Kimi opened her eyes to find the ceiling of Mero's room above her and sighed. the entire day before had been spent shopping, and after what had been a couple literal hours of shopping, it had ended with Kimi having a total of three of the same tops, three differently colored skirts, and a Tunic like pullover top that apparently Eel's normally wore, so she could wear more than just a swim top indoors.

After having bought everything the day before had regressed into Lesson after lesson on how to put on the types of clothing, as well as lessons about what not to do under any circumstance, like using a towel on ones ribs, and gills. It turned out that Mero was a rather, fanatical teacher, willing to go to a substantial length to make user that her student understood what she was saying. This for the most part meant that she kept forcibly taking Kimi's top or skirt off if she found her putting it on awkwardly or in a strange way. And Mero would not take no for an answer, and neither did her tone.

The day before had ended with a rather one sided discussion of where Kimi should sleep. it was less a discussion and more Mero giving a series of reasons why sleeping in her room would be simpler than in Kimi's own, and by the end of it, Kimi simply couldn't say no, though she had insisted that she just sleep on the floor outside the pool. The idea of being constantly underwater was still, very very scary after all.

"Ah, Good morning Beloved!" Mero exclaimed as she silently poked her head out of the water and moved over to the edge of the pol closest to Kimi with a smile on her face.

Kimi turned her head to reply to Mero, and then quickly looked away, regretting that she had even looked in the first place. Mero was wearing nothing, and despite all of her body except her head and shoulders being in the water, Kimi could easily tell what was below the water, and found herself unable to look at her directly as she finally sat up and spoke. "Um, Morning Mero."

"It appears to be a lovely morning. Did you sleep well?" Mero asked as her hips and but floated up to the water's surface a bit, something Kimi notices when she thought to look back or half a moment, then realized it was a bad idea until She heard Mero go back underwater.

"Um, yeah I slept fi- EEHHHHHH!" Kimi suddenly spammed as she tried to get up, only to find her entire tail spiked with a strange feeling, and not quiet pain, but not simple discomfort either. It was like her entire tail was cramping up, had knotted muscles and was being held down by a massive weight all at the same time. It was less than comfortable.

"Oh dear, is your tail seizing up Beloved!?" Mero asked as she reached up and pulled her naked body up onto the ledge of the pool with a worried look on her face.

"Seizing up?"

"Yes, it's what I was worried might happen when you decided to sleep up here and not in the water. Some aquatic liminals experience their muscles seizing up if they can't drift about and stay loose while they sleep. If they sleep on a hard surface their muscles bunch up and get knotted. I've never had it happen to myself, but I'm told it is painful." Mero explained as she fully pulled her naked form up out of the pool and over to Kimi where she began pressing her hands against her tail.

"That's good to know. How do I stop it from hurting?"

"You'll have to just float about under the water for a while to let your tail rest." Mero said simply as she pulled herself away from Kimi and neared the edge of the water, her fully naked form still almost entirely uncovered. Only her lower region was covered by her pelvic fins, much to Kimi's thanks.

"Err, under the water you mean?" Kimi asked a worry tinging her pained voice.

"Yes."

"Um, maybe I'll just lie here for moment then." Kimi said nervously, keeping her gaze at the wall, away from Mero.

"You said the same thing last night when I suggested you sleep In the water with me." Mero commented calmly. "I know you can swim, so is something bothering you beloved?"

" . . . . . I'm, not comfortable with the idea of staying submerged. "Kimi finally admitted. " I'm fine with swimming, and even diving underwater, but the idea of staying under, even if I'm supposed to be able to without diving gear on. It just sounds dangerous.""

"What do you mean? You're an eel right now beloved. Breathing underwater is a simple thing for your body."

"I know that, but I keep worrying In the back of my mind that, what if I can't breathe underwater, or what if I do sleep underwater and then turn back, I'd drown in my sleep!"

