Yami runs out to the lake deep in the woods behind his house. His mother has told him to stay away, that there was no good to come from that creepy, filthy marsh where too many suspicious things have happened. Stay away.
But then how would he see his friend?
He bounds and weaves his way past the trees and plants that have grown tall enough to reach his knees. He reaches a large clearing where there are no trees to block out the sun. Its light reflects off the large body of water in the middle. Yami sits down on one edge, what has become his usual spot, and takes out the materials he has in his backpack.
A plastic shovel, two hamburgers, juice pouches, and a Rubix cube.
He comes out of the water while Yami is still setting up his things.
"Hello."
Yami hands him a burger with a smile. "Hi, Yugi."
Yami had found him two years ago when he first ventured beyond the boundaries of his yard at the age of ten. He had found this lake, not knowing the rumors around it, and felt pulled towards the water. He had fallen in and would have drowned if it had not been for Yugi. When he was out of the lake and coughed up all of the water in his lungs, he got a good look at Yugi. Yami saw his bright purple eyes first and the shimmering tail second. Yugi had stared right back at him.
Yami sets his own burger in its wrapper on the ground after taking a few bites and grabs his shovel. Yugi occupies himself with the Rubix cube and idle chatter.
"I want to leave," Yugi tells him one day. Yami snaps his head up. He must look worried because Yugi explains. "I mean I want to go back home." Yugi tells him he got separated from his dad after a big flood. His home is somewhere in the ocean, but he doesn't know if his dad would still be in the same place. He can't make it there on his own, but he's heard stories of what humans do to creatures they find rare and beautiful. So he's been trapped here for so long, all alone, feeding off of anything he can find. By the end of his story, Yami realizes that he's crying and he feels that same strange pull in his chest like the day he almost drowned- and nearly every day since.
This is how Yami finds himself promising to make a canal long enough that Yugi can swim his way to the ocean himself.
"If I'm not done with this by the time I'm older," Yami says, completely focussed on digging. "I'll take you to the ocean myself. In a car. I'll fill the whole thing up with water and I'll drive you."
Yugi is silent for a long while. Yami finally gives in to the urge to look up (and the pull in his chest that made him). Yugi reaches a hand out to him and Yami interlaces their fingers without hesitation. The pull inside him grows as much as it calms leaving him confused and slightly dizzy when they pull away.
"You'll still visit, won't you?" Yugi always asks.
"Always," he answers every time.
...
Yami's truck is parked outside in the dark. There's a large cooler in the back, filled with water. He has to be extremely quiet; An eighteen-year-old man can get into a lot of trouble for sneaking into an aquarium this late at night, after all. He slings his backpack off and takes out his materials.
A crowbar and a water bottle. He leaves the two burgers and Rubix cube inside for now.
He stares up at the gigantic tank illuminated from the inside with lights. The creature inside sits curled on the floor. This tank was created especially for his display and Yami finds the sight as awing as it is nauseating. The lights make the scales on his fin sparkle in a million beautiful ways and oh, it's just so, so wrong.
Yami feels the pull knawing inside him, possessing him to move closer just as it's been doing for weeks since Yugi was captured. He presses his hand up to the glass. As though he could sense his presence, Yugi looks up. The overwhelming relief Yami can see in those eyes makes his chest ache even more. Yugi swims over and places his hand above Yami's.
"I promised you," he whispers. Somehow he knows Yugi can hear him.
"Always." He hears Yugi's voice, loud and clear, in his head.
Yugi swims back and takes a deep breath, knowing what Yami is about to do. The sound of the glass shattering is one of the most satisfying things they've ever heard.
In this world, there is anime physics so the aquarium glass wasn't super strong and reinforced and Yami only broke a small hole through which Yugi slipped out of; totally not the whole thing which would have caused him to be carried away by the thousands of pounds of water :^}
