Queer as Tachi – Chapter 91
It was still far too early in the afternoon for dinner to be served, or to have the bed set up in traditional fashion, but aside from the bath, there weren’t a terrible lot of things for a pair of men to do to amuse themselves. First, Alastair and Kaiba took a few minutes to finish drying off and locate some comfortable clothing, since leaving the steamy-hot bath invited extra chill. Alastair liked the yukata, but needed slippers, and Kaiba slipped into his pajama pants for now. Once those small details were taken care of and they were about to sigh and turn to each other and helplessly wonder “what next?” Alastair decided to reveal an idea which had been percolating in the back of his mind. “Hey,” he began casually. “What would you say to a duel?”
Kaiba’s blue eyes widened in genuine surprise. “What? Here, now?”
“Yeah. It’s something to do,” his partner shrugged. “I haven’t played in such a long time, thanks to my busy schedule. I kind of want to break out my deck and have a go at you. Since you never so much as threatened to challenge me over the wireless, before I moved here,” he added pointedly.
“I didn’t need to,” Kaiba retorted. “As far as I’m concerned, that score was settled long ago.”
“Who needs a score?” Alastair went to his laptop bag and fished his Duel Monsters deck out of the front pocket. “I just want to duel you.” He waved the deck teasingly in the air. “Unless you’re afraid of taking me on again. Maybe don’t think you can cut it without a duel disk?”
Kaiba eyed him aloofly. “You can taunt me all you want, I’m not falling for it. I know you too well. It’s all for show, to provoke me so I’ll rise to your challenge.”
A cool smile curved Alastair’s lips. “You brought your deck, I know you did.”
Kaiba turned sulkily away; it was in his briefcase. “What’s your point?”
“You didn’t actually answer me. Do you want to duel, or not?”
Seto sniffed arrogantly. “Yeah, all right, fine.”
Alastair grinned in triumph. “I know the table’s kind of low-tech for your tastes, but neither of us bothered to pack a duel disk. It’s all we’ve got.”
He went and knelt on one side of the low table, and within moments his partner had joined him, crouching opposite him and setting his deck down. “I haven’t dueled table-top style in a very long time. Well…I haven’t dueled anyone, period, since…” He looked away, though it was hard to tell whether the lack of an explanation was due to not remembering, or remembering something he didn’t want to.
“Yeah, you’ve been busy, too,” Alastair acknowledged without prodding him. “All challenge aside, you’ve got to be itching for a duel as much as I am. But, if you want to make it a little more exciting…” He raised an eyebrow teasingly at his companion. “We could lay a wager on it.”
“What kind of wager?”
“What’s the one thing we want most out of each other?” Alastair chuckled slyly. “There’s so much I’d like to do to you, if you’d only let me. Maybe if I win my chance in a duel…”
Kaiba fixed him with a calculating smile. “Is that all? You want to top me again?”
“Oh, more than that.” Alastair propped his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “If I win, I want to tie you up and have my way with you.”
Kaiba sniffed arrogantly and sat back to shuffle his deck. “Betting for sexual favors? Fine. When I win, I want my prize to be…” He glanced around the room briefly before letting a wicked smirk cross his face. “I’m going to bend you over this table, right here.”
Alastair swept up his cards and began to shuffle as well. “Oh, you just try it. You’ll definitely have to win that chance.”
“You’re on.” Kaiba set his deck down to be cut and sat up straight, his deepest gaming instincts taking over and putting him in a wholly competitive mood. It had nothing to do with the stakes of this duel, it was merely the way he approached every gaming situation, intending to win regardless. Having his way with his lover was merely a side benefit of winning, since he figured it was going to happen sooner or later anyway. Alastair presented his deck in turn, and then they were underway, neatly laying out their cards in the correct spots on the table thanks to years of dueling experience. Kaiba went first, wearing a cool smile as he set out a couple of Traps and laid his trusty Kaiser Seahorse in attack. “I am rather curious to see how you can function without that Seal to boost your attack points,” he said in a low, mocking tone.
Alastair regarded him haughtily as he examined his hand. “I’ll have you know I’m perfectly fine without the Seal of Oricalcos,” he said snippily. “You may not have noticed, but I did have a record on the network – I have dueled since then. More often than you might think. This face down, and this in defense,” he added as he laid cards out.
Kaiba remained undaunted. He was in dueling mode, now, and that meant no mercy even for a lover. “Yes, but is that record as unbroken as it was before you met me?” he purred evilly as he drew.
Alastair’s gray eyes narrowed. “Play me and see.”
He did, whipping out every trick he had it his disposal. Alastair had researched his strategies prior to their first meeting, and the fact that Kaiba didn’t change them up too much hurt him, for his opponent was still able to counteract them with as much ease as their first time ever dueling. But Kaiba’s deck had not remained unchanged over the past couple of years, and he had a few new surprises that sent Alastair scrambling for a defense. They fought each other spectacularly for a while, trading snide comments and insults across the table as they were wont to do, each giving as good as he got. It came down to the wire, leaving each with less than ten cards left in the deck on the table at his right hand, two of Kaiba’s Blue Eyes White Dragons in his graveyard and his Monster Reborn stolen out of his hand thanks to a well-timed Exchange. Alastair was in just as much of a quandary, his Sacred Phoenix already destroyed and no guarantee that he could get it back without having a Trap sprung on him to rid him of it again. At least he had spotted the Crush Virus before it could be activated and got rid of it, leading to this marathon session. Both men were getting worked up over the fight, leaning low over the table and scowling at each other, concentrating purely on winning and not on the prize. Neither wanted to just let the other win, even though the reward would please both of them in some way – they were too competitive and stubborn to allow it to be purely a sex game. It was Kaiba’s turn, so he drew and eyed the three cards in his hand. His last Blue Eyes was somewhere in the remaining handful of cards in his deck, but he wasn’t sure he could hold off Alastair long enough if it turned out to be the very last one. He had to do something fast with the cards close at hand. His opponent had two unimpressive Fire monsters on the field, but any minute now and they could be sacrificed for something much more powerful – they had to be dealt with. Unfortunately, he had used up his best plays and could only lay something in defense. “That’s all,” he murmured in subtle bluff, keeping his cool. “Your move.”
“Not so tough now, are you?” Alastair remarked smugly. “All I need is one card…” He drew, and did not hide his frustration. “And that’s not it. Fine, I’ll just take care of your pathetic defense the old fashioned way. Tenkabito Shien attacks your face down…”
Before he could even say “card,” Kaiba swiftly flipped one of his set cards over. “Negate Attack.”
Alastair growled openly at him. “You’ve been saving that one for a while, haven’t you?”
“I wouldn’t have, if I’d had it out earlier.” Kaiba eyed him darkly. “That ends your attack phase completely. Going to do anything else?”
