IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!! - This is the Yu-Gi-Oh! Yaoi portion of the Shipping List in order. Be forewarned. Some "pairings" will not be fluffy and cute. But they will all, hopefully, be believable. Rating's will vary.
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is the intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi
Author's Note: This pairing failed twice before I finally tuned into the right universe. Someday, I intended to write out the pairings that were not on the list and I may throw in a few of the failed attempts as omake. Personally, I liked the concept of this one.
Rating: T
Yu-Gi-Oh! Shipping List #41 - "Live"
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Candleshipping (Yami no Bakura x Seto x Ryou)
Heat wavered visibly in the air from the flames that were fast engulfing the laboratory. Thick, black smoke rose in plumes from the various computer consoles scattered about the room, their screens smashed and hard drives destroyed; not one had been spared.
Seto Kaiba, the head geneticist at his father's company, Kaiba Corporation, coughed as the smoke infiltrated his lungs in place of the air and watched as a white coated scientist across the room fell to the floor, blood spilling forth from his open mouth, small, round glasses cracked and sliding down his nose. He was joining his team; bodies lying haphazardly around him, doomed to burn to ash in this blazing inferno.
The flames shifted and Seto saw him then, at the center of the chaos, arm still extended outward toward the corpse before him, a malicious grin spread across his blood-speckled face, white hair flowing out behind him, stained and singed; Seto's perfect creation, corrupted, sabotaged. The anger pulsed in him red hot as the flames consuming everything around him. Then it turned, looked at him, and Seto watched as crimson eyes dulled to the deep brown he had seen in test runs and rolled back as the figure collapsed in a heap on the floor.
* * *
Seto scanned the flickering screen of his laptop computer as documents and information whizzed by at lightning speed. His fingers flew over the keys, disassembling his father's carefully constructed network of anti-hacking software as he hacked his way through the system growing more and more furious by the second. He should have known. He should have seen it coming. Nothing was ever enough for his father. Not wealth or power or success. Seto had built the perfect weapon for him, created a perfect being and presented it to him and behind his back the elder Kaiba had decided that somehow he could get more from it. More power. More savage lust. More desire to destroy.
When Seto had first presented his creation, his perfect being whom he called Ryou to his father, Gozaburo Kaiba had not given him praise. No. Seto had received yet another lecture from the man. "If a thing has no desire to kill it does not matter that it can, does it?" he had said. "Animals must not only be bred to fight but must also be driven to fight." Ryou was too human, his father had said and Seto had argued that only the human intelligence could be molded into the perfect being. But he should have known. His father wanted nothing more than an obedient weapon and was not interested in witnessing any great achievements from the son he had already broken.
Seto slammed his fist against the keyboard. He'd seen enough.
Movement at the corner of his vision caught Seto's attention and he turned to find Ryou there, in the bedroom doorway at the far end of the room. He was calm, as if the events of the previous hours had not phased him. He crossed the room and knelt on the floor at Seto's side.
"What will you do with me now?"
He didn't seem afraid or remorseful or bitter; if anything, Seto noted a small hint of pity in Ryou's quite voice. Seto found that funny, somehow.
"Do you understand what's happened? What you did?" Seto made no attempt to soften the edge in his tone. His anger was not for Ryou and it was likely that Ryou understood that.
"It wasn't me."
Of all of the responses that Seto had foresaw, denial was not what he had expected to hear.
"There's someone else inside. I can't control him. Am I…useless to you now? I'm sorry, I wanted to make you proud." Ryou reached up tentatively and laid a hand lightly on Seto's knee.
In that moment, Seto saw the first opportunity of his life to chose the type of individual he himself wished to be without the influence of his father pulling at invisible strings. Seto had been a puppet in his father's shadow for too long.
Seto lay a hand in the soft strands of Ryou's hair. "You're human now. Congratulations. We're all corrupted." Seto smiled a cynical smile. His hand slid down the side of Ryou's face, cupping his pale cheek and guiding his creation to look up at him. "I think we're finished with Kaiba Corporation now."
Ryou nodded, understanding.
* * *
Gozaburo Kaiba, head of Kaiba Corporation slammed his fist hard on the surface of his large, oaken desk causing the subordinates in his vicinity to jump. "Find that traitorous son of mine, spare no resources! Seto," he hissed, venom dripping from the word as he looked down at his computer screen, which was flashing a warning: A system-wide breech has occurred. "everything with my brand on it belongs to me!"
