Hey -- this chapter was edited for FF.net. *grin* It's only a couple of paragraphs, but one of my goals is NOT to piss the site off, so it goes without saying that we watch what makes it here. The unedited version can be found at my site, MediaMiner, or here (sans spaces ^^;;):
http:// adultfan.nexcess.net / aff / story.php?no=14804&chapter=17
Days turned into a week, then weeks.
Weeks turned into a month.
One month, three weeks, and two days, to be exact. Damn, he had a good memory. If Kaiba's mouth hadn't been busy he would have smiled.
The first week or two had been the most awkward; every time Kaiba touched Joey, the blond would practically jump out of his skin. Their roles were quickly defined as the patient lover and the blushing virgin, but unfortunately 'patient' wasn't one of Kaiba's virtues; if it had been up to him, Joey would have been pinned down in his sheets a long time ago.
It wasn't all that bad. Joey was a bit endearing as a blushing virgin – his blushing virgin, really; Kaiba always had been a tad possessive, sentimental as it was. There were little victories in their relationship: it had taken him a little less than a month to get Joey's shirt off, and he was still working on the pants – the one time he had reached into them, Joey had flipped.
In fact, a majority of their time was spent necking like horny teenagers, and Kaiba's patience was wearing thin.
Joey bent up off the couch, gasping as Kaiba's teeth brushed one nipple. His lips trailed up over Joey's chest, tasting the hollow of his neck, along his jaw; hips met and moved together, and Joey bucked up against him with a soft grunt, a wordless plea for more.
"Daddy, I'm bored."
And how could Kaiba have forgotten the adorably inconvenient complication known as Alex? His head fell against Joey's shoulder, a low growl of frustration forming deep in his throat. Joey sat up just enough to look over the back of the couch at Alex. "I though you were watching a movie," he said breathlessly; his voice was trembling about as much as his body. If there was one thing that Joey was sure of about in their relationship, it was what Alex wouldn't see… which turned out to be anything even slightly sexual. It was unfortunate that Alex wasn't the sort of kid who would sit still for long period of time.
"It's over!"
"You need to find a babysitter," Kaiba murmured, pressing kisses over Joey's shoulder, knowing full and well that Joey was going to give him hell for it once Alex left.
"Stop that," Joey hissed. Kaiba didn't listen. "Well, what do you want to do?" Joey addressed the toddler, hand resting on the back of Kaiba's neck – amusing that rather than stop him, fingers played with the hair at his nape.
"I'm hungry."
"Okay, just a second – " Joey was fighting to keep his voice even as Kaiba's attention moved to his neck.
Oh no, you don't. With smirk Kaiba stopped and said, "Alex, go down the kitchen – I'm sure someone is there to make something for you."
"Okay!" Alex said brightly, and – to Kaiba's relief – little footsteps rushed out. Joey fell back onto the couch.
"You," he said accusingly. "How many times – "
Kaiba cut him off with a kiss. "Shut up."
With a contented sigh Joey closed his eyes. "Well, I don't think I could find a babysitter willing to keep track of him as often as I'm sure you'd want them to."
"Pity." He sat up, pulling Joey so that he was sitting back against Kaiba's chest; immediately his mouth found the sensitive flesh of Joey's ear, nipping and sucking it gently. The blond leaned heavily against him, a murmur of pleasure rising from his throat. His hands traveled over Joey's belly, down to pull at the button of his jeans…
"Kaiba," Joey whined pitifully, gently pushing his hands away.
"It's just me," Kaiba purred. "The kid's busy, and I want to touch you."
Joey's cheeks flushed, and his hands rested protectively over the zipper of his jeans. "It's just that – "
Kaiba interrupted, "Why are you STILL so damn edgy? You've liked every other thing we've done, so the whole male thing doesn't seem to be that big of a deal…" He smirked and teased, "Or does it feel better? Maybe no girl has ever done it quite so right…"
Joey's face was all but burning; Kaiba could feel the heat as he nipped at Joey's shoulder. He couldn't help it; he liked to push Joey's buttons.
