Work Text:
He could blame it on sleep deprivation. He could blame it on the boring lecture given by their science teacher. He could blame it on the fact that sitting between dimwitted idiots every day seemed to slowly corrode his own brain, but really, he had no actual excuse for staring so much. He didn’t even know when his newest obsession had started. Maybe right along with the approaching deadline of his newest release. Then he could still blame it on the stress and lack of sleep.
He certainly spent more time staring at Jounouchi’s lips than listening to their teacher. Today’s agenda contained some kind of experiment. They had already been given an extensive lab safety lecture, which Kaiba had thought basic knowledge, but apparently the school didn’t trust their graduation class with anything. Now they even went through the very basics of scientific experiments.
Kaiba forced his eyes to stay open. So maybe it really was the lack of sleep. Chemical formulas blurred before his eyes. C₈H₁₀N₄O₂ was the only one he cared about right now.* He still had some in his thermos, but there were no drinks allowed in the science classroom. Lab safety and all that.
He watched Jounouchi resting his head on his arms. If he didn’t care so much about his image, Kaiba would join him. Was Jounouchi actually sleeping? Kaiba watched the soft rise and fall of his shoulders, before his eyes darted once again to the soft, plump lips that were moving ever so slightly with each exhale.
He seemed dead to the world, oblivious to the teacher trying to engage the class with questions so easy, Kaiba felt his intelligence insulted. Currently, they were discussing what made an experiment scientifically sound.
“Why is an experiment not very reliable if you only do it once?”
Mazaki raised her hand.
“The result could be sheer coincidence. We need to repeat it to see if we get the same result every time.”
“Correct. An experiment can yield good results, but those are only convincing if they can be repeated. What would be another step to test your hypothesis?”
Another student raised their hand.
“We should vary the different components and note done if we still get the same results. This way we can tell if the result is actually because of the two components we combine or because of some outside factor we haven’t considered yet. Like a catalysator that reacts with our experiment.”
They all sounded like they were just regurgitating their textbooks. Kaiba looked down. Had he even eaten anything today? The paper suddenly looked very appealing. Or maybe he could taste those-…He shook his head violently. Sleep deprivation. It made you do and think crazy things.
He wished for school to end. Chemistry was his last class for the day and therefore the only thing that stood between him and his freedom. He needed a big, strong coffee. Or his bed. He just needed to pull through. What did he need basic chemistry for if he was already ahead of any other technological advancement?
The teacher loved group work and Kaiba hated it. She sorted the class into little groups and handed out a sheet to be filled out as the record of their experiment.
“First, I want you all to note done a simply hypothesis. Just think of your knowledge of chemical reactions. Nothing too complicated, we still need to be able to test it today.”
Kaiba looked in horror as he was handed a paper and got appointed to Jounouchi and Mazaki. Great, the deadbeat and the teacher’s pet. That spelled chaos.
Jounouchi stretched after standing from his desk and Kaiba’s gaze whipped from his lips to another sliver of soft-looking skin. He was so distracted, he didn’t even fight off the hands grabbing at the instruction sheet.
“So, what’s our hypothesis supposed to be?”, Jounouchi asked as he scanned the list of assignments: number 1: develop a hypothesis; number 2: explain how you got to your hypothesis; number 3: think of an experiment that can prove or disprove your hypothesis; number 4: conduct the experiment and record your observations.
Kaiba looked back up. His mind started to silently fill out the form.
Number one, his hypothesis: Jounouchi’s lips were soft and sweet tasting.
Number two, his reasoning: They looked soft and sweet tasting.
Kaiba had watched Jounouchi a lot in the past months. He had always been perceptive, since he had to be always vigilant in a world where another saboteur or kidnapper was lurking around every corner. So, he couldn’t help but notice how Jounouchi had somehow gotten even more attractive towards the end of their school year. He seemed to take better care of himself as he was mostly clean shaven, and his hair was always brushed and now artfully tousled instead of just disheveled.
He also applied a cherry flavoured lip balm ever so often; Kaiba had wondered if it was a compensatory action (Jounouchi had stopped smelling like cigarette smoke around the same time). His kisses must taste sweet now. Like cherries.
Kaiba had also noticed that he hadn’t been the only one to eye Jounouchi. There had been several girls he had overheard; some of them bold enough to write a little love note or even confess in person, but Jounouchi seemed to never have reciprocated. So, maybe there was another question to go after: would Jounouchi like his lips to be examined up close?
Number three, the experiment.
He halted all thoughts here. This was his science class. He would rather test the solubility of platinum for his assignment than…kiss Jounouchi, right? Right? Would a swipe with his finger be enough to assess the softness of the skin? He looked down at his hands, free of callouses and softened by premium skin care products, but still not nearly as sensitive as he knew the skin of his lips to be. No, fingers would only be an imperfect tool of assessment.
