Ryou and Seto meet at the library...
     ...A man in a black leather jacket gazed down, one arm stretched to hold back the skewed bookcase that had nearly fallen on Ryou. "Pardon me," the stranger murmured with a slight smile, and with a smooth movement, he turned and tipped the heavy bookshelves back into their proper position. "My name is Seto. Are you all right?"
     "All right?" Ryou asked distantly, looking up into the depths of the man's hypnotic gaze. "I guess so, sure."
     Seto nodded. "May I help you up?" His voice was like his clothing, soft, rich, almost beckoning. The dim light fell gently on his dark brown hair and shoulders as he held out his arm. His hands were strong, long-fingered and strangely pale.
     Ryou grasped the other man's arm and the touch made his skin tingle with pleasurable sensations as he was pulled to his feet. As Seto reached up to stabilize the bookshelf, Ryou watched the muscles of the stranger's slim body shifting under his snug-fitting clothing. Ryou didn't even want to think about the heavy, dusty books crashing down on him.
     "Thanks for the rescue," Ryou said with a grin. "You've got some killer reflexes there."
    "I find them to be useful at times." Seto smiled, teeth reflecting brightly in the dim aisle. His voice held all sorts of sensual promise. "Your own reflexes, however..."
    "Yes, sometimes I get so lost in my research that I don't notice what's around me. Or in this case, nearly on top of me."
     The unintended double meaning in his words made Seto smile crookedly. "It would seem so. It was fortunate I was passing by." His eyes gleamed. "Who knows what position you might have found yourself in?"
~*~*~*
  Ryou and Anzu share intellectual repartee...
     Ryou put down his coffee and glared with mock severity at his best friend. "Look, I'm sorry if I keep disappointing you by not sleeping around more often, but I guess I'm a romantic. And hooking up between the stacks isn't exactly a special moment."
     "I'm not suggesting that though it does have its plusses." Anzu grinned as if reliving a particularly naughty memory and knowing her, she probably was. "But obviously you like this guy and you're into him. So pursue it. It's not often you meet someone who tightens your boxers. And he sounds delicious. I suppose you're sure he's gay?"
     "The tongue down my throat was a giveaway," Ryou replied, adding with a knowing smile: "So don't you even think about it. He's mine."
     "Wow. Possessive already."
     Her words brought Ryou up short. Was he really having such thoughts about a man he didn't know? "I just" Ryou scrambled to make sense of what he was thinking, how he was feeling. "He was just really something, you know?"
     "Well, I hope I get the chance to meet this god among men. With any luck he'll be at the party!" Taking back the invitation, Anzu waved it before her face like a Southern belle's fan.
     "I hope so too," Ryou murmured, not wanting Anzu to know just how taken with this stranger he'd become so quickly.
     And suddenly Ryou could almost see those eyes again, feel their stare on the back of his neck. The stranger was here....
~*~*~*~*~*

Seto has vampire lust...
     He'd been watching Ryou for weeks. Everything about the mortal was compelling: his intelligent brown eyes, his kind smile, the way he carried his sexy slim body even the books he read and the subjects he studied. Seto followed Ryou whenever he could. Eventually, Seto wanted to do more than just watch. And opportunity or perhaps fate had presented itself.
     Seto should never have flirted with Ryou. He definitely should not have kissed him. But he couldn't help it. Seto was already intrigued and that kiss had increased things exponentially. And judging by the younger man's reaction, their desire was mutual.
     Seto had been so tempted to lean in close, to whisper an invitation in his ear, draw the younger man away from the protection of the crowds. To take him where they could be alone and no one could intrude upon them. Ryou would have gone willingly, Seto was sure of that. He'd felt how turned on Ryou had been when they kissed earlier, not to mention how Ryou had arched his body into his. The vampire's mouth filled with longing and hunger, his teeth ached with need.
     Seto craned his neck around the corner and found Ryou instantly, laughing amid a group of men. Some were interested in Ryou, standing too closely to him, giving off what the interlopers probably thought were charming smiles. And Ryou smiled back. Seto pushed back the burning jealousy. His lips pulled away, revealing a fierce display of sharp white teeth.
     Seto knew he had no right to have such thoughts, to be so possessive. But he couldn't help it: he wanted Ryou, perhaps more than he'd ever wanted anything. Even though that desire could be the death of both of them....

~*~*~*~*~*~
Ryou reaches for what he wants most...
     "You ask so many questions," Seto murmured, moonlight dancing on his dark brown hair. "You are a curious one, aren't you?"
     "It's a curse," Ryou said. "And you should know I don't quit until I get all the answers I want."
     "Then I'll have to find a way to distract you." Though the words sounded almost like a threat, they were spoken in a voice husky with desire. Seto drew Ryou close again, causing him to gasp at the contact. But Ryou didn't even attempt to pull away as Seto dove in for a kiss. His lips were cool and sweet, yet hungry and demanding. The overall effect was intoxicating.
     Ryou had barely recovered from the drug-like, erotic effects of the kiss before he was pulled roughly into an alley shadowed in darkness and shoved not so gently against a wall. The look in the other man's eyes was wicked, seductive and dangerously alluring. Ryou's heart thudded wildly. He knew he should be afraid. But his need negated those feelings and perhaps his common sense.
     "What are you doing?" he gasped.
     "Feel me," Seto whispered, his hand gripping Ryou's wrist and guiding it down his slim body.
     Ryou could feel Seto throbbing through his jeans and instinctively squeezed him. Seto moaned, the sound like a hungry purr deep in the back of his throat.
     "See what you do to me?" Seto asked. "This is because of you. What are you going to do about it?"
     Ryou licked his lips, unable to believe what he was even contemplating, the risk he was taking. But he didn't care. He had to see Seto... he had to feel him. Maybe even more than Seto needed to be seen or felt. And so he reached for Seto's zipper, the sound seeming to echo in the alley....