Masaka: okay I couldn't get this story up in time for LAST December but I'm pretty sure that if I start now, I can finish it!
Yami Masaka: And if not she'll just melt into a self-pitying little puddle of author goo…either way I get MY entertainment
Masaka: flushed thanks a lot yami, you're so supportive
-C-H-A-P-T-E-R—S-T-A-R-T-
It hadn't been Atem's intention to snoop. Generally he was very good at giving Yugi his privacy. But when he'd overheard Ryou talking to Bakura about Yugi running off in a fluster right after work Atem couldn't help but be intrigued.
Yugi had been so forceful when it came to doing things together. At first it had been out of a protective nature on the light's side to keep Atem from accidentally blowing up something because of his technophobia but as Christmas had rolled around the want to be together had transformed into a cozier sort of determination.
Having seen what he'd just seen Atem was no longer sure of why his aibou had done it.
It had been the ex-pharaoh's fantasy that Yugi had kept him around because of a certain unnamed affection but if Yugi was kissing Anzu then maybe that wasn't true. Maybe Yugi was just being a kind kid, like always, and was just helping Atem with his culture-shock.
Unsure of how to deal with these very dismal thoughts and not in the mood to run after his aibou to get bitten by even more despairing revelations Atem turned down the icy streets until he reached the normal café.
He was just about to grab the door-handle and step inside when the door was swung open from within and a familiar blonde came streaking out like he had the hounds of Anubis chasing his tail.
"Jou-" Atem started to call out but was interrupted by a much deeper and much more irritated voice.
"JOUNOUCHI! STOP DAMN IT!" Kaiba Seto roared as he charged out of the same café towards the rapidly disappearing blonde.
"JUST FORGET IT YOU SUPER-SIZED BASTARD!" Jou responded over his shoulder. "I HOPE SOMEONE SLIPS ARSENIC INTO YOUR CHRISTMAS EGG-NOG AND WE'LL ALL BE RID OF THE SCROOGE OF DOMINO!!"
Kaiba took a few steps to catch up with his companion but when it looked like there would be absolutely no way for him to reach the blonde without going into a ridiculous sprinting chase the brunette stopped and sighed heavily.
"I didn't mean to upset him that badly…"
"What in the name of the gods DID you say?" Atem spoke up causing the CEO to whirl around in a slight panic.
"Where the hell did you pop up from?" Kaiba snarled accusingly.
"Relax," Atem snorted, crossing his arms over his chest. "I didn't see whatever little lover's tryst you had with Katsuya, I was just passing through."
"Don't call him Katsuya," Seto blushed, though it was probably the former implication he really had problems with.
Atem had seen into the taller man's heart many times so he knew Kaiba pretty well. He'd also been very good at reading his opponents and had been able to pick up on certain things a simple glimpse at the heart couldn't reveal to him.
Unfortunately Seto still hated the hell out of Atem so all the understanding in the world didn't make it any easier for the former pharaoh to talk to his rival.
Luckily, for some reason or another, it seemed that today Seto was too preoccupied to remember his Pride.
"You look about as crappy as I do," the young CEO sighed. "Want to go back inside and get drinks?"
Atem jolted slightly at this polite invitation but did the smart thing and simply nodded in acceptance.
Yugi dashed inside the shop breathing laboriously. His many years of being chased had taught him to be light on his feet but Yugi was still a rather weak kid. His stamina just wasn't good enough to allow for a ten mile jog through zero degree weather after already having taken a slip on ice.
"Yugi…are you okay? You look like hell." Otogi Ryuji asked as he walked around from behind his the store counter.
The proprietor of Dark Clown Games looked, if at all physically possible, even more handsome than he had during his first three years of high-school. His obsidian hair was no longer held in place by the teen's traditional red head-band creating a more cascading affect to his bangs. This veil of hair also seemed to affect the dicer's eyes making Otogi's already luminous emerald eyes inhumanely dazzling.
Yugi would have been more impressed by the sight if he did know the style change was rooted in heartbreak. Normally a guy who'd gotten dumped –as Otogi had gotten so unrelentingly dumped by Shizuka—would have cut their hair to show their rejection. Otogi had gone the opposite direction and let his hair get even longer, a fact that seemed to have relieved his distressed troupe of cheerleaders.
