"I'm just sayin'
if you really loved me
you would share him."
~Helpless by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Ryou would have thought that he could sleep for a week after sex like that, but he awoke an hour later shivering. His extremities were cold, and pressing up against Kaiba's body and snuggling together under the blankets just weren't enough to keep him satisfactorily warm.
Did he dare leave Kaiba's embrace and risk the cold scamper from the bed to the closet in order to uncover a set of soft pajamas and fuzzy socks that would keep him warm? Or would he stay here and stay warm, instead of being cold briefly in order to obtain more heat? Did he really want to risk waking Kaiba? He glanced up at his partner, who was sleeping like a stone, and that decided it. With extreme care, Ryou climbed over Seto—noticing in the process that the brunette had put on his briefs before falling asleep, and envying him—then slipped out of bed. The floors were heated here, which was a blessing, but the rest of him was still cold, so he scampered to their shared closet just as he'd planned. It took him thirty seconds to clumsily dress before he joined Seto in bed, carefully moving over him as he had before. This time, though, his socks slipped on the silk and he landed on the brunette with an "oomph."
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah, sorry, didn't mean to wake you." His quiet apologies were swift and soft as he shifted off of him. "I was just cold."
"Hmmm..." Kaiba put an arm around him and pulled him close, and Ryou couldn't help but think that the gesture reminded him of a child reaching for his favorite teddy bear. "You seem to get cold a lot."
"It's December; what would you expect?"
Ryou closed his eyes, ready to go back to sleep, but in those moments, Bakura's behavior these past several weeks floated to the top of his mind. He tried to push it aside, but it wouldn't leave him alone.
Shouldn't he know what was happening? Wouldn't Ryou want to know if there roles were reversed?
"Seto, can I talk to you about something?" he asked hesitantly.
"Of course." Kaiba sounded half asleep, but he made an effort to rouse himself and make his mind more alert. "What's on your mind?"
"Do you remember..." Ryou faltered and took a deep breath to steel his nerves. "Do you remember the first time we said we loved each other?"
"Yes."
"Do you remember how I fell asleep while we were talking, and how I cried when I woke up?"
"Yes. You were tired, and you'd had a bad day." Even though he said the words, he felt that his perception was about to be corrected.
"It was more than just that. During my nap, Bakura..." Ryou winced, and pressed his face into Seto's bare chest. Gods, he was warm. He was always so warm...
"What did he do to you?" His question was had, edged with anger, but the hand he used to stroke Ryou's hair was gentle.
"He... He did what he's been wanting do for a long time," he whispered slowly, putting a clean face on it. "I told you that he tried before. He had mercy on me then, but... Well, it's been happening infrequently since then. I didn't want to upset you, which is why I didn't tell you sooner, but we've been together this long and I just feel like you need to know. Please don't let me keep rambling." Ryou hid his face and closed his eyes, waiting for a reaction.
"He has no right to hurt you," Seto growled, still stroking Ryou's hair as if the action soothed both of them.
"If that's the price I have to pay to be with you, then so be it," he said with a small shrug.
Seto stopped petting his lover and lifted a large hand to Ryou's cheek, the pad of his thumb brushing over Ryou's temple as he studied his lover's face intently, as he would a bit of computer code he was trying to understand. Blue eyes burned so close to his face that Ryou almost forgot how to breathe. He closed his eyes again and leaned into Seto's touch, just wanting this moment to last forever.
"Ryou."
"I don't think you understand how much this means to me," Ryou interrupted, opening his eyes before Kaiba could continue. Cheeks turning pink, he murmured, "I loved you long before Bakura started sleeping with you, and he knew that. You're a dream come true—No, better. You're better than I ever hoped you'd be. But I don't pretend that anything in life is free. Everything has a cost, and if this is the cost, then I can accept that, because you're worth it. You're worth it to me, Seto."
"You deserve better than that."
"You are better than I deserve, but I have you." Ryou hesitated, not even sure what he'd planned on saying next. "And if I have you, then... I can have that too."
Kaiba shook his head disapprovingly. "That's not how that works, Ryou. You can't just decide that you deserve to be punished for being happy. I'm not going to let him do this to you."
"I mean no offense, but there isn't anything you can do to stop him. It is what it is. I'm not asking you to change it, I just thought you should know."
"I can't allow you to continue this, Ryou." Kaiba started to sit up, looking down at his partner with a look of concern.
"Nobody can stop him from getting what he wants, Kaiba. Not even you." Ryou hadn't meant to sound so harsh, but the words were out, and he regretted it. "Don't worry about me, okay? Just go back to sleep."
Ryou was pulling the blankets up around his shoulders once more when he felt a hand return to his cheek. Seto didn't say anything, but pressed his forehead to Ryou's. The Brit had just opened his mouth to speak when a wave of darkness rose from behind his eyes and flooded his consciousness.
The next thing he knew, he was on the floor in his soul room, and he wasn't alone.
