Oh Tama. He gave me an excuse to write Feliciano and Ludwig into the story again, while also having a comedic moment. In seriousness, there will be more Axis Trio moments.
And Herakles. He's just acting... Slightly lovestruck if anything. Without even realising it.
There's also going to be a week time skip between this chapter and the next in universe. And then things will happen. Things that may just involve a flash of red and general anxiety for everyone involved.


Herakles was worried.

He was sure that Kiku had reached home safely, after he had sprinted home last night, but this didn't stop the feeling of concern that seemed ever present. His people had attacked the humans at the beach. The rocks were so near, and he knew that a few merpeople were suspicious as to why he had been absent from the assault. He couldn't risk them catching him with Kiku. They would slaughter him. He closed his eyes while he thought. Kiku had told him to meet him again today. He couldn't just not turn up; that would be rude, and could risk worrying the human. But there was another way he could keep Kiku safe. He could try to throw off any potential followers by taking a less direct route to the rocks.

So instead of heading towards the shore, Herakles swam parallel to it, winding around submerged boulders, looking a little as if he was hunting instead of travelling to meet someone. He believed that he was sure to throw off any pursuers this way. A shoal of small grey fish scattered at the sight of him, and Herakles pretended to give chase for a while, before weaving around an arch within the crimson coral that was just ahead of him and turning back towards the shore, noticing the increased sunlight that filtered down beneath the waves as he got closer to the shallow sea around the rocks.

This increase of distance to his route added quite a bit of time to Herakles's journey, so much so that by the time he had actually reached the liaison point, Kiku was getting worried. Herakles couldn't have forgotten, so where was he? The human leant forwards on the rock, staring into the azure water below in concern. Surely the merman wasn't hurt somewhere? There was no way for Kiku to find out, nor rescue Herakles if that was the case; the ocean was vast. He could only continue to hope that Herakles was fine, or at least that he would be able to make it somewhere safe to recover if he was injured.

When Herakles actually broke the water and looked towards Kiku, the human seemed on edge.

"Are you okay?" He asked, pulling himself onto the rock to sit by his friend. "You didn't see any others of my kind, did you?"

"No… I was just wondering whether you were alright," Kiku admitted.

"Oh… Well, of course… I just needed to take extra time to make sure no-one was following me… My people are getting a little suspicious of why I am gone for so long everyday," Herakles explained.

"Oh… Are they very suspicious? Maybe you should stay with your family tomorrow if you think they might continue to follow you, to try to quell their suspicions," the human suggested.

"Hmm… That might be a good idea," Herakles admitted.

Kiku nodded. "We'll do that tomorrow then."

Silence fell for a few minutes.

"Kiku… Perhaps I could try some human food?" Herakles broached, curious.

"Ah, well, I don't have any on me right about now…" Kiku began. "But, I could bring some for you the day after tomorrow, and you could try it," he suggested.

"That would be great… Thanks." Herakles smiled.

"Is there anything in particular that you would like, or should I just bring whatever I feel like making?" Kiku furthered.

"Well… I don't really know much about human food, so how about you decide?" Herakles answered, sending Kiku into deep thought for a while.

"I shall bring sushi then," he replied after a long while.

Herakles vaguely remembered the mention of sushi from before. "Ah, that has fish in it," he recognised.

"Yes… So out of all the dishes I know, it would probably be the one most enjoyable for you," the human decided.

"And I will find you some seaweed to eat too." Herakles smiled wide.

"Ah… Please ensure first it is not poisonous to my kind…" Kiku fretted.

"Uh? Poisonous? Does seaweed make you sick? I thought your kind ate that too…" Herakles was confused.

"Just some varieties; we eat different things to you." Kiku sighed.

For most of the rest of the day the two friends discussed food and different types of seaweed, before they had to part ways for the evening. While Kiku headed straight home, Herakles took a long, winding route that passed by several shoals of fish. He made sure to catch some on the way to make it look as though he had been hunting.

"Eh? Returning from hunting so late? What, did ya have a bad day out there brat?" Sadik teased as Herakles returned to the pod.

"So what if I did… Jerk. I fill my day with more than just hunting."

"Yeah, ya also sleep and get beached in front of bloodthirsty humans… Ow! I was just joking, ya know." Sadik rubbed his head from where Herakles had hit him.

"Your sense of humour sucks," Herakles stated flatly, but Sadik was cut off before he could respond by a call behind him.

"Herakles! There you are! Were you sleeping out past the reef again? You know it's not safe to nap out there," his mother chided, swimming up to meet him.

"Geh… Damn mama's boy." Sadik grumbled. "Somethin' funny's goin' on, this isn't the first time he's been back so late without any good reason, and he was never like that before he got captured by those humans…" The red-tailed merman muttered to himself. Wanting to be alone with his thoughts he swam off to think of ways he could ascertain what Herakles was really up to.

