It disgusted him, but he couldn't stop himself.

Katsuya ignited his lighter.

It made him smell like an ashtray. It made him cough violently. But it was just too addictive. He hated himself for it.

He cursed his father under his breath for getting him addicted to it.

And he lit his cigarette.

Most days he would stand out the front of his apartment and smoke until he stopped getting the urge to do so. Other days he would try resist his addiction, with varying results.

Today was one such day. He had tried to stop himself, but he just couldn't think straight without it. When he had tried to make breakfast, he had accidently made a shallow cut in one of his fingers. Walking to the lounge room had resulted in him banging his shin on the corner of the coffee table. He had tried to work on improving his deck today, but reading the card text and properly understanding what they did was almost impossible. He could only think about satisfying his craving for some nicotine. He had to give in.

He blew a puff of smoke and felt ill knowing what he was doing. He lowered his gaze in shame. Why was he like this?

"Oi, mutt." A familiar voice called. Footsteps approached from behind. It sounded strange to Katsuya. Usually it would be said in a mocking tone. But today it just sounded angry.

"What do you want, Kaiba?" Katsuya scoffed back at him. Katsuya knew what he was about to say.

Despite being able to hide his secret shame from Yugi and the others, Kaiba had went past his apartment a week ago while he was out front smoking and seen what he was doing.

"I thought I told you to stop."

"I'm not going to."

"Why? Are you trying to kill yourself? Do you think smoking makes you look tough?" Kaiba's frustration grew with every question.

"No, I don't think it looks tough. I don't want to die. What is it to you?"

"Answer my question first. Why don't you stop?"

"I can't, okay? Get your nose outta my goddamn business Kaiba. You have better things to do."

Kaiba narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. He didn't like being told what to do.

"No. You're coming with me."

"Why?"

"I'm going to make you quit smoking. This has gone too far."

As much as Katsuya desperately wanted to quit, he failed to see how Kaiba could make him. Everything he had tried to help himself quit failed. Besides, this was none of Kaiba's business. It literally made no sense to Katsuya that he cared.

"You can't make me do anything."

"Are you sure about that?" Kaiba glared at Katsuya and approached him.

Katsuya felt uneasy as Kaiba got closer.

"What are you about to do...?!" Katsuya asked with a half panicked tone. He studied Kaiba's movements as he walked and sensed something from him. Kaiba is serious. Kaiba is about to do something to me. Thoughts rushed through Katsuya's head. His body froze up at the sight of Kaiba's sharp glare.

Swiftly and sharply, Kaiba grabbed hold of Katsuya and held him still. Katsuya dropped his cigarette. Words refused to form in Katsuya's throat.

"This might hurt a bit."

Kaiba pulled a syringe from his pocket, took off the cap and injected the contents into one of the blonde's blood vessels. Slowly, Katsuya turned limp.

"Well, I guess you really are coming with me." Kaiba muttered under his breath. He scooped up Katsuya's legs and moved to exit the apartment complex.

Light bloomed into Katsuya's vision as he slowly drifted back to reality. Blinking to clear his vision, he started wondering what was happening. As soon as he realised last thing he remembered was Kaiba drugging him, he began to was that freak doing to him?

Katsuya took a moment to drink in his surroundings. He was lying on a dentist style chair in the middle of what looked like a sterile and futuristic lab. Typical Kaiba Corp aesthetic, Katsuya noted.

Katsuya didn't like waking up in such an unfamiliar place. But as much as he just wanted to get up and make a run for it, he couldn't move.

He was restrained to the chair.

Like clockwork, Kaiba walked into the room, not wearing his ridiculous coat for once, just moments after Katsuya woke up.

"Hope you had a good nap, puppy." Kaiba said in a joking tone. Katsuya found none of this funny.

"Kaiba, what the fuck is going on?"

"Did you lose your memory? I'm doing what I said I would do. Make you quit smoking. Stupid dog."

"Yeah, well drugging me seems to be taking it too far."

"I hardly see how. You had no intention of stopping, so desperate measures were required."

