Part 8
"I feel sick." Marik grinned idiotically as the three made their way back to their cabin. It was almost 2am and the party had finally burnt itself out along with the fire. Everyone was tired, so they'd said their goodnights and gone their separate ways to get a little sleep, or other things in the case of Otogi, Malik and Ryou. They'd been flirting all night, though it had mostly been Otogi's doing.
"That dice freak and Malik are going to have their perverted way with my hikari," Bakura frowned. "I hate it when he leaves his link open." The albino shivered, scowling, and Seto realised he must be feeling whatever Otogi and Marik's hikari were doing to Ryou. Luckily (or not) for Marik, Malik tended to keep their link closed when he wasn't talking to his yami. This, Seto mused, was probably going to get interesting. Marik seemed to have realised the same thing because he was looking decidedly less sick than he had been a few minutes ago.
"We should watch a movie. Only lightweights go to bed this early." Marik suggested, and Seto had to admire his manipulative skills. There was no way Bakura's pride would let him back down from that challenge and slink off to bed now.
"Fine, as long as it's not some chick-flick." The thief said. Any movie with flowers, weddings and girly music made him cringe.
"I had them stock our cabin with every zombie movie ever made," Seto informed them. It hadn't been hard to figure out what the two former spirits would want to watch, and Seto didn't mind sitting through them.
"Evil Dead?" Marik did his version of puppy eyes and Seto laughed quietly.
"The full set, and all the games." He smirked. Marik's eyes lit up like a child in a toy shop with a blank cheque and even Bakura looked pleased, if slightly flushed.
"I could kiss you. In fact…"
Before Seto had a chance to do so much as blink, Marik had leant over and kissed his cheek, then licked it for good measure.
"Hey 'Kura, wanna be next?" The tomb keeper leered as Seto fought down the urge to blush like a girl and followed the two yamis into the cabin, locking the door behind them.
"We never did find out how many marshmallows it'd take to kill you…" Bakura threatened, though he couldn't stop the slight grin when Marik made a face at him.
Meanwhile, Seto found the movie and set it up, dimming the lights. He sat down on one end of the couch and the two yamis followed, Bakura in the middle again. He was starting to get used to that.
"Prepare for zombies! Mwahahah!" Marik cackled happily, kicking back for his favourite movie.
XxXxX
Seto spent most of the movie discreetly watching Bakura, who was definitely starting to feel the effects of whatever Otogi and Malik were doing to Ryou. From the way the thief was trying not to writhe in his seat it wasn't hard to imagine what was going on in the middle cabin.
He knew that Marik was watching too, he just couldn't seem to catch the tomb keeper at it. There was no way he'd miss this, though, even for Army of Darkness. Bakura was laid back limply on the couch with his eyes closed in the near darkness, his breathing shaky as he concentrated on keeping it quiet and blocking out the feelings filtering through the link that his hikari had left wide open. Every now and then he'd arch up a little or shudder and bite back a curse, it was more interesting than the movie watching the thief struggling to keep control. He felt a little guilty, but there wasn't much he could do about it either way. He supposed he could suggest they went to bed, giving Bakura his privacy, but the movie was almost over anyway.
"Well," Marik said as the ending credits began to roll down the screen, "I suppose we should turn in, they'll probably want us to do scary group things in the morning." The violet-eyed yami made a face at the thought. Out of the corner of his eye he watched Bakura pull himself together and stand up.
"There are only two bedrooms," Seto began, frowning. Bakura had a light flush across his pale cheeks and he looked about ready to either scream or collapse.
"I'll take the couch, you two sleep well." Marik waved them away and crashed on the sofa, crossing his ankles on the armrest.
"'Night." Bakura managed, heading off quickly to his room. His voice had sounded strained and Marik couldn't help but crack a grin. Seto, however, was still frowning and hadn't made a move towards the remaining bedroom.
"Something wrong?" Marik asked, noticing that Seto was still there.
