A/N: Again, italicized part is a flashback reviewing how Bakura and Ryou's current relationship developed. Short chapter, but it can't be helped. And I make no apologies for lack of updates; I've decided that they're ineffectual and a waste of time.

Tainted – Part Seven

A shift of limbs, the rustle of sheets.

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

Trembling fingers found hot skin and traced curiously, as if it were a rare species of flora. Possibly as if they were caressing the bruising petals of a gardenia.

"You won't, 'Kura... you never do."

Bakura relaxed into the little touches sliding down his back and found them very distracting. Probably what his brother was aiming for, though.

Ryou lay beneath him, hair splayed out over his pillow, and somewhat older but not. His face was still round, eyes still wide, and lips still kiss-bruised. Bakura felt faint as a slender leg lifted to wrap around his hips.

Receiving no reply from the other, Ryou reached up and tugged his brother down closer by his hair. Their lips hovered not an inch from each other and Ryou shut his eyes to enjoy the feel of the hot breath against his skin. Some time during the course of their shifting, they'd wound up with their legs intertwined. The soft skin of Bakura's thigh pressed between his legs, and his own between his brother's legs.

The older had turned his face away, and all Ryou could see now was silver silk. A small pout curved his lips. He ran his fingers through Bakura's hair for another moment before he pushed his hips upwards slightly, thighs flexing and skin rubbing against skin.

A small jolt passed through Bakura's frame and his breath caught in his throat. A tight heat rushed down his body and he bit his lip as it settled painfully between his legs. With each small oscillation he tried to pull away, but Ryou's hands held him back and all he could do was pant thinly at the pleasure and humility of it all.

"Onegai, aniki..." Ryou's voice was soft like everything about him and he vaguely wondered when his brother had become the bait into a world of iniquity.

Ryou's hands were on his face, in his hair, and everywhere and nowhere at the same time. They soothed and teased and stung, and he couldn't figure out how his brother suddenly had to lead him through all of this. As if this was his first time and not the opposite way around, and he was the one insecure and scared out of his mind.

Then he realized that he was terrified, and that this was his baby brother.

Lips pressed against his and asked meekly for permission, which he gave readily without thought. His mouth opened and the kiss was heady, and if he closed his eyes tight enough, he could pretend that those soft moans belonged to someone else.

When he closed his eyes long enough, he could just pretend. The trembling body beneath his own was someone else's, the nails digging into his shoulders not his brother's. The tight heat that made him shiver belonged to a handsome young man he'd taken home, the same one that sat in the corner of his physics class.

He would have liked to imagine a woman, but the erection trapped against his stomach ruled that out.

Eventually he would come to terms with all of this, and he would be fucking Ryou. It would be Ryou who groaned into his ear, Ryou who begged him for more, and Ryou who beamed at him sweetly afterwards as they lay and panted to the chorus of their heartbeats.

But for now, it was just a faceless, nameless lover that writhed beneath him.

-TBC-