"So, what is this all about?"

"What?"

Judai wiped the sweat off his brows, but then remembered his entire body was wet, so now his eyebrows were soaked with blossom-scented water. He shrugged his head, sending tiny droplets all around, some landing back into the tub, some landing on the wall, some hitting Yusei's back.

Sitting submerged in the hot water, Yusei tapped his nail wistfully on the glass of milk (somehow Judai had managed to find a fancy-looking wine glass to serve this extra special premium grass-fed Hokkaido milk). Ripples danced in the creamy liquid from the wall of the glass to the center, and Yusei's brain automatically pulled up the function for the sine curve of the waves, but he shooed it away when Judai's warm and slender finger weaved across his scalp and began massaging the fragrant bathwater into his dark hair. He leaned his head back against Judai's thigh – cool and damp – and relaxed into his touch.

"Do I need a reason to do something nice for you once in a while?"

Yusei took this question seriously, it seemed, because he rested his cheek against Judai's quads, over the goosebumps on his skin, fair and creamy just like that 5% milk. Then he looked back up:

"Well, in this case there's definitely a reason, so what is it?"

Judai giggled. Yusei's relentless inquisitiveness and logical thinking never left him any room to wiggle out of any ambiguities, and in a way it was relieving to always know what was expected of him. In this regard they were surprisingly similar.

"You've been treating me really well after every time we do it, so I thought it'd be nice to give you the same treatment once in a while."

Yusei genuinely looked puzzled now.

"Define ""really well.'" He traced his lower lip with his finger – a gesture that Judai had come to learn indicated a sort of scientific curiosity ignited in his genius mind.

"Okay, okay, I guess I was going to tell you this sooner or later. So I was talking to Junko and Momoe about how often we had sex."

Yusei loudly choked on his drink. Droplets of milk dripped down his chin and landed into the water, dissipating like smoke.

"You WHAT?" He wiped the milk running down his jawline, his voice somewhat hoarse.

"Because!" Realizing that was not a good way to begin a story, Judai put his hands up and smiled apologetically. "Junko was complaining that her boyfriend was so cold to her, that even though they were dating, she didn't feel like he cared about her at all."

Yusei turned his upper body to the side and rested his elbow on Judai's knee, an eyebrow patiently raised. The warm water glided over his torso and gently sloshed against the ceramic wall of the tub:

"And?"

"And," Judai giggled again, "one of her main complaints was that after they do it, he always falls asleep right away, or leaves her alone in bed to go play video games."

"Judai-san," Yusei coughed into the back of his hand, "just because people volunteer sensitive details about their private life to you, it doesn't mean you have to reciprocate, you know?"

"Reciprocate? What does that mean?" Judai tilted his head to one side. His cheeks were flushed from the steam of the bath, strands of brown hair curving around his cheekbones. Beads of condensation formed a small pool on his collarbones.

Knowing he was not joking, Yusei still couldn't resist the urge to flick him on the nose.

"Ow!" Judai held his nose and laughed. "It's not like I started talking about us out of nowhere. That was the first time I found out that there are people who don't do what you do."

"What I do?" Now this story directly involved Yusei, so he listened intently with his chin resting on his palm, the other hand holding the glass of milk and swirling it gently like a sommelier aerating an aged Carbenet Sauvignon. At this point, it was too late to be flabbergasted or embarrassed that apparently his boyfriend had been gossiping about their physical intimacy to his friends, whom Yusei barely knew, so he might as well find out the true extent of this disaster.

In Judai's defense, Duel Academia snuffed all of its students of the opportunity to learn most valuable like skills, such as: how and when to talk about sex (or when NOT to talk about it). But even if Judai had paid attention during the rare Sex Ed modules (alas, he did not discriminate when it comes to which classes he slept through), he wouldn't have been better off, as the lesson stopped short of explaining the ending of the process and what came after.

Thus, because Yusei was Judai's first everything, he assumed everything Yusei did in those moments were just the norm.

