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Fukami had finally found what he was looking for this entire time; a nice, relaxing, quiet place to himself. He could get some quality time by himself with his thoughts. It's not like he had been stressed or anything, he just wanted some alone time.

Fukami stared at the blue waves below him, lost in thought as he watched them bob up and down. He thought about everything that had happened in the past years; Sal's betrayal, Samekichi's return with Sal, Sal's whole apology thing, Wada and Samekichi getting together, Minami, the list could go on for days.

Fukami was about to enjoy some more memories, when he suddenly got tapped on the shoulder. Fukami flinched a bit from the sudden contact, he looked back to see who had to disturbed his peace. To Fukami's surprise, the person who had came to disturb him had been none other than Sal.

If he tries to pull something I'll just tear him to pieces, no mercy. Fukami thought, standing up and dusting himself off. He stepped away from the edge. The albino shark grinned from ear to ear, as if he were a child who just snagged his mother's credit card.

"What do you want?" Fukami asked in his regular monotone voice. Sal walked past him, standing at the edge of the rock that they were on, staring into the waves below.

"I just came here to admire the sea from above, I wasn't expecting to see you here though." Fukami crossed his arms. "I wasn't expecting anyone to come and disturb my peace and quiet either."

Sal looked back at Fukami, smiling at him. "My bad." Sal sat down at the edge of the rock, patting the spot next to him. "Let's talk a bit."

Fukami sighed and walked over to Sal, sitting to his right at the edge of the rock. "So," Sal scooted closer to Fukami. "anything interesting happening with you?" Fukami glared at Sal with one eye, searching him for any ulterior motives.

Fukami crossed his arms. "Other than the things I do regularly, no." What is he planning? He must be trying to get information on something to betray Wadanohara again.

Fukami was snapped out of his thoughts by Sal as he patted Fukami's back softly. "Aw, it must be quite lonely for you then. Everyone's got someone or something to do, and you're here without anyone or anything!"

Fukami moved over a bit so that Sal couldn't pat his back anymore. "What do you mean by that?" Fukami had absolutely no clue what this idiot was babbling about.

Sal picked up a pebble at his left hand side, throwing it across the water. "Well; Wada and Samekichi have a kid, Memoca and Dolphi are pretty lovey dovey, and a couple of the other people in town are having their own families and all." Sal picked up another pebble, throwing it across the water. "Now do you get what I mean?" Sal asked Fukami, eyes glued on the pebble skipping across the water.

Fukami looked down at the waves below. "Yeah. Why do you care about that though? Are you planning something?" Sal looked Fukami dead in the eyes, a bright smile on his face. "I just want to make sure that you're not alone." The shark tossed Fukami a pebble.

Fukami felt his face heat up a bit. What??? What kind of sick and twisted trick is this guy planning?

Fukami caught the pebble, staring at Sal. Sal picked up another pebble, throwing it across the water. Fukami watched Sal's calm expression as he watched the pebble skip a across the water.

I'll go along with it for now, I guess. Fukami threw his pebble across the water, watching it skip across the surface of it.

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Sal threw another pebble across the water, wondering why he even went through with Wada's plan to cheer up Fukami.

He should just get over it already, Wada was Samekichi's from start to finish. Neither of us had any chance of getting with her in the first place. Sal sighed, looking up towards the clear blue sky. I shouldn't have even gone through with her dumb "favor". She could've asked Dolphi or Memoca to do this, so why me?

Sal looked at the octopus next to him, trying to see if he could read what he was thinking.

Fukami, like always, showed little to no emotion. Sal stood up, he had decided that he would take Fukami to a place as beautiful as the water below them. Fukami looked up at Sal, it was clear to him that Fukami wanted nothing to do with him at all.

Sal cleared his throat, ignoring Fukami's obvious hatred for the shark. "Get up octo boy, I'm taking you somewhere that's better than a giant rock in some water."

Fukami sighed and got up, if he wanted to get some peace he'd have to entertain the shark for a bit. "Let's go then, I don't have all day." Sal smirked to himself, he felt oddly happy that the octopus was going to follow him.

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Finally they arrived at Sal's favorite place, it was a small island with lush vegetation. Tall trees, large plants, and beautiful flowers were everywhere. Fukami looked around in monotone awe, he'd never seen anything like this on such a small island. Sal smirked as he watched Fukami look around.

"How did you find this place?" Fukami asked, observing the plant-life of the area. Sal walked further into the island, Fukami following behind.

"Did you really think I'd just sit around and mope all day over Wada? Unlike you, I actually got over it and went exploring. That's how I found this place."

Sal and Fukami continued walking through the island until they came across a bench swing, it looked almost brand new. Sal sat down on it and patted the seat next to him, indicating that Fukami should sit too. Fukami sat down on the swing next to Sal and watched as a flock of birds flew by.

Sal felt at peace in this spot, he thought that Fukami would feel the same too. He didn't know why he suddenly cared so much for the octopus, but he hoped he could help him get over Wada. Sal watched as Fukami's monotone face lit up just a tad bit. He looked so calm as he watched the waves of the sea move up and down.

Sal felt his face burn up a bit as Fukami turned to look directly at him. Embarrassed to be caught looking at him, Sal quickly turned his head the other way so Fukami couldn't see his obvious blush. His face practically turned into a tomato when he felt Fukami's hand on his shoulder.

Sal turned to face Fukami, his face still heated from the sudden contact. "Thanks for showing me this, Sal." Sal could've sworn he saw a slight grin on Fukami's face as he said that.

Sal removed Fukami's hand from his shoulder. "It was nothing. You probably could've found this without me anyways, no big deal." Sal folded his arms and smirked, trying to act cool.

Fukami opened his mouth to say something but was distracted by how beautiful the sun setting looked from where they were sitting. Sal looked at the sunset as well, thinking about how fast the time seemed to go by. He side eyed Fukami, watching the seemingly emotionless octopus admire the view.

Sal declared that he would at least try to be friends with Fukami from now on. Standing up, Sal spoke. "This day has actually been pretty fun, we could do something like this again.. if you want."

Fukami seemed a bit surprised. Sal sputtered. "I mean, we could be friends.. get to know each other better.. hang out more.. maybe even, I don't know.. bond more?"

"Sure." Fukami stood up and began walking back home. Sal ran after him, wanting to spend even just a little more time together with the octopus.

"W-wait for me!"

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Fukami sat on his bed, thinking about yesterday. Sal was kind of.. cute... HUH! What am I thinking? Sal? Cute? What has gotten into me? Fukami sighed and got dressed for the day, trying not to think about Sal.

Fukami walked out of his room and down the hall to the living room. Dolphi and Memoca were already awake, sitting around the dining table. Memoca was bugging Dolphi about something as always. Fukami stepped into the living room, he took the apron from the stand near the kitchen and put it on. It was time for the legendary cook to make some pancakes.

Fukami got into the kitchen and started his master chief skills. Dolphi watched from the dining table as Fukami focused all his energy on making the perfect pancakes, Memoca was already tired of Dolphi admiring Fukami from the sidelines. "You know, he's never going to know how you feel about him if you don't tell him."

Dolphi turned as red as a tomato, hiding her embarrassment under her scarf. "I-I can't tell him though..! What if he doesn't like me back? Or.. or what if he already has a girlfriend!?" Dolphi put her head on the table. "What if I'm not good enough?"

Memoca slammed her feathery hand-wings on the table, surprising both Dolphi and Fukami. Fukami stuck his head out from the kitchen to make sure everything was okay. "Sorry, I got a bit excited." Fukami resumed his cooking as Memoca began to cheer Dolphi on.

"Listen here Dolph, no matter what happens, whether he doesn't like you back, whether he has a girlfriend, or whether he thinks you're not good enough; you'll go in there and tell him exactly how you feel! I believe in you!"

