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Chapter Text

    "Wow. Do that again."

    You look. And look. And keep looking. At the child that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, tiny and unafraid and right eye shines bright like pure amber. You can't remember the last time you've heard another living being's voice anymore. You don't even remember your own voice. It's been so many moons since you last used it, for what use of a voice when there's no ghost to listen?

    "How did you find me, child?"

    "I don't know. I was just playing with this crab. Was going to eat it, too." The child - no, not just a child, a mer-child to be exact - shrugs, his long body twists and turns subtly to the sway of the ship you sunk moment ago. "Then my skin felt tingling. I was like 'Oooh, what's that over there?' So I just followed that direction." He vaguely gestures to the way he came from, before turning back to you and smiles innocently, all sharp teeth and double jaw. "And bam! Somehow I found you!"

    It takes effort to resist the urge to laugh at something, someone so insignificant and ridiculous. One does not just simply find you somehow. Many sought you before. All with purpose. Some wanted to satisfy their curiosity. Some wanted a piece of fame and wealth and sense of control. Some wanted revenge. Some wanted peace. Whatever their goal might be, only your demise could fulfill them. And most of them weren't lucky enough to come back.

    Only one did. But they spared you. And took your beloved away, instead.

    "Child, do you know who I am?" One does not just simply find you somehow. Because you are Leviathan. You are sin and you are salvation. You are creation and you are destruction. You are death and you are rebirth. You are hell and darkness. You are nightmares and despair. You are the sea and storm and vortex and tsunami. You are light and fire. You are dawn and you are dusk. You are time and space. You are constant and yet ever-changing. You are the deadly sin envy and chaos, according to Yahweh. You are one of the most magnificent creations and display of supreme power, said God the day he brought you to this world.

    "Shouldn't you know who you are?" A tilt of his little head and genuine wonder in his bell-like voice, and suddenly you are hit with a primal desire, foreign and familiar, to kill, to crush him, to show him his place, to watch that carefree smile crumbles as dread fills those young eyes.

    "You have trespassed this sacred place of mine. You have opened the Davy Jones's locker. And for that, boy, I shall put an end to you."

    "...Okay. Can you sink another ship first?"

    You blink. And blink again. And he blinks back, twice, watching, waiting. Staring right into your nonexistent soul as if he isn't gazing straight at a thousand suns that humans have been avoiding for millennia. 

    "Have I not made myself clear? You are going to stay here forever."

    "Yeah? It's not like there's going to be anything fun soon. So, can you?"

    "...You are too brazen." And just like that, you feel tired. Empty. Nothing left inside of you except for boredom and slight disappointment. "Go home, child."

    "What? No! You said you would sink another ship!"

    "I promised no such thing." It's ridiculously effortless to take care of this little nuisance. A flick of claws and he will turn into shreds. A mere breath of yours - hot as hell fire and burns like lava - will make him nothing more than some petty molecules, becoming one with this vast body of water, never to be seen again. Yet- "And I'm not inclined, or obligated to entertain you, boy. Go home."

    "...Eh. Fine." The elver agrees so easily that you ask yourself if he's the same brazen child just moment ago. He starts to swim back wherever he came from, before looking back and waves. "Later, Umihebi-san."

    You watch his silhouette, getting further and further, until he is but a small unassuming teal dot in the middle of the ever blue of the ocean. You doubt you would ever see that boy again, given his personality from that brief encounter of yours just now.

    Distantly, you muse over his words, wonder how long his 'later' truly is.

    "You are an unusual one, boy." Because there's no way the boy doesn't know of your nature and still coming back, two weeks after your first encounter, given the moniker he chose to call you. That, or he's just plain foolish. "I'm not someone you would want to, or should associate with."

    "Why? Do your armpits smell?" He's momentarily distracted from your scales. What's so fascinating about them, you don't know. He's been playing with them for a while now, whispering 'rough' and 'feels funny' every so often. You note how a scale is as big as his whole head, and how small his hands are on them. "Do you even have armpits?"

    "...Come again?"

    "Or do you have some kind of dermatology disease? Oh heck." He immediately pulls his hands back, examines them with intense focus as if they hold every answer in the universe. "Will I catch it? Did I catch it? Will I die? When will you die? Will I die before you even if I just catch it because you live longer than I do?"

    "...Child, what are you even talking about?"

