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The first and last human Finley ever trusted was Arlo Flores. 

They were once lovers, but he and the man were just not meant to be. Arlo was a human, and he was not. They ended up splitting, and Finley never trusted another human since.

While you could say Ye Jun and Cole were technically human, Finley didn't consider them so.

Ye Jun liked calling himself the Devil, which stuck to Finley since that concept was cool to him.

Meanwhile, Cole hated being a wolf or anything remotely similar, but Finley didn't think him as truly human. Not after the grand changes that happened to him. So Finley instead considered him a Wanderer.

To Finley, Wanderers were spiritually connected to the nature around them. They were gifted with something to tie them a bit closer to nature. For Cole, he still had some traits of being a wolf. He had keen hearing and sight, and was a lot faster than Ye Jun and even Finley. He could walk and run on all fours, but he rarely did it.

Yes, those two were oddballs, but Finley didn't mind. He liked the fact they weren't truly human to him. Because he didn't like humans. 

............................................................................

"ነሠቹቹፕ ቻዪጎቹክጋ
ፕⶴቹ ሠልፕቹዪነ ሠጎረረ ርልዪዪሃ ሃዐ፱ ⶴዐጮቹ ልፏልጎክ
ጎቻ ሃዐ፱ ፏቹፕ ረዐነፕ
ፕⶴቹ ክጎፏⶴፕ ጎነ ረዐክፏ
ፕⶴቹ ልክርጎቹክፕ ነዐክፏ ዐቻ ል ፕⶴዐ፱ነልክጋ ነጎዪቹክነ
ፕⶴቹ ነቹል ጎነ ጋልክርጎክፏ
ነረቹቹየ ረጎፕፕረቹ ቻዪጎቹክጋ
ፕⶴቹ ዐርቹልክ ፏ፱ልዪጋነ ሃዐ፱
ልክጋ ኡቹቹየ ሃዐ፱ ሠልዪጮ
ጎቻ ሃዐ፱ ልዪቹ ርዐረጋ
ክዐዪፕⶴቹዪክ ረጎፏⶴፕነ ጋልክርጎክፏ ዐህቹዪ ፕⶴቹ ፕጎጋቹነ ልክጋ ር፱ዪዪቹክፕነ
ረጎፏⶴፕጎክፏ ፱የ ፕⶴቹ ክጎፏⶴፕ"

Aukhna chirped in contentment as Queen Airimu sang her Siren's Song to him. As the princess of the Sirens Airimu had the gift to lull any being with her song. It was a beautiful, wistful melody that could warm your heart and bring tears to your eyes. 

King Poseidon had long married her in their youth, and they brought into the world prince Aukhna, who had the gift of speaking more than a few tongues. It was hard to speak more than three tongues as there are many critters in the ocean, but little Aukhna proved he was bright as he could master olden Sea Serpent tongue as well as new Sea Serpent tongue, the language of their people. With his mother coaching him in Siren tongue and having three Rays as companions, at the tender age of 7 Aukhna could fluently verse in olden and new Sea Serpent tongues, Siren tongue, and two variations of the Ray tongue, Northways and Southways. It was a great gift to have, and Poseidon couldn't be more proud of his son. 

"Korol'? Korol',  it's time to get up Korol'." 

Finley opened his eyes and looked around, noticing a pair of amber and blue eyes staring right at him. 

"Aihiba?" He rubbed his eye, grumbling at the glare of the morning star. "Where is the sun's shadow?" Back in his home, Finley didn't have clocks, so he followed where the sun casted a shadow. It casted shadows in the West during morning, and shadows in the East during evening.

"The sun casted its shadow in the East." Cole dipped his legs into the water, shuddering at how cold the infinity pool was. "Ye Jun went out to get takeout."

"What is takeout? Does it mean to... take something out?" Finley grunted before he pulled himself up to the edge, getting the cold stone balcony wet from how he was submerged in the pool for hours. 

"Takeout is like... you know how Ye Jun sometimes comes home with food he got from a restaurant?" The affirmative chirp let Cole know he was on the right track. "Well, that's takeout. Food you take out of a restaurant."

"Oh, that's nice." He watched the former werewolf trod into the living room and grab a bag of chocolates. 

