The Tears of the Sea Are Made of These
Summary: When the world runs out of gemstones for their greed, they turn their eyes to the sea, where fabled legends swim with these rumored gems, hiding from the sights of man. One of the creatures ends up on the shore, and winds up under a nervous young man's hesitant care.
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A/N: Nine days after Yuuri! On Ice ended, this idea popped up, stemming solely from Viktor's lovely tears.
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"All right. Get him."
Wires of different colors pierce through the tank of water, their tendrils long, and ends waving into strands of copper. The tank filled with water tastes of salt—its visibility, murky.
Inside the tank, a creature swims around—webbed hands flailing and tapping on the glass walls; the scales on the arms reflecting a faint glimmer through the clouded pool. A long tail whips around—its color, the deepest black; its fins, tinged in a hue of deep damson, its purple shade obstructed by the bubbles as it moves around.
From outside the tank, a man grins, eyeing the fins of the creature encased in glass—fins embedded with shining stones, glittering against the light.
Another wire dips into the water, and the creature flees—tries to—by swimming further down the tank.
The man follows the creature's movements as it swims to the bottom—frantic, anxious as it slams its hands against the basin floor—and he raises a finger to another man sitting beside him.
The room grows dim, its only light being that from the pool—and those precious, precious fins.
Bubbles froth from the water as electric current flows—the wires multiplying, its merciless power dipping further into the small tank—
A wire taps onto the tail—and the man grins, his eyes glinting as the beginnings of a scream rips from the creature's mouth, exposing the sharp teeth and a long tongue—
The water recedes, slow and steady, as the wires go deeper into the tank, its coppery ends meeting with the flailing fins and tail and arms—
—and the screams go unheard, muffled, its sound a vague melody trapped inside the bubbles wobbling in the waters—
Air slowly fills the tank—and the creature fights back from the wires, trying to find another means of escape. Its eyes, dark and slitted under the water filled with pain, dart to the top of the tank, and races there in a rush of panic, swimming away from the jolts of pain—
A webbed hand, pale and shaking in its wake, rises from the water, and greets the air with a futile slap to the tank's lid. The creature rises, gasping with its eyes shut tight, its black hair plastered to a face twisted in excruciating pain. The water ebbs further, showing more of the creature's face—
The lid of the tank opens, and a man in a strange, heavy bodysuit, wearing a gas mask on his face, appears to the creature. A black-gloved hand reaches out to the creature, pulling it upwards to the air—and the creature struggles in his grasp, the webbed hands clawing on the man's wrist, trying to free its chin from the cruel fingers.
The man says nothing, and takes a large wire split into two ends, and digs it onto the creature's webbed arms.
The creature screams and its eyes—now lost in their slitted form, flash open, its pupils a shade of startling, zircon blue—spill tears, fat and drooping, and the man catches them with a basin held under its chin, waiting for its tears to turn into shimmering pieces of coveted stones.
From the far side of the dimmed room, several others like the creature in the tank are encased in a large, rectangular glass filled with man-made saltwater, all of them huddling in fright, their webbed arms tangled in a circle around themselves.
The man's words fail to meet their hearing, and they refuse to close their eyes and cry for their tortured companion.
"The other one—the one with the long hair, where is he?" the man from the bottom of the tank asks the crying creature. The creature doesn't respond, and the waves of shock return to its skin, digging into stiffened shoulders—and the creature wails as more tears spring from its eyes, the liquid tears crystalizing into precious gems upon meeting air.
One of them, the youngest of the finned creatures, pulls back its chin length, flaxen hair covering half of its face, and glances at the bottom of the pool, where a crude slab of cement and plaster sits on a large hole big enough for a person to go through.
The youngest looks at its hands, pale and webbed and scratched from wounds upon making that hole—and frowns upon seeing their only exit sealed from them all.
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"Yuuri! Come and help me with the customers!"