    "Or have we all caught it already? Because we're in water, right? The sea was long contaminated with your bacteria."

    "...No, boy. Just... no. I don't have any so call dermatology disease."

    "...Oh." He has this faraway look in his eyes, staring at seemingly nothing, hands still occasionally rub your scales. You unconsciously hold your breath, already dreading his next stream of intrusive thoughts.

    "...Anyway, the other day, I found this skeleton inside this ship, and there was this pretty fish swimming inside it. Actually, it was swimming inside a fishbowl, which was inside the skeleton. Don't know how that happened, but who cares, right? And-"

    Truly unusual, indeed.

    "...Child, you are too thoughtless."

    "...You're being too loud..." The child drowsily mumbles. He seems sleepy. He always seems sleepy and drowsy, you notice, even more so with his droopy mismatched eyes. But he seems tired today. He's been sleepy and drowsy since the moment he carelessly flopped onto your neck, curled into a ball and stayed there, small and quiet, looking comfortable and at peace and right somehow. As if he just came home. As if you are home.

    "You've been here for almost two days. Your parents are bound to worry about you."

    "...It's not like they will notice just one missing child anyway. And there's nothing fun back there lately." And aren't you aware of that cruel fact also. You are aware just how... selective Mother Ocean is, how cutthroat she can be. And you can understand that. There is no purpose in sparing the weak, in showing mercy to those who don't have what it takes.

    What you couldn't understand, still hasn't been able to, is what it's like to be broken-hearted parents, having to witness their offspring being picked off one by one, not knowing whoever that child might be, but knowing they're not there anymore. 

    Something must be wrong with you. It has to be so, for there's no other reason for you to ask him "...What has you so worn out, boy?" with a voice much lower than before. He giggles, quiet and soft, seems to enjoy the vibration from your larynx, before yawning widely, showing off his rows of tiny sharp teeth.

    "It's hard to sleep these days." He says, nimble fingers tapping evenly on a scale near his face, tired and distracted still. "The rocks are cold even when I lie on them for hours. The night is too loud. The whales talk too much and the trenches are always wailing." He brings a hand up to scratch his ear, and you can't help noticing small trails of crusty red coming out of it. "I just want them to stop."

    He's making no sense. He never does. "So you decided to come here to be a menace instead of resting at home?"

    "It's quiet here. Except for you, I hear nothing." That statement alone isn't supposed to sound reassuring like he clearly thinks it is. It's quiet here. No living creature has the courage to breathe your way and then hopes to escape your grasp. It's always quiet here. No a single soul dare have the slightest idea to put a foot on the perimeter of your domain.

    "And it's very warm here. You are warm." Because a mere exhale from you can boil this entire body of water. Because all you breathe is fire. Because you are hell, in and of itself. People look at you, and the last thing they know will be coldness, so bone chilling when every nerve in their bodies burns into oblivion.

    Warm. What a foreign word it is. You rarely hear it, let alone be described with it.

    "...Boy, you-" He's sound asleep, even breathing, chest rises and falls with every breath he takes. The boy is serene like this, young, innocent, vulnerable and strange because all you know about him are his ever-changing mood, his odd way of thinking and a bizarre nature that you don't know whether to call it fascinating or off-putting. And you are reminded with the fact that he's just a child, who is forced to grow so fast to adapt and survive and somehow still unbroken, still unapologetically himself.

    Something must be wrong with you. It has to be so, for there's no other reason for you to keep silence and breathe evenly, hoping that you're quiet enough, that the temperature of the water is just right and stable.

    "Who are they?" He asks, clear curiosity in his features, perching on your horn, observing the line of beings down there as they vanish into the bottom of the sea.

    "Just some poor unfortunate souls." One soul, two souls, three souls, and counting. Some by suicide. Some by weather. Some by sharks and sirens. Some by you. Whatever their reasons are, their final destination is all the same. Into the waiting arms of Mother Ocean. She gives life to many, and she takes back just as much.

    "Then what are you doing?"

    "...Simply my duty, child." It's almost poetic, you always think. That whether their blood dyes your claws or not, the last thing they see will always be your sunlit pair of eyes, as you see them off to the other side.

    "Hm..." He's contemplating something. You've known him not long, but enough to recognise the signs. He's looking at something that's only visible to him. You don't press. He will says his thoughts eventually. He always does. The boy is strangely open like that, there's nothing for him to hide, but you still can never grasp him anyway.

