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Chapter Text

Tears flooded the mermaid's stunning ruby eyes.

His facial expression turned sullen as his gaze wandered around the small kitchen he was shipped to just hours prior.

Kaveh’s arms covering his chest even if he had no need to.

He just felt so exposed and vulnerable here..

It was bright in the kitchen where his tank was set up, making his eyes wincing a bit every time he ever so much as glanced up at the water’s reflection above him only for it to reflect bright light back into his sensitive eyes only meant for the darkness of the deepest waters in the oceans of the world..

His body wasn’t made to be kept here.

In a small tank where he barely could swim a few feet to every side of him.

And the fishermen who caught him and took him here must’ve known that…

They weren’t planning to keep him alive for much longer..

He knew that..

He knew that with a heavy heart and eyes that flooded with tears even in the cold water his tank was filled with.

He had heard of tales where mermaids had been captured by humans, only then to be sold whole, or dissected for parts..

Their tails were used for meat.. 

fins, used for accessories or made into medicine from the humans thinking that it had some unknown medical benefits.

And scales… sold for just their beauty..

Every part of him would be used. He knew that.

And the mermaid didn’t know if the shiver that went down his spine was stemming his dark thoughts, or from how freezing the water he was kept in.

Usually, a mermaid with his gills in the right environment would filter through much warmer waters, his kind even known to hang around underwater volcanoes in search of their warmth on their cold scales.

But… here he was now, in a tank waiting… just waiting to be killed or sold at an auction for his beauty only then to either be sold again or used for parts.

Just one single one of his beautiful mermaid scales could go up to a hundred dollars at a market or store…

He truly tried to stop sniffling, tried to stop his body from shivering and shaking in the bitter cold water that he was forced to breathe in.

He was going to die…

He… was going to die…

And no one was able to save him, no one in his pod, no one even in the ocean, and definitely not any humans up here..

He really was just destined to die wasn’t he?

In a cold tank alone, and even if he tried not to be scared.. he was absolutely terrified..

His tears just wouldn’t stop pouring from his gorgeous, rare ruby eyes..

He didn’t want to die like this..

Kaveh couldn’t die like this..

He didn’t want to die like this..

Not like this..

Not trapped in a damn glass box, sobbing his eyes out in the same damn kitchen that he will probably be butchered in.

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He was about to fall asleep in the dark tank before he immediately perked back up upon hearing a door open, a bell ringing to signal that someone had entered the building.

Oh no… should he play dead?? Try to break the tank?? No- that would make him suffocate.

Maybe try to splash enough so that water could get over the edge of the open tank and drench the newcomer??

Maybe that could disorient them enough to where he could escape-

But… how would he escape…?

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He teared up more.. watching his tears bubble up and float.

And closed his eyes…

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His gorgeous… red ruby eyes that were probably going to be discarded…

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Hearing the sharp clacks of boot heels moving against the shiny tiled floor of the kitchen as he sniffled.

This was it…

He wasn’t going to survive today..

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Al-Haitham came into his work already in his chef attire, not noticing the big tank that had just been shipped over from the great oceans and moved to instead wash his hands for the start of dinner service.

The man sighed, drying off his hands with a small handkerchief that was draped over from his pocket, mumbling to himself about how ridiculous it was that he was the only one during dinner rush this hour.

“It’s rather deplorable that I can’t get any help around here.” He muttered, moving from the sink and across the room to get out vegetables from the fridge before freezing in place.

His eyes locking onto a brilliant red that immediately captured his eyes and made him turn his head fully.

What…?

How- why???-

A mermaid… a merman??? A Siren perhaps??-

Was in his kitchen, HIS kitchen!

He hadn’t gotten any emails regarding to a LITERAL FUCKING MERMAID!!- THAT WAS GOING TO BE DELIVERED TO HIS ARCHON FORSAKEN KITCHEN!-

The Chef tried his best not to show his absolute shock, being slightly successful as he only reacted by a slight widening of his eyes.

How had he not noticed the mermaid before…?

Al-Haitham walked closer to the human and apparently merman sized tank, keeping his steps as slow and as calm as he could.

He didn’t know how violent mermaids were or even could be after all.

That would be a very good area to study on in the future perhaps-

His thoughts were quickly interrupted though by seeing something that honestly shocked him.

The mermaid was crying..

The mermaid was scared.. there was no doubt about it. Their body practically trembling as he stepped closer to examine their features.

The man tried his best not to spook them of course, he didn’t want to get possibly bitten or anything that involved an injury.

Why did he feel sympathy for the creature…?

Could they even comprehend everything he could…?

He pressed his hand to the glass of the tank, watching their reaction closely.

He then looked up at their tank, it was certainly not well kept, muggy and dark, cold water probably, and then… there it was.

A sign taped to the front that simply read in bold letters.

SOLD.

“So you were sold here…” he mumbled, looking up at the mermaid's face which was still flooded with tears before a shaky red scaled hand reached out with claws and put it against his which was still on the other side of the tank.

He immediately bit the corner of his bottom lip.

Dear Archons- why was he getting attached???

“Do you.. understand me?” He tried again, looking at the mermaid once more, seeing their tail swaying anxiously from side to side.

The nod he received was enough for him.

He was probably going to lose his job for this-

Though- right now he couldn’t really find it in him to care-

He grabbed a tiny step ladder, went up it so that he could safely remove the lid of the tank and took the mermaid into his arms, drenching himself and his clothes with water in the process.

But did he really give two shits?-

Not really.

The merman was definitely surprised by this action though, making a rather loud chirp that sounded like it was mixed with a cry before their nails clung onto Al-Haitham’s shirt.

Which- was even more drenched now-

What the actual hell are you doing Al-Haitham??-

And started running.

Chapter Text

Al-Haitham swore underneath his breath as he ran, propping the mermaid against his chest and holding onto their back, his eyes only focusing ahead of him.

This goddamn mermaid was definitely the reason why he hadn’t been getting as much money as usual in his paychecks-

Probably instead using his cash to pay for this- thing in his arms right at this moment!

He sighed, it couldn’t be helped anyhow.

That’s right Al-Haitham, all you can do now, is get rid of this creature and then your life will return to normal.

Hopefully- 

His grip tightened on the creature in his arms, biting his tongue as it squirmed and protested loudly with thrashing limbs and loud squawks.

This thing was going to drive him to his limits- he just knew it-

It was almost repulsive how this thing could just- arrive at his workplace and cause his paycheck to run dry.

All he wanted was to live comfortably in a house, maybe move out of Sumeru so that he could get away from the people who only wanted to get rich and make it harder for everyone else below them.

Maybe then he could live in a small house, hell, even an apartment would be better than this shit wreck.

Then, if he was even more lucky, which he doubted.

Life was too cruel to give him that.

Then maybe, just maybe he could scrape up enough money to go back to school, finish his degree like his grandmother would have wanted for him.

He looked down at the mermaid in his arms, thinking of a sickening yet… a very possibly genius idea..

They had already sold the mermaid’s earrings and various jewelry they first found on him.

But the mermaid himself..

That , would be so valuable that he could probably buy himself a whole goddamn mansion and not care about worries over money for the whole rest of his life…

Yes… maybe he could do that…

Now… just what should he do with this creature now that he literally had him in his arms?

Al-Haitham wondered.

Selling him off would be… difficult.

Getting him around alone would be difficult and possibly dangerous.

The Chef was honestly surprised that he hadn’t been bitten yet by the mermaids teeth-

Then again, they didn’t really seem violent..

In fact, they seemed to be quite the contrary, peaceful if you could believe it.

Al-Haitham certainly wouldn’t have been able to believe it before he literally bridal style carried the creature out of a whole goddamn restaurant that he was supposed to be closing up by now-

Meanwhile, the beast in his hands could only look at him with wonder as Kaveh would have thought that he was going to be cooked right now, but as they passed the stove and cutting board, that now didn’t seem to be the case.

“Where are we-“ the merman spoke, sounding breathless as he stayed clung into the other man’s shoulders, ignoring the irritated look he received back.

“So you can speak English.” The Chef practically spat, “and here I thought that you might have only the consciousness of a fish.”

And with that, you could’ve thought he had slapped the mermaid in the face with that comment, their face contorting into a look of disdain mixed with a bit of full blown rage-

“You thought what??? You really thought that I was just some mindless fish that was caught??” Kaveh scoffed, twisting his body around as if to try and flop down onto the floor, but only succeeded in causing Al-Haitham to stumble and almost slip on water that had been dripping from Kaveh’s body.

“Will you quit that?? Hold on! I’m trying to help you!”

“Let go! Just let go of!-“

They both winced as Al-Haitham lost his footing, slipping on some spilled water on the floor and crashing down heavily, wincing as his head slammed down against the hard kitchen tile.

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His vision swam as his body tried to stay conscious, he couldn’t even know how bad he had hit the floor, knowing it had to be pretty bad if he was immediately losing consciousness because of it.

“Hey! Haitham! You Alright in there???”

Shit- must be one of the janitors who was working late too-

If he got caught like this, on the floor with the creature-

The goddamn Beast he had been trying to show the slightest bit of mercy to, then his job would be over.

Hell- his whole CAREER would go down the drain-

He tried to talk, tried to say that he was alright and that he had just slipped.

Who in their right mind would believe that though-

But all that came out of his mouth was a slight groan, his awareness fading before he heard a shout of-

“Someone help!! The mermaid jumped out of the tank and attacked Al-Haitham!!”

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And that’s when everything went black-

Chapter Text

The next time Al-Haitham awoke he was still on the kitchen floor..

His kitchen floor-

Only instead of being alone, instead he was with what seemed like dozens of medics above him, asking him various questions which he honestly couldn’t understand what in Archon’s name they were even asking through the pain that radiated through his skull.

God his ears rang-

Could all the people just get out and let him recuperate by himself?? It was only a little fall-

Could they just leave him be to do his job??

Honestly- people drove him up the wall most of the time-

His vision being blurred wasn’t helping any either-

Al-Haitham attempting to move but was unable to..

Shit- was he paralyzed??

Did he land wrong onto his spine???

Shit shit shit!-

Panic rose into his chest, causing his heart to pound faster and faster until he could hear nothing except for his heart just trying desperately to keep him alive.

Then… he felt cold.. why did he feel cold?? He didn’t get it! It had only been a simple slip on some water! Nothing more! So why was he-

“Haitham! Haitham! Hey! Calm down! You need to calm yourself down for them to examine you properly!”

One of the people around him said, feeling their hands on his upper body as they propped him up against one of  the counters.

And he tried- oh how he tried to calm down but how the fuck did they expect him to calm down when he could only think of what he had injured during that fall?!

It was all that damn fish’s fault!!

If he hadn’t got it in his head that they looked so goddamn pitiful then he wouldn’t be in this mess!-

“Someone get the stretcher! He can’t move!”

Were the only next words that he could even understand-

Every other one all muffled and strung together without common sense.

Fuck… and now I’m going to have a hospital bill on top of my missing paychecks..

Was it pathetic that he could almost cry right now over money?

Probably-

But this was his livelihood he was thinking about!

In fact it was the only thing he had been thinking about ever since his grandmother’s passing.

He didn’t really have time to think about much else-

The next thing knew after that was being lifted up by three men and gently put on a stretcher, the paramedics being careful enough as to not jostle any unseeable injuries that he might have.

Before sleepiness set into his mind once again..

The last thing he was able to hear was the panicked voices of the janitor crew trying to figure out what they should do with the mermaid that had “attacked him”.

Al-Haitham could only sigh at that.

He would have to set the record straight one of these days after he got out of the hospital..

The Chef didn’t know why but… he hoped that his crew wouldn’t get rid of the beautiful creature…

After all.. they could talk just like humans can..

They could cry.. show emotion…

And they were quite… beautiful to look at..

He would definitely have to give that damned mermaid a piece of his mind when he next saw them though-

But that could wait.. he did feel rather tired..

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“Al-Haitham!”

The Chef practically jumped the next time he awoke in a hospital room, Cyno, one of his longtime friends practically shouted his name-

Could he ever just catch a break???

Al-Haitham groaned at the other man practically hovering above him, using the hospital bed blanket to cover his face in a rather sad attempt to hide.

He was not awake enough for this nor was he in the mood for this conversation that he could sense was coming.

Probably all revolving around questions like:

“Al-Haitham, what happened?? You're never usually this clumsy during work on all subjects.”

Or:

“Why were you found on the floor with a fucking mermaid that had just been in your arms???”

Could this day get any worse??

Actually don’t answer that-

Because it probably definitely could-

He sighed at his misfortunes but at least his vision wasn’t blurry now, looking over at his friend who stood rather anxiously at his bedside.

The man, who was known to be cold and distant just like Al-Haitham seemed to be unusually panicked, in fact, it was the most panicked The Chef had seen him since the day Cyno had ran around his house thinking that he had misplaced his Genius Invokation TCG cards.  Calling Al-Haitham over that day since Cyno knew of his friends rather perspective eyes and asked him for help.

The Chef having found the “missing deck” in under five minutes stuck in between one of two drawers of Cyno’s dresser-

Sometimes Al-Haitham was surprised by how blind Cyno could be-

But- he was one of his very small group of friends who he actually affiliates himself with after his highschool days..

All the other friends he had made being turned off eventually by his sometimes “rude and snappy” attitude. Which he would definitely disagree with-

The only reason he had been rude and snappy in the first place was that he didn’t like it when people stomped all over his boundaries.

And guess what his ex friends did-

Enough about that.

He focused on the present once more, feeling Cyno hug his arm slightly- respecting his boundaries of limitations on touch.

Because sometimes he did not like touch at all and he definitely thought that to be a very simple thing to respect.

“You can hug me fully right now. I know that you might have gotten worried about me going to the hospital.”

The Chef gave a light, almost teasing smile, seeing Cyno nod and quickly taking the opportunity to hug him fully while he sat himself up onto the hospital bed.. Mentally thanking all the lords he could think of when discovering that he could move his limbs again.

Must’ve been just shock that made him unable to move after the initial spill then..

“The hospital called me to come here after you were admitted, they told me you had a bad fall?? What happened??”

Cyno asked, now moving away from the hug and crossing his arms with a face that definitely read: Don’t you even think about lying to me. I know where you live-

And of course, Al-Haitham sighed, simply nodding.

“Yes, it was simply a bad fall from there being water on the floor, nothing more, nothing less.”

“Oh really?” Cyno interjected, eyebrow raised with his arms still crossed.

“Because when they called me it was through your emergency contact list, which you should really put more people on- and said to come immediately since you cracked your head open on the hard tile of the kitchen of your workplace. You literally just unintentionally gave me a heart attack before I even rushed over.” 

Huh- it was odd for his friend to not even crack a single joke while scolding him-

Guess it really was serious then huh?

He sighed, “alright alright, I suppose that I’m sorry for making you worry. Now.. did you happen to see anything about a… person with red scales and what they did with him..?”

“A person with what?-“

Chapter Text

Kaveh snapped and growled as a group of people picked him back up once that Chef had left in the ambulance headed to the hospital, leaving him on the floor where people poked and prodded him-

Of course he didn’t let this just happen with no consequences though, almost biting a couple Janitors as they tried their best to grab him by his tail.

How rude!

Do humans not have any manners or respect???

Honestly- you could probably give a human every single thing that they wanted and needed and they would still crave for more.

Selfish. That’s what they were..

Selfish creatures..

Only able to squirm and hiss as he felt the multiple pairs of cold, firm hands picking him up, roughly almost throwing him back into the small tank in the restaurant and before he could even begin to retort, started to screw the lid shut.

Blocking his every chance of escaping..

Fuck!

He slammed his body against the glass tank, tearing up more as he desperately tried to at least crack the glass.

But nothing..

He could only tear up more in anger and frustration at the whole world, wincing as another slam definitely earned him a bruised fin or two.

But… anything was better than being caged in here waiting to be cut up like some fish in a convenient store!

Another slam against the tank and people had started to notice what he was trying to do..

Shit-

Another slam, and people were swarming around his glass cage, probably to watch the terrified creature with amusement as it tried to escape with its life.

Were these sick people entertained by his fear?!!

Another harsh slam of his body against the glass..

This wasn’t working..

He teared up, his eyes looking out through the glass to see people gasping and looking back at him.

Don’t speak to humans.

His past pod members would always say…

His mom making sure that he got that message through his head.

“Humans will take everything you have because they are greedy creatures.. It is in their nature..”

And now.. he could finally see where that idea stemmed off from..

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It wasn’t long after that when everyone finally left him alone, his body curled up almost in a fetal position as he buried his head down into his arms.

Was this really how his life was going to end..?

Trapped in a fucking tank waiting to be chopped up into little pieces???

He didn’t know..

And that’s what scared him the most..

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“A person with what??”

Al-Haitham was quickly brought back into the moment by the words that his friend asked, Cyno’s face showing absolute confusion over his words.

Oh fuck- he should not have said that-

Shit-

But, instead of showing his inner panic, he took a deep breath and made sure to keep his face from shifting into something other than his usual cold expression.

Though- it wasn’t quite that easy. 

Cyno may act like he doesn’t know as many things as he does, but he certainly was perceptive, though not quite on par with Al-Haitham’s perceptiveness.

“You look off. What’s the matter? Did you hit your head too hard?” Cyno asked, already halfway up from his seat.

“You want me to go call a nurse over?”

At the question, Al-Haitham quickly shook his head to decline the offer, sighing softly at his predicament.

“No no, I’m alright. But if I could have some alone time that would be nice. I just need some quiet time to think by myself.”

“Alright, are you sure you don’t want me to get a nurse in here for you? You know, just to watch you to make sure that nothing’s wrong? You’re not in pain right?”

“No, just go and get some air. I know you were probably pacing back and forth for hours.” Al-Haitham teased slightly, waving his hand dismissively.

“I’ll be fine. Really.”

“If you say so, but please use your phone to call me if you need something.” His friend requested in his cold but soft voice, committing to standing up fully before finally walking out of the door, leaving Al-Haitham to finally just comprehend by himself what the hell had gone on today..

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Cyno took the time now to walk along the hospital grounds, which coincidentally was connected to the ocean’s shoreline where fishermen usually resided.

Today though, the area was mostly vacant.

Sure, a few fishermen had set up their poles in a few good places here and there, but compared to earlier, it was nothing.

He wondered why..

Eh, it was probably just because it was getting late into the day.

God Al-Haitham took a while to wake up after that so called “bad fall”-

He hoped that nothing too serious was wrong.

That only brought his thoughts into new territory though..

The thing his friend said earlier.. what was it again..?

Asking him if he had seen anyone with bright red… scales..?

What did he mean by that-

Was it some kind of new fashion trend?

Maybe Al-Haitham was just a bit woozy from the fall though, that could be why.

Maybe he just actually saw someone who wore red pants and that’s where he got it from.

Though..

Cyno had heard of stories people spoke and gossiped about regarding mermaids.. 

Some stand sellers even convincing customers that they had fresh mermaid scales for sale.

But that couldn’t be a thing right?

It was probably just some overpriced lizard scale…………..?-

What was that..?

His eyes narrowed as he picked up his walking pace when he saw a fisher's net unoccupied, but thrashing around a bit.

Why would someone just leave a catch just- laying there to suffocate on the-

As he walked up to examine the “fish” closer, his eyes widened..

Scales of forest green staring back at him..

And the “fish” wasn’t a fish at all..

Nor was it even human..

The creature.. the mermaid.. staring back at him with horror as its tail was horribly snagged in the fishing net, and in the fishing net seemed to be small thorns of metal that made sure that whatever was caught in the net..

Was caught for good…

And the mermaid.. the terrified creature had snagged themselves onto the net in all angles, blood pooling out from underneath them as the small metal thorns dugged and clung onto them without mercy..

And Cyno’s heart couldn’t help but hurt as the creatures pained whimpers only grew louder as they looked up at him with the terror that only a cornered bunny would feel..

Looks like Al-Haitham would have more alone time than expected-

“Hey, hey stay still..”

As Cyno quickly grabbed a pocket knife from his jeans and quickly started to make work of the horrifying net..

Who the hell set this up…?

And who had just left it here for him to find…?

Chapter Text

It didn’t take too much time for the mermaid to be free, Cyno’s heaving breaths being evidence of the adrenaline he felt as soon as he saw the creature captured in such a cruel way..

His hands being cut up a bit by the metal thorns attached to the material of the net itself.

Who would do this?

Why would someone do this?

Were they expecting to capture a mermaid?

No.. they couldn’t have known.

Who could’ve even guessed that there would be mermaids here??

He certainly wouldn’t have guessed!

So… how..?

Nevermind that, just help this mermaid out, forget that this ever happened and walk away.

But they did seem really injured badly..

This was hopeless!- 

He bit the inside of his cheek in sympathy once he got the majority of the sharp net out of their skin and scales, watching blood pour from the jagged cuts and near slices to their skin.

Sure, they weren’t human but who the fuck thought of this idea??

He hadn’t even seen fish be treated this way! No less an actual thinking being!

Was this what Al-Haitham had seen..? A mermaid but with red scales..?

He was going to have to apologize to Al-Haitham when he got back-

That was going to have to wait though..

Oh how his heart felt like bleeding as he heard the mermaids whimpers and whines of pain..

Those people must be so disgusting to think that this was okay..

Why catch something this rare, and then just leave it to flail and die a painful death on land??

He had never come across someone so cruel.

With one more sigh, Cyno carefully torn through the rest of the net with his knife, freeing the creature before picking up the remaining pieces of sharp net and making sure to throw all of the remaining pieces into the trash.

No more animals needed to be caught in that horrible contraption..

Before looking back over at the creature whose breaths came in heaving gasps.

Their eyes still wide open in their panicked state as they looked up at him with such terror that it made the man’s chest clench..

In a part of his mind, he couldn’t help but think that he didn’t want them to fear him..

Not for a second..

So, he went back over to the terrified mermaid, having them stay still before he started lightly dabbing their wounds with a handkerchief he always kept in his pocket.

“Don’t move.” He whispered, though he honestly didn’t even know if they could even understand him..

“I’m going to try and help with your wounds, but you have to trust me, alright?”

