Disclaimer: I don't own YGO or the song "Under the Sea", so don't sue.
A/N: So sorry for the late update. I had a huge writer's block with this chapter and I had no access to the internet for the whole Christmas break, not to mention exams last week… Gomen nasai!
I sort of had to make Anzu/Tea nice in this fic (though I don't like her) because there is no place for an evil Anzu… Oh well.
I really hope that you enjoy this chapter! And gomen again for the lateness of this chapter! bows low
Lastly, I'd just like to inform you all that this is the third to last chapter of this story! I really hope that you like the last chapters!
oooooooChapter 6ooooooo
"Under the sea, under the sea
Darling it's better, down there it's wetter
Take it from me!
Up on the shore they work all day,
Out in the sun they slave away…"
Yami smiled as he was unpacking his plates. Despite it being a kid's song, he had to admit that "Under the Sea" was catchy.
Today he had finally moved into his own house; the one that reminded him of his little merboy, Yuugi. He had been packing for three days and now, on Wednesday, he started to unpack his things.
Sugoroku had given him the day off to get all of the boxes in the house and get the house furnished enough to live or at least sleep in for the night.
Marik, Malik and Anzu were working on Yami's bedroom, while the others were either in the kitchen or the living room.
Yami had invited all of his friends to help and, surprisingly, no one had had anything better to do. Even Seto had had time off from work and had come to help.
"Hey, Yami," Bakura's voice called from within a cardboard box. "Are you seeing anyone at the moment?"
In his surprise Yami almost dropped the plate he was holding. "Not really, no. Why?"
"Well," Bakura had come out form his box and was taking cups to the cupboard. "My cousin was looking for someone and I promised him that I would ask around. He's not bad looking and has a great personality. You interested?"
"Ano… I really don't know… I sort of have a person in mind, but I don't think that it could ever work out between us…"
Everyone within hearing range stopped what they were doing. The ones out of hearing range were called over.
Jou went over and turned off the radio which was playing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins.
"So, who is he?"
"Do we know him?"
"Have we ever seen him?"
"What does he look like?"
Yami was a bit overwhelmed by the questions and wondered if it was such a good idea to tell his friends about Yuugi.
"Well," Jounouchi inquired, "At least tell us his name."
Yami sighed knowing that they would never leave him alone unless he told them something.
"Okay," Everyone gathered around like little kids during show-and-tell. "His name's Yuugi."
Silence.
"Aaaand…?" Honda asked.
"And what?" the half Egyptian shot back. "You wanted his name and now you have it."
"Ooh!" Anzu clapped his hands together. "You don't want to tell us because you're afraid that we'll go after him."
Yami put his hands up in defence, "Iie, it's nothing like that! I just don't know what to tell you. He's just so…different."
"Different?" Ryou questioned. "'Different' how?"
Well, for starters, he has a tail, can breathe underwater and he lives in an aquarium. Of course Yami wasn't going to give his friends any of these reasons.
"He's just," Yami searched his vocabulary for the right words, but it came up short. "I really don't know how to explain it… He's just so different."
"Is he different in that he has a disability?" Bakura asked.
"Not really, no." A sigh of annoyance. "He's just so…mysterious, like the sea. And he's gentler than an ocean's breeze."
"So basically," Marik said, speaking up for the first time. "This Yuugi reminds you of the sea?"
"Hai."
"Great!" He clapped his hands together loudly. "Now all you need is a pair of flippers and diving gear and you're set to go live with the sea of your dreams."
Malik elbowed Marik in the ribs, hard.
"If only it were that simple…" Yami said quietly to himself while staring out of the window.
ooo
Yuugi was bored.
He was watching his grandfather tidy the underground floor, tapping his tail against the floor of the cave. The crowd had lessened once again, as it always did after noon. The visitors told the newcomers that the shy mermaid was still hidden away and wouldn't be coming out.
No one wanted to pay to see an empty tank.
At times like these the small merboy really wished that he was still at home in the ocean. He would be free to swim anywhere and he wouldn't have to worry about anyone seeing him. Sure he had been lonely at home since he had no friends. All the bigger merboys had picked on him because of his size and the mermaids ignored him due to his lack of popularity. Yuugi didn't have parents as they had died a few months ago, but at least he had been free.
Yuugi was brought out of his musings by a pair of footsteps. Yami's.
