Duke didn't bail his father out of prison, but he did go and speak with him, even though he didn't think that his refusal to talk to his father was comparable with Ryou's refusal to talk to his. Duke's father had seriously screwed up Duke's life: Duke had come to harm in the past because of his father's gambling debts, his mother had been driven to alcoholism, and his family had been torn to pieces because of the wretched man. While what Ryou's father had done was still wrong, it wasn't nearly as despicable as that. Duke couldn't blame Ryou for being mad that his dad had abandoned him, moved to Egypt, remarried, and started a new family with no intention of telling him. But Mr. Bakura was at least trying to reach out to his son so that he could restore their broken relationship. Mr. Devlin had never done any such thing. That was why Duke thought Ryou should talk to his own father and let Duke continue to shun his. His conversation with his father at prison had ended badly. Things had gotten a little… heated, and the guards had ended up dragging Duke out of the room as he continued screaming at his father in anger.

The events of the following day, though, helped Duke to relax a bit and put the incident out of his mind. He'd just gotten out of the shower to be met with a surprise.

"Ryou? What are you doing?" The white-haired Brit was sitting cross-legged on the floor, leaning back against the wall. There was a surreal smile on his face and his eyes were closed.

"I like hearing you sing when you're in the shower," was his sleepy answer. Duke chuckled at that.

"You could have joined me, you know," he said warmly as he started to dry his long, dark hair with a towel.

"Mm-hm."

Duke looked over at Ryou, whose eyes were still closed. His face was relaxed, his expression pleasant. Duke wrapped his towel around his waist, his damp hair straggling down his back and around his shoulders. He knelt in front of Ryou and lifted a hand to his pink cheek, making those wide, innocent eyes open.

"I love your eyes, Ryou," he whispered, rubbing his nose against the younger's. "They look like puddles of dark chocolate."

"Thank you," Ryou murmured with a smile. "I'd forgotten that Adam Lambert was your favorite singer."

Duke kissed him tenderly, savoring the moment as he remembered the first moment he'd heard that Ryou had a brain tumor and feared that he might never have this again.

"And that Cherry Pie was your favorite song," Ryou added with a sly smile when they broke apart. Duke's soft fingertips dusted over Ryou's cheeks before they moved down and gently uncrossed Ryou's legs, extending them to either side of him.

"Is that so?" Duke murmured. "I can't believe you'd forget something like that," he said, feigning offense. "Not after I drove you out to the lake two summers ago in my '58 convertible. You do remember that, don't you?"

Ryou let out a warm laugh as Duke's fingers gently kneaded Ryou's thighs. "I most certainly remember now. You insisted on driving us back by morning, and I fell asleep in the backseat, which wasn't very comfortable. I woke up with a sore neck."

"Well, most cars aren't very comfortable for actual sleeping," Duke pointed out with a chuckle, putting Ryou's arms around his neck as he lifted him in his arms. Ryou's legs wrapped around Duke's waist as he let the other carry him.

"You and Seto are so silly about your cars," he commented with a smile. "I'll never understand it."

"Just like I'll never quite understand your obsession with RPGs, but I can still accept it." Duke lay Ryou down on their bed, looking down at him with glowing green eyes. Ryou's hand came up to touch Duke's cheek.

"I like you without your eyeliner," he said suddenly. "I mean, I like you with it, but I like you without it too. I don't remember if I ever told you that before." The words struck straight to Duke's heart, and it was in that moment that Duke knew that their precious Ryou was just the same as he was before the surgery, the same Ryou he'd been five years ago. They'd all been just a little afraid that he would never recover his former self. But he was the same, just with less pain.

"You're wonderful. You know that?" Duke slipped his hands under Ryou's ass, holding him securely as he leaned down to kiss him. Ryou tugged at Duke's towel until it slipped away and fell to the floor. Duke chuckled hotly as he nuzzled in against Ryou's neck. Now Duke was naked while Ryou was fully clothed, and the former found this to be an exciting prospect. A knock at the door interrupted them.

"Come in!" Duke called without thinking, expecting it to be Seto.

"Wait!" Ryou cried, flustered. He heard the door open as he pulled the covers up to hide his face—as if that made any difference—and heard his sister cry out in surprise.

"Wow. That was more than I needed to see. I'm… gonna go wash my eyes with bleach," Amane said dryly as she rapidly retreated from the room, closing the door again.

"What? Am I really that bad looking?" Duke called after her in mock indignation. He made to move away from Ryou and follow her, but Ryou held him in place with his legs.

