Under the Sea AU

Tobi doesn’t know how he had ended up so far out. He’d been tracking something big for a couple days, something that would’ve kept him and Sunshine fed for a long time and absolutely crushed his sister’s record for biggest kill. He’d been relentless, forcing the thing to move, tearing at it with every chance he got, forcing it into more and more desperate situations and places that eventually it had turned to the only option left: up. He had followed, plowing through the pitch black waters after the gargantuan shape as it ascended. Stray motions from fins and tail had torn into the cliff faces as they twisted upwards, the sharp movements throwing rocks down towards Tobi in pursuit.

His own massive strength had shoved that debris further to the side only to be crushed by the powerful spikes or hard armor that coated his back and tail. Grey eyes had paid little attention to the rocks as they had faded into the dark below him, just as he hadn’t noticed the slowly brightening color of the ocean around him as they had ascended. There was only one thing he was focused on. One last surge and he’s able to sink his black claws into the beast and ride the thing as it writhed in panic. Hand over hand he climbs; the journey leaves dark, bleeding wounds in the beast’s back. The screech that follows when he finally finds an artery is deafening.

Felled, the beast slowly sinks back towards the pitch from where they both came. Tobi hovers in the open space of the sea and hazards a tired smile. ‘This, this was great,’ he thinks as he swishes his hand through the water. ‘So much blood though,’ he sighs as the blood washes off slow into the water around him. His tail flicks behind him as he prepares to follow his kill back down to the depths when something blindsides him from behind. Tiny lights bloom into hazy focus in the back of his mind and his body jerks around only to be met with a strange sort of surface. It stretches on up and as he looks, he can feel those same sharp claws that had torn a beast to shreds only a minute earlier curl out from where they had tucked themselves away.

Something had attacked him, something he doesn’t recognize. The warning growl he utters goes unanswered and the rigid monster behind him bumps him once more. Still high on adrenaline and the thrill of the hunt, Tobi turns and broadsides the thing behind him with a massive, sharp shoulder.

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Hard t’port, hard t’port!” a sailor shouts over the relentless drone of the pounding rain. The sky had opened not too long ago, emptying itself of any moisture it might have carried in thick sheets that now slammed into the deck of the ship and bathed it in a layer of slick wet. It was hard enough to get a sure footing in this weather, but the circumstances now… He shuddered. He doesn’t really want to think of the circumstances now. Doesn’t want to think about the massive dark shadow that churns the waves beneath them, of the way the lightning that tears across the sky above them lights on spines sharp enough to sever a man clean in two. Doesn’t want to dwell on the way unknown lights just below the surface outline a creature whose shape and enormous size boggles the mind. It had to be one of those bastards, a son of the sea: a creature born of darkness and pressure and malice.

Known to sink ships with a hard tug on the anchor or with clawed hands tearing through the underside of the ship, they were the bane of every sailor that wandered too far over deep waters. Trade routes had been redrawn around known sightings, entire empires warned of the danger these things posed. Each of them unique, each of them massive monsters the length of a ship or more. The largest ever recorded was something of legend; tip to tail, the monster was larger than the mightiest battleship of her royal navy and outfitted with spikes reminiscent of mountains. This one doesn’t look quite as large as that, the sailor thinks as he peers briefly over the side, tossed there by the wind and the rocking of the ship. A pleasant thought at least.


The next thought isn’t as kind.


‘Younger,’ he realizes suddenly. The blood drains from his face as one large hand rips though the water and latches into the side of the boat. Dark nails sharp as iron spikes crush the wood underneath with a sickening crack and splinter. He can hear screams from below deck as those close enough to the walls are torn to ribbons under the razor’s edge of those thick talons and when the lighting breaks across the sky again, he can swear he sees bright red coating the polished dark of the creature’s fingers. His own hands come out to steady himself against the railing as the boat lurches and ‘Oh god,’ he thinks with eyes wide as a clear, full moon. ‘Oh god.”

Two large eyes with irises the color of steel stare up at him, narrowed in a furious glare. Even more unnerving are that the whites of those same eyes are not white, but pitch black, dark like the depth this child must hail from. He knows instinctively it’s young, just like he realizes with sudden clarity that they’re not going to survive this night. Whether it be the rain, the storm, or the wrath of the sea incarnate railing against the side of their ship, none of them are going to make it. None of them, none of them, god, when had they strayed so far off course, when had they hit deeper waters…

The boat rocks again and he can hear what sounds like gunfire. A sickening, deafening roar follows like something from a nightmare, and then he’s weightless. All he can see for one long moment is the rain hitting him from above and the stormy grey of the clouds. Lighting blooms quick across them, fractal light illuminating the vague shapes of clouds in vivid chiaroscuro. ‘It’s beautiful,’ he thinks briefly.


Water hits him after like a fall into concrete, then everything goes dark. Just before he fades, he can see those same massive eyes blink at him underwater, it’s terrible form surrounded by the suspended debris of his former ship.

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He wakes… later. There’s no real way to tell how much time has past, only that it’s still dark. The storm is long gone as is his ship and former crewmates. Regardless though, he’s cutting through the water on… something. The back of something? Whatever it is, its huge and covered in rock? Something sharp and hard at least. One hand raises to pat lightly at the surface he’s resting on; if he focuses a little harder, he can see wounds that appear almost serious. Though, he can’t bring himself to think too much about it, he’s just glad he’s no longer drowning. Eyes flutter closed as he resigns himself to what he’s tentatively calling the afterlife on the back of this strange psychopomp.

‘Who are you,’ he thinks, not realizing he’s said the same aloud. He doesn’t realize until much later that he gets an answer in return.

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He wakes again a while later, this time on another boat similar to his own, though not quite. He knows his crew is dead, knows his boat is gone, and yet here he is. Alive and being fussed over by some sort of medic asking him all sorts of questions that he answers as best he can. There’s words of massive dark forms, of rain and lighting, of spikes and claws and bright eyes sharp as any sword. He warns them of the bastard child born of wrath and blood and yet, there’s a part of him that casts doubt. He remembers little, but those spikes. Something had carried him here. Something massive.

The other sailors call him a survivor, say he’ll one day be a legend. They give names to the beast that sank his ship, call him destroyer and wrath child, harbinger and hurricane. It comes to the sailor slower, but he realizes gradually that he already has a name, one that he gave him on that long trip here in low tones that he feels would have sounded different deeper down.

It’s hardly a language he speaks though, unfortunate as that fact may be. As he joins the others for a round of drinking, he can’t help but think about those same low tones and eyes grey like storm clouds, of patterns drawn across a dark form like lightning dancing across a night sky. He thinks of those dark claws rending the ship in two; he thinks of waking up to the gentle dip of waves licking against thick fins and torn flesh. Fierce, wild, and free but still so young.


‘Storm child,’ he thinks. It sticks.

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Now he’s lost. He had see the strange… creature in the water that had fell from the monster. It had looked so confused, looked like it was struggling. Like maybe it couldn’t breathe in the water like he could. He had taken the little creature on his back and surfaced with it sandwiched between the spikes that lined his spine and together, he had set off to find another monster to leave it with. The monster he might not understand, but the creature had come from it; maybe on another, there might be more of them.

He had found one a long while later and dropped the little creature off in the dark before dipping into what he had assumed to be the safety of the depths. Below though, he could see the sand covered bottom only thirty or forty feet below him, less in some parts. Covered in colorful rocks? Strange plants? Tiny fish flutter around him as sunlight begins to break through the waves, illuminating his dark form in a way it hasn’t been his entire life. All of a sudden it’s too warm, too bright, too much. He can feel the stirrings of a million lives begin around him as they’re roused by the breaking dawn of the sky.

The warmth and light is too much for his body so used to cold and dark. In the night, it had been fine enough that he hadn’t noticed he had strayed this far from his home, but now? Now it’s painfully obvious he’s out of his depth. One powerful flick of his tail pushes him as deep as he can. The next crushes some of the strange colorful rocks behind him. Technicolor dust drifts with him as he searches for any sort of shelter from the sun and heat and ignores the trail of crushed plants and fish he leaves in his path. Deep grooves cut in the sand trace his movements in increasingly haggard lines as he grows even more sluggish in the overwhelming heat and dizzyingly bright colors around him.


