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Giyuu yawned and shifted in the arms of his boyfriend. It was midday on a Saturday and he was snuggled tight in Sanemi’s arms. The two were curled up on the couch in the middle of a huge movie marathon date. Half eaten chip bags and empty cups littered the floor of the dark apartment. It was just the two of them in Sanemi’s apartment and it was their first official date. It only took two weeks after their incident in the ocean for Sanemi to ask him out, and thanks to their busy college lives this was their first date.
The movie idea was suggested by Sanemi, seeing that Giyuu wasn’t well informed on human movies or the genre of televised entertainment as a whole. Giyuu was too busy trying to understand how humans worked to really learn how to use a TV, it was a miracle he could even work his phone. The credits of their third movie flashed across the screen when Giyuu finally decided to shimmy out of his hold. He stretched his legs and started to pick up their scattered mess.
“We should take a quick break, we’ve been sitting here in the dark for hours,” Giyuu said flicking the lights on, “watch out, I'm turning on the lights.”
Sanemi flinched, getting blinded by the bright lights and the delayed warning, “Fuck Giyuu, give me a heads up first and then turn the damn lights on.”
“Sorry,” he said walking to pick up the glasses and chip bags, “I’ll go put these away.”
Although the two were only an item for a little over a month, Giyuu was well acquainted with Sanemi’s apartment. Giyuu often found himself over at the other’s house for whatever mundane reason. Regardless if he was invited, (to be honest Giyuu didn’t really understand the human concept of asking permission to come over; why couldn’t he just show up?) he spent many evenings at the Shinazugawa residence. For impromptu study sessions or dinner and a sleepover, Giyuu always felt welcomed regardless of how much Sanemi scolded him for just waltzing in. It became so often that Giyuu was given a spare key to the apartment, as the man never fully grasped the idea of locks.
As Giyuu made his way into the kitchen and placed the empty cups into the sink, he faintly heard Sanemi call to him from the other room. He didn’t quite make out what the man was saying. “What did you say?” he answered back, grabbing the faucet handles ready to rinse out the cups and let them soak in the water.
“I said, be careful my sink’s water pressure has been broken and sometimes explodes-” he began to call out but it was too late. The water erupted out of the facet, bounced off the sink’s bottom, and sprayed all over Giyuu’s face and down his front. He was completely drenched.
Everything happened so quick, it was one moment to the next, like dominos falling in rapid succession. Panic washed over Giyuu’s face as he yelled in shock. The water was still spraying onto the floor as he stumbled back in fear. He held his arms in place as he watched scales form across his skin. He could feel them down his legs and it didn’t take long until he was falling backwards, his now tail hitting the tile with a huge FWOMP. Giyuu yelped and thrashed, upsetting the small table behind him almost knocking down a chair, and then Sanemi rushed in.
“Oh shit Giyuu, I warned you.” Sanemi said apologetically, lifting the fallen chair off of him.
“Yea, a little too late.” The mermaid sighed, picking his head up from the cold tile to meet Sanemi’s gaze.
“Hold on, I’ll go get a towel and dry you off.” he said, moving his eyes off of Giyuu on the floor.
“You might as well carry me to the bath, my skin’s gonna feel all itchy and dry after this.” he said with slight irritation in his tone.
Sanemi did just that. He grabbed Giyuu from underneath, hoisting the man into his arms to be carried bridal style, getting his shirt slightly wet in the process. He then walked into the bathroom and lightly placed the mermaid into the empty tub. Sanemi turned the water on, and Giyuu could tell he didn’t know what temperature he liked, so he put the knob right in the middle of hot and cold. It was fine, Giyuu could change it to how he wanted it. He enjoyed both hot steamy baths and icey cold ones alike, but tonight seemed like a hot bath.
Sanemi stood awkwardly in the doorway, he stared at the end of the tub where Giyuu’s tail extended over the side. No words were exchanged between the two, only the hum of the rushing water could be heard until finally Sanemi spoke.
