Gravitation

Disclaimer - You all know this part . . . I don't own them, yada, yada, yada . . .

Author's Notes - Okay . . . here is some background on Bakura and how they are going to react to Yami/Ryou . . . or rather, Yami's Sex Ed. lessons. He
would make a good teacher, ne?

Chapter 17 - Emotional Backlash

Yami paused in the doorway of the living room, looking towards the couch longingly as he shifted his pants once again to give himself more room.

"Tight leather and major hard on's really don't wel well," he grumbled to himself before continuing on to the second floor bathroom for a cold shower.
He wasn't going to wake his lover's for this . . . as much as he wanted to, he didn't want either of them to feel that he was just using them for sex. So, a
cold shower and then some tv would have to do the trick to take his mind off of Ryou, Yugi, and their 'sex-ed lesson'.

Caught up in his own thoughts, Yami didn't hear Bakura slip off the couch behind him and follow him.

Flicking on the lights in the second floor bathroom, he turned the water on, letting it heat up as he slowly slipped his pants down over his hips and stepped
out of them, hissing as the leather grazed his sensitive erection on the wawn hwn his legs. He nearly jumped out of his skin when a pale hand slid over his
hip to cup him in one cool, silk skinned palm, the fingers tightening deliciously.

"I don't think a cold shower is going to help you with this . . ." Bakura murmured against his neck, his warm breath puffing against the lightly tanned skin.
Yami groaned, then bit back a howl as his erection was pumped gently.

"'Kura," he whispered, letting his head fall back on his lover's shoulder. "I didn't want to wake you . . ."

"Too late for that . . . I woke up the minute whatever it was that happened started . . ." the man growled. Yami froze, his slowly working mind catching on
those words. He placed his hand over Bakura's own to still his actions before turning his head slightly so he could look up into Bakura's eyes. Those dark
eyes were swimming with lust . . . but it was different from the times he and Bakura had been together before this. This . . . it was like an echo . . . and
suddenly Yami knew what was going on. Removing Bakura's hand gently from his erection, he stepped away and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around his
waist before turning to face his lover, who still stood where he had left him, a confused look on his face.

"Bakura," Yami murmured, his voice hoarse. "I don't want you doing this . . . because you're sensing what I'm feeling. If we do anything . . . I want it to
be what you want, not what your empathic senses are forcing you to do." Those words seemed to wake Bakura out of whatever daze he was in . . . he
stepped back suddenly, his eyes widening.

"Yami . . . what . . .?" Yami stepped forward, one finger resting gently against Bakura's lips to still his words.

"I'm telepathic, Bakura, remember? I know what it feels like to be out of control . . . it's not a pleasant feeling, and I don't want anything we do together
to be tainted by that. When we make love to each other, I want it to be you . . . not myself in another body." He leaned forward, his hand gently caressing
the taller man's cheek as hokedoked up into confused brown eyes gravely. "You're having trouble shielding from me, aren't you?" he asked quietly. "Why
didn't you tell me before this?"

"I . . ." Bakura started, and then stopped, his gaze breaking away from Yami's to stare down at the hand Yami had resting against his chest. "I can't," he
whispered finally. "You've gotten in too close . . . and I don't know how to shield from you like that." Yami sighed before maneuvering Bakura into a
chair, taking off the towel and stepping into the slightly warm shower, using the colder water to calm his still aching need so that both he and Bakura could
think straight.

"This has happened before, hasn't it?" he asked over the sound of the running water. "But your lover's didn't stop you, did they?" He sensed Bakura
shaking his head before the man remembered Yami couldn't see him.

"No . . . they didn't know what was going on, and I didn't know how to stop myself," Bakura murmured, almost too softly for Yami to hear him. "I . . . I
felt like a passenger in my own body. That was before I learned to keep people at a distance. I would do things that I really didn't want . . . because my
body was reacting to what they were feeling. I . . . I came away from those couplings feeling so used and out of control. Eventually, I just learned to block
everything out, including my own feelings. I was so scared . . ."

"And now you've let me get in behind those shields, and you can't get them back up," Yami finished for him. Turning off the water, he stepped out of the
shower and reacquired his towel, snagging another one for his hair. "Bakura . . . you should have told me before this. The last thing I want you to feel is
that you're out of control in this . . . I know how that feels, and I don't enjoy it anymore than you probably do." He reached down, pulling Bakura up out
of the chair and downstairs to his bedroom. Snagging a pair of sweat-pants the the floor . . . they were too big for him, which meant they were probably
Marik's - Bakura refused to wear sweat-pants for some odd reason - he pushed the taller man onto the bed before settling into his huge black cushioned
papa-zan chair facing the brown eyed man calmly. His hormones had calmed, thanks to the shower and the current dilemma, and he was back to thinking
clearly.

