84
Echoes
"Did you say something?"
"No, why?"
Oga shrugged. Lately there was a strange echo coming from the depths of the ocean, but since Oga didn't know how to describe the phenomenon, the ex-captain stayed quiet. The two sirens swam on, the silver tail trailing behind to stare into the open ocean beside the reef they called home.
"Oga, are you...hearing voices?"
Oga picked at the skin peeling between his tail and torso. "I'm not sure. They don't sound like voices. They sound more like the warbling of birds."
Furuichi raised an eyebrow then lifted a hand to point to the right. "From over there?"
Oga's eyes followed the slender finger, heart hammering in his chest, his breath becoming shorter. The brunet let out a sigh, though while there was nothing staring back at him, the open water still made him uneasy. "Is there something wrong with me again?"
Furuichi's eyes were unreadable, and the siren took Oga's hand to guide the ex-captain back to their dwelling. "Not exactly."
…
Furuichi did his best to clear of the brunet's razor sharp teeth, but couldn't quite escape the lashing sand paper sand tail. "Furuichi! Let me go! You have to let me go! It hurts!….graaaghghhh!"
Furuichi grunted when a particularly sensitive part of his tail was scraped by Oga's tail. "Keep fighting it, Captain. It's almost over." Oga couldn't hear Furuichi's desperate whispers over the pain in his ears. Furuichi placed three drops from a strange sea flower the silvernette picked up on their way home into each ear. Oga was fine until something began to squirm within them. "I-can't…" Oga's eyes rolled to the back of his skull, his body falling abruptly still.
Furuichi panted and slumped over his mate's hard body. "That must have been awful, I know. Let's get you back up on the bed."
Even underwater, carrying the shark was an almost insurmountable feat. Still, Furuichi was gentle in setting down the Captain on their soft bed of seaweed. "Rest, Captain. You've done well. As for you," Furuichi narrowed his eyes at the worms crawling out of Oga's ears. One by one, Furuichi picked out the parasites and fed them to their pet crab. "Filthy vermin. At least they didn't lay eggs." Furuichi did a final sweep of Oga's ears and their home, comfortable in knowing that they were pest free. The silver siren settled beside his captain and stroked the hair framing Oga's face.
Living in the ocean was not what the humans liked to imagine. A quiet world free from predators and pests. At least, what humans expected when it came to living as a siren. With their half fish bodies, sirens were just as vulnerable, if not more, to parasites as any other living creature, ine the sea or otherwise. Furuichi had dealt with similar dealings, but the parasites never managed to enter the silver fish's body. By the looks of Oga's pain just now, Furuichi didn't want to experience it.
Oga's lips tugged into a small smile then curled into the silvernette's touch. Furuichi kissed the top of the brunet's head and fell asleep.