Getting closer to the finish, folks. Another chapter, another shift in POV – we're back to Pegasus again.

Enjoy.

Pegasus had remembered his desperation when he'd seen the way Kaiba had been broken and his joy at seeing the boy's true personality resurface had been exponentially greater. His mistake hadn't been permanent. He hadn't ruined the boy for life.

Oh, he'd seen the murderous look in his eyes. He knew, vaguely, what was coming. Kaiba wasn't stupid. He'd known – perhaps even for quite a while – that it was his fault. And Kaiba always was one for reciprocation. The viciousness of the reprisal was not only expected but even seemed appropriate as a consequence for his actions.

Though he knew it would hurt, Pegasus found that he couldn't move. He watched, as if from outside of a window, as Kaiba grabbed him, beat him and finally gave him a taste of his own medicine – quite literally. He didn't even get the chance to tell Kaiba that he didn't have to, that it wasn't necessary.

He would have obeyed him, regardless.

Once people called him a genius of game design and a master duelist.

But those days were numbered from the start and dwindled and were gone, gone without him even realizing they were counting inevitably down. They reached zero and a new count started, of days in his new life, stretching inexorably forward into an endless murky future. Even if he had been able to count those days, Pegasus would have probably lost track. As it is, he cannot count them – or count anything else – very well. In fact, he doesn't do anything very well any more. His eyes are empty and his mind dull and simple.

Once he'd gone around the world. He'd been many, many places. All over America. Europe. Japan. Egypt.

Now his world has shrunk to the circumference of a single room – the bedroom of Seto Kaiba. He never leaves this place, yet he does not wish to leave it. This is the only place he feels safe and he will not stray from it unless Seto Kaiba wishes it.

Seto Kaiba never wishes it.

So now he sits at the foot of the bed all day. Which isn't so bad. Because sometimes Seto Kaiba makes him stand and stand, and sometimes he makes him stand in dark, cramped places like the closet. And then his legs hurt from standing up so much and he wants to pass out. Sometimes he does – but not often because when he does, he falls and then he can't stand like Seto Kaiba wants him to.

It's not so hard to fulfill Kaiba's wishes sitting. Sitting is much easier.

Even though he stays in place – because he is good and obedient, just like he ought to be – sometimes Seto Kaiba chains him up. He chains him up even though Pegasus would never run. Pegasus looks at him with a gaze that begs not to be chained but then Seto Kaiba grins and takes out the manacles. And when he places them on, Pegasus sits very still and lets him without complaint.

Of course, sometimes that upsets Kaiba too. He grows red and screams and asks why Pegasus lets him and why Pegasus doesn't fight back. This confuses Pegasus because it seems opposite of what Kaiba wants. He can't sort out the confusion so he sits and does nothing. Even if he fought being chained, he wouldn't win.

He doesn't want to fight.

Nevertheless, he doesn't like the chains very much. They are often too tight and they chafe his skin until it's red and broken. And they don't let him move very far at all. Since he is tied up early in the morning and Kaiba does not come home until late in the evening, he doesn't get very much to eat and he can't get to the bathroom. He tries to hold it, so that he doesn't mess up the carpet, but sometimes he can't. He makes a mess and when Kaiba comes home he is ashamed.

Whenever he does something that he knows will upset Kaiba, even if he can't help it, he cries and scrunches into a little ball. Kaiba comes home and hits him then, but that's okay, because he is bad and he needs to be hit. Since nobody comes there but Kaiba that means that when he ruins something, it is Kaiba who must clean it up or fix it, or at least force Pegasus to do it, supervising him. Seto Kaiba's day is hard enough and he should be punished for making it that much harder.

It's only fair.

So he unfolds himself and lets Kaiba hit him; and even though it hurts it makes him happy because it makes Seto Kaiba happy and that is all that matters. Kaiba grins and his eyes shine when he punishes him. Then he looks at Pegasus in disgust and tells him to go away – but he can't, not really. That's when Pegasus hides in the corner of the room and tries to make as little noise as possible.

He doesn't want to disturb Kaiba.

Sometimes after he's been hurt or has bled or soiled himself or has been crying, Seto looks at him with different eyes. He calls him stupid – because he is – and then picks him up and drags him to the bathroom and bathes him and washes off all of the disgusting grime and touches him softly and wraps his wounds and numbs the pain. When that look is in his eyes Pegasus is especially happy. He nuzzles Seto and does not get slapped or pushed away.

