Chapter Six- Secret Out

"Hi. You must be Mokuba."

"I am. Seto's waiting on the patio by the pool." Mokuba led Atem through the mansion and out to the back where a screened-in patio and pool sat and at a table furthest from the pool was Kaiba his laptop open and ready. Also on the table was a large pitcher of water and two glasses and one of them was already filled.

Kaiba smiled as the teen sat. "Hi. I thought we'd work outside today."

"No complaints here. It's a pretty day." It certainly was: The sky was blue and cloudless and the temperature was pleasant, a hint of the summer that was coming. He reached into his schoolbag and pulled out the report, both the written and typed versions. "I read it over and saw no mistakes but it's best to have someone else read it."

Kaiba nodded. "And you can view our slideshow and provide any comments or inputs." He slid the laptop over and pulled the typed report to himself, grabbing his cup and draining it before pouring some more.

Atem examined each slide and how the statistics came up before running it as an automatic show. He liked how fancy the pop-ups were and how they appeared. He glanced quickly at Kaiba and saw the brunette drinking a lot of water and rubbing the side of a leg. "Seto? Are you all right?" he asked.

"Sure, fine. Just very thirsty." Truthfully, Kaiba wasn't fine. He was feeling the signs of his change and needed to get away for an hour which he knew Atem would find strange, but there was nothing that could be done about that. He saw the pitcher was empty and grabbed it before standing. "I'll go fill the pitcher." He started for the back door as Atem went back to examining the slides.

Then Kaiba felt his legs wobble and he hit the ground, the plastic jug rolling away. He sat up, staring at his tail and hearing his brother call his name. He rolled onto his side and saw Atem on his feet and gaping at him. He grimaced slightly: His secret was out.

Atem thought Kaiba was acting weird. His excessive thirst and leg rubbing wasn't normal. Something was wrong with his friend and he wasn't being forthcoming. When Kaiba stood to refill the pitcher, he returned to the laptop, resolving to let Kaiba know that if something was wrong, he would be willing to help him. A thud and Mokuba crying out made Atem stand and turn, his mouth agape at what he saw. Kaiba laid on the ground with a blue tail instead of legs! Whoa! Seto's a merman too!

Kaiba rolled onto his stomach and avoided Atem's gaze as he dragged himself toward the pool. He slid himself into the shallows, sitting on the steps so his tail was covered.

"Seto?" came Atem's voice beside him.

He kept his eyes down. "Go ahead and say it. I'm a freak and you're mad I kept it from you."

"I'm not mad as I understand why you kept it a secret and I don't think you're a freak."

Kaiba finally looked up. "You don't?"

Atem smiled as he entered the pool and sat one step below Kaiba before focusing and changing forms. Kaiba's mouth dropped as a blue and purple swirled tail replaced Atem's legs. "You're like me as well?"

Atem looked up. "Yes. It happened when I was showering three years ago. Apparently the legend had been passed down my family line and Grandpa told me everything I needed to know." He flicked his fins in the water before they rested on the pool bottom.

"Have you been swimming every Saturday?" Mokuba asked, having recovered from the shock of seeing Atem change.

"I have. No offense, Seto, but I didn't like the idea of randomly changing, especially in public."

"None taken. I changed in my room five years ago. I researched it online before soaking my tail so I could be human again. I hate being a merman and anything to do with the ocean."

"Seto, you can't ignore this. We are mermen and it's not so bad, especially for you." Atem swept a hand at the pool. "You can swim at home while I need to drive to the beach to swim."

Seto looked at his tail and focused on keeping it before sliding himself into the water. He kicked his tail to move him into deeper water before diving down, his fins and part of his tail appearing before vanishing.

"Seto usually goes underwater to end a conversation," Mokuba said. "I think Seto's done talking about being a merman."

"I think it's different this time. He may be finally accepting his merman side. I'll go check on that." Atem slid fully into the water before ducking down and heading toward Kaiba who swam about in the deep end. "You all right?"

"Yes. You and Mokuba are right. I should change more often. It's just that I've been changing one day a month for five years. It'll be difficult to change that."

"If Mokuba's been insisting you change, it may not be that hard."

Kaiba smiled. "Good point. Now, about our project."

"I like what I saw. It'll be easy to change the slides if one of us is behind the laptop to change them."

"Agreed and we'll take turns with that. Your typing of the report was good. I haven't seen any errors."

"Well, I let Yugi read it and then I had to correct the errors he found."

"He was thorough." And I may want to be friends with him too.

"Yes, he is. Seto, there is something I found out on our picture trip."

"What?"

Atem grinned. "We can talk to sea life."

"What!?"

"Yeah. Some of them helped me with kelp and plankton shots. I later learned that while they can talk to their respective species, they can't speak to each other. I was serving as an interpreter at those points, which I don't mind."

"Heh, talking to fish. Well, that would make me swear off seafood if I hadn't already."

Atem laughed. "Yeah, I stopped eating seafood too. Yugi was surprised as I loved crab cakes, but Grandpa said that was part of being a merman."

Kaiba performed a backflip, delighting in the motion at last. "I think another reason I didn't change was Mokuba. I felt bad that he can't join me in this. It also makes me feel like we weren't brothers, as ridiculous as that notion is."

Atem shook his head. "I had that same feeling but Grandpa said my having a tail didn't mean Yugi and I weren't brothers anymore. I'm still human except for once a week and only for a few hours. Speaking of which, I think your hour's almost up."

"It would if I hadn't focused on keeping my tail before swimming out here. Atem, now that I know you're a merman, I'm not as lonely anymore."

"Is that part of why you were cold and unfriendly?"

"It is."

"I was lonely too and that's part of why I swim in the ocean: For the company."

"And a lot more space."

Atem laughed. "You know, we could go swimming at the beach once in a while."

"I'd like that. How about this Saturday? I'm free."

"Sure, but I'll pick you up. It'll be less conspicuous."

"All right. Oh and you can tell your family about me. I know they'll keep it secret."

"They sure will," Atem agreed as they headed to the shallows to change and return to working on their project.