Disclaimer: I still don't own YGO.

A/N: Hello again and thanks for the reviews! I really enjoy hearing what you think about my story! Please keep reviewing and making me happy enough to update!

Yami appears for the first time in this chapter and there's quite a bit of background information on him, so I'm sorry if it bores anyone. His last name is actually Egyptian just so you know.

This chapter is twice as long as the first one and the next one should be even longer since Yami's taking Melanie to the Aquarium and he finally meets Yuugi.

oooooooChapter 2ooooooo

Yuugi looked up into the worried face of the stranger that had helped him breathe.

"Are you alright, my boy?" Yuugi nodded examining the worn and wrinkled face of the man who was holding him up over the edge of the pool. The man gave a slight chuckle as he noted Yuugi's eyes gazing at him intensely. "You gave me quite a fright there, lad. I'm glad you're ok now."

Yuugi looked into the smiling eyes of the old man before him and realised that he had yet to thank the man for his help. Yuugi was about to open his mouth, but the old man got there first.

"I'm Sugoroku Motou, by the way. What's your name, young man?"

"I-" Yuugi cleared his throat as his voice was hoarse form not using it for a while. "I'm Yuugi and arigatou gozamaisu for your help Motou-san." Yuugi gave a slight bow to the man.

Sugoroku was shocked at how ambrosial the merboy's voice sounded; it seemed that his voice hadn't gained any of the gruffness that teenage boys usually had. Maybe his voice hadn't broken yet, or then merboys' voices didn't break.

Recovering from the shock of Yuugi's angelic voice, Sugoroku gave another small chuckle, "You can call me jii-chan if you'd like, Yuugi. I don't go for any of that formal stuff. How old are you anyway, Yuugi-kun?" He waved his hand as if dismissing the whole issue.

"I'm seventeen and arigatou again jii-chan." Yuugi gave him another bow and swam backwards a bit.

"It was nothing, my boy." Sugoroku said dismissing the topic again with his hand. "I was quite worried about you, you know. They brought you in and you were bleeding pretty badly. The marine vet healed you and then they put you into this tank to rest." Yuugi wasn't sure if he understood what jii-chan was talking about, but he got the basic idea so he nodded. "You've been unconscious for three days now and I wasn't sure if you were going to wake up…" The old man got a sad look on his face and Yuugi felt bad for making him worry. "But that's over now and you're fine, right?" Jii-chan looked at Yuugi with a smile on his ancient features.

Yuugi nodded and, deciding that the man was trustworthy, asked some of his earlier unanswered questions. "What is this place?"

Sugoroku was caught off guard for a moment; he had not expected the merboy to break the short silence.

"This is Domino Aquarium. It's a place where we show all kinds of underwater creatures in tanks filled with water. We have many different kinds of fish and sharks and, why, now we even have a merboy!"

Yuugi nodded though he didn't understand why humans wanted to put animals into tanks for others to look at. Why couldn't they just go swimming and see these things for themselves?

"Why would these people want with me? Why didn't they pick another one of the merfolk to put into a tank? Why me?"

"They didn't pick you out of all the merpeople, Yuugi; the fishermen caught you by accident when they were trying to catch fish. No one even knew that mermaids existed before you came."

This made sense to Yuugi; there had never been any reports of missing or captured mermaids so it only made sense that it had never happened before now.

Before Yuugi could ask another question, he heard voices from a hallway to his right. He couldn't make out what the people were saying, but they sounded happy about something.

Sugoroku turned a panic-stricken face to his adopted grandson. "Yuugi, you have to go back underwater, these people shouldn't see that you're awake. Go back to the cave and stay there until you know for sure that the men are gone."

Yuugi was terrified, but he didn't question jii-chan and fled underwater.

Sugoroku got up and resumed his job of cleaning the floors of the pool area, all the while listening to the mens' conversation.

"I'm telling you; the mermaid will wake up in time for the Family Fun Day."

"What if it doesn't? What are we going to do then? We can't tell the public that we have a mermaid and then not show it."

Sugoroku tightened his grip on his mop. How dare they refer to Yuugi as an 'it'? Even a 'her' would be more acceptable, though not correct.

"Then we don't tell the public and make it a surprise."

"That's an excellent idea, but then we can't charge the people for seeing the mermaid."

The other man thought for a moment and then snapped his fingers. "We could make it a special prize. Say the first five families get special passes to see the mermaid and after that they'll spread the word and we make the rest pay to get in."

"Ah, that is an excellent idea! Then we don't have to inform people in advance and we can cancel in the last minute if the mermaid's not awake."

Sugoroku gasped; they were going to overwhelm Yuugi with the vast amount of people that were bound to come in and see the little merboy.

"What's up old man?"

"Ignore him; he's just a janitor."

"He is old, isn't he? We should really replace him soon… Don't want him to die on us do we?"

The two left the ground floor, chuckling and descended the stairs the underwater level. They could see into the cave from there and see if the mermaid was awake yet since the Family Fun Day was tomorrow.

Yuugi sat tightly huddled in a corner of the cave. He had his arms wrapped around his cerulean tail and he was shaking slightly. He really didn't know what those men wanted with him and he wasn't too eager to find out. Yuugi gave a shudder at what the men could do to him and hid his head into his arms.

Unbeknownst to the young merboy, two pairs of greedy eyes were upon his huddle up form. The owners of the eyes were excitedly discussing the merboy in the cave. Yuugi, of course couldn't hear them due to the glass that had him imprisoned.

"Look at it, Mack. Look long and hard, because that baby is gonna make us rich."

"I see it… It really is a beauty though, don't you think? I mean that thing looks better than my daughter—and that's saying something."

"Yeah, but its beauty will only give us more of a reason to raise the prices."

