Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Yuuji really hates the screaming.

A couple days ago, his bosses pushed a large fish tank into the back of the kitchen. They said for him to wait and not to touch it. Yuuji has long since stopped being curious whenever his bosses do something odd, most of the time it involves some sort of crime Yuuji himself doesn’t want to be forced into. 

But he was forced into this one, and he didn’t even do anything this time. God Yuuji wishes he never became affiliated with Mahito because now Yuuji stands motionless in the corner of his job’s kitchen, watching as one of his bosses wrestles with a fucking mermaid or whatever the fish is.

Yuuji’s entire body is tense, all the muscles in his arms and back clenched as the thing screams bloody murder, watching it fight against the tall, muscular woman trying to force it into the tank. Yuuji’s jaw clenches as he forces himself to swallow that he forgot was pooling in his mouth. 

He can’t blame the thing for screaming so much. If he was captured by aliens and shoved into a far too small tank with the intention of being butchered and eaten, Yuuji would be screaming like that, too. 

The thing scratches and screams from where Hanami pins it to the floor. The long, shiny black tail flailed all round, slamming against Hanami’s muscular form, thumping against the wet tiled floor, slapping against the wall causing the kitchen ware to shiver. 

Its scaled hand thrusts towards Hanami’s sunglasses-covered eyes, but she catches it before the long black claws could dig into her skull. It hisses when its hand is slammed harshly against the floor, and Yuuji cringes at the pop that can barely be heard under the chaos. 

A short, stout man stands next to Hanami and the fish she’s manhandling. The smoke from Jogo’s cigar taints the kitchen and Yuuji’s nose. He doesn’t enjoy the smell of smoke, it reminds him of the short man standing only a couple feet away. 

Yuuji is torn from his thoughts and the scene before him when a hand slithers up his back. Arms wrap around his waist as someone’s chin places itself on his shoulder. 

“You excited?” Mahito’s voice makes Yuuji want to vomit. He hates how close the blue haired fiend gets to his ear.

Yuuji’s jaw clenches. He doesn’t entertain the creep with an answer. 

“You should feel honored to be able to dice something like that up,” Mahito continues. Yuuji can hear that creepy ass smile as he hisses into his ear, “Most people don’t even believe that they’re actually real .”

The fish’s tail thrashes violently, the large fin that runs the length of its back slices across Jogo’s legs. It cuts through his pants and splatters of blood are thrown across the kitchen floor. The short man doesn’t even have enough time to react to the pain before Hanami grabs the fish’s face and slams its head against the floor. 

The kitchen is immediately much quieter.

Yuuji feels sick to his stomach looking at the small drops of blood that the back of its head left behind.

“Woah! Hanami, did you kill it?” Mahito yells in Yuuji’s ear, his arms excitedly wrapped themselves tighter around Yuuji’s torso, much to his disdain.

“No,” she says flatly, “It’s already squirming again.”

She’s right. It was only out for a second before the eyes try to flutter open. The tail writhes from where it fell limply onto the floor, it curls and wraps around itself over and over again as the fish tries to come back to reality. Unfortunately for it, the second of unconsciousness was enough for Hanami to wrap a painful looking wire around its body to immobilize it. 

A moment later, Hanami drops the tied up fish into the tank of water that’s made its home in the kitchen days ago. 

Mahito is talking about something, probably to Hanami and Jogo, but Yuuji can’t bring himself to look away from the fish as it lays mostly motionless in the barren tank. The muscles of its back tense and strain against the wire. Its gills flair as it tries to take deep breaths. 

Yuuji has never felt more awful in his life. Sure, the knowledge of what crimes his bosses do has always made him feel like shit, but he himself has never seen the crime before. 

But this feels too real. It feels like he’s witnessing a real, serious crime, and in theory he could do something to stop it. But in reality he knows his bosses will have Yuuji ‘disposed of’ one way or another, and have some other guy replace him within a day. 

So Yuuji stands in the corner of the kitchen, eyes glued on the figure in the tank as it squrims in what’s probably excruciating pain. 

Mahito’s hands are still on him. Yuuji wants to rip his skin off.

Yuuji doesn’t even register that Jogo is talking to him, tuning in half way through the older man’s speech. 

“Make sure to feed it once a day, and to bring its head above water once a day, too, so it can breathe. It may have gills, but it will drown if kept underwater for too long,” the shorter man puffs smoke into the stale air of the kitchen, making the atmosphere even more suffocating. 

Mahito’s arms curl around Yuuji’s shoulders, thin lips tugged into a smile that ghosts Yuuji’s ear, “It will probably be a nightmare to clean its tank, with how feisty it was with Hanami.”

“Oh, right, you have to clean the tank fairly often, too,” Jogo hummed, his one seeing eye glaring up at Yuuji, “If it gets sick then that will affect the taste. This fish is for a valuable guest, so it will be your top priority to keep the fish alive until the guest arrives in a few months.”

A few months , Yuuji bites the inside of his cheek, eyes never leaving the figure in the tank, a few months really isn’t that long.

Yuuji doesn’t realize his bosses are leaving until he hears the door open. He leans down to peek through into the dinning area from the kitchen to watch Hanami help Jogo hobble out of the shop, Mahito bouncing out after them. 

Yuuji’s heart is in his throat as his brain scrambles to make sense of everything that happened this morning. 

God Yuuji thought it was just going to be a normal day at his very sketchy job where he makes sushi for the few normal and not so normal customers that wander in, where he can idly chat with the only other person who works here, Miwa, throughout the day until closing. 

He didn’t expect to be met with the sight that just finished mere moments ago. 

Yuuji drops his head, letting it hang as his arms support his upper body from where they are planted on the steel work table. His chest heaves as he breathes in and out, his heart aching with dread.

He has to murder that thing in a matter of months. Sure, Yuuji has killed plenty of fish throughout his career, but they were all just fish. The thing in the tanks sure as Hell isn’t just a fish, no normal fish has the upper body of a guy (girl?). No normal fish screams like that. 

Yuuji closes his eyes and lifts his head again, grounding himself before he turns around and comes to a paralyzing realization.

The fish is literally right behind him. Its literally right fucking behind where he works. At any point during the day, Yuuji can glance behind him and be met with the sight of some fish person tied up in a tank sitting on the kitchen floor. 

Before Yuuji vomits he diverts his attention away from the thing writhing in pain in the fish tank, glancing down at the spots of blood that pool on the floor. 

Yuuji forces himself to leave his work table to enter the utility closet. He grabs a jug of cleaning chemicals. He hasn’t ever bothered to read the label, he just knows it works for pretty much any and all gunk. It's probably bleach, but Yuuji sure as hell isn’t going to read the label now . Not when he’s been working here for years, and especially not after what happened this morning.

He grabs a dirty old rag on his way out of the closet and makes his way back to the small pools of blood on the kitchen floor. He probably should do a whole lot more than just pour bleach on the ground and whip until the red is gone, but Yuuji isn’t making food on the ground. He makes it on a table. 

Yuuji keeps his eyes glued to the floor as he cleans, desperately trying to ignore the situation that’s literally right next to him.

Yuuji genuinely forgets how he got this job in the first place. The only thing he was gifted in as a child was sports, and he’s done so many of those that the thought of throwing a ball around makes Yuuji’s stomach churn. The only reason he knows how to cook decently well is because he’s been cooking for himself his entire life. Parents died when he was really young, and his grandpa also died when he was young. Yuuji then kinda just avoided foster care until he was a legal adult, then moved in with his friend Junpei.

Right, Junpei . Junpei is the reason why Yuuji works for some sort of organized crime. 

Junpei got affiliated with Mahito. Mahito is affiliated with crime. The blue haired freak threatened to kill Junpei if Yuuji didn’t handle the culinary side of this restaurant. But as much as Yuuji hates this job, and all the illegal bullshit he’s probably an accomplice of, he'd much rather be stuck here than have Junpei be six feet under. 

Yuuji doesn’t really know what to do with the bloody rag he’s now holding, so he grabs a small bucket, pours some of the chemicals he used to clean the floor along with some water into said bucket, then just tosses the rag inside. 

Yuuji hears the front door open and his heart falls to his stomach, he’s forgotten to do morning prep today. The whole thing with the fish man in his kitchen made him forget all about his chores.

Yuuji whips around to peer out the small window separating the kitchen from the dining area. The tension leaves his shoulders some when he sees a familiar blue haired woman. 

“Miwa!” Yuuji hollers, leaning so he can be seen from beyond the small window. Her attention snaps to him, eyes wide as she’s caught off guard. She blinks before making her way towards the kitchen, tossing her purse behind the hostess stand when she passes it. 

Rubbing her hands nervously, Miwa leans down to look Yuuji at eye level. She tilts her head to the side as she gives a confused look, “Hi, Yuuji. Did something happen?” She gives a small, breathy laugh before she continues, “Did more news of that worm movie get leaked? I don’t know how you watch that stuff, it freaks me out.”

“Human Earthworm 4, and no, not any new leaks. But, um, something completely unrelated happened this morning like an hour before you got here,” Yuuji rambles, flailing his hands around as he speaks. He smacks his hands down onto his work table as he glances behind him, looking back at the tank and the being that lays concerningly still inside. If it weren’t for the occasional twitch or flex of the muscles on its back, Yuuji would’ve thought Hanami killed the poor thing when she slammed its head against the floor.

Yuuji looks back at Miwa and motions her to get inside the kitchen. She does so after shooting Yuuji a confused look. The door to the kitchen loudly squeaks as Miwa pushes it open, her modest heels click against the tiled floor as she makes her way towards Yuuji, eyes glued on the kitchen’s new addition. 

“What’s in there?” Miwa mutters to herself, leaning over to peer inside once she’s standing next to Yuuji. She gasps, hands flying to cover her mouth as she takes a step back. Her wide eyes glance over to Yuuji. The two coworkers stand in the tense silence of the kitchen before Miwa lets her hands slowly drop a short distance from her face, holding them against her collarbone as she speaks in a whispered tone, “Is that a person?”

“I don’t know,” Yuuji admits, turning away from Miwa and glancing back down to the tank. The thing crammed inside shifts as much as it can despite the bindings Hanami tied around it. “You’re, uh, you went to nursing school, right, Miwa?”

The blue haired woman nods, folding her hands together like she were praying as she stares at the tank, too, “Finished the program last year. I’m trying to get into residency, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to leave this job.”

Yuuji hums, eyebrows furrowed together as he watches faint traces of red spread through the water, stemming from the back of the thing’s head. Yuuji takes a deep breath, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he tries to find his words, “If you were slammed against the floor by Ms. Hanami, do you think you’d get a concussion, or something like that?”

Miwa lets out an anxious, aborted laugh, “If I got slammed into anything by her, I’d be dead. Have you seen that woman’s biceps? She could rip me in half without breaking a sweat. But, um, yeah. Yeah, a concussion would be likely, especially if she was trying to hurt it.”

Yuuji chews the inside of his cheek, his heart hammering so hard in his chest he can feel his pulse thump loudly behind his ears. He lets out a shaky breath, “Okay, how do you fix a concussion?”

“Uhh,” Miwa fiddles with the uneven strands of blue hair that frame her face, her eyebrows pinched upward as she tries to recall her schooling. Only a moment has passed before she finds her voice again, “Lots of rest mainly. Pain meds help with headaches and stuff like that. And, uh, avoiding bright lights and technology helps some people. Less pain and faster recovery.”

“Do we- do you have any painkillers? I know I don’t carry them around, personally,” Yuuji tears his eyes away from the figure in the tank, looking around at his surroundings. He eyes the utility closet, but the chances of that having any first aid sounds slim.

“I can go see if I have any Advil or something in my purse,” she takes a few steps back before turning around and jogging out of the kitchen. The heavy door cries when it’s thrown open, making the thing in the tank curl in on itself.

Yuuji digs his phone out from his pocket, trembling fingers glide across the screen as he heads straight to the all knowing Google to give him answers. 

“Fish man”

Delete. All that’s going to show up is that poor excuse of a movie that tried and failed to mimic the masterpiece that is the Human Earthworm franchise. Yuuji remembers trying to watch it when it was released to theaters, he and Junpei left halfway through the showing after realizing it was just a feature film of shitty plagiarization.

“Mermaid”

Delete. Mermaids are supposed to be fictional, right? Yuuji doubts he’ll actually get useful information from just googling them. But what else is there? Glancing over at the tank just confirms that the thing looks half human half fish enough to be considered a mermaid, at least in Yuuji’s opinion.

Yuuji runs his free hand over his scalp, pulling at the hair hard enough to pluck a few strands out. He waves his hand and lets the strands fall to the floor, it doesn’t matter if that’s against some health code, the whole restaurant is a shit hole.

“What to do if I have a mermaid”

Search. As expected, most of the results are useless. Most of what comes up are hypothetical questions from Reddit or other discussion forums. It’s all fiction, so none of it can actually help Yuuji. He scrolls and scrolls and scrolls until he comes across a website that monitors marine life in Japan. The only reason why it caught Yuuji’s attention is because it’s a government website, not an organization or a .com.

Tapping the link brings him to a page dedicated to marine mammals. Whales, seals, dolphins, species Yuuji is half convinced don’t actually live anywhere near Japan, but he keeps scrolling. Every animal has its own tab with a small blurb about the animal and a beautiful picture to show it off, all very usual professional website stuff in Yuuji’s opinion. Only when Yuuji reaches the very bottom of the page does something catch his eye again.

A stand alone link. No picture, no blurb, it’s not even a tab like the other animals. It’s just a link embedded in the words “Marine Humanoids” . Yuuji almost missed it entirely with it being hidden just above all the legal nonsense that’s normally at the bottom of websites. 

Just as Yuuji taps on the link, Miwa enters the kitchen again. She hovers in the doorway, keeping the door open with her shoulder as her hands cling to the frame. She frowns and shakes her head, “I don’t have any painkillers, just basic first aid.”

“Well, shit,” Yuuji mumbles. The page is taking forever to load, so he just pockets his phone. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other as he stuffs his hands into his pockets. “What else are we supposed to do?”

“We could drape a blanket or something over the tank, so they can rest in darkness. Fluorescent lights suck, with or without a concussion,” Miwa suggests. Yuuji nods, pacing over to the utility closet and scanning its shelves. He eventually grabs some old curtains that used to be hung in the dining area, but were put out of service after rats ate holes in them. But there’s still enough curtain left to provide some shade. 

The fabric is long enough to almost completely cover the tank, only a few inches of the sides remain uncovered, but the figure inside is enveloped in shadow. It writhes slightly when Yuuji covers the tank but soon settles down. 

Yuuji turns to Miwa and shrugs. She shrugs back, glancing behind her into the empty dining area, “We’re opening soon, I think. There’s not much else I can think of to help, uh, whatever that is,” she turns back to Yuuji and gives him a nervous smile, “I’m going to set up the place. Talk to you later, I guess.”

She leaves the kitchen, the door loudly creaking close like it always does. Yuuji rubs the back of his neck, giving one last glance down to the now covered tank before walking off to finally start his prep that should’ve been finished forever ago. 

…

The day goes by as expected. Uneventful. Only six parties ranging from one person to three people entered and actually ordered anything. Lunch was the busiest it’s been in a while, having a whopping total of four people in the dining area. The only reason why this place hasn’t gone bankrupt yet is because it's a crime or money front for some sort of mob, but Yuuji is getting paid, and can never quit without risking his life, so he can’t say anything about it. 

Yuuji hasn’t been able to stop looking behind himself. The tank sits only a few feet or so away from him, pushed up against the back wall. But something alive sits in there, something that isn’t like the usual types of fish that he works with. That thing looks human enough, sounds human enough to make Yuuji feel sick to his stomach keeping it in such a cramped cage. 

He still needs to feed it and let it come up for air. It has gills, why does it need to breathe air? Yuuji wonders, but he isn’t that kind of fish expert. There’s just under an hour until closing, and Miwa is already scrolling aimlessly on her phone, headphones on and dining room lights off. If someone comes in, then they’ll just have to deal with the half closed front.

Yuuji rests his arms on his work table, folding himself almost 90 degrees to stretch his back. The joints in his arms quietly pop when they’re fully extended, as he stands he rolls his neck around to loosen the muscles there, too. 

Reaching into a nearby ice box and grabbing a fairly large salmon by the gills, Yuuji decides to start closing up the back of house. Closing already takes forever since it's just him and Miwa, but there’s some tasks he can get started on without fully closing the kitchen.

More tasks have been added to his list of chores, many of which involve the fish man that sits tied up behind Yuuji. But to Yuuji’s understanding, taking care of it can be done while the kitchen is still open. So if he’s unlucky and they get a near closing visitor, he can still whip something up real quick.

The salmon is fresh, a fact that still surprises Yuuji. All the fish given to him has always been fresh despite the ocean being a ways away. Yuuji supposes that’s because the bosses pop in from time to time to eat, and they don’t want to eat something that could make them sick. 

The knife punctures the belly easily, sliding down and letting out a satisfying popping noise as it’s cut open. The intestines bulge out as blood pools out onto the table. After a few carefully placed cuts, Yuuji rips the organs free from the fish and straight into the trash. He quickly washes the blood out from the inside of the fish at the sink before placing it back onto the table.

The scales pop off the salmon easily. His knife cuts behind the gills and glides down the length of the fish along the spine. He sets the filet off to the side before mirroring the cuts on the other side, leaving him with two filets and the carved remains of the head, spine, and tail that he tosses into the trash. 

Yuuji pauses, contemplating if he should remove the skin or debone the filets, but shrugs after determining that the fish man has probably eaten fish whole its entire life. Some bones and skin aren't going to deter it. It doesn’t even deter Yuuji, but Yuuji will also eat pretty much everything.

Yuuji turns off most of the lights in the kitchen, only leaving a few on so he isn’t left completely in the dark. The lid of the tank is hooked shut, but popping them open is easy enough. What isn’t easy is actually lifting the tank lid, the damn thing feels like it weighs almost 100 pounds. It takes some effort to prop the lid against the wall, his arms aching after the unexpected workout.

Yuuji looks into the water to find the fish man glaring up at him. It’s too dark to determine the color of its eyes, but Yuuji knows they’re filled with undeniable fury. What catches Yuuji by surprise was the three glowing spots that run down its cheeks, from eye to jaw. Scanning over the rest of the body, the bioluminescent spots continue down the entire length of its scaly lower body. 

The wire that entraps the thing cuts into the pale flesh of its upper body, if it weren’t so dark Yuuji suspects he would see the water tinged red. Guilt chokes Yuuji. He bites the inside of his cheek as he stares at how badly the wire has cut the thing’s wrists. 

He debates calling out to Miwa, to maybe talk him out of how bad of an idea he just got. But the thought of being wrapped in that wire himself keeps his lips sealed as he walks back to his station to grab his filet knife. He knows it's sharp, he just used it mere moments ago, but he still runs it along the knife block a few times. 

“Don’t be scared, don’t be scared, don’t be scared, don’t be scared,” Yuuji chants as he reaches out with his free hand to grab at the wire, unsure if it's for the being in the tank or for himself. The fish man tenses as he lowers the knife into the water, it tries to squirm away and flinches when Yuuji accidentally runs the back of the knife against the black scales that adorn its tail. 

His heart pounds loudly in his chest when he presses the sharp side of the blade against a bundle of the wire, and only a little pressure is needed to cleanly cut through it. A second later Yuuji retracts the knife along with the now severed wire. The figure loosens its body, rolling and rubbing its wrists as its eyes never leave Yuuji’s face. 

Suddenly Yuuji’s eye erupts in pain, a loud sound a mix between yelling and hissing fills his ears quickly followed by the sound of splashing. Yuuji drops the knife and wire, both hands flying to cover his eye as he loudly curses, “Fuck!”

A mass slams against Yuuji’s front, making him stumble back but he remains on his feet. He can vaguely hear Miwa calling out to him, but Yuuji is distracted after pulling back one of his hands only to see it covered in blood. He squints open the eye that hurts to thankfully still be able to see out of it, but it's slightly blurry. 

“Yuuji!” Miwa yells from the doorway, only to freeze half way through it once she gets a good look into the kitchen, “Yuuji, what did you do?!”

“I felt bad!” is all he can come up with. He presses only one hand to his injury as he looks over to Miwa, breathing labored as panic runs through his veins, “I felt bad so I cut the wire it was wrapped in. Miwa, it was hurting it.”

Miwa tries to choke out a response but the words can’t come to her, so instead she points behind Yuuji. Turning, he is met with the fish man glaring daggers at him. The spine that runs along its back is flared, its lips curled into a snarl as it tries to stand as tall as it can without legs. A low and threatening clicking sound rumbles from its chest, or throat, Yuuji is too far away to tell. But what Yuuji can tell is that it’s making a sound that scares the shit out of him. 

Yuuji lifts both of his hands in the air, he can feel blood run down his face but he couldn’t care less about that. He takes a few slow steps backward away from the fish man, Miwa ducks behind the door frame, only her head still peers inside the kitchen. Yuuji continues to make his way backward, up until he’s standing next to Miwa. The thing shifts, almost stumbles, as it starts to make its way along the edge of the kitchen, glaring at Yuuji the entire time.

Yuuji’s confused on what it's doing until the thing stops by the closed door of the utility closet. It sits up more, getting up off its hands as its tail coils around itself to support its upper body. Yuuji is mesmerized watching the long tail glide against itself, the glowing spots peeking out occasionally as it moves like a snake. 

“Oh my god, they’re trying to find a way out,” Miwa whispers after the thing opens the utility closet, quickly peers inside, then continues to glare at Yuuji once it’s met with only closet supplies. 

Yuuji nods, letting out a shaky breath, “Hey, man,” the thing sits up straighter, shoulders tense as it lets out a long and low hiss at Yuuji. He flinches, stepping more in front of Miwa as he tries to continue, “This place isn’t up to code. There’s only one exit.”

“Yuuji what are you doing?” Miwa hisses at him. She grabs him by the arm and tries to pull him out of the kitchen.

“What if it speaks japanese?” Yuuji reasons, shrugging his shoulders.

He gently urges Miwa out of the way of the door as he holds it open, stepping to the side and opening the door fully to allow easy entry to the dining area. Miwa silently pleads with Yuuji, panic making her jittery as she starts to hyperventilate. Yuuji gestures for her to get on top of a table, which she quickly does. 

Yuuji partly hides behind the door, sinking further into it when the fish man makes its way to the doorway. It dashes towards a nearby window, and it moves shockingly fast. Its arms help it crawl as its tail slithers along the floor. If it weren’t for all the fins, Yuuji would’ve thought it was part snake.

It looks out the window only to be met with city streets and towering buildings. It looks around for a couple seconds before dashing towards a different window, making Miwa yelp as it slithers right next to the table she’s sitting on. The other window earns it the same sight, all buildings, no ocean. 

Its chest starts to heave. It darts between both windows a couple times, becoming more and more panicked after being met with the same sight over and over again. It makes its way to the front door, scrambling a bit as it tries to push it open.

Miwa whisper yells Yuuji’s name when the fish man opens the door, but he pays no mind to her. It crawls out into the street, but only the upper body, its tail still flicks nervously inside the building. After a moment, it slowly enters the building again, letting the door close in front of its face.

Its body heaves with panic. It coils in on itself as it runs a hand through its wet hair, pulling its dark bangs out of its eyes. Yuuji tries to quietly enter the kitchen again, but the slightest movement of the door causes it to cry out. The fish man snaps around, letting out a noise at Yuuji that’s more of a yell than a hiss. Yuuji pauses for a second, grabbing a chair to prop the door open as he enters the kitchen again.

Yuuji finally drops his hands, turning around and heading straight for the tank. He looks at the lid, studying the hinges that attach it to the rest of the tank. The hinges themselves are not attached to the glass, but rather to a sturdy looking bit of plastic that’s attached to a rubber rim that runs along the edge of the tank. He bends down to grab the knife he dropped on the floor, lining the butt of the knife to the edge of where plastic meets rubber. One firm hit pulls the plastic free from the rubber.

“For how expensive this tank looks, you’d think that the lid would be more attached to the tank, huh,” Yuuji mutters under his breath. He does the same for the remaining hinges, each one popping free as easily as the first. He tosses the knife across the kitchen so it lands on his work station, then grabs the lid of the tank and lifts it off of the tank completely. 

“Yuuji, please, what the fuck are you doing?” Miwa pleads from the dining area. She hovers near the kitchen window, clearly still sitting atop a nearby table. 

“Taking off the lid.”

“Why,” her voice squeaks like she’s on the verge of tears. Her voice cuts short when, and if Yuuji listens closely he can hear the fish man slither along the floor again, getting closer to the kitchen. 

“Because that’s a guy, a whole ass man,” Yuuji places the lid against a different wall from where the tank sits. Turning towards Miwa and leaning down to look at her through the window, “Fish man, but still a man, I assume. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a cage, either! So I’m taking off the lid, it’s the least I can do.”

Glancing over to the side, Yuuji nearly jumps out of his skin. The fish man is glaring at him from the doorway, no longer snarling but clearly still very pissed off. Its pale skin has thin tears of blood that run down and drip onto the floor, mixing with the water that drenches it.

Yuuji presses his lips into a thin line and raises his hands slightly, open palms pointed toward the intimidating figure crouched near the ground. His eyes catch the orange flesh of the filets he carved moments ago, and hesitantly gestures towards them. Narrow eyes leave Yuuji for a second before locking back onto him. 

The figure makes the first move, gliding towards the work station effortlessly, and Yuuji in response presses his back against the wall furthest from it. It stares Yuuji down as he shimmies across the wall and towards the door, tense and on edge with every little movement he makes. As soon as Yuuji is close enough to the door, he quickly jumps over the chair propping it open. 

Yuuji grabs at his chest, clutching the fabric of his shirt with a white knuckle grip. He pants, whole body heaving as he tries to calm himself down. His vision blurs, slightly dark in the corner of his eyes. “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit,” he chants, over and over again as he runs a hand through his hair.

“Yuuji!” Miwa calls quietly, nervously dashing towards him. Her hand flies to his forehead but hesitantly stops just before touching him.

“What?” Yuuji pants.

“You’re bleeding, like, really bad,” she answers. Miwa leans over to grab napkins from a close-by table before pressing the paper to Yuuji’s eyebrow. He hisses at the sudden sharp stinging, squeezing both eyes shut when she applies pressure. “You need to go get stitches, like, right now. Head injuries bleed a lot and you’re covered in blood!”

Yuuji glances down at himself only to see that Miwa is correct. His once white shirt is now stained a bright shade of red on one side, the damp fabric clinging to his skin. He looks at his hands just to see that his palms are glistening and tacky from drying blood. The realization of how much blood he must have lost makes his head pound and his vision darken.

Miwa pulls away the napkins, now saturated in blood. She tosses them onto a table before grabbing another handful and again presses them to Yuuji’s head, “We’re going to the ER right now, Yuuji. Hold this and make sure to apply pressure.”

She guides Yuuji’s hand to the fresh napkins before grabbing him by the elbow and dragging him out of the restaurant and into the cold night air. He stumbles, trying desperately to remain conscious and on his feet as he allows himself to be dragged wherever Miwa thinks he needs to be.

If they weren’t in such a hurry to get out and get help, one of them would’ve remembered to lock the front doors. 

Chapter Text

“You’re not gonna believe who’s sitting in the ER right now,” Yuuji sings into the phone. His head throbs, the napkins he holds against his eyebrow completely drenched and falling apart due to the blood that won’t stop coming. His knee bounces anxiously as he waits for treatment. Apparently this night specifically, others have experienced injuries that are a bit worse than a bleeding head wound.

Junpei sighs, a groan is heard before his voice picks up, “What happened? You barely go to the doctor, you’re too lazy.”

Yuuji chuckles into the phone, glancing over to Miwa who sits next to him before answering, “Miwa made me. I cut my face on something and now I’m covered in blood.” Yuuji emphasized his words with a laugh, winching when he pressed too hard against his head.

“How’d you do that?” Just as Junpei speaks, a nurse beckons Yuuji to follow her. He waves to Miwa as he stands, she forces a smile despite her nerves and nods as he leaves. 

“I’ll tell ya when I get home, the nurses are dragging me back,” Yuuji kills the call before Junpei can respond. He’s ushered into a room, another nurse takes the soaked napkins and guides him to sit down as the previous nurse gathers supplies. 

“Are you experiencing tunnel vision, loss of vision, lightheadedness, balance issues, breathing or heart issues, or weakness?” the nurse wiping the blood off his face asks. 

Before he can throw together an answer, the first nurse pipes up from across the room, “He was walking just fine.”

“Uh, yeah,” Yuuji stutters, “Vision is a bit dark when I stand up, but when I sit I feel fine. I can still see out of my eye, it was a bit blurry and hurt to open though.”

His face is wet, and Yuuji isn’t sure if it's from blood or water. Probably water at this point, he can feel something cold drip down his face. It eases the burning feeling around his eye. The nurse is gentle when touching the wound, she calls back to the other nurse who’s placing supplies on a table next to Yuuji, “The eyelid is injured, get a doctor.”

The first nurse runs out of the room. Yuuji feels his heart drop at the mention of a doctor, “Oops. Is it bad?”

The remaining nurse tosses bloody wipes to the side as she soaks a white pad in some chemicals. She presses and rubs the pad along Yuuji’s injury, making his bite back a wince, “The cut is just on a sensitive area. A doctor will be able to fix it better than a nurse can. Can you try to open your eye for me?”

Yuuji does what he’s told, forcing open his eye. It stings and makes his eye water, but it does open. He opens it as wide as it will go, he even looks side to side and up and down. The nurse gives him a quiet “okay” and Yuuji lets his eyes fall close. 

More footsteps enter the room, Yuuji opens his one good eye to see a man in a white coat followed by the first nurse come in. The nurse next to him daps away some droplets of blood that ooze from his cut as she speaks up, “The eyelid isn’t severed, but the surface is lacerated. The eye itself doesn’t appear to be damaged, only slightly bloodshot.”

Yuuji is made to lay down as the doctor hovers over him. He closes both of his eyes, finding it awkward to stare at some stranger as they poke around his face. He can feel the doctor’s touch, and he can feel the needle go in and out of his skin, but it isn’t too bad. Whatever the nurse rubbed on his face probably numbed him.

It doesn’t take that long until a bandage is taped to his face, covering his eye and part of his forehead. The doctor leaves, one nurse cleans as the other attends to him. She hands him a blue shirt, clearly the same scrubs she is wearing, as she helps Yuuji take off his blood soaked shirt. He helps her clean off the blood that soaked through his shirt.

Yuuji pulls on the surprisingly comfortable scrubs as the nurse tosses his bloody shirt into a bag. She helps him stand and guides him back to the waiting area. Yuuji is given a clipboard with a stack of papers on it and a pen before he’s turned loose. 

He walks over and sits himself right next to Miwa, her hands now clean of blood. She inspects his bandages with a small smile, her eyebrows pinched up in concern, “Are you okay? Is your actual eye hurt?”

“I don’t think so, I can see out of it,” Yuuji hums, scribbling down answers wherever there’s a blank on the countless sheets of paper. Name, age, date of birth, insurance, medical history, emergency contacts, blah, blah, blah. “They said my eyelid was hurt, but not severed. They had to call in a doctor to give me stitches.”

“They probably only gave you stitches on your forehead, your eyelid is likely being held together by something else,” Miwa muses. She rubs her neck, fingers pressed under her jaw like she’s checking her pulse. She keeps her eyes closed for a few moments, the two sitting quietly in the rather noisy waiting room. 

“I’m kinda jealous of the nurses working here,” Miwa pipes up, voice soft as she looks around. She leans back in the chair, finally starting to relax for the first time in almost an hour.

“You’re going to be like them one day. I know it. Kokichi knows it. It’s going to happen one day,” Yuuji states, he flashes her with a smile before turning back to the forms in his lap.

She looks down at her hands folded in her lap, frowning slightly. The two sit in silence, the noise of the waiting room blurred into nothing as Yuuji filled out the endless stack of papers. Miwa speaks up, voice barely audible, “If they’ll ever allow me to leave.”

Yuuji presses his lips into a thin line, pen hesitating before he continues to write. He doesn’t know how to console her when it comes to that. Their bosses are dangerous people, fully capable of killing either of them whenever they wanted. 

“You,” Yuuji starts. His mouth hangs open for a moment, desperately storing through his thoughts to piece something together, “you want to do something with your life. You went to school, got a degree. You have a boyfriend and family that love you.”

Yuuji pauses. He bites the inside of his cheek as he scribbles the final few questions he was asked to fill out, “I don’t have any of that. Orphaned at a young age, dropped out of college, chronically single.

“I’m not telling you this to make you pity me, or to tell you you’re privileged or whatever. I’m not doing that,” Yuuji looks Miwa in the eyes, clipping the pen to the top of the clipboard and letting it sit in his lap, “I’m telling you this so you know for a fact I mean it when I say I’ll make sure you get out of here. I have literally nothing to lose, Miwa, but you have everything.”

Miwa stares back at him, eyes wide and mouth parted open in surprise. She looks like she’s about to speak when Yuuji stands up, shooting a smile down at her before walking to the front desk to drop off the questionnaire. 

Yuuji is given instructions on how to deal with recovery, as well as setting up an appointment to get the stitches removed in a few weeks. He and Miwa walk out of the hospital in silence, his hands in his pockets as the bag with his bloody shirt hands from around his wrist. 

Walking with one eye is surprisingly difficult, Yuuji finds out. He keeps on straying to the side when he tries to walk in a straight line, either almost bumping into Miwa or walking onto the street. And his head hurts. A dull ache in his temple as his one remaining eye feels strained. He has to fight the urge to close both his eyes in hopes of relieving the stress on his one seeing one, but he can’t be walking around with his eyes closed in a part of the city he has very little knowledge of. 

He and Miwa make it back to the restaurant, a figure pacing nervously in front of its doors. Miwa gasps and jogs over, Yuuji speed walking behind her. The man turns around when Miwa calls out, making his way towards her and wrapping his arms around her waist.

“Miwa, what happened?” Kokichi cups her face with both of his hands, his eyes full of concern as he looks into hers, “You said Yuuji got hurt and you had to take him to the hospital. Is everything alright?”

Kokichi glances behind Miwa and at Yuuji. The shorter man nods before continuing, “Are both of you alright? What happened?”

“The doctors said I’ll be fine,” Yuuji responds. His face feels hot, unsure if he should tell the other man the truth or not.

“Um. I’m not sure what happened exactly,” Miwa begins, glancing behind to look at Yuuji, silently asking the same question as Yuuji, “I heard a commotion in the kitchen as we were closing up, and when I went to go check Yuuji was bleeding. I was too busy making sure he wasn’t bleeding out to actually take a look at what hurt him.”

“Yeah, uh,” Yuuji rubs the back of his neck. He hesitates for a second before making up his mind, “I slipped on some water and ate shit on a table. The tables back there are super sharp, so it kinda cut my face open.”

Yuuji chuckles, pulling at the short hair that grows from the nape of his neck. He really needs a haircut soon. Miwa nods, looking back at Kokichi as he seems to buy what Yuuji was saying. Yuuji internally sighs with relief, if he told Kokichi about what actually happened one of two scenarios could’ve played out. One, Kokichi thinks Yuuji is crazy, which would suck since Yuuji thinks he’s a cool guy and that might possibly affect Miwa and her relationship, since she would likely back up Yuuji’s story. Two, Kokichi believes him and asks to see the mermaid, which would also suck since that would put stress on the fish man and Yuuji really doesn’t want it to act out violently again. He doesn’t want to lose both his eyes. 

Miwa’s eyes widened in realization, turning to address Yuuji, “You can’t drive!”

Yuuji blinks at her, but Kokichi just nods in agreement. Yuuji’s hand falls from his neck, hanging limply at his side, “Why?”

“Your eye is currently patched, it wouldn’t be legal, and it’s probably against treatment,” Miwa explains. She glances back at her boyfriend before turning to talk to her coworker again, “Do you need a ride home? I’m sure Kokichi wouldn’t mind giving you a lift.”

Kokichi nods, “You’ve helped Miwa get home when I can’t, I’m more than willing to return the favor, Yuuji.”

Yuuji stares at the couple before glancing at the doors of the restaurant. He contemplates for a long moment. Sleeping would be nice, and throwing his shirt in the wash so it doesn’t get stained pink. Junpei is also probably really worried. But at the same time he and Miwa left the inside of the restaurant a mess, and the mermaid’s tank is probably contaminated with blood which sounds unhealthy for it. And Yuuji really doesn’t want to leave his car here overnight. 

The car reason is the most convincing, so he glances back at the pair decided, “I’m good for tonight. We left this place a mess, and the bosses would appreciate it if we didn’t keep it that way.”

“Yuuji,” Miwa starts, but Yuuji just shakes his head.

“I’ve stayed overnight before, so I know how to handle the place,” Yuuji smiles.

“That’s not what I’m worried about, Yuuji,” Miwa starts again, “You need rest. Doing physical labor will only prolong your recovery, it’s not healthy.”

“I’ll just deal with it if it ends up hurting me,” Yuuji hardens his face, tilting his head to the side as he continues, “Besides, you don’t want the bosses to be mad, do you?”

Miwa gasps, fear washing over her features as she freezes at the thought. She slowly shakes her head no, but still looks hesitant to leave Yuuji alone.

Yuuji just smiles, “You’re the one who deals with the customers face to face, so you need to be well rested so you can deal with them. If you really want to help me, go home and sleep,” he pauses, glancing down at the bag that hangs from his wrist before looking back up at her, “And wash my shirt. My other one is back home, but I don’t like that one.”

She agrees, and he hands her the bag. Yuuji waves goodbye to the couple as they walk down the street to where Kokichi parked. Yuuji shivers, the air is getting colder and colder every night as fall approaches. His hand limply tugs as the door’s handle and his heart drops when the door actually opens.

“Oh, shit,” Yuuji mutters to himself, looking down at the handle as he pulls the door a little bit more open, “This is supposed to be locked.”

His heart hammers and his throat feels tight as he enters the restaurant, some of the lights still turned on and the chairs and floor a mess. Bloody napkins dirty one of the tables, pools of water and a few droplets of blood gather on the floor, outlining where the fish man has been. Yuuji is silent as he tries to listen for any sign the mermaid is still in the building, because if it left then Yuuji knows both he and Miwa are as good as dead. 

The whole place is silent, safe for the quiet buzzing of the lights and the faint noises of the spinning fan above. Yuuji’s steps are quiet and careful as he makes his way to the kitchen, taking in every little detail trying to find out if the thing left or not.

The chair that was propping open the kitchen door has been knocked away, now just sitting slightly off to the side of the closed door. Yuuji holds his breath as he pushes it open, the loud creaking sounds deafening in the silence. He opens it only a little bit, just enough to peer briefly inside, and when he does Yuuji is met with a pair of eyes staring right back at him.

His heart stutters, a backwards feeling of relief washes over him as his shoulders relax a little. Yuuji nods before allowing the kitchen door to close. He takes a few steps back and runs his hands through his hair, pulling at the strands and raking his nails over his scalp. It’s both good and bad news that the fish man is still here. Good news because that means he can live another day, but bad news because that means Yuuji has to find a way to clean the restaurant without getting attacked again. 

He allows himself to breathe for a couple of moments, forcing himself to calm down and to actually think for the first time in his life. His quick meditation session is interrupted soon after when noises emerge from the kitchen. The sounds of water splashing and something dragging softly against the floor. A moment later the thing barely peaks its head up to look through the small kitchen window, narrowing its eyes as it glares at Yuuji.

Yuuji freezes, locked into a staring contest with the other living being for what feels like hours before he manages to lift his hand to wave at it. The thing only gives a quiet hiss in response, and Yuuji drops his hand quickly. 

Yuuji manages to tear his eyes away from the other, glancing around at his surroundings. He fills one of his cheeks with air, holding it for a while as he thinks before blowing it out with a sigh. He rubs the back of his head before pushing open the door to the kitchen, beelining straight to the utility closet. He ignores the yelp and hisses that come from behind him, ignoring the clicking and the yelling that almost sound like words. 

He grabs everything he can think of, various chemicals and rags and gloves, tossing them into a large bin meant for bussing tables. He grabs the bin and a mop before closing the closet door and rushing out of the kitchen, something akin to a bark is snapped at him as he leaves. 

Yuuji tosses the bin onto the nearest table, leaning the mop against the wall as he just takes a second to breathe. Hands on his hips as he hangs his head, staring down at his feet, trying to ignore the throbbing in his head. Yuuji wants to pick at the tape keeping the bandages secured to his face, he hates how it pulls at his skin with every ounce of emotion he dares to express. 

He stares at the bin of cleaning supplies. One of his hands raises to rub at his eyes, but it is only met with soft padding when it ghosts over the right side of his face. His thumb idly glides along the smooth plastic of the tape, his nail emitting a satisfying, soft noise as it scrapes along it. He reaches the end of the piece, his nail pressing into his skin as he unconsciously tries to get under the tape’s edge.

