"A zoo?" Feli tilted his head in wonder and blinked curiously. "What's that? It sounds cool."
"It's a place where humans keep animals so kids and other people can go see them." Gilbert explained with his feet ankle deep in the water. He splashed some over to where his younger brother was sitting by the pool. He didn't really like getting in the water unless he had to for Feli. "We used to go with our parents all the time until the accident happened. It's actually really cool there, they have a bunch of awesome animals there, like elephants, giraffes, lions, I think they have some kangaroos now."
Feliciano smiled his beautiful smile, which somehow always managed to perk Ludwig up. Before Ludwig could fully bask in it's glow, the fantasizing smile softened until it was almost gone. He spoke in logical sense, which somehow dragged Ludwig back to the present. "How would I be able to go?"
"Ah," Gilbert stuck out his finger into the air. "That is where our fab-u-lous life comes in!" He laughed loudly and poked the confused Feliciano on his nose. "We'll say that our grandfather needs a wheelchair sometimes when he's too tired to walk around. Because he doesn't go out into town, it'll work. We'll give you the wheelchair and wrap your tail and stuff with a whole bunch of wet towels so you don't dry out and wrap those with blankets."
"We'll also make sure that we go on a day that's pretty cold." Ludwig interjected. "Or we'll attract attention."
"It's the middle of summer, when do you think there will be a cold day?" Gilbert snickered and chuckled a bit. He turned to Feli with his face full of hope and excitement. "What do you think, Feli? Do you want to go?"
Feli thought about it and shrugged. "I don't see why not. That sounds like a lot of fun!" His smile grew to it's full size again and he turned to Ludwig. "You're coming too, right?"
"Yes, to both of them." Ludwig nodded. He had his arms crossed and he flinched when Gilbert groaned loudly. "Oh, right, right, sorry."
"What? What is it?" Feli looked between them. "Did you say something?"
"He ruined our surprise!" Gilbert groaned loudly and sighed quietly. "Do you know what an aquarium is, Feli?" At his puzzled expression, he went on. "Haha, I figured not. It's like a zoo, but instead of having land animals and a few water ones, it's mainly water ones. Like fish, sharks, you know, the works."
Feli nearly shot out of the water and jumped back into the water full on. He swam a lap around the pool and made these weird sounds before coming back up. Only instead of him popping up where he was in front of Gilbert, he jumped up in front of Ludwig. Some of the water splashed onto his friend's body and he laughed. Ludwig had reflexively jumped a bit back, but stopped when he heard the laughter, he stopped. The smile was enough to stun Ludwig, but the laughter itself...
Ludwig blushed heavily and tried not to let himself smile all too much. He failed. Feli's laughter was as hypnotizing as ever and he couldn't help but compare it to ringing bells in his head.
"Luddy? Did you hear me?" Feli's voice cut through his thoughts and Ludwig had to clear his thoat before he could properly form a legit statement.
"Nine, I, uh, I didn't hear what you um...what you said." He said quietly. "What did you say?"
Feli smiled softy and tilted his head to the side. His hair was soaking wet and some drops traveled down his face into the water. "I said," he beamed brightly and leaned closer to Luwdig. "We should go to the zoo and the acoo...akey...what was it?"
"An aquarium?" Ludwig let himself smile. "So you would be interested in going to that?"
Feliciano nodded and jumped back underwater and swam around in circles. The two brothers watched him, transfixed on his movements. They were very quick, yet graceful. His scales shined in every light that beamed through the water and reflected a soft blue green color into the water.
Ludwig had finally started to let him swim a bit more on his own after he showed signs that he was healing nicely. They figured instead of switching day and night shifts to hold Feli so he could sleep, they could simply put in a floating chair in there. It was easy enough to find a blow up version of it, Walmart sells it for cheap especially when it's summer. So now whenever Feli was tired or needed to take a break for swimming, he could just plop up on the chair and relax for a while.