Finally though, he finds something.


It’s a cave large enough to fit him with some extra headroom tucked away into a larger cliffside. Looking inside, it’s dark enough farther back to be comfortable, and cooler than the surrounding area. It’ll do until he can… think straight. Figure this out. His large body slips into the opening and he fades into the dark and all that’s visible from the mouth of the cave are two bright grey irises and the luminescent lights that trace along his body. There’s a rock towards the back that he curls around tight. In the low light, he looks to blend in with the cave walls, his rocky spines and dark skin easily matching the environment around him. Low rumbles roll from his throat, shaking the tunnel as he voices his displeasure and annoyance at the situation. He’s lost near the surface, everything is too warm and too bright, he’s too big and keeps running into shit, and these tiny colorful fish keep bothering him. One swims up through the dark of the cave towards him; he absently unsheathes a nail and spears the thing on the tip.


‘At least there’s snacks,’ he thinks with another wall shaking grumble. The little fish slips past large, pointed teeth before he settles back down with his head on top of his arms, waiting for the day to cool off.



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The sun sprinkled the shallow sea floor with bright patches of light, illuminating the pockets of bright yellow sand that crept out from the craggled multi-colored coral that jutted out from the ground. Browns were dusted with brilliant purples and blues. Yellow and Orange starfish stuck to their spots, their bulbous bodies flowing with the gentle current. Schools of fish, minuscule in individual size but a massive force together, darted in and out of nooks and crannies, flashing metallic scales that glistened in the sunlight.

Their homes were varied and spread, but the pod lived near enough that if there was trouble, they would move together swiftly. Some preferred weaved homes of kelp and algae, others loved huts made of driftwood and broken off rock. Even fewer made their homes in the coves- these were homes passed down from matriarch to matriarch of ancient families, permanent and staunch. They were not usually used as the permanence of anything made the pod nervous, and they were so drab compared to the huts decorated with the shiny shells and rocks, or the flowy comforts of a seaweed house.

No one was out that morning- they usually waited until the late afternoon when the sun was at it’s highest then and they were a lazy bunch. They were supposedly spending those warm hours hunting and gathering- in reality, they used the time for parties and music, going up to the surface and luring sailors over. They were a gluttonous bunch, made so by the years of plenty. So, they snoozed in this early morning sun.

Well.

Most of them.

She darted in between rocks, digging in the sand for anything that caught her eye. She wasn’t looking for anything in particular, just anything sparkling in the ground. Shinies caught a lot of prestige with a few in the pod, but they were nice to have to trade with others- intelligent fish or other groups. She started young- a lovely manatee farmer traded one of her Caribbean pearls for his bracelets. Were they useless? Pretty much. But she loved their shape, their luster in certain lights. Even the metal was something she was not used to- a silvery chain with little trinkets hanging off of it. The farmer had said it was found near a shipwreck around the wrist of a small child.

It had fit Noelle’s wrist perfectly.

And so...

Ever since she has been obsessed with finding new pieces for her collection. Baubles, trinkets, shells, gems, anything that glistened in the sun would find it’s way in her woven knapsack that her mother had made for such occasions. She left stashes across their migratory pattern, but they had just arrived at the cove only nights before.

She had plenty of time to fill it up with treasures.

There had been a storm the night before. No one had predicted it- it had happened out of nowhere. And while many were tucked in their homes, upset for the lost time stuck inside, Noelle had been nestled with her sister, excitedly dreaming about the things the storm would bring. A strong current would stir up sand, reveal new things underneath. And, if she was lucky, one of those ships passing by might have been caught in it and dropped some cargo. She did not wish ill on the sailors- unlike her brethren, she didn’t lure them into the depths, didn’t quite mind them. But, she also knew they usually did not wish her kind well. That they poked them with spears, caught them in nets, dragged them to shore. And while she knew they weren’t all bad, she also didn’t trust them as a group. And didn’t empathize them in the same way she would her mother or her friends.

Which is why, when she found the hand, she didn’t bat an eye.

It had been severed at the wrist, bloated and waterlogged from the hours of floating to and fro in that strong storm current. Discolored too; it had an almost bluish tint with yellow accents. It was half buried in the sand, but Noelle saw something glint on the fourth finger. Something… sparkly.

She was there quick as a whip- her long tail flicked and powered her forward in a breakneck pace, the edge of her frilly tail catching the pockets of sunshine. She was a fast little thing- but what she lacked in muscle mass, she made up in length. Her tail was just short of twice the rest of her- it was long and colored with soft pastel scales- blues and lilacs and pinks melded together, frilly near transparent fins filled out the curves of her constantly moving tail. The scales fashioned up her torso, stopping in a gentle V, that gave the illusion of curves that are not there. It accentuated her bony, thin hips, but this distinction was sullied by the woven side bag that laid across her hip, overflowing with small trinkets and baubles. Her pale brown hair flowed behind and around her, occasionally pulled with the current as it passed. The only thing that kept it from her face was a headband, fashioned from kelp and knick-knacks she had stuck on: a rusted gear, a jagged green piece of glass that was probably from a bottle, and a perfectly pink clam shell were among her many trinkets that held back her mane.

In seconds, she had combed through the sand and grabbed the hand. She regarded it without flair- wasn’t the first severed body part she had seen, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Many sailors met watery graves- she was just grateful that this was a hand. Not a head. She shook her head as she brought the hand to her eyes, bending down the stiff fingers. The middle one was particularly rigid- but yielded with a satisfying snap. Noelle couldn’t help but smile when she saw what had caught her eye.

It was a gold ring, still fairly new judging by the luster. Not only that, but the band had been inscribed with squiggly designs and interlocking knots. She had seen symbols like this before- flags and shields and swords that had fallen to her depths, especially up north. With a light tug, Noelle slipped the ring off the finger and inspected it even more. On the inside, there was more of the inscription, but instead of looping strands connecting into knots, they stood on their own, not connected. The little symbols were clear and straight, but also completely indecipherable to her.

But still. She slipped the ring into her bag, very happy with her find. The current rushed by, her hair flowing with it. But a scent was carried with it. Something with Iron. Something unmistakeable.

Blood

She turned quickly, and tilted her head in its direction, before flitting towards the smell, her tail coiling and shooting her forward. She saw a crushed rock, stained with blood. There was crumbled pieces of colorful coral and rock. Her eyes tracked the path of destruction- trampled pants, busted shells, a carved path in the sand from some sort of large… tail.

The trail was clear- it was leading her out and away from the pod, towards the craggly cliffs and rocks that stood fortress as sentinels over them. She kept swimming, curious to what had made this trail- perhaps it was a shark or another large fish. Or mammal. It should have scared her, but she knew she was fast enough to get away. Way too fast, she thought with a slight smile. She passed the final huts that dotted their little settlement, including a huge bright pink anemone that swayed and flowed with the current that she was swimming against. But she didn’t notice.

It led her to a cave. She blinked, and frowned. What creature would drag themselves into a cave, with no end in sight. A shark wouldn’t do that. Unless… Unless it was stuck.

She needed to help it. Whatever it was. It must have been hurt, or dying, or confused. And she felt an odd sense of duty- like she was this creatures host in her home. Or at least her home-area. So, with an anxious flick of her tail, she moved into the dark, cold cave. After only a couple of yards, it became so dark, so cold, that she felt like she was in a void.

She blinked.

She saw something. Something… glimmering in the darkness. Something… shiny.

She blinked again, opening her mouth ever so slightly.

But, in the dark, she found herself stuck. A gasp escapes her lips, as she tugged her tail. She whimpered, suddenly realizing the worst that could happen has happened; instead of being ready for a quick getaway, but now the very tip of her tail, somehow, had been clipped and tucked underneath a rock. She turned, but by being unable to see, she bumped into the rock wall that jutted out ever so slightly. She grunted, using her hands to see now, but unable to find the exact rock her tail had been clipped on.

