Dogs Do The Silliest Things, by Hikari M666 (formerly D W-K)
Dedicated to the forces that first led me to watch Yu-Gi-Oh – and this chapter to Lucy, whom I know has read this far, disgust or no disgust at yaoi Hello Lucy, drop a review some time!
Disclaimer: Take a wild guess.
It's holidays. It's one in the morning. I'm going to see how many chapters of this I can get done these holidays, though I'm also trying to do about three more stories as well. Let's see how I go, ey?
Read, enjoy, and review!
Ch. 19: And The Morning Comes
It was Seto who woke first. As he did every morning before opening his eyes, he went through his self-questioning.
Who am I?
Seto Kaiba, eighteen.
He no longer included his business title in that category. For now he was just Seto; he could be CEO of Kaiba Corp. later.
What day is it?
Hmm…was it Wednesday? Thursday? Or perhaps it was the weekend…no, wait, it was definitely Thursday. He wasn't keeping everything to tight schedule any more. not lagging behind, of course, but for now just knowing that he should get up was enough.
Anything unusual?
Plenty of things, come to think of it. It was far too bright outside to be early morning. But if he had overslept then Mokuba would have come bursting in by now. Actually, he couldn't even hear Mokuba's TV downstairs with the volume three times too loud. Why not?
Something stirred in his memory; that's right, Mokuba had stayed at a friend's place last night.
Why the hell did I let him do that?
Seto put it down to a good mood. He was allowed to be in a good mood now and then. And he put his good mood down to…
"Seto."
Ah, of course. Katsuya Jounouchi.
Seto blinked once, twice, getting used to the sunlight. Then he turned on his side to face the blonde next to him. "Jou?" he murmured.
Jou had said his name, but still looked asleep. He was resting on his stomach, arms supporting his head, hair messy and half-covering his eyes. His mouth was closed and his breathing was deep.
Seto frowned slightly. He knew Jou had said his name.
"Jou?" he tried again.
Jou rolled onto his back. "Seto…"
Sleep talking.
Rolling his eyes, Seto stretched and pushed himself into sitting position. He looked at the clock: ten past ten.
"Shit," he groaned. This was going to cause some problems. True, it wasn't as if he'd never missed school before, but he had only done so with good reason. Having one's boyfriend over didn't qualify as a good reason. "Jou. Up. Now."
Typically, Jou ignored him and began to snore.
Honestly, Seto thought as he grabbed Jou's shoulders and shook him roughly.
Jou was taken by surprise, and made it quite evident that he was now awake.
"AAGH!" he screamed, jumping up and swinging his arms, almost hitting Seto in the face. Then, after a moment, he realised where he was. "Damn…you scared me!"
Seto shrugged; there was no point saying sorry when he wasn't. "We're late."
"Late?" Jou repeated, confused.
"For school."
He still looked blank. "You woke me up for school?"
"Puppy!" Seto scrambled (if it could be called scrambling. Everything he did seemed unnaturally yet gracefully controlled) out of bed and went straight to his walk-in wardrobe, emerging with a fresh uniform in hand. Then he began rummaging through his dresser drawers. Jou, meanwhile, was still wrapped in sheets, and was looking fixedly at Seto. "What? Why are you staring?"
Jou couldn't keep the grin from spreading over his face. "Kinda hard not to stare when you're walking around like that."
"Walking around like wha- oh, shut up." Seto just realised that he wasn't wearing anything. Not that he was surprised, he just hadn't noticed.
Jou shrugged, still smiling. "Hey, I'm not complaining." And who in their right mind would be?
Seto chose to ignore that comment. "Just get up and get ready."
"Why bother?" Jou asked. "We'd only get busted for being late."
Seto was still going through his drawers, but he seemed to have forgotten that he actually had a purpose for doing so. He had cast aside practically every piece of clothing in the drawers without so much as looking at them, such was the extent of his distraction.
"So what are you suggesting?" he asked.
"Just skip."
Still rummaging pointlessly through his clothes, Seto snorted. "Yeah. Right." Jou raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously. Let's just skip," he repeated.
Seto finally stopped his actions, the drawers looking very dishevelled. He was frowning. "We can't do that."
"Why not?"
"Because – it's – " It was a very rare occasion when Seto Kaiba had no words.
"Relax. I've done it plenty of times. It doesn't mean anything," Jou assured. Seto didn't move, he was frozen there with a calculating look on his face. "Come on."