"Is there any other time since we've met that this has happened?" he asked quietly. Bakura shook his head.

"No . . . every other time, my empathic senses have only kicked in after we'd already started. Yami . . . I don't know what to do. Please . . . I don't want
to go back to being a nearly emotionless shell, not with you, but I don't know how else to deal with this." There were tears in his eyes suddenly, which he
tried to hide by ducking his head . . . only to find Yami suddenly on the bed beside him, gentle fingertips forcing his chin up so that he met the concerned
crimson gaze head on. He hated having Yami see this weakness . . . he hated weakness in himself in all forms.

Yami smiled slightly, sensing what was going on in his lover's head.

"You're not weak, Bakura," he murmured, leaning forward to brush a gentle kiss across the other's lips before pulling back. "But you're confused and
disoriented, and that's to be expected from a power like yours. I can teach you to shield, if you want me to." Bakura looked into his eyes, hope bleeding
into the warm chocolate gaze.

"You can?" he asked softly. Yami nodded, getting up off the bed and going to his bookcase, browsing through the titles carefully before finding what he
was looking for. He brought the blue-bound book back with him, handing it to Bakura silently before settling back down across from his lover.

"One of the few things that my parents did right," Yami murmured, "was send me to a man who had the same powers as I did. The guy taught me a lot,
before my parents found out that he wasn't doing as they wanted him to do, but was rather helping me stop doing things at all. They stopped my sessions
with him only two weeks after they had started . . . but it was enough time for him to help me learn to shield myself from everyone's thoughts around me.
He gave me that book to read the first session I had with him. I want you to read it . . . then we'll start really working on rebuilding your shields properly."
He sighed and leaned back against the headboard, his hands behind his head. "Your shields won't be nearly as tough as mine were to learn . . . and they'll
be less likely to break under a strong emotional influence." He was surprised when Bakura pulled him into a kiss, responding automatically before he was
released and his lover settled beside him, cradling the book gently in his lap as he stared down at it.

"Yami, I . . . thank you. Both for stopping me . . . and for this. I don't feel . . . so alone anymore," Bakura murmured. Yami pulled him closer, cradling his
head on his shoulder as he ran a soothing hand in circles over the pale skin of his back, feeling the muscles there slowly relaxing.

"Like you said to me before, Bakura," Yami murmured, "You're not alone anymore." They stayed like that for a long time afterwards, merely content to
be near each other.

*-------*-------*-------*-------*

Marik awoke alone on the couch, slightly disoriented by the lack of a warm body nearby for a moment before remembering where he was. Rising slowly,
he padded into the kitchen, rifling through the fridge for a drink before it dawned on him just what it was that felt different. As a sensitive, he had become
used to feeling Bakura's aura in the back of his mind at all times . . . now that feeling was suddenly gone, his mental bells no longer quietly ringing with the
presence of his empathic friend. Concerned, he drifted toward Yami's room, where he could feel brief surges of his new lover's powers.

He stopped in the doorway, surprised at the sight that met his eyes. Bakura was in Yami's chair in the corner, studiously reading a book . . . something
that looked completely out of place to Marik, since Bakura was not what someone would call an avid reader. Yami was on his computer . . . the brief
flashes of power Marik had sensed were, of all things, Yami cleaning his room.

"What in the world?" he murmured, stepping carefully into the room and maneuvering around hovering objects as he made his way towards two two lovers.
Yami glanced over his shoulder, grinning mischievously.

"Good morning to you too, sunshine," he said. His eyes flicked to a pile of clothes near the bed . . . and suddenly, they were in the air and dropping into
his hamper near the bathroom doorway.

"What are you doing?" Marik asked, settling on to the bed, a slightly mystified look on his face. Yami shrugged, turning back to the computer even as
other items in the room began to sort themselves out. Marik noticed the mirror beside his head . . . one that he was continuously glancing into as he typed.

"Working out," Yami replied, and chuckled. "It's one of my more innocent ways of exercising my powers and increasing my control on them . . . as Yugi
will tell you, I'm more fond of pulling practical jokes with them, but now is not the time for that." His smile faded slightly as he glanced at Bakura in his
mirror, a glance that Marik caught easily. Apparently something had occurred between the two while he was sleeping.

"Okay . . . what happened?" he asked quietly. He was surprised when Bakura looked up at him . . . for the first time in a very long time, his friend's
expression wasn't closed off and guarded as it usually was. He actually looked . . . at ease. Marik blinked, staring stupidly when Bakura smiled at him and
then held up the book so he could see the title.

" 'Mental Pathways . . . Building A Mental Stronghold'," he murmured. "Huh?" Bakura shrugged, placing a finger in the book to hold his place before
setting it on his lap.

