Adult-FanFiction.org : Yu-Gi-OH

Deliverance	By : thelostogg Category: Yu-Gi-Oh > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 8811 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. I don't profit from these ramblings.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
Chapter 5

                When Seto woke up, he found that he could move. He felt resistance when he tried to sit up, and more when he tried to raise his arms. The panic set in as he realized he was completely restrained. It only took a half a second for him to begin hyperventilating, and another half second for the adrenaline coursing through his body to fool him into imagining that the soft leather restraints around his wrists were actually cold metal chains. He was actually a bit surprised when he could move enough to flail.

                “Open your eyes, asshole.”

                Seto half-snarled and tried to rip his hands free of whatever was holding them.

                “Stop that, you’re going to pull a muscle or something.”

                Seto reluctantly opened his eyes and glared at Jounouchi. The blonde was still dressed in the same rumpled clothes, but he looked remarkably refreshed as he lounged on the bed, one arm behind his head acting as a pillow while the other held an open book. The leather mental health restraints that Seto had had installed on the bed had somehow been transferred to the wingback chair and wrapped around Seto’s arms, chest, waist, and legs. He couldn’t imagine how the blonde had managed to restrain him without him waking up.

                “Chloroform,” Jounouchi said without looking up at him. “Less elegant than whatever the hell you put me out with, but it doesn’t leave any marks, and it’s painless.”

                “I didn’t ask!” Seto snapped.

                Jounouchi propped the book on his knees and turned a page, so he wouldn’t have to move the arm that was supporting his head.

                “What’s so interesting?” Seto asked, nodding his head toward the book.

                “Collins,” Jou muttered, turning another page far too quickly.

                “Who?”

                “Wilkie Collins,” Jou glanced sideways at him. “The Moonstone. It was in your library.”

                “Oh.”

                “He was one of the founders of the mystery genre. Kind of cheesy, really, all affluent British opium addicts getting caught up in the mysteries of the magical Far East. But somebody had to inspire Doyle, I suppose.”

                “Jounouchi?”

                “Yeah?”

                “No, I don’t think so. Seriously, who are you? What happened to Jounouchi?”

                “I was bored,” Jou turned a page again. “Forgive me for not living up to your expectations. If you had a copy of See Spot Run I could read that instead, if it would make you feel better about yourself.”

                “Ouch. And you called me an asshole.”

                Jou glanced at him again and smiled, then he went back to reading. After about ten minutes of awkward silence, and twenty-eight pages, Seto was beginning to get annoyed. “Are you going to let me go?” he huffed, pulling at the strapped around his wrists.

                “Not without the magic word,” said Jou, without looking at him.

                “Please, let me out of this!”

                Jou didn’t look up from his book. He turned the page again.

                “What, please isn’t the magic word?”

                “Nope.” Jou kept reading.

                Seto tapped his legs as much as he could and pressed his lips together, desperately trying to control the fury building inside him.

                “Will you tell me what the magic word is?”

                “In a minute, maybe…” Jou turned two more pages before he glanced up at Seto. “Do you know that you have the collected works of Anthony Trollope? You’re one of those people who buys books just because a library is the thing to have, aren’t you?”

                “I didn’t buy any of them! They were my fathers, moron.”

                “Well, he didn’t read any of them, then.”

                “What makes you say that?”

                “No one could read all of the collected works of Anthony Trollope. He was a British post master who woke up every day at five in the morning, wrote for two hours non-stop, and then quit and went to work every day. He wrote hundreds of books. And every single one of them is about as exciting as watching someone else read a Victorian mystery. No one would willingly buy anything by Anthony Trollope unless it was to fill up the shelves of a home library.”

                “So you’re some kind of expert in Victorian literature now?”

                Jou shrugged. “No. But I read a lot.”

                Seto pulled at his wrists again, trying to twist them out of the leather restraints without cutting into his skin. “How the hell did you get out of these!”

                “It’s just really strong Velcro. All you’ve got to do is apply pressure against the sticky part.”

                “You have to be able to turn your arm over to do that.”

                “Do you?” Jou still didn’t look at him. “That’s the only way? I thought you were supposed to be some kind of creative genius, Kaiba.”

                “Either tell me how to do it or let me out!”