Memoca was great at cheering Dolphi up when she degraded herself, maybe she could muster up the courage to confess to Fukami after all!

"You're right, I MUST start my love journey right here, right now! I SHALL CONFESS MY BURNING LOVE!" Dolphi felt pumped, as if she was ready to take on anything the world would throw at her.

She got up and made her way to the kitchen, Fukami was already done making pancakes for everyone in the house. Dolphi breathed in and out to calm her nerves, opening her mouth to pour her heart out to Fukami.. and then suddenly in came Sal.

He practically slammed the door open and walked inside, ignoring Memoca and walking in front of Dolphi to get to Fukami. "Hey octo boy, how did you sleep last night?"

Dolphi was slightly pissed, but also sort of relieved. What would of really happened if she told Fukami how she felt? She would just have to save her confession for another day. Fukami proceeded to talk with Sal, Dolphi walked back to the living room.

Memoca crossed her arms as Dolphi sat back down at the table. "I'll just tell him some other time.." Memoca shook her head in disapproval, not saying a single word.

Eventually Wada, Samekichi and Minami woke up, everyone sat down at the table eating Fukami's pancakes. Fukami was sharing half of his stack with Sal, which made Dolphi a little jealous. Only a little. She couldn't help but notice how Sal looked at Fukami and how he spoke to him. Dolphi knew she'd have some competition.

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"Fukami, would you do me a favor please?" Wadanohara walked through the door after returning from her daily walk.

"What is it?" Fukami looked up from his book, trying to see what Wada had behind her back.

"If it isn't to much to ask, I'd like you to watch Tarako for me!" Wada showed him what she was hiding behind her back, presenting the small red octopus himself.

Fukami shrugged, giving her a monotone "Sure." in response. "Thanks a lot Fukami!" Wada smiled sweetly, making him blush on the inside. "It's no problem.."

...And then suddenly Sal appeared from under the table that Fukami was sitting at.

Wada was surprised for a few seconds before smiling at Sal. "You can help Fukami watch Tarako too, Sal."

Wada gave Tarako to Sal, the white shark looked down at the red octopus in confusion. "Uh no tha-"

"Thanks for agreeing to look after him bye!" Wada said within three seconds as she ran out the door, leaving the three there. Sal looked at Tarako.

"God damn it."

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Sal was swearing to himself in his head. It's been an hour since Tarako arrived. He decided that he would sit out on babysitting, but he got bored quickly, deciding he would help Fukami out a bit.

This could have been the perfect time to slide into Fukami's direct messages, also known as the DMs, to get to know him better, but a certain chibi red octopus had ruined his plan. Now he was stuck at Wada's place with Fukami and Taruko.

"Wait a second, aren't you a fully grown adult?" Sal questioned the round octopus that was sat at the table drawing with crayons, the other octopus next to him drawing in pencil.

"I am, but I still wet the bed sometimes, so I suppose I'm technically still a child." Tarako replied in his normal bubbly manner.

Sal sighed. "Whatever, what are you drawing?" The white shark made his way to the table, looking over the red octopus's non existent shoulder.

Tarako stopped scribbling, holding up his masterpiece to Sal. "It's you, me, and Fukami!" Sal inspected the doodle, he didn't expect an 'adult' to draw in such a childish way.

Fukami looked over at Tarako's drawing, clapping in approval. "Your drawing skills are getting better Tarako, I'm impressed." The small octopus nearly bounced out of his seat from the compliment. "I learned from the best in the whole entire sea; you!"

 Sal could've sworn he saw a tiny smile on Fukami's face.. nah, must've been his imagination.

Sal caught a glimpse of Fukami's drawing while the two octopi were communing with each other, it was a beautiful masterpiece of the island that Sal took him to. Sal blushed remembering how slightly impressed Fukami looked back then, he cleared his throat to gain the octopi's attention.

"Hey uh, can we see your drawing too Fukami?" Fukami nodded silently, allowing Sal to grab the majestic paper.

Tarako looked at Fukami's art in amazement, he was once again astonished by the larger octopus' skills. "Wow, I think this is your best drawing yet! What's this based off of?" Fukami almost blushed on the outside when he remembered how Sal had taken him to the island.

"It's just a little island that I went to for no particular reason," He shrugged. "We can go to see it sometime."

Tarako bounced out of his seat in excitement, landing on Fukami's face. "Of course I'd like to see it! Thank you so much Fukami!! Octokiss!~" Fukami let out an amused sigh at the the smaller octopus' way of saying thank you.

The three boys continued to talk with one another, learning about each other's lives. Sal noticed how well Fukami and Tarako got along and felt a little envious towards their friendship, it was obvious that the two were close in some sense.

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The front door opens as Wadanohara and the others walk into the house, Wada and Samekichi went to put away the groceries as Dolphi went over to Fukami.

"Um, hey Fukami.. I was wondering if you uh, maybe want to go to this year's festival with me?" Dolphi showed the octopus a flyer for the yearly peace festival held in the main part of the kingdom.

Fukami stayed silent, not really wanting to go anywhere. He just wanted to be alone for this year's festival instead of being dragged around like a dog on a leash. Just before he could sternly reject the offer, Sal spoke up.

"Sorry Phi, but me and Kami here are going to together already. Right Fukami?" The white shark looked over to him, smirking widely. Fukami deadpanned, but one glance at Tarako convinced him that he had to attend this year.

"Yeah, sure." He responded.

Dolphi was enraged to say the least. Sal not only caused Fukami to reject her invitation, but he also called both her and her crush by silly nicknames! WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL? But to avoid making a scene, she just gave Fukami a small smile. "That's okay, we could uh, go next year maybe." She said, retreating to Memoca's side afterwards.

Fukami glanced at Sal and raised a brow at him. "So we're going to the festival?"

"Of course, why wouldn't we go? I've only ever seen the boring festivals before the Red Sea takeover, so I can only imagine what this year's one is going to include."

Fukami sighed. "Okay then, I guess all three of us are going." He pulled out his phone to set a reminder. At this moment he questioned how technology could work underwater, but decided not to think too hard on it. Magic was most likely the reason anyways.

And so Fukami, Sal, and Tarako planned to meet each other at this year's festival. Fukami had a bad feeling about the festival, but he couldn't quite put a finger on what.

It would probably be fine.

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Fukami woke up five minutes before his alarm, turning it off so it wouldn't sound as he got out of his of bed to get ready for the festival. This year he would attend the festivities with both Sal and Tarako.

Fukami's mind wandered to the white shark; both of them had suddenly became friends just two days ago. It was weird. Sal was weird. Weird, and maybe even cute, or charming.

Fukami snapped himself out of his train of thought, he didn't want to think about the complicated feelings going on in his brain right now.

He went over to his closet and put on the hakama Wadanohara had bought for him two weeks ago for the festival. It, unfortunately, did not smell like her anymore.

Come to think of it, it didn't smell like any of his other clothes either. Did someone go through his closet?

Fukami shut the closet doors and looked around his room. Everything was where it was supposed to be, maybe the hakama just smelled like brand new clothes.

He decided that this was a non issue, instead drawing his attention to his reflection in the mirror stand by the closet. The octopus appreciated the blue, red and gold details of his outfit, the artist inside of him gaining a sudden inspiration for his next piece. With an approving nod to his reflection, Fukami walked out of his room, closing the door behind him.

Dolphi got up from under Fukami's bed, sighing in relief that he didn't notice she was there. She was happy that she got to hear Fukami sleeping. Usually his guard would be up and she'd be unable to sneak into his room, but for some reason he seemed to be less defensive last night.

Did Sal have to do something with this?

Dolphi gritted her teeth. She'd have to find some way to separate Sal from Fukami so that she could spend more time with him. Why are the two of them suddenly best friends now? It just made no sense to her.

Sal didn't have the same emotional bond that her and the octopus shared. One way or another, she'd force the white shark to back off.