After a very long pause, Seto closed the drawers and tossed his uniform on the end of the bed. Narrowing his eyes at Jou, he said, "You're rubbing off on me."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Jou grinned.
"Isn't it?"
Seto smirked before withdrawing back into the walk-in wardrobe, leaving Jou alone in the main part of the room. After debating with himself whether or not it was worth moving. Jou pushed down the sheets and got up, picking up off the floor whatever clothes of his he could find. He felt a little embarrassed knowing that Seto was changing into what was no doubt an expensive, pristine outfit, whilst he had to make do with what he was wearing yesterday.
But it seemed that Seto was prepared for everything. When he came back from the wardrobe, not only was he immaculately dressed, but he was holding another set of clothes.
"You think I'd force you to wear that for another day? This is something old of mine, so it should fit you." He handed them to Jou, who looked disbelieving. "What's the matter?"
Jou shook his head. "Nothing. Thanks, Seto." He accepted the outfit. Even his own parents had never let him so much as touch clothes like these, which really brought home to him just how genuinely nice Seto was beneath the often-cold exterior. Jou had somehow broken through that exterior and released a part of Seto that he hadn't previously known existed, and in doing so had paved the way for the past week of life changing experiences.
And speaking of experiences…
"Er – Seto?" he said hesitantly.
Seto stared at him intently. "Yes?"
Jou was undoubtedly blushing. "Er…last night. I – I just – " He paused, not really knowing how to say what he wanted to say.
Luckily, Seto saved him the trouble. "Don't say anything because you feel obliged. It doesn't need words if you don't want it to."
Jou, though surprised by Seto's near-poetic response, said, "No, I do wanna say something. It's just – hard – to say."
Seto shrugged. "Give it a shot then."
"I – I thought last night was…" No words indeed. Jou couldn't think of a single one that accurately measured the happiness he felt. Instead, he smiled sheepishly. "Well, you get what I'm trying to say."
"I think I do," Seto said, a ghost of his old smirk appearing, though not as superior and daunting as it once was. "And I agree. Of course."
Some time later, the two found themselves in the living room on the couch, Seto half-lying, half-sitting and Jou resting with his head on his boyfriend's shoulder. They had taken their time getting downstairs and eating, surprisingly not because they were too tired or too busy fooling around, but because the time spent doing the most simple things seemed so much more valuable when they were together. They didn't have to be doing anything to enjoy each other.
The TV wasn't even on. They were just lying there, never once considering that it was a waste of time.
"Seto," Jou said eventually, breaking the comfortable silence. His tone was that of someone who had just spent a great deal of time thinking.
"Mm?"
"You know what I want to do one day?" he said thoughtfully.
"What's that?"
"See you at work."
Seto raised an eyebrow. "Why would you want to do that?"
Jou gave a noncommital shrug. "I dunno, it's just something I want to do. Maybe because I'd want to see what you've done for your whole life. Maybe because I want to see what it is that's made you so rich. Just – I dunno, it's a part of you, right? So I want to know it." Seto gave him a funny look. "I know, kinda stupid-sounding, but – "
"It's not stupid-sounding," Seto interrupted softly. "I can't say I've ever heard anybody say something like that."
"Really?" Jou said, a bit surprised at Seto's reaction.
"And of all people to say it, I never would have guessed it would be you."
"Yeah, well, I guess we've found out lots of stuff about each other that we'd never have guessed, right?" Jou smiled.
Seto chuckled. "I suppose we have." Then, he unexpectedly grabbed Jou's chin and tilted his head up, bringing him in for a kiss.
Jou's eyes closed instinctively as he kissed back. It was amazing, the feeling that Seto gave him. It was always strong, but even more so when kissing – and at its most last night. He couldn't understand it.
When they separated, both wearing satisfied smiles, Seto spoke again. "You know, if seeing me at work is what you'd really want to do, I could arrange it today."
"Really? You could?" Jou's eyes lit up like a small child's. He had been telling the truth when he said that he wanted to see this part of Seto's life because it was a part of Seto, and he could only begin to comprehend why it suddenly felt so important to him. "We could go to your work today?"
Seto nodded. "It's not as though it will be difficult."
Jou grinned. "Can we go now?"
Smiling back, Seto slowly stood up, bringing Jou up with him. He alerted his chauffeur immediately and it wasn't long before the couple were on their way to Kaiba Corp.
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