Author's Note: This idea was suggested SeventeenTwelve from over on fanfiction.net.
Shipwreck
"…So what did he do to piss Poseidon off again?" Joey asked, frowning.
Mai rolled her eyes. "He just
exists. He hasn't been thanking the gods properly,
especially Poseidon."
"…So his whole crew has to suffer for his faults?"
"
Yes, Joey, just sink the whole ship!" she snapped, glaring at him.
The younger boy scowled and crossed his arms. "You're so bossy. I liked you better when you
weren't sleeping with him. Eek!" He jerked his gaze upward as he heard abrupt thunder. "I mean you're so much nicer that you're sleeping with Poseidon! And did I mention I would
love to sink that ship!"
Mai's eyes narrowed. "…That's what I
thought. The ship is going to come through your waters in a few hours, so be ready. And
don't go saving anyone; if they live, they live, and if they drown, they drown. Alright?"
"Alright," the smaller blond replied meekly. He let out a relieved sigh as she finally left, then frowned.
He didn't really want to crash the ship coming through his waters. He usually liked to make sure they had safe passage, so that there was no bad blood between him and humans. But, if he didn't want trouble with Poseidon or any of the other gods… he had to do what was asked of him. Even if it meant sinking a ship full of innocent humans.
If he had more power, he'd never have to bend to other people's whims! He'd be able to boss other people around then!
…It was too bad he had no way of gaining power, though.
.-.-.-.-.-.
Joey sighed sadly as he watched some remnants of the ship drifting to the bottom of his part of the ocean. He'd wanted nothing more than to rescue all of the screaming humans, settle his waters so they could get safely to shore, but he didn't want either Poseidon or Mai to come and punish him for disobeying. He'd just had to sit tight and wait for the ship to sink.
At least Poseidon had taken pity on him and swept most of the bodies away, so he didn't have to keep looking at them.
All that was left was for him to take the few bodies the god hadn't swept away to shore. He sighed and looked up at the surface of his waters, taking his more human form as he swam upward. He wondered how many families he'd hurt, how many he had doomed because the heads of the family had been drowned.
He hoped their families would understand that he'd had no choice.
"Oh-!" Joey gasped as he found a brunet clinging tightly to a younger boy with black hair, both the child and his free arm slung over a piece of what had been the ship. He'd always admired the way humans cared about each other. It got lonely sometimes, just looking out for himself…
Heart clenching with guilt that he'd had to kill these poor people, he sighed and gently grabbed the piece of wood to tow them both over to the beach. Once on the sand, he laid the two humans out and took a moment to look at them. However, the longer he stared, the more curious he grew. He knew he shouldn't be doing it—he'd always been told that humans weren't worthy of his time—but these humans…
His fingers trembled a little as he reached out to touch the smaller human's hair, wondering if all little boys wore their hair long. It was damp, and dirty from the sand, but other than that, the black hair was soft and sleek. He moved closer to him and trailed his fingers down the human's face, pausing at his soft, round ears. He reached up to compare his own long, fin-like ear, hard and stiff in comparison. Sliding his fingertips to the younger boy's face, his brows furrowed together when he saw little spots across his cheeks that didn't come off when he rubbed them. He leaned closer to better examine them.
The next thing Joey knew, he was being slammed onto his back, a hand around his throat as his attacker straddled his waist. "Gch!"
"Nice try,
nymph, but if you thought I'd just allow you to molest my brother, you were sadly mistaken," the brunet hissed, his free hand moving for the knife at his belt.
Joey squirmed wildly, eyes widening in terror, before he quickly turned his head and whimpered pathetically. He knew he wasn't going to die; he could only die if Poseidon wanted him to or if he was cut off from his element. When he saw the gleaming silver pause as the human looked him over, he realized that the brunet must have realized that, too, and was deciding where to torture him first.
He managed a high-pitched squeak as the blade cut into his shoulder, shuddering as he felt his blood trickle onto the wet sand and mentally shrieking for help from anyone that would come. As the knife carved down his arm, he squealed in panic and began to squirm. Forcing himself to calm down when he felt it dig in deeper, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the waters that were his. Then, he
yanked. He would admit that he'd probably made the wave a little bigger than it had to be, but it did the trick. Once the brunet was distracted with keeping his companion from being swept away, Joey scrambled frantically into the quickly retreating waters, flinching as the salt burned the wound on his shoulder. However, he was safe now, so he could ignore the sting of pain.
A high-pitched screech escaped his throat as he felt something latch onto his ankle tightly, biting in with a crunch that made him whimper pathetically as he was dragged back to the sand—up the damp, dark sand, further to the dry, dusty stuff that separated him from his element. Without touching water of some form, he had no hope of using it to save himself.
Squirming in agony, he already felt his powers draining away as the dry sand stuck to his body, draining away more moisture. "Ngh-! Nn! Ah…!"
