A/N- I wrote this after losing a bet, but nevertheless it is two years late, and pretty crap. I apologise, Myth, but at least I've crawled over the finish line in the end.
Hope you enjoy at least some of it.
Shawn heard the singing. He had heard it from a very young age, even though nobody else did. It was often imperceptible, and most other times barely perceptible, like a glow whose centre you can't see but which lights your way; like a gentle breeze which tickles your earlobe but is otherwise totally invisible until it brushes leaves away at your feet too.
They had been visiting a coastal village to the south of France that day. The moon was perched upon the night sky in a central position, as if it couldn't stand being jostled to the side. To the toddler Shawn it towered over him on all sides, impassive and unmoving, but also emanating with a benevolent light. The sand crumbled ever so subtly under his tiny feet, soft yet crunchy. Shawn remembered the day for many more reasons than one: not only was it his first memory altogether, but it also signified much more than that in many ways.
Of course, his parents always like to recount it as the day he started finding his passion for music which eventually would turn him into a well-known prodigy known by almost all in the sector of classical piano. It had been indeed the first time he felt compelled to touch a piano- even though at that age he could not know which keys he had to press; so his parents told him that he had just been tapping around whilst cupping his tiny ear with his left hand and staring with intense but comical concentration.
But of course, the part they didn't know was that it was the first time he heard the singing. The melody was clear at that time. Shawn didn't remember it now, but he did remember being absolutely captivated by the alluring tunes which he could hear so well. Shawn had no doubt that the toddler him, upon having been strictly barred from wading in the sea as it was 'too cold', had felt this secondary urge to touch a musical instrument and to try to replicate the melody he was hearing. Unfortunately though, his tiny stubby fingers were not agile enough, and the melody became quieter as his parents carried him back to the resort.
-"Not clean enough! Are you even concentrating?" Shawn winced as the snap of a metre stick brought him out of his memories.
"Pay more attention to your technical play, boy. I did not come over to Shanghai just so I could teach a lazy brat how to bang out musically retarded nonsense on this noble instrument which you are oh so butchering right now."
"Sorry… Dr Wolff."
"KEEP PLAYING THEN!"
Shawn internally sighed. His teacher, Dr Wolff, was not known for his patience. Unfortunately though, he was known for producing the best concert pianists, so when Shawn went to the conservatory they assigned him as a student to Dr Wolff due to his strong potential without even a second question for what he desired or wanted out of his musical career.
Without delay, his fingers went back to strumming the notes. He tried to focus on it, but the song kept on ringing and ringing in his ears. Its ephemeral manners of strange harmony clashed with his piece. As the finale of the piece approached, so too did the song grow. Whereas normally the songs were calming and beautiful, this one no longer was. The pitch grew and the tempo became more frantic. It became louder too. Finally, the song was barely comparable to most of the singing he had heard before. It was erratic, laboured, and full of pain.
"BANG!" Shawn's head jerked violently to his right. On the floor was a crumpled mess of heavy manuscripts. His teacher's face had turned red and the veins on his face pulsated violently.
"What are you playing at boy? I thought you were supposed to be a fucking prodigy!"
"S-Sor-"
"DON'T SORRY ME! PRACTICE CANCELLED! YOUR PLAYING HAS BEEN SPIRALLING DOWNWARDS EVER SINCE WE ARRIVED! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO AT THE RECITAL NEXT WEEK? JUST EMBARRASS ME?!"
At that point, Shawn wasn't even listening to the ranting anymore. It was the same old things again. Yes, since he had come over to Shanghai his music had never really improved. Of course, he didn't tell anyone it was because of the singing, which had gotten louder and far more distracting; he had learnt at a young age that he shouldn't keep saying it since people would think either that he was crazy, or that it was a strange manifestation of his musical ability- or both. Nevertheless, he couldn't really blame Dr Wolff in his entirety for being concerned about the levels his music were reaching, as Shawn too felt there was a problem: only that he knew a bit more about it.
He sighed heavily. His teacher had already gone. He was left alone again, reminding him of the times he would sit at the piano trying to play the exotic melodies he heard.
This wouldn't do, he decided. And so, he went to the place he always went to when he needed peace to reflect on things. There was a beach nearby, and on that beach was a little private spot where he always loved to sit and watch the sunset and to listen to the songs. He remembered only of his only friends Cat, who had told him that he must always carry a First Aid Kit when she wasn't with him, so he decided to bring the little green bag along. For someone who was quite isolated from society, he appreciated the friends he had- even if they had bizarre demands to make from time to time.
