Chapter Text
Scraping. The cold brush of wind against scales.
A lone mer caught in a net is practically dead already. If he had a pod, there would be a chance at survival. A partner, maybe. But he’s alone – both by choice and by having driven Kaveh off – and so there’s no one to cut him free.
The net is hauled out of the ocean, water dripping off dark scales and onto cold metal and wood. His body hits the ground with a thunk.
He still can’t see. His blindfold is torn, leaving no barrier between his light-sensitive eyes and the sun – and leaving him with no choice but to keep them closed.
He’s not entirely sure where he is. A boat, maybe, by the way the ground underneath him rocks. Heavy bootsteps echo around him, voices speaking in a language he isn’t familiar with. Snezhnayan?
A gloved hand grabs his ear fin and yanks. He winces, a pained sound escaping his throat.
His tail thrashes, connecting with armored human legs. The voices are shouting now, too loud, too many of them at once. There’s the brutal crunch of shell breaking as his headphones come loose, meeting their end under the foot of a human.
Then a heavy impact as something is brought down over his head.
The flood of sensations fades, replaced with an eerie nothingness.
<><><>
“You might have mentioned this before,” Kaveh starts. “But how many languages do you know, anyway?”
He’s perched on the rocks, Alhaitham in the water below him. It’s about a year into their friendship, and Alhaitham has been requesting books on languages for the past few months, which he seems to master quickly for someone unable to communicate with native speakers. The mer thinks for a moment, bioluminescence flickering.
“At least twenty. Most of them were from my grandmother. The rest I learned from your books. I am still not fully proficient in those.”
“Twenty?!” Kaveh blurts. “Wait – your grandmother spoke human languages?”
Alhaitham nods. “Some, yes. I’m able to speak many of the older mer dialects, too, like those of Ekanoimiya and Remuria. Liyue’s dialects as well, though those are still in use today.”
Kaveh leans forwards, interest piqued. “Really? What do they sound like? Are they related to human languages?”
He’s never actually heard the older mer dialects. The coastal mer around Sumeru primarily spoke human languages. Alhaitham had previously mentioned that in current times – with the exception of ceremonial usage – it was primarily oceanic and deepwater mer who spoke the mer dialects.
“Not really,” Alhaitham says, adjusting his position until he’s halfway out of the water, his tail curled around the rocks and brushing Kaveh’s legs. Something sparks in Kaveh at the contact. “Mer language can’t be spoken with a human larynx. Ideas are communicated through changes in pitch and frequency. Each pod has their own dialect.”
“And in the deep sea?” Kaveh asks. He’s trying to ignore it, but Alhaitham has only moved closer, and he can feel the weight and cold of the mer’s tail over his ankles. “You said you don’t have pods there.”
Alhaitham shrugs. “Partners develop their own dialect. As I have barely reached what is considered ‘adult’ for deepwater mer, I haven’t concerned myself with that.”
Kaveh tilts his head. “So you’re eighteen, then? That would make you… two years younger than me, I think.”
“Is that when humans are considered ‘adult’?” Alhaitham asks. He’s frowning now. “Deepwater mer are considered ‘adult’ when our bioluminescent patterns develop fully. My grandmother said it followed the same timeline as human development. So after that, do you look for partners?”
“No! No!” Kaveh quickly yelps. “It’s just when we’re allowed to, you know, get a drink. I mean, some of my classmates do have fiances, but I can’t really see myself getting married anytime soon. I haven’t even graduated!”
Another thought hits him, accompanied by the sharp pang of preemptive loss. “So, what about you?” Kaveh asks, hoping the fear doesn’t show. “Are you going to search for a partner? How does that work in the deep sea?”
Kaveh has had friends who stopped hanging out with him – or anyone, really – as soon as they found a partner or object of fascination. Kaveh himself has always been careful to maintain his social circle, even with his current nebulous… er, interest in Alhaitham.
But if Alhaitham were to find a partner in the deep sea, would he ever come to the surface again?
Alhaitham pauses for a moment, lures flickering again. “I don’t see a need for that,” he says eventually. “You wanted to know about merfolk dialects. Do you have more questions on that?”