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Sal consistently checked his wristwatch every few minutes. Unfortunately for everyone else, he had showed up early to the festival and was the very first person there. He had his fun terrorising the the stalls and booths that were completing their final preparations for the event. He was bored now though, extremely bored with no one to piss off.

The white shark wondered if Fukami would actually show up or not. He could've just lied right to his face to get Dolphi off his back. Speaking of Dolphi, what was her problem?

She had a clear distrust for Sal, which he supposed was reasonable after everything he's done, but she seemed to hate him way more than the people who's lives that he fucked over the most.

No, that can't be right. Her anger comes from somewhere else, he knows it, he just can't think of where.

Sal adjusted the collar of his hakama, straightening white layers of cloth against the more pink than red details of it. Maybe he should've spent a little more time getting dressed? He adjusted the collar again, attempting to get it to appear exactly how he wants it to look.

He hadn't even noticed the confused stare that two well dressed octopi were giving him from across the pavement. Tarako bounced out of Fukami's arms and ran up to Sal.

"Hi Sal! Is something wrong?" He asked the white shark, jumping up to perch on his shoulder. Sal paled in suprise, something that's not actually too noticeable due to him already being pretty pale.

"Oh, hey Tarako!" Sal stopped obsessing over his collar and shifted his attention to the octopus on his shoulder. "I'm fine, I was just adjusting my hakama a little."

He turned to Fukami, who he totally did NOT gape at upon seeing him in his current attire, and offered the taller man a toothy grin. "And hello to you too, Fukami. You look nice today."

Seemingly indifferent on the surface, Fukami shrugged at the compliment and walked past the two of them. Tarako and Sal looked at each other in mutual understanding; just an example of Fukami being Fukami, they guess.

Sal places Tarako on top of his head instead of his shoulder, giving him a better view of the event location as more people start to arrive. Most of the stalls are open by now and there's already a few lines starting up around the food stalls. As much as he'd love to harass people at said stalls, Sal speedwalks to catch up with Fukami, walking beside him.

"So, what do you want to do first?" Knowing Fukami, he could already guess what his response was going to be.

"Takoyaki."

That response was the opposite of what he guessed.

"Takoyaki?" Sal must've heard him wrong. Fukami stopped walking suddenly, nearly causing Sal to crash into him. He then turned to the shark and small octopus as he pointed at a stall to his right.

"Takoyaki." He repeated himself before moving over to the stall so fast that it looked like he teleported. Tarako bounced off of Sal's head, the other managing to catch him in his hands.

"Fukami loves takoyaki, it's his favourite snack! It's not really my kind of thing though, so I'm going to go look at some other food stalls." He gave Sal a small octokiss before bouncing out of the shark's hands and disappearing into the large crowd that Sal is just now realising has formed.

Without any other place to head to, and having no clue how he would even begin to search for Tarako, he headed over to the takoyaki stall that Fukami was at.

Does he even know what that stuff's made out of? But if Fukami had no clue, then he didn't want to be the one to ruin his favourite dish for him.

Wait. Why the hell does he even care?

Screw it, I've got no one else to bother besides him anyways.

And so, with the largest shit eating grin he can muster, Sal saunters over to Fukami and stands next to him as he orders his literal cannibal delicacy. Even though the taller man's expression seems to have the same stone-faced look to it, he could practically feel the excitement radiating off of the octopus when he got his finished order within his hands.

Without addressing the other's presence, Fukami walks away from the stall to sit at a bench, Sal following shortly after him and sitting awfully close to him. It was only after Fukami had started eating that Sal began to speak.

"How's the cannibalism treating you? I'm sure you just love the taste of octopus, hmm?" He snickered.

Fukami raised an eyebrow at him. "What?" Sal laughed, doubling over. "Takoyaki is made out of octopus, Kami! And here I thought you were supposed to be the wise one of your little group."

The white shark's laughter died when he saw the other continuing to eat. "Fukami, did you not hear what I said? You're eating octopus."

"I already knew that takoyaki had octopus in it. I'm still eating it because it tastes good and I like it." He continued munching on his food, unphased. Sal blinked at him in both horror and admiration. He shortly became curious.

"Now that I think about it, I haven't tried anything like that in a long time." He scooted even closer to Fukami, leaning on his arm. "Feed me some!"

Fukami stared blankly down at him.

"No."

Sal pouted, wrapping his arms around the other's arm and tugging him. "Come on, Kami! Won't you feed this innocent and lovely little shark boy some of your precious food?" He made his best attempt at puppy eyes.

For only a split second, Fukami's cheeks were tinted a light shade of red.

The octopus let out what was supposed to be an irritated sigh, which sounded like more of a light chuckle if anything, removing his arm from Sal's grasp and holding up one of the balls to him. He had his hand out under the one holding the ball in case things got messy, sharks are almost always messy, after all. He doesn't know why he cares, but for some reason he wouldn't want Sal to get his clothes dirty.

Woah, okay. Sal wasn't expecting Fukami to actually give him any of his food, nor did he expect to have it fed to him, but he's not complaining.

To avoid feeling too awkward about the prolonged eye contact the octopus was giving him, Sal quickly chomped down on the takoyaki before retreating back to his previous position. He could see Fukami going for another piece out of the corner of his eye, but right now he was finding flusteredly looking down at his hands in his lap to be way more interesting.

Fukami brought another ball to the man next to him. "Here, have another." He said while attempting to get the food into the shark's mouth. It's hard to feed someone who isn't turned towards you though.

So to fix that, Fukami simply used two of his tentacles to turn Sal's head to look up at him, much to the other's surprise. He then fed him another ball of takoyaki, cupping under his chin this time.

The shark felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest. In fact, he was pretty sure his heart was beating so fast that it could be heard from miles away. It felt so, so weird to have the taller man's tentacles touching him in a way that wasn't hostile that he felt like he was most definitely dreaming due to the utter softness and warmth he was feeling from the appendages on either side of his face. He could feel his own skin absorbing the warmth, changing colours and causing his face to resemble that of a red rose bush. Sal had to get himself out of here. He shouldn't be allowed to feel this way.

So when Fukami's tentacles slid off of his face and out of sight; Sal stood up, said a quick thank you, and got the hell of out there without so much as a goodbye or see you later.

Reasonably confused, the octopus watched the other run off into the festival crowd. Maybe he just went to buy some for himself. He shrugged and continued to eat his food.

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Dolphi and Memoca walked side by side. Memoca, of course, was excitedly talking about the festival, swinging her arms around to emphasise just how great it's been going so far.

"And did you see how huge that plush dolphin was? It was nearly as big as you were in your dolphin form as a kid! Hey hey, Dolphi, remember that? You were like thiiis small!" She hovered one feathery hand over the other.

Dolphi covered her laugh with the palm of her hand, shaking her head in amusement. "I'm pretty sure you're talking about yourself, I was way bigger than that." She then stopped walking, nearly tripping up the seagull.

"What's wrong Dolph?" Memoca went in front of her best friend, looking closely at her face. The other backed up a little bit.

"Sorry Memoca, but could you wait over there for me?" She pointed to an empty bench on her left. "I have something I need to do really quick."

Tilting her head to the side while crossing her arms, the seagull girl quirked up at eyebrow at her. "Seriously Dolph? If this is about Fukami again I — Hey wait! Dolphi!" Memoca sighed in defeat as she lost sight of her among the crowd.

She headed over to the empty bench and sat down, resting her head in her hands as she watched people walk by. Was tonight not fun enough for her? Maybe I shouldn't have brought up her crush on Fukami so much? Or maybe she's just that head over heels for him. She sighed, or maybe I'm just not good enough for her...

Just when she was about to make a weak attempt at psyching herself up, a familiar face sat next to her.

"Heya there, birdie." Sal smirked, he had finally found someone he could antagonize to take his mind off of Fukami. "Enjoying the festival I see."

