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The pressure has dropped and the horizon only grows darker. The scent of ozone and rain are thick in the air and the temperatures are only growing ever lower. Tommy has no doubt that a storm is coming. And a big one. The kind they always put him in the smaller tank, or “bathtub” they call it, for.
But they aren’t listening! No matter how much he clicks or splashes, they just yell at him for having a tantrum and “we can play when you calm down.” But he doesn’t want to play! He wants to get away from this storm. And he isn’t going to risk speaking their language. (He knows better from last time. His stomach still has phantom aches from how long he went without food. Apparently, it “ruins the magic” or something.)
They’re nice, they give him lots of toys and food usually, but they don’t ever listen to him when it’s important. They just show him off to their friends and leave to go off make smoke on their weird sticks and drink their fancy juice.
He splashes more water in the direction of the door to the house for the sake of it, but he knows they’ve gone. He can tell by the roar of that metal beast he has seen a couple of times while being transferred from pool to bathtub for exactly these sorts of situations. He hisses in frustration and twists back under the water, curling up in the corner of the pool where he sunk his bucket. Wrapping around it, keeping it held tight to his chest, Tommy looks up to the darkness steadily approaching.
If only the pool were deeper or even had any covered areas. Then he could at least have some illusion of safety. But no such luck. The pool has a ten foot deep side that he is quickly outgrowing and the opposite side slopes up and only gets shallower. There’s nowhere to hide from the lightning or rain here.
But that’s not what he’s most worried about. No. That privilege goes to the ocean.
On one side of the pool is the house, and the other a tall cobblestone wall. And beyond that wall… the ocean. Tommy has lived in fishbowls, aquariums, and bathtubs since he was palm-sized. Sure, there’s extra space out there, but that’s not the only thing that lies beyond.
Tommy hears their calls in the dead of night. Not to him. Never to him. But haunting all the same. Despite being separated by a large wall and a thick layer of concrete, their calls still reverberate through the air and into his pool. Beasts far bigger than him. He shudders at the thought and curls tighter around his bucket.
That is what he fears.
Sometimes, after a storm has passed, when they’re bringing him back to the pool from the bathtub, he can still taste the salt of the sea. Or a stray bit of kelp can be found floating about. It’s clear that the ocean has no trouble reaching beyond the wall and into his pool.
Reaching, grabbing, trying to kidnap him into that terrible depth where he won’t get food or toys or Bucket! (He’s had it since he was small, his caretakers, the humans said that’s where they first found him.)
Thunder sounds in the distance and he curls further into his corner, hoping the storm will pass peacefully.
- - -
The storm is bad. Really really really bad.
He flinches at the next bolt of lightning and its resounding thunder. He counted at least ten(!) strikes of lightning not far from the house before he had to close his eyes. He stays pressed flat to the bottom of the pool. He had tried to cover the water above himself with the rest of his toys and floaties but they’ve all been blown away and washed out of the pool.
Not only that, Tommy’s hypothesis is true. The ocean can definitely reach him from above the wall. Every other rumble of the sky, the green tinted water greets him from above the cobble wall that separates them, waving to him. Beckoning him forward. Warning him of his impending doom. And as the pool grows saltier and saltier by the second, he has no doubt that it’s not an empty threat.
Light can be seen beyond his eyelids and he chirps his distress—calling for someone that has never existed.
No one is coming. That becomes more and more evident the longer he cries. Tommy is going to die. He sobs louder. Help. Help. But no one answ-
A questioning croon responds.
From the other side of the wall.
Tommy’s eyes fly open. But with a sigh of relief, he realizes the wall is still intact. The beast can’t get him. He tries to hunch deeper into his corner to no avail. His scales are getting sore from brushing against the concrete for so long and his fins are growing agitated. But it’s this or risk getting hit by the lightning.
He presses his hands to his mouth to try and stop his sobs and chirps. He needs the beast to go away. But in the mer’s determination to quiet himself, his hold on his precious bucket loosens and it floats away from him.
No!
But Tommy can’t leave this corner! Or else- But his bucket.
He’s swimming for his most prized possession before he knows it. He hits it a moment later and wraps himself back around it triumphantly. That was close. Now he just needs to-
Another terrible crackle and Tommy looks up to the sky. Just in time to see the giant wave about to slam onto his side of the wall. His last thought before the wave hits is a word that he knows wouldn’t be allowed to be spoken except for in the safety of his mind.