"I just… Damn, what kind of man does that make me?"
"A gay one," Kaiba answered. "Am I any less of a man because I never liked a woman?"
"Never?" Joey sounded shocked.
"That's not the point," Kaiba said flatly. Damn, why did he bother sometimes?
"Oh. Well, no; you're the biggest asshole I've ever known." Kaiba raised an eyebrow, and Joey quickly added, "No, you're just as much a guy as anyone else I know."
"So why would you be any less?"
Joey didn't answer immediately, and his head fell back against Kaiba's shoulder, eyes closed. "Can't I just… think about it?"
"What have you been doing for the past two months?"
Joey grinned. "Getting thrown on my back by you; I never have time to think."
"Don't blame me," Kaiba warned, hand reaching down to cover Joey's, "for you lack of basic intelligence." He leaned down to capture Joey's lips…
A cell phone rang, and Kaiba broke the kiss with a curse. Almost immediately Joey was off the couch, reaching for his jacket – long forgotten on the floor – and answered eagerly, "Yeah?" He paused, and if Kaiba were a religious man, he would have prayed. "Hey, man, how's Seattle?"
Kaiba swore again; another bad ending to what had otherwise been a good afternoon. Whenever Yugi called Joey was sufficiently distracted for at least half an hour and wasn't at all interested in doing anything afterwards. In fact, he usually moped and liked to he held. Kaiba never had been good at cuddling, not even when Mokuba had been into that sort of childish comfort.
Joey was off the phone in record time, but Kaiba wasn't stupid enough to take any hope from it. "I gotta go. Yugi asked me to go take care of the shop for a bit."
"I thought he hired new management."
"She's sick. It'll only be for a couple of hours. Come over tonight, I'll order some Chinese food or something." He leaned down to kiss Kaiba. "Don't be mad."
"I'm not mad," Kaiba replied evenly. He wasn't; he was bothered. He preferred being mad.
Joey sighed. "I'm sorry," he said, reaching for his shirt – flung carelessly onto the coffee table – and pulling it over his head. He peeked up through the collar, keeping it just over his nose and looking at Kaiba curiously. Kaiba had to roll his eyes at the sight; Joey had been around the kid way too long.
"Don't be." Back into the role of the gentle patient lover – disregarding that he was neither patient nor gentle under normal circumstances. "What time?"
Joey was smiling as he finished pulling his shirt down. "Seven?"
"I'll be there at eight."
"Okay. See you later." Joey grabbed his jacket and left, leaving Kaiba to his own thoughts.
All in all, things were less than perfect; Joey was scared and Kaiba was frustrated. Kaiba wasn't sure why he hadn't backed out long ago. Joey was a bit of a contradiction – blushing and shying away, but sighing and begging for more… How strange that the most responsive of Kaiba's almost-lovers was also the shyest. It was odd, the patience he was willing to endure for Joey.
Kaiba sighed and stood. He needed a shower.
They had given up on the concept of knocking a while ago; Kaiba had decided that knocking wasted about thirty seconds that they could have spent doing something more interesting. It was obvious by the aroma of the apartment that Joey had already gotten food. "Hello?" he called out, closing the front door behind him; he didn't see Joey or Alex.
"Just a minute," Joey called from his room. A moment later he exited, dressed in his typical pajama pants and t-shirt – the picture of a lazy bachelor. "Hey!" he said happily, pressing a quick kiss to Kaiba's lips as he dashed into the kitchen. "I'm starving!"
"Where's Alex?" Kaiba sat on the loveseat, stretching his legs out in front of him.
Joey returned and dropped down beside Kaiba, holding a bowl out to him. He smiled coyly and answered, "With Tristan and Bakura." With that, Joey pulled his legs up under him and dug into his food.
"Oh," Kaiba said. He looked at the bowl he was holding. Why were they wasting such an opportunity eating? "Until when?"
"Tomorrow."
Kaiba blinked. That was new. "Oh." Joey nodded and reached for the remote.