Making sure that the coast was clear, Yami tapped on the glass to inform the merboy that it was safe to come out.
Yuugi swam to meet his human look-alike with a genuinely happy smile.
At times like these Yuugi was glad he wasn't at home.
"Finished moving in, Yami-kun?" Yami tore his eyes away from the merboy and looked at the old man who was, ironically enough, cleaning Yami's Magical Spot.
"Hai, my friends were helping me move in so we got the job done pretty fast." The adolescent's eyes had a mind of their own as they once again moved to stare at Yuugi through the glass.
"Ah, I see. In that case, are you ready to help out again? I haven't gotten too much done since I'm getting old…"
Yami grabbed one of the mops from the cleaning cart and started scrubbing the floor.
Yuugi sat on sand leaning against the glass of the tank, watching his only friends clean the dirty floor. Oh how he wished that he could join them; experience the feeling of having two legs and being able to walk on land. Of course that would never happen unless the Gods somehow, miraculously, transformed Yuugi into a human.
Suddenly there was a pair of footsteps walking down the stairs. Yami immediately gave Yuugi the sign and he retreated back into his cave.
"Motou, El-Beleidy," The chubbier of the managers said as soon as he saw the two janitors. "This is Tsunami Mako; he owns this Aquarium and a few others around Japan. He's come to see the mermaid and the visit is also doubling as a surprise inspection."
Yami and Sugoroku looked at each other then stepped up to greet the inspector.
"It's very nice to meet you, Tsunami-san." Sugoroku said, shaking the navy-haired man's hand. "I'm the janitor of this pool and this is my assistant, El-Beleidy Yami."
Yami gave the inspector a small bow as Mako nodded back.
"I see you keep this place really clean; most janitors don't take their job this seriously. I'm extremely impressed."
"Arigatou."
Mako turned to the manager, "Takahari-san, you promised to show me the mermaid and I don't see her anywhere."
"Oh, of course! I'll show it to you right away; I just need to go to the control panel. I'll be right back."
"Take your time, I'm in no hurry."
Soon the whirring of machines could be heard throughout the pool. Yami clenched his fists, knowing what the bald man was up to.
"Oh Neptune, what have you created?" Yami turned to the tank and noticed that Yuugi's cave was once again off of the sandy floor. This time, however, it had been raised to about halfway out.
Realising this, the frightened merboy swam up and hid in his cave.
Mako was amazed, but refused to let Takahari lift the cave higher. Instead, he told the chubby manager to lower it back and give the merboy a chance to hide from prying eyes.
"Any time we take animals from their natural habitats and put them into cages or tanks, we need to make sure that they can make a new home in the tank. Animals don't need to be in the wild in order to be happy; they can be happy in a tank or cage if they have food, shelter and get exercise." Mako went on to explain the importance of shelter to animals, but Yami tuned him out.
Discreetly, he moved to his spot and looked into the cave. Yuugi looked up at him, giving him a smile and waving at him.
Yuugi was ok.
ooo
Ring, ring. Ring, ring
Yami groaned as he rolled over to check the digital clock on his night stand. It read 5.47am. Growling at the annoying phone, Yami picked it up.
"Moshi, moshi, Yami speaking."
"Ohayo, my name is Kujaku Mai. I'm sorry to call you so early, El-Beleidy-san, but your grandfather had a minor heart-attack and was rushed to the emergency ward."
The teen's mind was not functioning at this time in the morning. "My grandfather died three years ago. He can't be in the hospital."
A surprised exclamation echoed from the other end of the receiver. "Oh, I'm sorry, is Motou-san not your grandfather?"
"Iie."
"Then I must have dialled the wrong number. Gomen for disturbing—"
"WAIT!" Yami's brain finally caught up and he was wide awake. "Did you just say Motou-san?"
"Hai, I did; he is the elderly man who was admitted to the hospital half an hour ago."
"He's not my grandfather, but I do know him. I work with him at Domino Aquarium and he's my boyfriend's grandfather."
Boyfriend's? What the hell is wrong with you?
It's six in the morning…
True.
"Well could you please come to the hospital and take care of a few papers and maybe call your boyfriend to tell him the bad news. I'm sure he could fill out the necessary papers."
"I don't think that's a good idea; see, he's really close to his grandfather and this would just kill him."
"I see, but could you at least come?"
