Swimming with the Sharks

by Jagger3

Tavros is a new employee at The Aquarium, his dream job. But one day he discovers a secret kept behind a locked door, and suddenly he's sucked into the depths of a watery world that wasn't on his contract. It's hard to keep your head above water when there are people determined to drag you under. Rated M for violence and sexual themes.

5. Chapter 5

Chapter five

Karkat stood on the edge of Gamzee's pool, hands on his hips, glaring down at his obnoxious excuse for an only friend, "Are you shitting me."

"Sorry bro." Gamzee smiled sheepishly, looking up at him with big golden eyes.

"How did you even…you know what? I don't care." Karkat threw his hands up and went to get the latter he now kept in the room. "Those rafters are almost twenty feet in the air. Twenty god damn feet!"

Gamzee swam on his back, looking up as Karkat scaled the latter, "Careful bro…"

"Fuck careful." Karkat grumbled as the latter swayed, reaching out for the ball that had been wedged in between two rafters. For a second his body hovered over open space, and then he swatted the ball down and it fell towards Gamzee.

With a yelp the merman quickly dove out of the way, letting the ball slap the water where his head had just been.

Karkat descended, still muttering to himself, and put the latter away with an indignant sniff, "Look, I gotta go clean a fucking walrus tank, so listen up. I'm gonna clean your tank tonight, got it? So be ready to sit your ass on that platform."

"Okay." Gamzee grinned, circling around and swimming alongside Karkat as he walked, "Can Tavros come?"

"What?" Karkat stumbled slightly, "What did you say?"

"Tavros. Can he come? A brother gets all kinds of lonely and I don't like making you do all that shit by yourself…"

Karkat was silent for a while, a muscle jumping in his jaw, before he said slowly, "How long as Tavros been visiting you?"

"I dunno, a while?"

"Days?"

"Nah, longer."

"…weeks?"

"I'd say more like months, why?"

"I'll be back tonight." Karkat said coldly, turning away and walking out of there, leaving Gamzee to wonder if he'd said something wrong.

"Nitram!"

"Mnff?" Tavros looked up the Lemon shark tank, releasing the pregnant female from his hands as a watery image of a ferocious scowl came into focus.

"Nitram you surface right now or so help me god I'll dump a bucket full of fish guts on top of you."

Yeah that was Karkat. Tavros swam to the top of the tank and spat his mouth piece out, "Hi Karkat, what's wrong?"

"Don't fucking ask like you don't know. Get out and put some clothes on; we gotta talk."

Tavros played with his fingers as he sat on the couch in the staff room, watching Karkat pace around in front of him. He had an idea what this was about—why else would Karkat be acting like this? Or speaking to him at all for that matter. Finally, after it looked like Karkat was going to wear a path in the floor, he finally spoke.

"Listen fuck ass, how long have you been going in there?"

"What?"

"Don't play smart ass with me!" Karkat snapped, rounding on Tavros with a look that made the vet recoil back. What had he done that was so wrong?

"I-I dunno, a few months? Are we talking about Gamz—"

"Shut up!"

Tavros snapped his mouth closed, alarmed.

Karkat took a breath, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. You could easily see him counting to ten in his mind, before he took a breath and said in a more controlled tone, "Listen to me Nitram, and listen fucking good." He waited until Tavros nodded before continuing, "Gamzee is not like some cool little fish friend you just happened to find in some magical closet. He's a person. He has feelings and can get hurt. Do you know what those…those…" Karkat's voice shook with barely concealed anger, "those fishermen did to him? You've seen the scars. He's different, and if people knew about him he'd be locked away in some lab. He'd be experimented on. He'd be killed, do you understand me? This may be some fucking hilarious game for you, but he's my friend and won't let you fucking do that!"

"Karkat, no it's not like that at all," Tavros protested, holding his hands up, "Look, I…I didn't know about all of that. But I know Gamzee's a person. We're friends too. He's…he's funny and likes to ask a lot of questions and he's a really nice, uh, whatever he is."