    "That's nice." He says after a long pause, and once again, you're thrown by his words. You shouldn't be surprised anymore.

    "Care to elaborate, boy?"

    "It means you will see me off someday, too. It's nice to see a familiar face before I really go."

    ...How in Seven Seas can you forget something so obvious? Mermen live long. Their life expectancy is greater than that of normal human, but nowhere near your own. Not to mention those who won't even survive long enough to reach adulthood. In all your life, you've seen off generation after generation, so much that you can tell if one is a descendant of a ghost you once saw off hundreds years ago.

    But what's the matter if you forget that fact, you wonder. The boy is just that: a boy. Just another passing face, another child of Mother Ocean. Random and mortal. Another soul to add to the queue, the very same queue down there, some day like any other, in the future.

    Isn't he?

    Is he?

    "...That I will, child." You says, once there's no one left to see off and he's already gone home. "That I will."

    He hasn't come here for almost four months.

    You've never known how long four months can feel like until now.

    You spend day after day, watching the line of ghosts, afraid to spot familiar golden and olive eyes and wild teal hair.

    You see him again, after another two months. Sudden and surprising, just like the day he bursted into your life.

    He talks. And talks. Haphazard yet intriguing. Just like always. As if he didn't disappear for almost half a year.

    There's a new light in the boy's eyes.

    His name is Jade.

    The boy comes to you less and less. From about once a week or a month to once every two or three months.

    You're never measured time in weeks and months. There's never been a reason to. Until now.

    When the boy is around twelve years old, he disappears, again, and comes back half a year later, again.

    His name is Azul.

    You are hit with that primal desire, foreign and familiar, to kill, to crush him, to show him his place, to watch that carefree smile crumbles as dread fills those young eyes. Again.

    "You know," You offhandedly says, when he's playing with the jaw of a killer whale skeleton, turns it up and down and around. "I am in the mood to commit some... slaughter, today."

    "That's cool."

    "Your brother and friend, to be exact." He stops whatever he is doing with the skull, before turning to you, slowly, wordlessly staring at you. His moonlit eye burns, hot and bright, more blinding than a thousand suns.

    It's always quiet here. But somehow, it's even quieter now.

    "...Okay."

    "...Okay?"

    "Okay." He resumes playing with the skeleton, rubbing the teeth now. "Can you kill me next when you're done with them?"

    Why gave me my beloved, you once asked God, if you were going to take her away eventually?

    God didn't answer you.

    What's the point, you ask God again, if he is going to be taken away from me?

    How could he ask that of you?

    "...Go home, boy..."

    "..."

    "I want some time alone."

    "...Okay. See you."

    "..."

    Alone in your domain, you muse over his last two words.

    If you love someone, The Almighty Creator once said to you...

    "...'See you' he said?" You smile to yourself, completely drained and powerless.

    ...let them go...

    "I won't come here so often anymore." He starts, spreading out like a starfish on your neck, colorful sparks popping out of his fingers and dancing on his open palm.

    "I heard." Words travel fast, after all. "Congratulations. Your brother and friend, too."

    "Eh-heh." He smiles that toothy smile of his, sharp and double jaw, still childish and bell-like and innocent after all these years. The child seems proud - no, not a child anymore, you correct yourself. The young man. Thirteen years are not long, but they aren't short. Thirteen years to you are nothing more than the blink of an eye, fleeting and unremarkable. But you've spent thirteen years with him, watching him bloomed and flourished into who he is now. You remember when he was but a tiny elver, barely as long as three scales of yours, and now he barely fits in your palm when curling up. He's bigger, and longer, and stronger, having grown into a capable young adult but still unapologetically himself: ever-changing and bizarre and off-putting and fascinating.

    The young man seems proud of himself, and so do you. "We will go ashore tomorrow. Azul said that we would have to go through some land training course." A pause. "I wonder if human dwellers put fishbowl inside skeleton." You can't help a snort escaping out of you. 

    "Try not to overwhelm them too much, boy."

    "That's uncalled for. I'm not going to do anything."

    The day passes quickly, like any other day he's here with you. Before you know it, the sea was already dark.

    "I gotta go now." The boy gets up and starts to swim back wherever he came from, before looking back and waves. "I will visit whenever I come home."

