My geography essay is dead! ...well my draft geography essay is dead...anyway I decided to post this chapter in celebration! It's also in celebration that it snowed and the school closed at lunch time for no apparant reason cause it had stopped snowing by then, the hill up to school is gonna be hell tomorrow morning cause the snow has turned to slush and will probably freeze overnight so it'll be fun walking up. It's really long, however the next chapter hasn't actually been written so it'll take some time for another update.

I forgot to say this in the last chapter so thank you to my friend Tsubame for the names of the gargoyles!

Also, thanks to Seconday Imagination for coming up with lots of things for this chapter (i kept getting writer's block and needed prompting), so thank you very much and sorry for making you write fluffy shounen-ai lol.

I hope you enjoy it!


Chapter 9

Later that evening Seto awoke, he could hear rain pelting the windows and was glad he was lying in a very warm bed. He realised his hand was closed around something; opening his eyes he saw that it was Katsuya's arm.

"You're awake," Katsuya, who'd been watching him sleep, said.

"Yes," Seto said, letting go of the puppy's arm.

"You grabbed hold of my arm when I sat down next to you on the bus and wouldn't let go," the blonde explained, Seto nodded, he had found out about his habit of grabbing things in his sleep from Mokuba, who came to sleep in Seto's bed whenever he had had a nightmare or just couldn't get to sleep.

"So, you carried me from the bus?" Seto asked, felling his face grow hot as he realised that must have looked like and made a mental note to seek and destroy any photographs that had been taken.

"Yep," Katsuya said.

Seto looked around the room and realised they weren't in their room. The room they were in was almost identical except that instead of two single beds, there was one double. "Why are we in here?" he asked.

"The roof in our room is leakin' and our beds are soaked."

"Ah."

"And this is the only room with a bed on this corridor."

"Okay," Seto muttered, "I'm sure we're mature enough to share a bed and not have sex," his stomach growled, "what culinary delights did I miss this evening?" he asked.

"Extremely watery mince with that horrible mashed potato we had on the first day and some watery cabbage."

"Lovely."

"I missed out on it as well since you were clingin' to me and refused to wake up; my friends came up earlier and told me about it."

Seto started to look around the room for the plastic bag full of food and saw it next to the wardrobe, he crawled to the edge of the bed and reached over to grab it, "Want some?" he asked Katsuya.

"Yeah," Katsuya said eagerly, crawling over to join him.

"I need a can opener," Seto muttered, pulling out a tin of peaches.

"There'll be one in the kitchen," Katsuya told him.

"I'm sure there will be," Seto said, getting up and headed to the kitchen.


Ten minutes later Seto returned with two spoons and a can opener.

"Why have you got two spoons?" Katsuya asked.

"Don't you want any peaches then?" Seto replied sitting on the bed and attacking the tin with the can opener.

"Sure, I've already had some chocolate though."

Once the tin was opened they both dug in and after a few minutes of the slippery peach slices continuously falling off the spoons, they decided to eat on the floor since neither of them wanted to get the bed sticky.

"I have a really random craving for chicken," Seto said, once they'd finished the tinned fruit,

"You're right, that is really random," Katsuya agreed, "any reason why?"

"No," Seto shrugged.

They spent the next couple of hours talking; it was a bit awkward at first but soon became easier when they moved onto bitching about teachers, Katsuya was amazed that Seto, who always acted like a perfect student, hated nearly all the teachers and was quite willing to bad mouth them.

"I'm gonna go and have a shower," Katsuya said, after a long discussion about why general studies was the most pointless lesson on earth.

"Okay," Seto said, "I think I'm going to go to bed again."

"You've spent all afternoon asleep," Katsuya said laughing.

"I'm still tired," Seto told him, yawning as if to prove his point.

"See you in a bit," the blonde said, grabbing his towel and pyjamas and walking to the bathroom.


Katsuya smiled as he rubbed shampoo into his hair, he'd just had a pleasant conversation with Seto Kaiba and not once been insulted. Actually this was the second nice conversation I've had with him, he thought, washing the shampoo out and remembering their walk around the lake together that morning. Katsuya moved his head back letting the warm water run down his face, he closed his eyes and imagined the lake still like a crystal mirror; silken ripples made by a gentle, calming breeze he remembered looking at Kaiba, the cool breeze ruffled his soft brown hair. He looked so beautiful, I don't have any chance with him at all, especially since he hates me, Katsuya sighed before deciding it was best not to dwell on it since it would make him feel depressed. He turned off the shower, grabbed the towel from the floor and began to pat himself dry. The bathroom was quite chilly which made Katsuya shiver so he dressed quickly and returned to the bedroom.

"You asleep?" He asked Kaiba, who was curled up under the duvet, there was no reply, "yes, then."