"He's a secret." Karkat said quietly, "Feferi found him and brought him here. She charged me to take care of him. Nobody knows about him except her and me. And now you. I fucking knew we should've done a better job hiding him." Karkat trudged to the couch and sunk into the cushions, head in his hands. "I fucking said so. I fucking said he couldn't stay here. And look what happened…"

"Nothing happened!" Tavros was hesitant to move closer to Karkat, "And nothing will. I promise I won't speak a word of this to anyone. I haven't either. I know that Gamzee is…different. I didn't really think that people would…experiment on him or something…" He swallowed the taste of the bitter word, "Karkat, you've got to believe me. I wouldn't do anything to hurt Gamzee."

Karkat looked up from his hands, his eyes hard, "I don't think it would be intentional. Nitram, you seem like a pretty nice motherfucker," the word made Tavros smile fleetingly, "but that's just it. You're too nice. Feferi can easily get people off her back and fuck knows I can too. But you? You're a loose end."

Gamzee rolled over and swam the length of his pool for the umpteenth time. Tavros was late. He usually got here around four or so, which was three hours ago. The aquarium closed around eight, so maybe he'd drop by in another hour? He did have work and all. Feeding those toothy motherfuckers must be some hard work.

A blissful grin unfurled across Gamzee's lips as he thought again about his adventure last night. It had been a sensory overload, and he hadn't gotten any sleep last night, preferring to lay back and run through it all in his mind. Those sharks that Tavros took care of were pretty fucking tough looking. It made Gamzee a little concerned that Tavros hopped right in there and fed them, but his bro assured him that is was only with the nicer ones and he knew what he was going.

Still, that was a lot more teeth than a motherfucker really needed.

Jellyfish thought. Man those things were the shit. All blobby and floating and getting their chill on. Looking all cool as shit, some of those fuckers even glowing—though Tavbro said that was just the lighting of the tank. But man, all of them were see-through! Gamzee couldn't get over that. Little floating blobs with tentacles and see-through bodies. Fucking weird shit man. He wished they weren't such testy little shits so he could pick one up or something.

Gamzee bent over backwards and swam down, his tail propelling him to the bottom of his pool. It was a pretty standard, smooth sided pool, though Karkat had put in some fake coral shit for him which was fun to play with sometimes. Maybe he could have a fish or two here with him, one of those bright tropical fuckers with all the colors. He'd like a fish. Someone to chill with, even though it wouldn't talk much. Just a friend. Like Tavros. Which got back to the question; where was he?

Sitting down on the edge of one of the coral pieces, Gamzee ran his fingers down his tail, remembering how gently Tavros had touched it. He'd looked so enchanted over something so boring, but then again Gamzee probably figured he'd looked the same way when playing with Tavros' toes. But like his bro said; tails were kinda cool after all.

The clang of a door opening and shutting brought Gamzee out of his mood, and he excitedly flicked his tail, swimming closer to the surface.

"Fuckass, get out we need to clean your tank."

Karkat.

Never before had Gamzee been disappointed to hear his best friend's voice, and it made him extremely confused as well as upset. He sighed in a cloud of bubbles and slowly rose to the water line, pushing his hair from his eyes.

"Hi Gamzee."

Gamzee did a double take at the two people standing by the side of his pool. A familiar scowl and a warm smile. Gamzee felt his face light up and with a splash he dove back under the water, shooting forwards so fast the water felt like a silky caress as he passed through it.

Tavros giggled as Gamzee shot out of the water, spraying both of them which earned a curse from Karkat, "Hey, didn't think I'd not come, did you?"

"Nah bro, just didn't know when." Gamzee's tail whisked back and forth, unable to keep still, "Karkat!"

"Yeah yeah hi fuckass." Karkat grumbled, though Gamzee could see the gentle amusement in his eyes, "Now get your fishy ass over to the god damn platform so we can drain this shit hole!"

Gamzee grinned and flipped over, looping around the bottom of the pool to get rid of some energy before swimming up to the platform and using his arms to drag himself into shallow water. The process of cleaning was an all night job, mostly thanks to draining and refilling the pool, and Karkat instantly got to work on that.