“I’ll go finish cleaning up, you can turn off the water when it gets too full.” He quickly left just as soon as he entered.
Giyuu assumed he was going to mop up the flooded floor and clean up the cups he himself declared he'd take care of. He was sure Sanemi wasn’t mad, but it still made him feel bad that the day was ruined thanks to him. All he could do was sigh and relax in the bath. He shimmied out of the soaked shirt sticking to his skin and placed it on the side of the tub. Giyuu silently hummed to himself as the tub slowly filled. There was plenty of time before it would get anywhere close to full so this gave Giyuu time to look around the bathroom.
It was standard, everything was white and kept pretty clean, and had everything a bathroom needed. It was much smaller than his own, especially the tub. However, he did trade the option for a nicer living space in favor for a bigger bathtub. His own home was basically a one room apartment with a small bedroom and a pretty nice bathroom. The tub wasn’t swimmable by any means, but it was big enough to fit his huge tail with a little room to spare. Sanemi’s apartment was much larger (not to mention it was for him and his brother) it was definitely on the shoddier side. The kitchen wasn’t very nice and the appliances were old and always broken. On a college kids pay with a younger brother to care for, it was livable.
Giyuu sunk lower into the tub as the water continued to spill and splash around him, he could feel the water rising and sloshing across his scales. The door to the bathroom was left open, but nothing could be heard through the water rushing from the faucet.
He let his mind wander, it was moments like this that made him remember all the times his village elders warned the mermaid kids about the human world. They often scolded him for wondering about the world above the water, even going as far as telling scary stories to deter him. Things like humans wanting to trap and dissect mermaids to study their insides. Stories of mermaids going up to land to be discovered and sold out to evil people who tortured them, that even now stayed with him. The frightening tales never scared him and his friends, but they always lurked in the back of his mind. He didn’t want to think of the people from his life in the sea, especially not his best friend.
He shook his head letting the water splash around him and his bad thoughts melt into the hot water. His mind drifted back to Sanemi. How kind he was to him even if he scolded him every time their paths crossed. His heart fluttered from his memory of their night on the beach together. It also reminded him that they hadn't had a moment like that since the incident more than a month ago. Sanemi never minded how weird he was, that Giyuu was literally a mermaid, he never brought it up casually or asked him further questions about it. It was strange, he never said anything about it. He’s had a living breathing fairytale creature right in front of him and never bothered to ask anything at all. Part of that made Giyuu nervous. Maybe Sanemi pitied him, or was secretly befriending him to sell him out. Was he one of those people who were going to torture and kill him? Was all the love and kindness a lie? Panic was about to overtake his body until he felt the water lap at his chin.
He snapped out of his thoughts thanks to the high rising water in the tub. It was almost to the point of overflowing so he quickly reached up to turn the water off, only to sink back down below the water letting only his eyes peek above it. Sanemi wasn’t the kind of person to sell him off or hurt him in any way. Giyuu trusted him more than anyone else, he couldn't let the pain of his past control him. He didn’t belong there anymore, here was his new life. He closed his eyes and tried not to worry too much. There was so much they didn’t know about each other, and that's how it was. Yet the noticeable averting eyes of the man he trusted the most, plagued Giyuu’s heart with uncertainty and dread.
Sanemi was halfway cleaning up their previous mess of the living room when he heard the water turn off. He wondered how Giyuu was doing in there. His tub wasn’t exactly the roomiest and he saw how Giyuu scrunched to fit his long tail in there. He felt bad, not only that Giyuu could never find a comfortable place to relax in the water but also that he kinda created the situation. He knew better than anyone how unlucky Giyuu was when it came to water. The man was basically a magnet to the stuff, as he was still spending his junior year as Giyuu’s bodyguard. Continuing to swoop in and carry the mermaid to safety after his plethora of run-ins with water.
