Ryou was working two to ten at the bakery that day, so he lounged about the apartment that morning, doing the laundry, cleaning the kitchen, dumping any expired items from the fridge. Keeping his hands busy kept him from overthinking things with Duke.
Later when he was at work, he got a text from Duke.
Do you want to watch the last episode of Roland tonight?
That was right; they'd stopped watching it a couple weeks ago before the last week of classes, followed by his last week of school in the form of exams week. They'd agreed to watch it once the school year was over for him.
{I'll be home around 10:30, so we can if you don't mind staying up so late}
I don't mind! :D
Duke's response was almost immediate, and it made Ryou's heart flutter.
Ryou munched on his Hot Pocket as the protagonist narrated the opening sequence with a heart-rending sonnet. Duke had spread a thin blanket over their laps when they first settled down together, and now, as Ryou chewed, Duke casually put his arm around Ryou's shoulders. Ryou had to make a mental effort to let himself relax against him.
It wasn't that hard, actually. They were already so close as friends, and they'd already spent so much of their time together, that it was easy to be comfortable. Even when Ryou had slumped sideways against Duke and the other's hand had fallen to rest on Ryou's chest, they were still comfortable.
And at the very end, as Roland's wife cried over his corpse in the falling snow, Ryou was comfortable with the fact that he'd cried a little there at the end. It surprised him, though, when Duke brushed aside Ryou's bangs unasked and wiped away a stray tear with his thumb. He started a little and started to sit up properly.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Duke apologized warmly.
"No, you didn't, it's fine," Ryou assured, too nervous in that moment to notice Duke leaning in close for a kiss until their lips touched and he froze.
"Relax," Duke murmured, placing a warm hand on Ryou's waist and leaning in to kiss him again. Ryou allowed himself to do just that, relaxing into Duke's embrace. Once he did, just like that, it became easier. They simply connected like they had the previous night. Duke's confidence seemed to wash away all of Ryou's self-conscious insecurities, and everything just felt right.
Ryou didn't need any more coaxing than Duke's gentle hand on his thigh, guiding Ryou into his lap as they kissed.
"You're so cute when your face is all pink like that." Duke's hands now rested quite comfortably on Ryou's hips, teasing him by rubbing his thumb on the Brit's stomach, just above his waistband. Ryou's hands had fallen to rest on Duke's shoulders by default, but he still felt the urge to run his fingers through Duke's hair. Duke's comment had made him blush more, but before Ryou had a chance to say a thing about it, Duke was kissing him again, more deeply, like last night, and Ryou was once more melting into him.
Finding the vein was easy, and he didn't have as much trouble with it as they said he would.
Idiots.
Seto Kaiba was not your average insomniac, after all.
He could have accepted his prescription in the form of an oral pill, but he was too impatient to accept a form of medication that took forty to sixty minutes to take effect. The injection was quicker, more efficient, and Kaiba wasn't the kind of man to have qualms about an intravenous medication.
After a few bouts of sleeplessness, he'd finally taken a bit of Ryou's advice and talked to a doctor about it. The doctor gave him a prescription, and the tiny slip of paper had been exchanged for a packet of drugs at a pharmacy.
This was his first time using it, so he depressed the plunger of the syringe with an air of skepticism, ready to write off the substance as ineffective and useless to him should he still be awake ten minutes from now. The full dosage having been administered, Seto neatly discarded the needle's tip, slapped a band-aid on the puncture, put away the syringe with the other tiny bottles of medication in his bottom night-stand drawer, and lay back on his bed. After a few moments, he flicked off the lights. He could already start to feel the effects of the sedative, and he couldn't help but sigh with relief.
It felt so wonderful to be freed from his own mind that he couldn't help but wonder at himself for never having tried drugs before now.
A/N: I'm sorry this is so short. I've been sitting on this chapter so long that I forgot what I was going to do with it. ^-^'
In case you haven't figured it out, I've been craving Hot Pockets lately. I can't have them anymore, though, since I became allergic to dairy. :'(