It takes more effort than he would like to admit for Yuuji to actually get started with cleaning, willing his hand to stop messing with his bandages to actually get to work. 

It’s not the first time Yuuji has stayed overnight to clean the place, most of the times before Miwa was feeling sick, or Kokichi was feeling sick, or one of their animals was feeling sick. Mainly whenever someone somewhere was feeling a little bit sick, Yuuji would stay behind and close up the entire place. Those nights he would often just sleep over, not wanting to drive when it’s three in the morning nor wanting to wake Junpei up at a late hour. So Yuuji can easily space out when he starts to wipe down each table, picking up the chairs and flipping them upside down to hang on the tables. Only when disposing of the bloody napkins does Yuuji need to use his brain a little, but he’s already cleaned up so much blood this day alone that it also comes easily to him.

Yuuji can feel a pair of eyes burn into the back of his head, so Yuuji keeps his own head down and tries to avoid glancing over at the kitchen as much as possible. The fish man has quieted down, not even when Yuuji walks past the kitchen door to pick up the mop does it make any sound. 

But fuck Yuuji is so damn curious. He wants to look at it, he wants to stare without shame or being hissed at. He wants to run his hands along its tail, to feel its muscles and its scales. He wants to figure out where the torso ends and where the tail begins. He wants to inspect its gills and feel its lungs when it breathes. Not out of a desire to dissect the thing, but just because he’s fascinated by it.

If given the chance, Yuuji would also love to put his hands on an alligator, or a tiger, or a palm tree, or literally anything he hasn’t seen before. Yuuji is a hands-on learner, always has been and always will be. That’s part of the reason why cooking came so naturally to him, the only way to learn how to cook is to actually make something. 

The front of house is completely cleaned. Yuuji looks around, glancing away quickly when his eye accidentally locks on to the pair boring holes into him. Yuuji knows he has to clean the back next, but he isn’t sure how to handle the thing staring at him. 

Yuuji sighs as he grabs the cleaning supplies and carefully pushes open the kitchen door with his hip, making sure he enters slowly and taking up as little space as possible. Yuuji glances up at the mermaid. 

It glares at Yuuji, but it remains silent. It’s partly sitting on Yuuji’s work table, but its tail is so long that most of it is laying on the floor. The spines that run down its spine stand straight and sharp, as Yuuji’s eye trails down the tail he notices that towards the end another row of spine runs along the bottom of the tail, mirroring the top side. The spines blend seamlessly into the spines that make up the large fins on the very tip of the tail. 

Yuuji is mesmerized by the glowing spots that decorate the belly of the fish man’s tail. The pale, blueish white doesn’t give off enough light to illuminate the surrounding darkness, but they are bright enough to captivate. Yuuji is no better than a fish, he concludes, because he would swim towards random sources of pretty light even if he knew he would just get eaten. 

Yuuji snaps out of his thoughts when the fish man clicks, like that barking sound from earlier but not as angry. His eyes lock onto the mermaid’s, it narrows its eyes and scowls. Yuuji takes note of the two scars that run along the side of its face. Both start at the hairline, but the top one crosses over the eye and ends at the lip, while the bottom one cuts through one of the glowing spots on its cheek before disappearing down its jaw. 

This dude has a very attractive face, Yuuji realizes. Sharp jawline, mysterious scars, black hair, green eyes, and notably muscular. Yeah, this fish is hot.

Yuuji takes a deep breath through his mouth, holding it in his chest before he speaks carefully, “Okay, I’m just going to clean around you.” Yuuji gestures to the dining area before gesturing to the surrounding kitchen, making sure he doesn’t point at the other. A nervous smile unwillingly tugs at the corners of Yuuji’s mouth, “Please don’t be mad.”

Yuuji keeps his hands slightly raised, palms open and turned toward the other as he makes his way towards clutter. Clearly when the mermaid escaped, it knocked over a shit ton of stuff in both the kitchen and dining room. The mermaid doesn’t seem like it’s going to move, so Yuuji gets to work cleaning every little thing around him.

It stays on the table as Yuuji runs around the kitchen, flicking its tail out of the way when he needs to cross the room, then flicking it back out when Yuuji is done crossing. Its eyes never leave Yuuji, not even for a second. 

There’s a lot more blood on the ground than Yuuji originally assumed, most likely both of theirs. But thankfully it’s all on tile, so it’s relatively easy to clean. The only difficult part is that the blood had time to dry, but a little elbow grease fixes everything. 

Eventually the one of the only places left to clean is Yuuji’s work station, but the fish man doesn’t seem too keen on moving any time soon. It sits and stares holes into Yuuji with a permanent frown on its face. 

Yuuji turns to the other place left to clean, the fish tank. 

It’s a huge tank, only a little bit smaller than a twin sized bed by the looks of it. Although the water seems clear, Yuuji knows that the fish man was bleeding earlier, so that water has trace amounts of blood in it. Yuuji has taken more than enough culinary training to know that any amount of blood anywhere in a kitchen is extremely dangerous. But Yuuji has never owned fish, so he pulls out his phone and calls the smartest person he knows.

It takes a couple attempts before they actually pick up the phone, clearly very tired and very pissed, “Yuuji it is almost two in the morning, why the fuck are you calling me at this hour?”

“I’m so sorry, Nobara, but you’re really smart and I need someone smart right now,” Yuuji begs, pacing back and forth in front of the tank. 

“You’re damn right I’m smart, but Yuuji it is dark as hell outside, why are you even awake?” Nobara hisses into the phone. Yuuji feels so bad waking her up, but she’s the one who graduated with a minor in math for some ungodly reason. 

“Oh, I went to the ER and now I’m staying late to clean up around the restaurant because it’s a mess, but that’s not important right now,” Yuuji says quickly, and just as quickly changes the topic to what he needs, “How do I know how much water to put into a huge fish tank? There’s a measuring tape somewhere, so I can get you numbers if you need them.”

“The ER? Okay, whatever, I’m visiting you when the sun rises,” Yuuji can hear Nobara run a hand over her face, and after a brief moment of silence she takes a deep breath and speaks again, “Measure the short side, the long side, and how tall it is. I’ll tell you the volume and the amount of water you need should be around that.”

Yuuji does just that. After a few second of Nobara plugging the numbers either into her super smart math brain or just a regular calculator, she yells into the phone, “What do you mean you have a three hundred gallon fish tank in your fucking kitchen!”

“The bosses put it here! I told you when they first did this!” Yuuji yells back, pulling at his hair as he runs his free hand over his scalp. The fish man quietly hisses, and Yuuji gives a quiet apology. A thought crosses his mind and he purses his lips, “Do you think a fish from the ocean needs salt water?”

“Is the three hundred gallon fish tank currently filled with salt water?” Nobara questions back. Yuuji’s mind goes blank as he digs around the cabinets and grabs a cup, dipping it into the fish tank and throwing his head back.

He gags. Chokes, even. “Yeah,” he manages to squeak out, his face contorted in disgust at the offending flavor of salt water, “Yeah it’s like an ocean in there.”

“Did you just drink the dirty fish water!” Nobara yells into the phone again.

“Nobara it is really late out, and I just got stitches in my face a few hours ago,” Yuuji explains once he can stop cringing, “I have way less critical thinking than I normally do, or whatever you and Junpei call it.”

“Anyway, you need salt water, give me a second,” Nobara says then goes quiet. Yuuji glances behind him and is filled with shame, the fish man is no longer glaring at Yuuji, but is staring with confusion and concern. 

“Dude you need so much salt,” Nobara’s voice picks up again, “Thirty seven cups, or ten thousand five hundred grams of the stuff. That’s so much salt.”

“That’s so much salt,” Yuuji parrots. 

“Do you really need to change the water?” Nobara asks, he can hear her roll around on her bed, throwing the calculator somewhere across her room.

“Yeah, there’s blood in it,” Yuuji states, bouncing on his heels as he makes eye contact with the fish man again, “Anyway, I’m gonna figure out a way to dump all this bloody water. Talk to you tomorrow, Nobara.”

Before she could respond Yuuji ends the call. 

…

It takes a while for Yuuji to carry the tank outside to dump the water down a nearby drain, then takes even more time for the tank to fill with water again as he quickly runs to the nearest store to buy a shit ton of salt. By the time he returns, the tank is only partly filled, and the fish man is completely curled on his work table. 

Yuuji sits down on the ground as he waits forever for the tank to finish filling, the kitchen is still. Neither he nor the fish man move, but at least the fish man’s eyes are no longer just locked on Yuuji. It glances from the filling tank, to Yuuji, and sometimes to the surrounding kitchen. 

When the water finishes, Yuuji neatly wraps up the hose he was using and hangs it in the utility closet. He uses a simple measuring cup and a counting app on his phone to add the cups of salt. Yuuji made sure to get sea salt, he doesn’t know if there’s a difference but if it’s from the sea it should be better than normal table salt. 

Yuuji just dips his whole arm into the tank to help the salt dissolve, and once it looks good enough he stands again. He jumps and yelps when he realizes the fish man was sitting behind him possibly the whole time he was getting the water ready. The mermaid is startled by Yuuji’s reaction, and hisses in response. 

The fish man quickly hoists itself into the clean tank, and Yuuji freezes as he watches the long, black tail disappear over the rim and into the water. Yuuji bows to the tank before he rushes out of the kitchen, making sure to turn off the rest of the lights as he leaves.

Chapter Text

Yuuji slowly wakes when he feels something tugging at the skin on his face. The more he comes to, the more Yuuji registers the pressure sitting on his chest and abdomen. Another light tug and Yuuji can feel something being ripped off his face like a band aid. 

Yuuji opens his eye to stare at the blurry figure hovering over his face. The more he blinks the more defined the mermaid becomes, sitting on his stomach as it picks at Yuuji’s eyepatch. The person on him is too preoccupied to notice that Yuuji is awake, so the chef spends his time taking in every single detail of the other’s face. How focused its green eyes are, narrowed this time in concentration rather than fury. Long dark eyelashes make its eyes stand out more against its pale skin. The scars that cut through half of its face are thin and deep, one of the scars deform the upper lip slightly. Its mostly dried hair rests in tufts of spiky black atop its head. 

Yuuji’s eye travels down to confirm that yes, the mermaid is mostly sitting on top of him. One hand planted just under his ribs so it’s painfully pressing against his organs, and the thick part of the upper tail sits comfortably in Yuuji’s lap. The rest of the tail falls off to the side, pooling on the floor and flicking every so often. 

Yuuji’s eye widens slightly when he notices that the spins that run along the mermaid’s spine and tail don’t stand as stiff as they were the other day but instead lay relaxed along the curves of the spine. The fins on the tip of the tail are closed, too, lightly pressed together like a closed handheld fan. 

The mermaid shifts, the hand on Yuuji’s torso pressing deeper painfully. He grunts, and makes eye contact with the person sitting on him. They’re both still for a moment, the mermaid blinks once, then twice, before it furrows its brows and hisses. Sharp teeth snarl down at Yuuji before the mermaid slinks off him.

Yuuji sits up with a groan as the mermaid slithers away. He rubs his good eye with the heel of his palm as he yawns, his jaw popping painfully. If it weren’t for the kitchen door loudly screeching close and his clothes being slightly damp, Yuuji would’ve thought he dreamed the whole thing.

Not being allowed to drive temporarily and not wanting to leave the mermaid alone in the restaurant, Yuuji slept in the dining area for the night. An old backpack he found in the back served as his pillow when he spent the night on the floor. Other than his neck and shoulders aching, it was quite comfortable in Yuuji’s opinion. 

His hand drifts to his other eye as he searches for his phone, brushing against the loose ends of the tape that’s supposed to secure the thing to his face. That must have been what was pulling at his skin, the mermaid was pulling off the tape for some unknown reason. Yuuji reasons that it probably was just curious. 

Yuuji is only met with a black screen when he tries to turn on his phone, clearly dead. He rakes a hand through messy hair, fingers tugging at knots that pull at his scalp. His eye hurts, something someone said about eye strain, Yuuji can’t remember who, it’s way too early in the morning to recall. He shoves his phone back into his pocket and stands, flinging the backpack over his shoulder as he nudges past the noisy kitchen door. 

No hissing, but there is a pair of eyes glued on Yuuji the moment he enters, glaring at him from the tank. Faint glowing dots can be spotted occasionally as it coils around itself, long black tail hiding its pale skin as it wraps around itself. 

Yuuji realizes his staring once his eye starts to burn from not blinking, accidentally locked in a staring contest with the other. He smiles and bows his head quickly before continuing on his path, tossing the backpack where he found it and rummaging through every nook and cranny to find something to charge his phone. Yuuji curses himself for not doing this last night, cursing his lazy ass for opting to go to bed instead of taking care of the one thing that can save him from boredom. 

Yuuji paces the entire restaurant, looking under and over everything he can possibly think of, yet he comes up with nothing. He runs a hand over his face as he tosses the long dead phone on a table in the back. Now having very few options to waste his time, Yuuji tends to his equipment. The irritating sound of the stone as he glides his blades across it doesn’t bother the chef anymore, having heard it countless times in his almost twenty-four years of life. 

The kitchen remains dark, the only light bleeding in comes from the few that are turned on in the dining area. Illuminating just enough so he doesn’t accidentally cut off one of his fingers again. His mind peacefully blank as he does the monotonous task, no looming dread over where his life is heading or the anxiety that plagues every inch of his mind. Just the muted sound of knives grinding against the stone. 

The final knife slides into the block with a satisfying sheathing noise. Peering into the dining area, Yuuji still sees that it’s dark outside. He puffs out a sigh, his forehead pulsing and aching now that he has nothing to distract himself with. Yuuji subconsciously looks behind himself, looking at the figure that’s no longer glaring at him but is instead tightly curled around itself in the tank. All Yuuji sees is a dark mass with faint glimpses of pale glowing dots, but other than that the form is unrecognizable. 

Yuuji doesn’t know how long he’s been resting his head on folded arms, leaning over his work table in the dark kitchen, but he finally raises his head when he hears the front door open and someone quickly shuffle inside. Groaning and stretching his back until the stiffness pops out, Yuuji blindly wanders out to meet whoever has arrived. 

“Morning,” Miwa’s soft voice greets. Yuuji actually opens his eye when he smiles at her. She slides his folded up work shirt over to him, cleaned with no trace of blood anywhere. The blue haired woman glances back at Yuuji, pursing her lips as she studies his face, “You do know you’re not supposed to touch the bandage, right?”

“Oh!” Yuuji snickers, rubbing the back of his neck as he folds his shirt under his arm, “I know. I didn’t touch it, but our, uh , our friend did.”

Yuuji nods his head to the kitchen, and Miwa’s hand covers her mouth when she lets out a soft, fascinated gasp, “ When? ”

“Last night when I was asleep,” Yuuji plays with the loose tape, pressing it against his face in a helpless attempt at getting it to stick again, ”I woke up to it just picking at it. It was literally sitting on my lap, but as soon as I woke up it hissed at me and ran off like a cat.”

“Catfish,” Miwa chuckles under her breath. She shakes her head, “Um, we should probably remove the bandage anyway, it’s old. I stopped by a convenience store on my way to work and picked up some basic first aid since we didn’t have any yesterday.”

She unloads the contents from a plastic bag that was sitting next to her purse: bandages, a small bottle of rubbing alcohol, ibuprofen, dressings. Small stuff, but stuff they didn’t previously have. Yuuji grabs the bottle of ibuprofen, the pills clattering inside at the smallest movement. The waitress puts aside a large bandage and wipes separate from the rest of the first aid.

“Do you think our fish friend could also take these?” Yuuji shakes the bottle as he gestures to the back. 

“Hopefully,” Miwa mutters. She bundles the plastic bag in her hands before shoving it into the nearest trash can. She follows Yuuji when he takes the rest of the first aid to the back of the restaurant and watches from the doorway as he files it away in the utility closet so it’s easily accessible.“He seems human enough. But if he gets worse then just stop giving it to him, I guess.”

Yuuji pops open the lid, staring down the neck of the bottle as he paces towards the tank sitting in the dark. He sits on his knees next to it, his knuckles freezing before they knock on the glass. Yuuji bites his lip and looks back at Miwa, who gives him a sense smile before closing the door as quietly as feasibly possible, “Come back out here when you’re done, so we can fix your bandage.”

Yuuij knocks on the glass twice with the middle knuckle of his finger, closing his eye tightly as he waits. There is movement, shuffling and something bumping against the inside of the glass. A quiet breathy hiss fills the silence when the mermaid breaches the water, followed by quiet heavy breathing as it adjusts to the difference in air. 

Yuuji’s breath is stuck in his chest when he opens his eye to look at the green ones peering down at him, barely above the water and narrow in aggression. Yuuji forces a smile that’s hopefully friendly.

“Uh,” the chef rubs the back of his neck as he stares at the medicine label, rotating the bottle around and around in the palm of his hand as his mouth hangs uselessly open, “I’m- I’m sure your head hurts, too. Mine sure does.”

The green eyes don’t change, remaining narrowed and on edge as Yuuji tries to explain himself. His throat is so dry swallowing is painful, “These should help with the pain. If you’re not in pain then I guess these are useless, but I don’t know if you’re in pain or not.”

Yuuji shakes a pill into the palm of his hand and tosses it into his mouth. As he shakes another one into his hand, he forces himself to swallow despite his dry mouth. He holds his palm up so it sits level with the edge of the tank, hand open and pill easy to grab. 

Green eyes glare down at the pill before looking back to Yuuji’s eye, but other than that there is no movement. Yuuji limply points his fingers to the loose bandage adhered to his face, “It helps with pain…”

The chef bites the inside of his cheek, glancing around the dark kitchen before he rips the rest of the bandage off. He points to the fresh stitches sewed into his skin, swollen and slightly painful to the touch. Yuuji then taps the back of his head before pointing at the mermaid, “The pain. It stops the pain.”

Still no movement, it just blinks at him. Yuuji doubles over in embarrassment, cheeks burning as if his body is laughing or shaming him at his piss poor attempt at communication. Pressing the back of his hand into his good eye, Yuuji sighs in frustration. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, this is dumb. You don’t even know what I’m saying –”

Yuuji pauses when he feels something wet press into the palm of his hand. Sticky and warm and completely unexpected. He looks over to see the mermaid more out of the water, leaning over and pressing its tongue to where he was offering the pill. Yuuji can feel how rough the muscle is, toothy and sharp like a cat. And how oddly sticky the spit is. When the mermaid pulls away the pill is stuck to its tongue and thin strings of saliva stretch between Yuuji’s hand and its lips. 

Yuuji is shocked. Mouth hangs open dumbly as he watches the tongue curl around the pill when it’s pulled into its mouth. Sharp teeth are seen only for a split second before they’re hidden. It’s hypnotizing watching the mermaid tilt its head back slightly and seeing the adam’s apple blatantly bob up and down as it swallows. The gills on its neck bulge ever so slightly when it swallows, and it’s the most fascinating thing Yuuji has ever seen.

The two stare at each other for a moment that feels like forever, green eyes blink down at brown ones. Yuuji’s fingers twitch, his ring finger curling to press into the middle of his palm. Brown eyes flicker down to watch the finger pull away, seeing a thin string of spit be pulled away with it.

A quiet almost embarrassed hiss cuts through the silent kitchen as the mermaid sinks back into the water, only green eyes and dark hair remaining above the surface as it glares at the human. Yuuji drops his hand and smiles, a light laugh bubbling out of his chest, “You’re okay! That was just kinda unexpected, but you’re fine!”

Yuuji stands as he rolls the bottle around in his hands, reading the label and taking note of the instructions. Normally Yuuji would just take painkillers wherever he thinks he needs them, but currently it’s not just him that’s taking them. He doesn’t want to accidentally poison the mermaid, or get it addicted to drugs. 

After quickly dropping off the pills into the utility closet and tossing the old bandage as he exits the kitchen, Yuuji beams at Miwa from where she sits at one of the tables scrolling through her phone. She smiles back, tucking her phone into her pocket quickly as she organizes the bandages sitting next to her, “How’d it go?”

“Dude, it ate from my hand,” Yuuji blurts out, looking down at his palm that’s still slightly sticky.

The blue haired woman glances back confused, one eyebrow raised as she pulls out a chair near the one she was sitting in, “Ate from your hand?”

“Yeah!” The chef sits in the chair that was pulled out for him, shuffling closer to his coworker as she inspects the stitches, “I had the pill in my hand, offered it out to them, then they pressed their tongue into my hand! Their spit is super sticky, wanna feel?”

Miwa flinches away from his offered hand, face scrunching in disgust, “Keep your mermaid spit to yourself, Yuuji!”

Attaching the new bandage only takes a minute. Miwa cleans the stitches, makes sure they’re dry, then sticks a wide band aid to his forehead. Thankfully this time Yuuji’s eye isn’t covered. 

The rest of the morning plays out as normally as it can, now that Yuuji and Miwa have a new addition that hisses at them every so often. The front remains mostly empty throughout the day except for the occasional customer. The mermaid sleeps a lot, its tank covered by the curtain Yuuji found the other day so it can sleep in darkness. 

It was nearing noon when Yuuji hears the front doors practically slam open, Miwa gets greeted softly before the patron yells out, “Yuuji! Stop fucking ghosting me and answer my texts!”

Ah shit, Nobara , Yuuji rubs his eyes and laughs under his breath before yelling back, “My phone is dead, random customer!”

“Don’t ‘random customer’ me, fish boy!” Nobara glares through the small window separating the kitchen and the dining area, Miwa quietly giggling behind the annoyed woman. Short brown hair is pulled back into a short ponytail, bangs stylishly framing his friend’s face when it contorts in concern, “What happened to your face?”

“Got stitches in my face,” Yuuji shrugs, “It’s why I went to the ER the other day.”

“How the hell did you do that?” Nobara looks positively disgusted at the sight, though Nobara has always looked disgusted whenever Yuuji got an injury of some kind. He knows she cares for him, but she can care for him and think stitches are gross at the same time.

“I’ll, uh, show you when it’s past closing,” Yuuji proposes. His friend rolls her eyes in response. 

“Whatever,” Nobara groans. She fixes her hair in the reflection of her phone, “I’m gonna go pick up lunch somewhere since the both of you probably have had nothing but fish. Any suggestions?”

“I’ll eat literally anything,” Yuuji stretches, catching a glance behind himself then quickly adding, “ Give me two things! Please? I haven’t had breakfast this morning.”

“Fatass,” Nobara mumbles as she scrolls through her phone, pacing over to Miwa so the two can discuss amongst themselves. 

…

Nobara begrudgingly lent Yuuji her charger before she left to pick up lunch, so now his phone sits off to the side charging for the first time in hours. Already his phone has been non-stop buzzing with notification after notification, ranging from texts from Nobara, Junpei, and even Miwa to random bullshit emails that are going straight into the trash as soon as his break starts. 

But for now, it’s a waiting game. Waiting for the minutes to tick by so his bosses don’t try to skin his ass if he were to take his break a minute too early. Miwa does the same, pacing in slow circles around the dining area with nothing but her thoughts to entertain her. At least Yuuji has knives to fiddle around with, he’s an adult, he knows how to (mostly) not cut himself by accident.

Nobara returns with two bags from a nearby fast food joint, huffing when she unceremoniously drops the bags into the nearest table. She mutters to herself about every little thing that pissed her off during her excursion as she fixes her clothes. The brunette grabs one bag and walks over to the kitchen, handing it over to Yuuji before walking back to where Miwa hovers over the remaining bag. 

“Since Yuuji is trapped in the kitchen during working hours, will you be able to tell me what the hell happened to his face?” Nobara asks the blue haired woman when they both sit down, rummaging through the contents of the remaining bag for their food.

Yuuji tunes out of the conversation once the clock ticks over to his allowed lunch time, placing and sorting through the bag on a table next to the tank. It seems like Nobara just doubled whatever order she gave him, since he pulls out two identical sandwiches wrapped in paper. 

He leans over to knock on the glass again before wandering off to dim the lights. Yuuji doesn’t actually know if the mermaid needs the dark, since it can’t tell Yuuji if it has a concussion or not, but it doesn’t hurt to turn them off anyway. 

When Yuuji makes his way back to the tank there’s a tent in the curtain covering it, clearly outlining the fingers of the mermaid’s hand where it lifts the fabric. The chef helps fold the covering back, grinning down at the mermaid when green eyes lock onto his face. Yuuji quickly unwraps both sandwiches, taking a huge bite out of one and offering the other. 

The mermaid doesn’t look as angry as it normally does, but it does also look like it just woke up. It takes a moment before it reaches out, grabbing the sandwich and hesitatingly taking it from Yuuji’s grasp. A part of Yuuji is bummed that it didn’t eat out of his hand again, but he suppresses that thought as soon as it arose. 

Yuuji leans against the table as he watches the mermaid dissect its food. Peeling layer after layer apart and displaying them straight onto the table. Its arms are hooked over the edge of the tank, the edge supporting its upper body out of the water while the rest of it remains submerged. Clawed, dark fingers diligently poke and prod at every lettuce leaf or scrap of meat, but Yuuji can’t help but watch the thin webbings between each finger stretch and constrict with every small movement. 

The sandwich is completely torn apart, each ingredient investigated as much as they possibly could be. Scraps of bread and veggies covered in condiments dirty the table, green eyes scan over them over and over and over again. It looks down at his hands, glaring at the sauce and grease that clings to its fingers, before wiping its hands on the paper that once wrapped the food. 

Yuuji only has a few bites of his sandwich left by the time the mermaid stops, but it doesn’t eat. It just sinks back into the water, only its head and the tops of its shoulder remain exposed. Its face scowles in thought, nose scrunching slightly, brows pinching together, lips flattening into a line. 

The two make eye contact, brown staring into green for a long while before the mermaid shifts. Hands perching on the edge of the tank as it lifts itself more out of the water but not leaving it, instead limply reaching out towards Yuuji with one hand. His legs move before he can even process what’s happening, and as soon as he’s close enough the mermaid strikes. Hand shooting out and clutching around Yuuji’s wrist, pulling the hand holding the sandwich down towards it. 

Sharp teeth pierce the bun, ripping a chunk off of the few remaining bites of sandwich that remain. It sinks back into the water as it chews, still holding Yuuji’s wrist in a deathgrip and glaring daggers at him. But Yuuji doesn’t pay any mind to that, he can’t, he’s too focused on the mermaid’s hand. The skin on its fingers and palm are so much more softer than Yuuji thought they’d be, much softer than Yuuji’s own. The webbing between the thumb and index finger wraps around his wrist, too, soft and stretchy like the skin on Yuuji’s cheeks. 

Its grip is much stronger than Yuuji assumed it would be, and Yuuji thought it was gonna have a strong grip. The mermaid is clearly very muscular, lean but built biceps and visible abs even when relaxed, but the grip strength is insane . 

Yuuji gently pulls his arm back to expose the mermaid’s more, softly gasping in awe when he realizes that the forearms are mainly covered in skin, not scale. Skin as black as the void, but skin nevertheless. A few scales are scattered here or there, mainly along the top of the forearm, but the hands and wrists are skin only. Yuuji can see where the black skin blends into the pale skin around the elbow despite it being slightly submerged underwater.

A spitting sound snaps Yuuji back to reality, green eyes glaring up at him the whole time he was entranced by the mermaid’s arm. Yuuji can’t do anything except laugh nervously, embarrassment washing over his senses making him blush. The burning feeling in his cheeks makes Yuuji turn his head away and rub his face with the hand that’s not being held. 

When the mermaid bites the sandwich again, this time much less aggressively, Yuuji lets go. The two freeze, the mermaid staring up at Yuuji while he tries to not freak out any more than he already is. 

The hand on his wrist loosens slowly, then carefully brushes up to Yuuji’s hand. The pads of its fingers ghosting over Yuuji’s scarred knuckles, the thumb drags along his fingers for a moment before it moves its hand again. Fingers hover over where Yuuji holds the sandwich, oh so slowly pressing where he is pressing. 

The firmmer the mermaid grips, the more Yuuji lets go. The exchange takes much longer than it reasonably should, and with a whole lot more eye contact than Yuuji thought was truly necessary. Those objectively beautiful green eyes stared unblinking at Yuuji’s own, long dark lashes twitching wherever it resists the urge to blink.

Yuuji lets go of a breath that’s been stuck in his chest during the entire event once he’s finally able to let go, the mermaid slinking back into the water as it finally bites through. 

He laughs. He just laughs because that’s the only thing he can possibly do after just experiencing that. That way too intimate moment, at least in Yuuji’s opinion. 

Having the mermaid eat out of his hand once? Sure, okay. That’s fine , that’s reasonable . Yuuji can handle that and still be comfortable with his sexuality, he can ignore the chance that the mermaid might be male and that it’s a whole ass mermaid .

But having the mermaid eat out of his hand twice ? He’s gonna need to have a talk with Nobara about sexuality because he for sure felt things he did not know he was into .

Yuuji’s face is burning hot and he isn’t sure if it’s just because he’s embarrassed. He runs his hands through his hair as he looks anywhere but those damn green eyes looking up at him. Words get stuck in his throat as his thoughts race. 

“Oi! You okay?” Nobara yells from the dining area. Yuuji tries to catch his breath, practically bouncing over to the kitchen window to support himself on his work table so he can formulate a sentence.

“Yeah! Yeah I’m fine!” He manages to piece together, “Nobara can we hang out tonight?”

“Why?” Although she may sound annoyed, Yuuji knows she’s going to say yes. It’s just been her way of speaking since they met in highschool. 

“We need to have a girl talk- a gay talk!” 

“Holy shit!” He can hear Nobara literally jump out of her chair. She runs up to the window and Yuuji tries his best to block her view inside, but a quick glance behind him he can see that the mermaid is hidden underwater and the cover of the curtain. “I mean, I always thought you were bisexual, but you always got so annoyed whenever I joked about that so I just stopped after a little bit. I mean really, what straight man has pink hair.”

“Well, for starters Nobara, we both know my hair is natural. I’m technical ginger,” Yuuji corrects, holding a finger. He holds up a second when he continues, “And second, I might still be a straight man. That's why I’m asking for us to have a gay talk, I don’t know as much about this gay stuff as you do. You’ve been a lesbian basically ever since you were born , Nobara.”

She rolls her eyes and groans, “Right, you’re ginger . I’m still gonna call you pink or strawberry blond.”

“Wait,” Miwa approaches at a reasonable pace, “Your hair isn’t dyed?”

“ No! ” Both he and Nobara answer, Yuuji laughs as he does so and Nobara just sounds exasperated. 

“No, his freaky two toned hair is all natural. Both the brown and the pink grow like that straight from his scalp,” Nobara rants, hand on her hip as she talks. 

“How?” Miwa asks, absolutely fascinated.

“Because his mom is a whore and he has like five dads,” Nobara laughs, shooting a playfully sharp glance back at Yuuji as she speaks.

“ Hey! I don’t have five dads, the fuck? I have one!” Yuuji gapes. He snickers before he turns back to Miwa, laughing to himself too much that he can’t even speak, “My mom is a whore though.”

“That’s mean, guys,” Miwa whines, but the grin on her face refuses to fall.

“It’s true!” Nobara exclaims, “He has like ten half brothers and all of them have different dads. It’s literally insane how much she was able to get around.”

“She was a beautiful woman,” Yuuji interjects, shaking his head as he messes with the bandage stuck to his face, “You would’ve never guessed she had ten kids.”

Miwa covers her mouth with her hands, eyes wide in fascination as she glances between Yuuji and Nobara. The brunette chuckles to herself, “Too bad she’s dead. Who would’ve thought how many kids she could’ve had by now.”

“That’s dark!” Miwa exclaims, her hand shooting out towards Yuuji. It would’ve gripped his hand if it was available to her, but since his hands aren’t her hand hovers in front of him like a shield. 

“If you think that’s dark, you should’ve heard the stuff she used to say back in high school,” Yuuji laughs, scratching the back of his head because he started to peel the bandage off too much. He glances over to his phone and slams his hands onto the table, “Anyway! Lunch break is over, Miwa and I have to get back to work.”

“Okay, whatever,” Nobara rolls her eyes. She fixes her ponytail, her eyes closed as she continues to talk, “I took the bus here, so when getting back to my place we’re gonna have to take your car, Yuuji.”

“You might have to drive, then,” Nobara looks back at him with a confused and irritated look. He grins at her and gestures to his bandage, “I got stitches yesterday, I was told it’s going to be a few days until I can drive again.”

Nobara stares blankly at Yuuji for a long moment before she narrows her eyes, “How’d your car get here, then?”

“Oh! I spent the night here,” Yuuji chirps.

“Here! At the restaurant!” Nobara parrots in disbelief.

Yuuji nods, cheesing like a moron as he organizes his equipment, “Yeah. Used a random backpack I found as a pillow and snuggled up on the floor. That’s why my phone is dead, there’s no charger here.”

“You’re fucking unbelievable,” Nobara groans.

Chapter Text

Yuuji never actually thinks anything through. 

He sits in Nobara’s apartment, a decently sized one bed one bath that’s a short walk from the nearest train station. The location alone makes up for the shitty neighbors that live above her. But as Yuuji lounges on her couch, surrounded by pillows and blankets that make the small apartment more “aesthetic” , his mind races. Debating on if he should tell her the truth as to why he suddenly had a sexuality crisis, or if he should make something up.

He was planning on telling her when the restaurant closed for the night, but she dragged him out to her place as soon as he was off the clock. The whole drive she was ranting and raving about “always knowing he was a little bit gay” . It would’ve annoyed him to hell and back if he wasn’t consumed by the guilt of leaving the mermaid alone for the night. 

Yuuji doesn’t know much about how ocean creatures live, and he’s been meaning to look through that weird website he found the other day. But between getting hurt, his phone dying, and work he never had a chance. His fingers itch to grab at his phone, to find the page again because his dumbass forgot to bookmark it before closing out of it. 

He feels agitated. A need gnaws at the back of his mind, raking its claws down his throat to bury them into his lungs. His breathing is difficult to maintain as his eyes scan from side to side, trying to distract himself by focusing on Nobara’s amazing interior design skills.

A weight settles down next to him on the couch, a display of snacks and sweets suddenly appearing on the coffee table in front of them when Nobara arrives. She’s talking, she’s been talking the whole time ever since they got in the car. She’s talking more or less to herself thankfully because Yuuji has not been paying attention to what the words she’s saying means. 

The back of her hand slams into Yuuji’s bicep, holding it there as she leans in closer, “Okay, enough waiting. Who’s the guy?”

“Bold of you to assume there is a guy,” Yuuji grumbles. His knee bounces almost violently, his muscles burning with the exertion but his nerves refuse to let him stop. He tugs at the fabric of his shirt, having changed into an old one he lent Nobara forever ago as soon as they arrived at her apartment. 

“Why wouldn’t there be a guy,” Nobara groans, shifting so her back is leaning against Yuuji’s arm as she picks through some of the fruit she brought, “I know you. There has to be a guy, or else you would’ve never thought you were gay.”

“I don’t think I’m gay, Nobara,” Yuuji rubs his eyes, avoiding pressing too hard against his forehead so another part of him doesn’t start to hurt. He leans back against the couch, head going limp so he stares at the ceiling, “I’m just–I don’t know–I was caught off guard by something and it made me stop and think for a second.”

His friend hums in understanding, though Yuuji doubts she actually understands. She tosses the stem of a strawberry back into the bowl as she slowly chews, giving the impression she’s deep in thought. She opens one of her eyes to smirk at Yuuji, “Okay, whatever you say. So, what actually happened?”

There’s a silence that stretches between them. Yuuji’s hands clench, nails digging into his palms as Nobara stares at him expectantly. HIs mouth hangs open, completely dry and unable to function. His eyes dart around as if they’ll find the words he’s looking for.

Nobara nudges him, waving a hand over his face to get him to look at her, “You good, man?”

No.

No he is not okay. He wants to go back home. He wants to go back to the restaurant. He wants to pull out his hair until he’s as bald as Jogo. He wants to scream and thrash and rip the skin off his arms. He wants to feel the wet burning pain that would bring so that it can distract him from the heavy need irritating his esophagus, building up from his stomach and squeezing the air out of his lungs.

He shakes his head, closing his eyes and breathing deeply. A calming technique Junpei taught him back when they both went to school, something that he learned from the school counselor. Junpei was never convinced it actually helped with anything, but to Yuuji at least it helps keep his mind focused on other things. 

Nobara is about to speak when Yuuji leans forward, hands planted firmly on his knees as he stands. He forces a smile down at his friend, bowing his head slightly as he apologizes, “I’m so sorry, Nobara, I’m not feeling it tonight. Another time, okay?”

She yells after him when he immediately heads for the door. He palms at his keys from where they sit in his pocket as he lets the elevator take him down, eyes closed as he quietly hums to himself. The tune isn’t good, the effort it takes to hum is almost not worth it, but the sensation of making some sort of sound helps his thoughts. Guilt, agitation, fatigue, dread. They swarm every inch of his mind, clouding his vision as they spin twisted and terrifying thoughts.

They distort his sense of time, making the drive back to his and Junpei’s apartment feel like a lifetime while also taking only a second. Neither are true, but he can’t pay any mind to that. 

The key’s chime against one another as he tries to find the one for the door. The longer the noise persists the more Yuuji’s teeth grind, his eyebrows furrow more and more with each passing second.

The relief of opening the front door is amplified when the smell of cigarette smoke fills his nose, making him salivate. The smell eases the need that’s been digging at Yuuji, but only for a moment. 

The balcony door is open, Junpei leaning over the edge of the railing as plumes of smoke puff out occasionally. Yuuji stumbles as he closes the door and practically rips his shoes off, tossing his keys on the nearest surface as he makes his way to his friend. A hand cards through his slightly greasy hair as he nudges his shoulder into Junpei’s, the shorter man smiling up at him in a silent greeting.

Yuuji grabs the cigarette sitting between Junpei’s fingers and immediately puts it in his mouth, leaning back as he inhales the smoke. The heat pools in his lungs, making his chest ache satisfyingly before he blows it out slowly, his head down so the smell invades his senses again. 

He rubs his now burning nose, eyes screwed shut as Junpei quietly retrieves another cigarette, placing it between his lips and lighting it after a couple flicks of the lighter. A quiet guilt gnaws at Yuuji for stealing Junpei’s cigarette, but the relief he feels after doing so overpowers anything else. 

Yuuji’s not addicted, he’s sure of that. He can quit anytime he wants, and either way it’s not like he chain smokes like Junpei does. Just one cigarette here or there takes mountains of stress off of Yuuji’s shoulders, and nights like this one are pretty much the only times he smokes. 

“You never called me back after your trip to the ER,” Junpei’s quiet voice softly breaks the silence. A puff of smoke lingering on his words as he speaks into the night, the city a few stories below still slowly pulsing with nocturnal life. 

Yuuji chews on his lips, ripping at the dead skin that gets chapped in the cooling air before bringing the cigarette back to his lips. A moment passes, a lung full of smoke calming his nerves as the ability to actually think returns to Yuuji, “Sorry, I spent the night at the restaurant because I wasn’t allowed to drive for a bit. Then my phone died.”

Junpei hums, closing his eyes as he inhales nicotine. His eyes remain closed as he tilts his head to the side, cheek resting on his palm while he leans on the balcony’s railing, “Why did you go to the ER in the first place?”

“Cut my face on something,” Yuuji mumbles. Thinking about the mermaid is the one thing he doesn’t need right now. Thinking about how scared it might be, or how lonely it is. About how Yuuji might have to kill it with his own two hands in a matter of months. 

His lungs burn as he inhales deeply. He can almost feel the tumors start to pop up the longer he holds it. His lungs push against his ribs, forcing the bones to expand before exhaling. 

“Is it going to scar?” The shorter man playfully asks, thin wisps of smoke ascending to join the stars above. 

Yuuji has multiple scars, the most notable is the one carved into his cheek. A years old jagged line connecting the corner of his mouth to towards his ear given to him by the blue haired freak named Mahito. Thankfully the bastard was only able to split only half of Yuuji’s face open before Yuuji beat him black and blue, the thought of having both sides of his face carved into a smile makes his skin crawl. 

But if his stitches do scar, then Yuuji wouldn’t mind it too much. 

Yuuji’s tongue presses against his inner cheek, feeling the scar tissue resist the stretch of the rest of his skin as he hums. He shrugs his shoulders and inhales the last remnants of the cigarette before crushing it into the ashtray. Smoke blows out from his nose when he stands up straight, stretching his back until it cracks, “I’m going to bed.”

“Night,” Junpei calls before Yuuji closes the door to the balcony, sluggishly walking to the depressingly small kitchen. He hasn’t eaten much at all in the past two days, some leftover fish and half eaten sandwich before it was taken from him.