The water made a disgruntled gurgle and slowly the water level began to drop. It took almost two hours for the damn thing to drain, so the three of them sat on the platform and watched the water pull away from Gamzee's body and fall into the sinking pool.

"One of my Lemon sharks is pregnant." Tavros said, crossing his legs and facing Gamzee and Karkat, who was on the other side of the merman.

"She's gonna have babies?" Gamzee grinned excitedly, "Little Lemon sharks?"

"You should call one of them wedge. You know, Lemon Wedge?" Karkat commented, earning a look of disbelief from Tavros. A Karkat with a sense of humor? Gamzee looked equally as confused; though that might've been because he didn't know what a lemon was.

"Yeah, that leaves 19 other babies to name." Tavros chuckled.

"Holy shit, she's gonna have 20 babies?" Gamzee looked a little alarmed by this thought.

"Well, maybe. She can have from about 5-20 babies." Tavros explained, "She'll most likely have a litter in the lower teens, but before then she'll need an isolated tank. Just to keep her comfy. After that we'll move her back with her friends. Lemon sharks are social creatures."

"I wonder if I could have one of the babies." Gamzee mused.

"Oh god no." Karkat interrupted, "It's hard enough taking care of you! I don't want a fucking shark in here too!"

Gamzee laughed and his tail twitched over the wet concrete, "Just a little one."

"It's gonna get bigger than you, dumb shit." Karkat rolled his eyes, and then gaped, "What the actual fuck, is that your ball!?"

Gamzee scooted a little closer to Tavros, "Uh, maybe?"

Tavros looked up and blinked. "Woah. How'd you get it up there?"

"Accident?" Gamzee replied weakly, shying away from Karkat infuriated look.

Tavros watched the next ten minutes of Karkat's well practiced latter scaling and freeing of said ball with no amount of inconsiderable awe. "But Gamzee…how'd you even get it over there? It's not near your pool."

Gamzee shrugged quietly, watching as Karkat climbed back down with the rubber ball in his grasp.

The janitor trudged over and tossed the ball at Gamzee with a weary sort of irritation before sitting back down next to his friend. "I fucking swear I'm gonna get these rafters removed if that happens one more time."

Gamzee smiled behind the ball and rolled it from hand to hand, watching as the water finally sank away with a rather sludgy sounding gurgle.

The other two got up and went to work, chatting with Gamzee who watched with obvious interest. They grabbed a bunch of buckets, mops, sponges, and set to work. It wasn't too bad, since Gamzee wasn't exactly messy nor were there any outside sources of dirt. But scum had a way of finding itself everywhere, so Tavros handled giving the coral a once over while Karkat swept the bottom and sides of the pool. It was a lot of work, but having someone to help made it a lot easier on Karkat, and he was in a slightly better mood than usual.

Tavros was cleaning one of the fake coral structures when something caught his eye. A single, beautiful purple scale was lying in one of the cracks of the coral. Tavros gentle plucked it out and studied it. It was the size of a thumb nail and had a lovely silvery sheen over the royal purple. It was one of the back scales on Gamzee's tail. Tavros pocketed it without thinking and continued cleaning, keeping an eye out for any others.

The scale got him thinking of Gamzee, and he glanced up at his friend, smiling when he caught his eye. He couldn't help but think of the other night, taking Gamzee around the eerily empty aquarium, the watery blue halls silent save for his gentle step and Gamzee's hushed questions. The look of wonderment on his friend's face was something Tavros savored. He couldn't imagine being locked up in a pool for his entire life, especially after living in something as big as the ocean before. Though Gamzee had said he didn't remember anything before the capture. Tavros chewed on his bottom lip, his mind replaying the final events of that night. The kiss…it had been innocent enough, he supposed, but now that he thought about it Tavros wondered what Gamzee knew about things like that. He most likely heard about it from Karkat, but did he know what it meant? Or was it just his way of saying thank you? He'd never seen Gamzee kiss Karkat…but then again Karkat never took him out of here.

"Hey fuckass!"

