pulled them out. "Okay, we can eat them now." Mokuba snatched his cookie off the plate eagerly, Joey taking his own portion with almost equal fervor.
"Mm, these are good," Mokuba mumbled around a mouthful of baked dough and melted chocolate.
"I hope that means you're willing to share them," Kaiba interjected as he entered the kitchen, his eyes glancing around as he re-familiarized himself with this particular room.
"Of course!" Mokuba exclaimed with such eagerness that Joey chuckled at him in amusement.
It was always heart-warming to watch the two brothers together, especially after their crisis that summer. Joey quickly pushed that memory away, not wanting to spoil these moments with such unpleasant recollections. He laughed hard as he watched Mokuba shove one of their creations into his older brother's mouth, Seto's eyes widening as his mouth was suddenly crammed full with cookie.
"Don't they smell great?" Mokuba asked, his eyes shining with delight. He'd never made cookies before, so he'd never really known what it was like for a whole room to smell like freshly baked cookies.
"They sure do," Kaiba replied once he was able to. Joey couldn't help but look at him with pity, knowing that he'd just had to lie to Mokuba. Seto had almost no sense of smell, and even though the smell of cookies was strong in this room, he likely didn't perceive it much at all.
"Did you finish your session with Sweets, or are you just taking a break?" Joey asked, raising an eyebrow at his boyfriend as he rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"I'm done for tonight," he answered before finishing off what little remained of his cookie. "I hate psychologists," he grumbled.
"I think you should be honored that he wants to study you," Joey replied with a smirk. "Only truly exceptional specimens get to be studied, you know."
Seto huffed and rolled his eyes at Joey's purposeful use of polysyllabic words. Joey knew that the brunette didn't really hold anything against the American psychologist. In truth, Kaiba found the psychologist to be quite amusing sometimes. What he didn't like was when Dr. Sweets tried to dig too deeply or undo Seto's way of perceiving himself and the world. That was where Seto would draw the line, say that it was turning into a therapy session, and end the Skype call—much to Sweets' annoyance.
"Hey, you already ate a cookie, no more," he rebuked his little brother as he tried to sneak a second cookie off of the pan. "Did you finish all of your homework?"
"Yep, it's all done!" Mokuba said cheerfully. Tomorrow was the last day of school before winter break, and he was excited for the vacation, just as any middle schooler would be.
"And you're ready for your presentation tomorrow?" Kaiba asked, the mundane conversation passing easily between them as Joey in his kelly green sweater put his hand in Seto's and lay his head on the taller one's shoulder.
"Yeah, Joey helped me practice it earlier," Mokuba answered, eying the cookies as he wondered if he dare try again to steal a second cookie.
"What class is that for?" Kaiba asked, looking down at Joey for an answer.
"It's for biology class," Joey reminded him patiently. "He's doing a presentation on venomous animals."
"I get to talk about snakes and spiders and jellyfish," Mokuba enthused with a grin. Seto was glad that at least his little brother seemed to at least be a fairly normal middle schooler. As much as he believed that Mokuba did and would have an above average intelligence—not unlike himself—he didn't want Mokuba to experience any more abnormalities than were strictly necessary—so as not to turn out like his older brother.
"Cool." Seto turned back to Joey, giving his hand a squeeze before releasing it. "I have some more work that I need to get done tonight, so can you please help him practice his presentation one more time before he goes to be—Hey!" Seto cut himself off as a pair of small hands slipped around from his back to his stomach and tickled him ineffectively. "Cut that out."
Mokuba sighed dramatically as he gave up and squeezed in between them. "I bet you're ticklish somewhere," he said, looking up at his brother with a look of determination, making Kaiba chuckle.
"Nope, not a chance," he said with a grin, eliciting more pity from Joey. He could remember the tickle fights he and Serenity had gotten into when they were little, back before their parents got divorced.
"But Joey's ticklish!" Mokuba protested with a pout.
