Disclaimer: I still don't own YGO or word of the day toilet paper.
A/N: This is almost like the last chapter, but I'll have an epilogue at the end so this is more like the second-to-last chapter of this fic. I'm actually really sad that it's ending… I'm so going to miss this fic and all you reviewers! T-T
This is the longest chapter most likely in this whole fic! Yay!
Well, please enjoy the almost-last chapter!
oooooooChapter 7ooooooo
"Yami would you please get off that damn couch and go do something with your life?"
"Ya know, Yami, for once Bakura's right; you can't just waste your life wishing that Yuugi was still here."
All of Yami's friends were gathered at Yami's house, trying in vain to get the Egyptian boy to have some fun.
"Yami," By this time Anzu had tears in her eyes. "It's been a week since Yuugi left. You can't just sit around and wait for him to come back because you know he never will."
"Yeah," Bakura added. "It's over and you know it. That little runt made his choice and all I have to say to him is 'good riddance'. He's an idiot for leaving you like that, but ultimately it was his choice and, for all I care, he can suffer for the rest of his life. He left you and in doing that he made one of the worst choices of his life. And you know what else?"
A sudden gasp filled the room as all of its occupants were shocked by Yami springing up like a bomb.
"Do I know what else? I know perfectly well 'what else'. It's you who doesn't know, Bakura; you don't know Yuugi and you certainly don't know why he left." Yami's crimson eyes were blazing as he backed Bakura into a corner. "He had no choice, Bakura. Yuugi wasn't the one who decided to leave; it wasn't his choice." A slight pause during which Yami's eyes lost some of their fire. "It was my choice."
All of Yami's rage dissolved and he was left broken again. Crimson eyes were shut and covered with the palms of two hands. "And I'll regret that choice for the rest of my life…"
Jou took pity on his friend and put a comforting arm around his shoulders. "Look, man," He really needed a bigger vocabulary for this… "You yourself told us that it could never work between you two. I'm sure that if it was meant to be then you would've known it."
A muffled 'But I did know it' was heard.
Jounouchi looked to his other friends for support. Ryou came to save the day. "What Jou's trying to say it that things like this happen all the time and the only thing that you can do is to adapt to the new situation. You can't live in a world of 'what if's, Yami; they don't exist in the past. There is no reason for you to stop living your life to the fullest."
Everyone in the room stared at Ryou with newfound respect.
"Did you memorize that speech or something?" Honda asked as he was the first to get over the shock.
The British teen blushed and suddenly noticed how very interesting his shoes were. "Well, no; I just said what came out without really thinking about it."
After a little more persuasion, Yami finally gave in and let his friends drag him to the beach.
"Ah!" Jou sighed, stretching his arms over his head. "There ain't nothing like the good ol' beach to get your mind offa something."
Seto wrapped his arms around his boyfriend and asked him to use proper English.
Meanwhile Marik and Malik were racing to see who would be first in the water. Malik won narrowly and as a prize, he got to ride across the beach on Marik's back. Yami was watching his friends run around and laugh at various things.
With a longing sigh, Yami walked away from his friends and took a seat on the sand. He really missed Yuugi and being this close to the ocean brought back memories of the little merboy. Yami felt a slight pang of jealousy as all of his friends had a special someone to spend the day with.
Absentmindedly, Yami picked up a stone and fiddled with it for a while before placing it into his pocket.
The adolescent had been so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice that Anzu had come over.
"Are you still thinking about Yuugi?" A nod. "I know what it's like, you know." Raised eyebrows. "To love someone and not have them return your feelings for one reason or another."
"Yuugi did—does—" Yami forced himself to correct his use of past tense. "Like me. I know he's still thinking of me, but he can't come to me or talk to me; I'll be too difficult and dangerous for the rest of his family."
"But eventually you'll have to learn to live with rejection. In the end I learned to deal with the fact that you're gay and that you can never like me the way I like you."
All that Anzu got for her confession was a suspicious look. "You aren't trying to get me on the rebound, are you?"
