A/N: Thanks to FanofBellaandEdward for reviewing this!
III
Rin furrowed his brow when he heard a strange sort of clicking.
At first he thought it was simply a sound from the fridge, or a clock in one of the other rooms of the house. Raking his hands through his greasy hair he sighed and looked up. He flinched when he noticed that the dark eyes of the creature were staring straight at him. He hadn't seen eyes that deep or dark before on another animal. Dark yes, but these eyes, these deep aqua-blue eyes were as bottomless as the ocean he sometimes swam in. It was like he could feel them pulling him closer towards the creature. The odious smell of scale-rot smacked him in the nose, making him lurch back. The stall tipped underneath him, he had to snatch at the counter to keep his balance.
He checked his phone and frowned when he saw that he'd gotten a text from Makoto simply reading, 'Why weren't you at training last night? Call me when you can.'
He thrust the phone away before slipping off the stool and flicking the lights on. Even in the brighter lights, Rin couldn't deny that the cuts and welts covering the creature's chest looked a little too deep to heal properly on their own. He cocked his head to the side and tried to do a mental list of any antihistamines he had in the medicine cabinet. Tearing his eyes away from the creature restrained on the counter, he turned and marched to the bathroom to see what he had.
Nothing –at least nothing that would be could for a sea-creature's skin.
"Fuck!" he cursed out, slamming his fist against the tiled wall. "What the fuck am I supposed to do now?"
Wiping his face down, Rin dragged himself from the bathroom and was hit with the weak stench of fish. He must have gotten used to it when he'd been in the kitchen. He clawed at his hair and tried to think about what he could do. The wounds were most likely infected already; he needed to do something quickly. He could do research tonight and go out shopping the following day to find the ointments or whatever he needed to help heal the wounds of an aquatic animal.
A light-bulb went off in his head.
He hurried through to his sister's bedroom and was immediately assaulted by all the adorable little plushies that crowded every spare inch of her room. The pink bedclothes made him cringe as he hurried over to the small dresser underneath the window. On the dresser was a small tank that held a couple of brightly coloured angel fish. Gou loved them for some reason. He didn't see the appeal himself, but where there were fish normally there were some fish-care books nearby. Crouching down, he rifled through the small bookshelf underneath the tank and finally found what he was looking for; a couple of fish-care books. Flicking through the pages, he saw that there was indeed a section about fin-rot, however the symptoms confused him. If he was to believe the book, then it would mean that living in the ocean was killing the fins of the creature.
Rin frowned as he leaned back against the small expanse of bare wall by the fish tank.
The only thing he could to calm his racing mind was to look through the glass of the tank and watch the fish lazily swimming to and fro. Something throbbed at the back of his mind. And then it clicked; the creature needed to be submerged! His heart skipped awkwardly in his chest as he made up his mind and got off his sisters bedroom floor. Detouring into the bathroom he grabbed the basic anti-bacterial wipes and hoped that the creature's top-half was similar to the human anatomy enough that the wipes wouldn't sting too much.
Returning to the kitchen he opened all the blinds to let some natural light in, despite the sky still being over-cast, before turning to the creature on the island counter. He neared the counter and set the wipes to one side. The creature struggled against the rubber bindings and Rin could see that the slimy web of loose skin over its chest and had dried out completely. It had even started to flake off a little.
"Alright I … I don't even know why I'm talking to you," Rin sighed as he raked his hair out of his face. He really needed to take the time and shower. He still hadn't washed the sweat off of him from his run the day before. "I need to know if you can understand me so … Blink your eyes twice if you can understand me." He spoke a little slower; to make sure that the creature could hear each syllable.
The creature stared at him for a moment before it slowly closed his once and then a second time.
Rin sighed with relief, "Okay that's good. Freaky but … Good. Okay," he cast a glance around the room, "The skin on your chest, it needs to come off. Will you let me take it off?" The creature merely stared at him, his eyes narrowing a fraction, "Blink twice for 'yes' and once for 'no'."
It blinked once waited a little while, and then finally blinked a second time.
"Alright, it might be a little uncomfortable okay, but I'm going to peal if off." Rin went over to the sink and filled a bowl with warm water. He added a small squirt of anti-bacterial soap and then brought the bowl over to the counter, "If you don't move around too much, I'll undo the ties, okay?"
The creature didn't blink; it merely made a guttural sound in its throat before looking away. Rin took it as a green-light and rinsed a soft, clean sponge into the water and rung it out.
