"Sanji! The last one's comin' back around!"
"Would you shut up, Patty? I can see that."
The blond grumbled under his breath, but pushed his annoying colleague out of his mind, instead focusing the barrel of his gun straight at the ridged dorsal fin currently cutting through the water straight towards the side of the boat.
The research vessel bobbed lightly with the waves, making it difficult to keep his aim on the creature, but one blue eye closed and he concentrated, tilting the gun downwards, slowly….patiently.
The fin came closer….closer.
And when it had nearly reached the platform on which he knelt, Sanji pulled the trigger, sending the archival tag shooting out and clamping onto that large fin.
The fish thrashed violently, splashing a spray of ocean water into Sanji's face before it dove down quickly into the depths to escape any more flying projectiles, as harmless as they were.
The blond merely laughed, shaking out his hair and pulling up his shirt to wipe at his face. At least his sunglasses had protected his eyes, but he didn't care.
That marked the last of the school of elusive swordfish they'd been tracking all damn day, trying to get new tags on them now that some of the juveniles were starting to mature, a difficult task given their nocturnal nature.
But, a bit of mackerel and herring scattered into their territory as bait, and they'd lured out quite a few that hadn't been tagged.
The blond stood, balancing effortlessly on the swaying platform that jutted out from the boat's stern, despite the lack of railings. Days spent out at sea with his team had gifted him with rather sturdy sealegs.
A glance to the deck afforded him a view of Patty complaining to Carne rather loudly, something about Sanji being barely twenty-four years old, the youngest on the team by decades, and thus, having no right to boss people around like he always did.
Carne wholeheartedly agreed as the two moved around to the bow of the small schooner to secure a few tanks of fish they were taking back to the lab.
Sanji just smirked, stealing one last look behind him at the open ocean, nothing but blue skies and sunshine that was beautiful enough to keep his mood up even with those two bitching.
Maybe he had been fucking lucky, stumbling into this position as he had, while he knew Patty and Carne had worked their asses off for years through school and college just to land their first jobs at small-time aquariums.
But honestly, the sea had been a part of Sanji's life for - well, since before he could remember.
His birth parents had fucking dumped him on a beach when he was a baby. The ocean had practically been his mother, for fuck's sake.
And then to be adopted by a shitty geezer? But a shitty geezer who just so happened to be a renowned marine biologist? One who'd written countless research articles, given dozens of university talks, and even filmed a few documentaries in his day?
Yeah, it might not have been in his blood, this work, not technically at least, but it was definitely ingrained in his soul.
He loved it though, rescuing animals, working with them, being out on the ocean and feeling the warm breeze lifting his hair.
It was freeing, and although he wasn't naturally inclined towards science, he was stubborn and persistent, and that was what had gotten him here in the end. Because if he hadn't been, it wouldn't have mattered who his father was. He wouldn't be out on this boat with a fucking dart gun in his hand, tagging badass swordfish like the pro he was.
"Hey, brat. Get up on deck. We gotta move out."
A gruff voice sounded from the door of the small cabin, an older man - also blond, along with a weathered face, and a rather impressively long mustache that stood out on end - poking his head out.
"What?" Sanji asked, though he did step up off the platform onto the main deck, hooking the metal chain across the opening behind him, just as a precaution. "But what about the reef samples?"
"It'll have to wait," Zeff replied, shooting his son a look that said this was non-negotiable. "Just got a call from a private fishing vessel, due east. Somethin' big got in a fight with their propeller. Captain said he thinks it's a great white."
Sanji frowned, crouching down to the floor to start dismantling and repacking the tagging gun into its case. He shot eyes to the metal hatch in the floor that led down to the big species holding tank nestled below deck.
"There's no way a great white's gonna fit in there if we need to take it back," he muttered, hoping the assumption was wrong and it was something smaller.
"That's provided it's still alive," Zeff replied grimly before heading back into the cabin to start up the engines.
Sanji just huffed out a breath, grabbing the railing when the geezer floored the boat forward across the water and turned it hard to the east. He couldn't even take much amusement in the way Patty and Carne stumbled about on the other end of the boat, unprepared for the sudden burst of speed.
Great whites were a vulnerable species. Hell, most sharks were to some degree, and to potentially lose even one was something they should always try and avoid.
They were the Bio-Aquatic Rescue and Testing Institute of East Blue. Not the Bio-Aquatic Assume the Damn Worst Association.