Interesting. It’s almost like he wants to avoid the topic altogether. Could there be a reason for that, or…?
“Did something happen?” Kaveh asks, quietly.
“No,” Alhaitham says flatly. “I’m simply not in the mood for a conversation on partners. The deep sea’s version of partnership is a rigid structure that holds little appeal to me, and I’d appreciate it if you picked a more engaging topic of conversation.”
How is it rigid? Is it anything like marriage in Sumeru? As much as Kaveh wants to know more, Alhaitham clearly isn’t a fan of the topic, and so he drops it in favor of languages. He is still curious about that, after all.
Kaveh drums his fingernails against the rock. “You still haven’t told me what the languages sound like.”
“They all tend to sound similar,” Alhaitham says, returning to his usual tone. “Given they follow similar rules, and the sounds producible with a syrinx are somewhat more limited. Liyue’s dialect is much more pitch-sensitive, and tone-sensitive as well, making it harder to learn. It’s taken time for me to master it.”
Kaveh taps his fingers on the stone. “Could I hear it? Please?”
Alhaitham nods, then opens his mouth, producing a series of guttural clicks, rumbles, and creaking noises before abruptly breaking off at Kaveh’s shocked look. “I assume you expected something else.”
“I don’t know what I was expecting,” Kaveh mutters. “What about the song aspect of the language? That’s something I’ve heard about from the reef merfolk, but you’re the only mer I’ve met who actually knows the older languages.”
“It… isn’t used as often,” Alhaitham says, hesitantly. “Mostly to record history. Among other things.”
“Like?” Kaveh asks. He takes his sketchbook out, struck with the sudden urge to write this all down. The book’s weathered pages are filled with doodles of Alhaitham from various angles, hidden in the corners of architectural designs or notes from classes. “Would you be– er, willing to… I mean, I’d like to hear it, if that’s okay with you.”
Alhaitham pauses, something strange flickering over his face. Patterns light up along his tail, then dim. Shock?
“That’s…” he starts, then pauses. “Different. It’s only used for special occasions.”
“Sorry,” Kaveh mumbles. “Didn’t mean to pressure you into it, or anything.”
The mer snorts. “I hardly felt pressured. If you want me to continue to indulge your curiosity on mer languages, I can show you what the Ekanoimiyan dialect sounds like when spoken normally.”
Spoken normally. Not the song, then.
Kaveh nods, and Alhaitham produces another series of clicking noises, harsher and more rapid than before, before the sounds fade to a low rumble interrupted by the occasional click. When he pauses, Kaveh stares, fascinated. “What did you say?”
A smirk crosses Alhaitham’s face. “I believe you would have to learn the language to find out.”
Kaveh huffs. “Rude. Maybe I won’t share any of my snacks with you tonight.”
He does, anyway. As much as Alhaitham can annoy him sometimes – seriously, it’s like he makes it his life’s mission – talking to him is fascinating. He doesn’t hide his opinions behind a need to gain social approval like most of Kaveh’s classmates at the Akademiya, and, as much as Kaveh hates it sometimes, Alhaitham isn’t afraid to call him out for his own mistakes and shortcomings. Best of all, Alhaitham listens, even if Kaveh’s thoughts are a mess and Alhaitham has to mess with him at least twice a minute.
He’s Kaveh’s closest friend. Kaveh can’t imagine there being a time where he doesn’t meet Alhaitham on the shore each night.
<><><>
Fading in and out, Alhaitham tries to adjust to his new surroundings.
It’s dim enough now for him to creak his eyes open the faintest amount, revealing dirty water and stained, rusted metal.
He’s in the hold of the ship. Some sort of makeshift tank.
The water scrapes over his gills, harsh and grating. It’s the wrong salinity, nowhere near salty enough. Far too warm, as well. Each shudder of the water sends ripples over his lateral line, no longer muffled by his headphones.
It’s still loud. Noise echoes throughout… wherever he is – the clanking of machinery, the stomping of boots, shouting in Snezhnayan.
He’s taken great pains to curate his environment to minimize disruptions. Headphones. His blindfold. Avoiding crowded or noisy areas of the reef. Both are gone now, stripped away from him by rough human hands.
