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Keith’s tail swished in annoyance. It was almost time for the midday tour, and that meant many small ones.
The small ones were always loud.
They weren’t the worst of the people who came to stare at him—he would happily drag those who banged on the glass into the crushing depths of the abyss—but there was something dread-inducing about how he knew they were coming. And, sure enough, their high-pitched shrieks heralded their arrival.
"And this, children, is the jewel of our aquarium—everyone say 'Hi, Yorak!'"
Giggles and screaming.
Keith had been imprisoned for several years now, so he'd learned some of the human speech and mannerisms. For reasons unfathomable, human children screeched both when happy or afraid. Shouldn't the vulnerable and young be quiet for their own protection? Perhaps humans had no land predators and thus could be as loud as they pleased.
Either way, it was annoying.
"Yorak has been with us for three years now. Scientists found him separated from his pod, and all efforts to find them failed. Mers are social animals, so he was brought here for his health."
Keith objected to this description very strongly. He'd left his pod, thank you very much, and he had never been "lost" a day in his life. He definitely didn't need whatever help the lady claimed they provided. How exactly was it helpful to be trapped in a glass box?
"We provide him with medical care he wouldn't have access to in the wild, and we make sure to provide him with lots of enrichment, and he gets to see all of you!"
How was that a perk?
"Please enjoy Yorak! He's a little shy, but he loves to see you all!"
And now they'd hit the blatant lies.
(Okay fine,some of the children were pretty cute; but every group had at least one child that tried to make him "do tricks" and that was unacceptable.)
Keith debated between hiding behind his fake corals or attempting to nap on the artificial rock shelf until the children moved on, and before he could make up his mind, it happened: the shining man appeared.
~*~*~
“So what do you think? Pretty neat, huh?” Lance said, elbowing Shiro in the ribs. “Told you it would be worth your time to help me babysit.”
Lance had been after him for weeks to get out of the house and, now staring at the mer in front of him, he had to agree that it had been the right call.
“Yeah,” he said, looking in awe at the graceful creature floating before him. “He’s beautiful.”
“Yup, Yorak’s popular,” Lance hummed. “The dolphin tank was my favorite back when I was a kiddo, but now that Yorak’s here, he’s definitely #1. Especially with those two,” he added, gesturing to his niece and nephew. They had crowded up against the tank, noses pressed against the glass, absolutely entranced. Shiro understood the feeling. He took a step closer, mesmerized by the effortless grace of the mer. He was radiant, ethereal.
“Did you know,” Lance said, copying the lecturing stance of their tour guide, “that mers are thought to be the most intelligent animals in the ocean? They may even be on par with chimpanzees.”
“That’s amazing,” Shiro said, hiding a grin. Lance was very proud of his trivia, but he somehow managed to only say things everyone already knew. It didn’t hurt that Shiro had been watching a lot of documentaries since his accident, and having seen Yorak, he was going to make sure to add in more ocean ones. He couldn’t take his eyes off the mer and, to his delight, the mer seemed to have taken notice of him as well. It floated closely, watching him curiously.
“Oh hey—I think it’s looking at your arm!” Lance said excitedly. “Try moving it!”
Timidly, Shiro raised his mechanical arm and waved.
The mer blinked rapidly, and with a single swish of his tail, propelled himself to the far side of the tank and disappeared behind an artfully stacked pile of rocks.
“Oh,” Shiro said, shoulders sagging.
“That was probably my bad, buddy,” Lance said, giving him a sympathetic pat. “I bet the light bouncing off your arm scared him. There’s no flash photography in here, so sudden light probably bothers him.”
“Probably,” Shiro said, rubbing his arm self-consciously. Having a prosthetic didn’t bother him anymore—except when it scared children or frightened animals. That always stung.
“Oh look—the tour is moving again,” Lance said, voice extra cheerful. “Let’s keep up with the kiddos.”
Shiro nodded and followed the crowd, stopping to give the mer’s tank one last glance. The mer had barely peeped up from behind his rock, and for a brief moment, their eyes locked. Timidly, the mer raised his hand, and then did a jerking motion that might have been a mimicry of a wave before ducking away again out of sight.
Shiro’s smile was stuck in place for the rest of the day.
