At first they just stay like that, lips pressed together over the barrier between the seats, Kaiba's hair brushing the bridge of Jounouchi's nose. Then suddenly, with no warning, Kaiba has control. His hands come up to cup Jou's face, tongue breaching the barrier of his lips and making Jou inadvertently gasp into his mouth.

Jounouchi's head is spinning, though whether from the lack of oxygen or the mere insanity of this he cannot tell.

His hands are in Kaiba's hair, almost of their own volition, and Kaiba's fingers are hard and hot against his pulse. It's crazy, it's completely crazy, because Jounouchi has never thought about this once but at the same time, he knows he's been thinking about it since he first met Kaiba, and it's impossible to even form a coherent idea of what's in his mind. So it's a good thing he doesn't have to think about that, and can just surrender.

Then their mouths aren't together anymore, and Jou is left staring into Kaiba's eyes, from closer than he's ever been to him. Maybe closer than he's ever been to anyone, now that he thinks about it. At least, close with purpose.

And the first thing that springs to his mind to say is Why did you do that, except he can't say that, because it was him who did it. And he knows exactly why, anyway, even if he can't really think about it.

"I hate you, you know," Kaiba says before Jou can speak anyway, almost conversationally, though his voice is low and slightly breathless. His eyes are wider than usual, and filled with something that Jounouchi can't quite identify but which makes sense. He looks sort of how Jounouchi feels.

"Then why didn't you just let me freeze?" he asks in almost a whisper, although he thinks he already knows the answer.

Kaiba just watches him for a moment, and they're not quite touching but close enough that Jounouchi thinks he can feel the heat from Kaiba's skin. For the first time in Jou's memory Kaiba looks something other than completely in control. Not quite uncertain, but less than sure of himself.

"Because," he says finally, looking at Jounouchi with a strange sort of anger, "I don't actually hate you."

"Oh," replies Jou, like he understands perfectly which, in a weird way, he does. This is naturally absolutely lunatic, all of it is one hundred percent crazy and obviously a byproduct of -- claustrophobia, or something, but in this moment, Jounouchi thinks he understands.

He looks at Kaiba, who doesn't actually hate him, although of course he really does, otherwise it wouldn't be the two of them, and Kaiba looks back.

"I just hate everything about you," Kaiba says as if in continuation, almost like a provocation, and they're still so close together that Jou can feel the words on his lips. Suddenly, with all the subtlety of an avalanche, it's as if something snaps between them. Some wire barrier which has been stretched tightly between them forever has finally broken, and their lips crush together across the seats again.

And the thing is, Jounouchi has never wanted anything so much in his life.

It's almost as if he had been waiting for this, even though of course he knows he wasn't. But now with Kaiba's tongue in his mouth, fingers threaded hard through his hair, he is aware of something raw and growling and primal rising up in him from the darkest recesses of his psyche. Even as he's telling himself he never wanted this, he knows that he did all along.

It's hot and desperate, Kaiba pulling him across the seat to straddle his lap, steering wheel jabbing into his back. There are fingers pulling at the neck of his shirt and a wet, hot mouth at his ear, sending electric shivers down his spine.

"I don't want this," he assures Kaiba faintly, gasping slightly, even though it doesn't even attempt to sound like the truth. He can't stop the way his hands pull at Kaiba's tie, fingers fumbling desperately at the buttons of his shirt and Kaiba growls something unintelligible in reply. Probably something about how Jounouchi not wanting this is total bullshit, and they both know it.

Jou doesn't even care, to be completely honest.

Kaiba's skin is smooth and hot beneath his shirt, and Jou rips off more than a few buttons on the way down. Kaiba shrugs his shirt off of his shoulders even though it's still clinging at his waist by two buttons, pulling Jounouchi in for another bruising kiss at the same time. There's no time to think, no room for anything but sweat and skin and that burning, crackling electric energy which simultaneously pushes them apart and binds them tighter together.

They can't seem to kiss enough, lips crashing together again and again, separating only for Jounouchi to pull his shirt quickly over his head and throw it aside. Jou can't even think about it anymore. There is only here, and now, and Kaiba's lips and tongue and strong, confident hands making the nerves just below his skin quiver.

"I still hate you," he whispers without thinking, although he doesn't. What they have isn't exactly hate. It's volatile, and it involves wanting to punch at every opportunity and also, equally, wanting to kiss and pretend it's the same thing. It's electric, scorching hot, made of something molten and constantly shifting, impossible to define. Kaiba's teeth graze Jou's pulse, causing his breath to catch sharply in his throat.

"Of course you do," comes the reply, each word hot on his neck. Kaiba's voice is low and dangerous, just barely a snarl. He looks nearly totally calm but for an almost-desperate sneer, the facade betrayed only by that and the way his hands catch at Jounouchi's shoulders, neck, collarbone, like he wants to touch every part of him at once. Jou understands the sentiment. He wants to somehow kiss and bite at the same time, to hurt viciously with an odd, special sort of tenderness.

