Chapter Text
The Palecircle dawns clear and bright. It's a good omen for a bonding ceremony, or so Elders say.
Haruka supposes it good that one thing is going right, because his nerves have convinced him that everything else won't. He's sitting in a kelp bed, plucking one long strand to seaweed to bits as everyone in Makoto's pod rushes to prepare for a bonding ceremony.
As promised, Makoto had gone to his mother first thing in the morning with their intentions, hand in hand with Haruka. She had listened to Makoto's stilted but earnest declaration in silence, a knowing smile on her face. When Makoto ground to a stuttering halt, face bright red, she'd reached out and patted his cheek gently. “I knew this day would come, from the very first time little Haruka showed up here, lost and alone and you took him in. I knew there would be something special between you two.”
Something special. Haruka pauses, watching a green bit of kelp float away in the current. His Elder-mother had said the same thing often, always watching with a knowing look when Haruka swam away to meet the blacktails. “That child is the only one you ever keep promises to,” she'd said several times.
It was true. Haruka had always been known for his rebellious free spirit, even back then. He was the child who swam out of the hunting group because being directed on how to swim grated on him, even just for learning. He hadn't wanted to learn to rely on others to get his own food, anyways, so he'd learned how to hunt mackerel on his own and had been happier for it.
Of course, even through that, he remembers not being so opposed to grouping up with Makoto in his learning expeditions. Indeed, any activity that Haruka thought of as restricting or opposing became the exact opposite in the presence of the gentle blacktail. Swimming beside Makoto made Haruka feel like he was flying free instead of cornered and crowded like others.
Special, indeed.
His signature whistle being called from above interrupts his thoughts, and Haruka looks up. Makoto's mother Michiko smiles down at him, beckoning him towards the surface, and with a flick of his tail Haruka abandons the poor shredded kelp and joins her at the surface.
“Are you ready, Haruka?” She asks, watching him with glimmering green eyes just a few shades darker than her son.
Haruka nods, throat closing up abruptly. He hopes he doesn't look too shaky. It's not that he's regretting this – he's being bonded to Makoto, how could he ever regret it – but he is nervous. This will make the first day of the rest of their lives together, inseparable. The thought is happy, but heavy.
Michiko seems to notice, and her smile softens as she pats him on the cheek. “I'm glad it's you. There's no one else in the ocean I'd rather see my son swim with, Haruka.”
Haruka feels his cheeks heat up, and he looks down at the water, wanting to dive into it to cool them off but not wanting to be rude to his bondmate's mother, so he nods again. She laughs softly at him, which only intensifies the embarrassment, and he looks to the side and refuses to admit he's pouting.
“Ah, that reminds me, we need to get you adorned,” she says, and Haruka looks up from his not-a-pout in confusion. Adorned? She just smiles mysteriously, clapping her hands, and before Haruka can process what's happening splashes surround him and he's suddenly encircled by several females of Makoto's pod. They're giggling and draping stuff over him before he can protest, and just as suddenly as they arrived they vanish, black fins slipping under the water and leaving Haruka blinking rapidly. What...?
He raises a hand to see that he's been draped in oyster stones interwoven with a blue seaweed to make decorative ropes. A cautious hand to his head reveals a drape of the same sort of thing, and he looks behind himself to see an intricate network of the iridescent white stones and bright blue plant trailing behind him, almost the full length of his body. The seaweed isn't wilted at all – it must have been done recently, but he can't imagine finishing this all in just this morning.
He looks back at Michiko, who giggles softly again at the confusion written on his face. “I may have had a hunch when you arrived this cycle that there would be need for a bonding ceremony, so the girls and I have been working on this since you came.”
Haruka doesn't know what to say – he doesn't think he's worth this sort of work. And this certainly didn't help the red cheeks situation. He looks back down at the water, trying to find something to say. “...This is a lot of oyster stones.”
It kind of is. They're all large and lovely, and there must be at least a hundred in the headdrape alone.
“Only the best for my eldest son's bondmate,” Michiko says, almost proudly. She regards him with a critical eye for a moment, before nodding and smiling, holding out her hands. “You look beautiful. Now, it's almost time for the ceremony. Let's get started and stop Makoto from creating a whirpool with all the circles he's swimming in, shall we?”
His heart jumps into his throat again as Haruka hesitantly takes her proffered hands. This is it.
Michiko smiles reassuringly at him, as if she can sense his nerves, and guides them underwater, holding Haruka's hand as they swim towards the place decided for the ceremony – a secluded inlet with a beautiful arch of rock in the middle. The water is especially clear in this little inlet, and Haruka looks around with wide eyes at the beauty of the simple place. It's not far from the feeding ground, but he's never been here before, usually too busy with Makoto and the twins to explore.
The rest of Makoto's pod has already gathered, and Haruka feels his nerves triple. He likes them, really, but their gazes aren't doing anything to quell his nervousness.
It's the one curse of being with a blacktail – no concept of privacy.
