Hey everyone! Sorry it's a day late (school has been crazy!) but here is the next chapter-hope you all enjoy it!
GuitarGeek: Oh my gosh, thank you sooo much for the awesome review and for actually being my first reviewer, you have no idea how much that means to me! I'm really, really glad that you're enjoying it so far, I hope that the rest of the story lives up to expectations!
0o0
"YOU!"
Fred is startled by a sudden voice behind him the next morning as he's working on cleaning one of the guest chambers in the East Wing. He's so startled, in fact, that he accidentally knocks over the bucket of soapy water he'd been using to mop the floor, and he cringes as he watches it slosh out across the stone tiles, completely undoing all the work that he'd just done. Still, that wasn't half so frightening as what he turns to find the source of the sudden exclamation and sees Hiro standing in the doorway, a look of almost murderous rage on his face.
"U-um… Hi?" Fred squeaks, unintentionally clutching the mop tighter for whatever little protection it might offer him, although he knew it would do little to deter the little fireball who looked like he was preparing to take him apart, limb by limb.
"How did you do it?" Hiro growls, his eyes flashing dangerously.
"How did I do what?" Fred asks timidly.
"Don't play dumb with me! What the hell did you do to get Aunt Cass to allow you to come back here?!" Hiro demands. "You couldn't have bribed her off, she wouldn't go for that. So what did you do? Did you threaten her? Slip some drugs into her tea?"
"What? No!" Fred cries in disbelief. "I'd never-"
"Then what was it?!"
"Dude, why do you always assume the worst about me?!" Fred asks, beginning to feel defensive. .
"Because you haven't given me any reason not to!"
"What about innocent until proven guilty?"
"I caught you after you'd broken into the one place in the house we specifically told you not to go, kissing my brother! I'd say that more than counts as guilty!"
"All right, granted," Fred sighs, his shoulder sagging. "And I know now that that was wrong, and while I've apologized to Tadashi and your aunt, I haven't apologized to you yet, so let me go ahead that I really and truly am sorry for breaking your trust like that. But I swear, I mean your family no harm and I just want to do whatever I can to help you out!"
"Maybe we don't need your 'help'," Hiro answers angrily. "Maybe things are fine as they are and we don't want you coming in and trying to mess things up!"
"Tadashi didn't seem to think that everything was 'fine' yesterday," Fred replies a little hotly. "He was willing to kiss a total stranger because he was so desperate to get out of that freakin' pool!"
"That's because you were putting stupid, dangerous ideas in his head! He never talked about that kind of stuff before!" Hiro argues.
"Maybe that's because he didn't have any hope of getting out of there before," Fred answers, frustration beginning to slip into his tone. "Or maybe he just didn't want to risk upsetting you!"
"Upsetting me? Upsetting me how?" Hiro asks suspiciously.
"You don't see it?"
"See what?!"
"Everything Tadashi's doing, he's doing to try to make you happy! Mer, human, whatever! The main reason he wants to be human is so he can start that company with you! And if he stays mer, it's because you can't accept change and he doesn't want to upset you! Why can't you be willing to do let him do something for himself for once? Or are you really that selfish?!"
"I AM NOT SELFISH, I AM TRYING TO LOOK OUT FOR MY BROTHER AND KEEP HIM SAFE FROM CREEPY PERVERTS LIKE YOU WHO JUST WANT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HIM!"
Fred almost snapped at that but, fortunately, he just barely manages to reign himself back in. "...You know what? Forget it," he growls. "Look, I have a job to do-a job your Aunt hired and still expects me to do-and I plan on keeping my promise this time. It's part of my way of earning back her trust, something you might not understand, but do you think you can at least let me get back to work instead of harrassing me?"
"...Fine," Hiro finally respond coldly. "Clean if you want. But you're not getting Tadashi, no matter what evil schemes you might have up your sleeve. He's my brother and I will protect him, got it?!"