Harpoons plunged into the water. Fish in front of him thrashed wildly as they tried to avoid being hit, but the blood of many coloured patches of the sea hellish crimson. This human vessel had come significantly deeper than they normally did. All the mermen had to swim away to avoid being seen.
Isaac couldn't care less though. He began swimming upwards to catch some prey.
"Don't go, Isaac!" shouted his brother Kei, who had always been the more prudent one. But Isaac just shrugged.
"What can some dumb humans do to trained mermen like us? Plus, I'm starving and if I have to eat Betty's kelp salad one more time I'm giving up on life."
Kei hesitated, but shrugged. "Fine… then watch yourself, brother. You have always been an impulsive one anyway. You'd probably marry a human woman if she flattered you enough."
Isaac grinned. "A human? Why would I love a human? I'd probably just eat them. -Anyway, see you later tonight!"
Kei also waved goodbye, and Isaac began to swim. His mouth was already salivating at the thought of the tasty morsels on the surface. After deftly dodging a couple more harpoons, he could feel the water warming up as he reached closer to the more sunlit areas of the surface.
Light! Light meant surface, and surface meant tasty humans. He knew that he just had to swim in the direction of light, start his singing louder, and wait underneath for an isolated human to dive down into the water.
-Suddenly, everything went dark.
The light was extinguished like a hand snuffing out a flame. A pungent and nauseating liquid plunged into his mouth rapidly. He couldn't breathe or see anything. It was unlike anything he had ever experienced, and he thrashed around wildly. He tried to swim away from where he came from, and slowly his eyes regained a hazy focus. He saw a dark black cloud in the water where he had just been. He turned away, swimming towards the faintly visible light in the distance.
"SHIT!" He saw too late as a harpoon materialised too close to him. He barely turned his torso around to avoid being impaled, but the side lacerated part of his tail badly. He saw his own blood filling the sea. He tried to swim back, but he knew he was now much slower. He would never make it that far back in time.
Follow the light then, he thought. It wasn't a great option. His dead body would wash up on human shores and they would classify him as some strange mutation. But he saw that he was in hostile waters already, and would sooner die at the hands of humans than at the hands of enemy tribes. At least he was near a point where no humans ever went for whatever reason: which meant there wouldn't be any hunters around looking for humans at this point of the coastline.
Shawn lifted the fallen tree which obscured the pathway. The first time he had found it, it had been extremely difficult to lift, but he was older and stronger now, so it wasn't such a difficult task anymore. Indeed, before long, he saw the first traces of the pale gold sand he loved so much. This tiny point in the bay had become his private spot after he first found it, and it seemed nobody else knew about or bothered to use it except for him.
He was about to walk out into the open, sun-basked water when he heard strange sounds. It sounded like a strangled human retching. He walked over to the big rock he liked to sit on, from which the sounds seemed to be coming.
-And saw a violet tail flapping around. He peered in closer, and at that moment locked eyes with a pair of eyes which were most certainly not human.
"M-M-MERMAID?" He almost fell back off the rock. It was certain. The creature had a human upper body and a fish tail for its lower body. It stopped retching strange black stuff as it registered what he said.
"That's a mermaid to you, dumb human!"
"Oh… s-so sorry about that."
Isaac observed the clumsy human in front of him. He looked just like some of the Ocean Princes he knew, just with some clunky human legs. For a human, he was… strangely… pretty. But there were more pressing matters at that moment.
"What are you standing there for? If you're going to bring me to the human labs do it now!" Isaac said it, and immediately saw the blonde's head tilt in a strange but almost cute way.
"Kill you? Why would I kill you?"
"…Isn't that what most humans do?"
"Hmm, maybe some would. Cat would dissect you. Timmy would try to eat you. Dr Wolff, well that's-"
"YOU GOING TO JUST LET ME DIE THEN?!" At that the blond perked up, and began rummaging around in the strange green box thing he was carrying.
"Hey, guess Cat did save me after all."
Isaac watched in bemusement as the human brought out some white things and started aiming for the cut in his tail, which was still profusely bleeding. Surely he wasn't-
"DON'T TOUCH MY TAIL!" Isaac slapped his hand away.
Shawn stared at him, slightly cross-looking. "What was that for?"