"O-oh, I'm just fine…R-Ryuji," Yugi panted up at his unfairly attractive companion. "I just…overexerted myself, is all."
Ryuji shrugged as if he didn't care either way and walked over to close the shop-door that had been thrown open by Yugi's hurricane arrival.
"Well as long as you aren't too tired to test the new arena it's really none of my business."
Because the gaming market was still so very hot Ryuji was attempting to revamp his game a little in time for the holidays. The new model of DDM was basically the same as the old, only there were a few more fantasy elements that added an element of Dungeons and Dragons.
If everything went as it was planned Monster Labyrinth would be another blow-out success for the young game-designer.
Yugi timidly removed his slightly damp coat and hung it on the coat-rack by the door. Ever since Ryuji had been rejected by Shizuka and had fallen out of the group it had been hard for Yugi to feel really comfortable around the emerald-eyed male.
Frankly Yugi had never gotten to know him even when they were close friends. Which was part of the reason Yugi was so devoted to his current course of action; the other part was, of course, all to do with his Yami.
"So if we get through testing today with no glitches everything will be finished, won't it?" Yugi smiled as Otogi turned and lead the shorter teen to the underground testing room.
"Yes, and then you can go back to your frantic little holiday preparations. You told me about your plans back in November but I didn't really think you were serious," Otogi snorted.
"I can be terribly disarming when I want to be; it will all work out," Yugi pouted at Otogi's back. He then took a steeling breath and asked. "You DO still plan to be part of it…don't you?"
"I promise, didn't I?" Otogi shrugged.
"But…you don't seem…happy about it," Yugi said hesitantly. He winced at how callous the words sounded. He knew Otogi wouldn't want to be anywhere near the people that crushed his heartthrob pride but Yugi really had to have everyone there for it to work.
Ryuji seemed to catch this fluke and looked curiously over his shoulder. He noticed Yugi's cringing look and actually managed a small but honest smile.
"I get the King Of Games himself to personal test and endorse my newest project during his busiest time of year, of course I'm happy…I'm just going to be a little…apprehensive."
"I'm sorry Ryuji, I know how much Shizuka's rejection still hurts you and then I go and act like-" Yugi started to apologize.
Otogi interrupted with a snort and glowered off into space. "What the woman did to me was not a rejection but a full out public castration. I have never been so humiliated. I had TEN florists sell me their entire stalk of red-roses and hired a top idol to write a song especially about Shizuka and then she goes and tells me she has no particular feelings for me…and that she even though I was a bit of a clichéd playboy."
"But you were attracted to her for her honesty," Yugi pointed out with a wry grin.
Otogi blinked himself out of his thoughts and looked over at Yugi in shock. A small snort of laughter escaped him before he could help it.
"I …I guess I did… didn't I?"
"And beside," Yugi said, leaping on this one opportunity, "I never thought you and Shizuka were a good match. I mean, you're very attractive and all but you have a sort of …higher-standard about romance than Shizuka does. You're the roses and wine type of guy while Shizuka is clearly a rented-movies and cola type girl. You need someone who has…great demands and will keep you on your toes."
"…I suppose that is true," Otogi rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He then sighed broodingly and waved his hand elegantly in the air as if to brush away the conversation. "All that aside we have work to do."
Yugi sighed in exasperation but nodded. "Yes…we certainly do have a lot of work to do."
Seto and Atem both ordered coffee and took a back booth as far away from the happy holiday crowd as possible. Sitting amid the shadows they managed to look like dark spirits of Christmas Past filling the otherwise completely jovial café with at least one little patch of wariness.
"…Katsuya called me out to invite me to dinner with him," Seto admitted after five tense minutes of silent sipping. "He calls it a 'thank-you-dinner between two companions' but…his eyes were practically dripping with anxiety. I have the feeling he was desperate to run away."
"You unnerve him that's all," Atem shrugged, "an eighteen-year-old billionaire who has already proven he is quite mature on not only the mental and physical levels, but also the emotional level as well. Who wouldn't be unnerved by that?"
