kittensinboxes | Dear Friend, Across The River [Rivalshipping Mer AU]

Dear Friend, Across The River [Rivalshipping Mer AU]

It was odd to crave after the sky, when you held no claim to such, was it not?

It didn't stop Seto from yearning for it, however. The glow of the moon entranced him and pulled him to the surface quite often, reflecting off of his markings as he broke past the waves. He was careful, always, to break the water's surface at night, where none could see him.

After all, who would be out at midnight to catch sight of a sea dragon, reclined upon a rocky outcropping to gaze into the entrancing light of the moon, puller of tides, silent deity that called to this one child in particular. Mokuba was probably right to warn him from this behavior. Their pod had strict rules regarding fraternization between humans and dragons, which all boiled down to "don't". As the strongest in the pod, Seto was expected to challenge its current leader, and this behavior put his stake under question.

He had no such interest, however. He knows what others think of him, expect of him, and he has no interest in fulfilling their expectations or guesses for what he might get up to. Wasn't it enough to be under the claw of said pod leader, forced to obey by hook or by crook?

The man spent an immense amount of time trying to quash the look of rebellion in Seto's eyes, expecting that it would lead to a coup. After all, he had no children of his own, and the royal line would thus perish with him. Seto didn't care either way: the royal blood was thin and weak. In need of replacement. Maybe one day it would come about that he'd assert himself. After all, the rakes along his flanks still stung something awful. He'd love to pay Gozaburo back for the favor someday.

For now, he tilts his head up to the sky, long slender neck held in a loose curve of repose as he hummed contentedly with the waves, his markings gently glowing in indeterminate patterns.

As his scales dried in the air, the snout drew in, shifting back into something more akin to a human, but for the finlike ears, the glowing scales beneath his eyes. Because his hindquarters were submerged, his lower half remained fully draconic, the thick, bulky tail ready to propel him if needed.

His song is hums and trills directed at the moon, a tribute to the beautiful sky. It's midnight, beautiful midnight with its placid sky, dark as the depths. He's glad to know he's alone, at least.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Do you suppose an orca will die of infection from the water it lives in? Do you suppose my scales are so weak? Don't be ridiculous! I'll...be fine..."

Seto looks at the sand below him, at the blood that's soaked through substantially. His head is spinning, caught in a riptide that blurs his vision.

Had Gozaburo truly gotten his better after all? Was he really that injured, that a human would be of any use to him, even with his stupid line of thought in which Seto's wounds would fester in the sea that swirled around him at all times?

"Just shut up, won't you? I'm not...weak."

"I didn't say you were..."

Yuugi took a step closer, hands out, ready to catch the man if he fell.

"And you are not an orca, and you're definitely not a dragon right now. You're a person."

Another step. Then another.

"I live pretty close by. I can patch you up and give you something to eat. At least so you can stay out of sight from other humans while you heal up. I even have a bathtub you can sit in..."

He was close enough to touch, ready to pull him close to get him home...

"I will never stop being a dragon."

Seto looks up, his gaze flinty. He doesn't want to go with this man. He doesn't want to risk his brother's safety in the pod, if they were to find out that he was fraternizing, then...

"Stupid," he mutters, but before he can expound upon that, the blood loss overcomes him, and he loses consciousness once more.

Now there's no argument to be had, is there? Only the matter at hand, which begs the question of whether Yuugi Mutou can carry an injured, unconscious, unclothed six foot man to wherever he needs to without help or needing to explain to someone why the hell he was with an injured, unconscious, unclothed six foot man.

Well, he certainly has been in weirder spots before.

Yuugi was friends with guys who couldn't say no to challenges. He carried grown ass men through less.

"Okay..."

First things first...clothes.

Get his belt off and take off his jacket, and... there. It at least covered his modesty. It wasn't going to prevent questions, but he could take some backstreets to prevent prying eyes...

Right?

Right.

"Here we go...oooof, you're heavier than you look."

When Kaiba awakes, he'll find himself in a strange room filled with tile as he sits in lukewarm water.

Definitely not sea water.

His cuts are cleaned, though, and seem to have been treated outside the water before he was submerged.

Everything has the vaguest smell of coconut and pineapple and the lights are dimmed, as though to simulate nighttime.

Yuugi is nowhere to be seen.