The Fatui. They have to be.
He still has no idea where Kaveh is. The rush of blood in his ears makes it impossible to think, mind folding in on itself like a shell crushed by the rocks.
Outside, the noise continues.
<><><>
Kaveh is late.
Humans seem to be bad at keeping to an exact schedule, if Kaveh’s behavior is anything to go off of, but tonight, he is stumbling down to the beach long after Alhaitham had arrived.
He had said something about a human thing called ‘finals’, something he did last year and seemed significantly stressed out by. Maybe that’s why he’s late?
When Kaveh arrives, his face is shiny and flushed, and there are dark bags under his eyes. He isn’t carrying his notebook or bag this time, and has taken the ‘jacket’ off his Akademiya uniform.
“You look…” Alhaitham pauses, studying Kaveh. “Bad.”
“Gee, thanks,” Kaveh mutters, sitting down on the rocks a distance from Alhaitham. Is he upset at the comment? Alhaitham attempts to inch closer.
“Might not be the best idea to get too close to me right now,” Kaveh warns. “I’m a bit sick. Finals just ended at the Akademiya, so everyone’s catching something now. I don’t know what happens when merfolk get a cold, but I don’t want to get you sick. Just wanted to say hi, you know?”
Alhaitham flicks his tail through the water. “I doubt I will. Merfolk immune systems are better than human ones. I ate a dead whale once.”
Kaveh frowns. “Wait. An entire dead whale? How big was it? Did you eat it by yourself? Did it taste good?” He pauses for a moment, then seems to appear a bit sheepish. “That was probably too many questions.”
“It tasted fine,” Alhaitham says. “Like your meat skewers. But without the stick.”
Kaveh laughs as he moves closer, sitting down inches from Alhaitham. He can feel the heat radiating off of the human, concerning in its intensity. Kaveh… doesn’t look good. Alhaitham hears his stomach grumble.
“You’re hungry.”
“Just skipped dinner,” Kaveh admits. “Forget about it… er, I’ve just been feeling under the weather lately, that’s all.”
Alhaitham frowns, lure bobbing as he tilts his head. “So you were unable to hunt for yourself today? You have friends in the Akademiya. Were none of them really able to get some form of food for you?”
Over the course of his friendship with Kaveh, Alhaitham has learned that humans require food much more frequently than deepwater mer. The average human will eat three meals a day, possibly with snacks in between, which seems ridiculous to Alhaitham.
He briefly considers catching a fish for Kaveh, but then again, humans don’t seem to eat the same things as merfolk.
“I don’t eat with my Akademiya friends that often,” Kaveh says with a shrug. His hand ends up landing very close to Alhaitham’s own, the heat from it palpable in the cool evening air.
Alhaitham narrows his eyes. “You seem to be producing an excessive amount of heat.”
Kaveh laughs again, a tired, wheezing sound. “I have a fever. It’ll go away in a few days, so don’t worry about me.”
“You say that a lot,” Alhaitham points out, leaning into Kaveh’s side. Despite how touchy they’ve gotten with each other lately, it still feels a bit unusual to do this. Alhaitham isn’t someone who usually enjoys physical contact.
Kaveh hums. “You’re cold. It feels really nice right now, though.”
“Do you want me to stay here?”
“You don’t have to,” Kaveh mutters. “Whatever is comfortable for you, really.”
Alhaitham shrugs, then hauls himself out of the water, draping his body across Kaveh like limp kelp. Kaveh makes an undignified squeak as Alhaitham’s tail scrapes across the rocks.
“Better?” Alhaitham asks. Kaveh huffs.
“Hold on,” he grumbles. “Give me a moment to lie down. I am not having you and your heavy tail clinging onto me while I’m already about to pass out.”
Several minutes of shuffling later, Kaveh is lying down on the rocks, Alhaitham over him, tail curling around Kaveh’s ankles. Kaveh is laughing softly, and suddenly his hand is in Alhaitham’s hair, playing with it, and something in Alhaitham’s chest is turning to putty.
The warmth brings back distant memories of a long-lost life on land, the crackle and pop of some fuzzy, glowing orange thing, the comfort of an embrace.
