WinterRose61 - Then I have succeded, yes! I Wanted to make him a cute adorable merman, I wanne squish his cheeks XD
Ooooh I'ma write that down for a bonus chapter, Ace trying out new foods would be cute and Thatch would have so much fun too. You'll read in this chapter that Thatch is a little abscent for reasons for now, but dont worry, there will be some fun with Thatch in this story too (Already in the ch.4, had to look it up haha).

Leilasecrets - Thank you! Here it is already haha, enjoy!


While this story is in chronological order, each chapter following on each other, this one you need to see more as something that goes on over a longer period of time. It's a bit of the rehabilitation of Ace and like learning to talk, it doesn't all happen in a day and the lessons and everything keep going on while he recovers, and even after that.

(More over this in the end notes)


While some of Ace his wounds, especially on his tail, had been gruesome, with the help of Bay and her nurses, all wounds were healing up well. They were now at the point that the wounds stayed fairly close, with necessary stitches, and no more random bleedings would occur, plus with the help of some painkillers, the pain was starting to be bearable for Ace too.
Now that the biggest dangers of wounds re-opening were gone, the main focus was just on keeping the areas clean and starting up a rehabilitation programme. Thus the commanders and Bay had held a small meeting on the future plans on the merman's recovery.
He was still bedbound, and will probably be for a long while, but he was lucid, not as drugged up on meds as the previous weeks, and of course most importantly, could move a little without it being a danger.

A few of the decisions made were:

- All commanders are to notify their division of their guests and explain the situation that Ace would probably be leaving the infirmary every now and then. And while having a merman onboard was very exciting and intriguing, to leave the kid alone. Don't try to visit the infirmary without good reason and don't ogle him when you see him outside at some point.

- Namur would stand in as a physiotherapist, a title which Namur said to name him by now... Simply put, Namur would be in charge of Ace's recovery, mobility wise, more specifically, the movement and recovery of the tail part of his body. Being the only fishman aboard, Namur was the one who knew the most about these things.
So that was Namur's tasks, watching over Ace his tail, figuring out how often to hydrate it to keep it healthy but not irritate the wounds, keep him moving, etc. There was already some talk of putting a small Kiddie pool in the infirmary to start up mini 'swimming lessons'.

- Marco was appointed to teach reading and how to speak.

- Izou will be in charge of teaching Ace how to write, Marco being too busy to also take on this task.

- Thatch was of course in charge of Ace his meals and in combination giving the right medicine with it, making sure the mer didn't notice it. Why? Because the merman had spit out the first pills he had gotten, just like a little child... so blending it in his food it was.

A difference between Thatch and the others though, was that he wasn't allowed to be close to Ace like the others. Ace had shown to be very warry of them, especially when more than one other person was nearby him. Another reason why the first three commanders were picked, besides their abilities, was because Ace seemed fairly comfortable around them, or at least not as afraid as with the others.
Thatch had started whining, acting hurt, to get to visit the merman too instead of needing to pass the food off to the one currently at Ace's side. But Namur had quickly reflected that by mentioning how Ace could snap, a.k.a. bite, to protect himself when scared, and they didn't know if he had some type of poison or not. The new info got a screech out of the Chef, not knowing this was possible, but well they didn't know anything about Ace or what species he was, so anything was possible and it was better to be safe than sorry.

Marco somehow got Ace his trust from the beginning, and while many said it was because he brought food, no matter how many others had tried, it didn't work for them.
Afterwards Marco was able to convince Ace that Bay was a somewhat safe person too, so with that she had a pass too.

Namur was instantly accepted, possibly because he was a fishman and Ace related to him more.

Izou... Izou was kind of funny. Just like Namur, Izou was accepted very quickly and the mer always seemed happy to see him. They had found it weird, but accepted it that the merman just randomly accepted their sharpshooter. Now however, Namur had suddenly come up with a theory he was fairly sure of was correct. Not only because of how the treatment from Ace to Namur and Ace to Izou was the same, but also because, once again, just like when Namur entered, Ace made his clicking sound when Izou did. Namur's theory was that Ace thought that Izou was a fishman, just like Namur.

