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Shouta's an electric eel mer, born in captivity under cruel humans that only breed the strongest and meanest mer to fight against each other in staged fights for money. Shouta's electricity is especially potent, able to electrocute even the strongest mer and other creatures of the deep dark sea. He's known nothing but violence, pain, and obedience.
He's old for a cage fighting mer when he's rescued at thirty.
Uncommon Aquarium rescues Shouta and tries its best at rehabilitating the mer. But Shouta is... well... being a feral little gremlin. The humans can't even touch the water without getting third-degree electrical burns.
Hitoshi, already taking care of electric eel Denki (who can't go back to sea because his sonar electric pulses got cut off and he’s as good as blind without them), is the primary caretaker of Shouta, but he's struggling since Shouta isn’t receptive to any kind of gentle coaxing.
The Commission overseeing the rehabilitation and study of mer quickly pushes UA to get rid of Shouta to replace him with a mer that either makes a profit by putting on a show, or one that has some prospect of healing. In their words, he's beyond saving.
Nedzu, in typical Nedzu fashion, does not agree with this and calls in the help of an old friend.
Toshinori’s one of the biggest mer ever recorded by humans: A blue whale mer, whose size is about half that of actual blue whales at 12 meters in his mer form. He has a much more important ability though: He's able to turn into a human. An unwieldy, 2-meter-tall beanpole of a man, so unlike his muscled mer counterpart. He's invaluable in situations like Shouta's, where good communication with the UA staff is invaluable, and Nedzu’s positive he'll be able to help Shouta out.
So the formerly retired show mer drags himself out of retirement (at a cozy beach house with a peer that extends far enough out into the ocean he merely has to dip in to be able to transform, courtesy of Nedzu), and back to UA and his old aquarium (that he has to share with an endlessly curious Izuku). It doesn't hold a candle to the size of the open ocean, but it's for a good cause.
After a couple of days of settling in, Toshinori is finally brave enough to enter Shouta’s room. He sits down at the electrified water's edge and starts talking to Shouta in the language of the mer about whatever comes to mind. Mostly about his happiest time: as All Might, the most famous mer.
Shouta doesn't show himself.
Toshinori tries again the next night.
And the night after that.
And after that.
By the fifth night, he's quite sure Shouta's not going to show himself, so instead, he decides to go for the truth. He tells Shouta that they're going to put him down if he doesn't cooperate in some way or another. He doesn't quite put it like that; he tries to be tactful, but it falls flat on his face. He's never been too good with words, human or mer, and it shows in situations like these.
That’s the thing that gets a reaction out of Shouta, and two electric yellow eyes peek out over the water's edge, the voice rough from lack of use. "Is that why you're here?" His words are human, but they're still so obviously mer in their tone (or lack thereof). "To bully me around until I comply? To have a bigger mer fight me until I behave?"
Toshinori has gotten quite the briefing on Shouta. He's been forced to fight all his life, and has so many scars that nobody has been willing or able to count them fully. The two most obvious ones now, peeking out of the water, are the two scars on Shouta's right eye. One directly under it in the shape of a moon tilted on its side, and the other over it. Toshinori has been told Shouta’s blind in that eye. With the electricity coming off of his eyes in yellow static, he doubts that claim.
"Nobody is here to fight you.”
"They made you perform."
Ah. Maybe it hadn’t been the best idea to tell Shouta about his (consensual) wrestling matches with other mer and the shows he's put on as part of his education and performance about mer, in an attempt to teach the humans how they functioned.
"I wanted to perform."
The dim overhead lights manage to catch Shouta's sharp teeth as he bares his fangs. "Liar. Nobody wants to perform."
Toshinori’s only slightly caught off guard by the other's words. He hadn't necessarily wanted to perform, no, but it had been enjoyable, back when he wanted to show the world that mer, no matter their size, aren't dangerous if handled appropriately, and there's so much to learn from them if you give them the space to do so. "Performing and research was a necessary part of my job in educating humans about mer."
There's a bright flash of yellow streaking across the water, and Toshinori can taste the discharge in the air, making even more of a mess of his already frizzy hair as it stands on end. "Humans can't be taught. They do as they please, and all they want is obedience from everything that's different."
That’s... a surprisingly accurate accusation. Toshinori can see how a traumatized mer like Shouta can come to such a conclusion.