"What do you know anyway? My smoking habit is not your problem. Don't you have a stupid corporation to be commanding or something?"

Kaiba became frustrated fast.

"What do I know? That you should quit. And if you aren't going to fix your problem then I'm intervening."

"You make it sound like sound like I don't understand I should quit."

Kaiba didn't anticipate this. He was under the assumption that the blonde smoked because he liked it and didn't care about his health or quitting. A little shocked, Kaiba's eyes widened briefly. Katsuya continued speaking.

"I hate smoking. It is filthy and disgusting. But I can't quit."

"What do you mean 'can't' quit?!" Kaiba was incredibly mad at Katsuya's claim.

"It never works no matter how hard I try."

"Then let me help you quit, you stupid dog!"

"Well if I can't do it then how can you do it? I've tried everything."

"I own a company worth billions. What can't I do?"

"Money doesn't solve everything."

"Being smart does."

"You sicken me."

"Is that what you call an argument?"

Katsuya growled.

"Okay, so maybe that was uncalled for, but so was all of this. You aren't the caring type, rich kid."

The brunette glared at Katsuya. "I do what I want and nobody questions me. Know your place, puppy."

Kaiba crossed his arms and sighed.

"Well, in any case we better get started…"

Katsuya looked confused. What was there to start?

Kaiba walked over to a desk in the corner of the room and picked up a ring shaped item with a strap attached to it. He approached Katsuya and held it close to his face.

"Do you know what this is?" He asked.

Katsuya inspected it closely. It was dark grey, and looked like it was made of plastic and metal. The strap looped around a small metal pin on the outer section of the ring. It looked like it was made of leather. A section of the inside looked like it had pieces of plastic that could be moved or removed. The object made no sense to Katsuya.

Seeing the blonde make an expression of confusion, Kaiba continued talking.

"This is going to be your puppy training collar." Kaiba said, almost a little too seriously, leaving Katsuya wondering if he was being sarcastic.

"Excuse me?"

"It is an invention of mine."

"What does it do…?"

"Helps me train you. In this case, to stop smoking."

"Yeah, I gathered that, but how?"

"You'll see. We're about to use it anyway."

"You aren't putting that anywhere near me."

"I think you'll find I'm not giving you an option here." Kaiba said with a sadistic edge to his voice. Katsuya gulped.

Kaiba snapped part of the collar open so that it was apparent that there were two separate halves connected by a joint at the front of the collar.

Katsuya wanted to make this as hard as possible for his captor, but his restraints prevented him from squirming. He didn't want a strange device he didn't understand messing with him.

The brunette closed in with the collar, placed the joint at the front of Katsuya's neck and snapped the collar shut around it.

Suddenly, Katsuya felt a prick at the back of his neck. A cold and metallic object slipped through his flesh from the collar. Shocked by the odd feeling, his eyes widened and he grit his teeth.

"Don't worry about that, puppy. You won't notice it soon." Kaiba said, standing and watching Katsuya with arms folded and a triumphant expression.

"What… are you… do… ing..." Katsuya tried talking, but it became increasingly more difficult.

"That's good, it looks like it has started to kick in. Since you really badly want to know and keep begging like a good little doggy, I think I can explain how this collar works."

Katsuya felt himself rapidly losing energy.

"That collar has a syringe loaded in the back that administers chemicals. Once locked around somebody's neck, the collar injects very small doses of a anesthetic. It is just enough to safely deprive you of your ability to move, talk and make decisions for yourself." Kaiba explained, beginning to unfasten the straps that bound Katsuya to the chair, "The collar administers 2 more chemicals. The first is serotonin. This chemical is already created in your brain and makes you stop doing things. It is almost like a built in punishment for doing something bad. The second is dopamine, which is also created in your brain and makes you do things. It acts as a reward for doing the right thing. These chemicals get injected depending on what I say to you."

Seto stood back and took in the full scene of the unrestrained and exhausted looking Katsuya before him.

"Well, not that any of that matters anymore, you're probably too drugged out to understand properly."