"You're far too tall to sleep comfortably on that couch." The brunette pointed out. Marik was the only one out of the whole of Yugi-tachi who was actually taller than him. "I don't mind sharing the bed."
Marik looked up in surprise, raising an eyebrow.
"Are you sure?" He asked, feeling a crick forming in his neck already from lying on the couch.
"Come on, you're not getting out of socialising with Yugi's gang just because you gave yourself back ache." Seto smirked.
"Damn, my plan is foiled. You saw right through me." Marik grinned, hauling himself up and following Seto into the second bedroom.
"If I have to put up with them, so do you." The CEO insisted, moving into the small bathroom to change.
"Or we could grab 'Kura in the morning and head off somewhere before the Super Friends and the hikaris wake up…" Marik suggested slyly, stripping down to nothing then pulling on a pair of black boxers.
"You mean you want to run away." Seto summed it up nicely and Marik grimaced.
"When you put it like that it sounds cowardly. I'm talking about some nice alone time, just the three of us with no hikaris or cheerleaders."
"Running away." Seto laughed. "But it sounds better than spending the day with Yugi's fan club." The brunette decided, coming out of the bathroom in a pair of dark blue pyjamas. He paused a moment, a little surprised at the sight of Marik's bare chest. The Egyptian was a lot more muscular than he looked with his shirt on.
"You haven't seen my back yet," the yami smirked, turning so that Seto had a perfect view of the tattoos covering his golden-brown skin.
"…I heard about this… but I never realised…" Seto said in quiet awe as he walked up behind Marik to run long fingers over the ink-coloured scar tissue forming words and pictures over the entire expanse of Marik's back.
"Malik calls them tattoos, but they were cut and burned into our skin. I guess they're more like brands." The Egyptian said softly, feeling the careful, tentative way Seto touched the scars, as if they might still hurt after all this time.
"I had no idea it was this extensive, to do that to a child…" Seto frowned, trying not to imagine anything like that ever happening to Mokuba.
Marik smiled and turned around so he could look at Seto.
"Malik's father got what was coming to him. It bought me into the world anyway. But… the scars are one of the reasons I never joined the Pharaoh's friendship cult, even after we stopped fighting. He's not nearly as pure and just as he likes to make out. If this was done to Malik and I for him, I hate to think what he did to Bakura." Marik growled.
"We'll find out when he's ready to tell us, I don't think it's something we should push." Seto advised.
"You're right, as usual." Marik smiled. "Thank Ra you're here, it's a lot easier to see straight with you around. Without you I'd probably just have gone and gotten myself banished again for trying to beat up the pharaoh." The yami took Seto's hand and once again raised it to his lips, kissing the back of it.
"Do you think… a relationship would work if there were three people in it?" Seto murmured, feeling Marik's hot breath against his hand.
"I don't know," Marik said, lips moving against Seto's skin, "but I'd like to find out." It seemed to be working for Malik, Ryou and Otogi, after all…
Marik released Seto's hand and took a slow step closer, tilting the blue eyed former duellist's chin up just a little and leaning in to kiss him. It was a slow, deep and meaningful kiss without the rush of lust but just as passionate as a more forceful kiss would have been. Seto's perfectly manicured hands came up to rest on Marik's bare chest, one playing in the spiky hair at the nape of the Egyptian's neck. Marik's larger hands gravitated to Seto's slim waist and held him close, pulling them together and liking the way the slightly smaller duellist fit in his arms.
Meanwhile, in Bakura's room the thief lay on the bed, body drenched in sweat and arching up helplessly. His eyes were squeezed closed and he was gasping out every curse word he knew in at least three different languages. He was trying to be as quiet as he could, not wanting to wake Marik and Seto, who he assumed were asleep. In the morning he was going to have to have serious words with Ryou about leaving the link wide open and broadcasting his feelings when he was having sex. He wasn't entirely sure which was worse, this or the nightmares.
TBC.