                “No. I think I’ll finish my book and leave. I’m sure Mokuba will come in to check on you eventually.”

                “Don’t you dare!”

                “Try and stop me. That’ll be fun.” Jou turned another page.

                “You were ordered to let me have my revenge! I haven’t gotten to kick your ass yet!”

                Jou barely shrugged. “You had your chance. You didn’t take it. Next time, I’m not obligated to stand there.”

                “Then I haven’t gotten to fuck your ass yet!”

                “And you wont,” said Jou with an infuriating, calm certainty.

                Seto narrowed his eyes and stopped trying to rip the skin of his hands to get them free. “You know you want me to,” Seto smirked.

                “Like I said, you had your chance, you didn’t take it. And I’m not interested in hanging out voluntarily. You’re attractive, but not that attractive. And you’re an asshole.” Jou turned another page.

                “That’s not what you thought in high school.”

                “I’m pretty sure I’ve always thought you were an asshole. I am curious about why you tried to fuck my life up just because I turned you down, though. Not that any of it mattered, of course… I just figured you would brush it off, coming from a Mutt like me.”

                Seto felt his stomach sink at the Mutt reference. Was Jounouchi still angry with him about all the times he’d teased him in high school? Was this supposed to be Jou’s own revenge for all of those nicknames that used to drive the blonde nuts?   “Please let me go,” Seto whispered.

                “When I’m done,” Jou turned another page.

                After three more pages, Seto couldn’t stand the silence any more. “You can’t possibly read that fast…”

                “Would you like me to read it to you? It’ll take longer, reading it out loud.”

                “You’re not reading it. You’re just turning the pages fast to fuck with me.”

                “If I wanted to fuck with you, I would do something much more creative. Frankly, I don’t care about you one way or the other.”

                Seto glared at him, but the unnoticed glare didn’t seem to have any impact on the blonde. He really, really wanted to kick that idiot’s ass again. He stomped his feet down hard, trying to get Jou’s attention. As he slammed his feet down, the wingback chair rocked on it’s slim wooden legs.

                Seto glanced at the blonde and found his amber colored eyes glued to him, shimmering with a twisted smile. “And now what, Kaiba?”

                “Someone will come up,” Seto said coldly. “They’ll call the police.”

                “The Police?” Jou’s eyes, and for some reason, his smile, both grew wide. “Really? The real police? Oh, this will be fun. Do it again, really swing your back to make it louder!”

                Seto rocked his back against the leather straps and made the chair rock again. He managed it two more times before the chair rocked too fair backwards and finally tipped over. He heard Jou laugh at him from his spot on the bed, but he couldn’t see the mongrel. He could, however, move his arms a bit more.   The fall had pushed the leather straps holding his chest down towards the narrowest portion of the chair, and Seto found that he could move his shoulders and chest much easier in the slack restraints. If only he could move down a few inches without moving the strap, he would be able to bend forward and possibly get his teeth around the straps holding his wrists in place.

                After a moment, he saw Jou’s face appear above his. “You might be able to manage something, if you could remove the seat cushion.”

                Seto was about to snap at the blonde, but the mischievous smile in the blonde’s eyes reminded him of what the idiot had been like as a teenager. If this would bring back of bit of that laughter, Seto would play along. “And how can I remove the seat cushion?”

                “You could experiment,” said Jou, his face close enough to Seto’s that Seto could see a red line, like swollen blood vessels, running through Jou’s right eye. From a distance, it made the Mutt look tired. Up close, however, the way the red moved across the white of Jounouchi’s eye made it look more like a scar. Seto stared closely at the Jou’s eyelid and cheek, noticing the thin white scars above and below the mark.

                Jou stood up, his book in hand and a single finger shoved between the pages to hold his place. “Wiggle your hips,” Jou suggested.

                “Wiggle my hips?”

                “It’s the only thing you can move. Worth a try.”

                Seto shifted his hips back and forth, keeping his eyes on the back of Jounouchi’s hair as he moved. “Any chance you could help me out?” he asked, trying to draw the blonde’s attention back towards him as much as to escape.

                Jou returned to the bed and reclined on the pillows again, opening up his book once more.

                “Is it really that entertaining?”

                “No,” said Jou simply.