Shit.
- - -
“Tommy! Tommy!”
“C’mon fishsticks, we’re sorry, we didn’t mean to ignore you.”
“Tommy!”
Familiar voices cry out for him and Tommy shakes the sleep from his eyes. It’s still kinda dark though-
Oh. His pool! The storm!
He heaves a long breath of relief at the lack of loud thunder or frightening lightning. The storm must finally be over. But now his pool is all murky and full of random junk. There’s lots of dirt and seaweed and probably those gross sea spiders! He can’t even see the sun through the top of his pool-
“Tommy!” The voices are angrier and Tommy pulls himself together and propels himself through the muck to the surface, quickly grabbing the edge of the pool. Up here seems even worse. All the chairs and stuff they keep by the pool have been swept against the house or blown away. The house also looks really… not good now. Lots of the siding of the house has been scraped off too and a few windows—no, all of them—are broken.
“Tommy! Oh thank the gods you’re okay!” Then hands are tugging him out and inspecting him from tailfin to earfin—being careful to inspect his face for injury. He hates this. It’s usually only once a month. And he hates it everytime. The air is uncomfortably dry up here and his scales scrape painfully against the tiles.
They’re very particular about him “maintaining appearances.” They don’t even let him chew on crab shells because it might “scratch his face.” So annoying.
But he lets them do their inspection and he gets a yummy fish for his troubles. Deboned, but the flesh is still good.
While he chews the fish, they debate putting him into the tub before deciding on keeping him in the pool for the time being. The one who doesn’t like playing with him grabs his face in an uncomfortable grip.
“We’re going to put you in the pool but don’t be reckless, not even a scratch. Got it?” The human demands. Tommy nods quickly in agreement. Then he’s being pushed back into the pool. All his toys have either been blown away or popped, he whines at his predicament. Great. Now he’ll be bored-
Wait. Bucket!
Bucket is durable! And wouldn’t get taken down that easily by a small storm! Bucket is the strongest thing ever!
He just needs to find it…
Tommy looks out at all the seaweed, kelp, wood, and other that have joined him in his pool…
At least he won’t be bored.
He moves to start gathering some of the seaweed and kelp so that he can move it from his space—maybe his bucket got wrapped up in it—when he sees movement from the corner of his eye. He whips around, letting go of the leafy greens.
He calls out curiously. Nothing responds.
Maybe it was a fish? A fish! He could try hunting! He’s never been hunting before. Tommy poises behind some of the green stuff and peeks around to try and get sight of whatever tasty treat has just invited him into their game.
Another movement to his left has him twisting that way. Some brown(?) scales catch his eye. They blend in really well with the water and debris. But it hasn’t moved from its position this time.
Tommy stealthily approaches, weaving around a stray log. This must be the deep end of the pool. Perfect, the humans won’t get mad at him for chasing “dangerous” fish if they don’t know what he’s doing in the first place.
The scales twitch a bit but stay otherwise still and Tommy approaches slowly. Closer and closer. The water grows warmer and warmer the nearer he draws. It’s nice. Usually, the pool is just a bit too cold to allow for anything other than leisurely floating around and sleeping.
With his newfound energy from the warmth, he pounces at the fish with a victorious chirp.
Digging his dulled claws around the flesh is difficult, but he gets a grasp and wraps himself around the scaly thing and bites into it- Ouch. Maybe the scales were a bit harder than he thought. The thing moves ever slightly at his actions but then ceases movement.
He killed it! He croons at his victory. He’s so good at this. Now he just needs to figure out how to eat it.
Tommy pulls back slightly to get a better grasp of what he’s working with. He just needs to find the head and surely he can get into it from there. The eyes are always the weakest spot!
It’s weird though… the spot where he had initially attacked was thinner and led into a really big fan of fins. Like Tommy’s own at the end of his tail. But this fish’s tail fin was more a reddish brown than his reds and oranges. It blended in really well to all the debris that is still floating around. (If Tommy didn’t have such a keen eye, he might have missed it.) On the other side, the scales extend as the fish gets wider but he can’t see where its head is from all the stupid seaweed in the way.
This thing must be really big.
Tommy releases its fins and follows the trail of scales to find its head. The closer he gets, the lighter the scales, going from a deep almost brown crimson to sunny yellow. It’d look really pretty in the sunlight, he thinks.
