The small group reached the lake as fast as possible, they hit the edge and Yami dove off of Malik's back into the water.
"Come on!" he shouted swimming about as good as any fish.
"Yami you can't be serious," Jou called.
"Dead serious," he called right back before diving out of sight, Lassie came up out of the murky deep and met Yami on the way down, he pulled her head in towards him and went back up, leading her with him; they broke the surface and Yami led her to the bank.
"Malik, Marik, you both are going to have to change, unless you can swim in those forms," Yami said getting out of the water.
"We can't swim either way," Marik said, changing like Yami told him to, holding Yugi in his arms. Jou got in the water with Lassie and bent her neck down so he was right next to her ear and he began to whisper to her. Malik stayed the same,
"I'm not swimming," he said.
"Fine, then stay up here, I guess Bakura will love peeling your hide from your bones," Yami said as he took the panting Yugi from Marik.
"Yami... what're we doing?" he asked feeling the water trickling from Yami's face.
"We're going somewhere truly safe," Yami told him, kissing him lightly on the forehead before he sat him down on Lassie's back. Jou pulled away from Lassie, the large creature nodded her head and squealed happily, butting her head against his chest.
"Come here Marik," Jou said, Marik was still standing on the bank looking nervously at the water and fidgeting with the hem of his lavender tank top. He was a fire dragon by nature, he couldn't swim if he wanted to, and if water ever got to the wrong part of his body the soot inside if him would become a sticky goop on the inside of his lungs. Jou walked over and pulled him in up to his knees; Marik immediately latched onto Jou as tight as possible.
"Malik help me!" he cried as Jou pulled him along shakily towards Lassie; Malik didn't change his form he just splashed on in being short enough as a dragon to have his chest touch the water, he stood up on his hind legs and opened his arms to his brother who darted back towards the shallow water and the bigger dragon. He clung to him instantly.
"You always were a baby," Malik sighed.
"Would it make you feel better if I came with you?" he asked pressing Marik into the upward curve of his belly, Marik nodded trying to wrap his arms around his big brother's chest.
"Guys we have to go," Jou said from his place at Lassie's side.
"C-coming!" Marik stuttered out holding onto Malik as he waded in further, he finally got to Lassie, shaking all over. Jou guided his hands to the scales on Lassie's flippers; Yami was on her back with Yugi sitting next to him
"Malik, if you want to go down with us you are going to have to change," Jou told him going to her other flipper in deeper water, holding the floundering Ryou and attaching him as well, Malik sighed and changed again, grabbing onto Lassie's flipper.
"Okay, guys take a deep breath and hold it. Lassie take us under," Jou told her; all six of them took in a deep breath Yugi being unable to had Yami lying next to him breath for him through a kiss, Yami took in a huge breath and blew it into Yugi's mouth their fingers interlacing carefully.
With and excited squeal Lassie dove under, fast, both of the Ishtars had an almost white knuckle grip on on of her flipper as she propelled herself under water. Jou looked ahead, the lake itself was made in a deep cone shape, and at the bottom he could see the old water lady's housing on the bottom of the cone, the almost white sands stood out in the murk and Lassie sped towards it. Jou looked over to see Yami and Yugi exchanging their oxygen slowly; Malik had his always passive expression on and Marik looked like he was about to have a coronary. Lassie quickly hit the bottom, and the water woman's servants emerged from the half buried dwelling in the sands; Jou let go and the others followed his lead as the servants came closer, they were mermaids half dressed mermaids and mermen. Marik freaked out when they came close, the younger brother snorted out a peculiar combination of inky black stuff and air bubbles; it took two of the stronger looking mermen to hold him before they swam off with him towards the building, bubbles blowing out rapidly. The rest of the merpeople escorted them into the building three of the prettiest women helped Yami and Yugi, who were practically locked at the lips. The doorway into the small looking temple building was covered in a silver sheen like a bubble almost, they all passed through it; Malik being the most stubborn, opened his mouth to snap at the male who handled him, only to remember he was under water and shut it quickly, he shoved him through the sheen and the merman spoke.
"Speak if you wish," he drawled before swimming off past him, brushing the side of his head with his tail. Malik looked around his lungs were starting to hurt; Jou walked up to him and smacked him good and hard on the back.
"Breath moron!" he said as Malik was launched forward and the large bubbles he'd been holding in, flew from his mouth.
"Stupid, Merl told you you could speak," Jou added as Malik pushed himself up, he couldn't believe it he was breathing under water. He quickly looked around for his brother, he found him on a sand drift, coughing up a storm of bubbles.
"Marik!" he called pouncing towards him.
"Breath, baby, breath!" he told him rolling the younger over and pinning him to the sand, Marik looked up at him and sucked in a huge breath before sitting up and clinging to his lover breathing hard.
"Malik where are we!" he asked startled.
"I don't know baby," Malik replied hugging his brother.
"We're in Isis's home, she tends your cave's springs and takes care of Lassie," Yami said swimming up behind them.
"Why did you bring us here?" Malik growled.
"Because it is one of the safest places for us, Isis is quite the powerful water spirit," Yami said with a shrug.