Seto dreams of things far more pleasant than the slashes across his body, the pain of scales being ripped and the teeth that had gouged at his neck before he had been able to rip open his adoptive father's neck open, enough to get away.

No. Not a father. Never a father. His pod leader.

But that was far away, replaced instead with something warmer. A tail twines around his, while a smaller dragonet bumps at his side and exhales a stream of bubbles happily. How long...how long has it been since Seto has smiled, really? He can't quite remember the tug of the facial muscles as he does it...but he does it anyway, because there, not so far from him and his baby brother are two familiar dragons. One with scales of white with light blue accents, an off-color for their breed. Her body was more slender too. Then...another. Larger, broader, with scales like the deepest trenches, an abyssal blue with deep purplish accenting.

Those dragons were home. Those scales meant family., and sometimes, when he was all alone, he ached for that. Dragons were communal creatures, after all. Seto had become something unusual, due to his treatment. He only kept close with his brother, but how he missed his family.

His tail swings back and forth to propel him forward, wings catching at the water and careening him even more quickly towards them. Yes. He was so close, if he could just...!!

There's a loud splash as he jerks awake, a growl emanating from his throat as he tries to figure out what's going on, where is he, why does half of him feel--

--fuck.

While he was unconscious, Seto had been submerged. And without realizing, his body had done what it does in the water, until his tail and hindquarters curled uncomfortably towards him, the former draped just outside the tub. His upper body was not fully transformed, but there's flecks of scales along his abdomen and flanks, as well as his arms.

"Stupid," he hisses, before trying to assert control over his form. It was harder, the way his lower body was scrunched in this ridiculous pool that was far too small for his body...but he manages to flip over, use what control he has to spread the transformation, until his body was...well, it wasn't normal, but the size of him fit in the tub better when he let the scales climb further up, let his ears grow into fins, and allowed his horns to breach through his hair. Fangs filled his mouth, and that was fine, he was used to that.

The tradeoff was that his legs became more slender, his tail still bulky, but smaller.

It's exhausting.

And he made a lot of noise and splashing and yeah, the floor is absolutely soaked. Too bad, human. This is your fault.

Yuugi had been lying face-down on his bed when the splashing started, and he couldn't help it: he groaned in a tone that betrayed just how much his muscles a c h e d.

First, he carried this man home.

Then, he took care of his wounds in his bathtub.

With strength he did not have, he arranged his body in the tub and filled it as far as it could go. Thankfully it was a Japanese-style bathroom, so he was used to water getting everywhere.

Then he had to take the food out of his bag and convert it into a fried rice mixture so it wouldn't go bad.

Fish fried rice with shrimp wasn't terrible, and he'd only just finished cooking and letting the food start to cool when... that.

That. Happened.

At least the guy was awake...

With a loud groan, Yuugi filled a large bowl with food, grabbed a spoon, and pulled himself together to poke his head into the bathroom.

"Are you... okay...?"

"I'm fine."

It's not said so much as growled unappreciatively, before Seto crawls out of the bathtub on all fours like some kind of horror-movie creature and tries to shake the water off of his face and...fuck, what the hell--

"I hate this," he adds grouchily as he flattens back the fur atop his head, revealing his eyebrows for probably the first time since the human had seen him. And yep. Yeah. the scowl goes all the way up. "Why would you put me in water, knowing damn well what happens?!"

Now he has to wait for all these scales to fuck off before he can stop concentrating on maintaining his form's size. It's a great deal of work! The human wouldn't understand at all! How could he? Why would a human ever understand the struggles of a dragon's forced humanization problems--

Snnnhffff.

What...what is that smell? It wasn't unlike what he'd eat day to day, but...there was something strange about it. And being more animal than person, of course he sniffed very obviously at the bowl Yuugi had walked in with.

....Well, that was something you didn't see every day.

A dragon awkwardly sitting in his tub with half- human features and...

...

Sniffing the rice in his bowl. Yup. That was a Thing that was happening.

"I thought it would help," Yuugi muttered, "I just didn't want to dump you into the sea or something!"

Should he...

Hold out the bowl? To give him a better angle to sniff?

"If you'd only listen, you'd know that 'dumping me in the sea' would have been perfectly acceptable," Seto says sharply, but all the same, his attention is on the bowl as he settles on his knees, palms flat on the tiled floor.

