Chapter Text
Floyd rolled over in the clamshell bed, tracing dots of glowing algae with his eyes, before looking over at the second bed and silently slipping out of the kelp blanket, swimming over.
Jade breathed slowly, his chest barely rising as his gills fluttered. Floyd watched him for a minute before slipping out the window.
He didn’t care where he went, Pops would send Jade to find him if it got too long but for now, he just needed to get out of the house.
The powerful muscles in his tail propelled Floyd forward, darting through seaweed and around coral, even taking the time to scare a school of fish.
He paused in front of a kelp forest, watching the vegetation wave in the water before slipping inside, his smooth body barely disturbing the yellow-green plants.
There was something soothing about the feel of the kelp brushing against him but Floyd was careful, getting reckless in the kelp would only get him tangled and Jade would laugh upon finding him.
Something glinted at the bottom of the sand, drawing Floyd’s eye and he moved down, pulling the kelp away to reveal a small clearing.
Floyd swam over, slowly circling the area. A few rocks, most the size of a normal mer stool, sat in the sand, coral just barely starting to form on them. But where was that glint?
Moving down to the sand, Floyd flexed his claws, digging into sand, moving it until his nails struck something, causing him to grit his teeth in pain.
Reaching back into sand, he grabbed the thing and yanked it out, dropping it to rest on top of the sand before swimming back down to look at it.
A large fish shaped thing, but without fins or scales. It also looked like solid water but it was too clear to be an ice float.
Floyd reached down, tapping a knuckle to the thing, blinking in surprise. No sound. It wasn’t a fish then. Then he noticed Jade doing the same thing in front of him, inside the thing.
Or was it Jade? It looked like him, the black stripe of hair was in a “j” shape, his earring was on the right side…but the build was wrong. Jade kept his build unassuming, relying more on his words than his fists. The Jade in the thing was…less Jade.
Floyd snarled at the thing and smacked it with his tail, causing it to shatter, pieces floating into the sand, as he turned and swam back home, grabbing Jade’s blanket and curling under it, tail wrapping around Jade.
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Floyd huffed as he looked at his reflection, playing with his streak. Land School was fun until today, when he’d found another thing, a mirror. It hasn’t been Jade in that thing, it was him.
Looking over, Floyd watched Jade enter the room, walking over and pulling his own streak over, his coy smile appearing and Floyd felt himself match it. Maybe a mirror wasn’t so bad. Especially Jade.