He doesn’t have a response to it. In his experience, humans do want obedience, and they'd use a variety of methods to get it. Nedzu uses suggestive comments. Torino used punishment. Dave used to praise. Mirai used ‘suggestions’.
"We'll continue this conversation tomorrow." Toshinori has to get his bearings and properly think about Shouta’s words. He hurries out of the room, skirt swishing behind him.
Toshinori very firmly does not have a moral crisis that night as he mauls over Shouta's words. They’re right, in theory. Humans, especially those in power, want whatever control they can have. It’s probably why he’d been so quick to take up this seemingly impossible task. Nedzu would've kept commenting on it until he agreed, he knows from experience.
But Nedzu thrives on logic, and Toshinori respects the small human's decisions. Toshinori wants to follow his orders like he'd wanted to follow Dave's orders, Torino's, or Mirai's. He respects his humans, and if he truly doesn’t want to follow their orders, they wouldn't have made him.
His obedience is more based on trust, not fear. He trusts his humans. Trusts that they know the right thing for him when he doesn’t know the options presented. And now, he’s asking Shouta to do the same. To trust that he’s making the right decision for him.
He has to earn that trust, first.
He goes to Shouta's primary caretaker the next morning. Hitoshi’s preparing the two meals, consisting mostly of shelled creatures like crabs and sea snails. Toshinori picks out a crab to have something to do with his hands while they talk. "I have to make Shouta understand that not all human-other relationships are based on obedience."
Hitoshi looks up at Toshinori like he wants to say something about his crab-stealing, but instead, he furrows his brow as he thinks about the question Toshinori asks. "You could introduce him to a cat."
That’s not what Toshinori’s expecting from this question. "What?" he says at the same time as he breaks off a crab’s leg and sucks out the tender inside.
"Cats do whatever they want, and humans only kept them around as pets originally because they were good mousers."
Toshinori has several questions. Starting with 'why did Hitoshi immediately think of cats'. "Won't his electricity kill them? And don't they hate water?"
Hitoshi shrugs. "You can explain the concept of a cat to him first to see what he thinks?"
That's how Toshinori finds himself sitting on the edge of Shouta's pool, nervously wringing his hands as he gathers up his thoughts to breach the topic. Shouta hasn't shown himself yet, but the electricity is as heavy in the air as ever, and Toshinori can feel the other's eyes on him.
"Hitoshi, your carer, gave me a suggestion," he starts, trying to outline his thoughts into something coherent. "Humans don't keep all others as something they want to force into obedience, through whatever means that might take. There's a species of pets out there called cats. Humans keep cats around because they want to, but cats are very independent and do whatever they want. They can't be pushed around, at least not verbally."
Shouta doesn't give any sign of reaction for a long moment until there’s some movement in the water and Shouta's electric eyes appear above the water again. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Hitoshi suggested I gave you a cat, as a pet. To show that humans don't or can't always force their obedience on all animals."
"I have no idea what a cat is or what it does."
Toshinori, thankfully, has gotten a phone with some cat videos on it, courtesy of Hitoshi. He pulls out the phone and clicks over to the first video, playing it and showing it to Shouta.
Shouta swims closer to the edge of the pool, warily keeping a close eye on Toshinori, but getting caught off guard by the cats Toshinori can hear patter around the screen and mew as they play with each other.
There isn't much reaction at first, with Shouta keeping a big distance from Toshinori, but he’s slowly getting closer the longer the videos go on for. Once he’s close enough, Toshinori can see the usual pinprick pupils that Shouta has, has dilated, much like the cats he’s clearly captivated by. He looks like a predator ready to strike its prey, tracking their every movement, but his posture’s relaxed. This close without electricity, Toshinori can clearly see the discoloration on the scarred eye. Most likely there had been some infection there after he got the wound.
"I would like to meet one of these cats."
Toshinori counts that as a success.
After some more briefing on cats, including how Shotua can't use his claws or electricity on it, less he hurt it, Hitoshi brought his own cat from home for Shouta to meet.
Toshinori isn't sure what to think of the hissing, hairy creature Hitoshi drags in with him, but he thinks it’s quite apt for Shouta to meet a creature much like himself, in that they don't hesitate to let everyone around them know they hate being in their current situation.