The fish even has the thinner spiked fins on the back of his tail like Tommy! He didn’t know there were fish as cool as him out there!
But this thing is really long, he must be halfway across the deep-end by now and still he hasn’t found the thing’s head. (He is coming to the sudden realization that maybe the storm was the creature’s killer, and Tommy is lucky to be alive.) Tommy must be even stronger than he thought if he killed this thing!
Oddly, the fish’s tail scales start tapering off to weird human-like looking fleshy bits?? His eyes trail up and up to find arms, and then a neck, and-
A face. Its eyes are closed and its gills are flapping oddly like it's struggling to breathe. But it doesn’t look pained? Its face has the impression of amusement carved into the corners of his mouth. As though the creature had just passed out after having fun.
(Tommy has trouble breathing in the blue chlorinated water sometimes too. But this water is all dirty and salty now, it doesn’t make sense for it to be struggling.) Tommy goes to poke its face but realization strikes him like the mighty waters that pierced the house.
This is one of the ocean beasts.
Tommy immediately pulls back with a squeak manly sound, and pulls his arms to his chest.
It’s an ocean monster.
A breathing ocean monster.
A living ocean monster.
Tommy looks back at the thing’s mighty tail that is now hidden behind the plethora of debris and that he knows reaches to the entire other side of the deep end of the pool.
If he wakes this thing up- A slight rustle in the waters alerts Tommy to movement. He snaps his head back to the creature and meets eyes with the terrible being. Its eyes are a deep earth brown and glow in the stray rays of the deep, and its mouth is pulled open in an imitation of a grin to reveal spear sharp teeth.
He’s swimming away before he even knows what he’s doing, knocking into every log and stray plant, getting tangled in their grasps. (He’s definitely getting scratched up and bruised now.) It’s better than that thing’s grasp.
In no time he’s throwing himself up on the edge of the pool and willingly dragging his tail with him.
“Hah, some seaweed got you spooked?” One of the humans laughs from a few feet away. (This one usually wears glasses but isn’t right now. Maybe they got better. Although their stumbling gait says otherwise—fortunate for Tommy at least. They won’t notice the scratches that he can feel steadily starting to weep.)
They’re carrying a bucket with his meal for the day. And another- They have Bucket! His bucket!
He chirps excitedly at the metal container, pointing eagerly, “Yeah yeah, you’re welcome, we found it over by the fence.” The human says before throwing Bucket in his direction. Tommy happily scoops it up and presses his face into its side. He calls a greeting to it. It doesn’t say anything back. But he loves Bucket all the same. “Here ya go fishy, make sure not to let any go to waste, the storm ruined our storage.” Then they’re dumping all his food into the pool.
Look. Tommy would appreciate it, but there is currently a terrible sea monster hiding in the bottom of the-
His food is disappearing!
Putting Bucket to his side, he dives after the filets.
Wow, two whole filets and a shrimp! He gathers them quickly and shoves them into Bucket to prevent them from floating away.
Wait- Focus Tommy! There’s a monster in his pool, and he’s in danger!
The monster with sharp claws, and sharp teeth, and probably sharp scales too.
Except… Tommy has food now… Tommy really likes food. And the monster kinda looks like him. Maybe the monster really likes food too! And Tommy can bribe him to leave. (The thing is so big, surely they could get past the cobble barrier and back into the ocean in no time!)
Tommy gathers himself. He must be brave! He can’t let the monster think that he’s scared of them. With a quick shiver to shed his fear, Tommy calls out to the monster.
“Hello?” Tommy calls out hesitantly. And waits. Does it not- A call answers him a moment afterward.
“Hello little one, are you alright? I didn’t mean to scare you,” the voice has a silky quality to it as they respond. At least it doesn’t sound mad. Tommy gulps and swims towards its direction. It must not have moved since Tommy last found it.
His suspicions are correct. It’s leaning up against the wall of the pool, tail extended out in the depths, staring worriedly at Tommy. Its eyebrows drawn together and letting out a sad croon when they see him.
“Poor thing, did you get washed in by the storm too?” The creature opens its arms as though inviting him in. Tommy isn’t stupid though, he isn’t gonna get torn to bits that easily!
Tommy stops two of its armlengths away, out of reach, and with enough time to escape.