All the commanders had looked at Namur like he was crazy, Izou was obviously human... Until Namur started explaining and... well... it could, somehow, make sense. He had explained how Izou always wore brightly coloured kimono's with very wide sleeves, and in addition wore very obvious makeup like red lipstick and stuff. This combined could make Izou look like a betta fish, especially if one hasn't seen real beta-fish-fishman in person. His bright colourful kimono-sleeved representing the big elegant wide fins of the fish. Patterns aren't unknown off in the fish, so it wouldn't matter if it was a patterned kimono or not. And while maybe the colour changes in Izou's wardrobe should hint that the sleeves are in fact not fins of some kind, colour changing fish exist too so... well... with this reasoning it could be understood how Ace may think Izou is a fishman. While weird, Izou was happy he was a pretty fish.


Namur – Physiotherapy …... Swimming

Namur silently entered the infirmary, one must not make too much noise or Bay will woop your ass and give a speech about the importance of rest and peace for patient and bla bla bla.
Looking around he saw Bay moving things on some shelfs not far away.

"Hey Bay, I'm here to take Ace for some swimming."

"!"

Bay snorted at the excited clicking coming from behind some curtains not far away. "Morning Namur, it seems someone is excited for your visit."

"Haha, I hear it and well it will be the first time he gets to swim, for reals, not just in a Kiddie pool or pop's bathtub. Anything I need to know before I go?"

Humming Bay took a notepad from her pocket, scanning trough it for a moment before putting it away again. "Nothing you don't know yet. Hearing his excitement though, you better be ready to prevent him from doing jumping tricks or whatever. His wounds are healing nicely and we wouldn't want them to open up again. So, keep it at swimming, normal swimming."

"Of co-"

"NAY NAY!"

Bay laughed behind her fist, "Someone's calling for you. Better not keep him waiting, be back by around lunch so he can eat and take his medicine at the right time."

"Right, see you in a bit then." Namur gave a small wave and made his way over to Ace's 'chamber', it was just a space closed off with a thin curtain, it wasn't much, but it was some sort of privacy.

He barely had his head through the curtains when he was bombarded with more excited clicking.
"Hello Ace, I see you're doing well today." Looking towards the mer, he was rewarded with a big grin full of very sharp teeth.

The sight made Namur smile, he knows his own brothers don't care that he is a fishman and treat him as an equal, but it's still nice to have another of his kind... kind of his kind, onboard. Stuff like the amount of ultra-sharp teeth visible was something he didn't see often and even after years, when he smiled, it still scared some members when they didn't expect it. They didn't mean anything wrong, but still... this was nice.

So of course he showed the merman the same amount of teeth himself and tried making a clicking sound in return, emphasis on trying. His kind didn't really make the sound Ace can produce, but Ace had looked so happy when he first did it, and even now it got the same smile out of him, so he will keep doing it even if it sounds way off compared to Ace's.

"Ready for a dip?"

"YA! ACE SWIM!" He extended his arms, readily waiting for Namur to pick him up.

"Haha, perfect, let's go shall we."


Getting closer to the sealed off part of the beach, Namur had to hold onto Ace for dear life or he would be flopping on the ground.

He could 100% understand the mer's excitement though. While Namur had tried to give the merman as much activity as possible, even taking him to Pop's bath for small stretches to swim, it really wasn't the same as being in the actual ocean water surrounded by other SeaLife.

"Ace, Ace, Ace, haha, calm down please, I am going to drop you!"

"Nay-Nay! SEA!"

"Yes, yes, I see it haha."

"Nay-Nay swim... too?"

Still a long way to go, but Ace was starting to get better at speaking, being able to convey more stuff and ask things, like he did now, even if it was still not really a full sentence.

"Do you want me to swim too?"

"YEA!"

"Haha Alright, I'll join"

"!" (A/N: if someone has any idea how to writing clicking sounds... as a sound... let me know XD)

Hoisting the merman up and holding on a tad more tightly Namur made his way into the water, treading until he was deep enough for the mer's tail to not instantly hit the sea-floor when he lowered him.

"Alright Ace, before I let you go, you're to not go beyond those rocks over there. Anywhere in between you can swim as deep as you want and however you want, just keep it calm okay, I don't want you to hurt yourself, no jumping out of the water either. Okay?"

"OK!" The mer was furiously nodding and wiggling in Namur's grasp, more than ready to be in the sea again.

"Then, have fun!" With that Namur released the mer, and he was gone out of sight in an instant. Even while still hurt, Ace was amazingly fast now that his wounds had closed up enough to swim. He wasn't even sure if he would be able to keep up himself once he was fully healed.