The poor girl was struggling to answer, while blushing furiously. "N-n-no, of c-course I'm not! Why would you even think that?"
Crimson eyes turned to look out to the ocean, face returning to a neutral look. "No reason; I was just wondering."
"Well don't wonder again." Now the blue-eyed brunette was a bit mad as well as flustered.
Before Yami could apologize Honda came running to the two. "Yami! Anzu! You guys have to come back; Malik found something in the water."
Confused, both adolescents got up and ran back to their original site to see what this amazing new discovery was.
Upon arriving at the neatly placed beach towels, Yami received the surprise of his life:
"Yuugi!"
There, lying naked on Ryou's beach towel, was his, Yami's, very own merboy. Though Yuugi had changed from the last time Yami had seen him; his porcelain skin was now cut and bruised all the way from his beautiful face to his legs.
Wait! Yami did a double take; yes, Yuugi the merboy had legs. He was human—or at least he looked human. That sure was something that Yami hadn't expected to find.
Snapping out of his trance, Yami wrapped his own towel around his boyfriend and ran to Seto's limousine.
"Minna, come on! We have to get him home and warmed up as soon as possible!"
Everyone got into the limo and Seto instructed the driver to take them to the nearest hospital.
"Iie, not to a hospital! Onegai, Seto-kun, let's go to my place."
Reluctantly the CEO told his driver to return to Yami's house. No one dared to question Yami's decision.
The teen, however, knew that if he took Yuugi to the hospital questions would arise as to where his family was and they would test his blood. What if they found out that Yuugi wasn't human and then took him to a laboratory for questioning? Yami couldn't bear to lose him again.
ooo
"Yami, are you sure that you don't want me to call my personal doctor to check him over? What if there's something wrong with him?" The tall brunette was worried for the boy lying lifeless in Yami's bed; they had no idea how long he had been in the water and he might have pneumonia or some other disease.
"Fine," Yami replied his eyes not leaving Yuugi's still form. "But he must not run any tests; he can only give Yuugi a check-up, nothing more."
Seto nodded and left his boyfriend's side to call the family doctor.
The group had to wait for only five minutes until the doctor arrived.
"So let me get this straight," He started looking at Yami. "You only want me to give him a check-up and not take any blood samples or anything like that."
"Hai." Yami was still staring at Yuugi.
"Alright then, I'll get to work right away."
A quarter of an hour later the doctor announced that the ex-merboy was fine.
"Of course without blood sampling, I can't be sure…"
"Excuse me, but I am not paying you to give your own opinion on these matters, doctor. You will de as we ask and if Yami doesn't want you to take Yuugi's blood, then so be it."
"Of course, Kaiba-sama, gomen nasai."
ooo
"Are you sure that you'll be alright, Yami-kun?" Ryou was asking for the millionth time in five minutes.
"Hai, I'll be fine; you don't have to worry, Ryou." Yami had finally torn his eyes away from Yuugi. The albino adolescent was about to say something else, but Yami cut him off. "And I will eat and sleep."
"Are you sure? Because I don't think that Yuugi would be too happy to see you starved when he wakes up…"
"Ryou," Bakura's strong voice broke in. "Everyone else left and we should get going, too." In a whisper he added. "Yami will be fine; he has Yuugi now."
Ryou nodded to his boyfriend. "I guess you're right, 'Kura." They wished Yami a good nigh and returned to their apartment.
The young Egyptian saw his friends to the door and made a stop in the kitchen before returning to his love's beside.
Ten pm found Yami sitting on his bed next to Yuugi fiddling with something in his hands. That something was the stone that the teen had pocketed at the beach.
Turning the stone around in his hands, Yami noticed that it had a unique shape; it looked like a dolphin. One that was bent so that it looked like it was jumping out of the water.
The dolphin-stone had a hole on its head that Yami suspected had come from a little sand in a dent that the waves had moved back and forth, making the sand bite through the stone.
