Chapter Text
Tommy's ocean was small. Very, very small. He could reach the end of his ocean in one strong tail-flick, and once his second growth spurt hit, he could probably make it in half a tail swish. The top of his ocean wasn't much better either, if Tommy stretched out all the way his head would be above the water, and his vision would be different in a way he hated, so he tried not to stretch very often.
He thinks his vision changes because of the wall around him, the one keeping him in his ocean. When he was smaller, he was able to launch himself out of the water, but he always hit an invisible wall, no matter how high he jumped.
Now, the Wall was far more visible from the grime coating it. His vision still went weird when he breached the surface, but he was getting used to it, once he learned how. He preferred it when his wall was invisible, both because it was easier to see what was happening outside and because it meant that his water would be easy to breathe in. When it got bad like this, his ocean filled with so much his own filth that the water itself changed color, he found himself unable to breathe anywhere but the surface, using his lungs rather than his gills.
Usually, a human would have been by to fix his water. But there hasn't been anyone back in forever, and he doesn't hold hope that anyone is coming back. He also doesn't dare to hope to survive much longer.
He tried to be good, he really did! The humans didn't feed him very often, especially if he was loud, so he stayed quiet and good! He didn't even realize something was off until the mer on the other side of the wall started to freak out, demanding to know if Tommy was awake every day, giving him an already dwindling supply of fish from the mer’s tank, practically talking Tommy’s ear off every day, and even expecting a reply back.
It had been seasons since Tommy had spoken mer, but Dream didn't seem to mind.
Almost a whole moon cycle ago, the last fish died of starvation while Dream was asleep, causing his ocean to go bad too, even if in only the spot the fish was in, as Dream's ocean was several times bigger than his, taking several strides to reach one end of the other.
Not that they move much anymore, Dream says staying still will help conserve energy, so the two of them sit at the bottoms of their oceans, passing the time by talking to each other, Tommy sharing what he knew about the humans, and Dream telling stories of the ocean, the one where Tommy came from, big, and vast, where pods traveled together for miles, playing with creatures, taking care of each other, things Tommy can just barely remember from when he was a guppy.
Not that he had any hope of seeing anything beyond his little ocean, if the starvation didn't set in first the slowly falling water level would. Where he used to be able to stretch out to reach the surface, his ocean now falls to the top of his head, even when he’s curled up in his corner. It's good for his breathing, he supposes, since his ocean only gets more polluted every day, but if it continues to disappear like this then…
Could Tommy survive without water? It was something the scientists never tested, at least not that he could remember. He didn't want to think about it much either. Either way, Tommy would be dead, right?
He found out a few days later that he could not survive out of the water, which sucked. The moment the scales on his back touched the air, they started burning, really bad , so bad he could barely breathe. Dream thought he might have an infection.
So a third contender for his death then.
It was getting really hard to focus, now. Dream kept talking to him, but the clicks and whistles needed to communicate were getting harder to make, and he could tell Dream’s speech was starting to slur as well, even if he were trying to hide it.
So this is how they were going to go? Not in defiance of their captors, but forgotten, ill and starving? As selfish as it was, Tommy hoped he’d die first, so he wouldn't have to deal with the silence Dream would leave behind.
He could feel it, a deathly feeling, or what he thought death should feel like, creeping up over him, covering him like a blanket. It felt warm, warmer than he's felt in a while, warmer than he felt when the small sun over his ocean was still lit.
He missed the sun.
Maybe that's why he woke up so quickly when the new light crept into the surface outside his walls. He couldn't bring himself to shift to see the source of the new light, but it wasn't the big sun, rising to bring a new cycle, it was something small.
Something distinctly human.
“Dream?”
He needed to get Dream up- his voice was stronger, he could call the human over here! Maybe they could be saved?
He tried not to think about what would happen if the human didn't help.
“Wake up! There's someone here!”
Dream was a light sleeper, he woke up anytime Tommy so much as sniffed louder than normal, why wasn't he up?
“Dream?”
The light swiveled towards him and Dream, reflecting off their walls and into their oceans. Tommy's water was murky and disgusting, but he never felt happier to see it because a human was here!
Oh shit, A human was here!
What if it was one of his owners? They wouldn't like Tommy speaking, not mer or human. Noise meant punishment, and he wasn't sure he could handle a punishment right now, not when he could barely keep his eyes open.
The human light got a little bigger, so Tommy mustered the strength to sit up on his own, to look for the source.
It wasn't a human he recognized, and it wasn't wearing the uniform most humans here wore.
The human looked around, eyebrows furrowed. Could it not see Tommy and Dream? They were right here!
The human's lips pursed, and it turned around
No, please don't leave
If Dream woke up, he would be able to screech loudly, getting the attention of the human, he wouldn't be sitting here watching the only way out of here leave- dream wouldn't sit as Tommy lied there, dying-
Dream wouldn't be useless, reliant on his conditioning to get through the world.
Be silent or be punished.
Shout or die.