"Are you sure Shouta should meet such an angry cat? Can't he better meet a cute kitten instead?"
"Shouta doesn't care for small ones. He wants to only face people that put up a fight. I'm theorizing that extends to all creatures."
Toshinori isn't going to question that quite yet, but he allows Hitoshi to go ahead anyway. The fluffy black and white monster is put inside of Shouta's room, the lid is opened, and the two creatures are left alone.
Toshinori and Hitoshi both look on tensely. Toshinori furiously hopes this would go well. Shouta has shown a lot of interest in cats, and it would be disappointing if they failed. But both cats and Shouta are unpredictable temperamental creatures, so really, there is no predicting exactly how it would go.
The cat curiously steps out of the box, sniffing the air apprehensively.
Shouta sticks his head above the water just enough to peer at the cat intruding on his territory, not a crackle of electricity to be found in those dark eyes.
The cat makes a lap around the out edges of the room, staying away from the center where Shouta has his residence. The mer's eyes not once leave the cat, tracking it around his enclosure. The cat eventually finds a suitable spot, curls up, and settles for looking around, uninterested in exploring further.
Shouta clearly took that as a challenge and heaved himself out of the tank.
It’s the first time Toshinori can take in Shouta's full length. He's around three meters, and completely black save for a yellow stripe that goes from his chin to his navel. They weren't kidding when they said Shouta has some serious scarring. Most of it looks to be claw marks or bite marks, but there's something that looks like a burn mark on Shouta's right elbow and side. The scars leave him a patchwork mess, clearly never having been allowed to heal over properly. There's even one particularly gnarly scar that runs near the end of Shouta's fin, close to his spine, that seems to still be healing over. Toshinori shivers at the idea of something coming that close to his spine, and the damage that could've been done there.
Shouta is far less graceful on land than in water. His fin all but uselessly drags behind him, and he crawls on mostly his arms. He keeps low to the ground, studying the cat as the cat's tail flicks back and forth. It reminds Toshinori of a predator stalking prey again, and suddenly he feels like he made a mistake.
"Maybe you should go check on your cat," Toshinori says, but his voice is firm. It's not a request.
"He'll kill me. You should go."
Toshinori heaves a sigh and makes his way to the door, opening it and only getting inside enough to close the door behind him.
Both Shouta and the cat look up at him, and there's a very different look in their eyes. The cat is wary but bored. Shouta’s fully alert and dangerous, like he wants to kill something.
"You're not to harm Hitoshi's cat," Toshinori reminds Shouta.
"Fuck off."
Toshinori doesn't take it personally. "I'm serious. You can't injure the cat."
"Then show me what the point of having it in here is then.
There's a spark of electricity in the air, weakened by being on land. Toshinori's not sure if it's aimed at him or the cat. He doesn't want to find out.
Toshinori carefully steps closer to both Shouta and the cat. “Cats need to come to you, so I'm going to get closer and sit next to it in companionship, not looking at it," he says and sits down on the ground, putting out his hand so it was halfway in between his body and the cat's.
Shouta looks at him and the hand placed somewhat close to the cat, deciding to reach out to the cat as well, resting his head on his other hand and studying Toshinori. He keeps almost aggressive eye contact with the whale mer, like he's challenging him. For what, Toshinori doesn't know. It feels dangerous to accept that stare, but Toshinori has never backed down from a fight before.
Logically, he knows he's dealing with a highly dangerous fighter, whose sparks can paralyze or even kill the strongest of foes, but staring into those eyes, he doesn't feel like there's a challenge of death in that stare. There's something else.
He can't for the life of him figure out what it is, though, and before he has the chance to figure it out, there's a furry bump against his hand.
Toshinori looks down to find the cat has moved and is now rubbing its head against his hand. Toshinori smiles, lifting up his hand to allow the cat to smell his hand before ever so carefully running it over the cat's head and down its back. After a couple of these strokes, he has a purring mess of cat sprawled out over the ground next to him, looking in bliss at the petting it’s receiving. Toshinori can breathe a little easier now, focusing on the simple task of stroking the cat to keep it happy.
There's a shuffling over the ground as Shouta gets closer. "Can I try too?" His voice is uncharacteristically soft. Toshinori shouldn't find it as adorable as it is.