"Mermen have dignity and pride in their tails! They only let their mates touch them!"
Shawn looked deeply confused at that, and frowned slightly. "Hey, do you want to die or something? Stop being stubborn!"
Under normal circumstances, Isaac would have attacked any human who dared speak to him in such a way. He would have bit their juicy necks with his hunting teeth. He would have-
Alas though, the human wasn't wrong. And so Isaac lay his head back down, showing Shawn that he could continue with his nose in the air.
So Shawn did continue. The embarrassment had just begun, sadly for Isaac.
"OH!"
He had let out a truly undignified moan when the human had touched his erogenous spot, and now both human and merman seemed to be red like a king prawn in the face.
"Can you please not do that?!"
"You're the one touching my sex organ!"
"-Your WHAT!"
"Just go back to saving my life, Human. My father is rich. He will reward you generously."
Shawn scoffed. "Bite on a rock if it helps you stop making those noises. I'm sure they are strong enough."
"Of course they are strong enough-"
Isaac had to bite down on a rock nearby when the Human touched the part of his tail near his backside to save his remaining ego.
"Hold on, I need to add some antiseptic now."
"Some what?"
"Antiseptic. This is going to hurt a bit. Actually, considering the depth of the wound, it probably will hurt quite a lot."
"Hurt?-"
Isaac nearly cursed multiple times as the cold liquid was poured onto his wound. The stinging was intense and nearly unbearable. He had never experienced anything like it under the surface. Before he realised, he felt tears pricking at the corner of his eye.
"Wha-"
He wondered what his friends under the surface would think if they saw him now, talking to a human, and unable to swim back into the sea. Right now, though, he was too tired for shame. In fact, as he thought about his predicament, he saw the blonde's face blurring away in front of the eyes.
"…Can you try something for me? Do you mermen sing?"
Do we what? Yes, of course we sing…
"Hey! HEY! Don't die!"
Isaac could barely hear him. He smiled. At least I wasn't captured by a mad scientist. Maybe the blonde wouldn't reveal that had he found a dead mermaid on the beach…
"SHIT!" Isaac woke up, feeling a sharp pain in his anal fin. Something was burning it. WAS HE BEING COOKED?
"EEK!" Isaac stared as he saw the blonde, who had fallen on the floor, wiping away tears from the corner of his eye. Before he knew it, he was engulfed in a grip which knocked the breath out of him.
"Why are you putting your arms around me?"
"You're alive!"
"And you're fucking boiling me!"
"What? Really? I thought I should put you in the bathtub so you could heal quicker."
"The what?" Isaac looked down below him. There was a massive lump of a strange white material, like hardened, bleached coral. He guessed that he was in a human dwelling. The room was magnificent, just like the underwater palaces but with different types of stones.
"The bathtub. It's what humans use to clean themselves."
"Oi, can you get me out? This water is too hot and MY ANAL FIN IS TURNING RED!"
"YOUR WHAT?"
"JUST MOVE ME!" The blond reached over quickly, and turned a weird silver knob. Immediately the water became cooler. Isaac relaxed. Even if he was in a bathtub, or whatever you call it, he was still finally back in water…
"Are you going to be okay now?" asked the blonde. "I have some practice to do…" Isaac couldn't help but notice the small note of disappointment on his face. It was very short and momentary, but it was clear as day to him. He said nothing.
"Oh yeah, sure…"
The blonde paused, before heading out of the chamber. Isaac relaxed again, wondering how he would be able to get back into the water again. Where are my family right now? Are they wondering where I am?
Back down in the sea his adoptive father Prosodion was a famous musician. He was far from royalty, but the merman was known for his melodies and ability to play many different instruments. Often he visited royal courts, bringing along his many adopted children. The merman had never married, which was a mystery to all because his playing attracted many suitors of both genders and all races.
His children had been taught very early on to play various instruments. He adopted many, on need as much as on potential. Therefore, Isaac had always been part of a musical family from a young age, and he had grown up listening to the most famous tunes as a baby.
Strangely though, Isaac never had felt a huge connection himself to music making. He found it more interesting to maintain his military training, whilst swimming around in his free time collecting human gadgets which they threw carelessly into the sea. He wished scientists were so advanced underneath the surface, for then he would surely be far more entertained.
