Chapter Six

"Yes sir, the emperor penguins shell be sent shortly, thank you for your business." Eridan hung up the phone, "Glubbing moron…" He slicked his hair back from his forehead and leaned back in his chair, nose turned up in dissatisfaction at the computer screen in front of him. He reached for his phone, the gold rings on his fingers winking in the light as he pressed a button and held the phone to his ear, "Fef? It's me. Yes I know your office is right next to me, cod I'm not stupid."

Eridan listened to her speak, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "Yes the penguins are fine—of course I have their best interests in mind! Alright I'll check on them clam down—aha yes, thank you." He hung up and rubbed his hands together, admiring the sheen on his filed nails. Desk hands, free from calluses, not meant for handling fish. Eridan Ampora was a sea man; he loved the smell of salt water and the sharp ocean wind. But he didn't love the reek of fish guts or the slimy look of scales. Nor did he love the pitching waves that slammed against a boat's hull, or the grueling labor of a sailor.

Standing and brushing off his elegant purple coat, Eridan strode off to go check on the penguins—which were bloody fine by the wave! Fish puns…they always brought a grin to his face. It'd started off innocent enough; he and his school friend Feferi making fish jokes and getting people to groan in exasperation. Somehow that had ended up with duel-ownership of the best aquarium and fishy phone calls—though most people assumed Feferi was the head honcho. Not true!

Boots snapping against the floor, Eridan stalked by the Tiger shark tank and then did a double take, "What are you doing?"

A young man clad in a wet suit looked up in confusion, and then did a double take, "Oh, hello Mr. Ampora. I was just pausing on my way to the Lemon shark tank to make sure everything was fine here."

Who the hell was this—oh wait. Wasn't it that doctor fellow? What was his name…cod dammit. Oh well. "Lemon sharks, uh huh."

"One of the females is pregnant." He said, smiling eagerly.

"Congratulations." Eridan replied dryly, "You'll make a wonderful father." He left the doctor standing there with an utter look of shock on his face, amused with himself. The penguins, as he'd said, were perfectly glubbing fine. Noisy as a cod damn seagull in his father's fishing net, but otherwise fine. Eridan, not wanting to run into that doctor fellow again, took a back loop towards the employee area. It was a clever little plan, until he realized he hadn't been back here in ages and was completely lost.

"Cod damn Fef and her bloody labyrinth." He grumbled upon entering his third supply closet. He backed out and walked back the way he came, looking around for anyone who might have a clue as to how to get back to the main building. Spotting an open door, Eridan marched forwards and pushed it open.

Cod dammit! Another bloody dead end—no wait, there was another door. Past the filing cabinets and worn looking couch was a second door, closed, but that was not a problem.

Producing a master key, Eridan strode over and tried the door; nothing. He reeled back a bit, surprised, and tried again. And again; nothing.

"What the…?"

"Mr. Ampora!"

The voice made Eridan jump and the key clattered to the ground, "Holy mackerel don't sneak up on me like that!" He looked over to find the doctor standing there, eyes huge and looking just as shocked to see him.

"I'm sorry, but what are you doing here? This is a work room—is there something I can help you with?"

The man's voice was tense, and Eridan couldn't help but wonder if he'd maybe toed the line with his joke earlier on. "No, no I was just looking around." He bent down to pick up his key and paused when something caught his eye. On the floor, hidden from the doctor's view by the couch, was what looked like to be a guitar pick. Eridan swiped it as he grabbed the key, pocketing both smoothly, "I'll be on my wave then." He nodded at the doctor and slipped out, striding down the hallway purposefully.

It took another ten minutes before Eridan reemerged around the Tiger shark tank, and he gratefully headed back to his office, meaning to have a conversion with Fef about the layout of that place. Sadly, she was busy and he took his seat outside her office, deciding to pass the time with that little guitar pick he found.

