Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Candycanes
Romance: Fubuki x Manjoume
Word Count: 2,162||Status: Complete
Genre: Romance, Humor||Rated: PG-13
Feedback: All forms eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Summary: Fubuki likes sharing things with Manjoume. Surely nothing at all will go wrong with a little sharing, right?

"Here, this is for you!" Fubuki dropped the brightly wrapped package into Manjoume's lap before he threw himself down onto the couch and started to fumble with something in his pocket. Manjoume stared at the gift so unceremoniously presented and picked it up.

"What is it?" In all the years he'd known Fubuki, he'd been given at least a dozen gifts, no two of them the same. He suspected there were only a dozen simply because Fubuki considered his very presence in Manjoume's life a gift.

Not that Manjoume intended to argue about that, of course. It was, after all, quite true.

"Open it up and find out!" Fubuki curled his head around so he could look at his young student, a grin sparkling across his features. "I'm not going to spoil the surprise for you!"

Manjoume tilted the package, which wasn't all that large, and tried to get some kind of idea of what might lay behind the wrappings. He heard crinkles of some kind coming from Fubuki's direction and glanced over to see him unwrapping a candycane. He dropped his attention back to the box and started to tug at it, wondering which way was up. If he guessed wrong and something fell into his lap that he'd prefer not being there, he didn't doubt Fubuki would laugh.

It might even be funny. But he'd still prefer that it not happen.

"Come on! You're going to love it!" Manjoume glanced quickly toward Fubuki, then back at the package, trying not to pay attention to what he'd so briefly seen. He tore into it harder, curiosity prodding him to find out just what it was Fubuki'd found for him.

A small box, barely large enough to fit into one hand, fell into his lap and he picked it up to take a better look at it. He could read English almost as well as he could Japanese, so it only took a moment for him to actually grasp what the package said. His cheeks burned an unholy shade of red as he stared at Fubuki.

"Lick It Discreetly? What in the world?" He noticed on a second glance something else and stared even harder. "You bought me perfume?"

Fubuki licked casually at the candycane. "What's wrong with that? Take a sniff, I think you'll love it. I know I did."

Manjoume closed his eyes. Fubuki didn't drive him insane like he did so many others, but there were times when even he didn't understand his master. That happened less and less with each year, but Fubuki had a way of throwing even him balance still.

"I'm a man. I don't wear perfume." He would've thought that should've been obvious, but one thing he knew without a shadow of a doubt was that things that were obvious to other people weren't necessarily so to Fubuki himself. "I wear cologne." That was if he wore anything, which he tended not to. He liked how his coat smelled without it.

"Cologne, perfume, what's the difference?" Fubuki rolled over on his back and stared up at the ceiling, his words muffled partly by the candy in his mouth. "You still haven't smelled it."

Manjoume stared at the box and knew if he didn't, he'd never hear the end of it. One sniff wouldn't hurt anything, he decided. And it would make Fubuki happy. Making Fubuki happy never hurt anything, not even his pride. He tugged open the top flap and pulled the tiny bottle out.

"That's the spirit!" Fubuki twisted around once again and stared in delight at his young apprentice. "Don't be shy now! Take a good whiff!"

There were so many things Manjoume could've said in reply to that. He chose not to, wanting to get this over with. Perfume wasn't something he was all that familiar with but he'd seen girls trying it on in stores before. I am not going to put this on my skin! With his luck, it would still be there when he dueled next and he didn't want anyone asking why he smelled like perfume.

Instead, he squirted some of it into the air in front of him and took a quick whiff. Candycanes. Peppermint candycanes. There was a hint of something else that spoke of chill nights and ice on the window, frost layering everything in the clear light of dawn...

It wasn't that bad. Not really. It wasn't him by any means, but it was a scent he wouldn't mind having around. If he could have it without it being delivered as perfume, of course. He squirted more and took another, deeper whiff, just to reaffirm his opinion.

"Aw, yeah! I knew you'd like it!" Fubuki spoke up and Manjoume tried not to jump, much less not to smile. Not that he could help himself very much; he tended to smile more around Fubuki than he did anyone else. "It is great, isn't it?"

Manjoume shrugged and put the bottle back into the box. "You could've gotten it in some incense or something." He wasn't going to say out loud that he liked it. He was Manjoume Thunder! He didn't go around saying things like that, not even for his master.

"Maybe next time." Fubuki rolled over onto his stomach and Manjoume caught a glimpse of him still working that candycane. He dropped his gaze even more quickly, the back of his ears burning and he wasn't entirely certain of why. "Do you really like it?"

Manjoume kept his attention on the bottle and wondered where he'd put it where no one could find it. Somewhere in his bedroom. Maybe in his nightstand; he didn't let anyone roam around in there, not even the maid. Not that most of the maids liked trying to clean his room anymore anyway. He usually ended up doing it himself whenever he was there in between tournaments.

Yes, that would be a good place to keep it, right next to his copy of his graduation yearbook. No one would even look in there, much less stand a chance of finding it.

Slender fingers flicked against a few strands of his hair and Manjoume looked up to see Fubuki staring at him from only an inch or two away. He jumped back; why hadn't he seen the other moving? And why did he still have that candycane in his mouth? "What did you do that for?"

"You didn't answer me." Fubuki pouted, warm brown eyes bright with mischief. "I wanted to make sure you heard me."

