Darkness.

Why did his dreams always have to take place in a chilling darkness?

Ryou shivered and started trying to grope his way through the inky blackness, the invisible walls closing in on him as he knew they inevitably would. As he crawled, he suddenly met with resistance. He could move his leg any farther forward. He looked down and saw that a rope was tied around his ankle.

Both ankles.

Both wrists.

Panic flooded his mind, and just as he tried to pull them off, he was jerked to his feet by an unseen force.

He was nothing but a puppet, under someone else's control.

"Remember me?"

"No..." Ryou closed his eyes and shook his head. This was a dream. It wasn't real. It couldn't be real.

"It's been years, but I'm back now."

Ryou reached for the ropes on his wrists again, but just as his fingers closed around the rope encircling his left wrist, the center of his hand burst with blood, and he cried out.

"Didn't you miss me, Ryou?"

The puppeteer's voice echoed eerily, and Ryou closed his eyes again, clamping his hands over his ears as he tried to block the sound of the man's voice.

"Don't you want me to stay?"

His arm and chest started bleeding too, and his hands were forced away from his head by the pull of the strings.

"Don't you want me to stay with you, little boy?"

"No! Go away! Leave me alone!" Ryou shouted desperately, still trying to pull his hands free from the ropes.

"Tsk tsk... What a naughty little boy. Maybe this will teach you not to say such horrible things."

Before Ryou knew what was happening, a thin noose had slipped around his neck and tightened. The more he fought to free himself, the tighter it became, choking him, cutting off his air.

Ryou was clawing at his own throat as he tried to free himself from suffocating, so when someone grabbed both of his wrists and pulled them away from his neck, he panicked even more.

"Yadonushi! Yadonushi, wake up!" a too-familiar voice shouted in his face. Ryou's eyes flew open to find his twin staring him in the face.

"Yadonushi, you're covered in blood," the spirit said coolly as his lighter half struggled beneath him.

Ryou looked down at himself and gasped in shock. So much blood... it wasn't all his, right? He couldn't lose that much blood and survive, could he?

"You need to be more careful, Yadonushi," the spirit sighed with a disappointed shake of his head. He leaned down and pecked Ryou's lips, even as Ryou still fought for air. "All these years and you still haven't learned how to properly stand up for yourself. Will you ever learn, Yadonushi?" he murmured against a stunned Ryou's cheek. "Will you?"

"Ryou, wake up! Ryou!" It was Kaiba's voice that finally woke Ryou from his unhappy dreams. He was holding both his wrists in a firm grip, straddling him to pin him down and stop his thrashing. Ryou jerked awake, lungs screaming for air, fingertips gritty with clustered skin cells that he instinctively knew were his own.

"You were hurting yourself in your sleep."

Duke's concerned voice made Ryou turn his head, now glancing between two worried faces focused on him.

"You're bleeding..." Duke murmured, looking a bit fearful. Ryou started, and reached one hand up to his neck, knowing from his second dream that that's where the blood would be. Yes, there it was, slick between his fingers.

"Come on, let me help you take care of it." Kaiba's words and hands were equally gentle as he dismounted his husband and led him to the bathroom, unbuttoning his shirt before taking a wet washcloth and starting to wipe his neck clean. Duke, with his hair loose and his pajamas rumpled, hovered anxiously by the doorway. He didn't speak until Kaiba was pressing bandaids over the disinfected scratches.

"What happened, Ryou? Something must have happened that upset you."

"I talked to my father."

"I'm getting a restraining order on him," Kaiba muttered with a sour expression.

"What did he say to you?" Duke pressed.

"He said that he moved back to Japan and that he wants to get to know me."

"And what did you say to him?" Kaiba queried.

"I told him to go to hell."

"That's my boy." Duke stepped close and kissed Ryou's cheek. "But please, don't scare me like this again, okay?" Self-harm bothered Duke more than Ryou could understand, but that was only a fair incentive to be more careful.

"I can't control what I do in my sleep, Duke."

"You didn't take your supplement before bed, though did you?"

Kaiba's question made Ryou stiffen, which was enough of an answer for both of them.

"I didn't think I needed it."