The fridge illuminates the dim apartment with a bright white light, the bulb inside flickering once or twice before staying on. Sodas, water, lunch meat, and a few containers of leftovers are all that Yuuji is greeted with. His fingers twitch with the urge to actually cook a meal for the first time in years, but his fatigue and available ingredients make that an impossibility for the night. 

Instead Yuuji grabs the container closest to him and nukes it in the microwave for a minute. If it wasn’t nearing midnight the takeout would be disgusting, but since the moon is out it’s probably one of the best meals Yuuji has had in a long time. 

After tossing his trash away, Yuuji finally steps foot in his bedroom after two days being away from it. Closing the door behind him makes his body feel ten times heavier, making him slouch and slowly force his body to make it to his bed. The cheap mattress feels heavenly when he unceremoniously face plants into it, hugging the thin pillow to his face as he immediately passes out.

…

Fearful breathing comes from the figure laying on the table, the only light hanging above gleams off black scales and silver metal. The faint bioluminescence is washed out by the offending white light. Every angle and curve of the bone and muscle hidden under pale skin is amplified by the harsh shadows that are casted, emphasizing the ribs with every panicked breath it takes. 

Yuuji has an audience standing with him in the otherwise empty void he stands in. His bosses stand on the other side of the table, looking down at the figure laying alive on it and waiting as Yuuji brings a knife to it. Smiling when the figure’s stomach flexes, trying to get as far away as possible from the approaching blade. 

Yuuji feels like he’s being strangled. He can’t breathe, can’t blink. He can’t stop himself from sinking the tip of the blade into pale skin, piercing the soft spot just under the ribcage. A scream fills the void as red blood pools out from around the blade, shining red under the harsh light above. 

The blade sinks in deeper, past the muscle and past the fat, careful not to puncture the organs writhing inside. The metal glides down, splitting the abdomen open as torrents of red gush out in its wake. Yuuji’s body only stops cutting once the blade reaches the anus. His hands move on their own to grab the freshly cut edges of the torso, forcing the body apart to expose the intestines. 

The screaming grows more terrified once the figure is open, green eyes glued on the exposed vital tissue still alive inside it. Yuuji can see the lungs inflate and deflate rapidly from where they’re hidden behind thin tissue and bone, he can see the heart beat wildly and blood pulse through intact veins. His knife digs under the skin still covering the ribs, gliding and cutting up the sternum and to the collarbone. 

The screams sound painful when the skin covering its chest is pulled back, its throat undoubtedly sore but the pain never ending. Bone and muscle and tissue still cover the organs inside, flexing and relaxing with every panicked breath taken. Yuuji’s hands press down onto the ribs, using his body weight to snap the ribs off of the sternum. 

The figure tries to thrash, tries to get away when the bones are pulled open, but it can’t move. A thin membrane covers the pulsing organs, expanding and deflating with every rapid breath, every panicked pulse the figure makes. Tearing the membrane off exposes the gore inside, pained with tears of blood and mucus. 

The knife severs the trachea, but despite the lungs no longer able to function the figure keeps screaming. It gets louder, drowning out every other sense Yuuji could possibly have. He can’t feel his hands as they rip and tear the organs from where they’re anchored inside the chest, forcefully ripping them free from the tissue that binds them together.  Only the screams persist. Green eyes blown wide in fear, pupils small as they dart around its own open abdomen. Tears glisten in the harsh overhead light, wetting the figure’s face and mixing with sweat. 

Lungs, liver, stomach, pancreas, esophagus, spleen, kidneys, all torn out and tossed into the void. His hands pull the loose veins and arteries free, warm blood dirties his hands and the empty chest cavity. The diaphragm is cut from the rest of the muscle, the intestines writhe around now that they’re alone. Pulling the tubular organs out leaves the figure mostly empty, save for the rogue fleshy tube now connected to nowhere. 

The screaming doesn’t stop even as the scales are plucked from its body, the spines that line its tail ripped from their muscle. It doesn’t stop when the fins are cut off and discarded. Doesn’t stop when the rib bones are removed, or when the knife glides down the rest of the tail. It doesn’t stop screaming when it’s filleted, muscle removed from bone leaving the figure’s lower body naked. 

It only slightly quiets when Yuuji’s hand places itself under its jaw, lifting the head up to expose the neck. Green eyes lock onto Yuuji’s as it hyperventilates, tears streaming down its face as it silently begs Yuuji not to do it, begs Yuuji to stop.

But he can’t.

He can’t stop when the knife’s edge kisses the soft skin of the figure’s throat. He can’t stop when it pushes down, splitting the fragile flesh. He can’t stop when blood pools out and the figure struggles to scream. He can’t stop when the blade reaches bone. He can’t stop when he chops and chops and chops until the spine snaps. 

It’s silent when the head comes off. Green eyes frantically darting between Yuuji’s eyes for a second before stilling, growing unfocused and dead. Yuuji can faintly hear sounds of approval coming from his bosses, but his attention is only on the head in his hands. For the first time Yuuji can control himself. He gently cradles the lone head, wiping tears the best he can and smoothing messy black hair. 

He feels sick. He feels like he’s going to vomit. He feels like he’s going to die. Someone’s going to die. Someone, anyone. Him or the bastards watching him. The bastards who made him do this, made him murder someone. Someone innocent. 

…

Yuuji wakes covered in sweat, his body flashing with heat as the bile in his stomach shoots up his throat. He rushes to the bathroom, barely making it before he hurls into the toilet. He clutches the ceramic with a white knuckle grip as he dry heaves, gasping and gagging on the lingering taste assaulting his tongue. 

Tears blur his vision; he can’t catch his breath. He stares unfocused into the toilet as sweat covers every inch of his body, making his clothes cling uncomfortably to him. 

“I’m gonna die,” Yuuji gasps, his throat tights as his stomach threatens to empty itself again. His mouth hangs open as his body convulses with another gag, “I’m gonna die, I swear to god.”

He sits on the dark bathroom floor, too much in a rush to remember to turn on the light. He pulls at the pink tufts of hair that have grown too long for Yuuji’s liking, it makes everything worse. His muscles cramp in agitation. Panic and frustration and dread make him want to rip his hair out. Blunt nails claw at his scalp, plucking a few strands of hair out when his hands fall to his lap. 

His heart hammers in his chest, every beat painfully reminds him of the image of the mermaid’s exposed beating heart. Every time he breathes he can only see its lungs inflate, sees them get ripped out of its chest yet it continues to scream . 

“Oh my god,” tears fall down Yuuji’s face, falling straight to the floor. Yuuji covers his mouth, he has no more acid to spit up but he still feels sick. 

That was a dream. An awful, horrific dream, but a dream nevertheless. 

Right?

Was it a dream? Was it just a dream or did Yuuji actually do that? Is the mermaid dead? Is Yuuji a murderer?

Yuuji is back in his bedroom before he knows it, hurriedly pulling a bag from under his bed and ruffling through his drawers. He throws a few sets of clothes towards the bag, messily shoving them inside. He throws a charger in there, too, followed by quickly retrieving basic hygiene supplies. 

He pulls a red hoodie over his sweat covered clothes. His heart beats almost painfully as he zips the bag up, slinging it over his shoulder as he rushes to put his shoes on. Yuuji’s hands are shaking so much the laces are difficult to tie, his mind is both blank and racing at the same time. His thoughts run through his mind so fast he can’t understand any of them. 

He throws his bag into the passenger seat of his car, trembling hands insert the key. The roar of the engine forces his body to relax, grip clutching the wheel uncomfortably but it’s exactly what he needs. 

The radio is silent as he drives, the streets only mildly less congested compared to when the sun is out. His eyes glance down to the time displayed on his dashboard, noting that it’s almost three in the morning. He barely got two hours of sleep before he woke up, and now that he thinks about it he can feel how tired he is due to the ache under his eyes. The bags under his eyes are only going to get worse. 

He parks near the restaurant, only around a block away. As he approaches the building he fumbles with the keys in his hand, his hands starting to shake once more. His breathing is heavy and forced when he gets to the door, struggling for a moment before they unlock and he slips inside. 

Once Yuuji locks the door behind him, the reality of where he is finally hits him. He ran to his place of work because he had a nightmare. He presses his head against the doors, looking down at nothing as he tries to rationalize his thoughts. 

The kitchen door creaks open, a low hiss is barely heard under the grinding croak of the old, heavy hinges. Yuuji slowly turns around, and as soon as he spots the mermaid slowly stalking towards him the hissing grows louder. In a second the mermaid pounces, knocking Yuuji roughly onto the floor and pinning him down. Strong hands plant themselves at the base of his neck, just barely pressing into the soft skin of his throat. 

The glowing spots on the mermaid’s cheeks seem so bright in the dark restaurant, glaring down at Yuuji. The mermaid is so much heavier than he thought it would be, it curls onto his legs and stomach, he can feel it push down to pin him to the floor. He can feel the sharp spines that run down the tail cut into him, threatening to slice him open.

A horrific memory of the dream flashes across Yuuji’s mind. The knife splitting the mermaid above him open, carving the flesh off its bones and its head off its shoulders. The snarling face looking down at him is so relieving, low rumbling sounds like music compared to the screaming. 

Yuuji’s breathing calms for the first time in forever, inhaling takes less effort and his exhales come out soft. The water dripping onto Yuuji’s face is salt water, not tears. Green eyes are narrowed in anger, not fear. 

It makes Yuuji smile. 

The mermaid leans back slightly, eyebrows pinching in confusion as its snarl falters for a second. Yuuji blinks, snapping himself back into reality. He forces himself to cough to try, and fail, at relieving the awkward tension he accidentally created. His hand gently grips one of the mermaid’s wrists, but as soon as he tries to lift the hands off him they press down harder. Loud barks of hisses and snaps fall from the mermaid’s lips, lasting only as long as a short sentence.

The noises sounded like words. They sounded so much like words there’s no way they weren’t. Yuuji’s eyes widen in fascination as he realizes the mermaid was likely speaking the whole time, the chance that every hiss or chirp was actually the mermaid trying to communicate makes Yuuji giddy. 

“Holy shit you’re trying to speak to me,” Yuuji gasps, voice soft with awe. He gets annoyed chirps in response, growled through snarled lips as green eyes narrow once more. Yuuji’s fingers subconsciously trace small circles on the mermaid’s wrist, feeling rough skin that reminds him of shark skin. A spit of air shot through the mermaid’s sharp teeth makes him remove his hand completely. 

“Holy shit you’re alive,” his muscles relax as soon as he says it, the realization becoming real once he speaks it out loud. His eyes sting and nose burns as tears threaten to wet his face again, his eyes blink rapidly to fight them off, “God, I was so scared.”

Yuuji’s eyes fall close, relief crashing over him in waves. The fleeting remnants of his dream fall into the back of his mind as he relishes the feeling of rough skin pressing into the bottom of his throat. Heavy, sharp body holding him down, pressing into his stomach and scraping against his legs. 

Foreign words click from above Yuuji, a short sentence spoken in an assertive tone. The serpentine body slides off of him, hands that were once pressing into his neck grip at the collar of his hoodie. Yuuji is yanked, making him jump with a start and his eyes snap open. He glances over to the mermaid as it yanks him again, trying to drag him towards the kitchen as it slithers backwards slowly. 

He scrambles to his feet, adjusting his bag so it doesn’t fall off his shoulder. The mermaid lets go of his collar and turns around, using its hands to crawl so it slithers across the floor faster. It thrusts its shoulder against the kitchen door to force it open. Puddles of water stemming from the tank cover the kitchen floor, but water isn’t an unusual thing to have in his kitchen. 

The mermaid stops just in front of the tank, tail coiling in on itself as it slowly looks back at Yuuji. He offers the other a smile as he walks past it, navigating through a small hallway stemming from the back of Yuuji’s kitchen He forces open a door at the end of the hall, a functionally abandoned storage room slightly bigger than his bedroom back at his apartment. 

He flicks on the light, the bulb almost dead but still emitting enough light to function. He kicks some boxes out of the way and drops his bag on the floor, sorting through its contents and pulling out his charger. He actually makes sure to charge his phone this time. 

Yuuji glances behind himself and jumps, the mermaid glares at him from the storage room’s doorway. Green eyes bounce from Yuuji, to the bag, to the charger, to the room, to back to Yuuji. Softer clicks and chirps are spoken at him.

“Uh,” Yuuji glances to his bag then back to the other in the doorway, nervously chuckling, “I’m staying the night again. But, um, the dining room wasn’t comfortable last time, so I’m trying somewhere different.”

The mermaid glances at the bag once more before slowly crawling into the room, sitting just beyond the door and not going any further. Yuuji nods and continues to unpack the very few belongings he packed during his panicked state. He pulls a spare hoodie out from his bag and balls it up, using it as a pillow after he quickly turns off the light. 

The room is so dark Yuuji can’t tell the difference between his eyes being closed and his eyes being open. Soft sliding slowly comes closer and closer to Yuuji. Opening his eyes Yuuji is met with pale glowing spots settling right next to him, the figure of the mermaid hidden in the darkness enveloping them. 

Yuuji sits up and reaches for his bag, the mermaid jumping back and hissing lowly at his sudden movement. He pulls out another hoodie and bundles it up, placing it next to Yuuji’s before settling back down. 

He closes his eyes and tries to ignore the mermaid right next to him, hoping to get at least an hour more of sleep before he has to work. Yuuji can hear the mermaid settle down next to him. After a moment it shifts again, pressing its back against Yuuji’s side. His breath hitches when the tail nestles into the curve of his waist, flexible spines laying relaxed between their two bodies. A quiet huff is heard from the mermaid as it settles, arms hugging itself.

It keeps on shifting and shuffling as if it’s trying to touch Yuuji as much as possible without actually touching him. Its tail presses against his leg, uncomfortably trying to get under it, but when that doesn’t work it tries to lay over it. But the mermaid doesn’t move enough to actually cover Yuuji’s leg.

The longer the mermaid tries to get comfortable, the more awkward the tension becomes. Yuuji likes to think he has a pretty high tolerance when it comes to second hand embarrassment, but the mermaid trying and failing at doing something makes Yuuji’s face grow hot in embarrassment. 

Yuuji takes a deep breath and bends his leg, foot planted flat on the floor as the rest of him relaxes. Almost as soon as he does this, the mermaid’s tail files through under his knee, wrapping loosely around his ankle before stilling completely. 

Okay , Yuuji’s eyebrows pinch together, they just wanted to hold my leg. That was so much harder than it needed to be.

Yuuji’s fatigue overwhelms him soon after, sending him into a dreamless sleep. The faint press of the mermaid against his side preventing the nightmare from resurfacing for tonight. 

Chapter Text

Yuuji rouses in the dingy forgotten room in the back of the restaurant, darkness filling the windowless room completely. He groans and rubs his eye with the heel of his palm, opting to ignore his injured side for a while. A dull throbbing makes him uncomfortably aware that his eye is a ball, feeling the ache from deep within its socket. The bandage pulls at his skin when he furrows his brows making his skull pound.

A quiet hiss sneaks past his lips when he sits up, muscles and bones sore from sleeping on the hard floor again. He opens his eyes after rubbing the crust sealing them shut off, focusing on the obsidian black scales wrapped around his legs. At some point in the night the tail wrapped around both his ankles, snaking under and tangling his knees around the limb. 

Is a tail a limb? Is the first thought Yuuji has this morning, eyebrows pinching together as he stares dumbly at the mass trapping his legs. He knows how to cook, how to work his way around a fish, but he doesn’t actually know anatomy. He probably dropped out of school before they could actually teach him, but it’s not like he can afford to go back anyway. 

Yuuji carefully tries to shuffle his legs so he can lean over to grab his phone. Mindfully trying not to step on the mermaid’s spines or bend the tail in an uncomfortable way. Just as Yuuji leans over to grab his phone, he’s pulled straight onto the floor by his legs. 

He hits the floor with a surprised “huff!” as the air is forced out of his lungs. He scrambles to support himself on his hands again, looking behind himself to be met with a pair of angry green eyes. The mermaid’s tail constricted around Yuuji’s knees, and it only gets tighter once Yuuji looks at it. 

“Uh,” Yuuji’s mind is suddenly blank, he didn’t know he woke the other up. He bites the inside of his lip as he looks between his tangled up legs and the tired yet angry glare the mermaid is shooting at him. He forces a tense smile before pointing to his phone.

The mermaid’s eyes narrow, and a long moment passes before the pressure around Yuuji’s legs eases a little bit. Yuuji instantly lunges to unplug his phone before returning to where he was, giving a nervous smile to the mermaid when it huffs at him. 

When it lays back down, Yuuji checks the time. Almost half past five in the morning, a bit later than when Yuuji would normally like to start the day, but he had a shit night last night. He shoots a text to Junpei telling him where he is, and that he’s sorry if there’s vomit in the toilet. 

Yuuji needs to get up so he can start work, but slowly untangling himself didn’t work. He stares down at the mermaid, its back turned towards him but with Yuuji sitting up he can see its face. The scars that cut down its cheek, its long lashes highlighting its closed eyes. The dim glow of the spots that run down its cheeks seem so bright in the dark room. For living in salt water it has really nice looking skin and hair. 

In a second Yuuji jumps up, narrowly avoiding stepping on the mermaid’s tail as he quickly untangles himself. The mermaid’s eyes snap open as soon as he moves, but when it manages to sit up Yuuji has already jumped over its tail and dashed out the door. Foreign words yell after Yuuji when he jogs down the short hallway and into the kitchen, sounds of angry slithering movement following soon after. 

He clutches his throbbing head as he navigates to the utility closet, reaching for the painkillers stuffed inside and popping off the lid. He shakes two into the palm of his hand just when the mermaid rounds the corner, barking and snapping what’s probably curses at Yuuji when he turns around. He tosses one of the pills into his mouth as he crouches, extending his hand and offering the other pill to the angry mermaid.

Its sentence is cut off when Yuuji offers his hand, glancing down at the offered pill before glaring back at Yuuji. It bares its teeth before crawling over, aggressively gripping Yuuji’s wrist and eating the pill out of Yuuji’s hand again. The aggressive action makes blood rush to Yuuji’s face, his cheeks and ears burn when the rough tongue once again scrapes at Yuuji’s palm. Black claws dig into the tan skin of Yuuji’s forearm, not enough to draw blood but enough to leave white indents of each sharp point. 

After it swallows it tugs harshly on Yuuji’s arm with a surprising amount of force, making Yuuji stumble as it tries to drag him back to the storage room they slept in. Yuuji grits his teeth as he struggles to hold his ground, opting to grab his own arm rather than the mermaid’s. He doesn’t want to come off as aggressive, but he needs to get ready for work. 

The corner of Yuuji’s lips tug upwards. It’s so hard finding anyone who could somewhat match Yuuji when it comes to athletics, the only person coming close is a friend of Miwa’s that he’s met a few times. But the lean and objectively beautiful mermaid being strong enough to knock him over? That’s unexpected. It’s exciting. 

Time seems to slow when Yuuji watches the mermaid plant its free hand firmly on the ground, and within a second it’s swinging its tail towards his knees in an attempt to make him collapse. The few years of wrestling experience Yuuji got during his youth washes over him, making him act out of instinct rather than thought. He braces himself for the impact, his feet only shuffling a centimeter when it happens. 

The tail falls to the floor, slithering back under the mermaid’s upper body as it stands like a cobra. Both hands grip at Yuuji’s arm as it leans in, snarling and glaring at Yuuji as it hisses incomprehensible words at him. 

Yuuji lets out a huff, anxiety of the passing time and the painkillers not kicking in yet making him antsy. He balls his hand into a tight fist, his muscles flexing under the mermaid’s tight grasp, “Listen, I have no clue what you’re saying, but I need to get ready for work. Go sleep some more if you want to, but I’m busy.”

He twists his arm free, making the mermaid stumble before recoiling slightly. It glares at Yuuji, leaning down like it’s going to pounce again. Yuuji readies himself for when it does, blocking its arms when they try to grab at him again. Claws sink into the fabric of his hoodie as they try to pull, grabbing more and more until they dig into Yuuji’s sides. Yuuji hisses in surprise when its teeth sink into the hood by his neck, its upset growling muffled but still loud right next to his ear. The tail writhes around strategically, firmly planted on the floor as it tries to change the mermaid’s center of gravity to topple Yuuji over. 

Yuuji inhales before he moves. He grips where the spines on its back start, bundling the flexible rays in what he hopes is the least painful way possible. He spins the mermaid around by the spines, dislodging the teeth and claws that clung to his hoodie while doing so. It gasps as the forced movement, momentarily stunned.

That moment is all Yuuji needs to pick the mermaid up, lifting with one hand so the upper body is above his head and supporting a part of the lower body with his other hand. In a few steps he drops the mermaid into the tank, quickly jumping as far away as possible as he waits for the mermaid to orient itself again. 

Yuuji’s heart hammers in his chest, hoping to whatever god will listen that he didn’t hurt or scare the other. The mermaid glares at him, hissing and spitting angry words at Yuuji as it grips the edge of the tank with a death grip. Yuuji steadies his breathing before he shouts over the other’s noise, “I need to go to work! You! Go relax! By yourself, please!”

The mermaid bares its teeth at Yuuji, sharp points fitting together like a puzzle under its snarled lips. It huffs in response, aggressive tension leaving its muscles but still very clearly upset. Yuuji lets out a sigh and gives them both a second of quiet before he moves. He does his usual chores of preparing food and cooking rice, cleaning and sharpening his tools, just this time under the angry gaze of the mermaid. 

His knife grinds against the wet stone as he sharpens it, rice cooking and slightly frozen fish thawing atop some ice. The sound of the mermaid leaving the tank makes his heart jump to his throat, and he nearly jumps out of his skin when it slithers up next to him. He holds his breath when it places its hands on the edge of the table, looking down at the knife before shooting a glare up at him. 

It hesitantly reaches for another knife, the blade much shorter than the one Yuuji is holding. It carefully inspects the tool before eyeing the sharpening stone Yuuji was using. He blinks, neither of them moving for a moment before Yuuji slowly pushes the stone so it sits in front of the mermaid. The knife he was sharpening was done anyway, so instead he uses it as a demonstration.

He shows the mermaid how to correctly hold the knife so its fingers don’t interfere, and carefully it mimics him. The webbing between its fingers is flexible enough to not be an obstacle. The knife is carefully placed onto the stone, the mermaid copying Yuuji’s positioning almost perfectly, but the knife is held at too steep of an angle. 

Yuuji places his hands over the mermaid’s, one arm wrapped around the mermaid’s waist loosely as he angles the blade correctly. A quiet hiss and flexing spines makes Yuuji retract his arm quickly, muttering an apology that the mermaid probably doesn’t understand. Green eyes glance over to him before it starts to move, grinding the blade against the stone the same way Yuuji does. 

After a few passes it lifts the blade and flicks its thumb against it the same way Yuuji does, but it doesn’t know what it’s looking for. Yuuji strums his thumb against the blade, too, feeling the burr that’s been created. He catches his nail against it to make a sound, the mermaid doing the same. Green eyes narrow as it repeatedly feels the rolled edge of the burr, and Yuuji grabs the knife he finished sharpening so the other can feel the difference between the edges. 

Yuuji flips the knife over and the mermaid mimics him once more, placing the unsharpened side of the blade onto the stone. This time it fixes the angle on its own before grinding the blade. Yuuji watches fascinated as the mermaid works, checking the edge of the blade and sharpening some more if it can’t feel the burr. When it’s done it gives the knife to Yuuji with a loose wrist, sharp eyes staring him down as he checks the blade. 

A smile forces itself onto Yuuji’s face when he feels how sharp the edge has become. It watches as he puts his equipment away, arms crossed and standing on its coiled up tail. It follows him around the kitchen, staying only a few paces behind him. Moving its tail out of the way but always hovering near him. 

As soon as everything in the kitchen is organized there’s a sharp tug on his hood, making Yuuji stumble backward as the mermaid speaks again. The chirping sounds of the mermaid’s speech was muffled by the loud choke that was forced out of Yuuji, hands flying to the collar of his hood to relieve the pressure on his throat. An annoyed groan leaves Yuuji when there’s another strong tug on his hood. Yuuji turns around and picks up the mermaid again, ignoring the claws that dig painfully into his shoulders and the yelling as he drops it back into the tank. It flicks its tail as it sinks into the water, smacking Yuuji right across his face. 

“Okay, yeah,” he mutters, cupping his cheek and taking a few steps away from the tank. Green eyes glare daggers at Yuuji from the water, “I deserve that, I guess.”

Yuuji holds his breath when it surfaces again, clawed hands supporting its upper body on the edge of the tank, but instead of getting out it just points to the floor in front of it. Green eyes bounce between looking at the floor and staring at Yuuji.

Confused, Yuuji drops to his knees right where the other is pointing. Once he’s on the ground, the mermaid slowly submerges. Yuuji crosses his legs so he’s sitting down more comfortably, and the other coils its tail under it so it’s not laying on the hard glass floor. Yuuji lets go of the breath he was holding when the mermaid lays down, green eyes becoming hooded but not fully closing. Its eyes wander over Yuuji as tension slowly leaves its body.

“You’re,” Yuuji pauses. The mermaid folds its arms to cover its eyes, slowly rubbing the back of its head in the cradle its arms created. The dull ache in his shoulders is easily ignorable the longer Yuuji watches the other, “Much clinger than I thought you would be.”

Yuuji runs a hand through his hair, pulling his overgrown bangs out of his eyes as he scrolls through his phone. It’s still dark outside, a clear sign of the approaching winter, but it’s still around an hour until the restaurant is supposed to open. Yuuji finds himself staring at the unusual link he stumbled upon a few days ago, the “Marine Humanoids” page. 

Actually tapping on the link brings Yuuji to a mostly empty page, a short blurb of information sits at the top of the page:

“Marine Humanoids, Homocetacea, are marine mammals that are found in both fresh and saltwater. They demonstrate intelligence and culture equal to humans.

Marine Humanoids are a protected species. Individuals purposefully interacting with one without a valid license may be fined and can face incarceration. An individual purposefully killing one will be charged with first degree murder. An individual purposefully keeping one or more in captivity will be charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment. 

If you believe a Marine Humanoid(s) are in plausible danger, please utilize the contact information as soon as possible and provide as many details as possible.”

Below the blurb is a name, a phone number, and an email, all of which belong to a Dr. Shoko Ieiri.

Yuuji is practically shitting himself. He can face jail time just because he’s interacting with the mermaid! Not to mention that if he were to actually kill it then he’d be charged with first degree murder. He pulls at pink tufts of hair, pulling a few strands out of his scalp as he stresses over what to do next. He knows he needs to contact this Dr. Shoko Ieiri, but what does he say? Does he email or does he call? Will he be sent to jail if he does reach out? Is possibly saving the mermaid’s life worth the risk?

Yes .

Yes it’s worth the risk if it means the person next to him doesn’t die, if it means Yuuji doesn’t have to kill them. Yuuji brings his knees to his chest as he hits the phone number, his neck goes limp and his forehead is pressed against his knees as his phone rings over and over again. He pulls at his hair the longer the phone rings, his heart caught in his throat when he’s brought to voicemail. 

Yuuji raises his head after the beep rings through his ears, he takes a breath before he finally speaks, “Uh, I was told to contact this number if I’ve come in contact with a mermaid? Or marine whatever it’s called. There is one with me, and in a couple of months it’s going to be killed, and I really don’t want that.”

Yuuji grips at his hair, phone pressed against his ear as tired green eyes open slightly to peer at him. He bites his lip as he tries to continue, “Um, I work at a sushi restaurant that’s owned by some not so great people, they were the ones who brought the mermaid in, I have no clue where it actually came from. There’s a chance it has a concussion, I think? It was hit pretty hard a couple days ago. Um, there was blood.”

He runs a hand down his face, pulling his eyelid down as his fingers claw at his cheek. An anxious hiss passes through his teeth, “I don’t want it to die. I really don’t want it – them – to die. I’ll do anything, take any punishment if it means they can go back home. I promise. Please, please tell me what to do. ”

Yuuji’s nose burns, his eyes blink rapidly as he ends the message. His stomach churns as that awful dream tries to resurface, summoned at the mere thought of the mermaid next to him dying. Of their inevitable fate if they were to stay.

The front door opens and someone shuffles inside. Yuuji stands to greet Miwa, but as soon as he turns around a hiss calls after him. A clawed hand grips at the back of his hoodie, preventing him from walking away. The mermaid tries to tug Yuuji back to where he was sitting, words he’s unable to understand are being spoken. 

Yuuji gently wraps a hand around the mermaid’s wrist, taking a step back and closer to the tank as he calls out, “Miwa? Can you come to the kitchen?”

“Sure?” She calls back as Yuuji sits back down, the mermaid letting him go and returning back underwater. A few moments pass before Yuuji’s coworker pushes the loud kitchen door open, hesitating for a second when she spots the mermaid but eventually stepping inside. 

“Okay, something serious,” Yuuji starts, pulling at his slightly damp sleeve as he tries to formulate his words, “So interacting with the mermaid is illegal.”

“Wh-What?” Miwa stutters. She hovers near the door, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she plays with some stray locks of blue hair, “How did you find that out?”

“A government website, it was the only thing I found that wasn’t straight up fantasy,” he answers, glancing behind himself to lock onto the green eyes narrowed at him, “Killing and kidnapping are also illegal, but that makes sense. Um, I did contact someone, there was a phone number and stuff and it said to reach out if a mermaid is in danger, so I reached out. I didn’t mention you at all, only myself and the bosses.”

Miwa’s mouth gapes, she tries to speak but the only thing that leaves her lips is, “Why?”

“I can’t let them die, Miwa,” Yuuji breathes. He mindlessly rubs his wrist where the mermaid grabbed him earlier, a small faint bruise blooming across his skin, “I can’t be the one who kills them. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try to save them.”

“I don’t want them to die either, but,” she anxiously pulls at the long asymmetrical strands of hair that frame her face, “but you could get in trouble, Yuuji. You just said it’s illegal.”

“I don’t care what happens to me. I’ve done a whole lot of shit for the sake of others, so I’d gladly take jail time if it means they’ll get to go back home,” he grips his wrist tighter, making the small bruise sting under the pressure. Miwa looks at him with concern, eyebrows pinched up in worry before she sighs. 

“I understand,” she mutters, closing her eyes for a long moment before looking down at Yuuji again, “Because you want to do this, and if it means they won’t die, I want to help as much as I reasonably can. Anonymously, if you can. I don’t want to risk being in legal trouble.”

“That makes sense,” Yuuji smiles. He leans his back against the tank behind him, his head bumping against the glass as he stares at the ceiling, “Thank you, Miwa. I’ll try to keep you updated. I don’t know if or when they’ll call me back, but I hope they do it soon.”

Just as Miwa turns to leave the kitchen, Yuuji shoots up, “Wait! Can I ask a favor real quick?”

Miwa jumps at the sudden question, turning around to look at Yuuji before nodding. Yuuji spares a glance at the mermaid behind him before speaking, “Can you stay here for an hour or so after work? They’ve been really clingy, so I’m planning on staying here overnight for a while, but I need to run and get more stuff. I don’t want them to be alone.”

Miwa blinks at Yuuji before nodding hesitantly, glancing at the figure behind him before averting her gaze, “Okay, what kind of stuff do you need to get?”

“Like, uh, clothes, groceries, blankets, and maybe a mattress if I can find one,” Yuuji counts off on his fingers as he makes a list on the spot, brows furrowed in concentration.

“Kokichi and I have an old mattress, it’s kinda shitty, but it’s better than nothing,” Miwa offers a small smile as she shrugs her shoulders, hands clutching at the kitchen door handle and using her weight to push it open, “I can ask Kokichi to drop it off, if you want?”

“Really?” A smile splits across Yuuji’s face, pulling at his scars and making his smile slightly lopsided, “I’d be forever grateful, Miwa! Thank you so much!”

Miwa lets out a soft laugh as she smiles back, pushing the door open and cringing slightly when the loud creaking harasses her ears, “It’s no problem, especially since you’re currently risking a criminal record for the sake of a mermaid.”

…

Although the day was friday, the restaurant might as well have been closed. Only two parties came in, but at least that meant that Yuuji had to fight against the mermaid’s clinginess only twice. Most of the day he spent sitting next to the tank as the mermaid drifted in and out of unconsciousness, enjoying the fact that Yuuji kept the kitchen lights mostly off for the day. The darkness and Yuuji not leaving their side seemed to make the mermaid relax enough to get a healthy amount of sleep. 

But every time Yuuji would stand up, either to quickly work or to go to the bathroom, the mermaid would snap awake and a clawed hand would shoot out of the water to clutch at Yuuji’s hoodie. Despite Yuuji’s protests, they would insist on following Yuuji around whenever he needed to get up and leave. So they would sit or stand next to him as he prepared food, or embarrassingly try to follow him to the bathroom. Thankfully he managed to close the door before they could actually follow him inside, but the level of clinginess is slightly concerning. 

The closer closing gets, the more anxious Yuuji becomes. The mermaid has been attached to Yuuji since last night, barely letting him out of their sight. He has a list of what he needs to get, and Kokichi is able to bring the spare mattress later in the evening. Yuuji probably needs to stop by his apartment first to pick up spare clothes, blankets, and towels since the mermaid understandably spends most of their time in the water. Then Yuuji would need to stop by a grocery store since there’s no way in hell his diet is just going to be fish for the next unknown amount of time.

He shot Junpei a text a while ago, asking his friend to pack up the apartment supplies and leave it near the door. His friend, although confused, agreed thankfully. 

Yuuji can hear Miwa start to close up the dining area, quietly humming to herself as she wipes down tables and piles used silverware into a bussing bin. Yuuji lets out a deep sigh as he plants his hands on his knees, forcing himself up and stretching his aching muscles. He’s spent most of the day sitting on the floor, and his ass hurts . A second later he can feel a wet hand loosely grip at the back of his hoodie, tired and annoyed chirps come from behind him. 

“I’m just closing, you don’t have to keep on following me,” Yuuji mumbles, his hand limply wrapping around the mermaid’s wrist as he starts to walk away. But of course the mermaid follows, slithering up so they’re eye level with Yuuji and hover over his shoulder as he cleans up. As he throws away stale food they put away his knives, flicking their thumb against the edge of each blade before sliding them into the knife block. 

Yuuji tries to sneak out of the kitchen, but of course the mermaid spots him and quickly slithers after him. Miwa sits at a table in the middle of the dining area, scrolling through her phone with her head resting on her hand. She looks up and smiles before her eyes go wide, “Woah, I didn’t know they could stand like that! They’re like a snake!”

The mermaid grumbles and crosses its arms, glaring at Miwa as she marvels at them. Yuuji chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck as he tries to push down his nerves, “Yeah, they started doing this today I think. If it weren’t for the gills, you’d think they’d be part snake.”

“Kokichi is coming in around an hour with the mattress, do you think you’d be back around then?” Miwa asks, knee bouncing under the mermaid’s harsh gaze.

“Should be, Junpei packed up half my stuff, so I just have to do a grocery run I think,” Yuuji runs a hand through his hair. His coworker nods, planting her hands on her lap as she sits up straight. 

Just as Yuuji places a hand on the front door handle, arms suddenly wrap around his neck. Words that he can’t understand fill his ears as the mermaid’s strong tail wraps around his waist and legs, making him stumble backward as their arms tighten around him. Miwa gasps, standing up quickly but freezing once she’s up. 

Yuuji’s hands grip at the black skin of the mermaid’s forearms, adjusting his stance so he can support the added weight clinging to him. The finned tail angrily flicks at his feet, wrapped around his legs and the sharp fins slightly cutting at his ankle. Yuuji lets out a choked, “Okay,” once he can breathe again.

“Well,” Yuuji starts as he pries the arms off him, the mermaid struggling to keep their hold but Yuuji ultimately forcing their arms off. The tail just constricts tighter around Yuuji’s waist and legs in response to the forceful removal of their hands, a growl is barked into Yuuji’s ear, “This isn’t the first time I’ve picked them up today, but this is the first time they started it.”

“Why– why did you need to pick them up in the first place?” Miwa stutters, watching as Yuuji struggles slightly to shake off the mermaid.

“We kinda fought this morning,” Yuuji explains, managing to get the tail to loosen around his waist by shoving his hand between himself and the tail. Another complaint erupts from the mermaid as they try to cling tighter to Yuuji, trying to make him stumble backwards and away from the door, “I picked them up twice to put them in the tank since they would not leave me alone.”

Yuuji manages to flip the mermaid over his shoulder, their claws raking up his lower back as he tries to fling them off as gently as possible. He dashes out the door and quickly locks it, the mermaid crashing against the door. He can hear them yell after him, the hissing and chirping becoming more panicked once they realize the door is locked. 

Green eyes stare at him through the door’s window, wide and panicked as it tries repeatedly to push against the door. Guilt squeezes Yuuji’s heart when they lock eyes, muttering a quick apology before running for his car. 

Yuuji borderline speeds back to his apartment, clutching the wheel in a white knuckle grip the whole time. He opts to run up the stairs rather than taking the elevator, a cocktail of anxiety and adrenaline coursing through his veins. The thought of standing in the elevator makes him want to rip his skin off. 

He struggles to fit the key into the door, and as soon as he manages to do it he grabs the back and closes the door within a second. He flies back down the stairs, throwing the bags into the passenger seat before driving off to the grocery store nearest to the restaurant. 

Yuuji speeds through the aisles, scratching at his neck as he fills the cart with vegetables, microwave meals, meats, and sweets. He splurges and spends way more money than he’s normally comfortable with, but half the stuff is for the mermaid, so it makes spending so much feel not as bad. 

Yuuji parks right next to Kokichi’s truck, the rolled up mattress sitting in the bed as Kokichi sits in the driver’s seat. Yuuji gathers his bags and knocks gently on the widow, smiling at the other when he looks up. Yuuji’s heel bounces as he waits for the shorter guy to get out, looking anxiously back to the restaurant.

“Thank you so much for bringing the mattress, I owe both you and Miwa so much,” Yuuji rants as soon as the other rounds the car.

Kokichi softly smiles, rubbing the back of his neck, “It’s alright, you’re already doing a lot. And I also came because I can possibly see a mermaid.”

Yuuji blinks, stunned for a second before snapping out of it, “Miwa told you?”

“Yeah, I understand why you’d be hesitant though, especially since we can get in legal trouble,” the black haired man speaks as he opens the truck bed, pulling the rolled up mattress with a huff, “Miwa has been texting me the entire time you’ve been gone. Apparently, the mermaid has been really upset since you’ve been gone. Miwa says they’re aggressive, but they’ve only been hissing at her and slamming their tail against the ground.”

Yuuji fiddles with his keys. As soon as he approaches the door there’s a slam, green eyes glaring at him angrily. The mermaid yells at him from behind the glass, trying and failing to open the door again. Kokichi takes a quick breath, his sentence trailing off.

“Holy shit,” Kokichi gasps, “yeah, that’s a mermaid.”

Yuuji nervously chuckles. As soon as the door unlocks it’s forced open, a clawed hand grabs at the collar of Yuuji’s hoodie and pulls him inside the restaurant. He allows himself to be dragged inside and pulled towards the kitchen, Miwa rushes past them to hold open the door for her boyfriend. 

Yuuji drops the bags to the floor as he’s pulled to the floor, the mermaid probably cursing him out as they force him down. Yuuji raises his hands with open palms, brows pinched up as he repeats, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” over and over again. The mermaid growls down at him, their hands trembling even though they’re gripping his hoodie tightly. 

Yuuji’s phone rings, startling the mermaid and himself. He sits up and stares at the vaguely familiar number before he answers it, holding his phone up to his ear.

“You’re the one who left me a message, right? About how a merfolk is at risk of being murdered soon?”

Chapter Text

Yuuji’s eyes widen at the voice over the phone, a frantic woman who Yuuji can hear rummaging through what’s probably mountains of papers. His eyes drift over to Miwa and Kokichi, the couple staring at him with similarly wide eyes at his sudden change in demeanor. The mermaid clicks at him, the hands on his collar loosening but not letting go.

“Uh, yeah,” his voice sounds choked, the effort to vocalize through his nerves is straining. Yuuji adjusts himself so he’s sitting more comfortably, putting the phone on speaker. His free hand absentmindedly pulls at his collar, gently placing itself atop the mermaid’s hands. They flinch, narrowing their green eyes as they glare at Yuuji’s profile, but ultimately don’t move away.

“Okay– Okay, good.” the woman’s voice comes through the speaker. Miwa clutches at Kokichi’s hand, leaning into his side as both their eyes are focused on Yuuji and his phone, “Okay. Hi, I’m Dr. Shoko Ieiri, I’m a MD, specifically a physician, with a master's in marine zoology. For the past, I don’t know, decade? I’ve been researching marine humanoids specifically, and you claim there is one in danger, yes?”

