"Are you doing well, Seto?" Ryou asked as he and Kaiba left the coffee-shop together. He was going to the library after this, which was in the same direction as KaibaCorp, so they were going to walk together until they reached the office building. "You seem lonely—more so than usual, I mean."

Maybe it was that tired look in his blue eyes, or the bored way he'd traced the edge of his coffee cup, but Ryou had a strong sense that the brunette wasn't feeling well. The executive didn't seem physically ill; if he had to comment on Kaiba's health, Ryou would say that he was as hale and hearty as ever, from what he could see. It was his heart that seemed troubled, not his body or his mind. If it were a rational problem, surely Kaiba would be able to remedy it for himself. If it were an emotional one, though, it would simmer below the surface and stay there a long time; he'd done it before, with his long-standing grudge against Yugi, so there was little doubt he'd do that again.

"I'm fine," he replied automatically, but his answer didn't convince Ryou at all. "Why do you ask?"

"You seem quite melancholy today." A rue observation, and Ryou snuck a glance at the brunette out of the corner of his eye as they walked along to see his reaction. "Is Mokuba doing well? It's been a while since I've seen him." If anything would be certain to cause Kaiba to look so troubled, it would be trouble with Mokuba.

"He's doing fine. He excels at his studies and he enjoys visiting the different KaibaLand locations with me." Seto looked a bit disgruntled, as if he thought Ryou suspected the brothers were bickering.

"I'm glad to hear that." The warm words carried Ryou's sincerity. "Mokuba's a good kid, and you've done a good job raising him."

The brunette's shoulders stiffened, and at first Ryou wondered if Kaiba was bothered by that comment, but then he noticed the traces of a faint blush dusted across his cheekbones, and Ryou broke out into a grin. He was stiff simply because he was awkward at accepting praise relating to anything other than his work.

"Thank you." His words were just as stiff as his shoulders, and Ryou had to suppress a small laugh. He didn't want Seto to think that he was mocking him. After a few moments of silence that felt uncomfortable for only one of them, Kaiba asked, "What makes me seem melancholy to you?"

He sounded genuinely curious, though it was thinly veiled. Ryou appreciated that Kaiba felt comfortable enough to simply be expressive with him.

"It's partially your eyes," the college student answered thoughtfully, giving the best answer he could. "They kept straying down when we were sitting together. And you were tracing the rim of your cup; you don't normally fidget like that, so it seemed like something was troubling you that you didn't know how to solve or address. And besides, you were sighing more than usual."

Kaiba scoffed. "I wasn't sighing."

"Oh, yes you were!" Ryou teased gently. "You're just unaware of how your melancholy manifests itself." After a moment, Ryou added more seriously, "Though I suspect you're at least aware of the melancholy itself."

He was correct, of course; Ryou was the only person who could understand him so well. He was observant and patient, and attentive to who Kaiba was as a human. He didn't see Kaiba as an asset, a resource, a celebrity, a duelist, an executive, a billionaire. He just saw Kaiba as a man and took him for what he was. That kind of compassion was so new to him that it inspired feelings he didn't know how to interpret. An odd warmth bloomed in his chest, uncomfortable but not unpleasant. His chest felt a bit restricted, but he could still breathe.

"You're not wrong," he confessed quietly, still staring straight ahead. He could trust Ryou with this, even if he had no desire to explain the cause of his malaise.

"I hope that it passes soon," Ryou replied softly, his voice the gentlest sound Kaiba'd heard all day. "It might take some time, but I hope that the situation remedies itself soon. You deserve to be happy, Seto."

Ryou'd said the same thing the night of the party, when he'd exorcised Gozaburo's ghost. Kaiba could feel his face getting hot. He was the only person who'd ever dared to speak to him like that. He didn't have the time to recover his composure before Ryou tripped over his own shoelace. Ryou began to fall forward, but Kaiba moved in front of his friend in time to catch him, hands on his shoulders to hold him up as he used his body to block him from falling face-down on the ground.

The student's hands had extended in front to catch himself as he fell, and they landed squarely on Kaiba's chest as he fell into him.

"Ah, thank you." Ryou straightened up when he'd repositioned his feet, smiling up at Kaiba as he blushed in embarrassment. "I'm a bit of a klutz sometimes."

The sidewalks were mostly empty at the moment, a fact that Kaiba was peripherally aware of. Ryou looked absolutely radiant, eyes sparkling as they gazed up at Kaiba. A semi-truck drove past them on the street, and as the gust of wind fluttered their hair and the bulk of the truck blocked them from others' view, Seto dipped his head down to press his lips to Ryou's. It was a small kiss, a soft one, shy and heartfelt, thought it lasted only for a second. For as long as the kiss lasted, the two of them seemed to be in a world of their own.

The truck passed, the air settled, and suddenly Seto was a few feet in front of him, hand covering his mouth, eyes slightly widened as if he was surprised by his own actions.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that." Kaiba turned and crossed the street, running out between cars as Ryou stood in shocked silence. He lifted his fingers to his lips as he turned around, feeling stunned.

It took him a short while to process what had just happened.

Seto Kaiba had kissed him, and he'd liked it.

No. He couldn't like it. That would make him unfaithful, and he loved Duke! Duke didn't deserve to be cheated on!

But the more Ryou thought about the kiss, the more he realized that he cared for Kaiba, truly cared about him. And that he wanted to kiss him again...

I'm such a horrible person, he thought bitterly, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

He didn't feel like going to the library any longer, but he couldn't go back home either. He'd just feel horribly guilty. He wouldn't be able to face Duke.

No, he needed to go somewhere else. He needed to run away for a little while, at least until he felt like himself again.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up..." Duke muttered to himself as he called Ryou's cellphone for the tenth time in the past hour, praying that his boyfriend would answer his phone this time. Ryou had been out of touch for hours, and Duke was getting increasingly worried. He didn't consider himself a clingy boyfriend, but Ryou not answering his phone in hours, not coming home when he said he would, and not telling Duke where he'd planned on going before he disappeared into thin air.

It was dark outside, and just starting to rain, and Ryou didn't have a car or a jacket. He had his phone, but he wasn't answering—

The ringing ended and Duke heard the faint sound of someone breathing on the other end.

"Ryou? Ryou are you there? Are you okay?" Duke didn't mean to sound frantic, but his rapid-fire questions came out that way.

"I'm sorry." Ryou's words were a faint whisper, his voice breaking on a sob.

"Where are you? Are you safe? What's wrong?"

"Yes... I'm sorry, I just have to run away for a little while..." Ryou sounded like he was crying, and it made Duke's heart twist in his chest.

"Where are you, Ryou? Why do you want to run away? I'll come pick you up, just tell me where you are... Ryou?" He'd already hung up. Duke grabbed his keys and his windbreaker, and a hoodie for Ryou when he found him.

He'd mentioned running away; that always brought one place to mind for Duke, and it was as fair a guess as any that Ryou might be there, alone in his sadness, though Duke had no idea what had upset him. He could wait until he actually found Ryou before he tried to figure that out: Ryou's safety took priority right now. Anything else could be sorted out after he was found.