“I have-” His voice wobbles, he swallows and tries again, “I have food!” He shouts at the creature. The thing just lowers its arms in confusion. It’s interested, good!
“That’s great pup, now could you come over here so I can check your injuries?” The creature calls sweetly. He’s trying really hard to get Tommy to approach, good thing Tommy isn’t that easily persuaded!
“I’ll give you some if-” The creature tries to interrupt, Tommy pushes on, “If, and only if, you leave!” Tommy declares loudly, hands on his hips, standing his ground. Bucket clanks against his side in support.
“What? I-” A look of realization passes over their face. That’s good, they must finally be getting Tommy’s deal! “You’re the one that was calling.” What? That has nothing to do with food!
“What?”
“During the storm last night, I heard a pup calling. That was you, right?” They’re looking at him with sudden understanding, glancing around the pool's walls as though the secrets of the world have been revealed. “You got swept up into this pool and separated from your pod.”
“What? No! I don’t have a pod!” Tommy declares indignantly. He’s not a fish! He doesn’t have a pod. That’d be silly.
“You don’t have a pod? Then how have you survived for this long out in the ocean?”
“I’ve never been in the icky ocean,” Tommy crosses his arms with a huff. Tommy would never go into that place on purpose. Look what it did to his pool! And the humans say that he wouldn’t be able to get food everyday too!
“You’ve- never been in the ocean? Then where have you-” They look around again, this time with bewilderment before their eyes widen in shock. Maybe he finally realized how much better Tommy’s pool is compared to the ocean. “You’ve lived here.” The word is said with a look of horror. Is he scared of Tommy? Maybe he thinks he’s outmatched? He’d be right, of course! Tommy is definitely stronger than him!
“Yup!” Tommy shakes his head vigorously, so that the creature doesn’t have any misunderstandings.
“Who took you?” The monster asks seriously.
“What? No one can take me! I’m the biggest man ever!” Tommy declares proudly.
“Man? You’re a mer.” The man laughs slightly before his gaze snaps back to Tommy, “You do know that right?”
“Of course I’m a man. I’m not a fish.” Now the creature is making Tommy all confused.
“No, pup, you’re a mer. I’m a mer.” A dark look passes over his face, “Who took you?” He says again but this time he isn’t soft, his face is twisted up in anger, teeth on display. Oh no, this isn’t what Tommy wanted.
“Don’t eat me! I have food!” Tommy closes his eyes, shoving Bucket in front of him with his miniscule supplies. A sudden current alerts him to the bigger mer(?) moving.
Warmth is suddenly surrounding him without warning. He chirps in surprise as something wraps around him and pulls him back to the bottom of the pool. His eyes fly open to find… scales? He looks up only to find the creature’s face looking back down at him softly.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” The mer apologizes, shushing his fearful chirps, running his fingers through Tommy’s hair. It- Honestly, he thought being torn bit to bit into a million pieces would hurt a lot more. But this is actually pretty nice.
The body he is pressed against is warmer than even the bathtub water gets, and he supposes he doesn’t mind the fingers running through his hair. It’s kinda nice, the hand tries to pull away so he presses back into it. How rude! Doesn’t this creature know that it’s only polite to be nice to him after he sacrificed himself and his food. And Buc- Bucket!
Tommy squirms around, trying to get a view of his surroundings. The mer lets up a little and Tommy can turn his head to see Bucket… floating… away. And the food…
“Nooo, Bucket…” He whines at the sight. The mer just croons at him in a comforting call he hasn’t heard before. It kinda reminds him of those passing calls he would hear every now and then from beyond the wall. He shakes himself out of it. He needs to save Bucket! Who knows what other terrors are hidden in the pool right now.
Tommy continues his struggles.
“Calm down, calm down. You’re injured, pup, you need to sleep to recover,” The mer insists with another one of those nice sounds, easily wrangling him to his chest. But the other doesn’t understand! Who cares about bleeding out when Bucket is in danger!
“No, I need to save Bucket!” Tommy continues. He can feel the creature shift underneath himself and then suddenly Bucket is right next to them. Or, more accurately, they’re right next to Bucket.
“Here,” They grab the bucket and hand it to Tommy, who quickly pulls it to his chest, “Death below, you’re a fighter aren’t you.” He doesn’t seem to be looking for an answer, so Tommy ignores him.