"Do you want some anchovies?" Cole showed Finley a bag of dried achovies. "We also have these uh... dried squids." 

"Squids." Cole walked over with the bag of dried squid and opened it for the former prince, letting him snack on them. 

"So. I heard you can speak more than 3 languages?" Cole tilted his head curiously. "What languages do you speak?" 

"Well, Olden Sea Serpent Tongue, New Sea Serpent Tongue, Siren Tongue, Northways Ray Tongue, Southways Ray Tongue... uhm, English, Korean, and Russian." Finley listed down his languages. "The terms Aihiba and Vijubi are from the New Sea Serpent Tongue."

"You can speak..." Cole counted on his fingers. "8 languages?!" His jaw hit the floor. "But... but that's crazy!" 

"My mother told me that I am very good with languages." Finley smiled fondly. "I suppose that's why I can speak so many?"

Ye Jun waved to them as he opened the main door, and Cole ran up to him. "Zvezda!"

"Hey! Moheomga!" Ye Jun put the takeout away and caught Cole as he jumped into his arms. "You hungry?"

"Yeah. But I can wait." He nodded.

Ye Jun made a conscious effort to not touch between Cole's shoulder blades. Alongside the thing going on with his brain, he had a sensory issue where touching certain parts of his body were super uncomfortable, such as between the shoulder blades.

As he set the younger down, he watched as Finley stepped into the house, grabbing his towel to wipe himself down.

"Yong-wang." He smiled and walked over, patting the fishman on the shoulder.

"Vijubi." He couldn't help but smile. 

............................................................................

A scream in the middle of the night alarmed Cole. He shot up and grabbed the nearest weapon he could get - a butter knife he was using hours before. He carefully opened the door, his sharp hearing helping him make minimal noise with the creaking. 

At first, Cole wasn't sure what he was dealing with. He didn't have night vision, unfortunately. But his sharp ears and smell were helping him detect any movement or unfamiliar being in the place. 

Strangely, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. 

He decided to check the infinity pool, seeing how he heard noise coming from there. "Korol'...?" 

He couldn't react fast enough.

He was pounced on by something, and the wind was knocked out of him. He felt maybe 300 lbs of sheer weight on him, which made it hard to move. 

"W-WHAT THE-" He tried to kick and push whatever was on him, but he froze when he felt something similar to fish scales. 

"K-korol'-?!" He gasped out and heard a distinct growl. 

It was Finley, and he was crushing Cole. 

"Stop-! Get off me-!" Cole gasped when a sharp sting spread across his face. Finley had clawed him. 

He was too stunned to speak, but growled back at Finley. 

After so long in that facility, he didn't want to be hurt anymore. 

He wanted to live, he wouldn't allow himself to be killed. 

He used all his strength to raise himself, and forced Finley off of him. 

"Не забудь... Кто такой чертов альфа." It was something he hadn't done in so long, but he took drastic measures. He sunk his teeth into Finley's shoulder. This made Finley flinch and scream, and Finley clawed his chest in retaliation. 

Ye Jun ran out of his room with a hammer in his hand, when he froze at the scene. "No... Finley what did you do?!" 

............................................................................

Finley waited in his infinity pool for Ye Jun and Cole to  return. He couldn't follow them because he was a literal fish, and it would cause a lot of issues if people saw a non-human walking around. 

Thankfully, that Dr. Christoph was in town, probably to see his... ex. So Ye Jun basically rushed Cole straight to him. 

Arlo was... a good nurse. Good at healing. Surely he could save Cole. 

The thought of him anywhere near his littlest brother made him sick, however. After the betrayal the man pulled, they were not even on talking terms. Finley couldn't help but feel some kind of rage that they had to rely on him of all people to help Cole. 

Thankfully though, Ye Jun was able to come back with Cole a few hours later. 

"How is...?" Finley felt guilty, and didn't know what he could say to make things better. 

"He will live." Ye Jun sighed. "He had stitches. But he will be okay." 

Finley looked down, then he dove into his pool to lie there. 

~0~

Losing his family was one of the darkest days in his existence. By the time his village had a plague of oil, his father was long gone; the mighty Poseidon had, ironically, been strangled to death by the rubbish humans threw into the ocean. 

That was also the time Finley stepped up - he had to protect his people, he was the king now. So he patrolled the surface, hoping to keep humans out of his territory. 