Alhaitham has never missed his childhood as a human. But that isn’t to say he doesn’t enjoy this.
There’s a rumbling starting in his throat as Kaveh tugs him a bit closer, and the human unexpectedly laughs, playfully nudging Alhaitham. “You’re like a cat, you know that?” Kaveh murmurs. “A big, wet cat.”
Alhaitham isn’t sure what a cat is. Kaveh talks about them with immense fondness in his tone, so the comparison is probably a compliment of some sort. Alhaitham doesn’t respond, instead closing his eyes and sinking further into Kaveh’s warmth.
It’s dangerous for him to be out of the water like this. He’s trusting Kaveh to help him back into the ocean eventually, but even so, should an unexpected threat materialize, Alhaitham would be in no insignificant danger, just like he was when he first met Kaveh.
So maybe it’s foolish to be here. Maybe there’s something about Kaveh that’s making Alhaitham lower his guards. He’s warm, not just physically. Bright.
He does… things to Alhaitham’s stomach, makes it feel like it’s filled with swarms of those little fish that swarm to the surface each Rising.
He doesn’t know what to call it.
Lying here, wrapped in Kaveh’s arms, Alhaitham has to wonder: when did he become so comfortable with this human?
<><><>
They move him out of the hold at some point before the light starts to fade, armored humans crouching around the water with spears pointed in his direction.
The net and scuffle on the deck already left him with enough injuries.
This time, he doesn’t attempt to resist.
He’s out of the water for a while this time, wheezing in the dry air as his scales flake off. He can’t move. The Fatui have immobilized him again, somehow, and the flood of outside sensation is too intense to tell if it’s poison, a net, or something else.
The whizzing and clanking of machinery.
The thud of boots on metal.
The harsh glare of blue lighting above him every time he tries to open his eyes.
The constant touches, poking, prodding.
And then he’s being moved again, yanked around like an object or toy, thrashing one final time before something metal smacking against his gills makes it clear they have no qualms about knocking him out again.
Pain sparks across his ribs as he squirms against restraints he can’t see, the clamor continuing in the background. He’s being moved again, orders being barked to unseen Fatui in Snezhnayan as he’s dragged forwards.
Pain. Noise. Lights.
He tries to block it out, tries to shut down what little of his brain is still working. It doesn’t work.
Voices. The clink of mora. Something tearing at his tailfin.
At some point, he’s put back in a tank. It’s the right salinity this time, but still the wrong temperature, lukewarm and stale. Corners far too small, forcing him to curl his tail around himself. There’s something stuck to his ear fin, a faint green glow emanating from it whenever he starts to open his eyes. The lights are dimmer now, a faint orange-yellow glow. He can open his eyes, just a little.
Somewhere, in the distance, he can smell the salty brine of the sea.
Home.
There are humans here, walking around his tank curiously, wearing clothing like the kind Kaveh used to wear. Except they’re the ones keeping him trapped here.
Hands press against the glass, tapping. Faces stare at him with morbid curiosity. Someone drops something into his tank, accompanied by the faint tang of bloody sweetness that usually means prey, but somehow wrong.
He reaches for it half-blindly, claws closing in around what feels like a shrimp, but freezing to the touch and rock-hard.
Stale. He eats it anyway.
Is this what he’s been reduced to? A fish in a tank, there to be poked and prodded by humans?
The worst of them is someone they call ‘Azar’, an ill-tempered researcher who attempts to fiddle with whatever device he’s attached to Alhaitham’s ear fin until a snarl and a warning display of bioluminescence convince the researchers he needs to be sedated half the time.
The only bit of respite he gets is the presence of ‘Setaria’, a human who almost reminds him of Kaveh in her kindness. She keeps the lights turned down and leaves fresh fish in his tank and occasionally talks to him.
Her great-grandmother was a mer, apparently. Not that Alhaitham actually needs insights on this human’s personal life, but it explains the sympathy.
“I’d like to free you,” Setaria whispers. “But they’re already starting to suspect someone is messing with their catches. I cut their nets, though. The Fatui won’t be hauling in any more merfolk until they can get those repaired.”
He remains silent. Kaveh is safe, if he hadn’t been caught already. That’s all that matters.