    "And I will hold you to that."

    "Later, Umihebi-san." You watch his silhouette, getting further and further, until he is but a small unassuming teal dot in the middle of the ever blue of the ocean. Alone in your domain, you whisper.

    "...Until next time, my child."

    ...for if they return, they were always yours.

Chapter Text

Solitude, to you, is a quite old friend.

Considering you had been alone for millennia, you shouldn't be feeling this way. Restless and bored and longing. And it's been only ten months.

It's all his fault. But then again, when has any of your problems not been his fault?

Funny, how only thirteen years ago, a mere child - random and mortal - brute forced his way into your life, carved a place for himself and just... stayed there, effortlessly had you wrapped around his nimble fingers. And said boy didn't even know it.

It's just in his nature - you muse, as a pretty small fish dancing between the ribs of a skeleton catches your eyes, and you can't help thinking about him again - to sweep everyone into his own pace. Like a current, free and powerful and unstoppable.

Now that you've noticed it, you've been thinking about him a lot lately. Wondering how land has treated him. Worrying over whether or not he's been used to his new life, despite knowing that the boy can do anything he puts his mind into. Asking yourself if he has found new interests, if he has somehow forgotten about y-

...Is this how parents feel when their children grow up and leave the nest?

"Umihebi-san!"

Sometimes, you still hear his voice...

"Umihebi-san~!"

Never mind that.

You turn, and your eyes immediately land on him, and you can't control the micro uplift of your lips. Your child is here, finally, after almost a year, scales sparkling and glowing an electric blue in the dark of the deep ocean, waving wildly at you. Still energetic, still calls you by that ridiculous moniker, and oh how you've missed that.

It takes you another ten seconds to notice his two companions, who are openly staring at you, mouths agape with something you would call disbelief and astonishment.

You recognize them.

Your child, after all, talked about them enough.

Once again, you are hit with a primal desire, foreign and familiar, to kill, to crush them, to show them their place, to watch those carefree smiles crumbles as dread fills those young ey-

"Stop that." Your child grumbles, tail flaps insignificantly at your claw, expression very much bored and unimpressed. "You are too old for this shit."

"Language, boy."

"Don't change the subject."

"...My apologies." You've really gone soft on this boy. And as he visibly lights up, right eye shines bright like pure amber and bell-like laughters fill your previously silent domain, you just know that you can't find it in yourself to complain about it.

"Anyway!" The boy swims back to his two companions and pushes them forward. "Umihebi-san, Jade and Azul. Jade and Azul, Umihebi-san!"

Chapter Text

    In hindsight, Azul shouldn't be surprised.

    This is Floyd they're talking about. He has known the boy since they were seven, has been the boy and his brother's...friend (ugh) since they were twelve. And one thing Azul has learned when it comes to Floyd, it's to expect the unexpected.

    But then again, it's Floyd. Of course it's unexpected. So Azul shouldn't be surprised that he was surprised.

    It started like this.

    Spring break. First time they get to come home after ten exhausting months of their new life on land. Not that he's complaining. School is adequate. Alchemy is amazing. The stupid duc- his peers are all very trusting and naive and Azul smells potential. A lot of potential. Jade is still an insufferable asshole and Floyd is still a bubbly bundle of nuisance. Height sucks, though. So is flying.

    All in all, life is good. That doesn't mean he doesn't miss home and the comfort that comes with the darkness of deep ocean.

    Anyway.

    "Bye bye!" Floyd bursts out of their house, obviously in an amazing mood after having a good few doses of his 'Mama' and enough fussing from his 'Old man', Jade and Azul trailing behind him.

    "Aren't we going to my place?" Azul asks Floyd, as the boy makes a sharp turn to the left instead of the direction to his family restaurant. They're supposed to have some taste tests and a discussion today. He told Floyd the plan already. He knows Floyd remembers it. About what dishes to have in the menu and what theme to decorate their upcoming lounge. And now, Floyd is going God knows where and abandons Azul with his annoying twin, who's looking very much excited at the prospect of being a menace to Azul for the next hours, but also equally disgruntled because of said abandonment.

    "Can we do it tomorrow? I wanna go meet Umihebi-san~"

    He shares a confused look with Jade. "...Jamil-san also came here for spring break?"

