"You want to what?" The captain looked down at the Fin that had made the most surprising request Mathias could have ever imagined from the guy and the Dane leaned on the wall with crossed arms, giving him a suspicious raised eyebrow look. Tino stood his ground and tried to stay looking confident about his crazy decision.
"I want to go swimming," he repeated, "in the shark cage again."
The captain rubbed the blonde stubble on his chin that he hadn't had the chance to shave off yet. Tino didn't have to worry about shaving since he didn't grow hair anywhere but his head and eyebrows. It was his rare violet eye color he had to thank for that, the doctors had told him. At least it came in handy out at sea on mornings too rough to shave safely, like this one. No matter how convenient, it didn't make up for the years of insecurity in his masculinity he experienced as a teen.
"I thought you hated the shark cage," Lukas pointed out as he passed by on the way to the kitchen for his fourth cup of coffee. The hallway was cramped, as they always are on ships and boats, and the rocking floor didn't help getting around.
"I do," Tino said quickly, then backtracked. "I mean...I did. It really isn't so bad, I mean..."
"Just what are you trying to accomplish?" Mathias asked, not buying the sudden bravery, and Tino did his best to answer that.
"Well, we won't know for sure if Berwald doesn't like humans anymore until we try one more time. And that's the whole reason I'm here, isn't it? To be bait?"
"Yeah, and you've served your purpose in that department. We tagged our subject and now all we have to do is wait for the data to come in."
"You'll be waiting a long time," Emil's voice came from the computer room two open doors away. "He got the tag off."
"Whaaaaat?!" Mathias and the others quickly filed into the room where Emil sat at the screens with a frown. "How do you know?"
"Either our merman can fly or the tracker has been stolen by a bird." He pointed at the sensor for sea level and sure enough, it was reading well above the waves and moving fast. "The tracker isn't even attached to the rest of it anymore. I'm picking up static signals from the other components."
"DAMNIT!" Mathias punched the metal wall with the side of his fist and everyone let out a collective groan. All of that work, for nothing!
Tino saw his chance and he took it. "Well then, I guess I should get in the water, right? Lets see if we have any chance of tagging him again." They all looked at him like he was nuts."What?"
"Tino, we had to bribe you to do it last time. Now you're the first one to volunteer?"
"Yeah," Tino rubbed the back of his neck and looked to the side like the fantasic liar he was. "You know...for science."
They weren't buying it. They didn't have to, though. In the end, they were just happy they didn't have to come up with a way to force Tino into it. The Fin got a plethora of looks as they readied the cage and underwater cameras, this time mounting them to the bars instead of making Tino hold one. National Geographic came with their own state-of-the-art equipment that made the researcher's jobs that much easier, though the rights of the film belonged to them. It was a small price to pay.
"What are you planning to do, give it to him?" Emil questioned when Tino asked to take a tag with him.
"Maybe," Tino said as he secured his scuba tank to his back. "I mean, he might actually keep it if he thinks it's a gift. He obviously values offerings."
"He's not going to come back," Lukas informed flatly from where he checked the cables for the cage. "We scared him off yesterday. This isn't going to work."
"It's not like we have any other choice," Mathias said. "Either we try this or we go home empty handed."
"At least we got some good footage," Eduard mentioned where he sat with his laptop, checking the links to the cameras one last time. "That's worth a lot."
"Yeah, but we didn't even get a blood sample thanks to someone." Tino received a pointed look from his captain. "Footage and a few measurements is all we have. I'd like to show our sponsors and investors that we make good on our promises."
"That's all part of studying nature's most illusive creatures, though," Eduard reminded. "Sometimes you get the shot you need, sometimes you don't."
In the end, Tino was given a tag to carry with him, just in case. It wasn't like it could hurt. This one was a clip-on that fit in his palm. It didn't have many of the fancy features the bigger tags had, but it could track water pressure and send information to a satellite just fine. It was the best they could do since he couldn't take the drill underwater, nor would he get the chance to put another hole in Berwald's dorsal fin, if he even showed up at all. Tino knew there was a very slim chance that the merman would return after the nightmare that was yesterday. He had no reason to trust Tino anymore. In fact, he might even be out for Tino's blood. But Tino had to try. It didn't sit right with him that he'd betrayed the merman's trust like that and took advantage of him. He had to do something, anything, to show that he was sorry and that it wouldn't happen again. Even if it was the last time he ever saw Berwald, he at least wanted to leave on a better note. If not for him, but for humanity. Humans really aren't that bad once you get to know them...