Speaking of gadgets, he noticed a large reflective slab placed on the wall opposite them. He had seen them before- though mainly broken- and never so large. He could pretty well guess by now that the blonde was really… stacked. If he remembered correctly, the reflective slabs played moving pictures. Of course, they rarely worked when they had been thrown underwater, but he had once secretly peered over the side of a human boat as a dare, and seen one showing moving mirages.
Now, where was the thing with buttons to control it? The search didn't last long. He fiddled around with the buttons until the screen finally started playing images. It seemed to be some kind of game they were playing, kicking a round rock around, but there were strange small humans instead of actual humans as big as blondie…
Meanwhile, Shawn set up his piano. He still had some practice to do, and God knows he could use a distraction right now. It had to have been the weirdest day of his life. Before he knew it, as he contemplated the strange happenings of that day, a great yawn overcame his body. I haven't asked yet… I wonder if that would explain everything…
In any case, he had practice to do. He took out the relevant book. Debussy, Pagodes. A very obscure choice. He didn't at all feel like practising the extremely fiddly sections after the draining events of the day, even if Dr Wolff might kill him for it the following day. Nothing too technically flashy, but good enough to vent out some emotions to distract him.
And he would stay there, playing to his heart's content until the sun set from the sky and the world turned dark. He hummed appreciatively as the music developed, and closed his eyes. In his mind, there was now a deep empty space unpenetrated by light, and the melody filled its corners, enriching each end, twirling and twisting like an elusive dancer, the sole focus of all his concentration.
-Until another one entered.
Shawn jerked his head around. The singing! It was louder than he'd ever heard, intense and physical instead of floating over his head and barely through his ears like it normally did. And it was coming straight from the bathroom.
The merman! Could it really be?
He stood up suddenly, manuscript and piano forgotten. The books tumbled, and he paused awkwardly to reposition them on the stand. When that was done, he rushed to the direction of the sound as fast as he could. It was all he could do not to slam the door open.
"Hey!" But the merman didn't seem to hear him. He lay there on his back, with seriously unhealthy amounts of soap bubbles in his hair, eyes closed and humming contentedly. Shawn's eye twitched slightly. That golden flake shampoo was seriously expensive!
Shawn tried again. "Hey!" he said, louder this time, but to no avail, so he reached in to touch the arm of the merman.
"HUMAN SUBMARINES?" the merman jumped as his naked bicep was touched, turning around quickly.
"Oh, it's you." Shawn just rubbed the pads of his fingers together nervously. He had just noticed that the skin was smooth. Too smooth…
The merman seemed to realise that he was looking less-than-noble with bubbly hair. His nose scrunched suddenly and he sneezed, before wiping his bubble moustache off.
Cute.
Shawn shook his head vigorously to remind himself why he had come.
"-Can you sing?" "-What's your name?"
"Huh?"
"Name. They do use them on the surface right?"
"O-oh, yeah. My name is Shawn."
"Isaac the merman here." He paused, before grinning decidedly. "Thank you for saving my life!"
"Uhhh, it was nothing…" The merman, who Shawn now knew was called Isaac, seemed to think that was enough and tilted his head back again. Suddenly, he rubbed his eyes, as if recalling that Shawn had tried to ask him a question.
"Did you ask me whether or not I could sing?"
"Oh, yes I did." Remembered Shawn. The merman stared at him like he was dumb.
"Of course I can sing! It is the most important art to all mermen, even more so than visual arts and other performance arts. Music is our second language!"
"Oh?" Shawn was pleasantly surprised by the fact. It was good to hear music was so prevalent down there too. He paused. "C-can you sing for me?"
Isaac seemed shocked by his question. "Why? You can't hear me sing, you're a human! We sing on different frequencies to humans."
"Wait, but I heard you humming just then!"
"…You heard me? I heard you playing some lovely music so I started humming. WAIT!" Isaac's eyes widened, and, before he knew it, a hand had reached round Shawn's waist and started feeling his… hindquarters.
…
"STOP GROPING MY ASS YOU PERVY MERMAN!"
Shawn was sure his face was now positively red like a tomato. Isaac flinched and retracted his hand, lightly blushing too.
"Sorry, I thought you were secretly a merman too so I wanted to check if you had a tail."
"YOU LITERALLY SAW MY LEGS!" Shawn all but screamed, and only then did Isaac seemed to realise too.
"Oh… oh yeah. But what was that soft thing I just felt?" The hand shot back out.
Shawn slapped his hand away.