Then came the day he lost everything. 

Remorse was not something he could dwell on. If he did, he would likely die from being soft-hearted. He killed two humans on a fishing boat, he didn't really care about their lives. They ruined his home, and his father died from their selfish actions. 

But after he did, he found himself in the worst case scenario - his home was swamped in oil. His people suffocated on this potent substance; his poor mother, lying face down in it. 

What did his people do to deserve this fate? 

"Yong-wang." 

Finley gasped and swam up to the surface, looking at the idol before him. "Vi...Vijubi." 

"Hey." He was smoking again, the soft, fruity fumes of the shisha were not as triggering as regular cigarette smoke. 

"Is..." he asked, trying to gather himself. 

"Cole is fine." He nodded. "He woke up and had breakfast. We can only give him liquids for the time being, so don't give him anything solid." 

Finley had been learning how to make very simple foods. He could do basic ones like cereal now, and assemble a sandwich so long as he didn't need to use the stove. He lived his whole life where he learned to hunt and gather, eating everything raw. Ye Jun, however, preferred his stuff to be hot and actually cooked properly, so now Finley often found himself burning his tongue on hot food since he never had cooked food in his life. Even in the Mist, he hunted his own fish in the water bodies to eat. 

Arlo knew that, thankfully he never judged Finley. Finley found it a little rude that Arlo would never eat any of the raw fish he offered, but he figured humans didn't eat raw fish. 

Cole on the other hand was in the middle. As a werewolf he spent his days hunting and consuming forest animals, but once he was back to being a human he chose to eat cooked foods. In the Mist, he was always starving. The Mist purpsefully restricted his food supply, knowing if he was hungry then he would most likely kill, even though Cole did the opposite. 

"May I... go see him?" He asked, afraid of doing something wrong again. 

"I guess you can. Just... let me accompany you for now." Ye Jun probably didn't trust him, and rightfully so. Just last night Finley could've killed Cole. 

"...Okay." He nodded as he stepped out of the pool. 

"What... what happened?" Ye Jun asked him. "Why did you...?" 

"...I just... Had a nightmare. I-I don't know why I attacked him. I just woke up, and I saw a human. I was so angry that-" He looked down. "I don't know, Vijubi." 

"It's... instinct." Ye Jun replied. "Before you met us you were fighting for your life. You don't trust humans. You say we're not humans but we do look like humans. Your adrealine-muddled brain just... couldn't tell it was us. We were humans to you for a second." 

"Y...yeah... I... I guess that's the reason why." He flinched. He hated the face he could've killed Cole, and no excuse could change that. 

He had lost his people and his family before, he failed to protect them. He would be damned if he killed one of his current family. 

"You hate yourself for that." Ye Jun looked at him. "Because you feel guilty huh?" 

"How can I not? I almost killed Cole. If he didn't retaliate... Didn't buy himself time?" He pointed to the violent bite mark on his shoulder. "He might have died." 

"Woah, he did that?" He inspected the bite mark. "Are you okay? This could get infected! We gotta find some kind of vet, maybe that Dakari guy-" 

"No no, I'm... Fine." He sighed. "You know how to treat wounds right? We could just-" 

"새끼... Fine. We'll just treat it for now, but I will bring over that Dakari guy." He scoffed. "I don't want you like, getting some infection." 

............................................................................

"Aihiba...?" Finley poked his head into the room, noticing Cole was lying in bed and playing with a Switch. 

"Huh? Oh Korol'-!" He looked up. Finley internally sighed in relief that they were all using nicknames again. It would've hurt to use his real name, like Ye Jun did last night out of pure horror. 

It hurt because he was worried they would stop caring about him. 

"Are you okay?" He asked worriedly. 

"Yeah, I got stitches but I will live." He nodded. Finley made sure to keep his distance, to avoid scaring Cole. He noticed how Cole tensed up the closer he got, clearly afraid of him after last night. 

"I'm... sorry." He knew 'sorry' could not take back what happened, but he wanted to show them both that he would make sure it wouldn't happen again. 

Cole suddenly chuckled. "I bit you too. It was... super gross." 

Finley grimaced. "I am a literal fish, sometimes covered in oil. Are you going to get sick?" Cole waved his hand. "Don't worry. I will be fine." 