With that, the mermaid looked at him with their brown eyes that were an ombre to green, making him think for a moment that maybe they did understand him..

At least a bit-

And… they smiled at him…

But why did that make his heart feel lighter..?

It should have frightened him-

After all, the mermaid did seem to possess sharp teeth.. 

They almost reminded him of a shark’s teeth…

Why did they look so human..

But have so many nonhuman qualities..?

And why… did they look so beautiful..?

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Tighnari didn’t understand..

He didn’t understand why or how he had even managed to snag himself up into a fisherman’s net where he thrashed and pulled helplessly as the sharp thread dug and cut into his meaty flesh and hard scales.

A normal net didn’t do that!

A normal net couldn’t do that!!

So how was this net any different and why was the thread shiny instead of brown like the usual rope??

All that he knew was-

“Hey guys! I got one!!”

“Pull it up! Dottore wants it for some reason!”

An orange haired boy along with a black haired man were calling out to each other..

The boy having his hands firmly gripped onto the net as he pulled it along the shore, dragging Tighnari’s snagged body with it..

Who felt like he was going to pass out..

God… watching your blood being smeared on the sand beneath you was surprisingly beautiful by how the sun reflected the light off the now darkened sand..

He had felt like he was floating away..

The pain being no more than a dull ache in his whole body now..

Especially in his tail region..

What were these people going to do to him..?

What could they possibly do with him?

Tighnari would be lucky if they were going to kill him first..

But he still didn’t want to die like this..

Painfully in a net made to dig and tear into his body..

Leaving him whimpering as he tried to claw desperately at the sand, trying to get away from the boy who dragged him away helplessly..

“N-no..! Don’t! Don’t!!”

Suddenly though.. the boy stopped to look back at him.. staring right into his terrified eyes..

And… in the next moment, dropped the net he had been dragging him in.

“Actually guys.. I think it’s just a really big fish!” The boy laughed, “I really haven’t slept well these past few days!”

That was the moment he passed out..

Only to wake up and see a tanned man looking down at him.. a pocket knife held tightly in his hands..

Chapter Text

After the poor mermaid was free from the terrible barbed net, the human couldn’t help himself but to stare in wonder..

The mermaid was beautiful..

Shiny forest green scales that shined a bright teal in the right lighting adorning their cheek bones and tail as well as patches up their torso.

But the man’s daze was quickly snapped by the sight of blood pooling from gashes and various cuts on the poor creature, mostly on their tail.

One of their fins down to where their belly button would be seemingly shredded, missing almost completely.

This poor creature..

Cyno couldn’t help but feel sympathy for them..

So, he put his knife back into the holder on his belt, making sure to walk slowly, turned to his side to look smaller like how one would approach a wild dog.

How could people even think to hurt such a beautiful creature..?

He sighed before offering a hand to them, watching as their ears which reminded him of those on sea bunnies folded down in what he could only imagine as fear.

Cyno could only frown in response to such action..

“It’s alright.. you’re okay now..” he said, tone unusually soft for how you would imagine it being.

“I won’t hurt you.”

The human then smiled at the mermaid, completely forgetting the fact that there was a very good chance that the creature didn’t even know what the fuck he was saying-

Oh my Archons- he was probably speaking gibberish to them-

Now that was an embarrassing thought-

Oh dear- what was he going to do with them now?? He couldn’t just leave them out here to dry out! But- putting them back into the water with such injuries to their body could make them easier prey for sharks!

And he did not know the first thing that comes to bandaging a mermaids wounds-

Wouldn’t the gauze just suck up all the moisture from their body and dry them out even faster??

Maybe those gel pads would work with covering the wounds until they healed on their own-

Oh what does he know??? He’s not an expert in this!-

Cyno gulped, looking around the beach in both directions to see if anyone was coming before suddenly picking up the mermaid, stumbling just a bit from the water on the creature made them feel more heavy then you would expect.

They were rather thin…

And that brought up even more concerns-

Should he bring them to a sort of wildlife rehabilitation facility???

Was there something like that even around here???

Before he could be swallowed up by his thoughts anymore than he already was, he winced in sympathy as the mermaid in his arms shifted around a bit to make themselves more comfortable, only to then let out a sharp squeak of pain that reminded him of a sound that a dolphin would make.

Well this certainly wasn’t helping them in the slightest-

Think Cyno! Think! 

Could he sneak him out to his house..? Put him into the bath tub or something until he could contact a rehabilitation program that would take mermaids??

Was there even a place like that??

Cyno could only groan to himself.

It was his best option at this point..

“Hold onto me, okay? I’m going to need to be fast.” He warned the mermaid who seemed to understand before Cyno ran like hell back to his home…

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“What do you mean I can’t sign myself out of the hospital??? I can walk! I’m fine! I can’t stay here any longer.”

Al-Haitham raised an eyebrow, almost practically glaring at the receptionist lady who had caught him right before he had left the hospital by the front door.

“I’m sorry sir, but we have to keep you here for observation. You have high risk of having gotten a concussion and if you go home now and later fall asleep then you may go into a coma. Please, sit back down in your room and I’ll send the Doctor back in shortly.” The woman smiled, practically pleading Al-Haitham to sit back down as the man groaned.

Where had Cyno gone??

He thought he would’ve been just pacing around the hallway in front of his hospital room door to give him the privacy he wanted, but nope-

It was like he disappeared-

Al-Haitham sighed to himself but allowed one of the nurses to walk him back down to his hospital room, even helping him into bed despite him being perfectly able to pull the covers back over himself and fluff his own pillow-

He could already tell that this day was going to be absolutely dreadful for him, laying in bed doing nothing but upping his hospital bill when he should be preparing meals for guests at the restaurant he worked at.

Though it was nice not having to deal with a night of stress while being yelled at by his boss the Chef proposed.

Yet he couldn’t help but wonder what they had done with the mermaid he had tried to save out of the surprising kindness in his heart.

Was the mermaid going to be killed? Locked up in some aquarium like a wild animal?

That just wouldn’t do..

He didn’t quite understand why he was so determined on saving the creature..

Maybe it was because they showed humanity, or maybe even because they showed emotion..

He wanted to save them.

But, he had to find a way out of this hospital first…

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Kaveh’s tired eyes opened hours later, his body still shivering from the cold water that his gills were forced to filter.

They had screwed the lid to his “tank” fully shut, not even allowing him an inch of airflow through the water.

But at least he was left alone right now..

That was one mercy he had been granted today.

It was probably the last mercy that the mermaid would be granted, period.

His red eyes looking through the tank out into the kitchen where he was still set in, able to see the janitor’s leaving for the day and turning off all the lights for the night.

That Chef had been gone for a long time..

The Mermaid wondered why.

He couldn’t have fallen that hard-

Kaveh hadn’t even meant to make the man fall, The Chef fell by himself-

It wasn’t his fault.

Another sigh left his lips, curling up his body as much as he could.

Maybe… this truly is the end for you..

Chapter Text

That’s it!

Al-Haitham has officially declared to himself that he would not stay in this Hospital any longer.

It wasn’t helping him, hell, it was probably making his mental health worse than it already was-

So, he swiftly walked back to his hospital room, grabbed his headphones that the Doctors must have taken off to bandage his head properly off of the side table by the bed, put them on and absolutely blasted music through them.

Technically if he couldn’t hear the Doctors and Nurses instructions to stay, then he didn’t have to-

So, he then swiftly walked out of the hospital, ignoring the shouting of nurses trying to warn him-

They eventually just let him pass though, he was an adult after all and they couldn’t make him stay even if they wanted to.

He also did not need to pay anymore money on the extra hospital treatments they would probably put him through.

Sure- he might worry Cyno if the man comes back to the Hospital only to discover that he’s not where he was supposed to be, but he was planning on calling him later to tell him his whereabouts.

Now… back to his workplace he went…

The Chef was certainly going to make his boss regret tampering with his rightful paycheck...

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Oh shit Cyno! Oh shit!

Shit shit shit!-

What the in the fuck were you thinking when coming up with the idea of bringing a whole ass fucking MERMAID- home in the first place??

You might as well just paint a whole ass target on your back because this was one hell of a way to get people to pay attention to you and your whereabouts.

But the mermaid was injured badly. 

So what did you expect him to do?? Just lay there flopping around until he either bled out or dried up??

His conscience definitely wouldn’t have allowed that-

So here the man was, gently placing the mermaid who- was quite beautiful may he add- into the bathtub.

“Are you more- is your species- do you-“ he struggled though with his words, not wanting to sound rude but he didn’t really know what could be offensive to… these… new creatures he thought had to have been just in a children’s book until now-

Cyno sighed before trying again to speak, “are you-“

“Are you asking if I prefer cold or warm water?” The mermaid asked, chirping softly after their sentence.

Or was that their way of snickering at him for his mistake??

The human may never know-

And before Cyno could even begin to say the affirming ‘yes’ to their question, they swiftly interrupted him.

“My species is known to hang around warm waters. It’s more healthy for our scales and even makes our tails appear more vibrant in color. But of course… This also makes our scales much more desirable during this time of year. I know that you helped me out, but I’m sorry to say that I just don’t trust you fully yet.”

Now that was something Cyno could definitely understand, the human nodding his head quickly while he turned the faucet to the warm setting and let the water drench the mermaid once more.

“I can understand that perfectly. Especially since humans have the tendency to hurt those who are different. Though I never quite understood it.”

After the bath tub had been filled enough to where Tighnari’s tail was completely submerged, he turned the water off. 

Okay… now he could relax..

The mermaid is fine, they won’t dry out and no one seemed to witness you taking them to your house.

Everything’s fine, and now, all he would have to do is go back to the hospital, pick up Al-Haitham and question him more on the stranger with red scales.

And mentally apologize for thinking that his friend had been a bit crazy-

After that, everything would be good, everything would be fine..

Hopefully-

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Tartaglia grunted softly as he used his strength to pull up the nets they had put out in sea up and back into the boat, fish who were captured in the barred hooks and wires of the enhanced net flopping helplessly onto the deck.

He was alone on sailing today, the other Harbingers staying back to work on tracking down more mermaids in the area.

The group had practically hunted this area dry after all…

And the creatures were smarter than previously predicted, diving deeper and migrating to unusually cool waters than what they should be adapted to.

He wondered if they fully understood his group’s intentions..

They had to of..

That’s why the creatures are sparse now, that’s why barely anyone believed in their existence.

The harbinger sighed before suddenly gasping sharply in surprise as he tried to pull in another net, only to feel that it was weighed down so heavily that he was almost dragged overboard by the sudden weight.

What??? There wasn’t that much fish here to weigh it down this much! What the hell???

He winced, feeling the end threads of the net that he had tried to pull up the net with digging into his palms, quickly digging his heel into the floorboards, and with a final burst of sudden adrenaline, pulled up the net out of the water completely.

Only to discover that it had been completely filled with rocks…

Something in the water was tampering with the nets…

And it was smart enough to understand what he was trying to do…

Chapter Text

Okay- why the hell were there so many rocks in the nets that he had JUST set into the water??
The nets didn’t even reach the depth necessary to be at the bottom to snag any rocks.

So how and why had the nets been tampered with??

Was his group just teasing him and filled a couple of the nets with rocks before he headed out??
Those guys never seemed to get off his back! Ever since he was the lowest ranked members to join!

Tch- he’ll show them! He’ll show them all what he’s capable of!
Even if he has to work twice as hard than all of them combined!
Yeah! That’ll show them!

Though he couldn’t help but wince when he pulled up the next net that was also completely filled with rocks, the sharp wire of the net digging into his palms and leaving sharp cuts in his palm. Not too deep but deep enough that he felt a strong sting from it.

“Ow, fuck-“ he hissed, stopping after he got the second net up and went to go bandage his palms.

But didn’t notice that something had started to climb up the edge of the boat.. getting onto the dock..
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“Hey boss!” Al-Haitham called out as soon as he made his way into the restaurant, it now being early morning since the day he had been emitted to the hospital.

Which means that the man should be here preparing food for service later into the day, and that mermaid should also be here..
So, he walked through the door, not bothering to even knock to see if he could come in.

“We’re closed until!-“ his boss had started to say, thinking that he had been just a regular person wanting to eat there before finally recognizing him moments later.

“Al-Haitham??? Shit man! What are you doing out of the hospital?? Are you sure you should even be in here?? What did the doctors say? I-”

The tired Chef interrupted his Boss with a simple raise of a hand, his free hand rubbing the bridge of his nose while a splitting headache resurfaced in his skull.

“I wasn’t really planning to come into work today, but it seems like I have some things I need to clear up.”
With a simple step forward he leaned against one of the kitchen counters, his hands pressing up against the cold marble countertops.

“Alright, what is it?” His Boss asked, a look of confusion but also concern flashing over his eyes.
“You aren’t too badly injured right? Not concussed or anything of that nature, are you?”

Al-Haitham had to bite his tongue slightly to remind himself to not be snarky-
Now was not the time for such matters.

“No, at least I don’t believe so.” He crossed his arms, his gaze averting to the ground slightly while he continued speaking.
“I was actually coming here to discuss the sudden drop in my pay these last few months.”

When his Boss groaned at the sudden mention of that topic, Al-Haitham could barely keep himself together enough to not glare at the man.
“I’ve spoken with you about this topic before a week ago, you said that it was just some minor expenses that everyone has been made to pay. I then recall you saying something to the likes of ‘be patient and the expenses would clear up in a week or two.’ Well, it’s been three. And I’m not sure if I believe that you told me the full truth or not. So, is my pay always going to be docked by some mysterious circumstances or not? Be honest because I’m frankly not pleased.”

At the end of his words, his Boss looked defeated. Sighing before nodding his head, “very well then.. we don’t want to lose you so, how about I compensate your loss with your next paycheck and-“

“Is that mermaid still here?”

“Yes…? Though it was just about to be shipped off to another restaurant since I thought it would be too dangerous now with how it attacked you and all-“

“Consider him as part of my compensation package as well.”

At those words, his Boss looked shocked, turning around to face him.
“What did you just say? You want the creature who physically attacked you?? Why?-“

Al-Haitham could only put on a fake smirk, “I’ve heard they sell for a lot of money…”
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Kaveh couldn’t help but whimper and thrash around in his tank as he saw hands pushing his tank in different directions onto a… what the humans apparently called a truck-

Was he getting out of the restaurant??
Was he really not going to be eaten??

Oh thank the Ocean Gods and Goddesses!!

He teared up with a smile, swishing his tail happily before the happiness was suddenly cut off with surprise instead as he suddenly heard a yell.

Huh- he wondered why the humans were yelling-
Should he even look?-
Eh- why not-

He pressed his face against the glass that faced to the outside of the truck, watching as the- wait… it’s that man!! The man who tried to take him out from the tank!

“Hey!!!” He tried to yell loud enough so that the man could hear him, but huffed as his voice was muffled by the water, “you!! I’m here!!! Get me out of here!!! Hey!!”

He slammed his body against the glass wall of the tank, smiling brightly in succession as that made the man who had been currently negotiating with “the truck people” (Kaveh would refer to them as-) look over at him, and promptly go over to his tank.

Not knowing that he was technically The Chef’s now..

The man now walking towards the tank, placing his hand on the glass as a familiar movement of the one he had done when he first saw the creature.
“I’m getting you out of here.”

The red finned mermaid looked confused, tilting his head as if he was a confused puppy.
Huh?-

Chapter Text

Kaveh chirped happily as the Chef said those words, smiling brightly as his tail swished happily, creating little air bubbles underneath him.

“Human human human!!” The mermaid trilled, suddenly the human who he had been terrified of just a sunset ago was going to be his savior???

What luck!!

Luck didn’t come by that often for him-

Which means that he should definitely celebrate these small wins whenever they arise!

He couldn’t help himself from twirling around happily once the human got out a rather large tool that he didn’t know the name of, starting to pry off one nail at a time from the top of the lid where he had been boxed in.

His gaze not able to stop moving to stare at the man’s arms while he wiggled the tool back and forth, nails dropping with a small tink!- As they were pried off from the lid.

Ohhh he was so happy!!

It took a few minutes for the lid to be fully taken off but eventually Kaveh could stick his head out of the top again, breathing in the air.

Sure, he had gills so that he could breathe through water but he also had a pair of lungs that were rather human like that he needed to fill at least every three to four hours, or else he would simply sink and suffocate down below…

He then couldn’t help but let out a loud chirp which was more of a shriek in surprise as the human took him out of the tank once more in just mere seconds of seeing him again.

“Stop scaring me like that!! You have no manners do you???” He complained, though still wrapped his arms securely around the man’s neck, keeping himself close to make sure that they both wouldn’t go tumbling to the floor again if The Chef were to slip.

“I would apologize if you hadn’t made me almost crack my head open in my own kitchen-“

“Oh please! You’re the one who grabbed me without warning or telling me what you were going to do! You’re lucky that I didn’t claw your eyes out instead!”

“It’s not my problem if you would have become sushi because of such actions against me, you should know that you shouldn’t even be here and yet you probably went snooping around humans and got caught.”

“Why you..!!-“

Al-Haitham interrupted the mermaid with a deep sigh, carrying him out bridal style away from the parking lot of the restaurant and started instead heading towards his house.

Well- that was the case before his phone started to ring and vibrate from his pants pocket, startling them both.

Al-Haitham from the sudden noise.

And the mermaid by not knowing what the fuck the small device actually was- or how it even worked-

“It’s about time he called me to say where he was-“ Al-Haitham couldn’t help but mumble underneath his breath before answering the call, pretending not to notice the look of shock on the mermaids face as Kaveh examined what he was doing with the random device he just pulled out of his pocket.

“Hey, where did you go? You weren’t in the hallway waiting for-“

“I found another mermaid.” Cyno’s voice interrupted, stunning his friend silent and allowing him the chance to speak more.

“They were captured in this- weird- torturous net that just- it had like- a thin thread material instead of rope and- it just- gives me bad feelings about this whole thing. I mean- the mermaid was bleeding out on the shoreline and couldn’t get out! I’ve never seen a net like that before! How do you think-“

“I’m heading over now.” The Chef spoke bluntly before hanging up seconds later, turning swiftly on his heels to head the opposite direction towards Cyno’s house instead..

What was going on here..?

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“Who the hell would put these rocks in here and how???” Ajax grunted as he used his now sore palms to lift up the rest of the nets, looking down over the dock to see if he could find anything off putting..

Damn- it was getting too dark already to see anything-

Dammit!

He sighed before going up to bring the last net up from the ocean, hoping that there would be at least a few good catches in this batch.

“One… two.. three..!!-“ he winced, clenching his teeth as he lifted the last weighted down net.

But… before he could get it up all the way to even see how many rocks this one had in it, a shine reflected off from the moon to a sudden clawed hand, outstretched from the water and gripping tightly onto the edge of the net.

What the fuck was that????-

He didn’t even have enough time to process who the hell must’ve been in the water before the net was yanked harshly the opposite direction, making him bite back a yelp as the sharp thread cut into his palms even more.

But he still didn’t let go..

And that was his mistake..

And it definitely was a fatal one…

Another sharp yank from the clawed hand had him tear up in pain slightly before he suddenly felt his balance slipping, and…

He fell over the edge of the ship…

Down into the painfully cold water below…

“What a curious little human~…”

The last thing that Childe felt, was the soft touch of claws against his cheek..

Chapter Text

Childe’s body couldn’t help but thrash and spasm the moment he came in contact with the freezing cold water that soon surrounded his body completely, only making him panic and thrash more once his head was pulled under as well.

What was happening..?

Where was he being taken to…?

Was he.. really going to die here? Drowning due to being dragged down into the deepest depths of the ocean?

Would anyone else notice tonight that he would be gone?

No… they would.

And that was the thought that caused adrenaline to burst through his system, his hands grabbing onto whatever was dragging him down and dug his nails into whatever soft tissue he was closest to, hearing a soft gasp from the clawed creature who let go of him.

And that was the moment he stopped, panicked and still thrashing as he swam desperately back to the surface, gasping in precious air.

What the hell had grabbed him??

What was down here and how was it smart enough to know how to use the momentum of the net to yank him off the ship??

Stop thinking about that now.

His mind immediately snapped back into focus after the panic, grabbing a hold of a rope attached to the boat.

You need to get out of the water before the creature grabs you again.

Childe didn’t even notice how badly his wounds on his palm from the sharp net stung from the salt water of the sea, pulling himself up desperately using the rope.

Not even noticing the sound of the creature moving towards him again from the overwhelming sound of his helpless splashing and heavy pants.

Scrambling forward, Tartaglia used his adrenaline to pull himself back onto the dock, ignoring how he heard the scratching of claws against wood below him as the creature tried to grab him again.

He really had to quit his job-

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“Cyno!” Al-Haitham called as he walked through the man’s door without the care for knocking, arms still holding the dripping mermaid gently while their red eyes flickered around at various items in the home.

Maybe he was confused or intrigued..

Al-Haitham was now somewhat interested to learn more about what he thought was a fairy tale creature..

How they lived.

What they ate.

Where they lived.

Did they live in groups like fish? Did they have their own pods?

Could they reproduce?

Oh he would so have to write a report about that later-

If they were even willing to give him such personal information about their lives-

Probably not- but one could hope-

When he got no answer from his friend though, he got a bit worried, shifting the mermaid’s weight around a bit in his arms which made them squirm before he started looking through the house.

“Cyno?? Where the hell are you??”

If he couldn’t find him soon then this mermaid in his arms would dry out! Shit!

The Chef groaned before finally perking up once he heard noise coming from the house’s bathroom, quickly heading over there and knocking on the door.

And try as he might- the knocking on the door sounded just as urgent as his thoughts made it out to be-

But to his relief, the door opened a few moments later to show Cyno whose eyes immediately widened in shock upon seeing the red scaled mermaid that was no doubt the one that his friend had been talking about.

“Is that the mermaid with red scales you were talking about?? Get in here!” He then moved to the side, holding open the door for Al-Haitham who did just that only to almost fall over as the mermaid in his arms suddenly thrashed the hardest they ever had.

“What the!-“

The man winced, looking at Kaveh and following his gaze, finally understanding what he was so desperate to get to.