"Shielding techniques," Bakura said. "Yami . . . is teaching me how to better shield myself so that certain things don't happen again." Marik nodded in
understanding, relaxing. He knew about Bakura's problem with other people's emotions effecting his actions . . . he'd been there to comfort his friend
after several of those instances, after all. as gas glad to see his friend getting the help he needed . . . Bakura had been stubborn when he had suggested it,
saying that he didn't need some 'quack' fucking around in his head when he already had enough of a mess up there. But if Yami had gotten him to accept
help, something must have happened. He nearly jumped when Yami's voice answered the unspoken question . . . he'd forgotten that Yami didn't have his
shield's up, so he was receiving every loud thought that surfaced.

*I got turned on earlier, and Bakura reacted,* Yami whispered into his mind. *But unlike Bakura's past lovers, I figured out what was going on and didn't
take advantage of it. Instead, I brought him in here and got him started in reading that book. He's been on it for over an hour now . . . and I can already
feel the differences in his mind.*

Marik nodded, smiling slightly as he sensed Yami's amusement to his reaction through his lover's mental touch on his mind. He looked over at Bakura,
who was also smiling.

"I'm glad, Bakura," he murmured. "You really needed the help . . .you were just too damn stubborn to admit it." Bakura snorted, sticking his tongue out at
the bl bef before returning to his book. Marik stood and walked over to see what Yami was doing on the computer, being sure to keep his view in the
mirror clear as he did so. "What are you working on, Yami?" Yami smirked.

"Those finances you and Bakura were asking about early this morning," he said. "I still have to make some executive decisions as to where they reinvest
the money that the account makes. A good majority of it goes in to an expense account I have set up for anything that Yugi and I . . . and now you,
Bakura, and Ryou . . . might need, but I have them reinvest the rest of it." Marik nodded, staring at the numbers on the screen before reaching out a finger
to tap one of the numbers.

"What's this one?" he asked. Yami sighed, and smiled slightly.

"That's my donations fund," he said. "That's the amount I have donated every month, anonymously, to different groups and shelters around the world."
He clicked on it, pulling up the list of names. "Most of them are children's hospitals and gay groups . . . but this one is a foundation that I set up
specifically," he said, tapping one of the names on the screen.

" 'The Center for the Gifted'" Marik murmured. "Hey . . . I recognize that name! It was in the news a while ago . . . isn't that a center for mentally gifted
children?" Yami nodded, his smile widening for a moment before he sobered.

"Yes . . . it's a place where parents can send thier children to get training on how to control thier 'gifts'. Many parents . . . don't know what to do with a
child that has psychic abilities. Often, they ignore it, pretending that it will go away in time. I set up the Center so that those children would have
somewhere to go and learn . . . and not feel like a freak."

"You mean like you did growing up . . ." Marik said. He leaned down, wrapping his arms around Yami softly in a gentle hug. Yami sighed.

"Yes," he replied, leaning into the embrace. "I don't want what happened to me to happen to anyone else if I can do something to prevent it. So I set up
the center with the money my parents had made . . . I feel it was one of the few things they could do after all they had done." He turned his chair, pulling
Marik down into his lap and burying his head in the blonde's chest, sighing as he hugged the lithe body closer.

"Yami . . ." Bakura spoke up from the chair, having been drawn out of his book by Yami's emotions, "exactly what is it that happened earlier? You were .
. . rather frustrated." Yami glanced up at him, and Bakura was surprised to see he was blushing.

"Umm . . . a kissing lesson?" he said, and flushed even further. Bakura raised a graceful eyebrow in curiosity . . . it wasn't often that Yami seemed
embarassed and flustered by what he knew of his new lover, so what could have caused this little reaction to a simple question?

His answer came in a most unexpected form . . . the younger boys walking into the room. Yami got one look at Ryou and buried his face back in Marik's
chest, but not before Bakura caught the sudden flaming cheeks Yami was sporting. He turned to eye the boy's . . . and saw the answering flush on Ryou's
pale face.

"Okay . . . now I really am curious as hell," he said. "What in the world haed wed while Marik and I were on the couch?" Ryou refused to meet his gaze .
. .but Yugi was more than happy to answer.

"Yami bit off more than he could chew," the small look alike said, bouncing onto the bed and grinning at his cousin, who was glaring at him with one eye.
"He walked in on Ryou and me exploring, and decided to give us a hand . . . which turned into quite a bit more, if my memory serves me right." Ryou
squeaked, clapping a hand over Yugi's mouth and staring wide-eyed at Bakura and Marik, who were both grinning at Yami with what could only be
termed as amusement.

Marik forced Yami to lean back so he could look into his lover's very flustered and embarrassed face.

"Cto fto fill in the details?" he asked. Yami shook his head adamantly.

"Hell no . . ." he mumbled.