His partner eyeballed his cards closely for a moment and then sighed. “No, that’ll do. Go.”
Seto plucked up the top card, and huffed a short sigh of relief before dropping it on the table. “Pot of Greed.” Two more cards, and he couldn’t help the satisfied smirk that stole into his eyes at what he received. “It’s about time. Get ready, Alastair – you asked for this.” He plucked one card from his hand and held it up, not even bothering to lay it on the field, since he didn’t have to activate it on any duel disk. “First, I play White Dragon Ritual…”
“Ah, shit,” Alastair muttered.
“You know what it does.” Kaiba swept his face-down defense monster off the field and deposited it with the ritual card in his graveyard. “That tribute allows me to summon Paladin of White Dragon. And, just for good measure, he’s going to attack your Tenkabito Shien.”
“I don’t think so.” His opponent flipped a waiting card of his own. “Try this on for size…”
Kaiba’s eyes flashed angrily. “Spellbinding Circle?” he spat.
Alastair snickered. “I know how much you hate it, but it does me a lot of good. Now your Paladin can’t attack, at all. So there.”
Kaiba sniffed smugly. “I don’t need it to attack, that was just for fun. I actually had something much more important in mind.” He picked the card up and waved it slightly. “I only summoned it for its other purpose – to be sacrificed in order to summon my last Blue Eyes to the field.”
Alastair swore at him as he laid the dragon card out on the field. “I knew you had one more in there somewhere, but I didn’t think you’d get to summon it. Stupid Paladin. I hate that thing.”
“As much as I hate
“Yeah, we’ll see about that.” Alastair drew and let out a triumphant cackle. “You’re not the only one with the luck of the draw. Check this out!” He slapped a monster down on the field, forcing his opponent to lean in and stare at it in perplexity. “Gaia Soul is gonna take down your Blue Eyes and the rest of your life points, right here and now. All I have to do is offer my other two Fire monsters to it, and that’ll bring its attack points up to four thousand!”
Kaiba’s blue eyes widened dramatically as he realized the sudden turn of events. Alastair’s monster would be destroyed at the end of the turn for using its effect, but it didn’t matter if he won the game right there. He glanced frantically at his hand and saw the one card that could save him, the one card he had been hoarding all game because first, he didn’t want to use it, and then, he didn’t have the right card out to do so. It seemed cheap to rely on it, but it was his only chance. Alastair placed the other two monsters in his graveyard and ordered the attack, at which point Kaiba whipped the Quick-Play card out of his hand and threw it on the field, not even caring that it skidded across the monster zones and landed on top of Alastair’s Gaia Soul. Alastair boggled at it, as Kaiba barked, “There! It’s not my Blue Eyes you’re dealing with, now. Thanks to Ultimate Dragon Transmutation, your Gaia Soul is wasting its attack power on something much bigger.”
Alastair leaned in and stared. “What? What kind of a card is that? I’ve never heard of that card!”
Kaiba became smug all over again. “It’s a very rare card, but trust me, it’s legal. It almost makes me wish I’d brought my duel disk, so you can see the special effects.” He stabbed one finger down on the text of the card. “Ultimate Dragon Transmutation can only be activated during battle, at which point it allows me to instantly trade in my Blue Eyes for its mature form, the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon.” He brought the new dragon card over from where it waited on the far side of the field to be needed, and replaced his lowly single dragon with it. “That’s forty-five hundred attack points, in case you weren’t counting. Your Gaia Soul is finished, along with your life points.”
Alastair had been sitting at exactly five hundred life points for a while, but sat back with a startled cry as he realized he had just been beaten. “Dammit! I had you! I had your damn Blue Eyes, I was sure of it! Where the hell did that card come from?”
Kaiba lowered his gaze to the two lone cards duking it out across the table from each other. “That’s the first time I’ve ever played it,” he admitted in a rough tone. “The conditions for its use mean that I’ve been backed into a corner…and I never let myself get there…” He did not mention that he had only received it a month ago, and hadn’t even looked at his cards since then.
“That is just…” Alastair let out a ragged sigh and shook his head. “Fine, you did it. You win.” He reached over and snatched up the Magic card to give it a close look, shaking his head again after reading the text of the spell effect. “I don’t know how you did it. That came out of nowhere.”
Kaiba breathed a satisfied sigh and began to gather up his deck. “So you don’t know every last card in my deck anymore, so what? Welcome to real dueling. You lost, fair and square.” He smartly plucked Ultimate Dragon Transmutation from his partner’s fingers and slid it into the deck. “Though I will give you the benefit of the doubt. You played well.”
Alastair’s eyes widened. “What’s this? Is that respect I hear from you? Huh. Will wonders never cease?”
Seto averted his gaze and grumbled. “Anyone who holds their own against me for so long has to have some degree of skill, I’ll give you that. But I’m still the victor.”
“And to the victor, go the spoils.” Alastair sat back on his hands with a sultry smile, his loosely-tied yukata sliding teasingly off one shoulder. “You want it…you can have it…”
Kaiba smiled heatedly back, but pushed himself to his feet and proffered his neatly-stacked deck. “First thing’s first.” He stepped around the table and past Alastair to go and put his deck away safely.
Alastair sat for a moment savoring the wonderful penalty for his loss before sitting up and reaching to collect his cards and also put them away, since the wager involved that very table they had been playing on. But before he could get up, he was suddenly attacked from behind and pushed roughly against the table, sending the cards scattering out of his hand. “Where do you think you’re going?” Kaiba growled playfully in his ear. “You have to pay your debt.”
Alastair stiffened instinctively to resist, but it lasted only a moment before he realized he was in no danger. He relaxed but still kept his hands braced on the table in front of him as he glanced over his shoulder with a smirk. “So that’s what you wanted. You want to get a little rough with me, do you?”
Hands slid around him and roamed his body, down his stomach to his thighs to push them apart a little. “I don’t expect you to just submit like some dewy-eyed little girl,” Kaiba murmured throatily. “It’s not in your nature.”
“Mm…true…” His partner tilted his head back and favored him with a teasing look as he allowed himself to be pushed fully against the table, willingly sliding his knees across the tatami to open himself wider. “But I did agree to it. You won your chance.”
The hands on his body shifted to the tie keeping his yukata barely closed. “You didn’t even bother getting dressed,” Kaiba noted in that same low growl of desire. “How convenient.”
“So what are you waiting for?” Alastair breathed a soft moan as his yukata came untied and was pushed up to reveal his naked hips and ass.