After a quick glance at his watch Katsuya saw it was 10 o'clock, there wasn't much point in going to see his friends and he was pretty exhausted so he got changed and slipped into bed next to Kaiba. Just before he fell asleep he felt Kaiba wrap his arms around his waist and hug him close.


Seto was used to strange dreams, mostly they involved turning up to work or school in his pyjamas or being chased through a forest by an evil, blood-sucking butterfly. When he woke up the logical part of his brain (which had switched off during the dream) immediately jumped into action and told him that evil, blood-sucking butterflies didn't exist and that, if he ever did show up for work or school in his pyjamas, stranger things have happened, he could easily just go home and change.

Tonight's dream, though not as bizarre as a vampire butterfly, was still pretty odd. He was walking Mokuba home from school (which wasn't too unusual) along a deserted street, well, he thought it was deserted, suddenly a group of faceless youths appeared on the other side of the road. They were standing in a huddle around a small golden puppy, which was backed up against a wall, growling but looking very unthreatening.

"Seto, we've got to help it!" Mokuba said as one of the gang kicked the small dog, which yelped in pain.

"Stay here," Seto ordered before crossing the road to the gang, "Hey, what the hell are you doing?!" he shouted, somehow getting between the puppy and the teens, who seemed to be much taller than they were a second ago.

Then Seto realised that he was the puppy!

"Wanna to spoil our fun, do ya?!" One of the gang members shouted, lashing out at Seto with his foot and hitting him hard in the side.

Seto tried to yell insults at them, but all that came out of his mouth was a yelp of pain.

The faceless gang laughed and continued to kick him until they became bored and walked off leaving the puppy shivering and in pain.

Seto sat in the same place for what seemed like an eternity, by now the street had become very busy, but everyone was ignoring the puppy, who was yelping to ask for help.

The he was picked up from someone behind him and pulled to their chest; Seto looked up and saw that his saviour was Katsuya Jounouchi.

"Hello," the blonde said, hugging the puppy close, "let's get you cleaned up."

He then took Seto to his house and gave him a bath, which all happened rather quickly in Seto's mind.

"You're really cute," Katsuya said, as he placed slice of steak in front of Seto, who was sitting on the sofa, wrapped in a fluffy white towel. Just as Seto was about to tuck into the steak he suddenly found that he'd turned back into a human once again. Quickly he looked at Katsuya, who looked very shocked, but then a mysterious, yet extremely sexy, grin slid onto his face.

"What?" Seto asked, sitting on the sofa properly.

"The puppy was cute, but I much prefer you like this," Katsuya said, straddling Seto's legs and wrapping his arms around the brunette's neck.

"Do you now?" Seto asked as he placed his hands on his puppy's waist.

"Definitely," Katsuya whispered before pressing his lips against Seto's.

Seto removed a hand from the blonde's waist and slid it into his wonderfully soft hair; meanwhile Katsuya slipped his tongue past Seto's lips and began to caress the brunette's tongue, causing Seto to moan.

A sudden cough jerked Seto from his dream.

He found himself in the double bed; head pressed up against Katsuya's back and arms around his waist.

He heard Katsuya mumbling in his sleep, Seto sighed and turned to look at the pup, stroking the strands of hair from his face. Suddenly he sneezed, waking Katsuya, there was a moment of silence as they stared at each other in shock.

"K-Kaiba?" Katsuya stuttered, Seto realised it must look pretty strange to him, having the person he hated leaning over him, their faces very close together.

"You were coughing," Seto said, quickly moving away from the blonde and pressing the switch beside his bed to turn the light on, "I was wondering if you were okay."

"Since when did you care?" Katsuya snapped, sitting up before having a small coughing fit.

"Because I don't want to catch whatever you've got, also if you're going to sit around coughing I'm not going to be able to get to sleep," Seto replied whilst checking his watch, it was three in the morning, "So answer my question."

"Do I sound okay?" Katsuya asked after several coughs which sounded like his lungs were trying to escape his body.

"No, you don't," Seto replied, "is it just a cough or do you have anything else?"

"My head hurts," the blonde muttered, "and I feel like crap."

Seto nodded before crawling across to the end of the bed where his suitcase had been dumped and rummaged around in it till he found a small red box marked 'paracetamol'.

"Here," he said, popping two white pills from their packaging and handing them over to the sick blonde, "do you need any water?"

"Yes please," Katsuya said taken aback slightly by Seto's sudden kindness. Seto grabbed an empty water bottle from his rucksack and took it to the bathroom to fill up. He returned quickly and gave the bottle to the suffering puppy, who took the pills.

"There, now let's try and get some sleep," Seto said, taking the bottle of water back and putting it on the bedside table before turning the light off again.

