Epilogue

January 25th – Joey's Birthday

The holidays came and went that year all-too abruptly. Joey felt he barely took a breath as he rushed between homes, crunching through the deep snow to exchange gifts with Yugi and pat Téa's swelling belly. He watched Tristan gift a ring to Serenity on Christmas Eve and only clapped Tristan's shoulder with a cautionary look in his eye where once he might have forbidden it.

When asked about plans for his birthday, Joey would wave a nonchalant hand, comment idly on 'doing not much' and change the subject.

When the day arrived, Joey accepted their presents and cheer, dropping by each of their houses in turn, but always scooting away with an airy excuse of being, "a bit busy, sorry, pal! We can catch up tomorrow, I promise."

Upon leaving Serenity's, Tristan scurried up to Joey with the air of someone in the act of doing something untoward, and pressed a handful of crinkly condoms in his palm. Rather mortified, Joey directed his reddened countenance at him.

"It's your birthday," Tristan spurted, his series of jolly brandies causing his words to slur. "You been so hard to get hold of lately." He winked. "I know what the deal is."

Joey choked back an ironic laugh and accommodated him by slipping the goods into his pocket with a conspiratorial smirk.

After finally being allowed to leave Serenity's (not without a sizeable basket of goodies), he made his way to a bus stop on the outskirts of town. When he arrived, a sleek, back car sat waiting, its engine running with a hum as quiet as a the earth itself thrumming underfoot. Joey prepared a grin as the back window was rolled down. The falling snow drifted through the hatch and dusted the top of Kaiba's head as he poked it into the open air.

"Happy birthday," he said. "Need a lift?"

"Thanks," said Joey. Kaiba scooted aside as Joey popped the door open and slipped into the seat next to him.

"I hope you have cab fare," said Kaiba.

"I got snacks," Joey offered, lifting the huge basket into the seat in front of him. "I think there's champagne in here somewhere."

"I have something for you," said Kaiba, passing him an envelope as the car pulled away. "It isn't from me." The envelope was faintly scented like peaches. Joey noted his name in loopy handwriting on the front. He tugged it open and out fell a sheet of paper that resembled a ticket and a card. Inside it read,

Dear Joey,

Happy birthday, darling. Here's a small gift from me. Steak dinner for two – take whomever you wish. I still owe you a proper one, don't I? Sorry everything turned out so messy.

With love,

Isamu

Sheepishly, Joey gathered up the note and the ticket and tucked them inside the basket. Kaiba watched him expectantly.

"Well," said Joey. "I guess that means there's no hard feelings?"

"She understands a lot more than anyone gave her credit for," said Kaiba. "Including myself."

"Nah, man, you always said she had a lot going for her," Joey shrugged, lounging back in the seat, stretching his legs out before him. "Wouldn't have married her if you thought she was a brainless deadbeat like me."

"I don't think that," said Kaiba quietly.

"Well, whatever," Joey said, stifling an enormous yawn. "I'm just glad it ain't a problem anymore. So how is un-married life?"

Kaiba hummed in his throat. "You know full-well."

"I think I do," said Joey, cheekily running a hand down his abdomen to palm himself through his jeans. Kaiba watched surreptitiously out of the corner of one eye.

"You're like a hound," he commented, sounding derisive until his breath caught and gave him away. Joey only laughed, tucking both hands behind his head for the rest of the ride.

The Kaiba mansion was so quiet that evening that it was almost tangible: the silence seemed to tremble so much so that when Kaiba slipped them through the enormous front door, the creak of wood reverberated a hundred times through the air. Joey shivered, stomping his feet and brushing the snow from his woolly hat. When Kaiba turned to set the security alarm, Joey set about knocking the snow from his Kaiba's shoulders as well.

"Don't make a mess on my floor," Kaiba said good-humouredly, shrugging off his soggy coat to reveal his gossamer, scarlet scarf that he flung unceremoniously on a coat-hook. When he turned away to lead the way to the kitchen, something made Joey slip it surreptitiously from the hook and stuff it in a back pocket.

In the kitchen, Joey sank into a worn wooden chair and propped his boots up on a stool next to a disused fireplace. The room was warm, unlike the chilly entrance hall, so he flopped out of his coat and spread his legs, sinking into a quiet stupor brought on by exhaustion and the change in temperature. Kaiba busied himself taking leftovers in Tupperware tubs from a large, chrome refrigerator. Joey peeked through one eye to watch his lean back and the strong angle of his shoulders as he dug. The warm, orange light reminded him of the night in the office where the evening sunlight chased them into each other's arms, and the glow had burnished all of Kaiba's hard edges until he shimmered like brass. Joey heaved himself from the chair, feeling the burn of all the lost years pool in the pit of his belly.

