Duke saw Kaiba again six weeks later as the city slipped into winter, and Ryou kept meeting him at the cafe. Ryou, at Kaiba's request, stayed over at the mansion a few nights now and then when he was traveling on business and didn't want Mokuba staying alone with only the staff. Duke maintained his periodic affair with Kaiba, Ryou continued attending therapy on a weekly basis, and Kaiba worked. A lot.

DECEMBER:

"I hope you and Mokuba enjoy yourselves in New York," Ryou said as he prepared to part ways at the entrance to his office building. "Since I won't be seeing you two again during the holidays, tell Mokuba Merry Christmas for me."

"Thank you, and I will." Kaiba nodded in acknowledgement, and was about to wish his friend well when Ryou turned and pulled something out of his pocket.

"Merry Christmas, Kaiba," Ryou said with a sweet smile, arms extended out to the brunette with an envelope clasped in his hands. Kaiba was startled, and it took him a moment to process the fact that he was being given a Christmas card.

"You shouldn't have." Seto gingerly took the green envelope from his friends hands.

"It's not like I expect anything in return." Ryou's cheeks were pinched pink, either from the stinging wind or a bit of embarrassment at thinking that he could give Seto Kaiba something he didn't already have. "I just thought that you looked kind of down lately, and"—Ryou shrugged with one shoulder—"I thought it might try to cheer you up."

"Thank you, Ryou." They'd switched to a first name basis just last week, and it still made Ryou's toes curl when mas, heard his name spoken in Kaiba's voice.

"You're welcome"—Ryou hesitated slightly—"Seto." He turned and began to walk away, but a familiar voice made him stop.

"Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Seto," Ryou said with a smile over his shoulder before turning to go back to school where his afternoon classes awaited him.

Kaiba was sitting at home at his office desk when he finally opened the Christmas card. He'd saved it until then so that he could treat himself when he got home—or so he told himself. Maybe he just liked having something to look forward to. The Christmas card happened to contain a single serving of tea. He hadn't known that chocolate tea was a thing, or that it even came in a peppermint variety, but he ordered a servant to bring him a cup of it anyways. He ended up liking it more than he thought he would. It was just chocolaty enough to seem indulgent without being sweet enough to be sickening.

Of course he could have bought it for himself, but he never would have, and this tea being hand selected for him by a friend gave it a value that couldn't have been measured with money.

JANUARY:

"What are you watching?"

"It's called Roland," Ryou answered from his fuzzy cocoon on the couch. Duke slipped off his shoes and went into the kitchen to put the kettle on for hot chocolate. "Apparently some alumni from my uni made it a few years ago."

"What's it about?" Duke took out a second mug and a second packet of cocoa mix.

"It's a film noir detective mystery," Ryou answered, eyes glued to the black and white footage of the fedora-wearing detective strolling down the center of an empty, snowy street. "The entire thing was shot in Domino, written by students, and produced without any outside help."

"Is it any good?" Duke asked as he spied on the TV screen from behind the island in the kitchen.

"The acting leaves a little something to be desired but it's quite good considering that it was self-funded." Ryou ate a spoonful of something from the bowl in his lap. "It's split into six forty-five-minute episodes, and the artistry of them is just gorgeous. They start each one with a silent montage with a violin solo and the protagonist reading a beautiful poem, and he has this amazing voice."

"Sounds like you're a fan," Duke teased playfully, pouring the hot water.

"It's purely from an artistic standpoint," Ryou defended, a little flustered. "But it does sound gorgeous. Oh, thanks." He took a small sip from the mug that Duke handed him as he sat next to him on the couch.

"Can I watch it with you?"

"Sure, I'll restart the episode."

"Oh, you don't have to do that," Duke started to say, pulling at the corner of Ryou's blanket so that it covered his legs and warded off the chill.

"It's fine, I want to," Ryou assured as he picked up the remote and started to rewind. "Besides, I love the intro, so I don't mind watching it again."

"What are you eating, by the way?" Duke was peering into Ryou's bowl curiously.

"It's pudding. Or at least, it's the lazy college student version of pudding."

"Did you… microwave a banana?"

"Hey, I added peanut butter and honey too."

"Is it any good?"

"I like to think so." Ryou pushed play.

"Which episode is this?"

"It's the second, but I can fill you in on what happened in the first one. So, the protagonist, Roland, is a detective, and he's got this hero complex, you see, so when the mafia starts taking over his town…"

Duke enjoyed the production, in no small part because Ryou enjoyed it. By the time it was over, Ryou was snuggled up under Duke's arm and half asleep.

FEBRUARY:

Valentines Day is such a racket, Kaiba mentally growled to himself after slamming his office door shut. He'd just overheard his assistant chatting to some other low level employee about someone in IT who'd proposed to his girlfriend in programming. Stories like that pissed him off. Other people's happiness had always made him unhappy.

