Chapter 23: Fulfilled and Yet Unsatisfied

When I knocked on the door, a middle-aged woman opened it. "Yes?"

"Good morning. I am Kaiba Seto. Is Kajiki available?"

"Good morning. Come in." She said cheerfully. "Ryota?" She yelled upstairs. "You have a guest, son." She looked at me again. "I'm sorry; you said your name was?"

"Kaiba." I repeated, just a bit amused. No one had ever asked me twice.

"Thank you. It's Kaiba." She yelled.

From above a male voice – not my classmate – answered. "Tell him to wait, boy. You're not going anywhere until that wall is finished."

"Yes, sir." Kajiki sounded resigned as he came down the steps. His mother gave him an encouraging smile as he passed her. "Hey, Kaiba." He pulled me a few steps aside. "What are you doing here?"

"I have an empty apartment and an entire weekend. I thought you may have some suggestions on how to spend the time."

"Oh man!" he lamented. "This so sucks! We have paper walls upstairs – you probably didn't notice –and I was supposed to replace one last week 'cause I ripped it. I was going to do it last night, but I got," he grinned, "kind of distracted."

"You should pay more attention to your chores." I commented.

"You shouldn't be so distracting." He retorted. "Anyway my Dad's super pissed. This will take me another hour or so. How about if I come over after I'm done?"

"I could assist you."

"No, this is sort of a thing with Dad."

"I see." I really didn't want to go home alone. "Very well; I can wait."

"You want to wait?"

"Want? No. But I am willing to."

Someone came clattering down the stairs. We looked up to see a girl, just a bit younger than ourselves. She looked at me and her eyes went wide.

"Oh man!" Kajiki moaned. "My sister knows who you are."

"OH MY GOD!" She nearly shouted. "MOM!"

"I'm right here, dear." The woman replied.

"Don't just stand there!" The girl was in a tizzy. "Do something!" She came over to me and bowed formally. "Good morning, Kaiba-san. Welcome to our home."

I grinned at Kajiki and bowed in return. "Good morning. Thank you. You realize, of course that your mother has no idea why you are making such a fuss."

She looked at her mother and gasped. "Kaiba? KaibaCorp? All those video games Ry plays?"

"Oh." Their mother looked at me. "Are you related to that family?"

I smiled. "I am, yes."

"Forgive me. I'm afraid I don't keep up with the latest –" she was cut off by Kajiki's father shouting for him.

"Crap. We've got a Play station in the living room if you want to hang out for a while. I'll try to hurry up." He rushed upstairs again.

"Well!" His mother laughed. "I guess you'll be waiting in here." She led me to the living room with the game system and a good array of games.

"Thank you." I remembered Kawai's interest in dueling and wondered if there might be a trend. "Do you play?" I asked her.

"I do." Her daughter said, but I ignored her for the moment.

"Oh, no! I don't have any skill for that."

"Do you play Go?"

She paused and smiled. "I haven't in many years, but I used to be quite good."

"Excellent!" I gestured to the futon. "Please, join me."

"Well, maybe for just a minute."

I picked up a KG game and loaded it. I handed her the controller and gave her a crash course in using it. When the game began, I said, "Press A, up and left at the same time." A menu appeared. "This menu controls the version of the game. All KaibaGames – those are the ones with this symbol – ship set to the standard version, but they all also have a 'Go' and a 'Puzzle' version. Type 'startgo' and hit enter. There! Now most of the monsters have been removed and the game relies on strategy to win. It's very much like playing Go." I reached over her shoulder and pressed start. "Now move forward."

"Like this?" she asked. "Oh! I see. Oops! I guess I don't have the hang of it yet. What am I looking for?"

"Ultimately, you are defeating five dark lords to rescue the princess. Right now, you are exploring and looking for weapons or tools that will help you in your quest."

"I see. OH! What did I do? That gem is glowing."

I explained what a glowing gem meant. A few minutes later, she solved the first riddle and obtained the first of ten keys. She died twice getting the hang of combat so I set her on 'God mode'. After that, she did quite well navigating the maze, discovering secrets and solving traps without getting caught in them.