                Seto managed to shove the cushion down so that it curved under his knees, but the pressure pushed his legs tight against the straights, making his shins feel like they might snap if he pushed much harder.

                “Bend it,” Jou said without looking at him.

                Seto huffed and thought about the way his legs were pushing on the cushion. He let his knees drop as far apart as he could, then used them to push the sides of the cushion together, bending it in half. Keeping pressure on each side of the cushion, Seto managed to scoot the cushion out from beneath him by thrusting his hips forward, over and over again. As he moved, he thought about thrusting into a lover kneeling above him. The motion was damn near the same.

                “Why did you tie me up?” Seto asked as he continued to scoot the cushion.

                “Why did you drug me?”

                Seto didn’t have any reason to be less than honest. “To keep you from hurting yourself.”

                “Why do you care?”

                “Because I feel like I’m responsible for what’s happened to you,” Seto admitted. “Why do you want to die?”

                “What else is there?” Jou whispered, his voice unusually soft.

                Seto stopped moving his hips and tried to see the bed where Jou sat. “Didn’t you think about how that would make your friends feel? Or your precious sister?”

                “My friends… I’m afraid I hang out with a different crowd than I did in school, Kaiba.”

                “Your sister, then!”

                “She’d have handed me the fucking gun!” Jou snapped, his eyes suddenly vicious, and frightfully more alive than Seto had ever seen.

                Suddenly, Jou’s eyes were just a few inches from his own. Seto could feel the heat of Jou’s breath on his nose. He smelled like a warped combination of mint and cinnamon—warm and sweet, and entirely too sharp and cool at the same time.

                “My sister understood. So shut the fuck up.”

                Seto stared at Jou for a long moment, watching the way the blonde’s shoulders tensed as he sat in a low squat next to Seto’s chair. There was something almost animalistic about the way Jounouchi sat, as though he was a giant cat waiting to pounce on the first thing that moved. A part of Seto’s brain was screaming for his attention, trying to tell him he’d missed something important. Fortunately, that part of his brain was silenced by some deeply ingrained survival instinct. Now was not the time to demand to know why the Mongrel talked about his sister in the past tense.

                “I don’t want you to die,” Seto whispered, trying to redirect the other man’s attention away from the guilt trip he’d tried to levy against Jou.

                “What right do you think you have to tell me what I can and cannot do?” Jou hissed.

                “Twelve million dollars,” Seto whispered. “Your life is mine.”

                “Do you really think you’re doing me any favors? As soon as my boss finds out you let me live, I’ll have to go right back to work. It was the only chance I’ve hand in two fucking years…”

                “Only chance?”

                “To end it…”

                “You’re life doesn’t belong to them anymore, Jou,” Seto promised. “They can never force you to do anything again. I’ve taken care of it all.”

                “Take care of it? What did you do, Kaiba?”

                “I killed them all,” he admitted, trying to keep the slight tremor out of his voice. “A high density plastic explosive was hidden in the lining of the briefcase. A bomb scanner might have found it, but I didn’t give them time. You’re totally free, Jounouchi.”

                “You…” Jou’s eyes widened for a moment. He very slowly fell backwards, landing on his ass with his legs sprawled out in front of him. He sighed and seemed to shrink as the air flowed out of his lungs. “You killed them all…”

                “I did. I… I believe in payback, Jounouchi. Hirutani left me broken, and so I wanted him broken. You… You saved my life, Jou. I wanted to save yours…”

                Jou shook his head, his eyes glazed and distant. He pulled his legs up and leaned his arms against his knees, then rested his head on his arms. He shook his head slowly.

                “Jounouchi…” Seto began to rock his hips again to force the cushion out from under him. He had to look ridiculous, strapped into a chair and trying to fuck the air. Somehow, Jou didn’t seem to think it was quite so funny as he did before. Once the cushion was gone, Seto tightened his legs around the bottom of the chair and pulled his upper body down, so that the strap across his chest was level with his forehead. From there, it wasn’t too tricky to tilt his head to the side to duck under the strap. A sit-up that made his abs burn brought his head up to the spot where his wrists were wrapped in leather and Velcro. He grabbed the end of the Velcro with his teeth, clamped down hard, and jerked his entire body hard enough that his chest fell backwards. “Fuck!” He hissed, finally getting enough slack from the loosened restraint to get his left hand free. From there, he pulled the rest of the restraints loose and toppled backwards, rolling off of the chair and landing in a tangled heap of limbs.

