Author's notes: Hullo there and thanks for taking the time to read my fic! (or to at least check it out) This is sort of a prologue chapter, admittedly it's more of a scene-setting, but bear with me because I promise plenty of excitement next. (and no more italics then lol)

Amphibious Love

Rating: M for language right now, but for different reasons later. *wink wink*
Main Pairing: RokuAku
Side Pairings: Zemyx, NamiRiku, SoKai, PenLette. Also one-sided RikuRoku, one-sided MarAku, and slight SaiAku later on.

So without further ado, ENJOY!

.

.

.

Shortly after midnight on a small island named Selkie, one of many making up the large Destiny archipelago, two teenage boys could be found hiking along the isle's sole highway.

Complete polar opposites, the only thing the mismatched pair had in common was a chemistry class on the chain's lone high school. One was a seventeen year old, blonde junior of diminutive height, complete with blue eyes capable of burning holes into any unfortunate soul foolhardy enough to laugh at said short stature. The exhausted boy trudged onwards wondering why oh why he had ever agreed to accompany a bothersome man whom he considered an annoyingly desperate nerd when he could instead be sleeping comfortably…

The desperate nerd in question was Riku Gin, an eighteen year old employee at the local aquarium whose humble dream was to be a world-famous astronaut. In a feeble attempt to resemble his favorite video game character, the older teen had haphazardly bleached his hair a light silver, turning a blind eye to any and all remaining strands of natural brown.
Riku had a rather large crush on the smaller boy walking behind him. It was that exact crush that prevented him from hearing the muttered curses or feeling the constant rain of well-aimed pebbles being kicked at him from behind. His endless infatuation refused to wilt despite the many times the boy had turned him down, called him names, slapped him, threw sharp objects capable of serious bodily harm, and mailed him various death threats of disturbing creativity. It wasn't his fault, the boy was just too cute!

"Riku!" The irate younger snapped "Are you even listening? I've asked you twice now, what the hell is this 'amazing thing' you want to show me!" The cynicism fell upon deaf ears.

"Oh?" The absentminded senior had gotten distracted in his daydreams, especially one that involved a certain blonde, himself, melted chocolate, and his favorite action figurine. "Well…" He paused trying to think of something that would impress his love, knowing full well that the truth wouldn't go over smoothly. In fact, the truth would most likely make the testy blonde label him delusional before shoving him onto the highway in front of a speeding car.
There were no cars this late at night of course, but experience told him that his resourceful crush would find a way to plan around that fact, so he decided that obscurity was the way to go. "It's a surprise." He purred, happy to have finally thought of something making him sound half-way smart.

"Surprise my ass!" The tetchy blonde fumed. "That's the same dumb answer you gave earlier when I first asked about this 'Super cool thing that I just had to go see'!" He made sure to add air quotes when mimicking the elder's previous words, but even this gesture did nothing to permeate Riku's bliss over his mental victory.
Reduced to venting out his frustration on the innocent rocks underfoot, the shorter of the two trekked angrily onwards as they left the highway to turn onto a smaller, more secluded street. With the only sound being that from the junior's fiery kicks, the heavy silence carried on until an exceptionally large stone met it's early demise with a noisy clatter. Finally taking notice of the distracting sounds, Riku whirled around with a finger at his lips.

"Shhhh!" He cautioned in a low voice. "We don't wanna get caught."

"Caught! Caught doing what?" The teen's voice began to raise in pitch and volume as his anxiety increased. "I swear to God, if you've brought me out to do something illegal, I'll-"

"No! No!" Recognizing the warning signs, the silver-haired male frantically interrupted. "It's uhh…not bad! Not at all!" Hesitant to reveal the truth, he simply finished with a beaming smile in hopes that it'd work magic and calm the other.
He failed.

"Then why the fuck are you whispering!" The younger shouted aggravatingly, beginning to stand straighter and ball his fists.

