Yu-Gi-Oh 1. How Long?

I have come to a conclusion: that I am better at writting form first person P.O.V. Seriously I am atcually, maybe, proud of this and usually I hate what I write. Well anyway this took me almost two days to type, and considering that was inbetween the first day back at college (second year timetables bite), my uncle who suffers from verbal diarrhoea and doesn't seem to understand the concept of _sitting still _(don't ask), and my bratty little sister who thinks she rules the house I think that is nothing short of a miricale.

Sorry about the title for this little drabble, I know it's crap but its too late at night/early morning to be faffing around with it now and it does hold some revelence to the plot-thingy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh I am just an amateur writter trying to improve herself.

**How Many Nights Does It Take To Say Enough?**

How many nights have I stayed here now? How many days have I spent flitting about this coast, this beach? I have no idea. I feel there is much out there that I do not know; I feel that there is much I have forgotten. I have travelled up the deep rivers that spill into the sea until the water became too shallow and the risk of being seen became too great but still I return to this beach. Each night to this very rock. It is as if this rock is the only thing I know, the only thing that knows me. How foolish does that sound? And yet I do not know why I stay, I have tried to leave, I really have, but something always pulls me back, always. Sometimes I say to myself 'I shall leave tomorrow. I shall swim the seas and see the world and learn all I have forgotten. And it will be a grand adventure filled with discovery and meaning and love.' And then the sun rises and I begin to swim into the deep parts of the water and something always pulls me back, something as mundane as the feeling of having forgot something although I own no possessions or something as life threatening as coming face to face with a shark and being chased all the way back to the point where it cannot follow. This beach and this rock are the only things I know.

I don't understand what I am. I don't understand _why_ I am. I don't remember ever seeing another that looks as I do. I don't remember how or when I came to live by this beach. I don't know if there are others like me or if there ever was. But surly I was born to someone. Every animal I have seen has a family, a mother and a father, sisters and brothers, even if these families never get know each other they still know one another exists. They still know where they came from. I do not. For all I know I was born of sand and sea foam, my tears are pearls and my hair is coral, I do not know, I have never cried and I have never seen my hair in full view, only the parts that float before my eyes. The only thing I understand about myself is that I am male. I do not even have a real name, only one I fashioned for myself after hearing a conversation between two creatures of the land, Yuugi. I do not know what it means or if it is even a real name but I like the sound of it and it is an improvement from being a blank.

I don't know anything and that is the one anguish of my soul. I want to know why the sea sometimes reaches higher upon the sand of the beach, I want to know why the scales of my tail are a bright purple almost red during the hotter days and why, when the days grow colder and shorter, my scales change to a paler solemn blue and lilac and why, when the cold is fading and the warmth is coming and all the animals around me seem to come together, I am restless and angrier and almost possessive of the rock that is practically my home.

No. I have lied. There is another anguish that haunts me. It took a very long time for me to recognise it and even longer to remember what name to call it by: loneliness. I am lonely; I long for another, a companion, an acquaintance, an enemy, _anything_ that knows what I am. _Anyone_ who looks and feels and thinks the same. I want to know if I am the last, I want to know if I was the only and will _always_ be the only one of my kind. I want to know if am alone and yet at the same time I am terrified of the answer. If I am right and I am the only, or the last, then it would be a seal to my fate. I would forever wander, I would forever feel lost and no matter how much time passed my future would never hold anything new, it would always be the same as my past: bleak and meaningless. But what if I am wrong and there are others. What if I found them and did not know what to do, how to act? What if I found them and found they were as different to me as the dolphin? What if I was an outcast? It would be the same as before, as if I had never found them. The only thing settled within me would be the argument of 'yes' or 'no'. And that is no achievement at all.

Maybe this is why I stay here. Maybe I have always feared leaving because I feared what leaving would mean. Maybe I have attached my self to this rock as securely as if I had strapped my physical body to it. As if this whole coast is a prison I created to keep my self in. Maybe I live in a cage that has bars as transparent as the air but as strong as the great whale.

And so the beach is my home and I live here with the happiness of a person who knows nothing else. Because I, truly, know nothing else. During the day I stay beneath the water: I avoid the boats and watch the fish and, on occasion, test the boundaries of my prison. During the night I sit upon the rock that juts out of the water and stay above the surface: I sometimes watch the stars or the moon or, when it rains, I will watch the droplets splash upon the ocean surface. But almost all of the time I watch _them_. The creatures that held closer resemblance to me then anything else I have seen. They do not have tails and they live upon the land and they most certainly cannot swim with any grace but they are fascinating. How long have I been watching them? How many have I seen walk along the shore? As long as I have been here and that is the only answer I can give to you. And yet they never see me. I do not know why I feel they aren't allowed to see me, every other creature I allow. Maybe it is because of another reason I cannot remember: a law maybe? A taboo? Or maybe it is another reason entirely. Am I jealous? Do I envy them and their large families? Do I avoid them because I do not want to face their pity? Their scorn?

Most of them I see at this time of night are in twos. Couples. A male and female. Do they come to the beach to court as the turtles come to lay their eggs? Sometimes I see one alone and this one always avoids the others. This one is a male and he comes most nights to the small wooden structure that juts out from the land. His body is always covered in black fabric, unlike the others who don themselves in bright colours. I do not understand why he does this. He is almost like myself in his strange quite ways. I have never seen him interact with another of his kind; does he even consider himself as one of them? What a very foolish thought, of course he does, he is surrounded day and night by others like him: he knows where he comes from, he knows what he is. To scorn that would be to scorn everything that made his race. And besides how could he deny something so obviously in front of him? A foolish thought.

And yet I do still wonder about this one in particular. He comes almost every night that it does not rain and even then cold downpours do not always deter him, he seems as obsessed about this beach as I. I am never close enough to see him in any real detail but I can tell you this: it seems his hair would be the same as mine given half the chance, the colours are the same, I believe he is a little small compared to many others of his kind and he seems young but not an adolescent, I think his skin is darker then mine but under the faint light of the moon that is not always very noticeable and he seems to hold himself different from the others… tighter… more severe. I have countless nights to contemplate this and I do so simply because I feel more connected to him then any other living thing. It is probably because he is one of the few constants in my life; he is like my rock in some respects I can rely on him to keep to a specific pattern. I do not know what I would do if he cessed gave me this stimulation, if he suddenly began to halt his nightly walks, surly I have lived without him before though. What must he mean to me if I watch him every night and miss him when he doesn't come? What does he do to trigger such speculations about him and myself? We are utterly separate entities and yet he is the closest thing to my heart. Is it a type of love?

I have never gone to meet him. I have never gone closer to him then from this rock. He has never seen me. I could not really communicate with him after all, are the sounds I make even considered words? I do not remember ever using them to converse so what if it isn't a language? What if it never was? I do not know. He is standing there now. I remember one night a while ago when, as usual he was stood upon the wooden outcrop and I was sat upon the rock, I had felt myself grow abnormally tired and, instead of waiting until he had left as I normally do, I had left the rock and dove into the waters to sleep. I had never thought of the chance that he might hear or see me. I remember looking behind me through the surface and saw him give such a start. He had seemed to jump and move forward, or was it backwards? He had obviously heard the splash, the ocean surface was always so calm this time of night, but had he seen me? He had stood and stared at the rock as if expecting it to come alive. He would never have seen me if I hadn't moved but now… if he did see me I must have appeared as only a vague outline but…it felt strange to think that someone like him may know I exist.

Of course there is no way to be sure he saw anything and certainly after that night he gave no indication that he may have, nothing in his attitude changed and his schedule remained the same. So in the end nothing changed… but I could change that. Sometimes I thought that maybe one day I would confront him, one day when my confidence had built up so it could face such a terrifying prospect I would go to him and… and… and what? I have no guarantee that he would change how I lived, I have no assurance that he would not just push me away or hand me nothing more then his pity, and I have no belief that he could tell me who I am, what I am, he would not know what it is I am supposed to do with my existence. But still I like to entertain the idea. It would, after all, bring a little change into my life. And what would come after it… I do not know what would come of it but I do know that it would either change everything… or nothing at all.

But tonight he is doing something rather unexpected. He is standing too close to the end of the wood to be normal and he almost teeters upon the edge. Is he planning on diving in? These creatures are so very strange. I can see his eyes more clearly tonight; they are a strange deep colour. Enchanting. I think they are red but I cannot be sure. He has a very harsh face. Very serious. I think he is very used to being unkind to the world, I think he shuts it out. If only he knew my own torment then maybe we could swap, then maybe he will understand what it is like to be utterly ignorant in everything. Because that is another thing I have noticed, he has clever eyes; he understands why he suffers from his own torment. Yes, I can see that too. He is as pained as I, but for different reasons. Maybe he would understand? I think to myself: 'Maybe he comes to this beach for the same reasons as I. Maybe he cannot leave, or feels he cannot. Maybe he is trapped within his own prison as am trapped in mine. And maybe he is now only a breath away from escaping that prison and discovering what really does lie in wait out there.' And truly he looks as if he is struggling. As if there is a war inside himself, the argument of 'yes' or 'no' and what would come of the future if either of these answers was taken. He is scared too. He wants to know, wants to find and discover and feel love but he is afraid. He is afraid he will find nothing or he will find the wrong thing. And finally he backs away; the answer is 'no' he cannot do it, at least not tonight. And suddenly I see myself in this strange creature, I see the loneliness and the longing and the confusion. We are worlds apart but we are like each other in so many ways, and I think to myself with a strange slow thought: 'Maybe I am not alone? Maybe we are not alone?'

And I see him walk back and away from the beach and I know he is fighting through similar things as I, and I know that tonight is not the only night he will try this, there will be others. Other resolutions. Other promises. But always the same questions. Who am I supposed to be? And I think that I love him for that. I think that I love the fact that I may not be as alone as I thought, that I am not the only one that searches for something I am terrified of. I think that I love him.

Something within me has settled but still there is my unrest. The questions have not left me. Who am I? What am I? How did I come to this place? And where, if the place still exists, do I come from? I slip beneath the waters for another night by this coast and tomorrow will be another day in which everything will be the same. And I think to myself: 'I shall leave tomorrow. I shall swim the seas and see the world and learn all I have forgotten. And it will be a grand adventure filled with discovery and meaning and love.'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please do not ask for a second part to this. It's supposed to stand alone. It doesn't really _mean_ anything It's just the product of a raibid plot bunny attack. Anywho it was fun to write even with all the distractions. There will be the scond short story coming soon (probably sooner then Phoenix's Ashes 'coz it's being a bitch at the moment) and that ones much longer (with numerous cahpters)... and has a real ending too.

Thanks to all the people who reviewed Phoenix's Ashes, it means a lot. Love you guys.

OH! And I have a new story coming up soon called 'Firefly In Ice'. Hopefully the prologue for that will sound better then Phoenix's.

Review please!


	2. The Magic of Science: part 1

This was inspired by a number of things: the film 'Splash', the fics 'Science and Mythology' and 'Beneath the Surface' (excellent stories by excellent authors that I highly recomend), and my own run away imagination.

This chapter is a little slow but that's because this story was originally supposed to only have two parts... now it has four/five. I was unhappy with the rate of character development so bare with me if my writing suddenly goes off on a tandem, the juicier parts _will_ come.

A little warning: both Yami and Yuugi are quite OC in this, if you don't like that then don't read it. Simple.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. If I did Yami and Yugi would be very gay and very much together.

**The Magic Of Science**

**Part One**

The forest at this time of night was always quiet. The Birch and the Ash trees creaking hauntingly as they cooled from the days heat, occasionally an owl would swoop over head barely disturbing the night air beneath the serrated edges of it's wings.

Between shrubs of grasses and juvenile bushes a rustling noise erupted. The innocent foraging of an elderly hedgehog that was unaware of the hungry gaze of a young fox. The fox to eager and inexperienced to see how foolish attacking a prey with such outstanding defences would be.

Above however, creped a much more experienced hunter.

True it was young, for the standard of its species anyway, and true like the fox it had been raised as a hunter. But the goal this creature had been taught to reach for couldn't be more different than the carnivore below.

The darkest and most weightless of silks covered the unnaturally pale skin of the already shadowed figure as it crept with disturbing elegance between the trees, the only sound the shuddering of leaves as its light weight left one branch to fall upon another.

By all laws of 'normality' the young male should not be capable of such feats as leaping between close trees with the skill of a panther and landing just as silently. His body and eyes fooled all those that met him into the delusion of a docile lamb, but his movements and chosen words told a different story. The expectations of his specie's society told him he should be at home with family either fast asleep at this late hour or desperately attempting to finish a last minute assignment due the next morning. However, his world was a different place to most and the laws of such a society bended and twisted not quite applying or simply discarded in his unconventional life.

Taking hold of a higher branch he levered himself unto a convenient platform of wood where the Elm split into three, partly to gain better access for his next leap but mostly to avoid being caught in the gaze of a well placed security camera.

This forest, no matter its appearance, was not un-owned, public land.

And this human boy was not your average eighteen year old.

Reaching a high mesh fence he pulled out a small black disk from the inside of his belt, he pressed a single button in the centre, watched as four spider-like legs seemed to grow out of nowhere on each corner, then gingerly attached it to the barrier each leg grasping onto a loop of wire. A silent pulse was sent outwards disabling the motion sensors and electric current flowing through the metal.

Crouching into a position resembling that of a frog he took a deep breath and leapt… right over the top of the fence.

His wispy clothed body disappeared into the shadows.

Minuets passed. The stars shone beautifully in the dark sky. A sharp squeal momentarily shattered the tranquil atmosphere as the fox attempted to claim the hedgehog for a meal. And failed miserably as the herbivore's spines jabbed into it's gums. Silence fell again.

Another rustle came, followed by a tiny 'clink' noise as the spider-like disk was removed. A flash of movement in the treetops; heading away from the fence.

The figure of the boy disappeared from whence he came, a glinting necklace in his fist, one that held irreplaceable information about it's origin, was the only clue of his purpose.

No alarm sounded, no voice or disturbance. He had done his job, and as usual, done it perfectly.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Phoenix."

The boy turned at the sound of his 'name' smiling lightly at the sight of the slightly older male coming his way.

"Yes?" his friend skidded to a halt beside him, grinning.

"Just got back?"

"Why else would I be wearing these?" Phoenix raised an arm to further show off his black clothes, complete with leather gloves with removable fingers and a type of flowing head shawl (only not so feminine) draped over his forearm.

His friend, Ryou, continued grinning, silvery blue hair flopping oh-so-stylishly in front of rich emerald eyes. "O.K. point made. I'm not the most observant person on the planet."

Phoenix raised an amused eyebrow, "Isn't observation a major factor in the career of a biologist?"

"Animals yes. Humans not so much."

"Never quite understood us _humans _to well have you Pixie?"

"Afraid not," Ryou heaved a melodramatic sigh, "Back in the sparkly land of magic pixies and rainbows I never had any problems." Miraculously Ryou managed to keep a straight face as he said this, it lasted all of two seconds before both men burst into fits of laughter. It was a running joke between the two. After seeing a T.V. advert for that horrendous 'Barbie in Fairytopia' film Phoenix had decided that Ryou looked incredibly like one of the fairies from a children's fantasy book he had glanced at as a child and, thus, couldn't be human but a fey in disguise sent to observe human behavioural patterns. It fit in well with Ryou's real job as an Environmental Scientist and he had latched on to the idea disturbingly well, the ending result being that Phoenix called his friend 'Pixie' as much as his real name.

It was actually quite similar to Phoenix's own situation because 'Phoenix' was, understandably, not his real name either. It was his code name. Well officially his full name was 'Rising Phoenix' but that took to long to say in casual conversation. His real name… well there was probably only one other person in the world (apart from himself) who knew that. Ryou didn't and thankfully didn't pressure him about it. But using the name of a mythological creature -an eternal bird of fire- seemed to suit him in more ways than one. The title had been applied to him during an odd conversation with his guardian/instructor over ten years ago and had stuck ever since. His birth name had faded away to exist as only a whisper in the graveyard near his once home. Phoenix didn't need it as a reminder of his past –what he fought to prove to himself- his code name did that better.

They continued walking through the complex maze of white and silver/grey corridors occasionally reaching (and completely ignoring) black metal doors. Most of them were closed although some flung wide open to reveal a mess hall, an office, a training room or a science lad. This was the headquarters of "The World Association of Surveillance and Protection", known affectionately to its employees as "wasp" and thought of fondly by Phoenix as "couldn't-think-of-a-decent-name-so-came-up-with-something-crappy-and-official-sounding."

Phoenix sighed; he was tired. Very tired. There was still a long way to walk before he reached his room on the other side of the complex. It was all right for Ryou he worked in the 'scientific experimentation on the ecosystem' department. It was very close to the main entrance and he never had to travel very far.

He, Phoenix was an agent. An infiltrator, he acquired valuable information and items that would otherwise cause the base complications in the long run. In lamest terms he was a thief, a highly trained and specific thief. Just like Ryou's department was basically animal testing, though he fiercely denied that they (or more accurately _he_) wouldn't do anything of the sort.

They chatted amiably for minutes more until Ryou, with one of his impish smiles, told him to stay still for a moment and rushed off into his private office.

Phoenix stood blinking. That had been odd, even for Ryou. Grumbling about his complete lack of sleep the teenager folded his arms and, fiddling with the soft silk of his clothing, leaned against a door to his left.

Only to realise far too late that the door hadn't been locked.

A startled yelp escaped his mouth as his side made painful contact with the floor leaving what would almost certainly be a restricting bruise on his hip. Phoenix growled low in annoyance, some secret agent he was! He was going to have to double his training again. Pushing a mixture of gold and ebony hair out of his large eyes the boy pushed himself up off the floor standing with as much grace and detached pride as he could manage (which was a lot considering) he proceeded to glare at the door wishing he could threaten it to cowering point without looking like an utter psycho.

It was a good few minutes before Phoenix realised that his _dignified _shout of surprise hadn't been the only noise to echo around the new room he found himself in.

Frowning he turned around.

And was met with a colossal amount of blue.

Phoenix whistled appreciatively, now _that_ was an aquarium. It could quite easily fit his entire apartment in three times over! Its deep blue glow partly created by the atmospheric lights lit the room with a surreal quality. It was a huge tank but surprisingly bare, there were no animals that he could see but its sparse décor was distinctly tropical. Lumps of stone and horribly fake rock formations were covered in coral (though Phoenix could not tell if the coral was real) and white sand lay thickly on the bottom.

There was, however, a sudden clump of air bubbles rising up from the forefront of the tank as if something had moved very fast very suddenly and upon further inspection the sand looked recently disturbed, suspended grains were still settling. Ah, so there _was_ something in there after all. It must have been the source of the other noise. Well Phoenix didn't blame it for being startled, if _he_ had been the one relaxing in a quiet room when someone burst loudly and unannounced through his door he wouldn't have stayed to calm either (though _his_ reaction would probably end up as "Get OUT of my room asshole!").

Phoenix's curiosity got the better of him. The agent walked closer to the glass, frowned when he saw nothing, and followed the barrier around to the right side.

His jaw dropped. _No fucking way! _

His eyes met with a set of two exquisite rubies.

"Holy shit!" it was a merman!

Beautifully tanned skin that melded seamlessly into rich amber scales at the waist. Nope. Definitely not human. The creature was sat curled up behind a rock were he couldn't be seen from the door. It was an obvious attempt to hide. His face had the strangely handsome angular features you would expect from a resident of Egypt's golden sands rather that the blue ocean's waves. His skin and hair colour of gold and ebony (which held a scary resemblance to Phoenix's own hair) matched perfectly with the colour of his scales.

A creature of the water with flaming eyes, Phoenix found himself thinking, well wasn't _that_ the definition of irony.

But he looked… sick. The scales looked flaky and paler then they could be, as did his skin that seemed almost stretched in places with stress lines on his otherwise young complexion.

Phoenix was jolted out of evaluating the creature's health by movement. The merman leant forwards, flicked his tailfins, and as if what he was doing cost him his last once of strength swam up to the glass. He came to a slow stop and flopped almost painfully onto the sand directly in front of the human. Phoenix looked into the merman's eyes again (realising that not once had the sea creature looked away from his own eyes) to find them wide with disbelief. Well Phoenix could understand part of that, their hairstyles were eerily similar, but the look was almost… _painful_. As if the merman desperately wanted to believe something so life-changingly momentous but was unable to let himself hope. The creature's soft red eyes looked weary, dark circles framed them, as if their owner hadn't had a decent sleep in months. With a twinge of worried pity Phoenix realised that he'd probably disturbed the poor things only time of rest.

The merman raised a hand, pressed his palm hesitantly against the glass, his partially webbed fingers spread wide. The action was unmistakeable; it was a plead. But a plead for what? Help? It had to be help. There could be nothing else a sea creature could want from him.

Without really knowing why Phoenix stepped closer, raised his own hand, and pressed it to the transparent barrier. Over the creatures own palm. The merman's hand was a little larger than his… they would fit perfectly around one another.

A soft sound reached his ears. A sound he couldn't quite place. Was it a sigh? A sob? Distant laughter? Realising the merman had made it Phoenix looked up, his eyes narrowed in confused question.

The creature only stared back at him (did it even blink!) with an unreadable expression. It was like elation… or… maybe…

"Phoenix!"

Phoenix jumped and turned around as Ryou grabbed his arm and dragged him non-to gently towards the door, "What are you doing here? This room is off limits, we'll be in serious trouble if we get caught!"

Phoenix yanked his arm out of his friends grip, "What do you mean _we'll_ be in trouble? Isn't this _your_ department!" he gestured to the merman but kept his eyes locked accusingly on Ryou, "And I thought you said they didn't perform animal testing!"

Ryou shifted his weight uncomfortably, "I'm not a marine biologist Phoenix, I work with land animals only." He glanced guiltily over at the tank, "I don't like what they're doing but there's nothing I can do about it."

He walked around the agent and pushed more gently then before on his friend's shoulders, steering him towards the exit, "Please, its non of our business. Lets just leave." Phoenix allowed Ryou to guide him out of the aquarium glancing back one last time before the door banged closed behind them; the merman hadn't once taken his eyes off him.

"Now close your eyes and hold out your hands." Ryou declared in a singsong voice, his perkiness back with a vengeance.

"Pixie what…?" at the pleading look Phoenix sighed and did as he was told. Something small with sharp hard corners plopped into his cupped palm and he opened his eyes alarmed to find a square brightly wrapped box in his hand.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

All thoughts of mermen forgotten Phoenix gasped, "Oh my God I forgot!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_He was running._

_The sky was dark, everything was dark, everything save the sickening orange glow lighting his back and throwing eerie shadows in his path. Creating hungry monsters with dripping fangs looking ready to lurch forward and swallow him whole as if he were no larger than a mouse._

_There was a burden in his arms. It was heavy and cumbersome, slowing him down restricting his movements._

_He couldn't let go. They were coming._

_The trees flashed by looking like the bars of a prison cell stretching into infinity. He couldn't run properly, his leaps were slower, harder to perform, his landings noisy and filled with clumsy corrections. His breathing was forced and laboured; the weight was too great!_

_He couldn't stop; he couldn't let them get it!_

_An end! And end to the trees. Freedom… freedom lay there!_

_A bang. Searing burning all-consuming pain, a cry of agony that was not his own. A laugh, taunting and cruel from behind him. The ground was glowing with his own crimson blood and all went black._

_He had failed. _

"NO!"

Phoenix shot bolt upright in bed breathing heavily, as if he had really run the mile carrying that weight the dream had simulated. Cold sweat fell in rivulets down his shivering skin.

Pulling his legs into his chest the young man covered his face with trembling hands and rested them on his knees. Concentrating on his breathing Phoenix attempted to calm himself.

"What the fuck was that!" His voice was shaky.

These dreams. They wouldn't stop! They… they were like when… when… after his parents had died. They were the same. Not the same scenario obviously but… the same intensity, the same light… but the weight… the weight had been physical this time, not the overwhelming burden of mental anguish from his dreams as a child but a real heavy object in his arms… and object he had refused to let go no matter the consequences…

Consequences that had been fatal indeed.

Phoenix felt tears prick the edges of his eyes he wiped them away angrily. He didn't cry. It had been years since he last cried, it had been years since he last thought about why he was here in this building.

He was an orphan. His parents had died in a house fire.

His home had been reduced to ashes and charcoal, his parents remains buried deep within the rubble. He remembered running: running straight out of the city and finding himself on the coastline, he had been found not long after by a middle-aged man named Solomon. The man who would come to be both his guardian and his training mentor. The authorities thought him to be dead too. His name was engraved on the same grave as his parents. His real name:

Yuugi Hikari Motou.

Yuugi was dead to the world. He had nothing left to live for – he had been a frightened child with no hope for the future and so when Solomon offered him a place in W.A.S.P. he accepted without a seconds thought, his six year old mind needing any form of family routine and security it could get.

The base had become his family and his home; his training had begun immediately. _Yuugi_ was dead leaving someone stronger, more independent, to take his place. The boy studied the immortal phoenix with a passion before taking it on as his legitimate name. It represented everything he wanted to prove to himself. A phoenix died in fire to be reborn in it's own ashes. He was proving to himself – to the world – he wasn't scared anymore, he wasn't tied down to the past. 'Phoenix', even in all its cliché glory, suited him to a tee.