* * *
Seto watched as Ryou pulled the jeans he had bought for him over his hips and secured them in front. Perhaps it was more accurate to say that he was staring in Ryou's direction, lost in thought, planning his next move carefully in his mind. Ryou turned, interrupting Seto's view of the smooth, taught plane of his back, marred only by the KC logo tattooed on the back of his left shoulder, causing him to return to the scene before him, blinking as his eyes focused on the smaller male reaching for the shirt in his arms.
Ryou pulled the shirt over his wet hair and Seto reached out to pull the hair out of the shirt's collar for him.
"You can never return to your father's company because of me?" Ryou asked, shyly.
Seto's eyes steeled. "Ryou, you're going to help me take that company for myself. If I don't, father will come for you and you will become a tool to him. Do you understand?"
Ryou nodded and reached forward, fingering the KC logo stitched into the collar of Seto's black turtleneck. "You have my loyalty."
Seto nodded back. "Now I have some affairs to put in order. Stay here while I'm away and don't let anyone else in."
Ryou nodded again, watching as the brunette turned and strode from the room, snagging his long, white trench coat from the armchair on his way to the door.
The hotel room was silent. Ryou was sitting in one of the room's two armchairs, waiting for Seto to return when the sound of someone knocking at the door reverberated through the room. Ryou turned to look at the door as the sound continued.
"Seto," a voice said from behind the door "I know you're in there. Seto, it's Otogi, let me in! Seto, I have information about your father."
Ryou closed his eyes. Otogi was one of the few men that Seto had trusted, one of the few men that would likely help them now and he remembered the voice of the ebony haired man, that it sounded like the voice on the other side of the door now. But the sound was distorted somehow, just a little too…mechanical.
When Ryou's eyes opened, they were crimson and his lips curled upward into a dark grin. "Let me get the door for you, Otogi."
* * *
"Ha ha. I didn't know you liked little boys Seto."
"Shut up, you! Get your mind out of the gutter."
"Hey, it was a compliment. I completely approve. Please allow me the honor of educating him on the real world."
Slender, slightly tanned fingers stroked Ryou's damp hair from his face approvingly and Ryou's head tilted, uncomprehending.
"Keep your hands to yourself, Otogi." Seto's voice was withering and unconcerned. "Ryou is a perfect being. Far above you."
"I don't know anyone who'd want to be perfect." Otogi commented, brushing off Seto's enthusiasm of the subject. "Except you. Admit it Seto, what you really wanted was something to make you perfect. Nobody can do that."
"I didn't ask your opinion on the subject." It was clear from Seto's icy tone that he wished the conversation closed.
Otogi smiled a secret smile to Ryou behind Seto's back. "Now you take care of him, Ryou." he said. "And don't learn how to live from him because nobody ever taught him that either."
"What is "live"?" Ryou had only been conscious twice before and speaking was something he only did when necessary.
Otogi grinned. "It means to love something."
* * *
When Seto rounded the corner and came in sight of the hallway in which his hotel room was located, he froze, blue eyes narrowing. The scene in front of him might have been unassuming - an empty hallway lighted appropriately; nothing was out of place - if not for the blood spattered across the wall opposite his door. He wondered how many others had seen it.
Seto wasted no time in closing the remaining distance to his room and swung the unlocked door open to find his creation seated in one of the room's armchairs, turned to give him an unobstructed view of the doorway. Crimson eyes regarded him levelly and Seto instantly knew that he was seeing the other person inside that Ryou had talked about. Seto's eyes darted to the side, where a pile of bodies was stacked neatly in a corner with a separate pile of automatic and specialty weapons nearby. Slowly Seto closed the door behind him.
The white haired male before him allowed a humoring grin to pull slowly at his lips. "We had guests." he said, indicating the bodies in the corner with a dismissing wave of a hand.
Seto followed his gesture for a better look, noticing for the first time the KC logo that decorated the collars of their dark uniforms.
"I don't believe we've been introduced." the creation that was not Ryou continued calmly, as though it wasn't imperative for them to leave that place right now. "I am Bakura."
Seto refrained from telling him that he was nothing, he was a mistake, an imperfection inflicted upon his creation by the dogs of a greedy, power-mad individual who was about to lose his company.