Kaiba pressed the last band-aid into place and kissed Ryou's lips. "Please keep taking them, okay? You really scared us just now. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for you to scratch at your throat the way you were? Do you even realize how close you might have come to nicking an artery or vein? You would have bled out before we could get help. You wouldn't stand a chance."

"Okay, I'll be more careful."

Seto traced his thumb over Ryou's bottom lip, kissed him again, then helped him stand and led him back to bed with Duke on Ryou's other side. The three of them were curled up close together under the blankets when Ryou spoke again.

"I was choking," he whispered. "H-He was choking me."

"In your dream, you mean?"

"Yeah. I was just his puppet."

"He being... the spirit of the Millennium Ring?" Duke guessed uncertanly. He was the only recurring person in Ryou's nightmares, as far as he knew, so he thought that would be a safe guess.

"No, my father." Ryou pressed his face into the pillow as strong arms encircled him from both sides. "There was blood everywhere..."

"Sh, it's alright. It was only a dream."

"And I'll make sure he never bothers you again," Kaiba promised. "Not in real life, at least."

"Don't let go of me," Ryou whispered, eyes squeezed shut as he huddled between them.

"We won't."

Ryou managed to sleep for an hour, but then he woke up again and couldn't get back to sleep. Feeling restless, he squirmed out of two embraces, placing a kiss on each of their cheeks' before he tiptoed out of their room wearing only his pajamas and his socks.

It was after two in the morning, so the whole house was hushed and still. The waxing quarter moon was shining brightly, but the stars were obscured by clouds. Still, it was beautiful enough for Ryou to meander beside the high windows of the hall for a while.

His feet soon carried him towards the kitchen, more out of habit than anything else. He wasn't the only one who'd thought to have a midnight snack that night, though. Before Ryou even stepped into the kitchen, he could hear familiar voices.

Marik, his hair in a messy low bun, and Amane, wearing a sufficiently modest pajama set for Ryou's taste, seemed to be sharing smiles and a half-gallon tub of chocolate ice cream.

"Hey," Marik greeted, voice loud enough to be heard but quieter than his usual volume. "What are you doing up? Couldn't sleep either?"

Ryou just grunted incoherently as he shuffled inside, rubbing at his eyes. There was only one small light on in the heavily shadowed chrome kitchen, but Ryou had been walking around in the darkness and a single forty-watt bulb was enough to agitate his eyes. He walked right up to Marik, leaning into his side with a tired sigh. Marik smiled and put an arm around Ryou's shoulders to hold him steady as Ryou's forehead pressed against his shoulder.

"It's just one of those nights, huh?"

Ryou nodded slightly, arms still hanging limp at his sides.

"We were just eating ice cream. I hope you don't mind that we're eating straight from the carton." Amane seemed unconcerned, and Ryou didn't seem to care either way. His face was hidden by a curtain of fluffy white hair, even his hands hidden by his too-long sleeves.

"Are those Kaiba's pj's?" Amane asked suddenly.

"Maybe," Ryou hummed, shifting his arms to hug Marik's torso as his Egyptian friend scooped a spoonful of ice cream from the carton with his free hand.

"Want some?" he offered, and Ryou's response was to sleepily lift his head and open his mouth.

Amane couldn't help but laugh at them, finding the scene cute in an awkward way, like a mother bird trying to feed her baby while the baby was only half awake.

"What are you doing awake, Ryou?" she asked before eating another spoonful herself.

"Woke up, couldn't go back to sleep," he mumbled with an indifferent shrug.

"Want me to make some tea?"

"Yes please."

Amane put the kettle on and prepped the mug of herbal tea for her brother, having learned by now the kinds that he liked for helping him sleep. As she did this, Ryou continued to tiredly hang on Marik, and Marik supported him with a smile. Amane had to wonder, yet again, about the circumstances of their meeting and what-all had bonded them to each other that they were still this close. Ryou's tea was soon ready, and when she set it down on the counter in front of him, she leaned in to peck his cheek.

"I'm off to bed. Try to get some sleep, you two."

"Sleep well," Marik called after her and she waved her hand in acknowledgement as she left the room. Several seconds after she disappeared from sight, Marik gave Ryou a nudge. "Alright, drop the act. What happened to your neck?"