Phoenix turned his head to the side, smiling weakly when he saw the gift Ryou had given him – a silver hoop earring set with a single small sapphire. It was no wonder he forgot his own birthday really, Ryou was his only friend and he had no family – Solomon had passed away some time last year. Killed during a mission. So what would be the point of celebration?

The agent gave a heavy sigh, he was nineteen now. Thirteen years since his life had taken more of a dramatic turn then most people's would in an entire generation. He wasn't surprised to see a real merman in the base, a little shocked yes but not surprised. The existence of most mythical creatures had been confirmed by W.A.S.P. long before he joined (this was kept from the public of coarse). He had seen a unicorn foal; an entire cage filled with fairies and had stolen an extremely rare dragon egg from a rival base. The giants and the centaurs had been extinct for well over a hundred years and only a single phoenix could exist in the world at any one time so he hadn't seen any of them (it was his life's goal to see the phoenix though), hell he had even killed one of the last vampires himself so seeing a merman shouldn't have come as such a shock to him.

But it had.

The look the sea creature had given him… it was as intense as any of his dreams.

Phoenix groaned wearily and flopped back into his pillows. It had been almost two weeks since he last saw Ryou – two weeks since he saw that merman. Distantly he wondered how he was doing, the poor thing looked ill and un-rested before, was he well again now? It wasn't right to keep mythological creatures in captivity.

His dreams had taken a turn for the worse since he saw the merman, before they had been calm and pleasant – confusing but pleasant.

Yawing widely Phoenix forcibly pushed his thoughts away and closed his eyes, determined to get some sleep before sunrise.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm sorry sir but I can't find anything that would explain your symptoms… maybe it's simply stress… overwork?"

Phoenix mumbled a reply that he might cut down on his extensive training regime, thanked the nurse for her time and hopped off the hospital bed he had been sitting on, stalking moodily out the door and into the main complex. That had been a complete waste of time!

He rubbed his right shoulder attempting to tease away the uncomfortable tingles shooting across his skin. It didn't work. Phoenix growled, as if the dreams hadn't been enough he had started to experience odd twinges, mostly in his arms, they weren't particularly painful but they were uncomfortable, like a severe case of pins and needles as if the blood supply had been blocked for longer then was healthy. He wouldn't have even bothered to see the nurse if it hadn't been for last night. You see he had also started experiencing less-then-pleasant muscle cramps in his lower body… no not _there;_ in his legs! Now this he could cope with as long as it didn't affect his work his work but last night it had. Last night phoenix had been on his third mission of the week (a record even for him) and at the most inappropriate moment was hit with a particularly painful spasm of his abdominal muscles. It had almost got him caught! Phoenix had never failed a mission. Never! He had promised to himself that he would prove himself to his parent's memory. He had failed to protect his first family he would not fail to protect his second!

Phoenix gave a resigned sigh. Maybe he _had_ been pushing himself a little too hard lately. Three missions in one week _were_ a bit much.

Struck with a sudden idea he gave an evil grin and rubbed his hands together. Time for some stress relief.

Time to find Ryou.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As it happened Ryou was just as bored as he was so the idea of annoying the hell out of him while he worked quickly flew out the nearest window. And so, determined to get in _someone's_ way, they began a game of Duel Monsters in the middle of a main hallway.

Phoenix had immediately fallen in love with the popular Japanese card game, spending most of his spare time (when he wasn't training) either strengthening his deck or sparring with Ryou.

"I switch silver fang into defence mode and place two cards face down." Phoenix announced grinning cheekily as a tall brown haired executive had to squeeze past them, muttering darkly.

"I summon one monster face down and place two more cards face down too." Ryou replied. Phoenix frowned in thought; Ryou was very good at this game considering he'd only been playing three years to Phoenix's twelve. Still the agent almost invariably won. He drew another card form his deck and grinned at the sight. His most favourite monster – The Dark Magician. Now to find a way to summon it…

A loud obnoxious bang that sounded awfully close interrupted his thought train. A warning siren closely followed it, red lights flashed above them. Even though it was only a local alarm (meaning that the problem only concerned those in this department) the agent found himself suddenly feeling scared – terrified! Illogical desperation fuelled a panic that was so suddenly pumping through his veins. He had to do something – anything!

"Phoenix!"

Ryou shouted his name, alarmed at the sight of his friend sprinting away down the hall; for he first time leaving their game unfinished, inconclusive:

Abandoned.

He cursed, confused, and gathered up both their decks before hurrying after his younger friend.

Phoenix slid to a halt outside a black painted door. It was identical to all the others yet he knew this was the right one.

Bursting through the door he stopped momentarily, he had been here before. He remembered that tank! But… something was terribly, terribly wrong.

A gaping hole fringed with sharp jagged edges had appeared close to the bottom of the glass wall. A smoking lump of twisted metal, the remains of a computer, sat close by. It looked like it had exploded, blasting a hole in the tanks side with the blast. The sound of rushing water and the siren overhead was defining, red lights flashed as the clear blue liquid crashed onto the floor, effectively flooding the area. But… where was the merman?

Phoenix looked down as a strangled cry of pain pierced the chaotic air and gasped sharply. The merman was lying in a heap on the cold, hard tiled floor. He was struggling vainly to sit up, most likely unused to the extra weight that fell upon him without the waters buoyancy. He had been pulled through the hole by the force of the water and was now completely helpless out on land, phoenix grimaced, automatically hating the idea of being at another's mercy. The agent felt his heart twist painfully at the sight of a deep painful looking gash across the length of the merman's upper arm obviously having cut himself on the glass as he was forcibly ripped away from his natural environment (or a poor replica of it).

"Phoenix!" he ignored Ryou's heated warning and dashed forward. Dropping down mid-momentum Phoenix skidded to a halt on his knees by the merman's side and helped him into an upright position. The response was an instant relaxation from the sea creature; perplexed Phoenix looked towards his face.

Their eyes met again.

The agent had to force himself not to freeze up at the light touch to his chest, just over his heart. He was unused to physical contact and unless it was one of Ryou's friendly pats on his shoulders did his utmost to avoid it. It wasn't that he disliked touch he just wasn't very used to it. The gaze was as intense and as unfathomable as before, the severe distress the merman had been experiencing just moments ago was fading away at an alarming rate leaving a kind of beautiful calm and content in its wake. Phoenix found himself a little unsettled.

A sudden flinch of pain from the one he was supporting brought the agent back to Earth with a painful bump, the alarm was suddenly far too loud in his ears. Ignoring the sound of multiple footsteps Phoenix tore off his long black shirt sleeve, revealing a tattoo of an equally black cobra curling around his right arm and, attempting to ignore the merman's fascinated gaze now directed towards his arm, proceeded to wrap the soft cotton around the heavily bleeding gash like a bandage.

"Excuse me." An annoyingly high voice screeched at the suddenly silent air. Phoenix blinked looking up at the female scientist in a white lab coat; when had the alarm turned off? Another four people dressed the same way surrounded her; Ryou was stood meekly in the background.

"What." Phoenix said bluntly.

An odd sound akin to a whimper easily brought his attention back to the creature in his arms. Wait… what? Phoenix looked down confused. Why had the merman pushed himself so far into the agent's arms?

"What are you doing?" the woman asked, sounding angry.

Phoenix frowned, "Sorry I didn't realise that helping people was against company policy." It was then that things became just a little more complicated. The scientist stepped forward; the grip on Phoenix's shirt became painful. The agent was suddenly captured by uncharacteristically wide ruby orbs, the merman's head turning rapidly from side to side in an obvious plea of 'please no'. Phoenix's eyes widened in startled revelation, there were bruises and red marks all over the sea creatures body and he… he was utterly _terrified_ of these people in white coats. These people that had _hurt_ him for scientific gain!

Phoenix's head shot up as the woman came closer and watched as she suddenly halted, taking a surprised step backwards. It took a moment for the teenager to realise how viciously he had growled at her.

"T-that is an extremely important specimen you are manhandling." _Specimen!_ Phoenix thought _why of all the nerve_!

He sneered tauntingly, "Then why, prithee, was this room left unguarded and the door unlocked?" she shifted uncomfortably, obviously lost for anything to say. Phoenix looked behind at the tank then turned his gaze back to the woman, an eyebrow raised in a delicate arch, "And what are you going to do now he has nowhere to live?"

She seemed to regain a little confidence, "We have a temporary tank that could be set up within minutes wherever we want whilst this one is rebuilt." Phoenix smirked. Hook, line and sinker (Although he was more hoping they would set the merman free).

Shifting a little Phoenix moved one arm around the merman's back, supporting his shoulders, and the other one (the sleeveless one) under the tail where he assumed the knee joint would have been if the creature were human and stood as tall as his small stature would allow. It was worryingly easy to support the added weight, the merman felt far too light to be healthy. Even so the scales and skin were warm and soft under his touch.

Phoenix smiled pleasantly, a wickedly impish gleam in his amethyst eyes, "Well then if that's the case I expect the temporary tank to be up and running in my apartment before I return from the infirmary."

He walked right past her and her companions towards the door, forcefully putting an arrogantly confident air to his stride.

"W-what? You can't… I refuse to…" Phoenix half turned at her inane babbling, looking the blue eyed woman dead in the eye he replied as politely as he could.

"Mrs. Mazaki I believe I issued an order. You realise of course that if you refuse it could be reported as treason?" he smirked, seeing her resolve falter. As the finest agent this base had to offer his ranking was much higher then her own or her co-workers. They couldn't refuse and she knew it.

"Fine!" she snapped eventually, "the aquarium will be assembled in your quarters but he _will_ be retrieved as soon as this one has been repaired!"

Phoenix did not answer; he was already stepping out the door.

"Just what do you think you are doing!" hissed a fuming Ryou as Phoenix kicked open a door leading to a private hospital room, a single white bed sat in the centre of the small room, he walked calmly towards it.

"My job Ryou." With infinite care the agent sat the merman on the side of the clean bed; even in their drained-of-vitality state the long tail fins splayed beautifully upon the cool dry floor.

"Your job!" his silver haired friend all but screeched.

Letting the sea creature try and hold up his own weight turned out to be a mistake. The moment the support had gone the merman fell forwards in a half faint forcing Phoenix to lunge and catch him before he did anymore damage to himself. Keeping a tighter hold this time he replied, "Yes my job. I protect people who cannot protect themselves, I don't just steal Ryou I help." Phoenix frowned noticing the weak grip the merman had on his wrist. Just how _shallow_ his breathing sounded. He knew for a fact that merpeople could survive out of water for a good couple of hours…

"But Phoenix…" Ryou practically wined.

The agent ignored him; his makeshift bandage was already soaked in blood.

"Pixie could you please pass me the antiseptic spray and the bandages."

Frowning Ryou began rummaging through the cupboards as he replied, "Throwing your weight around isn't clever you know… there will be repercussions."

"I know." Phoenix caught the items thrown at him. Pulling off the ruined material of his shirt he cleaned away the excess blood and tried to ignore the twinge he felt as the merman flinched in pain when the antiseptic met the wound. Whispering words of comfort Phoenix wondered why his deep need for a personal space bubble seemed to have popped; the sea creature had been leaning heavily against him since the teenager first helped him to sit up.

Meanwhile Ryou seemed to have found a new argument, "They said he was wild! He could be dangerous!"

Finished, Phoenix looked down at the merman curled up against him in obvious exhaustion, like an oversized kitten, his gaze returned to Ryou an amused expression on his face, "Dangerous eh?"

He expected the shout of frustration from his friend but not for him to turn and begin stomping towards the door, Phoenix lunged forwards (still keeping a firm hold on the merman's shoulder) and grabbed the biologist's wrist to stop him. Ryou turned his head, Phoenix made sure their gazes locked before speaking, "Ryou. Do you trust me?"

Ryou was only two years older then himself: he had come to W.A.S.P. at the tender age of ten having run away from an abusive home. They had grown up together, friendship having sparked between them from the first meet; they had become one another's sole companion. Ryou's anger faded, "You know I do."

"Then please, understand why I feel I have to do this." Their fingers looked together in a brotherly action leftover from their promises to each other as children, when they had protected each other like their true families could no longer do. All the while the merman watched their interaction intently.

Ryou gave in. smiling he shook his head in exasperation, "When you get an idea in your head there really is no stopping you," he sighed in concern, "just be careful Phoenix. Not around the merman… its obvious he won't do you any physical harm… lower ranking then you or not Mazaki is a spiteful bitch. Revenge for wounded pride is probably top of her list right now."

Phoenix nodded, a solemn expression on his face he let go of Ryou's hand, "I know, I promise to be careful." He knew that was what Ryou wanted because his friend nodded in return before turning and walking through the open door.

Phoenix closed his eyes breathing steadily, trying to pull himself out of the emotional confusion that was suddenly playing with his conscious mind. An impatient tug on his remaining sleeve had the desirable effect – the agent returned his attention to the merman that was, yet again, staring unblinkingly at him.

Begrudgingly he realised Ryou was right, what _was_ he doing? Why was he helping this creature so much? It was pity right? It had to be noting more than pity and a desire to help the injured. It wasn't the tug he felt in his chest or the way he felt sick at the thought of handing him back to those scientists. It was pity.

Just pity.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And just in case anyone is a little confused Phoenix _is_ Yuugi, just a messed up less naïve side of Yuugi. I like exploring Yami's fluffier side, give the Pharaoh half the chance (and a little less time in the Puzzle) and I think he could be very sweet.

Please review. I have to admit the amount of reviews I got for the last was a little depressing, if it's crap then tell me, just no flames please. Please cheer me up and review College and work are sapping all my enthusiasm these days. There will be an update for Phoenix's Ashes and possibly Firefly In Ice on Saturday/Sunday.


	3. The Magic of Science: part 2

Disclaimer: Oh please. Like I could create something like Yu-Gi-Oh.

Small warnings: A cute Yami and a confused Yuugi.

**The Magic Of Science**

**Part Two**

"You need a name." Phoenix's abrupt announcement seemed overly loud in the quiet sleepy atmosphere of his living quarters. It was two days after the merman had 'moved in' with him and only a few hours ago that Phoenix had consulted his boss about a holiday. He wouldn't leave the base but he would receive about two weeks of 'recovery time' as the boss had put it – basically unless there was a desperate need for his skills he wouldn't receive any assignments or anything else that fell into the category of work.

He was sat cross-legged next to the glass of the much smaller tank that was situated on a slight rise in the floor of his living room. The merman was lying on his stomach directly in front of him swishing his tailfins from side to side. And, as always, he was watching the agent. Phoenix had found it more than a little irritating at first; to have his every move observed and seemingly documented. He felt he was becoming scientifically interesting. The staring wasn't disconcerting it was just there… irritating but not particularly a bad thing… of course it wasn't exactly a _good _thing either… ah well he could live with it until the main tank was rebuilt (which apparently could take a while).

It was amazing how much brighter the sea creature's eyes had gotten after only two days of caring attention. It had been really quite worrying how thin he was; you could easily count the ribs of his chest. He wasn't much less thin now but a healthy glow had returned to his skin (the scales evidently took longer to recover). Not only that but the wound on his arm had healed! A great gash healed within a day or two! Maybe that was what the scientists were looking for… the secret to merpeople's recovery rate…

Now there was another thing that baffled Phoenix: he _knew_ the scientists weren't stupid enough not to even _feed_ their 'specimens' but the merman obviously hadn't eaten anything for possibly months… had he been refusing food? That was a worrying thought.

Admittedly Phoenix didn't have the faintest clue what merpeople ate and so that led him to ordering the kitchens to deliver a massive hamper filled with a sample of everything they had in stock to his rooms. And, as it turned out, the merman had a peculiar taste for fruit. Particularly apples. An incredibly cute moment had occurred when, after five minutes of coaxing, the sea creature had finally eaten an offered strawberry; Phoenix had actually _giggled_ as the others eyes lit up in delighted surprise (although he would never admit to such an act). Of course then he'd made the mistake of introducing the merman to hot, cinnamon coated, apple slices. The kitchens were swiftly running out of their supply. Phoenix wondered if he'd ever had hot food before.

The teenager flopped down onto his own stomach, mimicking his companion's position, "I mean I can't keep calling 'The Merman' all the time can I?" he reasoned with himself. The merman never answered, it was obvious he could speak no human language and the likelihood of Phoenix learning to talk in a tongue that sounded like a mixture between a dolphin's call and a whale's song so they could communicate were all too slim.

Resting his chin on his upturned palm Phoenix began an utterly pointless staring competition. Pointless due the fact that his companion never seemed to blink, the merman was the only person he ever lost a game to no matter how childish it was.

Phoenix wasn't too sure how it had happened but most certainly it had, over the short amount of time the merman had been living with him they had formed a bond. It was still in juvenile stages, the strings of trust that held them together fragile and delicate, but it was strengthening all the time as each sunrise and sunset heralded another day and night with them as companions of the same living space. In almost every way, over the past two days, the merman had become the agent's partner.

Wait… partner! That was it!

"Aibou," Phoenix grinned widely, "that can be your name. Aibou – partner."

And although Phoenix knew the merman couldn't possibly understand, he thought – under the flashing crimson – he thought he saw a flicker of wisdom beyond human comprehension and upon the handsome face suddenly sat a happy smile shining with what could have been pride. And even though Phoenix hated the thought of being patronised (he had never before seeked to make others proud of him) for the life of him he couldn't find it within himself to be angry, finding instead a flush of colour upon his cheeks.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Colour. It was everywhere. Surrounding him. Choking him._

_Red. Pain. A calm shimmering blue. Blinding. Unnatural white. Clashing fear and confusion as he was consumed by dancing shadows._

_He was sitting this time. Just sitting… or lying, he couldn't make his mind up. _

_The sound of crashing waves a constant murmur in the background as he flicked through the pages of a biology textbook._

_Ryou was beside him but his hair hid his face as the scientist pushed a brightly wrapped box taller than both of them into view._

"_Happy Birthday." The voice sounded muffled, as if he had cotton in his ears. Ryou suddenly burst into a hundred tiny marbles. They rolled along the sterile white floor and out of sight._

_Alluring amber flowed like a river into a pool of violent purple. The current was too strong to swim. He flew across instead._

_He stood straight and began to walk. An electric fence stood before a low table baring two cups._

_He yelled at the fence for getting in his way._

_'Yuugi…'_

_A hand was in his. It was webbed. He didn't notice._

_He was running again._

_Solomon stood before him, a wise look in his old eyes._

_'Someday you will leave too…'_

_He ran past his dead guardian. The floor turned a deep dirty green._

_A bang shook the floor. Painful red came flooding._

_The darkness of death came rushing towards him. He had failed._

_'Yuugi…'_

Phoenix's eyes snapped open, a choked cry sounding from his throat.

Cold sweat covered his body, his hands were fisted in the sheets as air ripped through his lungs at a ferocious pace.

Shakily he sat up and with a great effort let go of the bed sheets to instead grasp clumps of messy hair on either side of his head.

Every night. Every fucking night he had had that dream. Although normally it stopped and he woke as he saw the two cups. Was it deliberately trying to unhinge him! Tonight it had been unusually… painful. Real.

A note of song reached his ears and Phoenix, recognising it, turned his head to look at the tank. He smiled weakly. The merman had been living with him for nearly a week now and somehow had figured out how to open the lid of his tank. Currently he was using his arms to support his upper body that was leaning out of the water, observing the agent with worried eyes.

Knowing it was a dead certainty he wouldn't get back to sleep tonight Phoenix pealed back the white bed covers and stumbled tiredly over to the other side of the apartment. His living space consisted of two rooms; a bathroom and a combined living room/bedroom. It required less cleaning that way. Reaching the tank Phoenix hoisted himself up to sit on the wide rimmed edge next to the newly named Aibou.

Phoenix turned his head to look at the merman, "well now you've got me up here what do you want?" this was the first time since the infirmary they had gotten so close without a pane of glass between them.

In response to the words he couldn't understand Aibou reached out and lifted Phoenix's right arm, attempting to push the black sleeve of the agents pyjamas up, the material reached half way to the elbow, revealing part of a black band, and stopped. Frustrated at what he saw as an unnecessary amount of cloth the merman looked up again into Phoenix's purple eyes, his own red eyes purposefully opened wide and shimmering in an adorable pout. He tugged meaningfully on the sleeve.

Phoenix blinked. Those ruby eyes had an almost hypnotic effect on him. Shaking his head in exasperation but at the same smiling in amusement the agent reached up and used his left hand to awkwardly undo the front buttons. He didn't see the eager triumphant grin on the merman's face. When Phoenix finished Aibou moved so that he was floating directly in front of the human's chest and reached out again.

Phoenix gave a slight start as the merman's tanned fingers trailed slowly across the skin of his shoulders and, in a maner Phoenix _swore_ could have been interpreted as seductive, pushed the shirt off his shoulders so it slid down his arms and flopped innocently on the carpeted floor. The agent wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do in a situation like this so he just sat perfectly still, holding the slight air of someone gone into shock, and watched as Aibou's eyes filled with a strange mixture of awe, horror and dark satisfaction. In the distant confines of his mind Phoenix realised that although he was sat here suddenly feeling very vulnerable and naked, to the merman he probably looked a lot more… natural without any cumbersome fabrics covering his body (well his upper body anyway). The most clothing you'd find on a merperson would be jewellery made of shells or coral or the occasional pearl or shark tooth. Yes. Now he probably looked much more normal to the merman… well he would have if it wasn't for the glaring evidence of his less-than-normal life.

Phoenix suppressed a shiver as Aibou's damp fingers brushed over a more recent scar on the patchwork of thin delicate lines criss-crossing over his torso. Well no one said training was easy. He ignored the worried, questioning look Aibou gave him at the sight of his marred skin and instead held up his right arm in a subtle hint to the merman to stop staring and look at what he originally wanted to see. Most of the scares were old. Left over from childhood when he first began training and he did not appreciate being stared at because of them.

The merman took the hint and inspected Phoenix's tattoo instead, eyes shimmering with curiosity.

It was a snake. A black cobra to be precise, its body curled twice around his forearm before rearing up to stare warningly at passers by, it's hood was spread wide but its fangs were deceptively hidden. The black tail ran down from the head pointing towards Phoenix's wrist. It was a modest size however, more like an armband, not one of those huge disfiguring things often found on hard, muscle bound men. Phoenix was not a body builder, while his muscles were most certainly there they would never be threatening masses of rippling bulk, his body size and structure leaned a little more to the feminine side (much like Ryou's) without it forming the distinctive hourglass shape. If a stranger were asked to describe him the response would, more often then not, be 'pretty' rather than 'handsome'.

Phoenix couldn't help but smile at the expression of confused fascination on Aibou's face. The merman ran his fingers firmly over the image, almost massaging it, clearly wondering if it was some sort of strangely shaped birthmark. It looked almost like a bracelet. Aibou twisted Phoenix's arm gently, wanting to see the snake from all angles and instead caught a glimpse of something else. Something red.

The agent blinked as the merman leaned round him, trying to see his back. Phoenix's smile turned almost sly, if the serpent's image had confused the merman this really would throw him off the deep end. Lifting himself up only slightly Phoenix turned around so that his back was facing the merman instead of his chest. There was a moment of silently stunned awe.

His back, just like his chest and most of his body, was criss-crossed with scars both young and old but there was something there that hid them rather effectively. Strangely enough Phoenix rather enjoyed Aibou's touch upon his shoulders as he traced the outline of another tattoo.

This tattoo took up a large portion of Phoenix's back but still managed to avoid being disfiguring. At the base rested a small flame that trailed windingly upwards to just below his shoulder blades whereupon it seemed to burst into a magnificent flaming red bird. The bird's wings spread wide across his shoulder blades looking almost like the wings belonged to him. Great talons and a sharp hooked beak identified the avian as a predator and yet it bore tail feathers similar to the male peacocks (although red) and its sharp eyes, even though it was only an image, had warmth to them that was almost gentle. It was a phoenix: proud and determined – a great figure of eternity.

Phoenix sighed sleepily as the merman's hands trailed downwards massaging the tense muscles, if the agent were more alert he would probably have realised how incredibly flirtatious this was, but instead he simply enjoyed it. The merman's arms wrapped protectively around his waist, coaxing him to relax, and he melted utterly into the embrace as Aibou pressed his chest flush against Phoenix's back, snuggling as close as physically possible. Again the agent sighed, letting his head fall back on the merman's shoulder.

It didn't occur to Phoenix how strange his situation might look to an outsider. He didn't think about the sheer volume of contrivances that could be concocted and spread around the base if someone saw this now. To Phoenix there was nothing overly strange about his situation, he was warm and sleepy and comfortable. Nothing strange at all…

He trusted the merman to hold him as he succumbed to sleep.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ryou's teeth captured his tongue in a small bite as he thought. His pen scratched the white paper as he wrote, documenting his new findings about the effect of UV light on a new plant they were developing. It was supposed to help stop world hunger. He sighed. As if _he_ would ever be part of anything so grand. Phoenix was lucky – well maybe not _too_ lucky – to have such influence on the people who actually could change the world, Ryou often wondered why his friend did not take advantage of it. Maybe he didn't realise. Or maybe he just didn't care.

Ryou cared. He couldn't understand how other people could just disregard the world around them, its beauty and its intricacy. People often said he cared too much and he would be inclined to agree with them.