By the end of the first level, she'd set a family record score and was hooked on the game.

"I had no idea how much fun this would be." She observed as the second level loaded. "I'll play just a little while longer, and then I really have to get some work done."

I was coaching her through defeating the third dark lord when Kajiki joined us. "Hey, what's this?"

"Dark Lord 2."

"Yeah? I don't recognize this level. Where is she?"

"The lava pit."

"Where are the pit monsters?"

"Not in this version. Switch to your lightning cannon. You will only get one shot before he hits you."

"Don't the acid grenades bounce once first when you fire them?" she asked.

"Yes. Why?"

"Well, you said his armor was weak from the back, so if I can bounce the grenade behind him..."

" ... you could do considerable damage, yes. If you can do a bank shot. Ok see that lava flow? Get ready. Wait, not too early. Now!" And to my surprise, she fired two rounds, ricocheted them off the wall and landed grenades behind her opponent, cutting him down to half points. "Now, switch to the cannon." But she was already switching and defeated the dark lord without any further help from me.

"Your mother is an amazing woman." I told Kajiki.

"Kaiba!" She actually blushed. "I'm nothing special. Just a little applied geometry."

"Dude, are you hitting on my mom?" He whispered.

I smiled. "Certainly not," I whispered back. "I'm creating a new customer." Aloud I said, "I still have quite a lot of work to do to study for the Literature test. Bring your textbook with you."

"Oh sure!" he went back upstairs and returned with his backpack. "I should be back this afternoon, Mom."

"Actually, I intend to study all day today and tomorrow. I work better with a partner so I wonder if you would mind if he stayed at my home this evening, ma'am."

She only considered it for a moment. "I'm sure that will be fine. Call and check in this evening, alright, Ry?"

"Yeah, sure Mom! Bye!" He kissed her cheek and we left.

As we walked to my bike I explained. "I complimented her a few times, taught her a new skill and behaved like a gentleman. I suspect she'll be playing that game for the next month. I knew she'd agree to you staying over. I dare say I could convince her to let you move in if I gave her a DS-lite."

"You think?"

I made sure no one was watching then kissed him. "I won't need you that long. I plan to wear you out long before Sunday night."

"So you don't want to study?"

"Oh yes, but we'll have time for that in between."

We went back to Honda's apartment and sucked each other dry. We looked over the literature text while recovered our strength and quizzed each other on various aspects of the last novel we were assigned. We made a deal that whomever recovered first could fuck the other. I didn't mind 'losing'; the more active we were the less likely I was to have dreams that kept me awake and distracted.

I used Kajiki and allowed him to use me. He learned that uke could be just as pleasurable as seme. He was not as knowledgeable as Pharaoh or as assertive as Joey. He would hint at what he wanted but wouldn't ask outright. After a while, I began simply telling him what to do. The physical release was there, but the satisfaction began to wane.

He also did not have my stamina. Sunday morning I woke up with visions of Joey still in my mind and Pharaoh's voice still in my ears. I found myself with morning wood and pulled a sleeping Kajiki close to sheathe it. He woke while I was still 'armed' and protested my using him without waking him first. Joey would have enjoyed the ride. Or, more likely, he would have awoken first and I would be the one crying out 'faster, harder, oh God, please!'

Kajiki was not pleased. In fact, he seemed almost offended. "You know, I never thought I'd say this but, I think I've had enough sex, ok?"

"Enough?" We'd barely spend a day together and had slept or done school work through half of that. "Surely you're kidding."

"If you can still get it up, there's something wrong with you."

I started to refute that by pointing out that both Pharaoh and Joey could go at least as long as I, but I remembered something Ryou told me about comparing old and new lovers. Don't. Instead, I got up and picked up a shirt. "I imagine, then, breakfast would be in order."

"Yeah, that I can handle." He went into the bathroom while I went to the kitchen. A few minutes later, he joined me, looking a bit sheepish. "Sorry. I didn't mean what I said earlier about there being something wrong with you."