Memoca didn't have it in her to argue with the white shark right now, she simply sighed again, closing her eyes.

Sal frowned in annoyance, I guess I should be her therapist for Fukami's sake. There he goes again, thinking about the octopus even when he's not with him.

"Okay, I'll bite," he put his hands in front of him in a surrendering motion upon seeing Memoca tense up at his words, "not literally," she relaxed slightly. "What's eating you up? You look tired and.. kind of sad?"

Memoca moved to cross her arms in front of her chest and looked ahead of her, starring off into space as she started ranting mainly to herself, sort of forgetting about Sal being next to her.

"I just don't get why Dolphi is acting so strange lately. I get that she really likes Fukami, but now she's acting like there's someone trying to take him away from her when the two of them aren't even dating! It's just so frustrating! What makes it worse is that she's too shy to even say anything to him, not to mention that Fukamin's too oblivious of people's feelings to notice that she has a crush on him.

"And now, because of her being all lovesick, she doesn't pay attention to anything if it's not about him. When we hang out, all she wants to do is talk about Fukami this, Fukami that. Hell, she can't even pay attention enough to realise that I like her! I like her so much! I want to root for her, I really do, but sometimes I feel like she's not even herself anymore." She sniffled, only now feeling how damp her face had become during her rantings.

Sal cautiously set his hand on Memoca's back, patting it ever so softly. "Yikes, that all sucks. I do see where Dolphi's coming from though, I used to be the same with Wadanohara, just majorly worse." He could tell that bringing up the past wasn't really helping all that much judging by how the seagull was glaring at him with tears still streaking down her face.

"Ah, I know! If she's too shy to confess to Fukami, why don't you send a letter from her to him? Then the two of them could meet to talk about feelings or whatever, he rejects or accepts her, and boom! Problem solved! With the added bonus being that you finally get a chance with her if she gets rejected."

Memoca whipped at her face with her fluffy feathered hands, sniffling. "How would that even work?"

"Oh right, you'd need Dolphi to know where to go as well..." Sal pondered for a moment, "oh! I got it! If you made another letter, this time from Fukami to Dolphi, you could say that he wants to talk to her about something at the same place the letter from Dolphi says they'll meet up at."

Memoca thinks about it for a moment. She then jumps up off of the bench, punching her first up into the air with new found motivation. "You're right! That kind of plan has got to work, it's my only hope now!"

The seagull looks down at the still sitting Sal, with overwhelming confidence in her golden eyes. She nodded her head at him in a parting jesture before flapping her wings and flying off to who knows where.

Sal looked on at her flying form as he watched her figure be reduced to a moving dot the farther away she got, choosing to not think too hard on how flying underwater works. I guess I did well? Hopefully her doing all that won't cause too much trouble, I wouldn't be able to annoy Kami anymore if he was concerned about some dumb confession.

Speaking of Fukami...

"Where were you?"

The white shark's soul almost left his body upon hearing the octopus' voice from behind him. Turning his head around like it was on a swivel, Sal stared up at Fukami, an annoyed Dolphi practically glued to his arm. The white haired man stood up from the bench, a wide smile on his face.

"I was just getting some fresh air, sorry for leaving so abruptly." He wanted to slap himself for saying he was getting fresh air while they were literally underwater, but he didn't dare to make himself look like more of a fool in front of the other man.

Fukami shrugged. "I see. I'm taking Dolphi home now, do you want to walk with us?" He offered, choosing to ignore the irritated exhale that Dolphi produced.

"Nah, I'm good. I'll probably just go around and play some of the games they have set up around the place. Get home safely, okay? I won't be able to loiter around your house if you don't."

The octopus let out a small amused chuckle. "See you tomorrow then." And with that, he and Dolphi turned to walk away, Sal waving after them.

He let his arm come back down to his side, still beaming from ear to ear like a madman. He should probably go find Tarako.

Without letting himself think about Fukami too much again, he went to have a look at the other stalls at the festival in search of the mini octopus, unaware of the lurking threat that was just a few feet away from him.

Chapter Text

By the time Sal was ready to call it a day, the event location had been abandoned by all of the stalls and attendees, every part of the area looking desolate now that it was dark out. Of course there had been fireworks just a few hours beforehand, but now that it was hard to see even your own hand in front of your face, everyone had the smart idea to go home quickly.

Everyone but Sal.

Truth be told, he's never really felt all that paranoid about walking around at the dead of night. The white shark felt a sort of calmness whenever it was just him parading around, especially since this meant that he wouldn't get the usual wary stares that his fellow sea inhabitants gave him whenever he dared to set foot out of the palace. It's not like he hadn't tried getting on everyone's good sides, but it was way more fun to see them squirm with fear when he went to harass them than to attempt to ignore how much they hated him.

Sometimes he wondered why he was even allowed to stay at the palace after all he's done. He understands that Princess Mikotsu's the one who arranged for him to stay there, but he's not entirely sure why her sister allowed it, it's not like Princess Uomi liked him.

Come to think of it, Sal's certain that everyone at the palace absolutely hates his guts. Even more reason to bother them, he guessed.

The white shark whistled as he continued to enjoy his rather pleasant midnight saunter, smiling to himself as he thought of what he could do to stir up some commotion when he made it back to the palace. He hadn't even noticed that there was someone walking towards him until he ran right into them.

"Sorry about that, I wasn't— Oh my god no." Sal backed away quickly from the other person, staring up at a familiar orca. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm just an orca on a stroll.~" Idate responded while taking a puff from his cigarette. "And luckily for me, I just so happened to stumble upon the very shark I was ever so kindly requested to fuck up."

Oh hell no.

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It's not like he necessarily hates being in the Blue Sea Kingdom, but it's not like he necessarily loves it either. Especially when he's practically forced to be a certain oarfish's lap dog when all he wanted to do was attend the festival. Old just so happened to be unlucky enough to be caught in 4k by a certain happy-go-lucky witch and her manservant of a husband.

And now— against his own will— he was walking towards the palace with Tatsumiya, all while avoiding making small talk with her. He doesn't feel as much hate towards her as he did in the past, but he still refused to interact with her as if they were friends again.

"Hold on. Do you hear that?" Tatsumiya suddenly spoke up after a while two hours of complete silence between them. The two of them haulted and stood in silence again, straining their ears.

Old was mere seconds from stating that the other had finally gone senile before he heard what could only be described as a moan of pure terror. He's not even sure if he wants to know what's going on, but the crazy oarfish woman drags him off in the direction of the noise. The sight that greeted them was way different than what he had been thinking.

A few steps ahead of the two stood Idate, the orca had his gloved fist balled up around the collar of a shaking Sal's hakama. Old could hardly see thanks to how the darkness of the sea was attempting to shield the other two, but he made an educated assumption that the liquid on Idate's hands, pooling around Sal's face, and still dripping onto the ground, was blood.

"Unhand him," Tatsumiya shouted at the orca, raising her hand in a threatening manner, "or you'll see just how much I've learned from Lord Meikai."

Idate dropped Sal unceremoniously, the other two wincing upon hearing a loud snapping sound when he hit the floor. The orca turned to face the two of them, smiling easily despite literally torturing another person just now.

"Relax girly, I was just taking a stroll.~" He spat out his cigarette and stamped the rest of it out. "We wouldn't want this to get even more ugly, now would we?"

"Leave now or I will be forced to personally escort you out myself." Tatsumiya warned for the last time, raising her second hand and readying up an attack, energy visually radiating from her palms.

"Oh my, I'm shaking it my boots." Idate pretended to shiver for emphasis. "My job's done here anyways. Just look at ol' Sally here." He stepped back to the white shark, kneeling down beside his mangled form and patting his head mockingly before standing back up. "How heartbreaking. Well then, I'll be on my way now. Bye bye.~"

Old and Tatsumiya cautiously watched Idate stroll away from them, the darkness consuming him completely as he made his great escape. Old would say that he didn't expect to ever see the orca again, but that would be a lie.