But he wanted to do more than just care; he wanted to love. He wanted someone to care for _him._ Phoenix cared for him but it would never be the type of care he wanted. Needed. He had realised that not too long ago. He had thought… for so long he had thought that that maybe… but then that merman came. Ryou realised that Phoenix's love for him would never be anything more than brotherly and that had hurt so much. But then again maybe he had known all along.

He had visited Phoenix a few nights ago. That had been an obscure visit indeed. The agent had been… happy. Ryou could find not other word to explain it. Through their many years together Phoenix had never shown large amounts of emotion: what he did show was controlled and always befitting the moment and the emotion always faded before long. But this time he had been happy, almost ecstatically so. The moment the sliding black metal door slid back to reveal Phoenix's apartment loud music had almost knocked Ryou back. It wasn't the volume of the music (for honestly it had not been that loud) that made the biologist step back, it was the shock that Phoenix was playing music at all when it wasn't through headphones. Phoenix was never that expressive.

And then suddenly the agent was before him, those beautiful violet eyes wide and shimmering with a joy only youth can posses (a youth Ryou thought they both had lost) they were not, as he was accustomed to seeing them, half lidded with tiredness and stress.

Ryou had only a moment to look around the room as he was pulled in and had seen on the far side the very same merman that his best friend had rescued sitting quietly in the water and yet watching Phoenix with a wide joyful grin and a warmth in his eyes that Ryou couldn't identify. It had felt, for that single moment, as if a great dormant serpent had squirmed in Ryou's stomach. But the moment was lost as Phoenix twirled him around and demanded a dance, and Ryou, too shocked and too eager to see this other side of his friend, had indulged him.

The music had been fast with a distinct metal taste to it and the dance was not, as Ryou had half hoped it would be, intimate or slow. The dance was just a dance, a silly bit a teenage fun and as innocent as Phoenix's feelings towards him.

When, much later, the songs had ended and they were both panting and grinning stupidly at each other from the exertion (Ryou more then Phoenix, due to their chosen professions Phoenix was much fitter physically) Ryou had chanced another glance towards the third person in the room.

And had stepped back in shock. For once the merman was not staring at Phoenix but rather glaring. Glaring at him. At first Ryou had tried to pass it off as something as trivial as the merman remembering he had not helped Phoenix against the scientist but then he saw the dark gleam of _jealousy _behind those crimson eyes. But… why would he be jealous that Phoenix was dancing with a friend? Had something happened between the agent and the merman? And Ryou had by no means missed the possessive glance the merman shot Phoenix when he had checked to see whether his friend was seeing this. Unfortunately the agent had been too busy fussing with his stereo to notice anything.

And Ryou, for reasons unknown to even himself, had excused himself from Phoenix's company and left in a hurry.

The white haired man's pen stilled above the paper.

He had seen and felt things in that room he never cared to again. Something big was coming, like storm clouds billowing on the horizon, and he was worried for Phoenix who seemed oblivious to how close they were to being over him.

Ryou still loved and cared for Phoenix even if the agent didn't feel the same way, after all he was Ryou, he cared for everything. No matter how much it hurt that he and Phoenix were not meant to be he was content as long as his best friend was safe. Ryou would continue searching for the love he desired because there had to be someone out there who would love him.

Some special person just for him.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Confidence. It was a strange thing really and Phoenix could not remember if he ever had much of it. Certainly now the only thing he felt confident in was his abilities as an agent, he had never been much of a people person. He had always preferred the privacy of his own company, hence why Ryou was his only friend, it seemed as if shyness was hardwired into him. Unless someone addressed him directly Phoenix never spoke. He had sometimes gone for days without uttering a single word.

But now that was changing.

He was opening up. He was still as closed off to the world as he always had been but he was no longer self conscious, Phoenix had begun sleeping without a shirt, preferring the freedom he felt without it. He had begun speaking without being prompted and it was all due to one thing, or rather the company of a single person.

The crimson eyed merman.

How utterly ironic that, after all these years, he began to finally open up to someone and that someone wasn't even human. Phoenix knew from an early age that he would never be normal but this just took the cake. Most nights would find Phoenix sat by the glass of the tank simply talking. Talking about his work, his experiences, Ryou and their close friendship, but not his past. Never about his past. And even though he _knew _that the merman couldn't understand, let alone reply, he still talked. It felt good to finally have someone who would listen unconditionally as he spoke of how his mind worked differently when he was on a mission, of how he created his strategies both before and during infiltration. And the merman did listen; he truly listened, with an intense type of understanding Phoenix found himself falling in love with. Falling in love with how intently he listened despite not being able to comprehend and how he never answered back, never challenged or contradicted, never made the agent feel uncomfortable. And Phoenix was, for possibly the first time in his life that he could remember, content.

Aibou was getting better as well. Much better. And now that the two weeks of Phoenix's holiday were nearly over the merman had gained a healthy weight. His ribs no longer stuck out from his skin and the scales and tattered fins of his tail had fully healed. They seemed to flash with vitality and colour every time he moved and often Phoenix had found himself sat upon his bed in the early morning hours just watching the light dance upon the merman's amber red tail utterly fascinated by how smoothly the rich tanned skin melded into fish scales around Aibou's waist.

But now it was late at night and the merman was sleeping, curled up on the soft sand upon the tanks base. Phoenix was in a half doze lying upon the sheets of his bed well aware he had a job assignment tomorrow and really needed to get some real sleep but was almost too afraid to. Those dreams had been haunting him with such relentless obsession lately. Dreams of a black night in a forest. The trees tall and imposing like the bars of a prison and lit from behind by a terrifying flickering light that every instinct he possessed demanded he run from. He was always carrying something too: something not heavy but large enough to hinder him terribly. And there was always pain. An intense immobilising pain and a deep sense of failure and agonising loss that always woke him with a jolt and a cry.

And so the agent lay there not awake but not asleep, just upon the cusp of dreaming dreams he really didn't want to dream, when something quite suddenly drew him away from sleep and gave him a start as intense as the dreams themselves gave him.

A sound. A soft cry, a sob so utterly heartbreaking Phoenix wanted to curl up himself and shed his own tears in the face of such pain. But he did not, instead he sat up and looked around to the only other known person in his room and blinked in shock and surprise. The merman was curled into an impossibly small ball and yet his hand was outstretched as if he meant to reach out and take something, bring it into himself and keep it as his own, and the tremors that shook his body were violent in nature, like tempest waves crashing upon a shore each tremor had his shoulders and chest heaving in an impossibly agonising sob. And yet Aibou's eyes were closed, clenched tight as if against a great horror.

A nightmare. Aibou was having a nightmare. Phoenix found himself next to the glass tank without any memory of having even left the bed, hauling open the plastic lid he jumped up to kneel upon the large rim and plunged his arm into the warm salt water. The young agent grasped the merman's shoulder in a fierce grip just as another tremor ripped through him and shook his companion in a desperate attempt to free him from the terror of his own mind. And wake the merman did. Wake with such a cry it seemed to shake Phoenix's very core and in an instant Aibou was all over him, gripping his arms, his face and finally his chest in an almost ridiculous desperation, it was as if the merman was afraid of Phoenix disappearing. He pushed himself into Phoenix's arms and wrapped his arms around the agent's bare chest, burring his face into Phoenix's neck and taking deep shuddering breaths as if trying to hold back tears.

Phoenix sat still. Totally unsure about how you where supposed to comfort a person: he had never had to before. Eventually the grip around his chest became painful and Phoenix realised he wasn't going anywhere tonight; the merman needed comfort, not surprisingly after what he had been through. Trying to remember how Aibou had comforted _him_ after a particularly bad nightmare Phoenix crossed his legs and pulled the merman unto his lap (with his tail still in the water), he wrapped his arms around his companion in a gentle embrace and began to rock him slowly back and forth until the sobbing faded away and Aibou's grip relaxed until it was obvious he had fallen back to sleep, as trusting in the agent's arms as Phoenix had felt in the merman's. And suddenly unable to resist the pull of sleep himself Phoenix laid his head on top of Aibou's, ignoring the wetness of his hair, and faded away from conscious thought, his honed reflexes managing to keep him sat upright even asleep.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Phoenix frowned at the wall in front of him as he tied the black bandana like shawl around his head so it hid his hair. He was supposed to be out on an assignment tonight and yet he couldn't for the life of him find the same sense of calm concentration he always managed to pull out of thin air, instead he was jittery, alive and excited with the thought of the trill tonight would bring. His energy had been building up without any way to vent it for the past two weeks and now it was bubbling with the need to feel the thrill of the adrenaline a mission brought, missions always made him feel alive. Superior. He liked how he could pass directly behind a guard without ever being noticed, he enjoyed the way he could run and jump trough trees without a sound just to avoid a security camera's gaze and he loved the feeling of a satisfying victory over people he didn't even know.

He turned his frown to the ceiling as he pulled on his soft leather gloves, blindly fastening the slim buckles around the wrists; Phoenix knew he shouldn't enjoy it as much as he did but the fact remained that until very recently being an agent on a mission was the only thing that kept him occupied enough to forget his… _predicament_. And now here he was as nervously excited as he had been on his very first lone assignment, his energy as high as if he had eaten a bowl of sugar and with the promise of something just as welcoming and satisfying waiting for him when he got home.

Finished with the preparations he glanced over at the tank seeing exactly what he expected: Aibou sat there with a questioning look on his face. Phoenix wondered vaguely if this is what it felt like to know that when you came home you came to someone who cared, like a family, a lover.

Shaking his head to remove the obscure thoughts from his head Phoenix picked up his watch just as it began beeping, a signal that it was time to get moving, and walked towards the door, glancing back with a small smile and wave to the merman before he stepped out into the corridor, the door sliding shut behind him.

His black boots tapped the hard floor as he walked and Phoenix stalled for a moment to clear his head, it seemed that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't concentrate on formulating strategies even though he knew he needed them, tonight was a difficult assignment, instead his thoughts kept drifting towards the merman still waiting in his room. Growling he savagely ripped the merman from his mind and continued towards the helicopter that was waiting for him, this time he concentrated on rolling the balls of his feet so even in boots his feet were silent against the hard floor. Silent as they should have been before.

"_Ryou what does love feel like?"_

_A young Phoenix watched his friend carefully for answers. Ryou looked up at him caught off guard by the sudden question but remained silent._

"_Have you ever felt love Ryou, I mean the type of love you would feel for someone you like intimately?" The trainee agent watched intrigued as his fifteen-year-old friend blushed like a schoolgirl and turned away so his silvery hair covered the majority of his face before he answered. _

"_Yes." _

_Phoenix blinked, genuinely interested, and leaned forwards over the card table. "What does it feel like? How do you know its love?" _

"_It's when you want more then anything just to be with that one person because that person makes you feel… feel good. When you feel happy and excited just from the thought of them. They make you feel warm inside and it feels as if your heart swells when they look at you, do something for you. But most of all its when you just can't get them out of your head." The student looked back towards Phoenix with large green eyes, "Have you ever felt something like that? It… it isn't always exactly the same but that is the general basis…" _

_Phoenix frowned looking down at his cards, so it wasn't love after all. At least not _that _type of love, "No. I… I don't think I have."_

This time Phoenix stopped dead. The memory surfacing from the dust that had settled upon it and swirling mercilessly around his head. Love. That was what love felt like. And he… he… Phoenix covered his mouth with his hand, "Oh God… Oh God no…" This was it, he could no longer deny it, all his thoughts, all his feelings, they had all been leading to one thing. He… Yuugi Motou – the Rising Phoenix of W.A.S.P. base – was… was in love.

He was in love with a merman!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AN: I am sorry to say that unless this gets more interest it will be put on hiatus (maybe even discontinued) I'm having trouble at college and I think I may be slipping into depression thanks to a series of personal difficulties all surfacing at once. I don't want to stop writing this but it probably will need at least a small hiatus to help my motivation. So Please Review.


	4. The Magic of Science: part 3

**A.N**: Well here it is. Finally. Only took me oh three months... Heh heh... yeah. The more I write of this short story the more I hate it - it hasn't turned out as I envisioned it in my head and there are so many f-king plot holes I'm surprised the entire thing hasn't subsided under a great wave of cr-pyness. It's kind of getting to the point were I'm just finishing it so I can just leave it here and pointedly ignore its existence -sighs-. On a lighter note my University applications are going well so no stress pulling me down there, perhaps I'll get the last part of this up before the summer break (sense the sarcasm?) Please ignore the first scene's cr-pyness (especially the first 14ish paragraphs) I cant quite bring myself to proof read it 'coz every time I try I cringe and want to start the whole thing from scratch - but that would take far to long and just finishing it would be easier.

**Warnings: **Swearing and OCness.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

**The Magic Of Science**

**Part Three**

The light of the false dawn was already brightening the horizon by the time Phoenix was permitted to leave the hospital wing.

He had thrown his left glove in the bin already; he wouldn't be wearing _that_ again. The heavy white bandages wrapping up his hand and the deep crimson stain leaking onto it proved that point. Phoenix gritted his teeth, walking as well as he could with the pain shooting up his hip. His pant leg had had to be torn away so the doctors could get a better look at the injury with minimal disturbance to him; the bullet had ripped the material anyway so there had been no point in keeping them.

He had succeeded in his mission goal. He was, as a whole, fine. Just a little worse for wear. Although his pride was going to need some rebuilding. He had suffered much worse but not for a long time had he made any mistake at quite that calibre. Phoenix growled. His limp was barely noticeable due to his dogged determination to make it to his room without aid. The nurses had wanted him to stay overnight, or be carried to his room on a stretcher, and even, when push had come to shove, use a crutch for the next few days! He could make it down a corridor without being carried thank you very much. It was only a gunshot wound to his leg and a _small_ nick from a blade to his hand. They made it sound as if his life was in danger the melodramatic pricks.

He hastily punched in the security code for his room on the keypad next his door and stumbled in to lean against the steady wall for a minute or two to get his balance back. His vision was kind of fuzzy too.

"Damn." He muttered under his breath. "I need to get more sleep."

Deciding he could let at least a little of his weakness slip through the façade now he was alone Phoenix limped to the low slung leather couch and collapsed upon it, spreading out his body over the cushions and sighing heavily as he remembered he still had to take his ruined clothes off before he fell asleep in them.

By god he was exhausted.

It was then the foggy recesses of his brain managed to process the strange sounds he had been hearing since he walked into his room, it relayed the jumbled message to what was left of his consciousness and sleepily added that he knew the person who was making the sounds. All of the muscles Phoenix had managed to relax since collapsing on the couch tightened up again and he hissed at the bolt of pain his reaction caused. Slowly, almost reluctantly, he opened his eyes to gaze over at the suddenly ominous looking tank just across from him.

The merman cooed at him again, his worry painfully evident. Phoenix averted his eyes.

He had forgotten about his… _problem._

But Aibou clearly wasn't going to let him rest until he had checked out the agent for himself. Phoenix knew what he wanted, it was just getting up to sit on the tanks side what with his injuries hampering him that was going to be difficult. Gritting his teeth against the strain of his protesting body Phoenix more fell off the couch then got up. Deciding it would be easier in the long run (and not at all for any other reason) he stripped himself of his ruined clothes and grabbed a simple nightgown hanging from a hook by the door. Now he was wearing nothing but his rather too tight underpants for this time of night (they had to be tight for him to get his leather over them) and a black gown of soft flannel that reached his ankles. Now for the hard part.

Trying _not_ to notice the shimmer coming off Aibou's tail. Phoenix used predominantly his right hand to hoist himself up to sit on the edge of the tanks rim. His left hip protested to the action with a fiery temper and so he moved much more gingerly then he normally would. The merman had obviously noticed and seemed to be becoming more and more restless by the second. Phoenix felt a slight thump in his chest when he realised just how pleasant it could be to have someone fuss over you. And not just because it was their job either.

Ignoring his pain the agent inched closer to the water so Aibou could give him the check up he was obviously so intent on giving. He smiled wearily over at his companion and spread his arms in invitation. He could do this. He _could._

Aibou was fascinated. He had, up until now, only ever seen a humans legs covered by that strange fabric. His tanned fingers skated across the agent's skin, wanting to explore every line and crease. Phoenix noticed then just how very _dry _the merman's hair was. How long exactly had Aibou been waiting for him to come back?

His thoughts were halted in their tracks however when the merman's careful fingers put a little too much pressure upon his heavily bandaged gunshot wound. His intake of breath was pained; he clenched his eyes shut at the onslaught and could not disguise a heavy wince. Aibou's fingers were caressing his cheeks and eyes in obvious apology. Phoenix found his gaze locked onto the smouldering coals of the merman's eyes and found them filled with their own pain.

Phoenix gave a very quiet, humourless laugh. "Of course it's still bleeding silly. They only removed the bullet ten minuets ago." He was surprised by the bitterness in his voice. Had he really become _that_ cynical?

Aibou's eyes were filled with something like pity. A flare of anger and resentment shot through the agent, he didn't need anyone's pity! He narrowed his eyes and turned his head away to glare fiercely at the wall rather then at the merman who probably wouldn't understand why he was suddenly being quite hostile towards him. He tried to clench his fists but stopped when a powerful throb of pain shot through his left hand, he growled instead. Aibou now had his hands resting on Phoenix's knees, in an almost hesitant attempt to calm the tensed human he moved his hand up the agents right leg in a massage, trying to get the muscles to relax. He wasn't prepared for the sharp gasp of something other then pain.

Phoenix froze. What was Aibou doing? Why was he running his hands along Phoenix's inner thigh? Why? He shuddered. The merman, obviously intrigued by his response repeated his action and delighted in the shudder that was the agent's reaction. Phoenix took numerous deep breaths. Calm down, he told himself, he's innocent. He doesn't understand what he's doing. Don't! With a jerk Phoenix grabbed Aibou's hand and forced it away from its journey up his leg. Aibou was clearly confused as to why Phoenix was acting so flustered all of a sudden, he coked his head to the side and blinked. Phoenix squeezed the merman's hand with his own in reassurance and shook his head firmly in the universal sign of 'no'. The reaction to that was nothing short of adorable, the merman's shoulders slumped and his lips curved downwards in a pout. It quite literally looked as if he had been deflated.

Phoenix couldn't help it. He laughed.

It felt good to laugh again. He felt as if a great tension had been lifted from his shoulders. He was still smiling when he realised he had closed his eyes and opened them to find Aibou much closer then before. He felt his cheeks flush but found that he didn't have any desperate urge to do anything about their closeness. He was right. He could do this.

Aibou's hand hesitantly rested over Phoenix's hip, where the light red stain was just visible under the white cloth. Phoenix blinked, curious as to what the merman was doing, but didn't do anything to pull away. He frowned slightly when the red eyes started to shimmer, the whites of Aibou's eyes seeming to reflect a pool of bright blue water, it could be coming from the tank Phoenix reasoned. And then, as if someone had cracked a whip, Phoenix jumped. There was a sudden surge of… something flowing into his skin from where Aibou's hand rested. He gasped and chocked on the air in his throat. It was hot and cold at the same time, a strange pulling on his skin. But it didn't hurt. It was more… different then anything really painful. And then it was gone and left Phoenix panting with the shock, he barely realised Aibou had forcibly ripped away the bandages covering his wound and had discarded them carelessly on the floor. The agent, when he had calmed, leaned away from the merman wondering what the hell he had just done. His eyes narrowed suspiciously when Aibou pointed towards his hip a strange expression on his handsome face. Giving in to the temptation Phoenix looked down at where the bandages had been and chocked on air again in his shock.

His wound was gone!

The skin were the bullet had torn through was smooth and unblemished. Not even a scar to prove it's previous existence!

Phoenix looked up again as delicate fingers took hold of his injured hand. Aibou looked up at him, cupping his hand with a serious expression on his face.

'_Oh, so now he asks for permission?' _Phoenix asked himself, his mental voice dripping with sarcastic humour. But he returned the look and nodded non-the-less, he wasn't about to turn down one hell of a painkiller.

Again the merman's eyes shimmered that weird blue, and again came the sensation of invisible touches pulling, coaxing his skin to come together again. Phoenix didn't jerk this time and when it was over he watched as Aibou fumbled a little with the bandages, struggling to get the knot untied with his webbed fingers. He was not surprised to see the wound had gone. The agent flexed his hand, splaying the fingers and clenching his fist to test the extent of Aibou's healing magic. He was impressed.

Lowering his hand Phoenix glanced over to the merman smiling softly, "Thank you." He murmured, hoping the meaning would get past the language barrier. Aibou smiled that mysterious, handsome smile and shifted closer to him, wrapping his arms around the human's waist he manoeuvred his way between Phoenix's legs and rested his head on Phoenix's stomach, sighing tiredly.

Phoenix, ignoring the compromising position, frowned worriedly. He knew he was tired but why was Aibou? It wasn't exactly like the merman had done much other then… Phoenix suddenly felt guilty. Did the merman's magic cost him energy? Had he tired himself out? It would make sense as to why he hadn't healed those minor injuries on his tail and bruised torso when Phoenix had first found him. He hadn't had the energy to do so.

The merman cooed. His lips humming against Phoenix's abdomen. He shuddered and shed away. Maybe he couldn't do this after all. Aibou noticed the agent's stillness; he looked up and scowled, unhappy that the human's attention was not on him. Shifting again he made it so Phoenix had no choice _but _to notice him.

Phoenix jumped a little, startled at suddenly feeling very, very wet. Not only had Aibou splashed a handful of salt water on his hair he had pulled himself out of the water and was currently curling up in his lap like they had done last night after the nightmare, he embraced the human around his chest and, upon seeing Phoenix's comical expression, had to bury his face into the agent's neck to stifle laughter. A moment passed before Phoenix sighed, returning the embrace he muttered, "At least someone's happy."

He couldn't deny that he was enjoying the hugs, Aibou's skin seemed strangely warm and the scales, just as warm, felt sensually silken as the tail shifted over his thighs. Phoenix was about to look to see whether or not Aibou had recovered from his giggling fit before something caught his eye. He did a double take and stared at the merman's amber tail, about a third of the way down on the left side there was an abrasion. A painful looking graze where the otherwise perfect scale pattern had been disrupted and a couple were even missing, leaving vulnerable raw tissue underneath. Phoenix wasn't sure whether he was seeing things, the injury hadn't been there last night, so gently he reached down to touch the area around the graze with hesitant fingers. He noticed when Aibou froze but didn't stop. Wait… proportion wise wasn't this exactly were the injury on his leg would have been? He put a little more pressure on the area, gauging by the merman's reaction where it hurt the most.

It was for his own good, Phoenix reasoned, if he didn't know where it hurt he couldn't help sooth it. And then, feeling guilty as Aibou flinched, his fingers digging into the agent's shoulders, he moved his hand to the right and smiled as Aibou relaxed again, almost in that boneless way he had when they had first touched. Phoenix made to pull his hand away.

And was stopped as Aibou pressed it back down on his tail with a sudden sharp lunge, keeping Phoenix's hand there with his own slightly larger one. Phoenix looked up; Aibou's eyes were closed, his lips parted ever so slightly in a look that managed to appear both relaxed and irresistibly sensual. Phoenix swallowed. He'd probably just done what the merman had done to him a moment ago. Which meant… oh crap.

Again he tried to pull his hand away, and stopped abruptly when he felt something so unexpected all he could do was freeze.

Aibou's lips… on his.

His mind wiped a clean white, and his body completely frozen under an intimacy he thought he would never experience, Phoenix fell back onto the one thing he could always manage when overwhelmed. Detached contemplation. The merman's lips where soft but still firm enough to apply just that right amount of pressure, they were strangely hot, as if he were kissing sunlight rather than water, and there was something else… similar to the magic in feel… but not…

Phoenix realised when Aibou's hand tightened around his shoulder that neither of them had moved once since the incitation of their kiss. They were just sat there, gently touching. Was this… was this all you were supposed to do in a kiss? The agent didn't know… he'd never kissed anyone, had never even thought about kissing someone before… but surely… the TV made it look so easy, so simply natural. Tentatively, conscious of his every move, Phoenix moved his lips over the merman's, pressed a little harder, brushed a little softer. And was secretly elated when Aibou responded in the same way, absently he wondered if he was any good at this, but the merman seemed just as inexperienced as him. A hesitant dance of exploration.

It hadn't quite sunk in yet; the fact that he was actually kissing the object of his desires. And just as Phoenix was wondering if he should stop or try to go deeper Aibou leaned back, leaned back but didn't let go. The agent felt himself falling but was to preoccupied to do anything about it until…

He choked, pulling way from the merman and closing his eyes against the sting of salt water. He had been pulled into the tank. Floating underwater he tried to push Aibou off of him, tried to swim back up to the surface, his lungs already quivering in his chest from lack of air. The tank wasn't that big, only a foot or two taller then him, he could reach the surface in time easily. Oh god Aibou wasn't letting go, he was holding him tight, controlling his struggling. He was going to drown; the merman was going to kill him! He was blinded and suffocating and panicking more with every second that passed. His fighting increased when he felt his back hit the tank's bottom, Aibou coming down to lie on top of him. Hold him down. Drown him. His lips parted in desperation, bubbles of air escaping like a shoal of tiny fish, the salt made his eyes burn as fiercely as his lungs were flaming in his chest. Aibou's fingers dug into his clothed shoulders, pushing him further into the sand, as if trying to wake him from a dream, as if trying to keep him from hurting himself. Oh god didn't he understand! Didn't he care!