By this time Yami was already getting changed into suitable clothes. "I'll be on my way."
"Arigatou and I'm really sorry about Motou-san, he's going to be fine though."
"Arigatou for informing me."
ooo
"I'm here to see Motou Sugoroku and fill out some forms."
"El-Beleidy-san, I presume?" Yami nodded at the blonde woman at the reception. "Hi, I'm Mai; we spoke on the phone earlier."
"Oh, ohayo and thanks again for informing me of Sugoroku's condition."
Mai smiled warmly at him, "It was nothing, now could you please fill out these forms and after that I can take you to see Motou-san."
"Alright, Arigatou Kujaku-san." Mai just nodded and went about her business as normal.
Yami looked around and found an unoccupied chair in the far corner of the waiting room. He sat down and started to fill out the forms.
Five minutes later he walked up to Mai and handed her the papers.
"Thank you, El-Beleidy-san. Now, if you'll follow me, I'll take you to Motou-san. A nurse already informed him that you were here and he's very eager to see you."
The two made their way to the third floor and to room 312. Mai knocked on the door and poked her head in.
"Motou-san, you have a visitor."
"Ah, excellent, please let him in."
Mai withdrew her head and opened the door for Yami to go in. The adolescent nodded his thanks and went in.
"Sugoroku-san, daijabou-ka?"
The old man was sitting up in his bed with a huge smile on his face. "I'm fine Yami-kun. Actually, I'm better than fine; some of these nurses are real babes."
The spiky-haired teen sweat dropped and took a step back. "Ano…"
"Anyway," Sugoroku continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "Thanks for coming to see me this early in the morning, Yami."
The two continued talking about different things until Yami had to go back to work.
"Tell Yuugi I said 'hi', will you. And tell him not to worry about me because we both know that he has enough on his plate at the time."
"Hai, I'll tell him. I'll be back to see you after work, ja ne."
ooo
The half-Egyptian didn't get a chance to talk to Yuugi before lunch break, but there was no time to comfort him as the managers came in with men in suits.
"El-Beleidy, would you please leave us for a while? We need to discuss a few matters with these men."
Yami placed his mop back into the cart. "Alright, I'll be wondering around the whole place. How long do you think it will take?"
"I'm not sure," Takahari said. "It may take ten minutes to half an hour or so. If you finish early wait outside until we leave."
"Yes sir."
Once outside, however, Yami stayed at the door; he wanted to know what those men were talking about. It had to have something to do with Yuugi; otherwise they would've used the office.
Yami had left the door ajar in order to hear the discussion better. There was no way he was going to miss anything that was said.
"Well, can we see it or not MacKenney-san?" An unknown voice (that Yami assumed was one of the guest's) asked.
"Of course," MacKenney. "Takahari, show them the mermaid."
For the third time in his life, the adolescent heard the sound of the cave being lifted out of the tank.
"Well, it certainly is a rare creature… I would be happy to have it in my aquarium."
Yami gasped; they were going to take Yuugi away? How could they take his Yuugi away from him? How and why?
"I did mention that it is very shy, didn't I?" MacKenney asked. "But I'm sure that a man of your skill will get it to perform, because if you use it for show it'll make a ton of money."
"I'm sure it will, but I'm concerned about getting rid of the shyness. Can you think of a way Hiroshi?"
"Not at the moment, but I'm sure that I could come up with something if we do buy the mermaid."
No, please don't! He's too shy for your aquarium! Let him stay here; we don't mind having a shy merboy in a tank. Please don't take him away from me, please!
"We'll let you discuss the matter with each other. Takahari and I will be waiting for your final decision outside."
"Jos, arigatou."
Thinking quick, the young Egyptian hid behind the booth that sold the tickets to the pool.
"I really hope that those men buy the mermaid," Mack was saying. "Its really not earning us any money and if there's no money involved, there's no point in keeping it."
"Yeah, but what if the other aquarium gets it to perform and talk and do all kinds of things that will raise money?"
"First off, Takahari, it can't talk and they can't teach it to. And secondly, it's too shy to ever be able to perform. They might force it to, but then the stupid animal rights people will be mad and sue them."
"So they can't win?"
"Iie."
ooo
Bam!
