Whoot whoot, backstory for Seto! :o it seems like I've got my mojo back for this story. And I bet it's only because I've been Suffering™ irl. My inspiration always comes when I have to avoid issues in real life lol. Also, from now on, I'll be putting the author's comments at the bottom to avoid potential spoilers. Please still read them, they might be important! If you're one of those people who actually read the AC on fics, you are a lovely human being and you deserve lots of hugs.

Seto didn't have any sort of elaborate backstory in regards to how he found out about his attraction to BDSM. At least, compared to some of the other stories he'd read on the forums his discovery was extremely lack luster. While other people had realized there was something not quite right when they were disciplined by their teachers or held down while play-wrestling with their partners, or had strange reactions when they were punished or bossed around, Seto had none of that. Some might have blamed his controlling adoptive father for it all, but Seto felt ill when he thought of that man inspiring a fetish within him. Besides, the true answer was simple. When he was a teenager, he'd "accidentally" broken the parental lock on his internet connection and had gone snooping around on shady sites, watching all the porn he could get his hormonal teenage eyes on and eventually finding the kinkier side of smut.

In a way, his introduction had been similar to Malik's, stumbling upon some BDSM videos while looking for regular vanilla porn like they had. However, he had a natural attraction to it, whereas he knew Malik had been adverse. While Malik shied away from and denied his reactions to the actions he saw leather-clad kinksters committing, Seto embraced it. He welcomed it, he researched it, he enjoyed it.

He started experimenting when he was 16. Using a gift card to an unregulated online store he'd ordered a small bundle of discreet toys, and he bound himself with duct tape, silk ties, and shoelaces. It was awkward at first, and he only did it in the dead of night when he knew for certain no one would walk in on him. He wasn't allowed a lock on his door, and he had to be careful.

Over the next year he grew skilled at self-binding, learning what knots were easiest to tie in awkward positions, were easy to untie, but also held him tight and didn't come undone when he struggled. He learned how to control his breathing and stay silent through orgasm. Then he had the idea to appropriate the attic space his family and servants never used and made it into a little play den all for himself, safe away from the other bedrooms and doors that didn't lock. There, he was really able to experiment with what he liked and disliked.

Just before he turned 18, his adoptive father died under very sudden and mysterious circumstances, and the family business was thrust into his unwilling hands. Seto always knew he'd have to take over one day, but he'd figured he'd be well into his 30s when that happened, at least. Not so soon, and not so unexpectedly. Pleasure took back burner as he focused all his time and energy on keeping his new company afloat, revamping all the old, outdated policies and defending it from competitors eager to buy it off him when he got over his head.

Luckily for Seto, his adoptive father had pushed and even downright forced him to study everything related to business, not wanting his son to fail after he was dead. And, luckily for the business, Seto had a natural talent for the business side of things and, by the time he was 20, had completely revamped the old weapons manufacturing company into a toy company. He cared little for what Gozaburo's more loyal business partners and their competitors thought; Seto was not interested in selling guns and tanks, and it was his business now. Besides, business picked up with their more publicly available products, employee morale was high since they no longer had to work under Gozaburo, and their reputation was immaculate since distancing themselves from the weapons trade.

With everything going to smoothly, Seto allowed himself to get reacquainted with his old kinks. After tossing out his old toys he replaced them with newer, higher quality models, and traded in ties and shoelaces for silk scarves and ropes. Self-binding was just as good as he remembered it being, maybe even more since his hormones were finally leveling out.

It was around this time where he also started experimenting with other people. While he knew no one could match his new cuff set paired with The Master Impaler, he was eager to see what all the fuss was about.

His first partner had been the daughter of a business associate. They'd met at a dinner party another business partner threw for Seto in celebration of a successful product launch. Though there wasn't much attraction personality wise, they were both into each other's bodies, and were flirting over dessert by end of the night. Later that week found them tangled together in bed, losing their virginity together. It wasn't at all like Seto expected; vanilla sex always seemed so tame and boring to BDSM sex by comparison, so he'd expected it to be just that. In a way it was, but hearing another person's moans and feeling another person's hands on his body was more than enough to entice him into a second round later that same day. Even still, once they developed a routine, Seto grew bored.

