Notes: Written for the LJ Timestamp challenge. This takes place 1 year after the events of Unclean. (I will finish Unclean at an unspecified time in the future). Requested by Mamono.

Simple and Clean

by Kysra

A door slam. A disinterested grunt. The sharp intake of breath just before –

"That's IT!! I want my stuff back, Kaiba. NOW!!!"

Pause.

"I mean how sick is this? You have over TWENTY sets of my underwear! I've had to buy replacements! And –"

"I paid for them."

"Yes, you did. (And thank you again, by the way, even if you did STEAL THOSE TOO). You sleazy, no-good, panty-obsessed –"

"Pervert."

"YES! Pervert. I mean it's been a YEAR, and you're still stealing my panties and bras and lingerie! I had to petition to wear PANTS to school, I'm so paranoid about HOW you're stealing them! And when you're not taking my underwear, you're petitioning me for sex and –"

"We petition each other."

"WHATEVER! The point is it's getting ridiculous! We never just TALK. Instead, we –"

"Argue."

"Exactly! And when we're not arguing, we're having meaningless sex!!!"

"Or make-up sex."

"And while that's all well and good (really good), it's been a YEAR."

"So you've said. Twice now."

"A YEAR, Kaiba. A year of 'your place or mine,' of hiding from my parents, of LOSING ALL MY DELICATES!"

"You look better without them anyway."

"A girl likes to know she's appreciated! I want more than this whatever-the-hell-it-is screwed up THING we have going. I want to go out to dinner or a movie, to hold hands in public, and spend quality non-sex time actually having a conversation!!! I want –"

"Intimacy."

"Precisely! I'm surprised you even know that word; but YES. Intimacy. I'm tired of using you and I'm sick of being used!"

"Fine."

The sharp click of a closing laptop. The silent thunderclap of eyes meeting.

"Fine?"

"Marry me."

A pause and then, softly –

"Okay."