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1.
Shiro made it his mission in life to see it all. He swam beyond the limits of his people's realm, he defied the currents that made all other merfolk hold onto coral reefs and quiver. He rose to the surface many times and walked the earth, mingling with humans as he pleased and going back to his home unharmed. Afraid of nothing, he ventured everywhere under and above the sea, infinitely curious and confident.
He was so used to going out looking danger in the eye that he never expected it to bite him back.
This time, the UUV (Unmanned underwater vehicles) that suddenly appeared deep in the open sea was not the first Shiro had seen, but it was definitely the most advanced. Its engines were so quiet that he didn’t notice the noise until the artifact was dangerously close. What was that thing doing, roaming merfolk territory? For the safety of his people, Shiro had to find out. He was also intrigued by such a sophisticated trinket that was able to go great depths, yes, but that was secondary.
Concealing himself in the dark waters, Shiro followed the underwater drone around. It took samples of algae, plankton, and whatever else crossed its path, it took photographs and emitted low noises, maybe mapping the topography of the area. After a while, it backtracked and led Shiro to a big building constructed in the middle of the ocean, much like the offshore oil rigs but this one was different, it was a newly and highly militarized scientific base. Shiro's suspicion grew stronger. He had to know what exactly was going on there and determine whether it was dangerous.
It wasn’t his first time on a recon mission, with one stolen uniform and one forged pass later, he infiltrated the base posing as yet another young recently scouted intern and began his investigation. He found all kinds of fish living in tanks of different sizes, many measuring instruments he had never seen before, and endless fridges stuffed with samples of everything under the sun, but fortunately, nothing that belonged to merfolk. It all seemed harmless so far, but still, a little more time could uncover any real danger like military bases always provided to anything underwater, so Shiro decided to stay a bit longer.
If he was going to infiltrate for a little more time, Shiro thought it convenient to have an unsuspecting human to ask about the details of the operations there. And was like this, that during a boring afternoon of classifying old files, he found an actual intern, a young man called Adam, who offered him a smile when Shiro presented himself as Takashi.
While Shiro found most people on the base dull at best, Adam quickly grew on him. He was clever, genuinely passionate about marine life, and didn't pretend that being what amounted to an errand boy was any kind of honor or enjoyable activity, something that Shiro could appreciate.
— o —
Speaking with Adam, Shiro confirmed some of his suspicions and learned new information. The base was a military facility dedicated to research, currently focused on finding new materials on the oceanic soil. Most specialists were engineers and geologists; as far as Adam knew, They were one of only five biologists in the whole place. He was deeply unhappy about the official's lack of interest in marine biology, given that they had collected a huge amount of specimens anyway. It was endearing hearing Adam theorize about the next sea sponge they could discover with that kind of equipment. Shiro wouldn’t worry if most humans were like him, if Adam would believe him if he told him his real motives in the base, or if Adam would mind what he actually is…
“You see Takashi? They only care about their little power struggles and their weapons,” Adam lamented one day during their lunch break, “such a waste! Honestly, if this experience wasn't key for the kind of scholarship at the marine institute I want to go to, I'd have packed my bags months ago.”
“There's nothing else here besides that scholarship, then?” Shiro asked while playing with his food, “You didn’t find anything you like here at all?”
Adam eyed Shiro, apparently pondering something. Shiro held his gaze with amusement, which ended up making Adam smile.
“I admit I enjoy some company, yeah,” he finally confessed and looked elsewhere before clearing his throat, “I mean…”
It was so obvious Shiro had to laugh. He was very clear in his in-and-out mission to uncover the secrets of this specific research facility and then return to the open sea with the necessary information to protect his people, but spending one or two weeks more in the base just so he could have these lunch dates with Adam was not too bad. Not at all.
2.
Although Shiro was so sure he had not given anything away during their conversations, Adam was observant enough to notice Shiro asked too many questions about things he should already know, given the information shared in the application process. He was convinced Shiro was plotting something off protocol, maybe something against the superior officers, even, yet he just couldn't bring himself to openly confront him or become a snitch. He could not imagine “Takashi” would do anything harmful, after all; he was a bit impulsive maybe one of those diehard conservationists with their head way out of the bureaucracy of laboratories and Adam couldn’t blame that passion, but the Shiro he met wouldn't purposefully hinder the ongoing research or hurt anybody. After some thought, Adam decided to keep quiet and figure out Shiro’s intentions bit by bit.
He didn’t have to wait much. Shiro confessed that he suspected there were undercover operations going on at the deepest levels of the base, which used the excuse of oceanographic research to do something else, maybe weapon development or oil exploration. Adam wouldn’t say Shiro’s suspicions were too unfounded and he never signed up for something like that, And when Shiro asked Adam's help to infiltrate that area in order to confirm such suspicions, to which Adam, agreed with no hesitation.
