"Ne, mou hitori no boku?" Yuugi asked from his position in the center of his bed.

"Hm?" Yami answered, not looking up from the book he was reading at Yuugi's desk.

"You know...you know kissing?"

Now he looked up. "A...ah, yes, what about it?"

"What...what was your first kiss like?"

Yami's eyes widened, the faintest of blushes touching his face.

"My first...why do you want to know?"

Yuugi twisted the edge of his quilt in his hands self-conciously. "I was...just wondering what it was like. The first kiss. You know."

"Aah?"

"Well, I've never been kissed!"

"Sou, sou!"

Something dangerously close to a pout graced the younger boy's face. "Are you laughing at me, mou hitori no boku?"

"No, aibou!"

"Hmph...was that too personal a question, then?"

"No...not really."

"Well?" Yuugi blinked at his other self. "What...was it like?"

Yami laughed softly. "I can't tell you."

Yuugi's face fell. "I'm sorry..."

"It's not that I won't tell you, aibou -- merely that I can't."

"Eh?"

"I would tell you anything you asked, aibou, but I can't tell you about something I know nothing of." A smile quirked the Pharaoh's lips. Yuugi gasped.

"Mou...mou hitori no boku! You've never been kissed?"

"Not in all my three thousand years."

Yuugi seemed dumbstruck. "That's incredible..."

"How so?"

"Well, it just seems...someone like you...I mean..." Yami's gentle stare fell across Yuugi and the boy blushed hotly. "It's just...you seem like the kind of person...that...that someone would definitely kiss."

The Pharaoh started, blinking slowly. "I...thank you..."

Yuugi's face only reddened more. "I...um...really, mou hitori no boku? I mean, really, no one kissed you? Now, or, or, like, then? Back when you were Pharaoh, I mean. You didn't...have a girl you liked...?"

Yami tilted his head for a moment, slipping into the past. "No...there was no one I felt fondly for. Not romantically. I was betrothed to my cousin, Makare--"

"Your cousin?!"

"Yes," he nodded. "My first cousin. It was believed, then, that the holy blood of the line of the Pharaoh was to be kept as pure as possible...thus, many inter-family marriages occured. My great-great-grandfather, I believe, married his sister." Noticing the look upon his other self's face, Yami chuckled. "So yes, I am inbred!"

"Mou hitori no boku! I wasn't going to say that!"

Yami's smile stayed. "Sou desu."

"So, you were going to be married to Mar...Makka...your cousin...why didn't you?"

"I died before we could."

"Oh," Yuugi's voice was very small. "I'm sorry. Again."

"Don't be." Yami sat down next to Yuugi, resting his elbows on his knees, his chin in his hands, a faraway look on his face. "I loved Makare as a friend, and as a cousin. She would have made a splendid wife; and I had no choice in the matter, anyway. I was not unhappy. Such is the lot of a Pharaoh. But I didn't love her romantically...nor was I particularly attracted to her physically."

"Gosh..." Yuugi murmured. "Wouldn't that...have been difficult when it came to...you know..." the younger boy blushed once again "...producing an heir?"

That same crooked grin graced Yami's face once again. "I didn't live long enough to encounter such a problem, but I believe you had to put your feelings aside for the good of the country."

"But you'd never have been able to do that!"

"I would have found a way, aibou. Part of being the Pharaoh was accepting that. And there were worse people than Makare to lie with."

Yuugi was silent for a moment, hugging his knees to his chest. "I wouldn't have been able to. That...that other first, I think it's more important than even your first kiss. I think I'd freeze up...I just couldn't do it."

"Oh?"

"Mm," the younger boy nodded firmly. "I want to...I mean, I only want to sleep with someone I'm in love with." He blushed. "And hopefully that someone would love me, too...maybe even be in love with me."

Yami raised an eyebrow. "And you've found this person."

Yuugi looked down at his hands, writing like pale animals in his lap. "I...I think so. But I don't know how they feel about me...I mean, I don't...well...I guess, sometimes, you know, I think about...you know, what it'd be like to sleep with them. Providing, you know, that they fall in love with me. That would be the best...maybe it's not likely, but it would be nice if they were."

Yami's soft laughter made Yuugi blink. The Pharaoh shook his head, brushing the golden bangs away from Yuugi's face with an affectionate look.

"You're not as naive as everyone thinks, aibou."

The infuriating blush returned. "I...I don't know about that. I don't know a lot of stuff, I just...do what my gut tells me, I suppose. Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun and Anzu-chan are all so much more streetwise..."

"Don't put yourself down," Yami answered, cupping Yuugi's face in his hands. "Ignorance and innocence are not the same thing. You're firm in your convictions, aibou, and you trust your gut; that says something on it's own."

"...you promise?"

"Yes." Yami's smile was warm, Yuugi's heart was pounding; both of them seemed to realise the position they were in at the same moment.

"Mou hitori no boku..." Yuugi whispered, his eyes wide. "I..."

"Shh," Yami whispered back, and leaned forward and tenderly kissed Yuugi.

After a long moment, the Pharaoh pulled back. Yuugi's eyes were squeezed shut, his mouth open slightly, his breathing heavy.

"Mou hitori no boku..."

"Aibou?"

"How did you know?"

"I didn't. I guessed...I did what my gut told me to do."

Yuugi's eyes opened, his face was flushed.

"Mou hitori no boku?"

"Aibou?"

"Now you have to tell me what your first kiss was like. Because it's happened."

"That's true..." Yami grinned. "Should I perhaps show you, instead?"

"Yes," Yuugi whispered. "Oh, yes. Please."

"All right, then. It was a little like this..."

"Mm..."