"Of course. Very gently," Toshinori says, taking Shouta's wrist in a light grip and putting it on the cat, showing Shouta how to stroke the cat by example.
Toshinori lets go of Shouta's wrist, and a feral grin settles over Shouta's face. "I like this."
Shouta pets the cat all by himself, with gentle strokes over the creature's back. He quickly finds out the cat likes chin scratches by delicate claws, and Shouta's sold. Toshinori can see it in his eyes, stroking the cat wherever he can reach to figure out what parts it likes to have scratched or stroked or played with.
The cat allows it to happen with happy purring and occasional turning. Toshinori keeps a close eye on both of them.
He's not fast enough for when the cat is done being played with when Shouta reaches too low on its belly. The claws come out, and it hooks onto Shouta's arm with all of its claws and teeth.
Toshinori grabs Shouta's other wrist before he can strike. "Gently relax your fingers. It should let go after you do."
There's a tense moment where Shouta doesn't react, but slowly he relaxes his hand, and after a moment the cat gets bored, hanging on to something that doesn't fight back, and lets go, quickly scampering off to another corner of the room.
There's a fresh row of teeth marks on Shouta's arm, smaller than all the other ones already covering him, along with fresh claw marks. All of them are bleeding. "Shit, I'll get the disinfectant," Toshinori says and gets up, but Shouta grabs his leg before he can go anywhere, halting him in his track.
"No, it's not even big. I just pushed the cat too far and it lashed out. I'll just let these heal."
Oh and doesn't Toshinori hate hearing that, that Shouta is so accustomed to pain that he doesn't think he needs treatment for bleeding wounds.
"I'm going to take care of your wounds, no matter how big or small," Toshinori says firmly and pulls his leg away from Shouta's grasp, walking off to get the first aid kit.
Hitoshi beats him to the punch, and Toshinori easily cleans Shouta's wound and applies a waterproof, spray-on wound covering over the marks so they won't bleed everywhere.
Hitoshi takes his cat away after that, and Shouta returns to the water.
Things go... surprisingly easy after that meeting. It seems Shouta has learned what it means to be affectionate, and that Toshinori’s no threat to him. He pounches on Toshinori the next time Toshinori sits down at Shouta's poolside, roughly sprawling the two of them all over the ground.
Toshinori sputters indignantly as Shouta climbs on top of him and settles down on his chest. "Shouta?" he asks hesitantly, not daring to move.
"Got you," is all he gets in reply before Shouta wraps his arms around Toshinori and he can feel the other's breath slow down.
Toshinori sputters some more. "Are you falling asleep on me?"
"You're more comfortable than the rocky ground." Shouta looks up at Toshinori, and he can see his eyes are downturned. Pouting, if he’d known how to.
"You never made a nest?" Toshinori asks. All mers make nests! It's part of being mer!
But he supposes Shouta's own instincts were beaten out of him, and he doesn't even realize what he wants now. Toshinori furrows his brow at that.
"A what."
It's not stated as a question, but it's clear it is one. Toshinori pushes Shouta off of him firmly but not roughly, letting him dip back into the water as he gets up himself. "I'll help you make one," he says as he strips out of his shirt and skirt.
Shouta watches quietly from the water as Toshinori keeps on his underwear so he's not completely indecent, before slipping alongside Shouta into the freshwater pool. Toshinori dives under without hesitation, turning his eyes back into that of a mer so he can withstand looking in the water as he dives down.
He doesn't quite have as much long capacity as he would've had he fully shifted back into a mer, but he's a whale and used to holding his breath underwater for long periods of time.
He reaches the bottom of the pool easily and swims over to the seaweed patch that has been placed there for making a nest, and cuts off the tough strands with sharpened nails until he'd gathered an armful of the strands.
Shouta's eyes are on his back the whole time, but the mer doesn't join him. Toshinori focuses on his task, and he swims over to the cave. Once he disappears inside, he feels the quiet pinging of Shouta's searching electricity, much like the sonar of a ship, bouncing off of his back. It doesn't hurt, and he's merely aware it's there, watching him as he works.
He's efficient in making a nest in the rounded rock placed there for this exact purpose, filling it with the seaweed he's gathered up, weaving them until they form a net, and placing the weeds under it to keep it in place, attaching the netting to the protrusions in the rocks to keep the entire structure in place.