Well...no matter what it smelled like, he wouldn't ask for it. He wouldn't give away that it smelled very nice, especially after Seto had expended a great deal of energy fighting his leader and was now wasting more trying to keep his form in line while his scales dried. Nope. He is in complete control of himself. He will not betray--

--his stomach growls loudly, and immediately, his lip curls and he lets out an annoyed snarl.

"Disregard."

"No, I don't think I will," Yuugi laughed. "After all, I brought this here for you."

Would he even eat it if it was just handed to him, though? Yuugi probably should show him it's safe, right?

By taking a little bite.

Chewing.

And swallowing.

"See? It's safe. I wouldn't give you anything that I wouldn't eat myself. You're a guest, after all."

"Tch. A guest? More like a stranger you picked up off the beach. I'm not your guest. You brought me here against my will."

As much as he protests, his ear-fins flick up while the human takes a bite of the food. He can smell the fish mixed in with the...well, whatever the hell else was in there.

(want)

He doesn't want to try it.

"Go eat that somewhere else," he mutters, as if to show that no, he would not be eating human food under pain of death.

Yuugi watched him for a moment.

...

He set down the bowl.

Took a few steps back.

And closed the door behind him as he backed out of the bathroom.

...

Would he eat it if he didn't look at him? Was he shy? Prideful? Yes????

What would it take to get this guy to care for himself???

Well GOOD! That is exactly what Seto wanted--to be left alone! Not necessarily with the bowl, but he's not the kind of dragon that wants to be ogled or treated like some kind of pet. Consequently, that means he's not going to eat from the bowl.

Instead, he curls up near the tiny, useless water pool and curls his substantially smaller tail around him as he glares into the bowl of white...things, mixed with fish and shrimp.

He does that for a very long time, and he looks appropriately angry about it! It's frustrating, because he is starving, but he doesn't want charity when its wasted on someone fully able to hunt for himself, that and the more he dries off, the more uncomfortable in his skin he feels, because he doesn't enjoy this form.

He has to leave.

He has to find a way out.

He has to eat what's in the bowl and then--NO! No, he's not going to eat what's in the bowl, no matter how...incredibly good it smells. What is that in there anyway?! It's nothing he's ever seen before, and it looks as if the fish was somehow prepared. Not simply sliced, but altered somehow.

Fuck's sake, can a dragon not think without their stomach interrupting loudly?!

...The human had tried it before leaving, so he knew it wasn't poisoned. At least, not unless the human had done so and then immediately left to give himself the antidote, but that seemed far smarter than a human could be.

THUMP!

His thick tail slaps against the floor in annoyance. THIS IS STUPID. He's...he's just going to do this already! Besides, if he dies from this, it'd be better than having his pod actually figure out where he was. Win-win.

Seto reaches forward after what is probably ten minutes of hemming and hawing, sliding the bowl closer to himself and pinching a fingerful of the soft white grains between his claws, before sampling it with a frown.

...!?

It's not...bad? The flavor is good, although the little white grains were alien on his tongue. They were suffused with the flavor of the fish and shrimp, which were somewhat more pliant than he'd have expected. Raw fish was tougher to deal with, and there were bones to contend with. Not that it mattered, he was used to swallowing fish whole, but this was...novel, to put it as kindly as possible.

It might have taken Seto ten minutes to come around to trying the food, but it takes him less than two to empty the bowl once he's started.

Weeelp, that's a thump.

You know what? Yuugi was going to wait a few minutes before he checked on his. Uh.

Patient?

Houseguest?

Patient. Definitely patient.

He could start cooking food of his own even, which might even have a scent that travels through the cracked open door of the bathroom, since he gave the mer what could have been his dinner.

Burgers it was.

He had two meat patties that he seasoned and was gonna grill for his sanity, okay. Taking care of a dragon was hard work.

It's not necessary for Yuugi to check on Seto, as it turns out. Eventually, he exits the bathroom of his own accord, standing unsteadily on two legs. If his tail wasn't out, he would surely have fallen over by now, but he ought to walk like a human, if he's taking a human form.

"Have you any garments? Humans don't like to be solely in their own sc...skin, do they?"

He almost says scales. But humans do not have scales.

When Yuugi turns to look, he'll find that the dragon's holding the bowl before him. He's eaten the entirety of the contents, and there's a tiny grain of rice at the corner of his lips.

Yep, that's a naked man with a tail in his living room. Who walked into his kitchen.

Yep.

Definitely a Thing.