"Don't tease her, Duke," Ryou said with a smirk, his face still flushed. "She's just jealous that I have two incredibly attractive men and she has none. Besides, I don't need you streaking in front of the servants, or they'll get jealous too."

"Aw, thank you, Angel," Duke crooned appreciatively. He leaned over Ryou again, twirling a lock of white hair around his finger. "You think I'm attractive?"

"I did marry you, didn't I?"


"What happened to you?" Seto asked as he looked up from his videogame at a rather stunned Amane as she entered the game room where he'd chosen to spend his afternoon.

"I… saw something that I really didn't need to see," she answered slowly, trying to be delicate for once, which Seto found amusing.

"You walked in on them having sex, didn't you?" Seto asked with a smirk.

"Not quite, but they were getting there," Amane grumbled, making Seto laugh. She sighed heavily and threw herself onto the couch beside Seto, complaining, "What does a girl have to do to get a guy like you?"

"I beg your pardon?" Seto asked, pausing the game and turning his head to look down at her. "Well, I guess you could hold out a few years for Mokuba to grow up a little."

"Or Duke," she added to her previous statement, ignoring his comment about Mokuba. "It seems like all the best guys are taken, gay, or both."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Seto smirked and resumed the videogame. Amane rolled her eyes at him, then turned her eyes to the TV screen.

"You're playing Lego Star Wars?" She sounded incredulous. "That's kind of an old game, isn't it?"

"I never got a chance to play it when it came out," Seto explained. Thanks, Gozaburo.

"I can't believe you own a Game Cube," she observed, half-smiling. "Those are out of production."

"Retro gaming for the win!" he exclaimed, actually starting to sound like the nerdy twenty-two-year-old he was. "Wanna join me? You can be Padme."

"Pft, no way," Amane retorted as he paused the game and she picked up the other wireless controller. "I prefer Han Solo."

"What's wrong with Padme?" Seto asked as he resumed the game.

"She's such a sap," Amane said scornfully. "I mean, she falls in love with a villain as he's turning evil! Who could be so blind?"

"Padme," Seto answered with a smirk, causing Amane to whack him on the shoulder. "Han Solo's your favorite Star Wars character then, huh?"

"Yeah. He makes more sense to me than the other characters, plus he's epic. How about you?"

"I actually like Anakin."

"Seriously?!" she exclaimed.

"Yes. I mean, I don't like him when he becomes Darth Vader, but before that, I didn't think he was that bad. I wish he hadn't gone to the dark side."

"He had too much power; combined with his desire for revenge, there was no way he wouldn't go to the dark side. Anybody with that much power and that much anger is going to be corrupted sooner or later."

"I understand what you mean," he conceded. "That would've been me if I didn't have Ryou and Duke to keep me grounded."

"How did you three get together?" she asked. "I'm curious about how you managed to pull it off."

"That's a long story," Seto answered, much to Amane's irritation.

"Okay, that's the last time I'm going to accept that as an answer from any of you!" she exclaimed, shooting the Lego storm troopers with more aggression than necessary. "Between you, Duke, and Ryou, I must have heard it a dozen times by now. I still have another week here; I have the time for long stories, and I want to hear them. No more excuses."

"Fair enough," Seto conceded. He could tell from her tone that she was serious about putting her foot down on this behavior.

"Okay, so, since you don't want to tell me the story of how you three became a thing, tell me a different story."

"Which one would you like to hear?" he asked, willing to comply.

"What was up with those pictures that came out a few months ago? The ones with you as a kid with your step-father."

Seto froze, his hold on the controller going slack.

"I never understood why those were released to the public, or how, or by whom. They're real, I know that, but nothing about them makes much sense." A dull thud caught her attention, and she looked up to see that the controller had slipped out of Seto's hands and fallen to the carpet. She paused the game and sighed, putting her own controller down as she sat uncomfortably for a moment. Seto blinked, coming back to himself as Amane put an arm around his shoulders.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked that," she apologized regretfully. "I should have realized that it would upset you."

"No, it's fine," Seto said, trying to assure her so that she didn't feel bad. "It's a fair question, especially because I never released any statements to the media concerning them."

"Yeah, I heard about the paparazzi that tried to break into your house and got bitten by the guard dogs," she said with a smile, making Seto relax a little.

"Until you get the chance to do so, you'll never really understand how satisfying it is to say, 'Release the hounds,' and have your orders followed so that the dogs chase some creep off your property." Seto smiled a little at the thought. "That wasn't the first time I've had to do that, and it won't be the last."