Their relationship was purely sexual. They rarely spoke to each other out of bed, and Seto thought even using "fuck buddies" to describe their relationship was generous. They were both just looking to get off, romance and friendship and even civility outside the bedroom be damned. Looking back Seto knew that was the reason why, when he broached the subject of BDSM, she'd slapped him and walked right out the door without even bothering to say goodbye before disappearing from his life completely. Though Seto was disappointed at the loss of his "fuck buddy" and pissed that she'd slapped him, he moved on easily since they lacked any emotional connection. Besides, there were more fish in the sea.

He had a small handful of more failed relationships after that, both men and women, both sexual and romantic, but he'd given up hope of finding someone who could dominate him as well as he dominated himself. After all these people, it seemed like the best he could hope for was letting his male partners pull his hair while they fucked him from behind. Rough vanilla sex wasn't horrible, and it did get him off in the end, and sometimes if he held his wrists a certain way it was almost like he was tied up; but it still wasn't enough. He wanted to be slapped around as foreplay, bound and gagged as he was fucked, and treated for injuries alongside post-sex cuddles. It was incredibly daunting to even think of bringing that up to any of his partners, so he never did.

After what happened the first time he asked a partner about trying out bondage, he was afraid to lose the others the same way. He didn't want to risk good enough and end up with nothing at all. So he allowed himself to suffer in silence, getting more and more frustrated the longer he went without proper bondage, proper punishment. A slap on the ass every now and then meant nothing if there was no bite to it, and his requests for his partners to slap harder, no harder! fell on deaf or worried ears.

Not even the people he found on hook-up apps could satisfy him. Even if they shared interests in ropes and whips, he was only ever contacted by other subs who wanted him to be their Dom. It was infuriating since he'd listed his preference right there on his profile, and no one seemed to even bother reading his extremely detailed list of turn ons. If he found a Dominant himself, they either weren't interested because his lack of experience, or were put off by his high expectations and standards.

He only actually got together with two people from that app before giving up on online dating completely. The first, an older woman with charming smile lines, invited him to the park so they could discuss a potential scene. It went well, and Seto was eager for the scene they had talked about. However, she didn't tell Seto before meeting face to face that she already had two collared* subs and often shared them with her husband. Needless to say, as soon as Seto found out, he left.

The second Dom was actually someone he went to high school with. Imagine his panic when he received a message from someone he thought he'd never see again, not only on a hookup app of all things, but also with his sexual preferences listed publicly for him to see. And oh, he had seen them alright. His first message gave Seto chills just reading it.

"Well, well, Seto Kaiba. Fancy meeting you here. You're into BDSM?"

God, he couldn't list all the ways he wanted to tell this man to fuck off. Eventually he settled on politely asking him what the fuck he wanted.

"Whoa, simmer down. I'm not here to start something with you. I was actually wondering if you were still looking for a Dom :)"

Somehow that didn't surprise Seto has much as he thought it would. He remembered this man wearing collars back in high school; he'd just assumed he'd be a sub, if anything. Once Seto had calmed down enough to legitimately consider having kinky sex with one of his old classmates, he replied to the message; "Yes."

Since they already knew each other, they didn't bother with formalities. They got right into discussing limits and kinks, and even started planning on meeting to discuss sceneing in person. Their next day off, they met at a little diner with a notebook ready. The meeting was more awkward than they thought it would be, after knowing each other from school as long as they had. Somehow they managed to push through it and developed a quick narrative for their scene, and decided to act it out their next day off.

And God, was it good. Seto hadn't anticipated his old classmate to be so ferocious, so dominant, and the marks he'd left on Seto's body stayed with him for days afterwards. Even if the sex was good, they still couldn't escape the awkwardness that followed once a scene was over. They only met once more before deciding it was a mistake to get involved with each other, and they parted ways.