"Err…" At a complete loss of words, Riku just stared at the fired up boy fuming in front of him as if the answer would suddenly materialize. "Come on Brain!" He silently berated himself. "Think! Think of something a smart person would think of!".
Assuming that the senior's brain had gone 'bye bye' and melted out of his silver-haired head, the annoyed blonde was two seconds away from storming back home in a huff when the elder finally cleared his jumbled thoughts to exclaim. "The curfew!" The smug admirer glowed with pride for thinking of something so clever, but received nothing more than a clueless blink in return for his hard work.

"…What?"

Riku puffed up his chest. "The town's curfew! Kids our age aren't allowed out after eleven! However - " He cleared his throat and smoothed his treated hair back in what he must have imagined was a suave sort of way. "I have decided to brave the consequences for you my sweet! I believe you're more than worth it!" He coyly batted his eyes, hoping that the blonde was deeply impressed by the lengths he was willing to go to flatter him. So impressed, that he'd sigh "Oh Riku, you're sooo manly" and they'd make out under the moonlight.
No such luck for him though. The only answer he received from his skeptical classmate was a disbelieving huff.

"Yeah, uh-huh. You do know that you're probably the only person on the whole Destiny chain who actually cares about that rule, right?" Riku quickly found himself deflating like a porcupine's air mattress.
But his luck was quick to turn around after his curious companion inquired once more. "So where is this 'special thing' thingie anyways? You can at least tell me that." Riku internally debated whether he should inform the other, not wishing to spoil the surprise, but as if reading his mind the impatient junior took it upon himself to swiftly end the contemplation with an unvoiced threat. "You will tell me, right?" Seeing no other choice, the alarmed senior plastered a nervous smile upon his face.

"Yeah! Of course!" A short silence reigned until the annoyed arching of a golden eyebrow reminded the elder what he was really supposed to say. "It's at…uhh…Tako's." 'Tako's' was local slang, short for "Tako's Ocean Institute & Aquarium". Being the undersized island's only tourist attraction, any local resident had been there at least a dozen times. It was popular because of it's family atmosphere, café, marine mammal shows, and tanks full of exotic, colorful fish.
The blonde hated it.
He'd been dragged there no less than seven times by his parents, countless times with his friends who also forced him to volunteer there every summer, and whenever he tried his hand at the dating scene, they all wanted to get tacos at Tako's!

"What. The. Hell!" In his rage, the seething blonde felt like tearing out his hair.
No, scratch that - Riku's hair. He'd be doing the world a favor. "You're keeping me up past midnight to see some…some dumb fish?" To say he was unhappy would be a massive understatement. The senior had tricked him into going there before on a "date" in an effort to impress him with his knowledge of ichthyology. To say that it had gone poorly would be another gargantuan understatement. The hapless admirer ended up tripped on the floor and was ditched just a mere five minutes in, left to go home alone and rid his grey locks of the smoothie drink which had been upturned by the moody object of his affection.

Even though the torture of listening to his silver-haired stalker prattle on was cut short and wasn't as bad as it could of been, the seventeen year old still wasn't looking forward to a repeat of losing what he called 'Ten minutes of my valuable life that I'll never get back'.

"No, no!" Riku said in a panicked voice, forgetting the need to keep a hushed tone. "It's not a fish, it's a…a…uhhhh ummmm" He struggled to think of a way to describe it without giving away the real surprise. "It's an amazing, world changing discovery!" He grinned to nobody in particular, pleased with himself for being able to come up with so many smart replies in one night.

"Great." The unimpressed blonde scoffed. "They found another new species of guppy."

An excited giggle "Even better!"
Seeing that his classmate's grin refused to falter, the junior slumped and dully huffed in resignation. "Sounds thrilling."
Failing as always to notice the uninterested tone, the elated elder spun back around to cheerfully skip toward their destination, his defeated escort in tow. After a few minutes of the awkward trip, he proudly exclaimed "Here we are!" upon seeing the imposing, navy arches of the Ocean Institute come into view.