"So… what is the story behind those pictures, if you don't mind my asking?" she queried hesitantly.

"There are two stories," Seto answered slowly. "There's the story of how and why and by whom they were released, and there's the story of what was happening in the photos. Which one did you hope to hear?"

"Both of them."

Seto sighed softly.

"Would it make you feel better if I went and sat over there while you lay on the couch like we're in a therapist's office?" she asked, half-joking.

That's what they ended up doing, though. Seto talked while Amane sketched and doodled on a pad of paper. At first he tried to censor his experiences, leaving out the long-term self-harm, the intense anguish, the reassuring intimacy, but she quickly caught on to what he was doing and teased more details out of him. The only thing he managed to stay tight-lipped about was sex.

"You really are shy, aren't you?" she asked, leaning over the arm of the couch to look down at him with an amused smile. "Duke is shameless and Ryou is discrete, but you're just straight-up shy."

"I don't see how that's pertinent to the conversation," Seto replied, starting to blush.

"It helps me understand you. That's how it's pertinent," she answered, her eyes taking on a new expression. Or maybe it wasn't a new expression, and Seto just couldn't recognize it as he looked at her upside down.

"I've watched your Battle City duels," she said suddenly. "I watched your duel with Zigfried during the KC World Championship. I know you're the same person I saw there, but it's so hard to believe that the proud, rich, powerful Seto Kaiba I saw in those duels is the same shy, vulnerable man I see here in front of me."

For a long moment, she studied him, as if trying to make up her mind about something. Seto studied her too, trying to discern where she was going with this and why. What wasn't she saying?

Suddenly she giggled. "And to think that my friends all said you were more computer than human. Now I can tell them that I have proof you're not a cyborg." She winked as well, making Seto's blush deepen. "Don't worry, your secrets are safe with me." She kissed his forehead chastely and closed her eyes; Seto sighed softly and closed his too, and they savored the sweet moment of soul connection. She moved back and stroked his hair thoughtfully, watching with a bit too much enjoyment as his bright blue eyes opened and looked up at her. She finally leaned back and picked up her pad again.

"Okay, so, what happened after my brother distracted you with lots of sex?" she asked with a mischievous grin.

"I didn't say that's what happened," Seto blushed, sitting up and leaning on his forearms as he turned around a bit to look at her. "Wait, you've actually been taking notes this whole time?" he asked in shock. He hadn't known that she'd taken that comment seriously. "What do they say?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she teased as she flipped the previous sheets over to the front of the pad so that he couldn't see what she'd just been working on.

"Show me that," Seto said, reaching for it, but she held it out of his reach. He blinked in surprise as his orders were blatantly disobeyed, something he was very unaccustomed to.

"On what grounds?" she demanded.

"It's about me. This is my house. I'm older than you. Need I continue?" Seto raised an eyebrow at her.

"Sure, you can read it. If you can catch me!" Amane leapt out of her chair, but Seto was faster than she'd expected. They began to wrestle for the pad, and it was during that time that Ryou and Duke interrupted them.

"Seto Kaiba, I am very disappointed in you!" Ryou rebuked as Duke gave him a piggyback ride into the mansion's game room. "Put my sister down right now!"

"She started it!" Seto said at the same moment Amane said, "He started it!"

"I don't care who started it or why, just put her down," Ryou admonished, starting to blush. "Honestly, Seto, you know better."

"She was asking for it!" Seto complied, though, and put Amane down on the couch. She'd been hanging over his shoulder in the exact manner that Ryou found annoying when they did it to him. "At least she doesn't bite like you do," he added, giving Ryou a look that made him turn scarlet.

"It was once—" Ryou protested as Seto approached them, only to be cut off.

"Twice," Duke corrected, holding up a pair of fingers and wiggling them a little as he grinned. "You bit us twice." That sent Amane into a fit of giggles.

"I'm going to check on Mokuba," Seto said, giving Ryou's cheek a kiss, then doing the same for Duke. "I'll be right back." He left, and Ryou let out a happy sigh, snuggling against Duke and closing his eyes for a moment.

"So what were you guys fighting over?" Duke asked as he entered the room and approached the couch. Amane had sat up by now, so he had the necessary space to set Ryou down on the couch and then sit down next to him with an arm around his shoulders.

"This," Amane answered, picking up the yellow legal pad from the floor. "He was telling me his life story, because I asked, and I was pretending to take notes like I was his therapist," she explained.