"And Ryou?"
Bakura's eyes lit as if he were pleased Seto had asked. "He's here." Bakura said, tapping the side of his head. "Only slightly damaged." Bakura added, pulling down the neck of his blue shirt, stretching the material to reveal a crude, bloodied bandage over his shoulder. "Sorry about that."
Seto's eyes narrowed dangerously. "What did you do?"
Bakura reached out to the end table nearby, picking up a tiny tracking chip covered in blood. "I also found the rest of these in your clothing." he said, adding the bloody chip to a small pile of clean ones.
Seto's hand rose to the collar of his shirt, and down to the lapel of his trench coat, feeling the familiar logo and cursing himself for overlooking such an obvious tactic.
"I grow stronger." Bakura said, and to Seto, it sounded almost like a warning. "But using my power drains me. You will protect my weaker self who lives for you and I will kill for you."
Seto considered his options but while he was thinking, Bakura released his hold on Ryou and Ryou's brown eyes closed as he slumped over in the chair.
* * *
Seto moved Ryou to an apartment he had kept in reserve, a safe house he had always known he might one day need. Plotting a hostile takeover of his father's company was no easy task. It involved a lot of money, technology, and time. Fortunately, he had gotten started at the age of ten and things were nearly in place now.
"Seto." Ryou said, behind the blue glow of a laptop screen.
Seto took a moment to respond, scanning the numbers flying across his own screen opposite Ryou.
"Hmm?"
"The final virus is in place. Are you sure you want to do this?"
"There is only one right way to build my future." Seto said, azure eyes like steel rising above the light of his screen. "My way."
* * *
The legality of the issue was that Ryou was the property of the company, which lay in the hands of Gozaburo Kaiba, and that Seto Kaiba was in possession of stolen property. But legalities could work in Seto's favor too. The creation of Ryou, by Kaiba Corporation, headed by Gozaburo Kaiba, was in itself against the law, hence the reason that Gozaburo had sent his own private security division to apprehend them. Gozaburo could no more accuse Seto of ill doing than claim Ryou as his own. And Ryou was Seto's greatest asset.
Ryou pulled the zipper of his black trench coat to his neck and turned to watch Seto don his contrasting white trench coat.
"After today," Ryou asked "what will you do?"
Seto wondered if Ryou were contemplating his own future or if it were merely curiosity that compelled him to ask.
Seto lifted the silver metal briefcase containing all of the things they might need during their visit. "I was thinking about starting a toy company."
* * *
"Seto-san!"
The secretary seemed surprised to see him. He didn't bother to wonder how his father had explained away his absence.
"I'll be visiting with my father now. Buzz me up and see that we aren't disturbed."
"But Seto-san!" the secretary shouted to his back as he made his way to the executive elevator, Ryou at his side. "Kaiba-san is in a meeting!"
Seto ignored her and rather than argue, she hurried to buzz the elevator doors open for him.
Seto did not bother to knock on his way into Gozaburo Kaiba's private investors meeting. Seto felt it was a pity that he was not faster than the paging system. His father was closing the meeting when he arrived, prepared to face him, and any shock he may have had at his son's impromptu arrival had long faded.
Businessmen nodded slightly to him as they were forced to weave around himself and Ryou on their way to the door and when they had all gone, only then did Gozaburo speak to him.
"I have to admit, Seto, that I did not expect you to return what you had stolen from me." Gozaburo said, his eyes never leaving Ryou as he spoke. "You get more and more pathetic each time I see you." At this he locked eyes with Seto, his amicable tone dropping flat, and Seto shook off the urge to strangle him. Instead, he resigned himself to the game and smiled, albeit a stressed smile.
"Your senility keeps getting worse, old man. You did this to yourself. I gave you something perfect, but it wasn't good enough for you was it? You had to twist it and corrupt it in your image, the way you corrupt everything else."
"Let me guess," Gozaburo interrupted, unconcerned by Seto's accusation "the way I corrupted you?"
Seto's glare intensified, blue eyes narrowed dangerously. "Never on your best day could you control what you've created. Anything you've created."
Gozaburo laughed and Seto was taken aback by the sound. "Seto, Seto, Seto…" he chided. "When have you ever known me to put all of my eggs in one basket?"
A door Seto had not noticed slid aside across the room, revealing Otogi, a heavy, shamed look in his emerald eyes.