Gilbert pulled the chair over to him and leaned into it, taking a break himself. "My awesome idea will work, Luddy." He pulled his red eyes over to his brother. "I promise nothing will happen to your fishy boyfriend."
Ludwig heard him, but didn't respond. He was watching Feli swim around happily that they were going to show him, ironically, part of their world. And maybe, just maybe, he could show them part of his without them having to get wet. The only part in this so far that had him concerned was the part that he wasn't bothering to correct the albino that Feli wasn't his boyfriend.
When the wheelchair finally arrived, Feli was dying to go see the zoo. Both of the humans refused to show him any pictures of zoos online-it would all have to be a surprise. Of course they had all the blankets and everything picked out to use for this. Ludwig wanted to bring a few water bottles in case the blankets dried out and Feli 'accidentally' spill over himself. The merman agreed with that idea; he seemed to agree to whatever idea would get him to the zoo the quickest.
As Gilbert got the wheelchair ready, Ludwig began the process of the scale covering. Feli was sitting in one of the side chairs with his tail flopping impatiently. "Will there be any fish?" He asked.
"Probably," Ludwig absenmindedly responded. His mind was occupied with continuously wrapping the blanket over his tail. The softest would go over the scales directly and they would build from there. He had even manage to get the merman to wear one of his shirts to appear more normal, though the fish kept shifting around in it. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Ludwig looked into his eyes to see if there was any indication of hesitation. "We could skip this just as easy."
"No, no, it's okay. Really, it is. I want to go, it's just," he paused to gather his words together. "Do you think people will know what I am?"
"Not with your disguise on. Plus even if they do, I won't let them near you." At Ludwig's words, Feli seemed to breathe easier and looked up at him confidently. "In fact, if they do find out they will have to be taken to the ocean."
That was the wrong thing to say. Feli frowned slightly with a pitiful sigh to go along with it. It was obvious that he longed to go rejoin his family in the deep blue, but it was also obvious that he wouldn't fair well until his tail heals. Once it does, they would take it back and everything would be alright once more.
"Are you ready yet?" Gilbert called from the car. "We're burning daylight!"
"Are we actually burning daylight, Ludwig?" Feli asked in wonder as he was carried bridal style to the car.
"Nein, it's just an expression humans use. It means that we are wasting time." He huffed as he dragged the heavy weight to the car. His ankle was still sore, but was getting immensely better.
"Oh."
The zoo wasn't too busy when their car pulled up to the entrance. It was mostly some adults and very young kids mixed in with teenagers who were dragged along. Most parents had to work weekdays so that helped with the crowd a bit.
Feliciano was entranced by all of the humans there and felt slightly uneasy, especially because he never seen so many humans at once and didn't know what could happen. A few kids who didn't know better, pointed and stared at them. Their parents quickly smiled apologetically and moved away, but once a kid waved to the 'man' in the wheelchair, Feli felt a bit better about himself.
The first animal they saw was the giraffe. It's the tallest animal on the earth, had big brown spots, a purple tongue, and small nubby horns that sat proudly on the top of their head. Feli was in awe at how big they were. It was so amusing watching him just gape at them and flick his head between them to the giraffes. He practically begged the two companions to help him to feed the animal and almost screamed when one came up to eat a cracker thy bought. The purple tongue lazily reached out for the treat, twisting around slightly before Feli threw it at the poor animal. After laughing a bit, Gilbert handed him another one and Ludwig showed him how to properly feed one.
After three failed attempts, Feli eased up and held out his arm(though it was somewhat shaking). The giraffes tongue snatched it before Feli was prepared for it and the merman screamed loudly. People turned to stare curiously and the two humans laughed nervously as their friend had a breakdown.
"Do you have that walking around you guys all the time?" He asked them as they walked towards the elephants.
"Nein, I think they're in Africa mostly." Ludwig responded while nervously glancing around. So far they were okay and nobody was paying too much attention to the odd trio.
"Don't they have a bird exhibit?" Gilbert asked suddenly. "I wanted to show my awesome bird to the less awesome birds."
"You actually brought that pet of yours?"