"Anything you want to watch?" he asked, flipping through the channels.
"You."
Joey blushed and elaborated, "On TV?"
"No."
After much channel-flipping Joey finally settled on a channel, but Kaiba wasn't paying attention; his gaze kept switching from his food – which he had absolutely no interest in – to Joey. After about ten minutes of that he gave up and ate his food. They were both silent, and when they were done eating Kaiba simply sat back and watched the blond watch the movie. He wondered if he could somehow will Joey into making a move; Joey was always more comfortable if he made the first move, even if he ended up getting pinned in the end.
All Joey did was yawn.
Damn it.
Kaiba was about ready to do something drastic when the world seemed to do a one-eighty around everything he knew. Without warning Joey blurted, "Stay with me tonight."
"What?"
Joey looked over at him. "I'm tired, and I want you to stay."
Kaiba heaved a sigh. "You could have warned me," he retorted irritably. Sure, he may not have been as cross as he sounded, but he'd be damned before he just rolled over and said okay. He wasn't that easy.
"I… I didn't exactly plan it."
"Oh? Well, I don't sleep in my clothes."
"I could find you something."
Satisfied that Joey meant it – after all, who would put up a fight if they didn't? – Kaiba sighed and said calmly, "Fine, but it's barely nine; are you really that tired?"
Joey nodded. "The bed is calling to me."
"If you hear the bed talking to you, then you have bigger problems than being tired."
Before he could really wrap his mind around it, Kaiba found himself in the bathroom pulling on a pair of sweatpants – a little short and a little loose on him. He sighed and pulled on the t-shirt Joey had loaned him. He refused to look in the mirror; he would not look at himself in Joey's clothes, absolutely not… He turned off the bathroom light, making it out without looking at his own reflection.
He didn't want to see any glee that might be lingering there.
The apartment was dark as Kaiba made his way to the bedroom; he nearly tripped over several toys, but somehow made it to the bed intact. There was an open window that provided the room with dim light, and Joey was curled on his side; Kaiba was sure that he was asleep until he said, "Well, you comin'?"
"Yeah." He sat on the edge of the bed, and after a second's hesitation took his spot, curling comfortably on his side. All the awkwardness was worth it when Joey draped the blankets over them and curled close behind him, arm wrapping around his waist. If it had been up to Kaiba, they would have swapped spots, but he was willing to let it slide… just once. Maybe next time… "Goodnight," he said softly.
"Mm-hm," Joey replied lazily, lips pressing against the back of Kaiba's neck; it made him shiver. He nodded and closed his eyes. He might have even fallen asleep if not for a strange feeling low on his abdomen. He froze, unsure exactly what to think, but after a moment he was able to figure out what it was.
It was Joey's fingers brushing lightly over his skin, snaking under the waistband of his sweatpants.
"What happened to thinking?" It was the honorable thing to do; Kaiba didn't want to get sex out of guilt. Of course, most of him was screaming Fuck honor! and demanding that he enjoy Joey's ever-lowering hand without question.
"I, uh, did," Joey whispered. He look a deep breath – the sound shuddered in Kaiba's ear – and without warning his fingers reached their destination, hesitantly exploring sensitive flesh, touching and teasing as though mapping new territory. Kaiba bit his lip against anything – moaning, swearing – and Joey's lips found his neck, his ear. "Is this okay?" he murmured.
Kaiba nodded, still biting his lip. He was afraid that if he opened his mouth he would beg for more, and Seto Kaiba begged no one, especially not in bed.
"Good." Joey still sounded nervous, but his movements became more assured, firmer as his hand stroked Kaiba's length. Kaiba was nodding at nothing, reaching down to guide Joey's hand – it never hurt to help.
It stopped too soon, but before Kaiba could protest he was pushed onto his back, and Joey kissed him fiercely. "Where did this come from?" he asked bewilderedly.
"Are you complaining?" Joey asked, looking down at him curiously.
"Of course not."
