Yugi awoke again, only this time to the sound of soft snoring, no many soft snorings, he slowly opened his eyes only to be met with Yami's chest and the swaying of the net hammock below them. He looked down through it and his eyes flew open wider, he was hanging at least a good twenty feet off the sand below; he looked up, shivering, to the ceiling, the hammock was attached to and he gripped Yami. Yes, his chest still hurt, but he needed something to hold onto and that something was Yami. He looked around slightly, scared, the other hammocks around them had things in them; their fish tails were hanging out of the nets that they slept in. The closest one rolled over, making it's tail switch sides and the hammock began to sway. It was a mermaid, he had almost forgotten they were there; they had come out to meet them and that was all he could remember, before that lady with black hair had lulled him to sleep.
"Yami!" he whispered hoarsely, holding the sleeping vampire tightly as he coughed sending small bubbles into the water. Yami was awaken by the noise and set out to comfort him rubbing his back lightly.
"Yugi, sh, sh, sh, it's okay, what's wrong?" he asked sitting up in the hammock. Yugi continued to cough making the net below them sway as he moved; Yami continued to shush the little vampire holding him close. When Yugi finally calmed down he just sat there, holding onto Yami for dear life.
"Scared," Yugi whispered, looking around the now darkened room, there were so many mermaids hanging in their hammocks and every thing was so dark it was hard to see.
"It's okay, Yugi, its okay," Yami cooed still rubbing the little one's back; Yugi sighed coughing once or twice as he relaxed. Yami slowly laid back down with him.
"Are you feeling okay?" Yami asked him softly rocking the hammock again.
"My-my chest s-still hurts," yugi whispered back stuttering slightly.
"Shh, just relax, we'll find a way to fix that in the morning, lets just get some rest now," Yami said smiling and kissing his little koi lightly before he yawned and closed his eyes again.
"Okay," Yugi whispered, kissing Yami back and shutting his eyes with another sigh.
He had just barely begun to drift off to sleep when he felt something brush against the bottom of the hammock, making his eyes reopen and look down, there was nothing there.
"Are you all right?" said a voice behind him, he flipped over quickly looking for whoever it was. He saw Ryou perched, clinging to one of the ropes that attached the hammock to the ceiling, and he shrank into Yami's arms; the fledgeling crawled down the rope and let go, floating next to Yugi's side of the hammock.
"I just wanted to know if you were okay," he said coming closer and holding onto the side, curling his claws into the underside of the netting; Yugi couldn't speak quiet enough not to wake Yami so he just pointed to his heart.
"Hurts," he whispered quietly.
"I'm very sorry," Ryou said hanging his head.
"I never thought my dad would follow me," he said sadly,
"I f-forgive you," Yugi whispered.
"It-t-t wasn't y-your f-f-f-fault," he stuttered out quietly yawning.
"Do you need anything?" Ryou asked;
"Blood," Yugi moaned out reopening one of his eyes slightly to look up at the fledgeling before closing it again.
"I have enough, you can take some of mine," he said meekly offering his wrist.
"I-I can't," Yugi told him,
"I mean it, anything to make you feel a little better," Ryou almost pleaded.
"O-okay," Yugi replied opening his mouth, showing his fangs. Ryou brought his wrist down to Yugi and the small vampire closed his mouth over the wrist puncturing through with his fangs easily; Ryou didn't even flinch. Yugi drew the blood from him slowly, breathing through his nose was harder than through his mouth. He only drew a few small amounts of blood before he withdrew his fangs and swiped his tongue across the punctures before the blood had time to get out and dissipate into the water.
"Thank you," he whispered shutting his eyes and cuddling up against Yami's chest.
"You're welcome Yugi," Ryou replied as Yugi felt his toes free the net hammock beneath him and heard him swim back under the net, brushing it again with his back as he went under.
"Thank you, Ryou," Yugi whispered again as he finally drifted off to sleep, new blood slowly working its way through his damaged heart.