"IT'S CALLED A BUM!"
"Can you take off this so I can see better?" Isaac said, tugging at his trouser legs and looking up at him with round eyes.
"WHAAAAAT? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Hey, I let you touch my tail!"
"SO WHAT?!"
"I already told you, mermen only let their mates touch their tail! it's practically foreplay okay? "
Shawn felt his entire face overheating rapidly. "Excuse me…" he muttered, before leaving the room hurriedly.
"Humph! I'll just keep on watching the game then!" The merman called after him. Shawn for a second wondered what Isaac had been watching; before returning to the very pressing matter that was his own embarrassment.
This has got to be the weirdest thing that has ever happened to any human being, and guess what? It happens to emo failed prodigy Shawn while he is in the middle of failing yet another music academy assignment…
"RING RING!"
The bell had suddenly sounded at the front door, which was strange since Shawn had expressly told his friends not to come that day after finding the merman who seemed like he did not want to be seen by any other human beings. He quickly went to answer it, however.
When he opened it, a middle aged man with a beard stood there looking quite anxious and tapping his legs. Shawn glanced at his attire, which consisted of a casual jumper, shorts and slippers.
"Hello?"
"Sorry to barge in, kid. I'm Dr Coleman. I've come looking for a merman. He's the son of my former lover Prosodion."
They made an odd trio, Isaac in Shawn's indoor pool, Shawn still in formal attire after his piano lesson, and Coleman pacing around looking very nervous and awkward.
"Shawn, why are you showing me to another Human? I wanted to finish watching the game. It was quite fun." Isaac pouted as he splashed around.
The irony of it was that the creator of that game, who Shawn had finally recognised, was the one he was 'being shown to'.
"Uh, Dr Coleman here says he knows your father."
Isaac's head shot up straight from the water while he was doing some flips.
"This Human knows my father? How?"
Dr Coleman looked anxious. "We met… a long time ago, when we were both about your age. His Shell got caught in the fishing net of my friend Ball."
The merman came to the edge of the pool and propped up his head with his elbows on the side.
"He never told me that!"
"He wasn't allowed to. Bad things happen to mermen who fraternize with Humans. You should know that."
"Hmmm." Isaac hummed. "How did you know where to find me?"
"Prosodion gave me this."
To Shawn, it looked like a normal but tiny
white spiral shell, but Isaac was clearly shocked by what he saw.
"He gave you his Shell after all that?"
Dr Coleman nodded.
"That's why he never married anyone. His mate was a human."
"Yes. That's correct."
"But- that would make you my second father."
Shawn raised his eyebrows. Isaac explained.
"Mermen can give birth by themselves so long as they have a mate. Normally a pair chooses between them which one becomes the first parent, and the other one is the second parent. So if this Human is my father's mate then that makes him my second father!"
Dr Coleman looked emotional, and Shawn began to feel that he was intruding a little bit.
"I will leave you guys to catch up. I have some practice to do anyway."
"-Wait."
Shawn turned his head.
"There's been an oil spillage on the shore. That's probably what caused problems for Isaac in the first place. The authorities say the cleanup will take a week, but he won't be able to return home until then. And I'm afraid my accommodation is not suitable to house a merman."
"-I'll keep him here." Shawn said.
"…Are you sure?"
"Positive. You can visit when you like."
Coleman nodded while Isaac watched. "Thank you then."
"Thanks… Shawn."
They continued their peaceful coexistence, holed up inside Shawn's mansion (except when he had lessons with Dr Wolff) for three days until a fateful intervention occurred. The doorbell had rung and Shawn, expecting Dr Coleman who had visited every day after that, carelessly went to open it without realising he had left Isaac in the foyer in his portable bathtub. So when he opened it to see Cat, Karl and Timmy, he realised very quickly that he had royally screwed it.
"Is that a mermaid?!"
"MERMAN TO YOU!"
"-What the fuck!"
"-Shawn, what on earth?"
"-SHAWN WHO IS THIS HUMAN WOMAN TELL HER TO GET AWAY FROM MY TAIL!"
It was chaos for half an hour of explaining, which probably would have taken all the energy Shawn had left if Isaac had not demanded to continue his attempt to show the latter GGO Football for the first time.
"Here. You need to wear this earpiece."
"What? Why?"
"It will help you talk to your players and tell them what to do."