"That's because Joey's Joey and I'm me," Seto said with a slight smirk. "I'm going back to my office now. I might not see you till tomorrow, so goodnight, kiddo." He ruffled his brother's hair as he glanced up at Joey.
"I'll get 'im to bed, don't worry." Joey grinned at him and Kaiba nodded with a smile before leaving again.
After helping Mokuba practice his presentation one last time and putting him to bed, Joey went to pull Seto away from his work. He understood that the holiday season was especially busy for him and that he was trying to get enough work done now so that he could take Christmas off without leaving anything unfinished or unattended, but he wasn't going to let Kaiba deprive himself of sleep.
"Aren't you done yet?" Joey asked as he entered Seto's home office and strolled over to the desk chair where his lover sat, his face illuminated by the glow from his computer screen.
"I'm almost done," Kaiba muttered without looking up. Joey rolled his eyes, knowing that Kaiba probably wasn't very well aware of the time right now. When he got really into his work, he lost all sense of place and time and was sucked entirely into his task until something drew him out of it. This time, it was Joey taking the liberty of seating himself sideways across Kaiba's lap that made him snap out of it.
"What are you doing?" the brunette asked with a faint blush. Joey pointed up and Kaiba looked in that direction, rolling his eyes at what he saw. "You know what they say about mistletoe, Seto," Joey chimed smugly before pulling his boyfriend into a heated, hungry kiss.
"Alright, you win," Seto muttered as Joey pulled away, looking terribly pleased with himself. Seto saved his progress and closed his laptop, holding hands with Joey as they walked back to their bedroom. They started to undress, Joey removing the warm sweater Seto had gotten for him.
In fact, Seto had furnished Joey with a new wardrobe when he'd come to live with him back in the spring, but when the fall months came around, he'd paid for warm winter clothes to be acquired for him as well. Joey had a sneaking suspicion that Seto'd had a hand in choosing the clothes that had been purchased for Joey, because their was a distinctive Joey flair to the clothing that seemed to imply that the one purchasing them knew something of the person the clothes would be given to.
Seto removed his tie and suit jacket before sitting on the edge of the bed and rubbing the back of his neck tiredly. Joey actually thought that the way Seto's eyelids drooped was rather adorable.
"I knew you were tired. It's not everyday that you wake up at 3:45 for a conference call, after all," Joey commented as he removed his own belt and put it away.
"I could have kept working," Kaiba defended in a drowsy voice as he rested his eyes for a moment. It was only when he felt Joey taking his hand that he opened his eyes and glanced up in time to see the blond start to press soft kisses to the tiny lacerations that marked both of his hands. His lack of sensitivity to touch meant that he tended to get papercuts without realizing it. It was very frustrating when blood from those cuts got smudged on his documents and he had to print new copies.
A look of gentle appreciation came over Seto's face, and Joey found it rather gratifying. He hummed against the other's skin as he covered his hands in little kisses. He reached the base of his palm and started unbuttoning his shirt cuffs. He pushed back the crisp white shirtsleeve and started kissing the white scars lining the inside of Seto's wrist, sucking lightly at the healed skin. He kissed the inside of his arm as far as he could go, but the sleeve stopped him around Kaiba's elbow.
Still holding Seto's extended arm, he side-stepped and lifted one knee to rest it on the edge of the bed, pressing it between Seto's thighs and making his partner growl softly. Joey quickly unbuttoned Seto's shirt with one hand while Kaiba's other hand rested low on Joey's back to balance him. That well-muscled chest was now open to him, and Joey leaned forward to nibble on Seto's collarbone. After a few moments of that, he finally freed his lover of his shirt, pushing it off the bed and to the floor so that it wouldn't be in the way. Before he could lay another hand on the brunette, though, Seto was tugging the hem of Joey's shirt up.
The blond helped him remove the article of clothing that impeded their intimacy before catching Seto's hand in his own once more and resuming his work. He nipped the inside of his elbow, then continued sucking and licking a slow trail down his arm to his shoulder. Kaiba pressed his face into Joey's chest, moaning softly as his fingernails lightly dragged across the others back, making the blond shiver with anticipation.