The cage was deployed and the boat's motor took it a good thirty feet away, and suddenly Tino was alone in the cage once again. The feeling was familiar as he floated there and looked around anxiously for any sign of a human silhouette in the murky water that had been stirred up by the weather that morning. In his hand he held another dead fish, and this one was a real offering of peace. He really hoped Berwald wouldn't think it was another trap.
By the twenty minute mark, Tino's air tank was over halfway depleted, but he refused to come back until it reached 10%. That would give him as much time as possible to wait for their subject to grace them with his presence, if he felt like doing so. Waiting was boring, and nerve wracking, but not in the way it had been the first time. Two weeks ago, Tino had been afraid of the merman showing up, and now he was afraid of the exact opposite!
"Give it up, Tino. Your air is at 18%. It's been half an hour. He's not taking the bait."
Tino shook his head to the camera. "Not yet, Lu. Gimme ten more minutes."
"Just what is this all about?" the man asked over the receiver. Tino sighed, making bubbles spill from his mask.
"Nothing," was his short reply. Lukas didn't accept it.
"Please tell me what's going on in that head of yours. Not as a colleague, but as a friend. I've never seen you so worked up before."
"Worked up? I'm not worked up about anything! I'm just doing my job, that's all." Damn Lukas and his freaky accurate perception!
"The others left to observe on deck awhile ago, and I've got my headphones in," Lukas informed. "I can turn off the audio recorder for a minute if that would help, too."
Wow, he really wanted to know. Tino wondered what he should say, if he should keep lying or tell the truth. What even was the truth? With another sigh, Tino decided begrudgingly to confide the best he could. Maybe Lukas could help him sort this internal dilemma out. "I just...I feel bad about all of this. The whole thing. I don't know why I care so much, I just don't want Berwald to come away from this thinking that humans are terrible. Not just for the sake of science, but...I was thinking about how lonely it must be out here for him. Why do you think he lives by the cliffs? There don't seem to be any others of his kind with him, and he's too...I don't know, human, to be living like this."
"So you do consider him human," Lukas concluded, much to Tino's embarrassment. "That's why you got so emotional yesterday."
"I was not emotional!" Tino defended. "I was just...worried, I think." The young man was at a mental loss with all of this. "Maybe I do consider him human, but how can you not? He doesn't act like an animal, Lu, he's...he's different. He's not like any other species we've ever seen and we can't just keep treating him like another fish. When we caught him yesterday and he was so confused and scared...it wasn't right. We wouldn't do that to a person, would we?"
It was quiet over the radio for a moment while Lukas pondered Tino's words. "I understand." Did he really? "I don't see what you see in him, Tino, but you are the one that has had the most face-time with Berwald than any of us. You probably know him better that way. I think it's admirable of you to take his feelings into account so much, but please try not to get swept away."
"What do you mean?"
"He's pretty attractive, isn't he? Physically, I mean."
"Uh...I guess so."
"And he's quite a dark and mysterious figure." Where was Lukas going with this? "Add in his obsessive tendencies and it's like every teenage romance novel come to life."
Tino huffed, making the audio spike for a moment on Lukas' end. "It's not like that, Lukas!"
"I didn't say anything."
"You said enough."
There was a chuckle in Tino's ear and the Fin rolled his eyes. What did he do to deserve this? What kind of evil deed had he done to conjure up this kind of karma?
Tino was about to throw an insinuation of his own involving the strange noises he sometimes heard from the captain's room at night when Lukas' room was empty, but a shadow caught his eye. He paused and waited, not sure if it was another passing fish or something else. "I'm not alone," he warned Lukas, trying to keep the excitement welling up in his chest out of his voice. It was only one of several emotions he felt as he waited on the edge for any sign of the circling shadow again. Excitement, relief, and of course the usual fear, dread, and anxiety that came with being in a cage all alone in the middle of the ocean with a large intelligent being possibly nearby and probably angry at him. But Tino had a mission, and he was determined to be brave.
A tense minute went by before the shadow came back. It was...not human shaped. It was a plain old fish that slipped past without much care. Tino was surprised at how disappointed he felt, despite being just about to pee himself a moment prior. The alert on his tank went off to say he was down to 10% oxygen and the man deflated with the knowledge that his time was up. Berwald never showed.