With Bucket in hand, and this newfound warmth and comfortable sleeping place, Tommy decides to take advantage of his new nest and curls down for a nap. A quiet purr starts up in his chest and is quickly joined by the body underneath him.
“I’m Wilbur, by the way.” Tommy hums in acknowledgment. Wait, Tommy has a name too! A lot cooler one too.
“Tommy,” he mutters as he pushes closer into the warmth. The warmth chuckles below him.
“Tommy,” The voice repeats reverently. “I’m a father now, aren’t I? Techno is never gonna let me live this down.”
Tommy wants to make fun of him too, but sleep drags him under, and Tommy obliges.
- - -
Ok, maybe Tommy wasn’t entirely right. Wilbur is kinda nice. Maybe just a little. When Tommy first woke up from his nap, he did kinda freak out at first, but then the mer gave him an entire fish! He’s not sure where it came from—maybe it got washed in? (He didn’t let him eat the entire thing, but he did let him chew on the bones after giving Tommy the flesh.)
And he lets Tommy stick to his side and take all his warmth! Although, it is kinda annoying that Wilbur doesn’t let him go far from him—complaining about Tommy being “too injured” or something—Tommy supposes it isn’t too bad.
When he did get away the first time, the chill of the water pricked him to the bone, reminding him of the first time they put him in the pool. It felt like being a popsicle again. Tommy doesn’t want to risk experiencing that a third time.
So now he sticks to Wilbur. It’s nice. He talks a lot about “waiting for the right opportunity” and “going to be in so much trouble” and some other boring stuff, but he’s otherwise fun to hang out with. He even plays games with him! Even without the toys, he’ll play word games with him, or let him chase the tiny fish that got in with him. It’s really fun—having someone other than himself to hang out with is nice.
Or, was nice.
Because now Wilbur is trying to leave.
“No!” Tommy chirps angrily, pulling Wilbur with all his strength, from swimming towards the surface of the waters. Night has fallen and Tommy thought that they’d go to sleep but then Wilbur talked about being “ready” or something and now he’s trying to leave!
That isn’t fair! Tommy just got a friend, he has to stay! “You can’t leave!” He keeps pulling, arms wrapped tightly around Wilbur’s waist and trying to force him back down—he even let go of Bucket for this! But the larger mer just holds him with a hand on his back and swims them further up.
“Shh, it’s alright, the ocean really isn’t that bad,” He assuages, rubbing his thumb in small circles on Tommy’s back.
“No! You can’t leave already!” He shouts again, giving up and instead burying his face in the other mer’s chest, hoping that his cries might persuade the other.
“Tommy, it’s okay, I’m not leaving you.” Wilbur assures just as he breaches the surface. He takes a moment, surveying the area before pulling himself—with Tommy attached—up onto the ledge. The ledge closest to the ocean barrier. “You’re coming with,” He continues as he begins dragging his body closer to the wall. Tommy is glad he doesn’t have to do that, the tile and concrete are really uncomfortable on scales, scratching and tearing whenever they’re in contact.
“Yes you are!” Tommy cries.
“No, I’m not.” Wilbur has stopped moving. He wiggles his hand in-between Tommy and his body, grabbing Tommy’s chin to get him to look up at him. (Wilbur is, in fact, as tall as the wall, he thinks absently.) “Look, see, we’re at the wall. Together.” Tommy whines and tries to rebury his head. Wilbur sighs frustratedly, “Okay, here’s what’s gonna happen. I’m going to put you over the wall first-”
“You’re going to leave me!” He cries out. He knew it! Wilbur is trying to steal his pool and leave Tommy all alone in the big, gross ocean!
Wilbur rolls his eyes and continues off where he was interrupted, “And then I’m going to climb over after you. But I need you to stay there. Got it?” Wilbur holds Tommy’s face and gives him a stern look. When Tommy doesn’t respond, Wilbur makes one of those mean noises that Tommy knows means “listen.” Tommy decides he will do the opposite, so as he nods in agreement, he is determined to bolt the second that Wilbur lets him go.
Wilbur takes his silence as agreement and starts trying to pry Tommy from his body. Wait- But before Tommy can voice his complaints, of which he has many (!), Wilbur is already postured as high as he can and holding Tommy over the wall. The ocean-
Tommy doesn’t think he’s ever seen something so expansive. He bets it could hold at least a thousand of his pools. And the waves- purple, blue, and a deep black reflect the beautiful silver of the moon. It’s like nothing he’s ever seen before in all his time. His heart clenches tight, mournful, as though he has just remembered something he had lost.
