"So how'd you like your first time in town?" Shindou asked he flipped the light switch on, as the sun had went down by the time they got back to Shindou's house.
"It was amazing! Human towns are so cool, but also kind of strange at the same time!"
Shindou smiled, "What are Merfolk towns like?"
Kirino thought, "Well, a lot of the buildings are made of magically-formed coral, and there aren't any of those things that moved in the center of the street, what were they called again…" Kirino trailed off.
"Cars?" Shindou supplied.
Kirino nodded, smiling, "Yeah, those things! We actually have artificial water currents that you swim through to get places faster. Some families have half of a large oyster that they ride in to stay together. I guess it's kinds like…cars!"
"Artificial water currents? How do you make those!?"
"Magic." Kirino replied.
"You talk about magic being used a lot, is it really common?"
Kirino nodded, "Very. Basic magic is taught in elementary school. It's a common skill and tool, it's used as much as that electricity stuff you told me about!"
Shindou was about to reply, but a small tune echoes from his pocket, he blinked, pulling his phone out and holding it to his ear, while Kirino watched, wondering what the phone did.
"Hello, Shindou Takuto here."
"Hi Shindou-senpai!" The voice on the other line said.
"Ah, Tenma, what's up?"
"My parents* are gonna be out of town tomorrow and I wanted to know if I can hang out at your place!"
Shindou shrugged, "I guess."
"Great! Thanks Shindou! I'll be over tomorrow morning at 8!" Tenma said before hanging up. Shindou also hung up on his side of the phone, and immediately after, Kirino asked,
"What was that?"
Shindou chuckled, "It's called a phone. Other people have them to and when the dial the number linked to their phones, you can call them and the other person can pick up their phone and you can talk to each other from different places."
Kirino listened, slowly nodding, "So like a beaded shell?"
"A beaded shell?"
"It's a small shell with a spell cast on it. Other merfolk can give you a special bead, and you put it inside the shell and whenever you say their name to the shell, it contacts their shell, and a bubble saying the name who contacted them floats in front of them. Then they pick up their shell and say 'answer' into the shell and then it connects with the other shell."
Shindou nodded, "Kind of confusing, but it sounds a lot like a phone. Do have a beaded shell?" Shindou asked.
Kirino nodded, "Of course, but I left it in my bedroom, so I don't have it with me." There was a short pause, "Who called you?"
"A friend named Tenma." Shindou replied, "He said that his parents are out of town tomorrow and asked if he could hang out here for the day." Shindou smiled, "He's coming by at 8, if you don't mind!"
Kirino smiled, "I can't wait to meet him!" The pinkette turned to the glass sliding door that led out into the pool in the yard, "It's been a tiring day, I think I'm gonna go to sleep!" He said before leaving the room and diving into the pool, sinking to bottom as he slowly dozed off. Shindou waved at his friend before going into his own room. It was only 10:00, but believe it or not, but Shindou had a habbit of sleeping in, so he decided to turn in early so he'd wake up in time for Tenma's arrival. Shindou opened the screen door and called into the pool,
"Kirino! If you wake up before me and you find someone with brown hair and grey eyes standing at the door at around 8:00, open the door and come wake me up!"
Shindou waited for a moment for some confirmation that Kirino had heard him, and sure enough, Kirino popped his head out of the water, "Okay!" he said before sinking to the bottom of the pool again. Shindou heard him mutter, 'swimming with legs is tough…' before he went underwater.
Shindou gave a light smile. He felt that weird warm feeling from town in his chest. That warm, comforting feeling, but Shindou ignored it. The brunette yawned as he retreated to his own room, quickly falling asleep on his bed.
Kirino, like usually, woke up early. It was a habit from being woken up early everyday by the maids. Kirino did what he did the day before, re-cast the spell, climb out of the pool (which was easier for him this time) then change into the some clothes that Shindou had lent him. He was now wearing a green shirt with a while collar and brown shorts (his casual clothes from the anime, which you can find on the wiki if you don't know what they look like.)
When he got inside, there was a knock at the door. Kirino checked the time, it was 8:00.
The pinkette looked out the window beside the door. There was a brunette with grey eyes standing there, holding a bag. Kirino opened the door slightly,
"Uh, you're Tenma, right?" Kirino asked nervously.
Tenma, who was staring out at the ocean turned to Kirino, "Yeah! And you're…."
Kirino smiled, "I'm Kirino, a friend of Shindou's. I'm staying with him for a while." Kirino moved over, leaving space in the door for Tenma to enter, "Come in, I guess. Shindou's still sleeping, I'll go wake him up." Kirino said before leaving Tenma in the main room and opening the door to Shindou's room. Sure enough, Shindou was fast asleep, spread out on the bed with the blanket tossed onto the floor and a fluffy grey bunny in his arms. Kirino walked up to him, lightly shaking him,
"Shindou, wake up, your friend's here."