“All in good time.” Something fell onto the table with a rattle – a half-used tube of lubricant. Then, Kaiba curled his arm around Alastair and slid his hand up all the way to his neck, pulling him back and tilting his head up to expose his neck to be ravenously kissed. Alastair arched against him, groping for a handhold and finding his partner’s pajama-clad knee. It made him all the more curious as to exactly what Kaiba intended, but at the moment, he was finding it rather hard to form words as he was held back against a tight, muscled body having his neck and shoulder thoroughly ravaged. His yukata had fallen off both shoulders now, but neither of them made a move to take it completely off of him. A hand groped down and found him even through loose folds of fabric, squeezing slowly until he let out a sharp gasp of pleasure. Kaiba chuckled savagely. “That’s right,” he purred. “You want it. I’ll give it to you…”
Panting, Alastair glanced as the hand which had fondled him reached for the lube on the table instead. “That quick, huh?” he mumbled. “What about the condom…?”
“Not yet.” Kaiba let go of him and pushed the back of his shoulder, indicating that he should lean forward a little more. “I have more in store than just getting down to it like that.”
A startled gasp left Alastair as he whipped his head around to see what his lover was up to. At the moment, Kaiba was merely uncapping and testing the lube, wearing a rather lustful smile. He rose up a little and shoved his partner again, pushing him down a little more roughly. Alastair braced his elbows on the table, splaying his hands out. The movement scattered his Duel Monsters cards even more. He closed his eyes and moaned in anticipation as he felt himself being repositioned, and his yukata moved out of the way. Kaiba leaned low over him, oppressing him with his body weight, and ran slicked fingers through the cleft of his ass from top to bottom. It made Alastair shudder and catch his breath in a small cry, his entire body flushing hot in eagerness, culminating in an obvious blush in his cheeks. It was only a tease, the first taste. Kaiba held him down with one arm pressed to the back of his shoulders and thoroughly groped him, seeking out his opening and rubbing his fingertips along the outside until Alastair was gasping and beaded with sweat merely from the tantalizing promise of what was to come. He didn’t have long to wait; snickering under his breath, Kaiba decided to stop playing and give it to him, inserting his fingers and stroking his way inside. Alastair’s head came up with a hard gasp, and he pushed back against the intruding fingers. “Uhh…Seto,” he hissed, closing his eyes in rapture. “Yes, like that…yes…”
Kaiba himself felt his body growing hot at his partner’s exclamation, and the way he laid sprawled across the table beneath him, panting and groaning. He stroked his two fingers in and out slowly, keenly watching the effect his touch had on Alastair. The red-haired young man tipped his chin up and let his mouth fall open for breath, at the same time lifting his hips up and back into Kaiba’s steadily-thrusting fingers. It wasn’t nearly enough yet, so Kaiba twisted his wrist in order to slide his fingers in at a different angle, curling them downward to reach the sweet spot he had been excellently taught about. Within moments Alastair jerked hard and let out a cry, his lithe body recoiling at the jolt of pleasure from inside. Chuckling hotly, Kaiba only stroked him harder, deeper, inflaming that sensitive spot as much as he could. Alastair stiffened against him, his ass tilted high and his arms stretching out looking for something to grab onto. He cried out with every breath, now, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. From the way he trembled and panted, Kaiba knew he was close, and withdrew just in time. Instead, he reached fully beneath Alastair and groped him roughly, kneading his sack in his palm and closing around his erection. Gritting his teeth, Alastair tried to push himself up on one arm, finally finding the incentive to fight back or resist or whatever Kaiba wanted. Kaiba lunged low and slammed him back into the table with just his hips, keeping one hand on his shoulder to prevent him from prying himself up. “Not yet,” he breathed. “I’m not going to let you come yet. You’re all mine, now, Alastair…”
“God, you’re insatiable,” Alastair muttered under his breath, tossing his hair out of his eyes. He was aware of the beads of sweat on his neck, and that his lips and chin were wet. It was just that good. “Do it,” he demanded. “No more games. Just…ahh!” At that moment, the slicked hand closed on his erection again and gave him a rough jerk.
“You’re not the one in charge,” his partner reminded him. “If you want it, you’re going to wait until I’m ready.”
“If you’re not ready by now,” Alastair panted in a low, seething tone, “then there’s gotta be something wrong with you.”
Kaiba snickered, but he was right. Watching and feeling his lover’s reactions were enough to make him quite hard, but he was finding that he liked all this playing, and wanted to prolong it as much as he could. He grabbed a hold of Alastair’s muscled upper arms and tugged him up, sitting back on his heels and pulling his partner with him. Alastair’s ass settled against the hardness beneath the pajama pants, as if to indicate that readiness was not an issue, while Kaiba’s arms wrapped around him and sought to tease him some more. He held Alastair back against him and slid his lubricated hand back down to the erection standing high, while his other hand reached upward to his neck and turned his head slightly toward him. His captive lover groaned as Kaiba stroked his chin with long, slender fingers and murmured huskily in his ear. “What was that you said earlier about patience? You seem to need a lesson.” He pressed a fingertip to Alastair’s parted lips and then into his mouth, stroking him until he gave a moaning sigh and tried to suckle the fingers teasing his tongue. Seto moved his fingers in and out as if mimicking the same techniques used down below. “That’s right,” he purred deeply. “I like this, having you under control. I’m going to enjoy this.” He knew that with fingers playing in his mouth, Alastair would not be able to make some kind of snarky retort, but he didn’t seem inclined to it regardless. He was stretched back against Kaiba, bracing himself and covering his other hand with his own to encourage his touch. He sucked on his lover’s finger and swirled his tongue around it, finally drawing away in order to breathe, leaving Kaiba’s hand wet and much-loved. He didn’t resist when Kaiba leaned forward to bend him over the table again, glancing subtly over his shoulder to give Seto a flash of encouragement through smoldering gray eyes and wet, hazy smile. Growling his acknowledgement, Kaiba pushed a little more gently, but still aggressively, using his hips to butt Alastair’s forward and guiding his arms back down to the tabletop with his own. Alastair moaned quietly as his erection brushed the edge of the table, at which the knees behind his forced his legs wider apart. Kaiba’s weight and heat vanished for only a moment, but then he was back, stripped of his clothing and with the required condom already in place. He made sure to sidle up close and run his hand appreciatively around the curve of Alastair’s ass while he finished preparing, and then it was time. Alastair stretched fully out, the askew sleeve of his yukata brushing his scattered cards aside, and took a deep breath as he felt Kaiba rest himself in position. He couldn’t have been more ready. Kaiba hunched low over his body as he pushed inside, taking it slowly enough to let his partner adjust, and finally giving him one good thrust to insinuate himself fully inside. Alastair caught his cry behind closed lips, but he spread his hands on the table and pushed his upper body up enough to brace himself good. He would need to, considering how worked up and wild they were both feeling.