Katsuya lay in the chair, unable to move. He couldn't properly process what was happening as his mind had gone blank. He was completely at Kaiba's mercy.

"Now then, Katsuya, I'm going to train you to quit smoking."

Deciding it was finally safe to stop his tough CEO act, Kaiba took a deep breath and his expression dropped to one of sincere concern.

"Katsuya Jonouchi, listen carefully. Do you really think I don't care about you? Do you know how hurt I felt when I passed your apartment the other day and saw you smoking? I went home that day and trashed my office. I was so mad. How could you neglect to look after yourself like that?!" Kaiba said with honestly in his voice. He took a moment to relax himself. If he was going to speak his mind, he should do it in a calmer manner, he decided.

As Kaiba had spoke, Katsuya felt a tingling in the back of his neck followed by sudden stab of regret. He had hurt Kaiba somehow. Smoking wasn't only hurting him, but it was hurting Kaiba.

The brunette saw despair flicker briefly onto his subject's face, and noted that the collar was doing its job

Kaiba continued, his voice becoming more pained as he did. "Katsuya, you have to stop. I don't want you to fall ill."

Katsuya felt another shot of hurt and regret. Tears started welling up in his eyes and rolling down his cheeks.

One thing was becoming apparent to Katsuya.

Smoking. This emotional pain isn't worth the addiction.

"I know you've never really trusted me. I know you think you've tried everything to stop yourself smoking. But you haven't, Katsuya. Let somebody support you. Stop trying to do this alone. Seeing you smoke the other day made me realise something. You might hate my guts, but I don't hate you back. The way I feel about you isn't what I thought it was. If I really hated you, why would I feel sad seeing you do this to yourself? I thought hard about that question. And I came up with an answer. I don't really hate you, far from it. I want the best for you. I realised that I want to protect you."

The blonde felt like he trusted those words. His dull mind urged him to do as Kaiba said.

Kaiba climbed over Katsuya and wrapped his arms around him tightly. "Be a good little puppy and stop smoking for me. Be my good little puppy. I'll help you out however I can."

Katsuya felt a strange feeling in the back of his neck. He felt like he needed to do as Kaiba asked. It was the right thing to do.

"Let's stay like this for a little bit." Kaiba said gently, moving a hand to wipe Katsuya's tears. "I guess you don't like smoking, from what you told me. You can quit, I promise. Don't ever say you can't. I'll help you with anything that hurts you, even if it isn't smoking."

Katsuya felt a little dizzy, and his memory was blurred. All he could recall were powerful emotions and Kaiba's voice. The collar was no longer around his neck, but the back of his neck stung a little.

The moment he had become properly conscious of what was going on around him, he noticed he was lying on Kaiba with his cheek resting on the brunette's chest. Kaiba was holding him protectively with one arm and stroking his hair gently with the other.

"Kaiba?"

"You can call me Seto, you know."

"Seto… what is going on?" Saying his first name felt strange.

"I've finished training you."

Katsuya could recall little to none of what Seto did to him.

"I… My memory… Why can't I…?" The blonde felt really confused. He didn't know what questions to ask.

"Don't worry about that, Katsuya."

Katsuya had never heard Seto refer to him using his first name. It had always been Jonouchi or some sort of dog related thing. However, it felt right when Seto used his given name.

"Why are we… like this?" Katsuya felt a bit awkward. He wondered how he ended up in such a position.

Kaiba didn't batter an eyelid. "Shhhhh…... Enough questions. Let me look after you." He pet Katsuya's head softly.

The blonde thought for a moment, and decided he was satisfied with that response. Seto's embrace felt warm and comfortable. Katsuya yawned.

"Katsuya, you must be tired. Perhaps you should get some rest." Seto tightened his hug.

"Mmmmm..." Katsuya replied, his eyelids already slowly falling shut.

The urge to smoke struck him as he closed his eyes though. But Katsuya didn't want to smoke more than ever. He knew he could quit, and Kaiba would help him. He ignored his instinct to smoke.

Katsuya fell asleep shortly after, lulled by the rhythm of Seto's breathing. He felt safe and protected in Seto's arms.