"Ohhh. Okay." Isaac suddenly tipped his head to the side and rattled it around for a second, before producing a white tiny shell similar to the one Coleman had held.
"Can you put this somewhere?"
Shawn took the smooth shell and put it in his pocket, and Isaac put the headset on.
"I'm with Shawn." he decided simply.
"Ooh, someone's got a-"
"-Shut up!"
"-a what, Shawn? What is he talking about?"
"Ignore him."
"Hmmm…"
The merman got quickly distracted when his player, called Myth, who Coleman had gifted him, got through on goal.
"SCORE! YES!"
Isaac pumped his fist and splashed Shawn right in the face with water, but didn't notice.
"TAKE THAT, HUMANS! UGLY RED SEAWEED ON HEAD GUY!"
Karl got angry at that. "HEY!"
The day devolved into a massive argument for GGO superiority, which consisted of several rematches and Shawn getting thoroughly soaked by the one in the bathtub.
"GAME! 5-4 TO US! HA!"
Karl and Timmy and Cat were by now no longer fazed by the fact that they were in the presence of a merman, and this was paid testament to by the fact that they were so annoyed by his taunting. Alas, time was up on the day. His three friends ate some last snacks and said goodbye, promising to come back and see the merman.
"Are you… going to bed now?" asked Isaac.
Shawn rubbed his forehead with his palms.
"Nope. I have a recital in two days and I need to practice. We sort of played to long today."
"Oh- sorry. That's probably my fault."
Shawn raised his eyebrows and turned to look at him. It wasn't like the prideful merman to apologise for anything at all.
"That's okay. We both had fun. It was my choice to keep playing."
Isaac grinned. "True. Your friends suck at GGO Football."
"The score was 5-4 in total matches. I wouldn't call them that bad."
"5-4, 10-1, same thing."
"…Do they not teach mathematics underwater?"
"We call it numbers. No one really knows how it works, or cares."
Shawn sighed, taking off his soaked jumper. "Well I need to get changed. Do you want me to move you to your sleeping pool before or after?"
The merman had become very taken with the human heated (gently heated) water system which he claimed was like sleeping on a geyser without floating away from the warmth, so there was a special sleeping pool designated for him.
However, Isaac tapped his chin. "No... I want to watch you practise today."
Shawn was surprised. "I will be there for a long time."
"I can fall asleep in this moving rock thing if I need, no problem."
After a moment of internal debate therefore Shawn wheeled Isaac's tub over to a reasonable proximity to his grand piano, having a feeling that this was going to be one of the things that the merman refused to be swayed on, before changing and making his way back there quickly as well.
There was surprisingly no word from the merman, who seemed content to just simply listen and indeed managed to maintain a respectful silence for one hour, before finally breaking it.
"Why do you keep tapping your ear?"
Shawn sighed in frustration as his practice was going just as badly as it had been going for the past few weeks. If this kept going on he was going to lose all the work he had put into his career. It would all have been for nothing and he would be just another failure.
"Shawn?"
"-I don't have time for this, Isaac."
"-Does it help you play better?"
"-It's because of those bloody fucking mermen who never ever STOP SINGING! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FUCKING PLAY WITH THAT STUCK IN MY EARS ALL DAY, ALL NIGHT EVERY SECOND OF MY FUCKING LIFE!"
Shawn came to a stop, breathing heavily and furiously. Isaac didn't say anything, but rang his bell to fetch Mr Glanz instead, who came promptly.
"Mr Glanz, can you take me away to my sleeping pool?"
"Of course, Master Isaac."
Shawn watched him go as the merman refused to look at him. Just before Isaac was wheeled outside the room, however, a small white object was thrown and landed just at his feet.
"Put the Shell inside your ear! Then you won't have the fucking songs stuck in your head anymore!"
And it worked.
The next two days were a whirlwind of silent work. Isaac no longer spoke to him or spent time with him, instead spending time talking to Coleman and Ball and even Karl on the telephone he had been taught how to use. Shawn was holed up in his practice room all day and all night, as he felt he was finally improving once he had finally been set free from the clutches of the merman song which had been haunting him his entire life. Passage after passage, scale after scale, octave after octave, it was a one-track existence as he entered the last 48 hours before the performance. Before he knew it, the time had arrived for one of the biggest recitals of his career, and he felt more rejuvenated and ready than he ever had been. He went and played and played like he had never played before, with a clear head and vision of how he wanted his sound to go.
