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“Right, so then we dueled to see our power difference right?” Chazz was sitting in the Slifer dorm with the rest of the guys, telling them about his date with some Obelisk. “Well after the duel we headed back to my dorm and started making out-“
Jaden’s jaw dropped as he quickly cut in. “Wait, wait, wait, who won!?”
“Who won what?” Chazz snapped, annoyed at being interrupted.
“The duel! You can’t just skip the most important part of the story. How did the duel go? What kind of deck did she use?” He asked excited.
Syrus sweat dropped. “Uh, Jay I don’t think that’s really the point of the story.”
“Yeah, we wanna hear about the girl Chazz got down with!” Another Slifer complained.
Jaden’s eyebrows furrowed. “What’s so interesting about that?”
Bastion sighed. “Sometimes your total obliviousness is astounding.”
“Oh c’mon Jay, don’t you have a boyfriend? You gotta get where we’re comin’ from.” Hassleberry added.
“Yeah if Chazz was talking about a guy I’m sure you’d be down.” Atticus grinned, patting him on the shoulder.
Jaden’s nose crinkled in disgust. “So what if I have a boyfriend? We don’t kiss.”
He nearly jumped out of his skin when literally everyone let out gasps of horror.
“YOU DON’T KISS!?” Atticus looked almost hurt by his statement.
“E-Ever?” Syrus squeaked.
Jaden began to sweat as everyone’s attention turned to him. “Were we supposed to?”
Everyone groaned.
“My man, that is savage.” Atticus shuttered.
“Poor Jesse.” Another Slifer snickered.
Hassleberry looked genuinely worried. “I mean, okay no kissing, but like, ya still feel each other up right?”
“Oh gross, why?” Jaden cringed.
Another round of gasps left Jaden feeling like an idiot.
“Forget it guys. Slacker, go play while I tell the guys my grownup story.” Chazz snapped dismissively.
And normally it wouldn’t bother Jaden in the slightest, but for some reason this time it left a sour feeling in his chest. “Yeah…sure…” He muttered as everyone began to turn their attention back to Chazz to hear the rest of the story.
They didn’t even notice him leaving.
He found Jesse on the roof where they first met, taking a nap while Ruby was curled up next to him.
But the moment he arrived Winged Kuriboh emerged and Ruby jumped up to play.
Hesitantly, Jaden sat down next to where Jesse lied asleep, taking a moment to just look at him.
Was he really making Jesse suffer?
Did…Jesse want to be kissing? And touching?
If Jaden was being perfectly honest, he never gave that kind of thing any thought. Not only did it feel unimportant, but it also just made his skin crawl.
But the guys acted like he’d grown two heads. Like he was some kind of freak.
He didn’t want that.
Jesse’s eyes fluttered open as he woke up, and he smiled lazily when he saw Jaden. “Well this is a nice sight to wake up to.”
“Hey.” Jaden greeted with a weak smile.
“Uh oh, that’s your ‘something’s wrong’ face.” Jesse teased as he sat up.
Jaden raised an eyebrow. “I have a ‘something’s wrong’ face?”
“Sure.” Jesse shrugged. “I think everyone does. So what’s up?”
Wincing, Jaden looked off into the distance so he wouldn’t see Jesse’s expression. “Um…okay, so,” He rolled his eyes uncomfortably. “Do you want to kiss?”
A rather heavy silence followed.
“Where is this coming from?” Jesse couldn’t help asking, tone going soft.
Jaden gave a small shrug. “I just realized we never have, and that’s apparently something boyfriends should do.”
“Should do?” Jesse raised an eyebrow.
Jaden finally worked up the nerve to face him, gaze determined. “We should kiss.”
To his disappointment, Jesse looked awfully hesitant. “Oh…I don’t know, Jay…”
“You don’t want to kiss me?” He asked dejectedly, though there was a strange hopefulness in his chest.
“Of course I want to kiss you.” Jesse sighed. “But-“
“Then we should!” Jaden cut him off, looking fierce. “Jesse, kiss me.” He insisted, leaning closer.
Jesse still looked skeptical. “Well alright…just…tell me to stop if you need to.”
Before Jaden could really think about his words, Jesse leaned forward and pressed their lips together.
It was…just as underwhelming as Jaden thought it would be.
And he was overly aware of himself, and the pressure on his mouth, and the weird tingle it was leaving on his lips.
It wasn’t just underwhelming, it was also kind of gross.
Determined to get over it, Jaden pushed against him, trying to make…anything happen. His hands stayed balled at his sides rather anxiously.
Jesse seemed so relaxed compared to him, no tenseness in his features or actions whatsoever, and one of his hands had naturally moved to Jaden’s waist, which Jaden found was also very nauseating.
Finally after a couple of moment, Jesse suddenly broke the kiss, leaving Jaden confused.
Jesse smiled at him with something akin to sadness in his eyes. “Gosh, you really hate this, don’t you?”
Was he that obvious?
“You can tell?” Jaden asked guiltily.
“Of course I can tell.” Jesse insisted softly. “Jay, why are you doing this?”
And that’s where Jaden came clean. “Chazz was telling a story about this girl he was dating, or at least saw once? Anyways, he said they dueled but then totally skipped over the duel and started telling us about the kissing! Who does that!?”
Jesse’s expression morphed into amusement. “Some nerve on his part.”
“Right!?” Jaden exclaimed, a furious pout forming. “But then everyone acted like I was crazy for not caring about that part of the story, and then it came out that we never even kissed and…” His shoulders drooped. “I dunno, everyone acted like I was so…weird. Like I was doing something wrong, or that I wasn’t being fair to you.”
“Oh, Jay…” Jesse sighed warmly. “We don’t have to kiss for me to know you like me.”
Jaden’s eyes went wide. “We don’t?”
“No.” Jesse chuckled. “Kissing and…being intimate like that? That’s something people do cause they like it. But it doesn’t mean something’s wrong with you just cause you don’t.”
“But…don’t you want to?” Jaden asked nervously.
Jesse bit his lip. “Sometimes.” He said truthfully. “But you know what? I’m just as content to get my feelings across through dueling. That’s how we connect, and I think that’s extremely intimate.”
Jaden couldn’t help his grin forming at that. “So do I.” He confessed, though he had a feeling Jesse already knew.
“So…” Jesse grinned mischievously. “Wanna have a duel?”
“Do you even have to ask?” Jaden all but beamed, standing up and preparing his duel disk. Jesse was quick to follow suit.
And for them, that was enough. Because dueling allowed them to get far closer to each other than kissing and touching ever could.
Sexual intimacy may connect the bodies, but dueling connected the souls.
And at the end of the day that mattered far more to Jesse than anything else.