Bullet points once again cuz I just wanna jot this down haha! Are we rooting for Seto or nah?
Story opens with Kaiba on a date with his current partner. About mid-way through the date, he arbitrarily breaks up with them.
The partner is caught off-guard and is incredibly hurt. They condemn his treatment of them, the suddenness of the break up, and how cold he is being. Kaiba coolly explains that he's given this ex-partner plenty of chances to impress him, to rise to his standards... but they haven't done so, and it's been nearly a year.
The ex points out that he's never communicated these standards, so how were they supposed to know about them in the first place? But Kaiba claims it should have been obvious; the fact they haven't even noticed the flaws in the relationship is more proof of how incompatible they are.
His personal time is precious, so if it's not a good fit he'd rather move on to focus on other things. Kaiba leaves enough money to pay for whatever they were doing/a ride home for the ex, and heads back to the office. He had been in the middle of running tests on a crucial design flaw before the scheduled date had interrupted him...
Another time in another place, Mokuba is worried about him. The younger Kaiba brother has watched Seto date all sorts of people, but none of them have lasted for more than 9 months. He's asked his brother in the past if he actually wants a partner, and Seto insists he does, but in the same breath claims no one has met his elusive high standards. At this point, Mokuba isn't entirely sure of what his brother is looking for, or if such a person could even exist...
Fast forward a bit more, and Kaiba is gearing up to host another DM tournament. He invites high ranking players such as Yugi, Kujaku, and Jounouchi to participate. Of course, he'll be playing as well. It's been a while since he's seen any of them, but he's confident they'll make it to the more advanced rounds. It's sure to be an interesting show.
The day before the event, Seto sees Jounouchi for the first time in years. He begrudgingly admits to himself that the years have been generous to the other man... who knew the dork would grow up to be (passibly) handsome?? What's worse is the blond's brash personality has cooled slightly; in its place he finds Jounouchi exudes jovial confidence. Like he's genuinely happy to see Seto and is looking forward to a match with him. (Seto concludes the blond isn't as fun to needle anymore.)
But the fire hasn't left Jounouchi completely, as Seto and all the other spectators witness him passionately duel his way through the brackets. Finally it's his turn, and Seto can hear his own heart pounding in his ears as he faces the blond. Jounouchi manages to actually surprise him, though Kaiba quickly regains advantage to claim victory. It was harder won than he had anticipated, and Jounouchi still seems to be in high spirits. The blond offers him a handshake, and where he would have ignored him in the past, Seto stupidly takes it. (Even after the match his heart can't seem to calm down, what's the matter with him??)
Later after the tournament has wrapped (and Kaiba remains firmly in 2nd place) the duelists attend a private afterparty to decompress and schmooze. Seto finds himself cornered by fans and wannabe-rivals alike who had participated, each wanting to get their chance to win his attention (and possible sponsorship.)
But Jounouchi doesn't want that. Neither does Yugi, for that matter. Eventually Seto finds himself in a private booth with just the three of them, and they reminisce about their younger years. Somehow they end up talking about KaibaCorps' latest tech, as well as some up-and-coming projects he's been juggling, including the design flaw he's been trying to iron out.
Jounouchi gives a shockingly insightful suggestion, which Yugi jumps off from to propose more specifics and hypotheticals. After a brief moment of stunned stillness, Seto quickly types up their notes into his phone and sends it to his R&D team to sort out. Sometimes it astounds him that the most effective solutions can actually be the simplest... and sometimes it just pisses him off. (He is actually grateful... though he won't tell either of them that.)
After Seto is talked out of firing his R&D team for missing something so basic, the trio continues to talk into the night. Kaiba could swear some of the stuff Jounouchi is saying is flirtatious, but... he wouldn't actually do that, would he? Right in front of Yugi? (Turns out, he absolutely would-- Seto can feel subtle brushes and nudges of Jounouchi's shoe against his own foot/leg... holy hell, Yugi doesn't even notice and Jounouchi barely bats an eye..!)
Finally Yugi excuses himself to turn in for the night, making them vow to meet up again soon outside of a tournament... and then it was just Kaiba and Jounouchi. He asks the blond just what the hell he thinks he's doing, but the other man responds coyly. Now the unspoken offer is on the table, and the blond appears content to let Seto have the final say...