"OH, that's true." Mero said with a grin that quickly got bigger and bigger as her tragedy desires began to kick in more and more before she shook her head to dislodge such thoughts for the moment. "If that's the case I can watch over you when you sleep, but you really do need to be in water, otherwise your body may have trouble making mucus."

"What? Trouble making mucus?"

"Yes, if aquatic liminals don't rehydrate their bodies by being in water while they sleep, after a while their bodies can have trouble continuing to produce mucus because their bodies mistakenly believe they don't need it. If that happens it can cause you to become extremely sick and unhealthy. So your muscles seizing is just the tip of what can go wrong."

"Oh. . . .So I have to go underwater one way or the other then?"

"it would be a good idea beloved. unless you want to have even more trouble with everything." Mero stated simply as she threw herself backwards off the floor and into the water, her head peeking up out of it a second later with a welcoming smile.

Kimi looked at Mero's smile and could not help but give in with a sigh. Alright, fine, b-but I'm still not exactly sure about it."

"It's okay; I can walk you through it. So first move your tail into the water to start."

With a shallow nod Kimi slowly turned around, paying as little attention as possible to the water around Mero where she could clearly see the outline of her body beneath the waves, and slowly moved her tail into the water. as soon as her tail slipped halfway into the water she felt the pain in it slowly begin to disappear, and once she was sitting at the edge with almost all of it in the water all of the pain was gone. The water itself did not feel cold or warm, like it was simply there and kept at whatever temperature it decided to be at.

"Okay, now just drop yourself into the water alright?"

Kimi nodded as she propped her arms up and dropped herself into the water how she normally would at any pool. of course normal pools had a shallow end, and the human body is naturally buoyant, an eels body however, because of the mucus absorbing the water, was not, so instead of dropping in and partially floating up back to the surface, Kimi found that her body dropped into the water and stayed there until she moved her hands to pull herself back up to the surface where she gasped out of her mouth." okay, that was weird!"

"Only because you're trying to breathe through your mouth still. breath through your gills and you'll find it easier to stay underwater. Shall we?" Mero asked as she floated at the surface of the water, the top of her breasts clearly visible, and the rest just as visible below the surface.

"Um, before that um, could you put something on?"

"Hmm?" Mero said with a tilt of her head before she glanced down and then covered her chest calmly with s minor blush. "Ah my apologies, I sleep without clothing on or it'd catch on things when I drift, I'm sorry."

"Just um, put something on please."

"I will, but come one down with me okay? We need to get water passing your gills anyway so I can show you around the pool!"

"What?"

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"Ugh, this sucks!" Miia exclaimed as she sat on the floor of the living room, looking extremely upset about something.

"What exactly is wrong Miia?" Centorea asked with an exasperated sigh.

" Darling is wrong! She's been in Mero's room all day long and it's so unfair!" Miia growled, gritting her teeth together unconsciously.

"She's with Mero because she's aquatic at the moment Miia, Mero's room is the only place with a deep pool as well, so it's only natural that she would be with her at the moment." Rachnera stated in her usual tone.

"But she's spending all of her time with that Tragedy freak!" Miia shrieked in annoyance.

"Yeah Boss is stuck in the water!" Papi added, though without any annoyance in her voice. It was merely a statement of fact.

"That's hardly something to be annoyed about Miia," Centorea stated.

"Perhaps not, but I can understand the feeling. Honey is supposed to be our homestay, yet because of the situation he is not able to be around all of us, and it does complicate the household workings." Rachnera said as the doorbell rang and Lala appeared passing the doorway to the living room, evidently heading to the door.

"While I agree with the problems it does pose to us as Homestay's, the problems that our master is dealing with due to LTS are far worse and we need to continue doing our best, without acting on our jealous feelings." Centorea stoically stated, making it sound slightly more like an order than a statement of opinion.

Papi appeared to open her mouth to add in her thoughts, but stopped when she looked and found Lala walk into the room, looking like she had seen a ghost, which was a strange and seemingly impossible concept consider lala's own stature.