"Hey," he said, approaching the fridge. Kaiba paused to look at him, ribbons of chestnut hair falling into his eyes, his scowl ever-present, as if he had spent so long with an angle to his brow that resisting it was unnatural. Even so, Joey was bewitched, adoring the crooked downturn to his thin lips, the coolness of his gaze. How strange, to long for heat and passion and adventure, and to find it in the wintry stare of a man who so often resembled a statue.

But Joey had seen him emblazoned, and he was like the blue part of a fire: the hottest, and the brightest. The most dangerous.

In the light from the fridge, Joey saw Kaiba had the tiniest, lightest freckles dusting the bridge of his nose.

"Er," Joey said, trying and failing to act cool, "so what we eating?"

But Kaiba had already straightened up. Shutting the fridge door, he said,

"Do you need to eat?"

"Well, I'm kinda full of Yugi's cooking, to be honest, but you know me I can always-"

He stopped short as Kaiba slipped both hands into his hair and pulled him into a deep kiss.

"Wait, wait," Joey laughed, tilting back. Kaiba paused to look at him. "You not hungry?"

"No," Kaiba grunted, crushing him into another kiss. His arms squashed Joey flush against his body, his hand slipping into the back of Joey's jeans.

"Then why-" Joey began, pushing until Kaiba's back cracked against the fridge door. It groaned and the contents rattled, but Kaiba seemed quite happy to ignore it.

"For you," he was gasping, as Joey rucked up his turtleneck to slide his sweaty palms up Kaiba's sides. Kaiba cursed and shivered as the cold door stuck to the bare skin on his back. Feeling reckless, Joey whirled him around so that his front pressed into the door, and dropped to his knees, kissing and tonguing the frosty patch of skin at the small of his back. It felt good on his burning lips. Kaiba shuddered, his clammy fingers sliding across the glassy surface leaving trails like silver rivers. His breath ghosted on the chrome.

"For me?" Joey whispered, running his hands over the taut curvature of Kaiba's seat.

"Yes," Kaiba breathed.

Kaiba's hands formed into fists and he ducked his head, so turned-on it was stressful. Joey pushed himself to his feet and slipped his hands around Kaiba's waist to undo his belt. Then he sunk his nose into Kaiba's hair, pressing soft kisses into the planes of his nape, listening to the turbulent whisper of Kaiba's breathing. The scent of Kaiba's hair struck him as something warm, not like the sweet tang of peaches as he was so used to here, but more musky and deep, like the aroma of cinnamon and spices. He opened his mouth to push his whole tongue wetly against Kaiba's hot neck, half-expecting him to taste of gingerbread.

Kaiba shuddered again, his fingers scrabbling on the cool fridge door.

"So," said Joey, pushing Kaiba's trousers down to his thighs. Whether he was conscious of it or not, Joey noted how he spread his legs under Joey's roaming hands. "You got me a birthday present?"

"I already told you I don't have any more Duel Monster statues," Kaiba said in mock-exasperation. Joey hummed a laugh, rubbing Kaiba through his briefs. Kaiba ducked his head, hands twitching wildly as if they didn't know where to go. Joey ran his spare palm down Kaiba's forearm to steady him.

"Honestly, if you told me this was all you had planned I'd be more than okay with that," Joey murmured into Kaiba's neck. He stiffened, and Joey grinned. "Seriously?"

"I had planned to acquire a gift…" Kaiba began. He hesitated, curling his hands into fists. "I thought you would prefer…"

Joey's jubilance bloomed in him like a balloon, warming him to the tips of his toes. He scooped Kaiba against him so that he could feel Joey's arousal against his backside, and sucked kisses along Kaiba's thin, pale shoulders. Kaiba's hands gripped wildly back at Joey's body, finding his hips and his buttocks and-

"What's this?"

Kaiba was holding the red scarf. Joey had quite forgotten.

"Oh yeah, I put it in my back pocket from the wall," he said absently. "You were wearing it when I first realised I liked you."

"Take it," said Kaiba without hesitation. "A present."

"But you-"

"I'll survive."

Joey grinned, slipping the scarf through Kaiba's fingers. It trailed like smoke, the material was so light. It was strong too. Joey gave it a few experimental tugs. He glanced up at Kaiba, leaning forward on the fridge door for support, his arms above him. His thin, white wrists pressed together, stark as snow on gravel, gave Joey an idea.

"Hey, Kaiba…"

He carefully looped the material around Kaiba's wrists. Kaiba's fingers flexed sporadically in the binds.

"Is it too much?"

Kaiba shook his head so Joey finished the loop and tied it off. The scarf hung like trails of blood down Kaiba's pale arms and the dark fridge door.