For example, the first time they went all the way, Yusei held him close and placed little kisses on Judai's sweaty forehead until their bodies had cooled down and their heart rates were at rest. Then he reached for a pack of wet wipes that he kept in his night stand to gently wipe down Judai's affected regions (Judai noticed that Yusei almost never bought any disposable products, he preferred reusable things – a habit he developed out of necessity from his earlier life; but this pack of wet wipes appeared after the first time things got a little hot and heavy).

Yusei didn't even say anything, except to ask if it hurt when he cleaned up the semen drying on Judai's thighs. Judai shook his head and smiled into his arm so Yusei wouldn't see, enjoying the coolness of the wipe and the gentle but thoughtful touch of his lover. Enjoying this brief moment of bliss when he felt completely safe and coddled, something he didn't get to experience much anymore.

After he was done cleaning Judai up and throwing away the wipes. Yusei went back to cuddling him. Judai could feel in the way his limbs weighed heavily down around his waist that Yusei was also exhausted, but he resisted his sleepiness to ask Judai if he was hungry, if he needed water, and if he'd like to take a bath, so he could go and warm up the water now.

Judai shook his head no to all of those questions. All he cared about right now was holding Yusei, and Yusei holding him, and they stayed like this skin to skin and eye to eye, basking in the glory of a connection made whole, until they fell asleep.

Then, after they'd established a rhythm in the physical connection, there were also times when the sex was particularly intense, and Yusei seemed extra conscious of taking care of Judai afterwards.

In this instance, for example, Yusei held Judai's wrists during the act so tight that it left red marks on his pale skin. When Judai has adequately descended from the high, Yusei insisted on carrying him to the bathroom, whence he placed Judai in a bath of hot water that he'd prepared beforehand and meticulously washed each and every crevice on Judai's body, as though he was ashamed of sullying something pure and sanctified.

This act in and of itself defeated Judai, both physically and mentally, even more thoroughly than earlier when he was being bent over the table and ravaged until he couldn't tell the sound of his voice from the echoes that bounced off the walls anymore. It left Judai as soft and limp as a jellyfish and he promptly fell asleep in Yusei's arms as he was being carried back to bed.

Sometimes, however, it seemed that aftercare was some murky water away from foreplay.

Like one lazy Saturday morning that they both had free, so the natural conclusion was to stay in bed and make love slowly and sweetly for hours.

When they were both finished, Yusei assumed the now familiar position of hugging Judai from behind as they lay in their (slightly damp) sheets, catching their breath. He nuzzled his nose into Judai's hair, breathing in the salty sweat mingled with his own shampoo, his hands aimlessly tracing up and down Judai's sternum, idly imagining the electrical currents shooting through the dendrites of his neurons to constitute that feeling of wonder and ecstasy that had got him hooked and a little bit carried away sometimes. He mapped it onto a slideshow, like one of those colorful textbook illustrations that explained that the mitochondria was the powerhouse of the cell, or some other such needlessly poetic ways of explaining very dry and hard to visualize concepts like that. Then he saw Judai's earlobe – usually hidden from view by the fluff of his hair – and somewhere between his parietal and temporal lobes the neurons shot their signals, and a report arrived in his frontal cortex that it looked soft and delicious and he wanted a taste...

Yusei absentmindedly nibbled on it. Judai squirmed, startled, but Yusei seemed to find this reaction cute, so he kissed the spot right where his jawline ended and blew into Judai's ear, then went back to gently grazing his teeth along the cartilage.

His victim, unwitting of the entirely random yet intricate thought process behind this attacked, gasped and flinched. Then giggled, then tried to fight his way out of Yusei's grip, but he soon realized this was to no avail, so he simply curled up into a tight ball and whimpered as Yusei kept teasing those sensitive areas.

When Yusei finally stopped, Juai was silent and still hugging himself away from him, so he worriedly asked:

"Sorry, Judai-san, did I go too far?"

Another moment of silence before Judai's shoulders began shaking. He growled:

"You…"

"What?"

Judai abruptly rose from the bed and tackled Yusei down. As his thigh slid across Yusei's abdomen, it became apparent that the stimuli had led to certain unexpected reactions elsewhere on Judai's body. In this case, his parietal lobe send a direct command to his cerebellum, wait, now was not the time to think about this! Yusei snapped himself out of it to find hands pulling down the boxers he'd only put back on a couple minutes before.

