Silly little One-Shot to tide people over until I get the next TBT chapter finished. I'm just touching up, so I thought I'd throw this your way, I've had it for a while.
Disclaimer: Do Not Own, KTHX
It wasn't cold exactly, but it always felt like it was colder outside when he'd been especially warm inside. As it was his jacket was wrapped tightly around him and his hands were fisted into his pockets to keep warm as he made his way to the coffee shop on the corner.
He relished in the heat as he walked in. It was like a furnace compared to the crispness outside. A crispness, or damnable cold as Yami called it, that his darker half was reluctant to venture out in. That was the reason he'd decided not to join Yuugi and Jounouchi for coffee when Yuugi had offered him an invitation. Yami had glanced outside, put his hand to the glass, quickly drew back the appendage and then confirmed the inevitable decline to the invite.
Not that it bothered Yuugi. Sometimes it was good to hang out with Jounouchi just one on one without his other self. As much as he loved Yami, sometimes he could be a bit of a stick in the mud when it came to discussing the importance of the female cast in the recent Bond movie. He smiled to himself remembering that particular topic, sliding into a booth to await the arrival of his blond friend.
It hadn't been long when the chiming of the café bell alerted him to the arrival of another customer. Craning his neck around he quickly identified the mop of shaggy blond hair that was Jounouchi's trademark hair style.
"Hey Jounouchi!" He called, holding his hand up at head height in a welcoming gesture. He watched Jounouchi turn his way and then grin widely upon spotting him, bounding over to plop into the seat opposite.
"Hey d'ere Yuug'!" He said enthusiastically as always. "Been waiting long?"
"Nah, I only just got here myself." He replied with a warm smile over to his long time friend. "So how you been Jounouchi?"
If possible, Jounouchi's grin widened. "Great, I finally got the bastard to talk to me some last night."
Yuugi smiled. 'The Bastard', as Jounouchi affectionately called him, was otherwise known as Kaiba Seto, the infamous CEO of Kaiba Corporation. For some time now, he and Jounouchi had been involved in some twisted sort of love-hate relationship, which often lead to many a long rant about the arrogance of 'the bastard' and how 'the bastard' was lucky that Jounouchi would even bother talking to him after a stunt like he pulled just prior to the conversation taking place.
"Really?" Yuugi asked, cocking his head to the side slightly. Getting 'the bastard' to actually talk to him about something that really mattered was one of Jounouchi's minor goals for the relationship.
"Yup, I finally got him to talk to me about just stuff, like about Mokuba. Get this Yuug' he even told me some of the stuff about the orphanage he was from." He said in an excited hush.
Yuugi was genuinely shocked. The last thing that Kaiba ever wanted to admit to was that he wasn't born a Kaiba and that his early child hood had been... well... a terrible tragedy of a mess. That he admits his origin is one matter, to actually talk about it was entirely another.
"But I won't tell ya about it, 'cause yeah... that stuff's private ya know?" Jounouchi continued.
"Yeah, yeah Jounouchi that's no problem. I wasn't going to ask." He assured him, smiling as a waitress finally stopped at their table.
Their conversation went on pause briefly while they ordered and then resumed at an entirely different subject when the waitress departed.
"I think she was lookin' at you Yuug'." Jounouchi said slyly, leering over at his buddy.
Yuugi snorted. "For her sake then, let's both be glad Yami's not here."
Jounouchi chuckled. "Damn right. But seriously I think she was falling in love with you. Just Yuugi, promise me you'll let her down gently."
"Sure thing." Yuugi replied. "I can't remember the last time anyone actually looked at me." He sighed in mock-wistfulness.
"I can." Jounouchi quipped. "It was the last time you were more than 100 metres away from Yami."
"Psh, like Kaiba's any different. I'm surprised he doesn't make you leave the house wearing a collar letting people know you're his." Yuugi replied.
Jounouchi growled. "Like I'd let the bastard put me in a collar. Besides, you're the one more likely to walk out of the house wearing the collar, you and Yami are into the leather and bondage gear, me and Seto are normal."
Yuugi smothered a laugh. "Normal?! You act like you hate each other most of the time and all you ever seem to do is argue or make-out. Your favourite past times are seeing who can insult the other more and sex, and I'm the abnormal one?"
"...Touché Yuugi, touché." Jounouchi said, fighting a grin.
"Thank you very much."
"...She's got that dreamy look in her eyes, I bet ya she's planning your wedding." Jounouchi continued to joke.
"We've already established that I'm letting this waitress, who is now apparently in love with me, down gently, because otherwise she'd get upset... or die a terrible, gruesome death—"
"Hey, you can throw her my way." Jounouchi interrupted.
