"There's nothing!" Yugi threw up his hands in frustration, slowly sinking to sprawl across the sand as his fin throbbed in agony from searching. "All that's left is sand and rock!" Atem rubbed his eyes tiredly as he too allowed his tail to grow still and was soon beside his younger brother. They had been searching for days now without rest or adequate food. Both had learned a new definition of exhaustion as they stared upwards to where the sun was just a little yellow orb above them. Just before they could drift off, a large shadow fell over them as the water's current altered. Yugi instantly looked to Atem as they sat up. "Think it's a whale?"

He shook his head. "We haven't seen any other living thing besides ourselves this whole time." Amethyst squinted in attempts to bring the strange foreign thing into better focus then widened. "Yugi, I think that's a ship."

"A boat?"

"Ship."

"You sure? Looks like a boat to me."

"A boat would not last two minutes on the open waters, Yugi, it's far too small to survive a storm."

"Know it all." Yugi's eyes glittered in playfulness as Atem rolled his own. It had been forever since they had been like this; relaxed, at ease, and teasing. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen his older brother's smile, meaning that it had been a very long time since he had. For the last several years Atem had never been without that sideways smirk that wasn't anywhere close to his actual full smile or the straight line that no one could read. Maybe they could work on that. The young prince wiggled his eyebrows as he leaned towards his older brother. "Why don't we go check it out?"

All excitement dissipated from Atem as he fixed Yugi with a stern glare. "You know it is forbidden for our kind to go near the surface."

"We already technically broke that rule. C'mon, I've seen that secret little hideaway where you keep the things you find interesting about the humans." His lips lifted into a wide smile as a blush threatened to form across Atem's face. "That's right. I even know about the weird golden trinkets that you've collected from that one shipwreck that had the hieroglyphs across the sails. You were so infatuated with it cause it was similar to the ones we used to watch with father."

Atem was astonished. He had been so careful to keep it a secret from any who might tell their grandfather! Evidently he hadn't been careful enough. "I…You…When…" His shoulders slumped into in defeat as Yugi rolled across the sand, howling with laughter as the heat in his cheeks grew. Horror filled his features as a thought occurred to him. "Does anyone else?"

"Relax. If anyone else had known, don't you think gramps would have punished us both for it by now?" He had a point. There had been no indication that anyone had found out about his secret collection of human things. Yugi lightly nudged him with his elbow, directing his gaze upwards. "Too late, looks like its gone now."

"Back to the situation at hand then. Do we remain here to begin the journey back to Atlantis?" Atem rested his chin upon his folded arms, neatly bending his tail so that it would support them as he gazed out across the sand. It seemed like only yesterday that they had been granted their freedom, resulting in them landing where they were with no greater lead or answer than when they had been searching through the palace library. He had finally been able to stretch out his tail, to swim as fast as he wanted, to bask in the sun as they had when they were children. Living in the cool darkness of the Kingdom of Atlantis had not agreed with him as much as it had for Yugi. There had been several times where he would be restless from pent up energy or had even snuck away under the dark of the moonless nights so that he could swim to the surface just for a glimpse of the stars. Going back to their hidden home held just as much joy as eating his own tail.

Yugi's lavender eyes carefully studied the body language of his counterpart as they sat in silence. Every scale radiated with depression and lack of energy the second the hidden city had left his brother's lips. He leaned against Atem, his head resting upon his shoulder. "There's no rush, let's take our time, okay?" His eyes slid closed as Atem's head shifted to rest against his own, a silent display of his appreciation.