Work Text:
Bruno must have been barely a teenager when he saw those two chimerical creatures captured.
Naples’ bay always had its lore, its legends. Some are as old as time, coming from a past no one alive could even imagine. A mermaid worshipped as a goddess and generous with the people of the city built in her honor.
Everyone would label those simple tales to narrate to children before bed, pointing to the sea with melancholy typical of people who like to dream.
And yet, one fateful day, a young boy found the two mermen laying on the beach in distress.
He heard odd calls from behind the rocks, from an isolated and small beach hidden away from the eyes of tourists. When his father was busy with work and asked him to step away, he would spend hours alone there with the gentle lullaby of the waves.
However, on that morning, Bruno only found something magical and terrible instead.
They were juveniles, tail barely longer than their bodies. One of them was hitting the sand with his fin and trying to crawl around, the other was laying immobile a few meters away. The one awake didn’t seem to move towards the sea, but rather in the direction of the other merman who was still unconscious.
Bruno didn’t know what to do. He was young, barely out of elementary school, and he feared that he may intrude in a delicate moment. Even then, he had always been fascinated with mythical creatures and those belonging to the sea were even more of an interest.
The one awake, in particular, stirred sentiments inside of him that made him move forward from his hiding spot between the high rocks of the cliffs. His tail was iridescent, with thin fins running down his sides, silver and black. His caudal fin had veins of the same colors between the webings, and it was still hitting the sand in order to move closer to the merman laying some distance from him.
It was probably the childish thinking of being able to move as if in water, even when he was stranded on the sand and unable to properly swim and float. A pitiful vision, made even more upsetting with the low wails of the poor merman.
Bruno was closer than he thought before he could stop himself, his soft steps catching the attention of the confused merman. He turned to watch the human boy standing aside, his eyes shiny with fear, his face red with tears.
It made Bruno’s chest tighten and his words heavier, “Do you need help?”
The merman stared at him for a good minute before turning to his companion, still unconscious. He then pointed at the sea as he locked eyes with Bruno. His voice was broken, “Bring us back, please…”
Bruno, naive as he was, focused on the wrong detail. On the merman’s arm, extended towards his home, there were bruises littering the pale skin. The splotches of color extended down the visible portion of his chest, part of his back, even under his chin and up his cheeks.
“I will…” Bruno didn’t know what to do, he was barely stepping into another phase of his youth and had always been thinner than the average boy living in the village. He could only think of one thing to do, what he always did when in need, “I will call my father. He will help you.”
The merman’s arm trembled at those words, his shoulder collapsing. He turned his body fully to face Bruno, sand sticking to where his tail was still wet, “No humans…”
Bruno didn’t listen. He didn’t give the merman any time to explain, elaborate, not when he was afraid that those beautiful creatures would end up hurt more because of his inability to assist them. Or because he couldn’t act fast enough.
If there was anything Bruno was good at, more than his peers, it was running from one side of the beach to the other in a matter of minutes.
So he did. He ran, until he breathlessly dragged his father to that hidden stretch of the beach. By the time he returned, the merman managed to reach his companion, fretting over him so that he would wake up.
All Bruno could remember before everything became vague among the voices of all the men around him, who followed him and his father close behind, was the merman’s scared eyes.
Bruno was glad the interview went well. Years of sacrifices earned him the position he desired so much since he was a child, since the day he decided to listen to his dad’s wishes and focus more on school than helping him with his business.
He received his call that informed he was selected a few days prior, invited to start working on the following monday and introduced to his colleagues. Working for Naples’ aquarium was a dream come true, the coronation of a journey.
Bruno, however, never revealed his motivations for this goal.
Always reserved, closed-off, he remembered that day with lucid clarity: the two poor, young mermen laying on the beach. And the hand he played in their future. In a weird limbo between animals and humans, they were confined in the artificial ecosystem built inside the aquarium, and made an attraction for tourists interested in science or folklore.
Since that day, many legal battles had been fought for them and many campaigned for their freedom or their treatment. They’re intelligent, enough to learn spoken language as Bruno could witness, and definitively more than simple entertainment for the masses.
Bruno wasn’t only motivated by that, though. He felt guilty. He remembered, for years, the tears of that poor merman imploring to be brought back to his home, and now swimming around a confined space so far away from where he came from.
He had been to the aquarium often, since then. His father could probably sense his regret over his actions, and didn’t want to stomp on his emotions. Every trip was maybe an attempt at showing him that the merman was well, along with his friend, but every time he was hidden away.
The tour guide even said that he was skittish. She said Leone had never been particularly keen on being seen by those littering around the glass separating them.
Leone.
That was his name, the name his friend offered when asked. Guido and Leone, they were called. Many found it odd that mermen carried such normal sounding names, nothing comparable to legends or tales, but that was the truth.