Anyone that could see in that cold darkness would see the delicate looking mermaid repeatedly smacking herself into rocks, the tip of her tail quivered and she tried to move it out as frantically and haphazardly as she could. She had been completely consumed with her new task, she forgot the creature that lurked only a little further.

He had dozed of some time ago. It was easy to sleep here, lulled into relaxation by the chill and the dark with only the soft whisper of a current to disturb him. That and the little fish. He could feel their little mouths picking at his dark, wild curls and the glossy black pearls his mother had braided into the strands. She’d done it before he had left a few days ago, maybe a week now, with pearls she had just found. They’d shone in the cold, harsh light of her eyes that both he and his sister found so comforting, and he had sat with the patience of a man who had followed prey hundreds of miles and weeks at a time. He wonders idly how she was.Probably not worried… yet. It would take about a month of no contact for his parents to come looking, as used to he and his sister disappearing as they were. He wonders too how Agnes was doing.

The fish were an annoyance, but one easily ignored in favor of the blissful dark of the space behind his eyes. ‘Agnes would enjoy them,’ he thinks as he spears another on the tip of a large, dark nail. It slips past teeth sharp as rock shards and as far as tiny snacks went, they were pretty good. Not really filling and not even near the sheer amount needed to power his massive, sharp form, but decent as snacks. He’s struck then as he slides another tiny fish off his nail with his teeth with a slow wave of exhaustion and bone deep hunger: he was tired, so so tired and frankly? After the day he's had, he deserves a nap in this dark cave.

‘Deserve it,’ he thinks as his eyes flicker shut over luminescent irises. His breathing slows in time with the fading pattern of lights along his body, both of them dimming to a dull hum and a soft thrum of light that lends the cave just the faintest of light. The fish flocking around his head in a strange sort of halo continue to nip at the loose strands of his hair, but he’s too far gone to notice.

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He wakes again, groggy from the hunger and the lingering exhaustion and what’s most likely blood loss. The cave is still blessedly dark despite the light that fills the cave entrance, but the brightness isn’t what had woken him. It was the silhouette outlined there against the light. He can’t quite see any details clearly, but the shape is familiar; it’s like him.

Well, not exactly like him. It’s much smaller, much… smoother looking. There are no sharp spikes jutting from its form, no scales thick as rock. Where he was a mass of muscle, thick bone, and even thicker plated scales and spikes, this one was all smooth lines and fanciful fins. They billow out around it and follow the merperson’s every movement. Sort of reminds him of the way his mother would bring back wads of the towering kelp that grew near them, the overgrown plants trailing behind her as she made her way back to the cave she shared with their father.

The lights tracing his body flicker brighter as he leans further into wakefulness. He sees the head of the merperson glance towards him. But, rather than flit away back out of the cave at the sight of his large form taking up near the entire back wall, they merely tilt their head in… what?

Confusion? Curiosity? He can hardly tell. They’re still so near to the entrance of the cave he's found himself in, still bathed in that too bright warm light. The form starts to wander in, but they’re listing a bit too hard to the side, a bit too close to the wall and it strikes Tobi then that whoever this is, they can’t see in near pitch conditions like he can. They’re most likely more used to the hazy golden light that still dapples the shifting sands past the lip of the cave, more used to the insufferable warmth of that damned… what had he heard it called once? The sun?


Ridiculous. It's awful. How anything could like it up here was a mystery.


He voices his displeasure, the low bass hum of it thrumming through the rocks around him and knocking a few of the looser stones to the cave floor. They smack into the sand and rock with a clatter, which doesn’t strike him as odd. What does, however, are the small noises of distress now coming from the smaller figure in the cave with him. Bright grey irises turn on the figure he had admittedly almost forgotten was still there, and he nearly laughs when he sees what was causing the poor thing so much trouble. One of the smaller rocks that had come loose had landed on a frill of the figure’s tail.


‘So dainty’, he thinks as he begins to unfurl his form from against the wall. The lights tracing his body flare to life with the movement, bathing the previously dark cave in cool light and making his size and features more obvious to those that leaned a little harder on light to see.


He knows he’s not the prettiest to look at, especially probably not the the frilly fishy in front of him. Where the one stuck under the rock is colorful, with pinks and purples and blues in softer hues than he had ever seen before, he’s colored in shades of grey and blues deep as black. Where she was long and lithe, he was built like the undersea mountains he called home, built for wrestling down monsters at least ten times his already huge size. He took up the entire height of the cave, his stout tail still wrapped around the large rock he had been laying on. His face and body were proudly scarred with the permanent reminders of mistakes and fights with his sister and Sunshine while fresh wounds had just begun to scab over. If he pulled too hard on an injury or moved in just the wrong way, they would tear again and begin to the leak the dark, viscous fluid that was his blood. Made for the pressure of deeper depths and practical violence, he’s a mass of thick muscle and scar tissue, dark unruly hair and sharp spikes, of piercingly dark eyes and bright bioluminescent lines that outlined his figure.

The fishy in front of him was elegant; well, as elegant as one could be thrashing about with their tail stuck under a rock. He leans forward, grey eyes watching her struggle in front of him with a curious sort of interest. It’s kinda pathetic looking really. Here, he’d been at least a little impressed with this little fishy wandering into his hideaway with her fancy fins and colors. Now though?


Really,’ he thinks as he huffs a breath through sharp teeth. ‘How did they even survive?’ Flashy colors and overlarge fins aside, they couldn’t even see in the dark. Ridiculous.


‘This is such a weird day.’ he thinks again as his dark hand comes to rest lightly on top of the rock pinning her tail down. The lights tracing his nerves cast a glow on the surface below, light the little fishy’s wide eyes and make them seem even wider. He’s never been really good at reading others expressions, as isolated as he usually was there was little opportunity to practice. She’s at least… maybe surprised? She probably hadn’t seen him before his body had lit the space in soft, cold light. It’s quiet now that she’s calmed her thrashing, the only sounds echoing through the cave the low rumble of his breathing and the shuffling of the current slowly blowing past. His fingers curl across the surface of the rock, dark claws uncurling to scrape jagged lines into the surface of the rubble. "Could probably crush it..." he thinks idly.


His grip tightens, claws crack into the surface, and just like that, the shiny fishy's tail is free.

The cave was suddenly illuminated and she couldn’t help it.

She squeaked.

She couldn’t help it!

The figure revealed itself and it was something far more… EVERYTHING than she expected. Bigger, thicker, scarier than anything she expected. He was larger than most sharks she had ever seen, with a broad frame and spikes and scales thicker than her tail. Debris stuck to him- to his muscular tail, his hair, his rocky fins, all of his rough edges. And he was most definitely male- that fact was not lost on her. His chest was a barrel, his torso wide. But the thing she found herself staring at was his markings. Not just the plethora of glowing spots and markings that outlined his nerves and veins in dazzling patterns, but also the freckles and scabs and scars.

Imperfections were rare in her pod. And while it wasn’t frowned upon, it was still strange. Most of them healed cleanly from any fight, scars were something that was nearly unheard of! Noelle’s own mother had been caught in scraps before, before and after the birth of her two daughters, and the only evidence of any of it was the thin, hairline scratch on the very tip of her tail from when a particularly nasty barracuda took a bit and decided to take her for a ride. And to see someone with so many scars crisscrossed over one another, some pale with age others fresh and only just scabbed over.

“Oh”

From her trembling lips escaped the soft sound, as her eyes widened even more, caught in the strange majesty of the being in front of her. She stopped struggling, completely distracted by the fact that she had stumbled upon someone that looked so much like her and yet was the exact opposite. Anywhere she was slender, he was broad. Her paleness in scales and skin contrasted by the darkness of his.

His arm started moving towards her, and she couldn’t help but take the deepest breath, her stomach suddenly concaves between her ribs and hips. Her neck snapped back and away, her hair clouding her vision for a moment. Teeth pierce her lip, her eyes trying to peer between the strands of mousey brown locks. And her inner dialogue repeating the same thing, over and over again:

Pleasedonteatmepleasedonteatmepleasedonteatme.