Shindou slowly opened his eyes, yawning before giving a groggy 'okay' and grabbing his phone nearby and pushing some buttons before sitting up and streatching,
"What did you just do?" Kirino asked, looking at Shindou's phone. The brunette looked to his friend,
"I'm just telling Kirigi not to some today." Shindou stood up and walked to the bathroom, "I'm just gonna take a quick shower then I'll be out. You can talk to Tenma." Shindou was about to leave when he remembered to say one last thing, "Also, remember that Tenma doesn't know about you, so don't say anything that gives it away."
Kirino nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I'll wait in the main room." Kirino said before leaving the room. He sat down across from Tenma, and an awkward silence began to brew.
Meanwhile, Shindou was taking a quick shower and thinking about things. He wondered why he had felt so happy to see Kirino first thing in the morning. The various times when he felt that warm feeling close to his heart while around the pink-haired merman. Shindou sighed, having no clue what was going on with him, but for some reason, Shindou was just 10 times happier when Kirino was around. He never got those feelings around his other friends. Shindou suddenly remembered that his friends were waiting for him and he quickly finished, dried off and dressed in a simple casual outfit before walking into the main room. To his surprise, Kirino and Tenma were having a conversation.
"And then Sasuke started running and he was still dragging me along," Tenma said with a giggle. Shindou recognized the story, it was how Tenma met him and his friends. Tenma's dog was dragging poor Tenma around town and Shindou (with the help of his friend Tsurugi) saved Tenma from being nearly killed by his dog.
"I wish I had a pet!" Kirino said happily.
"You've never had a pet!?" Tenma exclaimed.
Kirino shook his head, "My dad thought they were dumb and they distracted my from my education." Kirino looked like he was about to say something else, but changed his mind at the last second. Probably something that would accidently give away his secret, "I always envied my friends who had pets and I would constantly visit them, y'know, when my dad wasn't lecturing me."
Tenma looked at Kirino, "You've mentioned your dad a few times, but what about your mom?" Tenma asked. Shindou, now choosing to make his presence known sat down beside Kirino,
"He's right. You occasionally say things about your dad, but you haven't said anything about your mom." He agreed with Tenma.
Kirino looked at the floor, "My mom, she's not around anymore…" Kirino said quietly, "There was a storm, and she disappeared." He added in a whisper.
"O-oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up…" Tenma said.
Kirino smiled, "Oh, it's fine! It's not your fault, you didn't know!" But Shindou could see that Kirino was saddened by the memories that were brought up.
Shindou was happy. He was happy because Kirino was happy. Kirino had quickly became friends with Tenma, and the 3 of them were now sitting around the coffee table, playing a game of monopoly that they had been at for hours.
Kirino suddenly looked up in alarm, he felt a strange tingling in his legs, "What time is it?"
Tenma checked his watch, "Uh, 11:59, why d-"
Tenma didn't have time to finish his sentence before Kirino suddenly stood up, running to the backyard pool.
"I-I'll be right back!" Shindou said, running after Kirino. Kirino had tripped on his way to the pool and he was desperately trying to get back up (he needs to be in water quickly after he gets his tail again or he'll suffocate from lack of water) Shindou heard the clock inside chime midnight and he hastily picked Kirino up, tossing him in the pool, just in time.
"Shindou-senpai…" The brunette turned to see Tenma in the doorway, staring wide eyed at the spot where Shindou had thrown Kirino, "You…"
"It's not what it looks like!" Shindou insisted.
Kirino, unaware that Tenma was now standing beside Shindou emerged from the water, his head above water, but his tail was still hidden underwater,
"Thanks Shindou! That was close! I'll keep a better eye on the time next time!" He said, leaning on the side of the pool, not high enough to make his tail obvious, but just enough above water so that the orange scales of the base of his tail were visible.
"Kirino-kun, there's…" Tenma trailed off, staring at Kirino's visible scales.
Kirino, who had just realized Tenma was there let out a light gasp and lowered himself into the water until he was completely submerged. Shindou sighed, leaving a confused and slightly afraid Tenma as the brunette walked to edge of the pool, crouching down at the edge and looking into the water. He could see Kirino underneath, nervously biting his bottom lip. Shindou tapped the surface of the water, making Kirino look up. "Should we?" The pinkette asked, just loud enough for Shindou to hear. Shindou shrugged,
"Only if you want to, but if we don't he's gonna be pretty suspicious of us."
Kirino sighed, sinking into the water slightly until he was about at half of the full depth of the pool. He looked up at Shindou, who was staring into the water, and gave a slight nod. Shindou nodded in return and turned,
"Tenma, come here" Shindou said, gesturing for his friend to come over, which he did. When Tenma was beside him, Shindou pointed into the pool, where a very nervous and scared Kirino hid, just under the surface of the water.