And then suddenly there was air flowing into his lungs, sweet precious life giving air. Distantly he felt the pressure on his lips, felt the same heat as before encompass his senses, but he didn't care. His panic receding now Phoenix realised the less then innocent position Aibou had him pinned in, his gown wasn't exactly covering his body so he could _feel_ every inch of skin and scale that caressed his own. His eyes still closed and his mouth still open to one that was keeping him alive the agent slipped into a kind of vacant, happy stupor. Falling into his own world that contained only the two of them and yet further into a relaxed, probably magic induced haze.

_There was too much to think about, so much to hate and love and fear._

_So much easier not to care._

_So much easier not to think at all. _

_The trees surrounded him, flashing by at such speed, as if he were stood next to a giant reel of film that ticked and flickered badly in a projectors wheel. And they were lit with such a strange orange light._

"_Please Yuugi, you must run."_

_Words so faint and so muffled, as if the film he was watching was trying to patch together a string of syllables with the white noise. Such a soft voice; like his mothers. Was he even moving? There was something so heavy on his shoulders, too heavy to hold any real weight._

"_Faster, only a little farther now. For me sweetheart, faster."_

_Everything looked so big, he was so small, so tired. He just wanted to go home and listen to his father read to him in bed, his slow deep voice lulling him to sleep. Home. _

_The weight had moved from his shoulders to his arms, less heavy, more real. The trees grew darker in the fading orange glow. So many voices. Not at all like his parents. Too many voices. _

_So much easier to let go._

_So much easier to fail. _

_The ground fell away, the projector reaching the end of its reel. The deep breath before the credits, the cliff at the end of the story._

_And so much red water._

_Yuugi…_

Phoenix gasped as the shock of being pulled out of the water brought him back out of… whatever that was. Then promptly he began to cough, the sudden sharp intake of breath disagreeing with the small amount of water he had managed to inhale. He was still in the tank, his hand gripping the side to keep himself easily above water. Someone was saying something to him, but it didn't sound like any language he knew, it sounded like very faint singing.

Aibou's warmth surrounded him, pulled him close. Phoenix just stared at those narrowed red eyes and tried to control his rapid breathing. What was he doing! He couldn't do this! The boss would have his head! And Aibou… poor Aibou would be devastated when the scientists finally came to take him back. He couldn't do this. Not at all.

But his thoughts were drowned out when Aibou leaned forwards, surpassing his worry and placing such a tantalisingly soft kiss on his lips, pulling away after only a spilt second taster. And the look in his eyes when he pulled away, only a little, to stare at the agent again.

Oh god how was this happening.

Aibou… everything he had done, _every _move and action and look, hadn't just been for comfort or safety or support. Oh no, not at all. He had been flirting – _blatantly – _and Phoenix had been too blind, too inexperienced to notice. All this time Aibou had wanted Phoenix's attention in _that_ way and he had been completely _oblivious_ to it.

More then a little shaken by this revelation the agent responded to the merman's inquiring look the only way he could. Placing his hands on Aibou's cheeks and bringing him into a much more satisfactory kiss. He discarded his confusion over that… no not a dream, more like a memory… he ignored the severity of what he was doing and gasped quietly to himself when he felt Aibou's tongue against his own, soft and hot and so much more real then real life. The merman's arms around his waist; supporting him, pressing him against the glass, moving flush against his body. Phoenix whinnied, finding one of his knees hooked around the merman's hip, the soft scales rubbing, _pressing_ on that area just below his belly button. It was obviously done on purpose, not some innocent accident; he heard a distant echo of an answering groan when Aibou rolled his hips again, _harder_.

Phoenix didn't care anymore, he didn't care what his superiors wanted or what the scientists and other agents would think. He had Aibou, for this one moment he had the most gorgeous creature in the world romancing him. Lets be selfish for just this one moment, lets forget what the merman will think when he leaves him to be experimented with again, lets forget everything but the heat that held him tight.

This was all he wanted after all, not freedom, not comfort, just this single moment of intimacy with the ocean's precious child whom he was going to betray.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Phoenix grumbled as he rolled out of bed, hitting the floor on all fours before standing up.

Aibou laughed from his perch on the tank's rim, causing Phoenix to pull his tongue at him before disappearing for a shower. The salt from last night's watery 'adventure' was still clinging to his skin and hair making him feel uncomfortably itchy.

The agent sighed at the feel of the fresh hot water raining down on his sticky skin; his hair fell around his shoulders, flopping around his eyes as he closed them, relaxing. He could only thank every god he knew that Aibou had healed him; otherwise he'd still be hobbling around his apartment barely able to even get out of bed. What a gift the merman was.

He pointedly ignored the growing guilt at the back of his mind. The gnawing little voice that said it wouldn't be very long at all now until the larger tank was finished. Maybe he could sneak in and break it again? He dismissed that thought before it was even fully formed, he couldn't do that to the people that had took him in and given him a home for the past fourteen or so years. But could he really do this to the one person that had ever really loved him (excluding, of course, parental love)?

Again Phoenix dismissed the thought, kneading scentless shampoo into his wild hair. Aibou was fine and healthy and with him now, he'd just have to… enjoy it while it lasted because obviously the merman would hate him afterwards.

He had a meeting to attend anyway. No time for trivial thoughts such as love and hate.

He had woken up too late to dry his hair properly so instead he just bundled it into a messy ponytail. Perhaps he could broach the subject with his superiors of maybe, perhaps keeping the merman with him. His boss always had had a soft spot for him, and he was way overdue a favour.

On another note how on earth was he going to explain his lack of injury to everyone? Telling them Aibou had done it may put the merman in more danger, especially if they didn't already know about his ability. He certainly wouldn't put such an oversight past those idiots in that department.

Dressing in the most casual clothes he could find in the mess at the bottom of his wardrobe, a plain navy t-shirt and a pair even darker baggy jeans, he wondered if he should skip any explanations and just fake his injuries. He was a pretty good actor when he needed to be.

By the time he stumbled out of the walk-in-wardrobe his watch was already beeping. Phoenix picked it up and gaped at the time, he couldn't have spent _that_ long in the shower. He sighed and strapped it on his slim wrist, he was beginning to hate this thing.

The agent glanced aver at the merman, wondering if he was expected to give him a goodbye kiss, he mentally huffed at his complete inexperience when it came to relationships and wondered, not for the first time, why people bothered.

Was love really so worth all this hassle?

His query was solved when Aibou beckoned him over with another one of his flirtatious smiles and was pleasantly surprised to realise that this kissing business really wasn't all that hard, the sheer variety of the types of kisses was certainly something he would contemplate later. The merman's hands on his cheeks and neck was getting him wet again but he really couldn't find it within himself to care when Aibou's tongue slipped past his parted lips to brush his own. Phoenix tilted his head further at an angle, deepening their kiss and moaning when Aibou's fingers found that sensitive spot on the back of his neck, the same one they found last night.

The urgent beeping of Phoenix's watch separated them. The agent was torn between laughing at the accusation in Aibou's eyes as he glared at the device and swearing over how late he was.

He settled for swearing, one last peck on the lips, and dashing full speed down the corridor.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Phoenix swore quietly to himself again, muttering about his carelessness. Having completely forgotten about the injuries he should have had and the plan he formulated about faking them he had burst full speed into the meeting, not even caring for an explanation for his lateness, and flopped (rather rudely) into one of the overly poofy chairs next to the 'the-big-bad-boss-man' surrounded by his numerous associates.

Then he saw the disbelieving stares he was getting and one word floated through his head.

Shit.

He was a good actor, and they all knew how notorious he was for covering up his pain, but there wasn't a chance in hell that someone shot just last night in the thigh would be able to move like he had done upon his entrance.

He believed the term was 'busted'.

And so what should have been a meeting about future thefts (or 'enterprises' as they liked to call them) turned out to be a fully blown confession _and_ explanation of what he had thus far experienced about the merman's abilities. Apparently they hadn't known the magic could affect other people.

Which meant an all-new testing regime when the scientists got him back.

Again. Shit.

Oh god what was he going to do. He hadn't asked if the tank was ready yet, he hadn't wanted to seem too eager to give Aibou away (of course he conveniently forgot to inform them he had named the merman), and so he had no way of guessing _when_ they were going to come.

And he knew he wouldn't, by the rules of the base itself, be allowed to stop them when they did.

This was all hurting his heart and head way too much.

Turning into the cold corridor where the door to his room was situated Phoenix stopped dead at the sight he was met with.

His heart, having previously stopped with the rest of him, jolted painfully into a frantic beating dance at the sounds floating to his ears.

The door to his apartment was wide open. He could hear, above the splashing and the shouting, Aibou crying.

How many times can you say 'shit' before it begins to lose it's meaning?

Sprinting to the open door he skidded to a halt and only managed to stop by grabbing the threshold and swinging himself round, all in all creating both an impressive and violent entry. Normally he would have thought, 'not too shabby', and given himself a mental pat on the back, but right now his blood was boiling and he was trying desperately to hold himself back from mortally wounding everyone in the room (spare the merman) at the sight that met his wide eyes.

The lid of the tank had been taken off completely and was discarded, propped up against the wall. The carpet was soaked and there were at least four of those idiots in lab coats fussing around a large mass of netting. The netting was moving, writhing and trashing with increasing weakness. He saw a flash of damaged amber tailfins and felt the heat of red mist begin to fog his reasoning. He looked back at the scientists. Oh shit why was one of them holding a gun!

Unfortunately they hadn't seen his entry and so only noticed Phoenix when he appeared directly next to them as if out of nowhere and punched the nearest one (the one with the gun) in the gut, hard. She doubled over, winded, and Phoenix only found himself disappointed that it wasn't Mazaki, in fact Mazaki wasn't even here. He growled, knowing for a fact she must have orchestrated this surprise removal as revenge.

Surprised and a little intimidated, the group backed away and towards each other for confidence. The winded one being helped to stay standing by her friend.

"What the fucking hell do you think you are doing?!" Phoenix yelled. Kneeling down beside the struggling net-covered merman and trying to find a way to get him out of it. But Aibou had tangled himself well and true.

"The main observation tank has been repaired. We were ordered to retrieve the subject." A tall man with dark hair answered a little scornfully, was it just him or did everyone in the marine biology department speak like that? Irritated by the fact that he wasn't getting anywhere with the net and becoming increasingly distressed at the sound of Aibou's panicked voice, Phoenix yanked out the pocket knife from his belt and began to tare savagely into the twine, all the while careful of Aibou's once again bruised skin. He ignored the spectators completely and felt a wave of relief flood through him at the sight of the merman's relatively unharmed (and admittedly very well toned) chest. He pulled away the materiel from Aibou's tail, being very careful of the damaged patches of scales inflicted by the rough twine, and delicately untangled the fragile translucent fins, it was easier now Aibou had stopped struggling, having obviously recognised his touch (if not his voice). And then finally lifted the last clump off the merman's shoulders and head.

And felt another pang of worry feed his pounding adrenaline. Aibou was pale, very pale. And fast losing consciousness. His stunning flaming eyes dulled to a dim glow and his eyelids dropping heavily, Phoenix felt his heart break a little as Aibou reached out to him, a soft look of relief on his handsome features.

Leaning down into the embrace Phoenix _felt _how weak the normally strong arms were around his neck, pulling the merman slowly into a half-seated position his eyes widened as he felt his fingers brush across something producing from Aibou's side. The merman flinched and stiffened. Phoenix pulled him closer against his chest to see what the object was.

And felt a thick vale of barely suppressed loathing fall onto his mind.

That gun hadn't been a gun exactly.

He reached down and without any warning jerked the needle out of Aibou's skin, trying to be as comforting as he could with his cresses when the merman made a strange sound of pain. The bright pink flecks on the end of the dart glimmered tauntingly in front of his eyes.

A tranquilliser dart. That explained the weakness.

Oh someone was going to hurt for this.

Snapping his head up to glare at the previously forgotten scientists he noted with some satisfaction that more then one now sported a rapidly bruising eye, another had an impressively blooded lip, well at least he knew Aibou hadn't gone down without one hell of a fight.

"The tank is completed?" Phoenix asked. They nodded enthusiastically, as if this had all been one huge misunderstanding and he was now going to help them transport this violent sea creature to a testing lab. Phoenix felt a small stab of panic, not yet. He wasn't ready. Not yet. He made up his mind without even thinking. "Well you can't have him."

"W-what?" the male's eyes widened. Disbelieving. "But what about-"

"You will turn around now and you will walk out that door and you will tell your superiors that they can go fuck themselves because it will be a _very_ cold day in hell before you lay your hands on him again!" there must have been something in his eyes that made them back away, it had happened before when he became severely angry or upset (which was rare). He had never seen it himself; he had always been too preoccupied with the source of his emotion to know anything other then his focus narrowed until he couldn't remember anything else of the encounter then who it had been and why, he often forgot where he had been at the time and even what he had done but Ryou had once said it was like a part of his mask fell away, the cold unfeeling one he kept up to protect himself, he said it was like a small fragment would crack and dissolve, creating a greyish, steely fragment of glass that appeared in his normally passive amethyst eyes. He even went on to say that he whished Phoenix would remove his mask more fully and not just when he was angered because without it he bet that there was someone kinder and softer, more compassionate and willing to open up and love then what was currently displayed to the world. Ryou had been in a particularly emotive mood that day.

The group refused to move, torn between following orders and keeping their limbs. Phoenix growled, finally snapping. He placed the merman back down on the sopping carpet in his rage not even hearing the confused, half-asleep whine; he stood up, snatching the remains of the shredded net and advanced on the group.

Two minutes later the four collapsed on the hall floor outside tied impossibly together with the net wrapped around them like Christmas wrapping. Phoenix slammed the door behind them and locked it with a flourish. Pathetic.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A quiet knock on his door made Phoenix glance up from his worried vigilance. It had been nearly half an hour and still Aibou was not recovering, Phoenix had just dropped him back into the tank at first, hoping that the water would help him but even though it had been more beneficial to him then being left in the air it seemed the drugs were playing havoc with his body. After ten minutes of watching the merman twist and turn, his hands clenching and his eyelids quivering with agony Phoenix had been unable to take sitting inactive anymore. Grabbing a kitchen stool he had dropped it into the tank so he could sit in the water with his head still above it and gathered the merman back into his arms, and was immediately glad he had. Aibou's normally unnaturally hot skin had turned icy cold and he was shivering with a frightening intensity. Good god what was _in_ that dart! Aibou, having recognised him despite his barely conscious state had curled into him seeking warmth.

And that was the compromising position Ryou walked in on when Phoenix finally permitted him entrance (Ryou knew the code for the lock he just wanted verbal clearance first).

"What is it Pixie?" Ryou was snapped out of his fish imitation by Phoenix's frighteningly small voice. Immediately worried for his friend Ryou let the door slide shut behind him and pitched his voice to a comfortingly low volume.

"How are you?"

To his surprise Phoenix laughed bitterly, he still hadn't looked away from his self appointed charge since Ryou stepped in the room, "Heard about that did you? I'll bet the whole fucking base is bitching about me right now."

Ryou shuffled his feet, fiddling with his hair in the way he always did when the agent spoke in this self-hating way. He hated it when Phoenix did this to himself, "Not the whole base, just the scientists. Mazaki looked ready to kill someone when I saw her in the office."

A slyer, more characteristic smile, "I'd like to see her try."

Ryou smiled and opened his mouth to say something encouraging but stopped when he noticed exactly how tense Phoenix was, how stiff his shoulders were held as he slumped yet further over the merman's comatose form. The biologist felt his heart thump painfully, he had seen that protective stance only once before. He shuddered at the memory.

"What's wrong with him Ryou?" this time Ryou really did give a start at the sound of the agent's voice. It trembled as he spoke. Phoenix was… was he crying?

Hesitantly Ryou approached his friend and saw that although Phoenix's cheeks were dry his eyes were not. Not crying, but nearly. Ryou, with a bit of awkward scrabbling (he wasn't built for climbing), managed to reach the top of the tank's newly replaced lid and sat with his legs under him as close to the merman and his friend as Phoenix would allow. This was really affecting Phoenix; he hadn't seen his friend this emotional since they were children, he looked through the water at the merman's condition, instantly assessing what was wrong.

He sighed, "Phoenix." He whispered, attracting his attention, "I need you to hold him still for a moment."

"What are you going to do?" Phoenix asked, sounding almost scared, "What's wrong with him?!"

"Nothing serious, but it needs to be sorted or it could cause long term damage. They've given him an overdose of the sedative. He is very strong, imposable to handle when awake, and we – _they_ – discovered that he could resist any and all normal doses of all the drugs we had, to get anywhere with him they have to give him a massive amount just to knock him out which could take anywhere between ten to thirty minutes, and even then he isn't truly unconscious. That's why I said he was wild the other day, I've seen what he's managed to do to some of my colleagues."

Despite his all consuming anxiety for the merman still painfully limp in his embrace Phoenix couldn't help but feel a swell of pride.

"To recover they have to actually give him an antidote… or… well we don't know we haven't waited to see how long it would take him to recover…"

"If he recovered at all." Phoenix snapped, still sore about this whole thing.

"Hmm." Ryou reached into the pocket of his white coat, "That's why I've nicked off with this."

Phoenix looked up to see Ryou removing the protective wrapping from a doctors needle, he watched as the biologist connected it and the – whatever the bit that held the liquid was called – together and then reach back into his coat to fish out a small bottle of suspiciously clear liquid, the label stating some scientific jumble (in his opinion) of tiny letters.

He narrowed his eyes, remembering Ryou's early statement, "Will this hurt him?"

Ryou sighed, "Probably. He never exactly looked like he was enjoying it anyway."

Phoenix suppressed his sarcastic remark and was about to reply that he wouldn't subject Aibou to more pain with this so-called 'antidote' when the merman gave a particularly harsh shudder pulling closer to him unconsciously, his mouth opening to gasp in large amounts of water, Phoenix could _see _the agony he was in. His heart twisted painfully. "All right then."

Gently the agent grasped the merman's wrist and pulled his arm just above water, exposing the tender underside to Ryou's needle. The biologist leant forwards and took hold of his arm taking care to position the cold point above a vain. Immediately however the merman stiffened. Phoenix was in awe, even barely awake and in agony Aibou knew when it was someone else touching him. He looked down into the merman's face as he began to attempt to struggle away from the foreign touch. And felt his breath catch. Aibou's eyes were just barely open and looking at him from just under the surface of the water, Phoenix could _see_ him trying to control his panic, the drugs playing with his mind until anything even slightly different could throw him so clearly off the deep end of control.

Phoenix pulled him closer trying to be reassuring and restraining all at once. He cooed quietly, trying his best to imitate the sounds Aibou made and managing to sound more like dove then anything else, he was gentle and affectionate when he rubbed his fingers over Aibou's cold hand and the other over his back, silently asking the merman to trust him. Aibou closed his eyes again and Phoenix nodded to Ryou, knowing that was as good an agreement as they were going to get.

Aibou bit his lip as the needle slipped in but before he had any real chance to register it had happened Ryou pulled away, finished. Phoenix sighed gratefully, Ryou was very skilled at what he did and for that he was infinitely grateful to have him as a best friend.

"I'll make us drinks." The silver haired man murmured and dropped awkwardly off the tank lid to walk towards Phoenix's tiny attempt at a kitchen (consisting of a kettle, a sink, and a cupboard of large mugs – and tea bags on Ryou's insistence).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Phoenix's drink had gone cold by the time he agreed to let Aibou go. Only a minute after the antidote had been administered Aibou began to suffer through the pain of it actually being removed from his system. His finger's had clenched and jerked around Phoenix's arms his breathing had become laboured and forced, Phoenix was pretty sure Aibou was going to regret having whacked the glass of the tank wall with the full force of his thrashing tail when he woke up with at least a strain in the morning. Phoenix had completely panicked, thinking he was having some sort of epileptic fit, and had screamed for Ryou to do something. But of course the scientist, in his forever coolly understanding way, had told him this was expected and it would pass, just to make sure he didn't injure himself too severely. But Phoenix had been way too worried about his new (and still secret) lover to just sit still and calmly restrain him. By the time Aibou's fit had finally subsided there had been real tears streaming down Phoenix's cheeks.

He didn't know what Ryou had been doing at the time, probably respecting his privacy and staying out the way but either way there had been no interruption when Aibou at last blinked open his eyes, as if waking from a very bad nightmare. He had seen (or sensed) Phoenix's tears and, still weak, had pushed a hand out of the water to gently touch his cheek. Phoenix had to bite his lip to keep from sobbing at the forgiveness in the merman's eyes. He wasn't that weak. He _wasn't_! Just as wobbly and as unsure with his movements as when he had just been drugged, obviously still recovering, he pushed himself up to Phoenix's level above the surface, and proceeded to kiss away his tears. Phoenix's heart was still fluttering in his chest; no one had ever cared to be so… so open with him… not even Ryou who was the gentlest person on the planet had ever cared so openly for him.

Phoenix chuckled bitterly over his new steaming mug of tea, courtesy of Ryou (him try to make tea? That's a laugh), he was more in love now then ever before. And his situation was getting steadily worse. Aibou had fallen into true sleep now, and Ryou had managed to coax him into letting go and climbing out the tank to get a change of clothes (after another quick shower to get rid of the salt on his skin). He was okay, Phoenix had to keep reminding himself, Aibou was going to be fine.

"That carpet'll be soaked for days after all that." Ryou said trying to lighten the mood but when silence was his only answer he sighed and scooted closer to Phoenix on the coach and lay a hand on his shoulder, "You aren't okay are you Phoenix."

The agent shook his head, eyes still fixed on his hot drink.

"What are you going… you can't keep him Phoenix."

Phoenix stiffened under his grip, "I promised to take care of him Ryou, and I'm not going to stop now after all the work I've done to get him back to health. You didn't see the full extent of the state he was in! I'm not sure they were even feeding him!"

Ryou squeezed his shoulder, "They were he just wasn't eating. Probably stress."

Phoenix turned to look at him, a wild look in his eyes, "Exactly! You can't tell me that if I give him back he won't suffer the same stress, you know as well as I do that they aren't planning on letting Aibou go."

Ryou looked at him for a long moment, "Aibou? What is 'partner' supposed to mean?"

The agent dropped his gaze and Ryou felt fear drop like a small stone in his abdomen, "You _named _him?"

"You say that as if it's sacrilege!" Phoenix hissed venomously, uncomfortable with his secret being out, even with someone like Ryou whom he knew wouldn't tell anyone else, "He's an intelligent person _Pixie _not some inanimate object!"

Ryou sighed, knowing Phoenix was right was one thing but naming the merman was another thing entirely, it just created more painful bonds that would have to be broken. He ignored the subject, trying to make Phoenix more comfortable.

"I've devised a new testing regime for him to try and make you feel more comfortable with giving him back, after today's performance the boss said he would approve it if I was sure it would help his best agent. They wont conduct more then one test on him a day, and if it's a major operation – and I don't mean opening him up to see what's inside kind of thing – then they'll leave him to recover for the next day after that. It isn't perfect but it's a lot better… and… well it's the best we can hope for…" Ryou had been about to say 'and with you're skill I'll bet you could sneak in at night every now and then to see him if they didn't let you with their knowing'. But he realised the dangers of that, Phoenix needed to get over this, it was hurting him, and encouraging the infatuation by saying he could still see him would make it worse. Ryou wasn't stupid, and he was far from blind, the merman and the agent had… something going on between them that wasn't exactly 'just friendship'. He ignored the pain in his own chest; Phoenix needed a friend now, not more problems and guilt.

He leaned closer when he received no answer and said slowly, in a low voice that was intended as comforting, "You can't keep him Phoenix… let him go."

And finally the mounting stress made Phoenix snap, he pulled harshly away from Ryou standing up and discarding his mug carelessly into the sink, "Why can't I keep him?!" He shouted, "This association is way in my dept the least they can do is let me keep him as a pet if nothing else." He shuddered inwardly at the thought of calling his lover his little pet animal.

Ryou was about to respond, what with he wasn't sure, but the shouting had woken the merman – Aibou – and instantly Phoenix's attention was off him and onto helping Aibou calm from his alarm at hearing the agent so upset. Ryou sighed, feeling uncannily like a third wheel, told Phoenix he'd be back later, and left the apartment.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Phoenix sighed softly; feeling Aibou's lips against his neck was soothing his anxiety like no professional massage had ever managed. He wasn't sure whether to be worried about the size of this love bite or giggle like a high school girl talking to her friends about a first kiss. He settled for a bit of both and melted happily into the merman's touch as he finally detached himself from Phoenix's neck only to work his way up to the agent's lips.

So this is what he'd been missing, thought Phoenix. Between the soft kisses and the heated looks he decided that maybe relationships weren't all that bad.

Pulling away just a little he muttered a devotion that was forgotten the moment it passed his lips and pressed another kiss against the merman's hot skin.

Hearing his watch beep from the table Phoenix groaned in annoyance, pulling out of Aibou's grip and laughing at the pout he sauntered over towards the noise, swaying his hips purposefully and smirking at the growl he received. Phoenix glanced at the flashing screen and sighed, some kind of emergency that needed his attention. It could wait. He turned it off and was about to slink teasingly back to his lover when something rather abrupt halted his tracks.