The doctor sounds stressed, speeding through her introduction as quickly as she could before getting to the point. Yuuji nods, but realizes that she cannot see him, “Uh, yes. Yeah, um, I work at a sushi restaurant, and a couple days ago my bosses brought in a half person half fish thing. I don’t know when exactly they plan on killing them, but I know it’s in a few months. That’s what I’ve been told.”

He can hear quiet typing through the phone, and a moment later the doctor’s voice comes again, “Okay. First off, thank you for contacting me. Killing whoever is in your bosses’ possession will legally be deemed murder and eating them will also legally be recognized as cannibalism. Second, where is the merfolk currently? What’s their living situation like? Do they have access to both water and land? What’s their diet, their sleeping habits, literally anything you can possibly tell me?”

Brown eyes lock onto green ones before Yuuji wets his dry lips, “Currently they’re right next to me, uh, holding my hoodie,” he looks down and quickly removed his hand from the mermaid’s, an embarrassed flush dusting his cheeks faintly, “They have a three hundred or so gallon tank of salt water. Whenever I sit next to it they’re in the water, but whenever I have to get up and move around they follow me. They also slept out of the water at least once, and they slept right next to me. Diet so far has been fish and painkillers and a sandwich one time, though I plan on cooking more human meals that they can eat, if that’s okay?”

“They’re not in captivity? Or, well they are, but you said they can follow you around, right?” The doctor’s words are fast but have slowed down some since Yuuji picked up the phone.

“Uh, yes, or, no? They, uh, well they were supposed to be locked in the tank, but I thought that was really inhumane, so I’ve kept the lid off ever since they arrived. They enter or exit whenever they want,” Yuuji answers. His eyes drift to the person next to him, their green eyes blinking curiously at the phone in his hand. Slightly damp black hair drying into tufts of messy spikes. 

“Okay, that’s good. And to answer your question, merfolk are also omnivores. Though I would advise not to feed them toxins like spice or caffeine, we aren’t really sure if they’re able to digest those as well as we do yet,” the doctor sighs, finally slowing down to a normal talking speed. Yuuji nervously smiles at the couple standing near the door, and Miwa hesitantly smiles back.

The doctor speaks up again, making Yuuji’s attention snap back to the phone in hand, “You want to help them, and that means returning them back to their pod. That will be kinda difficult, especially since we only have a few months to track their pod down. Before you ask, we cannot just put them back in the ocean, merfolk have a very communal culture and without their specific pod we run the risk of them dying anyway.”

Yuuji’s brows furrow in a mix of confusion and concern, accidentally cutting off the doctor when he speaks without thinking, “Why?”

“Why?” The doctor repeats, taken off guard before fully registering Yuuji’s question, “They’re very communal like I said. They will not hunt alone, they will not sleep alone, they will not exist alone. If they are ever alone, it's been observed that they will expend all of their energy trying to find either their pod, or a pod that will accept them. We’ve, um, there’s been a few documented cases worldwide of an individual dying out of exhaustion or sleep deprivation because they could not locate a pod that would take them in.”

Yuuji bites his lip. Miwa covers her mouth in a silent gasp, leaning deeper into Kokichi’s side as he wraps an arm around her. Yuuji’s mouth hangs open, trying to formulate words but the doctor cuts him off, “But you said the merfolk has slept, right? That they slept out of water because they were sleeping next to you?”

“Yes,” Yuuji breathes, blinking rapidly to come back to reality, “Yes, they’ve slept next to me last night, and this past day they were kinda dozing off whenever I was sitting next to them.”

“That’s great, please keep doing that,” more typing can be heard over the phone.

A chuckle was forced out of Yuuji’s lungs, running a hand through his hair as best he could with the mermaid still attached to him, “I plan to. I’ve been gathering stuff so I can stay here at the restaurant overnight for a while. They really don’t want me to leave them alone, I even tried having my coworker keep them company when I left for about an hour, but they literally jumped on me trying to get me to stay.”

The doctor laughs, relief evident in the grainy sound broadcasted through the speaker, “They’ve probably made you a part of their pod, at least temporarily. Have they been clingy at all?”

“Yeah, very. When we’ve slept, they kept their tail wrapped around my legs. When I tried to go to work, they tried to physically drag me back to the room we slept in, I think they were still tired. They wanted me right next to the tank all day, and if I wasn’t they’d follow me around trying to do the things I was doing. Like, I was sharpening my knives, and they came up right next to me, grabbed a knife, and I taught them how to sharpen it. But as soon as I was done with what I needed to get done, they’d grab me and force me back next to the tank,” Yuuji stares up at the ceiling as he recounts the day. The mermaid follows his gaze, tilting their head in confusion before glaring at Yuuji’s profile again. 

“A prominent aspect of merfolk culture is that they’re very hierarchical, it’s been documented in pretty much every pod we’ve encountered all over the world. A caregiver, like a parent or elder, is of higher status than those who are cared for, like average members or children,” the typing sounds have stopped, instead Yuuji can hear the doctor lean back in her chair as she monologues, “Members who are of the same rank, like two average adults, will do tasks as a group. Like hunting together, or relaxing together, recovering from injury or sickness together, even if only one member was sick or injured. The merfolk you’re with is likely reinforcing the hierarchy by doing the same tasks you are doing. Since you said they literally jumped on you, it sounds like they’re reinforcing the hierarchy pretty aggressively.”

Yuuji sits in silent awe for a moment, flattered that he’s been claimed as a pod member by the mermaid next to him, even if the claiming was out of desperation. Memories of their first meeting suddenly flash across Yuuji’s mind, of the injury the mermaid sustained from his boss and the care Yuuji tried to give them, “Hey, uh, if when we first met, I tried to feed them and care for a hypothetical concussion, what would their opinion of me be?”

The doctor hums through the phone, a long moment passes before she speaks again, “Caregivers are of higher status than the one being cared for. Depending on the age of the merfolk you have contact with, then their opinion of your treatment may change.”

“They seem to be my age, so like early twenties?” Yuuji offers, scanning the mermaid’s features much to their bewilderment.

“So, they’re an adult– hold on,” the doctor cuts herself off, Yuuji can hear her sitting up in her chair, “An adult merfolk jumped on you? Are you okay?”

Yuuji blinks in confusion before he stutters out, “Uh, yeah? I stumbled a bit since they’re really strong and kinda heavy, but I managed to hold them.”

“You held them? Like picked them up off the floor and held them? Supported all of their weight on your own and held them?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry, real quick, what’s your name?”

“Yuuji Itadori, sorry I should’ve said that in the message I left.”

“You’re fine,” very quick typing is heard for a second, “Itadori, are you telling me you picked up and held an adult merfolk?”

“Yes?” Confusion edges his voice, looking at Miwa and Kokichi curiously as he answers. Miwa shrugs back at him.

“Itadori, you are aware that an adult merfolk weighs on average around three to four hundred pounds, right? You picked up and held a three to four hundred pound fish person?” The doctor’s voice slows, emphasizing the bizarreness of her statement.

Yuuji dumbly nods again, “Yeah. I mean, they were kinda heavy, but not too bad.”

“Holy shit, what are you, superhuman? That or a competitive dead lifter,” the doctor mumbles to herself, “Anyway, hierarchy. You’re both likely around the same age you said, and you tried to give them care independent of your own actions. That might be why they’re so aggressively reinforcing the hierarchy; you might have possibly offended them.”

“Wait! I did?” Yuuji yells louder than he intended, earning him a hiss from the individual next to him. He quickly adjusts his tone to be much more reasonable, “I did? How do I apologize?”

“Um, I would suggest for you to just go along with what they’re trying to do. If they want to sleep, go rest with them. If they want to eat, make sure you two eat from the same thing,” the doctor rambles. She pauses, taking a breath that can be heard over the speaker before speaking up once more, “I understand you have your own responsibilities with your job that might interfere with merfolk customs, but from what you’ve already shared with me I believe they also know that. That’s why they’re sharpening your knives with you or following you around when you have to get up and work. They’re establishing that you two are of the same rank in the hierarchy, so what you have to do, they also have to do, too. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense,” Yuuji sighs, relieved that he has a chance to apologize in a way the mermaid can maybe understand. And Yuuji is no stranger to doing what other people tell him to do, he lives to serve after all.

“Okay, back to business. I am going to need you to send me a picture of the merfolk and a recording of them speaking, if you can do both of those then I can possibly track down their pod much faster,” the doctor instructs. Yuuji can hear her shift in her seat, the clicking and tapping of her on a computer starting up again, “Merfolk have different dialects and languages like humans do, and what’s great about that is that I am pretty familiar with how most of Japan’s dialects sound compared to one another. Different chirps or clicks can tell me exactly where they’re from. And a picture will obviously help the pod recognize who I’m trying to return.”

“I think I can do that, maybe,” Yuuji chews the inside of his cheek, brows furrowed together. 

“And one final thing before I leave, and probably frantically try to inform my coworkers about your situation” , the doctor starts again, taking a deep breath and letting it out as a sigh before continuing, “I am going to ask you to check in with me as much as you possibly can, like every day or multiple times a day. Temporary pod formation has been observed between two or more merfolk individuals, normally under extreme circumstance, but what hasn’t been observed is temporary pod formation between a merfolk and a human. So, can you like, keep a diary? Or text me all the time, write down date and time stamps about every little thing, even if you two are just sitting next to each other doing nothing, write it down. This is a borderline groundbreaking phenomenon that you’re in right now, Itadori.”

Yuuji nods, eyes glancing from the mermaid then over to Miwa, “I can do that, but I have one question before you leave, doctor. Will I be in any legal trouble? The website said purposeful interaction with a mermaid can possibly end with jail time, or something like that.”

“Oh, no. Of course not, no,” the doctor lets out a short laugh, “No, I’ll issue you a temporary license, and maybe later down the road you can qualify for a permanent one, depending on how your relationship with the merfolk develops. That or if you’re interested in this field of work.”

“What about a coworker that’s helping me? Will they get in trouble?”

“As long as you can give me their contact information, I’ll reach out and provide them with a license, too. Neither you nor anyone who’s helping you will face legal repercussions, I promise.”

Miwa lets out a sigh of relief, nuzzling deeper into the side of Kokichi’s head as the tension in her shoulders drops suddenly. Yuuji lets out a quiet sigh of relief, smiling to himself, “Thanks.”

“The people who kidnapped the merfolk will be charged, because that is illegal no matter the license they may or may not have,” the doctor chuckles under her breath, the sound barely audible through the phone. “I need to leave soon, so remember: Send me your coworker’s contact information, I’ll send both you and them a form that you need to fill out to get a temporary licence. Send me a picture and recording of the merfolk speaking, and journal every single interaction you have with them, okay?”

“Okay,” Yuuji repeats. The doctor hangs up soon after, bidding him a quick goodbye before the line goes dead. His hand drops to his lap, fingers loosely wrapped around his phone as he stares off into space. 

“She was nice,” Miwa’s voice picks up after a long silent moment passes. Kokichi quietly agrees with her, rubbing circles with his thumb on the back of her hand. 

The mermaid bores holes into Yuuji’s temple with their eyes, face contorted in confused concentration. A sharp tug at his collar snaps Yuuji out of his daze, stumbling backwards but catching himself before falling on top of the other. The mermaid speaks at him, tone not aggressive but slightly accusatory. All Yuuji can do is blink dumbly at them before offering a confused smile, tilting his head and shrugging his shoulders. The mermaid scoffs, rolling their eyes before grabbing ahold of his hood and tugging again. 

Yuuji lets out a choked noise before hopping to his feet, accidentally making the mermaid lose their grip on him. He grabs the almost forgotten bags of groceries that have been sitting on the floor and turns towards the kitchen, forcing the heavy door open with his shoulder and sliding inside. He props the door open with his foot to allow the mermaid following closely behind him easy entry, 

They stand up next to him, only around half a head shorter than Yuuji as their black hands carefully poke through one of the bags he’s holding. Their tail still halfway out the door. Yuuji’s balance isn’t the best and his arms are starting to get sore, “Hey, uh, can you?”

The scaled tail quickly flicks inside, allowing Yuuji to drop his foot and let the door swing close. He places the bags onto his work table, the mermaid practically attached to his side with every step he takes. Their poking grows more confident once Yuuji lets go of the bags, pulling back the plastic and inspecting the fresh greens Yuuji bought.

“Hey, uh,” Miwa peaks through the kitchen window, earning herself a quiet grumble from the mermaid. She bows her head quickly and turns her attention to Yuuji, “Where are you two sleeping? Kokichi and I can drag the mattress over while you unload your groceries.”

“Ah!” Yuuji gestures to the hallway, angling his hand awkwardly to indicate direction, “Down the hall at the very end, it’s the only door that’s unlocked and that isn’t the staff bathroom.”

When Kokichi and Miwa drag the rolled up mattress past Yuuji and the mermaid, the spines on the mermaid’s tail stiffen. They glare at the couple as they pass, eyes as sharp as the flexed rays that run down their back. Yuuji puts a hand behind them, making sure not to touch the other but still hopefully coming off as guarding them. Miwa whispers an apology when she and Kokichi turn the corner. 

The mermaid huffs in annoyance, turning their attention back to the bags they’re opening. Yuuji helps, bringing out everything he bought and setting them on the table before balling the bags together. The mermaid copies him after a few moments, slowly rolling the flimsy plastic in their hands before slowly growing more confident. 

By the time Miwa and Kokichi are returning, half of the groceries are already put away in the large refrigerator. They bid Yuuji goodbye before quickly leaving the restaurant, the sun set long ago by the time they’re out the door. 

Yuuji jumps when hands are pressed against his back, soon followed by the rest of the mermaid’s upper body pressing against him. When he turns around, he sees them bundling their fingers into the loose fabric of his hoodie, tail oddly raised off the fridge’s floor as much as possible. 

“Oh, wait! You’re naked!” Yuuji mentally smacks himself, looping an arm around the mermaid’s waist and sliding them out of the fridge before closing it. He gets a hiss in return, probably a curse of some kind in their language, and he quickly retracts his touch. The mermaid is huddled into themself, arms wrapped tightly around their waist and tail coiling in on itself. Without thinking, Yuuji strips his hoodie off and offers it to the other with a nervous chuckle, “You’re cold, I’m sorry.”

The mermaid blinks at him, eyes flicking down his front, staring at the tight undershirt stretched over his chest before looking down at the offered clothing. An awkward moment passes before they reach out and grab it, fumbling with the clothing before managing to pull it over their head. They get tangled in the sleeves for a second before pushing their arms through them, stuffing their hands into the front pocket as soon as they do. 

Yuuji offers them a smile before quickly retrieving the bags from his apartment Junpei packed, then jogging back to the makeshift bedroom he’s making. The mermaid follows behind him closely, clawed fingers reaching out to grab hold of one of the bags’ strap that’s slung over Yuuji’s shoulder. 

Miwa and Kokichi unrolled the mattress when they dropped it off, and although kinda small it looks relatively decent. No holes or weird stains on it, and it’s not uncomfortably thin. They even put a mattress cover over it. The mermaid mutters to themself from behind Yuuji, peering around him to inspect the mattress from the doorway. 

Yuuji drops the bags and unzips one of them, pulling out a fitted sheet and a shit ton of blankets. There’s no pillows as of now, but Yuuji’s sure he can pick some up when he has to stop by the apartment to shower in the near future. Making the mattress into a bed-frameless bed takes no time now that Yuuji has a mermaid that insists on doing whatever he’s doing, it only takes a few confused charades for the mermaid to understand what to do with the fitted sheet. 

Yuuji flops on top of the bed as soon as it’s finished, a weight next to him is added after a couple moments pass. He can hear the mermaid stretch and dig into the layers of blankets, snaking inside and between the layers in both curiosity and in an attempt to flee from the chill that permeates the room. Yuuji himself shivers, now only in a tight short sleeve shirt. Goosebumps form on the exposed skin of his arms, but he’s too fatigued to move to get under the blankets. 

The mermaid’s tail slams into the top of his head, making Yuuji jolt up. The mermaid chirps in surprise, quickly trying to find a way out of the blankets to blink at Yuuji with wide eyes. Yuuji laughs, a real, genuine laugh he hasn’t had in a while, “Oh! That was an accident!”

The mermaid chirps in response, their pale cheeks tinted red as they avert their gaze in embarrassment, glaring at nothing. Yuuji shakes his head, still giggling as he tries to catch his breath, “You’re fine! You’re okay, you didn’t hurt me. I was just surprised.”

Yuuji runs a hand through his hair and smiles widely, the scar tissue on his cheek tugging slightly and preventing one corner of his mouth to be as raised as the other, “I’m glad you’re enjoying the bed. This should be a whole lot more comfortable than the floor or the glass of your tank.”

He gets a huff in response, the mermaid returning to the burrow they’re making in the blankets. In the back of his mind, Yuuji wonders if he should shoot a text to Dr Shoko to ask if tunneling is a natural part of mermaid life.

“Ah!” He almost forgot about the things the doctor asked him to do, he pulls up his notes app and recounts the past thirty minutes to the best of his ability, approximating the times certain things happened since Yuuji always forgets to look at clocks. 

Glancing up, Yuuji spots green eyes looking at him from a small gap in the blankets, a faint pale colored glow emanating from the darkness. He smiles and sneakily opens his camera, pressing record and holding his phone in a way that makes sure the microphone isn’t covered. 

“Are you hungry? I think the only thing you had to eat today was painkillers and a protein bar you ripped from my hands,” Yuuji rests his jaw on the palm of his free hand, his elbow sinking slightly into the plush of the blankets. He gets a blink in response paired with a barely audible hum. Yuuji stands and grunts out a quick, “Come on.”

He paces over to the door, pausing in the doorway to look back at the mound of blankets. There was a shift, and slowly the mermaid peered their head from out of the dark burrow they carved. A few quick chirps are spoken followed by a small head tilt before the mermaid crawls out completely. Following closely behind Yuuji as he walks into the kitchen, chirping what’s probably countless complaints the further away he walks. He stops the recording and shoves his phone into his pants pocket, hoping that he got enough words clearly recorded for the doctor. 

He opens the fridge and wonders inside, scanning the few shelves he stores the groceries on. The mermaid chirps at him from the entrance of the fridge, not attempting to go inside and insead huddling deeper into the red hoodie they’re wearing. Yuuji grabs four packets of instant ramen, his stomach churning painfully out of hunger. He doesn’t think he’ll be able to cook an actual meal, but the noodles are filling enough. 

Yuuji puts a pot of water on the rarely used stove before pacing over to the tank as he waits for it to boil. The mermaid stands awkwardly next to Yuuji when he sits down, leaning against the glass with a tired sigh. His stomach growls and his eyes screw shut, waiting for the pain to pass while silently praying the water boils faster. 

Yuuji cracks open his eyes when he feels the mermaid sit next to him, watching out of the corner of his eyes as the mermaid stretches the hoodie over a part of their tail they folded up, if they had knees then their knees would be hugged to their chest. 

“Do you have knees?” Yuuji thinks aloud. The mermaid looks at him with confusion, tilting their head as their hands rub along the parts of their tail that’s uncovered. Yuuji pulls his knees to his chest, looping his arms around his shins to trap them to himself, “You’re right, it is cold in here. As soon as we eat, we’ll go back to the bed.”

It’s a while before Yuuji hears the water start to boil, groggily standing up to wash his hands quickly before ripping open the packets of cheap ramen. The mermaid doesn’t stand next to him, instead opting to sit on the floor next to his feet while rubbing the cold out of their tail. Cooking the ramen takes faster than waiting for the water to boil because the next thing Yuuji knows he’s pouring the contents of the pot into a large bowl that almost overflows with broth. He runs to grab a sturdy box to use as a makeshift table before setting the box and bowl on the floor of the kitchen. 

He offers the mermaid a pair of chopsticks and they take them hesitantly, eyes fixated on the steaming bowl of food in front of them. Yuuji shows the mermaid how to hold chopsticks, waiting patiently as they try to copy what he’s doing before he starts to eat. 

The mermaid learns quickly, devouring the ramen with what sounds like a purr rumbling out of their throat. Yuuji’s glad he chose to make something relatively soft with how little the mermaid is actually chewing before they swallow. After a few moments of Yuuji calming eating and the mermaid ravaging most of the meal’s contents, Yuuji stands and retrieves two smaller bowls. He gives one to the mermaid, much to their confusion, and dips his into the larger bowl to pull out some broth to drink. 

They pause for the first time since they started eating, blinking a couple times as they watch Yuuji drink before he continues to eat. They do the same, dipping the small bowl into the ramen to siphon out some of the broth, taking a curious sip before downing the whole thing. The black tail curls, brushing against Yuuji’s thigh before quickly flicking away. 

When the mermaid finishes the last of the broth, Yuuji quickly rinses the bowls and kitchenware used before setting them out to dry for the night. He tries to walk back to the bedroom, but he’s grabbed by the belt loop of his pants and tugged back a step. He looks at the mermaid confused, and they chirp something out as they point to the fridge. 

“Are you still hungry?” Yuuji mumbles, walking over and pulling the door open. Before he could step inside, the mermaid slithers past him and starts inspecting the shelves. Rubbing their arms and their tail awkwardly trying to touch as little of the floor as possible before they reach out and grab a bag of chips. They look back at Yuuji and show him it, tilting their head in a silent question. 

Yuuji rips the bag open and pops a chip into his mouth, the mermaid immediately following suit. They grumble out another purr and reach back in to pull out a handful, managing to fit them mostly into their mouth before biting down. Much to Yuuji’s relief they actually chew enough so they don’t choke or rip their throat open and the sharp shards they swallow.

Yuuji slowly guides the both of them back to the bedroom, the mermaid hissing their annoyances as they try to eat out of the bag he’s holding. He places the bag onto the bed, the mermaid diving under the covers before a claws hand shoots out to quickly steal more chips. Yuuji plugs his phone in and sends the doctor the recording as well as Miwa’s number before he climbs under the covers, too. The mermaid quietly chirps at him before Yuuji rolls over and passes out.

Chapter Text

Yuuji’s alarm blares through the silent room, soon followed by a pair of hands rushing to cover his ears. Despite the cool palms pressing into the sides of his head, Yuuji can still hear his alarm clearly, now with the addition of hushed hissing. A weight slides onto Yuuji’s stomach, pressing him further into the mattress and the blankets that are bundled around him.

When Yuuji groans, eyes screwing tighter together as he’s dragged out of unconsciousness, the back of his head is pushed deeper into the comfort below him. Foreign words speak down to him before barking at the alarm that’s still ringing. 

He rolls the mermaid off of him, much to their displeasure, and leans over to finally turn off the alarm. Unplugging his phone and returning to the bed, the mermaid grumbles at him before stretching their arms and back. As soon as he sits back down, their black tail immediately wraps around his legs again, constricting around one of his ankles before they sleepily relax.

The doctor texted him back during the night, one was a form for the license Yuuji needs, the other was a long paragraph in response to the recording he sent.

‘Good news, I know where the merfolk is from. They’re from the waters that surround Japan’s archipelago, which is luckily also the area that I have been researching. This is probably the best case scenario because if they were from another region, then I would have to find a different researcher to help track down their pod. That takes a long time, and we have a time limit.

I’m pretty sure they’re from the Pacific Ocean, though I can’t know for sure currently. I still need a picture and for you and your coworker to fill out the form I sent you both. The sooner this is done, the faster we can help the merfolk.’

Yuuji breathes out a relieved sigh, softly smiling before turning off his phone and closing his eyes again. The one good thing about his job is that the restaurant is closed on the weekends, meaning Yuuji has two days to lounge around the place with the mermaid. 

He can hear and feel them toss and turn, tail constricting and relaxing around his legs over and over again. He can feel them sit up, feel their eyes glare into the side of his head before a blanket is thrown over him. Then another. Then another. His phone is picked up off his chest and tossed off the bed, landing right next to the mattress, but Yuuji has no time to get up and retrieve it before he’s bundled completely in the sheets. 

The air is pushed out of his lungs when the mermaid decides to support themself on his chest, hands firmly placed square on his sternum for maximum air removal. He gasps, grasping at the mermaid’s wrists through the layers of blankets piled on top of him. A low hiss is all he’s given in return before the hands move to rest on his stomach. 

Yuuji barely has enough time to fill his lungs again before he can feel the mermaid’s tail slide over his face. He turns his head to the side, but otherwise doesn’t move. He can feel the mermaid burrow under the blankets they threw on top of him, tail slithering under his chin and wrapping around his head idly as curious fingers dig themselves into the fabric of his pant leg. They poke and prod their way down his thigh, digging their fingers into the muscle of his quads before poking at his knee. They pause, pressing the pad of one of their fingers into the flat bone that resides over the joint. 

Yuuji’s leg twitches a little when the mermaid’s fingers clasp the sides of his kneecap, squeezing and wiggling as much as Yuuji’s anatomy will allow. Quiet chirps can barely be heard from under the layers of blankets and mermaid tail that crowd around Yuuji’s head.

The mermaid’s whole body slides down, embarrassingly making Yuuji’s legs spread open as their upper body settles between them. His face flushes, trying to push out any unwanted thoughts since the mermaid is just curious. They don’t even have legs, there’s no way they could possibly know that making Yuuji spread his can be kinda suggestive. 

The mermaid’s hand glides down Yuuji’s lower leg as they settle into the new position, fingers squeezing firmly between the shin and the calf muscles. Their hand wraps around his ankle, thumb rubbing against the protruding joint as more quiet chirps can be heard. Their thumb glides under Yuuji’s sock, the soft skin of the pad of their finger rubbing against his own skin. 

As much as Yuuji would love for them to continue to satisfy their curiosity, he’s starving. He can feel his stomach start to digest itself the longer he lays limp under the mermaid, so with a disappointed sigh he rolls them off of him. They hiss, but their glare is hidden under the mess of blankets they’re tangled in. Their tail thrashes as they quickly try to free themself, but as soon as their head manages to break free Yuuji is already standing. 

He offers them a smile before bending down to pick up the empty bag of chips and to shove his phone into his pocket. They slither out of bed and follow closely behind Yuuji as he exits the room, tossing the bag into the trash before stepping inside the fridge. Like the day before, they don’t enter after him, opting to rather stand in the doorway of the fridge. Arms wrapped tightly around their middle, shoving their hands into the fabric of Yuuji’s hoodie as they glare at the back of his head. 

Yuuji grabs a package of sausage before leaving the fridge. The mermaid trails after him, watching as he grabs a pan and places it over the stove on medium to high heat. He cuts open the package with a knife before sliding it back into the block, and places a couple of links into the pan as it heats up. He grabs cooking chopsticks, a bowl, and a rectangular skillet before he seals the package of sausage and returns to the fridge. He leaves with a dashi powder and a carton of eggs, cracking six into the bowl and tossing the shells into the sink.

Yuuji doesn’t bother with measuring spoons as he adds the dashi, sugar, mirin, salt, and soy sauce into the bowl of egg yolks and whites, beating the ingredients together with the chopsticks then quickly pouring oil into the rectangular skillet. He places it on medium heat right next to the quietly sizzling sausage. Out of the corner of his eye, Yuuji can see the mermaid inspect the bottles of sauce he added to the eggs, gently picking up the glass bottles and turning them around in their hands, watching the liquid inside move around. 

Yuuji quickly dashes to the fridge for the last time, grabbing packages of pickled radish, nori, and onigiri he thought looked good. He sets the new food onto a table he isn’t using before he places himself in front of the stove again. Turning the sausage links over before he pours the egg into the warm skillet. The mermaid watches with wide eyes as the eggs sizzle and cook, speaking with unintelligible awe as the raw liquid cooks into solid curds. They’re left practically speechless once the eggs are cooked enough for Yuuji to flip and roll them together, pushing the wrapped eggs down the pan before oiling and adding more raw egg under it. 

Their hand hooks into the fabric of Yuuji’s shirt that wraps around his waist, head centimeters away from his own as he finishes cooking and rolling the eggs. The omelet is larger than Yuuji is used to, but the mermaid won’t eat separated portions so Yuuji had no other option. He sets the skillet on a cold burner and he turns off the heat, turning the sausages one more time before grabbing a cutting board. He prepares a tray with various plates and bowls on it before grabbing the packages of food he got earlier, tossing the radish onto the cutting board and placing the onigiri and nori to the side. 

He cuts the package open and pulls out one radish, placing the rest into a sealable bag and putting them to the side next to the leftover sausage. He slices the pickled vegetable into thin chips, the act taking only seconds with how fast Yuuji’s knife moves. The mermaid isn’t even paying attention to him, for the first time since they met each other, instead they’re still fascinated by the eggs he cooked. They lean over the stove, hands in his hoodie’s pockets, watching as steam slowly rolls off the rectangular block of layered eggs. 

They don’t pay Yuuji any mind as he leaves the kitchen to set a table, arranging the sliced radish, unpackaged onigiri, nori, and empty plates on a tray he quickly stole from one of the kitchen’s cabinets. They only look at him when he turns off the burner for the sausages, grabbing their pan, two pairs of chopsticks, and the skillet of eggs. They trail after him as he leaves to finish setting up the tray, placing both cooked items in the center and arranging the sides around them. 

Before Yuuji can even panic at the realization that the mermaid doesn’t have legs, so they can’t really sit in a chair, their hands place themselves on the back of one of them. They support their upper body as their tail coils into the center of the seat, at least as much as that can actually fit. The end of the tail pools off the edge, slowly sliding along the floor before wrapping loosely around the chair’s legs. 

They shift around as they try to settle, lifting their tail up and moving it around so they’re comfortable nestled so tightly in it. Yuuji sits in a chair across from them after quickly slicing the rectangular omelet, popping the stiff joints in his neck and hands with a sigh. He looks at the mermaid wide eyed when loud cracking that didn’t come from him cuts through the space, seeing the mermaid’s own fingers interlocked with one another as they mimic Yuuji’s stretching. Green eyes bore into his as one of their hands goes to their chin, turning their head to the side until a loud pop echoes out. 

“I bet that felt good,” Yuuji chuckles, picking up a pair of chopsticks and tapping them against the table so they're lined up. The mermaid exhales through their nose in satisfaction, closing their eyes for the duration of their long breath. A moment after they pick up the remaining pair of chopsticks, struggling with the webs between their fingers.

Yuuji waits to eat until the mermaid moves, shaky chopsticks hesitating before picking up a piece of cut up egg. They drop it on their plate and let the chopsticks fall from their hand, clawed fingers immediately pulling the various layers of egg apart from one another. They squish the egg between their fingers, face full of concentration watching the crumbs fall back onto the plate. Yuuji takes a bite out of his own piece of egg, chewing slowly due to being completely enraptured by the person across from him.

Yuuji freezes then they make eye contact, the mermaid blinking before averting their eyes. They mumble something that Yuuji can’t understand as they try to pick up their chopsticks again, trying to pick up the scraps of egg scattered over their plate and bringing it to their mouth. Their brows furrow, chewing slowly as their eyes analyze the egg. 

Yuuji feels nervous as they put another scrap into their mouth, clearly processing the flavor. To Yuuji’s knowledge, birds don’t lay eggs under water, so this could be the first time the mermaid has ever had egg. Yuuji doesn’t know how much time has passed by the time the mermaid finishes their plate, leaning over to grab another piece of egg. This one they don’t pull apart, instead taking a bite out of it like Yuuji did. 

Yuuji can’t help but smile when he watches them shove the rest of the egg into their mouth, a clawed hand covers their lips as they chew the large bite. He breathes out a soft laugh as they reach for another piece as they’re still chewing, but he quickly shuts up when he earns himself a pointed glare. 

Yuuji finishes his piece of egg when the mermaid starts their third, watching him as he grabs a piece of now cooled sausage. He breaks the skin with a satisfying pop when he bites down, seasonings and spices he hopes aren’t toxic to the mermaid coloring his tongue. Yuuji mentally kicks himself at not getting any sauces, but there’s no way in hell he’s going to stand up now since the mermaid got comfortable. 

The mermaid only ever eats what Yuuji eats, which is only subtly annoying. Yuuji bites a sausage, the mermaid devours theirs, he works through an onigiri, the mermaid ends up grabbing two, the only side that the mermaid seemed to not like was the pickled radish. Taking a bite out of one made their face scrunch up in disgust. To the mermaid’s annoyment, it made Yuuji chuckle. 

The mermaid fiddled with a sheet of nori, cracking and ripping the dried seaweed between their claws, occasionally placing a small shred onto their tongue. With the way they eat, Yuuji can tell that they recognize it as seaweed. Yuuji supposes that they would have no reason to dry the plant. He zones out into space, trying to think of drying out something unexpected that humans haven’t already dried out. He guesses it would be like eating powdered eggs or milk without rehydrating them. 

Yuuji doesn’t know how long it has been since the mermaid stopped eating to glare at him, arms crossed and clearly agitated. Over half of the tray has been eaten, only one piece of egg remains while the pickled radish is practically untouched. Yuuji quirks an eyebrow, pointing at the tray with his utensils. 

The mermaid scoffs, spitting something out angrily while nodding their head towards the tray. All Yuuji can think to do is tilt his head like a dog, laughing nervously, “I have no clue what you’re saying, I’m sorry.”

They roll their eyes before pointing to their plate then to Yuuji’s then to the tray. Yuuji must’ve looked clueless because they growl under their breath before sitting up, dropping the remaining food onto Yuuji’s plate. Yuuji stares at the food dumbfounded as the mermaid settles back into their chair, crossing their arms and spitting out unintelligible complaints. 

“Are you not hungry?” Yuuji asks, worried. He assumes they’re starving since he’s not been the best at feeding them, he himself has a pretty shitty appetite and eats at odd hours of the day. He runs a hair through his messy hair, fingers catching on knots, “Do you not like it? I can make something different if you want.”

His fingers twitch towards his phone, the thought of asking Dr. Shoko if he did something wrong is incredibly tempting. So tempting that his fingers are already moving before he realizes it, sending a frantic text: 

“I was eating breakfast with the mermaid and they suddenly stopped eating and gave me the food!?!?! He was eating a lot just a second ago then they suddenly looked really angry???? Did I do something offensive again?? Or did I like poison them or something???”

Yuuji nervously gnaws on slices of pickled radish, the one side Yuuji knows the mermaid disliked the most. Thankfully he can see the doctor text back a minute later, the typing bubble popping in and out for a while before sending: 

“What did you serve them”

“Sausage, omelet, onigiri, pickled radish, and nori. I cooked the sausage and omelet but I didn’t add any spices, but I think the sausage was made with some.”

The doctor takes a while before responding, by the time she does Yuuji has eaten through all the radish.

“How much were you eating? If you were eating too slow and ended up not eating as much as them, they might think you were purposefully giving them larger portions. With your history of trying to take care of them, they might have gotten offended again lol”

“Just eat what they gave you, I don’t think it will do any harm”

“If they look fine they’re probably not poisoned, obviously tell me if they start acting sick”

“Also fill out the form and send me a picture of them. Thanks”

Yuuji lets out a sigh, turning off his phone and smiling at the mermaid. Yuuji eats as fast as he can. The mermaid sits with their arms crossed, scanning the dining room with subtle curiosity. Yuuji didn’t realize how truly hungry he was until he started stuffing his mouth, clearly having nothing but ramen and fish scraps for the past twenty-four hours makes a man a little bit hungry. 

Just as Yuuji shoves the last bite of rice into his mouth he stands, stacking the dishes onto the tray before heading back to the kitchen. He pauses before opening the door, the mermaid struggles with untangling themselves from their own tail before unceremoniously flopping onto the ground. He offers a smile, they give a hiss in return. 

He sets the tray next to the sink, turning on the water and allowing it to get hot as he pulls out a drying rack and soap. The mermaid slides up right next to him, slightly nudging him to the side as they reach for the bowls. Yuuji quickly grabs a second rag before he quickly shows the mermaid how to rinse the dishes.

They keep pushing Yuuji out of the way of the sink, pulling dishes he grabs right out of his hands and scrubbing them themself. He eventually gives up, taking a step back as he watches the mermaid clean. He assumes since he cooked the whole meal by himself, the mermaid wants to do the clean up to feel even. 

Yuuji takes the opportunity to sneak a picture of them, making sure to get at least most of their face and anything else he thinks would be identifiable, like the glowing spots that run down their cheeks and tail and the long whisker-like appendages that sit just above the fins near their hips. Or what Yuuji assumes are their hips, to his knowledge animals need legs to have hips, and the mermaid sure as hell doesn’t have legs. 

He rests his elbows on the table next to the mermaid as they clean up, stacking the dishes into the rack much neater than Yuuji ever has. He fills out the form, struggling to remember various important parts about himself like his social security number and mailing address. 

By the time the mermaid turns off the sink, Yuuji is still struggling with the form. He allows himself to be dragged by the back of the collar of his shirt, trusting the mermaid as they drag him to wherever they want him. A push down on his shoulder makes Yuuji drop to the floor, and only when a few drops of water splash out onto his shoulder does he realize the mermaid dragged him towards the tank. 

He looks behind himself to watch the mermaid settle underwater, still hugging his hoodie around themselves as the red fabric darkens the wetter it gets. Yuuji can’t help but sigh, “Well, at least you like it. It’s my favorite hood, too.”

…

Yuuji has been staring up at the kitchen ceiling for the past forever now. The mermaid is sound asleep in the tank, his hoodie thoroughly saturated with salt water that’s probably going to damage the material. He fumbled his way through finishing the form a while ago, notifying the doctor alongside sending her a picture of the mermaid. 

He turns his attention to a dusty box shoved under a nearby table, debating for a second before deciding to dig through it. It’s his kitchen after all, all the stuff in here should be his to use. Most of the stuff inside is various garbage, files and paper and random trinkets his bosses drop off every so often. The only thing that catches Yuuji’s attention is a pack of dry erase markers. 

He opens the pack and pulls a black one out, pulling off the cap to be pleasantly met with a healthy nib. He drags a line along the glass tank next to him. Doodling spirals and swirls with the beautifully dark ink the marker has. Yuuji draws crude depictions of tigers and dogs he sees on the street sometimes. The dumb little faces he draws makes him smile like an idiot.

Yuuji is engrossed in drawing a shitty depiction of the mermaid, spiky hair looking more like a sea urchin and the countless spines that run down their back making his hand cramp. He freezes when the mermaid sits up, blinking the sleep out of their eyes as they stare at the incomprehensible scribbles Yuuji graffitied onto the glass. 

They make eye contact, and Yuuji quickly leans over to grab another marker and holds it up. They look between him and the marker for a moment before pulling themselves out of the water, sitting right next to Yuuji. He chooses to ignore the water rolling off the mermaid that’s now dampening Yuuji’s pants, making his ass uncomfortably wet as he hands the mermaid the marker. 

The mermaid inspects the marker closely, pulling off the cap and glaring at the nib while Yuuji returns to doodling. He draws very unfortunate looking sharks and stars, then drawing planets and comets to make the sharks a shiver of space sharks. 

The mermaid draws cautiously, drawing stiff looking figures that are recognizable as ocean fauna and flora. A coral reef full of fish quickly fills a good chunk of glass, soft looking sharks circle above the reef. 

The mermaid then draws a human figure in their ocean setting, long dark hair atop the head but the body blends into a tail colored in with the black marker. The mermaid scratches away parts of the marker with one of their claws, erasing dots that run down the length of the tail. They draw another figure next to the first one, this one with shorter hair and a flatter chest, but with the same black and dotted tail. 

“Is that you?” Yuuji’s voice came out quieter than he expected, eyes locked on the short haired figure that’s depicted hugging or at least holding a shark. He looks to the longer haired figure, noticing how it reaches out to the same shark the other figure is holding, “Is– Are they family?”

The mermaid presses their lips into a thin line, blinking their eyes rapidly for a moment before dropping their hand to their lap. Yuuji looks back to his own drawings. All his family is dead, or at the very least not in his life anymore.

He hesitantly draws a figure of himself, then doodling depictions of his mother, father, and grandfather above him. He crosses out his mother and father’s faces before erasing them. The mermaid watches as he draws a line connecting the figures of himself and his grandfather, before crossing out his face and erasing him, too. 

His nose stings and eyes water. He takes a shaky breath through his mouth, rubbing his nose with the back of his hand as he looks away from the figure depicting himself, standing alone. 

The mermaid draws again after a moment, drawing the short haired figure just like Yuuji did. They draw the long haired figure fight next to it before drawing two figures above them. A mother, a father, and a sister , Yuuji concludes. 

The mermaid crosses out the faces before erasing the figures Yuuji assumes are the parents, and a weight settles in his chest. They both lost their parents, only to be left with one family member left. He gnaws at the inside of his cheek, fighting back the stinging in his eyes as he watches the mermaid continue to draw a new figure, this one covered in fins and frills and purposefully not filled in with black. The new figure sits above the siblings in the parent’s spot, and Yuuji smiles, “I’m glad you had someone to look out for you.”

They both don’t move for a while. The mermaid’s eyes look more watery than usual, blinking as green eyes flicker between the figures they’ve drawn. Slowly, they cross out the face depicting themself before erasing the figure completely, leaving the two figures alone. 