Flushed and still tense but not without a glint of gleeful mischief in his big, brown eyes, Judai placed both hands on Yusei's chest as he spoke with exaggerated menace:

- Seems like you haven't had enough of me, have you? Very well, I'll give you something else to mess with.

With this he bent down and began sucking on Yusei, and smirked (as much as one could smirk while giving a blowjob) when it reacted immediately. And so did Yusei, of course, he almost pushed Judai off him out of surprise, but then succumbed to the alluring warmth of Judai's mouth. He moaned breathlessly:

- Judai-san, wait...we just did it a second ago.

In lieu of an answer, Judai sat up and aligned Yusei's cock against his entrance and pushed in. He was almost shocked by how smoothly and deeply it went in with just one movement, pushing against his inner muscles much harder than he'd anticipated; the fluids that still remained canceled almost all resistance or friction that usually would be felt. Yusei particularly made sure to knock out any tightness from inside of him before he entered Judai the first time that morning, so that Judai was truly and completely welcoming his embrace. His body was still wet and tender. And very, very sensitive.

As Judai rose his hips up and down Yusei's length, he guided and felt the firmness rubbing against places that were still tingling from the first orgasm, a little bit sore, a little bit too much. But he liked it. He liked the way Yusei was now the one who was flustered and defenseless underneath him, and when he squeezed his inside real tight and plunge himself down, it almost made Yusei choke.

"Let's see how much stamina you've got left." Judai reached for his own penis, already rock-hard from all the teasing; he stroked it as Yusei stared, mouth slightly agape and breathing hard, as if to tell his lover to take responsibility for this.

But sometimes, aftercare happened even when they didn't have sex at all.

When Judai came back from a month-long trip in South America, he practically jumped onto Yusei at the airport and refused to let go until he had to get onto the motorcycle, and then he hugged Yusei tightly again on their ride back, sniffing the scintillating scent of aged leather and shower gel and...Yusei.

Tragically, there as a fourteen-hour time difference between Lima and Neo Domino City. By the time they reached homee, Judai was already half snoozing on his back, struggling to even land on his feet as he got off the D-wheeler.

Even so, as soon as they had their stuff put down, Judai pulled Yusei into the bed on top of him. When they kissed for the first time in a month, it surprised Yusei that it felt as if it was only yesterday when their lips last met, for the taste was so familiar and ingrained in his mind that one touch was all that was needed to know that he was, at last, home again. And of course, they both realized that they'd missed this so much more than they'd admitted to themselves..

But the jetlag was hitting Judai hard, no matter how hard he tried to fight it. He desperately wanted to hold onto Yusei, to kiss him and touch him and breathe him in like an addict who'd just gone through withdrawal for the first time. Even so, by the time they'd managed to get all of their clothes off, Judai was barely managing to keep his arms wrapped around Yusei's neck. The only other time his physical exhaustion had exceeded this in severity was at the beginning of that evil tournament at Duel Academia that knocked him out for a while. Inside his head, he was shouting at his tired limbs not to fall asleep at such a crucial moment, but Yusei's embrace was so warm and gentle that for a moment his executive control slipped and he dropped onto the mattress.

Immediately realizing this, Judai tried to grab hold of Yusei again, but his boyfriend simply pulled out and got off of him:

"Judai-san, you're too tired. You should sleep first."

"No, I'm not! Let's keep going!"

Yusei shook his head. He held Judai by his shoulders and gently but firmly pushed him back onto the mattress and tucked Judai in. The comfort of a familiar bed put Judai under hypnosis and he instinctively closed his weary eyes. With a bemused smile, Yusei poked Judai on the forehead:

"Once you're truly well-rested, we'll do it as many times as you want."

Judai had no energy left to be indignant of this teasing, he promptly drifted into a deep and blissful slumber.