The men laughed and left chatting about the money they would be getting from showing off the beautiful merboy in the tank.

ooo

"Yami, you're cousin's here! Come on down and say 'hi'!"

Said boy groaned in annoyance; his cousin was a seven year old girl who was extremely hyper and made it her mission in life to annoy Yami to no end.

Focusing his attention back to the book he was reading, the eighteen-year-old, half-Egyptian ignored his mum's yell. Soon after there was a knock on the door and an annoyingly childish voice came through the door.

"Yami-kun, Megumi-san wants you to come and say 'hi' to me."

Yami groaned, but did it so that the black-haired girl couldn't hear him. "I'll be right there, Mel, just let me finish this chapter."

"Okay, but you better come down or Megu-san will be mad at you for ignoring me. You did promise to baby-sit me for two days."

Even after Melanie left, the annoying sing-song voice still lingered in the air.

"Why oh why did I have to agree to this?" Yami asked himself quietly as he closed his book. There was no way he could concentrate on anything now that the annoying brat was in the same house as he.

Megumi was busy chatting with her sister as her son walked down the stairs.

"Yami-kun, about time you came down." She didn't seem mad, in fact, she was smiling and looking like her birthday had come early.

"Hi Natsuko-san, how have you been?" Yami asked, bowing slightly to his aunt, cautious of his mother's ever-smiling face.

"Oh, I've been just great, Yami, in fact I was just telling Megu-chan that Daisuki just proposed to me and we're getting married next summer!"

Yami smiled at his aunt, "That's great Natsuko-san, I'm really happy for you!"

Natsuko was smiling like there was no tomorrow. "Thanks, Yami, I'm really happy too!"

Just then Daisuki walked in with Melanie in tow.

"What are we smiling about in here?" Daisuki asked in his gruff voice, seeing everyone positively glowing with happiness.

"I just finished telling Megu-chan and Yami-kun that we're getting married next year." Instead of answering Daisuki just walked over to his fiancé and kissed her lightly on the lips. Then he turned his attention to Yami.

"So, Yami-kun, have you found anyone you'd like to go steady with?"

Yami shook his head; he had dated a lot of guys and girls alike, but none of them seemed to be the right one for him.

"Really? I thought Natsuko told me that you were going out with…what was his name? Bakura?"

Yami shook his head again, "We broke up a few weeks ago and now he's going out with my other friend, Ryou."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"I'm not really. I always knew that Ryou liked him and that it would never work out; he was just too protective." 'And wanted to be the dominant one…' Yami though to himself.

Yami wanted to be the dominant, protective one in a relationship. He wanted his koi to run to him and have Yami protect him form all the bad things in the world.

The main reason he and Bakura had broken up was that neither knew how to be the submissive one. They had a lot of fights about who would get to be on top or who would get to dominate a kiss. In the end they decided that it was for the best to break up.

"That's just too bad that it didn't work out with wither Bakura or Seto." Daisuki said sympathetically.

The same thing had happened with Seto. The CEO wanted to dominate everything they did and would always shower Yami with gifts and affection. Yami would have none of this since he wanted to be the one spoiling his lover with gifts and affection.

"I thought that it would've lasted with Seto; he was such a caring young man." Natsuko said.

"Yeah, he is a great guy, but he's just too affectionate. He's better off with Jounouchi."

"Is he, now?" Natsuko seemed surprised. It was no wonder, really, since last time she saw the two together they had been calling each other names and fighting the whole time.

"Oh, they make a lovely couple, imotou-chan." Megumi said. Yami had brought the two around a few times and Megumi had though that they made a great couple.

The phone rang, interrupting the family's conversation.

"I'll get it." Yami said as he walked over to the phone in the hallway. "Moshi moshi, El-Beleidy residence Yami speaking."

"Yo, Yami, wad's up man?"

"Hi Jou, nothing really; my aunt and her family are over."

"Awww, dat sucks; I was hoping you could come to the arcade wit me and the rest of da gang, but I guess you cant, huh?"

"Otherwise I could come, but I have to baby-sit my cousin since all the adults are going to a spa for the weekend."

"Ya know, I would love to keep you company, but I really can't stand Melanie… No offence, or nothing, but she's a bit… ya know…"

"Yeah, I do know." Yami cast a quick glance at his cousin who was busy telling Megumi about school. "Listen the others are leaving soon and I have to listen to last minute instructions so I have to go now. I'll probably call you later tonight once I put Melanie to bed, okay?"

"Sure Yami, but call Seto's ok? I'll be spending the night there."

Yami didn't even want to think about what the two would be doing in a huge mansion by themselves since Mokuba was at a friend's house. "I'll talk to you later, Jou, sayonara."

"Buh bye, talk to ya later!" With that Yami hung up and went back into the living room.

"Yami we have to get going now." Megumi said as she spotted Yami, who gave her a nod to show he was listening.

"Remember that Melanie has to go to bed at nine and that she should have one glass of milk in the morning. Also, make sure that she brushes her teeth and washes her face and uses the toilet before going to bed." Yami nodded to every reminder that Natsuko gave him. The instructions repeated and continued for at least 15 minutes before a horn honked outside.

"Looks like dad's here." Yami said, cutting off Natsuko's list at the third 'make sure Melanie brushes her teeth'-part.

Megumi kissed Yami on the cheek while Natsuko and Daisuki did the same with Melanie.

"Take good care of her, Yami-kun." Daisuki said shaking Yami's hand.

"I will Dai-san."

Megumi was about to exit through the door when she turned back to her son.

"Yami, if you can't think of anything else to do tomorrow you can take Melanie-chan to the Aquarium since they have the Family Fun Day tomorrow."

"Okay mum. Have a great time!"

oooooooChapter 2ooooooo