Disclaimer: Just own the words, not the folks.
Drifting Apart
"I know that look," Wolfram teases a starry-eyed Mokuba.
He and Yuuri had come by the mansion to help Mokuba unpack and get situated.
"What?" his raven-haired friend looks up from the stack of CD's that he's been holding for the past few minutes.
"I said 'I know that look.' You were thinking about how great it feels, weren't you?"
"What are you talking about?" Mokuba frowns.
In response, the blonde sticks out his tongue. Mokuba wonders at the gesture until he recognizes the familiar clear ball at the top of the other's tongue ring.
"You…How long?" Mokuba gapes.
"Almost ten years," his friend smirks. "Where do you think Noah got the idea?"
An arrow of pure jealousy pierces Mokuba, surprising him. He swiftly turns away, hoping to hide the emotions sure to be obvious all over his face. He knows that Noah and Wolfram have been friends for over five years, but now he wonders if maybe they were more than that at one time.
And frankly, the thought terrifies him.
"Mokuba?" Wolfram prods, stunned by his friend's sudden change of mood.
"I'll be right back," the raven-haired man mumbles. "I'm a little thirsty."
The blonde nods at the other's back, deciding not to mention the bottle of water sitting on the dresser.
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The brief conversation with the blonde is still bothering Mokuba two days later and he's unsure of what to do about his unfounded jealousy. Following his normal routine when something is bugging him, he calls his beloved big brother to talk about it. His thought is to share with Seto the whole situation about Wolfram's tongue ring and his runaway feelings on the possible relationship between the blonde and Noah. As usual, after a quick greeting, he asks his brother how things are with him, only to be completely stunned by the response.
"He did what?" Mokuba yells into the phone.
"It's fine now, Mokuba," his brother soothes. "Yami rejected the idea completely. Actually, he'd planned to cut all ties with Mr. Crawford and move us into your old apartment."
"You're joking! My entire apartment could fit inside your loft! Where did he think he'd put his art supplies? He certainly wouldn't have been able to paint anything. Maybe he thought he could set the easel up in the bathroom!" Mokuba laughs.
"Not exactly my thoughts but close enough," Seto replies.
"You said its okay now? What happened?" Mokuba prods.
The short pause tells him that it's not really something his brother cares to repeat.
"I apologized to Mr. Crawford for destroying Yami's painting and he accepted it, that's all," his brother responds evenly.
Mokuba grits his teeth in anger. He understands just what kind of apology Seto would have felt obligated to make based on his casual dismissal of the act. Knowing that, his brother bowed down to that man for any reason infuriates him to no end! What an asshole! He shouldn't be involved with Seto and Yami's private lives anyway! If they have problems, it's up to them to handle whatever's wrong on their own!
He draws up short from his mental rant at that thought.
'Maybe that also means that it's up to me and Noah to handle whatever problems arise with us,' he surmises.
Nodding to himself, he decides that it would be wrong to bother Seto with this thing about Wolfram. Especially since his brother and Yami are handling such a huge crisis without anyone's help. If he believes so strongly about his relationship with Noah to move in with him, he should definitely be able to deal with something so seemingly minor on his own.
"Mokuba?" Seto's concerned voice intrudes on his ruminations.
"Sorry, Seto. I was just thinking of the look on that guy's face when you told him to mind his own business," he snickers. "Because I know you did!"
"Well…not in so many words, but I think I got my point across," his brother affirms.
"Uh huh! So what else is new with you? Have you solved a case that will save the universe yet?"
The running joke between them is that Seto is actually a superhero disguised as a lawyer who uses his superior brain and "law books of doom" to save the universe from "evil lawbreakers."
"No, not since I saw you a few days ago, Mokuba," his brother laughs lightly.
"Awww! The bad guys are gonna run amuck!" Mokuba teases.
Suddenly, he lets out a startled yip as Noah slides slim arms around his waist from behind.
"I'm home," Noah whispers sensually into his raven-haired lover's ear before pushing Mokuba down on the couch and straddling his legs.
"Mokuba, are you okay?" Seto's voice becomes very distant as Noah engulfs him in a fiery kiss.
"Mmm…Gotta go, Seto," he manages before dropping the phone to the floor.
Pulling the CEO further into his lap, Mokuba thinks that maybe he'll talk to Noah later about Wolfram and the tongue ring.
'Much, much later,' he concludes.
Flipping his aqua-haired lover onto his back, he eagerly begins divesting him of clothing and feasting on the other's nipples. But as soon as he starts kissing the CEO again and his tongue skates across the other's oral adornment, his mind immediately returns to his earlier dilemma and he abruptly pulls away.
"Mokuba?" Noah questions at his lover's aborted kiss.
His boyfriend doesn't respond. Instead, he nuzzles against Noah's neck before nipping a trail down the slim expanse and across the other's chest.
"Moku," his boyfriend moans as Mokuba latches again onto a pert nipple. From that point on they share a passionate love-making session distinguished by one oddity; Mokuba never kisses him again.
Noah doesn't mention the lack of kisses as they later bask in the after glow, nor does he say anything when it occurs several more times. It's not as though Mokuba doesn't kiss him at all, it's more that the kisses are always light and respectable; no tongue. Even when Noah attempts to deepen their kisses, his lover pulls back which completely baffles the 26-year old. After the first few times, he thinks about mentioning it to Mokuba, but what would he say?