Maybe his dad was being realistic, but Sanji chose to remain optimistic, letting that familiar feeling of flying over the waves comfort him.
By the time they pulled their boat up beside the small fishing vessel that had apparently called them - the Mihawk, if the name scrawled along the side of its weather-beaten maroon exterior was anything to go by - Sanji was already leaning out over the rail, scanning the waters for any sign of their potential victim.
Patty, Carne, and Sanji's father were already preoccupied with discussing the details with the boat's operator, a tall, intimidating man with black hair, a sharp goatee, and a mustache that looked far too dignified for any fisherman Sanji had seen.
But none of that mattered. What did was the amount of blood saturating the water around the boat, even splattered along the bottom lip of the hull where the lapping waves couldn't reach.
Shit.
It looked like a fucking feeding ground, and Sanji began to worry that maybe the old geezer was right after all. Maybe they would have to document a casualty…
He heard his dad advise the fisherman to head out so they could do a sweep of the area, possibly with nets if necessary. And the fisherman obliged, nodding his thanks, piercing yellow eyes meeting Sanji's for a moment before he moved back to his helm, started up his boat's engine again and rode off, leaving their little crew alone at sea once more.
"Boss, maybe we should start with sonar. If it's big enough, the tags might register," Carne was saying, and Zeff agreed, the three men squeezing into the tight cabin together to start on that.
"Brat, set up the transport gurney. And keep an eye on the water," his dad called out to him, voice muffled through the cabin window, and Sanji had to roll his eyes.
"Right, because I can obviously do both at once," he muttered, ultimately deciding to get the gurney ready first, though he was all ears in case he heard anything thrashing about in the waves.
From the port side of the boat, below the railing, near the floor, he unclamped two long metal poles, between which were stretched a durable yet porous canvas material that made it much easier to lift and move large species.
Even if the distance from the stern's platform to the transport tank was relatively short, it helped to have a bit of leverage to lift a squirming fish.
He spread it out and slid the apparatus towards the step to the platform, standing and unhooking the chain he'd secured earlier, in case they needed to move fast.
A glance behind him across the deck to the cabin, where the three men still stood comically hunched over the sonar screen, studying closely.
The blond sighed, knowing it was sometimes just as efficient to search the water's surface with the naked eye, especially when dealing with injured fish that might not be able to swim well.
So he didn't join them, merely stepped out onto the platform again, grabbing a support pole that rose above the railing so he could lean out over the water more easily.
It was still a sickly red color, and while it might have looked worse than it was, Sanji still had a twisting feeling in his gut as eyes scanned the depths for anything, a glint of sun rays on scaly skin, a ripple in the water not caused by waves…..anything…..
Suddenly, a hollow bump directly below his feet that admittedly startled him, the blond jolting a bit before he immediately dropped to his knees, fearlessly gripping the edge of the platform and peering over it. His head was entirely upside down and the tips of his hair flopped into the water with every low dip of the boat in attempt to see underneath.
It was quiet though. The water was calm, and for a moment, he thought he'd imagined the sound.
Until, that is, he saw a glimpse of a large caudal fin, limply floating its way out from beneath the boat.
His heart leaped into his throat, eyes widening, and he risked reaching down and giving the water a splash, to see if it would cause a reaction in the creature.
But no, nothing. It merely continued to bob there lifelessly, a bit more of its tail becoming visible as it shifted beneath the boat, dangerously close to their own inactive propeller.
A sinking feeling filled his chest, because, while sharks could be slow-moving….they were never this limp, nor did they float so readily.
Fuck.
Sanji shot his head up to call out to the others, "Hey! Don't move us at all! I think I found something!"
But they either didn't hear him or chose to ignore him, so Sanji growled to himself and leaned over again, hoping he wouldn't get his arm dismembered by reaching down to try and grab the end of the shark's tail himself. He could grab a pole, but he worried about losing sight of it in the time it took to gather the tool.
So he slid fully down to his stomach on the platform, pushed himself out over the water as far as he could, and curled himself underneath, hand darting out to grab hold of the shark's fin.
No reaction from the animal, even with his strong, sudden grip, so he gave a hard yank backwards in order to get it out from under the boat.
He retracted his arm as soon as he did, watching as a spotted tail slid its way backwards out into the sunlight. The thing was huge, and a bit beat-up, scars marring its dark green skin, but nothing that looked fresh yet.