"Ryou attacked him . . ." Yugi said, his voice muffled by Ryou's hand. Ryou promptly shoved him backwards and planted a pillow over his face before
burying his own face in his hands, his cheeks flaming. The last thing he had wanted to come out was that he had 'attacked' Yami . . . and to the older
man's lovers, besides! He was never going to live this down . . .

He was startled when Bakura suddenly pulled him off the bed and into his older twin's lap, cuddling with him.

"We don't mind, Ryou," he murmured into one pale ear, having sensed the boy's utter mortification and embarrassed concern.

"Not at all," Marik spoke up from the chair, still holding Yami away from him so that he could memorize the man's flustered face. "We were actually
wondering when it would happen . . . it's been pretty obvious that you were attracted to him, Ryou. We don't blame you . . . we know the feeling." He
shook his head, leaning down to nip at Yami's lips as he chuckled at his lover's startled expion.ion. "Besides . . . it's not like we were worried . . .you've
got Yugi, after all, who's just as good looking." He snickered suddenly. "Only next time . . . don't leave us out of it, eh?" Yugi flung off the pillow to stare
at the blonde, shock etched into his features before a lecherous grin crossed his face. Now that was an idea that had never crossed his mind . . .

"This is SO not happening," Yami groaned, one hand coming up to cover his eyes. "I live with a bunch of pervs . . . and now you're giving my cousin
ideas!"

"Aww . . . come on Yami," Yugi whined, his smile widening. "I've always wanted to see you in action . . . the gang talks about your sexual exploits all the
damn time, after all." Yami rolled his eyes, letting his head fall onto the back of the chair.

"I can't win . . ." he grumbled . . . and then squeaked himself as Marik suckled on the side of his exposed neck, moaning softly as the darkly tanned
fingers of the younger man dipped below his waistline to run feather light touches over his manhood.

Ryou was staring, open mouthed, at the pair from his spot on Bakura's lap as Marik attacked Yami's lips, the two engaging in a duel of tongues. Yami's
hands reached up to cup the back of Marik's neck, holding the blonde still in a gentle grip as he nipped and sucked at the full lips before drifting down to
return the favor on the tanned neck, just above the wide golden necklace the blonde was sporting and below his left ear. He gasped when Bakura suddenly
nipped at the side of his neck before lightly suckling at the sensitive skin there.

"Like what you see?" the older man murmured into his ear. Ryou nodded, unable to speak as he felt Bakura run a warm tongue gently up the side of his
neck in a wet, teasing caress. "You're not the only one . . ." he whispered, his breath puffing against the young teen's ear as brown eyes regarded the two
in the computer chair in amusement. "They're so hot together . . . I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world to have both of them. You're lucky
too, you know . . . you have Yugi now, and he truly loves you. Don't ever be afraid to come to us for anything, though, Ryou . . . and don't be
embarrassed by it. We all went through it . . . and Yami is probably the best teacher you could ever ask for."

"You . . . really don't mind?" Ryou whispered, his voice unsure. Bakura smiled gently, turning the boy so that their brown eyes could meet.

"No, little one," the man said. "I know Yami cares a great deal for you . . . he's like that. I may not have known him for very long, but I do know that he
would rather have you come to him than go anywhere else . . . especially since you are with his cousin, who he regards as his little brother. Besides which,
Yami is a terribly irresistible force," he murmured, grinning. "I can't blame you for being attracted to him . . . not when I know exactly how you feel.
Don't be afraid to tell us stuff like that . . . we're likely to understand more than you might think." He hugged the boy to him carefully, feeling the slight
body relax in his arms.

Yami groaned, grabbing Marik's wrist where it dipped below his waist band to still the movements going on down there.

"Marik . . . you keep that up, and I don't care what kind of audience we have, I'm going to fuck you right here," Yami growled. Marik grinned down at
him, leaning in for another quick kiss before standing up slowly and returning to the bed, where he promptly grabbed Yugi and began cuddling with the
smaller version of his lover.

"Who says that would be a bad thing?" he murmured, cradling Yugi to him. Yami rolled his eyes and grinned, enjoying the sight of his cousin and his lover
getting along . . . he had originally been worried how Yugi would react to the sudden inclusion of the two. His glance turned to Bakura and Ryou together
in his chair, and he sighed happily inside. His little family had grown so much over the last month . . . first Ryou, now Bakura and Marik. Life was finally
working out for him. His smile faded slightly as he remember the one dark spot on the horizon . . . Malik was still out there, and likely after both Marik and
himself now. He shook his head to clear that thought from his mind before turning back to the computer. Malik would be dealt with in due time . .herehere
was no sense to worrying about what the demented blonde was up to at this point. He suspected they would find out soon enough.

Author's Notes - TA DA! Just a little bit of tease, and some background information as well as semi-plot development. Hope you all enjoyed.