    "No. That's Umihebi-kun." Until this day, Azul still cannot make sense of Floyd's naming system. He doesn't know what makes Jade and himself Floyd's exceptions, but the thought warms him up nicely whenever he thinks about it. "This is Umihebi-san."

    "I don't recall that you have any acquaintance named Umihebi-san."

    "Because you guys haven't met him, duh."

    "...How long have you known this...Umihebi-san?"

    "Dunno. Thirteen or fourteen years?" Azul hears Jade makes a choking sound beside him.

    "Even before we met?!"

    "Yep~"

    "And not once did you think of mentioning this?!" Jade looks ready to throw hands. Azul knows that Jade loves Floyd's unpredictable nature, but he's also ridiculously overprotective when push comes to shove. And for Floyd to openly admitted that there's someone of his acquaintance they didn't even know of for over freaking thirteen years.

    "...No?" Floyd tilts his head, carefreeness and genuine confusion clear on his childlike face, and Azul hears Jade makes a choking sound again. He sighs.

    "Can we go with you then?" Azul smiles lightly, secretly pinches Jade's arm, hard. The guy really needs to compose himself better when it comes to his beloved twin. He receives a jab in the ribs for that pinch.

    The blinding smile that Floyd gives them after his suggestion worths that jab, though. Azul almost melts on the spot. Jade makes another choking sound. Serves him right. May the benevolent Sea Witch bless him, though. To get that smile aiming directly at him full force like that...

    Nonetheless, he knows Floyd is more than capable protecting himself. But if this 'Umihebi-san' is bad news... Well, Azul has a few 'negotiation' strategies. And he's not beyond using Jade as the ace up his sleeve.

    If said ace doesn't commit a felony first.

    So.

    Umihebi-san is Leviathan.

    The freaking Leviathan.

    Azul doesn't know how he's still breathing here.

    Yeah. Sure. The name makes sense enough. Yeah, he also knows Floyd's never one to follow the norms. But he never thought Floyd was crazy enough to give a cutesy nickname to a mythical creature. A powerful one at that.

    Apparently, he was wrong. Again. That seems to be a common theme whenever the moody moray is involved.

    ...Did Floyd just casually reprimand the Leviathan for the killing intent just now???

    Did the Leviathan just apologise to Floyd?!

    Azul is too young to have a midlife crisis.

    ...Did Floyd just seriously introduce them to each other as if bringing some friends home for the first time?!

    Conversation is a blur.

    Azul has to pinch himself a few times. Yes, the Leviathan asked Floyd and Jade and himself about their education as if talking about the weather. Yes, Floyd pulled them up to sit on the Godlike creature's neck and said creature just let them. Yes, Floyd perched on Leviathan's horns as if riding a regular horse. Yes, Leviathan just smiled the tiniest smile at Floyd's antics. No, it was all real and no, he doesn't imagine any of these events, as surreal and unnerving as they were.

    "There's no reason for you to be so nervous, lads."

    Oh, Floyd left them here with the Leviathan. He's...doing something in the wreck of a ship not far from here. Azul can hear his squeals of excitement even from this distance. And oh, the Leviathan is talking to them now.

    "...With all due respect, sir-"

    "And no need to be so formal, either. I've been around my boy long enough to get used to his way of speaking."

    "-I find it hard not to be nervous, especially with the atmosphere you gave off at first, and you being...you...in general."

    "Oh? Do elaborate, young man." The lilt in Leviathan voice tells Azul that he knows exactly what Azul was talking about. He didn't know that Godlike mythical creatures could have a sense of humour, too.

    "What's with the killing intent just now?" Jade says, before Azul can addressing him about his prolonged silence. He's struggling to maintain his poker face, not wanting to let any weakness slip in front of Leviathan. Normally, Jade isn't the straightforward one between them. His intentions are never clear. His ways to execute things are twisted and leave people anticipate for what's not sure to come. But well, this situation isn't normal, either.

    "Just some old feelings. They made a brief reappearance when I met you two."

    "...You want to kill us?"

    "Lile I said: old feelings. So rest assured, young men."

    "Considering you can kill us before we even know it, sir, what you said doesn't help in the slightest."

    "True..." The creature hums, his sunlit eyes burn, scorching hot and painful as he gives Jade and Azul an amused glance, and for a moment, Azul feels the air leaves him as another wave of intent washes over them. "But you two are still here, having a normal conversation with me, correct?"