She must have squeezed her eyes shut in anticipation. Because she felt what happened next. The pressure on her back fin dissipated, and without thinking, she flitted back a couple of feet back in one quick motion. Also without thinking, another surprise overtook the small space of the cave. Before anyone could move, breath blink or bite, a thick blanket of pitch black ink billowed around Noelle, surrounding the other in complete and utter darkness. Somehow, it blacked out any light that radiated off of his spots, shrouding them in an unfamiliar void.

Noelle had used her little trick before.

It was usually while flitting away from some larger fish after finding herself in a spot of trouble. Not only did it provide her a quick getaway, but it also had a slight numbing agent that at least stunned her predators. It was abnormal in her group, yes, but incredibly useful. But it was always a reflex- she didn’t really know how to control it. Which made her feel even worse as she realized that this person in front of her wasn’t a predator- he had just helped her out. And, if the divots in the sand outside, crushed rock litter, and general disarray were any indicator, the big guy was way out of his element.

She could relate

And she felt incredibly guilty for drowning them both in ink.

She surged forward so that, when the ink faded away, she was face to face with him. She was inches away, studying his face very carefully, noticing the details of the lines and scars and freckles, committing them to memory. She was struck by his eyes for a second- just as glowy as the rest of him, two grey rings shined the against murky dark. She couldn’t believe that she didn’t notice them before- but she quickly realized that he assumed that they were just markings on his dark skin, matching the ones on his arms and back and, well, the rest of him. Her beautiful tail flicked in irritation and nervousness, a motion that started from just below her hips that traveled to the very end of her fluke, which was also thin and ruffled frills with a pale blue tint. Her hair flowed behind her, glowing with her milk skin in the pale light. In any other situation, she would have swam away, found someone to help her. Her mother. Her sister. Her stupid clownfish neighbor.

But she caught his eyes again.

Her breath was caught in her chest, her heart stopped for a second.

Well.

Too late to back out now.

“Um… Excuse me….”

Her voice was small compared to the grumbled thundering from earlier, but she tried her best to speak up and clearly. She blinked, her brown eyes still wide, her eyebrows upturned with nervous tension. For a second, she saw the glistening pearls in his hair, and she got distracted, feeling her hand go to her makeshift bag, reaching in for her own collection of pearls. She stopped herself, realizing her motion, and quickly retreated her arm, looking back at his face. The freckles splated across her nose scrunched as she breathed again.

“What… Who are you? Are… Are you lost?”

The tone wasn’t accusatory- ,in fact it matched her curious nature. She genuinely wanted to help him- even though the thought positively scared her. She floated, her tail twitching occasionally as she waited for an answer, but ready to make her quick getaway.

“Sonofa…!”

The aborted swear rumbles through the walls of the cave like a sharp roll of thunder. Just like before, it cracks the rock, sends loose shards sloughing off the walls to land with a soft thump on the soft sand underneath him. He’d thought he’d been doing a favor to the little fishy by crushing the rock on top of her trapped fin but as he swipes at the air in front of him, he guesses not. Lips scarred from when he was younger and not yet used to his teeth turn down in a harsh scowl while eyes used to this darkness scan the room. If this little fish thought it could hurt him here…

This day has been shit. Everything’s still too warm, everything outside is still too bright, he’s hurt, he’s hungry, he’s tired. It’s the culmination of everything that has him growling a low bass hum and flexing the spikes on his body. He can feel the claws that had been curling back unfold once more as he pulls his fingers back. He doesn’t know this little fishy, doesn't know what she’s doing or what she even thinks she’s doing, but he can see in this goddamn dark, can see even better now that she’s blocked out the light and stained both him and the surrounding area in ink like the squids that he’s seen deeper down. Granted, they had been much larger, but same principle.

He remembers them tasting delicious.

He tries to move forward, but it suddenly feels as if he’s hit some sort of a wall. His already exhausted body stiffens then buckles under itself. One clawed hand reaches out to bury itself in the rock wall next to him, and it’s all he can do to stay upright and huff out tired puffs of breath. ‘God,’ he thinks as his eyes slip closed. ‘What had been in that ink, it weren’t like nothin’ those squids down below do.’ Feels like he’s been hit by an over enthusiastic Sunshine or his sister has blindsided him. Feels like his pa goddamn crushed him and now he’s left reeling in the aftermath with a sore body and lungs that won’t work quite right. The patterns on his body flicker as he coughs away the last of the ink in the air, casting the cave in sporadic light.

When he opens his eyes again, he’s face to face with the little fishy who had apparently used the brief distraction to get up close and personal with him. He’ll admit, the sudden appearance spooks him. Even as tired as his body is, it manages to at least attempt to jerk back. When he realizes that he’s not going anywhere, his lips curl back baring his teeth to the pale frilly fish with a shaky growl. There’s not anywhere he’s going, not in the condition he’s in, and he wouldn’t make it far anyway past the cave with how warm it is. He’d be dizzy and face down in some sand with those damn little fish picking at his hair again. That’s a situation he’d rather avoid, though he’s not sure if he’d prefer a lot of little fish or this one bigger fish.


He blinks at her.


Well, at least she’s like him. At least she hasn’t tried to murder him (yet). At least she has the common sense to look at least a little bit afraid of him and he’d be lying if that thought didn’t ease him at least a little bit. Made him feel less like he was slowly being backed into a corner.

Her eyes flick to the pearls in his hair just briefly. Odd that’s what she would fix on, they’re just pearls. Nothing like what she’s got in her hair, all of those strange trinkets fashioned into a headband holding back all that hair. His ma just tended to braid back all of theirs when it got too long and while theirs weren’t yet anything near long enough, their parents’ hair was kin to works of art. Their pa’s especially; it was constantly woven into intricate braids and patterns with large pearls and polished rocks worked into the wild strands. Bones, nails, and teeth all intricately carved tended to dangle from the finished style, all of them reminders of past battles and points of pride in the man’s life. Tobi had hoped a tooth from his last kill would have been the first he would have carved and added to his own person, but he wasn’t even sure where he was now, let alone where he had been.

‘Oh,’ he thinks as he watches the little fish’s mouth move. ’She’s talking.’ It’s faint, but he can just make out what she’s saying. God. everything she’s doin’, so soft, so quiet, so swishy. ‘How they survive up here,’ he wonders again absently as he looks over her slender form and the large fins, her bright coloring and wide eyes.

“Tobias,” he finds himself saying. The words are deep, the low tones working their way through the cave like an earthquake. “And yeah, I’d say so.”

The loudness of his voice shook the cave, rocks starting to slide down the walls, dust floating down slowly to the sandy floor. Noelle twitched, yes, but she floated in front of him, standing her ground so to speak.

Tobias.

She almost giggled.

Such a simple name for such a complex beast. The name Tobias brought to mind the freshwater goons in the north that were always visiting their saltwater counterparts when they passed. With strange accents and murky colors, these guys were shy and always hiding in kelp, scared and bashful as their much bolder cousins laughed and played around them. Noelle had always been fond of them- they were so fascinating and brought stories of ponds and lakes and relations with humans that seemed much more symbiotic than those at sea. They had names like Abraham and Edith and Declan…. Like Tobias.

She bit her lip, thinking of this big monstrosity hiding in murky kelp, in shallow but dark water, eyeing her pod fearfully as they passed.

Still. He was lost. And Noelle could see that he wasn’t really comfortable. The space had to have been small for him- while she still couldn’t see the entirety of his bulk, she could map out from the little flickering lights that he was at least just as long as she was, and curled up around a jagged rock. His head was nearly touching the ceiling, and she noticed the little pieces of coral and rock littering his hair from the rumbling when he spoke. It tugged at her heartstrings- while she lived in a small cove nearby, it had been dug out for their family of long-finned ladies. They needed to stretch when they were sleeping and had adapted their home to do so. And seeing this big guy all cramped and sad and uncomfortable….

She couldn’t stand it.