"I'm sorry, Seto."
It was all he could say before a deeply tanned hand fell hard on his shoulder, shoving him lightly aside. Otogi did not raise his eyes as his back hit the wall and the individual behind him stepped forward.
Seto gasped and Ryou's eyes widened in terror at the man that stepped into the room and into the light; tanned skin and wild, unruly blonde hair seemed the perfect compliment to his wild, violet eyes. But it was not his physical appearance that shocked them so, it was the state of him that prompted even Seto into taking an unconscious step back. His eyes were wide open, staring at them with pinprick pupils, grin wide, all too happy to see them, tongue hanging from the side of his open mouth. He looked like a rabid animal hyped on speed and he looked eager to tear them apart.
"You see, Seto," Gozaburo went on, a smug grin pulling at one end of his mouth "any experiment can be replicated."
"How dare you call that thing a reproduction of my work!" Seto snapped, angrily.
"Improvement then," Gozaburo conceded "you see, subject two is both faster and stronger than subject one; a true killer. Imagine a hundred of these on a battlefield." Gozaburo laughed, throwing his head back with the sickening sound.
Seto could imagine it. A blood bath. He cringed involuntarily.
"You have two choices Seto, give me the experiment now so that I might have it for study or I will have to settle with whatever's left."
At this Ryou stepped forward. "Seto has not come here to negotiate my welfare." His head was held high, voice level. "He has come to take this company for himself."
Seto had pictured this so much differently. It would only take ten seconds on one of his father's computers to infect his entire system with the virus he had spent years perfecting. It was supposed to have already been done by now. But he had not counted on his father having a completed soldier ready for battle. Any move now could spell disaster.
"I'm a sporting man, Seto." Gozaburo said at length. "This child is the accumulation of your life's work so let us pit that against my own subject. How can you expect to lead my company if you are not better than me? We shall see who is best suited to lead this company into the future…and who is gutter trash."
Seto hesitated, but only for a moment. "Bakura." His eyes had steeled, his voice firm and strong. "Did you not say that you would kill for me? Have you not heard what this man plans to do to your other self? I shall protect him by sending you to honor your word."
For a moment, his only answer was silence but then, a low chuckle sounded in the room and it took Gozaburo a moment to realize that it was coming from the white haired experiment. "Seto!" the experiment shouted, and for the first time, Gozaburo got a glimpse of the monster he had created. "Do not forget this; you cannot manipulate me. I allow it."
Bakura turned back to gaze at Seto over one shoulder and Seto's eyes narrowed. He never liked to be challenged. But Bakura afforded him no more attention, turning back to his fellow experiment. "Speed and muscles don't make up for intelligence." he said, distaste showing in his tone.
"I'd concern myself with keeping your own brain if I were you." the tanned subject returned.
On that note, Gozaburo led them down to a vacant observation room in the sublevel. Otogi did not raise his gaze the entire trip but stood and walked next to his creation in silence and the thought crossed Seto's mind that it was a wonder the beast didn't turn on him. Otogi didn't seem concerned, but whether that was because he didn't care or because he knew that wasn't going to happen for some reason, Seto couldn't tell. He really couldn't blame Otogi for the things he had been made to do but it was obvious that Otogi blamed himself. When this was all over, and Gozaburo Kaiba was out of the picture, Otogi could redeem himself then.
Gozaburo, Seto, and Otogi watched from behind an observation wall as Bakura and his opponent faced each other in the room below.
The larger man attacked first, lunging at Bakura who had to actually run to get out of the way, herding the blonde to one wall. Bakura ran up the wall far enough to flip himself over his opponent's head but instead of crashing into the wall, the blonde man turned on a dime and swung out at Bakura. Bakura met his fist with the blade of a knife, sending droplets of blood flying to splatter his opponent's face as his fist slid off the knife.
"He has a name." Otogi said suddenly, eyes glued to the battle below. If anything, the blood only seemed to drive the blonde forward and his wounded right hand didn't prevent him from striking out with it. "His name is Marik."
Seto didn't reply but Gozaburo turned on Otogi. "I don't recall giving you permission to fraternize with my investment."
Otogi ignored him.
"He's going to lose."
Below them, Bakura was doubled over, Marik's fist buried in his gut. Another punch sent him flying across the room to land in a heap on the floor.
