They can hardly keeps their hands off each other as they're entering the front door.
Kaiba fumbles with the security keypad, blindly pushing in codes whilst his lips dance across another's. And Yuugi giggles the whole while, fingers curled around his bent elbow, struggling partially to keep the kiss- one that's parting and pressing over and over as he strains on his tip toes.
But they're finally liberated from the howling air of late evening, and Yuugi takes on the role of a cautious house guest, moving slow and quiet through the foyer into a den that's cozy in its private compactness.
His jacket leaves his body and bends over the arm of a loveseat, and he places himself on the cushion of it. A pair of wine glasses clink on the coffee table before him; Kaiba pours a generous amount of a luxurious dark liquid into each. His fingertips purposefully brush over Yuugi's as one chalice exchanges hands.
The fragrance of smoky vetiver travels to his nose alongside a strike across flint, and the room's darkness is bullied aside by a warming incandescence.
"Ooh, wine and candles?" he says, and it's nearly a tease, though there's a fraction of him that can hardly believe the sweetness.
A thoughtful humming leaves Kaiba's lips as he sits beside him. "We're celebrating."
Yuugi's smile is warm and pleased. "It's hard to believe its already been six months."
"Mhm..." he hums again, mindset identical. "I'm certainly not complaining."
"Well, that's reassuring." And he laughs, pressing a kiss to his boyfriend's mouth.
He relaxes back once they disconnect. Everything about the moment feels so immaculately right; warm from inside to out, burningly so once he notes the way Kaiba's expression isn't stone cold, and he's actually radiating inconspicuous elation.
"The food at that place was incredible," he commends of the restaurant they'd tried after a stretch of flaming stillness, and Kaiba nods as he sips from his glass.
Yuugi's hesitant to copy the action, boggled as to how an eighteen year old managed an ownership upon alcohol. But he brings the glass to his lips anyway, and he's glad he does because, good God, it falls past delectable.
"Did you have a nice time tonight?" Kaiba absently wonders. Yuugi meets his stare, nodding in vehemence.
"Of course." He smiles, glancing downward again. "Thank you."
Kaiba continues his silent staring, though it's not unnerving like it's been in the past; it's...nice. Attention focusing on himself isn't favored, but the way Kaiba's resting his eyes on him so peacefully, like he enjoys the sight, is something Yuugi has yet to know ever before. So, yes, it's nice, and so is the way Kaiba's expression is so relaxed and so content- just to sit in quiet, shrouded in the glowing warmth of candles. Yuugi isn't sure why, but when he tips the wine glass to his lips again, his fingers are quivering around it.
He's so raveled in his reverie, allotting not his attention to the consumption of his drink until swilling at the bottom is less than an ounce, and he suddenly recalls he still needs to drive home- a major lightweight who needs to drive home.
The chalice's base meets the wood of the coffee table, delicate fingertips moving to rest at kneecaps. He's timid in his movements- the edging forward slight, though Kaiba's perceptive enough to detect that he's indicating his intention to depart. And his next words confirm; "I really should get going. My mother will worry if I'm out too late."
Yuugi can't help but chortle at that- a soft breath that hitches past his even softer lips. But Kaiba's not exactly humored. Though, truly, that is not a feat unheard of.
"Spend the night," he says in a way that's not so much an offering inquiry as it is a desired hope. An implorarion, sans the vitality to make it solidly so. He's zapped of confidence even further by the way Yuugi's expression contorts at the idea.
"Again?" The last thing he wants is to project spite. "I mean, I'd like to, but aren't you getting sick of me?"
To match him, Kaiba finds himself leaning forward, finds his own glass settling atop the table before them, dripping condensation into slow blotting marks. And Yuugi- though it's idle, truly- reaches to place a coaster beneath it. Once the little hands are freed anew, back to rest on knees, Kaiba takes one in his own and, because he's a romantic at his core, presses his lips at his knuckles. Yuugi, because he's so agonizingly gauche at his core, feels a gush of heat to his face, yet smiles when Kaiba at last responds to a question he very nearly forgot he spoke. "Never."
"Well-" A mouth to his hushes him, and he can taste the Cabernet on Kaiba's lips- one so ludicrously expensive yet so impossibly luxurious. He sighs through his nose, a breath of pure content. Kaiba unlaces the delicate liplock, pulling back mere inches into his own space, scanning Yuugi's eyes with his own and savoring the way he smiles so quirkily at him.
"Stay," Kaiba urges once more, which draws another sigh.
"I really can't." There's an edge to his voice that spills reluctance. But he's got a curfew to honor, one that cannot be shattered two consecutive nights. "Maybe tomorrow, okay?"