It was, in some ways, a miracle he'd met Malik when he did. He'd almost given up BDSM all together, accepting that he'd never find a Dom that could satisfy him and surrendering himself to a life of agonizingly boring, just good enough vanilla sex. It was by complete chance that he'd found that BDSM forum, and he almost didn't make an account in the first place. But God, was he glad he did.

When Seto returned home to the mansion he shared with his brother and 20-odd servants, he was relieved to see Mokuba's car still parked in the rounded cobblestone driveway. That meant he hadn't gone to class yet. Parking behind, he grabbed his briefcase and the bag Malik had given him before leaving his car. Studying the bag, he remembered that Malik had said he'd put homework inside for him to complete, and he tried to imagine just what kind of assignment his new Dom would give him on the first day.

His ever vigilant butler opened the door for him as he approached, and he nodded an acknowledgement as he entered the mansion. Glancing around the large entryway, he was reminded of just how large this mansion was, and how small Malik's house was. He found himself chuckling under his breath at this –they broke the mainstream D/s stereotype well. A power hungry CEO submitting to someone who had little business influence over anyone else. He could almost hear the vanilla people gasping in shock.

Setting his briefcase down by the coat rack, he turned his attention back to the bag, curiosity growing each second he looked at it. He'd just begun to lift his folded blazer to peek underneath when Mokuba appeared around the corner.

"Hey!" The shout surprised him, and he nearly dropped the bag. He opened his mouth to greet his brother, but was cut off instead.

"Wow, you look like hell." Mokuba's eyes strayed down to Seto's throat, where the bite marks and hickeys from last night were still clearly visible, and he cringed. Seto frowned and covered them with his hand.

"Thanks. For the record, I feel amazing."

"Ew. TMI."

Seto shrugged, giving the bag to a passing maid and telling her to take it to his room ASAP. He didn't want to risk Mokuba finding his homework, so he motioned for the boy to follow him to the kitchens. After alerting his chef they'd be eating breakfast today, they sat across from each other in the breakfast nook just outside the main kitchens.

"You're still in your pajamas," Seto noted after a moment, wanting to dodge any awkward questions Mokuba might ask about his date with Malik. "I thought you had a class."

"I do in about an hour. Those aren't your clothes," Mokuba responded, the latter part sounding accusatory.

"I never claimed they were."

Mokuba looked like he wanted to say more, but Seto looked at him in warning. He didn't want to hear it. He knew his brother was just being protective and coming from a good place, and Seto knew he himself wouldn't take too kindly to Mokuba spending the night with someone he barely knew and coming home with bruises on his neck. But he was older than Mokuba too, and far more experienced, and he could judge whether or not a situation was bad or dangerous.

Another maid arrived with a pot of coffee –hand ground coffee beans, of course- and some paperwork in a manila envelope, and he sighed as he took it. Probably more merging proposals from rival companies that he wasn't interested, from the look of it. He poured himself a cup of coffee and began reading it over. The coffee he had at Malik's hadn't kicked in yet, and his sore muscles were distracting him, and only a paragraph in he sighed and set the papers aside for later.

Breakfast arrived; eggs comtesse, a spinach quiche, strawberry crepes, and coffee cake. More than enough for the two of them to fill their plates, but it wasn't like they couldn't afford to leave leftovers for the staff. The two sat in silence as they ate, the sound of their forks cutting through food to ding against their plates the only sound in the room. Every now and then Mokuba would look up like he wanted to speak, but decided against it.

Their plates were taken away before he finally seemed to draw the courage to speak.

"Seto, I know you're an adult and you can make your own decisions, but that doesn't keep you from making stupid decisions."

Seto narrowed his eyes at his brother, a silent warning to be quiet. Mokuba relented slightly, turning his scolding tone to a worried one. "All I want to know is if this guy hurt you."

"No," Seto lied, having to take a drink to hide his sideways glance.

"You're covered in bruises!"

"They're just hickies. It's not like I've never come home with them before."

