Haru was standing before him.

"Are you going to disappear again?" Rin snarled.

Tilting his head to the side Haru remained silent but smirked.

"Answer me!" Rin surged forward gripping tightly to his shoulder, probably bruising it.

If ghosts could bruise.

"I'm not a selkie."

Maroon eyes widening Rin couldn't suppress a sudden laugh. "Really?"

"Why would I want to be a seal?"

"Why would you want to… what are you then? A hippocampus?"

"Isn't that a fat pig thing?"

"No it's like a sea horse with wings…"

Haru laughed easing out from Rin's grasp and sitting in the sand. "I can't believe you haven't guessed it. Its literally the most obvious choice."

Rin collapsed in the sand next to him, the warm sand against his back. His hand subconsciously reaching out to touch Haru's shoulder, afraid that he would vanish in a moment. Racking his brain he tried to recall the many chapters he had just gone though of creatures.

"Uh… a siren?" That was one of the longer chapters.

A gleam lit in Haru's midnight blue eyes. "A siren?" He leaned over his friend. "The seducers of the sea?"

When Rin's cheeks became the same shade as his hair Haru leaned back with a chuckle. "Nope. Not me either."

"Then…"

His friend waited patiently.

"Does Makoto know?"

"Of course."

Frowning he sat up and glared down at the book beside him in the sand. It was a beat up library book, nothing special. The picture on the cover had stain covering the mermaid's tail with a nasty… coffee stain?

Oh.

"Nice book."

"Its from the library."

Haru smirked.

"Yeah ok. So you're a mermaid?" Rin watched as Haru stiffened slightly.

"Merman. I'm not a girl."

"Oh." That made sense. "So where is your tail?"

"It's a long story."

"Then tell me!"

"Ask Makoto."

Rin growled. Of course Makoto knew. He knew all this since the beginning.

"Are you back now?"

"For this moment."

"But not for long?"

"Probably just about an hour more."

"When are you coming back for good?"

Haru's gaze was on the waves, as he remained silent.

Rin felt the frustration building up quickly inside him like a tsunami. "Dammit Haru! Just tell me what is going on!"

"I can't…" He glanced sideways at his trembling friend. "Please talk to Makoto. He knows some. But not everything. I can't tell anyone."

"Are you being held prisoner or something? Some merman kidnapping thing?" Geez how ridiculous did that sound?

"No… kind of? Its nothing that is uncommon to my kind. Please stop Rin…"

"No! I want to know how we can bring you home!"

"There is no way! This is how it is now. There isn't anything to be done about it!"

"I don't accept that!"

"Well learn to." Haru stood up stretching his arms. "I have to go."

"You said you had more time!"

Haru's eyes met his, and he saw the sadness in their depths.

"I'll talk to Makoto. We'll bring you home!" Rin slammed a fist in the sand before launching himself to his feet. "Wait! When will I see you again?"

"I'm not sure… what day is it?"

"Thursday."

"Then I'll probably be able to come back around next Friday. Possibly Saturday. Its hard to tell time underwater…"

"I'll bring Makoto too then!"

With one last half smile, Haru walked out into the waves. When he was about waist deep he dove forward and vanished.


"Is it just me, or are these sessions feeling like a waste of time?" Makoto wondered out loud.

"I wouldn't call it a waste of time, though I do agree that they could be more productive." Dr. Cypress sighed rubbing the bridge of his nose.

A habit that showed up when he was especially frustrated, Makoto had noticed.

"How was your week Doctor?" Makoto offered a smile.

"It was lovely. Quite relaxing in fact. However, as I have told you on many occasions now, we are not here to talk about me."

"My life doesn't change though. We could discuss my week, but it is practically identical to each report I have given up till now."

"Does that bother you? Your repetitive schedule?" His pen was suddenly on the notepad on his lap.

Makoto really was beginning to feel sorry for the man. He jumped at anything he could to get a discussion between the two of them.

"I rather enjoy the repetitiveness. It helps me keep track of everything so I don't fall behind anywhere."

"Do you have a fear of falling behind?"

"No. But it is hard to catch back up if you fall behind in school."

"That is a very good point." Though he said it as if he was agreeing, there definitely was a sigh trying to slip out as well with the sentence.

"If you like sir, maybe we could cut our time short today?" Makoto offered, this time actually sincere.

"Do you have somewhere you need to be?"

"No. But sir, you look rather tired."

Before the doctor could answer the door slammed open. "Makoto?"

Rin had burst in, the secretary on his heels. "I'm so sorry sir, he wouldn't listen…"

Dr. Cyprus stood up fixing his jacket. "A friend of yours?"

"Uh… yeah. What is it Rin?" He noticed the dark rings under his friend's maroon eyes.

"I need your help with something."

Makoto raised an eyebrow. "As you can see I am kind of in the middle of something."

"This is more important!" Rin snapped.

"I believe we were just wrapping up anyway Mr. Tachibana." The Doctor smiled.

"Oh? Thank you sir. Have a good week."

As the two teenagers ran out the secretary walked over to her employer. "Sir? The usual?"