He takes the time swimming to the surface once he's out of his first batch of seaweed, taking in a few big gulps of air before diving back under to collect more. This time, he's much faster in placing the seaweed underneath the net and can go for the last round of seaweed gathering before the patch is empty and the nest is fully assembled.
Once it is, he comes up for air again, looking over to find Shouta looking at him with a curious stare. "Are you done?"
Toshinori nods. "You can go check it out now," he says and pushed himself out of the water, putting on his skirt and shirt again, and feeling much better with them on.
Shouta does and comes up for air not much later. "I like it. Thank you, Toshinori."
Toshinori nods in return. He'd smile, but he's not sure how Shouta would react to that. "Thank you. You're allowed to redo it if you're not satisfied with it." Most mers aren't satisfied with a nest unless they make it themselves, so he won't blame Shouta for shifting things around if he deemed it necessary.
"I'm serious."
Toshinori pauses. There's an effort being put into Shouta's words. More so than usual. Looking over reveals Shouta's spotting a furrow in his brow.
"Thank you. You didn't have to and yet you did, just because you wanted to."
Toshinori isn't sure what's hiding behind those eyes. There are a lot of emotions there. Emotions Shouta clearly has no idea how to express.
"I would do the same for anyone else if they needed me to."
Clearly, that's the wrong answer.
Shouta quickly dives underwater and disappears from sight. Toshinori can feel the crackling in the air start up again, telling him quite easily the pool's now off-limits again if he doesn't want to get electrocuted by an angry eel.
He takes his leave instead.
"I did something wrong," he tells Hitoshi as he accepts the towel and dries his hair.
Hitoshi shrugs. "It was bound to happen. You'll figure it out."
Somehow, that's not reassuring.
Toshinori returns to his own saltwater pool outside, stripping and leaving all his clothes on the water's edge before slipping under and allowing himself to transform fully, with only minor aches as his legs fuse together and the webs force their way between his fingertips again.
Izuku swims up to him once he's done.
"Hey kid."
Izuku's a good guppy, eager to learn all about Toshinori and the open ocean. He was rescued a little before Shouta alongside his mother. Inko doesn't leave her nest much, leaving Toshinori and Izuku to spend quite a bit of time together. They used to be kept as house pets, despite such things being illegal. They’re undergoing rehabilitation, learning how to hunt and take care of themselves so they may one day be released to the open seas for themselves.
"Hi." He’s never stopped being shy around Toshinori though. "Did you visit the angry mer again?"
"I did."
"What happened? Why are you back so soon?"
"I think I made a mistake. Shouta was trying to communicate something but didn't know how to, and I understood him wrong and now he's upset."
Izuku's always eager to listen to Toshinori talk himself through his own inability, and provide insight whenever he has some.
Izuku nods. "Shoto is like that often. I also understand him wrong and then he gets upset and hides."
Ah yes. Shoto. The mer was rescued at the same time as Shouta from the same place. He's a much smaller koi fish, more used as entertainment than sport, but spotting his own fair share of scars. He's adapting much easier to the situation than Shouta, most likely due to not having to fight all the time and being only in his teens. He's allowed to hang out with the other mer that are either never returning to sea or further along in their rehabilitation, and Izuku has taken a liking to him.
"How do you resolve it?"
"Figure out what positive emotion he doesn't have the words to describe. It's usually that he's happy but doesn't know he is, and wants to say so but doesn't know how."
Toshinori furrows his brow. That would explain something, but not everything. He accepted Shouta's thanks, but somehow that wasn't enough for the mer. He'd wanted Toshinori to understand more but didn't have the words to describe it.
It went wrong when he said he'd do it for everyone. Does... Shouta want to feel special? Does he want Toshinori to make him feel special?
That's threading into waters Toshinori doesn't have the slightest clue about. He'd have to ask Shouta next time he could bring himself to visit the mer.
"What if it's an emotion you don't know a lot about either?"
Izuku shrugs. "Then we figure it out together."
He makes it sound so simple, but Toshinori has never let himself thread into making someone feel special. He'd briefly tried with Dave, but they'd been too different and had wanted different things in life, so it hadn't worked out. He doesn’t want to fail again. He doesn’t want to fail Shouta. He's the only person the mer has to spend time with. He can’t stand the idea of leaving Shouta to look after himself again.
