Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh, nor do I claim rights to any of the affiliated characters.
Warnings/Notes: The usual warnings apply. Mind games will be much more apparent from here on out. A huge thank you to my readers, and especially to those who have reviewed, I appreciate all the support.
Chapter Six: Cracks
His proposition filled the air like a eulogy, words carried on the soft melody of a death march. Kaiba's anger propelled his body forward, his shoulders arching slightly as he opened his mouth to reply, but the words caught in his throat and he merely gaped, asphyxiated. Around him, the others were less successful at containing their own horror, desperately trying to discern if this was real.
Mokuba shifted against the red-clad chest, trying to slink to the floor and crawl away unnoticed. "What do you want?" Pegasus crooned.
"Down."
"And how do you ask?"
"Please." He provided. The weight in his stomach dragged his voice down a few octaves and it shuddered with the heavy weight of defeat.
Pegasus clicked his tongue disapprovingly, "Let's try, may I please get down Daddy?"
The younger squirmed uncomfortably. He already had a father. He had no desire to relive childhood, in whatever fleeting sense, by assigning the role to someone else. He sucked in a deep breath, unable to turn his body to face his brother in the elder's hold. He needed a look, a nod, something to guide the decision.
He settled for honesty.
"I have a father-"
"Choose your words very carefully, little Mokuba." The arm under his thighs tensed in frustration, and Mokuba almost lost his nerve.
"I already have a father." He repeated, "No one is perfect." He did not need a millennium eye to anticipate Pegasus's reply.
"You had a keeper. You forget, or perhaps don't realize that I had the distinct misfortune of knowing Gozaburo Kaiba. He was an arrogant, deluded fool."
What a coincidence. Kaiba thought scathingly, so are you.
"That doesn't matter now." His mind was racing. Pegasus had the power to torture them ceaselessly, make them his slaves, exploit them physically, sexually; however he wanted… what was taking him so long? Was this game really that exciting to him? The child shivered, unable to process the full horror of things he had read about in passing, on internet forums. He wasn't sure whether the whole thing was a fetish or a fantasy.
"Do you think he loved you, Mokuba?"
He was pulled abruptly from his thoughts and scrambled to sweep them where they could not be seen by the millennium eye, "No." He answered a bit distractedly, then, more focused, "No I don't."
"Was he a caring individual outside of business?"
Mokuba clenched a fist, "Why does it matter?"
Pegasus smacked him in warning, "I asked you a question and I expect you to answer it."
"No. He was cruel and harsh, just like you." He spat.
Pegasus chuckled darkly, "Now, now." He patted the cell phone in his pocket, "Let's not resort to little tricks like that, I'm a big boy darling and they can't hurt me. The only person you're hurting right now is Serenity."
"I want to get down, daddy."
"Not yet."
He kicked rigidly, trying to free himself, "I've done what you wanted."
"Oh no you haven't, you've been mouthy, resistant, and down-right rude, if I were Gozaburo Kaiba you'd be nursing a sore behind."
"That doesn't scare me!"
He set the boy on his feet, holding him firmly in front of him, "Oh Mokuba, I haven't given you anything to be afraid of yet." He laughed uproariously as the boy flinched, awaiting a blow or a springing guard from behind. Soon, he ventured, Seto would be powerlessly overcome by multiple men and he would be listening to the struggle as he absorbed misplaced blame. Tears formed behind his eyes. It had always been that way.
"Now don't start fussing." A large hand wiped the droplets from his face, gently stroking as if to coax his eyes open, "You're not here because I want to beat you." Both hands moved to the sides of the boy's head, tilting it upward and brushing back wisps of his unruly hair, "You're here because I intend to show you what a real father is, one loving little lesson at a time." Pegasus's lips pressed the last of the purred words against his forehead, a soft, warm comfort he distantly remembered from infanthood.
