Author's note: I don't know why this has been refusing to format correctly. If this chapter is still full of formatting codes after this attempt, bear with me. I'm working on it.

Each cut was a thin line of fire. Ryou almost cried out as he lowered himself into the water. He opened his mouth, cringing, only stopping at the last second. He bit his lip and clenched his fists instead, until the cuts stopped stinging.

A wet hand brushed Ryou's hair away from his face and pushed his chin up. Melvin tilted his head as he eyed the pale hikari, and then laughed as realization lit up his eyes. He gripped Ryou's head in both hands. "You are such a good little thing." His grip tightened. Nails dug into Ryou's scalp as Melvin's palms squished his face. "I could just squeeze you until your bones crack." He giggled and shook Ryou's head before letting go.

Ryou took a breath to steady himself as he reached for the soap.

"You two!" Melvin suddenly barked, causing Ryou to jump.

Yugi and Marik looked over their shoulders. They'd been trying to keep a low profile, hoping Melvin would ignore them. The shocking state of Ryou's legs made Marik wonder what his own back looked like. Yugi hadn't come out even half as bloody...

"Come here," Melvin gestured with two fingers.

Exchanging nervous glances, the pair of hikaris made their way to the edge of the bath.

Melvin patted the surface of the water, grinning. "Come on."

They didn't even flinch when it came to being naked in front of each other any more. They did, however, feel rather nauseous and twitchy about joining Melvin in a large pool of water.

Melvin laced his fingers together at the base of Ryou's spine. "I want to play a game," he said. "No stakes. Just fun." He frowned and looked sideways at the ceiling. "Well, unless you refuse of course. There are stakes if you refuse." He grinned at them again. "But I can't think of a reason any of my good little hikaris would do that. Can you?" He paused, eyes darting back and forth between them until they both shook their heads. "We're going to play the mirror game."

Yugi watched Melvin carefully. As he knew it, that was the game where you faced someone and copied their movements as though they were looking at a mirror. He had no idea what it meant for Melvin.

Melvin focused on Marik. "You sit against the side." His eyes shifted to Yugi. "You sit in his lap."

Yugi looked at Ryou, straddling Melvin's lap, quietly studying the surface of the water. The mirror game. He blushed as he straddled Marik, hovering just enough to avoid actual physical contact, but the idea seemed remarkably tame considering that Melvin had just spent three days torturing them with needles and knives. So did the masturbation game in hindsight. Maybe it wouldn't be a constant escalation until Melvin had to resort to cutting things off. Did Yugi even dare hope such a thing?

Ryou stared at his thighs. At the gory game of connect the dots that Melvin had planned at least a day in advance. Maybe he'd been thinking about it every time he poked and pinched Ryou in the bath. As impulsive as he often appeared to be, Melvin was capable of long term planning. Even if all he did today was make Yugi and Marik touch each other for several minutes, he'd been testing and pushing their boundaries for days. Maybe the terrible things he did weren't only random whims. Maybe he shocked them with terrible things so that something like forcing Ryou to give Marik a blow job seemed easy and safe.

Melvin poked one of Ryou's cuts, jolting the pale hikari out of his thoughts. Ryou gulped and rubbed the soap between his hands again. He started with Melvin's hands. Most of the blood had rinsed off, but there was still some in the creases of his palms. Ryou scrubbed at them with his thumbs, and Yugi copied the action on Marik. Usually he just started at Melvin's neck and worked his way down. This time, for Yugi's benefit, he worked his way up both arms first. Stalling.

Marik didn't want to watch Yugi's face, especially not as his hands moved to Marik's chest. It was awkward enough that he had to keep his hands on Yugi's hips. He didn't want to watch Melvin watching them either. He found himself watching Melvin's hands on Ryou's hips. Among all the things he'd been so disappointed he would miss, all the freedom he'd squandered, he suddenly realized there was one thing he hadn't missed. He knew what Bakura would've looked like naked.

Ryou was rubbing the bar of soap that never seemed to dissolve on Melvin's stomach when he heard Yugi choke back a startled sound.

Yugi tried to re-establish his pace with Ryou like he hadn't just noticed Marik's erection. He'd felt Marik go tense underneath him as he returned from his thoughts. But the sound already had Melvin's attention. Violet eyes bored into the short hikari.

Marik follow Melvin's hand as it left Ryou's thigh and lifted slowly out of the water. It hovered as Melvin caught Marik's gaze, daring him to disobey. As afraid as Marik was of what Melvin might be about to make him do, he was more afraid of resisting. If he resisted, the game would end, and they would be punished, and Melvin would definitely notice what Yugi had noticed and who knew what he would do with that...

When Melvin slapped Ryou, Marik slapped Yugi. He tried to do it as lightly as he could, but he felt horrible about it. Especially because the sound of Melvin's hand on Ryou's cheek had been loud enough for both of them. Ryou hadn't even broken any rules.

"Pay attention, chibi." Melvin's expression and voice were dangerously flat.

Yugi only barely stopped himself from nodding or apologizing when he realized Ryou hadn't done either. Melvin's eyes flicked back and forth between the pale hikari and the short hikari, both rubbing their respective cheeks. Then Melvin settled back against the wall and the game continued.

It had to be okay. It had to be. Ryou's hands made their way to Melvin's hips. It was easy when it was just himself. He tried to pretend it was just himself. But he heard Marik bite back a little sound as he rubbed the bar of soap on Melvin's cock and balls. Ryou shivered as he used his other hand to make sure there were no traces of soap. The hard part was almost done.