"He's such an idiot," Seto snorted. "He's always getting carried away by his emotions. He can't do anything part way, it's always I LOATHE this or I ADORE that."
"And you just happen to know how to press all his buttons so you get loathe, loathe, and really loathe," Atem snickered.
Seto cast his rival a silencing glower and, feeling too gloomy to be angry, Atem let the subject slide.
"So what's wrong with you? Normally you have this annoyingly strong happy aura around you but now…I'd say you look about as dour as I do," Kaiba asked after another minute of quiet.
"It's nothing," Atem answered immediately. He winced at how unconvincing that statement came out.
"…Well knowing you it can only be one of two things. Either something happened to your little clique, which I doubt otherwise Katsuya would have yelled at me about that as well…or…could it be something a little closer to heart?"
Atem tried not to squirm but he didn't really succeed. Kaiba noticed and grinned darkly.
"Ah so it is about the midget. What's wrong Atem? Did Yugi get seduced out of his sneakers by someone else before you could finally tell him about your undying affections?"
"…"
Kaiba's cup hit his saucer with a surprising clatter. "Oh my god, someone did seduce Yugi out from under you? And you let it happen?"
"He wasn't seduced…he just…never felt that way about me and I …I never made myself clear enough that he should feel any obligation towards me. It had probably been going on for a while and I just didn't notice," Atem flushed.
"But you LET it happen? You LET Yugi get taken away from you? By who?…God not that annoying Masaki woman that followed you around like a lost puppy for so long."
"Masaki did not act like a lost puppy," Atem snorted. "She's a very determined young woman who just happens to suffer from an excess of youth and inexperience. And I don't believe it was her that did the seducing but honestly…I have no idea what happened other than that they kissed…enthusiastically."
"A kiss, that's all? That's pathetic, your Yugi and that woman are two of a kind, both sappy sweet little drops of sunshine that ooze out charm from every pour. I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a thank-you kiss or something."
Atem sighed in depression and leaned heavily against the table. "Even if that is true…it just points out how very far away I am from ever having that type of connection with him. I could never kiss Yugi so casually…I'm petty that way."
Seto stared at the usual unshakable gamer in surprise. The Egyptian man could handle a possible apocalypse and earth-shattering mental anguish but then got squeamishly frail about his feelings towards a ridiculously sweet kid like Yugi.
Somehow that made Atem seem very human.
Kaiba opened his mouth blindly, not really sure what sort of half-thought garbage he'd try playing when suddenly his cell-phone went off reminding him that he had a very hectic company that needed him.
"Damn those morons, I haven't been gone an hour," Seto grumbled as he looked over the caller id box. He snorted at the name and shoved the phone back in his coat-pocket but got up anyway.
"I have to get back to work," he dismissed himself curtly. "Tell me if you really do end up losing Yugi though…the look on your face will be one I'll simply HAVE to see."
"Oh go back to humiliating your own crush, Kaiba," Atem snapped back, causing Seto to flush with shame.
"HE was the one spouting plans about a ridiculous see-through date to ME!"
Atem just smirked in that totally annoying confident manner of his and Seto gave up. Even in conversation he was never going to win one over on that dumb Egyptian.
"Happy holidays," Kaiba snorted in parting.
"And a bah humbug to you too!"
Bakura loved the way Ryou smelled right after a shower. It was a mix of steam, skin and the sweetest, most delicate hint of buttermilk with honey. Added onto the fact that Ryou's skin was incredibly sensitive after coming out of the steam Bakura just found Ryou too perfect to let past unmolested. He just couldn't help but pull his hikari flush against his skin and nuzzle his nose into the boy's neck.
"B-B-BAKURA!!" Ryou shivered in that certain way that told the former thief he was doing things right regardless of the words coming out of that luscious mouth. "W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING? MY FATHER WILL BE HERE ANY MINUTE!"
"I know, I know," Bakura dismiss his hikari's words with ease. "But it's not as if he'll just come marching into the house without some much as ringing the doorbell. And besides, if you were REALLY worried about him seeing us, you would have taken extra precaution not to tempt me by walking your sexy flushed self out in front of me in nothing but your precious little white bathrobe."
