Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Chapter 1

Worries

The silence was beginning to drive him insane, he was sure of it. Ever since the previous night, Chazz had been giving Jaden the 'silent treatment', and by now the brunette was beyond sick of it. He hated the silence between them almost as much as he hated the fact that he was the whole reason for it.

What he hated most of all, however, was that he didn't feel guilty and he almost believed that he should. After all, he and Chazz had been together for a while now; he was his boyfriend. And both were teenage boys with all the natural hormones that cried out for sexual activity – only it seemed that Jaden couldn't get past his discomfort of the whole situation enough to favour said hormones, no matter how much he might want to.

Chazz, on the other hand, was not so unwilling; there was nothing he wanted more in the entire world than to be able to take the brunette. But he wasn't the desperate sort who'd take an unwilling partner – before he would do anything, Jaden had to want it. He had to make Jaden want it, but after all he had attempted, he was out of ideas.

And now he was almost out of patience. Jaden understood that much.

Even though, for the most part, Chazz was relatively understanding of Jaden's hesitance, it was clear that the pale skinned boy was beginning to grow weary of Jaden's refusals.

Jaden didn't understand it himself; he loved Chazz – of that much he was sure – and he did honestly want to go the full way with him. It was just that it felt somehow wrong, like they weren't at that stage yet, and so he could never bring himself to accept the other's none-too-subtle offerings.

It was not wrong. It was not shameful. Realistically, Chazz wasn't going to force him into anything he was truly uncomfortable with, and he had once told Jaden that it was his choice and nothing would happen until he was ready. But it was nonetheless a speed-bump in the road of their relationship, one that needed to be fixed as soon as possible, lest one or other of them lose interest in the other.

Chazz had, the previous night, attempted to seduce his boyfriend. Although it had not been an entirely fruitless attempt, Jaden had pulled away at the last moment, saying those goddamn words once again.

"I'm not ready yet."

Chazz had asked him why not and, when the other had babbled about not knowing and about being ready someday, Chazz had simply walked away.

They had already agreed to spend this day together, however, and it was an engagement they intended to attend; to not meet up as planned would be to acknowledge that there was a major problem in their relationship. And so Chazz found himself in the slacker's room in the Slifer Red dorm, flicking through his old texts – so many of them from Jaden – on his mobile, ignoring his boyfriend.

Jaden watched him warily and bit his lip to stop himself saying something. Honestly, he was no good at this – he had natural confidence in himself in all aspects of his life except for his sex life, when he froze up and didn't know what to say.

And so it was an awkward meeting, one that the two were only too glad to end early. Their goodbye routine was the same was ever – smiles, a hug, a kiss, holding to one another for a moment before that final kiss...

That final kiss which had not tasted the same – the flavour tonight was not of love and passion but instead of bitterness and denial.

/

It was the next evening before the two met up again, in the Slifer Red canteen. They were not alone – with them were Hasselberry, Syrus, Alexis, Atticus and Aster Phoenix. What he was doing here was not entirely obvious to the rest of them, but Jaden seemed to enjoy the egotistical duellist's company, and so nobody queried his presence.

Indeed the young pro duellist looked a little down, as if he had heard unpleasant news. All Jaden could decipher, however, was that it had to do with Sartorius, and nobody was too keen on him at present – the Society of Light was not gone, and even now they still had an old friend, Bastian Misawa, in their clutches.

However, not even the Society of Light could enter Jaden's mind at present – he was far too preoccupied with his own private life. He tried not to let it show; he talked and joked with the others, even threw warm smiles at Chazz, but it was undeniable that things were, to say the least, tense between the two of them, although nobody seemed to notice overly.

Everyone talked and generally hung out for a couple of hours before everyone went their separate ways – in most people's cases, that meant class; for Aster it meant to go see Sartorius; for Chazz and Jaden, it meant to go to Chazz's private dorm. This was routine, but their behaviour most certainly was not.

Their usual activities simply weren't happening – no duelling, no trash talking, no kissing. Just an awkward silence and a foot of space between them.

It was not a pleasant feeling, and this being Chazz Princeton and Jaden Yuki, it just wasn't going to last before somebody said or did something. As it happened, it was Jaden who broke the silence first.

"Look, Chazz, we have to get over this" he said quietly, his voice unusually pained. "If this is just going to be about the..."

"This isn't about the sex" Chazz interrupted, already seeing where his boyfriend's thoughts were heading. "It's about the lack thereof. It's about you always saying you'll be ready but never actually getting there."

"Chazz, I will be ready. I'll be ready soon, and when I am, we can..."

"And when will that be?"

Jaden frowned and turned away, unwilling to answer and instead hurling his own questioning accusation: "Y'know, Chazz, you're supposed to be willing to wait for me. You're supposed to love me."

"Jaden, I..." Chazz took a deep breath before continuing. "Look, I am willing to wait for you, Jaden, but only for so long. Why can't you and me just do it already?"

"Because I don't damn well want to!"

"You don't want to?!"

"Well, obviously I want to; I'm a teenage boy. But Chazz, there's wanting to and there's being able to."

Chazz realised something when he heard this from Jaden – considering that Jaden was being unusually insightful, Chazz had naturally paid attention. He realised that, in all honesty, the issue was not to do with Jaden being unwilling, as he had initially though, but rather that Jaden was afraid in some way.

And not only would nothing happen until Jaden was at ease, but it was Chazz's job to help him be ready; after all, no matter how much he might hate to admit it, he genuinely cared about Jaden. Even if he did pay a lot of attention to his hormones and couldn't wait to bed the Slifer, he truly wanted Jaden to be willing, and he wanted it to be something they did because they both desired it.

"Jaden, what is it exactly that you're scared of?"

The brunette appeared surprised, to say the least, by this sudden change of attitude. However, he turned towards Chazz and began to speak.


Please R&R