The secondary dorsal fin came into view, followed by the larger one most commonly seen in dumb shark movies.
And he thought he would see the head appear a second after he saw gills….
Until, with utter confusion, he noticed the skin shifting in tone somewhat, transitioning to a pale color that was almost-
Skin.
Human skin.
That tail, which definitely belonged to a massive tiger shark, had suddenly morphed into human skin, a human back, shoulders, a fucking green head of hair.
And just like that, floating facedown in the water before him was a creature that was fucking half shark, half man.
And no, he wasn't fucking imagining things. Not after blinking countless times, removing his sunglasses, and giving himself a hard slap in the face.
What.
The.
Fuck.
"Hey! Get your asses back here! Now!" Sanji screeched in panic, scrambling back away from the water, despite his readiness to nearly dive in a second ago.
This finally drew the attention of his crewmates, Patty first looking out through the cabin door….until he caught a glimpse of Sanji practically cowering on the floor of the platform.
He made his way over….
And repeated Sanji's same reaction.
In fact, it happened two more times after that when Carne and Zeff joined them.
"What is that thing!" Patty yelped, recoiling with shock and near horror.
"It's - it's-" Carne stammered. "Did the shark eat someone?!"
"Hell if I know!" Patty shot back. "It sure as hell looks like a mermaid to me!"
"Don't be stupid! Mermaids aren't real!"
"Then what the hell do you call that thing?!"
Patty and Carne continued their panicked argument, even as Zeff pushed past them to join Sanji on the platform, lowering his aching joints to crouch beside his son, a deep, confused furrow to his brow before he muttered, "Get it up here."
His calm decisiveness was enough to have Sanji glancing over at the man rather helplessly. This was - this was insane, right? Was it really happening? Was it some prank?
But when eyes flicked, a little fearfully, back to the creature, he noticed the blood swirling in the water, more red than before, and he knew he had to act first, think later.
The creature was still within arm's reach, so he took a deep breath, then leaned out to grab its large dorsal fin, using it as leverage to flip it over to its back, fully prepared to find some kind of fish-alien monster right out of science fiction staring back at him.
What he got was the exact opposite.
What he got was a very bloody male human torso, albeit connected to a shark's tail, but as human as they came.
The bleeding stemmed from a nasty diagonal gash that ran the entire length of that torso, from left shoulder to right hip, probably the result of that run-in with the Mihawk's propeller.
Sanji had to shift his gaze away from the sickening wound, only to have it land on the man's face, a face that was also completely human.
Fuck, he was actually….perfectly handsome. Nothing ugly or monstrous at all.
But he was also completely still and pale, eyes closed and mouth slack, a bit of blood trickling down from the corner of blue-tinged lips.
And the fear that they were already too late suddenly seemed even more dire and terrifying than before.
"Go on," Zeff urged him again, forcing Sanji to snap himself out of his thoughts and into the moment once more.
He moved, managing, with some difficulty, to get arms underneath the shark-man's, hoisting him up only a little.
"Fuck. He's heavy-help me out here," Sanji gritted out, and thankfully, Patty snapped out of his bewilderment to grab ahold of the guy's tail, lifting him as they would any large fish while Sanji backed himself up towards the main deck.
Thank fuck he'd laid out the gurney because it was straight on with minimal burden, though he had to be careful not to crush his dorsal fin when they laid him out.
And there, on their deck, they suddenly had a very real - something - that was far too human for comfort and far too close to death.
Sanji threw all scientific deduction out, even as the other three immediately began consulting with each other.
Because, at the very fucking least, they had a creature here that was half human.
Nevermind if it was scientifically unheard of. That would fucking have to wait because this guy was bleeding out. And he wasn't breathing. Maybe he used his gills, not lungs, but out of the water, gills wouldn't work either, and shit, what if he used ram ventilation on top of that?
Dammit, there were so many problems here, but there was one question that definitely needed answering.
Was he even fucking alive?
And that was why Sanji found himself kneeling urgently beside the man, jamming fingers to his neck to feel for a pulse like he would with any human.
"Come on…" he breathed quietly, impatiently, eyes on the man's still features the whole time. "Come on, you freaky bastard…"
Fingers pressed a little harder…
But then he felt it. The gentle thrum of life beneath his fingertips, and he immediately grinned with relief.
Fuck yes, he was still fighting.
"He's alive!" the blond announced, looking up at the others, who were caught in a debate about what the fuck to do.