"Tino, behind you!"
Lukas' warning made the Fin spin around, and he yelped in surprise at the merman's shadow just close enough to vaguely see the shape of and nothing else. It was really creepy, like a ghost, just...floating there. Motionless, save for the swishing tail keeping him in place. Tino swallowed and faced him, waiting for Berwald to start circling like he usually did, but this time he didn't. He was still, not coming any closer or further away. That was a bit off-putting.
"I don't think he trusts you." No shit, Sherlock. Tino resisted the urge to snap in his nervousness. "Give him the fish."
"How? He's too far away!"
"I don't know, put it through the bars or something." That meant reaching out of the cage, where Berwald was. Tino really didn't want to do that. But...what choice did he have right now? He would have to do something drastic if he wanted the merman to give him another chance.
Carefully, Tino moved forward and held the offering out from between the bars. His hand tingled with anticipation of it getting bitten off or something, but nothing like that happened. Instead, Berwald moved away a little more. Now all Tino could see was his outline. "He...he doesn't want it."
"I wonder why." Mathias' sarcasm was not needed. It sounded like Lukas called the others back in. "At least we know he's actually willing to come back! Er, sort of."
The diver extended his arm out a little more, hoping that might send a better message, but that didn't help, either. Berwald moved back even more, and now Tino couldn't see him at all. "No!" he called, despite the only ones able to hear it being in the boat thirty feet away. "Please come back..."
"Looks like that's all we get for today," Mathias concluded on the other end. "Sit tight, we'll pick you up in a minute."
"No, not yet! I...just let me..." Tino thought frantically for ideas, but none came to mind, save for one that anyone would have to be insane to try. But in this moment that called for drastic measures, perhaps it was just insane enough to work. "Let me try one more thing."
"What's that?"
Tino didn't answer, instead swallowing the lump in his throat and putting his plan into action. If he told them what he was planning then they would probably try to talk him out of it and stop him. The diver surfaced inside the cage where the buoys kept it afloat and opened the wire door. He was quick to pull himself up, hurriedly readjusting to gravity again so he could swing his legs over the top and into the open water on the other side.
"...Don't tell us you're going to-"
He took the plunge before they had the chance to object. Now Tino was on the outside of the cage where he was completely vulnerable to anything and everything in the ocean, and his teammates were not happy about it.
"Tino, what the fuck are you doing?! Get back in the cage!"
"Are you crazy?!"
"If you don't turn around and get back inside right now, you are so fired!"
Tino ignored them and simply held onto the cage bar with one hand and gripped the offering in the other, and he scanned the murky water for any sign that Berwald was still nearby and might have seen his display of trust. "Let me do this," he pleaded with them, "Just let me try, okay? If I don't do something, I might never see him again!" Tino caught himself too late. "We," he corrected quickly. "We might never see him again."
"Yeah, he's gone crazy," Emil confirmed. "I'll fire up the engine and-"
"No," Lukas spoke suddenly and the others went quiet. "Let him do this. We forced him into this situation in the first place, the least we can do is trust his judgment."
"But...but!" Mathias sounded like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Tino, aren't you scared?"
"I'll be fine," Tino reassured with a small smile behind his mask, almost believing it himself. He silently thanked Lukas for taking his side when it really mattered. He was a better friend than Tino gave him credit for. "Besides, Captain, you said it yourself: Sometimes science requires sacrifice."
Mathias grumbled, but he didn't say no. "Fine. But if you die, I get the bribe we promised you."
"Deal."
With that, the line went quiet again. The only sound was Tino's breathing and his head screaming at him how bad of an idea this was. He felt like Captain Ahab and his obsession with finding a certain pale aquatic creature. He really hoped this didn't end anything like Moby Dick did.
Just when his tank beeped again to alert him that he was at 7% oxygen, he saw the haunting shadowy figure again. Tino's hand squeezed the bar he was holding, knowing this was it, it was all or nothing. They stared at each other for awhile before either of them dared to make a move.
It was Tino who moved first, who tried holding out his offering again to the looming shadow, which didn't move away like last time. Gradually, with much hesitation, the merman came closer. Tino tried not to shake like a leaf as he anticipated either something really good or really bad to come from this...this utterly horrible idea. The Fin was at the merman's mercy. One wrong move might get him killed, depending on how the other was feeling! When Berwald was close enough that Tino could make out his facial features, he was...not mad. That much Tino could tell, but as for what he was thinking, the diver had no clue. But it wasn't malicious, which was a start.