A hiss issued out through the creature's clenched teeth, but he didn't shift away as Rin gently slued the warm water over the flaking skin and gently pealed large strips of webbed flesh. It was gross and felt slimy as he tossed it into a sodden pile at the end of the counter. The fresh skin underneath was flushed a pale pink and looked a little tender were pieces of skin were broken from their struggle in the cave. Rin did feel a little bad but there was nothing more he could do other than tried to heal the strange thing that had come into his life.
"Is the temperature okay?" Rin asked, turning his attention to the creature's head to see the response.
Two blinks.
"Good. Once I've got the skin off, I need to wipe the cuts. It might sting a little. So … Sorry for that."
The creature made a creaking sound in its throat but didn't object. Once the filmy flesh had been removed and thrown into the bin, Rin turned back to the creature, wipes in hand, and tugged one free. He hesitated a little as he tentatively stroked the wipe over one of the deeper grazes. The creature hissed and its tail thrashed involuntarily. "Sorry," Rin mumbled before he continued to wipe the cuts and scratches. He used up a good few wipes before he decided that he'd done the best that could be done without more information.
Once he'd cleaned everything up, he grabbed a pair of sharp scissors from one of the drawers. At the glimmer of the steal blades, the creature's eyes widened in fear, its long fingers clenched tightly and the tail thumped aggressively against the base of the counter. "Hey, hey! It's just to cut the bindings!"
The tail thumped again, even harder.
"What do you want me to do? Untie them myself? Why, so you can scratch my eyes out?" he growled, his teeth grinding together in an ugly grimace as he glared down at the creature. To his surprise the creature blinked once. "What then? So I can get my head broken with your tail?" Another single blink. Rin grit his teeth, "Fine." He tugged the drawer open and slammed the scissors inside and out of sight. "There? Happy?" he snapped before his shoulders slumped heavily.
Feeling incredibly defeated he reached out for the ties and pick at them. They were stretched far too tightly to unfasten properly, and soon after plucking at them for about ten minutes Rin grew frustrated again. "Look can I just cut them with the scissors?"
One blink.
"Stop being such a … whatever you are!" he snapped, "I can't untie them! I need the scissors!"
One blink.
"Stupid clam-brained git!" he spat out before he sank down into one of the stools underneath the counter. "This is ridiculous," he cast a look at the creature splayed before me. "I don't even know what you are." The creature gave him a deadpanned look. "Oh no, I know you're some weird, mythical completely ridiculous creature, but I don't know if you're a girl or a boy."
The creature rolled its eyes. Rin was momentarily surprised. He didn't know sarcasm and insolence was widespread across different species.
"Do you know what you are?" he asked. The creature gave a low creaking reply. "Oh right," Rin felt his cheeks flush, "Are you a girl, yes or no?"
One blink.
"So –you're a boy?"
Two blinks.
"Alright then, do you have a name?"
Two blinks.
"Would I be able to pronounce it?"
There was a small pause before the creature blinked once.
For some reason, Rin actually huffed a small laugh at that, "Right, it probably sounds like something a dolphin would say." Licking his lips, he couldn't help but frown a little, "I just feel like I need to call you something. Would you care if I came up with a name for you?"
The pale shoulders shrugged awkwardly against the bindings.
"Alright, well I'll let you know when I think of something. You may approve it or reject whatever ones you hate. Trying to compromise here, so none of this tail banging nonsense, got it?" he held up a warning finger before going back over to the drawer. He grabbed the scissors and barely gave the creature enough time to register what was happening before he sliced through the taut rubber straps. The rubber pinged away, revealing darker pink stripes along the waist and upper torso where they'd clearly dug into the merman's skin.
The merman inhaled sharply, the wind whistling through its teeth. Rin noticed how a few of the lacerations had already started to scab over and dry out. He was a little relieved, but definitely needed to spend some time on the internet to know what exactly he was dealing with.
Casting a look at the clock he groaned a little before dropping his head, "Look I need to get you settled a little more. My bathtub will have to do for a little while. Try not to … er … move about too much. I don't think I'll be able to pick you up off the floor if you rolled off the counter."
He took a couple of steps away from the kitchen counter before setting the scissors on the coffee table in the adjoining living room, before turning his back on the place and heading into the downstairs bathroom, the one with the custom tub for when his grandparents came to visit. They needed a rather large tub so that they could each bathe one at a time and have enough room to work out their arthritic muscles.
He never thought he'd have another use for it until now.
Stuffing the plug into the hole, he secured it enough so that, hopefully the tail wouldn't tug on the chain and drain the bath when he was out training. He ran both the hot and cold taps to try and get a good temperature going. The bath was design to have the same heating appliance underneath it as the tiled floors did, so it would keep the moderate temperature steady for a lengthy period of time. As soon as the water started gushing down into the tub, he went out to the cupboard under the stairs to where the thermostat was, and gently increased the temperature for the under-floor heating.