The door slid open of its own accord.

His head snapped to the collection of figures stood in his doorway. A pair of uninjured white coats, a group of four muscle-bound guards, and his boss's representative stared back at him.

A long silence. Aibou slunk back into the water; even the hum of the water heater seemed to quieten itself.

The official, his suit making him look like a penguin, took an awkward step forward. "Rising Phoenix," Phoenix blinked, no one ever used his full title, "I'm afraid that we have come to enforce what the marine biology department have already tried." Two of the guards stepped forward.

"No beating around the bush then," Phoenix sneered, "I thought that's what you suits were good at." He watched as a pretty bluish-silver haired woman, one of the scientists, walked past the suit, even flanked by a guard she skittered nervously around him. Sidestepping he smoothly blocked their path, hiding Aibou from her view.

"Now please sir, do not be unreasonable. You understood when you took on this responsibility that this would happen." She said in a surprisingly firm tone, "We must take him back, for the good of mankind." He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, she kept going, perhaps realising that her last statement sounded stupid, "If we can understand them then maybe we could harness their power."

"And then what, treat them like hamsters running on a wheel to generate electricity? I think the world will be fine by itself."

The suit spoke up: "We have permission to use force against you Rising Phoenix, if you refuse to cooperate. The test subject must be returned, now _stand aside_."

The tension was thick enough to make the air feel like glue and for an instant Phoenix was torn over what he could do, after all he had a job to keep, he glanced momentarily over his shoulder. Aibou was looking at him from his curled position on the tank floor, fear painfully evident in his powerful eyes, there was no way he could fight off all of these people by himself. But he also had a lover to keep. He glared back at the group: "Not likely."

Obviously his words had triggered some hidden reaction within the guards because the first suddenly lunged forward, his hand curled into a fist aiming for the side of his head. Phoenix reacted without realising he was, a lifetimes worth of combat training causing an instinctual retaliation. He ducked, twisting as he did so and feeling the whoosh of air from the guards attack whistle a hairs breath away from his face, he lifted an arm, pointed his elbow, and trust forward with the point hard into his attackers gut. All before the others could blink.

The guard, a heavily built brunet, gave a choking gasp and doubled over, winded. In an instant the other three were on him, if Phoenix had been of his right mind, or if he were on a mission, he would have found an escape route and made a very quick exit, fighting one on one he could manage, fighting groups were another matter entirely. His small stance and lack of brute physical force made fighting what looked like weightlifters not the easiest thing in the world. He was fast but that wasn't going to help him much here, he had nowhere to run.

He dodged the fist kick and managed to graze a blond guards cheek with his knuckles before the third managed to connect his shoulder with Phoenix's own, using size alone to throw the agent off balance and into the rough hands of the now recovered brunet. The large man locked his muscled arms around Phoenix's torso, pinning his arms to his sides and lifting his feet off the ground. He struggled wildly but the grip was impossible to break, obviously his capturer practised wrestling in his spare time.

"Now!" the suit cried exasperatedly to the lab coats, obviously too interested in playing the spectator to remember their jobs. The woman lept to action as the blond guard ripped of the tanks lid again, the male scientist, a gentle looking redhead, followed. Phoenix increased his attempts to escape, hearing the commotion and splashing water from behind him, the guard was holding him so they faced away from the tank and he couldn't see a thing that was happening. The guard grunted but only tightened his hold against Phoenix's struggling.

A loud thump alerted Phoenix to the fact that Aibou had been pulled out of water again. "For gods sakes hold him!" the woman yelled, another loud thump, a cry of pain and the blond guard went flying past them and into the opposite wall, clutching his stomach where Phoenix guessed he had been hit by the merman's tail. A muffled shot and the sharp whistle of a dart through air made Phoenix react in what was possibly the most stupid manner he could think of. He twisted violently in the brunets hold, feeling his neck and back muscles strain from the act of having half his body turn one way and the other stay where it was, and bit hard into the first scrap of flesh he could find. The brunet yelped, more shocked then hurt, and dropped him. Phoenix spun and, this time intending to knock the man out permanently, kneed him, with all the force he could muster, between the legs. This time the yelp was strangled and high pitched but Phoenix had no time to pay any more attention to him.

Aibou was struggling, barely restrained by the harness they had put around him and the two remaining guards pinning him, the female was trying to connect the straps of industrial strength material to what looked like a stretcher, similar to the ones used to carry dolphins. Phoenix ran forwards, the redhead had the tranquilliser gun, the agent moved up behind him and kicked the backs of his knees, the mans legs buckled from under him, he dropped the gun. The agent leapt forwards, pouncing with the air of a cat and pulling one of the guards off the merman, pinning him under him. He pressed a thumb on the nerve point under the man's collarbone and watched with satisfaction as he fell limp. He was unable to complete the move however as the fourth guard knocked him away. He fell to the side and felt his back connect with Aibou's wet skin. Rolling, Phoenix pushed himself up on his hands and knees and was about to jump up again when a warning cry of panic left Aibou's lips, distracted Phoenix glanced into the merman's frantic eyes but didn't have time to register the redheads shout of: "No you idiot!" before he felt it.

Another shot and another dart whizzed through the air.

A choked gasp left Phoenix's throat as a sharp pain alerted him to the tranquilliser in his shoulder. He felt the drug almost instantly and wondered how on earth Aibou was still managing to stay awake, he heard Aibou's worry, heard the guards gruff voice say "Get up after that you little whelp." But it was all fuzzy, as if he had cotton in his ears. His vision blurred as hands grabbed him, with his last once of strength he reached up and pulled the dart out, before collapsing. The hands moved him onto his back; he saw the fuzzy eyes of the woman above him, felt Aibou's hand trying to grasp his despite the harness, heard her shout of: "He's shutting down. For Christ's sake where is that antidote! Hurry up! Moron he's dieing!"

Dieing? That sounded a bit much. He would have laughed but he had no breath to do so. Why did his lungs hurt so much? He had never noticed how hard it was to breathe. His eyes felt so heavy that he just had to close them. He could hear the panic in the room, hear Aibou's confused and frightened tears, but that all just seemed so unimportant. A cold darkness encroached on his mind, icy dead fingers clutching his heart. He felt his pulse slow, felt his consciousness slipping away into something terrifying and permanent, but he had no will to fight it and surrendered to the pull when it finally took him away from the conscious world.

_Please Yuugi… run…_

_---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

**A.N**: See what I mean about the first part? -cringes-

Well hopefully the rest of it wasn't too bad but I still can't wait until its finished so I can forget it. Hopefully the next (and last-ish) part won't take so long to finish.

Get my January exam results Thursday next week. Yay! Failiure!

Review Please.


	5. The Magic of Science: part 4

**AN: **okay there is going to be _some_ Ryou xYuugi in this but to be honest almost nothing happens between them so don't worry it's still puzzleshipping. Hey at least it came before the summer term ended, that has to count for something right. Right?

**The Magic Of Science**

**Part Four**

The darkness was overwhelming, encroaching on his mind like a thick unfathomable fog. He felt exhausted, felt like he'd run miles and miles but he knew that could not be true. Where was he? He wandered in this darkness with the air of a man lost in the desert. Occasionally things akin to visions would flicker around him, red eyes and red blood, but they were insubstantial and he often wondered if he had seen them at all. Sometimes, but only sometimes, he thought he could hear someone calling him. There were two voices, both said different things, but both said a word that sounded as if it was his name. But that was stupid how could both the words be his name?

One was darker, deeper. 'Yuugi'. It was positively dripping in loneliness, in despair. On those times he felt a great pain in his heart, a pity for the one who had experienced so many tragedies.

The other was lighter, nearer. 'Phoenix'. He gave a start when he heard this one, it sounded like it was whispering in his ear. He felt as if the voice should have been familiar, the name belonging to the voice was on the tip of his tongue. But his tongue would never say. This voice would say other things too but he could never discern what, and then it left and he would wonder if he had ever heard it all or whether the darkness was driving him insane.

'Phoenix'. No, here it was. Just out of reach, just a little too far out of hearing range so he wasn't sure he was actually hearing anything. 'Phoenix… must… ke' he frowned but he didn't know how he frowned, he didn't seem to have a body, just a consciousness floating in darkness. 'Please Phoenix… ou… p' those different things it said? Were they directed to him? Why could he hear so much more of it now? 'Phoenix I… ase… ed… to wake up'

Wake up? He was asleep? Suddenly he felt pain. A great lance of pain shooting from his… his… shoulder? He had a body? But then the pain faded and the darkness that for a moment had lightened to a dull grey came back to him. 'Phoenix!?' That voice sounded louder now. Excited? 'Can you… me?' So maybe, if he did have a body and that voice wasn't just imagination, that meant he was asleep? The cold grasp he hadn't even been aware of at the back of his head began to weaken. He felt his hand twitch, the fingers curling, and he groaned tiredly at the sensation. 'Phoenix you… wa… come on foc… for me?' For who? He definitely recognised that voice. Definitely. He felt his conscious begin to flounder against the darkness, felt it cling to him like glue. He was so tired. His body tensed then relaxed, about to let the glue pull him back under so he could sleep, but suddenly there was pressure on his face. Hands? They shook him. He only groaned again, fighting with himself. He wanted to sleep so much but he also wanted to see who it was that the voice belonged to. 'Don't you… now… hear me Phoenix? I know… ard but… please!' he felt wind on his face, heard the desperation in the voice, and then felt the pressure against his lips.

That got his attention. What was that called? A kiss? Why was someone kissing him? No… wait he could vaguely remember someone he kissed with. Was this that person? Confused and disorientated he concentrated on the pressure on his lips, felt the darkness recede to the corners of his mind, felt the person gasp as he responded. The pressure pulled back. His eyes flickered open.

He groaned again as the harsh light met his over sensitive eyes.

"Phoenix! Oh thank god you're awake, thank god!"

He stared confused up at the grey tiled ceiling, his eyes scrunched up as they watered from the pain of the light. A hospital? He turned his head and watched groggily the person sat beside him on the bed. He had slivery blue hair and very, very pretty green eyes. He was holding his hand, tears sticking to his face. Under a long white coat he could see dark jeans and a blue top underneath.

"Phoenix…" the man said.

He frowned. "Yuugi." His voice seemed very unused; it squeezed past his dry throat in a whisper.

The man's eyebrows knitted together in a frown, "What?"

"My name… my name is Yuugi…" He replied. Was this man his partner? He had to be, why would he kiss him otherwise. But then why was he calling him by a name he felt was his name but knew innately that it wasn't? He winced, his head hurt. "I… who… I'm really sorry I feel that I should… that I should know you but I… I don't know your name. I'm sorry…"

The man's eyes widened hugely with what he recognised as horrified disbelief. "Oh god no."

He looked away, "I'm sorry." He looked up again when the man leaned over and pressed a large red button. His hand trembling. "Are you a doctor?"

The man smiled weakly at him, "No, I'm a scientist."

"Oh." He said, his voice sounded very soft, very lost, he wasn't sure whether he liked it. He looked down at their clasped hands and then up at the tears beginning to form in those emerald eyes. He liked those eyes, he decided. "Are we… I mean did you… are we lovers?"

A strange strangled noise came from the man's throat then but he had no chance to reply when the door to the room burst open. A group of people flowed into the room. Two males, three females. They wore clean crisp uniforms of white and sky blue. The man stood and reluctantly let go of his hand, he felt lost without its warmth. He rolled his eyes up to look at the new people, more then a little disorientated and scared. He whimpered as they began to shine lights in his eyes, trying his hardest to turn his head away from the pain, but they held him there as they began to ask question after question.

"Do you know your name?'

"Yu-Yuugi Motou."

There was a long pause; he got the feeling he had answered wrong already. The doctors looked at each other, then scribbled something down on a clipboard and continued. "Your birthday?"

"June the… the fourth I think?"

Another scribble. "Do you know where you are now? Do you remember why you are here?"

There were too many questions, he felt like his head was about to explode, "A-a hospital? No, why am I here?"

The silver haired man took his hand again, he looked up at him, grateful for comfort and someone he at least felt like he knew, "Phoen – erm – Yuugi do you… is there anything at all you remember? Anything?"

He frowned in thought. "I- I remember a fire. Was I caught in a fire?" The man shook his head and his hope deflated, "But I know there was a fire!"

The man took a deep breath; "You were caught in a fire when you were younger Phoe – Yuugi. Years ago."

He panicked, "How long have I been asleep?!"

The man's silver hair shimmered as he shook his head, "Not years I promise, this was something else."

A male doctor with dark almost black hair and square glasses spoke to him, "There was… an accident. You slipped into a coma. You've been out for nearly three months."

There were more tears gathering in his companion's eyes, "We thought you might not wake up."

He looked at the man for a long time, "Why were you calling me Phoenix before?"

The man looked reluctant to reply but he was spared having to answer when a nurse came and asked him to step outside, he was followed out by two of the others. He was too confused to ask them to stop and tell him what was happening. The two that remained poked and prodded at him, continued to ask questions until wanted to cry in frustration. What was happening? Why couldn't he remember anything? Finally they announced he was physically healthy and let the other man back in, he looked worried and stressed and almost ready to break. The doctor spoke to him for another moment before they left; it was just him and the silver haired man now.

"What's happening?" he asked, "Please tell me. My head hurts so much."

The man smiled softly, sat down on the chair next the bed, took his hand again after propping him up into more of a sitting position on the excess of pillows. "Your name is Yuugi?" he asked. Yuugi nodded. He sighed, "My name is Ryou."

"Ryou." He repeated, "It sounds familiar, how long have I known you?" by now he had gathered he was suffering from a type of amnesia and so did not ask about it.

"Years and years." Ryou said, "Since I was ten and you were eight."

He blinked, "How old am I?

"Nineteen."

He looked around the room, now noticing something strange, "Then… were are my parents?"

A look of pain crossed Ryou's face so that he knew the answer before it came, "They were lost in the fire you said you remember. I'm sorry."

"Oh." He wondered why he wasn't shocked, why it didn't hurt as much as he thought it should. "Do I work then?"

A small smile, "Yes. Believe it or not Yuugi you're a secret agent."

He blinked stupidly for a moment, processing this information with difficulty. Him? From what he thought he remembered he wasn't anything special was he? The information was so far beyond him and his tired brain that all he could manage was another, "Oh." Then something clicked so he asked, "Is that why you were calling me Phoenix before?"

Ryou nodded, "It was – _is_ – your code name. Part of it anyway, your full code name is Rising Phoenix. No one knew your real name…"

He felt a small amount of dread enter him. "Is it… bad now that they know my name? Was it a secret?"

A small laugh, "Only because you chose it to be. Don't worry, you haven't done anything wrong." Ryou reached up to brush his hair from his eyes, sticky with sweat and other things, he noticed the tender look in the other man's eyes, his fingers felt pleasantly cool on his skin.

"Are we lovers?" he asked again and definitely saw pain in the other's eyes now.

There was a pause and then a soft, brittle smile crossed Ryou's lips, "Yes." He answered.

Yuugi felt guilty, no wonder the other man was so upset, they were in a relationship and he couldn't even remember his name. Had they been very much in love? He remembered loving someone most definitely and he remembered Ryou's presence with an acute certainty so they must have been, he surmised. He didn't ask how long they had been together out of fear of hurting Ryou more and so instead he pushed his stiff body up into a sitting position and hugged him. "I'm sorry," he muttered into the other's shoulder, "I will try and remember everything as hard as I can."

Ryou couldn't help but smile at how childish that sounded but returned the hug guiltily, "I'm sure you will." He muttered back.

"Ryou," he asked, feeling very much like a little boy whispering to his mother, "Will you… until I get better again… will you help me? I don't know anything."

A tighter hug, "I will Yuugi, don't worry, I'll take care of you."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the couch sat in his apartment Ryou curled his arms around his bent knees and sighed. On the bed Phoenix – no Yuugi – breathed softly in exhausted sleep. The doctors had encouraged Ryou to let Yuugi move in with him until he recovered, it was also their fault he was in the situation he was in now.

He buried his head into his knees, groaning, if Phoenix could see himself now, if he saw what Ryou was doing… it was for Phoenix – Yuugi's own good he reasoned; he needed someone who loved him to help him. And Ryou had always loved him, no one else understood him well enough to pull him through this. The doctors said he needed stability now, and what better way to provide stability then with a loving, strong relationship? They had pressured him into accepting Yuugi's question, claiming it was a cry for help from an unstable mind… he loved Phoenix… what else was he to do?

But surely living in a lie wasn't going to help him it the long run either.

"Fuck." He muttered under his breath. He didn't need this, neither of them needed this. This could be permanently damaging to Phoenix's career. This could be permanently damaging to his mental health, to their relationship. Would Phoenix still want to be friends with Ryou after Yuugi withdrew again? He didn't know what to think. He hated officials now, heck it was getting to the point were he hated everyone in W.A.S.P, this was all a collaboration, some conspiracy to ruin his best friend's life ever further, it had to be. If only Mazaki had locked that stupid door, if only Phoenix hadn't had a chance to get close to the merman, would they all be alright if the boss had just let Phoenix keep Aibou?

It was those questions again. What if? If only. How would it all have turned out if…? They were a curse, these questions, and yet he couldn't help but think them. Ryou could never forgive the man who shot Phoenix with that dart, the man that caused all of their latest and worst problems. He hadn't understood the implications of injecting a human with a drug like that. All the guards had been disciplined now, Ryou thought one or two he knew had been involved had gone conveniently missing. But they didn't really matter; Phoenix mattered, getting him back mattered.

Yuugi shifted from the bed again. "Hmm… Ryou?" The voice was quiet and halting in the dark. Lost.

Ryou jumped up, shocked from his depressive musings, and looked over to the bed. Yuugi was half sitting up on his elbows, glancing around the room in sleepy disorientation. Ryou knew that it wasn't just the lack of sleep that was causing Yuugi to feel confused. He drew his fingers through his hair in exhaustion and moved over to sit next to Yuugi, who immediately focused on him, grateful for something even vaguely familiar. Yuugi Motou, Ryou mused, the name fit him disturbingly well.

"I had a strange dream, Ryou." Yuugi whispered, as if to break the silence was sacrilege, he reached out and griped Ryou's forearm as if desperate to tell him something of dire importance. Ryou frowned worriedly and nodded for him to carry on, "It was dark. And there were voices. Your voice and… and the doctors voices and voices that I didn't know." Yuugi looked down as if out of shame, "Someone was singing, at least I think it was singing, and they… I felt… it felt like someone was touching me. Not like _that_ but like… you know kind of… on my arms and hair and stuff it was really…" he shuddered.

"Yuugi, are you alright?" Ryou asked, knowing for a fact he wasn't, "Have you had dreams like this before?" Yuugi didn't look up and Ryou mentally smacked himself, even if his friend had had dreams like that before it wasn't like he could remember any of them. But someone singing? Touching him? That was leaning a little too close to a sign then Ryou wanted.

"I used to call you Pixie didn't I?" Yuugi whispered into the silence, shocking Ryou out of his thoughts.

He stared at his companion before asking, "You remember?"

Yuugi flushed under the scrutiny and looked away, "Ermm, maybe. It just kinda… came to me then… its not like I remember anything its just that name… in my head."

Ryou was overjoyed, only a day and Yuugi was remembering! He pulled the smaller into a tight hug ignoring the little guilt-trip voices in the back of his head. One saying this could be the end of their friendship; another saying this it could make into something more, and another whispering that Phoenix remembering the merman was definitely a bad thing right now. Ryou hadn't seen the merman since he'd been taken back to the observation tank but he'd heard the reports…

"Why aren't you in bed Ryou?" Yuugi asked from his resting place on Ryou's shoulder, confused, maybe a little hurt. "Do you not want to sleep in the same…" he trailed off.

"No, its not that," he reassured instantly, still guiltily, "I'm just not tired. Too happy at seeing you awake again I suppose."

Yuugi laughed, "But I was asleep the moment I lay down. I haven't exactly kept you entertained."

Ryou gave a theatrical yawn, shuffling Yuugi over to the other side of the bed so he could get in, "Come to think of it, I am getting sleepy." He was hesitant for a moment, feeling Yuugi's slight unease, before the agent shuffled closer to him, as if expecting something to happen. Ryou smacked himself again; Yuugi was in the current belief that they were lovers, lovers who were going to sleep next to each other usually cuddled at the very least! Still sensing the lost kind of confusion radiating off his suddenly needy friend Ryou reached out more in compassion then because he was supposed to, spooning against Yuugi's back to comfort him, to let him know he wasn't alone. To let him know he was wanted. Yuugi sighed in relief and closed his eyes to sleep, feeling safe in the embrace, no matter the tingling sensation of wrongness at the back of his mind.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yuugi woke again the next night with the strangest sound in his ears. Ryou was next to him again; sleeping so deeply that he doubted the fire alarm would wake him let alone a soft undercurrent of humming. All that day Ryou had kept him cooped up in these rooms, said he didn't want to overload him so soon with information. Yuugi was unsure about that. He'd tried to ask Ryou what he thought that sound was, as it had started late evening and was still going on now, but his 'lover' had just said that it must just be some new kind of experiment the scientists were testing, being so close to the experimentation department had caused Yuugi not to question that any farther but now he was wondering. Why would that noise still be going on at two O'clock in the morning? And to top it all off he'd had that dream again, the one that was so similar to the coma he had been in with that singing and sensation of being touched by a lover. He scowled to himself in the dark; this was surely too much of a coincidence. Were they experimenting on him or something? Trying to see how long it took him to crack? Well so far it was working.

Another half an hour of unsuccessful sleep attempts made Yuugi's mind up for him. He was going to see what the hell that noise was, security be damned. Peeling back the covers and gently extracting himself from Ryou's embrace he pulled on his slippers and tiptoed over to the door. Damn what was that code again? 2664781? Or something equally as stupid. He smiled when it worked and the door slid silently open, he slunk out.

Standing for a moment next to the shadow coated wall of the corridor Yuugi strained his ears to try and pinpoint where the noise was coming from. To his right and then… left was it? That sounded right. He wanted to say these halls looked familiar to him, but all of them looked them same so he had no way of knowing if he could even find his way back. But something about this did feel familiar. The slinking from shadow to shadow as quietly as possible defiantly felt like something he'd done countless times before. Like second nature almost. Well at least he'd proven to himself that Ryou was right, he has been an agent of some kind before… whatever it was that had happened to him. Perhaps this was actually a test? Draw him out to see if he'd lost any skills? He wouldn't put that past any organisation even the government knew little about.

He shivered in the thin material of his pyjamas when he reached what he thought was his destination, thanking whatever deity would listen that the whole place was like a ghost town right now. Pressing his ear to the door to be sure, he heard the sound coming muffled through the metal, definitely this one. Yuugi stood still, a small surge of doubt beginning to make him second-guess his decision to investigate. This was a secret organisation after all; there could be _anything_ behind that door. Yuugi frowned, making his mind up. Well whatever it was it was keeping him awake and that was not something he was prepared to forgive at this time of night.

This door was different from the rest; it opened two ways, conventionally like an ordinary door and sliding into the wall like all the others he'd seen. Briefly he wondered why but dismissed the thought, who was he to question the ways of this strange place? He shook his head and placed a hand on the flat surface, he pushed half-heartedly, expecting it to be locked, but jumped back in surprise when the door clicked open under the minimal force he had put upon it. Yuugi blinked, staring at the now open crack in the door, this place was _really_ strange, it was no wonder Ryou hadn't wanted him wandering around. Creeping forward he was alarmed to realise he could hear the sound much clearer then he ever had before, it stirred something within him, an empathy with whatever was singing like that. It was the most horribly sad sound he could ever remember hearing. It made his chest ache with longing and melancholy. Curious Yuugi slipped through the tiny opening in the door and inched it almost closed behind him, he didn't want it locking him in or something.

The room was dark and shadowy but there was a light that cast a blue water effect on the bland walls, Yuugi turned to see its source and gaped in astonishment. That was one hell of an aquarium. Overcoming his shock he realised that the aquarium was where the song-thing seemed to be coming from. So was there something alive in there? Yuugi was having a hard time not letting the sound affect him, it was utterly heartbreaking and made unwanted tears gather in the corners of his eyes. He fought them down and inched closer, glancing around for any obvious security cameras and finding none he crept behind a row of computers to the right so whatever might be in there wouldn't see him. It could be dangerous after all. He frowned, there was a shadow of a strange almost humanoid figure cast on the sand coming from behind that rock…

Yuugi fell utterly still at the sight that met him when he poked his head around the side of a computer to see. But he didn't feel as shocked as he thought he should be, he had the strangest feeling of dejà vu that prevented that. There was a merman sat in that tank with his back leaning against the rock, his tail bent upwards from the middle and his arms wrapped around himself, his head bent downwards in the same way a human might burry his head in his knees to hide from the world. He looked so unhealthy with his ashen coloured skin and drawn complexion, his body so thin Yuugi thought he could have broken it like a twig. And he was the one that was singing that song that made Yuugi's eyes sting with emphatic tears. The sight in itself was heartbreaking, the creature was clearly dying, but the song along with it made him remove himself from his hiding place and kneel next to the glass as near to the merman as possible without really realising what he was doing. Compassion made him reach out and knock on the glass although he didn't know if there was anything he could do.