When Bruno was old enough to hide his boiling regret over the choice he made as a boy, he started to get interested in entering the world that would bring him closer to that merman he aided in capturing. He asked, and asked, about the possibilities open to be simply walking around the grounds on a daily basis.
And then, even that single and humble desire crashed down. Not because he wasn’t allowed to reach it, but because his own mind wouldn’t allow him to be satisfied with that goal.
He came there one time before that day, he had an opportunity however low in the chain that would allow him to talk to Leone.
The exact moment he turned old enough to be a legal adult, Bruno walked through the doors of the aquarium for an interview as a cleaner. Maybe he wouldn’t even walk around the tanks, maybe he wouldn’t even have the authorization to explore much of the place, but it was his start.
It was in that moment, in the silence of the empty halls of a space that wasn’t supposed to appear as desolate as that early morning, he met a kid.
He was younger than him, but bright like the sun warming the skin after winter. He was standing near the mermen tanks, Guido on the other side of the glass dragging his finger over the surface with slow precision.
Bruno didn’t know what came over him when he approached and asked, what was he doing that early in that place. Giorno, the boy was called, told him his father was friends with the owner and secured him a job at the facility anyway, so he was allowed to spend the mornings before school wandering around.
Guido looked at Bruno, grinned from ear to ear – fin to fin would be more accurate, perhaps. He spelled a greeting over the glass of the tank and Giorno confirmed he taught him human writing while there. The basics, but Bruno was already impressed.
From that encounter, he realized, he wanted something more from his involvement with the aquarium. Giorno talked to him about his dream to free both mermen, despite Guido confirming he wasn’t as interested in that goal as the boy, but he wouldn’t mind swimming freely again.
And that was why Bruno was there now, after his journey through education to learn how to be a trainer. Hired by the same institution holding the creatures he studied like subjects for long years, ready to make a difference somehow.
Giorno was still visiting, still intent on craving his path now that he was in his first year of university. Veterinary, as everyone would expect of him.
Bruno, on the other hand, was there for rehabilitation. He had to rehabilitate Leone, into a society he didn’t want to be part of. Hidden agendas were his forte, it seemed, because his deep intention was helping the merman to speak his mind about what he truly wanted. If he didn’t mind the way he carried on, he’d desist, even when he was sure that wasn’t quite the case.
His first day was spent more around other people than with the actual task he was assigned to, busy with the obligatory socialization. Scientists, managers, staff of all kinds were there while Bruno could only hope to just start his job as soon as possible to check on the solitary merman.
Mid-afternoon soon came, along with the concealed annoyance about still having to greet people, still having to read documents about the protocols he had to respect. A whole day wasted for mundanity and bureaucracy, until the clock was ticking away. In the end, at 3 in the afternoon, Bruno was free to set his own workspace up and decide how to start his job.
Slippery as an eel, he opted to run to the tank housing the mermen. Visitors were around, entertained by Guido swimming and resting under the sun filtering through the windows. Since the day Bruno first saw him, he matured quite a bit: his tail was stronger, the stripes adorning it would wrap around his body. His fins were cartilaginous, of the same color of the rest of his tail.
He seemed well groomed, his hair neatly shaved. Bruno was told he was used to covering his head when out of the water, a bathing cap doing the trick quite nicely.
Despite the fact he was still in school and mostly hanging around to wait for his time to be hired, Giorno was the most liked by Guido among the staff of the aquarium. He would jump out of the water every time the boy was around, ready to listen to anything his favorite human would tell him.
Bruno assumed he had to introduce himself to the merman, if anything to have a way to talk to Leone. He went to change into his wetsuit, the aquarium’s logo adorning his chest in light blue against black, and the accompanying cap was between his fingers as he dipped his feet in the tank. He wondered if he should wait for the moment Guido was back or if he should enter the water anyway, maybe explore the huge tank.
Familiarize with the environment he was supposed to work in was important, he decided, so he dived. The water was warm, just enough to be a cozy embrace, deep and large and densely decorated. Due to the fact Leone would hide all day and become aggressive without a shelter, the staff fought to have a large composition of rocks to separate the length of the tank into two spaces: one visible by visitors, one visible by personnel.
Luckily, the opening for the staff was just behind the rocks and hidden, so no paying visitor would notice Bruno and potentially give him trouble with his employer on his first day. He swam until he could reach, for as long as he could hold his breath, but he only noticed the gravel and plants littering the entire bottom.
There, in the corner of the rock line, there was an opening. From the darkness inside the hole between rocks, a bright tail poked out from the plants and debris concealing it from the eyes of the scientists who could only observe from the far wall.