"Kaiba," Seto heard Katsuya mutter in the dark, the brunette made a noise to indicate he was listening, "thank you."

"Did you expect me to just let you suffer?"

"Yeah, I kinda did," Katsuya muttered, laughing at how stupid it sounded, "I was tryin' really hard not to wake you up."

"It didn't work," Seto muttered but Katsuya could tell from the tone of his voice he wasn't angry, "if you need anything during the night, just wake me up, I probably won't be able to get back to sleep again anyway."

"You're being really nice, it's kinda creepy," Katsuya laughed, pulling the duvet up around himself.

"I can't let my poor puppy suffer, I'd be locked up for animal abuse," Seto teased.

"I'm not your puppy!" Katsuya snapped, "Hey Kaiba, can I hug you?" He sounded very embarrassed as he said this in a whisper.

"Why?" Seto asked, smirking as he imagined Katsuya face, bright red with embarrassment.

"Erm," Katsuya was currently kicking himself for asking, he just really needed something comforting and there was a sever lack of hot chocolate in the room.

"Fine, I'll hug you, but only because I want you to get better so I don't have to put up with you being sick this entire trip," Seto explained, wrapping his arms around the blonde's waist and pulling him close, although I'm actually doing it because I really like you, part of his brain tried to make him say, but failed.


By 7 o'clock it was clear that neither of them was actually going to get any sleep, they'd spent the past four hours dozing and have very short muttered convocations.

"Do you feel any better?" Kaiba asked, stroking Katsuya's soft blonde hair.

"No," The puppy muttered into Kaiba's chest which his head was pressed against, listening to his heartbeat, "the paracetamol didn't work."

"You're very hot," Kaiba commented placing a hand on Katsuya's brow, the blonde blushed slightly as his brain found another meaning in Kaiba's words, "I'll go and find a teacher." With that he got up, changed into black skinny jeans and a fitted light blue shirt, before heading downstairs to find a teacher.

He's being so nice to me, Katsuya thought, Wonder if Kaiba's been replaced by an Alien? and then reality hit him, teachers are coming I don't want them to see me in my pyjamas, he got out of bed shivering as he pulled on a long sleeve shirt and jeans before lying down on the bed, waiting for Kaiba and the teacher.

It didn't take long for Kaiba to return with Mr Ransire, he leant against the wall whilst the teacher took a look at his puppy.

"I think it would be best if you stay here today, Miss Dougan will be here to look after you," Ransire concluded, Katsuya's face fell at the prospect of having to sit around the castle all day and not be able to hang out with his friends.

"Can't you just give me somethin' for my headache and let me come?" He asked.

"I'm afraid the best cure would be bed rest," the teacher told him, standing up, "anyway, why have you two changed rooms?"

"The roof in the other room is leaking and the other rooms didn't have any beds," Kaiba answered in a bored voice, Ransire gave him a look that showed he wasn't happy with the situation, "we're both mature enough to share a bed and not have sex," Kaiba repeated what he'd told to Katsuya the previous night.

"And you're both okay with that?" Ransire asked, amazed that Seto Kaiba and Katsuya Jounouchi, who argued and fought whenever they were near each other, were willing to share a bed, maybe they've found something in common and become friends, he thought, but the only thing these two seemed to have in common was their hatred of each other.

"Yeah," Katsuya shrugged, "It's not that much different from sharing a room," Kaiba nodded in agreement with the blonde.

Ransire sighed, knowing it was pretty pointless trying to argue, and left the room.

"Here you go puppy," Kaiba said once the door had shut, handing over some more paracetamol, "it might help this time."

"Kaiba, paracetamol isn't the miracle cure for everything," Katsuya teased.

"Either you take it or I'll shove them down your throat," Kaiba snapped, Katsuya obeyed him, "good puppy," the brunette said, ruffling Katsuya's golden hair when he'd swallowed the pills.

"I'm not a puppy Kaiba," the blonde told him, almost automatically.

"When will you just accept that you are?"

"Never, I'm not a dog Kaiba!"

Kaiba smirked; he loved seeming Katsuya all riled up, "do you want some breakfast?" His smirk grew; he also loved the look of total confusion on Katsuya's face when he quickly changed the subject to something completely unrelated. He looked so cute as he tried to figure out whether to keep yelling or answer civilly.

"Okay," the blonde said, "just don't get me anything inedible."

"I thought dogs ate anything," Kaiba muttered before making a quick exit.

"I'm not a dog!" Katsuya yelled after him then regretted it as he began coughing again.


Kaiba returned quarter of an hour later carrying a bowl of cereal and a mug of coffee.

"Aren't you going to eat anythin'?" Katsuya asked.