"Oh goodie." Was the drawling, sarcastic reply that he received, but Riku wasn't the least bit put off by the lack of enthusiasm. He knew that soon the small blonde would be gaping in awe and begging to know more once he laid eyes on their newest aquarium addition. And he had even more daydreams imagining how grateful the boy would be for showing him such an exclusive thing, how he'd want to express his thanks in a 'special way'…
While the dirty movie in his mind continued to play, Riku struggled with his set of decorated keys. Briefly putting his inner film on pause, he managed to unlock one of the large, glass doors before his content smile returned and he went back to softly sighing at his own perverted fantasies.

"Ah-hem!" The object of his desire knocked him into reality with a venomous glare. "Hey twisted grinning guy! I don't even want to know what kind of sick thoughts you have swirling around in that grey-"

"Silver!" Riku interjected. "It's a beautiful shade of shimmering silver, not grey!"
At this he received a deadpan stare so cold and icy that he was reminded of all the wasted air-conditioning he was letting out by keeping the door open in that manner. "…Oh, right! After you, my sweet!" He accompanied his syrupy voice with a low bow and grand sweeping arm gesture, in response getting his shin kicked and the door slammed in his face shortly after while he was hopping around doing his 'pain dance'.

Once inside, the shorter of the two glanced around the lobby, taking the chance to cherish what he knew was going to be one of the few Riku-free moments he'd have all night. It wasn't just the missing Riku that was atypical though, the silent building seemed completely devoid of all other people and was almost unrecognizable with it's lights off. The faux whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling above no longer installed awe in the teen, but chills up his spine instead. The fact that Tako's was constantly kept at a steady sixty-five degrees didn't help any.
He suddenly wished that he could just humor Riku to stop his whining, see this thing, and go home. He didn't want to spend any more time than needed in this creepy place.

The haunting stillness came to an abrupt end when Riku came crashing through the double doors still gasping in agony. Rather than sympathy, the abrasive junior addressed his entrance with "Come on you pussy, are you going to show me this thing or what?"

Riku sniffed, nose still sore from being introduced to the swinging pane of glass. "What's the hurry?" He then perked up a second later to answer his own question. "Oooh! I know! You're excited now, huh?" His grin threatened to split his face in half, reddened nose and all. "Don't worry, you won't be disappointed!"

The misjudged underclassman simply raked his fingers through his straw spikes, a nervous habit, and murmured "Yeah, that's right. Whatever. Let's just go…" Riku was all too happy to oblige and marched forward, practically strutting. To his great pleasure, the blonde was sticking closer to him this time, even if not for the reasons he thought.

With many winding corridors to go through and eerie tanks to pass, their trip through the aquarium appeared longer than the one it took to get there in the first place. Most fish were tucked away for the night and even though their empty enclosures added to the uncomfortable graveyard feeling in the air, the junior still preferred those over the ones holding the eternally-grinning, nocturnal sharks.
Apparently attempting to one-up the sharks in nastiness, a bioluminescent viperfish snapped at them through the glass as they walked through the deep-sea exhibit. Caught unaware, the jumpy blonde instinctively grabbed the other's sleeve with a yelp.

Always an optimist, Riku readily misunderstood the action and assumed his buddy was showing some appreciation for the trip. "Awww, that's so sweet!" Tiny, cartoon hearts were practically floating out of his head. "You're welcome! If I knew you'd like it this much, I'd of taken you sooner!" His classmate reeled back as if burned and sputtered indignantly.

"Like it? That ugly little demon-fish would've eaten us if it weren't for the glass! See!" He pointed frantically, but had to deflate after seeing the spot the 'demon' used to be in was now occupied by a fat, bored-looking anglerfish. The senior student leaned forward to squint at the tiny, blobby creature before deciding to play along.

"Yeah, I guess they're kinda spooky. It scared the crap out of me in Finding Nemo." Knowing that it was impossible to get anything through his accompaniment's thick-headed skull, the ruffled junior skipped attempts of an explanation in exchange for some deep breaths and continued on in silence.
Yet after several, teeth-grinding minutes of tolerating Riku's incessant humming echoing off the walls, he finally had to take the bait and admit that even discussion with the man would be better than that.

"So, aren't there like… cameras and guards in this place?" To emphasize his point, he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of one of the wall-mounted recording devices.