"Think nothing of it." I said while making American style eggs and sliced pork. "I've forgotten it already."

"It's just I've never done anything like that before." He went on anyway. "I mean, I only did it once before and that was just, you know, a quick thing."

"There is no need to say more." I pointed to the cupboard. "Glasses are in there. I had hoped that we could review the last Chemistry chapter after we eat, but if you prefer, I will take you home."

"I guess I should look at that Chem stuff," he said slowly. He got glasses and plates and put them on the table. I brought out the food and fruit juice. We ate in silence.

"Hey Kaiba," he looked quizzical. "How'd you teach my Mom Dark Lord 2 so fast?"

"Game Theory. Our school doesn't offer it but if you find a class, take it. It's really quite fascinating. Humans play; we all know that. But how we play. Why we play. What we play. I have found that, in general, people play either skill games, knowledge games or strategy games and so all KaibaGames' products can be played in three modes. You and every teenage boy in the world play skill games. Your mother likes strategy."

"How'd you figure that out?"

I grinned at him. "Well, I did a simple game theory analysis, but I verified my findings by simply asking her."

"You asked her?"

"What else should I have done?" he shrugged. "I think the benefit of being raised without a mother is that I have no pre-conceived notions about how they should be. As far as I'm concerned, they play games, have sex –"

"HEY!"

"– do everything just like anyone else. You should try asking her things occasionally. You might be surprised."

"Fine! Can we not discuss sex and my mom at the same time?"

I laughed, but let the topic drop. After we ate, I rinsed the dishes and we spent a few hours on Chemistry. I had memorized all the data and the equations themselves were easy enough, but for some reason, understanding eluded me.

"No!" Kajiki seemed to be as frustrated as I. "Look, you keep thinking like this stuff is hard and fast. Like engineering. It's not. In engineering, if it's solid, it's always solid, right?

"Of course. You couldn't construct anything without constants."

"Right. Chemistry's closer to biology. It's sometimes solid, sometimes liquid."

"I'm not stupid! I can see that. What I don't understand is why."

"It just is. Why are you such a hardass at school and so sweet in bed? You just are; different states in different environments." I started to reply and then actually realized what he said. Kajiki blushed. "I mean, uh, that didn't..."

"No one ever said I was sweet before." I set the book aside. "You surely don't think I would allow such a comment to go unchallenged."

"Dude, you're like one of those sex maniacs, aren't you." I moved his book, leaned forward and kissed him. He protested somewhat but seemed to be more interested in helping me undress than stopping me. "See? This is more like physics." He breathed.

"Later."

I licked and sucked him, even swallowing this time when he came. Then I positioned him on his knees and fucked him slowly. He came again before I finished.

Then, I was done. I woke with him and me on the living room floor and the familiar feeling of annoyance by his presence.

That was what sex was like before Joey. These tiresome boys were like physical junk food. They abated the hunger, but never nourished the body. I wanted to call a cab to take him somewhere I didn't have to see him. But I couldn't afford that. And to make matters worse, I would have to see him again next week and at graduation and likely again after that. That was the primary reason I saved my trysts for out-of-town ventures. So that these empty calories didn't linger around the house.

"I think you should go now." I said gently. I kissed his cheek – I had learned something in the last few months. I did not have to tolerate the inferior, but I also did not have to be insensitive about it. Sheep did not need to be wolves and they did not need to be dissatisfied with being sheep. If I had no intention of devouring him, what was the purpose in biting him at all? People were much more useful when I refrained from causing them pain. "Get dressed; I'll take you home."

"Yeah, it is kind of late, I guess."

I pulled up to his front door this time. When he climbed off, he took off the helmet and handed it to me. "So will I see you again?"

"We do go to school together." I reminded him.

"I meant, you know, outside."

I pulled his face to mine and kissed him again, deeply, lingering. "I think I'd rather you continue to think of me as sweet. Too much time together and you might discover what I'm really like."