But by the time Judai was truly well-rested, that is to say, at 4AM the next morning, Yusei was already in bed snoozing away next to him. Judai scooted closer so that he could feel Yusei's breath tickling his hair. It was obvious that Yusei had prepared to the best extent for his return. The sheets were freshly washed, the scent of fresh linen calming his previously overcrowded senses. A fresh change of pajamas were laid out for Judai on the chair. And he could smell the aftershave on Yusei's skin – he seemed to have had his wild nest of hair trimmed a bit. All of this made Judai feel a bit guilty, even though it couldn't be helped.

Especially when he came into the kitchen for a glass of water and found a meal of fried shrimps, miso soup, and rice with a note from Yusei telling him to eat if he was hungry, which he was. As he ravenously chowed down on the food lovingly prepared to his palette (Judai was beyond devastated at the state that his beloved Japanese cuisine had degraded to; nevertheless, Yusei learnt how to make it the "proper" way without even telling him), Judai fired all the neurons in his brain to hatch a plan to go shopping with the girls so he could ask them for ideas.

"Hold on." Somewhere along the line, Yusei had picked up Judai's foot in the water and gently massaged the joints in his toes, without Judai even noticing until now. "I feel like this story has made a significant diversion from its starting point."

Judai groaned and slumped over dramatically:

"What do you mean? That's why I prepared this scented bath for you, isn't that exactly where it started?"

Yusei chuckled. He turned around fully now, the heat had tinted his tanned skin a couple shades pinker. Judai swallowed as he watched the water draw tiny little streams down the contours of Yuse's pecs and abs. The dark-haired man gently scooped him off the edge of the bathtub and placed him down into the water. Even though Judai should've been used to the fragrances of vanilla and orange blossoms floating thickly in the air, once he was soaking in it, their sweet, floral notes enveloped him. He rested his head on Yusei's chest, suddenly feeling very tired. How does he do this every single time? Judai wondered to himself.

"And then? What did Junko and Momoe say to that?"

"Junko complained that I was bragging, and the last two examples didn't even count." He ran his finger down the damp strands of black hair on the back of Yusei's neck. "And Momoe…asked for your phone number."

"… Did you give it to her?" Yusei grinned at Judai, who pretended to pout for a bit.

"No way!" He lunged forwards and wrapped his arms tightly around Yusei's neck. "This one's taken! They can go and find somebody else that match your standards."

The water oscillated from one end of the bath to another, then calmed back down, all the while they simply stayed like that, Judai's thighs comfortably draped over Yusei's folded legs, the water acting as a medium so that they could no longer distinguish where one person's skin ends and the other's begin. Yusei knew they had to get out soon. But where to? He didn't feel like leaving this moment, this small bathtub enclosed in a thick curtain of sweet, premium Madagascan vanilla. Nowhere else seemed as fun, as comfortable, as beautiful as this. Nowhere else would their hearts feel more at home.

Out of nowhere he felt like kissing the back of Judai's hand. Then his arm. Then his shoulder. And by the time he was placing his lips of Judai's collarbones he stopped pretending his hands didn't want to wander all around his supple flesh.

"Hey, that defeats the purpose of my aftercare!" Judai half-heartedly pushed his face away, although the heat in his eyes indicated a contradictory statement. Regardless, Yusei moved his hands to Judai's cheeks and kissed him with all the tenderness in his heart.

"Thank you. It feels really nice. And the milk is delicious."

"Mmm." Judai could taste it in the kiss. And he could taste the fragrances too. And all the other things that stimulated his senses – the feel, the sounds echoing through his skull, the butterflies in his stomach, the momentary weakness he felt in his limbs, the lapse of complete and total harmony between his mind and body.

Maybe this was as close to heaven as he was ever going to get .

This dark thought crossed his mind, but quickly dissipated when Yusei flipped his bangs up and placed a kiss between his eyebrows.

"Somehow, it still ends up feeling like I am the one receiving aftercare." Judai mumbled into Yusei's left shoulder.

"Maybe we can stop referring to it as 'aftercare,' if it's already a part of the process." Yusei squeezed Judai in his arms.

"What would we call it, then?"

"Hmmm… Isn't it just 'care?'"

Judai sensed a glimmer of understanding flash through his mind, but he was beginning to feel sleepy, so he snuggled up against Yusei and nodded.