<><><>
Now in his final year at the Akademiya, Kaveh is struggling with balancing projects, classes, homework, and the various friend groups he’s in but not really in, as well as the ever-present pressure to be the Light of Kshahrewar his darshan so desperately needs.
And then there’s Alhaitham, who seems as carefree and infuriating as ever.
And, even more frustratingly, he’s getting handsome.
“You’re intoxicated again,” Alhaitham remarks as Kaveh sits down on the rocks, clenching and unclenching his fists. It’s been a long day, to say the least, and so really, who can blame Kaveh for having gone to the bar?
“I had less than half a glass,” Kaveh hisses. “I am not intoxicated. I’m not even tipsy! I’m fine.”
Alhaitham hums. “You say that quite frequently. I don’t think it’s true.”
Kaveh flips him off playfully, then flops down on his back. “Fuck you, Haitham. I’ll be the judge of if I’m fine or not, okay?”
Suddenly, there’s a teal shine right in front of his face, and Alhaitham is leaning over him, having hauled himself up out of the water just to give Kaveh his creepy big-eyed stare.
He’s been doing that a lot. Getting out of the water for the sole purpose of bothering Kaveh, and then leaving Kaveh to drag him back in.
Kaveh would be lying if he said something wasn’t flipping in his stomach at the sudden proximity, though.
“You’re stressed,” Alhaitham notes, tilting his head. Kaveh gently shoves him away.
“What else is new?”
Alhaitham pushes himself back into the water, and Kaveh sits back up to follow his movement. “What would make you not stressed?” Alhaitham asks. Kaveh shrugs.
“I don’t know,” he huffs. “A vacation, maybe. I’d like to go to Fontaine and see how my mom is doing. That’s not really possible, though. Especially, you know, given Fontaine is almost entirely underwater.”
“And yet your mother is there.”
“...complicated situation,” Kaveh admits. After his father’s death, his mother had grown distant, eventually journeying to Fontaine and falling in love with a mer she met there. When she moved away for good, Kaveh tried not to be bitter, given she had told him he could visit at any time.
Alhaitham tilts his head, like he’s trying to find the truth behind Kaveh’s words, but he doesn’t pry. In the end, he flicks his tail and turns out towards the ocean, glancing back at Kaveh.
“There’s a hidden cave off the coast that I found about a week ago,” he ventures. “I don’t think it’s what humans call a ‘vacation’, but–”
“I can’t swim,” Kaveh mumbles.
He had stopped learning after his father drowned.
“I don’t see how that’s a problem,” Alhaitham says. “I can swim us there.”
Kaveh pauses, stares out at the water, hesitates, swallows down his anxiety. “You have to promise you will not let me drown.”
Alhaitham nods, and Kaveh nervously follows him into the water, his heart pounding in his chest. Alhaitham stays with him the whole time, keeping his head above the water. It’s cold, and Kaveh can’t see anything below him, and that’s incredibly freaky, so he closes his eyes until his feet brush against stone and Alhaitham is saying they’ve made it.
Kaveh is shoulder-deep in a pool of water, leading into a cave lit from above by strange, glowing strands of blue light. Stalactites hang down from the ceiling, water dripping into the pools.
“It’s beautiful,” Kaveh breathes, wading until the water only reaches his waist. “It’s like… I don’t know, the kind of place you’d go to for a date or something. You know, a really neat one. Not just a cafe or something.”
Alhaitham frowns. “What’s a ‘date’? Would that happen to be a human thing?”
“Er…” Kaveh feels his face heat up. “Yeah, I guess. It’s where, I don’t know, you go someplace – like this – with someone you like. And then you hang out.”
“So this is a ‘date’, then?” Alhaitham asks.
Kaveh quickly scrambles back, accidentally splashing Alhaitham. Spirits, he hopes Alhaitham can’t see how red his face is right now. “No, no no! It’s just– hanging out!”
“Isn’t that what one would do on a ‘date’?” The mer’s head is tilted to the side, like he’s trying to puzzle this out. “You said yourself that this was ‘someplace cool’. I am under the impression that we ‘like’ each other, and that we are currently ‘hanging out’. Linguistically speaking, therefore, this is a date.”
