Atem slowly opened his eyes and stared up at the milky green leaves of the membrane inches from his face. He could hear Mana's and Mahad's voices echoing around him, sounding concerned.
The shadow of a hand reached across the top of the pod and slowly, the leaves were peeled away, allowing him room to sit up. Glancing around, Atem gave Mahad a polite nod as Mana threw herself forward to pull him into a tight hug, crying, "Y-You're okay! We were s-so worried!"
Dizzy, Atem patted her on the back, noting that he was back in his own kingdom's medic chambers. The towering pillars were a welcome sight after his two days on land.
Mana leaned away to brush a couple of pearly tears away from her cheeks and then she dove toward to wrap her arms tightly around his neck again, slowly squeezing the air out of him.
"Easy handling please," an unfamiliar voice said, and Atem looked to his left, startled to see the male medic from Seth's colony hovering by another glowing pod, wearing a frown. Adina shot forward through the water and patted the shell of the pod, shouting, "DADDY! WAKE! UP! WAKE UP! IT'S ME!"
Inside the pod, Kaiba rolled over furiously, his back aching horribly while his ears pounded with a headache. God…could she not? So early in the morning?!
"Unfortunately Princess, your daddy needs a few more days in the pod, okay?" The male medic said soothingly, giving her a pat on the back. "Want to play a game with me while we wait?"
"NO!" Adina screamed, dodging the medic's outstretched arms and zooming through the water straight for Atem. "Papaaaaa! Why'd you guys get hurt on shore?! You only went for a short time!"
There was a tense pause. She curled up stubbornly into Atem's arms and Atem leaned in to give her a warm hug, stroking her hair lovingly.
"We're not hurt," Atem said reassuringly, hearing his own medic make a strange noise and shake her head, floating the furthest away from everyone else while she had her eyes narrowed and her arms crossed, looking stern.
"Everyone out!" She commanded, pointing at the door, and Mana threw her a hurtful look.
"I want to be here when he hears the news!" Mana pouted, and Mahad said nothing, hovering over Kaiba's pod, gazing into the leaves uncertainly, his chest tight with anxiety. This moment was not pleasant for him….
"What news?" Atem echoed, feeling Adina squeeze him tighter, so much that he had to ask her to let up. "Please, Princess, that hurts."
The two medics ushered everyone out of the infirmary, and a stand of curtains were pulled towards the pods. Atem eyed them with heavy apprehension, remembering the last time he was behind curtains after being in a pod. The memory was unpleasant.
"Am I ill again?" Atem asked knowingly, and Adina's little hand tightened around three of his fingers so much that pain radiated up his arm.
The two medics shot each other a nervous look before the male medic spoke up first.
"Not ill. You are bearing an egg."
Atem blinked, feeling himself slowly grow numb all over while Adina shook his arm violently.
"Papa! What? You have an egg inside you? What's that mean?!" The Princess demanded callously, glaring at Auntie Medic. "Explain! Eggs come from birds, don't they?"
Shellshocked, Atem curled his hand around Adina's much smaller one and tried to sort out his tumultuous feelings. Joy. Confusion. Dread. Mainly dread.
"What…do I do now?" Atem asked quietly, and his medic gave him a reassuring smile.
"Nothing. Just take care of yourself, and make sure Adina still gets all your attention. She's in a critical growth period right now," the medic said fluidly, eying Kaiba's pod as the merman turned over in his sleep again.
"And Seto? Why does he need a few more days in the pod?" Atem prompted, and Adina piped up quick. "YEAH. TELL US WHY!"
There was another uncertain pause before the male medic replied, "…B-because he's bearing an egg as well. You are both bearing the same egg. I don't know how else to break it to you, my king, but you are both carrying the first twins this century."
A large lump was rising in Atem's throat, and he shook his head, wondering if it had to be some kind of mistake…when the lump shot forward through the roof of his mouth in a spurt, and he vomited into the water before him.
Adina twisted out of his grasp, wide-eyed and terrified. "EW! YUCK!"