Her first step was to flit back just a little, giving him just enough space to not close him in, for him to relax and release the tension. As she moved, her tail coiled and whipped out with a small wave of water in his direction, the cool water moving from the tip of her tail to the face of the large beastie. She had no idea about his little overheating problem, but she did feel the distance ease a little bit of the tension. She also noticed that he spoke loudly. And while she knew her own voice would not shake rock or shift sand. But, he was big. And it would probably be difficult to hear one with a voice as quiet as hers. So, she decided to return him a favor.

“Um… Hello there…”

Her voice was clearer- tentative but louder. She felt her fists ball up with that excess energy and anxiety. For all she knew, he was going to snap and try to eat her. But at least now, she had a quick exit. If he even tried to slash her to bits, one flick of her tail and she would zoom out. But she stayed staring at him, taking her time to work up her voice back to something.

“I’m… I’m Noelle. I’m with the Pod? In the reef? Did you wash in with the storm last night? I know that sometimes dolphins or small whales get misplaced with wild storm. Of course, they stay pretty close to the surface to breath… But, of course, you probably don’t have that problem…”

She flapped her fluke, thinking about what she wanted to say next, her hair flowing in front of her face once again, clouding her vision. She sighed, tucking her hair back behind her ears, which were pointed and webbed with thin, frilled skin. Her ears were also adorned in trinkets- earrings made from starfish, crushed clams, pearls, and small toys from the surface. None matched its sister piece on the other ear, but they were obviously placed in a way that was pleasing to the girl. Big pieces were offset by more delicate ones, bold colors muted by neutrals.

“I’ve never seen someone like… like you before. I mean, some of the swamp-fish have the more… textured elements. But nothing to those spikes and teeth and eyes and the… the glowing? I’ve never seen that before… And the pearls? Where did you get them?”

She babbled, the words rushing out without a second thought. A thick strand of her hair floated into her face and she huffed, carefully twirling the hair back and into her headband, around some sort of thimble.

“Sorry. I’m not asking the right questions… What can I do to help you home?”

She blinked, suddenly noticing a new detail from the inhabitant of the cave. Well, not new. Hanging from his lip was a little brightly colored tail. She knew that kind of fish- it was a nuisance species that darted between rocks, eating bacteria off of coral and debris. For snacks, they were barely substantial for her, so she couldn't imagine how hungry this guy was. Her hand went into her bag again, searching for something important. Gears, pieces of smoothed glass, utensils, a music box, and her newly acquired ring spill out onto the ocean floor as she grabbed something that had been covered in many layers of kelp. She quickly unraveled it, revealing a piece of well-marbled meat that had been rolled up tightly. She quickly laid it out on her hand- it was not much larger than the surface of both her hands, it was much bigger than the little fishies and much tastier.

Noelle offered it, brown eyes locking with glowing grey "You look hungry. And I can get you more..."

“C’mon Jake!”

Noelle flitted through the coral and rock, expertly. Her rainbow frills ripples with the water, her long tail curling and whipping to propel her faster. Through the waves above, the moon hit her scales, giving them the most beautiful glow. Her face was screwed in determination, her satchel floating on her side. Thankfully it was closed, or her treasures would have been littered between the settlement and the cave.

It had been two days since she initially found Tobias. He was consistently sleepy during the day- she figured that out when he fell asleep on their first meeting. So, she returned at night when her mother and sister were fast asleep, dragging a couple of large fish in the sand behind her. It took her twice as long to get to him, and it made her heart twinge when he ate them so fast and still looked incredibly hungry. She rationalized that he needed to get his strength up before he went back to… wherever he came from. He was pretty tight-lipped about that, and Noelle knew he wasn’t from any pod they had ever passed. Some of their freshwater cousins had the pointy scales and rough texture, but no one was as BIG. He was going to need a lot of food. So she recruited help this evening.

But he was moving so slow!

Noelle whirled around and sped over to her new recruit, who was struggling his thin, scarred fingers gripped the seaweed mat carrying the huge chunk of shark meat.

Jake belonged to the same pod as Noelle, but they were VERY different. While Noelle was long and thin, her tail a melding of many pastel’s, JAke’s blunt tail was the exact pattern and color of a clownfish. Thick strips of white, orange and black ended in a blunt tail. While his tail was not long, his torso and neck were, so during regular floating, he somehow looked taller than the other lanky fish.He did not have many frills or fins, but the bright colors and his thin build made it clear that he was one of the shallow-water types. His bright red hair clashed horribly with his tail, and his lanky body was etched with freckles and faded scaring. Jake often found himself in trouble, and while their particular breed of merpeople healed quite quickly and easily, Jake still had those faint, hairline thin scars running across his body. On top of that, sometimes, Noelle swears that she saw… things, glowing underneath his skin. Symbols, connecting his freckles like the constellations she loved to stare at it. They didn’t show up often, but Noelle always caught them in the corner of her eye or when Jake was particularly fired up about something.

But for now, he was dragging that hunk of fresh meat.

“I’m trying! This thing is seriously heavy- where the fish are you taking me anyways?” Jake groaned and dropped the mat, rubbing his hands. Noelle had known Jake since her mother wormed their way into the pod. While she was quiet, kept to herself, and her little treasures, the clownfish kid started to follow her on her little escapades. But after Jake helped her escape the ire of a grumpy old hammerhead, they had become nearly inseparable. Except when she would wake up early to find shinies and then find something else…

Speaking of.

Noelle couldn’t help but roll her eyes “It’s a surprise. Plus, I don’t know if you would believe me.”

But, she gripped the mat with him and helped him drag it just a little bit further to the rocky, dark cave, leaving a trail behind them. She felt Jake tense next to her, and for good reason. During the day, at least a little light leaked into the dark cavern for a couple of feet, before petering out to shadow. But at night, well it was pure darkness. Noelle felt him get closer to her, those little symbols lighting beneath his skin before she blinked it away.

And then.

There were little pinpricks of lights, like stars in the night sky. There was a shift that rippled through the water, then a soft grumble that started soft, then began to shake through the rok. Jake dropped the mat and swam back a few feet.

“Noelle?? What is that?”

Jake only heard her digging in her bag for something. Metal clinked, and fabric shuffled until she found what she was looking for. She lifted a jar, which she shook gently. From the inside, a jellyfish began to give a soft eerie glow. It lit up her face, which was excited anticipation to see her new friend once again. The glow caught the trinkets in her hair and her ears, her soft brown hair floating behind her. It also caught Jake’s mask of absolute fear of what they were now facing.

It had been a hazy few days in this temporary shelter he had found for himself. At least he hoped it was temporary. The cave, while a welcome respite when he had first found it, was quickly becomeing more and more cramped, less and less tolerable. He was coming to long for the open, frigid depths of his home, of a space larger than that which he had found himself in. Somewhere where - he swats at the little fish still circling his head and nibbling at his curls with hands open and claws bared - there weren’t things picking at him at all moments. Or if they were, they were a little bigger. A little more worth spearing.

He stabs one through, feels the smooth slice through flesh as his nail pierces it in two. Hardly even a desperation snack anymore, he thinks. It slips past sharp teeth with no trouble. The little fish scatter for what seems like a second before they’re back and picking at his hair, his spines, his fins, anything they can reach. A long huff shakes the cavern as he sighs and settles back in. Fine. Let ‘em munch. Least somethin’ round here can have a full meal.

It wasn’t for lack of trying, he knew. That other little fishy, the bright one that had called herself Noelle, she kept bringing food back to him during the nights after that first night. He had felt a bit rude for dozing off on her, but the heat, movement, and still lingering wounds had all combined to knock him out better than his sister ever had. He’d woken up later without her in the cave and the light peeking through the entrance threatening to blind him. It had seemed the better option to sleep through the light and heat in his relative cold and dark than try and break out then. Hours later, and he was once again woken up, but this time, her face had been right in his. He’d be lying if he’d said he wasn’t a bit startled. Must really be slipping if this shiny mobile rainbow kept sneaking up on him.