Yuuri jumps from his seat, books and notes tumbling from his lap, and he emerges from his room, bumbling throughout as he makes his way downstairs, rearranging his half-rimmed glasses as he sprints down the stairs. In the front desk, a woman smiles at the customers, and gestures for them to come inside. The woman looks around, and sees Yuuri, flushed and heaving, standing behind her.
"Yuuri, come now. Give time to rest and help out," she says, her hand pointing out to the new customers.
Yuuri laughs and sighs all the same, "Sorry, Mari-neechan. Ah, this way, please." And he leads the customers and shows them around the bathhouse, explaining along where to go and what to do. Once done, he bows and takes his leave, and returns to the front desk. "Mari-neechan, can I leave for a bit? I need a quiet place to write."
"Ah, Yuuri, you barely even started! What if Mother—"
"It's all right, Mari. Yuuri, you can leave, but be sure to return before dinner!" hollers their mother, Hiroko, from the kitchen, smiling all the while as she serves food to the customers.
Yuuri smiles wide at his older sister, and dons his shoes in a hurry, running out of the inn before Mari can say anything else.
The air outside smells of the trees and grass, and Yuuri smiles as he takes the air in lungfuls, and jogs his way to the beach. On a cold day like today, he sprints down the streets, urging his body to release heat to feel warm, and when he reaches the shore, he pants, heaves as he plants his palms on his shaky knees, and collapses on the sand, laughing to himself.
He feels for a notebook stashed in his oversized coat, and pats his pockets for his pen. Under the gaze of the midday sun, Yuuri finds a large rock, and leans there, and begins to write.
His pen spills ink onto the paper, the nib dancing across the canvas as sentences fill the page. On days like these—cold and quiet, with only the seagulls as his distraction—he finds inner peace, and feels inspiration fill him whole.
He writes about anything—from his daily life, to food, to sceneries, to worlds created in his head—it's his only consolation for not making enough friends throughout his life. He laments through writing, spills everything through tear-stained papers and blotched ink stains, wishing for anyone to hear him out—
It's on days like these that Yuuri also finds war with himself, his solitude serving as both his bane and boon. He thinks if writing is enough, if isolating himself is enough, to make peace with his warring self—thoughts crawl to his fingers, making their words known on ink—
—and the waves crash to the shore in time with his tears, and the pen falls to his lap, wedged in between his stomach and thighs as he curls in on himself, and wracks new ideas to write with—
A seagull squawks in the air, its wings flapping as it soars to the sky, and Yuuri wipes his snot and tears, sees the shadow cast overhead, and he looks up, only to see the seagull dump its excrement straight on his glasses.
Yuuri cries and curses the seagull flying away, and huffs as he removes his glasses, chucks his pen and notebook aside, and goes to the coast, stomping along the way.
He dunks his glasses in the water, cringing as the white gunk slowly dissipates in the ebbing waves. He sits on the sand, cursing his ruined day, when another wave hits the shore—
—and Yuuri tumbles to his back with a gasped, "oof", his ebony hair pricking his eyes doused in saltwater. He squints under the sun, and lifts his head to see what has caused him to fall—
—and yells when he sees a naked body lying on top of him.
Yuuri's face pales and he panics as he pushes the body off of him. His voice grips to his throat as he holds back a scream, fearing the attention he may attract. He scrambles to get his glasses stained with water and the remnants of bird dung, shoves them back to his face with trembling hands, and drags himself backwards on the sand.
Fearing for his life, he kicks the cold, unmoving body and claws and scrambles away, taking his fallen notebook and pen with him, and hides behind the large rock.
"Calm down, calm down…! It's just a body! A body that happened to land on you while you were cleaning your glasses…!" Yuuri whispers in a harsh hiss. He clutches his heart, and feels it hammer through his clothes. He hears the blood pump to his ears, and his palms muffle the sounds of the seagulls and of the crashing waves as he crouches and tears at his hair and stares at the sand at his feet—
He breathes in deep, slow breaths, forcing himself to see everything—and he squints, struggling to see through his water-stained glasses, and assesses the situation.
He feels his body grow weak at the sight.