"— and die a terrible, gruesome, bankrupt death." Yuugi finished. "So how exactly would one go about this 'letting her down gently'?"
"Two words Yuug'. 'I'm Gay'. There, all problems solved." Jounouchi replied.
Yuugi frowned. "Okay, considering for one moment that it's actually true and we're not just fooling around, that's your 'gentle' way? Couldn't I just make sure that I'm talking about that insane boyfriend of mine when she comes back?"
"Yeah, but this is more direct, straight to the point. Also you should prolly make out that your boyfriend is actually attractive and not an obsessively possessive wielder of shadow magic." He added.
Yuugi chuckled. "Right. So I declare my affinity for the same sex, and then proceed to tell her about how super my hottie boyfriend is." He concluded emphasising the last weird with his best cheerleader/stereotypical gay-boy imitation.
"That's the ticket." Jounouchi replied with a goofy grin on his face.
"Wonderful, should I finish my drink first so she can't throw it on me?" He enquired.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good strategy." Jounouchi nodded.
"Good." He replied simply, nodding once.
It was at this point that the waitress arrived, delivering them their drinks of choice. They quickly disbanded the conversation they'd been having, throwing each other a quick look of mutually understood humour before politely thanking the waitress who smiled in return.
Upon receiving his drink, Yuugi wasted no time in quickly wrapping his hands around the mug of hot chocolate he'd ordered, sighing as warmth began to spread through his hands an up his arms. He took a sip, feeling it beginning to work on his insides, and then resumed conversation.
"So Yuug' is Yami the cuddly kinda guy? I mean he doesn't particularly strike me as the really affectionate type until I see him 'round you, and that kinda weirds me out a bit." Jounouchi said, lowering his own mug back to the table.
Yuugi chuckled raising an eyebrow. "It weirds you out?"
Jounouchi shifted in his chair, honey-brown eyes growing slightly wider. "Yeah man. I mean he's all... well you know..."
"I'm a badass in black leather, prepared to be owned by the power of my glare?" Yuugi offered.
"Yeah, that's it. But that's like, just around everyone else, I mean when it's just you an' him mostly, he's just... just..."
"He's a big ol' softie."
Jounouchi snorted. "Well I wouldn't exactly say that, but he's really affectionate. But yeah, it's weird seeing him mind crushing people, glaring, and with his arrogance and all that, and then see him acting like some sort of love struck cat who's had way too much cream. That smile of his is creepy sometimes."
"Ooooh." Yuugi mocked. "Don't let him hear you say that, he doesn't like to be compared to a feline after the week of kitten comments from Grandpa." He said with a quiet laugh to himself.
"Do I want to know?"
"No, you really don't." Yuugi replied with an impishly mischievous grin.
"Right... so you didn't answer my question Yuug'." He prodded.
"Oh?"
"Yeah, is Yami a cuddly guy?" He reiterated.
"In what... I don't understand what you're talking about, is Yami a cuddly guy, what do you mean a 'cuddly guy'?" Yuugi asked, tilting his head to the side and frowning slightly as he tried to gain the meaning.
"I mean like, afterwards."
"After...?"
"You're so dense sometime I can hardly believe you're King of Games." He groaned.
The impish smile returned. "No I just wanna hear you say it in this nice quaint little café."
"You need to stop hanging around Bakura." Jounouchi deadpanned.
Yuugi merely laughed.
"Orright, so after Yami's finished trying to make you apart of the mattress, or any other surface you guys screw on, you kinky bastards, does he like to cuddle afterwards or what?" He explained.
Yuugi blushed slightly at the mention of other surfaces, before sipping on his hot chocolate in contemplation of how to answer.
"Yes." He answered finally. "Yami's, surprisingly enough, more of a cuddler than I am. Not that I mind of course, it's really sweet ya know? But he likes to cuddle afterwards, only exception being when it's somewhere... uh... risky. Then he's just more affectionate than usual immediately afterwards. Sometimes I swear he's actually trying to lure me into a 'round two' if he's feeling particularly virile."
"Now... I didn't need to know that last part Yuug'." Jounouchi replied.
"I know." He grinned. "So how about you and Kaiba?"
Jounouchi shrugged. "Well, he's not much of a cuddler, I know shocking eh? I'm more of the cuddling one. It's a chemical ya know?"
"Really?" Yuugi queried, raising an eyebrow in a milder echo of his dark half's expressions. It was sort of funny the way those two had started to rub off on one another.
"Yeah. Can't remember the name, but it's a chemical that makes people cuddly, some people have more than others. Obviously Kaiba doesn't even have anything making that chemical, or he suppresses." Jounouchi whined.
