Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is the intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi

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.

Author's Note: *pokes* It lives! This fic had two false starts but when I started reading YGO R, that first line down there just would not get out of my head and I knew had to start there.

At this point, I'm working on this project on the side and KuroxFai (Tsubasa) fics are at the forefront.

Rating: PG-PG13


Yu-Gi-Oh! Shipping List #46 - "A Certain Flow"

Ceoshipping (Pegasus x Seto x Ryuuji)

"I have decided I would like to have children."

Seto Kaiba promptly choked on his morning coffee, turning so as to avoid his laptop, sitting on the table in front of him, as he coughed and hacked.

Otogi, standing in the kitchen doorway behind Pegasus, laughed nervously and Seto sent them both a severe frown once he'd collected himself.

"You'd better be saying that we're through in the same breath." Seto warned.

"Well I was hoping…"

Seto closed his laptop and got to his feet, as though he was actually going to leave the island right then and there and have nothing more to do with Pegasus from that second onward.

"Seto, come now…" Pegasus tried to reason.

Seto turned back, a glare set firmly in place. "I've never heard anything more selfish in my life. You may live here in fairy tale land but the rest of us have to return to the real world at the end of the day, Pegasus. The only reason that I agreed to this in the first place was because you assured me that it would stay here." his statement was accentuated with tight hand gestures that generally tended to frighten his investors when he got mad enough to lose his temper during board meetings.

"It's not like he's asking you to parent them." Otogi replied, arguing in Pegasus' favor. "Would it kill you to be a little supportive?"

"And what are you going to tell these hypothetical children?" Seto asked, ignoring Otogi for the moment. "That the CEO of Kaiba Corporations is sleeping in your bed because he's lonely or are you the type of man who'd tell them the truth, that we're just using each other for sex?!"

The look of hurt that Pegasus returned to him threw Seto a bit, but the words he spoke shook him even more.

"I acknowledge that that may have been your agenda in this relationship, Seto, and I can hardly fault you for it, but it has not been mine. I care for you a great deal, Seto. I did not make this decision in order to inconvenience you."

"You know, you could always say you're here to visit them." Otogi offered. "Pegasus is planning to adopt children that he can teach to duel. He got the idea from you."

"I'm having a school built. I'm not adopting the kids in it." Seto countered, but the venom had drained.

"I get lonely when you aren't around." Pegasus said.

Seto heaved a sigh. "I guess I can't stop you."

Seto didn't leave the island. He sat himself up in a lounge chair overlooking the ocean through a pair of large patio doors. But he didn't look at the ocean or at his laptop, sitting open on his lap. He was staring into space, wondering if he was lacking somehow because he did not have in him whatever it was that made Pegasus desire children of his own.

Otogi's slight frame slipped onto the arm of the chair next to him and Seto blinked, bringing into focus what turned out to be a painting, hanging on the wall near the patio door.

A moment of silence passed. Otogi realized too late that it had become fragile and when he spoke, his nervous laugh, meant to be flippant but falling far short, shattered it. "I don't know about you," he said, reaching for a bit of his long black hair, twirling it around one finger, an action that Seto tried to ignore "but if I want sex, I can get it anywhere."

Seto frowned, trying to concentrate on the ocean surf in the distance - to give his eyes somewhere to focus so they wouldn't stray to the dice duelist beside him.

"You know I'm not after your money, your fame, or your looks and at the end of the day, you know I haven't been anywhere else." It was a simple answer; a simple arrangement. Seto knew his part in it.

Otogi snorted and Seto could tell there was a grin on his face from the way his posture relaxed. "Is that what you think when we're having sex? This is safe.?" He laughed out loud and Seto's frown deepened. "You must really be desperate."

"I am not desperate!" Seto argued. "If I recall, you wanted this arrangement more than anyone."

Otogi nodded, conceding the point. "You're right. I agreed to certain terms…because it was the only way to get close to you. I let…we let you think of it however you liked but it's not like I signed a contract or anything. You can't refer to section 8, paragraph 13 and byline 7 to remind me that I agreed not to have feelings for you. I always used to think it didn't matter whether or not you actually returned those feelings…but now I'm not so sure. Things change."