“So that’s the other mermaid you talked about on the phone?”

“Yes, he was horribly caught in a net and I’ve been trying to see what would treat his wounds.”

The Chef nodded in acknowledgment before walking up to the bathtub, placing Kaveh down beside the green scaled mermaid who chirped insistently upon the other’s arrival.

He wondered if they had known each other from before their discovery…

Before he could even ask about that though, the two mermaids clung to each other, chirping rapidly as if chatting like old friends. Their tails coiling around each other to keep themselves from being split up, even if they wouldn’t be. 

It was pretty cute-

You know that it’s cute when Al-Haitham is smiling- 

“So, what are we going to do with these two? Just- set them back into the ocean together once the one you got heals up a bit?”

Cyno sighed at the question, honestly having no idea what to do from here.

“It might be risky, especially since they are probably being so heavily hunted. Then we have to consider the healing time and how exactly they heal best, fishes heal pretty fast but people? People can take six weeks to heal from these types of injuries and never be the same so…”

“We’ll have to play it by ear then.” Al-Haitham nodded before crouching down beside the tub, using a hand to absentmindedly stroke the red tailed mermaid's blonde hair, chuckling as they seemed to blush.

“It’ll be difficult hiding these guys though, and with them here you can’t really use your tub-“

Cyno waved the Chef’s words off, “it’s fine. I can just borrow yours.“

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“What are these humans talking about??” the green mermaid chirped softly into his previous pod member's ear, gaining a confused chirp back.

“I don’t know, one minute I was captured in a tank, the next minute I saw you. Humans are weird.”

“So weird-“

Chapter Text

Pantalone sighed, rolling his eyes which he then closed when he heard his phone start to ring insistently.

It had only been an hour or two after Ajax had gone off by himself to pull up the nets onto their ship.

Pantalone having told the young man that he should wait until one of them was available to aid him with the task.

That boy did get on his nerves sometimes.

But if Lady Tsaritsa truly trusted this man as her sword and personal weapon whenever she was in their presence, then he supposed that he would just have to deal with it.

Oh well.

The man’s black gloved hands found themselves fidgeting around with his collar, straightening it up to look more professional and neat before doing anything else.

He did wonder though why Tartaglia had been out so long, as it usually only took about fifteen minutes or so for the man.

So why was he out so late this time around..?

It was strange.

Maybe the boy needed some help? 

Though he had never asked for any before- so maybe it was best to just let him be.

At that thought, Pantalone shrugged to themselves, adjusting the rings over their gloves for a moment before continuing their previous task of counting the money that they had collected during this week of selling various Mermaid scales and fins they had collected thus far.

One thousand.

Two thousand.

Four thousand.

A pretty good chunk of cash so far but not nearly as much as if they were to catch a fully intact Mermaid.

Dear Archon, those things were hard to capture-

Their bodies slippery from their wet scales and almost slimy to the touch.

Not to mention the fact that they had some type of consciousness, their minds able to comprehend what the fishermen were trying to accomplish and slipping out of their traps almost every time.

It would be much easier if they were to find a younger one..

One that hadn’t learned the dangers of humans yet..

Hmm..

Though that would certainly only make the mermaids even more protective and cautious, which was not the ideal scenario that Pantalone had in mind..

If that were to happen, business for them in the future would only go downhill from there and that wasn’t allowed to happen.

Their way of business couldn’t just be derailed in mere moments just like that.

The Regrator wouldn’t allow it..

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“Pantalone!!” 

The man whose name was called jumped a bit in surprise, sighing exasperatedly as the sudden arrival of the ginger haired Harbinger had caused him to drop the bag of Mora coins he had been counting, therefore messing up his complete count of them.

Sure, he was a bit frustrated but he was not a person who would shout in rage though, only rolling his eyes with a slight glance over at Tartaglia.

Only for his eyes to open up and widen in surprise..

Though he tried to hide his small amount of concern in his voice, propping up his left elbow against the table he had just been sitting at moments ago just counting coins.

“My my Ajax, I know you often make an entrance whenever you come back from a mission but-“

“I found one.” Childe interrupted, clothes and hair soaking wet.

And that was the only thing he had to say for Pantalone to stand up.

“You found a whole mermaid..?”

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“Alright- I think these antibacterial patches will stick to his wounds on his tail and help them heal, they say that they are waterproof but I’m not really sure they will stay for long if they are fully submerged underwater for full time.” Al-Haitham hummed, having just arrived back from the store and walked back into the bathroom with a bag in his hands, pulling out from it the various sizes and shapes of the patches so that they could find which one felt the most comfortable.

“It might not be the best thing for long term but it’s all we got for now.”

At his friend’s words, Cyno nodded in understanding, starting to unpack the various kinds of patches and medical supplies while the green tailed mermaid looked at him with interest, their tail flicking back and forth patiently if not anxiously.

God the mermaid's eyes were so cool looking-

“Human?” Kaveh, the blonde mermaid with crimson red scales spoke, interrupting both of the human’s thought processes.

“Yes?” The Chef inquired, crouching down and balancing on his toes next to the tub, giving his full attention to the mermaid.

And that honestly surprised Cyno-

He hadn’t seen his friend interact with anyone like this except for him before..

Huh- maybe this mermaid and him had already become friends-

It was kind of cute-

He had never seen his friend so.. animated.

“Here- let me-“ Cyno moved to gently move the green tailed mermaid closer, using a gentle hand to run over the smooth scales and wipe away any more dried blood while Al-Haitham talked with the other mermaid.

This seemingly caused him to quickly become distracted however, his brown eyes that held an orange hue becoming quite memorized by the sharp green and turquoise scales.

They were just so beautiful..

Definitely not like the ones sold out on the market..

The ones who are already stolen from their owner..

These ones were lively.. almost glowing as he, with permission of a simple nod, took the end of their tail into his hands, looking at the wounds left over from the sharp spikes of the net Tighnari had been trapped in.

It had left a good amount of damage, so he started carefully putting the bandages over the deepest of the wounds, apologizing every so often for when the mermaid would squeak in pain.

Tighnari’s claws tightening slightly on Kaveh’s arm as he winced.

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It sure took a lot of time to bandage the wounds for the wounds, especially when the mermaid kept thrashing around a bit..

But… eventually every wound on the mermaid’s beautiful tail was covered with patches and bandages.

It felt so much better.. that Tighnari actually fell asleep after he was treated, the blonde mermaid staying by his side with their tails still coiled together as if to comfort him through his dreams.

The two humans smiling as they looked at the two beautiful creatures in the bathroom…

Not knowing that someone was already on their trail and ready to hunt..

Chapter Text

“What did you do to him??!? You humans! I knew that I shouldn’t have trusted you!- I!-“

Kaveh was furious and fearful, that was certain.

His eyes wide open as his crimson red pupils stared in shock as he saw the other fellow mermaid fall asleep, no doubt thinking that he had perhaps died due to the treatment.

But with a simple shake of a head from Al-Haitham, he seemed to settle down, glaring at them while heaving through the remains of his anger.

“What did you do to him then?? And what is this- skin you put on him??” The worried mermaid then made a move to grab at the patches practically covering half of his friends whole tail, but was quickly stopped by Al-Haitham before he had actually managed to pull one off.

The man responding to the mermaid’s attempt with a stern, “Quit that. Those are on his tail to help him.”

Of course though, Kaveh couldn’t believe such a thing, letting out an angry hiss whilst pressing his body closer to the other mermaid, claws at the ready just in case The Chef was going to just randomly attack him for some reason.

Did he really look like the type that just had the urge to go and actually attack a mermaid??

Honestly- they give him too much credit if they think that he could even care enough to try to kill them-

Though, he guessed that he could see where the mermaid was coming from.

They were captured against their will and put into a tank ready to be made into food or sold off again at a higher price only to be cut into little pieces.

It was reasonable to fear any and all interactions with humans after that, even if they were trying to help.

Hell, he would even say that it was logical.

“Alright.” Cyno spoke after a few moments, backing away from the bath tub with his hands raised in the air as a mock surrender, trying not to give any more reason for the once thought to be mythical creatures to stress out.

“Your friend is going to be okay, I just bandaged up his wounds. Do you know what that means?-“

“I am not a naive guppy.” Kaveh quickly interrupted, tail uncoiling from Tighnari’s to now whip back and forth in agitation, splashing water occasionally out of the tub and onto the tiled floor.

“You do not need to speak to me like one. Now what I want to know is why he passed out right after you “treated his wounds.” 

Another angry splash and Kaveh was almost about ready to tackle either Al-Haithsm or Cyno to the floor- a murderous rage in his eyes.

“You know nothing. About my kind do you?? Not what we eat, not how to treat our wounds, not how we even communicate! You don’t know anything!”

And after that outburst.. the two humans couldn’t help but be silent..

Because no.. they didn’t know..

And they couldn’t know..

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“Stand straight before you dive. Not having correct posture will wear you down over time and cause issues.”

“Yes Father..”

Freminet quickly did as he was told, standing up as straight as he could, looking down into the ocean water from the boarding docks.

The boy then snapping back to attention as Arlecchino guided his arms up straight, making sure that each move he made was perfect.

Her stern demeanor and almost black eyes looking straight into his, maintaining his gaze.

This made him shiver, making his blue eyes avert away and land on the wooden boards of the dock, his facial expression turning cold.

“…am I ready to dive now, Father?”

Arlecchino simply hummed, watching Freminet momentarily jolt at the subtle noise that came from her throat.

It almost made her… sad..

And yet she didn’t know why.

“…yes, be sure not to land into the water flat. You could hurt yourself doing that and that wouldn’t be a good thing now would it?”

“No Father..” Freminet simply answered with a nod, straightening up his black body suit before returning his arms back into the position needed.

“Good.. be sure to not underestimate anything beneath the water. And if you find a mermaid, immediately come back here as soon as possible and report it back to me.”

Again, the boy nodded, before something unusual and unexpected occurred..

Father reached over and put a hand on his shoulder before giving it a light squeeze, as if to encourage him or maybe even.. reassure herself..

“Stay safe. If you feel like you are in any danger that you can not get out of, swim back immediately.”

Her tone was different from any of the previous interactions Freminet had ever had with her..

Sounding almost.. 

uneasy..

It was a particular reaction from her.

Definitely something rare.

Only ever heard around his older brother Lyney, who he had suspected was her favorite of the three of them since he showed potential in being her successor.

Freminet secretly hoped that Lyney wouldn’t go down that path..

He wouldn’t be able to stand seeing his brother react that coldly towards others..

But… that wasn’t his decision..

“Are you ready?” Arlecchino asked simply, her voice going back to its cold tone while she pulled up a couple of the nets from the dock, making it so that they were out of the boy’s way so that the boy wouldn’t accidentally get caught in them.

“Then, take the dive. And remember, be smart, and be careful.”

Chapter Text

“What do you mean by ‘you found one?’” Pantalone asked the eleventh member, clasping his hands together before giving his full attention to the boy.

“And why are you soaking wet?? You’re ruining the wooden floors and carpet with your drenched clothes.” He groaned in exasperation, now sighing as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with a gloved hand.

“You can’t possibly get me to believe that a mermaid tried to drag you down into the water while you were in the boat, mermaids aren’t exactly known for climbing up and onto the docks of ships-“

“It did..! And I have proof!” Childe declared, though only gained a skeptical look from the older man in front of him who was probably fighting back on the impulses of kicking him out of the room to get his soaked clothes and boots off of the newly cleaned wooden floor.

Pantalone was known to be quite a bit of a neat freak when it came to it-

And the man definitely did not like stepping in random puddles of water only to walk away leaving wet footprints everywhere-

Now that was a bitch to deal with.

But, Pantalone supposed that he could ignore that for now.

Ajax would be cleaning his floors later- that was not an option-

And listen to what the boy had to stay, his body staying stiff but his face relaxed enough as to not show his inner irritation.

“So… you say that you have proof?”

At the change back to their previous topic, Childe nodded quickly, taking off his coat.

Which.. got even more water on the damn wooden floors-

God dammit Tartaglia-

The older man sighed, taking off his glasses for a moment to rub at his eyes before putting them back on and adjusting them.

Giving Childe his full attention..

Even though he was definitely not in the mood today-

At the given attention, Ajax quickly took advantage of it, while trying not to get water everywhere-

“Okay- so, I was in the boat. Pulling up the nets in preparation for going back to shore when suddenly, a hand- a um- a clawed hand grabbed one of the nets at the end and pulled it out of my hands-“

When the boy held out his hands to show for his efforts, Pantalone’s eyes widening slightly as a reaction.

As the boy's hands… they were all cut up and currently starting to bruise as to show evidence of getting cut up by the net material.

Dammit- Pantalone had told Dottore that those damned nets were much too dangerous to handle- 

Especially when pulling them up with the added weight of fish and potentially mermaids.

Okay… 

Now The Regrator was starting to believe this boy a lot more.

But there was still one question he wanted to ask..

“Did you capture it? The mermaid? Or did it get away from you?”

And that question was the one that made Childe’s heart sink to the pits of his stomach, his eyes averting themselves to the floor. His legs practically trembling because of his soaked through clothes but also because of the crushing weight of Pantalone’s sharp gaze on him.

Everyone knows that when Pantalone’s eyes are open, that man meant business-

It wasn’t a rare sight by any means-

But that look Pantalone gave Tartaglia was one that he could dare to say that could even make Doctor Dottore shake in his boots-

And that man was too mentally unstable to be scared by anything-

“I- wasn’t able to catch it. It sabotaged the nets by filling them completely with rocks and when I pulled up one of the nets, it grabbed ahold of it and pulled me down with it.”

Now that was even more surprising to Pantalone who looked over Childe for any more marks that were evidence of a struggle.

These things really are more intelligent than they gave them credit for..

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Eventually, both of the humans fell asleep, Cyno in his respective bed and Al-Haitham on the couch-

The man seeming to not want to leave Cyno’s place after dropping off the mermaid who, still was acting quite moody after their small outburst.

Did humans really not know anything about these creatures?

Sure, he hadn’t because his life had always been filled by something.

First school, then… the death of his grandmother.. and then worries about money.

But had no one really cared enough to figure out just how these creatures acted?

That was honestly surprising.. 

but oh well, he couldn’t think about that now..

He should be sleeping-

He knew that.

But it didn’t seem possible at this moment in time, whether it be because he gozzled down a whole pot of coffee this morning-

Or it was because he was still anxious and stressed out about what had happened today.

Either way, he was awake, and NOT happy about it-

He couldn’t help but groan, sitting up from the couch before sluggishly standing.

He was so done with everything at this point!-

He was about to just lay back down on the couch and stay there until something happened-

Well… that was the plan until he heard something..

A soft tune..

A gentle, almost silent whisper.

It was coming from the bathroom..

Could it possibly be something that the mermaids were singing..?

“Palaces of silver and gold cannot be designed overnight~….”

Al-Haitham couldn’t help but creep closer to the bathroom door, pressing the side of his head to it..

“It’s like the saying I've often been told~! No matter the cost, do things right..”

It sounded like… what you would imagine the voice a Siren would possess..

And Oh…

Oh it was so beautiful..

Chapter Text

The mermaids singing was so.. hypnotizing so- beautiful..

He had never known of the sweet songs of these mythical creatures..

Hell, all he knew of them was from fairy tales that told of them simply being a person with a fish tail.

And of course, that they were NOT real.

And that was definitely a lie now that he was able to see two in real life.

At the exact same time.

He was tempted to go in there, see the mermaid while they sang their beautiful song.

But of course, he didn’t want to bother them.

Besides, if he did then there was no way of knowing if they were going to attempt to attack him out of fear of surprise.

He would definitely look like a creep peeking into the bathroom like that through a crack in the door-

But.. he felt almost.. drawn to it.

That was weird.. wasn’t it?

He hadn’t known this mermaid for even two archon forsaken days- 

And yet.. he felt.. different around them.

He wondered if it was the overwhelming feeling of their magic that was throwing him for a loop.

They had to have magic right?-

It wouldn’t make sense for such an intelligent and beautiful creature that looked like they just came out of a story book not have some, right???

Okay Al-Haitham- what the hell are you doing?

You have been standing at the bathroom door listening to one of the mermaids singing for at least a good solid five minutes now-

Get a grip.

Go back to the couch and sleep.

He took one deep breather before doing just that, laying back on the couch annddddd-

Did everything, but sleep-

Damn that pot of coffee-

An exhausted groan was the only thing that he was able to let out of his lips to avoid him from swearing loud enough for Cyno to hear him.

This was not a good night.

Another sigh, and the man was up once again.

His hopefully not too loud footsteps going back to the bathroom door, not even knowing why his half conscious body lead him back to where the mermaids now temporarily (hopefully-) resided.

The singing having stopped by now and replaced it with a tranquil silence.

Which would have been perfect.

If he had been planning on sleeping.

But now, with that idea out of the window-

He took a deep breath before knocking on the door, the singing inside immediately going silent.

Oh shit-

Was he not supposed to be hearing anything?-

Deep breath Al-Haitham- Deep breath-

If one of mermaids asks a question like:

“What do you want?”

Or

“What is it??”

Just answer their question calmly without freaking out- and go from there-

Breathe-

Why are you so nervous right now??

After his knock, everything seemed to fall silent.. that was until one of the mermaids inside the bathroom spoke, The Chef recognizing the voice being that who belonged to the red tailed mermaid.

The one who he had saved from being butchered in his own kitchen.

“Who is it?” They asked, they asked in a quiet almost inaudible voice compared to the one they used while arguing with him.

He wondered if that was because he had spooked them somewhat..

But he still answered.

“It’s Al-Haitham. The one who-“

“The Chef?” Their soft voice interrupted, surprising the human a bit and taking him off guard.

“Yes. Can I come in?”

Now at that question, the mermaid seemed to hesitate. A moment of silence hanging over the air until finally, with a very quiet sound of water splashing, the mermaid spoke once more.

“If you must..” though it sounded like they weren’t very excited to have him come into the bathroom.

Which- he honestly understood.

They were probably overwhelmed with being in a new place after all, especially in just a cramped bathtub with another mermaid beside them.

Al-Haitham still wondered if the two knew each other before they were captured, had they been friends during their time in the actual ocean?

Enough questions though, he thought as he opened the door, trying to be as quiet as possible to see that yes, it had been the red tailed mermaid that had answered him before.

Their matching pair of crimson eyes flickering over to his own, tail still partially coiled around the other one of their kind who was surprisingly still asleep through all of this.

They must’ve been really exhausted from the pain they had gone through today..

“So.. how are you two doing?” He asked awkwardly, and god only knows how terrible he was at making small talk-

The human knew that just by how the mermaids face changed to give him a look that very clearly said ‘you can’t be serious right now-‘

That beautiful red tail moving to splash him with water, solidifying his previous thoughts of them being perhaps angry with him.

And yes, they did succeed in soaking the front of his shirt with water-

And he absolutely despised the feeling of his wet clothes touching his skin-

But- to be honest he had expected it.

So instead of retaliating and perhaps yelling at them, he simply sat down on the bathroom floor tile, next to the tub to give the mermaid his full attention..

His orange and yellow pupils simply looking into their eyes.

“I know that I may not understand your kind. You said that much before when you got emotional.”

“You call that emotional??-“

“I meant.. agitated.” Al-Haitham reiterated, knowing that he had driven many people away from him with his often very blunt statements.

You really have to work on that-

His hands couldn’t seem to help but move as he spoke, trying his best to convey an emotional understanding that he was never able to fully convey with physical words.

“I… want to learn.” That simple sentence alone seemed to surprise the mermaid, looking at him as if he was a mad man.

Which he wasn’t- thank you-

At least not in his opinion.

“And… the first thing I would like to learn from you is.. your name..”

Sure, to a human giving out your name to another human is considered normal, ordinary..

But to mermaid.. giving out their name and family name was… practically a right of passage.

After all.. would you just give out your name to someone who would potentially hurt you?

No..

You wouldn’t..

And yet even though Kaveh had only known this man for a day- not even that-

He felt… compelled..

Maybe it was the sincerity the man showed?

Maybe it was just pure ignorance.

And yet..

“Kaveh… my name.. is Kaveh.”

He answered.

Chapter Text

Kaveh…

Kaveh..

Al-Haitham wasn’t sure what kind of name he had been expecting but it certainly wasn’t that.

He was expecting something more… fish related he supposed.

Certainly not just-… Kaveh-

But not that he was complaining.

Kaveh was a name that was easy to remember, and could roll off your tongue with little to no effort.

Though he still didn’t know what he had been expecting.

“Kaveh. Did I say that correctly? Is there another pronunciation that your kind uses or-“

“No. You said it correctly I suppose.” Kaveh shrugged, shifting slightly which caused the tub of water he was laying in to splash and shift from each movement.

“So, why are you in here without your little companion?” Was honestly the one question that the Chef hadn’t been expecting, knowing that after his answer they would probably ask why he was awake in the first place.

And he honestly would have no answer for that.

Because he didn’t even know if the mermaid would see that as an opportunity to try something.

He didn’t know what-

But the mermaid might!

“He is still sleeping.” But he still answered for some odd reason..

The human didn’t know why though.

“Oh? Are you humans not nocturnal?”

“No.” The Chef answered, his interest piquing at that specific question.

“Are you? I mean- is your kind? And if you are, what specific purpose does that serve?- are the things you hunt usually only up during that timeframe or-”

“Usually during the night-“ Kaveh interrupted, leaning forward with his elbows on the edge of the tub, resting his head in his hands.

“All our prey is asleep and vulnerable, slow to move even if they wake up.”

Al-Haitham nodded, he would definitely have to write that down for future reference..

He wondered if there was anyone in the past who had ever written a detailed report and had ever even had close contact with a mermaid.

Or was all of it just guesses and fairy tales..?

He couldn’t help it but to look back at the mermaid with… would you call it admiration or… was it something else..?

With his beautiful blonde hair cascading down his back..

His red scales practically glittering in the reflection of the bathroom light up ahead, his matching pair of ruby eyes staring at the Chef with an almost curious glint.

“A Chef.. that is what that gray haired man called you, what is that? What does that mean for you humans?”