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of white, and he turned his head just in time to see a small white lizard with sinister blue eyes curling itself around the brunet's arm. His eyes widened in awe as the winged lizard gave him one last venomous look before shimmering lightly and flattening itself into the human's flesh, looking for all the world like an innocent tattoo; he was certain that it wasn't the magic of Greece that had designed that picture, given the ink life and a will seemingly of its own.
Falling limp pathetically, Joey let out a quiet mewl of pain as his body continued to try and draw moisture to it only to fail, wasting itself until he could barely move on the hot, white grit of the sand. "Nn…" He was dimly aware of a hand gripping his thick hair and lifting him up from the ground a little, but he could do nothing to stop it; in fact, he could barely keep his eyes open. So, he peeked up at the human from beneath his lashes, then let them finally drift closed in defeat.
"Did you think I was just going to let you get away?" the brunet spat, glaring at him. "After what you did to my ship, my crew, my
brother? I was under the impression that Nereid were
kind and granted sailors
safe passage."
"Ngh! P-Poseidon…! H-he wanted me t' sink your ship! I didn't have a choice-!" The blond let out a pathetic yelp as he was thrown to the ground again, letting out a despondent whimper as he felt the gritty salt getting into the wound on his ankle. "Ngh!"
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't rip you apart and kill you myself?" the human growled. "It doesn't even need to be a
good reason. Just a reason."
Joey sobbed and turned onto his side, body shaking from the agony of his bitten and broken ankle. "I didn't wanna hurt ya! I just wanted t' give your ships safe passage, but Poseidon told me t' sink your ship, not t' save anyone! I wanted to, but Poseidon could kill me if I didn't do what he said!" He sobbed again. "Please, let me go! I was just doing what I was told!"
"That doesn't explain why you were molesting my little brother!" the brunet roared, and the poor nymph saw the magical ink on his bare arm begin to move a little.
He squirmed helplessly. "I wasn't molestin' him! I just wanted t' look at the things on his face 'cause I've never seen them before! You got 'em too!"
"The things on his face-?" The human blinked at him in confusion, startled by this turn of events. He realized the nymph he was torturing was too terrified to lie, but he had no idea what the hell he was talking about.
Joey shuddered; he could feel his body beginning to shut down because of the lack of water, the dry, salty sand sucking any moisture he had left in his body out. "Right… right here-!" He managed to lift his hand to brush his fingers over the bridge of the brunet's nose, but that sapped all of the strength he had left; he couldn't even keep his eyes open any longer!
…He was really going to die, wasn't he?
.-.-.-.-.-.
Seto's brows furrowed together in confusion as he lifted his hand to brush the sand the nymph's fingers had left off of his face. He'd been looking at the 'things' on his brother's face? And he had them too? What the hell did—
Was the stupid nymph talking about the dusting of
freckles he and his brother shared? He hardly noticed they even
had freckles sometimes, they were so light, and this creature was so awed by them that he'd risked his safety to stay and look at them? What the hell!
"Listen, you stupid
nymph, I—Nymph?" He frowned in concern when the blond didn't even twitch in response to his venomous tone. He was still angry that the nymph had sunk his ship, but he
did realize that, as a direct order from a god, he couldn't really argue, and he'd seemed genuinely sorry… "…Nymph?"
It was then he noticed how dry the blond's skin felt, how papery-white it was. It looked wrong, even for a nymph that was already pale and cold to the touch. Glancing down at the broken and bloodied ankle his dragon had caused, he was horrified to see that even the blood dripping onto the ground was congealing in the wound, the drops that dripped off his foot drying and turning to crimson flakes before they even touched the sand.
He knew that nymphs needed to be near water, but he'd never thought it was
this necessary for them! He'd heard of nymphs that had traveled
days from their waters, and—could it be because of the wound he'd given him, because he was bleeding?
Convincing himself that he had more questions the Nereid needed to answer instead of actually afraid he'd killed an innocent nymph that hadn't actually wanted anything to do with sinking his ship, Seto hurriedly scooped the blond into his arms and carried him down to the edge of the waves gently lapping at the sand. He set the blond down so the waves gently brushed his feet.
He jumped a little as the blond's body jerked, shuddered, then let out a relieved sigh as he felt the skin beneath his hands gain moisture. "Thank the gods…"
"Who is he? He wasn't on our ship, was he, big brother?"
Seto turned his head and grimaced a little as he found his brother sitting up and looking at him innocently even as he tried to brush some sand from his long black hair. "He's a Nereid."
"Oh. Did we make him angry or something? Did one of the crew forget to pray for safe passage?" Mokuba stood and made his way over to examine the blond, pausing to stare at the nymph's ears. After a moment, he reached out and gently brushed his fingers over the stiff, hard fin-like appendage. "Wow…"
"He said Poseidon told him to sink our ship. I think the gods are angry that we've been exploring other peoples' religions, even finding a home in one of them." The brunet frowned and glanced at the tattoo on his arm—looking for all the world like some innocent ink, though he knew the power hidden within the inks that had dyed his skin. "Perhaps a little prayer to the gods ourselves before we left would have benefited us."