He does not think about what would happen if he’s right and he manages to successfully make Shouta feel special.
"Thanks kid."
He forces himself into seeing Shouta at the same time, as usual, the next day, sitting down at the still electrified water and curling his legs underneath him. "Can we talk about yesterday?" he asks, making sure his voice is loud enough to carry through the air and water.
The electricity doesn't stop. If anything, it only increases.
"I'm not angry about what happened. We simply were talking about different things, and I misunderstood your words and gave an incorrect response."
The electricity does frizzle out somewhat, and two black eyes peek above the water to show that Shouta's listening.
"I got some advice, from Izuku. He's a great guppy, I hope you meet him one day." Toshinori clears his throat. Keep it on track. He doesn't need to talk about Izuku at length, even if he wants to. "He suggested we figure out what emotions you're experiencing, and how you can verbalize them."
There's a nod from Shouta. "I'd like that.”
"Good! I had a theory. Since you were disappointed when I said I'd make a nest for everyone, did you want to feel special?"
Toshinori doesn’t expect the flinch, or Shouta ducking back underwater at the words. The electricity doesn't return, however, and a moment later Shouta peeks above the water again. "Yes." The word is spat out almost forcefully as if being special was something bad Shouta can’t help but want and hates that he does.
Toshinori tries to put himself in Shouta's place. He came from a cage fighter background and survived until he was almost thirty. He must've been something special back then, being so old and good at what he did. Every odd was stacked against him on making it this far. Being special must've been bad. Toshinori can imagine the harder and harder fights they'd throw at him, of them trying to kill Shouta for his specialness.
"Special is not a bad word."
"It means you're treated differently."
"That's not necessarily a bad thing."
"I've never experienced a good kind of special then."
Toshinori nods. "And yet yesterday you wanted me to tell you that you were special. That I'd only make a nest for you and not anyone else."
"That's not a bad kind of special."
Toshinori knows he has to tread carefully, but he's still dying to ask. "Do you want me to treat you more good-special?"
The last of the electricity dies out. "Yes."
He can work with that... probably. He'd have to call Dave. He'd know more about mer mating rituals than Toshinori, and Toshinori has never been particularly in tune with his mer instincts. He's willing to give this a shot though.
"We'll first have to establish what's normal.”
Shouta nods in response. "I've never even seen your mer form."
"This tank is a bit small for me. How well do you fare in saltwater?"
"Just fine."
"Great," Toshinori says and gets up. "Let's start immediately. You can always retreat to your tank and your nest, and without your permission, no other mer will enter that space." He walks over to the divider hatch. "No using your strong electricity when this hatch is lifted, only your weaker searching sonar. No attacking another mer. If you want them to back off, you ask."
Shouta tilts his head like a cat observing something interesting. "All of that is normal?"
"Yes," Toshinori says and pulls the lever to start the process.
There's a brief beeping noise, and the tube leading from Shouta's tank to the central hub (also known as Toshinori's, Izuku's, and Inko's tank) fills with water from both tanks until it's level with the rest of the basin, and one of the previously red lamps turns green. The other’s still red.
Toshinori reaches for the button to lift the two hatches, but he's stopped by a stern "What in the seven seas do you think you're doing" from the door.
He looks over to find the head of security, Snipe, with his hand on his tranquilizer gun.
"Letting Shouta meet the other mers. He's ready."
"He's not cleared to do so yet."
Toshinori shrugs. "You figure that out then." He presses the button to lift the hatches separating the two tanks.
Shouta curiously swims up to the newly formed hole in his aquarium.
Snipe pulls his gun, aiming it at Shouta. "Stay right there," he orders the mer. "I'd hate for anything to happen to you, but I will not hesitate. Return to your nest."
Shouta looks between Snipe and Toshinori, judging the two of them. An almost angry hiss comes from the mer and he darts through the hole and into the communal tank. Toshinori vaguely sees him twist until he's hidden in between the rocks, but loses him out of sight soon after.
Snipe tries to shoot him, but he falls short, probably a mix of how incredibly fast Shouta is paired with the stirring of the water as he shoots off. The dart harmlessly floats to the top of the water for easy retrieval.
