His house was clean, which was the second major difference Karkat found upon arriving home. The first major difference was there were no remnants of debris or other storm damage left scattered about outside, but holy hell his house was clean. Karkat couldn't remember the last time it had looked not completely shitty. Had his carpet always been that white?

He inspected his home from top to bottom, entirely blown away by the care his friends had taken to restoring the place after the storm. The busted window had been replaced, and his refrigerator had been restocked with actual edibles, and not just cheap dubiously named fish. The place was almost like it had been when he first moved in, and he knew that the restoration had to have come from his Dad's paychecks.

"I'll have to send him a thank you later," Karkat grumbled, looking down to the backyard. His fence had also been repaired. "I suppose I need to thank you for arranging this, asshole."

Sollux's snores were his only response.

He hadn't come home expecting his house to be back in living state, and he certainly had not been expecting to see his family and friends gathered there to welcome him home from hospice. He may have been so moved that he cried a little. The party that followed had been unexpected, but at least he now knew that Sollux had an affinity for the little cone hats. He had two on his head right now, one red one blue.

It was late, and Karkat knew that it was beyond the time he should have gone to bed, but the last of the guests had just departed (minus the bum on his couch) and he had a monster to face.
Without waking his friend, Karkat stepped over to the garage door, wincing as it squeaked on its hinges. There were no interruptions in the snoring, so Karkat inched down the stairs, leaving the door ajar behind him. Everything had been put back where it belonged and there was a brand new freezer sitting against the back wall, but his Sunfish was gone and he couldn't ignore the sharp pang he felt at its absence.

"Haven't touched it in years and now I'm feeling sentimental?" Karkat groaned, rubbing his hands over his eyes. "I never washed the blood from it. Why should I care?"

He turned to face the freezer in order to inspect its contents and nearly wailed at the sight of the mass of boxed fish fingers. A note was taped disarmingly on the top of the vomit inducing succulents, and wondered how a single drunken night could come back to haunt him so thoroughly.

Karkat,

Everything in your fridge had gone bad so we had no choice but to toss it.
I know you were tight on money this month, so your mother and I restocked it with
some more variety then just your fish fingers, but we also included this since you
seem to like them so much. It's weird though, I could have sworn you hated them.

Love, Dad.

God. Fucking. Dammit.

It was with disgust that he finally turned and marched out to his backyard, barely noting the door outside was back and a brand new grill was sitting by it, and made a cautious bee line to the pool. He stopped some feet from its edge and surveyed the remnants of the deck still within it. His dad had told him that it was going to be fixed, no matter how Karkat had argued, but it was going to wait until his parents could come back to see him.

It was better this way, Karkat thought, since no one else would face the danger of the thing lurking beneath the surface. He would never forgive himself if anyone got hurt on his account, not after all the trouble he had caused.

The water was calming as it always was, especially when the moon reflected off its surface. On nights when he couldn't sleep he would lay on his back and simply float, staring up at the sky pretending he was in the ocean. It wasn't difficult to imagine, he could hear the waves on the beach and feel the breeze that swept in towards shore. It was the only time he could clear his mind and not feel the terror well inside him once again. He had felt safe, like he was a kid again and the worst thing that could happen was getting shoved into a locker or failing a test.

Now with this there was nothing to curb that vicious stab of anxiety, clawing its way from the back of his subconscious. His last sanctuary had been stripped from him and he wanted it back. Karkat lifted a sizeable stick and swung it once or twice to check its strength. While that thing was in there he had no way to retreat from his head, and now he wanted revenge.

He had been dreaming of warmth, of hearing his computers humming against the backdrop of waves as his arms wrapped around a person beside him. The scent of honey and spice overran his senses and he couldn't give a single damn about it. It had been the happiest sensation he had experienced, like the peace that settled in ones brain after coming out of a depressive spell. Ecstasy in the baseline is what he would call it, the sweetest type of sugar you didn't know you needed until it turned bitter and harsh on your tongue.

Being jerked into sudden alertness ruined that mood, and he smothered down his irritation from being cock blocked by his own brain. He stood up and stretched, groaning as several pops echoed up his spine. That dream had been going to steamy places, he could still feel the phantom tangle of lips on his, and he contemplated sneaking off to a bathroom before returning to sleep. What had woken him though was a bit of a mystery, there was nothing nearby that could have solicited such an instant wakening. He could hear nothing but the whir of the fridge, the breeze rustling the foliage outside, and the distant crescendo of screaming.

Wait.

Logical thought was replaced with the drumming repetition of 'where's Karkat' and his feet were already carrying him to the kitchen. His friend wasn't in the room but he noted the outline of the open door. He was halfway down the stiars when the screaming stopped.

