Chapter Text
Almost like clockwork, Nakahara Chuuya enters the aquarium early on a Saturday morning. Weekend passes are more expensive than ones for weekdays, but his work occupies the weekday slots of his time. He goes to visit the aquarium after the end of his shift, coming in before most of the city wakes up and crowds the recreation center.
Gentle bubbling of water and sloshing of artificial waves, ambient sounds that fill the walkways that are illuminated by a bluish tint and surrounded by clear glass. There are various displays, colorful aquatic creatures of all shapes and sizes.
And yet, the main draw of this aquarium is the display set at the very end, lighting a little more somber. A little more stifling, an artificial underwater cave that could house three fully-grown humans. Or one merman, advertised to be a rare monster that has been captured off the coast of Yokohama Bay a few months back. It made for sensationalized news then, and there are still thousands that flock to this place in order to catch a glimpse of a monster inhabiting the same space as humans.
Thousands that go home in disappointment, because said monster never deigns to show them even a shadow of his tail.
Chuuya stands in front of the display, a laminated nameplate of ‘rare monster’ beside him. He doesn’t even need to knock on the glass or do anything to announce his presence. It’s as if the merman can sense his footsteps even from afar, already slipping out of the dark cave’s mouth and swimming to the glass right in front of where Chuuya’s standing.
Both palms splayed out, showing off brown scales that look like dried-up blood, along with some that gleam like polished obsidian. Compared to most of the creatures in this place, this merman is colored in shades of darkness and blood clots. Brown hair fans out like detangled seaweed. Hanging over his neck and arms are some strands of what seems to be a white shirt that has been shredded to become something resembling bandages. Or white sea-snakes, Chuuya’s honestly not sure.
And then, with the usual terrible smirk on the other’s face, he starts to screech out unintelligible sounds that no language expert has been able to ever decipher. Clunky syllables that are garbled into gravelly noise that grates against one’s eardrums.
…At least, that’s what it’s supposed to sound like to others’ ears.
“Fufufu, oh, you tiny, tiny human, did you shrink even more compared to last week?”
Thing is, Chuuya can understand him perfectly. A voice that sounds annoying and grating in its own way, but certainly not to the same manner as what others have been saying about this monster that refuse to be studied and understood by humans.
“Ah, even if you don’t say anything, I can read your thoughts so easily off your face you know?” The dark red tail looks almost black as it swishes beside the merman. “So expressive, it’s a wonder nobody has caught on to you yet.”
He frowns.
“Fufufu, you know it, right? Only soulmates can hear each other’s thoughts inside each other’s minds. It’s the same for humans too.” Eyelids at half-mast, long lashes looking like they’re glistening with tiny black crystals. There are scattered scales all over the other’s face, but it only serves to make him appear more sinister, under a certain light. “But… that isn’t the point, ne?”
After all, there are no records of humans and monsters being soulmates. A merman is rare, but other types of monsters aren’t. Nothing in history shows that interspecies interactions could bring forth a soulmate relationship.
The merman that has introduced himself as ‘Dazai’ before licks his lips, showing off sharp teeth. “After all, aren’t you a monster too?”
As always, Chuuya’s visit comes to a close upon hearing this accusation. He’s a human being. He thinks. He believes. He hopes. He’s always wanted to be a normal human being, instead of someone who can communicate via telepathy with a smirking merman that’s making so many researchers spin in circles. He has several gaps in his memory that he can’t explain, and there are times when his mind is filled with so much noise clamoring for a calamity.
…He doesn’t need this shitty giant fish to start harping on him about this matter, damn it.
He lets out a huff, turning on his heel and walking away.
“I plan to escape soon, so make sure you have a nice tub waiting for me, okay, dear soulmate?”
He reins in the urge to raise his middle finger at the other. After all, letting it slip that he can understand what the other’s saying is tantamount to revealing that he can speak the language of a monster. He settles for thinking a bunch of negative thoughts and curses, hurtling towards the other. Even if, in a way, it’s an admission and acquiescence to the telepathic link between them.
“Ah, you say the foulest of things.” A dreamy sigh that reverberates through the glass panels all around them. “What a romantic soulmate I managed to get.”
Chuuya hisses, you did not manage to get me, what the fuck!, inside his mind.
“Fufufu, yes, yes, we shall wait to consummate our bond once I’m out of here.”
“Shut the hell up, if you appear in front of me again, I’m grilling the shit out of you!” Chuuya slams his foot down, imagines grinding Dazai’s face under his shoe, and sends that mental image to the other.
“Ah, truly the pinnacle of romance.”
By the time he goes out of this corridor, he’s flanked by staff members who ask him questions as to whether he’s noticed something different from the merman. It’s not hard work to look them in the eye and say that he still doesn’t understand whatever the fuck the other is screeching. Because he truly doesn’t—that fish is on an entirely different level of nonsense.
Plus, in a way, he also kind of want to see how the other’s escape plan will go.
A mere curiosity, that’s all.
The way his heart warms, and the way Dazai’s laughter echoes inside his mind, says otherwise.
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end