Bruno couldn’t reach the bottom of the tank, not without the proper gear, but he tried to catch the merman’s attention anyway. He moved to hit the rocks, hoping that the merman would be curious enough to check what made the sound. Bruno knew mermen could sense sounds differently in water, in ways humans couldn’t.
Sure enough, the tail retracted and the merman waited for a long while to expose himself. Bruno couldn’t wait with his lungs screaming for the strain, so he emerged for a second before checking again. He managed to gulp a mouthful of air before something grabbed his ankle and dragged him down.
He panicked for a second, used to swimming in the sea rather than an enclosed space, but soon his fear melted when he opened his eyes just enough to see Leone glaring daggers back at him.
Bruno, to be honest, had no idea how to react in that situation. He was told reclusive, averse to contact with humans, yet he was there holding Bruno’s ankle to keep him from swimming to the surface. Or so he thought, but the grip of the merman loosened when their eyes met.
The fins at the side of his face dropped quickly, making him look almost adorable when one didn’t count the scowl hanging heavy over his face. Bruno was trained to not feel fear over a merman, no matter how big or intimidating, but he had to admit facing one was entirely different.
Yet, he couldn’t say it was fear. The hot feeling in the depth of his chest, it was less familiar than fear. It had the same taste of that sensation he had when, as a boy, he saw the merman for the first time ever.
Intrigue, maybe.
Leone, meanwhile, let go of his ankle, and suddenly Bruno’s body burned again with the need for air as if a spell that kept him underwater was lifted. He scrambled to reach the surface, grasping the edge of the tank and pushing himself up while gasping just enough to recuperate.
Bruno turned around, sitting on the surface over the tank, legs still in the water from the knees down. He breathed deeply, waited to dive again. Under the surface, there was still the dark figure of the merman lingering; it didn’t get smaller, Bruno didn’t hear the sound or the movement of the water as Leone swam away.
Instead, slowly, he raised from the calm water and watched Bruno.
His eyes were duller than Bruno remembered, but still with beautiful colors blending into each other softly, like the first sunrise admired from a boat. His white hair was wet and heavy, floating on the surface of the water like tentacles, his face fins slightly lowered and flat against his skull.
Bruno didn’t know what to say. Leone was supposed to be a recluse, wary around humans, yet he approached quickly and almost immediately. Maybe he recognized Bruno from that day and was angered by his presence, maybe he was considering the consequences of drowning him. Even if he looked more annoyed than hateful in that moment, nothing indicating that he would purposely hurt him.
While Bruno was musing, Leone emerged from the water until his mouth could be seen and he could talk, “Who are you?”
That question sounded like something asked out of curiosity, wondering who the strange person that caught their attention was doing. There was no indication that Leone wanted him gone, even with the way his voice was rough and curt, and he was just posing a question with the subtext of never having seen Bruno around the aquarium before.
“My name is Bruno Bucciarati. I’m the rehabilitator,” he introduced himself. Leone seemed confused at his title, even a bit skeptical. His narrow eyes glared at Bruno to the point he felt the need to clarify, “Didn’t they tell you I would come? I was hired to work with you.”
Leone shook his head, just barely. He kept silent while Bruno struggled to elaborate on what he was supposed to do together with him, and perhaps worrying that the explanation about his job would piss off the merman. He won’t see the implications favorably, but he couldn’t try to let him know his intentions first to soften the blow.
"I want to help you," he started as he observed a confused Leone raise an eyebrow to question him silently. Bruno checked his surroundings before speaking more, "But you have to promise not to spill with other staff."
Leone continued to watch him with his intense eyes, apparently distrustful of the way Bruno was speaking. He swam in a semicircle towards the platform Bruno was sitting on, looked around to make sure, and suddenly his strong, muscled arms hoisted him up.
He sat at Bruno’s side, but looked elsewhere with an unsure expression sparkling behind his uncaring face. His hair fell on his shoulders, over his face, dripping water onto his chest and hsi back.
Bruno, admittedly, was quite distracted. But how could he not? Leone looked so different from what he remembered and that would be an obvious idea if it wasn’t for the fact he had a young merman in mind.
Instead, Leone grew up, seeing him matured was odd; as odd as the feeling stirring inside of him at the sight: the iridescence of his tail now climbed up his sides and arms, making him glitter softly under the lights of the tank’s top, his fins were large and delicate as artistic fans of far away times, darker than the silver and deeper than the black he remembered.
He was breathtaking just like a mythical creature could, but that charm was unique. Bruno remembered seeing Guido and feeling interest in the nature of merpeople, but Leone was an entirely different sensation. Especially when he was looking so reserved and shy at that exact moment, not used to the presence of others or to give humans the time of day.
Bruno shouldn’t be as flattered as he was, but he felt his heart squeeze in his chest when he realized Leone, skittish and reclusive Leone, was sitting right there. Maybe he was just waiting for his introduction, maybe he was tired of having only Guido as company, but Bruno felt special in a way he never thought he could.