The marker the mermaid was holding drops to the floor as they coil in on themself. Running their hands through wet hair before pulling the wet hood of Yuuji’s hoodie over their head. Guilt eats away at Yuuji, while the mermaid isn’t dead they are gone. They’re not with their family, and to Yuuji’s knowledge they’re as good as dead. 

Yuuji draws a crude figure of the mermaid next to his own, offering a smile to the distressed person next to him. Green eyes stare at the figure Yuuji drew, sitting right next to the one representing himself. 

Yuuji circles the drawing of the mermaid before drawing a line back toward their family, ending the line with an arrow. He traces the line over and over again, hoping the drawing can assist his words when he says, “I’m going to get you back to them. I promise.”

The mermaid’s face wavers before they sit up and slither away from the tank. Turning the corner towards the bedroom. Yuuji scrambles to cap both the markers before jogging after them. 

Chapter Text

Yuuji makes it to the doorway of their makeshift bedroom just as the mermaid makes it to the bed, shoving themselves under the blankets. Yuuji internally cringes at the fact that they’re still soaking wet, and now both his hoodie and their bed are going to be saturated with water. He has to ignore it though, at least in the moment. 

He’s seen the mermaid scared or angry before, those are the two most common emotions the mermaid expresses, but he’s never seen them so undeniably sad before. Yuuji has always sucked at comforting people anyway, he has his whole life, but his heart aches to help them somehow. 

Yuuji drops to his knees uselessly next to the bed, the mound under the sheets coils tightly in on itself, tightening into a circle like a snake. Yuuji can see the faint outline of their head in the center of the spiral, their shoulder jutting out as they cradle themself while resting on their side. 

Yuuji runs the palms of his hands up and down his thighs nervously, the friction warming his hands and providing him something to ground himself with as his mind spirals. His head throbs, his wound is getting better but the bandage pulls at his skin. He never really knew what Junpei meant when he talks about overstimulation, but Yuuji thinks he gets it now. Every small movement of his eyes and forehead pull at the skin and hair trapped under the adhesive, but with his lips arching in a slight snarl Yuuji rips the bandage off. The glue sticking to him cries out with a loud “hiss” in the quiet room, leaving the skin underneath sensitive and tingling. 

He tosses the crumpled up bandage to the side, having it get lost in the stacks of boxes that line the storage room’s walls. His stitches burn and are uncomfortably sticky with what’s probably a mix of medical gel, sweat, and whatever kinds of other mucuses his body produced. He picks at the stitches embedded in his skin, rubbing and scratching the raised skin nervously. 

“Listen, I know you probably can’t understand a word I’m saying. Or maybe you can, but I sure as hell can’t understand you,” Yuuji takes a shaky breath in through his mouth, exhaling as slowly as his nerves will allow as he anxiously pushes against his knuckles trying to get them to crack, “But I’m trying to help you. I’m trying as hard as I can, and I don’t really know if I’m going about it the right way. I want you to go back home, I want you to see your family–your pod–again.”

The mound under the blankets doesn’t move, its slow coiling ceasing as Yuuji rambles through messy thoughts. 

“The person on the phone, she’s a doctor. Someone really, really smart who’s trying to help me try to help you,” his hands run through his hair, pulling out knotted and slightly greasy strands free from his scalp. Threads of dusty pink fall to the floor, “She says she works in your home, that she’s familiar with it, and that she can tell by the way you talk. She says can help you, and I hope to god she’s right.”

His mouth feels dry, his tongue sticks uncomfortably to his teeth. He rubs the rough skin on his hands from where he washes too much without lotioning, making his knuckles feel mildly like sandpaper. The mound he’s talking to doesn’t react, not even a twitch or flick of their tail.

He feels guilty. He shouldn’t have brought up family, not when he knows how important community is to mermaids. He feels like an asshole. It makes him feel sick.

“I won’t let them do anything to you,” Yuuji’s face grows blank, voice low and monotone as he stares unblinking down at the floor. His hands roll into tight fists from where they sit on his knees, blunt nails digging into the rough skin of his palms. 

“I’m an awful person working an awful job. I’ve helped cover for countless horrid things, watched some unfold right in front of me while I did nothing but stand still. I’m no better than the monsters who actually hurt those people, killed those people ,” Yuuji’s nose stings but he has no right to cry. He screws his eyes shut for a moment before forcing them open, locked onto the mound in front of him, “But you’re not! You’re not awful like me, you don’t deserve to exist in this hell! I’ll do anything if it means you get home safely. I’ll fucking die before I let them kill you!”

I’ll die before I let them kill you , Yuuji breathes shallow breaths through his mouth, panting like a dog when his mind goes quiet. His voice is barely above a whisper, his body speaking his thoughts before he can stop himself, “I’ll die for you…”

The room falls painfully quiet. It borders on driving Yuuji insane, but he doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t know how to make them feel better, how to apologize for all the offensive shit he’s done. He hangs his head, shoulders dropping as he leans forward in shame. He pulls at his frustratingly long hair, furrowing his eyebrows together so much his stitches tug painfully at his skin. 

Yuuji’s dragged out of his despair when a quiet chirp cuts through the silent atmosphere. Time seems to stop, his heart pounds in his chest as he waits to see if his mind was playing tricks on him. But the chirps speak up again, desperate and on the verge of begging as the mermaid tightens their hold on themself. The shoulder visible from under the sheets visibly tenses when the mermaid’s voice breaks. 

Yuuji’s heart jumps to his throat, making him gasp for air at how weak the mermaid sounds. He bites back a choking sound, blinking the frustrated wetness away from his eyes as he forces himself to speak, “I wish I knew what you were saying.”

He falls forward, elbows on his knees as he pulls at his hair. His shoulders cramp in frustration, he tugs at his head threatening to rip fistfuls of hair out of his skull. The room is too quiet, and the soft sounds of Yuuji’s agonized breathing only agitate him more. He can feel the paralyzing chill of panic flash across his entire body, cutting down his legs and digging into his back, sinking deep into his flesh and bone as his mind starts to race uncontrollably. 

With trembling hands, Yuuji digs his phone out from his pocket. He scrolls through the albums and playlists he has saved, but his eyes refuse to focus enough for him to read anything important. So Yuuji hits shuffle on a random playlist and tosses his phone onto the bed when the music starts to play. 

He closes his eyes, covers his mouth with one hand, and rubs firm circles on the back of his neck with the other as he tries to get used to the new noise. Distracting himself is the only way he knows how to avoid a full on panic attack, it’s something Junpei taught him back when he was still enrolled in culinary school. Yuuji’s breathing is forced, and he has to fight to keep his mind focused on the music rather than his anxiety. 

He doesn’t get panic attacks often, he only remembers having one full attack when he was younger, but the feeling of one approaching is unforgettable. Both he and the mermaid don’t move for what feels like forever. He takes a deep breath in through his nose and holds it for a moment, eyes closed in a brief moment of meditation before he stands up with a grunt, knees popping loud enough to just barely be heard over the music.

Yuuji leaves the room with his hands running through his hair, he really needs to take a shower this weekend, but that’s for later. He grabs spare several towels out from one of the countless cupboards he has in his kitchen, running them under warm water and ringing them out in the sink so they’ll stop dripping but still full of moisture. His mind is barely there, but he does know that the mermaid likes being wet and likes laying in bed. He wants them to be as comfortable as possible, which means making them as wet as reasonably possible while they rest in the bedroom.

When Yuuji turns the corner back into the bedroom, he’s met with a pair of green eyes and pale glowing dots staring back at him. The mermaid freezes in place when they spot him, shoulders relaxing slightly with a small sigh. Their eyebrows furrow when they speak at him, voice tired but sharp.

Yuuji smiles as he walks over, mumbling softly when he sits beside the bed again, “Sorry I was gone for a second, I think I really needed to get up and move a little.”

He peels off the layers of blankets covering the mermaid’s tail. When exposed they coil tightly for a second before relaxing, the mermaid narrowing their eyes down at Yuuji in confusion. They flinch when Yuuji lays a wet towel on black scales, smoothing it over once with his hand. The mermaid chirps in their language, voice coming out fast and confused, but they allow Yuuji to lay more of the damp towels on them. He doesn’t have enough towels to fully cover their tail, but he at least got most of the thick parts. 

The mermaid watches as he covers their tail again with blankets, patting the mound once before grabbing his phone and standing up. Their fingers hook around one of his belt loops, chirping and trying to pull him back down. Yuuji’s hand flies to cover the mermaid’s, “I’m not leaving, if you’re worried about that.”

Yuuji steps over the mermaid and sits on the other half of the bed, tossing his phone to the top of the mattress so the music can be heard comfortably by both of them. Yuuji flops onto his back, his adrenaline finally crashing after his brief panic attack. His body feels heavy, his mind thick as mud. The mermaid shifts beside him, their tail brushing against his leg for a moment before they lay down on their back, too. 

The mermaid speaks quietly. Yuuji hums in response, even though he has no clue what they said. The combination of the dark room and his fatigue makes Yuuji’s eyelids feel heavy, gradually falling close soon after he laid down. 

…

Yuuji doesn’t know how long he slept for, but he can feel something pick at the stitches in his forehead. There’s a mass weighing down the mattress next to him, pressing against his side and making his arm every so slightly damp. Music still softly plays throughout the room when Yuuji groans, stretching his arms into a yawn that pops his jaw. 

The mermaid speaks and the picking resumes, trying to hook their nail under one of the stitches but failing. Yuuji hisses and swats their hand away, “Don’t do that. I’m pretty sure it’s not healthy.”

The mermaid responds, asking a question Yuuji can’t understand. He groans, dragging a hand down his face in mild frustration, “I don’t know what you’re saying, dude. Sorry.”

They huff, green eyes glaring down at him before they turn around, back facing Yuuji as their body curls slightly. Yuuji sits up, cracking his neck and deciding that when he goes back to his apartment to shower, he’s grabbing pillows. He cannot take another night sleeping on this mattress without something supporting his head, he might snap his neck with how often he needs to crack the joints in there. 

He pats around for his phone but doesn’t find it. He can still hear the music close by, but it’s no longer sitting at the top of the mattress. Yuuji sits up straighter, looking around at the floor around the bed to see if it fell. When that comes up empty, he thrusts his hands into the layers of blankets, digging around them layer by layer but also coming up with no phone. The mermaid swats at his hands with their tail, a quiet grumble leaving their lips as they curl in on themselves more. 

The music suddenly changes, and out of the corner of his eye Yuuji can see the mermaid jump slightly before huddling again. Yuuji slowly turns his head to squint at them, seeing a glow from the dark burrow of blankets they’ve carved for themself. 

Yuuji moves slowly, creeping up behind the mermaid and leaning over to confirm that they are, in fact, messing with his phone. A short laugh coughs out of Yuuji’s throat that startles the mermaid. His phone is shoved under the blankets as they turn their head to glare at him, barking in embarrassment. 

Yuuji waves his hands in surrender, grinning like a moron when he’s swatted at. His hands cover the spot atop his head where the mermaid lightly hit him, a laugh coming out of his mouth rather than words, “I’m not upset! It’s fine if you’re curious, I was just wondering where my phone went!”

The mermaid mumbles under their breath before tossing the phone at Yuuji, shoving their hands into his hoodie’s pockets and averting their gaze. Yuuji stares at his hoodie, the fabric slightly stiff around the mermaid. Yuuji doesn’t know much about how bacteria grows, but he does know that mold and fungi and other bad stuff like to grow in dark and wet places. The mermaid has insisted on staying in near total darkness and likes the water. 

Yuuji bounces off the bed and starts to rummage through one of his bags, the mermaid yelling at him almost as soon as he started to move. He pulls out a yellow hoodie that’s basically the same thing the mermaid is currently wearing, but in a different color, obviously. 

He extends the yellow hood out to the mermaid and points at the one they’re wearing, “Can I have that back? Please? I need to clean it soon.”

The mermaid blinks, glancing down at the hoodie they’re wearing, then over at the one Yuuji’s offering. Their lips press into a flat line when their eyes meet Yuuji’s, and ever so slightly tilting their head to the side. Hesitantly they also point at the red hoodie, and Yuuji nods. He mimes out taking off the hood before pointing at the mermaid again. 

Their eyes squint as they mutter to themself in confusion, gripping the front of the hoodie in a loose grasp as they attempt to search Yuuji’s face for answers. A nervous laugh is forced out of Yuuji as he tries to mimic taking off the hoodie again, then pointing to the one they’re wearing. 

Slowly, almost agonizingly so, the mermaid grabs the bottom of the red hood and pulls it over their head. Almost instantly they shiver, holding the hoodie out to Yuuji. He takes it and immediately thrusts the yellow one into their arms before standing and shoving the red hood into his bag. 

The mermaid grabs Yuuji’s attention with confused chirping, and when he turns around he can see one of the, now dry, towels he gave them earlier. A soft “Oh,” leaves Yuuji when he leans over to grab the towel out from the mermaid’s hand. He sits for a moment as they retrieve the rest, placing them in Yuuji’s awaiting hands. He quickly shoves them into his bag.

“I’m gonna need to do laundry this weekend,” Yuuji groans, rubbing the bags under his eyes as he flops back onto the bed. Only his upper body is on the bed, his legs are sprawled out behind him on the floor. He covers his head with his arms and sighs, pulling the hair on the back of his head.

A hand that’s not his own slowly combs through Yuuji’s hair, starting from his forehead and pulling free from his hair towards the top of his skull. Yuuji’s arms fall away from his head, allowing the other’s hand to comb through Yuuji’s hair more. 

The mermaid’s nails feel great against his scalp, scratching lightly against the thin skin. As the mermaid’s hand cards through pink tufts of hair, they pull loose stray knots that have formed after the few days since Yuuji last brushed them out. Smoothing out the aggressive bedhead Yuuji has created. 

The mermaid quietly hums, their voice barely audible over the music emitting from Yuuji’s phone. Their nails glide over the nape of Yuuji’s neck, making him shiver as they pet shorter brown hair. 

When Yuuji lifts his head, the mermaid’s hand moves with it. Pulling gently at a handful of hair before dragging their hand out. When Yuuji squints open his eyes, he realizes the mermaid isn’t wearing the yellow hoodie. They’re hugging it to their chest, laying atop of it when they sink further onto their stomach. 

“Do you not like it?” Yuuji thinks aloud, grunting as he moves to rest on his elbows. The mermaid lays down fully, blinking up at Yuuji slowly from where they lay on their side. He bites the inside of his cheek before he slowly ghosts his hand over the mermaid’s head, hovering over them. They glare up at him, but don’t move away when his head settles down. Their eyes close when his hand glides across their skull, their furrowed features relaxing when Yuuji massages their scalp. 

Yuuji’s hand gradually focuses more and more on the back of their head, rubbing circles at the point where their skull meets their spine. Spiky tufts of black hair are surprisingly soft, especially for someone who lives in saltwater. Yuuji wonders how they cut their hair, if it grows at all. The short black hair near their nape almost looks shaved, or at least very finely trimmed. 

The mermaid rolls more onto their stomach, arms carrying the hoodie shifting upward to cradle their head. Their body relaxes with a deep sigh, their torso visibly shrinking the more air they breathe out. Yuuji’s hand trails gently down their neck, fingers ghosting over the gills residing there and his thumb pressing firmly against their spine. 

Yuuji’s eyes trail down the length of the mermaid’s back, analyzing where pale skin blends into black scales the lower down his eyes travel. Yuuji’s hand squeezes the muscle of the mermaid’s shoulder, earning himself a quiet groan. His fingers trace the gills that decorate their shoulder and neck, the muscle and skin around them almost pinched close like a dolphin or whale’s blowhole. 

Yuuji internally cringes at the word blowhole, the term feeling way too inappropriate for the mermaid. They don’t have a blowhole, just gills that can close for some reason unknown to Yuuji. The gills are nothing more than thin indents of black embedded in pale skin. Brushing against them makes the muscles underneath tense slightly. 

Yuuji's hand slides between their shoulder blades, palm feeling the spine nestled between them while his splayed fingers map out the pointed blades. Yuuji readjusts himself so he's sitting on his knees so both hands can be present on the mermaid's back, massaging out the stress engraved in the muscle. When his hands slide down to the curve of the mermaid’s spine, Yuuji presses down with his upper body weight, causing the mermaid’s spine to pop from under his hands. The mermaid groans, tail writhing for a moment before stilling. 

His hands slide back up, careful to not press against the gills that cut through the sides of their ribs. He squeezes out tension built between the shoulders before returning back to the lower back. The heels of his palms edge the beginning of the spines, kneading the skin and pulling it away from the rays. The mermaid rises their back into Yuuji's palms, groaning as they stretch into the pressure Yuuji is pressing down on them. 

Yuuji’s hands slide further down to where he'd assume the hips to be, the pads of his fingers sliding against smooth scales that gradually get bigger further down the body. His hands press down on the thickest part of the mermaid’s body, where large muscles lay in the pelvic area and where the spines that run down their back are the longest, not counting the spines that make up the caudal fin. Yuuji just assumes it's the mermaid equivalent of a dorsal fin, but the muscles that lay underneath are a mystery. 

They remain a mystery until he tries to slide his hands back up the mermaid’s back, but his hands just end up pushing against the large dorsal muscles. Yuuji’s face immediately burns red, his movements freezing as panic flashes across his mind, “Is this his ass?”

The mermaid stirs, lifting their head and squinting back at Yuuji with an eyebrow quirked up in confusion. They speak in a low mumbling, and Yuuji flashes them a nervous smile before quickly moving his hands past what’s likely the mermaid’s ass to the middle of their back. The mermaid speaks with a sigh and lays their head back on their arms, closing their eyes as Yuuji returns to massaging their sculpted back muscles. 

Yuuji wants to call Dr. Ieiri and ask if he actually just groped the mermaid, but they don’t seem too upset. For the first time since they met, the mermaid looks relatively relaxed. Eyes closed, eyebrows aren’t furrowed, quietly humming when Yuuji’s fingers dig between stiff muscles. 

The mermaid reaches around and grabs Yuuji’s wrist, sliding his hand down their back as they groan out a command. Yuuji lets out a breath he was holding when they let go on a spot lower than their ass, his hands instead gently kneading uniform scales of the upper tail. The mermaid nestled back into their arms, their tail writing for a moment trying to get Yuuji to move. 

And he does. He applies mild pressure as his hands rub down some of the length of the tail, mapping out the muscles that lay underneath. The flesh squishes under Yuuji’s hands, filling out his palms as he massages his way down. The mermaid groans with a shiver, the spines that run along their back standing for a moment before laying down again. 

A pop erupts under Yuuji’s hands and the mermaid jumps, lifting their head and supporting their upper body on their elbows. Yuuji accidentally stretched the joints too much apparently, and that’s also something the mermaid clearly doesn’t enjoy. 

They roll to lay on their side, their tail curling to push Yuuji up the bed and their hand poking against his chest to push him backward. The mermaid speaks, probably telling Yuuji off for being too rough. They roll onto their back and stretch, tail twitching and a breathy moan is forced out of their lungs before their whole body collapses in relaxation. The mermaid speaks in a smooth voice as they fold their hands over their stomach, eyes closed and head resting on Yuuji’s hoodie. 

Yuuji, on the other hand, is completely frozen. Eyes wide and staring off into space as he tries to force his mind to actually process what happened. He gave the mermaid a massage and accidently grabbed their ass. Like, grabbed it with both hands. Handfuls of mermaid ass in his palms. 

Slowly, one small move at a time, Yuuji grabs his phone and sends the doctor a frantic text before turning off the device, dropping it onto the bed and falling to his side soon after. He zones out, staring at the side of the mermaid’s face as they rest in total relaxation. 

Chapter Text

Yuuji stares off into space, having already slept too much today to doze off. His phone is plugged into the wall after it almost died after playing music for several hours. The mermaid naps beside him, eyes closed and curled up on their side. Normally they have their back turned towards him, but this time they don't. Probably because they're not in deep sleep, still fully aware of their surroundings but just resting their eyes, but Yuuji likes to think that they're warming up to him. 

Hopefully they are, he still feels kinda bad for groping their ass a while ago. Even though the doctor said that mermaid asses aren't sexual, it's still weird on his end. 

He pulls at the short sleeve of the shirt he's been wearing for the past few days. He smells, he knows he does. He turns his head a little bit too far to the side, his senses are assaulted by the scent of his own sweat. He's decided he's heading back to his apartment tonight, he can't spend another day with greasy hair and smelling of body odor.

The only obstacle is the person sleeping beside him. The mermaid barely tolerates letting Yuuji piss by himself, since he knows they sit right outside the door of the bathroom whenever he does. There's no way in hell they'll allow Yuuji to leave for a couple hours to shower and do laundry. He'll have to take them with him, but that's the difficult part. 

How the fuck is he supposed to smuggle a mermaid back to his apartment?

He sighs through his nose, sinking deeper into the mattress as his eyes search the ceiling for any answers it might provide. But it's just a ceiling, so it comes up with nothing. He’s already waiting until it’s late at night so he minimizes the chances of running into the neighbors that live in his building, and so that the front desk is closed so no one’s waiting in the lobby. He also hopes Junpei is asleep, but the chances of that actually being the case are fifty-fifty. 

With a groan Yuuji lifts his arms above his head to grab his phone, his head hanging upside down off the edge of the mattress. Despite his brightness being on the lowest setting the screen still burns his eyes. A quiet, tired noise stirs from the mermaid. They stretch, arms pushed out in front of them almost touching Yuuji, and their tail curling rigidly. The stretch only lasts a moment, and a second later the mermaid is lax again with a mute murmur. 

His fingers hover over the keyboard, staring at the last chat he and his friend had almost a whole day ago. Yuuji gnaws at the inside of his lip, a habit he realizes he’s done too much lately when he bites straight onto a canker sore. He winces, closing his eyes in frustration as he waits for the sharp pain to fade for a few seconds. He stares at the letters under his thumbs for a moment before writing:

Hey man, Im gonna stop by the apartment for a second so I can shower and do laundry

Im also gonna be bringing someone over, so don’t freak out

Do this for me

Please

I know you can keep a secret

He drops his phone to the floor and rubs his face, pulling his eyelids open as he drags them down his face. He rolls over onto his side so his head stops hanging over the edge, the pooling blood in his skull starting to make his brain throb. The mermaid presses their tail into Yuuji’s lower back with an annoyed groan, pushing Yuuji slightly as a warning before the tail slides away. 

“Sorry,” Yuuji whispers, hands dropping as the tension in his body collapses. It’s almost two in the morning. Dread sinks deep into his chest as he knows the longer he waits the less time he has to leave and get back before people start to wake up. 

Closing his eyes and baring his teeth in frustration, Yuuji sits up and stumbles over to his bags. Shoving everything dirty that’s in need of cleaning into his duffle bag, which admittedly isn’t that many clothes see as he wore the same outfit for almost two days straight, but that means he has more room in the bag to shove some of the blankets in. The mattress itself is probably fucked, he can maybe prop it up in front of the windows when the sun comes up in hopes of baking the mold and fungi that’s likely there to death, but knowing himself Yuuji might just cut his losses. The bedding though? Now that can be washed, so he doesn’t have to sleep directly on the nasty stuff that grows in the dark and damp. 

Stripping layer after layer of blankets off of the mermaid makes them more and more upset, eyebrows furrowing and their nose scrunching up in a closed mouth snarl. Yuuji leaves one blanket draped over them, he needs something to cover their legs when he walks out into public after all. 

Yuuji kneads and rolls the last blanket he took so it’s compressed enough to be shoved into the duffel bag that’s about to burst. He nearly rips the tag off the zipper with how hard he needs to yank it, but he manages to (barely) close it. He sits back with a sigh, rubbing his hands up and down his thighs before glancing behind himself and yelping. The mermaid snuck up on him, sitting surprisingly close to Yuuji. 

“Holy shit, you scared me,” Yuuji clutches at his chest, sighing when the mermaid asks something. Yuuji’s eyes flick back to the now empty bed and lunges towards it, peeling off the fitted sheet and mattress cover and rolling them together into a huge ball. He guesses he’ll just have to carry it since there’s no way they’ll fit into any bag he currently has. The mermaid chirps at him, but he literally can’t understand them. 

Okay, now for the hard part. Actually getting the mermaid and the bags to his car. 

Yuuji drives an old as hell ford he inherited from his grandfather, back when the man was a farmer. The only reason it hasn’t crapped out on him is thanks to Kokichi, the man is a god when it comes to cars honestly. He has his own mechanics shop and everything, both working men and business men go to Kokichi to get their cars fixed up. If it weren’t for the fact that Yuuji is fairly close with Miwa, there would be no way in hell Yuuji would be able to afford Kokichi’s prices, or even get on the waitlist. 

But Yuuji’s glad his car hasn’t died yet, he likes his truck. Mainly because he has countless fond memories of sitting in the passenger seat as his grandfather drove him around, mainly doing farming work or picking him up from school. But sometimes his grandfather could afford to buy Yuuji a small sweet treat, and the two would drive out to a field and sit in the bed, looking up at clouds or stars as Yuuji ate before they had to go back home. 

And Yuuji hates modern trucks. They’re big and bulky and can’t even do physical labor that well. The beds keep on getting smaller and the hoods keep on getting taller, they get worse at hulling shit around but better at running people over. Jackasses taking up half the road and multiple parking spots all while tailgating whoever is in front of them. 

Yuuji stands, securing the duffle bag over his shoulder and across his chest. He needs the mermaid to wear his hoodie and to allow their tail to be wrapped up in the remaining blanket, so that if anyone does spot them they’ll just assume they’re a human being carried around and not a fish person. Hopefully, anyway. But most people who are up and about at this time of night typically don’t give two shits about the odd things they see. 

The mermaid glares at him, the pale spots on their face being the most noticeable part of them in the dark room, faintly giving off pale purplish light. Yuuji points to the yellow hoodie still laying on the bed that they slept on during their short nap, “Can you, uh, put that on?”

They look down at the clothing before raising an eyebrow at Yuuji. He points to his own shirt, quickly miming putting it on before gesturing back to the yellow garment. The mermaid huffs through their nose before slithering over and grabbing it, hesitating before they shove their head through. The hood catches on the top of their head when they shove it all the way down their torso, arms shuffling around on the inside for a hot second before forcing themselves down the sleeves.

Yuuji smiles and gives them a thumbs up when they look back at him. They roll their eyes and shove their hands in the front pocket, leaning back slightly as their tail coils around them into a more comfortable sitting position. 

“Okay, time for one of many hard parts,” Yuuji adjusts the strap across his chest nervously before walking over to the mermaid. He flattens out the remaining blanket for much longer than he really needs to, but despite his mind knowing the sooner he gets this done the better, his body still procrastinates. The mermaid looks up at him from where they’re sitting on the floor. Yuuji just stands still, looking down at the smoothed out blanket before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, “Man, this is the one time I really wish I could talk to you. I hope I can explain myself someday soon.”

He smiles down at the mermaid before bending down and scooping them up. They yell, not too surprising honestly, and their claws dig into Yuuji’s shoulders. From the way they were sitting on the floor, Yuuji picked up most of their tail from some scoop. It was all coiled under them, which he hopes means they’ll be easy to wrap up. 

Yuuji’s surprised the mermaid weighs four hundred pounds according to the doctor, they’re not that heavy. The most difficult part about picking them up is due to the fact they’re a living person, squirming around in his arms and shifting their weight all over the place making Yuuji’s stance wobble slightly. 

He plops them down in the center of the blankets, they hit at his shoulders and head with an open palm as they continue to chatter angrily at him as he wraps them up. The blanket just barely covers most of their tail, but it’s dark outside and he’s covered all of the glowing spots, so this should be fine. 

He picks them up again and forces down a wince when their claws dig deeper into his shoulders. He won’t be surprised if he has to clean small drops of blood out of this shirt. His arms flex to minimize the thrashing of the tail he’s holding. He can feel the sharp spines that run down their back and tail flex, poking and cutting at his body and threatening to rip open the blanket if they move just right. 

He toughs it out, though. Shoving his way past the heavy kitchen door, dodging between the tables of the dining area, and eventually fumbling around in his pockets to pull out the key to the front door. The mermaid struggles harder, voice becoming more frantic and panicked the closer they get to the front. Yuuji bites his lip, biting that fucking canker sore again. He closes his eyes in a wince of pain and guilt as he shoves the door open with his back.

As soon as they step out into the cold night air the mermaid falls silent. Arms wrapped tightly around Yuuji’s shoulders, claws digging into the muscles of his back painfully. Their head shoved into the crook of his neck, their body goes rigid and stiff in his grasp. 

Yuuji hurries his way to his car, ripping the passenger side door open the best he could and shoving the mermaid inside. They cling to him, clawing and ripping at his shirt as he tries to gently push them down into the seat and buckle the belt around them. They beg out chirps and chokes into his shoulder as they cling to him, squeezing tighter when he tries to move away. When he pulls back and closes the door they scream, eyes wide with fear as their hands bang at the glass of the window.

Yuuji rushes over to the driver’s side and gets in quickly. Tossing the bag into the footwell on the passenger’s side, strapping himself in and fumbling with the keys with a trembling hand. The mermaid writhes beside him, nervous chittering and humming as they look around wide eyed. Their claws dig into the worn leather seat, pulling at the short fluffy fibers of the blanket wrapped around their tail. 

When Yuuji starts the engine they jump, body racked with trembling fear as the truck roars to life. Yuuji regrets having such an old car now, it’s loud and rickety and that’s not something the mermaid needs right now. Green eyes narrowed and darting around in their sockets, paranoid fearful chirps stuttering past their lips.

When Yuuji shifts out of park, his truck jolts into action. The mermaid yelps, wrapping their arms around their ducked head. Their palms cover their ears, their eyes screwed shut as they mutter scared phrases under their breath. 

Yuuji’s grip on the wheel is tights, his knuckles growing a yellowish white. He speeds down a memorized route, weaving around the few cars he comes across and mentally apologizing to the other drivers for his asshole driving. But he needs to get back to his apartment as fast as possible, he can’t prolong the mermaid’s stress any longer than he already has. 

He turns into his apartment’s parking garage, one of the few good things his rent affords him. It’s directly under the building meaning that the time the mermaid spends out in public is even shorter. 

He parks and turns off the car as fast as he could, eyes now locked only on the mermaid. He reaches out to touch them but he can’t bring himself to, so his hands hover uselessly a couple inches away from the mermaid’s trembling shoulders. 

“I’m so sorry,” he whispers. It’s the only thing he can think of. “I’m so sorry, I tried to drive as fast as I could.”

Yuuji sucks his lip between his teeth, nibbling on it gently to avoid the sore he bit into his mouth. He sighs and exits the truck, rounding it and opens the passenger side door. The mermaid whimpers and shrinks in on themself when he leans down to grab his bag. 

Their claws immediately sink back into his flesh as soon as his hands shove themselves under the mermaid, a shaky growl rumbles next to his ear before it pitters out into a whimper. His truck locks with a beep before he walks to the elevator, securing his hold on the mermaid so they’re hopefully more comfortable as he waits for the doors to open. 

The mermaid clings to him the entire way up to his floor, they didn’t move as he rushed down the hall nor when he fumbled with his keys to force open his apartment door. He bee lines straight to his bedroom and gently rolls the mermaid off of him and onto his bed.

They open their eyes for the first time since the car started and look around, analyzing the gaming and movie posters he has hung on the wall, the trinkets and movies he has sitting on his shelves. Their claws dig into his bed’s comforter as they try to steady their breathing. 

Yuuji collapses to his knees, arms covering his head as he presses his face into the mattress. He pulls at his hair as he whispers, “I’m so sorry,” over and over again. The mermaid looks down at him, heavy breathing reduced to a soft panting. 

Yuuji reaches for one of their hands, fingers gently digging under it from where it’s planted on the mattress. His other hand reaches to cover the top before he presses his forehead to the mermaid’s fingers, exhaling another apology, “I’m sorry I scared you.”

The mermaid’s fingers twitch before loosely closing around Yuuji’s hand. 

Yuuji takes a deep breath, one so deep that his chest expands and shoulders grow tense, before he lets it go slowly through his mouth. He stands, rubbing his thumb over the mermaid’s knuckles before letting go of their hand to grab at the bag hanging off his shoulder. 

“I’m, uh, I’m gonna start a load of laundry and then take a shower,” Yuuji states, his eyes avoiding looking at the mermaid. “You can wait here if you want? But, you’re probably just gonna follow me around.”

Yuuji wanders over to his dresser and pulls out a clean outfit before leaving the bedroom. He opens the closet the laundry machines are located in and unzips his bag to load it. He will probably have to do two loads due to the sheer amount of bedding he has to wash. 

He strips off the shirt and pants he’s wearing after he loads the rest of the dirty clothes and one of the blankets, opting to wash the boxers he’s currently wearing in the second load. Pouring in some detergent and closing the lid, he sets the washer on cold and starts it. 

Yuuji groans and rubs his shoulder, feeling the scabs that have already formed due to the mermaid’s claws digging into his flesh. A hiss comes from behind him when the washer rumbles into action, turning he can see the mermaid duck behind the doorway of his bedroom. 

“You don’t like loud noises, huh?” Yuuji states. He gives a tired smile before leaning down to grab the clean clothes he picked up. He paces the couple steps to the bathroom, “I’m gonna take a shower. Just stay in the bedroom for a hot second, yeah? I’ll be quick.”

Before the door swings close behind him the mermaid dashes inside. Yuuji groans as he sets his clean clothes on the sink’s edge, the only spot in the small bathroom he can put them on beside the toilet both he and Junpei forget to clean half the time. Curiously, Yuuji lists the lid to said toilet and groans at the few spots of dried vomit clinging to the porcelain rim. Clearly instead of trying to clean it, Junpei just flushed it until it was clean enough. 

He can’t blame the man though, realistically Yuuji would do the same. But he can still find it gross. 

Yuuji thumbs at the waistband of his boxers, back turned towards the mermaid as he holds his breath. This is embarrassing, taking a shower while someone is in the bathroom with him. Occasionally he and a girl he slept with would shower together, but they’ve always had sex beforehand. Less weird being naked around someone when you were just inside them, at least in Yuuji’s opinion. 

But on the other hand, the mermaid has also been naked most of the time when they’re around Yuuji, so to make things even he should just shower and get it over with. It doesn’t stop his face from burning when he finally tugs his boxers down his thighs and kicks them off, tossing them on top of the toilet lid since they’re dirty anyway. 

He turns on the water, letting it get warm all the while he can feel the mermaid’s eyes scan up and down his back. It makes his skin crawl, goosebumps form on his arms under their gaze. He steps inside the shower before it even reaches the temperature he likes, just so he can get a moment away from curious eyes. 

He hisses when water pelts against his wounds, turning around so the water stops falling in his eyes. He runs his hands over his head, slicking back his greasy hair and tilts his head back to allow the water to reach his hairline. 

The shower curtain screeches across the rod supporting it as it’s pushed open, and when Yuuji opens his eyes he jumps at the sight of the mermaid’s head peeking in. His hands fly to cover his crotch and chest, but all the mermaid does is blink at him and tilt their head to the side.

Yuuji groans, forcing the tension to leave his shoulders as he tries to relax, “I suppose it’s no use trying to tell you this is rude. But hey, at least we’re slowly becoming even on offending each other.”

His face burns as he averts his eyes, hands still covering his most sensitive regions. The mermaid clearly doesn’t get the hint because instead of leaving they slither inside of the fucking shower. It’s barely big enough to fit two humans, so it’s cramped as hell when the mermaid with a nine foot tail tries to fit inside. What makes it worse is that Yuuji is a big man, already the shower is too small for his tastes, but with the mermaid now inside with him he feels like a sardine.

Yuuji gets pushed out of the water a bit, now instead of hitting his back it rains down on his head and over his face, forcing him to squint his eyes. The mermaid presses so close to him, their shoulders touch as they look around the dingy shower curiously. 

Yuuji sighs as he presses a hand to their lower back, pushing them out from under the water just long enough so he can finish wetting his hair. He turns to pour soap into his palm and lathers his head, picking out stray knots and making sure to scrub at all the built up grease in his scalp. He’ll probably have to shampoo twice, just so he can feel truly clean. 

When he turns around to wash out his hair, he notices that the mermaid’s eyes are fixated downward. Following their gaze his face flushes in embarrassment, seeing as the mermaid is unashamedly eyeing his dick. 

Without thinking, Yuuji’s hand flies to grip the mermaid’s jaw and forces their head to look up, “What the hell do you think you’re looking at! Isn’t it rude in all cultures to look at another man’s dick?”

The mermaid hisses and grabs at his wrist. They wrestle themself free and glare at Yuuji as he washes out the suds from his hair. He sighs as he repeats the process of soaping up his hair and washing it out, scratching at the pimples that formed on the back of his neck due to the grease. The mermaid watches him, eyes flickering up and down his body over and over and over again. He just has to get used to it, he supposes.

At least you’re pretty. It makes your staring more bearable , Yuuji thinks to himself when he catches them looking down again. 

As Yuuji slicks back his hair, he stares at the soap bottles lining the small shelf. Back in his college aged years, both he and Junpei had a bottle each of three-in-one, but Nobara found out one day and reprimanded them both. Now they actually have different bottles for shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. 

Normally Yuuji would just use the shampoo, his hair is too short to really benefit from conditioner, and there’s no hope in washing out the fish smell that always lingers around him so he also doesn’t really use the body wash. But he’s felt too dirty the past few days, he fills his palm up with the body soap and starts to lather his arms and chest. 

He rubs the muscles between his shoulder and neck, rubbing firm circles at his nape and the small puncture wounds the mermaid’s claws left behind. His hand runs down his arm, circling suds onto his biceps and over the veins and thin scars etched across his skin. His hand grazes across his chest, the heel of his palm rutting against the large scar on his sternum planted between his pecs. A wound he suffered the one time he met the man even his bosses fear, and the man he assumes he’s supposed to serve the mermaid to. 

Yuuji shivers at the thought of it. At the thought of everything regarding that man, that thing .

Yuuji’s back straightens when a finger lightly traces down his back, along a particularly nasty scar he got back when he first met Mahito. Thankfully it ends just below the curve of his back, so he allows the mermaid to indulge in their curiosity while he rinses the suds off his body. 

Yuuji leans out from the shower’s rain, wrapping an arm around the mermaid’s waist and sliding them under the water instead. He smiles playfully, blinking away stray droplets of water that catch at his eyelashes, “Do you want a turn?”

The mermaid closes their eyes as soon as they get drenches, leaning up into the water cascading down onto them. Thankfully they took off Yuuji's yellow hoodie before they entered the shower. It'd be annoying to add that to the laundry since it’s mostly clean. 

Their hands raise to slick back their hair. Gills twitch under the spray, debating whether or not to open, but ultimately remaining close. Yuuji pours some shampoo into his hand, rubbing it between his palms before massaging it through wet black locks.

The mermaid’s hands rest atop his as he rubs until soapy bubbles decorate the top of their head, their eyes closed under his and the shower’s touch. Yuuji gently guides their head to lean back, allowing the water to wash out the soap. 

They look down at the body wash, reaching out towards it before hesitating. They glance over to Yuuji before gathering some in one of their hands, the other reaching for Yuuji’s shoulder and urging him to turn around. He complies, and a moment later he can feel their hands rub circles between his shoulder blades. 

Yuuji stands with his arms crossed as they grope at his muscles, squeezing and trying very hard at discreetly feeling him up. But all Yuuji does is sigh out a laugh, relishing in the relaxing feeling of someone rubbing out the soreness that he himself can’t reach.

Their hands travel lower, fingers dipping into the dimples on his lower back. Their thumbs firmly run up his spine, making his back arch instinctively in satisfaction before their hands slide back down his sides. He endures the mildly uncomfortable feeling of their hands dashing across his ass, but they only linger there for a second. 

Their hands rest on his hips for a second, as if debating something. Before Yuuji can even think about turning around, one of their hands slides across to his front. Their fingers pause at the coarse hair traveling down from his belly button, and Yuuji jumps when they purposefully drag their fingers up against the grain of the hair. 

“O-kay!” Yuuji sings as he grabs at their wrist and forces their hand back onto his back, face flushed beet red, “We’re not that close yet.”

The mermaid huffs but otherwise finishes up cleaning Yuuji’s back and leans out of the way so Yuuji can rinse off. He turns off the shower and steps out, the mermaid trailing behind him as he wraps a towel around his hips. 

He bares his teeth in the mirror, seeing the small amounts of yellowing and plaque that has built up over the course of the day. He watches the mermaid grab a towel and rub it against their head in the mirror as he brushes his teeth before he spits and rinses his mouth. 

He takes off the towel hanging from his hips to dry his hair, trying desperately to ignore the mermaid who leans over to stare at his dick again. He makes a mental note to ask the doctor to see if there’s an actual reason why they have a staring problem specifically when it comes to his dick, he hopes there is. If it’s something unique to this individual mermaid, then Yuuji might lose his mind. 