Regardless of the amount of times he’d saved the mermaid, something about witnessing that side of Giyuu always felt, wrong, somehow. Like he was intruding into a life he was not meant to see, so staying out of it as much as he could was his only solution. He could feel the burning stare from the mermaid whenever he looked away though. Maybe it was Giyuu keeping him in check and not letting him steal glances at him. The mermaid wasn’t exactly open about his past or his life as a mermaid, a merman? Whatever the fuck the correct term was. It didn’t matter, Giyuu was sitting snug in his bathtub and Sanemi still had to make sure he was okay. Fish or not, the man was still his boyfriend. No matter how awkward their conversation was bound to go.
Begrudgingly, he went to check on Giyuu, who was blowing bubbles under the water. Their gazes met and Giyuu lifted his mouth above the water to greet Sanemi.
Sanemi spoke first, quickly averting his eyes looking past Giyuu to focus on the pearly white tiling of the shower wall. “Don’t you feel cramped in there?”
“Mmm kinda?” he answered, still looking at the man in the doorway, “It's better than drying out on the couch I guess.”
Sanemi felt bad, he really did, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything to Giyuu. He desperately wanted to look at Giyuu and marvel at how fucking gorgeous he looked in this form, regardless of how he felt about looking at the mermaid. Still, he couldn’t help but somehow feel embarrassed.
“I’ll let you just chill in here, tell me when you wanna get out and I'll help dry you off-”
“Can you stay here with me?” Giyuu pleaded, a scaly hand shooting out from below the water to grab onto his scarred arm.
Sanemi locks eyes with Giyuu again, a pleading puppy dog look on his face as he twisted his body out of the bath to tug on Sanemi’s hand.
His heart exploded, no one could say no to that look. Sanemi couldn’t join Giyuu in the bath so he knelt down on the tile floor and rested his head sideways on the brim of the tub. His eyes still not looking Giyuu’s way.
They sat in silence, tension heavy in the steamy air. Just moments prior they were cuddling together on the bed watching silly movies, but now Sanemi can’t even look at him. He once again could feel the mermaid’s eyes all over him, burning into his skin as he stared at the wall instead of his boyfriend. Giyuu finally broke the silence with annoyance laced in his voice.
“Sanemi, why won’t you look at me, you've been averting your eyes since you picked me up from your kitchen floor.”
Sanemi could feel his face heat up from embarrassment and irritation.
“I don't know what you’re talking about,” he said pressing his face harder into the cold bathtub rim.
Giyuu’s arms jolted out of the water, spilling it over the side. He squished Sanemi’s cheeks, forcing the man to look up at him. The movement was so fast and violent that it shocked Sanemi. Giyuu clearly had more to say.
“Oh my god, do you know how many times you’ve saved me from turning into a mermaid in the middle of campus?”
Giyuu’s face was upset, his brows furrowed as he yelled. All Sanemi could think of was how the wet strings of jet black hair stuck to his face and neck, and his cold but worried ocean blue eyes looking right into his soul. Giyuu continued.
“You’ve never once looked at me after that time in the sea, even the first time we met you were too scared to look at me!”
“Hey the first time doesn’t fucking count! How was I supposed to know you were a mermaid? That shit caught me off guard.” he mumbled the last bit almost to himself.
“It doesn’t matter!” His voice then grew soft, letting go of his tight grasp on Sanemi, “You made so many comments that night in the ocean about how graceful I looked floating in the water, and how brightly my scales shone in the moonlight.”
Sanemi’s face grew hotter again, shit he did say all that. It was a heat of the moment thing though, even if it was all true. It was a night he’d never forget, as cheesy as it sounded. He could remember every part about it, from the way the warm sand felt on his toes to the salty spray of the sea. However, the most prominent thing in his mind was how the moonlight hit the water to perfectly spotlight the mermaid in all his glory. Giyuu with his tail and scales was a pretty sight, but Giyuu under the crystal clear moonlit water was etheral
“How come you never want to see me like this? Or ask questions? You never want to learn anything about this side of me,” his voice slightly trembling, “Do you not like it? Is it weird and gross that I'm a fish?” Giyuu started to shake with panic and Sanemi felt even worse.