"I find that hard to believe." Gozaburo commented flatly but Bakura had risen to his feet and spit the blood from his mouth and was already on the move.
Marik swung an arm out and the air in front of Bakura exploded, sending him flying back again. Another swinging gesture and Bakura was hit again with the heated impact. Marik kept the explosions coming, not giving Bakura a chance to escape them.
Seto's hand clenched and unclenched with every hit as his eyes followed the battle. Don't lose.
Bakura screamed and threw his arms out, hitting Marik with a force strong enough to throw him to the floor and knock the air from his lungs.
"Congratulations!" he yelled, advancing quickly. "You pissed me off!"
Another attack had Marik screaming, blood trickling down from his nose, but it wasn't enough to stop him. Marik struggled to his feet. Behind him, Marik found a panel in the wall and tore it back, uncovering a mass of wires and a keypad.
Marik flung the panel at Bakura and fired his energy blast after it, hitting the piece of metal and shattering it, sending shrapnel toward Bakura who could only throw up an arm in a vague attempt to cover his face.
Bakura screamed as the shards of metal sliced into his skin and buried themselves deep.
Seto's fist slammed against the observation glass and he pushed himself back in frustration, running for the door. For a moment Otogi was torn between watching the fight and following him but by the time Seto reached the door, he was only a step behind, Gozaburo's laughter ringing in his ears.
By the time they had thrown the door of the empty lab room open, Bakura had struck back. Marik was pressed back against the wall. This time, blood ran down from his eyes as well as his nose, looking morbidly like tears of blood, as he struggled to simply lift his arm toward Bakura. Bakura had pulled the wires from the panel Marik had opened and they sparked in his hand with malicious intent.
"NO!" Otogi yelled, passing Seto as he raced across the room and threw himself over Marik. "Please stop. Don't kill him. Please."
"Fool." Marik managed; the last thing he could say before he passed out.
Seto watched as his appearance softened, hair falling limp and looked up to find Bakura watching them with an odd expression. Bakura let the wires fall from his hand and limped toward Seto slowly.
"Don't let him wake up like this."
Seto nodded in understanding as Bakura slumped forward into the brunette's waiting arms. Seto watched as his features softened into the likeness he was most familiar with and looked down to find Otogi gently stroking his creation's hair, the blonde head situated in his lap.
"Never again." Seto whispered to himself and looked to the place where he knew observers could see in. "Never."
Behind the observation window, the room was empty.
* * *
Seto looked down on the glimmering lights of the city sprawled below his office window. His father had vanished on that day nearly a year ago and the world had not heard from him since. Seto knew that one day he may turn up and that he was not truly free of Gozaburo Kaiba, but in the mean time, he had taken control of Kaiba Corporation and done just as he'd intended. No longer did Kaiba Corporation manufacture weapons and experiment in genetic manipulation, although Seto did sometimes stray into personal projects, feeling it would be a waste of his intelligence not to. Kaiba Corporation, opening anew at the stroke of seven AM the next morning, would soon become Japan's leading gaming manufacturer. It was partly to screw Gozaburo over by succeeding in the exact opposite way his father had trained him for, but mostly because Seto had never been allowed to have fun and gaming had always fascinated him.
Ryou's soft footsteps reached Seto's ears as the other came to stand beside him on the shadowed blue carpet in front of the large paneled windows. Ryou was silent for a moment, then breeched a subject that Seto had been putting off, partially because of the awkwardness of knowing that it had taken him an obscene length of time to realize it, but mostly because it was the one subject for which his extensive knowledge was completely useless.
"I love you."
"I know."
Ryou nodded, as though that in itself were enough. He was looking out the windows and Seto was getting used to having him there, at his side.
Maybe it wasn't enough for Seto.
He turned to Ryou, bent down to his height, and pressed his lips against Ryou's.
Ryou returned his kiss, opened his mouth for Seto, and wrapped his arms around Seto's neck, pressing his body comfortingly into Seto's own.
And if, for just a moment, Seto imagined that Ryou pressed back a little harder than Ryou would, plundered Seto's mouth in a manner Ryou was not known for, it did not stop Seto from kissing him because kissing Ryou made Seto feel more alive than he had ever felt, and Seto figured it was time that they both, all three of them, began to live.
Post whatevers: Next up: Sugoroku x Yugi. Don't expect a high rating on that one. As always, if you liked, please review. Ja!