~*~*~
The shining man was beautiful in his own right with his sculpted face and muscled chest, but what had stunned Keith was the arm. It shimmered. It was like sunlight dancing off the clearest water. He couldn’t look away from it.
And then the man had raised his arm.
Keith fled. He had dared to stare at what might well be a god, without so much as splaying his side fins in deference, and his humiliation knew no bounds. It was only while cowering behind his rocks that he remembered that humans always used that simple gesture as a greeting, and the man had probably just been friendly.
Shit.
Embarrassed to his core, Keith had gathered the last vestiges of his courage and peeked around the rock.
The human was looking directly at him.
Against his best instincts, Keith returned the greeting and instantly regretted it, hiding himself once more. He knew better. He knew so much better than to communicate with the humans.
God or not, the man was clearly allied with the humans, and that was all Keith needed to know.
~*~*~
It wasn't like Shiro needed an excuse to see Yorak again, but it was nice to have one. His physical therapist had suggested that he find a hobby that required detailed work so that practicing using his latest prosthetic would be fun instead of a chore. Shiro had always wanted to try drawing, and what better model than the mer? An annual pass to the aquarium was swiftly purchased, and soon Shiro was seated near Yorak’s tank, failing to capture the wild beauty before him.
He’d erased more lines than he’d drawn at this point.
Frustrated, he set aside his sketchbook and drank some water. Maybe he should have started with an easier subject. He was pretty sure even an expert wouldn’t do the graceful creature justice. He watched as it floated peacefully, ignoring the children yelling for its attention. Poor thing. Even—especially?—an intelligent animal must hate being watched like this.
Shiro felt a sudden twinge of guilt. Wasn't he just as bad? He’d specifically come here to stare at Yorak. He should probably leave. He’d made the mer uncomfortable last time, and even if he’d now taken the precaution of wearing long sleeves to cover his arm, the mer might remember him.
He rose and began to gather his things when there was a sudden dull rapping noise by the tank. Shiro glanced over to see not a child, but a full grown adult smacking on the glass, trying to get the mer to look at them.
In a flash, Shiro lept over and grabbed the man’s arm, wrenching it back.
“What the hell!” the man spluttered.
“Stop it!” Shiro yelled. “The vibrations from tapping is a threatening sound to mers!” (He might have watched several relevant documentaries since his last visit, thank you.) “He can’t swim away from you, so he just has to put up with it. Imagine if alarms were going off in your house all day.”
“Cut it out, man. It’s not that big a deal,” the man said, but he looked embarrassed. “Let go or I’m going to call security.”
A quick glance around proved the entire crowd was staring at them, and Shiro was going to be surprised if security wasn't already on their way. He gritted his teeth.
“Whatever,” Shiro said, letting him go. The man had stopped tapping, and that was the main thing.
The man and his friends disappeared, grumbling, and the crowd slowly broke up. Shiro took several steadying breaths, letting his temper ease away. When he looked back at the tank, Yorak was watching him.
“Sorry about that,” Shiro said, feeling suddenly sheepish. “You probably didn’t like my yelling, either.”
The mer blinked slowly. It raised one hand in what might have been a wave, and swam serenely to the far side of his tank.
Shiro left the aquarium that day with an empty sketchbook and a light heart.
~*~*~
The shining man was probably just human, Keith reflected, but that didn’t change the fact that he was special. He never failed to stop people from tapping on the glass, and anyone who made bright flashes got a stern talking to. The children were as loud as ever, and he was still trapped in a tank, and there were hundreds of people staring at him every day, but still: life was better when the shining human came.
The man always brought a collection of thin white rectangles that he appeared to be making marks on. Keith had spent many hours trying to determine what could possibly be the point of such an activity and so far had come up with nothing. If only he knew more about the man, he might be able to figure out his strange hobby, but despite his desire to discover more, he had only managed to learn two things about the human.
The first thing Keith learned was that the man didn’t like it when people stared at his unusual arm. Mostly the man ignored it, but if the children were scared then he looked ashamed or sad. Keith empathized deeply. He knew what it was like to hate being looked at.
The second thing Keith learned about the man was what he looked like when he smiled: as warm and gentle as shallows in the summer.
And so, if waving meant he got a smile, Keith was going to wave—dangerous or not. A smile from the shining man was worth it.
