So lately I've been playing with the idea of a Joey/Seto/Ishizu polycule, specifically in my Rock Bottom AU. This is not where the story is going (Seto is just not emotionally capable even if he leaned that way), but they're my dolls, damnit, and I'll play with them however I want.
Joey is too devoted to Seto to ever leave him. If Seto were to tell him that he doesn't think he can ever be sexual with another man again due to trauma, Joey would totally accept that and say that he's okay with that. He just can't stand to be separated from him, to be shut out, to be cut off. If that means he gets to sit there and hold Seto's hand in the quiet moments of peace, in the shaking of distress, in the silence of success, then that's what he's going to do, and he's going to savor every moment of it.
Ishizu has this quietly growing admiration and desire for Seto because she feels like he can understand her—like they can understand each other—in a way that nobody else they know can. They've both had their bodily autonomy violated, they've both been sexually abused, and he has risen like a phoenix from the ashes. Ishizu doesn't recognize her own strength because she still feels so uncertain so much of the time, but she sees Seto's strength. She also knows how to respect him and his boundaries and his experiences. Seto recognizes Ishizu's strength and how she's guided her family through their healing and freedom and building a new life in the modern world, even though she doesn't.
Neither of them have a transactional relationship with Seto. Both of them have earned his trust. Both of them make him feel safe. Both of them offer him something that nobody else does. Joey offers unconditional loyalty and dedication: no matter what you do, no matter what happens next, Joey will always stand by his side. Ishizu offers empathy and understanding: guidance through the ancient shadow magic, a shared responsibility with the Millennium Items, shared destiny and burden to overcome a great evil, and a shared intimate understanding of a kind of fear that not even Joey understands.
Joey taught Seto to trust touch again. Joey was the first one to make him feel safe, to make him feel like he didn't have to be alone and keep shutting everyone out.
Ishizu prompted Seto to reach out to her and try to be the same kind of refuge. He's here telling her that she's not alone either.
And do you know how good it would be for both Seto and Ishizu to be taught fun and normalcy by Joey? Joey can do that while still respecting their emotional baggage and without being made uncomfortable by all of it because he's so used to it with Seto already that extending that same understanding to Ishizu is just easy for him.
gods, I want the three of them to snuggle together and be happy.