But that seemed to be all that was necessary because the merman's head jerked up in shock at the noise. Their eyes met and Yuugi didn't think he'd ever seen eyes so beautiful despite how bloodshot and exhausted they where from crying and severe lack of sleep. He frowned at the look he was getting though. Complete and utter disbelief, he half expected the merman to cry 'ghost!' and swim away from him with that look. But then the merman smiled brokenly and shook his head, looking back down to his folded arms without another sound. Yuugi frowned, he hadn't come here to be ignored, it was almost as if the merman didn't believe he was really there, had the scientists been driving him mad with holograms or something. Testing his reaction to different images to see how he would interact? He didn't have a clue what they were doing to him but… he was dying, that was all Yuugi needed to know.

He knocked again but when he didn't receive any reaction he said loud enough so he hoped he could be heard through the glass, "Hello? Are you alright?" Still no reaction. Yuugi's frown deepened, he looked closer, was he even conscious over there? Wait… it didn't look as if… oh crap the merman wasn't breathing! He stood in his shock and hopped worriedly from foot to foot, oh shit he could get blamed for this! Shit, shit, shit, shit! Horror pounding through his heart he frantically scanned the metal tables near the computers for anything that may help him, how he didn't know and didn't really care, anything would do. His eyes caught sight of what looked like some kind of breathing apparatus, a small canister the size of his hand connected to a mouthpiece that could be fasted around his head with a thin strap. A compact oxygen canister that could last for hours and protect his eyes from the salt water by creating an intangible bubble around his head, his mind supplied the information automatically and it scared him that he knew exactly how to operate a device he could never even remember seeing before. There were so many things he just _knew_ he could do even though he couldn't ever remember having learned them.

Yuugi strapped the device onto his head and turned back to the tank. He didn't know what he could do but if he did nothing he was certain the merman would die overnight and he wasn't going to be able to do anything standing outside. Spotting the iron scaffold staircase leading up the side to the top Yuugi rushed up it, trying to make his footsteps as quiet as possible, he really didn't need anyone to find him now. Reaching the top he unlocked the hatch on the top that acted similar to a trap door with the same certainty he did everything else, activated the breathing device, took off his slippers, and dove in.

The water was surprisingly warm and for that he was grateful, he didn't want to have to struggle with a wetsuit. His ears popped as he swam deeper and deeper but the device otherwise protected him from the salty water. When he hit the bottom Yuugi looked around and spotted the merman just to his left, he hadn't moved. What if he was already too late? Mentally cursing his bad luck and demandable compassion which had gotten him into this situation Yuugi swam over and knelt next to him, checking that he was still alive, with relief he saw that the merman's chest was still rising and falling, just so shallowly that he hadn't seen it from outside. That meant he was still in danger of dying soon. But what could he do?

In desperation Yuugi reached out to see if he was still conscious. But when his hand touched the merman's shoulder he got the fright of his life. The creature jerked up and away, staring at Yuugi with the widest eyes he had ever seen. Yuugi jumped at the reaction and just watched as the merman's eyes went through an extraordinary transformation from a hopeless, death filled almost black, to a lighter rusty brown swirling with disbelief and then, as the merman reached out to touch his cheek with trembling fingers and an audible gasp filled the water, a deep joy and love filled ruby red. Yuugi blinked, it was almost as if he hadn't believed he was here, as if he were seeing a ghost. But then… did that mean he had known this creature? Those eyes struck a cord inside him so deep that the resulting reverberations made him shiver, and the emotions they reflected where clearly directed towards him. The merman practically launched himself at him, knocking Yuugi back with the force of his hug he felt himself blush at how close the merman was pushing their bodies together, face buried in his pyjama clad shoulder and… sobbing? Confused beyond belief Yuugi hesitantly returned the embrace and tried to figure out just what his mind was trying to tell him. He knew this. It had happened before. But there was a wall somewhere in his mind blocking the memory that wanted to burst through from his 'illness'.

He frowned in thought, unintentionally tightening his grip around the merman's sickly thin waist. Well at least it didn't seem as if he was dying anymore, though he was clearly unwell. The scales felt rough and uneven against his fingers and for some reason that angered him, he knew they weren't supposed to be like that the same way he knew the merman wasn't supposed to be this thin. Why did this scene feel so familiar?

_He looked down at the merman, curled up against him in obvious exhaustion, like an over sized kitten. His gaze returned to Ryou, an amused expression on his face, "Dangerous, eh?" _

Yuugi blinked rapidly, what was that? A flash of images and sounds that had snaked past the barrier in his mind. His own voice talking with an almost foreign confidence to Ryou. He _had_ known the merman from before! Yuugi looked down, his companion's shoulder's where shuddering with what he could only guess was exhausted tears. Why was the merman so upset – no, _relieved_ – to see him? Had they been that close? Had they –

_He tilted his head further at an angle, deepening their kiss and moaning when the merman's fingers found that sensitive spot on the back of his neck. _

Yuugi tensed. The block in his mind continued to leak tiny images of memories. And that one had been… that meant… he was cheating on Ryou? No he… he couldn't be. And especially not with someone who wasn't even human! But it certainly explained why the merman was so happy to see him. Had he thought he had died in whatever accident had caused him to loose his memories? But… but no! This couldn't… it just couldn't be! He had to get out of here to clear his head.

He pushed the merman off him. Couldn't look him in the eye when he made a strange confused noise that halted slightly due to the pervious crying. Turning away he pushed up off the sand and swam upwards towards the surface, he had to get away from this, if he was truly cheating on someone as kind as Ryou then now was the time he had to stop it, before he remembered whatever feelings there had been to draw him to such an inhuman substitute. He ignored the strange almost coo from behind him, realising the merman had followed him up (although probably with some difficulty in his condition), and broke the surface with a shake of his head. Removing the breathing device and pulling himself out of the water. He turned to close the tank lid. And got no further then that.

With an almighty thump Yuugi realised he was being pinned to the tank lid by the merman's body, he had jumped almost clean out of the water. His back stung from the harsh impact and he opened his eyes to glare in confusion and slight fear at the creature above him. What did it want with him? That question at least was answered by the merman's next move.

Yuugi gasped as the merman kissed him, his eyes opening wide, oh shit this wasn't what was supposed to happen. But he couldn't move and it felt so painfully familiar that he didn't object when the kiss was deepened. Something in the back of his mind was cracking, something screaming at him with his own voice, he closed his eyes and relaxed without realising it and let whatever it was that wanted his attention wash over him.

_In almost every way the merman had made the world brighter for him, had made things clearer and kinder and more exciting. Had become his partner. _

_"Aibou," Phoenix grinned widely, "that can be your name. Aibou – partner." _

Yuugi blinked open his eyes as if dazed, noticing the kiss had ended and the merman was resting their foreheads together, a drop of water, a tear, fell onto Yuugi's cheek from the other's eyes. He felt his heart swell strangely, almost as if it could burst with an emotion that had been repressed for far too long. He wasn't sure anymore if he was dreaming or awake and reached up to touch the other's wet cheek with his trembling hand.

"I did know you." He whispered, "I _do_ know you. It was you I heard in those dreams while I was in the hospital. You are why I was so unsure about Ryou, though I know him just as well. Aibou."

It was as if the name said out loud struck a great bell inside the room, the echoing chimes that was that one word shook him and he felt a part of the wall in his mind that was keeping him from his memories crumble. Images of various evenings and nights spent talking to the merman, holding him, being held by him, kissing him, flooded his mind. But only those memories. There were still great blanks of the times in between. But at least it was something. It proved they were not lost completely and were simply misplaced somewhere in the dark corners of the mind.

The merman, on the other hand, suddenly relaxed above him, literally collapsing on top of him where before he was using his elbows to hold himself up. Yuugi 'offed' as the wind was knocked out of him but he was far more worried about the other's health. What had just happened? Frantically he rolled out from under him and felt along the neck for a pulse but stopped when he realised Aibou's eyes were still open and conscious, just barely. Cursing the world in general Yuugi pulled the other up to lean against him, not sure what else he could do, he didn't have any food and had absolutely no medical expertise. This was out of his league but he couldn't exactly get help, he really didn't want to get caught (that in its self could cause more problems then it solved). Aibou slipped his arms around his waist and just held him, as if expecting something to happen, Yuugi only just managed to see the small smile gracing those handsome features (still handsome even with the draining effects of starvation) before his muscles gave the most peculiar little jolt. He gasped and placed a hand over his heart as it missed a beat, then began pumping blood again. But… he scowled as he tried to calm himself down, the beat it had now and the beat it had before were… different? It felt almost different but that was stupid how can a heart start beating differently?

He wasn't sure how long he sat there with Aibou's diminutive weight resting against him as he tried to calm down and figure out exactly what it was that felt like it had changed but when thought he heard something coming from the corridor outside he was snapped back to reality.

He needed to get back to his room.

Kneeling he pushed Aibou gently away from him and, holding his shoulders, kissed him softly before nudging him back into the water. The merman looked at him with a dazed and confused look, as if he'd just been woken up.

"I have to go now, Aibou. I promise I'll come back when I can okay? But you need to start eating, I know you prefer those cinnamon apples," Yuugi paused, where had _that_ knowledge come from? He shook his head and continued, "but it surely can't be what you eat at sea. Please eat what they give you before they start force-feeding you. Force-feeding would be so much worse then just giving in." The merman turned his gaze away and down with an almost stubborn expression. Yuugi felt himself melt but leaned closer and said in a stern voice: "Please Aibou. I love you too much for you to just die or to know you've gone through something as awful as tube feeding."

The merman sighed in way that made Yuugi think he was being purposefully dramatic but he took it as an agreement and smiled. Embracing the merman and kissing him for the final time that night Yuugi closed and locked the lid, pulled on his slippers to prevent any wet footprints following him to his and Ryou's apartment and dashed back out of the room, trying to remember the way through the corridors and avoiding the shadows he saw of other people on the way.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Yuugi are you alright?" Yuugi looked up from where he was brooding on the couch to see Ryou gazing at him in concern, "You've been abnormally quiet today."

He sighed, better now then never, "Ryou, you know you told me about the live subject experiments the scientists do on the supposed mythical creatures?" Ryou nodded, curious, "Well, I was wondering… you know that merpeople are kind of the same as sirens just with a different name and that they have very good singing voices? Is that the sound I've been hearing?" It was blatant lying he knew; he had seen the evidence just last night. But he wanted to know more about Aibou before he made any judgements; it was still confusing him that he was supposedly to be in a relationship with both of them.

Ryou frowned, "Well. Yes it is. But what does this have to do with anything?"

"Nothing really," he lied again, "It's just… it sounds so sad. Like a lament but worse. Why is it like that? Aren't sirens supposed to seduce sailors to crash into rocks out at sea or something?"

Ryou frowned again but this time in contemplation and came to sit next to him on the couch, "That's because he is sad I suppose." The biologist's hands wrung together in a show of nerves and uncomfortable guilt, "My colleagues who study the sounds he makes did admit it was something of a lament."

Yuugi tilted his head in an attempt to look innocent, "Why a lament? And why only at night?"

Ryou sighed, "Because we think he may have lost something. They reported it was something of a call, you know when birds and some fish and various species of animals around the world take a mate they take one for life and that there are various ways of courting and acting that strengthen their bonds, we think he may be doing that. Calling out to a mate without any real hope that they are still alive. And as for only at night well that's just because that's when scientists aren't goggling at him I suppose. It could be considered a private thing maybe."

Yuugi looked down at his bent knees, oh crap Aibou thought he was his mate? That was a little too much information and guilt at having forgotten him all at once. Well he certainly couldn't announce he'd kissed a merman now, they'd probably stick him in a cage right next to that tank.

"Yuugi? Are you alright?" Yuugi looked up and smiled with an effort, Ryou stared at him a moment longer, "You mustn't go looking for him, Yuugi. It doesn't have anything to do with you and… I'm sure he'll be fine; they aren't about to just let him die after all. Concentrate on yourself and promise me you won't go looking for this kind of trouble Phe-Yuugi."

Yuugi just smiled and nodded, knowing that he was lying to Ryou for at least the third time in that conversation. He couldn't leave Aibou, especially not now.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The base was on alert.

No one told Yuugi this but he had begun remembering enough to know that something was up. The people from scientists to chefs seemed to move around the complex like mice, jittery and looking for a hole to run into to hide. Yuugi walked the corridors alone, seeing the atmosphere for himself; yesterday Ryou had taken him back to his old room to see if it jolted any more memory breakthroughs, to an extent it had worked. He recalled how his normal timetable had worked before the accident; he remembered what Ryou had said about their jobs a long time ago, an animal tester and a glorified thief. They, meaning his boss and fellow agents along with a physiatrist, had taken him on a roller coaster ride of information later that afternoon, they showed him the equipment he normally used on his missions and although he didn't remember the missions as such he knew how to work each and every device without batting an eyelid. His progress was good, he had been told, but it was going to take time before the blanks were filled and the compendium of memories that had come back to him began to make chronological sense.

Ryou seemed to be just as nervous as everyone else and the obscure thing was that he seemed to get more on more on edge the more Yuugi remembered. They had begun to call him Phoenix again, although no one but Ryou had really called him Yuugi to begin with. He had been kitted out with an obscure watch that did _everything_, including record messages, keep detailed images of maps, double as a torch _and_ a phone, it even kept the time. A sharp dagger, a Swiss army knife, two types of strange little disk shaped things (one type for cracking codes for breaking in and the other was simply a potent explosive for the exact same reason), a laser/electric stunner that looked suspiciously like a glorified fountain pen (and actually doubled for one too) and a revolver had also been given to him. Apparently he had carried at least the army knife around with him all the time, especially when he was training. Jesus how paranoid had he been? He wasn't sure he liked the revolver, but they had ushered him into target practise without even waiting for his consent, he had shocked himself with the skill of his aim but he was still reluctant to use it, even if it apparently _had_ been his favourite.

It was late evening now, two days after seeing Aibou for the 'first' time. And he was becoming seriously worried for the merman's well being. He couldn't ask Ryou without sounding suspicious and he really didn't want anyone to find out about this. He remembered a conversation he had with Ryou about letting the test subjects go which had gone the wrong way. He needed to see the other again and now thanks to the fact that it was very late already and that the entire population of the base seemed to have evacuated to the other side (which was literally miles away) now seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

Reaching the door he had remembered as the entrance to Aibou's 'room' he checked to see if anyone was watching or if any noises were coming from the inside.

Nothing.

Taking a deep breath Yuugi slid open the door and stepped inside silently. Glancing around he saw that there wasn't a soul to be seen in the room, sighing in relief Yuugi walked around the computers towards the tank to see if Aibou was in the same place as he had been before. He wasn't there. Frowning in worry Yuugi walked a full circuit around the tank twice before conceding to the fact that Aibou was not in there.

Panic set in. What had happened to him? He hadn't actually really died had he? Aibou couldn't die… he just… he just couldn't! He didn't know why but he knew that it would have been his fault. No surely Ryou would have told him if the merman had died, surely. He had to be in there somewhere, he was just playing a game of hide and seek or something he was just… he was just…

A distressed and distinctly inhuman cry made Yuugi jump out of his skin and whirl to face a side door he hadn't seen before. The door was closed but he could see from here that it was unlocked. Aibou was in there? Yes, he had to be. He wasn't dead at all. Just couldn't be.

Moving over towards it Yuugi paused for a moment. There had to be others in there if Aibou was so distressed. He would get caught. He could even get trailed for breaking and entering; he didn't want the base to have to 'deal' with him after what he'd heard could happen from Ryou. But his partner was distressed; Aibou could still be dying even now! There wasn't much of a choice, he realised with a shock, he loved Aibou. Of course he had said he loved him but he hadn't actually been sure of it, until now anyway.

Taking a deep shuddering breath and preparing himself for anything and everything, Yuugi stepped inside.

He found himself at the top of one of the strangest rooms he had ever seen. An operation room he had seen on those hospital soaps were the centre of the room is sunk into the floor so the people sat in the tiers around it can see. He was behind glass, he realised, and on the highest tier, below him was a large circular pit for the operations. On a long metal table Aibou had been strapped down using some of the strongest restraints Yuugi had ever seen. He was completely pinned against the harsh metal surface. Around him mulled four scientists with various instruments and one with an expensive, and infinitely more advanced, looking PDA. Yuugi saw three figures he remembered out of them. Two females, one tall with short brown hair and another with silvery-blue, and a diminutive male with hair as wild and red as fire. He couldn't remember who they were or how he knew them but that didn't matter right now, all that mattered was Aibou.

Yuugi saw the redhead pulling a needle out of Aibou's arm as he slunk down the tiers, the syringe was filled with the merman's red blood and he watched as the scientist injected a small amount into individual test tubes in a rack on the table behind him. As the redhead took the rack over to another table resting against the wall and covered in various apparatus Yuugi saw the brunette move closer to the merman with a second syringe, this one filled with a cloudy liquid. Aibou seemed to panic at the sight of it, and fought even more then he had been before, Yuugi felt his heart miss several beats at the state of him. Hadn't he told him to eat!

He looked around him desperately and found an opening in the glass that lead into the pit, dashing towards it he was fuelled with adrenaline and anger when he saw the second woman picking up a scalpel from a table filled with operating instruments. He leapt through the opening, disregarding the stairs, and with a skill that bordered on instinct managed to knock the silvery-blue haired women out before they even realised he was there.

Her unconscious body crashed through the table behind her as she fell and knocked the remaining scalpels and scissors and god knows what else clattering to the floor. The room fell silent in shock as the remaining scientists whirled to look at him, made all the more apparent when Aibou stopped struggling to make a sound of unmistakable relief upon seeing him. Before they could do anything Yuugi had lunged across the table to snatch the brunette's wrist so she dropped the syringe, he glared at her with a hatred he knew he remembered.

"Don't. You. Dare." He said, indicating what she was about to do to Aibou. And shoved her backwards so she tripped and stumbled over the fallen table. Without waiting to see what the others would do to him when they finally snapped out of their shock Yuugi turned on the male holding the PDA and, pulling out the laser pen (which _still_ was just a glorified fountain pen no matter what they told him), managed to knock the second one out before he could even protest. Yuugi blinked and stared at the unconscious scientist on the floor before him, "Well fuck." He murmured to himself, "I _am_ good at this after all."

A crash as the door slammed alerted him to the fact that the redhead had vanished, run from the room completely. Shit what if he alerted the others? But he couldn't exactly chase after him; he didn't have any idea what he was going to do after he had saved Aibou from imminent danger anyway.

"Phoenix," the brunette hissed, her name was Mazaki his brain suddenly supplied, "What do you think you're doing. If refusing your orders from before had been treason then you don't want to know what this will mean! What the fuck are you doing here anyway, they said you had no memory of the subject!" she lunged suddenly for him but he sidestepped and dodged before her nails could graze his cheek.

"I don't." he replied simply, but turning to look at her he paled in horror. She hadn't been lunging for him; she had been going for the panic button on the wall behind him! Crap, if she hit that then the whole base would come looking! Without even thinking about what he was doing he pulled out the revolver from its holster on his hip and in one smooth move as he raised it to aim he unlatched the safety catch and fired. Her body crumpled just inches away from the huge red button and Yuugi felt dread enter him. He rushed over to her, thinking she had been killed, but bit his lip in partial relief as he realised she was just injured. If she got medical attention within the next hour or so then she'd live. And he had no doubt they'd find her in that time.

Remembering the more important person in the room he swiftly placed her body into a more comfortable position and rushed back to Aibou who had been suspiciously quiet throughout the whole thing. He was lying back on the table with a half-conscious look to him. Yuugi stroked his cheek to get his attention to which Aibou just smiled and leant his head into his hand, Yuugi bit his lip against the torrent of emotions overflowing him and shook his head to rid them so he could concentrate. Un-strapping the restraints around the merman's wrists and tail he was shocked and relived when Aibou leant up under his own strength to wrap his arms around his shoulders desperately. Yuugi felt tears escaping his eyes as he rocked them from side to side in comfort, Aibou didn't deserve this, he didn't deserve any of this. He turned his head to kiss him deeply, closing his eyes at the feeling just a simple kiss was giving him.

He looked down into the merman's eyes feeling just as lost and helpless himself. It was almost beginning to feel like there were two people in his head. He was Yuugi. But he was Phoenix too. And as he stared into those intoxicating rubies he heard Ryou's words coming back to him from behind a thick fog, _"You can't keep him Phoenix… let him go." _

He had no other choice did he? They couldn't keep doing this.

Aibou needed to go home. And Yuugi needed to make way for Phoenix to return. Otherwise they would both probably die. Aibou from stress and illness and Yuugi from being 'dealt with' by this organisation.

Yuugi sighed in sorrow and leant their foreheads together. Aibou just held him. Yuugi was at least thankful that Aibou was still damp, that meant he hadn't been out of water for very long. He planned to keep it that way. _The base is situated near the coast. _A small part of his brain supplied. He sighed again, then that was the way he would go.

He jumped slightly when his watch beeped. He glanced at it to see a message flashing across the screen, an emergency meeting with the boss? Yuugi cringed, the redhead might not have even reached them yet but he didn't want to know what this could be about. He glanced up and blinked when Aibou suddenly clung to him, glancing up at him desperately and shaking his head.

Yuugi blinked at him, "What?"

It was as if Aibou was scared he was going to leave him, but he had been fine a moment ago. _Every time my watch has beeped I've left. _He realised suddenly. He'd always disappeared for hours on end whenever the boss called him away. Aibou must be worried I'll leave again, he thought. He glanced at the beeping watch again. This was a chance to redeem himself. A chance for him to get his life back. But if he did that then what would become of the merman? Was he really that selfish?

No. He answered himself; even he wasn't that selfish. With a scowl he ripped the watch off his wrist and threw it into the far side of the room. Not knowing what else he could do and knowing he had no time to loose Yuugi detached an explosive disk from his belt and attached it to the wall in the tank room, some knowledge telling him that just behind it was the outside world, well they had to get the specimens in somehow didn't they. Activating it he rushed back to Aibou who was sat looking thoroughly confused on the operation table and pulled him close to his body to cover him from any possible debris. The merman blinked into his chest for a moment, wondering about the obsessively protective hold but then jumped in fright and shock as the loudest bang and crash he had ever heard assaulted his ears. Yuugi grunted in a mixture of fear because the sound was bound to alert someone and determination to make sure Aibou wasn't harmed more then he already was.

He clutched the merman tightly to him until there were only the sounds of the occasional rock falling from the crumpled wall. Aibou jumped again and pushed himself further into Yuugi's hold when the alarms started ringing, his tolerance levels for all the new things around him being pushed to the limit. Yuugi cursed, he should have seen that coming. Shifting he tried to pick the merman up to see if there was some kind of wheelchair in the room he could push the merman in but when he realised that there wasn't a chance in hell that Aibou was loosening his grip around his neck he changed tactic and just carried him over his arms like a newly wed bride. He had worried about the weight being too much for him but Aibou was so thin that it was like carrying a small child. Yuugi easily made it back to the room to view the devastation he had caused, almost the entire wall had collapsed opening the way into a short expanse of lawn fringed by a tall wire fence, behind that there was nothing but trees.

But there was no time to loose gawking. The alarms were still ringing and Yuugi had no doubt that reinforcements would be here soon. He only just reached the threshold when Aibou suddenly cried out in warning, Yuugi turned his head to see a fire growing from under all the rubble and crushed computers. He swore venomously, turned, and began to run. The blast had managed to create a small hole in the fence through which he slipped through and into the forest.

Where upon he stopped in shock and fear. The trees! The trees were lit from behind him with flickering orange light from the fire! The trunks imposed upon him like black bars of a prison cell. He wasn't sure how long he stood there in fear as the sight triggered memory after memory of his life outside of Aibou, of those obsessive dreams that had haunted him. But finally the merman shook him, took his cheek and turned his head to look at him. Yuugi could see that adrenaline was the only thing keeping Aibou awake right now but he could also see the fear and desperation he knew was reflected in his own eyes.

Yuugi shook his head to wake himself up. Aibou was right. This had to be a coincidence. There was no time to stop. As he heard shouts issuing from behind him Yuugi kicked himself into action. His brain now filled with the experience and knowledge he had learned when he was known simply as Phoenix driving him to push himself harder. He shot through the darkness as if carrying Aibou wasn't making his movements awkward. Footsteps grew quieter behind him and Yuugi knew he was beginning to loose his pursuers. He just had to keep going. He couldn't let them take Aibou back to all that.

He wasn't even sure of a destination. He just continued to run, leaping over roots and rocks as if he'd practiced every step, weaving between trees and even using some of the lower branches for leverage with the skill of someone trained since birth. But the reality was that he was stiff and unpractised from sleeping so long in that coma and as light as the merman was he was still restricting his flexibility, if he wasn't carrying him then he could climb into the trees and move that way. They'd never find him with his skill. But that would make everything he had worked towards pointless. He gasped and gritted his teeth when an overhanging branch caught the back of his collar and ripped his black shirt clean down the back, but even then he wouldn't slow.