~*~*~
The day Keith learned the shining man’s name was a disaster. Keith had been floating lazily, hoping the man would visit, and then perking up significantly when he did. He hovered closer, once again trying to determine the point of the white rectangles, when to his inexpressible horror, the shining man was attacked.
~*~*~
“Hey, Shiro!” Lance called, bounding over. “How goes drawing?”
“Hey Lance,” Shiro said, grimacing a little. He wasn't keen to show his work. “It’s fine.”
“Okay, well let’s see it,” Lance said, plopping down next to him.
“Uh, maybe later. It’s not done,” Shiro said, angling his sketchbook away.
“Ah, c’mon, Shiro. Don’t be stingy. I’m sure it’s awesome,” Lance said amiably. He slung his arm around Shiro’s neck to tug him closer and reached for the sketchbook. Shiro tried to duck away and, failing that, held the book at arm’s length.
“I said it’s not finished y—”
An otherworldly screech filled the air, accompanied by a deep, shuddering thump. Shiro and Lance looked up in shock to see Yorak slamming against the wall of his tank, eyes wild with pure fury. Shiro glared at the crowd, incensed. Had someone been taunting Yorak again? There were no immediate culprits. Everyone was cowering in fear as the mer bared his fangs and threw himself forward.
“What the—? What set him off?” Lance said, standing up. “Niños, niños—todo está bien, no se asusten. Quédense cerce del tío Lance, si? Nada les va a pasar,” he said, crouching down to pull his trembling niece and nephew into his arms. “He’s pretty scary right now, isn’t he? C’mon, let’s get ice cream.” One hand firmly intertwined with each child's, Lance looked up at Shiro. “You wanna come with us?” He glanced at Yorak and unconsciously turned his body, subtly angling himself between the tank and the children.
Shiro frowned, looking at Yorak. The mer had stopped attacking the glass but he was hissing, and weirdly his eyes were locked onto Lance. What had Lance done to bother him so much?
“I’ll join you guys in a minute,” he said.
Lance nodded and tugged his charges along with him, discussing ice cream flavors with a false cheerfulness, clearly bothered by Yorak’s behavior but more worried about cheering up the tearful, sniffling faces looking up at him.
Once Lance was out of sight, Yorak calmed significantly. He was still agitated, swimming in tight circles and staring at the door Lance had left through, but he was no longer making noise or ramming the glass. Shiro watched the anxious mer and thought through the last two minutes, evaluating Lance’s behavior, and came to a strange, nearly impossible conclusion: Yorak didn’t like Lance touching Shiro. But why? Shiro knew the mer recognized him (that part wasn't surprising—he was there several times a week for hours at a time), so perhaps Lance’s friendly touches had made him jealous…? No, he probably thought that Lance’s touches hadn’t been friendly at all, considering how Shiro had responded. Perhaps it would help if he showed Yorak he wasn't injured.
Shiro cautiously approached the tank. Yorak clued in on him immediately and dropped lower in the water to be level with him. Slowly, Shiro held out both his arms. “See?” he said, gently. “No injuries. I’m okay.”
The mer tilted his head and his eyes roamed over Shiro’s body, seemingly evaluating the truth of the statement. Shiro smiled softly and did a full turn, letting Yorak see that nothing was wrong.
“I’m okay,” he promised. “Thanks for looking out for me.”
The fins at the mer’s sides fluttered, and Shiro had the distinct impression he was feeling proud. Shiro’s smile widened into a full grin. He glanced around, verifying they were alone. Everyone had fled during the mer’s initial outburst, and no one new had wandered in yet. Perfect.
“Hey,” Shiro said, “want to see something?” He gathered his notebook and, a little embarrassed, held it up for inspection. “These are angelfish. Did you ever see them when you were in the wild?” The mer starred intently, silent and focused. Shiro turned the page. “These are penguins. Do you know penguins? I did a couple of pages of them, but I don’t think they turned out that good. Oh—I have some jellyfish sketches. I bet you’ve seen jellyfish.” The mer tilted his head, following along as Shiro went through his book. It was charming. Shiro found he had enough courage to flip to his latest attempt at capturing Yorak’s beauty. He held his breath for a moment, then presented the page, pointing in turn to each of the little figure studies he’d made.