"I had some breakfast downstairs," Kaiba explained, taking a sip of coffee and making a face, "this stuff is disgusting."

"Why drink it then?"

"I need caffeine, oh and your friends will be up once the tortures finally figure out it was Bakura throwing grapes at them."

"What are these?" Katsuya asked as he took the bowl from Kaiba.

"Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, they're highly addictive."

"You know this because?"

"I always have them when I come over to England for meetings," Kaiba explained.

Taking Kaiba's advice, Katsuya scooped up some of the cornflakes with his spoon and ate them.

"They're nice," he agreed, he couldn't quite describe what they tasted like other than there was a hint on honey, but they were very good, "what cooked food were they servin' us?"

"I didn't dare look," Kaiba told him, grimacing as he took a gulp of coffee, "this has to be the cheapest, foulest, most disgusting coffee I have ever had the misfortune to drink, honestly it's like they've scraped up the dirt from the bottom of the dirtiest river they could find and disguised it a coffee beans."

"I'm sure it's not that bad."

"My eight week old puppy could make better coffee than this."

"You have a puppy?" Katsuya asked, shocked that Kaiba would allow any animal into his house.

"Yes, so?"

"You just don't strike me as an animal person."

Kaiba laughed, "I've got two dogs, well technically I've got a dog, the other one is Mokuba's."

Further discussion of Kaiba's dogs was halted by the arrival of Yugi and the rest of the gang.

"Jounouchi, are you okay?" Yugi asked immediately, his amethyst eyes full of worry.

"I'm fine," Katsuya answered automatically.

"No you're not, you moron," Kaiba snapped, "if you were 'fine' you wouldn't be lying in bed."

"Leave him alone Kaiba," Honda snarled, the brunettes glared at each other until Katsuya noticed someone was missing and they both turned to look at the blonde.

"Where's Bakura?"

"They realised it was him throwing grapes at everyone," Ryou sighed, "he's being yelled at as we speak."

"Why was he throwin' grapes around?" Katsuya asked, laughing.

"Because Ryou wouldn't let him throw knives," Honda explained.

"What's the betting he's sent whoever is shouting at him to the shadow realm?" Anzu asked.

"I wouldn't put it passed him," Yami muttered.

"Do you really have that little faith in me?" Bakura asked as he stomped into the room.

"Let me think," Yami said in a falsely thoughtful voice, "yes."

"Bloody Pharaoh!" Bakura hissed.

"So, you can't some to Cragside then?" Anzu asked, changing the subject before a fight could break out.

"'Fraid not," Katsuya said disappointedly.

"We'll stay if you want," Yugi offered.

"Will we?" Bakura asked, but Yami elbowed him in the ribs to shut him up.

"No, you guys go and have fun, I'm sure I'll find somethin' fun to do here," Katsuya replied, putting on a smile to encourage his friends that it was okay to leave him behind, Kaiba, however, saw right through his facade.

"Oh crap!" Ryou said as he looked at his watch, "we need to be downstairs in a couple of minutes."

"Okay, have fun today," Katsuya said, still with his fake smile on.

"Hope you feel better when we get back," Yugi said before he turning and leaving the room, casting a worried look at his friend over his shoulder, the others trailed out the room, wishing him well as they left.

Soon Katsuya was left with Kaiba in the room.

"I know you just said that because you don't want your friends to miss out on anything," he said, getting to his feet, "I'll stay here if you want me too, I couldn't care less about seeing another large house and grounds."

"Kaiba, if you stay we'll end up killing each other," Katsuya told him, "go and have fun, I don't mind being left alone."

Why are you saying that? I can see on your face that you hate being left alone, Kaiba thought then he shrugged, "if you're sure."

"Just go, I'll be fine."

"Okay," Kaiba said, before leaning over and kissing Katsuya's forehead, "hope you're feeling better when I get back," with that he turned on his heel and exited the room, leaving Katsuya in a state of shock.

He...he... just kissed me! Okay so it hadn't been the type of kiss he shared with Kaiba in his dreams, but he could still feel Kaiba's soft lips of his forehead. Kaiba's words floated back into his mind, except they were being whispered in a wonderfully deep voice, not the sharp, slightly embarrassed, tone the CEO had actually used. He turned deep crimson and his eyes widened in shock as the reality of what had happened hit him, he would have yelled at Kaiba to come back but knew the brunette would be somewhere on the staircase and either wouldn't hear him or would just ignore him.