“That’s not– no!” Kaveh yelps. His face is practically on fire now. “Dates are different. You… you know, you have dinner together. Kiss.”
Alhaitham’s expression only grows more puzzled. His tail flicks the surface of the water. “We ate food beforehand. That should count as ‘dinner’. According to your dictionary, ‘dinner’ must fall at some point in the later hours of the day. That was when we ate.”
“Yeah, but we haven’t kissed!” Kaveh hisses, then immediately regrets opening his mouth in the first place.
“Is that another human thing?” Alhaitham asks. “Is that required to make this a date? I think I am failing to understand the requirements for this. What counts as ‘kissing’? Is that not something we’ve done?”
Spirits. He’s genuinely clueless.
“We most certainly have not!”
“Oh.” Alhaitham seems vaguely disappointed by this, which makes Kaveh feel bad. How is he supposed to explain human romance to him? Without making a complete and utter fool of himself?
“Look,” Kaveh says, curling his arms almost protectively around himself in the water. Alhaitham swims closer. “I don’t really know how to explain kissing to you. I guess it’s a human thing?”
Alhaitham shrugs. “Then show me. It doesn’t seem that difficult.”
And okay, maybe Kaveh has been thinking about that, but this seems like entirely the wrong time and Alhaitham doesn’t even know what it means! He worries at his sleeves, wringing the water out of the top of his Akademiya robes. Alhaitham’s lures flicker. The mer watches his every move, like he’s waiting to see what Kaveh will do next.
“It’s–” Kaveh pauses, tugging at a loose thread in the robe. “I’ll just try to explain it, okay? It’s where two people, you know, press their lips together for a few seconds? They do it when they really like each other.”
“And that makes it a date?”
Kaveh nods. Slowly, he relaxes, breathing a sigh of relief. Alhaitham’s curiosity seems to have been satisfied for now. He doesn’t have to answer any more questions about dates or kissing or–
And then suddenly, Alhaitham’s mouth is on his, and Kaveh starts to scramble away once more before a significantly less wise portion of his brain takes over, and Alhaitham is freezing cold but Kaveh doesn’t mind and he’s leaning in, hands sliding around the back of Alhaitham’s neck as he pulls him closer, fingers brushing over the fins at his ears–
Alhaitham’s tail winds around his legs, a quiet rumbling starting in the back of the mer’s throat before Alhaitham pushes himself away, falling back into the water with a splash.
“There,” Alhaitham says, satisfied, the look in his eyes somewhat triumphant. Like he’s just solved a puzzle. It most certainly is not the look of someone who is in love. Which has no reason to make Kaveh disappointed, but it does. “Now this fits every requirement for a date. Are you happy?”
Kaveh makes a rather undignified noise.
“We can’t do this again,” Kaveh spits, and Alhaitham’s eyes widen, fins ruffling ever so slightly. Hurt is etched onto his face, traced in the lines of his mouth and the corners of his eyes.
“Shit– I–” Kaveh stutters. “Haitham, I didn’t– I didn't mean it like that. It’s just–”
Alhaitham nods. “We can’t do the ‘kissing’ again. I think I understand now. That was a… human ritual of special significance. Am I correct in that assumption?”
“Mhm.” Kaveh gently nudges Alhaitham’s tail with his foot. “Haitham, I’m not mad or anything. Just– learn what it means first, okay? Let’s talk about something else now. Like the thesis, the one on the runes. You wanted to participate in that, right?”
<><><>
Eventually, Setaria manages to convince the other researchers that Alhaitham has become ‘compliant’. Alhaitham plays along, lets the researchers examine his tail and gills and lures and stops snarling or trying to claw them.
He still hasn’t revealed to them that he can speak. He isn’t sure what their reaction will be.
Likely, they’d just dissect him to take a look at his vocal chords.
After several cycles of this performance, they stop sedating him during examinations. They take him out of the tank for these humiliating encounters, and through the windows, Alhaitham can see the lapping of the waves.
He’s close to the shore. If he can just bide his time, recover his strength–
He’ll be able to leave this accursed place.