                “Jounouchi…” Seto crawled across the floor towards him. He brushed the blonde’s hair, trying to gently tilt the other man’s head up so he could see his face. When the other man didn’t respond, Seto shook his shoulder. “Jou… Mutt…” The idiot didn’t even budge. Seto flattened his hand on Jou’s shoulder, and instead of shaking him, rubbed gentle circles across the other man’s back.

                When Jounouchi still didn’t respond, Seto reached into the blonde’s lap and carefully picked up the book Jounouchi had dropped.

                “Do you want me to get you a bookmark?” Seto asked, holding the book out for Jou. Jou still didn’t move.

                After a moment, though, Jou glanced up at Seto over his folded arms. “Don’t bother, I’ve read it before.”

                “Oh.” Seto rose to his feet, tossed the book onto the bed, and then hoisted the chair up again. A half dozen other books were on the bed, too. “Did you read all of these?”

                “Yes,” Jou said automatically.

                “Is this one any good?” Seto asked, holding up a book that looked very similar to The Moonstone.

                Jou sat up a bit straighter to see the cover. “Hardy’s The Mayer of Casterbridge… You’ve never read Hardy?”

                Seto shook his head.

                “He’s depressing as hell. That one’s all about secret lives, illicit affairs, and an angry mob praying on some con man’s poor victim. Earliest known reference of the phrase Riding someone out of town on a rail. There’s no explanation for it in the book, just a narration of the event, so the tradition was probably still practiced in real life when it was written.”

                “I’m not familiar with the phrase.”

                Jou shrugged. “It’s a western thing. They’d make a dummy that looked like somebody. Like if a woman was having an affair or something, they’d make a dummy of the woman involved, a dummy of her lover, put them in a position that looked like they were having sex and parade them around town for everybody to see.”

                “That sounds nasty.”

                “Nastier than stoning a woman who is having an affair? Or beheading her?”

                “No.”

                Jou nodded. “Those were the alternatives practiced around the world for the same crime, during that period.”

                “And this one,” Seto held up another book. “Ender’s Game? Obscure western novels and Ender’s Game? That’s an interesting mix.”

                Jou shrugged. “It’s a good book. You must have read that one, at least.”

                “I did. I learned a lot from it, too.”

                “Yeah, I bet,” Jou muttered, pulling his legs tighter against his chest.

                Seto huffed and tossed the book down. The lesson he had learned from Ender’s Game was to play every game to win or not to play at all. He had taken great pains, thanks to that book, to make sure that every victory he won was absolute. It had inspired the ruthlessness that defined his business practices, and the malice with which he pursued his enemies. That same drive for complete and total victory had been what inspired him to blow up Jou’s former colleagues. That hadn’t entirely been for Jou’s sake. He was a Kaiba, and as such, he had to let the entire world know that anyone who dared to cross him would be destroyed. He had to make any attack upon him or his family so expensive for his enemies that no one would ever dare touch him. Still, he thought he’d been doing the blonde a favor at the same time.

                “I… I wouldn’t have thought that you’d be that choked up over them,” said Seto, trying to keep his voice calm and cool.

                Jou’s head shot up quickly. “Damn it! How many days have I been here?”

                “What?”

                Jou rocked himself forward and surged up onto his feet. “What day is it!”

                “Wednesday. You’ve only been here two days. Why?”

                Jou relaxed a little. His hands, which had been locked in tight fists, uncurled. “I have to go.”

                “No!” Seto yelled, even as the blonde hurried to the door. He was surprised when Jounouchi actually stopped.

                “I have to deal with something, Kaiba. It’s… It’s important…”

                “What is it?”

                Jou folded his arms across his chest and glared at him.

                “Tell me what it is,” said Seto.

                “Go fuck yourself! I have to go!”

                “No. Do you really think I haven’t figured this out? You owe me the same obedience you gave to that mob boss you worked for. You can’t leave unless I allow it. And whatever the hell they did to you, they made it so it’s unthinkable to you to disobey. You can’t bring yourself to do it.”