Instead of plotting his revenge against someone who really wasn't worth his time, the shark watched as his former fellow familiar ran to the white shark's aid.

"Sal! Sal, can you hear me?" She flipped him onto his back so she could get a better look at how badly he's been wounded, giving him a reassuring smile, while also trying to hide an obvious flinch at seeing his ruined face, when the heavily injured shark managed to open his eyes a bit.

Old stooped down beside the two, whistling as he took in Sal's damages. "How'd you even manage to run into that asshole in the first place?"

The oarfish glared at him, cradling the white shark's head in her hands like he was a really fucked up new born baby. "Old. Now is not the time for your insensitive remarks. We need to get Sal back to the palace immediately." She carefully rested Sal's head down on the ground before standing up.

"Here, help me carry him." Tatsumiya motioned for Old to lift Sal up by his legs while she went over to lift him up by his arms.

Using the power of teamwork and conveniently only being a few blocks away from the palace; the shark and the oarfish were able to carry the white shark to the safety of palace. Old was tasked with watching over the currently semi-concious Sal while Tatsumiya along with other members of Uomi's court scrambled about the place to tend to his wounds.

Pulmo came floating in with a medical kit in her hands, slowly making her way over to the bed Sal was laying down on. Just watching her move made Old tired and irritated, could this woman move any slower? By the time she makes it over here, Sal will already have lost all his blood, he exaggerated in his head.

Apparently Tatsumiya had sensed Pulmo's laxness towards the situation, marching into the room, quite literally pushing Pulmo over to Sal's side whilst profusely apologising to her for it, and politely taking the medkit out of her hands. She opened it up and got to work on cleaning the white haired man's wounds, the other wincing in pain as the oarfish gave him a small apology each time. When she decided that he was in the clear, she left the room, allowing Pulmo to finally contribute to Sal's treatment by bandaging him up.

"The two of you look so alike." Pulmo said out loud, her gaze shifting from Sal to Old. "Are you guys related by any chance?"

"No." Both sharks responded in unison.

Pulmo gave them an amused and ominously knowing smile. "I see." She didn't believe that one bit, these two were one hundred percent related in some way. "My work here is done. Make sure to get plenty of rest and you'll feel better in no time!" She patted Sal's face, the white shark having his complaints muffled. "Great, bye now!" With that, Pulmo floated out of the room and closed the door behind her.

Without having anything better to do with his time, Old proceeded to initiate himself and Sal into a staring contest of pure awkwardness by complete accident.

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Fukami stared down at the open letter in his hands.

Today's already off to a terrible start.

He thought about the series of unfortunate events that took place over the span of only a few hours: earlier this morning he had made a perfect breakfast just for none of his housemates to be around to eat it, his artistry tools needed to be replaced since they mysteriously went missing, he couldn't find his signature cloak and now has to walk around in his navy blue turtleneck that he wears underneath said cloak, and now the person who he's supposed to meet up with from the letter he received when he woke up is late for said meeting.

The person in question is Dolphi.

Fukami let out a frustrated exhale as he shoved the letter back into his pants pocket. Dolphi wanted to meet with him in private to discuss something important, yet it seems like it's obviously not all that important since she wasn't even bothered to show up on time.

His patience was quickly deteriorating, but the octopus remained glued to his spot right under the comforting rays from the sun seeping through the surface of the sea. It was like the promise of warmth had bribed Fukami to wait just a little longer for Dolphi to show up.

And show up she did.. a whole fifteen minutes late.

She ran up to him, panting to try and catch her breath. "S-sorry I'm late..!" She took a while to regain her composure. "Something came up, but I'm here now."

Fukami crossed his arms and quite literally had to chase Dolphi's eyes until the two of them were focused on his own before speaking. "I can see that. So what is it that you want to talk about that's so important?"

A look of confusion took over the dolphin's face before it switched to a flustered mess of heavily blushing and sweating while looking at everything but the octopus. It seems that Fukami's caught a case of confusion now.

But he gets no time to question Dolphi as she shoots her shot. "Listen Fukami, I uh," she put her face in her hands, "I really, really," she peeled her hands away from her face and— surprisingly to mainly herself— made eye contact with Fukami, "I really, really, really like you! Like, in a super duper romantic way!" She finally confessed, her face resembling a ripe apple, possibly the ripest apple.

Fukami remained quiet.

"Well? What about you, Fukami? Do you like me too?" Dolphi asked him with a strange determination in her eyes, taking a few steps forward until the two of them were nearly touching. "Do you?"

Fukami audibly sighed.

"Dolphi, I—"

He was cut off by Dolphi's hand covering his mouth, he'd been so focused on letting her down easy that he hadn't even noticed her movements.

Dolphi didn't want to hear a rejection, she wanted to believe that Fukami could possibly reciprocate her feelings, even if it's for one more week. "Think it over. You can tell me your answer by the end of next week." Or two more weeks.

The octopus gently removed her hand from his face and nodded. It's not like he actually needed time to think about it; both Dolphi and Memoca are like sisters to him, it weirded him out to think of either of them as possible love interests. Of course he loves the two of them, just not in that way.

Which is exactly why he'll entertain Dolphi's proposal of 'thinking it over', he doesn't ever want to purposefully upset her. If it'll make her happy, he'll gladly hold off his rejection, Dolphi means too much to him and he would never want to lose her over something like this.

He wished he could voice all of that out to her, but for now, all he can offer her is a giant hug.

Dolphi practically melts into Fukami's hug, her tail swaying happily as she accepts the embrace.

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Sal was bored out of his skull.

Having to stay in bed all day is only fun when you know that you can just roll out of your sheets without a care in the world, but when you had to stay in bed because your entire body hurts and you can barely even stand; it was pure torture, and not the kind that Sal liked.

A guy can't even walk outside at midnight without getting beaten the shit out of by an insane murder orca. The worst part about it all, at least in Sal's case; was that it didn't hurt in the good way, it hurt in the bad way! The horrible way even. Being a masochist is so hard these days.

The white shark groaned in agitation for the tenth time of the day. "How long do I have to stay trapped in here again?" He asked the older shark sitting on the chair right next to his bed.

He could see Old gritting his teeth out of the corner of his eye. "I told you already. I. Don't. Know." The older shark's speech then broke down into annoyed grumbling.

Sal carefully rolled himself over in his bed to look directly at Old. "Hey Old, tell me a story, I'm bored!"

The older shark sighed as he rested his elbow on the side of Sal's bed and perched his head atop of his palm. "Fine," he said, closing his eyes, "but you only get one."

Sal grinned and put his arms behind his head on his pillow, wincing at the pain moving had given him before continuing to grin. It's not like he'd actually listen to the old fool's story, so the other's efforts are going to be wasted. Sal has truly mastered the art of trolling.

Old didn't seem to take any notice to Sal however, his eyes still being closed as he began to speak.

"Once upon a time, there lived two sharks; a handsome shark knight and a beautiful shark maiden. The knight shark served under one of the most important spell casters ever, working hard to prove his worthiness to his master, one could even say that he was the spell caster's strongest familiar.

"However, the shark knight's hard work had fallen flat when a fellow familiar of his had been chosen to wield the sacred sword that only the most loyal familiar of the spell caster could hold. The knight had been casted aside, and so he left, returning back to the shark maiden. The two of them shared their sorrows from the time they had been apart, swearing their love for one another."

Old grit his teeth.

"But one day the shark knight had left in search of a new purpose, he needed to become a real knight again. The shark maiden had attempted to stop him— stupidly, may I add— and created a huge disagreement between the two of them that caused them to split apart from each other. After sharing their farewells, the shark knight found his place under a princess who had been sealed away by the spell caster."

