Chapter 14: Comforts

They spent the afternoon playing chess until dinner, save for when Kaiba spoke to Mokuba on the phone to touch base with him. After dinner they watched another movie and once again Kaiba failed to keep his hands to himself. It was just too easy to run his fingers through Yami's hair when he was in that position on his lap.

When the movie was finished, Kaiba left to attend his work in his office and Yami once again began to read. Yami finally finished the book and was disappointed by the ending. He was still scowling at the book when Kaiba came into the living room and asked, "I assume you finished the book?"

"That ending was horrible," Yami complained. "Why would they assign such a bad book?"

"Because some asshole professor somewhere said it was a seminal work," Kaiba replied, causing Yami to laugh.

When Yami took off his top, Kaiba inwardly groaned and began to fear for the morning. "So this is a thing now?" Kaiba questioned, trying to sound as normal as possible.

"More like a scientific experiment," Yami answered as he got into bed.

"What the hell does that mean?" Kaiba asked, finding it a weird answer.

Only after Kaiba shut of the lights and got into bed did Yami say, "I'll find out in the morning."

"Right," Kaiba said in a dubious tone.

Kaiba was surprised when Yami didn't immediately try to curl up by his side. The sense of disappointment he felt because of that astonished Kaiba. Wasn't he supposed to want Yami to keep his hands to himself? Rolling over and facing the wall, Kaiba did his best to fall asleep.

Kaiba was instantly ripped from sleep when he felt Yami bolt upright and out of his hold. Out of concern and still a bit dazed, Kaiba reached out without thought and touched Yami's back. Before Kaiba could say anything, Yami had turned around and threw himself onto the brunette. Kaiba instinctively wrapped both of his arms around his trembling rival and held him. "It's okay," Kaiba reassured Yami, but still he continued to shake. "What happened?"

"This—you were gone and it was—again—" Yami explained in a rush of words.

Interrupting him, Kaiba told him, "I'm right here, Yami."

"You always were and then you weren't and—I just couldn't—I can't—"

"You're fine," Kaiba told him, rubbing his back reassuringly without thinking.

Yami took a shuddering breath before hiding his face against Kaiba's neck. "Why does this keep happening?" Yami whispered, still in the grip of fear.

"Don't worry about that now," Kaiba said, trying to calm Yami down somehow. When he slid his hand along Yami's back to rest on his shoulder, Kaiba was unprepared for the reaction.

Yami gasped and tensed against him and Kaiba immediately stopped moving his hand, realizing what he had just done. "Kaiba," Yami sighed against his neck, sending a shiver through him. Somehow they were heading into dangerous territory and Kaiba knew he needed to focus on what was happening to control it.

"Please," Yami whimpered with need as he pressed closer to Kaiba.

Kaiba's hand reflexively twitched on Yami's back and it caused the former spirit to shudder. Against his will, Kaiba's fingertips moved against Yami's shoulder under the guise of comfort. It made Yami's hips shift and Kaiba almost thought he could feel him starting to get hard. Kaiba knew he needed to stop, but then Yami moaned, "Kaiba," so close to his ear and he almost lost his senses.

His mind was filled with inappropriate images and Kaiba could feel his body starting to respond, which horrified him. He was supposed to be comforting his friend, not having such base thoughts. But he couldn't very well push Yami off of him, either. Instead he tried to appeal to Yami's senses as he said, "Yami, calm down and focus on me. Feel that this is real."

"I'm sorry," Yami apologized as he shifted against Kaiba again. Everything was jumbled in his mind and he was acting blindly without thought. All he knew was that he needed to be close to Kaiba in that moment.

When Yami slipped his hand under Kaiba's silk shirt and touch his bare skin, it tested the limits of the brunette's resolve. He took a shuddering breath as Yami moved his hand and Kaiba forced himself not to react. Things were getting out of control and Kaiba needed to change it before he embarrassed himself. "That wasn't what I meant," Kaiba sharply told him as he tried to force Yami's hand to move. He was at risk for too much stimulation and Kaiba wasn't going to allow himself to be embarrassed any further by his body.

It seemed to snap Yami out of it and he quickly moved away from Kaiba back to his side of the bed and facing away from Kaiba. "I'm sorry," Yami apologized again, hugging the covers tighter to him. Touching Kaiba had made Yami feel safe in reality, but it had made him feel several other things, too. Things he was probably best off not thinking about at the moment. "I'm so sorry."

Although Kaiba felt relief, he also felt bad about Yami's reaction. Yami sounded so small in that moment and Kaiba hesitated only for a moment before he moved closer and embraced the former spirit like he had been doing before the nightmare. "You…you don't have to be sorry," Kaiba told him as he had Yami close to him.

"This is so stupid," Yami said in an anguished whisper as he felt embarrassed that Kaiba had once again witnessed such a humiliating thing.

"You're fine," Kaiba reassured him before yawning.

"I know that, but it doesn't stop the nightmares," Yami complained, feeling powerless. It wasn't bad enough that his body was weak, but having to deal with the uncontrollable mental aspect was beyond frustrating. Why couldn't he move beyond it when he understood he was safe in reality? If he wasn't afraid during the day, why did it haunt his dreams?"

"Give it time," Kaiba said, but he was starting to drift off since the adrenaline rush was wearing off now.

"It shouldn't be an issue at all," Yami protested, still not understanding his own reactions.

"Think about it tomorrow," Kaiba softly murmured. "Sleep."

"No," Yami refused, still too worked up to relax and do so.

"I'm here," Kaiba mumbled, starting to lose to his desire to go back to sleep.

Rather than pointing out that he had the nightmare even though Kaiba was there, Yami hesitantly interlaced their fingers as he had done the night of the power outage and said, "I know." Even though it didn't seem to keep the dreams away, it at least made a difference in waking up; it was easier to feel safe.

Yami's thoughts were starting to get muddled as exhaustion started to take hold on him once more. The truth was that being with Kaiba made Yami feel other things besides safe, but he didn't entirely understand what was going on with his own reactions. However, as Yami instinctively matched his breathing with Kaiba's, he soon drifted back into a sleepless dream.

A/N: When you understand something and can't move beyond it anyway, it's so incredibly frustrating…

And Kaiba is heading toward a world of sexy trouble~.

NEXT CHAPTER:

He was going to be stronger than his thoughts; Kaiba was determined not to lose to himself.

The next chapter will be posted on Sunday, April 12th, soplease look forward to it! I look forward to your reactions to this week's update!