                For a moment, Jou looked as if he was going to attack. Just as quickly as he had gotten to his feet, though, he turned away. “Rich fucking bastard…”

                “Maybe,” Seto shrugged. “But I’m right.”

                “You have to let me go. Two days isn’t so bad, but… It can’t wait…”

                “Tell me what it is, if it’s so important.”

                “It’s none of your business.”

                “If I let you go, what guarantee do I have you aren’t going to go dive off a bridge or something?”

                “You bastard! The only reason I agreed to this was because it was the only way Sasano-O would finally let me die! He didn’t hold my debt over my head to force me to work for him, he held it over to me to keep me from eating a bullet two years ago! And the only reason I let him get away with that shit was because he had earned my respect! He earned my loyalty by taking care of Shizuka, but he earned my respect as a friend, you fucker!”

                Jou was ranting, throwing his arms around as he shouted, and moving steadily closer to Seto the whole time. “He didn’t hand me over to you, he let me go! But no…. You just had to waltz in and play the fucking hero! I did not want your help! I did not want to be rescued! I didn’t need to be rescued! He never forced me into anything! He didn’t have anyone with the skills or strength to force me into shit! I worked for him to repay a debt, not because I didn’t have a choice! And now… Damn it all, now I still have to deal with them! He was going to take them for me, you ass!”

                “Take who?” Seto whispered, inching back until his calves hit the mattress behind him.

                Jou seemed to realize just how close he’d come to Seto and backed away again. He folded his arms tight and turned away from him. “Just leave me the fuck alone. They’re going to die sooner or later, anyway. Everything dies. Whether it’s today, tomorrow, or ten years from now… we’re all dead.”

                Seto swallowed hard and hurried to the door. “Stay here, Jounouchi. Do not hurt yourself in any way.” He opened the door, then turned back to the blonde. He was still huddled in on himself. “Don’t hurt me when I come back, either.”

                Jou didn’t say anything as Seto slammed the guestroom door.

                Seto didn’t go far from the door, though. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number from memory, not even looking at the keypad.

                “I need you,” he said, not even waiting for a greeting. Then, as he heard his own words out loud, he smacked himself in the forehead.

                He expected shouting. He wouldn’t have been terribly surprised if she hung up on him.

                “What,” Temari’s voice laughed over the phone. “Has your employee killed himself? Or did little Seto have a nightmare?”

                He gritted his teeth and forced himself to bite back his response to her condescending tone. “I need you to come over to the house. It’s important.”

                “It’s two in the morning. I am not a call girl. And I’ve already billed you for two hours today, with the time in your office and the time I had to spent reassuring Mokuba that you were fine. Good night, Seto.”

                “No, no, please don’t hang up! It’s about the guy I told you about today… I… I’m not getting anywhere with me, and you’re the only person I can think of who could put up with this dick. Bill me for a hundred hours for tonight if you have to, but get over here!”

                “If he’s a dick, why are you bothering?” she asked, sounding suspicious.

                “Would you stop asking questions if I said karmic guilt?”

                “Are you kidding? Asking questions is my job. Now I’m going to press for details.”

                “Please, just come over!”

                After a long moment, Temari sighed. “Fine. But if there is no guy and this is just an excuse to avoid going to a call girl, I am going to castrate you.”

                “Just hurry, please!”

                “I’ll be there in half an hour.”

                Seto paced until Temrai arrived, but then he couldn’t manage an explanation. He had rehearsed several possible excuses in his head, and he had scripted a few excuses that he could use to get her to talk to Jounouchi, but when he tried to explain, he just couldn’t. Anything he told her would just make her demand to know more, and eventually he would have to tell her that Mokuba’s fears about him blowing up the building weren’t as paranoid and unwarranted as he wanted her to believe.

                She showed up in sweats and running shoes. She always ran first thing in the morning, and always kept workout clothes and shoes beside her bed. He had learned that years before, when he’d been furiously annoyed to still find her in his bed by dawn, and the same gray sweats on his nightstand. She watched him pacing in the hallway and stared at him critically, taking in the wrinkled suit and messed up hair. “You really are upset, aren’t you?”

                “No, I am fine,” he said carefully. “And Mokuba is fine.”

                “Mokuba calls me all the time and tells me just how fucked up you’re acting. He hasn’t given me any details for the last few days, but if you don’t tell me what’s going on, he’ll tell me eventually.”