He kept running, his breath coming in strained pants, his leg muscles screaming in protest. He couldn't keep going like this for much longer. Yuugi slowed suddenly as his ears picked up the sound of water. Was that… yes it was the sound of waves! Turning a little to his right he picked up speed again, encouraged by the thought that his goal was now so close.

Finally, with the feeling of being able to breathe again after being suffocated, Yuugi crashed through the final line of trees that edged to the slight cliff of the coast. Moving a few extra steps to collapse on his knees at the edge. He bent over to lean on his hands when he placed Aibou down on the grass in front of him, fighting desperately to get his breath back. When he could finally breathe enough to look up he saw the merman staring longingly at the ocean in front of them, but Aibou's hand still gripped onto his shoulder as if torn between choices.

Yuugi smiled ruefully and nodded when Aibou finally looked back at him. The merman's red eyes widened in realisation, filled with a mixture of elation and reluctance. He clung to Yuugi and shook his head, digging his nails into the human's bare shoulders, Yuugi having discarded what remained of his shirt onto the damp seaside grass.

"Aibou…" He muttered, feeling tears gathering in his eyes, "You have to go."

"Well isn't this a sweet little scene." A harsh voice sounded from behind Yuugi, it dripped with sickly sweet sarcasm.

Yuugi span round to find them surrounded by foreign men. Six of them encasing his perimeter in a semi-circle; cutting him off from any escape. Aibou gasped, his grip on Yuugi tightening. All Yuugi could see of them was shadows but he could clearly see that none of them had come from W.A.S.P, he had been reintroduced to all of the staff just yesterday, he could also see the guns they were pointing at him.

"The Rising Phoenix of Wasp at my mercy. This must be my lucky day." The same man, presumably the leader, sneered at him, his aim directly pointing to Yuugi's chest where the phoenix tattoo had been clearly viable before he'd turned. Yuugi glanced at them, trying not to panic. Where the hell had these guys come from? Was this why the base had been on alert all day? Had there been a breach of security? Crap how the fuck was he supposed to get out of this one. The sea was freezing, it was winter, and so he couldn't jump down and hope to swim free, he'd freeze to death before he got to land again! Aibou could jump down whenever he wanted but for Yuugi there was no choice.

He stood slowly to face them head on. Taking a fighting stance before Aibou to give him a chance to escape. They laughed at him mockingly, all he had left was gun with limited ammo, the remains of his arsenal had been dropped in the run through the forest. Behind him Aibou made a worried sound of protest, his voice sounding out of place and too musical before these blood driven men.

Yuugi closed his eyes for a short moment. If he had to do this he would do it with everything he had.

Phoenix lunged, ducking to the left to dodge the sudden barrage of bullets. He cursed to himself, he had to get their fire away from the merman or they could hit him. Reaching the apparent leader he jumped and span mid-air, managing to hit him square in the head with a roundhouse kick before the man could do anything to stop him, he fell with a loud thump and shout of pain. Phoenix gritted his teeth when someone's fist connected with the side of his chest, knocking him to the ground. Phoenix gasped at the pain of the impact but rolled the moment he made contact with the grass, only just avoiding someone's steel tipped boot from impaling his stomach. Pushing off the ground with his hands he span on his heel and used his other leg to sweep the man's feet from under him. As the second one fell Phoenix was forced to lunge to his left to avoid a stab to his chest from another man's knife. Twisting his body so he cartwheeled backwards and out of range.

Unfortunately that meant it was safe for them to shoot at him without fear of hitting one of their own. He yelped in pain when a searing hot lance shot through the side of his arm, the bullet had only caught the edge of the skin but the blood it caused to drip down his arm was hot and slick. Forcing himself to ignore the agony he lunged again, reaching the group without being hit by another shot. Phoenix stepped round the front man with the air of a dancer half turning and knocking him off balance with a punch to the base of his spine, he would have followed the man down and finished him if another impact, this time to the side of his head hadn't knocked him away.

There were five left conscious, including the leader. He was going to loose if he didn't do something quick.

Desperately dodging away from the barrage of punches and kicks Phoenix finally pulled his revolver from its holster and shot wildly into the group of men, too far on the defensive to be able to aim properly. There was a sharp cry and another gasp followed by two thumps, the sound of heavy bodies hitting the ground. Phoenix gritted his teeth and continued to fire desperately into the night until he pulled the trigger to find nothing happening.

He was out of ammo.

"Fuck!" He shouted, throwing the useless thing at the remaining three men in a last ditch attempt to hit someone. It landed uselessly just inside the woods. The men laughed again and Phoenix jumped back in an attempt to regain his distance but a final shot echoed through the night and he suddenly felt a roaring hot agony burn through him from just below his knee. The force of it sent him backwards and he fell onto the ground by the cliff to the sound of their mocking.

Yuugi glanced up blearily from the ground he was laying on to see greying-red fish scales before him, there was blood dripping from his temple and arm, and his knee felt useless on the ground. His vision blurred slightly and he had the sudden idea that he may have concussion. But he ignored that, only noticing that he had fallen right before the kneeling form of Aibou. His gaze moved upwards as he fought to sit up, the merman reaching to help him, Aibou's eyes were swimming with the tears dripping down his cheeks and Yuugi felt his heart break a little. Aibou was not supposed to be this broken.

When he finally managed to sit up Yuugi reached out to smooth his fingers across the merman's wet cheeks. He smiled again, knowing he looked terrible with the blood running down his face and his vision becoming less coherent by the minute.

"I'll get you home Aibou." He muttered, forcing his voice to remain steady, "I promise. Even if it costs me my life."

With that he lunged suddenly, a flare of strength coursing through him from god only knew where, and picked Aibou up as he stood. The men behind him were too busy taunting him to notice much else. He staggered the rest of the way to the edge, pointedly ignoring Aibou's cries and protests, and only when he reached it did he look back down at the merman. He dipped his head, kissing him one final time, when he pulled back Aibou was still, pain and sorrow reflecting in those red eyes.

"Thank you." He gasped out, "For everything." Yuugi released his hold suddenly, too suddenly for the merman to do anything to stop him, he watched only long enough to see Aibou hit the water with a splash and vanish before he turned and ran.

The men were caught off guard by the sudden retreat. Yuugi shouldn't have been able to stand on the knee let alone run! But the physical pain he felt had been blocked by the pain in his heart and with a feat of supernatural endurance he managed to slip out of the grasp of the men and ran blindly along the length of the cliff. He didn't even hear them following him but he definitely heart the shots whooshing past his ears. The ocean was growing restless beside him, the cliff growing higher so he had to run up hill. They were coming closer, he could almost feel them behind him, breathing down his neck.

He wasn't going to last much longer.

With a final cry of agony Yuugi's knee gave way beneath him. He crashed onto the grassy floor and fell still, his breath coming in wheezing, struggling gasps. His sight was blurring and fading at the edges. He felt the ground rumble under him as the men finally caught up with him and he had no strength left to struggle or fight as the largest one, still the leader, hauled him up by his neck. Yuugi could only gasp and claw weakly at the hand encasing his throat as he was lifted up and dangled over the cliff edge.

He was losing the battle to stay conscious.

"Sweet little fire birdie." A rough voice crooned at him, "Your immortality ends here!"

Yuugi felt the vice around his throat release him with a jerk, he felt his body fall limply and could only watch, half conscious, as the cliff grew taller above him. The fall seemed to last forever, the stars he managed to glimpse through the clouds felt far closer then they should be.

His back hit the water with a painful slap. The remaining air in his lungs was forced out of him by the impact and he closed his eyes as the icy salt water encased him in its grip. He was suspended in a vat of nothingness, it felt like, and he vaguely wondered if this was a dream. If he was still in a coma. The world only grew darker around him as the freezing water seeped into his body and he knew he hadn't a chance of waking up again from this. He wasn't strong enough to even attempt to swim. He would be long dead and frozen before anyone found him. If anyone was even looking.

_I'm sorry Aibou_, he thought as the last of his awareness fled into the cold sea.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**AN: **And there you almost have it. All that's left now is the epilogue which I will not tell you about because I'm evil and mean. I finished this over the weekend but I didn't like how it turned out so I left it to see if there was anything I could do. Apart from a few sentence changes nothing happened though so I officially gave up. At least its consistent in the poor quality. The epilogue shouldn't take too long but I'm going to have to wait for exams to finish before I even look at it. I've had a two hour English Lit. about Shakespeare's plays and Chaucer's poetry today and another three hours tomorrow on the physical and human process of Geography. It's enough to fry anyone's brain. Especially when they need the results to get into The University of Chester. -headdesk- Just kill me now.

Review Please!


	6. The Magic of Science: Epilogue

I am so, so sorry that this has taken so long. But I've had the writer's block of the century. That and a few other reasons I wont go into. Either way I really am sorry that you all had to wait so long, I hope that this isn't as awful as I think it is.

NOTE: Oh, and just to clear things up about last chapter. I am aware that a long fall into the water would kill a person but the cliff there wasn't so much a cliff as a short drop. It was exaggerated due to it being from Yuugi's point of view, you know, the whole 'life flashing before your eyes' kind of thing. And calling it a cliff was just easier. Sorry.

**The Magic of Science**

**Epilogue**

Ryou let out a heavy sigh, glancing over the horizon with a deep sorrow clinging to his expression. This was where his best friend had gone missing in action. The ocean waves were surprisingly rough considering how pleasant the day had been, the strong sea breeze picking at the white foam and lifting his silver hair up behind him.

Twelve nights ago a group of men had been seen skulking around the perimeters of W.A.S.P wearing the insignias of one of the most feared criminal syndicates they had been tracking. Phoenix himself had foiled a lot of their worse plans; they had been after him for a long time. The group had vanished into thin air before any action could be taken but the whole place was warned and put under alert. Ryou hissed out an angry sigh, he should have watched Yuugi better, should have known that he wouldn't let something like those dreams or what he had said just lie. He had thought Yuugi was just napping in their room after such a hard day of retraining, he should have returned back from the lab earlier, he should have read Yuugi better then that.

The guards had rushed to the site of the explosion thinking it had been caused from the outside, although no one had been picked up on the sensors, and had got there in time to see Yuugi vanishing into the woods and a fire growing from under the rubble he had caused, they had lost him in the resulting chase through the forest. But apparently someone else hadn't.

By the time the commotion had settled down enough for someone to point out that the merman had gone missing it was already too late. The sun was rising by the time they found the site of the battle that had claimed the lives of at least two people. The bodies of the two men that had been left when the bullets of Phoenix's aim pierced various vital organs had been cleared up for forensics. Phoenix's blood was everywhere. The tests proved it was his. His ripped shirt left on the cliff proved it even further.

He had been here. Had he died here too?

More splats of blood had been found further up the cliff, and then faint traces of it left on the rocks of the drop into the sea. One way or another Yuugi must have entered the sea, there was no way he could have survived the winter night temperatures in the state he was in. And yet his body had not yet been found.

The merman, Aibou, had gone missing completely. It was now common belief that Phoenix had helped him escape. They had no hopes of finding him again. Ryou didn't know what to believe. It was true he held no hope of ever finding Aibou again, he knew Phoenix well enough to know he had released him, but he didn't know whether or not to believe Yuugi was dead. Some thought that his blood had been splattered on the cliff purposefully so the group could hide the fact that they had taken him with them, some thought he had somehow managed to swim with the current to a safe alcove out of the sea where he was even now waiting for rescue. It wouldn't be the first time Phoenix had accomplished something as unbelievable as that. He had once survived a fall from a helicopter crash (he had been fighting with the pilot at the time), and when all thought he was dead and long gone in the desert he had fallen to (for they had not found him even with their resources) he turned up two months later, having survived the impossible conditions and journey of countless miles by luck, skill, and sheer force of will.

After all Ryou had seen Phoenix fight through, and after what he had seen of Yuugi when his shields were down, he doubted that he was dead. A small voice told him to move on, that they would never find him. But a louder voice told him that Yuugi was alive, and was out there – somewhere.

Ryou turned his gaze down below him, watching the pale blue water lap against the walls of the cliff. That merman was out there and he knew that they had been together that night, after all he had seen of their interactions together, and all his best friend had done for the creature, he doubted that Aibou would just allow the agent to die. If one of them was alive, he told himself, then they both must be.

But that still didn't quash the strange feeling that even if Yuugi was still alive… that he wouldn't be coming back. That he would never see him again. Merpeople had proved themselves to be clingy, for lack of a better word, and… somehow… he didn't think Aibou would just let Phoenix go.

He shook his head angrily. He was a scientist! All this speculation and 'feelings' were not what he was supposed to be thinking. Perhaps he should just go back and help with organising the search parties. He turned to walk along the length of the coastline; it hadn't rained so he could still see patches of dried red blood on the grass, there was no need to clean it up. No one ever came here and the forensics department had already gathered everything they needed. Perhaps he would see something the others hadn't if he followed the path Yuugi had taken…

Ryou looked up sharply at the sound of splashing, a voice growling something in a foreign language. Was someone drowning? Was it Yuugi? Feeling his heart rate increase he quickly squashed that thought. Why would Yuugi be growling in a foreign language? Steeling his determination Ryou sped up, ready to help whoever was in trouble.

------------------

"Yuugi… Yuugiiiii?" Yuugi scrunched his eyes more firmly closed at the sound of a voice interrupting his quiet tranquillity. He hadn't felt this relaxed in years. It felt like he was floating on clouds, the world was warm and comfortable around him, the bliss of dreamless sleep coaxing him to ignore whoever was trying to wake him.

"Darling," the voice really wasn't going to leave him alone was it? "Beautiful beloved?" even in sleep Yuugi felt his thoughts stall with a screech of breaks. No one ever called him by such… squishy love names. Who the hell was… no impossible, it couldn't be. Not unless…

He fought to open his eyes and just barely cracked the lids open tiredly. Above him was hovering the fuzzy image of ruby almonds. But why would almond shaped rubies be floating above him? Let alone talking? He exhaled slowly and squinted his tired eyes, his thoughts clogged by heavy sleep, a face swam into view from above him, the rubies were eyes that were leaning far too close. The face was all too familiar, and strangely enough so was the voice.

Yuugi groaned and closed his eyes, turning his head slightly to the side he muttered, "Am I dead yet?"

"Dead?! Why would you be dead? You're not dying are you? You can't be dying? I would sense it if you were –"

Yuugi opened his eyes again so he could clamp a hand around the other's mouth, effectively shutting him up, "Shh. Sleep now." God why was he so tired? He closed his eyes again.

Only to have a lightning bolt of realisation jerk him wide-awake.

His eyes shot open again to stare openly at the figure leaning over him, "You can talk?!"

Aibou blinked, "Yes."

Yuugi opened his mouth many times before he could get his voice to work, "But- but you haven't spoken before."

Aibou frowned at him in confusion, "Yes I have."

Yuugi shook his head, "No you haven't. I would have heard it if you did."

"Well of course you heard! You even looked at me with that blank expression when I did. But then that was when you didn't understand me. You can now."

Yuugi gaped for a moment longer, Aibou's voice was deep and flowed like spicy liquid honey around him, it was still musical but now that wasn't quite as… noticeable. "And how can I understand you now?"

Aibou suddenly looked a little nervous, his gaze flittered around the room, avoiding his own. Yuugi blinked for the billionth time that minute as he finally took notice of his surroundings. It was… a bedroom? But the strangest looking bedroom he'd ever seen, the walls were a pale blue and didn't look like any texture he'd ever felt before. He was lying on a spongy bed on his back and Aibou was… sitting on the bed beside him?

"Where am I?" he asked slowly, taking notice of the obscure looking items he saw on a dressing table that looked like it was made out of… marble? Or pearl even?

"Home." Aibou said firmly, looking back down at him.

Then Yuugi noticed the way Aibou's hair was swaying, the strange pressure on his lungs, the feeling of something far thicker then air brushing against his skin. "I'm underwater." He stated flatly, "I'm breathing water." His head felt strangely blank.

His companion nodded but didn't say anything further. Yuugi was beginning to get the strangest sense of foreboding. Noticing his body felt strange and far too injury-free to be normal. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked down at his sheet-covered body. There wasn't anything really noticeably different from under the sheets so perhaps there wasn't anything noticeably different at all? He raised a hand to grip the edge of the sheet, ready to rip it away and confirm that his fears where for nothing. There was a suspicious little idea in his head that said he was very much on the edge of panicking. Aibou wasn't doing anything, just watching him; Yuugi could see the strangely blank expression from the corner of his eye.

And so, taking a deep breath to steady himself, Yuugi threw the sheet off his body.

"… Fuck."

--------------------------------------------------------------

Bakura sat scowling at everything and anything in sight from his seat at the kitchen table. Yami was back. His fucking amazing-fantastic-can-do-no-wrong brother was back home. And their parents wouldn't fucking shut up! Not only had Yami gone missing for months on end, so long that everyone had given up hope for his return, but he came back just yesterday night looking like he'd gone through hell and back. God he was nearly dead! And as if that wasn't enough to get everyone's fucking attention then the thing he was carrying in his arms sure was.

It wasn't _fair!_ Why did his brother have to get _everything_! Yami didn't deserve his mate: Bakura did. The bastard goes missing for a few months, comes back only a little worse for wear, and then has the cheek to announce he'd managed the almost impossible and found his mate! It was preposterous, it was ridiculous, and it was down right pissing him off!

Mates were not something you found every time you went out for a swim, oh no not at all, every merperson was born with a single destined partner that most never found. Because for a merperson to find their mate they somehow have to find a ticket into the human world, for that was what their partner's were, humans. And as if getting into the human world wasn't hard enough they would then have to search the entire population for them, you would only know for sure you had found them by seeing them directly in front of your eyes, by making eye contact. They had been a normal modest family, ordinary as ordinary could get under the sea as long as you disregarded his brother's natural talent with everything he ever fucking tried! They hadn't been rich or famous or anything like that but now… now that Yami had his mate… they were all of that and more. Undersea society worked at a generally equal level, there were districts of houses that reflected your status and that meant all but a small number of merpeople lived in these districts, but the merpeople who had mates and the close families of those merpeople, well, that was a different story entirely. Having a mate increases a merperson's magic ability substantially so clearly these were the merpeople better suited to leading the various cities spread over the world and that meant they had better housing and social standing in the community. It was just how it worked.

And now Yami was one of those merpeople.

He growled, glaring at his parents from across the table. They were all sat waiting for some signal to tell them that… Yuugi was it? Was awake and sufficiently adjusted enough to meet them.

"Is this going to take much longer?" his mother wined, desperately urging to go up there and meet the new family member.

They all jumped clean off their seats in shock as a scream tore through their house. Bakura scowled again, "Not too long by the sounds of it."

They would be moving house soon. A few days at the most. Yuugi was their ticket to the high society districts and for that Bakura thoroughly disliked him (he didn't quite hate him just yet), they had lived happily in this house for generations and then without any warning at all they were expected to uproot and move on. His parents didn't seem to mind, his mother was practically bouncing in anticipation, but he most definitely resented it. Granted it wasn't exactly Yuugi's fault and by the noise that was echoing down from upstairs he wasn't too happy either.

"He… doesn't seem to be taking this too well." His mother muttered while staring at the ceiling.

His father placed a hand over hers, "Give the kid a break. He's just gone through a complete species change that, if we go by what Yami told us, he had no consent over."

It took quite some time for the ex-human's panicked yelling to die down during which Bakura was growing more and more restless. He hated being cooped up inside but he hated missing out even more, he was going to stay until he saw his brother's mate properly. Yami had been too possessive to let anyone near them on his way to his bedroom, the change had already been done, he assumed on the way here or the human would have never survived.

"I'm going up." His mother announced, swimming up from the chair only to be held back by his father.

"You know the rules. No going near the new couple until Yami says we can." He said sternly. She deflated visibly; she had never been a very patient mermaid. She sat back down to sulk and strain her ears for any more sounds coming from upstairs.

-------------------------------------------------

Yuugi was in shock. He wasn't sure how else to react. He'd screamed, he'd shouted and he'd sobbed but Aibou had only restrained him on the bed and told him repeatedly that it was all right. Now he was exhausted, physically and emotionally. Lying silently on his side with Aibou's warmth pressed up against him, feeling the other's fingers running through his hair.

He didn't know what to think. He just didn't know how he was supposed to react to this. He supposed he should be grateful in a lot of ways. His life had been saved, all his wounds healed, and now he would never have to leave Aibou's side again. Never have to worry about his safety or well-being.

But it was just all so much. Too much.

This wasn't a fairy tale were a simple action or sentence would make everything good and better for the rest of their lives. This was a freaking species change! And no matter how much he loved Aibou, how grateful he was for everything he'd done, how many possibilities that lay ahead, it didn't change the fact that he had been thrown into an alien world far away from everything he knew and was comfortable with and into a new body that he still could not coordinate very well, without any of his own intervention. He felt utterly out of control of his own life and that was something he'd always hated feeling. He had closed his eyes ready to die for his actions and, poof, no more of anything he'd once known.

You did not just go through something that would change everything in your life and move on as if nothing had happened. Adjust just like that. Would he ever walk on land again? Would he ever breathe air or see the sky again? Would he ever see Ryou again? That last question hit him like a sledgehammer. Ryou was his best friend, had been with him for longer then he could remember, even if things had become a little complicated between them recently that didn't stop him caring deeply for him. He didn't know what to do anymore and he hated that with a passion.

Aibou shifted and pulled him closer, Yuugi tried not to shiver at the strange sensation of the merman's tail brushing up affectionately against… his own. He wondered how he had missed the new webbing that came up to the knuckles of his fingers when he was pulling the sheet back. His brain was still avoiding thinking about it; he refused to look down to convince himself this was all real. It still felt so much like a dream, like a hazy drunken stupor.

"Yuugi?" The word was whispered almost hesitantly into his ear.

Yuugi was silent for a moment, unsure weather he should reply or continue sulking. But Aibou was sounding rather upset himself and that fact was pulling incessantly at his heartstrings so he replied just as quietly, "Hmm?"

"Are – are you alright?" The thin arms tightened even further around him. The broken, almost scared, quality of the question made him feel instantly guilty for acting like he was.

"I don't know." He answered truthfully. "It's just so… much."

"I am sorry." Aibou sighed, "There's nothing I can do to change it. To be honest I wouldn't want to. You would have died." The last sentence was a desperate mutter.

Yuugi felt he should say something. He really did. He was happy, deep down he knew he was, but it was still not what he was ready for. Stealing himself he twisted his body to turn around so he was facing the other on the bed. He stared up at the red eyes before whispering, "How do you know my name?"

It would have been weird enough if he'd said 'Phoenix', which had been said in front of him before, but 'Yuugi' had not, as far as he remembered anyway. And he didn't think that Aibou could understand human language. Which brought on another interesting point, 'Aibou' mustn't be the merman's real name.

The merman smiled and Yuugi's heart fluttered at the sight. "I've known it since we first met. It has been engraved into my heart since I was born."

Yuugi blinked, trying to process this information. "How?"

"It's just something we are born with. The innate knowledge of who we are destined for. We have to see the person before the knowledge is unlocked but it is always there." He brushed Yuugi's blond hair behind his ears with a tender look.

Despite his current situation Yuugi found himself impressed. The entire notion was very romantic. He thought for a moment before asking, "What is your name? Your real one?"

The merman tilted his head with a raised eyebrow, "What have you been calling me up to now then? I did begin to recognise the sound that you addressed me by but it didn't mean anything at the time, just noise. Even if your voice was always enchanting I still couldn't understand any of it, really." A pause but Yuugi did not reply so he said, "My name is Yami."

Yuugi's heart jolted in a very similar way to how it had in the lab. "Yami?" he repeated, the word sounding strange and good in his mouth. As if he'd known it all along. He lowered his gaze again, thinking, before he asked, "So… that thing that happened… way back in the lab when I dove in… that thing my heart did. What was that?"

Another sigh, "That was me, but it was not intentional. It was the start of your transformation, it happens naturally, often without any warning or reason. I'm… not entirely sure what it is or what it does but I know that the changes that must occur within your body start with the heart. I must have kick started it somehow. The only thing you needed to do after your body had finished changing inside was to enter the water with me, I couldn't have stopped it even if I wanted to. You would have died without it."

The arms around him took on a desperate feel to their grip. Yuugi sighed into the merman's skin, feeling exhausted even despite all the sleeping he'd done. Running his fingers over the other's chest he frowned, leaning back he said, "You are eating aren't you?"

Aibou – no Yami – looked a little sheepish, "Well I haven't really had much of a chance, and I couldn't leave your side. Mother managed to slip some food into the room before I locked it though." Seeing the angered worried look on Yuugi's face he quickly said, "But you haven't been asleep very long so I've eaten a few substantial meals since I got home."

Yuugi shook his head, feeling very much like the reluctant woman in this relationship, "You're just like a bachelor you know that?" Yami was clearly going to survive the starvation now, he looked much less tired and stressed, all he needed was a few more good meals and he'd be fine.

Yami gave him a confused look, "A what?"

Yuugi shook his head, pulling away a little and forcing his body into a sitting position, trying instinctually to cross his legs and getting a shock as he realised he couldn't. He curled his lower half under him instead. He noticed Yami sitting up next to him and his gaze strayed downwards unwillingly, looking at the contrasts between them. The other's skin was a darker tan, caramel, while his own was still as pale as ever. Yami's tail was a mesmerising red amber that shimmered like the real thing every time he moved. His own was a deep violet purple, like crushed blackberries and the darkest, finest wines. There was no more escaping this reality, he told himself, if he had to be a half bloody fish then he would just have to accept it as his fate, even if it was a little hard to swallow. He would accept it for Yami.