Old yawned. "And then the maiden was probably super sad and regretted breaking up or whatever and yadda yadda yadda, the end."

The older shark opened his eyes and turned his head so that he was facing Sal, head still propped up on his hand.

The white shark was staring wide-eyed at the other.

"Well I never said I'd tell you a happy story, and you never asked for a specific one, so that's all you're getting." Old told Sal, yet the younger man remained silent.

"...Are you just going to stare at me or what—?"

"Who told you that story?"

Old blinked at Sal in suprise.

"No one 'told' me that story per-say, it's just a dumb story I tell whenever annoying imbeciles like you ask me for one." He replied while avoiding eye contact with the white shark.

The two of them sat in silence for a good few minutes until Sal spoke.

"It just... It seemed similar to the story my mother would tell me."

"Wha—"

Just then, the door to the room the two sharks were in was slammed open, gaining their attention.

In the doorway stood a panting Fukami. He looked like he had just ran a marathon with all the sweating and wheezing he was doing. The two sharks exchanged a quick glance at each other and then back to Fukami.

Old peeled himself out of the seat. "I can sense something's about to happen, so I'm taking my leave now. Cya Sal," he said as he proceeded to walk over to one of the windows in the room, opened it, and climbed out of the palace through it.

The other two watched it happen, absolutely flabbergasted.

"Talk about dramatic entrances and exits..." Sal remarked, snickering to himself before stopping when his ribs had hurt too much from just doing that. He turned back to look at Fukami. "What's up 'Kami?"

The octopus composed his breathing, closing the room door. He walked over to where Sal was laying and sat at the edge of Sal's bed. "I came as soon as Tatsumiya told us the news. Who did this to you?"

Sal quickly avoided making eye contact with the other man. Fukami looked calm. Way too calm. The "I'm going to kick your ass for hurting my friend" type of calm. He should be delighted to know that he had at least one person who'd fight for him, but Idate is a different beast.

Then again, Fukami's a different beast too.

"Does it really matter?" The white haired man shrugged, wincing slightly at the pain from making said movement. "It's not like you'd be able to find the bastard right now anyways."

"I guess you're right. I can probably guess who your attacker was anyways, assuming that no one else would willingly approach you for a fight."

Sal rolled his eyes and chose to stay silent.

And so the two of them said nothing else. What was there to even say at this point?

Fukami made use of Sal not focusing too much on him to observe the other's injuries. He had to internally admit that Idate, who he's guessing is Sal's attacker, really did a number on the guy. Nearly his entire person was covered in bandages. If the octopus didn't know any better, he would have mistaken Sal's current form for an early Halloween decoration. And while that thought alone is pretty funny to think about, the fact that his friend is in so much pain visibly makes him want to find Idate and rip him apart from limb to limb.

It wouldn't be right to leave Sal all alone here now though. Not when he needs someone by his side to comfort him.

Fukami moved closer to the shorter man while making sure not to cause him any more pain than he was already in, sitting right by the other's head. He reached out an arm to the shark and started gently patting his head.

Fukami allowed himself to consciously smile, even though it was a relatively small upturn of his mouth if anything. He used to do this all the time with Dolphi, Memoca, and sometimes Wadanohara. Comforting others was never really his forte, but whenever one of the girls was upset, he'd still try his best to calm whoever it was down by offering headpats and takoyaki. Memoca even declared him as the "King of Headpats" a few years back.

Apparently his title is once again being prooved to be right since Fukami feels Sal's head tilt closer to his hand for maximum headpatting. He's also pretty sure that he saw the other's tail sway somewhat just a moment ago.

Showing this kind of affection to Sal of all people was strange to think about. Everyone he had done this to his adoptive family (besides Wada of course), he had never really felt as jittery as he's feeling now. Even stranger, his heart felt like it was attempting to escape from deep within his ribcage. He felt as though the room had gotten way too hot all of a sudden, yet he didn't want to stop moving his fingers through the shark's soft milky white hair. At this point, he's not even giving a headpat, he's giving a head massage. Everything he was feeling right now was strange.

"Fukami."

Blue eyes made contact with red.

"I already know you probably don't feel the same way about me, but I have to get this off my chest before I never say it at all."

Fukami moved his hand away from the white shark's head as Sal carefully sat up more on the bed to properly face the other man.

"I think I like you. And I don't mean as a friend or as a best friend or as whatever else platonic relationship."

Sal slowly reached out, placing his hands on either side of Fukami's face.

"I like you so much to the point where I feel all giddy just thinking about you. You have no idea how satisfying your touch is."

Sal inched his face closer to the octopus.

"I like being around you, I like talking to you, I like looking into your eyes."

Yet again, Sal inched his face closer, a steady blush spreading across his cheeks.

"I like everything about you."

Both of their noses were touching.

"I like you," Sal continued, "even when you look like you want to strangle everyone around you." He laughed shortly to himself, blushing even harder.

"I don't think I can contain myself any longer, so sorry about this."

Fukami felt something soft on his lips. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it was probably the best few seconds of his life he had ever had. It was then that he realised something; his feelings towards Sal were definitely way different than his past feelings towards Wadanohara. There was absolutely no way he could even begin to try and define just how happy the white shark made him.

"Sal, I—"

He was cut off by Sal's hand covering his mouth, he'd been so focused on trying to give him a proper response that he hadn't even noticed the other man's movements.

"Take some time to think about it first," Sal moved his hand off of him. "I don't want to rush you and I don't want you to rush this either."

The white shark moved to tuck himself under the covers of the bed without waiting for the taller man's reply. "Now if you don't mind," he yawned, "I think I'm gonna sleep for a few decades."

The last thing the white shark saw was a visually flustered Fukami staring down at him before he closed his eyes and drifted out of consciousness.

Chapter Text

Fukami rarely had trouble sleeping at night, however, tonight was different.

He couldn't sleep at all. He had so much on his mind, so much he had to say, so much he had wanted to say earlier, but he wasn't even given the slightest chance of saying any of it. Maybe it was for the better, though. Maybe he really did need to think things over.

Fukami had always been sure of himself and his own decisions, it was something that made people worry for him a few times considering that he had cut up his own tentacles for his adoptive family to eat without giving it any thought. He's always been like this throughout his life though, old habits really do die hard.

He felt uncharacteristically conflicted with himself at this moment though. So conflicted that he hadn't noticed his morning alarm blaring around the room. He had been thinking to himself for so long that it was an entirely new day now. Fukami didn't bother to turn it off, instead choosing to stare up at the ceiling as though it were the most interesting thing the sea had to offer.

Eventually, his alarm shut off by itself. Not that he noticed that either of course, since he had drifted back into thinking about yesterday and what exactly he should say to Dolphi and Sal the next time he'll see either of them.

Fukami heard a polite string of knocks coming from behind his room door, snapping him back to reality long enough to verbally allow them entry. He watched the door open slightly as a familiar sea witch peeked her head into his room before opening the door wider and stepping in.

"Good morning Fukami, sorry to disturb you but I don't think I've ever seen you sleep in before," Wadanohara made her way over to the side of his bed, a worried smile plastered on her face, "are you okay?"

The octopus gave her a half-hearted hum in response. He didn't feel like talking right now. Now Wada was ten times more worried about him than she was before.

"How about we go for a little walk? I won't force you to, but it really looks like you need some fresh air right now. I don't know what it is you're fretting over, but I do know that whatever it is, you're overthinking it."

Fukami's eyebrows nearly left his face with how high up they went. Of course Wada would notice that something was bothering him, she was way too perceptive for her own good nowadays. He sighed and got out of bed for the first time this morning and headed over to his closet to see what he'd put on today.

Wadanohara smiled upon seeing her friend out of bed. To be perfectly honest, it actually wasn't morning anymore. It was four in the evening. She didn't want Fukami to think it was too late to have one of his usual morning walks, she knew how important disappearing for hours on end during the morning every Friday was for Fukami. There were many times in which Wada thought of following him just to satisfy her curiosity about where he goes, but she didn't want to breach his privacy.