Taking a breath before beginning, Kaiba lowered his head and gave a good, hard thrust just to test his position. His lover was properly supported on the table with his legs spread far enough, a treat which caused Seto to snicker softly in thrill. He placed his hands on Alastair’s shoulders to hold him down and began at his own pace, not at all slow and romantic, but not too fast yet either. Alastair bowed his head and rested his forehead on his arm, clenching his hand into a fist to try and hold himself off. Kaiba rocked into him, gradually escalating the pace, his grip on Alastair’s shoulder becoming tighter. His slender lover held his position, not letting himself be ground completely into the table, but his hard body shook a little from the strain, and he was panting and keening all over again. At last, Kaiba abandoned any sense of restraint and sprawled on top of him, pounding into him, his breath coming in short, grunting gasps. Alastair cried out uncontrollably, curling his fingers around the edge of the table and tilting his ass upward as much as he could to meet the punishing thrust bearing down on him. Seto’s hips practically slammed into his, thrusting as fast as he could to make that little, teasing tickle grow and burst into flame. He was still at it when Alastair let out an astonished cry and thrust back into him, coming with an intensity he hadn’t reached in a very long time. He held stiff, arms, shoulders, back, legs, knees, trying to wring every last wave of pleasure from his lover’s relentless pounding. It gave Kaiba what he needed to finally come, grabbing onto Alastair’s shoulder to hold himself in place while it screamed through every nerve in his heated, sweat-drenched body. They both fell heavily onto the table, which creaked a little in protest, but managed to hold their combined weight for now.
Naturally, Kaiba withdrew first, and stumbled into the nearby bathroom to clean himself up. Alastair lay panting on the table for a moment, sinking back down onto his knees to rest, and then followed, feeling quite disheveled and messy after all of that. He nearly smacked into Kaiba in the doorway, and gave a weak chuckle at their meeting. Seto took him by the arms, and then gently removed his wrinkled yukata before curling his hands around Alastair’s face, combing his fingers up into the hair at the back of his neck. Alastair raised his eyes in surprise, finding the face across from him looking back with a strange, intense sort of look. He leaned forward and kissed Kaiba fully, drawing his wet lips slowly back to savor every nuance of his taste. “Thank you,” he whispered.
Seto only nodded, and let him go so he could go into the bathroom. When he finally emerged, he found his partner still naked, kneeling beside the table and gathering up the Duel Monsters cards which had been strewn everywhere, off the table onto the floor. He glanced back as he heard Alastair padding quietly toward him. “None of them are damaged,” he said in his usual inscrutable, low tone.
“You don’t have to do that.” Alastair came up behind him and combed his fingers through Seto’s tousled brown hair. “I can pick up my own mess.”
It was too late, for Kaiba retrieved the last card and set the complete deck in a clean, dry spot on the table. “There,” he murmured, remaining where he was.
Alastair dropped to his knees and threw his arms around him, squeezing him tightly. “That was so good,” he breathed in his lover’s ear. “Completely worth losing the duel. Thank you, Seto.”
Kaiba glanced at him oddly. “What are you thanking me for?”
“I don’t know…it just feels right to say it.” Alastair nuzzled his neck. “You are simply amazing, you know that? I’ve never enjoyed being with anyone quite like I have with you.” He placed his lips right beside Kaiba’s ear to finish his comment. “And the sex is good, too.”
Heat flushed rapidly into Kaiba’s cheeks, warming his entire face, but he closed his eyes and accepted it by wrapping his arms around Alastair’s. They sat together like that for a long while, but he finally roused himself to break the blissful silence, turning his head to the side to regard his partner. “So much for that bath we had.”
Alastair giggled tiredly. “We’ll
take another one later. This place is good for
it. First thing’s first…” He glanced around them at the table, shoved out of
place, the rumpled piles of yukata here and there, and sighed. “We’d better clean up before anyone comes
by to escort us to dinner.”
Somehow, despite the ferocious bout of physical activity, the pair of young men had cleaned up and managed to look perfectly innocent when the hostess came around to their room shortly before the dinner hour. She bowed at the door to the two men sitting idly on cushions beside the table, casually sipping at tea – Kaiba had called down and requested some be brought to them a short time earlier. “Good evening, sirs,” she said humbly. “May I inquire as to whether everything meets your approval?”
“It does,” Kaiba replied stoically, looking every part the aloof, bored business mogul he tried to be, raising his cup to his lips.
The hostess bowed again in acknowledgement. “A number of guests have arrived this evening, making our inn pleasantly full,” she continued. “I have come to give you the option of joining the other guests in the main hall, or taking your dinner here in the privacy of your own room.”
Alastair raised an eyebrow in his partner’s direction. “Full inn means full dining room,” he sniffed.
“Indeed, sir,” the hostess said, subtly revealing her reason for offering the choice. They might not have had enough room in the main hall to accommodate all the guests now.
“In privacy is fine,” Kaiba finally answered her. “It will be set up here for us?”
“Yes, sir.”
He nodded his agreement, and then pushed himself to his feet. Both he and Alastair had opted to change fully into pants and sweaters, seeing as they had made a mess of the yukata and couldn’t exactly be seen mingling with guests in their pajamas. He stepped over to the hostess at the door, retrieving something from his pocket and surreptitiously offering it in his upturned hand. “If I may,” he said in that superior tone that brooked no argument, “I would like to ask you to bend the usual traditions and set up the futon early for us, so we can get enough sleep before our flight back. And not wake us in the morning for breakfast, but leave the room as it is until we’re ready to leave.”
The hostess glanced at the folded bills in his hand and skillfully managed to keep from staring at them in wonder. It was a rather healthy tip. “I believe we can accommodate your needs, sir,” she said warmly, placing her hand lightly over his and thereby snapping up the money in an eye-blink. “It will be a few minutes, but I will have the staff come to set up your room and bring you the kaiseki. Simply ring the front desk when you wish to have it cleared away.”
Kaiba nodded his understanding and slid the door closed behind her. He turned to find Alastair smirking up at him from across the room. “And just how did you get an extremely traditional inn to overlook tradition just for us?”
“How do you think?” Kaiba sniffed. “Did you really want to go and eat with the other guests?”
“Hey, I’m not arguing,” Alastair assured as Seto came back around the table and lowered himself onto his cushion. “That’s a pretty nice break. I admit…” He ruffled a hand through his hair. “…after the day we’ve had, I’d rather just stay in. I don’t want to deal with people, I’m all tired and dirty again.”
“If they hadn’t offered, I was going to request it. No matter.” Kaiba sipped elegantly at his tea. “That tip should ensure us everything else we want.”