“All of these ones are you. Do you know what you look like? You’re fun to draw. I’m not very good yet, but I’m trying. You’re beautiful,” Shiro explained. “I like looking at you.” A slight shadow fell across his page and Shiro looked up from the paper to see that Yorak’s hand was resting on the glass, and his eyes were locked on Shiro’s.
“Oh,” Shiro whispered. The mer had looked at him intensely before but never like this, never like he knew him. Unconsciously, Shiro reached out, putting his palm out to meet Yorak’s. The glass was firm and cold beneath his fingers, unyielding. It felt wrong.
“Aw, is it over already?” someone tsked in annoyance as they stomped into the exhibit. “I heard it was attacking people.”
Shiro glared at the intruder, and by the time he turned back to Yorak, the mer had already whisked himself to the farside of his enclosure, tucked behind his rocks.
~*~*~
Noise. That was all he’d accomplished. Only noise. The only truly kind person he’d seen in years had been in trouble, and all Keith could do was thrash and scream. And yes, it turned out the human had not been in true danger, but he’d been unhappy and Keith couldn’t do anything about it. His full fury hadn’t even cracked the glass.
The aquarium had been closed for hours now, and Keith’s tail thrashed the night-dark water, stirring up cascades of bubbles as he fumbled along the bottom of his tank, shovings rocks aside. He might get exposed by doing this, but he didn’t care. Everytime he closed his eyes he felt a sharp burning under his skin as he relived his helplessness. He’d been caged here for years, but he hadn’t felt truly trapped until today. He needed to do this. He needed to do something so that the human would understand.
The shining man was important.
His kindness was important.
And Keith desperately wanted him to thank him for showing him the markings on the rectangles. It had been something secret, something the human was proud of, and it was so magical. It was memory made tangible—a sliver of what the human had seen and experienced, carefully copied into something that could be shared.
And the human had done that for Keith.
Having made sufficient space, Keith began to carefully select the pebbles he was going to need. He wanted to get the color as close as possible, but alas his selection of materials was limited. There wasn't going to be enough black for the human’s hair, and the sand wasn't quite right for his skin. It would have to do.
Keith paused and willed himself calm, clearing out as much of his anger as he could. In its place, he brought up the shining man. Shiro. That was what the scrawny human had called him. In retrospect, Keith was pretty sure he hadn’t intended to harm Shiro, but the shining man was in such obvious discomfort, and he wouldn’t stop crawling on him and yanking him around, and Keith couldn’t help it. He’d snapped.
And all he’d been able to do was make noise.
Growling to himself, Keith picked up a handful of pebbles and set to work.
~*~*~
Shiro didn’t have time to go to the aquarium everyday, but he made certain he was able to visit the day after the incident. What if the mer worried he’d somehow gotten injured after all? Shiro definitely had to be there.
It was a rainy day and the middle of the week, and Shiro was pleased there was no one else in line as the aquarium opened: it meant he’d have Yorak all to himself for a little while. Heart light, he nearly skipped into the mer's enclosure.
"Hi, Yorak!" he called out with a smile.
The mer floated to the glass immediately, hand extended. Shiro pressed his own to the tank, mimicking the greeting. Yorak looked pleased, and Shiro smiled wider. He was glad he came early. There was no doubt in his mind that Yorak wouldn’t have been so expressive if other people were around.
And then something astonishing happened. Yorak held up one finger, just like the way humans did when they wanted someone to wait. He swam to the bottom of his tank and moved long strands of seaweed off the floor, revealing something that made Shiro’s heart stop mid-beat.
That was him.
Yorak had made him. Not only was it an unmistakable portrait of Shiro’s face, it was gorgeous. There was dynamic shading and the mer had clearly accounted for the angle that Shiro would have to use to look down at it. The skill involved rivaled works Shiro had seen in museums.
Shiro looked up from the work, dazed, and stared into the mer’s eyes, unable to read the expression he saw there. Pleased? Hopeful? Frightened? It took a lot out of Shiro not to vomit on the spot as he realized those eyes held intelligence that matched that of any human.
This creature should not be in a cage.
“I’m so sorry,” Shiro whispered, and he fled on shaking legs.