The next time Yugi opened his eyes it was to the sound of rushing water around him, he turned over to find Yami not there and he shot up looking around. The room was a little lighter and almost all of the hammocks were empty, the only things left in them were mermaid kids and babies from the looks of it.
"Yami!" Yugi cried looking down over the edge of the hammock.
"Yamiii!" he called again, wheezing, looking around for someone familiar. The hammock began to swing again at one end and he flipped around to see Ryou perched there again, clinging to the rope.
"R-Ryou?" he asked questioningly trying to relay that he was confused.
"That Lassie creature brought someone else down," he said coming down to kneel in the hammock with his feet sticking out behind him. Yugi hadn't noticed it the night before, but the fledgeling had donned new clothes that looked like they had been dyed a purple color.
"W-where is Y-Y-Yami?" Yugi croaked out becoming scared and needing something to hold.
"He went out to meet him, it looks like that Seto guy only he's missing a few chunks of flesh and half of his clothes," Ryou told him running his fingers along the edge of the new deep purple kilt he wore. Yugi on the other hand had taken on the appearance of a deer caught in the headlights of an eighteen wheeler, it was Seto, Seto was back. He immediately threw himself at Ryou holding onto him for dear life;
"Don't let him get me!" he cried his voice cracking horribly; he couldn't stand it any more, he had to hold something and Ryou was the closest thing. Ryou, caught off guard by the sudden action, relaxed and awkwardly put his arms around Yugi's shoulders.
"It's okay Yugi, I think Yami will be able to tell the difference this time," he told him rubbing Yugi's shoulder and feeling the word scarred there permanently. Yugi turned around when he heard voices drifting up from below. Both of them looked down in time to watch Yami come swimming through the arch way dragging a bound, bandaged, and bloody Seto.
"Now for the real test, Yugi can tell if you're not the real Seth Amut Kaiba," Yami said setting the Seto down in the sand before he swam up to the Hammock Yugi and Ryou were in. All it took was a angry hiss from Yami to scare Ryou away from Yugi, but it was enough to scare Yugi even more and he shrunk down into the hammock covering his head with his hands. Yami's anger melted at the sight and he came closer.
"Yugi?" the little vampire looked up at Yami having seen him angry had scared him.
"Yugi, I need you to help me with something," he said reaching out to him. He picked Yugi up and carried him bridal style, floating down to the bound Seto.
"Yugi, is this the real Seto?" he asked him softly.
"Damn it Yami, it's me, Seto, how many things do I have to tell you to prove it, I almost won the war for Joan of Arc, we lived in Germany for two years of our life, when I changed Jou he was a filthy little street punk from Boston now he loves to shop, tries to steal my drinks, and will do anything just to get me to kiss him," Seto listed off angrily.
"So, even though that stuff is true, you could have just had the real Seto tell you those things if you were a fake," Seto glared up at him and notice how weak Yugi was looking.
"What happened to the little guy?" he asked.
"A copy of you happened to him," Yami replied shifting so Yugi could see Seto, and the little one shrank into him. He still looked at him though, Seto had a couple of big bandages on his face and a many more wrapped around his chest, arms, and one of his ankles, but he locked eyes with him and it clicked. There was nothing to be afraid of this was the real deal Seto, blue eyes and all; Yugi rolled out of Yami's arms to kneel in the sand in front of Seto. Seto looked at him and Yugi slowly moved towards him.
"Seto!" he cried diving at him and pulling the much taller vampire into a tight hug as he latched onto the older one.
"I told you I was the real thing now could you untie me?" Seto said unable to move his arms to hold Yugi. Yami immediately realized he'd been wrong and set out on the task of releasing his arms and legs; when the ropes and shadows were off of his hands and elbows he instantly brought them around and held Yugi as the little one clung to him. While Yami was working on Seto's feet he looked up at him, the scowl reappeared on his face for a moment and he flicked him off before returning his attention to Yugi, yep it was Seto all right, he'd never met someone who could work up the gall to flick him off other than Seto, not even Jou.
"So really, what happened to Yugi?" he a sked once Yami had gotten all the ropes off.