Tino took a deep breath of his waning oxygen and beckoned him closer. There wasn't anything else he could do to show he had peaceful intentions, aside from letting go of the cage and handing him the fish himself. Tino wasn't that crazy just yet. Berwald came to within arm's reach and reached out, slowly, as if he were the one expecting to have his arm bitten off. He touched the fish offered to him by feeble hands, but he didn't take it yet. He took a second to wait, like something was going to happen, and when it didn't, he finally accepted it. Tino let his arm fall slowly in the water and another beep broke the tense silence, making him flinch. 6%.
Berwald stayed two arm's lengths away as he looked over the fish, eyebrows scrunched together like he was contemplating something. The way he looked up at Tino and then down at his gift made it seem like he was torn. Tino let him work it out and kept his back pressed to the cage with his white knuckles gripping the bars behind him. Then, Berwald's hand came up to touch the Hawaiian necklace still around his neck and looked fully at him with those blue-green eyes, as if asking a question. What was he asking?
...'Can I trust you', perhaps?
Tino nodded, hoping that was the right answer. It apparently was, because the corners of the merman's lips turned up slightly into one of those little smiles and his eyes brightened considerably.
A collective sigh of relief sounded in Tino's earpiece. "Alright, awesome, you did it. Now get your little butt out of the water before he takes you on a honeymoon."
Tino complied and gave his new homopiscis friend a little wave before kicking his flippers and rising to the surface. Mission success! Berwald surfaced with him not too far away and the moment he broke the surface, his eyes went back to that narrow glare of his. Uh-oh, was he angry? No...he was still smiling. Maybe he just did that because he couldn't see very well out of the water? It was an interesting theory and Tino made a mental note to mention it to the others. He turned around and climbed onto the top of the cage while Berwald watched from the water, swimming right up to the edge when Tino was seated comfortably on the floating rig above. He took his goggles and respirator off to flash his own smile at the merman, and strangely enough, Berwald's face turned pink at the sighht. It made Tino laugh.
"You know, you can be pretty cute when you want to be," he informed the other, who didn't understand a word. That was okay, though. It felt like they had some kind of understanding between them that went beyond words now that all was forgiven. Suddenly, Tino wasn't so afraid of homopiscis anymore. At least, not this one. Berwald was nice.
"Oh!" Tino suddenly remembered the whole point of this thing and reached into the pocket on his suit to pull out the clip-on tag. "I want you to have this," he explained to the clueless face below and held it up to show him. "This way I can always know where you are, and I can come find you. Can you please hold onto it for me?"
Berwald blinked at it and leaned in closer to see. Yup, he was definitely near-sighted. While he was close enough, Tino clipped the device onto the necklace around the merman's neck right next to the Aloha! bead and pressed the button on the side that turned it on. Berwald seemed perplexed about what it was, but he didn't object. He touched the smooth plastic surface with his fingertips and looked at Tino, who was closer to the merman of his own free will than he'd ever been before, and not scared at all. If Berwald were to attack and drag him to the bottom of the sea he would have done it already. He smiled again, and Tino smiled back, and the moment felt absolutely perfect, like-
"M-mph!"
The boat chose that moment to roar to life and the noise signaled the merman's retreat, leaving a very flustered Tino sitting on top of the cage with a hand over his mouth and violet eyes gone wide at the ripples left behind by Berwald's tail. Son of a bitch, he did it again!
At least this time it wasn't on camera. The entire exchange happened in the cage's only blind spot, which made everyone but Tino groan. But at least Tino was able to get Berwald's trust back, and he was even able to tag him! They asked if he thought the merman would voluntarily keep the tag on his necklace and Tino assured them he would. He was all too confident about that.
The rest of the day dissolved into yet another party. Just how much alcohol did Mathias manage to cram onto the ship? Nobody seemed to care about questioning the endless beer supply in favor of passing it around while checking on the satellite feed every so often for updates on Berwald's position. They were getting their first blips of data and the world's first glimpse into the life of a homopiscis, and by the looks of it, Berwald was going everywhere they didn't expect him to go. Apparently homopiscis could dive to incredibly deep depths and spent a lot of time down there doing who-knows-what. Probably hunting for food. That would explain why they had gone so long without being discovered, and that there were likely more of them out there than anyone thought.