"Okay then." Joey's trembling hands pushed his shirt partway up, and lips explored the newly exposed skin…
No fucking way. Kaiba blinked. "You're not going to – "
"Why not?"
"That's a far cry from being nervous," Kaiba pointed out. Stop arguing and let him do what he wants!
"Who said I'm not nervous?"
"Then you shouldn't – "
"Kaiba, either we can spend months and months hoping that one day I'll wake up 100% queer, or you can shut the hell up and let me do this," Joey said sternly. He pulled off those sweatpants and continued, "I wouldn't do anything that I don't really want to do on some level or another, and all this talking is just making me more nervous, so just shut up, okay?"
"Fine," Kaiba breathed, fingers digging into the sheets as something warm and moist darted over him experimentally, and despite how grateful he was, somewhere in the back of his mind he was arrogantly thinking, Well, it's about time!
Kaiba woke up alone, and the clock on the floor blinked 12:41 AM. It was a weird feeling; usually he would have still been awake, not just waking. It wasn't morning yet – hell, it was hardly even night. But morning or night, it was perturbing to wake up by himself in someone else's bed. After a second he realized that there was a faint light streaming through the barely-open door. He paused, listened… Joey was talking to someone, presumably on the phone.
"So he's been good? He's usually a real brat when I leave him with someone else."
With a blink and a roll of his eyes, Kaiba curled back into his pillow, yawning. Joey was checking on Alex. At midnight. Well, to each parent his own paranoia… Kaiba was almost asleep when another snip of the conversation caught his attention.
"Thanks for your advice earlier," Joey said.
Oh? Joey got advice? That was intriguing.
Joey next words sounded scandalized. "You can't ask me that!" A pause followed, then a serious, "No, really, that's not cool – I can't just tell you that."
Kaiba did a mental run-through of what topics Joey might have been hesitant to talk about. Given how much Joey loved to talk, the list wasn't very long.
"That's so GAY." Another pause, then a nervous laugh. "Oh. Right. But… well, yeah, I did. It wasn't bad. Man, what happened to us?" Joey laughed. "We used to be THE men; fuck, we used to pick on Yugi for acting queer, and look at us now: he's married, and we're both hooked up with guys. It's a good thing he doesn't do revenge, or we'd never hear the end of it."
Well, it didn't take much imagination at that point to guess what the topic of the conversation was. Kaiba flushed and sat up, leaning in the direction of to door to try to hear better.
"Tristan… I'm gonna kick your ass! You're horrible!" Joey was still laughing, so it couldn't have been that bad. "What the hell kind of comment is that? I've seen guys beaten a pulp for less offensive comments. Man…" He chuckled, but suddenly he stopped, and his tone evened out. "Seriously, I did kind of have a question. I hate to ask, but…"
Spit it out. Kaiba might have yelled it, but Joey probably wouldn't ask if he knew Kaiba was eavesdropping; if he was going to be shy with his friends, then there was no way in hell he would tell Kaiba.
"When you… Ugh, you know, what I mean right? Yeah, well… Doesn't it hurt like a bitch?"
Kaiba's breath hitched.
"You asshole, that's not what I meant. Well, fuck then, put Bakura on." Another second passed. "Hey," Joey said nervously. "So… Oh. Yeah…" Kaiba found himself waiting curiously for Joey's next words. "Why do you guys keep asking that?"
Kaiba blinked. What?
"That's wrong; really, really wrong. Can't you just answer without knowing?"
What?
"Ugh, you're enjoying this. Forget it."
Hey, don't forget it! Swallow your pride and answer the damn question!
"Yeah, bye," Joey said glumly.
Damn it. Kaiba stood, finding the sweatpants hanging half-off the bed; he pulled them on before heading out to Joey. The blond was sitting on the floor in front of the TV; his legs were pulled up to his chest, and his chin rested on his knees. He appeared pensive, but he looked up at Kaiba and smiled. "Hey," he greeted softly.
"So Alex is okay?" Kaiba asked, making himself comfortable on the loveseat.
"Oh." Joey looked embarrassed. "He's fine."