"Of course I did! He wanted to see if there where any mates of his." Gilbert flashed his sharp teeth at his brother and patted his shoulder before turning away. "I'll meet up with you later, text me when you're ready."
Ludwig and Feliciano watched him walk up the hill to go and find the birds exhibit while Ludwig pulled up his phone to check the time. "He lasted about ten minutes. I win the bet."
The rest of the zoo exploration went rather well, Feliciano was amazed at how many things there were that he had never even imagined of in his wildest dreams. His favorite had to be either the flamingoes. One of them had walked right up to the edge of their exhibit and started squawking at him. He laughed before squawking back and the two of them had a small fight before the bird lost interest in them and found more in a nearby fish, which also caught Feli's attention.
Ludwig had to have Feli drop some water all over himself only twice so far but the bandages were quick to dry it up so he had to pour some over his scaly arms to help soothe it. Another issue they had was when a little kid asked Feli why he has covered in blankets when Ludwig was in the bathroom. He froze, but managed to break out the excuse of him covering up the injuries he didn't wan people to see. When the kid asked what had happened, Feli decided to tell her what had happened. "Well, I got caught in a bad fishing net and had to get surgery so I wouldn't loose my, uh, body. Now I'm covering it up so people won't see."
"I don't believe you. I bet you're just being mean and won't tell me."
After a brief pause, Feli laughed and nodded. "I think you're right."
They met up with Gilbert for lunch there, then they would see how busy the aquarium was. It was pretty busy most of the time and the best time to go was either on a school day, or right before closing. It was a big aquarium, just with lots of people it felt small. Their parents would bring them there after closing to see all the fish being fed and would run around the enormous space.
By the time that they ate, got Feli some more water, and stopped by the gift shop (at the handicapped's request) it was nearing mid afternoon. The two brothers knew from experience that this was the busiest part of the day, but called ahead regardless just to check.
"Gilbert, maybe we could call Kiku. He could probably get us in later than everybody else." Ludwig suggested when they were driving back to their house. "He works late today, doesn't he?"
"I dunno, he's your friend. You could always call anyway."
Ludwig turned around to face Feli in the backseat. "Would it be okay with you? If I called a friend so we could go later?"
Feli shrugged. "I don't really care, I just wanna go!"
His smile was all that Ludwig needed as confirmation.
Kiku turned out to be a lifesaver. Not only could he get them in later than they were open, but he convinced some of the trainers to let them be able to feed some of the animals after doing a trick or two.
They had returned to the house until the aquarium was closing around six o'clock. During that time, Ludwig slept by the side of the pool, Gilbert was watching tv in the living room and Feli simply relaxed on his floating chair. He felt bad at how much the two human brothers were doing simply for him, but at the same time he figured that he would do something in return for them. Maybe at the aquarium he would be able to tell them which ones were the tastiest fish or which ones were the fastest. It was small, but doable.
Suddenly, an idea occurred to him. He splashed his way over to Ludwig's side of the pool and gently flicked him with water. "Ludwig. Ludwig wake up!"
The blonde sighed and cracked open an eyelid. "Ja, what is it?" He sighed in a heavy German accent. He would always break into it once he was tired enough(which always made Feli feel just a tad worse).
"I know that you guys will be able to see what my world is like, but if it's anything like the zoo, you'll only see things behind cages." He sighed, exasperated. "What if you did that thing humans do where they can go underwater to see everything?"
Ludwig blinked his way out of his sloggish state. "You mean scubadiving?"
"I guess. I just have to hide from humans sometimes when they do it." He imitated a human breathing out of a mask and swimming around. "Like this."
"Ja, gerätetauchen. It's not my thing, I don't like water, remember?" He yawned greatly. "Plus you have to do a lot of work just to go."
"Pleaaaaase," Feli begged loudly. He gave his guppy eyes on and blinked rapidly. "I've been shown all around your world and I lived!" At the look of unamusement on Ludwig's face, he giggled. "At least promise me that you'll do it one day!"