~*~*~
Shiro had barely made it to his car before he was pulling out his cell and punching in Matt’s number. Matt worked with his family doing marine research at their own station, and if there was anyone in the world he trusted with this insane information—either to confirm the revelation or break it to him that he was going crazy—it was him. Thankfully, Matt answered on the third ring and listened calmly as Shiro spilled the story of everything he’d seen. He was quiet for a moment when Shiro finished.
“Well,” he said after a pause, “I think it’s time you met Allura.”
~*~*~
One week later, Shiro sat onboard the Atlas, surrounded by the Holts and Allura. She was one of their divers and, it turned out, had briefly been a trainer at Yorak’s aquarium.
“I wondered about Yorak from the first day we got him,” she said, her hands fidgeting in her lap. “He was always watching, always paying close attention to everything, almost like he was calculating. He wasn't aggressive, just observant. I’ve worked with dolphins before, so I know what it’s like to be around an intelligent animal, but he was different. I tried talking to the head trainer about it, but he wasn't concerned. He said I was projecting because mers look human, and I tried to let it go. Then we started teaching him.” She took a deep breath to steady herself. “This was right after we got him, back when he was still in quarantine, so no one outside of staff members ever saw the training. We taught him whistles and hand signals, like how we train dolphins and sea lions. He understood them almost instantly. It was….” She shook her head. “It unnerved me. I watched him as he learned, and he looked so eager and I realized he wanted to learn. He wanted to communicate with us. I hoped it was just because he was intelligent and enjoyed learning, but something felt off.” She was quiet for a moment, gathering herself, before looking Shiro in the eye. “I waited for a moment when no one was watching, and whispered to him that even if he talked to us, they would never let him go. That was the last day Yorak signed.”
Shiro thought back to Yorak’s small waves to him, to the hands against the glass and the motion for him to wait.
“He signaled to me,” he said quietly.
Allura smiled at that, although it was clear she was in pain over the matter. “I’m glad,” she said. “I’m so glad he found someone safe.”
Shiro clenched his jaw. He didn’t feel “safe”. What use was it for Yorak to communicate with him if Shiro couldn’t do anything to help him? “We need to get him out of there,” he said firmly.
This time Allura’s smile was fierce and bright. “We do,” she agreed. “In fact, we’ve been working on a plan for a while now, but it all hinges on Yorak being cooperative with us. I think he trusted me back then, but it’s been several years, so we’ve been worried he won’t remember me. But you… Tell me, Shiro, does Yorak trust you?”
Shiro didn’t even have to think of the stone portrait to have his answer.
“Yes.”
~*~*~
Keith was sad but not entirely surprised when Shiro did not show up the next day. He had never come every day, after all. Keith was surprised when one day turned into two, and then three, and then into weeks. He cursed himself. He had been such a fool—of course the human would leave. He was too kind hearted; he could not handle watching Keith and knowing he was trapped.
Keith had never been very active in the tank, but now he did little more than float listlessly to whichever part of the water had the most shade, sometimes not bothering to eat. His keepers were concerned and brought in “experts” of some kind that poked him and shook their heads a lot. He let them.
He had been in the aquarium for nearly half his life and he had never been truly lonely until now.
And then, one night, he heard a voice calling his name.
Shiro.
~*~*~
It hadn’t taken long for them to gather supplies and iron out the kinks in their plan, but unfortunately, the team had no choice but to wait: Sam Holt was going to be a speaker at a symposium in the same city as the aquarium, and that was their excuse to have the Atlas in the harbor. To Shiro’s dismay, everyone was against him visiting Yorak in the meantime. They wanted to make sure he didn’t end up on a list of suspects after the rescue, so he needed to distance himself from the mer. Now that he knew how intelligent Yorak was, he worried he’d feel abandoned. Looking down into the pained, shocked eyes staring up at him from the water, he knew he’d been right to worry.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, kneeling immediately along the edge of the pool. “We had to get the timing right. I didn’t mean to leave you.” Shiro could hear the ache in his own voice, and Yorak seemed to hear it, too, because he pushed his way to Shiro’s feet and reached up to touch his cheek. “Hey buddy,” Shiro said softly, cupping his hand over the mer’s. “Do you trust me?”
Yorak nodded without hesitating.
