Please let me know what you think. I've always felt (there's poem that said this) that until it's been read, a story is just ink on a page – so I'd like to hear from you.


CHAPTER 9: FOR EVERY ACTION…

YUGI'S POV

We were in our soul room. It looked like my bedroom today. We were on my bed, kissing.

Was Atemu trying to reassure me that even though something had been added to his life, nothing had been subtracted? Or was he trying to convince himself?

That wasn't the thought I meant to have pop into my mind at a time like this, but it did, and Atemu heard it. And we couldn't just go back to kissing and pretend it hadn't happened.

"Aibou," Atemu said, "I float in your consciousness, merge with your thoughts and feelings; I am carried within your body. No bond could be more intimate." I nodded, but we both knew that wasn't the point.

I was the one who had set things in motion, knowing it would end with Atemu and Kaiba in each others' arms. It's the kind of thing you can't take back once you've done it. Only now that it had happened, now that it was too late, I was getting cold feet.

Atemu loved me the way he always had. I could feel it. But it was weird suddenly seeing a whole new side of him, even if it was the one I'd told him to explore. There's a big difference between telling someone to do something, and then having them actually do it.

Atemu and I loved each other. I knew that beyond a doubt. So I felt like an idiot for being worried, when I knew there was nothing to worry over. It was just that things had changed, they had to have changed, even though it felt like everything had stayed the same. I shook my head in frustration. If Atemu was trying to read my feelings, all he was probably getting was a lot of static.

"If my being with Kaiba distresses you, aibou," Atemu said, "I won't…"

"No!" I interrupted before he could complete the sentence; before he made it real. "Don't you dare break-up with Kaiba. I'll get used to it."

"This will never infringe on us," Atemu said. "I swear it."

"I know. It's just different. It's okay." But Atemu heard my unspoken thought as well: 'What if you like Kaiba better?'

Atemu paused. I could feel him coming to a decision. "Do not seclude yourself in your soul room the next time I meet Kaiba. Then you will know that he is not a threat to you, nor you to him."

"What? Are you crazy?" I demanded.

But Atemu was unperturbed. "Anything I have is yours as well. If you were there, you would be comforted in your heart as well as your mind."

"You want me to spy on you and Kaiba?"

"It would hardly be spying. I would never lock you out. My end of our link will always be open. The choice however, as always, is yours," Atemu murmured.

It was wrong. I knew it. But as I went back to kissing Atemu, I also knew I was going to take him up on his offer. Because even though it was wrong, maybe Atemu was right.

MOKUBA'S POV

Once I would have said that if I could just see a real smile on my brother's face – no matter how small – I'd be happy. Once I would have sworn that I'd shake the hand of the person who managed to pin it there.

Once I was a lot stupider.

Because it wasn't a person that had my brother smiling each morning, and that was the problem.

I was in charge of security at the mansion. That's how I knew that Yugi had showed up the past couple of nights at 2:00 AM and stayed 'til about 5:30 AM. In my brother's bedroom. It was pretty hard trying to picture Yugi in my brother's room at that hour of the night, so I checked the security tapes to confirm his eye color, and sure enough, it was crimson.

All I had ever wanted was for Nisama to find someone. Only my brother would have picked a ghost. How hard could it have been to find a real flesh-and-blood person? Instead, he'd hooked up with a spirit who could only be with him for the few hours when his host was asleep. Talk about coming in second.

And I was the one who'd been dumb enough to go to Yami for help. He'd helped himself right to my brother. I'd gone to Yami so Nisama could get rid of his resident ghost. Instead he'd ended up saddled with two. And he didn't even care.

What was worse was that, for all his victories, I knew where my brother had gotten the habit of putting himself last. He'd gotten it from me. He always treated himself like I was the only thing that mattered… like his life was some sort of meaningless chip to be staked in whatever game came next. And he'd been doing it for so many years, that by now he just didn't know any other way to be.

But that didn't mean I had to like it. And it sure as hell didn't mean I had to like Yami.

I could have put my foot down. If Nisama had even a clue how I felt, Yami would be yesterday's news. But then so would that smile.