And then he’s falling, and with a splash, he’s surrounded by an entirely new environment.
Fish Tommy has never seen before are swimming away from him. Tiny ones, even smaller than his scales, and large ones the size of his head. So many different colors and shapes. The plants are nothing to scoff at either. Among the rocks are strangely shaped squishy looking plants(?). They look like flowers but rounder and moving. And some of the rocks have a spongy shape to them, and they’re a thousand different colors. It reminds him of his toys, with their multicolored designs.
Toys- He forgot Bucket! He needs-
A splash sounds behind him, and Tommy tries to swim away only for arms to snatch him up and press him to their chest. Tommy instinctually wraps his arms around Wilbur’s waist as he starts to swim.
“Wilbur,” Tommy starts, Wilbur looks down at him with a wide grin, “We lost Bucket. We have to go back.” Tommy stares up at Wilbur with the biggest eyes he can manage.
“Who cares about a bucket, we’re free Tommy! You’re free!” Wilbur twirls them around with a laugh. He sounds happy. Good for him.
Tommy is unfortunately not happy.
“We have to go back for Bucket!” Tommy starts struggling but is immediately stopped when Wilbur makes one of those sharp, trilling sounds again. Like the one he made before. It sounds like how humans scold but this sound is instinctual, one he knows deep in his bones means to listen.
“Tommy, pup, listen. Even if I wanted to go back,” Wilbur sends a furtive glance back, Tommy follows his eyes and finds… nothing. Any evidence of the wall has long since disappeared. Covered by the sea flora. “We’re already too far out, we can’t go back.” Wilbur tries. Tommy is not satisfied. If he found Tommy and could climb the wall out, he can climb back in.
“But that’s not fair!” He begins. If Tommy can’t be happy, then neither can Wilbur.
- - -
Tommy wakes up surrounded by warmth and opens his eyes to a… tail? A brown one? That’s not his tail. He pulls his tail up to eyesight. Yep, still red. Craggy gray surrounds him—a cave? He tries to twist to further investigate but is stopped by arms wound around him, restricting his movement.
What-?
Oh. Right. Wilbur.
Wilbur! Tommy fell asleep while they were traveling, and he didn’t get to finish explaining why they need to go back for Bucket! He opens his mouth to continue but the scent of fresh blood overthrows his senses.
“If you stop talking about your, beloved, bucket, I’ll give you this fish,” Wilbur persuades, waving a decently-sized tuna past his face. He hasn’t had tuna in sooo long… Hmm.
“Fine,” He agrees, reaching for the fish.
Wilbur pulls the fish further away. “Nu uh, promise. Promise that you’ll stop talking about it for the trip, and I’ll give you the whole thing.” Dammit, how did he figure out his plan?
“Fine, I promise,” He mumbles and reaches out. The fish gets further from his grasp. He growls in frustration. He’s going to bite this guy, seriously, he doesn’t care if he gets the tuna or not. He is going to bite Wilbur just because he can.
“What was that?” Wilbur taunts, “A bit louder?”
“Okay! I promise I won’t talk about the perfection that is Bucket anymore this trip if you give me the fish,” He shouts. Wilbur finally obliges, tearing the tuna up with his claws and then finally giving the flesh to Tommy. Tommy’s purr quickly starts up, gladly tearing into the flesh, not letting a single stretch of fat escape his maws.
Wilbur just holds him and looks on fondly muttering something about how a Philza must have felt when Wilbur was hatched. Whatever.
After he has eaten his fill, he chirps contentedly before settling back down on Wilbur’s chest, getting ready for a nap.
But then the rude asshole starts moving. He whines in annoyance and tries biting the mer. Unsuccessfully, as all biteable limbs are removed from near his face.
“Go to sleep, I’ll swim,” Wilbur brushes some of Tommy’s hair aside before holding him up against his chest, one arm around his back and another under his tail, high enough where Tommy doesn’t have to worry about holding onto the other mer himself. He’s okay with being carried.
Oh wait. He had one more question before he falls to sleep.
“Are we there yet?” He asks lethargically. Wilbur responds with a sigh of eternal suffering and responds the same as he has the last hundred times.