Not too long after, a pair of younger women arrived to fulfill their guests’ wishes, moving the table aside nearer to the door to set up the full-course kaiseki dinner and rolling out the bedding, making it up neatly for them with thick blankets. Kaiba and Alastair stood off to the side, the former with his arms folded sternly as he waited, the latter gazing idly out the window at darkness creeping over the steely landscape. Then, the girls bowed and left them to their private dinner, promising to come back when called to clear away the dishes. Free to lapse back into their partnership with no one else around, the two men shared a brief kiss before settling themselves down at the table to enjoy the delicious, extravagant meal. It was a good thing neither of them were greatly into inane dinner conversation, because they spent most of the time enthusiastically stuffing their faces and muttering about how good it tasted. Eventually they began to reach their fill, and small bits of talk bubbled up in between poking at what was left of their food and sipping warm sake. “I could definitely get used to this,” Alastair mused with a dreamy half-smile at his partner. “Private hot baths and super-big, rich dinners? How come you don’t treat yourself more often?”
Kaiba kept his gaze calmly lowered as he lifted the small sake cup to his lips. “I’m not into pointless displays of wealth,” he replied after taking a sip. “That’s for men who need to compensate for inadequacy in other areas.”
“Well, you certainly don’t need to worry about that,” Alastair snorted. “I like your healthy adequacy.”
Kaiba snorted a chuckle in return. He continued to savor his drink while Alastair made a face and set the rest of his aside. “Bleah, I can’t take more than maybe half a cup of that stuff at once,” he complained. “I’ll stick with tea, I think.” He rested his chin on his hand. “You and I ought to go out for a beer, sometime.”
“Or stay in,” his partner idly suggested.
“That’s a good idea, too.” Alastair peered at him across the table, at the way he was so able to retreat back within his usual aloof shell and just sit there methodically going about his dinner. There were other things to question him about, though. “You know,” he began, “you should have a full bath like this put in at the house. I’d come over all the time if you did that.”
“What, the pool’s not enough?” Kaiba sarcastically wondered.
“Can’t go in the pool in November,” Alastair pointed out. “You have to admit, it would make a nice addition. You’ve got room to expand.” He smirked as Kaiba shook his head at him. “Not in your ten-year plan for maintaining the estate?”
“What plan?” Kaiba scoffed. “I don’t make plans.”
“Of course you do,” Alastair argued as though it were obvious. “Your entire company runs on plans for the next phase and the next…”
“That’s my company,” his companion said firmly. “Not my personal life. I don’t live according to any plan, my life unfolds one day at a time.” He eyed Alastair inquisitively. “I thought you and I had something of the same modus operandi.”
“For the most part,” Alastair acceded. “But that doesn’t say I haven’t had the occasional dream of something I’d like somewhere down the road. I admit, those dreams have changed drastically since leaving Dartz’s service, but…” He shrugged innocently. “I still have one or two.”
Kaiba peered at him as though trying to stare through him. “Like what?”
“Well…” Alastair lowered his eyes demurely, idly swirling his half-empty cup of tea in one hand. “I like to think I’m living one out right now.” He lifted his eyes and gazed across the corner of the table to Kaiba with a degree of keen curiosity. “You’re telling me you’ve never so much as wondered what it is you might want out of life as an adult? Not even when you were a kid, and first got a clue about schools and careers and families?”
The blue eyes clouded vaguely as Kaiba looked away. “No.” After a moment, the query in his partner’s eyes made him feel his response required further explanation. “Everything was irrevocably changed when our parents died. I couldn’t be a child with foolish dreams about what career to go into and what kind of life to have, after that, I had to focus on one thing only. I haven’t changed since then. I still exist only to take care of Mokuba, and see to my company. I don’t make personal goals, I don’t need them.”
Alastair tilted his head. “You told me once you have one last goal, but you never told me what it was.”
Hunting back in his memory, Seto replayed a conversation over dinner in a Thai restaurant and frowned to himself. “At least it’s one you would understand,” he muttered. “I intend to defeat Yugi Muto in a tournament and reclaim the title of world champion from him. That’s all. Until I get the opportunity to do so, I’m simply living my life as it comes and not wasting any extra energy on moping about it. Doing so would be pathetic and pointless. I can’t make it happen by wishing for it.”
“Ah,” his partner nodded.
Kaiba peered narrowly at him. “What?”
“Nothing! I’m not making any judgments on you, Seto, it’s just…that’s an interesting part of you that I didn’t know about. And now I do.”
“What are you asking me all this for?” The stare narrowed even more. “What do you want?”
“Nothing, I was just curious.” Alastair met his gaze, hoping that his direct eye contact would assure him that he spoke the truth. “You really have had a bitter life. I don’t know that I’ve ever met anyone who was able to completely shut themselves off from having a personal life, and pour all their dreams and intentions into their business. Well, except for one,” he corrected himself, wincing a little, “but…he was kind of out of his mind, shall we say? I wouldn’t even begin to compare you to him.”
“Good,” Kaiba snorted, “because I was about to throw you out into the hallway with a pillow and leave you there.”
Alastair tried to shrug it off. “It fascinates me, a little. You didn’t have any kind of role models at all, to look at and go, ‘that’s what I want, someday. I want to have what they have.’ I suppose, if your parents died when you were so young…” His curious face returned. “What about your fa…er, stepfather?”
Snorting arrogantly, Kaiba shook his head and took a drink of sake. “He gave me nothing to look up to,” he grumbled after putting his cup down. “He wasn’t the type to show weakness or sentiment, either. The only side of him I ever saw was the CEO of KaibaCorp, in all its ugly glory.” He was beginning to guess what Alastair was asking about indirectly, and figured as long as it wasn’t exactly about himself, he could discuss it. He cast his gaze idly on the tabletop covered in half-empty dishes. “His wife divorced him right before he adopted me and Mokuba, I never even got to meet her – though I have to wonder how she could have ever stood to be married to the bastard in the first place. It shouldn’t surprise you that I’ve never thought about my own personal life, when there wasn’t anyone around to show me that having one was worth it. Mokuba has always been my only family, I never considered myself lacking the rest.”
Alastair nodded again. “It does make sense. But, you’re an adult now, and both your company and your family are stable. You could start thinking about the rest if you wanted to.”
“No,” Kaiba said firmly. “I have no interest in any of that. What, like marriage? No thanks.” He decided it was a good time to pour himself more sake. “I don’t care about that. It means nothing to me. I’ve never thought about it because I honestly don’t want it.”
“Good,” Alastair said with a slight chuckle. It wasn’t the response Kaiba was expecting, judging by his hunting gaze. “That means I don’t have to worry about you someday feeling the need to sow your oats or something and dumping me for some fluffy trophy wife who’ll look good in company photos and press junkets.”
“Hardly,” Seto groused. “I make my own rules, I don’t play by the ones the rest of society lays out for me. I don’t put on appearances for anyone’s sake. Not like that, anyway,” he added in a lower mutter. He shook his head and gave Alastair a pointed look. “I don’t think that far ahead. Only my company can count on long-term plans, and it ought to. Everything else is too unpredictable to treat the same way. My only intention is to live from day to day and see what happens.”