"He suppresses." Yuugi said simply.
"Wha?"
"It's obviously he's not really a touchy feely kind of guy—" Jounouchi snorted "—but I think he does have that chemical, he just doesn't like to show it. You know how he is. Maybe if you spent a week not fighting you'd get more cuddle time." Yuugi pointed out cheerfully.
"... I would if he wasn't such a bastard." He replied blandly.
Yuugi sighed. Sometimes he gave up on Kaiba and Jounouchi. For some odd reason, their relationship worked with somehow. Sometimes there was genuine care shown towards one another in dire situations, and Yuugi most certainly did not want to know what went on in Kaiba estates' master bedroom... or any other room those two occupied... or the limo now that he thought about it.
"Sometimes, at night, I look up at the ceiling, and wonder how you two are even plausible." Yuugi sighed.
"Ya know, me too." Jounouchi admitted. "I mean, you and Yami have the epitome of a perfect relationship and I—"
"— We do not!" Yuugi interrupted.
"Ha! You do too Yuugi! You and Yami never argue or anything." Jounouchi jeered.
"Sure we do. Yami and I argue!" He blushed.
"Oh yeah? What about, when, and how often?" Jounouchi baited.
"Uh... well... recently we were arguing about fanboys." He replied.
"Fanboys?"
"Yes," he nodded, "fanboys."
"Why?"
"Well I was saying that Yami has more fanboys than girls 'cause he's obviously gay which means he's not after their women so they needn't worry. I mean, just look at him! I am surprised that I didn't pick it up before!" Yuugi cried.
"That's because you were a pathetic little girl scared outta your pants about if 'oh what if Yami doesn't like me!'." Jounouchi joked, exaggerating Yuugi's slightly higher pitched voice.
Yuugi blushed to the tips of his ears. "I was not!"
"Oh you were too!" He teased. "I remember talking to you while you tried to chew the nails off your fingers! I mean you were worried 'cause Yami went on that date with Anzu when you made him do it. Gods you were lame Yuug', I mean no offence but everyone but you two could see that you were crazy for each other!"
Yuugi grumbled something about 'know it all monkeys' and then took another mouthful of his hot chocolate. "So, we've established that Yami is the cuddlier one out of the two of us, and you are the cuddlier one out of you and Kaiba. Now when you say you're cuddlier than Kaiba, how much more cuddlier?" he said, quickly reversed the conversation.
"Uh... well I like to cuddle for a while, but 'cause I'm so used to sleepin' on me own I kind of roll onto my other side to sleep." Jounouchi explained.
"Oh, so you don't like to fall asleep all cuddled up to Kaiba? I mean, I wouldn't, but you know, sleeping with blocks of ice doesn't appeal to me." Yuugi said dryly.
Jounouchi started at him awhile, blinking a few times before replying with a well aimed "Man you're getting like Yami."
Yuugi puffed out his cheeks in anger. "I am not."
He looked over him in mock thought, tapping at his closed lips before reaching a conclusion. "You're right. You're cuter than Yami, not to mention he wouldn't pout and puff out his cheeks. The ice remark though was very Yami." Jounouchi laughed.
Yuugi grumbled quietly, not responding to the comment as he picked up his hot chocolate, taking a longer drink now that it was cool enough to and licking the foam from his upper lip absently.
Jounouchi quirked an eyebrow.
It was unfair that Yuugi could manage to pull off something so sensual while being completely unaware of it. No wonder Yami was so charged all the time. Not to mention how frustrated he got over short periods of time when Yuugi's mum was around which meant he was unable to molest Yuugi in the slightest way. Yuugi was a downright tease when he wanted to be as well as when he didn't mean to be.
"So anyway, no I don't fall asleep cuddled up to Kaiba, though I think secretly he wants me too. I've woke up a couple of times and he's got his arm round me." Jounouchi said with a sage-like nod.
"I see."
"Mm, now I've explained to you, what do you mean when you say that Yami's more the cuddlier? Given that it's obvious you're the girlie one in the relationship." Jounouchi joked.
"I resent that." Yuugi said bluntly, face deadpan before becoming more animated than usual. "I mean, I'm not some sissy little girl who just lies around crying 'take me Yami I'm yours!'. I mean why does there have to be a girlie one? I'm a guy, he's a guy, we're both the males , he just has more dominate personality traits than me.