As soon as he's sure that the younger boy is out of hearing range, Fred lets out a growl of frustration. Seriously, what was up with this kid?! Why did he hate him so much? They'd only just met, for gosh sakes! Fred angrily shoves the mop across the floor. Well, if nothing else, he had a lot of chores to help him burn off steam. And despite what Hiro said, he was going to see Tadashi again as soon as he was done for the day, and no one and nothing was going to stop him.
Fred?
Fred, when are you coming to see me?
Sorry Tadashi-I'd be in there right now if I could, but I can't find Hiro to get him to unlock the door for me.
Have you tried texting him? I can give you his number if you don't have it-or maybe I could text him!
You can try, yeah. But he isn't responding to any of my texts.
Gah, what's up with him? He was in here for most of the day, but then about an hour ago he disappeared and he hasn't been back since! It's like he randomly decided to leave right before you finished with work. Weird.
Yeah… weird.
Maybe I could let you in?
...How?
I don't know. I could pull myself out of the pool and manage to make my way over?
Tadashi, no. You'll end up hurting yourself. Seriously, you aunt should be home soon and we can see each other then, okay?
But… :( All right, fine… Doesn't mean I like it.
I don't either, but there's not much we can do. :/
Maybe you could try and see if the door's unlocked again?
I gave your aunt my word that I wouldn't be in there with you without supervision. If I'm ever going to get your aunt to trust me, I can't even attempt a break-in.
*Sigh* Fine, have it your way. But you'll have to make it up to me later.
What exactly do you mean by "making it up to you"?
Some light kissing would be nice.
If that's what you want, I'm not going to say "no" to that!
Yay! ^w^ Now I have something to look forward to! 3 Maybe waiting won't be so long if I get a reward like that for it!
You're spoiled, you know that?
Pft, yeah right! ;) (And maybe if you weren't so willing to spoil me…)
Just for that, maybe I won't kiss you tonight.
...NO! You promised! :(
You going to behave yourself?
...Yes.
Okay then. Look, better stop texting before someone sees me and thinks I'm trying to alert the local news or something. Talk to you in a little bit?
Sounds good! :) See you in a little bit! 3
Fred lets out a slight sigh, leaning his head back against the wall. He knew that Hiro's sudden "disappearance" hadn't been any coincidence. The teen had obviously purposefully hidden, knowing that if he wasn't there then Fred couldn't get in to see Tadashi. A simple yet extremely effective plan. Well, make that an extremely annoying and almost infuriating plan. Still, Fred wasn't about to rat the younger boy out to the elder Hamada. He still hoped that maybe he could win him over eventually, so for now he'd let him play his little games in hopes that he'd eventually get tired of them. And until then, he'd just have to be patient. It wasn't like he didn't have a whole morning's worth of Tumblr feed to catch up on, after all!
He's so caught up in checking the latest posts that he doesn't even hear Aunt Cass coming up the hallway until she's right in front of him.
"Well," she says, looking slightly surprised as she comes to a stop. "What are you doing out here? I thought you'd be inside with Tadashi by now!"
"I-I would have been," Fred agrees, quickly putting his phone away and standing up. "But I-ah, I couldn't find Hiro, y'know, to unlock the door for me? And I figured he was probably pretty busy with something if he'd forgotten and, if it was that big of deal, that it really wouldn't be fair for him to be dragged into being a chaperone this afternoon, so I'd just wait for you to get home. After all, you told me I wasn't supposed to go in to visit Tadashi without one of you being there, right? And there's no way I was going to go breaking any more rules!"
"I see." Aunt Cass looks at him with an almost unreadable expression on her face that looked vaguely approving as she presses her thumb to the door reader. "In that case, thank you for being patient. Would you like to come in with me to say hello now?"
"That would be great!" Fred agrees, trying not to sound too eager.
"Well then, come on!" Aunt Cass says, opening the door and waving for Fred to follow her.