Yami had put it there, and I didn't want him to take it with him when he left. So for now, I didn't really have a choice but to watch and wait. I just hoped Yami understood the difference between inaction and approval.

SETO'S POV

I went to school the next day and the next as though nothing had changed. My pretense must have been less skilled than I had hoped though, because on the third day, Yugi asked, "If this bothers you, have you spoken to Kaiba? Maybe it would help."

I shook my head, flushing slightly. The last time I had seen my modern incarnation, I had forgotten Kaiba's injunction against aiming for his face. (We both forgot far too often. It was too tempting a target.) After the pharaoh had left, Kaiba had taunted me about how good my pharaoh was in his bed. Kaiba had asked me if this was how he had earned the right to be called a god. That was when I gave him a black eye.

"I do not understand this thing between them." I said to Yugi.

"Because Atemu wants Kaiba?" Yugi asked. "You mean, you don't think it's a good idea?

"That Kaiba in his ignorance and arrogance should love a god is to be expected. That the pharaoh should, if Kaiba pleased him, take him is equally fair. But that the pharaoh should so far forget who he is, to actually care about Kaiba…"

"Have you talked to Kaiba?" Yugi repeated, as if talking was a solution.

"What should I say? That he has proved my God mortal, and I do not know what to believe anymore? That he has shaken the foundations of my world – or rather made me realize that my world is so long gone it might never have existed? How can I speak of this to him? Kaiba, even more than I, has been trained to seek out and attack vulnerabilities. My ignorance is so profound, that I do not even know what has made him this way."

"You don't?" Yugi asked in surprise.

"I can only sense the thoughts and feelings that he will consent to share with me… or those that float too close to the surface to be hidden. It is how I know the depth of his feelings for your partner, despite his manner."

That was true, I thought, and felt my mood lighten. Kaiba's feelings for his lover, despite his blasphemous words, were in some ways more devout, more pure than mine for my god. I was comforted by the realization. Maybe Kaiba would understand more than I had given him credit for. After all, after insulting the pharaoh, he had stood still and let me punch him in the eye, without defending himself – and without retaliating afterwards.

KAIBA'S POV

The construction of Kaiba Land was proceeding on schedule. It would be the first of many. I smiled at the thought of its completion; it was one more item to be checked off the list.

Kaiba Land was an obligation – to myself and to Mokuba. My latest venture was different. Oh, it was still business – the negotiations had proven that. But it also promised to be… fun. The contract to provide the computer effects for 'Dragonflight' was on my desk, ready for my signature. The execs at New Line were no fools; they could see the value of having my name on anything associated with dragons. I would, of course, also be developing the video-game spin-offs.

I had started work on the project even before the final details had been ironed out, not that I had told anyone but Mokuba that. The one thing that first shadow game with Atemu had left me with, besides the occasional nightmare, was a desire to bring dragons to life. To do with my brains and heart and hands, what Atemu had done with a flick of his. It was, I suppose, an obsession. If so, it was one of the more harmless ones I've indulged in.

Nor was it my only new venture.

It was amusingly ironic. I seemed to have attracted a spirit who wanted me for my body. Up until now, everyone had wanted me for my brains. This, at least, was enticingly novel. Somehow in a few short weeks, I had acquired not only a clone-with-benefits, but a rival-turned-lover. It had been a surprisingly painless procedure. That bothered me a little. If my life had taught me anything, it was that something of value could only be acquired at great cost. It was interesting, though… this vague feeling of contentment. I wondered if I could get used to it, but another thing I'd learned was not to expect anything, especially something as changeable as a mood, to last.

Any number of people, including said clone and said lover (not to mention Mokuba) had spent an inordinate amount of time and effort trying to convince me otherwise on both counts, but I saw no reason to adjust my attitude.

On the other hand, maybe they had had an effect, after all. I was willing to hold the question of payment in abeyance; to enjoy myself while waiting for the bill to come due.

YUGI'S POV

Kaiba let Atemu into the mansion. Atemu's opening move was to grab Kaiba by the hair, and pull his head downwards. Our lips met. It was like watching someone throw a match onto gasoline. It was that fast and that hot. Before I could even get used to the feel of Kaiba's lips, his tongue was in my mouth and Atemu was giving back as good as he was getting, as if it was a competition. (Although I was afraid to think of what the prize was going to be.) They were going at it like they were going to fuck each other right through their clothes.

