Chapter 3: Impossible to Love You

Atemu heaved the unconscious Yugi onto the sandy shore of the beach, panting slightly as he searched the handsome boy for signs of life.

'Oh, if only I remembered where you were supposed to feel humans for a pulse…' the mer-prince thought frantically, feeling Yugi's shoulder and thigh. 'Where's Ryou when you need him?'

Fortunately when Atemu felt around his face, he felt Yugi breathing, and he sighed in relief.

Atemu stroked Yugi's wet tricolor hair out of his face, contemplating on his angelic features.

'Oh Yugi…if only I could stay here with you forever…what would I give to stay here forever with you and make you smile…?'

A quiet moan escaped Yugi's lips as his violet eyes struggled to open. In the light of the sun slowly peeking out from behind the clouds, he saw a handsome face with sharp-lidded eyes and hair that fell wet onto his shoulders.

"Who…?" Yugi whispered.

The face smiled.

"Don't worry, my little aibou," he answered in a deep, rich voice that almost instantly made Yugi relax. "You're safe now."

Yugi's mind was clouded. He was so sure that the ship exploded and he had drowned…did this man save his life?

'His eyes are so…passionate…so…wonderful…who is he?'

"YUGI!"

The man looked up, before retreating out of sight. Yugi would've called "Wait!" and pulled him back, but he didn't have enough strength to get up and the salt water was blurring his senses.

He found himself being jumped on by Tea as she hugged him in relief, crying to the Heavens frantically.

"Oh thank the Gods, Yugi! We thought you were…oh Yugi!"

But Yugi wasn't paying attention; he looked around desperately, hoping to see his savior's retreating back so he could call him back and thank him…but it was as if the man had disappeared.

Yugi looked down at the gold puzzle box in his hand, and his fingers clenched determinedly around it.

'Now I know what I'll wish for,' he thought to himself, looking out at the sky. 'I'll wish to find the person who rescued me…the man who called me…"aibou"…'

Atemu in reality wasn't that far away; he was hiding behind a rock off the shore watching Tristan run over and aid Yugi to his feet and the two servants pulling him back toward the palace.

"ATEMU!"

Seto and Joey worriedly swam over to their friend on the rock.

"What in the seven seas do you think you were doing?" Seto shouted at him. "Saving a human…! You know contact with humans is forbidden! What if his servants had seen you? You could've been skewered with a harpoon and made into a shish-kabob!"

But Atemu didn't care about anything Seto said; the grin on his face made almost look drunk with happiness as he looked back at Yugi walking away with the aid of Tea and Tristan.

Seto looked irritated at being ignored and he was about to swim over and turn Atemu around himself, but Joey grabbed his shoulder and held him back.

"Let him be," the blond merman murmured with a slight smile. "Love doesn't let you think sensibly."

Seto blinked in surprise at him.

"What?" asked Joey.

"That…was really deep, dogfish."

Joey scowled and turned away. "Contrary to your beliefs, rich boy, people who live in stuffy palaces aren't the only people who know about the world."

Seto flinched a little. He knew that Joey lived with his father in a more run-down section of the kingdom; of course, when they were children, Seto used to tease Joey about this a lot…but now as Seto eyed the "J" cut on Joey's tail that for some reason hadn't healed at all in the last ten years, he wondered if his old insults toward Joey's family had hurt him more than he'd let on.

Atemu wasn't paying attention to his cousin and friend's conversation, instead looking up at the white marble palace that Yugi must have lived in.

"One day, Yugi," he vowed as a whisper, "someday, I'll find a way…to be part of your world…"

Little did the three mermen know that two sets of eyes were watching them…eyes that belonged to two impish-looking mermen with matching blue-green eel tails and an odd circle-surrounded, six-pointed star symbol on their foreheads…and only the two mermen ever heard a psychic message of

"Keep an eye on that little prince, you two…wait for the right moment…and then bring him to me."