And that only made Al-Haitham more confused-

The first question in his mind surprisingly being who the mermaid was even talking about.

The gray haired man..?

Who was the last gray haired man that spoke to him-

He thought for a little while before finally starting to let out a rare chuckle.

“You mean my boss?”

“A boss?” The mermaid’s head tilted, head still resting against their hands.

“What is a boss and what do they do? He sounded mean. And you didn’t like listening to him. Was he always rude? Or are you the rude one? I can see it going both ways, you have a rude face-“

“Excuse me?-“

Al-Haitham scoffed softly, before hearing the mermaid starting to chirp loudly as if snickering at him.

Oh that little-

He couldn’t help himself from laughing as well though, feeling the happiest he had in awhile..

It had been awhile since he felt that warmth in his heart..

He never realized quite how much he had missed it..

With a smile, Al-Haitham sighed, resting his elbow against the kitchen counter..

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“So this is where you saw the creature?” Pantalone asked, pointing to the ocean right around where Ajax had been pulling up the nets the night before, having gone out shipping with the other member in the morning just to see if they could tell what had caused such odd patterns. Only earning a nod from the boy.

After that nod, Pantalone hummed before pulling up another one of the nets that Childe hadn’t been in charge of, grunting in the effort of just pulling up what should’ve been one of the smaller nets.

But this one was almost just as heavy as the ones Childe had described picking up!

How the hell had the mermaid tampered with the ones that had only been on the ship for a few minutes???

Was it here with them???

Was it on the bottom of the damn ship?!

When he finally managed to pull it all the way up, it was all the same thing..

Rocks..

And he now also had matching wounds from the net material cutting into his palms.

Damn that hurt!

He raced quickly to look off the edge of the wooden boat, the familiar sight of blue water greeting him as he looked down, but that image soon vanished as a dark shape moved through the water’s surface..

A sharp yellow fin parting through the waters and casting the tides aside..

And the two fishermen didn’t know why then..

But they knew that just by the way the atmosphere changed..

That there was something much more dangerous in these waters that they certainly weren’t going to be able to handle…

Chapter Text

The next thing Pantalone knew, was that sharp claws started ripping through the bottom of the boat, tearing through the wood and metal as if it was simple paper mâché..

And that was what made it even more terrifying.. that, and the sheer size of the claws used to create the damage..

“That’s it!! That’s the one that attacked the ship when I was pulling up the nets!!” Childe yelped in surprise, only falling down moments later as the ship rocked backwards violently while the claws moved to start climbing..

The creature, looking up at them from the waters below, finally poked their head out, horns decorating their temples while sharp teeth made an appearance in their mouth.

They weren’t human..

And yet they didn’t even seem to be fully mermaid either..

They were something else..

Something that could destroy them, destroy all humanity if it truly wanted..

But maybe also something that could help it..

If it wasn’t trying to kill them-

Another clawed hand clung onto the ship, making it shake once more and disturbing the fish in the water underneath them, the two humans gripping onto the edge of the deck for dear life as the ship threatened to capsize.

How was one small mermaid this fucking strong????

Weren’t they only about the size of humans????!

How could they hold this much strengAAAAA!!-

Pantalone shouted in surprise as the mermaids body slammed against the boat, rocking the boat strongly towards them and throwing Pantalone over the side, the man just barely having enough time to grab the edge of the ship again.

FUCK!!-

Instantly adrenaline shot through the man’s system, arms shaking as they threatened to let go of his weight but by some miracle his hands stayed clenched around the edge of the deck.

“Tart-“ he gasped breathlessly, pulling himself up to lay halfway back over the dock with his legs still hanging down towards the cold water below.

Before suddenly he felt something grabbing his ankle, making him shout in surprise once more as his grip tightened desperately to the deck’s wooden railing.

“Tartaglia!!”

At that final shout, Childe was finally able to run across the Deck towards Pantalone, almost falling down several times from the ship continuously rocking back and forth from the creature below.

Eventually though, Childe reached the man, grabbing one of his hands and yanking back the hardest he could, which was pretty damn hard-

Slamming them both into the small staircase that leads up to the forecastle deck.

But before either of them could ask if the other man was alright, a loud noise of snapping wood sounded out.

And they both seemed to know what that meant…

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That monster was climbing onboard..

And neither of them knew or even wanted to know what it was going to do.

Nor what it even wanted.

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The sight of Al-Haitham smiling was a rarity in that of itself..

But the sight of him smiling at someone was never seen before, not even by Cyno.

That was new, and yet Kaveh didn’t seem to even pay it any mind, after all, he had only seen this human on and off for about a day and a half, so how could he know??

But here they were now, the Chef smiling as he chuckled.

But then, Kaveh’s stomach growled.

It growled LOUDLY-

How embarrassing-

Kaveh gulped before blushing just a tad bit, covering his stomach with his arms while Al-Haitham quickly stood up straight again.

“You need any food?”

The Chef asked, tone not even slightly questioning even if it was technically a question.

And Kaveh could only sigh, letting out a rather irritated chirp.

“Maybe-“ he went to answer but quickly changed it once the Chef raised an eyebrow at him, coercing him to tell the truth.

“Fine-“ Kaveh sighed with a swish of his tail, accidentally spraying more water onto the bathroom tiles.

“Yes, I am quite hungry. But I can wait. It’s still dark outside isn’t it?”

“It is.” Al-Haitham agreed, “but I could still find you something to eat. You guys eat fish or-“

Kaveh suddenly laughed, even snorting a bit while Al-Haitham could only stand there in utter confusion as his mind tried its best to process such an unusual reaction.

“Is something I said funny?-“

At his confusion, Kaveh only seemed to laugh harder, loud enough for his fellow mermaid to stir from his slumber as well, looking confused before snuggling back into Kaveh’s chest with a soft smile. His ears folding down as if attempting to block out any other noises that might come from the two talking.

This only confused the poor human more, who was now standing up straight while leaning back against the bathroom counter.

“I’m just going to guess that maybe you guys don’t eat fish…? I mean- I get it if they’re like- your pets or something-“

If they were, he would definitely have to write that down somewhere-

“No no! Just don’t mention eating fish around Tighnari here.” Kaveh quickly reassured while pointing to the mermaid who was currently resting on his chest, making Al-Haitham even more confused.

Oh, so that one's name is Tighnari.. he would have to remember that and tell Cyno about this..

“So he can’t eat fish?”

“His species of Mermaid is strictly vegetarian.”

Oh-

That could’ve been bad-

At the way Al-Haitham visibly cringed at those words, Kaveh only started laughing again.

And he couldn’t help but feel a little bit embarrassed-

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Freminet took deep and leveled breaths as he swam deeper beneath the surface of the water..

Watching as the air bubbles let out from his scuba mask drifted up to the surface, giving him a good sense of direction.

That was one of the first things Father taught him..

If he were to ever somehow get spun around and flipped, unable to move, look up and let out an air bubble to see which way is up.

Because sometimes the water was so dark that you wouldn’t even be able to see the sun’s reflection.. 

Get back onto the mission.

Another deep breath and he started swimming again, smiling softly as he saw all the various ocean life and colorful coral.

He needed to catch fish, that was what Father had asked of him and he would not fail this mission.

He couldn’t fail this mission..

So, he got out his small hand held spear, trying his best to capture as many fish as he could.

But… he couldn’t know how far he had truly swam in..

Not before he found himself suddenly in a dark cave, his eyes widening as he looked around in the darkness..

And who owns this cave?

Well that would be Wriothesley..

The one mermaid who vowed to keep his kind safe from passerby’s who might cause harm to the ecosystem and people in it..

And he, was certainly not pleased by the intrusion of a human in his territory..

Chapter Text

“…a human.. down here?” The mermaid hummed, seemingly confused and frankly surprised by Freminet’s sudden appearance, the boy’s face turning pale as he faced what could just be what would kill him down here.

The boy not being able to even swim back a few feet before a sharp rock was pointed at his gut.. the gray eyes of the mermaid staring back at him as if he was nothing more than a helpless sardine.

Freminet wondered if the man could only see him for what he was, as those gray eyes seemed heavily clouded, a scar running right across them and the bridge of their nose.

The human could only guess that it had been from a very old injury, years before him..

He also wondered if he was in this mermaid’s home..

Though for some reason he highly doubted that option.

“I- um, hi?”

Great job- surely the mermaid won’t slaughter you if you just said hi to it-

Father raised you better than this.

Are you really going to stand being that weak in your fathers image??

No.

“What is your reason for being down here?” The mermaid spoke, directing the topic quickly as the creature's arms crossed.

A particular sternness hardened their gaze..

They truly did not seem particularly pleased with his appearance down here.

And the human couldn’t even blame them for thinking that really.

A random person showing up out of the blue to where you reside one day with a spear coated with blood, staring at you, yeah- he would be pretty freaked out too.

So- he tried his hardest to speak clearly, without stuttering and making a complete fool out of himself.

“I got lost-“ was the first excuse he could come up with, his heart pounding relentlessly in his chest against his ribcage while he watched the creature swim closer, their clawed hand grabbing a pair of metal gloves that glowed even in the darkness of the water.

Were they about to fight him???

Freminet moved back quickly, hands and arms raised to show an attempt of surrender, dropping the spear to the ground immediately and watching as it fell to the sandy ocean floor..

Meanwhile the mermaid just got closer and closer to him..

Almost in arms length before suddenly-

“Wriothesley?” A new voice joined the encounter from outside of the cave, a polite soft knock being the only sound Freminet could pay attention to.

And just that seemed to be enough to snap the other mermaid out of it as they hurriedly removed the gloves they had put on.

“Oh! I’ll be right there, Monsieur Neuvillette.”

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The next moment Tighnari awoke, his eyes winced from the sharpness of the lights above him, reflecting into eyes that were simply not made for witnessing such light.

But… he felt better..

Which wasn’t really that hard considering last night he was writhing in pain- 

But it was the thought that counts.

Were those humans really the ones who had helped him?

What were these white patches they put all over his tail? It reminded him of the white patches mermaids would get from Ich.

And yes, it was called simply that.

He had treated many mermaids before him that had such splotches of white across their usually shiny and pigmented scales.

But these couldn’t be from that disease.

He hadn’t been near anyone who had it recently, and unless it was caused by immense amounts of stress, then he didn’t know how he could have even gotten such a disease.

That made him curious..

So curious that he reached down with a hesitant clawed hand and picked at it.

Only to be then interrupted by the white haired human busting into the room-

And yes, they tried their hardest not to jump-

It didn’t work.

That was proven when, despite wanting to act calm, they made a startled squeak noise that was loud enough to wake Kaveh back up, both of them now alert and anticipating an attack of some kind before Kaveh realized that there was truly nothing wrong.

“What’s wrong? I don’t see anything dangerous.”

And with Kaveh’s confused expression and Tighnari’s face turning bright red from embarrassment, Cyno chuckled softly.

Trying to keep his amusement to himself but it didn’t really work out-

And to Tighnari’s ever more growing embarrassment, Cyno finally seemed to notice his long ears-

The human’s face growing a rather sly grin.

Or was that just mischief?

You could never tell with these confusing creatures known as humans-

Spoiler alert, it was definitely the latter.

The human moving closer as if to simply admire the two mysterious creatures from afar.

Almost nervously..

That nervousness was kind of cute-

What are you thinking??-

“So- would you like some carrots for breakfast?”

Now at the question given to him, Tighnari was certainly confused. Tail splashing lightly against the water in effort to not get anymore water out of the tub and onto the floor.

He didn’t want to make a mess after all, that would be a shame.

“Um, not particularly. Why might you ask?”

And oh dear-

That mischievous smile on the humans face only seemed to widen-

Did he say something wrong-

He sensed that he did.

“You know. Since bunnies like carrots, wouldn’t sea bunnies like the same?”

Oh my sea archons what the hell-

At the loud groan that unconsciously came from Tighnari’s mouth, Cyno’s giggles filled the bathroom.

“What? Don’t be mad, be hoppy!-“

The groans only increased that morning-

Chapter Text

Be… hoppy..?

Be hoppy..?

What in god's name did that even mean??

He wasn’t a land creature.

He couldn’t hop or jump unless the human meant diving into water like a dolphin.

Yeah, he didn’t get it.

But by Kaveh’s amused expression right next to him, he knew that he probably was supposed to understand it-

But- eh-

All he could do was look blankly at the human as they giggled, putting his elbows up on the edge of the tub before resting his head on top of his hands.

“What do you mean by that, human?” Tighnari asked with a curious trill in his voice, tail lightly splashing water from underneath him and helping it circulate through his gills on the sides of his ribcage.

But just as the human cleared his throat in preparation to even begin to explain such odd words, the other gray haired human came into the kitchen again, this time with another shopping bag.

Tighnari had to hold back a gag just from the smell of meat that was emitting from the bag, though he was curious to see what all was contained inside the plastic.

Even if plastic was a very wasteful product and detrimental for the corals and fish of the ocean.

He supposed that he could forgive such waste this time since it was for him and his companions' benefit.

They wouldn’t want to starve now, would they?

“Oh hey Al-Haitham! Back already?” Cyno smiled, interrupting the mermaid's thoughts and made the two mermaids watch as the white haired man wrapped an arm over the Chef’s shoulders in a warm side hug.

And unlike most of the other times, The Chef allowed such touch, not leaning into it or returning it but accepting it nonetheless with a very slight smile and nod of acknowledgment.

“Yes. It seems that the only shops open today were the convenience ones though, so it may not be as fresh as I would like.” He said while looking over to the two mermaids before crouching down to the tubs level, cringing a bit inside as the knees of his pants got soaked from the water that had managed to splash over the sides but oh well.

It was pretty cute how the mermaid's eyes immediately locked onto him like hungry puppies just waiting for food from an owner-

Their eyes even dilating as his hands went into the bag to pull out the food he had gotten for them.

A packaged steak along with shrimp and salmon for Kaveh.

And some lettuce with some seaweed he found near the ocean shore for- what was the other one’s name again?-

Oh right, Tighnari.

He hoped that he wouldn’t forget that-

At the sight of the food options, happy trills filled the room, needy clawed hands grabbing at the items as they began to eat.

Making an absolute mess in the bathtub but- oh well, it can always be recleaned.

He was actually starting to like the idea of getting closer to these mermaids..

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Childe couldn’t help but grab onto Pantalone almost as if he was a child clinging onto the nearest adult that could hold him.

Isn’t that just pathetic..?

He thought it was.

His hand gripping the dagger that was on his belt so hard that his hand shook.

If this thing wanted a fight, that was the only thing he had on him at this very moment.

And that was even more pathetic.

He should have been prepared for something like this to happen, especially in this line of work, but this had supposed to have been a quick check over the nets for Pantalone to see what he had been talking about.

Not get full on being attacked by someone- no, something else that was clearly strong.

The things claws just now gripping harshly onto the Dock, scratching the surface of the wood and leaving clear marks behind.

This wasn’t a normal mermaid that they all had faced before.

Normal mermaids couldn’t just almost capsize a whole ass ship with a simple slam of their body against the edge of it!!-

So what the hell was this thing!?

And what did it want so badly that it was climbing onto a ship for??

“Get back!” Ajax tried to order, sharpening his tone even as the mermaid now looked at him with brown eyes that seemed to glow somewhat yellow..

Its hair a long brown that draped over his shoulders and back loosely while scales covered its body in patches, mostly on its chest and arms.

And of course, a long tail that even rivaled the sizes of small sharks, whipping around almost agitatedly as if to gather momentum to eventually lift themselves up fully into the ship.

Which they accomplished shortly after-

“Should I try to radio the Doctor??” Childe asked in a hushed tone to the one whose face paled a bit.

“No. Not him, get the Knave.” Pantalone answered, his smile forever gone from his face for now before suddenly the ship rocked forward once more, both of the crew members yelping in surprise as they just barely managed to grab onto a stable piece of railing.

The mermaid humming as their eyes stared coldly at the humans in front of them..

Before suddenly, the creature spoke with a soft smile.

The ship moving back down into a stable position.

“Ah, I was expecting more hostile opponents. Well then, I just wanted to speak with you about not fishing out here anymore. If you are not currently busy.”

Through the two men’s heavy panting, the humans gave a look of very obvious confusion to the mermaid.

“What?-“

Chapter Text

What?-

Huh?-

What????

Tartaglia gulped as he raised the small dagger that he had attached to his belt at the creature who looked at him with a simple look of…understanding..?

“I know, I know that you mortals are scared of us.” The mermaid- no.. this was a different thing- the creature spoke, its tail nonchalantly thumping against the bottom wooden boards of the Deck in thought of his next words.

“It is only part of your nature after all, a bit of a shame though-“

“S-stop talking about that all nonchalantly!” Childe growled through clenched teeth, interrupting as he stood up now and put Pantalone behind him even if he was the younger one of the two.

“Instead tell me why you attacked me and just now tried to kill us!”

At that, the mermaid simply hummed, not even acknowledging the fact that a rather sharp blade was pointed towards them, and instead came even closer, his sharp eyes quickly noticing how the blade trembled the slightest bit with each one of his movements.

The boy didn’t want to kill him, or.. were they just in too much shock to process how dangerous he might be?

That was a good question..

And he certainly would enjoy getting an answer to it.

Did humans truly have mercy for his species?

Or were they just trying to get him away because they saw him as “dangerous?”

That was a good question..

“It’s simple.” The mermaid hummed, flopping his tail fully out in front of him to keep balance.

“You hunters have been hurting and killing my people, as well as the creatures in this ecosystem. And that to me is utter ignorance.”

“Why would we stop just by you asking?? You almost knocked the boat over for Archon’s sake!”

Pantalone finally snapped after regaining his composure, now moving to stand beside Tartaglia.

“If you ask me, that’s even more of a reason for why we should be hunting your species. Can they all use such power like you? Or are you just special??”

At those nasty words though, the mermaid- no… the God could only start to laugh…

“Such ignorant words.. Well I suppose I can forgive you for them somewhat. It is a rather strange thing to have powers even if your species usually does not possess such abilities..”

Suddenly the air seemed to grow colder, drawing a chill from even Pantalone’s spine which caused the man to take a step back.

The clack of his boot heel being followed up with only silence from Zhongli..

His partner beside him seeming to breathe heavier under the weight that suddenly surrounded them.

Was it coming from this creature?? How could one simple creature cause the air to grow so heavy that they had to catch their breaths??

Shit-

“Like I said.. I can forgive a lot about what you two have done here to kill my people..” the mermaid spoke again, but with a much more noticeable edge to his voice this time..

“What I cannot forgive, is you Pantalone.” 

What???

Pantalone was about to speak. To retort. To ask why he was not worthy of forgiveness.

He hadn’t done anything.

Only worse thing he did was kill some mermaids to make a profit. That’s nothing compared to other murderers and-

“For manipulating this boy to join you into such crimes..” 

Just like that, the question was answered, only for a second later, Childe’s ankle was grabbed tightly by a clawed hand, and with incredible strength yanked him back and slamming him to the ground..

Attempting to drag him off the Dock of the Ship, and into the cold, icy waters below..

“Pantalone..!!” The young man shouted, hand outstretched as he kicked and thrashed, all while the Black haired Harbinger stood there… Frozen in place..

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Monsieur Neuvillette..?

Who could that possibly be…?

Freminet gulped as the only thing the teen could think about doing was staying in place, stiff as a board until either the two mermaids left together or, the worst option of the two, he would be discovered by yet another mermaid who might just kill him if they found him to be a threat.

Come on Freminet think!!

What would Father say to do in these situations???

Right.. right.

Stay calm, breathe evenly in and out.

Reserve your oxygen tank..

That keeps you alive down here and is the most important thing.

Next.. 

Hide, or fight if there’s nowhere to-

“Who is this?” 

Freminet couldn’t help but almost leap four feet up as he heard a new voice from behind him.

Was this who was Neuvillette??

Was he safe…?

The boy could only gulp as he turned around on his heels to fully see the blue tailed mermaid who had the same shining glittering scales falling along their cheekbones, defining them even more.

It was embarrassing that he almost squeaked in surprise at his sudden appearance.

Pull yourself together.

“A human. I don’t know why or how they came here honestly, but they are holding a bag of dead fish that they had skewered alive. I request staying away from him until I have the situation corrected..”

Freminet gulped again, trying to speak without sending too much of a red signal to himself as well as keeping his breathing to a calm minimum.

“I-I was just on a mission to get some fish. That’s all, really, I can get going now, um goodbye-“

Come on!!- you can lie better than that, can't you??

What is the matter with y-

The human boy almost let out a shriek as he was suddenly grabbed roughly from behind, his small bony wrist clenched in the claws of the black tailed mermaid who gave him a stern look.

“I want you to answer some questions before you go… If you don’t mind..”

Oh dear-

Chapter Text

“What.. kind of questions would you like me to answer..?”

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!!-

You really shouldn’t have asked Father to put you in more dangerous missions to prove yourself worthy of Father’s praises-

Why did he have to have the need for love from someone who probably only wants to make them part of the Fatui..??

This is why you don’t just randomly follow fish into a cave, Freminet!!-

“Well first…” the black tailed mermaid spoke, seemingly deep in thought with a sharp talon to their chin.

“I want to know where you came from.”

Where I… came from..?

Why would they specifically want to know that??

The teen gulped before nodding quickly.

He could just lie-

And pray that he wouldn’t be caught.

He could just lie and everything would be fine-

Father wouldn’t be disappointed, and his siblings wouldn’t be in the line of danger if this mermaid had any ulterior motives.

It was going to be fine.

So, he cleared his throat softly, trying his best to look as non threatening as possible.

Even bending his knees slightly to appear a little smaller.

Even though he was pretty short already-

Lyney had made sure to joke about that a few times but, would always follow it up with a compliment like:

“It makes you able to make less noise during important missions!”

And,

“It makes you less likely to be noticed by the enemy if we were to be attacked!”

But that latter definitely did not seem to apply here-

Dammit Freminet!-

“Umm..” he stammered, laughing awkwardly as the stern mermaid’s eyebrow raised, their arms staying crossed over their chest.

Stay polite.

“May I ask why you are asking such personal questions..?”

Great job Freminet- how long did it take you to come up with that one?