"Thank you!" Fred has to forcefully keep himself from literally skipping into the room, and work just as hard not to full-on sprint for the cove, instead matching Aunt Cass' relaxed, steady gate. Still, the entire way, his heart keeps beating Tadashi, Tadashi, Tadashi!
It turned out that Tadashi was a lot less patient than even Fred was. Almost moments after the two enter the room, the elder Hamada brother surfaces at the edge of the pool closest to them, apparently either unwilling or unable to wait for them to actually get into the cove.
"Fred!" he cries, waving eagerly.
"H-hey!" Fred answers, his heart skipping a beat-oh gosh, not only was Tadashi even cuter than he remembered, but hearing him calling his name like that…
"And where's my 'hello'?" Aunt Cass asks, putting her hands on her hips and acting playfully annoyed.
"Sorry Aunt Cass," Tadashi apologizes, wrapping his arms around her legs in a quick hug. "How was your day?"
"Pretty good," Aunt Cass answers, gently ruffling her nephew's hair in an extremely loving manner. "We didn't have any major catastrophes or coffee-relate brawls breaking out, so I count it a fairly successful day!"
"That's always a good thing, yes," Tadashi agrees with a smile.
"How about you, kiddo? Have a good day?"
"Meh. Kind of boring, but I had getting to see Fred again to look forward to, so that helped!"
"All right, I can take a hint," Aunt Cass laughs. "Tell you what-I need to go get supper started. Think you'll be okay in here for a minute or two until I can find Hiro and send him in to keep an eye on things?"
"Of course!" Tadashi replies, looking downright delighted by the prospect.
"No funny business," Aunt Cass says warningly, although she appears to be smiling slightly as she heads back towards the door.
"Whoa-she's actually trusting me to be alone with you?" Fred gasps, feeling slightly shocked as he watches her retreating form.
"Well, we talked about it last night," Tadashi answers, "and I told her about everything that happened. Which by the way, yes, I mean actually talked, no magic involved. And while she's not fully willing to give you a free pass yet, I think you're well on your way to receiving redemption."
"That is fantastic!" Fred cries eagerly before blushing and asking, "W-wait, when you say 'everything'..."
"Yeah, pretty much everything," Tadashi admits with a slightly embarrassed smile. "And… Overall, she's actually pretty okay with us dating. She still wants to keep an eye on you for a while to make sure that you're keeping your word, but for the most part she seems to approve. Although…." He frowns slightly as he adds, "she said not to get our hopes up too much about the whole 'true love's kiss' thing-that it's just a fairy tale and she doesn't want either of us getting false hopes or whatever."
"I… I can see that," Fred says quietly. "She just doesn't want you to get hurt if it doesn't work. But, u-um… Even if it doesn't work… Would you still want to date me?"
"Would you still want to date someone who's half fish and waterbound?" Tadashi asks, sounding slightly self-deprecating.
"Of course!" Fred answers firmly, reaching over to squeeze the other teen's hands in his own. "I think you're absolutely amazing just the way you are! And the whole tail thing? It's actually kind of-no, really, really attractive…"
"Aw, really?" Tadashi asks, a grin making its way onto his face.
"T-totally," Fred agrees. Oh gosh that smile could still completely take his breath away….
"Y'know," Tadashi adds, reaching out to gently tug on Fred's hand to bring him closer to his level. "You still owe me from earlier…"
"I-I guess I do," Fred agrees, his cheeks turning bright pink at what Tadashi was suggesting.
"So-are you going to pay up or not?" Tadashi says playfully.
"U-um… A-are you sure now is the right time?" Fred stammers.
"You don't want to?" Tadashi asks, looking slightly hurt.
"No, I definitely want to!" Fred hurries to reassure him. "Just… Maybe I want to a little too much, if you know what I mean… Like, if I'm going to be dating you and we want to try to get you true love's kiss and all that, maybe we should be careful not to get too physical before we really get to know each other better?"