There, bathed under the sun, blanketed in the foams of the waves, lies a body covered in long, silver hair. What frightens Yuuri the most is not the state of the body—
—but rather, the sight of it.
Yuuri gulps, and without thinking, he takes a step away from the rock, and crawls—not trusting his feet to do their job—towards the body that has just spiked Yuuri's curiosity.
"A costume, that's more likely it—haha," he mumbles, and tries to convince himself just that. He crawls closer, and darts his eyes behind him every now and then, checking to see if nobody sees him. His hands claw on the grains of sand as he sneaks faster to the unmoving body, and Yuuri takes in its sight—
The upper half of the pale body is unmistakably human—a male, Yuuri screams in his head, judging by the shoulder blades and the arms—but the lower half is unmistakably something else.
From where normal, human waists, hips and legs should be, there lies a scaly, black tail, with small, aquamarine-hued dorsal fins where the sides of the knees should be. Instead of feet, Yuuri sees two, large, forked fins, the tips fading into a light shade of beryl. He pauses, looks at the unmoving body, and crawls to where the large fins are. He observes and lightly touches the tips—thin and fragile-looking—and notices that the top lobe is longer than the bottom.
Yuuri looks around once more, and checks to see if no one sees him sitting in the middle of the beach staring at a dead mermaid—merman, he corrects himself. Still seeing no one around, he flips the body over and wipes the long, damp tresses from the merman's face—
—and stills upon seeing the merman's face.
Pale and ethereal, otherworldly and stunning—those are the only words that cross Yuuri's mind as he stares at the merman's features.
Yuuri's fingertips ghost over the strong, chiseled jaws, feeling them cold to the touch. His own lips part upon seeing the merman's lips—the flesh soft and supple, and the tips a startling shade of pale blue. He touches them with trembling fingers, and pulls back upon seeing them move.
Yuuri hesitates and bites the inside of his cheek, and his sights trail upwards, to a high and sharp nose, normal, human-looking ears, and eyes hidden behind a bed of long, fair and almost silver lashes.
He sits upright as the merman's head lolls to one side with parted lips, and he sees the faintest glimmer of pointed teeth. Yuuri gulps, and shuts the merman's mouth closed. His eyes travel downwards, to a slender neck, to the prominent clavicles—
—and Yuuri sniffs, nostrils flaring at the sight of a pale and wiry torso. His eyes flutter and shy away from the raised, flushed nipples, and he covers his face from the well-defined torso, and only peeks to see that under the merman's pectorals are three, small flaps on each side, opening and closing at each rise and fall of the chest. Yuuri hums, and stares at the lean, light blue-scaled arms fading into normal, human skin as it reaches the elbow, and his fingers itch to touch the webbed hands—
He shakes his head and nods, convincing himself that he doesn't believe what he sees—a merman. A live, breathing, merman—!
Yuuri clamps his hands to his mouth in suppressed shock and happiness—he had always wanted to see one in person, ever since he was a kid, and now—!
He lets out a withheld sigh, wills his shoulders to relax, and smiles at the unconscious merman.
"Hello, you may not know it now, but it seems you're far from your home. How about I take you with me until you can recover and return home?" Yuuri's smile widens at the thought, and looks at the sleeping merman up and down, and hums. "Now, how can I take you with me with you looking like that?"
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Yuuri heaves and pants as he carries a large cooler to the inn.
He grunts his answers to his curious sister and waves off the odd looks from his parents as he trudges up the stairs with slow and heavy steps. Ignoring his father's offer for help, Yuuri smiles through sweat-slicked locks as he struggles to lift the large cooler to his room. Sliding the door shut, he lays down the cooler on the tatami with a sharp groan and a creaking back.
Nodding once, he takes out a roll of plastic sheet from his closet, and rolls it out on the matting. Satisfied, he goes over to the cooler and lifts the lid, and sees the merman curled up inside, still unconscious, and with lips now parted.
Puffing out his chest, Yuuri hauls the merman from the container with restrained groans, and lays him flat on the cover, careful not to squish any fins on accident.