Kid, stop screaming! Kaiba's voice rang out loudly in everyone's heads that even Atem winced.
The medic's assistant rushed forward with a seaweed bag to hastily scoop the sick out of the water and then he fanned his fins above everyone's heads, diligently cleaning.
"…And you will feel mood changes," the male medic said unhelpfully. "You will be unable to eat the food you normally enjoy. It all depends on the baby's preference. Prince Seto, are you awake—"
I said shut up and let me sleep, Kaiba growled, desperately trying to keep his eyes shut, hoping that when he woke up, the nightmare would be over.
"D-Daddy? Can I be in there with you?" Adina asked timidly, giving the male medic large, pleading eyes. They stared at each other for a long moment before the medic relented and nodded.
"You can't stay too long, okay?" The medic said gently, picking Adina up with one arm and reaching down with the other to unfold Kaiba's pod. "Here you are…"
Atem watched with mild envy as Kaiba's pale arms shot out of the pod for a brief second to wrap around Adina's tiny shoulders before the both of them disappeared beneath the green leaves when they closed. He was just about to get out of the pod when Seth came bursting into the infirmary, wide-eyed and breathless.
"Seto? Seto!" Seth dashed over to the closed pod and placed his hand down atop it with a swift, practiced motion. "Before you yell at me, I'll have you know this is about Mokuba. I told him about your condition…. The both of you."
Seth glanced up to give the stunned Atem a polite nod before continuing to rant at his twin. "He agreed to take your Chrysalis offer and said he would discuss pact-making with his wife. They will come down in time for Adina's ear-piercing ceremony!"
Satisfied with himself, Seth beamed at Atem, who stared blankly back at him, the words bouncing around emptily inside his head.
"Good, great," Kaiba's voice floated dryly from inside the pod. "Now secure the Chrysalis. Recruit a pod. Try asking those dolts Joey and Tristan for men before you search our ranks. Atem, give him the map."
Seth sweat nervously and nodded, hating how his twin was still bossing him around, even when he was wrapped up in the pod.
"Yes, one small issue," Seth said, giving the pod a pat and ignoring the glare from his medic. "Unsecured or new pools need to be reported to the Council—"
"No they don't. Just do what I say and hurry up," Kaiba snapped, pushing the leaves upwards and sitting up slowly, his long locks of hair billowing out from the sides, and Atem could only continue to stare in shock. It was hard to get used to seeing Seto with hair like that.
The medics looked frightened and they backed away to the furthest corner of the infirmary, pulling the curtains around themselves to make themselves invisible, sensing a fight.
"I'll take care of it," Atem said reassuringly, nodding at Seth. "Please, Seto, get some rest—"
"No. If you secure it, it'll go right under your name, and then your grandfather will get his grubby hands all over it," Kaiba shot back, giving Atem a haughty glare over his shoulder before turning back to Seth. "This Chrysalis will be used for our import and export needs. There's a helipad nearby, and Kemo will always be at that spot if we call him. You'd know if you've ever been there, Seth."
"I refuse to secure an unapproved, discontinued, rouge Chrysalis!" Seth insisted, shaking his head fearfully, and Atem piped up again.
"Let me help."
"We respectfully decline! I agree with Seto for once," Seth leveled his gaze at Atem, and Atem froze, realizing he was at odds here with the twins. "Solomon isn't on our side. This stays in the family, Atem. Blood family. Apologies, my king…."
"Are you forgetting who found this Chrysalis in the first place?" Atem asked incredulously, crossing his arms and trying to keep his temper. "It was Joey and Duke."
"Yeah, and they serve the royal family, which is us. So it's mine," Kaiba said brashly, aware that his words were cutting. "Your kingdom already has a few, according to what I know from how often Mahad goes to shore, so we're taking this one. Back down, Atem."
Adina looked fearfully between Uncle Seth, her father, and her papa, feeling the tension rise quickly in the air. She covered her ears and shouted, "No fighting! Everybody stop yelling!"