Days passed normally, but there was a very different air around the palace. Atemu had been oddly cheerful and dreamy, and it was a bit unnerving to see the rule-rebel prince gathering sea flowers early in the morning to arrange in the vases in the conference rooms and bedrooms and combing his hair obsessively in front of every mirror he swam around while humming a dreamy tune to himself.

The males of the court excluding Seto were baffled by the prince's strange behavior. Isis, however, smiled knowingly as she watched Atemu depart one morning, for she could tell exactly what was going on.

"My," she murmured in an unfathomable tone. "He's got it bad."

The mermen looked at her, confused.

"What?" Mahaado asked stupidly. "What has he got?"

"Isn't it obvious?" inquired Isis, looking mildly disbelieving they hadn't figured it out. "Atemu's in love."

Aknadin and Mahaado exchanged a look. Karim looked disbelieving.

"Atemu…in love?"

Seto irritably swam around the cluster of ships until he caught sight of the ocean liner that hid Atemu's secret grotto, hoping to find his vague-acting cousin there after sitting through their lessons with Shada all alone.

When he entered the grotto, he was not surprised to see Joey there…but he was surprised to note the white-haired mermen talking with him. One of them had his white hair short and messy and had tan skin and a scarred red tail. The other had long hair, pale skin like Joey's and a turquoise tail.

"Rich boy?"

Joey noticed Seto's presence first, making the white-haired mermen turn to look at him.

The longhaired albino's face broke out into a smile. "Seto, is that you? Wow, you've grown a lot…and I thought Atemu was small compared to you before…"

Seto inclined his head. "You've changed too, I see, Ryou. You were the last person I ever saw choosing an aibou."

The shorthaired albino glared at Seto with distrustful lilac eyes. "Oh? And how exactly do you know Aibou enough to attempt to make such an assumption?"

"Bakura, chill," Ryou told him, gripping his shoulder both reproachfully and soothingly. "Seto was a childhood friend of mine, Joey's and Atemu's…he's Atemu's cousin, and one of his High Priests."

Bakura raised an eyebrow. "A High Priest, huh? Well then, I have a right to be concerned, chibi Aibou…he's probably one of the people who banished you."

"Bakura!" Ryou admonished, whacking him upside the head. "Seto wasn't old enough to be responsible for that…and I did break the rules of the kingdom! The Court had no choice."

Bakura rubbed his aching head. "They had the choice whether or not to excuse you, and they didn't!"

"That's not their place," Ryou rebuked.

Seto nodded. "Only King Aknamkanon has the right to overturn laws…we only advise him and fulfill the punishments."

"Coward," snarled Bakura, "making his lapdogs do all the dirty work-OW!"

Ryou whacked him on the head again. Seto's eyes narrowed.

"What right do you have to talk about us as if we're evil people? Our job is to hunt the evil people that break our laws and defile the goodness of the world; we're not evil."

Bakura's eyes widened dangerously, and Seto immediately got the feeling he went too far. The short-haired albino didn't make any violent movement toward him, however; instead he scowled at him and swam off underneath one of the longest shelves so he could curl up in a ball and hide there like a shark hiding in the dark for prey. Ryou swam over to try and comfort him, stroking the scales of his tail gently and whispering to him reassuringly. Seto looked at Joey confusedly.

Joey sighed. "Your words were…the wrong sort to say to Bakura…he's really sensitive about our government and how it's run. From what I've heard from Ryou, he lived in a village of social outcasts outside the kingdom…some of them were banished, some were criminals from the kingdom trying to start over…anyone really…anyway, one of the members of Atemu's father's court sent a group of assassins to wipe out the village, hearing a rumor that they had sponsored a group of terrorists that were plotting to attack the kingdom…we still don't know to this day if that rumor was true…but Bakura was the only survivor…he was only a merboy at the time."

Joey looked sadly sympathetic just talking about it, and Seto inadvertently felt a similar wave of sadness wash over him at the look on his face.