"I should have something that'll fit. Give me just a sec."

Burger 1 done... just put that on the plate aaaaaand, yep. Okay.

"A friend of mine is about your height, so I can proooobably fenagle it..."

Dammit Otogi, this was the only time he was grateful that you just left your bag of overnight shit at his place for days at a time.

"Okay. Wait there and I'll get it for you."

And Yuugi darted down the hall and into his bedroom to fish out one of those silky two piece sets that Otogi just would leave over.

Seto has absolutely no concept of modesty. It didn't bother him, why should it bother the human.

He offers a simple hn in acknowledgment, then moves to the kitchen area to set the bowl down...somewhere. While the human searches for something that he could wear, the dragon steps closer to his plate, frowning slightly. So this was what he'd done, huh? Somehow, he'd applied heat to the dish he'd offered Seto, in order to change the quality of the meat.

A heat that emanated from a specific area of this room, which drew Seto closer, his curiosity getting his better as he leans in and sniffs the pan, perhaps just a bit too close. If he's not careful, he'll singe the tips of his bangs, he's so close.

The urge to lick at the surface and get a taste of what had once been in the pan is almost overwhelming.

Okay, good. He found it.

And he'd washed it too, so it didn't smell like Otogi's cheap cologne! That was definitely a good thing, because nobody deserves that.

Ugh, why did he wear that anyway...

"Hey, I got it--"

What.

Was.

He.

Doing--

"Hey, get away from that! It's hot!"

Shit shit shit, why did he leave him alone this guy had never seen a stove before and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa--

"You'll hurt yourself!"

Seto jerks back in surprise, then thumps his tail loudly on the floor.

"Don't treat me like a child!" he snaps loudly, apparently affronted by the human's tone. "I wouldn't touch something that would harm me!"

The smell of meat had simply intrigued him, but he had enough sense not to touch something that was giving off warning signs. Evidently...the dragon was a prideful creature, never mind the wound to said pride he was already suffering after being taken care of against his will.

"Ah, sorry!"

He wasn't just proud, but touchy; that's what he got for trying to help, he guessed. Note to self: Don't warn this guy against things so openly. Try for a gentler, more subtle touch.

(As if he was going to be associating with him for longer than his wounds needed to heal. Really, he was going to probably never see him again...

...

Why did that make his heart sink a little?)

"I kind of just panicked! I know you've never seen something like this before, so..."

Stop.

Talking.

No, don't scratch your head like you're still in high school!

"Ahehe, sorry."

"Tch."

This human was irritatingly chatty. Seto looks annoyed by it, of course. But at the very least, the human apologized for his infraction.

"...Let me see what you have."

Turning his full attention to the man, he holds a hand out with intent to take the clothing if it's offered. He can already note several issues with this situation, but he'll deal with them when the time comes. More importantly, he would like to get off his feet before his current state forces him to show weakness again.

"Oh. Uh..."

Yuugi held out his hands with the clothes in them. They probably wouldn't fit all of his...

Appendages...

But it was better than letting it all hang out, right? And it was soft and easy on the skin.

...

Would he like the silkier texture, though? Or did sea dragons like coarse stuff, like barnacles or dry sponges...?

Seto takes the clothing, staring hard at it. He's not entirely sure what would be the best course here, but it seems from what he's seen, that humans prefer modesty. This one's been putting up with his lack of such for a while, and has not made a giant deal about it, so perhaps he ought to reward it.

Even if he doesn't necessarily feel as if he has to...but either way, he places the top on the counter, while unfolding the pants and...after a bit of understandable hesitation, he slowly steps into the first leg, followed by the other...and he pulls the garment up slowly.

Once he gets to where his tail will prevent the hem from rising any further, he glares at the human expectantly.

"This is fine?"

Well, he looked...

Presentable.

Yes.

This was fine.

"Yeah!" Yuugi smiled. "That's fine! Are you still hungry? I can make you some more food if you want."

Could mer-people even eat burgers...?

"It's no trouble, either. I was cooking for myself, anyway."

"No. I'm not hungry anymore."

He isn't, that's actually the truth, plus he won't openly admit his interest in whatever the human's cooking, so instead he searches for somewhere to sit, before adding:

"If you tell anyone about this, I'll have to kill you."

Boy. Just out there with the threats, huh?

"I'm still debating it even now."

WOW. JUST OUT THERE LIKE THIS HUH?!

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