“So none of this is going according to any kind of plan.” Alastair made a show of thinking about that. “I don’t know whether to be relieved or insulted.”
“Do you want marriage, or a family, or any of those things society tells you to want?”
“No. Of course not.” Alastair gave him a sulky look. “I’m too young to even think about wanting kids – which I don’t, trust me – and I know better than to want to be married. I’m gay. It’s just not in the cards for me – not now, not ever.”
Kaiba’s brow twitched, hearing it stated so plainly from his partner. “But you want this relationship…”
“I do. I really do.” Alastair set down his cup and sat back on one hand, having had his fill both of dinner and the subject. “That doesn’t mean I have any plans, either. The more I discover about you, the more I want you, but I can see I have to progress carefully. You haven’t been raised with any of the expectations of how a relationship works, so I have to step back and adjust to that. As long as we’re honest with each other,” he said conclusively, “regardless of how we feel. Good or bad, we have to say it. We promised each other that much.”
Kaiba nodded his agreement, and let that be the end of it. They finished up their meal in relative comfort, pushing aside anything deep or important and simply trading small talk instead. When they agreed that dinner was over, Kaiba got up to call to the front desk to have the staff come and remove the dishes, while Alastair rose and wandered back over to the window to wait and think thoughts to himself for a bit. The one small window in their room overlooked the dormant gardens in the center courtyard of the onsen, which were cold and gray now with the coming winter, drab and dark with no moonlight shining down on them this evening. As he stood gazing absently out at the darkness, Alastair heard the kitchen staff enter and the clatter of the dishes being gathered up, followed by his partner’s sullen murmur of acknowledgement that passed for thanks in his personal language, and then the silence that indicated they were alone again. He expected Kaiba’s noiseless approach, but not the bottle that bumped against his elbow all of a sudden. He glanced to find Seto holding out a beer to him; he carried a second. “Here.”
Intrigued, Alastair turned enough to take it from him and examine the label; the brand met his approval. “Now this is more like it,” he remarked. “What’d you do, order it up when you called to have them come get the dishes?”
Kaiba nodded once, and then raised his own bottle. Alastair knocked his against it, both of them smirking in a silent toast to each other before taking a drink. Noticing his partner’s gaze drifting back towards the window, Kaiba asked, “What, is there something interesting out there?”
“It’s snowing,” Alastair replied. “Just a little.” He nodded toward the window, and the very light flakes drifting down to dust exposed surfaces with ice crystals. After a moment of pensive thought, he spoke again, more softly. “This part of the country reminds me a little of home. All cold and bleak and kind of backwards.”
“I’m sure it’s better in the summer.” Kaiba stood gazing at him for a moment, studying his rather serious face, and then turned his eyes to the window also to take note of the snow flurries. “The country where you grew up,” he began. “It’s like this?”
“Sort of. It needs more mountains, though.” Alastair thoughtfully sipped at his beer before continuing. “I come from a pretty barren corner of Eastern Europe. It’s not that I miss it, really. I just haven’t seen anything to remind me of it for a while.”
Kaiba peered at him. “You were living in Prague…”
“Between Prague and Berlin, yeah. Cities are lot different from the old village where I was born. Prague, especially. It’s becoming something of a tourist hot spot, but the crime…man, it’s terrible. Not the sort of place I would want to stay long-term.” He shook his head slowly. “Not that I’ve gotten used to Japan yet, either. It’s been a long time since I had a place to consider home. So…I fall back on those old, dusty memories. From before Dartz.” His gray eyes glittered a bit as he stared through the window at the cold night beyond. “The last time I remember ever being…really happy. Not just on the surface, but…deep down, at peace with myself.”
Kaiba lowered the bottle from his lips as he listened and pondered. “Kind of hard to do that when war made you into a refugee, and an orphan no less.”
“A lot was so uncertain,” Alastair agreed, “but…I had a family. I had a home, up until the battle finally crept to our doorstep and took it all away. My childhood was scary, but I had that innate trust that my father was going to help protect us on the front lines, and my mother would protect us at home. I wasn’t really afraid of the war until I lost them.” He grimaced to himself and covered it up with a long swig from his bottle. “Listen to me,” he grumbled. “Going on like some kind of pitiful wretch.”
His partner heaved a soft sigh. “I envy you being able to speak openly about it,” he muttered – only that, and nothing more, returning to his drink.
Alastair kept his gaze shifted away. “There isn’t much I want to talk about,” he said in a low tone. “It’s been years, but…because of the way Dartz manipulated me, most of it is still fresh and raw. I try to think back before all that, back to when my home town was peaceful, but…I was so young. It’s hard to remember much except…impressions.” He placed his fingertips gingerly on the windowpane, and removed them after a few seconds feeling the sting of cold. The warmth of his touch lingered for a moment longer, fogging the pane around the spots where his fingers had sat, and then evaporated. “They’re there, and then they’re gone.”
Beside him, Kaiba closed his eyes briefly. “I know what you mean.” He glanced again to see Alastair growing more solemn, his eyes studiously focused on the window, though he sipped now and then from his beer. It was a painful sort of expression that made Kaiba want to erase it from his face any way he could. All he could think to ask was, “Have you been back there, since…?”
“Since Dartz? No.” A faint smirk lightened his features almost imperceptibly. “I got close. After I…I fled from the hospital, and you and L.A. and anything having to do with the Seal and Dartz, I went back to Europe, but I wandered. I traveled for a while, regaining my wits and my life. I even watched your invitational tournament while I was in Italy,” he mentioned with a stiff shrug. “But I couldn’t get home. By the time I even got close, and the area was safe enough for travel, it was a bad time of year. The winter snows…they tend to close the mountain passes and make trying to get anywhere hell. I used that as my excuse and never went back. I went to the cities instead, and started looking for work.” He waved a hand idly. “And there you have it. The story of what my life has been like up until I contacted you out of nowhere and somehow got caught up in you.”