He sat on the furry carpet in the room, and Cole looked at him. "Bro- You're gonna make it smell like fish!" 

"Does it... matter?" Finley tilted his head. Cole did live with a literal fish, so a lot of things had a fishy smell in the house. 

"It does for my room!" He groaned. "I'll ask Ye Jun for more freshener." 

"What if you poured this freshener into my pool?" Finley asked.

"You'd probably smell like a perfume-y fish." Cole chuckled. 

............................................................................

"卂ㄩҜ卄几卂"  A deep voice alarmed Finley, and he turned around. 

"千卂ㄒ卄乇尺?" He asked, his eyes slowly widening. Standing before him was his father. "乃ㄩㄒ 卄ㄖ山? ㄒ卄丨丂 匚卂几'ㄒ 乃乇!" 

The larger, more muscular fishman chuckled. "丨 丂乇乇 ㄚㄖㄩ 卄卂ᐯ乇 匚ㄖㄥㄥㄩᗪ乇ᗪ 山丨ㄒ卄 卄ㄩ爪卂几丂." 

"几ㄖ, ㄒ卄乇ㄚ'尺乇 几ㄖㄒ 卄ㄩ爪卂几丂. 几ㄖㄒ ㄒㄖ 爪乇!" He shook his head. "ㄒ卄乇ㄚ 卂尺乇 ㄒ卄乇丨尺 ㄖ山几 卩乇ㄖ卩ㄥ乇!" 

"ㄚㄖㄩ ㄩ丂乇ᗪ ㄒㄖ 爪卂Ҝ乇 爪乇 卩尺ㄖㄩᗪ, 卂ㄩҜ卄几卂. 几ㄖ山 ㄥㄖㄖҜ 卂ㄒ ㄚㄖㄩ尺丂乇ㄥ千." Poseidon hissed. 

"Korol'! Wake up!" 

"Yong-wang!"

Finley gasped and sat up, looking around. He wasn't in his pool, but Ye Jun's room. 

Ah, that was right. Cole proposed they all sleep in one room to try and make everyone feel better. 

A cold, wet cloth was placed on his back, and he shuddered. "Huh?" 

"I knew the air-conditioning was too dry. Your skin is so dry..." Ye Jun gently moisturized his scales with the wet cloth. "I'll bring you a water bucket, maybe." 

"Vijubi I am about 7 feet tall. A bucket will be too small." 

"새끼, You're right-" Ye Jun sighed, but had an idea. "I have an idea." He went into the bathroom with a large blanket, and slowly soaked it until it was sopping wet. "Here, put this on you." 

Finley slowly plopped the wet blanket on himself, feeling a bit better given how wet it was. "Uhm, thank you." 

Ye Jun nodded. "It's no big deal." 

Finley huddled in the blanket, thinking back to the dream he just had. His own father indirectly called him a traitor... 

He was actually a traitor, wasn't he? Colluding with those with human faces. 

But...

He looked at Ye Jun and Cole, watching Cole hit Ye Jun with pillows and Ye Jun getting slightly annoyed. 

Maybe... Maybe if it was them. If it was Ye Jun and Cole? He would take it. 

He didn't like being called a traitor. But those two were no humans despite their human look, and Finley would relish in that fact. 

Or maybe... he was just giving himself excuses?

............................................................................

A long time ago, Finley thought he was done for. When he first entered the Mist, he was basically drowning in the cursed oil that took away his family. So to be here, living in a freakin infinity pool with anything he could ever need at his fingertips and two roommates who loved him like a brother, was a blessing to him.

Thanks to a certain idol, he was given a chance at the life he thought he could never live again.

He will always feel peace among these two. They would continue to confuse him with their human ways, then confuse him further with their own non-human traits - Ye Jun and his love for hammers, Cole with his puppy-like nature despite hating being a wolf. He would also continue to confuse them, like putting moisturizer on his scales to keep them moist, or even randomly chewing on items that weren't meant to be chewed like a spoon. 

Despite all that, he was happy. He always will be happy with them because to him, they were home. Even if his brain and the ghosts of his ancestors called them humans- 

Oh shoot. That... that meant he actually does care for humans now, didn't it? 

...Nah. Only Cole and Ye Jun.