Ryou sighed, straightened up, and moved away from Marik, hopping onto the edge of the counter where he perched unapologetically, holding back his hair so Marik could see the bandaids in their entirety. By acting more tired than he really was, Ryou had gotten away with hanging his head and hair in a way that they were hidden from view. Marik had still seen them, once, but Amane hadn't, which was more important.

"I was scratching myself in my sleep," he explained softly as Marik gingerly touched one bandage as he leaned in for a closer look. "Seto and Duke had to wake me up to make me stop."

"Were you dreaming?"

"A nightmare."

"Hm." Marik stepped back, picking up the carton of ice cream and his spoon as he leaned back against the opposite countertop while Ryou picked up his mug of tea.

"I talked to my dad yesterday. Remember when I had to leave for a bit before we started the snowball fight?"

"Yeah."

"That's why. He was at the gate again, but Kaiba left orders that he's not allowed on the property, so they wouldn't let him in."

"Hm." Marik sucked the sweet chocolate off the spoon thoughtfully, as if trying to make up his mind about something.

"I've never hurt myself in my sleep before. I didn't even know that was possible for someone to do." Ryou shuddered. "To be honest... I'm kind of scared to go back to sleep now."

"I had that problem for a while a bit after the resolution of Battle City," Marik said quietly, staring intently into his ice cream as he scraped together another spoonful. "I didn't scratch, but I kept waking up with bruises that I couldn't explain. Ishizu was really worried about me. They both were." He paused to eat his spoonful of ice cream, eyes tactfully averted. "I think it was due to my mounting sense of guilt. After Yugi banished Him to the Shadows, I started to remember things that He—I—had done. It was a lot more than I had expected, and the more memories that came to me, the worse I felt..." He bit his bottom lip momentarily, then shoved the cream-laden spoon back into his mouth, teeth clashing with the metal due to the ungraceful motion of the gesture.

This was news to Ryou. While he and Marik had eventually gotten back in touch after the fiasco in Egypt, they'd both still been hesitant with each other at the time, and neither had wanted to go into much detail about any part of their pasts.

"Therapy helped, but it was a problem for about two and a half months. If the cause of your problem tonight was simply stress and anxiety induced by talking to your dad, then as long as you focus on relaxing and thinking about other things, it shouldn't happen again. Not so long as he stays away."

"That's what I'm worried about. Seto says that he's going to get a restraining order on him, but I don't think my dad will listen to it. I've never seen him this stubborn about seeing me before. It's weird. I'm not used to him trying this hard when it comes to me." Ryou sipped his tea and sighed, looking forlorn. Marik ate another bite of ice cream as he pondered what best to say next.

A/N: I am sorry. I really am. I'm a hopeless Angstshipper, and Ryou's such a polyamorous little shit in this story that, if I didn't care so much about Duke and Kaiba and NOT making this a foursome because lord only knows all the yummy smut fun ideas I'd have and whait why is that a bad thing again? O_O . . . . . . . . . . . Oh! Right! I don't want to be modelling bad relationship models for my readers but oh wait I already do that in other stories don't I? Huh... Remind me again why I shouldn't do the foursome in this story and make it my ideal YuGiOh harem lovin' on each other? I... really don't know anymore why that shouldn't happen... because this whole story takes place in a magical universe where jealousy doesn't exist and it is nothing but smut, feels, fanservice, and then some plot to make those things happen. Like... What is my life?! ... Writing this at almost four in the morning... why... what... how... X-X

Okay, I'm being serious now, with my serious face. :| If you want to see Marik join my babies in bed, VOTE YES IN A REVIEW.

If you want Marik and Ryou to just stay friends and for me not to let the horny part of my brain run amok with this story, VOTE NO IN A REVIEW.

Or, alternatively, send me a PM telling me why I'm a horrible person, how I need to fix my life, etc.

[Btw, I call Kaiba x Duke x Marik x Ryou "Convertshipping" in my head, but that's not official. I am writing a one-shot for it, though, where Kaiba's god, because... because Kaiba. Yeah.]

*nonchalant whistling*