"Yami-kun, please stop hitting the wall; it hasn't done anything to you." Sugoroku said from his hospital bed. "I know you're upset about—"
"I'm way past upset!" Yami shouted rounding on the old man. "They're taking Yuugi away. No, they're taking my Yuugi away! They can't take him!"
"Yami-kun please calm down. I'm sure that we'll think of something to help Yuugi."
Yami slumped into one of the hospital chairs and fisted his hair. "What can we do?"
"Have you told Yuugi yet?"
A look of guilt crossed the young man's face. "Iie; I didn't know how to tell him…"
"Well you'd better tell him before he's taken away."
Yami sprang up from his chair. "I'm taking him away tonight. I won't give them the chance to take him from me."
"What are you going to do? You can't keep him at your house…"
"I'm setting him free."
"Nani?!" The old man's eyes were plates by this point. "You're going to set him free? I thought you loved him."
"I do. That's why I have to do this." Yami walked to the door. "He won't be happy unless he's back with his friends and family and back in the ocean. I want him to be happy even if it means that I will suffer for the rest of my life."
ooo
Yami was driving towards Domino Aquarium at 11.49pm. I really hope that I'm doing the right thing…
Once there, Yami used his master key to get in. He had already asked Seto to disable the security cameras before hand so that there would be no signs of him being there. (Of course Seto was still waiting for an answer to why Yami wanted the cameras disabled).
Splash, splash, splash, splash, splash.
Come on Yuugi.
Splash, splash, splash, splash, splash.
Hesitantly, the merboy swam out of his cave and looked up relived to see Yami.
"What are you doing here at this time of the night? Is jii-chan alright?"
"He's fine, but we really need to hurry; we need to get you out of this place."
"Nande?"
"They want to sell you to a different aquarium and then I won't be able to see you and they'll treat you really badly." By this time the older boy was already pulling the other out of the pool.
"Where am I going to go then?"
"I'm setting you free; you'll go back to the ocean, but we really have to hurry." Yami had the smaller boy in his arms bridal-style and he was taking Yuugi to his car.
"Why can't I stay here? I still haven't said goodbye to jii-chan and I really can't be out of the water for longer than fifteen minutes."
"Don't worry about that," Yami smirked. "I already have it covered. The tank is my old snake's terrarium and I filled it with water. You won't really be able to move, but at least you can breathe and be in water. Ah, here we go."
Yami unlocked the doors and opened one to the backseat. Sure enough, there was a rather big terrarium in the back filled over half way with a combination of water and salt.
In a matter of seconds Yuugi was in the tank and Yami was speeding off towards the ocean. One reason why the half-Egyptian wanted to do this fast was so that there would be no witnesses, but the main reason was that Yami couldn't let Yuugi go. The faster it was done, the less time Yami had to think about it.
They were finally there.
The ocean was moving gently in front of Yami's car's hood. Its movements were so smooth and calming that, for a minute, Yami forgot to hate the woman that was forcing him to part with his beloved.
Sighing heavily, Yami helped Yuugi out of the tank and into the water.
"I guess this is it, huh?" Yami said trying to keep his tone light so that Yuugi wouldn't feel too bad.
"Yeah, but I really wish it wasn't… I don't want to leave you."
"And I don't want you to go, but you have to; they would find you otherwise." The human lowered his head. "I really want you to stay with me, but we both know that it's impossible."
The merboy would've said something, but his voice caught in his throat so he was just reduced to nodding.
Taking a deep breath, Yami finally did the one thing that he had been meaning to do since the first time he had laid eyes on the small merboy in the tank at the Family Fun Day.
"Please don't hate me for this, my sweet tenshi."
Yuugi couldn't have picked a better time to look up; Yami was leaning in.
The smaller of the two was surprised that he wasn't shocked by Yami's move. Instead, he embraced it by leaning forward, though he didn't posses the courage to complete the move.
Knowing he had nothing to lose, the lightning bolt-haired male closed the small gap between the two and stole Yuugi's first kiss.
The two stayed locked like that for a while, until Yami moved in more and begged entrance to the merboy's mouth. Their tongues battled for dominance and in the end Yuugi let Yami explore at will.
All too soon lack of air parted the two and Yuugi had to lie on the sand in order to breathe in the water of his home.
Both stared at each other for a long time; Yuugi on his back in the shallow water and Yami sitting on dry land.
It was this that made the two realise what a thin, but uncrossable line separated them from each other.
ooo