A/N: Thanks to FanofBellaandEdward for being my beta! Sorry I have been absent for a while. Originally it was because of the NANOWRIMO challenge. And then because I got so swamped with work and didn't finish until about 10.30pm each night. So ... I was knackered. But I am ploughing on and updating for you lovely readers!

VII

Rin's heart was in his throat as he tore around his back garden in a desperate attempt to find Haru.

There was nothing behind the equipment shed, nothing wedged underneath the dense shrubbery his mother meticulously clipped before the summer heat had gotten too much, and there was definitely nothing at the bottom of the pool. It made him ache to think that someone had stolen his merman. What would they do to him? Would they strip his scales and flesh and stick it under a microscope? Would they drop chemicals onto him to see if his skin could regrow at a faster rate than humans? He knew he needed to calm down, but the irrational part of his brain was taking over fast.

Something clanked inside his house.

He froze, his body on fire as he turned, straining his ears to see if he could hear the culprit moving around. There was nothing but silence. Ironically enough, the imposter was probably doing the exact same thing, keeping quiet until they were sure the coast was clear.

Clenching his fingers into fists, Rin tightened his jaw and stormed towards his house. He wasn't having any of this. He was not about to risk Haru's safety for the whim of some social climbing scientist. With blood pounding in his temples, he pried the glass door to one side and slid inside.

The door closed softly behind him. The house was silent as he turned to view the semi-illuminated lower level of it, his eyes scanning every shadowed corner for any sign of movement. There was none. Drawing in a slow breath, Rin made his way over to the kitchen and quietly slide the top drawer open, pulling out one of the long shearing knives his mother kept locked away. A soft hiss of steel caught his ears, magnified in the silence, as he slid the knife free. He wasn't going to be unarmed in such a futile situation. If he was going down, he was going to go down fighting and hopefully do some damage to the intruder along the way.

His bare feet were silent along the wooden floorboards.

As he moved along down the hallway, he strained his ears and watching left and right for someone to spring out and attack him. He kept close to the wall to prevent any sneak attacks from behind him. His stomach was twisted into tight knots as he grabbed onto the bannister. Just as he was about to ascend the stairs, something clanked to the floor in the downstairs bathroom. Every muscle turned to stone. Now it was inevitable; the curtain of hope had vanished into thin air. It was no longer a nightmare but a cold, hard reality he needed to face.

A shuffling sound caught his attention. It made his mind spin as his breathing grew harder in his ears.

He didn't want to go toward the bathroom; he knew it wouldn't be safe. Being cornered in such a secluded part of the house with an unknown assailant was not going to end well for him. Flexing his fingers and adjusting his grip around the knife, he raised it a little higher and braced himself for defence.

Another clang made him jump from the other side of the bathroom door.

Drawing in a deep breath, he reached out for the doorknob. "ALRIGHT YOU!" he called out, his voice feeling tight in his throat, "I'VE CALLED THE POLICE AND I'M ARMED! I'M GOING TO OPEN THE DOOR NOW!"

His hand felt clumsy as he opened the door and forced it open.

The bathroom was a mess that was Rin's first thought as he looked inside the weakly lit room; the towel had been ripped from the metal rail, the dust bin and toilet brush were littering the floor and the soap dish and shampoos had slid down into the bath. Rin's breath caught in his throat as he squeezed the knife handle and drank in the pathetic sight of, what was once, his strange creature naked and gleaming on the tiled floor, burrowed away in the small alcove under the sink.

"Haru?" Rin asked with a frown, his arm quaking from where the blood has rushed out of his muscles. The creature quivered but he didn't look up at him. Chewing down on his lip, Rin peered a little closer, "Haru is that you?"

A choked sound came from the trembling creature, its mop of inky blue hair dripping down over his quaking arms and jittering ... were those legs? Fully formed, ice-white legs?

Placing the knife on the side, Rin dropped down to his knees, wincing at the cold tiled floor, he leaned over reached out with nervous fingers to touch the cold flesh of Haru's shin. Why was he so cold? Rin let his eyes run down the legs; they were stark white, cold and damp from where Haru had been in the water. Pressing his palm around Haru's knee, he gave a soft squeeze and swallowed thickly, his heart racing.

Haru flinched but didn't shy away from Rin's touch. Drawing in a deep breath, Rin adjusted his position so that he was sitting cross-legged on the floor. "Are you hurt?" he asked as he placed both hands on Haru's knees. There was the smallest shake of the boys' head. "Are you sure? You made a lot of noise earlier."

Haru made a weak scoffing noise.