He turned his gaze to his long transparent fins trailing in the water's soft current even when he was sat down and frowned, "Do they have to be so… frilly?" he asked, unable to find a better word to describe them.

"Frilly?" Yami asked, his voice half amused, half indignant. "They are just right. What's 'frilly' about them?"

Yuugi shook his head again, unsure how to convey just how uncomfortable he felt when he thought about those scales that had grown from around his waist and below as being _his_. He wrapped his arms around himself and sighed, thinking back to Ryou again, how was his friend copping? They must have listed him off as dead by now, if not then missing in action at least. How would that affect Ryou? They were all each other had had for years, and now separated he felt almost like he had betrayed his best friend. If he knew Ryou then he could make a pretty accurate guess as to where the other would be now, right at the heart of the groups no doubt searching for him. Or stood cursing himself for his lack of vigilance. He did resent the other a little for lying to him, about Yami and parts of his past, but a larger part of him understood the lengths Ryou would go to so he was protected, despite his dangerous profession as an agent. And even more so he felt guilt at not having picked up on Ryou's affections before recently, a lot of this could have been avoided if he hadn't been so blind.

He was pulled out of his depressive musings by warmth encircling him, Yami embracing him with an affection he remembered from that night in his apartment now so long ago, an affection he was fast becoming accustomed and addicted too. He looked up to meet the gaze of those passionate rubies and took a deep steadying breath. He was getting himself overly worked up again.

"You are _beautiful_." Yami said with a strong emphasis on the last word, a short pause and Yuugi saw his eyes flash with ill-concealed envy before he said, "And I'm sure your friend is fine." He clearly wasn't too found of Ryou.

Yuugi blinked, his mouth gaping a little, "How did you do that? That was kept strictly in my head."

Yami's smile turned smug, "You are my mate. I know everything about you… almost. You haven't noticed the connection yet?"

Yuugi raised a sceptical eyebrow, "What connection?"

"Well it's been there and growing ever stronger since we first met. A bond so to speak. Eventually it will become strong enough to talk through, like a mind link. But you remember those twinges and cramps? And the graze on my tail from when your leg was injured?" Yuugi nodded, the vivid memory of the result of him touching Yami's tail bombarding his mind, "The twinges and cramps… they were the result of the bond, you were feeling a shadow of the pain those evil people with white clothes inflicted upon me. And the graze on my tail was the result of it working the other way, I was feeling a shadow of the pain inflicted upon you."

Yuugi nodded again, slowly. That made a strange kind of sense. "But wait." He spoke, thinking again back to the accident with the drugs overdose, "If we have this so called magical bond then how come you were singing that lament thing when I was in that coma. Surely you could have sensed I was alive?"

Yami shook his head, his eyes filling with the remembered grief he had felt and Yuugi instantly regretted asking the question and causing such pain. "I felt nothing. Whatever they did to you it cut you off from me completely. And I saw that big human carrying you from the room. You were like a doll. Completely lifeless. Even your eyes… half open and glassy, void of their usual emotive light. I thought you had died because of me… and now that I've met you, without you I have no reason to live. It's like returning to Earth after tasting heaven."

Yuugi bit his lip, looking to the window and the blue ocean outside; did he really mean that much to Yami? He got his answer when Yami pulled his gaze back to him, leaning forward to capture his lips with his own. Yuugi felt heat bloom in his chest and he wondered how he could have ever doubted that he was in love. Responding with all that Yami had taught him, trying to pour exactly how he felt into everything he did, he felt Yami's pleasure and emotions from the bottom of his heart, through something that until now had gone unnoticed. He felt delirious when they broke apart, returning for kiss after kiss and suddenly understanding that even if he were given the chance to become human again he wouldn't take it. Not if it meant leaving Yami. Not if it meant loosing him. Loosing the person that was fast becoming his world.

A long time later when the desperation and need for the other had subsided they stayed there with their foreheads leaning together and muttering quietly, unwilling to break the tranquillity, the spell that had fallen over them. Yami seemed incapable of getting enough of him, he had twisted their tails together, caressing Yuugi's back, the smooth transition where skin merged to scale high on his waist, his hips and satin smooth tail, anywhere his fingers could reach without disturbing their position. Yuugi asked him questions now and then about what life would be like now, about Yami's childhood, his hopes, dreams and fears, and listened contentedly to the soft rumble of Yami's voice as he answered. Running his fingers through Yami's thick hair, strangely soft and silky underwater. He was high, he realised as Yami found another ticklish spot and he failed in suppressing a laugh (he flat out refused to call it a giggle), he was utterly intoxicated by Yami's presence. He had never been this relaxed, not even back at W.A.S.P when Yami was with him as Aibou, not once had he ever just been able to let go of everything. There was always some worry at the back of his mind, something that was niggling at him with its little annoying voice. But right now, right here, he wasn't worried about anything; there were no little voices to nag at him. There was just Yami. He wasn't scared about the future, no matter how daunting it was, because whatever it held Yami would be there with him every step of the way. Even his worry about Ryou had fled. He knew his best friend could take care of himself, even if they never saw each other again, Ryou would be fine.

He couldn't say he had overreacted before. There weren't many people who would stay calm after finding out their legs had been replaced by a fish tail. But this probably wasn't going to be anywhere near as awful as he had thought it could be. If he believed what Yami told him, and he did, then the other merpeople where more likely to worship him then outcast him. Merpeople where obsessed by stories, Yami had told him, and humans turned merpeople always made good storytellers due to their experiences on land, a world the undersea culture was fascinated with.

He nudged Yami, who had his eyes closed, in the nose, laughing again when the other scrunched his face up at the feeling. As much as he was loath to break this spell he definitely needed to get some more food into his lover. Which brought up the interesting revelation that he would now probably have to live off things like fish and seaweed. Which brought up another interesting problem. "Yami," he spoke, using newfound nerve endings to flick his fins, "How exactly do I learn to swim with this thing?"

Which brought up the interesting thoughts of what exactly Yami was planning on doing with him when he saw that sly grin adorning his lover's face.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It wasn't that Bakura hated Yuugi, the little guy had a backbone he had never expected someone so young looking to posses, and he had an attitude that Bakura found engaging. It was Yami that was driving him mad. Yami, the cold aloof self-appointed leader, the jackass better known to Bakura as "prank target number one", and his apparent complete personality change.

It was more then a little creepy watching him these days. The sight of his cold as ice, hard as steel brother flitting out in the early morning to gather the most beautiful sea flowers in the kingdom, coming back with a small handful of them and humming a lullaby intended for his mate gave Bakura nightmares for the next week. When Bakura confronted him about how Yami was risking his life just to pick flowers (because the best ones could only be found on the edge of the drop-off point into the deep waters) Yami had simply replied that Yuugi's happiness was worth more then his life.

Bakura growled, oh yes, nothing was more important then his 'precious little firebird', his 'darling beautiful beloved'. Damn it he'd admit that the kid was cute but really! To Yuugi's credit he seemed a little reluctant to accept the sheer amount of attention everyone was giving him, and he couldn't know what Yami was risking to get him those flowers every morning, but that didn't stop Bakura being fiercely jealous. His parents of course had gone completely googly-eyed over the boy, overjoyed that their eldest son had found the nearly impossible and thus boosted the family social standing immensely. They fawned over Yuugi almost as badly as Yami did. And Yami really fawned.

Perhaps he was exaggerating things. Perhaps Yami's behaviour had altered accordingly, changed as was expected to that period of time only described as post marital bliss, and it was just magnified through his eyes because he was so used to fighting with Yami all the time, making a private war of humiliating each other publicly that had been such a huge part of their lives that Bakura almost felt lost now Yami was so completely entwined with his mate that he failed to notice Bakura's well aimed insults.

Yuugi was a surprise to him. He'd expected him to be sweet and gentle and filled with infinite patience and kindness, but the reality was far more interesting. True he was kind and true he was gentle but calling him sweet would be like calling a shark, 'guppy'. Yuugi was generous, but only really when it came to Yami, and he was patient only really with the children, otherwise he was a sassy little imp with a sharp tongue and flashing eyes. He would have loved to have known Yuugi without the added presence of his irritating brother.

Yuugi was settling in surprisingly well, too. He still lacked the skills in swimming that those who had had a lifetime to perfect it had, but he seemed a fast learner and already he had seen Yami having a job keeping up with him over a straight out dash. Bakura smirked, in time he suspected Yuugi would be swimming circles around Yami, he would pay money to see that. To finally see his damned brother meeting his match.

Those images burned into Yuugi's skin had caused no end of fascination from the city. Yuugi refused to say much about them, Bakura didn't know why, even though they could recognise the images for what they were representing and name them Yuugi still only smiled vaguely when asked about them and didn't answer.

The jealousy was still writhing uncomfortably in Bakura. He wasn't jealous that Yami had Yuugi rather the fact that he now wanted a mate for himself. He had never given it much thought before but now the challenge was there, now his brother had one, he wanted one too, and he wanted to go one better.

He didn't know how he would do it but that was the half-baked plan that rested in his mind as he swam towards land in the rough direction Yami had come from when he returned.

The water grew steadily lighter, warmer as Bakura drew closer to the surface's warmer waters; he began to hear the distance swash of the tide against the coastline. The sea life around him changed, grew smaller and harder to find.

Bakura broke the surface, coughing out the water in his mouth as air invaded his lungs. He hated going up to the surface, the transition from water to air was nowhere near as smooth and painless as the opposite.

Glancing around he noticed a platform of rock just below a low cliff and swam towards it, wondering how exactly his brother had gotten on to land long enough to search for his mate. Looking at Yami meant it couldn't have been easy, his brother had clearly gone through months of agony to win his prize.

Stealing his gaze Bakura surged forward, well then if Yami had done it then there was no way in hell he was backing down. He was so focused on forming plans of attack that he failed to notice the thick strands of seaweed tangling around his tail.

At least he failed to notice it until a high wave surged up from behind him and he found his fins too tangled up to use in escape. The water picked him up and deposited him in a distinctly careless manner on the rock just out of the water. Bakura growled, throwing curses in the ocean's direction as he fought awkwardly on land to untangle his tail from the seaweed. He could have managed without its help.

He was just throwing the last slimy strip back into the water when he felt someone's gaze on him. Bakura froze, right now was not the best time to be found by humans.

He swung his gaze up to look at the person and his next prepared profanity died on his lips. Those eyes. Those bright green, glorious emerald eyes.

Now they were something he wouldn't mind waking up to in the morning.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ryou stopped dead at the sight that met him. Just below him, laying awkwardly on the rocks between the small isolated pools left by the tide, was another merman. Was it just him or did they all seem to gravitate towards this shore? The scientist frowned as he fell into contemplation. This merman was a little larger then Aibou, he looked rougher and a lot more wild, with rather well formed abs if Ryou did say so himself. His tail was a stormy grey with hints of dark purple and his hair was just as white as Ryou's own, if a little longer and less tame.

Ryou wisely kept his distance, if Aibou had been more then a match for their guards at a fraction of his usual health; a strong merman like this at full health was not going to be cooperative. But that was fine because Ryou had no intention of trying to make him cooperate, he was fine with leaving the other to his own devices as soon as it became clear he was capable of making his own way back into the water. After all he didn't want to be responsible for another death.

Suddenly noticing the merman had fallen silent (he _had_ been cursing very loudly) Ryou glanced up to see the merman's gaze fixed on him. He had sharp eyes, darkly intelligent mahogany shadowed by just a small amount of insanity. He felt a stirring in him that he was sure he had never felt before.

He frowned, was this what Yuugi had felt when he looked at Aibou?

Ryou watched the merman's eyes for a few moments more, they had a look in them he couldn't identify, was that triumph? He tilted his head, thinking to himself, perhaps there was more to getting involved with marine biology then he first anticipated.

**END**

Right then, that's the end. I hope you all enjoyed 'The Magic of Science' because I know it drove me up the wall, I'm not going to take it down but that doesn't mean I'm happy with most of it. I'll rewrite it one day I think. Anyway, the next one is a long two-shot I am particularly found of called 'A Tale For All The Ages – To Understand Loss' (I couldn't decide on a title so there are two, both of them related to the subject in numerous ways). I'll give you a little sneak peek: _"There are no dragons in this tale, little one, but the city… maybe. This is a story of a young man, one strong and filled with restlessness, he was reckless and incorrigible, he would not sit and be told when he could be out there seeing and feeling the world around him. This is his story. The story of how he learned that knowledge was not worth everything, how he discovered that patience could be what saves you, and that love is not a myth. This is the story of how he discovered the people who live below the waves, how he was nearly drowned but was saved by the one he would come to love."_

Its romantic crap basically, but we all love that. And it certainly does have its fair share of angst, with a lovely bittersweet ending to top it all off. I will, however, be taking a small break from this so I can concentrate more on finishing a couple of other things. Don't worry it hasn't been abandoned, not in the slightest, it just might take a while before I get the next short story out.

Review Please!


	7. To Understand Loss: Part One

**AN: **Hello everyone. Welcombe to the next short story for 'The Seven Seas'. It will be either two or three parts long depending on how long the next part (which I haven't finished yet . even though I told myself I would) is.

**Note: **This is NOT historically acurate! Do not quote me on anything, it is intentionally wrong so that the story will work.

**A Tale For All The Ages – To Understand Loss**

**Part One**

Children were wonderful little bundles of joy. They saw the world through the innocence of the ignorant and the carefree quality of butterflies. They did not understand loss, not truly, even if they experienced loss they would not understand it until they were old enough to recognise it for what it was. They did not understand death, they did not understand the concept of the future. They lived each day as it came to them, they lived each moment as only a child could. Bright smiles and laughter. The happiness gotten from a simple throwing ball or wooden doll.

Yami loved children. But he had long accepted that he would never have any of his own. He lived alone and was known as the village storyteller, often the children came to him and would spend hours listening to the tales he wove with magic and myth. His home was nothing more then a bachelor's cottage on the cliff overlooking the sea, each morning he would watch the fishermen leave in their little sailboats and each evening he would see them return with nets filled with fish for the villagers. Their village was small and enclosed by mountains, only one dirt road led out; they had very little contact with the outside world, with the cites and the new generation of technology and electricity that was just beginning to take hold. Yami was happy alone despite the well-known fact that he was once apart of the great cities. Villagers sometimes spoke of why he had come here, or why they thought he had. Years ago, the story went, Yami was a great and famous man, young and handsome and well on the way to becoming rich beyond their wildest dreams. But then, the parents would tell their children, Yami fell in love. This love was so great, they said, that when the recipient of that love was lost (they thought in death), Yami was too broken to continue being so great and moved to a quiet village like theirs to live the rest of his days. 'And you must be very thankful to him' the adults would say 'for he has given this village life with his stories and kept you occupied for many hours.'

Today began like all the others, as the sun rose the fishermen departed, the women woke to begin the days work, the children yawned and blinked at the rising light. They would first visit the water, a deep pool at the base of a waterfall not far from the village leader's home, and scream and yell and splash each other with freezing cold spring water, find little freshwater crabs in the shallows and chase the younger girls with the poor crustacean held high. Lunch was often only a few rice balls stolen from their mother's kitchen, or squid skewered and roasted over a flame. Sometimes the village leader's son would bring cherries imported from the city and they would fight over them before the sticky stones where completely void of fruit and suddenly they became perfect ammo for an improvised springtime snowball fight.

When the children reached Motou Yami's home it was early afternoon. They found him kneeling in the porch, his zori below him on the ground off the step, holding a thin goat hair brush in his hand, dipping it in the ink from a wetted ink stone to write a letter in old kanji. His brush strokes were firm and thick despite how his hands shook slightly with the effect of old age. He was wearing a kimono as green as the forest in early spring, before the leaves have really burst and the ground is a soft brown and mossy green. He looked up when they came and kneeled before him on the ground, their bare feet too dirty to step foot on the porch. He smiled, thin faded lips that had once been so red curving upwards in welcome. His hair was now very grey, only a few strands of black remained, their colour set off by the silver and darker greys next to them. His eyes, as red as cherries and fire, were tired and duller then they used to be. They used to burn with barely contained passion and vitality, now they echoed with knowledge earned at the price of the body. Yami was a mystery, a fortress of secrets, and the children loved him.

"Tell us a story Motou-san," they would chime as a single voice of varying bells, "The one about the dragon and the girl, or the one about the evil shinigami possessing that doll, or that story of the people that live in the sky." There were so many stories to choose from, they felt as if they would never reach the end of Yami's extensive repertoire.

But today, a day that had started off so much the same, would be made very different by the evening. Motou Yami laughed and placed down his brush, then said in a voice of mock heroism, "Today children will be a day unlike any other! For today you shall hear my final and my greatest story."

Immediately the children gasped and 'ahhed'. The final story? They whispered excitedly. The greatest of them all? But what did this mean, some of the older children wondered, now that their storyteller was telling them his final story, would he tell them no more? Not even to repeat their favourites?

"What is it about Motou-san?" one of the youngest boys asked excitedly, "Is it about the city you came from? Or the dragons under the earth?"

"There are no dragons in this tale, little one, but the city… maybe. This is a story of a young man, one strong and filled with restlessness, he was reckless and incorrigible, he would not sit and be told when he could be out there seeing and feeling the world around him. This is his story. The story of how he learned that knowledge was not worth everything, how he discovered that patience could be what saves you, and that love was not a myth. This is the story of how he discovered the people who live below the waves, how he was nearly drowned but was saved by the one he would come to love."

There was a collective intake of breath from the children, the spell of the story already beginning to take hold. One of the girls whispered, "Motou-san… was that young man you?"

Yami laughed again, though there was a different quality to it then before, "You are very perceptive, Cho-chan, perhaps I _was_ that young man. But perhaps not, it feels these days as if I were never young." He settled himself into a more comfortable kneeling position on the cushion, his joints not half what they used to be, "Now then. Are you ready? I am going to tell you the story of the merpeople. My story. But you will have to decide for yourselves at the end, whether anything of what I have said is real, or just a story.

"It began a good fifty years ago. I was still a very young man, barely twenty-three. And the great technological advancements that have yet to reach our village had just begun. I was part of a team that was developing a mode of transport that could travel underwater for long periods of time. We called it a submarine. It took a long time and a lot of trial and error. The first ones we created were made of wood and would be too light to sink, and they were small too, they could only hold a single person. When we began to develop them with metal and the technology came through so that we could power them underwater with turbines and propellers we thought we had finally cracked it. But we often got the balance wrong and most would fill with water and sink before long. Eventually, when I was twenty-five, we created a submarine large enough to hold two people and durable enough to reach deeper levels of the sea without filling with water. All this time I had been work driven, I didn't care for women or dances and though I was rich and becoming famous I distanced myself from the company of geisha and society, entertainment was a distraction, love and marriage could wait, I had never truly believed in them anyway. Work was all that mattered, moving forward was all that mattered, always forward, progress could not wait or be held back. Although I did not realise it at the time, I was incurably restless; there was nothing that fulfilled me to make me feel complete. I was always searching, subconsciously, for something that was missing, though I did not know what that was."

One of the girls giggled, a boy nudged her to get her to be quiet. But she ignored him and waved her hand in the air, "Motou-san. Please, what really are merpeople?"

Yami leaned his head back to look at the pale blue sky, thinking, "They are, in appearance, very similar to humans. But instead of legs they have very colourful fishes tails. They always appear as young, never older than thirty, and are very beautiful. And they are, essentially, creatures of magic. They are born with it in their veins. They very rarely come to the surface for their world is utterly self-contained deep below the ocean. There is a kingdom, some miles offshore, situated on the seabed and rich in vitality. It is beautiful; a shimmering silver, for silver is the most precious of all metals to merpeople. It would be a rare chance indeed to see a merperson above the surface. But one thing you must remember is that merpeople never age, and are almost immortal."

There was a pause during which Yami's gaze flickered down to the coast, the rocks of the gentle cliff worn by the waves to create a sheltered bay for the village. There was a melancholy waver to his voice when he sighed.

"For you see," Yami continued, "Mermaids live for three centuries and rarely age at all from their youth. And so a human has little chance of being accepted as a lover by one of them, humans who age so fast to them and fade out of their lives before they can even blink."

One of the older children piped up, "But Motou-san, if you were accepted by one what would that mean?"

Yami smiled, "It would mean you are very lucky, for mermaids bring luck with them wherever they go and bless those whom they love."

"Were you blessed?" A little girl named Hiroko said, bright grey eyes shining under a curtain of tangled black hair.

Yami looked away again, down towards the sea where the water shimmered with the golden glow of the late afternoon sun. "Yes. Yes I was."

The children all 'oohed' appreciatively, "What is she like Motou-san?" Cho questioned, her intelligent eyes large and inquisitive. "Was she very beautiful indeed?"

Yami laughed, "Cho-chan you are both right and wrong. For this mermaid was male but he was indeed the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen or have seen since." The girls giggled as the boys made gestures indicating how icky romance was.

"But Motou-san," Masa, a young and very bluntly spoken little boy spoke up, "Why are you so lonely then? Do you not see him anymore?"

"I have not seen him for forty years little Masa." Yami said and there was pain in his eyes though his voice remained steady.

"Why? Did he not love you as much as you loved him?"

Yami frowned and tapped Masa gently, yet hard enough to scold, on the head with his wooden walking stick. "Watch your tongue little one, do not be so rude when asking such personal questions."

Masa bowed his head, "Sorry Motou-samma."

Yami nodded, then sighed, "The reason I have not seen him for so long is because of who he is. He was a prince when I met him." There were awe filled gasps, Yami chuckled, "Indeed yes, a very powerful prince. But I'm afraid he could not use his magic very well at all at that point for he was young even by human standards, only fifteen. He was called away from me when his father died, I can only assume he took the throne of the merpeople's kingdom for we have had no contact since. And now I am afraid I am too old for such things, though I have no doubt he is still as young looking as all those years ago.

"I was twenty five when it finally happened. The submarine was completed. I insisted that I should be one of the first, along with my friend who was nearly as work driven as myself, to test it.

"In this day and age it would have been considered unfit for travel but all those years ago it was still state of the art and we were very proud of it. It was the fruit of years of labour, for some it was the result of a lifetime's work.

"And so, early the next morning, my friend and I forced ourselves into the confined space of the submarine. And we were lowered into the Sea of Japan. It was cold, that much I remember acutely. We were not dressed warmly, for we would have been unable to move very well if we had put many layers on due to how cramped the inside was. And the chill of the sea soon permeated through the submarine's outer shell, through our clothes, and deep into our very skin. It was hard not to shiver while we were operating the delicate controls, but we had trained and prepared for this moment. I was not about to let my achievement be tarnished by human inefficiencies. The world grew darker as we descended, for you must learn and always remember this, children, the sea is a dark place. It is wild and it is unpredictable. Dangerous, and for the most part, barren. Humans cannot survive in such dark places. We were fools to try."

Yami took a deep breath, letting his words sink into the captivated children's minds. The lesson was one all people of the coast must learn. "But still we went. Deeper and deeper into the cold twilight were there is only black water beneath, pale sapphire stretching far above, and nothing but water for miles around. At least that is what we thought. And the silence, the pressure, was threatening in a way no man can describe or appreciate until he has experienced it for himself. We thought we were touching the barrier that separated the living from the spirit world. We were elated."

A short pause followed, Yami narrowed his eyes at the ink brush resting on its stand. "What happened next is… fuzzy. I cannot remember in great detail what caused the disaster to befall us. Something in the submarine must have malfunctioned. The lights went out. We were bathed in a light from the sun far above so faint we could have imagined it. One of the machines beeped and reminded us of reality. But it was already too late to stop or redirect the submarine.

"Before us loomed an arch of stone jutting up from the seabed we hadn't even realised was beneath us. The section of the Sea of Japan we were exploring was shallower than most of it, but we did not know this, and we had almost reached the bed without realising it. The arch was like a loop, a loop no larger than the berth of our submarine, strong and coated in dark green seaweed. It was a rock formation hidden in the dark water we had failed to notice, and it provided us with our demise.

"The submarine was already too close for us to do anything, and moving too fast for any prayers to pass our lips. And it was heading directly for the centre of the loop, if we had been but an inch or two slimmer we would have passed through unharmed, but as it was we were too large, and the middle of our submarine, the widest part, caught and stuck fast with violent protest and vicious resistance. We crashed, at the bottom of the sea.

"The resulting backlash from the collision threw me back harshly into the hard seat. My neck whip lashed into the headrest, I had never felt pain quite like it before. I _felt_ my skull bruise from the impact. The fading echo of metal scraping against rock grated in my ears as I felt blood, hot and uncomfortable, wet against my hair and neck. I only remember groaning in pain before I passed out, my head falling limply to the side into a patch of my own cooling blood."

-------------------------------------------

AN: Wait, what is this? Is it yet another chapter with the protagonist passing out as a cliffhanger? Yes I do believe it is! How original!

All I have to say in defence is that I planned this long before realising just how many times it had happened before in "magic of science." Sorry. It won't happen again (or at least not for a long time).

Please review anyway?


End file.