"I never wanted to kiss you," he tells Kaiba, although that, too, is a lie. The words turn into an involuntary gasp as Kaiba's blunt nails dig into the soft skin of his lower back, probably leaving marks. He doesn't reply, and Jounouchi can't look him in the eye. Instead, he drags his tongue down a sharp collarbone, tasting the salty tang of sweat.

Kaiba makes a noise when he bites down, an undefinable kind of sound caught somewhere between a gasp and a tiny moan. His fingers are still hard on Jounouchi's back, moving to grip his hips and holding him in place. It's all turning into a blur, a strange tumbled mix of wild eyes and hot breath and stumbling, frantic fingers, Kaiba tugging his belt off and Jounouchi fumbling with the unnecessarily complex clasp on expensive suit pants.

There's skin on skin, then, and Jounouchi can't help but choke on a sharp inhale when Kaiba touches him.

"Oh," he says like a long exhale, eyes sliding shut as his head falls forward onto Kaiba's sweaty shoulder, "oh."

The air inside the car is humid and almost muggy, and Jounouchi wonders detachedly how he could ever have been afraid of freezing. Everything is bright and out of focus when he opens his eyes, Kaiba's dark eyelashes and parted lips and sharp, hungry-looking eyes. He looks like he wants to say something but doesn't know how, or rather, doesn't want to know how. It's alright, though, because Jounouchi knows anyway.

His wrist crosses Kaiba's and Kaiba's mouth goes slack, eyes sliding to the side and then back to Jou's face as something stutters across his face like heat lightning. He whispers something that sounds like several obscenities, tripping over one another on the way out. Jounouchi can barely think, it's all tight and close-together and Kaiba's fingers, which are the most important thing, but for the way the expression in Kaiba's half-closed eyes is ripped wide open with naked desire.

"Fuck," says Jounouchi, and his voice doesn't even sound like him but there's no room to think about that, "I hate you so much, oh god -- "

"Fucking shut up," Kaiba is groaning, and his bangs are clinging sweatily to his flushed forehead as he squeezes his eyes closed so tightly it almost looks painful. Strangely, Jounouchi wants to kiss him just where those eyelashes brush his cheeks. It's an isolated thought, oddly potent, awash in a wild sea of heat and pleasure and complete abandon.

Even through the haze, like an electric current surging through his veins, he's struck by how open Kaiba looks. He's watching Kaiba Seto unravel thread by thread, he realizes suddenly, and it sends an extra shock straight between his legs.

He never thought he would get to witness Kaiba completely lose control, but he's not going to lie and say he never wanted to.

Kaiba's swearing again, eyes closed and head thrown back, the pale skin of his throat trembling. It's hard to concentrate on any one thing, everything seems to be closing in on Jou as he keeps his hand moving even though he's drowning in an ocean of sensation and heat like a wildfire. It's like being engulfed by the sun, and it's impossible to do anything but want.

"Shit," he says, unable to control his words or the wildly varying pitch of his voice, "oh, Kaiba, oh -- "

And then it's all heat for a second, spiraling up and up and out of control, like being inside a bolt of lightning. Somewhere, Jounouchi can hear Kaiba make a bitten-off, strangled sort of noise and he can't think of anything except how he never wants anything else.

#

Silence reigns inside the car but for two heaving chests and the sound of quiet panting. The air is still heavy and almost tropical-feeling, and Jounouchi thinks insanely that they should open a window.

Kaiba's cheeks are flushed very pink, lips pushed apart. Jounouchi still can't think. He needs to say something, the reason is unclear, but he really, really needs to say something. Now is probably the part where Kaiba punches him in the face, or he punches Kaiba in the face, or one of them pushes the other out into the snow to freeze. Or at least, that's what's supposed to happen.

Although, actually, Jounouchi doesn't think any of those things really will.

Kaiba's eyes are amazingly, impossibly blue, and Jou can neither meet them nor precisely look away.

"Look," he starts, voice cracking, unsure of where he is actually going with the sentence. Kaiba interrupts him anyway, barely opening his lips to allow the words out.

"Just, just -- be quiet."

He at least needs to shove Jou over onto his own seat, Jounouchi thinks with some amount of wonder. His hand is still anchored on the headrest next to Kaiba's head, the other sticky and kind of vaguely touching his thigh.

"Aren't you going to push me off?" he whispers, forehead hovering somewhere just above Kaiba's naked shoulder.

"If you don't shut up," Kaiba says in almost a matching whisper, "I'll throw you through the windshield."

"Oh," replies Jounouchi, and it seems somehow his head has found a place for itself on Kaiba's shoulder of its own accord, mouth nestled in the juncture where neck and shoulder meet, "alright."

"Good dog," Kaiba barely mumbles, and one of his hands comes down to rest very lightly on Jou's lower back, like a butterfly landing.

"One more thing," says Jounouchi, despite the threat of violent car-ejection, because he needs to know. "We still hate each other, right?"

"Of course," Kaiba replies in a slow, tired whisper, and then it's all dark and quiet and surprisingly warm and for once, everything feels right.

#

A/N: Can I just say again, THANK YOU FOR REVIEWING, I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Seriously. TEARS OF JOY, every time. Anyway, this story's just about over, and I really hope you guys liked it.