"She can also help Yugi," he added, knowing Malik had a slight soft spot for his little koi.
"Where is he? Is he all right?" Marik asked standing and pulling his brother with him.
"He's fine, one of the mermaids took him to Isis, if you wish to see her just follow me," Yami replied twisting around and swimming off in the direction of a high arching doorway that was, in fact, big enough to fit a monster the size of Lassie through. They followed clumsily truly unable to swim, graceful as they were on land.
"Where is this Isis?" Malik asked Yami as said vampire turned and began to push them along into the large room on the other side of the arch way; the room was actually quite beautiful, every inch of the walls were carved out to resemble some sort of sea life. In this room huge straps hung from the ceiling, floating in the water eerily while glass bottles of different colors sat on shelves carved from the wall.
"Yami, what exactly does she do with this place?" Marik asked nervously looking around at the straps and bottles.
"She takes care of Lassie here," Yami replied moving them towards the next much smaller arch way decorated with sea snakes. Yami pushed them through it and into yet another chamber, this one was smaller, much smaller, and it was tilted downwards so that many statues and vases lay in piles at one end of the room, net hammocks hung from the ceiling and one of them had a small crowd of mermaids around it giggling. Yami swam up to them pulling Malik and Marik with him.
"Shoo," Yami said shooing them away, the pretty mermaids scattered, still giggling their little hearts out. When they moved they revealed Yugi sleeping, with one woman still at his side; Yami sat Malik and Marik down in a nearby hammock turning back to Yugi the lady next to him was rocking his hammoc back and forth gently, making his hair sway limply.
"How's his heart Isis?" Yami asked, both the Ishtars looked up at the mention of her name and their mouths dropped open. She was gorgeous, they had been expecting an elderly old hag, but she was beautiful her skin was tanned and was covered only by thin light blue linens her eyes were crystalline blue and her hair was black and on the backs of her arms were adorned with beautiful white fins, all in all, they both found her quite attractive; Malik had to quickly grab Marik before he fell out of the hammock.
"He's fine Yami, he was just having a little trouble with the change," she replied smiling sweetly as she continued to rock Yugi; Malik and Marik looked like they were about to melt.
"He's really sweet," she added.
"I'd die for him," Yami told her looking over at the brothers.
"I think you have a pair of admirers," he said pointing them out to her, she looked over at them also.
"Sorry boys, you're to young for me," she called making Marik fall backwards in the hammock.
"Did I say something wrong?" she asked Yami watching the two of them.
"Isis, they're both at least a few millennia old, they're both dragons, and neither of them can swim worth a flip," he whispered to her.
"Still, I don't mate out side of my species," she said Malik heard it and that KOed the other dragon; they both hung back limp with their feet hanging over the edge of the hammock.
"Do you think I killed them?" she asked smirking trying to hold back a giggle.
"No, they're too persistent," Yami said looking back down at Yugi.
"Is it possible to repair his heart?" Yami asked going from humorous to concerned mother in an instant.
"I don't know I've worked on him, looked at his heart, half the muscle seems to have ceased working, like it's dead," Isis said tracing the scar down the little one's chest.
"What happened here?" she asked curiously.
"Before he came to live with us, his father did this with a knife, he said it happened when he was little," Yami replied grimacing at the thought, he left out what had happened before hand. Yugi opened his eyes slightly and smiled.
"Yami," he said weakly.
"Shh, little koi, rest," Yami said laying a hand over Yugi's cheek; Yugi reached up slowly and put a hand over Yami's. He let out a sigh, before closing his eyes again, a trail of bubbles trickling from his mouth as he relaxed again. Yami smiled down at Yugi, his little koibito was fighting so hard to keep on breathing, but still he found it somewhere in him to smile for his koi.
"What were all of your mermaids giggling about?" he asked slightly curious,
"Yami, it's not often we get humans down here, Yugi accidentally called me mother and the girls just couldn't resist the cute little vampire," Isis said smiling brightly as she floated away from him; the brothers sat up again like rising from the grave to watch her go making google eyes at her she swam beautifully, her toes were webed and so were her fingers. Yami moved between them and her and they hissed at him, when he didn't move they settled for gazing at each other and kissing.
"So Isis, how is life down here?"
"Same as always, Lassie gets a scrub down almost every day, the merpeople are still building their population and city, they love living down here with me," she replied swimming through another doorway, into the maze that was her home.
"Peaceful," Yami mused.
"Yes, it is, why do you say that?" she asked turning to face him.
"Well above water, an enemy of mine from a long long time ago has reappeared and has been hurting Yugi in the name of revenge, we came down here to escape his newest weapon," Yami replied sighing and coming to rest on the floor.
"It's okay Yami, my home is your home, help is here if you need it, Yugi is fine and so are your friends, speaking of friends, where's the tall lanky one that brought me my mermaids," she said sounding playful, she loved tormenting that one.
"I don't know, he has gone missing since Bakura chased me through the city this morning," Yami said resting his forehead in his hands.
"He distracted him for me only for a few seconds so I could escape with Yugi," he muttered out, noticing when a small fish swam past his face and on down the hall.