Damn it all. Seto blames his buzzing excitement on his absence from tournaments-- he's clearly been out of the scene too long. The mundanity of the labs coupled with the fact he hasn't gotten laid in months is clearly clouding his better judgment. But fuck it. He drags Jounouchi back to his hotel suite.
That buzzing excitement turns into a floaty, dizzying feeling before long. Seto is in total bliss, and so is Katsuya. Even after sex, Kaiba craves to touch and feel and kiss and hold the blond-- as soon as his exhausted limbs work again. He's never felt this way before. Sure he's had good sex, but this felt like something... more. While Jounouchi is in the shower, Kaiba's mind wanders and he finds himself considering the man the blond has become. He's thoughtful, loyal, funny, kind, accomplished, and more intelligent than he'd given him credit for... not to mention physically attractive. The thought of coming off as weak to his partner usually terrifies him, but Jounouchi has already seen Kaiba at some of the most pathetic points of his life... its oddly comforting.
Eventually the blond is out of the shower, announcing that it's available for Seto to use. But hold on-- why is he already half-dressed?
Kaiba asks as much and Katsuya explains he's checking out early tomorrow so he can make his shift. Kaiba's stomach sinks... so he's leaving? Just like that??
Jounouchi seems to sense the tension, and asks if everything is all good. Kaiba, coward that he is, clams up and says he's fine, he just wants privacy to shower. With that Jounouchi makes a breezy exit. (What? It's not like Seto was going to beg him to stay when he clearly didn't want to...)
Some extras:
Later Kaiba can't get Jounouchi out of his head, so he resolves to track him down. Find out what he likes, where his family lives, important dates, etc. All sorts of things Kaiba would normally invest in a partner, with the intention of winning Jounouchi's heart.
He ends up successfully bedding Jou' again, but it's clear that Jounouchi sees this as a more casual, fwb thing. So Seto has to work even harder to woo him/make him see him as a serious potential partner!!
Once they do get together, and they come close to a year, Seto panics and starts to self-sabotage. But when he tries to break it off with Katsuya, the blond... refuses the break up? Just staunchly ignores it and acts like nothing is different because he's waiting for Seto to cool down and come back to his senses lol. You did all this work trying to win him over, now he's here-- you ain't getting rid of him that easily!
I dont understand how people think “but they killed people!” Is everrrr going to convince me to hate a fictional character. I actually like them more because they killed people. In fact, its the main thing I like about them. I would cheer with pom-poms at the mere implication of them killing again.
I want Luffy and Usopp to have a day where they're fishing and Usopp is swooning about his crush on Kaya. He's just going on and on about how she is so nice and cool and has a cute laugh he always wants to hear and be the cause of and Luffy is just agreeing the whole time. And it's all cool because Usopp just thinks it's his best friend hyping him up and being polite until Luffy says something about "and his eyes are blue and pretty too!"
So Usopp goes "Kaya doesn't have blue eyes🤨" and Luffy goes "Duh, I thought we were Sanji🤨?" and that's how they find out they were having two completely different conversations because Luffy thought Usopp was telling him he had great taste and congratulating him on his new boyfriend
Sanji himself is not aware that he is apparently in a relationship and has been for a while
I finally played Hollow Knight and figured out how it worked so well.
We knew we could beat it but still had to replay those boss fights a million times before the reflexes finally get a hint. Thats it. Thats how we got attached to this infuriating game.
Kaiba, internally: There he is, he's here, my favorite person in the world. The love of my life. God, I just want to stare at him and hold him for the rest of my life.
Ya'll this is so cute!! Tag your ship that is this song and pass it on! (Please include character names and fandom for fun and sometimes it hard to tell based on ship names lol ^_^ )
seeing as lloyd is exactly the kind of son who can't bring himself to correct his parents when they're legitimately excited about something because 'what if it hurts their feelings :(' imagine if one day arcos and marbella very sweetly tell him that they're so happy he and javier are together and that they support them wholeheartedly seriously they've been wondering for ages when they would finally get to it this is great news just give the word and they'll start planning the wedding
and lloyd is just sitting there like "yup :) that's us :)) me and javier :))) finally together yup totally :))))" while screaming on the inside and already planning on how to break to javier the news that they're now in a courtship and need to set the date for their impending wedding. because it's either that or javier has to find a way to let his parents down gently because there's no fucking way lloyd's gonna do it he's kept that pink teddy bear in his room for the past couple years to not hurt marbella marrying javier to keep them happy is nothing
cut to them fake dating because javier is just as much of a wimp as lloyd is when it comes to keeping arcos and marbella happy and really it can't be that hard to pretend to be in love with each other right?