“We’ll get there when we get there. Now, please go to sleep,” Wilbur begs, looking down at Tommy with desperation. Tommy feels as though he has caused the man sufficient suffering for the time being and presses his face into the mer’s neck before losing himself to the calm of sleep.
- - -
“Wilbur?” An unfamiliar voice calls with a soft, swooping sound. One of those- What did Wilbur call it? A pod call? Kinda silly, they’re not fish afterall, but if Wilbur will keep holding him and feeding him, he doesn’t care.
His caretaker doesn’t start growling at the voice or tell Tommy to swim away so he figures that the voice must not be important and settles back into their neck.
“Shh,” Care- Wilbur shushes the voice, “Don’t wake him.” A hand runs through his hair and Tommy leans into it.
“Who-” A harsh shush, “Who is that?!” The voice whisper-shouts, he can feel the water in front of him shift, the voice getting closer. Tommy continues trying to sleep.
“He’s- Listen, it’s a long story,” Wilbur starts and not-Wilbur tries to interrupt before he is harshly shushed again, “But his name is Tommy and we really need to get back to the den before dad-”
“Wilbur! Where have you been?!” Another voice, not-not-not-Wilbur, yells. When Wilbur tries to move back, presumably away from the sound, he is met with a terrible scolding trill. Uh oh. Someone is in trouble. Not Tommy though, Tommy is perfect, he has never done anything wrong ever. Tommy tries to curl tighter into Wilbur’s chest but is unsuccessful.
Wilbur freezes at the sound but his grip tightens around Tommy. Now Tommy can’t sleep. The arms are pressing too harshly on his gills. He squirms, trying to signal to Wilbur to loosen his arms but that only seems to make his arms tighten more. And then-
Then Tommy is being pushed up against Wilbur’s chest as though the mer has just ran into a stray boulder. A boulder that is wrapping its arms around Wilbur, ignoring Tommy, in an imitation of a hug.
Or the boulder ran into him.
With a pained chirp, Tommy’s eyes fly open and he starts clawing at the disrespectful rock. Hissing and scratching, finally the boulder backs up.
Tommy comes face-to-face with another mer. This one is even bigger than Wilbur and wears a gaping expression of shock. Blonde, but lighter than Tommy’s own hair, and dark green scales. He-
Kinda just looks like some guy.
Now that Tommy knows that apparently there are others like him, other mers are kinda… disappointing. Mers definitely look more cool and intimidating than humans, but the shock has worn off.
Tommy just hisses at the man and turns his face into Wilbur’s neck. He can deal with it. Tommy is going back to sleep. He’s been so much more tired lately.
“Wilbur.” The green mer starts seriously, slowly pronouncing his words, “Who is this?”
Tommy has been thinking and he’s pretty sure that all this swimming has made him more tired. It’s all Wilbur’s fault! If he just left Tommy alone-! But the ocean is really nice…
“Okay, um, don’t freak out.”
He supposes he doesn’t mind the ocean now that he thinks about it. Sure he gets tired faster-
“You have ten seconds to explain, young fish.”
-But Wilbur usually holds him while they’re swimming or has Tommy hold onto him while they swim. It reminds Tommy of leeches.
“Okay okay, so um Tommy- This is Tommy by the way. You remember that storm?”
Leeches suck. Literally. And also the being annoying way. One of the humans’ guests once let leeches loose in his pool while they were all drinking their fancy juice.
“Yes. The storm you were supposed to be in the den for.”
And they bit him and really hurt. He cried for like a million hours before the humans finally woke up from their drink-induced nap and finally took them off. He sat out of the pool for forever, hoping they’d dry out before he did.
“Well, I heard a pup chirping for help. But I couldn’t find them, and there was this wall. And while I was at the surface- Yeah yeah, I know. While I was at the surface, a wave came and threw me over.”
At least he had Bucket with him. He misses Bucket.
“And then I found Tommy in a ‘pool.’ The humans were,” Wilbur grits the next words out, “Keeping. Him. Then I rescued him and the rest is history.”
Is Wilbur done talking? Finally.
“Can we go back for Bucket now?” Tommy looks up at the mer’s face. It’s kinda hard to read from this angle. He thinks it might be anguish.
Then an unfamiliar pair of hands are reaching towards his face.