Not even when he saw him for the first time, as a child.
“You are that kid, aren’t you?” Leone asked, still not making eye contact with Bruno. He didn’t elaborate further, but Bruno feared he knew what he was talking about, unluckily. After all, he could have been not that special, Leone just wanted to confirm his suspicions.
“The one who found you on the beach?” Bruno wanted to know, and if that would be a surprise to Leone, at least he would come clean about his involvement in the two mermen’s current condition. He saw Leone nod at his question, so he answered, “Yes. That was me.”
Leone didn’t really react, he was immobile and in deep thoughts. There wasn’t hostility in his eyes, no aggression in his stance, just his tail gently swaying in the water as he sat still and contemplated Bruno’s words.
Bruno was about to talk again to assure him he was leaving for the day when Leone spoke, “I appreciate that you wanted to help.”
There was a moment of complete silence, then Bruno turned to watch Leone’s face more closely. He was frowning, looking down into the tank as if that would be his quickest escape from a danger that wasn’t there, and it was evident he was trying hard not to swim away. For what reason, Bruno understood only when he noticed the blush cascading down his neck and dusting his shoulders just slightly.
He was so pale. Maybe for all the time he spent away from the sun, in an attempt to hide and avoid contacts with humans. It fit his general appearance, but Bruno felt suddenly so awful over the fact he considered his gesture, years ago, with gratitude.
Bruno couldn’t let that slide, “That’s what I wanted to do. I want to help you.”
Leone looked at him, for the first time since he came that close, and his face was inquisitive in the most sceptical way Bruno had ever been observed before. It was precise scrutiny, intense like a spotlight, cold like a distant moon, and comforting his thoughts just like a walk under the night sky.
He felt it, Bruno knew he had to explain it all. He told Leone that he wanted to help him be free again, but he needed to work from the inside. He was hired to make him comply, make him play the game, but Bruno really wanted to see him swim away from the shore with his friend, maybe never to be seen again.
Leone was evidently stunned by his words. Bruno read the difficulty in finding a way to connect to his words, and words didn’t come out. Not that Bruno needed an answer, but there was the doubt that perhaps Leone didn’t want that outcome. He had been away from the sea for so long, and he might consider himself too accustomed to a placid, solitary life in the tank, with ready food and little company.
Before he could truly voice his opinion, Leone was interrupted by a head peeking up from the water. Guido emerged, staring at time with a curious frown.
After a moment to assess the situation, Guido's face brightened with a cheeky grin. He raised a hand from the water, pointing at his fellow merman, "So you do come out for pretty humans, huh?"
Leone looked indignant, sliding off the platform and back into the water. He was frantic like only someone embarrassed could be, and he didn't spare Bruno a single glance before hiding again.
Not before hitting Guido in the face with his fin on his way down, leaving him disoriented for a moment as he whined about how rude he was.
"What the hell." Guido was still complaining when he faced Bruno, who was standing up, intent on wrapping up his time around the tank now that Leone disappeared.
Before he could say goodbye, though, Guido asked if Giorno was coming soon. He promised to bring Fugo along, as Guido quite liked the other young man's company as well
Bruno figured he could stay around too, then. He could discuss their projects about requesting the two mermen release once everything was ready, from mental health evaluation to their rights.
Giorno and Fugo did come, and they were busy talking to Guido. Bruno was alone, to the side, when Leone returned to speak to him.
He grumbled about not liking the day, not liking the crowd. Bruno took a mental note of that.
The next day, Bruno submitted the request to take the nightshift. He argued that Leone would be more cooperative in the first part of the rehabilitation process if he was comfortable, they could work on moving towards daytime activities later.
Bruno’s request was granted, incredibly quick too. He was allowed to start this new shift that night, so he did.
He showed up in front of the tank after the aquarium was closed to the public. Leone seemed confused, and Bruno learnt he would swim around during the night.
He watched the merman approach the glass. Bruno wrote on the surface to ask if the water was warm still, but Leone just stared at the movements with puzzled eyes.
Maybe he didn't know human alphabets.
Bruno simply gestured up, towards the opening, to indicate he would meet Leone there. When he was over the tank, on the platform, Leone was waiting for him.
In the long run, convincing his managers that some more time was needed to make Leone completely comfortable with daytime sessions proved difficult.
It was worth it, though, to spend time in solitude with Leone. Bruno loved teaching him how to write, he adored swimming at his side, but even more he craved to learn the complex dances mermen would perform.
It was just a bit embarrassing to learn from Guido that some were courting ones. But that sneakiness was fair.
After all, Leone didn't really know what a kiss was before it was explained to him.
Or demonstrated to him.