Tavros jumped, turning around to see the two of them staring at him from the platform, the latter they'd used to climb down resting against the side, "Yeah?"

"Get the fuck out, I'm gonna fill the pool." Karkat said, beckoning him over impatiently.

Tavros weaved his way around fake coral and scaled the latter, climbing up on the platform and walking up the ramp that would lead to the water, sitting next to Gamzee.

"Hey Tav, thanks for helping my bro." Gamzee grinned toothily at him, still holding the ball.

"Sure thing." Tavros smiled and stretched, yawning widely. There was a hissing gurgle noise and then water suddenly gushed out, sloshing over the now clean pool bottom and slowly beginning to rise.

"Right, well it'll shut off automatically once it's full. I'm gonna head home, got some shit to do. Bye fuckasses." Karkat raised a hand and then headed out, closing the door behind him and leaving them alone.

Gamzee tossed the ball into the pool and leaned back on his hands, grinning at his friend, "So talk to me, Tavbro, whatcha been all up and doing?"

"Working, mostly." Tavros shrugged and crossed his legs, "And thinking a bit."

"About?"

"You. Well, more specifically your living arrangement."

"What about it?"

"I don't know," Tavros shrugged, "I guess I was just thinking about what I'd be like living here, growing up here, and…I don't know, just thinking about it."

Gamzee cocked his head, "What are you getting at my brother? Something's fucking with your mind, I can tell."

"It's just not fair." Tavros' lips twisted in a sour smile, "You don't belong here. You belong in the ocean, with other mermen or whatever. Not here, locked away."

Gamzee studied the set on Tavros' shoulders and the frustrated expression, as though he thought he could do something about it. "Same goes for all these miraculous water beasts, my brother, nobody likes being in a cage."

"It's different," Tavros shook his head, "they don't feel like you do."

"They feel fear." Gamzee replied, looking up at the rafters, "And pain. And some of those fuckers feel attachment. You told me about this shit last night, remember? How seahorses mate for life and otters hold hands while they sleep so they don't drift away. You think they all up and like being in a cage?" Gamzee shook his head, "Nah brother, nobody likes it. But the way I see it us fish folk have got three options. One; live all up and free in the ocean. Two; live in a cage. Or three; get eaten. Out of all of those fuckers, I don't think I got caught with the worst option."

Tavros looked at his hands, fingers knotted in his lap, and sighed, "But you're different, Gamzee. You're more…"

"Like people?" Gamzee shook his head, "Is that what all up and matters? Appearances? So if your Lemon sharks had hair and those weird finger things on the ends of your feet you'd feel bad for them too?"

"No, I mean you can speak for yourself." Tavros tried to explain, his hands trying to shape what he meant, "Sharks and jellyfish can't talk. They need people to talk for them, to say that they can feel pain and fear. But you can talk for yourself, you ask questions and learn and are smart. You shouldn't be here."

They were quiet for a while, watching the water slowly fill up the pool in front of them, lapping over the fake coral and creating twisted ripples that grew and changed until they struck the sides and died.

"If I wasn't here I wouldn't have met Karkat." Gamzee finally said, his voice quiet, "Or you. I don't question what life throws at a humble little motherfucker like myself, but I'm glad I met you two. And when I have company it's not so bad."

Tavros turned, his eyes sad, "But look what you gave up for it." His eyes lingered on the three thin scars cutting diagonally across his friend's face.

He shrugged and looked at Tavros, "It is what it is, my brother. Now stop looking so sad, it's making my scales itch."

Tavros smiled and dropped it for the time being, "I've actually been meaning to ask you something, if you don't mind?"

"Shoot the wicked shit at me my brother." Gamzee replied, grinning.

"Are there more of you? Like do you have a family?"

Gamzee blinked and cocked his head, "I don't have a motherfucking clue. I don't really remember much shit from when I was a wiggler."

"A what?"

"Wiggler. That's what Karkat called me, I think 'cause I swam like a spaz."