    "...I guess so."

    The tension is still thick. It has been thick since the moment Floyd led them here. But now, it isn't so thick that you can cut it with a knife anymore.

    Maybe it has something to do with the way Floyd's laughters keep echoing, clear and crispy, throughout this vast body of water. Maybe it's the soft and fond look that Leviathan has when he watches Floyd plays. Maybe Azul recognises that same look on the Leechs' faces whenever their sons do something silly or nefarious. Or maybe, it's because it's Floyd himself, and as crazy and out of character as it sounds, Azul trusts Floyd: trusts his capabilities, his self assurance, and simply, his whole being.

    "...So how did you meet Floyd?" Jade asks, still on guard.

    "He found me somehow."

    "Somehow?"

    "His words. To this day, I still don't understand how that child even found the way here." Recalling first the maze of rocks and coral reefs and after that the immense deep blue space with no sign of life or direction in sight, Azul couldn't agree more.

    "...And you just let him be?" Azul tries to picture it: three year old Floyd, small and short and precarious, skin still pale and a touch transparent, stumbled his way here all alone just because why not, then returned home unharmed, only to came back repeatedly for the past thirteen years and still returned home - to Jade, to Azul - unharmed. And weirdly, Azul isn't so surprised, because again, it's Floyd, and with Floyd, anything is possible, it's just a matter of him choosing to do it or not.

    "It's not a pleasant feeling, killing someone when you know they aren't afraid, or don't care, at all." Leviathan casually states, pretending not to notice the flare of intent Jade suddenly gives off at that sentence. "He looked at me straight in the eyes, and said that I could kill him after he had his fun. As if I was just some passing entertainment."

    "..."

    "So I said no, of course, and told him to go home. He agreed easily enough." And right before Azul's eyes, the seemingly immortal creature's expression shifts into something so openly helpless, so achingly nostalgic and so strangely human. Over a mere boy that he met merely thirteen years ago.

    "A stubborn one, that child. I let him be, but he wouldn't let me be. He kept, keeps, coming back, despite knowing who I am and what I'm capable of." Leviathan shrugs, as if saying 'What can I do?'. "It's a magnificent feeling to witness all of these as years went by, you know. His curiosity. His intelligence. His resilience. Himself. I'm not who I used to be thirteen years ago anymore, and I don't mind it. Not one bit."

    And Azul understands. For he remembers those young days, enduring, accepting every cruel word, every misery thrown his ways. Remembers that horrible feeling of loneliness, the emptiness deep inside, and still refusing to acknowledge it, because what's the point? Why wasting time mopping about the obvious, because who would care about a crybaby octopus anyway? Remembers hours and hours buried in books and spells, just to prove himself. To whom, he didn't know. Still doesn't. Not that it mattered. Azul didn't need anyone. Azul would make everyone need him. His goal was set, straightforward, with a clear end in sight, promised of power and self control and inevitable loneliness.

    But then, they came, with eyes of predators and a hunger for something beyond pre-established harmony, and nothing was the same anymore. Azul's path was derailed. Everything that he carefully planned was now at the risk of either being beautifully accomplished or getting completely throttled. All because of a crazy wild card and his equally insane twin, who loves to stand and watch his brother wreaks havoc and he himself occasionally adds fuel to the fire. Things had never been harder, and Azul had never been more challenged. He didn't realise that he craved those feelings, of excitement, of being kept on his toes, of anticipation over an end that was no longer in sight.

    Azul complained about them, about his new reality often. He still complains about it now.

    But he cannot imagine living a different life. A boring life. Not if that life doesn't have them in it.

    "...Floyd just has a knack for sweeping everyone into his own pace." He says, watching Floyd swims towards them, and out of the corner of his eyes, Azul sees Leviathan smiles, understanding and soft and at peace, and somehow the ancient being before him is not so daunting, not so unreachable anymore.

    "Umihebi-san!"

    "What is it, my boy?"

    Floyd knocks and taps a few times on a big scale, turns his head this and that way, listening to the sound coming out of it. "This one is going to shed soon, right?"

    "Yes."

    "Hey Azul, you said you were running out of scales for your youth potion, didn't you?"

    "...Those were his scales?!"