That's why she sent Sal to him in the first place! And surprisingly, it worked. The two men hung out with each other often after she had asked for Sal to try and make friends with Fukami, she had never seen the octopus and shark so happy before.

Of course, Wadanohara would never say any of this out loud to either of them. It was fun to see Fukami be expressive in his own little way in response to Sal's shenanigans, the two of them would have probably tried to hide themselves away if she teased them on how close they were in the short time the two had become friends.

"I'll wait for you outside." She said to Fukami before walking out of his room.

As she moved through the rest of the house she noticed that Dolphi's room door was open a little bit. She peeked in just to make sure she wasn't also going through a rough patch like Fukami.

Everything seemed to be okay as far as she could tell; Dolphi was sitting on her bed quickly scribbling something down in a notebook, seeming super focused on it. Wada smiled to herself, happy that Dolphi's found a new hobby.

She walked away from the door, made her way to the front of the house, and walked out into the evening air - or water in this case.

She looked up at the surface of the ocean and observed the sun above, the giant star having already started its trek downwards, causing this side of the ocean to look like a slightly darker blue compared to earlier. Hopefully Fukami won't take too much notice of it.

Wadanohara nearly screamed out when she realized that the octopus had been standing beside her this entire time.

"Fukami! When did you get out here? I didn't even hear you." She looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. The only reply she got was a shrug from him, his eyes focused on the ocean's surface.

"It's not really morning, is it?" Fukami said as more of a fact than a question, eyes still engaged in a staring contest with the surface.

The sea witch nodded, looking up at the surface as well. "I'm sorry, Fukami. I didn't want you to think it was too late to go on one of your walks," she looked back up at him, "I know how important they must be to you."

She thought she noticed something in his eyes change slightly just now, perhaps she just imagined it though. Fukami looked down at Wada and shrugged, a new unreadable expression written on his face. She takes this as him saying that he'll still go on a walk with her. Wada puts up her hand to him, offering to hold his hand while they walk as a warm smile spreads across her face.

Fukami holds onto her hand like he's gripping a glass pane.

Wadanohara gives the octopus an even bigger smile before walking, dragging him off towards the town.

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Pulmo floated by Sal's bed, holding a tray of food that he was still refusing to eat despite the chefs adding everything he had requested to his meal. She was having quite a bit of trouble taking care of the white shark since he was purposefully calling her into his room for care every few minutes.

"And I asked for extra ketchup on my third sandwich! I refuse to even look at that abomination this palace calls a 'meal'," Sal crossed his arms, turning his head away from Pulmo with a, "hmph!"

Pulmo sighed and placed the tray down on his bedside table.

"Sally; you asked for ketchup and we gave you ketchup, and then you complained about the ketchup, so we took it off, and now you're asking for ketchup again."

She still kept a smile on her face as she looked down at him. "Make up your mind please."

Sal was starting to get bored, and Pulmo was too hard to irritate. It's like this chick is immune to getting angry, he thought to himself while still being turned away from her. In fact, he was starting to get annoyed with her, especially since she insisted on calling him "Sally" for whatever reason.

Pulmo patted the side of the white shark's head. "Don't worry Sally, you'll be all healed up soon. Don't look so gloomy now."

She continued to pat the side of his head, further annoying him. Whether or not she was doing this on purpose was unknown. Sal did have a small inkling that she was doing this to get back at him for persistently calling for her though.

He rolled his eyes at her, sighing. "How soon are we talking about exactly? I feel like I've been cooped up in this damn room for ages!" He exaggerated, waving around his hands for emphasis before quickly putting them back at his sides when the pain of getting beat up kicked back in.

Just then, Tatsumiya walked in and stood beside Pulmo. She looked like she hadn't slept at all last night, which was evident in the bags that were under her eyes.

"How are you doing Sal? Is everything alright?" She asked, inspecting him like a worried mother that just watched her kid do a double flip and land face-first on the floor.

Sal was honestly surprised that any of them cared for him this much. Maybe he wasn't as hated as he thought after all. It was odd to think about, especially after everything he's done in the past.

"I've been better, but hey! At least I'm alive." He grinned.

"Anyways," he looked back over to Tatsumiya and quirked up an eyebrow at her, "are you alright? You look like someone robbed your favourite coffee shop and now you can't get your energy high."

It's not like he necessarily cared about Tatsumiya or anything, at least he didn't think he did all that much, Sal simply just asked to be polite. This is just what you do when someone asks about your well-being, isn't it? Sal's feelings towards the people around him seem to change every few moments, he's still trying to figure out how normal social interactions are supposed to work without needing to get information that he could use against people.

Tatsumiya blinked at him in confusion at his analogy before finding her words.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just stayed up a little bit too late last night. I'm fine." She gave Sal a reassuring smile. "Thank you for your concern though."

Pulmo yawned, looking between the two of them.

"I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be focusing on yourselves more often," she looked out the window, "who knows when that Idate guy will show up again? He's probably got you both on his hitlist." She stated in a serious manner that Sal and Tatsumiya weren't used to hearing from her.

Tatsumiya glanced at Sal before her gaze landed on Pulmo again. "You're right, Pulmo. I'll make sure to get everyone to be on their guard as well, I don't want anyone else getting hurt."

And with that, she exited the room, her determination to protect everyone outweighed her exhaustion. Sal watched and Pulmo simply looked over her shoulder as the oarfish closed the door behind her.

There was a long pause in the room, both parties not knowing what to say.

"How much you wanna bet that she'll collapse in the next few hours?" Sal finally spoke up.

"She'll collapse in exactly three hours," Pulmo stated.

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Dolphi let out an annoyed sigh as she walked through the kingdom's busy streets. She would definitely be enjoying her time outside if having to check in on Sal in place of Wadanohara wasn't what she was out here to do.

The dolphin looked to her side, observing her best friend's overly cheerful smile, Memoca's bright yellow eyes sparkling like the set of stars that were above the water's surface. Dolphi had always been mesmerized by the other girl, but her feelings toward Fukami often stopped herself from thinking too much about her relationship with the seagull.

Those hypnotizing eyes looked back at Dolphi suddenly, causing Dolphi to quickly look forward to avoid eye contact with her. She heard the other girl let out a laugh, amused to have caught Dolphi in the act of admiring her.

"So! What do you wanna do after we check on Mr. Shark Week? We've barely gotten to hang out lately and you haven't even told me how your confession went! Spill the beans already Dolphi, how'd it go?" Memoca chirped loudly, making cute pleading eyes at Dolphi as though she would literally die if she didn't get any details right at that moment.

Dolphi brought her scarf up, covering her mouth as her eyes looked off to the side. "W-well... Um-"

Memoca cut her off with a loud and exaggerated gasp as she stared up into Dolphi's face, both her feathered hands gripping at the dolphin's shirt.

"Oh my gosh! He said yes, didn't he? That's why you've been so hush-hush about it, isn't it? I'm so happy for you, Dolphi!"

Memoca exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around Dolphi in a tight embrace, nuzzling her face against Dolphi's own affectionately. Dolphi hesitantly hugged her back, too afraid to tell her the truth and spoil Memoca's excitement. She herself already knew that Fukami would reject her even if he were given time to think about his decision. Dolphi already knew that Sal had his heart, there was no competing with the white shark in winning over Fukami because she had already lost long before she even properly considered Sal as her rival.

And then it hit her. Sal and Fukami weren't dating, not yet at least from what she could tell. Dolphi's face darkened as she put all the pieces of her newest plan together. Pulling away from Memoca's hug, she took hold of one of the seagull's feathered hands.

"We shouldn't keep Sal waiting. The faster we check up on him for Wadanohara, the more time we'll have to catch up with each other."