"Oh, I heard you." Manjoume always heard Fubuki. Whether he did anything about it was the sticking point. He set the bottle to one side and leaned back in his chair, trying to get his thoughts to settle down and behave themselves. Having Fubuki that close didn't do anything to help at all, not with that candycane doing what it was doing. He shifted his attention away, or at least tried to, staring at the fireplace. No fire actually burned there, but he stared at it nevertheless. "What are you going to do once the holidays are over?"

"Haven't decided yet." Fubuki shrugged, the motion just visible from the corner of Manjoume's eye. "I don't have anything lined up at the moment, though. I might go visit Asuka. Want to come if I do?"

The thought warmed Manjoume a little but he shook his head. "Maybe another time. The dueling season's going to start soon and I have to get ready for it." Visiting Asuka, while always a glorious time, tended to also leave him just a touch sadder than he was before. He tried not to think about that, though.

"Well, we could always go somewhere together. Somewhere warm." Manjoume wondered if Fubuki'd even heard that he needed to get ready for the new dueling year. "We haven't been to the beach together in ages." One finger prodded into Manjoume's side and Manjoume jerked around, words of protest dying on his lips at the cheerful grin on Fubuki's own. "You're too pale. You look like you'd blow up if the sunlight touched you or something."

"I'm not a vampire." Manjoume rolled his eyes, glad that the candycane had somehow vanished. Probably Fubuki'd finished it. Good. The way he eats things should be classified as a lethal weapon.

"You look like one sometimes. You always wear all black and you're as pale as a ghost. If you wore all white, you'd look like a ghost." Fubuki frowned and Manjoume shifted subjects as quickly as he could. The thought of wearing all white was one he wanted to forget about.

"Do you want some hot chocolate?" He didn't wait around for Fubuki to answer but got to his feet and hurried into the kitchen to mix some up. By the time he returned, he decided, Fubuki would've found something else to grab his attention and the question of 'all white clothes' would be forgotten.

Two hot cups later, he stepped back into the room to find Fubuki poking at the logs in the fireplace (had there even been logs in there before?), with stray licks of flame teasing at them. "What did you do that for?"

"It's starting to snow." Fubuki gestured outside. "So I figured I'd start up the fire."

"Why?" Manjoume settled the cups on the coffee table and made certain to reclaim his chair before Fubuki decided he wanted it. "It's warm in here anyway."

Fubuki smiled and stretched out on the rug in front of the fire. "Because I wanted to sit in front of the fire and watch it snow, that's why." He reached over to pick up one of the cups and sipped at it. "This is good. Why don't you come down here and sit with me?" From the tone of his voice, he wasn't accepting no for an answer.

"Just for a little while," Manjoume decided. From long experience, he knew that doing anything with Fubuki 'for a little while' could stretch from five minutes to five years. He wormed his way downward to settle beside the older man, picking up his own cup along the way. He had to admit there was something about sitting there beside the fire as it grew higher and higher, something better than a room heated just by electricity. He didn't know what it was, but it was worth doing, at least.

A hint of peppermint filtered by and his stomach dropped out from underneath him as he turned to see Fubuki with yet another candycane in his mouth. "Where'd you get that?"

"I've got a lot of them." Fubuki patted his shirt pocket, where Manjoume could now see a few more curved ends poking out. "Did you want one? They're really good." His tongue flicked at the one he held now, trailing up and down the curve and around the end.

Manjoume wanted to look away. Every muscle in his body demanded that he look away. But none of them actually moved so he could do so. If anything, his eyes focused even more fully on Fubuki's tongue as he licked at the candycane, seemingly oblivious to Manjoume's attention. Up and down, up and down, circling around, sliding it into his mouth to suck on it for a moment or two...

Lethal weapon? Forget it, that's just plain indecent! And he couldn't stop watching. He didn't want to stop watching, he admitted on a level he normally reserved for whether or not he actually liked someone. He was the only person allowed access to that level and most of the time he ignored it. This wasn't most of the time.

"Your hot chocolate's getting cold." For all that Manjoume paid attention, Fubuki might not have said anything at all. That changed a heartbeat later when Fubuki's lips brushed against Manjoume's. Not a simple teasing pass, either, but a firm pressing that lasted a good minute before Manjoume's brains clicked to actual functioning status and he pulled himself away.

"Wh...what did you do that for?" That was worse (better?) than feeling Fubuki's fingers on his cheek! His cheeks flamed brighter than the flames of the fire.

Fubuki smiled, any innocence subverted by the amusement that glowed deep in the depths of his eyes. "Because you weren't doing anything and I wanted to see if you would if I did that." He started to pick up the candycane again. Manjoume grabbed him by the wrist and shook his head.

"Don't do that again. Please." He didn't think he could handle seeing that candycane being tormented like that. I can't handle being tormented like that!

Fubuki's smile warmed even more as he moved closer to Manjoume, his heat putting the fire to shame. "Then I'll have to find something else to do with my mouth, Manjoume." He leaned in, his breath warm against Manjoume's lips. "Do you have any suggestions?"

Manjoume's reply wasn't verbal, but that didn't matter. He said yes anyway.

The End

Notes: Lick It Discreetly is an actual perfume available from Black Alchemy Phoenix Labs.