He’d been about ready to snap at her, as tired and hungry as he was. That is, until she’d slapped down two decent sized fish and motioned for him to take them, explaining how she’d got them for him. It was the most he’d seen yet up her besides the chunk of meat she’d given him earlier and he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. With little hesitance he’d scooped up the fish and picked them clean, bones and all. Sharp teeth made quick work of all the meat and guts of the poor things, while he had kept the boned for something to chew on later. Bits and pieces of them still drifted close to the soft sand and rock of the cave floor. They would float up on the slightest current his body of tail created before settling back down. She’d told him then that she’d bring him more, and he hadn’t had the heart to tell her that it was going to have to be exponentially more than what she had brought him then. She was doing this out of some sort of strange kindness. He hadn’t wanted to upset her and risk cutting off the only substantial food he’d seen yet. They might have been large fish to her, but to him…


There was a reason he and his kind hunted big game.


Right now though, he’s waiting in the slowly cooling darkness of the cave. What she had called night is starting to settle and he’s glad for it. It’s the only tolerable time up here. He can’t quite understand what Noelle finds so appealing about these warm, shallow waters. His large jaw opens as he yawns, pointed teeth exposed and tongue curling before his mouth snaps shut again and he settles with a low huff. Any minute now she’d be back, and he has to stay awake. His heart can’t take another surprise face in his.


And speaking off…


His bright grey eyes catch a silhouette at the mouth of the cave. No… it’s two? Tobi shifts to his elbows on the rock, rising to get a better look. That’s the little fishy, alright. Long, long tail, fluttery fins, moonlight catching on those shiny scales and even more polished trinkets in her hair. But that one with her…

Well, he’s loud. That’s the first thing he notices. He's yelling about something, Tobi assumes its him. Noelle didn't tell him beforehand then, that sneaky cuss. Loud in voice, and now, in the dark of the cave, loud in color. The man’s hair is a bright, vibrant red; the rest of him is a white and orange striped mess. 'God, they're all so colorful,' he thinks. 'Wonder they aren't killed more often...' He’s stubbier than she is, at least in the tail. Body wise, they’re both the same sort of skinny. All bones, theses ones, and not much on 'em. ‘Must be a thing up here.’ he thinks idly as he watches. Down in his home, they’d freeze for sure. His thoughts are quickly interrupted, however. The current shifts briefly with their entrance to waft the most delightful scent over to him.

Blood. Fresh meat, a pile of it. He can see it now behind the two of them. Maybe she had figured out he needed more, maybe she was just playing good host. Whatever it was, Tobi found himself not caring. He unfurled his weight from around the rock, the movement and sudden interest in the meat causing the fluorescent markings along his nerves to flicker on like a poorly connected overhead light. One loud sigh escapes him grips the rock with large claws and hauls his bulk off of it. It echoes in the small cave and mingles with the horrible scraping sound of nail grinding against rock.

He approaches the two of them and the pile of meat, only stopping to wince when Noelle pulls out some sort of light. Now in the soft jellyfish light, he can see the gobsmacked clownfish staring up at him, jaw slack in a kind of quiet horror. He’d have laughed had the man not been blocking his quarry.


“‘Scuse me.” He lays one large hand on the man’s skinny, pale shoulder and gently shoves him out his way. With one hand, he bundles the seaweed mat into a sort of sack and slings it over his spiked shoulder. “Howdy, Noelle.” he nods to the beaming girl as he turns to head further back into the blessed cool of the cave. She’d follow probably. Nothing had deterred her so far. The guy? Maybe.


Tobi sets his little meal out on the back floor of the cave, eyes hungrily darting over the chunks of meat. Shark, it looked like. Something at least a little familiar. His hand grabs for the nearest one and he bites into it, almost humming with quiet pleasure. His tail smacks the ground once, just one hard thunk as his satisfaction with the meal bubbles over. This was much better. So much better than those little fishies.

Halfway through a bite, he looks up over the edge of the hunk of meat in his mouth at his guests. Right. Guests. The new one is still at the mouth of the cave, just gaping at him like the fish some of the more vacant looking ones he’d seen up here. All wide eyes and open mouth. Whatever. He’d try and make nice as soon as he’s done.

The large hand brushes past Jake, and Noelle was afraid the man was going to make a mess of himself. His pale skin somehow looked stark white in the light as he was easily moved out of Tobias’ way toward his dinner. She had to try and cover a chuckle- had she looked this Mooney eyed when she first saw him? She did ink herself into more trouble, she reminded herself, deciding to cut Jake some slack.

The hand reaches and folds the meal, dragging back further in the cave before the sounds of the meal began. Noelle began to push forward, following the large creature, only to turn around, Jake in frigid petrification.

“Noelle…. Those… That… He’s…”

“Like us!” Her chatter was excited as she swam back to the clownfish, taking his arm gently, leading him into the dark “Well. Sort of. He’s bigger, obviously. Not from around here, obviously.”

She watched as Jakes mouth began to move, then settle, then move once more. He was truly speechless- a rare feat. His lips tried to form words, of the stories of these monstrous beings from the deepest, darkest corners of the ocean. Stories that were told to scare little ones from venturing off too far. When the words did not come, he closed his mouth firmly, turning to her, something new glinting in his eye

“This is some crazy shit you got yourself into this time, Noelle. Jesus, I thought I was the one that attracted trouble.”

“He’s not trouble!” Noelle turned from him, whispering fiercely “I’m trying to help him- please be nice.”

“Fine, fine…… He’s really going at ita? Nothings gonna be left of that shark- you sure no one is going to notice it?”

Noelle had to roll her eyes again, mumbling something to the effect “even if they did, it’s not like it matters.”

Because it didn’t. Noelle loved her pod but their lazy attitude frustrated her sometimes- the topsiders had junk fall all the time into the ocean and she saw what they made, what they did! They made silly doodads that did nothing but shine, they strived to make new things instead of settling with what they had! Meanwhile, she sat and watched her podmates sit back once the work was finished- there was no strive to excel. The shark that had just been shredded into chum was n exceptional catch, but they would surely catch another, then spend four days lazing about.

Speaking of.

Noelle inched forward, holding her makeshift lantern in front of her face. She liked to make sure that she wasn’t bumping into the large, scaly mess, as she knew they both startled easily. And they both could make a mess when they were startled. So, she moved slowly, her hair flowing gently behind her in a long trail. He stayed focused on the food, and she tried to clear her throat to get his attention.

It did not work. She heard Jake snickering behind her, but she brushed it off.

“Uhm… Excuse me? Tobias?” She said it one quietly, then a little bit louder- she realized that he was a little hard of hearing after having to repeat things thrice earlier. “Uhm…. We… I wanted to introduce you to my friend... “

Jake swallowed, and swam forward, looking up at the monstrous fishman. His mouth twitched into a smile and he paddled up to his face. “Hello! The name’s Jake! It’s nice to meetcha!”

Noelle followed Jake, face to face with Tobi now. She shivered as his eyes met hers- spooky grey and warm brown connected once again. “How are you feeling?”

It takes a few tries, but she finally catches his attention. He hadn’t really seen her and the other swim up to him, as his vision was currently narrowed to the quickly shrinking pile of meat in front of him. Well marbled, smaller than he was used to but still very appreciated. He isn’t quite sure where she had gotten it; Noelle didn’t look much the type for wrangling something like that by herself. She kept saying something about a pod though. Maybe it was her family? Family could’ve taken down a shark, even as pretty as they were, safety in numbers and all that.

Orange fills his vision and derails his thoughts. Right, she was saying something. The strange lookin’ stubby fish has swum up to him, filled his vision with a strange combo of colors and shapes. It’s weird, he don’t look anything like Noelle. She’s all long lines and elegant fins, he’s all… short and round. She’s soft pastels and brown hair, he’s various offensive shades of orange and stripes. They don’t look nothin’ alike for bein’ in the same family. Pod. Whatever she had called it.


“Hello! The name’s Jake! It’s nice to meetcha!”


He’s loud too, nothing like how she’s soft when she don’t remember he can’t hear shit up here. He supposes Agnes is loud where he’s a little quieter, but they at least look alike. Bright grey eyes look the newcomer up and down, one hand still gripping the piece of meat he had been chewing on before he was interrupted. Blood from the still fresh meat floats up from the pile, coats his mouth where he had been ripping into it. Tobi blinks and raises an arm to wipe away at his mouth. They don’t get many visitors where they lived, but his ma and pa had beat a few manners into them. Manners that included not greeting new faces with blood on his own.