Ryou's skin under Bakura's lips turned that beautiful baby pink color that Bakura just found so damned cute. For all the stuff they had done since Bakura had returned Ryou really was too shy. Of course that was just part and parcel of the delicious lover that was Ryou and it was just another thing Bakura loved about the boy.
"I-I d-didn't come out here to s-seduce you; I j-just came in t-to get a new c-change-," Ryou took a deep breath, "a change of clothes. I want to look presentable to my father when he arrives and I-"
Bakura tugged the knot out of the robe and parted the cloth so he could lay a kiss against the center of Ryou's chest. He found that so long as he stayed away from any outrightprovocative place, --such as Ryou's delicately peeked nipples that were also within his reach at this moment--, Bakura could get away with kissing his Ryou in all sorts of interesting places without being called a sleaze or a satyromaniac or any of the other clever terms his Ryou called him when Bakura acted too forward.
"You always look best when you're dazed and sated," Bakura said tenderly, purposefully keeping his lips against Ryou's skin as he spoke. "You get this glow about you that's just downright gorgeous…you'll greet your dear old dad with the looks of the gods-damn Christmas angel once I'm finished with you."
"B-Bakura," Ryou whimpered, "really he'll be here any second, and he already disapproves of our relationship without knowing how…how much we do together so just-"
"I will, I will," Bakura said calmly as he slid off his own shirt, undid his top jean button and pulled Ryou towards his lap, "I promised I wouldn't do anything until he left and I'll keep to that…but that promise only starts when the old codger ACTUALLY GETS HERE…which is BOUND to take another two hours at least…and you know how much pleasure I can milk out of two hours don't you my precious Ryou?"
Oh Ryou was just about ready now. He was biting his lower lip in the way he always did when his horny-side was just about taking over his prim-and-proper side. And it was about time too; staying still this long was driving Bakura NUTS. His lips ached to nibble on the skin that he was pressed against.
"I…I guess…we could take a shower together afterwards…and…and if we just …real quick…I don't suppose…" Ryou relented timidly.
'Thank the gods, and God himself!' Bakura cheered wickedly as he more aggressively pulled his delicious prize down onto the couch. 'Thank god for houses with baths on the first floor so far away from the bedroom, and for cute little robes that are so easy to untie, and thank you, thank you, THANK YOU GOD for blessed little lights that smell so damn tasty after they scrub their naughty-selves all squeaky clean!'
Bakura and Ryou rolled around for a bit, fully stroking each other's bodies in the shuffle until Bakura was comfortably on top of his partner. Bakura shoved the folds of Ryou's robe further apart and he finally got his nip of that pretty snowflake colored skin. But, of course, that wasn't good enough, it was never good enough. The REAL tasty part was still to come! Oh was it ever!
Bakura grinned devilishly at his angelic light and began to nip down the boy's chest towards the seat of all that buttermilk sweetness…when suddenly a chill swept into the room from behind and Ryou got very, very still.
"D-DAD! Y-You're early!" Ryou yelped.
Bakura looked over his shoulder in stunned disbelief to see the rail-thin linguistics professor standing in the doorway with what had to be the most pissed-off look that even Bakura himself had ever seen. And as Bakura had faced down the rather hellish looks of many a blood-thirsty villain from his bloody childhood onward that was really saying something.
'Crap.'
"Uh…hey…Bakura-san…um…merry Christmas?" the former thief –now definitely future eunuch—grinned pleasantly while Ryou scrambled frantically to retie his robe.
"Oh, this is not going to be a happy holiday for you, Kamenwati," Leonardo Bakura frowned with sinister intent, all but hissing out Bakura's actual ancient name in that perfect way only a linguistics professor could. "Not at all."
'Double crap.'
-C-H-A-P-T-E-R—E-N-D-
Masaka and Yami Masaka: both blissful What a great chapter
Masaka: No one is running away with their lines! No one is demanding more attention than they should! Oh this story is really going to go on-schedule like this!!
Yami Masaka: And such wonderful limey goodness! Our other story doesn't allow for such citrus-flavor (though we have tried) so this boy-on-boy is just great heart-candy
Jason the Muse Dog-Boy: Ugh you two are so sickeningly happy right now I could choke.
Masaka and Yami Masaka: still blissful Shut up Jason