He wanted to pull away but found he would not have to, it was Pegasus who straightened, smiled warmly to the rest of the room, and left as quickly as he had come. They were kept confined to chairs then, reeling from the incident and clinging to one another in fear. Pegasus's real intention couldn't seriously be to make them his children, could it? To the older boys, sex objects seemed much more plausible.
"You think he gets off on this?" Kaiba asked, gripped Mokuba's hand fiercely.
"Hell if I know." Joey replied numbly, "But he can't hold Ren over my head forever. Sooner or later the surgery will be over and he won't have an easy cover up if he tries anything." It did not matter that the guards were there to hear him, he wanted the message to be relayed.
"Trivialities." Kaiba reminded him, "It takes one good lawyer to put the heat on someone else."
"We have to keep on our toes." Yugi concurred, running a hand through his hair to tame the stress, "Otherwise, who knows what he might do."
He couldn't pinpoint when the urgency appeared, but once it found him it manifested into something even he could not contain. The entire day after the proposal he could not face them at all. They sat in the great room unkempt.
It wasn't assigning the name to his face that unnerved him; he knew the persona he wished to encompass was a long way off in their eyes. No, it was his own strangely growing desire to love them that was worrisome. Temptation had forced him down a slippery slope, teasing him with the superficial idea of being wanted and needed by someone. He first noticed it when holding Mokuba, even though he had been such a terror, every ounce of patience he had worn down instantly replenished itself. He had justified the boy's actions, it's normal, he told himself, it will be this way for a while. He should have asserted himself more, should've flaunted the ease with which air could be flowing through Serenity's bloodstream on its way to stop her heart… but he had not. He was being too soft, too often entertaining the notion that ruthlessness would hurt his chances of being a better parental figure than those they already knew. As if that wasn't a fool's goal.
He cursed under his breath, fingers tracing the edges of the picture he'd neglected to re-frame, leaving it tucked in the corner of his mirror. He shook his head, conflicted. At first it had not mattered if they saw him as a monster deep down, if their reluctance gave way out of fear instead of love, but more and more he was reconsidering his options.
Thoughts of that little body pressed against his, trembling with fear and trepidation that he could soothe, threatened everything.
He sunk down onto the soft white comforter of the bed, fingers lazily tracing the stitching. He had avoided a lot of direct cruelty with threats. The delight he took in their anguish just weeks ago set a flicker of guilt in his stomach now. He realized, much to his own dismay, that he would much rather be experimenting with gentleness and wisdom than with brutality.
He clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to gather some shred of sensibility. He did not want to dominate, control, and break them as deeply as he had just weeks ago, now a large part of him wanted to win them over with kindness and bribery. He wanted the closeness of a child's body against his, consensually nestled there in comfort, falling asleep to stories of Cecelia. He wanted board games, sand castles, laughter, and all the things cartoons alighted in him. He swallowed the stupidity that dared not leave his bedroom, moving to the door and pushing it open casually. No matter how much strategy and control the plan dictated…
If Seto was dozing in his chair and Mokuba braved a glance of signature curiosity, and if Yugi was sitting, head in his hands, moaning lowly into stillness, he was going to lose it.
He walked the halls to the great room slowly, steeling himself. When he reached the archway he did his best to disguise the remnants of feelings they could not know. None of them had slept, even in shifts. He supposed it would be hard to get settled sitting upright, but he had at least expected them to doze. They sat straight and proud, sunken eyes staring back at him. If it was a show of endurance, it was pitiful. He almost laughed right out loud.
"Good afternoon." He drawled, "I see you've made yourselves comfortable." They met pleasantry with silence, "Cat got your tongues?" He leaned forward, cupping his ear impatiently, expecting soft laughter or scoffing.
"They've been like this all night." Croquet spoke from behind Joey, to which Pegasus shrugged indifferently and sat down.
"Joseph you look pale." He crossed his legs; hands folded on top of them, piecing together a professional, "Are you feeling alright?"