Yuuri falls flat on his backside, his palms dampened with sweat and saltwater cradling his face. "What will I do now…?" he mutters, his voice a faint muffle against the return of his hammering heart.
He laments on his actions, what repercussions his discovery may bring to his family, what problems that may arise from taking a being from the sea and into the land—!
The covers shift, and Yuuri whips his head to see the merman stirring in his sleep, the webbed fingers twitching, the chest visibly rising and falling—
Yuuri immediately scoots to the merman on all fours, his body tensing as the eyes behind the lids start to move. He freezes as the merman's eyelids flicker, revealing two pools of bright blue orbs—his eyes a stark contrast to Yuuri's dark brown ones.
The merman blinks, and closes his eyes for a few moments, only for them to shoot wide open as he sits up with a start, his disarrayed hair fanning around his arms and back as he looks around with growing horror on his face.
The merman sees thin walls plastered with sheets of paper riddled with squiggles. His shoulders jolt at the even thinner doors, his arms tensing at the sight of a low-rise bed riddled with stickers that he cannot name—
He opens his mouth wide and emits the beginnings of a scream, and Yuuri jumps on him, hand covering the merman's mouth—and musters courage upon remembering the sharp teeth.
Yuuri winces when the merman does bite back, but he does not release his hold on the merman, and opts to merely shush him until the finned creature calms down. And when he does, Yuuri releases his hold, his palms hovering on the mouth clamped shut in indignation. The merman glares at him with tenacity, and Yuuri bows, muttering apologies for offending him.
The merman says nothing, offering only an occasional grunt when Yuuri laughs the awkwardness away. Yuuri sighs in relief when, after a few moments, the merman stays silent, sending only sharp glares at his way. "It's better this way," he mumbles, "better than you chopping my hand off, that is."
The merman tilts his head slightly, and frowns, his eyes looking at Yuuri's face, searching for something.
And Yuuri takes the merman's hand into his.
At first, the merman struggles to free himself from Yuuri's grasp, and keens, like that of a dog about to be tortured. Yuuri gives him a smile, nonetheless, and rubs his thumb on the back of the damp, scaly hand, and encases it with his other hand—and he kisses the cold fingertips with upturned curls on the edges of his lips, and looks into the merman's wide eyes with his hooded ones.
Yuuri places the webbed hand on his now calm heart, and beams at the merman, "I won't hurt you. So, please—" He flattens and splays his fingers on the webbed ones, smiles through his shaking fingertips, knocks away the unease eating him moments prior, and clasps the hand loose, but firm. "Don't hurt me, too."
And the merman stares—blinks at the details of the human's face with sheer curiosity. He does not know what the human has just said, try as he may to read his lips and make notice of the sounds that tumble from it. So he files them away in his mind, and notes the human's appearance instead. He blinks at the rumpled, black hair, sticking out in odd angles. He hums at the rounded jaws, and notes the soft, plump lips stretched into a wide smile, the small, yet upturned nose—
—and the soft, warm brown eyes looking at him with happiness.
The merman feels himself go still as his palm feels the soft thrumming of something beating from within the human's chest. And on instinct, he raises his hand to his own chest, and feels a similar beating there.
The merman's lips part, the faint glimpse of the sharp teeth being hidden behind the mouth that slackens in what Yuuri assumes as awe—
—and the merman chokes on a muffled cry in his throat, and tackles Yuuri to the floor, his scaly arms wrapping themselves around the human's neck.
Yuuri lies still as he looks at the ceiling, his mind unprepared at the merman's sudden action—and as he feels the merman's torso jerk, Yuuri moves his hand to the long locks of gray, and pats the merman's head with gentle strokes, humming all the while.
His eyes droop to a close the longer he keeps up with his hums and strokes, and yet, the smile on his face never leaves, even as the tremors from the merman have long ceased. Yuuri feels the merman relax in his hold, the startling chokes of restrained cries mellowing to calm and even breaths, and he holds the merman a tad tighter, and the figure on top of him pulls back, the merman's face scrunched up in pain.