Stepping to the side of the doorway Lala appeared to be pressing against the wall, as if she was intent on merging with it, just as Mrs. Smith walked around the corner and under the doorway into the living room. "Hey, is Darling about?" Mrs. Smith asked with a smile that somehow seemed too casual, like she was preparing something to drop on him/her.

"Honey is with Mero in her room, and has been for most of the day. Teaching her to swim and breathe correctly and such I believe." Rachnera answered swiftly, locking herb gaze on Mrs. Smith, looking for anything that would betray her reasons for coming.

"I see. Could someone get them please?" Mrs. Smith asked as she walked into the living room and planted herself in a chair, crossing her legs as she leaned back and let out a long and heavy sigh, one that made her sound exhausted.

Taking that chance Lala Slipped out of the room without a word, though everyone noticed, and nearly ten minutes later she returned with Mero and Kimi right behind her, Mero in her usual clothing, and Kimi wearing the sleevless tunic like top she and Mero had gotten her the day before.

"Hmm, so you did turn from a Lamia to an eel then." Mrs. Smith stated simply as she saw Kimi and nodded to herself, not even sitting back up in the chair.

Kimi simply nodded and looked to Mero. " It's been a little more difficult with the differences in, breathing, but Mero's been a big help, and Miia's help when I was a Lamia has helped a lot as well."

"Yes I figured it might be a little hard in that respect. . . . How comfortable with being underwater are you though?"

The question seemed to catch Kimi off guard for a moment, and did so to everyone else as she answered it. "Um, I wasn't too good with the idea, but Mero was helping for most of the day, so I think I'm, okay with it, why?"

"Because, I had been meaning to bring something up in the past few weeks, but work kept getting in the way," Mrs. Smith began as she glanced around at everyone in the room. "Besides Lala who arrived later, would I be correct in guessing that none o you have been keeping in shape after you went to sports club kobold?"

"Almost everyone in the room seemed to shrink their heads down slightly, though Rachnera only smiled. " I'm in fine shape, so I'm not worried!"

"You should be with how lazy you are." Miia deadpanned as Mrs. Smith continued.

"That is about what I expected.. . . Polt has recently completed a number of modifications onto Sports club kobold, as well as adding a special and very personal weight watching program. it's also nearing the time to get your physicals done again, so almost all of you will be heading to the gym tomorrow with myself and Manako." Mrs. Smith explained, causing Miia and Cerea to groan in annoyance.

"Wait, almost everyone? So I'm not included then yes?" Rachnera asked with a smile of superiority. A smile that was quickly smashed to pieces when Mrs. smith answered her.

"No, Mero and Darling won't be going actually, which brings me to the next thing I have to ask." Mrs. Smith said as she turned her gaze to Mero and Kimi and pulled out a single piece of paper, sliding it across the table. "The managers at the aquarium have put in a proposal to us and the mermaid kingdoms, asking for mermaids to work with them, but they don't know how good of an idea it would be unless they could test how hard it would be for mermaids to be in the aquarium working for a day and take training. As you already helped them once before Mero, they are actually requesting you again, to test a few theories."

"Oh my! they want me to work at the aquarium?" Mero asked in surprise.

"No, for now they just want to do a trial run as the end of summer is nearing. If the trial run is successful though, it would open up permanent positions for aquatic liminal species in aquariums across the country, both for shows, information, tours and training in the future months. The idea had been passed by all the major Aquatic liminal leaders, and has been approved, it just needs to be tested. Would you be willing to?"

"I'd love to, but, how would that work with Beloved being an Eel and you bringing everyone to Sports club kobold?"

"actually I was thinking about that, and I think I have a solution. With some alerting and the right paperwork it could work fine so, why don't you and Darling go to the aquarium for the day tomorrow?"

Authors note:

To answer a question asked by linkthetoaoftime- LTS will become public knowledge if they cannot contain and find a cure for it pretty dam fast.