"Fuck," Kaiba hissed, testing the bonds. The backs of his ears were as scarlet as his makeshift rope. Joey took one in his teeth, feeling Kaiba shudder under him as if earthquakes were wracking his body. Carefully, he slipped Kaiba's pants down. He scooped Kaiba's midriff in one arm, pressing himself against Kaiba's backside, pinning his hands to the fridge with the other.

"You're so hot," Joey breathed, his hips snapping hard against Kaiba's bare body. Kaiba huffed, but Joey had no time to decide if it was in humour or frustration. "How did it take me… this long to realise…?"

"Twenty-three," Kaiba panted, his breath short as Joey humped him against the fridge door. "Twenty-three years… are you going to fuck me or not?"

Joey ripped down his jeans and shorts, relishing in the press of his bare cock against Kaiba's flesh. Kaiba shivered hard, rubbing himself against Joey's erection.

"Oh, God," Joey gasped and without thinking, his hand flew to Kaiba's binds. "Of course… of course I am."

"Wait, wait-" Kaiba straightened with some difficulty, propping himself up on the fridge with his bound wrists. Joey found he was in no mood to be dissuaded and grabbed a soft fistful of Kaiba's thigh to keep himself steady through his incessant rocking. "Joey… stop."

Hearing Kaiba choke out entire words through Joey's unyielding haze of sex was enough to bring him to a brief, juddering halt. "What?"

"In the drawer there," huffed Kaiba, "there's lube… and other things… that we need."

"You keep lube in your kitchen?" Joey laughed breathily, reaching over to extract it. Kaiba's ears, already crimson, somehow glowed redder.

"I thought we may not make it upstairs," he admitted quietly.

Joey rubbed the sweat from his brow on the skin of one forearm as he dragged the little tube from its nest under some kitchen towels. He snapped the lid and coated two fingers generously. Kaiba's shoulders squared, his fingers flexing and his legs spreading as far as the expanse of his belt would allow.

"You ready?" Joey asked of Kaiba's ducked head, slipping his fingers below. Kaiba said nothing, but the sudden, sharp incline of his head was enough. "Right."

Kaiba writhed as Joey worked into him. He gasped and bucked, arching his back to the point where Joey thought it sacrilege if it weren't kissed and gentled. He looked up at where his hand held Kaiba's wrists, and slowly pulled the red scarf's trailing ends down to drape them like gossamer over Kaiba's pale back.

"I ain't really one for sentiments," he said in a low voice, "but considering everything, I want you to know something."

Slipping a hand into his pocket, he drew out one of Tristan's condoms and, using one hand and his teeth, rather dextrously ripped it open. Application took two hands, but eventually he was ready and rubbing soothing circles on Kaiba's back with one slick hand, whilst working him back open with the other.

"I ain't ever gonna expect anything of you, or make you be something you're not," Joey whispered, dragging himself to Kaiba's entrance with such inexorableness that every part of his body felt a pull to immerse, like Kaiba were a magnet, and he a sheet of iron. "I ain't never gonna think you're less or more than exactly who you are, Seto Kaiba. You done a lot of fooling yourself into thinking you gotta make a lot of sacrifices, but you can't fool me. I still see that goofy nerd in the back of the classroom every time."

The scarf on Kaiba's trembling back looked as though it were laid on snow, and Joey thought back to that night of the engagement party, where the snow had caught on Kaiba's long lashes and settled like stars in his hair.

"From day one you were in my mind. And I always thought you were gorgeous," he told Kaiba's back. "You gotta know that."

"I do now," Kaiba said, in the lowest voice, as Joey pressed inevitably inside.

"Then promise me you'll be you from now on."

"I promise."

The End

"You say, too late to start with your heart in a headlock.

I don't believe any of it. […]

You know you're better than this." – Imogen Heap, Headlock

This fic is probably one giant midlife crisis.

thanks so much for reading. Just a couple of notes:

it's been a long time since i uploaded my last story because I like to write, edit and finalise a work before i put it up. It really bugs me when there's a half-finished fic sitting around for months, but i FINALLY got this done (wow) and so here it is "in all it's gory - uhh glory". i'm still not 100% sure about the ending but i just can't fuck with it anymore

i was reading Jane Eyre right before I wrote this, so I guess that's why it comes across as sort of period-romancey in places and why Kaiba goes on Rochester-esque rants when he's explaining things lol. I'm glad Isamu's character is coming off fairly well. i was worried she'd just come across as a cockblocker so i tried especially hard to make her her own person without becoming the centre of the story.

thank you for all the kind words. i read all my comments and get giddy over every single one. you are all sweethearts and make the editing hours worth it

might take a break from writing for a while to focus on my art career, but knowing me, it won't be a lengthy hiatus. if you want to follow my stuff, you can find me over at rbygio on tumblr and instagram