"We don't go out hunting together enough… There's a lot more we can achieve working together," Loukas insisted, swimming around the bright red coral to where Herakles was hiding, under a large, green bloom of seaweed.

"Hmm." His older brother nodded. "It is easier to hunt with two of us."

"It sure is," his brother agreed before getting down to business. "Okay, so I'll swim after some fish and chase them towards the arch,"- Loukas pointed to an arch of rock in the distance- "And you can stretch the net across and hold it tight. Once the fish are snared, we can kill them."

Herakles nodded, holding the worn net, made of woven seaweed, in his hands.

"Okay then, good luck," he smiled at his younger brother.

Loukas smiled in return, swimming off into the distance while Herakles set up a trap for the fish before hiding behind another large patch of seaweed, this one orange, next to the rock arch, net still held in his hands. Almost a minute later, Loukas had found some edible, medium-sized fish, and began after the school, swimming around but not through it, slowly herding the group back towards where his brother was waiting. Eager to escape, many of the fish darted towards the arch and ploughed into the net, and Herakles struck, holding the net firm as the fish got more and more stuck, before moving quickly to the side to grab the other side of the net, catching most of the fish in the net and tying it up quickly.

"Did you get any?" Asked Loukas, swimming back towards his brother, green tail shimmering slightly from the light filtering through from the surface of the water. Herakles smiled and held up the net to show his brother his catch.

"Quite a lot," he replied.

"Ah, great! That's a decent number". Loukas grinned, patting the older merman's back with one of his webbed hands.

Herakles nodded. "So, what should we do next?" He asked.

"Well, bring those back to the pod, to start with… Then, well, we can hunt a little more, or maybe even relax for a while," Loukas answered. His brother nodded, and they returned to their home.

"Tama! You know the rules about stealing fish from the fridge!" Yao screeched, running after the defenceless cat with his wok. Tama smartly decided to make himself scarce, scarpering off with great speed.

"Not again! We'd better go look for Tama, no way is Yao gonna find him now," Mei commented, looking to Kiku. "I'll look by the beach, and you can go further into town, okay?"

Kiku nodded. "Okay, we'll do that. Call me if you find him," he waved his phone in her direction to accentuate his point.

Mei nodded, running out of the door, and Kiku followed, turning at the end of the garden path and running in the opposite direction.

Ludwig had been having a normal morning, walking the dogs and trying to keep the house clean despite Gilbert, when all of a sudden an almighty crash had come from the direction of the front room. Running there straight away, he came face to face with Feliciano, holding what appeared to be Kiku's cat protectively. The window was open behind him, curtains blowing in the wind and leaf litter making its way into the house. Ludwig couldn't work out how weak, timid Feliciano had opened a closed window from the other side. Unable to come up with words to describe how bizarre the scene was, the German stammered.

"W…What the hell is going on here?" He eventually managed to ask. Feliciano's face morphed into one of abject terror.

"K-Kiku's brother was out chasing this little guy again! We have to keep him safe, Ludwig, we can't just let him get beaten up, he's a cute kitty really," he cried.

Ludwig sighed, placing a hand against his forehead in frustration. "Feliciano," he began. "We cannot keep someone else's cat just because you feel bad for it. Tama should know by now to stop stealing food," he gave a stern look to the cat, who only miaowed cutely, trying to gain sympathy.

"But… Can't we at least make sure that we give him to Kiku? It's not fair that Yao's always the one to punish him… He's Kiku's cat," Feliciano tried to argue. His German friend gave in.

"Fine… You can find Kiku and make sure he gets his cat back in one piece," he relented. "So long as you leave me to my cleaning, and make sure not to do stupid things like breaking into people's houses again, clear?"
Feliciano nodded. "But… Won't you come with me to find Kiku first?" He hit Ludwig with his best puppy dog eyes.

"Alright, alright, fine…" Ludwig sighed deeply.

"Yay!" Feliciano cheered.

Kiku ran past the fountain in the middle of the town, heading straight up the road that ran the spine of the settlement. Where could Tama be…? He really had hidden himself well this time…

"Kiku! Kiku, look what we found!" Feliciano yelled from somewhere within the maze of buildings, running towards Kiku… and then into Kiku.

"Look where you're going, idiot," Ludwig sighed, coming up behind him. Kiku jumped back a little from the sudden contact, and then looked to his friend.

"Is everything alright?" The small Japanese man asked, before noticing the black blob in his friend's arms. "Ah! Tama, you found him," he smiled at the little cat.

"Yeah! We couldn't let your brother get hold of him, so we brought him here to you! He is your cat after all, not Yao's…" Feliciano laughed a little, handing the pet back to Kiku.

"Thank you Feli," Kiku nodded at his friend, while Ludwig took a deep breath.

"Well… good I guess. It's good to see you by the way Kiku," he looked a little red, possibly from the bizarre nature of the day's events.

"It is good to see the two of you as well," Kiku replied to his friends.