Rin sighed and raked a hand through his hair, his eyes dropping down to Haru's legs; they looked slimy and had a green-greyish tinge to them. They looked sickly under the golden light. Running his fingers down over Haru's knee, Rin grimaced as he pulled back, a long string of goo dangling at the end of his hand. It made his stomach heave. He wiped his hand clean on his jeans before turning to the bath tub. He needed to get Haru cleaned up; the sight of his long, skinny legs bent awkwardly under the sink was disconcerting, not to mention how they actually looked. The off-white flesh looked bloodless and cold, the webbing between the toes was still a sickly grey-green colour just like his tail fins had been. The etchings of scaling skin were still gleaming like angry cracks beneath the surface but other than that, the legs were most definitely human. Not to mention, the rough web-like protrusions sticking out the back of his ankles. Besides, he needed something to distract himself from the rattling of the boys' breath and the thick webbing between both his fingers and toes.

As soon as the tub was filled enough, Rin spread out a couple of towels on the tiled floor so that neither of them would slip, before he crouched down in front of the sink so that he could ease Haru out of his hiding place. It was awkward getting the boy into the tub; his knees had kept knocking together and his head and lulled heavily on Rin's shoulder, but soon enough the naked, slimy boy was submerged in the warm water.

Rin was perplexed as he ran his eyes up and down the length of those submerged legs. They were so white, so fresh so … out of nowhere. "What … er … How do you have legs?" he finally asked, his voice catching in his throat.

Haru simply stared at him, the pain ebbing out of his tight features as his dark blue eyes dotted down to the appendage in question. He cocked his head back against the tub and let a soft noise escape his throat. "Water …" he rasped out, his voice crackling.

"Do you want something to drink?" Rin gushed, adrenaline surging through him to hurry into the kitchen for a glass.

Haru shook his head and let his hand flick water over the tub, "No … Water is … Wrong."

Rin furrowed in brow in confusion, "What do you mean? You mean it's not salt water? Would adding table salt work?"

Haru rocked his head back and forth, "Wrong … Chemical …"

"Hey try not to talk," Rin stated as he gently closed Haru's hung-open mouth. They would figure it out later when he had adjusted to this transition. For now, he needed to get the rest of the goo scrubbed off of him and as much as Rin didn't want to do it, Haru looked on the verge of falling over the precipice and into sleep.

Using a flannel and a bar of soap Rin took his time in scrubbing as much of Haru as possible, the filmy goo clumping at the bottom of the bath, but he didn't care. The warm water made Haru's skin blush a healthier shade of pale-pink and soon enough, he decided that Haru was ready to get dressed and settled into his sister's bedroom for the night. In the morning he would figure out what would happen next, but for now he was only focusing on the following few hours. He pulled the plug out of the tub and as the water started gurgling down the drain, Rin wandered upstairs to his bedroom and rummaged around in his chest-of-drawers for a pair of spare bottoms and a jumper. Despite the balmy night air, he had no doubt in his mind that Haru would be quite cold.

He knew that Haru was used to cold temperature way below the surface of the sea, but there were also active underwater volcanoes that would make the surrounding area quite warm, so he figured warmer clothing would be best.

Dressing Haru was an ordeal in itself; he was floppy and awkward as Rin helped him clumsily step out of the bathtub and sitting down on the toilet seat. Rin was a little perturbed that Haru was still naked, but the awkwardness abated as soon as Rin eased the tracksuit bottoms up and over the pale boys' narrow hips. It had been a trial in getting Haru up on his brand new feet and balancing against Rin; his arms hanging limply around Rin's strong, square shoulders. He had made small noises but his voice was still breaking a little, so Rin had simply hushed him before letting him sit down on the toilet again and helped thread his arms and head through the appropriate holes of his hoodie.

"Are you hungry?" Rin asked, once again crouching down on the bathroom floor, his face pulled into a frown as he peered at Haru through his thick messy hair. When he saw the creature shakes his head a little, he finally sighed softly before standing up, "Alright then, come on; I need to get you up and into bed. You need a lot of rest if you're going to be able to talk to me properly about all of this. I just … I can't understand it." He couldn't help but shrug as Haru shifted his head back to peer up at Rin, the yellow hoodie making him look fairly sickly.

His dark eyes made something stir inside Rin and it made him feel a little uncomfortable.

"Do you want to go to sleep?" he asked.

Haru blinked slowly, the large irises gleaming fifty shades of blue in the bright bathroom light. "Okay …" he finally croaked before holding his hands out for Rin to take. Together they pulled and pushed until Haru was standing upright, most of his weight leaning back against Rin's chest.