Chapter Text

    "You are awfully quiet this time, young man."

    "It's not that I'm quiet. It's usually you and Azul talking, sir."

    "Yes." Leviathan agrees. A burst of laughter from Floyd makes them momentarily distracted. He's digging coins not far from where they're seated. "But you are quiet. As in there is something on your mind."

    Is it?

    Jade should have known. It's hard to hide anything from a millions year old creature. Plus Azul isn't here to occupy Leviathan with his stories like he always does every time they're here. He's at home, busy schemi- ahem, making plans, considering his newly acquired position as dorm leader and their newly opened lounge.

    Jade should have stayed at home with him, being the new vice dorm leader and all. Both Jade and Floyd were supposed to stay at home with him. But no, Floyd really wanted to visit 'Umihebi-san', and Azul can deny it all he wants, but he's a sucker for Floyd's puppy eyes. And Jade, being the responsible and caring brother that he is, just had to come with him to make sure nothing bad happens.

    Yes, he knows there's nothing to worry about, and Floyd's more than capable.

    No, no one forced him to come with Floyd.

    No, he didn't understand the exasperated look and the sigh Azul gave him after they left.

    Jade admits, he's been rather...cranky...ever since they started second year. Azul has started to notice it. He just hasn't called Jade out. Yet. Soon though, Jade thinks, with the way he keeps giving Jade the look. Like he's being stupid. Like he's being paranoid.

    Maybe he is.

    But how could he just talk about it? Not to Leviathan. Not even to Azul. Especially not to Floyd. Saying the thoughts that have been plaguing his mind out loud makes him feel so...petty. So vulnerable. So pathetic. In every worst way possible.

    "...Leviathan-san."

    "Yes, lad?"

    "...The first time we met..." So instead, Jade asks Leviathan another thing that has left him sleepless too often to his liking, waking up at dead of nights, dreading what it means, reminding him of that deep seated fear of something, someone important - too important - slipping out of his weak grasp. "...You said you had these old feelings. Wanting to kill. Us."

    "...I did."

    "You wouldn't call them old feelings if you didn't experience them more than once. And I don't recall having met you before you said that."

    "You are just as sharp as your brother." Leviathan laughs, amusement and fondness laces his voice. "It's strange. You two are so different, but so similar in the smallest details, you know."

    "..."

    "And to your question, I have only experienced these feelings a good two or three times ever since I met my boy." He says easily, as if killing intent is just some completely normal chit-chat. "You know when the last time was, I believe."

    Jade does. That overpowering aura. So memorising that it still haunts his dreams. So intense that it has his windpipe in a grip too tight that he sometimes chokes on his own breath in the middle of the day. He feels it often. When he sleeps. When he's awake. When he looks at the people around Floyd a little too long. When he stares at his reflection in the mirror, all gentle smile and mild mannered and cold empty eyes.

    "The first time was the day I met him." He gestures to Floyd, and Jade takes a look at his brother again. He's making a seaweed crown. Jade still keeps the first one Floyd's ever made (for him), sloppy and loose and laced with various colorful shells and oh so endearing. "Destruction and chaos. That's my whole being. That's who I am. That was what I enjoyed doing. And I had spent the last millennia doing just that."

    "Rinsed and repeated. And things inevitably got boring after a while..." Jade says, more to himself than to the creature he's sitting on - he still remembers his Before, dull and monotonous and utterly forgettable why does he still remember it - but Leviathan nods in understanding anyway.

    "Indeed. So when he appeared right in front of me, curious and carefree and innocent, with no malicious intent or malevolent purpose..." Leviathan muses, his eyes hold that faraway look again, which Jade finds both ridiculous and understandable at the same time. It's already thirteen years ago, but it's only thirteen years ago to Leviathan. "...He brought back that excitement, however briefly that was. I wanted to crush him. I wanted to watch that light dimmed. I wanted to show him what true terror was."

    "..."

    "But he was unafraid. That boy just did not care." He huffs a laugh. "I told him that he was going to die, and he was okay with it, while demanding me to fulfil his request."

    "...Out of curiosity, what did he want?"

    "To sink another ship. I don't think that child realised this area had been deserted for thousands years already. It was pure accident that the unfortunate ship just drifted by the exact moment he came here." At this, Jade can't help letting out a snort, because that was so Floyd. Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees Leviathan casts an amused glance at him.