"Yeah, yeah! We need to meet up again sometime soon, we can eat pasta, and stay up all night, and…"

Ludwig cut in at this point. "Sure, sure. That would be good. Anyway, we need to be going now, and you probably should get home before your brother too Kiku. See you soon," he began to drag Feliciano behind him as he headed back towards his house, wanting to restore the tranquillity of his day as soon as possible.

"Ah, see you both later then," Kiku called after them, before turning around and heading back towards the house, getting out his phone on the way.

"Mei, I found Tama and…"

"Aiyah! Wherever did you find him Kiku? I swear I searched the whole town!" Yao remarked upon returning that evening to find Tama in Kiku's arms still.

"He was with Feliciano… Who I ran into in the main plaza… Quite literally," his brother explained, setting his pet down onto the floor. Tama padded over to the sofa in the living room.

"Come on Yao, you know Tama never lets you catch him when you're mad, he's smarter than that," Mei giggled a little.

Yao sighed, turning his back on his siblings to glare in the general direction of the cat. "Such a smart cat should learn to stop stealing food," he frowned at Tama, who only mewed back 'innocently'.

"Mischievous little thing," Yao muttered, not noticing Kiku cooking fish and packing it away in tubs behind his back.

The next morning, Kiku headed back out towards the rock where he usually met Herakles, the boxes of food held in his hands. Climbing over the rocks was more difficult than usual due to his load, but eventually he managed to reach the usual meeting place, taking a seat on the wet stone and waiting for Herakles to appear. Only a few minutes later, his friend came into view, emerging from the sea with a smile on his face.

"Good morning Kiku…" He greeted, hoisting himself up onto the rock, water dripping from the edge of his turquoise tail as he settled himself next to Kiku. "I went hunting yesterday… My brother and I managed to catch a lot of fish, so it was very successful… What about you?" He asked, curious.

"Tama stole more fish from the fridge, and my older brother chased him around for hours… I eventually found him, but I really wish he wouldn't keep doing that," Kiku sighed a little. "I did manage to cook something for you though."

Herakles's face lit up. "Really? Can I try some of it?" He asked.

"Well, I did make it so that you could try," Kiku smiled, showing Herakles the tubs of food and then taking off the lids, revealing the samples he had cooked the night before.

"It is nothing too complicated… Some marinated fish with seaweed and rice," he admitted. "But then, I didn't intend for it to be anything too filling… I wanted it to be just a snack."

"It looks delicious, I can't wait to try some." Herakles smiled over at Kiku, leaning towards his friend. Kiku nodded, pulling a pair of chopsticks from one of the tubs and handing the implements to Herakles.

"What are these for?" The merman asked, confused.

"You use them to eat with… To pick up the food. Using your fingers is rude," Kiku tried to explain.

"Ah…" Herakles nodded, and proceeded to stab one of the bits of fish with one of the chopsticks, managing to get it into his mouth with a little effort, as the morsel would not stay still on the stick.

"It's really hard," he commented.

"That's because you're doing it completely wrong," Kiku replied. "You're meant to use them both, and hold the food between them."

Herakles now looked even more confused than he had been before. "How do you do that?" He enquired, innocently.

"Here, I suppose I'll just show you," Kiku reached out, grabbing Herakles's hand and positioning his fingers so that he was holding the chopsticks correctly, blushing slightly at the unfamiliar feeling of Herakles's damp skin against his hand. At the same time, Herakles felt his heart beat just a little bit faster, noticing the odd feeling from before was stronger than ever, and that it was almost beginning to cause his hands and feet to tingle slightly. The feeling was kind of… pleasant.

"That's the correct way to hold them… But it is a little bit tricky to learn to use them like that properly… So let me know if you think you need more help," Kiku admitted.

"Your human eating implements are rather strange and complicated," Herakles frowned. "But thank you Kiku." He smiled, trying to pick up the fish again, but failing, his grip loosening at just the wrong time and dropping the food back into the tub.

"Oops." The non-human smiled wider, feeling free for some reason, and laughed. Surprisingly, Kiku found himself chucking a little as well: laughter was just that contagious.

"Do you want some help?" The human asked his friend.

"If you wouldn't mind," Herakles nodded, letting Kiku's hand return to rest above his own, guiding Herakles to finally eat his first piece of fish. He chewed for a while before looking to Kiku.

"It's really good," he complimented.

"Ah, I'm glad," Kiku answered, happy that his friend was enjoying it.

"Would you help me eat the rest of it?" Herakles asked, eager to continue eating the food but aware he still hadn't even grasped the basics of using chopsticks.

"Of course… I am just happy you enjoy it so much," Kiku agreed, helping Herakles eat the rest of his little snack carefully and patiently.

As Herakles returned to the pod that day, still buoyant from the time out with Kiku and feeling like he might just have grasped the knack to handling human eating implements, Sadik watched on, now convinced that something was most definitely going on. There was no way Herakles wasn't hiding something, and he was determined to find out what it was.