They approached the gathered pod, and Haruka instinctively scans for Makoto, eyes darting restlessly, searching for his about-to-be-bondmate. Where is he?
Then the pod swirls, pulls apart a little, and Haruka's world narrows down because there he is.
He can see the exact moment Makoto spots him, as well – mouth dropping open a little, green eyes widening and filling with something Haruka can only describe as light. The rest of the pod suddenly doesn't matter, everything faded and muffled as Haruka lets go of Michiko's hands to swim forward on his own, reaching out to automatically twine his fingers with Makoto's, who swam forward to meet him halfway. He looks into those green green eyes, shining down at him, and there's no nervousness anymore. Not even when Makoto pulls his hands gently and they break the surface, followed by the rest of the pod. It doesn't matter when their voices raise in song – Haruka doesn't recognize it, it's not the song silvertails use for bonding, but it doesn't matter because it's all perfect anyways and he's not the one who has to sing it – as the Elder females start adorning them with ceremonial trinkets, speaking the words of bonding as they tie Haruka's left and Makoto's right hands together with roped kelp as a proper bond. They won't untie it – it will stay until it falls off on its own, as is traditional. The feast afterwards is an equal blur – he eats something, because it's a long swim back home and as one of the honored persons he's stuffed with delicacies, like bottom-dwelling flat fish and delicate seabird, things that he's personally never tried before. They're good, but they're not mackerel.
No, all that matters is those green eyes, and wondering smile, and the dusted red on Makoto's cheeks, and the firm warmth of his fingers locked with Haruka's – they haven't let go since the start, not once. Not that they can, of course, with the kelp binding their wrists, but they don't want to, either.
Finally, as the day starts to wane, the Brightcircle sinking into the end of the sea, it's time. The feast is over, the ceremony is over. There's only one thing left.
Makoto and Haruka say goodbye to Makoto's family in private, huddling in a little group, sharing hugs – as best Haruka and Makoto can, tied together – and humming farewells as they exchange tail rubs, cementing their status as family. The twins cry, of course, clinging to them, and Makoto's parents are misty-eyed, petting their son's hair and giving him low encouraging, loving words. It's not goodbye forever, of course – now Makoto will make the yearly journey with Haruka, to return to this spot and meet his family – but it's still the first time they'll be apart. It makes even Haruka's throat close up, a little. It's odd, because it's not like he's going to see them any less than he usually does, but it still feels like some sort of parting for him, too.
Then, when the twins finally calm down enough to let them go, when all possible words have been said, Makoto and Haruka detach from the little group, giving one final goodbye song to his pod before Haruka squeezes Makoto's hand firmly, and they kick off into a steady swim, Haruka leading the way on the familiar current he's swam for many cycles now.
The blacktails and their past drift into the distance, farewell songs following them, and Mkaoto's hand is steady and warm in Haruka's as they swim back home. To their future together.
“Ahhh, it's finally spring! Sun! Flowers! Sea! Mermaids!!” Nagisa bellows excitedly as they board the research vessel, sprinting up to the bow of the boat with arms flailing, ignoring the startled shouts of the crew. Looks like a new group this round, they'll be traumatized by the blond in short order.
Rei sighs as he adjusts their bags over his shoulder. Why is he doing all the work again? Why is he bothering asking himself that anyways, he knows the answer. “Please don't run, Nagisa-kun, it's slippery and you might fall.”
It's a warning he repeats every time they board a boat, and it's a warning that's ignored just like the last million times as Nagisa climbs the front railing, bouncing on his toes.
“Do you think we'll see Haru-chan today? It's still a little cold, I guess, but he could be sunning himself!” Nagisa's eagerly scanning the shoreline, as if his sheer enthusiasm could magically summon the merman to his sights. Rei reaches out and hooks his hand into the hood of Nagisa's jacket, gently but firmly pulling him off the rail as the boat's engine starts with a shudder and they start sailing through the water. Nagisa gives him a pout that Rei easily ignores. “It is not outside of the realm of possibility, to see him today, but there is an equal chance of not seeing him. It is up to luck.”
“Oh Rei-chan, always so logical and ruining my fun,” Nagisa grumbles, sticking his lips out as he exaggerates his pout, before turning to rummage through the bag still hanging off Rei and pulling out the binoculars, propping his elbows on the railing and humming as he scans the distant rocks for any sign of their subject.
Knowing that their destination is still at least half an hour away, Rei pulls out his notebooks and starts the routine documentation for the beginning of the season. Wind speeds, water and air temperatures, dates, times, lunar cycles, he records it all down neatly as the boat chugs along.
After it sails a fair distance through the bay, leaving behind the populated fishing area and approaching the secluded parts where Haru likes to swim, it drops anchor, stopping with a shudder, and soon the world is engulfed in calm – no sounds but birds, sea wind, and ocean waves slapping the sides of the boat.