Melvin suddenly gripped Ryou's wrists and held his hands up by his shoulders. The pale hikari's eyes darted up to the mad god's face, and then followed the violet gaze to Marik and Yugi. Posed the same way. Though Marik's head was turned toward them to copy Melvin, his eyes stared into the middle distance. And he was hard. Without Yugi's hands or leg in the way, they could all see it.

Melvin chuckled.

Then laughed.

Then cackled.

He took Ryou by the hips and nudged him out of his lap. Then he pushed himself up on the edge of the fountain. The bronze hikari mimicked him, with as much of a lag as he dared. Melvin's attention was back on the pale face peering up at him from between his knees, though. He took fistfuls of the white hair, and then pulled the pale lips toward his cock.

Yugi blushed, but he didn't resist when he felt Marik's shaking hands on either side of his head. It couldn't be too different from sucking off Melvin, he told himself, and if this was all their sadistic overlord made them do they should consider themselves lucky.

Ryou felt nauseous. Sure, Melvin could be comparatively merciful. He'd practically given them a whole roasted chicken yesterday. But he didn't cackle like that when he was thinking about being merciful. And Ryou was still in pain. A lot of pain. It hadn't even been a hour since he'd taken Melvin dry. He didn't think he could do it again so soon. He honestly didn't. The pale hikari used both hands, playing with Melvin's balls as he licked and sucked and stroked. He tried to make it the most interesting blowjob he knew how, hoping desperately to distract the mad man from what must surely be his ultimate goal.

The tan fingers tangled in Ryou's hair pulled him up, leading him out of the water and into Melvin's lap once more. "Good puppet," Melvin growled in low voice. His hands moved to Ryou's hips and pulled them closer, until the head of his cock brushed Ryou's rear. "Ride me."

Ryou gripped Melvin's shoulders. His eyes darted to his companions. Yugi hovered, frozen, like Ryou. Deep purple eyes watched Ryou sideways, wide and glassy. Marik's face was hidden behind his hair, but Ryou could see the tension in his shoulders. The pale hikari knew that Yugi would do it if he had to. He knew that if he delayed now, the mad man would simply make them do it later. He wanted to be good. But it was so much. So much pushing. So much demanding. How much could he take? How much could the others take?

"I don't like waiting, puppet," Melvin growled in Ryou's ear.

Ryou thought about the second day. About Melvin making Yugi beg for him to stop hurting Ryou. Were they past that? Was that an option? Did he dare try? "I'm sorry," Ryou whispered, so low that the words were little more than a breath. "Please..." Ryou swallowed. "I'll suck all of your cocks. All of them. Just... Please..."

Melvin's head tilted as he pressed his lips together. He shook it slowly. "I'm getting really tired of threatening you little shits."

Ryou flinched. "I'm sorry..." he repeated. He moved to lower himself onto Melvin's dick, but the hands on his hips tightened, holding him in place.

"We're not done," Melvin said. He grabbed Ryou's jaw to force eye contact. "It's been a week. I shouldn't have to tell you things more than once and I shouldn't have to wait for your compliance."

"I'm s-" Ryou started.

"I definitely shouldn't have to listen to you tell me no."

"I didn't mean- I thought-"

"Think nothing. The only thing you should be thinking about is the fastest way to do what you're told."

"I know... I'm s-"

"Well you obviously don't know! If you knew we wouldn't having this conversation!"

Tears fogged the wide, brown eyes. He searched frantically for the words that might smooth things over without digging him in deeper and couldn't think of anything.

Violet eyes narrowed. "If you won't be an example of good behavior, I'll make you an example of bad behavior." He tossed Ryou out of his lap and stalked over to get the Rod. As he turned back around, his glare found Yugi, cowering in Marik's lap. "I should've done this to you the first time you complained." He grabbed Ryou's arm and threw him out flat on the ground. "This is a lesson for all of you." Then he started pummeling Ryou with the head of the Rod.

Ryou shrieked the first time one of the wings sliced into him, trying to curl into a ball and cover his head. Melvin kicked him onto his side and axed him a second time on purpose. Ryou crossed his arms over his face as the rain of blows continued. Until Melvin hooked one of Ryou's arms with the curve of the wing, yanked it away from his face, and struck him across the temple.

Yugi's squeezed Marik's upper arms. "We have to do something," he whimpered without really hearing himself. "What do we do? I don't know what to do..."

Marik was a child again. Watching his father beat Odion. Frozen. Clinging to Yugi because he happened to be the closest thing to cling to.

The beating continued for a few minutes, until the pale hikari stopped trying to protect himself at all. Until he was a limp pile of limbs wheezing strange half-breaths on the floor. Melvin turned toward the others. The Rod hung at his side. A bead of blood swelled at the point of a wing and fell to the floor. His face was wild. His chest and shoulders heaved, glistening with exertion.

The mad king pointed his bloody scepter at them. "You two. Wash and dress and me. Now."

They scrambled to obey. Between the two of them, they managed to finish the chores quickly. Melvin didn't seem interested in drawing it out any more. Lucky enough. The remaining pair of hikaris wanted to get him out of there so they could tend to their companion. Marik kept sneaking glances at Ryou. He was breathing. They were shallow and uneven, but they were breaths.