"Huh? Oh yeah, that's right." Riku seemed unfazed. "But the night guards are all playing strip poker right now."

If the younger had liquid in his mouth then, it would have been sprayed all over the carpet in shock. Instead he could only start a coughing fit, which naturally prompted the other to assist by massaging his back. His low, lower back. No lungs down there.
After his offending hand was viciously slapped away, Riku offered an explanation in hopes of patching things up. "Luxord roped them all into playing so that Lexaeus would be distracted. And Xigbar said it's okay if I show just you, because they've already snuck into see it and he doesn't want me to tattle on them." He seemed pleased at this, his hand especially felt invigorated, but the slowly recovering underclassman was having a hard time wrapping his head around the whole situation.

"Wait…So, they're all here?" He knew from his time as a volunteer that Tako's only employed two guards during the night at maximum. After all, only one's needed to monitor the cameras and the small, quiet island had shown over the decades to be decidedly lacking in eccentric fish-thieves.

"Mm-hmm." Riku nodded. "Them and some other newly-hired dudes. Ever since this special thing arrived, security's been tripled!"

The blonde gaped. "What?"

"But don't worry," Riku was quick to soothe. "They've promised to turn a blind eye and besides - now the cameras have been fixed so that they only show live and don't actually record nothing." Before the blue-eyed boy could formulate a response, they arrived at one of the 'Staff Only' doors and the senior began fiddling with his gawky keychain once more. He was very proud of his brain for thinking up a clever system of key identification based on stickers; unfortunately for him, that same brain often forgot which marked which.

"Is it this one?" The blonde pointed, guess based on a fish logo decoration. It seemed logical to him, having a fish represent a place full of them.
Too bad 'logic' wasn't in Riku's vocabulary.

"No, no. That's my car keys." He returned to his search while the other face-palm'd and grumbled under his breath about idiots and what he wished he could do to them if only they weren't still considered 'people' in the eyes of the law... "Here it is!" Riku triumphantly held up a black key with a gaudy, pink Hello Kitty sticker taped messily around it.
Hello Kitty. Figures. Palm met face yet again.

"Geez Riku, really…?"

His oblivious companion blinked innocently. "What?"

"…Nothing, it's nothing." As the unlocked door swung open, the blonde chose to drop the matter and instead pursue their previous conversation. "So why have the cameras been changed?"
Speaking over his shoulder, Riku continued down the staff corridor leading behind the display tanks. "It's this new thing they've got, they don't want anyone to leak to the press or anything because they want to be sure the government can't take it away from them first. So they made it so that no proof can be taken of it's existence! Or at least, they try. Security isn't even allowed cell phones and we've all had to sign non-disclosure contracts."

The younger snorted. "Yeah and that seems to have worked real well with you." The silver-haired teen took that as a compliment and they both snickered as they padded on.
But the chuckles came to a stop when, after what seemed like an eternity, they reached a door in the Staff Only hallway that was covered in warnings and threats of life in prison should an unauthorized someone break in.

Blue eyes widened at the unfamiliar signs and disclaimers. "Erm, Riku? Are you an… 'authorized personnel'?" he asked, quoting the signs.
At this he got a snort. "Hell no! The only folks allowed to go inside here are those weird scientists and the owner. They don't seem to trust nobody else, not even the guards!" As an afterthought, he mused "So, I suppose only a handful know what's in it."

This put him on the receiving end of a suspicious glare. "Then how do you know? And come to think of it, why would you have to sign papers forbidding you from talking about what you're not even supposed to know in the first place!"

"Gee, feisty thing aren't you?" Riku smirked, only to get quelled by a fist being cocked back in his direction. He rushed to explain before the blonde broke his face. For the sixth time.
"The papers are just so we don't talk about the new, scary door!" The shorter youth stilled, listening as the other went on. "But that only makes people more curious you know! So Xigbar got one of the higher-ups drunk and told me later what he'd blabbed."

"Oh?" The danger was gone now, the junior relaxed and truly seemed interested for the first time, prompting the encouraged senior to explain further.

"Yeah, I didn't believe what he'd said at first, I thought he was just drunk-talkin'. But then the rumors started…"

"Rumors?"