"I mean gods I wasn't hopelessly seduced into his bed or anything, like some little lamb. I am not a lamb. I mean I've stopped him killing people and doing all sorts of messed up crap, but nobody believes I can put my foot down in a relationship with him, that I just roll over and let him do whatever he wants or something. I mean when he's all affectionate, he's being attentive and a good man, when I am, why am I the girlie one?! Why!?" Yuugi cried slamming his hands down on the table.
"It's not fair. Yami can be all cool and affectionate and all that, but I can't be that, I have to be the lamb! I mean why do people just assume that I hang around waiting for some knight in leather armour to whisk me away or something? Or that I'm like some little girl being utterly dominated by some sexual predator? Just because I'm not moody and sexy, doesn't mean anything! I've been with Yami for over a year now and everyone still assumes I'm some stupid blushing virgin who doesn't know anything about passion and I'm just waiting for some strong man to show me how. I know how. I'm not a passive wimp or something."
He growled. "Why do homosexual relationships even have to have a "girlie" one? I mean I'm attracted to him 'cause he's a guy, not because he acts like a girl but cause he's a guy. He loves me because I'm a guy, not because he thinks of me as a chick without breasts. I'm a man who loves another man, I don't want to date a guy pretending to be a chick and neither does Yami. I'm not his bitch. Gods."
Jounouchi looked on in shock throughout the entire rant and decided... Yuugi had a point there. A lot of people often made the mistake of thinking that Yami was in control of every aspect of their relationship, but he'd seen on numerous occasions, things that lead him to believe that Yami was only 'in power' as it were, when Yuugi let him be. Yami was sometimes quite a coward when it came to Yuugi and problems, Yuugi was generally the one who got things done when they really mattered. On quite a few occasions his little buddy had proven to be the stronger one of the two in given situations, they truly did complement each other. Yuugi's sanity for Yami's lack thereof.
He'd have to say that he agreed with Yuugi on the guy thing too. Luckily he didn't have too many problems with people comparing him to a girl, 'cause he was the most unfeminine guy in their group. Yuugi was nicer and well... gentler than he was so it was easy for them to call him a girl in comparison to steely Yami.
"O-kay, you've made your point." He said trying to calm the other down.
"Sorry, sorry. Just, an old debate." Yuugi apologised before taking a mouthful of his hot chocolate, a faint blush tinting his cheeks out of embarrassment for his previous outburst.
"Right." Jounouchi nodded in understanding. "So... how cuddley is Yami?"
Yuugi rolled his eyes, taking another mouthful of hot chocolate. If Yami found out that he was telling Jounouchi about his big ol' softie cuddling side, he'd probably be banned from the bed for a month due to his wounded honour when he found out. When not if. Jounouchi wasn't good with these kinds of secrets. He'd already told Jounouchi enough, describing the extent of Yami's "cuddliness" as it were, was a dangerous idea.
"Sorry Jounouchi, but if I told you I'd have to kill you." He grinned.
"Aw, but I told you." Jounouchi whined.
"Good job. Sorry Jounouchi, but something's stay in the bedroom." He apologised.
"Damnit."
"Why are you so curious anyway?" Yuugi asked, furrowing his brow.
"Aw, no reason Yuug'. Jus' call it morbid curiosity." Jounouchi grinned.
"Right... well speaking of the bedroom and morbidity; I have three weeks worth of laundry that Yami's not going to do waiting for me at home, so I think we should call it a day." Yuugi replied, fishing some yen from his pockets to pay for his drink.
"Yeah, I better go drag the bastard away from his laptop for a while." Jounouchi agreed. "So what's the story this time?"
Yuugi grinned. "We were talking about the Bond girls again."
"Perfect." Jounouchi said, rising from his seat and leaving the change on the table for his drink, donning his coat and fastening it closed.
"I'll give ya a call later on tonight about next week, I think the bastard's going to be a real ass about letting us go to his cabin for a week." Jounouchi grumbled.
"Alright, just don't make it too late tonight." Yuugi replied with a festive wink. "I'm doing so much laundry I might've actually run out of clothes to wear."
Jounouchi groaned burying his face in a hand as he pushed open the café doors. "Damnit Yuugi, go back to being a closet would you!"
"Can't, Yami's ego's so big he won't fit in there with me." Yuugi joked.
He chuckled. "Whatever you say. Catch you later Yuug', oh and tell your 'big ol' softie' I said hi."
"Okay! See ya Jounouchi." Yuugi said, with a small wave before turning back to the game shop. He always enjoyed coffee with Jounouchi when it was just them one on one. His other self could be a bit of a stick in the mud, when it came to discussing the Bond girls.
Yuugi grinned to himself mischievously as he made his way back home. He was pretty sure Yami had been wearing the same clothes for three days now; he'd definitely have to wash them.