Snipe turns his gun on Toshinori. They both know it'll have little effect unless Snipe is willing to unload the entire chamber of darts in Toshinori's chest, and even then there was the risk he'd only be drowsy. "Why did you do something so unbelievably stupid? They're going to throw you back out at sea, and Shouta's going to be all alone. This is the opposite of helping, and you don't do these things without consulting with Nedzu and Shinsou at least."
Toshinori shrugs. "He seemed lonely, and he's finally in a position to be alright about it," he says honestly. "Izuku will be good company, he can charm anyone into liking him, and he'll find a kindred spirit in Shoto if he's willing to come out. He'll probably get along with Denki as well, considering they're the same species. There's not a lot that can go wrong."
"What part of dangerous killer electric eel don't you understand?"
"The part where I explained what's expected of him and he'll follow that?" Toshinori replies. There’s no problem here, even less if Toshinori can get in his tank and play mediator between all the fish and the skittish Shouta. "Let me go."
"As long as Toshinori is in the tank with Shouta it shouldn't be a problem."
Toshinori turns to look behind Snipe, where Nedzu stands, looking like this entire situation’s just another Tuesday for him. It probably is.
"Sir?" Snipe says, his gun lowering a little. "He acted unauthorized, he could put all the guppies in danger. There are protocols for this exact situation."
Nedzu waves his worries away. "You can go, Toshinori."
Toshinori doesn't let himself be told that twice, slipping out of his clothes and easily sinking in the water, making sure there's enough space before puffing up.
Immediately he has an excited little guppy shyly hiding behind his tail but unable to stop his mouth from running a mile a minute. "Who did you bring? Can you introduce me? Is the scary gun man mad at you?"
Toshinori carefully pats Izuku's head. "Follow me," he says and lets Izuku latch on to his hand. With a single flap of his tail, he soars them both through the water, towards the faint electric pulses Shouta sends into the world to keep an eye on things without actually having to reveal himself. He stops just outside of the general area Shouta should be hiding in. "Shouta? This is Izuku. He's curious about meeting you."
Honestly, he doesn't expect much out of this interaction. Shouta barely comes out when Hitoshi gave him food, and as far as Toshinori knows, he's the only one he's ever talked to while here.
It stays quiet, aside from the soft pings of the sonar. Toshinori can use it to locate Shouta further, but he's far too big to swim in any crevices Shouta might be hiding in, and it'll just have the opposite effect of what he's trying to achieve here.
"Why is he not coming out?" Izuku asks softly, looking up at Toshinori with big eyes.
"Because he's shy, like Shoto."
"Oh! I can talk to him," Izuku says and swims closer to the hole Shouta is hiding in, laying down just outside and starting to talk a mile a minute about his day.
It takes a while of Izuku chatting about how pretty he finds Shoto's color patterns and how beautiful they shimmer in the sun before there's any movement from the cave Shouta's hiding in.
Even now he's quick, snatching up Izuku and dragging him further into the cave. Izuku squeaks in surprise at the movement, but Shouta's quick to assure him. "Keep talking."
"Yes.. sir." Izuku's voice trails off hesitantly, before picking up in telling about the dumb things he and Denki had gotten up to earlier that day, how Kaachan (Iuzku's and Inko's caretaker) hadn't approved of that, and how it had been a lot of fun seeing Kaachan mad about it.
"Be careful with him, like the cat," Toshinori reminds Shouta.
There's a huff from the mer. "He's perfectly safe with me."
Toshinori swims closer to the hole Shouta dragged Izuku into, peeking inside to find Shouta laying on top of Izuku, in an almost parental display of protection. He refrains from smirking. "I can see that. Do you want to keep him secure?"
Shouta considers Toshinori's words for a moment while looking down at the unruly mop of green hair. "Yes."
"Understandable. He's very small."
"So innocent, and no scars."
"Most mer don't have a lot of scars."
"Oh," Shouta says softly. "That's good. That's good. They don't have to fight." He nuzzles against the top of Izuku's head.
"Nobody has to fight here," Toshinori assures softly.
"You said you did." Shouta sends him the biggest pleading eyes he can, like he can't believe what he's hearing.
"For fun, and nobody killed each other," Toshinori insists. "Like playfighting between guppies. We aren't hurting each other. Not seriously. No worse than that cat scratch you got."