After having some fun swimming around and gathering some shells, Namur drifted off towards some corals to sit down. And yes, sit down, chilling, underwater, just watching Ace play with a pod of fishes.

They were at one of their uninhabited islands right now. They didn't often come here, not wanting to damage the fauna and flora.
The island was peaceful, and even the animals knew them by now, so they could easily camp out without a worry. Most important though was where he and Ace were right now, the whole reason why they did stop here right now. They were at a sort of encave.
A part of the sea flowing further into land in between rocks. It wasn't really a cave, there was no roof so to say, and they could look over the rocks to see the rest of the beach and their ship. But this part of the sea did seem to be protected from all but the entrance side. With the addition that the water was clean here, it was the perfect spot for Ace to go swimming while not fully recovered.
Before they came here, Namur had checked the nearby areas, not finding anything dangerous, and even if something came, since there was only one way in, he would be able to easily detect them and take care of them.

"NAY NAY, CATCH!"

Shook out of his stupor he just missed whatever Ace threw and it hit him on the head. This was... "Hhahhahaha GOOD! NAY NAY LOOK GOOD! Hahahhahah"

Oh it was on, so on! "You want to play like this huh Ace, well I can play to!" He shot forward faster than even Ace had expected and before the mer could comprehend it, the item that he had thrown at Namur was now stuck on his own back.

"Aaaaah! NAY NAY Nooooo~ hahah"

"Hahahah, looking good yourself Ace! I think it fits you a lot better!"

Namur was wheezing at the sight before him. Ace, also laughing at his fate, was swimming in circles, trying to dislodge the tiny squid stuck to his back. It reminded him off Stefan when he was trying to catch his own tail back when he was young haha.

He would help him in a bit, he did need to find an excuse for Bay as to why Ace will have perfect red circle spots on his back. Cupping therapy maybe... not that he had any of the right equipment with him to perform it but …. he could try.

After some more swimming, Ace deciding the squid will just be his buddy until they leave and left it hanging. Namur did help get it off afterwards before they went back to the ship. After a hearty meal the merman went to sleep the afternoon away.
Namur discussed the results of his little excursion to Bay and got a nice wack on the head for the squid. Both were however happy that it did look like Ace's wounds were healing properly and he should be able to get back to his full speed and capabilities in the water after his recovery.


Marco – Speaking and reading

Marco was the one put in charge of teaching the merman how to read and speak. The combination was pretty obvious, immediately linking a sound to the shape of a letter and meanings of words. You may wonder why he isn't the one also teaching how to write. But that was just too much for him alone to handle above all his tasks as a first commander, no matter how much he liked spending time with the kid.
Thatch had already tried to claim he would teach Ace reading and everything, saying Marco was too busy, but no way he was going to lose the privilege of these private moments with Ace even if he was busy! Especially not to the chef, he would definitely try and steal the mer away from Marco, and his first words would probably be 'Flaming turkey' or 'Pineapple'. Nope nope nope, he wasn't going to let that happen.

Thus, Marco it was for speaking and reading. The lessons he made up were fairly simple, it helping a lot that Ace mostly understood them already. It would have been difficult if that totally wasn't the case.
They couldn't immediately start with words, so the first lessons were mostly the basic pronunciation of letters. Marco writing a letter on a paper, holding it up to show Ace before pronouncing it himself and asking Ace to repeat it.

Every lesson they did a few new letters, while he also quizzed Ace on the letters he had already seen before. Marco often used words as examples for the pronunciation and told how the same letter could vary, like: Y – HappY VS DaY. But he hadn't asked yet to pronounce or read full words, that would come later.

He also quickly learned that while Ace obviously couldn't really read, he could recognise some words. At some point he had written down the word 'Cat', and before he could even say it, the mer had gone 'MEOW', almost making Marco jump out of his chair in surprise at the sudden sound and intensity the mer had almost screamed it. So Ace recognized the word and knew it was somehow linked to the animal that made that sound, but when he asked the mer to say the word himself, he got a negative-answer, the mer not knowing it.


It was their third lesson, and just like he had seen in the previous lessons, especially at certain letters, Ace would put his hand on his throat. In the beginning he would try a few times before doing it, while now he did it before he even tried to say the letters.