"...They'll have to run a necropsy," Carne was saying. "And probably - wait, what?! It's alive?!"
"Yes!" Sanji insisted. "And he's got fucking gills, so let's get him in the holding tank!"
He didn't hesitate, just hurried to his feet with a brush of fingers against the unconscious man's cheek, and worked to unlatch the hatch himself, throwing open the metal cover to reveal the highly-oxygenated churning water of the tank below.
The shark-man's body was long. He might not fit entirely, but as long as they could get his gills under, then that should be enough.
Thankfully, Patty decided to make his huge arms useful again, helping him to lift the poles of the gurney and shuffle him back until they could slide him into the narrow tank.
He didn't fit, as Sanji had assumed, his upper half still out of the water, which was an odd sight indeed, almost like they had someone using their holding tank as a jacuzzi.
But that wasn't the case, and Sanji instinctively held onto the guy's head to keep him from slipping under entirely.
"What do we do about his wound?" the blond huffed, fingers sliding gently through green hair, brushing some of it off his forehead automatically. "It's on his human half - that's not really our jurisdiction."
The squelch of boots across the wet deck, and Sanji craned his neck to see Zeff already heading back towards the cabin calmly.
"If he's really part shark, then he'll heal up fast on his own," the man said nonchalantly. "Let's see if he lasts at least back to the lab."
And then he moved inside to start up the boat again.
Sanji growled, even more irritated when Patty and Carne continued to look somewhat repelled by the whole situation, though they were both most likely still trying to work through what the hell was even happening.
"We're gonna have to report this to the M.A.R.I.N.E.S., huh," Carne mumbled, drawing an even more apprehensive look onto Patty's face and a feeling of dread in Sanji's chest.
"Don't see no way around it..." Patty muttered in reply, gaze fixed intently on the shark-man in the tank.
Sanji clenched his teeth as the whir of the boat's engine started up, hoping to fuck there was a way around that…
The ride back to the lab wasn't long by their normal standards, but that day, two hours felt like an eternity.
Sanji sat there the entire time by the tank hatch, sitting behind the merman and crossing his legs so he could situate his unconscious form a bit more comfortably, leaning him back against his legs.
It was fucking hot out there on the white deck, even in the waning afternoon sun, and he could feel a sunburn coming on, in his cheeks and nose especially, but still Sanji sat there, tending to the merman as diligently as he would any other animal.
Not that this guy was an animal, but - well, fuck if he knew what he was capable of. Maybe he looked human from the waist up, but who was to say what kind of brain he had?
Still, in that moment, the only thing that mattered was keeping him alive, so there Sanji sat, absently splashing water up over his exposed half to keep him moist as the time passed.
Miraculously, the bleeding on his torso had actually slowed, still leaving a bright red line across his skin, but certainly not gushing blood. Maybe his dad had been right about his healing abilities…
He checked the guy's pulse periodically, and it even seemed to strengthen again, color coming back to his face and lips, most likely from the oxygenated water, and Sanji started to allow himself to relax, just a little bit, over time.
Or, as much as one could relax and process the fact that they were currently transporting a fucking merman.
Of course, it didn't really sink in until Sanji found himself standing in front of one of the shallower rehabilitation tanks back at the lab that evening, after sneaking in their cargo earlier through the currently-empty sea lion enclosure.
Zeff didn't want any of the four of them breathing a word about the merman's presence until they were certain of whether he was going to live or die, and there was a good reason for it.
The Maritime Animal Research Institution of North, East, and South Blue was well-known for putting research first, above all else, most particularly their research subjects' well-being.
B.A.R.A.T.I.E. operated underneath that larger institution, unfortunately falling under their jurisdiction, therefore forced to report to them of their findings, but their ethical values differed greatly.
Sanji knew Zeff had been trying to make their operative independent, much like O.H.A.R.A., the Ocean Habitat Aquatic Research Association over in West Blue, had done, but it was difficult.
And Sanji could sense his father's unhappiness with the situation as the two of them stood in front of the glass window of the tank, watching the merman hovering there in the water, still unresponsive, but certainly more peaceful-looking.
"I worry we can't keep this under wraps," the older man said, arms crossed over his chest as he observed their patient. "This is….something else. I never expected something like this to…."
He trailed off, brow furrowed and wrinkles prominent on his forehead.
Sanji frowned and sighed, watching the ethereal way the merman's necklace of black stones floated gently in the water, those three golden earrings on his left ear doing the same.