Okay, what can I do now? He thought, he was now bored, there wasn't anything to do in the room, except read one of Kaiba's books, which didn't really appeal to him. He lay back in bed and sighed, he sort of wished he's made Kaiba stay, but that would make him a burden and he was sure the CEO would rather be anywhere than looking after him. After a minute he was looking at the ceiling in a trance, Gah my throat feels like Sandpaper, he thought massaging his ache,

"Don't worry Puppy" he heard a voice and suddenly Kaiba was leaning over him with his shirt off and looking Katsuya in the eyes, he smiled thinly, that familiar smell of coffee lingered on his lips. Katsuya raised his head, eyes fixed on Kaiba's thin, but soft, lips.

"I thought you went to Cragside," Katsuya whispered.

"I was going to, but I couldn't leave my poor puppy," Kaiba replied, running his long fingers through Katsuya's blonde hair, causing the blonde to smile brightly, "You're so beautiful."

Katsuya blushed, but before he could say anything Kaiba pressed their lips together in a short, but wonderfully soft, kiss.

"It's no use Katsuya, the more I'm with you the more I want you," Kaiba told him, his eyes were so intense it was slightly scary, but Katsuya could tear his eyes away.

"By 'want you', do you mean 'sex'?"

"Of course," Kaiba said, smirking and the pressed their lips roughly together, "I love you puppy," he whispered in his ear, his hands slowly moving down the blonde's body, "do you want this?" he asked, sounding a little concerned.

"Yes," Katsuya moaned as Seto undid the buttons of his pyjamas and began to trail kisses along his collar bone.

"Why are you so irresistible?" Kaiba whispered before taking one of Katsuya's nipples in his mouth and sucking it causing the blonde to groan in ecstasy.

Then...

"Jounouchi, Jounouchi!" A female voice was calling his name from far away, Kaiba's eyes shifted towards the door, he looked highly annoyed.

Oh crap, he thought as the dream Kaiba on top of him disappeared and was replaced my Miss Dougan, standing by the side of the bed, "you were moaning in your sleep," she explained, looking worried.

"Yeah, I was havin' a strange dream," Katsuya muttered, oh come on, if Kaiba wanted to have sex with me, he'd just throw me down on the bed and have his way with me. That dream seems like it came straight out of a yaoi manga...not that I've read any.

"You look quite hot, do you want some water?" Miss Dougan asked sympathetically.

"Yeah that'd be good" Katsuya said, his throat had dried up suddenly as he thought about the dream more and more...also what could've happened next. Soon the teacher returned with a glass of water, "Thanks Miss," Katsuya said as he took a long swig of water.

"If you want you can come down and watch TV," Miss Dougan offered.

"Sure," Katsuya said, leaping out of bed, then wished he hadn't as he started to cough again.

"Are you okay?" Miss Dougan asked, looking very worried.

"Yeah, it's just a cough," Katsuya replied, smiling.

"How did you get it?"

"I honestly have no idea, I just woke up with it so I'm gonna blame Kaiba," Katsuya shrugged as he walked to the door, "where's the TV by the way?"

"Oh, it's in the teacher's lounge, where you guys were being yelled at," the teacher explained.

"I don't know why Kaiba and I were being yelled at, we didn't do anythin'," Katsuya muttered, but the English teacher didn't hear him.

The teacher's lounge (containing the only TV in the castle) was quite small with three large, pushy armchairs.

"Do you want some tea or coffee?"

"Wha? Erm...No thanks," Katsuya replied, picking up the TV remote and switching on the television.

He spent the next ten minute flicking through the five hundred channels, it was amazing that a TV could have so many channels yet there was nothing on. Does this thing have anything on? Katsuya thought as he flipped past yet another shopping channel trying to sell him some useless piece of crap.

Finally he found a channel called 'Dave' which was showing Top Gear, Katsuya had watched random clips on the internet from the 'car program', which seemed to be more about messing around than cars.

"What are you watching?" Miss Dougan asked, returning with a steaming mug of coffee.

"Top Gear, it's a really funny car program," Katsuya replied.

It turned out to be the episode when they were taking part in a twenty four hour race at Silverstone in a second hand BMW using fuel they'd grown in the previous series. It was hilarious and nail-bitingly tense as the car kept breaking down and having to be fixed very quickly.

Just as the program ended there was a knock at the door.

"Yes?" Miss Dougan asked, the door opened revealing three girls from the other form class, "hiya girls, you don't need to knock."

"Okay Miss," A girl with curly brown hair, who Katsuya was pretty sure was named Anna, said cheerily despite the fact she looked half dead.

"How are you three today?" the teacher asked.

"We're still ill, May was sick last night," Meryl (Katsuya knew her name because they were in the same English class) said, pointing to the last girl who had long dark, almost black, hair, who blushed furiously.

"What do you three have?" Katsuya asked, the girls looked at him in surprise, they had obviously not seen him when they entered the room.

"Oh, Jounouchi, we didn't see you," Meryl said, turning around to look at him, her ginger hair bouncing as she did so.