For a long moment, neither of them moved or spoke in response. Alastair took another sip of beer and then set his bottle on the windowsill, keeping his head lowered while thoughts crept in and harassed it. He didn’t hear his companion shift his weight or take a step, and flinched slightly when he felt arms come around his shoulders from behind. Kaiba wrapped him in a warm, comfortable embrace, pulling him back against his chest and resting his cheek against Alastair’s left ear. Alastair resisted briefly, but realized that the sudden, uncharacteristic gesture was just what he had been hoping for, what he had spoken of earlier as an expectation he ought to rethink. He wanted this, and sank back into Kaiba with a sigh, closing his eyes. Two bottles now stood together on the sill while Kaiba discovered why lesser mortals seemed to like this snuggling thing. At the very least, he liked the feel of Alastair’s lean, tough body in his arms, and could see that holding him this way greatly eased the pensive furrows in his partner’s brow. Once again, like earlier that day in the bath, he could sense that the cold, unfeeling walls which protected his heart were nearly down, and only by telling himself that he chose this, that he did it for his own reasons, saved them from crumbling entirely and taking his personal dignity with them. As he stood there, relishing the warmth of his companion’s closeness, he felt Alastair’s hand come to rest over his arm, giving his grateful consent to the embrace. They ended up leaning against each other, supporting each other and sharing heat so close to the drafty window. There wasn’t any reason to stir or break the silence with more talking, so they didn’t. Seto was not significantly taller than Alastair, making it easy for their bodies to fit comfortably together no matter the position, and allowed Kaiba’s lips to hover near to Alastair’s neck if he chose to make a move on him. But he didn’t, other than turning his head slightly to rest it against his partner’s. A great while passed before Alastair finally sighed and nudged a little to indicate that he might want to be set free. He turned enough to be able to see his companion’s face and focused solemn, concerned eyes on him. “Seto,” he began in a low murmur, “can I ask you a really difficult and probably uncomfortable question?”
Kaiba’s arms eased a little, but he didn’t pull away completely. “You’re not trying to start another argument, are you?”
“No, just…” Alastair sighed hard and tried again. “This has been a really great weekend, I’m glad I got to go away with you and I’m amazed you even asked me to. I thought it was too soon to think about something like this with you. I…” He hesitated, biting his lip, and decided to just say it. “I need to know…what you think of me. What I mean to you.”
The arms slid away from him, allowing him to turn completely to face his partner. “Why?” Kaiba asked with a bit of a frown. “Would that change anything?”
“Well, no…” Alastair pouted to himself, his gray eyes sulking off in a different direction. “It’s just hard to know anything with you. I’m sorry, forget I asked,” he said suddenly with a shake of his head. “I know you do your best. What you’ve done, not just bringing me here, but…even just holding me like that, it…it shows me what you probably can’t say. I’m not going to be a jerk and try to push for more.”
“Alastair…” Though the look on his face was uncomfortable, Kaiba reached out to his lover and cupped his cheek in one strong hand, encouraging him not to look away. Alastair frowned up at him as if concerned that he had said the wrong thing, his eyes softening as he met Kaiba’s gaze. “I haven’t taken a weekend’s vacation for any reason since I took over KaibaCorp,” Seto said gruffly. “The fact that you’re here with me right now should say it all.”
Alastair’s mood began to soften as well, as he considered it. He still pouted, and ran a fingertip down from Kaiba’s collar to his chest. “What, tournaments don’t count as vacations?”
“Hell no. That’s far more important.”
They both fidgeted for a moment, and then Alastair stepped closer, sliding his arms around his partner’s waist. Kaiba’s hands came to rest on his hips in turn. “You know that I love you,” Alastair murmured gently. “I haven’t said it in a while, but it’s still true. Even more now than when I first came to Japan to try to make things work with you.”
“I knew it,” Kaiba said wryly. “Even though I told you not to hinge your future on me, you went and did it anyway.”
“Of course I did,” Alastair retorted. “Are you complaining?”
Seto shifted his gaze away, out of shyness more than anything. Such topics were an uncharted road for him to embark upon. “I didn’t push you away for saying it before,” he said quietly, “I’m not going to start now. I’m not afraid to…to…” He looked pained for only a second, as his lips formed the strange word. “…to be loved.”
Alastair’s hands closed into fists on his sweater, tugging him a little closer. “I’ve never loved anyone before,” he confessed, “ever. The way you make me feel is…intoxicating, and amazing, and a little scary. I’ve never wanted to give to someone instead of taking everything from them, and I’m annoyed with myself for falling in love with someone so hard-headed and arrogant who always has to be the dominant one.” He pulled on Kaiba’s sweater until he was close enough to lean against, resting his chin on the taller man’s shoulder. “But…god…being in love is so good. I take back all the insulting things I ever said about it in my ignorance. I want to love you, Seto…as long as you’ll let me.”
The hands on his waist slid even further around him, curling him into protective arms. Kaiba nuzzled him absently, feeling the softness of his red hair against his temple and cheek, breathing in his summery scent. “Have I ever given you reason to think I don’t want you?” he said quietly.
“No,” Alastair gently assured him. “You’re not the easiest man to get along with, but…you do manage to make me happy.” He chuckled to himself and lifted his eyes to regard his companion’s face. “It’s kind of surprising. I was sure you were so…stiff, and cold, that it would take me years to melt you down enough to where you wouldn’t shrink away from me when I wanted to touch you. But…here we are…” He glanced down at the way they held each other.
“What can I say?” Kaiba similarly glanced down. “When you want something, you have to go after it, and not hesitate. No matter how foreign the subject or confusing the way it makes you feel.”
Alastair nuzzled him comfortingly. “Now that sounds more like the Kaiba I know.”
Seto’s hands tightened a little around the small of his back, though it wasn’t clear why, for he lapsed into a short silence in which Alastair leaned against him and teased light kisses to his cheek and beside his ear. At last, the softest murmur seeped from his lips, breathing across his lover’s ear. “I…don’t know what to say…to answer you. I can say, honestly, that I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. It’s…not as bad as I used to think it would be. To let someone get close to me.”
Alastair gave a whispery sigh and sank fully into him, wrapping his arms around Kaiba’s waist. Kaiba caught him and decided to return the embrace, resting his chin on his partner’s shoulder and losing himself in the irresistible feeling of that body so close to him. “The more you try to say, and can’t,” Alastair breathed into the silence around them, “the more I understand. If I didn’t mean anything to you, we wouldn’t be standing here like this, fumbling our way through our feelings. I guess you really don’t have to say anything, after all.”
Yet, there was one thing Seto wanted to say, no matter how hard it was to find the words. “If not for you,” he said heavily, “I would have gone through my life never realizing that something was missing from it. But now that I know…I like it. I…like the way you make me feel. Even when I feel stupid and weak and flustered because of you,” he added with a touch of sarcasm.
“I’m sure no one but me will ever know that you feel that way.” Alastair pressed a firmer kiss to his face in assurance. “You can still be the strong, silent type in the real world, in your office; no one will ever guess that deep down, you’re kind of vulnerable sometimes.”
A twitch of discomfort flashed across Kaiba’s face, and he growled under his breath. “I hate that I have to pretend like you don’t exist, for the sake of my company. I’ve never backed down from anyone, I’m not afraid of anything, but I have to hide this one little thing or risk complete ruin. It’s ridiculous. It turns me into a coward, and I can’t do anything about it.”