Pulling it out of his pocket, Eridan frowned and held it up, turning it over in his hands. It was far too slim to be a guitar pick, and the wrong size and shape. It gleamed strangely in the light, sort of like mother of pearl, but dark purple. It was pretty, and matched the streak in his hair, so Eridan resolved to figure out what it was and then make it into a necklace or something. It almost looked like a scale, but what the hell sort of fish had a purple scale the size of his thumb nail?

"Eridan?"

His hand closed over the scale and it disappeared into his coat, "Fef! I need to sea you about a map…"

Tavros waited until Eridan's footsteps had faded before hastily shutting the door and locking it swiftly. "Oh fuck…" He leaned against the door, heart pounding, staring at the closed room across from him. That had been too close. He'd just come back from checking out the Lemon shark to find Eridan jiggling the door knob like it held a month's worth supply of tuna behind it.

Swallowing tightly, Tavros set his bag down and began to work off his wet suit. Karkat had spoken about this after he'd found out that Tavros knew. Over the past few weeks Karkat had begun talking to him beyond 'move fuckass' or 'what the motherfucking kind of mess is this? Did you go out of your way to smear fish chum up the god damn walls? You're as bad as he is!' to more specific topics like 'move fuckass or I'll shove my mop so far up your ass children will use you for a maypole' and Gamzee. They talked about Gamzee in rare moments, and always referred to him as Karkat's 'friend from college'. Tavros learned a lot from Karkat about Gamzee; his feeding schedule, how to clean his scales, how to force him to sit the fuck still so he could give him his shots, and other more personal things.

"He likes color." Karkat once said, leaning against the penguin tank as Tavros tried to fend off hordes of flightless birds, all determined to find that fish Karkat had planted on him while his back had been turned. "I try and bring him bright things once and while. You know, balls, balloons, I got him a rubber duck once too."

And then the more serious things.

"He's alone." Karkat tugged moodily at the cuff of his one piece uniform, "The only company he's got is you and me. And we're not enough, you know? Two people? That's not enough…but the way that fucker acts it's like we're his whole world."

"We are." Tavros said quietly, "We're all he knows. But I don't think he sees it like that. Gamzee isn't one to look at the glass half empty."

"Yeah, because that fucker's already knocked it up into the rafters." Karkat growled.

They visited him separately usually, but on Friday nights they came together and stayed late, and Gamzee was always a bundle of energy when that happened. Karkat usually had to shout at him to stop splashing around like a one finned clownfish before the merman would settle down.

Over the weeks, Tavros and Gamzee had grown rather close. They spent time swimming together and sometimes staying underwater for over an hour—something that had taken Tavros a little time to adapt to.

Now as Tavros pulled on a dry shirt and headed for the door, he couldn't help but think about how close that had been. He pulled out the key Karkat had given him—much easier than picking the lock every time—and entered the room, shutting the door firmly behind him.

"Tav!" Gamzee's grin was infectious as Tavros approached the pool, "C'mere, I got something exciting to tell you!"

"What? Did Karkat dye your water purple again?"

"Nah bro, but that was awesome." Gamzee had enjoyed it so much that he'd made Karkat promise to do it again next weekend, and Karkat had surprised both of them by agreeing.

Tavros knelt down to where Gamzee's eager face looked up at him, droplets of water dangling on his eyelashes. He looked beautiful, and Tavros was too busy staring to notice the sly grin unfurling on his friend's face. If he'd noticed the smile he might've backed away rather rapidly.

Arms came up, water streaming down them, and Gamzee wrapped them around Tavros' shoulders, bringing him closer. Tavros felt his heart skip a beat and he moved to meet him, eyes closing expectantly, only to shriek as Gamzee yanked him into the water.

Tavros emerged coughing and sputtering, "Gamzee!"

Gamzee swam away from Tavros' flailing, laughing, "Aw man I can't believe you fell for that!" He chuckled, and then yelped as Tavros lunged for him.

"You're gonna pay for that!" Tavros latched onto him, fingers running up and down his friend's sides and under his arms.

"Ahaha oh god T-Ta-aahaha!" Gamzee thrashed around, trying to fend off Tavros and failing miserably. The little motherfucker had locked his legs around his tail, effectively keeping him in place for more tickle torture.