He grabbed Giyuu’s scaly webbed hands before the man could really start to fall into a panic.
“Holy shit Giyuu no. I could never hate this side of you, it’s literally impossible to.” Sanemi sighed, “Like you said I’m the guy who saves your ass every time you have a run in with water.”
Giyuu calmed down and could relax his hand out of Sanemi’s. “I just wish you’d be more interested in-” he gestured down to his tail in the water, “-this.”
Sanemi sighed, “I guess I felt like it wasn’t any of my business to know or that I wasn't supposed to know... I don’t know let’s just fucking drop it.”
“But you are curious? Right?” It was almost as if Giyuu was edging him on, practically asking the man to spill everything and bombard him with every little question. And it was working.
“Of fucking course im curious! I’ve been curious as all hell since the first time I saw you flailing around your bathroom floor!”
Now it was Giyuu’s turn to turn red with embarrassment.
“None of this would be happening if you just owned some damn locks, I was fully prepared to see you passed out and naked on the floor. How do you even fall out of a fucking bathtub?” Sanemi added, “That was a batshit crazy day.”
Giyuu sunk back into the water to hide a smile, blowing bubbles in the process. Sanemi laughed with a teasing “Hey you-” and Giyuu retaliated by splashed water onto him, soaking his shirt
“Oops looks like you’ll have to take that off, don't wanna catch a cold huh?” Giyuu flirted.
“Oh, well in that case I better hop in the bath too,” he grinned, removing only his shirt and climbing into the water, moving Giyuu’s fins out of the way to sit across from him in the tub. Water spilling over the tub and onto the tile flooring.
Giyuu scrunched his tail the best he could to accommodate the second body in the small bathtub. Sanemi had to press his legs against the sides of the bathtub so Giyuu's tail could slot in the open space between them. It was far from comfortable but the two were having too much fun splashing and teasing each other to care.
Once a good amount of the water previously in the tub was on the floor, the two settled down. Giyuu somehow shifted his body so he was sitting in Sanemi’s lap with his head resting in the crook of his neck. The awkwardness of their prior conversation had all melted away and the two were happily relaxing in the bath. Sanemi held Giyuu’s hand in his, trailing his finger over the webbing between the fingers. Quietly feeling the strange blue translucent skin that adorned his hands. Once fulfilled by that, he took to examining the small patches of scales decorating Giyuu’s arms. They were such a pretty array of iridescent blues. Some were the same deep color of the mermaid's eyes, while others were brilliant shades of turquoise and aquamarine. Each one was smooth and glassy, the edges were slightly curved where they overlapped each other. Sanemi was entranced by the shimmering glow of the scales. Giyuu noticed how captivated the man was and smiled to himself.
“You know these only show up when that part of my skin gets wet.”
Sanemi paused, making sure he heard that right. “What? I thought if any part of your skin gets wet you grow the tail?”
“Where’d you get that idea?” Giyuu said, face puzzled like it was the dumbest thing the man ever heard.
“From experience.” he said through clenched teeth.
“Oh no,” Giyuu shook his head, “I only grow the tail if my legs or most of my body gets wet.”
He took no time to let Sanemi react, who was beginning to shake with irritation.
“Like back during that one lab day? Remember when you shoved your hand into the urchin tank- which fun fact, some are able to live up to 200 years-”
Sanemi was seething with anger.
“Oh right, uh, that day when you splashed water all over on accident, it only got on my arm. I only ran out of the room cause the water would make my scales appear.”
“Then why didn’t you fucking come back?” He was really trying to control his anger and not snap at Giyuu.
“Oh, well… I was too nervous to come back to the lab halfway through the class. I didn’t want it to be awkward for me coming back on the middle of everything”
Sanemi let go of all the tension in his body, sighed and shook his head. It made sense, the man was just too anxious to walk back into class after being gone for so long, “So you’re telling me all those times you’ve been accidently splashed by sprinklers and spilling drinks in the dining hall weren't a huge deal?”