"A true gentleman," Tadashi says somewhat playfully although his smile is genuine. "All right, I can go with that. Sorry if I'm seeming too forward. But you know the kind of rep mers have when it comes to 'romance' and, well… I'm not exactly an exception to the rule. Not that I would ever lure someone to a watery grave or anything, that is so not me! Just… You should probably be warned up front… If I want something, then there's a decent chance I'm going to find a way to get it one way or the other. Even if cognitively I don't want to, when instincts kick in…"
"Hey." Fred gently squeezes his hands. "I trust you. The Tadashi I see-the one I'm getting to know-would never purposefully do something to hurt anyone. And I think he's strong enough to fight off any urges that would potentially harm anyone he really cared about."
"And if I'm not?" Tadashi asks quietly.
"Well… I believe you are, and even if not, chances are, if you're at that point, I will be too. Like, ask my consent, definitely. But hopefully before this even becomes an issue we'll be far enough along that we'll both be ready for something like that, and when the times comes, we'll both know it's right and be willing to mutually agree to it."
"You make it sound so easy," Tadashi says softly.
"You are more than you instincts, Tadashi," Fred answers firmly. "I know that they're a part of you, and I would never change that. But if something about them has you worried or is making you unhappy, then you totally have the right and even a responsibility to yourself to take control of them. Plus, you should give yourself more credit than you are. I think you're a lot stronger than you're letting yourself believe."
"Well… For both of our sake's then," Tadashi responds with a tiny smile. "I'll do my best to keep them under control."
"That's all anyone can ask," Fred agrees.
"Do I even want to know what you two are talking about?" a slightly disgusted-sounding voice asks.
"Hiro!" Tadashi cries, turning towards the source. "There you are! Where did you go? You completely disappeared earlier!"
"Yeah, sorry about that, nii-chan," Hiro answers, putting on an innocent look that Fred could see right through. "I went to lie down for a little while, and I accidentally fell asleep."
"Lie down? Are you not feeling okay?" Tadashi asks, looking concerned.
"I just wasn't feeling too good," Hiro replies. "But I'm a lot better now!" Glancing over at Fred and flashing him a quick glare, he adds, "Isn't it about time for you to head home?"
"Your aunt's apparently okay with me staying and spending a little extra time with Tadashi, considering I wasn't able to get in earlier," Fred replies stiffly, not wanting to make a scene in front of Tadashi but not about to let Hiro off the hook so easily either-the teen needed to know that he was onto him and that he wasn't about to back down so easily.
"Whatever," Hiro grumbles, rolling his eyes slightly before turning to Tadashi and saying in a pleading voice, "Can we get back to the project we were working on, niisan?"
"Hiro," Tadashi answers, looking slightly torn. "Fred did just get here..."
"But it's a project!" Hiro cries, as if that obviously trumped everything.
"Maybe I could help you guys out with it?" Fred suggests, not wanting to be the source of trouble.
"No," Hiro states flatly before Tadashi can even answer. "Only Dashi and I work on our projects together. Period."
"Hiro!" Tadashi scolds, looking slightly surprised by his brother's behavior.
"Y'know what? Forget it," Hiro mumbles, stalking off. "Have fun with your boyfriend or whatever. See if I care."
"Hiro…" Tadashi reaches out a hand towards him, but by then he's halfway across the room.
"I'm sorry… Should I go?" Fred asks softly.
"What? No!" Tadashi answers firmly, turning towards him. "I'm sorry about Hiro, he's not usually like this. But just because he's acting off doesn't mean you need to leave. You're here right now, and we don't get to spend a lot of time together, so we should enjoy that while we've got it. Hiro can be patient and just wait until tonight to get back to work on the project."
"You sure?" Fred asks, not really wanting to argue but not wanting to appear like he was trying to get between Tadashi and Hiro either.
"Absolutely," Tadashi agrees firmly, gently tugging him towards the cove. "Now, c'mon-if Hiro wants to sulk, that's his problem. But let's not let that ruin this for us!"
"All right then," Fred agrees, finally allowing himself to smile. "In that case, lead on!"