no. no it really isn't that hard. in fact it comes very easily to both of them. almost naturally, without effort, much like breathing one might say.
javier slowly moving into lloyd's room, one pillow and forgotten shirt at a time, and lloyd not noticing it until he realizes it's been a couple months since javier has slept anywhere that wasn't lloyd's bed
he is in fact the last person to notice this
marbella and arcos thought they were trying to be discreet and didn't want to rush them on announcing their courtship. all the servants thought it was about time, as sir asrahan slept in master lloyd's room every night anyway and it was getting a bit pitiful to watch him do the walk of shame every morning even if he did manage to make it look classy. emily has been delivering both of their clean laundry directly to lloyd's room for weeks now, it made little sense to separate it and do two trips when she was gonna end up picking most of it from the young master's room anyway.
in javier's defense, while he did start to subtly leave more and more things in lloyd's room, (justifying it to himself by reasoning something could happen to lloyd while he was off picking and dropping stuff from his room he was gonna use every day anyway so really it just made sense to leave in lloyd's room permanently-), he didn't intent to completely abandon his own room and he genuinely thought they were on the same page when lloyd told him to just climb on the bed already, my back hurts just looking at you, i promise i don't kick that much
there really are just so many things someone could possibly mean when they invite you to share a bed with them after all, right? and if lloyd didn't really seem eager to do anything more than just sleep together then that was fine with javier, he would take whatever lloyd was willing to offer. the fact that sometimes they would wake up entangled with one another, having gravitated towards each other through the night, was an added bonus that he was happy to enjoy when it happened but not something he would force or even insist upon.
lloyd did actually offer to share a bed out of completely platonic reasons. because he knows first hand how uncomfortable sleeping on a chair can be and it simply wouldn't do for his knight to be in anything less than top shape over something that can be so easily fixed. (and if he wasn't able to fall asleep for hours the first few nights because the knowledge that javier was so close he could feel his body heat through the blankets and yet so out of his reach in almost all the ways that mattered taunted him mercilessly,,, well no one could prove anything.)
the cuddling was a bit of a curve ball but he was very proud of being able to feign nonchalance and act just as casual about it as javier had despite wanting nothing more than to crawl into a hole out of mortification.
he almost has an apoplexy when he finds out javier thought they were,, something already. he hadn't known anything else besides platonically sharing a bed was even on the table!! and is honestly a bit offended no one thought to mention it to him. he could've been getting railed for weeks now. months even!!! outrageous he demands backpay immediately >:(
touch averse javier who doesn't really enjoy physical contact all that much and quietly avoids it whenever he can
who quickly learned to avoid being touched as a child in the streets and could never quite forget that lesson.
who after a few uncomfortable incidents where some people got a little too handsy while confessing to him learned to not do anything that may look like encouragement.
who doesn't mind the occasional pat in the arm or quick hug from the people he loves but mostly prefers to keep his distance if possible.
and who post battle-in-hell and subsequent trip-to-seoul becomes the human equivalent of an octopus when it comes to lloyd and is basically attached by the hip to him 24/7.
it starts small enough, so slowly not even javier notices at first.
it begins with him always wanting to keep lloyd in sight or at the very least be able to hear his heartbeat in the next room
then he starts standing next to lloyd, so close their arms brush whenever one of them gestures a little too much
which eventually progresses into pressing against lloyd's shoulder, always keeping a point of contact between them
until one day when their knuckles brush against each other one too many times and lloyd just grabs his hand in his and when javier doesn't pull away he just goes on with his day like that
and it's. it's nice.
it feels nice.
it feels nice in a way touching another person hasn't felt like for javier in a very long time.
and that's how it becomes normal in the frontera estate to see the young master and his knight just casually holding hands with each other every day <3
on the topic of jealous javier i love the idea of lloyd bemoaning that no one ever approaches him and complaining about how everyone in lorasia must be incredibly superficial if him having a plain face is enough to make people dismiss him out of hand and being blissfully unaware of the amount of poor souls that try to get close to him only to be met with the most handsome and terrifying motherfucker on the planet glaring murder at them over lloyd's shoulder daring them to try it just fucking try it
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