Having nothing better to do, the starfish-haired teen got up and went to a drawer. He pulled out a long piece of leather and slipped it through the hole in the stone.
Yami took the newly made necklace to Yuugi and showed it to the unconscious boy. "I made this for you, Yuugi." The adolescent felt a bit stupid talking to Yuugi like this, but he wasn't going to stop now. "You can have it as soon as you wake up. I'll just leave it here on this table and you can take it when you wake up, ok?"
With a sigh of longing, Yami placed the necklace on the nightstand next to his bed.
"I'll be sleeping in the living room, which isn't far from here, so call me if you need anything. I'll be back to see you in the morning, good night, my precious Yuugi." With that he kissed Yuugi softly on the forehead and went into the living room.
ooo
Creak.
Yami sprung up from the couch and was racing towards his room. That creak had come from the floorboards! Yuugi was finally awake!
Upon reaching the room, however, the crimson-eyed teen's spirits fell. This was the second time that night that the stupid house had tricked him into thinking that Yuugi was awake.
A crestfallen Yami marched back to the couch and lay down his arms behind his head.
"This is going to be a long night…"
ooo
The next morning Yami was up before seven and making himself a fast breakfast. He then ate in his room, keeping an eye on the small boy who had yet to wake up.
At eight o'clock, Ryou showed up with an extremely tired Bakura.
"I had trouble getting him up this morning," Ryou was telling Yami and the other albino tried figuring out how the coffee machine worked. Obviously he was not very alert at the time. "'Kura, you do realise that you just poured the water into the pot, right?"
"Ha wa?"
Yami raised an eyebrow at this, but Ryou just laughed it off. "That's Bakura's morning language for: 'say what?'"
The Egyptian looked at Bakura, who was still trying to figure out what Ryou had said. "Yes, I can so tell that the two sentences are the same."
Chocolate eyes filled with laughter. "Eventually you get used to it, but for now I need to go help my modern-technology-retard of a boyfriend."
"Hey!" Bakura suddenly snapped out of his morning-state. "It's the morning that's doing this to me!"
"Oh yeah?" Ryou challenged. "What about our computer three weeks ago? It was broad daylight and you still couldn't fix it."
"That's because it had a virus!"
"I did not, and you know it! Just admit that you're crap with technology!"
Yami left before he was dragged into the quarrel. He knew from past happenings that there were no spectators in Bakura and Ryou's fights. Everyone got dragged in; even strangers that stopped in the streets to stare at the two.
Upon arriving at his desired location, the teen was greeted with one of the best sights ever: Yuugi was stirring.
"Ryou! Bakura!" Yami screamed over his shoulder and rushed to the former merboy's side. "Yuugi? Yuugi, wake up! Please wake up, Yuugi."
Slowly but surely two identical amethyst orbs blinked themselves open.
"Yuugi, thank Ra you're awake! I was so worried!"
"Y-Yami?" Yami was sorrowed to hear Yuugi's beautiful voice so hoarse, but knew that it would return to normal. "Where am I?"
The two albinos chose that moment to burst in, scaring the smaller boy.
"What is it?"
"What's wrong?"
Yami turned to his two friends with a smile, stroking Yuugi's arm in comfort. "Yuugi's finally awake!"
Ryou looked over Yami's shoulder and squealed in excitement. "Oh, finally!" He was ready to glop the poor boy, but Yami stopped him in time.
"Ryou, Yuugi needs to rest; I don't think that it would be a good idea to jump on him right now…"
"Plus," Bakura added. "While you might know him, he most certainly doesn't know you."
"Right," the Britt turned back to Yuugi and extended his hand out to the frightened boy. "I'm Ryou, Yami's friend and that guy over there is my boyfriend, Bakura."
Realising that Yuugi didn't know what a handshake was, Yami jumped to the rescue by pushing Ryou's hand away. "Could you two please wait out in the hall? I think that it'd be best if I talked to Yuugi first."