“Tobias.” He offers to the new fish. Jake, new fish is Jake. The low tone rumbles through the cave. Noelle swims up then beside Jake, looking him over. He can’t help but feel just the smallest bit self conscious under her investigation. He knows he doesn’t look…. The best. For some reason, that matters when he catches her looking. He doesn’t want to think about what that means anymore than he already has.


“How are you feeling?”


How’s he feeling? He hums as he considers. He’s not… the worst. The cave helps, but it’s still a bit too warm for his comfort. It’s dark, but not near the pitch he prefers. There’s food, more now than before, but it’s still not quite enough. Still always a bit woozy, still always tired, not enough room to really move. He’s just a hair away from good, he supposes.

“Jus’ a little left a' fine.” he settles on telling her. It could be worse, he supposes as he takes a bite out of the chunk of meat he’s holding. He lets the silence settle between them as he chews thoughtfully.


“You two ain’t look nothin’ alike.” he finally says. “For bein’ in the same family.”

The water seemed to chill even more as Noelle awaited the answer. The fact that he had to think about how he was feeling was alarming- she still had no clue where he came from, where he needed to go once he got his strength up. Fear clutched her gut and squeezed tight as he thought of his reply. She was probably doing a bad job- that much was evident by the way he ate, the way his glow dimmed and brightened when he talked. How tired he looked, how his body sagged around the rock and was just slightly more resigned than the last time she visited. The way he seemed slightly distracted from it all, the way his eyes bore into her.

‘My, that gaze is piercing’ Her tail flicked at the thought, as it did when she was irritated and anxious. It was a quick flick, the end of her tapered tail coiling and whipping its self, creating small ripples in the water that barely registered to Tobias. She realized quickly she was more anxious than irritated, as the knot in her stomach tightened with a yank, her breath hitching ever so slightly. She even felt her heart race adrenaline crawling under her skin. This was strange- when her nervous nature reared its head, she usually felt glued to her spot and unwilling to move. An unstoppable force of bottled up energy that was ready to release like a spring trap. She never once felt this shaky, explosion of whatever-the-heck-this-was.

Probably just a flight-or-fight reflex, she rationalized, brushing it off as nothing more. It was now that she realized that she had been staring intently at Tobias, a hand in her hair, twirling the same piece. Like one of those dolts with their fishbone combs, perched on their rocks and staring off to the topsiders, begging for attention. Her hand flitted back to her side, red rushing to her cheeks for whatever reason. She listened intently as Tobias tells her that he was ‘a little left from fine’. Which was a better response than the grunts and groans a couple of other times he answered. She tried to offer him a smile, one that was of relief and encouragement. This smile extended to the rest of her body as she leaned forward into the dark to look at him more closely, her tail finally stilling.

A stilling that ended as soon as Tobias opened his mouth again.

Noelle wrenched herself back, looking at Jake, who had already done the same, unable to hold his laughter. It bubbled out of his chest, filling the cavern with a joyful sound of incredulous belief. Noelle had a slightly horrified look. The same family? He had to be joking! She began to look jake up and down, trying to see if any resemblance that would indicate this comment. Sure, JAke was brightly colored- Did Tobias think that they were both colorful, so they must be related?

Jake’s laughter still rang as he turned back to Tobias, the twinkle returning to his eye. HE could feel Noelle’s gaze linger, so he decided to take this in his own hands “Noelle and I? Family? No, no no no-no. NO. Believe me, I wish I was some swishy, tall, pastel, coastal princess who shoots out ink. I mean, better than her mother. Did she tell you that her mom is poisonous? Got spikes on her fluke, can take out-”

“Alright!” Noelle finally gathered her wits, waving Jake off, turning back to Tobias. She hoped that he was amused by Jake's whims, but suspected that he was this close to just snapping up the clownfish for a second portion of his dinner “Jake and I are not related. We are just from the same pod… DO you have pods from… where you are from?”

Without an immediate answer (and by immediate, Noelle hardly waited a moment to clarify) “The pod isn’t quite like a family, but a group of families I suppose. Like a community. We… we live together, migrate together. But I only have my sister and my mother as real blood relatives. We joined the pod after… Well… we joined when I was young.”

Noelle’s tail began to twitch once again, obviously avoiding the subject. The truth was, she felt quite embarrassed about everything before they joined. She wasn’t a tropical fish, like Jake. She was from a land of coastal rock and sand, of waves crashing against jagged beaches and heavy storms. Of less sun, more clouds. And as much as she was grateful for everything the group had to offer, she did find hearself…. Longing for something else. It had been over a decade since she had last seen her home but the yearning remained.

She blinked.

Another tail twitch as Noelle came back to her senses. She stared back up at Tobias, her heart still racing and her skin still feeling fuzzy. The thing that mattered was that he was feeling at least a little better, ate a somewhat substantial dinner, and was coherent enough to as them such questions. She offered the smallest smile, raising her lantern and swimming forward and close to him once more. She couldn't help but notice things past the spooky eyes- the freckles, the glowing spots. She followed the tracings of scars, of the bluntness of his nose. How his own hair had been frayed from his days of rest, floating behind him lose. How his dark skin was somehow not as dark as the rock, and how the rock and scale seemed to meld into one another. How his neck lead to a thick chest of wirey hair and sharp jags, to even thicker arms that could probably strangle a hammerhead with barely any effort. She wondered how-

Red crept to her face again, and she refocused her efforts. Much more important things must be discussed “Tobias. Do you think we could help you find your way back home?”

The question had come out without much pause, as Noelle had worked on this exact question since she left the cave for the first time. She mumbled variations of it to herself until she landed on the simple inquiry. And it had taken much longer than she would like to admit.

“Yeah, got family.” Tobias mutters between bites of whatever she had brought. His cheeks redden a little at the laughter from the two fishies in front of him, but really, what did they expect him to think? Coming in here looking all colorful, he ain’t ever seen any like them in the first place. That they were apparently different enough that them being in the same family was laughable? He didn’t know.

‘Really,’ he thinks as he watches the bright orange mess chatter and laugh in front of him, ‘I ain't ever wonder too much how one of them taste, but he was about this close to finding out if he ain’t knock off some of that laughing.’ More of that meat is shoved into his face to try and hide the dark flush working its way across his face. Less now with the mistake, more with how the pretty swishy fishy insisted on creeping into his space. He had caught her a few time eyeing him, staring for just a few seconds before seeming to catch herself. He knows he’s… not what she’s used to, all sharp edges and strange markings. She’s gotta think him strange to look at, but boy if he doesn’t catch himself eyeing her between bites when he’s sure she’s not looking.

Really, he can’t help it! He’s never seen someone like her, all smooth lines and bright colors. Down where he’s from, it’d get her killed in half a heartbeat, but here? Well, he found him appreciating that slender, graceful form more and more each time she visited. How she looked so unusual, how she kept little hidden defenses that had caught him by surprise the first time. Found himself wondering how soft her own scales were, how they might feel….


Sharp teeth sink into a new chunk of meaty flesh. Really. Dumb brain, now ain’t the time.


“Tobias. Do you think we could help you find your way back home?”


“Home?” He pauses between bites to consider. Fish around him flit and scatter when he tilts his head in thought, the dark curls not weighted down by large pearls bouncing and bobbing in the water around him. “Honestly, ain’t know where I am right now. You get me down a little lower, might solve a few of my problems like the… the thinkin’. An’ the warm. An’ the light. Just… if you could get me lower, that’s probably the best start.”


He looks the two of them over, these tiny, colorful, bony fish. “Y’all got lower around here?”