He waited for a little while before he tugged his socks off and walked into the bathroom. The floor was slowly but surely heating up to a cosy temperature.
It took another forty-five minutes before the tub was half-way full. He let the water run for a little longer before he turned the taps off and made sure that he was able to touch the water without flinching. It was a mild temperature. He didn't know what the merman was used to, however he needed to get the creature submerged before more of the skin or, worse, the scales started to chip off all over the floor. His mother would not be happy if she came home to a carpet full of rotten scales.
Returning back down to the kitchen, he saw that the creature had somehow forced itself up onto its elbows, his breathing was laboured and his hair had dried into a dark blue mass of waves. Rin stopped for a moment, his eyes transfixed on the creature in front of him, before he shook some sense back into his head. "The bath is ready. Do you mind warm water?"
The merman tilted his head to the side, but gave Rin one blink for his efforts.
"Okay I'm going to need to carry you into the bathroom okay?" he stepped closer to the counter, adrenaline crashing through his veins at the sight of those long nails curled around the edge of the marble counter. It would only take one swipe to claw his eyes out. "Alright, you're going to need to hang onto my neck …" he trailed off as a frown marred the merman's alabaster features. "Alright I guess I'll … er … do it for you." With shaking fingers he took the merman's thin arms and wound them around his neck. The thin muscles were tough and stiff as he slid his hands underneath the scaly tail and hauled the creature off the counter top. He winced as he glanced over the white shoulder to see where the scales had left marks on the once smooth, clean surface. It would take him forever to scrub it clean.
"You're gonna have to pay for that!" he ground out as he shifted one foot in front of the other across the laminate floor. He paused, hearing his words for the first time. The creature stared at him. If Rin didn't know any better he'd say that the merman was as confused as he was. He rolled his eyes and gave a sardonic grin, "Yeah right, I don't think my mum would accept sea-shells as payment."
When he got the bathroom at the end of the long hallway, he kicked the door open with his bare foot. As he stepped onto the tiles, he suddenly realised how cold he was as the warmth rose up to through his body.
"I hope the water's okay," he stated softly as he shifted the weight of the merman in his arms. The creatures head bounced against his chest as he leaned over the bathtub. "You ready for this?" he asked, his arms already quaking with holding the merman at such an awkward angle.
Two blinks.
"Thank fuck!" his knees almost collapsed as he all but dropped the merman into the warm water.
He let out a heavy grunt as the water sloshed up and spattered his face. He blinked the water from his eyes and as it settled he watched as the merman sink down low enough for all but the upper half of his face to show. Rin panted as he straightened up and brushed his damp fringe out of his eyes. He waited for a couple of beats before rolling his eyes. "What, no thank you?" he griped sarcastically.
The creature rolled his dark eyes before blowing a couple of bubbles in the water. Rin couldn't help but chuckle a little at the action. It was so childish considering the seriousness of the entire situation.
Rin rolled his eyes in exasperation before standing up on the warm tiles and making his way out of the bathroom. The laminate flooring was cool underfoot as he hurried towards the kitchen. Instead of heading straight for the cleaning supplies, he simply stood in the middle of the room, surveying the few tell-tale signs that something strange had happened. On the floor he noticed a small dried-out scale gleaming dully on the floor. He picked it up and held it in his palm for a little while, just staring, before he sighed and slipped it into his pocket. He cast a glance at the counter and felt his shoulders slump in defeat.
He didn't have the energy to start smelling even stronger chemicals and scrubbing away at the counter and floor until his fingers were chapped and raw with over-use. Not to mention the mix of chemicals and the chlorine in the pool at his training session tomorrow evening wouldn't exactly go well together.
Heaving a sigh of defeat he went over to the sofa and swiped up his phone from the coffee table. The sofa sank under his weight as he collapsed down onto it as he searched through his contacts. The entire time he was scrolling through, a small voice at the back of his head kept chanting, 'You have a MERMAN in your BATHTUB!'
He squeezed his eyes and tried to ease the impending headache with the heel of his hand pressing against his temples. He cast a quick glance at his laptop and almost reached for, content with ignoring reality for that moment longer however the voice in his head was admonishing him for being ridiculous.
With another sigh, he pressed a few buttons on his touchscreen before holding the phone to his ear and listening to the dial tone.
Someone picked up. "Hello?"
"Hey Makoto, it's me. I'm … er … just returning your call."
A/N: Let me know what you think so far X