Midnight fell, and Rin spent his break tossing and turning in his bunk, his sleep cycle as restless as the tides themselves. Rin was trying to use the crashing of the ocean to relax himself into sleep, except it wasn't working: every time Rin closed his eyes he seemed to re-live the experience; the image of the male siren leaning toward him etched into the lids of his eyes.

'Cute!' One of the crew had laughed, when Rin had told them. 'Sirens are supposed to be women, but you think you got a boy-'

A red haired man looped an arm around Rin's neck.

'Give him a break, guys!' He'd laughed. 'The newbies' probably never seen a pair of breasts in his life, so it's not his fault if he can't tell the difference-'

'I'm telling you the truth!' Rin shrugged the arm away, angrily. 'I know what a woman looks like, and it wasn't that siren-why won't any of you listen to me?'

'Nitori,' the captain turned to Aiichiro. 'Have you seen any male sirens in the past?'

'N-none.'

'And did you see the siren that attacked Matsuoka?'

'O-only the tail when it dove back in the water... I-I didn't actually see its upper body or face-'

'Well, there it is.' Mikoshiba spread his hands. 'Matsuoka, sirens are women-it was dark, and your eyes were probably playing tricks on you-those witches can mess around with your mind. Get a good night's rest to recover from the experience: come morning you'll be feeling more relaxed. The real problem we should be focusing on is why one of them was out of it's territory-and what we're going to do if there are more.'

Am I seeing things? Rin rolled over in his bunk. No... I know that siren was a male. I don't care what the others say.

They're not the ones who almost got dragged under by it.


The night sky was dark- almost velvety-the horizon shrouded in fog and Rin was sitting on a rock, surrounded by the sea. A siren crawled up toward him-hands either side of Rin's legs-firm muscles half dipped in shadows, aqua tail glittering and contrasting the darkness. Rin's pulse pounded in his ears as a slender hand was placed atop his... odd strands of the sirens short, dark hair lifting up in the wind... their lips were inches from each other's...

Closer...

Come closer.

Touch me.

TOUCH ME-

'HEY!' Rin was slapped on the back. 'PAY ATTENTION! The nets ripping!'

'S-sorry. I wasn't concentrating...'

Rin shook his head to snap himself out of his daydream, looking up over the side of the boat to see that his fishing net had filled up with debris. Fishing was boring, and Rin often found his mind wandering without being able to help it. He knew he shouldn't allow himself to think about the male siren, because it had approached Rin thinking Rin was his next meal-Rin knew it would never have given him so much as a kiss. Still, Rin wanted...

'You're doing it again,' the red haired man-Momotarou-said, with a sigh. 'Earth to Rin? Hey, I'm speaking to you, asshole!'

'Alright!' Rin growled. 'Give me a break! I haven't been sleeping that well-'

'Shit, you're such a princess! Rin, you can't afford to lose sleep here- let me give you some advice. You eat whenever you can, you sleep as much as you can and you have sex whenever you can... those are the rules of life on the battlefield!'

Uh... but we're on a boat.

'I've been trying to sleep!' Rin snarled back. 'It's not my fault if I keep having dreams-'

'Hey, Rin...' Momotarou looked across to him. 'You don't seem like the fisherman type. Plus you're young, and it's a dangerous job... me and Ai don't have anything else in the world which is why we ended up here... so, how come you came out to sea?'

Rin looked away across the water, taking a moment to think about that.

Rin's hometown-Iwatobi-was small and thatched, rain-soaked, famous for its port and Rin had never been able to afford to go to school. He'd only learned to read because he'd been taught in exchange for scrubbing an old man's sailboat, so even though Rin was intelligent, he wasn't 'educated'-apparently, that made all of the difference. Rin didn't want his younger sister, Gou, to be stuck as an underpaid seamstress forever, so he needed the money to send her to school... Rin knew that Gou deserved better and as the only male of the house (now seventeen) he felt responsible for helping her achieve that.

'It's... it's complicated,' he replied. 'Anyway, why do you care?'

'I don't,' Momotarou hummed. 'Just makin' conversation. My brothers' here too, just so you know. He's the captain: this boat and each other is all we both have left in this world. Well, I guess we have the crew, too... we think of all the men we work with as family!'

Honestly, Rin could understand the sentiment-although he'd only been on the fishing ship for a week, Rin had drawn closer to the rest of the crew-really felt as if in that short space of days, they'd been working together for a lifetime. He and Momotarou went through the nets, looking for fish and lobsters amid the seaweed.

'Scallops, scallops, seaweed, scallops...' Momotarou sighed. 'We're never gonna get any decent pay at this rate. This is such a bad haul.'

They emptied the nets and tossed them back overboard, leaning over the side of the ship as they waited.

'So, um...' Rin tried again with the small talk. 'Do you have a girlfriend back home?'

'Nope-I go out to the houses! Why have one girl when you can have 'em all?'

Well, that's... one way of looking at it.

'And you-someone you like?'

Strange... why did that siren come to mind?

'No one,' Rin lied, and Momotarou sighed.

'You'd better get a girlfriend,' he advised. 'Cuz' there won't be much action happening all the way out here. Ships don't employ women as bringing females on board is bad luck, so the closest thing we have to women out here is sirens... but I've got to admit- those harpies have some pretty nice racks.'

How did this guy even last ten seconds against the last siren attack?

Rin sighed and rested his head in his arms, waiting for Aiichiro to tell him that his shift was over so he could go back to his bunk and lie down, bracing himself for another long and sleepless night-

Bracing himself to toss and turn, dreaming of that mysterious lone siren.