The boy nodded, meeting his eyes for only a moment before redirecting his attention to the carpeted floor. Right now the only resistance that might be safe was avoiding him altogether.
"When I speak I expect an answer." They were at an impasse.
"Aside from the obvious, I'm fine."
"Why don't you make things a little more obvious." The CEO smirked dangerously.
He almost made light of it, comedy had been a release for him from a young age, but this was not something to laugh off with a simple, 'no thanks.' He fidgeted nervously, wringing his sweaty hands as he stalled for time. "I want to go home."
"You are home."
He bit his tongue to keep from losing his temper, "I miss my mother."
"You're lying." Even Pegasus knew that wasn't entirely true, some part of the boy was desperate for yelling, for judgmental comparisons to his drunken father, any sound of her voice he could manage. "Tell me the whole truth, and don't keep me waiting."
"I want to see my sister, I want to be there when the bandages come off and she can see again."
He barely needed to ponder this, "I can arrange that."
Joey had to physically clasp a hand in front of his mouth to keep from vomiting. His prideful posture crumbled, shoulders slumping forward, body slouching closer to the monster at the center of the room. He suddenly felt completely suffocated by the close proximity of them all, more than anything he wanted out and away, but it was all he could do to hold his stomach.
"Now don't be embarrassed, it's not like you're asking the world. To tell you the truth I rather like even numbers."
"Enough already!" Kaiba seethed, hand still gripping Mokuba's even as his gaze traveled to the boy he once shared a classroom with. He had no respect for him in the dueling arena, but as a brother he understood every ounce of plight.
"Wait your turn, Kaiba-boy." He instructed, turning a hardened gaze toward the taller of the two boys before re-focusing his attention on Joey, "I'm going to give you a first piece of advice." He continued, anger slipping from his tightened features and easing them into a look of complacency, "Be very careful what you wish for."
It might just come true.
The thought lingered unanimously among them; he picked it up without having to concentrate. It was only obvious because they were too afraid to speak it.
"I don't know how to act like this is normal." Joey blurted out to ease the tension, "I have a family and no matter what you do to change that, they're never going to disappear."
"Silly boy," he rose from the seat and stretched his legs, "I'm not asking you to forget them entirely, I'm merely telling you that eventually, whether you like it or not, they will mean nothing to you in the way of families. That's not far from the truth for the donors you refer to as mother and father anyway."
He sputtered helplessly, desperate to reach some sane, compassionate part of the man, "I, we can't just – "
"You can." Pegasus interrupted firmly, "I'll show you." He ruffled the blond hair atop Joey's head, smiling knowingly down at him. In the end there was little he could do to delay the grizzly surrender.
"Why don't you ask the rest of us what we want?" The question started as a whisper, but got louder as Tea forced herself to swallow, working feeling into her jaw. He snapped his head up, hand still resting comfortably in the warmth of Joey's hair.
"How cute, you want to tell me about your wishes. Your little brother was embarrassed to admit he made them, you know." He looked to Mokuba, who stared harder at his brother's shoes and tried not to blush. Beside him Kaiba could no longer quell his fury.
"I've had enough of whatever sick game you're playing! Mokuba is the only family I'll ever need and he can easily say the same, where the hell do you get off – "
"Wait your turn Seto Kaiba!" He bellowed, "I won't tell you again." The hand he had previous buried in Joey's locks grabbed Seto's hand and tore it violently away from Mokuba's, a silent final warning. "Go on Tea." He moved back from the boys and advanced to her seat on the far left.
"You're daddy." She affirmed in the calmest voice she could muster, "So what happened to Mommy?"
"Don't test me." He growled, nostrils flaring with anger as he towered in front of her.
"I just want to know who my mother is if not my real mother." She continued in sweet, mock-innocence. She gave no thought to what would happen if she pushed too far, she only knew her own growing fear of the terrible unknown. Consuming herself with the notion that a decent human being must be somewhere inside Pegasus, suppressed by the purring voice of a monster created in tragedy, she rose from her seat to match his own stance. "Tell me about her, please."
