Jounochi awoke to the sound of his phone buzzing against his nightstand, which was less of a night-stand and more of a stack of milk crates sitting next to his bed that he sat all of his things on. He rubbed his hand languidly over his face and grabbed his phone. It was a text from Anzu.

Is it safe to call?

Jounochi flipped his phone open and called her. Before he could say a word, Anzu's voice ripped through the receiver.

"Jounochi!" She screeched. "How dare you leave Yugi to do your dirty work!?"

Jounochi sighed and rolled over onto his stomach.

"Anzu, I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't had Yugi do my homework for me in months."

"Kaiba, Jounochi! He called me this morning and told me about you," Anzu replied.

Jounochi stifled a yawn and sighed again. "Anzu, listen, I just knew that he would be better at explaining than I am so I figured that it was a better idea. But yeah, I did kind of kiss Seto Kaiba…"

Anzu gasped. "Kissed?! Yugi didn't mention a kiss!"

"Oh, he didn't? I was just messing with you, then. I lied about the kiss," Jounochi said quickly, his cheeks growing hot. Leave it to Yugi to leave something like that out.

Anzu scoffed on the other end of the line. "Nice try, Jounochi. I know you're not lying. I can't believe you kissed Kaiba."

"Yeah, um, I know that it's weird, but that's where I'm at in my life right now, so, if you've got a problem with it,-"

"NO!" Anzu exclaimed, sounding scandalized. "Who do you think I am? I'm not going to hate you just because you're gay, that would be awful of me."

"I'm not—whatever."

Jounochi's phone buzzed once against his ear. Text message.

Anzu sighed. "Well, we wanted Kaiba to be in our friend group, maybe he will now that you guys are an item."

"We're not an 'item'," Jounochi replied. "He hasn't told me if he wants to be with me or not. I'm sure he'll hang with us more." He left out the fact that he did spend the weekend making out with Kaiba, but he figured that that bit of information wasn't essential.

"Okay, that's great!" Anzu said. There were muffled voices on her side of the phone. "Hey, Yugi is here. See you at school?"

"Uh, yeah," Jounochi replied. He hung up the phone and got dressed haphazardly. He grabbed his phone off of his pillow and looked at his text. It was from Honda.

If you didn't have a shitty flip phone I'd send you an eggplant emoji.

Jounochi frowned.

Kaiba was absent from school.

Jounochi didn't mind so much because he wasn't sure if he was ready to handle navigating their awkward and admittedly mostly physical relationship in front of his friends, but he couldn't help feeling a little disappointed that the rich boy hadn't shown up.

When the final bell rang Jounochi gathered up his things and followed his friends out into the hall.

"I guess you broke him," Honda joked. Jounochi narrowed his eyes at him.

"Shut up. I haven't broken anything. He misses school all the time you asshole," Jounochi spat back.

"Do you know where he is?" Anzu asked. Jounochi shrugged.

"I'm not his keeper. We'll probably see him tomorrow, anyway. You can ask him where he was then."

"Or you can ask him right now," Yugi chimed in. "He's coming down the hall."

The four of them stopped walking just as Kaiba approached them. His face had its usual gloomy countenance.

"Good afternoon," he said, nodding slightly. Anzu, Yugi, and Honda all waved. Jounochi stuffed his hands in his pockets, willing himself to not blush. Surprisingly, he found that it mostly worked.

Kaiba looked over at Jounochi, his ears turning pink.

"Jounochi, um, nice to see you," he muttered. "I suppose you're doing well since I saw you last?"

Jounochi nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Are you going to be in town for piano tomorrow?"

Kaiba's face flushed red. Jounochi blinked innocently, but he knew exactly why Kaiba was getting flustered. All last weekend they spent their piano lesson time kissing, and Seto Kaiba was a sucker for kisses which cracked Jounochi up because they were the most G-rated kisses he'd ever participated in. He hadn't asked, but he figured it was safe to assume that no one else had kissed Kaiba before him, which secretly made him giddy.

Kaiba cleared his throat and regained his composure. "Actually, I will be out of town for the next two days on a business meeting, so if we could move… piano to Thursday or Friday that would be better."

"Alright," Jounochi replied, giving Kaiba a thumbs up. Kaiba's face softened for a moment, and then he smiled one of those soft, sweet smiles that made Jounochi crazy. Jounochi couldn't stop himself for blushing then, and he looked away quickly.

Kaiba turned to the rest of the group, his previous display of emotion forgotten.

"I suppose I will see you all later," Kaiba said flatly. "And you as well, Jounochi."

Jounochi waved briefly as Kaiba continued on his way down the soon as Kaiba rounded the corner, Yugi, Anzu and Honda turned to Jounochi.

"Holy shit, dude," Honda breathed.

"What?" Jounochi looked from one face to next, each of them looking equally astounded.

"Is piano code for something illicit?" Honda asked semi-seriously. "Because the face he made when you said it made it seem like something illicit."

"No! What is wrong with you?" Jounochi screeched. Honda shrugged.

"He was acting strangely, though. I think he really likes you!" Yugi said. Anzu nodded in agreement.

"He's got it bad, Jounochi. Are you sure you're not together? We aren't gonna care if you are, you know."

Jounochi shook his head. "I'm not lying to you, we're not a couple! He hasn't told me how he feels."

"Well, when he makes faces like that, he doesn't have to say it because it's obvious as hell," Honda said. "You sure you didn't like suck his dick or something?"

Jounochi punched him in the arm.

Kaiba couldn't stop thinking about Jounochi. When he closed his eyes all he could see was Jounochi. Jounochi's eyes, his unruly golden hair, his tanned skin, his mischievous grin, his mouth, his lips, his lips against Kaiba's own, soft and full and gentle…

Kaiba sighed. He had been looking forward to seeing Jounochi again; he wanted to hear him talk about school, or his sister, or duel monsters, anything really so long as he could hear his voice. He wanted to watch him play piano in his sitting room. And he wasn't totally against getting kissed for hours again. Being kissed by Jounochi lit every single one of his nerves on fire and left him a mess of hazy, confusing emotions he wasn't sure how to deal with. He wanted more and more from Jounochi, like a spoiled child. But Jounochi was doing a very good job of spoiling him. In the back of his mind he knew it could lead to trouble, but all he could manage now was what his body wanted and it wanted Jounochi's mouth, and hands, and arms, and skin, and feeling that way left Kaiba breathless. He hadn't felt that strongly about anything in his whole life, but he supposed that every emotion he felt toward Jounochi had to be strong.

Kaiba placed his head in his hands, leaning his elbows on his knees. Surely thinking this much about one person could only mean one thing. His driver looked at him in the rear view mirror, his eyebrows furrowing in concern.

"Are you alright, sir?" He asked. Kaiba waved his hand.

"Yes, I'm fine," Kaiba said weakly. "But, I think I'm in love."