"How was your day?" Duke asked as he closed the door to his apartment behind him upon entering it.

"Okay, I guess." Ryou shrugged indifferently as Duke went into the kitchen and started to wash his hands. The Brit sighed heavily and pulled the fuzzy blanket more tightly around himself. It was the dead of winter, and Ryou was always cold. Duke suspected that was partly because his body wasn't able to generate enough heat of its own. Duke kept his—their—apartment at a nice, comfortable temperature for him, but Ryou still preferred to wrap himself up in layers until his cheeks were red from the excessive heat.

"What'd you eat today?" Duke asked as he dried his hands on a kitchen towel, then turned to the fridge to pull out some ingredients for dinner.

"I had a piece of buttered toast for breakfast," Ryou answered automatically like he did every evening. Those were always the first two questions Duke asked Ryou when he stopped working for the day and rejoined Ryou at home. It was an important part of their routine, but the past few days, it had just felt like a drag. "And I ate a protein bar around noon."

Duke froze in the process of reaching for his kitchen knives. "That's all you ate today?" he asked in surprise.

"It was a bad day, okay?" he whined in answer. Ryou hid his face in a throw-pillow as he started tearing up, and Duke promptly left the kitchen to scoot in beside Ryou on the couch.

"Tell me what happened," he said, gently pulling the pillow away from Ryou's face. He crooked his finger under the other's chin and tilted his face upwards, forcing those molten chocolate eyes to meet his own emerald orbs.

"I slammed my fingers in the door-jamb when I was getting the bagels out of the fridge and bruised them."

He sniffled as he held up his hand and showed Duke how the three longest fingers were faintly bruised at the first joint, the one closest to his fingernails. Duke took his hand and kissed each little bruise before kissing palm as well.

"I got a customer's order wrong, and she freaked out on me. I tried to apologize, but she wouldn't listen…"

Ryou started to sniffle again, and Duke pulled him into a hug. The patrons of the bakery where Ryou worked were, for the most part, kind people. Every now and then, though, a grumpy or nasty customer would turn up, just as they would at any other establishment.

"Don't let her bad day make your day bad," Duke said smoothly in an effort to calm him.

"I wouldn't have even eaten lunch if Yugi hadn't told me to," Ryou admitted tearfully, his voice muffled by Duke's clothing.

"I think you need to get back on the antidepressants." Duke stroked Ryou's hair gently. "I know you wanted to be independent from them, but you've only been off of them for a week, and…"

"You're right," Ryou conceded, not wanting to fight with him. He wiped his eyes with the cuffs of his long sleeves. "I'll start again tomorrow."

"Good." Duke kissed Ryou's cheek. "Until then, how about I help cheer you up?"

Pink stained Ryou's cheeks as he took a few moments to decipher Duke's meaning.

"Duke, I'm not really sure if I'm up for that right now," he admitted, feeling guilty. He looked away, expecting Duke to be annoyed with him, but he wasn't, not at all.

"You know I always do my best in a performance, Ryou," he crooned before capturing Ryou's lips in a brief kiss. "Let me give you a show."

Ryou hesitated and started to bite his bottom lip nervously, but Duke intervened with a second kiss, one that was slow and sweet.

"Would this be the… interactive kind of show?" Ryou asked tentatively. His partner grinned.

"Absolutely." Duke gave him a final teasing kiss before they relocated to the bedroom.

It wasn't Ryou's first time with the silk ropes twisted around his wrists, pinning them to the headboard. It was, however, his first time with the blindfold. It made him a little nervous at first, but Duke had made him feel much better about it, so now he wore both the restraints and the blindfold without fear. He also wore nothing else.

"What's taking so long?" Ryou whined, feeling chilly and neglected.

"Just one second," Duke called from the kitchen. Moments later, Ryou could hear soft footsteps, the door being closed and locked, something made of crinkly plastic being set on the nightstand. He could feel the mattress dip under Duke's weight as he joined Ryou on the bed. Duke, having already freed himself of his clothes beforehand, crawled over to Ryou and carefully parted his legs, taking hold of each knee and parting them slowly. Ryou's body was limp, yielding to Duke's sexual prowess as he quivered in anticipation. The dice-master knelt between Ryou's legs and reached over towards the nightstand, his leg brushing against his partner's inner thigh and making him gasp in surprise.

"My lovely angel," Duke murmured as he placed one fingertip on the center of Ryou's hollow stomach. He let his finger trail languidly up the length of his body, all the way up his chest and neck until it curled under his chin and tilted his head back before taking a loose hold of his chin and opening his mouth. Duke bit into the strawberry in his other hand, then leaned forward to kiss him. He used his tongue to feed his lover the piece of strawberry and soon pulled back to take another bite. Ryou's mouth was opened eagerly, like a baby bird begging to be fed.

And Duke did feed him. He repeated the process until the strawberry was reduced to a leafy cap, at which point he discarded it and grabbed another, this time pressing it to Ryou's bottom lip. His mouth closed around the cheerful berry with a slick crunch.

"That's a good kitten," Duke praised, stroking his soft, pale hair. He continued to murmur positive reinforcement and trail his fingers over the other's skinny body as he kept feeding Ryou strawberries. Ryou kept arching into his touch, wanting more, but Duke just kept teasing him, pressing feather-light kisses to his forehead, his cheek, his chest, even hooking one of Ryou's legs over his shoulder so that he could kiss his thigh. He didn't lick, though, or bite or suck or scratch, which was what Ryou was begging for.

"Please, Duke," he breathed out, the tender touches across his body enough to make him crave with a hunger so sharp it almost hurt. "Touch me."

"Hmmm... I had something a little different in mind," the dark-haired one crooned as he discarded the remains of the final strawberry and uncapped the whipped cream canister. He squirted the fluffy substance along his index finger and instructed, "Open wide." Ryou obeyed, his strawberry-pink lips forming a wide O as his lover carefully slipped his creamed finger into his mouth. Ryou's tongue wrapped around his finger as he sucked fiercely to consume all traces of the sweet topping. Unable to hold himself back, Duke removed his finger and kissed Ryou deeply, wanting to taste whatever remained of the whipped cream. Their chests pressed together as Duke cupped Ryou's face with both hands and leaned into him. Duke moaned as they members brushed together while Ryou whined in response to the same stimuli. He wrapped his legs around Duke before he could pull away again, locking their bodies together. The hands caressing Ryou's face moved away to grip the headboard above them as Duke's strong, lean body shifted between them.

"Yes!" Ryou hissed, his chest heaving as he panted with need.

"Hold on," Duke grunted, grabbing the lube from the nightstand as well and squirting some along both of their manhoods. He stroked them both, one hand on each as he slicked the skin. Ryou bucked into his hand as he cried out, his tip twitching with desperation. Duke gripped the headboard again and began to thrust, their dicks sliding between their stomachs. He smashed their mouths together into a rough kiss, Ryou's teeth scraping against his lips as the rocking of the bed knocked the forgotten can of whipped-cream onto the floor. Duke broke the kiss and gasped for air before latching his mouth onto Ryou's neck and biting hard.

His pale angel came first, hips bucking, semen pulsing. His scream keened high before sinking into a low, sleepy whimper. This left his partner to grab his own member and finish the job before sinking into Ryou's chest again and resting to catch his breath.

"So," Ryou said breathily, breaking the silence. "I guess we'll be having dinner a little late tonight?" Duke laughed warmly before kissing those bright lips and removing the blindfold so that he could see Ryou's eyes glowing back at him.

"It sure looks that way."

Author Notes: This is my first time writing food foreplay, so if I did a horrible job, I apologize. Please review!