'Why do I feel this way?' Seto thought vaguely. 'I haven't felt pity in years…I haven't felt anything compassionate in years…ever since I became a High Priest…I had to put my feelings aside…what is happening to me? Why am I starting to feel again?'

He looked at Joey as the blond merman brushed past him so that he could join Ryou next to Bakura and try to help comfort him.

'Could it be because of the dogfish?'

Seto shook his head furiously to try and clear it.

'No! No, of course not! I just…need to meditate in my room for a while…yeah…'

And so he swam out of the grotto without another word. He blindly swam the path back to the palace, trying to block Joey from his mind.

'Get a grip, you moron! It's the dogfish! That scrawny little boy that always used to tag around with Atemu! The one that got into fights everyday…the one that was so fun to irritate…the one with that messy blond hair that cascaded into his face to shape his warm brown eyes…DAMN IT, NO! STOP THAT!'

"Seto!"

The brown-haired merman snapped out of his thoughts to see his father, Aknadin, swimming quickly toward him.

"Father?" asked Seto. "What's going on?"

Aknadin stopped to catch his breath. "The king has requested an audience with you…I think it's something about Atemu."

Seto's heart stopped. 'Oh no…what if he knows…?'

He forced the terror out of his expression quickly and nodded seriously. "Alright…I'll meet him at once."

As Seto swam past Aknadin toward the palace, he felt a type of queasy feeling in his stomach. It was very rare for the king to receive an audience with someone, particularly a single person; usually the Court bore most of the responsibility of interacting with the people, so the king usually saw very few others besides his aibou and his Court. Needless to say, Seto had very good reason to be nervous at being called personally by King Aknamkanon.

When he got to the door of the throne room and was about to knock, the blue-tailed High Priest hesitated.

'Easy, Seto…this isn't necessarily what you think…he might not know…just remain…calm.'

He took a deep breath, before raising a hand and knocking on the door.

"Come in," answered a royally deep voice not that unsimilar to Atemu's.

Seto slowly turned the handle on the door and pushed it open.

Atemu's father, King Aknamkanon, was sitting in his golden throne, carrying his green magical staff that helped him control the weather and the ocean. The king, like Seto's own father Aknadin, had dark facial hair and heavy eyebrows, and his fishtail shone a similar color to the gold crown that adorned the white headdress on his head.

"You…requested an audience with me, Your Highness?"

"Yes," Aknamkanon answered. "I wonder, nephew, would you close the door?"

'Well, he doesn't sound angry…' Seto thought in slight relief as he nodded and closed the door behind him.

"I've been growing a bit concerned," Aknamkanon admitted quietly. "I've noticed my son has been acting odd lately. According to Shada, he's been skipping his classes even more than usual, and no one seems to know why. I thought you, as you're the closest to Atemu out of all of his Court, might know something I don't."

Seto tried not to look nervous. "I don't believe I do, Your Highness."

Aknamkanon looked quite grave, as if he suspected Seto wasn't telling the whole truth. The blue-tailed merman turned to leave.

"Seto…is there something you wish to tell me?"

Seto froze. He hadn't meant to react so fearfully, but the king's words had filled him with a type of horrible deja vu. It was like a knife had pierced his heart and flooded his body with a cold poison.

"Seto…is there something you wish to tell me?

Aknamkanon's words echoed in his head, before it slowly morphed into a question his own father had asked him so long ago…

"Son, is there something you wish to tell me?"

Then another voice, a young boy's, replaced his father's in his head…

"Promise me you won't tell Dad, big brother!"

And then Joey's replaced the young boy's…

"…If you swear not to tell anyone about this…especially not Atemu's father…I'll show you where Atemu went. Agreed?"

And then the voice of a teenager…his own.

"Mokuba! No! MOKUBA!"

"Seto?"

Aknamkanon's concerned voice shot Seto out of his thoughts. At first, the young merman didn't answer the king…then he finally replied in a very quiet voice,

"Yes…there is."