They sat in silence for a moment before Seto slowly closed his laptop and rose from the chair. He turned away from Otogi and crossed the room, meeting Pegasus at the entryway. He seemed disinclined to step aside before he'd had his peace, so Seto waited it out. It was easier and more mature than trying to shove his way past.

"We understand that there are certain things that you are unwilling to compromise," the older man began "even for your own sake. We don't ask you to compromise them. I understand that your life will never be centered here where the rules of society do not apply."

"We know the position you're in. We're not trying to take everything you've worked so hard for away." Otogi added, coming up behind Seto and slipping his arms around him from behind, his form creating a warm presence at Seto's back. "But we have feelings for you, they're not conveniences, and we'd like it if you at least had the decency to return them in kind - honestly, without weighing the pros and cons first."

Otogi knew Seto better than he'd given him credit for.

It was a long moment before Seto could find something neutral to say.

"I can't move with you like that."

Pegasus responded by embracing him from the front, warm and encompassing, and Seto frowned but he didn't move. Letting go, placing his trust in people, exposing himself, was something that had been trained and drilled out of him a long time ago. But, for just a moment, Seto closed his eyes and tried to imagine what it felt like to not be that way…to not be himself; to feel the warmth of people around him and believe that they meant exactly what they said and trust that those sentiments would not dissolve over time. It was a feeling akin to falling down an endless well.

"If you…" Seto couldn't believe he was saying this "ever use this against me…" he must have been insane "I will have you both killed."

Seto brought his arms up and wrapped them around Pegasus's back. The only person he had ever hugged was Mokuba.

Otogi chuckled, lying his head on the back of Seto's shoulder. "We believe you."

"Well you'd better," Seto shot back, "because…"

He was interrupted by Pegasus, making it difficult to talk around the mouth pressed against his own. Seto hated being interrupted. But he let it go. Just this once. Because he knew if he tried to argue they were just going to get annoying again. At least this…he could live with.

*4 months later*

"Mister Seto,"

Seto heaved a deep sigh and closed his laptop, looking over it at the small child.

"Can I see your Blue Eyes White Dragon again?" the boy whispered conspiratorially "…please!"

Seto rolled his eyes. This kid was obsessed with his Blue Eyes White Dragon - not that he didn't have every reason to be. Before he could answer though, Pegasus appeared behind them.

"Aren't you supposed to be in bed?" he asked, in a tone that clearly stated that the answer was obvious.

The child latched onto Seto's pant leg. Seto didn't bother meeting his pleading eyes but he stood just the same, taking the child by the hand and leading him away.

"Seto?" Pegasus asked as they passed him on their way to the staircase.

"Find Otogi, would you." Seto suggested and Pegasus smiled in return.

In retrospect, the kids weren't as bad as Seto had thought they'd be. They were unparallelingly naïve as to his presence there and they seemed to make Pegasus happy. Otogi liked playing with them, too.

Seto couldn't say that he was attached, but neither was he detached and that was saying something. He tried not to think about it as a whole. That seemed to be the proper solution. Sometimes it was better just to allow life to flow on its own because he'd learned that despite careful planning there were certain things, like emotions, that were impossible to direct.

"Mister Seto, can I…?"

Seto tucked the boy into bed firmly and switched off the light. "If you sleep now, you can see it tomorrow."

Immediately, the child rolled onto his side and pretended to sleep.

Seto left him to find Otogi and Pegasus, his laptop tucked neatly under one arm, his work set aside for the remainder of the night.

They were waiting for him on the couch, a bowl of popcorn between them, Otogi holding the remote control. Pegasus moved the popcorn for him and Seto sat between them. Otogi moved so that he was leaning against him and pressed the play button. It was all so normal it was almost surreal but Seto couldn't say that he didn't enjoy it.

There on Pegasus's fairy-tale island, where the rules of society seldom applied, Seto felt at ease to let life flow along as it would, quietly and peacefully.

"What the hell are we watching?"

"Mr. Bunny's Magical Adventure!"

"I'm leaving right now."

"Seto!"


Post whatevers: Next up: SetoxOtogixYugi. As always, if you liked, please review. Ja!