'How come you don't really kiss me anymore?'
That sounds ridiculous even as a thought.
In the end, he decides to simply deal with Mokuba's strange behavior for the moment and hope the other will come to him when he's ready.
For Mokuba's part, he knows what he's doing and how it's affecting his lover, but he can't help himself. He understands that he'll have to deal with his unresolved feelings eventually and explain his behavior to Noah if he ever hopes for things to go back to normal, but…
Every time he thinks about Noah's tongue ring, his mind flashes back to Wolfram's tongue ring and he's bothered by the whole thing all over again.
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"Hey."
Noah looks up from the e-mails on his laptop to his oddly subdued lover standing in the doorway of his home office. He hasn't pressured his boyfriend at all for an explanation of his recent unusual behavior. Now, looking into the disquieted eyes of said lover, Noah's certain that he made the right decision to wait for Mokuba to approach him with whatever is troubling him.
"Hey yourself," he offers, leaning back in his chair.
After a few more minutes of Mokuba's contemplative stare, he gets up and wraps the other in a supportive embrace.
"So, are you going to tell me what's bothering you, or do you want to go back to staring a hole through my head?" he nuzzles into Mokuba's chest.
"It's stupid," the 19-year-old mumbles after a short pause.
"Tell me anyway," Noah soothes.
"Wolfram showed me his tongue ring," Mokuba replies quietly, sliding his arms around the other.
"And you want one?" the CEO ventures.
"Gods, no!" Mokuba scoffs.
"You were shocked that he had one?" he prods further.
"Yes, but that's not…Like I said, it's stupid," Mokuba sighs, pulling away.
"Stupid or not, it's obviously bothering you, so just tell me already," Noah concludes, leading Mokuba to sit beside him on the plush leather couch.
Once safely ensconced, Mokuba leans over to lay his head in Noah's lap; a position he usually adopts when they discuss something important. Grasping his lover's hand in his, he spits out the question nagging him.
"Were you and Wolf ever lovers?"
It's the pause that says it, even before Noah's quiet answer.
"Briefly; a month or two…a little before Yuuri joined the company.
Noah falls silent.
"What happened?" Mokuba presses.
You have to understand, my father was still alive then and Wolf offered both an escape and a rebellion against him. Not only did my father hate that I was gay, but to be messing around with a gaijin…" Noah laughs humorlessly.
"Gaijin?" Mokuba murmurs.
"Though he was born in Japan, Wolf's parents are American," Noah explains.
"Oh."
At Mokuba's ensuing silence, Noah guesses at what's bothering his love.
"I got the tongue ring a few years later," the CEO begins. "I admit that the idea came from Wolf, but my actual reason for the piercing was quite different, I assure you."
The revelation that his lover's prior relationship with the blonde had been brief and longer ago than he'd expected doesn't alleviate Mokuba's fears or quiet his jealousy in the least.
"Different, how?" he murmurs against a denim-clad thigh.
Before Noah can respond to him the office phone rings.
"One moment, Mokuba," Noah lifts the teen's head from his lap and stands to answer it.
At the CEO's subsequent snarl at whomever is on the other line, Mokuba realizes that they won't be finishing their conversation anytime soon and heads out of the room.
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A week after their initial conversation, Mokuba still hasn't followed up with Noah; not that his boyfriend has approached the subject either.
'Maybe it's something he doesn't want me to know about,' the 19-year old muses.
Mokuba had already disclosed everything about his past love life, such as it was, months ago; though it's not like he'd had much to share…
At that thought, Mokuba abruptly realizes that Noah is almost 7 years older than him. Of course their love life experiences would be vastly different. Hell, he's such a novice that he had only had sex four times before meeting Noah! And that had been with a woman!
'Noah's obviously had more lovers than just Wolfram. Maybe he's even slept with Yuuri too!' his mind races in circles.
"Maybe I'm not even the first person he's approached here at work," he mumbles to himself. Glancing around the floor, his eyes landing on Hei Mokoto from finance, a man he'd eyed a moment or two himself.
Closing his eyes momentarily in calm contemplation, he allows his mind to run through thoughts of other men Noah may have approached or spent time with at the company.
'Maybe Mr. Sato's business sense isn't the only thing keeping him around,' he supposes.
At that random speculation, he shakes his head in denial. Now, he's being ridiculous. Noah isn't a man who would run his company in such a manner.
"Watanabe!" his boss's voice cuts through his brooding.
"Sorry, sir," he looks up alertly. "How may I be of service?
"Are you alright, Watanabe? It's not like you to space out," the Marketing Director frowns at his assistant.
"I do have a slight headache," he confesses, which is true. His constant worrying has raised his tension level significantly. "But it's nothing that I can't handle. What do you need me to do?"
"Always the professional," Mr. Sato smiles. "I think I'll give you a raise to be sure that no other department snatches you up."
"Sir?" Mokuba starts incredulously.
"Come into my office, Watanabe. I have a huge project due for Mr. Kaiba and we need to get started right away."
"Yes, sir!" Mokuba practically salutes. Grabbing his notepad, he follows his boss, all thoughts of personal problems swiftly forgotten for the moment.