"Bakura disguised himself as you and did some sort of healing on him and in the meantime he shut down half of the muscles in his heart, he's doing good to be breathing the way he is now," Yami said turning around when he heard something moving rapidly towards him, Ryou was dog paddling towards them.
"What do you want?" Yami hissed, he still had dislike for the fledgeling.
"I wanted to see Yugi," Ryou replied coldly to him before swimming past Yami, with a flick of his tail as he went by. Yami watched him very carefully as he took Yugi from Seto, coming to sit in the sand next to the crippled vampire, Ryou leaned down close to his ear.
"Do you need any more blood?" he whispered quietly. Yugi blinked hazily up at him but nodded in response; Yami heard the question though and before Ryou could give him his wrist Yami had snatched up Yugi and was drifting away with him.
"Yami?" Yugi questioned looking up at him.
"I'll feed you," Yami whispered sitting Yugi down in his hammock again. He turned and swam off in the direction of the first room they had been in.
"Don't touch him, I'll know if you do," he growled to Ryou as he passed. He kept on going to find Isis in the next room giving Lassie a scrub down with her little daughter darting around scratching the soft spots making Lassie very happy and curl into different positions in the straps for her mother.
"Isis, is it time for the fish to be brought in? I need blood," He asked coming closer, trying to ignore the small mergirl that had attached herself to his waist.
"They should almost be done, why?" she said,
"Yugi needs some and I'll be, well you know, before I let Ryou feed him," Yami said resisting saying any strong language in front of Maxine.
"The fish are the only way I can figure to get blood with out biting into the merpeople, and we don't want to do that," Yami replied shrugging and detaching Maxine from him reattached herself quickly around his neck.
"Maxine get off of him," Isis told her noticing Yami was having trouble with her. She let go and went back to teasing Lassie.
"Thanks Isis," he said before swimming off to the first room, where he found Malik doing a very crude version of a frog kick towards Marik, who had perched himself high in the room on a shelf curled up as a dragon and looking very out of place. In the doorway at least fifteen mermen were pulling in a large net full of fish of all different sizes. Yami swam up to them as they pulled nets over the entrances to the room so the fish wouldn't escape, and opened the net in a flash of fins and scales, they scattered, and the mermen began to make a game out of it. The nets over the windows had holes in them big enough to let the fish not worth keeping out of the room, the rest were fair game including for Malik and Marik, who picked out a couple of the small fish that got too close, for snacks. Yami approached one of the ones who looked like a leader black scales, a scar shaped like a star on his belly, and the darkest coldest blue eyes he'd ever seen.
"Do you mind if I take some fish?" he asked.
"Sure if you can catch it you can keep it," he said gruffly not even looking at him.
"Thanks," Yami said and he was off, he darted among the fish and mermen, looking for good sized ones, he caught one going to slow and picked up another that Marik had caught, careful not to break the skin on them, fish didn't have much in the way of blood. He caught one more before he finally had to go back down to the sands to pick up one of the small net bags to tie to his waist and put the fish in. He caught only one more particularly large fish before he went back with enough for Yugi, himself, Seto, and Ryou. When he reentered the tilted room he noticed Seto had been moved up into a hammock next to Yugi, and swam up to them. He gave Seto a fish and then went to Yugi, Ryou was hanging onto the rope at the end.
"I didn't do a thing," he cried throwing his hands up and hanging on with his feet. Yami threw him his fish and Ryou dove to catch it before the dazed fish could swim away; Yami helped Yugi sit up and handed him a fish.
"Bite right below the gills," he told him showing him where to bite and the little vampire bit, copying his older lover and slowly drinking the fish dry of any blood. Once he was done a vicious crunch sounded next to him; both him and Yami glanced over to see Ryou holding his fish, only instead of just bite marks the fish was missing a very large chunk of flesh and bone.
"What?" he said once he had swallowed the chunk in his mouth.
"Y-you c-c-c-can eat?" Yugi stuttered out looking at him with his head cocked to the side.