                “Why the hell do you two gang up on me?” Seto demanded.

                “He loves you. You pay me. And, because we’re friends, I might be the only shrink in Japan who refuses to quit when you threaten to kill me.”

                “I thought you hated being called a shrink…”

                She shrugged. “Professional discretion. Talk about my job like it’s some kind of bullshit joke and it’s an insult. So long as it’s used by someone who takes me seriously, it’s fine.”

                “So I can call you a shrink?”

                “Do you remember what happened last time?” she smiled brilliantly.

                Last time he called her a shrink, after she had been excited about celebrating the end of her two year Residency Program, she had kneed him in the groin in front of a ballroom full of Seto’s business associates at a formal dinner. The memory made Seto smile, though he tried his best to hide it. Seto had to admit, he liked women who shopped for formalwear based on how high they could kick someone while wearing it.

                “I get to stick to psychiatrist, then?”

                “Yeah.”

                “Fine. Fine. The guy I need help with is right in here…” He reached for the door and hesitated.

                After holding his breath for a few seconds, Seto found himself being shoved aside by long finger nails. Temari opened the door, casually strolled inside, and closed the door in Seto’s face as he began to follow. Seto felt his stomach flip over and then right itself inside of him. He didn’t know what he was more afraid of—that Jounouchi would scare off Temari, or that Temari would somehow try to take Jounouchi away from him.

                After a few moments of straining to listen for screams, thuds, or whispered conversation, he heard the last thing he expected. Laughter. Both of them were in there laughing. And they kept laughing. He could make out the muffled sound of their voices and, at least once a minute, laughter.

                As Seto began pacing again, a new fear crept through him. Revelations that he might have killed people were one thing, and finding a therapist he felt comfortable with was next to impossible—everything that Jou could tell Temari or do to Temari were all things Seto could cope with, even if they wound up being a pain in the ass. But the things Temari could tell Jou were unthinkable. The picture she could, and most definitely would, paint of Seto as a lover was exactly what Jou had described—someone looking for a living sex toy to experiment with.

                Seto stopped in midstride. He had to wonder, just for a moment, if Mokuba might be right about him being insane. Of all the things that could come out of the conversation going on inside of his guestroom, he was more worried about losing a potential lover than he was about facing the death penalty for multiple murders. He would have to spend some time thinking about that, when there wasn’t that damn laughter distracting him and making him think his most embarrassing secrets were being joked about behind that door.

                About an hour later, Mokuba surreptitiously poked his head around the corner of the stairs and smiled at him. “Hey, Seto. How’s Jou doing?”

                Seto shrugged. “You’re home late… And you smell like vodka.”

                Mokuba looked at him as if he had just said something ridiculous. “You’re wearing the same suit for the second day in a row and you’re pacing outside the room where you’re holding a kidnapped mobster who used to be your rival… And you’ve got red marks on your wrists…”

                “Don’t try to change the subject. Do you have any idea what time it is? Where have you been?”

                “Out drinking vodka. Well, White Russians, actually. I’m surprised you can smell the vodka over the coffee.”

                “Since when do you—“ Seto stared at his brother critically. Mokuba had been old enough to drink for nearly six years. He hadn’t had a set bed time or curfew for ten. It was so easy for Seto to still see a twelve year old boy when he looked at his brother. Still, he wouldn’t be Seto Kaiba if he couldn’t recover quickly. “Do you know how many calories are in one of those? That’s cream you know, not milk. Next time, if you’re set on vodka, get a Sex on the Beach or something… Half the calories and at least you’ll get some vitamins from the fruit juice.”

                “I thought that was what I had the Flintstones Chewables for,” Mokuba patted him on the shoulder and began to head for his room. “Nice save, though.” He froze as another laugh sounded through the door. He glanced at his brother with a raised eyebrow. “Do I want to know?”

                Seto shook his head a little too rapidly.

                He was about to make something up when the door opened again.

                “I really can’t thank you enough,” Jou said in a friendly, lively voice. He was steering Temari out of the room with his hand on the small of her back.