"Yeah," Suddenly he got a mischievous look on his face, hoping to frighten the boy and maybe get some more comfort-cuddling in. "People say they found a sea monster and were keeping it in the underground tank!"

"Pffftt! Sea monster!" The younger couldn't help but shake his head in disbelief. "Yeah right, I'm so sure." Cerulean eyes rolled sardonically. "When has that pathetic 'frighten crush to provide solace' thing ever worked?"
Riku choked, not expecting to be seen through so easily, but still pleaded his tale. "Honest - it is a monster!" Sobering, his face abruptly turned grim. "Or at least it's pretty close."

His grave allegation was nonchalantly waved off by the other.
"It's a fish Riku. They're all ugly, so they all look like monsters."

Even as he said it, the student prepared to endure a long rant from his companion on the true beauty of fish and how some people were just too blind to see it. He'd heard that well-rehearsed tirade being given out several times before and was already bracing himself for the dull monologue that he felt was sure to follow.
Instead he simply received a disgruntled, searching look before the upperclassman turned determinedly to start opening the door.

The thought and precautions put into protecting whatever it was they were guarding amazed the junior and he couldn't help but start to believe that there might actually be something down there worth Riku's hype. Even 'world-changing' seemed within the realm of possibility now.
- There was a slot for sliding ID cards and two separate keyholes; On top of that, a six digit numeral code had to be entered, then a password, another longer password, and finally a scanner that identified a second keycard Riku showed it.

The blonde tried to jest in order to shake off the feeling of uneasiness that had settled over them during the process. "What, that's it? No fingerprint or iris scanner? No voice testing? Can't be all that special then."

The joke flew right over Riku's head though and he took it literally. "Well they wanted to get all that, but this is a low-budget place you know." He brightened. "But when they reveal this baby, they'll have enough cash to buy all the security in the world! I can see it getting more protection than the US president. Or even a famous pop singer!" He nodded and then said more to himself than anyone else, "I hope I'll still be working here then."

The hesitant junior chewed his lower lip out of anxiety as the door clicked open; the institute was obviously trying very hard to keep this thing a secret and he really didn't need to get in any serious trouble right now.

"Riku, are you sure that-" He was cut off by a blast of surprisingly warm air billowing from the entrance, the temperature contrast with the rest of the frigid building was paralyzing.
The door opened to reveal sinking, metal steps and as he robotically followed his enthusiastic obsessor down, the blonde couldn't help but wish he had never allowed Riku to drag him here. He would have been content to view the unveiling of this "discovery" on television with the rest of the world.
The spiral steps finally leveled off, but they were both blind in the darkness.

"Hold on a sec…" There was some shuffling as Riku fumbled around for a light switch. When they finally flared to life, the glare was so sharp that their eyes ached. Squinting, they could make out being in a spacious, high-ceilinged room made up of dull whitewashed walls and a slippery concrete floor. The light revealed that it was an amphitheatre of sorts, with five desk "terraces" curving around in a halfmoon shape. It appeared to be designed in order to best view the front wall, which as far as either of them could see was a solid glossy black.
Eyes adjusted, Riku proceeded to march in front of the raised platforms and was delighted to hear the younger follow closely. Once they reached the dark facade, the blonde couldn't help but voice a question.

"So is this just used for projections or something?"

It took the elder a while to understand what the boy was implying. "Oh no, no, no. See this isn't a wall, it's glass."

The younger blinked "What do you-"

"Glass see, just really thick glass. It's hard to tell with the inner lights being off, but it's only a big tank." To demonstrate, he rapped his knuckles against the surface producing a light, tinking sound.
Not even a second passed following the gentle tapping before a huge, booming crash reverberated from the barrier throughout the room! The bashed glass seemed to vibrate with the impact as the rattle echoed throughout like thunder!

"Arrrgh!" Both boys howled with fear and leapt back, or in the junior's case, stumbled back. Rooted in shock, they could only tremble in place until finally -
"Oh…Ahahahaha!" The batty employee exploded with laughter. "Heh, That… It really got me good!"