It's all very relaxing, and Rei soon gets into a zone, filling out sheets of his notebook with ideas and calculations. He's in the middle of writing a complicated one correlating syreni tail hue to water mineral content when Nagisa makes an excited squeal, jumping up and down. “Rei-chan, Rei-chan!”
There it goes, the formula is gone now, and Rei grimaces at his paper before sighing. He's not getting it back now. Snapping the notebook shut, Rei looks up, adjusting his glasses in a pointedly-annoyed move. “What, Nagisa-kun?”
Nagisa blithely ignores his irritation with long practice, patting his arm excitedly and pointing. “Look, look! It's Haru-chan!”
Rei glances up in surprise – indeed, their lone syreni subject is on his “favorite” rocks, appearing fast asleep. Rei's irritation instantly fades and he smiles. While he believes in being realistic and not getting your hopes up, it's still nice to see the good outcome being the correct one.
Nagisa's bouncing on his feet again. “Look at him, all sleepy! Haru-chan never changes! It's nice to see him again, I wonder if we'll learn anything from him this year too?”
“Of course we will. Everything we record is new knowledge,” Rei states, a little haughtily – he is proud to be on the cutting edge of science, of course! – but with a genuine smile. Really, he's excited too. What wonders will Haru show them this year, he ponders.
His answer comes a little sooner than expected, because as Rei's watching, the black shape behind Haru that he'd assumed to be part of the rock formation Haru is resting on moves.
It shifts, swirls, revealing white patches swirled through it, and suddenly there's a torso, tan and strongly-muscled, stretching in a yawn. Rei can barely breathe.
It's another syreni.
Nagisa makes a strangled noise next to him, pink eyes wide and shining. Rei's mind automatically begins calculating the new anomaly, recording its data in the same form he'll write down later to record the specimen, but he's too shocked to write right now.
Male. Large, larger than Haru, by probably quite a few centimeters. Brown shaggy hair and a handsome face, from what Rei can tell from this distance.
And the tail. It's the tail that really makes Rei gasp in wonder, because that's not a dolphin-morph tail at all.
Well, technically it is, he supposes, since orcas are a part of the dolphin family.
It's an orca morph. They're rare to see this close to land, and hard to study, and one is right there. An orca morph, nowhere near any other orca morphs – they're never apart! What's going on? – right there on the rocks with their subject...not just with, on top of, as the newcomer shifts to lie down again, sprawling over Haru's back and nuzzling into it, looking perfectly content to settle back down into sleep.
And Haru, standoff-ish Haru who deliberately swims away from his pod, doesn't move. There's a languid tail-flop as the larger syreni settles on top of him, but Haru doesn't react any other way at all, content to keep sleeping with the newcomer using him as a pillow. It's completely different behavior form what they're observed from Haru in the past – once Rei even recorded him actively chasing away receptive females! – and Rei is mystified. It's magical. Haru is giving them new data right now and they have a new subject and it's a breathtaking moment.
Nagisa shatters it.
“Oh my god, he's got a mate! Haru-chan found a mate! He's all grown up now, I'm so proud of him!!” Nagisa all but shrieks, jumping up and down, hands clasped to his chin in a picture of teenage girlish glee if it weren't a twenty-five-year old completely certified scientist this is a grown adult doing it.
Rei is struck with an immense urge to smash his forehead into the rail at high velocity.
His peace is not the only one Nagisa breaks, as the newcomer syreni hears it too – and reacts less favorably. The large male bolts upright, eyes shooting open. There's a brief second of panicked looking around, before he spots the boat – and immediately surges off the rock, belly-flopping into the water in a distinctly ungraceful panicked exit.
Well, there goes any new data for the day.
“Awww!” Nagisa pouts for the second time that day, heaving a sigh. “I didn't mean to scare him off! I was just excited...”
“Well, mean to or not, you did it anyways,” Rei points out, not feeling really helpful at the moment. “And Haru doesn't look very happy about it either.”
Indeed, the sleek dolphin morph has also woken up and propped himself on his elbows, giving their boat a very dirty looks before sliding off the rocks and into the water, leaving barely a ripple – much contrasted to his acquaintance's ungainly splash, complete with flailing limbs. Nagisa gives an exaggerated sigh, flopping over the railing and draping on it in the very picture of desolation. “I didn't mean to! Come back, Haru-chan, Haru-chan's mate! I just want to get to know you!”
Rei sighs, because that means no more study for today – he doubts the syreni will let them approach, now. They'll have to try again later.
Still, Rei is actually not all that irritated. Yes, he's rather put off by their study being cut short today, but what they found today more than makes up for it.
There's an orca morph in their bay. One that, for all intents and purposes, Haru seems very close to – indeed, perhaps even mated, as Nagisa blurted out. Same-sex pairings are not uncommon in syreni, they've found. If it's true, and if they can avoid scaring him off again, they'll be one of the first people in the world to document mated syreni behavior. Homosexual, at that.
Rei gives a little smile to himself. This summer will be a good one.