God, he could imagine Father rolling her eyes at his ignorance-

The Mermaid opening their mouth to respond before suddenly being curiously interrupted by the blue tailed Mermaid next to them, their voice quite cold but… kind.

He could tell all that just by a small click the Mermaid made with their tongue to halt the dark Mermaid’s questions.

If you could believe it-

Freminet certainly couldn’t-

The teen almost had enough time to think about bolting it-

But of course, just when the idea came to mind the blue tailed Mermaid cleared his throat.

And Freminet tried so damn hard to not think about the sharp teeth lining the Creature’s mouth..

Not to mention the claws that seemed to be almost three inches long and pointed..

Heavily pointed, may the teen add.

He had no doubt that the creature could flay him without a second’s notice and leave him to die without his siblings or Father ever knowing what had happened..

But the true question was, would these creatures really be that cruel..?

He didn’t quite know why.. but… he doubted it.

“We just wanted to make sure that you would have a safe travel back to your human village.”

The one known as Neuvillette didn’t seem to smile or show any real emotion but, for some reason the teen could sense that this Mermaid was trying to be kind to him, which honestly surprised Freminet who was certainly still confused.

So… they weren’t going to kill me for killing fish around their area?

And… they still believe that humans live in villages together..?

Well technically that could be true for lots of people on earth still, he certainly wouldn’t count where the orphanage was a village.

More like… a town.

“O-oh! Um, no thank you.” He said with a rather awkward smile, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

“I can head back home on my own, thanks for your concern though, I-“

“And your purpose for getting all those fish?” 

Freminet was of course interrupted again by the stern looking mermaid, who earned a momentary glance from their apparent friend.

The blue scaled Mermaid seemed to try and calm the dark tailed mermaid down a bit by coiling the bottom of their tails together.

Could that be their version of holding hands?-

That was… kind of cute-

The simple action seemed to work, the dark tailed Mermaid sighing before offering a sharp toothed smile.

“I suppose that I have been on edge for.. what all has been happening here. Do you know anything about it?”

Oh no-

They were talking about the growing disappearances of Mermaids weren’t they-

Oh shit-

“I- um-“ Freminet’s voice went quiet. So quiet that the Mermaids heads tilted slightly in an attempt to hear anything said.

Freminet was not good at lying, he knew that-

So… he would have to tell the truth.. wouldn’t he..?

“Y-yes..”

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The Knave’s sharp tipped fingers tapped lightly against the railing of the Orphanage’s second floor overhang, looking forward toward the front door, almost impatiently..

It had been two hours since she had sent Freminet out on that mission.

And he should’ve been back by now with time to spare..

But… he wasn’t..

And she didn’t quite know or even understand why she felt so tense.

It was a feeling that had clawed its way into her heart for what felt like years now..

Years since these children had been put into her watch.

Years since she had killed that disgusting man who had dared to look at little girls like prey and saved who she now knew as Lynette.

She despised men like that..

And they only seemed to get more and more common as the days passed.

She should know..

You never do get quite accustomed to blood being on your hands..

At that thought, her continuous tapping against the wooden railing ceased, visibly almost perking up as she heard the front door open, but instead of Freminet being the one coming through, it was Tartaglia and Pantalone..

Curiously drenched head to toe in water..

Chapter Text

Arlecchino raised an eyebrow at the two men who had just walked into the Orphanage while dragging their soaked boots on the floor, almost looking like ashamed puppies who got caught doing something that they weren’t supposed to-

Her heels clacking mercilessly on the floor as she moved to stand right in front of the two who rather abruptly ended her worrying.

Her dark eyes scanning the two pathetic looking men, not even being able to take pleasure in noticing that the young adult- was his name Tartaglia?- shivered slightly under her gaze.

“What happened to have you two soaking wet and dragging mud behind you like disobedient pets?” She practically hissed, mostly at Pantalone who only offered his usual cold smile with shut eyes.

But was that a slight falter in his lips that she noticed..?

How curious..

“We simply slipped while cleaning up the ship's dock, soapy water does that to you.” And despite Arlecchino’s observation, the man answered without a single stumble.

Were they really telling the truth?-

No, couldn’t be. The scent of pure salt was piercing her senses the second the two walked in here together-

The Knave could only sigh in exasperation.

“And yet you two smell nothing like soap or any cleaning products that I know of. Care to elaborate how exactly you two were cleaning the deck and got absolutely soaked?”

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When she got no answers from the humiliated men, she sighed.

“Just go- change your clothes or something. I’m heading out.”

And with one sharp click of her heel, she grabbed her black cloak, draping it over her form and headed out in search for the child who she had sent on a mission..

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Cyno calmly walked through town, it had already been a couple days since the Mermaids had taken up residence in his bath tub and he had just gone out to get them some more food to eat.

Sure, he didn’t really know what they ate.

He had gotten a list of foods Al-Haitham wrote down after observing the Mermaids eating habits. So he knew at least that the green tailed Mermaid- Tighnari respectively, only ate fruits and vegetables. Kaveh on the other hand was more of a mystery.

The red tailed Mermaid ate meat.

Salmon, Herring, Steak.

But also like Tighnari, the other Mermaid seemed to LOVE fruits and vegetables.

It was rather intriguing.

An omnivore like humans.

But so different..

He would be asking more questions about it if he knew how to make them sound less…. Creepy…?

But alas, Al-Haitham and Cyno had something in common.

And that was their blunt tone of voice-

Though at least Cyno could understand jokes and sarcasm-

Al-Haitham- ehh- not so much.

The Chef did like to tease people sometimes though-

And that was pretty funny watching people’s faces turn to surprise whenever they hear the “quiet one” speak up against their bullshit-

Cyno couldn’t help but smile at that thought before stopping in his tracks in confusion.. 

Normally people didn’t go diving into the ocean side anymore.

Too many suspicious sightings of brightly colored fins of “Sharks and Giant Fish” driving everyone away from the waters except for fishermen who still went out, but always in their boats.

Only Cyno and Al-Haitham seemed to know the truth about these creatures though.

And they definitely weren’t just your normal everyday fish.

But a woman.. taller than him, white haircut sharply at an angle with black accents was heading straight towards the water.

Wearing a black latex suit that probably would improve a person’s mobility in the water.

She could be just a normal diver.

They were rare but they showed up sometimes.

And yet… he could sense something different..

Something more.. Sinister..

And he didn’t know why..

But just as the woman dived into the water, he sensed that something was about to go wrong..

Very… very wrong..

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“Y-yes..”

Freminet answered with a shaky voice, unable to stop himself from almost appearing as if he was physically shaking.

This Mermaid could kill you so easily if they wanted to..

If you gave them an answer that they weren’t looking for, you would be done.

Father has already taught you that..

Do you really want to test your luck?

He felt seconds away from passing out, his face pale and his legs turning limp from paralyzing fear as the black tailed Mermaid circled around him, as if examining him to see if he would suddenly attack them.

He wouldn’t.

Freminet knew that he wouldn’t even try to attack these creatures even if they attacked him first.

That’s why Father gets so upset with you in training.

You can’t hurt anything.

At least not well.

Sure, you have a sword, but you left that behind per Father’s warning.

“It is much too heavy to be brought with you. It will slow you down and perhaps in serious cases cause you to drown. Leave it.”

And so he did.

He did. And now, he was in danger.

“You’re very tense, kid. Something wrong?” 

Freminet almost jumped again by the rough voice of the creature who had now stopped circling him and stared straight into his eyes with a cold glare.

The teen gulped, “no, nothing’s wrong-“ he hurriedly said before adding a “sir” to that response.

“And, back to the topic from before I… do know.”

“What exactly do you know?”

“I-“

“Wriothesley please .” The blue tailed Mermaid sighed in exasperation, pressing their face against one of their clawed hands.

“I know that you’re very tense after the disappearance cases that are increasing for our kind but- this human is a child.”

Freminet almost fell over as soon as the Mermaid that was now apparently on his side approached him, their clawed hand going towards his helmet and-

“W-wait!-“ he inhaled sharply before they removed his scuba helmet, covering his nose and mouth and trying to breathe normally so that he wouldn’t drown as quickly.

But with his lungs suddenly working overtime in a panic, alarm sirens rang through his head loudly as his lung filled with water in no time..

His sight.. slowly going blurry as he thrashed and flung himself backwards, getting only a couple feet out of the underwater cave before he was suddenly grabbed again by his arm.

NO NO NO!!-

He thrashed harder, his body starting to seize before the moment he began to pass out… he felt a gentle tug on his arm.

A blur of blue scales that shined a glorious rainbow of colors flashing across his vision before he was suddenly pulled upwards and allowed his head to breach the water's surface once more..

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He gasped sharply, coughing up water as tears suddenly started streaming down his face.

What just-

“Breathe… you’re alright.” Neuvillette spoke, his claws still holding onto Freminet’s arm but not tightly like the other Mermaid did.

The teen couldn’t even speak, still weeping out of pure relief mixed with the remnants of pure panic he had just gone through.

But he was alive…

And he wasn’t going to die..

He knew that as soon as the blue Mermaid started taking his exhausted body back to the Orphanage…

Chapter Text

Freminet continued gasping in air long after the Mermaid took him into their arms, his hands instinctively clinging onto their arm which was also spattered with scales that went up to their shoulders.

He absentmindedly wondered if he was going insane, or if they really were starting to glow with power.

“You are alright now.” The Mermaid- what was their name again?- oh right. Neuvillette spoke to him again, adjusting their hold on him.

“I apologize. I must have forgotten that your species cannot breathe in water without certain… accommodations. I will fully take responsibility for your distress.”

That was when Freminet was finally able to calm himself down, his body going lax as he leaned partially back against the grown Mermaid’s chest, body shivering from leftover adrenaline and cold sea water.

Dear Archons- it’s going to be so embarrassing waddling back into the Orphanage in this state..!

He couldn’t even really imagine Father’s reaction.

She would probably be irritated that he would get the wooden floors soaking wet though- 

Ordering him to get a towel and clean up the floor only after he had taken a clean shower and dried proficiently .

It will definitely be an embarrassing night for him.

As he shivered more, The Mermaid seemed confused.

A very odd chirp noise sounding from their throat as their head tilted.

“You are freezing and yet you chose to go into the deep waters, child? I don’t really understand what would possess you to do so if you were just going to end up like this.

It’s almost sad-“

It really was wasn’t it-

Though all he could answer with was a simple word through his chattering teeth.

“F-fish.”

Wow- what a great answer-

Father would be so proud-

NOT.

He would be lucky if Father didn’t ground him and force him to stay in his room for a month without any company.

Though..

Would Father be that cruel..?

He… honestly didn’t know.

But enough of that thinking now.

Your siblings were probably worried about him..

Just yet another reason for Father to be angry with him..

“I see..” Neuvillette nodded, looking at the small human shaking in his arms, the water below him seeming to move with his body as he breathed in.

He then used his sharp eyes to look ahead, perhaps as though he was trying to figure out where the human had even come from.

An Orphanage.

Where would an Orphanage be.. hmm..

He would go back down and ask Wriothesley if he knew anything about the whereabouts of an Orphanage but with the kid basically almost passed out in his arms, that wasn’t going to be a solution-

“You need me for anything?-“

“Dear Gods!-“ Neuvillette jumped at the man he was just thinking about appearing-

Placing a clawed hand over his chest as if to feign a heart attack.

Before giving a stern look to the other Mermaid who seemed all too amused by his sudden scare.

“And you say that I’m the anxious one. But anyway-“ the Mermaid shrugged his shoulders, “I saw that you guys had been staying up here in one place for awhile, you need help or something?”

“T-the House of Hearth..” Freminet whispered, tired from the panic and barely able to keep his eyes open as Wriothesley hummed before giving him a soft sharp toothed grin, ruffling his hair with a clawed hand.

“Yeah kid.. we’ll get you there.. we’ll get you there..”

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He wondered why Wriothesley’s tone was now so gentle..

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“Annnnnnd…. Tada!!” Lyney smiled brightly as he took off his Magician hat to reveal the small kitten poking their head out, sniffing the air curiously before going back to falling asleep.

“Why must you perform magic tricks when you have no audience right now? We have another show in just a few more days, why don’t you wait until then?” Lynette with her monotone voice replied, sighing as her ear flicked.

“It’s for practice my dear sister!” Lyney only laughed at his sister’s words, smiling even bigger.

“Who would want a Magician who doesn’t know exactly how his tricks would go?? Besides, Rosseland loves being part of the show!”

With a gentle hand, Lyney reached into his hat to pull the kitten out, chuckling softly at the small mew of disapproval that he earned before letting the kitten rest on his shoulder.

The two twins had been outside sparring with each other since early morning, just now coming back inside the Orphanage only to see a soaking wet Pantalone and a somewhat dry Tartaglia.

And that sight almost made Lyney burst into laughter-

The man barely keeping it together but as Pantalone glared at him, he couldn’t seem to help himself-

“W-what happened to you two??” He wheezed, almost falling to the floor as he held his stomach, it wasn’t helping really-

And the two men certainly weren’t amused- 

Lyney would DEFINITELY have to tell Aether about this later-

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It was just way too good to keep it to himself.

Chapter Text

The Knave’s claws practically cut through the tide as she swam swiftly through the cold waters, just beneath the surface to make sure she had enough light from the reflective sunlight that was soon to be completely consumed by the moon’s light..

She didn’t really care for how cold the water felt against her skin, against her bones. She didn’t care about how it could probably take only about twenty minutes in these waters for the coldness to eventually sink all the way into her skin and cause her muscles to lock up.

Therefore drowning her in mere moments..

One of the children in her Orphanage hadn’t returned..

And she was going to find out why.

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It didn’t take long before she noticed a very familiar blonde haired boy just barely above the surface of the water, it was to be expected that Freminet would remember how to keep himself up float on his back in case of emergencies..

What she hadn’t predicted previously however, were the clawed hands on the child’s back.. also aiding in his floating.

Her hand reflexively going towards her belt she had put on quickly before she had left, her belt that had a knife holder attached to it that would be in case of emergency..

“What are you doing with him???” Her words were sharp and dangerous as her eyes glared up at those eyes of the creature that seemed to glow an hypnotic blue..

She didn’t show fear at this moment.

She couldn’t afford to.

Why hadn’t Freminet had just listened and signaled to her that he was in danger???! He had a tracking device on him that all he would have to do was press a button and she would know! So what the hell was stopping him?!-

Her body stiffened as the creature looked down at her with an almost… confused glance.

Their claws loosening a bit on the boy they had been holding.

That’s good.. maybe he would let go fully and she could scoop him up quickly.

“Oh, might you know this boy?” The Mermaid spoke, his face as cold as his piercing eyes.

But.. there was no sense of malice in his tone that The Knave could pick up on..

At least not at this moment.

What was this Mermaid aiming towards..?

Was he planning to hurt Freminet to get back at humans?

No.. that couldn’t be it.

Why else would the Mermaid be taking the boy to the shore without causing any physical harm to him..?

It didn’t quite make sense.

And yet her thoughts went wild with possibilities..

Though, she didn’t show it.

Keeping a cold stone look on her face.

One that Freminet had grown used to..

Fond of, even…

It didn’t make sense that this Mermaid was kind..

“And what if I do?” She chose to question, holding herself back from just pulling Freminet away from him and into her arms.

“Are you going to stop me from taking him?”

“Well…” the Mermaid hummed, arms seemingly going protectively over the boy now.

“I would rather know that he is going somewhere where he wants to be. Where he has been living. So, I would rather know truly if you know this boy..”

Were they really about to start a fight over this right now??-

“Well, how can I prove it then?” She instead decided that it was better to go along with it, her sharp gaze quickly picking up on the fact that the boy was starting to gain consciousness once more.

Why had he been passed out..?

“Freminet.” She let out a firm, yet worried hiss..

Watching as the boy practically jumped in the Mermaid’s hold, his head immediately snapping to attention. “Father..? You’re here..?”

That hadn’t been the reaction that she had been expecting..

It almost made her disappointed..

And yet she didn’t quite know why..

She looked at the Mermaid again now who smiled softly at Freminet, asking a question to the boy that she couldn’t quite pick up on, watching the boy nod.

The Knave was a bit surprised however by the Mermaid seemingly changing their mind quite suddenly, those clawed hands gently moving as if to offer the child to Arlecchino who quickly took Freminet into her arms.

“I-…am glad that we could reach an understanding.” She said, instead of what she had been thinking of saying.

Which would show that she had been mentally panicking-

And she still didn’t know why..

Why did she care so deeply now for this boy, even though she was supposed to be training him as a soldier?

She didn’t know..

And she honestly didn’t care to find out.

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It was morning again when Al-Haitham and Cyno started moving around again, this time their arms carrying the two Mermaids that they had been keeping inside their home for a good while now, carrying them quickly to the edge of the shore and praying that no one would see them.

Their current mission being to hopefully tell if Tighnari, the green tailed Mermaid, has healed enough to swim and therefore survive in the water without much additional assistance.

Sure, it hadn’t been too long since he had been initially injured and rescued but it was always good to see progress if any has been made.

Cyno’s grip on the Mermaid was gentle yet firm, Tighnari smiling softly as his brown eyes laced with green looked up at the human who smiled back.

Meanwhile hearing the argument behind them that was between Kaveh and Al-Haitham-

“Ow! You’re holding me too tight! Will you quit that??”

“It’s not like I’m the one almost falling onto the ground.”

The Mermaid scoffing as a reply- “well I wouldn’t be moving if it didn’t feel like you were trying to hurt me! I am very soft sCALED!-“ the blonde Mermaids words ended with a yelp as the human dumped him in the water, laughing as the Mermaid glared at him.

“What?- you’re a Mermaid but don’t like water??-“ and that was the moment that Kaveh smirked- wrapping his tail around the man’s leg and yanking him forward and causing the Chef to practically face plant into the salty water- 

“I win!” The Mermaid cheered and Al-Haitham couldn’t help but notice himself smiling..

“I suppose I could let you have that win..”

Chapter Text

Arlecchino just didn’t get it..

She didn’t understand.

She was supposed to be training Freminet and his siblings to the bone, to make sure that they would have no hesitation about giving up their lives for the cause.

For the Fatui’s purposes..

And yet, as she carried the boy back home while the fragile teen slept she.. hesitated.

His body exhausted from having swam out that far to gather fish..

She hadn’t yelled at him.

Hadn’t snapped or shown any form of aggression.

Even if she had been.. no… she couldn’t have been worried back there was she??

She wasn’t supposed to be feeling that for the children, she should instead be angry, be strict and wake Freminet up before yelling at him for being so stupid!-

But she didn’t.

The Knave’s heart couldn’t allow it..

And she didn’t understand why..

It wasn’t a feeling that she should be feeling.

It was soft, warm.

Not like her usual tough and almost sharp personality.

She should not be feeling this.

She was feeling something that she shouldn’t be feeling for her best charges.

And that feeling was.. Maternal love..

She realized that just as soon as she made it back to the shore, not even noticing the awkward squeak her black bodysuit made whenever she walked, eyes only looking down at the blonde boy who shivered and trembled in her arms.

I need to get him warmed up..

The boy was small enough that his body could go into shock if it stayed this cold for too long and that would be a whole other problem.

So, with that thought she hurriedly ran into the Orphanage, not even paying much attention to Lyney who was laughing hysterically upon seeing Pantalone soaking wet.

But she did notice his attention immediately turned to her and his adoptive brother in her arms, as did Lynette whose ears pinned back slightly as a sign of worry.

And as Arlecchino went quickly up the stairs to one of the bathrooms, the worried siblings followed, leaving the two soaking Fatui Harbingers in a state of confusion.

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“Did something happen?? What’s wrong with Fremmie??” Lyney was the first to ask, using the endearing nickname he had given Freminet the first day they had met the younger boy..

“He’s fine.” Though with his worry, Arlecchino only responded coldly..

“He just spent too much time in the ocean despite my warnings. There is no time to waste, get me something to dry him.”

Her order was quickly met by two kids running back downstairs to grab a blanket or towel, meanwhile she used quick movements of her hands to take off the boys soaking wet clothes, starting a warm bath as quickly as possible.

“This is why I told you that you weren’t ready for missions that went that far out into the ocean.” She mumbled under her breath, heel tapping against the floor anxiously as she waited for the tub to fill before gently placing the still shuddering boy into the warm water.

Having to fight back against smiling softly as Freminet’s body relaxed as soon as the heat touched the boy’s skin, a light smile on the boy’s face now.

She caught herself as soon as her lips started to curl upward though, snapping back into attention as the two other siblings ran back up the stairs and right to her, practically shoving at least five towels and a couple blankets in her arms.

For some reason, despite her own thoughts of it being rather rude.

She didn’t say anything to correct them..

They were just worried about him, why would she snap at them for that??

Because they aren’t supposed to be worried about each other.

You especially should know that.

And she did, but right now, she couldn’t care less..

“You two-“ 

As soon as she said that, the two children straightened up their backs and gave her their undivided attention.

See?

Just like the soldiers that you wanted…

But.. What if she didn’t want that..?

She toyed with the inside of her lip between her teeth for a few moments before nodding.

“I’ll take it from here.. you two go to bed.”

“What’s the reason for going to bed two hours early, Father?” Lynette’s soft voice spoke, sounding a little confused. Her tail flickering as if it was trying to anticipate something..

“Are we going to be working harder tomorrow than usual?-“

“No.” Arlecchino interrupted, now only gaining Lyney’s attention, the boy tilting his head like a curious cat.

The Knave having noticed that about him..

Sure, Lyney didn’t share his Twin’s animalistic features, but he showed very similar characteristics to one.

It was… intriguing..

“Father..? Are you alright..?”

Lyney seemed a bit worried.

The boy- no, he was a man now even if he didn’t seem like it..

Lyney moved closer to her, as if to tap her shoulder but she quickly gained back control. Pulling herself together with a stern look.

“Just do what I say. Get to bed. Now. . ”

Without another word of protest.. the two twins nodded and hurried to their bedroom..

While The Knave’s eyes softened at Freminet in the bath.. picking the boy up, drying him, wrapping him in a towel and carrying him also to bed..