Tenma's eye's widened when he saw Kirino's tail, "H-he has a tail!" Tenma exclaimed suddenly, making Kirino let himself sink into the pool, "He's a merman!" Shindou looked to Tenma,
"He is, but I expect you to keep that a secret."
"So, he was in a rush because his tail came back at midnight or something?" Tenma asked, thinking about the events that happened prior.
Shindou nodded, "Basically."
Shindou looked back to the pool. Kirino was likely sitting at the bottom of the pool, but it was hard to see exactly where he was in the dark. Shindou tapped the surface of the water once more,
"Kirino, you can come up now." He called into the depths. "It's alright! I explained it to Tenma, he thinks it really cool!"
Kirino looked up, hearing Shindou call him. The young merman was sitting at the bottom of the pool and could see Shindou's face looking into the water. Kirino could easily see through water at night, since he lived underwater, after all. Kirino gulped before slowly swimming up to the surface. He rose up out of the water just enough so you could see his eyes.
"Kirino, you're a merman!?" Tenma said, still shocked. It made Kirino lower slightly, so you could only see half of his eyes. Tenma smiled, "Don't worry! That's so cool!"
Shindou reached his hand out towards Kirino, urging him to come up from underwater. Kirino hesitantly took Shindou's hand and was pulled out of the water. Shindou helped Kirino sit at the edge of the pool, so the fins that the end of his tail was still in the water. Tenma was staring in awe at Kirino's tail when he suddenly spoke up,
"Kirino-kun,"
Kirino nervously replied, "Yeah…?"
"Can I touch your tail?" Tenma asked. Kirino nearly fell into the pool, "It's just," Tenma continued, "I want to know what it feels like!"
"I, uh, I guess…" Kirino said, caught completely off guard by the question.
Tenma extended a hand, running his fingers along the side of Kirino's tail, "T-this is surreal!" he said, "I never thought merpeople existed!"
"That's usually the case." Commented Shindou.
"Also, the correct term is actually Merfolk…" Kirino added.
"Oh, sorry, sorry! Merfolk sounds better anyways, I can see why it's right!"
Then, just as Kirino thought he would, Tenma began bombarding him with questions,
(just to make it easier to read, bold text will be Tenma and normal text is Kirino)
"Can you breath underwater?"
"Yes."
"How do you get legs during the day?"
"Magic"
"Magic is real to!?"
"Yup!"
"And you know magic?"
"Well it's a common skill back home, and the only skill I'm really interested in, so yes."
"By 'home', do you mean under the ocean?"
"Yeah, it's kinda deep, and it's also really hidden, so humans have never seen it."
"Why did you come here?"
"Um, well, I didn't exactly come here because I wanted to, I kinda got caught in a storm…"
"You mean that HUGE wave we were supposed to get but didn't!?"
"Yeah, there's a special magical barrier around my city that protects us from storms, but I was outside it when it came, but the barrier around my city weakened the wave so it was a normal wave by the time that it arrived, and I washed up on shore where Shindou found me."
"Hmm…Does Atlantis exist? I mean you live in the sea so you must know!"
"Uhh, yeah, it exists, Aunt Narikota lives there and my cousins there are really stuck up."
"Amazing!" Tenma replied. Shindou had also been listening and learning from Tenma's interrogation, since the brunette himself was too scared to ask Kirino too many things.
Kirino suddenly entered a coughing fit, and let himself tumble back into the pool, where he took in a large breath of water before re-surfacing, "S-sorry, to much air isn't the best for me…"
Shindou smiled, "we should get to sleep, it's getting late!" he looked to Tenma, "I wasn't expecting you to be here this late so you can sleep over in the guest room if you want."
Tenma nodded, "Sure." Shindou turned back to Kirino, and gave him a wave, which Kirino returned to him with a smile. That warm feeling arose in Shindou's chest again. Once they were inside, Tenma suddenly said,
"Shindou-senpai, you have a crush on Kirino-kun, don't you?"
Shindou blushed, his face tomato red, "I-its, uh, well, I, of course not!" he stuttered,
Tenma chuckled, "I can tell you like him, because you look at Kirino the same way I look at Tsurugi!"
Tsurugi was a friend of Shindou and Tenma, Tenma had a crush on Tsurugi, and everyone knows it. Well, everyone but Tsurugi himself, of course.
Tenma's words made Shindou think, was that feeling he was constantly getting, love?
Even though he tried to deny it to himself, in the end, Shindou realized what he really felt towards the pink haired merman that he found on the cove.
*remember that this is an AU, and AU where Tenma lives with his parents
This chapter is so long! I had a huge muse today for this fic, and the result was this!
The next chapter should be coming soon, especially because I want to write the part when Kirino meets Tsurugi *snicker*
Coming in next chapter:
-Tsurugi makes an entrance!