The researchers start giving him fresher food, Setaria saying something about ‘not letting the specimen die’. As she sits next to his tank and talks to him, she casually mentions the routines of the guards and the quickest route to the shore.
It didn’t take long for Alhaitham to realize this was her way of helping him escape.
Eventually, he decides that informing her of his ability to speak is worth the risk, and a tentative escape plan is formed.
“The tide is really high today,” Setaria remarks one… humans call it ‘evening’, don’t they? Alhaitham’s always called it the Rising, like other deepwater mer. “They’re going to take you out for an examination later. They’re going to do it outside, see if your bioluminescence reacts to the moon like you suggested.”
Alhaitham waits.
His tank is rolled out of the structure as the researchers chatter above him. The sky is dark, but the researcher’s lights are bright, and Alhaitham has to squint.
“For an outside examination, we’re going to have to sedate it,” one of the researchers – Azar, the nasty one – is saying. “Someone get me a–”
Alhaitham smashes his tail into the glass of the tank.
He no longer has time to wait for them to remove him from the tank. If he’s sedated, he isn’t going to make it to the water at all. He rams his shoulder into the glass next, gritting his teeth as pain stabs through his body.
The glass shatters on the third try. Shards lodge their way between his scales, blood spilling into the water pooling on the floor.
Azar is shouting something as Alhaitham moves towards what he desperately hopes is the ocean, tail swinging over wooden boards to propel him forwards. His bioluminescence flickers. Someone is yelling in the distance, some sort of commotion nearby.
Waves lap against rock and wood. He’s so close to the ocean. If he can just–
Then the human’s foot is on his tail, and Alhaitham is whipping around, a snarl ripping out of his throat, bioluminescence flaring a warning red as he flashes it bright, bright. An instinctive response, an alarm call meant to draw in something bigger.
He isn’t in the deep. The consecrated dragonfish and stranger, larger creatures the red light was meant to attract wouldn’t even catch the flare.
Claws scrape against skin as Alhaitham twists, thrashes, breaks free.
<><><>
Harsh words. Gritted teeth. A thesis, torn in two and thrown into the waves.
Alhaitham is watching his only friend storm off, after Kaveh having declared he regretted even being friends with him.
It stings. There’s an ache in his chest he’s never felt before, a hurt, and Alhaitham isn’t sure why it hurts or why it’s there.
He had said things he thought Kaveh needed to hear. Kaveh hadn’t thought so.
What had Alhaitham done wrong? A lot, evidently. The thesis is no longer in the water, Kaveh having fished it out before he stomped off claiming he didn’t want to litter, or something. ‘Litter’ seems to be another human thing.
After all these years of their friendship, Alhaitham still doesn’t know how humans work. Still doesn't know how Kaveh works.
And now, he doubts he ever will.
<><><>
Pain. Shouting. Lights, flickering above him.
Glass shards are still embedded in his tail as he hauls himself forwards, the guards springing to life behind him.
One of them moves to block him.
With their advantage of a weapon and actually being able to move, Alhaitham isn’t going to make it.
Except something reaches out of the water and grabs the human blocking him, and Alhaitham hears the snapping of fins and a human’s shriek. Then a cold metal hand grabs Alhaitham’s wrist, and yanks.
The memory of the metal Fatui boots flashes through Alhaitham’s mind. He’s going to be captured again. They’re going to watch him more closely after this. If he doesn’t break free now, he’s probably lost his last chance.
Alhaitham struggles, claws raking against something hard and impenetrable. He hears a ‘tch’ followed by a ‘calm down!’ and the metal hand is dragging him away, into the water–
There are more hands on him now. The saltwater stings his wounds.
Alhaitham opens his eyes, and red and white scales flood his vision. Warmth presses against his chest, and he catches glimmers of gold and crimson irises. A familiar voice is shouting at him, and Alhaitham blinks and pauses and–
Kaveh. Kaveh’s here.
The mer with the metal hand has let go of Alhaitham now, Kaveh holding him upright in the current. The architect seems uninjured, only a few scrapes on his tail. He’s safe.
Alhaitham closes his eyes, resting his head against Kaveh’s shoulder.
Kaveh’s okay. He’s okay.
He's home.