Maybe she should give them all a day off tomorrow..

The Archons know that they need it..

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Tighnari chuckled and laughed as Cyno tried his best to impersonate how Mermaids were supposed to swim-

Rolling his eyes playfully as he couldn’t help but to find himself liking the man’s antics..

But he was a Mermaid..

And Cyno was a human.

That certainly couldn’t change. 

Not in a thousand years.

But maybe they could just spend just a little more time laughing together..

And maybe then.. it could turn into something more..

Maybe not if Kaveh kept trying to trip that other human with his tail-

Godddd..! Kaveh was going to get them kicked out for good-

Chapter Text

“I-I’m so so sorry Father I-“ 

Were the first words out of Freminet’s mouth as soon as he gained enough control over his consciousness to look up at Arlecchino once more, eyes tearing up as The Knave was silent..

Her hands gently helping him into pajamas as he sat on the bed, shivering from fear instead of the temperature..

Fuck… he was so scared of what she would want to do to him..

Was he always this afraid of her and she just hadn’t noticed before?

How hadn’t she paid attention to just how terrified one of the children were of just her??

She hadn’t even said anything and yet Freminet was acting like a scared guppy in the presence of a shark..

Fuck-

“It’s nothing. Just get to bed.” The Knave whispered, trying to keep the coldness that was naturally in her voice at bay.

He didn’t need that kind of energy right now…

But of course, her voice, even without the cold icy tone, seemed to scare Freminet.

“I-I was trying to get home- I swear..! I remember everything you taught me! B-but there were Mermaids and they..!”

Her eyes widened just a fraction, her head jerking up.

“They threatened you…?”

Before Freminet could even answer her question, she stood.

Leaving the boy in complete confusion and worry as she made her way back to the door.

“Go to sleep now.. I’ll take care of this..”

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Tighnari stuck his tongue out as he tried his best to concentrate on swimming again, you wouldn’t probably believe it but not swimming for a couple weeks makes it much more difficult to swim again afterwards.

God that bath tub had been cramped-

His fins practically all folded down partially because of how squished he had been.

But, Mermaids were known to sleep very close together in their respective pods, coiling their tails together so as to not lose each other in the vast ocean.

So it was understandable that the two would want to stick together.

“Kaveh..! Be nice, they are helping us.” Tighnari chose to scold the blonde, swimming up to him and pulling him back with a handful of his blonde hair, causing Kaveh to whine.

“Hey! Ow ow ow!- quit that! I was just joking..! You can let go now!”

With a huff, Tighnari let go of his friend, looking back at Al-Haitham with a slight apologetic glance which was only met with a shrug from the Chef who was currently drenched head to toe in water.

“It’s fine.” He spoke, though cringed at the feeling of water soaking through his clothes and onto his skin.

“I’ll just have to change and-“ he cut himself off before looking at something in the distance. “… Wait.. who is that..?”

“Who is who?” His friend asked, looking off to where he thought his friend was looking before he gulped.

“Is that the Fatui’s ship????”

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Lyney smiled softly as he awoke in the morning, only for his heart to skip a beat as his thoughts from last night poured back in, causing him to hop out of the bed and rush towards his little brother’s room.

Only to stop in his tracks with mild surprise at seeing that Father was sitting on the edge of Freminet’s bed, one of her blackened clawed hands pressed against the teen’s forehead as if checking for a temperature.

Her eyes unusually soft as her other hand gently pressed a thermometer into Freminet’s lips.

Lyney took a soft breath in before putting on a smile, gently knocking on the door before cracking it open to peek his head in.

“Father..?”

The Knave did not raise her head to face him, she didn’t even move before she answered him.

“Yes Lyney? What is it.”

The man gulped before cracking the door open more, going into the room fully now.

“Is Frem alright..? He’s not too sick is he?- he’s not in danger?-“

“He is fine.” Arlecchino interrupted, pausing for a moment as she noticed her tone was sharp again.

“Just a mild fever for right now.”

“Oh thank the Archons..” Lyney breathed, smiling a bit brighter.

“Don’t worry Father, I’ll take on his work for today as well as my own so that he can get some rest. If- that would be allowed-“

“You aren’t going to be working today.” Father interrupted yet again, she seemed to be getting a habit of doing that.. and yet she didn’t quite know why.

“I’ll allow you and your siblings the day off, do as you please. Just come back to The Orphanage for dinner.”

She bit the inside of her lip as she saw Lyney’s shock in his eyes, the boy standing completely still as if he was processing what the hell she had just told him-

Had she really not given them any off days recently??

“Are you sure Father..? I mean- you don’t need any help or anything?? We can just… do what we want for today?? Really??”

The Knave raised an eyebrow, “that is what I said, is it not?”

And just like that, Lyney was out the door-

Only a yell of “Thank you Father!!” Being heard as the boy ran out of the Orphanage and to somewhere else she couldn’t know…

Maybe he was going out to meet someone..

Hell, he hadn’t even bothered to dress into his usual outfit-

Still in his pajamas.

That was kind of amusing..

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“Hey..! Aether!!”

Chapter Text

Aether looked ahead quickly, a slight smile on their face as they saw Lyney running towards them, almost tripping on a rock in his hurry which made The Traveler chuckle, walking over to the overly excited magician who had caught himself just in time.

That wasn’t before Lyney had practically fallen into Aether’s arms though-

But The Traveler didn’t seem to mind, laughing as they helped Lyney stand up straight once more.

The Magician almost wished that he had his hat on him to hide the slight blush that appeared on his face for that embarrassing moment-

Lyney’s hands gripping onto Aether’s forearms to regain his footing only to laugh awkwardly.

“My my, it seems that this Magician is rather clumsy today- I apologize.”

He quickly stood back up completely straight before wiping his clothes off as well as Aether’s, which again made them chuckle.

“There’s no need for all that, I’m used to getting a bit dirty now and again.” And with the Traveler’s smile Lyney could just barely hold back from blushing even more, looking into the Traveler’s eyes.

“I still do apologize- anywayyy-“ The Magician tried to change the topic, turning his head to the side.

“My Father let me have an off day today! So, we can do whatever we want if you want to- you know- hang out-“

Dear Archon’s he sounded so stupid and flustered!-

Stop that!

“Really?” But with another one of Aether’s smiles, he couldn’t help himself from turning bright red at the cheeks-

“Y-yes! Really! My ami…”

He sounded a bit disappointed while saying that..

Much rather wanting to say mon amour..

But thankfully the other didn’t seem to notice his tone shift, just keeping on their regular smile as they both walked together.

“Well then let's go fishing? Paimon’s back at the motel sleeping so we got some time to kill.”

“Are you sure you don’t mean the Emergency Food?”

Aether then proceeded to practically wheeze as they laughed, “I suppose that I did say that didn’t I??”

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Fuck fuck fuck!!-

Al-Haitham internally swore to himself before quickly gathering the red tailed mermaid into his arms, Kaveh definitely not retorting this time as his claws dug into Al-Haitham’s shoulders.

Meanwhile Cyno did the same thing with Tighnari, being extra careful with his hands so that he didn’t accidentally touch some of the Mermaid's still healing wounds.

It was dark outside..

They had made sure that it was well into the night before they came outside with the two “Forbidden Creatures” so that they wouldn’t be seen.

Well.. at least properly-

But that made it all too easy for the two humans to fumble and almost fall over sliding sand and all too pointy rocks.

Shit!-

They barely had enough time to hide behind the rock wall that surrounded the shore, the humans covering their mouth as they heard the ship breach the sands edge..

“Tch, another failed search.” A woman’s voice spoke, cold as ice but for an odd reason Al-Haitham could practically feel heat pouring off of her.

“Be patient La Signora…” another voice, this time male purred in response to the woman’s irritation.

“You can’t rush The Hunt…”

Cyno could practically see the smirk on the man’s face as he said that, subconsciously holding his breath as the two strangers walked across the shore, only about fifteen meters away from where the four were hiding..

“Hmm.. I suppose you’re right Doctor Dottore..”

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The Knave hummed softly as she started absentmindedly picking up things in Freminet’s room, tidying it up while the teen slept still, Arlecchino checking his temperature every so often to make sure that it hadn’t changed drastically.

Which thankfully it hadn’t so far, still staying up at a slight fever but she knew that the boy seemed to be getting better.

His body had stopped trembling so heavily from the cold.

Though they also just might be from her having used her own Visions help in that regard..

She would never admit that though..

She would never admit to the other children or fellow Fatui members that just an hour ago she was frantically trying to help raise Freminet’s temperature that in just that short amount of time dropped into dangerous territory..

No.

She would not let a word of that come from her lips.

She was not supposed to care, she was not supposed to act all Motherly to children soldiers.

But she was cracking..

Even she mentally admitted it..

And she almost dared to even accept that fact.

She sighed..

What was going to do now that she thought these things..?

“F-Father..?”

Her body immediately stiffened before she quickly turned on her heels to see Freminet now looking at her with his blue eyes, one hand daring to reach out for her..

In the past..

Freminet had reached out for her..

But she would always discipline him swiftly.

How dare he think that she would show such weakness to him??

Compassion??

Now though.. she gritted her teeth and went to him without complaint.

Her blackened clawed hands suddenly wrapping themselves around the boy whose eyes widened..

And when Freminet finally got the courage to wrap his frail arms around her..

She officially broke.

Chapter Text

Tartaglia hummed in thought as he sat on the ships dock..

Absentmindedly kicking his feet back and forth as he looked up at the clouds in the beautiful blue sky.

It was a nice day out today.

Nice enough that he could imagine his brothers and sisters happily running outside back at home, laughing and giggling at their own antics.

Yes.. it was a nice day out today.

The Knave had kicked him and Pantalone out of the orphanage after they had been fully dried off, leaving them to go wherever for the night to rest which led Childe to now.

And for some odd reason.. he couldn’t stop thinking of that day that Mermaid- that- Monster had tried to drag him into the waters below..

All while he struggled and thrashed.. Kicking and screaming while Pantalone stared at him with wide eyes before the man had snapped out of it and grabbed a broom that would have been used to clean around the ship.

Before launching himself at the creature and hitting and yanking Childe free from the Mermaids claws.

Only for them both to fall into the salty ocean and get soaked-

Yeah- definitely not a great day-

But it was odd..

Why had the creature been so determined to drag him into the water..?

Did it want to kill him?

Would it keep coming back until it finally finished that goal?

Did it need him for something..?

What could it possibly-

“You humans are very intriguing..”

Oh my Archons-

Tartaglia gulped before hesitantly looking down into the water below, seeing the all too familiar pair of brown orangey eyes staring back up at him..

The creature was on its back, calmly floating on the surface of the ocean while their tail swished softly in efforts to keep them afloat.

He could imagine that Mermaids, since their tail is the part of their body with the most muscle mass condensed into one area, that they were probably a bit more heavy than humans.

Or, at the very least, much stronger and body abled than just your average human person.

“What do you mean by that..?” He found himself asking after a few minutes of shock, his body immediately getting chills running all the way through it.

But then he chose to ask a different question..

“Why did you try to drag me into the water with you? Were you trying to drown me or something!?” He dared to snap at the creature, quickly standing up to instead glare down at them with anger.

“No.. I was actually trying to save you. Maybe even your partner if I could’ve gotten ahold of him.. but of course, you know what happened with that.”

Tartaglia couldn’t help but laugh at that response, scoffing.

“You were trying to drown us! Capsize our boat and kill us! How would you have-“

“You two have been just above a very dangerous area for humans.” The Mermaid interrupted, moving themself to use their arms to pull themselves up onto the dock, sitting down a couple feet from the man.

“Unless you want to get eaten alive by Sirens.”

Tartaglia’s eyes were wide at that..

“What do you mean…?”

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The Knave held back a soft smile the best that she could, her grip tightening just a bit on the boy who let out a soft squeak of surprise.

God- she really needed to give these kids more attention didn’t she-

And maybe- some more affection-

If she didn’t get caught-

This would be a bitch to explain to the other Fatui members-

But she could focus on that later..

Right now, she could only pay attention to hugging Freminet who, in his shock, stiffened a bit at her attempts to show affection.

“Father…? Am I not in trouble for not-“

“Hush.” She interrupted the childs words yet again.

Why did she keep having to do that??

Why does she keep having to repeat this??

Why DOES she repeat herself without consequences?

She didn’t know, and yet she couldn’t find it in herself to care.

“I will forgive your lack of communication regarding what you have gone through.” Her voice oddly softened, using a single claw to lift the boy’s chin up to look at her red X pupils.

The Knave tried her best to ignore the boy’s minor flinch at the “threatening” touch.

“But next time..” she breathed, her eyes oddly seeming to soften as the boy looked at her.

“You can not. I repeat, can not afford to wait in signaling me for any reason. Unless, the Mermaid you met was threatening your life and you were put in danger. Do I make myself clear?”

“Y-yes.. Father.”

Those innocent blue eyes seemed to gloss up and god dammit!!- why was she feeling bad????

“Good-“

She could barely get the single word out of her lips before the boy suddenly stood up, trying to hurry out of the room with purpose.

Oh shit- she forgot to tell him to take the day off to rest-

“Freminet..!!-“ 

Which led her to hurriedly chase after the boy who had tried to make it to the water before she could have caught up.

Almost as if he was trying to escape her sights before he broke down..

“Freminet!”

The teen’s shoulders jumped slightly before looking back at her.

A couple of tears running down his freckled cheeks..

Just from that alone, Arlecchino knew that this was going to be a tough day-

Chapter Text

Al-Haitham covered his own mouth quickly as sweat gathered at his brow, his body growing rigid as his senses increased.

The sound of footsteps moving across sand filling his hearing until that was all he could hear.

Well that and the racing of his heart..

His free hand instinctively searching before gripping tightly onto Cyno’s, which squeezed back as a response.

The two Mermaids in their arms being dead silent now as they waited..

Waited for the small bouts of laughter from the two strangers to pass them.

Waited for the heat wafting from that woman to die down into the cold night air once more.

And finally, it did.

The two strangers wander off into the darkness and are unable to be seen by a naked eye.

Leaving the two humans breathless as they took in air, looking back at each other for a moment before running back home with the two Mermaid’s.

Praying that they hadn’t been noticed by the two strangers who definitely looked like bad news..

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Lynette yawned softly as she awoke later into the day, sitting up to stretch before her ears quickly stood up in surprise. Her eyes having wandered to her alarm clock to see that it was already well past the usual time Father would have gotten her up for work.

What would Father say if she noticed that she hadn’t gotten up automatically at the right time??

She sprang up quickly out of bed, grabbing clean clothes to put on haphazardly before running out of her and Lyney’s shared room, only to run into The Knave who had been carrying a tray holding a variety of breakfast foods.

Lynette wasn’t usually the type to even think about saying bad words but- shit!-

“I’m very sorry Father-“ her words automatically stumbled out, not even noticing that during the clash she had begun to fall, only to then feel one clawed hand of The Knave wrapping itself around her shoulders, stabilizing her as well as keeping the tray of food untouched in her other hand.

The girl expected The Knave to scold her, to snap at her for being so reckless.

Her ears were already pinned back with her tail twitching sporadically in anticipation for such a reaction but… none came.

Why was Father not angry..?

“It is fine. Just slow down, there is nothing important going on today.” Arlecchino spoke again with a cold tone, but it was oddly soft.

Was she really not angry?-

No, she must be- she must be just acting like she isn’t as a sign to make Lynette apologize again.

That must be it-

“I’m still sorry for running into you Father, I must’ve made you almost drop the food you’re carrying.” Her ears folded down more as she bowed her head, stabilizing her feet to stand straight again.

When nothing followed her apology though, she was confused.

Keeping her head bowed before almost jolting back as one of Arlecchino’s hands gently pressed onto her head, as if to comfort her..

What was going on here-

“There is no need for that. Here.” She was then handed the tray of food Father had been carrying.

“Make sure that this is brought to Freminet. Then, you will come downstairs to breakfast with the other children to eat. You will not be working today.”

And as if that hadn’t been the most shocking sentence that Lynette had ever heard, The Knave simply just- walked past her to go to her own room-

Huh???-

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“So Lyney..”

Aether hummed, their hands lightly grasping a fishing rod in their hands as they looked out into the small pond.

“You never really told me anything about your father, what’s he like? He seems really strict.”

Oh shit-

Lyney’s face almost dropped in seconds but he kept a smile.

“I-… suppose you could say that. Sh- He doesn’t really let us go out much unless it’s to do little- things around the yard. You know, cutting the grass and getting out sticks so that my other siblings don’t hurt themselves while playing.”

Aether frowned at that, “it must be hard to have all that pressure on you as an older sibling.” Their eyes looked over to him, “Have you ever talked to your Father about it? To lay off some pressure? If you ever need some help I bet that I can come over with Paimon sometimes, her flying really could help-“

“No no!-“ Lyney laughed awkwardly, waving his hands about nervously. “It’s fine! Us older siblings got to help the younger ones out! Me and Lynette usually clean the yard in only about twenty minutes anyway. It’s no big deal.”

“Lyney..” The Traveler sighed, “if you don’t tell your father that he’s working you too hard it will never change. I’m not usually one to give advice but- your eyes- they have really dark circles around them.. have you been okay?”

“I’m fine-“ Lyney smiled bigger.

As if that would fix everything in his life-

“Really, just a little sleepy. I’m okay.. This Magician can last through anything the world throws at him!” Lyney said proudly, pressing a fist to his chest while looking up at the sky like a superhero, and this made The Traveler laugh.

It was a pretty amusing sight While Lyney was still only in his pajamas-

“Alright… if you say so.” Aether shrugged, their eyes moving to stare ahead once more.

“But why don’t you take a small nap then? You’re exhausted and I can deal with fishing alone.” The Traveler cracked a teasing smile, their amber eyes glinting back at The Magician.

“You sure that’s okay?”

They smiled, nodding as they pulled Lyney closer, having him land on the log they had been sitting on with a small ‘oof!-‘ 

And soon enough, The Magician had fallen asleep.

His head slumping over onto their shoulder…

Not even having enough energy to blush as he heard Aether laugh softly before brushing hair out of his face.

“Sleep well…”

Chapter Text

Arlecchino sighed as she went to her room after bumping into Lynette, sitting down on her bed to process what had happened in the short amount of time.

Before Lynette had woken up she witnessed Freminet on the brink of tears at the edge of the ocean.

Why?

Why would he pick that spot specifically to begin to cry?

And… is that why he always ran away from her whenever she scolded him harshly?

Was he hiding his tears by being underwater??

Well that certainly wasn’t healthy-

She sighed again before standing back up, looking at the mirror attached to her dresser to look at her messed up hair.

She was a mess..

She had tried her best to not show it though, getting Freminet back inside and eating breakfast to maybe make him feel better through this time.

The Knave wondered if the children knew of her mentality cracking..

It seemed so obvious to her..

But maybe her cold glares every once in a while would make it so that she wasn’t seeming to be at war with herself.

So, she took a deep breath, looked coldly into her mirror and left her room, heading off to the kitchen.

Her heart secretly hammering inside her chest as she watched a couple the older kids of the orphanage cooking food and trying their best to not burn it-

They were technically not the oldest in the whole orphanage, Lyney and Lynette took that place, but they were older than Freminet nonetheless.

“You four, I can take it from here.”

At her words the kids stiffened before smiling softly, all saying their good mornings to her as they rushed to prepare the dining table, Freminet being the first one sitting at a chair with a penguin plushie in his arms, the boy holding it to his chest.

Arlecchino could still remember Lyney and Lynette saving their combined cash that whole year to get Freminet that plushie along with some extra gifts for his birthday years ago..

And she could also still remember the boy's smile that day when he saw such gifts..

It made her slightly wish that she had gotten him something for his birthday that year as well…

“Freminet.” She called, having the boy perk his head up to attention.

“Yes Father..?” 

Without another word, The Knave walked over with a steamy bowl in her hands, placing down the freshly made meal of Poisson Seafood Soup onto the table in front of the teen whose eyes widened.

“Wha- Father, it isn’t lunch time yet and-“

“It is your favorite, is it not?” She interrupted yet again. “Besides, you’re still sick, a warm soup helps with that and you cannot do anything while you are in such a condition.” She spoke almost warmly before returning to the kitchen, turned away from the dining table but was able to catch a glimpse of the smile the boy had from the corner of her eye..

Unable to stop a smile herself as she plated the rest of the breakfast food and put it down at the table.

“Now. Let us eat.”

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Lyney yawned as he awoke slowly after about an hour or two, blinking slowly for a few moments before rubbing at his eyes.

And that was when he remembered where he was-

Holy s-

His body immediately straightened up as he looked over at Aether who laughed softly at his sudden reaction, their hands still holding onto the fishing pole that they had been holding when Lyney was awake.

Another yawn from the Magician and Aether smiled softly, a bucket by the Traveler's feet showing that they did in fact catch quite a bit of fish while Lyney had been sleeping.

Lyney did wonder how exactly he hadn’t woken up during any of the catches though, fishing can be stressful-

“How long was I out for?” 

“Eh, not long.” The Traveler shrugged, “you did keep making an odd noise from your throat though, are you sick?”

Now that question made Lyney’s cheeks extra red.

Why didn’t you bring your hat, Lyney??

You could have hidden your face if you had!-

“Oh um- that?- well, you know how my sister has the cat ears and tail from genetics right?-“

Aether nodded, putting the fishing pole down to instead give The Magician all of his attention, his hands moving to rest down on his lap.

“Go on.”

The blush on his face only intensified at the increased attention-

“Well- I may not have the physical attributes that she has but- I can still act like I do sometimes. And that includes…-“

“Were you purring?? ” Aether asked, connecting the dots quicker than Lyney had anticipated and only increased the amount of embarrassment that The Magician felt.

“Probably…? I-its complicated!”

The Adventurer laughed hardly, practically crying as Lyney thought about throwing himself into a ditch and never coming back out into the open air again until a millennia passed-

But just as he was about to scurry away as fast as he could, Aether grabbed his hand, pulling him back down and even closer than before.

Oh dear Archon’s he was so close to sitting on Aether’s lap that he could feel their breath..!!!-

His whole body stiffening up in anticipation for something to happen.