"Hn." It's a tut that says he's blatantly dissatisfied by the refusal. Though that doesn't keep him from ogling the flesh peeking from beneath Yuugi's top once he stands and stretches arms far northward. He hardly has to bend to place a kiss to his boyfriend's cheek, tangling his arms over him in a motion that's meant to satiate until they are to meet again. And when Yuugi retreats from the embrace, his elbows just resting at Kaiba's shoulders, and his gaze just brushing over his eyes, there's a sharp feeling of pieces clicking into rightful places, a feeling that's so pleasantly and euphorically serene.
And Kaiba isn't allowing it to fizzle out; his hands work their way to the curves of his hips, tugging Yuugi into his chest in a way that brings literal meaning to sweeping him off his feet. Yuugi laughs, poises his palms in flat to his chest, and he can feel the drumming of Kaiba's heart against the right; it washes him in some peculiar relief of a stress he'd had not, but all the same there's a pounding pitter patter that's patter pittering only for him, so he presses his lips against Kaiba's to conceal his newly forming blush.
Even as he's gently attempting to wrest himself away, Kaiba's hold does not relent, perhaps even the opposite, and he's pressing kisses all along his neck- because he knows it's something Yuugi cannot resist.
He sighs slowly through his nose. "You really don't want me to go?"
"You keep the bed warm," is his excusive response between kisses that grow rougher each time.
"...Alright," he agrees at last. "But don't try this again when I'm leaving tomorrow."
"I will."
As he settles back down beside him, he's forced by his exasperation to swivel his eyes within their sockets, forced by his kindliness to grin sweetly at him.
"I have to stop letting you have your way," floats his musing tease as Kaiba leans to catch his lips anew.
The moment returns to its beautiful psychedelia, capturing them both in the flow of pure and quiet felicity. They're enveloped in delight, and Kaiba's mouth is moving perfectly in sync with Yuugi's, and Yuugi's hand is resting at the top of Kaiba's thigh as to balance him as he leans even further into the kiss that's heating up with every second passing.
And it's lustful and wondrous and mind-blowing.
Slowly, slowly, they separate, disconnecting with lidded eyes and parted lips, just to look at one another, just to drink in the unfathomable radiance that is their mate.
Perhaps it's the wine, Kaiba persuades himself into believing, or perhaps it's the candles flicking their tranquil honey glow, or maybe it's the way Yuugi's staring with his eyes so bright and enchanting and breathtaking, but the next thing Kaiba knows, he's mumbling something against his lips that he should regret but cannot bring himself to, because he's so stupidly certain of its sincerity.
"I love you."
The section of Yuugi's buzzing mind in control of filtering thoughts into eloquence takes a dive off the deep end; unintelligible fragments float past his agape lips, creating some sort of, "You- That's, uh...your- And, uh, are you-? ...You do?"
Yuugi knows his eyes must be saucers, and to further his astonishment, Kaiba's grow owlish as well.
"...I don't know."
"Well-! You said it!" He's beyond flustered at it all- with both the confession and the denial of it. His chest is tight and pounding, and if his face gets any hotter, he fears he'll literally melt into nothing. Which, at such a moment, doesn't seem exactly undesirable. "Do you...do you mean it, or not?"
"I don't know," Kaiba repeats, which is not what Yuugi, who's inwardly forcing himself not to bawl or vomit or whatever else he has the urge to do, wants to hear. "...Maybe I do."
"Maybe I do, too."
"Just maybe?"
"I-" It only works to fluster him more, turning his voice into a humiliating high pitched mess. "I was just repeating what you said!"
Kaiba expels a weighted breath, twisting his body to face Yuugi directly on. His mind is shrieking at him to just say it, say it!, yet his tongue will not abide to form the words- the words he is solidly sure are not mere words, but raw emotions that he can't say truthfully he's ever experienced, so, sure, he's anxious as all get-out, but he'll be damned if he's about to show it. And, hell, he's rambling, and Yuugi's just looking at him, blank and probably bordering upon irate, and all his muscles are tight and everything is suddenly all too hot, and he despises how vulnerable he is, and, and, and-!
"...I love you, Yuugi."
Yuugi's still staring, fixing him with those glimmering violets, until mouth catches up to mind, and he's saying between giggles, "I love you, too."
"And you're sure this time?" Kaiba asks; a jeer, because the littler of the two is already marking his face in smooches, hands cupping angled jaw, and Kaiba can feel the grin on the lips that touch him.
A kiss to the tip of his nose. "Absolutely."
And then, they're left to rest within the rushing high of profession, and all the pieces in all their rightful places are positively affixed by the shining of their eyes and the holding of fingers that lace so neatly together.
"I'm glad I agreed to stay over," Yuugi says finally, flashing a wickedly bawdy grin. "Because after what we're about to do, I'm not sure I'd be able to drive."
And Kaiba can't help the twitch to his lips, because that's absolutely something he can agree with.
A/N: im not in luv with this piece tbh but what can ya do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
this follows my headcanon that kaiba says i love you first which no one else on the planet seems to agree with.
maybe some day i'll write something besides sappy rivalship romance. but don't hold your breath.