"What the hell! Did you finally crack or something Sicko?" The question had come from the floor, where the younger boy had fallen in his initial fright.

"Hee hee, I'm sorry man," Riku sniggered while wiping away a tear. "It's just kinda funny, see-"

"NO, IT WASN'T!"
The flustered shout simply renewed the senior's cackles as he offered his companion a hand to help him up. The extremity received a rough slap in response and the blonde stood without assistance while the bruised other tried to reassure him.

"I'm just saying that there isn't anything to be afraid of, the noise was from the creature. The lights must have woken him up and my tapping made him mad. But don't worry, the glass is super-thick, he can't even crack it! Remember, this used to be where they'd rehabilitate belugas and stuff before they went on display!" The silence that greeted him was deafening after all of the commotion, but the gaping blonde just stood there inwardly going through all the marine animals he knew to be strong enough for that kind of feat.
"You know, you kinda look like a goosefish gasping like that and all…" In his attempt at breaking the room's tension, the senior simply said the first thing to pop into his head. He immediately cringed, but surprisingly enough his plan worked and his friend snapped back to reality.

"What the hell is a goosefish?"

"Something that you sometimes look like." Riku silently prayed that he would never look it up and see a picture of one. For his own safety.
Fortunately for him, the boy had bigger things on his mind at that moment.

"Was that some kind of killer whale?" His conclusion was dismissed by the other with a casual wave.

"Nope, not even close Roxsmyboxers." The smug elder strode away, foreseeing the inevitable blow-up.

"What did you just call me!" If Riku's face had been in reaching distance, it would have been horribly mangled beyond all recognition. Unfortunately he had already skipped across to the far side of the tank, so his looks were spared the improvement.

"Nothing, nothing at all!" He flashed his best 'I am totally not a rapist' smile before turning to pause in front of a switch covered panel, oblivious to the furious cursings of the room's other occupant. While he flipped through his keys again looking for the correct one needed to activate the dials, his grumbling partner began to interrogate.

"Hmph! You're awful cocky tonight, what on earth are you taking?" After a suspicious once-over, he added with disgust dripping off every word "Are you drunk?"

Riku sputtered, tripping over his explanation in his haste to clear his guilt. "No! No! No way! I would never! Especially not on an important night like this with you!" Still dubious, the dry blonde speculated once more as the control panel clicked to life.

"Full moon then?"

"I'm just so excited!" Convinced that the smaller student's opinion on him would be forced to change soon, the senior's smile was bright enough to set the whole place ablaze, thousands of gallons of water and all. "I know you're gonna love it!" For the moment though, the unimpressed skeptic still had a firm scowl set in place.

"Yeah, yeah. So is that the light for the tank? You gonna flip it or not?" The glee-choked senior could only offer a small giggle in response, prompting his suffering companion to heave a giant sigh and start to march over, intent on doing it himself and getting the whole thing over with as quickly as possible. As soon as he had taken his first steps in front of the glass however, Riku's brain sputtered back and, eager to please, he smacked one of the horizontal switches to the right, illuminating the tank in a shocking flash.
In sharp contrast to the inky darkness of before, the bare enclosure was now full of clear, crystalline water; the floor was a dark blue and the walls were a blaring white, blinding under the harsh lights.

But this hardly registered in either of their minds, for both were too focused on the large, powerful creature angrily circling near the top of the tank.

To be continued…

.

.

.

Author's notes: Yay me for my attempt at fanfiction! Since this is my first story, I know I probably messed up a lot, I just don't know how! So it's your job to (pretty please) point out any spelling/grammar mistakes and other ways that you think I might be able to improve my writing! Thank you all very much in advance!

But of course I want to know your opinion on the story too! Like it? Love it? Hate it?
LET ME KNOW! REVIEWS ARE AN AUTHOR'S BEST FRIEND! *hugs you all*

By the by~ I think we all know who the short blonde is in the story, but I'm keeping his name a secret for the first chapter. Same thing for the "creature". lol

Tune in later for the next chapter to see Blondie's reaction and the truth about the 'sea-beast'!