"-Teacher: Dr Wolff. Piece: Piano Concerto No.1, R. Schumann."
The audience applauded as Shawn stood up to receive his prize for first place. His teacher puffed up his chest as if he had known all along that it would happen, though Shawn knew he would indeed be rewarded privately for his last minute improvement and the glory he had brought to his teacher in winning the competition. Mr Glanz clapped and nodded at him as well in the audience.
Shawn could only think however, of Isaac, who he needed desperately to thank for the Shell which had rescued his music career. He was home as fast as he could, barging through his own doors with the ceremonial trophy in his hand.
"Isaac-"
Dr Coleman stood there, looking awkward.
"Hi, Dr Coleman. Where's Isaac?"
"He's gone."
Shawn stopped in his tracks.
"The spillage was cleaned up early because it was interfering with the fishing communities who were lobbying the government to fix it. He returned home this afternoon."
"Under- under the sea?"
"Yes."
"I thought… there were rival tribes."
"A safe route was organised for him."
Shawn set down his trophy slowly onto the grand piano he had been practising for glory on the past few days. "But…"
Coleman sighed. "Use the shell, kid."
"The what?"
"The Shell. Each merfolk possesses one single shell, which is made for them at birth and uniquely fits their vocal chords and harmonies. It is used underwater to block out the sounds of other mermaids and mermen singing as they hunt, but also as a romantic gift under merman custom."
"Romantic gift?"
"Yes, romantic gift, because it allows for a two way communication between the holder of the Shell, who puts it in their ear, and the one to whom the Shell belongs, so it signifies an important relationship of trust and mutual willingness to help each other."
"Then… why did he give it to me?"
"You seem to have a sensitivity to the voice which even I do not have. No doubt he had your piano competition in mind when he gave it to you."
Shawn collapsed on the couch. "He's just… gone."
Coleman looked at him in a decidedly unimpressed way. "I just said, you have his Shell, so you can communicate with him."
"Humans can operate that?"
"How do you think I talked to Prosodion so quickly? Go to the shore, and make sure he doesn't get there before you. Put the Shell in your left ear, not your right, when you want to communicate. Then, just talk."
Shawn was out before the man had even finished his sentence. Mr Glanz shared a chuckle with Coleman as the latter hoped the story might end just as well as his one had with Prosodion.
But Shawn didn't care. He made his way quickly to the shore, switched the Shell from his right to his left ear, and spoke hesitantly.
"Isaac?"
'I was wondering if you would use it'
"You left."
'What is the expression Karl used? Oh yes. No shit.'
"I won first place!"
'Congratulations.'
Shawn paused, thinking about how to say what he had to say.
"Look, Isaac. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for snapping at you and sorry for insulting the songs of your people and I'm sorry that I let my piano take precedence of my life when it really wasn't the most important thing to me by then, no matter what happened before this last week, because I should have paid more attention to you as a guest and as a friend."
"-And that's all I needed to hear."
A familiar violet tail flipped out the water and with it an even more familiar face.
"Isaac?"
"Yes?"
"You got here fast."
"I didn't go anywhere. I was too busy hunting the shoal of tuna Ball told me he couldn't reach anyway and waiting to see when you would arrive. I was barely deep in underwater."
"Oh." Shawn fell to his knees at the water's edge. "What now?"
Isaac grinned. "I have to return, pretty human, to my underwater palace. Yours was nice but I have family down there too. But… you can keep my Shell."
He blushed, and Shawn did too.
"The tide is calling now. I don't want it to get too dark cuz the enemy tribes will come back. I can return tomorrow, next week and next month. Just call me with the Shell whenever you need me. It will buzz in your right ear if I am saying something to you."
Shawn did not know what to do but to clasp the merman's hands in his own.
"Thank you, Isaac." He said, suddenly breathless.
"You were the one who saved my life. I should be thanking you."
Shawn shook his head. "I'll bring Karl and Timmy and Cat."
"Please do. I want to taunt them for their loss. Though- not every time, because I want to see only you sometimes. Goodbye for now, my human."
"Goodbye."
Isaac waved, and flipped into the water, his violet tail the last to say goodbye. The Shell buzzed in Shawn's hands, so he put it back in his left ear.
'While I'm gone... don't let anyone touch your bum, okay!'
Shawn coughed on his saliva and choked for a full minute.
'Then you can't let anyone touch your tail!'
'Deal!'