The innocent albino didn't suspect a thing and left with a smile. Bakura, however, left while muttering something about his coffee.
"Sorry, Yuugi, I really shouldn't have called those two in here, but I was so happy that you were awake that I didn't think."
"It's fine, Yami." The older of the two was happy to note that Yuugi's voice was back to normal. "I shouldn't have been that scared of them, besides, Ryou seemed really nice."
Yami smiled, "He is nice, Bakura on the other hand, not so much. He's ok, but not nearly as nice as Ryou, Jou or Malik." Yuugi tilted his head cutely. "They're my other friends; you'll meet them later, but for now: you hungry?"
The smaller boy's face turned red as his stomach answered for him.
"Ryou," Yami shouted towards the door. A second later the albino pocked his head in. "Would you go make Yuugi something to eat, please?"
"Sure thing, Yami. Anything in particular that you would like, Yuugi?"
"I don't think so; just make whatever you feel like making." Ryou's only response was a wink and retreat.
ooo
The whole day had passed by in a blur, Yuugi had met all of Yami's friends and they had had a great time together. At Yami's request, Yuugi had stayed in bed the whole day. Yami had been teaching him human things like the handshake any time that they were alone.
"So what are you going to teach me now, Yami-kun?" Yuugi asked from his position of leaning on against the pillows.
"Now it's so late that I'm just going to teach you how to go to sleep and continue with these things tomorrow." As a reply, Yami received the cutest pout he had ever seen. The other teen had stuck out his lower lip and was giving Yami an evil look.
The older teen just laughed it off and gave Yuugi a small kiss that took away the pout. "How about you tell me your side of the story and what happened to you after you returned to the ocean and how you ended up having two normal legs."
"I really don't see how you would call them normal…" Yuugi muttered, but Yami heard him and walked to the other side of the bed just to show how normal his legs were to him. The younger adolescent watched in awe as Yami made his short trip around the bed. "I really wish I could do that… Will you teach me how to walk tomorrow? Onegai."
"Of course I will, but we'll need our friends' help. Don't worry about them suspecting anything; we can just tell them that you haven't used your legs in a while so they're still weak. You'll learn to walk really fast; it's easy."
Yuugi was thrilled; he would learn to walk like a human!
"So are you going to tell me your story or not?"
"Sure, but I'm not really sure how I got legs…"
Yami gave him a comforting smile and a small kiss on the cheek. "Don't worry about that, we'll probably figure it out. First, though, I need to hear all you do know."
"Right after we separated I started to swim towards my old home, but I couldn't stop crying at all during the journey. It took me three days to get back home…"
oooFlashbackooo
Through his blurred vision Yuugi saw his former home, but he was not happy at all. Yuugi had no family or friends so why would anyone be interested that he had returned?
Deciding that he didn't want to be seen by anyone, Yuugi made his away to the outskirts of the city. He spent the rest of the day there and in the middle of the night he had swam to the statue that was in the middle of the city.
It was a statue of Poseidon, God of the Ocean, wielding a trident and standing tall next to his son, Triton.
Yuugi kneeled down in front of the statue and prayed.
"Oh, Poseidon mightiest of all sea gods, please answer my prayers." This was the start of all prayers in the sea. "Please return me to my love or let thy waters swallow me whole, for I cannot live without him. If I can never return to him, then bury me in the waters that I love as much as him. I leave the decision in your hands, oh mighty Poseidon, ruler of the Seven Seas, brother of Zeus, Hades and Hera, father of Triton and husband of Amphitrite. Onegai, answer my call." The last part came out in a desperate whisper.
oooEnd Flashbackooo
"…The last thing I remember is a whirlpool and then I woke up here."
Yami was staring wide-eyed at his look-a-like. "Well that was quite a story and you're right about it not really explaining how you ended up here."
"I guess we'll never know then."
"The eighth wonder of the world…"
This got Yuugi's interest. "What are the other seven?"