“Oh, you poor thing. It’s alright,” The green mer says as he reaches for Tommy. Rude. Tommy flashes his teeth in warning, “We’ll take care of you.”
The hands only get closer and almost touch his face.
Tommy bites. Hard. He hopes he draws blood.
The hand immediately rescinds with a gasp and the green mer is replaced by a growling pink one. This one is bearing their teeth in threat, hissing hostilely. Wilbur swims back from the aggressive mer.
“Techno, it’s fine, he’s just a pup,” The green mer placates as he gently pulls the pink one to his side, “He doesn’t know better.” Then the green mer turns his attention back to Tommy, a gentle smile pulled across his face. He kinda looks like Wilbur now that he’s focusing on the guy.
“Sorry, pup, I didn’t mean to scare you. I-” The old mer begins.
“I’m not scared,” Tommy declares flatly. He wouldn’t ever be scared of some random dude.
“Of course, my bad. Now, Tommy, was it?” Tommy nods. “Could you come back with us to our den, so we can heal your injuries? We would love to have you.”
Tommy looks to Wilbur, who is still stuck in between anguish and panic. At his stare though, the mer finally looks down, before looking up at somebody (,and unknowing to Tommy, getting guidance from his parent on what to do,) and then looking back at Tommy and nodding enthusiastically. Well, if Wilbur wants to go, he guesses it’s okay.
“Sure.” Tommy decides, resting his head back down on Wilbur’s shoulder.
“Mate,” the green one laughs, “Only you would manage to go missing for two days and come back with a fully imprinted pup.” The pink one, Techno he thinks, scoffs at this and must give Wilbur a look because then he’s upset.
“Don’t give me that look, you’re the one who distracted dad!” Wilbur complains in outrage.
“Technoblade!”
“I had no part in this Phil,” Techno raises his palms as though to shift all blame onto the other.
“You’re both grounded,” Phil proclaims, before turning and swimming in the direction him and Techno must have first come from. The “den” or whatever.
Both of the mer break out into arguments at Phil’s words, arguing that the other person is more at fault than the other. Wait, this means that the trip is over right? So that means Tommy can make them go back for Bucket!
“We can go back for Bucket now right!” Tommy pops up, smiling widely, showing off all his teeth.
Wilbur responds with a long-suffering sigh and slumps. The other two look on in confusion. That’s okay. Tommy will teach them.
- - -
Tommy will admit, the ocean is a lot more fun than the pool. The den is really warm and has a lot of hidey holes that he can scare the others from. He’s really good at it. The others are big, blundering giants that can’t fit into the small crevices that Tommy can. It’s a lot of fun.
And they feed him everyday! More than once! It’s nice.
It’s warm. And the longer he stays here, the more he realizes that he thinks they aren’t the only warm ones. Sometimes, his own heart feels like a volcano but in his chest!
He asked Phil if he was dying, but he just burst into tears and smothered him in affection for the rest of the day. (Tommy didn’t know that mer even could cry. He thought that every time his eyes got sore and small salt crystals appeared on his face, that part of his eye was falling off. He learns something new everyday with them.)
So, he’s dying. But! He likes his new life.
As he lays in the nest, Wilbur’s chest below him and Phil’s arms wrapped around them from the side, he realizes that he wouldn’t give it up for anything. Well…
“Wilbur?” He turns on his stomach, prodding at the mer’s face.
“Hrmm?” He hums sleepily.
“When will Techno be back with Bucket?” He asks, with a tilt of his head.
“Uuughh, please. Go to sleep,” Wilbur pleads, prying one eye open to stare down at him. “He’ll be back in the morning.”
“But I-” Tommy is interrupted by a welcome pod call. The three of them respond. “Techno!” He shouts excitedly, trying to detangle himself from his two podmate’s arms.
“Stay there, I’ve got your…” He takes in a huge breath, “Valuable bucket.” He exhales exhaustedly and then a familiar silver structure is being hurtled his way. Tommy immediately curls around it, purring in contentment.
Now he truly wouldn’t trade anything in the world for this. All his podmates finally together.
“Thanks, I’ll die happy now,” Tommy declares, pleased.
“What? You’re not dying anytime soon pup,” Technoblade huffs amusedly as he swims to the other side of Wilbur, further entangling all their limbs together. Resting after what must have been a long trip.
“But Phil said so?” Tommy asks, lethargic and confused.
“What?!”