That was how it started or ended. The challenge was demanding and exciting at first, but once they went over all the unsupervised laptops and offices left without keys, they realized there was a wall.
The juiciest stuff was locked under top-quality security systems and the best equipment, as two mere interns, there was nothing they could do.
Despite the overwhelming evidence of their defeat, Shiro was adamant about finding a way to bypass the security measures as soon as possible. Choosing his words carefully, Adam tried to talk him out of it. He told Shiro that, although he was completely right in that breaking into grade A military secret files was the responsible thing to do, right at the moment they were at a disadvantage. They would fare better by ascending first, they needed more time and a real plan to uncover in any meaningful way what was going on, they were also in a position of power that allowed them to make sure this clarence problems on the research they were supposed to work didn’t happen. He asked Shiro for patience.
– o –
It was another afternoon in the cafeteria after another dead end looking for the relevant classified data.
“Whatever they are doing, it has not caused noticeable damage so far, so they must be calculating it carefully,” Adam insisted, “it would not be convenient for them to just destroy a whole ecosystem in a day or something.”
“Yeah, I guess” Shiro replied, unable to hide his scowl, The same exploitative human practices that have always worried him, that keep merfolk hidden, “They think they have the right to do anything they want with what they find just because it’s unexplored for them, it’s not fair”
There they were again, the same stubborn passion, the same edge in his words that set Shiro way apart from others to Adam, like there was something bigger out there.
“I totally get you, but we gotta play our cards right. What if they get us trying to hack the security system and they kick us off or send us to jail? In that case, we are not ever going to figure out anything.” Adam’s tone was calculated and yes, he was reasonable.
Shiro took a moment to think, averting his gaze toward the window. The skies outside looked gloomy. There was no storm alert, but they would probably have rain later.
“I guess you are right.”
Adam wanted to say something more, maybe suggest they do something different for a change, let go of the stress of the last few days with like… a date? But before he could gather the courage to ask, Shiro nodded with a tired smile and disappeared down the corridor toward his room.
Righ. He most likely wanted to recover some sleep. The date idea would have to wait.
– o –
Shiro, however, didn't have “rest” or “sleep” anywhere in his mind. His duty was first to discover if merfolk were in any danger and he couldn’t clear his suspicions in a human way, not with Adam by his side. After gathering some tools, he sneaked out of his room and left the residential area, careful to no bring attention to himself on his way to the deck. He knew Adam would disapprove… or worry if he went looking for Shiro and didn't find him in his room. He felt as if he was betraying the unspoken thing they had going on. That thought almost made him turn back. Almost.
Once he considered he was far enough in the loading docks and thus safe from onlookers and obscured away from the security cameras, Shiro silently jump in the water and was again a merman, now underwater he felt more clarity than the days before. He had postponed his mission enough. No matter what kind of mission the military was running undercover, they could not be anything good and it was Shiro's duty to stop them for his people. After all, he was one of the few who ventured far into human territory and he knew how terrifying they could be.
Stealthily swimming back to the base, Shiro snuck through one of the underwater gates and began destroying all the underwater equipment and submarines he could find. That should get the officers distracted so he could have the time to finally get to the deeper levels and deal with whatever they are really doing there.
3.
Or that was the plan. Unfortunately, there were cameras Shiro didn't discover on time and sensors he could not avoid. Before he could destroy more than half the machines, he was captured.
The superior officers tried to hide the havoc from the cadets, researchers, and interns. However, the damage was considerable, and, soon enough, soon enough the whole base’s personnel was moving.
With his heart about to break through his chest, Adam ran towards Shiro's quarters and found them empty. At that moment he knew that a suspicious incident down in the deepest, more classified parts of the whole facility was thanks to one single person. How could Shiro go behind Adam’s back? the one person who has been helping him, after all the things they've discovered together. But if Shiro was really involved, doing so would be more dangerous than anything they’d been discovering before. Steeling himself, Adam resorted to going with the rest of the staff and waiting, turning off any suspicions for when it would be easier to sneak around.
He didn't find anything in the higher-up offices, the security rooms, or the storage units, which made him restless. It didn't make much sense to look for Shiro deeper down the base, but since they were being so careful and all out of better ideas, Adam went there.
The way there was painfully quiet, but he knew, thanks to the planes they uncovered early on, that there was a huge walk-in fridge at the bottom of the marine biology lab internal dock, which was used to store big tanks in a queue for cleaning.
Adam almost forgot how to breathe. There were temporary cameras and alarms set in place so he could not come closer, but there was no mistake, that face was Shiro's face with pointy fins in the place of ears, sporting a very new very deep cut on the bridge of his nose. It was Shiro but all the way down in his shoulders in his arms shiny dark purple scales, all the way down to… to a lustrous dark flying fishtail. Adam had to do a mental double-take.