Would it finally happen???

“A-Aether..? Why did you pull me so close and what are we-“

The Traveler suddenly blushed, a hand moving to gently cup Lyney’s cheek.

“May I… do something that I actually want to do except for all these missions and tasks?”

Lyney almost lost all his breath at this moment, feeling the Traveler’s gentle hand run its thumb over The Magician’s soft cheek, their other arm wrapped around Lyney’s back to keep him from falling backwards and off the log.

“Yes..” Lyney breathed before finally soft lips pressed against his, his entire body relaxing and leaning into the kiss with everything he had.

Mon Amour..

Chapter Text

The one simple kiss turned into two soon enough, then three, four, five. Until they were just unable to keep count anymore.

Lyney had wanted this so badly..

Hell, he even dreamt about it before.. But now that it was actually happening was shocking.

He pulled himself closer, hands clenched in Aether’s shirt fabric as the two enjoyed each other.

Not stopping until the both of them panted for sweet air, both of their lips mildly swollen from how much they had kissed.

Lyney’s purple eyes even tearing up a bit just from the thought of finally having the one that he had flirted with all this time return his affection.

The Magician looking downright smitten as he panted with his cheeks being slightly flushed, his hands not knowing what to do with themselves as they kept hold of the back of Aether’s shirt, The Traveler only smiling at him more.

Their amber eyes being more than enough to make the ole Magician feel faint-

Is it hot in here??

“Are you alright Lyney?” Aether chuckled, their eyes sparkling up at The Magician who could only smile like an giddy idiot back-

“Y-Yeah..! Of course I am, I-eee..!!” He squealed as Aether’s warm hands grabbed his thighs gently, pulling him forward so as to make sure that he didn’t go tumbling backwards, but of course at the sudden noise, Aether looked a bit concerned.

“I’m sorry- I should have asked before touching you there I-“

The Traveler was then interrupted by Lyney’s laughter, the man only responding by wrapping his arms even tighter around Aether’s shoulders who smiled and adjusted the Magician who was happy to stay in his lap.

The two staring longingly into each other’s eyes as they both smiled, “I love you.. Mon Amour..”

Aether smiled just a bit brighter, “I love you too.. Do you wanna maybe come back to the hotel room with me?”

Lyney’s face couldn’t help but become even more red at the slight implication that he was getting from The Traveler, but despite that, he nodded.

“I would love to..”

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Arlecchino couldn’t help but smile as she watched the Orphanage children eating their meals, Freminet with his seafood soup while the others happily shared pancakes and syrup.

She didn’t even try to scold them about how messy they made the table-

And she didn’t quite know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The youngest children being as chatty as children their age should be, engaging her with conversation that she usually did not entertain them with, but for some reason.. this time she did.

Answering their curious chatter and nonsense, not even displaying a hint of annoyance at such… ignorant questions.

They were children..

They were.. all just… children..

Her own heart softened even more as she silently ate her own food, noting how Lynette had finally come down stairs to join the meal, her ears still slightly downturned as if anticipating something from her.

From Father.

But the Knave did not speak..

Simply motioning with a blackened hand to a seat at the grand table which..

Lynette took despite her obvious unease.

Arlecchino noticing just how her tail twitched sporadically to show her unease..

“Lynette, are you alright?” The Knave asked, not even believing that she was letting herself show a bit of concern in this situation.

Did she forget that she had to be cold towards the children??

What if the other members of The Fatui find out that you’re spoiling these children??

She took a breath to calm her thoughts before she noticed the girl gulp and turn her head down to stare at her plate.

“I am fine, Father. There is no need to worry about me, I apologize again for bumping into you back in the hall. It was rude of me to not think about the possibility of someone also going through the hall at the same time.”

Arlecchino could almost groan-

“Cease your apologies. I already said that it was alright now. Didn’t I?”

Lynette gulped, her ear twitching.

“Yes Father.. you did.”

Another sigh came from the woman’s lips.

How was she going to make sure that the children understood that she wasn’t going to be.. like how she always was in the past..?

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“What are you doing, Dottore?” Pantalone tiredly asked, as if he hadn’t slept for days on end.

His eyes closed to keep them from witnessing The Doctor’s crazed grin as he worked on his continuous experiments..

“Ah, Pantalone, what a joy to see you here.” Dottore smirked, as if he had been waiting for the other Harbinger who only rolled his eyes once he finally opened them, backing away slightly and showing a bit of unease just from the Doctor’s pure utter joy.

“What are you even doing in here?” He covered his nose but to no success.

The random slab of meat on the Doctor’s table really didn’t seem to help his case.

“And what is that horrendous smell? It smells like something has died in here.”

Doctor Dottore only chuckled, oddly twisting his body as if trying to dance around in excitement.

“It’s nothing..! I’m just trying to extract a few stubborn scales from the latest specimen that you found! Nothing big.”

This Doctor was going to drive him up the walls-

Chapter Text

The day soon became a untangle of limbs for the two men as The Traveler led The Magician back to their hotel room, both of them never leaving each other’s lips for long as both their minds fogged.

Hands freely exploring one another’s body as they kicked off their shoes, and yet with each touch left even more longing despite not being apart for long.

Lyney’s mind unable to fully grasp what was about to happen if they continued and yet, he found that he didn’t exactly care.

He wanted more of whatever it was..

Only being brought back into the moment fully when his back made contact with the bed sheets now underneath him, cradling his delicate body as the mattress sank.

This was really happening..

Wasn’t it..?

The Magician had heard from many that this may be a source of fear for other people, a source of nervousness that wouldn’t go away until they began.

And yet he felt no such fear.

He felt no such shame or worry.

Just pure utter joy and excitement..

His body unintentionally squirming a bit as The Traveler kissed along his neck, leaving the tender skin practically tingling from the attention.

The Magician now looking up at Aether with lust, eyes half lidded as he held himself back from begging for more.

“W-what about Paimon? Will she hear us?”

Of course that was what Lyney was worried about.

They should have considered that possibility sooner..

Aether thought, moving back for a moment before shaking their head.

“She usually sleeps like a rock and I have to physically shake her to even attempt to get her up. We have time…” They practically purred, leaning down to say those words directly into Lyney’s ears, which like his twins, were very sensitive to touch.

And if he wasn’t already lying down flat onto the mattress, he could bet that his knees would have given out from underneath him in mere seconds.

Dear Archons this was better than he had ever imagined..

Lyney couldn’t help but let out a slight whine from his throat, needy and pleading with the Traveler above him to keep speaking those sultry words..

It practically consumed his thoughts..

“Mon amour please.. ” his hands quickly went to caress Aether’s face, The Traveler smiling and leaning into the Magician’s touch.

“Alright.. Only because you’re so polite-“ they teased before kissing him mercilessly all over his face, making Lyney giggle and squirm.

“I suppose this Magician has just learned that he’ll get what he wants if he’s polite enough.” He teased back, earning another soft kiss on his nose.

And that of course made him blush even harder, a few moments later feeling Aether’s hand sneak up his torso from underneath his shirt, which caused him to shiver.

The reply made Aether chuckle softly, “I suppose that’s true, you are very polite when you need to be.” 

Another moment passed and Lyney’s pajama shirt was discarded quickly onto the floor, The Traveler now kissing along The Magician’s collar bone which only caused the man to squirm more, whispering “Mon amour..!” over and over again, each getting breathier and harder to hear.

But that was how Aether knew that the Magician was enjoying himself, a smirk appearing on their face as their hands continued to wander, one going very slowly down to Lyney’s lower abdomen..

This caused Lyney to gasp, covering his mouth quickly as his hips unintentionally thrusted forward, begging for attention that the other wanted to give him so easily..

They could take their time on another day, but today, Aether wanted to give Lyney what he had been missing all along, and what exactly he has been longing for…

“May I-“

“Dear Archons yes!” Lyney interrupted, insisting that Aether ravaged him right here and now before anything else might happen.

He needed this.

He wanted this.

He craved this so badly..

So when The Traveler took off his pants with steady hands, he couldn’t help but to tear up happily in anticipation.

But of course, along with his tears Aether immediately stopped to look at him with a slight look of surprise, almost as if he was startled.

“Are you alright? Am I going too fast? Oh dear- I didn’t even ask if you wanted to be the one on top or bottom- I apologize-“

Their lips were quickly silenced though by Lyney’s, The Magician pressing his whole chest against theirs as his hands went to tangle themselves into Aether’s long hair which had been completely undone by now from its usual nice braid.

The kiss only breaking when Lyney pulled away to breathe.

“Just do whatever you want to me… please, Mon Amour… ” he gasped before gaining a small smile from his love.

“Then just relax…”

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Arlecchino raised an eyebrow as she saw a familiar face on her Orphanage’s doorstep as soon as they finished their breakfast.

Actually, make that two familiar faces.

“Doctor Dottore… I did not receive the word that you were going to be coming here.. what do you want.” That last part wasn’t a question, if you knew the Knave well enough then you would know that the second her tone shifted to sound as cold and as sharp as icicles..

The Doctor giving a sharp and dangerous grin back..

“I don’t know… I just heard rumors that your children have come into contact with Mermaid’s recently… Don’t worry…. I’ll be nice~…”

Arlecchino doubted that, but sighed .

“Fine. But only three questions. And only you shall be entering, Pantalone will stay outside.”

Dottore giggled, “Perfect then…”

Chapter Text

Three questions..

Arlecchino thought as she crossed her arms, a pointer finger tapping rather anxiously against her skin in impatience.

She had a smile on though..

A wide smile.. 

a smile showing that nothing was wrong.

She was a perfect actor..

Pretending as if she did not seem to care that Dottore, a man known for causing pain and agony wandered through her territory without regard..

He was only trying to push her nerves.

She knew that.

Yet she couldn’t help but feel aggravated when The Doctor gave an all too familiar smirk as he turned towards the children.

His red eyes being covered by that useless mask that he wore-

Why did he even wear that ugly thing??

To appear even less human??

Whatever the reason was for it she could guess that she wouldn’t like it, her arms crossed as she stared daggers from across the room where Dottore now stood in front of Freminet, arms behind his back.

What the hell was he thinking about asking..?

Arlecchino could only guess..

Though as a few minutes passed with no questions or even movement from The Doctor, The Knave grew impatient. Watching as Freminet’s eyes widened at Dottore’s attention and quickly looked down at the floor.

“Are you trying to intimidate the child or are you going to speak already?” Arlecchino snapped, “I am not in the mood for your games Dottore.”

That only caused Dottore to let out a sick chuckle though, “calm down Arlecchino.. I know how hard you work to make sure our little soldiers are nice and healthy~…” the man bent down to pinch Freminet’s cheek playfully, only fueling The Knave’s rage more as the boy shivered at the attention, hugging the penguin plushy in his arms ever the more tightly.

This also seemed to infuriate Lynette as well.. 

The girl quickly getting up and in between her brother and the Doctor, wrapping a protective arm around the teen’s shoulders.

“I don’t think he wants to talk right now, please respect that.” Her cold yet soft voice uttered, but Arlecchino could distinguish a certain aspect of it that was like her own..

Had she picked it up from how Arlecchino spoke?  

The Knave didn’t know whether to be proud or disappointed in such facts..

Despite Lynette’s change in voice though, Dottore only smirked, reaching over to pet Lynette’s head as if he was some affectionate father-

And that was the moment Arlecchino had snapped.

A blade flying right in between the two and past Dottore’s face by mere inches.

Startling the two children who immediately fell backwards, Lynette’s arm covering Freminet’s head to keep him down low instinctively while The Knave’s eyes only glared at Dottore..

The man’s grin only widening across his face.

“My my Arlecchino… you sure haven’t given up on your training with knives have you..?”

“I said three questions.” And just like that that cool headed mask of Arlecchino’s was back on, her hands holding two more blades.

“I did not say that you could touch any of my- the children.” 

The Doctor merely laughed at her embarrassing slip up of words, removing his mask to stare right back into her red pupils.

“So that’s what’s going on in here… And I thought that you said that the children were mere puppets for our cause.. unless I misunderstood-“

“ Shut it. Don’t think that I don’t know what you’ve been doing in that lab of yours.. The Cryo Archon definitely would not be pleased if she heard of all the torturous things that you do there to creatures and not to mention people..”

“I suppose we both have our secrets then…”

All the children quickly ran to Arlecchino’s side, hiding behind her with fearful eyes as Dottore stood back up… his grin staying plastered to his face.

“Don’t challenge me again.. Arlecchino..”

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“Fuck!” Cyno swore as his hands relentlessly pulled at his hair as stress filled his mind.

“What if they saw us??? They were talking about hunting mermaids right?? And judging by their tone I wouldn’t be surprised if they are looking to exterminate the species entirely!”

“We don’t know that.” Al-Haitham breathed, having put the Mermaid’s back into the bathtub of freshly warmed water as the two shivered and hugged themselves tightly together as if to comfort each other…

“How do we not know that??? You heard them better than me! They are looking for Mermaids! You heard their tone!”

The Chef only sighed at his friend's words.

It was true after all, why else would they have been on a ship hunting down Mermaids?? And the damn boat they had gotten off of had those same damn nets that Tighnari had gotten painfully snagged in.

And that definitely did not give the group a good feeling about these new guests near the beach.

Hell, they hadn’t even been able to see where the pair went off to.

“We need a plan..”

“A plan to do what exactly??”

“A plan to get these Mermaids back home safely before we are on the fishermen’s targets..”

Chapter Text

Lyney smiled breathlessly as he lifted his head, exposing it for the kisses that Aether gave him as his hands clung onto The Traveler’s back.

“O-Oui Mon Amour! Oui..!” He was so lost that he didn’t even realize the fact he had started speaking in full French, squirming a bit in place from where he was underneath the Traveler.

He loved it..

He loved everything about this.

He didn’t quite know why he had been so nervous before, feeling Aether’s hands gently interlacing their hands together which were then pressed so gently into the silk sheets.

Lyney’s eyes tearing up happily as he lifted his head up to kiss Aether’s neck and shoulders, trying to give them the pleasure that he felt right now..

“S'il te plait mon amour.. do be gentle with this Magician..” he chuckled, laughing softly as Aether smiled and kissed his cheek.

“Wouldn’t want to disappoint a Magician who has been waiting for this now do I?”

The Traveler then moved back and off Lyney, chuckling softly as that simple movement caused The Magician to whine in disappointment, but that was quickly changed by a harsh blush later by silence as Aether reached to their shirt, lifting it above their head and tossing it aside.

The curious glowing core, right in the middle of their chest horizontal to their belly button, stayed as bright as it was before, the core’s color being oddly white instead of blue.

But Lyney didn’t question it.

Hell, he didn’t even have enough of a mind to even worry about it once he felt Aether’s hands back on him, warm kisses now going down his now bare chest.

O-Oh fuck-

He never thought that he would get this kind of attention from his crush, never thought that the person who he had been “jokingly” (that was a lie-) giving flowers to- 

Rainbow Roses nonetheless, would ever be giving him such attention and bliss.

“Do..” Aether pauses for a moment, making Lyney look up in confusion.

“Yes?”

The Traveler then seemed to fidget with their hands a bit as a blush dusted their cheeks.

“Do you want me to wear a condom or- just- go in..?”

Oh.

Oh-

Now that was a question that Lyney didn’t quite know how to answer.

All he could think to do in his scrambled mind was make vague gestures to Aether to put the condom that he had just gotten out of the dresser drawer beside the bed, down for now.

“Are you sure that you don’t want it-“

“I want to feel you, Mon Amour…” 

The Magician shifted himself to lay down flatter on the bed, hands still holding onto Aether’s with a determination to not let go.

“Please don’t deny this Magician the honor to feel everything you can give. Please don’t deny me the gift of seeing you fully..”

If Lyney could bear to let his hands leave the company of The Traveler’s they would definitely move to their pants to pull them down, but it seems that he wouldn’t have to as Aether took their hands away for a moment to pull down the rest of their clothes, boxers included.

And let's just say that Lyney’s mouth watered.

Oh fuck-

Lyney would not be surprised if he couldn’t walk in a few hours but it certainly would be worth it-

Though- he probably did stare a bit too long at Aether’s manhood-

The Traveler started to laugh softly before grabbing a bottle of lube from somewhere not immediately apparent to Lyney.

The Magician was much too interested in… other things-

“I’m going to prepare you.. if I may.”

“Oh my gods just- please.. I can’t take any more teasing.” Lyney smiled sheepishly, gaining a soft smile of sympathy from Aether.

“I won’t take too long. Then I can give you anything you wish..”

And that was the moment Lyney bit down on his lip to stifle a moan, not even realizing that The Traveler had taken off his gloves.

Their hands then moving to gently grab Lyney’s two legs, lifting them up and letting them rest on Aether’s shoulders for better access.

Oh f-fuck-

“D-do be careful with this Magician-“ he couldn’t help but stumble out with a nervous smile, “I do not know how much I can take- I-“

Aether quickly silenced him with a gentle kiss, only to then roll their hips against Lyney’s which drew out another moan from the man, this one needier than the last as his hands now moved to grab helplessly at Aether’s back, his nails slightly digging into the soft skin.

And when a cold, yet slippery finger slid into Lyney’s desperate and pleading entrance, he couldn’t resist any further..

Only able to let out a desperate moan as he completely relaxed, letting out continuous whimpers as he watched Aether’s skilled fingers work on the tight muscles of his entrance.

Had The Traveler done this before or were they just this skilled right off the bat???

The feeling was… unusual to say the least.

Lyney had never even touched himself there before, so of course the initial stretch was uncomfortable.

But as he was about to ask Aether to slow down, praise started pouring from their lips, right into his ear as their fingers continued working on him.

“I know how this might feel odd and uncomfortable, but you can handle it can’t you..? Such a good Magician…”

The Magician in question let out a soft whine, holding on so tightly to the other person above him that he swore that he drew blood on Aethers back from his nails.

“Breathe for me Lyney.. you’re alright, you’re good.”

Lyney took that advice quickly, taking deep breaths as he winced and squirmed, feeling his entrance now needingly clenching around the now three fingers inside of him.

Tears welling up in his eyes in a mix of sweet bliss and discomfort, the discomfort only getting smaller and smaller by the second as he felt the fingers searching for something that-

“Ah~!”

They found shortly after.

Aether’s smile increasing as they had found the spot they had been looking for.

“There we go..”

Oh fuck-

Lyney’s hand immediately smacked itself over his mouth, his own body trembling as it tried to prepare itself for a night that it would probably never forget.

And on top of that, he would have to be quiet so as not to wake Paimon up.

This was going to be… Difficult.

“May I..?”

Lyney gulped at the words but quickly gave an answer.

“Yes… Mor amour…”

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It only took a few seconds for the real thing to begin…

Aether being able to fill The Magician completely in just a few moments as his senses were overloaded with information that he didn’t quite know how to handle.

A choked cry exiting Lyney’s lips as Aether set a fast rhythm, practically matching the pace of The Magician’s racing heart to a tee as sweat built up on his forehead and muscles, holding onto Aether for dear life.

It still wasn’t scary.

Not as scary as others had told him.

In fact, it was exhilarating for his mind to be allowed to empty, his cries only met with soft kisses and whispers of praises from The Traveler above him.

Aether had done everything he had asked them to do in the beginning.

They were gentle and cautious.

Their mouth never seemed to stop moving, either giving praise or to ask Lyney if he was okay.

Of course Lyney was okay-

The Magician would roll his eyes at that statement if he could, but right now he was just a moaning mess.

Even just the pure aroma of Aether’s skin made Lyney feel weak in the knees now, his eyes trying to stay focused on The Traveler but couldn’t help but start to roll back, his hands only grabbing ahold of Aether tighter as he could sense that something was coming.

The swirls and heat in his stomach made that fact.

And yet he didn’t quite know what it was.

Father had never told him about feeling this.

And no one else really would have gotten the chance to. 

Was this normal?

God- he wanted it to be-

It felt so good..

“A-Aether!! Aether!!”

So good that he had started to yell The Traveler’s name on accident, tears that he hadn’t even felt before now pouring down his face in bliss as his body trembled.

His lips were then captured once again in a deep kiss by Aether, whose hand reached in between Lyney’s thighs, stroking the tip of his length which immediately caused Lyney to moan into The Traveler’s mouth before cumming..

Both of the men panting with Aethers head resting on the crook of Lyney’s neck, his hot breath causing Lyney to shiver slightly as they both kept silent for a few moments afterwards, Lyney in his afterglow and Aether in exhaustion.

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“A-Aether..?”

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“Yes?”

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“Can we do that again one day..?”

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A small chuckle was heard.

“Only if you want to..”

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“Of course I want to..”

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“Aether?”

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“Yes?”

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“Good night..”

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“It’s technically still afternoon but.. good night..”

With those final words, Lyney’s head slumped over slightly, Aether pulling the man over to lay against their chest.

They just hoped that he could clean them both up without waking up The Magician from his rest-

Chapter Text

“Maybe if you didn’t act like a creep whose only purpose is to intimidate young children in a Orphanage then I wouldn’t threaten you.” Arlecchino hissed back, gaining a harsh laugh from the Doctor as he moved closer to her.

“At least I am not one to give false hope to soldiers… If you want to treat them all like the family you could never have, fine with me.. but let’s face it, Knave… they are only mere assets to us that have been given to you to raise and manipulate for our cause..” Dottore’s grin only widened as Arlecchino’s cold facial expression changed to become uneased..

“And don’t forget that they are due to be taken in just a few months for more… advanced training.”

“I still have to improve this plan..” The Knave growled, keeping the children behind her who shivered and hid, hands on her shirt and pant leg to stay close to her.

She hated seeing them this scared at this moment..

And the fact that Lyney was not back yet caused a pang of anxiety to run through her mind..

“You act like you are the leader of all of this and yet The Tsaritsa is the one who has the say.. step off your high horse and ask your questions or leave. Now.”

And at the moment that Doctor Dottore seemed to bite down on his lip in frustration, Arlecchino smirked.

She still had the upper hand in this..

“So, what will you choose? Doctor Dottore..”

Her blackened hands expertly twirled the two extra throwing daggers, keeping them at the ready just in case she needed to defend herself or her- the children.