Tavros laughed, able to imagine it too easily; little Gamzee flailing around in a giant pool full of water, too excited to pick a direction to swim in. "I can picture that." He looked over at Gamzee and grinned, "Hey, your hair…"

"What about it?"

"It's…fluffy." Tavros blinked, looking startled. Since Gamzee was constantly swimming his hair was usually almost shoulder length, sort of wavy and dark as pitch. But now it was a mass of insanity perched on someone's head and labeled 'hair'. It was almost wavy, not quite curly, and seemed to behave like how little Gamzee used to swim; unable to pick a direction. So it covered all bases; ending up looking quite eccentric. How had he not noticed on their walk last night?

Gamzee reached up and ruffled it, "It does its own shit." He personally liked Tavros' hair a lot better. With his shaved sides and floppy Mohawk, he looked motherfucking adorable.

Tavros' eyes once again returned to his friend's scars, lingering slightly on where they ended on his jaw line. Without thinking, he slowly reached out, meaning to cup the side of Gamzee's face and brush his thumb along the torn flesh.

It took a second for Gamzee to realize what Tavros was doing, and as his hand approached his face, specifically his scars, the merman flinched involuntarily.

Tavros froze, arm outstretched, "I…sorry." He quickly moved to retract his hand, feeling like he'd just swallowed an eel. Had he really just tried to touch Gamzee's scars? What the hell was he thinking?

Gamzee caught his wrist, stopping the movement, "No, it's okay. It's just…" he trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. He kept his hand lightly on Tavros' wrist as his friend slowly moved closer, making sure not to flinch this time. It was Tavros. Tavros wouldn't hurt him.

Gently, like handling a spooked animal, Tavros rested his hand on the side of Gamzee's face, keeping his movements slow and predictable. He rubbed his thumb softly along his friend's cheekbone, and then down to the first of the three scars. He let the pad of his thumb run over the slightly shiny strip of skin, noticing how Gamzee held perfectly still. "It's okay," Tavros said softly, "I won't do anything you don't want me to."

Slowly, Gamzee released the breath he'd been holding, pushing aside the weird prickling over his skin as Tavros stroked the tips of his scars. He'd never let anyone touch them. He'd fought tooth and nail against Karkat when he'd first come here, even though his friend had been trying to help heal him. Karkat ended up having to sedate him and clean him up that way. But now here was this person, running his fingers over his scars and looking at him with such a tender, careful expression it made Gamzee want to reassure him that it was fine. And it was, he realized with a jolt. It was completely fine. Nice, even. When had that changed?

Tavros felt very conscious of the emptiness of the room and then soothing sound of water sloshing as it filled the pool. He felt Gamzee's hand on his wrist, the light brushing of his cool skin against Tavros' surprisingly warm body. The different texture of the scar tissue under his thumb and how soft Gamzee's cheek was, all of this flew through Tavros' mind as he moved a little closer, not aware of what he was doing until Gamzee met him half way.

The soft pressure of Tavros' lips against his own made a small shiver travel up Gamzee's spine and he let his eyes slide shut. Tavros' hand held his face, warm and calloused against his skin, and Gamzee's other hand moved to his friend's waist, resting on the gentle curve of his hips. He felt Tavros murmur against his lips and he pulled him closer.

Tavros complied, sliding his body so his hip was against where Gamzee's torso smoothed out into scales, wrapping an arm around the merman's waist and holding him close as he kissed him. He felt Gamzee's hand leave his wrist in favor of tangling in his hair, the sharp nails scratching against the base of his skull and making him gasp.

Gamzee took his opportunity to deepen the kiss, his teeth nibbling on Tavros' plump lower lip.

"Ah," Tavros jerked back, looking surprised. A bead of blood bloomed on his lower lip where Gamzee's unusually sharp teeth had been, tasting metallic as Tavros swiped it away with his tongue.

"Shit, I'm sorry." Gamzee said, releasing Tavros' hair and running a finger over his split lip.

"It's okay, doesn't hurt at all." Tavros said, and then seeing Gamzee's look added, "I work with sharks, Gamzee, believe me—this is nothing." He smiled and was rewarded by one from Gamzee, the kind that pulled one corner of his mouth up crookedly and made Tavros feel like he had eels in his stomach again.