"Do you think you'll be able to make it up the stairs?" Rin asked as they managed to shuffle their way down the narrow hallway and stopped at the bottom of the staircase. He watched as Haru craned his neck up a little to stare at the stairs in question.

"N-No …"

"Okay," the redhead bit down on his lip and frowned as he tried to think of a way to get Haru up to the landing. Then an idea clicked in his head; he could simply do it the way he and his dad used to carry Gou up to bed when she'd fallen asleep on the sofa. "Hold onto the bannister as tight as you can," he instructed as he unwound Haru's arms from his neck and looped them around the end of the bannister. He watched Haru's muscles strain as he struggled to hold all of his weight up on his shaking legs.

Rin crouched down beside the creature, trying his best not to stare at the long, webbed toes, before easing one of the quaking legs around his other side. He looped both arms around his neck, the weight of Haru resting on his back. "Okay, I'm going to lift you up onto my back alright?" he warned over his shoulder. He wasn't even sure if the boy was still awake. Hooking both of Haru's thighs under his arms, he lifted up a little more and hoisted the lithe creature completely onto his back.

Haru have a small started yelp and dug his nails in through Rin's shirt, but made no other moves to run off.

Adjusting to the new weight, Rin tightened his grip on Haru's legs and slowly started to climb the stairs, desperately wishing he could hold onto the bannister for support. Each time Haru shifted, he felt the bones in his narrow muscles japing through his thin, summer clothes, but Rin carried on climbing until he reached the soft, plush carpet on the landing. Once there, he made a U-turn and headed straight for his sister's room which was adjacent to his own at the end of the hallway.

Kicking open the door he was assaulted with the smell of an unused room; it was a soft, forgotten smell and made his chest ache with nostalgia for the company of his little sister and the jokes they used to share. With a soft grunt, he managed to shift Haru off his back and onto the single bed. Haru barely made a sound as he lie there, stiff as a board and his eyes wide and glassy as Rin shook the cover out from underneath him and draped it over the creature's body.

"There you go," he smiled gently as he adjusted the blanket over Haru's narrow feet. "Is that alright for you?"

Haru stared owlishly at his surroundings; his chest heaved before he pressed his thin lips together and nodding stiffly.

Rin gave a small, tired smile, "I'm right next door if you need me okay? Just yell or knock on the wall or something and I'll come in."

Haru didn't respond. He merely shifted under the blankets until it was covering his mouth. Rin resisted the urge to stroke Haru's damp hair out of his eyes and, instead, turned and walked out of his sister's room. He pulled the door to, letting it click shut, before sighing heavily and cracking the kinks out of his joints.

Padding over into his own room he turned the small bedside light on and drew the blinds down over his window. It was already quite late in the evening and his skin was a little tight from the excessive exposure to the sun. He could still smell sea water and hot sand. The sound of said sand falling out of every crack and crevice made his skin crawl. He would have to sort out his house and give it a once-over with the hoover. The idea was unappealing but he reasoned that it would give him more of a chance to think of what to do with Haru now that he had no tail.

He had no tail.

The thought was still alien to him and made his full belly flip uncomfortably. How was the boy on the other side of the wall now an actual boy instead of a strange creature that was flopping about in his bathtub? It was too surreal for him to comprehend as he sank down onto the end of his bed and dropped his head into his hands. His heart drummed steadily in his chest as he flexed his shoulder muscles and stretched the kinks out of his legs. It had been a long day. If he was going to carry-on and get out of bed the following morning, then he needed to get some sleep.

Rubbing his hand down his face he stripped down and changed into a new pair of underwear before climbing into his bed and tossing the covers over himself. The sheets were cool to the touch ad made him shiver pleasurably. After such a long day in the unbearable heat and the panic he'd felt upon returning home, it was nice to just take a moment and relax completely.

His mind was still racing inside his head as he turned the light off and plunged the room into darkness.

In the room next door he could here Haru tossing and turning back and forth in his sisters' bed. He must be incredibly uncomfortable with his newly formed legs and lying in fabric that clearly irritating his skin. Maybe Rin should get an airbed? Perhaps the rubber would feel better on his new, raw skin than the cotton sheets? Rin turned over on his side and curled an arm under his head; he wanted to be able to do something for Haru but there didn't seem to be anything within his power to help. Not yet at least; everything was too up in the air at such a late hour to accomplish anything.

Even if he wanted to go and blow up his own inflatable lino, it would take far too long to do it at such a late hour and it wouldn't help either one of them. Rin would end up waking up too late to do anything in the day, and Haru would get some sleep and that would be it on the matter.

Whatever needed doing was simply going to have to wait until morning.

A/N: Hope you've enjoy this update now that I am indeed alive! X