"Ace?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do you hold your hand over your neck?" Marco mirrored the action himself, putting his hands on the side of his throat "Why-yoi?"

"ah... hmmmmmmmmmm." The merman tilted his head and grabbed his chin, seeming to be thinking.

-Why can't everyone be this cute doing mundane things like this, look at this-yoi!-

SNAP

"Huh?" looking towards the sounds he saw Ace put his hand down –did he just snap his fingers at me?- "Yes, Ace?"

The mer pointed towards some … slices in his neck? … what are th- -aaaah right, gills, yes, not human, half fish, yes, forgot, okay. … How do you forget that Marco... Ace has no legs, you don't just miss that-

Ace making a sound got his attention again –he really needs to stop daydreaming when with the merman... CONCENTRATE!- he saw how the mer had his hands on his gills, like he often did, before he slowly removed them and "huh, that's... weird?"

The moment the mer had removed his hands from his neck, the sound he was making became... airy? Is the only thing he could think of off how to describe it.

Out of curiosity, he focused his eyes on the gills and moved his own hands to Ace's neck and placed them on it. "Could you do it again-yoi?"

The mer didn't immediately react so Marco looked up to him "Ace-yoi? - Ah! I'm sorry! I didn't... didn't mean to!" Marco instantly removed his hand and help them up to show he meant nothing, red starting to adore his cheek and a small bit of Panick visible on his normally stoic façade.
Ace had been blushing and was averting his eyes, avoiding Marco's gaze. Of course he would, he just out of nowhere, without permission, started touching Ace, at his gills too! Something Namur was also mad about in the beginning when curious brothers tried to touch it. Marco's own face heated up while he was figuring out words to say.

After a moment of silence, Ace, who was still blushing, stretched out his hands and took Marco's in his own, slowly guiding them back to his neck. "A-Ace-yoi, it- it's okay, I don't need t-" A squeeze on his hands told him to shut up, so that's what he did, allowing the merman to place his hands back over the sensitive slits in his throat.

Once more Ace started making the same noise and was fascinated, he could feel the vibrations under his skin, far more pronounced then with humans. After a second, the mer started spreading Marco's fingers apart and instantly he could feel air rushing past his digits, his question was answered.

After Ace stopped speaking, they both removed their hands. "So that's what you're doing-yoi. You're holding them close?"

The mer nodded before raising his head and exposing the gills more, showing that he could move them a bit, but it seemed limited and not enough to fully close them.

Hmmm, this was something to work on, it would be annoying if Ace always had to cover up his throat to speak clearly. The air rushing in making the pronunciation of some letters very difficult. Well, no problem, they just needed to figure something out, maybe the mer could even learn to close them fully with some practice.


They were having a small break, Thatch just having come in to bring some sweets. While Ace was eating his snacks, Marco was using this time to go over some reports he had gotten.
Don't get him wrong, he likes spending time with Ace and teaching him, but it did take a big chunk out of his day that he normally used to do his paperwork. So doing it in between here and there it was. He wouldn't want to change it for anything though, these lessons with the mer were fun.

"Ma- Ma- Mahko!"

He almost dropped the reports hearing Ace's voice, "Wha-, Ace, what did you just say?"

"Mmmmmakho!"

Turning around he saw that the mer was smiling brightly at him and holding out one of his sweets towards him. Absentmindedly he accepted the offered snack, but he was far more focused on something else. -He was saying his name! One of the mer's first words and it was his name, almost!- "Ac-"

"YOI!"

"... Wait... Ace, no-"

"MAHKO-YOI! hhahahha"

"Ah..." Maybe making the person with a speech-tick be the one to teach another how to speak wasn't the best idea...


Izou – Writing

"Alright, Ace-dear, I've brought some different exercise books with me today. And I've got a new pen for you to try out."

Giving everything in his arms, Izou gave some time for Ace to inspect all the items. He had ordered some special type of paper, -twice as expensive damnit-, for the exercises to be on, but it was needed. Ace had such a strong grip on his pen that not only his pen kept breaking, he also tore through the paper like butter. And let's not forget those sharp nails that also seemed to have a life of their own and didn't even notice they sliced through the thinned-out trees with ease...
Which is also why besides the new paper, of which he had made exorcise books, he also had the new pen. Izou had requested it with their own carpenters, it looked like a normal pen, maybe a little thicker, but this one had a shell of adam's wood. Yes, Adam's wood, the same material most of the ship is made up off... Hopefully this one will survive.