"Sit down."
"I'm just asking a question. If you want us to give up our own families for this, it must be very important to you." She took a chance and stretched her hand out to loosely grasp his arm, "There are thousands of children that need you, that dream of being adopted. Why us? Why a group of people who are nearly grown anyway?"
He jerked away from her hold, grabbing both of her slim shoulders, "I wanted you." He spat, "That's the end of it."
"What about your wife?" She inquired, in too deep to back out and unable to reach him conventionally, "Tell us what our mother wants!"
"FINE!" He threw her to the ground with a sickening thud, the impact making her head spin and her bones ache. She moaned against the carpet, tears spilling out onto its fibers as he hyperventilated over her, shaking with rage. "Fine." He whispered, kneeling down over her body, so close that tresses of silver tickled the skin of her cheek.
She sobbed louder at the intrusion; trying to force her limbs to cooperate even to crawl away. But her arms and legs throbbed fiercely and she succumbed to the dizzying rush of consciousness, breaths pulling tight in her chest, heaving her forward with every erratic pull. She needed to slip into sleep to escape this, even for a moment, but the peace would not come.
Her vision was blurred and blackening at the edges, but she could make out his face as he guided her limp body into his arms. As shudders oozed the last trickles of emotion she could gather in exhaustion, he began stroking her face and hair. I reacted so suddenly. He mused, pressing a thumb to the tears rolling off her chin, brushing them gently away. I shouldn't have done that. Father's don't yell so harshly at their children. He brought her head close to his heart, hushing tenderly. Father's don't throw their daughters on the ground like they're dirt. This is a nightmare, I know better than this.
Glimpses of Gozaburo Kaiba flitted into his mind; he forced them out with visions of blue dresses and blonde curls. What would Cecelia say if she saw him now, nursing a little one he had so viciously wounded?
Her breathing, though quick and ragged with exertion, was slowing as her body gave into fatigue, her heart rate was steadying too. She seemed to be okay aside from the bruises forming on her head and shoulder blades, and the brush burn marring her left check and elbow.
"You want to hear about Mama, little one?" She tried to nod against the arms cradling her, mouth opening and closing weakly as she forced unintelligible noise from her throat. "Shh." He cooed.
"Mama is a pianist. She's touring with an up-and-coming violinist as we speak, her favorite composer is Pachelbel, and the entire time I've known her she's had a melody on her lips." He kissed her hairline gently, lips fluttering against the skin as she faded further into sleep, "Don't be upset, darling." She trembled in his hold, disturbed by the lingering sound of his voice, "She'll be home soon enough to hold you again. I know you're missing her terribly."
He blinked to clear his vision, forcing the tears back as he cleared his throat, "In the meantime I'll be right here, there's no need to be afraid anymore. Go to sleep." He coaxed, and as he did so, he guided her ever closer to his body, rocking her against his strong chest in perfect rhythm.
Whatever happened to Pegasus Crawford could not be undone with persistence and begging, from their seats a few feet away from him, both captive and servant were wondering if it could be undone at all.
When they thought the spectacle could escalate no further, when the assured themselves with crushing sincerity that Crawford could not be anymore broken, he began to hum a lullaby. The humming evolved into words that stole their breath, not only because he was gifted, but because every child in the room knew them by heart. One by one they battled with their own hysteria, coming undone to the notion of bitter unfairness. The soft, soothing voices of their mothers, however distantly remembered, were forever replaced by Pegasus Crawford's.
He was corrupting every vision of love, contentment, and hope they scavenged from the forbidden outside world, and he wasn't even trying.
Author's Note: The lullaby I am referring to (and listened to on repeat while writing this) is one I did not know existed until a few days ago. It is a male version of the popular "Lullaby for a Stormy Night" and if you search it on youtube you will never read this chapter the same way again. Truly haunting.