Surely jewelry had to be an indication of culture….and thus, human qualities….right?
"So we make sure he's okay and let him go again. Pretend it never happened," Sanji said, then turned his head to glance over at Zeff. "Not sure how you're so calm about this though. This is absolutely batshit insane."
Surprisingly, Zeff flicked eyes to his, a strange….almost nostalgic look passing across his face for a split second.
But then it was gone, as quickly as it had come, leaving Sanji to wonder if he'd imagined it.
The geezer looked away again, back to the floating merman.
"The ocean's a big place," was all he said.
Then he let out a sigh of his own and turned away, reaching out to pat Sanji on the shoulder as he walked off.
"Don't stay here all night, eggplant. It'll get cold," he grumbled over his shoulder, crossing the huge tank-filled room, footsteps echoing, easily highlighting his slightly uneven gait that came from a limp.
And eventually, the doors at the other end, past the turtle tanks near the feeding room, slammed shut, leaving Sanji alone with nothing but the faint sloshing of water here and there, and the whirring of pumps that kept the water oxygenated.
Don't stay here all night.
Sanji gave a little scoff.
Why wouldn't he when he had a fucking merman in the shark tank?
He and Zeff shared a bungalow just off the lab lot, close enough that they could be reached easily in case of an emergency.
But at a time like this, with such a peculiar and possibly dying patient?
He'd much rather stay.
So he grabbed a swiveling chair from one of the lab benches that lined the walls, wheeling the thing across the damp floor and parking it backwards in front of the tank window.
He threw a leg over it, straddling the seat and resting his arms and chin on the backrest.
He'd definitely stay here all night.
Sanji's fascination with merfolk went back as far as he could remember.
It had started with mermaids, and it wasn't a fetish, dammit, but definitely a fascination.
They weren't even real, and yet he knew all the lore that circulated the waters around East Blue. He'd annoyed his dad with questions about them, devoured any movie with them, had even considered getting a tattoo with one.
But the tattoo idea came after he'd met Ace, who already had a few. After things had changed rather significantly for him.
Ace was in the Navy, stationed at the base not too far from the lab.
Sanji had still been in college, but he'd accompanied his dad there to request permission to run testing in Navy-controlled waters.
Ace had given them a tour of one of the ridiculous armed destroyer ships.
His smile had been so vibrant and endearing, and Sanji had been only nineteen, just beginning to question why a man's smile would have such an effect period, when, up until that point, it had only been girls….
Their romance had been short and secretive, difficult because of their schedules, but also incredible, not to mention eye-opening. And though they'd parted less than a year later, they remained good friends, and Sanji was forever grateful for the newfound confidence and understanding of himself.
That wasn't to say he had lustful eyes for everything male that crossed his path. He didn't even really feel that way about women either, most of any showy flirting and doting borne out of the great respect he held for them.
But he no longer suppressed or denied it when his mind fixated on what, as far as he'd assumed for the first chunk of his young life, had been the wrong gender.
And he wasn't going to deny, as eyes fell on the merman's still features, that this guy might even top Ace in the looks department.
Well, fuck.
This was absurd. This was a potential scientific breakthrough right here, and yet there he was admiring (and maybe envying a bit) how damn beautiful and chiseled this fucking shark-man was.
He sat there studying for a while, decided to pull his small notebook out of his shorts pocket, and started making notes to distract himself, detailing the pattern of his tail, a deeper green than most tiger sharks. But that was definitely a tiger shark, the longer, more angular caudal and pelvic fins giving it away.
He noted how smoothly his shark skin transitioned into human skin, watched the gill slits where his hips should be that, thankfully, seemed to be pumping on their own despite the merman's rather stationary position. It was a damn good thing he hadn't turned out to be a great white. Otherwise, he would've surely asphyxiated by now.
His inner physiology was, of course, still a mystery, one that, as far as Sanji was concerned, might be better left unsolved given the fact that they were dealing with something far more human than anything they were used to.
For now, Sanji kept an eye on his wound, the movement of his breathing….and maybe his strong jaw, his lips….but only a little, particularly as he grew more tired.
Soon after, he slipped his notebook back into his pocket, hooked his pen on his lanyard and found himself drifting, eventually seeing nothing but blue….
Bubbles and blue….
So much blue…
Sanji didn't know how much time had passed when he unexpectedly jerked awake from the sensation of nearly sliding right off the chair.