And after her words, there was a cold silence that went through the entire Orphanage.

The only sounds being from the slight whimper or two from a child behind The Knave.

Before finally, The Doctor shrugged.

“Very well then… I would like to ask my questions.”

And Arlecchino scoffed, almost rolling her eyes at his tone.

“Finally choosing the wise decision?”

“Don’t try to anger me more, Arlecchino..” Dottore hissed before looking at Freminet with a sharp gaze, Lynette still keeping the young teen behind her as her ears partially pinned back against her head while her tail poofed up as if to intimidate.

All the while a menacing grin morphed into The Doctor’s face as he bent down..

“Now… what all did you find out about the Mermaid's location…?”

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Lyney groaned softly as he woke up an hour or two later, wincing just a tad bit as the lower part of his body felt like one big bruise.

Letting out a small whine as he turned himself onto his side to look over at Aether only to almost jump as it seemed like they had woken up before him, staring at him with a soft gaze.

“Are you alright?” They asked as they brought one of their hands up to Lyney’s hair, which had been messed up completely during their time together as his braid had been unraveled partially.

That didn’t really matter to Lyney though, smiling as he leaned into the soft hand that stroked his light brown locks of hair. Almost as if to comfort him from the slight pain that was the cause of last night’s decisions-

It didn’t really matter to The Magician though, last night had been worth it.

Opening his eyes fully to look up at The Traveler who smiled back at him and put a soft kiss on his cheek right on top of his tattoo that was in the shape of a teardrop.

He should’ve probably put foundation on it earlier-

Just in case Aether wouldn’t have liked someone who had such markings on their body, but he had forgotten all about it.

“Yes, Mon Amour..” he answered with a whisper, gaining a small chuckle from the Traveler as they helped him sit up, looking quite concerned as he winced the moment his bottom made contact with the mattress.

“I was too rough wasn’t I? I’m sorry for that.” 

And before Lyney could get the words out to reassure that nothing was wrong and that it wasn’t their fault, he gasped as The Traveler lifted him up and off the bed, carrying him securely in their strong arms.

The Magician was surprised by this to say the least.

Sure, he knew Aether was strong, that was a given by their muscles that bulged slightly on their shoulders and the fact that they possessed abs. What he couldn’t believe though was that they carried him only with one arm, letting him latch around their neck for stability while laying his head on their chest, listening to their heart beat while his own fluttered against his chest.

“You startled me..!” He let out in a breathless laugh, gaining an apologetic smile from Aether who carried him away to the bathroom.

Which definitely piqued Lyney’s interest.

His heart fluttering as he thought about the potential chance of The Traveler helping his pain with a warm bath, maybe some candles and breakfast if he wasn’t being too greedy.

And as soon as Aether turned on the water to fill up the tub, Lyney knew that his wishes were coming true.

Letting out a happy hum as he pressed his face closer to their neck and body as they both waited for the tub to fill.

Aether always did seem to smell so intoxicating..

It was easy to get himself lost in it..

“Thank you Mon Amour..”

He closed his eyes, not even thinking about the fact that it was probably about dinner time right now and that he should be back at the Orphanage..

Father wouldn’t mind if he just took a little bit more time off..

Right…?

Chapter Text

“So what’s our plan then?? Is there even a plan??” Kaveh asked, voice borderline on a scoff.

“Those people if they are truly after the entirety of Mermaid kind then they will probably go door to door searching for us..! We need to be fast and careful..”

Al-Haitham nodded, a hand to his chin in thought as he paced back and forth in Cyno’s living room.

He was definitely going to wear a visible path into the floor boards at this point-

“If- it was an emergency and you two had to leave right at this very moment. If me and Cyno could get you to the water in time do you think that you can escape while carrying Tighnari?”

And at the question, Kaveh seemed nervous.

The Mermaid had never been too physically strong in his life, but you did have to put the boost of adrenaline into play…

“I-… yes. Yes I can.”

Both of the humans sighed in relief at that.

Tighnari sighing softly as he thought about that plan.

“I am fine, really. I can swim if needed.”

“Then… let’s just keep a low profile for now.. just buy time until Tighnari is healed enough to not be sore while swimming.” Cyno offered, gaining nods all around the room.

“I think that will be for the best.”

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Lyney couldn’t help but giggle softly as The Traveler gently placed him into the warm bath water, their arms still keeping a secure grip on him just in case he couldn’t sit up properly from… you know-

And he could-

Mostly-

“Lyney..!” The Traveler practically yelped as their hands flew to The Magician’s shoulders as soon as the man was just about to tip to the side, sighing in relief as they helped Lyney sit back up again.

This made him jolt a bit and look over at Aether with a loving gaze before chuckling.

“Oh- sorry for that Mon Amour… it seems that I got a bit too ahead of myself. I think I can steady myself now..”

And dear Archons did that smile on Lyney’s face make Aether’s heart flutter-

The Traveler smiling softly back before standing up, rummaging through the bathroom cabinets and quickly finding what they wanted.

Candles and soap scented like roses.

They had quickly figured out The Magician’s favorite scent by simply watching the man throughout the days that they had seen each other.

Lyney always seemed to have at least one rose on him at all times, whether it be fake or real.

He would also seem to twirl the stem around his fingers whenever he got anxious or irritated about something.

Aether had discovered that whenever Lyney had started talking to them-

It was pretty adorable how anxious he was just talking to The Traveler.

It was also cute how Lyney’s eyes lit up upon seeing the scent that the body wash was, earning a small chuckle from Aether’s throat as they set the bottle as well as the candle down onto the bathtub ledge.

“All this for little old me?” The Magician teased, watching Aether jokingly roll their eyes before they squirted some of the body wash onto their hands.

“Turn around, I want to wash your back for you.”

At those words, Lyney giggled.

“Oh?? This Magician is being pampered today~?”

“You be quiet.” Aether teased, pulling their gloves off and set them aside before rubbing the soap between their hands to make it suds up.

“Is your back sore anywhere? Any place in particular that you don’t want me to touch?”

“I’m fine with anything you want to do, Mon Amour.” Lyney smiled, closing his eyes in comfort as The Traveler's hands gently placed themselves on his back, starting a gentle rubbing motion with their thumbs, causing a slight groan of comfort to come from Lyney’s throat.

The man then unintentionally leaning back towards the wonderful hands of his new lover, gaining a small chuckle.

“Are you sure that you don’t need to get back home soon? Your Father might get worried, it’s been a few hours.” Aether smiled, enjoying the slight grunts and hums they got from their hands rubbing the most tender joints in the Magician’s body right now.

“I think it’ll be fine.. sh- he said that I could be gone until dinner. I still have time.”

The Traveler smiled, “alright. If you say so. You wanna cuddle after this? Paimon must have been exhausted from all the flying she did yesterday. Those Hilichurls are no joke.”

“Hah. Sure, I would love some cuddles right now if you wouldn’t mind..”

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Freminet’s body was as stiff as a board as they fearfully stared at Dottore’s face, trying to show as much respect as possible so as to not anger the man.

Their sister was trying her best to protect them..

It made him feel so useless as he hugged his penguin stuffed animal closer, an audible squeak coming from the toys voice box.

They didn’t want to answer the man’s questions..

But with the way Father was in between them and facing off with the man… they knew that if they didn’t answer, then Father may be hurt..

Father was strong..

He knew that.

Father could hold her own in a fight.

But against one of the top Harbingers when she isn’t in the top three that are considered to have the strength of gods? No..

“Tick tock child..” The Doctor reminded, causing a horrible feeling to claw at Freminet’s throat.

But regardless, they spoke.

Albeit with an obvious tremor, but they gave an answer..

“I-I was only twenty minutes out from the front of The O-Orphanage.. I-I can’t think of how to tell how deep d-down i was.. t-they were in a cave-“

“ They….? ” The Doctor smirked, “there was multiple?”

A strong clawed grip clawed at Freminet’s heart for an unknown reason..

“Yes… t-two. From what I saw-“

“Perfect~…”

Chapter Text

“Are you done?” Arlecchino hissed, gaining another sly chuckle from The Doctor as he stood back up, clasping his hands behind him.

“I suppose that will be the only question I need answered for right now.. yes.”

“Splendid.” Father smiled fakely- still twirling the knives in her hands in attempts to calm herself down.

Her whole body was seemingly boiling with anger..

“Now get out. I will not have you in here for another moment intimidating the children.. they have…. Important training to get to.”

It was the only excuse that came to her mind at the moment. But it did seem to get Dottore to back off slightly from the children.

Which she counted as a win-

But before she knew it, The Doctor only retorted with, “Oh I know… playing family must be extremely exhausting for them..” 

And simply walked out of the Orphanage..

Leaving The Knave fuming..

How dare he…?

How dare that man think that he can just walk in here, threaten everyone in the building with their lives, take information, and then walk out???

Oh she wished that she could slam her heel right onto his ass and-

“F-Father..? Are you alright? You’re shaking..” Freminet whispered, his purple eyes looking up at her with hesitation but above all… concern..

He was concerned for her…

And yet she couldn’t understand why..

All the other children looked at her as well, fear, confusion, and surprisingly anger filling their eyes with what had just happened..

One of them, a young boy no older than eight, stomped his feet with a scoff.

“How dare he talk to Father like that!!”

And before she could even retort.

Before she could even get them to calm down and get back to what she had planned for them today, all of the children started retorting.

Defending her of all things..

Saying that “she should have yelled at the man.”

That “she should have ordered him out of the Orphanage. Out of her property and presence.”

It was almost laughable.

These children had more ambition than she thought..

They didn’t simply hold back their anger, their rage..

Not like she had.

The Knave could even feel the sore spot on her tongue from where she had bitten down to stop herself from yelling and cursing at Dottore.

It had been a close call-

She had been half tempted to use her nails to claw over his face-

Maybe that would have gotten him to leave sooner..

But, oh well.

She sighed softly before looking down at half the children who had grabbed the wooden swords that she had gotten them for the purpose of training them for real weapons.

The kids then pretending to stab the air as if it was The Doctor who was in front of them.

Small cries and cheers consisting of, “I got you now!!” And “how dare you make Father mad!!” Filling the room pretty quickly after that.

It was honestly amusing-

So much so that one of her clawed hands covered her lips before she began to chuckle, looking down at Freminet and Lynette who had chosen to stay by her sides, the boy daring to hug her side with his head gently flopped over onto her shoulder.

Oh god..

Her resolve was breaking even more by the day..

Instead of doing something about it though, her hand moved from her lips to the Blonde boy’s head, her free hand doing the same with Lynette.

“We are okay now..”

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Pantalone was completely silent as he followed The Doctor back to their ship.

His eyes still closed, though his smile had been long gone..

“Did you happen to get the location out of one of the Orphan Children?”

And the answer was quite simple, “Of course I did..” 

“Did you really think that I would have left without gaining the answer? How ignorant do you believe me to be?”

“I didn’t say that you were ignorant. I know that you are actually quite the opposite..” Pantalone reasoned, “but.. arrogant is one word I would use..”

“Arrogant?” The Doctor stopped in his tracks.

His shoes making quick turns in the sand.

“You think that I am arrogant?”

At those words, Pantalone didn’t really know how to respond.

Opening his eyes to stare at The Doctor coldly before clearing his throat softly.

“I believe that you can get into these types of situations too quickly. Challenging The Knave was reckless and could seriously derail the Fatui’s plans if she were to have retorted. Do you have no thought process of not getting into trouble??”

“Oh please, I was just having a bit of fun with it!” Dottore smirked, “besides, you don’t care for anything except for money and profit. Don’t tell me that you’re going soft for children too..”

“I would have no need for tenderness around children. That is The Knave’s job.” Pantalone grumbled before starting to walk again, this time passing the Doctor.

“Alright… if you say so..” Dottore only smirked again before continuing on.

“But if you get soft on me then I will have no hesitation towards killing you..”

“…As I thought..”

“Great, so we are on the same page..”

“Stop talking and focus on the plan.”

“Fine fine… you have no humor.”

Chapter Text

Lyney giggled and leaned his head farther back towards Aether’s hands, feeling them gently working shampoo into his scalp.

“My my Mon Amour~ you seem well… equipped with your hands my dear..” The Magician smiled brightly, gaining a soft hearted look back.

“Well, fighting against monsters does make you pretty skilled with both hands.”

“I suppose so.” Lyney hummed, closing his eyes to feel how Aether’s hands moved to take out the hair band that kept the braided parts of his hair in place, which from the moment they had in the bedroom had become quite messy and unraveled.

The Magician even seeming to shiver as his shoulder length hair flopped down against his neck, the cold chill of newly dampened hair sending tremors through his spine.

“Are you alright, Lyney?”

“I’m just fine.” He smiled, waving off their slight concern.

“Just a bit chilly.”

“Ah, then I should wrap you up in a warm towel soon, hm?” Aether smiled, finishing up with rinsing Lyney’s hair before picking him back up into their arms.

Being careful about not dropping the man who right now seemed completely content with lending all of his trust to the Traveler, as his hands had not gone up to hold around their neck like before.

“Thank you for being so gentle with me, Mon Amour..”

Lyney couldn’t help but smile lovingly up at the blonde haired Traveler, gaining yet another smile back as well as a kiss on the forehead.

“There is no need to thank me.. lets get your hair dried and braided before getting you dressed in new clothes, hm? So you don’t get them soaked.”

“I suppose that would be the most logical way to do it- but I must thank you again for-“

But alas, The Magician was interrupted by a soft yawn coming from somewhere further into the hotel room, only to see a drowsy Paimon gently floating towards them.

Oh fuck!-

Aether gulped, their hands reflexively moving to grab a towel and almost threw it around Lyney who adjusted it to cover himself just in time before Paimon rubbed her eyes and looked up at them.

“Oh! Lyneyyy!!! I didn’t know that you would come visit us!! Why didn’t you wake me up????”

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“Wait wait wait!” Tartaglia breathed, waving his hands out in front of him. “So you mean to tell me that-… our ship… when me and Pantalone were out there together investigating… that we were right above somewhere where Siren’s lived???”

“Live.” Zhongli corrected, “and go on. I assume that you have inquiries? I would be very surprised if you didn’t.”

“I’m getting to that..!- okay. First question I can think of is how are you supposed to be different from Siren’s??” The human seemed skeptical, raising an eyebrow and even puffing out his chest a bit as if trying to look more serious.

“I am not a Siren.” 

“How could I know that?? You could be a Siren and I wouldn’t even know the difference!”

The golden tailed Mermaid sighed, pressing a hand to his forehead.

“You humans have really lost your knowledge on our kind haven’t you? It’s quite a shame.”

Childe sighed, sitting back down onto the wooden dock with his legs dangling down, almost touching the water with the tip of his shoes.

Why did he have to be the one to get himself into these messes??

“Well, all the books around your kind have either all been destroyed or misinterpreted.” The human shrugged, “so even if someone wanted to, they would either get books that have the wrong information or go on the hunt for something already destroyed.”

“I see..” the Mermaid sighed, looking up at the sky with his hands holding the back of his head.

“What a shame..” he then repeated, his tail swaying slowly as it hung off the boat dock.

The human and mermaid pair then seemed to stay silent for a good while, looking up at the sky before Tartaglia chose to interrupt the quiet.

“So what exactly are the differences between you guys and Sirens? Are they as intelligent as you guys?”

“Oh quite. In fact some can be even more so. They need the intelligence in order to get their meals. Which, as you probably know, are usually humans..”

Just as Zhongli guessed, Tartaglia didn’t seem surprised in the slightest by his words. Instead the man simply asked yet another question.

“Do they usually target certain people..?”

“Yes…”

“And those people are?-“

“People they once knew when they themselves were… human.”

The human's blue eyes widened in shock.

“What..?”

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Arlecchino sighed as she watched the clock about the fireplace tick down endlessly.

It was almost dinner time and yet Lyney seemed to be nowhere in sight.

Could something have happened to him?

Did he somehow stumble across Dottore while walking back home and got into some trouble??

She sighed once more, standing up from where she had been sitting on the sofa.

All of the kids have either gone to their rooms or played for a few last minutes.

Well..

Almost everyone.

Everyone except for Freminet and Lynette that is.

The two siblings preparing the dinner table as she watched.

She had learned to keep a very close eye on the two.

Who knows what trouble the children could get themselves into-

“Father.”

Arlecchino was snapped out of her thoughts though by Lynette’s cold voice, tail having gone still now.

“Speak, Lynette. What is it?” The Knave asked, crossing her legs.

“I was just asking if you knew where Lyney had gone, Father… you see.. me and Freminet are getting quite worried..”

It was quite reasonable to be worried by a sibling being gone for almost the whole day..

So Arlecchino couldn’t blame the girl for that.

The woman sighing as she stood, her blackened hands wiping off her clothes.

“It has been a while hasn’t it? Well then I will go out and-“

When the doors to the Orphanage suddenly opened up to reveal a rather… disheveled Lyney, she couldn’t help but sigh a bit in relief.

Well that was before a new stern expression took over her face once more, her arms crossed.

Her eyes watching as the boy whose hair seemed oddly dampened despite it having not rained in several days, hurriedly put himself in front of her.

“And where have you been?”

“I apologize, Father. I lost track of time and I couldn’t get back until now. It won’t happen again.”

Excuses..?

Lyney wasn’t usually one to make such excuses..

What was going on-

“Lyney! You forgot your!-“

And suddenly a blonde haired traveler came running after Lyney to stand behind him..

Holding up what he forgot, which seemed to be his gloves…

Lyney’s face turning pale from seeing Aether’s expression change once they looked at his strict “Father”…

Chapter Text

“Wriothesley?” Neuvillette hummed in thought, sensing something odd about their surroundings..

“Yes Monsieur?”

The other Mermaid hummed, turning to face the Chief Justice with clouded eyes.

“Is something wrong?”

“Do you also feel that something is off..? Forgive me but I don’t quite feel like we are safe here at the moment. How long have we been hiding here again..?”

The black tailed Mermaid sighed softly, looking up at the cave’s ceiling in thought.

“Ever since the Siren Outbreak? Dear Archons… that had to be at least twenty years ago now, right?”

“Right..” Neuvillette sighed, “are you sure that no human knows where our location is? I just- dear me- I have this terrible habit of thinking that we will be caught some day… either by humans or… those things.. I just.. can’t imagine what that would be like..”

Wriothesley sighed, his tail coiling around the other’s as he pulled him closer, offering a soft hearted grin full of sharp teeth.

“Hey.. even if one of them finds us, we’ll be fine. I have seen you go ballistic before when seeing one of the Melusine’s get hurt- remember?” He laughed, gaining a slight swat of a blue tail.

“I was not that scary. I simply, and very politely told the mermaids off for teasing her-“

“Uh huh.. sure.”

“I wasn’t!-“

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“A-Aether…?” Lyney gulped, his eyes wide and frightened as he reached out to grab his lover’s- were they even lovers anymore…?

Were the two even lovers to begin with..?

“A-Aether please- I-“

“T-The K-Knave!?” Paimon’s voice cracked like a small child’s as she flew in from right behind Aether, hiding behind them as if she was about to be eaten alive by the woman that stood before them…

Arlecchino’s cold eyes watching as the three in front of her, one her child, and two her supposed enemies all stood there in varying degrees of horror and surprise.

And with Lyney…

Sorrow.

Sorrow and pure regret for not saying anything sooner..

For not letting Aether know before this that he had been part of this whole thing all along.

The young man had known the consequences of joining and participating in the Fatui…

He had known everything before he had even gotten to truly know Father.. 

He knew just how much pain she had and will cause.

He knew just how much blood has been on her hands, the dead bodies of so many people weighing heavily on her shoulders and consciousness.

And yet when she offered him and his twin sister to join the House of Hearth..

To have a Family again..

He hadn’t hesitated.

But if he had known this…

If he had known that joining the Fatui Harbingers would ruin his chances of ever winning over the one he loved…

Would he have still accepted it so easily…?-

“What are you doing here??” Aether suddenly growled, “what did you do to Lyney’s Father???”

And at those words, Lyney’s heart couldn’t help but stop as he looked over at The Traveler.

Had they not noticed that this was an Orphanage..?

Did they think that the Knave was here to hurt his father even when he had none to begin with EXCEPT for Arlecchino???

Oh…

Oh no..

Before Arlecchino could even get a word out of her lips though, a sword was pulled free from the Traveler’s belt, immediately being pointed towards her.

“Stay back!”

“Wait!! Aether!!”

Lyney could only yelp before getting roughly pulled back, behind Aether as if being offered protection that he didn’t need nor ask for.

Shit!-

“Aether please listen to me!- I know what this looks like but she isn’t!-“

“Let him and his siblings go. Now.” Aether hissed, seemingly in their own world as they shifted their weight forward in preparation for if The Knave so happened to retaliate.

“Aether!-“

“Hush!!” Paimon pressed a small hand to her own mouth, “The Traveler is trying to protect you..! Don’t you want to be protected???-“

Lyney couldn’t help but be frustrated, grabbing onto Aether’s shoulder to turn them around but before he could, The Knave.. his… Father spoke with an oddly… soft tone.

“That is enough.. Lyney. Let them do as they please. It’s not like I cannot handle myself, correct?”

“How do you even know his name!-“

Lyney moved quickly, now staring down the blade that Aether held..

His eyes slightly glossed over as guilt filled him.

“Aether… this.. is.. My… Father..”

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Silence filled the room after that..

A look of anger.. betrayal… sadness.. and anger again flashed before The Traveler’s eyes as their sword shook..

They must have figured out that he definitely worked with the Fatui right after that sentence…

As they breathed heavily as if to calm themselves down.

But that was before their gaze hardened..

“Get out of my way, Lyney…”

“What…?” Paimon gasped, her small hands gripped tightly onto the Traveler’s sleeve.

“A-Aether.. y-you can’t be serious about this. P-Paimon knows that he’s p-protecting a valuable l-leader of The Fatui but-“

“Get. Out. Of. The. Way.” Aether growled again, shoving Paimon off lightly before facing his horrified lover again..

“Before I make you..”

Chapter Text

Lyney couldn’t breathe..