Mermaids were real and Shiro was one of them. Mermaids, merfolk, merpeople, a merman. In front of him.
This was beyond anything Adam could imagine or dream. It also… made sense, somehow? No wonder Shiro had so much random deep knowledge of marine life, no wonder he asked stuff about their operation. Above all, no wonder he was so invested in unveiling whatever the base was doing in the middle of the ocean. Probably this was his home first and they were invading!
Adam was still frozen in place, wishing nothing more than to see that familiar and other-worldly face up close and to be able to talk to Shiro about everything he had seen while living deep in the sea, knowing that the truth was so much wilder than anything he ever imagined. It all would have to wait, though. Shiro was bruised and seemed heavily drugged, he needed Adam's help.
The few officials with enough clearance were probably afraid and had decided to guard Shiro with machines only, probably wary of the reaction any soldier would have upon seeing a real merman. An actual merman! Adam couldn't wrap his head around it yet. Forcing himself to function, he dug in his memory for the passwords and system protocols he had learned while trying to breach the security measures with Shiro the days prior, and after a lot of tinkering and mumbled cursing, he managed to loop the key cameras and cut the flow of sedatives. Hoping Shiro was not too sensitive to changes in pH and temperature of the water, Adam connected the nearest water supply to replace the whole tank, dumping the contaminated liquid in another nearby.
Shiro stirred up after a while. He blinked heavily, disoriented, and bumped into the glass by accident, which made him scowl. Instead of trashing or causing a ruckus, though, Shiro shook his head vigorously and used his hands to explore the limits of the tank. Frozen in place, still unnoticed, Adam could see Shiro had membranes between his fingers.
It was truly incredible.
While Adam, mesmerized, stared at him, Shiro reached the upper edge of the tank and struggled to remove the lid… lid that was locked with a bolt placed outside the tank. Damn, what was Adam doing? He swiftly approached to remove the bolt, startling Shiro.
“Sorry!” Adam said, unsure of what he was apologizing for.
As soon as the lid was removed Shiro took his head out of the water.
“...Hey” he added quietly, something between a greeting and acknowledgment of the new situation between them.
Shiro got his upper half body out of the tank and quickly crawled helping himself with his hand through the shallow water, following the drain into the marine biology lab main pool. It didn't look like the first time he has gotten himself in this kind of situation, very different from the helplessly drugged-up merman Adam first saw moments ago floating in the tank but not a little less impressive. Dumbfounded, Adam followed him, mindful of not stepping on his fins.
“Do you think you can open the gate to the cetacean interaction pool?” Shiro asked once he got comfortable in the marine biology pool, "There is a hatch towards the open waters at the bottom of this, I think.”
“Takashi.”
Shiro turned to finally see him. Adam had a million questions and the full awareness of that being the worst moment to ask any of them.
“Adam, I'm sorry,” Shiro said before Adam could gather his thoughts, there was a plea in his tone “you understand why I didn't tell you, right? No one is supposed to know.”
Adam knew that was exactly the case, yet he needed to understand.
“I…” he stuttered. It was hard to find of a single thing to say, their situation was far more complicated than the unnamed thing they’d been dancing around since they met.
Then they could hear the sound of people approaching.
“Shit. I'll open the gate” Without losing a second, Adam ran towards the control panel and initiated the opening sequence. Shiro swam towards the sluice gate, ready to escape as soon as the pool got filled with enough water for the doors to open.
“They can’t find you here,” Shiro's worried tone traveled over the sound of the water rushing into the pool, “And… don't tell anybody I was an intern, they usually can’t put two and two together and realize we can shift forms.”
“Who's there?!” someone yelled from afar, “WHO IS THERE!?” the voice repeated while the footsteps came to a halt and the clicking of guns echoed in the corridor.
“GO!” Shiro shouted.
– o –
Adam could only run back inside the walk-in fridge, hiding behind all the tanks. He heard a crowd breaking into the lab, their gasps and curses upon finding Shiro, and many fierce screams and hits. There was a loud splash and many people yelled stuff like “Don't let him get away” and “Grab the UUVs.”
It was over after a few more seconds of whirring, clashing, and swearing. Curled in his hiding place, Adam couldn't help a sense of dread. Could Shiro really run away unscathed? Judging by the officer's cursing and rapid exit toward the upper levels, Shiro might have been lucky this time. When Adam determined it was safe enough to go out of hiding, the faint pink tint on the pool and the trail of blood made his stomach churn.
Adam was just an irrelevant intern, but he was determined to do everything he could to help. Lucky is not enough, He had to make sure Shiro was not followed, his secret his people were not going to be easily hunted if he could help it.