"Yes please."

The secretary went back to her desk to call the place just down the street to have an Irish coffee delivered at once.


"I really don't know much." Makoto shrugged apologetically as they sat in the living room of what used to be Haru's house.

Technically it was still under the name Nanase, but since no one lived there, they often used it as their meeting place.

"What do you know?" Rin pressed as he searched the cupboards.

There was a stack of canned mackerel pushed to the back behind the boxes of snacks they had collected over time. Pulling out a can he showed it to Makoto. "And isn't this cannibalism?"

Chuckling Makoto reached around him grabbing a bag of chips. "I don't think its cannibalism. Probably eating fish for them is similar to us eating fish. At least I hope so. Because he ate that stuff everyday."

Giving a critical eye to the object Rin carefully put the expired can back in the cupboard. Why they didn't throw them out was beyond him. They had Haru's house to remember him by, why were the saving those old cans?

Once they were settled in the living room Makoto began speaking again. "All I really know is that he is a merman, he can come out onto dry land only two to three times a month. I'm not sure of the specifics of how it works, but basically he can somehow exchange his tail for a pair of legs during these times? That's really all I know about it though."

"What about when we all thought he died?"

"That I do know a bit more on. You know how he was with pools right?"

"Yeah. Like he belonged in it." Which made so much more sense now.

"But he wouldn't go in the ocean." Makoto nodded. "Except that one day…"

"Yeah that never made sense. Why that day? While it was storming even?"

"It was my fault." Makoto muttered. "I – I had wanted to get over my fear of the ocean. It seemed stupid. We were fourteen! It was childhood fear. I thought… I thought Haru refused to swim in it just because he knew I didn't like it. Selfish thinking, I know. But I had gone out to try and get over my fear. The storm rolled in so fast and I hadn't been paying attention to the aggressiveness of the waves."

Makoto had stopped eating now and was staring out the window at the dark sky. The moon reflecting off the ocean was visible in the distance.

"I would have died. I tried to get back to shore of course. But it wasn't working. Just as my arms had given out, I felt someone pulling me along. I was so exhausted that I didn't think to look. Once on the shore however… I saw him for the first time."

"You… you saw the tail?" Rin's voice was breathless.

"Yeah. Its really something."

"What does it look like?"

"It was a light blue, scales as smooth as a snake's belly, it was like the clearest water glittering in the sun. The fin… it was semitransparent, with the lightest of blue tinges. It was like a butterfly koi fish's tail. Have you seen those?"

When Rin shook his head Makoto pulled out his phone and found a picture of the most beautiful fish. It had orange and white scales, and a tail fin that looked like it was made of some sort of translucent silk.

"Wow. That's… that's what his looked like?"
"Very similar. Anyway, he made sure I was breathing and a safe enough distance to keep from the tiding pulling me back in. Then I saw as he got… dragged. The ocean seemed to come up and drag him back. It was unnatural. But at the time I assumed I was delirious from shock… But I do remember… his tears. He was crying as the ocean reclaimed him."

"When they said he was dead…?"

"I told them what I saw. Of course they believed him to have drowned. I believed it too. Until a month after it happened. I spent most nights on the beach. Regretting my decisions. Crying. Apologizing. And he showed up. I saw him walk out of the water like it was the most natural thing in the world. He sat next to me and hugged me. Promised me he was alive. Promised it was real. And he promised not to be too far away ever."

Rin stared down at the book that he had brought with him. The stupid book from the library with the coffee-stained mermaid on the cover.

"And so you have always visited with him and that's how it's always been."

"Yes."

"But you've never tried to find a way to bring him home? To keep him permanently on land?"

"He asked me not to. He said its impossible and that I should leave things the way they are."

"And you're ok with that?!" Rin snapped.

"No. But I have to be. It was my fault he got stuck back there. The very least I can do is respect his only request."

Jumping to his feet he yelled. "The least you could do is bring him home! Bring him back to us! To his friends! To where he wanted to be!"

Makoto wouldn't meet his eyes. "You think I don't want to? That I haven't looked into it? That I haven't asked him if there was any possible way?" His voice was soft.

But Rin was furious. He was mad at himself for being so late to the game. He was mad at Makoto for seemingly giving up. He was mad at Haru for being so secretive about this whole thing.

"I will find a way to get him back." Rin claimed slamming a hand against the wall.

"Rin… he doesn't want us to interfere. Besides… think about it – if this was made too public. In anyway. If anyone found out, he would be a lab experiment. A circus freak. A zoo exhibit. Something for people to ogle at and treat him like an object. If this is brought into the light his life will be over. Leave it be Rin. Please! Now that you know just visit him like I do."

"Its not good enough!" Rin collapsed onto the floor cross-legged, his face in his hands. "Its not good enough."

Standing Makoto rested and hand on his shoulder before sighing. "I need to get home. I'm babysitting my siblings tonight. Please Rin… just think about what I said."

The soft click of the door sounded as he left.

Rin sat on the floor for only twenty minutes before deciding. "Its not enough."


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