"No one was yelling, Princess," Seth said anxiously, patting Adina on her head, and Adina glared at him.
"You were!" She said accusingly, and then she turned to give Atem a wide-eyed look. "It's true. Granddaddy isn't on our side. Last time, he wouldn't let me visit you guys roasting marshmallows. I heard him and Auntie Isis yelling at Uncle Seth."
Atem bit the inside of his cheek and said nothing, wishing he could disappear. Secretly, he agreed. Solomon was extremely against his shore travels ever since he'd aged prematurely after the death of his parents, and Adina's aging wasn't well-received either.
"So, find men, women, octopi, I don't care. Just get it secured," Kaiba said stiffly, starting to lean back into the pod. "And make it clear that it's open for use. You don't need to be a warrior to use it, but you need to have a good reason. It's accessible by appointment only. Find a record keeper and log anyone who goes in or out."
Seth nodded and nodded again as his twin laid back down into the green pod, letting the leaves seal itself up around him. He gave Atem one last look and opened his mouth to apologize, but Atem seemed to understand, and he pointed silently at the door.
"We'll keep this from Solomon for as long as we are able," Atem said quietly, his chest swirling with tightness at the thought of actively keeping a secret from his grandfather. "Go now. Don't come back until it's done."
Seth darted out of the infirmary, his heart pounding rapidly as he swam through the magnificent hallways, his mind spinning with all the tasks he had to complete.
His life had never been so hectic.
Kaiba swam through the hallways in the Kingdom of Muran, listening intently to the sounds of people sleeping.
He'd learned so much about Atem's way of life in his short time here, and he hated almost all of it. He sorely missed his own kingdom, where the sun was a good indicator of days passing on land. Here? Everyone lived in a tiny, privileged bubble.
It was as if the surface didn't exist to these people, and to a degree, that was true.
He'd met some palace maidens who talked about the surface the same way humans would talk about going to space. They'd never seen the moon, nor did they have any desire to.
'Moon bathing' was a luxury reserved for the elderly, the sick, couples trying to conceive, and anyone who was willing to pay to be escorted to the surface.
Another irritating fact Kaiba learned was that people slept for days at a time. Sometimes weeks. Again, because the sun was absent, time was non-existent down here.
If he was going to be living with fins, he much preferred his own kingdom, where he was closer to the things he cared about. His electronics, Mokuba, and…the sun.
The people here in Atem's kingdom also housed people according to gender. There was a men's wing and a women's wing. Adina and Mana seemed to be the only maidens allowed to carelessly go between the two wings without scrutiny.
Kaiba stopped at Mahad's door and raised his fist to knock, hesitating before he decided to call out in his mind instead.
"Mahad? Awake?"
He got a sleepy response through the door. "Prince…Seth? What can…I do for you? Let me make myself presentable…"
Grinding his teeth, Kaiba clenched his fists at his sides and waited.
This was the most annoying thing he'd encountered in his underwater life so far.
Being called 'Prince' and then 'Seth'.
He finally learned the difference between his title and Atem's.
Atem was a king because he'd been crowned one by his mother before her passing. Only a longtime queen could crown a king, and since his own parents were dead, he was stuck with the title of Prince forever, unless he or Seth found some faraway Queen to marry into his colony in order to change that.
It was ridiculous.
Mahad's door creaked open and Kaiba shoved his way inside rudely, knowing he was supposed to wait to be invited in, but he was fed up with the rules.
"Pri—Ah, Kaiba—Seto," Mahad stuttered, leaning the door shut and trying to compose himself.
He would never grow accustomed to this. Seto had been living with them for the past few moons because the medic insisted he stay in deeper waters for the health of the egg. As a result, Mahad had been actively avoiding Seto as much as he could, even staggering his mealtimes to avoid seeing him in the dining hall.
"Cut my hair," Kaiba demanded, eyeing the spear stuck in the sand in the far end of the room. "I'm sick of it. You owe me."