“Not really, I would’ve just grown scales and had to cover them up and dry them off.”
“Well that's good to know for future reference.”
“Ah, maybe I should've told you that sooner...” Giyuu said in a quiet tone.
“Uh yea. Maybe.” Sanemi sarcastically quipped.
He couldn’t stay mad at Giyuu’s awkwardness. That, his bad luck, and clumsiness around water is what drew him into the man in the first place.
He placed a light peck to Giyuu’s forehead and shifted under him to let him know he was getting out of the bath. The water had long since gone cold and although Giyuu’s skin couldn’t get pruny, Sanemi’s skin sure as hell could. Plus he was still fully clothed and sitting in soggy shorts was starting to get uncomfortable.
“Okay time to get out fish boy.” he said patting Giyuu’s head. The mermaid whined as Sanemi pulled the plug to the bath.
As the water slowly swirled down the drain, Giyuu began to flail about in protest, “Why can't I sit here just a while longer?” he pouted.
“The water has gone cold. If you’re gonna act like a brat I'm not gonna help dry you off.” He said, turning away to find a clean towel.
“But I'm equipped for cold water, I grew up in the bottom of the ocean. Not much warmth.”
“Doesn’t matter, it makes me worry when you could potentially get sick,” Sanemi blushed at his own words, and then Giyuu did too.
The last of the water slipped out the tub, Sanemi playfully whipped a towel at Giyuu, “Plus we have our movie marathon to get back to, and I have a shit ton of questions to ask now. Starting with: since you lived so deep in the ocean without much light, can you see in the dark?”
Giyuu pulled his body up to the rim of the tub for easy access to his tail, “Yes. Above and under the water.”
Sanemi placed the towel to his scaley bottom and began to dry it off, starting with the fin and making his way up. A task so familiar to him he could perform it with his eyes closed.
“Interesting to know. How about the way you talk? Do you guys have a special language or do you speak in clicks and whistles like dolphins?”
“We speak like normal humans, we have vocal cords. We don’t speak Japanese if that's what you're asking. I had to learn that myself.”
Sanemi was honestly impressed by that. He knew Giyuu was smart, but learning a whole new language and sounding natively Japanese was on a whole other level. He searched his mind for more questions as he made his way up Giyuu’s back with the towel.
“What about food? What do mermaids eat?” he continued to question.
“Hmm,” Giyuu thought as the towel brushed over his back fin, “Just about anything I guess, fish and plants mostly. It’s hard to remember specifics, I know my favorite has always been salmon. They’re born in the ocean and when they mature they swim back to freshwater. So it was rare when I was a kid to eat it. I can have it a lot more often now.”
That was something for Sanemi to remember for the future. He’d have to take Giyuu out for some really nice salmon at some fancy restaurant, something expensive for a special date.
He finally finished drying off Giyuu and his legs were finally back. It was hard to describe how it really happened, shocking him every time. How he’d be drying off a scaly tail and the next moment there’d be bare legs. It was some kind of mermaid magic he didn’t need or want to think about too hard.
Giyuu was finally able to climb out of the bathtub and wrap a spare towel around his naked waist, Sanemi left to get him a new pair of clothes. He returned in his own pair of new clothes and handed Giyuu a sweatshirt and pants to match his own. Despite the two men being the same height, Giyuu’s frame was slimmer so the pants and shirt hung loosely around his body. It was cute how small he looked wearing Sanemi’s things, his first official time wearing “boyfriend clothes.” Sanemi ingrained the mental image in his mind.
“I have more to ask, sit on the floor I'll dry and brush your hair.” Giyuu did just that. Sanemi watched him walk over to the couch and sit on the floor in front of it. He released the hold of his ponytail and his knotted wet hair fell over his shoulders.
“Good luck,” Giyuu said, his head being tossed about by the vigorous ruffling of the towel.
“Speaking of rough, can your scales fall off and does it hurt?”