"Oh, Izzzzz? AA – CC – EE?"

"Hmm?" Izou looked over to the merman on the infirmary bed, seeing he had one of the first pages of the book open on his little bed-table. He found it adorable how the mer elongated the 's'-sounds, seeming to somehow not get them out. At least it didn't seem to bother the mer as much anymore as in the beginning.

"Izzzz?"

Ah, he was getting distracted. "Sorry, what do you have, dear?" Izou accepted the book from Ace and with one look hummed at the opened page. At the top of the page stood a three-letter word written neatly in ink.

"It's your name."

"Accccee?"

"Yes, this first shape" Taking the pen from Ace, Izou pointed with it to the first letter and slowly but very elegantly penned it down, a big letter A. He made sure Ace could clearly see him do it "this, as Marco taught you, is the A, we write this one as a capital because?"

"Name?"

"Correct." Marco may be the one really teaching Ace the grammatical rules and stuff, but it didn't hurt to repeat small things like names start with capital letters. "Then next, we have the letter?"

"Ccccc"

Izou nodded and also wrote it down, attached to the A.

Before even pointing to the last letter, Ace had already yelled out 'EEEE' with much enthusiasm. The mer being very happy when he was sure of his answer. Izou's positive reaction to writen the last letter down made it even better and got happy clicks out of Ace.
With a smile Izou held up the book and pointed at what he had written, "together these letters spell 'Ace', your name."

Ace reached for the book and once he had it, he stroked over his own name while mouthing it.

"Wanne try it?"

"Ya." To some it would sound unhappy or bored, but those already knowing the mer a bit better knew it was just because he was now concentrated on the word before him, it taking all his focus.

Izou nodded and handed over the pen, "can you show me how you hold it before you start?".
He needed to hold in a laugh, it was like watching a new-born deer trying to walk, Ace was fighting a losing battle trying to hold the pen. It seemed more likely he would make knot in his fingers before getting it right.

"Come here-dear." Izou carefully helped Ace place his fingers the right way "... and this one goes into this groove. Not all pens have these, but once you figure the hold out, it will become natural."

The mer nodded before pouring all his attention on the book before him to start writing. It went a lot less smooth then when Izou did it, and the letters had a lot more kinks and dents then necessary, but you could recognise what he was writing, so it was a start.

Until now they had mostly only purely written letters. Izou making his own tracing guides of them, making sure to highlight the difference between capital letters and small letters. At the top of each page stood a letter, together with the order of strokes (/how to write them). Underneath the page was filled with lines for Ace to practice on. (A/N: look up 'Tracing guide letters', if you do not know how this looks).

This time however, Izou had put some words in there too, simple things like the Mer's name and some other commander's names and such. Hopefully to make the lessons a bit more interesting and not boring. Izou would with every new page, or if Ace asked, tell him how it was pronounced and show how to write the letters before handing everything back to Ace. Occasionally helping Ace adjust his hold on the pen.

Once the mer could do some more reading and understand what he was writing, Izou could start making more difficult exercises and have Ace write actually write words knowing the meaning behind it. And if that goes well, they can move on to Izou asking the name of various object in the room that Ace then has to write down. Or Izou could say words or sentences out-loud for Ace to pen down.
Still, lots to do and to plan, but they'll get there. It's not like he'll have to write a lot with them, -unless you're a commander, so much paperwork...-, but it may be useful in the future.


Nay-Nay and Izzzz: Yes, Ace gives Nicknames. Mostly if he decides they're too difficult to pronounce them fully. I know I typed/explained this somewhere... but I think it's in a future chapter hahahha, so here, it's in these notes too now.

For those maybe wondering why I didn't make Marco heal some of the smaller wounds. Just like I will in most of my other stories, I'm making Marco unable to heal others. It feels … too easy …. if he's able to heal others hahahha. I do think, in certain situations, his flames could be soothing, but that's it.

About the chronological order thing, normally it is like a chapter is done and the events happening in that chapter are done, but for this one not. Example speech: So, he's able to speak more and more as seen at some points in this chapter, and he will get better and in control of his gills, but he's not going to instantly start speaking very well in the rest of the story, it's more of a progress with all these lessons and recovery happening in the background. So while this chapter is done, it's not like the lessons have stopped. I hope it is kind of clear what I mean...