"Jounouchi! Are you sick too?!" Anna asked, sounding far too happy for someone who was apparently sick, it annoyed Katsuya for some reason.

"Yeah," he replied.

"Food poisoning?" the hyper girl asked.

"Nah, I've got a headache and a cough," Katsuya said, before his cough decided to prove that it existed.

"We got food poisoning from the dinner a couple of days ago," Meryl explained as she sat in the last seat.

"I knew something was wrong with that stuff," Katsuya said, talking to the neither of the trio in particular,

May, still a deep shade of crimson, began to stammer, "Y-ye-"

"So how did you get your cough?" Anna interrupted suddenly.

I wonder what Kaiba would say about this chick? Katsuya thought and had to prevent himself laughing at the thought of him and the girl locked in a room together, he'd defiantly kill her, he decided, then started to feel inexplicably jealous that he wasn't locked in the room instead of Anna.

"Hey Anna shut up," Meryl Said nudging the hyperactive brunette, "Let May talk for once" she whispered.

"Oh, sorry May," Anna apologised.

They then fell into silence, Katsuya sometimes caught Meryl and Anna giving May looks as if to encourage her to do something. Sick of the awkwardness and wanting to get away from the girls, Katsuya stood up.

"I'm gonna have a walk," he said.

"Okay, but if you feel dizzy make sure you lie down so you don't faint then come back here," Miss Dougan told him.

"Yes Miss," Katsuya replied, leaving the room, just as he shut the door he heard Meryl hiss,

"You should have told him." Katsuya didn't really care what he hadn't been told and set off towards the spiral staircase, but instead of going upstairs went down to the basement level. When he got down the stairs he walked straight down the corridor instead of turning to the right into the dining room.

At the other end of the corridor he found five very old computers, I wonder if any of these work? He thought, snickering as he pictured the look on Kaiba's face if he saw these obsolete computers. After a quick debate with himself, Katsuya decided to go and explore some more before coming back and checking the computers.

As he continued down the corridor Katsuya realised he had heard footsteps following him, better not be that Anna Girl, he thought in distaste turning around he saw May who squeaked in fright turning a bright scarlet.

"I'm sorry" she said as she took a few steps backwards.

Katsuya tried to stop bursting out into laughter at the jittery girl, "S'okay, don't worry about it," he said with one of his usual grins and wondered why the girl had been apologising.

"Erm...I j-just wanted to ask..." her quiet voice trailed away. May blushed even deeper than before and tried to speak again "I-I have something...I want to say Jounouchi" she stuttered nervously before gulping

"Hmm? What is it?" Katsuya said with a kind look on his face, she's kinds cute, he thought, but I have a pretty bad feelin' about what she's going to say, the suspicious part of his brain muttered before May said it

"I...Love you Jounouchi" she said turning a hot crimson, Katsuya looked like he'd just be hit by a train

I knew it, Katsuya thought, how am I supposed to turn her down? No one's ever asked me out before! He started to try and come up with ways of saying no and not hurt her feelings, very aware that she was watching him intently with large brown eyes.

"I'm sorry, I'm sure you're a nice person, it's just that-," You're not a guy, his brain suggested helpfully but he ignored it and went for, "you're not my type."

May looked at Katsuya with puppy dog eyes, "D-Do you not like me?" she asked, pouting slightly.

Katsuya swore in his mind, this made it even harder, Oh crap now I know how Kaiba feels when Mokuba does this...only worse, he thought he started to blush a light scarlet "Uhh, Well it's not you-" No no no! Don't start like that! His mind screamed at him May started to hang her head sadly, "look, I'm in love with someone else," he said.

"Who?" May asked, obviously wondering who she had been turned down for.

What will she think if I say 'Seto Kaiba'? Katsuya thought, "I can't tell you," he ended up telling the girl, who covered her eyes and started to sob, "I'm sure you'll find a guy who will love you one day, but I'm not that guy."

"S-So y-you d-don't feel anything for me?" May sobbed.

"I'm sorry."

"Y-you're a nice guy Jounouchi," May told him, "I-I'm glad you didn't lie and go out with me for the hell of it," she turned and walked away, "thank you for listening to me."

Once the girl had gone, Katsuya breathed sigh of relief, that was awkward, he thought, then his stomach growled, "wow, it's lunchtime," he muttered glancing at his watch, his head was still throbbing painfully, the encounter with May had just made it worse.

Turning back down the corridor, Katsuya soon found the kitchens and started raiding the cupboards for anything edible. He found some bread and tomatoes, then, after finding the fridge, some ham and butter, so he made a ham and tomato sandwich, which he took upstairs to his room.