“A lower?” Jake repeated, his stubby tail paddling him gently to a tread. He truly was the brightest thing in that cave, even with the glowing big boy across from him, his orange a stark contrast to their dark surroundings. “We just kinda stay close to the top, I don’t know where-”

“The drop-off” Noelle’s voice is barely a murmur, her wide eyes slowly going up to meet Tobi’s. She couldn’t help but linger on his chest and jaw, if only for a moment, before meeting those glowing silver against the dark sclera. She cleared her throat, a soft cough filling the space, before saying louder so that Tobias could hear “The drop-off. It’s a little east of here, we could probably make it there in a night, maybe faster if we really-”

“The drop off?!” Jake’s voice bounced in the cave in horror and excitement as he practically swam circles around the girl, a small trail of little fishies following him in a parade. Gleeful laughter bubbled from his throat as he took Noelle's arm and twirled her “Oh, Noe, you’re mom is going to FLAY us.”

He wasn’t wrong. For as long as she could remember, Noelle was allowed to go nearly anywhere by herself within a reasonable distance. Except the drop-off. It was big, and empty, and where the big ships come sailing. They were close enough to the surface, with their little coves and reefs, that most ships didn’t make their way too close to the pod. But the drop off… it was just what the big fishing ships liked. Her mother made it clear that Noelle was not allowed to swim that far out.

But it was the only space big enough for them to get Tobias where he needs to go. Noelle might have not seen anything quite like him, but she knew that the only person similar to him preferred the cold, deeper depths. Perhaps they would be willing to help. And not tell her mother.

Noelle shrugged off Jake's arm as he started swaying with his little fish followers. She fixed her eyes back on Tobi, once again getting a touch close. “Can you take one more night? We can meet you at dusk and make our way to the drop-off? I… I think it would be your best shot. Our best shot.”

“A drop off sounds right, if it’s what I'm thinkin’ it's gonna be.” He hums. The fish they had brought is about entirely gone, so he settles back with his broad arms draped over the rock he’s found himself curled around for most of his time here. It’s nice, his rock. Lets him fold his arms neatly over top and bury his chin behind them so neither of these colorful sorts catch the sharp toothed smile he gets when the bright one twirls Noelle around in some sort of real chaotic dance. Poor thing looks equally annoyed and flustered with the movement, even if the way her fins trail behind are just about the prettiest thing he’s seen in a long while. All smooth grace and fancy colors this one was.

‘Cute’ his brain supplies for him. ‘Shut up,’ he offers back. ‘Now’s not the time for any thinking like that’ he reminds himself when his eyes can’t seem to tear themselves from the way his sim lights make her scales shine in bright little points, the colors of them reflecting onto the cave walls. Even if her wide eyes were so damn pretty, little spots of color against a white he’s not entirely used to, pale like the rest of her. Dark clawed fingers drum idly against the rock as he wonders what the thin strand of her hair would feel like slipping between them…


He blinks, trying to wrestle back some sort of higher brain function. God, he was gonna say something real stupid, heat was really getting to him. But, she really was....

Fuck, she was close and saying something. Dark eyes blink at her confused for a second before her words really register.


“One more night? I can… I can do that. I think. Anythin’ you want, darlin’.” he hums, the rumble moving through the cave and startling some of the little fish that had moved from nipping at his hair to following the big bright orange one. “Prefer it sooner rather than later, though. Cold jus’ ain’t cold ‘nough up here, y’know?”

The endearment caught her off guard, she must admit.

It was not something that she was used to, not from non-family. But it had slipped between those scarred lips so easily, her eyes trained to her. Once again, her tail twitched ever so slightly to show her unease with this- after all, it had only been days prior where she was worried Tobias was going to gobble her whole. But now, well, the way she caught him looking made her heart flutter ever so. She studied his face after he spoke, silence filling between them for a moment before she ultimately decided that, perhaps, that was just how his pod spoke. With familiarity, with ease. She liked how it rolled off his teeth and out his lips like jewels.

But past ‘darlin’, what had he said? She blinked up at him, feeling so incredibly small next to him, reeling back about what she had even asked. Tomorrow at dusk, heading to the drop-off. Do it quickly. Yes, of course, they would need to do it quickly. With her limited knowledge of his particular brand of deep-sea brood, she did know that he must be sweltering with each passing day

“Oh, well, yes, It’s rather warm for you, I know. I, ehm, apologize for that. But, but I know we can get you to the drop off tomorrow night. And I am unsure we will find a cave as deep as this if we started swimming tonight- if that’s alright?”

She watches his face carefully to try and gauge his reaction, but she fails to notice the little fishies come creep up behind her, starting to weave from her hair away from Jake, and back toward Tobias. As they passed her, she let out an exasperated sigh and she swatted them back to her orange companion. “In the morning, I’ll go visit someone who can help. They know the waters better than me- they might have some more food I can bring… I’m terribly sorry, Tobias, with what you’re stuck in right now-”

“What’s it like down there? Lower?!” Jake pushed past Noelle with a cheeky grin, eyes so wide with excitement now that he had gotten over the initial shock of what he found that night “Cold and dark?! How do you see?”

Noelle could not help but huff and settle herself on the cave floor, her long tail curling under her for a comfortable seat. Now that they had decided that Jake needed to know everything about their new friend, she knew it would take a while. She only wished she had brought a bite to eat- she was beginning to feel a little peckish, spying the floating remains that Tobias had left. Her hair floating ever so in the water behind her, and the trinkets in her hair shining against the soft glow, she looked mostly at peace at all this now.

He has to stifle his laughter at the excitement of the bright orange fish. He’s really not that interesting, nor is the deep where he lives. It’s a long expanse of empty dark and jagged cliff faces, the only warmth and light coming from naturally occurring geothermal vents. He knew of dangerous things, of vast things, could tell stories of songs that carried for miles or massive shapes he had seen in the dark. Of inhospitable lakes of salt on the sea floor and those rare kin that make their home there. Perhaps he could tell them of the massive softly lit jellyfish mer that seem to be getting rarer with each passing day, or of the venerable old shark mer that bothered no one but long dead whales that deep. But all of it seems so… ordinary to him.

“What it like? Well…” Tobi murmurs quietly so as to not shake the cavern walls. “It’s comfortable. Lot less hot than here, and not as bright. We got lights only sparingly, little things that flicker by themselves or big things like me that got spots.” He motions to himself and how his own markings fade in and out of brightness. “E’erything’s bigger there. Or maybe you jus’ smaller.” He peers a little closer at the bright shape of the clownfish in front of him. Funny little thing, got a torso that’s just as long as his tail. Wide eyes. A particularly… gullible face. He gives a little look to the flashy fishy behind Jake all spread out and relaxed, gives her a little wink before he leans back.

So sue him if he wants to have a little fun.

“Or if they ain’t bigger, they sharper. Meaner. Gotta have a reason t’ stay alive the deeper you get. And then of course theres…” his voice drops a little quieter, as though he’s afraid of something hearing. “The monsters.” Wide eyes, open mouth. He’s got him.

“I’m hardly the biggest thing down there. My pa used to tell me legends of things he’d seen, mountainous creatures that’d take his whole family to bring down. Made’a rocks and teeth they were, all sorts of horror wrapped up in a thick hide. You honestly lucky we gotta deal with ‘em, they’d make a meal outta you in a heartbeat.”

Never mind that Sunshine was a little one of those beasts. He’s embellishing just a little.

“Honestly, I miss it though. Be happy to get back down there.” He looks back down at the softer fishy sharing his cave. “Who you know that know the deep? I would’a thought all you shallow types stick together. Can’t imagine one’a mine coming up willingly, the light make it all sorts of hard to see. Or one’a yours going down.”

Noelle had let his tales drift through her ears as the current lulled her. She had many stories about the deep, although she had not indulged them with anyone outside of her mother. Her sister had not even remembered their time there. Dark and cold yes, fearsome creatures, yes. But it was hardly the horror show that Tobias had spun. She almost smiled when he winked at her, the feeling twitching on her cheeks as he invited her into his little joke.

If only he knew just how much she understood about the dark depths of his world.

“One of mine, yes. My mother, actually. She has journeyed far over her years, and deep. Unlike some-” her eyes flicked to Jacob, who was slack jawed at Tobias’ shadowed words of monsters, fear played across his face “-of our pod, she would be willing to help you get back home. And might know the quickest way to do so without too much trouble.”