Mahad stared listlessly at Kaiba in the semi-darkness, hating how there was a strange tightness swirling in his chest. Ah, of course. The young prince was here to command him against his will…again.
"I believe I'm all paid up," Mahad said testily, feeling like he was being backed into a corner. "I serve King Atem. I don't—"
"If you say you don't serve me, I'll make you jump off a cliff," Kaiba raged, recognizing this as one of his intense mood swings. "Cut my hair, and I'll do something nice for you for a change."
Mahad shut his mouth and swallowed thinly, understanding that he couldn't argue.
Kaiba drifted over to the mirror hanging on Mahad's wall and glared at his own reflection. If he was stuck here in Atem's kingdom, he'd take his agency—what little of it that he had—into his own hands.
He undid his ponytail with a swish and kept Mokuba's elastic in his fist, nodding at Mahad's reflection in the mirror.
"Do it. Cut it now. I don't care what it looks like. Just make it short," Kaiba insisted, and there was a long silence before Mahad agreed with a tense nod. Picking up his spear, he floated closer to the prince and hovered above him, instructing him to sit on the sandy ground.
"I can try my best to make it look like what it was before," Mahad said nervously, his heart thundering with fear in his chest as he gripped the spear tighter, realizing he was about to break more laws. "Now don't move. I can measure it properly if you sit still in the water."
Kaiba said nothing and agreed with a tight nod. Good. Fine. Whatever.
He watched Mahad float closer to him with the spear and tuck it underneath a chunk of hair.
"A-Are you sure?" Mahad asked shakily, and Kaiba hissed at him one last time.
"Yes! Just fucking do it!"
Mahad blinked and his hand moved on its own, slicing through Kaiba's long brown locks with a swift motion, and his ears hummed with a strange buzzing noise. It was somehow terrifying and incredible that Kaiba could command him with such accuracy, because his hands were reaching out for another section of hair, and another, and another, slicing it away at an angle while stray strands floated past his face and ears.
Kaiba stared at himself in the mirror, his body instantly lighter when large chunks of his hair fell into the sand beside his fins. He gathered them up in his hands in a firm bunch and stared at his own clawed fingers, his vision blurring suddenly.
The mirror in front of him melted away, and he found himself sitting on a bright, sandy beach with locks of his own hair scattered around his legs. He also had some clenched in his tiny, chubby fist while tears streamed down his cheeks, but there was no sadness. Only triumph, and a twinge of uncertainty sitting low in his chest.
A warm hand was patting him on the back, and Kaiba looked up to to see a kind face smiling down on him. The man had light green eyes, a greying beard, and a sheet of brown hair, very similar to his own.
"We've finally done it at last. Don't worry, Seto. It'll grow back," the man said reassuringly, giving him a tight hug, and Kaiba stared at the silver armbands wrapped around the man's muscular arm, which was thicker than his entire body.
His own mouth moved with a question before he could stop himself, and Kaiba heard himself asking in a shrill, childish voice, "Does this mean I'm officially a warrior now? Promise you won't tell Mom or Seth?"
"Yes, my dear son… Now, listen closely," the man said, his face shifting suddenly as his mouth moved, but Mahad's voice was ringing out from it. "SETO?! Can you hear me?!" And Kaiba could feel Mahad shaking him violently, trying to snap him out of it, but he didn't want to leave this vision. This was something fucking important, clearly!
"…That is his name. He is the one dropping nets and deploying warships that kill our people," the man with silver armbands was giving him rushed, whispered instructions, looking deeply worried. "I don't want to do this, but you really wore me down. Your mother would kill me—kill us, if she found out I'm allowing you to do this by yourself, so I hope you find him, Seto. I'll support you. Do whatever it takes. Your mother and I will join you when—"
A sharp slap stung him across the cheek, and Kaiba opened his mouth to shout, but Mahad's hand clamped down over his mouth, silencing him. They fought ferociously, their fins thrashing against the sandy floor, sending plumes billowing up around them while a few stray scales floated above their heads, and finally, Kaiba was pinned down on his side with Mahad panting above him, "Prince…! Kaiba…! Get a hold of yourself! I will not fight you while you are bearing an egg! Now, where did you go?!"