~*~*~
Shiro summoned several other humans from the shadows, and they worked on hauling Keith out of the pool. He was ashamed to discover that he was now relatively weak and needed their help to get fully out of the water. Shiro talked to him quietly the whole time, introducing the others—Lance (the awful one), Allura (a surprising old friend), and Hunk (a friendly face Keith found himself instinctively trusting).
“Matt’s by the boat and Pidge is on coms with Lance while she walks us through security,” Shiro said, which explained absolutely nothing, but Keith nodded anyway. “We’re going to carry you out of here—is that okay?”
Keith shot a swift glance to Lance who held up his hands. “I’m just here to open doors, dude. They’re the ones picking you up.”
Acceptable.
Shiro directed him to put his arms around his shoulders and lifted him gently. “Be careful with his fins—they’re delicate,” he instructed.
“Allura’s an actual biologist, you literal dork. She’s got this,” Lance said, rolling his eyes.
Shiro sighed, Allura made a little laugh, and Hunk begged them to please be quiet.
Keith noticed very little of the escape; he was too entranced by the pleasant feeling of resting his head on Shiro’s chest, the steady beat of his heart just below his ear.
“He really doesn’t look good,” Hunk noted, sounding worried.
Shiro clutched a little tighter. “He’s going to be fine.”
Keith tried to nod to agree, but ended up just rubbing his face against Shiro’s shoulder, which was fine. He felt so tired. Since when had he been so tired?
Vaguely, Keith was aware that the humans had difficulty with him on the stairs, but overall they managed pretty well, and in what felt like a very short amount of time, a door opened and he smelled a cool breath of ocean air. The sea at night. He smiled.
“Oh shit you got him!” cried a human man. “Quick, get him in the raft. Let’s get out of here.”
Keith knew his head was in Shiro’s lap and that they were floating, and then he fell asleep.
~*~*~
When Keith woke up, it was to restraints on his arms and claustrophobia of the smallest tank he’d ever been in. He thrashed immediately, fear too intense to leave his lungs in a cry he was desperate to release. He was back at the aquarium. They’d been caught. Freedom had been in his hands and slipped through his fingers, and—
“Yorak! Yorak you’re okay,” Shiro urged. “I’m here. You’re safe, I promise.” His hands caught Keith’s, and when panic cleared from his eyes, Keith saw Shiro standing over him. “You’re so weak we had to give you IV nutrients—that’s the tube in your arm—and we were worried you’d try to pull it out before you understood, so we tied your arms down. I’m sorry. We can unbuckle you in a minute.”
Keith squirmed uncomfortably against the restraints but willed himself to be calm. He wasn't back in the aquarium. That was the main thing.
“There you go,” Shiro said softly. “You’re doing perfect.”
Keith steadied himself and looked around as best he could. The tank was barely long enough to fit him, and even then his fins had to be curled back to stay underwater. It was so shallow that Keith could tilt his head out of the water if he wanted. He trembled. He hadn’t felt like this since he’d been caught in the net of the fishermen who’d sold him.
“This is the biggest tank we could fit on the boat. We’re taking you as far away from the aquarium as we can because they’re definitely going to look for you, but we’ll make sure you’re safe. It will take a few days. I’m so sorry, but you’ll have to put up with being cramped for a while,” Shiro said, eyes as apologetic as his voice. “We'll be able to remove that tube soon, though.”
Keith nodded and gripped Shiro’s hands tighter. He could put up with this so long as he knew the reason.
Shiro smiled fondly. “You’re so brave, Yorak.”
Keith considered that a moment, and then shook his head.
“You are,” Shiro insisted.
Keith made a noise of frustration and lifted his mouth out of the water. “Keee,” he tried.
Shiro cocked his head, waiting for more.
“Keee. Keeeef,” Keith tried again. “Shiii. O. Shi-o.” He squeezed Shiro’s hands. “Shi-wo.”
Understanding dawned in Shiro’s face. “Yes, I’m Shiro. And you’re...Keef? Like Reef?” He looked so pleased with himself that Keith decided that yes, he could be Keef.
“Shiwo,” Keith said, squeezing his hands again. “Keef.”
Shiro’s eyes twinkled. “I’m so very happy to meet you, Keef.”
And for the first time in a long time, Keith realized he was very happy, too.
The end <3