Once up there he flopped onto the bed and started to devour the sandwich, I wish my headache would go, he thought as his head throbbed painfully. Finishing sandwich he put his plate on the floor and lay back on the bed. He really didn't want to go downstairs and face those stupid girls and the bed was very comfy and smelled like Kaiba...well the side Kaiba had slept on smelled like him, Katsuya couldn't quite describe what the CEO smelled like, except that it was very nice.

Pulling the duvet around him, Katsuya snuggled into them, he felt utterly exhausted due to his lack of sleep the previous night, the encounter with May hadn't helped. His head throbbed again as he recalled the event, what he wouldn't give to be at Cragside with his friends and Kaiba, they were probably all having fun wandering around the grounds. Yami, Bakura and Kaiba were probably all arguing over something completely insignificant whilst the others laughed and made sure it didn't get too serious.

I wonder if any of them are worryin' about me? He though feeling very lonely and slightly abandoned, with these thoughts Katsuya drifted off to sleep.


"Puppy, I'm back," Seto said as he walked into the room, feeling like a husband returning home to his loving wife after a long day at work. He kicked off his shoes as he waited for a reply, he was hoping that Katsuya would start yelling, he looked so cute when he was angry. When none came he looked over to the bed where he saw the puppy curled up, fast asleep, his golden hair was sticking out in all directions and he had a peaceful look on his beautiful face.

Should I wake him? Seto wondered, walking over to the bed and looking down at the sleeping blonde, Would he yell at me if I do?

But before he could lean over and shake the teen awake his eyes began to flicker open.

"Seto?" He asked so quietly Seto could barely hear him.

"Yes?" Seto replied unable to keep the thought about how good his name sounded when whispered by a very groggy Katsuya from his mind.

"When did you get back?" Katsuya asked rubbing his eyes before sitting up and stretching.

"Just now, how do you feel?"

"My head still hurts," Katsuya muttered.

"And you still have a fever," Seto commented as he placed his hand on the blonde's forehead, "Have you taken any paracetamol?"

"No, it doesn't work."

"Just take them," Seto told him, grabbing the small box off the floor and offering the pills to Katsuya, "or am I going to have to feed them to you?"

Katsuya blushed bright red, "I'll take them," he muttered taking the pills and swallowing them with some water Seto offered, "Thanks."

"Any time," Seto shrugged.

"So did you have fun?"

"Well the guy who built the place made his fortune selling weapons so I instantly disliked him, but the house was okay, it was the first place in the world to be lit using hydroelectricity," Seto explained, pulling out his mobile phone, "you can see all the machinery that made the electricity and make it move," he said whilst navigating around the menus in the phone to find the video of the machinery, "I took some videos of them." He then proceeded to show Katsuya them and explain what everything was and how it worked. "So, what did you do today?" Seto asked once he'd made sure the blonde teen understood what he was talking about (which hadn't taken as long as he thought it would have done, Katsuya was much smarter than he let on).

"Nothin' much, just sat around and watched TV for a bit then came up here and fell asleep," Katsuya replied, he didn't tell Seto about May, he would probably end up teasing him and it may end up with his asking why he had turned her down.

"We ended up walking along a road playing I-spy, the only things we could see where the road, sky, clouds, rocks, trees and plants so it became rather tedious."

"You hung around with Yugi and the others?"

"Yeah, it was better than some of my fangirls," Seto replied, "Oh, I almost forgot, I bought you some rip-off National Trust chocolate."

"Really? You didn't have to."

"I know," Seto shrugged, pulling a brown paper bag out his backpack and emptying the contents on the bed.

"Who are the postcards and pencil sharpener for?" Katsuya asked, the postcards showed Wallington hall and a mock Tudor hall on top of a hill, in front of it was a green bridge which towered above the river below.

"Mokuba, whenever either of us goes away we buy each other tacky souvenirs and postcards of the places we visited," Seto explained handing Katsuya a bar of white chocolate.

"Thanks," the blonde said as he accepted the gift, "why did you buy this for me?"

"Because you're sick and you need to be looked after," the brunette replied, looking out the window to hide the slight blush which had appeared on his cheeks.

Whilst Seto had been explaining himself Katsuya had been pulling the wrapping off the white chocolate, "Do you want some?" he asked.

"No, it's okay," Seto replied, "You're friends will be up soon by the way, I told them you might be asleep and it wouldn't be a good idea to wake you since you're ill, so they'll be up later, unless you want me to go and fetch them."

"Kaiba, have you been replaced by an alien?"

"Okay, that was very random, why do you ask?"

"You're being too nice, it's kinda creepy."

"You're sick, I don't want to tease you and make you sicker, and I haven't been replaced by an alien."

"Yeah yeah, only an alien would say that," Katsuya replied, a playful grin on his face.