"But not like that. Not with bite marks."

Seto had to resist slamming his cup down, getting frustrated. He knew this reaction was tame compared to what Mokuba would do if he found out Malik had tied Seto up and paddled him, but the questions still annoyed and embarrassed him. This wasn't what he wanted to talk about first thing in the morning with his little brother, but he knew Mokuba wouldn't concede until he quelled his worries. "Okay, fine. Yes, he bit me a little, but I wanted him to. You think I'd tolerate someone bruising me like this if I didn't want it?"

"But why would you want something like that?"

For a moment, Seto humored the thought of telling Mokuba all about his BDSM inclinations. It would do him good to finally have someone to talk about it with that wasn't Malik or another forum member. But he pushed that thought away, knowing that even if Mokuba was okay with the BDSM, they'd both be too awkward to talk about it. Seto had barely been able to stumble his way through the sex talk when Mokuba was 15 before giving up out of sheer embarrassment and linking Mokuba to some online sex ed courses. Since then, this was the first time they'd really talked about anything sexual past the occasional joke or innuendo.

"I'm not having this talk with you, Mokuba," Seto said, standing out of sheer annoyance, ignoring the embarrassed heat in his cheeks. "We both know that it won't help to explain it. All you need to know is that I'm being safe, and everything Malik and I have done so far has been consensual. You don't have to worry."

Mokuba didn't look entirely convinced, but his expression showed that he was getting embarrassed by this conversation as well. "It's my job to worry."

Seto paused for a moment, considering Mokuba's words. That had been something Seto had said to Mokuba a hundred times by now, and to hear it parroted back like that was…odd. He sighed, ruffling Mokuba's hair. "That's only half of your job. The other job is to be an annoying thorn in my side."

Despite the harsh words, Mokuba smiled, knowing it was a joke. He gave his brother a shove, and Seto shoved him back. "You promise it's all consensual?"

Seto nodded and pulled back to grab his coffee and paperwork. "Yes, I promise. You don't need to worry."

"You know," Mokuba began, watching Seto collecting his things. "One of these days I'm going to need to meet this Malik guy."

Seto hummed, thinking it over. "Maybe someday. But not right now. You have a class to get ready for."

Mokuba glanced at his phone, cursing when he saw the time. "I'm gonna be late!" As he scrambled up and ran off to change, Seto chuckled, shaking his head. Then he remembered Mokuba's Sundays were always busy, full of class and study groups and general hanging out, and he grinned to himself. He'd have the place all to himself, bar the servants, until this afternoon. Plenty of time to work on Malik's homework.

*Collared: A submissive who is "owned" by their Dominant, usually (but not exclusively) in a loving relationship.

*Dom/Dominant/Domme: I didn't mention it before because I assumed it was common knowledge, but a Dom/Dominant is a person who exercises control over a submissive. It's a gender-neutral term for the most part and a lot of younger female Doms prefer using it over Domme, which is a dominant role that is usually associated with traditional femininity (Domme was coined as the female equivalent of Dom). Same with Dominatrix. What a Dom calls themselves has little to do with gender or gender presentation, and usually determined by personal preference.

*Submissive: A person who gives up control for a specified amount of time.

*Vanilla: I also didn't mention this before, but vanilla sex is just sex that lacks BDSM aspects. A vanilla person is someone who is not into BDSM. Within the community it's used derogatorily, and it's the same to some extent in this fic in certain contexts. (That said I don't hate vanilla people (why would I?) I just wish they'd stop writing books and making movies about BDSM without even researching it first)

Bottom ACs, yeah! Malik's mystery Domme will for sure come into play later, but Seto's first fuck buddy won't. As for Seto's second Dom, his identity isn't as mysterious as Malik's, but let's all just pretend we don't know who it is. And just so we're clear, Seto's first almost-Dom is not a bad Dom for having multiple subs with her husband. She's a bad Dom for not telling Seto about it before they met.

also please don't look up the names of Seto's dildo. I just made it up and google images won't give you anything but random shit lol