"What's wrong?" Yuuri asks, his tone soft and barely audible as he tucks away the stray strands of hair from the merman's face. "Did someone hurt you?"
The merman does not speak, merely sits there on top of him with his palms splayed on Yuuri's shoulders. His face mirrors that of someone who's in pain, and Yuuri smiles, slides the long, dewy hair away from the pale face—
—and feels something small and compact fall on his cheek.
Yuuri blinks, and feels it again.
He glances at the ceiling, and notes the lack of debris falling from the edges of the fluorescent light. Another small and compact thing falls from Yuuri's cheek to ear. Curious, he takes it out from the shell of his ear, inspects it closely, and rolls the fine, smooth stone in the pads of his digits, as another one falls in the crevice of his neck.
Yuuri looks up, and sees the merman sniffling and crying.
He sits up, careful not to budge the stricken merman, plucks the fallen stones from his neck and hoodie, and sets them aside. Yuuri cradles him, pats his shoulder, and mutters words of comfort. The merman looks up with a tear-stained face, his cheekbones dusted with a fine layer of powder, fading from colorless to light blue towards the chin, and Yuuri, curious, wipes them away with his thumb.
As soon as he does so, however, another tear falls from those blue eyes, and Yuuri gasps in shock when the tear turns into a perfectly round, glittering stone as it hits his palm.
Yuuri stares at it, then at the other stones lying by his side, and looks at the merman with wide eyes and slackened jaws.
His lips babble, and words fail to fall in the open as the merman's shoulders jerk in spasms from the crying fit. Another tear falls, and this time, Yuuri sees it happen—
The moment the tear leaves the eyes, it remains in its liquid form, until it changes into a perfectly small, round crystal in the shade of faded blue. The tear-turned-stone falls on the merman's tail, and Yuuri, on instinct, picks it up, gulping—and shakes his head in complete disbelief.
He holds the crystal up to the merman's nose. "Is this yours?" Yuuri asks, shock and curiosity seeping to his voice.
And in response, the merman jolts as though burned, and clambers away in a tangle of lithe arms and a loud swishing and flapping of tail and fins, and Yuuri lets out an undignified yelp as the fins' edges strike his face and knocks off his glasses and the stone from his hand—
Yuuri stammers, tries to say something to the merman as he nurses his damp and swollen cheek, and his thoughts die on his lips as he notices the merman huddling far in the corner, nestled in between his desk and the thin door to his closet. He gulps, and realizes that—
"You're… scared, aren't you? That I might hurt you?"
Yuuri itches to move, but makes no such thing as the merman further tries to make himself smaller, covering his form with his hair and arms. He flaps his large fins in hopes of turning the human away—and Yuuri holds back a cry of his own—
"I won't hurt you," Yuuri whispers, crawling on all fours as he reaches the trembling merman. He thinks about caressing the large, forked fins beating against the tatami, and thinking the sounds they make may cause ruckus downstairs, he reaches out to it on reflex, and he holds back a yelp as the tail slaps against his hand, and Yuuri bites his lip and sits in front of the merman with his feet tucked under his backside, and bows. "I'm sorry," he says, repeating the words as he bows thrice, "I didn't mean to scare you—here, I'll put my hands away so I can't touch you." And he tucks his hands under his knees, forcing a smile to the merman, and the merman's brows furrow, looks at him with doubt, and glances at Yuuri's knees, to where his hands are hidden. The merman's shoulders hunch and leans back further, clutching his hands around his arms as he glares relentlessly, and Yuuri's smile falters a bit.