"Yeah unlike you full fledged vampires, my stomach doesn't absorb my blood for me, I have something in my throat that does that, so, yes, unlike you my stomach still functions normally and so do the other organs connected," Ryou told them wrapping his tail around his stomach.
"Not true! our organs still work, we just have a choice of weather or not we want to use them," Seto called from his hammock having finished his fish. Ryou simply continued to eat his fish and, to their amazement, finished the entire thing bones and all.
"Th-th-that doesn't h-h-hurt?" Yugi asked thinking about how it might feel to swallow whole fish bones.
"No it doesn't hurt," Ryou replied bluntly.
"Yami! We found something you might want to see in with the last catch!" called Isis from the door way looking up at them. Yami told Yugi he'd be right back and went down to her.
"What is it?" He asked slightly annoyed.
"It looks like one of your monsters, it came in with a net of our fish, we've never seen anything like it in the lake before," she said pulling Yami back through into the room Lassie had been in earlier; the same black scaled male floated there waiting for them trying to hold a strange looking little creature by the nose. As they approached Yami noticed it looked alot like a seahorse, only with wild colors, the thing was about as big as his fore arm its body was a clear light aqua marine color, like light blue glass, and the rest of it was covered in long nasty looking magenta spines webed all over its body, the little bugger was putting up one heck of a fight too, it was pulling backwards as hard as it's little fins could go even though the merman had a very firm grip on its long nose. Yami got right up next to him, the thing was defiantly a monster from the shadows but he had never summoned this one before, sure he'd seen it but it wasn't his.
"Is this one of your little beasts?" the male grumbled out bringing up his other hand trying to find a place on the critter's body where he could grab.
"No this one isn't mine, do you have a net for it, I'd like to see if it's one of Seto's," Yami replied looking the seahorse-like creature over from its beady black eyes to it's even darker magenta tail,
"Yes we have a net for it, here," the merman said taking the net bag from his hip and quickly shoving the little monster into it.
"Thank you," he said taking it from him and heading back in the direction he came, Isis following close behind.
"Yami what is that thing?" she asked coming up next to him.
"it's a monster called a boneheimer; what I don't know is who's it is, I'm going to kill it if it isn't Seto's," Yami said holding up the bag they reentered and Yami pushed off from the sand up to Seto.
"Hey Seto is this little pest yours?" Yami asked holding it up for him; Seto looked at Yami then at the boneheimer.
"Yami what in seven hells would make you think I would ever make that thing mine?" Seto asked glaring at the magenta and aqua marine thing.
"I didn't think so, time to get rid of you," Yami said throwing the bag into open water still tied shut, he put out his hands and the shadows came out clamping shut over the bag like a Venus fly trap; when they opened, the bag was still there, but the little monster wasn't. Almost the instant he did so he regretted it as a loud bang shook the building around them shaking dust from the ceiling and startling Yugi in his hammock.
"Oh,no!" Yami cried darting back up to the hammocks a horrible thought occurring to him,
"We have to get out of here, that thing was a spy! Bakura's here!"
notes: first note, the way Yami told Yugi to bite on the fish has an anatomy twist to it, right behind and just below a fish's gills is a fish's heart, therefore, it would be the best place to bite for blood, any where else and you run the risk of hitting the stomach or swim bladder or some other nasty organ. second note the boneheimer is a duel monster I was just thinking of adding it in here as Bakura's spy, so I did.
Gruzzee: another nice chapter but behold the ever present evil cliffhanger.
Cazi: yay, that's my aibou now get ready for a bumpy fight and all you out there R&R and come back for more, oh and please keep in mind my aibou lives on Florida's west coast so there is always the possibility that we will be delayed by hurricanes until December 1st.
Gruzzee: err, readers out there I have another late question I'm asking it all the way back here, okay, would you guys absolutely hate me if in the sequal to this story (yes there will be a sequal) if I make someone want revenge and turn Yugi female and pregnant for a while and then he becomes male again? tell me in your reviews what you think of it in your reviews please.