Bursting out in the yard he heaved in relief when he saw Karkat alive and in one piece, and had he mentioned alive yet? He wasn't well though, and Sollux was dropping to his knees beside his friend, noting the symptoms of a blatant anxiety attack.

"KK!" Sollux's hands hovered near the other, "KK look at me."

An incident involving oncoming traffic made Sollux hesitate to actually touch his friend, a lesson learned the hard way, but as Karkat's heaving breaths became heavier Sollux was considering outright disregarding his 'no touchy' rule.

Karkat took him by surprise when his hands connected harshly with Sollux's shoulders and the world tipped backwards and sideways so violently he could almost believe they were still in traffic and the last few years had been nothing more than a pre-death hallucination. Karkat falling on top of him and then elbowing his ribs drove that thought away, but any irritation was replaced with confusion as he saw his friend kneel in front of him. Karkat was crouched defensively, facing away from him and cursing so thoroughly and swearing vengeance so painful if something ever tried grabbing Sollux again.

It was adorable, with Karkat bristling at the edges with anger but Sollux was cold, sore, and confused. He needed answers and he needed them now. So he shoved his friend over. The following spluttering was amusing, and Karkat's face grew crimson as Sollux failed to stifle a grin.

"Do you know that you have shoved us both sixteen centimeters closer to being eaten alive?!" Karkat snarled.

"What are you talking about?" Sollux raised an eyebrow before glancing around for emphasis. "Why are you even out here right now?"

"I'm dealing with it. Go back inside and slobber on my couch you festering excuse for a homo-ignoramus."

"For fuck's sake! I'm not going to eat you, what is wrong with all you lan' dwellers assumin' that all the glubbin' time?"

The third voice was entirely unexpected and Sollux shrieked as Karkat's hand flew to clutch his chest. Curious, Sollux pushed Karkat aside to see the new comer.

"KK?" Sollux removed his glasses and polished them on his shirt. He placed them back on his face and blinked for extra measure. "KK what ith that?"

Karkat was too busy beating his fist over his heart and choking on his breath for any added commentary.

Leaning out of the water and over the edge of the pool was a entirely normal human torso, a slightly less human head, and some rather unique pair of arms. A pair on entirely inhuman set of shark teeth were being displayed as the creature tried to grin at them. Sollux supposed it thought it was being friendly. Karkat hissed at it like an angry kitten and Sollux noted an entirely unnecessary replacement appendage.

"Where are your legth?" Sollux usually asked the hard-hitting questions, apparently today was not one of those days.

"My what?" Actual fins flared on its neck and sides. "Speak English you gill-less grass sucker!"

"Wow, rude." Was Sollux's thorough and well-thought retort. Karkat, who was apparently unhappy with Sollux's interrogation skills picked then to rejoin the conversation.

"Legs! He is asking where your waddle appendages are! Which is a perfectly acceptable question, in case you were wondering, because you don't have any! Legs, that is. Strider's blistering vocal hole, you don't have any legs. Sollux! Sollux he doesn't have any legs." As he spoke his voice rose in pitch, and Sollux decided to halt his friends collapse into hysteria via the application of his hand to the others' mouth.

"Thooth you blubbering goddamn panthy."

"Of all the fuckin' boxed up water contraptions in all the coast, I had ta get stranded in this one." The man, the fish? He had a tail for fuck's sake. Man-fish? Grumbled. "Is this land where the humans stash all their sub-moronic ones, because I thought Kan was a low standard for intelligence but you two take the harpoon and drive it into the cod-damn hilt on idiocy."

"You call uth moronth but whoth the oneth who can walk away from thith converthation? Not you, athhole. Thith mutht be why your thtuck here, you're a jackath and the thea jutht couldn't contain any more of your thit."

"We've established that I don't have legs!" The fish-man twisted and a glistening silver tail flashed in the moonlight. It looked a lot like a shark fin, and judging by the harsh intake of breath next to him Karkat must have noticed as well. Whatever this was, whatever this kind of situation they were having was swiftly devolving. Karkat was pushing back onto his feet, and Sollux wasn't sure he was fond of the part-panicky part- dissociative expression settling in. If answers were going to gather and shit to remain unflipped he needed to wrangle the shenanigans into a manageable state. "Let's move onto the next topic at hand."

"KK athk quethtionth now freak out later, okay?" Karkat opened his mouth to retort but Sollux stood and pressed a finger against his lips and shushed him again. Their softness was familiar. Stupid subconscious. "Don't fight it KK you'll thank me after we're done."

"What the hell are you?" Not the start Sollux had in mind but at least it worked.

"Of all the... excuse you?" Perhaps it didn't work quite so well. Sollux stepped in to translate for his friend.