He dresses quickly and grabs the last piece of laundry from off the toilet, leaving the bathroom and tossing it in the bag sitting in front of the laundry machines. The wash cycle still has a few minutes left, so Yuuji leads the mermaid back to his bedroom. 

The mermaid gets up onto the bed, stretching like a cat before curling their tail around themself. They look tired, and another pang of guilt stabs through Yuuji. It is late at night, any other day the both of them would be asleep right now, so they probably are tired. 

Yuuji grabs his laptop and tosses it onto the bed. He crawls up next to the mermaid and he pulls up Netflix. He scrolls through uninteresting show after uninteresting show before settling on playing a nature documentary. 

A soothing male voice monologues about wolves. The mermaid seems absolutely enraptured as the documentary follows along the individual lives of a few wolves, pupils dilating whenever a pitch black wolf comes on screen. They chatter at the screen and their tail sways side to side. 

Yuuji hears the washer beep, signalling that it’s done. He stands with a grunt, and as expected the mermaid follows him. He makes sure to pause the documentary before leaving the bedroom with the blanket the mermaid used in hand. 

As he’s loading the dryer he hears Junpei’s door open, and panic thunders through Yuuji’s entire body. He looks at the mermaid but winces when he hears his friend’s voice.

“Yuuji, you got mail earlier today,” Junpei sounds like he just woke up as he slowly shuffles out of his room rubbing his eyes, holding an envelope, “From a, uh, Doctor Shoko Ieiri? Did you get a new doctor when you went to the ER a few days ago?”

Junpei freezes when he finally looks up, eyes locked on the mermaid standing just behind Yuuji. Yuuji nervously smiles at the dark haired man, rubbing the back of his neck as he stiffly finishes the dryer, “Hey man, sorry I woke you up.”

“What the fuck is that?” Junpei asks immediately. Both he and Yuuji flinch when the mermaid lets out a long, low hiss.

“It’s a mermaid,” Yuuji gestures behind himself after he starts the dryer, letting out a sarcastic, “Duh,” before he bends down to load the washer with the remaining clothes and bedding. 

“ Duh? Did you just fucking duh me when there’s a mermaid in our apartment right now!?” Junpei exclaims. 

“Yeah, what else am I supposed to say?” Yuuji retorts as he starts the washer, quietly grunting when he stands up again. 

“I don’t know, maybe give me a little bit of context, maybe?” Junpei says as he steps closer. The mermaid hisses and slithers in front of Yuuji quickly, hissing loudly and putting out a defensive arm in front of him. Junpei jumps back and raises his arms defensively, “Why the fuck does it move like that!?”

“How else are they supposed to move?” Yuuji raises an eyebrow, placing his hand on the mermaid’s to lower their arm. 

“I don’t know! Crawl on the ground maybe!? It doesn’t have legs!” Junpei speaks with his hands flailing, gesturing towards the ground and towards the mermaid’s tail.

“This is a person, dude! Treat them with respect,” Yuuji gasps. 

“It’s fucking hissing at me!” The mermaid gives a threatening jolt, like a mock lunge, and Junpei yells as he steps back. 

“Woah, okay buddy,” Yuuji says as he wraps his arms around the mermaid’s waist, picking them up slightly and moving them behind him. They spit at him and he just bites back playfully. “Anyway, what mail did I get?”

“Something from a doctor,” Junpei tosses the envelope in Yuuji’s direction and he catches it, reading over Doctor Ieiri’s name before ripping it open. A small note and a card sit on the inside. 

Yuuji picks out the card and smiles, “Oh shit, it’s my license.”

“License for what?” Junpei hisses out, staying as far away from the very angry mermaid as possible.

“My mermaid license,” Yuuji chuckles, shoving it in his pocket before pulling out the note. His eyes scan down it and he immediately reads the doctor’s name, opting to read it later when he has more time.

“What fucking mermaid license?” Junpei asks, confused.

“My license so I can be around mermaids,” Yuuji snickers before he adds a, “Duh.”

“Fuck off dude,” his friend rolls his eyes. Junpei runs a hand through his hair with a sigh, “Is this why you’ve been ghosting me and Nobara for the past few days? A fucking mermaid?”

“Um, yeah, sorry,” Yuuji sighs. 

A silence stretches between them, Yuuji looking down at the ground. The silence is broken when the mermaid growls, hands grabbing at Yuuji’s shirt and dragging him backward. 

Yuuji looks between the mermaid and his friend, he turns to Junpei with a pleading look, “Hey, man, go back to bed. I promise that when morning comes I’ll answer yours and Nobara’s texts, trust me.”

“Why haven’t you before?” Junpei probes, eyes narrowed slightly.

Yuuji stutters, mouth hanging open uselessly as he tries to string together an understandable sentence, “So much shit has happened in the past few days, and I guess I just really needed a few days trying to, I don’t know, understand things? Get used to having a mermaid around? Way too much has happened way too soon, ya’know?”

“Okay,” Junpei paces backward, nodding as he furrows his brows in thought, “Okay, okay I guess that makes sense.”

Junpei gestures towards his door, opening it and shuffling inside, “I’m gonna go back to bed, enjoy your mermaid who clearly hates me, I guess.”

Junpei closes the door before Yuuji could respond.

Chapter Text

Yuuji lays on his bed with his arms and legs splayed out like a starfish, eyes closed but mind focused on the documentary playing from his laptop that sits between his feet. The mermaid lays on top of him, head cradled between his knees, arms laced around one of his legs, pelvic fins straddling either side of Yuuji’s chest. His head is tilted back due to the mermaid’s tail coming all the way up to his chin, resting partly on his neck before bending off to the side to lay on the bed. 

The beeping of the laundry machine finishing its dry cycle echoes through the apartment and into Yuuji’s bedroom. The mermaid’s grip on his leg tightens as a grumble rumbles out from them, their dorsal spine flexing into a razor sharp edge before flattening again a second later. 

Yuuji’s arm bends to slap against the mermaid’s tail crushing his esophagus, mindlessly squeezing the flesh beneath his palm, “You know I have to go get that, dude.”

The mermaid groans in annoyance when Yuuji shoves them off his chest, arms constricting tighter around his leg. Yuuji sits and swings his free leg off the edge of the bed, rubbing one of his eyes with the heel of his palm as he looks down at the mermaid still clinging to him unimpressed, “Dude, I will get up and walk with you still attached to me if you don’t let go.”

The mermaid huffs and seems determined to not move. Their eyes locked on the screen as the documentary comes to a close, credits rolling so there’s nothing even interesting playing. They’re staying put to prove a point. Yuuji rolls his eyes as he swings his other leg over the edge and stands, dragging the mermaid along much to their surprise. 

He makes sure to grab their waist so they don’t land on their head. Instead they dangle a few inches off the floor, silky tufts of black hair tickling Yuuji’s ankle. Claws dig into the meat of his thigh as the mermaid yells out what’s probably a string of curses at him, but all Yuuji does is laugh. 

Their tail writhes around behind them when Yuuji starts to walk, teeth sinking into his pant leg as he drags the mermaid along. He rolls them onto the floor when he reaches the laundry machines, the mermaid fidgeting with their hair before glaring daggers at Yuuji. He sticks his tongue out before unloading the dryer, folding the dried bedding and clothes the best he could before layering them into the duffle bag. 

Zipping up the bag is easier now that the stuff inside is actually folded and not thrown in haphazardly, but it’s still stuffed to the point of bursting. He closes the closet door hiding the laundry machines and slings the bag over his shoulder, the mermaid trailing behind him as he returns to the bedroom. 

He eyes his laptop, returning just in time to see the title page of the documentary before the screen goes to sleep. The mermaid was practically enchanted by the thing, and maybe it’s a bad idea to turn a fish person into an ipad baby, but it’s not like the restaurant has any other forms of entertainment. Yuuji himself would probably long for death if he wasn’t sneaking his phone every time there was a long stretch between customers, which means he sneaks his phone for most of the day. 

He tosses the bag into the bed and heads towards his closest, pulling open the door and riffling through the messy piles of clothes he never bothered to fold or hang up. He manages to dig up a practically ancient backpack, a relic from his middle and high school days. Decorated with faded pins and stitched on patches, all of which were gifts from either Junpei or Nobara. 

He empties the bag of any beat up folders of crumpled papers that remained over the years, tossing the trash back into the depths of his closet before sliding the door closed. He slides the laptop inside, leaving to unplug the charger from the wall and sliding it inside soon after. The mermaid watches him from the bed, head resting on folded arms, tail loosely coiled on the bed but most of it falling off the side. 

Yuuji salvages anything useful that he can find around his room, extra boxers, a spare work shirt, deodorant, a can of dry shampoo Nobara accidentally left behind some time ago. Anything and everything that he can use between now and the next time he absolutely has to shower or do laundry. 

The best part about being a college aged dude is that he’s able to thrive for days without the most basic of hygiene. The only thing that complicates that is that he works with food, and while his bosses may not give two shits if he accidentally gives someone food poisoning, he does. So he steals a bottle of hand sanitizer from the bathroom and tosses it in with the rest of the scavenged supplies. 

He doesn’t pay any mind to the box of Junpei’s cigarettes he also stole from the bathroom, tossing them inside with the hand sanitizer before zipping the backpack close. He’s not addicted, he can stop when he wants to, but he can’t ignore the itch at the back of his throat as his stress threatens to boil over. 

Yuuji goes over the list in his head over and over and over again, brows furrowed in concentration as his eyes dart around in his skull as he mulls things over. He has everything, he cleaned himself, his clothes, and the bedding. He grabbed any last minute oddities he might need for the upcoming week, but something feels missing. 

He looks over at the mermaid, green eyes blinking lazily back at him as the pair stare at each other for a long while.

Yuuji can feel the lightbulb light above his head before he leaves the room, heading over next door to Junpei’s bedroom and knocking loud enough to wake his friend up. He pushes the door open slightly, peeking his head through just enough to see Junpei trying and failing to rub the sleep from his eyes. 

“Hey, dude,” Yuuji speaks hushed into the darkness of Junpei’s room. The other man groans, propping himself up on his elbows as he rubs deep into his eyes, “You got your autism headphones? Can I borrow them?”

Junpei groans, taking in a deep breath before squinting an eye open at Yuuji with a confused quirk of his eyebrow, “Dude, you have a pair, too.”

“My headphones are the autism ones?” Yuuji gapes. 

“Yeah, they have a noise canceling feature,” Junpei goes back to rubbing his eyes, clearly struggling to stay awake.

“Oh shit, I didn’t know that!” Yuuji exclaims louder than intended. A hand limply covers his mouth as he hisses out a quiet, “thanks,” before letting the door swing close.

“Don’t call them autism headphones, by the way,” Junpei calls out before the door clicks shut. Yuuji nudges it back open slightly as his friend continues, “It’s like, offensive, or something, maybe.”

“Ah, shit. Sorry,” Yuuji whispers, he waves to his friend even though he knows he can’t see it, "Uh, thanks! Night, dude.”

Junpei groans out a grumbled, “Night,” before he passes out again, rolling over on his side just as Yuuji actually closes the door this time.

Yuuji paces back to his own room, mildly surprised to find that the mermaid continued to lounge on his bed the entire time he was talking with Junpei. He starts to dig through drawers and under his bed, eventually finding his own pair of headphones sitting atop his dresser. He mentally slaps himself for his blindness and checks the battery, deeming it good enough for the drive before he shoves the charger into the backpack. 

He puts the device over his own ears so he makes sure he turns on the right setting, then takes them off once the ambiance cuts out. The mermaid looks up at him with a mix of mild confusion and amusement, eyes hooded and eyebrows raised as he approaches. 

They instinctively flinch away when Yuuji goes to put the headphones on them, but they stop themselves and instead hold their head still. Their eyes no longer hold the hint of amusement that was there previously, instead their face now shows confusion and concern when the headphones slide over their ears. 

They jump when the device is on, letting out a gasp as they immediately move to free one of their ears. Yuuji laughs under his breath, hands up in surrender in an unconscious attempt to comfort the mermaid, “They’re noise canceling. I thought this could make the drive back a little easier since it seemed like you didn’t like how noisy the car was.”

The mermaid closes their mouth and blinks wide eyed at Yuuji, other than that they're frozen. One hand on the headphones, the other lifting their upper body. Their fingers twitch ever so slightly around the earmuff, micromovements carefully mapping out the foreign technology Yuuji places upon their head.

He runs a hand under his eyes, subconsciously trying to smooth out the dark bags that have rested under them for years. He moves to lay out the blanket again, the mermaid’s head locked on him as he moves. They’re movements are slow at first, crawling hesitantly towards the blanket, but once they’ve situated themself over it they adjust themself at a normal pace. Tail wrapping and coiling around itself so it’s comfortable when Yuuji wraps and picks them up. 

Before Yuuji can grab the bags, the mermaid tugs on his sleeve. He looks at them before looking down at himself, snorting when he realizes he’s wearing his red hoodie. He grabs it by the hem and pulls it over his head, handing it over to the other, “You wanna wear this, huh?”

They pull it over their head as Yuuji leans down to put the bags over his shoulders, having to loosen the straps of the backpack as much as it would allow. Apparently his shoulders have gotten a whole lot broader since he was in high school since he had to bend his arms uncomfortably to put on the loosened bag. He still feels like he’s being strangled slightly, but it’s mild enough that he can tough through it. 

The mermaid is hugging their tail to their chest, hoodie pulled so far over their head that it’s covering their eyes. Yuuji readjusts the blanket before picking them up, stumbling slightly when he kicks his bedroom door closed and pushing the front door open. The mermaid weakly clings to him with one hand when he has to carry them with one arm to lock the front door, their head brushing against his temple as he fiddles with finding the right elevator button. 

They squeeze him tighter when he sets them down in the passenger seat, claws gently digging into the meat of his shoulder before relaxing. Their arms fall off him limply when Yuuji stands up, as soon as they’re off him their hands dig into the pockets of his hoodie. 

It’s half past four in the morning when Yuuji starts the car again. The mermaid flinches, moving to cover their ears only to realize the headphones are still on their head. Slowly they move the remaining earmuff back over their ear, pausing in thought when the noise of the engine becomes dulled. 

They still shrink in on themselves when he switches gears and starts to actually drive, but their arms are hugging their tail rather than their ears. Yuuji can only see them out of the corner of his eyes, but they at least look slightly more comfortable. 

Occasionally they look up and look around. Out the windows and out into the dark streets illuminated by streetlights, staring at the buildings and cars that fly by. They look over at Yuuji as he drives. Eyes fixated on his profile as his eyes are locked on the road, both hands on the wheel as he drives the most carefully he has in his entire life. 

One of the good things that happens when driving at night is that all the good parking spots are empty, meaning Yuuji can park right next to the restaurant instead of a few blocks away. The mermaid waits until both bags are slung over his shoulders before they reach out to Yuuji, snaking their arms around his neck and lifting themselves into his arms. The forwardness catches Yuuji off guard, scrambling to catch the mermaid when they wrap their tail around his waist. 

Lucky that it’s both dark outside and that Yuuji parked near the restaurant because the blanket is one bad step away from falling off the mermaid entirely. Once the front door swings closed behind the pair, the mermaid drops the blanket with a hissed huffed. Tail opting to fully constrict around Yuuji’s waist. He has to grit his teeth at the ticklish feeling that creeps into his back as the tail tries to dig under the backpack.

He tries to pry the mermaid off him, but quickly gives in when the mermaid squeezes tighter. Yuuji sighs but he can’t really blame them. To his knowledge cars don't exist underwater, and he knows boats kill a shit ton of wildlife. And if Yuuji had never seen a car before, and he was suddenly thrusted into one, he’d be a bit freaked out, too. 

They cling to him as he walks to their makeshift bedroom, they grumble when he drops the bags and accidentally disturb their tail. He almost trips on the mattress due to how dark it is, but he’s slowly but surely becoming better at navigating functionally blind. 

He digs his phone out of his pocket and turns on the flash, aiming it at the bare mattress sitting before him. He has to move the mermaid around a bit to actually see the bed, and they make sure to vocalize their annoyance. The mattress seems clean enough, some wear and tear here or there, but no patches of spotty gunk that would entail mold.

Yuuji still adds anti-bacterial and fungal spray to his mental grocery list. The mold may not be here now, but that doesn’t mean they’re immune to it. Personally, Yuuji’s fine with a good layer or two of dust and grime since he lives with a smoker his lungs are already fucked up. But mold ? Something literally alive and farts out its babies into the air? He doesn’t want to breathe in mold babies, so he’s going to take as good of care of the mattress as possible.

And he’s sure the mermaid would get really sick if exposed to mold. Yuuji doesn’t know much about disease, but he has heard that exposure to foreign illnesses are so much worse than native ones. Something, something, Europeans moving to America for the first time. Yuuji didn’t really pay attention in school, but he did know a nice lady who had herpes and she said her first outbreak was so much worse than her later ones. He’s sure that like the same thing to a degree. 

His stomach constricts in hunger, a low gurgle emitting from it makes Yuuji flush slightly in embarrassment. The mermaid grips him tighter, head buried in his neck and claws digging slightly into his back. 

“Are you going to cling to me the whole time I’m making food?” Yuuji asks, more to himself than the mermaid. He circles his arms under their ass, hoisting them up so they’re not dragging him down. They groan as they’re shuffled, tail loosening slightly just to wrap more around one of his legs. 

“There’s no way you’re four hundred pounds, by the way,” Yuuji grunts as he leaves the bedroom, practically waddling his way into the kitchen since the mermaid loves to wrap around his joints specifically, “You’re a big pain in the ass to carry, but last I checked my bench was three hundred somethin’, not four hundred.”

He shifts the mermaid’s weight to sit on his hip as he opens the door to the fridge. The tip of their tail flinches when it’s dragged against the cold floor, nuzzling their body closer to Yuuji’s as he rifles through the few shelves holding their personal groceries. Yuuji pauses and narrows his eyes, staring off into space as he thinks out loud, “Does a bench press even measure how much I can carry?”

He shrugs his shoulders a second later and starts to shove ingredients in the space between his and the mermaid’s bodies. They suck their stomach in with a startled chirp, but relax slightly after a moment.

A lot of what he grabbed is premade, frozen bags of vegetables all he has to do is either boil or pop in the microwave. But it's late outside, or rather really early. So early it's still dark outside, but it is technically Sunday.

Yuuji doesn't really care what day it is. He tosses the bags of frozen broccoli and zucchini stir fry on the counter next to the stove, setting the tube of raw ground beef more gently next to them. He takes a deep breath before he wrestles with the mermaid, they're growling and snapping at him the whole time he shifts them to his back. They grumble as they settle in the new position, claws now digging into his chest and chin digging into his shoulder, but at least his front is now free.

He digs out a large bowl and a cutting board, tossing the bowl to the side to be used much later and wetting a paper towel to place under the cutting board. The mermaid watches with slow blinking, hooded eyes as he roughly chops carrot and mushroom into small chunks, then minces a clove of garlic like he was born to do it. 

He wipes the knife with a rag, not bothering to actually clean it since he’s not serving any customers. Not like this place gets checked by food inspectors anyway, Yuuji just has some shreds of dignity left to actually clean his kitchen when it matters. But this early in a Sunday morning it doesn’t matter.

He punctures a tube of ground beef with his nail, ripping the plastic enough to squeeze out the rather gross meat log into the bowl. Yuuji snaps out of autopilot long enough to wash his hands before kneading the meat into a less log-like shape, breaking apart the molded form before he adds in the vegetables he chopped. He scans the shelves of seasonings before adding pre-minced garlic, onion, and panko breadcrumbs. 

He rinses his hands, drying them against his thighs the best he can around the mermaid wrapped around them. He digs out multiple saucepans but only puts one over heat, pouring in beef stock and letting it get warm. He boils a pot of water before he spends the rest of his time waiting deconstructing a head of broccoli, trimming the stems separate from the florets and peeling off any tough skin from them. He sprinkles salt into the pot of water before he turns to read the instructions of the bag of frozen stir fry. His eyes are too blurry to actually read what they say, so he tears it open with a quick poke of his knife and pours it into the remaining saucepan. 

He returns to the beef stock to whisk in soy sauce, flour, and sugar, whisking until thick. He turns the burner below it on low to keep it warm before tossing the broccoli stems into the now boiling water. He lets the sides cook and returns to the meat mixture in the bowl. He’s about to divide it into quarters when he pauses, turning his head just enough to see the black tufts of hair resting on his shoulder and decides to make one huge patty. He kneads and molds it into a patty enough shape before dipping down to pull out a final pan, greasing it with oil, and plopping the steak inside. 

The meat hisses when introduced to heat, a much more satisfying hiss than the one the mermaid lets out. They flinched, claws digging into his pecs and forcing him to stumble back slightly. He cups a hand over theirs, hoisting them back up on his hips before he adds the broccoli florets and sesame oil to the boiling water and stems. He shakes the pan of vegetable stir fry twice before starting to clean the dishes he’s done using. 

The salisbury steak is going to take a long ass time to cook through, since it’s a whole tube of ground beef in one huge patty. But that just means he can take his time cleaning up. By the time he’s done cleaning his knife, cutting board, and mixing bowl the broccoli is finished. 

He grabs a tray and several plates, draining the broccoli before arranging them in one of the dishes. Drizzling sesame oil and a sprinkle of sesame seeds before leaving to take the stir fry off the heat to also plate it. By the time he’s done washing the now free pots and pans, the steak is barely halfway done cooking. 

The weight of the mermaid makes his shoulders ache, and the moment of rest he’s now found himself in weighs down on him heavily. He screws his eyes shut and groans in exhaustion, the churning in his stomach making it feel like his body is already eating itself. He wobbles over to the fridge and blindly grabbing the first thing he can reach. 

Yuuji shoves a handful of cold, dry cereal into his mouth. Needing something to chew on as he waits for the monster of a steak he’s making finishes cooking. The mermaid stirs, a lazy purring chirp like a cat waking up. They groggily lift their head, eyes closed but hands wandering down Yuuji’s chest towards his hands. He opens the packaging wide as they blindly stick their hands in, feeling the bits of cereal before grabbing a loose handful. 

One of their eyes barely peek open when they bring the sweet breakfast to their mouth, barbed tongue hesitantly sticking out and sticking to a few bits to pull them into their mouth. Yuuji gnaws on another handful himself as the mermaid takes another slow bite. 

After what feels like an eternity the steak is cooked through. Yuuji tosses the box of cereal on the counter. He flips the steak onto a plate, covering it in its sauce and putting both pans in the sink. He lets cold water run over them for a second in a lazy attempt to prevent the grease from sticking, but Yuuji’s so hungry he'd rather scrub the grease off later than wait another second to eat. 

So tired he carries the tray to the bedroom and gently places it on the floor before falling over onto the bed. The mermaid yelps, cursing Yuuji out in a flurry of chirps when they’re crushed between the bed and Yuuji’s exhausted body. Tail flails around before bundling under Yuuji to roll him off them, quietly spitting annoyed clicks and chirps as they crawl to the tray of food. 

The pain in his stomach is too much for Yuuji to actually get up and eat. He’s so hungry he’d feel sick no matter what he does, and the ache in his stomach is at the point where it’s almost satisfying. 

Yuuji isn’t sure why sometimes pain is more comfortable than healing. But what he does know is that withering away half draped over the bed is what he’s craving right now.

The mermaid is speaking, annoyed chirps growing louder and louder. The same string of clicks repeated over and over again, with only a few seconds between each repeat. They’re spoken with a bite, like an insult of some sort, and they’re only growing more annoyed the longer they’re ignored. 

There’s a beat of silence.

Then another.

Then another.

The mute sound of the mermaid slowly slithering against the floor almost goes unnoticed, their breathing so quiet and slow Yuuji has to strain his ears to hear it. 

Yuuji yelps when claws dig into the meat of his calf, hard enough that it would’ve broken skin if it weren’t for Yuuji’s sweatpants. He doesn’t have time to orient his thoughts before there’s one hard tug on his leg, pulling Yuuji most of the way off the bed as a flurry of annoyed clicks and hisses fill the room again. 

Yuuji blinks up at the mermaid, enchanting green eyes glaring down at him. Their brows so furrowed that it makes the bridge of their nose scrunch, the muscles in their neck twitch when their gills try to flare open, but one purposeful swallow ensures they stay closed. Watching their adam’s apple bob up and down mesmerizes Yuuji for a second, having to blink hard to bring his gaze back up to their eyes. 

Their hand grabs a fist full of Yuuji’s collar and they tug at him again, making him stumble to brace himself on his hands before his head hits the floor. He grabs the mermaid’s wrist and lets out a low groan as he stands, “Alright, alright. Sorry, I’ll eat with you.”

He paces after them as they slither back to the food, circling it once before laying down on their stomach. They rest their chin on their arms folded in front of them, looking up at Yuuji with bored eyes as he approaches. Their tail moves to clear a space in front of the food across from them, and Yuuji takes that as a sign he’s supposed to sit there, so he does.

As soon as Yuuji sits down completely, their hand reaches out towards the food. Claws digging into the steak as they effortlessly rip a hunk of the beef out of it. Yuuji blinks as he watches them throw back their head slightly to toss the food inside their mouth, tongue quickly darting out to lick the tips of their claws free from any lingering beef or sauce. 

They sit and chew for a moment, blinking down at the steak as they swallow. They look down at their hand, inspecting their claws before their tongue sticks out again. Fleshy barbs rake against black claws, hand rotating around to lick the backs of their fingers as they clean their hand free from any sauce. 

Yuuji swallows, forcing himself to look down at the food so he can stop staring at their fucking tongue . Yuuji is going to blame his distraction on his hunger and stress because surely once he’s all fed and well rested he’ll stop fixating on the mermaid’s mouth and throat. He hopes anyway.

He reaches for the utensils sitting on the tray, but his hand hesitates before actually grabbing them. The mermaid rips another chunk out of the steak and purrs when they eat it. Yuuji’s eyes burn with exhaustion when he mutters to himself, “Fuck it.”

His hand instead digs into the beef, fumbling slightly before bringing a hunk of it up to his mouth. Yuuji doesn’t normally eat with his hands, it was always something his grandfather nagged him about. He always said it was rude, and that “If my cookin’ ain’t good enough for you to use a knife, then don’t eat it, boy!” It was one of the first things he ever taught Yuuji, he really made sure to instill manners into him.

But watching the mermaid eat with their hands, they’re a natural at it. The way they move their fingers so their claws are angled just right to rip large clean hunks of meat free from the steak seems practiced. 

Though Yuuji supposes that making utensils underwater would be a bit difficult, so maybe they just eat with their hands all the time. 

During the time Yuuji was spacing out, the mermaid had eaten most of the steak. They’re leaned forward on their elbow, tail steadily swaying back and forth against the floor as their claws dig into the middle of the steak and ripping out the pink center. 

Yuuji lets them eat most of the steak, making sure to eat in such a way that they wouldn't think he’s looking down on them or something. The vegetable stir fry tastes as cheap as it was at the store, but he’s so hungry it’s one of the best things he’s ever eaten. 

The mermaid sucks on their fingers when everything is eaten, their claws letting out a quiet scratching sound when they run along the barbed muscle. Yuuji does the same and wipes his spit away on his pant leg, grunting as he forces himself to stand and taking the tray with him. He places it beside the sink since he’s far too tired to actually clean. The mermaid looks between him and the dishes as he walks away, clearly confused but trailing after Yuuji nevertheless. 

As soon as he and the mermaid stretch the fitted sheet over the mattress, Yuuji tugs off his shirt and falls face first into the bed. The mermaid digs around in his bags, tossing blanket after blanket on top of the bed and burying Yuuji. A pillow is tossed at his head, and as soon as he processes what it is he shoves his face into it and sighs the tension out of his aching muscles. 

The bed dips when the mermaid slithers onto the other half, tugging and rearranging the blankets in a way that pleases them. They ignore Yuuji as they build, his body just becoming more foundation as they craft their perfect burrow again.

A content hiss leaves their lips when they finally settle, though the stillness only persists for a moment. They move to look at Yuuji, a curious burr ripped from their throat when they crank their head to stare at the side of Yuuji’s head. Quiet chittering fills the room for a moment before the mermaid falls silent.

Yuuji’s falling asleep when he feels something rub at the sore spot on his calf, fingers rubbing firmly and making sure to not nick him with their claws. The muscle flinches but grows more used to the attention the more the mermaid rubs. Their hand is curious but unpracticed as they massage the back of his leg, slowly going further up to palm at the back of his knee. 

They press the back of the joint a few times, and Yuuji suspects they’re looking at the way his leg gets lifted up slightly when they press just the right way. Their hand glides up the back of his thigh and presses firmly and purposefully against his ass cheek, making Yuuji jump and glare back at the mermaid. They raise an eyebrow and tilt their head, expression unimpressed at Yuuji’s reaction.

Yuuji grumbles but ultimately doesn’t fight it, face planting back into the pillow as the mermaid gropes his ass. He supposes it’s fair now, an eye for an eye kinda thing. Or an ass for an ass.

When they jab a finger between his ass is when Yuuji flips around and grabs them by the waist, hoisting them up so they sit on his stomach and his ass is thoroughly protected against the mattress. Yuuji lets them go and they growl down at him, he rolls his eyes with a soft chuckle, “We’re not that close yet bud, and even if we were there’s no way in hell I’d be the one taking it up the ass.”

His head drops back onto the pillow, eyes closed as the mermaid huffs and prods around his chest. Their scales feel nice against his skin, smooth and warm as they slide along his abs. Their hands grope at his chest, squeezing his pecs and subsequently massaging out deep seated stress lingering in the muscles. Yuuji can’t help but smile at them repeatedly squeezing his pecs together, the muscles forming cleavage before they move them apart again. Thumbing at the scar sat between them before moving down to pet his abs. 

Their thumbs brush against the hair leading down to his groin but slide back up to the middle of his torso a second later. Their hands fall down his sides and slide under him to grab at his back, their body relaxing against Yuuji as they lean down so their head is resting against his chest. They grab at Yuuji’s shoulder muscles the best they can, but the longer Yuuji allows them to rest on his chest the more they melt into him. Eyelashes flutter as they fight the urge to close their eyes, tail unconsciously wrapping around Yuuji’s legs as their movements slow second by second.

Yuuji mentally bites his lip, worried that what he’s about to do might be viewed too intimate but he’s too tired to care. So he loosely drapes an arm over the mermaid’s back, slowly rubbing at their side a few times before he relaxes. 

The mermaid pulls their hands out from under him, instead placing them on his chest beside their head as they press an ear against the scar over his heart. 

It’s been so long since Yuuji held someone to sleep, and the mermaid's warm sleep overcomes him faster than it ever has before.

Chapter Text

Yuuji’s lucky that the restaurant is barren of customers almost all day, but especially in the mornings. Most mornings it’s nothing special, but today the sounds of him having to hold back a screeching mermaid from attacking Miwa would even make a deaf customer cover their ears.

Mere seconds before they were sitting beside Yuuji, hovering a bit close but he supposes after to fall asleep on someone you’d assume they’re fine with close contact. Miwa prepping a few pieces of equipment to pull out Yuuji’s stitches, wiping down both tweezers and scissors with a cleaning wipe and counting thin adhesive strips. But as soon as she grabbed one of the stitches with the tweezers the mermaid freaked out, lunging at her and pushing her to the ground with a harsh shove. 

The mermaid would’ve pounced on her downed state if Yuuji didn’t immediately practically grapple the thing, standing and carrying it to the other side of the kitchen while it snapped and snarled at his coworker. Tail thrashing, hitting Yuuji’s sides and legs so hard that it’ll leave bruises, and the spine along their back standing as high and sharp as it can.

Lucky for Miwa, this isn’t the first time Yuuji needed to manhandle an aggressive mermaid. He tosses the flailing mass into the tank, water splashing out and drenching the floor. He stands between the mermaid and Miwa as they pull their upper body out of the water, supporting themselves on the rim and snarling at the person behind Yuuji. 

Yuuji’s arms were stretched out wide to shield Miwa, but he moves to grip at the mermaid’s shoulders. Their snarls drops slightly now that all they can see is Yuuji, glaring into his eyes as Yuuji catches his breath, “Holy shit dude, you need to calm down.”

His thumb grazes over the closed gills that cut over top of their shoulders, the texture helping distract his mind as he tries to think of how the hell he’s supposed to explain stitches to a person who knows nothing about them. He looks back at Miwa, watching her shakily stand before she flashes him a smile. 

“Okay,” Yuuji hisses out as he bends down to dig out a marker from beside the tank, biting off the cap and finding an area of the glass that hasn’t been doodled on yet.  Yuuji draws three images: one of an open wound, one of stitches holding together that wound, and one where the stitches are gone but the wound is still closed. The mermaid watches from beside him, having exited the tank as soon as Yuuji crouched to pull out the marker. 

Yuuji caps the marker and taps the butt of it under the first image, “This is what you did to me when we first met, remember?”

The mermaid narrows their eyes and glances at the stitches in Yuuji’s forehead, lips pursed as they try to decipher Yuuji’s words. He smiles and makes a clawing motion then points to his healed wound, and the mermaid hesitantly nods.

Yuuji taps the butt of the marker under the second image before gesturing to his forehead again, “These are used to, I don’t really know, they’re used to help injuries heal at the very least.”

The mermaid’s eyes follow the end of the marker, but otherwise doesn’t provide any more reaction. Yuuji continues anyway with the final image, “But the stitches need to be removed so it can scar over.”

Yuuji points at the final image then to one of the scars that stretch along the backs of his hands. The mermaid just glares, confused and upset but no longer as aggressive. Yuuji looks back at Miwa, who’s sitting down nervously playing with a pair of tweezers. 

When Yuuji moves to stand the mermaid bolts up, clinging to his side as claws dig into his bicep. Yuuji huffs as he drags the mermaid along, he allows them to push him to the floor so they can curl around his waist and lap protectively. 

A low growl rumbles out of the mermaid as Miwa starts to remove the stitches, claws digging in deeper and tail constricting more tightly everytime the scissors cut one and the tweezers pull it free. Eventually, Miwa has pulled out all the stitches and smooths on a bandage to make sure the wound finishes healing shut. The mermaid snaps a bite at her as she wanders away, making her jump and dash out of the kitchen faster.

Before Yuuji can stand the mermaid crawls more on top of him, pushing him by the shoulders so he falls down onto his back. Their tail tangles around his legs as they concentrate on the bandage now adorning Yuuji’s forehead, a dark hand rising to gently pick at the adhesive. 

He groans and swats their hand away when they attempt to dig their claws under the bandage, he doesn’t want to risk them pulling it off mere seconds after it was put on. He’ll let them do that tomorrow when he’s sure everything underneath has scabbed over. 

The morning is still dark, there’s around an hour until the restaurant opens for the day. But the week is young, and nerves eat away at Yuuji’s insides. He’s worked here long enough to know at least one of his bosses stop by for a moment every so often, making sure both he and Miwa remain miserable and trapped in this hell hole. But with the mermaid now in the mix? He’s sure that their visits are going to become more consistent.

He’d likely get a bullet to the skull if they found out that he lets the mermaid roam around freely. He’d get another bullet for the fact that he and the mermaid have been sleeping in the backroom, too. 

Yuuji sits up much to the mermaid’s disdain, standing up and brute forcing his way through the muscular tail constricting around his legs. Their claws dig into the back of his work shirt as he starts to walk, dragging the several hundred pound mermaid behind him. He supports their wrists so they don’t end up tearing a massive hole in the back of his shirt. 

His mind is running blank, though. He should probably establish the routine of the mermaid pretending to be imprisoned in the tank during open hours, but for the past week they’ve been as free as they possibly can be. And while he has been keeping up with Dr Shoko, she hasn’t developed a way to actually communicate with mermaids yet. And her current priority is trying to find the mermaid’s pod anyway, so she doesn’t even have time to try and develop a way to communicate. 

Which means Yuuji is realistically only left with drawing and praying when it comes to communication. 

That’s not going to be fun, Yuuji’s sure of that. He’s already half convinced that the mermaid doesn't actually know any of the shit Yuuji’s trying to communicate. He’s sure the only reason the mermaid calmed down earlier is because Yuuji made it clear he was fine with getting his stitches removed, and not that the mermaid actually learned what stitches are. 

He digs for the almost forgotten lid to the tank, haphazardly pushed behind boxes as memories of his and the mermaid’s first interaction makes his wound throb. He can hear the mermaid chitter, hear them slithering away from him slightly as he hauls the heavy hunk of glass up and carries it to the tank. He leans the lid gently next to the tank’s body and turns to see the mermaid glaring at him from the other side of the kitchen. It’s probably the furthest the mermaid has ever willingly been from him, and a pang of guilt shoots through Yuuji’s heart. 

He rubs the back of his neck as he drops his other hand, biting his lip nervously as he racks his brain for a way to explain himself. The words catch in his throat as he chokes out, “You’re still gonna be able to leave whenever you want, but..”

He looks down at the tank for a moment before actually lifting the lid and placing it atop the body. He adjusts it so it sits flesh to the rim, then lifts the edge to demonstrate that the lid isn’t stuck. He repeats the motion a couple more times before looking back at the mermaid, slight desperation edging his voice, “I’m not trying to trap you, man. The lid won’t be locked, I promise.”

The mermaid only narrows their glare, tail balling up under them from where they stand several feet away. The distance makes Yuuji nervous. He’s so used to literally being clung to, so the distance between them is making Yuuji’s skin crawl. He itches at his arms, hoping more and more he can rip the nerves out from under his flesh the longer the mermaid just stares at him. They don’t even glance at the tank, their eyes are locked on him .

Yuuji forces his legs to move despite them being heavy and resistant to the movement, he walks over to his work station and starts to meaninglessly mess around with it. He needs to give himself something to do so he doesn’t waste the day locked in a nerve wracking staring contest.

As he moves the mermaid mirrors him, slithering along the edge of the wall to keep the maximum amount of distance between them. He makes sure his back is turned towards them as they round the room to be near the tank. Yuuji hears their claws scrape at the junction where the lid meets the rim of the body, he can hear them attempt to lift the heavy sheet of glass before letting it drop closed again. 

It feels like an eternity before Yuuji can hear the lid be lifted again, followed by the soft sound of scales scraping along the rim of the tank paired with the sound of the water’s movement. The lid thuds closed and Yuuji can hear the mermaid orientate themselves inside the tank, settling down after a few tense moments for Yuuji.

A sigh shutters out of Yuuji’s lungs, shoulders relaxing and head dropping. He’s done nothing but organize and reorganize his equipment for the duration of that entire event. Now he returns his tools to where he likes them before stepping away from his station, ignoring as narrowed green eyes follow his every movement while he walks towards the utility closet. 

His mind is both blank and running at the same time as he grabs a bottle of spray cleaner and a rag, knocking the closet door close with his food before he turns around and walks towards the tank. His eyes locked on the doodles decorating the outward facing side, drawings both him and the mermaid drew a few days ago. He doesn’t want to get rid of them, but the lingering fear his bosses stir up in him urges him forward. Erasing the drawings is a preferable, momentary pain than risking both him and the mermaid winding up dead.

His ankles pop when he crouches down. The mermaid glares at him from beyond the glass, long moments between their blinks as all they do is stare. Yuuji forces himself to swallow the saliva building in his mouth down his painfully dry throat before he sprays the cleaner over the drawings he drew. 

Green eyes widen when he runs the rag over the glass and the drawings disappear. The mermaid slams their palms against the glass as they speak rapidly, eyes darting in confusion between Yuuji’s hands and his eyes. Yuuji freezes and bites his lip, unable to look the mermaid in the eyes as he breathes out an, “I’m so sorry,” that the mermaid can’t even understand. 

Their claws screech against the interior side of the class, the piercing sound muted but still ringing through Yuuji’s ears as he resumes cleaning. When he moves to the side that hosts the mermaid’s drawings, erasing them as quickly as possible to get the whole thing over with sooner, the mermaid pushes open the lid of the tank and wacks the back of Yuuji’s head. Sharp claws digging painfully into his scalp for a second before retreating, leaving behind a stinging only associated with an open wound. 

He deserves to bleed, though, so Yuuji lets the mermaid curse and smack at him as he finishes cleaning, bowing slightly when the mermaid hissed angrily at him before submerging themselves under the water again. 

Their back is turned towards him, facing away from the cleaned glass as their arms are wrapped tightly around themselves. Yuuji feels like the biggest piece of shit alive, but he silently promises to cover the glass in doodles again as soon as possible. But right now Yuuji is praying to any god that will listen that his bosses are too busy this Monday to pay them a visit. 

…

The morning goes by normally. The rare customer here or there, but other than that it's just him, Miwa, and the mermaid in the restaurant. The mermaid has been very clearly pissed at him for the past few hours, ignoring Yuuji as much as possible and quite literally trying to bite at his hands when Yuuji offered him a snack. But the aggression is fine, expected even. Yuuji would be pissed too if someone he was trying to be friendly with effectively ripped apart something he made right in front of him.

