"Would you like some ice cream? It's dripping all over me!"
Mokuba laughed and held out his arms to demonstrate the sweet, sticky cream on his hands and running down one of his arms. The sunshine beat down on the park visitors, and a group of children shrieked with laughter nearby as they streaked across the open space towards a water fountain.
Ryou laughed too, not knowing what else to do.
"Sure, I guess I would like some when you put it that way."
Taking the ice cream cone from Mokuba as carefully as he could, Ryou did his best to hold it away from himself as he leaned forward to lick the sides of the dripping cone. It was a rich, sweet vanilla and between that and the smell of the freshly cut grass and the feel of the sun on his skin, Ryou couldn't imagine a better way to spend an afternoon.
"I'm so glad I ran into you," Mokuba told him cheerfully, catching one of Ryou's arms and pulling him bodily over towards a nearby park bench. "I haven't seen you in two weeks and I want to hear how your classes are going!"
Ryou easily let himself be guided to sit, and then handed back the ice cream cone to its chatty owner with a smile. His own fingers were now completely sticky, of course, so he licked them off quickly with an unselfconscious laugh.
"It's going pretty well so far," he reassured. "It's still early to say for sure, but I really enjoy one of my literature seminars and the philosophy elective looks like it was a good choice."
"Ugh, you have to tell me more than THAT! How are the professors? Is the work hard? What's the reading list like? Did you make any friends? Are there any cute girls? Are there any cute BOYS?"
"Whoa, hold on!" Ryou ran a hand through his hair while he held back another laugh. "I can't answer all of those questions!"
"God, you and Seto are exactly the same. But he has no problem asking ME tons of questions! He called me THREE TIMES yesterday to ask me if I'd done my homework!" Mokuba hastily went back to work on his ice cream, apparently no longer concerned about the mess it was making.
Ryou smiled and shook his head.
"He's your older brother. He's just looking out for you, you know." Since Seto Kaiba had left for college in America, his anxiety levels over his little brother's welfare in his absence had become public knowledge thanks to Mokuba's melodramatic and frequently hilarious re-enactments.
"I know," Mokuba stated with an exhalation and a sigh. "But honestly, I'm fifteen now! I know he can't tell the difference between fifteen and five, but you'd think that after I'd gotten straight A's for eight years in a row he's trust me a little bit. I mean he is supposed to be a genius."
Ryou coughed to hide a smile behind his hand, because he was well aware that they all forgot that Mokuba was growing up sometimes. In some ways he still seemed like the little kid they'd first met on Pegasus' Island four years ago, except, okay, significantly taller and more independent. Although, admittedly, barring the ice cream hands, today he looked every inch a budding teenager with a red cap pulled over his dark hair and beaten-up looking yellow sneakers scuffing the ground. (He apparently hadn't inherited his brother's sense of style.)
"He'll come around," Ryou assured the younger boy gently. "How is school going for you? Have youmet any cute girls or any cute boys?"
Mokuba nodded quickly, flashing a huge smile.
"Oh you bet I have. I went on a date with Mina SaitÅ last week, but I had to break up with her right after because she cried all over me during the movie and anyway I totally have a crush on someone else. It's hard to make out with a girl when you're thinking about this other boy all the time because it just gets really confusing, let me tell you."
"Oh?" Ryou asked with a small little grin, trying for the sake of fairness not to jump to conclusions. "Anyone I have the pleasure of knowing?"
"Yup," Mokuba responded airily without a trace of embarrassment. "You know him pretty well, but I'm pretty sure he still thinks I'm a little kid so I'm just going to have to show him that I'm not."
Ryou wondered what Kaiba would think when he found out his brother had a crush on Yugi Moto. Just thinking about it made him want to break into peals of laughter, but he certainly wouldn't do it at his younger friend's expense. For Mokuba he had to be supportive.
"I'm sure you'll figure it out. A few years might seem like a big deal now, but in another couple of years it won't matter at all."
"I'm glad you think so," Mokuba replied with a self-satisfied smirk. The ice cream cone was almost gone now, and Mokuba bit off one of the last pieces of the cone itself. He suddenly frowned down at it.
"This is so rude of me. Would you like the last taste, Ryou?" he asked.
Ryou quickly shook his head.
"Oh no, it's not a worry! But that is very polite of you, Mokuba."
"Big Brother always says you need to be courteous and mind your manners. Which is... really funny because he never does either of those things, but still! I think he's right, and I think we should share the last bit."
"I don't think there's enough left, so I think you should have it," Ryou told him with his eternally patient smile.
"Nope, I know how we can both have it." There was something a little odd about the way he said it, and Ryou watched curiously as Mokuba licked up the last of the ice cream and then turned towards him.
The boy leaning into him and kissing him soundly upon the lips was not at all what Ryou expected, and his eyes widened hugely before Mokuba pulled back and hopped up to stand, grinning as if he hadn't a care in the world.
"I'd better get going in case Seto decides to call again. He's due for another panic check-in in about an hour. Talk to you later, Ryou!" He gave a cheeky half wave before sprinting off in the other direction without a glance back.
Ryou stared after him, blushing dark red and thinking to himself that Kaiba was in for quite a surprise when he got home if he was still expecting to meet the little kid brother he'd left behind. Blushing even harder, Ryou licked his lips and tasted vanilla ice cream, wondering exactlywhen Mokuba had learned to use his tongue like that.
A/N: This is the first ficlet I wrote for my personal YGO 100 pairings in 100 prompts challenge! If you're interested you can check the full prompt table out at my dreamwidth, but I'll probably be posting all the results here sooner or later as I get them done. There are some crazy pairings coming up but I decided to start with these two because it was effortless and fun and they are SO CUTE. (Also I've discovered I love writing Mokuba because I get to make fun of Kaiba heartlessly while doing so. Excellent times!)