"Not working, huh… Oh, how about this—" Yuuri grins and goes over to his bed, sees the unopened pack of chips there, and rips it open. He sees the merman from the corner of his eye bite back a startled yell upon hearing the sound of tearing plastic, and Yuuri turns around with a smile, sits in front of him, and hands out a long, curly cracker to the doubtful merman. "Here, try it. It's uh… fish crackers… Um. Here, I'll taste it first." He bites into the cracker, and then another, smiling as he feels his teeth vibrate with the satisfying crunch—
And he takes another one, and holds it out to the silent merman. "Here, take one," Yuuri urges, smiling and nodding as the merman eyes the strange piece of food with mild interest, and Yuuri bites his lip as the merman makes the smallest of movements—the unfolding of shivering hands on elbows, the lowering of the hunched shoulders, the ceasing of the pounding fins—
And the merman takes a cautious look at Yuuri's smiling face, darts his sights between the bag of chips and the thing outstretched to him in patience—and the merman relents, lowers his guard, and reaches his left hand to the proffered thing. The human places it onto the damp, open palm, and the merman jerks back, closing his hand as he pulls his arm back to his chest—and pauses. He unfolds his fingers, and sees the remnants of the crushed cracker in his palm, and looks at the human's stiffly smiling lips.
He points at the thing in his hand with his right index, and opens his mouth to speak a language that Yuuri barely understands.
"What?" Yuuri asks in a dumb daze. He notices the crushed bits of the cracker, and he laughs. "Oh, you crushed it. Um, okay—here, another one." He takes another cracker, and places it with haste on the merman's right palm. "Eat it," he says, gesturing his palm and pointing at his mouth.
The merman blinks, fear and surprise currently forgotten, and he looks at the human's open mouth. Shaking his head, he scrunches his lips and chucks the cracker in the human's mouth, grinning behind a webbed hand.
Shocked at the sudden gesture, Yuuri clamps his mouth shut and chews and swallows the cracker, his eyes wide at the giggling merman.
And Yuuri's shoulders sag in relief, and lets out a breathy laugh as well.
The forked fins flit once more, although weaker than moments prior, and the merman darts Yuuri a playful glance behind slender fingers and damp lashes—
—Yuuri grins, bashful, and accepts the unspoken invitation.
He takes out a cracker, holds it out to the merman, and the latter takes it, toys it in between the wedges of his slender digits, and Yuuri watches him sniff the cracker, then at the pulverized cracker in his other hand—and the merman scatters the snack's powdery remains onto his tail with a hum and a broad, tightlipped smile directed at Yuuri. Yuuri returns the smile, happy to see the merman finding amusement in scattering food on his tail.
This time, Yuuri shifts closer to the merman, and prompts a mild, swishing of the fins, akin to that of a dog happily wagging its tail, he concludes. And he laughs, finding comfort in this odd, ethereal being. He teaches him how to eat the cracker, uses gestures and mild sounds that resemble like someone who eats, and the merman follows, hesitant at first, until Yuuri breaks a cracker in half, and places it in the merman's mouth.
The merman chews, follows as the human chews along, and he gulps when the human gulps, and he traces Yuuri's movements in succession, until the bag of snacks becomes empty. The human speaks words that the merman has yet to understand, and he blindly nods along, feeling a rush of ease at hearing the foreign sounds tumbling from the human's lips.
He lets the human clean up after the mess on his tail, his fins swaying all the while, and he watches as the human scoops up the stones that have been the merman's tears, and places them in the desk drawer that the merman leans on.
"How should I call you—do you have a name? Of course, you do—what am I saying…!"
The human's words fall in a senseless heap to the merman's otherwise sharp ears, and he says nothing in return, opting to let this fascinating being ramble on and flail his arms about, flustered at anything that catches his attention. He watches the human fumble around the small room, taking out large fabrics along with garbled sounds, and places them on the bed. The merman leans forward, curious, and nudges his tail and fins in a vain attempt to move from his corner. He flaps his fins a bit louder, hoping to catch the human's attention, and when he does, the merman beams, and he unfolds his tail, displaying it in full length—and the sheen of the black scales fading into the light, aquamarine blue caudal fins stuns the human for a moment. Liking the attention he receives, the merman flaps his fins once, and reaches out a hand to him—
—and Yuuri takes the slender, but firm hand into his, and yelps as he's pulled towards the impish merman, giggling about as Yuuri stumbles on the scaly lap—tail, he corrects himself—
Yuuri finds himself mesmerized in the sea of blue that the merman's eyes hold, and for a moment, his lips part just as the merman's lips unfold, the flesh now a shade closer to a human's than how they have been when he first saw them on the beach. Their softness invites Yuuri's eyes—the rosy hue, the plump shape, and the taste, most likely succulent—
Yuuri's tongue darts across his bottom lip in a flash as the soft, silver hair kiss his forehead, the tendrils sending jolts of tickles to his ears. The merman's lips hover to his own, and he almost tastes the saltwater through his nose, smells the remnants of the snack they have eaten through his mouth, and his fingertips tremble in unease and excitement as the merman swallows him with that hypnotizing gaze, and devours him with those damp lips that reach closer, closer to his own—
"Yuuri, come down for a bit. It's time for din—"
The sentence falls into blankness, as Mari stands there in stunned silence in front of the door, her mouth hanging open, as she looks at her little brother, her shy and withdrawn little brother, draping his head on a man's la—
"What… is that…? Cosplay?"