"If you weren't taking notes, then what were you doing?" Ryou asked curiously, leaning against Duke's shoulder.

"Drawing."

"Can we see?" Duke asked, putting on the charm. "Pretty please?"

"Sure." It was hard to say no to such a pretty face. She could easily see how Ryou and Seto had fallen for Duke. "But if you were hoping to see him naked, you'll be disappointed. He refused to pose for me." Her words were entirely facetious, but they still made Ryou turn red all over again.

"That's alright; he won't pose for me either," Duke whispered conspiratorially, winking at her.

"You didn't seriously ask him, did you?" Ryou asked, flustered. He thought she was serious.

"Heck no!" Amane laughed. "No, Ryou, I'm not that naughty!"

She held the pad of paper between them as she showed them what she'd drawn: Seto as a child looking defiant and stubborn; Seto as a young teen standing on a chessboard amongst other chess pieces; her view of Seto as he lay on the couch in front of her. The most interesting one featured Seto and Gozaburo standing foot to foot like a reflection or inversion. Both of them stood tall and proud, arms crossed, each wearing their favorite business suit. On Gozaburo's side was the KaibaCorp Headquarters, a tank, a fighter plane, billowing cigar smoke, an AK47 sniper rifle, and a young Seto with his bruised face turned towards the floor, his right wrist in a cast. That young Seto stood as a reflection of Mokuba at the older Seto's side. Mokuba, unlike the young Seto, looked confident and happy. On Seto's side, instead of the KC HQ, there was the Duel Tower; instead of the tank, there was his blimp; instead of the fighter plane, there was a Blue-Eyes White Dragon; instead of the sniper rifle, there was a Duel Disk. Nothing replaced the cigar smoke but fresh air. Duke and Ryou stared at it in silence long enough that Amane started to feel nervous.

"You got it just right," Duke said at last, Ryou nodding his agreement. Ryou touched the younger Seto's cast, his eyes a little sad.

"It took us years to get him to tell us about that," he said quietly, then looked up at his sister with a small smile. "Either he really trusts you, or Duke and I have done a good job fixing him."

"Fixing?" Amane repeated.

"Yeah, that's a good word for it," Duke said as Ryou looked to him for help in explaining himself. "Gozaburo's abuse was as psychological as it was physical, maybe more so—if that's even possible. He couldn't start healing the damage done to his mind until Gozaburo died, and it's taken him this long to undo the lasting effects."

"He wasn't the only one trying to undo it, though," Ryou said softly. "Mokuba was trying to help him recover from that long before we were."

Amane thought over this for a few moments, then let out a shriek as a voice from directly behind her scared her out of her skin.

"If I'd known you all were going to talk about me while I was gone, I would have stuck around."

They were all startled by Seto's sudden near presence.

"How did you get so close without us hearing you?" Duke asked, chuckling a bit.

"I used my ninja skills, duh," he answered with a roll of his eyes before disappearing behind the couch once more. "I used them to sneak into Pegasus's castle in Duelist Kingdom, so using them to sneak around my own house is a piece of cake." By the time he finished the sentence, he was seated on Ryou's other side, his playfulness already starting to fade fast. "Ryou, are you alright?" Ryou didn't answer, his head resting against Duke's shoulder with his eyes closed. Seto looked up worriedly. "I can't tell if he's falling asleep or passed out."

"Oh, man, I don't think he's eaten in a while," Duke answered, smoothing back the white hair from Ryou's forehead so they could see his face better.

"I'll take him to the kitchen, just in case," Seto said, gently lifting Ryou into his arms; it was a sight that Amane found to be quite touching. Seto strode towards the doorway, but paused before he left.

"Has he felt… lighter to you lately?" he asked Duke carefully.

"Yeah, a bit," Duke admitted with a sigh. "We should probably talk to him about that later."

Seto nodded and left, saying, "We'll finish talking later Amane."

Amane sighed, wanting to make another sex joke, but deciding this wasn't an appropriate time. She slumped against the couch cushions, then picked up her pad again and looked at Duke. "So, what's your story?"


Author Notes: So, just a fair warning, this story will be drawing to a close soon, but I'm already hard at work on the prequel, which is tentatively titled, "Power of Three."

Please keep an eye out for that and follow it if you like this story at all, because it will give you all the background for this sexy, sweet, angsty trio of gorgeous men. (Is it obvious yet that I love all of them myself? :P) I'll post the prequel's first chapter before this is over, I promise.