Dammit. He quickly righted himself, gripping the backrest and rubbing at his chin, which had a good, sore impression of the chair back from resting it there for too long.
He scrubbed at his eyes next, feeling disoriented as he checked his watch, entirely baffled by the fact that it was now close to three in the morning, and he was still in the rehabilitation room, in his khaki shorts and work polo.
What the hell had he been….
….doing….
Suddenly, eyes focused in on the magnificent tail currently pressed against the glass of the tank window before him, its lazy lateral swish as his gaze traveled upwards over a human torso, that slash from the propeller still red and sore-looking but no longer bleeding at all.
And then he locked eyes with a pair that were dark gray, and not entirely human, their owner resting arms casually on the lip of the tank and peering down at Sanji over the edge.
The blond could only blink for a long moment, as his mind fought to assert that he was indeed awake, drawing on memories from earlier that day.
And once he'd accepted that the merman was still very much real, the second wave of shock hit.
"Holy shit - you're okay!" he yelped, straightening and nearly rolling away on the chair in his haste to stand and get himself closer to the merman's level.
No response, however, the man just tilting his head a little curiously, his dark eyes moving up and down Sanji's form briefly before settling on his face again.
His hair was nearly dry, Sanji realized. How long had he been fucking watching him…?
"I-" he stammered, suddenly having no clue what to do or say now that he was confronted with a conscious mystery of science.
Fuck, he was part fish. Who was to say he even understood him?
"Okay, um - shit - uh-" A few paces left, then he rounded on the guy, who didn't seem spooked by the sudden movement in the slightest. "Do you understand what I'm saying? Is this - I mean - can you talk?"
Again, no response, and Sanji let out a frustrated noise, bringing a hand up to rake through his hair.
"Ugh. No, that's stupid," he mumbled to himself, now pacing to the right. "He's a fucking fish! Why would he understand humans?"
Of course, during his bout of mutterings, he completely missed the slow quirk of the merman's brow, the almost smirk that tugged at his lips that was certainly far more sentient than any mere fish...
"Okay!" Sanji suddenly huffed out, turning back to the merman with a determined look on his face.
He then lifted a hand to silently slash over his own torso in imitation of the merman's injury. As soon as he did that, he doubled over, dramatically miming pain for a second before straightening again and holding up hands in question.
All he received in reply was a few blinks, and then a confused furrowing of the man's brow.
Sanji let out a breath, held up a finger to indicate he was going to repeat the gesture, doing so with far more emphasis, even a pained noise, then pointing at the merman's chest insistently, fucking hoping he got the message.
This time, the merman's expression changed to one that Sanji definitely recognized as an absolute 'What the fuck' that was so human and so mocking that the blond actually rolled his eyes.
If that was the face he pulled, there was no way the merman hadn't understood his gesturing at least, and Sanji was not going to look like an idiot by repeating himself over and over to that condescending look.
He growled, resisting the sudden urge to flip the guy off for some reason, then decided he'd try something else.
He turned on his heel and stomped over to the set of metal stairs that climbed up the side of the tank, leading to the small feeding platform that jutted out over the water.
The merman watched him, but didn't move from his position right away, even as Sanji crouched down closer to the water's surface.
"Come here," he said, lowering his voice a bit and gesturing for the guy to come to the platform.
When that yielded no reaction though, he gestured more insistently, saying, "Come on. It's okay, I won't hurt you, just - come over here. Come on...come on."
It got to the point where he was essentially calling a dog over, and it seemed to annoy the merman enough - his eyes narrowing and lips pulling into an irritated line - that he actually did approach slowly….only to indignantly splash the blond in the face.
Sanji spluttered, infuriated when all he saw on the stupid shark-man's face was a smug little smirk.
Fuck him, what the hell! First encounter with a merperson and he was turning out to be a complete, clueless dick!
"You are seriously ruining my fantasies here, you know that, ya damn fish bastard?" he grumbled, wiping salt water out of his eyes and glaring down at the man. "And here I thought you were gonna die! Not wake up and be a shitty annoyance."
The merman just kept up that maddening grin, revealing slightly-pointed teeth, watching Sanji with interest for a second.
Then he swam a little closer, looked Sanji straight in the eye and said, in a perfectly normal-sounding voice, "Food."
Sanji's jaw dropped open, the blond having to brace himself on the fucking edge of the platform so he didn't tumble into the water in his shock.