Dream might already be dead, but if he wasn't...
“Hey! Wait! Fuck, how do you- oi, mate! Stop! ” that sounded right. He was never allowed to practice human much, but he was pretty sure he could mimic his owners pretty well.
The human stopped, swiveling around so fast it almost fell over on its skinny legs.
Having a tail was so much better than whatever the fuck humans had to live with.
“ H-hello? ” the human was looking right at his ocean, could it genuinely not see him? What if he moved closer to the wall next to it?
It was painful, but he could touch the wall.
The human screamed, jumping a few steps back. It would have been funny in any other situation, and he reminded himself to laugh about it later.
If there was a later.
“Shit, you're listening! Uh- mate, there. ” he pointed in the direction of Dream's ocean, elated when the human actually looked over there, eyes widening at the sight of a visible mer asleep.
He was definitely asleep. He had to be.
Now, how to convince the human to take him?
“ Good, pretty, strong. Fuck, what do they call- useful. Lots. take. Take mate, now ”
“That's your mate, huh? Sure, we’ll fix him right up, bud, and we’ll help you too, okay?”
Tommy shook his head. It was only one human, it couldn't take them both, and dream needed help first.
“No, please he’s sick, he needs help now, not me! um - no - I can't think of any words to tell you, sorry, just please, I-” he got cut off by a hacking cough, something that happened when he got too loud. The human started to look panicked.
“Hey, everything's going to be alright, I'll call Phil and help will be here in a few minutes, you and your mate will be fine, I promise.”
The human brought up a small box to its ear- that always meant be extra quiet, so Tommy shut his mouth and tried to get comfortable again.
He was really tired.
“Phil, I was right about this place- fucking hell, I should have broke in sooner, this- theres no time to lecture me, Philza, I need two mer rescue squads, like, five minutes ago. Fuck, phil, one of these guys doesn't have a working filter, you can't even see him in the water- um hold on- hey, uh, sir, is your, uh mate? Alive? I don't know if you can understand me, I'll see if I can tell myself-”
the human-made his way over to Dream’s ocean, chattering to his box, crouching to get closer to Dream.
Was the human really going to help them?
Good… that was good.
He tried to wake Dream up again.
“Dream… you really do need to wake up if you want to get out of here. You said we would go together, right? That you would show me the ocean? The one with endless food and no humans to punish us. Don't you… don't you want that?”
Come on Dream, just give the human something.
Dream twitched. The human laughed, and Tommy allowed himself to smile.
“Yeah he’s- he’s alive for now, that's- yeah. I can't tell, it's dark in here, I only have a flashlight on me, but- well, I didn't know I'd have to give a medical in the pitch dark! No, it’s- whatever. I don't see any red spots on his tail, he looks normal, I think. I've never had to look them over, I don't know, you should probably send over Niki and Sam- maybe even Puffy, I'm getting weird vib- Uh- no, I don't- hold on." The human lowered his box, looking at Tommy.
“Are you going to let me check you out? Your tail, I mean?”
What, was this guy trying to be a white coat or something?
Absolutely the fuck not. Letting his tail touch the air hurt like a bitch, and besides, he would hope that he didn't just give Dream and himself over to another version of his owner.
He hissed to make his point.
“Got it!” the human chirped, bringing the box almost to its ear, before pausing again.
"Thank you. For getting my attention. I don't know if you understand me, or even understand what you said. But that was really brave of you, shouting for me like that. You did good. You- yeah. Really good.”
It smiled at him before going back to its box.
Tommy did good? Even after he broke the rules?
“Yeah Phil I'm not checking his tail- even if I thought I wouldn't get attacked, I'm pretty sure I'll get an infection if I go in his- yes it's that bad, did you think I was exaggerating? This is worse than the Shlatt thing- yeah that bad. Like- remember Techno’s tank? The second one? Yeah, we couldn't see him through the water, it's the same thing just- not blood. Maybe? I mean- he called out to me- we also thought Techno was docile around us! And what did that get us? Yeah, that's what I thought. Don't trust a dog just cause it licks your hand man- hey, maybe that is something people say, and you're just old!”
Gods, this human sure did talk a bunch, didn't he?
Tommy probably shouldn't complain, since his voice was relaxing.
He almost wanted to fall asleep.
“Philza Minecraft you are just-” the human’s attention was on Tommy again, for some reason. Couldn't he just take Dream and go?
“Hey, wait, you can't go to sleep, fuck, Phil how much longer do we have to wait, I'm not sure if- hey man, I need you to stay awake for me, for your mate, right? You're probably all kinds of sick, you can't just- Phil I don't know what to do I need-”
The human's voice turned into nonsense- not that it made much sense to him in the first place- as Tommy's mind drifted away. The human's voice was lyrical, sue him if it made him sleepy.
Besides, he was good, the human said so!
And since he was so good, he was going to take a nap, just a little one, so he could be ready when the human decided to get away from his box and help dream out.
His eyes shut, and he let the human's voice crash over him like the waves Dream told him about.