"What he meanth ith what thpethieth are you? Humanth have a long thtanding myth talking about people with fith tailth, but there ithn't much thtock put in them. Thuffice to thay, we are both unnerved and pothibly unhinged at the thight of you."

"Everythin' that comes outta' your mouth is a ship wreck." It sneered at them, lashing it's tail in obvious irritation. "I have, as you say, 'a fish tail' and live in the ocean. For clarification it's that big blue wet thin' over yonder, you know that thin' that big boats sit on?"

"We know what the ocean is jackass!" Karkat snapped. "What are you doing in my favorite pool?"

"There a storm that blew inland a few weeks back. I was stranded durin' it and don' wanna be here. It's cramped an' I'm starvin' and want to get back to deeper waters. Get me back to the ocean and we can all ignore this happened."

"You have got to be thitting me if you honethtly think we are coming anywhere near your proximity."

"You've been in there without food for two-in-a-half weeks?"

Eridan groaned and ran a (webbed) hand through his hair, and Karkat was standing pensively next to Sollux.

"Now I'm tryin' ta be patient with the both a' you, and I'll admit this isn't exactly the mos' expected of meetin's to happen and you both are flounderin' a bit. But I gotta say I've got a bit of a temper and my patience is wearin' thin. I'd hate to hurt either you guppies but..."

"Touch KK and I thwear I will tear off your finth and feed your gullet by thtuffing them down your inthufferable throat."

"Way to be like every other land dweller and be an absolute waste of resources."

"Thuck my dick you pathetic excuthe for a goldith."

They continued to bicker counter-productively, so Sollux hadn't noticed that Karkat had slipped away until he returned with a determined look in his eyes and arms laden with the burden of bright cardboard boxes.

"I have no idea if these disgusting abominations will be palatable to you, but they're supposedly made with actual fish meat and not whatever they've dug from the trash." Karkat said as he pushed a single box towards the creature with a stick. "Though if you've been in there as long as you say without food, I'd imagine any kind of crap disguised as sustenance would taste like the world's most coveted can of caviar."

"Caviar?" It asked.

"Baby fith eggth." Sollux replied helpfully.

A horrified croak came from the pools occupant, and Karkat glared at Sollux from the corner of his eyes.

"That's barbaric, an' I refuse to partake in any sacrilegious food item that's in any part related to 'em." He maturely threw the box at Karkat.
Karkat took the box and ripped it open, stuffing his hand inside with more force than necessary. With a fish stick in hand he chucked it, smacking the creature in its face.

"Fine, my choice of words sucked, now sink your nightmare teeth into that delectable shit stick and stop starving to death. I have no desire to keep a single box of these and would willingly sacrifice every last one to make sure you do not die and pollute my pool."

With that Karkat threw several boxes over. It sniffed the flaky fish item suspiciously, but with a thoughtful hum it was sacrificed to its thoracic cavity and awaiting gullet. It had barely finished swallowing before it was tearing into the other boxes, stuffing its face with undignified grace.

"I have to thay," Sollux stated, "I hate you already, but I have to admire your tenathity and fortitude for thothe thitty excutheth for cuithine."

The creature glared, but was too preoccupied with stuffing itself to be bothered to respond with more than a middle finger. Its hands were webbed so the maneuver drew an impressed hum from both Sollux and Karkat.

"So," Karkat shifted awkwardly, "My name is Karkat, and this asshole is Sollux."

"Dithpleathure I'm thertain."

"Until we manage to get you to the ocean we should call you something. Do you have a name or something? Please not a series of sounds or whale noises, like I wouldn't even bother trying to say I'd just call you Nemo."

"Nemo?" Sollux asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I like the movie, okay?" Karkat shot back defensively.

Sollux snickered before lowering his tone.

"You're fine with thith? You're fine with letting thith thing thtay here, in your pool, like thome thort of uninvited guetht until we figure out how to get it back to the othen or it eatth uth?"

The merman stopped stuffing its face and swallowed, huffing impatiently to get their attention. Karkat's face softened when they turned around, and of course it would out of pity for Karkat to call peace.

Like a kid dragging in an injured animal begging his mom to keep it.

"Can I keep this fish guy I found in the backyard mama? It talks and wants to eat me."

Yeah, Mother Leijon would be so down for that.

An elbow planted firmly in his stomach brought Sollux out his daydream of terror and death to see the fish-man was going to say something.

"My name is Eridan," Eridan glanced between Sollux and Karkat. His face spread into that triangle teeth terror grin and Sollux tried not the shutter. "Eridan Ampora and I am the Prince of these waters, thank you very much. An of all the ridiculous clam-trap shit, I'm not gonna eat anyone, 'specially not you two. That'd be fuckin' unconscionable."

They were keeping the scaly asshole. Whoop-dee-fuckin-doo.