    "...And you wanted to do the same to us. Me and Azul, I mean."

    "Yes."

    "Why?" Why does Jade still have to ask this? He knew why already. Has known for as long as he knew Floyd. That ugly urge to just let go of himself and screw it all when more and more interesting things and interesting people just keep coming into their lives and threaten to tear Floyd away from h-

    Just. Stop.

    Silence. Ten seconds. One minute. One and a half. And counting.

    "...Maybe it's because I'd been alone for so long, to the point I didn't realise it myself. The second time..." The mythical creature says slowly, as if he wants Jade to hear everything he has to say. "He didn't come here six months straight when he was five." When Floyd met him, Jade notes. "And he didn't come here for another six months when he was twelve." When they met Azul. "I thought that he had forgotten this boring old creature."

    "..."

    "So I figured that if I obliterated anything that caught his eyes, my child wouldn't be taken away from me."

    "Stop calling Floyd your child." Jade snaps. Although subtle, the Leviathan looks baffled by his reaction.

    "Why not?"

    "Floyd is not yours. Floyd doesn't belong to anyone." And he is not yours either, Jade thinks to himself, bitter and angry. Jade cannot call Floyd his, as much as he wants to put Floyd in a terrarium to keep him safe from this cruel world, to keep Floyd all to himself. Jade cannot let himself loose, as much as he wants to destroy everything and everyone that holds Floyd's interest. Because Jade likes it best when Floyd enjoys himself. Because Floyd lets go easily. Because Jade needs Floyd to be interested to stay in this world a little bit longer. Because Jade would rather living a life watching Floyd from afar than living a life not having Floyd in it at all. Because Jade still wants to live. Because Jade refuses to be the one who binds Floyd to his ugly, greedy self.

    Jade briefly wonders, what would his life have been, if he hadn't offered Floyd his hand, if Floyd hadn't accepted him. And then he shudders, for he can't bring himself to imagine it.

    "...When he was around thirteen," Leviathan continues, after deeming that Jade has more or less composed himself. "I told him that I wanted to kill you. You and young Ashengrotto, I mean. Do you know what happened afterwards?"

    "..."

    "He looked at me, straight in the eyes. Staring right through my soul. I had never known what being picked apart felt like until then."

    "...And?"

    "And he asked: 'Can you kill me next when you're done with them?'"

    "..."

    "That was the first time I truly realised how cruel he could be when he wanted to be. His innocent, his fire, the light in his eyes, those aren't just something he was born with. He fights. He grows. He adapts. He bends himself to survive. But he still lives to the fullest. He stays true to who he originally is. And he is unbreakable." Leviathan looks at him. His eyes burn, scorching hot and painful, like a thousand suns. "Of course, I couldn't do it, and told him to go home. Again, he agreed easily enough, and said that he would see me later."

    "That really sounded like Floyd." Jade let out a choked laugh. How could he not? What Leviathan just said was so surreal and weird and ridiculous. He feels kind of lightheaded. His eyes sting, and he can't even rub it off or say that it's because of the sea water.

    "What I want to say is that there's nothing wrong with wanting to call someone you hold dear yours. And we both know that nothing can tie that child down, or force him to do what he doesn't want to anyway. He chooses who he belongs to, who he wants to be his, and we are all powerless before the unstoppable force that is he himself." Leviathan gives him a tiny smile, kind and wise and strange. "He is mine. The child I chose. Mine to cherish. Mine to protect. Mine to care for. He is mine, as much as he is young Ashengrotto's. As much as he is yours."

    The ancient being say nothing more after that. They continue to watch Floyd. He's adding some finishing touches to his seaweed crown, the fish gather around him, curious about the sparkling object in his hands.

    The fear. It's still there. Jade doesn't think it will ever go away. That's just how it is, he guesses, whenever Floyd is involved. But now, it feels lighter. Jade can breathe a little bit easier, and things don't seem so dark anymore.

    "...Leviathan-san."

    "Yes, lad?"

    "...Thank you."

    "...You're welcome."

    And when Floyd swims back to them, putting that new seaweed crown on Jade'd head, pretty and tightknit and laced with shells and scales and jewelries, Jade can't help the teary smile tugging at his lips.

    And if Jade sees Leviathan fondly rolls his eyes, he decides to just ignore it.