An excited pair of feet hit a set of steps and blue eyes sparkled with intense interest. Golden spikes bounced with him until he hit level floor and started typing a code into a door frame. He scowled with impatience while the door opened slowly. Axel had caught a mermaid. Sure Roxas was only a junior hunter in the magical creature hunter organization, but he could look right? He'd seen all sorts of weird things but his stomach flopped nervously when he entered the containment room. A mermaid.. The giant tank at the back of the room was new. Filled with sea water and filtered carefully. There were regular fish in it and seaweed and plants like what grew in the ocean around the island. Roxas stepped as close as he was allowed to get, head tipping to the side and brows knitting together while he frowned in confusion.

"I don't see anything.. Did it get out?"

With a loud splash a blue streak whipped through the tank and slammed hard into the glass, the resulting thud of impact made Roxas yelp and fall backwards onto his butt. Fierce Cobalt glared into alarmed azure. The merman was holding his shoulder and floating just behind the glass. Fury at being trapped clear on his features. Cinnamon spikey hair waving in the slight current of the water. Silver blue scales covered his lower half that ended in a jagged translucent fin. Similar fins lined his arms, surrounded by more scales that also covered his webbed hands. His ears were finned too Roxas noted, standing slowly and chuckling nervously.

"Uh sorry, you probably don't like being stared at... Or being in there..."

The mer just blew a few bubbles out his mouth, arms crossing and glare not lessening at all.

"I'm Roxas! I uh.. I was just really curious. I've never seen someone like you before."

A roll of the eyes and with a pout on his face the mer swam away, lazily flopping onto a rock and just laying there to sulk. Roxas stood on his toes, trying to see his face. It seemed the mer was done paying him any attention.

He came back the next day. Watching while they forced the finned boy to do tests, running a slight shock through the water when he refused.

"Hey! What are you doing that for? You're gonna hurt him!"

"Roxas be quiet. This is an it. It's a monster that eats people, don't let a pretty face trick you or you'll never be a hunter!"

The blond went silent, aware of blue eyes watching the exchange. The water was jolted again to get him moving and he hissed in anger. They'd pay when he got out.

The next day saw the merboy hiding in the rocks in his tank. He didn't like the people. He didn't like the food. The scent of a human coming close made him peek out. The blond kid was back again. Looking for him it seemed. Roxas wouldn't see him that day.

Roxas came back the next day to see them tormenting the mermaid again. They'd put weights on him and he was struggling to swim. Eventually he just flopped onto the bottom, refusing to move even when the sparks were applied. Roxas swallowed when he saw them turn it up and the pretty creature's face twisted in pain.

"What are you even trying to prove?! Causing it pain won't bring back the people it killed you know! We're not monsters ourselves are we?"

"Roxas-"

"No! If this is what a hunter is- someone who tortures creatures they catch for behaving the way they're supposed to then count me out! I'll go be a dentist or something!"

With the tap tap of heeled boots a man stepped up behind him, a hand on his shoulder. Axel glared at the scientists and his emerald eyes bore a certain sternness he rarely showed. Irritation punctuated by running a hand through bright crimson spikes. His expression softened only a little when he glanced at the captive mer. It only growled and thrashed. He's the one who caught him, dragged him here, put him in not-the-ocean. However the words he spoke surprised the siren who stopped moving to listen.

"Roxy is right. We didn't bring him in just so you could be cruel. This is inhumane. Find a new way to encourage him or get out of our facility."

"Axel, you have to understand we've never managed to study-"

"Then you better not hurt the only mermaid you've got."

"Well then, Roxas, how do you expect to get him to behave?"

The sneering blond man with a clipboard clearly blamed the young boy for having this issue. Then again Vexen was always ready to blame everyone but himself.

"Well for one take those stupid weights off I have no idea what you'd even learn from that."

The second the straps were wirelessly released the merman whipped himself free and into the glass again, clawed hands with
webbed fingers aiming for the man with the tank controls. The thud of flesh on glass signaled his failure but that didn't stop him from beating on the glass in anger. The scientist flinched back, gesturing as if the attack were unprovoked, Roxy just ignored it.

"Does he have a name?"

"It refuses to vocalize."

"I thought they sing?"

"Not this one apparently."

Roxas walked up to the glass, frowning at the glaring boy on the other side.

"Maybe you guys should go away for a few days. You're only agitating him."

"You're welcome to try and get data being nice to it. That thing is not a pet."

With that the scientists were led out by Axel, leaving Roxas alone with the siren. He placed a hand on the glass sighing and smiling apologetically at the other boy.

"He's right you're not a pet.. You're much more like a person aren't you?"

Cerulean eyes narrowed at him in suspicion. This human was nice. Humans were never nice.

"You don't have to trust me. I wouldn't either.. but at least I can buy you a few days without them around.. If you play along even a little bit maybe longer."

It looked like the mer snorted before swimming away to sulk again. So it was jump hoops or go back to being fried?

"Come on I'm trying to help you!"

Yeah sure, humans were all the same.

"Look.. If I prove I trust you.. Will you try to trust me?"

What? Turning in confusion, eyes widening in surprise. The boy was stripping and climbing the ladder to the top of the tank. Opening the locked mesh screen that served as both a vent and a service entrance, when opened there was a plastic rollable ladder that reached the water. It was pretty far down. Roxas hesitated and then jumped...