It was the dawn of a new era in the study of these allusive fairytale creatures, and everyone was excited to get back to the mainland to publish their findings. Eduard and the other National Geographic photographers were eager to make their TV documentary and shot even more interviews and video before they had to prepare to head back to port. The weather report said an early autumn storm was approaching, but they didn't have to worry about that until tomorrow. Mathias declared they would leave first thing in the morning, probably because everyone was too drunk to drive a boat at the moment.
This time, Tino was in good spirits as he consumed ungodly amounts of alcohol to, once again, steady his heart which had not stopped beating painfully loud since that afternoon. When he finally started to get buzzed a few hours in, he went out on deck for some fresh air and watched the sun go down. The sunset was kind of dull today thanks to the thick overcast, but that was alright. Tino was too content to care. He single-handedly saved the entire research operation and was the only reason these idiots even had any data in the first place. They should make him the captain and call him the homopiscis whisperer!
Okay, maybe he wasn't exactly a homopiscis whisperer if it was only one specific merman he had wrapped around his finger, but it was more than anyone else in the world could say. The red staining his cheeks right now was definitely the alcohol's fault, not his dissolving train of hazy thought. Not the memory of what happened on top of the cage that afternoon and the lingering sensation on his lips that he just couldn't forget for some stupid reason. Nope. Definitely not.
Tino shook his head and leaned on the railing by his elbows. He had to stop that kind of thinking before...before what? Before nothing. Thinking about this any more was beyond ridiculous.
Tino just needed a little more vodka, was all.
"You okay?" a familiar voice behind him asked, and Tino didn't have to turn around to know it was Lukas. The slightly shorter man teetered a bit as he made his way to the same railing Tino leaned on and gave it his own weight to support, too.
"Of course!" Tino answered cheerily. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Just checking." Lukas then proceeded to throw up over the side of the boat. Tino didn't stop smiling as he patted the other's back while he got it all out. "Fuck," Lukas swore and wiped his lips with his sleeve. "I hate Danish beer. Remind me to punch Mathias when I go back inside."
"How is it his fault that Danish beer makes you sick?"
"I don't know. It just feels like it is." That was the kind of drunken logic that couldn't be questioned. "So, are you and your boyfriend on good terms now?"
"He's not my boyfriend. And yeah, I think we are."
"Tino," Lukas put his hand on Tino's shoulder after and gave him a serious look. "Ya know how they say there's plenty of fish in the sea? Well it might seem like it, but there's not. People who say that are full of shit. There's only one fish in the sea, Ti, and he's the last one you want, but the only one ya need."
"Sooo...how many beers have you had, Lu?"
"Seven. But that's not the point." It didn't seem like his ranting could be stopped. That was the funny thing about Lukas. When he was sober, he only ever said what needed to be said when he needed to say it. Drunk Lukas was the exact opposite and couldn't seem to shut up, even when he wasn't making sense. It was hilarious, most of the time. "Sometimes you just want to gut that fish 'cause it's stupid and tells stupid jokes, but if you did that, then...it would be bad. If you teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish... Wait, if you give a man a fish, I mean. Give him a fish and he'll try to give you a handjob under the table. So don't give a man a fish, but if you do, then its okay, 'cause you'll eat for a lifetime. You know what I'm saying?"
"I do, Lu. Thank you for that advice. I will treasure it always."
"Good." Lukas nodded decisively as if his job here was done and stood back up. "Come back in soon, we're starting a game of pong."
"Alright, I'll be there in a minute." Lukas started walking back to the door and Tino called after him. "Remember to punch Mathias!"
When his friend left, he turned his attention back to the sea. Behind him he could hear the door close, then a yelp from the captain, and a soft cool breeze fanned his face as the evening light began to fade. Give a man a fish, huh? Tino supposed he'd already done that. The old saying always said not to, and yet here Tino was with his dream career and a big bonus coming in the mail, all because he gave a man a fish.
Of course, the saying wasn't supposed to be taken literally, but still. The irony was amusing.
Thanks for reading! I hope that ending was alright. All of your kind reviews are cherished in the warm fuzzies of my heart. :) I'm on a merman kick right now so you'll probably see more of that from me in the future.
For now, I will hibernate for the first few days of my spring break. Keep on keep'n on!