Notes: This is a fic collection spawned from a "non-sexual acts of intimacy" prompt list I found on tumblr, with each fic taking place at a random point in Yuugi and Jounouchi's lives (and therefore, relationship). In my version of events, Yuugi and Jounouchi don't become a romantic couple until they're around 23/24, so a good number of these will take place before they've realized their feelings and decided to make their relationship explicitly romantic. Despite this, I consider this to be a Wishshipping collection anyway, since every moment that happens in these fics is just another stepping stone to their relationship reaching that point. I'll note the prompt that I've filled in the chapter dropdown list (so if there is one that interests you more than the rest, you can skip to it since these don't go in chronological order), with the actual title of the ficlet being noted in the header to the fic itself.

With all of that said, this first one takes place when they're about 22/23, and living in their shared apartment near Yuugi's university. And as a final note specific to this one, the "nicknames" seen later in this chapter aren't really nicknames in the sense that neither of them would say them out loud. Since he was hurry, Yuugi just wrote the first character of each of their names (in kanji) rather than the whole thing.

Anyway, that's enough of that. If you read this, please review it.

The Space Between Our Hands

One: Something Borrowed

At this point in his life, Yuugi had gotten fairly decent at keeping up with most household chores. He and Jounouchi had a good system worked out for keeping the dishes clean, Yuugi was good at paying attention to when it was his turn to vacuum and sweep the floors, and they were both pretty good at making sure the trash cans stayed relatively empty. But if there was one chore that Yuugi just could not bring himself to complete with any sort of decent regularity, it was laundry.

It was ridiculous, he knew, because his "schedule" for laundry meant that he was always dragging a laundry bag loaded with two thirds of his weight in clothes to and from the laundromat every couple of weeks, and it also meant that he was usually scrambling in the very depths of his closet to find something to wear when he inevitably ran out of clothes. (Of course, Jounouchi's method of wearing the same pants for a week was a useful one in situations like this, but even that method had its limits.) But no matter how painful the consequences were, Yuugi hated doing laundry. He hated it. At least when it came to loading the dishwasher he could make something of a game of it by trying to find a pattern that would let him cram in as many dishes as possible. There was only so much fun to be had sorting laundry, and at this point in his life, Yuugi was pretty sure he'd exhausted it all.

But that left him with the problem he faced today. Yuugi picked a long sleeved shirt off the top of his laundry hamper, sniffed it, and then dropped it back with a disgruntled sigh. All of his long sleeved shirts and sweaters were dirty. All of them. He still had t-shirts and sleeveless tops, but while the winter frost hadn't completely set in, the autumn air was cold enough that he knew he was in for a bad time if he went out in just a t-shirt under his jacket. He needed something warmer, but he'd put off doing his laundry for so long that he had nothing . . .

Yuugi glanced at his window, through which he could see the no doubt chilly wind whipping through the trees just outside, and sighed again. There was nothing for it. He was just going to have to tough it out.

Thoroughly regretting every decision that had led to him procrastinating his laundry for so long, Yuugi pulled on a fresh t-shirt before he grabbed his laptop case off his desk chair. He could do this, he told himself. He would still have his jacket. He might freeze halfway to death on the way to school, but he wouldn't freeze completely. He could do it.

In lieu of a coat rack or wall hooks, Yuugi and Jounouchi draped their jackets and hoodies across the furniture in their living room and kitchen. The tables were off-limits, since they needed to eat off those, and the television was off-limits because they needed to be able to see the screen. But anything that could be sat on was fair game for a coat, jacket, or hooded sweatshirt.

Case in point, when he stepped out of his room Yuugi saw that he had tossed his jacket over the back of the living room chair the previous day, and that Jounouchi had left one of his pullover hoodies thrown over the arm of the couch. He had been planning to go straight for his jacket before he slipped on his shoes and left, but when his eyes fell on the hoodie that Jounouchi had left behind, he paused.

Jounouchi, he was pretty sure, was sleeping. He had worked an overnight the previous night, and it was only six in the morning (a horrible hour, in Yuugi's opinion, and he cursed his professors for setting morning classes just as much as he cursed himself for procrastinating on doing his laundry). By the time he woke up, Yuugi would already be gone to class. Yuugi didn't know if Jounouchi had anywhere to be today—it was his day off, Yuugi thought, but he couldn't be positive—but even if he did, there were always other hoodies . . .

Yuugi crossed the room to the couch, put his laptop case on the floor, and then grabbed the hoodie off the couch.

It was dark green and super soft, probably because of how well-worn it was. It smelled strongly of Jounouchi when Yuugi pulled it over his head—a combination of the "ocean" scented body wash he used, and the laundry detergent they shared. The hoodie was far too big for Yuugi; the sleeves fell past his hands and the bottom of the hoodie nearly reached his knees, probably because Jounouchi always liked to buy his hoodies a size up from what he needed. It was almost funny how huge it was, but mostly it was comfortable and warm. Yuugi grinned as he pulled the sleeves up so that he could swipe the notepad and pen they used to leave notes for each other off the counter. Jounouchi wouldn't care that Yuugi was borrowing his sweatshirt, Yuugi knew, but he scrawled a quick note anyway:

'Jou —

Borrowed your hoodie, hope you don't mind. Coffee should be ready when you wake up.

—Yuu'

Yuugi set the note on the arm of the couch where the hoodie had been, and then darted into the kitchen to set the coffee to brew, as promised. At the very least, even if Jounouchi did care that Yuugi had borrowed his hoodie for whatever reason, he'd have some morning coffee to cheer him up.

As he grabbed his laptop case and headed for the front door again, Yuugi eyed his jacket. The smart thing to do would be to pull it on over the hoodie, to make extra sure that the dreaded cold couldn't freeze him on his way to school. But no, he thought, as he slipped on his shoes, he didn't need it. Jounouchi's oversized hoodie was bound to keep him warm enough, no doubt about it.

Yuugi grabbed his keys off the TV stand, pulled the hood up to protect his ears from the autumn wind, and then headed off to school.