After Yami had explained the seven other wonders of the world (insisting that Yuugi come and visit the pyramids the next time Yami had to go see his grandparents in Egypt) both teens went to bed. The amethyst-eyed boy had suggested that they share the bed, but Yami declined.
"I'm a real cover-hog; you wouldn't sleep too much and you really need your rest. Oyasumi nasai, Yuugi-chan."
"Oyasumi, Yami-kun."
Once Yami had closed the door, the small boy looked out of his window. "Arigatou Poseidon, ruler of the Seven Seas and my saviour."
ooo
"You ready to get up, Yuugi?" Ryou asked.
Ryou, Bakura and Jounouchi had gathered at Yami's house and were eager to help Yuugi get up and walk around for the first time since they had met.
The short boy was a bit nervous, but then again, this was the first time ever that he would use him legs. Hell, this was the second day the he had legs (to his knowledge anyway).
Yuugi felt a warm and comforting hand on his arm and smiled up at his boyfriend.
"Hai, I'm ready."
Jou and Yami were pulling Yuugi up while Bakura and Ryou were on each side of their small friend. Before Yuugi knew it he was standing up straight.
Everyone smiled at him and Yuugi relaxed a bit.
This isn't so hard… Yuugi thought, but as soon as he finished thinking it, his left knee buckled under his weight and he lurched sideways into Bakura.
Reflectively, Bakura hugged him around the waist to steady him.
"Domo, Bakura-san." Yuugi said with a slight blush on his face. Once again Yami came to the rescue and helped Yuugi back down.
"That went better than I expected," He told the short teen with an encouraging smile. "I'm sure that you can do it next time."
"Yeah," Jou added. "That was already a victory of sorts and now you just have to reacquaint your legs with your weight and you'll be walking again."
Everyone but Yuugi was staring at Jou like he'd grown an extra head and been announced Queen.
"What?"
"Where and when did you learn words like 'reacquaint'?" A baffled Yami asked.
"Did Seto give you word of the day toilet paper or something?" Bakura joked.
Jounouchi blushed and looked down at his shoes.
The meaner albino's face fell. "You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're kidding."
Jou's silence told Bakura all he needed to know.
ooo
That night found Yuugi walking and jumping around the house.
"This walking thing is really easy, Yami!" Yami smiled at the energetic boy from his position on the couch.
"I'm glad you like it, Yuugi. You're going to be doing it for a really long time."
Yuugi jumped onto the couch next to Yami and gave him a small kiss. "I'm really glad that I'm human now. And it was really nice of Seto-san to get me those papers."
"I'm actually surprised that he did it without us having to ask. Truth be told, the papers didn't ever occur to me…"
"Well it's a good thing that we have Seto then, right?"
"Sure is. By the way, did you see the necklace I made you?"
"I don't think so."
Yami got up and grabbed Yuugi's hand and dragged him upstairs. He picked up the necklace from the nightstand and put in into Yuugi's hand.
"I found it at the beach that we went to the other day and I just put it into my pocket without thinking."
The ex-merboy uncoiled his fisted hand and looked at the dolphin shaped necklace. In Yuugi's eyes it was perfect. It brought together two of the things that Yuugi loved most: the ocean and the dolphin pool where he met Yami and jii-chan.
Speaking of jii-chan… "Yami, the necklace is beautiful, it really is, but I just realised that jii-chan doesn't know I'm back."
The Egyptian smacked himself in the face; that was the second important thing that he had forgotten. First it was the papers and now Yuugi's jii-chan.
"I'm so sorry, Yuugi-chan, I totally forgot to tell him."
Taking pity on his boyfriend, the amethyst-eyed boy gave him a hug. "It's ok, Yami; we can call him tomorrow. That way he'll find out and I'll learn how to use the phone."
Yami smiled at Yuugi and gave him a deep kiss. "That's just what I love about you, Yuugi; you always find the silver-lining in everything."
"You make me see it, Yami."
That night the two slept curled up on Yami's bed with smiles on their faces.
oooooooChapter 7ooooooo
