Disclaimer: I probably don't have to do this for every single chapter, but I might as well stay consistent. I. Don't. Own. It. Take your lawyers someplace else.

Rating: Pg-13

Warnings: I doubt I need to warn you about the slash any longer. Otherwise, you'll find some mild swearing – Jounouchi tends to have a potty mouth in some of my stories – along with underage drinking and implications of alcoholism (although I didn't go as in depth on the subject as I probably should have, seeing how I did bring it up.)

A/N: This is more of a quadruple drabble I suppose (it's about four-hundred words). But it's still much too short to be posted as its own story, so here shall the poor misfit find its resting-place. I hate the title, but you have no idea how hard it was to come up with one at all (usually they just come to me). Just think of it as an interim title until I come up with a better one (feel free to make suggestions, I couldsure use 'em).


Denial, Hormones and The Alcohol Factor

Jounouchi supposed it all came down to pure teenage stupidity (read: hormones), because there simply couldn't be any other explanation for why the hell he would even contemplate kissing Kaiba, let alone actually do it. Well, there was of course The Alcohol Factor. But alcohol only lowered inhibitions, it didn't completely alter personality. Such a drastic change in his entire characteristic makeup would have required a full on lobotomy. At the very least. Either way, he had only drunk a measly two bottles of beer. Tame, harmless beer, enough to give him apleasant buzz. It wasn't as if he'd been going at the hard liquor like there was no tomorrow, the way Kaiba had. Jounouchi was actually quite surprised he hadn't passed out a hell of a lot earlier.

Figures the guy needs to loose control once and awhile, Jounouchi thought with a smirk. Probably craves the feeling of getting shit-faced like Yugi craves the love of every person on the whole damn planet. Probably can't wait for work to end everyday, so he can go home and get completely drunk out of his mind on the most expensive booze his rich ass can buy.

So, The Alcohol Factor explained how Jou had been able to initiate the kiss without feeling profoundly uncomfortable. It explained why Kaiba had simply lay there on the couch and tongue wrestled right back at him, instead of yelling in outrage, punching him very hard in the face and having him thrown out on his ass – as he would have done under normal circumstances. Hell, the guy most likely hadn't even registered the fact that he was being kissed, let alone who was doing the kissing.

What The Alcohol Factor most certainly did not have and explanation for was what in god's name had possessed him to do such a thing in the first place. It didn't explain why he'd so thoroughly enjoyed it, to the point where he was still sporting a rather impressive hard on. And it didn't explain what the hell he was doing at Kaiba's house in the middle of the night, doing crazy things like kissing the bane of his existence, in the first place. He remembered Mokuba letting him in. He remembered finding Kaiba half passed out on the sofa, a bottle of near-empty whisky inhand. He just couldn't for the life of him remember the rational for being there at all. He must have had a reason ...

Therefore, teenage stupidity it was, with perhaps just a little help from The Alcohol Factor. Because, if the answer had to do with anything more than hormones and drunkenness, Jou didn't think he could handle it.

Fin.