"I'm in my clothes god dammit!" Tavros dodged a flailing blow and tickled his friend until tears ran down his face and he was shrieking for mercy. Only then did he let off, hiking his legs up around Gamzee's waist and looping his arms around his neck. "Bastard…"

"Haaah, that was cruel…" Gamzee wheezed, poking Tavros in the ribs before swimming out towards the center of the pool.

"Cruel? You got my dry clothes all wet!" Tavros protested, piggy back riding now as Gamzee swam further out.

"Well, get rid of that shit and let it all up and dry out." Gamzee said, swimming over to the platform, "Just drop it off or some shit."

Tavros blushed a bit, still not quite used to Gamzee's nonchalant attitude when it came to the removal of clothes. But he complied, stripping in the water and tossing the soaking garments on the platform the dry.

"What the hell are those?"

Tavros blinked and looked down at what Gamzee was gaping at. "Oh. Uh, those are nipples." And this was exactly why disrobing in front of Gamzee was a bad idea. Sadly he hadn't been paying attention again, and suddenly a shock went through him as Gamzee ran his fingers over one of them, "Ah, hey!" He jerked away, trying to cross his arms over his chest and tread water at the same time.

Gamzee blinked, "Did I hurt you?"

"Um, no." Tavros moved back a little bit more, "It's just that…they're sensitive and you can't just like…touch them like that."

"Oh. Oh." Gamzee had the grace to at least look a little embarrassed. "Sorry bro."

"It's fine." Tavros let Gamzee come close again, eyeing his little smile with a suspicion those other two grins should have gotten.

"No tricks bro." Gamzee smiled and drew Tavros closer, pressing his lips against his friend's in a sweet kiss. He felt Tavros' arms slide around his neck, pulling him closer, his tail moving automatically between his legs, back and forth, to keep them afloat.

Tavros tilted his head to the side and parted his lips, sliding his tongue along the seam of Gamzee's lips. He felt him gasp and took the opportunity to slip his tongue inside, careful of his sharp teeth. Gamzee made a small noise and his tongue eagerly joined Tavros', the kiss deepening and fingers tangling in hair.

"Mnh…" Tavros pressed his body up against Gamzee's, one of his hands sliding down to the merman's lower back, bringing him up against him. He wasn't aware of them moving until his back hit the side of the pool and Gamzee was up against him, not an inch of space between them as he ravished his mouth.

Gamzee's hand slid down Tavros' side and rested on the hem of his boxers, tracing the line of his hip bone with the tip of his nail, mindful of its sharpness against Tavros' fragile human skin. He felt him shiver and Gamzee grinned into the kiss just as Tavros broke away with a small gasp of air.

They smiled at each other, as if they shared a special little secret, and then Tavros moved in for another kiss.

"I'm shore it's a scale father, I'm not stupid." Eridan snapped, fingering the purple item he'd been studying for the past few hours.

"I don't care if it's a scale; I care if it's a certain type of scale. What does it look like?"

"It's about the size of my thumb nail, shiny, and looks like a guitar pick. Oh, and it's purple."

A silence came from over the phone, until the gruff voice of Mr. Ampora spoke again, his tone soft, "Did you say purple?"

"Yes father, it's as purple as sea urchin." Eridan replied, turning the thing over and over, letting it flash and dance between his fingers.

"Listen to me boy, and listen whale. You are to go back to where you found that scale and look around for anyfin different. Understand? Covered tanks, off limit areas, and locked doors."

"Yes sir." Eridan said, "But what am I looking for—" but his father had already hung up. With a sigh, Eridan set down the phone and stood up, pocketing the scale. Well, best get to it. His father hated to be kept waiting.

The only problem was he didn't quite remember how he'd gotten to that little storage room in the first place—he'd been lost that one time.

Eridan sighed and tucked a stray strand of hair behind his ear. There was just no helping it. In order to find places you were half certain didn't exist, you had to get lost first.

Fortunately, getting lost was one of Eridan's talents.