Yuuri freezes and stammers as he sits upright in a hurry, and flails his arms about, his face flushing a deep red as he covers the merman with his floundering body. "I-it's not what it looks like!" he cries, heaving as his glasses fog up in embarrassment. And in his effort to conceal the merman behind him, Yuuri stands and tries to go over to the door to push his sister away, only to end up stepping on the edge of a fin—
The merman screeches, and his tail thrashes on impulse and shoves himself back to the small space between the closet door and the desk, the large fins slapping Yuuri on the face for the second time in a matter of few hours—and Yuuri cries his apologies as he scurries back to the merman, bowing in earnest and begging for forgiveness—
"Y-Yuuri, what is that… thing… on his leg?"
Yuuri feels his heart stop as he slowly raises his head. His eyes meet the merman's for a moment, and sees fear return to the beautiful face—and Yuuri declares in an inaudible whisper to himself—
"He's scared…"
"What?"
"He's scared—Mari-neechan, please leave the room."
"Wha—I don't understand—"
Yuuri whips around in a flurry of ire, unaware of the shock blooming on the merman's face, "Leave the room now! I'll explain everything later, just leave the room now!"
Mari hastily nods in confusion, tries to ask another question that fails to turn into words, and she ends up hurtling to the door, sliding it shut on her way out.
Yuuri pants, clasps his chest at the sudden rush of anger, and apologizes about his sister in a muttered whisper. All the while, the merman watches him with distrust once more, his body hunched and shielded with his tail and arms, and Yuuri sighs and frowns.
"Back to square one, I guess."
Yuuri removes his glasses and wipes at his eyes, and feels a sudden rush of melancholy wash over him, and he stands up, not even sparing the merman a glance as he turns his back to him, shoulders drooping and head bowing at a loss.
The merman darts his eyes to one side and bites his lip, pondering—
Yuuri heaves another sigh as he bends over to remove the plastic covers on the tatami, only to pause when he hears heavy shuffling from behind him, and he turns his head to see the merman shifting and wriggling his arms and torso, the tail and fins flapping in hopes of helping him escape from his confines.
Yuuri almost laughs, if it weren't for the mumbled groans and the quick flashes of sharp teeth as the merman struggles in his quest.
He goes over to the toiling, finned man, and helps him out, sticking his hands under the merman's armpits, and deftly removes him from the corner with a quick tug.
The merman catches himself and places his hands on Yuuri's shoulders on instinct, and the merman stills in his hold. Yuuri laughs as he carries him back on the laid out plastic covers, and apologizes once more as he tucks away the stray, silver locks.
He caresses the pale cheek, feels none of the faint dust as before, and smiles, on which the merman reciprocates with downcast eyes and a forlorn countenance, and it takes all of Yuuri to calm himself and the merman once more.
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Hours pass when Mari tiptoes to her little brother's room, their mother and father trailing behind with mirrored stealth, their faces painting both worry and barely concealed excitement.
They dare to take a peek inside Yuuri's room, where a slumbering half-man, half-fish of a being drapes himself like a blanket on a sleeping, snoring Yuuri.