Valentines Day is a commercial holiday invented to suck as much guilt-money out of the consumer as possible. I'd rather celebrate the Valentines Day Massacre by going to the shooting range with a machine gun.

This was also one of those holidays when people posted some of the most obnoxious things on social media. He didn't have a private Facebook account, but his company did, so if he was ever in the mood to be irritated, he could take a minute to access the account and cruise the feed. Kaiba didn't require a Facebook food in order to be irritated; however, Ryou found social media that day to be just as disheartening as the young executive did.

Ryou'd finished his homework at the library, so he came home to his shared apartment early in the day and connected his phone to the new stereo system Duke had set up. Ryou wasn't the kind to listen to his music outside of headphones, but it was cumbersome to tangle with the wires when folding laundry, which was his current task. It sounded great, and since Duke was working downstairs in the shop, he wasn't worried about bothering anyone else, giving him the freedom to sing along.

"You say to me now that you're sorry/ And like a fool I think it's true/ Well it's the same old song, with another year gone/ Singin' those old New Year Blues," Ryou sang along as he sorted their dirty laundry on the now-clean floor (he'd swept earlier). "Well I'm so low and broken-hearted/ Cause you and I were through before we started/ I guess it's out with the old man and in with the new/ Singin' those old New Year Blues."

He'd begun to favor the blues genre after the one night he'd given dancing a try. The only good thing to come out of that night was discovering a new music genre that he liked.

MARCH:

"Hey, are you okay?" Duke called as he came to a stop and turned to look back at Ryou, who'd come to a sudden halt. He turned just in time to see Ryou collapse onto the leafy grass of the park they were passing on their early morning run. Duke went over to him and knelt beside him, concerned. "Ryou, are you okay?" His roommate was gasping for air as he lay on his back, a dazed expression on his flushed face.

"I... just... can't... breathe..." Each word was punctuated by a rough gasp, and Duke placed a hand on Ryou's stomach, hoping it would calm him.

"Just relax and focus on taking slow breaths, nice and easy." Duke continued to murmur encouragement until Ryou was breathing normally again. "You don't have asthma, do you?"

"No, at least, not as far as I'm aware," Ryou answered, clearly embarrassed. "I've just never been able to breathe easily in cold weather like this."

"Maybe you'll get better with some practice." Duke lifted a hand to Ryou's sweaty forehead and pushed back the white bangs that were sticking to his skin. Ryou's cheeks seemed to darken at the touch, and Duke leaned forward over him further, eyes falling to Ryou's lips.

"I'm sorry for slowing you down."

"Don't apologize." Duke was leaning closer to his friend, eyes trained on his pink lips. He hesitated, then closed the distance between them, too impatient to wait any longer. Ryou blossomed for him, and Duke slid his hand from Ryou's stomach to his side, pulling him closer. He slid his hand under Ryou's shirt, stroking his stomach and reaching up wards towards his chest. Ryou squirmed under him, and Duke pulled back. Dead leaves were stuck in the soft white hair that pooled around his head and goosebumps were rising over his skin from the autumn chill and the cold earth beneath them. Seeing him like that, flustered and wanting and desirable as ever, drove Duke over the edge. He fell to the earth and seized Ryou's shirt in his hands, rolling them over so that he could lay atop him. Ryou's legs wrapped around his waist, hiking up his sides as Duke dominated a rough, hungry kiss.

Then the struggle to undress without releasing each other began. Duke had to roll them over again so that he could shove Ryou's shirt up and yank it off over his head. Duke was trying to shove down his own pants while Ryou squirmed until his own were half-way down his thighs. They were clumsily tangled together, but this amount of exposure was just enough. Instinct drove them to start rocking their hips together, and before they even knew what they were doing, they were humping each other like animals in heat.

"Duke!" Ryou cried, gripping his partner's shoulders until his fingernails dug into his skin. They were both panting hard, sweating a bit, and painfully close.

The distant sound of morning radio became more clear as Duke opened his eyes with a reluctant groan. Damn, not again... One hand snaked down to his boxers and seized his throbbing member. A squeeze, a few jerks, and he slumped down into his bed, face buried in fabric to silence his moan. It wasn't the most satisfying way to get off, but it worked.

He lifted his face from his pillow and rubbed his eyes with his clean hand, rolling over to lay on his back for a moment before sitting up properly. He'd awoken from his dream sprawled across his bed, his sheets an awful wreck that he wasn't in the mood to straighten out before going to work.

"Duke, it's time to wake up!" Ryou called from the main living area. "Your alarm's been going off for half an hour!"

"I'm up!" he called back, slapping the snooze button of his alarm clock.

Before anything else, he needed to take a shower.

Author Notes: "New Year Blues" is by Glenn Crytzer and his Syncopators (ft. Meschiya Lake).