The water drained from the pool and there was nowhere for the glorious mermaid to go. he awaited silently his fate. more torture comes from these disgusting humans. he lay still in the puddle that formed he breathed in stale human air and let the tears well, but not fall. the man in red walked through the hole he made in the tank as the ship shifted underneath.

"what is this?" inquired the man in red, "are you a mermaid?"

Watanuki stayed silent, face downcast. the man strutted, conceitedly, forward causing watanuki to hunker down further to the water covered wooded floor. the man squated next to the cold, scared, and quivering creature. the man pushed his hand from the floor the the stark black wisps of hair that crowned the trembling water dwellers head, and made contact, putting the soft strands in disarray. the boy flinched. the fear in that flich traveled through the red man's glove to his hand. the startled movement, for absolutely no reason what so ever, angered the man greatly. he entangled his finger harchly in the wet hair, pulling, and elicting a sharp scream of pain from watanuki. a smile spread eirily across his face. he thought the powerless creature clinging despiratly to his wrists, pleading to be let go, had a very beautiful scream. his voice must be nice too.

"can you speak english?" he asked. watanuki was scared, not sure of how to answer him. he had, only hours before, answered the sam question. Doumeki had specifically said never to speak to another person. the thought of that mean man made him just want to say yes, he spoke english rather fluently. he opened his mouth and whispered.

"what did you say?" he asked and leaned into him. breath stroking the skin on his warmth hissed to hi nerves and made his cringe. watanuki closed his mouth. after a long moment of silence the man in red pulled hard on Watanuki's hair, whipping the ppor boy's head up. he screamed out again, louder and more hurt than before. a tear streaked his face. it sparkled as the moonlight hit it perfectly. his skin was darkend a very slight shade where the tear had slide down in a path. a cord was struck in the man, making his sadistic side peer up.

the man stood, pulling watanuki with him painfully. the lack of legs made it hard for the man to stand, so to relieve himself of the difficult pressure he threw the boy in his hands to the floor, and began to walk away. lifting his head Watanuki looked hopefully at the back of the man, hoping he would keep going, keep walking up those stairs, but he didn't. the wish was short lived. the man grabbed a potatoe bag and emptied it out on the floor, turned to look at the mercreature, and smiled. watanuki knew what was bout to happen, so he made a last ditch effeort to be happy. he crawled.

the man just gigled and briskly walked over to the weak boy, and with a flick of the wrist, Watanuki was in the potatoe bag. he was being hauled like luggage up the stairs to the upper floors, and soon, another ship. there wasn't much a difference. he would be put in a tank of some sort so he couldn't escape, sold off to the highest bidder, and looked at bby people who just had to see the freak. he wiggled a little. the only true difference was one ship thought he was a coin in the pocket and the other thought he was worthy of a name. he wiggled in his small solitary confinment a little more this time. he felt so weak...adn since he thought about it, he didn't like being weak, so he wiggled more and began to puch and sream all the profanities he'd ever heard. the red man who was walking silently back to his ship was frozen. the screams from the large brown potatoe sack grabbed the attention of doumeki.

the young pirate forced a scared smile as the admral ran after him. there was no way his prize, his way off this ship, would be stolen by a filthy pirate. the theiving man climed up onto the side of the ship and began to jump, but was forcibly stalled. he looked over his shoulder to see the admiral, hand gripping the sack tightly and a rapiers' end pointed to his nose. his hands unconsciously relaxed, letting the sack fall gently into the arms of the admiral. the bag, which had been held closed by the hands of the man in red, unravled to reveal the beautiful mermaid with cobalt eyes. Doumeki held the legless male up with one arm wrapped around his waist. watanuki held onto doumeki's blue suit tightly, not used to the upright position of humans and the downward pull of gravity. he closed his eyes.

when he opened them again he was inside the captains quarters warm and in a strage sitting position. his back was arched out comfortably and his fin was drapping across the edge of whatever he was laying on. had he fallen asleep? yes he had, and he intended to stay so. he hunkered down and pushed his face into something broad, firm, and yeet, really soft. it was inviting. sleep had almost takin him back under, but an obnoxious voice stormed his thoughts.

"Oi." it said.

Watanuki opened his eyes slowly, letting his eyes adjust to the light of the dimly lit room. he saw a wall. a very nice wall, but a wall none the less. he grumbled pushed himself up into a sitting position, then began to look around. to his immeadiate left was the wall. as he turned his head to see a table, fire lamp, a desk and a chair. as he continued right he saw another lamp, this on was taller and standing by the desk rather than being connected to the wall, a wardrobe, a small table, and a chest. a very male chest covered in a white button up collared shirt. even still he was starled. he yelled and jumped up trying to get away. doumeki firmly, yet gently, grabbed hold of watanuki's wrists and held him still. he stopped wiggling for a moment and looked up at the admiral. their eyes met and his face flushed. he looked quickly away, embarrased at the position he had just realized he was in.

Doumeki was sitting on a bad in the middle of the room. Watanuki was sitting on his lap, hands pinned down. even though the customs for the merfolk and humans were different, there were some things that remained the same. Doumeki sensed the boy's unease and stood to lay the embarassed captiveon the bed. with wrists released, doumeki went to sit on a chair.

"Are you okay?" he asked. watanuki looked up, embarassment wipped away from his face.

"yeah, i'm fine. are you?"

"yeah."

"i...i see..."

and silence.

A very akward silence.

with nothing better to do watanuki layed back down on the large bed and rolled over to face to left wall again. he closed his eyes, hoping sleep would engulf him soon so he could escape the odd situation he felt was caused by the stoic man in the chair.

"Watanuki...did you talk to him?"

The question surprised didn't talk TO him, but yelled behind him. what could he say?

"no..." was all he said before he closed his eyes and went straight to sleep.