It was getting hard to think or even remember who I was. I was horny and freaked at the same time. This wasn't my hard-on I was feeling, but Atemu's. And while I was getting wildly turned on by the body grinding into the one Atemu and I were sharing, Kaiba wasn't the one I wanted inhabiting it. I couldn't believe how quick this was all happening.

Atemu groaned in frustration, but I was a little relieved when Kaiba finally lifted his head.

"That's the best you got?" Kaiba taunted.

Yami's hand shot for his crotch in answer. "Better, much better," Kaiba moaned.

I was surprised. Atemu had always let me take the lead. And we went a lot slower.

That was the end of their conversation (if you could call it that) until they had made it to the bedroom. I was confused. Was Atemu trying to show me all he wanted Kaiba for was his body? But I knew better, and from what Seto had told me, that wasn't true for Kaiba either. So what game were they playing now?

I didn't figure it out until they were in Kaiba's bed stripping each other's clothes off as if it was a race. That's when Atemu finally started talking.

"Do you understand, Kaiba? We belong together. It has taken 3,000 years to craft you into the person you are. You are my compliment and my match."

Kaiba didn't say a word. He didn't need to. His eyes had drifted shut, he was arching into Atemu, leaning into his words as much as his touch. There was no gentleness in Atemu's tone. It was the right move. Kaiba would have rejected anything softer. He might have been a genius, but he would have flunked any vocabulary quiz that had words like tenderness on the list. So Atemu was speaking to Kaiba in the only language he could understand. It worked – for both of them.

Yami was right. This was totally different. It was wildly intense, but passion wasn't what I wanted, at least not from Atemu. Atemu and I were friends. I guess you could say we were friends with benefits – only it was the friendship that was the true benefit. We loved each other, but there are lots of different kinds of love.

What Atemu and I had always found in each other was familiarity, the comfort of being with someone you knew inside out. What drew Yami to Kaiba were their differences – and the challenge of learning someone from the outside in. It was a challenge I was ready to take on as well, only I had a slightly different partner in mind.

Atemu was right. I did feel better.

But Atemu was wrong, too. I had no right being here, seeing this. Atemu had no business giving away his privacy, and I had no business accepting. (Not to mention that Kaiba would probably kill the both of us if he knew.)

'I should never have intruded on you,' I told Atemu through our link. 'I'm sorry aibou. I understand, now.'

'Then there is nothing to forgive,' Atemu replied.

'Yes, there is. What I did was wrong, even if you don't realize that,' I smiled, 'But we can debate it later, when you're not busy. There are times when three's a crowd – and this definitely counts as one of them.'

Before I shut down the link, I felt a sting on my (or rather Atemu's) shoulder, and heard Atemu yell, "Kaiba! What was that for?"

"I wanted to make sure I had your undivided attention," Kaiba said.

"Can't a man blink without getting bitten?" Atemu asked.

"Not when he's a member of this little quartet, he can't," Kaiba smirked "Besides, maybe I just like biting."

Yep. It was definitely time for me to go…


Thanks to Clarity for editing this chapter.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: After upsetting the equilibrium in the last chapter, I decided to show everyone's reaction (well almost everyone's reaction – Kaiba was too wrapped up in his movie-making plans to think too much about it) before going on to upset the equilibrium still more.

It's funny, this was a kind of difficult chapter to write without being really tacky (at least I hope so.) But I could see Yugi getting a cold feet, once it had happened. And I figured that whatever solutions these guys are going to come up with are going to be unconventional ones. Also one thing I found interesting in this is that I can picture the four characters having different kinds of relationships. Of the three relationships in the story to this point, Bnomiko cracked me up by describing Seto and Kaiba as having a kind of rough and tumble wet dream (and I think she's right!) I see Yugi and Yami as being friends who enjoy making love – but the making love is first and foremost an expression of their friendship, and I see Kaiba and Yami being pure passion, possibly the stronger for being somewhat unexpressed.