Shaking his commotion off, he ran to erase any and all evidence of Shiro's existence, both as a human and as a merman And the last two hours have to be complete confusion. He tinkered with all the cameras, he stole all the files from the archives, he threw away the clothes, the food in the fridge, he burned the notebooks and fake IDs. While wiping out any mention of Shiro from the base, he wished he could wipe his memories as well. It was the sensible thing to do. The best thing to do. Shiro was something -someone- too amazing -too special- to be forced to be apart from his true home in the name of science or in the name of Adam's dumb feelings. He would never see Shiro again, and he'd better be at peace with that reality sooner than later.
With all evidence lost, the whole ordeal was officially brushed off as a freaky accident, something about a faulty engine exploding that didn't really make sense but was better than proclaiming a mermaid had come to destroy half the equipment of a supposedly super secure military base. The mess was picked up, the very few people implicated were bribed and then relocated, and nothing was said about the incident again, going down in everyone’s memories as a cryptid sighting at best and not more serious than that.
Left adrift among all that chaos and all his plans for the future shattered, Adam ended up accepting a new position at an institute that had nothing to do with the one he originally aimed for, located on land where he could still see the shore from the lab's window.
4.
Deep under the waves, Shiro needed a very long time to put himself back together. He was not as naive anymore, he didn’t have the strength to defy the stormy skies and the furious currents of the ocean and venture deep inland among unsuspecting humans. For a time, he could not think about ships without shivering, he could not talk about the base and what happened there. How he put everything he held dear in danger by getting close to the edge of humanity and pretending he knew better.
It was quite a while before he wanted to talk to his fellow merfolk about the surface.
“As a species, humans are a threat, more occupied with power struggles between them than for each other,” he told to Keith one day after he pressed enough, “ among them, there are individuals worth meeting but keeping our distance is the best thing we can do, for all of us”
Despite everything, Shiro’s mind wandered sometimes, wondering about the fate of that one person that was so worthy, their half smiles, and what they could have had with another set of circumstances. No matter how unfortunate the escape from the base had ended, it would have not been possible at all without Adam, who chose to stick with him the one time that mattered. Shiro owed him his life, yet he hadn’t even said a proper goodbye.
– o –
As time passed, Adam kept dedicating himself to marine life research, …and taking advantage of his increasingly better positions to destroy all information related to merfolk he came across. He considered it a way to ensure that not seeing Shiro again was for a reason. It was a just and good reason, right? Making sure that whenever Shiro crossed his mind it didn’t spiral into all the unsolved questions and the what-ifs… All the memories and hopes crashed down alongside his already little respect for military research. He found someone amazing and now was cursed to never see him again, unable to even speak about it.
One late afternoon, right when he sat down to review the draft of a paper by his lab assistant about microbial sea pipe life forms, there was a knock on his door.
“It’s not office hours,” Adam complained.
“That’s why I’m here.”
The familiarity of that voice crashed onto Adam’s brain like a tsunami wave. He scrambled to the door and found Shiro outside, dressed in a uniform from one of the institute’s suppliers.
He looked different in all sorts of ways the scar now healed, another one on his forehead that turned that whole section of hair white… a missing arm.
“What are you doing here?” Adam blurted after a few seconds, sounding a bit drier than he intended, “What if someone sees you? it’s not safe”
“Safe from what?” Shiro retorted, amused in spite of himself, “The sleep-deprived assistants?”
“I don’t know, just, you should not be here!”
“I wanted to see you.”
I wanted to see you.
“What for?” Adam hissed, looking out the corridor, wary of any passerby.
“you helped me, you really did, it could have been so much worse and I wanted… I should at least say thanks, or explain myself to you”
Adam pulled Shiro get into his office and locked the door. He himself had made sure nobody could link Shiro with the incident at the base, his own hands had destroyed all evidence and he knew there was nothing to worry about. And yet.
“Adam, I...” Shiro started.
“You don’t need to explain anything. You owe me nothing, I owe you nothing.” Adam interrupted him. “Officially nothing happened. I made sure of it”
They stood in front of each other, evaluating the silence. Should they pretend nothing ever happened? Or worse, that what happened was not important? Adam had sacrificed his life project, yet he still wondered.
Shiro had undergone a truly traumatic experience, but he found himself here, looking for one human. They both had acted in the name of doing the right thing, in a situation way above their capabilities with the very real option of their lives being over, figuratively and literally, they almost did.
And they both were looking at each other anyway, with the sun setting through the window, and the sound of waves crashing on the shore as they have done for eons.
They both had survived. Adam had to smile and Shiro had to mirror him.
Maybe they could just pick up from where they left it, go to the nearest town to catch up with a friend, and let go of the strain of just surviving for what seemed years with something like… a date?
Yeah, a date sounded about right.
THE END