"I'm not an alien!"

"Okay, I'd better ask you a question that only Kaiba would know the answer to," Katsuya thought for a moment, "how many dogs do you have and what are they called?"

"You only know the answer to one of those questions though."

"Are you gonna answer them? If you don't I'll tell everyone that you're an alien."

"Fine, Mokuba and I own two dogs called Inu and Blackie."

"What does Inu mean?"

"'Inu' is Japanese for 'dog'," Seto explained.

"Cool, the name's not very imaginative though."

"I know, when we found her we couldn't come up with a name for her so I ended up just calling her 'dog' and Mokuba told me that it wasn't a very good name so I did an internet search for foreign words for 'dog' and found 'Inu' and it suited her."

"You 'found her'?" Katsuya asked, he was really enjoying this conversation, especially since Seto's eyes and voice had become softer as he talked about his pets.

"I was walking Mokuba home from school when I was about fifteen and he was eleven and we found a rough collie puppy being attacked by a gang of teenagers, so I went over; pretty much beat their leader to a pulp and they ran away. We took the puppy home and cleaned her up, but then my step father found out about her and kicked her out on the streets again. Mokuba was really mad at me and refused to talk to me-"

"What? Why?" Katsuya interrupted, he knew how close Seto and Mokuba were, it was so strange that they would fall out.

"Because I agreed with Gozaburo," Seto's voice had turned harsh, "I only did because I was terrified of what he'd do to me if I stood up to him."

Katsuya decided not to ask what Gozaburo would have done to Seto, the simple fact that the thought of it seemed to terrify Seto was enough, he didn't like the look of pure hatred in the brunette's eyes as he remembered his step father, "so what happened next?" he asked, taking Seto's hand and squeezing it gently.

"I went to find Inu, when I eventually found her I took her back and put her in the shed and Mokuba and I looked after her in secret," Seto finished his story.

"And you made up with Mokuba?"

"Yes, the longest either of us has refused to talk to each other for is about an hour," Seto replied, smiling slightly.

"Does Blackie have an interesting back story?" Katsuya asked.

"According to Mokuba it's very interesting."

"Care to explain it?"

"Only if you give me some chocolate."

"You refused it before!"

"And? I want some now."

"Fine," Katsuya sighed, breaking off some chocolate, but before he could hand it over, Seto grabbed his wrist and moved his hand to his mouth where he took the chocolate from his hand, making sure his lips caressed the blonde's fingers. Katsuya blushed, "why the hell did you do that!?"

"Because teasing you is so much fun," Seto told him once he'd swallowed the sweet, tapping his puppy on the nose.

"I hate you sometimes!"

"You mean there are times when you like me?"

"Shut up!"

Seto smirked as he looked at the blonde who was bright red with a mixture of embarrassment and anger; it was so much fun getting the teen wound up like this, especially since he reacted so well to his baiting.

"Do you want to find out about my puppy?"

"I thought I was your 'puppy'."

"Whenever I call you that you yell at me."

"That's because I don't belong to you!"

Seto chuckled, "okay okay, you're not my puppy."

"Why does Mokuba find the story interesting and you don't seem to think it is?"

"Mokuba says it shows how I can't resist cute things."

"Why, what happened?"

"I went to pick Mokuba up from his friend's house and his dog had had puppies, Mokuba handed me one of them and she fell asleep in my arms so I ended up buying her."

"Wow, I never knew you were such a softie," Katsuya said, giggling at the thought of Seto Kaiba cuddling a puppy, "what type of dog is she?"

"Black Labrador," Seto replied, flicking between menus of his phone again, "here's a photo of them."

He handed the phone over to Katsuya who look at the picture of the two dogs. They were both lying against a radiator in the corner of a room, fast asleep. Inu was curled around the black puppy who had her head resting on Inu's back legs.

"They're cute," Katsuya said, handing the phone back.

"I'm going to sleep for a bit," Seto told him, "walking around aimlessly is really tiring, plus I didn't sleep much last night."

"Okay, do you want your phone back?"

"There are some games you could play on it and some pictures of Cragside if you want to see them," Seto told him, "all my important stuff is password protected."

"Thanks, sleep well," Katsuya said as he tried to work out how the phone worked.

After five minutes Katsuya finally found the games and spent an entertaining quarter of an hour playing a game called 'bubble burster', but was unable to beat the incredibly high score, he wondered whether it was Mokuba or Seto who had set it.


I love Seto's dogs! I spend a lot of time randomly coming up with things for them to do (such as dragging Seto out of bed in teh morning). The bit when Seto was coming on to Katsuya was a dream btw (i don't think it was very clear but i couldn't come up with a way of making it clearer...).

Thanks for reading, please review!