"How did you do that?" he asked as he sat up, rubbing his throbbing head. Why did it hurt so much?
"Will power," Seto answered, doing the same, then getting to his feet and reaching out to Ryou to help him up.
"That figures," he grumbled, standing and leaning into the brunette's chest as light-headedness made the room spin around him. "If anybody could invade someone else's soul room through sheer force of will, it would be you."
"So it worked?"
"It sure looks like it, but why—?"
"So you've come to challenge me for the right to be Yadonushi's lover?"
Kaiba turned around at the sound of an all-too-familiar voice, keeping an arm around Ryou's shoulders in a possessive gesture that happened to also help him keep his balance.
"I suppose you could put it that way." The soft-spoken, romantic, sentimental aspect of Seto was long gone. He was all business, now.
"You might as well give up, then." Bakura crossed his arms and stood with his feet planted firmly, smirking at the both of them. "I'm a part of him. I'm inside his mind. I'm attached to his soul. There's nothing you can do to stop me, nothing you have that could bribe me, nothing I want that I don't already have."
"You want the Millennium Items, don't you?" Kaiba asked coolly. Ryou stiffened and looked up at Seto's eyes, trying to read his expression. Meanwhile, Bakura had widened his eyes slightly before narrowing them to glare at him again.
"Keep talking."
"You have the Millennium Ring, but Yugi has the Puzzle, the Rod, and the Necklace. If I could get you one of those, would you swear to leave Ryou alone from this point forward?"
"Hmm." Bakura hadn't expected Kaiba to make a decent offer. "If you can bring me a Millennium Item, I'll consider it. Until then—" Bakura's eyes met Ryou's, and he crooked one finger beckoning him forward. Ryou knew too well to stay away, but he was still reluctant to leave Kaiba's embrace. He was slow to move away from the brunette, and as he did, Kaiba tried to decide if he was going to snatch him away from Bakura's greedy clutches. Bakura grabbed Ryou by the arm just as Seto took a step forward to do the same. With a thought and a flick of his wrist, Bakura trapped Kaiba inside a glass pyramid, similar to the one that Marik had been trapped in by his dark side during Battle City.
"Hey! Let me out!" Kaiba furiously pounded both fists against the glass, but with no effect.
"You're a trespasser," Bakura sneered at him.
"No more so than you are!" Kaiba snapped back.
Ryou closed his eyes and turned his face away from both of them. He hated the anger, the violence, the insults. He wished it would all just end. He didn't want Bakura touching him, putting an arm around his waist to secure him at his side. He didn't want Kaiba trapped behind glass, forced to watch whatever happened next. He just wanted to find himself in Seto's arms and go back to sleep. He wanted this nightmare to be over.
"I usually go easy on him," Bakura lied with slow, measured tones, his arm so tight around Ryou's waist that his stomach hurt. "But just for you, Kaiba, I think I'll put on a show."
Ryou jerked awake in a cold sweat, feverish and shivering. Kaiba felt sick to his stomach when he opened his eyes, but he ignored the feeling and rolled over to face Ryou.
"Are you alright?"
After what Seto'd seen in his soul room, it sounded like a ridiculous question to ask. Of course he wasn't alright. How on earth could he be? Ryou moaned and closed his eyes, looking like he was in pain.
"Please say something," Seto murmured, lifting a hand to touch Ryou's cheek.
"I'll be fine, I just want to sleep," he muttered without opening his eyes.
"How do you feel?"
"Awful."
"How can I help?"
"Just let it be, Seto. Let it be."
"You're mad at me." A quiet observation, but Kaiba actually hoped he was wrong.
"You shouldn't have interfered. I can handle him."
"That's not why you're mad."
"I don't want you stealing the Millennium Items from Yugi." He opened his eyes finally to look at Seto. "I don't know why Bakura wants them, but they're powerful and dangerous. The last thing he needs is more power." He studied Seto's face for a few moments. "Promise me that you won't steal them."
"I promise."
"Or send someone else to steal them for you."
"I promise."
"Or—"
"I get it, Ryou." Seto used his fingers to comb Ryou's bangs back off his forehead, then pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. "I won't do anything of the sort."
"Okay." He sounded relieved.
"You feel like you're running a fever."
"I'm sure I'm fine."
"He's doing this to you, isn't he?"
"Probably."
They were silent for a little while before Seto started unbuttoning Ryou's pajama shirt. Ryou didn't protest, but was grateful for the cooler air on his skin. Ryou continued to suffer from the fever, and Seto held him all night long.
Author Note: As I wrote through the smut, I stumbled upon a plot.
It looked up at me and said, "You know, I'm pretty good. I bet they'd like to read me."
I responded, "I'm not sure I have the time for all that..."
He retorted, "But you know you hated that last episode of YGO and would like to fix it, so here's your chance: take me or leave me."
"I'll take you."
So, it's not over, there's more to come, but I don't know how long it'll take or when it'll happen. I hope you find it more satisfying that way. Don't worry, I'll keep up the smut even as the plot happens.