"Yeah, yeah. I'll consider it."
Feli smiled and jumped off of the floatie into the water and swam around excitedly. Ludwig sighed and sat back down until his friend came back up and grinned ear to ear. "Thank you, Ludwig!"
Ludwig cracked a small smile and watched his "friend" swim around under the water. His heart was beginning to ache with this blissful feeling for the blissful man-no, merman.
The aquarium was huge when it was empty. Feli looked all around and was amazed at what all was there. He pointed out everything he could and could spot the fish hidden away by camouflage faster than they had ever seen. He would also pass by and the fish would stop, hesitate, then swim over to the glass to watch him wheel by in the wheelchair.
At one point, he had noticed and told the two humans to watch. He pointed at a fish and moved his finger around, the fish following it as if hypnotized. Them, he flicked his finger up and the fish jumped out of the water into another tank. The trio requested the author not to put what happened to the fish into here, so henceforth, you will be spared the details of what happened to "the fish that could."
Finally, it was fish feeding time. Kiku had to leave for something that had came up, but left them with some trainers. They were expecting some sort of problem to arise with Feliciano being in a wheelchair when they had to go around all the exhibits just to get to the water, but the trainers were used to medial equipment and chose an animal that was easy to feed: the whales.
Normal aquariums wouldn't dare to have whales in there, but this one had rescued a small baby whale that was injure and struggling with it's mother and would stay until it's injuries were healed. Immediately, the merman knew how it felt and sympathized. The exhibit had mainly a walkway above and some toys in there to keep the whale entertained. It would be released back to it's mother here soon and they wanted to make sure that it wasn't depressed when it goes back.
"All you do," the trainer explained with a smile. "Is throw a fish in, and Claire here will go after it." The trainer demonstrated By tossing a fish into the water and the whale chasing after it. "It's that simple."
Feli reached for the bucket and the lady handed it to him. He had to promise not to take any of the fish for himself before they went in and in return, they promised that he could have double the fish tomorrow. He reached into the slinky bucket and pulled out a fish the flopped lifelessly around. When the trainer wasn't looking, he pulled off a fin and placed it onto his tongue.
Ludwig shook his head at him and pulled out a fish before quickly throwing it into the water. The whale chased after it and quickly gobbled it up. After it's bite sized snack, it turned to the humans and chirped loudly for more.
They continued to throw the fish at it, sometimes Claire would jump up a bit to catch it, until another trainer jogged up to them and said something to their trainer lady. "What? Seriously, again?" She groaned. "That makes three times this month."
"What's going on?" Ludwig asked.
"A smart ass squid escaped the cage again. I'll be back in like twenty minutes, do you think you guys will be okay until then?"
"Sure!" Feli grinned and did a poop imitation of the whale. "Take your time, okay?"
The lady smiled her thanks and quickly followed her male partner out of the room to take care of the current situation. As soon as they left, his poor imtimidation changed to a spot on one. The whale even seemed impressed by this and squealed loudly, which Feli responded with of his own.
They continued their conversation until the merman in disguise began makin clicks and incomprehensible sounds with his throat. The whale seemed to understand everything and whistled softly in pity, which matched the look on Feli's face. After a short nod from Feli, the whale disappeared under the water and swam away.
"What's going on?" Gilbert asked in awe. "What just happened?"
"She misses her mom back in the ocean. And her dad. Her entire pack she misses, really." Feli sighed again. "She wants to go home."
Ludwig and Gilbert shared a look and glanced at their friend. "Feli." Ludwig placed a hand on his shoulder. "You know that you'll go back soon, right?"
Feli nodded but continued to watch the baby under the two deep water. "I know. She knows that too, but to her it's different."
They watched in silence for a while before Feli bit the head off of a fish. "Hey guys?" Once he was sure he had their attention, he went on. "Thank you for today. I enjoyed it a lot and hope you did."
Gilbert chuckled again and took the beheaded fish out of his hand and shook his head. "Silly mermaid, fish are for kids!"
"What does that mean?"
"Another expression."