But the day has been so nice, other than the offended mermaid acting rightfully dickish, Yuuji almost gets some hope that the day will stay normal. But that hope dies when the afternoon rolls around.

Yuuji can feel him before hearing him, the way the air shifts and how everything seems to freeze in fear whenever his youngest boss is around. Even the bell above the door seems muted when he enters the building, a sing-song chuckle piercing through the air as the blue haired fiend greets Miwa like they’re friends. But from the way Yuuji can hear her freeze up, he knows she’s afraid. 

Yuuji spares a glance behind himself, the mermaid’s back still turned towards him. He hopes they don’t freak out, that they also have a freeze response because he can’t imagine what the both of them will face if Mahito finds out that the wire that used to bind them is cut and long gone. But Yuuji trusts the mermaid, he knows that they’re smarter than him by a long shot, so he hopes that they’re on the same page when it comes to dealing with Yuuji’s boss. 

He flinches when the door to the kitchen gets slammed open, the hinges crying loudly as the door slowly swings closed. Mahito paces into the dimly lit kitchen, scoffing as he glares up at the unilluminated ceiling lights.

“Why is it so dark, Yuuji?” the blue haired man whines, fumbling his hand along the wall fruitlessly trying to find the switch. Yuuji just watches silently, body tense but finding it ever so slightly amusing watching his boss grope around on the wrong wall. His boss’s sing-song chuckle makes Yuuji’s ears bleed, “How do you work when it’s so dark in here! You can’t see the fish, dummy. You better not have been serving our customers bones while I wasn’t here to see!”

Yuuji can’t help but speak up, offended that Mahito would even suggest that he’s an incompetent chef, “I’m not as irresponsible as you, Mahito. I’d know if I served someone a bone, so I can say with confidence all of my food has been up to standard.”

Even in the dark, Yuuji can see Mahito’s head snap towards him, a wide smile cutting across his face as he stares wide eyed at the chef. A breathy laugh quietly falls from his boss’s lips as he finally finds the light. Yuuji fights the urge to flinch when the kitchen is flooded by sudden brightness as his boss stalks closer to him, getting far too close for Yuuji’s comfort. Yuuji folds his arms behind his back and raises his head, avoiding looking at his boss as Mahito creeps way too far into Yuuji’s personal space. He can feel the other man’s skittish breath against his neck, a silent laugh still ghosting Yuuji’s ears. 

“Man,” Yuuji can hear the disturbing grin plastered on Mahito’s lips just from the sound of his voice alone, “Something must’ve really ticked you off this morning, huh? You don’t talk to me unless you’re annoyed.”

Yuuji clenches his jaw, opting to remain silent and stare straight ahead so Mahito isn’t in his line of sight. Mahito just gives a closed mouth giggle, and Yuuji can feel his gaze burn against his skin. His boss hisses in a sharp breath, smiling wetly so Yuuji knows he’s baring his teeth as the shorter man speaks in a hushed whisper, “You need to shave…”

Yuuji can’t fight back the flinch when he feels cold, boney fingers slowly caress his jaw. He can hear Mahito’s fingers scrape along the small bristles poking out from Yuuji’s skin, “You’ve got stubble…”

His fingers press into the soft spot under Yuuji’s jaw, pushing his nails into his jugular before trailing his finger to gently push at Yuuji’s chin, “Though I can’t lie, I kinda like the unshaven look on you…”

Yuuji bites his tongue to fight the urge to vomit, it takes so much of strength to not push the other man away. But Yuuji’s not dumb, not when it comes to people anyway. He’s done that exact thing before and ended up with a blade in his gut because of it. Mahito brandishes that blade on his hip every time Yuuji sees him, a constant reminder that Yuuji can’t touch him without facing some sort of punishment. 

“But, unfortunately, I’m not here to see you.. ,” Mahito whines, the finger pushing against Yuuji’s chin trailing down his neck. His boss’s sharp nail pushes against the thin skin, pushing in his adam’s apple when it glides over it. Yuuji’s forced to swallow, and Mahito lingers for a few moments too long before actually turning away. 

“I am here to see our fishy friend!” Mahito sings, a bump in his step as he stalks towards the tank. He leans on top of the tank, rapping his knuckles against the glass and making the mermaid inside jump. His boss giggles to himself watching the mermaid squirm, muscles clearly tense even though the water obscures their form slightly. Mahito traces circles on the glass, humming idly as he speaks, “Such a pretty thing, don’t you think? God , I wonder what it’d look like when you’re cutting it up!”

Yuuji flinches when Mahito beams at him, trying his hardest to avoid looking at his boss as much as possible. Yuuji can hear Mahito’s heel make connection with the tank, the sound of the impact echoing through the kitchen as his boss continues, “It sounded so pretty when it was being put in this damn thing. Real angry at Hanami, with the slightest hint of fear.”

Mahito drapes himself over the lid of the tank, cheek pressed against the glass as he lets out a wistful sigh, “I wanna hear it scream in pain… I wanna see it flail and claw as you rip open its stomach…”

Yuuji feels sick. His stomach churning as the nightmare he tries so hard to forget claws its way back to the forefront of his mind. Mahito doesn’t shut up, all of his perverse fantasies are Yuuji’s nightmares. He doesn’t realize Mahito is stalking towards him until he feels his boss lean against his front, arms snaking around Yuuji’s waist as Mahito rubs circles into Yuuji’s lower back. 

He has to actively fight back a gag at how close his boss is, tilting his chin up so he doesn’t have to actually see Mahito nuzzling into his chest. He has to grit his teeth while Mahito continues to muse, “It would be such a lovely day, I know it. You’ll come to love killing it, I know you will.”

Yuuji won’t. He’d hate every second of it if the day comes he has to kill the mermaid. It might be the thing that would make him do it . Quit his job on his own terms, even though he’d be leaving both Nobara and Junpei behind. 

He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he became a murderer. 

Mahito’s hands settle on Yuuji’s waist, nails digging slightly into his shirt as his boss takes a deep inhale from where he’s resting his head on Yuuji’s  chest. Mahito exhales with a light laugh, digging his nails deeper into Yuuji’s side as he mumbles, “You’re driving me home. It’s been so long since we last spent time together…”

Yuuji’s heart clenches in dread, like the cold hand of death itself is squeezing the muscle in his chest. Past scars start to ache at the mere thought of going to Mahito’s apartment again, but what other choice does he have? He’s tried to say no before, but Mahito ended up getting what he wanted anyway. And Yuuji would much rather not clean his own blood off of his kitchen equipment again. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Yuuji can see the mermaid flip themself over. Green eyes wide in realization as their face conveys pure terror. Yuuji’s face contorts in apologetic frustration, hating himself for not being able to do anything at the moment. Not while Mahito is clinging to him, not while his boss’s nails scrape up his back. 

Yuuji’s torn from his self loathing when Mahito laughs, grabbing fistfuls of Yuuji’s shirt and tugging at him to follow, “Come on! You’re closed for the rest of the day! It’s been so long since we last hung out, Yuuji, I can’t wait a few more hours!”

Yuuji can’t protest as he’s dragged out of the kitchen, making Miwa flinch as Mahito bids her goodbye. He’s dragged towards his own car and shoved towards the driver’s side, Mahito tugging on the locked passenger side door as he complains loudly, “Open this damn thing up already! I can’t wait til we get back home! Oh you’re gonna love our night together, or at least I am…”

Mahito’s voice trails off into a giggle as Yuuji finally manages to fish his keys out of his pocket, unlocking the car and sliding into his seat with much less enthusiasm than his boss. Mahito’s feet are kicked up on the dash as soon as he closes his door, not even wearing a seatbelt so his car is going to chime the whole drive. Yuuji makes sure he’s wearing his before he starts the truck, the engine rumbling to life before he switches gears and pulls out onto the street. 

Mahito’s voice sounds like needles stabbing into his ears, deep enough to stir at his brain while Yuuji drives in silence. His boss speaks enough for the both of them, he guesses, despite how badly Yuuji begs for silence. 

He knows the route to Mahito’s apartment, he’s driven them there countless times ever since he started his job. It brings nothing but bad feelings to him, every familiar twist and turn on the road the worst his stomach churns in disgust. Disgust with Mahito and disgust with himself. 

Yuuji’s grip on the wheel tightens when Mahito’s hand rests itself on his thigh, rubbing at the scars hidden high between his legs. A fuzzy memory of the night he first got them itches at the back of his mind. He didn’t give them to himself, they permanently mar his skin thanks to Mahito getting a little too excited with a knife.

Yuuji pulls into the parking garage nearest to Mahito’s apartment. The apartment building looks like it’s on the verge of disintegrating, and he kind of hopes it does. Yuuji wouldn’t mind going out that way, especially if it means Mahito is going out with him. Ridding the world of a disgusting man like his boss and a pathetic man like himself, two birds with one stone. 

His mind feels empty as he trails behind Mahito, the other man talking the entire time but he can’t hear him. The words die in his ears, refusing to allow them to sink into his brain. A musty smell radiates from the carpet in the hallway they walk down, small spots of mold dotting up the walls.

He stares blankly at the floor as he’s dragged into Mahito’s apartment, the door falling closed behind him. When Mahito lets go of his shirt, Yuuji just stands mindlessly in the short hall. The walls around him feel oppressing, dark, and damp. Faint spots of red where his blood has stained is splattered on the musty drywall, and he knows deeper inside it stains the fabric of his boss’s couch and sheets. 

Yuuji feels like he’s existing outside his own body when Mahito exits from where he was in the messy kitchen, chatting about something Yuuji still can’t hear. Despite the only sound Yuuji can hear is his own heartbeat, Mahito’s voice cuts through like a hot blade.

“Say ‘ahhhh.’ ”

Mahito’s hand is hanging in front of Yuuji’s face, a small white pill pinched between his thumb and index. Although Yuuji doesn’t want to, he opens his mouth and allows his boss to place the small pill on his tongue. 

Yuuji knows he won’t be able to remember the night now, but he kind of prefers it that way.

…

The only light illuminating the dining room came from the windows, the blue haired woman pacing up and down the rows of tables. She nervously plays with the strands of hair that frame her face, fixing the ponytail that supports most of her hair over and over again. 

She glances between the front door and the door to the kitchen constantly, biting at her thumb nail before digging her phone out of her pocket. With trembling hands she dials the phone of her love, pressing the phone to her ear and hearing it ring several times before it picks up.

“ Miwa? Aren’t you supposed to be working right now? Are you okay? ” the woman visibly relaxes at the sound of his voice, even though it’s distorted slightly over the call. 

“Kokichi…” she starts, cupping her phone with both hands as she rocks back and forth on her heels, “Yuuji’s gone again… Mahito he, uh, he closed the restaurant and took Yuuji with him.”

Silence stretches for a moment before Kokichi lets out a quiet, “ Oh. ”

She worries the bottom of her lip with her teeth, blinking rapidly when her eyes become glossy. She inhales shakily before she’s able to speak up, “I… I think I’m going to stay the night here. For the sake of the mermaid, ya’know? I think it will do Yuuji some good to know that they’re not left alone.”

“ Do you want me to spend it with you? I’ll drop everything right now and drive over if you need me, ” the sound of shuffling can be heard over the phone as Kokichi speaks, the sounds of him cleaning up the space around him in preparation for leaving.

“You’re fine. I would like you to spend the night with me, but finish your work day,” Miwa glances over to the door of the kitchen as she speaks, slowly pacing towards it as she moves the phone from one ear to the other, “You’ve had clients waiting months for you to work on their cars, and me and the mermaid need to bond a bit anyway. It’s probably going to be easier on them if it’s one-on-one and not two-on-one, if that makes sense?”

A quiet sigh can be heard before Kokichi’s voice, “ It does. Okay, I’ll see you tonight. I’ll text you when I’m on my way. ”

“Thank you,” she whispers, resting one hand on the kitchen’s door. Pressing her forehead against it as she holds her phone a little bit tighter, “Love you.”

“ I love you, too, Miwa. I love you so much. I’ll see you later tonight, ” the sound of a kiss comes through the phone, and Miwa mimics it before ending the call. 

She takes a deep breath before pushing the door open, struggling against its weight. She slips inside and stares at the tank, rubbing her arms with her hands as she slowly approaches. The figure inside is balled up, tail wrapped over their body as oxygen is exhaled through bubbles from their gills. Miwa carefully rests on her knees, knuckles lightly kissing the glass before softly knocking against it. 

Immediately the mermaid snaps their head behind to look at her, green eyes wide in fear and pupils narrowed in aggression. They blink at her in recognition, pupils dilating slightly at her soft smile.

With trembling arms the mermaid lifts themself up, pulling themself out of the tank as Miwa sits with her back against the glass. They coil next to her, tail hugged tightly to their body as the two sit in silence.

“He won’t be back until morning…” Miwa mutters. Her nails dig at the grooves between the tile below her. The mermaid turns their head to look at her, blinking a couple times as they fight to ease their anxious breathing. 

A hiccup jostles Miwa’s shoulders, hand flying to cover her mouth as she tries and fails to blink away tears. She pulls her knees to her chest and drops her head onto them, trying to make her crying as quiet as possible.

“This has happened before,” she whimpers, voice strained against her own emotions. Her voice is nothing but a whisper as she continues, “ I don’t know what to do .”

The mermaid flicks their tail to lay in front of her, curled around her from a distance.

No more words are shared between them.

Chapter Text

It’s dark out, the clock on the dash says it’s barely past three in the morning. Yuuji sits in his truck outside of the restaurant, his head on the wheel as he tries to focus on anything but the debilitating headache throbbing in his skull. His hands grip the wheel so tight his knuckles turn white. 

He’s been sitting in front of the restaurant for close to an hour now, having fled Mahito’s place as soon as he gained enough strength to stand again. If Yuuji’s being honest with himself, he doesn’t even remember actually driving back all too well. His desire to get out clearly something he has deeply ingrained in his subconscious if even the drugged version of him wants to get up and move.

The car has been turned off for a while, and currently Yuuji’s gaining the strength to tank the nausea long enough to get inside the building. His lips feel dry and he’s fighting the urge to dry heave every time he inhales through his mouth. He doesn’t want to vomit in his car though, that’d be way too exhausting to clean off the interior. So instead he grits his teeth and unbuckles himself from the seat, squeezing his eyes shut as the action of swinging his legs out of the car makes his head spin. 

His body is sore, new wounds scream with agony as he muscles flex when he stands. He has to drag himself off of his car in order to walk the short distance to the front doors, his forehead resting against the glass door as he fumbles with the keys in his hands. 

When he stumbles into the darkness of the dining room, Yuuji immediately falls back on the closed door behind him. He slides to the floor and his head lulls to the side as he tries to breath through the pain of his headache. 

The kitchen door slowly screeches open, and after a second an audible sigh cuts through the quiet room.

“Yuuji-” Kokichi’s voice is cut off as he’s pushed out of the way, stumbling slightly as the mermaid rushes past him. The mermaid slithers close to the floor as they dash towards where Yuuji sits, crawling on their hands as they settle beside him. Chirping and song-like chattering fills Yuuji’s ears, clawed hands coming to meet him as they press against his pulse and scalp. 

When Kokichi steps closer a low hiss calls from deep within the mermaid’s throat, the spines that run down their back standing sharp before bowing down slightly. They lean over Yuuji’s form as their eyes never leave Kokichi, the other man lowering to one knee but otherwise keeping his distance. 

Soft footsteps rush over before gentle hands cup Yuuji’s jaw, a thumb peeling open one of his eyes as Miwa stares directly into his pupil. She purses her lips before fishing out her phone then shining the flash directly into Yuuji’s eye. 

He flinches back with a groan, pulling his head away as the mermaid hugs his head into their chest. They let out a louder hiss, tail curling in displeasure. Miwa bops them on the nose, causing them to freeze in shock before she reaches for Yuuji’s face again, “Oh, shut up. I’m the nurse, and you’re not. Let me do what I need to do.”

Although the mermaid still grumbles out hisses, they allow Miwa to pull Yuuji’s head back. She presses the back of her hand to his forehead before grabbing ahold of his arm and pressing her fingers firmly against the underside of his wrist, quietly muttering, “Kokichi, count for thirty seconds for me,” and then falling silent. 

“Twenty-nine, times two… Fifty-eight, so that’s low,” Miwa mumbles to herself before taking a deep breath. She sighs out an exhale before continuing, rubbing her thumb over a spot of blood on his arm with a look of concern, “But Yuuji’s very active, athletes tend to have lower resting heart rates than other people…”

“His breathing is also a little slow, but Yuuji’s always taken very deep breaths,” Miwa drops Yuuji’s arm and rubs her hands on her thighs. She’s quiet for a moment before turning her attention over to her boyfriend, “Are you okay staying here for the rest of the night? I don’t want to leave Yuuji alone incase whatever Mahito gave him turns out to be worse later on.”

Kokichi nods and offers her a small smile, “I can stay, but I’m sure he’ll be alright. This has happened before, hasn't it? He’ll be okay.”

Miwa presses her lips into a thin line and looks down at Yuuji’s face with her eyebrows knitted together, taking in how exhausted and out of it he seems. She opens her mouth to speak but hesitates, the words forced out of her a moment later, “Yuuji? Do you need help walking to the back?”

“Probably,” he slurs, his words chased by several heavy breaths before he can squint his eyes open, “If you’re offering help, I’m going to take it…”

“Okay, hands,” Miwa holds out her own for Yuuji to grab. The bones in his arms feel like they’re made of concrete, but he’s punched through a brick wall before so he’s able to raise his arms anyway. Both of his hands fall heavily into hers and a second later Kokichi is tossed one of his hands. A quiet chuckle escapes from Yuuji as the couple help pull him to his feet, them and the mermaid catching him when he almost stumbles back to the ground. 

The mermaid slithers into Yuuji’s embrace, tail careful not to trip him while also being practically glued to Yuuji’s side. The warmth is welcome, the mermaid’s body sliding together perfectly with Yuuji’s. Lean arms wrapped around Yuuji’s waist as he’s gently pulled closer to the kitchen, quiet worried clicks are chirped into the junction of Yuuji’s neck and shoulder. 

His head feels like it’s filled with cotton, everything, even his sight, is blurry. It makes his head spin even more, makes his stomach churn. He feels like he’s one wrong step from vomiting on the kitchen floor as he gets dragged to the back room. 

He’s laid as gently as possible onto the mattress on the floor, Miwa and Kokichi leave to sit on sleeping bags laid next to the poor excuse of a bed Yuuji has been sleeping on for the past week, and the mermaid slithers into the blankets next to him. They try to curl into his side, try to nuzzle their forehead into his chest, but reflexively Yuuji puts a hand to their chest and pushes them gently. Thankfully a gentle push is all that’s needed for them to slide off of him.

He can’t bear to look at their face, but he can feel their eyes bore into his head. Green eyes are undoubtedly filled with concern and confusion, but thankfully they simply settle next to Yuuji. Sitting a couple inches away to give space but not to abandon his side. A sigh of relief is breathed out of Yuuji’s nose and his shoulders fall as they relax. 

“Yuuji,” Miwa starts. Knees hugged close to her chest as she looked at Yuuji with pure worry in her eyes. Kokichi is rubbing circles into her lower back, staring at the ground as his mind races. “Are you okay?”

Yuuji doesn’t know how to answer that. He’s not, but he’s used to that. His whole deal with Mahito has been going on for years now, and he doesn’t see an end to it anytime soon, “I’m used to it, Miwa.”

“Just because you’re used to it, doesn’t mean it’s okay, Yuuji,” she responds, nails anxiously kneading at her pant leg. Her mouth hands open as she tries to find her next words, “What he’s doing is awful. It’s not healthy for you to get drugged, and the mental trauma he’s putting you through, it's…”

Her breathing has picked up, eyes wide and glossy with fear for him. Yuuji’s sober enough to feel guilt, guilt that his situation is causing her so much distress. Her next words are forced out of her, strained as she tries to bite back the sob in her throat, “Yuuji he’s… He ra-... assaulted you, didn’t he? You can’t be used to that, that’s not…”

He can’t look her in the eyes, all he can focus on is the floor next to the bed. His voice is raspy and quiet when he speaks, “I’ll survive.”

“But will you be fine?” Her voice breaks. Her hand covers her mouth as she tries to bite down her emotion, but the quietness of the room amplifies every choke that shakes her. 

Everyone is quiet for a long while. Tension born from worry and fear is suffocating the room before Yuuji finds his voice, “It’s mainly just him cutting me up now. I wake up naked, sure, but there’s nothing to imply he stripped, too.”

The seriousness of the room is starting to freak him out, a nervous laugh barks out of him as he forces a grin, “At least I had enough sensibility to grab some pants this time, unlike that one time when I drove back with nothing below the belt.”

His attempt at lifting the mood fell flat, it actually made things feel so much worse. 

Miwa looks at him with nothing but worry, Kokichi worries his bottom lip with his teeth, and the mermaid subtly kneads at the blankets dressing the mattress. The pity makes Yuuji want to vomit more than the drugs still fucking up his body. If his hands weren’t so weak and shaky he would be pulling his hair out of his scalp, but instead they tremble uselessly in his lap. 

“What are you two even doing here?” Yuuji changes the topic, the stress building in his muscles needs to stop or else he feels like he’s going to explode, “It’s so late. You guys didn’t stay the night, did you?”

“We did,” Kokichi answers. The other man is still staring at the floor, but Yuuji doesn’t take offense. Kokichi’s hand falls from Miwa’s back and instead entangles itself with one of hers, “Ultimately we stayed for the sake of you. The mermaid likes company apparently, so we subbed in for you while you were gone.”

“You… You did that for me?” Yuuji’s eyes are wide, a flattered surprise giving him the energy to look at the couple despite the exhaustion weighing him down. Knowing that the mermaid wasn’t alone for the hours he was gone does make his chest feel lighter, the suffocating fingers of dread easing from around his heart. 

Miwa nods, free hand fiddling with the loose strands of hair that frame her face. Yuuji looks back at the mermaid, green eyes staring up at him from where they lay down. Arms crossed under their head like a pillow as the tip of their tail sways slowly against the floor. A smile creeps onto Yuuji’s face before he can stop it, relief over a fear he didn’t know he had caused him to flop down onto the bed. The impact of his back hitting the mattress forces an “oof” out of Yuuji.

The mermaid lets out a quiet series of chirps, like a cat’s trills, as they crawl up the bed to lay beside Yuuji. Arms hugged close to their chest as they lay as close as they can without touching him, green eyes half lidded but locked on Yuuji’s profile. 

Yuuji just breathes with his eyes closed for a couple of minutes, the silence of the room no longer stressful. His voice is horse and quiet, barely louder than a whisper as he mutters, “Thank you, both of you, for staying with him– them .”

Yuuji opens his eyes so he can blink a couple times in confusion. He turns his head to look at the pretty face laying next to him, “Them? Right, or…”

The mermaid just blinks at them, long lashes hiding the beautiful shade of green of their irises as their expression remains neutral. 

“Do mermaids even have pronouns…” Miwa’s voice interjects softly. She daps her sleeve to her eyes one at a time before continuing, “Do you think Dr Shoko will be able to translate?”

“I’m not sure,” Yuuji tries not to slur, actually laying down on the mattress making him realize he was a whole lot more tired than he thought he was, “I’ve been trying to give updates once or twice a day, just about things the mermaid and I have been doing, but there’s been very little actual conversation between me and the doctor.”

As silence overcomes the room again, Yuuji manages to open his eyes just enough to look at the mermaid. Their hands twitch and almost reach out towards Yuuji, but they curl back again. The mermaid wraps their hands around their waist with a sign, closing their eyes for a moment before quietly clicking something in their language. 

“Yuuji,” Miwa suddenly says. He can hear her sit up, her voice laced with concern, “You aren’t actively bleeding, are you?”

“I am,” He responds simply. 

She stutters, words failing her as she shoots up. She looks between Yuuji and the door for a second before commanding, “Take off your clothes!” as she’s dashing out of the room. 

She’s gone before she can hear the, “Woah,” Yuuji lets out, and the shocked chuckles Kokichi dissolves into. 

“You good with this, man?” Yuuji chuckles, grinning at Kokichi as he sits up with a grunt. The mermaid sits up with him, letting out confused chirping that fills his ear.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Kokichi responds, rubbing his hands against his thighs, likely to get the blood moving after he’s been sitting for so long, “She’s a nurse. She’s done it to me and our friends when we’re sick or whatever.”

Yuuji has to bite back pained groans as he pulls his shirt off, the fabric peeling off healing wounds rips the wet scabs off of them. He’s not bleeding that much, the cuts Mahito left aren’t deep enough to require stitches, but shallow cuts hurt like a bitch. Concerned and slightly panicked words chirp out of the mermaid, their hands hovering over Yuuji’s back but hesitant to touch him. 

Miwa comes running back into the room a second later holding bandages, tissues, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. She drops the supplies onto the bed as she falls to her knees beside Yuuji, wetting a clump of tissues with rubbing alcohol before guiding Yuuji to lean back. The alcohol stings when it’s rubbed against his healing wounds.

“Why does he do this to you,” Miwa whimpers under her breath, her hands moving with a tender, professional care as she cleans and applies bandages to bleeding wounds. Yuuji’s torso is tainted with cuts from blades and bites from teeth, bruised and bleeding with ugly reminders of Mahito. 

Yuuji closes his eyes as Miwa works, unable to look down at the evidence of his inability to protect himself. Miwa’s right, he’s not fine. He’s never been fine with his arrangement with Mahito, it always leaves him feeling disgusted and used. His hands grip at the sheets below him, balling up into tight fists as his voice comes out in a hoarse whisper, “I don’t know why he does this to me.”

“It’s a,” Kokichi speaks up, not too loud to break the quiet tranquility of the room but loud enough to be heard, “it’s probably a power thing, right?”

“He already has enough power over me, this just feels excessive,” Yuuji mumbles, cringing at the mere thought of what Mahito actually does when he’s unable to remember. 

The mermaid watches Miwa work closely, eyes narrowed but otherwise not aggressive. The smallest amounts of trust in her starting to take root. When she’s done, she leans back and flashes the mermaid a quick smile before cleaning up the supplies. 

Before she stands she addresses Yuuji, “Kokichi and I will be moving to the dining room for the rest of the night, please yell or next me or something if you’re starting to feel sick, Yuuji.”

Yuuji falls back onto the bed after letting out an affirmative hum, the air in his lungs grunting out of him before his body relaxes. The mermaid is still sitting up as they watch Miwa and Kokichi gather their things and leave the room, leaving the door slightly ajar but turning off the hallway light. They slowly look back to stare at Yuuji’s face, eyes wandering down to look at the patched up wounds he came back with. 

Slowly they lay down beside Yuuji, settling into the sheets close to him but not touching. Their tail flexes with the urge to wrap around his legs, but they will themselves to have their tail to tangle in the blankets instead. Even as Yuuji slowly drifts off to sleep, the mermaid seems determined with itself to stay awake and watch over him for the night.

…

 Yuuji’s going to vomit, the taste of bile rises in his throat but is snuffed down as a mouthful of flesh is forced past his lips. The cheshire grin of Mahito is the only thing he sees and the fearful, pained cries of the mermaid is the only thing he hears. 

He’s in that same dark void he was in last time when he carved open the mermaid with his hands that he couldn’t control, the mermaid laying on that same table curled in on themselves as they guard the bleeding wound of their missing flesh. Face wet with tears and eyes wide with fear as Mahito turns around to grin down at them, the blade used to scar Yuuji held tightly in his boss’s hand as he approaches the terrified figure. 

The mermaid screams and flails trying to jump off of the table but Mahito grabs them, pinning them by the throat as the serrated teeth of the blade glide back into the bleeding wound in the mermaid’s stomach. The mermaid’s claws dig into Mahito’s shoulders but all that earns them is a demented laugh from Yuuji’s boss. A hole deep enough to expose intestines to the light is ripped out, the meat wet with blood brought straight to Mahito’s mouth as his teeth sink in disturbingly loud. 

Yuuji’s mouth won't stop dripping blood that isn’t his own. The more he coughs and gags the more his tongue is coated in the metallic taste. Yuuji’s arms flex and all he’s met with is pain, finding his limbs torn off and missing. Horrific hopelessness rips at Yuuji’s heart as the mermaid’s screams only get louder the more Mahito carves their meat off their bones. 

Yuuji can’t tear his eyes away from the mermaid’s torture, more and more scraps of flesh and muscle torn from their body and thrown on the floor. Mojito stopped eating cleanly, instead his ever grinning mouth sinks its teeth directly into the mermaid and rips and tears hunks of their body off. 

The mermaid is left a weak, bloodied, and crying mess of exposed bones and organs. Mahito cleans the blade with a lick of his tongue before turning around to grin down at Yuuji. The blade traces along the scarred smile carved into Yuuji’s face, pressing against his lips until blood beads from the cut. When the blade retracts it’s quickly replaced by Mahito’s tongue licking up his lips before swiping between them. 

Yuuji tries to pull away from the kiss but can’t, Mahito’s hands hold his head still as he licks and sucks Yuuji’s mouth until the bleeding stops. Mahito lets out an ear splitting giggle as he stands and leaves, walking with a bounce in his step as he walks into the void. 

The only thing Yuuji can hear is his own heavy breathing and the mermaid’s quiet sobs, their voice gone from having screamed so much. Yuuji can see their lungs inflate and deflate with their quiet rapid breathing, green eyes as wide as they can manage staring up at Yuuji from where the mermaid lays on the floor. 

Their hand twitches before slowly reaching for Yuuji, hopeless desperation making their eyes water. When tears dilute the blood on the mermaid’s face, Yuuji finds the strength to shuffle towards their crumpled form. 

Yuuji allows his body to fall beside them, their blood pooling together. Their clawed hand slowly brushes against Yuuji’s jaw, cupping his mandible as they attempt to wheeze out something. As Yuuji’s eyes grow heavier, the mermaid grows louder and louder, “ ...ji… ooo-ji…yoo…. yooo-jiiii….”

…

Yuuji wakes up with the urge to vomit, immediately leaning over the edge of the mattress and dry heaving. Worried chirping is drowned out by the sounds of Yuuji’s gags as he tries to eject the nothing that is in his stomach, instead only making his throat hurt more with each heave. 

Tears pool in the corners of Yuuji’s eyes as he lets his head fall limp over the edge of the bed, body collapsing as the remnants of the dream still claw at his mind. The mermaid’s hand hesitantly places itself between Yuuji’s shoulder blades, clawed nails gently trailing up to play with the hair on the nape of his neck. Their hand rubs slowly up and down Yuuji’s upper back as he recovers. 

“Ooo-ji?”

Yuuji’s brows furrow at the unique whistles the mermaid nervously chirps. Their fingers pick at the collar of his sweaty shirt, playing with the fabric anxiously. Yuuji forces himself to sit up on his elbows, peering behind himself so he can glance at the mermaid from the corner of his eye. 

They blink, eyes barely illuminated by the glowing spots on their face as they chew on their bottom lip with worry. Quiet, humming whistles harmonize from their throat before their lips part once more, “ Yuuji? ”

Yuuji’s jaw hangs open for a long moment, staring at the mermaid wide eyed as they grow more and more nervous by the second. They worry their bottom lip with sharp teeth before muttering another, “ ... Yuuji? ”

Quiet giggles stumble out of Yuuji before he can stop himself, his name on the mermaid’s lips sounding so nice in the moments post nightmare. A tired smile forces its way onto his lips as he rolls over onto his back, looking up at the mermaid as they loom over him, “I guess I need to learn your name now, huh…”

They blink down at him, tilting their head slightly, “ Yuuuu-ji..? ”

A quiet breathy laugh is forced out of Yuuji at how adorable the mermaid is, he’s far too tired to process any of the less than straight thoughts he’s having right now. Yuuji cups his hand over the mermaid’s, rubbing his thumb over rough knuckles as he closes his strained eyes. The mermaid thrills, fingers curling around Yuuji’s as they lay down beside him. 

Yuuji rolls over on his side to face the mermaid, wordlessly hooking an arm around their waist and gently pulling them closer. Within a second they’re wrapped around him, tail tangled in between and around his legs, hands riding up his back, and chin tucking Yuuji’s head into their chest. 

Yuuji drifts between being awake and being asleep for the rest of the short night, the steady breathing and quiet purrs the mermaid rumbles grounding him. The mermaid’s warmth fighting off the nightmares of their death. 

Chapter Text

Yuuji hasn’t really slept for a few days now. Sure he’s taken an hour nap here or there, and during the night he’s able to fit in a couple more hours, but he hasn’t gotten a full night’s rest. Not since his last visit to his boss’s place. Though he’s not a stranger to bouts of insomnia, the nightmares that infest his mind ruin any restful sleep he has.

Though the nightmares are far worse than they have been in the past. They all focus around the mermaid and the plans his bosses have out for them. It bothers him, more than that, it scares him deeply. He’s scared for the mermaid and has been since he met them, but now his mind is confronted with that fear each and every time he dares to sleep long enough to dream. 

The bags under his eyes are worse, heavier and darker like a raccoon or Junpei when discovered makeup back in middle school. He hasn’t showered since the weekend and the grime built up over days of not showering is bordering on making Yuuji feel actually sick. Though deodorant and dry shampoo have been keeping Yuuji presentable, the moment he’s under a shower head again he swears to god he’s going to sob out of relief. 

Though lucky for Yuuji it’s friday, meaning tomorrow he can shower again for the first time in a week. His hair is so greasy he could probably light it on fire like some sort of torch, again if it weren’t for dry shampoo he’d look as greasy as Junpei did back in high school. 

But it wasn’t the weekend yet, so no shower for several more hours. Instead Yuuji occupies (more like distracts) himself with the task of cleaning between the mermaid’s scales. The mermaid laid across his lap, arms folded under their chin as they were completely focused on the nature documentary playing on Yuuji’s laptop. Their ass draped over Yuuji’s legs as he scrapes under the large scales with a toothpick and wiping the gunk off on a tissue. 

The mermaid’s scales were already very clean, each pass under a new scale comes back with only minimal gunk. Yuuji assumes most of what he’s cleaning is dust and freshly dead skin, but if he stops for even a second the mermaid is digging their hip into his stomach urging him to continue. 

The room is filled with the noise of the documentary, educating both the mermaid and Yuuji about animals that live on snowy mountains. The computer screen on the lowest brightness it could be on so it doesn't disturb the darkness of the room they rest in. Yuuji looks around the dusty, box filled room as a sadness aches his heart. It’s so empty, Yuuji realizes. Truthfully it’s only a bed frameless mattress and countless boxes filled with restaurant stuff that line the walls. 

He should call Nobara, she’s great with interior design stuff. And it’s been a while since he actually talked to her, she’s probably gonna chew his ass out for ghosting her. Again. Yuuji really has to pay more attention to his friends because this is the second time he’s put them on the back burner for the sake of the mermaid. 

Of course he'd do anything for the mermaid, but that doesn't mean he has to be a dick to his friends, too.

The mermaid grumbles, rolling over in Yuuji's lap and stretching until their back pops. Their pelvic fins flop open, and Yuuji's hands jolt upwards. Their back has scales but their front doesn't, and there's a slit that Yuuji's far too nervous to get anywhere near. He's pretty sure what it is, but he's been procrastinating asking Dr Shoko for confirmation.

Yuuji's hand gravitates lower down the mermaid's tail to where there actually are scales, but as soon as his fingers brush along the long, snake-like plates they flinch. The flinch made Yuuji's hand jolt upward again, frozen suspended in the air as the mermaid settles back into his lap.

One of the mermaid's pelvic fins slaps against Yuuji as an annoyed grumble rumbles out of their chest. When Yuuji doesn't respond the way they want him to, though admittedly Yuuji doesn't know what they want, their hand grips at one of Yuuji’s wrists and forces his hand down onto their abdomen. Yuuji yelps when his hand makes contact with rough black skin, cheeks burning.

The mermaid sits up with a confused and slightly offended expression, one eyebrow raised as they stare at Yuuji’s flushed face. They stare down at Yuuji’s hand for a few moments before actually registering exactly where Yuuji’s hand is. They gasp, a flurry of embarrassed chirps fall from their lips like water as their face flushes a red hue. They let go of Yuuji in favor of pushing Yuuji’s face away, making him fall back onto the bed as they roll back over.

Yuuji grunted as he fell, his hand cupping where the mermaid pushed at his jaw, “You put my hand there! It's not my fault you forgot about your own biology! ”

All that earned him was a hiss and the mermaid rolling over some more, but since they were already rolled over all that happened was them getting tangled in Yuuji's legs. He tried to free himself but the mermaid only pulled on him harder until leg was indistinguishable from tail. 

Green eyes blinked at him from behind a veil of dark eyelashes, chin resting in folded arms on the other side of the bed. 

Yuuji grumbled, sitting up on his elbows as he glared at the undisturbed expression the mermaid wore, “It's not my fault you're naked all the time…”

As Yuuji predicted, all he got in response was another blink. His annoyance wasn't even worth a chirp. Yuuji tried to tug his legs free, but doing that earned him a grumble, so he just sighs and tugs his elbows out from under him so he falls flat onto his back. 

He is exhausted. The lack of sleep is really catching up to him, but he can't risk dreaming. Not when the only thing that his brain seems to come up with is various ways of the mermaid's death. 

The mermaid chirps quietly as they crawl up the bed, over Yuuji and laying down beside him. Tail loosely tangled in his legs as they settle with a sigh. 

Yuuji's muscles relax, heavy eyes falling close as the mermaid's claws fiddle with the fabric clothing Yuuji's stomach. His voice barely a mumble, “You're awfully cuddly for someone who almost scratched my eye out…”

The mermaid grunts as they stretch, draping an arm over Yuuji’s torso and resting their head on his chest. They blink lazily as they resume watching the documentary, the laptop pushed back and nearly falling off the bed due to being tossed around when the mermaid tied themself into knots around Yuuji’s legs. 

Yuuji can feel his eyes unfocus as he stares up at the ceiling, the mix of the documentary providing white noise and the mermaid providing the addicting feeling of body heat lulling him dangerously close to falling asleep. 

Yuuji rolls over and pulls his phone free from its charger, the mermaid complaining at his movement and glaring at him when Yuuji settles back down. He gnaws at his bottom lip, thumb hovering over the call button as he stares at Nobara’s contact. He closes his eyes and hits call, bringing the phone to his ear as he hears it ring over and over again. 

After a painfully long few seconds, Nobara picks up. He can tell even when neither of them speak that she’s pissed, he can feel her glare from beyond the phone, “... Ghosting me again, huh? Somethin’ serious must’ve happened for you to do this again. ”

Yuuji’s mouth hangs open, trying and failing to find words that can explain the trust without actually telling the truth. The mermaid sits up so they can look down at Yuuji. They make eye contact, everyone silent for a long moment before Yuuji finally answers her, “I… There’s a mermaid…”

The line falls silent. Yuuji can hear Nobara breath, but the longer she doesn’t respond the more his heart contorts with anxiety. Finally, after what feels like an eternity, Nobara mutters, “ Oh my god, I thought Junpei was just really fucking high… ”

And then she yells, “ What the fuck do you mean mermaids actually fuckin’ exist! I’m comin’ over, I hope you know that! ”

Yuuji can hear rustling over the phone, and he sits up with his words coming out in rapid fire, “Wait! There’s a reason why I called, but it’s gonna have you meeting the mermaid if that helps?”

“ Speak then cuz I’m comin’ over, like, right now ,” Nobara responds.

Yuuji sits up and runs a hand through his hair as he searches for his words, “Okay, uh, so the mermaid and I have been sleeping in a closet at the restaurant because they’re scared of cars but they also don’t want to be alone. But like, dude, this closet sucks ass and I was hoping that you could help me decorate it?”

A brief moment of silence befalls the line before Nobara responds, “ Sure, I’d love to help y’all, but you’ve been sleeping at the restaurant? ”

A small, nervous chuckle is forced out of Yuuji. “Uh, yeah. I just thought it made everything easier.”

“ Weird… ” Nobara mutters before the movement on the other end of the phone continues, “ I’ll bring some catalogs that the mermaid can look through, you have no say in the decor since you have an apartment of your own. ”

“Okay,” Yuuji sighs, a part of him expecting that sort of comment from his friend. A small smile tugs at the corners of his lips, “Thank you so much, Nobara.”

“ Yeah, yeah, whatever loser, ” Yuuji can hear her smile.

“Just knock real loud on the restaurant’s door and I’ll let you in, can’t wait to see you again, dude,” Yuuji speaks with a weight taken off his shoulders. Even though their conversation was short, talking to Nobara made him feel so much lighter. He hopes she and the mermaid get along well since they’re both important to him.