Dolphi felt as though her chest was being ripped open with guilt as she witnessed Memoca's blinding smile. Her best friend was far too precious for her own good, Dolphi felt didn't deserve to get to even glance at Memoca due to how malicious her inner thoughts were at the moment.

Memoca nodded her head, Dolphi being able to feel the way the other girl gently squeezed her hand as they continued to walk to the castle. An extremely exhausted Tatsumiya met them at the entrance, smiling at them politely before beckoning the two girls to follow her to where Sal's room was.

"Sal's a little bit grumpy right now, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind some company."

Tatsumiya said as she led them through the palace. She looked as though she were resisting the urge to yawn and curl up into a ball to sleep on the spot, her tone being much softer than usual. It made Dolphi and Memoca feel tired just by hearing her hushed voice.

They arrived at the room Sal was stationed in for his recovery, Tatsumiya slowly opened the door for the two girls as they made their way in.

A loud thump could be heard as the door closed behind them.

"Yikes. Guess Pulmo was right about her collapsing in three hours."

The person who spoke up was none other than Sal; he was obviously bored out of his skull, the scattered pieces of an unfinished puzzle on his bedside table.

Memoca sat down on the chair beside Sal's bed, already gossiping with the white shark as Dolphi took a moment to formulate her words.

It seems one of the many things she had failed to notice was how close Sal had gotten to all of her friends. Dolphi had no clue when he had become so chummy with everyone else and she intended to stop him right here, right now.

"Memoca... I'd like to speak with Sal alone for a minute if you wouldn't mind."

Both the seagull and the white shark looked over at Dolphi with curiosity, Memoca nodding as she got up to walk out of the room, leaving Dolphi and Sal by themselves.

The two sat in silence for a long moment before Dolphi spoke up, staring directly into the sea of red in Sal's eyes that she had come to despise all of the pain and suffering he had caused for her and her friends.

"Fukami and I are dating. He wanted to come by to tell you himself, but he was busy, so he sent me to tell you instead."

Dolphi felt a dark satisfaction spread through her as she watched how the white-haired man's face was instantly clouded over, her being able to see his heart break into pieces at her words. This is exactly what she wanted.

And yet...

And yet she felt as though she should take back what she had just said, tell him she was simply joking and that she knew Fukami liked Sal instead of her.

But she couldn't bring herself to. Sal didn't deserve to be forgiven. He didn't deserve to be with Fukami.

"Haha! Great joke, Dolphi, I never knew you were one for pulling pranks like this." Sal laughed out, though there was still a sort of wounded expression in his tone of voice as though just the thought of her dating Fukami pained him.

"You should come tell me jokes more often, maybe we could even-"

"It's not a joke, Sal. Fukami is my boyfriend and he loves me, not you. Stay out of the way of my relationship with him if you know what's good for you."

Dolphi saw the color fade from Sal's face, her chest tightening as the white shark looked as though he was on the verge of tears.

"Oh," was all he replied with, his eyes seeming as though they were glazed as he stared through her now.

Dolphi decided she had said enough, giving Sal a curt nod before exiting the room and closing the door behind herself.

She should go back in immediately and apologize to him. She should tell him that everything she said was just one huge lie and that she knew Fukami would much rather be with him than her.

But she couldn't.

She's come too far to lose to Sal after all those years she spent pining for Fukami, if she were to turn back now then everything she's done previously would all be for nothing.

Dolphi gave a small but guilty smile to Memoca, who had been waiting for her the entire time. Memoca always seemed to do that now that she thinks about it. Waiting and waiting and waiting, for what exactly? She had no idea.

Tatsumiya was already up after what was definitely not a long enough nap to be remotely energized, respectfully guiding the two girls down the hall and out of the castle as though she hadn't just been passed out a few seconds ago. Once she saw them off, she returned to Sal's room, knocking softly on the door and announcing it was just her before entering.

The scene she walked in on shocked her beyond words.

Sal was lying on his side with one of the many pillows he was cushioned on smothered to his face, some clear muffled sobs being heard from behind said pillow.

Her mind jumped to the worst-case scenario; Sal must be in immense pain because of his still-healing wounds! Tatsumiya rushed to his side, kneeling next to him and gently placing her hand to where one of his major injuries was.

"Sal! Are you alright? I'm sorry if any of your wounds have opened, I knew I should've used more healing magic."

The oarfish mumbled out loud as she started to expend more of her remaining energy to heal his wounds similar to what she's been doing throughout his entire recovery.

She was stopped midway by Sal grasping her wrist as though he had no strength whatsoever, which was also obvious by how much his hand was shaking. Now that she was properly looking at him; he seemed as though he was pained, but that pain appeared to be more mental than physical, which confused her even more.

What exactly happened to him while she was napping? Tatsumiya didn't want to pressure him since he was already suffering through so much from his wounds, but she had to know whether or not he wanted to talk to her about whatever just happened.

"No one else is here but me, Sal. You don't have to, but you can tell me what happened, I'll listen to you whatever you have to say." She promised, taking both of the white shark's hands into her own and squeezing them comfortingly. She felt protective over him, and it wasn't just her will to keep everyone around her safe that made her that way. She's looked after Sal for some time now and would continue to keep the white shark under her care, he deserved to be protected, especially after he's been working hard to not cause the same troubles he did in the past.

Sal looked into Tatsumiya's eyes, tears running down his face as he seemed to be searching her face for any sign that she was lying to him. This only made Tatsumiya even more confused than she already was. Why exactly did he look so betrayed? She hoped he would at least tell her a tiny bit about what was going on with him.

"Fukami and Dolpha are... They're dating," Sal began, taking a deep breath to stabilize himself before continuing, "but that's a really dumb reason to bawl my eyes out, right? I don't have the right to be upset after everything I did to them, and yet here I am throwing a pity party over it. I'm the lowest of the low."

He chuckled as though his feelings of heartbreak were nothing but a joke, a somber smile spreading across his face as he closed his eyes, allowing tears to slide down his face still.

He hadn't deserved to be able to interact with Fukami, let alone be granted any sort of second chance to redeem himself. He would never fully change to be as good as any of the others. Mikotsuhime should have just let him be imprisoned for his crimes.

Better yet, he should have been killed the moment the Red Sea had failed in its mission.

Sal was snapped out of his thoughts upon suddenly feeling a thumb run across his cheek, a warm hand soothing away the tears that leaked from his eyes. A ruby red ocean collided with the rising sun as Sal and Tatsumiya's gazes met, a small and gentle smile on her face as she wiped away the white shark's tears.

"You're allowed to be upset, Sal. Crying because your feelings are unrequited is perfectly normal."

Tatsumiya herself was still somewhat affected by Idate rejecting her a few years ago. She was healing slowly day by day, yet it still hurt her to think about how he hadn't reciprocated the love she had felt for him. Pulmo was the one who had comforted her then, encouraging her to allow herself to release the sadness she had pent up for years, which included the feelings she had repressed when Meikai had sacrificed his life to seal away the Red Sea.

She moved to wrap her arms around Sal, bringing him into a warm embrace, bringing one of her hands up to pat him on the back of his head, making sure to not put too much pressure into the hug so as to not cause him any pain from his injuries that had been yet to fully heal. Tatsumiya's smile got bigger as she felt Sal slowly wrap his arms around her, crying into her shoulder so hard that he was shaking with each sniffle.

Sal was still angry at Fukami for not having shown up with Dolphi to give him his answer, he would have just accepted the rejection if the man he was being rejected by himself had shown up to tell him anything. He no longer wanted to even see Fukami at all if the octopus was too much of a coward to turn him down in person.

In fact, he was more than just angry, he was furious. How could Fukami play around with his feelings like that? Why did he lead him on with all of their outings and his intimate actions? Sal couldn't possibly like Fukami anymore after the emotional rollercoaster he had put him through.

Sal hated Fukami.