He looked at me expectantly.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Take off your shirt."

I nodded dumbly, pulling my coat off. I began unbuttoning my shirt and he gasped. "What?" I asked, looking up, startled.

"You're just really sexy."

I felt uncomfortable. Jounochi was acting all smooth and at ease a few seconds ago and suddenly, he was staring at me like a little child. "Are you okay?"

"I've dreamed about this a lot. It's like a dream." He was staring at my chest, just barely revealed by my shirt. He leaned in, placing his hand on my shoulder. He leaned in and pressed his lips against mine, pushing me down so I was holding myself by my elbows.

"St-stop," I mumbled against his lips.

He slipped from my lips, pressing his forehead against my chest. "I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"It's...it's okay. You really like me, huh?"

"A lot. And the more I'm around you, the more I like you. It's weird, I'm ignoring every time you've ever been a jerk and just focusing on the way you look right now and how good you smell. God I want you..."

I couldn't think of anything to say. "Jounochi..."

"I'm trying to shut up. You're just so sexy..." He looked up at me with his caramel eyes. "I'm making an ass of myself."

I slide all the way back into the futon, staring at him, only centimeters from my face. "It's okay," I whispered. I drew him into a kiss. He broke the kiss gently, and asked huskily, "Would you freak out if I slipped my tongue in your mouth?"

"No..."

He closed me into a kiss again, running his tongue over my lips, then slipped it into my mouth and lazily ran his tongue over mine. He sat up a bit, trying to break the kiss, but I followed him with my mouth, running my tongue over his. He laughed gently, continuing to kiss me as he started unbuttoning my shirt. He began to kiss down, running his tongue over my neck, my chest, over my nipple, down, down, down... I let out a moan. "Jounochi!" I screamed, surprised.

He laughed, running his tongue on the smooth skin by the hem of my pants. "Yes, Master?"

"I'm not..."

"You can be..." he whispered.

"Stop... I don't want to hurt you..."

"Why the sudden change?" he whispered.

"I never wanted to hurt you to begin with. It was twisted flirting..."

He laughed, leaning down to kiss me again, wrapping his arms around me. "Really?" He began to trace random patterns in my skin with his finger. "Otogi was drawn to my submissive-ism-iatary."

"That's not a word."

"So?" he asked in a really quiet voice.

"You're submissive?"

"I'm easily put in my place," he rephrased, a hint of sadness to his voice. He laid his head down on my waist, drawing his legs up a bit. He stared off at the wall, not seeing anything. "What are you thinking?" he asked, breaking the silence.

"About...Mokuba..."

"What about him?" he asked quietly.

"Just different things we've been through. You know...my mother died giving birth to him. I barley remember her. I guess I had him replace her, though. And then my father died and I again replaced him with Mokuba." I felt tears come to my eyes but I didn't bother fighting them or brushing them away. Jounochi couldn't see me. "Every bit of sadness I ever went through was okay in the end...I had Mokuba. He was my everything, Jounochi. I even spoiled him sometimes. The only thing I didn't give him enough of was me. I rarely spent time with him, though I tried so hard. Even if it was just him sitting while I worked on a thing for the company, I got as much time in as I could."

"Please don't cry," Jounochi said softly. Before I could ask him how he knew I was crying, he said, "I felt terrible when I lost my sister. It wasn't permanent, but it certainly felt so. I'm rarely allowed to see her still."

"Why not?"

"My mom has custody of her."

"And you're with your dad?"

"Yeah..."

I was quiet, trying to build up to courage to ask him. "Does he abuse you?"

Jounochi's body tensed. He sat up, drawing away from me. "Yeah..." he said so softly that I could barley hear him.

"My step-father did, too. He never really beat me, but he'd cut me." I wasn't sure what I was doing, but I was pulling off my shirt. I held my arm out. "This is why I mostly wear long sleeves," I said quietly.

Jounochi looked up. His eyes widened as he traced the short, pale lines all over my body with his gaze. He mouthed, "Oh my god..." taking my arm and holding it. He pulled me into a hug. Whispering softly, he said, "How could you let him do that?" His hand began to trail down my back but he stopped short, touching an even higher concentration of the marks.

"I believed him," I said softly. "I thought it'd make me stronger. It worked."

"No, it made you strong on the outside. You're just as weak, if not weaker, on the inside."

"I'm not you, Jounochi," I muttered, resting my head on his shoulder.

"But I have an idea what you went through, Kaiba," he said softly.

I was quiet several minutes, mulling that over in my head. "I couldn't have stopped him anyway."

Jounochi lifted my face up and gazed into my eyes adoringly. "You know, Kaiba, I think you're beautiful. Even with the scars."

I smiled, blushing a bit. "I think you're beautiful, too. Even with the bruises." I pulled him into a kiss.

He kissed me back as I began to pull of his t-shirt. He lifted up, breaking the kiss shortly to let me pull it off of him. Our hands explored each other's bodies as our tongue explored each other's mouths.