"Did you plan this?"
Joey nodded, then shook his head, then paused, and then nodded again. "Not all along – Yugi's call was a surprise – but Tristan dropped by while I was working, and we had a little talk. He offered to take Alex for the night."
But that wasn't what Kaiba really wanted to know; there was one thing he needed to be sure of more than anything else: "Did you really want to?"
"Why are you asking so many questions?" Joey turned and looked at Kaiba, and for a moment their conversational roles were switched.
"I just have a hard time believing a chat from a friend could have such a drastic effect on – "
"I wanted to," Joey interrupted in frustration. "Why don't you get that? I have never met anyone as paranoid as you. I mean, yeah, you've been frustrated – a blind man could tell – but it's not like I was wildly satisfied with how it was going. I'm just as needy when all is said and done. I just… When I weigh my options, I usually come out more scared than horny."
"Scared of me?"
"No!" Joey was defiant for a moment, then stilled. "A little. You're an intense guy…" He looked like he was suffering a major blow to his pride as he continued, "You always were; a little part of me knew I probably shouldn't have fucked with you, but who ever listens to logic, right? But there's more to it than just you. There's a lot…"
"Tell me." Kaiba came off more demanding, rougher than he meant to.
But Joey just shook his head. "No. I… Don't worry about it; I'll figure things out."
"Idiot," Kaiba said softly, but he beckoned Joey to him; it was a relief that the blond didn't hesitate to take the invitation. Kaiba pulled him close, wrapping his arms around the blond's waist. It seemed like a good idea – more reassuring than anything Kaiba could think to say.
"This is really gay," Joey sighed, curling close to Kaiba, pillowing against his chest and closing his eyes.
"So are you."
Maybe if he said it enough, Joey would believe it.
- notes -
For yet another chapter, we tip our hats (or glasses, or whatever you feel like tipping that's approriate to talk about ^^) to Sarasusa, who was super!helpful and beta'd again. :)
I hate editing chapters, lol, and this is no exception. I mean, it doesnt feel horribly incomplete, but it doesnt feel quite right either. Maybe that's just me. ^^;;;
I don't have too many thoughts here, mainly because I'm *cough*nervousashell*cough* about the whole thing; it's a pretty big transition being made here. Actually, the story does that for a bit -- skips around. So I'm nervous about the remaining chapters. It's only -- what, nine? Psh, it'll only give me a minor heart attack. ^_~
In minor seriousness, you gotta love that Joey connects Kaiba's ability to be an asshole to his masculinity. XD
..::responses to reviewers::..
darkmus: XD YuugixMokuba is one of my favorites -- finally, someone who doesnt have to bend down to kiss Yuugi! XD!!! Thanks! :)
Alexander The Grand: lol, thanks. ^^ I loved Bust A Move; almost as fun as tetris. XD
Elsalhir-Erestar: Yeah, poor Joey's got some issues. ^^;;; lol, did I say THAT?
ColeyCarissa: Heh, Joey... he's complicated. Thanks. :)
Lightning Sage: haha, I liked that line too. XD Yeah, poor Joey is confusled.
Sorrow/Dark Star Goddess: ooh, sorry to hear that you're sick. u.u Thanks! :)
Yami) white Rain: ^^ Gotta love Kaiba-sarcasm. Thanks.
Tadashi, Fire Dragon of Darkness, eyes0nme19, Cathexus, Katie, Mors Laminil, Child of Insanity, Ranma Higurashi, Chronicles Bailey: *bow* arigato
gyrrlgenius: Yeah, we've got Jou pretty much figured out (lol, there's still a few bumps). :) Thanks!
Angel-Belle: Haha! I'd say you've just about nailed him, too. ^^
Nenya85: haha, I'm sure they could. XD Thanks.
BarbedWire23: Hmm, I don't purposely update on Fridays, lol, it just seems to happen like that. ^^ Thanks. :)
Alithiel: lol, ~someone~ sounds like a Gravitation fan. *thumbs up* Thanks. :)