His bristling reaction made Alastair retreat just a little, releasing him from his embrace to let him twitch and mutter as much as he wanted. “I know,” he assured as calmly as he could. “I’ve always known that, Seto – that you can’t admit to seeing me. You have to protect your reputation.”
Kaiba withdrew his arms and turned away, heaving a frustrated sigh. “It’s never been an issue before. All of a sudden…I have to consider every move I make, whether it would cast shame on the company if it were discovered,” he complained with his back to his partner. “I have no problem simply keeping it quiet – my personal life is my business, nobody else’s, and I wouldn’t go around bragging about it regardless of who I was seeing.” He shifted his glance slightly over his shoulder. “But it pisses me off that I have to actually sneak around to be with you…like what I’m doing is somehow wrong…”
Alastair folded his arms over his chest and leaned on the wall beside the window. “I didn’t consider going away to a fancy onsen in Hokkaido ‘sneaking,’” he offered. “Though I do see the value of having come all this way to be able to spend your weekend with me.”
“I didn’t consciously intend to take you as far away from Domino as I could,” Kaiba said flatly, “I merely took advantage of an opportunity. But the fact remains.” He grimaced and looked away again. “It’s stupid. I’ve worked hard to get where I am, I’ve earned every ounce of status, influence, and power that I have and no one can take it away from me. I have the power and freedom to do just about anything, except acknowledge the person I’m seeing. If I was anybody but the president of KaibaCorp, nobody would give a damn who was in my bed, but no – because of who I am, it’s the kind of thing that would cause a scandal. So I have to hide it, and treat it as a dangerous secret, instead of be allowed to live my life in peace!”
For a moment Alastair didn’t respond, leaning on the wall with his head bowed. Then, he roused himself and reached to the bottles on the windowsill, which were both nice and cold now. He straightened up and stepped forward to hand Kaiba’s to him. “Here. You could use this. It’s okay, you know,” he added after Kaiba took the bottle from him and hastily downed some of the beer. “I completely understand where you’re coming from. I’m not asking you to sacrifice your company’s reputation so you can be with me. If anything…” He glanced away shyly. “…I want to protect you. If we have to sneak around, so be it. I can live with the secrecy, if it means not exposing you to ruin.”
Kaiba turned back to him, studying him briefly as he leaned back against the wall. “It won’t be that easy. The more I might want to see you, the more difficult it’ll be to work it out, between our schedules and not being caught.”
“Would you rather end it?”
Seto blinked at the abrupt suggestion. “What? No,” he replied, taken aback. “I wasn’t saying that…”
“Just making sure.” Alastair lifted gentle gray eyes to his partner’s face. “It’s the easiest solution.”
“I haven’t gotten this far in life by falling back on easy solutions.” Kaiba’s eyes hardened, giving him a grim look. “I won’t let anyone dictate to me how to live my life. I refuse to give in to prejudice, and I’ll make the effort to continue this if for no other reason than to defy them all.”
“That sounds all righteous and stuff,” Alastair said warily, “but if that’s your only reason to continue to see me, it’ll never work. I know you’re that stubborn, you’ll fight to win just for the sake of winning. While I admire that, this time…” He shook his head. “Do it because you care about me, not for the sake of a principle. If you lost…I would be responsible for it, deep down. And I don’t want to be the cause of your downfall.”
Kaiba barked a short laugh. “Ironic, coming from the man who once tried to destroy me.”
His partner shrugged, idly waggling the beer bottle in his hand. “Hey, if you ever needed proof that I’m a different man now than I was then…there it is.” He straightened up again and moved closer. “I mean it, Seto. I don’t want to be the reason you fall. I love you too much to let that happen.”
“Do you love me enough not to let that stand in the way of being with me?”
The question caught Alastair by surprise, but only for a moment. A look of firm confidence awakened in his eyes. “The way I feel about you makes me want to stick by you no matter what happens. I know how dangerous it is for you, but if you still want it bad enough to risk it…then so will I.”
Kaiba nodded solemnly. “You matter to me. That’s incentive enough.” A smirk began to gleam in his blue eyes. “Defying the entire global business world and their homophobic attitudes just makes it fun.”
The smirk spread to Alastair’s face, and he tapped his nearly-empty bottle against Kaiba’s chest. “Yeah, but it’ll still be a long time before you can ever hold a press conference to come out of the closet.”
A glower swiftly passed through Kaiba’s eyes. “Why should I? I’m not gay.”
Alastair shrugged, deciding not to argue that point. “You just like having me in your bed.”
Kaiba reached out to him and grabbed him by the waistband of his jeans, tugging him closer. They stared at each other for a moment, and then Kaiba softened and bowed his head for a kiss. Alastair obliged him, firmly and sweetly. When they pulled away, Seto’s fingers remained hooked in his lover’s waistband. He began to smile roguishly. “And what if I do? Good sex is good sex, no matter who it’s with.”
“I do try my best,” Alastair acknowledged with a coy smirk, tilting his head. The longer they stood together, gazing at each other, the more the sharpness faded from their expressions, making them want to lean into each other again and kiss more gently. Each had nothing more than a sip left in their bottles, so one by one they put them down and decided to go with the pull of their instincts. After a few minutes of fervent kissing, Alastair backed off and pulled his lover after him. “You went to a lot of trouble to have the inn break tradition and set up our bed early…we might as well take advantage of it.”
Kaiba eyed him with a pleased smirk. “What, you haven’t had enough, yet?”
“We didn’t come to Hokkaido in November for the scenery.” Alastair came to a stop beside the futon piled thick with comforters and fidgeted with his partner’s sweater, threatening to yank it off him at any moment. “We can take our time,” he purred, gentling his voice. “Climb under those warm blankets and have a nice, long, relaxing evening together. Like you said…” He gave Kaiba a seductive look through heavy-lidded eyes. “Who knows when our schedules are going to let us have another night like this?”
Kaiba’s hand came up behind his head, caressing through his hair at the nape of his neck for a moment before drawing him closer for another lingering kiss. “You drive a hard bargain,” he murmured when they broke away. “I’m sure, as exhausted as we both are, it’s going to take a very…” He leaned closer, quieting to a husky whisper. “…very…long…time.”
Alastair wet his lips. “Good.” They plunged into another kiss, and within moments, found themselves dropping to their knees and then falling back onto the bed, catching each other up in their arms. It wasn’t long before sweaters and jeans were flung aside and they burrowed into the thick blankets, touching and kissing their way to a long, slow session of lovemaking. Because of the arrangements made, they would be allowed to sleep in late and decide on their own when to fly back home, leaving the entire night open for this kind of activity. After all that talk, all they wanted was to indulge in one another, enjoy their time together and all the good things about each other that made them want to stick it out. Here, no words were necessary, as the language of lips, tongues, and fingertips said it all.