Shouta looks down at the quickly healing marks on his arm. "Really? I never got to playfight. All fighting we did was real, and if we messed around, we were hurt."
Izuku squirms until he's on his back, wrapping his arms around Shouta. "I'll teach you how to playfight."
It goes surprisingly well. Toshinori keeps a close eye on Shouta, Izuku, and Denki playfighting around the arena they'd decided on, but there are no accidents or injuries. Shouta's real careful with them, only gently nudging them around and even letting them win.
They're even treated to live fish that evening, and the guppies have a blast racing after the fish in an attempt to catch them. It tires them out good, and once they're too tired to hunt, the adults easily clean up the rest of the fish and share it among them. Shouta generally sticks close to Toshinori's side but refuses to return to his nest until all the guppies have been put to bed, and even then he's hesitant to swim through the hatch leading to his nest.
Just outside of Shouta's hatch, he hesitates. "I had fun today," he says, refusing to look at Toshinori despite him being right next to Shouta.
"Me too. I'm glad everything went so smoothly."
"Guppies are fragile."
Toshinori nods.
Shouta's quiet for a moment, contemplating his next words. "Can I join you in your nest?"
Toshinori's pretty sure this is some form of Shouta's non-existent flirting. He pointedly doesn't blush. "If you want to."
Shouta nods.
Toshinori leads the way to his nest, swimming through a curtain of seaweed and into a surprisingly big but shallow pool, covered with seaweed to create soft bedding. It gently slopes up and out of the water, so Toshinori can still breathe at night while he's asleep, but is also comfortable at the same time. Shouta swims over to the far end of the pool. "This is much better than my nest," he declares and settles down in the shallow end of the nest, laying his head on his arms.
Toshinori settles down next to him. "Humans can come here quite easily."
Shouta shuffles until he's pressed against Toshinori. "Nevermind, my nest is just fine." He doesn't move.
Toshinori wraps an arm around Shouta. "Thought so."
They both fall asleep together.
Shouta's almost easy to live with, Toshinori finds out over the next few weeks. He doesn't want much but attention in his own, cat-like way. He's interested and careful around the guppies. He needs plenty of space and the answers to an endless amount of relevant and interesting questions.
It's probably the easiest babysitting job Toshinori has ever had.
Toshinori's getting restless though. He misses the open sea, the endless expanse, the variation, the freedom, the peace.
He knocks on Nedzu's door a little over a month into this whole endeavor. Shouta’s keeping the guppies busy by retelling some of the children's stories Toshinori had told him the night before, so Toshinori won't be missed for at least another twenty minutes.
Nedzu opens up with a cup of tea already held out for Toshinori. "Sit down."
Toshinori picks a comfortable chair and settles down, blowing on his hot tea to cool it down faster. "I want to return to my cabin."
"Not without Shouta."
"Can you get his forms ready?" Toshinori takes a small sip of the hot drink in his hands.
"Of course!" Nedzu pulls out a binder of papers, puts it in an empty spot in the middle of his desk, and opens it on the last page, scribbling something on it before taking out the page and reaching over to Toshinori. "Here. Take this to Hatsume once you're done, she'll file it and arrange transportation. You'll be out here tonight."
"Thank you."
"You best keep an eye on him. He might be good now, but there's no saying how he'll fare out there."
"I will. He knows what's expected of him." And their relationship, despite Shouta's inability to identify emotions, had progressed steadily into something Toshinori would almost call intimate.
After arranging everything, the transport to Toshinori's out-of-the-way cabin is still quite the challenge for Shouta, who does not do well in small spaces he can't escape from. Thankfully Toshinori can coax him through it.
Soon enough, Shouta is splashing around on the beach, his electricity sparking freely across the water and a nearly feral grin covering his face. "I like this.”
Toshinori knows now that can mean any number of things from 'I like this' to 'I never want to give this up and I'll fight anyone that tries to make me'.
Toshinori joins him in the water, and Shouta rubs against his side the moment he transforms, against the wound he left there after one of his nightmares. "Wanna show me where you live, old man?"
Toshinori swims over to the hatch buried half by the sand, opening it up and squeezing his way inside, all the way up to his cabin. He can feel Shouta follow him, and the two of them settle down on the soft bedding in Toshinori's room. "Do you think you'll enjoy it here?" Toshinori asks.
"I'm sure we can make it work."