He nearly didn’t notice his classmates dispersing to start on the tests. A simple mix x and y chemical and see what happens. Their teacher went around and made sure that nobody thought of combining anything explosive or potentially lethal. Which pretty much left them with different variations of creating a salt solution.
Jounouchi had been sent off by Mazaki to gather all tools and items needed, while Mazaki herself had taken on the role of experiment supervisor. Kaiba had been too preoccupied with his own hypothesis to register what their experiment was going to be or what role he himself had been assigned. Not that it mattered much, he didn’t care.
God, he needed coffee. Or sleep. Why had he come to school again? He had spent all night on finishing his project, why couldn’t he use school time for sleep? There was nothing school could offer him.
As Jounouchi approached with precariously stacked beakers and test tubes, his smile spread his lips taut over his shining teeth. His lips moved as he set everything down, but Kaiba was unable to hear a sound. He could only watch those pink appendages, glistening so invitingly.
The classroom faded in and out. Kaiba was sure that no one noticed. He had perfected his stance and posture years ago, able to present a polished image no matter the circumstances. If only he could get his mind to focus. It kept slipping off of every thought. Sleep, upcoming release, sleep, coffee, sleep, Jounouchi’s lips, sleep…
The cold glass of the little beaker, Mazaki pressed into his hands, gave him the little shock he needed to refocus. He watched as Jounouchi took a metal spatula to carefully place a tiny amount of a white powder (Kaiba had not paid attention to which chemicals they wanted to use in the experiment, but he hoped it was something innocent like natrium) onto the little paper on the electric scale. While Jounouchi concentrated on the task, he chewed on his bottom lip, teeth worrying the pink flesh. And Kaiba could only keep staring. They looked so plush and soft. The hard teeth only leaving indents for a millisecond, before the plump flesh sprung up again – their elasticity a sign of youth. What would it feel like to sink his teeth into these tender pillows?
“Uhm, Earth to Kaiba?”
His gaze snapped up, jumping the short distance from rosy lips to brown, expectant eyes. He looked at the table, where to little heaps of white powder were laid out next to one little beaker filled with steaming water, a thermometer and two…were those water balloons?…and a stopwatch.
“Mind handing me the beaker? We need to take the water temperature to make sure we actually have one cold and one warm one.”
Kaiba blinked. What was he talking about? He looked down. Oh, yes, the beaker. The beaker with the cold water. To be put next to the beaker with the hot water. He still didn’t move.
“Seriously, what’s with you today?”, Jounouchi asked and reached for the beaker in Kaiba’s hands.
As their fingers brushed – soft, not soft, soft, not soft – Kaiba jerked back, the glass slipped his fingers and both the beaker and its contents spread across the classroom floor.
The crash silenced all thoughts in his head and even seemed to bring their classmates to a stop.
“Jounouchi!”, their teacher shouted from across the room.
“Wasn’t me!”, Jounouchi jumped to defend himself.
If he wasn’t so tired, Kaiba might feel sorry for Jounouchi to be blamed so instinctively. But what had he been thinking, touching Kaiba without warning? His hand still tingled with the impression of calloused fingertips brushing across it. Rough, not soft, rough, not rosy.
The teacher swept across the room to assess the damage.
Kaiba’s mind was too full of static to understand what the teacher was arguing about. Only as Jounouchi started to argue back did he slowly piece the conversation together.
“We didn’t even argue! It was an accident! It just slipped!”
“You broke it, so you will clean it all up! And after class, you will make sure that no remnants of the glass will be left around and you will mop the entire floor clean.”
“But it was just water!”
“Mop the entire floor clean!”
Jounouchi grumbled in discontent. The understanding only slowly trickled into the haze of Kaiba’s tired mind, but once he understood, it shook him a little more awake. They had to clean up after the whole class. They would have to stay behind. That put another gulf between him and sleep. Coffee wouldn’t cut it anymore. And he deserved to celebrate his success of the previous night. He could be a little indulgent. He rarely indulged. He…his mind swam away on soft and rough patches like petals on a stream. Sleep. Lips. Sleep. Bed. Lips.
In a blur, he watched Mazaki and Jounouchi finish their experiment. They had apparently concluded that Kaiba would be of no use and excluded him from further proceedings. In tandem, they swiftly poured the white powder into the water and pulled the balloons over the beakers. Kaiba nearly missed how one of the balloons expanded way quicker than the other one, because Jounouchi was once again chewing on his bottom lip. You couldn’t fault him for being distracted by that, could you?