When they had first slept together, Joey had told Seto that he wasn't a gentle lover, and Seto had expressed his approval. "You'd be useless to me if you were." After their several forays into the Virtual World, though, Seto had finally expressed his concerns to Joey: he feared that if he kept going back to the digital reality where he could experience physical sensations like a normal person, his frustration with his deadened nerves would increase and he'd become even more desensitized than he already was. That was when they'd agreed it would be better for him to stop going there altogether. Joey had also proposed that they try being gentler in their lovemaking every now and then, to give him a chance to focus on what he could feel and try to increase his sensitivity through sheer willpower. Seto didn't know if he thought it was working, but one thing he did know was that Joey's tender attentions always drove him mad with need.
The blond nibbled at his neck as Seto tried not to whine with sheer desire. He wanted to touch the other, feel his muscles move under his skin and watch his need for the brunette grow until he begged to be filled. Once Joey was close enough, Kaiba leaned forward and bit hard on his lover's nipple out of retaliation. Joey hissed. Seto smirked.
"When you tease a dragon, you're going to get burned," Seto murmured against Joey's chest, much to his lover's amusement. Despite his best intentions, Joey relinquished control to Kaiba. Once the stubborn brunette had made up his mind that he wanted something, there was no denying him. Joey had once been that stubborn too, but in the time that he'd spent with Kaiba, he'd matured a lot, and part of that process was learning that sometimes stubbornness could be a very bad thing.
Joey'd intended for tonight to be gentler, but in truth, neither of them truly favored things that way, as maddeningly sweet as they could be. They made love with that same restless hunger they'd had their first night, Seto pounding Joey into the mattress with the same demanding force he always used. Much to Kaiba's satisfaction, Joey moaned and screamed in ecstasy. While Kaiba enjoyed hearing his lover's pleasure, Joey enjoyed the post-coital pillow-talk just as much.
"I love you, Puppy," Seto purred as he nibbled on Joey's ear, one hand stroking the blond's side as he lay behind him, their long figures curled together under the sheets.
"I love you too, Dragon Lord," Joey teased. Seto bit harder on his ear for a moment before he licked the mark to soothe the pain. "So, have you given anymore thought to my request?" he asked hopefully.
"Not gonna happen," Seto growled, trying to sound firm on the matter, but it was hard to do so when he was this happy and tired.
"But I dressed up for you!" Joey whined.
"That's different," the brunette declared, wishing he would just drop the matter.
"How?"
"I didn't ask you to do that."
"But you sure did enjoy it," Joey pointed out with a mischievous grin his partner couldn't see.
"It was silly," Kaiba muttered, still feeling embarrassed about how much he'd enjoyed that night.
"It was Halloween," Joey answered, as if that justified everything. "I was feeling festive. Besides, costumes are fun."
"You costume had no clothes, just ears and a tail." And a collar and leash, but he didn't like to think about that. The red dog collar had a shiny little tag that read "Property of Seto Kaiba." It had been large enough that it rattled around Joey's neck instead of being tight enough to cause chaffing. Kaiba had removed it early on in the foreplay, though, saying that he preferred wild dogs.
"Accessories still count as a costume, which is most of what you'd be wearing anyways." Joey was still trying to wheedle Seto's sex-addled mind into granting the blond's request, but he didn't seem to be making any headway.
"Go to sleep, Pup," he grumbled into Joey's hair, effectively ending the debate. For now.
Author Notes: This is the third installment of my Puppyshipping saga; the first was "Let Me Help You" and the second was "Let Me Keep You," so if you haven't read those first, I suggest you consider doing so because it will give you some background for how these two got together, what things they've had to deal with since then, and so forth. It will be kind of necessary for understanding this plot, actually.
Please review, because more reviews = more chapters! Please check out some of my other works if you enjoyed this, and I am still accepting requests for Yugioh shipping one-shots. :)