Gasping for breath, the room swam dimly into his vision and Kaiba tensed, growling at Mahad, "Release me."
Mahad let up and Kaiba sat up slowly, realizing only half of his hair had been cut, and the other half hung annoyingly down past his left cheek.
Kaiba pushed Mahad away, staring at himself in the mirror.
"Continue," he said coldly, nodding at the discarded spear on the ground. "I remembered something. I'll tell you if I feel like it."
Shaking, Mahad picked up the spear and grabbed another lock of Seto's hair, slicing it away quickly. A pale hand snatched the stray chunk of hair out of the water and Mahad lowered his head, finally evening out the last section by Kaiba's jaw.
"Give it to me," Kaiba snatched the spear from Mahad and carefully trimmed the hair around his ears, finding that the motions came easily to him. He had a feeling he'd done this many times before. This wasn't his first time cutting his own hair with a spear.
Mahad sat back and watched speechlessly, wondering if Atem would consider this a betrayal of his trust.
"Shut up. He knows I hate my long hair, and I've heard his private thoughts about how he can't get used to seeing me without thinking I'm Seth," Kaiba replied plainly, tugging at his bangs and wondering how short he should go. Deciding to leave it alone, he leaned back and enjoyed the way his short hair billowed up around his ears and cheeks. Perfect.
It was like normal again.
"Now will you tell me why you suddenly went into a trance?" Mahad asked nervously, and saw his spear being shoved back into the sand while Kaiba swept the stray strands of hair into his fist.
"I've been cutting my hair ever since I was ten," Kaiba announced, seeing the color slowly drain from Mahad's face, and he shrugged. "I wanted to do it. I even asked my father to hide it from Seth and my mother. I think the length change shocked me at first, but now it's all I'm used to. Here."
He reached his other hand out, and Mahad shrank away automatically, eyeing the prince with a fearful gaze.
"You want to fight? Or is it a fist…bump-greeting?" Mahad asked suspiciously, staring at Kaiba's odd gesture.
"No, you fool. It's a gift. Take it. Hurry up. My arm is getting tired," Kaiba said stiffly, and Mahad drifted forward with both hands cupped outwards.
Kaiba dropped the elastic hairband into Mahad's open palms and watched the warrior's eyes widen with surprise.
I'm re-gifting, but who cares, Kaiba thought aimlessly, enjoying Mahad's obvious joy.
"Is this…the English letter M?" Mahad asked curiously, holding the elastic band up to the light for a better view. "Y-You had this custom made! Is this—? You're giving it to me? I know you made one for Seth… and Adina…"
"Yeah, that one's yours. Now we're even, until you owe me again," Kaiba said blithely, swimming out the door without waiting to hear more of Mahad's stupid questions about the hairband.
Mahad bowed deeply, his chest tight with a strange mixture of joy and wonder as he straightened up just in time to see Seto's blue fins disappearing out of his door and down the hall. He stared at the elastic in his palm and quickly used it to pull his hair back, floating in front of the mirror to admire himself.
Helping Seto always came with unpredictable but lovely rewards.
Kaiba swam quickly into the women's wing and entered Adina's room without knocking. She was asleep, rolled up in all her blankets with a book floating above the bed, so Kaiba snatched it out of the water and placed it back into the bookshelf carved into the wall.
He knew it was bad to wake her in the middle of a restful period, but he figured the shock of her seeing him with short hair would be worse than a few days of missed sleep.
"Hey, kid…" Kaiba poked her shoulder and waited for her to roll over. "Kid?"
He poked the sheets again and yanked them down to see her face.
To his horror, it was nothing but a bunch of rolled-up kelp.
She'd snuck out!
Reeling at this discovery, Kaiba clenched his fists and shut his eyes, his heart pounding thickly in his ears while a stray vision that wasn't his flashed through the front of his mind.