The younger boy looked up at him in surprise, then glanced down at the wound on the nymph's ankle that was dying the water lapping at his feet a light pink color. "…Did you do that, Seto?"
"…I'll admit that my temper may have gotten out of hand," Seto replied, frowning. "In my defense, I'd thought he was molesting you."
The raven-haired teen frowned. "…Molesting me?"
The older boy sighed quietly. "…Yes. But, I guess he was just looking at your freckles, because he'd never seen any before."
Mokuba took a few minutes to examine the nymph's skin, surprised when he realized that the blond indeed did not have any freckles on his pale skin. "…Seto, did you really have to hurt him that badly?"
"I suppose I did go a little overboard trying to protect you," the brunet admitted in a mumble. "Especially since he had no choice." He closed his eyes and sighed again, eyebrow twitching a little when he remembered something a priestess had told him in Egypt and desperately hoping that Mokuba wouldn't remember it, even though—
"…Hey, didn't that priestess foresee you meeting a nymph that would be everything you wanted, Seto?"
Damn.
Sighing quietly, the brunet took a moment to look at the nymph—
really look at him. The blond was attractive, he supposed, with pale skin and golden hair and eyelashes. He was thin, with defined musculature that wasn't too bulky. All in all, he was very attractive, now that he looked a little healthier.
Too bad he'd alienated him by attacking him with his dragon.
"…We could always just… take him," Mokuba suggested after a minute. "The priestess gave you that magical charm."
Seto blinked before pulling at the chain still around his neck, pulling the pendant shaped like a dragon wrapped around a sapphire shaped like a drop of water. "…I think I rub off on you more and more every day."
The younger boy smiled innocently. "I just want you to be happy, big brother."
"Even if the nymph isn't?" the brunet drawled, raising an eyebrow at his brother, before turning his gaze back on the nymph. "…Well, he
did sink our ship."
Mokuba nodded. "That he did."
"…And I
did injure him pretty badly."
"Yes sir."
"…And since I hurt him, I really
should take care of him."
"You're damn right."
Seto tilted his head thoughtfully, then smirked in a decidedly wicked manner. "Alright. He's mine. We'll figure out the details later."
"Don't forget to dip the pendant in the water; it's gonna be the only thing keeping him alive," Mokuba reminded, poking his brother's arm playfully. "It would be a shame if he got too far away from his home and suddenly died before you even got a chance to court him."
"Hmm. That
would be a problem." The brunet reached out to cup the nymph's cheek, examining him again, then smiled. "By the time he wakes up, we'll be too far away from shore for him to run, unless he wants to deal with satyrs or centaurs attacking him."
The younger boy snorted and stood up. "Yeah. I can understand satyrs attacking him—they attack
all nymphs and dryads. Centaurs? They tend to keep to themselves."
"Mostly," Seto agreed, dipping the pendant of his necklace into the water. He raised an eyebrow as he saw the sapphire seem to glow for a moment, as if to memorize the water it was in; so it
was more magical than it led on. After keeping it submerged for a few minutes, he lifted it to slip the chain back over his head, then slid one of his arms beneath the blond's knees. "Not all of them, though, Mokie."
"Why? What would they—Oh.
Oh." Mokuba flinched and shuddered. "Oh, that is
so gross."
"Oh, and the idea of a satyr taking advantage of him
isn't?" the brunet retorted, settling the nymph in his arms more comfortably. "He's better off with us, anyway. I mean,
I have no intention of forcing him to sink ships if he doesn't want to."
The smaller human frowned and crossed his arms. "I wonder why Poseidon ordered him to sink our ship, though. I mean, is it because we were
learning about other peoples' gods, or because we actually practiced their religions with them? I mean,
you even got—"
"I have not prayed to Greek gods in a very long time," Seto admitted, frowning. "Perhaps I should get back into the practice of praying to them." His expression darkened. "But
not Poseidon."
"…I think you should pray to him more. I can't imagine he'll take well to the idea of one of his companions being stolen away," the younger boy deadpanned.
The brunet grunted quietly and held the nymph in his arms closer. "I'll think about it. But I also don't think he'll take highly to any reasoning I give him. 'Yes, a woman of a distant and different religion prophesied that I would find a nymph that is my soul mate, and so I just
had to steal him away.' Yes, that will go over quite well."
"Well, we'll have plenty of time to think about it as we're walking. I know the nearest town is at
least a few miles away."
"…Goodie…" Seto grumbled to himself quietly, then looked down at the blond lying in his arms. He looked so innocent, so unassuming, and he found he suddenly didn't mind the idea of carrying him that distance.
Yes, he had hurt the nymph, and yes, he realized that it would take a lot of time and healing for the blond to ever trust him. However, he felt he could handle the wait; he was a patient man, and the nymph seemed sincere, if not a little overly curious. He wouldn't mind waiting for the nymph to trust him—and if he ever found that he
did love the little blond, well… he could wait a little longer for the nymph to decide to love him, too.
