Note: There's one more chapter after this, and I'll post it today because I'm feeling generous and I love all the reviews you lot keep sending me. PlusI spent hours typing the final part out and my arse is going numb from this bloody chair. Yes, so I hope you all enjoy it!

Dread and the Fugitive Mind 13

"I'll go first, Seto's already heard most of this anyway." Marik volunteered. He knew neither of the other two wanted to be the first to bare all about their pasts. With Bakura in the middle as usual they were sharing the large bed in the first bedroom, curled up together. Bakura was leaning against Marik's arm comfortably, and Seto was leant against the headboard. Bakura had one of Seto's hands in his and was tracing patterns on it nervously, following the lines of his palm with pale fingers.

"Well, the tattoos on my back are the key to the pharaoh's memory, which pretty much everyone knows by now. Malik's father had them branded into us, cut and burned so the scars would never heal. It hurt." Marik muttered the last part, glad he'd killed the old man. He shrugged his shirt off so Bakura could see, and the thief sat up to take a closer look. He had pretty much the same reaction as Seto – running light fingers over the scars reverently. There was a look in his eyes that Marik recognised as shared pain, and anger flared in the yami. He hated the thought of anyone hurting either Bakura or Seto, and hearing about what they'd been through was going to be hard on him.

"I try to look on the bright side," Marik said with a forced smile, "at least they look cool."

To his surprise, Bakura quietly leant forward and kissed the scars gently, leaning his forehead against Marik's back for a few moments. Seto knew what Bakura was feeling, the same thing he'd felt when he'd first seen the scars. That they hadn't been deserved, and they'd be with Marik forever.

"Your turn." Marik told Seto gently, taking the hand Bakura had been playing with and raising it to his lips to kiss each fingertip as the CEO spoke quietly.

"Gozaburo was my stepfather, that's where Mokuba and I got the Kaiba name from. He adopted us after our parents died and I beat him at a chess match. He was just… generally cruel. There wasn't one instance where he was any worse than usual; he was always a power-mad, sadistic bastard. I had to do what he said and he'd pretty much leave Mokuba alone, so I put up with his punishments. He had this cane…" Seto winced at the memory of what would happen when he fell asleep studying. "I suppose he almost managed to turn me into what he wanted in the end… but not quite." The brunette smiled slightly, almost yelping in shock when Marik pulled him into the arms of his lovers.

"The people who hurt you are in hell now." Bakura said quietly, knowing how important that was. Seto moved so that Bakura could lay against him, both of them in Marik's arms as the thief closed his eyes and steeled himself for what he was about to tell them.

"I…" He swallowed thickly and began again. "You know that I was a thief. I stole from tombs, a terrible crime in Egypt. I had no other way to live after Kuru Eruna was destroyed, but eventually I was caught. Akunadin, who had destroyed my home, knew that I was the last of Kuru Eruna, and branded me the thief king. To cover his sins he pinned every theft from a tomb since the making of the Sennen Items on me, and convinced the pharaoh that I deserved none but the worst punishments. They… the pharaoh had me tortured before him – I only remember moments of it. The rest if just pain." Bakura said in a voice that was barely a whisper. His eyes were pained, and Seto and Marik knew that he was seeing what had been done to him again.

"I remember… blood, seeing the white of my bones when they cut into my arms, not being able to see from the pain for hours after they crushed my hands to stop me trying to pick the locks on my shackles. They drove stakes through to shatter my ankles, cut the hieroglyph for 'thief' into my flesh over and over…" Bakura shuddered and closed his eyes, knowing that the other two were looking at him in pity and horror. "Then… after a month or more they bought me before the pharaoh's throne. He said that I should never enter the afterlife and held up the Sennen Ring, but I could barely see by then. All I remember after that is watching the pharaoh's eyes as his guards forced me to my knees, pulled my head back by my hair and-and-" He was trembling, Seto holding him tightly and Marik rubbing his back comfortingly.

"They pressed a blade to my throat and drew it across. I did not think I had that much blood left in me, but everything faded away into darkness and I thought that I could rest in death. They would not allow that, though, and tore my soul from my body to imprison me in the Ring. And all the time… the pharaoh watched." Bakura finished, burying his face against Seto's chest and breathing heavily. He'd never told anyone that before. "When I awoke within the Ring I became the thief king he believed me to be." Bakura said with a shiver.

"So that's why being around Yami…" Seto understood finally. Bakura frowned into the brunette's chest, angry at himself.

"I should be stronger than this… Every time he looks at me I feel the blade across my neck. He would have been present at the execution of hundreds of thieves and murderers, he doesn't even remember. It was fine until I became mortal again because I couldn't die, but now…" The thief whispered.

"Now we're here. You know he can't ever hurt you with us around, and we're not going anywhere." Marik reassured him.

"I hate to say it, but I think Yami's a good person now. Yugi probably has something to do with it, but I don't think he has it in him to really hurt anyone." Seto said, looking down at Bakura, who sat up. His eyes were a little red, but the pain in them was already fading. He was surprised how good it felt to tell Marik and Seto everything and have them understand why being around Yami again as a mortal was so hard.

"I know he's changed. So have I." Bakura sighed, running a hand through his hair. "It's just…taking me a while to get used to not having the security of already being dead."

Marik smiled.

"But you're glad you're here with us, right?" He asked. Bakura looked up at him and gave half a smile.

"Yeah." The grave robber admitted. "I think with you two around I'll be ok."

"Good." Marik said sincerely, then grinned. "So shall we hold you tight all night long?"

Bakura smirked, knowing that what he'd told them was the truth. With Seto on one side and Marik on the other, things would definitely be ok from now on.

"I don't have a problem with that," he answered Marik, laying down between the two of them as Seto turned out the light.

"Good." The tomb keeper said, and in the darkness Bakura felt two pairs of warm arms wrap around him.

The End.

Next chapter is kinda the sequel, and has a lemon in there somewhere. Read on if you dare.