“That’s a good one,” Giyuu said slightly muffled by the towel over his head, “they don’t normally fall off. They do grow back and only fall off when you’re really distressed or under a lot of stress. It doesn’t hurt, it’s like hair”
“Has that ever happened to you?” Sanemi asked slowly, he didn’t want to overstep his boundaries.
“Yeah... my first years here on land were difficult. I’m not sure if I'm ready to talk about all that. It’s a long string of memories I don't wanna bring back up.” His voice started to waiver.
“Oh shit Giyuu I’m-”
“No, don't apologise, it's fine.” Giyuu softly sighed.
An awkward silence hung in the air as Sanemi continued his work. When he got as far as he could go with just a towel he reached for the brush. He opted to start brushing out the copious amount of tangles hidden in the rats nest that was Giyuu’s hair. He guessed an appropriate amount of silence had passed for him to poke fun at Giyuu again.
“Damn, do all mermaids have such long unkempt ratty hair?”
Giyuu only slightly chuckled.
The air was still heavy, but the mood did turn more light hearted. Sanemi knew he wasn’t gonna get very far with the brush. Giyuu’s hair was just so ratty that he assumed the only time it got brushed was when he offered to do it himself. Not that he minded of course, sifting his hands through the inky black hair was a stress reliever for the both of them. Sanemi worked his fingers through Giyuu’s tangled locks until his head was free of them. Once his job was completed he took to just playing with the newly detangled hair. Neither knew how much time had passed but the tension had finally left and the mood was finally calm. Giyuu somewhere along the line had relaxed his head into the couch looking upward, his eyes relaxing and fluttering closed as he hummed an unfamiliar tune. Sanemi looked down at his serene face as his hands were still massaging Giyuu’s head.
It didn’t seem like the right time to try and ask another question, but after everything that just happened, he couldn't help but ask. He knew Giyuu wasn’t going to leave him, but damn if he didn’t fear losing the man to the ocean. The one thing that filled him with dread was Giyuu deciding to leave and return to the sea. He looked so perfect under the ocean’s waves, swimming in free water. It would be ridiculously stupid for the man to even want to stay on dry land. He just had to ask about it. He needed to.
“One last question,” Giyuu perked up at this, forcing his head forward to sit upright again. He didn’t turn around to face Sanemi.
“You’ve obviously been through a fuck ton of shit up ‘til now. I mean living on land as a mermaid isn't right. You don’t belong here. But you chose to come here and face the struggle. Do you regret it?”
Giyuu froze, like his mind was searching deep for the answer. Like his body was torn between the two answers. Like he didn’t truly know.
Sanemi's own mind started to panic, his body almost shaking. Why did he ask? He sure as hell wasn’t ready for the answer. Of fucking course he regretted it. Being under the water was natural, so natural that his body was constantly yearning for it. He was sure Giyuu was always thinking about going back, even if he mentioned multiple times that he just couldn’t do it. He braced himself for the answer as Giyuu started to speak.
“I-I don’t,” he finally said, voice turning strong, “there was nothing left for me in the ocean,” he turned around to face Sanemi. A small smile creeped on his lips and he climbed onto the couch and into Sanemi’s arms.
All the anxiety flowed out of Sanemi’s body as his arms moved to embrace the man. He was still slightly shaking, but the warmth off Giyuu melted it away.
“And there’s nothing left for me to return to. I already told you my home is here.” Giyuu said, pulling him into a kiss. His lips were soft and warm. It was a short but passionate kiss, leaving the two with a safe feeling of reassurance. Sanemi couldn’t help but chase after the sweetness of it even after it ended.
When their lips parted, Giyuu giggled watching Sanemi lean in searching for more. He quickly placed a peck to Sanemi’s cheek as a tease, still grinning and blushing like crazy. Then he leaned into Sanemi’s ear, he could feel the tickling breath of the mermaid. Then Giyuu whispered one last thing.
“Plus you’re here.” He smiled wide, his whole face shining. The same shining glow of his moonlit figure under the sea. His home was somewhere he felt safe, his home was in Sanemi’s embrace.
“You’re my ocean.”