                Seto felt his jaw clench. He really should be jealous over Temari, not jealous of her. He wasn’t gay, after all, and the only man who had ever made him even slightly curious was Jounouchi. He was straight. Temari had been his, once upon a time. He was supposed to be jealous over her. But he couldn’t logically explain why Jou’s hand on her back made Seto want to strangle her instead of the blonde.

                He stepped back, analyzing the way she smiled at the Mutt.

                Beside him, Mokuba folded his arms severely. He glanced at his brother just long enough to notice the glare he was sending the pair, too.

                Temari had a radiant smile on her face. Unlike the smile she usually resorted to when talking to Seto, this one actually looked real.   She shook her head and glanced at Seto. “Thank you, Katsuya. That was fun. And I’ll do my best to deal with your Budapest issue…”

                “Well, I’m glad you enjoyed it as much as I did. I’ve been told I’m kind of boring, most of the time.”

                “You’ve got to be kidding! That was one of the most…” Seto saw the way her eyes darted towards him. “The most stimulating things I’ve experienced in a long time.”

                Seto caught the slightest huff from his brother, saw him shake his head out of the corner of his eye, and heard him hurry to his bedroom. He didn’t take his eyes off of Jou and Temari, though.

                “Goodnight, Katsuya. Seto,” Temari nodded curtly and walked away, heading down the stairs on her own.

                “Goodnight!” Jou waved. “Damn, thank you, Seto. That was such a relief. It’s such a ridiculous thing to worry about, but…”

                Seto put both of his hands on Jou’s shoulders and walked him backwards into the guestroom. “What the hell was that about?”

                “You,” Jou said with a smile. “She’s sweet, and she knows you pretty well. And smart. I’ve never met anyone else who has read Machiavelli. How long have you two been together?”

                “We are not together. She’s a therapist, that’s all. If talking to her helped you feel better, I’ll keep her on a retainer. Are you alright?”

                “Still not your business. I still don’t want your help. Or your therapist. How long do you plan on fucking around with me? I can’t spend eternity tied to your bed… I’ve got shit I’ve got to take care of.”

                Seto shut his eyes and reached his hands around to Jou’s back. “Do you have any idea how dirty that sounds?”

                He tried to pull Jou towards him, the other man held perfectly still. “Kaiba, this is going to start getting old. I ain’t interested.”

                “You were willing to let me fuck you yesterday… Is this so different?”

                “Yes,” Jou insisted. “I’m not gonna kiss you. A kiss is… Well, a kiss is personal. It’s…”

                “How do you do that?” Seto asked, inching closer since he couldn’t pull Jou towards him. “Half the time you sound like a cold-blooded killer and the other half you sound like an English Professor.”

                Jou shrugged. Seto felt the movement under his hands. “Everybody has a day job and a hobby…”

                Seto chuckled and leaned a bit closer to Jou, wondering if the soft smile on the blonde’s face would still be there if he kissed him anyway. He knew he would have to take the lead, but he didn’t have a clue how Jou would react. This was simpler with girls. “So, what, you’re some kind of badass mafia thug as a hobby?”

                “You think being a geek who hangs out in used bookstores pays the rent?” Jou chuckled. Was it Seto’s imagination, or was Jou leaning closer to him too? Seto tried to force his heart rate to slow down as he tilted his head slightly.

                “I’m—“ Seto’s hands tingled as he yanked Jou close, his lips brushing against the other man’s for the first time. Chapped, warm lips moved against his in a welcoming kiss. It was the slightest flutter, but it held the tantalizing promise of more.

                “I’m a—“ Jou whispered as Seto inched his lips forward again, the taste of Jounouchi making everything in his mind fizzle.

                Everything, except for the tiny, treacherous part of his brain that was always paying attention. He tried to wrapped his mind around the words that had just come out of Jou’s mouth, but with his mouth occupied, all he managed was a curious “Hm?”

                “I’m not doing this. Get the fuck out,” Jou hissed. But he pushed himself up on his toes and closed the gap between their lips again.

                Seto had never felt his world spin from just a single kiss before, but he was carried away enough that he felt as though it was. Of course, the fact that his entire body was suddenly spinning may have been to blame for that. Jou, the guestroom, and the mahogany door spun around him in a blur and suddenly he was back in the hallway. The door behind him clicked very quietly shut.
- 5
- 6
- 7
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Deliverance