He put his name under the notes Mazaki had written down and ignored the stern look she gave him. He would make it up to her in another class to keep her nagging to a minimum. She could take one class of doing all the work. She didn’t even have to stay behind, though Kaiba could see her hesitating as she followed their classmates into freedom as Jounouchi fought with the mop and the water bucket.
“At least help me this time, will you?”, Jounouchi shouted from across the room after all their classmates had gone. “It’s your fault after all.”
Kaiba would beg to differ, if he weren’t too tired. And he never begged, so there was that.
He didn’t see another mop or bucket, so he busied himself with getting all desk and chairs out of the way of Jounouchi’s angry swipes with the drenched mop. He didn’t put terribly much effort into it, though.
Instead, he watched Jounouchi’s bottom lip disappear between his teeth, the plump flesh ebbing and flowing in the torrent of his displeasure. He had been so engrossed in the sight that the cold splash of water took him completely by surprise.
He gasped and spluttered, shock running through. It had only been a small amount of water, carefully targeting his face, but it was enough to wake him from his haze.
“What the hell was that for?!”
“You’re weird today”, Jounouchi stated as if that was excuse enough.
Kaiba just stared at him, eyes dropping down to the lips that had been agitated into a deep pink hue.
“Do I have something on my face?”, Jounouchi asked, looking back just as intently. “You’ve been staring the whole day. It’s kinda creepy.”
“Why would I be looking at you?”, Kaiba said with maybe a hint too much defensiveness.
“Well, that’s…that’s what I’m asking you! Stop evading the question”, Jounouchi spluttered out and Kaiba couldn’t tell if it was the late afternoon lighting or if Jounouchi’s face had actually pinked in color a bit.
Jounouchi turned abruptly and finished sweeping down the classroom floor. Once he was done, he placed the mop and bucket back into the supply closet and leaned against the door. With a heavy sigh, he brushed the hair out of his face. While he should be placing all the chairs back to their original places, Kaiba halted and stared again. It’s not just the lips, he realized, it’s the whole face. How soft would the skin be under his fingers if he just dared to touch it!
He approached his waiting classmate. Other than them, the whole hall seemed to be empty. They were done. They could go home. Kaiba could rest. He could indulge. He could…
“I do have a question of my own”, he said, looking down at Jounouchi and, more importantly: his lips.
“Huh?” The question mark was written all over Jounouchi’s face.
Kaiba could blame it on the sleep deprivation, on the stress, on the constant temptation slowly driving him insane, but instead of explaining he just swooped down and connected their lips.
Jounouchi went rigid, frozen by shock, but his lips remained oh so soft. And yes, they still tasted sweet with only the slightest hint of cherry. After a few seconds, Kaiba pulled back and studied the flushed face of the other boy.
“My hypothesis has been verified”, he stated and stepped back. “They really are as soft as they look.”
Jounouchi gawked at him, seeming to sway slightly as he grabbed for purchase on the wall behind him. “What the hell was that?!”
“Just an experiment.” A successful one.
And with its conclusion there was no reason for him to stay, but as he moved to walk away, a hand caught his arm. He threw Jounouchi a questioning look, but the other boy didn’t meet his gaze. Jounouchi seemed uncharacteristically bashful as he tugged at the sleeve of Kaiba’s school uniform.
“If I remember correctly, we just learned that an experiment isn’t very reliable if you cannot replicate it.”
Kaiba blinked as the meaning of Jounouchi’s words slowly sunk in. The corners of his lips moved up ever so slightly. “And here I thought, you weren’t paying attention in class.”
Now Jounouchi met his eyes, a playful expression dancing across his face. “I’m more perceptive than you think.”
Maybe he was. And maybe Kaiba should feel embarrassed about how obvious he’d been all day, but right now, he only felt elation as he pulled Jounouchi in for a follow-up experiment. The second kiss lasted longer and this time Jounouchi kissed back. And oh, his lips were soft, yes, but they felt even better as they moved against Kaiba’s own! He lifted his hand up to Jounouchi’s cheek and was again rewarded with another finding: the skin was smooth except for a few places in which new stubble began to form.
Kaiba pulled back with a smirk, satisfied with his experiments, then pulled Jounouchi after him. That had been a far better result than he could have imagined.
“Wait, where are we going?”, Jounouchi asked stumbling along, but made no move to fight of Kaiba’s grip.
“Well, if you really paid attention, you’d know that you need to verify your results by varying the circumstances. And I have a few more experiments I want to conduct.”
Though, maybe sleep should come first. His mind had already started spluttering more hypotheses: 1) Jounouchi would be a light snorer. 2) His body would be warm. 3) Sleeping next to him would be pleasant and restful.
Successfully finished projects deserved to be celebrated.
And then he could move onto more experiments. That sounded like a good idea. At least until he was properly awake again. But that was a problem for future Kaiba.