“ I’ll text you, how ‘bout that? ” It wasn’t a suggestion, she was just stating what she’s going to do instead, “ Anyway, gotta find a few things, text ya later. ”

And then she hung up, a smile still on Yuuji’s lips. A chirp brings Yuuji’s attention to the mermaid beside him. Their tail is curled up so they can rest their head on it, their arms hugging their tail to their chest like someone would hug their knees. 

Yuuji looks down at his phone, Nobara’s contact still filling his screen, “I was talking to a close friend of mine, and you’re gonna meet her today I think.”

The mermaid blinks as he continues, “She’s super kind even though she’s kinda rude. She’s rude lovingly, though, you’ll know when she’s actually trying to be mean.”

Yuuji smiles over at the mermaid, locking brown eyes with green ones, “I’ll make sure your first meeting with her is a comfortable one. While I have faith in her, you’re a bit skittish and I don’t want to overwhelm you.”

The mermaid cocks their head into their tail slightly, giving Yuuji a lazy blink in response. A yawn escapes Yuuji, making his eyes water as he tries to hide it behind his hand. The mermaid perks up, a trill singing out of them as they plant a hand firmly in the middle of Yuuji’s chest and pushes him back down onto the bed. Before Yuuji even processed what happened, their hands covered his eyes.

“Wha-? Dude,” Yuuji tries, but a grumble from the mermaid cuts him off.

Chirps and clicks follow, a very distinctive “ Yuu-ji, ” jutting in the middle of their otherwise completely foreign sentence.

“Okay,” Yuuji breathed out. The mermaid’s hands don't seem to be moving from his eyes anytime soon. His brows furrowed as he tried to figure out what the mermaid said as another hopeless breath leaves him, “What?”

They click in another annoyed tone, both of their bickering not being effective in any sense of the word due to neither one understanding the other. Their hands remained folded over his eyes, they’re settled in a way that tells Yuuji that they don’t plan on moving anytime soon. A softer sigh escapes Yuuji, “Do you want me to go to bed?”

Silence is all he's answered with, but Yuuji probably thinks that's what the mermaid wants from him

“Well too bad, I'm not tired enough to sleep,” Yuuji yawned. Instead he blindly poked a finger into the mermaid's chest, forcing out a grumpy chirp from them, “You know my name, but I don't know yours.”

Yuuji's hand flopped back to point at himself, “Yuuji,” then it poked back into the mermaid.

A hint of confusion lingered in the air before the mermaid sang something in response that went in one ear and out the other. Yuuji gave a nervous chuckle, “Mmm-Something? I didn't catch all of that.”

They spoke again, much slower, “ M–gmi .”

“Huh?”

A huff, more so a grunt actually, “ Meg-u-mi .”

“Meg-mi?” Yuuji can't help but think back to the time he was forced to learn English when he was still enrolled in school. He hasn’t retained anything besides the humiliation of not being able to pronounce the foreign sounds and syllables.

“ Meg- ,” the mermaid starts then pauses.

“Meg-,” Yuuji parrots.

“ -u- ,” they continue.

“-u-,” Yuuji continues.

“ -mi ,’ they finish.

“-mi,” Yuuji finishes.

“ Megumi ,” they say in full one more time.

“Megumi,” the name now rolls easily off Yuuji’s tongue. Well, as easily as a name from a foreign language can roll off his tongue.

A satisfied hum purred out of the mermaid, a comfortable silence filling the room afterwards.

“Megumi?” Yuuji started then waiting until the mermaid chirped in acknowledgement, “Can you take your hands off my eyes now?”

Yuuji hooked a finger under their palms to pry them off, but as soon as the mermaid caught on they snapped angrily and resisted Yuuji’s attempts to free himself. Giggles erupted out of Yuuji as he and the mermaid – as he and Megumi – wrestled.

Yuuji hooked a knee on the other side of Megumi's waist and flipped their positions, so now Megumi was the one laying on their back. A sound of surprise choked out of them but a second later their tail coiled tightly around Yuuji's lower body and pulled him down.

Yuuji's hands gripped the sheets on either side of Megumi's head as he pulled himself up. The mermaid yelped as Yuuji dragged their tail with his legs, curving his spine back and standing on his hands with a grunt. Claws dig into his shoulders as Megumi stares wide eyed at Yuuji’s display of elementary gymnastics. 

A chuckle fell out of Yuuji at Megumi’s face, slightly choking him from the upside-down position. The claws in his shoulders and the uneven ground of the mattress made Yuuji’s arms give out. He made sure to fall in a way that made him roll off the bed, avoiding crushing the mermaid while accidentally dragging them off the bed with him. 

Megumi yelped as Yuuji fell and dragged them with him, grumbling when they ended up on the floor. Megumi’s hands planted themselves on either side of Yuuji’s head as they glared down at him, and something within him suddenly awoke. His face flushed and his breath caught in his throat, staring up at green eyes framed by bioluminescent spots on their cheeks. Yuuji’s heart pounded and his blood rushed as he internally beat himself over Nobara being right.

He’s probably bisexual.

Yuuji groaned in annoyance, knowing that the moment he tells Nobara she’d laugh in his face and tell him ‘I told you so’ . He really doesn’t want to deal with entertaining her pride for even a second, especially not so soon after he just realized. For all he knows he could still be straight, it’s just possible that Megumi and only Megumi is his exception.

It’s not gay to have an exception, right?

Yuuji is jolted out of his possibly gay thoughts when the mermaid accidentally grinds painfully against his legs as they try to untangle themself from his legs. His totally manly yell of pain made Megumi jump, and they would’ve cut deeper into Yuuji’s junk if it weren’t for his instinct to grab the mermaid and hold their writhing tail still. 

Yuuji curls in on himself, and also the mermaid, as he tries to force out the pain churning in his lower gut. Megumi growls something in their language Yuuji is too zoned out to even begin trying to decipher. When Yuuji doesn’t move, their voice softens. Gentler and slightly more concerned clicks sing into Yuuji’s ear, clawed hands gently pushing at Yuuji’s shoulders so Megumi can look at Yuuji’s face. 

Yuuji let go of the breath he was holding and stood up, picking up Megumi much to their surprise. After a moment of allowing Megumi to finally untangle their tail completely, Yuuji carefully rolled them back onto the bed before standing up straight with a groan.

It’s been a long while since he got his balls kicked, and it’s just as unpleasant as he remembers. It wasn’t really a kick , but everything below Megumi’s waist is essentially a hyper-flexible limb made of pure, ripped muscle. He’s just glad the razor fin on their back didn’t give him a vasectomy. 

Yuuji sighed with a soft chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck as the sharp ache in his gut finally started to subside, “Ouch.”

Megumi’s eyebrows were knitted in concern, lips pursed slightly as green eyes scanned up and down Yuuji. They opened their mouth to speak but before any noise could come out Yuuji’s phone lit up with a text message. Megumi yelped and darted towards Yuuji, pooling on the floor in front of him as they glared over at Yuuji’s phone from where it rests on the bed. 

They glared when Yuuji chuckled at them being startled, stepping over their tail to check his phone. He was met with a simple text from Nobara:

‘Open the door.’

Yuuji tsked as he shoved his phone into his pocket, “No need to add the period, girl…”

He wandered out of the bedroom soon after, glancing behind himself when he reaches the doorway to flash Megumi a smile before rounding the corner. As he walks down the hall, he can hear the soft sound of scales scraping against the floor as he’s curiously followed. 

Megumi peers into the dining room from the small window in the kitchen then quickly ducks under Yuuji’s workstation as soon as they see the shadowed figure standing beyond the glass front doors. Their eyes dart to Yuuji, and when he smiles their frame relaxes slightly. They still get comfortable on the floor while Yuuji walks out of the kitchen and towards the front door.

As soon as Yuuji opens the door, Nobara shoves her way inside and speaks, “Where's the mermaid?”

Yuuji glares at the back of her head as he locks the door, clicking his tongue in disapproval, “Chill, girl. They're nervous around people.”

“But not nervous around you?” Nobara snickers, shrugging off the bag slung over her shoulder and handing them over to Yuuji, “Carry, it's heavy."

A quiet “thanks” is whispered from Nobara when Yuuji takes the bags, “Nah, nervous around me, too. It's why I went to the ER last week.”

Her eyes narrow on the scar cutting down his forehead, nose scrunching slightly, “Ugh, you're Mr. One-and-a-half eyebrows now, huh.”

Yuuji straightens with mock offence, his voice flat, “Girl I will kick you out.”

She just smirks and rolls her eyes, “Whatever, now where is she?”

“She?” Yuuji narrows his eyes.

“The mermaid?” Nobara sighs, shaking her head like what she said was obvious.

Yuuji snickers as he starts to make his way slowly to the kitchen, “What makes you assume the mermaid is a ‘she’?”

“Am I wrong?” Nobara asks as she follows.

“I’m pretty sure you are,” Yuuji pauses as he stands in front of the kitchen door, “I am serious about you being careful. I care about both you and the mermaid, so I don’t want either of you to scare the other.”

Nobara rests a hand on Yuuji’s shoulder and squeezes lightly, she nudges the side of her head against his arm affectionately, “I’ll be careful, dude, I promise. Now let me meet them. Meeting a mermaid has been a dream since I was a little girl.”

A small smile painted Yuuji’s face before he pushed open the heavy kitchen door, holding it open for Nobara to quickly slip inside. A gasp left Nobara when she spotted Megumi, who moved from hiding under Yuuji’s workstation to be hiding behind the corner leading down the hallway. Megumi quietly hissed in response which didn’t surprise Yuuji at all, but Nobara took a step back and looked at Yuuji, “He hissed?”

“ They do that all the time, they’re just nervous,” Yuuji clarified, letting the kitchen door screech close and made his way towards Megumi. He smiled at the mermaid, narrow green eyes glared back at him. 

Yuuji took a breath before gesturing towards Nobara, “This is Nobara, she’s one of my closest friends. She won’t hurt you since she’s here to help.”

Yuuji then turned to Nobara and gestured towards the mermaid, “And their name is Megumi.”

The mermaid quietly growled when they were introduced, eyes narrowed on Nobara but otherwise not moving away. Yuuji hopes it’s a good sign that Megumi isn’t trying to run away from her. He nervously adjusted the bag slung over his shoulder before he rubbed the back of his neck, “She’s, um, she’s here to make our room more habitable. Make it look prettier and not so dusty.”

“Does he speak Japanese?” Nobara speaks up.

“No, I don’t think so,” Yuuji answers. Megumi glares up at him unmoving, though they do blink once which Yuuji is taking as a good sign.

After a far too long moment of no one moving, Yuuji bit the bullet and walked down the hall towards the bedroom. Megumi slithered closely behind him, and Nobara followed the pair soon after. 

Yuuji stood just inside the room right beside the doorway, eyes closed and chewing on his inner cheek as he awaited Nobara’s scolding over his and Megumi’s living situation. The mermaid darted towards a dark corner, squeezing themself in between some boxes and eyeing the door. 

“Oh my god,” Nobara whispers. She stands in the doorway looking around at the stuffy, dusty room. Her nose scrunches in disgust when she eyes the mattress on the floor before she turns to Yuuji, “How long have y’all been living like this?”

“Like two weeks.”

“Like two weeks…” she quietly repeats. She sighs heavily and pinches the bridge of her nose, “okay, well, if you can bring Mer-gu-mi over here so we all can decorate that’d be great.”

“Megumi,” Yuuji corrects as he tosses the bag onto the bed. Megumi looks between Yuuji and Nobara, relaxing slightly the longer she’s around but still very clearly on edge. Yuuji sits down on the edge of the mattress, ignoring the snickering look Nobara gives him out of the corner of his eye and beckoning Megumi to come closer. 

Green eyes flicker between Yuuji and Nobara as they do eventually start to slither closer, using Yuuji like a human shield to hide away from the woman standing in the doorway still. Said woman slowly inches closer to the far end of the bed, hugging her arms close to herself under the mermaid’s sharp gaze. 

Yuuji turns his attention to Nobara’s bag that’s sitting in the middle of a nest of blankets, “What did you bring anyway?”

Nobara carefully takes a seat on the furthest edge of the bed as possible, smoothing out the fabric of her pants, "Catalogues that have nice ocean themed products and my notebook and pencils. Very bare bones stuff in terms of helping flesh this room out, but I’m also doing this for free so you can’t throw a fit.”

She leans over and pulls out thick looking books and spreads them out. There’s several tabs poking out from the pages, different colors most likely meaning different things. She opens the books to a pink tab revealing several nice and sailor themed bedframes. A header on one of the pages claims to be “Nautical,” whatever the hell that word means but upon closer look Yuuji can see that word speckled throughout all the books. 

“I bookmarked a bunch of shit I thought you’d need, and I’m glad I looked through a bunch of bedframes because you can not continue to sleep on the floor. You’re not in college and you’re not Junpei, you can get a bedframe like an adult,” Nobara snarks. She pushes the open books towards Megumi, who shrinks back an inch and looks at the books with an overwhelmed expression painting their face, “But whichever ones you like, I’ll get!”

Megumi just blinked in response, though Yuuji expected that. He can only imagine what’s going through the mermaid’s head right now after being handed tomes full of foreign pictures and words by an overly excited stranger. Yuuji just hopes his presence is enough to signify that Nobara means absolutely no harm.

“Oi, fish man,” Nobara smacks Yuuji’s chest to get his attention, “could ya move the boxes somewhere else? They take up too much space, and frankly look ugly as hell.”

“Why am I fish man? Megumi is literally the fish person among us right now,” Yuuji asks, completely ignoring the request– more like demand since it’s coming from Nobara– given to him.

“Cuz you smell like fish,” she says like it’s the most obvious fact in the world.

“Yeah, but they are a fish, or at least look like one,” Yuuji exclaims. 

“Yeah, but you smell like fish. No amount of showering can get that stench off ya,” Nobara rolls her eyes, “You’re lucky I still let you into my apartment since I can smell you for days afterwards.”

Megumi thankfully doesn’t seem too alarmed by their bickering, more so just watching with curiosity. Their shoulders and overall body language relax the longer Yuuji and Nobara converse between each other. Yuuji eventually scoffs and stands up off the bed, picking up a stack of dusty boxes and beginning to pile them out in the hallway. He knows there isn’t enough room in the hallway alone to fit all the boxes, at least without stacking them to the heavens, so he silently resigns to having his kitchen filled with even more crap. 

If it makes Megumi have a more comfortable stay, then it can’t be that bad, Yuuji reasons with himself. 

When Yuuji enters the bedroom again to pick up another stack of boxes, Megumi’s head immediately snaps to him. Eyes wider than usual with curiosity but pupils still narrowed, still clearly on guard despite entertaining Nobara and her catalogs. Nobara sits cross legged on the bed, sketchbook in her lap and doodling almost frantically on the open page. She flips to new sets of bookmarks that Yuuji is too far away to see and taps the end of her pencil against the pages. Megumi, after a moment, points to whatever they like the most, or hopefully whatever they like the most since there’s always a possibility there’s a translation error somewhere. 

Megumi glances over to Yuuji as he paces over to another stack of boxes, and Yuuji quickly smiles before lifting another stack out of the room. He heaves as he drops the stack, brows furrowing at how confusingly heavy the boxes were. Words drift out with a pant, “Are these fucking filled with rocks or something? Why are you so heavy?”

Whenever he paces back into the room, the pair on the bed are flipped to different pages. Megumi looks more and more relaxed every time Yuuji returns, green eyes still flickering to him but each time their eyes meet they look less and less narrow. 

Yuuji smiles every time they lock eyes, and by the time Yuuji is picking up the last stacks of boxes Megumi offers a small smile back. Yuuji pauses for a second when he sees the corner of their lips raise, and quickly leaves the room so neither Megumi nor Nobara can see Yuuji’s face flush red. 

Yuuji didn’t know the mermaid could get any prettier, but that smile. That smile was probably the most beautiful thing Yuuji has seen in his entire life, and both of his closest friends are artists! They make pretty shit, but nothing can compare to that smile. 

Yuuji doesn’t know how long he was standing aimlessly in his kitchen, face flushed and once again wondering if it’s gay to be attracted to the mermaid. He snaps out of his thoughts when Nobara hollers his name from the bedroom, smacking her sketchbook against the doorframe to make even more noise, “Yuuji! You can come back now, we’re done!”

When Yuuji returns to the bedroom, Nobara is standing waiting for him and Megumi is lounging on the bed casually flipping through one of the catalogs. She flips her book around to show Yuuji a sketch of what he assumes is the floorplan of the bedroom, looking far less like a storage room and more like an actual livable, though extremely small, studio. 

“I’ll order these for cheap, he picked out really nice lookin’ stuff,” Nobara smiles. She seems proud of herself, practically beaming with positivity. She closes her sketchbook and hugs it to her chest, “I can’t believe I met an actual mermaid! And he has good taste in aesthetics! This is like the best day ever!”

She nudges her head into Yuuji’s front, bouncing on her toes with excitement. Though she’ll never say it, Yuuji knows she’s saying ‘thank you so much’ whenever she’s affectionate like this. So he loops an arm around her shoulders and gives her one tight squeeze before letting her go, “I’m glad you two seemed to get along. I was actually really worried about it.”

“I know you were, but me and however you pronounce his name will hang out some more,” she jabbed a finger into Yuuji’s chest as she glared at him, “You will not ghost me again. I’ll swing by at least once a week from now on, and you have to let me in.”

Her face grows sad behind the facade of anger she wears as she continues, “I can’t let you isolate yourself again. You literally will wither away without someone telling you to take care of yourself, and Junpei has already proven he’s not up for the job…”

A pang of guilt stabs through Yuuji’s chest at the event she’s referring to. Bad memories from when he dropped out of culinary school due to financial and job related stress. Junpei didn’t help in the way Nobara wanted him to, but Yuuji knew his friend was trying his best. 

Yuuji places a hand over the one poking his chest, offering his friend a soft smile, “Thanks, Nobara. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

For a brief moment Nobara’s face softens, a faint flattered blush coloring her cheeks at Yuuji’s sincerity before hardening again with playful confidence, “You’d probably be dead in a ditch somewhere.”

Yuuji chuckled and made his way over to where Megumi was lounging, their upper half of their body resting on the mattress while their tail slowly sways side to side on the floor. The spines running down their back relaxed flat against their body as they carefully inspect each new page they flip to. 

“It’s getting late and I wanna sleep in my own bed with my own bedframe,” Nobara announces. She struts over to the bed and packs her bag again, “I’ll visit again soon after hours with at least some furniture with me. Your table and bedframe at the very least since they’re the bare minimum y’all need for this room.”

Megumi reluctantly hands back the catalog to Nobara, which she quickly stuffs into her bag. She bumps Yuuji’s side with her shoulder as she sings out a quick, “Bye, bye!” turning but stopping just before she turns the corner out of the room, “Oh! And Yuuji? Take a shower, please, you’re greasy to hell and back.”

Before he could even make a face at her, she dips out of sight. Her footsteps become quieter and quieter before the screeching of the kitchen door fills the air. Yuuji sighs and turns to Megumi, whose head tilts in confusion. He rubs the back of his neck as he stares down at the mermaid, chewing on his tongue before speaking, “You’re gonna have to go in the car tomorrow, dude…”

Chapter Text

Megumi looks like they’re gonna be sick. Sitting in the passenger seat of Yuuji’s truck, clutching to noise canceling headphones like their life depends on it. Yuuji feels like shit putting Megumi in the car again, but he also smells like shit so the mermaid will just have to suck it up for a little bit longer. Maybe if they weren’t so clingy they wouldn’t have to go through this, but Yuuji knows at this point he’s equally as clingy. 

Yuuji doesn’t really have the energy to figure out why he’s so clingy to the mermaid, he just knows he is. It’s a desire that comes from deep in his chest, the thought of leaving the mermaid’s side makes his heart feel like it’s being squeezed to death. It’s probably just dread, but it’s still an awful feeling.

The sky is darker than the night sky normally is, flashes of light illuminate dark clouds every few minutes. The rain hasn’t yet gotten to them yet, but it will be soon. 

Yuuji’s focus on the road drifts away from street lights and stormy clouds every so often. His eyes flicker towards the mermaid every time they squirm in discomfort or they hit a bump on the road. The streets are empty as he speeds ever so slightly, turning into the parking garage under his building and parking his car as fast as possible. 

Megumi sighs with relief when the car goes quiet, grasping at the car door handle until it swings open. The mermaid rolls out of the car, long tail tumbling out after them until they’re a writhing mess on the dusty garage floor.

Yuuji rushes over to where Megumi complains on the floor, a mix of worry and amusement fogging up his already foggy mind. A distant boom of thunder echoes in the distance as Yuuji slings a bag of dirty clothes over his shoulder before he kneels down beside the mermaid, hands scooping under black scales despite the webbed hand that lightly smacks at his face. 

“Okay, okay yeah you can smack me, dude,” Yuuji mumbles as he picks Megumi up, mermaid curses falling from the other’s lips as soft pats and pinches land all over Yuuji’s face. The only hit that remotely hurts is when Megumi hits the top of Yuuji’s head with the heel of their palm, causing the human to flinch before resuming his trek to his apartment. 

Megumi clings to Yuuji even tighter when they enter the elevator, sharp claws digging into the fabric of his clothes as strong muscle constricts almost painfully tight around him. The mermaid’s cheek pressed against Yuuji’s temple, and their arms wrapped around his neck so tight that if he didn’t know any better he’d be sure they’re trying to strangle him. 

They hold their breath when the elevator jolts to a stop, waiting unblinking until the doors open and Yuuji stumbles out the best he could with them wrapped around his legs. Only when the elevator doors behind them close does Megumi take a shuttering breath, eyes wide and locked on the metal doors as Yuuji walks down the hall with keys in hand. 

Yuuji stumbles inside more dramatically than he did when he exited the elevator, kicking his door closed behind him as he makes his way towards the couch. He grabs Megumi’s hips and prys them away from himself, groaning as he tries to set the mermaid down on the furniture, “Ya’know? I’m starting to believe the doctor when she said you were like four-hundred pounds.”

Megumi glared at him even though they clearly didn’t understand a word Yuuji said, but instead looking offended that they were pulled off Yuuji in the first place. They grumble under their breath as they readjust their tail to be more comfortable, sitting up on their elbows as their folded up caudal fin swats at Yuuji’s ankles. 

A soft pitter patter of rain taps against the balcony door, and in combination with the dark night and even darker clouds makes Yuuji yawn like he’s never going to yawn again. His jaw pops loudly and he stops in his tracks until it’s over. Rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms he continues his small trek to the kitchen, bag of clothes dropped beside the couch as he blindly opening the fridge and fishing out the first thing his hands can grab that feels edible. 

It’s leftovers, almost definitely Junpei’s leftovers since Yuuji hasn’t been at the apartment long enough to stock the fridge. Yuuji almost feels bad for taking his friend’s food, but fatigue and the vague memories of Junpei doing the exact same thing to him fuel him enough to toss whatever is in his hands into the microwave. 

Shuffling from the couch warns Yuuji that Megumi is approaching even before the soft scraping of scales against wooden floors can reach his ears, the sound of slithering almost completely drowned out by the hum of the microwave. Yuuji stares dead-eyed at the illuminated rotation of what he now realizes is some sort of sandwich, stepping ever so lightly to the side when the mermaid slithers up behind him. Even though Yuuji can only see them out of his peripheral, he can tell that the mermaid is much more fascinated with the process of warming up food than Yuuji is. 

A small smile spreads across Yuuji’s face at the realization, only for that smile to disappear when the microwave beeps. Megumi jumps, sinking back behind Yuuji with a mute hiss as he pops open the door and retrieves his food. 

Even though the leftovers are half of a sandwich Junpei got, Yuuji still pulls out a knife from the block and divides the sandwich in half again. Yuuji takes his half and slides the plate over to Megumi, washing off the knife one-handed while he devours his portion. It’s not much, but it’ll be enough to fuel Yuuji to shower and drive back to the restaurant. 

He can feel Megumi’s eyes on him as he cleans up, burning into the side of his head before finally turning away to look down at their own portion. They peel bread away from meat, meat away from veggie, spreading out all individual ingredients around the plate and studying them for a short moment. 

They scrunch their nose before tearing off a hunk of the bun and placing it on their tongue, studying the taste before apparently deeming it good enough to swallow. They do the same routine for every ingredient, taste testing a small bit of everything before slowly stacking things back on top of each other.

Yuuji’s brows raise in mild surprise, he would’ve assumed they’d continue to eat everything dissected but no. They stack everything in almost perfect order as before, pressing down on the top bun to make sure everything is stable before slowly picking the whole thing up. 

Green eyes flicker towards Yuuji before they continue, and as if it’s instinct Yuuji gives them a smile. Megumi huffs out a small sigh before lifting the sandwich to their mouth, sharp teeth puncturing through the leftovers like a knife through butter. 

Yuuji doesn’t know what he’s feeling as he watches Megumi eat. Is he proud? Why would he be, he isn’t the chef who made the food they’re eating. Or maybe he’s honored that the mermaid is eating food the way he does it, that they’re comfortable or curious enough to try something different for them. 

He isn’t sure what the feeling is or why he’s feeling it, he just knows it’s a positive feeling that he wishes to experience over and over again. 

After Megumi is done eating Yuuji lets out a soft sigh as he stands up straight, apparently as he was staring off at Megumi he ended up folded over the counter top. Yuuji tossed their trash as he slowly paced out of the kitchen area, eyes drifting over to the rain steadily pouring outside. 

Megumi followed close behind like they always do, eyes wide as they also stared outside. Yuuji looked over at the mermaid, watching them silently as they slowly inched closer and closer to the balcony door. 

Yuuji hummed, a small smile on his face, “Have you ever seen rain before?”

Megumi turns around to blink at him. Their lips part in wonder before they give Yuuji a quick head tilt of confusion. Yuuji shoves his hands in his pockets as he steps up close to the glass door, “That’s probably a question for the doctor and not you, huh? But from the look on your face I bet you don’t see rain often.”

Megumi stares at Yuuji for a moment before turning back to look outside. Yuuji takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, smile growing wider as he listens to the rain drops tap against the glass, “I always want to fall asleep when I listen to the rain. I partly blame my gramps for that, whenever the day wasn’t perfect he’d take naps so long he’d basically sleep the whole day away.”

He rubs the back of his neck as he peers out at the view of the city his apartment has, “When I was small I always wanted to play in the rain, but he’d have my ass if I did. He would always claim it was because he didn’t want me to track mud into the house, but I think it was because he didn’t want me to get sick.”

He looks down at the door handle, feeling ever so slightly grim as memories of his grandfather rise back to the surface, “I stopped going out in the rain when I was small, too. I took up his napping habit instead.”

Megumi leans over to get into Yuuji’s line of sight, tilting their head and glaring in concern, “Yuu-ji…”

Yuuji smiles at them, and he’s sure his cheeks heat up slightly when he hears them call his name. Does he also have a thing for accents? Why does Megumi keep on making Yuuji learn new things about himself?

Their voice is soft as they speak words Yuuji doesn’t understand yet. They look at him with concern though, so Yuuji just assumes what they’re saying, “I’m not sad, Megumi, just remembering someone I lost. My gramps has been gone for years, but I guess it’s still instinct for me to get worked up over it.”

They hum, possibly not fully convinced over whatever they’re concerned about. So Yuuji forces himself to smile, “Gramps would also have my ass if he caught me being sad over his death, he’s just that kinda guy.”

Yuuji’s fingers hook into the handle for the balcony door, his grin becoming easier to maintain as he continues, “And I’m also a whole ass adult, if I get sick or track dirt into the house then it’s my fault that I gotta fix. If you’ve never experienced rain, then whatever cleanup I gotta do seems worth it!”

When Yuuji pushes open the door, Megumi lets out a soft surprised, ”Oh!” They watch Yuuji wide eyed as he steps out onto the balcony, his clothes almost instantly getting drenched under the rainfall. He leans over the railing and looks down at the street below, water already dripping into his eyes. 

Megumi cautiously follows behind Yuuji, sticking a hand out to catch the rain before slithering all the way out onto the balcony. They look up at the sky, or the best they could since Yuuji doesn't live on the top floor. Despite his upstairs neighbors blocking out most of the sky, Megumi still slithers over to the railing with Yuuji and looks up at the stormy clouds. 

When a rain drop lands directly into their eye they cower down though, clutching their eye with clawed hands has Yuuji laughs quietly. 

A green eye glares at him which only makes Yuuji laugh harder, clutching the railing as he tries to not double over. Megumi swats at Yuuji’s bicep with the back of their hand, growling what’s probably insults or curses at him as they rub their eye. 

Yuuji runs a hand through his hair and looks over at the mermaid still grinning like an idiot, “Aren’t you supposed to be used to having water in your eyes?”

Megumi just scowls at him, baring sharp teeth before turning away to look at the street below. 

Yuuji calms down soon after, peering down alongside Megumi at the few cars and street lights below them. Green eyes flicker over to Yuuji, scanning his profile while he looks down. Green eyes trace over the short stubble on his chin, scanning down his neck to focus on how his drenched shirt hugs his frame. That same drenched shirt that wraps around his biceps, the short sleeves ending to reveal tan, rain soaked skin. That tan skin that leads down to strong hands that clutch at the railing. 

Green eyes narrow as they think, their own clawed hand on the railing slowly inching towards Yuuji’s. Slowly, when their hands are only a few centimeters apart, does one clawed pinky stretch out towards Yuuji’s hand. 

Megumi turns away, looking down at the street as his finger makes contact with Yuuji. Gently, so gently, laying their pinky on top of the other’s. They let out a mute, nervous exhale as they wait. They wait for any sign of rejection to come from Yuuji, but when nothing comes they move to hook their pinky around Yuuji’s.

Yuuji’s pinky curls around Megumi’s, too. He rests his chin in his free hand, cheeks burning despite how cold the rain is. Yuuji hasn’t held hands with someone in so long, and even though they’re just holding pinkies it makes Yuuji’s heart yearn. Yearn for affection he’s been starved of for years, so starved he didn’t even know he was missing it. 

God Yuuji’s pathetic. He’s holding pinkies with a fish man and he’s suddenly reminded of how touch starved he is.

It’s silly to think that the pair have been sharing the same bed for weeks now, but the small intimate action of holding pinkies makes Yuuji blush like he’s back in highschool again.

But Megumi smiles. A small one, one that Yuuji doesn’t look over to see. A smile ever so slightly lopsided due to the scar that cuts through their upper lip. The bioluminescent spots on their cheeks glowing slightly brighter as blood rushes to their cheeks. 

They stand out there on the balcony for a long while. Through thunder and shivers until Yuuji is cold to his bones. He resists the urge to have his teeth chatter as he looks behind himself back into the apartment, the soft warm glow of the few lights that are turned on enticing Yuuji to go back inside.

So Yuuji steps back, letting go of the railing and taking Megumi’s hand with him. Their smallest fingers still attached as Yuuji flashes the mermaid a toothy smile, playfully tugging their arm as he tries to hide how cold he currently is. 

Megumi stares back with an emotionless face, but allows themself to be tugged back inside anyway. The both of them track water into the apartment, Yuuji’s watery footsteps paired with the long lithe puddle that Megumi leaves in their wake. So Yuuji rushes the both of them into the bathroom, scooping Megumi up in his arms and gently placing them into the basin of the shower. 

This means their hands finally part though, and when Yuuji turns around to throw towels on the puddles all over the floor Megumi looks down at their hand. The finger hooked around Yuuji’s the focus of their attention. They stare at the void black skin and scales that adorn their hand, ever so slightly iridescent in the artificial light of the bathroom. 

Their cheeks burn. Bioluminescence glowing bright before they press their lips into a thin line, closing their eyes and dropping their hand into their lap. 

Megumi sits coiled in the shower, eyes closed as they listen to the sounds of Yuuji rushing around in other parts of the apartment. Their blush slowly fades the longer they sit still, their bright glow dulling back to its normal luminosity. 

When they open their eyes again Yuuji stumbles back into the bathroom, nervous sweat hidden among the rain drops that soak his face. He flashes a smile before peeling off his drenched clothes including his boxers, instead wrapping a towel around his waist and gestures for Megumi to take off the hoodie they were still wearing. 

As Megumi pulls the fabric over their head, Yuuji mumbles, “You’ve been wearing that thing for days. You’re lucky the smell of fish drowns everything else out, though, cause if you sweat then that thing must smell bad.”

The man darts out of the bathroom once more once he’s gathered all the wet clothes, the sounds of the dryer opening and closing echoing throughout the apartment. As the machines beep to life another door opens, soft sounds of another’s footsteps grow louder from down the hall. 

As Junpei passes he glances inside the bathroom, his face morphing into an unreadable expression when his eyes meet the mermaid’s. Megumi’s lips curl into a small snarl when Junpei walks out of sight.

“The mermaid’s back again?” Junpei asks Yuuji.

“Of course? I need to shower bro,” Yuuji teases as he sets the empty bags of clothes on top of the washer, “I can’t just leave them at the restaurant.”

“Why not?”

Yuuji makes a face before answering, “Because they’d freak out if I did. I don’t wanna stress them out, this whole situation is stressful enough.”

Junpei narrows his eyes at Yuuji, quiet for a moment before speaking up, “Why should it matter if they’re stressed? Does it affect the taste of the meat or something?”

“What meat?” Yuuji’s voice almost cuts out as he speaks, heart beating fast as he hopes and prays his friend didn’t just insinuate what he thinks he did.

“Ya’know, the mermaid meat.”

Oh fuck, Junpei did mean what he thought he meant.

Yuuji raises a brow in confusion, a nervous chuckle forces itself out to try and calm himself down, “No one’s going to eat mermaid mead, dude,” Yuuji’s voice drops as he gets more serious, “I’m not killing them, dude. They won’t be served.”

Junpei shrugs and rolls his eyes, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pajama pants and leans against the wall, “Isn’t that your job though? To kill and serve whatever is handed to you?”

Yuuji takes a deep breath and breaks eye contact, “Well, yeah. But Megumi’s a whole fucking guy dude. I can’t just kill a person because I’m told to.”

“Megu-huh?”

“The mermaid, they–”

“You named the mermaid?” Junpei cuts him off.

“No, no that’s their name, they told me,” Yuuji’s heart rate is picking up, his words are coming out fast and he can feel his blood start to pick up the pace in his veins.

“It told you?” Junpei repeats like he doesn’t believe Yuuji.

“Yeah, dude, they speak all the time and–” Yuuji feels like he’s running out of breath. Why is he acting like this?

“Sure they can, dude,” Junpei relaxes back, glancing towards the bathroom before turning back to Yuuji, “I think you’re getting too close for your own good, dude.”

“What?” Yuuji practically squeaks out.

“It’s gonna die,” Junpei states. He rubs the back of his neck as he looks Yuuji dead in the eyes, “Do you really wanna risk your job for some fish creature that you’ll never see again? Actually, what do you even plan to do? How are you gonna get away without killing it?”

“I, uh, I know someone, a doctor,” Yuuji starts, “She says she can find out where they live, and that she can help me save them. Dude, why are you acting like this?”

“I’m just being realistic,” Junpei shrugs, “So you met some doctor where? At the restaurant?”

“No, no online she–”

“Some doctor you met online, on what? Some mermaid forum? Do you really believe that, man?” Junpei rolls his eyes again, “I knew you were a bit naive, but come on man.”

“I–,” Yuuji tries to think of something to say, anything to defend the doctor and who she is, but he can’t come up with anything. Junpei’s right.

“And what’s your plan anyway? You’re gonna sneak the mermaid back to the ocean or something?” Junpei continues, not even sparing Yuuji a moment to collect his thoughts.

“Yeah?” Yuuji sounds so small, smaller than he wants to. He wants to say yeah loud and confidently, he will get the mermaid back home, but that’s not what happens.

“How?”

“I’ll drive?” Why does he sound so unsure now?

“You’ll drive. Drive to the ocean then return to your job like nothing happened? What will your bosses think? I bet the mermaid was expensive,” Junpei continues.

“I’ll quit, I’ll find somewhere else to work,” Yuuji claims.

“You’ll quit.”

“Yeah…”

Junpei just looks at him like he doesn't believe him. They’re both silent for a while. Yuuji can feel his pulse thunder in his neck as he tries to process everything his friend is saying and implying. 

Junpei takes a deep inhale through his nose before he sighs out, “Whatever man. I’m just trying to be realistic here. You don’t think things like this through.”

Junpei turns to return to his room but pauses and looks over his shoulder, “Just think, really think, if it’s worth going through all this trouble for some creature you’ll never see again. For all you truly know, what’s in the bathroom is nothing but a weird looking fish.”

And then Junpei leaves, and Yuuji is standing alone in the hallway. The sound of the rain outside and the washing machine spinning are the only things filling Yuuji’s ears. 

Yuuji feels lost. Junpei made so much sense, he doesn’t really have a plan. He knows saving Megumi is worth it, of course it is, but is it? Is it worth the trouble, is it worth his job, is it worth possibly risking his life? Miwa’s life? Is Megumi’s life worth more than his own?

Yuuji runs a hand down his face, blunt nails digging into his skin as he groans. Why does this have to be so complicated? Why can’t he just save Megumi’s life and that be it? Why can’t he just live a normal fucking life away from all this mess?

Why did Junpei have to point out Yuuji’s flaws again? Why does he always have to be right? Why can’t Yuuji be smart for once, to be able to follow his heart the exact way he wants to. Why does Junpei always have to do this? Always make Yuuji come crashing down from cloud nine back to reality.

Why does this always happen? Yuuji’s nose starts to burn, his eyes start to water. He shoves the heel of his palm into his eye, trying to physically prevent the tears from forming in his eyes. Why does Yuuji have to be so stupid all the time? Why can’t he be right for once?

Just once. That’s all he’s asking for.

He wants to be right.

He wants to help Megumi. To save them.

Please.

Whoever’s out there.

Please.

Just once.

“Let me save them,” Yuuji’s voice cracks.

He tries not to cry, he tries so hard, but his breathing still shutters. He hiccups. His nose burns. A tear falls. His hands fold together as he falls to his knees, completely crumbled on the ground as he bows to no one.

“Please, whatever can hear me, let me save them,” Another hiccup. His lips quiver as his voice grows more quiet, more pathetic, “Please…”

A voice sings, low and soft, as webbed hands grab at Yuuji’s cheeks. They lift his head up off the floor, cupping his jaw so gently it’s foreign to him. When Yuuji opens his eyes the tears blur his vision, but he can still see green eyes and pale bioluminescence staring down at him. Clawed thumbs swipe away the tears on his cheeks so tenderly it only makes more fall. 

“I’m so fucking pathetic,” Yuuji gasps. His hand stumbles as it clasps over one of Megumi’s, squeezing their hand tight as he can’t help but let out a sob, “I’m in fucking nothing but a towel praying on the ground to anything that can hear me. Praying for them to let me save you. Oh god, Megumi, I’m so sorry.”

Megumi’s hands don’t let go of Yuuji’s face. Sharp teeth gently bite at their bottom lip as their brows knit together as they think, their voice equally as soft as their grasp, “Yuu-ji…”

Yuuji’s other hand grabs at Megumi’s shoulder, squeezing once before sliding forward to cup the back of their neck. With shuddering movements Yuuji presses their foreheads together, gasping and sniffling as he tries to get his tears under control. Megumi closes their eyes, thumbs rubbing back and forth along Yuuji’s cheekbones in an effective attempt to sooth him. 

Both hands move to clutch the back of Megumi’s head, fingers running through wet hair as Yuuji takes deep breaths. Yuuji takes a deep inhale through his nose before exhaling with a sigh, his nose still burns but his tears have stopped falling. His eyes remain close when he speaks soft enough to only be heard between the both of them, “Let’s shower, please. I don’t wanna be cold anymore.”

The motions of getting into the shower are a blur. Yuuji comes back to when the water has been running on him for a long time already. He’s laying down in the shower, Megumi in his arms as the water is hot enough to fog up the mirror. 

He holds Megumi tight like a lover. Perhaps it’s inappropriate to hold them so tenderly. Junpei’s words stripping them of the humanity Yuuji gave them persist, echoing quietly as they gnaw away at Yuuji’s psyche.

But Yuuji doesn’t care right now. Megumi allows themself to be held as such, their head resting on Yuuji’s chest as they softly sigh under the warm water. Their tail slowly flexes and writhes, trying to be as under the water as possible without disturbing them both too much. 

Yuuji’s hands rub up and down their back slowly. Thumb rubbing between their muscles, making Megumi relax even further into his hold. 

Yuuji’s eyes move away from staring up at the bathroom ceiling to stare down at the mermaid in his arms, and only when he’s looking at them do Junpei’s words fade away into silence. He squeezes the mermaid tight, a soft whine pushed out of them before they settle back down into a waking sleep. Yuuji’s voice is quiet. So quiet he can barely hear it over the sound of the shower raining down on them,

“No matter what happens to me, I promise I’m going to save you, Megumi.”