It was Adina, lifting her eyelids briefly to glance around before turning over sleepily, dozing off in a white, sandy bedroom with a glass roof. Sunlight was streaming in from above and Seth was asleep beside her, curled up on a white, sponge lounge.
Those two! Kaiba raged, tossing the sheets aside and forcing himself to calm down. The medic had warned him that if he got angry too much, the baby would come out angry too.
Taking a deep breath, Kaiba sat down on her bed and tucked his fins underneath him, feeling awfully trapped in his own skin. He just wanted some sun. Was that too much to ask? Goddamn. Atem must've suffered just as much when he was trapped underwater with a pact.
Atem.
He needed to tell Atem about the deplorable behavior of their daughter, which was being supported by Seth.
Furious, Kaiba darted out of the room and made his way back to the men's wing, his throat tight with a mixture of nausea and frustration.
He approached Atem's bejeweled door and shoved it open. Fuck knocking.
Atem bolted awake and let out a nervous sigh, shaking his head and thunking himself back down onto the bed, groaning.
"Don't…do that! You scared me," Atem shut his eyes and threw an arm over his forehead, a headache pounding horribly behind his ears. This was absolute torture. Kaiba had somehow lived with this feeling for decades!
The medic said he'd only have to endure this feeling for five years, and even that was looking to be a bit too long.
"Any comments?" Kaiba asked brashly, slamming the door behind him with a swish of his fins and pointing at his short hair.
Atem lifted an eyelid to see that Kaiba had fixed his hair back to its original length, and he shook his head tiredly. It was good. Fine. Perfect, even. Anything to make Seto look a little less like Seth, because it was giving him heart attacks every time he saw Seto from the back.
"Great. Now that's settled, do you want to know where Adina is?" Kaiba prompted, diving into the bed with Atem and shoving his fins intrusively underneath Atem's lower body, snickering when the king rolled over and frowned, still nursing his headache.
"I don't know. Asleep?" Atem breathed, pinching his brow. "Seto… How did you do it? Every time I wake up, I feel like someone is stabbing me in the forehead."
"I injected myself with dead scales, thinking it was a cure. We can try that again," Kaiba said quickly, grabbing Atem's arm and trying to make him sit up. "Hurry up and take a guess. I went into her room and she'd rolled up some kelp to fool Mana into thinking she was still in bed."
"She's not…in bed?" Atem groaned, pressing the pillow over his face. "I didn't raise her to be like this. Where is she?"
"At the surface with Seth. Sleeping." Kaiba growled, laying back down beside Atem and shoving his head into the pillow beside Atem's spiky hair, relaxing slowly. "He probably came to get her. I think she might be visiting Noah during our resting periods. Actually, I'm positive she is. I'm just pissed no one told me."
"You'd be 'pissed' from the start, Seto. That's why no one told you," Atem said sleepily, giving Kaiba a playful nudge. "You threw a tantrum about seeing Mokuba at the surface with the Medic. Adina was there listening, probably knowing you'd be upset…because she'd be seeing Mokuba without you…"
Kaiba shut his eyes and curled up beside Atem, tucking his chin over the king's tanned shoulder and breathing softly.
He was almost drifting off when Atem spoke up quietly, "I think it's a boy."
Mmm, cool, Kaiba answered carelessly in his head, now feeling awfully drowsy.
"Want to think of names with me?" Atem asked excitedly, and to his dismay, Seto was drifting off again wearing a stressed frown on his handsome face. Sighing, Atem flipped over onto his side and pressed a finger into the fold of Seto's brow, closing his eyes contentedly and wishing the pounding headache would go away.
Author's note:
awwwawwwwwawww D:
last chapter coming next week! if there's a scene im missing that you guys desperately want to see, you gotta let me know! ive been on this story for so long, i need extra eyes and brains to help me make sure i hit all the bases and wrapped up all the loose ends. the story isnt ever gonna reaaaly end, cuz thats fanfiction right? :D
love,
ugli