"Who's my good boy?"

He looks at him with a soft, brown eye and curls up against him. Seto's body radiates warmth and he knows he safe and that only Seto can make him safe. That's why he belongs to Seto, because nobody else would want him, because nobody else cares. Occasionally, when he's in these moods, Seto even lets him sleep in the big, soft bed and gives him extra food and plays with him and kisses him and touches him gently in the night. Pegasus enjoys the times when Seto is warm and invites him in. Of course, he knows that afterwards he will be beaten once more, twice as severely. Kaiba will scream and tell him how worthless he is and tells him that he doesn't know why he even takes care of him.

But the yelling means that someone is paying attention and the blows mean that he is not yet forgotten. Even if it is just to pet and slap, sodomize and starve, Seto Kaiba does not cast him away. He yells and screams, but in the end he hides him from the ugly world outside and lets him stay. In the end he is with Seto and he is wanted.

Nobody else would ever want him.

Pegasus knows this because he knows he is disobedient and stupid and slow. He cries too much; but that's OK for Kaiba because Kaiba likes to see him cry. He doesn't have to hide around Kaiba. Kaiba knows all his faults and still takes him in and doesn't turn him away. What else could that be but love?

Not only is he stupid but he is also quite ugly. He doesn't get enough to eat so he is very thin now. His skin is white and full of bruises and scars. The scars go all over his body and make him utterly hideous. The socket where his left eye once was is an open sore and Kaiba has hacked off his hair so that it no longer covers it up. He is shabby and gaunt.

There's no one alive who would want such a creature – no one except Seto Kaiba.

Of course, there was someone. A long time ago, there might have been someone, a lovely blond someone. But now he does not think of her. He cannot even remember her, in fact. The liquid slid down his throat and splashed inside of him and Seto Kaiba grew larger and larger until he filled Pegasus' whole mind and being and drove away any thoughts of another.

Seto Kaiba is his world now and there is no other.

Such is the new life of Pegasus J. Crawford.

Nearly two months on, Pegasus woke up feeling sore and heard a soft groan coming from the bed next to him. He stood, painfully, and looked over to see Seto Kaiba, pale and ill. He frowned and began to feel vaguely uneasy.

Nobody ever came in the room except Seto Kaiba. Seto Kaiba had locked the door. He had the only key. Pegasus had heard him telling the staff over the phone to leave for the weekend. He wanted to be alone. He always wanted to be alone – except that when he was, he was with Pegasus.

But now he was looking ashen and sick and Pegasus was feeling worried. He did not know what to do or how to get out or anything save that Seto Kaiba was in pain, had become sick since the previous evening. Even so, instinct seemed to kick in and he roused himself.

Though he was underdressed and cold, he moved about in the wan light of the heavily curtained room, whose windows were never uncovered, and wet towels in the bathroom. He laid them softly over Seto Kaiba's forehead. He held water to his mouth and got him tissues, covered him when he shivered and dabbed his head when he was sweating.

"What the fuck are you doing, idiot?" He had mumbled once, looking at the man warily with eyes glassy and bloodshot.

Pegasus smiled at him with his adoring, vacant smile and kissed his forehead.

He held the wastepaper basket for him when he retched and wiped his mouth off, not minding when it got on him. He helped him to the bathroom, led him back to the bed, watched over him quietly until he was exhausted and did the best he could with what he had, without really understanding how yet knowing very well why.

Seto Kaiba drifted in and out of sleep, but the illness passed quickly. The next morning he was well enough to take care of himself and bathed, left the room, ate and made himself presentable. He went into his home study and began doing the work from home he'd meant to do the previous day, trying his hardest to get caught up on the time he'd lost.

At the foot of the bed, Pegasus lay, forgotten. He coughed and heaved, having caught the same fever that Kaiba had. His skin burnt as if on fire and the little sleep he got was fitful.

Through the length of the day, nobody came, nobody helped, nobody touched him. Nobody at all.

But that was ok.

He deserved it.

Then at night Seto entered in and he looked up at him and smiled.

"I love you," he whispered, before passing out.

Angsty cliffie! Next chapter – Kaiba's POV. Until the next time.