"Wha-" he stammered eloquently, eyes wide. "What?"
The merman rolled his eyes in response, fixed Sanji with a look, then slowly mimed bringing something to his mouth, and chomping into it with fervor, turning Sanji's stupid charades game right back on him.
He gave Sanji a pointed look again and repeated, "Food."
An unintelligible choking noise left the blond of its own accord before he shook his head quickly.
"You can talk?!" he screeched, voice echoing around the vast room. "Are you fucking serious?! You're sitting there making me look like an idiot, and all along you could fucking-!"
But suddenly, the merman shot out of the water, one of his hands clamping down hard on Sanji's jaw, dragging his face down towards the water forcefully with a growl.
"Not - everything - understand," he gritted out with some hesitation, and a hint of an odd accent. "Stop - talking."
Then he released the blond with a shove of his hand, Sanji's sunglasses nearly sliding off his head into the water before he hastily hooked them on his shirt collar instead.
"Ugh, fuck you!" Sanji hissed, trying to steady his breathing and act like he hadn't nearly been assaulted or drowned by a freaking brute of a merman.
So the guy understood and could speak at least some human language. He should be fascinated, but really he was just aggravated now.
Sanji huffed out a breath and sat up, glaring down at the shark-man before he finally asked, "Well, what do you eat? I know tiger sharks will pretty much go for anything, so depending on how hungry you are, I can-"
The merman dropped his head back with a loud, frustrated groan, enough to shut Sanji up again, realizing that he probably was at fault for speaking too much now, so he pinched the bridge of his nose to calm himself.
"Shit," he cursed, then lifted his head again with conviction to slowly ask, "What...food?" as if speaking to a goddamn baby.
The merman scowled at the tone, seemed to pause to think for a second before a smirk began to return to his lips, a devilish glint in his eye.
"You?" he replied pointedly with a flash of teeth, and when Sanji automatically paled, the bastard snickered and looked far too pleased with himself.
"No!" Sanji asserted, backing away from the water's edge some before getting to his feet and retreating to the stairs so he could make his way to the feeding room. "You'll eat what I give you, how's that!"
And the guy absolutely did, as Sanji watched, ten minutes later, the grotesque display before him - the merman literally tearing into a huge-ass raw tuna with sharp teeth, just as, well, a shark would, chunks of meat floating to the surface now and again as he ate rather sloppily.
Thankfully, he did it underwater, so Sanji waited, crossing legs under him and resting his chin on a palm, eyelids beginning to droop slightly, but determined to stay awake now.
It didn't take long before the ripples and sloshing of the water, brought about by the merman's animalistic feasting, began to calm, and a few minutes later, a wet algae-head popped back up over the water and dumped a perfectly clean and intact fish skeleton on the platform beside Sanji.
Sanji quirked a brow at it for a second, then turned that look back to the merman, trying his best to look unimpressed despite being quite the opposite.
The merman floated back in the water lazily, crossing arms over his chest and watching Sanji again with an intense gaze that held no qualms over staring.
He was fine. He really was, and, after a quiet minute to take all this crazy shit in, Sanji asked, "So this…" He gestured over his chest again. "It's really okay?"
This time, the guy looked down at his own chest, poked at the wound for a second before shrugging and replying with a nod.
"Well, I'll be damned," Sanji muttered, then leaned back on a palm and sighed. "I'm Sanji, by the way. I helped bring you here and-"
He trailed off, seeing the wide-eyed look of shock that had come across the merman's face, his tail, previously floating up at the surface, quickly dipping back down in surprise.
But over what? Sanji didn't know.
Maybe the guy didn't understand him, so he tried again, stating more simply, "My name is Sanji," hoping it would get his point across.
The merman stared at him for another long moment before he looked away, brow drawing in and shoulders slumping, almost as if letting out a sharp breath despite not even breathing air.
But eventually, he slowly brought eyes back to Sanji's face.
"I'm...Zoro…" he replied, pointing at himself briefly.
"Zoro…" the blond repeated, then cracked a smile at the insane mythical freak of nature that currently bobbed before him, looking a little less ferocious than before and much more like a sheepish human, for whatever reason.
"Damn," Sanji said with a chuckle, still grinning. "It fits."
Author's Note: Can't link here, but full credit to an old drawing, entitled "Mer-Strawhats," by SybLaTortue on deviantART for the idea to make Zoro a tiger shark merman.