Suddenly a cool wetness seeped over Tavros' legs and butt, making him yelp in surprise and jump up. The pool had filled itself completely and the water ceased rising, lapping gently over Gamzee's body. "Want to swim with me?" The merman asked, eagerly moving back into the water with a happy sigh.

Tavros looked down at his wet shorts, "Well I'm already wet, might as well." He pulled off his shirt and shorts, kicked off his sandals, and followed Gamzee into the water. It was cold, and Tavros felt his skin prickle as he slid in, submerging his head and opening his eyes underwater. It was sort of blurry, but Tavros could easily see in the cool, clean pool water. He wished he'd brought his air tank; spending hours underwater in that tranquil silence was something he loved.

Gamzee sunk underwater, swimming down below Tavros and then looking up at him, grinning.

Tavros smiled and waved, and broke the surface for air. He felt a rush of water around his body and then Gamzee was there too, his hair once again sleek and wet—though a few stubborn strands continued to stick out at odd angles.

"Hold your breath bro, I wanna show you something." Gamzee said, waiting until Tavros took a deep breath before wrapping his arms around him and pulling him down. He held Tavros to his chest, arms looped around his friend's torso as his powerful tail propelled them to the bottom of the pool. Gamzee handled Tavros easily, careful not to let him hit any of the coral, and then sat down on one of the fake rocks. Keeping Tavros securely in his arms, he pointed silently at his underwater world.

Despite the fact it was fake, Karkat had obviously gone to great lengths to find fake coral that at least looked real enough. It was like looking over a vast land of rocks that at first seemed just brown. But as Tavros looked, he saw greens and pinks and yellows emerge. Fake seaweed flowed lethargically in the current made by Gamzee's tail, and small fake sea anemones swung their feelers in a mock threat. Sand dollars were stuck to the sides of the coral in some places, and all of it was bathed in the silent watery world.

Tavros became aware of his lack of air, his chest beginning to ache and his lungs burn. He tapped Gamzee's arms and pointed at the surface.

Gamzee shook his head and brought his face back to Tavros', pressing his lips firmly against the startled human's. He used his tongue to make Tavros part his lips, and then blew a breath of air into his friend's body, pulling away and grinning.

Tavros blinked, the ache subsiding into a pleasant burn as oxygen was delivered to his lungs. What was that? It tasted a little fishy… His confusion must've shown on his face because Gamzee laughed; the sound was silent underwater and bubbles flowed from his mouth like little minnows, desperately swimming to the surface.

They stayed down there for a bit longer, Gamzee giving him another breath of air when Tavros needed it, and then they surfaced, Gamzee holding Tavros in his arms again.

With a small gasp Tavros broke the water line, sucking in air and looking behind him at Gamzee, "How'd you do that?"

"What? The air thing? It's easy bro." He leaned backwards, floating easily, his tail gentle cutting through the water and pushing him along. Tavros, still in his arms, was towed along with him.

"So you can breathe underwater?" Tavros asked, looking automatically at Gamzee's neck for gills.

"Nah, not quite. I just sort of release all the air in my lungs and then I can chill out under there for a long ass time. Not really sure how it works. But I took some air this time so you'd be all up and fine down there."

"Sort of like a seal." Tavros commented, leaning back on Gamzee's chest, his head under his friend's chin. He could feel Gamzee's body pressing against his, their bare skin almost suctioned together from the water. Tavros felt the fluid movement of his friend's hidden muscle as he swam, the way it coiled and stretched and contracted as Gamzee held him and swam backwards, tail moving them through the water. His arms were securely locked around his chest and stomach, and Tavros' eyes fell on the distinct white markings on the darker side of Gamzee's arms. They looked nice, like thin white cuffs, and Tavros traced them up his friend's arm with his pointer finger.

They drifted along together; Tavros in Gamzee's arms, letting Gamzee's tail propel them gently from one side of the pool to the other, filling the empty room with the gentle sounds of moving water.