"He's probably fine Yami, you have to relax, rest, go share the hammock with Yugi, get some sleep, I bet he missed sleeping with you at his side," Isis told him coming down to the sand and resting a hand on his shoulder.
"Anyway, I need you to get those two fruit cakes out of the hammock you left them in, if they need to stay down here they need to learn how to swim," she said trying to raise a smile from her favorite vampire, it did and Yami got up brushing off the sand.
"I guess you're right, I'd watch Malik, he can be a real flirt trust me, him and his brother are in love with each other, but they'll both fall for a pretty woman," he said pushing off from the sands.
"Why thank you Yami," Isis said sounding flattered as she followed Yami along the sand covered hallway. As they swam, a shrill hoot echoed towards them and out of the dark came a spiraling purple and white object. It hit Yami with the force of a cannon ball and knocked him back into the sand, sending up a cloud into the water; Yami wrestled the thing off of him and sat coughing out the sand.
"Who'd I hit? Who'd I hit?" the thing said excitedly as it sat stirring up sand with it's tail wiggling around, when the sand cleared and it stopped moving Yami was met with a pretty little pair of brown and brass colored eyes from under a long mane of black hair.
"Who are you!" it squeaked excitedly darting even closer only to be pulled back far enough to see the slightly intimidating little thing. It was a female, a little one, only from the look of it four or five years old, it wore a little halter top, but nothing else. From the waist down she was fish, with large, long, very pretty looking fins with lavender and white swirled across them and the scales all the way down to her large tail fin; other long fins protruded from her back and the back of her arms, all of which were the same splashed colors of her tail. Her skin was even tanned like her mothers so were her fingers webbed. She looked excitedly up at Isis,
"Who's that? Who's that?" she squealed.
"Maxine! Tell Yami you're sorry, you could have hurt him!" Isis told the different mergirl, holding her out to say sorry to the startled vampire.
"Sorry Mr. Yami," she said not meeting his ruby red eyes.
"Who is this little bundle of energy?" Yami asked the hyper merchild.
"Yami, I'd like you to meet my daughter," Isis said turning Max to face him.
"Your daughter! When were you going to tell us you had a kid?" Yami asked smiling unbelieving.
"You haven't been down here to visit long enough for so long," she replied.
"So who's the lucky father?" Yami asked grinning.
"A merman named David," she said smiling fondly at her daughter.
"She's beautiful Isis," Yami said swimming closer and looking at her different colored eyes.
"How old are you?" he asked kindly.
"I'm this many years old," she said holding up four of her little webbed fingers.
"How'd you learn to swim so fast?" he asked sweet talking her.
"Daddy big fish taught me," she said happily flipping her tail.
"That's her grandfather," Isis said patting Max on the head.
"Go on sweety, you can play with Yami more later," she said pushing her off in the direction she had been going.
"Bye-bye Mr. Yami!" she called before darting off down the hall, Yami burst out laughing.
"You have a very interesting daughter," he said once he had stopped.
"Yes, she is a hand full but her grandfather and David can handle her, you need to get some rest," she said getting behind him and pushing him in the right direction.
"All right, all right, I'll get the brothers down for you, and then I'll go to sleep, but when I wake up I'm going to need some blood for me and Yugi, Jou I don't know, and Ryou, the little grey thing that came in next to Jou, he might need some too," Yami told her swimming back into the tilted room. The brothers instantly perked up, Isis floated close to the floor and looked up at them; Yami whispered something in her ear and she chuckled as Yami swam up to Yugi's hammock. Isis looked up at them batting her eyelashes,
"Well big boys come and get me," she purred up to them seductively; in the next second Malik and Marik were both out of the hammock and clumsily padding their way through the water down to her, they hit the sand and stood, staring wide eyed up at the beauty like a pair of puppy dogs.
"I thought you said you couldn't swim," Yami called mockingly, halfway to Yugi.
"We can't, that was falling with style," they replied jumping and padding in the water in a weak attempt to swim.
"Well Isis is going to teach you two how to swim, so please be on good behavior," Yami told them before twisting his body around and swimming up to his still sleeping koi.
"Yugi," he whispered as he carefully positioned himself behind Yugi, and gently moved the little vampire to face him, wrapping his arms around his petite waist, Yugi opened his eyes slightly.
"Koi," he whimpered out.
"I'm right here Yugi, you are safe here," he whispered back rubbing his back lightly. The little one sighed again and nuzzled his head into Yami's chest, listening as the water carried his heartbeat to his ears,
"I love you," Yami whispered leaning his body to start the hammock rocking again, and sleep finally caught up with him as he closed his eyes, he drifted off to join his koi in nice peaceful sleep.
note: okay the Character Maxine is dedicated to my new baby cousin who was born on the same day even the same hour as I started this chapter the father merman is dedicated to my uncle Dave full name David who is the real father of baby Maxine. I would just like you all to know that. Her age also contributes to it she is four days old today the fourth of July.
Gruzzee: well there's another chapter I like it and didn't I tell you I'd give Yugi a break
Cazi: yeah, that was really nice of you aibou, now, R&R and come back for more